The ground shook from the force of the small space ship's crash into the parking lot behind the mall, but there was no noise, no sparks or fire, just a rumble through the earth. Then the ship's systems began to fail, and it uncloaked for any passerby to see, suddenly smoke was billowing into the night sky and small fires blinked into existence. The whirl of some kind of machinery roared lowly in the background.

The mall on the south west side of the city was not often visited anymore, so naturally it attracted those not in the mood for dealing with crowds. It was nearly closing time however, and anyone who didn't care that it was a school night was attending party on the north side, or hanging out on the docks on the bay. Most people would have no reason to be out so late, and those who did had no reason to be there, but fate conspired that the mall was not nearly as deserted as it should have been...

---

Kaden was sick. That was the only reason he was currently going on a shopping spree at the cheapest place in town, instead of killing off his brain cells at Tiana's party. He'd already bought some meds, but if that's all he'd wanted he wouldn't have come all the way out here would he? No, he'd also had a slight candy binge, buying a bag full of sugary sweets to cheer himself up, and of course a new hat; this one a black beanie with a brim. It was an odd hat, but that's why he bought it.

He was ready to start heading home, after stopping outside to get a movie from the redbox, when he nearly fell from the backlash of the crash. Between the displaced air hitting him like a wave, and the ground trembling from the impact, Kade's heart picked up speed, thinking it must have been an earthquake or a plane crash, but it there was nothing.

He glanced at the other people around the mall's back, wondering if they had felt the same thing he had, but then his thoughts stuttered to a halt when the ship's cloaking field failed. The metallic remnants of the space ship were not easily confused with anything of earth. The Andalite fighter had a thick atmosphere, more like the Andalite homeworld's one, but the thick air was rapidly escaping from cracks in the glass and gashes in the body. One particular gash was particularly door-like, and shuddered as if trying to open further. The lights around the ship were numerous, blues and reds and greens and yellows, but they were beginning to flicker out in droves. After a moment, even the low hum from within the ship sputtered out, and all that was left was a dull inner light shining from the doorway, as if beckoning him to enter.

Kaden simply gaped in astonishment.

Mab had gone to the docks in order to see San Francisco Bay at moonlight, on a whim. Business had been going well, but there were hints that the Sharing were taking an interest in her work, something that shouldn't alarm her so much, but well, it was potential competition. So, she went to gather her thoughts in the docks. Then came a rumble through the earth, a slight one, but one that caused her to look at the back of the mall, where there were flashes of light.

Going to the back of the mall, pepper spray ready, Mab was dumbstruck at the sight of the clearly alien ship. Carrying the can of pepper spray with her, she briefly glanced at the teenager, probably no more than 17 or 18, standing agape at the doorway. She can understand his fright; were they all about to be abducted? Well, all they had to do was wait now...

Vikki sat on the ground around the back of the mall, her back against the wall with a pair of earbuds in her ears as she listened to the music on her tablet. It was old by most peoples standards, probably three of four years now if she was remembering things right, but she'd gotten it as a christmas present and she'd never gotten into the hype of getting the latest model of things. If it worked, she was happy, which was probably why the earbuds she was wearing were from a discontinued line. They were one of the few kinds of earbuds she could stand, so she went out of her way to find as many pairs as she could online, buying them whenever she had a spare ten or fifteen bucks.
At that particular moment, Vikki was daydreaming. Not of any one thing in particular, she was mostly just letting the music carry her wherever her imagination wanted to go. She knew she should probably make her way to her car soon, she'd need to start heading home and the drive took her a little longer when she was this far into the city. She knew her parents wouldn't be too worried as long as she called though. She was actually contemplating calling them and heading to her car when the ship crashed, the blast of hot air hitting her in the face as the ground shook beneath her.

"Jesus fuck!" she started, her hand flying to her waist. It was purely a startled reaction, going for the handgun her parents let her carry when she was out on the property, but it wasn't there and Vikki found herself wishing not for the first time that she was old enough to own one herself, or at least apply for her concealed carry permit. What was there however, was her knife. The one with the elk horn handle and the three-inch blade.

Composing herself slightly, she paused the music player and dropped the tablet and earbuds into her backpack, standing cautiously to see what had caused such a commotion. She'd made it maybe ten feet when the cloaking field dropped, causing her to stop again about thirty feet from the crash site. It was a craft of some sort but Vikki couldn't tell what kind. Her mind was desperately trying to rationalize the situation without immediately jumping to the word "spaceship". It was a sleek craft, whatever it was, with an arching "tail" towards the rear that had an almost scorpion-like feel to it. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed others starting to crowd around the crash site. Suddenly, the reality hit her; It was a crash site. There could be people injured inside!

"Shit!" she exclaimed, "Are there people in there? What are we supposed to do?" she asked the others who were gathering, but before the last words had left her mouth, she noticed the suhddering doorway struggling to open, light flooding outwards.

@Ceta de Cloyes@Letter Bee

Ig walked threw the mostly deserted south west part of the city, it was late out and there weren't too many people around. He kicked a partially flattened beer can, which he had been kicking since he left the show, and headed in the direction of the mall. He'd been at a punk show that had just ended not too long ago and the adrenalin from the show still coursed through him and his ribs still ached from the small fight he'd gotten into outside. It had been a friendly fight, he'd shared a few beers and a joint with the other guy afterwards. For Ig a good fight every now and then helped him feel more relaxed and more connected to himself, the same way some people felt after meditation. His mom had requested he tried the whole meditation thing once, a lot of boring sitting around and breathing, it was like torture. The best way to truly feel alive was punk show, beer, and fight.

He gave the can one last kick into a gutter as the parking lot of the mall came into view and he hoped he had made it before the mall closed. Ig wanted to buy some overpriced treats for Rollins and there was a store in the mall that had the dog's favorites. He searched through the pockets of his jacket until he found a pack of cigarettes. He lit up his cigarette and took a long drag as he felt rumble through the ground. His first though was an earthquake, a fairly common occurrence in California, but his instincts told him differently. He saw a flickering of lights in what looked like an empty parking lot and then an unearthly metallic spacecraft.

Ig immediately thought this had to be some kind of movie being filmed or a maybe a prank show but as far as he could see there was only a small crowd of people and no cameras anywhere. He took another drag of his cigarette before flicking it away from him and sprinting towards the spacecraft. Either he was about to be on TV or he was going to see an actual alien. He stopped just an few feet from the door of the ship and admired the ship, it was cool. Someone in the small group that had formed around the craft asked if there were people inside.

“People or Extra Terrestrials?” He said with child-like excitement as he impulsively walked towards the door and tried to help the door which was struggling to open. The glow of other worldly light shown through the edges around the door. “If someone's trapped inside we should help.” He said as he tried to get a glimpse inside the ship.

Audrey was on her longboard today, cruising on one of the best patches of unused asphalt in the city. The lot behind the mall had a decent slope, and she could get a lot of mileage out of a few kicks.

It was a good thing it wasn't her trick board, or else she would likely have lost her balance as the earth shook beneath her. But the longboard was stable, and she just stood up straighter and tried to ride out what she originally took to be an earthquake.

But an earthquake shouldn't have caused that rent in the lot, and as she looked at it, something metal suddenly materialized, flashing lights and fires and all. Her mouth gaped as she subconsciously leaned to veer towards the crash site. Some others were heading there too, an when she arrived at the craft, someone was trying to get a stuck door open.

Aud cruised right to the edge of the crater, where she jumped off her board and let it fall into the hole. She picked it up and, motioning quietly for Ig to move, she jammed one end into the crack and used it as a lever.

It wasn't ideal, but even as the wood of the longboard started cracking with her whole body weight being pushed into it, she could see some progress in moving the stuck door. With a huge last effort, the door opened about three feet wide, at the expense of the board which gave way as well, cracking raggedly in half.

(Slight ooc ship, to add to the tension and mystery and emphasize the sheer technological advantage the Andalites have.)

The shell of the ship was impossibly hard, and radiated a chill that shouldn't be there considering it had been a flaming ball from space just moments ago, but even still the ship was in quite the state, and the door popped open with 'thunk' sound. It wasn't a large ship, but it barely fit into the category of 'fighter' being smaller than an airplane, but still managing to take up a decent amount of the lot. It was a wonder no one had been crushed, or that none of the debris had fallen far enough to cause damage to the mall itself, or even any of the cars. The ground was thoroughly destroyed though, huge cracks and crumbling asphalt spread out like some giant spider's web.

A voice like a bell suddenly made a noise that might have been a groan of pain, but it was alien, and most surprisingly, not at all physical. It was a sound in their heads, and it was unlike anything Humans had heard before... or so they thought. Andalites had visited this planet before, and more recently the Yeerks had appeared, their voices were eerily like the Andalites' thought-speak, not that any of the people gathered there knew that.

The blue inner light now shown clearer, but it was no less dim, as if it only barely had the power to stay lit. It illuminated their faces, each one peering to get a look at the interior, but it was nearly empty, except for a corridor that lead straight into the circular center of the ship, where the light was coming from, but only a faint mix of colors could be seen; a green circle that seemed almost like a carpet, but was in fact shortly trimmed grass, genetically modified to be nutritious and densely packed, looking almost like an excessively soft bed of green carpet, and the light metals of the walls were dented and decorated in asymmetric black lines, but most concerning was the dark splatters of metallic looking dark blue liquid, which was not paint or spilled alien fuel, but Andalite blood.

From the end of the hallway, the inner portion of the ship could be seen, cast in that eerie dim blue light. The ground was grassy, and seemingly undamaged, except for the odd dark splatters, and the central area was near empty. The back wall was covered in screens, all dark now, and the front had just as many, as well as numerous panels and control systems, some of which were flickering holograms, the clearest of which was a globe of Earth with a golden marker indicating San Francisco. These were but footnotes however, for the real eye catcher was the blue alien slumped over the side of the controls. He had six limbs, built almost as if a centaur had been the template, but with a scorpion-like tail, a mouthless face, and an extra set of eyes on stalks. With one arm the alien held itself up from totally collapsing, but remain slumped, in it's other hand was a glowing blue cube, which was the source of the dim light.

As they came closer, the alien's head swiveled to look at them, a horrific gash across his face and terrible burns all down his right side. He weakly curled his tail closer to himself, holding the blade on it over the cube in his hands. "Controllers?" He queried softly, but the tone was only because of his fatigue, even weak and defeated the alien practically hissed the words in a venomous combination of anger and grief.

Incredulity greeted Mab Javert's face as she looked at the Alien before her, feeling a sense of...danger at hearing it speak telepathically. To her, the technology inside the ship was...mysterious, incredible, and also incomprehensible, although similarities between its technology and the most sophisticated computer tech of humans can be seen once one looked hard enough. Nevertheless, the Alien, though clearly wounded from the crash, was still clearly dangerous, although Mab would not act too abruptly. No, rather, she would ask, almost gently:

"Who, or what are you? And what is a Controller? Did Controllers do this to you?"

@Ceta de Cloyes

Riley was on one of her evening runs like she had always done just to stay in shape, that and she enjoyed running while the sun was setting. Her usual route was always by the old mall that barely anyone ever used anymore. Riley was jogging past the mall when she stopped to feel the earth starting to shake, she actually thought it was an earthquake which was a common occurrence here in California. Riley slowly walked towards the back of the mall and quickly covered her mouth with her hands seeing what looked like an alien space ship, she looked around seeing a group of other people who happened to be near it and see what it was.

Being a bit adventurous and intrigued by it maybe it was out of stupidity or curiosity she slowly started to approach it seeing the bright lights shining through the opening as Riley was one of the first to enter the alien craft. She looked around the small hallway until she entered a room, there Riley saw a holographic image of Earth, as well as a marker pointed over San Francisco. Then she heard a voice in her head, and with a terrified look she could see what looked like an actual alien in front of her holding a strange glowing blue cube. She slowly approached it kneeling down but still kept her distance. "What are you?" Riley asked.

Ig was struggling to pry the door open when a woman with a skateboard used the board as a lever to pry the doors open. “Thanks for the assist, sorry about your board though.” He said in a quiet voice as the crowd that had gathered moved into the ship. He glanced wide eyed around the ship, it was something amazing to behold. As a kid he'd loved anything science fiction or alien related but never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd be lucky enough to set foot inside an alien ship. The technology of the ship was so far beyond anything he'd seen, a holographic globe of Earth, screens and buttons, a intricate control panel, the designs of the ships walls and, oddly enough a circle patch of what looked like grass. He was overwhelmed with awe and reverence that he was uncharacteristically quiet. Ig noticed the metallic blue fluid that splattered the walls was identical to that spilling from the alien's wounds.

The alien him self was magnificent; a centaur like creature with blue fur and almost human like face but lacking a mouth and having an extra set of eyes on stalks a top it's head. The alien had a long tail with a curved blade at the end and the alien held the blade in a way to protect an cube held in it's hand. The cube had an eldritch blue glow and it must be important as the alien seemed ready to defend it with his life. <Controllers?> The alien hissed softly but with malice at the group. It took Ig a second to realize the alien hadn't spoken the word but rather inserted it into his mind. That made sense, no mouth, the alien must be telepathic.

“Hey dude, we come in peace, is there anything we can do to help you?” He asked speaking softly and slowing hoping the alien understood English. He didn't want to spook the creature, that tail looked dangerously sharp and although the alien seemed weak his gut, and the look in the aliens eyes, told him this creature was a fighter.

Aud waved her hand at Ig's condolences, but kept one half of the board with her, holding it by the truck so that the jagged edge faced outward. It would make a half decent weapon if she needed it.

When they found the creature at the center, she wasn't sure if she would need a weapon. It had a wicked looking blade on the end of its tail, but it was also weak, and when she saw it, she realized that the fluid spread along the corridor must be its blood.

<Controllers?>

"Controllers of what?" she asked aloud. Even as she spoke, she realized that the voice had been in her head, she covered her mouth with her free hand as the thought struck her. Was the creature in her mind right now?

<Controllers of what?> she repeated, but only in her mind, in case the creature only spoke through telepathy.

Kade choked when a panel from the corridor popped open, spewing hot thick air into his face that smelled vaguely like grass. He then promptly sneezed. Again. What a day to be sick huh? Hopefully the ship's strange atmosphere and... ecosystem? There were little bugs in the grass, like aphids but... foggy and small- anyway, he hoped the fumes from the ship and the smoke from the fire didn't make him even more sick, the last thing he needed was to die from an alien version of the common cold or smoke inhalation, not that the smoke was that bad inside the ship, it was mostly alright, escaping through the cracks and fissures of the frame and glass, but the many different smells and gases made his over-sensitive nose hurt.

"What happened here?" He asked with concern once he'd managed to catch his breath. Of course, obviously the ship crashed, but why? How? This alien did not seem surprised to see them, which meant he must have known about their species and the planet right? He must have been around Earth for a reason, a reason that most likely did not include crashing, not to mention the horrible hole that speared through the rear of the ship, marked with burns that were probably not from the crash itself. Was it shot down? Was the government on their way right now to do a Roswell or something?! Not that he knew anything about Roswell except there was something alien-y that supposedly happened...

<Yeerks.> The alien answered both questions at once, <they invade your planet even now, inhabiting your leaders and enslaving your race.> The alien sounded... pained? Disgusted? There was a note of grief there- at least it sounded so to Human ears. Minds. Whatever. Then came the images. A slug like creature small and fat, and an Andalite- how did Kade know that name? The Yeerk crawled through the blue alien's ear, and took it over, becoming a host for the parasite. There was another image, a scene really, but more, ideas and concepts as easily conveyed as sight and sound, of the same happening to a Human. Then another, a natural pool, squirming as Yeerks wriggled around within, and then climbed out into a passing stone-like four-legged creature's ear. The Yeerk pool, three days and then it returned. A space battle, a ship- this ship, fighting against others, quicker and more numerous and-... Humans, curious and coming forward, were they Controllers? Free? They asked questions no Yeerk would have asked, free Humans then.

The mental visions ended quickly, as if no time had passed at all, and it hadn't. With a start Kade realized the last vision was of him and the others, but then his mind caught on what he had just seen. The Yeerks were here! Invading his home! What- what was- how were they suppose to- what was he supposed to do?

<Will you fight?> The Andalite asked, drawing itself up slightly, though it could not reach it's full height- or even stand. His voice was a challenge, demanding they say yes, but at the same time it was a question...

A question Kade wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't want to be a Yeerk slave, but he wasn't exactly a violent person... he hesitated unsurely in the back of the group of humans.

Surprise surged through Mab's mind as visions of the Yeerk's secret invasion surged through her mind, suprise later replaced by...outrage. Earth was her home, it was where she lived, and where she worked! She would not let these infiltrators turn her people into slaves, lacking control even over their own bodies! More to the point, though...Mab saw it as increasing her own power, her own holdings. So she said:

"We will fight them, or at least, I will." In her mind, she already knew this; those of her staff that lived in her mansion full-time were not suspects, as they would not have the opportunity to go to the 'Yeerk Pool'. That's a pool of people to trust.

@Ceta de Cloyes

Jimmy rounded the corner of the mall, intending to cut across the back parking lot on his way home, when the ground shook. Quake? no, aftershock? he thought, though there hadn't been a quake over a week. He saw a spot where the pavement had been destroyed, and, just as he was trying to figure out if the ground could have shifted to cause it the ship decloaked in front of his eyes. Knowing that he hadn't dipped into his stock in more than two days, he knew it had to be real. But what was it? Government test plane? Alien ship?

He ran over, holding his pet snake Nagini with one hand on his shoulder to make sure she didn't fall off, and got there in time to see a strange, mouthless creature with a scorpion tail bleeding all over the inside of the ship. <Controllers?> it said. "Is that like some sort of police officer or something?" he asked. At least he thought the cops tried to control things. Then it told him about the "yeerks" and he saw what appeared to be a decent classic sci-fi episode, with aliens invading humans and another race of aliens being at war with them.

<Will you fight?> it asked through some sort of telepathy, and he nodded. "I won't become a slave. If they're taking over, even possessing us, then I'll fight." He pulled out a small first aid kit and remove the gauze, walking toward the alien. "First, though, we need to get you patched up if you're going to be our general. I'd offer you something for the pain, but I have no idea about the dose or even if it would kill you. He reached over towards the alien's head with the gauze so that he could bandage it.

Ig was a bit taken aback by the imagines injected into his brain. <Yeerk,> his mind heard as the image of a slimey slug like creature popped into his mind. These slug aliens crawled into ear canals and took over the brains of their host. The blue alien, the Andalite, had been fighting to stop them. He even saw himself and the others around him through the aliens eyes. <Will you fight?> The Andalite challenged the group with his question. To say no was to allow the entire human race to be slaves to alien brain slugs, how could anyone with the knowledge they now had say no?

“Damn straight I'm in.” Ig answered without a second thought. He'd never been one to turn down a challenge and he certainly wouldn't start now with the stakes so high. He'd grown up on scifi movies and the thought of battling aliens for the fate of the human race was the kind of adventure he'd actually had dreams about. “So how exactly are we fighting these Yeerks? Sprinkle a bit of salt on them?” He asked, half joking, as he saw Jimmy tring to patch up the Andalite. He was fairly familiar with Jimmy having been a semi-regular customer of his for a while. His mom usually made him get his own weed as she quickly got sick of him smoking hers all the time.

"Fuck yeah I'll fight." There was no philosophical problem for Audrey. She would not be pushed around by anyone, least of all some subhuman parasite. There was a brief moment when she wondered what if she had one in her own head? But that passed, of course she didn't, she had free will to make her own choices, didn't she? And she had never seen one of those Yeerks or their pools before.

"But, how?"

The majority had spoken, they had no choice now. Little did they know there hadn't been much in the way of options, in fact there were only two; either they all gained the power and took up the fight, or they all died when the Yeerks came. Blowing up the ship would significantly hamper the Yeerk effort by dealing a large amount of damage to the city and wrecking their recruitment pool, but if the humans joined then they became too valuable to sacrifice. Unlike himself.

Images quickly shot from the Andalite's mind to the humans', showing a rapid fire rundown on the morphing ability, from getting samples to the actual morphing process, consequently including a wide variety of alien lifeforms. With the images came a basic understanding of the morphing power's capabilities. (Refer to the first post of the OOC for the morphing power's rules.)

<There is not much time, we must work quickly.> The alien beckoned them forth with one hand, and lifting up the cube with his other. He snatched the nearest human's hand and held it down onto the cube's glowing face. Then the next, he left them no room for protest, and kept a steady presence in their minds as he pushed words and knowledge about the cube- <The Escafil device.> and how to morph- <...no more than two hours...,> <...you must concentrate to achieve the morph...> which didn't give them a chance to really speak.

<The Yeerks will be here soon, if they find me gone they will never stop looking. You must take the device-> here he let go of the device after the last of them, a somewhat panicking Kaden, acquired the power, forcing the glowing cube into his hands. <-and you must fight for your world. You cannot let the Yeerks gain control of 7 billion hosts; the galaxy would never surv-> he paused, hearing something they couldn't. <You must go now! Quickly! Do not allow yourself to be captured, your power must not fall into the hands of the Yeerks.> His eyes swiveled on their stalks to the device, <Do not let the device fall into the grasp of the Vissers.> His now free hands shot out to the panel he'd been using to support himself and began fiddling with the wires within it. He peered down at his work with his stalk-eyes, but his face-eyes remained glued to the others, a fierce gaze demanding his orders be followed to the letter.

After Kaden, Mab stepped up, made suddenly frightened by the images of the morphing process. To be stuck as an animal forever after two hours? That was horrifying! The woman resolved not to Morph except in emergencies or as practice for said emergencies, so as to avoid that fate. And, also, to keep herself decent whenever she morphed.

But didn't she want to fight the Yeerks? Of course she did, but there were many ways to fight a war. She already had a headquarters that was some distance away from the Yeerk Pool, and servants who can be kept in the house for three days in order to make certain that there weren't any Yeerks in them. And, of course, she had access to guns, money, and resources. She was sure that she can help even without going into battle...

@Ceta de Cloyes

Jimmy pulled his hand off of the device. Images and concepts went through his head. If he understood them correctly, he could now turn into any animal he wanted as long as he "acquired" a sample of its DNA first. That would definitely be a useful ability.

The alien mentioned the fact that they would keep looking for him if he was gone. Jimmy addressed the alien, then. "They won't know you're gone if they can't find a body in the explosion. I assume you can "morph", and the ship has a self destruct? If so, set it, and morph Nagini so I can carry you out of here." He held out his snake's body toward the horse/scorpion hybrid alien.

Aud looked at Jimmy, trying to save the alien. It was admirable, but the alien -- the Andalite, had already impressed the danger of that course upon them. What's more, he was a soldier in this war, he had already weighed his strategy against other possible actions. It was a harsh reality, but Audrey accepted it as readily as she had accepted the call to fight the invaders.

"You'll need to be dead before they arrive," she said to the Andalite, "Won't you? Thank you," she put her hand on his shoulder before stepping away, "For helping us fight for our planet. Godspeed."

She turned, and gestured for the others to follow as she made her back out of the spaceship. They needed to leave fast.

Ig’s hand was quickly pressed against one of the sides of the blue cube and felt a rush of knowledge and visions flood his mind. In moments he understood the morphing process and the rules and limitations this power had and the importance for them to win this war. It was not only the fate of Earth that hung in the balance but many other planets that would fall to the Yeerks if they failed and allowed the alien slugs to control so many new hosts. The alien ordered them to leave but Jimmy was still trying to find a way to save the Andalite’s life. Ig felt pangs of grief for the alien, they had just met the creature but he had come a long way to save a planet that was not his own. He still had so many questions; why was this alien fighting such an important battle alone, would more of his people come as it seemed if the Yeerks took control here it would be devastating for the rest of the galaxy, could such a small group really make difference against an entire alien race. If this alien was willing to die for Earth than he was to, whatever it took he’d make a difference. “Thank you.” He said simply to the alien. “For giving us a fighting chance.” He bowed his head to the alien.

“Jimmy, I don’t think he can.” Ig said wondering if it was because of some strategy or if there was a point when the body became too weak to morph; judging by the alien’s injuries it wouldn’t surprise Ig if the alien lacked the strength and focus to go through the transformation. He felt a need to avenge this noble warrior, it find his enemies the Yeerks and their Vissers, and strike them down. He followed Audrey and others out of the ship, with no morphs to battle in they needed to leave before trouble showed up or they’d all be sitting ducks. The thought of being able to become any animal he could touch opened up so many possibilities. It was exciting to think about be able to see through the eyes of another species, to fly as hawk, to run as wolf, or swim as a shark.