[IC] Animorphs: The Reckoning

[Holly]

A flock of birds outside spared Emma's eyes from whatever garbage her history teacher was spewing out. She stared for a while; saying it was hard to focus would be a pretty big understatement. How on Earth could she pay attention when something so big, so absolutely massive was going on, and she was tasked with stopping it? That was absolutely insane! When she woke up screaming, recalling the awful sounds the alien (she tried to remember its name... an Andalite?) had made as the other one had changed shape and swallowed him alive, she hoped, prayed that it was all a dream. But there were others with her... they'd all seen it too. She could see it in her eyes as she walked like a zombie around school.
A tap on her shoulder caught her attention. The teacher? she thought. No, it was a classmate. They had in their hand a small slip of paper. A note? What is this, fifth grade?? She subtly took it anyway, and nodded to the classmate. She quietly unfolded it.

"Meet us at the entrance to the trail behind the school at 3."

"Us?" She looked around to see who might've sent it, and remembered as her eyes met Stephanie's the small group who had been with her last night. Emma recalled the pain and fear that had been in those eyes at the construction site, and was comforted by the determination that graced them now. She might be home a little late, but she knew what she had to do.

3 finally came, and Emma could already see everyone else huddled up by the gate. Well, almost everyone. Someone was missing, but she couldn't guess who. She'd known Steph from class, but everyone else might as well have been a stranger. She was relieved she recognized everyone, even if she'd forgotten their names.

"Um, hi, everyone, haha..." she laughed nervously. She could feel how nervous they all were; she wondered if anyone else had been hoping this was a dream. "Is this all of us?"

[RumikoOhara]

---

Tammy was still a bit stunned and filled with disbelief over last night’s events thinking that maybe she’d eaten strange mushrooms and didn’t know it but knew it was just her stupid need to cling to what was her former comfortable concept of reality. She hadn’t slept a wink last night after she’d fled the construction site as she turned over the events she’d witnessed in her head not daring to even mention it to her dad worried about how such a revelation might affect him.

She had applied Occam's Razor to the problem and failed because she had been alone with her thoughts and the others who’d seen it unavailable for comment so when one of them asked her to meet them at the trail Tammy had almost cut class to get there before anyone else. She thought with their help she’d be able to see the event through their eyes if what she’d seen and experienced was the same as them.

She had to solve her delima because it would help keep her from ruining her dad’s breakfast again as she had this morning before seeing him off; he was going to be gone for 3 days ferrying supplies up to Yellowknife.

So when the bell rang she had leapt onto her bike and headed to the trail head behind the school where she found Emma waiting with Stephanie and some others.

Emma asked if everyone was there which showed how nervous she was and in a strange way it relaxed Tammy to know she wasn’t alone.

[Aristocles]

It had taken Adrian several hours to fully come to grips with what had happened. The abandoned construction site. The alien. News of an invasion. At first, he wrote it off as a dream, but as he heard the others, it became apparent that it was terribly, horribly real. There'd be no waking up from this, no sudden revelation that it was all an illusion, just like in that review of "The Matrix." For a while, he dismissed the reality as being too ridiculous. A team of teenagers chosen by an alien being to have superpowers. Just like the Power Rangers, or maybe the Planeteers.

Once the truth had set in, Adrian wrestled with the implications. The Andalite had told him that they could morph for up to 2 hours at a time without being trapped as that animal. They had to fight the Yeerks by changing into dangerous animals, hold off the invasion until Andalite reinforcements arrived, and try to survive until then. To accomplish those last two goals, cold logic dictated that they'd have to accomplish the first, and to do that, they would have to 'acquire' said animals, probably at a zoo. Even so, the odds were stacked against them. A large animal control team could put them down, even in the best case scenario. This was not a war which could be won by strength alone.

He walked over to Emma, Stephanie, and the others. "I'm sure the others will be here soon. And yes, it happened to me too. If anyone still thinks this is a dream, it isn't. We're the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers now, and Zordon just died in the first episode."

[Lord Frostecs]

<BootSystem>
-Booting system, please wait...-
-System booted, please give a valid command...-
<Open D:1,6,4"MemoryFile58Alpha.txt">
-Opening file...-

[3:10, Date unknown.]
It took Lalna quite a long time to realize his situation that he was in, and when he was given the note to meet the others after school by the trail, he almost thought he was crazy, thought this was all a crazy dream. This has been crazy, for he has actually met real aliens, by aliens he always knew existed but never thought he would meet. And to top it all off, he was given some odd powers, to save the world of some sort of other alien who wants to destroy the world as we know it and enslave the population? This is insane, but he knows there must be some sort of logical explanation. So, when he gets the note in school, when the bell rings, he gets out of class and, putting on his odd custom helmet looking like a futuristic space-helmet, hops on his odd motorcycle looking to be some mess of some science-fiction hover-bike, almost copying the Delorian style but running pretty much like a motorcycle, as he revs the engine and heads to the back of the school, dodging students and narrowly avoiding crashing into the school. The air fills with the smell of burning ethanol and other burning alcohols, as he cruises to a stop at the group. "Hello fellow Humans, I have arrived... I guess this was not a dream like I thought it was... Either that or we had a mass hallucination, which could be logical... This is totally illogical, how could this happen to a poor, undeserving species like us... This is crazy, this defies all logic! This is not typical science, this is witchcraft!" He says aloud, wittering on as he enters the group, sounding like the mad scientist he is. "Oh, sorry 'bout my rant... Just had to get that off my chest... But if this ability is real, then we are like the transformers, but who can transform into any organic life-form This is an exciting new skill, and could be excellent for research! However, we must not forget that the world will go to hell if we do not do anything... So we must fight, we must become the Daleks and exterminate the Yeerks, whatever they are!" He says, breathing heavily after his long spiel, being a man of many words and giving a long spiel when a sentence will suffice. He rubs the back of his furry neck, and his tail seems to be wagging slightly. He stands on one foot impatiently, leaning against his motorcycle.

[Holly]

"Uhh, yeah," Emma said to Lalna. "Hey, everything alright? You seem kind of... I guess excited? About all of this?" She sat down next to a tree. "Listen, I really, um... I'm not sure that I want to do this? Like, okay, I get that it's probably really important that we do something. But what could we possibly do besides, like, write a strongly worded letter to the Governor or something?? And you guys don't actually believe that we have powers, do you? I mean, has anyone even tried it yet?"

Just then, there came a rustling in the bushes. "Wait, shh!" Emma shushed. A deer poked its head up.

Emma's voice was a low whisper. "If any one does want to give it a go, now might be the time. We just... touch it, right? That's what Prince Elfa-whatsit said?"

[Dusty]

For the first time in a long time, the seemingly endless hours of school passed in a daze. Mason spent the entire day trying to comprehend his dream he experienced the previous night. The one that seemed so real, like a memory, so much so that he could still recall the cool touch of the blue cube against his hand, the rush of power that flooded his body and sent ripples down his spine, and the scent of charred flesh and metal as the yeerk dracon beams destroyed the andalite and his ship.

An amazing, terrifying, and vivid dream. So unbelievable, but so real. The nagging worry that he was losing his mind, coupled with the brilliant detail that he could remember of the last night brought on a slight headache. And the pain only seemed to double when Mason received the note, stuffed into the vents of his locker.

Meet us at the trailhead behind the school at three.

Mason wasn’t sure what to make of the note, its quick scrawl indicated haste, and there could only be one reason for meeting some unknown person behind the school. Hit by a wave of nausea Mason decided to skip out on his next class, spending the afternoon in the boys’ room mentally debating whether to tear the note to shreds, or meet Tammy, Adrian, and whoever else had been with him that night in the abandoned construction site. Powers, responsibilities, alien invasions, mind control, he wanted no part in all of that.

In the end he did both.

Leaving the shredded remains of the note on the bathroom floor Mason hiked out around the school, cautiously approaching the place where he’d been asked to meet ‘Us’, cautious because he already had had bad occurrences in abandoned places. Already a small group had gathered, and with rising dread Mason recognized them all. Joining them Mason remained silent, trying to find some explanation which didn’t involve acceptance. Only once the deer appeared, and Emma excitedly indicated that she wanted to ‘acquire’ it did Mason speak up.

“You’ll never get any closer to that deer. It’ll run away” He said, almost cruelly. He didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but the confusing day had left him short of nerve. “You all know we just got pricked by… Some drug laced needle, or inhaled some toxin or something that gave as hallucinations right.” Grasping at straws Mason stared around at the others, trying to display a shield of seriousness to hide his anxiety. “That’s right, we all just happened to be there at the same time, and all saw similar things in our state. We probably need to go to the doctor or something. There’s no aliens, no yeerks, no powers.” He turned almost accusingly towards Lalna, pointing at the strange man in anger. “It was probably you wasn’t it. You’re kinda weird, what’d you give us that made us see all of that at the construction site? I ought to call the cops on you for giving kids some experimental and potentially dangerous narcotic!”

[ayzrules]

In all her sixteen (almost seventeen!) years on this earth, Stephanie Wang had never imagined that she'd meet an alien?

Like, that was sort of cool, but also-you know-sort of scary. And freaky. Waaaaaaay freaky.

Steph hadn't told anybody about it yet, because it seemed like she wasn't supposed to, based on what that blue guy said? But she'd been dying to tell some of the other cheerleaders about it at lunch today, and how was she supposed to keep this a secret from her best friends who'd she had known since third grade or whatever? She'd held her tongue for the past however many hours it had been, but gosh, if she didn't talk about it sometime soon, she would explode.

Good thing that there were other people there! Stephanie was fairly certain that it wasn't all a crazy wacky dream-Steph's dreams were never this complex, you know? Like, she once dreamed that she was front-tucking off of the top of a pyramid and broke her leg (that was scary), and she'd once dreamed that her mom had gotten her this gorgeous pair of shoes she'd seen at the mall the week before (that was great!), but never aliens.

Hmm. Did that mean that Steph was shallow? There were people at school who said that about her, yes, but she never really paid it any mind. Plus they always shut up about it whenever she was perfectly willing to help them with homework (read: give them the answers).

Steph shrugged to herself. So what if she was "shallow"? At least she could put together a decent outfit. She wrinkled her nose. Some of the guys at this school really didn't know how to do that. I mean, come on. Who pairs bright red with green unless it's Christmas and you're trying to look like a tacky elf?

Or if you're a numbskull football player, Steph supposed.

After the last bell rang, Steph booked it to the meeting spot by the trail, impractically-high heels clacking loudly against the linoleum tiles. Once she reached the expanse of grass that separated the trailhead from the back door of the school, Steph paused, critically assessed the best route through the semi-muddy grass, and gingerly picked her way through it, lifting her heels off the ground (this was technically walking on releve, right? Her old ballet teacher would have been so proud!) and minimizing the mud-to-shoe contact. When she arrived, most of the other people were already there.

"Hi guys," Steph chirped, flashing them a bright smile. Tammy and Emma and Lalna and Mason and Adrian were all there. She took a quick glance around the group. "This is everybody, right?" A pause. "So, have you guys told anyone about this yet? Because I haven't. It's literally killing me, but for some reason I think that we're not allowed to? Like, Prince Elfangor-whatever-his-name-was made it seem like we shouldn't talk about it? So I didn't?" Steph shrugged nonchalantly. "But like, how are we supposed to keep this a secret from everyone? Like even our families? Wow. I don't keep secrets from my family. In fact, I don't think I keep secrets from anyone. I'm pretty sure the whole school knows about that time in second grade when I got gum in my hair and the teacher had to cut it out and I was so upset afterwards because you know I hate bad hair days and it looked so weird and ugh." Steph paused to take a breath, but before she could start rambling off on some irrelevant subject again, Emma noticed a deer.

Steph's eyes widened when Mason mentioned acquiring it. "Whoa, you mean like that alien said? Wow. That would be cool. Though I'd want to be like, something pretty. Maybe a peacock or a flamingo? I like flamingos. They're so pink!"

Steph contemplated this for a moment, before she heard Mason say something about drugs. "Okay, we're not on drugs, Mason," she said immediately, flipping her hair over one shoulder. "I don't mess with that stuff, you know? My parents would kill me. Plus the pasty-faced druggie look is so, oh I don't know, not my thing. You know?"

[Lord Frostecs]

Lalna nods, and gives a slight smile to Emma. "Oh yes, I am perfectly fine, it is just... I have always wanted to save the world, do something good for the world without the use of science that could potentially backfire and cause what happened in Terminator... And now, we can use our morphing for good! I have spent all day working out how this could work, and it seems, if we have the ability, we can use it as a weapon against the yeerks, transform into a small insect for covert operations, transform into a large carnivore for guerrilla warfare, and even breach the yeerk base, wherever it is using our morphs! That is, if they work." He says, sounding out of breath and slightly more calm then before, but still excited. He uses his mild knowledge of military tactics from the movies and shows on the telly(such as M.A.S.H) his dad watches on his Sundays off to talk about ways they can fight the yeerk menace, when he notices the deer pointed out by Emma. "Oh! A... What do you call them... A deer, yes, that is the word! If we can get the deer's DNA sequence, we can actually have our first morph, which could be very useful!" He says, looking fondly at the deer, thinking of the possibilities, when his thoughts are broken by a wild Mason accusing him of using drugs on all of them. "Oi, 'old on a minute mate! What's this about me giving you all drugs? Why on earth would I bloody do that! For one, I wouldn't know how to make drugs to cause hallutionations, since I am not a medical chemist, and even though I have access to a variety of chemicals due to my dad being a chemical engineer, I would never use them on you all, since I don't want to hurt anyone! I am a biochemist, an engineer, a true scientist! I don't know why you think I would harm you, for I have no intention of it! Far from it, I actually want to help everyone I can, even if they do not match up to my superior intellect! Maybe you are a primitive brute who is hostile on things they don't understand, but I can assure you, this is all real if we all see it at once. At least, that is what the little voice in my head says. I am not crazy!" He says, going quickly defensive and backing up, trying to defend his case like the mad scientist he is. He quickly goes off topic and starts talking about the voice in his head, that acts as a mentor to him, most likely as a result from the chemical fumes he comes into contact with every few days. He then notices Steph, and tips his helmet to her, quickly changing his attitude, pretending his conversation with Mason never happened, a good skill of his. "Oh, don't worry, I haven't told anyone about this... Because, if I told anyone about this, they would either dismiss me as having some sort of drug trip, which is likely due to me being an apprentice to a mad scientist, lock me up in an insane asylum, which is likely as well, or try to bring me to a psychiatrist. Who would we talk to? We could try to contact the andelites, but I would need to spend days working on a device to try to contact them, which I can do while everyone else does the grunt work. If I can get into contact with them, we will be able to tell them of the Yeerk menace! But we would need to hold off the invasion, which how can we do it? We are only a group of kids, and only one of us, that is me, is intelligent enough to even begin to experiment and fabricate things to hold off on the enemy." He says, quickly going off on a tangent, sounding thoroughly crazy and even a little psychopathic as he begins to talk about things that are not even related, but could end up being a good answer to a different question.

[Holly]

Emma used Lalna's rambling to break away for a second. She cautiously approached the deer... and to her surprise, it didn't run away. Actually, it was almost as if they were bowing their head. Though scared, Emma reached her hand forward and accepted the graceful creature's blessing. As her hand met the fuzzy head, she instantly felt weird, and she could tell it did too. Its eyes fluttered for a second as the tension in its body vanished under her touch, and she felt herself relax as she visualized the being before her. After a moment of deep connection, she took her hand back.

"Guys," she called, "I think this is legit. Look." She indicated the deer. "I just touched it, and it's like... hypnotized, I think? And I kind of felt weird for a second, and I mean I still do... listen, I think the Andalite guy said something about acquiring the DNA of these animals, right? I think I just did that. I'm... kind of scared to take the next step though." She looked down for a second, and jumped a little when the deer woke up and took off back into the bushes.

"What do I do with this?"

[RumikoOhara]

---

Tammy was surprised that a deer had come so close to them having hunted the creatures in the past and found them to be the most careful of animals because of their prey status in the animal kingdom. Then when Emma reached out and touched the animal and it froze it reminded her of a spotlighted deer in the headlights of her snowmobile back home in Alaska.

She would have given it more thought but the argument about being drugged as well as the odd way Lalna spoke distracted her from further examination of Emma and the deer’s interaction.

Clearly Mason’s claims that “You all know we just got pricked by… Some drug laced needle, or inhaled some toxin or something that gave as hallucinations right.” seemed an attempt at denial of the facts presented.

Most of the details she’d been able to find out about such things usually stressed a strong sociological component shared by the people who claimed to have seen such wild things as religious apparitions when she’d tried to look for books in the library on psychology early that morning.

Goddess how she wished that there was a larger library nearby but there wasn’t so she had to go with the local availability. The thought made her giggle a little when she compared it to Killdeer which had a library so small it had a sign that said it had a capacity of only 50 allowed by the fire marshal.

Then she turned her attention towards the oddly named boy Lalna
"Oh, don't worry, I haven't told anyone about this... Because, if I told anyone about this, they would either dismiss me as having some sort of drug trip, which is likely due to me being an apprentice to a mad scientist, lock me up in an insane asylum, which is likely as well, or try to bring me to a psychiatrist. Who would we talk to? We could try to contact the Andelites, but I would need to spend days working on a device to try to contact them, which I can do while everyone else does the grunt work. If I can get into contact with them, we will be able to tell them of the Yeerk menace! But we would need to hold off the invasion, which how can we do it? We are only a group of kids, and only one of us, that is me, is intelligent enough to even begin to experiment and fabricate things to hold off on the enemy."

His Ego was huge which was obvious in the way he spoke and normally she’d have just laughed in his face but in their present situation she didn’t feel like laughing because on many of the things she agreed with him. If they told anyone about what they’d seen so far even Killdeer might not be remote enough to escape the ridicule they would suffer and if people believed them they’d all get the E.T. treatment. The government would make them all disappear into some lab where they’d be studied like some lab rats and possibly imprisoned for the remainder of their days or even killed so they could study their brains and bodies if this Shape changing ability was the real thing.

It was then that she made up her mind that like Alex Rogan recruited by the Rylan Star League to fight the Ko-Dan Empire she’d make her stand and go down fighting.

So finally she broke her silence and said I understand why everyone is freaking out but the idea that we all suffered the same hallucination is doubtful because I’ve don’t even know any of you all that well and I am sure I share only a little bit of the same experiences and influences any of the rest of you do.

Till a year ago I attended the Ross School in Killdeer Alaska where we all shared the same experiences because the town only had 193 kids between 5 to 18 years old. From what I read this morning we would all need to have similar life experiences and beliefs which just listening to Lalna makes me sure isn’t the case.

She had to laugh to let off steam before she continued because even she found what she was saying so off the wall
Occam's Razor which says "The simplest explanation is usually the correct one." it was the basis of Sherlock Holmes.

Denial of what we have all experienced is more harmful than accepting and testing it; if our tests fall flat then we turn ourselves in for testing by the headshrinkers.

Besides I’d love it to be true that we aren’t alone in the galaxy and that there are people out there trying to fight some evil force on our behalf and if that’s true I also don’t want to play the damsel in distress and let them do the fighting on my behalf

[Dusty]

“You don’t know that for sure.” Mason said, arguing against Tammy’s reasoning and gesturing towards Lalna in a meaningful way. “Are you guys listening to yourselves? Aliens, invasions, and super powers? That’s crazy talk, that sort of thing doesn’t happen. But you know what does happen, freaks like him exposing kids to dangerous drugs because he’s wandering around free as you please and not locked up in the loony bin where he belongs!” For a moment Mason’s anger grew to the point where he felt like striking Lalna, and removing a few teeth from the egocentric man’s big mouth. Curling his hands into fists he took a step forward but was almost immediately halted by Emma’s sudden movement. Awestruck Mason watched in disbelief as the young girl stepped forward and laid a gentle hand upon the deer’s upturned head. The creature seemed frozen, as if turned to wax, not even blinking as an invisible energy passed between acquired and acquirer.

The spell was broken by the deer’s rapid exit. Mason sat down hard on the dirt path, clutching his head as a fresh migraine permeated his consciousness. Whatever he had just witnessed, it was real. There was power there, a power he’d never really imagined to be truly possible. No amount of rationalization could really allow for comprehension with this new reality and at last Mason accepted that there may be some truth in the unexplainable. Faith would have to accommodate where reason fail to provide.

“I – How – I don’t understand…” Mason moaned still somewhat unwilling to believe that, even though Emma could touch and hypnotize the deer, she could now morph into it. Although it only made sense that if one part of the equation fit, the second part should function properly as well. “Elfangor, he thought-spoke to us didn’t he. He told us to focus hard on the creature we acquired and we would change…” Mason sighed, squeezing at his skull to try and rid himself of the pain. “I’m not sure we should do this, if it is real. How much could five kids and a nut-job scientist really do against what we saw in that construction site? We’d end up getting killed, or worse getting our families killed. And I can’t lose another family, not again.”

[Holly]

"Just... focus? That's it?" Emma was incredulous; was it really that simple? "Okay, I'll try it, but I'm going to need peace and quiet. This is kind of... terrifying."

She took a deep breath as all fell silent, their eyes fixed on the small girl. Okay, okay... think about the deer. The deer... She began to recall every detail of the deer: its eyes, its soft fur, its graceful form. As she thought about its ears, she felt a tingle on her own skull, like... like her ears were moving? She began to notice all sorts of changes in herself, big and small. Everything was shifting in her body, and she began to cry out.

"Guys! What-what is this! Ah!" She fell forward, poised on her hands and- not her knees, but her hooves? She felt scared and sick and yet so amazed all at once. Her skin tingled as it sprouted fur, and her newly formed ears twitched at the slight sounds of the forest. "Th-this is sooooghaghhh!" Her mouth stretched into a snout. The changes were complete.

Suddenly, she was extremely afraid. Like, terrified. She bolted into the woods.

[Aristocles]

Adrian turned to Mason.

"I know the odds are long, but we have to do something. No one else can help. We have no proof to show the authorities, which are probably infiltrated by the Yeerks in any event, and what actually happened sounds like it comes out of a...a young adult book series!" He thought about it for a moment. "Still, stranger things have happened. When the Native Americans got their hands on muskets, it must have seemed like magic to them. Our new abilities are like that. Like magic to us, but not really. In fact-!"

He stopped there, having been rendered uneasy by Emma's sudden and bizarre transformation. "That-that's some serious Terminator 2 crap right there." Adrian quickly regained his composure, but it was clear to him that this was something he would have to get used to. "Right. This is our musket. We just have to use it correctly."

[RumikoOhara]

---

Tammy almost wanted to give Mason an I told you so but decided against it and she herself was a bit stunned to have Occam's Razor so roundly proven by Emma’s transformation.

It was spectacular to see and appealed to her on a visceral level that was like a jolt of electricity through her body. She had grown up closer to nature than the kids she now shared this secret with; she knew what it was to hunt game, to get inside her prey’s head and now she was going to get a chance to experience what it was like to be one of them.

She wanted to find a raptor and shift into one of them and truly learn what it was to soar free in the sky; it was the dream of every pilot...maybe every human. She wanted to run like a gazelle leaping and bounding across the terrain, become an elephant and experience the power of one of the most powerful land animals, touch a dolphin then fly through the water like a torpedo; then reality intruded when she thought how difficult finding those animals might be. She needed a realistic goal, an animal that she could find with ease and which she could approach safely for her first form that’s when it dawned on her; Dede Mr. Colters dog Dede a beautiful Briard; a large French breed of herding dog and the sweetest animal she knew.

There were advantages to becoming a dog that other animals didn’t experience. They were a common sight in man’s world and only a few feared them on sight and Dede while large was fluffy and her hair covered eyes lent her a goofy yet harmless look.

Now I can’t wait to get back home and find Dede and see if I can change into her she says thinking out loud.

[Dusty]

“I don’t know if what happened to the natives is a great analogy to compare too.” Mason crossed his arms hugging them tight to his body as the horrible realization sank in. “Actually, it might be too perfect! Whether it seemed like magic to them or not they were soundly defeated in the end. I can’t believe this, we can presumably morph into animals. What good will that do us? Any old human could take us down with a gun, much less an advanced alien army!” He rounded on Adrian a lamented tone in his voice. He knew the other boy fairly well sharing several classes with him and meant no real disrespect. They’d never been close friends, at least not on a first name basis but Mason held Adrian, and Tammy and Stephanie and Emma in fairly high regard. And yet his fraying nerves and short temper set him on edge, eager to use his fists and regain some control over his life. Even if it was something as baseless as physical dominance.

Struggling to keep his temper in check Mason wheeled about ready to march off when Emma’s terrified cries and transformation caught his attention. Blanching the young man took a step back, morbidly fixated by the scene playing out before his very eyes. It was as if some great invisible hands of a mentally deranged god had descended from heaven and began molding Emma’s body into that of a deer. Her flush bubbled and writhed emerging into strange shapes, fur sprouted like weeds across her body, and her bones and joints crackled as they snapped into shape. Emma’s clothing, made for the human form stretched to its limit and then tore, falling forgotten onto the hiking trail. Mason recognized the shapeshifting from the previous night, when the menacing Vissor Three changed form to consume the andalite prince. However here, watching it occur to someone he knew, there was something terribly different and more terrifying about the morphing.

Then she bolted.

Seeing that the others were equally shocked by this occurrence Mason made an off the cuff and irrational choice. Leaving the others talking Mason ran in Emma/deer’s footsteps crashing through the close-nit trees and snatching brambles, brushing aside bushes and plant life that got in his way. For a moment he kept Emma’s upturned white tail in sight, but within seconds even Mason’s swift pace couldn’t compete and she vanished between the trees. Struggling on for another hundred meters more Mason finally gave up, leaning against a tree and huffing and puffing to catch his breath.

“Emma!” He yelled casting about for some sign that could direct him on. Mason was no tracker, and he’d never bothered wandering the woods out behind the school to any extent. Turning this way and that Mason realized in a heartbeat he’d gotten himself lost. “Emma where are you? It’s not safe out here, there’s wolves and hunters and God knows what else. Emma come back!” Two hours, that’s how much time they had before they became permanently entrapped. Sure Emma had only been in the morph for a few minutes, but why did she run away? She could be lost and killed out there on her own, an easy target for any predator. Setting his jaw Mason pressed on attempting every once in a while to call out her name, trying not to think about how much more lost he was becoming by the second.

[Holly]

Emma had put quite a distance between herself and her attackers. She was back in the woods, where she would be safe to eat in peace. She heard a noise somewhere far off, and while it sounded hostile, she recognized the distance between herself and the source. She started gently gnawing on the grass, her ears listening for any other pursuants. She felt safe, though, and continued to graze. She had always hated the taste of vegetables when her mom had tried to- wait, her mom? A human?

She stopped. What was she doing here? Where was here? Why did her mouth taste like grass, and... were those hooves? Suddenly everything came together. She remembered the deer, touching it, connecting with it, feeling it ease at her touch. Then she remembered her horrific transformation, growing fur and a tail, having her bones grind against each other. She could have screamed, recalling how odd it felt, but her current body sort of prevented that. Her mind suddenly shifted to those mortified faces who had watched her transmogrification. Where was everybody?

<Ahhh, I wish I knew what was going on!> She shouted in her head. <I'm lost in the forest, with no way of knowing how on earth to leave this stupid deer body, and now I might just be stuck like this forever!>

She couldn't remember just how long the Andalite had specified, but she knew her time would expire soon. She had to find the others. Just then, she heard more noises. She could make it out as shouting... was it Mark? She thought that was his name. At the very least, it started with an 'M'. She shook her head, and started heading toward the voice. This wasn't an easy task. She guessed that some of the deer's instincts had lingered in her head, as she was forced to fight the natural urge to run away from any loud sounds. And she was still so hungry, and the grass looked sooo good... surely she could stop for a few bites to eat? She leaned her head down and began eating.

[RumikoOhara]

@Holly@Dusty@Aristocles@SupernovaBlitz@ayzrules

---

Tammy had a bit of difficulty processing the obvious truth of what had happened to them wondering if they had what it takes to defend their planet; they were teenagers. Then like Ralph Hinkley they'd been given a super ability but didn't have a manual for its operation and must fight against forces they didn't understand and unlike the Greatest American Hero had no Special Agent Bill Maxwell.

She was also worried about Emma, so much so she was sure she'd just imagined hearing the other girl

[Lord Frostecs]

Lalna looks a bit shocked, as he backs up from the transformation and sudden bolting of his comrade, as he backs into his bike and knocks it over, which self rights with him on top of it. He looks terribly awkward, and definitely shocked as his fellow morpher leaves, and sighs loudly, coughing as he lies over the seat of his bike, looking very embarrassed, and shocked all the way. "S-s-see? I-i-i told y-you guys it w-would w-work! I-I had m-my doubts, c-consi-idering I-I am unable t-to transf-form from ba-asic DNA from the l-ab, b-but I k-knew this wa-asn't j-just a bloody h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-ho-a-a-ax! B-b-b-but why d-d-d-did she r-r-un?" he says, stuttering as he tries to overcome his shock, but doesn't manage to, as he falls off his bike and ends up hitting his head off the pavement with a clunk of metal from the helmet covering his head. Hitting his head off the pavement seems to get his head working again, as he pulls himself off the pavement, trying to look nonchalant, as if he didn't just fall off his bike. "I... Don't know why I was chosen to do this... If I get shocked by something I knew was possible, and by a fellow comrade bolting off, how will I manage to fight a war... I am a lover, not a fighter... All species have a right to live, even those who will ruin other civilizations in order to live their lives... But... We must fight... I am sorry about this... I have just realized that this war is not good... That hit to the head actually made my brain working after a day of fogginess..." He says in a bit of a depressed tone, the realization about the morphing finally hitting him. He sits down on the ground, beginning to regret being there, on that fateful day.

[Dusty]

Trekking onward ever deeper into the imposing and thickening forest Mason could feel his determination to find Emma fading fast. A sense of hopelessness at the futility of such a venture nagged at his conscious, and a tiny devilish voice in his soul whispered of how this might even be for the best. He didn’t know Emma very well after all, what would he really have to lose? And now that she vanished, presumably trapped in the body of a deer it would instill a greater awareness for the seriousness of the situation upon the others. This wasn’t a game, this was real life and the loss of Emma so early on might very well push the wannabe heroes to capitulation before they even engaged in their first battle.

For half a second Mason stalled in his forward stride, ready to turn back and find his way out of the woodlands. To tell the others she was gone forever, to press that a similar fate waited for all of them. Then Emma’s voice range out in his head.

“Aaagh!” Mason collapsed onto his knees, clutching at his head as his migraine kicked back into high gear. At last he knew what was causing the terrible pain. It was from when Visser Three and the andalite prince had spoken to him last night, forcing their very words into his subconscious thought. It must’ve been sore after the burst of unbidden feelings, and now it reacted worse than before, reeling at the foreign touch. But despite the pain, and the confusion and hurt Mason heard every plea that Emma made. She was trapped and scared.

Forcing himself to his feet Mason pressed on, his determination reignited. He mentally berated himself for even considering giving up on his schoolmate as he marched doggedly forward. Opening his already dry mouth Mason yelled with a hoarse throat into the silent trees. “Emma! Emma if you can hear me answer! I heard your thoughts! Emma!”

[ayzrules]

Stephanie was slightly taken aback by how eager Lalna seemed to be to go and beat up the Yeerks. "Whoa, slow down there," she said. "Even if we don't tell our parents or whatever about this, shouldn't we like, tell the government or the military or something? Like, this isn't stuff that a bunch of teenagers can take care of, you know?" Steph paused, a slight frown on her face. What was all of Lalna's crazy talk about being this super-genius scientist or whatever? She blinked, watching him ramble about god-knows-what, before turning her attention to Emma when she called.

"Awww, he's so cute," Steph gushed, her attention fixated on the deer. She sighed, slightly disappointed, when the deer took off again.

But when Emma's features started changing was when Steph really lost it.

"Oh my god!" she squealed, terrified and completely grossed-out by the sight in front of her. She openly gaped at the flesh melting into fur and hands and feet melting into hooves. It was creepy and grotesque and completely yuck! Steph instinctively took a couple steps back as she looked on, eyes wide, transfixed by the sight of Emma becoming a deer. "That's so freaky," Steph breathed, shuddering. She suddenly felt extremely nauseous, and the contents of her stomach roiled.

Emma suddenly took off into the woods, with Mason close behind. Steph stood there, shocked, before she shook her head furiously. How is this even happening? she thought to herself. Like, this is so totally not what's supposed to happen. This is all wrong. This makes no sense. I kinda want to think that we're all on drugs right now and I think I would, you know, if not for the fact that I don't do drugs because I am not about to ruin my lip gloss to smoke or whatever, you know?

Steph started when she heard Emma's voice in her head. "Wait, what?" she exclaimed. "Is this like the thing that happened last night? You know, when that Andalite alien guy just sort of...talked to us? But like, not through his mouth?" Steph blinked. "This is, like, way weird."

Steph paused. "And what about Mason? He just sorta ran after her! Do you think he's okay? Should we go after them? Oh my god, this would totally be like a cheesy horror movie if it was at night, you know? Like it's always people running into dark woods and stuff like that, but I guess it's different because it's still afternoon and sunny out. Geez, do you think they're okay? And did you see Emma just change into that deer? Or maybe I should say that she morphed, because you know that's what Elfangor-whatever called it, right? Oh my gosh. Should we go after them?"