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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Dec 14, 2011 20:45:17 GMT -5
Kiki was nervous about walking through the crowds of people, but tried not to let it show. She forced herself to flash a reassuring smile to the familiar face next to her as they crossed the food court. They were in one of Seattle's many shopping centers. Normally Kiki wouldn't have any problem walking around in a mall, but this one was different. This one was full of controllers.
Turns out yeerks' hosts still have all the same basic consumer needs as they did before getting a slug on their brains, so why not use the systems we humans already had in place? Sure, maybe the yeerks weren't too big on selling the latest video games, but people still needed things like food and clothing and materials to keep their living spaces in good repair. Maybe the need for a mall would get phased out eventually, but for now this place was still running at full steam.
"Where should we do this?" Kiki asked under her breath. "In the changing rooms? A bathroom? In an abandoned vender stall?"
They wouldn't be able to buy something here without being able to prove they were controllers, so shopping was definitely not on their to-do list. No, today's goal was something that would be much cheaper and hopefully much more satisfying. For this goal, she had even managed to convinced herself to try morphing again.
The goal?
Destruction.
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Post by Richard Smith on Dec 20, 2011 3:57:31 GMT -5
For the life of him, Richard couldn’t remember whose idea this was, but it was going to be fun. He watched as Kiki smiled at him, which he interpreted as her being excited about what they were going to be doing in a few minutes. It probably wasn’t the wisest of things for them to do with their newly acquired gifts, but it would definitely be something that the controllers would remember.
While he knew that they were here to cause some chaos, Richard sort of found it depressing that they were going to be smashing up some of the best places to get food. Then again, with a bunch of controllers operating everything the food couldn’t taste that great anyway, so it probably wasn’t a major loss. Now all they needed was a good spot from whence they could start their assault on this group of rotten Yeerks, which wasn’t an easy decision for them to make.
“Wherever we are going to do this needs to be rather tall and wide to accommodate my rather bulky physique,” Richard responded in a low tone. “Do you see any abandoned stores that can hold the both of us?”
He wondered how much of this place they were going to be able to tear down before someone came along to stop them. Richard was betting that could get three-fourths of it before a Dracon beam was fired at them.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Dec 21, 2011 1:16:55 GMT -5
Kiki searched for a place that matched Richard's requirements as they walked, but it was trickier than Kiki would have thought. There were a lot of vacant stores, but most of them still had barred gates pulled down over their entrances. It would be tricky to get into one of those without anyone taking notice. Unless they found a key somewhere, or found one that was unlocked, it looked like they might have to settle for someplace cramped.
"Ah ha!" Kiki exclaimed in an enthusiastic whisper. "That would be perfect." She pointed to the place she spotted not far away. It was the mall's old movie theatre. There were still a couple movie poster of outdated films plastered on the wall. The concession stand looked like it had been cleaned out, unfortunately, but the powered-down arcade games remained. Kiki had a hard time deciding if it would be fun or depressing to smash one of those to bits.
"Will that place 'accommodate your bulky physique?'" Kiki asked Richard, already leading the way. "Its rooms are tall, wide, and even dark to boot. Enough space for both of us heavyweights. The doorway might not be big enough to exit through, but I'm sure we could figure out a way to stretch it a little."
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Post by Richard Smith on Dec 31, 2011 0:30:54 GMT -5
When Kiki made her grand discovery, Richard turned to see what she had found, and a smile appeared on his face when he made a connection. It seemed fitting that the start of their show for the Yeerks would be a theater, so he followed quickly in order not to waste time with a response. This was going to be an epic strike against the Yeerks, but it probably wouldn’t cause serious damage to the infrastructure of the group.
“I’ve always thought that movie theaters should knock the doors and the back wall down to accommodate more people. Too bad it had to happen this way,” he said in response to her statement about the doors as he wasn’t going to make a fat joke. Somehow, he found that to be a jinx for some reason, which he had no reason to. “I guess I will pave the way.”
His mind focused on the elephant DNA within him as he began to change into the bulky creature that would be the main tool in his attack on the Yeerks, and then a thought crossed his mind. “Learfv tce dnra npar.” Of course, his lips had disappeared by the time he had come up with the idea, but there were other ways of speaking. <<Leave the door open. I am going to try to squeeze out before I completely change,>> he thought-spoke to Kiki
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Jan 1, 2012 1:21:40 GMT -5
Kiki was still working up the courage to start her own morph when Richard asked her to leave the doors open, so she did as he asked, then thought about becoming a hippo. Not the type of thought that would start the morphing yet, though. She was remembering a memory. Kiki's mind went back to the time her yeerk forced her to acquire the big beast. A group of hork-bajir brought it into a room on a cart, strapped down and wounded, just so that several controllers could acquire it without getting hurt. It was a really depressing sight.
But now, in a way, the animal would have its justice. Kiki concentrated on becoming a hippo once again. Something she hadn't done since regaining her freedom.
If Kiki were to be honest with herself, she had expected it to be more difficult to encourage herself to morph. The one other time she tried, years ago, she chickened out and reversed the process. But now, with the thought of avenging the hippo she was becoming, she longed for the changes to occur.
Immediately her clothes felt tight, then ripped as she grew in bulk. In all the excitement she had forgotten to strip down to her morphing suit. But it was just as well since she doubted they would be able to come back for their clothes anyway. Kiki's dark skin greyed and pinkened as it grew thicker. Her hair dissolved and her mouth pushed out from her expanding skull. She got bigger and heavier until she was sure the floor would buckle underneath her, although it never did. In a matter of minutes, Kiki had become an animal that was in the running for second largest land animal in the world.
And standing next to her was number one. <<Lets do this.>> Kiki charged toward the entrance of the movie theatre.
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Post by Richard Smith on Jan 12, 2012 17:24:32 GMT -5
While he was finishing his morph, Richard began to ponder whether or not an elephant would enjoy French fries or a pickle, and he made a note to see about finding out this information. For now, he was going to have to keep his mind focused on causing a ruckus for the Yeerks while also keeping an eye on Kiki, which is what good teammates did when on a ‘mission’ like this. As he finished his morph, Richard felt like he had this awesome power that just needed to be unleashed; so when Kiki said ‘lets do this’ he had only one thing to say in response. “Hhhhuuuuhhhrrrooooooomm,” was the sound he made as he unleashed a trumpet blast to completely shock them as he slammed through the doorway of the movie theater.
<<I think it is time to show these Yeerks why we are the perfect stampede,>> he thought-spoke to Kiki as he turned toward where he charged toward the food court where the Yeerks were. It was going to be very interesting thing to see a bunch of freaked out Yeerks running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. Obviously, it wasn’t going to look as cool with elephant eyes, but he would learn to live with it. <<We really should have setup a camera or something to record this. It would have been a very good instructing tool for future recruits,>>
As he ran through the food court, Richard used his massive trunk to start flipping tables over while letting loose more blasts from his trunk. Then a thought occurred to him that he had been silently pondering upon ever since this plan arose, and figured now was the most appropriate time to ask given what they were doing. <<So Kiki, exactly how do you use a hippopotamus to cause mass destruction in a place like this?>>
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Jan 15, 2012 15:02:08 GMT -5
Kiki followed Richard to the food court and helped him flip tables and crush chairs. Which was all well and good, but all the controllers had cleared out of the room in a hurry, so it was starting to feel less like destruction and more like a chore.
<<So Kiki, exactly how do you use a hippopotamus to cause mass destruction in a place like this?>> Richard asked.
<<I'm glad you asked,>> Kiki replied. She would have smiled if she were human, but instead she grabbed a round table in her massive jaws. <<Watch and learn.>> With a flick of her head, she sent the table soaring through the air and bouncing across the floor toward a controller on a cell phone that was watching them from around a corner. Kiki took off after the table she threw, decimating a garbage can along the way, sending trash everywhere.
The spying controller was long gone by the time she crossed the food court, but she continued her charge into a nearby clothing store. Shirts and pants flew all over the place. Tables of sweatshirts and racks of dresses were strewn about without reserve. And the mannequins. The poor, poor mannequins. A few garments even clung to her wicked tusks as she exited the store (through a display window), ready to find another.
<<I may be no elephant, but was that destruction massive enough for you?>>
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Post by Richard Smith on Jan 20, 2012 13:50:36 GMT -5
As per Kiki’s instructions, Richard did indeed watch as Kiki went to work on using her hippo morph to Frisbee a table at a controller who was trying to make a call, which made it even funnier than what was originally planned. <<Think he is calling animal control,>> he asked as he picked up the fallen trash can and rolled it down a hallway to trip some people up. Richard resisted the urge to make a cleaning up the trash comment, but then he got a very interesting idea.
He walked over to where a store sold musical instruments and picked up a trumpet, and everyone in view knew what was going to happen next. “HHHHUUUUHHHRRROOOOOOOMM,” was the sound that he made, which echoed through the room as if they were in a cave. Forget fighting the Yeerks with animal morphs. All that he needed to do was play a horn to cause massive panic among the fleeing people, and boy was he doing a good job of it. Of course, he stopped to see how Kiki had finished up, and he had to say that he was impressed by what she had accomplished in an unusual morph.
<<I will admit that your use of a hippo is truly something worth seeing,>> Richard looked around and then noticed something that deserved a question be asked. <<Do you think they are hiding in sporting goods or ‘Bed, Bath and Beyond’,>> inquired Richard.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Jan 24, 2012 1:37:43 GMT -5
With enhanced hippo hearing, Richard's trumpeting sounded all that much more threatening. She had to rotate her ears backward (a skill she hadn't taken notice of previously) just to keep from going deaf. But the results were worth it. Kiki laughed as she watched the lingering controllers scrambling to get to safety. It felt nice to be feared by the yeerks for once, instead of the other way around.
<<Sporting goods or Bed, Bath, and Beyond?>> wondered Kiki after Richard asked his question. It only took her a second to figure out which store she would choose if she were in the controllers' shoes. <<Definitely sporting goods, if they're smart. What is there to defend yourself with in Bed, Bath, and Beyond? Not that baseball bats and hockey sticks will do much good against us anyway...>>
Kiki tromped in the direction of sporting goods, trampling a few benches and toppling fake plants along the way. As she trotted into the entryway of the store, Kiki got a weird vibe. It was hard to place why she suddenly felt uneasy, but then it dawned on her. <<Richard? Do controllers play sports? Enough to keep an entire store up and running?>>
A handful of controllers could be seen taking cover behind some objects in the store, but the ones behind the checkout counter worried her most. Because on the wall behind the checkout counter was a display showcasing a wide array of what looked like dracon beams. And several of those display items appeared to be missing.
Tssewww!
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Post by Richard Smith on Feb 9, 2012 22:27:07 GMT -5
Kiki’s response to his question seemed like the best way to go because the only weapon that he could think of being used in Bed, Bath and Beyond was some of the weird perfumes being mixed into an aroma bomb, and with his giant nose that could actually prove to be deadly. <<Now we are actually calling them smart. What has the world come to?>> Although, he had to agree that whatever the Yeerks found in Sporting Goods would probably not help them unless there was an elephant rifle hidden under the register.
As they walked into the store, Kiki asked a question that Richard should have probably thought about prior to widening the doorway, and then it hit him like two tons of bricks. <<Yes Kiki, they do play a sport, and it is called ‘Shoot the Rebel’ where we play the role of the rebel.>> Now, normally this would make the situation more exciting, but the simple fact that they were large targets just killed the thrill that Richard would normally have. Not wanting to be shot, Richard began looking around for something to throw at the Yeerks behind the counter.
Tssewww!
<<Kiki, you okay?>> Then Richard realized that there was this searing pain on his left side, which made him very agitated. In response to this pain, he wrapped his trunk around a display and flung it at the counter to cause them to scatter. <<Quickly, knock out the ones that have actual weapons that can hurt us. We don’t want them to think they have a real chance here.>>
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Feb 12, 2012 19:58:35 GMT -5
Kiki had involuntarily closed her eyes at the sound of the dracon fire. She expected to feel pain or hear an explosion or something, but neither of those results occurred. However, the smell of burnt flesh did manage to reach her nostrils. When she reopened her eyes, Kiki soon realized it was because the controllers thought Richard was the better target.
They were probably right.
Richard hardly seemed phased by his injury as he threw a display at the shooters. His courage helped to bring Kiki's own courage back.
<<You got it Richard.>> Kiki ran directly toward the counter at full hippo speed. A path that led her straight through a display of running shoes, a rack of outdated sports jerseys, and the checkout counter itself. Plastic paneling and particle board splintered under her mass, barely registering a scratch on her six inch thick skin.
Honestly, through all the debris and commotion, Kiki couldn't be sure if she really knocked anyone unconscious or if she just outright crushed the shooters, but they certainly weren't getting back up to bother her and Richard again. At least not the two she managed to catch. She had seen at least one person dive out of the way and was pretty sure she heard someone trying to scramble away nearby.
<<Lets try to mop up our mess here and maybe think about busting out of this place.>> They hadn't gotten a chance to destroy much yet, but with Richard injured and controllers starting to fight back, Kiki was beginning to think they shouldn't press their luck.
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