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Post by Charles Geiszler / Osgil on Mar 17, 2012 22:50:30 GMT -5
Osgil shifted in the passenger seat of Karvod’s van. The vehicle was rather old and non-descript. Something seemed to be perpetually digging into his back. He glanced over at Karvod in the driver’s seat. His fellow Yeerk had slowed the vehicle to a stop along the side of the road. They were in an area of town that some would describe, in the colorful language of humans, as the “wrong side of the tracks”. Liquor stores weren’t an uncommon sight.
Osgil glanced up and down the road, trying to determine the reason for the stop. Meanwhile, Karvod pulled out some kind of snack-cake from--well, Osgil neither saw nor cared where. The driver chewed on it and stared out in silence.
Finally finishing the snack cake, Karvod simply said “Ok, I’m good.”
“Oh?” Osgil wondered how the other Yeerk intended to tackle this.
“Yep. Same old stuff, really. This is getting dull. Yscaff probably won’t have much to do. Voress and I should be able to take care of this, but can’t hurt to bring him along too.” Karvod gestured with the empty snack cake wrapper still in hand to an electrical transformer surrounded by a chain-link fence. Osgil squinted and noticed a figure huddled nearby.
“Ah, going for the homeless tonight then?” Karvod had been running this operation for about six weeks now, ranging two or three hours outside of the city sometimes. They’d run enough operations that they were starting to get some attention from the humans now. Rumors of midnight kidnappings in parking lots, from people’s homes. Reminders about not pulling over for anything at night, not even crashed cars on the side of the road. People were scared.
It was good to finally have the chance to see it up close, despite the risk. Not so much physical risk; Osgil would be remaining behind as their getaway driver. Much to his amusement. The real danger was in being identified as a Controller. He still managed to pass among the humans, for when more subtle tactics were necessary. But this plan was his, and just once he wanted to be there.
“I know it’s getting a little stale, but we’re making progress. I don’t think it will take much longer for us to wrap this all up.” He continued.
Karvod nodded but said nothing. He waved to Yscaff and Voress, waiting in the back of the van. All were dressed in black, and could easily be mistaken for burglars. The three exited, and quickly snuck to where the homeless person was sleeping.
It was hard to make out from this distance, but frankly there wasn’t much to watch. There wasn’t even a struggle; Karvod stunned the vagrant with a Dracon beam while the others crouched in wait. It looked like Yscaff was keeping a lookout, and holding onto the entire reason for their mission: Essorod.
Osgil began to grow bored as he waited, and mentally poked at Charles. The old man tended towards silence of late. Well, as silent as one can be when you have a mind-reading alien in your head. He thought, but he rarely engaged Osgil in direct conversation. After a few minutes of prodding, it became clear that Charles was going to be just as obstinate as ever.
Eventually they returned; two larger figures carrying the vagrant between them, with the scrawniest of the three Controllers following behind. The vagrant was an underfed young woman with some sores on her face, and frankly she smelled about like he’d expected. But this was Essorod’s first permanent host; he expected the Yeerk would be grateful all the same. For Osgil it was still a touch disappointing, but maybe she could be cleaned up and put to some good. Even Charles had to hope the girl would prove useful, for her own sake.
«No luck tonight, hmm? Not exactly what I’d call a victory.»
«No, but we’ll get what we want.» The Yeerk replied in some surprise to his host. It took him a moment to fully regain his composure. «Patience is a luxury I can afford.»
«For how long?»
Osgil wished he could find a proper reply. Failing that, he took a page from his host’s book and lapsed into mental silence while he waited for the others to pile into the van.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Mar 22, 2012 19:53:38 GMT -5
Can't say I've been here before. Bit hot isn't it? --
Mission: Look into the kidnappings in Georgia. The Yeerks are likely up to something. That was what Elijah wrote down before he and Kiki left The Sanctuary. From what the leaders said, kidnappings had been happening for several weeks in Savannah, Georgia, and they needed to get to the bottom of it quickly before it got even more out of hand. The Animorphs needed to know who was being captured, why, and stop it. As soon as they said it was in a different state other than where Seattle was, Elijah was on board and ready to go.
Though, as the bug fighter was coming to a halt, and he was preparing to walk out of it, he wondered just what he and Kiki were getting themselves into. There was never a decent reason for people to get kidnapped, not this many. The Yeerks had to be planning something, maybe something big. Or it could even be small. No, definitely big with how many people they were kidnapping. But what was it? Were they just kidnapping them to put Yeerks in their head? It sounded almost right, but there was something else going on.
He stepped out of the bug fighter, Converse sneakers hitting the ground as he looked around. It was night, so not much activity happening. It wasn't the best part of town, but it was a start. He looked over to Kiki. "Ready then?" he asked. [/font]
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Mar 24, 2012 1:12:43 GMT -5
Kiki checked over the controls of the bug fighter one more time. Before leaving for Georgia, she hadn't properly flown one in over six years, so she was still pretty nervous she would forget something important. It wasn't like riding a bike, where you could just pick back up where you left off. Besides, even when she had flown a bug fighter when she was a controller, it wasn't really her. It had been her yeerk.
"I... don't think we are going to get locked out," Kiki replied when Elijah asked if she was ready. She then peeled herself away from the main controls and followed Elijah out into the damp night air. The entrance to their bug fighter closed behind them and all visual traces of the ship were gone, save for the imprint the cloaked spacecraft left in the patchy grass it was resting on.
Pushing the worries about running the ship out of her mind, Kiki regrasped her usual air of confidence. "This place doesn't look so friendly," Kiki stated matter-of-factly. "Still, it's better than a lot of Seattle is. Lets just try not to get abducted and thrown into the back of a dog catcher's van this time." She shot Elijah a wry smile then proceeded to walk purposefully down the street.
"So what's the plan then? Be bait?"
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Mar 24, 2012 19:45:08 GMT -5
No Southern Hospitality I see. --
It was probably better that Kiki flew the Bug Fighter. The only flying experience Elijah had was with toy airplanes when he was young, and that surely wouldn't have done well here. He thought she did very well getting them to Georgia-- long way though. Really long way. How far had they flown? He didn't really look to see before they left the Bug Fighter, Kiki making sure it wasn't visible. It was longer than any flight he had been on for sure, even back and forth from-- wait the Bug Fighter had the technology to become invisible? That was absolutely fascinating! The technology these Animorphs had!
Oh yes, let's hope that they didn't get locked out. That would make it even more difficult to get back to Seattle. Kiki was certainly right though. Savannah just didn't seem that friendly. Liquor seemed to be sold around every other corner, though most had closed shop by now. Streets were quiet except for the occasional bit of movement. Well, that's what it seemed like at the moment. With this looking like the wrong side of London, there would surely be trouble.
He had to smile back at that. "Oh but that was quite fun," he replied, then thought for a second on the next question. "Yep, that's what I'm thinking. Have to find them first, draw them out, and figure out what they're doing with these people. Being bait's the best way to do that... or so I figure at the moment." It was a very limited plan, but once in action, Elijah tended to do a bit better with thinking. Once he saw the picture of what was going on in this city, he could come up with something else. Or, Kiki could. She was the one that helped get them out of that mess in Seattle after all. Good thinker.
He continued walking, just wondering what he was going to find. [/font]
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Post by Charles Geiszler / Osgil on Mar 30, 2012 1:43:16 GMT -5
Karvod, Voress, and Yscaff had only just finished loading their unconscious companion into the van and were climbing in themselves when Osgil held up a hand.
"Wait." Somewhere not far off, he heard a siren that sounded like a police car. All four held their breath, but relaxed as it faded off into the distance. "False alarm, apparently."
Osgil now sat in the driver's seat, Karvod the front passenger. As the other two slid into place behind them, Yscaff pointed out the front window. "Better get going, we have company."
"No," Osgil replied slowly, thinking. Picking Charles' thoughts. "Let's wait. Wouldn't want to look too suspicious now, would we?" He smiled reassuringly at the others. "Besides, looks like there are only two of them." None of them could forget that the two could very well be Animorphs, or military, or who knew what. Best to play it cautious.
Karvod smiled back at him. "Maybe we should even the odds for them a bit. Yscaff, go get some air."
The scrawny Controller nodded and climbed out the back of the van, hopefully out of view of the two approaching figures. He was the smallest and fastest of those present. Osgil couldn't see where he went, but he imagined he'd taken his Dracon beam and found cover somewhere, or even maybe scaled a tree. Was it Yscaff that had had a Hork-Bajir body before, or was that Voress? He'd have to ask Karvod later.
The pair were drawing closer. "Well, let the show begin." Karvod was positively grinning now. His host was one that was oddly charismatic, despite a receding hairline and strange face that most would call unattractive. He could equally promise mischief or malice with just a smile. At the moment, he had on his most malicious grin.
"All right, but don't scare them off too quickly."
Karvod nodded, laughing. "Right boss." The grin disappeared, replaced with the wild-eyed look of fear combined with anger. "Better?"
"Was your host an actor?" Osgil laughed as Karvod stepped out into the street. He followed, while Voress waited in the van this time.
Karvod began walking briskly towards the two, Dracon beam, raised. "Filthy slugs aren't welcome here!" Osgil couldn't decide whether to wince or laugh at the insult. Karvod's Controller was tall and broad-shouldered, so that even without a weapon in hand he could easily be intimidating when he wanted.
"Robert, calm down!" The two were close enough to see under the street-lights, now. A young man and woman, maybe around college age. "They're just kids." He raised his hands as if to calm the other Controller down. "I'm sorry about my friend," he called to the unknown pair. "He's a little jittery, I'm sure you understand."
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Mar 31, 2012 23:08:11 GMT -5
Kiki's heart skipped a beat when a large man headed toward them with a dracon beam leveled at them. Kiki instinctively raised her arms up in surrender and retreated a few steps. "Filthy slugs aren't welcome here!" the man said. Their bait plan must have worked better than expected if a controller was already threatening them.
No, not a controller, Kiki noted to herself. He called us filthy slugs, so that means he thinks we are controllers, and he isn't one. Does that mean he saw us get out of the bug fighter? Is that why he thinks we are controllers? Kiki didn't have time to dwell on these thoughts for very long before another man revealed himself. This one looked older.
"Robert, calm down!" the other man said. "They're just kids. I'm sorry about my friend. He's a little jittery, I'm sure you understand."
Kiki allowed herself to relax a hair and lowered her arms a little, but wouldn't lower them completely as long as that dracon beam was pointed at her. She briefly wondered why non-controllers would have a dracon beam but quickly realized that she and Elijah were non-controllers and had a bug fighter, so she could hardly use that as a reason to come to any conclusions.
"We're not controllers," she tried to reassure them. "We aren't looking for trouble." Kiki shot a glance toward Elijah to try and figure out how he wanted to handle the situation. He seemed like he would be able to handle a conversation like this better than she would.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Apr 7, 2012 14:55:58 GMT -5
Just put the Dracon Beam down. --
Elijah stopped in his tracks, eyeing the Dracon Beam that was aimed at both him and Kiki. Oh dear. He should have expected something like this to happen at some point-- getting a gun aimed at him was likely going to be common as an Animorph. He followed Kiki's example and put his arms in the air in the form of surrender. Though, wait a second. The man said that filthy slugs weren't welcome here. He had to mean Yeerks then, right? Yes, he had to mean that. When he gave it a second thought, it made perfect sense. The kidnappings were likely being done by the Yeerks. No one trusted anyone anymore, and it made perfect sense to defend against being kidnapped.
Though, with the gun still aimed at him, he couldn't relax. He never could relax with weapons around him before. Even if one of the other men tried to calm the first one down, Elijah wasn't going to be any bit relieved until that Dracon Beam was lowered and put away. He slowly lowered his arms as Kiki told them that neither of them were Controllers. Right, he should probably add something to that. Kiki seemed to almost want him to.
"Right," he said at first, attempting to make the situation's tension lower, "Just lower the weapon if you will-- preferably sooner rather than later. We're only passing through here, nothing else. We're free, just like you. We're not Controllers. Just free humans going to get a drink or two." There were a few pubs around here it seemed-- that seemed like a somewhat legitimate reason, yes? He hoped so. [/font]
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Post by Charles Geiszler / Osgil on Apr 13, 2012 15:49:10 GMT -5
The two threw their hands up in surrender; in the light he could see them clearly enough, now. There was a girl, and a young man. She didn't look like much of a threat. The man was about Karvod's height, but skinnier. Even without Dracon beams, there was a fairly good chance that Karvod could take out the girl and Voress the young man.
"We're not controllers. We aren't looking for trouble," the woman assured them.
<<Which is exactly what a Controller would say, and I should know.>> He laughed, mentally.
<<They could be Controllers you know. Some of those who defected to the One.>> Charles somehow managed to be quiet in his own head. Osgil couldn't deny it was a possibility, though a slim one that Charles hoped would be enough to scare Osgil and the rest off. Unlikely.
"Right. Just lower the weapon if you will-- preferably sooner rather than later. We're only passing through here, nothing else. We're free, just like you. We're not Controllers. Just free humans going to get a drink or two."
The young man's story, and his accent, both sent up red flags in Osgil's mind. What free humans would be going out to get inebriated with all the threats out there?
Again he picked up a thought from Charles, but this one wasn't put into words so much as a string of thoughts:
college students irresponsible like drinking or drugs involved
Charles knew from experience, younger humans did have a tendency to think they were immortal, that no harm could come to them even in the most dire situation. It wasn't entirely impossible they could be telling the truth.
"This seems a poor time and place," he said, gesturing for Karvod to lower the Dracon beam but not to put it away. He complied without a word. "I hate to threaten you, but if you were Controllers you would hardly admit it. And short of holding you hostage for three days, there is not much way for us to prove otherwise is there?"
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Apr 16, 2012 19:54:08 GMT -5
As the man finally lowered his alien weapon, Kiki let out a breath she did realize she was holding. She was glad the high-tension was finally over, but that didn't mean she was relaxed quite yet. Things could still go south at the drop of a hat.
"It's tough times," Kiki said, referring to the difficulty of telling who was or wasn't a controller. Then, going off of Elijah's excuse for why they were out here she added, "That's why we want to go get our drink on at the bars."
Kiki was about to attempt to edge her way past the guys so they could move on with their actual objective, but she stopped short as she realized something. "Say, you guys want to come with us?" she asked the men who had just threatened their lives.
"You obviously aren't controllers, and it's safer to travel in groups. Plus you seem like the types of people who might be able to help me and my boyfriend find a resistance group to support. We've been thinking of signing up, so to speak."
Kiki flashed a playful smile at her new fake boyfriend, Elijah, and hoped he wouldn't be mad at her for all the things she was saying. But she figured it would be worth it if it helped them to find some potential allies in the area.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Apr 18, 2012 17:31:26 GMT -5
They would have believed me if I was Irish. --
One good thing happened, and that was the man lowering his weapon at long last. Of course he didn't put it completely away, but Elijah finally felt as if he could at least breathe. If a weapon ever came into his hand, it would have to be forced to stay and not thrown aside-- that was how much he disliked them. The morphs, in all technicality, were weapons too though, and he'd have to remember that. Right now though, not a problem. They just had to convince the man that spoke that they were truly doing what they were doing.
And Kiki's idea was brilliant. He knew there was a good reason to travel with her. She had a great point! They might just be part of a resistance group like them-- well not like them since they probably couldn't morph, but whoever knew. A resistance group was a resistance group. Maybe they could actually have a drink, get to know these people, calm things down to a reasonable level, and figure out what these men knew about the kidnappings. They obviously were aware of them, even if they weren't part of a resistance group. Though, with all of them here, it looked like they were a group of sorts.
Elijah had to quickly hide his surprise when Kiki said what she said next, certainly not expecting it. The widening of the eyes and the raise of the eyebrows stopped short of being shown. Probably a good route to go down. Yep. That would explain why they're traveling together. It worked in more ways than one. Still, he wasn't expecting that at all-- Kiki seemed to have a knack for pulling moves like that. He could go with that though. He gave her his own lighthearted smile before turning his attention to the gentlemen. "She is absolutely right. We'd be honoured if you joined us and helped us out a bit. You seem to know what you're doing. If we're going to fight the Controllers, the more people the better." [/font]
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Post by Charles Geiszler / Osgil on Apr 26, 2012 2:38:09 GMT -5
Targets being amiable, even inviting infestation wasn't something new to Osgil, but he had to say that this particular circumstance would have to go on a list of Most Unlikely Things to Happen: threatening targets with a Dracon beam and then being invited to join them. That was... different.
The situation was made all the more amusing for the Yeerk by Charles' despair for the young couple. A stray mental image of flies in a web came to Osgil's mind from the old man. The image was very good, though as Osgil had learned, one could catch more flies with honey than vinegar. He smiled, perfectly pleasantly, the skin around his eyes crinkling.
"The honor would be ours, wouldn't it Robert?" He cast a glance over to Karvod, who was doing an admirable job of being surly. Good cop, bad cop in a way. "Don't mind him," he continued, returning his attention to the couple. "If not for the danger, I would suggest a drink to improve his demeanor."
"My name is Charles, incidentally. May I ask who we have the pleasure of accompanying?"
If he was honest with himself, Osgil didn't expect them to just stumble across a resistance group, but he did wonder if these two were just clumsily feeling them out before inviting them to join one. That would just be delicious.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Apr 30, 2012 21:02:09 GMT -5
Kiki was impressed with Elijah's ability to run with her lies. She wouldn't have noticed any signs of surprise if she hadn't been looking for them. Even more impressive was his ability to build off of her stories. It seemed their leaders made a good choice when they paired the two of them up for this mission.
Still, Kiki was surprised that the man, Charles, accepted their invitation. But she certainly wasn't displeased. The name Charles when paired with the guy's shadowed face poked at the back of Kiki's memory though, and she wasn't sure why. She shrugged off the feeling and refocused on the situation at hand.
"Charles and Robert, huh? Hope you can hold your liquor. I'm Kiki and this is Elijah. No last names yet though. Not until we get to know you guys a little better." She winked at them playfully to try and alleviate any tension that may have been brought up from her blatant distrust. She had briefly considered using some fake names, but figured there wasn't really a reason to. Especially when they already had other lies to keep track of. No need to over complicate things.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on May 12, 2012 16:25:21 GMT -5
Well look at that, more surprises. The offer was accepted by Charles and his friend there, Robert. Sort of interesting names, run of the mill, ordinary people names-- from what Elijah gathered, Yeerk names weren't ordinary at all, maybe some other language. Yeerks did have another language, right? Or did aliens speak English? Perhaps the Yeerks did have another language, but learned all of Earth's languages to blend in, even going so far as to distinguish dialects, accents, colloquial sayings, and all that. Or, maybe it was just some sort of translator thing.
Either way, that was far off topic. Kiki introduced the both of them, no last names-- couldn't trust these people yet. Elijah personally wouldn't trust someone that had just held a gun to him about two minutes ago. Real names though, that was also interesting. It wouldn't have been the first time that Elijah used a different name other than his own, but that was an entirely different story. He smiled as well, trying to help ease that tension between both parties, and dug through his pocket to produce his wallet.
"I'll pay for the first round if none of you mind," he said, making sure he still had some cash in there-- eh, that should be enough. It didn't seem like they were all going to get completely drunk. He turned to look up and down the street, putting his wallet back in his pocket. "Don't know the good pubs around here though I'm afraid. Got any suggestions?"
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