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Post by Richard Smith on Oct 7, 2011 15:47:02 GMT -5
“When did phonebooks become useless?” Richard said as he flipped through the pages of the book trying to find Rebecca’s address. Needless to say, it wasn’t going as well as he had thought when he had decided to come out to Seattle to find her. The address that had been on her letters had led him to a house that hadn’t been lived in for quite some time, and he was becoming very annoyed at this book in his hand.
Just as he was about to slam the book on the ground, Richard placed it back under the pay phone and exited the booth. It looked like he was going to have to conduct this search in a more complex way, and that meant that he was going to have to hit the streets and begin asking around about Rebecca. There had to be someone in this city that had some information for him because it wasn’t like a person could disappear with all connections to them being erased.
The first thing that he needed to do was find an apartment and a job so that he didn’t become trapped by financial issues. He picked up his duffel bag and began walking down the street toward a coffee shop, where he could hopefully find a newspaper or real estate magazine that could tell him what was all available in his price range. Finding work shouldn’t be too hard as he had a year’s worth of work experience as two separate things.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Oct 7, 2011 17:36:59 GMT -5
"What have I gotten myself into?" Kiki asked herself not for the first time. She stood atop a breezy hill with one foot resting on a pink child's scooter. Before her were a cluster of under cared-for Seattle residences. The city was obviously not inactive, but it was definitely hurting.
And dangerous, Kiki reminded herself. There were some strange things going on here and she had to be careful not to get caught up in any of them.
Looking down the street Kiki spotted someone exiting a phone booth. "Who uses a phone booth anymore?" Kiki wondered. "Not yeerks, that's who." If she was going to make any headway here, she would have to take a few risks, and talking to this guy would be her first one. Kiki tightened the straps of her backpack, then pushed her little scooter forward down the hill.
When she reached the bottom she turned in the direction she saw the guy go and quickly spotted him. "Hey, wait up!" she called after him. "Where are you headed?" Even if the guy couldn't help her, maybe she could lighten his wallet a little.
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Post by Richard Smith on Oct 8, 2011 12:14:32 GMT -5
It’s a little too quiet. Richard thought as he walked down the sidewalk toward a coffee shop, which made him feel like he was something’s prey. He really needed to get off the street, but a new town meant ignorance in possible locations besides those that he could see. Richard kept glancing around the street looking for someone trying to sneak up on him, which seemed likely.
Fortunately for him, the only person who had actually noticed him had announced their presence beforehand, which at least meant that they weren’t trying to mug him. Richard turned around to find a girl riding a scooter towards him, which seemed like an odd choice of transportation for someone of her age. “I’m going to that coffee place to get something to eat and find out some information.”
There was no real reason why he was telling her what he was doing, and it certainly wasn’t a smart thing to be so open to someone that he had just meant. Unfortunately, Richard was new to this place and in need of making some friends, so that he didn’t get into any trouble. “Why do you ask?”
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Oct 8, 2011 22:42:27 GMT -5
"That coffee place?" Kiki asked, ignoring his question and pointing to the only coffee place in sight. "That place looks like a death trap. Is it even still open?" Kiki stood still with a hand on her hip, taking a moment to look Richard up and down, judging him with her eyes.
"I'll tell you what, it's your lucky day. I'll go with you. That way if it really is a death trap, which I'm sure it is, then you'll have someone to watch your back." Kiki started rolling toward the building without even waiting to hear if he agreed with her. Her strategy was to not even give him the chance to object. "Of course you're buying, right?" she said over her shoulder, not really caring if he said yes or no.
Kiki wondered if she should introduce herself to the guy, but figured they could go over that stuff if they actually managed to get something at the coffee shop. She barely knew this guy and for all she knew he could be about to attack her at any moment, but for some reason she doubted it. He seemed trustworthy even if she had no intentions of trusting the kid any time soon.
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Post by Richard Smith on Oct 11, 2011 11:23:41 GMT -5
“Doesn’t matter if it is open or closed. I need a place to sit down, and it will do for the moment,” Richard said in response to the girl’s statements. He wasn’t worried about a death trap because he would just knock out anyone who tried to attack him. The girl was definitely an odd ball as she announced that she was going with him and that he was paying.
I have a bad feeling about this chick, he thought as he followed the girl to the coffee shop. There was this weird feeling in the back of his mind that he was going to regret letting this girl tag along, but it made sense that he should stick close to someone. Richard just hoped that it didn't turn out that she wasn't a crazy mugger or an escaped weirdo.
Once they reached the coffee shop, Richard grabbed the handle to open the door, but it felt stuck so he did the only thing that he could. He pulled on it a little harder, and when that didn't work Richard sort of gave it a slight push with his whole body. This led to the miraculous thing of it opening with a loud cracking sound. "Oops."
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Oct 11, 2011 12:51:08 GMT -5
"Well that's one way to get inside... You. Whatever your name is." Kiki said with a smirk on her face. "I'm Kiki, FYI." She leaned her "borrowed" scooter against the front of the shop and headed inside. Kiki searched for a light switch, but of course it wasn't right next to the front entrance. Even without any bulbs burning it was still bright enough to see. There were tables with chair sitting on them, upside down, and a couple booths along the wall. It was hard to tell if the place was closed for good or just for the day. Kiki was willing to bet it was the former.
"So, what'll it be?" Kiki asked, slipping behind the counter. "What's your poison? Cappuccino, coffee, tea? Whatever you want I'm sure they got it around here somewhere." She started flipping on machines and looking for ingredients. However, she didn't get too far before seeing a van drive by out front. She wouldn't have thought anything of it except she heard the screeching of brakes as soon as it went past the storefront. Something was up. Kiki's eyes went wide as she looked fearfully toward Richard. What were they supposed to do?
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Post by Richard Smith on Oct 11, 2011 14:00:17 GMT -5
“My name is Richard, and it is ‘nice’ to meet you Kiki.” He followed her into the store and took one of the chairs off of the table, so he could sit down. If there had been a nice comfy bed in the room, then Richard would have been passed out, but he would have to settle for some coffee. “Give me a large cup of coffee with a ton of sugar in it.” He needed anything that might wake him up in a short period of time as he had no way of knowing who might walk through the door next.
Unfortunately for them, a van stopped abruptly outside, and now both of them had a feeling like something bad was going to happen to them. “Quickly, hide behind the counter.” As he said this, Richard ran so that he was at the very end of the counter that kept him hidden from view. It seemed like the town wasn’t as deserted as he had originally thought, and that wasn’t a good sign for the two of them. Maybe they would get lucky, and the people would leave thinking that everything was clear. Of course, this was the point that Richard remembered the scooter that was outside and the recently moved chair.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Oct 11, 2011 15:41:45 GMT -5
Kiki followed Richard's suggestion without hesitation. She hunkered down beneath the counter and tried to squeeze between a couple boxes of styrofoam cups. Then she sat quietly and tried not to breath. However, her heart was ponding so hard that she was sure anyone in the room would be able to hear it.
It was only a couple moments before she heard the quiet jingle of a bell as the door creaked open. There were faint footsteps and mumbled whispers. But everything was so quiet that even the whispers could be heard.
"They could be long gone, Nefla. We're probably wasting our time. We already got the big prize. Let's not push our luck."
"Stay sharp and do as I say. We do our job 'til I say we're done. Check over there and I'll-" The person stopped mid sentence as one of the coffee machines started making noise. There was no doubting they new someone was here now.
If it was possible, Kiki's heart started pounding even louder. How are we supposed to get out of this one? Kiki wondered to herself. She briefly considered trying to morph, but even if she wasn't completely repulsed by the idea and entirely out of practice, she still knew she wouldn't have time. She decided to go ahead and hope they found Richard first. Maybe then they would stop looking for her, too, however unlikely that was.
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Post by Richard Smith on Oct 11, 2011 16:19:11 GMT -5
What they needed was a plan of some sort to get out of this situation, but Richard was drawing a blank as he heard the sound of the bell that signaled that the door had been opened. He just hoped that Kiki had gotten into a nice hiding spot just in case these guys decided to do a brief search of the place.
He caught part of what they had said, which made Richard wonder if they knew anything about where the girl that he was looking for was. Of course, there was no way to simply ask them about it, but maybe he could follow them once they came to the conclusion that no one was here. It seemed like an unlikely scenario to him, but anything was possible in this day and age.
At this point in his thought process, the coffee machine turned on, and this would signal to them that someone was probably behind the counter. Now, it would be an easy thing for Richard to sneak away from the counter, but that would leave Kiki alone with two idiotic people that might do some weird things to her. That was something that he wasn’t cool with, but there was an alternative that he could do that might work out in their favor.
“Here goes nothing,” he muttered. Richard jumped up, grabbed a chair off of a table and flung it towards the first person that he saw. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it might catch them off guard. “Thought I would be polite and offer you a seat!” He then proceeded to grab a second chair to keep up the barrage. Hopefully, Kiki would be smart enough to use the confusion to slip out of the place.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Oct 11, 2011 17:02:31 GMT -5
Just when Kiki was certain they were both going to be found out, Richard surprised her. He started yelling and gathering their attention. Loud clanging let her know Richard was throwing things. At first she wondered why he would do something so stupid, but quickly realized it was probably for her. And just moments ago she had been ready to throw him under the bus for her own freedom. Now she felt like dirt, but still wasn't about to pass up the opportunity Richard had provided her.
"You think you can take us you punk kid?" Kiki heard one of the guys say as she crawled from her hiding spot. She heard more clanging and figured someone threw something back at Richard. When she had crawled to the end of the counter and peeked around the end, her suspicions were confirmed.
From her viewpoint she saw two men with their backs toward her. Beyond them was Richard, using chairs as weapons. If she was quick, she could probably make a dash for the front door and escape before they noticed her.
Three. Two. One. GO! Just as she lunged up and out of her hiding spot, one of the men turned to grab a chair off of a table behind him and spotted her. Fast as lightning the man reached out and grabbed her and deftly spun her around into a one-armed bear hug. His other arm pulled out a pocket knife and pressed it to her throat. Kiki's eyes were wide with fear, but she couldn't manage to form any words.
The man who had her in his grip didn't have the same problem. "Drop the chairs or your girlfriend gets a face lift."
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Post by Richard Smith on Oct 12, 2011 16:42:31 GMT -5
Richard had thought that he was doing pretty well against two guys who seemed to be poachers or something. Of course, then they started to return fire on him, which was definitely not something that was easy to combat. He needed a new plan of action to keep himself from getting a concussion or something. He had a plan to run to the right side of the room and sort of run up-leap off the wall at the first guy that got within range, but it seemed that fate had a different plan for him and an even more dangerous one for Kiki.
He sidestepped to avoid an incoming chair that had already been thrown, while trying to weigh his options. There was a possibility that he could make it out of this room safely, but it would cost Kiki her life. There was no way that Richard would be able to live with costing someone his or her life in order to save his own. He would just feel like a slimy worm if he even tried to do such a thing, so he did the only thing that he could. Richard set down the chair on the ground and stared at the two men.
“Okay, I put the chair down. Now why don’t you let her go?” Richard knew that he wasn’t in any position to negotiate, but he hoped that an opportunity would present itself to keep. The other guy was the one that responded to the question that he posed, and the answer was something that Richard wasn’t going to like.
“We’ll consider letting her go if you come over here nice and quietly.” With no other choice, Richard reluctantly made his way over to the two men, and the unoccupied one quickly secured Richard’s hands behind his back. It looked as though they were prisoners for now, and Richard could not find any conceivable way of getting out of that title. Maybe Kiki would have better luck with that.
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Post by Kiki Sanderson on Oct 12, 2011 18:24:23 GMT -5
Kiki tried to shoot sorry looks toward Richard as he walked toward her captors. Tried and failed. With a knife pressed against her neck drawing a thin line of blood, Kiki was still too worried to muster a look anywhere close to sorry. She was just hoping Richard wouldn't try a sneak attack or something and make matters worse. Richard didn't make things worse for Kiki, but he sure made her feel worse. This was twice in the last five minutes that Richard tried to save her by putting himself at great risk. And this was twice in the last five minutes that it didn't do any good. They had been captured and it was all her fault. On the way here it was Kiki who claimed she would watch Richard's back, but it had been Richard who did all the watching. "Move it little lady," the guy with the knife said. He shoved her roughly to and out the front door of the coffee shop, careful not to loosen his grip. Parked on the street was the van that had driven by earlier. It said "Animal Control" on the back, but obviously that wasn't what it was being used for. At least that's what she thought until she heard barking. Her captor opened up the back doors to reveal the cage door behind. Inside was a black dog and another man, obviously captured too. Up at the front of the vehicle beyond the cage, Kiki spotted a woman holding a weapon aimed at the prisoners. "In you go," said the man with the knife.
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Post by Elijah Townsend on Oct 12, 2011 22:54:46 GMT -5
This was most definitely part of the plan I'm making up right now. --
Well, that was one way of finding out what was going on in Seattle. He hadn't even been here a day, and Elijah had already gotten into a bit of a spot. How in the world was he going to get himself out of this mess?
It started innocently enough. He had left his car parked somewhere, on some street in the middle of town, so he could walk around. Everything was in that car-- his suitcase, his computer, clothing, et cetera. There was also three-fourths of a cup of coffee in the front, one he had reluctantly gotten to try and keep his energy up, which was probably a bad idea since he naturally had energy. Right, oh yes. He left his car with all of his things in it so he could find something in this city, more specifically what was going on with this whole Yeerk and Animorph business. He wanted to get to the bottom of it.
He had a target plastered on his back and he didn't even realize it.
It didn't help that he didn't have any sort of idea what the layout of Seattle was like. He kept wandering around aimlessly, not exactly able to say "Oh I'm looking for the Animorphs or someone who knows what's going on. Mind helping me?" Elijah wasn't quite that audacious. Instead, he did ask a few people where he could find a map. " 'Scuse me, know where I can find a place that sells maps?" When people gave him a strange look, he explained by saying, "New to the city-- don't know my way around yet." Though, he wondered how that wasn't obvious.
When that resulted in nothing, he kept wandering. And wandering. For goodness' sake, this city was nothing like London, even though the weather was the same. "And you'd think they'd be a bit kinder here to a newcomer," he said to himself, "Didn't know the Americans were so rude. They were a lot nicer in Texas. Maybe because it's warm down there, since that would explain why no one in Boston was nice either..."
He stopped talking when he figured out someone was staring at him. How peculiar, though not surprising since he was a man with an English accent talking to himself; he had to look out of place at least a little bit. It was another gentleman, one perhaps a bit older than he was, and he was standing a few yards away. How did he not notice him before? "Need something?" he asked.
"Not from around here, are you?" he questioned, his tone a bit too smooth for Elijah's liking. Though, he answered jovially.
"Kind of obvious I suppose. I just moved here, looking around." The man wasn't truly listening to Elijah talk. After all, he was a Controller. Did he really need to listen to this man prattling on about nothing? He was certainly one without a Yeerk-- that was all too clear. And, it needed to be changed.
"Would you like some help then? I'm sure I could help you find your way around," the Controller told him. At that point, Elijah started figuring out what was going on. Why would this one offer to show him around when no one else did. It seemed out of the blue, sort of odd. Of course, he wanted something. Not only that, but there was a definitely possibility that he was dealing with another Controller here. How could he have forgotten that crucial fact? Though, that made things more interesting. This Controller wanted to take him somewhere, possibly where he could get some answers. At a risk, of course.
"Well, if you're offering," he replied. The Controller nodded to this, and gestured for him to follow. This was... a bit too easy. Was this man really that gullible? Some humans really were, he supposed. The man continued to talk. "Don't suppose you have a tea shop around here, do you? I could fancy some right now. All I've seen are coffee shops, and they never have my kind of tea when I go to those." This man talked a lot. He'd need to silence him quickly. A good Yeerk would do the job.
They reached the van in a few minutes time, and the Controller opened the back doors. Instantly, Elijah blanched. Well, that certainly didn't look comfortable. Oh, he was supposed to get into that, was he? "Not a fan of cabs, are you?" he asked somewhat rhetorically. A woman in the front was holding a weapon aimed at the only other prisoner, a dog. Why would they aim a weapon at a dog? That was a bit... strange. Before he could think about that too long, however, he was shoved behind the caged doors. The van doors were shut, and they were moving. The weapon was now aimed at him too.
"Not exactly what I had in mind," he muttered, looking to the dog, "Certainly couldn't have been what you had in mind either. Don't suppose you know where we're going, do you?" The dog wasn't likely to answer, but at least he had company in this cramped place. There was a positive aspect of this, though. He was this much closer to figuring out what was going on in Seattle, a lot closer.
The van stopped, and people got out of the van. Where were they now? He couldn't see outside right now, but he heard other voices. Oh, things were getting quite nasty out there. He couldn't hear everything being said, but he watched as the doors opened once again. This time, the Controllers had two people, a man and a woman. Were they all going to fit in here? Couldn't capture people in a more comfortable manner, could they?
He offered the two soon-to-be prisoners a smile. It was the least he could do, even though he wasn't exactly enjoying the situation either.
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Post by Richard Smith on Oct 14, 2011 20:16:15 GMT -5
Richard was so irritated with himself for leading Kiki into this mess, but he couldn't begin the pity party right now. He needed to figure out some way to save her from this mess. Of course, that was going to be difficult with them being held captive by armed men. There were many possible ways for them to escape which required the man to put away his knife. Richard was beginning to think that all hope was lost until he notice where they were being led to. Avan would present with many opportunities to catch their captors offs guard.
Unfortunately, this was when he noticed that the van held another person and a dog that looked like they had been inside of it for quite some time. His hope of escape was dwindling down to a small value. Richard started to begin praying in his mind for some higher power to give him some way of getting out of this safely. It was a something new for him, but itwas possible that it would work. He just needed to have a little faith and probably a ton of luck. "Don't worry, Kiki. We will get out of this somehow."
Looking at the other man and the dog, Richard wondered what there story was. Were they a part of some plan that their captors had cooked up or was there some unknown piece of information that they would learn about later? Either way they were just along for the ride now, and where their destination was could only be speculated as Richard didn't know if these guys were really Yeerks or not. Of course, it was a strict possibility that Richard didn't want.
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Post by Kyle Bennett on Oct 15, 2011 10:07:48 GMT -5
Kyle had more than expected to make this trip alone. Especially given the obvious factor of him being an Animorph, you would think the yeerks would want to get him back to wherever their pool was as soon as possible. Instead he found them stopping, and not just once but twice. On the first time, a man with what Kyle assumed was a British accent joined him in the back. It kind of saddened him that the guy was probably a foreigner and had ended up getting himself stuck in this situation. What a great way to welcome the guy to the country. Welcome to the U.S.A., here’s an alien slug for your head who will possess you and take your free will. Amusingly enough, the guy made a comment to Kyle, who was still in his black lab morph but was ticking down on time that he could stay in that form. He was almost tempted to respond, but kept his response to himself. Not what I wanted, but I know these sort enough to expect this to happen when they catch you off guard.
The second stop had another young man and a woman added into the back of the van. That time Kyle had started barking when the vehicle had stopped. Clearly the female controller aiming the gun at him was not happy with this. As the cage doors shut again and Kyle didn’t shut up, she shouted at him, “Shut up! Animorph or not I will shoot you if you try my patience any longer.” One of the other controllers glared at her. “You shoot him, and you’ll be the next one shot. He’s worth more than you are.”
Kyle sighed and lay down on the floor. He’d clearly understood that conversation far better than a normal animal would have. In fact, with the fact that the controllers had brought up the chance of him being an Animorph, it was probably safe to assume that the cat was out of the bag. His fellow captives might as well know. <In case anyone was wondering, yes, I am not just a normal dog. And if we don’t get to our destination soon, it’s going to get a lot more crowded in here.> It was basic logic. A six foot male took up a bit more space than a black lab did.
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