Unearthly Children

[cityship]

||Pod Release Protocols Initating.||

Again. But this was a separate release. And now there were people to announce pod releases to.

Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

Comments

[mynameisax.livejournal.com]

Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill stumbled when he was ejected from his pod, but somehow managed to stay up on his hooves. He wiped the slime from his stalk-eyes as he flicked it off of his tailblade, then wiped his main eyes as he looked around for the threat.

Because there was a threat. He was disoriented, he didn't know how long he'd been unconscious. That never happened. Andalites always knew what time it was and how long they'd been unconscious. Their internal clocks were highly accurate.

This wasn't Earth, he knew that much. This was a space ship. He couldn't feel the planet's rotation, and there weren't any directions. No north or east or west or south.

He peered around in the dim lighting, using his tail to scrape as much of the slime out of his fur as possible. This couldn't be a Yeerk ship. If he'd been captured by the Yeerks, they'd have killed him. Or they'd have held him down while one of them forced their sluglike body into his ear, turning him into a second abomination.

Where were the others? Where was he?

[nothlitprince.livejournal.com]

Tobias tumbled out of the pod with an indignant cry; his instinct was to fly, but his wings were laden with...with he wasn't sure he wanted to know just yet.

Oh, man, this was gross. At least there wasn't any in his eyes - he could see the room clearly, which didn't actually help much. It looked like nothing he'd even seen.

As he began to preen, he focused on his friends, on calling out to them and only them. If they were close enough...

<Guys?>

[mynameisax.livejournal.com]

< Tobias? >

Ax stepped gingerly through the slime towards the familiar -- if messy -- bundle of feathers. He was unreasonably relieved to see Tobias here, even if it meant that both of them were captured. At least he wasn't alone here.

[nothlitprince.livejournal.com]

He couldn't smile, of course, but a wave of relief hit him that was clear in his words.

<Ax!>

He trudged forward, a bit, before giving up and going back to cleaning - for once, he was incredibly grateful for the lack of proper taste buds.

<Any idea what this place is?>

[mynameisax.livejournal.com]

< I don't think it's the Yeerks, > Ax said, keeping his thought-speak strictly to Tobias, just to be on the safe side. < But I do not know who else it might be either. This doesn't look like any space ship I've ever even heard of. >

He moved to stand by his friend, looking around for any sign of an attack. Tobias obviously couldn't fly, so if they were attacked, Ax would have to either be able to defend him or to scoop him up and run.

[nothlitprince.livejournal.com]

<Well, that's something, I guess.>

He felt much safer, with Ax near; it was a welcome reassurance.

<Do you know how long we were in those things?>

[mynameisax.livejournal.com]

Ax shifted uncomfortably.

< Unfortunately, no, > he admitted reluctantly. < And we are no longer on Earth, either. >

His stalk eyes continued to scan their surroundings, looking for some sort of threat. This time though, he heard something (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/2233.html?thread=215225#t215225) before he saw anything.

< We're not alone, > he warned, and scooped Tobias up in his arms before moving to hide so they could see what it was they shared these caverns with without being seen themselves.

[cityship]

Ax must have put a hoof wrong because the floor suddenly exploded into tentacles. Several of them wrapped around Tobias, smoothly removing him from Ax's weak grip and pressing him back into his pod. It sealed itself behind him and refilled with goo, instantly returning him to Pod-Sleep.

He wasn't supposed to be awake yet.

The other tentacles pulled Ax beneath the floor, just in time for Jaime and Paco to appear and see nothing of Jaime's mysterious blue thing. Beneath their bare and armored feet however, the Andalite was injected with the strong sedative found in the pod-goo, causing him to immediately go limp, terminating and undoing his attempt to morph and escape.

As the demorph completed, another tentacle sank the needle of a different syringe into the base of Ax's skull, injecting the faintly purple liquid into his brain.

||You woke up alone.|| Stacy informed him. ||Your friend was not with you.||

Moments later, Ax had been returned to the spot where he'd been taken. The very last tentacle jabbed him in the hindquarters with the counter-agent to the sedative.

[mynameisax.livejournal.com]

Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill's eyes snapped open, without spying the tentacle with its emptied needle. He remembered nothing since he had woken up, even glossing over the gap in time from then until now.

He still felt the disoriented over simply not knowing how long he'd been unconscious. He still knew he was on some spaceship, the likes of which he had never seen or heard about before.

This time, he knew he was alone.

He closed his main eyes and allowed a moment to feel sorry for himself before he started to morph.

Less than a minute later, after a series of snap, crackles, pops, and a variety of other, more squishy noises, the Andalite was gone and a wolf spider trundled off into the Pod Caverns. Hopefully small enough to avoid detection, but with sharp enough senses to allow him to figure out just what was going on here.