the airplane

[instar]

Bella, Andi, and Robin all get on the plane. Bella and Robin have toothbrush caps in their pockets containing flies. Nothing in particular happens when they go through security. They fly for an hour, and then Bella, rather than risk crunch time due to turbulence or a line for the bathroom a little later on, gets up to take Trouble into privacy for demorphing and remorphing.

She takes the toothbrush cap out of her pocket and sets it on the tiny little counter, and then flattens herself against a wall to give him room.

Comments

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan demorphs too.

[hold_infinity]

<I'll take a look,> says Pigeon Robin.

[instar]

"Thanks," says Bella to Robin. "Okay. Dad, do you have a better idea than ours?"

[sundayfish]

He shakes his head slowly. "I didn't - think I was ever going to get rid of him, I don't have a plan. And we should hurry in case anyone at the Seattle pool notices I'm not showing up."

[instar]

"Okay. Back to the picnic stuff for the box, then you let Trouble acquire you, they try for their Oscars, we leave some of your stuff around - Andi has your bullets, you can reload the gun, maybe fire at a tree to make it plausible that you tried to hit the bear and missed, leave it on the ground. Then you turn into whatever's handy and little and me and Andi go act hysterical."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble leads the way toward the picnic stuff.

[instar]

Bella takes the box out of its layers of obfuscation and takes Charlie's hand and puts it on a side.

[sundayfish]

He twitches a little when it zaps him. "That's it? That's the big Andalite morphing tech?"

[instar]

"Yeah. User-friendly, huh?" She wraps it up again. "Shake hands with Trouble, you'll go kind of sedated - and then you're going to have to give him most of your clothes. If you were wondering why me and Andi are dressing like shrinkwrap is the new fashion it's because it's easier to incorporate snug outfits into a morph."

[sundayfish]

Charlie shakes his head, but extends his hand in Trouble's direction.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble takes his hand and concentrates.

[sundayfish]

Charlie's eyelids droop and his posture slumps when he's acquired, and then he comes around. He sighs and starts handing over clothes. "You go behind a tree or something when you morph," he tells Trouble, "all right? And - I did that 'cause Bella has a plan, not necessarily okay with being turned into for... plan-unrelated things."

[instar]

"Bug-hunting time," Bella announces, and she starts looking for bugs.

[pandion]

So does Andi.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble snorts. "I'll be just as happy to never turn into you again," he says, accepting the clothes.

[sundayfish]

Eventually Charlie is standing in his underwear, looking for bugs with his daughters, muttering under his breath. "What's the plan for dealing with Esclan?" he asks.

[instar]

"Is that your Yeerk? We can bury it. You might want to acquire it first - the rest of us have a different one, we don't know when it'll come in handy but it's the sort of thing with better odds of doing so than, like, earthworms."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble goes behind a tree to put Charlie's clothes on and then morph him.

[sundayfish]

Charlie hikes back to where his Yeerk slipped out, manages to acquire it, and then gets a stick and digs a hole to dump it in and cover with leaves. Then it's back to bug-hunting.

[pandion]

Andi finds a tiny, unremarkable black beetle, which she presents to Charlie.

[sundayfish]

He acquires that too. "How many of these can I do?" he asks as he loads his gun up again.

[instar]

"At least eight, apparently. Trouble has the most and this is his eighth. We don't know, Elfangor didn't say - which suggests it's not a tiny limit, but we're trying to be conservative."

[aeskhyne]

Trouble wanders out from behind his tree and makes a face. "Being you is weird," he says to Charlie. And to Bella, "Can Ethan maul me already?"

[instar]

"Yeah. Have fun. Dad, don't shoot a tree until we're ready for rangers to come running."

[palmofyourhand]

Ethan grins, ruffles Trouble-Charlie's hair, and morphs the grizzly bear again.

Mauling time!