Marin: Now we need an animal. A docile one, preferably. And small. And alive, of course. *She looks at Aidan*

Aidan: I can find one. *He sniffs the air* I'll be right back. *He turns and vanishes into the forest. After a few minutes, he returns holding a small weasel-like creature wriggling in his hand*

Aidan: What about this?

Marin: Hm. Hopefully we can find some more interesting creatures while we're here. But that should do for now. This is only a demonstration.

*She takes the weasel and closes her eyes. The weasel goes slightly limp. After a moment she hands the creature to Aidan*

Marin: One moment.

*She begins to shrink and grow fur. Her bones crack as they shift around and change. Within half a minute she is an exact copy of the weasel, sitting on the ground*

Marin: <Good, it's of a tame mind. Now for you, Aidan - close your eyes and concentrate on the image of the weasel. You'll probably feel tingling. It takes only a few seconds, and you'll sense when you're done. You're acquiring the creature's DNA, it's essence. You have to do this to be able to morph anything.>

*Aidan does what she instructs*

Marin: <Now give Heimdall the weasel. Heimdall, do the same.>

*Heimdall follows the instructions and after the tingling subsides, he puts the animal done*

Heimdall: I'm guessing we then picture the creature in our mind to change into it. What are the restrictions?

Marin: There are restrictions, yes. I may have mentioned before that if you stay in another creature's body for much longer than about two hours, you won't be able to return to your original body. You must be careful about cutting it close, too. I did that once, and demorphing was like wading through quicksand.

*She looks down at the creature. After a few seconds it picks itself up, shakes itself off, and then as if with a sudden awareness of the three predators surrounding it, darts off into the forest*

Marin: When you acquire something, it goes into a trance for a few seconds. *She pauses and looks around* I think that's all you need to know. Aidan - you morph first. Heimdall, don't do anything yet. I don't want to have to capture both of you by myself if you decide you want to be weasels.

Aidan: Well, what should I do?

Marin: As Heimdall said, picture the creature in your mind. You need to concentrate on it, to want to change into it.

Aidan: I'm not sure this is necessary. What is the point of becoming a weasel? Aren't there more interesting things we could be doing, or becoming?

Marin: That will come later. You need to understand how this works first. A small mind like this creature's can be more easily controlled.

Aidan: Fine. Give me a moment, then.

*Aidan backs up a little and shuts his eyes. He forms a mental picture of the weasel. Though it took some effort to want to become such a ridiculous creature as a weasel in his newly superior state, he manages to accept the idea. He concentrates on the image of the weasel in his head.

But nothing happens.

He opens his eyes*

Aidan: Marin, I believe you're wrong. I feel nothing. Perhaps if we found a superior creature... *He shrugs. His hand itched. He scratched it*

Marin: Look at your hands, Aidan.

*Aidan looks. His eyes widen. His hands are covered in short brown fur. He jumps backwards, startled*

Marin: Now you've stopped the morph. You have to keep concentrating.

Aidan: *uncomfortably* Fine, fine. *He closes his eyes again. After a moment the fur starts growing again. He could feel his bones beginning to shift around, and he felt queasy. He couldn't turn back now, though, he thought. He kept concentrating on the animal image. He could feel his vital organs rearranging, and his tail shrinking. His knees reverse and he falls forward. He opens as his hands hit the floor and sees that they've become paws. He looked like a strange, twisted combination of gargoyle and weasel.

Then his wings shrank to nothing, his claws turned stubby, and his arms became forelegs. His face elongated and became a snout, and his eyes shifted perspective.

He no longer felt awkward. He still felt superior, but he was a superior weasel. Probably the king of all weasels, in fact. He could smell small woodland creatures lurking about in the grass, and delighted to know they were all his prey.

He drew in his breath. Even though he had always been able to track things with his nose, he had never been prepared for this. All kinds of scents twisted through the air, inviting him to follow them. There was one particular scent...

Intruder! There was an intruder nearby! Another weasel! In his hunting territory! He had to chase it off!

Marin catches his tail as he darted off into the bushes*

Marin: Oh no you don't.

Aidan: <But...but...>

Marin: Get a grip on yourself, Aidan. The weasel's mind is there, and it's a part of yours now. But you can control it. And you will.

*Aidan wriggles and tries to tuck his head between his legs, as the original weasel had done*

Marin: Aidan, stop it. *She slaps his nose. After a moment or so he calms down* Can I put you down now?

*Aidan is silent for a few moments. He feels embarrased*

Focus, Aidan. Focus. You are superior.

*He manages to calm the weasel part of his mind*

Aidan: <Yes. I'm alright. You can put me down now.>

Marin: Alright. *She puts him down, and he begins to demorph. Marin looks at Heimdall* I think you're wearing a bit much to morph with. *She thinks a moment* Can you dissolve some of your armor like you dissolved Irvines, and perhaps reconstitute it later?

[I dunno. Elella's got lost herself]

Elella: Heimdall? Svafa? Misae? Hal? Anybody?

-------------------------------------------

*Orthos puts his hand on Gortick's shoulder.*

Orthos: You have a brother now. I can't make up for what Syrnl did but...

Gortick: Hold on. Did he mean this?

*Gortick holds his arms out. The earth shakes and several light objects spin around him. Orthos looks at him in shock, and realises something*

Orthos: Do you remember father?

Gortick: No?

Orthos: How about mother? Do you remember her?

Gortick: I...remember her smiling at me. I remember her living with me, here. She said dad wasn't... I don't know. She died when I was young...

Orthos: He told me that I shot her down!

Gortick: Come with me. Then I'll tell you everything I can...

*Gortick sets off. Orthos turns to the rest, and then follows*

Pub

Raschel: Deac, I wouldn't trust him...besides, what about the others?

*Sirens wail in the distance*

*RH Irvine kneels in the street, hurting but more emotionaly, regreting the thought of what he said about the innocents.

WH Irvine walks out and puts his hand on his shoulder*

WH Irvine "You did what you had to do, it's him who's the guilty one."

RH Irvine "Yes, and it's not only going to be him that'll have to deal with his or herself after all of this."

WH Irvine "Deal with what."

RH Irvine "Our sanity. If we keep going through things like this would or wouldn't we be able to continue if things like this keep testing our morale and for mere capablity to deal when someone just snaps under so much pressure. Going agenst comrades or enemies in so much numbers and so much power that we can not combat..."

WH Irvine *stopping RH Irvine* "Look you're right about having a 'hunch' about this if anything it coudl ahve been your or me doing this, and who knows the implecations that would ahve happened. We need to find out how to stop all this."

RH Irvine "I know Cracern, I know."

Forest

Heimdall: You would be surprised at what happened to their armor, but that can be explained later. My armor, Svafa's and Idun's al have a special ablility. Notice this ring on my hand.

*Lifting his hand, Heimdall utters a spell. The armor becomes molten and moves along Heimdall's arm into the ring. A couple of minutes passed and the armor is completly absorbed by the ring. Heimdall now stands wearing only his arming jacket and pants.*

Heimdall: There, now to do this morphing.

*Heimdall concentrates and begins to morph into the weazle*
-----------------------------

mines

Svafa *hearing Elella's calls*: Sounds like Orthos's cousin isn't dea after all. Let's go find her.

-------------------------------
Asgardreid

*The girl finally regained consciouness and looked with wonder at her new surrondings. Idun opened the door after checking on the mysterious anomly.*

Idun: Good morning child. Who are you?

[You mean Orthos,right?]

Orthos: I..have to know. I have to find out what has happened here. It may even help.

Forest

*Heimdall completes the morph, and immediatly becomes dissatified with the new body. Both his sight and hearing became impared and after a few minutes he returns to his normal shape*

Mines

*Svafa in looking for Elella finds that during the cave ins another passage to the surface had opened up. Climbing out of the mines Svafa comes to the surface and see the signs of a recent battle between Heimdall and Irvine.

Asgardreid

Girl: I'm Gerd. Who are you?

Idun: You may call me Idun. Do you know what you are?

*Gerd looks down and sadness permates her voice*

Gerd: I'm a freak, a monster who shouldn't be alive.

*Idun embracing Gerd*

Idun: No, no honey. Your not a monster or a freak. You are very special, a gem born among ugly rocks.

Gerd: Your not going to hurt me?

Idun: No, you won't be hurt, you are safe here.

Forest

Aidan: Now can we find more interesting creatures to become?

Marin: Of course. But hurry up about it. Pity this settlement probably doesn't have a zoo...

*She begins to morph again, much more quickly than he and Heimdall, Aidan notices*

Aidan: Why is it that we change more slowly than you?

Marin: I've been doing it longer than you. I also have a 'talent' for it, I've been told.

*Aidan frowns, but accepts that and begins sniffing the wind currents for the scents of other creatures*

Mines

*Misae's lightsaber blade dislodges some rocks. A wall of rubble tumbles, and the group sees Ellela ahead*

*Gortick shows Orthos to a hill*

Gortick: I buried her here. The villagers...came one day. Wanted her to leave, but we had nowhere to go. They put me in the mine, to hide me, so I'd never know...what I was...

Orthos: Do you?
*He looks at the Tombstone, marked "Lady Darkstar"*

I always wondered what compelled her to him...who she was...but I suspect he married again. And the woman I called mother was not. Maybe...I'm force blind because somehow it all went to you.

*The Irvines come up behind the two 'brothers', with RH Irvine with a slight limp minorly caused by falling dribis hitting him, and not bothering to deal with the slight injury.*

RH Irvine "Orthos, I was right, Heimdall, Aidan and Marin are all under a spell of some sort. It's like they know who they are who everyone is, but their 'intentions' are pure hostile to everyone around them. And I wouldn't doubt to themselves if we can get them back to normal..."

WH Irvine "Yes, Heimdall slaughtered alot of innocent people, claiming it was on Irvy's hands."

WH Irvine *Bringing head down slightly in disappointment.* "There was nothing I could have done, Sure I could have gone between the shots, or attempted to move the innocents away at the last moment. But then I'd be backing myself into a corner."

Elella: Thank the force! What's happening down here?

-----------------------------------

Orthos: What are we going to do?

*Gortick puts a hand on his shoulder*

Gortick: I don't know what you're doing or why you're here...but let me help...brother.

*Matt looked up from where he was sitting near RH Irvine.*
Matt: A spell? That'd explain it, many people have been acting crazy lately.

Tombstone

Raschel: Huh? Could you run that by me again? What's a "spell"? What's happened to Heimdall and the others?

----------

Mines

Guy: She's clean.

Misae: Something very bad, that's what.

Guy: Heimdall attacked us and left with Aidan and Marin, and the next key. The three seem to be under some supernatural influence altering their minds.

RH Irvine "I'm not sure, they were them, yet they weren't."

Elella: What are we going to do?

---------------------------------

Orthos: I'm not going to abandon you here. Let's go.

*Matt stood up, ready to follow Orthos.*

The Forest
*The trio after gaining some more entertaining forms now sit upon a hill overlooking the village. Heimdall just finished a spell, a glowing ball sat in the palm of his hands.*

Heimdall: Similar to my mortal enemies, this will create havoc and more unrest in that feeble town.

*with a light toss the ball goes flying into the air. It covers the distance between the hill and the town quickly propelled by a super natural force.

It flies over a residential part of the town while still in the air it burst. Spreading fire over the nearby buildings*

Heimdall: Now that they have more fun to deal with. Anymore ideas?
------------------------

Mines/Surface

*Svafa stands at the new entrance to the mines, looking down she can see Guy, Misea, and Elella (don't know where Hal is)*

Svafa: Hurry up, those mines may cave in any second and we need to begin the hunt.

*Svafa reaches up to touch her wound. The bleeding had stopped and dried blood covered around half of her face.*

Forest

Aidan: One thing concerns me. We can't count on our former companions staying around to let us come to them. They may give us up for lost and run off to find the Time Matrix on their own.

Marin: I wouldn't worry, Aidan. We have their key, remember?

Aidan: Still, we should think about transportation. Space transportation. I don't think we'll be able to steal the Asgardried or Guy's ship. Without either of those - in case we want to go out in space - we will be very vulnerable. Assuming we find a suitable craft here.

Marin: That's simple. We just need to turn Guy to our point of view next time we see him. Until then I'd like to have a bit of fun. *She casually begins morphing, sprouting feathers* I'm going to fly over the town to scope things out. Care to join me?

Mines

((OOS: Hal is still with the group, right?))

*Guy and Misae hurry out to join Svafa aboveground. A few guards are scattered around at the mine entrance, appearing fearful*

Misae: I don't like this...

Elella: Do you think they saw the others?

Forest

Heimdall: Sure, have nothing better to do at the moment.

*Heimdall morphs as well*
-----------------------------

Surface


Svafa: What's to like?

*She walks around where the battle took place. She pauses where Heimdall had stood, examining the area*

Forest

Aidan: I don't need to morph. I can already fly.

----------

Surface

Misae: I sense fear. Everywhere. I can only assume Heimdall and the two aliens are doing this. Something like this could only be the work of a powerful artifact of the Dark Side, but I don't sense anything like that.

Guy: The magic trail they've left says otherwise. It's dissipated too much to track it from the ground. Like water in a vast desert... However, if I get my ship we may be able to track them from the air.

Misae: What has changed them?

Guy: I assume this is part of our quest set in motion specifically to accomplish this. *He thinks* Weren't those three hanging back in the crystal cavern we passed through to get to the map room?

Misae: Yes...but so was Ellela...

Guy: No, she never entered that cavern. Those crystals all contain various types of magic. Maybe the crystals are the key here.

Misae: We've all touched the crystals, Guy. We aren't going psychotic, are we?

Elella: Could that be it?

-------------------------------

Orthos: Where now then, Raschel?

Surface

Svafa: Nobody will be entering the Asgardreid to get anything until this is over. Idun and the Ship will kill anyone who tries. Besides I can track Heimdall on my own. *A moment passes* They went that way.

*Svafa points in the general direction of the Forest*

Surface

Guy: Not to worry. I can call my ship out of yours if it becomes necessary.

----------

Tombstone

Raschel: You're asking me? ...Well... *She looks at her comlink* I can call Idun, and have her pick us up, I suppose. *She dials on the comlink, then stops* Wait, what if she's 'changed' like the Heimdall and the other two?

Orthos: We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Any idea what they found down there?

Svafa: I wouldn't advise that. Besides I would bet good money that even if I lose their trail they will eventually come to us. We have things that they need.

((OOS: I'll assume Orthos is asking the Irvines, as Raschel would know exactly as much as Orthos does about all this, having not been out of his sight since the group landed :D))

*Hal comes out of the tunnel and stands beside Svafa.*

Hal: Sith Lords. This is worse than what my father told me about, during the war.

*Matt still tagged alongside the Irvines and Orthos*
Matt: You still haven't answered me, what are jedi doing here?

WH Irvine "In a nutshell, we're here on a on going quest to help save exsistence."

Originally posted by Deac
Orthos: We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Any idea what they found down there?

RH Irvine "I have no clue, i guess we'll have to see when we get there I suppose. But I think we should at least attempt to find and regroup with the others first. Maybe we could get Guy to bring Matt with his ship onto the Asgardreid. I'm sure Idun can look after him, and maybe we can treat anyone if they are injured. I wouldn't doubt that after what I attempted agenst Heimdall, that those three wouldn't of not done something to the others in order to get away from them."

((Waits for Red to make a post with Marin ect...))

Svafa: In my life I have seen worse. This in all likely hood is just a preview of what will come if we do not act right now.

Orthos: That sounds like a good plan. We should get back to the ship and regroup. I hope Elella's ok

Gortick: Elella?

Orthos: Our cousin.

Gortick: Is she one of the evil ones?

Orthos: Strangely, no.

Forest

*Over the town, three figures fly*

Marin: <It looks like they've mobilized whatever defensive forces their town has looking for us. How charming.*

*AT-STs and older hovercraft vehicles, by the looks of them old Imperial surplus, meander about below amongst firefighters and panicked citizens*

----------

Tombstone

Raschel: Fine, I'll call Idun...but who's your friend?

Forest

Heimdall: <Want to find something and drop it on them?>

RH Irvine "Oh yes, this is Matt. It might not have been the wisest decision to have been made, but I sense a presence in the force within him, with time he can be trained. And be quite useful in our endeavorer, in time of course."

"It'll be something that I'll personally will take the responciblity. But in anycase he'll have to stay on the Asgardreid, and whilist assisting Idun incase there are wounded, she can fill him in on the story."

Tombstone

Raschel: Okay...

*She picks up the comlink and calls Idun*

----------

Town

Aidan: Sure. *He forms a ball of lightning in his hand and throws it at a vehicle below. The ball hits and explodes, throwing energy everywhere. The vehicle, a robotic hovercraft, cracks into its component pieces and falls apart. The smaller components are melted, charred, or ripped off.

A group of militia wearing pieces of ill-fitting stormtrooper armor runs toward the area. They fire their blasters at Aidan, who flies higher to avoid their shots.

Marin flies down, a gigantic bird of prey, and rakes the exposed face of the nearest trooper*

Asgardreid

*Idun and Gerd had moved to the upper lounge where Gerd was busy eating when Idun's comlink beeped*

Idun: Yes?

--------------------------------------

Town

*Heimdall being a smaller bird flew down into a group of soldiers. Looking for something to have fun with. Flying around for a while he finally see one soldier with an exposed high explosive gernade. In the confusion caused by Marin and Aidan Heimdall manages to pull the pin.

Dropping the pin, Heimdall quickly flies towards saftey, ten seconds later the gernade detonates killing and wounding a handful of the militia.

Raschel: Something very bad has happened. Heimdall and the two children are under some sort of alien mind control. They're apparently psychopathically dangerous. We need you to pick us up - can you?

Orthos: Let's hope so....

Gortick: Maybe it was the thing in the mine...

Orthos: What?

Gortick: They found something down one of the tunnels. Had to seal it off, drove the other ones mad.

Asgardreid

Idun: Yes I'm aware of what it happening on the surface, and no I will not pick you up. For the duration of this crisis the Asgardreid is off limits to everyone. You will need to find alternate modes of transportation.

RH Irvine: "Ask Idun if she knows what happened to the others"

Raschel: If you're not going to help us, what are we supposed to do when they come trying to kill us? Do you even know what's happened to them?

Asgardreid
Idun: I would fight back if I were you, and before they do it might be wise to find Svafa. All I know is that they've been infected with something that has altered their minds. Whether it is permanent I do not know. I also don't know how it is transmitted, it could be an airborn agent which also could mean that you may be infected.

Raschel: I don't feel like killing everybody, so I really don't think so. If you want me to find Svafa, how do you know she isn't 'infected'?

*Blaster fire is heard in the distance, getting closer*

Idun: And I'm to take your word for that? You could easily be trying to decieve me. Svafa warned me about Heimdall and after observing some of what happened in the town I believe her. Now since then she could have also been infected. If she isn't then she is probably your best bet for survival. You take a risk either way you go.

RH Irvine *overhearing, and calmy speaking* "Ask Idun if it would be advisery to kill those infected in order to stop them, even in last resort."

Asgardreid

*the comm unit picked up Irvine's comment*

Idun: Do what you have to. I must tend to the girl, and I'll be watching what happens on the surface.

*Idun turns off the com and returns to Gerd*
-----------------------

Town

*Svafa pauses listening to the noises of the fighting*

Svafa: I'm going to bet that they are the cause of that commotion and that they might still be there.

*Svafa begins picking a path through the rubble towards the fighting*