<And I can thought-speak now,> he (or she) says cheerfully.

"...Ooh. Me and Andi did not come across that particular feature morphing each other, although we can do it when we're butterflies - how do you do it?"

"I - just do?" he says, in Trouble's accent from Robin's mouth. "It's not any different than doing it as an Andalite."

"Huh." Bella turns into Andi -

"Tes"<ting?>

<You got it!>

<Wow, we might have to spend a lot of time morphed as each other just to get this advantage.>

She morphs back. She writes.

"Mm, pass," he says.

And shows no sign of injury to that arm. He checks.

"It could be different, injuries to morphs versus injuries to baseline shapes," Bella says, "is there some reason we can't do that experiment?"

"We can if you wanna hold the hammer," says Trouble. "Ethan doesn't feel like fucking up his best friend even when she's actually me."

"I'll think about it. You were faster demoprhing than morphing, any idea why?"

"'Cause I wasn't trying to figure out when the pain stopped, I think."

"Okay, can we repeat that or something effectively similar without the confounding factor in case the injury all by itself is affecting your speed?"

"Sure," he says, holding his other arm out to Ethan.

Who cheerfully breaks it.

This time the morph is much faster. A little slower than coming back from Robin the first time, maybe, but not as obviously so.

Bella times it and writes down the times.

"Incrementally nastier. Don't overdo it, and I don't think we should experiment with anything that could cause brain damage."

He shrugs. "All right, so don't hit me in the head."

Ethan playfully taps the handle of the hammer against Trouble's forehead.