"Yeah, definitely. Jessica's worth telling, though, she'll keep a secret, and she's good at research."

"We can use all the help we can get."

For now, though, he's going to go home and sleep and wish things could be a little bit easier. Maybe they will be, soon.

A few days later, Silv, Scott, and Jessica have successfully acquired a submarine.

"The others really don't need to know about what happened," Silv says afterwards. "Really."

"I am very fine with mystery submarine."

“Callie does not need to hear enough to judge us for how we got in. They’ll be more impressed if we don’t explain it.”

Which brings them to the next group meeting.

Nereus is invited to this one. Dr. Deaton escorts him to his office.

"Something up?"

"They have a mission they could use your help on. I know some of the details- there's an underwater facility they need to infiltrate in order to get to Visser One, a major Yeerk leader. They'll tell you the rest."

"Alright. Thanks."

The rest of them are waiting patiently in the animal clinic. So patiently. Very patient. Yup.

"Finally. Can we drop all the mystery and intrigue, you guys are awful at it."

"Nereus."

"Right. So, we stole a submarine. We're ready to go if you are."

"I am."

Then they can go. The facility is off the coast of an island. The five of them in morph- flying, first, but moving to the water when they run out the clock. Nereus, following closely behind, in the submarine. Dr. Deaton, along for the ride in order to cloak it.

Callie and Stiles are the usual amount of quiet which means they're thought-speaking privately.

Nereus -

Focuses.

Decides the image he wants to blast whoever interacts with him with once he's at the facility.

This is going to give him a headache, but...

They have to demorph once. They surface, completely exposed, taking turns being human. But then they approach the facility. They're close enough that the Controllers should have already seen them.

And they are going to be such friends, aren't they -

(He ideally needs clear line of sight or effect, but...)

The dolphins work on how to get in. If there's the right sort of initial chamber (if this facility is designed to accommodate human and Hork-Bajir), then they can get Nereus inside. Otherwise, they'll need to draw someone out.

Besides the five dolphins, the submarine, and the underwater facility, there is plenty of life in the sea. Notably, there's a few sharks heading their way.

Sharks are a threat. Her pod needs to get into a better formation; the way they are now, any one of them could be a target. She starts maneuvering. If she nudges Stiles here, then he'll be safe. Silv, that way...she doesn't push Jessica. Jessica is not a team player. Scott, here...

Being pushed is fun! Callie wants him to move somewhere, sure, that's cool, what Callie wants Callie gets. Everyone's all around him and they're all pod so he doesn't have to worry and they should be jumping, he wants to soar through the air and back into the water and dance and play and there are sharks, why are there sharks, he hates sharks as much as he hates his mother who's an evil alien now what kind of cut-rate chosen one is he but maybe they'll want to play if they're not evil monsters like everyone else.

Silv lets themselves be nudged. The dolphin shape feels as weirdly hairless as human shapes, but the instincts jive weirdly with them - they'll need to work together to keep the sharks at bay...

She fucking hates everything and sharks especially. She kind of wishes she was a shark right now, the dolphin's brainspace is annoying.

She starts moving into a defensive formation with the others, agitated.

The sharks approach. They move a bit oddly, though. Their dolphin minds can't quite make sense of it; they're not acting like predators at all. They seem curious, or confused.

A door on the side of the base begins to open.

Callie doesn't actually have a plan for this specific scenario, but getting Controllers to come out here is still their best bet. Time to move away from the door; now, they're just backup.

She still doesn't trust these sharks, though, and so she doesn't break formation.

<We need to move out of the way. If Controllers see us, they might shoot first no matter how they feel about Nereus.>