Elsewhere, a ragtag bunch of insurgents is trying to plan. Scott still officially has a job to do, although Dr. Deaton won't really care much if he doesn't. The dogs have plenty of people looking out for them. Still, he's going to do what he's paid for: restock the supplies, manage the books, and take care of the animals. At least that way he's returning the favor. They've given him plenty.

It's while Stiles and Callie are launching into another argument that a strange man appears between Scott and the cabinets. Scott clutches the gauze and shampoos tightly.

"Um, hi. I didn't see you come in. Or hear you come in."

If this stranger isn't another massively powerful god-alien, he probably shouldn't say anything about the wolf in the room. It's easier to miss than an elephant.

Ah - 

Why would someone just teleport him.

- His face isn't plastered anywhere since no one knows what he looks like except he guesses weird portal girl who honestly might've been after the Nine.

Which also means that he really can't give this guy much warning about the dangers of interacting with Nereus. There's a reason he has his friends usually handle all the day-to-day talk.

"Ah," he says, intelligently.

"Hi. I'm Scott. I'm guessing you knew that already. My friends are in the other room, so we should make this quick. We're not considering any other cryptic riddle offers, especially since the last one was fake."

"I'm not? Here? To make any? - I'm very confused." And trying not to be the mind-controlly kind of charming. "I got on the edges of a cape fight, I think one of the stray shots was a teleport - where is here, where's the nearest Protectorate office?" That's an American accent, so.

"See, this is even more cryptic than last time. What's a 'cape fight'? What's a 'Protectorate office'? We're busy figuring out how to limit the power of the Kandrona."

"- Like, people with superpowers - is this Earth Bet?"

Okay so 'banish to another dimension' is possibly a reasonable thing to do with him. Crap. Who's going to control the Nine - 

"We have comic books about superpowers."

If the Ellimist gave them somebody who believes superheroes are real-

"Do you need to sit down?"

They won't know what Masters are. And Nereus's power is incredibly hard to detect.

"No. I - shouldn't be here."

Shouldn't be talking to people, even though his power's weaker when he's trying to hold it back and it's been forever since he talked to someone he hadn't already enthralled or wasn't intentionally trying to heartbreak - 

"Let's start from the beginning, okay? You shouldn't go running off on your own, especially if you're an alien who got here by accident."

He's not going to ask about the language- he remembers that Andalites are supposed to have translators, but he doesn't know who else has them, or how they work. The alien looks human, though, so it still could be one of the Ellimists. He shouldn't rule anything out.

"- People who talk to me too long start liking me. Like, in a powered way. So I need to not talk to people."

"Does it work on animals?"

"Not on non-sapients, I haven't tried sapient non-human-animals."

"Is it just talking?"

" - That works best. Anything back and forth does it, range and indirectness weaken it."

Nod.

"I think I have a way around it. I'll be right back."

He steps out of the room, leaving the teleporting alien alone for a few minutes. He rejoins the others.

Although Stiles has already been through this category of insults, he's winding up for another swing. Callie is overly abstract, always thinking in terms of what the Andalites are up to, whether their perspective on Earth is this or that, what the Yeerk leadership is really aiming for- never focusing on the tactics they need to win a battle, or the strategy they need to win the war. So, naturally, he's delving deep into his bag of insults about people whose heads are in the clouds- it's a rich well.

He barely notices Scott come in.

Callie is ignoring the insults. Stiles likes to blow hot air, but his argument's meat always comes when he's done wasting his breath. They haven't even gotten to his third point when Scott arrives, so she decides to end it there.

"Scott, glad to see you. We should get back to business."

"Actually, something really weird happened and we should all talk about it before jumping to conclusions. So. Maybe everybody agree that they won't fly off the handle."

"What's up?" Jessica asks, frowning. She's the only one not currently arguing or in animal form, though she's been contemplating turning into a snake so she can hiss at Stiles and Callie.

Silver sits up from where they'd been lounging, cocking their head and perking their ears.

"Not agreeing to that. What."

"A confused alien who believes he's a superhero who can make people like him by talking appeared while I was stocking cabinets. He thinks it doesn't work on 'non-sapient animals' though, I asked."

"I'm not fucking around with mind control; don't give a shit if it seems unlikely."

"We don't know what this is. We could already be made, we need to be thinking exit strategies."

"I'm with Jessica. If this is true, we have a potential resource, but not one that we can keep nearby."

"He seems like he needs our help. He was afraid of using his power on us. I think one of us should try it out. Silver, do you mind coming with me?"

He knows better than to ask Callie or Jessica, and Stiles clearly isn't on board.

They get to their feet and pad over.

(They usually turn into a wolf to signify that they're not talking, so.)

"Are you alright with helping me test if his powers work on people in morph?"

Scott has already begun stripping down to his skintight uniform. His morph starts shortly after.

Nod.

They don't actually really care if they are mind controlled into liking someone.

Scott leads Silver to the back, where the superhero is hopefully still waiting.

<You, uh, guy with the superpowers? Scott again. Can you tell if this is different than talking?>

He's still waiting.

He squints at them. "I'd have to be trying to actively use it to get that much feedback - though..." He turns his focus to the Thinker side of his power, looking for... Okay not private stuff like childhood traumas, but - personality, notable traits... "The part that helps me figure out people is safe..."

To Silver: "You - you're not an orphan, but you left your birth family... Ah yeah gonna avoid that... You don't like talking consistently; you're currently a wolf because you don't feel like human-ing. You're probably autistic or similar but you've never gotten a diagnosis. You're protective of your friends. You're - some shade of genderqueer, I wanna say genderfluid? You're really out about gender stuff."

To Scott: "You're a bit tougher. You like group work, though, and people who're pro-social and get along well. You're frustrated, kind of in general, and your group's mostly not your ideal."

A pause, and: "Feels a bit off from what I get from human-shaped humans, I'm less certain than usual."

To the room: <That's good to know, thanks. What should we call you?>

To the others: <It still works when we're morphed. I know you don't want to take the risk, so maybe we should reschedule this meeting for some other time.>

Stiles throws up his hands, pacing.

"I still have a bad feeling about this."

She looks at Jessica.

"He's being upfront, but - 

"He has mind control. We don't know he's telling the truth about its range or effects or anything - We don't know if he already has Scott, or Silver, or the rest of us."

Back with Scott: "My real name is Nereus." Since his cape name is suspiciously villainous...

<Nice to meet you, Nereus. Is it cool if I ask you some questions?>

"Yeah, though - uh, just to make sure you're okay with the magic friendship thing if that happens?"

<Most of our friends aren't, so they're not coming in. Do you know how you got here?>

"Got hit with a portal gun thing, guess it worked interdimensionally."

<I'm sorry. You probably weren't expecting this. Do you think you'd be comfortable staying here for the night? I'll find a more permanent solution as soon as I can.>

"It's fine. And yeah. This is - a vet?"

<Yeah. I'll introduce you to the doctor tomorrow. Right now we should talk about the invasion. We could use some help.>

"Invasion? And, sure, I'll help."

<We just found out that there are mind-controlling aliens infesting people. They can act just life them, so no one around them catches on. They’re called Yeerks, and they’re trying to take over as much of space as they can.>

"- Does the government, like, know? - Though I'm guessing you guys don't have Master-Stranger protocols, so I guess mind control aliens might've gone for the top first..."

<We don’t know if they have the government, and we don’t know if they could win an open war. Right now we’re trying to figure out who’s infested and what to sabotage. All we have on our side is the power to morph.>

" - I'll want to talk to an alien before going full-blast on you guys' side, just in case there's like a refugee situation we're missing, but, uh, yeah I could test my power on aliens? I don't - object to using it to save lives, or on horrible villains."

<We only know what the Andalite told us before Visser Three ate him. If it's all true, they're definitely villains. How does your power work?>

"I don't know the - what it's doing to brains, I'm not, like, a power theory person. Passive - when I talk to people, and there's two way interaction, they get fond of me really fast. It also works a little if they're observing me. Active - basically I can push that? And us perceiving anything about each other can count as 'two way.' Doesn't really work indirectly, I can't put up flyers to get people to like me, or pass it on through other people. I also have a Thinker sub-power that tells me information about people, mostly about... How they relate to people, personality, likes, dislikes, childhood traumas, stuff they consider important about themselves..."

<So you could check to see if your targets are bad people before making them like you. If we can get you near a few Controllers, will that be enough to get started? Controllers is what we call people who are infested.>

"Well, like, malicious right this moment, 'good' and 'bad' - okay this isn't a philosophy time... And the thing requires interacting with people some, but usually I get that information faster than the passive mind control, so me having a chance to like chat up a Controller would work?"

<Okay.>

To the others: <He wants to meet some Controllers so that he can use his power on them. I don't think we should let him talk to anyone, but if we get him near Stiles' house, that should be enough. I know we were talking about getting you out of there, Stiles, but maybe now we won't need to.>

"We thinking about doing that - soonish?"

<Do you have to be talking to them, or do recordings work? The easiest thing might be getting you a Sharing recruitment pitch.>

"Recruitment pitch would kind of work if I was intending really hard to contact them, but being able to observe people works better. It's like magical cold reading, everything that helps getting a sense of someone helps me."

<So, does anyone want to bite the bullet on introducing the mind-controlling stranger to the Controllers that we know of?>

To Nereus, he says <I think I know someone you can talk to. How long should the conversation last?>

"A minute at least, which should be enough for me to at least get a sense, but might need, like, five or ten if they're being really reticent or if my power doesn't work well with their species. If it takes longer than ten minutes it's definitely not working."

To the others: <There's an easier way that we haven't talked about. I know it's a risk to let that information get out, but if he's telling the truth, he needs to know eventually.>

To Nereus: <I might need some time to put together something everyone can agree on. Is that okay?>

Callie sighs.

"The Chee are too big of an advantage. Scott is being reckless."

"I'm fine waiting a bit."

"It'd get tedious repeating how many times I don't trust him."

"The real question is whether we need Scott-handling protocols. We have to assume we're safe for now, and that anything we do could make us less safe."

"We might need to consider Scott compromised. That doesn't give us any leads about what to do next. We can make all kinds of assumptions about the limits of this power, but it might be too late. I say that we leave Scott with this person and find a new, safer meeting place. If we are safe, then we can plan around them."

"...As much as I hate to say this we should keep - some kind of coordination."

Sigh.

"Neither of us are risking contact. We can keep lines of communication open with Scott if need be, but I don't want to put this alien into a situation we can't salvage."

"Which alien? The Yeerk or the - superhero or whatever?"

"The superhero. The day when I give a Yeerk any consideration will be a long time coming."

<I'm guessing you need regular human food? If you have any allergies or preferences just let me know.>

"No allergies, human food, I like noodle dishes? But that's not really a strong preference. I'll eat just about anything."

Callie leaves.

Stiles follows momentarily.

Jessica leaves with the others.

Silver elects to stay.

Scott finds the office empty of his friends, and he's not going to risk public thought-speech.

He whines slightly to Silver, but of course he doesn't expect any commiseration. Wolves are different.

He demorphs soon enough.

"You can come out now. Everyone who wants to avoid you is gone."

He comes out. "Sorry about dropping all this on you - and upsetting your friends."

"No problem. You're probably going to save the world, so I can't complain about the method. I'll just make a quick food run before I go home."

He heads behind the desk out front and comes out with a sticky note pad. He scribbles something on one and hands it to Nereus.

It reads: New friend. Ask him about his powers.

"You can sleep in one of the exam rooms. Dr. Deaton will find this, and when I come in for work we'll hash out the rest. Do you like dogs?"

"Thanks. And dogs are fine."

"There's always a few in the back. Our town doesn't really have a separate shelter or anything, and the nearest one is too far for some people."

Scott makes a mental list of everything he's going to need (food, blankets, clothes...)

"I think we can get you a house to stay in, but you might have to rough it here for a few days. Is that okay?"

"Yeah. I've been in worse situations."

"Sorry to hear that."

He shouldn't pry. He should get the guy some food.

"I'll be back soon, promise."

And he leaves Nereus to himself.

Nereus nods, settles in, and sort of awkwardly not-stares at the wolf (who has their head on their paws and isn't attempting to communicate with him).

There's not a lot of options for a clinic with no fridge.

Scott returns with a pizza and a few junk food options for snacking.

"I wasn't sure what toppings you'd like. Hope cheese is okay."

"Cheese is great! And I like weird niche toppings, so, tend to default to cheese."

"Are they weirder where you're from? I don't really know what to expect when it comes to interdimensional stuff. It sounds like something out of a comic book."

The paper plates go onto the counter, as does the box. He opens it to reveal six slices remaining.

"I had to give some to my friend so she would cover for me."

"That's fine! And not really? There's, like, Tinker-made plants I guess, but I don't think any of them got cleared by whoever says what food's safe to eat. And we probably have weird international influence on stuff, actually, the Endbringers kind of damaged trade but also increased the flow of refugees?"

"I'd love to hear about tinker-made plants, although maybe not as much as Callie. What are 'the Endbringers'? Another kind of cape?"

Scott takes one, although after morphing he's always a little hungrier. Three should be enough.

Nereus doesn't have weird energy needs, so will limit himself to two. "Endbringers are - we don't even know. They might've been capes, once. Now they're - like Godzilla, I guess. Show up every few months to destroy a city or something. Sometimes whole islands."

"That's awful. Every few months? No wonder you guys need capes."

"Yeah. I - saw a thing once that our world's not got long left with civilization and all. And there's not just heroes, there's villains, too - warlords and criminals, pretty much, though there've been a few super-powered serial killers."

"I guess we're lucky. We weren't hand-picked or anything, but Stiles and Callie aren't the type to become warlords."

He's aware that's a bit of an overstatement, but he quashes the thought. They're fighting to save the world; his judgment of their characters isn't relevant.

"That's good. Most capes don't, just, it doesn't take many?"

"We don't have the Endbringers, but we do have the Yeerks. And unlike capes, we've just go the five of us. Maybe the Andalites will show up if we're lucky, but it's not looking good."

"Well, you've got me, now. And hopefully I can get Yeerks, or my allies will find me and be able to help."

With the mood soured by thoughts of the Yeerks, Scott decides to distract!

He wants to compare comic books, movies, and television; how different is it, really?

Distraction's good!

Identical up to when Scion showed, and then dramatically different. Superheroes saw a rise in popularity, then - the genre didn't really go away, but it experienced a kind of dramatic genre shift as it became more real. Like, escapism dropped the theme. There aren't even many similar ideas after about five to ten years after Scion's appearance - and the stuff between that gets more and more different over time.

(Nereus knows a lot about comic books! He probably would've been into even fictional superheroes as a kid. He liked the magic-focused comic books, and the older pre-Scion stuff, and the official Protectorate tie-ins.)

Scott proves less of an expert on comic books than one might hope for the guy who brought it up. He exhausts his Batman and Spiderman knowledge (mostly based on movies and cartoons) fairly quickly. He ends up asking questions more than sharing.

"Did they start doing superhero sitcoms? Mysteries? There must be a lot more you can do if superheroes are just in the background."

"Yeah. Not my field, but there's dramatic superhero and villain romances. There's a kind of popular romcom where the hero and villain are dating in their normal identities and don't know the other's cape identities."

"Does that happen in real life? I guess you probably wouldn't know."

He shrugs. "Nothing that's made the news, at least."

"Was there a big villain problem? I think most people with superpowers would probably just use them to help with the boring stuff."

"...Yeah. I don't - really know why. Some people had theories, from powers picking people who're fight-y to since powers show up when you're at your worst moment the superhero community being a bunch of traumatized assholes kind of thrown into a pot... Also some people blame politics, and how the law gets in the way of heroes way more than villains? And heroes not wanting to sign up for the police."

"I guess we're not very good superheroes, either. We've probably hurt more people than we've helped."

" - I think that's true of a lot of superheroes. Or that it's hard to tell, if you're hurting or helping when you're in the middle, and you're just scrambling trying to prevent someone else from hurting everyone worse..."

"I wish someone had picked who to give powers to. We were kind of just there."

"I don't think anyone's picking, for us, or if they are it's not someone friendly."

"Are there a lot of theories? Ours came from alien technology. We don't really know how it works, but it's not a mystery why us, just some coincidence and space battles."

"There was a guy who appeared first? When powers were first showing up. No one really knows if he's the cause of powers or just the first powered person, though he's also the most powerful when he's serious..."

"What, doesn't he talk about it? Does no one know where he came from?"

"He's only talked once, that anyone heard, to say his name - Scion."

"Wow. Uh, hey, have you ever heard of the Ellimist?"

"No? What's that?"

"He's some kind of alien god who stopped time while we were in the middle of almost dying to offer us life in an alien zoo. Apparently there's more of them, so I figured I should ask."

"He hasn't done stuff like that, I don't think..."

"If time ever stops, just be ready. He likes playing mind games."

Scott finishes up his dinner and sets up a sleeping bag for Nereus.

"I think this should be enough for one night, and then we can figure out what to do. Have a good night, Nereus."

"I'll keep that in mind. And, thanks. Good night."

Scott gets home well before his mom's shift ends. He spends the rest of his night working on homework and talking to Erica. He needs the check-in to feel normal. Today was a pleasant kind of weird, compared to most days. He can't stop thinking about what this could mean for them. They've been hoping the Andalites would come and help them fix this, but now they might not have to wait. They might be able to win.

And the next day, Dr. Deaton arrives to his clinic as though it's a normal day.

He's had enough warning to expect someone, so he does knock.

"Hey! Uh, feel free to come in?"

He does.

"Nereus. I hope you slept well. I doubt it was the most comfortable you've had."

"I've slept in worse places, so it's cool."

"I like to treat my guests better than the worst places they've been, but I suppose I can appreciate that. What has Scott told you?"

He busies himself with getting ready for the day's work.

He relays stuff!

"I see. How do you feel about intervening in a foreign war you know next to nothing about?"

"I mean, I want to do the right thing? And if this Earth's at all like mine, it doesn't deserve to be invaded."

"That's a noble sentiment. What worries me is that you are a very powerful player in a conflict where the invading force can control minds. Do you have any special advantage in avoiding infestation?"

"I can also control minds. I don't know yet if my power works on them too, but - if it does, anyone who tries to control me should suddenly realize they're my very best friend, actually."

"It sounds very useful, if properly aimed. How much time would it take to determine whether you can affect a Yeerk?"

"Uh, if I'm concentrating with humans I can get them fast, in like under a minute, if I don't already know stuff about them. I don't know for aliens, but I'd expect to notice within fifteen minutes one way or another on a test?"

"Thank you. I'll do my best to find you a test subject. As for immediate logistical concerns, I believe the plan is to put you up at Scott's house. Do you think you'll be needing an official identity here?"

"Probably eventually. Especially if I'm gonna be stuck here a while."

"We'll worry about the details as they come up. For now, you'll be a friend of Scott's. You can come up with the details of why you need a place to stay, but Scott has a single mother who won't ask too many questions if he wants to give a friend a home. The bigger concern is school. How old are you?"

"Twenty one. I don't think anyone will question me not being in college."

"No, I suppose they won't. What about your home? Do you have any idea if we're dealing with another planet, or something more complicated? Scott seemed to think you were from another Earth."

"Another dimension. My home knew of at least one more - there's parallel Earths, sometimes with different peoples and histories and all."

"Do you have any idea how you got here? I admit I don't know of any way to cross dimensions."

"I think somebody else's power, they were aiming in my general direction before I was dumped here."

"Well. In the meantime, we'll do our best making this a safe place to live. A friend of mine will be here to pick you up. He can show you around and help you get acclimated."

"Thanks."

"If you need anything for the next half hour, let me know. Otherwise, feel free to wait in the lobby."

He proceeds to prepare for the day ahead.

He hangs out in the lobby.

A man who looks around his age, or slightly older, walks into the clinic. He doesn't remove his sunglasses.

"You must be Nereus. Derek. How do you feel about motorcycles?"

"They're fine."

"So I hear you're visiting from pretty far away. What do you think so far?"

He leads Nereus outside to his motorcycle, and hands him a helmet.

He takes and puts on the helmet. "Lots going on, it seems, though it's mostly calmer than back home."

"The kids wouldn't want me to say it, but Earth has been pretty lucky so far. The Yeerks at least want to keep the planet and its people intact."

He starts the motorcycle just after saying this, which doesn't leave Nereus much of a chance to respond. They drive for about fifteen minutes through the town. It's an ordinary small town, not much different than one might expect to see anywhere in America. When they arrive, it's to a large house which might be reasonably called a mansion.

As soon as the motorcycle has been parked, a jack russell terrier comes barreling towards them.

Derek removes the sunglasses immediately, crouching down to pet the dog.

"Sorry to surprise you, buddy. I should have told you we were having a guest over."

Nereus climbs off the motorcycle and crouches down, holding his hand out for any sniffs the dog feels like taking.

The dog would like to sniff him curiously and then demonstrate her approval. Her approval is licks.

Derek leads them into the house. It looks well-maintained, although the numerous paintings of dogs might strike those with more refined tastes as tacky.

"I should have asked sooner if you were comfortable with dogs. We have five with us right now."

"I'm perfectly fine! Some don't really like me, but I don't take offense."

"They're good judges of character."

The terrier follows, apparently quite happy to have someone new in the house. If the paintings are tacky, the rest of the house is oddly bare. Derek has apparently taken minimalism to the extreme, with white walls, no seating, no clutter, and...

Several dogs, as well as the accoutrements any devoted dog owner would provide them.

"It depends on how you want to spend the day, but I'd like to get home before my wife does. Other than that, I'm all yours. Just tell me where to go."

"...Probably best to not have me interacting with people too much..." he says, though he sounds a bit sad about it. "Guess we could explore some of the area, maybe people-watch?"

"Alright. I think the idea should be to familiarize you with any big, obvious differences between your world and this one. I'll walk you around town and you can get used to how things work- probably just cultural norms, since you're a human from Earth with basically the same history. Any opinions on lunch?"

"I like noodle shops, for lunch. And yeah, that makes sense - I'm also Canadian, so there's probably some national differences."

So Derek gives him a tour of the town. Here's the school, which besides educating children also hides an entrance to the Yeerk pool. Here's the mall, which besides selling wares also hides an entrance to the Yeerk pool. Here's the McDonalds, which besides feeding customers also-

Until finally they arrive at a noodle shop.

"Globalization makes this a lot easier. I hate hot dogs, which was all we had besides jello salads. America owes me an apology for jello salads, but I'll take noodles."

"You guys are probably ahead of us on globalization - we have, uh, shipping problems."

"How bad is it? The summary I got amounts to 'supervillains exist'."

"There's monsters that show up and destroy a city every few months, a lot of countries have collapsed and are under supervillain rule, there's supervillain organizations that kill with impunity even in the United States... And Canada's only a little better run. I'm doing what I can to fix it - I managed to get one of the worst supervillain groups under my control so they're neutralized - but it's... Slightly a losing battle, in many ways."

"It sounds like they really need you back home. Are the governments trying anything to stop this, or are those gone?"

"Lots of places still have some kind of government. Sometimes that government's warlords, but - Canada got pretty lucky, there. The governments, and parahuman organizations like the Protectorate, are trying to reverse things, but they don't seem able to do much."

Noodles!

Derek pensively eats his noodles.

"These monsters, they're trying to destroy the world?"

"We don't know? If - I think if they were seriously trying, they could do it, and we wouldn't be able to stop them, but the world's gonna get close enough to destroyed within the next few decades anyways..."

"You should assume the powerful aliens are going to destroy the world. It gives you more freedom to act against them."

Noodles!

"The Yeerks don't just want to subjugate humans. They also plan to end most animal life on the planet because it annoys them."

"That sounds kind of stupid and self defeating!"

"Not self-defeating. Just pointlessly wasteful. Humans will survive on what they keep around until there's some kind of ecological collapse, and the Yeerks themselves just need the light of their sun, which they replicate with generators. There's a Kandrona generator somewhere in this city."

"Yeah. If they want human hosts specifically though - well, it sounds like the Yeerks maybe aren't good at long term planning."

"They might not be. I don't know much about their history, but the only other hosts we've seen are Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, and the latter cannibalize each other. They might not be used to human dietary needs."

"Yeah. And we've pretty much already established they're hostile aliens... Still, I'd like to get their perspective. At least to get into their heads, you know? Why they think they're doing this."

Nod. Noodles.

The conversation turns to current events. Here are the things most people will be talking about: sports, politics, celebrity gossip...

And then he starts telling Nereus about the Sharing. They're sort of a combination of the YMCA and the Scouts, near as he can tell, with some added cult flavor. It's a major recruitment method for Yeerks.

Yeah that sounds kind of creepy and shitty! There's supervillains that do recruitment like that. It's - annoyingly effective.

He might be able to do some kind of counter-meme thing, if he's careful? But it sounds like directly hitting the Yeerks might work out better.

Might be. He can't meet a Yeerk until they have one, though, unless he wants to just target some random people on the street.

When they're done with their noodles, Derek will tell Nereus horror stories from the classroom. Apparently, high school students turn in very disappointing but entertaining essays in history class. Also, teenagers are awful and they hate every minute of it! Here's some embarrassing teen drama with the serial numbers filed off.

He's very glad to be no longer a teenager! He can tell some similarly weird stories about the sorts of bizarre psychologies capes have, though usually this is from observing them or hearing the news and not participating.

Entertaining, if mildly concerning. Derek elects not to share the more private things students have confided in him (apparently, he's reasonably attractive and that makes them more likely to see him as a trustworthy repository of secrets).

They can pop over to buy Nereus some clothes. Derek can cover it for now, since Nereus doesn't have a legal identity and is probably going to save the planet, and Derek has more money than he knows what to do with.

Fortunately Nereus dresses pretty sensibly! Well, price-wise. He apparently loves bright colors, especially oranges.

He can have oranges! Derek is not capable of producing many clothing opinions but he will definitely pay for things.

And then they can go home. Is Nereus fine spending the next few days kind of just wasting time until they can get him a Yeerk?

He'll probably want to spend it getting caught up on world differences, but, yeah, seems reasonable. (And his thing doesn't work over the internet so maybe he can make real friends and have people to talk to, even if it's never enough - )

So the days pass. Derek spends his days at the local high school, where he works.

Derek's wife keeps him company. She tells Nereus when she meets him that she was fired from a three-letter government agency for getting too close to the Yeerks, partially as an attempt to explain the bulletin board papered with photographs, documents, and other assorted data points.

They have dinner together, which mostly consists of Derek gazing adoringly at Braeden while she eats.

Scott visits on the second day. Derek leaves him in the living room, where he waits for Nereus.

He's there.

"How are you settling in? Is Derek treating you alright?"

"I'm doing good, and he's been great."

"That's good to hear. Have you been catching up on what our dimension is like?"

"Yeah. Even understand some of the pop culture stuff."

"Yeah? Have you been watching anything good? I know Derek doesn't own a TV because he's still living in the last century, but I know Braeden has a laptop somewhere..."

"Apparently the Star Wars prequels also got made here! People joke about the prequels in both worlds we know about being terrible, but I like them - here had some really different elements though."

"I actually haven't seen Star Wars. Do the, um, first ones seem the same?"

"They're the same in Aleph and Bet? I didn't check them here - they're from before capes appeared, so I wouldn't have thought they'd have diverged."

"It's weird that there are this many Earths. Do they have the same people on them? You have all the same movies and celebrities and presidents, up until a certain point, right?"

"Yeah. Everyone born before Scion showing up is the same, at least with the super obvious public figures I checked here."

“Since you found us first, do you get to name this one? What are Alef and Bet? That sounds sort of like the Greek letters.”

"Yeah, they're I think the Greek version of A and B? I don't know what the third Greek letter is, though, but I figure people would want to keep the naming scheme... And I don't know who decides the names."

"I don't think anyone here could agree on a name. Maybe it was some scientist who did it. Scientists are terrible at naming things, and they wouldn't talk to all the world leaders first. Anyway, the reason I came here was to ask more about your powers. Some of the others are going to want to know more so they can plan with that in mind."

"Sure. Uh, do you have specific questions?"

"I guess we're mainly curious, uh, how many people can you influence at once, will they notice a change in how they're thinking even if they can't resist it, and if you've ever tested it on other species."

"I haven't tested my upper limit but it's at least ten. Most people notice? Especially if I'm going quickly. I think that varies, though, and - you can get used to Master effects, so the times I've grabbed someone who was being controlled by someone else they didn't notice. And it's not - action control? Someone can decide it's a horrible tragedy that they have to kill or stop me, their best friend, for the greater good." Although he can fuck with that given time and motivation. "I've tested it on modified humans but not other sapients, and I don't think it works on non-sapient animals."

"Do you think it would work if you were in morph?"

"I think so? People whose powers change their shape keep having those powers."

"Okay. Uh, I was also wondering whether you'd ever tried it on someone who had reasons not to treat you like a person."

"...Yeah. Changed their mind."

"Okay. The Yeerks just see humans as bodies for them to use. I don't want to ask too much of you, especially not when we haven't done anything for you, but we might need it."

He nods. "That's - reasonable."

“Sorry for all this. I’m sure you didn’t want to be stuck here, worrying about our problems. Hopefully in a few days, we can test your powers out and then we’ll be one step closer to understanding how to do this without hurting anyone. For now..”

Scott has brought his gaming system. Technically, it’s not his; he borrowed it from his friend, Erica, and she got a new one so she hasn’t asked for it back. They have a lot of plausibly deniable items she’s loaned him like that, mostly to appease her parents.

Scott doesn’t seem very competitive. Occasionally, he’ll relate something in the game to someone from church, or school, or the hospital. He seems to prefer listening to talking, though, and prefers both to actually thinking about who’s winning.

Nereus isn't competitive either! And frequently gets distracted from the game to chat, as well as apparently having some attention or coordination problems. He's fully capable of chattering about his home world - mostly in the forms of stories he's overheard or read about other capes, since he's been a bit of a shut-in until recently.

They’ll take turns losing and swapping stories, then.

Scott goes home.

Braeden is home a decent amount of the time. She must go somewhere when she leaves, but if she has a job, she keeps odd hours. She’s generally the one providing Nereus with food and regular updates- they have a lead on a Yeerk, the Animorphs are planning another mission soon.

It’s about six days in when Derek returns with a small fish tank. He’s home early from school; the only warning, a call from him to the house to expect him shortly.

He places the tank on the dinner table.

The grayish-green slug inside bumps up against the edge of the tank, feeling it out.

"Can they hear me?" Nereus asks Derek.

"No. They can sense vibrations, but they don't interpret those the way humans interpret sound. I'd like to try it anyway, before we have to resort to something unsavory."

"It works best if they can perceive me somehow, but I can try using touch there?"

"Let's start there. Just give Dr. Deaton a minute to get here. I wanted him to...keep an eye on things, in case we needed to subdue a host."

Dr. Deaton arrives shortly. He prepares to subdue a host.

Derek lifts the lid off the tank.

And Nereus reaches in, humming softly.

(His touch is clearly of someone kind, and soothing, and friendly, isn't it - he focuses on this, focuses on coming off as nice to the Yeerk...)

If the Yeerk is soothed, it's not immediately obvious, but it does move its various appendages. It also doesn't try to move away from his touch.

"This will probably take a while to be anywhere near obvious," he says, softly, continuing to move his hand, friendly friendly friendly, you like me don't you -

"I don't have anywhere more important to be. Should I give you something to do or does it take all of your attention?"

"I'm a bit faster if I'm focusing?"

Nod.

Derek will wait for a while, anyway.

As will Dr. Deaton.

And Nereus works -

Though he can't actually read Yeerk body language, and his power's not compensating (he's never been sure if his power actually can do reading body language), so he's not sure how well this is working.

The Yeerk does not attempt to cuddle, but it doesn't flee? Progress is still not clear just by looking at the Yeerk.

"Do we have any clever ideas to test this besides allowing the Yeerk to infest one of us?"

"Uh, sometimes I can get people to not react to like pain? But I'd be a lot less confident about that working in an alien, and a lot less confident about it working when I'm not getting good feedback - I'd expect this to be way easier being able to talk to them."

"Now, there's an idea."

"I thought we agreed not to involve the Animorphs too directly? They seem to want to stay far away from all of this."

"If morphing a Yeerk will allow us to prevent several convoluted plans which are much less likely to succeed, I think it's well worth talking to teenagers."

"You can't become a Yeerk, Nereus, but the Animorphs should be able to. Do you think watching two Yeerks interact would help your power work, or is it just you communicating that does it?"

"I'm unsure exactly how much my power helps me with reading people and also unsure how much it can change it's, like, dictionary of body language? If my power's able to change what it's doing I'd expect seeing interactions would help quicken that. And that'd just help feedback, not making my main Master power work quicker."

"Fine. We'll wait a little longer, just in case you can make more progress, and then I'll...let it in."

He nods.

He goes back to trying to befriend the Yeerk with hand motions.

Until eventually, it's time for Derek to be infested.

They won't gag him- the house is isolated enough, and Derek is just a regular human- but they will tie him to a chair. Deaton and Nereus will deal with him if the Yeerk somehow breaks free.

Dr. Deaton takes the Yeerk in his hands, and brings it up to Derek's ear...

...where it proceeds to burrow in.

Nereus is smiling and friendly and definitely not the bad guy here, and all that's directed at the Yeerk -

"Isn't this a nice surprise. Is this an elaborate rescue attempt? I'm flattered."

"It's a bit rude not to introduce yourself, don't you think? My name is Alan Deaton, but you already know that."

"I'm Nereus Uzun. Bit new around here."

"It would be really rude of me to say 'Derek King', wouldn't it? Nice to meet you properly, Nereus. Your previous method of communication was somewhat disorienting. This is much better."

"Nice to meet you! And this's better for me, too. Do you have something you prefer being called?"

"Pettar 867. So, I take it that you're intending to help fight off our invasion?"

"I want everyone to - have what they need to be happy, or content, or - in their preferred state, I guess. Yeerks and humans included."

"That's a shame. Everyone being happy might just be impossible, no matter how charming you are."

"Well, as many people as possible, then, until I get enough power I can make everyone happy."

"...charming. Do you want a defector?"

"I won't force anyone to make that kind of choice, but - I could definitely use the help, if you're offering."

"I don't see that I have much choice. You're going to take the empire apart just by smiling at it. Just promise me a better host than this one."

"I'm hoping to get in touch with my world - there's people who'll be able to make non-sapient hosts to spec - and also hoping to find people who'd consent to being hosts. People're who're helpful will get more consideration, though."

"I'm glad to hear it. Do you want help stealing empire technology, or do you think you can manage that?"

"I could use help, actually."

“Consider me a volunteer.”

“More importantly, we can consider you proof of concept.”

“I like ‘attaché’, can we fit that in somewhere?”

“We can discuss it later. For now, you might want to leave our friend.”

“I was just starting to feel at home. Must I?”

"He's my friend too, you know, and I promised him I wouldn't leave him under control."

"I wonder if they'll make you an honorary councilmember. I can't wait to see what you do next."

The Yeerk crawls out of his (other) friend's ear.

He rubs his ear slightly, watching as the Yeerk begins to swim around the small tank.

"Is that all for now? I think I'm going to want the rest of the night to myself."

"Yeah. Thanks a ton for the help."

"Alan, do you mind..."

"Of course. Nereus, are you alright with spending the night at my apartment?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Derek and the tank head upstairs.

Dr. Deaton and Nereus head to his apartment. There are a variety of plants throughout the place, as well as several photos of Alan with another man and a young boy, as well as some photos of him and a woman. There are also photos of him with various dogs. Other than that, the place looks neatly organized.

"There's a guest room. I don't keep much food in the fridge, but I can make a grocery run if you like, or we can go out for the duration of your stay."

"I like being around people? But I'm also perfectly happy living off of ramen, so, and - I usually try to minimize random people's exposure to me."

"If you can satisfy yourself with people-watching, I can't see any reason to keep you cooped up in here."

"It's - not the full interaction, but, yeah, it's - enough, usually. Thanks."

Whenever it’s time to eat, Deaton escorts him out. He usually brings him to the mall food court. He doesn’t sit with Nereus himself, taking the opportunity to get some exercise in. Waking around the mall takes just enough time for Nereus to finish up,

Scott continues to visit him, now at a Deaton’s apartment. Mostly, he avoids directly discussing anything to do with the war or aliens. He does ask Nereus how things are going with him, whether there’s anything he needs, and brings him comic books, video games, and other such forms of entertainment.

He's very grateful about the entertainment. He mostly just wants to help? Isn't otherwise high maintenance.

"There might be something you could help us with," he says one night, when they break from a marathon session of video games to have pizza.

"Yeah? Like what?"

"We recently got some intel about a facility where we think the Yeerks are building some kind of weapon to use in another invasion. We don't know much about the planet- it's called Leera, and the people there can read minds- but they sent someone pretty high up in the empire to lead it. Whatever they're doing, it's important."

"And breaking into facilities is the sort of thing my skills are good for." At least, when a world lacks proper Master-Stranger protocols.

"That's the idea. The plan is that everyone else is going to try some reconnaissance while you and I try to infiltrate. Do you think you should wear a mask or some kind of disguise?"

"Hiding my expressions makes my powers work more slowly - though I guess retalliation's a concern if they've got cameras?"

"I think they will. These places are higher tech than anything we have on Earth. How much slower?"

"Cuts off indirect working, and I can't use the befriending thing to make people actively trying to shoot me stumble."

"The real problem is if the cameras are transmitting anything live. Otherwise, you talking to Visser One would give us the edge we've been waiting for, and the rest of the Yeerks wouldn't know what hit 'em."

" - If they're live and I'm turning up the charm enough to get a headache I might be able to hit anyone on the other side, especially if they're listening to my voice and watching my face."

"You're pretty charming. Alright. I'll bring it up with the others. If it goes well, this might be the most important thing any of us have ever done."

And it's back to less serious matters, for now.

Later that night, Scott calls and declares an emergency meeting at the animal clinic. Anyone who can make it should, and anyone who can't sneak out will get an update in the morning. They need to move fast.

He's the first to arrive- in human form. His guess is that everyone else are probably birds waiting in the bushes for him to open the door.

Whatever Callie might be, he certainly won't see it. Hear it, maybe, but this is hardly an infiltration that requires serious stealth.

Silv is a small, native bird - common and brown and entirely unexceptional - indeed waiting for him.

Jessica had a harder time sneaking out.

But she's there.

<Right by his feet. I should only need an extra few seconds.>

Scott waits for the bird to perch on his shoulder and opens the door long enough to let all sorts of creeping and crawling things inside. When everyone has finished demorphing, he begins.

"Nereus needs to be part of this mission, but we need to make sure his face is only caught by any cameras that we know about. We have to at least consider involving the Chee."

"What, exactly, do you think they'll add to the operation? I for one could do without non-violence programming getting in my way."

"The Chee are valuable," Jessica says, dragging a hand down her face. "And if this Nereus can mind-whammy the mind-whammiers then it might not come down to violence - if he gets stuck in there, I'm not going in to rescue him, so why would us being restrained to non-violence matter?"

"I can't get them to test the limits of their programming under controlled conditions. I don't want to find out under fire that they're obligated to stop us from doing property damage. There are too many variables."

"Illusions are way better than morphing bugs for stealth, Callie. This is our easiest decision yet. Get the queen next to their king however we can."

"We have to plan for the things that we can plan for. If the Chee turn on us, we're not ready. We could be."

"Do they stop random people on the street from spray painting buildings?"

"No. The Chee have been around for thousands of years and haven't interfered with history at all."

"If they're complicit as opposed to bystanders- look, I can acknowledge when I'm outnumbered. If you're all so set on this, fine, go ahead."

"Then we're settled. We use Nereus and the Chee, don't get in the range of the magic friendship wave if we don't have to."

"We should probably talk about magic friendship guy and how some of us are real chummy with him."

"I think we did enough talking about this."

"You don't count, that's the only way this works."

"He's useful. We're not messing that up."

"I'm still of the opinion I'd rather a single magic friendship human than an empire of magic mind control aliens. Human'll die of old age, if nothing else."

"It's great if he's not messing with our brains and he doesn't want to take over the world. What do we do when he tries to do it?"

"We make a plan for quarantine and leave it in the hands of the Chee."

"Pretty sure I'm perfectly capable of murdering even someone I like if I know they're fucking with my head."

"What if we try to stop you."

"Did I stutter?"

"The Chee can help defend against any minions of his, as long as we don't tell them about that little detail.  Good enough for now. I'm more concerned about getting him inside. He won't be able to morph something aquatic and swim to the facility, which drastically limits our options."

"Yeerks would probably notice a boat."

"How good is Chee illusion tech? If we can cloak an entire ship, and we don't try and kill somebody, we can get him close enough to work his magic."

"They usually don't like to tell us how good their tech is, since they know exactly what we'll do if we know that. Maybe if Silv and I go, we can convince them."

"I'd be willing. Maybe present it as us wanting as many nonviolent options as possible, and their tech being the best way to help us do that."

He nods. Off to see the Chee.

The Chee who don't have to accommodate human sleep cycles are happy to speak to them.

"What can I help you with, Scott?"

"This faciility that Visser One is supposed to be visiting, it's underwater. All of us can get down there just fine, but Nereus can't. We were wondering if you would be able to help."

"We're hoping to send him in, have him talk to the Yeerks - especially Visser One - and get this resolved. Nereus - he's great for when you've got an opponent that just won't stop and you don't want to hurt them, but getting him in the range of the people who matter - who'd be our best shot for ending this peacefully - is something we're struggling with."

"It's a good idea to use him for something like this. We don't have any submarines lying around, though. The best we can do is mask a submarine's approach."

"If you're willing to help, I think we can manage the rest of it."

He's never stolen a submarine before, but they'll have to make it work.

Grand theft sub it is.

"Yeah. And, thanks. The help means a lot to us."

"I can't promise all of our available resources- not even those that we could muster in this city- but I can promise you enough of us to keep your ship undetected. Best of luck."

"Thank you, Dr. Deaton."

And with that, it's time to steal a sub...after school tomorrow. Not in the middle of the night with no plan of action or any clue where to find a sub.

"Let's tell the others in the morning. I don't want Stiles or Callie to try to push up the timetable. We need to be at our best."

"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.>

<Right. Peel off together, then.>

So they do.

Meanwhile, the sharks continue to curiously approach the sub. They start nosing up against it.

Out of the door comes a large, gelatinous centipede-like creature- familiar to most of them, besides Nereus, as a Taxxon. It swims towards the sub as well.

"Be careful with this one. Even if you've made this Taxxon's Yeerk as friendly towards you as possible, even Taxxon-controllers can't resist their hungry. Don't bleed in its vicinity; it'll go into a frenzy."