[Ax is absolutely one of the stubborn few who is attempting to find a way out of the tunnels as soon as possible. And he's got a sizable advantage over the rest, in that he can literally turn into a mole.
The downside is usually this kind of reconnaissance was done as a team. It is much more difficult to be successfully discreet when on your own, but Ax does his best. He slips off toward a section of tunnel that seems to be unpopulated, and clumsily strips and shoves his uniform into an alcove (just in case someone does happen by). And he morphs, and he digs.
If it had been any of his human teammates on their own, they wouldn't be able to attempt this. But thanks to Ax's own natural sense of direction and the passage of time, it is not difficult at all to return to his starting point two hours later, having discovered nothing of value.
This was the tricky part: moles are acutely sensitive to vibrations, but living most of their lives in the dark, have no need for good eyesight. And so, the best Ax can tell of his surroundings is that there is nothing moving nearby.
He will have to hope that is enough.
Returning to human--and he thinks he will never get over how surreal and wrong that is, to transition directly to human rather than his true Andalite form--only takes a few minutes, and is just as grotesque as always. Joints snap into place, fur shrivels away, and he becomes a shifting, amorphous mass of flesh and bone that slowly shapes itself into something recognizable as humanoid.
Regrettably, his eyesight is the last thing to transition. And fuck his life, someone is there.]
wartime archaeology
[Ax is absolutely one of the stubborn few who is attempting to find a way out of the tunnels as soon as possible. And he's got a sizable advantage over the rest, in that he can literally turn into a mole.
The downside is usually this kind of reconnaissance was done as a team. It is much more difficult to be successfully discreet when on your own, but Ax does his best. He slips off toward a section of tunnel that seems to be unpopulated, and clumsily strips and shoves his uniform into an alcove (just in case someone does happen by). And he morphs, and he digs.
If it had been any of his human teammates on their own, they wouldn't be able to attempt this. But thanks to Ax's own natural sense of direction and the passage of time, it is not difficult at all to return to his starting point two hours later, having discovered nothing of value.
This was the tricky part: moles are acutely sensitive to vibrations, but living most of their lives in the dark, have no need for good eyesight. And so, the best Ax can tell of his surroundings is that there is nothing moving nearby.
He will have to hope that is enough.
Returning to human--and he thinks he will never get over how surreal and wrong that is, to transition directly to human rather than his true Andalite form--only takes a few minutes, and is just as grotesque as always. Joints snap into place, fur shrivels away, and he becomes a shifting, amorphous mass of flesh and bone that slowly shapes itself into something recognizable as humanoid.
Regrettably, his eyesight is the last thing to transition. And fuck his life, someone is there.]