Once the two agents had returned to their headquarters, Yrac Cimoc came out of hiding. He had disguised himself as a fulgurite outcrop just before the cabin imploded.* But, now that he no longer needed to hide in plain sight, he changed into a California gull and flew off to the Devil's Hole area of Death Valley.
Upon reaching those notorious hot springs, he went into a power dive and plunged beneath the surface!
When the momentum from that high dive had abated, he changed yet again. This time, into a Slovenian olm roughly the size of a marine iguana. In that form, he followed the subterranean aquifers of the American West Coast northward.
All the way to Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon.
It took him the remainder of the day to get there. Consequently, it was nightfall when he emerged out of an old fumarole in the lake floor and changed into a hefty-looking salmon. In that form, he swam all the way to the shores of Wizard Island. Emerging from the shallows as an emperor penguin!
After resting for two or three hours, he turned into an overgrown barred owl and flew toward the northwest. Specifically; the Linn County town known as...Harrisburg, Oregon. And, there, he alighted on the roof of a small novelty shop. The sign for which bore the logo of a gray fox. When the store's owner arrived at six o'clock that morning, he found Yrac Cimoc--once more in humanoid form--waiting to be his first customer of the day.
"What are you doing here?" demanded the former (who could have passed for Yrac's slightly shorter twin).
"I must speak with His Lordship. Immediately!"
"Come inside, quickly! Before some other early bird sees you."
The two Morphers hurried through the public area of the store, into the backroom, and down into the basement. There, the store's owner unlocked an old-fashioned rolltop desk. And, inside the large central cubby hole of that desk was what resembled a Philco Predicta portable TV set (circa 1962).
Only the image that came on its screen, when it was remotely activated, showed a plethora of living colors that no art critic in the world would have been able to find words for! These colors were swiftly eclipsed, however, by a humanoid silhouette that spoke in an electronically-distorted voice.
"What is the meaning of this untimely communication?"
Both Morphers dropped down to one knee, bowing their heads in abject humility.
"Forgive me, Milord. But, my cover--as the humans say--has been blown! Two I.D.E.E.A. men came to my restaurant, on Earth-DXM, and tried to take me in. I have eluded them. But, they are bound to be monitoring for my crosstime warp-frequency. I urgently request a decoy, so I can return to the Stronghold, undetected."
"You fool!!!" replied the silhouette: "You should have gone with them, peaceably. They would merely have taken you to one of their local branch facilities for routine interrogation. Your augmentation would have stymied any cursory biometric scan. But, by needlessly panicking as you did...!"
"If it please Milord," interrupted the store owner: "Cimoc is a fool, I agree. However, there might be a subtle way to determine whether or not our plans are jeopardized."
The silhouette paused to consider this before responding.
"Do tell."
tbc
Giantess World
