Chapter 9:
CAMERON
I liked this new guy; I had only been in the losers' gang for about twenty minutes, but already I could see that I was going to be missing out, never fully a member of the group. Honestly, I always wanted to be part of a gang; but I said that I'd leave in a week anyways. I'm not going to leave; I just need to keep a hold of my reputation.
See, the group that we currently have consists of me, the brutal yet thoughtful, the rash and childish, and the brainy hipster chick. The others were already a couple, it may not be official, but they were still inseparable through their obvious friendship. I'd always be the third wheel, the annoying kid the others had to escort everywhere. A group of three just wouldn't work. That's why I jumped at the opportunity to welcome a fresh, foreign guy.
Of course, the brainy hipster had to speak the more obvious questions.
(Can we trust him? I mean, he has a cube, but we have no idea what these new aliens are capable of. How would we know if the cockatoo morph was a legit morph or a fancy hologram trick?)
Jake studied the boy from head to feet with glossy hyena eyes.
(I don't see any purple eyes, and he didn't seem to be limping. If there was a hologram, there's an easy way to find out.)
"Okay, I get it, you're not sure if you want another member in your already tightly knitted group, but I only just moved here, and is the private thoughtspeak really necessary? You do realise I'm standing here in awkward silence."
Tightly knitted group? Hah. I speak up, as the bad-boy, I feel like it's my job to do the tough speaking.
(Listen here, mate, we just haven't decided yet. Give us a mo, mate.)
(Stop it with the 'mates', your fake Australian accent sounds like a pirate.)
I shoot a glare at Jason, scrunching up my dog face at his comment.
Kate pads forward, circling the new kid clockwise. I follow her, using my sensitive nose to go all interrogation on him, find out what he really was up to the past day.
(He ate a bagel for breakfast. He uses women's shampoo. Hair gel. Axe deodorant. New shoes. Clean underwear.)
(Cameron, stop listing the smells. We need to find real evidence that he's a human, and not one out to kill us. Stand behind his legs for a moment. Jason, you check for a metal leg.)
Kaspar stands very still as we inspect him, tensing his muscles as we sniff around him.
(Hey, my hyena nose is pretty good… Okay, someone farted. Wait, maybe they stood in dog poo. Wait, it's just Cameron's morph.)
I pad over behind the boy, standing stiff and steady as I prepare for Kate's plan. She backs up and crouches down. I've seen this position before, in smaller cats around the neighbourhood. This is the position they make before they pounce.
(Be nice, Kate.)
Kate bunches up her muscles and leaps forward, rocketing straight towards me. Landing square on my back, she uses me as a hoist to lift her up to boy's back. With a loud 'oomph!' she knocks him to the ground. The boy doesn't get up or try to move; he just lies down and takes the weight of a panther on his back. A quick swipe with retracted claws to the back of his neck, and we wait for the hologram to disappear.
No sparks, no flickering, no secret alien under his skin.
"You know, you could've just asked me to sit down or something."
Kate scrabbles off his back, hurriedly demorphing back into a human girl, embarrassed red cheeks appearing out of her black fur. Her attraction to Kay was obvious, but I don't think he noticed.
(Sorry, I just needed to be sure; we have no idea what these new aliens could do. Did I hurt you? Are you-) her fangs sunk back into her gums and her lips melded into her average, human lips, cutting out her thoughtspeak. "-Okay? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, just a little shaken up."
I started to demorph back, satisfied that if Kate thinks he's safe, that I can demorph without danger too. Jason isn't too sure; he's still pacing circles around Kay, who is now sitting up in the dust.
(Are you sure you hit the right place? I could've sworn it was a tad lower…)
He opens his jaw to snap at Kay's neck. Straight away, we could all see it was a bad choice. Jason obviously hadn't gotten used to his morph yet, he was going to kill Kay without even meaning to.
"Jason!" we both cried out, the scene playing out to our eyes in slow motion.
Kay ducks his head and Jason goes flying past, rolling over his shoulders. Quickly retaliating, Kay swings his legs around Jason's hyena body and twists his him into a sort of modified head lock for your legs. Kate and I breathed a sigh of relief. Kay gives a quick slap to Jason's nose, startling him with his speed and accuracy.
"Jason, I think you should demorph. Now."
Jason slowly changed to human, still locked between Kay's legs.
After Jason was fully human, Kay lifts his legs and an uncomfortable Jason untangles himself. Kay catches his first look at Jason's face, and then he does something that surprises me. He blushes. Sure, he had Jason's head between his legs, but that's an average wrestling move. Nothing to be embarrassed about, we're all guys. Unless…. The great smelling shampoo, his stunning sense of fashion and styled hair, his obliviousness to Kate's obvious attraction to him…
Oh this was just too good! The as if the new animorphs didn't already have enough stereotypes, now we have the foreign one and the gay one in the same person! And I'm the only one who has noticed!
"Sorry, Jason, I, uh…. It was just reflexes. And sorry about that nose-slap, I learned that when I was working at the Aussie zoo."
Kate tunes in to his last words
"Aussie zoo? As in the Australia zoo, the one in Queensland? The Steve Irwin one? You work there?"
"Well, not anymore, but I did work there, I helped with the feeding sessions and the caring for the more docile creatures. Kangaroos and photos with koalas and such."
"So, do you have all these Australian morphs? From, like, working at the zoo?"
"Yeah, but I have no battle morphs. We have tigers and elephants, but I was never allowed to care for them. After sending in all these birds into calm trances, I became the bird assistant because I could settle them down so easily."
"What's the story about the cube? Where did you find it?"
"Find it? No, I was given this by Illian-Strath-urthan, one of my andalite friends. She liked the Australian bird morphs. She gave this to me the day before they left. She said I earned it, and that Earth needs a new protector now that the animorphs have left. I thought you were given your cube from another andalite?"
They swivelled their necks towards me.
"Me? No, who would give me a morphing cube? I found this walking around one of the empty andalite take-off zones a few months ago. It was buried under some rubble. I was moving the rubble to make a skate ramp out of a sheet of tin I found.'
An explosion rocked in the distance.
"Kay, what did you see from up there? Any more aliens?"
Kay looked at me with a puzzled face.
"You… you guys haven't seen it? Their ships were disguised as clouds. There are thousands of them. They seem to find a way to jam guns. It's a full frontal invasion, starting in this town."
The alien knocked out behind us stirred.
"The slave harvest… will… continue…."
"Go to hell."
Kate gave a brutal kick to the aliens face with her sandal. I've never seen such a harsh side to her. Tears are running down her cheeks, smearing her mascara into an imitation of a panda morph. I look over to see that Jason too is on the verge of crying.
"Wait, what's so bad? The andalites will come back."
"Didn't you hear, you jerk? Slave harvest! My mother!"
Oh crap, our families. I stay with my uncle, my parents wanted to travel, so they just ditched me here while they jumped from India to Japan. It had been months since their last postcard, I guess they just got too caught up in their travels to write to me. I know this is bad, but we need to act fast.
"Let's sort out our priorities. We need to get out of here."
"And fight the invasion." Kay chipped in.
"Yes, and fight the invasion. We need flying morphs, underwater morphs, bug morphs, I personally need a new fighting morph, and we need to get to the city, to the gardens."
"Mike. We need to get Mike."
I'm puzzled.
"Who's Mike, I thought there were only two of-"
"Her rat."
"Fine, we get Mike too. Kay, what flights do you have? Anything that can carry weight?"
"A wedge-tailed eagle can carry large rabbits and baby kangaroos"
"Perfect. Jason, Kate, morph small."
Feathers started to etch themselves into the skin down Kay's arms. Even though his face was mainly focused on turning his soft lips into the hard beak of a wedge tailed eagle, I could tell he understood my plan.
I scooted over to the two morphing cubes and picked them up. I ran inside the house and found a small handbag.
Kate peered at the bag with interest through drying eyes.
"Yeah, you can have it when we're done with it. Morph, Kate."
Jason had already begun his change to a white rat. Kate followed him, changing into what I assumed was the same morph. Comparing the two morphing, I could see a definite difference. Jason's morph was smoother, less jumpy and much quicker than Kate's. Maybe I should bring that up later. I needed to start my morph.
Plopping the two cubes into the bag, I started my morph to Crow. Immediately I shrunk down, already completing the size aspect of the morph before my actual body started to warp itself into the bird. Grey lines weaved their way up my arms, across my chest and up my neck. Thickening and popping out, the lines formed feathers, shimmering from pale skin tones to jet black. I felt my short, almost completely shaved head stretch out slightly, and my ears shrunk down, disappearing in the mass of feathers. My legs thinned out and also grew black, shoes splitting apart into the crow's small talons. My lips hardened and twisted together into a pointed cone, and I had a moment of panic before the cone split in half, re-opening my new mouth.
(See, that is exactly why you need new morphs, Cam. Compare these two birds here, my dear Kate; one is a majestic, killer of giant kangaroos and sheep. The other, was baked into a giant pie and served to a king with twenty others or something.)
(Jason, those were blackbirds and there were four and twenty of them. Don't you remember your nursery rhymes?)
(Anyways, do you see my point? Cam-cam here's going to struggle to keep up with this majestic bird.)
I looked over at Kay, and I could tell exactly what he meant. The wedge-tailed eagle was magnificent. His wicked sharp beak hooked downwards at the point, creating a deadly weapon. Razor sharp talons, along with beautiful brown feathers that gave off the same perfect vibe as Kate's panther morph made the eagle a god among birds. Kay opened his wings, showing off his 2.3 metre wingspan.
I felt worthless beside him. I was a dog, a cow and a crow, standing next to eagles and rhinos. I needed something to be feared by.
Kate and Jason scrambled into the handbag, two white rodents and two blue cubes.
(You think you could carry them?)
(Mate, I'm going to have to slow down for you in that morph. Tell me if I wear you out, I'll make sure to make fun of you when we reach the city.)
With those cheerful words, he glided forward and clutched the handbag's handles, raising himself from the ground.
(Don't forget Mike!)
(Yes Kate, we won't)
I take a moment to think. I'll be slower than Kay, I'm going to struggle catching up.
(You go get Mike, meet me at the McDonalds at the exit to the highway nearest the hospital. We'll remorph there. Oh, and get some money.)
And with that, we split apart. I was flying to the north and Kay was flying to the West. Straight away I could tell something was eerily different as I looked at the streets below me.
There were people, but they weren't talking, they were all marching; marching at the same speed. Flying lower, I picked out someone I recognised. It was Mr Taylor, a geography teacher for the year above me at my school. My bird eyes picked it out straight away.
Purple eyes. Unusual limp.
I flapped as hard as I could and raced away, soaring over rooftops.
Hi guys! Thanks for reading this far, let me know what you think :)