Once again, I'd like to thank everyone for your comments. I really love reading them, and I love writing this story. The animorphs were my favorite series growing up, and I'm glad I can do this little homage to them with my own story. Also, to answer gabrieldarke's question, Rachel and Ax don't remember the previous timeline because that was part of the deal they made with the Drode. David does remember because... well you'll have to read the story to find that out.

Chapter Nine

I saw the lion's eyes go wide as David took a reflexive step back. His thought-speak voice was full of confusion. (Seven? No... no, what happened to--) We reached him then and I swung my makeshift lance with all the strength that my massive gorilla arm could manage. If you've ever seen a gorilla, you know that's a lot of strength. A gorilla could twist a foot thick steel rod in half and play horseshoes with it over the length of a football field. They are pound for pound the best mix of strength and dexterity that can be found in the animal kingdom. Combine that with the force from a charging hippo, which makes a lion seem puny.

So, when the ripped up railing hit David, it snapped in half. The railing simply couldn't take the strain that my strength had forced on it. The blow lifted the lion off its feet and hurled it through the glass of one of the lizard cages where it lay on its side, bloody and unmoving.

I dropped down to the floor and knuckle walked to the edge of the fence, staring at the still lion. (Melissa, check on the others. Jake man, you both okay?) There was no answer for a moment, and I looked back to see Jake and Rachel both taking a couple of cautious steps away from the hippo, which was looking at them like a mother bear might look at a human poking her cub with a stick. (Uhhh... Melissa?)

Tobias's voice came then. I guess he had landed on the roof. (Guys? What's going on in there? I heard a roar. Did we get him?)

(We have a uhh... situation with Melissa.) I responded while taking a step over sideways, nearly putting my foot down on a few lizards that were scattering and running for freedom. (She lost control of the morph.)

(How big of a problem is it?) Tobias asked, sounding like he wished he was in here to help.

(Um.) I looked at the massive and temperamental creature. (Big. Just a minute, we've got to try to talk her down.)

The hippo grunted and made an angry wheezing sound, opening its mouth wide to show all four of its foot long tusk-like teeth. Here's the thing about hippos that I found out later. You may think they're cute, fat, and harmless, but they're not. Some people consider the Hippopotamus to be one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. They get to be around thirteen feet long while standing about five feet tall at the shoulder, and can weigh up to four thousand pounds. They are also one of the most unpredictable and violent animals around. Some predators may attack one of the young, but nothing but a well armed man hunts the adult bull hippo. The only enemies they have besides humans are other bull hippos.

"Melissa..." Rachel was saying while taking another step back. "It's the animal mind taking over. Melissa, it's me, Rachel. You have to take control back. You have to calm down. It's okay. You are human. You are Melissa Chapman. Come on, think about gymnastics. Remember Fluffer McKitty? You love that cat. You're Melissa."

The hippo that was Melissa wasn't buying it, and with its mouth open over three feet wide, began to charge. A full grown hippo can run for a short distance up to thirty miles an hour, easily outstripping the average human. I lunged and wrapped my broad arms around the back of the hippo and hung on for dear life. Now, a gorilla is unbelievably strong. But it isn't strong enough to stop a four thousand pound hippo in a charge. I could however, slow it down. (Guys, get out of the way! I can't hold this thing.)

I was ripped off my feet then, as Rachel and Jake took advantage of the slight delay to throw themselves over the railing into the fake foilage. That puny railing wouldn't stop the hippo any more than it had stopped me from tearing it up, but maybe them being out of sight would calm the thing enough for Melissa to regain control.

Instead, it turned back around after its short charge and tried to bite me in half. I barely managed to hurl myself backwards before the thing would have taken my arm off. (Melissa!) I yelled out in near a panic as the beast tried to run me down this time. (Melissa, stop!)

Just as the hippo had me backed to the edge of one of the cages, it stopped and looked confused for a moment. A confused, somewhat frightened voice asked. (Wh-what? Marco... what did I... what... happened?)

The hippo was already starting to shrink, and I breathed a sigh of relief. (The animal instincts just took over. It happens sometimes if you're not used to it. Rachel, Jake, come on, it's okay.)

They both emerged slowly and Jake slipped under the railing. "Uhhh, Melissa, don't demorph all the way yet." Jake brought a groggy Ax and Cassie around. Meanwhile, Rachel collected Melissa's clothes that she had dropped by the door and helped her dress after demorphing. I took the time to look back to the cage where the lion had been hurled. Sure enough, David had disappeared. He could have morphed any of the little lizards that even now were running off into the zoo.

Once we were sure we weren't going to find any more clue of where he had gone and had picked up what remained of the rest of our clothes, Jake directed us all to leave and get back to the empty exhibit before zoo security managed to show up. While Tobias lamented that he hadn't followed any of the lizards that emerged from the building, Rachel tried to tell him he couldn't possibly have known which one was David.

Melissa sat dejected on the same log she had perched on earlier. "I'm sorry, guys." She pried a piece of bark off the log and started to pick it apart with her fingers. "You had him and... and I couldn't... I didn't even know I was human. I couldn't think. The hippo, it was... so mad... so angry. I just..." She sighed again and said for the fifth time. "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay, Melissa." Cassie tried to make the girl feel better. "Everyone has problems at first. We should've let you morph before and get the hang of the hippo before taking you into something like that. We've all lost control before, even in life and death situations. It happens to everyone sometimes." She put a hand on Melissa's back and scratched her leg.

"Yeah." Rachel was at the edge of the fence, looking torn between being angry about losing David and making her friend feel better. "Besides... he can't hide forever. The Chee'll pick him up somewhere, or Tobias will see him from the air." Tobias had taken off to do a sweep around the alleys and other places near the Gardens where David could demorph, and Erek had agreed to have the rest of the Chee keep an eye out for the guy, including by his house. Somewhere, we'd pick him up.

(As David has acquired the ability to morph, he will be much more difficult to capture.) Ax was in northern harrier morph, since we needed to leave soon and in any case, anyone who happened to walk past might be suspcious of a few kids hanging out in an empty exhibit with a bird, but they would down right freak if they saw an Andalite.

"Too bad we don't have a way to find morphing energy." Jake said thoughtfully while watching the sky for a sign that Tobias was coming back with news. It was a futile hope, and we all knew it, but he kept looking up anyway.

"Yeah..." Rachel turned back to the rest of us with a sigh. "We need a veleek." We stared at her, most of us remembering the collection of tiny alien creatures that had formed into a giant buzzsaw tornado of death and ripped through half the city hunting us awhile back. Blanching at the memory, Rachel shook her head. "Kidding... mostly."

"What was David talking about?" Cassie wondered aloud. We had told her what the boy had said. "A rat trapped on an island?"

Jake looked to Ax. "Could the box have messed with his mind when it connected to him to show him how to use it?"

Sounding doubtful, Ax answered slowly. (It is... possible... that the tutorial of the escafil device might have... imparted strange memories into the mind of the human boy, but that is extremely unlikely, Prince Jake. And the memories you describe do not appear to be andalite memories, which would not make sense.)

"Whatever his problem is," Rachel stepped over to where Melissa was after another glance out to the reptile house where park workers were still trying to figure out what had happened. "he has to be stopped. He could blow everything."

I waved a stick in the air randomly. "If that punk runs to Visser 3, or gets himself seen morphing, we could all be dead in a couple days. We have to find him fast."

"And then what?" Cassie asked softly from where she sat next to Melissa. Her hand idly rubbed at her jeans while she quietly questioned our next actions. "What do we do with David after we find him?" That stopped all of us as she looked at each person. "We obviously can't make him promise not to do anything. He's already violent. And he's probably not going to want to help, not with that reaction. So... what do we do?"

After we were all silent for a minute, considering what none of us actually wanted to consider, Jake cleared his throat. "We'll work through that once we have an idea of where he is. We can't forget about the real mission either. All the world leaders out at the Marriott. We've only got a couple days before the big talks, and the yeerks might strike before that. We need intelligence, because we can't go into this blind."

"David's a threat right now." Rachel argued. She ticked the points off on her fingers. "He can morph. He knows our identities. He can find out where we live. He could lead Visser 3 right to our houses."

"You're right." Jake seemed torn as he gripped one of the bars on the edge of the cage. "We can't ignore either problem. So we're going to have to split up." He sighed slowly. "I know it's late, and I know we're all tired, but we can't stop right now. There's too much at stake."

Sounding apologetic, Cassie shook her head. "I have to get home. In fact I better catch up with my mom before she leaves. We have this big family dinner thing tonight. I'm like... beyond dead if I miss it, and I don't think you want me grounded for the next few days."

Jake nodded after a moment. "All right, Cassie heads home. The rest of us split up. Marco, you and Melissa go with Ax and meet up with Tobias. The four of you get a look at the resort. See what kind of security they've got set up already. Try to find us an access point. Maybe Ax can see if the yeerks have moved anything special in yet. Rachel and I will help the Chee look for David."

"First." I interjected. "We'll stop by the mall and get Melissa a morphing suit. Then we'll go start playing Rainbow Six on the resort."

Jake nodded at that, satisfied, and we all morphed to bird except for Cassie, who collected our abandoned clothes and stuffed them in a zoo visitors bag. A few minutes later the rest of us took off, splitting into two groups and heading in different directions. I saw Cassie heading to her mother's car and she waved.

There were three things that I didn't know as I flew away from the zoo parking lot with Melissa and Ax to find Tobias. First, David hadn't morphed a lizard. Second, Cassie had been scratching at a fly earlier. And finally, what I didn't realize as we left her to climb into her mother's car, was that Cassie as I knew her, I would never see again.