Everyone stared.

Okay, everyone but the flock, Ella, and Dr. Martinez stared at the supposed new flock member. Me.

"Uh…. Hello, Spark, and welcome to the CSM." Finally the man who had stood up spoke. He moved a little closer to observe me, and stopped, puzzlement spreading across his face. "Wait… where are your ears?"

Oh. Crap. Well, I do have ears, but I had my CAT ears hidden at the moment, and I didn't have human ones… just one pair of ears for me. So what this dude saw was my spiky hair flopped over the side of my head, and no human ears. The flock had human ears. Mine were cat's, and they were hidden in my hair, and they looked like more spikes.

This was going to end well. Might as well get this over with.

I looked over towards Dr. Martinez who nodded, telling me to go ahead and show the world my lovely cat bits!

"Um, they're right… here…" I said slowly, then pricked my ears up, so all the boardroom could see. Then I unhid my tail. I waved it to show it off.

Loud gasps and more than one squeal filled the room, and my ears twisted back uncomfortably.

A young, red-haired woman towards whom Max was giving quite some glarage recovered first, saying, "You do have wings, right?"

"Yep," I replied, and unfurled them. The shock was bit less. Weirdos.

Nudge, oh Nudge who speaks out at the right times all the time, piped up, "Dr. Martinez! Spark got a new power while we were coming!"

Max's mom raised one eyebrow curiously, "Really? What is it?"

"Uh…" I turned to a random member of the CSM. "You."

He looked up, startled. "Me?"

"Yes you. Pick a random mammal or bird."

"… a… tiger?" he said slowly, extremely confused.

"Sure."

Max spoke up, addressing the board, "Everyone, please don't scream any louder than necessary." More people looked confused, but they nodded anyway.

I took a deep breath, found the glow, and quickly transformed into a tiger. And, yep, people screamed.

I caught my reflection in a big ornamental mirror on the side of the room. What do you know, I was a white tiger, with my distinctive blue eyes.

Unfortunately, people were still yelling in shock and fear at seeing a girl transform into a tiger. I piped up, "Hey, guys? Stop panicking!"

No one heard me.

Thank goodness for Max. "HEY!" she yelled. Very, very loudly.

Everyone froze. Simultaneously.

I tried to relieve panic by shifting back to human form. "Look, I can transform into mammals and birds, but that doesn't mean I'm going to eat you!" I hollered.

Very, very slowly everyone shuffled back to their seats. And semi-calmed down.

Dr. Martinez, Ella, and the red head bane of Max's life were the least freaked out. They didn't spazz quite so much.

Now, I'm not saying they didn't spazz…

So we resumed the earlier position, the flock and me standing at the front of the room, the ruffled CSM members at the table, looking at us, still slightly shocked.

Then the strange and slightly annoying looking red-head asked me, "So, you can only transform into birds and mammals?"

"Yep."

"What about dinosaurs?"

"A WHAT?!" What the heck was she talking about? I knew what a dinosaur was, but I thought those were lizards…. Reptiles…

"A dinosaur. There's a new theory out that they may actually be birds, not reptiles."

"…"

"And…"

I decided to break the news to her. "I need to know what one looks like." I had a pretty good idea from some of my days at the Institute of what the monsters looked like, but I couldn't be sure.

"…"

"And….?"

Max interrupted, "I don't think this is a good time to test Spark's ability." She had a point. Then she turned and looked at the man who had stood up originally. "So, what's the reason we were brought down here for?"

The man who was still unnamed to me looked up, then shuffled through a file he had picked up, "Oh, right, that."

The flock exchanged exasperated and slightly suspicious looks. They obviously knew who he was, and at least semi-trusted him.

Then, after finding whatever he was looking for, he looked up at us. He smiled, saying, "We would like you to go to Africa."

I grinned and leaped up. Around me various members of the flock, mainly the younger kids, were leaping up too, quite enthusiastically. I yelled along with them.

Africa! Home to so many magnificent animals! Lions, hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs, wildebeest, rhinos, elephants, hippos… I was mainly thinking about the mammals, but the list went on and on for a really long time….

"I don't know. Why would we be going?" MAX! You're practically raining on my parade! You have to protest when someone gives you a free chance to go to the wonderful ecosystem that is Africa!

"Well, the CSM is going to raise awareness about the need to protect the natural world, starting in Africa."

Max was silent for a second. In that second we pounced.

"Maxmaxmaxmax! Please!"

"I wanna go to Africa!"

"You got to let us go, Max!"

My turn. "PLEASE, Max? I wanna see all the aminals, and lions and gazelle and-" Iggy smacked his had across my mouth to stop me from continuing and sounding freakishly like Nudge.

"Shut up, please."

Well, I wasn't going to take that sitting down. "Make me."

"I will."

"I'd like to see you try."

Fang coughed slightly.

Oh. We were still in front of the CSM.

Big whoops.

Dr. Martinez then asked, "So, will you come to Africa?"

Me, Nudge, and Angel all turned to Max and gave her puppy/Bambi eyes. Max couldn't resist those!

She was about to speak, then looked at me and said, "Spark? You need to work on the Bambi eyes. It's not working for me."

Darn.

But she looked over at the CSM, the flock, and the dude whose name I still didn't know, and said, "Sure. Why not?"

- - - -

And, that's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed this! I'd appreciate it if you reviewl.