Chapter Five

Chapter Five

"Okay, Animorphic, what next?" Michael asked me.

"I'm not sure." I admitted.

"What?"

"Well, it's not like I've been in this war before. How am I supposed to know what to do first? We need battle morphs but how are we going to go about getting them?" I was starting to loose my cool.

Michael looked at Sari. "Do you still have your parrot?"

"Yeah, I still have Strawberry. Why?" Sari replied with confusion in her voice.

"Okay, here's what we'll do: We will acquire Strawberry and fly to the zoo as a parrot. Yeah, it will look out of place but we don't have much in the way of a choice. Then we can fly into the cages and acquire the animals." Michael said.

"Sounds like a plan to me." John said for the first time in a while.

We all walked down to Sari's room where Strawberry's cage was still covered. Strawberry was Sari's mostly red parrot and she could be very annoying sometimes. Without taking the cover off, Sari pulled Strawberry out for us to see her. Strawberry flapped her wings and tried to fly away from all the people but Sari had Strawberry's claws with her thumb.

"So how does this work?" Sari asked me.

"Just concentrate on the bird. You might have to close your eyes but it'll work and the bird will go into a trance."

Sari shut her eyes; the bird continued to flap but started to slow down after a moment until it looked like it was asleep again. After opening her eyes she passed the bird to Michael, then from Michael it went to John and Tyler, then to me. I closed my eyes with the bird resting on my hand, I didn't hear anything while I pictured the bird on my hand and there wasn't really a feeling to it. After a moment the bird started to flap again and I figured the acquiring was completed.

Sari took Strawberry and placed her back in the cage. Then turned to the group. I then realized a problem.

"We aren't going to have any clothes on until we get morphing suits." I said suddenly and then watched as everyone looked silently at me. "We aren't going to be able to morph normal clothes yet because we don't have the practice we need. We will be able to morph anything skin tight though."

"Okay," Michael said, "everyone go home and change into something skin tight, morph, and we'll me up at the tiger's area at the Zoo."

"Great, just one question." John asked. "How do we morph?"

Once again everyone was looking at me. "Just concentrate on the animal and it'll just happen I guess. I don't really know."

With that, everyone went his or her separate way except me. I couldn't go home yet and so I just borrowed one of Sari's suits. After giving Sari a reassuring talk about how it's going to be scary but you have to do it anyway, I closed my eyes and concentrated on Strawberry's DNA.

The next thing I knew was that I was quickly becoming six inches high. The ground was rushing up at me like I was falling without leaving the ground. As soon as I became a six inch high human, my arms grew a little longer and feathers were randomly popping out of my skin. They weren't red though; they were still my normal skin peach color.

My legs moved up some and I shrank even more as my leg turned hard into claws. I felt the insides move around and my back slanted over causing me to loose my balance but my feathered tail gave me back the balance I had lost.

My body was completely a bird except for my head. My top lip melted into my nose and elongated becoming hard after a moment to form a peach covered beak. Then it was as if some had decided to paint me because at first my beak became the yellow-orange of Strawberry's followed bye the bright red body. I was now completely a parrot.

Sari, I said to her, You can talk by thinking what you want to say and who you want to say it to.

I noticed she'd finished her morph also and was flapping her wings, testing them out. I guess she was figuring out how to use them.

This is so weird, she said to me, I can feel the bird part of me and it.. It's just weird.

Yeah and that bird is the one who knows how to fly so let it take over and you just give it directions. We need to get going, our morphing clock is ticking.

I spread my wings and flew out the open window. Sari must have opened it before she started her morph because I had forgotten about it. Flying was amazing. I'd never felt so free in my life and I just wished I could do that forever and be free in the sky but I knew I had a mission to fill and I banked right and flew on to the zoo. Sari was close behind me and in the distance I saw two other parrots flying towards the zoo.

I knew this would look strange to any bird watcher, but I didn't care at that moment. All I wanted was to get to the zoo as soon as I could to get my next morph.

The tiger cage was at the far end of the zoo, and I already saw three other parrots sitting on the top of the cage.

Well, if this doesn't look conspicuous. I said to them all. Any human would know something was right about this and any Yeerk would instantly know those weren't parrots.

Well, it's not like we planned this out completely, Michael said. The others had obviously figured out the thought-speech ability already.

Well we should have. One of these days, no planning is going to get us killed, understand? I don't see how you guys don't realize that. John seemed a little more uptight than from earlier. I wondered just how many wholes he had found in this plan.

Suddenly I realized something I hadn't before: the Animorphs had used the Gardens to get their animals. This zoo was probably being watched a ton. Well, if this isn't good, I don't know what is. I thought to myself.

Look, let's just get our morphs and get out before we get seen. I said quickly.

Right, Michael began, I've already gotten this tiger morph and John got the other tiger. Anyone else want a tiger as a battle morph?

Uh, guys… John's voice was shaky. Remember what Laura said about not being seen? Well, we've been seen.

I looked around but didn't see anything. The zoo had just opened so not many people were here yet, that would change within the next hour.

What are you talking about? I don't see anything… Sari. Her voice was different, more excited than it had been. I didn't think she would take to the war like I had but then this wasn't that dangerous of a battle. This wasn't a battle at all…

TTTSSSEEEWW!

Yet…

Okay, I suddenly regret not thinking this one out completely. I said as I took off towards the sky.

You aren't the only one, Michael said privately to me, then to everyone, Okay, split up and just worry about getting yourselves out of here. We'll meet back at Sari's in an hour, got it?

I banked off, not worrying about an answer and headed to the rhino cage. Michael said to get home, he didn't say not to get your morph first. I looked down to see someone following me closely with a Dracon. This would be bad if they caught me. I suddenly had an idea and began to fly slower as I neared the rhino cage.

The Controller raised his Dracon at me and screamed, "THIS TIME YOU DIE, ANDALITE!"

TTTSSSEEEWW!

I banked slightly so the Dracon beam would miss me and then started to fall, right into the rhino cage. I didn't flap or try to stop myself, I just fell and then I hit the grass with a small thump. I didn't move, eyes barely open.

Oh please don't let a rhino come over here. That would so screw up my plan. I thought to myself.

"Is it dead?" I heard a voice from outside the cage say.

"If that Andalite isn't, it will be. Those rhinos will kill it a few times over." A second voice replied.

The two people walked off and I hoped up and walked to a hidden spot behind some bushes to demorph. I kept a look out for anyone watching and didn't pay to much attention to the morph.

I backed up a little once the morph was complete and came face to face with a snorting rhino. His eyes were red with anger, and he was pawing the ground like he was about to charge right through me.

"Good rhino." I said with a trembling voice as I reached out a hand for his horn.

The rhino snorted again and I grabbed his horn and concentrated sending the rhino into the acquiring trance. He went so into this trance that he completely collapsed and nearly squashed my foot. I let him go and began my morph back to parrot.

I was about half way through when the rhino woke up and started to snort again. He stood up and glared at me. My arms were the last things to change to wings, and the instant they were done I took off. The rhino yelled and stomped the ground but didn't charge. He knew I was gone.

I took off over the cage; the spectators of the rhino cage were all in awe. The zoo was filling fast and I flew as fast as I could. I noticed the controller who had shot at me earlier was carrying a cage into a room. The room contained stairs that led down into darkness, and the cage contained a red parrot.