A/N:  I think I've almost fixed my problem.  Sarah, Hope, Bade, Alexandria, and Josh are nearly perfected.  I need to tweak their personalities a little bit but basically it's supposed to be Alexandria= James/Jake, Bade=Tobias/Chapman (you'll see his good qualities later), Sarah=Marco, Josh=Cassie, and Hope=Rachel/Tobias/Jake/a teeny bit of Ax.

Disclaimer:  K.A. Applegate owns the Animorphs and I own Sarah, Bade, Hope, Josh, and Alexandria.

~~Alexandria~~

"Animorphs!" the security guard yelled.

Great!  Not even one full day as Animorphs and already our secret is blown.

We were stuck and he knew it.  If he moved any closer, he would see our faces and one way or the other he would find out we were "dead".  We couldn't do anything or we'd prove him right.

I looked to the Sharp-shinned Hawk I had been acquiring.  It gave me confidence as well as an idea.

Could I bluff?  It was worth a shot.  I had nothing to lose.

Except my freedom.

"Fool!" I said in my meanest and coldest voice, "How dare you interrupt me?"

"What?  Who are you?" the man asked.

"Call me by my host's name: Erica.  My host was once an Animorph."

"That's not possible.  The Auxiliary Animorphs are all dead."

"I should have you starved for your arrogance!  My host wanted us to think she was dead." I snapped.

"Then what are you doing here?" he asked suspiciously.

That's it, Alexandria, keep delaying him, I thought.

"I decided to acquire some new morphs.  How dare you interrupt me!"

Come on.  Hope, Bade, where are you?  I'm sweating blood.

"Then who are they?" the guy asked.

"Her host's name is Collette and his host's name is Craig.  Get out of my sight!" I demanded.

"If you're on our side, then how come you simply didn't tell us that you were coming here?  And wasn't Collette crippled so she couldn't walk out of morph?"

"Uh…er…yeah, the thing about that is…um," I stuttered.

"I see" he said and smiled as he pulled out something I think is called a Dracon beam.  I wasn't too preoccupied on what it was called.  I was more preoccupied on where it was pointed: me.

I shut my eyes tight and waited for it all to end.  Then I heard something: A loud roar and footsteps like thunder.

~~Hope~~

"Animorphs!" a man in the bird exhibit yelled.

No!  Someone spotted them.  We only had one chance.

"Battle morphs!" I said.

I focused on the leopard that was a part of me.  It's true what they say: morphing does not hurt.  It felt creepy, like a distant off feeling.  I "felt" my spine elongate until I had a tail poking out of my butt.  My ears crawled up to the top of my head and changed into the proper shape for a leopard.    My eyesight sharpened so I could see in the dark like it was day.  I felt fur sprouting all over my body.  My nose grew more sensitive.  My fingers shrank and my hands turned into paws.  I fell on my new front paws and let myself grow.

I looked at Bade.  I had gone much faster than he had.  He was still growing.  His head had still not transformed.

I felt the confidence of the leopard well up inside me.  It did not know fear.

I did.

I felt fear for my friends and for my world.

And for my parents.

I let myself sink into the easy confidence.  Bade was not prey.  Bade was too big.

TSEEER! A bird screamed.

My leopard ears cocked and my legs readied to spring.  Birds were prey.  Elephants were not.

Gee Hope, wait for me. Bade said to me.

Oh yeah, I was Hope, not a leopard.  Too bad, I could get used to the reflexes.  Not that I want to become a nothlit like Tobias.

I moaned.  Daddy!

Yeah, I called him daddy.  Got a problem with that.  Keep in mind that I am a leopard.

Hurry up Bade! I screamed at him.

Okay, I'm finished. he replied.

Let's do it! I yelled.  I kind of liked the phrase.

I let out a fierce roar and Bade and I charged.

~~Bade~~

I didn't have time for the elephant instincts.  Thankfully, they weren't too hard to control.

I stomped towards the bird exhibit.

Hope!  I can't see well in the dark.  You have to guide me. I yelled to her.

No need, we're already there. she screamed back.

We were in the vast room where they kept the now very frightened birds.

"Uh-oh," the guard said.

You bet uh-oh, Hope told him and then to me she said. Bade, would you do the honors?

Most certainly, I said.

I wrapped my really big trunk around his body and threw him across the room.  He hit the wall and went unconscious.

Okay, look, Hope said as she checked to make sure he really was asleep, We don't know if he sent for reinforcements or not so we have to get out of here A.S.A.P.  Everyone who already has a bird of prey and an owl morph, do 'em.  Everyone else, get one now.

Hope and I demorphed as Josh, Alexandria, and Sarah started turning into their owl morphs.  I reached over as soon as I got a hand back and looked at all the birds.  Hope was already looking for an owl to acquire.

Oh shoot, we must have forgotten to put our owl back in the cape! Alexandria said from her guard post.

We'll use a barn owl," Hope said decisively.

I petted the funny looking owl and it went calm.  Hope grabbed it next and I started looking for a good bird of prey morph.

"Hey big fellow, how would you like to be a morph of mine?" I spoke to a rather irritated golden eagle.

I opened the cage and received a few vicious pecks before I finally got a good enough hold to start acquiring it.  I now had raptor DNA within me.

"You take one dive at me in morph, you die," Hope threatened me.

"Huh?" I said, thoroughly confused.

"I just got a red-tailed hawk as my bird of prey morph.  Golden eagles attack red-tailed hawks."

"Oh."

We better get going you guys.  I think we attracted some unwanted attention. Sarah said as she spread her wings getting ready for flight.

I focused on the Barn Owl.

Think feathers, think beak, think flying Bade, I told myself.

I started sprouting feathers and my nose turned into a beak.  I started shrinking.  My feet melted together and became rippling talons.  My eyes became owlish and my face flattened.  My legs became weak.  Bones became hollow and horrible snapping sounds were made.  At last I was a Barn Owl with hair.

Hope was going through a beautiful transformation as she slowly grew wings and a beak while still retaining most of her human features.  She started shrinking as her feet became talons.  Her eyes became like an owl's but surprisingly enough, her face still kept a hard and fierce look.  Tattoos etched onto her skin before they became three-dimensional.  Her hair became feathers as my hair shrank back into my head.

Let's do it! Hope screamed.

I heard something with my new, more sensitive ears.  Sirens!  Police were coming.

A.K.A. Yeerks.

~~Josh~~

I flapped my wings and slowly lifted off of the ground.  I was silent, but a deadly killer.

We have to get out of here! I yelled.

I watched as two barn owls and two other identical Great Horned Owls took off.

Go for cloud cover! Hope yelled.

I flew up higher and higher.  I could see everything: the police cars, the people.

The Dracon beams.

One guy caught my attention in particular.  He had dirty blond hair and brown eyes.  I wouldn't have noticed him if he didn't look like Hope.  He had the same hard look that Hope always had.  He looked familiar, like I had seen him from somewhere else.

Change of plan, let's go down there and attack! Hope told us.

No! Alexandria screamed.

Come on, let's do it!

No, Hope, it's suicide. Bade yelled.

We have to do something! Hope told us.

Hope, we are going to go home and if anyone asks we had forgotten to bring a watch and were unaware of the time. Alexandria ordered.

Fine, Hope collapsed.

Okay, we've got to go back to the theater and get our clothes. Sarah said.

Yeah, let's do it. Hope said with a little less enthusiasm.

We flew to the theater in silence.  It's true what they say, that flying is THE best thing in the world.  I felt the wind keeping me up and taking me where ever I wanted to.  I was diving and flapping and tumbling…

Okay, I was a pretty clumsy in the air.  But I really did not see why Hope had to rub it in.

You guys suck! Hope teased.

I watched as Hope flew with all the grace that I did not have.

How did you get so good? Sarah asked.

Dunno, maybe I'm just lucky. Hope would have shrugged if she could.

I looked down until I saw a huge building with hundreds of cars and five sets of clothes hidden in the bushes.

Theater ho! I yelled.

~~Sarah~~

Flying was very cool.  I was just wondering how Hope had gotten so good.

I landed softly next to the bush where our clothes are hidden.  I think we could have gotten a better hiding place but we were in a hurry.

I checked my internal clock.  It was 10:30.  We needed to hurry.

Let's go! I said.

I started demorphing as everyone landed.  I shot up to my full height and my feathers retracted to reveal ugly bumps.  My beak turned soft and my hair started to grow like weeds.

In five minutes, we were five "dead" kids wearing spandex.  I started to pull on clothes as Hope let herself shrink.  My clothes were too big so I could morph into them.  Hope was about a foot taller than her morph.

It took ten more minutes for us to walk out of the bushes completely clothed as Mike, John, Julia, Sammy, and Mel.

"Why can't we just stay in our disguise morph for longer than two hours and then use the blue necklace to get our morphing powers back?" Alexandria, oh sorry, Mel asked Hope/Julia.

"First of all, the blue box doesn't work on nothlits.  Tobias escaped being a nothlit by an experiment that was later banned by the andalite government.  Second of all, the blue box morphs with me." Hope explained.

I had never really noticed before, but Hope was morphing the necklace.  Unfortunately, that was all she could morph that wasn't skin tight.

"We need to go," I said, "Before our guardians wonder where we are."

We nodded and ran home.

A/N:  Please review.  Oh yeah, to clear things up, the dirty blond haired guy was Tobias.