A/N: Wow, I have nothing to say.
Disclaimer: K.A. Applegate owns the Animorphs and I own Sarah, Hope, Alexandria, Josh, and Bade.
Hope
I started morphing. The talons came first, sharp and deadly. My legs became weaker and I started to lose mass. All my bones hollowed out and snapped and shrank and grew where they needed to be changed to fit the bird shape. My nose and upper lip merged and hardened into a beak. My fingers snapped and turned into the structure of a wing. Tattoo markings etched my skin before becoming 3D and turning into feathers. I started to shrink and my eyesight and hearing sharpened.
I was a Red-tailed Hawk.
The hawk mind wanted to hunt. My mind wanted to hunt too, but not for prey. I wanted to hunt for my parents. But before I could do that, I had to get control of the instincts.
The hawk mind panicked. It needed room! To my embarrassment, I started flapping around like a common chicken.
Don't panic Hope, I thought.
I calmed down. Gee, animal instincts can be strong sometimes. I aimed for the window I had left open. It would look a little weird, a hawk flying out a window, but I could do worse. I could have morphed in public.
I flapped a little so I could catch a thermal. When I was little, I had asked my dad how birds fly. He gave me a long explanation that made my eyes glaze over after a while, but one thing has always stuck with me: Birds use their energy to catch a thermal and then are able to glide without a problem. It turns out he was right and it made my job a whole lot easier. But not by much.
I needed to find my house. That would be a little difficult because I've never seen our house from an aerial view. But the bird's keen eyesight would definitely help. Our house always has…gosh, I haven't lived in that house very long. From what I could remember, our car was always parked in the driveway and we had a pool.
That narrowed it down to three hundred homes.
After an hour and a half, I finally did find it. I swooped down and demorphed near the garbage cans. I wrinkled my nose once it stopped being a beak. I could have chosen a better place.
"We need to meet our friend at C.A.R.E." said a very familiar voice. Mom!
Well, at least we know that C.A.R.E. is a Yeerk front organization. I thought.
"Yes, we must Visser Three." My dad said. What did he just call my mom?! Visser Three! Why that horrible andalite, he not only made my parents Controllers, he made them Vissers. Or at least my mom. I kicked the trash can lid an inch.
"Did you hear that Visser Two?" my mom asked. Okay, so my dad was a visser. And they had also heard me. They heard their "dead" daughter who had Hork-Bajir run after her because she knew the secret that the Yeerks were back kick the trashcan lid.
I looked around. I could go back to hawk, but they would know that I had been here. I would go leopard but that would attract attention and possibly get me killed. Julia wouldn't work either because they might see me on the streets. A fly buzzed by my ear.
Fly! They might notice a fly, but it was my best shot. I grabbled one of the flies on a rotting piece of food. Yes, I know, disgusting, but necessary. I began to acquire the fly in my hand. It started buzzing.
I had already started morphing before I even finished acquiring the fly. Two wings sprouted out of my back and two extra legs sprouted out of my chest. Everything started growing around me. The scenery shattered into millions of pictures and the color went wacko. My skin turned black and my skeleton completely disappeared. I was mostly fly, but I still had a way to go. The fact was I just couldn't morph fast enough.
"I think it came from over here," my mom said.
Shoot! I couldn't see very well, but I was assuming "over here" meant where I was.
I kept shrinking and my exoskeleton replaced my bones. My mouth changed into a fly mouth. Hair shriveled up and my limbs turned into sticks. Finally, I was fully fly, or at least, I was close enough to fully fly that I would be passed off as a fly.
"There's nothing here." Said my dad.
Phew! That was a close one. I didn't finish my morph, just in case they saw a shrinking fly. That and I couldn't risk the fly instincts taking control right this moment. I casually buzzed onto my dad's shirt and hid under the collar.
"Let's go," he said.
I felt the vibrations which I assumed were my dad's walking. After what seemed like an eternity, he sat down and switched the car on.
Maybe we could do this under two hours, I thought.
It only took us about twenty minutes to drive to C.A.R.E. It just seems longer when you're counting off minutes until you're stuck as a fly permanently. We walked for what seemed like forever before my dad once again sat down.
"Hello Visser One." My mother greeted who I assumed was Visser One.
Cut the idle chat Visser Three. We need to talk about the break in at the animal containment park. Visser One replied evilly.
"We believe there might be more Animorphs," my dad replied bluntly.
Do you know who they are?
"No, my Visser." My mother said quietly.
Did you see anything?
"No, nobody saw anything."
You are lucky you are such important hosts, Visser One said wryly. What did he mean by that?
Hey, what time is it? A small part of my mind asked.
Oh god, the time! I only had 15 minutes at the most until I was stuck in this disgusting morph. And I wasn't even fully fly. I would have to risk not hearing the rest of the meeting.
I slowly crept down the back of dad's shirt so I wouldn't be seen too easily. It wasn't a very bright room so this shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?
Animorphs!
Guess again, Hope. I thought. I buzzed those fly wings like heck and got my tiny little fly butt out of that room.
Too heavy! I was going way too slow. I had to risk the fly instincts and finish morphing. I shrank down to the proper fly size and gained speed.
The fly brain wanted food. It followed the odors that were coming from outside. I landed on a burger.
Get out of the open and demorph! The Hope in my screamed. Oh right, the time limit.
I found a nice little furnace room that was just perfect. I hurriedly demorphed back to my human self with barely any time to spare.
"Stay calm. This bird is from the zoo and needs to be returned. I'm just going to put it to sleep." Said a man outside.
Bird! Asleep! Oh, please, don't be one of the others, I moaned inwardly. I heard the bang of a gun and a screech of a bird.
I risked a peek after a minute and looked through the vent in the door. There I saw a Cooper's Hawk in a dive.
Cooper's Hawk? Wasn't that one of the other's bird morph?
Then I saw the other two people and knew who the bird was immediately. The two other people were Sarah and Alexandria, meaning that the bird was Josh.
The guy was aiming one final shot. And this time, he wouldn't miss.
A/N: I'm sorry. I realize that wasn't one of my best chapters. Please review anyways.