Cassie and her parents had had a nice, quiet breakfast, and Cassie had asked if it was okay if her friends came over that afternoon. They had both said that it was just fine with them. Cassie had also told them that she was going to take a walk in the woods before any of them arrived. Cassie still hated lying to her parents, but there was no way that she could tell even a bit of the truth without it leading to all kinds of unanswerable questions.

Times like this, I guess it's just best to say as little as possible, Cassie thought as she climbed back up into the hayloft. Stepping up off of the ladder, Cassie caught a glimpse of some of Slade's black hair sticking out from behind the stacks of hay-bales that hid his bed. Her footfalls on the bare wood floor weren't exactly silent, so Slade had plenty of warning of her approach.

"Slade, it's me, Cassie," Cassie said, seeing Slade duck back behind his hay-bales.

Cassie? What happened? You usually don't come to collect my dishes till about lunchtime when you're off from school.

"I'm not here for that," Cassie reassured him. Slade tilted his head, giving her an unmistakable 'okay, then what are you here for?' look. "I was just thinking about how you don't have any morphs that can fight."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Slade raised an eyebrow.

"It's the only way you'll be able to fight the Yeerks with us," Cassie said. Neither she, nor even Slade knew about Slade's powers as a Teknoman. Cassie had never seen them, and Slade hadn't been in the teknopod long enough to learn about his powers.

"Okay," Slade said a little dubiously. He might not have known about his Teknoman powers, but his pride was still intact. "So, what do we have to do?"

"Morph into a raven and follow me," Cassie said, already starting her Osprey morph. "I'll explain the rest when we get there."

"Get where?" Slade asked, shedding his outer clothing and beginning to morph into a raven.

I'm taking you to The Gardens to acquire a combat morph.

Is the Gardens a zoo, or is it more like this place?

Actually, The Gardens is what's known as a wildlife park, Cassie said, now fully an Osprey.

There's a difference between the two? Slade asked incredulously, having just completed his morph.

Cassie laughed ruefully. Not much of one I'm afraid, but people tend to think of cages and things like that when they hear the word 'zoo'. By calling The Gardens a wildlife park I think they avoid some of the bad press that zoos have.

So, it's just semantics? Slade asked, his voice somewhere between laughing and disbelieving.

Pretty much, Cassie admitted, chuckling at his tone.

Why didn't you just tell me that in the first place? Slade asked with a mock whine.

You didn't ask, Cassie said smugly.

The both of them burst out laughing after that statement. Cassie didn't know why she found it so easy to banter with Slade, she just did. Flying up and out of the hayloft window, the two of them were soon on their way.

Slade loved flying, it just came so naturally to him. There were times that he wondered why that was, and also if he shouldn't be just a little more worried about doing something that a normal person would probably find pretty unnerving. Cassie didn't seem unduly worried, though it was probably because she had been doing things like this a lot longer than he had.

I wonder why I feel so… normal doing this? Adjusting the angle of his wings to bring himself in line with Cassie's flightpath, Slade decided to shelve those thoughts. They weren't important right now. As he and Cassie flew onward, Slade wondered what would happen when they finally reached their destination.

I guess I'll find out when we get there. Slade would have shrugged, but that would have thrown him off course.

Landing in an abandoned area of the path that lead to The Gardens' wildlife enclosures, Cassie and Slade took shelter behind a pair of dumpsters. Cassie would have used her seagull morph to fly to The Gardens, since seagulls were more likely to go unnoticed by the people visiting, but Slade didn't have a seagull morph. There hadn't been any injured gulls in the barn for him to acquire, and Cassie didn't want to find out the hard way if Slade was strong enough to resist the raven's predatory instincts.

Demorphing, Cassie slipped a glance around the edge of the large dumpster they were hidden behind. Once she was sure the way was clear, Cassie turned to Slade.

"Okay Slade, you can demorph now."

Since Slade was substantially taller than her, Cassie had had him remain in morph. Cassie watched the walkway as Slade demorphed, just in case anyone was coming, she heard the last of Slade's demorph finishing up. Looking around again, wanting to make absolutely sure that no one was coming, Cassie turned back to Slade.

"Okay, Slade, I want you to start morphing again."

"Why?"

Cassie looked up at Slade. He was just a little over six feet tall, and wearing nothing but an aerobic outfit, with no shoes. Not that I look any better myself, Cassie admitted silently. But the fact remained that she was smaller than Slade, and in the event that either of them was discovered, Cassie had a marginally better chance of being able to talk herself out of trouble.

She explained as much to Slade, and he quickly started to remorph. Once Slade was fully a raven again, Cassie picked him up and tucked him under her arm.