Here we go again A note to Elwing, the show was pretty bad from what I saw of it, which wasn't that much, the show was ludicrously under-budget, and lost the essence of the books by making up new stories.

"What do you mean?" Ax spoke.

(The Yerks knew of your parents device that corrected your bad hearing. The Yerks were afraid it would make the ear channels too small to fit through, they had your parents killed before they could market it, and, when they realized they had already created it they had your house burned to the ground.)

"For that," Jake said. "I feel responsible, we tried to save your house but we failed, that's the main reason we're asking you to join us."

"Fine I'll do it, untie me."

"That can't happen."

"Why I have the implants you know I'm not infested."

"We're not prepared to risk it. You'll stay here for three days while Ax poses as you for your sister."

"Bull shit!" I said. "I ain't gonna let Philitities over there take my place, if I do this I want to bring my sister along." Jake seemed to ponder this.

"Ax and Tobias you two team up and watch her see if she has to go somewhere every three days."

"Hey why can't you just give me that kind of surveillance?" I asked.

"You know about us she doesn't, if she doesn't appear to be a Yerk then we'll tell her too. Ax acquire him." The Andilate walked towards me and put his hand on my face.

(Sorry.) He said. I felt a sense of peace for moment, then it passed. When the creature stepped back the girls turned away and he changed slowly into me I noticed he was buck naked.

"Could you put something on I don't even like to look at myself naked in the mirror." Jake through him a bag and he got dressed.

"Don't worry, wor eee wor eeeeee," Ax said. "You sister terrrr terrr won't even veen veen. Know you're gone."

"I'll bet she will if you don't cut down on the…"

"I will try." Ax said.

"See that you do, she's been through enough without having her brother go nuts." Cassie spoke.

"Ax please, you really have to try this time, he's right, I have a class with Anna, she's really had a tough time…"

"I understand, it seems that humans have a longer period of mourning than my species, sp…"
"Hey cut it out," I said. "She's a sharp girl you keep that stuff up she'll be on to you." That seemed to have a real effect, Ax visibly flinched.

"Ok, we'll need to take shifts watching him." Jake said, he was obviously the leader. "Cassie, since you've got the closest house you take the first shift. We'll figure the rest out later." They left except Cassie. For a thirty minute period no one said anything. I looked around. I seemed to be in an old shed it had a musty smell to it and most the windows were en crusted with dust. I was tied up by my hands and feet I could sit up and down with some difficulty but and other movement wouldn't' be possible. Finally I broke the silence.

"So," I said. "What did you guys do with my bow."

"I gave it to Ax, he's interested in human weapons." She said weapons with a slight venom.

"Hey if he wants to look at them then he can take a look around my apartment I hope he gives it back though, it was a gift from my dad."

"I'll tell him that." She said. Time passed again, to emphasize the awkwardness of the situation I actually heard a bull-frog croak, as if to break the silence. After a few hours Marco walked in. Cassie left.

"Damn," Marco said. "The tension is so thick I can barely breath."

"That's the dust," I said. Marco laughed a bit but I wasn't kidding. When he closed the door he kicked up a lot of dust. "How's Anna?" I said.

"Well Ax hasn't done anything stupid yet, that's a big bunch of luck right there. Speaking of which," He walked back outside and brought in a small box with the Pizza Hut logo on it. "Thought I'd buy you some pizza since there ain't gonna be any leftovers now that Ax is posing as you."

"Well I appreciate that but how am I going to eat without hands."

"Unfortunately I'm going to have to feed you so open up." I can honestly say that I have never been more humiliated in my life, I always thought being pampered would be fun but I honestly never new that having so much done for you degraded you so much. After Marco left Rachel came in.

"Sorry about hitting you," was the first thing she said. "it was for your own good though."

"Yes my current situation is a lot better than being at home eating pizza." I smiled.

"Oh I brought you a pillow," she said tossing it on the ground. "it's not going to be that comfortable but, well you'll have to deal with it." Rachel left as the sun was setting, Jake was the last one to come, but he told me Tobias would be keeping an eye on me and not to try anything. And it kept on in that order for three days, at the end of the period the door opened and Jake and the others walked in with Anna in tow.

"Well this explains why you were acting so weird." Anna said. She had the look of shock that meant she had just been told the whole story. I walked out and Ax was standing in front of us holding a blue box covered in runes.

"Once you make this decision, you are going to change your life" Jake said. Both of us had the same thought I think, we saw our parents faces. We walked over to Ax.

"Put your hands on the box." He said. We complied, I felt a shiver run through me, it kind of tickled. Ax explained the way to acquire morphs and how to morph it seemed simple enough. So I asked the next obvious question.

"Where do I pick up the big morphs?"

We walked in the back way, an "employees only" area of the local zoo called "The Gardens". We had split up, each of us had a master key to all the exhibits but each of us also had another Animorph to spot for us. Tobias was my guide.

I walked to the door of one of the exhibits. I read the sign

California Condor

I took the key and opened the door. The bird was dark black with a trace of yellow on it's wing tips. It's head was a dull red. I was in luck, someone had left out a dead rabbit for it to eat. While it was eating I snuck up on it. I moved fast and acquired it, once I was done it went crazy and flew up to one of the higher perches. As I walked out I heard Tobias murmur.

"Vultures, figures he'd pick the one bird that can out fly me…" I knew that to be true, a condor could fly up to a couple of miles high. I locked the door back. I thought about where to go next, it didn't take me long to think.

I walked into the snake area, there were two that I was interested in. One was a boa constrictor the other was green mamba. I was getting power in the former, speed and venom in the later. Both of these snakes would be useless in long term combat but, if I needed stealth then I was in good shape.

I walked further when one exhibit really caught my eye.

America Mountain Lion

Cougar

I walked into it, I was ambushed. The male that was in the area pounced on me immediately and clawed at my face. I heard Tobias moving towards me and I instinctively but up arms to cover myself. Before Tobias got there though I thought to acquire him. The cougar backed off and I ran out. Tobias locked the door.

"Oh shit man that looks pretty bad." He pointed to my wound.

"Really?" I said. "I guess I couldn't tell from the massive blood loss! Where's the damn medical area?"

"I'll go get Cassie just, keep pressure on it. He ran off. I guess I had been in shock earlier, because the pain came in and I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming.

"Ow, Ow, Ow, Ow." I said as Cassie's mom stitched me up.

"You're a lucky guy, your first day on the job and you get attacked by Ted." Her mom said. Cassie's mom was a woman I had a lot of regard for. She understood the truth about hunting, that it helped keep the herds thin and prevented starvation and disease.

"Who now, I got attacked by a cougar not a leftist democrat." I said. "Ow!"

"Ted's the name of the cougar, he's got a real attitude problem, but as you found out, he prefers the stakes we give him."

"Glad you keep him fed, just wish someone had told me about the guys tendency to attack people." As you may have guessed Cassie got me to the medical room before I bled out. Her mom stitched me up, I fed her a story about working here part time. I don't think she bought it though, I just think she didn't want to know what a stick figure was doing in the cage of a 250 lbs cat.

"There you go," She said putting down the needle and thread. "All done, lets see that's 1,2,3 18 stitches, you've got the new record now."

"Is there a prize?"

"Sorry, oh and there will be some scaring, I'm sorry."

"Ah, it's okay, I wasn't much to look at in the first place."

"Oh don't put yourself down like that."

"Ok, I gotta get back to work now, see you." I waked out of the bay. Anna wrapped me in a hug.

"You OK bro?" She said.

"Yeah, I'm fine, gonna have a nasty scar though."

"Yeah well beats a face huh?" She said and we both laughed.

"So what kind of animals did you get?" I asked.

"You'll see when we fight." she said. We left the room and went home.

A note, I am going to keep my rating for now and just warn you when the M rated scenes are coming up, I'm trying to figure out if I'm noting getting reviews because of my space in the site or because don't have a fan base.