The controllers were here, in their cars, ready to kill us.
((Tricia, Judy, Collette, get out of here now and demorph. Reinforcements are coming! Timmy, Craig and I will hold them off, and then we will get out. Meet us back at the clinic,)) I was frantic. I looked to see Collette, who had managed to grab the panther in her massive jaw, spit the limp animal out. She turned and ran surprisingly quickly on her short crocodile legs. Tricia ran up next to Judy and followed her to the trees. In moments they were all gone. I had to distract the controllers and make sure they didn't see them demorph.
((We have to give them a distraction to demorph! Follow me.)) I screamed. I started to run across the field, straight at the controllers who were climbing out of two different cars, four in each car. As I ran, I let out a ferocious roar, making the controllers who were reaching for their weapons hesitate.
((Tom and the wolf are getting away. They are running back into the center to demorph)) Timmy yelled.
Four seconds later, I was on the controllers. I leapt into them, and landed on top of the nearest car. I spun and swatted my paw, with my claws retracted, into the face of one. The controller fell to the ground, out cold. Another pointed his dracon weapon at me and fired, but I was already on the other side of the car. I crouched low and ran around the back, to find Craig body slam three controllers into the side of a car, shattering the side windows. Two of the controllers stayed down, but one pulled herself to her feet.
"Disgusting Animorphs! We will find out who you are, and we will kill you," She cried. Blood flowed from her nose, mouth, and ears. She raised her dracon weapon and fired it at Craig. The beam burned clear through his chest, blasting out the other side. Craig roared a painful cry and stumbled to the ground. Frantically, I leapt at the woman. She tried to raise her weapon at me, but I hit her with all seven hundred pounds. She fell to the pavement, hitting her head and not moving. For a split second, I hoped she was dead, but I thought to myself that there was an innocent woman in there.
I leaped away from the controller as four different dracon beams lanced at me. I plowed into the first controller, knocking him over, and then I swatted the legs out from under the next. I felt two dracon weapons burn into me, but I was to full of adrenaline. I vaguely saw Timmy leap at a third controller, biting into the man's wrist and making him drop the weapon. I felt another dracon hit me right in my back. I tried to move towards the controller who shot it, but my legs wouldn't move. O shit, I am paralyzed! I am going to die, I screamed to myself. The controller realized the same thing and leveled his dracon weapon at my head.
Then I heard the eagle scream. I saw the controller jerk his eyes forward as Tricia, in the bald eagle morph, slashed her talons down at his face. Deep red slashes appeared on the controllers face, blinding him.
"AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" the controllers screamed, dropping to his knees and clenching his face. I watched as a red-tailed hawk repeated the action to the controller Timmy struggled with.
((James, demorph now. Craig is half way through his morph and will take care of the two other controllers,)) Collette cried. I had forgotten about the two controllers I had knocked down. Surely they hadn't been knocked out by just falling. I saw as Craig, only about half bear at the time, ran at them both, swinging his half human, half bear paws at them. One hit a middle aged looking controller right in the shoulder, but the arm still had overgrown human hands. The attack only made the man stumble to the side, but made him fall into his companion, whose shot went wide. I took that as the time to pull myself in between the two cars, using them to semi hide me. I was already half ways demorphed by the time I got to the cars. As soon as I was fully human, I focused back on the lion.
((James, stop. All of the controllers are down. We need to get out of here. Tom and the other controller are heading this way, morphed again,)) Craig yelled. I trusted Craig, and focused back on my human body. Sense I was barely morphed, it took all of five seconds to become human again. I turned to see a jaguar and wolf come running out of the building. They were only about fifty yards away. I focused my mind on the great-horned owl. I could see Craig and Timmy both finish their morphs and get air born.
((James, get in the nearest car. You won't be done soon enough. They will get you!)) Collette screamed. I could see the others taking dives at the two beasts, but they barely slowed them down. I moved awkwardly over to the black Lexus next to me. I climbed in the open back seat door and slammed it shut. I knew that they would trap me around the car, and eventually break in. The wolf hit the door and damn near smashed the glass in. I pulled myself to the driver's seat and, with my half foot, half talon, pushed the gas pedal. I threw the transmittion in drive and shot forward, crashing right into the other car. I threw it in reverse and backed up about twenty feet. I then put it back in drive and cruised out of there. It was my first time driving a car ever. I shot out of the parking lot and barely avoided going over the curve on the other side. With my semi morphed feet, I couldn't really get a feel for the pedal. I drove the car about three blocks away, then ditched it. I dropped out of the drivers door and landed on my hands . I willed myself to finish the morph, focusing with all of my energy. I could see Tom and the wolf running at me, but they were still about a half block away. Then the morph was complete. I flapped my wings frantically, and got air born right as the wolf snapped its dangerous jaws at me.
((O my God, that was close!)) I cried. I let out a long yell, half out of terror, half out of pure adrenaline. I pumped my wings harder, and then joined up with the others.
((Everyone, go in opposite directions for a bit, incase anyone is watching,)) with that, I turned my owl wings and soared south, the opposite direction from the treatment center. I did that for a couple of miles, then turned back north. I could vaguely see a red-tailed hawk about five miles ahead of me. I assumed it was either Craig or Judy. I pumped my wings and soared. It took me about another half hour to get to the clinic. I flew by each one of my team's rooms, making sure they were in there. After confirming they were, except Julio who went to the valley, I flew into my own room. I landed on my bed and started to demorph.
((What happened?)) A voice asked me. I swear, if I had been human, I would of jumped to the ceiling. I turned my owl head and saw Pedro sitting on his bed. Except it wasn't Pedro, well, not physically. He was there, sitting as a red-tailed hawk.
((O man, you freaked me out,)) I said with a laugh. I then proceeded to tell him everything that happened that night. I did leave out most of the stuff that dealt with me almost getting eaten, but I told him the gist.
((O man, I wish I could have been there with you,)) He said sadly. I knew that he was sincere when he said it. I just looked down at my bed, and then started to demorph.
((Don't worry about it Pedro. Someday you will be,)) I lied. I didn't know what to tell him. I finished demorphing and looked over at him. For a second, I saw him hesitate. He looked over at the window, as if longing to fly away. Then, slowly, he returned to his crippled body. I got out of bed and tucked him back in. I also went and shut my window. I climbed back into bed and begged myself to fall asleep. I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. The others had had so many close calls before, I didn't know how they dealt with it. I also couldn't help worrying about Julio and whether the Yeerks were going to come bursting into my room. I don't know when I finally fell asleep, but I knew it wasn't anytime too soon after that.