Hello. Once again, I'm here, and the tale of Maxine will continue. I don't own Animorphs, I don't know how it took me so long, but I finally made another chapter.
2
At The Zoo
We sat on a bench, not sure just where to go. We had already been to the aquarium, the bird enclosure, and the reptile room, and it was already one in the after noon. I was told different stories about the first time that the group had went back-stage of the zoo, and how they were almost arrested. This time, we hadn't meet anyone in the cream halls, and it was easy getting some of the animals during the "hands-on" times that the zoo had, like for the dolphins, and the Bat-Rays, and the smaller animals. The bird enclosure was by far the easiest. All I had to do was hop the railing of the bridge, hide under one of the one of the nesting perches, and wait for the birds to come to me. The reptile room was a little harder, mainly because the air-conditioned building was packed, and there were so many chances to get caught. I like a challenge as much as the next person, but when you have a group of kindergartners ogling you while you're stroking the largest python in the world, you tend to lose your concentration.
"Ok, so pass that by me again, what did you get?" Jake asked me for the fifth time that day. He wanted to remember what weapons I had and that he could have me use, so I had to constantly run it by him. It was getting nerve-racking.
"I have a golden eagle, an owl, a seagull, and a humming bird from the bird enclosure. A tiger shark, a dolphin, a bat-ray, and an eel from the fish. And from the reptile room, I have the hissing cockroach, the praying mantis, the python, the tree frog, the alligator, and the spiting cobra. We haven't hit the mammals yet, but I'd rather hit that after lunch." As soon as I said the word "lunch", Marco agreed with me, as did Ax. Jake decided (with out any help, might I add) that lunch would be a prosperous endeavor, and we headed off to one of the many cafés that littered the park. I wound up "treating" the group, because the park upped the price of food as well, and they only had enough for two lunches, instead of each being able to pay for them selves. So we sat, I went over the list two more times, and we ate our lunches. That's when it started again.
"Maxine, thanks for lunch." Tobias said, in human shape, which I found out he had after about the third hour of us being there.
"That's fine, and call me Max, it's easier on the mind." I winked at him, being in a playful mod at the moment, only to find it die as I took another bite of my turkey leg.
"Max, don't you eat anything other than protein?" Rachel asked, biting into her sub sandwich.
"I don't think that you've eaten anything else since we've been here." Cassie muttered, munching her salad, "Any carbohydrates, fruits, anything else?"
"Well, I ate that hot dog, that had the bun the ketchup the mustered and the relish. And the onion rings earlier were vegetables, right? And they were breaded, so there's the crabs. The funnel cake was healthy, and I eat pickles whenever I can get my hands on them." They sighed.
"Are you sure that you passed the health final this year?" Rachel asked, she was in my health class after all.
"Yeah. What's with you people? First you want to memorize the animals that I got, now you's are all worried about my health! If you don't mind, I think that you should stick to this 'save the world' thing that you do, and I'll worry about me. By the way, if we go on one of these mission things, I'm gonna need a big animal. I was think'n that the 'liger' would be a good one. You know, the 'half tiger, half lion' thing that was just imported from Asia. I saw it in the paper. It isn't out yet, or so the article said. So that means that it's in a holding pen, right? So I'm gonna head over there and nab it while I can." I stripped the meat off the bones, wrapped it in a napkin, hid it in my pocket, and headed off to the 'employees only' zone was, hoping that it'd take me to where I needed to be. Rachel's hand stopped me.
"We go as a team, Max. We've come to terms with that, and now you need to understand that no one flies solo without the rest of us as back up. If you think that the animal would be good, run it by the rest of us, then we'll all be sure that you get it." Jake scolded, and I rounded on them.
"You want to know something Jake? I love your 'team spirit' 'n' all, but there's something that you just don' un'erstand. I'd be glad to be a team player, I'd love to be one of the pawns of the galaxy, but the only thing I don't want is for any of you to cover my back, and get hurt. There is a reason that I don' have friends at school Jake, an' that's 'cause they all get hurt 'cause of me. So I'm asking you this. You wanted me to help you on this? Fine, then can you be able to fight, and leave me behind if we get into a tight corner? 'Cause if you can, then you and I will get along beautifully. You're the first one's to trust me - with anything let alone with something that could get you killed if it falls into the wrong hands. An' I don' want any of you to get hurt, simply because I was foolish, and did something rash and stupid. So, are you going to allow me to go get a portentously deadly animal with out putting the rest of you in harm's way, or are we all going to go down there without any more lectures." Wow, I really didn't mean to chew them out, but the night before, I had been thinking of how dangerous our "job" was, and how if my new "friends" were to get hurt because of me, how much I'd hate myself. Turning, I started towards the "employees only" door again, only to be stopped once again.
"Alright Max, I see what you mean. Let's all find this thing, and finish up here. Then we can let you practice. Just to let you know, we will all be meeting at Cassie's house after school on Monday, we'll be attacking the Pool that night. Be ready.
Golden fang
That night, I couldn't help but feel curious as to what had made them trust me in the first place. They had told me about the last one that they had trusted… David I think they called him… and how badly that had turned out. So, what made them trust me here? I only came up with one answer… they needed extra mussel, and I was it.
After the liger "enclosure" which had sustained me a few scratches, we had gone find some other animals that could be of help. I wound up getting a bat, a goat, a sheep (That was Marco's idea… don't ask.), a panda, a horse, and a porcupine. Not bad, but I think that I could have gotten something bigger. I took on the fly in the bus home.
So now, running the list over in my head as I lay on my cot, I had the strangest feeling that I needed to practice. I had only "morphed" once, and if I was going to do this, I needed to be "up to standard". Lugging myself out of bed, I stepped out into the warm night air, zipped my tent, and stood in the campsite staring at the stars so very far above my head. For three hours I switched from one morph, to myself, to another animal, then back to myself again. I went through my entire list three times, then sat on the ground, a huge adrenaline rush making me perspire. Quite pleased with the practice, an idea ran through my head.
Why only one animal at one time? Why not two, or even multiple? Ax can do it, Jake told me that his human morph was a mix of all of theirs, could we do that too? Standing, I ran through my list in my mind again. Golden eagle, owl, seagull, tiger shark, dolphin, bat-ray, eel, hissing cockroach, praying mantis, python, tree frog, alligator, spiting cobra, bat, goat, sheep, panda, horse, porcupine, Hork-Bajir, liger, fly. An impressive lot for one day… or at least that's what Jake said. But none of them helped me the way that I thought I would be of any use. What if…? What animals would be a good combination? Playing around, I randomly threw what came to mind together. It worked.
Concentrating on certain parts of different animals, I changed. First I took on the body of the sheep. Like I said, it was meant to be random. Next, I grew the beep brown powerful wings of the eagle from my back, a vibrant contrast to the white fluffy wool on my hide. Also from the wool came long, sharp rods – porcupine. The sheep's ears grew stiff, moved upward to the very top of my head, and flayed out like a tent. My eyes gained the sight of the eagle, and the mussels under the soft sheep's fur grew, stiffened, and grew stronger with the addition of the Hork-Bajir. My sheep's mouth extended, and grew long, sharp, ripping teeth; the alligator had put in its two bits. Goat horns extended from between my bat ears, and my spikes became poisonous; help from the cobra. The small, stubby tail became long, wispy, and barbed ends as the bat ray's tail surfaced in my head. Finally, I replaced the hooves of the sheep with panda claws, and shrunk down to the size of the fly. I had mixed eleven different animals from my list of twenty-two animals. I was rather proud of my self.
I had become a self-defending, hears/sees all, flying spy, that could penetrate any place a fly could, see plans from across the building, hear three doors down with perfect clarity, and if caught, kill it's capture with poisonous quills, and scratch with sharp claws. Oh yes, I had become something indispensable.
Wow, this did take me a long time to get up. I typed it rather quickly, I've just been too lazy to actually post it, let alone go over it to fix the typos. I don't even know if I fixed them all, I just know that I got it over with. Sorry for the typing errors!
