When the morning came on Thursday, following a night of dreams that Marco would have personally preferred to forget ever happening, he hauled himself out of bed and started to go about his morning routine. Focusing on that to the exclusion of all else, he tried to forget the dreams hed been having last night; the same way he tried to forget all of the dreams that being an Animorph had brought him.

It was just easier that way.

Having finished breakfast, he headed out to catch the bus. Finding himself wondering what the reaction to his paper was going to be, Marco leaned back in his seat and relaxed. Most people, well some of them at least, tended to accept his work and go on with their lives.

After all, it wasnt like the fate of the world was riding on his having turned in a book report; in fact, it was nearly the opposite.

Jake and the others, him included of course, had decided that it was too risky for them to head back out to the Royan Island facility anytime before the weekend. If one of them aside from the four who didnt have to worry about those kinds of things got caught and ended up getting grounded, they would be set back a bit in their efforts.

When the bus finally made it to its inevitable destination, Marco climbed off and blended in with the crowd heading into the building. Jake was better at the whole blending thing, but he had the advantage of being completely unremarkable. Not only that, but Jake really wanted to blend in; it wasnt his fault that hed gotten caught up in the middle of two alien wars.

After hed gotten into his locker and shuffled all the stuff he wasnt going to use for his classes into the back where it wouldnt fall out, Marco turned and headed into his first class of the day.

XXX

Once school had let out for the day, Marco did something that he had never done before: he hung around in the gym for a few minutes, and then he headed for the pool. The pool, with its mingled, cloying scent of mildew and chlorine, had always made him think of athletes foot. The edges of the pool were bordered in white tile, and all the water made the bottom of the pool look deep blue.

There was a high-dive and a low-dive at the deep end, and small windows set high in the left- and right-side walls. Even with the banks of fluorescent lights overhead, and the lamps in the pool itself the ones that had always reminded him of car headlights the room itself always seemed gloomy somehow.

It was stupid, what he was about to do; Jake would have been berating him for it if hed been here to see it. So would any of the others, all except for Rachel and Slade; and even then for different reasons. The fact that he was doing something that Rachel would have approved of wasnt lost on him, but neither was the fact that this was what he had to do.

If he didnt take the chance that had presented itself to him here to use the shark morph that was encoded somewhere within his body; to feel what it was like to become that emotionless, relentless predator he knew without a doubt that he would do something even stupider the next time the opportunity presented itself to him.

Heading over to his gym locker, he changed into the clothes that he had left there from the last time hed used them; something suitable for swimming and morphing both. Then he went back into the main area and checked the pool again. To his vast and visible to such nonexistent bystanders as he was dealing with relief, there was no one there. Not a soul to bear witness to his strange transformation.

Not a ripple disturbed the tranquil water.

Not, that was, until Marco himself jumped in feetfirst, bobbing back to the surface almost as quickly as he had fallen under.

"This is insane, Marco," he said. "So Ill be careful," he countered. "Youre talking to yourself, do you know that?" he asked. "Shut up."

Closing his eyes, Marco began a process that he had wanted to do since he had taken that first step on Sunday: he began to morph the Hammerhead shark whose DNA resided in him. He pictured it, writhing almost pathetically in Sharas grip as she held it our for them all to touch. And then, even as he recalled Shara tossing the monster fish back into its tank, he felt the first of the changes beginning.