Handling the dolphin morph was more difficult than Tommy had been expecting, though not quite for any of the reasons he'd been subconsciously preparing himself for; he'd been training himself to deal with negative emotions, but the dolphin seemed to be a never-ending wellspring of positive emotions. It wasn't something he'd been given any real reason to expect, given all of the animal minds he'd dealt with previously.
Even the lion that he used most often to fight was more confident than truly happy.
Shepherding the others as best as he could with the dolphin mind being so aggressively happy at him, Tommy stayed in contact with Tobias; the two of them seemed to be the only ones who had any kind of control over themselves, considering what was going on.
Still, once Cassie had managed to get the hang of the echolocation that Tommy had read about when he'd had the chance – he tried to do that for all of his morphs, just to see if he could get at least some idea of what he'd be dealing with when he became the animal in question – a pall seemed to settle over their group. It seemed that no one was really fond of sharks, but there seemed to be something else…
(It's a whale!) Cassie corrected herself, after her initial outburst; Tommy found himself with the strangest urge to repeat those same words, but he held himself back. (A whale, being attacked by sharks.)
(A great one being attacked?) Marco echoed, and Tommy found himself wondering just what it was about the relationship between dolphins and whales that made even him want to repeat that phrase.
Rachel, of course, was the first one to dive into battle with the sharks, but the rest of them weren't that far behind. Tommy had seen more than a few posters around, exhorting people to save the whales, but he had the distinct feeling that this wasn't remotely what any of the people who'd made them had in mind. Their battle against the sharks was almost worse than any of their previous battles against the Yeerks and their various Controllers, if only because they had to watch out for attacks from below and above.
To say nothing of the attacks from all sides that they usually had to deal with.
(Everyone okay?) Jake asked, once the last of the sharks had cleared out, each of them on the trail of the wounded, bleeding shark that one of them had wounded.
(I have some cuts, but I'm okay,) Cassie said, sounding more than a little shaken.
(Same here,) Rachel said, sounding noticeably less shaken.
(I think I lost part of my tail,) he said, turning as well as he could; there was blood, trailing in his wake, and Tommy could only be glad that none of the attacking sharks had turned on him after they'd managed to drive them away from the whale they had been attacking.
(Marco?) Cassie called, after what seemed like entirely too long without an answer.
(I… I think I'm hurt,) Marco said, somehow sounding even more shaken than Cassie.
