I wasn't entirely convinced that going to the beach had done anything significant to alleviate my fear of the ocean. Not that it made a difference - we were not yet ready to attempt the rescue. The Human Animorphs still had to attend school, and the rescue would have to wait until the weekend. And none of us yet had a suitable morph for traversing the ocean depths. But that last detail was about to change.
The venue was what Humans called an amusement park. The marquee over the front gate said "Pacific Coast Adventure Gardens", but the others referred to it as just "The Gardens". One half of the park was filled with large machines that Humans would be tied onto - voluntarily, believe it or not - and then flung about at high speed and subjected to extreme gravitational forces, an experience that frequently resulted in sudden, brief incapacitation as the riders tried not to vomit.
The other half of the park was a series of enclosures containing an assortment of animals from different parts of the planet. During the days we'd spent surveiling the city for signs of Yeerk activity, Tobias and I had taken more than one detour to watch the zoo animals. This was where the others had acquired their battle morphs, and sooner or later I would need to do the same.
It was the night after our visit to the beach. Midnight, in fact. The Gardens were safely devoid of visitors, and only a handful of staff were on the premises. A few caretakers for the animals, plus some security guards. It was the only time I could safely visit without being in morph. For that matter, it was a convenient time for all of us to enter the park without needing to pay admittance and acquire any useful morphs we needed. In this case, dolphins.
A half-circle of stadium seats surrounded a large, round pool of water. As we circled overhead, I couldn't see into the water - the otherwise powerful eyes of my hawk morph were not adapted for night vision, and even the few lights scattered around the park weren't quite enough to help. But I had flown over earlier in the day and seen the sleek, grey bodies effortlessly dashing through the water.
Six of us landed safely in the shadows and started demorphing, in the usual horrifying routine of melting flesh, twisting bones, and shifting of internal organs. Once that process was over, Cassie led us down to the edge of the pool. Soon, a dark shadow slid towards us through the water. Cassie reached out to touch it, and as she absorbed its' DNA, the creature stopped moving. One by one, the others reached in. Finally, it was my turn. I placed my hand against the dolphin's rubbery beak, focused, felt something electric flow up through my fingers. And it was done.