Chapter 6
The Gardens at night from above looked very different from the way it had looked during the day, down on the ground. Tanya could swear she could pick out the places where, in a few years if no one fixed it, the big rollercoaster would start to fall apart. Someone really needed to get on that. Sure, it wasn't an emergency but why delay. The last thing people needed was for these things to fall apart unexpectedly, especially when it was meant to hurl human adolescents and their parents through the air at high speed.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do about that right now. Or at all.
The entire group had decided to tag along. It was a Saturday night, and no one had school or anything else they were doing the next day. Tobias had acquired the same barn owl as Tanya had for night flights, and the rest had great horned owls. Even before they had headed out to the Gardens, Cassie had Tanya acquire a seagull (for situations where a raptor would be too obvious. Why she couldn't use the pigeon for that Tanya didn't know but the Animorphs seemed to have very strong opinions about certain animals), a cockroach and a fly. The tiny little bugs were almost cute, but the kids seemed to think they were the worst things that ever crawled.
Tanya decided not to tell them about the larger bugs back home that were considered the equivalent to chickens. Bugs, big bugs, were plentiful back home, filling the niches that would have been filled with birds on Earth. She had a feeling that knowledge would disgust them.
((We look like an owl convention.)) Tobias grumbled. ((Still, I doubt anyone is going to spot us this late…))
It was like they thought they had two enemies. The Yeerks and bird watching humans.
((We won't be here long. Just to get a battle morph.)) Cassie said reassuringly. ((Should probably go ahead and acquire a dolphin. Just in case.))
((I'm still not sure why I can't use the Hork-Bajir)) Tanya said, eyeing the various toothy predators down below her. She wasn't exactly thrilled about this. An errant sneeze (very likely) could potentially wake up a toothy predator hell bent on duck dinner.
((It's a sentient being.)) Cassie said, as if that explained anything.
((Ummm, yeah…so?)) Tanya asked.
((We shouldn't morph sentient beings.)) Cassie explained, again, explaining nothing.
((Umm, why not?))
((You're controlling another thinking being, like a Yeerk.)) Cassie finally got to the point of her argument.
Tanya nearly stopped in midair. ((Umm…what? That's not…that's not how it works.))
((Yes it is.))
((Cassie…)) Tanya struggled to put what she wanted to say in understandable to a little human teenager terms. ((It's your body. It's just the body that changes. It transmits some instincts to help control the body, but it's not another person. It's still just you. It doesn't make a copy of the original mind. It's just your body. It's not different than your regular body.))
((She is correct.)) Ax said.
((It's still wrong.)) Cassie insisted.
((Other than that.)) Jake said. (We fight Hork-Bajir all the time. We just freed two of them, but that doesn't mean we can save every one. And we can't have someone mistaking your Hork-Bajir morph for a Controller. All we need is for, say, Rachel to mistake you for an enemy in the middle of a fight.))
((Yeah, those bear eyes suck.)) Rachel said. ((Better to not look like just another space goblin the middle of a crowd of other space goblins.))
((Third, we don't want our boy Jara's Hork-Bajir friends going 'hey, isn't he supposed to be dead.')) Marco pointed out.
Well, two out of three reasons weren't bad. Besides all of that, she couldn't rely on the Hork-Bajir's peaceful mind to guide her in combat the same way the goshawk's mind had guided her when she was flying. Or even the pigeon's mind or the owl's mind. Still, she couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling at every predator she looked at. And she knew it would have to be a predator. Something that wanted to kill, that was used to killing. She couldn't bring herself to do something like that on her own. If she was ever going to adapt to this new situation, she needed something that wanted to kill. She was delaying, she knew, but she really didn't want to do this.
Her owl eyes slid past the crocs. No lizards. That was going too far. Elephants, rhinos, bison, all gentle herbivores. She knew Rachel had an elephant, but Rachel was also a born warrior. She didn't need the elephant's instincts to fight.
So, a big cat or a wolf. Cassie already had a wolf, and Tanya didn't really want to copy her. Jake a tiger, same situation. There were jaguars, leopards, and a mountain lion, an African lion, African wild dogs…and hyenas.
She could remember reading about them a few days ago. Why not? From what she read in the book they weren't scavengers like the media would have you believe, but predators in their own right. They were pack animals, like ducks were pack animals (sort of). They had greater jaw strength than the wolves, and they had good hearing and good noses and supposedly decent eyes.
((Hyena)) She said.
((Aren't they scavengers?)) Tobias asked.
((No, predators. They still might scavenge, but any predator can do that if they need to.)) Cassie said. ((They get a pretty bad rep but they're actually really cool animals.))
((Alright, Ax, you go down too. Keep an eye out for her if the hyena gives her a problem. The rest of us will fly cover.))
Tanya aimed and landed silently near a sleeping hyena, the biggest one she could see sort of snoozing in the darkness. Usually, the hyena would be hunting in the darkness of the savanna, but this hyena was well fed in a human habitat with no real need to hunt. She was lazy and well fed and didn't really need to be awake right now. She wasn't sleeping deeply, but she wasn't really in a hurry to get up. However, as the strange little bird grew to a much larger strange bird the hyena raised her head and lifted her lips from her long sharp teeth. She wasn't going to attack, she was more puzzled by this, but she was ready for any strange or threatening behavior. This creature was odd, but it wasn't a threat. The hyena never really noticed the blue deer creature demorphing behind her.
While the hyena was deciding if she should bite or not, Tanya reached out and managed to place a hand on the hyena's head. For a moment the hyena snarled and would have bitten Tanya's hand, but the acquiring trance kicked in, making the hyena yawn and place her head back on the ground, sort of easing into a more comfortable position.
((We should go. The 'hyenas' are looking at us.)) Ax said, tail cocked and ready as the large predatory animals eyed him. Thousands of years of civilization hadn't completely eliminated the urge Ax felt to flee from the predators observing him, nor could thousands of years of predatory instincts be curbed by being fed by humans on the part of the hyenas. One of the hyenas gave a little 'laugh', and the call began to be repeated by the others. The one Tanya had acquired blinked once, then started to slowly stand up, letting out a small whoop.
Meanwhile, both Ax and Tanya were swiftly returning to their owl morphs. By the time Tanya was done the big female she had acquired was baring her teeth. With another whoop the female hyena leaped, and Tanya took to the air an inch or two away from the snapping teeth.
((Yikes, that's close!)) Marco observed. ((You two okay?))
((Yeah…how in the world did you kids manage it before?)) Tanya asked as she flapped into the safety of the sky, Ax right behind her.
((Well, Jake sat on his tiger.)) Marco laughed.
((Wait…really?)) Tanya couldn't help but laugh a bit at that image.
((Alright, dolphin next.)) Jake said testily. ((Tobias, you want to acquire a dolphin?))
((Uh. Yeah. No thank you.)) Tobias said.
((You sure, just in case.))
((I'm good. I'd like to get back to my tree soon. It's getting late.)) Tobias grumbled.
The dolphin involved a lot less predatory glances and more attempting to feed one a fish, which resulted in the entire…pod of them swimming over and attempting to eat the fish. The dolphins didn't care one wit that the thing trying to feed them a fish and touch one of them wasn't a human. It had fish and that was all that mattered to the dolphins. It was actually almost fun, mostly because the dolphins didn't set off Tanya's allergies. Maybe it was because they didn't have fur or feathers.
((Alright, so we have a battle morph, a dolphin morph, and Cassie already got you the fly, cockroach and seagull, right?)) Jake listed off the morphs. ((Think we are going to need anything else?))
((I think that's it for now.)) Cassie said. ((She can just acquire anything else with the rest of us.))
((What do you mean?)) Tanya asked as she morphed back to owl. Again.
((Sometimes we all need a morph specifically for a mission. Like the time we had Marco and Ax morph wolf spider. And the time we all acquired bats.)) Jake said. ((But we can just go get you those when and if you need them. Right now we should be set. Speaking of being set, you decided where you going to move to yet?))
((Yeah, there's an abandoned campsite deeper in the woods I'm going to check out. It's weird. The scans keep showing that there's a series of tunnels under the camp. Will be useful, but I'm not sure why they are there.))
((Oh! You mean that camp?)) Marco laughed. ((I heard of that place if it's the one I'm thinking about. I know why the tunnels are there.))
((Oh, why?)) Tanya asked.
((Ohhhh, wait, you mean it's Camp Creeps? I remember seeing a commercial for it when I was a kid. Honestly gave me nightmares, I had to sleep with my light on.)) Rachel laughed.
((Okay, now I don't know what any of you are talking about.)) Tanya said.
((So way back in the 80s there were all these slasher camp movies, right. Friday the 13th. Sleepaway Camp. Sorority Camp Cheerleaders Massacre the Third. Stuff like that.)) Marco said.
((Oh, I know about those. I've seen some of them.)) Tanya said.
((Right, so someone local decided it would be fun to make a theme camp. You know. Kinda like a summer Halloween attraction. Kids could come, get a camp experience for a day or so, but there'd also be a guy dressed up as a serial killer spooking them at night and following them around the woods and being creepy. You could choose to have the extra scary teen experience or something a little more tame for the kiddies, you know. Built that place out in the woods with a bunch of elaborate secret tunnels and security cameras everywhere and all sorts of cool things.)) Marco told his tale as the group started to fly over the amusement park. His voice darkened with faux seriousness. ((But then…something went…wrong. The camp was abandoned…never to be used. Rotting there in the woods. They say that sometimes you can see lights coming from the camp and hear the rotten screams of animatronic spookies and ghosts and wooohooooooooo.))
((What is a 'spooky'?)) Ax asked, puzzled.
((It's a word for scary, and that last part is ridiculous. Ghosts and spirits aren't real.)) Tanya snorted. ((But if you are right and there is a bunch of unused equipment out there it means I'll have an easier time converting it into a hideout.))
((Not afraid of the ghooooost?)) Marco whoooed again.
((No.))
((What is a ghost? Is it some sort of dangerous animal?)) Ax asked.
((It's the essence of a dead human come to haunt and linger where it died.)) Tanya explained. ((They do things like make objects float or throw things or make places cold))
((Humans leave behind enough mental energy to do this when deceased?)) Ax asked, astonished.
((No, Ax. It's just a way for morons like Marco to scare people)) Rachel said, and Tanya had never known that someone could roll their eyes with their tone, but somehow Rachel managed it. ((It closed down because parents were a bit too paranoid about letting their kids wander around the woods with weirdos in Freddy costumes. Also, it was way too expensive.))
((As long as no one goes there and I can get the security system up and running, and if it does have enough things laying around I can use it. And it's close enough that I can fly to town in about…ah, thirty minutes. It's a little further away than Tobias' meadow but not as far away as the Hork-Bajir valley.)) Tanya mused.
((Well, tomorrow is Sunday. I can pop in and look around with you. See, if it is haunted you guys will need an expert to protect you. I mean, if there's something strange lurking in the woods, who else you gonna call?)) Marco laughed.
((Father Merrin and Father Karras?)) Tanya snorted.
((Huh? Who?)) Marco asked.
((The priests from the Exorcist.)) Tanya sighed.
((Wait, you've seen the Exorcist?)) Tobias asked. ((I've never seen the Exorcist…is really as good as people say?))
((First, why is everyone always surprised when I bring up a movie? You saw our vcr at the Pond. Rachel ate our dvd player. Yes, I've seen the Exorcist. I didn't like it as much as I like Poltergeist.))
((It's just…you really don't seem like the type of person to be into horror films.)) Tobias said.
((Look, when Nosedive is the one buying the tapes and the dvds, you learn to accept what he brings, even if it's weird.)) Tanya said. ((It's better than the time he thought me and Mallory needed a 'girly film' night…granted I've never slept better but still.))
((Oh no, what did he show you?)) Rachel asked.
((Singing in the Rain. My Fair Lady. And…umm…)) Tanya trailed off. ((I honestly can't remember the third one. I was asleep. I think the cover had some…woman with a flower pot coming out of her head, or something like that? I don't remember. I honestly don't even remember if that one had singing. Like I said I fell asleep))
((Wasn't Grease, was it?)) Cassie asked.
((No, no, it didn't have a car…I just can't remember it was so boring.)) Tanya sighed. ((At some point I remember Mallory just gathering up popcorn kernels and flicking them at Nosedive to entertain herself. Honestly was paying more attention to that. I mean, horror movies are weird but that was the worst night ever.))
((Well, we have to break off and head home. Anyone who wants to go with Tanya to see the murder camp can go, but I have to be home for family time. My mom keeps giving me hints about never being there.)) Jake flapped his wings and headed for his house. ((I'll see most of you at school))
((Yeah, sorry. I got a gymnastics thing.)) Rachel peeled off. ((If you find a slasher, remember to trip Marco. You only need be faster than the guy next to you in a horror movie!))
((Oh haha. Like the mighty Xena wouldn't try and feed Jason his machete!)) Marco laughed. ((I'll see you guys there at around noon, okay?))
((And I have some work to do in the Clinic.)) Cassie said. ((Good luck, though. I hope it works out for you.))
For a moment Tanya was silent as she, Ax and Tobias flew towards the woods, then she said. ((You guys don't have to come along. I'm not even sure why Marco is.))
((I don't mind. I don't think I've ever been there.)) Tobias said. ((Might be interesting.))
((I would like to know more about these human 'ghosts.' I'm not sure I fully understand what they are.))
((Okay. Spooky camp and ghost stories tomorrow. Sounds like a plan.)) Tanya agreed.
During the Unknown
"And then, the next day, the townsfolk found old Gunpowder by the side of the road, but there was no sign of Ichabod Crane. All that was left was a smashed pumpkin, and a few scorch marks." Marco said in the same 'spooky' voice he used the night before.
((…and humans believe this?)) Ax asked incredulously.
((No, no Ax-man. It's just for fun.)) Tobias said.
"You guys are so not fun, I swear. Lighten up, we're in a creepy camp in the middle of the woods. All that's missing is the smores and the teenage idiots getting freaky." Marco rolled his eyes.
((Freaky?)) Ax asked.
"H-human teenagers and their mating rituals. Don't ask, they're, ya know, weird." Tanya advised as she eyed the suspicious looking trap door in the middle of the forest. It had been built into a very convincing model of a tree but a close inspection revealed that it was a fake tree. A fake tree big enough for a large man to fit through. It wouldn't have fit Grin, but Wildwing could have made it. "This thing is so rusty. Gonna need some lubra…umm, something to oil it. Loosen it." Where was Duke when you needed him?
((I can help.)) Ax said, and he swung his tail at the rusted lock on the tree door. It swung open with an incredibly creepy shriek. The door in the tree was now wide open. Peering down Tanya could see the tunnel leading downwards, a rusty old series of handholds the only way down.
"Now I'm all for just walking into a hole in a fake tree in the ground into who knows where with who knows what waiting for us down below, but I think I'm going to go down there as a bat. Anyone else think it's a good idea to be a bat about now?" Marco asked.
"Yeah, I don't have a bat morph…but I can try the hyena, I guess. If there is something down there I'd probably be better off as a hyena than a duck. And I need to practice it anyway, right?"
((Wow, she's actually going to practice a morph before a battle. How refreshing.)) Marco laughed. He was swiftly finishing the bat morph.
"You guys d-don't?" Tanya asked.
((Oh no, we just fly by the seat of our pants and hope it turns out alright.)) Marco replied.
"Oh…ummm…yeah." She had no idea how to respond to that.
By now both Marco and Ax were bats and had flown down the tunnel. ((Oh, it's not that bad a drop. You can come on in, Tanya. Hyena or no, you'll be fine either way.)) Marco said.
Tanya shrugged. The kids might not practice, but Tanya did. She wasn't going to get into the habit of being sloppy. So she began to morph the hyena for the first time. Her feathers rippled as they changed from feather to fur, a small wave of alteration that flowed from her head to her feet. Spots erupted from the fur, again going down her body in a wave pattern. Her knees twisted, forming into the hyena back legs and she fell forwards. Fortunately, she didn't have to fall far as her arms were forming into hyena's front legs. She was an almost fully formed hyena, minus a tail but with a duck's head. Then, her beak sort of flowed, narrowing into a muzzle and two round ears popped out of her head. Then, the teeth finally came in. Long, sharp, backed by a powerful jaw and strong neck muscles meant to bite and tear into a fully grown wildebeest or zebra. The very last thing was the short tail. With the tail shooting out and standing straight up, Tanya was now fully a hyena.
She waited, not sure what the hyena's brain would hold.
She was expecting some sort of all consuming hunger. A bloodthirsty desire to hunt and kill and destroy all in her path. But the mind enveloped her, and it was nothing like that. The hyena was calm, confident. It knew if needed to find prey it could. Everything was prey to the hyena, with one very important exception. The clan. Where was the clan? It was concerning, almost distressing, being alone. Alone was bad. Sure, she could survive if she needed to. The hyena was a naturally confident animal, assured of its strength and ability. It didn't necessarily need the clan, but it wanted the clan. It wanted others of its kind with a familiar yearning.
The hyena sniffed the air. Not a single scent of another hyena. Oh, there were many smells. Different kinds of ape, a strange smell of some strange animal. Birds, other predators like her, and prey. Soft prey. Weak prey. Not her normal tough prey. It would be easy to take this prey down. But no clan. Her nose could detect scents from miles away. She knew where to find the prey, how healthy they were, how many there were. She could smell the odd cooked meat that the ape had for breakfast. She could smell the deer creature had run through wet dew before coming to this spot. She could smell the remains of blood on the talons of the red-tailed bird perched just out of reach. But still, no clan.
That was wrong.
She let out a lonely, searching whoop but there was no answer.
((Hey, Tanya. It's okay. It's the hyena's mind. You need to snap out of it. Remember the tunnel, right?))
The hyena froze. A less intelligent animal would have dismissed the sound in her head. The hyena didn't understand what it was, that it was in her mind, but it knew it 'heard' something. Her ears swiveled around as she began to laugh in frustration, but she couldn't detect what or where the sound had come from. Now the hyena was becoming wary. Not nervous, not scared, but it knew that at some point she would have to fight, and she was prepared.
((Oooookay, Tanya. Do that on a dark night and absolutely no one is going to want to come back here. But you need to focus now. Think about hockey. Remember hockey? The ice and pucks and the sticks? Remember skating during a game and shooting a puck at a goal?))
The hyena paused. Wait…hockey?
Tanya blinked, then sort of shivered. ((Ummm, what?))
((Don't worry about it. Happens to all of us. Especially if it's a mouse or a rat or something. Those things are in constant fear. Sometimes the animal mind just takes over, but once you've morphed a few times and know what to expect you get the hang of it.))
((It's…weird. It wants to find other hyenas. I think it wants other hyenas more than it wants to find food.)) Tanya said.
((Huh…weird. I thought hyenas were supposed to be pretty dumb.))
((Oh no, it's not dumb at all. It's pretty smart, and I think it's really social. It can tell it doesn't have a clan and that's upsetting it.)) Tanya sniffed again. Now that she was more in control, she couldn't help but marvel at the new sense. She never could smell that well in her duck form, not even as well as the other ducks. Her allergies always kept her stopped up. She knew she always sounded stopped up because she was. But now her sense of smell was beyond even her friends. It was like being blind all her life and suddenly,% she could see. The eyes weren't bad either. She could see things, but the colors were off. She could have been able to tell the difference between a puck launcher and a Saurian heavy blaster, but she couldn't have crossed the wires to disable either or reconfigure either, because she would never have been able to tell what color the wires were. But the hyena had no need for that anyway. All it needed its eyes for was to spot a limping antelope. The ears caught every sound and whisper of the forest. The hyena had evolved to be a hunter, a creature meant to stalk and find the weakest of the herd and take it down, surround it with the hyena's clan and bring it down.
((Hey, you coming down or are going to sit there laughing at yourself all day?)) Marco's voice came from the hole in the ground.
There's your clan, hyena brain. Tanya thought to herself. That's your clan. Let's go down and join your clan.
She wasn't sure if the hyena actually understood, or if the instincts had just been guided and merged into her own. But the hyena seemed…satisfied. Even if she couldn't see the clan, they were there.
(Her cubs were there.)
She leaped down the tunnel and landed at the bottom. To her joy she could see well even in the darkness of the tunnel. The tunnel itself was well made for humans. Metal and steel with dead lights above her. She sniffed, vaguely detecting the various critters and bugs that had accessed the tunnels. She could even see a few spider webs, as well as a pair of bats clinging to a ceiling light.
((Well, if you can get power here, you'll have a good escape route.)) Marco said.
((Yep. Let's see where this goes.)) Tanya said, another small 'chuckle' escaping.
((I believe there is a larger area up ahead.)) Ax said.
((How…oh right, echolocation.)) Tanya strode forwards, stiff sniffing. With the assurance that she was not alone the hyena's mind now simply radiated that same confidence and self-assurance from before. With the two bats that the hyena now identified as her clan the hyena was perfectly at ease. The fact that she was in a strange small dark place was irrelevant. She could handle anything that moved.
Honestly, it was nice to feel that way. Unless she was in the throes of a creative invention craze or working to sabotage a computer Tanya never felt that kind of confidence. She imagined this was what people like…well like how everyone else on her team felt.
Like how DeCoy felt.
Oh, that sent a little chill down her spine. Maybe she should be careful with this. The hyena's confidence was great, but she couldn't let herself get arrogant and cocky. She could use the hyena's instincts just like she thought, but she couldn't let them override her own common sense.
It didn't take long for them to come to a door at the end of the hallway. ((I believe I can take care of this again.)) Ax said as he began to morph back to Andalite. Tanya backed up, clamping down on the hyena's predatory instincts. But the hyena brain gave her no trouble.
Ax swung his tail and opened the door with another scream of metal. Then he pushed the door open with his hoof.
((Oh, this is prefect.)) Tanya whooped, unable to fully contain the hyena's urge to express her excitement.
It was a spacious basement, divided into four sections. In one corner was a large computer system and security camera set up. It was off and without power, but even with her hyena eyes she could see that the computers would5 be easily fixed. In fact, she suspected that this place would control the entire operation here. On the opposite corner was a break room of sorts. A carpeted area with a tv and a couch, ready to be converted to a small sort of living room. Next to this area in the third corner was a small kitchenette with a microwave, a coffee maker and a fridge. Cautiously Tanya opened the fridge with a paw and sighed with relief. It was empty. Also, no power, but there was no rotten food. The last corner consisted of another small room which a closer inspection revealed a toilet and a sink.
((Cool. Bring in an air mattress and you got yourself an apartment.)) Marco said. ((Granted you also have like, fifty kinds of spider but I'm pretty sure we can take care of that.))
((It'll take a bit of work to get it up and running, especially since I'll have to hook up my own power and water, ya know, without attracting attention from the city. But it's doable.)) Tanya paced around the area. ((And the hyena can't smell a single human in the area. It's been so long the scents gone totally cold.))
((There are other doors leading from this central area.)) Ax said. ((I believe they will lead to the other abandoned buildings and that)) He pointed at a staircase leading upwards. ((Would perhaps lead to another building.))
Tanya trotted up the stairs, only to encounter another door. This one, however, was easily opened by a paw. She found herself staring at a standard-looking cabin living room. Or at least it would be standard if the place wasn't decorated with both fake and real cobwebs, a wooden alter of some kind with a fake pig head in the corner, a few rusty looking but still fake weapons on a far wall, deep scratches and fake blood stains on the walls and the shine of cameras in discreet places.
"Ah, the killers lair." Marco had decided to morph back to human. "And look at that, our wall here is a secret passage." He pointed at the door that Tanya had just opened. There was indeed a fake bookcase attached to the door, concealing the entrance to the control room in the basement.
((Ya know, I think this will work out.)) Tanya said. It was no Pond. It was no big underground base. She wouldn't be able to create another Migrator down here. But it could work, at least temporarily.
It wasn't long, in fact it was the next day, when Tanya found herself once again in human morph, at the mall.
Desperately trying to keep Ax away from her chili cheese fries.
Apparently, while she and the other three were inspecting creepy abandoned campsites, Rachel and Cassie had gone someplace called the Dry Lands to look at a crazy human's horse. According to them this horse had been a Controller. For some reason communicating this incident to the others required that they all show up at the mall, after Rachel dragged Cassie around the stores looking for an outfit for Cassie. Even though they were at the mall a few days earlier, Rachel seemed determined to buy Cassie outfits. Tanya could only be thankful that she had escaped the Mad Mall Crawler's obsession with fashion.
Now she just had to deal with the Food Thief.
Ax's human morph was different than Tanya's. He was more of an olive color than she was, and according to the others he was 'a pretty looking guy'. She wasn't sure about that. What she was sure of was that Ax in human morph was more irritating than regular arrogant Andalite Ax. For one thing he kept trying to steal her fries.
His human eyes fixated on the fries as he reached across the table. "Mmmmm, Cheese. Cha-ess. Ez"
That was the other thing. At first Tanya thought the Andalite was spontaneously mocking her, but no. He wasn't stuttering he was just repeating whatever sounds his mouth made. According to Jake it was just something he did in human morph. It was very annoying, but she could have handled it as long as he kept his mitts off her food.
Tanya practically growled and stabbed his grasping hand with her plastic fork. "No. Mine. Off." It was like dealing with a sleep deprived Nosedive. The two were across from each other and he was almost laying on top of the table as he made grabby hands for her fries. The others watched in mile amusement. Even Tobias, who has somehow through the Ellimist's trickery had acquired his old human body, was clearly amused.
(Tanya didn't know why the Ellimist had warped space and time so Tobias could have access to his old human body, thereby making the boy now have to chose between becoming trapped again as human or remain a hawk in the fight, but she was starting to dislike the interfering pest more and more.)
"Okay, that's enough." Jake sighed. "Hey, Rachel, mind getting him something before she breaks his fingers."
"I will if he keeps it up. He can morph out of it." Tanya made more stabbing motions at Ax, who gave her a bewildered look.
"But. There is much grease and salt. It's delicious. Licious. De-de-licious." He sort of smacked his lips. "I like that word."
Tanya pointed her fork at his eyes. "I might be a human girl right now, but I do know how to slam you against a wall. It'd be easy. No ice here."
Jake rolled his eyes. "Have either of you even heard what we've been talking about?" He asked.
"Yeah. Rachel and Cassie were out in the desert with Cassie's dad trying to take care of a horse with a snake bite, and a Yeerk crawled out of its ear. It then got shot by what you think was a Dracon beam."
"It was a Dracon beam." Cassie insisted.
"And then the crazy woman that lives out there says that it's because there are aliens out in the desert and your government is hiding the evidence out there at 'Zone 91'" Tanyas eyes never left Ax's hands as she stuffed a fry into her mouth. Ax gave a sad little whimper as it vanished.
"…okay, yeah, that's the gist of it." Jake said.
"I'm sure you know all about the Most Secret Place on Earth." Marco said, giving Tanya a rather strange smirk, like he knew something that he knew she was hiding but was sure that she didn't know what he knew.
"I know there's nothing out there." Tanya said, swallowing the fry.
"How do you know that?" Cassie asked.
Tanya made a barrier with her hands as she finally looked at Cassie. "Because if there was an alien engine or weapon or anything potentially useful Dragaunus would have already tried to steal it and we would have stopped him. I've never been to this zone and there's nothing within twenty miles of the place that ever pinged on Drake One. So, if there is a big secret there is something military in origin, but nothing important that would attract a Saurian overlord. If there is something alien, and I'm not saying there isn't, then that something isn't anything that would give the Yeerks an advantage."
"Also, horse-Controllers." Rachel pointed out as she slammed a cinnamon bun and a plate of chili cheese fries in front of Ax, who instantly stopped fixating on Tanya's food to plant his face in the bun. Literally. It was like he thought he was the horse. "It's just too weird."
"So, I take you don't want to go out to the Dry lands with these four." Jake nodded at Cassie, Rachel, Marco and Tobias, who already had volunteered.
"Honestly, if you need me to go I will, but I'd like start making that campsite livable." Tanya said, shifting a bit more out of range of Ax, just in case. Not just to protect her own food but to keep out of the splash zone.
"Alright, that's fair." Jake said. "We'll let you know if something happens. Don't just all leave at once."
"Should go anyway. It's time." Tanya nodded at a wall clock, and Jake nodded in understanding. She finished the last of the fries and slipped away. This time she wouldn't have to use the bus. She just needed to find an empty alley behind the mall and morph from human to duck to goshawk. It was almost easier to do that than use the Migrator. It was at least more discrete.
But horse-Controllers. Seriously.
((So, let me get the rest of this straight.)) Tanya flapped her seagull wings as she flew behind the others. ((You went out to the Dry Lands. Got immediately caught by the military. You decided to tell them you were the characters from X-files, expect Cassie because she could only think of Cindy Crawford as an alias.))
((Yep.)). Marco said, way too cheerful.
((You escaped by becoming cockroaches, then found horses acting weird. Horses that get embarrassed from…doing what wild horses do.))
((Exactly.))
((Now, for some reason, we are all flying the racetrack, to acquire racehorses, to sneak onto a base with horse-Controllers to find whatever it is the horse-Controllers are looking for.))
((You're really good at summarizing.)) Marco said, still way to happy about all of this. ((Wait guys, do you see that? It's an entire hoagie! I mean it's got everything and it's just sitting in that garbage can!))
((There's a peanut butter cup under it, if you slide closer to where I am you can see it.)) Tanya commented. She couldn't help but join in to the weird seagull brain's habit of pointing out food. They all did it. ((But does anyone else think this is…ah…ridiculous?))
((This situation is ridiculous?)) Marco laughed. ((You think this is ridiculous? My friend you have not even scratched the surface of Animoph's Insane Missions. I mean, you just traded a nice underground base for a haunted attraction that time forgot, a space laser for a hyena morph and a souped up duck tank for a seagull and a hawk. Trust me, this will not be the dumbest thing you'll do as an Animorph.))
((Reassuring.)) Tanya grumbled. ((Hold up, does anyone else see that pie? I thought that was just in cartoons, I didn't think humans really set out pies on window sills…))
((Apple or cherry?)) Cassie asked.
((I have no idea.)) Tanya admitted.
The racetrack came into view, and Tanya tried very hard not to laugh. Horses were some of the weirder looking animals, at least to her. It was the giant nose, just sitting there on the end of the face. She had no idea how humans rode the things, let alone raced them around a dirt track for entertainment.
As soon as the group found a stall to demorph in a thought occurred to her.
((Guys, I'm not sure that it will fit the five of us and Ax at the same time.)) Tanya commented as she landed on the wall of the stall. According to the kids you couldn't acquire another animal unless you were in your original body. For Tobias now that body was the hawk. For Tanya and Ax that means their natural bodies. Tanya estimated they could fit either her or Ax and the four human kids, but not all of them.
((I need to go find my own horse to acquire. Maybe she can go with me. I could keep watch for her.)) Tobias said.
((Alright, we should be fine. You two go find your own horses.)) Jake said.
((Back to airborne Tom and Jerry we go.)) Tobias laughed as he launched himself into the air, Tanya following. It didn't take them that long to find a brown stallion with an empty stable next to him. All Tanya would have to do was morph in the empty stable, reach over and touch the animal.
((Alright, looks clear.)) Tobias briefly landed on a light grey mare and acquired it, still sort of watching Tanya as she huddled in the stall. Already she could feel her eyes starting to water and they started to feel irritated. She'd have to do this and get back into her bird morph as quickly as possible. This giant smelly barn was horrible.
Tanya had just finished acquiring the brown stallion when there was a commotion back where the other kids were. Tanya peered over the wooden wall of the stall to see the kids charging for them, Ax demorphing back to his human form and a small horde of stable hands coming in behind.
((Oh no! What did they do! We weren't even gone five minutes!)) Tobias yelled as Tanya ducked back into the stall, crouching low to the ground. Unfortunately, she took a somewhat deep breath as she did so. Almost instantly she felt the horrible sensation of her throat closing up and she started to wheeze. The human stable hands didn't hear her, mostly because they were focused on the fleeing kids in skin tight clothing and what they thought was a blue horse, but any of them could peer in and see her.
Struggling to focus Tanya thought of the seagull again. If she managed to morph she thought that the seagull form would stop the allergy attack from happening. Aside from not being able to breathe she didn't want the humans to find her. So, still gasping for air that simply refused to go down her closing throat, Tanya shrank down and became less ducklike and more seagull.
Finally, just as she was sure she was going to pass out, Tanya found herself fully seagull and able to breathe again. She took a few deep breaths from her seagull beak, relieved.
((Hey, you okay…that's like what happened at the construction site. You good?)) Tobias asked, clearly concerned.
((Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why but it's worse during Earth summers. Was really really bad when the weather started to change.)) Tanya flicked her seagull tail, still a bit agitated.
((Hmmm, might be the pollen in the air during spring. I hear that can agitate people's allergies.)) Tobias said thoughtfully. ((Either way, come on, we have to find the others.)) He took wing and flew out of the stables, mentally calling for the others as he did so. She flapped her wings and followed again, eventually landing on a roof of what she assumed was a ticket booth. Or at least some place where the humans were gathering and giving money and saying something about the horses and oh. They were gambling. That made sense. How in the world these weird looking animals and their thin stick legs were supposed to go fast in any capacity was a mystery to Tanya.
She briefly scanned the crowd and blinked. Oh, there was Marco…in the gambling line. What?
((Marco, what are you doing?)) She asked. ((I can see you down there.))
He was unable to use thought speak as a normal human, but he did sort of turn his hand upwards to reveal a five dollar bill.
((Marco, why are you betting money on the horses?)) She asked. He just smirked.
((Hey, Tobias, I found Marco. He's apparently gambling, have you found anyone?))
((Yeah, I found Cassie. Ummm, she's a horse.))
((…there's more to this, isn't there?))
((Oh yeah, she's down on the racetrack. Number twenty-four.)) Tobias said. She wasn't sure if he found this amusing or exhausting.
((Oh, you are kidding…))
"Hi, I'd like five dollars on number twenty-four, please!" Marco's upbeat voice somehow managed to ring through the crowd of other humans placing bets.
((Oh, you have got to be kidding…))
They weren't.
The worst part about the entire deal was Cassie won. Normally Tanya would be thankful that it had gone so well. Upon reflection the entire incident could have gone so much worse. Unfortunately, this incident set Marco off again.
((We can circle through everyone, just think about it. One of us can go, morph the horse, win the race and the others bet and-))
((And eventually people will find it a bit strange that the same group of kids is able to predict what horse wins.)) Tanya said, exhausted with him. The boy could talk when he wanted to. She had finally reached the conclusion he was worse than Nosedive. She never thought it was possible but there it was. ((And besides that, how are you going to register an identical horse? Do you even know how one resister a horse for these races? You don't think people will get a little suspicious of an identical clone of an award-winning racehorse?))
((But think of all the cash we could win-))
((Honestly if you want to go that route, we could just open our own stable and con people that way. Just buy a random racehorse and…and I don't even know how the process works or how to hire a rider-))
((Jockey)) Cassie helpfully provided.
((Or anything like that…)) Tanya sighed. She made a promise to herself to never let Marco ever have a conversation with Phil.
((Alright, settle down.)) Jake said, like a parent quieting the kids at the back of the van. ((We still have to morph these horses and sneak onto the base with the horse-Controllers. Just land, morph horse, and follow the ones that act weird.))
Tanya let the children's chatter sort of wash over her as they began to morph the horses. She had been avoiding thinking about it, but right now they were about to break into a military base. Granted, it was a human one, not a duck one, but it still made her jumpy. It was weird, she had been around these places in passing with the ducks, but it was usually in the context of an emergency, an unavoidable necessity with a crisis she could concentrate on. She was convinced there was nothing at this place to see, that both them and the Yeerks were wasting their time. Without a crisis to handle, and with having to go onto a base in her near future, she couldn't help but feel a twisting sensation in her gut.
It wouldn't be like the ones back home. It wouldn't. Humans didn't lock other species away in bases because of what they were. At least she didn't think they did. There were no other intelligent native life forms on Earth. It was fine. It would be fine.
The horse morph was significantly less appealing than most of the other morphs. Granted she hadn't tried the fly or the cockroach yet, but the horse was so far at the bottom. She couldn't take the thin legs and huge nose seriously. Humans really rode these? Yes, they did, Nosedive had forced them to watch some movie about a place called Tombstone once. She had seen the humans riding these things, but for some reason they just seemed sillier in real life than they did on the screen. Film techniques she supposed. Although the comparisons that the kids made between Andalites and horses now made a little more sense. The horse mind was high strung and nervous, and it really really wanted to fight Cassie's morph. From the occasional snorts directed her way Tanya was fairly sure that Cassie's horse felt the same way.
((You had to pick that stallion…)) Cassie muttered.
((Yeah, what is with this thing? It really wants to fight you and I don't know why.)) Tanya said. ((I mean, I have a handle on it, but it's irritating.))
((I think it's because we're the only ones with dominate stallions. The others got mares. Our horses want to fight each other over the mares.)) Cassie said, unable to keep her horse hoof from pawing at the ground.
((The Hork-Bajir thing was bad enough. We really don't need the pair of you getting into a horse fight.)) Jake pointed out.
((Two dudes fighting over a gaggle of ladies. It's like high school is already here.)) Marco laughed.
((It's fine, I got it. It's just a bit distracting.)) Tanya deliberately turned away from Cassie, who had gotten the wayward hoof under control. ((Those your modest horses?))
((Yep. Poor things desperately looking for a place to go.)) Rachel laughed. ((Honestly, you're right Tanya. This is just…I don't know guys. If we ever survive this war can we just skip this particular story for our grandkids?))
((Fine by me. Let's go.)) Jake sighed as he trotted out to join the herd. Despite the general unbelievability of the situation Tanya did notice that a few of the horses gave them almost suspicious glares. The others, the ones that she had to assume weren't Controllers, just sort of ignored them.
She almost wished they could back to talking about horses and modesty because as soon as they simply trotted into the base Tanya felt that sinking feeling again. It didn't have the…area that remembered from when she was a kid, and the soldiers didn't look at all like duck soldiers, but there was a very similar air to them. With Mallory it wasn't as bad. She was just one special forces member. She was Tanya's friend, and no matter how many times she got military it just didn't have the same impact. But now she was surrounded by soldiers and it just reminded her of how much she hated these places and how much she didn't want to be here.
She tried to shake the feelings off. The horses were splitting up, and Jake told her to go with Marco, Rachel and Ax while he went the other way with the other two. Frankly she assumed he didn't want either her or Cassie to get into a 'horse fight'. Probably smart.
((Well…this is a nice place.)) Rachel commented in a bored tone, trying to distract herself. Maybe not a bad idea.
((So…humans really ride these things?)) Tanya asked, desperate for some kind of conversation at all.
((Yeah. I guess you people don't have horses. I mean, Ax's people are the horses, but you guys must have something you ride, right? Other than duck tanks I mean.)) Rachel asked.
((Andalites are far superior to horses.)) Ax said matter of factly.
((We have two.)) Tanya focused on Rachel's question.
((Wait, two what?))
((Two creatures that ducks can ride.)) Tanya said, glad to focus on something else. ((They don't look at all like horses, except that they have four legs. You have targia, they're…well they kind of look like four legged ostriches. Foul tempered, mean, bit dumb. Very pretty though. Usually have very long, very fluffy looking feathers. People use them because they're very attractive looking, but like I said they're mean and stupid. Set off my allergies like crazy. I can't get near them. Tried once because the…people that raised me wanted our group to learn how to ride, just in case. Darn thing nearly decapitated me when I got to close. Nasty things.)) She knew she sounded just a bit bitter. She couldn't really help it. She could remember the laughter of the soldiers mixed with the terrified cries of the other Scaleborn as the targia slashed its talons at her head. She never liked them after that.
((Yikes. Are other ones any better?)) Marco asked.
((Oh, a lot better, they just aren't as popular. Shuubek are…well they're basically lizards. Big lizards kinda shaped somewhat like wolves. They're ambush predators, but they are very smart and they have a tendency to bond easily with the people that ride them. And no feathers, so they don't set off allergies.)) Tanya mentally shrugged to herself.
((Why even use the first type, when the second type are smarter and easier to handle?)) Ax asked.
((Public perception, mostly. Ducks really don't like any kind of lizards, and Shuubek are lizards. Also, since they are stealthy ambush predators, they're really good at our equivalent of cattle rustling. They have a reputation of being used by criminals and villains, and since they so easily bond with their riders they often fight back with them in a crisis.)) Tanya paused for a second, then continued. . ((I actually used to have one back home, sort of. Helped me during the Saurian occupation. It was harder to find vehicles and maintain equipment because of all the Saurian hunter robots around, so I used him to make quick escapes.))
((Huh, so you did have a pet?)) Rachel asked.
((Well, like I said he doesn't set off allergies, and it's hard to maintain a duck tank in the middle of a warzone surrounded by robots. At the very least you don't have to make repairs to a Shuubek, just feed em. And they eat just about everything. Omnivores. But…when our team went to destroy Dragaunus's master tower we sort of went in knowing we might not make it back. I didn't want to drag him into that when we had the Aerowing to make our escape. So, he's still home somewhere.))
((Have to make sure Cassie never visits. She'll want a sample of everything over there.)) Marco chuckled.
By now the two groups of horses, some Controllers, some Animorphs and a few real horses, converged outside the hanger were the great secret of Zone 91 was held. Or at least that was what Tanya assumed they were doing. They were basically just following the horse-Controller's lead. When the group of horse-Controllers simply charged in, past the soldiers and the guards the Animorphs followed, hoping to learn the secret of Zone 91.
It turned out the secret of Zone 91 was an Andalite toilet. Or a 'modular waste disposal system'. Ax was…not happy about telling this to the rest of the group (he actually seemed rather sheepish), hours later after they had all escaped both the soldiers and an angry Visser Three. The horse-Controllers had never been on an Andalite Dome ship, so they hadn't known that the great secret of the human military base was an Andalite 'waste disposal'. This made Visser Three decide the best way to motivate his troops was go to the site in person, kill a few of them, scream at them, then try to kill the other horses that had started to follow around the horse-Controllers. According to Cassie the wild horses simply were following their natural instinct to herd, but Visser Three was paranoid enough to kill just about any animal on sight. The Animorphs, and the wild horses, still managed to escape, but the Yeerks had no idea what they had found.
Tanya wondered if they were better off that way. The entire thing was just…embarrassing. She'd rather take a full ride of Anaheim on Nosedive's Zamboni than deal with any more Andalite portable ship equipment.
Tanya planned to spend the next day working on a new portable ventilation system for the camp. Something that could filter out all of the allergens out of the cave (and the dust) so that she could live there in her normal body without the allergies reaching the point of choking her to death. They weren't practical enough to carry around normally, but a few of the boxlike structures she was planning on making and scattering around the underground tunnels would work to keep the place relatively clean. It wasn't going to be a totally sterile environment, but it would work.
It was not to be.
((Hey, we have another problem.)) Came Tobias's voice. Tanya groaned and gently thumped her head a few times on her workbench before leaving the Aerowing to glare up at the red tailed hawk/boy.
"What?"
((Cassie figures that Visser Three is going to go after the soldiers at that base tonight at the Gardens. They've rented the place and a whole bunch of them are going to be there to get infested.))
Tanya sighed again. "W-why are we still, umm, dealing with the little Andalite's room?"
((Honestly, we just don't want to have a bunch of military people under the Yeerk's control at this point. Cassie assumes that even if they figure out what the big secret is they'll still want to keep any evidence of aliens away from people's attention. And again, why let them have so many new potentially valuable hosts?))
"Fine. Fine…"
As it turned out the Animorphs, Ax and Tanya were about an hour late to the party at the Gardens due to Cassie not understanding how to tell military time. Figuring that there were only two places that the Yeerks could infest a person in (it would be hard to shove a Yeerk in someone riding a rollercoaster), Jake determined they would either be at the log ride of the house of horrors.
So, even though she really wanted to be working on her filtration system, not defending the world's most well guarded toilet, Tanya found herself flying over the Garden's, circling the house of horrors. To her utter annoyance their group (which not only included her but also included Tobias, Ax and Rachel), found a group of Hork-Bajir attempting to sneak into the attraction.
((Okay, no time to get the others. I vote we go down into the house, find a place to hide, morph, and wait to ambush them. They'll want to snatch people in the dark. We just have to spring the trap when they go for someone.)) Rachel mused.
((Think they'll be after anyone in particular?)) Tobias asked.
((I don't know. Maybe the captain guy we met when we got caught in human morph? Torrelli I think his name was. Hopefully he doesn't spot Marco or Cassie. Marco decided to call himself Fox Mulder and gave him the number for the Sports Scoreboard recording.)) Rachel laughed. ((Me, I was nice enough to give him Pizza Hut. Let me tell you guys something though, never take poor Cassie spying with you. She's a horrible liar. Can't believe all she could think of as an alias was Cindy Crawford…))
((I know at least two people with worse naming skills.)) Tanya said as they started to land. ((Girl I knew when I was a kid named Lucy. She was Scaleborn too. Ended up betraying all of us to the Saurians and renamed herself Lucrecia DeCoy as an alias. Used to do a lot of spying for Dragaunus.))
((Yeech, a spy named Decoy? Really? Okay, yeah, that's worse. Might as well call yourself Spyson McSneaky or something like that.)) Tobias laughed. ((What's the other worse name?))
((Otto Matton. It's a bit more subtle than DeCoy, but the guy now goes by Dr. Droid and he's obsessed with machines.))
There was a slight pause and Ax stared at her with both of his main eyes as his stalk eyes poked themselves out from his owl head.
((Automaton? As in a primitive form of a robot or an android?)) Ax asked.
((Yep.))
There was a long pause, then Rachel shook her head. For a moment she was fully human. "Wow, his parents must have hated him." Her head of blonde hair began to grew shaggy and brown as she started to morph bear.
"I can only assume so." Tanya focused on the hyena. This time the fangs grew first, poking out of her beak and making her look like a sharp toothed vampire duck. Then, the rest of the morph kicked in.
As they finished they slunk into the house of horrors, Tanya leading the way as the hyena had good night vision. Tobias' hawk eyes didn't work to well in the dark, and Rachel's grizzly could barely see period. Ax had chosen to morph a rattlesnake and draped himself over Rachel's neck. But the inside of the house of horrors was just bright enough so Tanya could see just as well as she could have in bright light.
They set themselves up near a fake graveyard, just in time to see the Visser and six of his Hork-Bajir slink into the room and pause, as if they were also trying to blend into the scenery of flashing lights, fake tombstones and recorded spooky noises. At first Tanya wasn't sure that the Yeerks was going to buy it, but they either couldn't really make out that Rachel was a bit to realistic or they didn't know that humans wouldn't put a grizzly in a graveyard. Maybe if they were all half morphed and looked more like monsters instead of animals.
For a few minutes the two groups stood apart, a silent stand off that only one group knew was an actual stand off. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Tanya noticed that one of the cars coming for them contained Jake and the others. She had just enough time to register the scent of Cassie's anxiety before the girl began to yell about them going for Torrelli. Not that Tanya had any idea which human that was. There was one younger human in the ride car with the three other Animorphs and another car with another group of humans behind them. One of the humans, an older male, was leaning forwards and giving Marco a look that suggested the human wanted to leap over the cars and strangle Marco.
Marco seemed to have that effect on most people.
As if Cassie's yell were a single the six Hork-Bajir bounded forwards to the car behind the kids (and the unknown human adult), reaching for the elder male and swiping at the other humans in the car with their blades. Rachel gave a terrifying bellow and surged forwards, grabbing Ax with her paw and whipping him forwards like a whip. Ax bite down on a Hork-Bajir, rattlesnake tail rattling in warning. Tobias took to the air, clawing and screeching in his hawk voice.
For a moment Tanya wasn't sure what to do, just like before when she first morphed the Hork-Bajir.
But the hyena knew what to do.
With a loud chuckling cry the hyena leaped over the cars rattling by them on the ride's tracks, leaping past the other three Animorphs as they ducked away to start their own morphs. She leaped on a Hork-Bajir that was attempting to circle around and behind Rachel. Before the big alien could slash at Rachel Tanya found her long teeth and crushing jaws tightly gripping on the Hork-Bajir's tail. The Hork-Bajir bellowed and attempted to swing his blades at her, but the hyena knew enough to let go and leap back, still laughing at the enemies and baring her teeth. The hyena's sinister laughter mixed in rather well with the darkness of the ride, making it seem like an exciting portion of the entertainment, rather than the deadly fight that it was. She darted in and slashed at the Hork-Bajir's arm with her teeth, ripping off a fair portion of his flesh and almost biting off his elbow blade.
It was clear that while Tanya herself was clueless, the hyena knew how to fight.
All of a sudden the Hork-Bajir broke off and fled. For a second Tanya was confused, then she saw Visser Three swing his tail at the wall and cut through to the outside. One of the Hork-Bajir had a claw on the human male that Cassie had told them to save and was pulling him out of the attraction and into the park itself.
((They're heading out!)) Tanya warned, and a new scent entered her nostrils as a wolf, Cassie, darted towards her, teeth bared.
((After them!)) Tanya hesitated only a second before following, making sure to lock onto Cassie's scent. She never got a good sniff at the human they were protecting, but she was sure from the way Cassie was acting that she had managed to do it with her wolf morph. So, Tanya followed her.
To the hyena it was terribly familiar. Cassie wasn't a hyena. In fact, hyenas aren't even related that much to wolves. But for some reason a quirk of evolution made both hyena and wolf pack animals that rely on keen senses, primarily smell, and fierce intelligence to catch and kill prey. Sure, one stalked the forest and the other the savannah, but the methods were similar enough. The hyena knew its odd looking clanmate had the scent, and it knew that with two of them the pretty would be taken down easily.
She just had to remind herself that the human wasn't prey.
And ignore the madness going on around them.
For some inexplicable reason the Gardens was having a parade. Tanya wasn't sure if this was a nightly thing or something special for the military families. What mattered was that they soon were surrounded by the sounds of three brass bands, cheering humans, marching humans and humans in cartoon character costumes. The entire thing was an overload to her hyena senses and it took all of her willpower not to snap at a young human hatchling who suddenly threw an arm around her and demanded that mommy take a picture of him with 'Ed'.
Who in the world 'Ed' was and why the human felt it was the right move to just grope a wild unknown animal was a mystery to Tanya. Maybe in the darkness they mistook her for a dog wearing a hyena suit? Either way Tanya successfully wiggled, without even scratching the human, out of the hatchling's grip and was darting after Cassie again, who had managed to keep laser focus on their prey. Tanya could no longer see Cassie, but she could still smell her.
She found Cassie squaring off with the last Hork-Bajir warrior. Low to the ground Tanya darted to the side, back legs bunched to throw herself at the prey and sink her fangs into the back of the Hork-Bajir's skull. It would be easy. The prey was distracted by her clanmate. It would be so easy to just launch herself and sink her teeth in. The force of her leap and her jaws would kill the prey instantly.
Kill the innocent Hork-Bajir trapped inside his own mind.
The thought was like a bucket of icy water and Tanya hesitated. She couldn't do it. Even with the hyena brain inside practically mapping out the route she should take, practically taking over for itself, she couldn't do it. She couldn't move her legs. She couldn't open her jaw. All she could do was sit there and snarl at the Hork-Bajir who, in that spit second of hesitation, turned and ran.
Tanya had no idea what she would have done if the Hork-Bajir had decided to fight. She almost didn't notice Visser Three racing past them. She turned her head, as if to follow them, but Cassie bumped her shoulder with her own.
((Wait.)) Cassie looked up at a particular, space themed ride. To Tanya's surprise a pair of strange ships that looked almost like cockroaches rose from the ride and blasted off. ((Those are Bug fighters, Yeerk ships. I think they're retreating. I think we did it!))
((…you sure?)) She asked.
((Yeah, I saw the captain escape. I think we did it. We should probably find somewhere to demorph…probably somewhere away from that parade back there…))
((Yeah, good idea.)) Tanya felt hollow. She didn't know why. She didn't want to kill, but how long could she avoid it? And what about next time? She kept hesitating, and it was only luck that the Hork-Bajir decided to run instead of attack. It was only luck that Visser Three had ran, instead of standing to fight them. He had been right behind him; he could have easily hurt Cassie while Tanya was dithering around instead of acting.
((Hey, thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.)) Cassie said as she sniffed around for a hiding spot.
((I didn't do much.)) Tanya confessed.
((No, it's fine. You're doing great.)) Cassie said. She sounded so damn sincere too. Like she believed it.
Cassie was a much better liar than Rachel thought.
A/N: My fingers really need to stop writing checks they can't cash because hello, another monster of a chapter.
Book 14 is silly and I will adapt even the silly ones until the scheduled derailing of the Animorphs plot. It was only in trying to look at the book from a more outsider perspective that I realized how silly it really is.
I have no idea how Dr. Droid's real name is spelled so this was my best interpretation.