Escape

By: Corpruga

    My name is Gwen. I'm twelve years old, and I have two little brothers, Gary and Bean. I have a wheelchair because I'm paralyzed from the waist down, but I don't like to talk about that. There's not too much more to say about me, or at least there wasn't...until yesterday.
    My mom is a teacher at the junior high school. I would go there, except that I'm in high school. I'm more than 'kind of' a nerd. I can't help it--it's not like I have anything better to do than study. But anyway, I often go to my mom's classroom and help her tidy up, get her stuff home, organize her lesson plans...it makes me feel useful. On this particular day, my mom had gone down to the principal's office to discuss maybe getting a raise. I was behind her desk, putting stuff in drawers. I guess nobody saw me.
   I heard voices from outside, sounded like kid's voices. Normally, I would say hi, but I was in an unusually self-pitying mood yesterday, so I stayed silent. "Is anybody in there?" The voice was male.
    "I don't know about this, Jake. We could get caught." That voice was female. This sounded like it could be interesting. Perhaps they'd be doing something illegal and I could turn them in and be a heroine. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I reached with my right arm and pulled the phone off my mom's desk and set it on my lap. I ducked my head down, just in case they could see it over the desk, and rearranged my wheelchair so the part with the drawers covered the wheels.
    "Nope, the room's empty." I saw a boy's face in the window. He looked familiar, kind of Hispanic looking with dark hair and eyes--probably one of Mom's students. "Let's go in." The door opened quietly and five kids walked in, two girls and three boys.
    The taller of the two girls, a blonde, opened the window and called softly, "Tobias, we're clear."
    A hawk flew in the window and a voice came from it, saying < Thanks, Rachel. >
   My eyes widened behind my glasses, but I didn't say anything. It was probably just some advanced form of ventriloquism.
    One of the boys said, "Are you sure nobody will see us? Nobudbudbudeeee?" Huh? I understood the first part, but after that...
    "Ax, you worry too much." This came from the boy who had talked first, the one who asked if anybody was here.
    "Yes, Prince Jake."
    The blonde girl (Rachel?) stamped her foot impatiently and said, "Are we gonna stand here all day waiting for someone to see us or are we going to kick some Yeerk butt??"
    What was a yerk? Everybody seemed to agree with whatever it was Rachel was talking about. And then, they started to melt. I couldn't help myself.
    "AAAHHHHH!"
    The boy who had looked in the window swore, and the second girl, who was black with short dark hair, asked, "Who said that?" At the moment, I ignored both of these responses and wheeled myself out from behind the desk.
    "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE? YOU'RE MELTING! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING??"
    The hawk turned and glared at me. < Is there any chance we could convince you that you're dreaming? >
    "NO! Hey, how come you can talk? Who are you?"
    The boy who had sworn said dryly, "You should talk. Who are you?"
    "I'm Gwen. This is my mom's classroom. Are you guys aliens?"
    "No, but he is," he said, pointing to the boy who had gone nuts halfway through his sentence.
    "Then what were you doing?"
    The second girl said, "We were in the process of turning into animals." She proceeded to explain to me how their group could turn into animals using DNA acquired from the animals. They had gotten this power from aliens called Andalites and were using it to fight these evil aliens called Yeerks. I didn't really get it.
   "So you can make a whole new animal just from a bit of DNA?"
    "Uh-huh." The girl, who said her name was Cassie, looked proud of herself for explaining it in a way that I could understand.
    "So, if you get injured when you're an animal, you could turn back into a human, then turn yourself right back into the other animal and you wouldn't be hurt?"
    < Correct, > said the bird.
    "Would this rule apply to spinal injuries?"
    Jake frowned. "I don't see why it wouldn't."
    I grinned. I had an idea hatching in my mind. "So if I were to, say, get this power and say, turn to and from an animal, would I be able to, say, stand up?"
    "Huh." Everybody seemed to think about that one.
    "Well, then, could I try it?" Nobody seemed to be able to think of a reason why not, so the bird (Tobias) flew somewhere and returned with a blue box. I touched it, and a pleasurable sensation shot through my whole body. I looked at the group of very much bewildered kids. "Could I borrow someone's DNA?"
    Tobias said, < Sure. Hawk is a good morph. > He let me touch him, and I thought about what it would be like to be a hawk. My fingers kind of tingled. Then I changed.
    It was the most bizarre thing that had ever happened to me. First I shrunk, my wheelchair straps getting loose. Then, I started to sprout feathers like some kind of rash. It felt like it ought to hurt, but it didn't. I was a bird. I moved all my limbs, wings and talons, and everything reacted to my thoughts. I was ecstatic. Surely it would make my legs work when I demorphed. I couldn't wait.
    Slowly, I turned back into a human. I blushed when I realized I was naked, but thankfully the boys had turned away. I slipped my tee-shirt on, but my pants would be too difficult to put on without help, so I laid them across my knees and tried to bend them (my knees).
    Nothing.
    I felt like I had been sucked dry of happiness. This, my one hope for ever walking again (in my own body, anyway) and it had failed. I sniffled.
    Cassie smiled a sad, sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry."
    I drew myself up again. "Well, if I can't walk in human form, I'll just have to do it as an animal. You guys need any new recruits?"
    Everyone smiled and so did I. I was about to become a heroine. I would help save the world.