Second Animorphs #4 The Good-Bye By:Yeerkiller

    Well, it's my turn now. I guess I should start by telling you about us. I'm not gonna go into the long explanations the K.A. Applegate gives you, you should know us by now.
    I am YK, better known as Yeerkiller. I am a Second Animorph, better known as SA. Your probably thinking, why Second Animorphs? Why no just Animorphs? Well, cause there is already a group called Animorphs. I'll tell you more about them later.
    So, you think you know what my life is like? You don't know half of it. What if I told you that the world is being invaded? Well, at least in the US. I don't know about other countries. But I do know that there are people fighting it. Who? Us. Who is us? Well, me, for starters, I don't really know what I am. I guess I'm…. I don't know.
    AG, better know as Andagorilla, is also part of our little group, she's one of the jokers of the group, and she's also sorta our leader.
    There are also Forlay, she's our Xena, and Elfy, they are best friends, Elfy is the other joker.
    Oh, and we just added 2 more…… well, one person, and one Andalite. Okay YK, what is and Andalite? An Andalite is an alien, looks like a blue dear, with extra eyes on the top of their head. They also have a sharp blade on the end of their tail, witch I am told is sharp. Most Andalites we have encountered are male, ours if female, she is called Aishah, Aish for short, and she is purple, like most females. She also has a smaller tail blade then the males.
    And what about the other person? Well, this time it's a he, yes, we got a boy. His name is kingmeatball, or KMB, as we like to call him. He….. well, I guess he's like me, not really……. anything….. Well, ok, now that you now us. We can get onto business. I guess you would like to know about the invasion, so would I. I don't really know mutch about it, just that you can't tell what's going on. See, the humans are being turned into slaves, slaves of the Yeerks. Ok, now you wondering what is a Yeerk? Well, a Yeerk is a gray slug type creature. Ok, so how can a slug be so powerful? Well, because they can control you. Fully, and completely. They go in through your ear channel and into your brain, and wrap themselves around it. They have enslaved the sweet gentle Hork-Bajir, who only want to eat bark. Taxxons, who eat them selves and their own kind, and now they are enslaving the humans, and it's up to us to save the world. That is why I was trying to have a normal life, by trying our for the basketball team. "Ok!" bellowed the coach. "Tryouts over! The team will be posted on Wednesday!" I ran to the locker room, I was exhausted! I had worked for three hours straight, and I was ready to drop dead. When my mom picked me up she asked me how it went. "I think I'm gonna die!" I said. She just laughed, she didn't know that I still had work to do. When I got home I plopped down on the couch and went to sleep. My mom and came and woke me up for dinner, boy was I glad that tomorrow was Saturday! Right after I was done with dinner I went to bed. It was around 10 when I woke up, so I went and checked my mail.

To: Yeerkiller, Forlay, Elfy, kingmeatball
From: Andagorilla
Subject: I'm bored
Hey guys! I'm totally and completely bored, do you wanna come over? Around 12? My mom said I could have you over.

    I figured that I might as well go over there now.I finished checking my mail, and headed over to AG's. When I got there it turns out that the rest of them were over there also, includingAish, in her human morph, witch is a mixture of AG's, Forlay's,Elfy's, and mine.
    "I always get goose bumps when ever I see her, she has a mixture of mine, AG's and Forlay's hair. Light brown, Dark Brown,and Dirty Blond, freaky." I said.
    "Really?" AG said. "I thought you stopped reading them."
    "Ha, ha, and also ha."
    "Ok, guys, AG already told me what she wanted us over here for." said KMB.
    "Well, what is it?" asked Elfy.
    "As you know, KMB still hasn't gotten hismorphing powers, and none of us know how to do it." Said AG.     "What about Aish?" asked Forlay.
    "I do not know how yet, that skill is given to Arisths only, and as a girl, I would not learn that technology, I am lucky to have acquired the morphing technology." She said.
    "So, that meanswe have to go pay a friendly visit to the Animorphs?" I asked.
    "Seams that way."
    "Great! Count me out." I said. "I just tried out for theteam!"
    "What team?" asked Forlay.
    "Basketball."
    "Oh, yeah, that's right! I meant to go to them, but I had a doctors appointment." said AG as she made a face.
    "Well, they post the people who made it on Wednesday, right? Well, let's hold off tell then and see. I know you'll probably make it YK, but we still have to see." AG said.
    "I hate to be the one who holds up the mission." I said.
    "That's ok, at least we geta few days off." said Elfy.
    "Speak for yourself!" said Forlay.
    Aish had to go and demorph, Elfy had a ton of homework, and one of Forlay's cousins were over for the weekend. So it was just me and AG.
    "So, you wanna go play some b-ball?" I asked.
    "Sure."
    She said. Luckily she actually has a driveway, as where we have a hill. We played one-on-one tell it was time for lunch, then after we had lunch, cookie dough if you must know, we played horse, I won most of the time. We usually tied on one-on-one, she played good defence, but couldn't shoot really well. Plus she was a bit taller than me.
    "Ok, gameover." She said heaving, we just played another one-on-one, this time she won.
    "What time is it?" I asked as we went in to get a drink.
    "About three." She said.
    "Shoot! My mom's gonna kill me!" I yelled, I'll see you tomorrow or Monday!" I yelled as I ran out the door.
    Luckily my mom had been out the whole time, and never knew that I was gone.

Chapter 2

    Nothing interesting happened till Wednesday,other than that I got an A+ on my History test. But on Wednesday… Oh, I never want to relive another Wednesday again! It started out normal, I knew this might be
the day I quit SA, so I was trying to spend time with AG, Forlay, Elfy, and KMB. I also knew that we wouldn't spend much time together anymore, cause they would have to skip school sometimes, something that I couldn't afforded to do because it might get me kicked off the team, if I made it.
    They were going to post it after the last lunch period, only I had the first, and wouldn't have time till after
school. I asked Elfy to check for me, cause she has last lunch.
    "Sure, I hope you make it, even you do have to go." She said.
    "Thanks." I said, relived that they would still talk to me.Luckily Elfy also had Math with me right after her lunch. "Well?" Iasked as she came in.
    "Guess." She said sadly.
    "All right!!! I made it!!" I practically yelled. "Cool!" I said. I aced the Pop Quiz that day in math. I was so excited! I went straight home and found my mom home and told her the good news.
    "That's great! I hope you'll havefun." She said.
    "Oh, I will!" I said as I ran upstairs. This was great!I rushed through my meal so I could tell the others. When I goton-line I had a few e-mails.

To: ¥eerkiller
From: Andagorilla
Subject: Cool!
Elfy told me when she got on, congratulations! I wish you didn't have
to leave though. Oh, well…
AG

To: ¥eerkiller
From: Forlay
Subject: Too bad
Hey! Get on Pager asap, AG and me are on, and Elfy is on icq, so me and AG will tell you what she says.
--Forlay

Well, I guess I better get on. I logged into Yahoo! Pager and sure enough AG and Forlay were on.
Pager:
From: andagorilla To: yeerkiller00
andagorilla: hey! im about to tell KMB to get on!
yeerkiller00: cool!

Just then another one popped up

Pager:
From: inkypa (aka Forlay) To:yeerkiller00
inkypa: hey!
yeerkiller00: hey!!
inkypa: let's go to my chat, elfy and KMB are coming
yeerkiller00: sure

I went there and it turns out that everyone was already there.

YK: hey guys!
Andagorilla: hey! YK's here!
Forlay: great!
Elfy: hey YK!!
kingmeatball: hey
Forlay: Aish is over here, she says hi
YK: cool!

It went on like that for a while, and then I went and did little tidbits on my page. I went and told everyone I uploaded.

YK: I have to go eat dinner now, bye!!
Andagorilla: really? Ax??!?! As in Ax from thepopular chat? NOOOO!!! DON'T GOOO!!!
Forlay: bye YK!!!
Elfy: bye! =o(
Forlay: Aish says bye too
kingmeatball: bye, YK

    Then I got off, it was too bad that I never will talk to them as much, they were so mutch fun, besides when we had to battle. Oh, well.
    Dinner tasted horrid, I think I was sick.But, the first practice was tomorrow! I couldn't be sick!! No! I told my mom anyway, cause I might be well by tomorrow. And if not then I could talk to AG, who is home schooled and spends most of the day on the Net.
    Turns out I had a small cold, but I still had to stay home from school, but I might make practice. That was good, and it wasalso good that I could spend some time with AG. When I logged on she wasn't on, so I just
surfed for a while. Finally she came on.

Pager:
Form: yeerkiller00 To: andagorilla
yeerkiller00: I thought you'd NEVER come on!
andagorilla: yeah, I had to clean for 2 hours anddo and hour of school work before I could get on ~ishg~
yeerkiller00: too bad
andagorilla: why are you home today?
yeerkiller00: ishg? Sick,
andagorilla sigh, cool!
yeerkiller00: yes
yeerkiller00: is it ok to talk?
andagorilla: yeah, mom's our with sissies, and dad's at work
yeerkiller00: cool, so, got anything planed?Sides going cross-country?
andagorilla: lol, not really, and cross-countryis nothing, ask Aish! Oh, she's over here, she says hi
yeerkiller00: i say hi too
andagorilla: cool, im bored, I wish school was out or something, luckily spring break is right around the corner
yeerkiller00: so you can go?
andagorilla: yeah, I don't wanna wait! I just wanna get it over with
yeerkiller00: I can understand
andagorilla: sure
yeerkiller00: I do!

We went on and talked about normal stuff, then weboth had to go. I sighed, I wish I could do both, I really do.

Chapter 4

I'm KMB, or Kingmeatball. I'm the only morphless Second Animorph. That was why it was going to be a problem getting tothe other coast. It would take days by bus, and I couldn't just dissappear for a week. I couldn't take a plane,cause I was basically broke.
I logged on to the Internet to talk to Anda. ICQ booted up very slowly. I was pleased to see that anda was online. We both entered a private chat room:
Andagorilla enters the chat
Kingmeatball enters the chat
Kingmeatball: Yo!
Andagorilla: Hey
Kingmeatball: Has anyone figured out how I'm gonna get across the country in a day??
Andagorilla: We think we've found a way: Yeerkiller chipped in a goodbit of Christmas money, and we all chipped in allowances, so u have enough for a plane. Unfortunately, we only have enough for a very low class plane.
Kingmeatball: ~sigh~ I suppose any plane is better than no plane. Whendo we leave?
Andagorilla: How about tomorrow?
Kingmeatball: That's fine.
Forlay enters the chat
Kingmeatball: Hey!
Andagorilla: Forlay, is tomorrow O.K. with yourparents?
Forlay: Yeah, I'm fine with that.
Kingmeatball: I've gg. Bye =(
Andagorilla: Bye
Forlay: Bye
Kingmeatball has left the chat

I logged off and sighed. Last time I was on a plane, a half-mental-freak was sitting next to me. I hoped that it wouldn't be that way this time.

Chapter 5

    I was sitting in the loading room of Metro Airlines, being pushed andshoved by adults in a hurry. Soon, I heard "Metro Airlines is ready tobegin boarding". Of course, what it sounded like was, "Metro Airlinesis ready to begin boring".
    Finally, I found my seat. I ended up sitting next to some old guy. When we were about to take off, we had to go backto the airport cause he was dying of cancer.
    Finally, 4 1/2 hours later, I was at the other coast. When I emerged from the loading tunnel, I saw Forlay, AG, Elfy, and Aish in human morph.
"Come on, let's go. The Animorphs know that we're coming."

(NOTE: It will now be told from AG's point ofview)

"How?" asked KMB.
 I grinned,"We've been here a little longer then you."
 "Then what are we waiting for? Lets go!"said KMB.
 "Well, we kinda ran into them during school, so they'll be here shortly." said Elfy.
 "They aren't out of school yet?" KMB asked.
 "Nope." said Forlay.
 "Too bad for them." KMB said. After a little wait KMB asked what time it was here.
 "Um, I don't know. Let's go find out." Forlay said.
 We started walking around. We came to those train type things, that take you from one section of the airport to theother, we rode on that for a while, but we got bored fast. We finally found a clock; it was about two hours behind us.
 "Well, it's still notany where near time for them to get out of school, let's go see if Cyberia really exists." Said Elfy.
 I laughed. "I hope so too, I need toget on the 'Net."
 "Well," Forlay said laughing, "I need to too."
 It turns out that Cyberia really does exists, so we played therefor a while, and then Aish said that it had been almost 2 hours and that she needed to demorph.
 "Uho, I completely forgot why we camehere!" I said running out to get Aish demorphed and for the rest of us to morph, and KMB to follow us to the school.
 < Yahhh!! Cannon arrow!> I said diving down towards KMB. He dodged and started towards the school, which he
finally saw.
 "Ok, I see it now." he said.
 < Cool! Hey! Watch this! > yelled Elfy as she did a loop, she was getting good at that. We flew for about 10 more minutes, according to Aish, whowas learning to keep time when she left the Andalite Homeworld, andfinally got to the
school.
 < There! > yelled Forlay as we came up tothe school. I saw KMB nod, telling us that he had see the school too.
 < Yeah, > I said. I laughed.
 < What's he doing? > asked Forlay.
 I laughed again, but this time Elfy joined in. < Um, I think he's, uh, never mind, you don'twanna know! > I said. That just made Elfy laugh harder.
 < Tell me! >Forlay said. She gave a little laugh. < I'm just talented, so I'm an a play. >
 <No, I'm SERIOUS! You DON'T wanna see! > I practically yelled.
 < TELL ME NOW! >
 <Ok! Ok! Calm down! If I could grin I would but… >
 < JUST TELL ME! >
 < Ok! He's running around trying to kiss every girl in sight,including Rachel, and she's laughing. >
 < I'LL KILL THE LITTLEDEVEL! > she yelled. < Ok, now I can see better, now she's about to pound him. > Forlay said. < And when I get there, I'll join her. > We flew down, behind the school, next to a dumpster. KMB came walking up.
 "They didn't see me." He said grinning. "Marco was too busy chasing Rachel and the other girls, Rachel was too busy running, Jake was too busy laughing and cheering Marco on.."
 "Well, now I have two people to pound." Forlay muttered. We laughed.
 "And I didn't see Cassie."
 "Cool." I said. "Come on, lets go." I heard.
 "Yo!Forlay! Elfy! AG!" said Jake running up to us, as Forlay took off after Marco. He saw her, and started running harder, and started looking panicked.
 "Go Forlay! Go Rachel!" I yelled!
 "Hey!" Marco yelled. "I thought you liked me!"
 "I changed my mind, I like Forlay better. Go Forlay!" Then I joined to stampede. "Come on Elfy! We gotta get him!" I yelled. Then she joined. We finally came up from several sides, but Marco wasn't quite small enough to get under us, so we caught him.
 "Ok! Ok! You win!" Marco said laughing. "Hey, where's YK?" he asked.
 "She dropped out, just before we came, she got a social life."I said.
 "Like I don't?" Marco said.
 "Are you on the basketball team?" I shot back. He shut up.
 "And who's this?" asked Rachel pointing to Aish. We grinned.
 "Well," I said. "Meet Aish, our alien!" I said.
 "Pleased to meet you. Ouuu. Uuuuuu." She said.
 "Ah, ok, I can tell. I should have known cause she looks a little like each of you." Said Jake.
 "Oh, and this is KMB, aka kingmeatball." I said pushing himforward. "And he's why we're here."
 "He needs morphing?" asked Jake.
 "Guess." Said Elfy.
 Marco started laughing suddenly. "What?!" I asked, and yelled, almost. He just kept laughing.

Chapter Six

(Note: Final POV change, the rest of the story's by Forlay)

I stepped closer to Marco, "What's so funny?"
 He was practically in convulsions, I thought he was going to fall over. He was bent over, hands over his stomache like he couldn't breathe, and had tears running down his face. "Aish and...and...HA HA!!! Ax!!! They..." he couldn't finish, he was laughing to hard.
 I motioned to Rachel to come over and help me sober him up. "On the count of three, step on a foot, that should get him to shut up and tell us what's wrong," I whispered. She grinned and nodded. "One...two...three!" We both stepped on one of his feet at the same time.
 "OWWWWWW!" Marco shouted. "Ow! What do you two put in your shoes, lead? Okay, I've stopped laughing! Ow! Who cares if I have a broken tow. Ow!"
 "Just tell us what you were laughing about," I said, stepping back.
 Marco sniffed, "Fine, if you must know, I was just observing that the Ax-man tends to get a little lonely, and I figured we could arrange for him and Aish here to go out."
 Elfy rolled her eyes, "That's pathetic. Can we just do what we came here to do, please? We still have to get home today."
 Jake nodded, "The box is at Cassie's. I have to stop home first, but you guys can go with her."
 "I've gotta stop home, too," Marco said.
 "Mom's expecting me to go to the mall, so I can go with you guys," Rachel said.
 "Cool," I said. "Let's go!"
 Marco shook his head, "I'm glad you stay on the other coast, Forlay. You sicken me."
 I grinned, "But Marco, think how boring your life would be without people like me and Rachel."
 "It may be boring, but it'd be alot safer."
 Rachel put her arm around me, "Come on, Forlay. Let's get to Cassie's, just to get away from Marco, if not to get your friend...what he needs."
 "Hurry up," Cassie said, "We need to take the bus, it's too far to walk."
 We jogged down the row of busses untill we reached one that was just about to pull away, which happened to be Cassie's. The bus was crowded, so we ended up being spread out around the bus. I pittied the people who were sitting next to Aish. I hoped one of our group could sit near her. I ended up sitting next to big, as in football player big, guys in the way back of the bus. They kept trying to shove me out of the seat and telling nasty jokes. I narrowly escaped being thrown across the bus, thankfully, we'd reached Cassie's stop just as they were trying to get some other people to help pick up the "new short girl".
 "How can you stand riding a bus every day?" I asked Cassie as we walked down her driveway. I walk to school, so I don't have to worry about buses, or creeps like those guys.
 She shrugged, "You get used to it after awhile."
 By the time we'd reached the house where Cassie had dropped off all her stuff and gotten back out to the barn, Jake and Marco had shown up, and said Tobias and Ax were on their way.
 We lounged around the barn for the few minutes it took for Tobias to fly in and perch on the rafters and Ax to stumble in in his human morph.
 "Cassie? You have the box?" Jake asked.
 "Yep," she said. She picked the blue box and handed it to Ax. He took it in his clumsy human fingers.
 "Tobias, ias. Is it alright for me to demorph? orph?"
 < Yep, no one near here, > he answered from his perch in the rafters. Ax began to demorph, being careful to not drop the box.
 < KingMeatBall, place one hand on a side of the escafil device, > Ax said.
 KMB rolled his eyes, "I have read the books, Ax. I know how to do this." He put one hand on a side of the cube while the rest of us watched. I looked at my friends and the Animorphs one by one.
 Elfy and AG were watching with smiles on their faces, as if this was the coolest thing in the world. Aish's face was emotionless, as she was in human morph and wasn't all that great at making facial expressions.
 The Animorphs all had an identical look of distrust on their faces. They'd had a bad expirience with making a new Animorph, and probably wondered if we knew what we were doing by making KMB one. They were right, it was a risk, but they didn't know that KMB had been a controller, and hated Yeerks probably more than Ax or Aish. I was sure we were doing the right thing by giving him the chance to fight back.
 A moment later, KMB jumped back from the cube and looked at his hand, as if he'd been shocked. I could relate, I'd had the same reaction when I'd first gotten mine.
 "Well, I guess I'm a full fledged SA member now," KMB said.
 "Not quite yet," I said. "You still need to acquire your morphs. What do you want?"
 "Um...a tiger, definetly, and for my bird morph...I think I'll take peregrine falcoln."
 "We have the peregrine falcoln right here," Cassie said, walking over to a cage. "We'll have to go to The Gardens to get the tiger, and any other large morphs you need." She looked to the rest of us, "Any other morphs you guys have that can be acquired here? Might as well get them while you can."
 "We have seagulls and dolphins," AG said. "But that's it."
 "We've got seagulls here, too. You can acquire both of those, KMB."
 "Cool," he said, and stepped towards the falcoln's cage. Gently, Cassie opened the bird's cage so KMB could put his hand in.
 "Careful, he's an exciteable one," she warned.
 KMB gently put a hand on the bird's shoulder, closed his eyes, and concentrated on acquiring it's DNA. A few seconds later, he pulled away. "That feels so weird!" he said, and moved on to acquire the seagull.
 "Okay, now what?" he asked once he was done acquiring.
 "We go to the Gardens to acquire your tiger and dolphin," Cassie said.

Chapter Seven

"KMB needs a chance to try out morphing, why don't we fly there?" AG suggested.
 "Sounds good to me," KMB said, sounding slightly excited. I think the idea of morphing the first time was making him hyper. I'm sure the same thought was running through everyone's mind: PLEASE don't let him be another Forlay! I'll admit it, I'm reckless, and jump headfirst into a mission, and he was sounding like me when this all started. I couldn't wait to go on a mission, and neither could he. But I'm betting it's just because he wanted to try and do what he'd read about for so long.
 "Which should I do first?" KMB asked.
 "Normally I'd say seagull, they're less noticeable," Cassie said. "But even we have trouble controlling their instincts. For your first time, you should do the peregrine falcoln." He nodded, closed his eyes and concentrated.
 The changes were slow, but sure enough, he started to morph. On his skin, feather patterns began to draw themselves, then slowly they became real feathers. He began shrinking, slowly at first, but he began to pick up speed.
 "Yeaaack!" He shouted while his mouth was morphing into a beak. The changes stopped suddenly.
 "You need to keep concentrating," Elfy said. "Just ride it through, you know how weird this can get."
 "Yeack, buckt it'th differeckt when you'ckre eckpiriencking ick!"
 "Just close your eyes and keep concentrating," Elfy said again.
 KMB closed his eyes, and the changes started again. His arms became wings, his legs and feet became deadly talons. Finally, the changes were complete.
 He looked around with short, jerky movments, focusing his raptor gaze on each of us in turn. "KMB?" Elfy asked. No answer. He kept looking around, untill he looked up and saw Tobias. He flapped his wings and powered his way up.
 "Whoa! Grab him!" I shouted. I leaped forward, but missed. Cassie was prepared, however.
 < What's with that?! > Tobias demanded as he settled himself back on his perch in the rafters. KMB's sudden flight towards him had startled him.
 "KMB. Get control. Now," Cassie said in a no-nonsense tone.
 < Whoa. Okay, I'm here. I think, yeah, > KMB said. < You can let me go now, Cassie. I'm alright. > Cassie gently set him back on the ground. < Sorry, Tobias. Took me a minute to get control of this brain. >
 < It's okay, > Tobias said grudgingly.
 "Wait for us to morph, quick," I said to KMB. "Then we can go to the Gardens." I closed my eyes and concentrated on my bald eagle morph, while the others concentrated on their bird of prey morphs.
 My skin turned a dark brown, except for my head, which turned paper white. Feather patterns were etched on my skin, first as designs, then real feathers. I was shrinking rapidly, while my arms were growing to become huge wings. My legs shrank and thinned while my feet split apart into talons.
 < Let's go! > I said once I finished morphing. I flapped my powerful wings a few times, and flew up into the sky where KMB, Tobias, Cassie as an osprey and Elfy in her peregrine falcoln morph were waiting. Elfy's the one with the morphing talent in our group.
 Jake and KMB as a peregrine falcolns, Marco as an osprey, Rachel as a bald eagle, Ax and Aish as northern harriers and AG in her red tailed hawk morph joined us. Marco started laughing again as we started towards The Gardens.
 < What now, Marco? > AG asked.
 < Doesn't anyone else think it's a funny coincidence that our two space cadets both acquired the same type of morph? >
 < Two words for you, Marco. Shut. Up, > I told him.
 < Rachel, you have been a bad influence on that girl, > Marco complained.
 < On the contrary, Marco, > Rachel said. We all laughed, except Marco, of course. Who made sounds as if he was disapointed in us.
 < There's The Gardens, > Cassie pointed out.
 < Already? Man, you guys live close! > Elfy said. < It takes us nearly half an hour to get to ours! >
 < That is approximatly how long we've been flying, Elfy, > Aish said.
 < Must have seen like less time since we've been talking, > KMB said.
 < Alright, KMB, what do you want to acquire? > Cassie asked as we circled the Gardens.
 < A tiger for my battle morph, definetly! >
 < Anything else he'll need, AG? >
 < Just a dolphin, > AG replied.
 < Cool, > Cassie said. <Um, all of us can't go down there. I can use my pass, Mom's working there today and I can get it from her. Just let me go in first quick, you guys can demorph out here, and I'll come back out and take KMB in with me. >
 One at a time, we dove down to a small area of trees and started to demorph. Ax and Aish were the last to go down, so the rest of us could make sure nobody saw them.
 < Slight problem, > KMB said before demorphing. 
 < Not good, > I said. < Is there a place where we can get him some clothes? Rachel, you figure out how to morph a credit card? >
 "No," she said, already demorphed.
 < I'll go get him some, > Tobias said. As I started to demorph, I saw him fly over to a stand where you can buy souvenire T-shirts and stuff with "The Gardens" logo, or animals on them. A moment later, Tobias returned with a white T-shirt with a tiger on it, and a pair of black shorts. < We need to send a check to the souvenire stand. >
 Jake sighed, "I will."
 Just as KMB was getting dressed, Cassie returned. "Oh, no, we forgot to get him a morphing outfit, didn't we."
 I nodded, "Yep."
 "We owe the Gardens' souvenire stand $10," Jake said.
 Cassie sighed, "Alright, come with me, KMB. A few others should come as back up."
 "I'll go," I said a moment before Rachel chimed in with "I'll go."
 "That's it!" Marco said, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "Both of you, get out of here. I do not want to see you two together for the rest of my life!" He turned to AG, "You ever need to come back here again, leave her," he pointed at me, "at home!"
 AG laughed, "Not anytime soon, Marco."
 "Nope, I don't go anywhere with out Forlay," Elfy said.
 Marco looked at Elfy in disbelief, "And you seemed so nice, Elfy."
 "Get over it, Marco," I said. Then to Cassie, "Let's go get him his morphs."

Chapter Eight

    "It's not going to be hard getting the dolphin morph," Cassie said quietly as we walked towards the tiger's habitat. "We'll do that after the tiger, just in case we run into trouble and need a place to hide."
    "Trouble? Why would we get into trouble? I mean, we have the danger twins right here, we'd never get into trouble," KMB said sarcastically, but grinning at Rachel and I.
    "Maybe it was a bad idea coming here," I said. "I've had it up to here with all the cracks about mine and Rachel's recklessness."
    "Oh, no you haven't, Forlay," Rachel said. "Isn't it worth it to drive Marco nuts?"
    I grinned, "Good point."
    Cassie led us to an indiscrete door and flashed her pass to the guard standing nearby, he let us in without question.
    "That was easy," KMB said cheerfully.
    "I doubt it's going to stay that easy," I said.
    Cassie led us down corridor after corridor. She knew her way around back here like Rachel knew her way through the mall or I knew my way around a stage.
    Finally Cassie led us to two doors labeled P-201 and P-203. "Shoot, I always get these two confused. One's the tiger, the other's the rhinocerous."
    "203 is the tiger," KMB said confidently.
    Rachel looked at him skeptically, "How do you know?"
    "We've practically memorized your guys' books," KMB pointed out. "Book number one, first time you guys came here to get your morphs, Jake and Marco came down this exact hall, and were faced with these two doors. Jake chose 201, and found himself face to face with a rhinocerous."
    "Well, it's as good a guess as any. I'll go in with you, KMB. Rachel and Forlay? Stay out here, just in case somebody comes by," Cassie said.
    "Gotcha," I said. Cassie quietly opened P-203 and she and KMB slipped inside.
    They hadn't been inside more than half a minute when a guard came down the hallway. "Hey! What are you two doing down here?"
    "I'm sorry, sir," Rachel said. "We seemed to have gotten all turned around in here. All the hallways look the same."
    "Follow me, I'll take you where you want to go."
    "We can't, sir," I said. "Two of our friends went off to find help, but they haven't returned yet." I moved in front of the door, holding the handle closed. Hopefully, Cassie and KMB wouldn't need to make a quick exit.
    "I'll wait here with you," the guard said gruffly.
    "Fo--Fran? How about you wait here for Cassie and K--Kevin, I'll go with the guard to find our way out of here, then come back for you," Rachel said. She turned to the guard, "Would that be alright?"
    He looked at us suspiciously, "Come with me." He walked in the opposite direction, with Rachel following. Just as I released my grip on the door handle, Cassie and KMB came running out.
    "Where Rachel?" Cassie asked.
    "A guard came back here, Rachel's off distracting him. If anybody asks, KMB, you're Kevin now. Rachel needed some impromptu names for us, since she didn't know our real names. I'm "Fran", of all names." KMB giggled. "Oh, you think that's funny, Kevin?"
    "Shh! I hear somebody coming!" Cassie said.
    We started walking back in the direction of the way we'd came, as if we'd seen all we had wanted to see. As we turned the corner, we ran into the guard that had escourted Rachel out. "These your friends?" he demanded of me.
    "Yes, sir. They returned shortly after you left, they found out from another guard how to get out. Can you show us where to find our friend?" I said in my "responsible" voice.
    "The security station," he said gruffly. "She didn't have her card, you'll all be detained there untill we contact your parents for breaking and entering."
    "But I have the card," Cassie said, holding out the pass for him to see. "I'd taken it with me to prove to any guard we met that we were allowed back here. We didn't think anybody would check Rachel and Fran here for a card."
    The guard snatched the card from her hand and inspected it closely, finding that it was perfectly legitiment, he gave it back to Cassie. "I'll let your friend out, but make sure all of you stay together next time."
    "Yes, sir," Cassie said.
    We quietly followed the guard out, playing the roles of submissive teenagers, realizing we were in the wrong. We were led to the security building where Rachel was waiting. "You're free to go," the guard told her. Rachel followed us out.
    "Took you guys long enough!" she told us as we walked towards the dolphin tank.
    "Sorry," I appologized sarcastically. "That guard dude nearly detained us too!"
    "Here we are," Cassie said, avoiding an argument. "The dolphin should be easier to acquire, KMB, they come right up to the edge of the tank and allow people to pet them, so just reach your hand over and acquire it."
    We walked over to the tank and immediatly three dolphins glided over to us. One of them seemed to take an immediate liking to KMB. he reached his hand over the tank and petted the dolphins slippery gray head. He closed his eyes and concentrated on acquiring the dolphin, it calmed down slightly, but not much. Dolphins seem to have so much natural energy that they don't go into a trance as deeply, if at all, as other animals do.
    "Okay, we need anything else?" KMB asked as we walked towards the exit.
    I thought through our repitoire of morphs quickly, "Nope, you have the same morphs everybody else has. Let's get back to the others."

Chapter Nine

    We met the others right where we had left them. The human members of the group were making idle conversation, Ax added a few comments every once in awhile, but kept playing with words so he got tuned out. And AG had to keep jumping up to keep Aish from trying to eat grass or a cigarette butt.
    "You're back!" Elfy shouted when she saw us. "Took you guys long enough!"
    "Some guard got suspicious," I explained.
    "You have all the morphs you need?" Jake asked KMB, he nodded.
    "Well, then, since we've accomplished everything we came here for, I have one slight question," I said.
    "What?" KMB asked.
    "How are we getting home?"