You scurry behind a storage shed. Quickly, you morph back to human.
Rachel pokes her head around the shed. “You’d better stay here. You need to gather your strength if you’re going to morph again. We’ll come back when it’s time.”
You lean against the storage shed and close your eyes. You concentrate on slow breathing, gathering your strength for the next morph.
It’s not long before the others return. But they’ve been spotted.
“What are you doing back there?”
It’s a human-Controller! Standing next to him is a Hork-Bajir, blade arms at the ready. A Taxxon stands on the other side, his spidery legs twitching, red Jell-O eyes glowing.
Suddenly, you notice someone behind the guards. Rachel. Only it’s Rachel with a long, long nose. A trunk. She’s morphing into an elephant! A braying noise fills the air as Rachel feels the elephant’s power.
She impales a Hork-Bajir on one tusk and steps on a Taxxon as though it were a spider. The human-Controller runs away.
“Let’s morph!” Jake cries.
You look over at Cassie. She’s almost at the end of the pier. That gives you an extra burst of strength. You concentrate hard. You feel something grow out of the back of you. A tail. Your ears get round and your head gets big. Your teeth sharpen into deadly instruments of terror.
You’re a fierce, hungry, and very angry hyena. And you have no fear.
You start toward Cassie, but a Taxxon gets in your way. No problem. You rip into him with your teeth. He tries to bite you back, but you are such an efficient killing machine that he is dead before he registers the pain.
Marco is now Big Jim, a huge gorilla. Rachel is trumpeting a fierce call as she mows down another Hork-Bajir. In tiger morph, Jake springs at a Taxxon.
You own this place.
Marco tosses another Hork-Bajir in the air like a doll. The rest scatter. So they are afraid of something.
Marco is the only one with dexterity, so he heads for the cages to unlock them. Jake is already bounding toward Cassie. You start forward to help, but a Hork-Bajir heads for you. He swipes at you with an elbow blade.
You spring. You tear at his flesh, then jump away. You strike again, this time for the vulnerable fleshy part near his head. Wounded, you expect him to fall back. But instead, he springs forward, his elbow and wrist blades flashing. Rachel raises a foot and stomps.
<Thanks,> you tell her.
<Another puny Hork-Bajir bites the dust,> Rachel says. She sounds positively bloodthirsty.
Tobias swoops down and claws at the eyes of the Hork-Bajir who is holding Cassie. She breaks away and runs.
<Morph!> you yell along with Jake. <Now!> Even as you watch, Cassie’s hair grows into a beautiful mane. It streams out behind her as her legs extend, and she goes down on all fours. It is amazing to see.
<I say we follow Cassie and get out of here,> Rachel says.
<I’m right behind you,> you say.
The people Marco have released are panicking, running toward the stairs. Hork-Bajir and Taxxons try to round them up. You slip through them, running hard.
Cassie and Jake leap over surprised Taxxons. You remember that Hork-Bajir aren’t great on strategy, so you fake left and then go right, sailing over a long pair of wrist blades that try to slash you at the last minute.
You gain the stairs. Balls of flame explode over your head. You leap over a Taxxon who is aiming a Dracon beam at you. Straight into the path of Visser Three in his Andalite form.
The horrid, evil voice fills your head. <Well, if it isn’t a bunch of renegade Andalites.>
He begins to morph into a creature tall as a building. Eight legs. Eight arms. And eight heads. You can feel that even the hyena inside you feels doubt. You can’t take on this creature.
<You can’t escape!> Visser Three cries.
“You filthy creep!” It’s Tom. Jake’s brother launches himself at Visser Three.
<NO!> Jake cries. He springs at the huge creature that is Visser Three, straight toward the eyes. He claws at the face. Visser Three howls in pain.
Fireballs explode. One almost gets Jake. Tom falls off the stairs.
<Jake, run!> Cassie cries urgently.
With a howl of anguish, Jake turns and heads up the stairs. Rachel begins to demorph as she climbs so she can fit in the stairway.
<You can’t run!> Visser Three cries.
Oh yes, you can. The stairway narrows. Visser Three hadn’t counted on your making it that far. In his huge morph, he can’t make it upstairs.
You run and you run. You break through the janitor’s door and back into school. You keep on running until you’re outside, in the safety of the trees. And then you all morph back.
You’re safe. For now.
You look at your friends and see the same exhaustion on their faces. Even Marco can’t come up with a joke. Cassie puts her hand over Jake’s. Rachel stares back at the school building, her eyes blazing. Tobias flies closer and perches on her shoulder.
You know that more terror lies ahead. You know that safety is now an illusion. You will never feel truly safe again.
Excellent morph! Go to chapter 16 for your next Animorph adventure.
Your ears grow straight up. Fur sprouts on your face and hands. You fall onto all fours. Suddenly, you smell everything. Oil. Car exhaust. Human smells. Mice. And over in the corner, a paper bag with a peanut butter sandwich.
You trot over to the group waiting for the elevator. You stay behind them. When the elevator comes, you leap on just as the doors close.
You make it down in the elevator without anyone really caring. The elevator hits the sublevel, but a Controller pushes a series of buttons and it keeps going down. When it stops, everyone files out. The last Controller pushes you back into the elevator.
“Beat
