Animorphs in an alterate universe.

[Darth Revan]

My name is Shaun. Some call me "Street" as my initials are S-T, but it's rare that they use it. I could tell you my last name, but I like keeping my freedom. What do I have to worry about my freedom for, you ask? Well, the exact opposite, enslavement, absolute and total enslavement. My body, mind, and... abilities become the property of something else. Not someone, something. They're called Yeerks, those that would enslave me; as they would enslave you, and every living soul on this planet. These Yeerks are a sapient parasitic alien. They're like a slug that crawls inside your ear, flattens itself out, wraps itself around your brain and hijacks all of your synapses. It taps directly into your brain, reroutes every electrical signal however it wants. It reads your thoughts, your memories, even your desires. They take complete control of you. You don't breathe, it does. When you want to look around, nothing happens unless it wants to. You become a prisoner within your own body; like being completely paralyzed, except your body continues to move. They use your voice, your mannerisms, your inside jokes. No one around you can tell you've changed. If you had an identical twin, even they could be fooled by the act these Yeerks put on.

This is what my friends and I have been fighting for the last five years. To free the Human race, to make sure these parasites don't suck our world dry; as they've done to many worlds before. That's right, there are "other" worlds. Other alien races that have fallen to these slugs; but we will be different. We won't go down so easy. How do we fight an enemy we can't see, you ask? Well, it helps to be invisible yourself. No, we don't actually turn invisible, but we might as well. My friends and I have an ability, a power if you will. We can metamorphose into animals, any animal. If it has DNA, we can become it. Granted, we can only stay that creature for two hours, but two hours is plenty of time to bust an area to hell and get out. You'd be surprised what we can accomplish in two hours. I certainly have been.

Now we weren't born with these abilities. We received them from another alien; this one was a good alien though. This alien also fights the Yeerks. He gave us this power to morph. It was a weird experience. He could speak to us using his mind. I always thought telepathy was some crazy theory, of course I thought the same thing about aliens too. He warned us about the Yeerks and what they've been doing here on Earth, and what they plan to do to it. I was only 18 at the time. I was on my way to a Marine recruitement office to fight for my country. I ended up getting recruited into a different war, fighting for all of Humanity, and we've been fighting ever since.


My friend CJ, our group's leader, asked me to meet him at the zoo in which he worked. I was on my way there when I saw him and our other friend Jay driving away from the zoo. I thought it was weird to see them leaving before I got there. Granted I was late, and we had a potential controller to surveil, but still, I wasn't that late. Maybe they got spooked by something. I called CJ on my cell phone as I turned my truck around and began following them. I looked around, making sure I wasn't going to hit anyone saying idly, "C'mon c'mon CJ, pick up man."

[Doomhawk]

My name is Alice S- no, that's right, I'm not supposed to be giving out any kind of personal information. Because even a surname is probably helpful enough to get you tracked down. Right now, you're probably thinking, 'Hello, who is this paranoid nutcase and why is she terrified of the CIA?' Well, it's not the CIA that are apparently infiltrating this planet right now. It's these small slimy alien things that are basically sentient slugs. I can't remember their name...well, I can't remember a lot because every time I think about what happened to me two days ago, I just freeze up in fear. As any sane person would when they're being told that these slug-aliens are taking over Earth by crawling into people's ears and taking control of their brain. Impossible to believe, I know. Especially as if these slugs are inside your head, nobody can see them, so you can't prove their existence. Except I've seen it, second-hand. Right before the weird voice in my head then told me I had just been granted a power to combat them. The power to transform into any animal and fight back. I wrote it off as some weird kind of sleep-deprived hallucination. Until by laying my hand on my neighbour's pet cat, it became all sleepy. Then, like the voice said, I imagined becoming the cat, and it happened. I don't know how to describe the change...it wasn't like in fantasy movies where there's an instant transformation. It was more like my entire body shifted slowly and gross things happened which ended in me becoming a cat.

But becoming a cat was harder than I thought. You see, as an animal, you have that animal's brain, so you get their instincts too. Which is why I spent almost an hour or so prowling the neighbourhood before I fully got control of the creature, freaked out and turned back into human as fast as I could. You see, the voice also told me that if I stay in the form of an animal for over two hours, I'll get stuck in that animal's body. And even though being a cat isn't exactly terrible, cats die. Like, earlier than humans. And there are so many more dangers for cats, like dogs, moving vehicles, and so on. Oh. And it just so happened that this transformation is all about DNA, and let's just say clothes are not a natural part of a human's body. Man, my cheeks burn even thinking about the journey home- fear of this weird power overcame my embarrassment then, which is why I crept home as a human.

I haven't done anything since, but remembering the final bit of the voice's speech in my head has kinda gotten to me. I'm supposed to fight these slug things, and alone for all I know. I asked the voice somehow whether I was the only one entrusted with this task, and all it said in response was 'Divide and conquer'. I'm seriously hoping that it means that there are others, and we're all spread out across the country (or even world if we're lucky) so that the net won't ever close in on one of us, due to the others taking the heat off us when it matters. Anyway, with no idea of how to fight one of these slugs- that's right, I forgot to mention yet another factor that's going to make this impossible. These slugs, because they have access to their host's brain, can mimic the host's normal behaviour. So there is no way to tell if anyone you know has a slug in their brain. Even your parents.


I shivered as I paid the entry fee, strolling into the zoo as a few vehicles passed by. I had no idea what to do to fight these slugs. The only thing I could think of doing right away was somehow getting access to big animals. The kind that can take out even a karate master with claws, teeth or both. I imagined turning into a grizzly bear and was both horrified and delighted at the idea. Sure, you always get those times when you wish you were a bird so you could fly, or your friend's pet dog so you never had to study or go to lectures, but in these circumstances, the thought of doing just that wasn't so fun. I checked my watch. I had a free day today, but tomorrow I had a paper to submit. I'd finished it already, just needed to fine-tune it and check spelling, but I wanted to get home in time to do this as well as hang out with my dorm friends. Well, as long as I don't specify which university I go to, they can't find me, right? Anyway, enough thinking about this essay. Stopping at a billboard with a map of the zoo on, I hesitated. I could go guerilla warfare or gorilla warfare. Get something small and poisonous and somehow wage this war quietly, or get something big and brute force. The only question was how to somehow get access to any of the animals. They'd be in enclosures and unless I timed it right, they could easily harm me. That, and...anyone here could have one of those slugs in their heads. They'd think it was weird if I was trying to climb down into an alligator enclosure. "I'm suicidal!" just wouldn't cut it as an excuse...or would it? Did the slugs even know about humans turning into animals? The voice had mentioned the slugs having an enemy alien race who had fought them in the past... I sighed and stood there, deliberating what to do.

[Gankhruun]

((Since we have such great roleplayers here I couldn't let the thread become stagnant so I'll be taking over CJ's character until he returns so he'll be doing neutral actions that wouldn't affect his character too much.))

I felt the car start up, heard the handbrakes being pushed and we were heading down the road. CJ made an attempt to grab his phone that was ringing on the dashboard but I launched forwards and took it first and gave CJ a knowing look. It wasn't safe to drive while on the phone. I flipped the phone open and checked the caller ID and sure enough it was Shaun so I pressed answer.

"Hey Street. Sorry about ditching you in the last minute but uh," I pulled the phone away and gestured towards the left around the zoo, "CJ, take us to the staff carpark. We still have to meet up with the others and give them reptile morphs for whatever ya got planned." I returned to the phone and muttered a small apology before continuing, "We'll be there in a bit yeah? Just hang on. CJ doesn't really like me meeting his new work buddies 'cause he hates them with a passion," I chuckled lightly. I waited for Street's response.

[Darth Revan]

I listened to Jay explain the situation as I followed them. I nodded passively and replied, "Yeah, sure. What's this about needing reptiles?" I knew about CJ's co-worker. CJ wanted me to help scope him out, but I had to work that night and had to stay late to finish a problem for a client.

As CJ turned around a couple corners, we all ended up in the employee section of the lot. I found a space near CJ's truck and got out. I hung up my phone and gave the pair an upward nod of greeting and asked, "'Sup?" When CJ got out of the car, I asked him, "Hey how'd your stake out with your weird co-worker go?"

[Gankhruun]

The staff car park was in view so I ended the conversation with Street knowing we'd meet up with him sooner. I flung the phone lightly back on the dash board and crossed my arms. I was feeling a little uneasy but I was the master at hiding my discomfort. My face was the perfect portrayal of a master poker player. I could fool anyone with my nonchalant attitude and it wasn't the mission that we would be doing soon that rubbed my nerves the wrong way. It was all the new experiences I was experiencing and many more experiences to come. Experiences not meant for teenagers like me. I suppose I was actually a little angry about the whole thing, even after I had been doing it for nearly a year but you know what they say. As you get older time flies faster and it was true.

I felt the car stop and casually walked out, my hands in my pockets as a force of habit when I felt stressed. I spotted Street in the distance and walked over towards. I merely gave a discrete two-fingered wave and a nod in Street's direction before waiting for CJ to come over and prepare us for what was next. Personally I didn't know a whole lot about Street. I had my own suspicions about him whether he was a yeerk or not but they were just unreasonable doubts.

CJ turned up next to me. He had been busy finding a place to dump his burger and coke and in the end settled for the car bonnet. It was gonna smell when I would be getting a ride home now but it was okay. I loved the smell of burgers. CJ turned to Street and frowned, a small grimace lacing his face.

"Not good. He's definitely a yeerk. Seen him go through one of the yeerk pool entrances the other day. He made it quite obvious what he is the moment he kept badgering me about The Sharing and all the good stuff." CJ took a momentary pause to palm his belt, a soft jingling as he touched his keys. Satisfied he took off expecting me to follow. "Let's get you a morph though Street. Need a cold blooded animal. We're gonna have to do some of our own retcon. One of the others was making tabs on some of The Sharing members and there's already talks of something big going down but we don't know what so we're going to break into one of the meetings. There's one already planned from what I hear so we go from there."

CJ took a turn and we were heading back towards the reptile house again. I hunched my shoulders lightly, paying more attention to the side than the front so that they wouldn't see my my hesitation to go back there when I had already touched a reptile. Sure, it's a reptile but they freak me out to the bone next to spiders. We didn't meet up with CJ's new work buddy thankfully.

"Why reptiles? The meeting is being guarded by heat sensors. We morph reptiles, we blend in with the ambient temperature and we're in." CJ said finally just as he stopped at the entrance to the reptile house and I stood beside him, my arms crossed again. The plan sounded simple enough. Seems like a bust in, find info and bust out kinda deal. Although of course I could never think like that. There were so many possibilities where things would go wrong.

---

Sunsir Two-One-Three stopped approaching the adult and teenager, allowing them to leave by the entrance. He frowned lightly, his eye brows furrowed while his mental gears worked to figure out what made them fly like chickens. He deemed it worthy of telling his superiors about this event. 'Andalites in a human morph?' he had thought but quickly started walking away in case an idle zoo keeper was not considered normal.

[Doomhawk]

I stood by the map a while longer, lingering indecisively. I noticed a trio of guys walk past, and according to the map they were headed for the reptile house. I allowed myself to be distracted from my current problem to wonder absent-mindedly what the trio was up to. Of course they wouldn't be scared of the cold-blooded creatures, being macho guys and all- OK, so I was generalising. But the males I knew weren't just the kind of guys who wouldn't be scared of snakes- they're the type who would dare each other to touch it or pick it up or try and make it bite someone. Yes, we were university students and in our late teens, which meant they were the typical stupid guys who drank all the time...

The group vanished and I turned back to the map. If I had to fight, I needed something powerful...but how could I fight an enemy I couldn't see? Maybe I needed to go for espionage first. Something small. I shivered as I thought about bugs. They were tiny and discreet, but gross. And if they got stomped, it was game over for me. Then a horrible thought entered my head: I knew about a bug tough enough to survive being stomped. A gross beetle-like insect that repulsed any sane person. So, I headed to the bug house exhibit, shuddering at times.

I stood outside, trying to psych myself up. Somehow I was going to break into the exhibit or open a display case and get the DNA of a 'roach...I wasn't going for the bigger ones or the more exotically-coloured ones. I just wanted a smallish, black roach to turn into and sneak up on people. The more I ran the idea through my head, the more I began to think I was going mad.

[Darth Revan]

When CJ called me "Street", I rolled my eyes. The joke was really beginning to wear thin. I followed CJ without hesitation. Finally we get a truly stealth morph. I've been waiting for this type of mission for a while. All the fighting and flying missions were getting old. Time for some real espionage. I immediately knew which reptile I was going for. I was about to comment on which I was going to choose when CJ interrupted with an explanation that no one had asked for. When he was done, I rolled my eyes again, this time swaying my head with them. As my eyes fell on Jay, I asked, "You okay? You seem on edge man."

I didn't really wait for the reply. I expressed my concern, I just wanted to set CJ straight... again. I said, "CJ, will you quit calling me 'Street'? Yes, I get it, my initials are S-T haha. It's getting old. It's Shaun. Sure it was cool at first, but when you guys over-use it, it just gets old fast. Even the others stopped using that name as much, catch up man."

I didn't mean to go too far with my little speech, but it kinda got away from me. I sighed and continued, "It's about time we use reptiles. I have the perfect one I've been scoping out. You guys just got it imported from Florida." I ran ahead of the group and began walking backward while talking still, "The name is so cool, 'Crotalus adamanteus'. Doesn't that sound like the metal in Wolverine's body? The translation is 'Eastern Diamondback', but Crotalus Adamanteus sounds so much cooler." I turned back around and lead the way to the exhibit where the new snake was held.

I stopped at the display and held out my hands showing the snake like one of the Price is Right girls and spoke using a voice over actor's tone, "The Crotalus Adamanteus is the largest rattlesnake species and, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the heaviest venomous snake. Specimens over 7 feet (2.1 m) are rare," I broke character for a second with pure excitement, "and this sucker is 7' 4"!" I continued reusing the voice over tone, "Common names include eastern diamondback rattlesnake, eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake, eastern diamondback, diamond rattlesnake, and many other variations." I let the voice over voice fail and continue excitedly again, "This baby is supposed to be the most poisonous snake in North America. They've had deaths in minutes after being bitten. Minutes!"

I held out my hands to CJ expectedly and said, "C'mon, let me in. Let me at him." I looked around to make sure no one else could see what we were doing and said, "We're clear buddy, let's do it."

[Gankhruun]

I was at the back of the little group keeping a wary eye on the people around us to make sure we weren't overheard but it was fine. They all seem so damn preoccupied to really pay attention to us so there wasn't much of a problem as we headed towards the reptile house with CJ in the lead.

Shaun swivelled his head towards me and I stared back at him muttering a small 'yeah?'. He asked if was okay and I just pretended to fumble my hair in embarrassment with a laugh before waving him off with a hand, "Yeah, I'm fine. Stop worrying yeah? I get enough of it from CJ over here." And just like that Shaun's attention was elsewhere. I didn't mind and I slightly appreciated he wasn't so forward.

Shaun though, he was about to become very forward on another matter entirely. I bowed my head to hide a smirk that appeared on my face as he complained about his name. I didn't say anything because I hated being confrontational but not only that I might have chuckled out loud if I opened my mouth. I didn't get why Shaun didn't like the name Street. Not once have I called Shaun 'Street' as an insult meant to sting but as friendly nickname. I never realised until now that Shaun didn't take a liking to it.

CJ was already quick to remedy the situation though, "Ah, sorry Shaun. I'll be sure to remember next time." And the situation was dissolved and Shaun was already excited for whatever morph he had in mind. I turned my head and started looking at the distant groups sitting in the parking area but I was still listening to Shaun. Images of Wolverine, the comic book version, popped into my mind and then a snake and then a bunch of other stuff as I thought about what Shaun was saying. CJ unclipped his keys and tossed it towards Shaun while he turned around to keep watch and so did I.

[Darth Revan]

When CJ tossed me the keys, I snatched 'em out of the air. I unlocked the terrarium and grabbed the stick they use to grab the snakes. I stuck it inside and fished around for the snake's midsection. I could feel something soft in the brush, and immediately a rattle sounded. I gave a deep concentrated breath and hooked the snake. I lifted upward, and the snake appeared wrapped around the hook. It was obviously trying to squeeze it to death. My heart raced as I stared at the rattler's head and it stared at me back. I spoke quitely, "Slow... slowly now." I reeled in the snake on a stick. I saw it begin to gather its body to prepare a strike. I continued to stare down the snake as it got closer and closer. Finally it struck. Luckily it was far away enough for me to react. I dropped the stick and twisted aside. The snake flew passed me and I grabbed its midsection and immediately began concentrating on the snake. It's long slender gray body, the row of black diamonds on its back, the stripes on its head. I could feel the snake relax as it entered the usual trance that almost all animals enter.

When I was done, I gathered the snake and tossed him back in the terrarium. I locked the door and smiled to my friends, "Whew, that was fun. Let's not do that again." I tossed CJ his keys back. As I drew my hand back, I looked at my arm, "Crazy to think there are so many animals contained in my bloodstream."

[Doomhawk]

Finally summoning up my courage, I entered the exhibit. It took all of my efforts to try and keep a straight face as I passed by exhibits full of nasty wriggly insects. It didn't take too long for me to reach the 'roach exhibit and as I stared into the glass display, my eyes stuck to the bugs that were crawling all over the bark lining the bottom of their case in horror, I found myself realising that I had no idea how to get hold of one and acquire it. Not that I was sure I wanted to anymore, watching them twitch and crawl all around the display.

To distract myself, I glanced at the sign next to the display. Interestingly enough, it displayed the anatomy of the insect and explained why it was so hardy. The heart could stop without it dying (though that wasn't elaborated on), it could live for a week if its head was cut off, although it would die of starvation, the fat in its body was what dealt with poisons like insecticide in its system... I stopped reading and started thinking. OK, so they were hardy, but I didn't want noisy ones. I recalled a trip to a zoo in my childhood where we got to hold some rather large 'roaches that hissed like an angry snake for no apparent reason. They weren't too bad...though maybe that was my unafraid-of-anything childhood bravado tainting my recollection. It was probably because they were large enough not to be creepy. Holding this memory in mind, hoping it would give me courage, I checked the species name and didn't find anything about hissing in it. Then I began my plan.

"Excuse me..." I wandered around the bug house until I found an office behind the locust display, knocking at the door despite it saying 'Do not enter'. It wasn't long before it opened and I was face-to-face with a zookeeper. Continuing my conversation, I kept the childhood memory in my mind and also the memory of me lying to one of my professors about a late paper a month or so ago. I had somehow managed to keep a straight face. Hopefully they would help me carry this out.

"What is it? Has anything escaped or is anything eating each other?" The zookeeper, a lanky and bored-looking man asked as if this was a habitual occurrence. I shook my head, looking sheepish as I realised that maybe this was a silly way to go about getting a 'roach.

"Um...maybe I should have called beforehand. My name is Al-exandra," I automatically renamed myself and then struggled to hide a frown. That wasn't intended, but my subconscious must have remembered the Yeerks and whether they could track me down if this went badly. "I'm a Biology major hoping to specialise in animal biology, possibly with a view to eventually becoming a vet or maybe studying zoology after I graduate. As part of a project I'm doing, I have to make a detailed report on one animal of my choice. If I get a high grade for it, I'll be allowed to take more advanced electives in animal biology and then I should be able to specialise." The man looked at me strangely, obviously wondering what this had to do with him. "I wanted to take a really detailed look at the anatomy of my chosen animal for part of the research, which happens to be a 'roach." His strange look bloomed into a frown.

"OK. Let me get this straight, you're basically saying that you want me to let you handle a 'roach for this project of yours? This zoo doesn't have the word 'petting' before it in the title. And why did you choose something you could just catch around the house?" He had a point. No, he had several points. Trying not to freak out or get annoyed, I plastered an embarrassed grin on my face.

"I know it's a weird choice. I chose it because other people are going really all-out in this, they're choosing tigers and highly venomous reptiles...the anatomy part of their research is going to be interesting, but they aren't going to be able to get close to those animals. I thought that I'd get more credit if I actually did a detailed study myself by handling the animal. And there aren't actually that many 'roaches around my school...And I could easily make up this research instead of getting confirmation from the zoo that it's actually legit." He still seemed unconvinced. "I mean, when I was a kid, I got to handle these massive 'roaches that hissed at the zoo, so I thought that you might let me do this for a project...but do you have to book in advance for this kind of thing?" He folded his arms, clearly thinking about it. I tried not to let my relief show as I remembered that in my small handbag, I always carried a small notepad and pen just in case. I could take notes on it. Finally he relented.

"This is going to be a short thing, yeah? Maybe a few minutes?" I nodded, smiling gratefully at him. He strode out to the 'roach display, opening it up carefully and lifting out one of the insects before closing it. He beckoned me into the office and placed the 'roach down on the table carefully. "Don't let it run away." He warned and I pulled the notepad out of my bag as it began to explore the surface of the table. I quickly sketched it under his keen gaze, trying to focus on my role as a scientist. Remembering those terms from the display, I annotated the sketch before throwing out a question to keep him believing me.

"You'd say this one was, what, an inch long? At a guess?" He looked at it before turning away, rummaging through his desk to grab a tape measure. I thanked him before measuring it (which was hard as it tried to walk away). "Yeah, 1.1 inches." I noted it down and then set down my notebook, grabbing it as it tried to crawl off of the table and down the leg. Picking it up, I lifted it before my eyes, fighting off every urge to shudder and doing as the voice told me to all that time ago. I focused with all my mind on the animal, trying to think 'I am acquiring you, I am borrowing your DNA. It stopped moving and seemed almost...sleepy, for lack of a better word. I felt like something had happened at least, and pretended to be studying its compound eyes as the zoo keeper stared closely at me.

"I think this one likes you." I tried to laugh at what he said, still fighting the revulsion as I set it down and it began to move slowly. I added to my sketch about the compound eyes and nodded approvingly at my research.

"Thanks, I think I've got everything I need. I don't suppose you have anything I can take to school to prove I actually examined this 'roach here at the zoo?" I asked as the zoo keeper scooped up the 'roach. He nodded,

"We have a stamp we use for internal paperwork, I can stamp your sketch if you want." He disappeared to replace the 'roach and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. When he returned, I had the sketch ready. He retrieved a stamp from his desk and stamped it with the zoo's logo and name. I smiled at him.

"Thank you so much for your help! I think this is going to go really well! Maybe I will end up studying zoology..." He seemed amused now.

"Well, you're going about it the right way, showing initiative in coming here and getting all your research done. You handled that 'roach pretty well- a lot of animals are more delicate than you'd think. Maybe one day you'll end up working with us?" He joked and I laughed, surprised at his mood change. Maybe I really had impressed him. With a handshake and more expressions of gratitude, I left the exhibit, heart pounding.

I'd done it. I'd successfully acquired a 'roach. If I ever saw that guy again, I'd have to keep up the lie, but I'd already started it, so just building on it should be easy. Heck, maybe it'd even get me access to bigger and better creatures later on down the line! With a triumphant smile growing across my face, I returned to the zoo map I'd been standing next to before, confidence telling me to try it again with another animal, or at least something similar.

[Quickest Hands ever]

Anyone interested in this still