Prologue: Origins

[Brad the Brit]

Brit held out his hand and Damien gently placed the wiggling red lizard on his hand. "America is so cool" Brit said, watching the lizard in his uninjured hand go still. "We don't have any lizards in Britain".
 The lizard started moving again the effect of being acquired worn off. "well at least in a few minutes we're gonna find out if this morphing thing can heal injures". He unwrapped the blood soaked hankerchief from his left hand with his teeth.
"Anyone else want this bloody lizard". He asked offering it in his closed fist.   

[Breekan1]

Reece nods. "Give 'er here," he says. He takes the tiny reptile in his hand and strokes it gently with his finger as he acquires it. The scrambling creature's breathing slows, and its eyes glaze over. "Poor little guy," Reece murmurs. He finishes acquiring its DNA.

[FuBar]

Eddie:

"Me next!" I said, wheeling myself over to Reece and holding out my hand for the creature. When I had it, I concentrated on it and felt a slight tingle as its DNA was absorbed into me. It kinda made me smile a bit, using Alien technology for the first time.

"Who else?" I asked, holding the Salamander out for the next person.

[Damien]

"Make sure you put the salamander back under those leaves before its body dries out," Damien said.  stuffing his hands in his pockets,"Who wants to go first?" he asked while the lizard was being passed aorund,"I'll go if no-one else wants to." He glanced at the others, Eddie seemed particularly eager, that was understandable since morphing offered a possible cure for his paralyzation.

[Brad the Brit]

"I'm going for it, you with me Ed?". Brit grinned and focused on the image of the little lizard he had just been holding.

The first thing he noticed was his skin. It had turned red, the skin started to sag as it stretched out around his arms and neck. "Well thisss ishent sho baad". Brit tried to say as his mouth curled around his head and pushed out. Fusing with his nose to make a lizards snout. Then something ripped his spine had lenghtned into a thin red tail. He turned his long lizard neck to see the back of his jeans ripped to shred's.

<Bollocks> he thought. He now resembled a man sized lizard with human legs and tuft's of blonde hair sticking out of his scaly head. And then he shrank. He seemed to be falling at a million miles an hour. Huge sails or tents zoomed up in front of him. It took him a few seconds to realise they where his clothes. < Humm maybe we dident think this through>.

And then the lizard brain kicked in.
Fear! Mammals! Predators!!! Run! Run! Rruunrunrun!!! Lizard-Brit ran towards the tree and scarpered up its trunk.
<Bollocks!!!!>

[Damien]

Damien made a face as Brit morphed,"God I'm not looking forward to that..." and soon he lost sight of  his figure for a few seconds before a red lizard darted from under the pile of clothes and ran towards the trunk. Looks like the instincts kicked in. Without Thinking Damien chased after Brit and finally managed to grab onto him. Pulling him away form the tree trunk he cupped his hands aorund him, hopefully the dark would calm down his salamander brain,"Get a hold of yourself,"Damien whispered into his cupped hands.

[Brad the Brit]

Damien's whisper sounded like a shout. < OK i think i got it under control, good job i dident start practiceing on a lion.> Brit wiggled his tail and padded up Damien's arm and made himself comfortable on the tall boys shoulder. < You know this isent half bad. Apart from an unusaul urge to sit in a pond and eat insects. And my hand dosent hurt anymore. Eddie give it a go mate!>

[FuBar]

Eddie:

After I passed the Salamander on to the next person and watched Brit morph, I decided to have a go myself.

The first change was what looked like sunburn spreading all over my body. I can only presume as my sight shifted slightly that the yellow iris colour had replaced my natural green. Black spots erupted all over me, starting at the backs of my hands and moving steadily along my body to finish at my feet, which started to itch. Itch?

"Hey guys! I can feel my feet itching! Yay!!" I shared.

As I started shrinking I realized a new problem:
"Um... Guys? If I still can't walk when I demorph, how am I gonna get around and acquire other animals without my wheelchair?"

[Brad the Brit]

<You see i told you we rushed into this! I mean when we de-morph on the other side we're all gonna be naked. And i vote that as being poorly planned out>. Brit wiggled his tail again on Damien's sholder. < on the bright side at least haveing a tail is fun>.

[Breekan1]

Reece tries not to grimace as he watches the two boys transform. Morphing was entirely gross, though admittedly kind of fascinating to watch. It felt like it'd be just about the perfect entertainment had he still been in third grade. "It shouldn't be too much trouble to just toss our clothes over the edge before we morph, and if we do end up nudey, well, the place will be closed and we can always morph into something to spare our dignity." Reece grinned. "Not that all of us have anything to hide. Also, you are talking in my brain, and that is strange."

[Seryna]

Torrence had set the lizard aside and watched the boy - lizards with curiosity.

"You want me to toss your clothes over the side?" She asked the boys, turning to Reece. "We could pick them up and set them on the wall so they can scurry to the other side."

[Damien]

"Or we could just sneak in as humans with our clothes on..." Damien added, it was hard to tell if he was serious or not. Hes quickly ran over to the morphing Eddie intending to capture him if he freaked out like Brit did. He also was sure to not knock Brit off of his shoulder. "A few of us could help you around if your still disabled when you demorph, and even if you can walk I'm sure you'll still need help since you wouldn't be used to walking," Damien answering Eddie's question as he morphed.

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Kasey watches the others morph, her face expressionless. She bends over and scoops up a small insect from the leaf pile where the lizard had come from. She examines it carefully, watching its legs try to propel it off her hand, and it's feelers twitching in the air, before setting it back down; she decides against acquiring it. She then quickly scoops up the salamander before it can skitter away, staring silently at it while it grows sill. She sets it back down in the leaf pile, and turns to Eddie.

"Eddie, your legs should heal...I don't think that's going to be a problem...the clothes, on the other hand." Kasey's face lights up, and she laughs.

[FuBar]

Alice:

I watched with interest as the boys experimented with morphing a Salamander. These would be the good times they'd remember fondly when they got used to waking up from dreams of night-terrors and close-calls.

"Your injuries should all heal up nice and healthy when you demorph, Eddie, but the atropy in your leg muscles is not an injury in-and-of-itself. You may be able to move your legs, but I doubt they'd support your own weight even if you could stand. Perhaps you could enrol in physiotherapy?" I mused in response to the discussion of Eddie moving about under his own steam once inside The Gardens.

"In the meantime, I could probably get your wheelchair over the wall without damaging it, if I had a little help..." I offered with a little smile, hoping someone might offer to assist with that.

I could pretend to morph an Orangutan, scale the lattice, and pass the chair over the wall, but the wall was too high to be able to reach the chair from atop it. I'd need someone either side the wall to pass it to me and take it from me so it didn't get damaged from the drop.

[Seryna]

"How attached to you to your chair?" Torrence wondered. "I mean if security finds us, we'll have to make a fast run. We'd never leave you if we have to run for it, but trying to push your chair over this humongus wall would be a delay. " She paused before adding. "That's just a thought. Also- woot for walking!"

Torrence walked over to the latticework and took hold, stepping up from the ground. She hung there in mid air a moment, testing the latticework.  She stepped back down, frowning.
"I think it would hold us if we go one at a time, but its definitely not inspiring a feeling of confidence."

Those in lizard morphs would soon be able to control the instincts, if they haven't already. As they are learning to interpret human speech to words, they discover something startling.  There's another noise approaching from the west. Looking that way shows the large hedges groomed to ook like animals that gives excellent cover for whomever is approaching.