((Author's note: I haven't been to the real San Diego Zoo, so other than the sign, I have no idea what it really looks like))
March 11, 2011
San Diego, California
10:00 pm
Team #31 - Blue's POV
We spent most of the day planning out our late night trip to the zoo, starting with getting the write morphs to sneak in and out. It was Sealie's idea to use birds that were common enough to go unnoticed. The only problem was, we had no idea how to catch one. Birds were relatively easy to find in the county but every time one of us tried to sneak up on one, they'd fly notice us and fly away before we were even 3 or 4 feet of them (the weird looks we were getting from people who saw a bunch of kids, trying to tackle birds, didn't really help much either)
Eventually, Jess got mad and chucked a large rock at a nearby tree, hitting a small branch and causing an robin and its nest, to fall out. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the five of us acquired the half dead bird (with a chipped beak from the rock) and left it to its fate.
After finding out the zoo closed at 10, and we still had a few hours to spare, we went over the plan a few more times, changed into our morphing outfits, and waited. After a few episodes of old 90's shows (one of the best parts about being sent back in time) 10 o' clock finally came around. We said our goodbyes to Erek and Sarah, who wished us all good luck, and headed into the girls' room, as their window was facing the direction we'd be going in.
“Ok” Jess said, opening the window “Everybody knows what we're doing, right?
“Yeah” We answered
“Good. Let's make this quick. Just an in and out kind of thing. We have no idea what kind of security system this zoo has. There may cameras so I got these to keep our faces hidden”
Jess opened one of her drawers, pulled out
five black ski masks, and handed one to each of us
“I don't know if these are tight enough to morph with the rest of our clothes so we'll have to carry them as we fly” She explained
“Would we be big enough to carry these while we fly?” Demos asked
“Only one way to find out” Cody answered, with with a feather-like pattern growing on the side of his face
“Ok. Everybody take Cody's lead” Jess ordered
“Who's gonna close the window?” Demos asked
“We're in a gated suburb community in the 90's and there are two super strong androids in the house. What's the worst that could happen if we leave a window open?” I answered before getting a clear picture of the robin in my mind.
Dark gray feathers sprouted on my arms and spread to my shoulders, head and back. While red feathers spread from my stomach to my neck. My legs than became thin black twigs and my toes melted together and separated into talons. As I started to shrink, I looked at the others to see how they're morphs were going. Demos and Cody, who have already morphed before, seemed to be getting the hang of it quicker than the rest of us, as they seemed to be finished, except for a few minor details like patches of brown hair in their feathers and skin colored bird legs. Jess' morph was more or less complete but, to my amusement, she still hadn't shrunk, making her a 5 foot tall Robin. She kinda reminded me of the giant chicken from “Family Guy”. Sealie was moving surprisingly slow compared to the rest of us though. She had a few feathers here and there and she was definitely smaller but she still looked more human than bird.
<What's up?> I asked her, now that I'd finished morphing <Why are you taking so long?>
“I'm sorry.” She apologized “I'm just having a little trouble concentrating. I actually have a lot on my mind right now, but I'll tell you guys once we're out of here”
We waited for Sealie, who took an extra two or three minutes, and flew out the open window. Flying wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. It's easy once you let the bird mind take over for a little bit. The only real problem was the fact that we were doing this at night. Robins have pretty good eyesight but they were built for flying at night like owls are. The fact that we were carrying ski masks, which aren't all that light to a robin, didn't help much either.
<How's everyone doing?> Cody asked
<I'm fine> Jess answered
<These eyes kinda suck at night but I'm alright> I said
<I'm good too> Demos said
<Actually, I have something to tell you guys> Sealie said
She told us about this dream she had earlier this morning where Guy, Faerie, Dino, and Goom were on a team together and the Yeerks captured Guy and Goom, who was unconscious and had the escafil device hidden under his shirt. Everyone stayed silent for a while after she finished her story. I was at a loss for words. I mean, it was good because we knew that what Erek and Sarah said about other RAFian teams was true...but Guy, Sealie's older brother, and Goom were either dead or turned into controllers.
<Are you sure this wasn't just an ordinary dream?> Jess asked
<I don't know> Sealie answered <I want to believe it was just a dream but I've never had a dream that was so...real>
<Whether it's real or not, there's nothing we can do about right now> Demos pointed out <We don't even know where they are>
<Ben's right> I said <If it is real then the best thing we can do for them now is to beat the Yeerks here and then move on to different states until we find them>
After establishing that we couldn't do anything to save any other team at the moment, we flew in silence for a few more minutes before Jess and I spotted something familiar
<We're here> I said, noticing the large sign with a Panda Bear, Giraffe, elephant, Polar bear, and gorilla painted on it. Above the Elephant's head were the words: “World-Famous San Diego Zoo”
Before landing, we got a quick bird's eye view of the place, looking for somewhere to demorph in case the zoo had security cameras.
<I think I see a restroom> Jess said <Let's demorph in there.>
We followed Jess through the open archway of a tiny building with a
men's restroom sign next to it. As expect from a public men's room, it smelld like defecation and vomit, and the brown tiled floor(that kinda looked like it used to be white) was wet with what I'm 90% sure wasn't water.
<We couldn't have picked a cleaner spot to do this in> I asked as I began to demorph
<It's better than doing this out in the open> Cody said
<Out the open? Nobody's here!>
<We don't know that yet.>
After we finished demorphing, we reluctantly put on our ski masks, which were wet from whatever was on the floor, and walked out of the bathroom. Luckily, not far from us a large map of the zoo, telling us where each animal was located.
“Alright” Cody said “I think it'd be best to get better bird morphs first, then we'll do battle morphs, and then we get the hell out of here”
“Can't we just look around and see what we want” Sealie asked
“No. We aren't not sightseeing.” Jess answered “Maybe we can come back some other time but right now we're just getting the morphs we need and then we're leaving. We still don't even know if this place has security guards or cameras or something so the longer we stay here, the more danger we're putting ourselves in”
We followed the directions on the map to a large building with a sign over the door that read: “Birds”. Inside we saw lots of tropical and colorful birds separated from us by glass windows. There were parots, birds of paradise, pea****s, ect. None were the birds we were looking for though. After looking for a few minutes, we came across a door with the words “Birds of Prey' hanging over it.
“There we go” Jess said
We went through the door and into the room that was exactly identical to one we were just in only it a bunch of hawks, buzzards, owls, and eagles on display.
“Ok...new problem.” I said “How do we get past the windows?”
“We can't break them” Cody pointed out “So..I guess we could...”
Before Cody could finish, we heard a small tap on on one of the windows. I turned around to where the sound was coming from and saw Demos standing on the other side of one of the windows with his hand resting on a bird with the words “Golden Eagle” on a sign sticking to the window.
“D...Demos!?” I asked “How did you...”
“Employees only entrance” He answered
I slapped myself on the forehead “Duh! ….but when did you...”
“While you guys were looking at the tropical birds”
“And you didn't say anything because....”
“I wanted to surprise you guys” he laughed
After, he finished acquiring the bird, he left through an almost invisible hole in the wall, we then waited patiently while he found the doors we came in through.
“Well thanks a lot” Cody said “We were supposed to all do this together”
“Yeah but my way works better. I don't know if you noticed but I just acquired a pretty big bird. Now we can use our battle morph plan here too.”
In case you're wondering, the battle morph plan was Demos using his black bear morph to subdue the animals we needed to acquire for our battle morphs, so we wouldn't get hurt. Doing the same thing for the birds actually wasn't a bad idea.
After praising Demos for his brilliant idea, and after we waited for hi to morph the eagle, we wandered through the exhibits looking for birds we wanted to use as our regular flying morphs.
“Oh! I think I want that one!” I said, pointing at the White-tailed Kite with excitement
“Ok, Go with him” Jess told Demos
<Got it> He said, flying off of Jess' shoulder
I followed Demos through a door that read “Employees Only” inside, was a big hallway with door with different labels on them depending on which bird was on the other side. We had to do a bit of walking(or in Demos' case, flying) until we made our way to the door labled “White-Tailed Kite”
<Well, here it is> Demos said <Unlike the eagle, that Kite isn't asleep so acquiring it wont be easy>
“Isn't that why I have you”
<Yeah, I meant it wont be easy for me. I have to hold the thing still for you!>
“Quit complaining” I said, turning the knob on the door “You're a lot bigger than it, so it shouldn't be too hard”
And I was right. As soon as I opened the door, Demos swooped in and took down the bird before it had time to react. The only problem was keeping it still. Demos kept knocking it down but it kept coming back up. Sure he could have pinned it down with his talons but we don't want to leave any visible signs of damage on them in case the employees notice tomorrow.
“Come on, Ben. You're like twice its size”
<You wanna try this?> he asked
“I would but I don't have anything to morph, you were supposed to be helping me with that”
<You know what! Screw being gentle> Demos yelled before sinking his claws into the bird's chest
“Ben!” I protested
<Hurry up and acquire it before it dies>
“Alright, alright” I sighed, walking to the Kite, which was slowly starting to calm down
I put my hand on it's wing, the only part that couldn't hurt me or wasn't pierced by a golden eagle talon, and concentrated on the kite's DNA. As I acquired the bird, I noticed it's breathing became more and more...faint
<Are you done? I think he's dead>
“Yeah” I said, lifting my hand off the now dead Kite “I think I got it”
<Good. Now I just have to do the same thing, three more times> Demos grumbled
