March 12, 1996
Seattle, Washington
11:15 am
Team #42
- Tony’s (Unknown User) POV
As I flew over the city in my Red-headed Woodpecker morph, I couldn’t help but feel a small twinge of jealousy as I looked up at Nick, who went to the zoo without the rest of us and acquired a Peregrine Falcon. I say “looked up” because the rest of us only had smaller birds and therefor couldn’t fly nearly as high or as fast as him. Ever since we got here, Nick’s kept to himself, rarely talking to the rest of us and spending most of his time wandering around town all alone. And it was during one of his little adventure that he found the zoo and decided to go in by himself, when it was closed of course, and acquire as many as animals as he could. This included his falcon, a snake, a wolf, and a grizzly bear (the last two he only acquired because he snuck into the security room and stole a tranquilizer gun) It’s friggin insane. The when we first got here he was freaking out and we had to keep him from having an emotional breakdown but then once our Chee explained to us how we could go home, he suddenly went into “Silent commando” mode.
<So nutcase> Lucas taunted <Remind us again why you decided it’d be better for you to go and get all the cool morphs without us>
Nick ignored him. That actually might have been a warning sign that things weren’t exactly alright with him. Normally the two would go back and forth until Blue or I broke up their little “sibling fights”. But all Lucas has been doing since we got here is making fun of and insulting Nick but he’s only said something back once.
<Are you feeling ok> I asked him in private thought-speech
<I’m fine.> he said bluntly
<Are you really? You haven’t been yourself. I was expecting you to freak out through all this but you’ve been surprisingly calm. Not even your brother’s been able to affect you.>
<I’m just…really focused on getting out of here. That’s all.> Nick sighed <The more animals we get. The more prepared we’ll be. The more prepared we are. The better chance we have of winning. And if we win, we get to go home.>
<Alright fine; I understand. I was just a little worried about you.>
<Yeah, Jordan said the same thing. It’s funny how you guys are showing more concern than my brother.>
After that train wreck of a conversation was over Nick showed us to the nearest zoo, which was closed on Sundays. We demorphed in a nearby restroom (grossest place ever, by the way) and wandered aimlessly until Goose came across an animal he thought looked interesting.
“Hey, what about that?” he asked, pointing to the rhino exhibit
“Is that what you want?” Nick asked
“Yeah, sure”
Nick shrugged and began to morph into his bear “Okay then, let’s get this over with.”
It was at that moment that I realized why Nick had gone ahead and gotten his morphs without us. He wasn’t being a selfish loner. He was actually looking out for us. He risked his neck to get his morphs so that when we got ours, he’d be there to back us up. That’s a pretty genius plan, if I do say so myself.
<Alright, let’s go.> he said, directing Goose to the employees only entrance
Lucas and I watched Nick and Goose through the class window on the other side of the rhino’s….room? I’m gonna call it a room just because I don’t know what else to call it. Display case came to mind but it’s an animal, not a trophy. It’s just a big square room with hay on the floor and a big glass window for spectators to stare at the big guy. Anyway, it was asleep so it didn’t take long for Goose to acquire it and then get the hell out of there. He didn’t even really need Nick but having a grizzly bear ready to kick ass for you is still comforting. Next up was Lucas, who decided on a Lion morph. This would be a million times more difficult. Not only because the lion was wide awake, but also because he was kept in a faux habitat, complete with his own harem of lionesses.
“Are you…are you sure about this?” I asked “There’s gotta be like five lions in there. I don’t think a bear is gonna be enough.”
“It won’t be just a bear.” Goose said as a rhino horn grew from his nose
“That might not make much of a difference.”
Lucas was shaking “Yeah….I don’t think I want the lion anymore.”
“We can come back after Tony gets his battle morph.” Goose suggested as he reversed his morph
“Actually…I don’t know if the thing I had in mind can take down a lion…..in fact I think lions hunt them.”
“Even better” Goose laughed “You’ll be our distraction.”
We made our way to the second part of the African exhibit, the part reserved for the herbivores. Using the rope ladder we found in the security room, Nick, Goose, and I climbed down the large concrete wall that kept the visitors out. After a little….mishap….where Nick forgot to demorph before attempting to climb the down; I surveyed the area and looked for my “prey”. Zebra? No. Antelope? Hell no! Wild boar? Those aren’t even herbivores! What the hell are they doing here?
“Do you see it?” Goosed asked
“Not ye….THERE IT IS!” I yelled, quickly covering my mouth as the buffalo, startled by all the noise, ran deeper into the grasslands
Goose started to morph “I got him.”
Nick had already finished morphing <How strong are these things?>
I answered “Well from what I’ve read about them, they normally travel in herds and it takes several lions just to take down one of them.”
<…Oh my God. JORDAN!>
<I know!> He said, already chasing after the buffalo <Get it before it reaches its herd.>
“He can get him. A charging rhino can move up to 35 miles per hour.”
<How do you know all this stuff?> Nick asked
“When you have as much free time as I did before all this, you learn a lot of things nobody ever really cared about.” I sighed
“HOW’S IT GOING?” Nick called from atop the wall
<We found the buffalo> Nick explained <But it ran away so now Jordan’s chasing….>
<I GOT THE BASTARD!> Goose cheered
<Where are you?>
<Just keep going straight. I’m in front of the watering hole.>
<Alright. Come on Tony before we lose it again.>
<Not likely. I sorta…..tackled him....he’s out cold.>
Riding on Nick’s back as he ran on all fours, we made our way to the watering hole where we found Goose resting his humungous leg on the collapsed Cape buffalo (there were also a bunch of zebras and antelopes freaking out at the presence of a rhino and grizzly bear in their habitat)
“Nice job, Goose.” I said before resting my hand atop the buffalo’s head
<It was nothing. This guy’s fast but nothing that big can outrun a charging rhino.>
Goose took his weight off the buffalo’s side as I finished acquiring it. He and Nick tried helping the buffalo back up on its feet but it was no use. Goose probably broke one or two of its legs. Doing all we could for the poor thing, we turned around to make our way back to the safe side of the zoo. That is until….
<Uh…guys> that was Lucas’ voice <I’m flying over you all right now and I see a big group of wildebeests coming your way.>
<What?> Nick asked
<Look behind you.>
And sure enough, on the other side of the waterhole, we could make a big black blob that was on its way towards us. As it got closer I could now make out exactly what it was. It wasn’t blob at all and it sure as hell wasn’t a pack of wildebeests. It was the herd of Cape buffalo that we were trying to avoid running into. Unsure of how they’d react to see us near an injured member of their group, we slowly back away from the unconscious buffalo before Goose yelled….
<RUN!>
Without thinking, I hopped on Goose’s back and held onto his horn for dear life as he went into “charge mode” and made a beeline back to where we started. To our surprise, Nick was having no trouble keeping up with us.
“Don’t wait until we get there before you start demorphing.” I instructed “Do it now so we can hop on the ladder and get the hell out of here.”
Nick and Goose did as I told. Nick was completely human by the time we reached the wall and was already making his way back up the ladder. Because I was on his back, Goose made an effort to demorph slower so he could still sustain my weight. He was halfway done by the time we reached the wall and once I was halfway up the ladder, he had already started climbing.
“That….wasn’t….fun….” I said, catching my breath as I finally made it to the other side
<You wanna know the messed up part?> Lucas laughed <You did all that running and panicking for nothing. They didn’t even try to chase.>
Unaware of where Lucas was, I settled for just glaring up at the sky “You’re just now telling us?”
<I thought you could use the exercise. Especially Nick. His bear morph is a fatass.> he answered, perching his tiny pigeon body on Goose’s shoulder
Once again, we were shocked at Nick for not taking his brother’s obvious bait. If that weren’t so worrying, I might have actually been a little proud that he’s finally learned to ignore Lucas when he’s being an obnoxious jerk.
“Let’s go.” Nick ordered “Let’s get the lion and leave already.”
<Who died and made you the leader?>
Nick once again ignored Lucas and started walking to the other side of the African exhibit. Goose and I exchanged worried looks before following him.
“Are you guys can do this?” Lucas asked as we reached the lion exhibit “I thought you said buffalo were a lion’s prey.”
“They are but that’s only when it’s several of them teaming up on one buffalo.” I answered “These buffalo actually kill more lions than the lions do them.”
“Yeah, you heard Buffy the Lion slayer.” Goose joked “We got your back, Lucas.”
Lucas gulped as he looked at the lions relaxing on what looked like a replica of “pride rock” from
the Lion King “I guess you’re right….let’s get this over with.”
