Working the Night Shift (open)

[Jamilan]

((OOC: Sorry, Leroy...it’s just too hilarious. XD. “Prince Leroy.”))

Jamilan was reassured as Leroy – who, by now, he had chosen as his prince – spoke in his mind. He remained confused, as he watched the two men, and listened in on what they were saying. From what Leroy said, there must have been quite a few of them here. As he listened, it began to be apparent to him. They were going to switch out a golden statue for a plastic one, and then probably sell the golden one for profits. Jamilan had a minor understanding of the human greed for money. He personally disliked it.

It disappointed him that Leroy was asking everyone what they should do; a prince would simply tell them what to do, would lead them. Yet, Jamilan still respected him; he had admired Leroy’s performance in their mission, and would shape a leader out of him yet. <I believe we should distract them, Prince Leroy, as those who have not done so morph,> he replied to Leroy, his message relaying out to the other Animorphs. <My vulture morph has a self-defense mechanism that will allow me to effectively do so.> He was, of course, referring to regurgitation...

[belnoah]

So, he was expected to morph? But the falcon's eyes were useless in this dim night... but he still had ears. And at least he had the rest of the group nearby in case of emergency. He closed his eyes. He'd morphed only once before, and he didn't want to be able to see what was going on. He knew he would hear it, and that was more than enough. He swallowed, and concentrated.

The entire process took all of three minutes, and it made enough noise that he was certain the robbers must have heard him. Looking around, though, he was surprised at how well he could see. Granted, he couldn't see quite as well as the last time he'd morphed, but he'd been expecting almost nothing. <<I'm ready,>> he said. <<Tell me what to do.>>

[Nate]

Nate was surprised when he head Jamilian's voice. Talking to Leroy. How many of them were there here? He'd thought it was just him and Jeremy. Who, he realized as he looked over, was morphing. Alright, guess it's time, he pondered.

Jeremy was doing his bird thing, so he figured he'd go squirrel. Variety and ease of access into the building, he figured. He focused on the squirrel, shrinking in size quite quickly. Fur sprouted across him as he sank down to the cement, and eventually the big bushy tail popped out. Once he was done, he scurried out of his clothes that had suddenly become huge tents over top of him. <<Jamilian? Leroy? How many of us are there here?? I'm with Jeremy.>>

Suddenly he realized the stupidity of his morph choice as he got attacked by some serious squirrel fear instincts. <<Oh, crap. Jeremy? ...how much control over your morph do you have?>>

[savannah]

[ I laughed out at Prince Leroy. ]

Savannah had stopped just looking around, doing nothing. Instead, she was pressing her palms against her eyes painfully, as if that would help her come up with a solution. If she morphed a kite, it wouldn't be too much of a help. However, she would have access to thought-speak. Deciding to morph, she stepped back into an alley, her heart beating at her throat as she scanned the shadows. She almost expected some kind of a trash can monster to jump out at her.

About three minutes later, a White-tailed Kite flew out from the alley, flapping hard to gain altitude. Savannah was already feeling bitter about having left her favorite pair of jeans stashed in a dumpster, almost resented acquiring a diurnal bird of prey. Oh, I couldn't acquire something useful, she grumbled to herself.

She looked around once she was airborne, but the bird's eyes were no better than her human ones. She was getting more frustrated every passing second. She tried to find out where the thieves had gone to, but since she couldn't see them, she assumed they were in the shadows. She tried listening for any sounds, but the sound of cars, trucks, and other noises blocked out their sounds. She wanted to hit her head against a wall.

<<Guys? Can anyone see where the thieves are? Someone with better eyes than me. A better hearing would be nice too.>>

[Leroy]

Did Jamilan just call me prince? Leroy wondered, stunned. It sounded like he said, "I believe we should distract them, Prince Leroy, as those who have not done so morph." No, I must have misheard. He probably said, "I believe we should distract their Prince, Leroy, as those who have not done so morph." Leroy shook off the feeling, now convinced that he had misheard.

<<Yeah, lets make sure they are distracted, Jamilan. Just don't get into trouble or anything.>> With that, Leroy flew to the ground on the side of the burglars opposite of the other animorphs. He then began quacking as noisily as he could in order to try and draw the criminals' attention away.

As he sat there, quacking away, he also attempted to answer the question about who was here. <<As far as I know, the people here include me, Jamilan, Nate, Savannah, and Jeremy. I saw Naomi a couple minutes ago, too, but I'm not sure where she went... Whatever. Just try to get inside quickly. I feel like an idiot quacking over here. Maybe break in through an office window or something? I don't know. Just find some way to get in without getting killed.>>

[belnoah]

<<I can control it,>> Jeremy huffed, not noticing what Nate had become. His eyes were fixed on the door, which was now open. The burglers had slipped inside. <<Well, if it worked for them...>> Jeremy flapped over to the door, cursing his loud wings. He checked around the side of the open door before slipping in on foot. Inside, where there was more light, he could see almost as well as he'd been able to the last time.

He flew up to a darker corner and waited. He knew the burglers would have heard his wings, so the most he could do was hide and hope they assumed they were just nervous. Not for the first time, he vowed to get a more silent and varied morph once this was through.

[Nate]

<<Whoa, how'd we all get here?>> Nate wondered at Leroy's response. It sounded like pretty much everyone was in the area. He wondered where they were. <<Was there a mission I wasn't told about or was this all coincidence? Where are you guys? Wait better yet... what are you all currently?>> Maybe they were already in the building, waiting.

He glanced at Jeremy again, feeling a little more relieved that Jeremy's falcon morph seemed to pay little attention to him. Still, the presence of the bird made the squirrel's instincts a little harder to control. Jeremy flapped over to the door. <<Alright, in we go I guess!>> he scurried up the side of the stairs and headed for the door as well, humming some mangled version of the Mission Impossible theme as he went. <<Dah dah dah dah dahdaaah....>>

[Allie]

<<Uh... guys....>> said Allie who had, for now, been silent and following the burgalars. No one really noticed the supposedly stray, bi-color cat slip inside the museum after them. The burgalars hadn't noticed either actually. She was in the same room, not quite near enough to hear them muttering about what they were planning to steal, but close enough to tell the two were not exactly experts at what they did.

<<It's Allie, I'm here too and watching the burgalars from a few feet away inside the museum. I guess no one really notices stray cats.... or supposedly stray cats. Funny how useful this morph is.>> She crept a little closer, her control over the morph narrowly keeping the cat from jumping at a loud crashing noise as one of the burgalars knocked over a sculpture. It was the larger of the two. The smaller one gave an angry hiss of words that Allie could barely grasp from her location.

<<Ouch.... the big one's going to pay for that. Just so you know.... at least one of them is REALLY pathetic at this. If you need to find us, just wait until he knocks something over.>> Allie hadn't heard the conversation Savannah had, trying to keep her distance so the burgalars wouldn't notice or be suspicious of the cat that was stalking them. If she had, she'd know a little more. For now, she just tried to keep an eye on the two and wait for the others to arrive.

[Jamilan]

It wasn’t long before – in between the others morphing and making the other Animorphs aware that they were there – the burglars entered the facility. He wouldn’t get to “distract” them. Part of him was relieved; that would likely have been unpleasant. To Nate’s words, he responded: <Jamilan. I am in the form of a turkey vulture.> He could hear this person making...noises; it was as though he were humming a tune in his thought-speech. <What are you doing?> the Andalite asked, still perched where he was.

He wasn’t sure what to do, now that the burglars were inside. He only had his human morph and his Andalite form as his other alternatives. He replied to Prince Leroy: <I am afraid it is too late for me to mount my distraction, Prince Leroy; the thieves have already entered the facility.> At least they were not poachers, though he still did not understand why humans would steal from others, and harm animals, just for their own profit. He was beginning to hate money – it made the worst of men. He was glad that his people did not have a system of currency.

[Leroy]

<<Don't worry about it. Just get in here,>> Leroy said to Jamilan privately. He was already waddling through the door and headed over to hide in one of the museum's displays. He would have to wait until later to talk to Jamilan about calling him prince.

Leroy made it to his hiding spot without being seen. At least it seemed as if he did. He decided a duck morph wouldn't be the best choice for dealing with burglars, so he began to demorph. <<What do you say we make these crooks regret their decision to steal from our city?>> Leroy asked everyone before his thought speech cut out.

As he resumed his human form in the dark museum, he realized just where he had chosen to hide. Leroy was behind a stuffed mammoth in a display about the ice age. It gave him an idea. His skin became grey and leathery as he began to morph again.

[Nate]

<What are you doing?> the Andalite asked

<<Being awesome, that's what,>> Nate replied matter-of-factly as he scurried across the well polished museum floor in his squirrel morph. <<Stealth operations need theme songs. It's a rule.>> He bounded up onto a bench and paused to glance around and see if he could spot anyone else.

Leroy's thought speech rang through his head just then. Making them regret? Ooo... <<Does that mean picking way cooler morphs? Please say yes!!>> He hopped back down onto the floor and scrabbled under the bench, starting to demorph.

[Allie]

Allie glanced around for signs of the other Animorphs. <<Please tell me you're not going to morph something too destructive. Or is that the plan in which case I should duck into the side room I'm near and change from little kitty to big kitty.>>

She was still silently stalking the two burgalars as they searched the building for the item they wanted. It was obviously some sort of work of art, becuase that was the part of the museum they'd started searching in. It did make it harder for Allie to find places to hide though, becuase most of these rooms only had so many sculptures behind which the cat morph could lurk. And, if she went lion, she'd have to forget hiding.

<<What is the plan exactly?>> She asked. <<Just so I'm not surprised and potentially can help.>>

[Jamilan]

Jamilan followed Leroy through the door, still unable to understand what Nate was doing. They were certain to get attention now, since there was a duck, a vulture, and two more stealthy creatures entering the facility. Jamilan found a statue of a man with a strange headdress, striding forward - and recalled seeing something similar on the History Channel. It was an Egyptian pharaoh, he recalled. It was something that just went through his head; moments later, he was focusing on himself.

His Andalite form emerged from his vulture body, and soon, he was standing on four legs, feeling strong with his four-eyed vision and scythe-like tail. He stepped daintily from behind the statue. <My orders?> he asked his rapidly growing prince.

[savannah]

Savannah was too hesitant to do anything. She was the last one to enter the museum, trying to beat her wings silently, but failing miserably. She landed on the floor, next to a statue.

<<Making them regret? How do we just do that? Attack? I only have a birdie morph. What have you got?>> she asked. <<A moderate sized birdie who can't see very well in semi darkness.>> she added, as an afterthought.

Savannah's current morph's eye pupils were widening as she tried to focus on the burglars. She could only see their outlines. She shook her head, a very human-like gesture, coming from a bird. <<They are bound to notice us after a while. We're like a walking zoo here. I just noticed a cat, I know Jamilan is in a vulture morph, and the rest of you are in a morph. How many of us are even here? Six? Seven?>>

[Leroy]

Leroy quickly found out that there was not as much room behind the mammoth as he first thought. Now that he was about the same size as the mammoth, he was rather cramped. Asian elephants tended to have a difficult time indoors.

<<Umm...>> Leroy said. Both in response to all the thought speech messages that had entered his head, and because he wasn't sure if he would be able to get out of his hiding spot without totally destroying the exhibit. <<Whoever is here, lets all just do what we can to make sure they don't get away with whatever they are trying to steal.>> Then as an afterthought he added, <<but don't get hurt.>>

<<Ready? Charge!>> Leroy let loose an ear-splitting trumpet from his trunk. But despite his exclamation to charge, he was treading as carefully as possible out from the exhibit he was hiding in. It wouldn't do if they destroyed the museum they were saving from thieves, right?