Rox
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
World peace? More like world piece.
Posts: 140
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Post by Rox on Aug 4, 2009 16:48:21 GMT -5
"How about one of those instead? I bet they would be easier to catch. Probably harder to hold on to as well... But the acquiring trance should take care of that, right?" Rox was at a deserted beach outside of town with a few of her fellow animorphs. They had come here to try and catch a seagull or some other bird, but they ran into a problem. The seagulls weren't too interested in being caught, especially since they hadn't thought ahead enough to bring bait. The reason they were trying to catch one was because they wanted to go up the coast to make a visit to a zoo, but didn't want to pay for a cab ride to get there. The reason they were going to the zoo up the coast instead of the one in Arbella was because if something went wrong while they were trying to acquire something, it could tip Sarah off about their activities. The reason they didn't just go acquire a bird at a pet store or something was because they had decided it would be best if they acquired a bird that was native to the area and wouldn't look weird traveling in a group. And that is why Rox had just suggested trying to catch a pelican. "Maybe we could try circling around it? Man, this would be so much easier if we had a gun or something."
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Leopold
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
Friends, flying, and freedom...it's worth a few changes.
Posts: 50
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Post by Leopold on Aug 4, 2009 23:13:38 GMT -5
Leopold wasn’t really happy about not getting to use his hawk morph for something requiring flying, but he was an understanding guy, and knew that they had to be cautious, and thus use something native that usually went in groups. Leopold had suggested a buzzard, but no-one really liked that, so they went out and tried to acquire a seagull, but to no avail. Thus, instead, they were looking to acquire a pelican – Rox’s on-the-moment idea.
There was litter on the beach’s shore. It disgusted Leopold; it was something he wanted to do something at some point. “One of us just has to get hold of it,” he said. “It will become still when one of us touches it. Then him – or her – can let go, and another one of us will can acquire it.” It was a pretty decent plan, he believed, and he couldn’t have done it without his experiences with acquiring the Krider’s hawk.
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Johnny
Veteran
Former Animorph of Arbella
Hello!
Posts: 225
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Post by Johnny on Aug 5, 2009 8:59:05 GMT -5
"Like a pelican is going to stand still while someone touches it. I don't think so," Johnny said to Leopold. He actually had suggested acquiring a cockatoo, but that plan had been shot down quickly by the others. They just didn't think a cockatoo had it in it for this kind of mission. And Johnny wasn't really sure whay they could just go into the local zoo. Yeah, sarah could hear about it, but Johnny was actually kind of hoping to meet her, at least to ask her phone number.
Johnny laughed. "Circle a pelican? Um, Rox? You forgot one thing. Pelicans can fly." Johnny kept a straight face, making it sound like he was saying something phenomenal. "I have a better idea. Me and Leo here," Johnny put his arm around Leopold's shoulders, "have big birds. I think an eagle and a hawk can take one down. Then while its being acquired, we demorph and people can hold it down so it doesn't escape. How about that?" Johnny smiled, pleased with himself.
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Hope
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
You'll never let them say, "You'll never get that far."
Posts: 24
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Post by Hope on Aug 5, 2009 11:14:20 GMT -5
"Just as long as you don't kill it," said Hope glancing at Johnny and Leopold. "Rox's idea of the gun would work, except that we can't acquire something that's dead. I asked Agent Cassidy about that when she recruited me. Injured or sick is fine because the damage isn't in the DNA, but dead doesn't work."
She watched the pelicans. If it weren't for Sarah, getting morphs at the zoo wouldn't require getting a bird morph that could travel up the coast as a flock. Still, better safe than sorry with the rogue Animorph lurking in Arbella.
The pelicans did seem to be a better idea than the seagulls, which flew away every time one of the Arbella faction memebers present got near them. Still, the pelicans were likely to do that too without bait. They only needed to catch one, but catching it was the problem really.
"Anything is worth a shot. Maybe someone does a large bird morph and the rest of us try Rox's idea. If we can't catch one on the ground, the member in the air will get one as they're trying to escape." Though, Hope didn't add one other thought. What if the pelicans didn't get scared away and tried to fight back? It was possible with some birds. Hope didn't really know pelicans well enough to know what they'd do.
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Mark
Experienced
Former Animorph of Arbella
I don't care how much it costs, even my life... They will burn for what they've done.
Posts: 48
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Post by Mark on Aug 6, 2009 16:04:45 GMT -5
"We could use one of the morphers shirts as a kind of makeshift net?" Mark shrugged as he toed a line in the sand. "I promise not to let the bird leave you a present." One of the plans was bound to work. Hopefully. "Or we could just poison a fish and nab the thing before it finishes dying." Like anyone would agree to that... Besides, of course the sadist. "Oh, I have an idea. Someone buy a six pack of soda and some fishing line and we... Never mind."
He smiled as he considered the situation. Pelican -> Hand was the key part of this equation, though they could probably just as easily acquire... He frowned. "Does anyone know if we can acquire an animal with our foot? Is it just skin contact or does it have to be our hand?" Someone had to hold the animal still after they caught it, even if it was caught by bird. Especially if it was caught by bird so the hunter would have a chance to demorph and get a DNA imprint for themselves. In all this situation led to one very simple answer. "One of us has to buy a net or something." He muttered to himself as he pulled a cigarette out of a pack and stuck it in his mouth absentmindedly. If it weren't for the bird being there, he'd have lit it.
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Rox
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
World peace? More like world piece.
Posts: 140
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Post by Rox on Aug 7, 2009 1:31:58 GMT -5
Rox laughed to herself in a slightly amused fashion. "Boy, everyone has an idea about how to catch a pelican, don't they? If we try them all we'll be here all day. Why don't we just chuck rocks at them until we knock one out and get it over with?"
Rox picked up a palm-sized rock near her foot and threw it towards the small group of birds. Surprisingly it hit one even though she hadn't been aiming. The still-conscious bird promptly took flight and the ones nearby moved quickly away from where the rock had landed. But they were still on the ground, so that was a plus.
"Umm... oops? I like the plan where Johnny and Leo do the air strike," she said quickly in a weak attempt to gloss over her minor error. "And then we can let Mark try out his new foot fixation while we're at it."
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Leopold
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
Friends, flying, and freedom...it's worth a few changes.
Posts: 50
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Post by Leopold on Aug 7, 2009 15:53:54 GMT -5
Leopold didn't like all this talk about harming the pelicans. After all, they were living creatures that were minding their own business, and this group of kids and men were all humans, and were all giving ideas of messing with the poor things. Meddling humans... Leopold thought angrily, even though he was one.
Not to mention Rox's idea was both stupid and cruel. "We're not going to hurt them. I'd have thought you guys to be better than that," he said firmly, making up his mind. He made his way to the pelicans, not minding if he got hurt - it was, to him, better than knocking out or slowly killing one of them.
He leaped at the pelican...and managed to grab it around the middle before it could fly away. He quickly began to focus, as the pelican started to struggle against him, flapping its wings. But it stilled under his touch. Hopefully, the others would know what to do before the acquiring trance was done.
((OOC: Hopefully this is alright. And I wanted to show Leopold's regard for nature)).
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Johnny
Veteran
Former Animorph of Arbella
Hello!
Posts: 225
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Post by Johnny on Aug 7, 2009 16:06:21 GMT -5
Johnny was going to offer another brilliant suggestion after Rox started throwing rocks, but then Leopold just ran out and tackled a pelican. And probably acquired it too, since Johnny doubted that the pelican was an old friend of Leo's. Johnny ran over to the duo and grabbed a wing as he laughed.
"Now how come we didn't think of that?" he asked everyone else but Leo. "This is great. Here we are coming up with all these grand scemes to cleverly catch a pelican when Leo just jumps right in! Oh great, we don't stand a chance against Sarah." The acquiring trance was lasting longer now, starting right on Johnny's before it was done from Leopold.
The other pelicans had flown away by now.
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Rox
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
World peace? More like world piece.
Posts: 140
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Post by Rox on Aug 10, 2009 0:55:23 GMT -5
Rox rolled her eyes when Leo started to scold them for even suggesting that they hurt the pelicans. She was just glad that he didn't single her out for actually hurting one. Sure, she hadn't meant to hit it with her rock, but she wasn't about to loose sleep over it either.
However, Rox's mind didn't have a lot of time to contemplate these issues when she was brought back to reality by Johnny's question. But she didn't comment. She was too busy jogging the short distance over to the pelican. She wanted to acquire it before it got away.
When she reached Johnny and Leo, Rox reached down and grabbed the end of its beak in her fingertips and began to concentrate. She let the andalite technology do its work as the bird's DNA became a part of her. "Finally. I can turn into a bird other than my stupid dove morph," Rox commented when she was finished.
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Mark
Experienced
Former Animorph of Arbella
I don't care how much it costs, even my life... They will burn for what they've done.
Posts: 48
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Post by Mark on Aug 11, 2009 15:37:24 GMT -5
With a shrug at the ease of capture, Mark walked up and laid his hand against the becalmed pelican. Closing his eyes he focused on the shape of the long beaked bird. It didn't still under his hand the way the other animals did, but considering the sheer number of absorbing hands upon it that didn't worry him. He felt the slightly tingling as his body analyzed, copied, and integrated the stunned bird's genetic structure into his own.
With a frown, he took his hand off the animal, stepped back, and patted his pockets. "Does anyone have a knife or anything, I hear there's good eating on one of those. Waste not, and all that." Confirming that he didn't have anything in his pockets that might be useful, he sighed and sat down in the sand. And now I can fly. Very nice...
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Hope
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
You'll never let them say, "You'll never get that far."
Posts: 24
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Post by Hope on Aug 11, 2009 19:29:43 GMT -5
Hope almost had to laugh at how easy Leo had made catching the pelican. They'd been so busy trying to figure it out that they hadn't even thought about just trying to grab one the way they had been trying with the seagulls. It hadn't worked with the one, but obviously that wasn't true of the second.
Hope joined the others, finding a space on the bird to put her hand once a few of them had acquired it and moved out of the way. She focused on the animal and waited for a bit. Without the trance she really couldn't tell, but she had to figure it would work the same way it had with her skunk morph. Thus she had the morph now.
She turned to Mark then and responded to his comment about the knife. "No, I don't have a knife, and we don't really need to worry about waste not. The pelican will be fine once we're all done acquiring it. We haven't killed it yet and don't have a reason to." If they did kill the bird..... well, good for anyone who wanted to try butchering it. Hope wasn't going to.
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Leopold
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
Friends, flying, and freedom...it's worth a few changes.
Posts: 50
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Post by Leopold on Aug 15, 2009 14:18:17 GMT -5
Leopold chuckled at their reactions to how he’d done it. His mood had greatly improved now that they had acquired it and harmlessly too. He was sure the one that Rox had thrown the rock at was fine now; after all, it had flown off. And thus, now he had another bird that he could use. He rolled his eyes at Mark when the older man talked about eating them. Immature... he thought, realising that was quite...ironic, seeing as Mark was an adult, and Leo was a boy.
“We haven't killed it yet and don't have a reason to." Leo looked for the source of these words, and saw Hope. He nodded.
“Thank you,” he said. “No need to be merciless.” Leopold could, indeed, be merciless, but of course wouldn’t to an animal. Sarah, on the other hand...well, she was wanted dead or alive. He’d do what it took to ensure that happened. Unless, of course, SPECTER was lying to them, and she was a good person...then he didn’t know what he’d do.
He noticed something in the water, and went to see what it was. "Ugh..." he said as he got closer, and it revealed itself to him. The plastic rings that went around soda and beer cans. Furrowing his brow, he picked it up, and ran it over to the nearest trash can. It made him feel good to do this deed for whatever sea life might have suffered because of some human's irresponsibility.
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Rox
Experienced
Animorph of Arbella
World peace? More like world piece.
Posts: 140
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Post by Rox on Aug 24, 2009 3:25:26 GMT -5
"Well someone decide quick. We better get going if we want to make it there sometime today. Either let it go or butcher it," Rox said sarcastically. She would have been shocked if someone actually did butcher the bird. Plus she would think they were crazy.
"Anyway, lets take this thing for a test drive." She focused on the bird that was in front of her and felt the changes begin. Her feet became flat and webbed, her neck grew to four times it's original length, and her eyes moved to the sides of her head. "Ew, gross." Her torso compacted and feathers began to emerge in patches over her body. Her mouth became a long beak that seemed to grow forever, and he arms turned into wings. Eventually she shrank down in height, and her bones hollowed out. The last change were the ears that shlooped into her skull.
The instincts of the pelican were similar enough to those of her other bird morph that she didn't have any real trouble controlling them. That was one problem she was sure glad to avoid. <<That was... interesting.>>
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Johnny
Veteran
Former Animorph of Arbella
Hello!
Posts: 225
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Post by Johnny on Aug 24, 2009 9:16:45 GMT -5
Johnny stayed out of the debate on whether they should eat the pelican or not. It was up to them and they would get the consenquences. He wouldn't eat the pelican because he was pretty sure that it was illegal and because he'd much rather a hamburger. Not to mention he was full. He just stood there, watching the waves crash into the shore.
Rox's thought-speak jarred him out of semi-daydreaming. Wait, she had morphed already? Johnny glacned at her and just waited for her to do something, but it looked like she had the morph under contorl. Especially if she could thought-speak. "I'll go next," Johnny said as he squatted down on the sand, a position that made it easier to morph into a bird from.
Like the eagle, Johnny shrank to a smiliar size and a 3D tattoo began growing from his arms and skin as feathers emerged. When his wings were growing, Johnny was actually impressed. The pelican was larger than the eagle. He didn't know birds could do that! He didn't realize it before because it had been quite awhile since he'd seen a golden eagle in real-life. The new changes ocurred when his beak shot out and kept going, before coming to a small hook. Looking cross-eyed at it while he still had human eyes, Johnny was impressed with how slender it was compared ot the eagle's.
The final changes happened and Johnny was impressed with the bird. It was easier to control than the eagle had been, but it was a little more flighty. <<Okay, I'm sold. The pelican's awesome.>> Johnny informed the non-morphed animal-morphers.
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Post by ray on Aug 24, 2009 12:01:17 GMT -5
Ray felt a tang of guilt as he ran over to the group. He took in a deep breath while he ran, stopping as quickly as possible. “S-so sorry I’m late…What’d I miss?” He took in a deep breath, panting slightly. He just saw Johnny morph and had time to look away. Dang, he’d missed something…That was horrible…
Ray new since he was a newer addition he’d most likely not been meant to be there. Or his teammates wouldn’t be to pleased at his late arrival. He knew if he was in their passion, he wouldn’t be. “Sorry…” He choked out, looking away. Not only was he now guilty, he was embarrassed. His cheeks turned a bright red and he looked down at his hands.
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