Big Fish, Small Pond [Group-Mission]

[Allie]

Allie had followed and listened to most everything in silence. She wasn't much for asking questions. Besides, she hadn't been expecting much in clarity from this Agent Morris guy anyways. SPECTER, she was finding, was known for using the Animorphs to do the legwork for them whenever it was inconvenient or dangerous and otherwise were often left to their own devices.

Still, they didn't know enough to get started. And, now came discussion of needing water morphs. "I vote for the killer whale," she said. "I don't mind the other options, but if it comes to a worst case scenario on this trip I'd rather be prepared for fighting. Better to have the firepower and not need it than not have it and get ourselves into trouble."

She did have to agree with Jeremy, touching the whale was another story, but she'd do it. She'd touched a lion hadn't she? After that she was pretty sure she could do the whale. In fact, "Yeah, a whale is scary. I touched a lion though, so it can't be impossible."

[Jamilan]

Jamilan smiled with his eyes. “Even if your hands were injured, you would regain them through morphing. However, I don’t see the logic in it blowing up in your hands. Andzzzz.” He couldn’t resist sounding out words, now that they were in an alley where others couldn’t hear them. He thought about what the agent had said. They would need a reliable sea morph, and indeed that was what they were discussing. And he would get to drive their van, and would have a pilot’s and driver’s license. It was more than SPECTER had given them before. He hoped that they would continue to aid them in this way; they needed it, with the low-paying jobs. Jamilan could pretty much provide for himself, but the humans needed food, and things to keep themselves entertained.

He wasn’t very helpful choosing the morph, though he did have a suggestion. However, before he could suggest it, they had spoken of killer whales, and he thought about this, having seen them before when he took a trip to the aquarium. “They have a killer whale at the aquarium,” he added. “In fact, they have three. I have been there. They are open late at night, and I am sure they will allow us to pet the creatures; I have seen this. The only problem I foresee will be my own; I cannot acquire except in my natural form.” He looked over at Leroy. “I do not want to jeopardise Prince Leroy’s job, either.” Despite Leroy asking him not to, he continued to think of Leroy as his prince.

((OOC: Leroy, do you mind if we do a thread that happened prior to this, where Jamilan explains to Leroy why he calls him “Prince Leroy”? XD. It’s not going to just be about that; I am having Jamilan building a computer out of used computer parts for the Mariposa group back at the apartment. Either that, or we can just assume they talked about it before...or they didn’t. Up to you.))

[Nate]

Nate definitely didn't see the logic in blowing up his hands either. His hands were pretty useful. Also, it would probably hurt. Like, a lot.

"What, no sharks?" Nate pondered out loud. Ah well, killer whales would work too. In fact, he was happy they had said 'Killer Whales' because it reminded him that they were, in fact, cool. Had they called them orcas, he probably would have made fun of them and cracked a Free Willy joke. Using the word 'Killer' just made the morphs seem far more hardcore. "Well at least we'll be big and semi-scary, I suppose."

[Leroy]

"So killer whales it is," he said, ignoring the 'prince' comment. "If I had known sooner that we would need to get into the aquarium I could have gotten us some free passes. But I suppose a lot of us have free passes anyway." Leroy flapped his arms to show what he meant. Anyone with a bird morph could get in free. Actually, even those that didn't have a bird morph could probably still get in free using something else.

"So, should we come back tonight? When there are fewer people here and whatnot. In the meantime we can try to figure out a way to keep our alien friend hidden while he acquires a whale."

(OOC: Someone can probably time-skip if they want)

[belnoah]

Later, as the sun was setting, Jeremy turned circles in the air, high over the aquarium. He'd spotted the killer whale tank, but he was waiting for more of the others to show up. That, and there was still a zoo worker in the exhibit, throwing large pieces of meat into the tank. Those pieces of meat were making him nervous, since he was also a large piece of meat.

No, no. Can't do this thinking like that. Then he wondered. Maybe if he could get to where the meat was stored, he could draw the whales to the edge of the water and acquire one without ever sticking so much as a toe into the water. That could be a fun idea. He spilled some air from his wings and dropped lower for a better look.

Yup, there was some kind of storage room right there in the exhibit. It was set up so that a rock outcrop shielded it from the patrons' view. It was padlocked, though. He would need a key. Or he would need someone who knew how to pick a lock.

[Jamilan]

((OOC: Thanks for helping out with that, Jeremy; I'm grateful. =]))

Jamilan added to what Nate said, "And we will, hopefully, be able to defend ourselves against whatever we encounter in the ocean." He knew what kind of creatures inhabited the Andalite world and its colonies.

"If I had known sooner I could have gotten us some free passes." The Andalite was grateful he didn't. It might have led to suspicions from Leroy's supervisor. He agreed with the other things Prince Leroy had said.

---

The vulture that was already there wasn't suspicious-looking at all, perching on the fence and staring at the carrion being thrown to the whales. The Andalite in him was disgusted, yet the bird would have loved to grab a piece and fly off with it. He, however, refrained, and waited.

Upon picking up the sound of beating wings, he turned his head around, and spotted the peregrine. That is likely Jeremy, he thought. <Jeremy,> he called out to the bird. The Andalite had been in morph for thirteen Earth minutes. He had found a place to demorph and freshly morph back; it was behind a sign.

[Nate]

Nate arrived soon after, fluttering down in his kestrel morph to land on a nearby perch. <<Sup, ducks?>>

He scanned the orca tank. They seemed bigger at night. Scarier, even. Not that he would admit that to anyone, of course. Then he had a random thought that he couldn't believe came from his own brain. He must have actually been paying attention in science class one day or something. <<So... crazy thought here: did we solve the issue of what happens when Willy here passes out while someone's acquiring him? How long can killer whales stay under the water without needing to breathe? Holy crap, do Killer whales even sleep??>>

Okay, maybe he hadn't been paying attention in science class...

[Leroy]

<<Hey, who you calling a duck?>> Leroy asked in response to Nate's comment. But it was a rhetorical comeback since Leroy actually was a duck at the moment. He was sitting on top of the bleachers that were used for orca shows during the daytime.

Then, more seriously, Leroy attempted to give an answer to Nate's questions. <<I don't know if it is even possible for an orca in a trance to drown. I think they hold their breath automatically. But just to be on the safe side, maybe we should try to get one of them out of the water before we acquire it. They do that in they shows all the time. It's kind of cool to see, actually.>>

Leroy didn't know the first thing about orca training, but they could figure something out, right? Maybe dump a bucket of fish where they wanted the whales to go? They would just have to be sure that no trainers were around when they made their move.

[belnoah]

Jeremy would have cracked a grin at the "sup ducks" if beaks could do that. <Almost everything sleeps,> Jeremy told Nate. <Especially mammals. The problem is, I think whales sleep with their blow holes sticking out of the water.> He hadn't considered that to be much of a problem, though. He would just take what he needed. Sure, he would hope for the best, but the mission came first. Leroy suggested that they get the whale out of the water.

Jeremy would have shrugged.

He dropped into a dive. In his experience, people never looked up. He landed next to the door that led into the exhibit. If the door opened, he would be hidden behind it, so he would have a few minutes (maybe) to remorph if someone showed up. He focused and started to demorph. In a few minutes, he was crouched next to the door and started to creep forward.

[Nate]

Nate's thoughts had drifted off, no longer on the killer whale drowning while they acquired him, but rather on him drowning in a killer whale morph. Or getting attacked by sharks. Or accidentally demorphing in the middle of the ocean and drowning that way. And then getting attacked by sharks. Or...

<<Huh?>> he snapped his brain back to the conversation as Jeremy flew off towards the habitat. <<Whoa wait did I miss the plan or are we making it up as we go?>>

[Jamilan]

<I am actually a turkey vulture,> Jamilan replied to what he was pretty sure was another strange human cliche. And ironically, Leroy was a duck. <One of them is named Willy?> Obviously, he wasn't well-versed in cinema. But he was pretty curious; did orcas sleep? Leroy answered that for him. Jamilan didn't have anything to add.

<Whoa wait did I miss the plan or are we making it up as we go?>

Nate did have a point. <Apparently, we are going to need to get a whale to come out of the water and acquire it - without the trainers seing us. Aside from that, there is no clear plan.> He landed on a perch near where Jeremy was demorphing...diverting his gaze. It was common Andalite courtesy to allow privacy to a morphing ally when possible.

[Leroy]

Leroy still wasn't sure what they were going to do, but knew he probably wouldn't need to be a duck to do it. He decided to fly over toward where he had seen a couple of the others go. Leroy made sure to take an extremely indirect rout, otherwise he would have flown directly over the tank and been way to easy to spot. He wanted to draw as little attention toward their mismatched flock as possible.

By the time he joined up with the group, Jeremy was already demorphed and crouching down by some sort of supply closet, or storage room. <<You got room for one more?>> Leroy asked as he landed and began to demorph as well. He really hoped that nobody from the park would decide that they needed something over here right now.

[Allie]

A cat had climbed over the fence and dropped down into the area where the tanks were. Allie, of all the Animorphs, had the hardest time sneaking in here because she couldn't fly. Still, this morph would have to do until she could acquire something with wings. Note to self, next morph after Free Willie is a bird.

<<Guys! Where are you?>> She sent out. She wasn't entirely sure where she was or where she needed to go. One of the reasons sneaking in this way just wasn't going to cut it in the future. She couldn't get separated all the time. <<I think I'm by the right tank, but I'm not sure. This was just the spot on the wall I could climb the easiest.>>

[belnoah]

"Who here can pick locks?" asked Jeremy in as quite of a voice as he could. "Because you should probably get to work on that door there." He pointed at the door where he'd seen the caretakers getting food from. "It seems the likely place to start." He crept to the side of the tank and peered into the water, looking for the whales. For a few seconds he even considered jumping in and getting it over with, but he knew that that was a stupid idea. Especially since they already had a better one.

He glanced around. The park was closing, and if he'd judged right, that would mean the park workers would be going home too. He'd hoped to have some time to scout out the place before invading, but the SPECTER agent had made it seem like there was little time to get the mission done with. So they had to do this that night.

He glanced up when he heard Allie, but he didn't see any more birds approaching. Then he noticed the cat far off to his right. He waved as discreetly as he could.

[Nate]

Nate swooped down to land with the others. <<Pick a lock? Sounds like a job for Super Naaaate!>>

Nate focused as quickly as he could on his human self, growing larger by the second. All of his feathers sucked back into his skin, leaving it feeling itchy and tingly, and he scrunched his face up a bit, testing out his mouth again. It was always weird going from mouth to beak and back again.

Once finally done, he bent down and inspected the doorknob. "Hmm. Usually this is easier with the correct tools. Or... any tools at all. Seriously guys, we really need to learn how to morph some gear with us or something." He scanned around for anything that might resemble anything out of a lock picking set. "...any chance anyone has any of those bobby pin thingies on em?"