It's Morphin' Time (anyone)

[Nate]

<<Holy crap Leroy that was sweet!>> Nate watched in amazement. <<How's the smelling with that nose? Can you actually smell or is it built more for grabbing stuff?>>

He decided to move a little further away from Leroy out of a worry for his safety, not only from being stepped on, but from the Elephant's size and weight making the gorge suddenly infinitely more dangerous feeling.

[Johnny]

Johnny was only concentrated on the shriveled up shrub. It was so amazing! It had adetailed record of every terrestrial animal that had passed by. A raccoon, a cat, and a mouse. Unbelievable! Then his ears perked up and Leroy's voice entered his mind. That was when he turned and saw him.

<<Wow! That is, like, such an attractive morph! Ready for a beauty pagent yet?>> Johnny said. Then he started running. The dog had been getting a little antsy and ADD so Johnny gave in (just this once) to run. He took off down the gorge, way faster than his human body could ever move.

[Leroy]

Leroy swung his nose around after Nate asked about it. <<It can definitely smell stuff, but it isn't nearly as strong as a dog's nose. I'm sure of that. But it probably is built more for grabbing stuff. I don't know, I'm no elephant expert.>> Using his nose like an arm would take some getting used to.

Then he laughed at Johnny's comment just before the Dalmatian ran off. <<Where is he off to?>> Leroy asked before attempting to follow. His elephant body felt like a tank as he trudged through the shallow water. Leroy felt as if nothing could stop him. He sucked up some water into his nose, then sprayed it into the air as he walked. <<Beware of the mighty Leroy!>> he said playfully.

[Nate]

<<Ahhh!>> Nate attempted to duck out of the way of the sudden shower of water, but wasn't quite fast enough as it splashed all over him. He stood there for a moment, looking like a terribly pathetic looking, sopping wet border collie. <<...Don't make me pee on you.>>

He sniffed the air, and then shook himself like a ragdoll, spraying the water every which way as he attempted to dry himself off. Then, he took off after Johnny, following his scent trail, which may as well have been a gigantic dotted line to follow the way the dog's nose worked. Oh this is exciting! he thought to himself as he broke into the run, letting loose the dog's energy. He couldn't help but nip once at Leroy's giant elephant heels out of the collie's instincts, but he quickly reeled in all the urges to continue the behaviour.

[Johnny]

<<What's going on back there?>> Johnny asked suspiciously. He stopped almost out of sight of the elephant and collie. His weak vision could just barely make out Leroy's...sizeable girth. It wouldn't do to get too far ahead of everyone so he ran all of the way back. He loved the dog! it was so amazing! And it wasn't only an inch high and about six inches long either. and it was way faster than the gecko. Not to mention the extreme giddiness!

Then he saw a drenched border collie. <<Was there a sudden rainstorm or something that I missed? THere's not even a cloud in the sky.>> He said as he looked up to confirm his choice. THere were clouds so Johnny looked away.

[Leroy]

Leroy sucked some more water into his trunk. <<Yup. There was a sudden rainstorm.>> Then he did his best to launch the spray at Johnny. This nose is kind of fun, he thought to himself.

Leroy let his mind wander a bit as he practiced moving his nose some more. Eventually he came to a thought that he decided to share with Nate and Johnny. <<Hey you guys. I know that we were chosen to be animorphs so that we could help out and stuff, but does that mean that there is something out there that we really need to protect people from? I'm wondering if SPECTER knows more than they told us...>> Leroy let his voice trail off as he started thinking again. He was probably overanalyzing their situation.

[Nate]

<<What like, terrorists or something?>> Nate wondered. He'd found a spot where he was sure a rabbit had recently been, and it was driving his dog nose wild. He fought back the crazy urge to chase after the scent trail in order to find the fuzzball and sat down instead, trying to focus on something else... like the water.

Yes. The water was a less distracting focus of his attention. There were certainly scents and sounds and things to interest the dog's mind, but not nearly enough staying power to send it off on the desire for one specific quest. <<Or do you think they're worried about aliens again?>> he added to his thought after a second.

[Johnny]

<<Huh? Aaaaaahhhhh!>> Johnny yelled as he desperately tried to leap free of the viscous projectiles fired at him. He failed though. The water splashed across his hindquarters and tail, thoroughly soaking them. He let the dog mind go wild and it began to bark at leroy. <<THat was NOT funny, Leroy. It takes FORVEVER to get water out of this fur!>>

<<I hope that it's not terrorists or something. Maybe they just like throwing people from all sorts of backgrounds together who can become animals so they could post it on YouTube or something? I wouldn't put it past them.>> Johnny said but then he began to demorph. He had had enough of the dog and its eternal giddiness and curiosity. It took tons of energy to control it.

Fur began to melt into skin.

[Leroy]

Leroy's mind stuck on Nate's comment about aliens. A shiver went down his elephant spine as he remembered some of the newscasts from the first invasion. One alien invasion for earth was definitely enough. They were still rebuilding that city where the yeerk pool got blown up.

<<I hope it isn't more aliens,>> Leroy finally said quietly. <<But still, we did see a bug fighter in that warehouse.>> Leroy was thinking of the trip that they had made to a warehouse a week earlier. He and Johnny snuck in as animals, spotted an alien spacecraft, then left shortly afterwards. They didn't find out what it was for. Maybe they should find out though...

<<Do you think we should go back there and see if we can find out some more information or something?>> Leroy really wasn't sure what they should do about it. He was no leader.

[Johnny]

Johnny was a human now. He could no longer use thought-speak, but he could still hear it. "I think we should," Johnny said. "I mean, we're way more prepared now for that palce. Last time, each person could only morph, like, one thing. THat narrowed our options down." Not that he really wanted to go back to that place.

He decided that right now he needed to face his fears. His mind went back to the chilling experience as the massive bird perched on his arms and glared into his eyes. Then his eyes zoomed in and became better than binoculars. His legs reversed direction and he fell down, shrinking all of the way. Why do all of my morphs shrink? I need something bigger so I can grow instead.

His arms suddenly flattened and then lengthened as feathers sprouted from all over his body. He tried to smile at the image but his mouth split his face and stretched out into a curved, flash-eating beak. Then his toes shriveled up and became massive talons, larger than a human hand.

He was a golden eagle, the scariest bird (to him) alive.

[Nate]

<<Sure, it couldn't hurt to give it another try.>> Nate suggested. <<But at the same time... does SPECTER just expect us to know what the heck to do, or will they give us proper mission plans eventually? First time we went down there, all we knew was to go down there, not what the point of it all was. And I mean, if all it was about was to find a bug fighter... seems weird since SPECTER would have had to know it was there already in order to tell us... ...right??>>

Maybe he was thinking too hard about it. He sat down, pondering but still glancing around at his surroundings. The shifting, different animal scents coming from Johnny's direction were confusing the dog's brain. He started debating morphing out, but then... practice was what they were here for, right? Maybe he should just wait it out.

[Leroy]

<<You bring up a good point. If we were hired, recruited, enlisted, whatever... by SPECTER, then you would think that they would give us a little more direction. They didn't even give us a number to call them at in case of an emergency, for crying out loud!>>

Leroy was starting to get get worked up, but he figured a worked up elephant was not a good idea so he tried to calm himself down. Then he decided it was probably best if he demorphed so he concentrated on his human self. <<I guess they were really into the whole, 'you guys are the new animorphs,' thing.>> For the first time, Leroy was truly wondering if he should have declined their offer.