And then I saw a flash of gray.

A bushy tail and tiny hands and big brown eyes went rocketing past.

"Cassie!"

The gray squirrel leapt over the toilet stall door, flew through the air, landed on the crocodile's ancient dinosaur head and started scrabbling at its big slitted eyes.

The croc went nuts. It forgot about me, and began thrashing insanely in an attempt to throw off the squirrel.

And someone chose that very moment to try to get into the bathroom.

"I can't find another bathroom! I have to get in!" a woman said.

The crocodile thrashed its tail.

I lunged down at the crocodile, swiping with a paw the size of a canned ham.

And we all hit the bathroom door.

WHAM-BOOOM!

The door exploded from its hinges! Out rushed a crocodile with a squirrel on its head, and a grizzly bear.

"AHHHHHHH!" the woman screamed. I think she found another bathroom after that.

I tripped over the crocodile. I hit the floor. The croc was on me in a flash.

I tried to get up on all fours, but man, that crocodile was fast! With no time to get up, I could only power my way down the hall by clawing. I sunk six-inch claws into the walls and propelled myself, scooting along on my back, like some weird out-of-control grizzly skateboarder.

I scooted in terror, ripping the walls apart as I went. The croc scooted after me, snapping at the air just millimeters from my hind legs.

Cassie had almost been thrown. She was holding on to the croc's neck with all her strength, but she couldn't reach his eyes anymore.

And then, still scooting, I ran out of the hallway. With one last push I scooted on my back out

into the backstage area, trailing a huge crocodile and a chittering, manic squirrel.

People standing around off the set began to notice us.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Help! Help!"

"Run! Run! Ruuuuun!"

Suddenly, crocodile jaws caught my leg.

HhhhhoooRRRAAWWRRR! I bellowed in pain.

A llama broke free of a trainer's hand and rushed with insane courage at the crocodile. There was absolutely nothing Marco could do, but he tried anyway. And it didn't take a lot of time before he was thrown clear. But he scrambled right up, and came back for more.

"Get those animals out of here!" the clipboard woman screamed.

"They're not my animals! They're not my animals!" Bart Jacobs yammered as he ran to hide. "I don't know where they came from!"

The croc started thrashing, grinding the bones in my leg. It was literally trying to tear my leg off!

And it hurt.

It hurt a lot.

ROOOWWWWR!

"Oh, no! The show will be ruined!"

"Should we go to commercial?"

"Who cares? Run! Ahhhhh!"

Maybe it was the sight of the brave-but-insane charge of the llama. Or maybe it was the fact that Cassie was once more scrabbling at the crocodile's eyes. But he opened his jaws just an inch.

Just enough.

I yanked my crushed leg out of the croc's mouth and tried to get far enough away that I could turn and fight head-on. Like that would work.

Unfortunately, this move ended up dragging the entire battle - grizzly bear, squirrel, llama, and crocodile - out onto the set.

Out to where Barry and Cindy Sue were gamely trying to interview Jeremy Jason McCole.

139 Out to where Jeremy Jason McCole was just starting to say, "Barry and Cindy Sue, I'm involved with this group that I think is really a wonderful organization. I think-"

Out to where brilliant lights illuminated our snarling, snapping, slashing, chittering, roaring ball of fur, claws, tails, scales, and teeth.

Barry leapt out of his chair and backed away at amazing speed.

Cindy Sue was cool. She just kept saying, "Can we get Bart Jacobs to come out here and remove his animals?"

Of course Bart knew better than to get involved in a fight between a crocodile and a bear. "They aren't my animals, you silly twit!" he yelled at Cindy Sue.

It was Jeremy Jason who was most surprising. He didn't run away. He didn't scream. He froze. He froze as stiff as a statue. The only thing that moved was his eyes. They kept growing larger.

That's when I noticed an Andalite had emerged, though he kept himself beyond the range of the cameras. And he carefully stayed there. It was Ax!

"What does it take to stop this thing?" Cassie asked me desperately, as she tried to rake over the croc's eyes.

"More than any of us has," I said grimly.

Suddenly, the crocodile jerked its entire body

with incredible violence. I was in grizzly bear morph, and I never would have believed anything was that much stronger than a grizzly. But when the crocodile thrashed, we all knew it.

Cassie had been thrown. Much farther than Marco. I lost sight of her as she was flying through the air, squirrel tail flapping like the tail on a kite.

And now there was nothing between me and the crocodile.

This was an animal that fed by dragging full-grown wildebeests and impalas into the river. I was bigger than its normal meals. But this crocodile had a grudge against me. It had started to chow down and I'd gotten away. And it didn't like that.

It came for me. And let me tell you something: You do not ever, ever, ever want a crocodile looking at you for dinner.

Was I scared? Oh, yes. If I stood and fought, I'd lose. Period.

"Okay, that does it," Jake said. "We are out of here!"

Jake. He'd caught up to us. And he didn't sound happy.

Then in my head I heard Cassie's thought-speak voice. "I'm at the light switches! I think I can turn off the lights! Get ready to run!"

"What?"

"When the lights go down, everyone bail!" Cassie cried.