- Narrator: Marco
Marco, Tobias, and Ax go on a mission to save the governor from being infested.
Tropes:
- Action Politician: The Governor of California rolls with some bizarre punches and proves that she's an Action Survivor in a big way. Marco comes to think of her as having the mind of a combat general. It's very popular fanon that she goes on to become the unnamed female President in Animorphs: The Beginning.
- Actually, That's My Assistant: Marco assumes an important-looking man is the governor. He's actually the governor's husband, and a Controller. Oops.
- Big "NO!": A cougar-Controller screams one out as Ax drops him into the tiger exhibit.
- Boring, but Practical: The duck morph doesn't have Super-Senses, isn't agile or fast in short ranges, and can't do a lot of damage in comparison to raptor morphs, but it can fly long distances without getting tired and groups together without looking suspicious. Marco wonders why the Animorphs never bothered morphing ducks before.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: The governor unintentionally steals Rachel's "Let's do it." before diving off a bridge. Marco subsequently imagines her as a kid and thinks she would have looked like Rachel.
- Breather Episode: During a dark and eventful arc, this book is heavier on action and comedy — in fact, it's the last book that has significant comedic set pieces. It helps that it takes place from Marco's perspective, and his character arc has largely been resolved by now with the liberation of his mother.
- Broken Masquerade: Marco and Ax get through to the governor, who calls in the parts of the National Guard who she can confirm aren't Controllers. By the time Marco, Tobias, and Ax get back to the valley, the Yeerk invasion and the Animorphs' guerilla war against them has become national news. The governor assures the public that the president is already taking action.
- Conveniently Empty Building: To hear him tell the other Animorphs, the Chapman house is devoid of all humans, Yeerks, and cats when Marco crashes a tank into it.
- Cool Old Lady: Cool middle-aged lady? The governor's got gray hair, anyway. Her Nerves of Steel and ability to roll with the punches are formidable.
- Deadly Dodging: Marco lures the red-tailed hawk Controller into charging at him, then jumps to the side when the Yeerk is Too Fast to Stop. It ends up breaking its neck when it crashes.
- Did Not Think This Through:
- Why did Marco, Tobias, and Ax go to the Gardens to acquire ducks, animals that can be found in any waterway? The Yeerks know the Gardens are important to the Animorphs and have been making use of it themselves to acquire dangerous animals, of course they notice and try to stop them.
- No one actually looks up the Governor's identity beforehand, causing them to mistake her husband (who's a Controller) for the Governor.
- Dramatic Irony: Marco assumes Cassie can get through Jake's Heroic BSoD eventually. The other Animorphs were not informed that Cassie let the Yeerk in Tom steal the morphing cube, and thus Jake no longer trusts her.
- Drives Like Crazy:
- Marco has been long established as a reckless driver. This time, he drives an M-1 Abrams tank. The highway is thrown into chaos, and the joyride ends with Chapman's house being demolished.
- Tobias in Hork-Bajir morph drives the getaway limo during the battle at the governor's mansion. Marco says he never wants to hear a complaint about his own driving again as the limo bounces across town.
- Feathered Fiend: In the opening, Marco and Tobias run afoul of Controllers in bird of prey morph. The majority of them are in golden eagle or peregrine falcon morph, save for the leader who chose to copy Tobias's red-tailed hawk.
- Foul Waterfowl: Downplayed. The ducks aren't intentionally malicious, they're just being manhandled by a human, hawk, and Andalite who are simultaneously trying to avoid being mauled by Controllers in morph. Marco learns the hard way that ducks do have sharp claws and surprisingly strong beaks, and they'll use them when terrified.
- Gender Bender: After getting the governor back to her mansion and her one bodyguard with Undying Loyalty, Marco covertly acquires her, morphs her, puts on one of her dresses, and goes out to meet a Controller force arriving, allowing them to capture him.
- Hellish Copter: A Yeerk helicopter menaces the group as they try to keep the governor out of Yeerk hands. The threat ends when Marco shoots down the chopper with a Dracon beam.
- Horse of a Different Color: For only the second time in the series a human rides on an Andalite's back, when the trio take the governor away from the limo.
- Impersonation Gambit: Marco acquires the governor and allows himself to be kidnapped while the real governor escapes her mansion.
- Nerves of Steel: The governor is able to keep her cool despite being informed of an alien invasion and then becoming a target in the crossfire between Animorphs and Yeerks. She's visibly terrified, but she defends herself from attackers and is still able to direct Marco, Tobias, and Ax into following a decent retreat strategy. Marco is quite admiring of her, and Ax very gallant.
- Noodle Incident: The governor built up some idea of what was going on that had her husband and many of her staff attacking her as she fled with an alien, a hawk, and a kid. Whatever she imagined, apparently it was worse than a Puppeteer Parasite Alien Invasion.Governor: "Parasitic aliens are invading Earth. And my husband is controlled by one."
Marco: "Yeah. Basically, that's the story."
Governor: "Thank God. I was beginning to think something much, much worse was happening. Aliens we can fight." - No Name Given: The governor isn't given a name. She doesn't reflect a real-life governor of California, either.
- Outside Ride: A number of bird Controllers try to hitch a ride on a commandeered tank and have to be dealt with. Later Marco, Ax, and Tobias fail to sneak aboard the governor's limousine, resulting in them using their cockroach morphs to cling to the outside. Marco ends up on the axle, wading through grease and spinning around. Ax doesn't figure out where he is, but comments that wherever it is is heating up until it becomes too much to bear. Tobias is unlucky enough to not even get past the tire, and ends up wedged in the tread for the entire ride.
- Playing Possum: Tobias fakes a grievous injury and falls onto a roller coaster track while a golden eagle-Controller bears down on him. He slips through the track while the Yeerk becomes roadkill.
- Quality vs. Quantity: Marco and Tobias versus the bird-of-prey Controllers. Marco and Tobias are the quality, as their experience with their osprey and red-tailed hawk morphs allows them to pull off stunts that the bird-Controllers can't copy, like flying underneath a moving train. The bird-Controllers are the quantity, since there's enough of them to tear an Animorph apart even though they're amateurs at flying.
- Samus Is a Girl: Marco assumes the governor is male, but she turns out to be the woman next to the man he was speaking to. Clearly she was elected after Animorphs: The Capture, where the Yeerks try to infest a male Governor of California who was rumored to try to run for President soon.
- Scully Syndrome: A child at the Gardens sees Ax and calls him a unicorn. Her father, not even looking, says that's just an antelope.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: A man in a truck plays chicken with Marco in a tank as Marco goes down the wrong side of the road. He thinks better of it when Marco points the main gun at him.
- Tank Goodness: Marco gets to drive a tank in this book. It's effective against golden eagle-Controllers, but you really don't want him driving in your neighborhood.
- Wham Episode: The Yeerk invasion is finally revealed to the public, and the human militaries start fighting back.