- Narrator: Marco
Marco, Tobias, and Ax go on a mission to save the governor from being infested.
Tropes:
- 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 dosen't have Super-Senses and can't inflict the same damage that the raptor morphs can, but it can fly long distances without getting tired and can group 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 looking like Rachel.
- 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: The Chapman house is devoid of all humans, Yeerks, and cats when Marco crashes a tank into it.
- 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.
- 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 on purpose, 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 talons, and they'll use them when terrified.
- 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.
- 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's still able to direct Marco, Tobias, and Ax into following a decent retreat strategy.
- No Name Given: The governor isn't given a name. She's not a real-life governor either, as all the governors of California have been men.
- 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.
- Scully Syndrome: A bystander at The Gardens tries to write off Ax as an antelope to his daughter, who thinks Ax is a unicorn.
- 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 before they crash.
- 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.
