Weird Morphs and Potential Uses
Filter-Feeders (Baleen Whales, Whale Shark, Basking Shark, Manta Ray, etc)- The Helmacrons have set up a tiny base in the ocean and you need to filter them out of the water before they take over a small section of the world.
Constrictor Snakes- Actually very good swimmers usually.
Electric fish (Electric Eel, Torpedo Ray)- Very devastating attack. An electric eel in the Yeerk Pool would do a lot of damage and kill a lot of unhosted Yeerks. So maybe that's something for Jake to do on a slow day.
Lionfish, Sea Anemone- Same as Electric Fish, these could wreck a lot of Yeerks very quickly if they could tolerate fresh water for a couple of hours. Good luck acquiring one though- they would be even worse than the electric fish.
Octopus- Underwater tool use, plus some can be very poisonous, and most are great at evasion and escape.
Caterpillar- Long-term evasion morph. Acquire a caterpillar that is trying to make a cocoon. When you need to hide for more than two hours, morph caterpillar, make your cocoon in an inconspicuous area, and wait. When you emerge, demorph.
Remipede- Extremely venomous underwater centipede-crab. How cool is that?
Gyrfalcon- Fastest of the Raptors in level flight and great in cold weather.
Goose- Long distance flier, fearless. Able to travel a thousand miles in a day even if you have to stop to demorph and remorph every so often.
Albatross- Long distance flier and fastest birds in level flight. See "goose", but better.
Komodo Dragon- Endangered species, making it illegal for the Yeerks to hurt you. Also very strong with a venomous bite, and they can run when they want to, although it looks goofy.
Cricket- Insect morph with good hearing and eyesight. Able to escape danger quickly. They can go anywhere and people just go "Yeah, there's a cricket".
Crows- Where do I even begin? They can fly in close groups without looking weird. They can use tools without looking weird. They are found everywhere without looking weird. Anything you want to do, you can do it as a Crow, and it won't look weird, because Crows can do anything and people just automatically assume the Crow is playing. They have brilliant eyesight, powerful beaks, and are decent fliers. But their best trait is they're so intelligent and so prone to copying Human behavior that they can do anything without looking out of place.
Crows and ravens always seemed ideal morphs to me. Is there a nocturnal version? I was about to ask about the feasibility of touching an electric eel. I honestly have no idea!
Touching an Electric Eel is a shocking experience but they can be touched with one hand, especially if they're calm. Touch it with two hands, though, and you complete a circuit. That means a much worse shock.
Crows and Ravens have poor night vision, but they do have a little. Generally the better your color vision, the worse your night vision, and crows have *excellent* color vision. At night in Urban areas or on full moons they may fly around for a bit after sundown, but on dark nights and in dark areas they stop moving and go completely quiet so they don't attract the attention of predators, especially owls.
It's unclear if they have just poor night vision overall or if their vision gets better the longer it's dark, like a Human's. Human night vision isn't great, but it is drastically better after an hour in the dark than it is when the lights turn off. If Crows have that, they could be used at night a little bit, but they would attract the attention of owls. Owls and crows do not get along, and crows make a point of chasing off owls if they find one in the day.
Hmmm... Would a cone snail morph be feasible? Or would it be too likely to kill you before you get a chance to morph the toxins away?
You can touch non-poisonous parts of a cone snail, such as the foot. The problem is that if the snail is agitated, it will shoot out its stinger at you and can even curve the stinger backwards if you try touching it somewhere behind the stinger. Kind of like an Andalite’s tail I guess. In that case you’re probably going to be in severe pain, if not dead. I wouldn’t try it. Although it could be possible to acquire it by touching its shell very lightly, not enough to agitate the snail. The shell is still part of the creature, the same way that fur or feathers are, and nowhere has it been said that you need to touch skin. Non-living tissues which are still attached seem to work just fine.
Hummingbird - extremely fast, maneuverable, incredible vision and hearing, and the ability to hover in place or even fly backwards. For a little while, at least. I think these or dragonflies would be better for evasion/infiltration than flies or roaches in a lot of situations.
Alas, has to eat every few minutes or it dies...
