Animorphs Enter the Beast Wars

[Gaz]

It's back! All the former parts have been added and a few have been updated for those who recall anything they might have read before. There is a bit more info regarding the personalities of the Maximals and Predicons, and a bit of added/altered dialogue in some parts.

I'm going to work hard to get new parts ready. I finally have an idea or two I think I can work with.

The Story:
*The Animorphs hear that the Yeerks are working on a Time Maching and are possibly planning to eliminate Elfangor before he landed on Earth. Something goes horribly wrong during the mission to destroy it and the Animorphs...and the Yeerks in the room (including Visser Three) are tossed back to a primitive time. However they find themselves against the Predicons who steal the Time Machine and are forced to join up with the Maximals.

About:
*Animorphs-wise this takes place shortly after the time Tobias gets his morphing powers back from the Elimist. Beast Wars-wise this takes place during Season 1 (I like that season best). Possibly later in the season since Tigatron and Inferno are present.

Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs or Beast Wars. I just wrote the dang story.

[Gaz]

JAKE:

My name is Jake. I can’t tell you my last name or where I live. I wish I could because that would mean I was just a normal kid. Though, I’m hardly a normal kid anymore. That stopped the night a dying Andalite prince gave my four friends and me the power to change our shape.

We’re the only fighting force on Earth standing up against the Yeerk invasion. Five teenaged kids, one of them trapped in the body of a hawk, and an alien. Ax is the only surviving member of an Andalite Dome ship that was fighting the Yeerks above Earth. It was his brother that gave us the power to morph. Gave his life to save us. Now we fight.

Six kids against hundreds of human-controllers, which are humans infested by Yeerks. Those are gray slugs that take over your brain and control your body. There are also Taxxons, Hork-Bajir and Visser Three himself. Visser Three is the Yeerk in charge of Earth’s invasion. The only Yeerk to infest an Andalite body. It was enough to make a normal person curl up and cry. But, like I said, we weren’t quite normal anymore.

Which was why, for just a few moments, I was trying to focus on the video game in front of me and ignore Marco’s comments.

“Hey, Jake!” Marco said, “You better pay attention because I’m about to kick your butt!”

“I don’t think so!” I replied with a laugh, “Looks like I just passed you.”

“What? No way.”

Marco became so absorbed in the game that he failed to notice Tobias land on the open windowsill.

Who’s winning? Tobias asked.

“Aaah!” Marco exclaimed in reaction to Tobias’ arrival. Then he looked at the screen and groaned.

I assume that means Marco WAS winning. Tobias commented.

I turned the game off and looked at Tobias. Somehow his appearance made me nervous. I was getting the feeling that he was not there for a friendly chat.

“What’s up, Tobias?” I asked. “This isn’t a casual visit, is it?”

I wish it were, Tobias replied. I’m gathering up everyone. Meet at the woods by Cassie’s barn.

“When?” Marco asked.

Now. Tobias replied as he flew away.

“Man,” sighed Marco, “I was hoping to go through at least one day without hearing the words Yeerk or mission.”

Marco motioned toward the window. “Shall we?”

“No,” I said, “My parents, remember? We have to walk.”

If Marco and I just suddenly vanished from my room there would be suspicion all around. Especially if Tom caught word. Tom, my older brother, is a controller, so I can’t afford to take any risks.

The walk to Cassie’s barn was done in silence. I suppose both Marco and I were trying to figure out what the commotion was all about. Tobias had seemed pretty agitated and the way he had said “now” made me want to freak out. This was something serious.

Rachel was already in the barn, she’s my cousin and people say she’s really pretty. Though Rachel has the mind of a warrior. Marco calls her Xena to grate her nerves, but maybe he’s right.

Cassie, as usual, was tending to animals in cages. I try to keep it from the others but I like Cassie. As in like. Cassie’s parents are veterinarians. Her father runs a clinic in the barn and Cassie helps out with that a lot. She’s also the best morpher in the group.

“Good, you’re here,” Rachel said. “Now let’s go find out what Tobias called us for.”

“Whatever it is,” Cassie said, “it already worries me.”

I nodded in agreement as we walked toward the woods where we would meet Ax and Tobias.

The woods are the only real safe place to hide Ax. Andalites tend to stand out in a crowd of humans. A mix of a blue-tan centaur and scorpion with more fingers and eyes than usual, oh and no mouth, Andalites get noticed.

When we arrived in the woods, Ax was already there. For some reason that concerned me most of all. Usually we had to wait a minute or two for Ax to arrive.

Prince Jake, everyone, Ax greeted us.

For the moment I didn’t bother to remind Ax not to call me Prince Jake. At that moment I had noticed we weren’t entirely alone. Erek was also there, that had to mean trouble.

Erek is a member of a race called the Chee. They’re androids that resemble dogs on two legs. They were made by an extinct race called the Pemelites. They are also completely non-violent.

“What’s up, Erek?” Marco asked. They sort of knew each other.

“Nothing good,” Erek said. “I apologize for rushing you, but this is important.”

[Gaz]

MARCO:

My name is Marco. I won’t repeat anything Jake said. I’ll just say that Jake and I have been friends for a long time. Also, I was the one who came up with the name Animorphs. Pretty cool, huh? Did I mention that girls say I'm incredibly cute? Well...maybe not yet. But they will!

My day had been going pretty good until Tobias had shown up and announced the emergency meeting. It seemed like I would finally get to go through a day without worrying about the Yeerks. Guess I’m not that lucky.

“So?” Rachel demanded. “What is it?”

“Over the past few days I’ve heard some of the higher up controllers talking about a project nearing completion,” said Erek.

I didn’t like this already.

“They must be at a crucial stage because Visser Three has been more irritable than normal,” Erek continued.

“Look, man,” I said, “just tell us what it is.”

Erek hesitated, the human hologram he projected appeared to be embarrassed. He apparently thought this was important but was afraid we would not believe him.

“The Controllers I managed to overhear said something about a time travel device,” Erek said.

No one spoke for a long, awkward moment. The idea was just so absurd! How would they build a thing like that? Yet, at the same time, it was a terrifying idea.

What would the Yeerks want with a time machine? Tobias mused.

How could the Yeerks build such a device? Ax wondered grumpily. Their technology is not that advanced. Even if they do have it, it most likely will not work.

“The most important question is,” Jake said. “What would they do with it? I can’t think of any reason for them to go through so much trouble.”

This was absolutely insane. Instead of playing video games, I was out in the woods trying to figure out why the Yeerks would want to jump through time. Like Ax, I doubted it was a real threat. Though Ax’s Andalite pride had been damaged. He obviously hated the idea that the Yeerks could come up with something before the Andalites, even in theory.

I was starting to get frustrated. There was no reason I could think of for the Yeerks to possibly want a time machine. I could think of a few reasons why I would want one. Like, there was this one test that I really could have done better on.
Apparently Cassie had thought of an idea because her eyes went wide.

“What if,” she said, “what if they want to go back in time and destroy the dome ship with Elfangor on it before it reaches Earth?”

“It makes sense,” said Erek, “but what would that accomplish?”

I was the one who got it first. “No Andalite bandits to get in the way. Elfangor would never have given us the power to morph, though Visser Three doesn’t know that.”

He would be changing a lot more than he thinks. Tobias said.

Rachel was starting to look angry, and that made me feel nervous. I had a feeling what she was going to say.

“I’ve heard enough!” she snapped. “If the Yeerks really have a time machine, we have to go destroy it!”

“Well, fearless leader?” I asked, looking at Jake.

Jake looked thoughtful. “Part of me thinks this is some elaborate deception. Something to lure the “Andalite bandits” where they can catch them.”

“Jake, don’t say it,” I said warningly. I had a feeling what was coming.

Jake glared at me and said, “Let’s take a vote.”

Right on cue Rachel exclaimed, “I’m in!”

I’ll do what I can. Tobias said. As a hawk he’s limited to how much he can do, and I think that bugs him a lot sometimes. He wants to be more useful. Though he recently did regain the power to morph, but he doesn’t have many morphs yet.

I will do what Prince Jake orders, Ax said. That wasn’t a big surprise.

“Ax,” said Jake, “I’ve told you not to call me Prince Jake.”

Yes, Prince Jake, was Ax’s reply.

Jake looked at Cassie. Being the peaceful, nature-lover, she’s usually not too keen on missions. Though for different reasons than me. However, ever since I’ve learned about my mother, I’ve had a different attitude about missions.
“If I’m right then this mission may be more important than any of the others,” Cassie said, “I vote yes.”

“Oh, man!” I said. “Alright. I vote yes.”

“That makes it unanimous,” said Jake. “Any idea about when they’ll be finished, Erek?”

Erek shook his head. “I was lucky to find out as much as I did. If Visser Three knew that anyone had been talking about the project they’d be killed. That’s how secret this is.”

Jake sighed. “That means we have to go tonight.”

That did it. Another mission that we weren’t prepared for and knew practically nothing about. Just as long as it didn’t involve an insect morph, I would be happy.

[Gaz]

CASSIE:

My name is Cassie. Marco probably said that I was the nature-lover of the group. I suppose that may be true. I do love animals, though I was practically raised with them. Both of my parents are veterinarians.

At that moment my head was swimming. If the story was true that the Yeerks had a time machine, that meant trouble for everyone. Especially the Animorphs.

Everyone had left for the moment. We still had normal things to do like homework and chores. Mine involved tending to some more animals in the barn. Though my mind was mostly distracted as I bandaged and medicated various raccoons, birds and deer.

In my head I was making a list of all the things that would be different if we had never become Animorphs. Tobias would still be human, that was something of a plus. However, if I was right, then Ax would end up dying on the Dome ship with his brother and it would have been in vain. At least when Elfangor died he gave Earth a chance.
The time travel device was located in a guarded building down town. That meant, to Marco’s dismay, in order to get inside we had to go either fly or ****roach. From there we hoped there would be an empty room where we could go into our battle morphs.

That night I had to do something I absolutely hate to do. I had to lie to my parents. Unfortunately, lying has become a necessity. I longed for the day when the war with the Yeerks would be over so I could come clean to my parents. Just sit down with them and say, “I’ve been lying to you a lot and this is why…”

I had to ask them permission to spend the night at Rachel’s house. Rachel was supposed to be asking her mom if she could spend the night at my house. Marco and Jake were doing the same thing about each other’s houses. My stomach twisted as my parents said it was okay. They were unaware that they were really giving me permission to go on a life-threatening mission to stop the Yeerks from finishing a supposed time machine.

Walking out the door that evening with an overnight bag didn’t make me feel any better. I walked towards the woods, the chosen meeting place, and wondered how may of the others were already there. Everyone was there except for Tobias, Ax and Rachel.

When Rachel arrived a few minutes later, she was carrying an overnight bag like everyone else. Shortly afterwards Tobias landed on a low branch and Ax came trotting out of the deep part of the woods. Everyone was on edge, hoping this mission wasn’t just one big trap.

“Alright,” Jake said after a moment, “let’s get this over with.”

We all stripped down to our morphing outfits and put our clothes into our overnight bags. The bags were stashed under a large bush.

The plan was we would morph into flies and ride on Tobias to the building. From there we would find a way in and then a private place to go into our battle morphs. The question on everyone’s mind was how many controllers would there be? In the past we had had some close calls because we were largely outnumbered. A few of us have even come close to death because of it.

Everyone faced away from each other when they started morphing. Most of the time watching morphing is not fun because the change is not a pretty one. That goes double when morphing a fly. The extra legs pop out, the eyes bulge and then there’s the shrinking. You swear at first that you’re falling and will never touch the ground again.

Once in morph I felt the fly’s instincts come, but I could control them since we had done the morph before.

Be sure to stay away from the dog poop, boys and girls, Marco said.

Before anyone could answer, there was a rush of wind and a slight thud. That would be Tobias landing so we could get on his back.

All aboard Red-Tail Airlines, Tobias announced. One-Way trip to Yeerkville.

Can I get a refund on my ticket? Marco asked.

What do you need a ticket for? Ax asked. Marco’s sense of humor often confused him.

Okay, enough of that, said Jake; trying to sound like the leader everyone claimed he was. Everyone on.

We all flew over and landed on the area around Tobias’ neck. It was probably the place were we would be least likely to get thrown off. At least, that’s how it worked before.

Hold on, Tobias warned.

There was the sudden sensation of movement as Tobias pumped his wings and rose into the air.

I was wondering, Marco said suddenly. If a radioactive fly bit you…what sort of powers would you have? I mean…aside from the ability to detect dog poop from a mile away.

Marco, only you would think about something like that, Rachel said.

Hey, it’s either that or thinking about if this whole mission is insane, Marco replied almost defensively.

Before anyone could say anything, Tobias announced, We’re here. I’m going to fly around and see if there are any open windows.

Any guards? Jake asked.

There are a couple of guys by the front door, Tobias replied. And there are six armed controllers on the roof. They don’t see me yet. I better hurry.

Prince Jake, said Ax, it would be safe to assume that there will be Hork-Bajir controllers inside the building. More than likely there will be Taxxons as well.

Everyone was quiet. The Hork-Bajir, according to Ax, had been a peaceful race before the Yeerks enslaved every single one. They were tall and had blades on their elbows, knees, tails and horns on their heads. Taxxons were more terrifying. Taxxons were like enormous centipedes with huge mouths and jelly-like eyes. We had almost been lunch for a Taxxon once; I’m certain that was the one memory everyone was recalling at that point. We had been in insect morph then as well.

I see an open window, said Tobias. It’s an empty room. I’m going to get closer. Be ready to jump off.

I could feel all my nerves start to act up. If it was possible, I would feel sick to my fly stomach. Part of me had a bad feeling about all of this, but I was afraid to say anything. The others would just say I was nervous, which I was, but this was something else entirely.

It’ll be fine, Jake said to me privately. That was the nice thing about thought-speak. You could direct it to whomever you wanted.

I hope so, I replied.

[Gaz]

RACHEL:

My name is Rachel. I’m Jake’s cousin, and Cassie’s best friend. Marco calls me Xena, and maybe he’s right to call me that. Xena is my kind of girl. As Cassie told you, we were in fly morph riding on Tobias, a boy trapped in hawk form, getting ready to stop evil slugs from using a time machine that an android told us they had. It sounded ridiculous, but this was part of my life now.

Now! Tobias shouted.

Let’s do it! I exclaimed. It was the sort of thing people expected me to say.

If someone had been looking really hard, maybe with binoculars, they would have seen five flies jump off a red-tailed hawk. It’s a good thing that didn’t happen, because it would have been a controller who saw us and then the mission would be over before it really got started.

You’re heading in the right direction, Tobias said. Just keep heading straight. The door is shut and the lights are off, so you should be okay. Just don’t make loud noises. I’ll be in a tree nearby if you need me.

I could tell we were getting closer because there was a sudden cool breeze. Probably coming from the window where the air conditioning was. We followed it into a dark room, though most things looked dark to us.

Ax, Jake said. You demorph first and make sure everything is clear.

From fly perspective it was hard to tell about the room, but it was clear that Ax was demorphing. Suddenly something big was sprouting from the middle of the group.

There is no one in the room, Prince Jake, Ax announced after a moment.

Okay, Jake said. Demorph and then go straight to battle morph.

Rachel, said Marco quickly. Don’t you dare say it.

I paused for a moment then said, Let’s do it.

Marco’s groan of annoyance was very satisfying.

I focused my mind on a mental image of myself and almost immediately I felt myself begin to grow. Internal organs and bones that had been gone reappeared, extra legs vanished and my eyes altered to normal human size and shape.
After a brief moment I closed my eyes and focused on my chosen morph for fighting Yeerks. It was the powerful, almost unstoppable form of the grizzly bear. First my body began to cover over with shaggy, brown fur. After that my bones and organs started rearranging. The crunches, snaps and slurps were enough to make you sick forever. My face began to bulge into a muzzle. And as I began to grow, I dropped to all fours. A moment later I was a grizzly bear and I felt invincible.

Using my nose, since my eyesight was pretty weak, I could smell a wolf, tiger, gorilla and something alien to my grizzly nose. That one would be Ax.

Look for the room that’s most guarded, said Jake. My guess is that is where the machine will be.

Let’s go! I yelled.

HWWWRRRROOOOAAARRR!!!!!

With a deafening roar I used all my eight hundred pounds to burst through the door. It didn’t take very long for the Yeerks to figure out what was going on.

“It’s the Andalite bandits!” I heard a voice yell.

As we ran forward I swiped a massive paw and knocked at least two controllers out of my way.

Jake pounced on a controller and kept going. Ax’s tail blade was flashing faster than the eye could see. Marco was using his massive fists to plow the way clear. So far so good, but then again…we hadn’t come across any Hork-Bajir yet.

Prince Jake! Ax exclaimed. I see a room with eight Hork-Bajir outside the door.

All right, said Jake. Let’s head for that one.

I ran for the nearest Hork-Bajir. I’m pretty sure even Yeerks must get nervous at the sight of a charging bear. As I was taking a swipe at the Hork-Bajir controller, it took a swipe at me with one of its elbow blades. As far as I knew it only grazed some fur. I, on the other hand, knocked the Hork-Bajir controller right into one of it’s buddies, and both of them fell to the ground where Marco gave them a swift punch to the head.

How many left? Jake asked.

I think I just got the last one, Cassie replied.

Marco, Rachel, would one of you mind getting the door? Jake said.

Oh! Marco exclaimed. Let me! Rachel gets to do it most of the time.

Marco barreled forward and swung a massive fist. The door went flying and we piled inside the room. It was a lot larger than we had expected! It was the size of an auditorium. There were computers and different sorts of scientific equipment. Many of which I had never seen before on this planet…

Near the center of the room was a table with a cube-like device on top. Surrounding it was human-controllers in lab coats, and various controllers like Hork-Bajir, Taxxons and more humans. What really made us look again was the Andalite hovering near what I assumed was the time machine. Visser Three, the only Yeerk to take control of an Andalite body. I don’t know why I was so surprised. If this project were so important, of course he would be there.

Stop them you fools! Bellowed Visser Three. The Andalite bandits are here for the device!

That answered the question about whether or not this was a trap. Apparently the Visser believed that they could really build a time machine!

All at once Hork-Bajir and human controllers were plowing in our direction. Controllers on the other side of the room began firing dracon beams at us.

Watch out for the dracon beams! Jake instructed. As if we needed to be told.

Hork-Bajir were cutting me as I rammed into them and hit them with my paws and all my weight. None of them seemed serious however.

I heard Jake snarling as he swiped at controllers and leaped using his tiger cunning.

Aaahh! I heard Cassie cry.

Cassie! I exclaimed. You okay?

I think so, she replied. A dracon beam just grazed my fur. It’s not serious.

Where are all these controllers comin’ from?! Marco demanded.

I understood what he was saying. It seemed no matter how many controllers we took down there was always an equal number to take their place. The battle was starting to seem hopeless, even to me.

Maybe we should back out! Cassie suggested.

No way! I shouted. We gotta finish this!

Let’s keep trying! Jake said. If we back out now, they’ll triple the protection and rush to get this done faster. We’re here, and like Rachel said, we have to finish this.

Prince Jake, said Ax. If I could get a dracon beam, I could destroy the time device.

See what you can do, Ax, replied Jake. But be careful.

Though Ax never got the chance to try out his plan. Because someone else already did that for us, though whoever it was would certainly pay for it later.

Watch where you’re aiming! Visser Three yelled. You could hit the--

Before Visser Three could finish, there was an explosion and a flash of light so bright it blinded everyone in the room! I couldn’t see anything but white, and the grizzly mind didn’t like that at all. It was starting to panic, and so was I.

What’s going on?

I can’t see!

Man, I knew this mission was insane!

[Gaz]

*This part was updated!

THE MAXIMAL BASE:

It had been a slow day. As far as anyone could tell, there was no drastic activity at the Predicon base.

Rhinox was using the time to check up on some of the computer’s systems. Any excuse for making Sentinel better and more efficient. He had designed the system and it worked pretty well, but it could always use more tweaking. When he was trying to install the program that recognized friends and foes, a fight between Rattrap and Dinobot had just about trashed it. The result was the system recognized the Maximals as foes and had gotten them locked out of their own base. Rattrap had nearly been scrapped when he went by himself to fix the mess he was partially responsible for.

Personality wise, Rhinox was pretty calm. He could handle himself in a fight and had proven that on many occasions against the Preds. However, Rhinox was a peaceful bot and his preferred activity was smelling the flowers or working the ship’s computer systems. He was Optimus’ closest friend.

Optimus was using the leisure time to catch up on some reading. Optimus was the leader of the Maximals and like Rhinox Optimus was pretty laid back. Despite the fact that they were stranded on an alien planet and constantly trying to fend off the Preds didn’t mean he was going to stop the original mission of the crew.

They had been an exploration vessel originally, but right before the crash they had been the closest ship to Megatron’s and had to go in pursuit. Both ships had crashed in result to the damage during the firefight they had gotten into above this strange planet they were currently on. Due to the amount of energon they had to assume animal forms so their circuits wouldn’t overload and fry. Rhinox was a rhinoceros in alternate form and Optimus’ was a gorilla.

During the durations of peace and quiet, Optimus would often explore the area around the ship to learn about the wildlife. He had a curious mind and was eager to find not only the peaceful solution to fights, but to learn all he could from nature.

In fact, when he had been infected by one of Scorponok’s cyber bees, which had made him an angry force to be reckoned with, he had used a trick he learned from a flower to lodge the soon-to-detonate bee right where Megatron couldn’t reach.

The only one who openly complained about the peace and quiet was Dinobot. He paced the room like a caged tiger at the zoo in his alternate form, a velociraptor. He was irritable and frustrated, in other words, he was himself.

Dinobot had defected from the Predicons shortly after crash landing. He was dissatisfied with how Megatron led the group and was fed up with his idiocy. Dinobot had originally challenged Optimus for leadership of the Maximals, because he believed he would be a better leader. Due to interruption from the Preds, the fight was never really settled, but Dinobot joined the Maximals anyway. At heart he was a warrior and always ready for a fight. Though he was very honorable and always strived to give his opponent a fair chance in combat. Peace and quiet bothered Dinobot because he had nothing to do.

“I am certain that Megatron is plotting something as we sit here,” he snarled. “We should attack them now before they have a chance.”

Optimus sighed. “I’m not going to go after the Predicons without a good reason.”

“They’re Preds,” said Rattrap as he walked in the room in his rat form. “Dat should be reason enough. Not meaning to agree with chopper face over there.”

Dinobot and Rattrap almost never got along. Because he was a former Predicon, Rattrap refused to trust Dinobot. “Once a Pred, always a Pred” was his favorite line concerning Dinobot. Rattrap could also be exceedingly lazy and stubborn when it came time to work. He was often a pain in Optimus’ circuits with all his snarky backtalk. Though however much Rattrap questioned orders or made excuses, he could be counted on when it really mattered.

“We just got finished fighting the Predicons,” said Rhinox as he turned his chair around. “Optimus has the right idea, we could all use a break.”

Dinobot didn’t say anything, but growled to show his discontent.

All at once there was a huge flash of light from off in the distance. A second later, Optimus’ radio crackled.

“Cheetor to Optimus,” said a young voice, “I just saw a…”

“We know,” Optimus interrupted. “We saw it too.”

“Should I go check it out?” the young Maximal asked eagerly.

“Negative, Cheetor,” said Optimus quickly. “Hold your position. Wait for Dinobot and myself. It could be the Predicons.”

Optimus had to get out there fast before the young Maximal did something impulsive and rushed off alone. He had done it a few times before, Cheetor was eager to show he could handle tough situations by himself and it usually got him into big trouble. Despite that trouble, Cheetor was eager to do it again later.

“What about me?” asked Rattrap.

“You and Rhinox wait here,” instructed Optimus. “We may need backup. Optimus Primal Maximize!”

“Dinobot Maximize!”

In a whir of machinery, Optimus and Dinobot assumed their robot forms and stood on the lift. As it went down they saw a cheetah standing outside the base impatiently. When it saw them coming down it shouted, “Cheetor, Maximize!”

Suddenly there was another robot waiting where the cheetah had been. That was Cheetor, who looked like the robot equivalent of a teenager. He was lanky and appeared to have freckles on his face.

“Do you have coordinates, Cheetor?” Optimus asked when they were closer.

“Sure do, Big Bot,” Cheetor replied. “Follow me!”

He was off like a rocket. Optimus and Dinobot had to rush to keep up with him as he sped towards the source of the light.

As they neared the site they heard various roaring sounds and voices yelling in an alien language. When they reached the top of the next hill they saw a sight that made all three of them stop and stare.

At the bottom off the hill they saw a group of animals. One creature in the group they had never seen before. It had four legs, but a torso with arms and a head. It had two extra eyes and a bladed tail that it was striking again and again faster than even they could follow.

Then they saw the ones the animals were fighting against. Some were tall green creatures with blades all over their bodies, long centipede like creatures and….

“Humans!” Cheetor exclaimed quietly. “There are humans down there!”

“Kill the Andalite bandits!” a human shouted.

“Andalite bandits?” Optimus repeated to himself. “Do they mean the animals?”

“Whoever they are,” Dinobot growled, “the fight does not seem to be going in their favor.”

Optimus saw it was true. Many of the animals were badly injured. He watched as a gorilla charged towards one of the large centipedes and was cut by one of the bladed creatures. It cried out in pain, but kept fighting.

“What do we do, Big Bot?” Cheetor asked. “Should we help them?”

That was when Terrosaur and Waspinator showed up. They too must have seen the flash and were sent by Megatron to investigate.

“What are the fleshy-bots doing?” Waspinator buzzed.

“Deal with the Predicons first!” Optimus yelled.

At the same time a human yelled, “Get the time machine! We must take it back to Visser Three!”

At once, the Maximals and the Predicons noticed the damaged box in the middle of the fight. That must have been what they were fighting over.

“Time machine?!” Terrosaur squawked.

“Megatron would be pleased if we stole it from fleshy-bots.”

With a scream Terrosaur fired random shots into the fight. Both sides looked up in confusion at what was going on. The tiger tried to pounce on Terrosaur and one of the bladed creatures tried to hit him, but both missed and landed on each other.

One of the large centipedes was hit and injured. A moment later the other large centipedes were devouring the injured one alive.

In the mass confusion, Terrosaur grabbed and carried off the time machine. Waspinator had taken a hit shot off by Dinobot but that was it.

“That thing has the time machine!” the same human cried. He pointed to a group and said, “Follow me after that thing! The rest of you find Visser Three! Leave the Andalite bandits for now. If the machine is lost, Visser Three will kill us all!”

The aliens and humans ran in their separate directions leaving behind the dead and dying. The animals looked around in confusion as Optimus, Dinobot and Cheetor came down the hill.

Meanwhile the Animorphs were having a discussion.

What the heck happened? Rachel demanded. We were fighting the Yeerks and suddenly…

The Maximals all stopped in their tracks.

“What’s with those animals? They’re not behaving right,” Cheetor asked.

“Probably a Predicon trick!” Dinobot exclaimed.

They can talk! Exclaimed Marco.

Well, of course they can talk, Marco, Rachel said, slightly annoyed. Didn’t you hear the other ones?

I was a little more worried about the Hork-Bajir trying to chop my arm off.

Cassie said, Ax, how much time do we have left? Some of us are hurt kind of bad.

There are three of your minutes left. Ax replied.

Everyone, demorph now! Cassie yelled unexpectedly.

Can we trust them? Rachel asked. We saw what those other ones did.

We don’t have much of a choice! Snapped Marco back.

We’re going to get stuck in morph and bleed to death if we don’t. Said Cassie a little harsher than usual. Demorph! Do it now!

Full of surprise and confusion, the three Maximals watched as the three animals began to change. Skin and fabric replaced fur. Sizes shifted and limbs shrank and rearranged. Muzzles and snouts shrank into human facial features.

“They’re humans!” Cheetor exclaimed.

“They certainly are,” Optimus said with equal surprise. “I wonder how they got here.”

A short, dark female looked at the group and asked, “Everyone okay?”

A few scratches, but I am well, Cassie.

A female with long, light colored hair whipped her head around as she scanned the area. “Where’s Jake?”

Ax focused his two main eyes on them and his tail flexed defensively. The other two eyes were looking every which way, constantly on the lookout for danger it seemed.

The humans were looking around frantically.

“Where’s Jake?” the tall female demanded again.

“I don’t know,” the dark one said, looking worried. “He was right next to me! He was!”

Optimus tried to take a step closer to the group but like a streak of blue lightening, Ax leaped over and stood between the Maximals and the Animorphs; his tail at the ready. Ax was always set to show he was a brave Andalite warrior.

Optimus raised his hands up and said, “It’s alright. We’re not going to hurt you. We were actually going to help you when Terrosaur and Waspinator showed up.”

“After seeing those other things,” replied Marco, “you’ll excuse us for not trusting you.”

“But you can trust us!” Cheetor protested. “Come back to the base with us. We can help you.”

“Optimus,” Dinobot snarled, “perhaps we had better…”

Optimus interrupted and said in a peaceful tone, “I think Cheetor’s right. You had better come with us.”

“And be turned over to the Yeerks?” Marco exclaimed. “I don’t think so!”

Suddenly there was a crackle, blue light danced around the forms of the three Maximals and they gave a startled cry.

“What’s going on?” asked the dark skinned female, concerned. She looked like she wanted to go forward and help, but was uncertain about what to do.

“Energon build up,” Optimus grunted. “Beast mode!”

The Animorphs watched as the three became a gorilla, cheetah and velicoraptor.

The humans all looked surprised, the alien was surprised as well but looked on curiously. A human male with slightly darker skin than the other looked at Optimus’ beast mode and nodded in approval. He had been in gorilla form himself.

“We can’t turn you over to these…yeerks you mentioned because we don’t know what they are!” Cheetor said. “Come on, you can trust us.”

“You keep saying that,” said Rachel darkly, “but you have yet to give us a reason why we should.”

“If you could not trust us,” Dinobot snarled, “we would have destroyed you already.”

“Cassie, what do you think?” Marco asked.

Cassie’s head jerked, she looked pretty upset. “Why are you asking me? Why not Rachel?”

“Rachel’s Xena the Warrior Princess, you know that,” Marco said.

“Ask Ax or something,” Cassie said, “I…I don’t know. You know I hate being in charge.”

Rachel sighed. “You know what I think. We need to find Jake.”

I agree with Rachel. Ax said. We must find Prince Jake.

“We can help you find your companion,” Optimus said. “We have a readout of the surrounding areas and units that can take to the air.”

“This guy’s persistent,” Marco whispered to Cassie and Rachel. “I say we morph and ditch ‘em.”

“Big Bot, I don’t think they’re goin for it,” Cheetor whispered to Optimus.

Meanwhile the whispered conference between the Animorphs continued, but not for much longer.

“So,” whispered Marco, “what are we waiting for? Let’s go find our fearless leader, the time machine, and then we can go back to our lives.”

“We’ll take your help,” Cassie said suddenly.

“What?” Optimus said.

“What?!” Marco and Rachel exclaimed.

“Cassie,” said Marco, “are you insane?!”

“Marco,” said Cassie, “we don’t know where we are. We don’t know anything about those things that took the time machine. It would take a long time to find Jake, and the yeerks could get the machine back before we find him.”

“Cassie!” Rachel insisted. “We have no good reason to trust them and Jake wouldn’t want us jumping in like this!”

“Jake’s not here!” Cassie exclaimed. “We can’t guess what he would do. How do you know he wouldn’t accept their help?”

Rachel crossed her arms. “I think I know my cousin a little better than you’re giving me credit for right now, Cassie. We don’t need their help, and we shouldn’t trust them.”

“You asked me what we should do,” Cassie said, “and I say…we accept their help.”

“Rachel’s right,” said Marco. “We can handle this.”

“So how do you recommend we start?” Cassie asked.

Rachel jumped in right away. “We split up. Take different directions.”

“Well what if we have to go out of though speak range?” Cassie asked. “What if one of us runs into the Yeerks and Visser Three and can’t reach the others? What then?”

For once Rachel was stumped, and didn’t have a quick reply like she usually did.
“Cassie, you better be sure about this,” Rachel said after a long pause.

“I’m not,” Cassie admitted, “but what other options do we have?”

[Gaz]

*this part has been updated

6) BACK AT THE MAXIMAL BASE:

“What da?” blurted a surprised Rattrap when the group returned to base. “What are dose humans doing here?”

On the way back to the base, the Animorphs had gone to bird morph in case the Yeerks popped up and flew back to base. The group was also without shoes and didn’t want to walk long distances in bare feet. Ax remained in his Andalite form to keep two eyes on the on the Maximals and two on the horizon. After being certain their area was clear, they demorphed before entering the base.

“And what is that?” asked Rhinox, pointing at Ax.

I am an Andalite, Ax said.

Optimus was hoping that since they were inside and relatively safe from danger he would be able to get the young humans to open up and explain things to him. Such as how they got there and how they came to have such a unique ability for their kind.

 “If you don’t mind my asking, how did you get here?” asked Optimus. “And how were you able to change into those animals?”

“What?” asked Rhinox confused.

Optimus said, “That is a long story. First, I think introductions are called for.”

“You first,” Rachel said, her eyes narrow with distrust.

Optimus went around and introduced Rhinox, Cheetor, Dinobot and Rattrap. By now all were in their robot form once again.

“There’s another called Tigatron, but he’s not around much. Then there is Air Razor,” said Optimus. “My name is Optimus Primal, leader of the Maximals. Terrosaur and Waspinator are members of the Predicons.”

“Who are the Predicons?” asked Rachel.

“Nothin’ but trouble,” Rattrap said before anyone else could speak.

“They’re trying to get energon from this planet,” Optimus explained.

Energon? Ax asked. There is actually energon here?

“You know what that is, Ax?” Marco asked.

I have only heard of it in theory, Ax stated. It is said to be a power source. Though, it could not possibly exist.

“Oh it does,” replied Rhinox. “And you’re right, it IS a power source.”

“You said something about energon before,” Cassie said. “Right before you changed.”

“The energon builds up and affects our systems when in robot mode outside the ship,” Rhinox explained.

“There,” said Rattrap as he crossed his arms. He was about as suspicious as Rachel was. “You know about us. Now how about tellin’ us who YOU are.”

Rachel crossed her arms and said, “Rachel.”

The male with an olive completion smirked and said, “But you can call her Xena: Warrior Princess!”

Rachel smiled sweetly. “And that is Marco. But you can call him…”

“Who do they remind you of?” Rhinox muttered.

Optimus smirked as Rattrap said, “Hey!”

Rachel pointed to Cassie and said, “This is Cassie.”

“Resident animal lover and tree hugger,” Marco piped in.

“Who’s the one who’s missing?” asked Optimus.

“Jake,” said Cassie.

“There’s another one?” Rhinox asked.

“Yeah,” said Optimus, “and apparently he got separated from them somehow.”

 “Now, you said something about…yeerks earlier,” Optimus continued. “What are yeerks?”

 “Gray alien slugs that crawl into your ear, go to your brain and control you,” Marco said. “Not that you guys have to worry about them.”

Optimus nodded, but did not say anything to interrupt. These young humans were tougher than he had first thought. He still didn’t understand how they had gotten where they were and what the strange aliens they were describing had to do with anything.

 “The one leading them is Visser Three,” Marco said.

“Visser Three?” Optimus asked. He didn’t like the sound of the name, and he noted that the other human’s faces grew dark.

The only Yeerk to control an Andalite body, Ax said bitterly.

Rachel crossed her arms. "That’s all we’ll say on that topic.”

“What are you keeping from us?” Rattrap asked.

“Nothing that would matter to you,” Rachel snapped, “What’s important is finding Jake, and we should be doing that right now.”

“And the time machine,” added Marco.

“Sure, that too,” Rachel said.

I am curious to know where these robots came from, commented Ax in private thought speak. His stalk eyes were roaming the ship, examining everything. Probably trying to see how the technology compared to the Andalites. And I would like to know how they are able to hear thought-speak. Perhaps they are like the Chee. When we return to our time we should ask Erik what he knows.

"Rachel," said Marco, "think about it. Those other things have the time machine. I'm pretty sure these guys are the only ones who can help us get it back. They know what to expect from them, we don't."

“Marco!” exclaimed Rachel. “Don’t you start, they still have given us no reason to trust them.”

 “Wait,” said Optimus. He had been thrown off by the rapid conversation that had been taking place between the humans. “Did you say time machine?”

[Gaz]

7) JAKE:

When the white light finally faded away I was definitely not where I had been. There was no secret lab, no yeerks, no Visser Three, but no Animorphs either. I was still inside a building; at least…I think it was a building. The walls were metallic and there were computers on the walls. That might have helped me if the print wasn’t in a totally alien language.

I tried to take a step forward and stumbled. I was hurt bad, and probably running out of morph time. Ax wasn’t around to tell me exactly how much time had passed, but I thought I better demorph just to be on the safe side. Then I could go small and explore.

At once I felt the change from tiger to human begin. My spine slurped up my tail like spaghetti as my paws melted and split into hands and feet. Shortly after that I was standing in my morphing suit in a strange place.

The best thing to do at that moment was to go to fly morph. I didn’t know where I was or who was around. If I ended up here, then the others or the yeerks couldn’t be too far away. There was no way I could risk Visser Three or some controller walking in and finding me. It would be tiring, but I began the immediate change to fly morph.

Fly legs burst out of my chest as my eyes grew. Suddenly the floor was coming up to meet me real fast as internal organs disappeared and bones shrank. I waited a moment to be sure my wings and everything else was accounted for before I took off into the air.

I headed straight up towards the ceiling for a vent I thought I had seen. Maybe that way I could be human for a while and not be spotted. I flew up into the opening and then straight for a while. I landed on what I really hoped was solid ground, otherwise my James Bond-like mission would end before it started.

Slowly, to be sure I wouldn’t make a loud noise if I should go crashing down, I began to morph back to human. Fortunately I was right in assuming I was on the floor of the vent. Once all my organs, bones and limbs were accounted for, I slowly began to crawl forward in the vent until I heard voices below me. I looked through a crack to see where the voices were coming from and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

You would think that with the yeerks and everything else that nothing would surprise me. Well, what I saw certainly surprised me…a lot.

[Gaz]

*this part has been updated!

THE PREDICON BASE:

Megatron sat in his chair and tried to make sense out of Terrosaur’s babbling. He went on and on about animals, humans, strange aliens and a box. Apparently the strange aliens and humans had been fighting the animals for the box.

Megatron was the leader of the Predacons and often of the opinion that he is the only one who can truly appreciate his brilliant ideas. He often speaks them aloud to no one in particular. Personality wise he is tough and charismatic with a head for strategy. As a leader he doesn’t tolerate failure from anyone.

Terrorsaur could often be a hassle because he would keep coming up with new ways to try and overthrow Megatron to take over leadership of the Predacons. All of these plans would fail horribly for one reason or the other. If there was one thing he loved though, it was to be the center of attention.

“Why is this box so important?” asked Megatron. He pointed to the damaged object in front of Terrosaur.

Terrosaur beamed and said, “I heard one of the humans say that it was a time travel device! That’s probably where the aliens, and that flash of light, came from.”

That sparked Megatron’s interest. “A time travel device?”

He sat back and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. If this were true, it would be useful to him. The device looked badly damaged, almost as if someone had shot it. The damage to the device did not look too serious and perhaps it could be fixed.

“Scorpanok!” Megatron snapped.

Scorpanok snapped to attention and said, “Yes, Megatron?”

Scorpanok was the second-in-command of the Predacons and very loyal to Megatron. However he could be very dense at times.

Though he was hardly any worse than Waspinator. Waspinator would never win any awards for his brilliance simply because it did not exist. He constantly referred to himself in the third person and had a childish way of speaking. On top of that he often had a “poor me” view of life.

“Take the device to Tarantulas. See if he can fix it,” said Megatron. “And be sure to watch him closely.”

Scorpanok grabbed the device and marched off to Tarantulas’ lair. If that arachnid were left to his own devices he would no doubt fix the device and use it for his own purposes. Whatever those were.

“With that device I could go back in time and win the Beast Wars before they even begin, yeessss!” Megatron crowed to no one.

Meanwhile, outside the ship, hork-bajir, taxxons and human-controllers were gathering. It was the last of the group of controllers who had survived the earlier fight. There were five hork-bajir, four Taxxons and seven humans. The one member of the group who had not been seen or heard from by anyone was Visser Three.

Overhead, an unseen bird circled the area four times and flew away.

Back inside Waspinator was just noting the fact that Terrosaur had completely left him out of the story. However, before he could say anything in his wash of delayed hurt feelings there was an explosion.

“What was that?” demanded Megatron.

Terrosaur ran over to a computer console and punched up an outside camera link. There was the group of aliens and humans that he and Waspinator had encountered earlier. They were firing strange weapons on the Predicon ship.

A moment later a small group joined the others outside. There were now four more Hork-Bajir, two more Taxxons and five more humans.

Meanwhile outside, the controllers were coming together to talk about what their searches had brought up any leads as to Visser Three’s or the andalite bandits’ locations.

“Where’s Visser Three?” demanded the human-controller who fancied himself in charge while Visser Three was absent.

“Can’t find him,” a Hork-Bajir responded.

The human-controller was slightly glad inside. He was enjoying being in command.

“We’ll retrieve the time travel device and then find the Andalite bandits!” the human controller, whose host body was named Robert.

“What about Visser Three?” asked another human-controller.

“He’ll be pleased if when we find him we have the device and the bodies of the Andalite bandits!” Robert yelled.

None of the other Yeerks thought to argue because if they failed to retrieve the time travel device, Visser Three would no doubt kill them all for their failure.

“Predicons!” Megatron yelled. “Outside!”

Megatron did not pay attention to the fact that there were four Predicons up against twenty-five controllers with dracon-beams. Not that Megatron knew what dracon-beams were. All he knew was that his ship was under attack and he had to take action.

[Gaz]

9) JAKE:

What I heard those robots, I guessed that was what they were, what they said shocked me. They had the time machine? How had they gotten a hold of it? Well, however they got it, I don’t think I liked the idea of them having it. Especially the big one, I think the others called him Megatron. He definitely seemed to have plans for the time machine.

The spider one had taken it to his lab. All I had to do then was try and locate this lab. Easier said than done, because the vents were like a maze and with any luck I would get discovered. I had to work fast while they were outside the ship fighting. Curiosity wanted to know whom exactly they were fighting, but I didn’t have time for that. I needed to find out about the time machine.

I continued to go straight through the vents until I came into a fork in the road. Left or right. It was a gamble and there was no reasonable way to figure it out. So on first impulse I took the right turn and hoped I wouldn’t run into trouble.

[Gaz]

10) CONTROLLERS VERSUS PREDS:

Megatron, Terrosaur and Waspinator raced out of the ship and faced the twenty-five aliens that were attacking them. Megatron had not seen the aliens earlier so he took a moment to get a look at them. He noted the creatures Terrosaur had said were covered in blades; there were the large, hideous insect like creatures and the humans.

The controller named Robert stepped forward with his dracon beam leveled. “Give up the time travel device!”

Megatron seemed to consider the demand for a moment. “I do not think so, human,” he said.

“Not quite human,” Robert replied. “You are clearly outnumbered. What point is there in fighting?"

“For one thing,” said Megatron, “I do not surrender to humans, nnnooo. Inferno! Black Arachnia! Attack!”

The group of Controllers looked confused. Then a voice from behind yelled, “Defend the colony! Attack the intruders! The royalty commands it!”

When they turned around, a large silver and red predicon was flying toward them, laughing insanely as he fired into the crowd. Not far away a gold and black female predicon was using the spider legs along her arms to fire a machine gun spread.

As half the Controllers turned to face the attack from behind, Terrosaur and Waspinator took to the air and began to fire their weapons into the group.

“Fire!” Robert yelled.

Suddenly there were dracon beams firing left and right. One beam blast burned away two of Black Arachnia’s spider arms. She cried out in anger and charged at the Hork-Bajir who had fired at her. With a swift kick she knocked him down even as he swiped a blade and scratched her torso leaving a small gash.

Inferno meanwhile was firing rapidly at the Controllers not seeming to care who or what he hit. As long as he was fighting for the royalty, he was all right.

Meanwhile, inside the base, Scorpanok was still supervising Tarantulas’ efforts to repair the time travel device. That was when he heard the battle going on outside the base. Explosions rocked the ship and weapons fire could be heard.

“A battle!” Scorpanok explained. “Megatron will need me!”

“Why don’t you go then?” Tarantulas asked as he worked.

“Megatron ordered me to stay here and watch you,” Scorpanok said. “He does not trust you to work on this by yourself.”

“I am quite aware that Megatron does not trust me,” Tarantulas said frankly. “What I mean to say is that what good is this device to Megatron if he gets scrapped during the battle?”

Scorpanok considered the possibility for a moment and reached a conclusion.

“I’m going out to help Megatron,” said Scorpanok. “Don’t you try anything. Keep working.”

As Scorpanok ran off, Tarantulas snickered and said to himself, “Oh I’ll keep working, all right.”

Outside, Scorpanok joined the fight, but Megatron did not notice because he was too busy fending off the Taxxon that was coming at him. He fired a shot and watched with disgust as the creature burst and the surrounding Taxxons went swarming to devour their fallen comrade.

[Gaz]

11) TOBIAS:

My name is Tobias. I spend my life as a hawk because I stayed over the two-hour time limit set by the Andalite’s morphing technology. Only recently did I get the power of morphing back from the Elimist.
I live by a meadow in the same woods where Ax lives. He’ll stop by to talk sometimes while the others are in school.

When I learned that the Yeerks were attempting to build a time machine I wanted to go in and help get it from them real bad. Cassie figured if the Yeerks succeeded they would try and eliminate Elfangor before he ever had a chance to get to Earth. Which would pretty much wipe out the Animorphs.

However, aside from my hawk body, I did not really have a battle morph like the others. Jake said that he wanted me outside to keep an eye on things. Though once there I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to keep an eye on a fight happening inside.

Once the fight got started, I found a window and saw the fight taking a bad turn. There were too many Controllers and not enough Animorphs. I was about to break through the window to help when I saw a Hork-Bajir slice Rachel. Before I could do anything though, a dracon beam hit the time machine and there was a flash of bright white light.

Then I found myself in a tree out in the middle of nowhere. There were none of the buildings of downtown in sight. Whatever had happened, the time machine definitely worked. Now all I had to do was find the others.

I took off and picked a direction, since I had no clue where to start. It would help if I knew where I was, or when for that matter.

As I flew I saw a lot of nature and no sign of buildings anywhere. At first guess, I wanted to assume that we had been sent way back to before people. But then again, parts of the area looked a lot like the Savannah in Africa.

Before long I saw two large things fly past. The first thing I spotted was that one of them had the time travel device! It was only then that I also noticed the things were…robots.

Robots?! I said to myself. Yeerks, Andalites, the Elimist, now robots?! What next?

I soared above on thermals while I tried to keep up with the two flying robots. They had some sort of propulsion system and I only had the breeze and my wings. Their destination was their ship, which was parked above some lava.

Once the robots went inside I turned to see a group of Controllers running up. They must have been following the two as well.

Something was about to go down, and I turned and flew in the opposite direction in hopes that Jake and the others would be over there. In the distance my eyes managed to pick out a peregrine falcon flying back in the direction I was going. I would have guessed that the falcon was Jake, because he has a peregrine morph. However, the falcon was a little too big to be Jake, I would guess it was about ten times too big, if not more. Maybe it was another robot, which was my only guess.

It can’t be with those other two, I thought. One way to find out.

[Gaz]

*this part has been updated!

12) BACK AT THE MAXIMAL BASE:

“Let me get this straight,” said Rhinox, “you got here because a time machine these Yeerks were trying to build got shot?”

“That’s about it,” said Marco.

Optimus sighed. “And now the Predicons have it.”

Dinobot snarled and said, “No doubt, Megatron already has Tarantulas trying to fix it. We should attack now, before he has a chance to get it operational.”

“Hey!” said Rachel. “So why aren’t we getting ready to go out there? Come on, let’s do it!”

“Rachel,” said Marco, “whenever you say ‘let’s do it’ I get this real funny feeling. Like something is bound to go wrong.”

“I get that same feeling when I see you, Marco,” Rachel replied.

Marco grabbed his chest as he staggered and said, “Ouch! Xena delivers another stinging blow.”

Optimus couldn’t help but smirk at the interaction between Rachel and Marco. Rachel reminded him very much of Dinobot, always ready for a fight. Marco in turn reminded Optimus of Rattrap, he always seemed to have a comment for the situation. Both were distrusting and both seemed to disagree with each other frequently.

In human terms the group was still so young, and yet from what he could tell they had seen a lot. Most humans would probably be scared stiff of large robots, but these young humans barely flinched, but there was still the issue of trust.

The one called Ax was still on guard, protecting his human friends. Optimus glanced at the tail and recalled how fast it had been moving in the fight earlier and how sharp it apparently was. Every now and then the female called Rachel would glare around with a look of distrust.

Cassie was standing quietly in a corner looking thoughtful. Marco and Rachel began talking about Jake, the time device and where Visser Three was. They had not said much about Visser Three, but it was apparently a subject of heated discussion. Optimus figured Cassie was a lot like Tigertron; peaceful and preferred to be around nature. She wanted to do something to save her comrade, but didn’t’ seem eager to get into a fight like Rachel was.

Just then Air Razor came into the base from the lift. She looked around at the crowd and said, “Woah, why wasn’t I told we had company?”

“Air Razor,” said Optimus cheerfully, “good to see you again. Things have been a little hectic otherwise I would have informed you earlier. This is Marco, Cassie, Rachel and Ax.”

“There are more of them?!” Marco exclaimed as he threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

“I couldn’t get through on the radio,” said Air Razor. “I thought you should know that there is some serious activity at the Pred Base right now.”

 “What’s going on there?” asked Optimus.

“There’s a group of aliens attacking it,” said Air Razor.

Rachel looked even more frustrated. “They’re already going after the time machine! We gotta do something now! If we had just gone out when…”

“Did you see someone that looked like him?” Marco asked as he pointed to Ax.

Air Razor shook her head. “No.”

“That worries me,” said Cassie, “Visser Three has to be around somewhere. Everyone else in the room was transported to the battle site. Visser Three was near the time machine. So…where is he?”

The other Animorphs fell silent. That was when a voice filled their heads.

Ax! Rachel, Jake…anyone, can you hear me?

Only the Animorphs could hear it, so the Maximals were pretty surprised when they jerked their heads up in surprise. A few of them grinned suddenly.

“Tobias!” Rachel cried. “How did he get here?”

I saw a huge peregrine falcon fly into a ship, he said. I assume that’s where you guys are?

“Ax,” said Rachel, “tell him we’re here and everyone’s okay.”

Ax relayed the message while Rachel asked Optimus, “Is there a way Tobias could fly in here?”

Optimus looked confused but said, “I can open the overhead hatch. You said there was one missing.”

“We didn’t know he was here,” Cassie said.

As he did the eyes of the Animorphs looked up toward the ceiling and they smiled even wider as a red-tailed hawk swooped in and landed on the back of a chair.

Rachel ran up to it and said, “Tobias! I’m so glad to see you.”

She paused for a moment like she was listening to something. Then she said, “These guys are alright. You can broadcast your thought-speak to them. Somehow they can hear it.”

Um…hey, Tobias said uncertainly.

Introductions were quickly made for the Maximals. Tobias treated each of them to a cold, intense hawk stare.

“Are you like them?” Cheetor asked Tobias.

More or less, Tobias replied.

“What do you mean?”

This is me, said Tobias simply.

The Maximals didn’t know what exactly to say. No one understood what he meant; the Animorphs still did not trust them enough to explain the morphing power. Ax had privately told that to Tobias so he did not slip and the Animorphs were forced to explain more than they wanted to.

 “So,” said Rachel impatiently, “what do we do?”

[Gaz]

13) JAKE:

“What do I do?” I muttered to myself.

I had been searching for an hour and had yet to find anything that resembled a lab. Well, maybe I had but there was no sign of the robot that was supposed to be working on it.

After crawling through the vents a while longer I came to a dead end. There was really no point in turning around, and my back was getting extremely sore. So, probably against my better judgment, I decided to get out of the vent.

The room I came out in was not very big, and there were a few boxes in the corners. I would imagine it was a storage room of some kind. Quietly, I sneaked out into the hallway. So far, so good, there was still no one around, but I didn’t know how long it would remain that way. Searching the vents got me nowhere; maybe it was time to search through the hallways. I was ready to go into morph fast if necessary, though I was nowhere near as fast a morpher as Cassie. She was a natural.

 That made me wonder: where was Cassie anyway? Was she all right? What about Rachel, Marco and Ax? I didn’t have to worry about Tobias because he was safe back home. He had been outside when the time machine was hit so he wasn’t affected by the blast. He was probably talking to Erek to figure out what happened to us. Probably going out of his mind with worry, boy would we have some crazy stories to tell him when it was over.

That’s if I ever found the time machine, and the others.

[Gaz]

14) OUTSIDE THE PREDICON BASE:

Things were suddenly not going well for the Controllers. Their numbers had dropped from twenty-five to twelve. They had not counted on the determination and cunning of Megatron. He was in the fight for the win. After all, the repair chambers were simply behind him on the ship. The aliens he fought were flesh and blood and did not have such luxuries.

The Controller Robert was noticing that defeat was not so far away, and maybe, just maybe, retreat was becoming a very good option. It was probably time to back off, regroup and formulate a new strategy.
“Back off!” shouted Robert. “Fall back!”

“But Visser Three will….” One Controller started to say, but was interrupted by Robert.

“It doesn’t matter!” Robert snapped. “We can’t get the Time Machine if we’re all dead. There has to be a better way.”

Megatron watched with satisfaction as the aliens started to run away. However, in the distance he saw something that caught his eye, it was a cheetah.

“Megatron!” shouted Waspinator. “Cheetah-bot is watching!”

However, at that moment, the Controllers noticed the cheetah, but they came to a different conclusion.

“It’s one of those Andalite Bandits!” Robert shouted. “After it!”

“What are they talking about?” Scorpanok muttered.

For the first time, Megatron noticed that Scorpanok was outside and not inside supervising Tarantulas.

“Scorpanok!” yelled Megatron. “What are you doing out here?!”

Scorpanok hesitated for a moment before stuttering, “I…I heard the battle and thought you might want assistance.”

“You left Tarantulas alone!” Megatron roared. “Who knows what that treacherous spider is up to right now?”