Animorphs: Redux

[Kitulean]

Prologue:

My name is Rachel. And unless my situation leads to hallucinations, I had just heard my cousin, Jake, order his starship to ram the stronger, more powerful Blade ship, It was suicidal. It was insane. And I loved him, and missed him, and eeryone else so much in that moment that I would have cried. Except I couldn't, because I died three years earlier.

Maybe I should back up. If I didn't lose you at 'starship', I probably did at 'died'. Just relax, sit back, and let me tell you a story.

It began one night six years ago. I was trying, in vain I might add, to get Cassie, my best friend forever and all around clothing nitwit, to understand the difference between Tommy HIlfinger and Osh Kosh. Hell, at that point I probably would have settled for her to get the difference between Tommy and Mrs. Butterworth.

We were just leaving the mall after I had failed, yet again, to convince Cassie to buy real jeans that fit and didn't have animal poop stains. I love her, and the work she does to help her parents, who are both vets is incredible, but the girl needs new clothes. If I had my way she'd have the clothes she wore to work with the animals who poop, pee, spit, and bleed all over them, and an entirely different set of clothes she wore to do everything else. Preferably with some kind of decontamination chamber between them.

When we left, we ran into Jake, Marco, and Tobias. Jake was my cousin, and I guess we were pretty friendly then. Nothing major, just that we were related and tended to be at the same family things. Marco was his best friend, who made it his goal in life to be the most annoying turd in the world, and Tobias was just some shy, cute boy who tended to get called on in class just as he was settling into a good daydream.

That was all of us. Jake, Marco, Tobias, Cassie, and me. We were just walking home from the mall, cutting through the old construction yard to save time, when an alien ship crashed, and we met the andalite Elfangor. He's the one that gave us the greatest gift, and the greatest responsibility, anyone on earth had ever been given. He told us our planet was being invaded by alien creatures with the ability to invade a person's brain and completely control them. And he gave us a weapon, our only weapon, to fight them. He gave us the power to morph. Later we found an andalite trainee, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, or Ax, and he fought beside us for much of the war.

The morphing power was incredible. Any animal we touched, we could later turn into. The one rule that we always had to remember was that to stay in the other form for longer than two hours was to stay forever. One of us, Tobias, had made that mistake, though he later regained his ability to morph. Hawk would always be his 'normal' form however, if he wanted to stay in the fight. And he did.

The yeerks, the aliens who had invaded our world could be anywhere, anyone. But now, so could we. So, over the next three years, we fought them. We won some battles, lost others, and were a general pain in the ass to the entire Yeerk Empire, especially the leader of the yeerk invasion of earth. Visser Three, who was eventually promoted to Visser One, was the only Andalite-Controller in the galaxy. There were many human-controllers, taxon-controllers, hork-bajir controllers, and even gedd-controllers, but only one andalite-controller. He was what the andalites called the abomination, and he was evil in every sense of the word.

We fought, and bled, making allies and enemies, and did everything we could to slow the Yeerk invasion so the andalites could show up and save us. We followed through on our end. We managed to keep the yeerks back long enough for the andalites to show up. Sure we had been exposed as what the yeerks spent three years thinking of as 'andalite bandits' and were helping the vastly outmatched earth military forces fight a losing war, but we were still standing. The andalites just had to lend a hand. Only they didn't exactly come with saving us in mind. They came with a sort of 'final solution', to destroy the earth so the yeerks couldn't harvest all of us for hosts. Obviously, we weren't exactly giddy about this plan.

The others dealt with most of that though. My mission in that final battle was different. And I knew going in that my odds of coming out of it alive were about as close to nonexistant as you could get. I had to stop Tom, Jake's infested older brother, from getting away with the Blade Ship with his band of followers. Tom and his allies were also morph-capable, after getting their hands on the morph-endowing blue box that had originally given us our powers.

So while the others had their own battles, I was left to invade the Blade ship and kill Tom, to stop his plan to take over the Yeerk emire for himself.It had nearly killed him to make that decision, and it had killed me to accept it. I did my part. I was Rachel the fearless. I was Xena. I fought, and killed, and died. I had stopped Tom's yeerk, but I paid my price for it. My story was over.

Except it wasn't. I was still here. Even three years later, not that I could really keep track of time well in the strange sort of nothingness I inhabited while the Ellimist, a sort of all powerful good guy who can't directly interfere in our battles because of his opposite, the profoundly evil Crayak, showed me everything my friends would become in that time. Every moment I expected him to send me... onward, to whatever comes after. But he never did. He never spoke, but I knew he was there. He wanted me to see something, to see it all. From Cassie becoming some important political figure to Jake teaching special forces from every country how to combat terrorism using morphs to Tobias giving up and leaving everyone behind, to Marco being the rich superstar playboy he'd always wanted to be, I saw it all. And I saw Jake, Tobias, and Marco decide to leave it all behind for one last desperate mission, to take a starship and save Ax.

When I heard Jake give the order to ram the blade ship, the ship that contained a strange creature called The One that seemed to be able to assimilate any other creature into itself. It had done that to Ax, and even though they didn't know anything about it, they did know that this thing couldn't be left alive. It was too dangerous. So, with their ship out gunned and out matched, Jake ordered their ship, which he had embarrassingly named after me, to ram it head on. The andalite ship fired its engines almost immediately, and darted forward through the darkness of space. The yeerk ship tried to turn aside, but it was going to be too late. Both ships would collide, and explode, and it would be over. It would be done.

<Enough!> I cried out finally in what I assume was close enough to thought-speak to be interchangeable. <Why are you showing me this? Let me go, Ellimist! I don't want to see this!>

"I swear, every time we stow someone away for a few years it's 'Ellimist this!' and 'Ellimist that!' Honey, you're not a vip around here, sit down."

That... wasn't the Ellimist. Suddenly I went from being nothing, in great void of the same, to myself. My own body, sitting in a chair in some approximation of a classroom. It was empty, except for one other being at the front of the room who was decidedly not a teacher. "Drode!" I spit the word with contempt while trying to lunge to my feet. But I didn't move. I stayed where I was. Whatever was happening, I was not in control.

The Drode, a servant of Crayak, smiled. He was hard to describe, a sort of evil purple dinosaur-like creature with a human face. He was his master's messenger, and just as evil. He was also powerful enough to have done what I assumed in all this time had been the Ellimist's doing. He had been the one keeping me from passing. My teeth gritted and I glared with what I already knew was impotent anger. "Drode, what the hell are you doing? I didn't know you cared enough to keep me around." I tried to sound brave, like I didn't care why I was here or that if I wasn't I would be dead. I don't think he bought it, but the attempt made me feel better, more like myself.

With a snort of laughter, the Drode plucked a piece of chalk up and drew a single line from the bottom of the board to about one third of the way up. "Time for a quick lesson, Ms. Rachel. The Crayak has you. The Ellimist lost his grip on you and we snatched you up before you could move... wherever. You belong to Crayak."

My heart sank, and I tried again to jerk my way out of the chair, but my body would not obey. It had been told by Drode to sit, and he had more control over this facsimile of myself than I did. I felt my anger growing, making it harder to think clearly. "So if you're just gonna gloat for awhile, I'll take a nap." My words, ineffectual as they were, made me feel marginally less useless.

"Oh don't do that." The Drode's almost sing-song voice teased. "Cuz then you'll miss the best part. See we have you, but Crayak... he doesn't really want you. He wants you about this much." He indicated the line on the board. "On the other hand... there's someone else he wants... this much." A line appeared on the board without the Drode twitching the chalk towards it. It extended up off the board and through the ceiling. "He wants--"

"Jake." I interrupted flatly. "Crayak wants Jake. So do whatever you want, gloat for years, but he's not getting him. You're stuck with the girl."

"Oh we'd do more than gloat." Drode hissed a little in what I guessed was a dangerous laugh. "Much, much more." I felt a chill, and the urge to scoot away. The profoundly evil creature seemed to stop himself. "Oh but what am I thinking. We haven't even introduced your classmate. There was a pop sound, and then to my left a very familiar creature, who looked something like a deer with a human torso and head with two main eyes and two additional swiveling stalk eyes, but no mouth, along with a scorpion tail and fine blue and tan fur, appeared.

"Ax!" The words left me with a sudden gasp of surprise. I hadn't ever expected to see any of my friends in person again. Then again, I hadn't ever expected to have fingers again.

If I was surprised, poor Ax nearly had a heart attack. Or hearts attack. I think they have more than one. He skitter stepped to the side and raised his tail-blade like he was going to slash me, and then his eyes widened in what I knew was utter and complete shock. <Rachel!> Ax's surprised thought-speak voice came to me. <You are... we believed you were-->

"Dead." I sighed and rolled my eyes toward the front. "Welcome to the club."

In his shock, all four of Ax's eyes had been focused on me. Now he swiveled first one stalk eye, then both to the front, and quickly took a half lunge in that direction, swinging his tail blindingly fast even as he spat the name with even more contemt than I had mustered. <Drode!>

At least I think he lunged and swung. The next thing I knew Ax was standing beside me once more, and nothing seemed to have changed. I couldn't remember his actual swing, just that he had tried. The Drode clapped his hands and laughed. "Good! Good, the fighters, the warriors. Rachel the psychopath and Ax the desperate cadet."

<I am an aristh no longer, Drode.> Ax's voice was dangerous, and I almost wanted to compliment him for not letting what I knew had to be frantic confusion mixed with blind terror show. <I am-->

"You are an insect." Drode replied with a contemptious snicker. "And Crayak wants you even less than he wants her."

"He wants Jake." I spoke to Ax while keeping my gaze level on Drode. If Ax could show no fear, then so could fearless Xena. "Crayak wants Jake."

Before Ax could respond to that, Drode interrupted. "Correction, Crayak is getting Jake." He gave us both a look and then went on. "See, Jake's on that ship there, about to be killed along with Marco, precious Tobias, and everyone else. They are all dead. But in this split second, Crayak himself is offering Cousin Jake a choice. He trades his life, which he's about to lose anyway, to let Crayak have him, and you and Ax go free, back to live your lives. Something tells me he's gonna take the deal."

"Jake, no..." I whispered half under my breath, but from the Drode's broad smile I knew he heard. I glared. "So why are you telling us this?"

"Just gathering the class until it's time to go home." Drode waved a hand dismissively. "Poor little Jake's all done being the good leader. He's gotten too many people, too many friends killed, and now he's ready to make that sacrifice. It's over for him, but just the beginning for you. Think of all the sales you can get to now!"

HIs mocking finally got to me, and I snapped. "Shut up!" I screamed at him, impotently and frantically struggling to remove myself from the chair so I could claw his eyes out, morph to Grizzly and knock his smug head off. "Shut up! You filthy disgusting evil son of a--"

"Language!" The drode made my mouth shut, and I scowled in impotent fury. "Now, as I was saying, just gathering the class, unless the class wants... let's say... extra credit." I struggled to control my breathing, to listen to the evil creature, but it was hard. I knew my anger was my weakness, but that didn't make it any easier to avoid. The drode went on. "Yes, or even better, a make-up exam. I know, let's just throw out the book and retake the course."

Ax, whose hooves seemed as glued to the floor as my butt did to the chair, glowered along with me. <What are you saying, Drode-scum?> His tail twitched, and I knew he wanted nothing more than to cut a few chunks out of our host.

For his part, Drode either didn't notice our obvious anger, or more likely, ignored it. "What I'm saying, children, is that we're giving you a choice. See, as much as Crayak wants Jake, there are certain other things he wants more."

I didn't get it, but Ax did. His eyes darkened and his tail twitched. <No there isn't. The Crayak wants Pr-Jake. But he wants him on his terms. He wants to beat him. This isn't winning. Pri--Jake is killing himself. Crayak wants to beat him, to humiliate him and win himself. He wants Jake to grovel in defeat.>

"Never let it be said that Andalites can't be taught. They're smelly and obstinate and rather stupid, but they can be taught." Drode mocked Ax while moving to the right. "Yes, Crayak wants a chance to beat precious Jake at his own game. And he's willing to ignore Jake's deal if you agree to this one. You will all be sent back. The..." He spat the word. "Ellimist has agreed in exchange for something else in one of his precious pet projects. Time will go back to long before any of this occurred, and you will do it again. You won't remember this, or anything else past that point, and it wouldn't matter anyway because time has a funny way of changing the second... time around."

"Wait, let me get this straight." My fingers twitched. "We go back in time, things change, and Crayak has another chance to beat Jake?"

"That's the size of it, sweet cheeks." Drode smirked, and moved forward, down the aisle. "You go back and forget everything that happened, how you 'won' the war, how you both died, and get a chance to win it without the dying part this time. Maybe vaunted Prince Jake can do it without sacrificing over a dozen crippled children this time, hmmm? Either way, you get your shot, we get ours. Tick tock, if Jake says yes first, the deal is over."

I looked to Ax, and he bowed his head in respect to my decision. Jake was my cousin. I had died. I paid the price, and now I was being asked to do it all over again on the off chance that things went better this time. I looked deep within everything I knew of myself, everything I thought, and everything I believed in. Then I thought of Jake, and Cassie, and Marco.... and... Tobias. My hands moved under my own power, and I stood up, the chair scraping  behind me. I opened my mouth, and the words came.

"Let's do it."

NEXT IN ANIMORPHS REDUX: Rachel and Ax made a deal with the Crayak to go back in time, to forget everything they knew, and go through the war again. We begin in book 20. The David trilogy. We all know how it went, but this time it's different. This time it's far more personal. This time it isn't David.

[V2113]

This is AWESOME!!! POST MORE!

[Kitulean]

Thanks! I hope you keep liking it. Here we go.

The Discovery.

Chapter One

My name is Marco. I'd tell you my last name, but I'm far too attached to living. See, if I told you my last name, it would make it easier for them to find us, and that's something we definitely don't want. By we I mean us and you, because you're in this too, buddy.

If you don't know why we're fighting, or why we can't give you our last names, or even swear that these are our first names, I'll give you the quick version. You'll have to look at an earlier book if you're still confused. Earth is being invaded by mind controlling slugs from outer space, and its only defense is me, three other human kids, a bird that used to be a boy, and an alien military cadet.

Wait, before you go running for the guys with the rubber room, at least let me tell you the part where we can change into any animal we touch. It was a gift, from the Andalite prince who told us about the invasion. The Andalites are the good guys, the Earth's only hope. So we fight to delay the Yeerk invasion long enough for the Andalite fleet to arrive. We are my best bud Jake, his cousin Rachel the warrior princess, her friend Cassie the animal lover and earth hugger, Tobias, our first casualty, who became stuck in morph after staying longer than two hours and is now more bird than human, Ax the stranded Andalite cadet, and myself. Marco, the cutest boy in any given school at any given time.

Sometimes being incredibly cute has its disadvantages. Like, hypothetically, when said adorable boy happens to make a perfectly innocent remark to one Jennifer Belle, about the lovely state of her hair in relation to the autumn leaves, and one Jennifer Belle's rather large boyfriend happens to hear said innocent remark. Then, in such hypothetical situations, one might end up in an awkward location such as... oh... a locker.

God it was cramped in there. I'm a tad on the short side. It's barely noticiable, but I blame the hole in the ozone layer. So I fit, barely, in the confined space. I wasn't going to be throwing any dance parties in there, but I fit.

There are times when being an animorph, that's animal morpher for the uninitiated, come in handy in ways that don't involve aliens or screaming at all. This was one of them. My cheek was already pressed fairly tightly against the vent in the locker, so all I had to do was twist my head slightly to look around. The hall seemed empty, so I closed my eyes and focused.

It was a morph that all of us truly hated doing, but somehow it always ended up being necessary. I could feel the changes start almost immediately, and for once I was glad to be in a nearly pitch black tiny space. First my back hardened and separated into two dark wings that weren't really for flying. Then I felt the odd somewhat falling sensation of drastic shrinking, and the rest of my skin hardened. Then came the part I really wasn't ready for. Extra legs splooched out of my chest, one after another, while my vision inside the cramped compartment got even worse as it became compounded into hundreds of tiny television set images.

I was nearly finished shrinking into full ****roach, only a half foot tall, when vibrations moved down the antennae that had just sprouted from my head. Someone was coming! They were rattling the lock on the outside, twisting it around. I had to hurry. I focused and prayed to get small enough to be unnoticable. The lock rattled and tumblers clicked and I morphed as fast as possible.

Then bright light hit me as the door was yanked open, and the roach mind screamed in terror. RUN! It cried. RUN RUN RUN RUN!! The animal mind and me were in utter agreement about the running part, but we stalled on where to. The roach wanted to get to the far left corner of the locker, where it was still dark and some moldy cheese from a sandwich was sitting, but I wanted to go out into the light of the hall where I could find a safe place to demorph. The roach mind wasn't having any of it, but luckily I had more control than it did, so we motored out of there, with the bug brain screaming the entire way. If you've ever been strapped to the bottom of a race car while it does laps around the track, that's what it's like to be a running roach. It may be small, but for its size that thing rockets.

Thankfully whoever was at that locker hadn't seen me. Now I could find a quiet spot and--Then a voice stopped me. I knew that voice. It was assistant principal Chapman. He was a known yeerk, a high level controller. That's what we call people who have yeerks in their brains, controllers. I froze at the sound of one of our most dangerous enemies literally inches away, then quickly shot past the giant brown shoe that had landed just in front of me and hid out under the base of the lockers on the other side of the hall.

Carefully, I motored down the hall toward what I thought was a supply closet. While I moved, I could hear Chapman talking. His voice boomed over me. He had to be talking to a new student, because he said. "I'm sure you'll do fine here, David. Your father spoke very highly of you when he came in yesterday. I trust that you'll be as hard working and honest a student as you were at your last school."

The boy mumbled something that I didn't quite catch, and Chapman laughed before moving off. His long legs carried him past where I was huddled just at the crack that led into the closet, and I let out a sigh of relief. At least I think I did, but I'm not sure roach lungs work. Anyway, he was gone and I scooted under the door and into the dark confines to become my adorable self again.

Minutes later, I carefully opened the door of the closet and stepped out. There were some students in the halls, but no one gave me much of a second glance. I gave a look up and down the hall before starting off for my next class. There were a couple girls ahead, talking to a kid I didn't recognize. I figured he was David, mostly through the deductive reasoning of one of the girl's calling him that. He was holding something in his right hand that I couldn't quite see, and obviously flirting.

There were two girls, and only one of him, so it was only fair that I step up to fill in the obvious gap. I mean, that's what guys do, right? Right. Besides, one of the girl's, Danielle, was in my first period class, so I had dibs. Of a sort. But someone hadn't told David that part, because the look he sent me  when I sidled up beside him and said hey to Danielle, could have come from Visser 3 himself. So the new kid wasn't exactly friendly, but I could deal with that. I turned to smile and give him a great welcoming speech that would make him feel right at home, and that coincidentally the girls would love me for when I finally saw what he had in his hand. At that moment, every single thought I had in my head vanished. The only thing in my mind from the moment my eyes took in that sight was 'Duuuuuuurrrr'. It was like I was suddenly some big guy who went around stuffing smaller, smarter, cuter boys into lockers for no good reason. There literaly was no intelligent thought in my brain for about three seconds.

He had the box! The blue box, the device that Elfangor had used to give the rest of us our morphing powers.  The one we thought was destroyed all this time. This kid had it. I realized I was staring finally, and dumbly raised my hand to point. "A... box." Yeah, not my most elequent moment, but it was all I could think of to say.

David looked at the box in his hand and shrugged. "Yeah, it's cool. It shines and stuff. I'm not sure what it's for though." His anger at my interrupting seemed to have been abated when he saw how hard it was for me to throw a complete sentence together. Maybe he thought he looked better by comparison. Jerk.

"Where.. did you find it?" I had to stop myself from reaching out to snatch the box from his hand. It was equally hard to avoid looking up and down the hall to see just who was paying attention to this. Desperately I wished for Cassie to show up. She'd know what to say. Or even Rachel. The kid would probably end up in the same locker I'd just vacated, but we'd have the box at least.

Then David shook his head. He raised his hand with the box in it, and my eyes followed the cube. "Me? Nah. I didn't find it, I just thought I could figure out what it was. It's hers." He passed the box to the other girl, the one next to Danielle that I hadn't paid much attention to. The girl took it and stuffed it back into her pack, and after watching the blue box disappear from sight, I finally looked up, and had my second heart attack of the last two minutes.

The girl who had the blue box, the key to the Andalite morphing technology, was the assistant principal's daughter. Melissa Chapman had the Andalite cube.

We were so screwed.

[V2113]

I have absolutely nothing to say to that other than THIS IS SO TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! I don't usually type like that by the way.
And OF COURSE I'LL KEEP LIKING IT!!!! DUHHHH! 

[Phoenix004]

Looks very interesting so far. Well written chapters and a more original post-54 idea. Also I never liked David so it'll be nice to see another person get a chance to fill his shoes. Looking forward to seeing more! 

[Kitulean]

I'm really really glad you both like it. I've been reading Animorphs since I was 13, back when there was only the first 8 books. It's my favorite series of all time, and I'm really trying to do it credit here.

Chapter Two

Take it from someone who knows, when you're busy losing your mind because the daughter of one of the most evil creatures to walk the planet, an assistant principal, who happens to be infested by one of the most evil creatures from another planet, is holding the key to the one advantage you have over the alien armada in her backpack, it's hard to focus on a pop quiz. And speaking of evil creatures, add math teachers to the list.

I wouldn't even have been in class, but the teacher had grabbed me before I could get past her door. Now I sat three chairs behind Jake, drumming my pencil against the desk nervously. The last ten minutes had convinced me that thought speak while in human form really was completely impossible. I'd been sending messages to the back of Jake's big head the entire time, to no effect.

If Melissa had the blue box, we had to get it back from her. It was just that simple. But worse than that, we had to get it back from her before the yeerk in Mr. Chapman's head got a look at it. Which meant we had to move too fast to actually have a plan, which inevitably was going to end with all of us screaming and blubbering for our lives. That's just how it worked.

Before we could get to the screaming and pants peeing though, I had to get Jake's attention. Normally I could just pass a note up there about anything non-animorph related, but we never wrote stuff like this down. On the off chance someone read it, seeing 'Melissa plus blue box' would pretty much kill our security. So I contented myself to flicking little balls of paper up at Jake's neck. After the third one, he turned to glare at me. I gave him my most earnest 'desperate mission' look, and his eyes narrowed. I nodded firmly while meeting his gaze, and he looked pained. Yeah, he knew what I was getting at, and he already didn't like it any more than I did.

Finally, after seven million hours, the bell rang and the class emptied. I shot out of my chair and caught Jake's sleeve, pulling him along down the hall to find a place to talk. Any of you who have been in a public school know how hard this can be. It took dragging Jake into a bathroom and waiting around washing our hands four times for several people to enter and leave before we had the place to ourselves.

Once the last guy left, Jake folded his arms on his chest and sighed. "All right, Marco, what happened?" I couldn't really blame him for his reaction, since I never liked it when he gave me the mission look either.

Normally I would have cracked a joke about how I could never drag my best friend into a bathroom without it being a life and death situation. Now, I just checked each stall one more time before turning back to Jake. "Melissa Chapman has the blue box." There, short and to the point. Like yanking off a band-aid.

Jake gave me an embarrassingly blank look. "Box?" It hadn't occurred to him yet, and I gave him a long look until it hit him. I knew the precise moment it did, because his eyes widened exactly like mine had and he stuttered it out again. "The b-box!?"

He couldn't get the words out, so I did it for him. "The Andalite morphing cube, she has it in her backpack. I saw her this morning, just before class." Before he could ask, I shook my head. "Chapman doesn't know, or she wouldn't still have it. But he's going to find out, any time. We've gotta get it from her before that happens. You know what's going to happen if he sees that thing? Our advantage is gone. We'd have controllers morphing everywhere. We'd never have a second of safety."

Relunctantly, Jake nodded. "Right, get Rachel before the bell rings. They have gym this period. It's soccer today, so have Rachel distract Melissa and you do your osprey and get the box. Take her whole bag if you have to, just get it. I'd love to help, but I've got office aide this period and the last thing we need is Mr. Chapman to wonder where his gofer is."

"Find Rachel, distract Melissa, get the box without being noticed. Check." I rolled my eyes a little. "Would you like chicken or maybe a pizza after that? Or I could stop off and learn to tap dance and give you a quick musical number. Anything else?"

"Yeah." Jake gave me his best stern look. "Don't be seen."

"Don't be seen morphing into a bird to steal a girl's backpack so we avoid being bodysnatched by evil alien slugs. Thanks." I mimed writing that down on my palm. "Don't know what I'd do without you to remind me of the little details."

"Just do it, Marco." Jake gave me a little push to get me moving. "Go, find Rachel." He paused and shook his head a little. I started to the door, then gave him a quick look, and he shrugged and muttered. "Just... deja vu. I swear I've said that before."

"You? Tell someone to find Rachel because only she's insane enough to try something like this in the middle of school? That's not deja vu, Jake. That's perception."  He started to retort, but I was already out the door. Find Rachel. This would be much easier to do if there was a clothing store in the school itself. Then again, if there was, Rachel would miss class even more than being an animorph already makes her. Sometimes I'm not sure what that girl likes better, checking out sales or fighting for her life through a whirlwind of claws and violence. If she could figure out how to do both at the same time, I think she'd combust from happiness or something.

Halfway down the hall, I heard the bathroom door clang as Jake left. No doubt off to ferry messages from the office secretaries. How Jake ended up with office aide and I got intro to latin is a mystery for the freaking ages.

Then something happened to make me pause just as I was about to turn the corner toward the gym. The bathroom door clanged again. I turned my head to look back, and David, that new kid from earlier was standing with his hand on the door, staring down the hall toward me with a weird look.

I'd checked that bathroom completely. There was no place out of sight in the main room and I looked under each stall before we started talking. So David hadn't been in there. He was just heading into the bathroom now and giving me a weird look because I stopped in the hall and looked back at him. No one actually stood on top of those toilets, and besides, I would have noticed that. The panic about the box couldn't have made me screw up something like that. No one would have been silent through that entire exchange, much less believe any of it... right?

I kept staring at David, and he stared back. We must have looked at each other for ten whole seconds, and then the bell rang. The halls were suddenly full of rushing students who up to that point had been lounging around waiting for the late bell to tell them to run to class and I lost sight of him. But he'd gone into the bathroom, because that was where he was going. It had to be.

Sometimes my ability to delude myself surprises even me.

[Gumby]

You make a great first appearance. I LOVE IT!

[Kitulean]

Thanks! Here's the next chapter.

Chapter Three

A couple minutes later I reached the back area of the school just behind the kitchen. The soccer field was about thirty yards off around the corner. I couldn't get to Rachel before the bell rang, and no way was I chancing another teacher grabbing me for class, so I decided to improvise.

The worry about what the kid David heard had to take a backseat to this. Hopefully he'd think we were just screwing around. Second best option was he'd think we were crazy. I had to pray he didn't go talking about it, or we were dead. Right now I had to morph, and get to that field. But I didn't want to take yet another chance on being seen, so that meant facing the garbage.

I stood by the dumpster, looking left and right before muttering to myself. "The things I do for this planet." With a grimace, I hauled myself over the side, misjudged the actual top of the thing, and fell inside. I sprawled across old lunches, paper, and other things I wasn't even going to try to identify. Thrashing a bit as my foot got stuck in something, I yanked and groaned. "Oh gross, I think I ate that."

It had sounded like such an easy, if disgusting plan. Wallow in the dumpster for a minute, morph, and fly out. Easy, right? Piece of cake. Hah! You try to morph into a bird while drowning in trash every time your body shifts. I kept sinking and struggling to keep my head up while the changes happened. First there was the feather pattern that etched itself over every bit of skin. It looked very cool, yet also like it should itch. Then my nose hardened and shot out, fusing with my lips to form a beak. Oh good, now I can smell and taste this trash with the same organ. Thankfully I couldn't really smell all that much. Birds don't really do the scent thing.

Of course, that was when the shrinking started. Suddenly it went from being hard to keep myself from sinking through the trash to impossible. My arms were already shriveled up into nothing, and I was getting smaller by the second. The weight of the garbage forced me down, even as I flailed my weak little birdy legs that were already reshaping and hardening. A tossed out plate fell over and smeared tomato sauce over my face, gagging me.  I was drowning in left over lasagna. Of all the enemies we'd faced, I was going to be done in by day old faux-Italian. I was so bringing this up at the next PTA meeting on school lunches.

Then, abruptly, the tray was snatched off my head and I could breath again through the last few seconds of the changes. A red tailed hawk perched on the side of the dumpster and glared at me. Not that he was mad, he just always glares. It's a bird of prey thing. <Marco, is there a reason you're dumpster diving when you should be learning Latin, or is this just a better use of your talents?>

<Ha ha.> I muttered at Tobias before testing my wings as I hopped to the edge of the dumpster beside him. They were messy, but still good. Nothing was broken or twisted. <Wait, you know what class I have now?>

<I've got a lot of free time.> If he was a human, or a full human anyway, Tobias would have shrugged. <Besides, I think I did better on that last test than you did. Now what's going on?>

I barely resisted a groan. Bantering with Tobias would have been so much more fun than what I had to tell him. <Melissa Chapman has the blue box. It's in her backpack. We have to get Rachel to distract her and get her away from it, then grab it.> As I explained, I flapped hard once and lunged into the air. It was easy to catch the slight breeze and fly up and away from the trash, but it was a little harder to make myself bank around back towards the field rather than flying off for an afternoon of catching thermals over the mall and watching girls.

To his credit, Tobias didn't ask a lot of unnecessary questions. He just followed me up and around. A gang of kids was around the soccer field. The boys were off on the other field throwing a football around, so there were only girls here on this one. Some were kicking old balls around, while most just stood in small packs and talked while the teacher tried to organize everyone. I started looking, but I shouldn't have bothered. Tobias found her first. <That's Rachel by the left goal post. She's talking to Glasses and Laceless.>

<Laceless and Glasses?> I echoed while turning the laser sharp osprey vision down in that direction. Sure enough, that's where Rachel was. Then I started looking for Melissa.

<She's up near the coach, next to the bags.> Sometimes I hated Tobias's extra practice with bird of prey eyes, but he was right. The small, pale girl with eyes that seemed forever sad was standing behind the gym teacher, too near the pile of backpacks to do chance going for it. Even her blonde hair seemed sad and defeated. <And yeah, I kind of have to make up my own names for people occassionally, since I can't exactly ask them. Let me get Rachel.> Tobias was silent for a moment as we circled the field, praying no one would look up and either pee all over themselves from seeing an osprey and a red-tailed hawk doing rings around the soccer field, or shoot at us with dracon beams.

On our second lap, Tobias spoke again. <She gets it. Give her a second, then we'll go in. I hope you realize how insane this is. It's so insane, I think Rachel's jealous.>

<Now I know this is a bad plan.> I circled the field once more with Tobias while turning my raptor vision on the backpacks. <It's the green one with the mickey mouse patch there on the left side.> Finally I had spotted something before birdboy had. Granted he didn't know what we were looking for exactly, but a win is a win.

While we circled and waited, Rachel moved up to where Melissa was. I could see the two of them talking. Mostly Rachel talking and Melissa nodding or shaking her head. The girl didn't say a lot. I guess that's the way you get when your parents don't seem to love you at all anymore because they're busy working on the enslavement of the human race while trying not to be beheaded or eaten by the most evil person in the universe. Not that Melissa knew all that, but she recognized that her parents were different. I knew how she felt more than she did. I thought for two years that my own mother was dead, only to find out that she was actually the host body for Visser One, who had planned the entire yeerk invasion before faking her death so she could go do more important things. Someday I was going to find Visser One, and personally drag that slug out of my mom's head. Someday.

With what seemed like reluctance, Melissa let herself be pulled away from the sidelines. Rachel guided her toward the goal on the other side, talking loudly to keep her attention. For her part, Melissa seemed content to silently shrug while she was led away.

<That's it, let's go.> Tobias adjusted his flight and dove with smart-missile precision. We flew side by side, wingtips inches apart, straight to the pile of bags. One person cried out as we were spotted. Then a few more people yelled and most of the class had their eyes on us. A couple tried to run at us, but no way they were fast enough. Tobias and I flared our wings to catch ourselves, locked talons around the straps of Melissa's pack. Then WE WERE OUT O-- actually we weren't going anywhere. We both tried to lunge immediately back into flight, but the pack must have weighed a thousand pounds. Instead of soaring up and away with it, we just managed to belly flop straight down into the grass. Let me tell you, belly flopping as bird? Not the least bit fun. I probably broke my beak.

I heard Rachel cry Tobias's name, and had a moment to consider aiming a few bird droppings at her new jeans if we got out of this. Then the girls that had been nearest to the sidelines made it to us. A couple of the girls poked their feet and kicked a little to shoe us away, and the birds in us flared their wings in panic and tried to fly up. This of course scared everyone, because a bird flaring its wings when confronted with wild human girls trying to kick them is so unpredictable. The girls squealed, thinking we were attacking, and the coach yelled. Suddenly the kicking and slapping became real as the girls who moments ago thought we were mostly funny decided they didn't like us after all.  and we tried to escape between pairs of legs, but between the flailing hands and wildly kicking feet we were buffeted and battered back to the grass. I saw  the tip of a Reebok catch Tobias in the wing and he spun back to the ground to face plant, then a hand slapped me upside the head and I joined him as the earth spun crazily.

<Tobias...> I groaned while struggling to push myself off him weakly as the girls screamed and kicked at the air above us. <You okay, man?>

His response confused me. <Abiego! To send away. Medius, the middle of!>

<Huh?> Pain flared in my left wing as I grunted. <Tobias, what are you...>

<Moeror, it means grief or sorrow.... also Moestifer, sorrowful!> I think he was delirious, answering questions from my last latin quiz. The sad thing is I think he really did have a better score than me. 

I was two seconds from getting back up and giving the nearest girl a good piece of my mind, involving my bent beak and her earlobes, when I felt hands pick me up. I thrashed and threw my wing out, and Rachel hissed. "Shut it, moron." Then I was pushed into an empty duffel bag. A moment later Tobias joined me, mumbling incoherantly about participial forms.

We were jostled and hoisted up, and I heard Rachel telling the teacher that she'd take us to the office so that they could call animal control. The teacher, faced with a crowd of wild students yelling about crazed birds, just told her to hurry and be careful. I could feel Rachel running toward the school building, asking a moment later if we were all right.

Tobias, who finally seemed to be coming back to himself, groaned. <I think I'm gonna throw up. Hey Marco?>

<What?> I was busy trying not to scream as the bouncing bag jostled my twisted wing.

<When we talk about how we saved the world from the yeerk invasion, let's leave out the part where we get our butts kicked by a group of scared teenage girls.>

<It's a deal, my friend.> I groaned. <It's a deal.>

[Kitulean]

Chapter Four

We regrouped inside the school after Tobias and I had a chance to morph out of our battered bird bodies. For me this was just demorphing back to my loveable human self. For Tobias it involved morphing to his human body. He'd regained his ability to morph thanks to a seriously powerful and seriously annoying guy called the Ellimist, and even acquired his old body, but he could only stay in it for two hours at a time or he wouldn't be able to morph anymore. That would mean he couldn't fight, and for some reason the nutjob sees that as a bad thing.

The three of us had a quick conference in an empty classroom, and I caught Rachel and Tobias up on the details. Then we had to figure out what to do next. The blue box was still in Melissa's backpack, and by now what had happened would be getting around school. That meant that at any moment a controller could hear about it and wonder why two obvious andalites had been trying so hard to get some human girl's bag.

"I think we need to get Ax. He knows the most about it." Tobias was still glaring at me, even outside of hawk form. He's not too good at facial expressions anymore, after so much time as a bird. "We never should have gone for it ourselves. You and I could have distracted everyone and Rachel could have gotten the box quietly." Okay, so maybe he was glaring for a reason. But still, it wasn't like my plan had been anything like, 'I know, let's go get the stuffing beat out of us by bunch of girls.' Most of my plans that end with my getting beat up by a girl involve me at least saying something first.

"Tobias is right." Rachel said while she looked out the tiny window into the hall nervously. "I can tell Ms. Cherol that the birds got away, but we should've had that box already. Melissa's in danger as long as she has it."

"Oh you're just saying he's right cuz he's your.... " I trailed off at the murderous glare Rachel was giving me, stumbling a step back. "Your.... yer..... errr... Early! Cuz he's early all the time and that means he has great plans. You know, like the early bird gets the worm and all that. Not that Tobias eats... I'm going in the hall to find a visser to kill me now." I gave a decisive nod before stepping around Rachel to exit into the hallway.

Tobias stepped past Rachel as well, putting himself between us before she could take advantage of my closeness to throttle me. "I'm going to find Ax. You guys should.... try not to kill each other?" He shrugged and made for the back door before any of our teachers noticed him and wondered why he looked familiar.

As he disappeared, someone cleared their throat behind us. Rachel and I spun on our heels to find Cassie raising her eyebrow at both of us with a hallpass in her hand. She started conversationally. "Okay so first Jake brings me a note that says my dad needs me for a dentist appointment, then when we're in the hall he says Marco found the blue box and it's in Melissa Chapman's backpack." She paused, then went on with a serious look. "Now people are saying a couple eagles dove out of the sky and attacked all the girls. Those two things can't possibly be related, right?"

"That's a pack of lies." I managed with a straight face. "I was an osprey and Tobias is a hawk. Eagles, hmphh. Better not let him hear that rumor. You know how he gets about eagles. You know... unless they're girl eagles." I doubled over a second later with Rachel's elbow in my gut. Someday I have to learn to keep my mouth shut.

"Guys." Cassie looked torn between chastising us or helping us. The urgency of the situation won her priority. "First of all, Rachel's eagle is a boy. Second of all, didn't it occur to you to.... ask for the box?"

Both Rachel and I stared blankly at Cassie, and she sighed. "You know, since Melissa just found it? You could have said you lost it and acted really excited that she found the thing. Instead of stealing it from her? Or rather, trying to and failing so the entire school is in an uproar?"

I looked to Rachel, and she looked back at me. "Oops." I said with a grimace. "Well Tobias is getting Ax. We have to get that box back so the Ax-Man can do something useful with it."

 Cassie started to say something else, when a scream outside interrupted her. All three of us spun around and ran to the door to see the gym class, which was halfway up the hill to the back gym doors, pointing after someone that was running away. He held Melissa's bag under his arm as he ran, and a black mask obscured his features. But I knew who it was. I recognized his army jacket. "David." I groaned.

"Who?" Rachel was already starting out the door after him as her face bulged. She was going grizzly right in the middle of the school hallway.

Luckly, Cassie caught her arm and dragged her back to the empty classroom. "Not bear, Rachel. Wolves. Everyone use wolves, we can catch him that way and most people will mistake us for dogs. Hurry." She was already matching action to words. "Who's David, Marco?"

I started to morph hurriedly, feeling the shaggy fur sprout up all over my mostly human body almost instantly. "Oh nobody. Just a kid that  uhhh.. maybe... might know our secret. He--" My voice was choked off then as my mouth bulged out into the wolf's muzzle. It was just as well, because Rachel cut me off.

"He what?!" If her hands weren't already morphed into wolf paws, forcing her down to the floor, she might have lunged and tried to choke answers from me. "Marco, what are you-gffffmphhhrrrrrr--" Her questions were cut off as her own muzzle grew in, but I knew from the looks they were both giving me that I wasn't nearly off the hook on explaining.

So I explained on the way, as we worked the door open through a quick circus act of lunging and swiping at the knob, then shot out into the hall and out the other door while giving the janitor coming in through it a heart attack. While we ran across the grass and down the street, following David's trail, I told them what I thought. And then Rachel told me what she thought. Well it wasn't very coherant so I'm not sure precisely what she thought, but it involved a lot of cursing.

Here's the thing about wolves. They're faster than you, and they can run a lot longer than you can. David had a head start, but we were hot on his heels faster than you could say 'bloodhound'. All three of us chased after the mixture of cheeto and bad meatloaf smell that led down the street and across an empty parking lot. Already we could see the stumbling figure as David tripped over a curb and nearly fell before catching himself. We were already almost on him a split second later, the four of us having disappeared from the main street into an old lot that used to serve the abandoned apartment complex that stood in front of it.

<This is gonna be easier than I tho--> Of course, because I opened my mouth, metaphorically speaking, things shot straight to hell just then. A sort of sixth sense made me dive low as my ears pricked, and I felt the heat of a dracon beam shoot over my head and demolish a rusted out hulk of a car that had probably sat in that spot for months. I heard another shot and one of the others, I thought it was Cassie, yowled and stumbled with a harsh burn mark across her left flank.

Rachel and I spun on all fours, snarling and growling to find three humans with dracon weapons at the edge of the lot. One of them fired again and we both skitter hopped away before showing our teeth. Cassie was back on her feet by that point, and with three of us against three humans, even armed humans, this would be over quick.

Not quick enough though, as we all heard David scream in surprise. A quick look over our shoulders showed that he had run almost headlong into a massive hork bajir and was now stammering in panic after falling onto his butt with the bag clutched to his chest. Another hork bajir joined the first one, and both bladed monstrosities stood at attention over the prone boy.

Then, he appeared. Stepping forward out of the shadows of the building on strong hooves, what the other andalites called the Abomination. The only yeerk to ever take control of an andalite body. He broadcast his thought-speak for all to hear. <Three of the Andalite bandits and the escafil device in the same moment. It is, as these wretched humans say, my lucky day after all!>

The three of us, all wolves, facing three armed humans, two hork bajir, and Visser Three? That wasn't gonna happen. No way. We were dead. We. Were. Dead.

[Phoenix004]

Oh this isn't looking good for them! Not to mention the fact that if David gets infested and he over heard Marco, then the Yeerks will find out they're human! 

[V2113]

You sure have the whole Marco thing down. I doubt if this was a book that you would get in a store anyone would have guessed K.A. didn't write it. Although I must admit I am a little angry about you having Marco call Tobias a nutjob , but I'll get over it.

And by the way...

"Oh you're just saying he's right cuz he's your.... " I trailed off at the murderous glare Rachel was giving me, stumbling a step back. "Your.... yer..... errr... Early! Cuz he's early all the time and that means he has great plans. You know, like the early bird gets the worm and all that. Not that Tobias eats... I'm going in the hall to find a visser to kill me now." I gave a decisive nod before stepping around Rachel to exit into the hallway.

LOLOLOL! good one! HAH! Early. Ahh that was good!  :happy34: I feel like a total nerd, but this is just to good for me to restrain myself!

Oh, yeah. I forgot about the bad stuff. Why is Visser Three and some Hork-Bajir in the middle of a school hallway? And school walls aren't sound proof. I think someone would've heard the howl. Unless they already got outside and my speed reading just completely confused me. If that's the case then why is Visser Three and some Hork-Bajir standing in the middle of a street. And if they got into the woods then they are in deep dudu.
EDIT: I just checked and oh so it's an empty lot. They are so dead I don't even want to think about it!

[Kitulean]

lol, thanks, Tobiasfan. I'm sorry, but Marco had to call Tobias a nutjob. That's just... Marco. And I hope this next chapter is as enjoyable. Here you go.

Chapter Five

While I sat there wishing I had pants to pee in, Rachel, being Rachel and therefore insane, immediately spun on the visser and charged. I hesitated the half second necessary to ponder how monumentally stupid we all were and then joined her. Cassie was right beside me. Rachel yelled, <The Visser's mine!> She lunged straight off the ground at his throat, easily clearing a four foot vertical leap.

<Rachel, no!> Cassie cried even as she took the left side hork bajir down with her teeth clamped around his wrist under the blade, nearly severing his arm in a single bite while the force of her leap knocked the hork bajir over.  I tore into the other hork bajir's leg while feeling his wrist blade neatly sever my tail. Behind us, the humans had hesitated, their fear of what would happen if they hit Visser Three overwhelming their need to kill us.

Cassie's warning came too late, and the Visser's tail whipped around and caught Rachel in mid leap. He severed her front left leg completely and cut a deep gouge through her flank, but the force of her lunge carried her into him. She bit down hard on his upper shoulder, aiming for his neck but missing by a few inches. She clung there by her teeth even as the Visser howled in agony and whipped his tail around twice more. Each time, pieces of Rachel fell away as the blade cut into her, but still she hung on even though she had to be in mind breaking pain right then.

I managed to finish ripping through my hork bajir's leg and then lunged off his kneeling body to take the Visser at his left side, but one of his stalk eyes took notice and his tail whipped around again, slapping me out of the air and knocking me sprawling to the ground with a long yowl. Cassie had been distracted as she looked in horror up to where Rachel clung tenaciously and her hork bajir gave her a vicious kick that knocked her side long into me in a jumble of paws and fur.

It took a moment to sort ourselves out and get up again, and Cassie's stomach was dripping from a deep cut that had been gouged through it by the blades on the hork bajir's foot. Cassie let out a keening wail at seeing Rachel, who had finally lost her grip on the Visser's shoulder and was laying almost motionless on the ground. Each of her legs had been severed and there were several chunks missing from her body. She looked like roadkill. Cassie ran to her and dropped down, and I knew she was trying to tell Rachel to morph out, even though it would doom everyone.

The Visser was injured, but would recover, one of his hork bajir was missing most of his arm and the other was missing part of his leg. So in all we'd taken down about half a hork bajir and injured Visser Three. And still standing and able to participate in a fight? Adorable Marco. Actually I would have traded adorable for a machine gun right then.

Ignoring the two injured wolves, Visser Three took a few steps in my direction. <So, one more Andalite Bandit left to fight. What will you do, Andalite? Will you demorph out of that ridiculous form and fight me tail to tail?" The Yeerks think that we're andalites who were stranded here on the planet. It's a thought that we encourage. If they knew the truth, we'd probably last about an hour. So while I couldn't morph out and 'go tail to tail' with him, I couldn't very well tell him that. Besides, we try not to talk to the Visser any more than we absolutely have to, in case he guesses the truth.

Belatedly I noticed that David had grown wise and tried to run for his life. But one of the human-controller's had him by the arm and was holding him while one of the others rooted through Melissa's bag. When he found the box, he held it up high and yelled for his boss's attention. Visser Three turned his attention that way for a brief second, and I went for it. I leapt up the same way Rachel had and in a miracle that probably wasted every last bit of karma I had, managed to bite directly into the same spot in the Visser's injured shoulder.

Visser Three roared in anger and pain, and his front legs buckled. Then I felt a blinding pain literally shoot through me as the sound of the third human-controller's dracon weapon filled the air. The blast knocked me off the Visser and I lay motionless on my side, whimpering in agony with a hole burned neatly through my side. I struggled to rise, but it was useless. My body wouldn't obey.

The Visser immediately raised his tail to bury it into my neck while crowing for them to bring him the box. I lay trapped on my side, the wolf body too injured to do more than whine in agony as the tail began its quick descent. I shut my eyes and prayed for intervention while screaming for help from Cassie.

Help came, but not in the form of Cassie. Instead, the air was filled with a tremendous roar. This was the kind of sound that made prehistoric man weep in fear in their caves and clutch their pathetic sharp sticks. From the side of the lot, Jake appeared in full tiger morph. He took the already injured visser full in the side in a single leap, tearing deep gouges into the andalite flesh with his claws. Visser Three was knocked flailing to the ground with a cry of rage. The hork bajir with only one hand usable took a swipe at the tiger, then immediately paid for it as Jake whirled in a flash of orange and black stripes. The hork bajir's other arm fell to the ground even as his snake-like head was snapped around almost completely by a blow from one of Jake's frying pan sized paws.

One of the human -controllers took a shot at Jake, and the dracon beam sizzled across his side as he let loose with another of those incredible roars that man has feared for longer than he has feared any sort of god. The men looked ready to turn tail and run. Two of them hesitated before turning away from the oncoming tiger. Unfortunately for them, they managed to turn directly into the path of resident blue and tan centaur that wasn't infested with a yeerk slug. Ax's tail slapped each of the men upside the head blindingly fast.

The third controller, the one with the box, stumbled backwards. Visser Three staggered to his feet and seemed to realize that he couldn't morph with Jake advancing on him, so he back pedaled while furiously yelling for the man to give him the box.

Ax tried to reach the man before he could move, but the controller threw the box through the air toward his boss. It arced over Jake's head and the visser put his tail out to catch it while laughing. Then a blur shot from the sky. Just as Visser Three's tail caught the cube on the flat blade, Tobias closed his talons around it and kept going. He yelled in exhilaration. <WHOOOOOOOOOOOHAAAAA AAAAAAAAA! BIRDBOY CUTS ACROSS THE LANE AND INTERCEPTS THE PASS! DENIIIIIED!>

The Visser screamed in rage and the human-controller that was still standing managed to get a shot that singed Tobias's tail feathers before Ax laid into him. As the man crumpled, Visser Three seemed to realize that he was in trouble. He saw Tobias disappearing with the box over the next roof, and figured there wasn't enough left in the lot to fight over, then bellowed for them to get out of there. The hork bajir, who had partially recovered by this point, quickly grabbed the unconscious humans and retreated with their boss through the next building where we could hear a bug fighter starting up.

Jake gave chase all the way to the door, then came trotting back. <Marco, are you okay?>

While I worked my way to my feet weakly and started to morph out, I saw that David had managed to slip free in the confusion. He was nowhere to be seen. Figured. <I'll live... check.. Rachel... Cassie?>

<She won't morph out...> Cassie's whimpering voice came finally, as Jake padded over there. Ax joined them a moment later and I finished demorphing, feeling exhausted. Morphing too much in a  relatively short period is like swimming twenty laps, especially if you mix a battle for your life in there. I also felt ridiculous, standing around in bike shorts and a tight tee shirt, and for the fortieth time that month wished we could morph more clothing.

We crouched by Rachel and Cassie, Jake having demorphed as well. He put his hand on the trembling wolf on top. "Cassie, you need to morph out." Jake spoke gently. "Morph out and coax Rachel out with you."

Tobias looped around and came in, dropping the cube to Ax before landing on the ground next to the wolves. <Oh no... Rachel... Rachel! Morph out!>

Even as he spoke, Cassie was returning to herself under Jake's coaching. She then wrapped her arms around Rachel's still form. "Rachel, morph out! Come on, come on... morph out... the Visser's gone, you're not protecting anyone by staying there. Morph out. Just a bit at a time. Come on, Rach... picture yourself... go to the mall and look in the mirror in the dressing room... look at your jeans... your hair come on..."

There was a twitch from the body on the ground, and then another, and the wolf form gradually, painfully slowly began to become Rachel once more. Thank god injuries were healed by morphing. Under Tobias and Cassie's steady, if fearful coaxing, the nearly dead wolf dissolved and Rachel finally sat up, breathing hard and pale. Cassie threw her arms around her and cried, and Tobias probably would have kissed her if he had lips at the time. We were good. We were safe, now that Rachel had managed to demorph from injuries that by all rights should have killed her.

Then... "Rachel!?" We all spun and looked behind us to where Ax stood. Both of his stalk eyes were fixed at a spot further back. As one, we slowly turned and stared.

Melissa Chapman took a slow step forward, her eyes as wide as saucers. "R-Rachel? It.... it is... you... what.... what... was.... that....? What... are you people?"

[Kitulean]

Chapter Six

If ever in the history of the planet there has been an instance of five collective, simultaneous strokes, that moment was it. All five of us plus Ax stared at the girl who had just spoken. The four of us with lips were too busy standing with our mouths open to adequately express how incredibly dangerous the idea of Melissa Chapman holding our secret and possibly the very fate of the planet in her hands was. We had no way to express the utter horror of having possibly doomed the earth, not to mention having inadvertantly placed this incredible burden on this girl. But Tobias summed it up fairly well with a simple. <Awww, crap.>

Ax spoke mildly. <I believe she has seen Rachel demorph from her injured state. This could be hazardous to our mission.> I wished yet again that I could tell when Ax was trying to be sarcastic.

Rachel stepped forward slowly, I guess because she was the one with the most contact with Melissa. "Hey... Melissa.... there's--"

Which, I guess was about the time that Melissa finally noticed the blue centaur-scorpion after having been so fixated on seeing the half dead wolf transform into her friend. Her eyes went even wider, if that was possible, and she screamed, falling over backwards. She scrambled backwards, pointing at Ax. "M-m-monster! What... what is that thing?"

Wincing, Rachel moved quickly to the other girl and knelt to catch her arm. "Melissa, it's okay! I mean.... that...." She looked helplessly back toward us, and Ax managed to look only slightly affronted while Cassie knelt on the other side of the girl.

Jake spoke quietly. "Ax, maybe you should morph into human. We're pretty exposed here anyway." He and I moved closer to the girls while Ax did that, and Jake sighed. "Melissa, we... didn't want you to see any of that. It's... too dangerous, for you and for us."

Still sitting on the ground, not taking her eyes off the andalite that was slowly becoming human, Melissa kept pointing. "Wh-what...? What's dangerous? What... is that thing?" She repeated with a trembling voice.

With a quick look to Jake, who gave her a slight nod, Rachel tentatively answered. "Ummm... that... he's not an it, he's an Andalite. A..."

She looked flustered, so I supplied. "An alien. He's an alien." At their looks, I shrugged. "No sense dancing around the issue, is there? She's seen all this, we should explain it to her."

Cassie, who was holding the girl's other hand gently, spoke to her then. "Melissa, we know it's scary, but you have to believe us. You saw him. You saw what he looked like a minute ago. Ax is an alien, but he's not here to hurt you."

"Unless you keep calling him a monster anyway." I offered and the glare that Rachel shot my way convinced me that it was time to stop trying to help before she helped my spleen meet my tonsils, so I stepped back next to Ax to make him stop trying to eat the cigarette butts he had found in the gravel. Ax is a little... weird around food, or anything he can fit in his mouth, since he doesn't have one in his Andalite body. You don't want to be between that boy and a cinnamon bun. We watched, while Ax held the morphing cube in both hands as though he was afraid to let it out of his sight. Frankly, after all we'd been just through, I didn't blame him.

Meanwhile, Cassie, Rachel, and Jake began to explain the Andalites and the Yeerks to Melissa. They told her about the night we walked home from the construction site and met Elfangor. Tobias did most of explaining there. The night had some kind of special signifigance to him even beyond what it meant to us, which was saying something. When he spoke about the Andalite prince, there was a reverence and an awe in his voice, even now, that did more to convey the feelings of that moment all that time ago than the rest of us ever could.

Finally, Jake spoke firmly. "That's the truth, Melissa. That's the fact of the world. I'm... we're sorry you had to see this, and we wish we were kidding, or lying, but we're not. And... you have to keep it a secret." Cassie gave him a look like he should back down, but he kept his gaze firmly on the other girl. "You have to. If you don't, we're all dead. We are the only chance the earth has, and quite frankly.... we have to be able to trust you. You can't tell.... anyone. Do you understand?"

This time Cassie tried to speak, but Jake held up his hand to stop her and shook his head. We all watched the girl who could destroy us with a single phone call. Melissa's sad eyes moved over each of us, lingering on the strangely almost beautiful male that Ax had changed into. His human morph was a combination of dna from Rachel, Jake, Cassie, and me, and the effect was a very pretty boy.

After she had stared at Ax for a long moment, Melissa swallowed uneasily and seemed like she was about to say something else, but stopped herself. She stayed like that for several seconds, caught between the dangerous truth she had just learned and the safe ignorance that had been left behind. Finally she answered in a soft voice. "I... won't tell... anyone." She paused before adding. "Who is there to tell?" In those words I had some idea of the incredible loneliness that Rachel had been trying to explain to us when she gave her reasoning for staying behind in the Chapman's house and nearly becoming trapped in cat morph so that Melissa could pet her. She really did feel completely alone in the world.

Jake nodded and then thanked her quietly before gesturing for Cassie to break the rest of the news. Bracing herself, Cassie started to speak. "There's... something else you have to understand. Your--"

Melissa interrupted her then, speaking with utter certainty. "My dad... and my mom. They're.... those things. The Yechs, aren't they?" She wasn't looking at Cassie though, but at Rachel, who winced, but nodded.

"They're yeerks." I said with a reflexive quick look around. "And high ranking ones as well. We know that Cha--your dad is one of the ones in charge of the invasion under Visser Three." I paused, then clarified. "The andalite-yeerk that we told you about. the one that... killed Elfangor." I could feel Ax bristle next to me. If he'd had his tail at that moment, it would have been poised to strike. Elfangor was Ax's brother, and he took his oath to kill the beast that had murdered and eaten him seriously.

Looking pained, Rachel nodded. "They are... but Melissa, you have to understand something. Your parents were captured. Your dad.... he agreed to go with them. He sacrificed himself so that they would leave you alone. He made a deal... that... he would stop fighting his yeerk if they didn't touch you."

While they spoke, I looked to Jake. "We've got another problem, fearless leader. David. He's out there and now I'm sure he heard what we were saying in the bathroom." I explained quickly and then pointed. "The little worm took off, I figure he went that way, but... he could be anywhere now. If Visser Three gets to him first..." I didn't have to explain any further than that, because he got it.

"Okay." Jake spoke with his leader-tone. "Melissa, I'm sorry but we have to leave you here. You have to keep the secret. You have to. Remember how much depends on it. We've got to track down this David and... talk to him." Something told me in his tone that he just knew it wasn't going to go as relatively well as it had here.

"Puh-puh ruh... rince... rince... prince Jake. Kuh. Kuh. Kay." Ax liked using his human mouth for playing with sounds almost as much as he liked using it to eat with. "I believe that we can find this boy. Booooohhhhweeeee... boooyyy. Buh oy yuh, if we search from the air. Ruh."

Jake nodded. "Right, we'll morph over there behind the building." He started to go that way, and I gave a look back to the girls before following him along with Ax, who was still playing with the ruh sound under his breath, sounding for all the world like he was immitating a dog.

A moment later Cassie joined us with a quiet sigh, like she didn't feel right leaving the girl like that, and Rachel eventually brought up the rear, after promising Melissa that she'd talk to her as soon as she could. Together, we headed for the dark alley where it would be safe to morph and find David.

We were nearly across the lot when we heard Melissa speak again. "Wait." Turning, we saw that she had found her feet and followed us partway. Now she looked indecisive for a moment before biting her lip and nodding to herself. "I want to help."

Jake looked pained. "Melissa, I wish there was a way you could, but..."

Ax interrupted him. "Perhaps there is.. izzzz izzzuh... eeez. Zuh is a very fun sound to pronounce. Though not as fun as chuh. I particularly enjoy the chuh sound in words such as chimney. Neeee, chuh imneeeuhhyy."

I rolled my eyes and muttered, "Yeah, we all like a good chimney." Ax didn't seem to hear me, or he didn't get the sarcasm, because he kept playing with the sounds in the word.

He probably would on like that, but Jake gave him a long suffering look. "Ax, what is it? What do you mean?"

Holding up the cube with one hand, Ax explained. "With the escafil device, it would be possible to give the girl the same powers you possess, that my brother gave you."

We all stared at him, the thought never having occurred to any of us. Finally Cassie spoke. "Ax, are you saying it's possible... to make... more of us? To make more animorphs?" She looked almost awed by the idea of it.

"We could give ourselves reinforcements?" I cut to the chase. "We don't... wouldn't have to be a six person army trying to save the world... we could... make dozens of others. We could have a chance."

"Theoretically... leee... cally... kuh luh eee, yes." Ax nodded. "But I would not reccommend it in most cases. It is only because the girl is already aware of this... war that I even mention the possibility. Teee. Tuh yeeeeey."

Jake looked doubtful for a moment. "I don't know... it's not... something you should just... take on. It's.... dangerous. You shouldn't..." He looked like he didn't really know what to say. The possibility obviously intrigued him, like it did all of us. But he didn't want to put that level of responsibility on the girl, didn't want to recruit her into this war.

Melissa looked down at the pavement for a moment before raising her head with a more determined expression, though her voice shook. "You... said.... you told me... what my father... what he did... what those things are doing... what could happen to everyone... and what.... my dad... is... do you... understand... how that feels?"

Jake and I both nodded at that. "Oh yeah." I said with a sigh. "We definitely understand..." Besides my mother, Jake's brother Tom was also one of the yeerks. We both knew what it was like living with that knowledge.

Hesitating at our reactions, obviously wanting to know exactly what we meant, but letting it go for now, Melissa looked pleadingly to Jake. "Then please... don't tell me I have to sit at home. Don't tell me I have to sit... in that place... with those... things in my parents heads... and that I can't do anything about it. My dad sacrificed himself for me... he's in chains, he's... it's torture, I know it is. Please, please let me help. Give me a chance to do something. Let me fight, for my parents. Please."

Jake was quiet for a minute as he stared back at the girl. I knew what he was thinking. He was weighing the dangers of involving Melissa directly in this battle against the pain of how he'd feel of someone told him about Tom and didn't let him do whatever he could to help him. Finally, he nodded. "Do it, Ax. Give Melissa the morphing power."

Ax looked to Jake to be certain that he was as sure as he could be, and then raised the box to the girl. "Place your hand upon one of the sides of the device." Melissa did so slowly, and in a time that seemed entirely too short for the incredible, momentous event that had just taken place, it was done. She put her hand back down and rubbed it with her other one, as though it still tingled. Her expression seemed to say that she couldn't believe it was that simple.

While Ax lowered the box, Jake, who still looked amazed, seemed to forget what we were doing for a moment. Then he shook his head while barely concealing a broad smile. "Right.... Okay, we'll hit the skies. Cassie, you take Melissa and get her something to start out. Get her a bird of some kind... something to fight with... and something small. We'll meet you at the barn after we have a chance to figure out where he is."

Before we could seperate, I decided if everyone else was too amazed to do it, I would. Clearing my throat until Melissa and the others looked to me, I put my hand out to her. "Well then... welcome to the Animorphs... new girl."

 

[Phoenix004]

Nice work Cerulean, I can't wait to see what morphs she'll get!

[Kitulean]

Well here's one for you then, Phoenix.

Chapter Seven

An hour and a half later, we met up at the barn where Cassie's father kept his wildlife rehabilitation clinic. Her mom works at the Gardens as a vet and her dad works with the wild animals that people bring to him, so it's no wonder that she's as attached to animals as she is.

Cassie stopped feeding the caged ferret and turned to us once Ax was demorphed into himself and Tobias had perched in the rafters to keep an eye all around the barn. The look on Jake's face must have told Cassie all she needed to know, because she said. "Couldn't find him, huh?"

"Not a trace." Jake sighed and moved to pick up a shovel, almost angrily starting to work on moving a pile of manure. When Jake's angry and feels useless, he likes to work to feel like he's accomplishing something. I keep telling my dad if we want our house painted or reshingled all we have to do is catch Jake after he fails a pop quiz or something.

Rachel nodded and rolled her eyes with a disheartened sigh. "We looked all over the place, but he's not anywhere on the streets. He's probably at home, or at the mall... which we should have checked."

"Rachel's convinced that David's checking out this sale that she just conicidentally wants to see too." I looked around while going over to crash on one of the hay bales. Melissa was in the corner sitting on an overturned bucket. She was watching Ax with wide eyes, obviously still surprised by his appearance even now. Honestly I couldn't blame the girl for that. He still surprised me sometimes. "So how'd it go on your end?"

Moving over by Melissa to look questioningly at the other girl, Rachel threw a dirt clod at me, which I ducked. "Dork. Just because some of us understand that the Gap isn't that crack you step over on the way into K-Mart. But yeah, how'd it go?" Her question was half directed at Cassie and half at Melissa.

Cassie looked to the quiet girl first, then shrugged. "It went well enough, I guess. We got into the Gardens and got what she needed." Melissa nodded silently and bit her lip, like she was going to say something but thought better of it. I got the feeling she wasn't the type to say much if she didn't have to.

After a moment of obviously considering whether he should question what it was that they had gotten for Melissa, Jake started to ask just that while the rest of us looked to him to voice the question. He was interrupted before he could by a Tobias. <Erek's coming.>

Immediately I shook my head. "Tell him we aren't here. Erek hates us. He only ever shows up to say 'hey kids, wanna go almost die?' Just once, I'd like to run the hologram and pretend to be him while he goes off and ends up blubbering for his mommy."

Melissa stood from the bucket and looked slightly alarmed as her mouth opened while looking at our resident alien. She must have figured we'd panic about how to hide Ax or distract our visitor long enough to get him out of sight. Instead, we just looked to the barn door while Rachel put a hand on her shoulder to tell her it was all right.
 
Erek King, who appeared to be an ordinary boy our age but was about as far from that as Ax was, stepped into the barn and looked around at us while he spoke. "We have a problem. There's..." He stopped himself as his eyes fell on Melissa, who looked back at him with a confused expression. "Oh hey, Melissa, I didn't know you were here." His gaze flicked to Ax. "And with Aximili I see. Jake?"

Jake, who had come back from shoveling away the manure of his failure, glanced to the new girl. "Melissa, Erek is a highly advanced robot from another planet. They're called the Chee. He uses a hologram." He gestured and Erek complied by shutting off his hologram for a moment so we could see the canine-shaped robot underneath before bringing it back up. At the sight of the mechanical being, Melissa quietly eeped and covered her mouth. Jake sighed then and went on. "We've got our own problems. Melissa found the..."

He looked questioningly to Ax, who supplied. "Escafil Device."

Nodding, Jake continued. "The Escafil device. She found it, but a boy named David took it. He was running around with it. We got it back but Visser Three saw him, and.... David heard Marco and I talking about all this. If the Yeerks get ahold of him...."

Wincing, something I still wasn't sure if he did to look more human or if it was a real reaction that carried to his hologram, Erek lifted his hand to stop us for a moment. He seemed to look at nothing in particular, then nodded. "The other Chee are looking. I sent a picture from the boy's file in the school system. Anywhere he is, we'll find him."

Intrigued, I stepped closer. "Hey, while you're in that system anyway..."

Jake shook his head. "Erek isn't fixing your grades, Marco."

I shot him an injured look. "Jake, I'm insulted, horribly insulted, that you would think that I'd cheat like that. The idea that you believe I would have Erek break the law just to give me a better grade hurts me. It really does. Right here." I put my hand on my chest.

He shot me a knowing gaze. "And you weren't going to ask him just that?"

"Well, yes." I responded with a broad grin. "But that's beside the point, isn't it?"

Jake looked torn between laughter and exasperation. "It's the entire po-you know what? Never mind. Erek, what problem did you have when you came in here?"

"Yeah, cuz we really need another one." I supplied with a sigh. "We're collecting problems. One more and we get a free coffee at 7-11."

"Marco?" Jake said conversationally.

I picked at a bit of dirt under my nail, looking from Erek to him. "Yeah?"

"Shut up." Pointedly, Jake turned back to Erek. "What is it?"

Turning away from examining Melissa, Erek looked at Jake. "There's something huge happening. The leaders of the free world, in this case Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, and the United States, are coming here. It's a big secret summit meeting where they're supposed to talk about how to solve the middle eastern crisis."

Cassie frowned. "That's what we call a good thing, Erek. What's..." Then she got it. "Wait, are you saying the yeerks would..."

He nodded. "They would take advantage of it, and they are. It's an irresistable target. The leaders of the six most powerful nations in the world all gathered into one place?"

"They replace those guys..." I groaned. "And it's game over. War's over, we lose. They've got control of every major power."

"What if it was the other way around?" It took me a second to realize that it was Melissa who had spoken, looking more at the dirt near Erek's feet than at his face. She slowly looked up at him then and continued hesitantly, like she wasn't sure she should be speaking out. "What if... what if the world leaders were told about what was happening? What if they were... shown...?" She cast a quick glance back at Ax and managed to stop herself from staring too long before biting her lip as she looked to Erek once more, questioningly.

Rachel warmed to the idea quickly. "The yeerks would be totally exposed. They couldn't keep hiding from every government on the planet. They'd have to show themselves. We'd have soldiers on our side, the military."

"It's not that easy." Erek elected to give us more bad news, because he hated when we were optimistic. I knew it had to just irk him, which is why he always kept some in reserve in case he saw us happy. "One of the leaders is already a controller. If you approach the wrong one..." He trailed off as we stared at him.

Jake reached up to grasp a wooden beam running down into one of the stalls. "Let me guess, you don't know which one." At Erek's nod, he groaned. "Great, so one out of five leaders is already one of the yeerks, and the other five are in danger of being taken. Which means we have to stop them, without being killed by either the yeerks or by the regular security forces who are going to be on paranoid shoot on sight alert for this thing. We also have to figure out which one of the leaders is already a yeerk and avoid exposing ourselves to him, while figuring out the yeerk plan and stopping it. Is there anything else?"

"Jake!" I shot at him. "Don't give Erek that kind of ammunition. He'll use it to tell us the earth's being invaded by invisible dragons with atomic breath and we can only stop them by being transported to their homeworld where we have to swim into the gullet of the queen dragon and kill her before being digested."

Rachel gave me a look. "Where do you come up with these things, Marco?"

"I watch a lot of late night tv." I answered with a shrug. "So just say there's nothing else, and go hologram yourself into a big sofa." I waved to Erek with more than a hint of jealousy.

Making his hologram smile, Erek stepped back. "That's all. Oh." He looked at the barn wall and then back to us. "David's been spotted. He's... at the Gardens."

Tobias, who had flown down to sit by the same wooden beam Jake had been holding onto, questioned. <What's he doing there? It's not like he could have gotten the morphing power himself, right Ax?>

Ax was silent. We all turned to him, and Jake raised an eyebrow wearily. "Tobias said, right Ax?"

Lowering his head in a human nod he had picked up from us, Ax hesitantly answered. <I did hear, Prince Jake. But there is a slight possibility that he may not be correct.>

"Stop calling me prince." Jake responded automatically. "And what do you mean, a slight possibility? How could he possibly... are you saying he might actually.." He didn't quite want to say it.

<The Escafil device is programmed with a tutorial, for field use. It is... possible that if he were to have any idea of what it was for, while holding it he might... I stress the term might, have activated this and gained the morphing ability through the computer's instructions. The possibility that he could however is so remote as to be inconsequental. I simply wished to voice the remote chance, as he has gone to a place where many animals are kept..."

"Right." I said with a sigh. "So we can pretty much figure he's gotten the morphing powers and has been bulking up. Cuz you know, our luck being what it is. What now?"

Jake as silent for a long moment, then he spoke. "David has the morphing powers... and our secret... and he's not approaching us to help. We have to find him. Erek, tell the other Chee to keep an eye on him, and approach us when we get there. Guys... birds, let's go. We've got to stop David quick so we can figure out what to do about this world leader thing."

"And at some point." Rachel added. "I have got to study for my english test on friday. If I don't pull a B, mom's yanking the credit card." She sounded like this would be a fate worse than yeerk infestation.

Tobias flew back up to keep watch while we morphed. But none of us did. We all looked to Melissa as we realized that this would be her first time morphing. Somehow Cassie was elected to talk her through it. She moved to the girl and slowly coached her. "Just think about the bird. Trust me, you have the ability. You saw it go into the trance, so it worked. Think about how it flies, how majestic and beautiful it must look... imagine being up there..."

Melissa followed Cassie's instructions, and slowly a feathered outline appeared on her arms. She immediately stopped changing and cried out in surprise, obviously not having expected it to actually work. Cassie put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "It's okay, Melissa. You're morphing, just like any of us. Just keep focusing on the bird so that it continues. Keep going."

After a moment of hesitation, Melissa slowly continued the morph. Blue grey feathers sprang up along her back while she shrank out of her clothes. Belatedly, the rest of us turned around just to be on the safe side while Cassie and Rachel helped extricated Melissa from the clothing as she morphed. When we looked back, we saw a bird with dark back and somewhat orange and white tinted underbelly, and was about the same size as Jake's peregrine falcon.

"A merlin." Cassie supplied. "We had a golden eagle and the merlin. This is what she chose."

<Good choice.> Tobias remarked. He hated the big golden eagles, and he was a little afraid of them. He's gotten a lot more to worry about since he was trapped as a hawk. He had all our fears, plus the predator and prey ones. Sometimes golden eagles attacked smaller birds like him.

Rachel crouched down in front of the bird. "That's awesome, Melissa. You did it. Now just think at whoever you want to talk to."

<Like... this?> Her voice came a moment later, as she lifted her wings out and shuffled around on her small taloned feet. <I did it? I did it. I'm a bird. I've... I've got wings. Wings.> She held them out and up as though to show them to us, still sounding amazed.

Cassie smiled. "Yeah, just like that. Now wait a second and then we'll join you. We'll get you a morphing suit as soon as we can, and show you how to avoid complete embarrassment.

Jake nodded. "Everyone morph then, we'll fly out to the Gardens and stop David from... whatever he's trying to do."

<We can fly? I can... fly?> Melissa sounded like the thought honestly had never occurred to her, despite her astonishment over managing to grow wings.

I smiled, because flying really was one of the very few awesome things about being an animorph. "Yeah, Melissa. We can fly." And a couple minutes later we did just that, rising from the barn on our way to the gardens. One more unsteady than the others, but all of us helping to give her tips and guide her into the air, helping her be more comfortable. We flew. The seven of us.