Prologue: Origins

[Seryna]

<Hork Bajir> Jethsa corrected Vincent. <The other alien race are called Yeerks.  The are parasitic creatures that occupy a creature's brain and control it's actions.  For example, the Hork Bajir that we met are Controllers, forced to act as slaves to the Yeerks. 

The Yeerks have recently come to Earth to survey it.  We suspect they are investigating whether your people would make good hosts. My comrades and I arrived not far after the first arrivals, so we expect that they have not had much time to infest many of your people.>

[Breekan1]

Reece's eyes light up. "The box! I guess I set it down on the ship when I morphed into a ladybug." He bolts back on board, admonishing himself under his breath; how could he have just put the box down and forgotten it? He uncovers it easily, nestled in the same corner he was. He glances back out to the cluster, pausing for a moment. Technically, he'd promised the Chee he'd get the box back to them. On the one hand, they had a history of hiding things from the group so far. On the other hand, they were still their greatest allies. 

The young man makes his way back to the others more slowly than his journey back onto the ship. His arms wrap around the box. He stops slightly off from the center of the gathering, a part of conversation but still separated. He clears his throat. "This thing, uh, that is to say- we promised the Chee we'd help them retrieve the box, Ms. Jestha." He corrects his posture, breathing deeply and looking Jestha more fully in the eye. "We should really talk over what we're gonna do with this with the Chee around, don't you think?"

[Seryna]

<I do not understand why discussing this with the Chee is necessary.> Jethsa declared.  <The Chee are merely caretakers of the Escafil.  Once it is reunited with myself, I am the obvious choice as its sole caretaker.>


    As Jethsa spoke, her stalk eyes turned away from the group towards the house across the street. Two men - whom those who had visited the house before would recognize as the men who had argued with Jenny- exited the house and crossed over to the field where the others were standing.
"Perhaps we should speak inside." The taller man said, his tone not one of suggestion.
<My ship is cloaked.> Jethsa said to him with a chilly tone. <So I see fit to join you and see what agreement you pressured out of these children regarding the device of my people.>
"Let us discuss this inside."


    The man insisted and did not speak another word as he led the way back to the house.  Once within, he led them to the living room.  There was no sign of Jenny.
<Now that we are inside,> Jethsa began. <- I fail to see why you think you have claim to the device of my people.>
"My apologies if we seem presumptuous, Miss-"
<My name is Jethsa - Samarane - Castant. I am the sole being responsible for a very important mission on Earth now, one that requires the Escafil.>
"- yet we did not know of your presence when we asked the children to recover the device.  It had been stolen-"
<I asked some people to return it to its rightful owner.> Jethsa said haughtily. <Myself. Reece, you agree with me, don't you?>

[Breekan1]

Reece throws his hands up. "Well hey now, look: I think we're all on the same team here, right? We're all trying to stop whatever it is the Yeerks are up to. So like, we've got to stop looking at this as an us-vs-us situation and start looking at it as a, uh, us-vs.-them situation. With them being the Yeerks." He switches the box from one arm to the other. "Jestha, if you'd actually tell us what your mission is, it'd be easier to give you this thing. Especially if you let us help."

[FuBar]

I returned Jas' glance with a stalk-eye, wanting to use them while I was being allowed to by Jethsa. I hoped she'd consider my offer...

With my other stalk-eye I watched as Vincent left the ship. His point was taken, and I fully intended to follow his example, but a stronger part of my mind wanted to stay with Jethsa and only leave if following her out of the ship. Vincent had his hand in one of his pockets; a pocket with an odd-shaped bulge that betrayed some bulky object within, keeping his hand company... I wondered what it might be, but didn't want to pry.

Reece helped Vincent down the ramp, starting to explain stuff to him from what little I could hear of their conversation from here.

Jethsa addressed me, but did not start by answering my offer - At least she was taking time to consider it... It threw me slightly when she asked Reece if I was some kind of leader; I nearly burst out laughing, well I probably would have if I'd been in human form, but with an Andalite brain I had a little more self-control, I guessed.

Hmm... Leader?? I considered the possibility, despite myself, for a few seconds: With a group this size, having a leader would doubtless be beneficial, but still... Me? No way! - Who'd follow a leader like me, anyway? I turned an eyestalk toward Reece to see his reaction to this question: Understandably, his answer was bluntly negative and to the point.

Jethsa finally addressed my offer: I nodded as she talked through our reasons for having acquired her in the first place. She told me she'd reflect on the idea of people morphing her, and invited me to reflect on the pledge I'd just made - An unnecessary step: I mean what I say, unless I have a good reason not to. I humoured her and followed her instruction (as had been my pledge after all), contemplating the decision I'd made in offering her my service.

I followed her at a respectful distance as she went over to where Vincent and Reece were conversing. I eye-smiled when she confirmed Vincent's attitude to being confronted with such a situation. - I'd gotten a good vibe from him following my trust-exercise, and now that vibe had just been reinforced.

As talk turned to the subject of the Blue-Box, I became somewhat wary of her eagerness to regain it for herself, considering how good a job the Chee had done in protecting it from the Yeerks for so long, yet I reasoned that she simply did not know the Chee well enough to trust them yet. Hopefully she'd get along with them when they finally met face-to-face.

Just then, Jas stepped forward and brought the subject back to morphing into Andalite form: His words made sense and I understood his perspective in how it differed from my own. Jethsa seemed to see that too, and appeared to allow his promise to stand - He'd only use her form in an emergency, if no other form was good enough for the task. He'd been more hesitant than me in the first place, and I could see that he wasn't too comfortable going Andalite in the first place... Perhaps Jethsa had also noticed this.

I caught Jas' glance again; It seemed he wasn't overly keen on the idea of me being in Jethsa's service, and that he also wanted to distinguish his objective with regards to using her form from my own. I nodded slightly at him, showing my understanding of his perspective on the situation.

I eye-smiled at Reece's comments about me and his humour regarding democratic leadership within our little group and the events that lead us to this point. I felt no impulse to interrupt. Conversation soon returned to the subject of the Morphing-Cube and I figuratively bit my tongue, not wanting to adversely influence Jethsa's decision regarding my offer. I say 'figuratively' because in my current form I had neither teeth nor a tongue, of course.

I disguised a sigh as Vincent told Reece his story and got the few names he'd heard wrong. - Reece was right: I did like to be correct wherever possible. I resisted the urge to butt-in though. I listened as Jethsa explained things to him, alert for any information we didn't already know. I couldn't help wondering what she'd meant by 'recent'... Hadn't Alice said she'd worked with the Chee for 'a long time', after all? Well, perhaps the Chee knew more about Yeerk presence on Earth than the recently-arrived Andalite did... Yeah, that made sense.

Reece retrieved the Escafil box from the ship and brought it back to our little grouping, but he didn't hand it to Jethsa straight-away - Apparently he had similar misgivings about Jethsa's attitude toward it and the Chee as I did. As the two conversed, we were approached by two familiar faces - Chee faces. Well, the holographic ones they projected anyway. I watched them approach with my main eyes, keeping a stalk-eye on the conversation between Reece and Jethsa. As the Chee joined the conversation, Jethsa seemed to show a level of contempt toward them. Apparently she recognized them, possibly from the compound where they'd safeguarded the Blue Box. At their insistence, we followed them into Jenny's house. I tended to stay in Jethsa's wake and mimic her movements.

As soon as we all reached the living-room it was clear from the tone of the conversation that Jethsa and these Chee were on the point of mutual dislike and distrust. If someone didn't calm them down soon, all hell might break loose... I was glad Reece took the opportunity to stick his oar into the conversation; He'd seen where this was heading, too.

<I agree that the Andalites are the rightful owners of the Escafil device.> I started. <Though to me the Chee compound seems to have been a very safe place to secure it from Yeerk detection until now, it should be up to Jethsa to decide if her slightly-malfunctioning ship is a safer place to keep it. Perhaps there can be a compromise here? For example, could the Chee repair Jethsa's ship and ensure the Yeerks won't find the Escafil device even if they somehow get on board?> I asked openly, hoping not to offend anyone.

I turned a stalk-eye to Jethsa as I thought-spoke privately to her, again allowing Jas to overhear: <<I have given my offer more thought, as you asked me to do, and have come up with some terms to my service that I can live with if you'll accept them: Whenever I am in this form, I am yours to command. When I am not in this form, you may offer me the opportunity to become you, in payment for my following an instruction that I may otherwise be hesitant to follow. If I should have good reason to disobey any of your orders while in this form, I shall inform you such and take the next opportunity to demorph; Understanding that I won't be allowed to use this form again unless and until you wish to give me an order I can follow. I promise to not deceive you with regard to any order given me - I shall inform you truthfully if I cannot follow any given order, and will answer honestly if you ask whether I can carry out a specified order. If these terms are acceptable to you, shall I call you my Prince or my Princess? My memory of that term did not specify if it was gender-specific or not...>>

As I 'spoke' privately, I kept my main eyes on the conversation with the Chee, so none but Jas and Jethsa would realize I'd said anything other than what I'd said openly.

[Breekan1]

"That's solid thinking, Ed," Reece remarks. "You Chee have the resources, and I'm sure Jestha has the know-how when it comes to fixing that thing." He waves an arm at the assembled group. "I'm captain of our swim team back at school; we've got a guy with a killer backstroke, a guy who's great at 100 meters, etc. It's kind of the same thing. Like, stuff on a sandwich. The Chee are the bread, because they have stuff and provide a foundation for us, Jestha's the mayo because she's got that Andalite brilliance, and us guys are the cheese and tomatoes and stuff, because we're canny enough, plentiful enough and stupid enough to go out and turn into ladybugs or hippos or whatever and fight slug-people." He takes a breath. "You know?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Jas followed the group into the "compound" and was a little wary about it all.  He didn't know these people and Jethsa appeared to dislike them a bit.  He takes up a spot standing next to the mantle, leaning against the wall and kicking a foot up against it so the sole of his foot rested against the wall behind him.

His eyes widened as he listened to Eddie's set of terms and conditions, but he quickly schooled his features to a semblance of detached unconcern.  The guy apparently liked to make things as complicated as possible, or maybe that was the Andalite DNA talking, he didn't know for sure.  All he knew was that he was glad Jethsa had accepted his own much simpler agreement.  No one responded to Eddie's thought-speech and so again he thought it must've been private between Eddie, Jethsa, and Jas.  Well, at least one person seemed to trust him in this strange band of people.  Aside from Sam that is.  Sam had been terribly silent and he was worried...maybe it would just be better if she forgot about it and went back to her life...Jas was worried about her.

Jas almost started laughing as Reece made a rediculous analogy to a sandwich or something...he hoped Reece had meant it as a joke, some slightly nervous attempt to lighten the mood.  A worthwhile tactic if true.  "Look, aren't you debating semantics?  I'm sorry, but I don't know you people."  Jas looked over at the Chee to indicate whom he meant, then looked at Reece and the other companions, "and I hardly know you people.  In fact I think the one I know the best here, aside from Sam, is Jethsa strangely enough."  He turned his eyes to Jethsa.  "You're going to be fighting alongside us yes?  You said yourself that this resistance among the humans is vitally important."  He turned his gaze back on the rest of the room.  "Who cares who keeps the blue box?  Seriously, if the technology belongs to the Andalites, then Jethsa should take care of it...but if we're all fighting the same fight together, doesn't that just mean that we're all guarding the damn thing together?  If things are as bad as anyone says, we need all the damn teamwork we can muster.  We shouldn't be arguing over stupid little things, we should be strategizing, planning, preparing for an attack or something!  Am I the only one who thinks we're wasting time here?!"

[Seryna]

The Andalite female remained very quiet for quite some time, the Chee remained quiet as well. It seemed only the humans had reached quick conclusions.

<I will consider your offer, as I said before, human.  Yet right now, I am consumed with thinking of the Escafil's best interest.  We will converse on this later.>  She relayed privately to Eddie.

<If the Chee fix the ship, it will do much to prove their dedication to the fight.>  She said finally.  <But my mission is secret.  There are some things that I can not tell you.  If my ship is repaired, I can relay the situation to my superiors and receive orders on what is permissible.>

"This is acceptable to us." The Chee agreed shortly. "We'll begin the repairs immediately. "
<I shall transfer the Escafil to you if you will show me where it shall be stored."

The Chee and Andalite moved off by themselves, leaving the humans by themselves.
"If you are free now," Jenny approached them.  "- perhaps it would be good if you return to the site of the ... incident with the Controller.  The woods have been quarantined because of a sick animal- and we believe Alice and another one of your friends is trapped in the woods."

[Breekan1]

"Trapped?" Reece asks. "Well farts," he exhales, frustrated. He looks to his fellow Animal Transformers. Aniformers? Transimals? Now was not the time to be thinking of names. "From what I've seen the bird morphs have pretty radtastic eyesight, which means they'd be good for finding Alice and assessing the sitch in the woods. Have any of us not got bird-power?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Jas looked around the room and sighed audibly, frustrated with everyone.  Obviously his advice had fallen on deaf ears all the way around.  He had hoped Jethsa at least would've backed up his position, but everyone just acted like he hadn't said a word.  He crossed the room in front of Reece and walked out the door, a sullen look on his face.  The guy was talking about birds or some such, obviously he didn't have any sort of bird DNA, but then no one seemed to remember him or notice him anyway aside from Eddie, so he just kept silent as he walked outside and started down the street.  He just needed to get to his apartment, drink a fifth, and pass out.  Then this would all just seem like some horribly twisted dream and he could go back to his regular life.  As he walked down the street, Jas sparred with an imaginary opponent to blow off some steam.  He flowed quickly between different Asian fighting-styles including many forms of Kung-Fu, Judo, and even Muay Thai, kicking, punching, and throwing his imaginary opponent as he moved.  The rush of endorhines soon began, making him feel much better as he moved slowly down the block.

[FuBar]

Reece's positive reaction to my idea caused me to involuntarily eye-smile at him in thanks for backing me up. I tried not to laugh at his comparing our little group to sandwich-ingredients, primarily because I didn't wanna vex a guy that just backed me up on something.

I'd watched Jas' eyes widen briefly as he overheard my ToS conditions I was offering Jethsa in return for being allowed to morph her. I was silently pleased that he soon schooled his features and appeared intent on keeping my private offer confidential, at least for the time being anyway.

Shortly after that, his face seemed to show traces of worry or concern for something... Or was it for someone? This worry disappeared when it seemed Jas was stifling his own laughter at Reece's absurd comparison. I eye-smiled again, starting to like Jas a little more than before. I listened to his little rant with only slight interest - I was more intent on Jethsa's thoughts than Jas' thoughts at the present.

Finally Jethsa responded to my offer: She had not yet dismissed my proposed deal, and wanted to discuss it with me later after she'd had more time to consider. This, to me, was a positive step toward the possibility of her accepting my offer. Another good point to note was that she still hadn't asked me to demorph yet. I silently took this to mean she didn't intend to stop me morphing her until she had made her final decision. As she moved off with the two Chee to make reparations etc, I couldn't help adding something else to my private offer:

<<To sweeten our deal, I would also let you morph me. If you should so wish. My body is currently somewhat of a vecol right now, due to atrophy of my leg-muscles which is not exactly an injury per-se, so re-morphing doesn't fix it at all. With some hard work and exercise, I'll get my legs working properly again soon though, so as long as you acquire me after that the morph will be perfectly healthy. I'll let this subject drop for a little while now to give you a proper chance to think it over.>> With that, I turned my attention back to the others. I'd let Jas overhear my private thoughtspeech to Jethsa once again, though didn't expect nor invite any direct response by him to it.

Jenny joined our little conversation in place of the other two Chee - I was pleased to see her again, and it didn't seem like she'd taken any sort of punishment, which I took as a good sign. Although, with their holographic projector technology, would anyone be able to tell if she was really injured or not?

As Jenny told us of the woods getting quarantined with Alice and - I looked around, doing a quick mental headcount - Damien inside the perimeter with only Controllers for company, the human half of my brain froze: Alice? In danger? With only that Damien kid for backup against who-knew-how-many Controllers and at least one more of those Blade-monsters, or Hork-Bajir as Jethsa had called them?!

My reaction, when it finally came, was similar to that of Reece; <Oh no!... Alice!!> I exclaimed in an open thought-whisper, <We have to rescue her! - I mean 'them'. Yeah, that's what I meant.> I don't think anyone was buying it. I felt a blush coming on, though couldn't help wondering to myself what colour a blush would be on an Andalite, and would it even show through the fur? Hmm... Distraction! - Must get back on topic. I mentally shook off the distraction. <But the woods are awfully big, a long way from here, And our two friends are probably conceiling themselves so-as not to be found by the enemy... How will we find them? ... Ooh! I bet at least one of them has their cellphone on them! - Didn't Alice's dad track down our cellphone signals a few hours ago? I don't suppose you Chee have something hand-held we could use to track their cellphone signals with, do you? Something we could carry in our talons?> I looked to the remaining Chee with my main eyes, hoping they had such a device available to us.

Out of the corner of one of my stalk-eyes, I suddenly noticed a landline phone for the first time. It hadn't just appeared, it had been there the whole time really, I just hadn't had reason to notice it until now.

Instantly I was at the phone, picking up the handset, and dialing Alice's number. - When we'd all exchanged cellphone numbers, I'd simply stored them in my own cellphone. I didn't memorize any number other than Alice's; What if disaster struck my phone or it was stolen? I didn't wanna risk losing THAT number, even if I DID lose everyone else's.

As I waited for the connection to establish, and for it to start ringing on the other end, I noticed something else in the room around me. Or, more precisely, something that WASN'T in the room around me anymore: <Where's Jas?> I asked the room at large, hoping he hadn't gone on ahead of us to rescue our friends by himself... Oh wait, he didn't really even know them, so that couldn't be it... I frowned an Andalite frown. <Did anyone see where he went? We may need his help, too...>

RING-RING... RING-RING... RING-RI-CLICK!

"Hello?" Alice's soft voice came through the phone's earpiece clearly, and she didn't seem in any distress - yet. I sighed with relief.
<Alice! Thank the gods, are you and Damien alri...> I started, but was interrupted:
"Hello? Is someone there?" She asked, apparently not having heard me.
<Alice? Alice, can't you hear me??> I asked frantically.
"Whoever this is, either you aren't talking, or I simply can't hear you. Goodbye!" - CLICK!
<Gods-damn-it!!> I yelled in open thought-speak, cursing at the phone with many joined swearwords, some of which I could not immediately recognize or understand, but on reflection those were probably of Andalite origin. Hold on, - <Andalite! That's it! The stupid thought-speech thingy!!! - I guess normal phone-lines aren't designed with the capability of modulating thought-speak. ****, how come I never thought of that before??> I cursed myself, face-palming painfully while reciting <Stupid, stupid, stupid...> over and over.

Well, there was nothing for it: I'd have to demorph from this wonderful Andalite body, quite possibly from the only time I'd be allowed to use it, just in order to speak to Alice on the phone. Oh wait! - Maybe I didn't need to fully demorph!? I only needed a working mouth and larynx, after all!...

I started concentrating on the picture I'd formed in my head. - Having studied human anatomy in school, I could accurately picture what a larynx, trachea, and other human mouth parts looked like from the inside. As I felt those things forming within my thin Andalite neck, the vision of my stalk-eyes gradually dimmed and went dark and I felt them recede, regretfully, back into my skull. My Andalite ears itched slightly as they changed shape, the points rounding as they gradually became human ears. The eyesight in my main eyes, now my only eyes, changed subtly back to human eyesight. I looked down at my hands - Still fully Andalite. Twisting to look over my shoulder, I saw that magnificent Andalite tail still swishing gracefully over my purple rump. I smiled, realizing my little plan was working pretty well so far. Hold on, 'smiled'? - I raised the hand that wasn't still grasping the phone handset and touched my face: Lips had indeed formed in the receding purple Andalite facial-fur as my whole head became more and more human, leaving the other Andalite bodyparts essentially unchanged.

As my jawbone and jaw muscles formed, the back of my mouth joined with my windpipe and inflated with air as it finished forming a normal mouth cavern. My cheeks hollowed and became flexible human cheeks, and it became possible to move my jaw separately from my skull. Teeth formed next, itching their way out of my gums as my lips parted and finally allowed me to open and close my mouth. I breathed through the new opening and coughed as I felt flecks of human saliva enter my Andalite lungs, something they weren't designed to handle. I sighed as I realized I'd have to have an oesophagus and epiglottis to get rid of unwanted saliva without inhaling it or spitting. I figured for short-term use I wouldn't need a stomach connected to the bottom of my oesophagus and wondered how the morphing process would handle this end of the tube...

Looking down, I could see the top of my skintight T-shirt begin to form as my upper torso became more human. I tested my ability to speak: "Testing." I croaked. I continued morphing and tested again: "Testing; one, two." I spoke in an excessively high-pitched voice that caused me to laugh, then giggle even more at the stupidly high-pitched laughter, which in turn grew steadily deeper in pitch until it sounded more like my own usual laugh. I stopped the morph and hit redial with one of my still-Andalite fingers.

[Seryna]

<I asked you for some time to discuss this later,> Jethsa replied in a short mental voice. <- not to utilize more of my time.  Please converse with the others.  Reese seems to have wandered off, if that's a concern of yours.  I'll contact you later.>

"Great, you can talk." Torrence said dryly.  "I think we've been dismissed.  Or at least Reece thinks he has."
She headed out of the door, glancing over to the field across the street.  The ship that they knew was there was oddly invisible to them, an unusual situation.

[FuBar]

RING-RING...

I extracted my real cell from my backpack.

RING-RING...

The antequated melody of a ringing-bell style landline phone got slightly louder, as per the handset's settings. I quickly looked at Caller-ID on the screen to see the landline number of the safe-house where we'd met up with 'Jenny' to use the Blue-Box. I frowned, wondering why on Earth my fellow Chee might ring my cell number from the landline rather than use direct Chee-Net comms. I figured I'd better answer it:

RING-RI-CLICK!

"Hello?" I greeted, in a friendly inquisitive tone. There was no response the other end.
"Hello? Is someone there?" I asked again, then an idea popped into my head: Perhaps whoever was on the other end was talking in thought-speak and didn't realize that can't be transmitted by normal telephones.
"Whoever this is, either you aren't talking, or I simply can't hear you. Goodbye!" - CLICK!

I'd hit the Red-Phone button to end the call. I immediately put my cell into Silent mode but didn't return it to my backpack; I had a feeling whoever called me would call back if it was important, hopefully when they had a real mouth to make real speech with. Silent mode was a necessity if I didn't want to draw Yeerk attention to us up in these trees.

While I waited for my cell to ring again, I continued watching the controllers that were still ahead of us and thus far staying on the ground.

Sure enough, moments later, my cell began ringing again. I answered immediately, barely giving it enough time to ring in my haste.

"Hello?" I called quietly into the cell's microphone, using the same tone as before.
"ALICE!!" Yelled an overexcited, and worry-filled, voice I recognized.
"Eddie?!..." I replied with relief as certain realizations dawned on me. "You're back at Jenny's place? - Is everyone there with you? Are you all okay?" I asked, rapidly.
"Alice, thank the gods you can hear me this time! - Okay, slow down; Everyone, apart from you and Damien, are safely back at Jenny's place with me... Wait, how did you know I'm at Jenny's place?" He asked after assuring me of everyone's safety.
"Caller ID." I answered simply.
"Oh. Right. Heh, I feel daft for asking now... Oh yeah, important stuff first: Yeerks are quarantining the woods where we took off. - Get yourselves out of there, sharpish!" He warned me.
"Yeah, I know they are. We were only hanging around to try and rescue any of you that might've still been here. Now we know you're all safe, we'll try to make our escape without being noticed. I'm guessing you found the Andalite and her ship, and she flew you all away?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
"Oh yeah, we found Jethsa alright! But she was unconscious when we got there, so I morphed her and got the ship to take off. She woke up shortly after takeoff and flew us here safely. Cool, huh?" He answered, enthusiastically.
"You... Morphed the Andalite?!?" I exclaimed with incredulity. "I bet she didn't like that!"
"Well... Yeah, you're right: She didn't like that Jas and I morphed her - Especially without asking her permission first - But when she found out why we did, she sort-of forgave us. Jas promised her he wouldn't morph her again unless at the utmost end of need, but I'm trying to work out a deal with her so she'll let me continue morphing her. - This Andalite body is SO freakin' AWESOME I just HAD to try! - Anyway, the only downside to her body that I've found out thus far is that it can't use the stupid telephone! - I've had to partially-demorph to get my real voice back, just to make this call. I kept the awesome tail though! Right now, I kinda resemble a centaur with a cool tail that..." I cut off his excited rambling immediately:
"You're still mid-morph between Andalite and Human?!? - Eddie, that's highly dangerous!! Human blood and Andalite blood do not mix well: If you continue to let Andalite blood course through your human parts too long, you'll die of blood-poisoning! First, your human parts will start feeling numb, then that pins'n'needles feeling, then gradually more painful as the cells die. The same is true the other way around, of course, but that's slightly less important to your overall survival because Human is your natural form and Andalite is merely a morph to you. The best way to avoid permanent damage, is to morph back to full-Andalite then completely demorph, so you don't retain any of the damage currently being done by the Andalite blood in your human veins. Promise me you'll pass the phone to someone else and go back to being fully Andalite before you demorph? They can relay your thoughtspeak to me if you have anything important to say. Please?!" I uttered, quickly and desperately. While awaiting his response, I motioned a direction-of-travel to Damien. - We shouldn't stay still too long with Yeerks around. Eddie's happy mood vanished into seriousness as he listened to my interruption. Moments later I got his reply:
"Okay Alice, I promise I'll follow your instructions." He spoke solemnly, regretfully, and sincerely. I heard his handset moving as he called out to his companions: "Reece? Do you mind talking to Alice while I sort out my morph? According to her, it's dangerous for me to stay like this..." I waited, wondering if the next voice I heard would be Reece's. Hopefully he could fill me in on what I'd missed.

[Breekan1]

Reece notices Jas bolt out of the door just in time to hear Eddie ask him a question. "Just a sec, dude," he manages to blurt out distractedly before chasing after Jas into the street. His legs are strong from swimming but tired from morphing, chasing, worrying and space-ship flying.

"Dude!" he calls after Jas. "What the hell!?"

[Seryna]

Torrence frowned from beside Eddie as he conversed.  Her attention pulled by Jas and Reece as they started away from the group.

"Where are they going?" She wondered to Eddie, walking away from him to the door way of the house.

"Maybe to the woods." Christina suggested, headed down the stairs after the two.  "Hey!" She called.  "Where are you guys going?  We haven't talked at all..."