Chronicles of Sean: Book 2 The Complication

[Gafrash]

It's coming along nicely, NateSean. And you're very loyal to your interpretation of the Chee. Both in langue and statements. PS: Love the 'android Buddhists' description. So true!

But there is always the risk of a Chee character sounding too annoyingly over-sensitive. And, personally, true as he is to his programming, Bryce better not be frozen/stuck on this state for too long, because he is frantically starting to bug me... Hehehehe!

I think it was good to have Bryce narrate what he did at this stage of the story. He summed up the thinking behind your plot real well. ie:. the Chee's rationale behind all the coincidences (ref. Marco being the the son of the highest ranking Visser). It makes it plausible to have Erek believing that the mythological Ellimist had a finger/interest in protecting Earth from the Yeerks.
But this also puts the spotlight on Sean, to an extent. What would be the hypothesis behind him finding the Blue Cube and the Chee getting involved in his role within the war?

And your references to the events in the series are keeping good tabs on where the story is, timewise. It works well. At the very end of the above chapter there, I was thinking you were about to link the Yeerk's death to the destruction of the ground-based Kandrona in #7:The Stranger. But we can see where you are leaning towards, with the allusion to an alternate sustenance to beat the 3 days.

Thoroughly enjoying where you are taking your protagonist. Keep it up, dude!


And I'm gonna have a wild guess at his battle morph: A Howler?

[NateSean]

Thanks for the review. Man, I really have to get back on the ball with this one, hehe.

There's a bit of a backstory with Bryce that I'm eventually going to expand on.

And Sean's battle morph won't be quite as exotic as a Howler. However, I can tell you that like Rachel, this morph will be his first battlemorph and he will get a second one soon thereafter. I'm also working on his main aquatic morph.

Oh, last bit of a teaser: I'm planning to insert Shaun into the events of The Stranger. I won't extrapolate, but lets just say it will be interesting to see everyone's reaction to it.

[Phoenix004]

Sounds very interesting Sean, can't wait to read more!

[Gafrash]

And Sean's battle morph won't be quite as exotic as a Howler. However, I can tell you that like Rachel, this morph will be his first battlemorph and he will get a second one soon thereafter. I'm also working on his main aquatic morph.

Yeah, a Howler is probably too far away, at this stage. I was just playing.

Oh, last bit of a teaser: I'm planning to insert Shaun into the events of The Stranger. I won't extrapolate, but lets just say it will be interesting to see everyone's reaction to it.

[NateSean]

Note: Yeah, I skipped the morphing sequence. A story can get bogged down by too many descriptions of morphing, so I'll describe it in a later book if I get the chance. Right now, I just want to get back on track with some of my unfinished stories.

I also apologize if this chapter is a bit short.

Chapter Eight – Sean

It was not always going to be that easy. The morph was a little faster, if a hundred times weirder than usual. But I was under pressure and by the time someone finally got the door opened, they would have been surprised to find the coat lying haphazardly on the floor.

And I was foolishly worried about the frog morph.

Stop thinking and get to Bryce, I thought. Act now, consequences later.

The centipede’s vision was pretty much crap. My human mind remembered being underneath the coat and I sort of knew where the toilet was. It was in the opposite direction of all of the footsteps and the loud speech, which freaked the centipede out something fierce.

Noise! Loud Noise! Run! Its instincts cried. Then someone lifted the coat and the light poured down on me like a wall of blinding pain. Light!

I bolted for the shade of the toilet. The millions of feet at my side told me all I needed to know. I could feel the crevices and the uneven surface of the linoleum floor. As I neared the toilet, the feet on my right sensed the cool, smooth surface, which was much nicer to my senses.

“Where is he?”

Unlike the frog, I couldn’t really hear anyone speaking. But the voices were softer vibrations that I could recognize.

“I don’t know. There’s a bug in here though.”

“I know there was another one in the lounge. Someone must have stepped on it.”

Pause. I rested under what I guess was a valve and tried to think of how the other centipede got in. I didn’t exactly see it enter and if it came in from the lounge, then screw that because the sound of footsteps wasn’t going away.

“Could it be…one of the Andalites?”

That didn’t raise my hopes any.

“No, it was a human being. Remember, only the Andalites have morphing power.”

I felt my way along the metal pipe. It was a bit cooler to the touch than the toilet and I knew it would go straight into the wall. As I felt along the wall for a crack, or an opening, there were more voices in the lounge.

“We should still tell Visser Six.” Somehow I knew my dad would get brought into this.

At the end of the pipe, I sensed an opening in the wall and felt the space with my feelers. It was probably the size of a penny, but the centipede was only wondering why I was hesitating. The space beyond was dark, damp and cool. And the best part was, it was away from the large moving things that were in the bathroom and the room beyond.

There was a slightly disturbing sensation as I squeezed between the pipe and the drywall. But once I was inside the dark, moist area, the centipede's instincts calmed down. There were still vibrations. As a I picked a direction and started crawling, they came from all over the space.

"-need an IV on-"

"Can you change Misses-"

"-I'm taking my lunch now-"

"Clear!"

There were sounds of machines working, water running through the pipes. People doing all sorts of things involving water, but for the sake of what's left of my sanity I can pretend the centipede's senses weren't so strong.

I tried to listen for signs of where Bryce had been taken. If he was in the emergency room I'd basically be screwed, since there'd be way too many people and by now everyone was on the look out for me.

Frick.

The centipede had it easy. Moving up, down, over pipes and squeezing between spaces. If I hit a wall that didnt' go anywhere, I could do a complete turn and move on.

Seriously, stand up and turn around. Turn around again. Do it ten times. I guarantee you, no matter how dizzy you make yourself, the centipede has done about a hundred more turns than you in the same amount of time.

With it's flexibility and the way the tiny little legs propell it, the only thing it has to worry about is someone stepping on it. If the Yeerks do manage to take over the planet, the centipede will be munching on ****roaches and other small pests and will only need to watch out for...well, I guess Taxxons would be an issue. They might not feel the kinship for their lower myriapod (that's right, centipeds are myriapods) brethren that the alien in Men in Black had for ****roaches and flies.

There was a light further down. The space beyond it seemed quiet. I forced the centipede towards it. With cautious twich of the feelers, there was a vast space beneath me. There was a loud machine working and there was a sensation of warmth, like the inside of an oven.

Since I doubted the wall was a part of the oven, I moved as quickly as cautiously as I could down to the floor. There were no people inside, from what I could tell. This could be a furnace room, or an incinerator. From the vibrations against the wall, my third guess was a laundry room. That meant I could possibly find some clean clothes, scrubs or a hospital gown, to cover up with.

When I was on what felt like a level surface I started to demorph. And as my full weight began to make the table rock, I fell on my back onto a pile of laundry bags. Well, if there could be one positive consequence to acting without thinking, I was glad it could be this one.

"There you are."

And there was the bad one again.

[NateSean]

Chapter Nine

"It's okay." She said.

She was dressed in hospital scrubs. Tall, with black hair and a tan complexion, I vaguely recognized her from above the ground, when I was searching for a way into the hospital. She had some clothes and a pair of shoes in one arm.

"Are you a..." I paused, trying to find the right way to ask an awkward question. "Frick, who are you?"

"I'm Kerry," she said with a giggle. "I'm a Chee. And I was listening to you through the Network and hearing about your antics in the hospital."

"Oh good." I righted got back on my feet and quickly accepted the pants and shirt. "Then they're looking for me now?"

"Security and a few nurses are on the look out. Bryce wasn't communicating or you would have known to contact me before you're little run."

I pulled the socks and the (very nice) shoes on. If I was going to wind up in the psychiatric ward, at least I would do it in style.

"Where is Bryce right now?" I asked.

"The emergency room," Kerry said. "They're trying to communicate with him, but at the moment he is catatonic. Another Chee has replaced you so you're family won't get suspicious or start to worry. But I really think you need to get as far from this hospital as possible."

I shook my head.

"Not without Bryce."

Kerry frowned. I hated it when they did that.

"You are the priority right now," she said, sternly. "Bryce can pass for a human patient for a time. And we can get to him. But you should know there are Yeerks in this hospital who are very interested in a boy who suddenly replaced a seagull that crashed through someone's window."

Well there was the fly in my ointment. I rubbed my face trying to decide what to do. Bryce wasn't just some alien android who could replace me to my dad while I went to the movies. He was the kid I got my ass kicked for sticking up for. I still feel the pain on my nose from that day and while it didn't lead to the most proactive friendship until after I found out about the morphing power, I don't regret it.

You don't go through hell for someone and then leave them behind when they fall.

"Yeerks," I said. My problems kept falling back to them. "Are they Visser Three's or Visser Six's?"

"None of Visser Three's yeerks have come out this way yet," Kerry said. "Visser Six is doing a great job of staying below the radar and the refugee Andalites are keeping them busy as well. So it's safe to say that all of the yeerks in this are are from Kullan's pools."

"Good for him." I sighed. "Where's Mr. Treet?"

"He's just entered Williamstown, so he'll be here in about ten minutes. He has to show up to the hospital to see Bryce, or child protective services might think that's suspicious."

"Okay," I said, looking Kerry and vicariously the entire Chee network, in the eye. "I will leave here when Mr. Treet gets here. Until then, I'm going to be with Bryce. If I have to do it as a frog for a couple of hours fine, but I think it would be better if you used your high tech projection abilities to keep anyone from seeing me. Yeerk or otherwise."

Kerry frowned and I returned it tit for tat. Billions of years of experience couldn't stand up to my frown. One alien race was all ready costing me my friend and my family. I wasn't about to let another race tell me where I could go and when.

"All right," Kerry said, finally. "The others have come to an agreement. When Mr. Treet gets here, you will see Bryce. But in the meantime, you need to understand just how big this is. Come with me."

Confused, I did as she asked. The laundry room was inside the basement, along with the usual things you'd find in a basement. Boiler room, utility closets and...a false door along the backwall that lead into a large round pool. I'm not an expert but I don't know of many hospitals that keep pools full of slugs in their basement.

I sucked in my breath as I looked around. At one end of the room was a caged in area where a number of people were either resting against the wall or spread out on mats on the floor. They were all sleeping. There were doctor's and nurses mostly, but there was a security guard and a few other people not in any kind of uniform. I didn't know if they were patients or hospital staff, but it didn't seem to matter.

"There's no security in here?" I noticed. My heart skipped a few beats as Kerry slid the door closed.

"I'm using my projector to trick the censors," she said. "There is a yeerk on the security staff who monitors the pool whenever a host comes down for their cycle. Staff can simply take a lunchbreak and some of the rest you see here are volunteer workers who help out on the floor or work in the gift shop."

I took a cautious walk around the pool, to the cage. The cage seemed standard enough and it looked like it could be broken through with enough force.

"Why haven't you tried to release them?"

"There's too many people here. Best case scenario, Visser Six would catch on and realize he was being sabotaged. He might kill people to route out the infiltrator, or he would think Visser Three was onto him and he might make a desperate move. At the moment these people are alive and we can't do anymore than watch them to be sure they stay that way."

"But you could hide them," I said. "Chee could take their place and the hosts could be hidden underground."

"You don't even want to go into hiding," Kerry pointed out. "What makes you believe they would want to hide, knowing their loved ones were in danger? And what makes you think we can house them at all? We're not omnipotent, whatever you may think. There are limits to our abilities as well."

Thank you Ms. Obvious, I wanted to say.

Instead I looked around some more. There was nothing else in this room besides the pool and the cage.

"Where's the Kandrona?" I asked.

"We were hoping Bryce would figure that out," Kerry said. "But until we can find out what these Yeerks are being fed that killed them, we can't take a risk with another specimen."

I stared at the Yeerk pool for a very long time. Yeah, at anymoment one of these hosts could wake up, or someone could walk in ready to feed, but damn it. I needed a plan. For a second, I considered something and dropped to my knees, reaching into the pool. I felt the Yeerks swimming around, bumping into my hand blindly. And for a second I considered grabbing one.

"What are you doing?" Kerry asked, nervously.

"Nothing," I said, honestly. "Not yet anyway. This isn't the place to do it."

"What are you talking about?"

"I need a Yeerk morph," I said. "But not one of these. You're right, if we cause crap here Kullan could get nervous. And I want him nervous, but I want him to feel it closer to home."

I pulled my hands out and took a glance at the cage. It would be so easy to break it down if I had a larger morph. Something that could break through weak metal with a few well placed impacts. Suddenly, I knew what I wanted to do.

"Sestran is Kullan's sub-visser," I thought outloud. "I know he is in charge of some of the churches that house Yeerk pools. But he's not always at the same one each time. I need his host body and more to the point, I want him."

I looked at Kerry once more.

"If you guys think I'm important to this fight, then listen. Find out what his schedule is like so that I don't draw attention from Kullan by rifling through dad's files. It's time for me to stop stumbling around ass backwards. It's time for me to plan this out to the letter."

[NateSean]

Chapter Ten - Bryce

"Chee-Ikos, bring this to that table." Sanje placed a box containing many small pieces in my arms. These pieces would assemble to become a greater construction that only Sanje knew about.

The sea air was calm against my newly developed processors and I could feel genuine contentment as I followed my master's instructions. I placed the box gently on the small round table. But as I moved, to return to my master's side, I brushed the top of the box slightly. It was enough to send the entire box to the ground.

SMASH! Pieces scattered everywhere.

"No!" I cried.

Sanje rushed to my side.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I did as you asked, and then..." I looked from the table to the pieces on the floor. A strange feeling welled up inside of me. Sadness... and then...I raised my arm and made a fist, slamming it into the table.

Sanje wasn't angry. But he frowned as he looked from me the damage in the table.

"That was only an accident, Ikos," he said, speaking in a tone I had heard him use many times with the pups. "Now you must pick up the pieces. But there is no need to be violent."

Violent...a Chee must not harm a living being. But the table wasn't alive.

"I defied your orders." I said. "You gave me a command and I failed."

"Anyone can make a mistake, Chee-Ikos," Sanje placed a hand on my arm. "Please, Ikos, pick up the pieces. You are forgiven."

I did as I was asked. A day later, another Pemalite named Arien arrived and examined me. When he was finished with me, he examined the damage I had done.

"Am I in trouble." I asked.

"Of course not," Sanje said, softly.

Arien smiled to assure me that there was nothing wrong. But I sensed something beneath his face as he and Sanje went outside. I was told to wait, but I could hear their conversation from the edge of the ocean where they strolled.

"There is a flaw in the programming of the Anjue models," Arien said. "They take orders literally and have difficulty improvising. There are reports of other Chee making mistakes and growing frustrated, or angry. Ikos is not the only one."

"But I am making such progress with Ikos." Sanje protested. "He is able to understand things if I explain them to him. Certainly there are Pemalites who take a longer time than others to learn. Can't we give our androids a similar allowance to grow?"

"It's not a question of allowance, Sanje. The Chee are built to be nearly invincible. Suppose that table had been a living thing? I'm afraid the only course of action is to deactivate them until we can work out a way to correct this programming without destroying the current state of their souls."

Sometime later, Sanje approached me. I was sure he would deactivate me now. On the network I was all ready hearing the silenced farewells of many of my brothers and sisters.

"Are you going to deactivate me now, master?" There was acceptance in my voice, but I also felt sadness. It wasn't the sadness that led to my hurting the table. I knew that was wrong now.

Sanje smiled.

"Of course not," he said. "We created you to be our friends, not our servants. And a friend helps another friend, no matter what he has done."

Billions of years later, I was looking up at my friend. Sean. Though Chee-Enry stood guard to be sure that no one caught him, after what he had done just to get to me.

"I'm sorry, Bryce." He said. "I should never have used the dog morph that way. That must have stressed you out so badly."

"No." I said.

Sean's eyes widened. There was a sleu of response from the Chee Net, including a message from my dad.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "Do you want some water?"

Sean went to get water, only to stop and turn to me with an awkward expression.

"Er, you probably don't need water."

"Not especially, no."

I glanced at the machines that were monitoring my vitals and took over for whoever was manufacturing them. Getting out of the hospital would be my responsibility now. Sean sat back down on the stool and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Well, you probably know about the Yeerk pool here," he said.

"Yes." I nodded. "There's one here and in the hospital up in Burlington."

Sean shook his head.

"Visser Six has been moving fast." He said. "I had no idea and he was right under my nose."

"We didn't either," I reminded him. "I could have learned so much more by now.  So, I'd apologize for that, but I've heard enough of how it isn't my fault."

Sean chuckled.

"Listen, I've been thinking."

"A first for you."

"Yeah, right. Do you remember the class field trip to the Rutland fair grounds?"

I nodded.

"Do you remember where that one exhibit with the rodeo clowns came from?"

I pulled up the exact memory of those times. I saw the animal in my head and I rolled my eyes.

"You're planning on getting firepower," I said.

Sean grinned.

It should have been against my programming. Helping Sean aquire a dangerous animal that could hurt other people. But something was different. A routine that Sanje had programmed into me, to keep the others from shutting me down.

"It's actually not far from Bennington," I said. "My dad can drive you there."

[NateSean]

Chapter Eleven - Sean

"Sean, it's time to go." Kerry said.

I was about to protest when Bryce touched my arm.

"Listen to her," he said. "Get out of here."

Despite his tone, I wanted to stay put. But as Kerry was rather insistantly pulling me from Bryce's bedside, I saw a doctor enter the little space and pull the curtains.

"Hang on." I tried to stand my ground, but it's a little hard to do that when your nurse is one of the people who built the pyramids and still felt like dancing later that night.

"That doctor is one of them," Kerry whispered in my ear. "He's in charge of the pool in this hospital."

That shut me up pretty quickly. She took me to an elevator just outside the ER. Before she could There was a window that overlooked the ground and I happened to catch a glimpse of a very familiar truck.

"That's the one that..." I paused as the elevator doors opened and an orderly stepped out. Kerry saw what I was looking at and nodded.

"That's why I need to get you out of here."

As we got on the elevator I saw the button that would take us down to the basement and thought back to that day at the church. Certainly, it could have been a similar truck. Maybe it was the uniform company that the hospital subcontracted. Or it could have been carrying janitorial supplies.

One thing I knew, they didn't need the truck to bring human hosts to the yeerk pool. I sighed.
So much for planning things out.

"I need to go back down there." I said. My voice was neutral, but Kerry must have sensed I was up to something.

"No," she said, firmly. "I'm bringing you to the cafeteria and you're going to sit tight there until Mister Treet arrives."

I looked up at the numbers as they lit up, one by one, chronicling our descent. Then I looked back at the buttons. She had a firm hold on my right arm, but my left could still reach the emergency stop.

"Was I asking your permission?" I said, fixing her with a sidelong glance. Until I met her, I didn't think the Chee could do harm with a look.

"You're putting too much at risk. Why do you insist on-"

I reached for the button, but didn't push it. When I spoke, my voice was as firm as hers, but strong enough so that she and the rest of the Chee would know I was serious.

"I'm going to put even more than that at risk. If you don't take me down to the basement right now and let me go, I'm going to hit this button. When security gets here I am going to jabber away about everything I know until I get their attention. And I do mean everything."

Kerry gave me a long look. She then reached for my left arm and pulled it up, gently twisting it behind my back. Not hurting me, but not letting me move either.

"That won't stop me Kerry," I promised her, raising my voice just loudly enough that anyone on the floor could proabably hear me as the elevator past them. "I can still talk. What's the plan here? Kidnap me and tie me up in the underground park until I cooperate? I could morph right now and easily get away from you."

"I kept an elephant from falling off a cliff once," Kerry said. "And you don't have that many morphs."

"In five seconds I'm going to scream."

The elevator stopped. It was just above the basement floor. Kerry let me go as the doors slid open. A woman and two little girls stepped onto the elevator. I stepped off, surprised that Kerry didn't follow me.

"The cafeteria is right down that hall and to your right." She said, as if I had just asked her for directions. "I think you can handle it on your own."

She asked the woman what floor she wanted and a few moments later, I was alone. The door to the stairwell was off to the right and I was free. My enemy was in front of me and my one real bridge was now smoldering behind me. Lovely.

I didn't morph. That was probably my stupidest decision, but I didn't relish the idea of losing another limb to a Hork-Bajir. Also, I made a promise to Bryce that I wouldn't use dog morphs for stupid reasons. And not even a Great Dane had a chance against the seven foot tall love child of Earl Sinclair and Edward Scissorhands.

No, I would be doing this in my very own human form. Why? Because I didn't have a better plan at the time.

Fortunately, someone had propped the door open at the bottom of the stairwell, so I wouldn't have to make a lot of noise pressing the handle down as I pushed the door open.

Creeeak!

So much for that plan.

"Who was that?"

"You and you, go check."

I ducked into a supply closet.

"Hey, who is that?"

I squeezed myself behind the door and waited. Their footsteps were light but audible. There was a slight pressure against the door as controller tried to move it. My body made that impossible and he could tell I was there.

"You shouldn't be down here," he said.

His uncovered arm came around the door first and I saw that he was armed with a dracon beam. I quickly grabbed his wrist and started to acquire him. He seemed startled but quickly went into the trance. I was able to wrestle the dracon beam from his hand and position my hand correctly. Then I grabbed his neck to keep him in the trance.

"What's going on?" The controller on the outside asked. "Murok?"

I guided Murok out of the closet, just barely looking over his shoulder and aiming the weapon around his body.

"What the-" TSSEEWW!

The beam turned the dimly lit corridor red as it knocked the other controller off of his feet. I paused long enough to see that he was still breathing.

"Hurrak!"

"Yes, go out there, but make sure no one sees you. Stun them if they do."

I guided the human towards the Yeerk pool. When I was at the laundry room again, I quickly entered and stunned Murok before diving behind a laundry bin. The doors slammed open and the Hork-Bajir's silhouette appeared against the industrial washers like an old horror movie. I stayed low and tried not to panick as it's giant dinosaur like feet scraped across the floor.

A faint reflection appeared in the window of one of the dryers. As I said, a Hork-Bajir is about seven feet tall, give or take a few inches. With blades on their ankles, elbows and near their wrist, you would think whatever god made them had done enough. But to complete the scare factor, they also added a couple forward raking spikes on the forehead. According to Kullan and the Chee, the Hork-Bajir homeworld was completely taken over by the Yeerks. Most of them are involuntary and this particular Hork-Bajir was controlled by one of the Yeerks who chose to die to create the thousand more that Kullan is using for his personal army.

Without waiting for it to discover me, I jumped out and blasted it, aiming for the chest. Unlike the human controllers though I was very close to this one and the shot left a burn mark that went deep into the flesh. Oh crap, I thought as it cried out and sank to the floor. I had only meant to stun it!

The Hork-Bajir moaned and seethed in pain. I had no idea what their anatomy was like, but I had a feeling that burn wasn't exactly soothing.

Oh crap, I thought, trying not to let it see me. I wasn't trying to hurt it, but I had first hand knowledge of what those claws could do.

There was commotion in the hallway, so I grabbed the Hork-Bajir's dracon beam and stuck it in my pants pocket. Then, as an afterthought, I reached down and acquired the Hork-Bajir. It was barely concious but the trance seemed to knock him out. Maybe it would recover. I wished it the best and went to the door, cautiously peering out towards the pool. Two more humans were watching the hall now armed with rifles of some kind. They looked like the kind wildlife experts used in the wild.

A Yeerk can't infest a dead host.

"Wait until the rest are awake," someone said. "Then we'll rush him."

Not sure how much time I had, I quickly pulled out the other Dracon beam and focused on the Hork-Bajir.

My skin began turning a dark shade of green. As the it grew darker the texture of my hands and arms began to change, becoming thicker and tighter. I felt the changes in my face, similar to when I morphed the dogs. My mouth protruted and my chin disappeared into my neck, which grew larger and longer.

I felt the seams of my clothes getting tighter my shoes growing more uncomfortable as my feet changed. I tried to kick them off, but as my toes merged claws began to sprout and tore through the material.

That's the third set of shoes in one day, I realized. As if that were my biggest concern.

The feet were a bit like the turkey's only much bigger and much greener. I could the last of my hair shrinking up and disappearing. The two forward raking blades sprouted from the base of the skull, where the neck met the head. I reached a longer, thicker arm above my head and brushed the hand (still holding a dracon beam which was now smaller and more toylike in those beefy hands) gently across the blades. No amount of gel would keep those down.

My neck wasn't entirely flexible, but I could move it more than my own. I looked down at my clothes, which were tattered and slumped around my feet. They seemed like doll threads compared to my enormous height and the shoes were dwarfed by the feet.

I expected the Hork-Bajir's instincts to be fierce and dominant. But what surprised me was a mind that felt a bit...well...childi sh. The small dark space actually bothered the Hork-Bajir. It was a creature used to wide open spaces and fresh air and this place made the alien being sad and strangely afraid.

I looked at the blades and realized I could do some serious damage with these things. That a big creature as heavily armed as the Hork-Bajir could be afraid or uncomfortable was a surprise. But then looks could be decieving. Maybe that's why the Yeerks beat these people. They saw a large walking weapon that was too scared to fight back and won by acting like they were tougher.

With a glance to the still unconscious Hork-Bajir controller, I nodded out of respect from one bullied being to another. Then I made sure I had the right grip on the dracon beams and kicked out the door of the laundry room.

[NateSean]

Tobias is getting ready to bring Visser Three's truck ship down over the lake.

Chapter 12

TSSSEWW! TSSSSEWWW! Two controllers went down.

I felt like I was in some kind of sci-fi shoot out movie. Me, the alien John Wayne, shooting enemies with a gun in each hand and ducking as they returned fire. The Hork-Bajir instincts may have been uncomfortable in the close quarters, but it had maneuverability.

A controller fired a tranquilizer dart. I side stepped it and fired back, knocking him into the pool. The cage was open and a few of the freed hosts were being led to the pool by another unarmed controller, who was now pushing them back as I advanced.

The sheer terror on the controller's faces was almost worth it. Especially when I remembered that these guys were maybe a few weeks old tops. This situation couldn't have come up in Visser Six's training program.

With the remaining armed controllers down, I approached the one in the cage.

<Get inside and close the door,> I told her, aiming the Dracons.

"Andalite?" She asked, frightened.

<Yes.>

The door squeaked open behind me. I spun around, keeping one dracon beam trained on her and the other on door at the end of the hall. The doctor from the ER and a controller were guiding Bryce into the pool.

"What the hell is going on here?" The doctor demanded. "Jullay 395, have you lost your mind?"

"It's an Andalite!" The controller shouted. "Like the Visser said, they can take the form of other creatures!"

I didn't give anyone a chance to decide what to do. I shot the doctor and the orderly, then the cotnroller in the cage. The freed humans stared blankly, no doubt under the influence of whatever drugs were being used to keep them under.

With me in the way, I didn't think they could see Bryce very clearly. He played the part well, holding his hands up as I kept the weapon trained on him. I looked past him and noticed the dracon beam the other unconcious controller had dropped.

<I'm going to shoot and miss.> I said very carefully. <Turn around, grab the beam and give me twelve seconds.>

Bryce nodded. I don't know if he knew the whole plan, but since I was making it up as we went along, I didn't exactly know myself. I "shot" at Bryce, missing his head by inches. He ducked and ran back for the Dracon Beam.

"Andalite Filth!" He screamed.

<Nice one.>

I ran towards the Yeerk pool, stunning the controller and the freed humans before leaping across the pool and slamming the cage shut. Then I examined the dracon beams and found a dial marked with alien characters. I carefully adjusted them to what looked like the highest setting and aimed them into the pool. If I was right, there'd be Yeerk soup for dinner. If I was wrong, Bryce would look like the one hero in a room full of idiots who just got taken out by a single Andalite.

Thank God I was right.

The beams sliced into the pool, creating a cloud of steam. I could see the helpless little slugs falling into the beams as they created whirlpool effect in the water. It was like watching a bug zapper in action, only a part of me felt slightly guilty for the Yeerks.

Don't think about it, I told myself.

The beams eventually cut into the bottom of the pool, creating a hole deep in the ground. I stopped firing and watched as the rest of the liquid and the Yeerks drained into the scorched Earth, causing a hissing sound, like pouring hot spaghetti into a trainer.

Bryce came back in and didn't let up. He fired once, "missing" and I dropped the Dracon beam and ran past him, "knocking" him to the ground and escaping through the fire exit.

* * *

I got back to the cabin and switched places with the Chee without anyone being the wiser. In my suitcase containing all of my clothes, was a note.

We can no longer help you.

Terrific. I tossed it into the fire that night, when we were making smores and telling stories. I only wished I could tell them the horror story I was living through right now.

Dad wasn't home when Aunt Sara dropped me off the next day. I quickly made some dinner and watched the news. A news crew had gone to the hospital in North Adams and was covering gas leak in the basement, which led to only three fatalities. No mention of an alien body, of course. Visser Six had to be working overtime to cover up the incident and use dad's access to the local media to spin the story so he wouldn't be exposed to Visser Three.

When I called Bryce's home all I got Mr. Treet. He wasn't angry and he didn't yell. He spoke to me in the firm, neutral tone that Dad often used when I had done something to disappoint him. It was the tone that all parents used and one that kids hated the world over.

"You don't get to manipulate us. I can't stop the others from helping you, Bryce least of all. But myself and others refuse to assist you any further."

When he hung up, I wish I could say I felt bad. I didn't. Sure, threatening the Chee wasn't the best way to handle the situation. But the end result was the Yeerks being mildly inconvenienced at the very least and at the worse, slowed down Kullan enough to keep him from attracting Visser Three. If the Chee hadn't told me about the Yeerk Pool, that would never have happened, so I can't be blamed for taking the next step, however insane it was.

Oh well. I wrote Dad a note and took to the sky in seagull morph. I still had my next big plan and with or without their help, I was going to find Sestran.

The ranch wasn't far. It mostly trained prize horses for shows and for sale to high end customers. PETA was trying like hell to shut it down, but in the meantime, it had what I needed. As I landed and demorphed, this time with the wetsuit, I looked around. There were two large barns. One was where the stables for the horses were kept and the other was where a large, beefy rodeo bull was sleeping peacefully.

I quietly went into the barn and looked at the animal. The name on the fence said "Bessie's Daddy". And the blue ribbon tacked to one banister declared it the winner at some big county fare. It's strong legs had thrown many riders from it's wide back during the various rodeos it had been brought to. But it was the long sharp horns that really had my attention.

The Hork-Bajir morph would be great for infiltration. I could keep my human nature a disguise in Yeerk heavy areas. But I needed a genuine battlemorph.

Epilogue

Bryce

"So your body had a bad reaction to an onion ring?" Kullan asked, with a bemused smirk. He never raised his voice. That was the worse thing.

We were in an office in a house in the mountains belonging to one of his high ranking controllers. The nearest neighbors were a mile down an unpaved road.

Goresh 506, whose host was the doctor that signed my discharge paper, stood beside me trying to keep from trembling. My projector kept my holographic image from appearing to be afraid. But inside I was nervous. It was strange that a helpless slug could have frightened me this much.

"That's right, Visser," I said. "My host was allergic to something in the food hence why I wound up in the hospital. Sub-Visser Five tried to take me to the Yeerk Pool when we discovered the Andalite had all but decimated the hospital's yeerk pool.

Kullan regarded us both carefully, before going back to his desk. He picked up a few sheets of paper and began reading them.

"Missing persons statistics," he said, casually. "It's amazing. There's one in here about a boy who disappeared thirty years ago. They still haven't found him and no one was suspected of causing it."

He looked at me thoughtfully before sitting down in the chair and continuing in the same tone.

"The hospital was a failure doomed to happen. No security measures, no recording equipment, least of all in what should have been the most secure aspect of that area. As such we have lost a hospital, which was a font of wealthy and influential hosts. I wonder why an Andalite had practically no problem wandering in there and just taking his time killing valuable Yeerks and strolling from the scene without so much as a Dracon burn for his trouble."

"Visser please, I-" Sub visser Five didn't have a chance to finish.

A dracon beam lanced across the room covering his body in bright light. His screams as he broke down slowly from the atomic level, were no doubt heard by the rest of the house. They would be embedded in my memory banks forever.

When the yeerk and the host were fully disintegrated, Kullan turned to me. The Dracon didn't smoke like an Earth gun, but I could still see the shimmering of air particles from where the beam had fired.

"A pity we couldn't save the host." He said. "But I can't be known for showing mercy for failures as monumental as this one."

"Yes Visser," I said, showing no emotion. "I am ready to accept my punishment."

"The hospital was not your mess to clean up." Kullan placed the Dracon back in his desk drawer. "An allergic reaction was hardly your fault and you managed to salvage some of the situation by keeping the Andalite from freeing the hosts."

The way he said Andalite caught my attention.

Kullan leaned forward and motioned me to take the chair in front fo the desk.

"Forunately our one Hork-Bajir host managed to survive. The Yeerk swears he saw something of particular interest during this...attack."

I feigned ignorance. "Oh?"

"Yes." Kullan smiled. "You have become quite useful to me in a short amount of time, Esdrax. Continue this trend and you will fare well in my new empire. Fail me as Goresh did and you will wish I was as generous to you."

"I understand. What are your orders Visser?"

"Like before, I want you to follow my host's son very closely. Keep me informed of his every movement and be certain to let me know the instant anything unusual occurs."