AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I didn't save the newest chapter! Thanks to the RAFtime warp it's gone forever!
Oh wait..... *ctrl+z*
March 11, 2011
San Diego, California
3:30 am
Team #31
Jess' POV
“W...w...we made it” Sealie panted, as she bent over and held her knees.
“Ye...yeah” Blue gasped, leaning against the front door of the house we had woken up in a few hours earlier “What was all of that about?”
“What do you think it was about!?” I snapped “Those guys that Demos and Cody decided to follow, obviously had backup.”
Okay, so we were making our way out of the forest, minding out own business. Just a bunch of lost teenagers walking through a forest at 2 in the morning. No danger, right? Well, you know...except for the guys with guns that started chasing us. Long story short, they had us running through that entire forest before we made it to the construction site we cut through to get there. I'm not entirely sure why they stopped chasing us but one of them did shout something that sounded like “Stop, we found the brats with the device!”. So now Demos and Cody have more guys chasing after them. Lucky them
“Do you think we should have just left Cody and Ben like that?” Sealie asked
“What else could we have done?” I responded “If we went back to help them, we'd probably end up getting killed. You saw how much those guys wanted that...whatever it is'
“Uh...I think we all know exactly what that 'whatever it is' really is” Blue said
“Oh no! It's bad enough I've woken up as a child in a strange house, walked three miles into some godforsaken forest, and almost got killed by a bunch of psychopaths! I refuse to believe we're in some kind of science fiction book”
I turned the knob on the door. Good, it was still unlocked, like we had left it. There were two cars in the driveway so somebody had to be home and we were gonna get some answers out of them.
“Alright.” I said “We go in, find the people who live here, and beat the answers out of them, if necessary. Got it?”
Blue and Sealie nodded. I slowly creaked the door open and the three of us tip toed inside. Sealie closed the door, gently behind her as we walked up the stairs. We walked down the hallway, opening door after door. Each room, completely empty. Finally we reached the door at the very end of the hallway. Blue tip toed closer and put his ear to the door.
“I don't hear anything” he said
He checked the small crack under the door
“There aren't any lights on”
“Open it” I said
“Er...I'd actually feel better if somebody else did” He replied, nervously “I volunteer Jess! She is the oldest after all”
“Don't be such a baby, it's a door.”
“Yeah! And who knows what's on the other side?”
I sighed and walked up to the door
“The whole point of us doing this IS to see what's on the other side”
I turned the nob and slowly opened the door. It was a large bedroom with a light brown carpet, white walls, and a television standing in front of a king sized bed. An empty king sized bed.
“Well, whoever live here obviously isn't home”
“So what now?” Blue asked
“I guess we just wait for Ben and Cody to....”
“AAAAH!”
Blue and I turned around and saw Sealie a ground with a tall man standing over her. My first instint was to pound the living daylights out of this guy but I was scared stiff. The only movement I could make was letting go of my flashlight. Blue on the other hand....he ran into the bedroom, slammed the door, and I could have sworn I heard some clicking noises on the other side so I'm pretty sure he looked us out too. What a man
The man knelt down in front of Sealie, who screamed and started kicking him and the face but no matter how many kicks to the face he took, he didn't flinch. Finally, gaining enough courage to move, I picked up my flashlight, slammed it down on the man's head.
CRASH!
No, that wasn't the sound of his skull cracking. That was the flashlight breaking into a bunch of tiny pieces as if it a truck had been dropped on it.
“Look, can you guys chill out for a few second” he said, in a surprisingly calm voice
He gently lifted Sealie's ankle and examined it for a few seconds
“Why is it so swollen?” He asked
“Er....I...twisted it like an hour ago” She replied
Now that I tihnk about it, Sealie was limping a little on our walk back over here. She must have twisted her ankle when we were being chased.
“Come on. We're gonna get some ice on it” He said before picking her up
While he wasn't looking me, Sealie game me a confused look, like I was supposed to know what was going.
“You can tell your friend to come out now. The lock doesn't even work” He told me “Once you get him out, meet me downstairs so my wife and I can explain things to you guys”
I watched him carry Sealie away before I went back to the door Blue had hidden behind and kicked it as hard as I could. It slammed open so fast, I thought it was gonna snap off its hinges.
“Blue!” I called “Come out, you coward! The guy isn't gonna kill us....at least I think he isn't.”
I watched Blue slowly peak from under the bed. He looked around for a while, I guess to make sure I wasn't lying or something. I rolled my eyes and pulled him from under the bed by his ear.
“Ow ow ow ow ow! You didn't have to grab me by the ear” He complained
“I wouldn't have had to if you weren't such wuss! Thanks for saving me and Sealie, by the way” I said, sarcastically
“Oh...er...you're mad, huh?”
“Lucky for you, I'd be angrier if he turned out to be some crazy serial killer. Now come on, so we can meet him and his wife”
“Wha...”
“Don't ask”
We walked down the stairs and opened the first door we saw. It looked like the living room, complete with three couches, a television, family photos, and other random pieces of furniture you'd expect to find in a living room. Sealie was lying down on the largest couch, with a zip-lock bag full of ice on her ankle. Across from her was a couch where a skinny, balding, middle aged man with short dirty brown hair sat with a slightly plump woman with long black hair.
“Well. That was quick” The man said “You two can have seat next to your friend'
Blue and I exchanged nervous looks before sitting down next to Sealie. The couch was big but not large enough for a three of us with Sealie lying across it so I had lift Sealie's leg and gently put it down on my lap. The three of us still didn't have a lot of room but we all fit now.
“Ok. Now that we're all here....” the woman started
“Actually, they aren't all here.” her husband interrupted “Where are the other to boys?”
“Cody and Ben?” I asked “They're uh.....we kinda left them back in the woods a few miles from here”
“Oh...well....with friends like you guys, who needs enemies?” He laughed
“Hey! We didn't wanna leave them for dead!” Blue said “It was either that or stay and get killed with them!”
“Oh they aren't dead.” The woman said “They couldn't be. Crayak wouldn't let his players die before the game even began.”
Blue and Sealie's eyes widened in shock. They both looked at me but I was just as dumbfounded as they were.
“Wh...what do you mean?” Blue asked
“Exactly what I said. You didn't think you'd make it through a forest full of controllers alive without a certain somebody intervening, did you?”
“....Again, what do you mean!?” I demanded
“Maybe we should start from the beginning” The man said “But first we should introduce ourselves. My name is Erek King. This is my wife, Sarah.”
“Yeah, and I'm James Brown” Blue joked “You really expect us to believe.........”
Before Blue could finish, this weird...static-like noise filled the room and the man and his wife started to fizzle and flicker on and off like a broken television before they disappeared completely. In their place, sat two human sized robots that resembled dogs, standing on their hind legs, otherwise known as, Chee. The three of us stared in awe at the two androids that just materialized in front of us. We were at a loss for words.
“Yeah. That's the kind of response I expected” Erek said “Now. Where was I?”
“You were explaining the situation to them” Sarah answered
“Righr, right. So...where do I begin....I suppose it'd be best to start at the end. And by the end I mean, the end of #54.”
“Animorphs #54?” I asked
“The one and only. You see, after Jake rammed the Blade Ship, killing himself, Marco, Tobias, and the others on board 'The Rachel', Crayak grew bored of the direction the game was going in and decided to try his luck in ruling a new universe. The Universe he chose was one where the war with the Yeerks was just a simple children's book series, yours. Eventually, the Ellimist caught wind of Crayak's plan and followed him. When the Ellimist confronted him, Crayak claimed that the only reason the Ellimist won their last game was because of the age old theory of light always overcoming darkness. He said the fact that the Animorphs represented the light, was enough for them to always come out on top.
“That's stupid” I said “How can just being 'good' guarantee victory?”
“But that's the thing. Neither one of them knew if this was the case or not. So they decided to redo the game. Only Crayak would be on the side of the Animorphs and the Ellimist would side with the Yeerks”
“A being of Darkness siding with the light, and vice versa?” Blue asked
“Pretty much. Only they decided to make things more interesting. The concept would be the same, a group of teenagers going up against an alien armada, but with a few major changes.”
“Such as....?” I started
“For one thing” Sarah cut in “The game would take place back in the Animorphs Universe, but Crayak would be allowed to pick his players from
your universe. Which meant that he could pick people who were already familiar with the first game. In order to choose worthy candidates, Crayak's minion, the Drode, established several Animorph-based communities to pick out the true fans of the series. One by one, the communities slowly started to disappear as the franchise died. After 6 or 7 years, only two remained.”
“The Animorphs Fan Forum” Erek said “And...well you all should know the other”
“RAF....” I whispered
“Correct. When the time came to choose, Crayak ultimately decided that Richard's Animorphs Forum would represent him. But then the time came to choose again. Which RAFians would he use. He went though a list of all of the active RAFians, all of you had qualities that would prove useful to him but he couldn't decide. That is until he found a way to make the game more...interesting.
...”
“What could be more interesting that kidnapping people in their sleep and whisking them away to another universe” Sealie asked, coldly
“He and the Ellimist talked it over and decided that Crayak would the most active RAFians, old and new, and split them all into fifty teams. Each team would be put in a different state.”
“Fifty!?” Blue asked
“Yeah. And, in exchange, the Ellimist was allowed to put one Visser in each State. One Visser for every team of RAFians. Each team will be given the task of driving the Yeerks out of their state, giving Crayak a point for each success. If they die trying well...the point goes to the Ellimist. Whoever has the most Victories by the end of the war, will rule over your Universe and the loser must leave, never to be heard from again.”
“What if both sides have twenty five victories?” I asked
“In the event of a tie, the game would start all over again, but with different teams.”
“So we're on Crayak's side?” Blue asked “Well we might as well lose on purpose so that maniac doesn't get control of our universe and screw it up!”
“Crayak only wants to rule over your Universe.” Sarah explained “He has no intentions harming it in any way. Your Universe, since it lacks any life other than the ones on earth, is just trophy to him.”
“Plus” Erek added “If you all just decided to lose to the Yeerks so Ellimist wins, you'll all die in the process. It seems pretty pointless to die to save a Universe that will never be in any danger. Wouldn't you agree?”
“Anyway, before the game could start” Sarah continued “Ellimist and Crayak had to reset the Animorphs' Universe as well as making a few changes, one of them was obviously bringing 50 Vissers to Earth and have 50 Andalite ships, all containing escafil devices, crash in each state. And then they had to take the RAFians from their Universes, age them down to the exact same age the Animorphs were, and hire chee 'parents' to help the RAFians fit into this new Universe”
“Wait...what!?” I asked “Parents!?”
“Yes. Sarah and I will be posing as your adoptive parents for as long as you remain in our Universe. As far as everyone outside of this house knows, you're normal teenage siblings. Unfortunately for you all who are adults, this means you'll have to go back to middle school”
Completely forgetting I had Sealie's injured leg on my lap, I shot up and was about to speak out in protest, but I was interrupted by a sudden knock at the door.
“Who could that be” Sealie, who had rolled on to the floor because me, asked “It's almost four in the morning?”
“I think I know who it may be.” Erek said, resuming his holographic form as he walked to the front door
Blue and I followed him and watched him open the door, revealing a soaking wet and shivering Cody, with the morphing cube wrapped tightly around his arms.
((I was gonna close the "Open Office" window, since it's been open ever since the chapter was posted, but decided not to for some reason. THANK GOD))
