My name is Sean. I could tell you my last name, but I like keeping my freedom. What do I have to worry about my freedom for, you ask? Well, the exact opposite: enslavement, absolute and total enslavement. My body, mind, and... abilities become the property of something else. Not someone, something. They're called Yeerks, those that would enslave me; as they would enslave you, and every living soul on this planet. These Yeerks are a sapient parasitic alien. They're like a slug that crawls inside your ear, flattens itself out, wraps itself around your brain and hijacks all of your synapses. It taps directly into your brain, reroutes every electrical signal however it wants. It reads your thoughts, your memories, even your desires. They take complete control of you. You don't breathe, it does. When you want to look around, nothing happens unless it wants to. You become a prisoner within your own body; like being completely paralyzed, except your body continues to move. They use your voice, your mannerisms, your inside jokes. No one around you can tell you've changed. If you had an identical twin, even they could be fooled by the act these Yeerks put on.
This is what my friends and I have been fighting for the last couple of years. To free the Human race, to make sure these parasites don't suck our world dry; as they've done to many worlds before. That's right, there are "other" worlds. Other alien races that have fallen to these slugs; but we will be different. We won't go down so easy. How do we fight an enemy we can't see, you ask? Well, it helps to be invisible yourself. No, we don't actually turn invisible, but we might as well. My friends and I have an ability, a power if you will. We can metamorphose into animals, any animal. If it has DNA, we can become it. Granted, we can only stay that creature for two hours, but two hours is plenty of time to bust an area to hell and get out. You'd be surprised what we can accomplish in two hours. I certainly have been. Unfortunately, we have a friend that wasn't able to revert before his timer went off. He's had to live with the price of becoming a Nothlit. Fortunately for him, The Ellimist was kind to him and gave him his powers back; though his hawk body is now considered his original body, and he has to revert to it every two hours.
Now we weren't born with these abilities. We received them from another alien; this one was a good alien though. This alien also fights the Yeerks. He gave us this power to morph. It was a weird experience. He could speak to us using his mind. I always thought telepathy was some crazy theory, of course I thought the same thing about aliens too. He warned us about the Yeerks and what they've been doing here on Earth, and what they plan to do to it. I was only 13 at the time. I was on my way to a Marine recruitement office to talk about fighting for my country. I ended up getting recruited into a different war, fighting for all of Humanity, and we've been fighting ever since.
I was outside Dru's house, throwing pebbles at his window, trying to get his attention. Unfortunately, my phone was being dominated by my sister. She's always on our phone when she's not out with her friends. I still don't know what she does during the day. She's extremely secretive about it. I assume it's chick stuff. She talks about going to the beach, taking road trips, sleepovers. The last part definitely gets my attention, a sleepover with a bunch of 18 year-olds? The imagination wanders.
Luckily for me, before she took over the phone line, Dereck called me. Dereck is our friend. He's kind of like a spy, he and his family are always in the loop when it comes to Yeerk activity. He's not a Controller, but the Yeerks think he is. He's actually an android. He's called a Chee. I know it sounds like a version of a Nintendo console; but he's a LOT more advanced than any gaming system. He poses as Human-Controller and gathers information about the Yeerks. Before, all the Chee did was observe. They couldn't do anything because of their programming. They're physically unable to cause (directly or indirectly) harm. To any living sentient being. At all. That's why they're a spy network, and not back up. He's great for intelligence and cover; but not useful in combative situations. He just sort of sits there.
Anyhow, Dereck called me up with important information; and I had to tell Dru.
