The untold Animorphs
#29 1/2: The Travelers
Told by Marco
Chapter One
"So... Cassie... the blue dress or the red one?" I asked Cassie. We, meaning the entire group of Animorphs were sitting in the barn, all kinda lounging around. Tobias was sitting on the rafters above our heads. Ax, once again in human morph, was trying to eat several types of bugs. Cassie was trying to get Jake to help her clean out a raccoon's cage.
Rachel's face lit up. "I don't think red is your color, Marco."
Cassie snorted.
I gave Rachel my 'evil glare'. "Ha, ha, and also, ha. Very funny, Xena. If you must know, my date for the school dance is trying to decide between two dresses, and she asked me to chose for her."
At this point Rachel nearly fell off her feet from astonishment. "You? Date? Marco? Girl?"
Jake smirked. "Congratulations. Ax, you don't want to eat that!"
"It's a miracle!" Rachel announced. "Marco convinced a girl to go out with him!" Rachel, her blue eyes wide and innocent leaned over and whispered to me, "So, how much did you pay her?"
I rolled my eyes. Tobias, the only one who could hear Rachel's question, laughed.
Ax looked up from the rabbit kibble he had been sampling. "This has a very interesting flavor. Flay-vor. Ay-vor. Flavor."
"And since when are YOU the expert in clothing, Marco?" Rachel asked.
I shrugged Rachel's question off and ran a hand through my longish hair, which I had decided to grow out again, much to Rachel's annoyance. Really, I thought I looked pretty good. "Isn't Erek supposed to be here by now?"
Ax looked up from the rabbit food. "He will be here in approximately thirty nine seconds. Of your time."
"Ax, you can drop the your time thing. We are on earth. There is only one type of second." I must have had this argument with the alien at LEAST three dozen times already.
"He will now be here in twenty two seconds." Ax said. I waited for the inevitable. "Of YOUR time."
I moaned. "Here approacheth the bearer of all bad news."
Rachel gave me a fake look of pity. "Ahhh... poor Marco... is he going to miss his dance?"
The thought had never occurred to me.
"Hey everyone!"
Erek entered the room. Exactly on time, might I add. "Hey, Erek. Where are we going now? Oh! Wait! I know! We're heading off to the moon to collect the legendary lunar cheese!"
Rachel hit me on the head. "Shut up, Marco."
I ignored her and started humming 'the twilight zone'.
"Close, but not quite." Erek smiled, then suddenly looked very serious. "They're moving."
"Who's moving? The dairy farms?" I asked.
"Shut UP Marco!" Rachel glared at me. I started doing cow impersonations.
"The yeerks."
This got my full, undivided attention. "What? Where?"
Jake nodded, snapping into 'leader' mode. "Why? More details, please?"
I groaned.
Erek crossed his arms. "To England. Visser three is relocating the main infestation. He's already in London now."
I blinked. "This could be a problem…"
"Oh, really, Sherlock?" Rachel scoffed. "I say we go to England and kick some yeerk but!"
"How did I know you were going to say that?" I rolled my eyes.
"Where is England?" Ax asked.
"On the other side of the world, almost." I said. "Eureka, California and England aren't exactly close."
"Well…" Cassie frowned. "If… if we did go to England… it would just be for a few weeks, right? We'd just have to show them that we're going where ever they go, and they'll come back here, right?"
"Can anyone say, 'wishful thinking'?" I said sarcastically. "We don't really have a choice. If we just stay here, they'll know we're human. Or at least they'll have evidence against us."
Jake nodded.
"I say let's do it!" Rachel grinned.
"Oh, no." I moaned. "Ok, Erek, just a few things. I recently got a date with this girl who considers me to be a deity, so treat her like a queen. Her name is Charlotte and her usual greeting to me it 'hello, gorgeous'…"
Rachel burst out laughing, which totally wrecked my train of thought.
Erek nodded, smiling slightly. "'Hello, gorgeous'. Got it."
"You know," Rachel sat down on a bale of hay. "It's hard to believe that Marco got anyone to like him at all. What if Charlotte is one of them, and she's just trying to get close to Marco?"
I waved my hands around in the air. "Why do you think that every girl who gets a crush on me is a controller?!"
"Because, it's irrational that any sane person would ever want to go to a dance with you, Marco, be reasonable." Rachel smiled prettily.
I rolled my eyes. "Hey, there are a lot of girls just waiting to go out with me!"
Nearly every one in the barn started cracking up. Tobias was nearly falling off his perch on the rafters. I glared at them.
"Ok, back to the topic. Let's take it to a vote, who wants to go to England?" Jake asked.
"I'll miss the dance!" I protested.
"Then don't come." Rachel shot at me.
The vote ended up unanimous.
"Alright, no algebra for a month!" Cassie grinned.
Ax laughed. "Algebra? You are joking, aren't you? Algebra?"
I rolled my eyes. "Aliens."
Jake got up. "Well… Tom'll get suspicious if I'm not home by ten. I'll look up the flights to England and we'll work out a plan on how to get aboard the plane tomorrow."
"Oh no. Another last minute plan. I hate those. We always end up screaming and running for our lives half demorphed whenever we do one of those."
"You got a better idea?" Rachel asked me.
"Yes. How about we all stay home and watch the football game that's on tomorrow night?"
"I'll take that as a 'no'." Jake grinned and walked out of the barn.
And one by one, we all followed.