A/N: this story bounces around with the POV, so bear with me. Also, I'm kind of behind on the series, so don't have a cow. Oh deer, I'm overdoingthe puns a bit. Aren'tI arat?Okay,I'll stop. You're all a bunch of turkeys.

Disclaimer: Only Chris/Ponguu is mine. But he's mine, you hear? Mine!

A/N: I have a bad sense of humor. Forgive me.

Rachel

I sat and watched the two men fighting. One of them was tall, lithe, and muscular. I don't mean body-builder muscular, I mean guy-fights-professionally muscular. And he was lightning fast.His opponent was my cousin Jake. Jake was hard pressed just to stay away from the blinding punches and kicks.

We're part of an elite group. We protect the world from this alien race called the Yeerks. They're parasites, slugs really. They enter through your ear and take control of your brain. But we don't fight like my cousin's enemy. No, we have the power to morph. An alien called Elfangor, an Andalite, gave us this power.

We're the Animorphs. Me, Rachel, my best friend Cassie, my cousin Jake, his friend Marco, Tobias, and Ax. Tobias and Ax are different though. Tobias stayed in a hawk morph for more than two hours, so he's stuck that way. Ax is Elfagnor's brother. An Andalite. Think blue centaur with a scorpion tail and two extra eyes on stalks, with 360 vision, and you're almost there.

And right now, our leader was getting his butt kicked. Literally.

"Get up! Don't let your opponent have a clear shot at you!" yelled the big guy. His name was Chris Hotz. He ran a Dojo, or martial arts school. Jake's parents and mine had decided we needed it. And we had agreed.

"Alright, enough for one lesson. Jake, you need to move your feet more, you can't just stand there," Chris said, helping Jake to his feet. "Rachel, you're up."

"Good luck. He's fast," Jake said as he passed me.

I stood and faced Chris. He was really handsome up close. He stayed on his toes, moving back and forth. He kept one hand down by his leg, and one hand stayed by his chin. I examined his broad, naked chest, his finely toned six pack, and was suddenly hit in the side by a big, rough fist. I moved back, shaking myself.

"Don't get distracted Rachel. You need to be totally focused. Jake should be able to be screaming his lungs out, and you shouldn't notice," Chris growled. I nodded, and bit down on my mouth guard. I leapt out at him, swinging wildly. Chris jumped up, and brought his foot smashing into my head, knocking me down.

"You've got power, but not speed or finesse. Listen. All I'm going to do is move and block. What you need to do is hit me."

I nodded, and attacked. He moved to the side, batting my fist to one side. I swung with the other which he blocked just as easily. We fell into a rhythm, me attacking, and him moving or blocking. Then, I brought my leg up, and smashed him in the face. It was totally involuntary, my leg had moved without me knowing. Jake leapt up and towards us, while I kneeled down to see.

"Oh god, I'm sooo sorry. I didn't do that on purpose," I said over and over again. I stopped, and I heard something. It sounded like…laughter.

"Good! Very good, Rachel! Your body is supposed to move on its own. You shouldn't have to think. Let your body take over. Like a morph," he said, getting up. His nose was bleeding, but he was smiling, and his eyes had one of those glints.

"A…a what?" I stammered, hoping I didn't hear him right.

"A morph. You two are the ones Elfangor gave the power to, right?" He said, looking amused.

"Crap," was all Jake said.

Jake

"What do you mean 'Crap'! He could be with the Yeerks!" Rachel shouted at me.

"If he was, would we really be alive right now? We've both seen up close what he can do in a fight, and he's probably been holding back. Anyways, he'll have to be told about everything. If he knows about us, he'll need to be on our side," I shouted back, oblivious to the reclining martial artist lying down, watching us like a tennis spectator.

"No! What if the Yeerks take him?" Rachel screamed, equally oblivious.

"Well, we'll tell him about them too!" I roared

"Finished?" Chris said, still lying down. We looked down at him, and we got to our feet. "I know because I'm already on your side. I know about the Yeerks, and I know about Elfangor. And no Yeerk can ever become my Controller, because in this form, I have no tangible brain. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to meet your friend Ax. I haven't seen him for a long time. Would you like to come?"

Rachel and I just stared. It's like we had been told that there was no Santa, and the Easter Bunny was now road kill. We nodded dumbly, and followed Chris to his car. We all piled in, and drove to Ax's scoop.

On the way there, Chris explained.

"I'm not human. You probably guessed that. I'm what's called a Bal-Wyrm, or a Saiyanan. You've seen Hork-Bajir? Think bigger, stronger, tougher, smarter, faster, just better in general. And we're made for war. We're not the peaceful race that the Arn made. We're warriors, soldiers. The Andalites are like toys to us. And we're older too. Heard of the Pemalites? Kids, to us. I myself am nearly two-hundred and fifty of your years old. And that's young to us. We're kind of the human race's unknown and self-appointed protectors," Chris said, driving along.

"So…why haven't you done anything about the Yeerks before? You could have taken them all out before they arrived," Rachel asked. Gung-ho Rachel, always thinking about power and force.

"We didn't want to alarm anyone. Besides, the Yeerks have been mostly peaceful, which doesn't exactly warrant a full-scale assault. If you saw a bunch of aliens landing, and they started blasting people you didn't know had aliens in their heads, you'd probably start shooting at them. You wouldn't win, but you'd keep doing it. We don't want that. By the way, my name is Prince-commander Pongu Simrod. I'm the commander of the entire Bal-Wyrm navy, which is pretty much everything military. My father controls the rest. Which is a lot more. Just to give you an image," our new friend said.

(Still as long winded as ever, Prince Pongu,) a voice said.

"Shit. Fucking asshole." Chris/Pongu swore. He looked around, and finally saw what had spoken to him. It was Visser Three, the only Andalite-Controller. And he was standing with no less than twenty Hork-Bajir.

"This isn't my exit," Chris said, getting out of the car. I realized it wasn't the highway anymore. We had stopped in the woods, close to Ax's scoop.

"Alright, slug. You've got me. Leave the kids out of this, though. I was driving them home. They don't know anything," Chris said. He was trying to protect us, proving his side.

(They've seen too much. Besides, it's been so long since I killed the last human that failed me. They'll do nicely,) the Visser said. He nodded toward us, and a Hork-Bajir raised a Dracon beam at us. Then he fired.