Animorphs: The Untold Stories #2: Mr. President, We Need To Talk

By HephaestusBuilds

(Author's Note)

I don't own anything, unfortunately. This is story number two in this series, so please read the first story so that you won't be confused.

Recap: David returned with the help of Crayak in order to kill one of the Animorphs. David killed Cassie and Tom. Then Jake killed David in revenge. The Ellimist brought Cassie back to life and Jake quit the team. Later Jake becomes drunk and sleeps with Cassie which results in her becoming pregnant.

Summary for new story: Tobias leads the team as the Yeerks forget their hidden invasion plan and attempt to conquer the planet in one final battle. The Animorphs head for Washington to get the help of the government in order to fight the Yeerks.

Please, leave a comment, favorite and/or PM me with any feedback.

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Chapter 1: Tobias: A Meeting Of Allies

My name is Tobias and I am the new leader of the Animorphs. It has been seven months since David returned and captured all of us. It has also been seven months since Jake quit the team. Jake took Tom and Cassie's death by David harder than any of us. Jake also killed David with his own hands in anger and revenge. But while the Ellimist had brought Cassie back to life he could not bring Tom back as well, so Jake has remained depressed and distant. Jake quit the team saying that he could not order us, his friends, to their deaths anymore. In the meantime I've been told by Rachel and then later by Cassie herself that Jake and Cassie apparently slept together which resulted in Cassie becoming pregnant. Which of course means that she can't morph. We don't know exactly what would happen to her or her child if she morphed but Ax suggested that we don't try to find out. So now with Cassie pregnant and out of commission and Jake refusing to rejoin the team we are down two members of our already small army.

The others, meaning Rachel, Macro and Cassie have all moved on to their senior year of high school. Jake hadn't passed his junior year, since he had stopped going to school after Tom died and he later dropped out completely. A few months ago Jake had started making progress on turning his life around. According to Cassie he's almost stopped drinking completely but is still having trouble with drugs. She's been trying to get him to do rehab but he refuses to go.

Anyway, with Jake off the team we had to pick a new leader and start fighting the Yeerks again before they got the upperhand. I was chosen almost unanimously, since Ax had refused to vote for anyone besides Jake and with Rachel voting for herself. I had known that I would have been voted as the new leader, everyone knew, including Rachel. However Rachel did not want me to be the leader, not even close, she wanted to be the new leader.

Saying that I was nervous beyond belief to be leader is a complete understatement. I was scared out of my life when I accepted the duty. We had all seen what the burdens of leadership had done to Jake over the past four years, it had aged him internally, it had made him grow cold and distant. While he refused to talk or to even show it we all knew that it was destroying him inside. This is why Rachel was so against me becoming the new leader, she was worried for me. Worried that at the end of this war that I'd end up like Jake, a distant alcoholic and drug user who can't go through a day without breaking down or going into a blind fit of rage.

In the meantime, the Yeerks had been able to build a new Kandrona in the city next to ours. Strengthening their numbers even more. With only Rachel, Marco, Ax and myself being able to fight the Yeerks they have grown more powerful then they have ever been. According to Erek the Chee, the number of Yeerks on Earth has skyrocketed over the past few months. He estimates that around ten thousand Hostless Yeerk are arriving each day now, we fear that the Yeerks are getting ready to plan a full out attack on the Earth and that they will be forgetting their secret invasion. Erek says that Visser Three has also brought several new alien species and ships to Earth as well. Including a new type of long-range Dracon Beam that has started to been mounted to their ships and facilities.

I fear that without Jake and Cassie that the Yeerks will soon overpower us and take this planet for their own. We have all given up on being saved by the Andalite's for months now. The Yeerks had started attacking the Andalite Home world and have crippled their fleet. We were quickly contacted by Lirem-Arrepoth-Terrouss, the arrogant Andalite Prince that ordered Ax to lie about who gave us the morphing cube, who told us the situation on the Andalite Home world and that they would be unable to send their main fleet to Earth until the Yeerks have been kicked off their planet. So we are now on our own.

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"So basically, what you're saying is, unless we can get ourselves a very large army rather quickly, the Earth is screwed?" Marco asked, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head.

We, Jake excluded, were all sitting in Cassie's barn at two thirty in the morning trying to decide what to do about the Yeerks. The reason why we were here so late is because we didn't want Cassie's parents walking in on us, considering that we have a few 'people' here who we didn't want her parents to see. Those 'people' included the Animorphs, meaning myself, Rachel, Cassie, Marco and Ax. Toby Hamee and a few other free Hork-Bajir. Erek and several other Chee in their metallic, doglike forms. And finally a couple members of the Yeerk Peace Movement, which were in Human, Hork-Bajir and Taxxon Hosts. So you can see why we didn't want anyone stumbling into this meeting. We had all gathered to come up with a plan to take out the Yeerks. Knowing that the end of the war was soon approaching we had all decided to fight together to defeat the Yeerks, but there was just one major problem.

"That may be correct, Marco." Erek said in his unholorgamed form. "The truth is that we just do not have the numbers nor firepower to take on the Yeerks head on."

"Well how many people do we have altogether? Maybe we can take down one station or compound at a time." Cassie asked from her chair a few feet away.

I looked to Toby and nodded my head. "Currently, the number of adult Hork-Bajir in fighting condition in the Valley is just over two hundred. If needed we could add up to fifty young and old Hork-Bajir at the most, but I would rather not send them into battle as well." Toby explained.

"I understand, Toby" I said in human morph. I was in human morph because we were going over maps and papers, meaning that I needed hands for this meeting. "I don't want to force any more Hork-Bajir to fight than we have to."

I turned my head to Erek. "What about the Chee?"

Erek looked to the Chee next to him then back to me. "We have a total of thirtythree Chee here. However, as you all know, we Chee cannot fight, we will only be able to help gather information and fly you in the ships."

"Don't sell yourself short, Erek. The Chee have been a huge help to us over the years. Without the information provided by you we would've died years ago."

I then turned my head to Mr. Tidwell, a member and the representative of the Yeerk Peace Movement for this meeting, and also a teacher at my old school.

"Well, at the moment the total number of Yeerks in the YPM is almost two thousand."

"That's great." Rachel spoke, standing up and holding her fist in the air. "With two thousand Yeerks we can take out the two Kandronas as least. Without them Visser Three will be unable to keep most of his Yeerks alive by bringing them up to the poolship."

"Unfortunately, Rachel," Mr. Tidwell started. "Our members are spread throughout the country and several poolships. With all the new Yeerks arriving we have started to being sent around the world as well."

"Then how many Yeerks do you have here?" Marco asked.

"Around four hundred. However most of those Yeerks are in Human Hosts, meaning that in a fight, they won't be very useful."

"So what do we do then?" Marco asked. "We have at most six hundred "people" and a few stolen Bug Fighters to take on the Yeerks, who have numbers in the hundreds of thousands at least. How in hell are we supposed to fight them with just a few hundred Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, Humans, and the four of us?"

"Five of us." Casie corrected him.

Marco turned to Cassie and pointed his finger to her stomach. "No offense, Cassie, but with you being knocked up and all you can't really do anything."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Rachel started. "But Marco's right, Cassie. We've been over this, with you being seven months pregnant and all you can't fight. We won't allow you to put yourself or your baby in danger."

Cassie placed her hand on her inflated stomach and smiled. "I wasn't talking about me, I know that I can't fight now, but Jake can. Jake'll-" Rachel broke her off.

"Jake'll what?" Rachel demanded, her voice growing angry and harsh. "Jake's gone, Cassie, he quit, remember? Jake won't help us anymore, you should just forget about him and focus on the task at hand, we need to figure out a way to kick Yeerk ass before they completely take over the planet."

"You're wrong, Rachel. Jake will come back soon, we just need to tell him what's going on, then maybe he'll understand that we need him."

"We don't need him," Rachel spat. "We never needed him, Tobias is doing just fine leading us as is."

[How dare you, Rachel.] Ax spoke up for the first time during the meeting. He has been a little depressed since Jake's leaving. I guess we all have, even in we don't want to admit it. [Prince Jake has saved our lives countless times over, we all owe him an unpayable debt.]

"I don't owe him anything, Ax, and neither do you. Jake wasn't as great as you'd like to believe."

At this point the tension in the room was visible and Toby, Erek and the others were all just staring and staying quiet, trying not to get in the middle of an argument between Rachel and Ax.

"That's enough, Rachel." I said sternly as I raised the papers in my hands. We have more important things to do then listen to you disrespect Jake like that and waste our time. Sit back down, we have work to do."

Rachel reluctantly sat back down, cursing under her breath as she did. Great, I thought, I'm going to definitely hear about this later, she's not going to be happy about this. Just another thing that I have to worry about, on top of the million other things I have to worry about.

I let out a sigh as I rubbed my temple, turning to Cassie. "Cassie?" I asked. "Not that I don't want to believe it, but do you really think that you can talk Jake into returning to the team and being leader again? Because the last I heard he still refuses to morph, and to really talk to us at all. You're the only one who he talks to. Do you think you can do it?"

Cassie looked from Rachel to me and smiled. "I do." She said without hesitation.

"Good, because we'll need him." I sat back down and shuffled the papers in my hands. "Anyway, back to business. Ax, Erek, do you two think that you can get those Bug Fighters up and running?"

Ax looked to Erek and Erek nodded. "Yes, I think we'll be able to manage getting them working by the end of next month."

"Next month?" Marco asked. "It's only five Bug Fighters that aren't even in that bad of conditions, why that long?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it it to work on and fix Yeerk technology with our limited Chee technology and your primitive human technology and tools?" Erek asked. Marco just had a blank stare. "I didn't think so."

"That's good, we'll need those ships for air support and to get us to and from where ever we need to go."

I reread over the numbers of new Yeerks and ships that Erik managed to get us. "If no one has anything else to add then we are done here, the Hork-Bajir need to get to their Valley before sunrise and the Yeerks in the YPM need to get back before anyone notices that they're missing. We'll get ahold of you if anything comes up."

Everyone started to leave as Toby came up to me and Cassie. "Tobias, Cassie, if you have any trouble talking Jake into returning to us then I have an idea on how to help him."

Cassie and I looked at each other for a few seconds. "What's that, Toby?"

"Bring him to our Valley if he refuses to rejoin you, I'll take care of it." Without another word she and her fellow Hork-Bajir stepped out the door and into the darkness.

"I wish she'd be more specific." Cassie said. "I've tried almost everything I could think of in order to snap Jake back into reality and to show him that we need him." Cassie's eyes began to tear up.

"Don't worry, Cassie. You're right, he'll be back soon."

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(Author's Note)

Thank you all for reading this first chapter of my new story. If you're confused about what's going on in it then I suggest that you read the first story, #1 The Revenge to figure out what's going on. Anyway, please, let me know how you guys liked this chapter. Leave a comment or PM me if you have any comments, ideas, find any typos or anything. I will be releasing a new chapter every Friday/Saturday so watch for those.

Please let me know if this story should be more serious with some moments of humor or whatever.

If you guys are interested then I have a short One-Shot about Marco insulting Jake about his 'junk'. It's rated M for language, sexual themes and suggestive themes just to let you know.