Jake, in his tiger form, managed to run up to a human and knock him down with a paw swipe. He was raiding the Yeerk Pool right now in order to free his older brother, but Thomas Berenson was not cooperating.
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Tom had been locked in a cage while his slavemaster fed, and when released, went into a futile rage against his master's master. Jake had just barely stopped his brother's unarmed charge on Visser Three. Even the Andalite tail he'd stolen couldn't reach far enough.
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((You won't get away for long, Andalite bandits!)) the Visser raged, as he was wont to do.
((We still have to worry, but we aren't Andalites,)) Marco the gorilla whispered to his rapidly retreating comrades.
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((In desperation, an Andalite warrior clinging to life gave five humans the power to morph,)) Jake explained. ((One of whom was your younger brother.))
"So it was you riding to my rescue," Tom said, his first words as a free man, an ability lost when becoming a full member of The Sharing. Jake's natural body was nightmarishly coalescing out of that of the tiger. "Thank you," his big brother cried.
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He took in the scene around him. "Apparently Marco knows something about gorilla warfare," he said to someone who knew how to appreciate bad jokes. "Cass is definitely a workhorse," Tom added, referring to the only one not looking like a monster while reassuming human form.
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"Tobias! Demorph!" Jake said anxiously to their fifth.
((It's too late,)) the bird whispered. He had left earlier for this mission, and hid longer during it before making his escape. That was the curse of the gift – those assuming a form for more than two hours were stuck in it. ((This is who I am now. Worse things to be than a red-tailed hawk.))
"Like a bullied orphan?" Tom guessed of one of his brother's close friends. That brought an awkward silence, and all involved left it at that.
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There was nothing odd about the five walking together to Cassie's home with a bird flying overhead. However, the conversation was most highly unusual. The Animorphs were happy they'd freed Tom. Some of the other humans had run off. More's the pity, since most other free humans would call them insane if attempting to recount their stories. Some had died, and the Animorphs didn't want to dwell on how that compared to being a Controller.
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The Animorphs realized that they had obtained a very valuable source of intelligence on the Yeerks. "They take our parents?" Jake worried.
"Hell no," a relieved Tom said. "But the filshiging dapsens behind The Sharing wanted me to recruit them too." The Sharing was a Yeerk front organization. The Yeerk in Tom's head insisted that Jake go. Jake knew better. Apparently many people didn't. Tom had resisted, but the Yeerks had taken him anyway. The Yeerks tried to talk people into becoming their hosts. What sort of sad person would fall prey to that?
((Could've been me, but Jake had my back,)) Tobias said. Jake and Tobias had become friends when Jake caught two guys giving Tobias a swirlie. Such abuse might have led Tobias to join The Sharing, where he would've been protected, though at a terrible price.
The Sharing was run by Hedrick Chapman, vice principal at their middle school. He'd ensure it was the Yeerks' job to abuse them, not petty school punks. How many of their classmates had taken that path? That was one of the most harrowing parts of this fight. Anybody could be a Controller, acting normally except when directly involved in Yeerk activities. Temrash one-one-four, the Yeerk that had been in Tom's head, had done his best to act like Tom's normal self.
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"What are filshiging dapsens anyway?" Marco wondered.
"It's Yeerk for motherfucking assholes," Tom explained.
"So you made sure to learn the curse words?" Marco said.
"I used to do that with Earth languages, pieza de merda," Tom went on.
"It's pedazo de mierda," Marco explained, giving better Spanish for 'piece of shit'. He probably didn't learn that at home, though his mother is Latina, Jake thought. Was. She disappeared nearly two years ago. Her body was never found, just the wreckage of the family boat.
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They arrived at Cassie's barn and could now talk more freely. "People will wonder why I quit The Sharing," Tom warned.
"Our parents can know, but nobody else can," Jake suggested.
"It's not just that. If anybody sees me, they'll know I escaped. Then they might find the rest of us. If I lie low, they might think I got killed trying to run away," Tom countered. Visser Three had morphed some sort of octopus hellbeast that spat fireballs.
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"Can't much file a missing persons report, you know as well as I do that the cops are full of Controllers," Tom pointed out
"As if the LAPD couldn't get any more obnoxious," Cassie spat out.
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"So some idiot teenagers with a death wish are our best hope. This is some Red Dawn shit," Marco observed.
"Hope we're at least the 1984 version and not the 2012 one," Tom retorted.
"We could acquire wolverine morphs," Cassie suggested diplomatically.
"Could I?" Tom wondered.
"We can't grant the power. The device the Andalite used to grant it to us probably got vaporized along with the rest of his stuff," Jake admitted. "But you could give us advice on how to counter-infiltrate The Sharing. Let's see how they like a taste of their own medicine!"
"Hell yeah! Not only that, but intel on other Yeerk activities," Tom said with righteous fury. The Andalite would've been proud of the anger that seeped out of his tone in saying 'Yeerk'.
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It wouldn't surprise people to know Tom played basketball, at least he had before The Sharing. Jake had once feared reporting he hadn't made the middle school team. That had been about his last normal thought. "Maybe I could still make a decent college team if this ever ends," Tom hoped.
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"I always thought Cousin Rachel could be a bear and Marco was a dumb ape. You sure know how to pick 'em, midget." Jake was hardly a small boy, but still not as imposing as Tom, and the nickname had carried over from when they were younger. "At least it's not Cassie calling you that," Tom whispered. Once that sunk in, the boys got loud and Jake got red.
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Jake cared not one whit for the teasing, and he doubted the targets did either. It was coming from the real Tom, not a Yeerk mind control slug infesting his head, not any more. Having Tom back offered a better chance to beat those who had taken him.