A/N: Hi everyone. Yes, its another Animorphs fic from me. Don't panic though, I'm still writing Chapters for "As If By Magic." I'm nearly finished the next chapter for it, in fact. I just wanted to try something new. Unfortunately, the best Animorphs character in existence, Erek, isn't going to be a major part of the story :( Just so you know, this story also doesn't tie in with "As If By Magic," so there will be no mention of Tedahko in this story. Just had to make that clear. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Animorphs, as it is copyright of K.A. Applegate.
Keys: (( and )) equals thoughspeech.
Why Marco Should Never Be A Travel Agent
Chapter One – The Trip Ahead
Marco's P.O.V
"I still say, this plan is absolutely insane!" I exclaimed.
"Oh, shut up Marco," Rachel said and then yawned sleepily, "I can't take your whining this early in the morning."
Oh, yeah. My name is Marco by the way. No last name. Why? Well, earth is being invaded by parasitic slugs called Yeerks. Its a long story.
"If you don't want to do it, thats fine. But whatever is going down in France – Its really big," said Erek, "So big, we weren't able to get much information. The whole thing is top-secret."
Maybe I should explain what's going on. Well, about two hours ago, 2am I believe, Jake got a phone call from our resident android, Erek. So here we were, four kids in pajamas, a bird, an alien, and an android, standing in a barn at four in the morning. Nothing unusual about that.
Everybody turned to Jake, as he was our leader and it was up to him whether we were to go ahead with this mission. Jake rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
"I don't know," he said, "what if its a trap?"
"Oh, who cares," Rachel said, "We have dealt with traps before. Besides, we're talking about France here! Shopping!"
"And pretty girls!" I added.
Rachel shot me a dirty look,"Is that all you think about Marco?"
"Back to the point," said Jake, "This plan could either end up working out really well, or going horribly wrong, so..."
(We vote?) Tobias asked from his perch in the rafters.
"Exactly," Jake said, "everyone?"
"I'm in."
"Okay, I guess."
(Yeah, okay.)
(I shall follow whatever my prince shall decided.)
"Let's do it!"
I bet you could guess who said the last one.
"Okay, well, looks like its decided," Jake said, "The Animorphs are going to France."
&
I, the wonderful and talented Marco, was put in charge of finding a suitable flight that we could sneak on in fly morph. Sadly, my current budget stands at twenty bucks, which isn't nearly enough to buy us all return tickets to France.
I think Jake would of rather of have flown normally this once, regarding his experience of being swatted last time we hanged out on an aircraft.
I soon found a flight to France, which was departing in three hours. We let Erek know that we had
to leave in a few hours, and he informed the rest of the Chee so that that a few of them could pose for us.
The Chee that played me keeps on re-arranging and tidying up my room, which gets really annoying. I searched for a month for an overdue library book which I remember leaving under my bed, only to find it on my bookshelf. Can you believe that?
Currently, we were in the barn, chowing down on food before we headed of to the airport as birds of pray. Because let's face it, it was going to be a long flight, and we probably wouldn't get to eat after this until we got to France.
Rachel and I's hand touched the same chicken drum stick at the same time.
"Surrender the chicken, Marco," Rachel growled under her breath.
"Never Xena," I replied. We began playing tug-o-war with the drumstick, but in the end, she won.
(Oh, beaten by a girl,) said Tobias from the rafters as he chewed on... rat. I think. (That must hurt.)
"Hey! But it was unfair!" I complained! "There was this fly... and it... distracted me!"
"Sure it did," Jake said with a smirk as he bit into an apple. This food was courteously of Cassie's fridge. Hopefully we would be gone before her parents found out, leaving the Chee that takes Cassie's place to explain. Yeah, we we're lazy. But could you blame us? We weren't going to be eating for ages after this.
Ax walked in to the barn in human morph.
(Hey Ax-man,) Tobias said, (if you were here a minute early you would of seen Marco lose chicken-o-tug-o-war against Rachel.)
"Tug-o-war?" Ax asked, "Tugggah. Ah. How is it possible to tug a war?"
"Its an expression Ax," I said.
"Yeah, basically it means that Rachel got Marco's chicken drumstick before he did," Jake said.
"I do not understand. I did not think that humans would fight over food."
"Oh yeah, all the time," I said, "even at mall sales." I eyed Rachel.
Rachel narrowed her eyes, "That girl had it coming. Nobody steals my buy."
I then caught Cassie staring at something. Something on Ax's face...
"Ax, please tell me that the brown stuff around your mouth is chocolate," Cassie pleaded.
"Yes. Yes-suh. It is chocolate, Cassie."
Everybody breathed a sigh of relief. When in human morph, Ax tends to eat... well.. weird things. Cigarette butts is one of his favorites, with cinnamon buns at the top of the list.
"I found it on the ground, it appeared to be unwanted. And I know that humans do not like it when others steal from them so..."
Jake choked on a piece of apple and Cassie quickly thumped him on the back until he coughed it up.
"I do not understand, have I done something wrong?" Ax wondered.
"Uh Ax," Rachel said, "You ate dog crap!"
Ax was silent for a minute and then asked innocently, "What is "dog crap?""
&
We morphed and took off into the sky, arriving at the airport about fifteen minutes later. We then demorphed behind some abandoned building opposite the airport.
Jake grabbed at something behind the dumpster and pulled out a bag of clothes. Erek had dropped them there for us. Obviously some people would be suspicious if some kids wearing nothing but spandex were wondering around an airport.
We all quickly got changed then headed over to the airport. There, we headed into the respective rest rooms, and remorphed (or demorphed and remorphed in Ax and Tobias's case,) and exited as flies.
((Okay guys,)) I said in thoughtspeech, ((follow me. I memorized the whole layout of the airport. We're looking for gate 10. ))
((Hear that? Marco actually memorized something,)) Rachel said, ((Too bad he couldn't to that with his history test.))
((Oh Xena, why do you have to be so cruel?)) I asked.
Before Rachel could reply, I spotted the gate with my disorted fly vision. Flys don't have the best of vision. Its kind of like what a gazillion tiny TVs in weird colors. But I spotted the gate all the same.
((Found it.))
((Okay guys, lets go for it,)) said Jake, before adding in darkly, ((and lets try not to get swatted.))
We made a dash for it, six flies, buzzing, dodging and ducking among tourists and travelers alike. Though the distance had seemed to far a way at first, it wasn't long before we had reached the entrance of the terminal.
Once inside the aircraft, we began searching for some way down to the lugagge area.
((I can't find one,)) Cassie said, ((It just... doesn't appear to be here.))
((Keep on looking,)) Jake said, ((There has to be one.))
After another five minutes of looking with our distorted but weirdly colorful fly vision, we had given up.
((Hey look!)) Tobias said, ((There's an out of order sign on the bathroom door. Maybe we could...))
I was going to make a smart remark about this was no time to go to the toilet, but fought against it.
((Ah-uh. No way are we going to live in an out-of-order toilet booth for the next twenty hours. I draw the line.))
((Oh, don't be such a wuss,)) Rachel said.
((Well, looks like we really have no choice,)) Jake said. We flew under the door and demorphed and remorphed one at a time.
((Oh, isn't it glamourous being an Animorph?))
&
This trip was probably the most boring trip of my entire life. I swear, we did nothing but take turns demorphing and remorphing and demorphing and remorphing... Needless to say after the fifth time, I was pretty tired. But I still have some wit in me, and decided to annoy the crap out of the others by telling them totally awesome jokes.
((Shut up,)) Rachel said for the a hundredth time, ((Please, just shut up.))
((Or what?)) I
asked, ((You'll throw me out the window.))
((You never know...))
Tobias said darkly.
((Actually not the window...))
((Then what?))
((La toilette,)) Rachel said. And even though I didn't understand French, I understood.
((Oh, now thats not very nice!)) I complained.
((Cry me a river.))
((Guys, would you please cork it?)) Jake asked, ((Some of us are trying to sleep.))
We were taking it in turns staying awake so the others could get some sleep. I sighed to myself. Well, as much as a fly could sigh anyway. This was going to be a long trip.
&
((Marco, wake up,)) Cassie's thoughspeech voice said.
((Five more minutes...)) I muttered.
((We're here.))
((Wake up or I'll flush you down the toilet,)) said Rachel.
That got me up. I quickly pulled myself out of sleep and we all went zipping out from the toilet booth, out of the aircraft, into the airport, and straight into the bathroom so we could demorph (or, again, demorph and remorph in Tobias and Ax's case.)
Jake, Tobias, Ax and I exited the bathroom. Both Ax and Tobias were in human morph. The girls had beaten us, and were busy staring at our surroundings. I stared too, and immediately noticed something wrong. For one, the writing around the airport wasn't in French, more like some Asian dialect.
"Uh..." I said, "This isn't France, is it?"
"Marco," Rachel said her face barely able to deal with the anger she was obviously feeling a the moment,
"We're in frickin' Japan!"
A/n: Okay everyone, well read and review please. Should I write another chapter? Also, being the lazy I-Can't-Proofread person that I am, please point out any stupid mistakes I have made so I can fix them. One more thing, the last line of the story which was said by Rachel isn't intended to be racial. She's just simply clarifying that they were somewhere they shouldn't be. Okay, well hopefully I'll write another story soon. Feel free to give me constructive criticism!