Author's Note: Hi again! I'm having so much fun writing these, I decided to start another right on the heels of The Weapon. Like The Weapon and The Champion, The Alternative takes place in the same stretch of the invasion – after book 13, and before book 20. If you've read book 41, The Familiar, some of this is going to be..well, familiar, lol. It's similar, but also different in a few major ways. Sounds confusing…you'll see. Enjoy!

The Alternative

Chapter 1

My name is Rachel.

That's all you need to know. You don't need to know my last name. You don't need to know my exact age or my location. Names and places were probably changed at different points in this book. After all, this isn't an autobiography I'm writing. It's a record. A historical record of the war for Earth. Warning – what I'm about to say is going to sound crazy to 99% of you.

I'm not going to waste a bunch of time trying to convince you that the Yeerks are here. They are – whether or not you accept it, they're definitely here. For the sake of argument, let's say that you don't know about the invasion, but you're willing to take my word for it that it's happening. Well, okay then. You're going to need some details.

Yeerks are alien parasites. They've travelled to Earth from God-only-knows how far away, and they came for one reason. You.

Not just you. Me. Everybody you know. Everybody I know. I said the Yeerks are parasites, but let me use a more accurate term – bodysnatchers. The Yeerks are bodysnatchers. They crawl into your head, link up with your brain, and take complete control. As a matter of fact, that's what my friends and I call someone who's been infested – a controller. They can access your memories, and they do a fantastic job of acting exactly like you did before you were a controller. No one knows that it's not you they're buying lunch for, or going to the movies with. No one knows it's a filthy alien that's stolen the body you've had since birth, and is using it to further the secret invasion of our planet.

To our knowledge, there are exactly six beings that resist them. I say six beings, because one of us is not human. The Yeerks aren't the only ones out there. Aximili, or Ax for short, is an Andalite. The Andalites are basically good, but they sort of gave the Yeerks the opportunity to go out into the galaxy, looking for new host bodies. The Yeerks stole Andalite technology, reverse-engineered it, and made their own spaceships and guns and whatever. You'd think that would make stopping the Yeerks priority numero uno for the Andalites, especially since they know the Yeerks are here, on Earth. We're not sure what they're waiting for, but Ax is positive that one day, the Andalites are going to come in, guns blazing, and save the day.

Until that day happens, myself, Ax, and my four human friends are the only thing mildly slowing the Yeerks down. We don't flatter ourselves – we all know that we're pretty much just something for the Yeerks to think about instead of an out-in-the-open threat. The only reason we have any chance at all is because of the morphing power.

Me, my cousin Jake, my best friend Cassie, Jake's partner-in-crime Marco, and this goofy-but-sweet guy named Tobias. We were randomly walking home from the mall together on the night our lives changed. Of course, we took the shortcut home, which happens to be this really creepy abandoned construction site. An Andalite (Ax's big brother, incidentally,) crash-landed his ship right in front of us, then told us about the Yeerks. He was injured, dying, and he wanted to give us a fighting chance. So he gave us each the morphing power, which I guess is the crown jewel of Andalite technology. We can turn into any animal we can touch, and it's the only reason we're not all dead a hundred times over.

Sure, there are drawbacks. Only two hours at a time in morph, or you're pretty much doomed to that body forever. It's happened already – Tobias got trapped in hawk morph just days after we received the power. Due to a trick of time by an uber-powerful being known as the Ellimist, Tobias has both the morphing power and his original human DNA. He made the decision to live as a hawk in order to be able to morph and help us fight. It's probably the single-most greatest act of courage I could think of.

Anyway, recently, we'd discovered and been working with a network of android spies called the Chee. The Chee are incredibly powerful. Unfortunately, their programming simply does not allow violence. I say unfortunately, because in a dangerous, lonely world, the Chee are about the only allies we have. And sometimes having them as an ally is more dangerous than not knowing them at all.

I was minding my own business, walking home from school. For once, Animorphs business was not foremost in my mind. It was Wednesday, the middle of the week, and I was entirely caught up in normal life. I was wondering if I should get ahead of my homework for the week, or put it off and catch up on some TV. I was thinking that, if my mom wasn't home by seven, I was going to order delivery from the new Chinese place, the one that had the awesome spicy peanut butter shrimp.

Just as I noticed a strange Honda parked on my street, in front of Mrs. Sparrow's house, the Honda spoke. "Rachel, come close," the familiar-but-urgent voice said.

I can almost see you rolling your eyes. 'Okay, this chick is already talking about alien invaders, turning into animals, and talking to Japanese imports in chapter one.' I warned you – it's crazy stuff.

I stepped closer to the car, almost leaning on it, and I finally slid inside of the hologram. I saw Erek, our main Chee contact. His normal hologram was that of an everyday guy my age. Inside of his hologram, though, I saw him as he really was – he looked as if he were an exact hybrid of dog and human. Well, if the dog-man stood on its hind legs and was made of metallic-looking bone. Not letting the weirdness factor get to me, I said, "What's up, Erek? This seems like a lot of trouble to say hello."

He nodded humorlessly. "The others are being contacted in pretty much the same way. It was too important to wait." I motioned for him to go on. "The Yeerks aren't waiting until they have the planet under control to begin using its natural resources. The Chee Network has discovered a manufacturing plant at the edge of town, Yeerk-controlled. They are calibrating to begin production of several parts. On the surface, these parts seem harmless or almost useless. The plant will actually be producing several important parts for Yeerk weapons – mainly Bug fighters, but also focusing on technology for Dracon weapons."

I smothered my impatience and tried to keep my voice level. "What are we waiting for?" I was trying to work on my impulsivity – my first instinct, no matter what, is usually to go for it. Going hard and fast was working for us so far.

Erek nodded. I closed my eyes and began to morph into my eagle, but Erek stopped me. "As I said, it's on the edge of town. I can get us there faster."

I stopped trying to morph and looked at him questioningly. "Just because you look like a car doesn't mean you're as fast as one." He smiled, and without waiting for my permission, he picked me up. Cradling me like a baby, his legs started pumping as he ran down the street. It took a few seconds for him to pick up speed, but when we reached the end of my street, we were flying. I would guess we were moving at over a hundred miles per hour, and his legs made whirring noises as we sped up further. "Okay, maybe you are as fast as a car," I yelled, thinking the wind would toss my voice away before Erek heard.

I was wrong – he snickered, an unsettlingly human noise. "Faster," he said. "There are only a few human vehicles that can keep up with me." The whine of his leg hydraulics blurred so fast it became one long, solid tone. My eyes watered from the wind, and I closed them. I tried not to think about what would happen if Erek wiped out – it would be like crashing a motorcycle doing three hundred MPH. Not very long after that, I felt the wind lessen and Erek's leg actuators started sounding more normal.

When the air stopped moving completely, I opened my eyes. "Thanks, Erek. You can set me down," I told him, a little subdued. Like I needed another reminder that Erek could end all of us pretty quickly if he got the idea. Most of my friends were there, and as I watched, a mail truck hurtled toward us. It stopped impossibly fast about five feet away, and the Chee dropped his hologram to reveal himself carrying Marco. Marco's expression went from amused and exhilarated to embarrassed as he saw us, and we wiggled violently until the Chee set him down.

I almost looked away instinctively as I saw Jake absentmindedly taking off his outer clothing, but of course we always went everywhere with morph-friendly clothing under our normal stuff. Anything skin-tight seemed to work. It had seriously cut back on my wardrobe, but I was adapting. Already I had built up a decent collection of great clothes that I could coordinate with a few different morphing suits.

"Okay, so everybody's been filled in on the situation?" Jake asked, obviously calling the meeting officially to order. I felt relieved that we wouldn't have to vote on going in or not – the fact that we were already here told me we were definitely taking immediate action.

(Yeah. What's the plan?) Tobias asked. He sounded committed but tense. Tobias has no problem hitting the Yeerks in the guerilla-style we'd adopted, he just liked things simple. Simple in, do the deed, simple out. Probably because that was how he hunted, quick and efficient. Our style of warfare seemed to be in line with that of nature's design of successful predators.

"Smash and dip," Jake said lightly, as if he were talking about a pick-up basketball game rather than a physical assault on others. "We need size – we're going to have to wreck their machines," he nodded to me, and I took it as the signal to morph.

My elephant morph is terrific. It's a majestic animal, a gentle giant. Well, gentle until someone makes it mad. Then it's a six ton wrecking ball with legs. But actually morphing it? That's a different story.

I thickened and grew. I must have looked like an obese giant for a minute, because I was almost fully elephant before my skin caught up, hardening and graying. Once I fell forward onto all fours, the rest of the transformation caught up. My features turned to that of the African elephant, and I once again started paying attention to Jake.

(Erek says there are maybe twenty controllers in the building right now. They're not expecting us, but they're ready for trouble. They've got at least two Hork-bajir hidden in there somewhere, maybe more. Not to mention they've got armed guards. So whatever this is, it's going to get messy, probably.) He was already in his own battle morph, a tiger.

(So, the actual goal?) Cassie asked, looking for clarification. She was already in wolf morph. She had started after me and had been done sooner. She's an estreen – Ax's word for someone with a bizarre talent for the morphing power.

(We're here to shut them down,) Jake said simply. (I figure we go in, give Rachel a few minutes to destroy their equipment, and get out.)

(Generally just causing trouble, then,) Marco said. He did a King Kong chest-pound that looked pretty impressive, considering he was a silverback gorilla at the moment.

Ax had not morphed. He is definitely as dangerous as most Earth animals as an Andalite – the bladed tail was both powerful and accurate. Jake also likes to keep him as himself as much as possible when fighting the Yeerks – it reinforces their misconception that we're Andalite bandits, not human teens.

(Are we to use deadly force on the controllers?) Ax asked. It was a legitimate question – if the tables were turned, any controller in there would kill us without hesitation.

Jake didn't answer right away, and when he did, he didn't sound real enthusiastic. (If you have to, Ax. I'd prefer to injure or disable, but if you get into a situation that's you or them…well, just use your best judgment.)

"I can keep up the hologram that is hiding you until you move against the building in aggression," Erek told us. I gritted my teeth – he could bust up my afternoon to get us to attack a Yeerk target for him, but he couldn't even hide us once we started.

(Ready?) Jake asked. Everyone edged toward the building, waiting for the order. I reflected that, in a lot of ways, we were becoming like a guerilla warfare unit. When no one answered him, Jake took our silence as consent. (Hit it!) he yelled, and we all took off running toward the factory as Erek's hologram fell.