My name is Marco.
TSEEW!
And I am currently in the middle of a battle.
Oh, don't look so shocked. My friends and I do this sort of thing all the time. It's really fun, actually. I mean, first you find out some top-secret plan for world domination, then you think up some way to screw up said plan without getting killed, and finally you turn into a gorilla and beat the mess out of whatever attacks you.
Well, I was a gorilla. My friends were tigers, elephants, wolves, hawks, and aliens. We aren't really animals, though. We're humans. Except for the alien. He's just an alien.
Confused? Me, too, and this is my life! Here, I'll give you an explanation.
See, about two years ago me, my best bud Jake, Jake's extremely gorgeous cousin Rachel, Rachel's friend Cassie, and this other guy named Tobias all were walking home one night from a day at the mall. We decided to walk through an abandoned construction site. You know, as a shortcut. IMPORTANT NOTE: DON'T EVER DO THIS! IT IS BAD!
Right, so, we were all walking through this construction site when this big ole friggin' spaceship lands in front of us. The thing opens up and out steps an alien. Shortcut, spaceship, alien. You following so far? Good.
Now this alien- he's called an Andalite, apparently- tells us that Earth is being invaded by mind controlling slugs. He tells us some other stuff, too, but we're all wetting our pants at this point so I can't recall exactly what was said. Then he gave us a weapon: the power to morph.
'Morphing' is when you change your body from one shape to another. That's how the Animorphs (that's us- animorph, animal morpher) fight the Yeerks. The Yeerks are the mind-controlling slugs.
After we got this power, the alien got eaten by the leader of the Yeerks. More stuff happened (like Tobias getting trapped in the body of a red-tailed hawk and then regaining his morphing powers, or the addition of the alien's little brother Ax to our team) and now we're in battle again! Yay!
Marco, stop daydreaming and get your butt in gear! growled Rachel. She was currently a elephant.
I nodded my big gorilla head as I knocked a human controller unconscious. A controller is what we call someone who has been infested by a Yeerk. Controllers are literally slaves in their own bodies. A small silver cylinder rolled from the controller's hand. That would be a Dracon Beam. Think ray gun.
I jacked the handheld weapon and switched it to its lowest setting. Hah! Opposable thumbs rock. My big gorilla hands clutched the familiar tool and aimed.
TSEEW!
One controller fell to the floor, knocked out.
A few more 'TSEEW's later and the ground was littered with K.O.'d bodies. Boo, suckas!
After that I ditched the Dracon and went back to brute strength. I plowed through the rest of the Human-Controllers and joined Cassie (the wolf-girl) in her struggles. Her tiny grey body flew in and out of the fray, biting and clawing anything within her reach. I noticed that she was tiring, so I decide to help her out with some of the bigger opponents. She had about half a dozen Hork-Bajir coming after her, so I focused on them.
Hork-Bajir are aliens, like the Yeerks and the Andalites. There's a surprisingly large amount of extra-terrestrial species crawling around the universe. Taxxons, Gedd, Iskoort… the list goes on and on. And those are just the ones I know of.
Anyway, there were about six Hork-Bajir when I started. One quick punch and then there were five. God, I love being a gorilla.
I made short work of another one and slammed the bladed skulls of two more together.
The next guy proved to be a bit of a challenge. He was big - even for a Hork-Bajir. I mean, normally their about seven feet tall, but I swear this dude was pushing nine. And he had muscles. Big muscles. Muscles that you wouldn't even find on a professional linebacker.
I steeled myself and slammed a clenched fist into his chest. Pulled it away shakily.
Owchie…
The massive alien didn't even flinch. I, on the other hand, had just broken my hand in a variety of places.
Um… A bit of help here, guys? I called out nervously.
No one answered, seeing as they all had their own opponents to deal with. Aw man, why did I leave the Dracon beam?
I backed away from Muscles slowly, my subconscious giving me tips the whole time. Please head towards the nearest exist in an orderly fashion. Something-something in Spanish, por favor.
I agreed wholeheartedly with myself. Unfortunately, the ever-popular 'run away screaming' plan was quickly slammed to a jarring halt. Literally. It would appear that some SOB of an architect had decided that it might be a good idea to place a wall directly behind me. A long, stone wall that I couldn't punch through or get around easily. Aw, crap.
I closed my eyes as the Hork-Bajir raised its giant bladed arm.
TSEEW!
I opened my eyes and found the Hork-Bajir looking down and trying to figure out where the gaping hole in his gut had just come from. He didn't get much time to ponder this new turn of events before he fell over, dead. Let's bow our heads and partake in a moment of silence.
Not.
Behind the fallen alien was another alien. This one wasn't a Hork-Bajir, although he did have a blade. It was on his tail, though, which was connected to the rest of his somewhat centaur-esque body. Only he was covered in a mess of blue fur. And he had four eyes, two of which sat on these funky stalk-like things. And he had no mouth. My friends, please say hello to your very first Andalite.
Thanks, Ax, I said shakily.
You're welcome, Marco, he replied, smiling with his eyes in that weird way of his species. He threw the Dracon beam he had used over his shoulder in a very human-like manner. It hit a human-controller in the head, and he fell twitching to the ground. Is that all of them?
I tilted my shaggy gorilla head as I tried to recall. Well, there were six after Cassie, and we got… five. Just then, a wolf howled in pain. I said something I won't repeat. Ax and I both scanned the battle frantically, searching for Cassie. Then I saw her. Oh man, I thought, Oh man oh man ohmanohmanohman…
Cassie's limp wolf form lay in a heap, the missing Hork-Bajir standing next to her. Blood was flowing freely from a gash in her stomach, and I could see her insides threatening to spill out. Nearby, the Taxxons she had been fighting swarmed closer to her mangled body, the scent of blood and fresh meat thick in whatever they had that passed for noses. Jake! I shouted as I ambled over to her as fast as a gorilla could. Ax came charging right behind me. Cassie's down!
How bad is it? he called to me from wherever he was fighting. Worry tinged his voice, and guilt surged through me. I may have just killed my best friend's almost-girlfriend.
Fortunately, Ax reached her then and checked for a pulse. She's alive, but barely. What should we do, Prince Jake? Ax calls Jake 'Prince', by the way. It's some sort of Andalite respect issue or something, I guess.
Cassie! Jake called. She didn't answer him, so he tried again a bit more desperately. Cassie! Can you hear me?
Nrgg, Jake? Wha'ppened? Cassie's thoughtspeak voice slurred.
Marco, get her out of here! Jake ordered. Rachel, are you finished yet?
An elephant trumpeted from the other side of the Yeerk facility and held up and oblong cylinder in its trunk. Got it! Rachel hollered triumphantly.
Good. Everyone, get out! Tobias, get in position outside, Jake barked out. We all did as he said as fast as we could. Jake's our leader, if you couldn't figure that out by now.
The moment we were clear of the complex, the entire area exploded. Hehe, laughed Tobias somewhat maniacally, a trigger-wire clutched in his talons. Birdie made a big boom.
Note to self, I thought in the back of my mind, Prolonged exposure to Rachel may lead to loss of sanity. Out loud (relatively speaking), I said, Can we focus? Cassie's dying here, people!
Cassie, demorph! Jake said frantically.
Can't, she murmured back, They'll see me.
Nobody's here, Tobias assured her.
Oh… okay… We watched with bated breath as Cassie fell silent. I mentally sighed in relief as her body began to change back into her human form. As I watched, her spilled intestines seemed to wither away on the ground. With a sickening pop, her hind legs reversed direction and became knees. Her tail and muzzle withdrew into her body, and the gray fur followed suit. She now looked like a perfectly normal human girl who happened to have a pair of triangular ears on top of her head. Finally, the ears fell back into their normal positions, and a human Cassie was now lying unconscious on the ground.
Alright, Jake said. I think everybody caught the relief in his voice. Alright, let's demorph.
I concentrated on my own body. It's a cute body, if I may say so myself. I've got that whole sexy latino thing going on. You know, with the dark and sensitive eyes and the luxurious black hair and all. People say that I'm short, but that's not the whole truth. I'm just conveniently packaged. Like the chocolate bars – 'fun size'. And the ladies love chocolate, if you catch my drift.
Anyway, I concentrated on my own body and felt the changes begin. The first thing to change was my black fur. It receded completely into my body, leaving me looking like one of those hairless cats, only gorilla-shaped. After that, I shrank down to my normal height. My legs lengthened and my arms shortened to human proportions. I now looked like my normal self, save for one final detail. My hair grew out of my head and fell down to my ears. I ran a hand through it lovingly. Gorilla fur is nice and all, but there's nothing better than Pantene Pro-V'd hair.
I grinned once the morphing was completed. "It's great to be gorgeous again," I said.
Rachel barked out a laugh. "You're implying that you once were?"
My grin didn't fade, though I think it got a bit cheekier. "Regardless of that, I notice that you're not denying my current attractiveness."
"Knock it off, you two," said Jake quietly. It was testament to his natural leadership that we both shut up immediately. Jake's the sort of guy who doesn't yell a lot, but you feel like you should listen to him anyway. He walked over to Cassie and knelt beside her. His eyes didn't leave her face, even though he was once again speaking to the rest of us. "Okay, guys, here's what needs to happen. The information in that container needs to be extracted and copied at Ax's place. Then it needs to be sent to the Chee's computers so that we can properly take it apart. We will not – I repeat, we will not – do anything to jeopardize the contents of that core. That thing needs to be handled with the utmost caution, and all info transfers will be by hand until we get to Erek's. Since Cassie's clearly in no state to complete the mission, Tobias, you'll have to take Marco through the forest at ground level. By now the Yeerks will have responded to the explosion, so be careful. The Visser hasn't shown up yet, but he may come later. Remember, that information is important, but not as important as you guys. Don't screw up, but don't do anything stupid either."
We all nodded and made to split up. My job was to get the data out of the 'safebox' cylinder and stick it onto a disc and deliver it to Ax, who would have set up the computer in relative peace at the Chee's underground park. Then, finally, we would get the information on it. Information on the Yeerks plans to move operations overseas.
Obviously, that couldn't happen. But everything had been going well so far, and it looked like our luck would hold.
"Stay away from that girl!" somebody shouted suddenly.
We froze, and I cursed myself. I should have known better – the only luck the Animorphs had was bad.