Extremorphs: Chapter 1
My name is Marco.
And a bullet just lodged itself in my skull.
Now, I know what you're thinking. You're saying to yourself, "Marco, dude, you can't get shot in the head and just keep going. You've gotta be dead. Handsome, granted, but dead."
Well, think again, dear listener, because that bullet barely even slowed me down. How?
I'm just that great.
Also, I was a rhinoceros at the time.
Lemme back up a bit. See, I'm not usually a rhino. That's just a superpower. Like Spiderman! Except Spiderman isn't literally a spider. No, normally, I am Marco, ordinary human male. At least, as ordinary as a handsome genius playboy can get.
But a long time ago, me and four of my friends were granted an incredible power. It was a gift from a dying alien.
It was also a curse.
His name was Elfangor, an Andalite. We stumbled across him by accident when walking through a construction site at night, when his ship crash-landed in front of us. He was dying. But before he died, he talked to us. Told us the truth.
That Earth is being invaded.
And he gave us the power to morph- the ability to acquire the DNA of any living thing, and then literally become that thing.
For two hours at a time, anyway.
See, if you stay in morph for more than two hours, you're stuck in that morph.
Forever.
It happened to Tobias. He's a red-tailed hawk now. I guess he always will be. Fortunately, a being called the Ellimist gave him his morphing abilities back. He even managed to acquire his old human morph, so he can be an ordinary boy again for two hours at a time. But honestly? I think he's happier as a hawk.
So far, none of us have been unlucky enough to get trapped in morph, besides Tobias. "Us" being me, Jake, Rachel, and Cassie.
Jake's my best friend, and we've known each other forever. He's been the unofficial leader of our little band for a while now. The war's starting to take a toll on him, though. I'm waiting for the day he throws in the towel. That, or goes completely nuts.
But Rachel, his cousin, now, she would never go nuts over this. At least, not like the rest of us would. While we're all sick to death of fighting, Rachel loves it. Don't let her Barbie McMissUniverse exterior fool you. Under that blonde, leggy mall rat lies Xena: Warrior Princess.
And her best friend, Cassie, she's just about as opposite Rachel as you can get. She's a short, stocky black girl who wears exclusively denim and bird poop. She takes care of sick or injured animals in her barn, which has proven really useful to us in the past.
And finally, there's Ax. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, to be exact. Don't ask how long it took me to memorize that.
Ax is an alien. An Andalite. Just like Elfangor. In fact, they're brothers, although I think that's just pure coincidence.
We found him in a sunken spacecraft at the bottom of the ocean a while back, and he's been with us ever since. If you wanna know what he looks like, picture a centaur.
Okay, now make him blue.
Okay, now remove the mouth.
Okay, now add stalk eyes,
Now add an enormous scorpion tail in the back that can slice your head off before you see it move.
Yeah, not exactly warm and cuddly.
But neither was I, at the moment. I was a rhino. I wasn't afraid of anything. Which was nice, because there were a lot of people shooting at me.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Bullets ricocheted off sheets of metal, grazed my flank, and yes, one hit me square in the forehead. I barely felt it.
"HREEUUUH!" Rachel, currently an elephant, issued a war cry to whatever poor souls happened to be listening. I saw the vague shadow of a Hork-Bajir get picked up and tossed twenty feet into a brick wall.
Normally, Hork-Bajir look threatening. They're seven feet tall, have beaks and talons, and are covered head-to-toe in blades. But nothing can look intimidating when it's being thrown around like a ragdoll by an African bull elephant.
Marco! Your leg! Tobias yelled in thought-speak.
What about it? I yelled back.
It's gone! he said.
Sure enough, when I went to put my foot down, I stumbled forward. My leg was completely severed.
Marco, get out! Demorph! Demorph! Jake hollered. Everyone get out! This is too much! I turned, as best a rhino can turn, and did a hobble three-legged stomp away.
Ow, ow, ow, I muttered to no one in particular as blood drained from my stump. Rhinos are just about the toughest things on the face of the earth, but nothing can take losing an entire limb and just keep going. My mind was getting fuzzy fast, and I was vaguely aware of something dragging behind me.
Demorph! Cassie cried. Demorph? I thought to myself through the haze. There's people around, I can't...
MARCO! Jake roared. DEMORPH! NOW!
Okay, fine, de… demorph… My head instantly began to clear as the morphing process started to fill me back up with blood. My front legs thinned, stretched, and split, becoming human arms. Fingers emerged, bones split, and a copious amount of bullets fell out of me as I shrank.
The morphing process is never the same each time, though. And unfortunately for me, this time around, my legs were the last thing to go.
"Oh man," I groaned, looking down at my rhino leg, one of which had quickly become a human leg. The other one was still gone. I could see the bone.
Finally, mercifully, my normal, human leg shot out of the stump. I shook off the length of chain link fence I accidentally dragged with me, getting several scratches, and collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily.
Marco, Ax said calmly. The Yeerks are upon us. You do not have time to rest. We must fly as soon as possible.
I groaned again, delirious, too exhausted to come up with a witty remark, and began morphing to osprey.
Oh. Who are the Yeerks? Huh. Well, I'll give you the abridged version.
The Yeerks are, in their natural state, just slugs. Nasty, filthy, evil, hyper-intelligent, spacefaring slugs. They are also the reason I can no longer sleep at night. They're the reason we fear for our lives every minute of every day, and the reason you can't trust anyone, even the people closest to you.
They're also the reason I have to keep trying to kill my mom.
They're an alien race, hell-bent on the destruction of humanity, but not in an "Independence Day" sort of way.
No, the Yeerks are more subtle than that. See, due to some freak of evolution, they can enter other living creatures. They can worm their way through the ear canal and into the brain, where they squeeze and flatten and stretch their putrid bodies, wrapping themselves around the brain.
And once they've done that, there's no coming back. The Yeerk can control you. Completely control. As in, you can't move, speak, breathe, glance at anything without the Yeerk allowing it.
It happened to our vice principal, Chapman.
It happened to Jake's brother, Tom.
And it happened to my mom.
So that's why we've been fighting for over a year now to free humanity. And while we score a victory now and again, it sometimes seems like our efforts are pointless.
So you can understand why I was in a bad mood as I flapped furiously away from the thick trees, Dracon beams firing away, missing us by inches. A hole appeared in Rachel's left wing.
Aaaah! She yelled. I'm hit!
Keep going, Jake said grimly. You'll be fine. Just keep going.
Chapter 2
We met back up at the barn, or the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, as its proper title went. I kind of flopped down on some hay, exhausted.
All clear, reported Tobias, circling down into the loft for a landing.
"Okay. Thanks, Tobias," Jake said wearily.
Cassie was busying herself with trying to stuff a pill down some goose's throat, Rachel was looking at Jake expectantly, and Ax was scanning the barn with his stalk eyes nervously.
We were silent for a moment.
"Alright," said Rachel. "If no one's going to say anything-"
"I'm done," I blurted out.
You could hear a pin drop. Even the goose stopped squawking for a second.
"Marco?" Cassie asked.
"I'm done," I repeated. "Finished. Through. Kaput. This was the final straw. I'm going to go find Dad and live as happily as I can for as long as I can."
I barked out a forced laugh. "Let's face it, people, we're screwed. It's just one close call after another, with no real change, no real victory. And how close I came to dying just now… No, I'm done."
Jake aged about thirty years throughout my little speech.
"You know what, Marco?" Rachel fumed. "I think we're just about done with you too. You're always complaining, and trying to keep us from getting anything done. I say good riddance!"
Cassie started to say something, but Jake held up a hand.
"Look," he said, struggling to form words. "If you want to leave, I won't stop you. But... could you at least think about it? This planet, your family… us… everyone needs you, Marco."
"I don't care!" I yelled.
Marco. You're acting like a child, Tobias said harshly.
Cassie grimaced. "He's right. You were given a power, and a responsibility, whether you like it or not."
I stood with my back to them for a moment, until the inevitable happened: my shoulders slumped, I sighed, and turned back.
"Fine," I said. "Fine. You know me better than I do. Let's just keep on truckin' until we get ourselves killed."
"Okay," said Jake. "Then we need to-" he glanced around. "Uh. Has anyone seen Ax?"
As if on cue, Ax came bounding into the barn. PRINCE JAKE! We immediately doubled over, covering our ears.
"What?!" Jake yelled. Then, as an afterthought, "And don't call me Prince."
YesPrinceJake, Ax rushed through his thought-speak. I'd never heard him talk like this.
I apologize for my excitement.
"Excitement is one word for it," I grumbled.
"Crazy as a bat is another," Rachel chimed in.
You must understand, said Ax, not missing a beat. Up to this point we have been dealing with the Yeerks in a very confined format. If I had realized the potential sooner…
"Ax," I said, patiently as I could. "Buddy. What in the name of Jeff Goldblum are you talking about?"
What is a Jeff Goldblum?
"Uh, never mind. We'll talk about it later."
Of course. I will continue with my previous line of thought. I was feeding on the meadow this morning, when something occurred to me that I simply hadn't considered before. The grass, trees, and all the presumed microscopic lifeforms!
He announced this, beaming, then sat stock still. As if we were supposed to understand what he meant.
"Oh," said Cassie, then her eyes lit up. "Oh! I get it!"
Jake, Rachel, and I all gave her the hurry up and tell us look. Tobias glanced in her direction as well, but hawks don't exactly have expressions.
"Ax is saying that we don't just have to morph animals. There are five other kingdoms we've completely neglected to take advantage of!"
This was met by a full five seconds of stunned silence.
Tobias began to speak, hesitantly. Um… are you saying we could morph… plants?
Cassie was practically shaking with excitement. "No! Not just plants! Anything that's alive! There's so many forms of life we haven't touched yet!"
I started giggling. I couldn't help myself. "Cassie, Ax, no offense, but even if we could, I don't see how turning into a tomato could possibly help defeat the Yeerks."
"Particularly this latest scheme," Jake mused. "Look, we've tried every morph we have to break into this compound. Stealth didn't work, brute force didn't work, not even Hork-Bajir disguises did anything.
We all looked at him expectantly.
"I…" he started. "I don't see how it makes sense for plants, or whatever to be morphable, but I mean… if they could help us…"
Ax stepped forward. Prince Jake, if I may? Any lifeform with DNA is technically morphable. The issues with morphing things dissimilar to oneself arises in the amount of control one may have over the target morph.
Simply put, the more different a morph's mind is over yours, the more difficult it will be to control it. Andalites have gotten lost in morphs before, but I believe desperate times call for desperate measures.
That's a human saying, Tobias noted.
Ax beamed. Thank you. I learned the phrase from my daytime television program Springer.
"Woah, woah, woah," I said. "Ax has been watching Springer? We can't have him learning cuss words. He's only like, what, ten?"
"Marco?" Rachel asked sweetly.
"Uh huh?"
"Shut up."
"You're the boss, Xena."
"Ax," Cassie interrupted. "What exactly did you mean by 'lost in morphs?'"
Ax looked as troubled as a blue centaur-scorpion can look. He shifted his weight from his left hoof to his right.
It's a sort of… loss of the mind. When one becomes too engrossed in a morph, they can completely forget their original identity.
We all tried to avoid looking at Cassie. Something similar happened when she turned into a butterfly a while back.
She cleared her throat, and started talking with fake confidence. "So as long as we don't get lost in morph, we should be fine? There's no reason- no technical reason- you couldn't morph a bacterium?"
Ax shrugged. No.
We all sat there for a minute, absorbing it.
"So." Jake. "Any ideas?"
Chapter 3
"Okay, guys, listen," I started. "I know I say this a lot. I KNOW that. But I really need this to have impact, just this one time."
Jake raised an eyebrow.
"This is insane," I summarized.
We were all staring at a vine. Someone was going to morph a vine.
"This should be long enough," panted Cassie, who'd dragged the enormous plant out of the woods
We all kind of looked at it, nobody wanting to ask the question. Finally, Rachel caved.
"Who's going to morph it?"
Jake gave a little grimace. He was about to volunteer.
I will, came thought speak from Ax and Tobias at the exact same time.
"Okay," I said, laughing. "Chill out, kids. I'll do it."
I looked expectantly at Rachel.
"What?" she said. "I'm not that crazy."
Cassie groaned. "All of you are ridiculous. Look, I'll do it. I don't want to, but I have the best chance of retaining my mind out of any of us."
We couldn't argue with that.
Cassie put her hand on the vine and concentrated.
Her eyes fluttered open after a second. "Okay," she said shakily. "That was weird."
Jake looked worried. "Maybe we shouldn't do this-"
He stopped short. Cassie was giving him a look. "I'll be fine, guys," she said, giving a little smile. "Here goes."
Morphing is never pretty. Nothing in our lives ever are, now that I think about it. But usually, Cassie manages to control the morph a little. Sometimes she even makes it look cool.
Not this time.
Bones cracked and creaked, organs squished, and her skin began to turn a pale green.
Oh, that is so- Tobias yelled. Cassie's face disappeared entirely, and her hair shrank back into her head. At the same time, she began to shrink and her skin sort of braided and roped together.
"Hey, Cassie, you're looking a little hairy there," I said halfheartedly. Truth be told, it was disgusting. Tiny fibers had started to shoot out of what used to be her torso.
Fascinating, Ax said. It seems the main body of the vine is made up of smaller iterations of the larger organism. Like a fractal image.
Yeah, said Tobias, sounding sick. That's really neat, Ax.
Is that sarcasm?
Take a guess.
I was thankful for the banter. It distracted me from the morph, which was mercifully finished.
"Tobias?" Jake asked.
Tobias fluttered down from the rafters, looking at Cassie, who was now an inert length of plant.
Cassie? he asked.
No response.
Cassie!?
Uh… yeah, came the groggy response. We all let out a sigh of relief.
Yeah, I'm here. Man, this thing is… it's nothing. There's nothing here.
"Hey, Cassie, does this make you the very first Vegemorph?" I asked.
I do not believe that is a term used by Andalites or humans, Ax noted.
What term? Cassie asked, who was quickly demorphing.
Tobias sighed. Marco dubbed a new name for us: The Vegemorphs.
"Hm," Cassie said, as her mouth formed.
"What?" I said. "That wasn't good enough for you?"
Perhaps Animorph was a premature label, said Ax. Seeing as we are all able to transform into more than simply animals.
"Alright, fine, you do it next time," I grumbled.
"Aw, Marco, are you worried Ax is going to outdo your comedy genius?"
Rachel, of course.
That seems highly unlikely, Ax noted dryly.
I swear, I don't know if that boy has a sense of humour or not anymore.
"Could we please focus?" Jake said, exasperated. "This is our only window of opportunity for another week. We gotta get this show on the road."
Rachel grinned. "Right," she said.
I groaned. "Rachel…"
"LET'S DO IT!"
Chapter 4
Okay, let's go over the plan one more time, said Jake as we flapped tirelessly through the flat night air. I was dimly aware of the waves crashing on the beach below me.
Seriously, man? I interrupted. This is the fourth time. We know the plan. You've gone over the plan to death. We're so in tune with the plan, we are the plan. It's plans all the way down.
Marco, sighed Cassie. If we went over the plan, it would at least be more useful than your babbling.
There was a moment of silence.
Okay, I conceded. I don't have a comeback to that. That's a good point.
We're here, announced Tobias. He didn't exactly have great night vision, but it was an improvement over our tiny useless seagull eyes. On the plus side, I wasn't constantly noticing half-eaten bags of stale potato chips on the ground.
Wait, where's the gr- Jake started to ask before plummeting into the ground. Ow.
Hey, I wanted to go owl, Rachel grumbled as we circled in for a landing on a sand dune.
Right, said Tobias. Because an owl on a beach wouldn't attract Yeerk attention.
Yeah, it wouldn't, she shot back. That's the point of being an owl. They're like nature's stealth bombers.
Does that mean you try to poop on people from the air? I asked innocently.
The banter really helps calm our nerves before a mission.
"Guys," said Cassie, fully human. "Would you hurry up and demorph? You're just sitting there."
Oh. Right. That.
A moment later, four kids, a bird, and an alien were standing in a circle on a beach, huddled together against the chilly breeze and sea spray.
"Alright, everyone. Time to get small," Jake said. A long time ago, we'd all acquired a fly morph. If you've ever wanted nightmares, well, I know a couple of bug-people who can hook you up.
Rachel was particularly vile today. Her eyes were the first thing to go, and had bulged up way out of proportion, giving her head two massive lumps on either side.
"Aw, Rachel, you look like mrrpgrgrp-" I said as my mouth stretched out and tapered off into a proboscis.
You looked like the dudes from Mars Attacks! I finished in thought-speak.
We're on a mission, Marco, said Jake.
You know, the aliens with the big head lump thingies because of their brains? That's what you look like.
We come in peace, we come in peace, Ax quoted.
See? This guy gets it.
"Okay, climb on," Cassie said once we were done. We all tried our best to find the small of her back. It seemed like the best place for what we were trying to attempt.
Basically, since Cassie could control morphing better than any of us, she should be able to determine where her morph starts and stops. We tested it out in the barn, and surprisingly enough, it worked.
Now came the real test. She started morphing, flies on her back. To the left, said Tobias, overseeing from a distance.
Try again, more to the right.
Okay, that's good. Now you're gonna need to extend to about half your full length. That'll put all of you on the roof.
The landscape shifted and stretched underneath us as Cassie became less human and more plant by the second. As she extended to her full length, the vine began to shoot across the ground.
Suddenly, we were on the world's craziest rollercoaster.
Wooo! yelled Rachel. Flies are really good at holding on to things, but even we were having trouble not falling off of Cassie.
Blurred, fragmented fly vision shapes zoomed past us at the speed of sound.
This was a bad idea! I yelled to no one in particular.
Jake, for his part, was laughing maniacally as we hit the base of the building. The vine quickly shot up the side, roots gripping onto tiny holes in the mortar, taking us with it.
Faaaaster! Rachel yelled in glee.
Slower! I yelled in terror.
You're there, Tobias said, trying to suppress his thought-speak laughter. Feel free to demorph. You're definitely under the force field.
A few minutes later, we were all standing there shakily.
"Okay," I said. "I am not doing that again. That was-"
"Awesome!" Rachel interjected.
I looked up. Above our heads, there was a kind of electric hum. A force field that stopped any birds from landing on the roof. That, combined with the heavy guard, and Gleet Bio-Filters at ground level, made it impossible for any one animal to approach. But a couple of flies, moving at 50 miles per hour on top of a vine, that was a different story. And now we were on the roof.
"Good job, guys," Jake said, catching his breath. "So far, so good. Let's get in."
We all went small and climbed through the air ducts.
Al- -ght, ge- -ing out of ra- -ater, came Tobias' fragmented, out of range thought-speak. No aerial support. That's fine.
Does anyone remember which way we're supposed to go from here? Cassie asked, confused.
Ax immediately responded. We take a left, a right, go straight for three intersections, down one level, left, left again, and out through the grate.
Thanks, Ax.
You are welcome, Prince Jake.
Don't call me- aah, forget it.
Hey, guys. Check this out. Rachel.
Our various insect morphs crawled over to where Rachel's cockroach was feeling around. I had to resist the urge to eat her.
Spiders are like that.
I looked through the vent slats. There were a couple of people talking below. I could make out some vibrations, but not much else.
Can anyone hear what they're saying? I asked.
Yeah... said Jake. Something about stage two. Sounds like they're worried about what-
BAM!
The door flew open, and an all-too familiar voice boomed through our heads.
.
Director! Why have you directly disobeyed my orders?!
Ax made a low growling noise in thought-speak.
Visser Three.
Chapter 5
Even through my fragmented spider eyes, Visser Three still gave me chills to look at.
It doesn't matter how many times we fought him, the resemblance to Ax was unnerving.
Visser Three is the only Andalite-Controller in existence. He's also the only morph-capable Yeerk. You understand how scary that could be.
You have directly disobeyed my orders! he bellowed, not caring who was around to hear his thought-speak.
I could vaguely make out what the humans in the room below were saying. "So sorry, Visser. So sorry. We were not disobeying your orders, we would never! It is simply taking more time than we thought!"
Spiders have a decent sense of smell, but even if I was a human, I could've smelled the fear radiating off the human.
Hmph, said Visser Three. You're lucky I don't chop your head off here and now. I want that report by the end of this week. Am I clear?
"Oh yes, Visser. Very clear. Extremely clear. I won't fail you."
Woah, said Rachel. He was angrier than usual, huh?
Yeah… Jake said, musing. I wonder what about?
Well, if we want to find out, we should get a move on, I suggested.
Agreed, said Cassie. Where are we off to next?
If I may, Prince Jake, Ax interrupted. The document on the table in the room below may help us out.
Document? Jake asked.
I squinted, looking down at the table in the room below. Sure enough, the human scientist left something on the table.
Hey, Ax-man is right. There's some papers in a folder down there. They look important, I said.
This is great! Cassie said. Now we'll finally find out what's going on here!
Yeah, said Rachel. Or maybe it's a record of how Marco was grown in a laboratory.
Rachel, I could literally eat you at any moment.
You've gotta catch me first.
Jake sighed. Guys. Can anyone read the papers?
I squinted. No good. We need to get closer.
Alright, said Jake. I'll crawl through the slat and along the wall and floor. Cockroach should be able to do it.
Ah, Prince Jake. That would be inadvisable. The walls appear to be coated in the same pesticide the Yeerks used in the helicopter.
Can't we just fly down?
There seems to be a strong draft coming from the metal device on the other side of the ceiling. It would push any flying insect into the wall.
Oh.
There was some silence.
Suddenly, I had an idea.
Hey, guys, I said. You ever see Mission Impossible?
Chapter 6
We have been in morph for approximately 24.6 of your minutes, Ax announced as I tried to figure out how my butt worked.
They're everyone's minutes, Ax. And I know, I'm just trying to get the stupid thing to work.
Phoot! Woah! I yelled.
What? said Jake.
Got it. Man, this stuff is thin. Can it hold me?
Marco, spider silk is one of the toughest materials in the world. They sometimes use it in bulletproof vests, said Cassie, sounding a bit exasperated. It's got a frankly ridiculous tensile strength.
Oh, said Ax. I believe I have figured out the webbing ability.
Okay, Marco, Ax, two things, said Jake. One, Marco, please no Spiderman jokes. Two, get going. And be careful.
Isn't that three things? mused Rachel.
So, no Spiderman references allowed? I asked innocently.
Please.
Gotcha.
I immediately set to work spinning a web. I mostly left it to the spider mind. He wanted to do it anyway.
I felt some silk being tugged out of what I later found out was a silk gland. That would be Rachel, Jake, and Cassie, acting like an anchor. Ax and I crawled out to the ledge, and slowly began to lower ourselves down through the air toward the table.
The fan blew us toward the wall, but not enough to set us off course, and definitely not enough to blow us into the pesticide.
I started humming the theme from Mission Impossible. Dun dun dun dun dundun…
Marco, did you know you're an idiot?
Yeah, well, you're a roach. A roach Rachel. Roach-el.
Oh, you'd better not make that a thing.
You have my word, Roach-el.
We are on the table, announced Ax. We will now begin the search.
With some difficulty, I wormed my way under the manilla folder and lifted it up.
Woah, there's a lot of papers here, I announced.
I believe I can read this in a short amount of time, said Ax. We Andalites have superior mental capabilities to humans.
Uh huh, I heard Jake say, a little annoyed at Ax's casual arrogance.
What are we looking for, I asked, flipping papers over and skimming the titles.
Some kind of Yeerk population report… A Controller experiment… here's something called "Project Ares."
Ares? Cassie asked. That's the Greek god of war. You don't suppose…
Ax came skittering over, spider eyes scanning across the page impossibly fast.
Guys! Rachel said. I feel some vibrations. I think someone's coming.
Crap, said Jake. Pull back up.
Not quite yet, Prince Jake. This project is very worrying. I must finish reading it.
Ax! Jake yelled. Put that down and stop reading it. That's an order!
Finished, said Ax.
Let's high-tail it, I said, slamming the folder roughly the way I found it. Jake, Rachel, and Cassie all pulled on our silk, rocketing us backward up through the air as the door flew open. We disappeared into the vent as the scientist blew through the room, looking sweaty and worried. He grabbed the folder and power-walked out.
Ha hah, I cried. That was close.
No kidding, Jake reprimanded. Next time, try not to get us all killed.
So? asked Cassie. What did it say?
We must leave, said Ax. I will explain on the way. Follow me. He skittered off, expertly navigating the dusty hallways.
Project Ares appears to be a colonization plan.
Colonization? asked Rachel, blowing past me on her crazy cockroach legs.
Yes, said Ax. It seems the Yeerks are sick of their reliance on imported Kandrona rays. The plan is to build a permanent Yeerk establishment and Z-space port on a nearby desert planet.
Nearby... started Cassie. Oh! Duh. Project Ares. Ares is the Greek name for Mars.
Wait, Rachel said. The Yeerks are gonna build a base? On Mars?!
It would seem so, said Ax. If they could create a Kandrona factory there, they would never need to rely on the pool again. Almost every Controller could have their own personal Kandrona.
Oh no, Cassie whispered.
Then we've gotta stop this, Jake said, steel in his voice.
Rachel started to say something. So does that mean we're-
BEEP! BEEP! "UNAUTHORIZED LIFEFORM DETECTED! PLEASE CLOSE YOUR EYES TO AVOID PERMANENT RETINAL DAMAGE!" The voice boomed in the vent like a banshee.
Gleet BioFilter! yelled Ax.
RUN! Jake roared.
TSEEEW!
We all turned and scattered in the opposite direction as a blinding flash lit up the corridor behind us.
Everyone okay? Jake asked.
We all sat in the air duct, gasping for air and shaking from our brush with death.
I was dimly aware of alarms sounding all throughout the building.
Okay, that was NOT there when we came in! Rachel cried. Ax, did you lead us in the wrong direction?
I'm… I'm not sure, Ax said, troubled. My sense of direction has never failed me before.
Then, right where we were standing: BEEP! BEEP! "UNAUTHORIZED LIFEFORM DETECTED! PLEASE CLOSE YOUR EYES TO AVOID PERMANENT RETINAL DAMAGE!"
There was a moment of stunned horror from everyone in the duct, before a blinding flash and-
Chapter 7
"AAAH!" Everyone simultaneously yelled, with a slightly quieter AAAH! from Ax and- Tobias? Wait…
I looked around. Everything was a sort of featureless gray, except us. An Andalite, four humans, and a red-tailed hawk.
"If you were wondering about the Bio-Filter, Aximili, that was me. Your sense of direction is intact."
We all spun to see a wizened old man giving us a sort of weary smile.
"Ellimist," Cassie breathed.
"Ellimist," Rachel snarled.
"Ellimist!" I yelped.
"Ellimist," Jake greeted.
Ellimist, Tobias said, in awe.
Ellimist, Ax said, guarded.
"Ellimist," the Ellimist confirmed. "You can rest easy now. I've taken you out of time for the moment."
"Out of-" Rachel sputtered. "Would you stop playing games with us?"
The Ellimist smiled at her. "Afraid not. That's what I do. And, more to the point, what Crayak does."
"Right, Crayak," I said, nodding. "How is the old buzzard? You two go out for coffee recently?"
"Oh, hell-bent on the destruction of life," the Ellimist said casually. "Fortunately, you can help out with this."
He waved his hand, and the scene changed. "The Yeerks are planning a colony on Mars," he said, as the flat gray space was replaced with a red desert stretching as far as the eye could see. On the horizon, like a time lapse video, a massive jagged black metal structure began to rise, smaller structures being built next to it.
"We're… aware, thanks," said Jake, trying his best not to seem awestruck at the scene.
The Ellimist didn't seem to hear him. "If the Yeerks manage to complete the Kandrona factory, it will spell certain doom for humanity."
"We're aware," repeated Jake. "We were trying to figure out a solution to that when you whisked us away."
The Ellimist chortled. "Well, solutions aren't so hard to come by. The trick is to do it with the least direct interference possible. I think you'll find, in this instance, though, a more up-front solution to be necessary."
"What did you have in mind?" asked Cassie.
"Me?" asked the Ellimist. "Nothing, really. I don't have plans for such things. If you wanted to make a plan yourselves, I could certainly help."
Right, said Tobias. I've got a plan. Kill every evil Yeerk without harming any of the hosts, bring back everyone who's died directly or indirectly because of this war, and reunite everyone with their families. While you're at it, why don't you solve world hunger? I think it's pretty obvious you can.
The Ellimist smiled. "I cannot do any of this. But you know that. Think smaller."
We were all silent. No one was exactly sure what to say.
Cassie sighed. "Guys, he's offering to give us passage."
The Ellimist looked surprised. "That was remarkably perceptive. Plainly put, I can take you all to Mars, and leave you with the means to destroy the Kandrona factory. I can take you back. Nothing more."
"Okay," I said. "What's the catch? You always need something in return."
"The catch," he rumbled, expression ever so slightly annoyed, "is that Crayak thought he could annihilate an entire planet without my noticing. This is the trade."
Cassie clapped her hands over her mouth.
"That's awful," she breathed.
"All the more reason to make it count. Now, what will you have me do?" He stared gravely at our little group, making eye contact with all of us at the same time.
Jake looked around hesitantly. "Guys? I don't want to ask anyone to do this, especially after such a tiring mission, but if you want to, this is one of the most important missions we've had in a long time."
Ax bounded forward. I will fight for you, Prince Jake, until you tell me to stop. And then, I will fight harder.
"Well said, Andalite," the Ellimist chimed in.
Cassie took a shaky breath. "I'll go," she said. "Of course I'll go."
Tobias flapped over to Ax and perched on his shoulder. I heard Mars has some crap thermals. Guess I'll have to make do.
Rachel grinned at me and tossed her hair back. "Let's do it," she said.
I sighed. "You know, if there's an afterlife, I'm never gonna let you all hear the end of it when we die horribly in space."
"That's six for six," said the Ellimist. "Off you go."
And just like that, we were back in Cassie's barn.
We were all disoriented for a second, then I sighed. "You know, the first time I met God, I thought it was pretty neat, but I'm just starting to get sick of the guy."
We all looked around expectantly.
Crickets chirped. It was like a movie.
"Well?" Rachel asked to the sky.
YOU HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED.
The voice, it wasn't a voice. It appeared in my head, more like an idea than a voice.
I shook my head. "That's it. We've gone insane. We imagined that whole thing, we've been imagining this whole thing."
"Marco?" asked Cassie.
I ignored her. "Actually, come to think of it, I don't know why I'd think you were imagining it alongside me. It's just me, isn't it? Gods and aliens and animals and Mars?"
"Marco."
"I've gone nuts. Bonkers. Completely catatonic. Batty. Other synonyms for insane. I'm locked up in a rubber room somewhere whistling 'Old Mcdonald' and remembering the war that didn't happen."
"Marco, would you turn around?"
I obliged, and smacked my head into the spaceship.