The D1 Effect- Chapter 4

As told by Jake

I still couldn't believe my luck in "escaping" from the prison that held us. I was free! Free at last. But, as the Ellimist said, we had a mission to do. I stepped into the blue portal and plunged into a black and white swirling vortex.

**********************

"Ugghh," someone moaned. It could have been me but I was pracitacally dead.

Just lying there, I could tell that we were in a very rocky place. Very rocky. A light wind began blowing by us, and it actually felt good on several cut and bruises that made their way onto my body. I fluttered my eyelids to see a very interesting place.

The planet that we were on was very barren, rocky and, well, red. You know, kinda like Mars, except for the fact that the air was breathable and tiny shrubs grew in between the rocks. We were on a vast, rocky plains that seemed to strech on forever in front of us, but some mountains lay behind me, and it looked like some caves were there too.

I turned over to my right and I saw all of us together again. You don't know what it means to be happy as a human to see your freinds agains after 2 months isolation. I was ready to hug them all, but I restrained and started to get up to wake them.

"Urgh," I mumbled as I got up. My back hurt tremendously, and it seemed like forever until I stood upright. I walked, or more accuratly, I limped over to wake Cassie.

"Cassie," I called weakly. She slowly opened her eyes and stared at me. "Ready?" I asked.

"For what? Oh, humans, save, got it," she mumbled. I went on to everyone and woke them up as best I could, but it still took us 1 hour to all get up and start heading for the caves for no apparent reason. The problem was that I had no shoes, so it was quite a journey just to walk about 100 feet. I cursed several hundred times as my feet had several thousend cuts.

"You could morph," Rachel suggested, grogily. I had considered it many times before, but what morph did I have that could walk on these rocks? Maybe I could morph parigrine falcon and soar with Tobias, but even he was struggleing to keep aloft.

Damn, no thermals! He complained every 5 minutes.

It was a sad chapter in Animorphs history.

Eventually, however, by some magical means that will forever remain mysterious, we made it to the back mouth of a large system of caverns, stretching throughout the mountains. Ax was looking slightly nervous.

It appears that these caverns that are here are too hollowed, and the mountain's weight will cave in. Ax said, a bit shaken for no reason.

"I dunno, it looks to be stable, and if these caves have been here a while, they probably won't cave in now." Marco said, looking over the mountain.

"Could cave in thought, there's alway that chance," Cassie said.

After about a ten minute talk about weather it would cave in or not, we somehow unanamously agreed to explore the caves and see what exactly were we up against. This time, we all had to morph, except Ax, because the ground was simply way too rocky and sharp. I "went" tiger, and everone else did their battle morphs. Tobias couldn't decide what to morph, so he just morphed a seagul, which was better than a hawk in confined spaces.

Hey, what's that? Cassie asked.

What's that? Marco replied.

I hear something. Dracon beams! And some othere thing which I've never heard before, like shredders, but somehow differant.

I strained my tigers ears to hear what Casie was talking about. Yes, I could hear dracon beams and that other form of fire.

Could that other fire be the humans? Rachel asked.

It's possible, Ax said. He seemed a bit angry, because the Ellimist told us that the humans of the current time were more advanced than even the andalites.

Well, let's go see what it is! The giddy, battle ready grizzly bear said. Rachel had almost too much bloodlust.

We galloped through the caves in a horrific mixture of feathers, fur, teeth and sheer strength. The Animorph zoo, as Marco once called it. We careemed through the caves until we finally saw what exactly were we up against. And it was too much.

What we saw was something that we never had dreamed of. An arm of about 55 hork-bajir we fireing the dracon beams madly at an army of about 10, 7-foot tall androids. But, there was a certain grace about these androids that could only make them human. Were these the humans of today? No, humanity would never turn themselfs into weird, mechanical freaks of nature, or would they?

Whoa, get a loud of those! Tobias gaped, or did his best to gape in the seagul morph. He couldn't be more right.

The weird androids were fireing laser beams so quickly that it was blinding to the eye. It seemed as is they were walking machine guns, ready to plow through anything. But, alas, they weren't doing that great a job at annhilating the hork-bajir. In fact, on the contrary. The hork-bajir were annhilating the androids.

Guys, we gotta split and find the leaders of these guys, Marco said.

Right on it, I responded starting to sprint behind the loosing androids. Pandemoninum! Lasers fireing everywhere, and I couldn't even see what the heck my freinds were doing, even though they were pracically right next to me. Why the heck would the Ellimist send us against this huge of an army? Even with the killer androids? It was insane.

I don't know how we did it, but after a several minutes of near-hits and laser needles being sprayed all across the room, we managed to get to the safer side of the entryway, and to a larger tunnel which branched off into several rooms. We all decided that the humans wouldn't exactly welcome a heard of animals to save their butts, so we decided to demorph to human. Exept Ax, who I thought would be OK in his normal form, and Tobias who morphed human. All of us had no shoes, but the ground was paved with some sort of tile, and it didn't hurt to walk.

Prince Jake, I hear something coming from the Northwest room. It, no, it can't be. I would estimate it being 53 feet long!

"Holy shit, 53 feet?" I cursed.

Yes, now I can see it! It's, well, reptilian. I'm geussing it would resemble the Earthen crocodile!

"What!? A 53 foot crocodile? Only one thing to say, they've perfected nuclear mutation."

No, humans could never- Ax cut himself off, looking angry, It's possible.

"Well, we can take hints, they don't want us back there. Let's explore some more," Tobias said.

"No can do." Rachel said, looking stunned.

"What?"

"Cause we'll all be dead within 5 seconds, if we are lucky. This crocodile thinks we are ordirves."

"What the-" I stared, mouth open at the site at the edge of the dark tunnel.

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As told by John Leeroy

I saw them. A new scent, a new prey. More in quantity than the other creature, but not as large. But they smelled much tastier. I lunged at them with all my 20 ton mass.

One of them jumped, barely in time, and landed on my back. MY back! I furiously tried to throw the creature off, but it stayed on. I couldn't allow this. I had to eat it. Eat it. Possessed. I had to eat that creature. Hunger was chewing at my stomach. Must eat....

Ahhhhhh!! I screamed, finally realizing that I was a human being inside the body of the huge croc. The way too huge croc. But, I wasn't as shocked as the gril on top of me. She leaped off, and backed away towards her freinds.

"Whoa, now, is it just me, or are these some humans that have gone through some seroious changes," The hispanic teenager said.

We've evolved a bit, but this is nuts, I said, still shocked at the thought of me ready to eat them.

I started to demorph. It didn't matter that they saw me, anyway, I though them to be the Animorphs. They were wearing 400 year old clothing, for one. Plus, they were slightly taller than the normal teenager.

"Okay, let's see, humans can now morph, right?" The dark-skinned one said.

"Well, not exactly. Just invented it, about 10 minutes ago."

Humans inventing morphing technology! Impossible! The andalite said. We always had grudges against other dominants, and this was no differant.

"Yes, it is possible. In fact, we just started working on it two hours ago. We humans are as technologically weak, as you say. Andalites were so arrogant," I scoffed.

The andalite's tail twitched, but did not strike. He knew if he stuck, he'd be up against the entire bio-bot army. And no one whats to be alone against 20 bio bots.

"Well, let's see. Hi, my name is Jake, these are my freinds Marco, Cassie, Rachel, Tobias and Ax. We are, as you probabbly have guessed, the Animorphs."

I shook his hand, a greeting which was somewhat outdated, but still frequently used. "My name is John Leeroy of Mars, and you are meeting the head of the exploration and navigation squad on the Utopia. Just call me Condor."

We stared at each other for a few moments. Their leader, Jake, then spoke, "So, what's with the super-sized croc?"

"Well, I took a re-created DNA sample of one of Earth's dangerous creatures. Then, I morphed it. I have no clue as to how a 'croc', as you put it, got to be that large.

The tall, dirty blond male, or Tobias, then said, "I might know what it really is.

"What?" The girl who jumped on me, Rachel, asked.

"Well, remember the Sario Rip when we went back to the Cretatious Period?"

It suddenly made sense. "Ah ha! The sample doesn't have to be from this era! It could have been a giant crocodile from the Cretatious Period!" I said.

The andalite looked angry, "How could you possibly know about the Sar- He caught himself. Obviously, he was not used to haveing humans more technologically stronger.

"Could be," Marco said.

Out of nowhere, a huge creature came charging in. It was mamilian, and it was a large feline, but that was practically all I could tell about it. Other than it had enourmous incisers. The thing started to demorph into the familiar form of Pete.

"Well, may I intorduce the leader of the morph-capable humans of the 25th centuray, Pete Quin. By the way, what was that you morphed?"

"These are the Animorphs, no?" The teens nodded. "Well, not the kinda group you'd expect. But, still, looks can be decieving. Oh, and I'm guessing that was a smiledon, a type of ice-age feline. Apparently, the DNA samples could be from any age."

Prince Jake, the battle is moving this way! The andalite called out to the leader, Jake.

"Got that, battle morphs everyone!" Jake said.

I was surprised at the will of these kids. They almost sighed as they slowly changed into a various assorment of Earth animals that I couldn't tell you what they were to save my life. I decided that Pete and me should morph as well, so within a few minutes, we were ready.

I found it easier to control the crocodile's instincts, but alas, it was still difficult. I swished my tail. I grinned an evil grin. Bloodlust. That's what they used to call it. The yearning of blood and battle. And nothing could stop me.

The brown-furred creature let out a roar. Let's do it!

And so we charged.

A/N: We find out what the D1 Effect really is is the next installment! And, please review. Thanks.