Animorphs 2.0: Novamorphs Generation
Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs. I do, however, own this story.
Summary: Something intervened when Jake gave the order to ram the Blade ship. The Animorphs found themselves back on Earth with a freed Ax, a resurrected Rachel, and a human Tobias. They tried to find out what had happened, in the meantime growing up and having kids of their own. Now the kids must fight against a new Yeerk menace by themselves because letting the public know would lead to Earth's destruction at the hands of an entity even more powerful than the Ellimist and Crayak.
Novamorphs #1: The Infestation
Chapter 1
My name is Alex. That's all I can tell you. For all you know, Alex may not even be my real name. You see, the Yeerks are back. I can't trust anyone outside of our little group of friends. We are the Novamorphs, and we are determined to stop the Yeerks like the original Animorphs did.
It started the day we got our morphing licenses. We'd passed the test that would determine if we could use the morphing technology and were hanging out in my mom's barn. In the middle of the barn, there was a Zero-Space radio. We were sitting in chairs arranged in a semicircle around it. On the screen was a mouthless face covered in purplish-blue fur with two almond-shaped eyes, three vertical slits in place of a nose, and two stalks coming out of her head. One the end of each stalk was an eye.
"We did it, Aldrea. We passed our morphing tests with flying colors. Class Three clearance right off the bat. Two-and-a-half years without any problems related to the morphing tech and we'll be eligible to apply for Class Four." I said. Perhaps I should explain. Morphing technology was given to Earth's general (non-military) population in exchange for a Krispy Kreme franchise on the Andalite Homeworld. The governments of the world set up a system to limit morphing. You have to apply for a morphing license, which you can do when you turn 13, with varying levels of clearance. Class One clearance allows you to acquire harmless Earth creatures like worms, slugs, snails, that kind of thing. Class Two has the addition of species, both earthly and alien, that aren't harmless, but are non-lethal. Class Three, the highest you can get when you first pass, allows for virtually all non-lethals and some non-lethal sentients. Class Four, available only after two-and-a-half years of Class Three without any morph-related offenses or by special recommendation, allows you all non-lethals, both earthly and alien, a large amount of sentients, and some potentially lethal species. Class Five is divided into two categories: Limited and Unlimited, both of which are available only to military personnel. Class Five Limited allows for most sentients and other creatures, with several more potentially lethal species. Class Five Unlimited is essentially whatever morphs you want. To enforce this, each person given the morphing tech is implanted with a subcutaneous chip that records what morphs you acquire. If the morph is outside you clearance, they take you in and perform a procedure that causes an allergy to the DNA, resulting in the DNA being "burped" out of your body, which removes your ability to morph that creature. The chip also records the number of times you morph, which morph you use, when you use it, and for how long. To prevent the chip from breaking out of your body when you morph something smaller than the chip, the chip is designed to be shunted into Z-Space with the rest of the extra mass, and to return when you morph back to human.
((I am glad that you now have the morphing ability.)) Aldrea replied. At the moment, she was on an Andalite patrol ship that patrolled the Z-space corridor between Earth and the Andalite Homeworld. The ship was due to land on Earth for a few days and give its crew some vacation time. It was supposed to arrive today, if Z-Space hadn't reconfigured.
"Hey, I keep forgetting which level of morph clearance you have, Aldrea." I said.
((The Andalite Military does not use the morph clearance system the humans use.)) Aldrea replied. At one point, Andalite females wouldn't normally have been allowed in their military at the end of the first Yeerk War, but Hillary Clinton had begun advocating the right of Andalite females to serve in the military, and the Andalites, fearing that Earth would turn against them if they didn't allow females in their military, gave in, although somewhat reluctantly.
"Hey, how long until your ship lands?" That was Jarad, my best friend. He had been named for Jara Hamee, first of the free Hork-Bajir.
((I will be on Earth in approximately three Earth hours, Jarad.))
"Sounds good. Gives us time to acquire morphs so we can go out and get used to it." That was Darren, my other best friend and resident troublemaker. We'd all known what morphs he intended to get. He wanted a monkey. And a mole.
"Good to hear from you again, Aldrea." That was my sister, Kendra. "Remember, you and I still have some shopping to do."
((I remember, Kendra.))
"And don't forget, if you behave yourself during the stay here, I'll buy you a couple of dozen cinnamon buns from the Cinnabon." Laurie said. She was Jarad's sister.
((Well, I shall see you all soon. I must go now. Captain-Prince Faran-Khaleed-Midzure is requesting that all arisths report to him for one final briefing on proper human behavior so as to avoid any problems.))
"Bye." I said. The others waved and said other goodbyes.
I clicked off the Z-Space transponder, then looked at the others. "Lets head to The Gardens' Morph Acquisition Center and see what animals they have that are on our clearance level." I said, heading out of the barn. My Mom already had the car ready. She'd known we'd wanted to get our first morphs the same day we passed the test.
We drove to The Gardens, the awesome amusement park/zoo that now housed the town's Morph Acquisition Center, or MAC, where various creatures available for morphing were held. Certain alien species were also available there, though you usually had to go to a county or even a state MAC for a lot of the better alien species.
When we arrived, my mom showed us through security and into the MAC. It was a fairly large building. If you wanted to acquire a morph that would be hard to get in nature, you put in a request to the front desk, and then were taken to one of the rooms where the acquisition took place. The animal(s) you had requested were led into the room through passageways behind the walls. Once there, if it was dangerous, the animal to be acquired was given a sedative and two guards always stood ready with tranquilizer guns in case the animal tried to escape. Then you simply walked up to the animal, put your hand on it, and acquired it.
Us five kids each took a clipboard with the animal request form on it. You could fit five requests on one form. I went to a seat and sat down, tapping the pen against the clipboard as I thought. I wanted a bird morph, of course. I decided to go with a seagull. I then proceeded to write down my other requests. They included: Dolphin, Thompson's gazelle, bat, and my own personal favorite, the chameleon. As much as I wanted a wolf, they were definitely Class Four. All the battle morphs used by the Animorphs were Class Four, and I wouldn't have that level of clearance for two-and-a-half years unless someone put a letter of recommendation forward.
A few minutes after I turned in the form, I was called in. I followed one of the caretakers into a room, and watched as a seagull was brought in. It was properly sedated, and I reached out my hand and touched it, concentrating on its DNA. A few moments later, I acquired it. The next few animals were brought in, except for the dolphin. They had a special tank room for the aquatic species that people might want to acquire. After I had my four other choices, I was led into the tank room, where the dolphin was already waiting.
After I had the morphs, I was led back out. By the door leading back into the waiting room, I met up with the others, who had been called in at the same time. We decided to head out and get some practice with our morphs, as well as try to get a few commonplace animals, like flies, cockroaches, squirrels, and other creatures.
Two-and-a-half hours later, we were back in my mom's car heading for the spaceport. We had received word that Aldrea's ship was coming in on schedule, and we wanted to be there to greet her.
When we arrived, we headed to the terminal where she was getting off her ship. We smiled and waved her over. Seeing us, she gave that weird smile that the Andalites give with their eyes, then walked over.
"What shall we do now, Alex?" she asked. While she didn't consider me to be her 'Prince,' to use the Andalite rank, she did respect me as the leader of the others and followed me out of that respect.
"Let's head to the mall." I said. Laurie handed over a bag of clothes, which Aldrea took before heading into a small stall where people could morph. When she emerged, she was in her human morph, which she had created using a Frolis Maneuver with DNA from Laurie, Kendra, Jarad, Darren, myself, and several other kids, mostly girls, who had known Aldrea when she lived on Earth. She was dressed in casual clothes: Jeans and a T-shirt.
We headed off to the mall. My mom had agreed to drop us off and pick us up unless we decided to get home another way. When we got to the mall, we hit the Food Court first. Aldrea would never start a stay on earth without first snacking.
Several hours later, we were walking home. Aldrea had reverted to Andalite form for the walk. We were going through what had once been an old construction site, but it was now a monument. In the exact spot where Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul crashed to Earth and died, a statue of five human kids stood with their hands touching a cube held by the dying Andalite Prince.
As we walked by the statue, I heard someone crying. I walked over and noticed a human boy about my age. He was clutching his knees to his chest and sobbing into them. He looked up at us.
"You're the ones they told me to wait for." He said simply. His voice was faint, weak.
"Who? Who told you to wait for us?" I asked.
"The glowing blue, old man and the monster eye." The boy said, coughing. "They said to run here and wait for five people and one Andalite to come. They said to . . . to tell you about the enemy."
((What enemy?)) Aldrea asked.
"The Yeerks. They've-" he was cut off by Aldrea's exclamation.
((The Yeerks? Impossible!))
"It's not impossible. They've come back. They serve a being of great power. The glowing man said that only a select few people could fight them. They said that you and those you choose to fight at your side are the ones who must fight. If too many people know, the Enemy will not hesitate to use his full power to wipe Earth out. You have to fight them. Only you can do so."
"How do you know this?" I asked.
"I was a Controller. The glowing man gave me the strength to fight my Yeerk and keep him away from the Pool long enough to starve him."
"Come with us. We'll take you home." I say.
"No. I don't have a home. My father left me and Mom, and my mom kicked me out when she caught me trying to restore five old Yeerk Dracon beams and use spare and scrap parts to build my own kind of energy weapon. But that's not important. The Yeerks won't let me live when they find out my Yeerk isn't in the pool." He said, then continued, "The Yeerks are led by none other than Esplin 9466, the former Visser Three/One. You-" Again he was cut off.
((Esplin Nine-Four-Double-Six escaped? How?)) Aldrea exclaimed.
"The Enemy freed him somehow. Now shut up and listen or the Earth is doomed. The Yeerks were given new hosts: The Javrakari."
((The Javrakari? But they are long dead, wiped out in wars they had no hope of winning.)) Aldrea said.
"Again, don't ask me how." The boy said.
"How are we supposed to fight them?" Darren asked.
"Read the history books. Fight like the Animorphs did." The boy said. "I can help. Just give me a place to stay."
"We don't even have lethal morph clearance." Jarad said, looking around.
"Considering who your parents are, you could probably get at least Class Four with a letter of recommendation from them, maybe even Class Five Limited right now if they cashed in a few favors." The boy said.
"What's your name?" Laurie asked.
"Jeff. Anyways, my name isn't important. I have to finish telling you. Visser Three got his hands on an Escafil device and took a morph-capable human host. His whole force is likely morph-capable. Trust only those who you know are clean."
I looked at the others. "Let's go. We have a world to save. If there's a Yeerk invasion, we have to stop it. If we have to do it by ourselves, fine. Jeff, are you in?"
