Title: The Uncalled For (Chapter 1)
Author: House Arrest

Pairings: Gen at first, future Tobias/Marco

Summary: The Animorphs are used to dealing with enemies that can use science way more advanced than anything humans have ever seen. Heck, they are results of science more advanced than anything human. But what if the Yeerks found a completely different approach to conquering the human race?
Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs.

[There's a meeting later today,] an intrusive voice said straight to my head. Weird you say? Well, yes, it is, but what's weirder is that I don't find it weird anymore. I didn't even flinch. I knew that particular thought-voice.

I concentrated on question nineteen and tried to send it telepathically to Tobias. He could help. Sure, he's been a hawk a while now but there's still a chance he could remember algebra. I concentrated all I can.

He didn't receive anything. Of course. Thought-speak was only an option when you're in morph. Or unless you're an Andalite. I'm neither at the moment.

[Erek's got news. Big news. He just told me and Ax.] Tobias fell silent after that. What more was there to be said? The words "Erek" and "news" conveyed all the information you'll ever need. Which is way too much information when you're trying to answer an algebra test that spells the difference between going to Acapulco with your dad or staying at home battling aliens without a break.

A test of sanity and relaxation underneath equations about x and y getting it on. The test of all tests. If there was one test I needed to do well on, it was this. Apparently, Fate thought otherwise.

By the way, the name is Marco.

So, want me to back up and explain? Okay, the things you need to know: Earth is being invaded by parasitic alien slugs, I can become a semi-telepathic animal anytime I wanted, and I had no idea how to use the value of x to get to y. I couldn't do anything about the last one, but the first two were actually quite simple. Relatively. In a life and death manner.

The bell rang. "Time's up. Pass your papers forward," the math teacher's voice boomed. "All papers not on the desk in the next fifteen seconds get to meet the faculty shredder." There was a mad scrambling to submit papers after that. I should know: I see women madly scrambling to meet me. It's definitely on their minds; they just need to act it out.

I sighed, dejectedly submitting my horribly scribbled-on sheet of paper. Bye dad. See you in two weeks. Don't worry about the plants. I'll buy new ones, you won't know the difference when you get home.

I rushed out the classroom as if the fate of the world depended on me. By Tobias's tone of voice, it probably did. And there's a good chance I'll end up dead. If I'm lucky. If my luck is anything to go on, I'll be a controller by next week.

Now you know why I wanted to leave for Acapulco

A bald eagle flew into the barn just seconds ahead of me. I landed on the hay-strewn floor and demorphed. I heard a sickening snap as Rachel's bird bones rearranged, and soon enough my own body started doing the same weird things. Puberty hasn't got a thing on us Animorphs.

[Here comes Jake now,] Tobias announced from the rafters. That was his station, always on the look-out for any intruders. A second later, a peregrine falcon landed beside me. Jake began to emerge immediately.

"Rachel, I've been wondering," I began. "Why don't you just say 'Let's do it!' now and save us all the trouble of planning? The results will be the same either way."

Rachel rolled her eyes. I guess this sudden meeting wrong-footed her as much as it did me.

"What's this about?" Jake asked as soon as he made the final transition to being human.

"What?" I asked incredulously. "You don't know the latest reason why we'll all hurdle to our deaths?"

"Not that we need a reason," Rachel appended. I hope she was joking.

A Canada goose squawked as Cassie forced a pill up its- I looked away, thankful I was not a poor injured bird in Cassie's tender-loving hands.

Jake was studiously not looking at this.

Erek emerged from the barn wall. He didn't destroy the wall, mind you; he just sort of shimmered into place, which meant he changed his hologram from showing a harmless wall to a harmless android. Harmless to anyone else except Animorphs, of course.

"Where's Ax?" Rachel asked.

"With the free Hork-Bajir," Tobias explained. "We need Toby's input. We'll meet Ax there when we're ready to move."

"And?" Jake asked in his low, silky voice. It was the voice he uses to let everyone know that his last bit of patience was running out.

"The Yeerks have found a new weapon," Erek began, and we all fell silent. "Not an extra-terrestrial weapon. It's a weapon from right here on Earth, one that we apparently did not believe to exist. Not even we Chee."

"An Earth weapon the Yeerks are interested in?" Rachel said in surprise. "I don't get it. Their dracons are more advanced than anything we've ever got." I agreed with her on this point. We all experienced dracon fire first hand.

"Maybe they finally learned to hold mall-wide clearance sales whenever they have serious events. We'll have one member out of the fight immediately." A flash of movement later, I was on the floor after having a pail crash into my forehead.

"Rachel, we need that pail," Cassie scolded. Like that was important.

"Excuse me, people," Jake interrupted.

Erek nodded. "Not necessarily more powerful, just different from what they commonly use. Not deadly, but infinitely more capable than rounding people up and forcing them to be controllers. More effective than The Sharing at convincing people to be voluntary controllers."

That stopped us dead in our tracks.

"Haven't they tried that before?" Cassie asked. "The secret formula that was supposed to eliminate free will? I thought it didn't work."

"So what new nightmare do we have to stop now?" I asked. ⌠Another hugely popular controller spokesperson? Yasmine Bleeth? Not that she's a nightmare, exactly."

Jake began massaging his temples.

I can see that Erek was hesitating. There were very few things that could give an Android pause, and even fewer when the said Android has been around longer than the entire human race. Whatever this was, it had to be bad.

"You won't believe this," Erek said.

Rachel snorted. A very elegant way to say, "Please go ahead. We've been suffering from a severe lack of nightmares lately and would like to be traumatized yet again." All that contained in one snort.

Erek sighed.

It was Tobias who told us. [The Yeerks have infested a witch. A real, live, witch. And it's not a joke.]

Author's Notes: Okay, trust me, I'm not going to ruin canon. Sure, I'll maim it here and there, but I won't just introduce magic out of nowhere. It has its place in the plot. Also, I'm writing from Marco's POV because I find it the most challenging perspective to internalize. For constructive criticism, please comment here. We all know what constructive criticism here, right? Right.

Also, thanks for reading!

And when I say magic, I don't mean the Harry Potter kind (not that I have anything against Harry Potter). I'm not talking about flashy, twirly magic. It'll be a subtle kind of magic. XD