*Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters etc in the Animorphs series.

Jake Tobias' voice shattered the silence of Jake's thoughts as he droned off in history class.

From across the room, Marco looked up as inconspicuously as he could. He had heard it too, and he wasn't sure he was supposed to. That worried him. Marco could always be counted on for security, to the point where he had done things he regretted. His mother was controlled by the top Yeerk in the galaxy. It had not been easy, and usually he was able to crack jokes to calm everyone's uneasiness, including his own. But that only went so far, and this war had been going on so long. He was tired. He just wanted one day, ONE DAY, to be a kid again, kick back and play some retro Sega game. Was that so much to ask?

Jake had heard it; he had looked startled as he woke up. Marco knew him better than anyone else on Earth, they had been best friends since birth, always had each other's backs, could read the other like a book.
Marco asked for the bathroom pass and shuffled out of the school building. There was something amiss and he knew it. He felt it in his gut.

Outside, he ran and ran and ran until he was sure no one but the red-tailed hawk above could find him. And he knew he would find him. Red- tailed hawks are made for that sort of thing.

A few minutes later, Tobias did in fact, find him, and started morphing into his human form. He could only stay so long in morph- they all could only stay so long in morph, or risk ending up like Tobias, catching thermals instead of learning about World War anything. Not that they needed anyone to teach them about war. They were learning it all firsthand.
"Tobias, I heard you in class. Jake did too. What's up?"

Tobias looked afraid. He had never wanted any of this any more than anyone else. His daily battle before this involved making sure his head didn't get shoved down a toilet, but fighting Yeerks was a whole different ball game.

He started "Communication's down. Thought-speak. It's down. Uncontrolled. You, Jake, and everyone else there heard me."

"What the? Christ, Tobias!" Marco exploded. "Chapman's a Yeerk, and there are only so many "Jakes" at school, you've put us in jeopardy." His face went pale and fell to his hands. "I don't even. How did it happen?!"

"I don't know yet. Ax is still working out the details, he thinks somehow the Yeerks immobilized it with Leera technology."

"Oh, frog men. That's who we're dealing with. Great." He sighed, feeling defeated and not knowing what to say or do. He was on the brink of tears and the verge of a breakdown.

They heard a shuffling noise and Rachel appeared. In human form, fortunate.

"Something's up," she said.

"Oh really? Thank you Captain Obvious." Rachel sensed Marco's tension and decided not to press. They sometimes had some awkward thing going on and maybe in some alternate universe that would have been really something. But killing aliens and defending Earth and humanity was the name of the game, and a million times more important.

"Ok, whatever else is wrong, I thought you guys might want to know that Eric's house is on the news."