Okay, this is author's universe after book 19. Basically, the story is that David sold the Blue Box on eBay. His life stays normal, and the girl who buys it online becomes the new Animorph. This is her story. Read and Review!
My name is Tory.
I can't tell you my last name, or where I live. Because my life has been completely turned upside down. If I told you where I live, then some seriously scary people would come after me and kill me.
Or worse.
But let me back up and tell you about the Saturday that changed my life.
It all started with the Blue Box. I'd found it on eBay. I was browsing around online, looking for cool, esoterica-type stuff to decorate my room with, when I stumbled upon it. It was marked as a paperweight, but the picture caught my eye. I clicked on the auction.
It was a perfect cube, made of some sort of crystal, and it was a gorgeous bright blue. I read the description, but the person who was selling it seemed to have no idea what it was. The seller was obviously a kid, judging by the poor advertising; it wasn't his writing abilities that made me want to buy the item. It was the alluring blue glow that, even in the picture, seemed to radiate from the box. The kid said in the description that he'd found it in a construction site. No one had bid on it yet, and the auction wasn't ending for another three and a half days. The Buy It Now was priced at five dollars, and I didn't want to risk the price being jacked up. So I clicked 'Buy It Now.'
The box was coming from the same state, so it arrived on my porch the next day. My mom set it on the kitchen table before she left for work, and when I woke up, it was waiting for me. I opened it excitedly and pulled the Blue Box from the package.
It was stunningly beautiful, despite its simplicity. The crystal, or whatever it was made of, was perfectly smooth and translucent. As I held it, I noticed that it didn't show any fingerprints. I turned it over in my hands, entranced by the mysterious glow, which, when seen in person, was more amazing than in the photograph. As I held it, I felt a strange, electricity radiating from the box, as if it were alive. I jumped up, put it in my bag, and headed out the door.
The weather was hot and sunny and heated my bare shoulders as I walked to the local bookstore. As I was crossing the parking lot, I looked up and saw a hawk floating above me. I smiled up at him, thinking about how great it would be to soar above the streets on a day like this. I walked into the store, welcoming the frigid air conditioning, and immediately headed for the coffee bar to my right. Behind the register was my friend Michael, leaning against the counter, looking bored. When he saw me, he said to the other girl working with him, "I'm taking my break now," and followed me outside, to a patio in the shade.
"What's up?" he greeted me, sitting down. I sat across from him.
"I wanted to show you this thing I found on eBay," I said, pulling the Blue Box out of my bag. I set it on the table in front of him. He picked it up and said, "What is it?"
"No idea," I replied. "Some kid found it in a construction site. Isn't it cool?"
"I guess," Michael replied, with slightly less enthusiasm than me. I frowned.
"Well, I think it's cool. Look at how it glows!" I grumbled. He peered at the blue crystal.
"What's it made of?" he asked. I shrugged.
"The kid didn't know. I think it's some sort of glass, but it doesn't feel ordinary." He set it back on the table.
"Weird. You should try Googling it, see if you can find out what it is," Michael suggested. I nodded.
"Yeah, that's a good idea. Somebody's bound to know something about it. I'd bet my college fund that it's not just a paperweight." Michael laughed.
"Well, I should go back to work," he said, standing up. I put the Blue Box bak in my bag and followed him in and began browsing through the bookshelves. I picked up a book and sank myself into one of the comfy sofa chairs to read. I'd gotten to chapter five when I realized that someone was watching me. He was standing at the end of the aisle, seemingly nonchalantly browsing through books. He was my height, with tan skin and black hair, and he kept looking at me when he thought I wasn't looking. I shrugged to myself and continued reading.
A few minutes later I realized that someone else was watching me.
She was closer to me, and seemed to be absorbed in a book about motorcycle maintenance. But judging by her appearance, she was not at all interested in motorcycles. She looked like a model; tall, thin and blonde. She caught my eye and I looked away quickly, embarrassed. I not-so-casually stood up, put the book back where I found it, and left the store, ignoring the fact that my watchers were following me. The hawk was sill circling above me.
As I rounded the corner, four more people were walking towards me. There were two guys. One of them was tall, with brown hair and brown eyes. The other was shorter, with black hair and blue eyes, and was strangely pretty for a guy. There was also a black girl in overalls with short hair.
And they were all looking right at me.
I hesitated, and looked over my shoulder. My watchers from the bookstore had rounded the corner. The whole group was about to corner me.
This is ridiculous! I thought to myself. I'm about to get mugged by a bunch of middle-class white suburb kids? Nevertheless, I was outnumbered. I crossed the street, trying to avoid them, but they merged perfectly. The blonde girl grabbed my arm firmly.
"Rachel..." the brunette boy said warningly. She let go of my arm, but the group had circled around me.
"Who are you?" she demanded. I frowned.
"What do you mean, who am I? Who are you?" I replied, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. "Why are you stalking me?"
"We're not going to hurt you," the black girl said kindly. Rachel's expression suggested differently. "We just want to talk to you."
"About what?" I asked hesitantly.
"The Blue Box," the brunette guy said. I frowned, confused.
"You mean this?" I asked, pulling the cube out of my bag.
"Put it away!" Rachel hissed fiercely. I jumped, but tucked the box away obediently.
"Why? What is it?" I demanded. They exchanged a meaningful look.
"We can't really talk about it here," the brunette said. He seemed to be the "leader" of their little gang. I frowned.
"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said firmly. "I'm not stupid. Who knows what you guys would do to me." The short boy from inside the store barked out a laugh.
"What, you think we're some kind of gang?" he exclaimed, laughing. I glared at him.
"Well, didn't your mom ever teach you not to talk to strangers?" I snapped. He just laughed.
"She thinks we're a gang!" he said to his friends, obviously finding it much funnier than I thought was allotted. They just rolled their eyes.
"What's your name?" the black girl asked kindly.
"T-Tory," I stammered.
"I'm Jake," the brunette said. "This is Rachel, Marco, Cassie and Ax. And we need that box." Instinctively, I gripped the straps of my bag.
"Why? What is it?" I asked suspiciously. Jake sighed.
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me." I raised an eyebrow.
"Try me," I challenged. He looked at each of his friends, as if having a silent debate with them. Then his eyes became unfocused, and he stared into nothing, as if listening to an unheard voice speaking to him. I became nervous. Was this guy a schizophrenic or something?
"It's alien technology that can give people the ability to change into any animal they touch," he said, seriously. I stared at him for a minute, then burst out laughing.
"You're right, I don't believe you," I laughed. All of them, however, looked completely serious.
"I told you," Jake said. "We have to show you."
"Why don't we go inside and show her in the bathroom," Marco suggested. "We can't kidnap you in the middle of a bookstore, and it's private enough that no one will see." I hesitated, but I at this point I was too curious to walk away. I knew there were no windows in the bathroom so there was no way they could drag me out the back without someone noticing. So I shrugged and followed them inside. They grouped around me in case I tried to run for it, and herded me to the bathroom at the back of the store. Cassie peered into the girls' bathroom.
"It's empty," she said quietly.
"Why do we have to go in the girls' bathroom?" Marco complained. Everyone rolled their eyes, me included, and I felt as if this was a common occurrence. We crowded into the bathroom.
"Okay, now look," Jake said seriously, "what you're about to see...is going to really freak you out." I raised an eyebrow at him, and watched as Ax stepped away from the group. He stripped down to a pair of biker shorts and a too-small tee shirt. No one seemed to think this was odd, so I didn't say anything. Everyone was quiet and all eyes were on him. I watched too.
At first, nothing happened. But then I realized that Ax was changing. His nose and mouth were flattening back into his face. His eyes were changing shape. His ears were moving up the side of his head and turning pointy like a fox. I stumbled backward and opened my mouth to scream. Marco stepped behind me, clamped his hand over my mouth and wrapped his other arm around my waist to keep me from running.
"Don't panic," he said in my ear. I watched in terror as Ax's skin began turning blue. His lower body expanded outward, forming two extra legs. He grew two extra fingers on each hand and his feet retracted and formed hooves. His black hair retracted and two stalks shot up out of his head. At the end of each stalk was another eye. A tail burst out of his back end and a wicked looking curved blade grew out of the tip.
At this point I was hyperventilating.
He stood before us, fully formed, and looking weirder than anything I could ever imagine. I was absolutely terrified, and if Marco didn't have one arm wrapped around my waist, I would have already gone running and screaming out of the store.
Hello.
I struggled against Marco's grip, freaking out at the voice in my head. Everyone else was watching me; none of them seemed to think anything weird about the four-eyed, blue centaur scorpion thing standing in the bathroom.
Please remain calm, the voice said. I am not going to hurt you. I am an Andalite. I stopped struggling and Marco hesitantly stepped away from me. I rounded on them.
"What the HELL is that?!" I demanded.
"He's an Andalite," Rachel said bluntly. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, I got that. What the HELL is and ANDALITE?!" I shrieked.
"Calm down," Cassie said quietly. Despite my panic, Cassie's kind voice soothed me. I inhaled deeply, trying to calm myself. "An Andalite is an alien."
My name is Axilmili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.
"Wait, so is he the one talking in my head?" I asked, pointing a finger at him.
"Yeah," Jake said. "Andalites don't have mouths, as you can clearly see, so they speak with thought speak."
"An alien?" I asked. Usually I would be skeptical, but the fact that he was standing in front of me kind of killed my disbelief. "What the hell is he doing here? And how come he can turn into a human?!"
"Well, Andalites developed morphing technology. Ax can turn into any animal he touches," Jake explained.
"And so can we," Rachel added. I stared at them all, waiting for a punch line. The pending presence of Ax the Andalite, however, was beginning to convince me that there was no punch line.
"Oh...kay..." I stuttered. "Why is he here?"
"Well...that's kind of a long story..." Jake said. Marco scoffed.
"'Kind of' is kind of an understatement," he interrupted.
"Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else," Cassie suggested. Ax began to morph back to a human. I looked away, too freaked out to watch.
"You're right. Let's go to the barn," Jake agreed.
"The barn's too far away to walk," Rachel said.
"My dad's out with Nora," Marco said. "We could go over to my house." They looked at me expectantly, waiting, I presumed, for me to start shouting about not going with a bunch of strange kids and an alien. I shrugged.
"I'm too curious to stop now," I replied, against my better judgement. Marco opened the door with a bow and a smirk. I laughed, oddly charmed. Rachel rolled her eyes.
"Come on Marco, that never works," she said, shoving him through the door. The rest of us followed after him, and back out into the parking lot. When we got outside, I heard another voice in my head.
So you found the Blue Box, huh?
I jumped and looked around anxiously. Marco nudged me and pointed at the hawk I'd seen earlier. "That's Tobias," he said.
Hi, Tobias said. I glanced at Marco.
"Can he hear us?" I asked.
Of course I can, Tobias said in my head. I'm a red-tailed hawk. I have awesome hearing. What's your name?
"Tory," I replied, feeling weird that I was talking to a bird.
"We're going to Marco's house," Jake said so that Tobias could hear.
Okay, I'll keep a lookout for any trouble. Tobias soared upward until he was a speck in the sky. We made our way out of the shopping area and into the suburbs. Finally, we reached Marco's house. He unlocked the front door and we crowded into the living room.
All clear, Tobias said, swooping in after us. He landed on Rachel's shoulder.
"Ax, you should stay in morph as long as you can, in case anyone sees you from outside," Jake said.
"Yes, Prince Jake. Ake. Kuh. I have one hour and thirty-seven of your minutes. Tsss," Ax answered. I stared at him.
"Ax isn't used to having a mouth, so he likes to play with his words," Marco explained.
"Don't call me prince," Jake said, with a tone that suggested this too was an ongoing occurrence.
"Why does he call you prince?" I asked. Jake rolled his eyes.
"Andalite commanders are called princes. As 'leader,'" he said, making quotation marks with his fingers, "Ax considers me his prince."
"Leader? Leader of what?" I asked.
"The Animorphs," Cassie answered.
"What the heck is an Animorph?"
"We are," Marco answered. "Four kids, a red-tailed hawk, and an alien."
And the only hope for the human race, Tobias added. The way he said it, and the grim expressions on everyone's faces, made chills run down my spine.
"What? What's going on?" I demanded, feeling the panic rise in me again. "What do you mean, the only hope? What's happening?"
"Ax isn't the only alien on Earth," Cassie said.
"Okay, here's the deal," Marco said briskly, "there are these slug aliens called Yeerks and they're invading Earth. They crawl into your ear and flatten themselves out over your brain, and then they have complete control of your body. Now they're here, and we are the only people fighting back."I sat down heavily on the couch. Cassie sat next to me and held my hand reassuringly.
"You've got to be kidding," I said, knowing they weren't. "A bunch of teenagers fighting against and invading alien race? If you take over peoples' bodies, how do you know who's infested?"
"That's the scary part," Jake said. "We can't tell who's a Controller and who isn't. Because the Yeerk knows all their secrets, it can act exactly like the human it's taken over. But we do have some known Controllers. See, they need these things called Kandrona Rays every three days, otherwise they die. So every three days the Controllers have to go to the Yeerk pool."
"What's a Yeerk pool?" I asked.
"It's a huge underground pool. The Yeerks leave their host bodies and soak up Kandrona rays," Cassie explained.
"How do they get there?" I asked.
"There are dozens of entrances, but we only know of a few. That's how we know who's a Controller and who isn't. Our vice principal, Chapman is one. And my brother Tom," Jake replied. I said nothing.
"Well, if you know where the Yeerk pool is, why don't you just...destroy it or something?" I asked.
"And how exactly do we go about doing that?" Rachel asked snidely. "Blow it up?" I frowned at her hostility."The Yeerk pool is highly guarded by walking shredders called Hork-Bajirs. Plus, for every Yeerk in the pool, there's an innocent human being there too. We can't just destroy the pool."
"Rachel, she didn't know," Cassie said.
"Okay, well why don't you tell people? Get on the news and have Ax demorph or something."
"Because we couldn't be sure of all the Controllers in the studio. We'd probably get killed in about five seconds," Rachel snapped. "We can't tell anyone about this. If the Yeerks found out that we're just a bunch of kids, we're dead. Worse, actually."
"Then why are you telling me?" I asked. "How do you know I'm not a Controller? Which, I'm not, by the way," I added. They laughed.
"Well, if you were a Controller, you would have taken the Blue Box to Visser Three, instead of showing some kid in the bookstore," Jake said.
"Who's Visser Three?" I asked.
"He is the abomination,"Ax said fiercely. "He is the leader of the Yeerk invasion, and he is the only Andalite Controller."
"Oh...how bad is that?" I asked.
"Really bad," Marco replied. "Let's just say, Visser Three likes to acquire the nastiest, scariest aliens you can possibly imagine." Everyone grimaced.
"Okay, well what is the deal with this Blue Box? What is it?" I asked, pulling it out of my bag.
"That's the thing that Ax's older brother, Elfangor, used to give us the morphing power," Jake explained. I stared at the Blue Box in my hands.
"This thing?" I asked. "It looks so ordinary."
"So now what?" Rachel asked. "Now she knows all our secrets."
"What are you going to do to me?" I demanded, jumping up.
"We can't just let you go," Jake said. "Rachel's right. You know all our secrets. If you were ever made into a Controller, we'd be dead." I backed away from him, but Marco stepped up and grabbed my arm again.
"Calm down, we're not going to off you," Marco said, rolling his eyes. "We're going to make you an Animorph."