My thanks to everyone who read and reviewed, I'm glad you guys like it so far! I'd have posted this chapter earlier but I've been working loads of overtime this month at work. Happy holidays everyone!

CHAPTER 2: Dreams, Visions, Guns and Fish

(MIKE'S POV)

"No, I haven't had any weird dreams about the sea." Marco said.

"So you think it's just a coincidence that Cassie and Tobias just happened to have identical dreams at the exact same time?" I asked, interrupting him before he could start his rant about a variety of weird dreams he'd been having.

"Well since you know everything and you clearly think there's something to this, I'm guessing there is something going on and the end will result will be the six of us screaming and running for our lives?" Marco asked.

"You know I can't tell you." I said with a knowing smile.

"I know that look; we're all gonna die!" Marco yelled dramatically.

After Tobias and Cassie had realised they were having the same dreams about somebody calling for help from beneath the sea, they called a meeting at Rachel's house the next day after school. Rachel's family were all out and Tobias and I had done aerial surveillance to make sure we weren't being followed. Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that there aren't people out to get you, especially when you're fighting against the secret alien invasion of the planet.

Marco continued joking around, Rachel was supportive of the idea because she liked Cassie and Tobias, but was still sceptical as she often was with anything I believed. I of course agreed that the dreams were worth looking into, but couldn't say anything more about it. Jake hadn't said a word about what he thought, but I knew that he was about to pull a video tape out of his bag.

"Cool, let's watch a movie." Marco suggested as Jake showed us the tape.

"You can never see Die Hard too many times!" I joked.

"Die Hard? Not James Bond?" Marco gasped with mock surprise. He does seem to enjoy the British jokes.

"Depends on the Bond." I pointed out truthfully. "But John McClane always kicks arse!"

"Anyway," Jake interrupted, rolling his eyes. "This isn't a movie. I don't suppose anyone saw the late night news last night?"

Marco made a joke about watching taped reruns of some TV show and we all headed downstairs to watch the tape. It showed a man at the local beach holding a large piece of shiny metal, covered in strange symbols. Presumably the writing on the wreckage was part of the Andalite alphabet. Jake told everyone that the writing was remarkably similar to the symbols he had seen on Elfangor's ship the night we all received the morphing power.

"I think what washed up on the beach is a piece of an Andalite ship." Jake said.

As soon as he finished that sentence, Cassie and Tobias fell to the floor unconscious, just as I had expected. However, at the same time I was struck by a sudden migraine, like I'd just taken a sledgehammer to the head. I massaged the sides of my head with my hands, trying to force the pain away, but it just got worse. I fell to my knees and heard a faint voice echoing in my head.

--… here. I cannot survive much longer. Please…--

And just as suddenly as it had appeared, the pain vanished and the voice went with it. For some reason I had briefly experienced the same vision as Cassie and Tobias, but I had only heard the voice, not seen the ocean or anything else. I'd even managed to remain conscious despite the blinding headache.

I looked up to see Cassie coming around and Rachel about to phone for an ambulance. Jake and Marco were watching over Cassie and Tobias was still lying motionless on the ground.

What the hell was that about? I thought. The book mentioned the other Animorphs getting a strange feeling, but not getting migraines or hearing voices. It was almost like I was getting something between a weird feeling and the detailed vision Cassie and Tobias received.

Tobias soon woke up as well and Rachel put the phone down after realising that both he and Cassie were alright.

"Oh, and I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking." I said.

"You saw something too?" Cassie looked at me in astonishment.

"Seems like it," I replied. "But it wasn't as strong as you described. I didn't see the ocean; I just heard the voice and got one hell of a headache. It was almost like I was getting a weaker signal or something."

Jake, Rachel and Marco all agreed that they had each sensed something too, although on an even lesser scale than I had felt. Of course, they didn't have to suffer through a mind-numbing migraine to get their telepathic radio message, so I saw them as the lucky ones. Clearly the morphing technology was somehow connected to the way these messages were being sent, but for some reason they were having a varied effectiveness on each of us. Tobias was related to Ax so the strength of his vision made sense and Cassie was a skilled morpher and closely connected with animals on an emotional level. As for myself, I didn't have a clue. Perhaps something to do with the fact that I wasn't from this universe? I had no way of knowing for sure.

The others discussed the situation for a little longer before realising that the thought speak voice from the dream was an Andalite voice, just like when Elfangor had first talked to us in the construction site before he died.

"He died trying to save us," Rachel glared at Marco. "I know that doesn't mean anything to you, but the Andalite died trying to save Earth."

Ouch, that was cold! I thought.

"I know." Marco said. "And you're wrong Rachel, that means plenty to me."

"We were all there that night," I said. "We all saw Elfangor give his life to save us, to save the whole planet. I think it's safe to say that if there's an Andalite out there that needs saving, the least we can do is go check it out."

*

Later that night, we were all down at the beach to see if we could find any clues or see if anyone got any new visions from being this close to the ocean. Only I knew that this little trip was pointless, but who was I to object to a nice long walk along the beach at night? If I was any good at astronomy, I'd have started counting the constellations as we walked across the cool, dry sand.

"You guys do realise that if there were any other pieces of wreckage down here, the Controllers would have already got rid of them?" I pointed out.

"Contrary to what you might think Mike, we don't just do everything you say just because you claim to know everything." Rachel said curtly.

Nice to know Rachel isn't holding a grudge against me, I sighed. This is what I get for trying to save them all the trouble of a pointless search.

The others continued discussing various ideas they had for a few minutes, until Tobias warned us that there were people approaching. We quickly hid in the dunes while he went to check it out.

"You sensing a disturbance in the force yet Cassie?" Marco asked. "Because I was kinda hoping I'd have time to watch a movie tonight."

"Not really," Cassie admitted. "I guess I was expecting a stronger vision this close to the sea, but I'm not getting anything."

A few moments later, Tobias returned and informed us that a small group of Controllers from The Sharing were walking along the beach searching for something.

"Tom is with them?" Jake asked.

--I'm pretty sure,-- Tobias said. --Some of the senior members, Chapman and Tom, are following behind the others. I could hear some of what they were saying. They're very worried about that fragment of Andalite ship.--

"So it is Andalite?" Rachel asked excitedly.

--I guess so. I heard something else too. Something about Visser Three being distracted by visions, and how he threw a Hork-Bajir out of an airlock for interrupting him.--

"Visser Three has an Andalite body," I said. "It makes sense that he'd have the visions as well. Whoever is sending these messages must be desperate to risk Visser Three intercepting the signal."

"Maybe whoever sent the message doesn't know that Visser Three is here on Earth?" Jake suggested.

"Visser Three is the only Andalite Controller in existence. I think the Andalites probably keep track of where he hangs out." I replied.

Suddenly a bunch of flashlight beams lit up an area nearby. Then one of the group started yelling excitedly. The Controllers had seen our footprints and would be after us any second.

"They've found our footprints! Run!" I hissed and started running without waiting for a response. Jake and Rachel were faster runners and soon caught up with me, with Marco and Cassie trailing behind slightly. And that's when things started to get noisy.

BAM!

Gunfire! The Controllers were shooting at us, not with advanced alien Dracon Beams, but regular Human handguns. It seemed a bit ridiculous after being blasted by ray guns and attacked by giant worms and walking razor blades.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Man those things were loud! I'd been to a shooting range once, but we wore ear plugs to reduce the noise. What I was hearing now was ten times louder than a gunfight in any action movie. Not to mention a whole lot scarier. There's just something about the noise a gun makes that makes it seem a lot more dangerous and fear inducing than a Dracon Beam.

"Head to the water," Jake ordered. "Morph to fish."

Jake," Cassie panted breathlessly. "Trout… they're freshwater fish… this is saltwater."

"You have a better idea?!"

One by one we splashed into the cold seawater. As I did, I tried to clear my mind and focus on the image of the Trout I had morphed not long ago on the mission in the mountains.

My arms and legs shrivelled up and became fins, my skin turned into shiny scales and gills appeared on my neck to replace my vanishing lungs. Within two minutes, I had become a small, slimy fish. I was a Trout. It wasn't the most fun animal I'd morphed and I kept seeing an image of being fried and covered in tartar sauce, but I was alive and safe. Aside from the fact that I'd just been chased by guys with guns and was now a freshwater fish breathing saltwater, I was just fine.

--Everyone okay?-- Jake asked.

We all replied and Marco complained about the fact that we were being hunted by alien invaders instead of at home watching TV (and I admit that by that point I almost agreed with him).

--You know what just occurred to me?-- I said to the others. --I knew we were going to end up down at the beach. I knew we were going to get chased by a bunch of alien psychos with guns. I knew we would escape by morphing into fish.--

--What's your point?-- Rachel asked irritably. Clearly she wasn't happy about me holding back such information, even though I had no choice.

--My point is that I knew that it was all going to happen; so why didn't I acquire a bloody saltwater fish?!--