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Chapter Two

Tobias considered running, but dismissed the idea quickly. He'd just been given the perfect opportunity to find out what the Yeerks were doing. They didn't suspect him yet. Luck or fate had handed him a brilliant chance of finding out a way to strike back, maybe even learning where Jake and Rachel were. He couldn't waste it just because the mere thought of being in the same room as a group of Yeerks terrified him senseless.

"Some energy appeared to be located inside the Cyberspace," the man, Dr O, went on.

"Well, we've been here for a couple of hours," Kira said, "and we've not seen anything."

"Nothing out of the ordinary at all?"

"Ethan played a game that involved moving his feet," Connor joked, "Does that count?" His teasing tone confused Tobias slightly. That wasn't like a Yeerk. To be honest, none of them had acted very Yeerk-like, though he'd assumed the earlier behaviour had just been an act. The slugs could be very good at pretending.

But Tobias didn't see why they would continue the act on their own.

"Well, I want all of you to keep your eyes open and get in touch with me if you see anything unusual. I've got the data I recorded. I'll get Hayley to have a look at it when she'd got a moment and I'll let you know what we find."

They all agreed. But again it was slightly weird. They didn't respond with a "yes, sir" but with a cheerful "sure thing."

"Trent, are you alright?" Dr O asked.

There was a fraction of a second's delay as Tobias forgot they he was supposed to be Trent. Then he answered: "I'm fine."

"You're sure? Your dad's still... himself."

"My dad's fine," he said, wondering what this guy's father could have to do with morphing energy. Dr O stared at him for a couple of seconds and Tobias tried to look like he wasn't bewildered and lying.

"OK," Dr O said at last, "but if you need to talk about anything, I'm here. No secrets, remember?"

"No secrets." He cringed inwardly as he said it. His whole life was one great secret.

"I'll go see Hayley," Dr O said and they all headed back into the café. Tobias thought about what he'd just seen and heard. Maybe they weren't Yeerks. Maybe they were freed controllers. It happened. But he couldn't imagine freed controllers being this cheerful and happy. The ones he'd met had been paranoid, looking over their shoulders for Yeerks and hiding out in case they were re-infested.

These guys didn't fit that pattern any more than they acted like controllers.

Tobias watched Dr O talk to the woman by the till, handing a disk of some sorts over to her. If that contained evidence that he was here, he needed to get hold of it.

"I should head home," Tobias said, "my dad's probably wondering where I am. I told him I'd be home after lunch."

The group didn't seem to find this odd, which was a relief. They said goodbye and Tobias headed for the door. Once outside, he glanced round quickly for any sign of watchers and morphed into the hawk. His plan was to morph into something small that could creep in and get the disk, but Dr O walked out the door. Maybe following him would give some answers. After all, the disk might just be one copy.

Tobias needed to figure out what was going on. If these guys weren't Yeerks or freed controllers, how did they know about morphing?

Tobias flew as the hawk to a rooftop and watched Dr O walk to a nearby parking lot. There were few people about, just a couple of men standing by a van pouring over a map. Dr O walked to, presumably, his car, and the two guys noticed him.

"Excuse me," said one, "we're a bit lost." Tobias almost forgot to breathe. Jake. Not only were the Yeerks here, but Visser Ten was interested in this guy.

Dr O walked over to the van, looking at the map the one who wasn't Jake was holding. "We're trying to get here," the guy said. As Dr O leaned forwards, his guard obviously down, the man grabbed hold of his arms, pulling backwards. Dr O fought back, kicking at the man's legs and trying to flip him.

The side of the van opened, a couple of toughs getting out, seizing Dr O's arms as he tried to fight his way free. He got one arm loose and managed to deliver a precise blow to one of his attackers, but he was out-numbered and the Yeerks had had the initial advantage. Still, it took all three of them to hold him.

Jake reached inside the van, pulling out what looked like a thermos flask. Tobias knew what was coming, and sure enough Jake pulled out a thing that looked very much like a slug.

He couldn't just watch this. Whoever this guy was, he needed help.

Tobias leapt from the building with a cry, diving down, talons out to scratch Jake's face. One of the other men loosed his grip enough for Dr O to get an arm free. A swift kick somewhere painful made another let go, but Tobias had enough to worry about with Jake and the others trying to get hold of him. Jake jumped at him, morphing into the tiger as he leapt. Tobias barely managed to dart out of the way of the outstretched claws. He flew higher, hoping that Jake hadn't managed to acquire a bird, and surveying the scene.

Dr O was holding his own against the three thugs. The man was clearly an experienced fighter. Unfortunately, so were the Yeerks.

"Leave him!" yelled Jake, human again, "Get the bird!"

One of the thugs got out a Yeerk weapon, a thing that looked a lot like a flashlight. Tobias flew, hoping that Dr O had the sense to run. He flew erratically, darting sideways to stop himself being an easy target. He couldn't see behind him, so he didn't know when they were about to fire.

He felt a surge of heat far too close on his right. As he instinctively dodged away, another blast caught his left wing and he tumbled, unable to hold himself aloft. His wing throbbed and burned, and the ground was coming way too fast.

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Tommy saw the hawk fall. He'd reached his car now that his attackers were more interested in shooting down that thing, but he hesitated. Yes, it was just a bird, but it had also just rescued him. Besides, a moment ago, he'd seen a guy turn into a tiger, so maybe he shouldn't jump to conclusions about it being a dumb creature.

He ran to the bird.

One of his attackers raised his weapon. The guy who'd been the tiger slammed a hand down on the man's arm.

"Fool! We need him alive!"

Well, that was something at least. Tommy had got to the hawk and scooped it up by the time the men had reached him again. They were obviously trained in martial arts. Tommy just had to hope he was better, especially now he had a bird under one arm.

Him against three men, he could probably win. But the leader was changing back to the tiger and Tommy wasn't sure his karate training was up to fighting that as well.

He ran to his car, dodging the men who tried to grab hold of him.

The hawk was dumped unceremoniously on the passenger seat. One of the thugs wrapped his arms round Tommy's torso as he was scrambling into the car, but a quick elbow to the nose sorted that. Then he was in the car, fumbling for his keys as the men surrounded the vehicle, the tiger leaping up onto the hood.

Silent cursing the fact they'd stopped wearing communicators when they'd lost their powers, Tommy punched the closest of the men in the face. His keys were in the ignition, but he was strongly suspecting he was about to become a snack for a very big cat.

Then the tiger crouched down, shifting shape back to the man. His hands were clasped at his head.

"Sir?" the thugs hesitated. "Sir, are you alright?"

Run!

It wasn't a voice. The word just appeared in Tommy's mind.

But he wasn't going to argue with a voice in his head, particularly when two of the thugs were paying more attention to their boss than him. He slammed the car into reverse and pulled away. One of the guys tried to hold on to the side of the car but he fell quickly, and then Tommy was driving out of the parking lot.

Now he had a moment, he glanced at the bird beside him. It wasn't moving, but Tommy was reasonably sure it was still alive. He wasn't an expert on birds and he figured he probably owed it to the creature to find it the best vet around.

He'd just been rescued by a hawk from a guy who turned into a tiger.

The worst thing was, this didn't even come close to being the weirdest day he'd ever had.

He reached his house quickly enough and carried the hawk gently down to the lab. They'd cleared away the rubble and he and Hayley were working on repairing and replacing all the equipment, but they'd been working slowly. They hadn't though there was any danger around they needed to hurry for. He set the bird down on a table and then headed to the computer.

Sure enough, his sensors had been picking up more morphing energy. He wasn't at all surprised to see the activity centred around the parking lot by Hayley's. Well, that answered one question. Unfortunately, it raised a lot more.

He'd not heard of any group of Rangers who could turn into animals. He couldn't think of anything to actually stop it. After all, Justin had changed his body shape very drastically when he morphed. It was still very strange though.

First things first. He grabbed the phone to call Hayley.

His computer beeped. An incoming call.

He put the phone down, deciding this one was more important, especially when he checked the origin of the signal. Tommy sat down in front of the computer, typing in the command to return the transmission. Andros' face flickered into being on the screen.

"Let me guess," said Tommy, "you're calling to make my weird day even weirder."