Jordan's POV

After a night of sleep, finally the sun began to rise of the horizon, as the sun's rays hit my eyes though the window. I groaned a bit as I finally woke up 'Well… here we go again.' I thought as I sat up in my bed, and cranked my neck a bit before standing up. 'Another day in the Animorphs world… let's hope I can survive it.' I guess I was pretty fortunate I didn't have any dreams about what happened last night, or rather Nightmares. God knows if I did I wouldn't have gotten any sleep last night.

I spent the first hour going through my normal routine like I would back at home. Shower, get dressed, breakfast, the usual. I then spent time looking at a map of the area where I and the Animorphs lived in that the Ellimist managed to provide me here in the house. Thankfully he took the time to place markers on where everyone's house was, so I could memorize where each one was at.

However, as I was looking through the map, I heard the phone going off causing me to blink 'Who knows my phone number?' I thought, as I heard it ring. However I decided to answer it, as I picked it up "Hello?"

"Hey, is this Jordan?"

"Yeah?" I said. "This is…?"

"It's me, Tobias," the person said. "Remember? We met at the Mall and the construction site?"

I blinked and thought back, and then I remembered I gave Tobias my phone number while we were at the mall. "Ah, right! Tobias," I said. "Good to hear from ya man, what's up? You alright?"

"Yeah, but I barely got any sleep," he said. "With everything that's happened… look, are you doing anything today?"

"Uhh, no actually," I said, leaning back in my chair. "I was going to try and find you and the others from the site… I think it goes without saying we need to discuss our next move."

"Yeah," Tobias said. "I was going to head over to Jake's house… we need to get his opinion on this thing. You want to come with me?"

"Sure," I said, looking on the map for where Jake's house was listed. "What's the address?" Tobais gave me the address and I followed it on the map, and sure enough it was listed as 'Jake's house' already; I used a marker and circled it. "Alright, I'll see you there… by the way… have you tried… that yet."

Tobias was quiet for a moment, before he answered. "I did," Tobias said, I could hear the excitement in his voice ."I morphed Dude, my cat."

I blinked. "You named your cat Dude?" I asked. I remembered it from the book, but actually hearing someone naming their cat Dude…

"I was younger when I named him!" Tobias said defensively and I chuckled a bit.

"Its alright man, I understand," I said. "My grandma named her cat Daisy, only to find out it was a boy cat at the last minute. Dude ain't the weirdest name I've heard."

Tobias laughed a bit himself "So, what about you?" he asked. "Have you morphed yet?"

I paused for a moment, not sure how to answer that. Should I tell him I acquired Elfangor already? I hadn't had the chance to morph him yet, but I knew I had to get use to the whole morphing thing sooner or later.

"Not yet," I said, "I need to find something good to morph into… if what he said is true, we can morph into any living creatures, but I'd rather my first morph not be something like a fly or a mosquito."

I could tell Tobias shivered at that. "Tell me about it," he said. "Trust me when I say this: morphing Dude was freaky. I don't even want to think what morphing into a bug will be like."

"Yeah," I said nodding. "Well, I'll see you at Jake's house. See ya."

"See ya," he said, and we both hung up.

A few minutes passed, and I once again found myself in my new truck, heading down the road back into town, looking at the map as I followed its directions to Jake's house.

It didn't take too long for me to drive up into Jake's neighborhood, I drove the Ford through the street as I spotted Jake's house quickly. I drove a bit further away, looking for a good parking space which was a few blocks away. By the time I successfully parked and walked back to Jake's house, I arrived just as Tobias was walking up to the house's driveway.

"Yo!" I said, raising my hand as Tobias approached. "So this is Jake's house?"

"Yeah," Tobias said nodding as we walked up towards the front door. "He and his family's lived here for a while now." With that, he rang the doorbell, a few moments passed before the door opened, and Jake's mother opened the door. She instantly recognized Tobias and smiled. "Tobias! Its good to see you!" she said, before she noticed me. "Who is this?"

"This is Jordan, he's a friend," Tobias said, and I nodded. "Me and Jake met him the other day at the Mall."

"Its nice to meet you Mrs. ****," I said politely nodding my head. (AN: I know most people reading this already know Jake and his family's last name, but for the sake of those who don't… not telling.)

Jean smiled a bit. "Nice to meet you as well, Jordan," she said. "I think Jake is still asleep, but I'll see if I can wake him up. Come on in!"

We both nodded as we stepped into Jake's house, it was pretty nice I guess. Just your ordinary house with a living room, kitchen and all of that.

"Hey Tobias," a voice said, and another person walked towards us. Looking at him, I immediately recognized him as none other than Jake's older brother, Tom.

A confirmed Human-Controller.

"Hey Tom," Tobias said, smiling a bit as he nodded. "How ya been?"

"Pretty good," Tom said nodding. "Same old same old I guess." He then glanced at me, a small eyebrow raised. "And you are…?"

"Jordan," I said, forcing up a smile as I extended my hand to shake his, "I'm Tobias's friend. Are you Jake's brother?"

Tom smiled. "Yeah, nice to meet you," he said, as we shook hands. But I knew what Tom really was behind the human mask he held, another Yeerk in disguise. But I knew Tom himself was a good guy, and I had every intention to save him from his fate in the books. 'Soon Yeerk… soon.' "Nice to meet you too." I said.

"You new around here?" Tom asked, and I nodded. "Yeah," I said. "I moved in a few weeks ago, I use to live in South Carolina, but I moved here."

"Really? Nice," Tom said nodding, "You move here with your family?"

I shook my head. "Nah, moved here alone," I said. "I graduated from High School last year, been living on my own thanks to the money my parents left me when they… left."

"Oh, sorry to hear that," Tom said, very convincingly trying to sound sympathetic. But I reminded myself he was just another Yeerk acting sympathetic, and would likely try to get me to join 'The Sharing' and try and put a Yeerk in my head. "Where do you live?"

"In the woods, around some mountains," I said, trying to be as vague as possible without sounding too suspicious. "I have a house there, use to be a vacation house my parents used, but they gave it to me after I graduated."

"Nice," Tom said. "Say, since you're new here… maybe you could come with me and my friends to the beach tonight? I'm with a group called The Sharing, and they're having a barbeque down there."

'And, there it is.' I thought. 'Trying to get a Yeerk in my head already, eh Tom?' However, I had to play it cool and I smiled. "That sounds nice," I said. "I might be able to show up."

"Sweet!" Tom said smiling. "A lot of other people are gonna show up." He then blinked as he looked over my shoulder, looking out the window. "Is someone there?"

POV Unknown

Outside the house, I sat perched on a tree branch, binoculars held to my eyes. I could definitely tell by the eyes on one of the people that there was a Yeerk among them. And judging by the looks of things, I could take a wild guess that it was the boy talking with Jordan.

My companions all sat huddled behind the nearest window, one of them listening in through the open window. She turned to me and flashed the thumbs up. The voice analyzer we had was definitely picking something up, and it wasn't real sympathy according to the data we reviewed later.

The person closest to her pulled back and nodded. "So far things are looking like you were right. That Tom kid is definitely a Yeerk prisoner," he said over the comm.

"That's right. But we mustn't make a move just yet. We need-" My voice trailed off as she waved her hand to be silent. She waved us over and I hopped out of the tree, landing on the grass and darting over silently. By the time all four of us were there, we heard everything that we needed to know.

"Oh yeah. Definitely this Sharing thing," he muttered. His entire body was tense as he looked at us. "Do you think we should follow?"

"You already know the answer to that one," I said.

His partner just shrugged. "Like we got a choice…" he said softly.

"Hey. You know the deal. Besides, we have a chance to make a difference here!" I hissed.

Suddenly, we all tensed as we heard Tom's voice filter out the window. "Is someone there?"

I looked at my friends. "Scatter!" I hissed.

She ran off to hide in the brush while I clambered back up the tree to hide amongst the leaves. I saw the two boys hide behind a parked truck in the nick of time as the Yeerk poked Tom's head out the window.

"Was someone there?" Jordan's voice asked.

"Probably just a bunch of neighborhood kids," Tom said before he closed the window behind him.

POV Jordan

After speaking with Tom, Jake's mom managed to get Jake awake, and after saying goodbye to Tom I followed Tobias to Jake's room. It pretty looked just as I imaged it, just your average teenager's room with posters, desks and a computer. I mentally groaned as I saw how old the Computer looked, which by this universe's standards, must be fairly modern 'Right, 1998, no 2013.' I mentally reminded myself. 'Thank god the Ellimist gave me my stuff from back home.'

"Who are you?" Jake asked me, once we walked inside and I closed the door.

"What, you don't remember?" I asked, giving him an incredulous look. "Last night? Construction Site? Aliens invading?"

Jake blinked a bit as he thought back, he must of realized it then as he made an 'ah' look. "Right, uhh… Jordan, right?" he asked, and I nodded, smiling.

"Yeah," I said. "Glad to see you made it home in one piece Jake."

Jake just shook his head. "Yeah, uhh… so, why are you two here?" he asked as he began to yawn.

"I did it," Tobias said, as he looked like he was practically glowing. "I became Dude."

Jake stopped in mid-yawn, and his mouth snapped shut. "Huh?" he asked.

Tobias glanced around the room like there might be spies in the room (not to far from the truth if you asked me) "I became Dude!" he repeated. "Just like the Andalite said!"

Jake just stared at Tobias as if he had just grown a second head, while Tobias continued. "It was so amazing," he said as he started pacing back and forth, snapping his fingers and bursting with enthusiasm. "It didn't hurt or anything, I was petting him, and thinking about the whole thing last night, right? So I thought, why not give it a try? I didn't even know how to begin, so I just made sure the door to my room was locked. Fortunately, my uncle was still asleep."

The mention about his uncle caused me to slightly wince a bit, but thankfully Jake was too busy looking at Tobias, while Tobias was too busy explaining about his experience morphing for the first time. I remember how both Jake and Tobias explained his family, how he never knew his father and his mother left him a few years ago. He had to move in-between his aunt and uncle who live on opposite ends of the U.S, neither of them particularly caring about Tobias, thinking of him more as a burden than family.

The thought of it disgusted me a bit, how they would have such little care about their own family. I was considering that, if Tobias didn't like living with them anymore, I'd shoot him the offer of moving into my place. It was massive, had plenty of room, and it beats living with an un-appreciating aunt or uncle.

I then thought to how, or even if I should keep Tobias from being stuck in his hawk morph. One one hand, keeping Tobias from being stuck as a hawk would be a huge change in Animorphs. However at the same time there have been several instances where Tobias having a bawk for a body had helped the Animorphs tremendously, such as the Arc where they fool the Yeerks in thinking the Anti-Morphing Ray didn't work. It was a decision I knew I had to make sooner or later.

By that point, Tobias was in the process of explaining Dude's reaction to when he began morphing. "...seen the real Dude. He was going nuts! I had to put him outside before I morphed all the way, but he clawed me up pretty good. Thankfully I found out that Morphing actually heals wounds."

"Thank God for that!" I said with a small chuckle.

"Um… Tobias?" Jake asked. "Is it possible you maybe just dreamed this all up?"

"Not a dream," Tobias said, as he adopted a much more serious look as his grin disappeared. "It's all true, Jake… all of it."

"If you're still thinking its all a dream… why am I here?" I asked Jake, causing him to blink and look at me. "I was there, and we haven't met until last night. So unless I am some weird figment of your imagination Jake… everything that happened last night, actually happened."

"He's right," Tobias said, turning back to Jake. "I didn't dream this Jake, I just kept concentrating on changing and in a few minutes, I was… not myself anymore. You guys have no idea what it's like…Being a cat is so...it's… I can't even describe it. You're so strong, for one thing. Just all of this coiled power, and the way you can move! You know what I did? I jumped into my dresser three feet straight up in the air, and I landed like a feather. Three feet! You know how high that is when you're a cat? It's like a person jumping thirty feet straight up!"

Tobias then looked at Jake, who had a very confused look on his face. "You don't believe me, do you?" he asked.

Jake sighed. "Look… Tobias, its just..." he began. "It's just that sometimes its hard to tell the difference between something real and something you're just imagining or dreaming."

"We're not crazy, Jake." I said before Tobias could retort. "This isn't a dream, and last night wasn't a dream, unless we all shared that dream somehow simultaneously. I understand where you are coming from Jake, though. You don't want to believe last night happened. Aliens? Mind-controlling slugs? Morphing? Who wouldn't want to believe it. I don't want to believe it, but I have to because it's the truth. What about Visser Three? The Andalite Elfangor? Can you so easily forget what Elfangor did for us? Sacrificing his life so we might live?"

Jake seemed to wince a bit, as he didn't seem to 'pretend' the Andalite away. Tobias sighed as he put his hand on Jake's arm. "Stand right there," he said.

"What?" Jake asked. "What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna help you decide whether it's real or not," Tobias said, smiling. Jake was about to protest, but Tobias cut him off. "Just wait, and don't scream or anything."

I began to smile once again, as I knew what was going to happen as Tobias stood still. At first, nothing seemed to happen...but then I noticed his eyes began to shift, his pupils were changing shape and gaining a reflective greenish light in them, turning into slitted cat's eyes. And then his mouth was starting to protrude a bit, puffing out. And then he started shrinking, honest to god shrinking. It was kinda weird to watch someone just… shrink, getting smaller and smaller as their clothes just started to fall off because he was so small. And as he shrank, I could see his fur beginning to grow over his hands, neck and face, grey striped black fur.

It was just so surreal actually seeing someone morph. It wasn't like when Visser Three morphed that giant Bogg creature thing at the Construction Site. I didn't feel scared. This time I felt excited. Tobias wasn't done, as his ears began to relocate to the top of his head becoming much more cat-like, and whiskers poking out from beneath his pink nose, and he was soon forced to drop to all fours as he grew out a long fur-covered tail.

Moments later, it was all over. And wiggling out of the mess of clothes appeared Tobias, as a cat. Jake's expression was priceless as he looked at Tobias with wide eyes and a look of pure disbelief on his face. "I hope I'm still asleep," he muttered. "I really do."

"You're not asleep," Tobias affirmed, speaking through thought-speak, causing Jake to jump.

"Was that you?" he demanded at the cat. The whole seen looking quite funny from my perspective seeing Jake talking to a cat.

"You can hear me?" Tobias asked, sounding surprised.

"Yes," Jake said cautiously while I nodded myself.

"I didn't know I could send thoughts like this," Tobias said. "Just like the Andalite..."

"Makes sense," I said nodding while both Jake and cat-Tobias looked at me. "From what we saw last night, Andalite's don't have mouths so they communicate through telepathy, through thoughts. Since they made morphing tech, they must of designed it with this in mind so any morph they acquire can possess the same telepathy Andalites have."

"You think we can we use it out of morph too?" Tobias asked.

I decided to give it a shot, as I tried to think the words. 'Do you hear this Tobias?' However when he didn't respond I spoke. "No, doesn't look like it. I tried to think out-loud if you hear me, but since you didn't respond, you obviously couldn't…. we can only use the thought-speak when we're in morph it appears."

"That sucks, but its better than nothing I guess," Tobias said. "Hey, watch this!" Suddenly Tobias leaped through the air, pouncing precisely on an autographed baseball lying in the corner in a four-feet jump. "That was excellent! Hey, pull a string for me to chase!"

Both me and Jake blinked at that, as we glanced at one another. "Why?" Jake asked.

"Because its so fun!" Tobias shouted, almost sounding like a little kid honestly.

I sighed before Jake could find a string, I decided to spare Tobias the embarrassment "Tobias… you're asking us to let you play with a piece of string," I said. "You know how weird that sounds?"

Tobias seemed to pause, as his tail twitched as he looked up at me, and then back at Jake. "Uhh… s-sorry?" he said, sounding rather sheepish. "I don't know what came over me… it was like… I'm me but...I'm also Dude. I want to chase things… ah man, if there were only a real live mouse around! I'd love to track it! Follow it so quietly-"

"Tobias, calm down," I said interrupting his thoughts, "I think we're learning some more facts about Morphing."

"What do you mean?" Tobias asked, tilting his cat head to the side looking confused. "What is it?"

"I don't think you're just Tobias while in morph," I said, "You are also a cat at the same time, with all of those cat instincts, since you want to do the things a cat would do. I remember reading up an article a while ago, something about Genetic Memory. It's a theory that the memories of one's ancestors are passed down into subsequent generations through DNA, which enables instinctive skills in animals. When you acquired Dude's DNA, you must have also acquired his genetic memories, instincts, of a cat. So you are in a way two minds in one body, the human mind, and the cat mind. But it looks like the cat mind can easily overcome a human mind if you're not prepared for it."

Both Jake and Tobias looked at me in surprise, before Tobias spoke "Yeah, that kinda makes sense," he said. "I can feel it. It's like I'm two different animals melded into one. I can think like a person and like a cat."

"You'd better change back," Jake said, and Tobias nodded his cat head up and down, which to me looked very weird to see a cat acting so human. "You're right," he said. as he began to morph back into his human form. I redirected my gaze since I knew none of the Animorphs had figured out how to morph clothes yet. I made a mental note to figure out how to morph clothes that wasn't leotards or similarly tight clothes. I know it was possible, since the Andalite scientist Estrid-Corill-Darrath knew how to do it, so I made a mental note to figure out how it was possible.

Anyways, Tobias finished morphing back to human form, and quickly got back into his clothes. "Maybe after some practice we can figure out how to morph back into our clothes." He said.

"Amen," I said, nodding. "I guess the Andalites never thought about the need of morphing in clothes."

"Wait, wait wait… we?" Jake asked.

"Jake, don't you get it?" Tobias asked. "If I can do it, so can you! And so can Jordan and the others!"

Jake shook his head. "I don't think so..." he began, before I groaned.

"Jake, we just saw Tobias morph before our eyes," I said. "Everything that happened last night happened. Elfangor gave us these powers for a purpose, and I am a firm believer that thing don't 'just happen', everything has a purpose."

"Fine, then you use them!" Jake snapped, but Tobias shook his head.

"We will, but we need you most of all Jake."

"Why me?"

Tobias hesitated for a split second. "Geez Jake, don't you understand?" he asked. "I know what I can or can't do, I know my limits. I can't make plans and tell people what to do. I'm not a leader, you are."

Jake just laughed a bit rudely. "I'm not the leader of anything," he said, but Tobias just looked at Jake with his deep troubled eyes.

"Yes, Jake, you are our leader," he said. "You are the one who can bring us all together and help us defeat the Controllers. We have the ability to be much more than we are, to have the stealth of a cat, and… the eyes of an eagle, the sense of smell of a dog, and the speed of a horse or cheetah. We're going to need it all, if we have any hope of holding out against the Controllers."

I saw that Jake had a very conflicted look across his face, and who could blame him? This was the most important decision he would have to make. He may have wanted to not believe it was all true, but the facts were facts. He knew he had to take this role. "Well..." he said a bit grimly. "I guess I'd better find Homer."

I looked at my watch. "Sorry guys, I gotta go now," I said. "I got some things I need to take care of in town, you know a place where we can regroup with the others?"

"Cassie's barn would probably be the best place," Tobias said, as he told me the address. "It's outside of town, can't miss it."

"Thanks. See ya," I said, before I turned and left Jake's room, and then left the house. I would have stayed and watched Jake's first morph, however I knew I myself needed to conquer my first morph as well sooner or later. Not to mention there were things I need to prepare for tonight when I went to the Sharing meeting at the beach.

However, first things first: I needed to head to Cassie's barn, so I could find something to morph into.

After getting into my truck again, I made my way to Cassie's barn following Tobias's instructions. It wasn't that hard. In fact Cassie's barn wasn't that too long of a drive from where I lived.

I found a decent place to park, and I walked the rest of the way there. As I walked, I could see Cassie's barn coming up. It looked like your standard red barn with fences with cows and horses that were just being cows and horses. I then noticed there was a woman near one of the fences, and I made a wild guess that it was Cassie's mom. She appeared to be tending too large a bird, some type of Hawk I believed.

"Hello!" I said, deciding I might as well introduce myself. The woman turned and smiled a bit.

"Well hello!" she said. "Who are you?"

"My name's Jordan," I said nodding. "I was wondering if Cassie were around here, Tobias told me she lived here?"

"Ah, your friends with Tobias?" she asked, and I nodded. "Nice to meet you, I'm Michelle, Cassie's mother."

"Nice to meet you," I said, as we shook hands, before I looked at the hawk. "Is that a… Goshawk?" I asked, briefly recalling the bird-of-prey from one of my old Zoobooks from when I was a kid.

"Indeed it is!" Michele said, a bit surprised but still smiling. "A Northern Goshawk to be precise. You know you're zoology."

"I just remember things I picked up as a kid," I said, chuckling slightly. "I loved animals when I was a kid, still do I guess." It was then I noticed some sort of bandages around one of its wings. "What happened to it?"

"We found her in the forest a week ago," she answered as she gently stroked the Goshawk's feathers. "She broke her wing somehow, so we brought her here to the Clinic to heal her up. She should be ready to fly in a week or two more."

"Ouch..." I said, wincing slightly. I once broke my leg when I was a kid, it hurt like hell. I raised my hand, and began to stroke his undamaged wing. "She's beautiful though."

The Goshawk made a brief shout, causing me to blink and Michele to laugh a bit. "She liked the compliment," she said. "Would you like to hold her?"

"S-Sure," I said nodding, as she handed the bird to me. I remembered hold to hold a bird like a hawk from some school field trip a few years ago, as I let the Goshawk rest herself on my bare arm. She was an amazing animal, looking so powerful. It was no wonder Tobias liked Hawks so much.

I also saw this was the golden opportunity. I was looking for to get my first bird-of-prey morph, so I focused on the Goshawk, doing what I was instructed as I acquired the hawk's DNA. The Goshawk looked at me as I did the process, but it did not jump away, just appeared to be in a trance.

Just as soon as it happened, I successfully acquired the Morph. "She's amazing," I said. "Ya know when I was a kid I always wondered what it would be like to be a hawk."

Michele laughed a bit. "I believe many have wondered what it was like," she said before I handed the Hawk back to her. "Anyways, you should find Cassie in the Barn, probably with her friends Rachel and Melissa… also, if your interested, we could use some Volunteers here at the barn during the weekdays… if your interested..."

I actually kinda liked the offer, considering I didn't have much to do other than help the Animorphs against the Yeerks. So I thought… why not? "I'm interested," I said smiling. "I'd love to help out however I can!"

"Great!" she said excitedly. "We can use all the help we can get, we only have a few people around to help during the weekdays since most kids are at school. It would mean a lot if you could help out. Cassie can help you get situated."

"Thank you, and I'm happy to help!" I said, and after saying my goodbyes I headed for the Farm to find Cassie.

I walked up towards the barn itself, and as I approached I could hear voices coming from inside.

"This is… I don't even know what to say..." One voice, this one obviously from Rachel. "Cassie you're…"

"A Horse?" A thought-speak voice said, nearly causing me to jump a bit, but then I realized Cassie had likely just morphed horse for the first time. "I know, its amazing!"

"Great, a talking horse..." another voice, this one coming from Melissa said. "I think Marco would say something along the lines of 'this is insane' or something."

I walked up to the entrance, as I knocked on the door. "Hello?" I said, and I heard a series of hushed whispers. "Cassie? You in there, it's me, Jordan. You know, from uhh… last night?"

There was a short minute of silence, until the door creaked open and standing there was Rachel, who looked at me with a critical eye. "You… were with Tobias, right?" she asked, keeping an eye on me.

"Yeah," I said nodding. "You're Rachel, right? Cassie's friend? She's around here, right?"

Rachel nodded, and she glanced back inside, before she allowed me into the barn. Inside I found Melissa and a black horse inside, Melissa looked at me in surprise. However she smiled a bit. "Hello… Jordan," she said. "Nice to see you got home safely."

I smiled and nodded. "Hello Melissa," I said, "You alright? After what happened..."

She shook her head "No, I'm fine, I guess," she said. "Neither of my parents were home, so I didn't have to worry about being caught coming home late by them… I doubt either of them would care. Anyways, thanks for driving me home again."

"Don't mention it," I said nodding as I smiled. "After what happened, I doubt you'd want to walk the rest of the way home." Melissa nodded, but I didn't see a bit of red dusting her cheeks. "Anyways, where's Cassie?"

"Right here," Cassie said, as the horse stepped forward, as I suspected. "Good to see you again, Jordan."

"Yeah, you too." I said. "I see you morphed your first animal."

"Yeah, its amazing!" Cassie exclaimed. "I never felt so… alive! I feel so powerful in this morph! So fast!"

I chuckled a bit before I looked at Melissa and Rachel. "What about you two?" I asked. "You morphed yet?"

"I did," Melissa said nodding. "I morphed my cat this morning… it was… well.. surreal!"

"I haven't yet," Rachel said shrugging. "Haven't found anything to morph into yet." She then glanced at me. "What about you?"

"Well..." I began, scratching the back of my head. "I haven't morphed yet… but I just now acquired the Northern Goshawk Cassie's mom was taking care of."

"Well, you might as well try it out now." Cassie suggested. "Best to get it over with and out of the way."

I gulped a bit, before I glanced away. "Well… I would..." I muttered. "But eehh… I can't exactly morph… clothes… so when I morph… back..." It got my message across, and Rachel sighed, Melissa seemed to blush a bit, while Cassie shook her horse head (which again, was kinda weird to watch).

"Actually, you can," she said. "But only skintight clothes, I found out earlier today. It's better than nothing though."

"I'm… not exactly wearing skintight clothes, Cassie," I said, gesturing to my blue jeans and T-shirt.

"Just man up and morph," Rachel said, shaking her head. "We'll turn our heads away when you morph back."

I sighed, "Well… alright..." I said, gulping once again. This was it, my first Morph. I felt more nervous than I've ever been before. I took a deep breath, and I closed my eyes and focused. At first, nothing happened. But then I felt a strange itching sensation on my arms, opting me to open my eyes and I looked at my arms. It looked like my arms were becoming overcome with tattoos of bird feathers across my body being etched into my skin, believe me when I say it was freaking me out already, but I continued to focus. And then, suddenly the feathers rose to the surface, becoming genuine feathers and I found nearly my entire body was covered in them.

"Whoa..." I muttered, but it wasn't done yet. Then came the shrinking, my body was getting shorter and shorter, but it felt like I was falling on top of a mountain as everything around me started to look a lot bigger. I became so small that my clothes began to fall off me. I then felt my feet beginning to harden, and shift into sharp deadly talons, and I felt my mouth extend a bit, and my lips harden into a curved beak.

Finally about a minute later, the changes were complete, and after I escaped the tangle of what were my clothes… I was a Northern Goshawk.

The first thing I realized was my newfound field of vision. I was expecting to be able to see everything, but man was I able to see! I could see a fly sitting on an empty cage on the other side of the barn! I could hear the mice creeping throughout the barn, I could hear and see everything.

I immediately was hit by the Goshawk's instincts to go and make the closest mice into my next lunch, but I did what I could to fight them off.

"Jordan?" Melissa asked, as she, Rachel and Cassie were looking at me. "You alright?"

"Yeah… I'm okay," I 'said' though thought-speak. "Holy shit this is awesome! Man, these hawks can see EVERYTHING!"

"Bird's eyes are better than humans by far," Cassie said. "Hence the term 'Birds eye view'. Are you feeling the animal instincts?"

"Yeah, but I think I got this," I said, as I raised my wings "Now, let's see..." Thanks to those same Hawk instincts, I flapped my wings, and rose up from the ground, flapping up into the air and landed on a nearby perch, with the increase of air, it was time for me to finally fly. "See you girls in a minute… I gotta try my new wings!" I said, as I raised my wings once again, and flapped them as hard as I could as I leaped up from the perch, and flew out the barn door. I continued to flap, struggling to find a thermal to carry me up into the sky. And then suddenly my hawk body felt a sudden rush of warm air from the ground, as I was suddenly lifted even further into the air! I stopped flapping and allowed my wings to ride out what was most certainly a thermal. The thermal took me straight up into the air, practically a Kilometer up! It felt like I was hover in place for a moment, and then I let the Hawk instincts tell me what to do, as I adjusted my tail feathers, pointed my head in one direction, and I soared forward.

The feeling, the rush of flying was unlike anything I had felt in my entire life. Never before had I felt so free, never before had I felt so alive! All my life I dreamed of becoming a pilot, to fly planes across the skies and fly like the birds. But now I was flying as a bird, and it was simply amazing!

"THIS IS FRACKING AWESOME!" I declared as I soared up as high as the hawk could take me. I felt as if I kept on going I would reach the clouds themselves! When I got as high into the air as I could, I tilted my tail feathers a bit to the left, and I pointed my nose down and I then entered a steep dive as I fell to the ground. Imaging being on the best roller coaster you have ever been on, only take away the carts and rails, and nothing stopping you from becoming a splat on the ground aside from the wings on your arms. That about sums up what I was doing.

Then, at the last minute, I pulled out of the dive as I flared my wings, and I used the momentum of the dive to allow me to glide a few meters from the treetops "YEEEHAW!" I shouted as I sped forward.

For a while, I just flew. I flew as far as my wings could take me. Eventually however, the reality that I knew I had to Morph out eventually came back to me, and I headed back to Cassie's barn, flying up through the rafters and landing back on the ground, where I noticed Cassie had left, but Rachel and Melissa were still there.

"'Bout time you got back," Rachel said with a smirk. "How was it?"

"Freaking awesome!" I said. "Just flying in the air, without a care in the world! I LOVE Flying!"

Rachel just shook her head, while Melissa giggled a bit. "Alright bird-boy," she said. "Better Morph out, remember the Andalite said two hours and you're stuck."

"Right," I said nodding. "Umm… turn around, please?"

Rachel and Melissa did as asked as they turned away from me, as I demorphed. It was quick and easy, as I regained my human arms, legs, head and height. Once I was fully human I redressed back into my clothes. "Alright, I'm good," I said, as the two looked back. "Man, that was just crazy! Flying through the air… where did Cassie go?"

"She left to give her horse morph a test run," Melissa answered. "Get a feel for it. also Jake called and the others will be here in about a half hour or so, we need to discuss where we go next."

I nodded. "Sounds good," I said. "I think we all need to come to a final decision on what to do next."

POV Unknown

I peered through a hole in between two boards, my left eye squinted shut. "Yeah, all seven are gonna be present," I muttered.

My companions shifted as I moved aside, allowing the closest boy to peer in through the hole. He narrowed his brown eyes as he picked them out. "You made a good call," he said. "Just like earlier today." He then turned to look at me as we pulled away from the barn and snuck over to the trees a ways.

"All right." I said. "And sooner or later they'll be heading to check out the Sharing down at the beach. So here's the deal."

I turned to face my companions. "Steven, you and Vanessa see what you can dig up regarding any Yeerk activities. Anything could be useful."

Steven nodded, his eyes hard. At five foot eleven, he was pretty tall. He had short messy black hair and brown eyes that glinted with a keen intelligence. He was currently wearing a T-shirt that was blue on the top with green stripes on the sleeves and a white bottom with brown cargo shorts. He wore black combat boots on his feet to round off the outfit. He had a lean build, but that wiry frame was full of muscle, meaning that he was pretty scrappy for a teen.

Vanessa, the hacker of the team, stood at five foot eight, just an inch taller than me. She wore a white tank top with a picture of the Autobot logo on the front and on the back were the words Til All Are One. Her blue jeans were accented by the hiking boots she wore and on her left arm she had a tattoo of Earth's Cyber Planet Key. Her eyes were a dark blue and her hair was almost platinum blonde, a very rare thing for humans. But that wasn't very unusual in California.

"Right!" she said. She turned to Steven and nodded. "C'mon!"

"Not just yet!" I said.

The two hesitated but stayed where they were.

"Tony, you're going to do recon of all the known Yeerk pool locations. Make sure that no new ones have been built. If there are, let me know at once," I said.

Tony nodded. "I will," he said.

With a height of six feet five, Tony was a giant among us. And it didn't help much that he was a big guy when it came to sheer strength. Out of all of us, he was the strongest, so he usually did the heavy firepower during attacks. He was very muscular and powerfully built, accented by his broad shoulders and chest. He wore a green T-shirt that strained against his muscles and his blue shorts barely fit around his powerful legs. About the only thing that did fit were the combat boots he wore on his feet. His shaggy, yet short brown hair covered one of his eyes which had a nasty scar going across it, leaving him blind in that eye.

"All right. Now we can get to work!" I said.

The three nodded and we split up, Tony running for the Hummer and getting behind the wheel while Steven and Vanessa ran for the trees.

As for me, I ran back towards the barn and leaned back towards the hole, peering in.

Time to see what other information I could gather…

Jordan's POV

Roughly half an hour passed, and I just really chatted with Rachel and Melissa. It was interesting to get to know Rachel, since she was one of my favorite characters. Though learning a bit more about Melissa interested me as well, since the books only spoke so much about her, her only real appearance was in book 2, and even then K.A Applegate said she intended for her to be a 'throw away character', but so many people were concerned with what happened to her, it actually surprised her.

However, I fully intended to save Rachel just as much as I hoped to save Tobias. Her fate at the final Animorphs Book was one of the biggest things I intend to change, if not one of the most important.

The first to arrive at the barn was Tobias, who arrived a few minutes before Marco, who had a newspaper with him. I already knew what it was about, however he showed it to us regardless (and I still had to maintain my cover for now) which showed the police were after 'The kids launching fireworks at the construction site'.

"So, the Yeerks control some of the media," I said, looking through the news. "And they likely control some of the local police force as well."

"No mention of that incident with the rocket, let alone the Hork-Bajir killed," Tobias said as he skimmed it with me.

"They can just pass the rocket as another firecracker," I said. "Plus, if the Yeerks have those Dracon beam weapons that can disintegrate entire ships, they can likely destroy the remains of the walking confetti maker."

Tobias nodded. "Good point," he mused. "But that still leaves the question of who shot the rocket, or who killed that thing to begin with."

"It's likely the Yeerks are not as good as keeping this invasion a secret as they believe," I said, shrugging. "There may be a handful of people who know the Yeerks exist. It's impossible to instill a world-wide coverage of all Yeerk Activity. There must be leaks."

"Yeah, but I doubt people will believe anyone when they say alien slugs who control our minds are invading Earth," Melissa pointed out, and I nodded.

Eventually, Jake showed up as well, riding his bike. Rachel showed him the newspaper, and his reaction was exactly as I expected.

"But this is a total lie!" Jake said.

"Ding ding ding ding! Correct answer. Johnny, tell out contestant what he's won," Marco said, laced with sarcasm.

"Did you see the last part?" Rachel asked, as Jake read the last part of the newspaper.

"They're looking for us," I said, beating Marco to the punch."The only reason that would be is that the Yeerks have controllers in both the Media and the Police Force."

"Probably not all of the cops," Tobias pointed out.

"If the police have been infiltrated by the Controllers, who knows how many others have, too?" Rachel asked. "Teachers? People in the Government? The newspapers and T.V.?"

"Math teachers, for sure," Marco joked, causing me to smile just a bit. The others just looked around nervously, like they were expecting to find themselves surrounded by controllers.

Rachel sighed. "I tried to tell myself it was all a dream," she said.

"Been there, tried that, didn't work," Jake said. Once again, for a while, no one said anything as the gravity the situation settled in.

Finally, Marco spoke up. "Look, why do we have to deal with this?" he asked. "I say we just forget about it. We never talk about it. We never morph, we just deal with our own lives."

"And when the Yeerks take over, then what?" I asked, causing the others to look at me, as he looked back at Marco. "Lets say we do forget about this, let's say we forget about the Yeerks, the Andalites, the Morphing… then who's gonna fight the Yeerks if not us?"

"Hell, I don't know!" Marco shouted. "How about the military? Those guys that shot that Visser Three guy and that walking salad slicer? There has to be someone who's fighting these things!"

"Yeah, fighting alone," I retorted. "Whoever these people are, they are very small in numbers otherwise we would of heard about them on the news before. And I doubt the military will be of much help, since if the Yeerks want to take control of our planet, they will want to take control of the military."

"Marco, I halfway agree with you-" Jake began to say, and then Marco went ballistic.

"We could get killed!" he shouted. "Don't you guys get it? You saw what happened to the Andalite. I mean, this is radical stuff, Jake. This is for real. Real! We could all get killed!"

Tobias looked at Marco with a sideways look, like he thought maybe Marco was some kind of coward, of course I knew better, and Marco had his reasons which were about to be explained as he shook his head, and spoke in a quiet voice. "Look, I think these controllers are jerks. But if something happens to me… my dad. He wouldn't be able to handle it. You can all think I'm a weasel if you want, I don't care. But if I get killed or something, my dad will flat-out die. He's only hanging in there because of me."

I sighed silently, but I kept my mouth shut for the time being. I looked out into the distance, and noticed a black horse galloping across the green grass. "There's Cassie," Rachel said, as she noticed her approach as well, the others looking in the direction we were looking as Cassie slowed down and trotted closer.

"Me, Cassie, Melissa and Jordan have been here for a while," Rachel explained. "She's really good at this, look at how fast she can do it."

The horse nickered softly, and then began to melt as the big brown eyes became slightly smaller, and the long muzzle became a human mouth and soon formed a much more human head soon after, which looked just like Cassie, who smiled at the others with big horse teeth "Hey kids," she said.

Marco suddenly sat down very hard, his eyes wide in shock as he looked at Cassie, never having seen a human morph yet.

I just continued to watch, as I saw Cassie morph. What they said in the books about her morphing were true, she obviously had full control of her morph as she was morphing out her upper torso first - thankfully with clothes, and for a few seconds she stayed half-horse half-human, looking very much like the Andalite in a way.

Knowing what was coming next, I looked down the road to the barn, and I could see in the distance a car driving towards us. "Oh shit!" I shouted. "Cassie, morph NOW! Car's coming!"

The others looked, and they could see the car coming too, and they could see the car was "Shit, its the cops!" Tobias shouted.

"Which way should I morph?"Cassie wailed, as she reared up slightly on her hind legs. "Human or horse?"

"Human! Human! Human!" Both me and Jake said at the same time, before he said. "Everyone stand in front of her!"

"And act casual!" I added, as we all stood side-by-side acting as a wall hiding Cassie, while acting as calmly as we could as the police car squealed to a stop, sending some gravel flying as a single police officer stepped out. Both me and Jake waved at him."Mornin Officer,"I said.

"Morning," the cop said, looking at us all. "You kids, uh… hiding something?"

I glanced at the others, before I looked at the officer. "Nope," I said. "We're not hiding anything officer."

"Step aside, all of you," the officer ordered, moving his hand. I shrugged, as I moved to the side, as did the others revealing Cassie… who was now 100% human.

The Officer looked a bit puzzled, however he just shrugged. "Can we help you officer?" Rachel asked in her best responsible voice.

"We're making some inquiries," he said, still keeping an eye on Cassie like something could be wrong. "We're looking for some kids who were shooting off fireworks in the construction site across from the mall last night."

"The ones on the Newspaper?" I asked, as Marco suddenly started coughing.

"Yeah, those," the officer said nodding, before he looked at Marco. "Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Jake said.

The officer just continued. "We want these kids, " he said. "We want them really bad. See, it was dangerous what they did, could of had someone hurt. So we want to find the kids."

I mentally groaned. This guy was obviously a Controller. I mean sure, if you didn't know about the Yeerks it wouldn't be so obvious, but when you know the Yeerks existed, it was so painfully obvious. "Why is that?" I asked. "I thought fireworks were legal in California, aren't they?"

"They are..." the Controller said. "But… they fired them off pretty close to the mall, so a stray firework could have hit someone."

"Well, I don't know anything about it," Jake lied. "All we know is from the newspaper."

The officer looked at Jake very close, and I could see he was beginning to sweat. "Hey, you know what?" he asked. "You look familiar… you know a young man named Tom?"

"Yeah, he's my brother," Jake said, as he was still trying to keep his cool. However the officer seemed to smirk a bit. "Tom's your brother, eh?" he asked. "Well, he's a good kid. I know him from the Sharing. I'm one of the adult supervisors. Great group, the Sharing. You should come to a meeting, we have one coming up tonight at the beach actually."

"Yeah, um, Tom invited me already," Jake said, and I nodded as well. "Same here., I said.

"We have a lot of fun."

"Yeah..." Jake repeated.

"Well, you call me if you hear anything about these kids in the construction site."the officer said, "I should warn you - they may come up with some wild story to conceal their guilt. But you're too smart to believe a bunch of crazy lies, aren't you?"

"He's a regular genius," Marco said, and the policeman nodded, got back into his car and then took off.

"Controller." I blurted out, causing the others to look at me. "What? That guy was practically oozing that he was a Controller! He was pressing way too hard about what happened last night!"

Rachel sighed. "Okay, either way, rule number one." she said. "We don't do anything to attract attention. We have to be secret about everything, especially morphing."

Cassie seemed to blush a bit in embarrassment. "Sorry… yeah, it was stupid of me," she said. "Its just… oh man! It was so amazing! Running like that, out in the open space, running and running!"

"How did you morph clothes?" Jake asked. "When me and Tobias did it… well, let's just say its a good thing neither of you girls were around."

"It took some practice," Cassie said. "And it can only be tight clothing. I tried it with a coat and it got shredded. I don't know what we'll do in the winter."

"That's not going to be a problem," Marco said firmly. "Because there isn't going to be anymore morphing."

"Maybe Marco is right," Rachel said, "This is too big for us. We're just kids. We need to find someone important to tell this too, someone we can trust!"

"We can't trust anyone," Tobias said flatly. "Anyone could be a Controller. We tell the wrong person, we are all dead. And the whole world will be doomed."

"I don't want to stop Morphing," Cassie said. "Do you realize all we could do with this power? We could communicate with animals, maybe. Help save endangered species!"

"Humans may be the next endangered species, Cassie," Tobias said quietly.

"What do you say, Jake?" Cassie asked.

"Me?" Jake asked, as he shrugged. "I don't know. Marco's right, we could all get killed. Rachel's right, this is too major for a bunch of kids." he then hesitated. "But… Tobias is right, too. I mean, the whole world is in danger, and we can't trust anyone."

"So what do we do?" Rachel demanded.

"Hey, its not up to me to decide!" Jake said hotly.

"Let's take a vote," Rachel said.

"I vote we try to live long enough to get driver's licenses." Marco said.

"Already got that," I said, pulling out my licence with a smirk. "I'm doing it. I promised Elfangor I would fight, so dammit I will."

"I agree with Jordan," Tobias said nodding. "I vote we do what the Andalite said: fight!"

"You've never been in a fight!" Marco sneered, before pointing at me. "And we've only known him for a barely a day! You can't handle the punks at school, and now suddenly you want to kick butt on that Visser Three Freakazoid?"

"Our names won't be remembered if we die like trampled flowers," I said suddenly, causing the others to look at me oddly. "I refuse to be forgotten, and written off as less than worthless. We can scream and cry but no one will hear us, plead and beg but no one will help us. I am not going to live as cattle to the Yeerks, and I am going to rise and fight the battle!"

I then looked at them all. "The Yeerks are being that will live off our fears, their words will be like knives as they play with the lives of human beings," I said. "They will try to control us as if they own us, are you telling me you will just let them steal our freedom?"

"Not me," I continued, shaking my head. "I will channel this anger that swells inside me, and fight the boundaries till I break through. Deep in my soul there is no hesitation, so I will make myself the one that the Yeerks will one day all fear! I am going to start a wildfire that the Yeerks can't hope to extinguish, I will use the power the Andalite gave us to rip apart the Yeerks one by one… because as far as I can tell… this is the moment for war."

When I was finished, the others all looked at me stunned for a minute or two, however Tobias was smiling as he nodded.

"I-I agree with Jordan," Melissa said, speaking up for the first time for a while, causing Rachel and Cassie to look at her surprised. "We can't just stand by and let the Yeerks win…if we don't, who will?"

"Yeah, I agree!" Rachel said, nodding. "I'm voting with Tobias and Jordan, I wish we could dump this all on someone else, but we can't."

"L-Let's just think it over for a while," Cassie said with a slight stutter. I guess she was taken aback by my speech I guess. "This is still a big decision, I mean… its not like we're deciding whether to wear jeans or a skirt."

"Yeah, let's wait for a while," Jake said, sounding a bit relieved. "In the meantime, no one say anything to anyone. We just go back to normal life."

I glanced at Marco expecting to see him smirking like he was in the book, but oddly enough he wasn't. He was still looking at me surprised. Tobias was still blushing as he sent a grateful look at Rachel, while Melissa was just looking at the ground a bit.

Soon after, Jake and Marco left, and Tobias sighed as he looked at me "Thanks," he said. "For supporting me with Rachel… that was a great speech you said."

I chuckled a bit sheepishly as I scratched the back of my head "It was nothing, really," I said. "It… just came to me off the top of my head. I just felt like I had to say something."

"It was pretty good," Rachel said with a small smirk. "You got Marco to think twice at least. That counts for something." She then glanced at Melissa. "But Melissa… why do you want to fight? You never struck me as someone who'd jump for a fight."

"I said I couldn't just sit by, and let the Yeerks win," Melissa said firmly. "And I won't let you and the others fight alone! Y-You're my friend Rachel, I… I know we haven't been hanging out a lot recently… but…"

Rachel looked at Melissa with a surprised look, before she smiled and gave her a sisterly hug which surprised Melissa. "Thanks Melissa," she said. "I'm glad you're with me on this. And its alright, besides I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot more time together now."

I myself smiled a bit, as I was glad that Melissa and Rachel were beginning to repair their friendship. "Well," I said as I looked at Cassies barn. "While we're here… might as well see what we can acquire morph-wise..."

Vanessa POV

Steven and I ran through the trees, finally coming to a particular spot where we couldn't see the woods. I knew that we had reached the base at that point. I glanced back at him and nodded. He returned the nod and the two of us plunged into the foliage. The brush briefly obscured our view, but that didn't matter since we knew where we were.

The base on the other side wasn't that large, only having enough space for our Hummer and the hangar for Steven's single engine crop duster. The main building only had enough room for the four of us and a small armory, but that was it. I smiled a bit. "All right. You know what to do, right?" I asked him.

Steven nodded. "I sure do, Vanessa," he said, flashing me the thumbs up. I returned it and the two of us split up in our respective directions.

I headed right for the base while Steven ran for the hangar for his plane. I darted across the runway and past the garage for the Hummer before skidding to a stop at the entrance to the base. Swiftly I typed in the four digit code for entry. The computer recognized it and the door slid open, allowing me to slip inside. Once I was in, the door slid shut and I ran for the main computer room, which was really just an office with a bunch of computer gear stuffed into a small space.

I entered the room and sat down, booting up the main computer and getting to work.

The reason why I was even on this team to begin with was because of my computer skills. See, my brother, his name is Jason and he's a UFOlogist, which means he studies UFOs. I personally kind of find it funny, but then again, I can't blame him. The story he told me regarding of how he got so interested revolves around him seeing one of his friends talking to a huge salad shooter on two legs and then a large bug-shaped craft came down and they went on board.

Crazy, huh?

Well, I didn't believe it at first. That is until I saw, or rather overheard, one of my cousins mentioning some place called the Sulp-Daar Pool, and they even referred to each other by some strange names. That's what got me involved to begin with.

It was about three years ago that happened.

Ever since then, I've been keeping tabs on this Sharing group, and I've also managed to tap into their database. What I've found I've kept hidden in my room on several, probably about twenty 1000 GB external hard drives. But more on that later.

Anyway, I dialed up a program I had written three years ago and brought up the database of the Sharing. The names flashing indicated new arrivals or possible recruits, which was a sign that they were expanding. I narrowed my eyes and began typing away. Nothing was going to slip past me that easily!

As I worked, I felt the entire building shake a bit from the sound of Steven's plane as it flew overhead. At least we had a chance to try and spot anything unusual by air, I mused with a grin. Steven, although a bit mysterious, was a good kid to have on the team.

Jordan's POV

"So, you're sure this is safe to morph a bird?" Tobias asked, a bit nervously as he stood in the middle of the Barn with me and the others. A few minutes had passed, and making good with my promise I helped Cassie out in the barn, taking care of the animals. Cassie was grateful for the help, and I learned quite a bit about the animals at the Clinic. We also spent some time acquiring all of the different animals she had in the Barn, which I was very eager to do. So far I had acquired a lot of animals to Morph. Cassie asked why I was so eager to acquire as many animals as I could, and I just answered 'It's best to have them and not need them, rather than need them and not have them'.

So far, I had acquired the DNA from a mouse, a horse, a raccoon, a bobcat missing an eye, and of course what I considered the 'icing on the cake', a Grey Wolf. I had also taken a quick Goshawk flight back to my place where I finally picked out my 'Morphing Suit', which was really just a tight-fitting pair of shorts and a T-Shirt. And I wasn't the only one, as Tobias had just finished acquiring a red-tailed hawk with a broken wing. "Trust me Tobias, you are going to love flying," I said grinning standing next to Cassie. "If you thought being Dude was awesome, a bird-of-prey will be a rollercoaster."

Tobias nodded a bit nervously before he sighed, and he allowed himself to begin his first morph into a hawk. As he began morphing, Cassie glanced at me. "So why do you think the Sharing is involved with the Yeerks?" she asked. A few minutes ago I brought up the topic of the Sharing, and how I thought (or rather knew) they were involved with the Yeerks.

I shrugged. "It's just a hunch I have," I said. "That cop was going on a bit too much 'bout joining the Sharing, saying things like 'we should go' and 'it's lots of fun'... Now that I think about it, Jake's brother Tom suggested I should go as well..."

"So, you think Tom is a Controller now?" Rachel asked, giving me a raised eyebrow as I just raised my hands in surrender.

"Hey, I am just suggesting it," I said. "I am running on the assumption that everyone is a Controller until proven innocent. There's just something in my gut saying there's something about the Sharing that rubs me the wrong way aside from them being a cheap Boy Scouts rip-off. Not to mention I've read a lot of mystery novels and watched a lot of shows, I've learned how to deduce these kinds of situations."

"You're just paranoid," Rachel said shaking her head. However Melissa seemed a bit hesitant to agree, which Cassie caught.

"Something on your mind, Melissa?" she asked.

"No… well.." Melissa said before she sighed. "Well… my parents… both go to Sharing meetings a lot," she said. "More than usual actually… they're always trying to convince me to join, like at least once a week they try to bring me along, but I usually don't go with them."

"Why's that?" I asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"I just… don't want to," Melissa said, shrugging. "It just… didn't seem like something I should go to."

I knew there was probably more to that story involving her… tensions with her Controller-parents, however I just nodded, knowing that I couldn't say anything about that yet. "Its not much," I said. "But it may still be worth checking out… I just want to give the Sharing a looksee and see if they are up to anything Yeerk-related, if not, then their okay in my books." I then looked at Tobias, and smiled as I saw he was in full hawk morph. "Well, Tobias… what do you think?"

"Just… whoa..." Tobias said once again in thought-speak. "You weren't kidding… Hawks can see and hear everything! So… what now?"

I glanced at Cassie, who nodded before I began to morph back into my Goshawk "Now," I said, once I finished morphing. "We fly!"

A while Later

"YEEEAAAHOOOO!" Tobias shouted as he plunged his red-tailed hawk morph into another nose-dive towards the ground, and I followed closely after as a Goshawk. "THIS IS AWESOME!"

"I know!" I shouted as we pulled up at the last second just as before,"This is why I wanted to join the Air Force! Flying is AWESOME!"

Me and Tobias were spending our time soaring across the skies above the trees, just as I had before. I was smiling mentally as I saw Tobias enjoy flying for the first time of his life. We had been flying for about a half hour now, and we were just beginning to leave the forest, and enter the area where Jake's house was.

"This will NEVER get old, I swear!" Tobias shouted, as he did a barrel-roll. "I've never felt so alive!" We continued to fly over the suburban buildings below us, until Tobias spotted one he recognized "Hey, I think that's Jake's house," he said

"Yeah," I said, as I flew on Tobias's left flank. "You wanna see what he's doing?"

"Sure," he said, as we dove dove down and headed towards the house. However as we got closer to the window of Jake's room, we heard a bunch of loud noises coming from inside, sounding like someone was having a fight. 'Oh boy,' I thought. 'Marco found out Tom's a Controller.' Thanks to my Goshawk hearing, me and Tobias could hear what was going on inside.

"Jake, quit acting like a stupid jerk!"

"Take that back!"

"Not likely, you think it's just a coincidence he's suddenly all interested in what happened at the construction site?"

"What the hell is going on in there?" Tobias asked.

"Sounds like Jake and Marco are having an argument…" I said. "I doubt its about who won their last game… We should see what's going on, not to mention we should tell Jake what Elfangor told us last night about the Yeerks. Red-Tails first!"

Tobias chucked a bit. "With pleasure," he said. "Let me show you how its done." He then moved into a dive, before he folded back his wings in a free-fall letting gravity bring him in for a landing. He opened his wings wide to slow his descent, and started flapping against the window with his left wing to try and get their attention.

'Wow… he's good.' I thought, blinking at how expertly Tobias pulled that off in his first time in bird Morph, before I followed him, mimicking his movements as well as I could as I did the same as him.

"Let us in, alright? We can't hover here forever!" Tobias shouted.

"Yeah, we ain't choppers! " I added.

Thankfully, Jake soon opened the window and we flew in, as Tobias landed on the dresser while I landed on the bed. "What on earth are you two fighting about?" Tobias demanded. "Oh, and what do you think of my new Red-Tailed Hawk Morph?"

"Is that you Tobias? Jordan?" Marco demanded. "I thought we weren't going to do any more of this morphing."

"I never agreed to that," Tobias said.

"And neither did I," I said as well, mentally smirking. "And I believe we agreed not to agree yet."

"Well, morph back you two," Jake said. "You know what the Andalite said: never stay in morph for more than two hours."

"We know, we know," I said as I began to morph back. "We still have loads of time left." I noticed Tobias hesitated for a moment, before he began to demorph as well. My first assumption was that he had yet to figure out how to morph clothes yet, but then again there was the equally as likely chance he enjoyed being a hawk so much.

I know this may sound crazy, but I always believed that maybe - just maybe - Tobias wanted to become a hawk. What I mean is that I think Tobias wanted to become a nothlit from the beginning. I mean, think about it: He has no parents which he knows about, neither of his aunt or uncle care about him, and he barely had any friends to speak of.

As a human, he didn't have much going for him. But… I hoped that maybe, just maybe I could change that. I wanted to be Tobias's friend, just like I wanted to be friends with the others as well. But I still thought of all of the good he did as a hawk, which caused me to hesitate on the idea of keeping him human.

However, I pushed those thoughts away as me and Tobias finished morphing, and Jake loaned Tobias some clothes as he had yet to master morphing clothes yet.

"How did you two get those hawk morphs?" Jake demanded.

"Cassie's barn," Tobias answered. "There was an injured hawk there, as well as this cool osprey, but I picked the hawk."

"Similar story," I said. "Cassie's mom was handling a Northern Goshawk that got injured and she let me hold it, so I decided to acquire it while I had the chance. Its a good thing injuries like broken wings aren't written in the DNA acquired in morphing."

"Yeah," Tobias said sighing. "He's so depressed..."

"Who?" Jake asked.

"The hawk," Tobias said. " I mean, I think he knows they're aren't trying to hurt him or anything, but he can't stand being cooped up there while his wing heals." His eyes darkened. "It's terrible when birds have to be locked up in cages, they should be free."

"Yeah, free the birds," Marco commented sarcastically. "I'll get the bumper stickers printed up."

"Marco, you would not have that attitude if you morphed a bird," I said smirking, and Tobias smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, being a cat was cool and all, but a hawk! Its just total absolute freedom!" he said.

"No more than two hours in morph, right?" Jake repeated the warning. "You keep track of time, right?"

I chuckled a bit and Tobias smiled. "We do," I said. "With hawk eyes, we can see someone's wrist watch while half a mile in the air."

"It's like being Superman," Tobias added. "Being able to fly, and have super-vision!"

"Now they're Supermen. Great." Marco muttered.

"We were just flying around, really," Tobias said. "But I was keeping an eye out for anything that could be a Yeerk Pool."

"Yeerk Pool?" Jake asked, raising an eyebrow. "What's that? Didn't that Visser Three guy say something about that?"

"Yeah, me and Tobias stayed with Elfangor for a few moments longer when you guys ducked for cover," I said. "He sent us… info you could say, on the Yeerks, things we can use against them. The Yeerks have an Achilles heel. It turns out that Yeerks feed on these rays called Kandrona Rays. On the Yeerk Homeworld Kandrona is their sun, which supplies special rays of energy which feeds the Yeerks in their natural state. However if a Yeerk does not get rejuvenated by Kandrona Rays once every three days, they die. The Kandrona Rays themselves are generated from some artificial generator the Yeerks have somewhere on-planet, but the Yeerks themselves need to bathe in a place called a Yeerk Pool."

Marco raised a hand to silence me and Tobias. "Hang on, let me check the door," he said as he went to the door to Jake's room and peeked out into the hallway. "All clear."

Tobias gave Marco a questioning look, and he answered the unasked question. "Tom," he said. "He's one of them."

"Don't make me hurt you!" Jake warned him angrily. "Tom is not a Controller."

I sighed. "So that's what you were arguing about," I said sighing. "You may be right Jake, but we still need to anticipate the possibility that anyone other than us could be controllers for now, not until we can devise a plan to track down who and who's not a Controller, that includes your brother."

"Whatever," Marco said. "But what does the Yeerk Pool gotta do with you two flying around and spying like your Superman?"

"Well, it seems dumb now, but I was thinking maybe we could spot the Yeerk Pool from above," Tobias said, as he made a rueful smile. "Saw a lot of swimming pools and some ponds. You get up there and you realize there are ponds and lakes and streams everywhere. But I didn't see anything special."

"And what if you found some Yeerk Pool?" Marco demanded. "Then what?"

"One step at a time," I said before Tobias could speak. "First we find the Yeerk Pool, and then we decide where to go from there. I doubt we can just blow it up since we don't have anything we could use to blow it up, but once we identify the Yeerk Pool's location, we can begin mapping out Yeerk Pool entrances. I doubt the Yeerks would have just one way in or out of the pool, if they have more entrances then more Controllers can access them at a variety of locations. We map these locations, we can start identifying who are Controllers, and who's not."

"Didn't we decide not to get into this?" Marco said.

"Actually, we decided not to decide yet," Jake pointed out.

"Well, me and Jordan have decided," Tobias said nodding firmly. "We're fighting, with or without you."

"Suddenly the wimp is a hero," Marco sneered.

"Maybe I just found something worth fighting for Marco," Tobias said.

"You didn't even fight for yourself!" he exclaimed.

"That was before," Tobias said softly. "Before Elfangor, before he died to save us, and gave us the power to morph. I can't let that go. I can't let him die for nothing. So whatever you guys decide, I am going to fight."

"And we're going to do it, with or without you," I added nodding. "When we find the Yeerk Pool, we're gonna make the Yeerks regret ever coming to earth in the first place, and show them we mean business."

Marco and Jake were both silent for about a minute, before Marco began to smile a bit sneakily. He knew Jake was going on with this thanks to me and Tobias, despite what other people may say about him, Marco can be very smart when he wants to. "Remember that cop today, the one who is so interested in finding whoever was at the construction site? The cop who is probably a Controller?"

We all nodded. "Yeah, what about him?" Jake asked.

"Well, let's see," Marco began as he leaned back in his seat. "He invites you to join the Sharing, and now along comes Tom. And suddenly he is very interested in what happened at the construction site, and guess what? Tom also invites you to join the Sharing."

"Asked me too," I said nodding, glancing at Tobias who nodded as well. "I spoke with Rachel and Cassie about it back at the Barn. The cop seemed pretty… suggestive that we join the Sharing. I think the Sharing may be a front for Controllers, they probably use it to recruit humans and eventually infect them with a Yeerk."

"We're pretty sure the cop is a controller," Marco said. "And I don't care what you say, Jake, I think Tom is too. So, here is the deal. You want to get into this fight against the Yeerks? Fine,. Let's see how much you want to do it when it turns out it's your own brother you have to destroy."

"We don't have to kill Tom, Marco," I said, rolling my eyes. "Just the Yeerk in his head. We find a way to free him from the Yeerk, Tom will no longer be a problem."

"Easier said than done!" Marco shot back. "This isn't some video game, is it? This is reality. Jake, you have no idea what reality is. Nothing bad has ever happened to you. You have the perfect family, like I used to have." His voice cracked a bit at the memory of his mother before he continued. "So maybe we just walk away from this, let someone else fight this fight. Sorry about the Andalite, but I've got enough death in my family."

"There will be a lot more death if we let the Yeerks win," I said, once again surprising the others. "Do you think the Yeerks will always be this 'passive'? Eventually they will move in for the kill and turn every human they can into Controllers, and whatever ones resist will be likely killed. Is that the fate you want your friends and family to suffer? Being killed or worse, spending the rest of their lives as slaves to the Yeerks? We may not be the only ones fighting the Yeerks, someone helped us out at the construction site and let us escape… but I doubt they can do this on their own. The Andalite said the Yeerks don't have the ability to morph aside from Visser Three. We have a distinct advantage over the Yeerks, a power they do not have! We may start off small… but over time… we can grow, and become a formidable force against the Yeerks."

"He's right," Jake said nodding. "The Andalite gave us the morphing power for a reason and it wasn't just for the fun of turning into a dog, horse or bird. He hoped we would fight."

"Then maybe Tom is the enemy!" Marco exclaimed. "Maybe it's your own brother you'll end up killing and not just the Yeerk!"

"Yes," Jake said grimly. "Maybe that's what will happen, maybe not. But the first step is to find out more. And I think maybe the way to do that is to check out this Sharing meeting tonight. I'll call the others, anyone wants to come, cool. You want to stay out of it Marco, that's cool too."

Marco hesitated, before he shot me and Tobias an angry look but I shrugged it off. He sighed and spoke. "Okay, it's just a meeting, right?" he asked. "We go and see, I'm in for that."

"Sounds good," I said nodding. "This is just Recon, we're not looking for a fight, we go in, see what's what, and get out."

117Jorn: And there you have it! Chapter 3 is done and posted! Hope ya'll enjoyed it as much as I did writing it! Next chapter is our 'Recon' at the Sharing Meeting, and a few things happen there that may pirk your interests! So until next time… JA NE!