Sean

There's something about a movie that makes you completely forget about the outside world. I don't know if it's the big bin of salty popcorn or the two hours of pure sensory bombardment. But a movie theater really is a place where time and reality have no meaning, even when it's an animated feature.

After nearly peeing myself with laughter (both literally and figuratively as I hate getting up during a movie even with a full bladder) at Kuzko, Ezma and Cronk, I was ready to take on the world. When the warmth of the sun hit my face I felt like everything could be as comically timed as it had been when Ezma and Kuzko tried to order their dishes without cheese, much to the frustration of the press ganged chef, Cronk.

I was so happy that I decided to take the bus into town and I promised Aunt Susan I'd be back at the cabin by dinner. I wasn't sure where Bryce was going to meet me, but I knew that Chee could monitor the radio chatter between the busses and would no doubt be waiting near the bus stop to greet me.

For all I knew the bus driver was a Chee. It's not like they all greeted me with a special handshake or anything, but I had met quite a few in Vermont, and some from New York and New Hampshire as well. So it stood to reason that there could be Chee in Massechusetts as well.

There were probably a few holed up wherever they parked the spaceship that brought them here. I always imagined the Chee spaceship to be something like the ship the Tomorrow People escaped to when they needed to sort out their internal issues. If only I could teleport like the Tomorrow People, this invasion would be over.

The bus hit a few potholes and a familiar nausea settled into my stomach. As I watched a crow fly overhead, I mentally berated myself for not having Bryce meet me in the mountains where I could fly. Then I remembered how hard it was for the seagull morph to handle hills and areas away from water and I withdrew my internal argument.

A better bird morph was definitely on my list. That and something big and preferably with sharp teeth, something that could handle the Hork-Bajir more convincingly than an attack dog. I shuttered with the memory of the Hork-Bajir's claws slicing my arm clear off. Reflexively, I rubbed my wrist and hand, thankful that my human body wasn't affected by damage done in morph.

I had no doubt that Bryce knew what I did in the park. Animal control was probably all over the park looking for an insane Great Dane. And I knew without even seeing him that Bryce was upset because of what I did with a dog morph. On some level I agreed. It's not like the cops would know one dog from another, or that the dog could speak up for itself.

But on that same token, I didn't shed any blood and half of the story those brats told would be severely suspect by the fact that it would sound like a pot induced hallucination.

"Well you see officer the dog demanded my shoes because my little brothers were trying to hurt this frog, which is protected by wildlife conservation laws by the way. Oh and we chased the kid that tried to stop us from breaking said law into the lake and didn't bother to call for help when it seemed like the kid was drowning."

Yeah. Either they would lose the cops at the part where the dog spoke to them, or they would talk themselves into an attempted murder charge. Or at the very least a lengthy visit to a psychiatric ward. Either way the dog and me will be off the hook by sundown and it still won't change the fact that I'm the only person out of the thousands who know about the Yeerks with the power to do anything about it.

When Bryce gets a little blood on his hands after tearing into the flesh of an alien that looks like a reject from Mortal Kombat, then we'll talk.

The bus stopped at the K-mart plaza in the center of North Adams. When I got off, I saw Bryce. My height with dark hair and freckles that I could see from all the way over here, Bryce looked like an average All American kid just wasting his week vacation hanging out on Main Street. He wore light tan jeans and a long-sleeved green t-shirt. Or at least that was what his holographic image was made to look like.

As I crossed the road, I also noticed Bryce putting a hand to his head and wincing. That didn't look good.

"Are you okay?" I asked when I was close enough.

Bryce shook his head and looked up at me. He smiled, but something seemed off about it, like when you're suffering through a bad headache but you still want to be polite.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "How was the movie?"

"It was awesome," I said, unable to get the concern out of my face. The Chee are practically invincible, so there was only one thing that could be bothering Bryce enough that it made him appear to be suffering "How's Junior?"

Junior, of course, was the pet name I came up with for the Yeerk that Bryce had willingly taken into his head. It happened yesterday, while I was still here in North Adams.

"He's doing all right," Bryce said. "Erek has been telling me what to do to keep him alive and happy."

Bryce seemed to shake off whatever was bothering him. I tried to push my concern aside, but it was hard, knowing the Chee's inability to do a heck of a lot that was helpful to me. We went to Burger King for lunch, but it was so packed with kids that we decided to bring our lunch to Heritage Park.

"The lock in was brilliant," Bryce said. We found a nice bench in the shade and sat down. "I got there on Friday and there were forty other people. Families with kids. It seemed so normal at first, with board games and flashlight tag. Then the,"- Bryce put his hands up to make air quotes with his fingers, -"Baptism started."

I nodded. My dad's Yeerk had a trusted lieutenant named Sestran. In the host body of a well known religious figure in my home town, Sestran has been using various churches and religious services to quietly obtain hosts for Kullan's movement against Visser Three.

Visser Three, the leader of the invasion of Earth, uses a similar method in the California area known as The Sharing. Like the church groups, the Sharing is basically a front that attracts people with big and attractive events like cook outs and beach parties. People are then offered the chance to become voluntary hosts to the Yeerks.

So far Kullan has been pretty quiet about it though. My dad is a successful investigative journalist and because of that, he has many valuable contacts that Kullan 926 has been using to get access to abandoned churches and other useful buildings in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. The worse part of it was that Kullan wasn't working for Visser Three.

Kullan 926 was either one of two things. A rogue Visser with plans to take over the entire Yeerk Empire. Or a crazy underling…with plans to take over the Yeerk Empire. Either way he was putting my dad and countless innocent humans at risk by trying to build his own personal army.

"So what have you learned so far?" I asked, after telling him about the incident in the woods.

"Nothing much," Bryce said, admittedly. "I was infested yesterday. Sestran was very specific that I needed to keep an eye on you. If you start acting oddly or you start becoming a risk to Kullan, I'm to drag you to the nearest Yeerk pool and have you infested."

I snorted.

"And I've gone a whole month without giving Kullan a reason to suspect me," I said. "I'm flattered."

"Don't be," Bryce said with a frown. "Your little stunt with the dog in the woods…you remember the news article your dad wrote, right?"

Now how did I know this subject was going to come up? But Bryce was right. Kullan was smart, using my dad's journalistic integrity to alert the community about a rabid dog attack on the "good" reverend Mosely.

"So Kullan might think there's another Andalite running loose in Massachusetts as well as Vermont," I pointed out. "We know there are Andalites somewhere in California. Maybe Kullan will get paranoid and this will actually keep him quiet enough to avoid attracting Visser Three's attention."

"Or, or," Bryce cut in, sounding irritated. "Dogs will start getting put to sleep for no reason. You know we can't hide every single dog on the face of the Earth, they have to come up for air eventually."

I sighed and pulled an onion ring out of the bag.

"I'm sorry," I said, munching. "Look, I'm under a lot of stress here. I'm sorry if I put innocent dogs in danger Bryce, but I didn't exactly see you volunteering to help me out in the woods. Where was the Chee hologram of the Park ranger trying to save an innocent frog? Or trying to keep me from nearly killing myself getting away from those pricks?"

"The frog?" Bryce rolled his eyes. "Are you telling me you would have saved it without knowing you could morph it?"

"Morphing was a perk," I pointed out. "But I saved your shiny gray ass once too you know. And that was before I knew about Yeerks, Chee, or the fact that you would have been better off if the bullies had just hit you."

Bryce laughed. We both had a chuckle at the memory of how Erek revealed himself to me. Then Bryce's attitude changed as his skin suddenly went pale.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Bryce seemed grabbed his stomach. I didn't think he could get sick, what with having no organs, but that seemed to be what was happening. Not knowing what else to do, I put my hand on his shoulder.

"I…." Bryce stared at me blankly. "The Yeerk…"

Paranoid, I looked around to see if anyone was near us. A jogger, a woman dressed in bright clothing, stopped and give Bryce a concerned once-over. "Is he okay?"

"Burger King," I said quickly, holding up the bag. "I think he had an undercooked burger"

The woman nodded, wrinkling her nose. "There's a bathroom in the museum there."

She pointed to the building at the end of the park. Not wanting to draw more attention, I helped Bryce to his feet (Which should have earned me an Olympic medal given how heavy he was) and guided him to the building.

"Erek.." Bryce moaned. I knew the other Chee must be aware of what was going on, but it struck me as weird that he would speak out loud to them.

"Don't talk to Erek out loud," I whispered. "Come on, let's get you inside."

My heart raced.

I lead him up the stairs and into the air conditioned building. Before the receptionist could say anything, I asked where the men's room was. Fortunately, when a kid looks like he's going to hurl, no adult who doesn't relish the idea of cleaning it up will ever stand between you and the appropriate place for it.

Once in the safety of the bathroom, I took a step back. Bryce leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. Bryce looked up at me with pleading eyes and grabbed his head.

"What is going on?" I said in a low voice, so as not to attract attention.

"The Yeerk…" Bryce began to sob. "The Yeerk is…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the slug started crawling from his ear. I didn't think the Yeerk could escape the head of a Chee. But as I watched the tiny little thing fall onto Bryce's shoulder and then slide onto the floor, I noticed it beginning to…dissolve.

"Oh man," I crouched down for a better look, completely horrified by what I was seeing. Then Bryce said three words that will forever haunt me.

"I killed it."