"Here we go," said Jake and began to read.

Chapter 4

Yeerks

The twin red lights slowed. They turned in a circle and came back towards us.

There is no more time. You must decide!

"We have to do this," Tobias said. "How else can we fight these controllers?"

"This is so insane!" Marco said. "Insane."

"I'd like more time, but we don't have that choice," Rachel said. "I'm for it."

"No surprise there," everyone said and Rachel pocked her tongue out to no one in particular.

"What do you say, Jake?" Cassie asked me. It was odd. Like suddenly I was the one who had to decide for everyone.

"Well, you are kinda like out leader," said Cassie.

"Uh-huh, not that I had a choice," muttered Jake and continued before anyone could say anything else.

I looked up at the Yeerk ships. What had the Andalite called them? Bug fighters? They were circling closer, like dogs sniffing for a scent. I looked down at the Andalite and remembered the picture of his family. Would they even know what had happened to him?

I looked at each of the people around me- my usually funny, occasionally annoying best friend, Marco; Rachel, my smart, pretty, confident cousin; and Cassie, who everyone knew liked animals more than she liked most people.

Finally, I looked at Tobias. It was weird, the feeling I had at that moment, staring at him. A chill or something.

"We have to," Tobias said to me.

Slowly I nodded. "Yes. We have no choice."

We die. Five hands each press your hand against one side then a sixth hand, different from ours, with too many figures.

Don't be afraid the Andalite said.

Something like a shock, only pleasurable, seemed to run through me. A tingle that almost made me laugh.

"Yeah, I felt that too," said Cassie and the others nodded in agreement- Tobias in somewhat of a bird like way.

Go now the Andalite said. Only remember this- never remain in animal form for more than two of your Earth hours. Never! That is greatest danger of the morphing! If you stay longer than two hours you will be trapped, unable to return to human form.

"Two hours," I repeated.

Suddenly some new fear washed through the Andalite's mind. Linked as I was to him, I could feel it as a dread that crawled up my spine. He was staring at the sky with his main eyes. Something else was up there with the Bug fighters.

Visser Three. He comes.

A shudder ran through the small group as Jake read those four words.

"What?" I was shaking with this new terror. "What's a Visser. Who's a Visser?"

Go now. Run. Visser Three is here. He is the most deadly of your enemies. Of all Yeerks he alone has the power to morph. The same power you now have. Run!

"No, we'll stay with you" Rachel said firmly. "Maybe we can help."

Again it was as if the alien was smiling at us with his eyes. No. You must save yourselves. Save yourselves and save your planet! The Yeerks are here.

We all looked up, craning out necks. Sure enough, the two red lights were sinking towards us. And they had been joined by a third ship, far larger, black as a shadow within a shadow.

"But how are we supposed to fight these... these Controllers?" Rachel demanded.

You're wasting time, you have to get out of there muttered Ax in his head. He, like them all, was engrossed in the story to even know that he wasn't there. It felt like- to them all- as if they had gone back in time and were re-living this scene over all over again.

You must find a way. Now run!

I jerked from the force of his command. "He's right. Run!" I yelled.

We ran. All but Tobias, who knelt beside the Andalite and took his hand. The Andalite pressed his other hand against Tobias's head. Tobias rocked back, like he'd been shocked. Then he, too, was up and running, stumbling over the loose junk and potholes of the construction site.

"What was that all about?" asked Rachel, looking at Tobias.

He shrugged in a bird sort of way.

A beam of bright red light snapped on. It was a spotlight from one of the Bug fighters. The beam light lit up the fallen Andalite and his ship. A spotlight from the second Bug fighter joined the first, and the Andalite shone brilliant as a star.

I hit the dirt hard. I saw my leg lit up within the circle of that spotlight. I yanked it to me and crawled fast, scraping my elbows and knees over sharp stones.

The five of us crouched behind a low, crumbled wall, afraid to move, afraid to look, but just as afraid to look away.

Slowly the Bug Fighters descended. It was easy to see where they'd got their nickname. They were slightly larger than the Andalite fighter and shaped like legless cockroaches. There were small windows like eyes on the forward-thrust head of the bug. And on either side of the head were two very long, very sharp serrated spears.

Tobias started to morph human again, he wanted to hear this as human, just as he had all those months ago.

The Yeerk Bug fighters touched down, one on either side of the Andalite ship.

"Ok, you can wake me up now," Marco said in a rattled whisper. "I've had enough of this dream."

"Typical Marco," whispered Rachel.

The larger ship began to descend. I don't know what it was about that ship, but as it got closer I started to feel like I couldn't breathe. I tried to suck in a deep lungful of air and couldn't. I wanted to run, but my legs were jelly. I was shaking from a fear so deep it was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. It was the same fear that the Andalite had shown when he'd realized Visser Three was coming.

The ship settled towards the ground. It looked like it was going to land directly on a big rusted earthmover parked there. But as the Visser Three's ship descended, the earthmover just sizzled and disappeared.

Visser Three's ship was built like some ancient weapon. It reminded me of one of this battle-axes the old-time knights used when they were hacking off the heads of their foes. There was a main oar, like the handle of the axe, with a big, triangular point on the front. That part had to be the bridge. At the rear were two huge, scimitar wings. It was eight or ten times the size of the Bug Fighters.

The Blade ship landed. A door opened.

Cassie started to scream. I clapped my hand over her mouth.

They leaped from the ship, whirling and thrusting and slicing the air, creatures that looked like walking weapons. They stood on two bent-back legs and had two very long arms. On each arm there were curved horn-blades growing out of the wrist and elbow. There were other blades at their bent-back knees, and tow more blades at the end of their tails. They had feet like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

But it was the head that got your attention- a neck like a snake, a mouth that was almost as falcon's beak, and, from the forehead, three daggers like horns raked forward.

Hork-Bajir-Controller.

I jumped, hearing the Andalite's words in my mind again. They were fainter than before, strained, like someone yelling from far away.

"Did you guys...?" I asked.

Rachel nodded. "Yeah."

The Hork-Bajir are a good people, despite their fearsome looks the Andalite said. But they have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each of them now carries a Yeerk in his head. They are to be pitied.

"Pity. Right," Rachel said grimly. "They're walking killing machines. Look at them!"

But our attention was drawn away by a new form that crept and slithered and shimmied out of the Blade ship.

Taxxon-Controllers the Andalite said. I knew he was trying to tell us all he could, even to the end. Trying to prepare us for what we were up against.

The Taxxons are evil.

"Yeah" Marco muttered. "I think I would have guessed that."

"Can we skip their description; I want to get this part over and done with. We already know what they look like," whimpered Rachel and Jake nodded, turning the page to the next chapter.