Insanity Equals Happiness

by Salad Shooter

I wrote this entire story when I was 12-13. You have been warned. My writing skills have much improved since then.

4. The Cuckoo, or The Coincidence

Author's note: Hey, it's me, Salad Shooter. I'm writing these as fast as I can, okay? The reason I got the first three stories up so fast is I had already written them. I had already written half of this one, too. But the next story is gonna take a while. I haven't even started on it yet.

Also, I've made covers for all the stories. You can see them here: http://www.geocities.com/alienchick53//coverpics.html

On to the fic ...

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CHAPTER 1 – Thomas

My name is Thomas.

I'm normal, okay? Normal. Not a nerd who can do fifty-three times fifty- three-thousand-whatever in his head. Not an athlete who plays every sport, no problem. Although I'm a decent basketball player.

I'm not a comedian. I'm not a loudmouth. I'm not really anything noticeable.

I don't look anything special. Brown eyes. Medium-dark skin. Black, curly hair. I don't have females gawking at me everywhere I go.

I have a sister named Rachel. Her normalcy is disputable. She's one year younger than me, but we're in the same grade because she skipped something.

I have an abnormal best friend. His name's Herbie. Despite his awful name (how would you like Herbert as your name?), Herbie is no nerd.

In fact, he's pure goofball.

"Yes! All right! I win. Hey, let's snag some pizza. I love pepperoni and worms."

"You what? Please tell me I misheard you."

"Uh-huh. Fine, you misheard me. Not!"

"You're so weird."

"Thank you. Now how about that pizza?"

We were at the mall. Playing video games. Herbie had just won. Again.

I yanked off my game headset. "Hey! There's Tony."

Tony is almost as weird as Herbie, although he doesn't have such a twisted sense of humor.

Tony is sort of my friend. He's closer to my age than Herbie is. Herbie, like Rachel, should have been in one grade below us. He skipped something too.

Okay, in that respect he is a nerd. But you'd think someone so intelligent would have more sense. Not Herbie.

Tony looked at Herbie. "What are you doing?"

"This is the worm dance, Tony. Come on, it's fun."

"You know how dorky you look?" I said.

"I never look dorky," Herbie protested.

"Yeah, right."

Tony agreed. Then he looked at me. "So Thomas, what's up?"

"The ceiling is up," Herbie said.

"The sky is up," I added.

Tony grinned. "Up is the opposite of down."

I sighed. "Hey Tony," I said, changing the subject. "Herbie and I were gonna get pizza."

"I'll join you people. If I can stand him." Tony looked at Herbie, who was still performing his absurd "worm dance."

~~~

"Hey, Herbie! Thomas!"

It was Christina. She's Rachel's best friend. She's weird too. She's got a twisted sense of humor too, only it's more mature than Herbie's.

"Hey, Christina. What's up?" I asked.

"Bored." She sighed. "I was gonna get some food, but ran out of money. I was about to head home."

"We'll get you some pizza," Herbie said.

"Cool." Christina grinned.

Suddenly a way-too-familiar face looked in my direction. "There you are, Thomas."

Rachel. My little sister. She's a pain.

"I thought I'd escaped from you," I said.

"Nope." She smiled in an aggravatingly sweet way.

"Stop that. You want pizza?"

"Yeah. I want your slice."

"No way!"

She smiled sweetly again.

Rachel is very annoying at times. Her friends all like her because "she's so nice." That's true: she reserves her mean side for me and Herbie.

~~~

So it was me, Herbie, Tony, Rachel, and Christina. Eating pizza. Normal stuff.

Suddenly this guy walked over to our table. He was like thirty. He kind of seemed awkward. He looked at Tony and said, "Talerin." Whatever that meant.

Tony's eyes suddenly widened.

"What is it?" I asked.

Tony just stared at the man.

The guy said, "I mean ... isn't your name Tony?"

"Yeah," Tony said.

"Can I talk to you and your friends?"

"Sure. Herbie, people, come on."

~~~

The man took us outside. Across the street.

There's this old abandoned construction site there. People say it's gonna be destroyed. There'll be a couple of stores built there.

But no one had knocked it down. There were rumors that the place was haunted. Of course, I didn't believe that, but I wasn't in charge of construction there.

"Why'd you bring us here?" Herbie wanted to know.

"For reasons of my own. Also, because no one ever comes here." The weird man looked around.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

Suddenly ...

Pop! Pop!

"What in the world?" Christina said calmly.

"Cool," Tony said.

"Oh man," Rachel kept repeating. "Oh, man."

"How do you do that?" Herbie asked.

I said, "What are you doing?"

"Demorph — " he started to say. Then his mouth disappeared.

Demorphing. No one scream.

I heard him in my head. It was like telepathy or something. My ears didn't sense a thing.

We didn't scream, though I'm sure we were all tempted to.

Soon, a blue centaur-type thing was standing in front of me. Four hooves. Fourteen fingers. Four eyes. One tail.

The ... whatever ... was covered with blue fur. Longer on the lower, horselike body; shorter on the human torso; very short and fine on the face and arms.

His head was weird. No hair or anything, just the short fur. He had two almost-normal eyes, although they were sort of slanted and bigger than human eyes. But on top of his head there were two little horn things with eyes on the end. The horns twisted around to point the eyes in any direction. All four eyes were bright green, and they seemed to glow and glitter.

He also had a tail. The tail was what made him really look scary, apart from the weirdness of the eyes. His tail wasn't like a horse's; it was long and strong-looking, with a sharp blade at the end.

And I suddenly almost recognized him. I mean, I couldn't recall ever seeing something like this before. But he sort of felt familiar.

"Yow. You aren't going to, you know, use that tail on us?" Herbie said. Sometimes Herbie is a chicken.

No, said the centaur thing.

We were all huddled together, pressed up against a crumbling wall. The weird guy was a few yards away.

My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.

"What?"

You can call me Ax, if you wish.

-Appropriate-, I thought, glancing at his tail. -That tail blade's worse than an ax.-

"Ax. Nice to meet you," Herbie said. "Shake hands?"

Ax did.

I hoped I'd find you five here. Look, I can't stay very long. But I have to tell you something.

"Tell us what?"

I am from another planet. I am an Andalite.

"Cool! An alien. Look, let's go tell someone!" Herbie said. "We'd get to be on TV."

"You know how much money we could get?" Christina agreed. "We'd be millionaires."

No, Ax said. You won't. There are many other aliens on this planet.

"Other aliens? What, your friends?"

Ax laughed. No. In fact ... what were his words? "They have come to destroy you"? Yes, I think that was it. That's what Prince Jake said.

"Say what? They have come to what?" I asked.

Ax looked at me with his two "normal" eyes. To destroy you, Thomas.

He knew my name!

They are called Yeerks. They are like Earth slugs in their natural state. But they can crawl into the brains of humans. They control the human totally.

"What? You mean, any dude I see could be controlled by one of these — what did you call them?"

Yeerks. And no. When a human is made into a Controller, the human's memories are duplicated. The memory copy is transferred to a Kelbrid.

"What's a Kelbridge?" Rachel asked.

I gave her my "you-are-such-a-moron" look. "He said Kelbrid, you idiot. Whatever that is."

Kelbrid are allies of the Yeerks, Rachel. They are extremely unattractive in their natural states. But they have this technology that allows them to change into a different form. To morph. Like I just did, only more advanced.

"Wow," I said.

The Kelbrid morphs the human and takes his place. And in a sense, you are right: Any human could be an enemy. They could be a Kelbrid in morph.

"So why are you telling us this?"

I am giving you something to help fight the Yeerks. My brother did the same thing, in this very place. He gave five young humans the morphing ability. As I am about to do.

"One ... two ... three ... four," I counted. "Except there's only four of us."

"You forgot to count yourself, Thomas," Rachel said, looking at me like I was an idiot.

I smacked myself on the head. "Oh, duh. So there are five of us."

Yes, said Ax. Only there are three things that are different.

"Yeah?" I asked.

First of all, my brother died right afterwards. I will not. Hopefully. Secondly, the Yeerks came along right about then. I doubt they will now. The third thing is that Tony will not be able to receive this. It will not work for him.

"Why not?" Tony asked.

It's a long story.

"So, what are you going to give us?" Christina asked.

The power to morph, Christina. Like I did. You touch an animal to acquire its DNA, concentrate on the animal, and you will morph the animal. You'll become that animal.

"Become animals? This is insane," Christina commented.

"And I can't?" Tony asked.

No. I'm sorry.

"No apology necessary. I don't need to turn into animals."

Ax showed us a small blue box, about four inches on each side. He held it out to us. Place your hand on the cube. All of you.

I did. Then Rachel. Then Christina and Herbie.

Tony touched the little box. "I kinda want to do this anyway. I know it won't work for me, but ... "

I understand, Ax said.

I felt a little shock. Not painful. It actually kind of felt good.

Now you can acquire and morph. Only do not stay in morph for longer than two hours, or you will be trapped in that morph.

"A time limit. Two hours. Okay," I said.

"Do these Kelbrid have that time limit, too?" Tony wondered.

They have a one-day time limit. Twenty-four of your hours.

"They aren't 'our' hours. This is Earth," Christina said, rolling her eyes. "An hour's an hour. And how come they get a longer time limit?"

They have highly developed morphing. Go now. Good-bye, said Ax.

"Bye," Tony called.

"Let's go," I said. "I don't like this place. Especially at night."

"Scared of the ghosts?" Rachel teased.

"No way."

"Uh-huh. Yeah right, Thomas."

~~~

CHAPTER 2 – Rachel

My name is Rachel.

I have straight black hair and brown eyes. I have light-brown skin. I have an older brother, Thomas. He's a pain in the butt.

Nothing too unusual.

We were back at the mall. Back to normalcy.

"Okay, was that a dream?" Christina asked. "I don't remember going to sleep."

"It wasn't a dream," Tony insisted.

"So. What do we do?" I asked. "Thomas?"

Thomas glared at me. "Since when do I decide what we do?"

"Would you rather I did?"

"No."

"Didn't think so."

"Thomas," Tony said. "You should try it out. Morphing. You guys have any pets?"

"Yeah. Dog and a cat."

"Morph one of them. See what it's like. If we're going to fight these Yeerks, or Kelbrid, or whatever — "

"Who says we're going to?" Herbie said. "Look, I don't like this at all. I think we should forget this whole thing."

"I'm inclined to agree," Christina said.

"Look, you chickens," I said. "We're going to let a bunch of people get controlled by slugs? It's time to save the world."

"And the first thing we can do is make you shut up," Herbie said. He doesn't like me all that much.

"Nah, we'll make you shut up first."

"Let's take a vote," Thomas suggested.

"I say we fight," Tony said.

"Ditto," I agreed.

"I say we go home and watch TV." Herbie, of course.

Christina said, "Yeah. We should tell someone older about this stuff."

I looked at them like they were idiots. "No way! We're gonna leave this to a bunch of adults? Are you people crazy?"

"Not as much as you are, oh wacko one," Herbie said.

"I'm wacko? And you are ... ?"

"Oh, shut up. It's two to two," Thomas said. "Tied so far."

"What's your vote?" Tony asked.

"I don't know."

Christina rolled her eyes. "That's helpful."

"We shouldn't be talking here anyway. You guys, think about it. What if that guy over there was a Kelbrid?"

I looked at the man closest to our table. "I'd hope he didn't hear anything."

"Yeah. And that's why we can't tell anyone else about this stuff."

"Our parents," I realized. "What if they're morphed Kelbrid?"

No one wanted to think about that ...

~~~

"I found Pizza," I called.

Don't ask me why our dog's name is Pizza. I didn't come up with the name, Thomas did.

"I can't find Sara," Thomas complained from somewhere in the house. Sara is our cat.

"Try my room. But don't even think about going in there! Stand outside the doorway and look."

This time Thomas's voice came from much closer. "Found her."

"Told you."

"You want to morph first?" I asked.

"Sure. Already acquired this stupid cat. You acquire her while I morph."

"Okay."

I concentrated on Sara. I petted her white fur. Meanwhile, Thomas GREW white fur.

"Yaahhh!" he yelled.

"Hold it. You've stopped morphing."

"I have?"

"Yeah. I think you have to keep concentrating. Screaming breaks your concentration. And mine."

I continued to acquire Sara. Thomas resumed morphing.

His ears crawled up the sides of his head, like they were alive. They became smoother and pointed. He shrank into a catlike shape, while his shirt and jeans collapsed.

His tail sprouted out.

"Ha ha."

"Very fooooROWW." His cat's muzzle expanded out of his face.

"What?"

Very funny.

"What?"

I didn't say anything, you idiot.

"Who're you calling an idiot?"

Stop reading my mind!

"I can't help it."

Hey, you can't see my memories, can you?

"No. You're kind of sending those thoughts, I think. You're thinking them at me. And you called me an idiot!"

Well, I didn't know you could hear me, he grumbled.

His eyes became cat's eyes. His little pink nose formed. He now looked exactly like Sara.

Suddenly, Thomas said, You got a string?

"No."

He looked around. Suddenly, he took off running!

"What in the world?" I asked.

I caught sight of a little brown mouse in front of Thomas. Or, to be more accurate, in front of Sara ... because Thomas was Sara.

"Thomas, you idiot! You're chasing a mouse!"

Now who's calling who an idiot? This is so cool!

I yanked his tail. He swiped at me.

"Owww!"

Little red lines now decorated my arm. "But I thought Sara'd been declawed!"

Then it hit me. "Oh. This is based on DNA. Declawing has nothing to do with DNA. Great."

I looked at Thomas. He was still chasing that mouse.

"Mom is going to love the fact that you destroyed this room. And she's going to love the fact that we have mice even more."

Stop being sarcastic. I'm cool now. He stopped. But it's like Sara's brain is in with my own. It's like I'm both Sara and myself.

"Then this is the first mouse we've had. Sara almost never gets all hyper like that."

I'm controlling the cat brain. Sort of.

"Demorph. It's my turn."

I morphed. I felt crunching, slipping, melting. It was disturbing, to say the least.

Then there was a scenario similar to the previous one. Only this time Thomas was yelling at me to stop chasing the mouse.

All right. Morph Pizza.

"You going to acquire him too?"

Sure. Why not?

I demorphed. Thomas morphed. I braced myself for —

"Rowf! Rowf!"

"Shut up, you idiot. Get control of your morph."

There's another dog in my house!

"Yeah. It's Pizza."

But I'm Pizza.

I rolled my eyes. "No, you're Thomas. You're an idiot kid who turned into a dog."

What?

"You're a kid who morphed Pizza. Calm down."

... Oh.

"Oh is right. I'll morph Pizza some other time. This morphing is giving me a headache."

I am learning something about this.

"What?"

Morphing again and again like this is tiring.

"That's real helpful. Demorph."

Okay.

~~~

CHAPTER 3 – Tony

"So what was it like?" I asked Thomas.

"It was weird. That's the only word for it."

"I'd think it would be cool!"

"It was," Rachel said. "But creepy, too."

"The animal's mind is sort of in there with your own. You have to get control of it."

"Cool. I should try," Christina said.

"It is so not fair that you guys get to turn into animals and not me," I grumbled.

"Get to?" Herbie asked. "This is totally weird. I don't have any pets to morph, anyway."

"Me neither," said Christina. "But we could go to The Gardens and acquire some stuff. Lions and tigers and bears — "

"Oh my," Herbie said.

Rachel looked at him weirdly. "You've been watching old movies again?"

"Been watching? I watched that once. I was like three, okay?"

"Herbie?" Christina asked. "Shut up. Rachel, let's stick to business. So, we'll go to The Gardens. Acquire whatever. We'll need to get big and mean if we're gonna fight."

"Who says we're going to? I think I'm in a room with a bunch of lunatics."

"And you're the wacko leader," Rachel shot back.

"Guys. Rachel. Herbie. We are doing this, okay? No sweat. We don't have to, like, fight. Not yet, anyway. We got to know more about these Kelbrid. And the Yeerks. And we have to get more practiced at morphing. We'll talk about fighting when we get there. Satisfied?"

"Okay," Herbie said reluctantly.

"So, first stop: The Gardens," Christina said.

"Let's do it," Rachel agreed.

~~~

The Gardens is this wildlife park. Everyone says it used to be an amusement park too, but some wackos set some bombs and blew half the place up. There's this big empty patch of dirt next to The Gardens.

"So, what first?" Thomas asked.

"Well," Rachel said, "there are lions and tigers and stuff that way. Bears over there. Elephants and rhinos in the other direction. Monkeys in there."

"Monkeys?" Herbie asked.

"Yeah, but you can't morph one. We wouldn't be able to tell when you'd changed. You can't morph what you already are."

"Ooooh, go Rachel," Christina said.

"So, let's split up. Boys and girls. Boys to the cats, girls ... wherever you want." Thomas motioned to Herbie and me to follow him. "We meet back here."

"Okay," Christina said. "Let's go."

~~~

"It absolutely stinks that I can't morph," I complained.

"Tony, you going through that again?" Herbie asked.

"Sorry. Am I being a pain?"

"Well ... yeah," Thomas admitted.

"Shutting up."

He looked at the various habitats. "Hey, I like that tiger."

"How are you going to acquire him?" Herbie asked. "You can't even get in. And anyway, you wouldn't want to. You go in there, you're kitty chow."

He had a point.

"Still," Thomas said, "we want to acquire big and mean."

"Morph something like a fly," I said.

"Oh, guh-ross!" Herbie commented. "Become a fly? Are you nuts?"

"No. You want to acquire him, go ahead. Morph a fly and go over there. Demorph, acquire, remorph, get outta there."

Thomas looked thoughtful. "He'll go into a sort of trance. That's what Pizza and Sara did. I guess we could."

~~~

It took a while to catch the fly. Thomas and Herbie each acquired it. There was some crazy zipping around before they got a hold of the fly brains. Then they flew into the tiger habitat.

He was a white tiger. Real big. Fortunately, he was currently behind this pile of rocks.

But if I strained, I could hear stuff like, "You acquire him. I'm not getting within five feet of him."

"Fine, you big baby. Nice kitty. Gooood kitty. That's it, nice and calm. Go to sleep, kitty."

"Hey Thomas, how long does the trance last after you stop acquiring?"

"A few seconds. Maybe ten."

"Ten seconds?"

"Start morphing back."

"I am!"

"Okay. I've finished acquiring. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand ... "

Hey Tony, can you hear me? Herbie called in thought-speak.

"Yeah," I yelled back.

Okay, it works for at least that distance.

"He's out of his trance. Uh-oh. Ahhh!"

Shrink, Thomas, shrink!

"I'm tryooooghh!"

That is one ugly proboscis. I'm a fly and I still think it's gross.

Shut up. Ahhh! I'm becoming a person-sized fly!

Shrink!

Shrinking ... shrinking ... trying to get away from Stripey here ... I'm a fly.

Let's get out of here.

They landed. Demorphed.

"My turn to acquire something," Herbie said.

"Like what, a little bunny rabbit?" Thomas asked.

"Shut up."

~~~

CHAPTER 4 – Christina

My name is Christina.

And Rachel had just acquired a rhinoceros.

"Now my turn," I said.

"What do you want?"

"I don't care. Maybe a gorilla? Didn't you say they were in there?"

"Nah, those are just monkeys. Gorillas are not monkeys, they are apes. They're over on the other side of the park."

"Let's check on the boys."

"Yeah. See what they're acquirin'. Come on."

We did not see Thomas, Tony, or Herbie. We did see lots of cool animals, though.

"I like this part. The lions and tigers and all. Course, I also like the bears. So, what do you want?"

"That leopard. Or whatever it is."

"That's a cheetah."

"Cool. I want to acquire it."

"Like how?"

"Let's sneak in the back way again. Like we did with the rhino."

"Okay."

There is this long building connecting the various animal habitats. We went inside, trying to look inconspicuous.

Fortunately, we hadn't met up with any security guards or anything. Yet.

"Hey, what are you kids doing here?"

Uh-oh.

"Haul butt," Rachel hissed.

We raced into a side hallway. "Cheetah door! Quick! Which one?" I whispered frantically.

"You think I've got this place memorized?"

I grabbed a door handle. Pulled.

"HhhhhrrrrEEEEEEE-yahhh!"

"Elephant!" Rachel said. "Cool."

I slammed the door. "Next one."

Rachel opened it.

"RrrrrrOOOOOOwwwrrrrrhhh!"

I fell down.

Rachel leaped back. "Uh, nice to meet you too, Mr. Lion?"

I slammed the door again.

Rachel pointed at the next door. "That's it. I think."

"Oh, that's helpful," I muttered. I yanked the door open.

"Success! It's a cheetah. Go in, that guy's almost here!"

I rushed into the habitat. Rachel was not far behind. I raced up to that cheetah and started acquiring it as soon as I touched it.

We were out of sight. That was good. We were behind this bush. But if we moved wrong, we'd be seen by anyone watching the cheetahs.

"Finished."

"Good, cause there's another cheetah in here."

"What? Are you insane?"

"Nope. It's coming. Let's get outta here."

"Like how?"

"Hey! Morph the cheetah."

"What'll you do?"

"Well, at least as a rhino I'll be better protected against crazy kitties. Morph."

I did.

"Rrrrrrrhhhhhaaaaaaawwwwwrr!" I yelled.

~~~

CHAPTER 5 – Herbie

My name is Herbie.

I had just acquired a polar bear.

As Thomas and Tony and I walked back to where we were supposed to meet Rachel and Christina, I noticed something odd.

"Is that a rhino in with the cheetahs?"

"Where?" Thomas asked.

"Over there."

"Oh no," Tony groaned. "What do you wanna bet it's Rachel and Christina?"

Thomas stared. "Where's the other one? I only see one rhino."

"One of the cheetahs, maybe."

Thomas, Tony, can you hear me? This morph can't see very well. Rachel's thought-speak voice.

"What about me?" I muttered.

Rachel, Christina said. They're here. And they heard you. Don't worry guys, we're gonna get out. Somehow. Rachel, demorph partway. Okay? Just so you can get hands.

The rhino went out of sight.

"So Rachel's the rhinoceros," I said. "That sounds good. Rachel the rhino. And Christina the cheetah. Cool. Doesn't Christina know that cheetahs nevah prospah?"

"Herbie, shut up," Thomas said tolerantly.

We're getting out! Christina called. I'm demor —

"Phing," I finished for her.

~~~

CHAPTER 6 – Thomas

We finally made it home.

I looked at Rachel. "Is it just me, or have our lives gone weird on us?"

"Would you believe me if I said it was just you?"

"No."

"I didn't think so."

"Thomas! Rachel! Where have you been all day?" my mom said.

"I was, uh, just hanging with Herbie." That was true. "Rachel and Christina were ... where were you guys, anyway?" I demanded of Rachel, unable to think up a place where they might have been.

"Just walking around," Rachel said. She glared at me.

I looked at my mom. She and I have pretty much the same skin color. But my dad is darker. Rachel, however, is lighter than either my mom or my dad. I wonder if that's normal.

Anyway, we had dinner. Went to bed.

~~~

The next day was a school day.

"Yo, Thomas," this girl named Mary said.

Mary and I have never been close friends. Mary is kind of annoying sometimes. She's got short dark brown hair that looks like it's never been combed. It sticks out every which way.

She doesn't have that many friends. She used to hang with this kid named Loren all the time. Not any more, though.

"Hey, Mare," I replied.

"What were ya doin' at the mall couple days ago? With that weird guy?"

Mary likes to talk weird like that. I remember back in kindergarten, when she used to talk stupid: "Thomas, I have paper please?" or "This bad food. Thomas eat it. Now."

She really got on my nerves. She still does get on my nerves sometimes.

"Oh, nothing."

She looked at me sideways. "I might know that guy."

"Do you know what he really is?" I was testing her. She was scaring me. What if she was a Kelbrid?

"Whaddya mean?"

"Oh, never mind. Bye Mary."

~~~

I decided to spy on her. Make sure she wasn't a Kelbrid.

Fly morph would be the thing.

Only what if she went into, like, the girls' bathroom? I wouldn't be able to follow her. But maybe she demorphed in the bathroom.

I needed Rachel to help me.

So, during lunch, I sat with Rachel and Christina. Normally, I never do that. It's embarrassing, being in the same grade with your younger sister. Fortunately, most people don't think we're related, because I'm darker and have curlier hair than Rachel does. (Other than that, we look pretty much alike, but no one notices.)

But after making sure no one was looking, I sat next to Rachel. "Hey, Rae. Could you do something for me?"

"What?"

"You know Mary?" I told Rachel her last name. (But, just for security, I won't tell you last names.)

"Yeah?"

"I suspect she's a Kelbrid. Can you help me watch her for twenty-four hours?"

"Sure."

~~~

"Now, be careful. The fly's insticts are very powerful. Try to keep them under control. Think 'No dog poop.' Okay?"

Rachel and I were in the janitor's closet.

"Got it," she said.

"Another thing? Fly morph is gross. But they fly great. It's really cool, you'll want to do flips and figure eights everywhere, but we have a job to do."

"No prob."

"Okay. Morph. I have the flyswatter handy."

"What?!"

"Kidding, Rach. Come on. Morph."

She did. It was gross. Especially when her brown eyes bulged into big black balloons. And don't lecture me on excessive alliteration.

Sorry. That's something Christina says sometimes when she "excessively alliterates".

Whooooaaaaaa!

I rolled my eyes.

Yeeeeeee-haaaaaw!

"Rachel, get a grip. I want to morph now. Well, I don't want to, I hate fly morph, but I have to."

Wheeeeeeee-haaaaaaahh! This is so cool!

"I am raising the flyswatter ... "

Thomas, don't you dare. She landed on the wall. You can morph now.

I did.

Okay, let's go find Mary, I said.

Suddenly the door opened.

Well, that was quick, Rachel remarked.

~~~

CHAPTER 7 – Rachel

Mary stepped into the closet. She closed the door.

"Anyone in here?" she demanded. "Gonna beat up anyone in here if they don't show themselves."

She sounded like she'd said it a million times. Like it was routine.

"Okay. Gonna get real scary! And don't think I'm makin' it up."

She looked around. "I don't trust this place. Why don't they put locks on closets like this? Dad'll kill me if someone sees me. Oh, stop being stupid. You've demorphed in this closet millions of times before." I swear she looked right at me.

She stepped out. Shut the door.

What was that? Thomas asked.

I dunno, I replied. I always knew there was something weird about her. Come on, let's follow her.

We followed Mary down the hall. Past fifty classrooms, couple bathrooms, the library book drop, the pop machines, a few unknown doors.

Through the gym doors.

She's going to the girls' locker room. Here's where I take over, I said to Thomas.

"Should acquire people who have gym certain hours," Mary said. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Always using that stupid closet. I'm sick of the stupid closet!" she screamed. Then she laughed. "Man, I'm lucky it's the gym teacher's lunch hour. It is your lunch hour, right?" she called.

Mary is not a bright light. She used to be in the LD class — that's "Learning Disabled". Otherwise known as the Stupid Class. She seems to gradually get smarter, though. Maybe by the time she's twenty, she'll have caught up to other people.

Anyway, there was no answer.

Mary checked the gym office. Each restroom stall, each shower. "Anyone here?"

No answer.

"Good." She stepped into a shower stall. Shut and locked the door. Closed the curtain separating the shower itself from the outer stall.

"Okay. Man, it's quiet down here."

I felt guilty, listening to Mary talk to herself. But, come to think of it, I didn't know she talked to herself. I'd never heard her.

Mary started to take off her clothes. I started to look away, but noticed that underneath her normal stuff, she was wearing ugly spandex shorts over a leotard. Both were black.

And she started to morph.

Whoa. She's morphing! Gotta tell Thomas.

Two horns sprouted from her head. I'm not talking bull horns. I mean, they were right in the center of her head, one behind the other.

What the heck is she morphing?

Her skin turned leathery dark green-brown, looking like living tree bark. Her dark blue eyes turned orange-brown, while becoming rounder and larger. Her pupils became like a cat's, up-and-down almond-shaped.

Her hair disappeared into her head. Her ears grew, and took on the shape of the Andalite's: smooth, large, pointed. She grew a tail, like the Andalite's as well, only with two spikier blades. She became taller, stronger-looking.

Her face protruded into a hard beak. Her mouth widened to beyond the beak, so she could smile as blades grew from her wrists and elbows. Her knees reversed direction, as blades grew from them as well.

Her hands lost one finger each, and grew wicked-looking claws. Her feet became like Tyrannosaurus talons. She looked at her morphed body.

"Okay. I'm me again," she said. "Me. Oh, great, the bell'sh gonna ring. I'm gonna be late."

She could talk with that mouth?

Are you Kelbrid?I demanded.

"Who, me? Who said that?" She looked around wildly.

I did. Just answer my question.

"No, I'm a Hork-Bajir. Who are you?"

I began to demorph.

"Rachel?" Mary asked.

"Yeah. Rachel. Now ... what's a Hork-Bajir?"

She sighed. "Great. Dad is going to kill me," she muttered to no one. Then to me, "We're aliensh, Rachel. Only I wash born on Earth. So was my mom."

"You know what Kelbrid are?"

"Yeah."

"Andalites? Yeerks?"

She laughed. "Oh, yeah. How about you?"

"We were given morphing ability by an Andalite named Ax."

"Ax, huh? That wash the guy who was talkin' to you at the mall yesterday."

"Yeah."

"My dad don't like him. Possibly becaushe .. oh never mind. My name'sh Kalah Mashar. You can still call me Mary, though."

She pronounced it Kah-luh.

"Okay, whatever, Kalah." I couldn't call her Mary. Not when she looked so ... weird. "But ... you're not a Kelbrid?"

"Nope. And I'm glad; I don't like 'em. Yeerks are all right. Ditto Andalites. And humansh, of course. Not Kelbrid."

I looked nervously at her. At her blades. "Well ... what do you Hork-Bajir eat?"

Mary — Kalah — laughed again. "Only tree bark. Stripping bark's what these bladesh are for. They also come in handy in a fight. But we're a mostly peaceful species. Mostly. Sometimesh I am the exception, but then that's to be expected."

"Look, we're fighting the Kelbrid. Or we're going to, anyway. So — "

"You want me to help you? That it? Well, there'sh my dad to worry about. He helps the Yeerks sometimes."

"Your dad helps them?"

Kalah sighed. "My dad is kinda like a Yeerk. Wash a Controller, saw his Yeerk's memoriesh, hash morphed a Yeerk. That's all I can tell you."

"Saw his Yeerk's memories? Huh? I'm lost."

"Oh man. I forgot you people just learned about this stuff. Well, I'll help. My dad won't find out, and my mom'll like it. And I know all about this stuff. You're talking to a major expert."

"You? Major expert? The girl who used to say 'Give crayon. Now. I want blue,' in kindergarten?"

She groaned. "That's Hork-Bajir brainsh for you. You know how many timesh I had to morph human to get rid of that?"

I was talking to a bladed alien. And I was like, "okay, this happens. That's to be expected."

As Christina might say, "Are we going insane?"

BRRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNGGGGG!

"Yahhh! We're late! Morph back, Kalee."

"Kalah."

"Whatever. Come on."

~~~

CHAPTER 8 – Kalah Mashar

My name is Kalah.

I am a Hork-Bajir. Not a seer. But I have morphed human many times. Enough so that I have developed human intelligence. Mostly.

I morphed human again. I messed up my hair and put on outer clothing. We walked out of the locker room.

I looked at Rachel. "Hey, we're late anyway. Let's follow that girl. Shala. I know she's a Kelbrid. Pssst!" I whispered. "Daroo."

"Skerlin?" Daroo/Shala asked, surprised.

All Kelbrid think I am Yeerk. The Yeerkish name means "little pest". Heh heh.

"What's happening?" I asked Daroo/Shala.

"I think we have a little trouble. I'm not authorized to tell you about it."

"I am Skerlin-One-Five-Three-Nine-Six. You know that. You tell me everything. Would you like me to report you to Visser Three?"

I have no rank in the Yeerk hierarchy. Yet. But the other Yeerks treat me like Visser Five. I'm not sure why. Maybe they can sense something —

Anyway, Daroo laughed. "Visser Three can't hurt me. I'm Kelbrid."

"Oh no? Would you like to see his Vanarx morph?"

"He has a Vanarx morph?" Daroo looked scared. Good for her. She was smart.

"Yes. Straight from the Yeerk home world. He can wait until you demorph, Darookan-giblek."

"Well then, the Animorphs have returned. They have been on the Hork-Bajir home world for a long time. Come, we've got to go. Chapman'll make excuses for us. Hurry!"

Assistant Principal Chapman's a Kelbrid.

Rachel glared at me.

"Oh," I said. "Hey, Rachel's ... a Kelbrid, too. Come on, Rach."

~~~

"Hey, Mom," I said to my mom. I had demorphed.

"Hello, Kalah."

"Ish it true that the Animorphs are back?"

We were on a Yeerk Blade ship. Visser Three's.

She grinned. "Yes. I talked to Tobias myself."

My mom's a seer. Which means, well, she's smarter than me and Dad. My dad is ... a friend of the Yeerks. Sort of.

The Animorphs have returned! Visser Three's thought-speak filled the whole Blade ship.

"That's Visser Three," I whispered to Rachel. I had demorphed. "He's the leader of the Yeerks here."

"He's an Andalite?" she asked.

"A morph-capable Andalite-Controller. He ish also morph-capable ash a Yeerk."

Rachel stared at Visser Three. "Oh man. Oh man. I get a bad feeling about this. I'm not sure I like him."

I nodded. "He ish scary. But I'm around him all the time. He probably won't do anything to you if you don't make him mad and you don't get too close to his tail. Caushe when he'sh mad, headsh fly. Literally."

"Sometimes he's better than he used to be," Mom added. "Sometimes he's worse. I get the feeling he's on one of his worse days."

"That's comforting," Rachel muttered.

"I heard that."

"What's your name, anyway?"

"Toby Hamee," Mom said.

"Toby? You're female, you're an alien, and your name is Toby?" Rachel demanded.

"After Tobias the Animorph. What's your name?"

"Rachel. Rachel ______." She told Mom her last name.

"Your name is Rachel? And your last name is ______? That's strange," Mom said. "Very strange."

I don't want the failure of last time! Visser Three yelled. You KNOW who they are. You KNOW what they look like. If anyone does fail me ... He let it hang.

Then he went on for a while like that. I made sure to stay out of his way. He is the only Yeerk who's not scared of me. Of course, Mom and me are the only anythings who are not scared of him.

"Where's your dad?" Rachel asked.

"Oh, he'sh around," I replied. "Somewhere."

~~~

"What are those worms?" Rachel asked.

I looked in the direction of her gaze. "Taxxonsh. They're cannibalsh. I hate them."

"And there are Hork-Bajir like you."

"Yeah. All Controllersh, except for Mom and me."

"The humans? Are they Controllers or Kelbrid?"

"Mostly Kelbrid. A few are Controllersh awaiting transportation to the Andalite home world."

"We are missing school," Rachel commented, looking around.

"Chapman will provide excusesh."

"Chapman? Which one, the assistant principal or that English teacher?"

"The assistant principal. White hair and all. Like a hundred yearsh old."

"He's not that old."

"How can you tell? Anyway, he'sh Kelbrid."

"Great. They're everywhere."

"Yup. Now that Visser Three hash made sure that we all know what we're supposed to be doing, and what the consequencesh are if we don't do it ... let's get outta here."

"I'm with you on that one."

~~~

"Rachel! Where have you been? I was scared you'd been trapped as a fly!"

"Shut up, Thomas. I'm okay."

"And — Mary? What are you doing here?" Thomas stared at me.

"The name is Kalah Mashar," I said. "I am a Hork-Bajir."

"Another alien," Rachel explained.

"I'm gonna help you fight the Kelbrid. I know all about them. Also, my mom will help a little too."

"You?" Herbie asked skeptically. "You're in LD, aren't you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Used to be. I've morphed human enough times so that I'm almost as smart as the average human. See, most Hork-Bajir aren't very bright. Except my mom. They're different. But ... I can morph human several times. Each time I develop more of a human brain."

"That is too creepy," Christina said.

"We eat 'creepy' for breakfast now," Herbie pointed out.

"Wait till you see me when I demorph." I grinned.

"And wait till you hear about what we saw. On that ship," Rachel said.

"Visser Three's Blade ship," I said.

"Whatever."

~~~

CHAPTER 9 – Christina

Who were the Animorphs?

That was my question.

I wondered about it all the time. I asked Kalah about it. She said that the Animorphs were, actually, what we were: humans with morphing ability.

"So would that make us Animorphs?" I'd asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Not the Animorphs, but Animorphs just the same. If you know what I mean."

I also wondered about Yeerks. Kelbrid. I wanted to find out more.

The others didn't ask as many questions as I did. Herbie had asked me to morph monkey once: "You'd make a great Curious George."

I had been thinking the same thing myself. Herbie and I are somehow a lot alike. We both have what Thomas calls "a twisted sense of humor".

I'm nicer. Usually. Also funnier. Herbie is more annoying. Also, Herbie is a dork. I am not.

My mind was wandering. I had to pay closer attention.

"Here's what we know," Thomas said. "Kelbrid are taking the place of humans. Allied with them are the Yeerks. Their leader is Visser Three, an Andalite."

"Andalite-Controller," Kalah corrected.

"Whatever. And he has a Blade ship. Which is where a lot of Yeerk activity takes place."

"Yeah," Kalah said. "It's also where humansh get infested, and where they do memory copying and transferring."

"So, with this information, what do we do?"

"Let's blow up this Blade ship," Rachel said.

"Ah yes, the subtle approach," Christina teased.

Thomas considered. "Well, with our morphs we can definitely do some damage. And if nothing else, we'll find out more about the Yeerks."

"I say let's do it," Rachel said.

"Okay," Tony agreed.

"Why not?" Herbie wondered.

"I don't see anythin' wrong with that." Kalah, of course. A slow grin spread on her face.

"Well ... okay," I said. "Yeah. Let's do it."

"Okay. People? Assignment for next time — " Thomas started to say.

Five groans.

"Oh, shut up. Just try out your morphs, okay? Bears, rhinos, cheetahs, whatever. I'll do my tiger. Kalah, you can be you. And Tony, you have to be you, of course. Anyway, meet here tomorrow. Kalah will show us what to do next."

~~~

CHAPTER 10 – Herbie

We were in a clearing in the forest, hiding behind some bushes.

"Okay," Kalah said. "The Blade ship will land here. Problem ish, I don't know if it will be in ten seconds, ten minutes, or ten hoursh."

It turned out to be closer to hoursh — I mean, hours.

"So that is the Blade ship," Thomas said.

Christina shuddered. "It's creeping me out."

"Ditto," Tony said. "I don't like it."

"I'm sure none of us do," I said. "I know I don't."

Kalah looked unconcerned. "Oh, its looking like a flying black ax ain't the problem. The problem ish its Dracon beamsh. But thoshe don't work when it landsh."

"So basically no problem?" I asked hopefully.

Kalah laughed. "You wish. Inside the ship are Hork-Bajir-Controllers. And handheld Dracon beamsh. And Visser Three, of course."

"An Andalite-Controller who's worse than the ship and Kalah put together," Rachel muttered.

"Hey!" Kalah protested.

"No offense."

~~~

CHAPTER 11 – Thomas

I felt a sudden stab of fear as the Blade ship descended.

"Is it just me, or is everyone getting a bad case of the creeps?" Tony wondered.

"It definitely ain't just you," Christina muttered.

"I am," I admitted.

"Me definitely," Herbie agreed.

Rachel looked annoyed. "Oh, fine. I am too."

"I'm not," Kalah said. "But then, I'm used to it."

"I'll never get used to it," Christina muttered. "Not if I see it three million times."

"Visser Three's three times worse than the ship," Rachel informed.

"Thanks a lot, Rae. You're so helpful," Christina muttered. She loves being sarcastic.

The Blade ship's lights went off.

"Hey, we're supposed to be morphing," Thomas pointed out. "Hurry up people."

White and black fur rippled across my skin. Yellow and brown fur was doing something similar with Christina. Herbie's fur was white, and he had a black nose.

When I looked at Rachel it was almost funny. This horn was growing right out of her human face. Right where her nose had formerly been located.

Herbie, Kalah, and Christina snorted. I hadn't known that polar bears or Hork-Bajir could snort like that. (Christina's face was still mostly human.)

I was growing. Muscle piled on muscle. I was on all fours now, with a long stripey tail. My face was almost completely feline.

Then ... I'm done, I said.

Ditto, Christina said.

Let's do it, Rachel said.

Yahhh! Herbie said.

We all turned to stare at him.

"What is it?" Tony hissed.

Kalah rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut it, Herbie. That's only a Taxxon."

I looked at the Blade ship. Giant worms crawled forward on fifty million red cone legs. Their four blank red eyes stared; their circular mouths gaped, revealing sharp teeth.

Gross, Rachel observed.

"I agree. I hate Taxxons. They'll eat any animal, dead or otherwishe. They even eat each other." Kalah looked at the worms with distaste. "But at least they're eashy to destroy. Rachel head-butts one and it'll explode like a dropped water balloon."

"Why do the Yeerks have them on their side, then?" Tony wondered.

"The Taxxons let Yeerks into their heads in exchange for food. They're desperate for food. I never want to morph a Taxxon."

Five voices, one human and six thought-speak, said one word: "Ditto."

Hork-Bajir leaped over the Taxxons. Hork-Bajir-Controllers, actually. Kalah had said that her parents were the only free Hork-Bajir (besides herself) that were ever on the Blade ship.

Remind me again why you ever go near that thing, Christina said to Kalah.

"We're part of the Yeerk peace movement," Kalah explained. "Even though we're not Yeerks. We work from the inside, along with some Yeerks."

How do you make peace with a slug? I wanted to know.

"Shh," Tony hissed suddenly.

Then the Andalite appeared.

He didn't look much different from Ax at first, just older. But he scared me. Not the tiger me, but the human me. Thomas the tiger wasn't bothered about a weird blue deer or horse or whatever. Nothing challenged a tiger and survived.

"That's Visser Three," Kalah whispered.

Can we go home now? Herbie asked.

Yeah, Christina agreed. Go home and watch TV. You know all the stuff we're missing?

Christina, Rachel said. Herbie. Stay here. We came here to kick alien butt, so we are kicking alien butt. Specially on him.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Kalah said. "Mess with the Horks and Taxxons all you want. Not with him."

I think it's a wonderful idea. I swear Rachel grinned with her rhinoceros mouth. Can we do it now?

Sure. It's what we came here for. Let's see how much damage we can do.

Rachel leaped straight for Visser Three.

"No, you idiot!" Kalah yelled.

Visser Three whipped his tail. He hadn't aimed well, but still ended up slicing deep into Rachel's side.

Aaaaahhh! I mean ... ow, she said. Okay, that's it. I'm demorphing.

Now can we go home? Herbie asked.

No way! I'm remorphing!

She is insane, Christina observed.

"Stupid, wasn't that?" Kalah whispered casually to a Controller.

Hey, we could use some help here! I said to her.

"I'm the brains of the operation. I can't blow my cover, you know," she whispered to me.

Then morph!

"I only have a human and an Andalite morph. These people know both of those. Hey, I'll provide distractions."

Yahhh! A Hork-Bajir blade was coming straight for me! I leaped on the seven-foot alien and bit his neck.

He was down.

Christina took down a few more Horks. All right! Ten points for Spotty!

Spotty? Spotty? Rachel demanded. She was back in the fight. Her horn gored a Taxxon. Die! Die, you disgusting worm! she yelled gleefully.

Kalah pretended to fall back onto another Taxxon. "Oops. That wash an accident. Sorry!" she said while crossing two Hork-Bajir fingers behind her back.

Herbie took down a third Taxxon. But a Hork-Bajir was running toward him, blades raised.

Tony rammed right into the Hork-Bajir. "Sorry!"

We were doing serious damage.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something growing.

"Uh-oh," Kalah said.

Visser Three! He's morphing! I cried.

The visser's morph was big. Purple. It had six legs and an exoskeleton like an insect, except that it had huge jaws with dripping lavender fang-like things.

Ah, yes. The Animorphs, I presume? Nice new morphs, but you are now going to die here!

Visser Three's thought-speak was sneering yet scary. He continued. This morph is called a Listridor. I have just acquired it recently. Let's see what it can do!

He leaped forward. His morph was surprisingly fast. Sharp fangs penetrated my tiger skin. Painful liquid shot into my bloodstream.

Thomas! Christina cried.

I felt myself weakening. Not from pain or loss of blood, but from ...

Poison! The fangs shoot poison into you!

That's our signal to get out of here!

I began to demorph as we rushed out of the Blade ship.

~~~

CHAPTER 12 – Rachel

"That was cool," I said.

Kalah glared at me. "Hope you learned something. A rhinoceros is no match for Visser Three. Even your rhino hide can't stop an Andalite tail."

"Excuse me? Rhino hide?"

She rolled her eyes. "That's what it ish."

"We need another way to get at them," Tony said. "If Visser Three has morphs like that List-of-door or whatever, I don't think this animal morphing will be enough. You know what? I think we should look around our houses. See if there's anything ... suspicious. We want to know if anyone in our family is a Kelbrid."

"I know my parents aren't," said Kalah. "I'll help someone."

"Fine," Thomas said. "You and Christina, me and Rachel. Tony and Herbie, you're by yourselves. Tomorrow, after school, meet at our house. Everyone know where it is?"

"I don't," Tony said.

"Me neither," said Kalah.

"Okay, Rachel and I will show you. Try to acquire and morph birds, okay people? Otherwise we're going to have to explain to my parents why four people are coming over."

"So how are you going to explain a bird bash?" Herbie asked.

"Shut up, Herbie," Thomas said tolerantly.

~~~

"Okay," I said to Kalah the next day. "Let's morph."

We hid in some bushes, outside the school. We morphed.

We had acquired birds from this place where sick wild animals are taken care of. My dad works there.

Kalah's bird was a golden eagle. Huge. Mine was an owl.

The day before, Thomas and I had found nothing to suggest that our parents were Kelbrid. But that didn't mean they weren't.

Whoa, this is so cool! Kalah said, swooping upward.

I finished my morph and joined her. Yeah! Aaaaahhh!

Watch this! Kalah yelled. Yeeeee-haaaaaaaw! She went into a dive. Straight down at a billion miles per hour!

I imitated her. Whooooaaaaa! Oh, man! Yaaaaahhhhh!

My beak was going to hit the grass in two seconds! I pulled up, straining my wings. Shot into the air.

Oh, that was cool!

Way cool, Kalah agreed. Let's go!

~~~

I demorphed outside my house. While Kalah tapped on Thomas's bedroom window, I knocked on my door.

"Hi, Rachel," my mom said. "Thomas and his friend Tony are upstairs."

I'd forgotten Tony couldn't morph. "Oh. Okay. What are they doing?" I asked, although of course I knew.

"Just hanging out. Thomas said you could go up there, as long as you weren't a pest."

"I am never a pest," I said, climbing the stairs.

"Yeah, right!" Thomas called.

I found Thomas, Tony, and Kalah in Thomas's room.

Suddenly another bird fluttered outside the window.

"Christina? Herbie? Is that one of you?"

Christina, said the bird. Hurry up and let me in before I break the window from tapping.

I opened the window and she flew in. "What kind of bird?"

Osprey. Isn't it cool?

"You should see my eagle." Kalah grinned.

Christina demorphed. "Herbie here?"

"Nope," Tony said.

"Where is he, anyway?" Thomas wondered.

Ding-dong.

"If that's Herbie, he's a dead duck," I said. "We told him to morph a bird."

A minute later, Herbie threw open the door to the room.

"Herbie, why didn't you morph a bird?" Thomas asked.

"First, I forgot to acquire one," Herbie said. "Second, a bird can't carry this." He pointed to his backpack.

"Couldn't you have dropped that off at home?" Christina asked.

"No." Herbie took the backpack off and unzipped it. He took out a weird- looking gun.

~~~

"Look at this gun thing. It's got some writing on it. I can't read it, though."

"Let me see that," Kalah said. "Huh. A hand-held Dracon beam. Wow, this ish an old one. A seven-twenty, probably. Yup. Seven-two-three."

"Dracon beam?" Herbie asked.

"Yeah. Man, it only hash ten power settingsh. Modern onesh have twelve, I think. Where'd you get it?"

"Found it. At home."

"Uh-oh," said Kalah.

"Uh-oh is right," Thomas said. "Does this mean one of Herbie's parents is a Kelbrid? Or both?"

"What else would it mean?" Kalah asked. "The only thing I can't figure out is why a Kelbrid would have such an old Dracon beam."

"Herbie," Thomas said, "keep an eye on your parents. Try to find out which is the Kelbrid, okay?"

"Okay," Herbie replied.

"And when we find out, we'll get your real parents back. Don't worry."

"I won't." An obvious lie, but no one said anything.

"Did anyone else find anything?" Thomas asked. "I know Rachel and I didn't. Christina? Tony?"

"Nope," said Tony.

"Ditto," Christina said.

"Okay. Everyone go home," Thomas said. "Anyone have any ideas, they're welcome. I've run out."

"That's helpful," Christina said sarcastically as she morphed to osprey.

~~~

CHAPTER 13 – Tony

I was walking home.

Hey, Tony, Kalah called. I looked up and saw a big bird of prey. It swooped down to land on a street light.

"Kalah?"

No, it's Big Bird, you idiot. What's up?

"Nothing. I'm going home."

You want to hang out?

I was surprised. "Sure. Doing what?"

Come see my place.

"Then get down here and demorph. Talking to a bird is weird. Morph to human."

Where?

"There's a lovely Dumpster over there."

Are you nuts? Morph in a dumpster?

"No."

She ended up demorphing and morphing behind the Dumpster. She stepped out, human.

"Whoa. Your hair!"

"What about my hair?" Kalah demanded.

"It's actually laying down."

"Oh, I forgot to mess it up. There. That better?"

I laughed. "Not exactly better, but — Anyway. Come on. Let's go."

~~~

We walked for a while. Out past the houses and into the country. Or, as Herbie and Christina refer to it, into Gooberville.

"This is so annoying. You not being able to morph, I mean."

"What would you morph?"

"Andalite. They're fast, and in this treeless place they're better than Hork-Bajir."

"Not bird?"

"Didn't have a bird morph till today. It's hard to get close to one."

We were nearing the edge of the forest.

"I'm close to the two-hour limit. I gotta demorph."

When Kalah was back in her own Hork-Bajir body, she climbed a huge tree. "Hurry up. We're lucky my place ishn't far. You're so slow."

"What am I supposed to say? Thank you?"

Kalah snorted. Then she started leaping through the trees, stopping every few seconds to wait for me.

~~~

"Here we are."

"You live here?" I asked.

"I live in this whole place. This ish where my stuff ish." She leaped down to the ground, carrying some things.

"What's that?"

"Some of the stuff I have. I keep it way up there, in a box. Nobody can get to it, except another Hork-Bajir. I also have a TV up there."

"You have a TV up there?"

"Where else am I going to keep it? My parents made some modificationsh to it. Now I can watch TV whenever I want."

"Cool."

"This," she said, holding up a red cube, "ish something I found. Can't figure out what it ish."

"It looks kind of like the blue box that gave the others their morphing ability."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Of course, I ushed that blue box a long time ago."

"Think it might be a morphing cube?"

"Ash far ash I know, they're all blue. But we could test it."

"On who? Me? Ax said I can't morph."

"Maybe the blue onesh don't work, but the red onesh do?" she suggested.

"Maybe. Let me see it," I said. She handed the red box to me. "Yaaahh!"

"Ow!" she yelled.

"That was painful."

"What wash that about?" Kalah wondered. "Maybe you can morph. Try acquiring something."

"You?" I asked.

"No way. Something else."

"Besides, the blue box gave a pleasant shock. This one hurts." I remembered touching the box with the others and Ax. I remembered Ax telling me I couldn't morph.

Paamp! Poomp!

"Aaahhh!" Kalah yelled, jerking me out of my thoughts. "Someone wake me up."

"What?" I demanded.

"Stalk eyesh."

"Stalk eyesh? I mean, eyes?"

"Stalk eyesh!" She pointed to my head.

My range of vision had expanded. I could feel something — two somethings — up on my head. I turned both inward.

The two stalk eyes saw each other! My brain couldn't make sense of this. "This is so weird!"

"It's something about a visual cortex having to grow before you can ushe the eyesh. But why are you growing stalk eyesh? You're morphing Andalite!"

"How would I know? And what's a visual cortex?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea. Keep morphing!"

I thought about Ax again. Why was I morphing him? It made no sense!

"Life stopped making sense a long — mmmm — " I'd been about to say "a long time ago," but my lips had melted together. Time ago, I finished. What in the world?

Kalah stepped back. "What are you talking about?"

Never mind. Just talking to myself. Well, not talking, but — this is too weird.

"I have to ask my mom about this."

Won't you get in trouble?

"You have a point there," she said. "I'll just ask her what the red thing ish, which ish something I was going to do anyway. Morph back."

I could morph! But ... why?

~~~

CHAPTER 14 – Christina

Deedly-deedly-ding.

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's Tony."

"Why are you calling me?"

"Thomas and Rachel aren't home, and neither is Herbie."

"What do you want?" I asked, bored.

"I can morph."

"What?"

"I said, I can morph. I don't exactly know why."

"But Ax said it wouldn't work for you!"

"I know," Tony said. "But I can. I can morph Ax."

"How can you morph Ax?" I demanded.

"I don't know."

"You're real helpful, Tony."

"Thank you. Bye."

"Bye."

Weird. Of course, nothing would ever be normal again. And strangely enough, I was happy about that fact.

~~~

CHAPTER 15 – Herbie

Kelbrid.

One of my parents was a Kelbrid.

I watched them closely all day. But they acted normal.

Of course they would. They would because of that memory copying thing that I still did not understand.

I was bored. Restless. I called Thomas.

"Hey, Herb."

"Hi, Thomas. I am so bored."

"And I care about this ... why?"

"Because you're SUPPOSED to."

"Find anything on ... your report on strange weapons?"

Thomas was asking me about my parents.

"What? OH. That. Uh, no. Only ... normal ones. They act normal and all, you know?"

"Uh, duh. Of course normal weapons would act normal."

"Yeah. But I don't want to talk about it anymore. This schoolwork has given me enough grief."

"Okay. Hey, did you know that Tony can finally do it?"

"He can do what?"

"You know, what the rest of us can do? He's finally got it. You know, with the animals and all?"

Tony could morph?

"Oh. You mean he finally rode Fluffy without falling off?"

"Fluffy is such a stupid name for a horse. Couldn't you think up a better name than that?"

"No."

"I see. Then that's the last time you name a horse."

"At least I don't have a dog named Pizza."

"Yeah, you'll probably name your puppy Woof-woof."

"Why are we talking about puppies?"

"Hey, you said you were bored. Hey! Hold it Herbie. Rachel!" he called. "Where you going?"

"Urmgringfrrrakhh," Rachel said. Or something like that. I couldn't hear very well.

"What did Rachel say?" I asked.

"She said she was GOING for a WALK. DUH."

"Don't YELL in MY EAR!"

"WHY NOT?"

"SHUT UP! GOOD-BYE!"

"BYE!!!"

~~~

CHAPTER 16 – Thomas

I hung up on Herbie.

Suddenly, I had the weirdest feeling. "Rachel! You gone yet?"

No answer.

I took that as a yes.

I looked out the window. It was night. But I saw a shadow moving. It wasn't Rachel, but it was definitely human.

I quickly morphed to peregrine falcon. My bird morph. I followed the shadow.

In the dark, a falcon can't see much better than a human. It was hard to make out the shadow. But I was pretty sure there were two kids.

Suddenly a light turned on. It illuminated a face. A familiar blond-haired, blue-eyed face. A girl I saw every day at school.

"Lali!" the other kid said. Yep, also a girl. "Look. A bird."

"Yeah. A bird. So what? I saw that girl turn into a bird after school. With Skerlin."

Uh-oh.

"Skerlin, an ally of the Animorphs?"

"Yeah!" the first girl said. "But don't tell anyone. Skerlin's my friend, see?"

"How long have you known about this?"

"Since I saw Rachel turn into a bird."

"I thought she was a Kelbrid. Where's Rachel now?"

"Arghh! You made me lose her."

"Morph, Lali."

"To what?"

"Bird?"

"Okay — hey! Daroo. Look!"

"Okay. When I say now — Animorph!" the second girl interrupted herself.

"Where?"

"Well, there is a peregrine falcon up there."

Oops.

The girl who had noticed me threw a couple rocks. That's my signal to haul wing outta here, I thought. So I flew away.

Rachel, I called. Two Kelbrid. In human morph. I think they know what you are.

Of course, she couldn't answer me. She was in human form.

~~~

CHAPTER 17 – Rachel

Rachel. Two Kelbrid. In human morph. I think they know what you are, I heard Thomas say in thought-speak.

I whirled around. Scanned the area. No one there, or so it seemed.

I looked in the places someone could hide. I pulled back the branches of a nearby bush.

"Yaaahh!" cried two kids.

I recognized one. The Kelbrid that Kalah had called Daroo. The girl named Shala.

"Daroo?" I said.

Daroo's friend recovered from her surprise. "Are you a Kelbrid or not?" she demanded.

It was a kid from school. Loren.

"Uh ... yes," I said.

"Then demorph," Daroo said.

"I can't. My ... my brother is in the house, watching me."

"Yeah right," Loren said.

Oh. No.

"We spotted a peregrine falcon watching you," Daroo said. "And us."

"One of your friends?" Loren asked.

"Yes! Another Kelbrid. He was ... seeing what you were doing hiding in bushes late at night. What were you doing?"

"What were you doing turning into a bird with Skerlin? She's a Yeerk. Not a Kelbrid."

Skerlin. That was Kalah. "Uh, she can morph." That was true.

"We KNOW!" Daroo said. "What Lali meant was, what were you DOING?"

"And what is your Kelbrid name anyway?" Loren added.

Good question. "What's yours?" I asked Loren.

"Lali. Laliah-escar. And that's Darookan-giblek."

"I knew her name already."

"So who are you?" Daroo demanded.

Laliah-escar. Darookan-giblek. "Uh ... Ralaki ... um ... Esplek."

"Ralaki-esplek," Loren repeated. "So what were you doing, for the millionth time?"

"Skerlin and me were bored," I said. "So we decided to morph birds. Flying's really fun, you know. It's especially cool when you go into a dive. You people should try it sometime."

"Okay," Daroo said. "Bye Rala."

The Kelbrid left. But Loren/Lali looked back at me. Squinted. Then walked away with Daroo.

~~~

CHAPTER 18. Kalah Mashar

I decided I needed a battle morph.

But I didn't need anyone else to go with me. Then I could surprise the others.

I morphed. Golden eagle. I needed wings.

I flew to The Gardens. The place looked smaller from up in the air. I could see everything.

I looked at the various animal habitats. Tiger. No. Grizzly bear. Maybe. No. Buffalo. No. Alligator. No.

And not any of the others' morphs. I kept looking.

Leopard. Panther. Jaguar. Alligator. Crocodile. Gorilla. Hippo. Elephant.

Then, at last, I saw the animal I was looking for.

"Nice kitty," I said, after I'd demorphed. "Niiiiiice kitty. It's just the weird blade-girl. I'm not gonna hurt you."

I don't think the big male lion believed me. He glared at me. He sniffed at my arm blades.

"Okay, so I forgot to take a shower. Are you really going to get mad at me for that?"

"Rrrrrrhhhgghhhrrr."

"Fine, be that way." I quickly started to acquire him. "Go to sleep, kitty with the bad hair day. Go ... to ... sleep."

I finished acquiring the lion. I got out of there fast.

~~~

"Hey, Mom?" I asked.

"Yes?"

I bit hard on my piece of bark. "Uh, I found this weird red box. Do you know what it ish?"

"No. Weird red box?"

"Yeah. It looked kind of like a red morphing cube."

Mom looked thoughtful. "Red morphing cube? No. Phal!"

"Yes?" my dad said.

"Kalah said she found a red morphing cube."

"A red morphing cube?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah Dad. A red one. You know what it ish?"

"No."

"That helps a lot," I muttered, chomping the bark again. "Okay."

~~~

The next day, in school, I grabbed Tony by his shirt sleeve.

"What? K — Mary?" he asked, surprised.

"I asked my parents about that thing. You know, the red thing."

"Oh. What'd they say?"

"They didn't know what it was."

"You tell them about me?"

"Do I look stupid?"

"Should I answer that?"

"Oh shut up, Tony."

"Hey! Mary! Over here."

It was Loren. A Kelbrid. Laliah-escar. The real Loren had been my best friend once.

"Bye Tony. Yeah, what?"

"Skerlin," she said when I was close enough to hear her whisper. "I have a question."

"What is it Lali?" I asked.

"What were you doing turning into a bird with Rachel?"

"Uh, what? I was, um, well, ah ... "

"Darookan-giblek says Rachel's a Kelbrid. Rachel said herself she is one. But the Kelbrid rules are no morphing for fun."

"That's dumb."

"And Rachel should know that."

"I didn't."

"You are not a Kelbrid. Either she is breaking the rules purposely, or she didn't know about it. And if she didn't know about it, then it is very likely that she is not a Kelbrid either."

"What else could she be?"

"An Animorph."

"That's also dumb, Lali. The Animorphs are older than that."

"Well, she could be a morph."

"I been with her more than two hours. If she's a morph, she's a Kelbrid. Besides, Animorphs can't morph from one morph to another. Duh."

"Oh. Yeah. Then, I suspect — oh, man. Skerlin, if I find out that you have been — that Rachel is — you know, then — Berki. Got to tell Berki."

Berkilan-lactran is the Kelbrid who passes as Loren's twin brother.

"Tell Berki what?" I demanded.

"Rachel is an Animorph, but not one of the Animorphs. ALLEN!" she called. "Allen!"

"Wait, Lali! Oh great. Thomas is going to kill me. So is Dad," I muttered to myself.

~~~

CHAPTER 19 – Christina

"What?" I demanded.

Kalah looked at me like I was dense. "I said, Lali knows about Rachel. Knows what she is. And she knows I know."

I blew up. "Kalah! That was so stupid!"

"I am not a complete idiot. I didn't tell her. Duh Christina. She figured it out on her own."

"Why didn't you tell her she was wrong?"

"I told her that Rachel was a Kelbrid several times. She didn't believe me."

"Now what?"

"Tell the others. I can't find Thomas or Rachel anywhere, and I saw you before finding anyone else."

"Great," I said sarcastically. "You're helpful. You are really helpful."

~~~

I told Rachel later.

She looked at me. "Really? Then ... there's only one thing left to do."

"What?"

"Laliah-escar can't tell anyone else. She absolutely can't. So ... I'll do it."

"You will do what?" I asked.

"Nothing."

~~~

Right. Nothing. Uh-huh.

When I got home from school, I morphed to osprey. I waited outside Thomas and Rachel's house.

She had better come out soon. I have lots of science homework.

I demorphed every two hours, hiding in the bushes.

Maybe I better go home. It's getting dark.

Just then I saw an owl fly out of a window. Rachel. No other owl I knew of flew out of bedroom windows.

I followed her at a safe distance.

She went to Loren's house. Loren and her brother Allen were outside. Lali and Berki. I could hear them talking.

"So what are we doing?" Berki asked.

"Good question. I am not sure. But shh, okay? Rachel could be listening, in morph. Come to think of it, so could Skerlin. Just hush, Berki, and come on."

Rachel demorphed behind their house, out of sight. Then she started growing. Morphing.

Moonlight glinted off a rhinoceros horn.

Rachel! What are you doing?

Christina? That you?

Yeah, it's me! What are you doing?

Well, they know about us, right? I am making sure they won't tell anyone else.

Are you sure that's a good idea?

Do you want my honest opinion? No. But what are we going to do, let them rat us out to Visser Three?

You have a point. Does Thomas know where you are?

No.

I spread my wings and flew away. I didn't want to see what Rachel was going to do to the Kelbrid. Also, I was going to get Thomas.

~~~

CHAPTER 20. Herbie

I was up in my bedroom. Doing science homework. Balancing chemical equations, like you care.

"Try three. Three HNC-two-O. Okay, so then that would mean six CO-two, and three NH-four. Wait, then that'd have to mean twelve H's over here, and that would mess up the whole thing ... no! There's an H-three over here. That would mean three H-threes. This is confusing."

Suddenly I had this feeling. Like "Whoa, something's not quite right." I looked around.

I snuck into my parents' room. They were both there. I decided to keep my ears open.

I went back to homework. "Three, nine, twelve H's. Twelve H's. Three N's, Three N's. Six O's, Six O's. There. Done."

I finished the last equation. Thankfully.

I looked in my mom and dad's room again. I wondered again which was the Kelbrid. I wondered if maybe I was just being paranoid.

Or not.

~~~

CHAPTER 21 – Thomas

QUACK!

I looked at the ducks.

QUACK QUACK QUACKQUACKQUACK!

Hello?

I was morphing my white tiger. But there were all these ducks around me. I didn't know why they were there. Or how they got there.

One flew up onto my head. I heard its wings flapping. "Thomas! Let me in!" it said.

RRRHHAAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRR! I yelled at the duck.

The duck started pecking on my head. Like a woodpecker. And it was still flap-flapping its wings. "Let me in! Let me in!"

"This is crazy," I observed. "Ducks don't peck ... do they?"

"THOMAS! WAKE UP!" cried the duck.

"I'M AWAKE!" I screamed. And very suddenly, I was awake.

There was an osprey flapping at my window, tapping on the glass. And yelling at me in thought-speak.

Thomas, let me in NOW! I can't hover here forever.

I opened the window. Christina flew in. Thomas ... Kelbrid ... she talked to Kalah ... and she's going to gore them with her horn ...

"Who talked to Kalah? What Kelbrid? Who's going to gore who?"

She's morphing a rhino behind their barn. They're out front.

"You mean Rachel? And who's they?"

Kelbrid. Loren and Allen, from school, they're Kelbrid and they know what Rachel is. Laliah-escar and Berkilan-something. I don't remember.

"Slow down, Chris. What about Loren and Allen being Kelbrid? You say they know Rachel can morph?"

Yes! And she's taking care of it. Probably already did.

"Rachel?"

Yeah, Rachel! Who else?

"Sorry, I'm tired. Where is she?"

Loren's place.

"Where's that?"

Morph. Come on. I'll show you.

~~~

CHAPTER 22 – Rachel

I crept around the house. Well, a rhinoceros can't really creep, but hey. I tried.

I could see Loren and Allen. They were whispering to each other. I couldn't really hear what they were saying.

"Shh!" Loren suddenly hissed loudly.

Okay, so much for the idea of a creeping rhino. I charged.

"Uh-oh," Allen said.

I'll show you uh-oh, I thought.

He glared at me. "Animorph!"

Whoops. I guess I had forgotten to be careful about my thought-speak.

"No, Berki," said Loren. "I know that voice. It's Rachel."

"Whoever it is, it's — aaaaaaaaahhhhh! — fast."

Allen had dodged. I couldn't see him very well. Rhino eyes aren't very good, and it was getting dark. All I could see were shadowy blurs.

One blur said, "Rachel, back down, okay? Nice rhino. Nice rhino."

Loren.

I'll show you nice rhino, I said. I didn't care about them hearing me any more. I charged at the blur that was Loren.

OW!

Or not.

Chips of bark flew. My horn was stuck in wood. See, when you have rhino eyes, you realize just how much a small tree resembles a kid.

CHRISTINA! I yelled. If you're still here I need reinforcements! At least a pair of usable eyes! Oh man.

"Rachel, demorph."

Are you insane, Loren?

"My question exactly," Allen said. "Are you nuts?"

"No, I'm trying to save your worthless butt," Loren snapped. "Now move it, or I am going to tell Rachel your precise location."

Allen ran.

"He is such an annoying wuss. Sometimes I call him Berk the Jerk," Loren said. "Of all Kelbrid, why did he have to be assigned to my twin brother?"

Huh?

"Now, demorph."

Uh-uh.

"Fine, but at least listen to me."

Why should I? You're a Kelbrid.

"So? Now Rachel, if you promise not to skewer me like a marshmallow, I want to — "

Want to what?

"Fine, be that way. I don't care. Well, I do care whether you kill me, but that's not the point. The point is — well, you're not going to listen."

Maybe I will. Maybe not. What is it?

"Hold on. Wait here." Loren went behind the house, in the direction I had come. Or at least I think that's where she went. I was practically blind.

I followed her. I didn't trust that Kelbrid for a second.

I saw her. She was still a dark blur. She didn't seem to be doing anything. I walked closer, with the rhino's clumsy gait.

The blurry shadow — Loren — was growing. And growing.

Uh-oh.

"What was it you said before? Something like 'I'll show you uh-oh'?"

She was morphing something big. And mean. And it had huge hands, getting bigger by the second.

I started to run. But she grabbed me with those enormous hands. She held on, but then began to shrink. Except for her hands.

Christina! Where are you? I need help over here?

Finally, the hands began to shrink. But she did not let go. Her arms grew shorter and shorter while pulling her body closer.

"This is one of my most interesting morphs," she said. "It is much like a Kelbrid in its natural state. Yet different, too."

What are you morphing? I demanded.

Her mouth disappeared then. She thought-spoke her answer. One of these creatures in need of our help to take this planet.

A Yeerk?

Yeah. A Yeerk.

~~~

CHRISTINA! THOMAS! TONY, HERBIE, SOMEBODY! I yelled in thought-speak. I yelled it privately, so Loren wouldn't hear.

No answer.

KALAH!

I was wondering when you'd get around to calling me, Kalah said.

I looked up and saw the dark shadow of a golden eagle.

Where have you been?

I was just flying around when suddenly I saw a rhino. And I said to myself, "What rhino that I know of would hang out in a suburban backyard?"

Good question. Now I'm having problems with this Kelbrid here —

I can see that. The Kelbrid's Laliah-escar. And why is she morphing a Yeerk?

I don't want to know.

Is she going to try to infest you?

I guess so.

Great. I'll demorph and help you.

She'll see you!

I'll remorph.

To what?

Oh. I have a new battle morph.

Have you practiced it?

No.

Kalah, you'll lose control!

I have been morphing since I was like one year old. Besides, you're a rhinoceros.

Loren will make me demorph.

Not if she's smart. I'll take care of Berk the Jerk.

She landed out of sight.

Can Yeerks infest rhino brains?

How should I know?

I felt something strange in my ear. It didn't hurt, not really. Besides, I was a rhinoceros.

I felt something strange happening to my ear.

I just hope Lali doesn't try to morph your brain, Kalah said.

What? Kalah are you nuts?

No, I mean I hope she doesn't try to make your brain morph.

You mean, make me demorph?

No duh. I mean change the rhino brain into, like, air or something.

What?

I said ... oh forget it. You don't need something else to worry about.

Too late, I thought.

Besides, it only works on the rhino brain. She can't touch your brain — unless you demorph.

What?!

And she'll have to change it back in twenty-four hours.

Finally, some good news, I muttered.

Hey Rachel, Loren — Lali — said.

Hey nothing. What are you doing? Get out of my head. What —

Suddenly — memories! Memories of the Kelbrid-Yeerk. It was so weird. It was like I was Laliah-escar, swimming in the oceans of the Kelbrid planet. Yes. Getting the morphing ability for the first time. Being able to manipulate the very atoms around you, whoa, was it creepy. Meeting the Yeerks for the first time and being dragged into their war. Going to Earth, morphing human for the first time. Watching the real Loren as her memories were copied and transferred to Lali's mind. Watching her scream, feeling bad for her.

Lali would not let me see Loren's memories.

Groaning upon hearing Berk the Jerk was assigned to Loren's brother Allen. Seeing me and Kalah morph birds. Wondering. Asking the Jerk about it. And today, hearing me thought-speak. Feeling scared, seeing me charging in rhino morph. Coming up with a plan.

Yeah, Lali wanted to get Loren back. Loren and Allen, who were on the Hork- Bajir home world. She wanted my help. Lali had infested me to get me to listen to her.

Hey, cool, Lali said.

Cool what?

Your memories. Whoa. You and Thomas, and Christina and Herbie and Tony, and Skerlin? All of you have been fighting us?

Not much. I mean, we haven't been doing this for very long. And you can see my memories?

Yeah. Of course I can, Rachel. You mean Skerlin, the Hork-Bajir expert on Yeerks, didn't tell you all about Yeerk infestation?

No.

I can't help seeing your memories.

No no no no. All that stuff about — you know? It's not true. It's not true.

Memories do not lie.

Mine do.

Yeah, right. Now will you listen to me?

Uh-huh?

I have a plan. There are six of you, correct?

Yeah. Me, Thomas, Christina, Herbie, Tony, and Kalah.

Two of you will morph Yeerks. So will Berki and I. Berk may be a jerk, but he wants to get Allen and Loren back as well.

Morph a Yeerk?

Does anyone else have a Yeerk morph?

Maybe Kalah does.

She does. I have seen her as a Yeerk. I always thought that it was her natural body.

I'll morph a Yeerk too.

Twenty-four hours till you'll lose the morphing ability, Kalah said to Lali. If you're not out of her in two hours, you are so dead.

Get out now. But stay a Yeerk.

That psycho of a Hork-Bajir is still in lion morph! She'll kill me!

No she won't.

Yeah. She will.

I won't let her.

I am leaving your friend now, Skerlin, Lali said. Do not touch me.

I won't have to, Kalah replied coldly. Rachel will. Won't you?

Lali slithered out of my ear.

Do it now! Kalah said.

No! She showed me her memories.

So what?

Why is it that you won't hurt Yeerks, but when it comes to Kelbrid you have no hesitations?

I never said I wouldn't hurt Yeerks!

It's obvious. On the Blade ship, you only hurt that one Taxxon.

If I did anything more, the Yeerks would know I was on your side!

Oh, but that's not the only thing. I saw you flinch every time we killed a Hork-Bajir-Controller. And —

They're Kelbrid! We're Yeerks!

-We're- Yeerks?

Sorry. I'm so used to passing as a Yeerk. But look. They're fake people. They're ... they're ...

And Yeerks make people into Controllers.

That's different. We — they — need to, so they can be — oh, you wouldn't understand. But a Kelbrid can be human any time they want, they don't have to take the place of another human. But they do!

"Well, maybe I don't understand. But I will," I said as I finished demorphing. "Besides, she has a plan. That's what I've been trying to tell you. She wants to get Loren and Allen back."

I began to acquire Lali.

Kalah started demorphing. "Well, why dintcha say so in the first place? A nice Kelbrid. This should be a world record. What ish she gonna do about Berk the Jerk?"

"Berki would want to as well, but he doesn't know about Lali's plan."

Yeah, Lali said. I had finished acquiring her.

"Now that I don't believe."

"It's true," Berki said. "Lali, why didn't you tell me your plan?"

Just came up with it recently. And —

"Oh forget that, what is it?"

Lali told him.

"Count me in," Kalah said. "Who's gonna control who?"

"I am not controlling a boy," I said. "I have Christina. It's okay if you two — " I pointed to Kalah and Lali, who had morphed human again — "control boys, because you are not human."

"Can I control Tony?" Kalah asked.

"Absolutely not," I said. "You do Thomas. Lali gets Tony. Allen can have Herbie."

"Since when were you in charge?" Kalah demanded. "Tony has an Andalite morph!"

"Oh, shut up, okay? Fine. Lali controls Thomas."

"I'll tell them that Christina, Tony, Thomas, and Herbie are humans ready to be infested and sent to the Hork-Bajir home world," Lali said.

"The Hork home world?" Kalah's ears perked up. It's really weird seeing a Hork-Bajir's ears perk up. "I always wanted to go there."

Lali continued. "I'll make sure that us four are the Yeerks who infest them, and that we get the right host. As soon as we get to the Hork-Bajir planet, we leave our hosts, demorph, and then the eight of us will take it from there."

"Sweet! Let's do it!" Kalah said, "Finally, the Hork-Bajir home world."

~~~

CHAPTER 23 – Tony

"What?" I asked.

"Are you insane?" Christina wanted to know.

"This is so insane, it — it — " Herbie said.

"It makes all previous insanity seem sane!" Christina finished, before Herbie could say something stupid.

"I'm inclined to agree with them," Thomas said.

"It's true," Rachel said. "I saw her memories."

Rachel, Kalah, Laliah-escar, and Berkilan-lactran had told us of their plan.

"And we get to be Yeerks!" Kalah said. "You people will be our hosts."

"I am not getting Rachel for a Yeerk. Uh-uh. No way. Not in a million years."

"Don't worry," Lali said. "You get me."

"Who's my Yeerk?" I said.

"Me!" Kalah said happily.

"Why?" I demanded.

"You have an Andalite morph."

"Great."

~~~

The Blade ship.

Again.

"I so do not like Visser Three," I said. "He gives me the creeps."

"Me too, but shut up," Christina said. She was behind me.

"Why do they get to be Yeerks? It's not fair."

"I never want to morph a Yeerk."

"I'd rather morph one than get infested by one."

We were in a line, being shoved by some big mean Hork-Bajir who would not let anyone run away.

"What if I get the wrong Yeerk?" I asked.

"Shh!" Christina hissed. "You won't."

A human-Controller placed a weird-looking device on my head.

Suddenly I was somewhere else ...

~~~

I had gotten a load of someone else's memories. An Andalite's memories.

Then a whole bunch of my own memories hit me.

After they were over, I said, "Whoa, what was that?!"

Whose memories were they?

Then another device was on my head. I felt a little electric tingle, nothing more. Some Hork-Bajir-Controllers removed the device.

Then they led me over to the Yeerk pool. Pushed my head under.

Oh, help, I thought.

~~~

Tony? Yeah, it's you. Oh man.

Kalah, that had better be you —

Chill out! It is. This is cool.

What are the things they put on my head?

First thing was probably a memory-stimulator. You went through your own memories?

Yeah, but there were these —

Oh. Oh cool! I can see them now.

You can see my memories?

Uh, duh, Tony. Course I can.

How come I can't see yours?

Cause I'm special.

What?

Kidding. It don't work that way. You can only see my memories if I let you — and I'm not letting you.

Why?

Cause nobody should know what I know.

Why? I asked again.

I know stuff that should not have happened but — oh forget it. Let's just say I know deep dark secrets.

Oooookay.

~~~

CHAPTER 24 – Christina

Rachel had finished infesting me.

This is too creepy, I said. I can't even blink!

Well, let's do this.

"Now what?" Rachel asked, using my mouth.

"Now," Lali/Thomas whispered, "Kelbrid will take our places while we are gone. I have talked to a few of my friends."

"But what do we do now?" Kalah/Tony wanted to know.

"There is a ship that comes to pick up new Controllers. I think it's arriving soon. Hope it's arriving soon. Cause if it's not, it already arrived and we have like a week's wait ahead of us."

~~~

The ship arrived in a few hours. We'd had to demorph, then remorph in the Blade ship's bathroom.

Yeah, it had a bathroom. Human, Hork-Bajir, and Andalite facilities. The Taxxons couldn't exactly use a toilet, so they had a whole room to themselves.

Kalah strongly advised us not to go in there. I wouldn't if I had the best nose plug in the world plus the strongest air freshener, and I told Rachel so.

She'd rolled my eyes.

"Why are you rolling your eyes?" Kalah had asked.

"Something Christina said. That's all. Something referring to the Taxxon rest room."

"Oh," Kalah had said, with a roll of her own eyes. Well, of Tony's eyes anyway.

Now we were boarding the Yeerk ship, with other human-Controllers. Ready to go to the Hork-Bajir home world.

~~~

Demorph in the bathroom. Remorph. Wait. Occasionally crack a joke. Hear Rachel groan. Demorph. Remorph. And the cycle would start over again.

Finally we could see the Hork-Bajir planet below.

The Yeerks took over the Hork-Bajir long ago. But the release of a Quantum virus by the Andalites quickly depleted the supply of Hork host bodies, Kalah informed us in private thought-speak. So when the Yeerks heard of new Hork-Bajir who'd been genetically created by the species that created the first Hork-Bajir, they immediately started planning the second invasion. Unfortunately, I am descended from the first Hork-Bajir, who did not have the intelligence that the second group have.

Did anyone understand any of that? Herbie wondered.

The second group of Hork-Bajir are smarter? Rachel asked.

Berki answered. Smarter and more numerous. It has been difficult for the Yeerks in their attempt to take the Hork-Bajir.

Berk's right, Kalah said. We have tried hard. The Hork-Bajir may have increased in quantity, but so have the Yeerks. Yet we have not become more intelligent.

Why do you keep saying "we", as if you are a Yeerk? Rachel demanded.

I told you, I'm used to passin' as a Yeerk. I have to talk like that in front of other Yeerks. Oh man, there I go again. I mean, in front of Yeerks.

Berki snorted.

Oh, shut up, Berk the Jerk.

And why were you talking like, I don't know, a scientist or whatever? I asked.

I'm just repeatin' what my mom told me. Hey! We're landin'! We're actually landing on the Hork-Bajir world!

"You're not excited, are you?" I said. Rachel had loosened her control to let me talk.

"Duh," Kalah said out loud, careful to keep her words inaudible to other Controllers. "Course I am."

"I was being sarcastic."

"Duh."

"You're duh-ing is getting annoying."

"Duh."

"It would be very nice if you would shut up!" I hissed.

"Duh."

"Cute."

Kalah grinned. "Duh."

I shut up.

Sometimes I wonder why it's Berki who has the nickname "The Jerk."

~~~

We landed.

We immediately got away to demorph.

"Look at these trees," Lali said. "They're huge! Whoa. Wow."

"Yeah. This ish so cool!" Kalah had demorphed. She craned her snake-neck upward.

Lali and Berki morphed directly from Yeerk to human.

Rachel left me and demorphed to human.

"That was creepy," I said. "I so do not want to be infested by a real Yeerk."

"Yeah. Berki, don't tell anyone anything I don't want you to — and you know what I mean." Herbie gave Berk the Jerk a meaningful look.

"You know," I said conversationally, "if you combine the first part of Lali's name and the second part of Kalah's, you get Laa-Laa?"

"Real funny, Christina," Kalah groaned with a roll of her Hork-Bajir eyes.

"Don't do that," Thomas said to her. "It's creepy."

"Big time creepy," Herbie agreed. "You're scarin' me."

"Deal with it," Kalah said shortly. "Now if you want to go unnoticed on this planet, morph a Hork-Bajir. Acquire me and then find some other Hork to acquire. Theshe Horks may be smart but most don't know about morphing. There are few morph-capable Yeerks here."

"Why do we need two Hork-Bajir morphs?" Tony asked.

"You're gonna try to morph both Horks at the same time. It's called a Frolis Maneuver. You'll come out lookin' partly like me, partly like another Hork, but not exactly like either of us. The Yeerks'll be on to us if they see two identical Horks walkin' around."

Lali and Berki immediately morphed to Hork-Bajir. "You can acquire our Hork morphs," Lali said.

"I thought we couldn't acquire DNA from a morph," Thomas said.

"Kelbrid morphing isn't based on DNA," Kalah said. "It's chemical manipulation of surrounding atomsh."

"It's what?" Rachel asked.

"Chemical ma — oh, drop it."

Herbie picked up something off the ground and dropped it. Kalah smacked his arm.

"Ow! Watch the wrist blades, you almost removed my arm!"

"I will remove your head next time you get on my nervesh," Kalah said. "Now shut up."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Shh!"

"But I didn't say anything!"

Kalah's arm went up, like she was going to decapitate him with her wrist blade.

"Shutting up."

Kalah gave him a look.

~~~

CHAPTER 25 – Kalah

As soon as Herbie shut his mouth, the others acquired Lali and Berki. Then they morphed.

"Now the next time you morph, think of the Hork you are now. You can retrieve the same DNA combination."

"How?" Tony wondered.

"You're askin' me? How would I know?" I grumped.

I wondered how my Kelbrid was doing. I hoped my mom wouldn't notice that I was suddenly different. I hoped the Kelbrid didn't act stupid when — "Aaaaaaaaaaahhh!"

I had been running straight along the tree branch. Trying out the Hork- Bajir trees. Now, at the end of the branch, I leaped into the air!

I came back down. The branch bent under my weight. It flung me up into the air, so much higher than I had gone before!

"Whoooooooooaaaa!"

Up! Down! Higher! Lower! Up up up, and grab a branch above my head! The branch was at the top of the next tree. The crown of the tree bent way over.

"Yaaaaaahaaaaaaaaa!"

I grabbed the highest branch. I spun! Round and round, as the branches whipped in a crazy circle at the top of the tree.

I released!

Falling and falling at a million miles an hour!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" I screamed.

Down on a branch! My Hork-Bajir talons absorbed the landing shock. And I leaped. Up and up! Almost as high as I had been!

"Wheeeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaaah! Yeah!"

I landed on a branch, leaped up, thrust my snake-head forward, down, back, up, fell, landed!

I'd done a forward flip! A three-sixty in mid-air!

"Oh yeah! Hah-hah!"

"Having fun, Horkie?" Tony asked.

The humans had not had my experience in the trees. They were not being as daring.

"Come on, people! What are you guysh, chickensh? Watch this!"

I leaped up. Back flip! Another! Another!

"Uh-oh." I'd missed the branch I was going to land on.

No more branches between me and the ground. And I was still a hundred feet up!

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!"

I reached out, dug my claws into the tree trunk, felt my body hit the bark, heard my claws scraping long lines in the bark as gravity pulled me down, grasped some lower bark with my talons, and I was safe!

"Hah! Did you see that? Did you?"

"Yeah, we saw you almost crash and burn," Herbie said.

I was a couple trees away from him. I saw another Hork-Bajir next to them. "Hey, whoever that is next to Herbie, could you do something to him, please?"

The Hork-Bajir smacked him. And I knew instantly it was Berk the Jerk.

"Harder, Berk!"

He did smack him harder.

"Ish that the best you can do, Berkilan-lactran?" I demanded.

Berk pushed Herbie off the branch.

"Oh yeah! See, that ish what you're supposed to be doin', Herbie!"

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" He grabbed a branch. "Berk, you ARE a jerk!"

"Talk to her," Berki replied, pointing at me.

"I will!" Herbie said.

"See if you can keep up," I called back to him.

Yeah! Fly through the air. Land! Bounce! Fly! Grab a branch and swing! Look back and see Herbie, way back there. Race to the top of a two-thousand-foot tree! I could see everything! Then leap high into the air, land, bounce higher, higher, higher, then point hands and Hork-beak down, and fall!

The ground rushed up at me. I did a one-eighty and righted myself. Then I grabbed a branch!

"Yah!" I said, feeling the pressure of my hand against the bark as I pulled down on the branch. I grabbed it with my other hand, swung my legs up, and straddled the branch. Then I lay down on it and rested, waiting for the others to catch up.

When Lali arrived, she said, "You forget that we still have a mission, Super-Hork. We are supposed to be rescuing Loren and Allen."

"Oh. Yeah."

"You like this place?"

"Oh yeah. Theshe treesh and all, they are so much bigger than the ones on Earth. And I bet they taste better." I stripped some bark off the branch I was sitting on.

It did taste better. Think of always eating cheese pizza. Then one day you get one with sausage, pepperoni, green peppers ... that is so much more flavorful.

Or think of an Andalite morphing human for the very first time. And eating chocolate.

Well, it was the same way for me. Earth bark was okay, but ... kind of bland. This bark was almost designed to taste good.

I stripped some more.

"Ka-lah," Lali said.

"Want some?" I held out the bark to her.

She glared at me. "No thanks. Give me a break. Loren and Allen, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah. Well, let's do it."

~~~

CHAPTER 26 – Thomas

There was one problem.

We had no idea where Loren and Allen were. Where the Yeerks were. Where other Hork-Bajir were.

I mentioned this fact.

Kalah said, "There should be other Horks around somewhere. But where are the Yeerks?"

"Shi Heerkash?" someone said.

~~~

It was another Hork-Bajir.

"Eyah," Kalah replied. "Heerkash. Yar phalak? Nah, yar nabri?"

"Mee lak Makha Guran."

"Mee lak Kalah Mashar."

"What are you saying?" Christina asked.

"Yeah, what are you saying?" I repeated.

"He saysh hish name is Makha Guran. I think he knowsh where the Yeerks are. Yar phalak lak Heerkash?"

"Shi Heerkah ibal-phalak lak nah koshah dishlas."

"But I don't want to wash the dishesh," Herbie said.

"Cute," Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

"He saysh, a Yeerk outpost is not far from here. Tuh koban mee, Hork-Bajir dor ibal-phalak?"

"Eyah," he said. He looked at Kalah weirdly. "Tuh lak kran-nakinari?"

"No duh!" Kalah said sharply. "Uh, nah redisud!"

The Hork-Bajir snorted. "Mee lak shi redisud umdi?"

Now Kalah's arm blade went up. "Lich marhat! Lich turi marhat!"

"What?" Tony asked.

"He said he'd take us to the Yeerks. Then he asked if I wash mentally disabled. I said, 'No, stupid!'. Then he said, 'I am the stupid one?' I told him to watch hish mouth."

We all burst out laughing.

Tony started giggling. Kalah had to smack him to make him shut up.

"Lich turi marhat," Christina repeated thoughtfully. "Watch your mouth. I'll have to remember that."

"Just becaushe there are very few wordsh in the Hork-Bajir language I learned ... " Kalah grumped. She looked at Makha Guran. "Heerkash?"

"Eyah. Khubo."

"Come on, people," Kalah said impatiently.

~~~

Makha led us to a huge log laying on its side. It was cut open lengthwise, with the upper half removed. Tree trunks kept it from rolling down the slope.

It was filled with a thick liquid. Like molten lead. Gray slugs swam in the liquid.

"A Nawin pool," Kalah said, thoughtfully. "I've heard of them."

"Thoshe are Yeerks!" Rachel said.

"Yeah, it's a Yeerk pool. That's where Yeerks live in their natural states. We — they — feed on Kandrona raysh, which are beamed to the pool from a device called a Kandrona. That's a device that's deshigned to act like the Yeerks' home sun."

She pointed to the pool. "That's made from a Nawin tree. They become hollow with age."

"The Yeerks?" Herbie asked.

"No duh! The treesh. You are an idiot."

"Stop stating the obvious, Kalah," Christina said. "Go on."

"So it's called a Nawin pool."

"We could morph big and dump it out," I said.

"Yeah ... " Rachel looked pained.

"We could," Kalah said thoughtfully. "Bunch of Yeerk jerks that are trying to take over this planet again. At least my Yeerk friendsh have promised not to infest Hork-Bajir. There were few Hork-Bajir-Controllersh aboard the Blade ship, remember?"

"You have Yeerk friendsh?" Tony asked.

"Only a few," Kalah replied. She laughed.

"Uh, guysh? Look, we aren't here to wipe out theshe Yeerks," Christina pointed out. "Kalah? Ask Makha where Allen and Loren are."

"Yar phalak lak humanash, sem — sem — Lali, morph to human. You too, Berki."

They complied.

"Sem Lali ee Berki?" Kalah finished, pointing to the Kelbrid,

"Eyah," he said.

I am going to stop telling you exactly what he said. I'm not even sure if I'm spelling the Hork-Bajir words right.

He said something else in Hork-Bajir to Kalah.

"What are you saying?" I asked Kalah again.

"I asked him where the humansh that looked like Lali and Berk were. He said, yes, he knew where they were. He saysh they are around here. Controllersh. They're trying to take the Hork-Bajir."

"I think we already knew that," Christina said. "What else would Controllersh be doing? So Thomas, what do we do?"

"Well, let's morph something else. Out of sight of Makha here. If he'sh taken by the Yeerks — well, no point in announcing 'The "Animorphs" Are Here!' We're lucky he doeshn't understand English."

"What do we morph?" Lali asked when we had left Makha.

"I don't know. Something that can go unnoticed. The Hork-Bajir are too big. But if we morph, like, birdsh or whatever, former human-Controllers may recognize them. From Earth."

"Kalah, what's that?" Rachel said suddenly, pointing to a weird-looking animal.

"You really think I'm gonna know?" Kalah said irritably. "It may be a chadoo. I don't know. But whatever it ish, let's morph it."

~~~

CHAPTER 27 – Rachel

It took several tries to catch the chadoo. It turned out to be a fast little, uh, creature. It looked like someone had taken an Andalite upper body, removed the stalk eyes and given it a mouth, given it more of a rodentlike look, and stuck it on a headless blue flying squirrel where the head should have been.

Christina came up with that description. I had to agree.

Anyway, we acquired the chadoo,

It was kind of like being a flying squirrel, although of course we'd never morphed one. It raced up the tree and leaped off branches like a Hork-Bajir would, but when it stuck its legs out it could sort of glide through the air on its "wings".

Thomas, have you thought about exactly how we are going to, uh, rescue Loren and Allen? I asked.

Well, no.

I didn't think so.

It wasn't long before we spotted Loren and Allen.

Now, Lali said, we just have to take them and starve the Yeerks out of their heads. Shouldn't be too hard.

Yeah, right. What do you want to bet something's gonna go wrong? Herbie asked.

Christina rolled her little chadoo eyes. Herb, you are so negative.

My name is not Herb.

Whatever.

So what do we do? Tony wondered.

Yeah, Thomas, what do we do? I echoed.

Well, first we find someplace to demorph. Then we morph Hork-Bajir. These chadoos can't do what we want, they're too small.

What do we want?

Kalah? Why would Hork-Bajir-Controllers want with a couple human- Controllers?

I swear Kalah grinned with her little chadoo mouth. Oh, cool. Well ...

~~~

Chapter 28 – Kalah

"You! And you!" I said to Loren and Allen. I was a Hork-Bajir again.

"Yeah?" Allen said.

"We have galaf reason to suspect you as horlach traitorsh," I said, throwing in a few Hork-Bajir words.

Loren's eyes widened.

"What are your Yeerk names?"

"Gamriss-Eight-One-Eight," Allen said. "And she's Nildlin-Four-Two-Seven- Double-Zero the secondary."

I put a wrist blade to Gamriss/Allen's throat. "Come with me."

Lali, in Hork morph, echoed me, pressing her blade against Loren's neck.

~~~

"Now we can starve them," I said.

"You're not even going to interrogate us?" Nildlin asked frantically.

"Oh, we have what we want," I said. "Yup, it's Kandrona ray starvation for both of you."

" 'Yup'?" Allen asked.

Whoops. "Yes, yup, redisud horlach traitorsh."

"We are not traitors," Allen protested.

"You can escape starvation and come out willingly. We will give you a painless death instead of the torture of lack of Kandrona raysh."

You're an expert at this, Tony said. I'm not so sure that's a good thing.

I ignored him. The Yeerks came out. I squashed them in my hand. Just to kinda reassure myself that I wasn't really a Yeerk.

"Recognishe me?" I asked Loren.

"No. I mean, I sort of recognize the personality, but ... "

I began to morph to human.

"How about now?"

"You look kinda familiar." Loren stared at me weirdly.

"Kalah!" Tony said. "You forgot to mess up your hair. Again."

"Oh, crud." I messed up my hair.

"Mary?"

~~~

"Yep," I said. "Kalah Mashar, actually. I'm a Hork-Bajir."

"Oooooookay." Loren looked at me, almost jealous. Couldn't blame her. I had a whole bunch of blades and she didn't.

"How weird could things get?" Allen asked rhetorically. "We get kidnapped by a bunch of weird-looking bladed aliens, get transported to a planet full of weird-looking bladed aliens, now we're rescued by a bunch of weird- looking bladed aliens, and now my twin sister finds out her best friend is actually a weird-looking bladed alien."

"You are doomed to be haunted by the weird-looking bladed aliensh," Christina said fake-spookily.

"Who are you?" Loren asked.

"They're morph-capable humansh," I said. "Thomas, Rachel, Tony, Christina, and Herbie the dork."

"I am not a dork."

"Yeah, and the sky ain't blue."

"It's not."

I looked up. The Hork-Bajir sky was pale green-blue in the morning and evening, but now it was the bright yellow-orange of midday.

"Cute, Herbie."

"I am, aren't I?"

"Berk, smack him for me. And Loren, those are Kelbrid. Lali and Berki."

"Why are you talking to her? Talk to me," Allen said in a fake grumpy whine.

"Allen ... " Loren warned.

"Look, I haven't had use of my mouth since Gamriss's last feeding. I have a right to talk. Even if it is annoying."

"Well, at least he admits he's annoying. Unlike some people." I glared at Herbie and Christina.

Herbie squirmed, but Christina protested, "What did I do?"

"Oh, shut up. I was mostly talkin' about Herbie."

~~~

CHAPTER 29 – Christina

"Okay," Rachel said. "We've done what we came here for. That's the good thing. But the bad thing is, how are we going to get them home?" She pointed at Loren and Allen. "They can't morph."

Oh. Duh. I could have smacked myself.

There was a shocked silence.

"Duh," Herbie added.

"Why didn't any of us think of that?" Rachel glared at Thomas.

"Okay, so I screwed up," Thomas said grudgingly.

"So what do we do?" Herbie demanded.

"Is there any excuse you can give for being on an Earth-bound Bug fighter or whatever?" Kalah asked Loren.

Loren considered. "No. Not that I can think of anyway. Huh."

"Why don't we stay here?" Kalah suggested. "I like this place."

"Not all of us are bladed monkeys," Herbie said.

"No, some of us are unbladed monkeys, and you know who you are." I glared at Herbie. "We might as well stay here. We don't exactly have a choice."

"Lali's Kelbrid friends are filling in for us," Thomas reminded us.

"Hold it, hold it," Loren said. "Mary. I mean Kalah. Who are these people? I mean, what are their names?"

"People from our school," Kalah explained. "Thomas, Rachel, Tony, Christina, Herbie the dork, and me."

"I am not a dork."

"No, you're a Dork-Bajir," I cracked.

"And the Kelbrid are Lali and Berki."

"Berk the Jerk," Lali corrected. Berk elbowed her.

"We are insane," I explained to Loren and Allen.

"Yeah," Allen said. "I kinda figured that."

~~~

"Hijack a Bug fighter," Kalah said.

"Yeah!" Loren seconded.

Allen grinned. "Cool."

"Why not?" I said. "It's insane, but ... why not?"

Herbie said. "You're right. It is insane. It's so insane it's not even funny."

"Kalah. Berk. One of you mean people. Could you do something to him?"

Loren whacked Herbie.

"Ow!"

"Let's morph," Thomas said.

Two bladed dinosaur-looking things appeared where Lali and Berk had been a few moments ago. They looked like a cross between an elephant and a Hork- Bajir.

"What the heck are those?" I demanded.

One blade-creature grinned, showing yellow fangs. "We made them up. We don't have to morph real things."

"Make 'em bigger," Kalah said.

"There's a size limit," the other blade-creature said. "Unfortunately." Definitely Berk.

"So ... let's do it," Loren said. "Come on, guys. Morph."

"I have a new battle morph," Kalah announced.

"What?" Rachel asked

The first thing to appear as Kalah morphed was fur. Yellowish fur spread all over rippling across her dark Hork-Bajir skin.

Then SPLOOOOF! The mane sprouted from around her head, which was still Hork- Bajir except for that mane. Very weird — a Hork-Bajir with a lion's mane. And yellowish-tan fur still spreading.

"Hey Loren, she's morphing you!" I said.

A sudden pain in my shin.

"Hey! She kicked me! Allen, your sister kicked me!"

"You probably deserved it," Allen said, keeping his eyes on Kalah.

"I'm starting to wish we had stayed home," I grumped.

Thomas had started his morph. White tiger. Herbie was becoming a polar bear. Rachel was almost completely rhino. I reluctantly began to morph cheetah. Tony was morphing Andalite.

"That's not Ax," Thomas said.

"You mean my morph?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. It's not Ax. It's different."

"Come on. Let's do it," Loren said again.

~~~

"HRROOOOOAARR!!"

"Andalite!"

"Animorph!"

"Help!"

"AAAAHHH!"

FWAPP!!!

"HROOOOH-huhh!" That was one of the Kelbrid.

"HHRHAAAAARRH!"

"Horlach gahar!"

"Hulkach! Ghafrash fit!"

"The Animorphs are here!" Loren yelled to scare everyone out.

Take that, you jerk!

CRASH!

BOOM!

"Yahh!"

Watch your horn, Rachel! You almost —

Bye-bye! Kalah flipped a Hork over her head.

"Herbie, you idiot, you almost stepped on me,"Allen hissed.

Kuh-BLAM!

Watch out, there's a wall there, Rach.

You help a lot, Christina, Rachel replied sarcastically. This rhino is blind.

This tail is cool, Tony said.

"Yeah, and you almost removed my head," Loren whispered fiercely.

Suddenly, three Hork-Bajir rushed in. They immediately disappeared. In their place stood three monsters just as scary — and as dangerous — as Lali and Berk's morphs.

There are Kelbrid here! Kalah said incredulously. Good grief.

Okay, let's get out of here, Thomas ordered. Herbie! Where are you? Herbie!

~~~

CHAPTER 30 – Herbie

I'm right here, I said.

I had gotten sliced up by a few Hork-Bajir. I'd demorphed and remorphed.

Now I was back.

Okay, let's go.

~~~

We found a place to stay for the night. It was nothing more than a space between the humongous roots of a tree.

I dropped off to sleep right away. I was willing to bet the others did too. We were all completely exhausted.

~~~

CHAPTER 31 – Thomas

"Sulan harath," said a Hork-Bajir voice.

It was not Kalah.

"Aaaaaaaaahhh — Makha?"

"Eyah," he said.

"Great. Now he's seen us as humans," Tony grumbled.

Kalah said something in Hork-Bajir to Makha. He said something that sounded like "falling hash browns."

"Well, now that he's seen us, you think we can tell him everything?" Kalah asked me.

"I really hope he doesn't get infested now," Christina muttered.

"Maybe he knows a way home," Rachel suggested.

"You have a point," I said wearily. "Okay, Makha." I informed him of what we needed. Kalah translated.

"Quacker plaque hears cash moron," Makha said. At least, that's what it sounded like.

Kalah grinned at me. "He says he knows where a Yeerk ship is hidden."

"Could have saved us a lot of time if he'd told us sooner," Herbie muttered.

~~~

"Let's morph Hork-Bajir so we can keep up with Makha," I suggested.

We morphed.

"Kalah, no weird showing off this time," Herbie said.

"Who, me?"

"Yes, you," Tony, Herbie, and I said simultaneously, only Tony accompanied it with a death look in Kalah's direction.

Kalah returned the death look.

"Stop it," I ordered. "Let's go."

~~~

We followed Makha to the Bug fighter. It was a long way, and we had to demorph and remorph once.

Finally, we arrived.

"Okay, we're there. The question is can we fly this thing? I'd hate to end up ash Hork hash."

"Christina?" Allen asked. "How many times do I have to tell you — "

"Yeah, Allen, I know. 'Shut up.' "

"This thing ish completely beat up," Kalah observed. "Not to mention it's way old. I mean, look at it. Herbie, it's older than your Dracon beam."

"It's not my Dracon beam, it's my mom's. Or my dad's. One of theirs."

"Oh, be literal," Christina grumped. "How do you get in?"

"Well, it's so old — "

"Forget about how freakin' old it is!" Allen yelled.

Silence.

"Oh, would you all shut up and stop fighting?" Rachel said, exasperated. "Where's the hatch?"

"Slight problem," Kalah said. "It's right there, but it's protected by a password."

"So ask Makha what it is."

Kalah did. Makha said something in Hork-Bajir.

"He doeshn't know," Kalah translated.

"Well, that's helpful," Christina muttered.

"Oh — " Berki began. He walked over to the hatch.

"Hey! Where'd the hatch go?"

"Kelbrid can chemically manipulate atoms, remember?"

"What?"

"I disappeared the hatch. Turned it into air."

"Cool," Loren commented.

"Can you do that to people, too?" Kalah asked eagerly.

"Not permanently," Berki said. "Unfortunately."

"Darn it."

"Kalah? You're weird," Rachel observed.

"Thank you," Kalah replied.

"You're welcome."

"Um, people?" I broke in. "The door isn't open so we can enjoy a view of the inside of the Bug fighter." I know. Dumb joke. Hey, I'm not Christina.

"You mean we're supposed to enjoy a view of the outside of the Bug fighter?" Herbie asked.

"Herbie ... " I warned.

"Just go in!" Loren said impatiently.

We all said good-bye to Makha Guran and complied.

~~~

CHAPTER 32 – Rachel

CRASH!

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

"Oh, it's just a tree," Christina said grumpily. "Cool it, people."

CRASH!

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

"Or two."

CRASH!

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

"You're going to kill the Bug fighter, Christina," Thomas pointed out.

"I am going to kill YOU!" Loren yelled.

"I'm gonna kill whoever said she could drive," Kalah said. Then, belatedly, "Wait — that wash me, washn't it?"

"Oh no, we have a suicidal Hork-Bajir here," Herbie said.

"Herbie, I'm not gonna tell you again. SHUT UP!"

CRASH!

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

"What is it with you and trees?" I demanded. "What do you have against them?"

CRASH!

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

"That's IT! Now I drive!" Kalah shouted above the screams.

She took the controls and promptly —

CRASH!

"Aaaaaaahhh!"

Kalah groaned. "Okay. Loren, you can drive."

"Crash," Herbie said.

~~~

"Uh-oh," Kalah commented.

"What do you mean, 'Uh-oh'?" I demanded.

"Wait a minute — ooooh."

"Ooooh what?"

"I have an idea." She began to morph.

"What's going on?"

Her mouth had disappeared just then. We're receiving a request for two-way communication, she explained in startlingly familiar thought-speak. Now stay out of sight of the screen.

She had finished morphing her front half when a Hork-Bajir face appeared on the communications screen. She was an Andalite with knee blades on her back legs.

"That's not her normal Andalite morph," Tony whispered to the rest of us.

What is the meaning of this interruption?! Kalah demanded as she finished morphing.

"Vi — Visser Three!" the Hork-Bajir stammered. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

That is not your concern, Kalah replied. Computer, terminate communication. The Hork vanished.

Suddenly Kalah began to laugh in thought-speak. Hah-HAH! That was way too easy! I knew that morph would be good for something.

"Demorph," I said. "Please."

"Yeah, you're scaring us," Christina seconded.

"Maybe she's scaring you," I heard Loren mutter.

"Have you ever seen Visser Three?" I demanded.

"Yeah. Once."

"Hah. Once. And was he in a bad mood?"

"Not really."

"Hah," I said again.

Kalah had demorphed.

"You do a good Visser Three impersonation," I complimented.

Lali grinned. "For a second, I almost thought you actually were Visser Three."

Kalah found that hilarious. "Thank you," she said.

"Makes you wonder exactly how she was able to pull it off so convincingly," Tony muttered.

"I heard that," Kalah said. "Now shut up before you give everybody ideash."

~~~

CHAPTER 33 – Tony

Yeah, I was suspicious. But I couldn't come up with an explanation, except that I was a paranoid nutcase.

But it took us a long time to get home. A long time to think paranoid- nutcase-ish thoughts. Into Z-space, out of Z-space (whatever Z-space was — Kalah had a hard time explaining it), with a whole bunch of waiting around in between.

Finally, we reached Earth.

CRASH! BUMP. THUD.

"Nice landing," Allen said dryly.

We morphed to birds and flew home.

~~~

"Hey, Tony," Kalah said. "Wanna hang out?"

"Okay," I said. I had checked in with my parents and told the Kelbrid that he could stop impersonating me. Then I'd asked my mom if I could take a walk.

I was going to do some nice, normal, EARTH things.

I had morphed to bird, flown to the nearest McDonald's, demorphed, bought a Big Mac, and found Kalah in human morph scarfing a cheeseburger.

"Nice to be eating something besides bark," I said, plopping down at her table.

"Yeah, I guess. At least if you're human. Which I am right now."

I bit into my Big Mac. "Yeah. So, what are you doing here?"

"Same thing you probably are," she replied through a mouthful of cheese, beef, ketchup, and a whold bunch of other stuff.

"Normal things?"

"Well, human things," she said, then added ruefully, "Normal for me is absolutely weird and insane. I guess that's to be expected."

"So, you want some company in your weird, insane home?"

"Yeah, I haven't been home yet. I mean, I have, but only as a golden eagle. I found my dad was actually home, which is unusual. I didn't see my Kelbrid. Probably my parents figured out that it wasn't really me. Hope Dad didn't kill the Kelbrid."

"You think he's gone by now?"

"Yeah. I heard him say when he'd leave. He's probably gone by now. Good thing, or else I'd have been in serious doo-doo."

"All he can do is kill you."

"Yeah, and that's very likely. He's too much like me."

"I see what you mean by 'insane'."

"Yep." She laughed. "Don't be feelin' sorry for me or anythin'. My dad likes to say, "An insane world is a whole lot better than a sane world." Or something like that. And — well, I wouldn't be me if I wasn't insane."

"No," I agreed. "You wouldn't be."

She looked at me weird. "Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Lookin' at me like there's somethin' wrong with me."

"You mean I should look at you like there's everything wrong with you?"

She made a face. "That sounds like something Christina would say. Or maybe Herbie, although it's unlikely he would have the brains to come up with it."

"He did skip a grade."

"He probably brainwashed the teachers with his dorkiness."

"Do you have such a low opinion of everyone?" I chomped into the Big Mac again.

She laughed. "Not everyone. Hey, you about done with that?"

"Ymph," I said. I swallowed, then tried again. "Yep." I crammed the last bite into my mouth. Kalah had finished her burger a while ago.

"So, let's do it."

~~~

We morphed birds and flew. We demorphed a good distance away from civilization, in an open field.

"Wanna morph Andalites?" Kalah asked.

"Okay," I said, shrugging. "Why not?"

I focused on my Andalite morph.

SPROOT!

That was my tail shooting out.

Sccrrreeeennkkk!

My vertebrae multiplied, lengthening my body.

SPLOOT! SPLOOT!

An extra set of legs shot out and hit the ground. My own legs became like a horse or a deer's, only blue. I gained four extra fingers.

Ploot! Plupp!

Stalk eyes.

My mouth disappeared. Fur was spreading everywhere. I felt my ears, eyes, and nose changing.

Kalah was undergoing similar changes. It's very disturbing, seeing Hork- Bajir horns between Andalite stalk eyes. Too many weird things sticking out of a head.

Finally, we were done.

Race you, Kalah said, grinning with her eyes alone. She bolted.

Hey! No fair — oh, wait for me!

She beat me to her tree and demorphed. "Huh. No one around. Mom!"

No answer.

"Mo-om!"

Silence.

"MOM!"

"What?"

Kalah ran in the direction of the voince.

"There you are. Mom, this is — "

She stopped suddenly. There, next to the Hork-Bajir who was apparently Kalah's mother, was a bird. A hawk, similar to some of our bird morphs.

Hey, said the hawk. Uh, Toby? That's not Talerin, is it?

The Hork-Bajir named Toby — Kalah's mom — looked at me weirdly. "It looks like him."

My name's Tony, I said. I had not demorphed.

It wouldn't be Tony Harper, would it?

How did you know?

And your parents' names are Harold and Arabella, right?'

Um, right.

He was staying with Leela's parents, the bird explained. Toby seemed to understand, but I was becoming increasingly confused.

I began to demorph. So did Kalah.

"Wait," Toby said. "Where were you?" She glared at Kalah.

"Uh — Hork-Bajir home world? Rescuing Loren?"

"You, all by yourself?"

"No, with Loren's Kelbrid, and Allen's Kelbrid, and him" — Kalah pointed at me — "and a few others."

"Andalites?"

"No, humansh. I mean, human-zuh. Morph-capable humanzzz. There. I did it."

You sound like Ax, the hawk remarked.

"You know Ax?" I demanded sharply.

Of course I do.

"He gave me and my friends the morphing ability," I said.

I am going to kill him.

"Why?"

Cause he didn't tell me.

"Who are you?"

That depends. You were talking about Loren and Allen before?

"Uh-huh," Kalah said.

Are they twins?

"Yep."

Then I'm their father. The bird laughed.

"Loren's dad is a BIRD?"

Sort of. You want me to demorph?

"Okay," I said.

When he was fully human, I asked, "Why were you in bird morph?"

"Because she" — he pointed at Toby — "is used to talking to me when I'm a bird. I got stuck in bird morph — "

"Wait," Toby said suddenly. "Kalah, you asked about the red box before. Remember? I found out what it is. It's a nothlit cure."

"A what? What's a nothlit?"

"Someone who stayed in morph past the two-hour limit."

"Oh!" I realized. "That's why the blue box didn't work on me. I'm a nothlit. The red box worked."

"Then you're an Andalite," Kalah said. "Cool."

Huh?

"Hold it! Back up. Rewind. What do you mean, I'm an Andalite?"

"You could morph Andalite without acquiring one," Kalah explained. "Andalite must have been your original form."

"It was," said the bird-person. "You're Talerin-Sirinial-Corill. Son of Estrid-Corill-Darath and Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill."

~~~

CHAPTER 34 – Christina

I demorphed near my house. I wanted to walk the rest of the way.

It was night. My Kelbrid was in the front yard. "Hey," I said. "Kelbrid. Take a break. I'm back."

"Finally," the Kelbrid muttered. "Everyone expects me to come up with jokes just like that. I guess my sense of humor is impaired." She vanished. Probably morphed something small.

Hey! someone said. Christina? That was a Kelbrid?

"Who are you!?" I demanded. "Where are you?"

Two seagulls landed right in front of me.

Come inside, said a different voice. Let's party.

I'm comin' up — the first seagull began to sing.

I swear the second one rolled his eyes. Leela, not the time.

~~~

"Now what do you want?"

The seagulls began to morph.

They were not Kelbrid. They did not have instantaneous morphing. They morphed in the slow, freaky way that we did.

"Who are you?" I asked again.

"Uh, well — " I recognized the voice of the first seagull. The one who'd started singing. She had become a woman with blond hair pulled back into a ponytail.

The other seagull, the one who had said Let's party, was now a man with short dark hair and kind of darkish skin.

"We're sort of your parents," he explained.

"What do you mean, you're 'sort of' my parents?"

"Okay, we are your parents," the woman said wearily.

I looked at them weirdly. "Oookay. But you can morph."

"We're Animorphs," the guy said.

"Duh," the woman added.

~~~

"Then who are the people I thought were my parents?" I wondered.

"My parents," said the guy — I mean, my dad.

"This is too weird."

"How did you get the morphing ability?" my mom demanded.

"Uh, it's a long story."

"How long have you had it?" my dad asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Several months."

"Who else does?"

"Some of my friends. Thomas, Rachel, Tony, Herbie, Kalah."

"Marco, that's — " my mom began.

"Yeah. But who are Herbie and Kalah? And why aren't Allen and Loren in the group?" he mused.

"Kalah's a Hork-Bajir," I explained. "Allen and Loren can't morph, but they know about us."

They exchanged a look.

"We'd better talk to Jake," my dad said.

~~~

CHAPTER 35 – Herbie

Jake. The leader of the Animorphs.

He explained to us that he and the others had been on the Hork-Bajir home world for a long time. They'd left us with their parents.

Apparently Jake and Cassie were the parents of Thomas and Rachel. Christina's parents, of course, were Marco and Leela. Tobias was Loren and Allen's dad. Tony's parents were Ax and another Andalite named Estrid.

I was seemingly not related to any of the Animorphs. And Kalah knew who her parents were.

Anyway. Thomas, in turn, told Jake about Ax giving us the morphing ability and about everything that had happened since then.

"Hey," Cassie said. "Jake?"

"Yeah, Cassie?"

"Well, we have the Escafil device. We could give Allen and Loren the power to morph. And the others can already morph. We could use more morph-capable people on our side."

"Cassie — they're younger than we were when we — "

"Hey, I'm twenty-one in Hork-Bajir years!" Kalah protested. Tony whacked her.

"I'll kill you as soon as this thing's over!" she hissed to him.

"Not that much younger," Cassie said, ignoring Kalah.

"Pleeeeeeeeeease?" I wheedled, grinning.

Jake rolled his eyes.

"That's how we all feel," Rachel informed him.

"Okay," Jake relented. "Okay."

~~~

CHAPTER 36 – Thomas

"I have a plan," Jake announced.

Marco groaned. "The fateful four. 'I have a plan.' What is it?"

"It's insane," Jake said brightly.

"I knew it."

Jake had called a meeting because of this "plan". Of course, we hadn't known that was the reason for the meeting until now.

"So what IS this the plan?" I asked.

"Well ... " He paused for suspense. "We are going to free Ax's dad."

We are? Ax said, whipping a stalk eye around to stare at Jake.

"Huh?" I wondered.

"Ax's father is Noorlin-Sirinial-Cooraf. Visser Three's host body," Jake explained.

"Oh."

"That would mean my grandfather is Visser Three. Or at least his host," Tony whispered to us.

"Oh, shut up, there are worse things," Kalah muttered.

"Wait a minute," Herbie spoke up. "One problem — wouldn't that be suicidal?"

"Shut up," I said tolerantly.

"He has a point." Marco.

"Maybe we could pull it off," Leela said thoughtfully. A grin slowly appeared on her face. "We do have a lot more firepower."

"How you gonna do it though?" Kalah asked. "Noorlin's heavily guarded. They put him in all these restraining things, and the guards stun him with Dracon beams if he tries to morph."

"So all we need to do is get the guards away," I said.

"Exactly," Jake agreed.

"Yeah, but how?" Tobias wondered.

"I said I had a plan. All we have to do is acquire, then morph whoever's on the Blade ship. There has to be a bathroom in there somewhere. When someone tries to use it, we'll stun and acquire him. Then we'll go out and tell everyone the ship is going to blow up."

Leela grinned. "Okay, that actually IS insane."

"Cool," Loren commented.

"I like the idea ... " Kalah looked excited and pained at the same time.

"Visser Three will be seriously ticked off," Tobias said. "Why not."

"We'd have one more morph-capable person," Cassie pointed out.

"I assume you're using that term loosely," I heard Christina mutter.

"I'm not even going to say how absolutely INSANE this is." Marco.

"I am," Christina said. "It's nuts. Wacko. We gotta be Looney Tunes to even attempt it. It's so insane it makes all previous insanity seem sane."

"Now THAT sounds familiar," Jake teased Marco.

"Ax? What do you say?" Cassie asked. "He's your dad, after all."

Ax smiled with his main eyes. Let us do it.

Marco snorted.

~~~

CHAPTER 37 – Rachel

I was a flea.

Cassie had brought the flea along with the blue box. Loren and Allen had used the box, then we'd all acquired the flea.

I was a flea on Kalah's head. Fleas can't see or hear worth lima beans. Fortunately, Marco and Ax were spiders. They had better eyesight and a lot more experience with insects.

Looks like we're there, Marco reported. Yow!

Yow what? Leela asked.

Yow, look at all those Yeerks!

Yow-Yeerks. Hah, I commented.

Really funny, Rachel.

We are in the rest room, Ax said.

Okay, everybody outta the pool, Marco ordered. Or into the pool. Whatever.

~~~

The plan was that Kalah would tell a Controller that there was something weird in the bathroom. Only Ax would acquire him and sound the alarm. We'd wait for him to give the all-clear.

Ax demorphed. Suddenly the flea felt a massive vibration.

I have stunned the Yeerk.

Then, I have acquired and morphed him. When, I close the door, start demorphing.

We did. My ears were human enough to hear when Ax yelled, "The ship is malfunctioning! It's about to explode!"

Then I heard Kalah. "It's gonna blow! Everybody off!"

A thought struck me. Hey! What are they gonna think if Kalah doesn't run?

Cool it, Rachel. I'm morphin' a roach.

She is morphing a cockroach, Ax informed me at the same time. A normal thing to do in this situation. If one can morph, that is.

She has a cockroach morph?

Apparently so.

One word: Yuck.

All Controllers have evacuated the ship.

We demorphed.

~~~

Aximili?

Yes, Father. It is me.

What are you doing?

Marco snorted. "What's it look like we're doing?"

Noorlin was bound with various chains and clamps and other restraints. There was a sort of sheath over his tail.

Kalah had demorphed and found a handheld Dracon beam. She used it to melt the restraining devices.

Tseew! Tseew!

Soon Noorlin was free.

"You guys get out of here," Kalah said. "I got to use that rest room. I'll be comin'."

~~~

CHAPTER 38 – Kalah Mashar

When I got out of the rest room, I was supposed to morph and get out of there. But ...

"Blade ship. Nobody in it but me." I laughed. "I could fly it out of here — "

Nobody in here but you and a few Yeerks.

Oh. No.

Oh crap.

I whirled around.

Didn't your mother always say that your talking to yourself would be the death of you someday?

"Hey, that rhymes," I observed weakly.

Visser Three finished morphing to Andalite. He glared at me.

I grinned, which only seemed to piss him off more.

Where is everyone? he demanded. Where's my host?

"Uh ... "

Oh, they just saw me out there. So, due to my irresistible cuteness — Kalah, I'm using private thought-speak. The visser can't hear me. Don't —

"Marco!"

Oh, too late, Marco groaned.

"Oops."

The visser exploded. Skerlin! You have NOT been working with the Animorphs.

Me and my big mouth. Or beak. Or whatever.

"Well, uh, Mom always has."

Not even your mother would take my host body.

"I'm not so sure about that."

His tail blade was quivering at my throat before I could blink. WHY! he screamed.

"Why am I not so sure about that?"

NO you idiot. I mean, why would you — I mean, I thought you were —

"Marco. Are you hearing this? What he's saying?"

He's saying something?

Good. The visser had actually remembered to use private thought-speak.

You've always been a loyal Yeerk, Visser Three said.

"I'm not a Yeerk!"

Yes you are, Kalah.

He hadn't called me Skerlin.

"Just because I'm — " I stopped. Marco could hear me, even though he couldn't hear Visser Three. I started over. "I — I'm no Yeerk. I'm a Hork- Bajir. I'm not you!"

But I felt like flipping my wrist blade, slicing off the tail blade at me neck. I knew I wasn't fast enough. He'd kill me first.

I almost didn't care.

I didn't want to be Visser Three.

I was itching to do something to him.

I couldn't.

Besides, it would be suicide.

I didn't care.

I did care.

"Oh, GO AWAY!" Visser Three and I yelled at the same time.

I felt like screaming.

"Marco? Let's get out of here." I began to morph to golden eagle.

Wait. Hold on.

We are leaving, Marco, I said as my beak became hard and curved.

Visser Three looked like he wanted to kill me. I wasn't gonna wait around until he lost his last shred of self-control.

Or until I lost mine.

Marco and I bailed.

~~~

CHAPTER 39. Loren

Allen and I had not wanted flea as our first morph. It was creepy, to say the least. Fortunately, fleas can't bite Hork-Bajir, because their skin is too thick to penetrate.

Now the other Animorphs were in bird morphs. Allen and I, of course, didn't have bird morphs, so we were fleas. Again. And this time the flea instincts WERE a problem. We hadn't bitten any birds so far, though.

Marco had morphed to fly and gone back into the Blade ship. He had thought of what we hadn't: The Yeerks in the pool were still in there, and some of them had morphing ability. They would be suspicious when their hosts weren't there when it was time for reinfestation.

Hey guys, we're back. We had a little run-in with Visser Three, but we're still alive, Marco said brightly.

Believe it or not, Kalah added darkly.

I hate this morph, I complained.

You wanna know what my first morph was? Kalah asked rhetorically.

I answered anyway. No.

Yeerk. Talk about a bad morph.

I shuddered. Okay, I changed my mind. I absolutely love being a flea.

~~~

Hey, Kalah said.

I was at home. Doing homework. Boring, but normal.

I looked up. A talking bird is not normal.

"Is that you, Kalah?" I demanded of the golden eagle outside my window.

Duh. You are lacking good morphs.

"Duh yourself. I kind of knew that."

Morph to flea and then hop on Golden Eagle Airlines! We'll go get you some birds and battle morphs.

I looked at her weird. "Okay."

Well, come on! What're you waitin' for?

She sounded way too enthusiastic. "Kalah? What's going on?"

Nothin'. Let's go. Let's do it. She forced a laugh. Ah, I'm just hyper. Jumpy and all. Come on, morph.

"What about Allen?"

Yow. Almost forgot about him. Go get him if you don't wanna leave him here, which in my opinion would be smarter —

"I heard that," Allen said, throwing open my bedroom door.

~~~

Kalah took us to this place for sick or injured wild animals. That was where she'd acquired her eagle. We'd both chosen a red-tailed hawk, for obvious reasons. Allen had also acquired a wolf there.

Acquiring them was relatively easy, compared to what came next.

"Nice bear. Good bear. Gooooood bear. Please don't kill me."

The grizzly was sleeping. I was afraid it would not last.

"You know what Christina would say if she was here?" Kalah asked conversationally.

"What?"

"She'd say 'Just tell him you're not Goldilocks.' "

"Cute."

"That sounds exactly like something she'd say," Allen said, rolling his eyes.

Allen and Christina have a mutually antagonistic relationship. Which is the complicated way of saying that they often get on each other's nerves.

Not exactly what I needed — or wanted, really — to think about right then. Had to focus on acquiring the bear. I touched him.

He started to stir.

Focus, focus, focus, I thought.

"Grr," the bear commented, explaining its feelings to me.

"Start acquiring! He'll go into a trance."

"I AM acquiring! And this does not look like a trance."

"GRRRR!" The grizzly got up.

"Grr yourself. Now shut up and go into the stupid trance!"

"GRROOOOOWWWWRRR!"

"Uh-oh," Allen said. "You think we've overstayed our welcome — oh, Lor-EN!"

"Wha-at?" I replied. I was trying to ride the bear like a horse.

"Oh no, she's riding bear-back!" Kalah exploded into giggles.

"You are way too hyper today," I said.

Let me make one point here: A grizzly bear is not a horse. A bear has a very different body structure.

And a very different diet.

"LOREN! What the heck are you doing?"

"HHHRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOAARRR!"

"I am trying to avoid being bear breakfast," I said, annoyed.

"Loren, it's night. You'd be bear dinner, and a late one at that."

"Oh, shut up. Bear breakfast sounds better."

"Humans are one of the few things grizzlies will not eat," Allen said. "However, a bear will attack a human if it feels it is being threatened."

"I don't look threatening here, do I? And how do you know this stuff?" I demanded.

"Some TV show. Or maybe a book."

"You're helpful. Probably some show that I really should watch, but don't. Okay, I'm done acquiring. Now how the heck do I get out of here?"

Apparently Kalah hadn't thought that far ahead.

"Um ... "

~~~

CHAPTER 40 – Allen

"Hey, I got an idea," I said.

"Well, great, 'cause now would be the time to share it!" Loren yelled, barely holding on to the bear (but not bearly holding on to the bare).

"See that fake tree, by the edge of the bear habitat? Kalah could climb out onto that branch, grab us, and swing us out!"

"Are you crazy?" Kalah said. "There's that huge ravine between us and the edge! If I swing you that far, it's gonna hurt. A lot. Besides, I'm not guaranteeing that I won't drop you."

"Got any other ideas?"

"Well ... "

"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ABOUT BIRD MORPHS?" Loren yelled. "That would be a whole lot easier! I was wondering if there was any place to demorph."

I smacked myself on the head. "Oh. Duh."

"Yeah, duh," Kalah said. Like it hadn't slipped her mind as well as mine.

"Well." I thought. "We could morph in the tree. Kalah could help us up."

Now it was Loren's turn to say "Oh. Duh."

We hauled.

~~~

CHAPTER 41 – Jake

"The question is: What do we do now?"

We were in another of our meetings, at the edge of the forest.

I was tired from our previous mission. Morphing again and again will do that to you. But I knew that now was not the time to rest.

"Visser Three is currently without a host," Loren said. "I say we hit him while we can."

"She has a point," Leela agreed.

"The odds have never been better," Marco pointed out. "More Animorphs. Visser Three hostless, more vulnerable. We may never get a chance this good."

"Yeah, but how would we do it?" Christina spoke up. "After the last time — I mean, if we attack the Blade ship again, the Yeerks are really gonna be on guard."

"I — " Kalah began to say. She stripped some bark off a nearby tree and bit into it. "I kinda — I mean, I know where Visser Three's feeding place is." Her tail seemed to go crazy, thumping on the ground.

"Kalah. Switch to decaf," Leela said sharply.

"Yeah. That's very disconcerting," Tony agreed.

She stopped. "It's, like, not too far from my place. We could, um, go there — he doesn't usually have too many guards. Half of us could go, I guess, and the other half could be backup."

"Okay," I said. "You and Ax and — "

"I'll go," Loren volunteered.

"Me too," Leela said, not to be outdone.

"Okay. That's how many? Four? We need four more. I'll go. Three more."

"I don't care," Marco said. "Let's draw straws."

I picked up a few pine needles, broke two in half, dropped one of the halves on the ground. "Short ones go, long are backup."

Christina and Allen drew the short straws.

"You and me," Christina said, leering at Allen.

"Okay," I said again.

"Is that the only word in your vocabulary?" Marco demanded.

I gave him a look. "Leela? We're waiting."

"What?"

"Let's ... " Marco prompted.

"Oh. Let's do it."

We morphed birds and flew.

~~~

There it is, Kalah said.

There it was. Not too different from past feeding places. A clearing in the forest. A stream. Plenty of grass.

Why would he still come here? He no longer has an Andalite host, Ax pointed out.

Believe me, he'll be there, Kalah insisted.

We landed and demorphed. Half of us remorphed to battle morphs, the other half to skunk. A very effective morph when one wanted to be small but dangerous. Besides, Visser Three hated skunks, and with good reason.

The newer Animorphs had acquired the skunks earlier. Now they had morphed.

Okay, now!

Suddenly an Andalite, a tiger, a gorilla, a snow leopard, a grizzly bear, and a wolf leaped out at the visser.

~~~

CHAPTER 42 – Leela

Unfortunately, Visser Three had noticed one of the skunks. He was hauling butt. Ax was chasing him.

Want some grape juice, Visser? I taunted. You look so nice in purple, you know. It's definitely your color.

SHUT UP!!!

I looked back. Allen, Christina, Marco, and Jake were taking out the Hork- Bajir-Controllers.

I saw Kalah suddenly fall. She just fell. No tripping, no crashing into something. Just falling over.

Oh well. I had other things to think about.

Tobias had stayed in hawk morph. He was above us somewhere.

Tobias! Ax yelled. Could you distract Visser Three?

~~~

CHAPTER 43 – Tobias

I flew in circles around Visser Three.

Okay, I feel like the dorkiest hawk ever here, I complained, trying to lighten the mood.

I have other problems besides dorky hawks, Ax replied.

Hey!

GET AWAY, YOU ANNOYING BIRD! Visser Three yelled.

Ax was very close now. Good. Now you might want to leave, or at least get out of the way.

Yaahhh! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, BIRD! Visser Three screamed.

You won't live long enough to have revenge, Ax said matter-of-factly.

That's a matter of opinion.

FWAPP!

Aaaaahhh!

~~~

I did not see the Controllers. I did see that my friends had demorphed.

What happened down there? I called.

"One Hork-Bajir-Controller escaped," Jake said. "The others are out of it. Where's Leela and Ax?"

Ax is chasing the visser. Leela's following. She's still in morph. Kalah — I have no idea where she is. Wait. I see her. She's demorphed. She's talking to that Hork-Bajir.

"Why?"

How should I know?

~~~

CHAPTER 44 – Cassie

I morphed to osprey. I gained altitude. I looked for Kalah.

There.

The Hork-Bajir was running in one direction, Kalah in another. Running through the trees, like any normal Hork-Bajir.

But neither of them could be considered normal.

Hey! I called. Kalah!

"What?"

Who was that?

"Tarak-Nine-Three-Seven-Five."

Visser Four?

"Yeah, but he's been demoted to Sub-Visser Fifty-three for possible treason."

Yow. What were you talking about?

"Visser Three, what else?"

Oh. I swooped down to land on a branch. Anything bothering you?

"Nope. Nothin'." She laughed.

Where are you going?

"Nowhere."

Okay. Leela! Hey Leela!

Over here!

I flew over to her. It's about time for you to demorph.

It is?

I heard another thought-speak scream.

What the heck — Leela began.

It's Visser Three.

Oookay. Then I guess Ax doesn't need my help. She began to demorph. Have the others morphed out yet?

Yep, I said.

Okay. Well, you guys go on home. I'll be along in a minute.

Don't do anything stupid.

"I won't," she said as her human mouth appeared.

Make sure Kalah doesn't.

"Okay."

Aaaaahhh! Oh, I HATE you! Visser Three raged in the distance.

~~~

CHAPTER 45 – Marco

Tobias landed and demorphed. So did Cassie.

"Where's Leela?" I demanded.

"She's demorphing. She said she'd be along in a minute. Besides, someone's got to make sure Kalah doesn't get into trouble. She said for us to go on home. Ax doesn't need any help."

"Okay," I said. "Why is everyone saying okay?"

"We're just reassuring each other, I guess," Cassie answered. "Telling each other that everything will be okay."

"Ooookay. Wait, there I go again!"

Everyone giggled nervously.

"Everybody morph," Jake instructed. "Birds again. Let's get out of here."

~~~

Hey! Leela.

"What?"

I swooped down. Landed on a low branch. Whatcha doin'?

"Someone's gotta keep an eye on Kalah."

What's she doing?

"Sheesh, Marco. I don't know. But I'm gonna find out."

~~~

We flew home. I waited for Leela to show up.

And waited.

No Leela.

I checked the clock.

"She should have been back by now," I thought. I called Jake.

"Leela's not here yet," I said. "Shouldn't we — "

"Okay, Marco. But only you and me. No need to bother Cassie or Tobias or anybody else."

"All right. See you."

~~~

CHAPTER 46 – Ax

I was beginning to tire. But my burning anger would not allow me to stop. I ran.

The visser's Andalite morph was bigger. Faster. But Tobias had slowed him down enough for me to hurt him.

He was still running, but slower. Suddenly —

FWAPP! He spun around and struck! He'd caught me off guard. A piece of my side was gone.

FWAPP! I hit him! Yet he was not seriously hurt.

Yet.

FWAPP! FWAPP!

He struck again. I blocked. Whipped my tail around the other way.

He ran, I struck.

Yaaahhh! Visser Three yelled.

He realized he couldn't run away from me. I knew this forest, and I was not hurt as badly as he was.

So his only hope was in going tail-to-tail with me.

FWAPP!

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

Yes!

Bluish blood sprayed.

He twisted away. More blood sprayed.

I pulled my blade back out of his side. It had sunk deep, almost penetrating to his spine.

Now there was no way he was going to win a tail fight. Desperate, he tried running away again. It wasn't long before he fell down; he was losing too much blood.

Aximili? he said weakly.

What? I replied, impatient.

Don't kill me.

Why should I spare your life? You murdered my brother.

I had to! Besides, it's a war. There's no murder in war. And anyway —

Then it doesn't matter if I kill you.

No, he said. Please.

Die, Yeerk.

After all this time, I had him. Now I would destroy him.

This is for my brother.

I raised my tail blade. Then it slowly descended. I could see the fear in his eyes.

And I slowly sank my blade into his neck. Slowly.

~~~

"Aximili!"

Yaaahhhhhh! I yelled, startled.

Wha — Toby?

"Have you, uh — Have you seen Phal Mashar recently?

No.

Visser Three weakly turned a stalk eye toward Toby before he lost consciousness.

"So," she said quietly, "you have finally avenged Elfangor."

Not quite, I replied. I have not finished it.

"Well — will you help me look for Phal? He" — she shot a look at Visser Three — "is going to die anyway."

Yes.

"Thank you," she said.

I meant, yes he is. But I will help you look for your friend.

"Good." She climbed a tree. "I will move better up here. You search down on the ground."

With a single stalk eye, I looked at Visser Three again. Then I turned all my eyes away.

~~~

We looked for hours. We did not find Phal Mashar.

"Phal?" Toby looked around like she was expecting him to appear at any moment. "It's no use. We won't find him."

We can try again tomorrow, I offered.

She looked down at the ground. "That's all right. You can go. I have to find Kalah."

I will keep looking, I said stubbornly.

"Thank you, Aximili."

~~~

CHAPTER 47 – Jake

Marco and I flew rapidly.

When we got there, we did not see Leela. However —

Jake? And Marco? Or is that Cassie?

— she had seen us.

Marco da Magnificent, Marco assured her.

Marco, not the time, I said patiently. Where are you?

I thought you were gonna get out of here, Leela said.

We did. Why didn't you come back?

Long story.

What are you doing now?

Nothing. You can go.

Are you sure?

Yeah. Go on. I'll be fine.

Is Ax there?

He went to help Toby. Phal's missing. I'm not sure that's such a bad thing, but —

"I heard that," Kalah said.

— Ax is helping Toby look for him, Leela finished.

~~~

CHAPTER 48 – Leela

Ax and Toby were gone.

It hit me.

Hekliss.

Where the heck — no pun intended — was she?

I hoped she wouldn't find out.

But what if she did?

I realized I owed her something.

At least, I couldn't watch someone she cared about die when there might be something I could do.

I saw Kalah.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey, Leela," she replied dully.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothin'."

"Look, I — I might mess this up."

"What do you mean, mess this up?"

"I mean, I — I don't know. If there's something I could do — I mean, I can't just, you know, let him, you know — "

"You mean that you, an Animorph, an Andalite-human, would care about a Yeerk?"

"I don't care about him!" I snapped. "His sister is one of my best friends. She's the one who cares about him, okay?"

"And his sister is a Yeerk."

"Yeah. She was, anyway. Yeerk-human." I started to walk away.

"I see." She paused. "She ain't Hekliss-Eight-Two-Seven-Five, is she?"

I whirled around. "You know Hekliss?"

She laughed. "Course I know Hekliss."

"You know where she lives?"

Kalah gave me the address.

"Sweet. Thanks, Kalah."

I morphed.

~~~

After all this time, I finally had a bird-of-prey morph. A golden eagle, like Kalah's.

I tapped on the window. Yo! Hekliss!

No answer.

HEKLISS! LET ME IN!

Finally she came and opened the window. "Leela! Is that you?"

No, it's Tweety Bird. I tawt I taw a puddy tat.

She rolled her eyes. "It IS you."

I demorphed.

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "You look different."

"Well, sheesh, you haven't seen me for a few decades. Course I look different."

"Did you just come here to point out the obvious?"

"No." I sighed. "Wish I was. I gotta tell you something."

"What?"

"It's about Esplin."

"Is it good or bad?"

"Bad."

"Well, let me tell you something. I don't care."

"What?"

"I. Don't. Care. He is not my brother anymore, he's some kind of monster."

"Do you still want me to tell you?"

"You can if you want. I'm just saying — "

"Yeah, I know. You don't care," I said bitterly. Then I lost it. "You don't care that I CARED enough to come over here and tell you he's about to die! You don't care, huh?"

Hekliss whipped her head to look right at me. "He's what?"

"You heard me. He's dying and I thought there was something we could do to help! But YOU DON'T CARE!"

I don't know why I was in such a foul mood. Maybe it was the stress of the earlier battle. Maybe it was all the stress of all the battles I'd been in, pouring out into this moment.

Maybe.

"Leela, shut up!" Hekliss hissed.

"I WILL NOT SHUT UP!"

"LEELA!" she screeched.

The anger left as quickly as it had come. "Hekliss? I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm screaming. I'm just in a bad mood."

"I'll help."

"That's better. Come on. Oh, wait, you can't morph. You're a nothlit."

"I have used the cure."

"You have? Well, okay then. Let's go."

~~~

CHAPTER 49 – Kalah Mashar

I couldn't wait for Mom to get back. She'd know what to do.

I'd tried to tell myself I didn't care. It didn't work.

So I waited. Trying not to look at Visser Three. Waited for Mom and Leela and Hekliss.

Yeah, Hekliss would know what to do. I hoped.

~~~

Kalah! We're back, Leela called.

A golden eagle and an osprey landed in front of me. Both demorphed.

"Now where's Esplin?" Hekliss demanded.

"You haven't seen him yet? He's over there."

"Oh man," Hekliss moaned. "Oh, man. So what do we do?"

"I was hoping you'd know."

"How long has he been in that morph?"

"More than two hours."

"Great." Hekliss groaned.

"I guess we have to get the nothlit cure," Leela said. "Use it on him. See if we can get him to wake up and morph."

"Yeah. I'll go get it," I volunteered.

~~~

When I returned, Mom was back.

"Where's Ax?" I wanted to know.

"Still looking," she assured me.

"Okay."

"Now let's do it," Leela said. "Come on, Kalah."

I set the red box down. Placed Visser Three's hand on it. Touched it myself.

"Okay," I said. "Now we get him to wake up."

~~~

CHAPTER 50 – Cassie

I heard a flutter of wings.

A bird at one's window at four in the morning usually does not mean good news.

"Jake?" I asked.

Yeah.

"What?"

Ax is back. Leela is not. Marco and I went to see what she was doing. She said she was fine.

"Okay."

Ax wants us all to meet at the edge of the forest. He has an announcement.

"Good news or bad news?" I asked. I was already morphing.

I don't know.

As Leela would say, that's helpful.

I know.

~~~

Jake and I were the last to arrive. I did not feel good about this.

"Ax? Is this announcement good or bad?"

Good.

"Are you sure?"

No.

"Well, what IS it?" Marco demanded.

The younger Animorphs weren't there. Neither was Noorlin or Estrid, because Ax had already told them. It was just me, Jake, Marco, Ax, and Tobias.

"Come on, Ax," Tobias said.

Well, Ax began. I have finally avenged my brother.

"You mean Visser Three's — "

Yes. Dead.

~~~

CHAPTER 51 – Marco

I looked at the other Animorphs to see what their reactions were.

Jake was blank, expressionless.

Tobias said, "Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?"

Cassie looked down at the ground.

"What's wrong, Cassie?" Jake asked.

"Nothing," she said. "I just hoped, that's all. I hoped."

Me? I was trying, out of habit, to find a joke in the situation. Funny. I couldn't think of one.

"Leela knows," I said suddenly. "Kalah probably does too."

"Yeah," Cassie said.

Now what, Prince Jake? Ax asked.

"Well, we attack the Yeerks before they get a new leader. And don't call me prince."

"Yeah, but how?" I asked.

~~~

CHAPTER 52 – Ax

"Blow up the Blade ship," Tobias said suddenly.

"Are you insane?" Marco blurted out.

I do not believe he is, I said.

"Tobias has a point," Jake said. "One of us could get a bomb, morph a Hork- Bajir, get on the Blade ship — "

"The only problem is if we warn the Yeerks, they're not going to believe us," Cassie pointed out. "They know what happened last time."

True, I agreed.

"And there are innocent humans in there."

"You're right, Cassie." Jake sighed. "Besides, where would we get a bomb?"

No one had an answer for that.

"Anyone else got an idea?"

"No," Marco replied.

"Why is everyone so depressed?" Tobias wondered aloud. "I mean, this is a big victory. Why are you all — "

"Maybe Cassie has a way of setting the mood," Marco suggested.

"Oh, shut up," Cassie said sharply.

"Aw, you said a bad word ... "

"Shut. Up."

"You said it again."

"SHUT UP!"

"Marco," Jake said wearily. "I'm with Cassie on this one. Shut up."

Marco shut up.

"How come he listens to you but not Cassie?" Tobias asked Jake.

"Because he's a retard," Jake snapped.

Marco looked hurt.

"Sorry, Marco. I'm just in a bad mood."

"See what I'm saying?" Tobias said.

Yes. I looked up at Tobias with one stalk eye. Kept my main eyes on the other Animorphs. The other stalk eye scanned the place.

"Now," Jake said. "Back to business. Any ideas?"

~~~

CHAPTER 53 – Thomas

I woke up.

Jake and Cassie — I mean, my parents — weren't there.

I was tired from the night before — who wouldn't be? — but I managed to drag myself out of bed.

I went to Rachel's room. "Rae. You awake?"

"No. I'm not. What do you want?"

"You know where our parents went?"

"You mean our real, Animorph parents?"

"Yeah, Rachel."

"No."

I called Christina. She told me Marco was gone, and Leela had never returned.

Tony. He said Ax was gone.

"What are they doing?" I asked.

"I don't know," Tony asked. "But Ax said that Kalah and Leela never came back. They're okay, they're just staying there."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Why am I getting a bad feeling about this? Am I just being paranoid?"

"If you are, then I am too."

"Wait — here's Kalah."

"What? She's back? Let me talk to her."

"Okay," Tony said.

A pause as Tony handed off the phone.

"Thomas?" Kalah asked.

"Yeah. Is Leela with you?"

"Nah, she'sh — she'sss-zuh — still back there."

"What happened?"

"Visser Three. He's dying. Maybe he's already dead."

"Well, that would be a good thing, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess," Kalah replied. "Man, I'm tired."

"Don't even think about it."

"Think about what — oooh, don't go there or I will come over there and kill you!"

"Sorry. Man, I am tired."

"Did YOU stay up all night?"

"No."

"I didn't think so."

~~~

CHAPTER 54 – Leela Harper

Kalah had left. She wouldn't at first, but Toby insisted. Still, Kalah had seemed grateful to leave.

Now it was me, Hekliss, and Toby.

I was in my fly morph for two reasons. One: So the other Animorphs wouldn't see me and get mad. Two: So I could yell in thought-speak.

We'd tried and tried. Visser Three was seriously out of it.

"He's fading, Hekliss. Leela," Toby said flatly.

Why are you helping in the first place? I demanded.

"The same reason you are. You have been gone a lot. So I've been, well, 'hanging out' with Hekliss, as you say."

I smiled to myself. Kalah had been rubbing off on her.

Do you think Phal Mashar would help if he were here? I asked.

Toby looked pained.

You don't have to talk about him if you want, I added quickly. I mean, if it's, like, too painful or whatever. I was just curious.

"No, that's all right. I guess he'd — well, lately I wonder."

Where is he?

"Do you think I know?" she snapped. "I have been looking everywhere."

"Toby, calm down," Hekliss said.

You were yelling at me earlier! I reminded her, getting mad again.

"You were yelling first!"

So what!

"Hekliss," Toby said calmly. "I think ... I think you had better go. You're too close to this."

"I'm too close to this. Right. I'm the one who's gonna freak out if Esplin hits the dirt, and you're just gonna throw a party. 'Cause I'm too close to this, uh-huh."

The pained look flickered across Toby's Hork-Bajir face. "Hekliss ... Shut. Up."

"Fine, I'll go. Have fun," she said bitterly. Then, muttering, "I'm too close to this, huh?"

She morphed and flew away.

"Leela, you too."

Why? I'm not close to this at all. I'm just in it for her. I would have jerked my thumb in the direction Hekliss had gone. But I didn't have a thumb. It didn't matter. Toby knew who I meant.

"Because I'm — I don't know." She walked over to Visser Three. Placed her hands on him. "I'm only getting one heartbeat here."

His first heart had stopped even before we'd come to help. Now his second one was out. He had one left.

Still. Andalites don't function well on just one heart. There is a reason they have three.

There was a lot of strain on that one heart to keep the Andalite body going. And the blood was still gushing out of Visser Three's neck. We'd tried to stop the bleeding, but our resources were limited.

Too limited.

There's a joke in there somewhere, I thought to myself.

"Heartbeat is slowing ... " Toby informed me.

Visser Three! Wake up!

" ... slowing ... "

Esplin 9466! MORPH!

" ... stopped."

~~~

The thought-speak scream was not mine. Maybe Hekliss was nearby. In any case, there was an ear-splitting wail.

I powered my fly wings and got out of there.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

------------------------------------------------------

A/n: Thanx to everybody who reviewed.

No, this is NOT the last "book"! The next one is the last one of this quilogy, or quintilogy, or pentilogy ... whoops, wrong number system. And I've already started writing it! (I know I said I hadn't in the beginning note, but I wrote the beginning note when I was like only half-way through this story.)

And Shona, I PROMISE you'll like the next story. Really!

Btw, anybody wanna see a preview of the cover of the next "book"? Go here:

http://www.geocities.com/alienchick53/andamorph.bmp

It's not the complete cover, but it is the morph. You'll be able to see the complete cover when I post the story.