Also, these two chapters are really short, so I stuck them together. First part told from Marco's POV, second part is third person. Which may be obvious to some, but I want to keep this story the least confusing.
America
MARCO
Erek the informer. Always there to tell me something I don't wanna hear just when my life starts to get a little bit better. Nice guy. Bad news. Always.
Jake told me today wasn't supposed to be that bad. Jake told me Erek's words would give us a sort of "head start." And anyways, this mission was supposed to be optional. What did that mean? When was saving the world "optional?"
Ah, by the way, my name's Marco. I spend my spare time playing video games and fighting grey slugs, but I'll bet you already know all about that. You probably also know all about Erek the Chee, and how he's really a metallic dog. My guess is that you also know he's kind of the local Animorphs spy, the guy we get information from. Which would explain why we were in Cassie's barn (surprise, surprise) ready to hear him talk.
"What's up?" Rachel asked, standing today. We usually all sat. I think she was anxious to get to a sale or something Rachel-esque.
"It's Visser One." My head perked up at hearing this from Erek. Visser One controlled my mother, who was assumed dead by what little family I had. I was the only one who knew the truth, besides the Yeerks and my fellow Animorphs.
"She's hopping a first class flight to Madrid. Direct flight, no layovers. We assume it's urgent."
"Why is she going?" Jake asked.
"Um, no news yet. But-" Erek handed Jake a copy of an article that was printed on a normal piece of paper, but the article itself was in Spanish. "Five Italians were killed by assumed Dracon beams, and Spain knows it. We think she might have a plan to get some Yeerks into the media's heads."
Jake scanned the article with large, surprised eyes. I knew he didn't speak Spanish, but then, neither did I. Cassie was the closest thing we had to a Spanish-speaker, and she'd only taken Spanish one last year.
Why would the Yeerks kill five Italian teens? Tobias wondered.
"That's a good question," Erek said. "And we don't know that for sure, either. A lot is hypothesis right now, but it's possible they were controllers and escaped the Yeerk pool, or were in some other way a threat. Or maybe the local Visser had an angry fit; who knows? Bottom line is, the Italian media knows."
"But how could anyone know this?" Rachel demanded. "Can't the Italian cops cover it?"
"Remember that the Yeerk invasion is strongest here," Erek replied. "You guys are used to thinking all cops and media are controllers, but it's not like that abroad. In other countries, controllers are very hit-and-miss; there's no fast rule to who is and who isn't. And there aren't many controllers over there at all, anyways. It is trying to be kept under wraps; Spain's the only other country that printed the story, and it's sort of exclusive. But it's there."
So Visser One's on damage control, Tobias stated. Erek nodded.
"That's what we assume."
I knew what everyone, especially probably Rachel, was thinking. We should finish her off this time, they thought. But no one wanted to say anything like that in front of me, otherwise they thought I'd break down crying. But I wouldn't have.
I love my mom. Always have, always will. But if her dying would save the human race from slavery, I'd have to agree that we were better off without her. Then again, that's what I said last time. You know what happened last time. I choked. And I've never forgiven myself for it.
"Jake, get me there and I'll do my job," I said. Everyone looked at me in surprise.
Cassie looked sympathetic. "Marco..."
"I'll do what has to be done," I insisted. Jake nodded.
"Well, I've always been able to count on you," Jake stated. I knew he didn't mean it, but it was the kind of nice thing a nice guy would say to his nice friend to make everyone feel nice. He turned to Erek. "You guys mind covering for us while we go?"
Erek shook his head. "Not at all. What's your plan?"
Jake glanced quickly at me, then returned his eyes to Erek. "We'll see what happens. Starve the Visser while we're there will be best, then come home with an extra person."
Sure, Jake, get my hopes up, I thought. Like we were really going to just hang out in Spain for three days while the Yeerk dies. I had a feeling he meant to kill her, but I didn't object. Now wasn't the time to raise the issue.
"Where would we keep her?" Cassie asked. A logical question, but also not the time to challenge Jake when he was trying to be nice. Jake winced.
"Hmm... not sure. We'll figure it out when we get there." Jake's not a "figure it out when we get there" kind of guy.
"So, the fly thing again?" Rachel asked. Jake nodded.
"Yeah, but it's a long flight. We need to find somewhere with spare seats so we can demorph and sit there. When we land we'll morph again so we can get past without passports or anything, and we're in. We should leave on Saturday."
"Can't we leave Friday morning?" I asked hopefully. Jake smiled.
"No. Go to school, Marco."
Spain
"¡Hola!"
"Hallo!"
Laughter, Spanish, and German greetings mixed together when Manny and Momo got off the plane at 11:34 pm, local time. Everyone was excited to see each other for the very first time. They all exchanged hugs and gentle kisses on the cheek.
"Anja wanted to come so badly," Momo told them as they headed outside where they'd drive to Raúl's house. "We had to tie her up to stop her."
"We wanted to meet all of you," Lola replied. "We wish she and Kleus could have made it."
"Unfortunately, my parents aren't made of money," Manny lamented.
"Just about," Momo muttered. "They bought two tickets, didn't they?"
"Spain is not far," he added. "Besides, it's almost like they get to meet Anja and Kleus. They've heard their voices over the phone, and you brought so many pictures."
Pepe laughed. "Pictures? Wow, you must have thought a lot about this trip. I'd never think to bring pictures."
"I thought you'd like to get a visual of them," Momo said defensively. "So what?"
Luz eyed her giant suitcase. Momo had a large sack-like purse, duffle bag, and a suitcase bigger than anything Luz had ever seen. "What else did you bring?" she asked.
"A lot of music," Momo replied. "My duffle bag is filled with CDs."
"She loves her garage bands," Manny added. "I can vouch for how many CDs she brought. You'd think she'd just buy an MP3 player and save herself a lot of space."
They walked outside where it was slightly cool, but not too bad. The weather was not very different from Germany to Spain, and they all expected it to be colder at night. Still, as the weather had been warming up lately, Momo and Manny had both worn T-shirts and were slightly cold while walking to Raúl's car.
"MP3 players are for sell outs," Momo retorted. "I'm old school."
"Clearly," Manny said with a smile.
A/N: Mrowrkat - Yeah, the international resistance suspects the Animorphs are humans. They have several hints, but they don't know for sure. How did they figure it out? Oh, they have resources... :p You'll see.