We are now up to 515 views! Now that that's out of the way, let us continue on with the story. I know you're still rather rattled about the Ellemist's episode, but just so you know what happened, as you will see below, the Ellemist drastically changed things, and believe me, he changed a TON of things in the Animorphs universe, so many, I'm sorry for not uploading sooner, I wonder whatever is tying him and The Crayak's hands right now killed him for violating the rules, he could be alive though, maybe. Anyway, here in this chapter be...the main characters, what? They're not Animorphs yet!

Chapter 1

Fully Operational

Day One of the Camping Trip

May 14th 1982

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Seth POV

I drove the jeep down the gravel road at the edge of town, there were trees surrounding us from both sides and no sign of civilization anywhere, it would have been peaceful, were it not for the laughing our resident comedian just instigated, but that isn't bad, just ruins the relaxing mood.

Janet, who is sitting right next to me, seemingly ignoring the chaos the 14 year old comedian in the back seat was bringing but smiling in the front seat.

"Hey Janet, want to play I Spy?" I asked her laughing with a stupid grin.

"Seth! Ethan just hijacked the game and crashed it into a wall literally less than thirty seconds ago! Are you going to say grizzly bears in bikinis or something?" Janet said between laughs.

That was when aforementioned anarchist, Ethan, decided to tell us his side of the insolence.

"Hey hey! I won't do that! Hmm, but thanks for the idea, now I Spy with my little eye-" He quipped from behind me.

"This outta be good" Loren said.

The youngest member of our group at age 13(four months behind Ethan) with dirty blond hair and overall a very nice country girl from...the countryside, and she's the reason we're here. Loren may be a somewhat lazy girl who is perpetually addicted to tie-dye, but we lost a bet with her, in Ethan's words "Loren played us like toys." Case in point she beat not only Ethan but won a chess tournament against all seven of us including Janet, the most nerdy of my friends and president of the Chess Club.

The deal was that if she defeated all of us in a chess tournament, she'll make us do whatever she wanted, if she loses? 100-200 dollars to all of the winners. Naturally Janet was president of the Chess club, for me the challenge of the contest was impossible to resist, and Ethan? Ethan just wanted the money, guy's so unpredictable I doubt even he knows what he'll do with 100 bucks. If she won, then at the beginning of summer vacation we will do one thing for her, anything, no matter what. The contest eventually turned into an 7v1 tournament, me and my friends and a couple of random classmates against her, the odds were not in her favor. The other two losers are in the car with the supplies jammed in the back, and another two in a jeep behind us, Loren's actually pretty nice, we've become good friends, Loren can make good friends out of everybody.

we lost, and as a result here we are, it's the beginning of Summer Vacation and we're going on a camping trip, for four weeks. I now know that girl is frigging smart, I now will never underestimate her again, but Loren's actually pretty nice, we've become good friends, Loren can make good friends out of just everybody.

We may be here because of a bet all seven of us lost, but that won't stop us from enjoying this though.

"-something...blue?"

Hmm, this one may be really easy or really hard...

"the sky?" I said.

"No," he responded abruptly.

"The dice hanging from the rear-view mirror?" Janet responded.

"Good...guess but no." Ethan said with quiet apprehension.

"The-wait, Ethan, is something wrong?" Loren added, as I looked out of the window looking for what he is seeing, nothing but the sky and clouds.

"...No, it's..." Ethan was silent for a few moments, "ah, never mind, it's...gone now."

That was the first sign, the sign that our lives would be irrevocably changed.

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The jeep shook as we drove into a small clearing in the woods, far far away from any roads, and even farther away from all signs of civilization.

"Wait stop!" Loren the guide said, before brushing her hair, "this is the place."

We pulled out into the right side of the clearing and got out of our cars, taking in the fresh air of the deep woods as the car carrying our supplies came and parked to the left of our own vehicle. I opened my door and got out of the driver's seat, and headed toward the other car, a beige colored van, the driver's side door opened and he walked around the front of the jeep to the left side of the car, I saw him in all his unassuming glory, Rich. When he reached the right side, he stands there and just looks around the woods, gazing into the treetops in silence before turning to me when I was a few feet away.

"Don't worry, I brought the water bottles, non-disposable, the knives, the toilet paper, matches, plus the tents, all four of them, and the...bags. Loren, why is there a sledgehammer and an ax in your bag?" Rich, who happened to be the one in charge of the supplies, asked the instigator of this trip, as he walked out to our jeep toward the instigator of this excursion. Though he was the one who was the most fine with the camping trip, he was mildly annoyed, but even that faded with time long before of summer vacation, he's not very capable of malice, despite his dark thoughts and paranoia.

"Hey gimme that, no looky looky! The sledgehammer is for putting the stakes in our tents, I didn't have anything else available, the ax is for firewood!" Loren said, yanking the bag from Rich's grasp before making an announcement. "let's get this thing started, unpack the vans, set up camp and have a good time! everybody packed spare clothes, right?"

"I don't think We need an ax for firewood," I said. "We'll gather sticks for kindling."

"Oh." Loren said, realizing that she overprepared.

The third car came rolling up in that moment, spraying dirt and everything else on the forest floor everywhere immediately in front of it's tires, and out came Naomi Bars from the driver's seat and took to immediately running toward the woods, in not even 15 seconds she was gone despite the flannel patterned skirt that came down to her knees, then out the passenger side door came...

"Naomi wait!" Out came Donald, a tall thin white guy who looks like the stereotypical Nazi(or if I chose his words, a not-zi), complete with platinum blond hair and blue eyes. He is Loren's best friend, one of those people who you know won't fail you, and is one of the strangest guys I have ever known, I honestly don't know whether that's a necessarily good or bad thing. Most call him Don, he's a rather creative guy.

"You can still use the cup! It's not too late!"

He chased her for a few seconds before wisely giving up and opting to turn his attention to us.

"Ah well, never mind, guess it is too late, besides, what happens in the woods stays in the woods, hey Seth! Knock knock."

"I know who's there."

"Little repetitive don't you think?" He stated as he walked up to the rest of us.

"It's our personal greeting cards Don."

We shook hands and turned to Rich's truck, where it's owner was unloading the supplies.

"Alright, it'll take me a little bit to get the tents out."

"Here, let me help, I'll get the food!" Loren said to Rich, who grabbed the bags out of the truck's bed.

"Thanks Loren" Rich said, he got the tents out of the bag and passed two to Don and one to me before taking one himself.

"Alright, now, to look for the campsite! This is one trip we are not going to forget!"

Last Day of the Camping Trip

June 11th 1982

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We returned, after the most life-changing four weeks of my life, possibly the most monumentally changing four weeks in history of mankind, we're back home. We all arrived back alive,and unharmed, but we had been changed, as Richard dropped off the supplies at Loren's house, nobody noticed that much of the survival gear was missing including an axe, and one of the tents was missing. Donald's car took Naomi back to the foster home where she lived, and he drove home, the others were all either dropped off and driven home to where we lived, and Janet, Ethan and I were walking down the sidewalk, going home after four weeks.

"Well, here's to hoping the cops weren't called." Ethan remarked.

"Our parents knew full and well that we would be gone for four weeks, we're just lucky they all agreed." Janet said, brushing her hair with her dirty hands.

"Well, Loren did say that we will never forget this trip." I pointed out, we were now fully operational, now, to begin our work, this will take a long time to prepare for, but with his help, and his gift, it can be accomplished, but-"

"This sucks," Ethan complained. "How the Hell are we going to prepare for an alien invasion?"

"Time to find out," I said.

HA! You actually thought I was going to put Elfangor in this chapter didn't you? Well, do not fear, he will show up in time, and is he alive? What is the outcome of the battle in orbit? And what happened during that four week camping trip? Oh, and three of these characters were in the Animorphs series, can you guess which ones?