Staring hard at Elfangor, I made myself a promise. I was going to avenge this noble alien's death if it was the last thing I do. I was literally shaking with anger and rage, and I was about thirty seconds away from snapping, grabbing some kind of improvised weapon, and getting myself killed. It took me a full ten seconds to get my anger under control. Nearly silently, I muttered to myself, "That filthy..." I stared so hard, I felt like my eyes would break from the pressure. Uncontrollably, I made the worst hand gesture I could think of, and would have started yelling and swearing if Betsy and Max hadn't covered my mouth when they had.

Risking a glance over the wall, I saw that Elfangor was still helpless in Visser Three's tentacles. He was held high up in the air. I saw Visser Three open his massive jaws. He loosened his tentacles, and Elfangor fell into that monstrous mouth. Then, the mouth closed. The teeth ripped Elfangor apart.

And Andalite War-Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul died. He cried out at the end, a terrible yell of despair that will be in all of our minds forever.

The Hork-Bajir started making a weird huffing sound, like whuh-whuh-whuh. Maybe it was applause or laughter. For some reason all the Taxxon-Controllers rushed up to crowd around Visser Three. After a few seconds I saw the reason. A piece of Andalite meat fell out of the huge monster's jaws, and one of the Taxxons greedily gobbled it up.

I looked down, my face buried in my hands. I could feel tears streaming out of my eyes. Then I heard a sound that was strangely... normal. Laughter, as in human laughter. Taking a peek above the wall, I saw humans... no, Controllers, laughing. Like the cold-blooded murder of someone trying to save a planet was some kind of show.

Demorphing to his original form, Visser Three thought, [Nothing quite like an Antarean Bogg morph for... taking a bite out of your enemies.]

Struggling to keep my nausea under control, I knew I just had to wait and eventually all the aliens would leave, so we could go home. Sure enough, after a while of huffing, laughing, and mocking, the Visser, the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons, and all the human-Controllers boarded the Blade ship and single Bug fighter.

When we were sure that both ships were completely out of range, we left our hiding place and got home as fast as we could. Frazzled, brain-tired and extremely paranoid, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

The Next Day

I woke up at about noon, not able to believe that I could feel so refreshed after that kind of night, but I guess fifteen hours of sleep will do that to you.

As I walked out of my bedroom in my pajamas I heard my mom ask, "Did you just wake up? It's 12:07."

"Guess I was kind of tired. What's for lunch? I haven't eaten since dinner last night, like eighteen hours ago. I'm starving."

"There's some pasta, a little chicken, and some leftover potatoes. Oh, I just remembered! Betsy said she needs to talk to you."

Taking a plateful of chicken and potatoes, I began to mentally assess the last night's events. If it wasn't just a horrible nightmare or an insane delusion, then... an eleven-year-old, a nine-year-old, and a thirteen-year-old were the only defense the Earth has from being taken over by brain-infesting aliens. That's the scariest thing I can think of. But the conclusion I came to was always the same.

"We have to fight." It was a few hours later, after Betsy and Max had gotten home from school (I'm home-schooled) and we were in this one place we all know about, where we can't ever be found. We were arguing about what to do.

"Yeah, we do," Max firmly said, "We have to fight, because we're the only ones who can."

"Okay, yeah, I guess we do," Betsy finally agreed, "But how do we even get these morphs, much less know how to use them."

"I guess we just.. try," I said. First, I emptied my pockets, which contained about a dollar in change, a still-wrapped hard candy, the three-dimensional picture of Elfangor with his family, and the blue morphing cube. The picture let out a "Woah" from Betsy and Max.

"This was in Elfangor's ship, I took it when I got the morphing cube. You know... something to remember him by."

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and concentrated on a picture of Elfangor in my mind. After about ten seconds, I looked down and saw that my skin was starting to turn blue-and-tan and sprout fur. My non-thumb fingers fused and then split into six weaker fingers per hand. Then my thumbs and arms morphed, becoming a little weaker. Two tiny Andalite front legs sprouted from my chests, rapidly growing. My spine and skeleton started shifting and cracking and reshaping as my human legs morphed into Andalite ones. My spine had shifted and front legs had grown so that I was a quadruped. Then, I felt a bulge come out of my... well, I could feel my tail growing in, starting like a worm with a needle attached, and growing until it was more like a cobra and a machete. My lips started to disappear, and then my mouth was gone altogether. My nose flattened and my nostrils altered themselves while my ears extended and pointed themselves. Then, last but not least, my eyes expanded and a new pair grew in on stalks. I had 360 degree vision, a faster-than-the eye-can-see tail with a blade, and...

[Can you guys hear me?]

Looking only a little bit startled, Betsy and Max simultaneously said, "Yeah, we can hear you."

[This is awesome!] I gave an experimental twitch of my tail, then... I felt something in my head. Like... The instincts of an Andalite.

[Guys, I'm not just in an Andalite body. I am an Andalite. I have Andalite instincts. It's not battle instincts though, it's like... optimism. Yeah, that's the word. Intense optimism instincts. Try saying that three times fast.]

Using my stalk eyes, I scanned the room, noticing things I'd never seen before. Giving another experimental slash, I smiled with my eyes. Looking at my friends, I came to an undebatable conclusion.

[We need to get you guys some firepower.]