Marco

Erek came back downstairs after he went to see who was at the door.

"Let me guess," I said as he re-entered the room. "It was some sales guy trying to sell women's hygiene products right?" I smirked. Tobias was practically rolling on the florr laughing while Ax looked very confused. Erek looked over to me.

"No, actually, it's the people who hacked our network." He said calmly. That wiped the smile off of my face. Jake leaned forward and Tobias shut up.

"Who?!" Jake demanded. When Erek only stared, Jake continued his ranting. "Why are you down here? Why would you leave them alone up there?"

"I didn't leave them alone… they're with my dad." He sighed. Jake raised an eyebrow. "Jake, come on, you know I'm prone to violence of any kind. They'd kill me if I tried anything." Jake sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"So what do we do?" He asked sadly.

"Well, I'm prone to violence, but you guys aren't." The android simply replied. I smirked.

"So, robodog wants Marco the Magnificent to handle a couple of punks for him? Alright, let me just call in Kong the Gorilla and let"- I began.

"No Marco, you're not going anywhere." Jake interjected. "Rachel and I will go. If anything happens, Erek will send word to you guys immediately. You'll know it's okay if I send Rachel down." Tobias, Cassie, and Ax only nodded.

"Fine, but don't come crying to me if they stick a gun to your head and blow your brains out as soon as you get up there." I grumbled. Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, cuz that's really going to happen shortie." She laughed.

"I am not short!" she patted my head.

"Of course you're not, Marco. Of course you're not." She said then began to head upstairs. Jake followed.

"You know where we'll be if you guys need us." He said stiffly. Cassie nodded in response and he walked onto the lift.

They didn't come back down for a long time.

It took forever! There was nothing to really do but sit and watch the door, so that's what I did. And sat, and sat, and sat.

By the time Rachel came down; let's just say my cramps had cramps.

She poked her head in through the door.

"Hey, guys, Jake says it's okay to come up." She said before leaving again. We all got up (or in my case, stood then fell flat on my face before getting up.) and walked into the elevator-thing's shaft. I was so scared. How many of them were there? Were they older or younger than us?

Rachel grabbed for the knob leading to the upstairs hallway and twisted it.

We walked into the hallway where Rachel led us towards the kitchen. It took my eyes a little while to adjust to the dull light up here. It was nearing dusk and the basement was generally brightly lit. But when my eyes finally began to see again, I was a little shocked.

There sat seven older teens at the table, staring at us. Jake looked up as we walked in.

"I thought we'd all like an introduction before anything happens here." He explained then turned to the strangers. "You guys start."

It wasn't a question.

A red-head stood up. "Alright, why don't we start of by saying names, age and our roll in our team?" Jake nodded and signaled for their obvious leader to continue. "Well, my name's Alfred, but you guys can call me Al. I'm 18 years old and I'm the leader." He sat down.

Next a small, Japanese kid stood up. "I'm Sam. I am 15 years old and I work with the machines of our group." He sat back down as a taller African-American stood.

"I'm Zach and I'm 17 years old. I work with our computer. I can intercept any messages, decode letters, hack into websites, and find out any information that is put up for internet use." A blonde petite girl stood.

"My name's Carly. I'm 15 years old and I'm one of our decoding specialists." She quickly said, then sat down again. I noticed how she avoided our eyes.

Next we met Katie, a 16 year old who was a fluent language translator; Michael, who intercepted messages from space and was 18, and Alexis, who started the group and knew a whole lot about the Yeerks. She was 20.

Right away, I didn't like Michael all that much. He reminded me of David and I could tell that Rachel thought so as well.

I rubbed my hands together. "Well, I guess it's our turn now." I said. "My name's Marco, I'm 14 and I'm the comedian of this sad little group." That seemed to stump them.

"Comedian?" I-forgot-what-her-name-is asked. Jake nodded.

"Yeah, we face some pretty bad stuff in battles… so whenever the going gets tough, we get a bad joke. They always keep our spirit's up, no matter what the case." He explained. Al nodded as I sat back down.

Cassie shared next. "My name's Cassie. I'm also 14 and I work with animals normally, so I help us when someone's wounded or I keep the peace when we start going for each other's throats." She stated.

"Hi, I'm Rachel." She began.

"But you can call her Xena." I interrupted. She whacked me across the head for that one.

"I'm 15 years old and I'm the best warrior of the group, or so I've been told." She finished then sat down. The Ax-man was up next.

"I am Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. I am the only Andalite of the group and am 4.67 years old. I am the expert on anything alien and I can also break almost any code. Human or Yeerk." He declared proudly. Tobias swooped forward. I think the others were a little startled to see a hawk inside a house.

((You can call him Ax.)) He said. ((The name's Tobias, and uh, I think you can pretty much see the fact that I'm a hawk.)) He laughed. ((Anyways, uh, I'm the lookout of the group. Their Air force one-o-one.)) He landed silently on Rachel's shoulder.

Last, our Fearless leader stood up. "Uh, I'm Jake. I am 15 years old and I'm the leader of the group." He said, mumbling the last part. I eyed Carly suspiciously. She hadn't made eye contact with any of us. Was she afraid?

I turned my head when I heard Jake laughing. I realized I had missed a joke that Zach had told. I looked back over at the girl. She didn't even glance back.

I had to trust her for now.