Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10
Chapter 9: News
Jake's POV
That weekend Tobias came to visit.
I was just relaxing on my bed and petting Homer when I heard a tapping on the window. I looked back and saw that it was Tobias.
(Hey Jake, could you let me in?) He said.
I ushered Homer out of my room and closed the door. I opened the window and Tobias flew in landing on my desk.
"Hey, Tobias. What's up?"
(I saw something in the forest.) He sounded concerned.
"What did you see?" I asked.
(I don't know what I saw. All I could see was a blue blur.)
"A blue blur?" I repeated. "Are you sure you just didn't see Ax?"
(No, Cassie was out riding when I saw it. If it was Ax he would've come out to say hi.)
I started to think. Then I said. "Let's discuss this with the others. Go and get Ax we'll meet at Cassie's barn."
(Sure, Jake.) Said Tobias.
He flew out of the open window and went off towards the forest. It was lucky that Tom was out so I could call the others with a bit of freedom, but still I was careful.
I called the others and soon we were all at Cassie's barn. I called Marco and told him to meet up at the barn, same with Rachel. I made sure to call Cassie first to see if her parents were out.
We were all there except for Ax and Tobias. On the phone Cassie told me that her mom was busy at the Gardens, while her dad was going to be at a convention all day.
Like always the barn had several injured wild animals. There were a lot of birds, foxes, and raccoons. They were all chittering and squawking in their cages.
We heard a screech and saw Tobias land in the rafters of the barn. We soon heard the sound of hooves as Ax came into sight. I stood up from my usual hay bale when Ax came within earshot.
(Hello Prince Jake.) Said Ax.
"Hey Ax, and don't call me Prince okay."
(Yes, Prince Jake.)
"Alright." I said getting everyone's attention. "Tobias told me that he saw something in the forest earlier this week." I looked up at Tobias. "What did you say you saw?"
(I didn't get a good look at it, but I think I saw a blue blur in between the trees.) Said Tobias.
Cassie looked up at Tobias in surprise and said. "You saw a kind of blue blur in the forest?"
(Yeah.) He said. (I saw you out riding when I spotted something between the branches.)
"Yeah I saw it too." She said. "At first I thought it was Ax, but no one came out."
(Yeah I thought it was Ax too, but it was moving too fast to be Ax.)
"Could it be another Garatron?" Asked Rachel.
"Oh god not another one." Complained Marco. "Last time we faced one, we had a lucky break when I bit him as a snake."
(It could be.) Said Ax. (But since we are speaking of strange things in the forest I have something to report as well.)
We all looked at him and he continued. (In the forest I had found some very strange tracks.) He explained. (They did not resemble the tracks of a Garatron or any animal that is of this planet.)
"What did they look like?" Asked Cassie.
(They were spherical.) He said. (That is what I found strange about them. At first I thought that they had been artificially made but they were too irregular to be made by something mechanical.)
"Just like a ball shaped gouge in the dirt?" asked Rachel. Ax nodded.
I started to think. What could make those kind of tracks? This is bad. If the Yeerks have something in the forest looking for us or who they think we are, the Andalite Bandits, then we are in serious trouble.
"There is nothing on Earth that makes those kind of tracks." Said Cassie.
"Maybe the Yeerks have infested a new species?" Suggested Rachel.
"Maybe." I said.
"So what are we gonna do, oh great leader?" Said Marco sarcastically.
I thought about it. Then said. "Alright, here's what we're gonna do."
I looked up at Tobias. "Tobias, we're gonna need to do some surveillance in the forest." I said. "Could you show us where you saw the blue blur?"
(Sure I can.)
"We'll survey the area around where he saw the blur for about 10 miles. It might come back to where he saw it." I continued. "We're going to take turns in pairing up with Ax and survey the area. In other words typical surveillance."
"Tobias, you will search the other parts of the forest and see if you can find anything that might tell us what the Yeerks are up to."
I looked over at Cassie. "Cassie, how big is the forest?"
She thought about it for a while. "Really big. Even if all of us did search the forest all day and each of us went out alone to cover more ground it would take us a couple of months to thoroughly cover the entire forest."
"Sounds good." Said Rachel.
"So what are we gonna do now?" Asked Marco.
"Morph birds and Tobias will show us where he saw the blue blur."
We all got ready and morphed. Tobias left the rafters while we got ready, soon enough we were all in the air.
As it turned out there were two places where Tobias saw the blue blur, but they were pretty close to each other so it didn't matter.
We all paired up and flew around searching the area to see if that blue blur would come back again. Sadly no such luck. We searched for the rest of the day and we came up with nothing.
Tired from flying, morphing and demorphing all day. We decided that we were going to start the surveillance of the area tomorrow. I drew the short straw and was first to go.
The next day I left the house early and left a note saying that I was going to be out all day.
I opened my window and quickly morphed bird. I took off on the cool morning air.
I was at Ax's scoop after a while I was almost at the limit. I landed and demorphed when Ax saw me.
"Morning Ax." I said.
(Good morning Prince Jake.) He said.
"Ready for a full day of flying around and looking for something that wants to kill us?"
(Yes, Prince Jake.)
We morphed and took off to where Tobias showed us. Neither of us talked while we did the surveillance since what we were looking for was a blur it would get away from sight pretty quickly.
Ax and I watched over the entire area for the whole day, only stopping to refresh our morph time and eat some food.
Later in the afternoon we went back to his scoop where Tobias met up with us.
(Hey Jake.) He said.
"Hey Tobias. Found anything?" I asked after I demorphed.
(Nothing yet.) He said.
"Yeah, well it's only the first day." I said.
(Hope we find this thing soon. I don't wanna spend the next month flying over the forest searching for Yeerk activity.)
"Me too." I said and I morphed and flew back home.
The next couple of days and there was still nothing. My plan was that if we didn't find anything in over a month or two then we would stop the surveillance.
Me and Marco had started hanging out with Ben a lot more. He was really easy to get along with and already we were pretty close.
He'd sometimes sit with us during lunch period. We joked, talked, complained about the food, normal stuff.
We'd sometimes see him with different groups of people, some of them we knew were controllers. There was even a time when he asked about the Sharing.
"Hey guys are you members of the Sharing?" Asked Ben.
At first I was surprised that he asked the question. Then I thought about it. He is the new kid. Really athletic and nice, if he wanted to he can be really popular around school. "No we aren't" I said. "Why? Are you?"
He shook his head. "No, I'm just asking. It's just so many people keep saying. "Join the Sharing it's fun!" I mean it sounds fun and all, but the way they keep pushing me to join. It makes me wanna avoid them."
You know, I was kinda glad that Ben didn't join the Sharing. He was a cool guy and I'd hate to see the Yeerks infest him. Like they did my brother.
"I know what you mean." Said Marco. "Jake's brother, Tom is a member and he keeps telling us to join."
"Yeah, well I don't think I'm gonna join the Sharing anytime soon." Said Ben.
"Yeah me too." I muttered under my breath. I never wanted to join the organization that supported the Yeerks.
Soon enough it was my turn again to go fly around with Ax watching for the blur that Cassie and Tobias saw.
It had only been a few days after we found out about the strange blue blur in the forest. So the chance that we would find it again were pretty good.
It was getting dark and I was waiting for Tobias to come and report about what he found in the forest so far at Ax's scoop. Ax had left to go graze and I sat waiting in the shade of the scoop watching the sun through the trees.
Then I heard a screech and Tobias landed on a branch close by.
"Anything, Tobias?" I asked him.
He looked winded, his feathers were ruffled and it took him a while to answer. (Yeah Jake, I found something.)
I quickly stood up not believing our luck. "What did you find?" I asked him. "A camp? A ship? Where did you find it?"
He took a while to answer and he said. (It's something really freaky.) He said. (I can't really describe what I saw. But I can show you where it is.)
I shook my head at him. "No I gotta be heading back home. I'll tell the others that you found something and that we will meet here tomorrow after school."
(Alright Jake.) He said before taking off.
The next day, we were all back at Ax's scoop.
Ax was busy fiddling with some project. Tobias was preening his feathers on a branch. Rachel and Cassie were looking over some baby hedgehogs in a burrow by a tree.
Marco was the last to arrive.
"Finally." I said. "What took you so long?" I asked him.
"My dad made me finish my homework, okay." He said defensively.
"Typical Marco." Said Rachel standing up from the burrow.
"Alright guys, morph and come on." I said then looked up at Tobias' perch. "Show us what you found yesterday."
Tobias brought us to a large field where I saw what he meant by not being able to describe it.
The field was totally messed up. The ground was gouged out in places. Large patches of grass were burned. Several trees were torn apart. And on the far end of the field were giant chunks of some kind of crystal.
(Oh my god.) I heard Cassie say in shock.
(Yeah, that was my first reaction too.) Said Tobias.
We all landed on the edge of the field and demorphed. We were all speechless at what could have happened to the field.
It was one thing to look at it from above and another to see it from the ground. The chunks of crystals were a lot bigger than I thought.
"Whoa." I heard Marco say.
Whoa was right. "What could have done this?" I asked Ax.
He seemed to be at a loss for words as well. (I. . . I do not know Prince Jake. There is no species of alien that I am aware of that can do this kind of destruction.)
I looked down at the burnt patches of grass. They were spread out and reminded me of, of something. Then it hit me, they reminded me of footprints at the beach.
"Ax do you know any species that leaves a trail of burnt footprints?" I asked him, pointing to the burnt patches of grass.
(That sounds impossible Prince Jake. Although there are creatures that do thrive in extreme temperatures or give off such. I am not aware of any that can leave these kind of tracks.) He sounded concerned. (But if the Yeerks had found such a creature I doubt that they would be able to use them as a host as they would die from the heat.)
I nodded at that. It would be bad if we had to fight something that left a fiery trail. Then I heard a shriek and I snapped my head towards Rachel. Apparently she had slipped on something green, slimy, and smelled like raw sewage. Marco was laughing his head off and kept as far away from Rachel as possible. Ax was intrigued by the slime, even though it smelled horrible. He picked some up using his tail taking a closer look at it.
I walked over with Marco over to the largest chunk of crystal. It was over 8 feet tall and 3 feet thick and had a opaque light blue-green color. I rapped it with a knuckle. It was solid. Marco picked up a rock and bashed it against the crystal. He barely made a scratch.
Ax trotted over to us, finished looking at the slime. He watched Marco hit the crystal again with the rock, again not a scratch.
(Prince Jake, Marco. Step back please.) He said as he got his tail ready.
We moved back giving him some room and he struck the crystal. It made a dull thud and his tail blade made a long thin scratch on it. I was getting used to seeing Andalite facial expressions and I saw that Ax frowned and struck the crystal again. He hit the exact same spot as last time and he embedded the tip of his tail blade in the crystal. Tugging it out he walked closer to take a better look.
"Do you know what it is?" Asked Marco.
(No, I haven't seen anything like this before.) He put a hand on it feeling its smooth surface. (It is very hard.)
I heard a flutter of wings and Tobias landed on the top of the crystal. (Hey guys, look over at those trees.) He said gesturing with his wing over at the edge of the field.
Me, Marco, and Ax followed Tobias and he showed us what he meant. There was dozens and dozens of smaller crystals embedded in the trees. They were the exact same kind of crystal as the large ones. I took one and tried to tug it out of the tree. It wouldn't budge. Ax used his tail to chip away at the wood around the crystal and it came out easily.
It was quite big, it was about 6 inches long and an inch thick.
Marco whistled and said. "Damn, I wouldn't wanna get hit by one of those."
"Yeah." I agreed.
Ax fingered the crystal curiously feeling the sharp tip.
After a while I walked over to one of the trenches in the dirt. Watching my step for any more puddles of slime. They were shallow and rounded. I wondered what could have made them.
Then Ax called out to me. (Prince Jake?)
I turned around and asked. "Yeah. Ax?"
(Come over here.)
I walked over to where he was standing and pointed at a bunch of tracks. They looked like some little kid had a ball and was making shapes in the dirt.
"Are these the kind of tracks you saw?" I asked him.
(Yes, Prince Jake.) He answered. (They are very strange.)
Soon enough we had to leave. We all morphed and headed back to Ax's scoop and discuss and plan what was going to be our next move.
"I'm glad that we didn't need to spend too much time out flying around the forest." Said Cassie
"Yeah I have better things to do." Said Marco.
"Yeah, like what?" Asked Rachel.
"Like getting a girlfriend." He said with a straight face.
Rachel snorted. "As if a midget like you could get a girlfriend!"
"Yeah we were lucky." I said breaking up Marco and Rachel's argument before it started.
"Now we gotta keep watch for anything that happens over at that field." I said. "It will be the same routine we did for surveillance at the sightings."
"Only this time." I continued. "Tobias will be the one who will keep watch at the field while we scout around the area looking for more signs of whatever that thing is."
Marco groaned. "Great, so even when we found something we still have to fly around the forest."
"Shut up Marco." Said Rachel.
"We will sweep around the area for about five miles out. That should be large enough for us to find signs of anything."
"Like what?" Asked Cassie.
(Signs of bug fighters or ships landing and taking off in the middle of the forest.) Ax spoke up. (There were no signs of any ships landing or taking off at the field so we may assume that they do it from a distance.) He explained.
"I agree." I said. "They are probably landing in another field or have a kind of camp deeper in the forest. Whatever that thing is, the Yeerks are testing it out in the forest and are probably looking for us."
"Maybe we could ask Erek if they Yeerks have anything planned?" Asked Cassie.
"Yeah I'll ask him about it." I said absentmindedly.
I wouldn't want to meet whatever made that much damage in that field.
Authors Notes: Hello! I am moving the plot a bit more forward now (Hooray!). How did I do Jake this time? was he more IC? Or do i need to work on him a bit more? Tell me and give me pointers!
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