Author's Note: Sincerely, thank you again to everyone taking the time to review. It's still only a small percentage of the readers, but I don't expect anything else out of the jerks on this site. To those of you that are, I love you and you're awesome. Please continue to motivate my sorry ass!

Chapter 10

Jake thought for a short moment. "What sort of weapons do you have?" he asked the Andalites.

Coloton, or Andy, didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked to his partner. (He is a true leader. He does not want to postulate a plan without knowing what resources he has available.)

"Ahem," Marco coughed. "We're right here."

Andy laughed. (We have several proton charges, like the ones we used to destroy the Yeerk transport. We were also able to salvage two handheld shredders from our ship. Mine is at…72% of full charge,) he reported after checking the meter at the back of the weapon. Tomera reported his to be at about half-charge.

"Okay. Tobias, can you head north? Find us a small clearing? We can lead them into an ambush," Jake asked, and Tobias agreed.

(We have kafit morphs,) Tomera said. (We could simply fly away from here. Destroying two dozen controllers is hardly going to turn the tide of the battle.)

Jake was already shaking his head before Tomera was finished speaking. "They picked up the scent of Andalites, and from what Ax told us, Taxxon trackers won't ever lose the scent once they've got it. We can't take the chance of them picking it up again and following you home." Again, the two Andalites exchanged a glance, and if I was reading it correctly, they were once again impressed. "If you can spare a charge or two, we'll lead them into a minefield and blow them to hell – that ought to keep your backs clear to go home with Ax." Jake looked to us, his human companions. "Guys? Morphs that can travel – wolves, or something like it." He began to morph to tiger again.

Rachel shot me a meaningful glance, one that said she was excited to be able to finally try out our new morphs. A light coat of course, dark blond hair began to cover her, and I focused on the mountain lion morph, myself.

The first thing I noticed is that the shrinking was slight – I thinned out a little, muscle groups rearranged themselves, but I stayed basically the same size. As the joints in my arms and legs reversed and I fell forward to the ground, the world took on a different, duller tone. Colors turned into different shades of mostly grey, white, and black. The vision would be perfect for nighttime, and was far more suited to seeing movement than anything else. The other senses sharpened exponentially – I could locate everyone simply by the sense of smell, and I could hear their heartbeats. The Andalites confused the bobcat's brain – they looked like prey animals, but the tail blades were something the bobcat had never encountered. It wasn't scared of them, but it was definitely wary.

As the long tail stretched out behind me, my sense of balance became solid and automatic. I would be able to walk down steep, rocky declines without any problem at all, and I'd be able to stay silent while I did it. The soft pads on my feet added to the mountain lion's stealth factor – not even dead leaves would crunch under my gentle footsteps. I was low to the ground, powerful, sneaky, and deadly.

(These cats are like ninjas,) Rachel noted. She deftly leapt on top of a nearby pile of rocks and quickly slunk out of sight down the other side, silent as a ghost. (Very, very cool.)

I noticed Marco in timberwolf morph eyeing me. (No fair,) Marco complained. (You guys got panther morphs without me?)

I laughed. (Not panther – bobcat. Or cougar, or mountain lion…you can call them anything, basically, except for a panther. And it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Don't worry, the girl we borrowed the DNA from will be at the center for another month, at least. You can pick up the morph next time you're there,) I promised.

(Sure, if we're not eaten by the Taxxon Hounds of Baskerville, first,) he said, but even Marco had to make the pessimism sound forced.

Just then, the bobcat caught wind of something else, and before I could control it, I spun to face off with Jake. The cougar is a solitary animal, and she definitely did not like having a bigger cat than her around – I instinctively fluffed up to make myself as big as possible and let out a warning Yoooow!

Jake stayed still until I could get my morph under control, which I did quickly. (Sorry, sorry,) I said.

I belatedly noticed the Andalites staring at us with bug-eyes. (Fantastic,) Tomera said, his voice full of wonder. (A much more appropriate form for fighting than the human body.)

(Got what you need,) Tobias said as he shot by overhead. (Two and a half miles north by northeast. The forest thickens into a natural funnel, into a small clearing. The choke point is only big enough for maybe two Taxxons at a time – they'll have to go almost single-file to get in.)

(Perfect,) Jake said. (Andalites in the rear, please – that'll leave the strongest scent in for the Taxxons. Once we hit Tobias' choke point, we'll set the charges and hide out in the clearing. If we don't get them all in the blast, we'll fall on whoever's left and take them out. Questions?) No one had any. (Good. Let's move out.) I took it as a sign of faith that our new Andalite friends simply followed us without any comments.