Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10
Chapter 10: Meeting
Cassie's POV
"Bring! Bring! Bring!"
I picked up the phone. "Hello? _ residence."
"Morning Cassie." It was Jake.
"Morning Jake. What's up?"
"Are your parents out today?"
"Yeah they just left. Mom went to the Gardens and dad went to a convention."
"Great. We need to have a meeting."
"Sure." I nodded.
"I'll call the others, alright?"
"Yeah."
"See you later then."
"Bye, Jake."
Everyone came up at the barn and we were waiting on Ax and Tobias. Jake and Marco were there first and Rachel came a little later.
When we heard a screech, Tobias flew in. They were followed by the sound of hooves and Ax came into view.
I was wondering what this meeting was going to be about. We never discussed plans over the phone. Who knows who might be listening.
"Alright." I heard Jake say getting all of our attention. "Tobias told me that he saw something in the forest earlier this week." He 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.
I was surprised when he said a blue blur. I asked him "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." I 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?" I asked him.
(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.
"There is nothing on Earth that makes those kind of tracks." I said.
"Maybe the Yeerks have infested a new species?" Suggested Rachel.
"Maybe." Said Jake.
"So what are we gonna do, oh great leader?" Said Marco sarcastically.
Jake was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then said. "Alright, here's what we're gonna do." He looked up at the rafters where Tobias was perched. "Tobias, we're gonna need to do some surveillance in the forest. 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. 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."
Then he asked me. "Cassie, how big is the forest?"
I thought about it. Trying to remember how large the forest was. I tried putting it into numbers, but i couldn't remember exactly. "Really big." I said. "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 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 morphed and followed Tobias to the site. It was difficult recognizing it from the air, but I knew that it was the spot.
Jake said that we should search the area in case what me and Tobias saw might come back.
Well, we weren't lucky. We searched for the rest for the day and didn't find anything.
On the day I did my surveillance. Me and Ax didn't find anything. Which didn't surprise me since things never happened like we wanted them to. This was going to be a waiting game.
But surprisingly only after only four days Tobias had found something. I wasn't expecting that he would find something at all, let alone so soon. Whenever we would find out something about the Yeerks it would be by pure luck. I guess this is one of those times when we got lucky.
Jake called us the day after it was his turn to survey the area and told us that Tobias had discovered something.
Me, Rachel, Jake, and Tobias were all waiting for Marco in Ax's scoop.
Me and Rachel were watching over bunch of baby hedgehogs that had somehow gotten out of their burrow. They were crawling over twigs and leaves. Making barely audible squeaks which was adorable.
We heard Marco say. "My dad made me finish my homework, okay."
Rachel stood up. "Typical midget."
"Alright guys, morph and come on." I heard Jake say.
We followed Tobias to where he had found something. We didn't have any discussion at all about the place. Jake just told us to move out.
We eventually flew over a field and looked down thinking that this was it. Unfortunately I was right.
(Oh my god.) I said in shock at the field below.
The field was huge, about a hundred yards across. It was a shocking sight. There were whole trees, uprooted and broken to pieces. At one end of the large field was what looked like a giant crystal that had broken into huge chunks. There were tracks of what looked like a huge smooth tire had rolled over soft dirt. It left distinguishing marks around the field. There were large patches of grass that look like they had been burned like tiny campfires.
(Yeah that was my first reaction too.) said Tobias.
We landed at the edge of the field. We were all in out morphing outfits. We looked over at the field. From the air, the destruction was scattered and seemed small. But from the ground, it looked a lot worse.
We walked around the field, splitting up to cover more ground. Me and Rachel were off looking at the tracks in the dirt. I was looking over at it when Rachel shrieked next to me. I looked over at her and smelled something horrible, like raw sewage. I could hear Marco laughing his head off. I looked at Rachel and she had slipped on some kind of green slime. I helped her up and she tried to wipe the slime off her foot, but the smell was still there.
Ax came over to where we were and looked at the puddle of slime curiously, picking some up with his tail blade.
Me and Rachel walked over to the bunch of trees that had been piled up in a haphazard way. We watched our step, since we were barefoot. I could hear Rachel muttering under her breath wishing that morphing could at least give us shoes along with the morphing suit. I smiled.
The trees were huge. Most of them were four feet thick and almost a hundred feet tall. We could see roots that were torn and dirt still attached to the tree. I looked over at the edge of the field and saw a bunch of darker impressions in the ground. I pointed them out to Rachel and we walked over. It looked like the spot that the trees used to be and someone tried filling them back in.
We looked over at the giant crystal at the far end of the field. Jake and Marco were examining it. In the light it had a blue-green color. At first I thought it was a kind of blue, but bird eyes aren't that good with color.
I looked up to the sky and could see Tobias circling the field looking for signs of Yeerks and ready to warn us at a moment's notice.
We heard a sharp crack. Me and Rachel turned and saw Marco hitting the crystal with a rock.
Rachel nudged me with he elbow saying. "Looks like Marco is evolving." I giggled, while she laughed.
We headed back to Ax's scoop after a while to plan our next move.
"I'm glad that we didn't need to spend too much time out flying around the forest." I said
"Yeah I have better things to do." Said Marco.
"Yeah, like what?" Asked Rachel.
"Like getting a girlfriend." He said chin tilted up.
Rachel snorted. "As if a midget like you could get a girlfriend!"
"Yeah we were lucky." Said Jake breaking them up. "Now we gotta keep watch for anything that happens over at that field. It will be the same routine we did for surveillance at the sightings. Only this time." He 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?" I asked him.
(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. 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?" I suggested..
"Yeah I'll ask him about it."
We morphed birds and we flew back to our homes before it got too dark.
I entered the barn and put on my clothes. Luckily my dad was watching TV in the house and my mom was making dinner. When I got in the house my dad greeted me from the couch.
"Cassie, is that you?" He called out.
"Yeah dad." I answered.
"Cassie, go and wash up. Dinner's gonna be ready soon." My mom called from the kitchen.
I headed to the bathroom and washed up before heading to the dining room.
My dad was sitting in his usual spot and my mom was bringing in the pot. Beef stew by the smell of it. I helped my mom get the bread and ladle the stew into bowls. We ate silently for a while when my dad spoke up.
"Cassie, I heard that there's a new boy in school."
My mom perked up. "Oh is that true Cassie?" She asked.
"Yeah, there is." I said. I always felt uncomfortable whenever my parents bring up the topic about boys and dating. It's always an embarrassing subject even though we're alone.
"Is he nice?" My mom asked.
"What's his name?" Asked my dad.
"His name is Benjamin Tennyson and yes he is nice." I said, not liking where this is going.
"Is he cute?" My mom asked me. I knew that this was coming.
I chewed my spoonful of stew slowly before answering. "I'm not sure, but Rachel thinks he is."
"Is he new in town?" My dad asked this time.
"Yeah I think he just moved in."
My mom looked happy at this. "Has he been to the Gardens yet?" She asked.
"No he said he hasn't."
"Why didn't you invite to show him around?"
"I did invite to show him around the Gardens last weekend, but he said he was busy."
"Well the next time you see him ask when he is free so you and Rachel can show him around." She said smiling.
"Alright mom."
Ben started hanging out with us more often. I've seen him talking with a lot of kids at school. I guess we are like closer friends to him. Well he's buddies with Jake and Marco. Boys.
Rachel seems to act differently whenever Ben is around. I'm not sure what it's about between them. It's a slight change, but me and Rachel are best friends and I know when something is different. She's never talked about Ben with me, but she would open up eventually.
"Hey guys." Said Benjamin as he sat next to Jake and Marco.
Hey." Said Jake.
He looked exhausted and almost seemed to collapse on the seat.
"What's wrong with you man?" Asked Marco
"I'm tired Marco." He pushed his tray away and rested his head in the table.
"You look it." Said Rachel.
"What's happened?" I asked him.
He sighed and looked up at me. "Ever since monday there are like over fifteen different teams that want me to tryout and join them."
"I don't see the problem."
He put his head back on the table with an audible thump. "They won't take no for an answer." He said. "So here I am going from practice to practice every afternoon, doing tryouts for teams that I don't even wanna join."
"Why don't you just do badly in front of their coach?" Asked Jake
"I can't do that!" He said facing Jake. "It's not like I haven't tried, but I just can't pretend to do stuff badly." He shrugged. "Force of habit, I guess."
"Which teams asked you to join?" Jake asked.
"Practically everyone." He said putting his head down again. "The soccer team, baseball, football, track and field, and swimming to name a bunch."
"Wow and they all asked you to join?" I asked him.
"Yeah, pretty much. And they're all bribing me trying to win me over with promises for a college scholarship or the National team or something like that. But I'm really bad at baseball so I don't need to worry about them."
"What sports do you play anyway?" I asked. "Jake plays basketball."
"I tried out baseball when I was ten, I sucked. Then I tried out soccer and stuck with it. I was goalkeeper."
"Why don't you join the soccer team then?" Asked Rachel.
"I don't want to. . ."
After school I headed straight home. It was my turn to go with Ax and scan the forest for any Yeerk signs.
I changed in the barn and morphed bird and headed out to Ax's scoop.
We headed of to the field. We saw Tobias perched on a branch. We said hello and went off to search the area. The main reason we always pair up with is is his uncanny internal clock. It helps to make sure that we don't go past the morphing time limit.
We kept close to the field and made sure that we thoroughly searched the area nearby before heading out further.
In the afternoon sun. The giant crystal reflected the light, creating a beautiful show of blues and greens in the foliage giving it a dreamlike feel.
Soon our search ended empty handed and I headed home.
When I landed in the barn and demorphed, I didn't feel like spending the rest of the day doing nothing at home. Even though I had just gotten home from a long flight I wanted to go out and fly around.
I quickly decided and looked out the barn. The sun was still up and was pretty bright, but it wouldn't be for long. I morphed my great horned owl and flew off. It was a bit early for owls to be heading out, but it was getting dark and I don't want to head into the night with a bird meant for hunting in the day.
I flew in the late afternoon. There were less thermals at this time of day, which made the flight a bit tiring.
I flew into the town. I estimated that I still had over an hour before I needed to demorph. Soaring over a large soccer field. I could see a bunch of kids in uniform and kicking around the ball as their coach blew his whistle and called out players.
At one end of the field I spotted a familiar brown haired boy. It was Ben. He wore a borrowed uniform and looked extremely bored. He watched the other players as they passed the ball between them. It wasn't like the just stood at the goal, he was ready to go block the ball. I watched him, circling overhead as the players passed the ball and suddenly kick it at the goal. Ben jumped and grabbed the ball before it hit the net.
Ben threw the ball aside and then the coach tossed another ball and this time they spent less time passing the ball between each other and kicked it towards the goal. Again, Ben blocked the ball and threw it back at the players.
This went on for a little while, each ball was blocked by Ben. Some of the saves were spectacular, though I was never much of a soccer fan and couldn't tell which ones were great or easy. The coach blew his whistle and called the team members and Ben. I saw them jostling Ben in a friendly way, probably impressed by his performance. I saw the coach talk with Ben while the rest of the team listened. Their shadows were tall in the setting sun.
The coach was making gestures and patting Ben on the shoulder as they talked. I could see that Ben was smiling and that he was enjoying the conversation. Then the coach's shoulders slumped and so did the rest of the team's. Ben was making more gestures and then one of the team members jostled him around. From what Ben was talking about earlier today, I could guess what they were saying.
They were probably trying to persuade him to join the team.
He had just refused.
They offered him something.
He declined.
They started to beg.
He refused.
I started to leave the field looking for a place to demorph and then head home when something caught my eye. There was someone hiding behind the bleachers. I swooped low trying to get a look and saw that it was Rachel!
She was hiding behind the bleachers watching the soccer practice. Th only reason that they haven't seen her yet was because it was pretty dark an she kept to the shadows of the stands.
I wondered what she was doing. Maybe she was watching Ben do the tryout. But if she was, she would watch him on top of the stands instead of behind and under them. Did she follow Ben to watch him do the tryout?
Me and Rachel may be best friends, but I didn't want to pry. So I flew off finding a spot to demorph before heading home.
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