DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Animorphs, or anything else that doesn't belong to me. I only own this story.
Chapter Eleven: On The Run

MARIK
I woke up on something cold and hard, a low hum filling my ears, and a dull ache ringing in my head. I tried opening one eye, then closed it again – it was pitch black, and I couldn't see a thing. Concentrating, I decided to focus my senses. Regardless of whether I was dog or lion, the animal's hearing and smell would be enough to tell me something about where I was–

And that was when I realized that something was very wrong. My senses were dull – too dull.
Frantically, I tested my voice. "Am I… Oh, no."

My voice rang in the darkness – little more than a whisper, but it was definitely a human voice. I groaned – that could only have meant that Mister Non–Existent had taken me over… again.
"I don't even wanna know what happened this time. He's just way too sick for–" Unfortunately, it was at this point that I sat up – and whacked my head on something hard and metal with a clang. "Owww!" I yelled, falling back and hitting my head on the floor. Immediately, I scrambled to get up again, but there was a sudden weight on my chest that prevented me from doing so.

"Stay still, Yami Marik! Sheesh, dat makes the tenth time!"
"It's me, Marik!"
"Oh… Sah–ry."
A torch clicked on in the darkness, and I shaded my eyes as the teen sitting on my chest shone it in my eyes.
"Hey, I'd like to retain my eyesight! Get that thing out of my face!" I snarled, snatching the torch away from him.
"Watch it, or dat won't be all yer get in da face!" Joey returned, reclaiming the light in one quick movement.
"What did I do wrong this time?"
Silence. Joey looked away.
"C'mon, let me up. This is just awkward." I pleaded, but Joey didn't budge. "Please?"
Silence, then the boy clicked off the torch. "Hey, what are you–"
I was cut off by the jarring impact of a fist meeting my nose.
"AGH!" I lifted a hand to my face, and felt a warm, sticky liquid there.
"Ah've bin wantin' to do dat for iso long now…/i" Joey whispered in my ear, then got off my chest. Slowly, carefully, holding my nose, I bit back the pain and sat up. It was uncomfortable in here – I was cramped between a low metal ceiling, and very hard floor that rumbled under me.
"What was that for?!"
"Ah don't like ya, ya bastard!"

How dare he! My hands automatically curled into fists, and I wanted to punch the blonde and cry at the same time. Normally, I could have brushed it off, but now? I had no clue where I was, it was dark, I felt exhausted, I'd just banged my head, and now my face had been beaten in! I reached for the Rod – this time, I'd brainwash that idiot. And I'd make him jump off a cliff. Or have him get run over by Kaiba's tank. Heck, make him suck up to Kaiba, and force him to remember every single moment of his humiliation! For six weeks!
That'd show him.

"Joey, now's quite frankly not the time!" A different voice, calmer than Joey's, but strained with pain.
"But–"
"Think. Do you really want Yami Marik tearing you apart?"

Slowly, reluctantly, I felt Joey get off my chest… then poke me hard in the ribs. "Demorph."
"Do I have to?" I mumbled. "I don't like being a bloody dog."
"What was that?" the blonde snarled, and I felt powerful hands grip my neck in the darkness. "You don't wanna help us? We need your hearing, dammit! You wanna be selfish and–"
"Joey, cool it!" The new voice came again. "If he doesn't want to–"
"No! Yugi could be in danger, and this idiot is–"
"All right, all right! I'll demorph!" I complained, and concentrated, fur crawling up my neck and over my shoulders. Joey immediately released his grip.

Remembering countless falls from attempting to demorph whilst in anything other than a crawling position, I maneuvered onto all fours as best I could, legs already itching from the fur growing up them. I couldn't see in the dark, which was a small relief – I wanted to pretend that I was still human, at least for a little longer, and the hum of the engine was drowning out all the usual bone–crunching and gut–moving noises that morphing made. I closed my eyes in bliss. Being a dog was all very well and good, but to be honest, I really did prefer being human. Two hours was too short, sometimes…

But the pretence didn't last for long – the changes were getting harder to ignore. After the fur had seemingly finished growing down my chest and up my legs, it stopped. My ears were the first real part of my humanity to disappear after that, and the morph played out so that within the first forty seconds of the changes beginning – click. On came the ears.

One of the best things about being a dog? The hearing. Man, it was spectacular. I mean, my pathetic human ears could only really tell that there were slight vibrations under me – and I'd had to strain to tell that over the hum of the engine.

But I could hear now that the vibrations under me were being caused by the gears of an engine, and by wheels – or perhaps tracks – moving over tarmac. Heck, I could hear some idiot tooting his horn outside, and a dog barking, and someone's labored breathing coming from the corner of the tank. It was incredible!

Unfortunately, I also had a very, very clear idea of what was happening to my body. For instance, I could hear, in perfect quality, the noises my spine made as, vertebra by vertebra, it started to stretch into a tail – the sloshing of organs as they reconfigured themselves into better positions, the noises my hands made as the bones in the fingers thinned, then dissolved altogether.
Yes, it was absolutely disgusting to listen to. What tipped you off?

I was about mid–demorphed when Joey decided to click the torch back on, pointing it around the place I'd ended up in. It looked like it was just the three of us – the blonde resting his back against a wall, and Tristan slouched in one corner trying to look tough, despite the fact that he was evidently close to passing out, and no–one else in sight.

For some bizarre reason, my head hadn't really changed yet – beyond some patches of fur spreading up my cheeks, and my nose flattening into a wet, black one – and I was still capable of human speech. I decided it was best not to look at the rest of my body (judging by the expressions of Joey and Tristan, I highly doubted that it was a pretty sight), and made conversation instead.
"What's going on? Where are we?" I demanded.
"In a mess, that's where!" Tristan muttered under his breath, then to Joey: "Joey, turn off the light, will you? I could really do without being given nightmares for the next six weeks."
I raised one eyebrow. "You know, I couldsccchhhrrrrr…"

My vocal chords decided that now would be an excellent time to drop out on me, and the rest of my words were lost in a canine growl. Joey obligingly turned off the torch, and I waited another minute, listening to the cracks and snaps of bones, the thumping of my new tail on the metal floor, and trying not to scratch my gums as new teeth grew and multiplied in my mouth. My spine snapped, and centre of balance abruptly shifted, as I became more dog than human. A series of cracking noises came from my legs, and I felt no longer cramped, comfortably standing on all fours now…

A dull scraping noise from deep inside my skull, and my face shifted outwards into a canine snout, fur rushing over my head and replacing my hair. Finally, I could use thought–speak.
–{Tristan? I could really do without being given nightmares for the next six weeks, too – it still doesn't answer my question. So, tell me now… where am I? How did I get here? And also, do you have a ball?}–That last question hadn't meant to come out – but the dog mind had bubbled up inside mine once again, and it wanted to play.

A few final cracks echoed in the long silence, before Joey replied to me, his voice oddly detached. "We're in da underbelly of Kaiba's ego–strokin' tank – an' it's prob'ly not da right time ta be wantin' ta play, Marik… "He switched the torch back on, and I looked around.
–{How'd I get here? I don't remember anything after I got shot in the leg.}– I glanced around.
–{And where's Ryo, and Duke, and Yugi? Heck, where's Kaiba?}–
The blonde snarled with impatience. "Are ya deaf? Use yer hearin'! We need ta find da others!"

I focused my ears, turning them this way and that; but I didn't hear any voices.
–{No, I can't hear anyone…}–
A sudden thought hit me. –{Why didn't either of you bother morphing dogs, or something with better hearing? You both can, after all.}–
Tristan laughed. "Yes, but we've been trying to restrain Yami Marik the whole time. If one of us had morphed, he probably would have as well."
–{Okay, let's try a different question: How did I get in here, anyway? Last I was conscious, I was a lion and shot through the leg. Bleeding heavily, if I remember rightly.}–
"Well, Yami Marik got you through. You know how he loves pain, so he remained conscious… but then… uh… he got a little… shall we say, excited… and…well…"
"Put it this way: Kaiba won't be happy when he wakes up."
–{Remind me again: Why would that be?}–
Joey coughed. "Well. Yami Marik caused… ah bit of troubl'..."
"And when he says 'a bit', he means 'a lot'…"
"Which would be why Yugi threw you in here with us. He'd hav' taken care of Yami Marik himself, but… well, he's got… other thingies on 'is mind."
–{Such as?}–

Tristan answered that one with a grin. "Such as trying to outrun a convoy of vans– and possibly several helicopters as well – in a tank. Whilst steering the wrong way, at high speed through heavy traffic, I might add."
–{Not like Kaiba to let Yugi do something like that, though. I mean, he doesn't do dangerous things.}–
Joey smirked. "Aside from dat one time wit' teh motorbike, y'mean…"
"Or the time he jumped out the window of his office…" Tristan continued.
"Or the time he attacked dat thug wiffa tradin' card in the helicopter, and wouldn't shut up about it…"
"Or the other time he did that…"
"Or–"
–{OK, so he does do reckless things. But still: How did we end up in this situation? What went wrong?}–

Tristan looked pained "Well. Kaiba was out cold the whole time, and Yami Marik… can't really drive a tank. And he was acting really weird. I mean, weirder than usual - like he was drunk or something. I think your pain was doing that – he hadn't bothered to demorph, and he was losing blood. So, he was half–conscious, and a lion as well… though he did demorph, later on in proceedings… and went human at some point… and then he was somehow managing to commandeer the tank, and trying to outrun Anzu… and sort of… well…"
"Flatten'd parta Kaiba's mansion, end'd up onda freeway, an' we nearly all got kill'd. Yugi came 'round den." Joey finished, with characteristic bluntness.
"And he definitely wasn't happy."
–{Thankyou, Captain Obvious.}–
"You're welcome."

Joey fidgeted. "So, are we gettin' outta here or not?"
Tristan winced as he tried to move. "Yeah. Just… Gimme a moment. I need to rest, and Marik's been through a lot today."
For once, the blonde wasn't about to be stupid. "Awright, den." He smiled at Tristan. "Guess ah'm tired, too."
The brunette snorted. "Idiot. You never know when to stop."
A sly smile. "That'd be why ah've got ya, right?"
"Yup. I'm the one that saves your butt."

I was impatient – and a little jealous, too. I mean, they both had each other, Yugi and Duke as well – even Ryo, to an extent. At any rate, they'd all known each other far longer than I'd ever known them (which would be about nine weeks now) – and let's face it, I tortured them when they first showed up, and they'd fought me. Ultimately, I was in their little club because of… unfortunate circumstances.

I fumed. Not long ago, I could have said that I had one friend – Odion, who was like a brother to me – but now, I'd lost even him. Everyone except five equally idiotic teenagers thought I was dead now – and I hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Odion! I was a human, but forced to become a dog every two hours – and my funeral was going to be held next Tuesday.
They had each other…
I had no–one.

I thought–coughed.–{Sorry to interrupt your little heart–to–heart, but can we move on? We need to at least get out of here.}–They both blinked, startled – they'd forgotten that I was there.
–{Good. Glad you realize that.}– I 'said' coldly, and Joey glared daggers at me.
Tristan reacted with shame – he hung his head. "Marik, I'm sorry–"
–{It's fine.}–
"It's not."
–{Fine, it isn't! We need to get out of here! Can't you see that?}– I reined in a sudden burst of fury – but only just.

C'mon, c'mon. Give in, tear out their throats! You know you want to!
Shut up!
I shoved Yami Marik away, quelling my rage as fast as I possibly could. He was not forcibly taking me over again!

Tristan paused an instant, prepared to say something – then I distinctly heard Yugi yelling at the top of his lungs.
"GET DOWN!"
–{Get down, both of you!}–

All three of us dropped on our stomachs, braced ourselves – and there was a loud ibang/i. The whole room spun, and I guessed that the tank had rolled over. Bushes and branches snapped in my hearing, and then there was a dull iclunk/i, as we miraculously landed the right way up.

The tank's engine coughed and spluttered to start, and then Yugi was yelling again.
"Guys! We need to get out of here!"

I groaned – Tristan had ended up on top of me. "We'll have to talk about this later", he whispered, getting off me.
–{Later.}–
"So, whaddawe gonna do now?" Joey wondered, rubbing his wrist and wincing.
–{Step One: Check to see who's actually in here with us. Step Two: Get out of the tank. Save Kaiba, if we have to. He might not need saving, if he's already out.}–
Tristan's brow furrowed – then he yawned. "So… Step One. How do we do that?"
I thought about it for a moment. –{Joey, stay as you are. Tristan, morph wolf.}–
"Why wolf?"
–{Because I'd say that wolves have better hearing than dogs.}–
"An' why don't I get to morph?"
–{You don't have a wolf morph.}–
"Hmph."
"Remind me again… How are we going tomanage Step Two?" Tristan wondered.
–{Well… We'll just have to see about that when we get to it. I'm making this up as I go along.}–
He snorted. "Typical."
Tristan shrugged, sending Joey a warning look. "Better than nothing."He closed his eyes to concentrate, and the blonde turned off the torch again.

After about a minute, Tristan's bones started to make some seriously nasty noises. I winced at a particularly loud snap, thinking of the time I'd broken a guy's neck using my Rod – it had made a noise exactly like that.
Joey giggled, then apologized instantly. "Sorry… Jus' sounds sah…freaky in teh dark, dat's all."
–{You have no idea how freaky it feels. I mean, I can feel myself changing, I can hear it, but I can't see it.}–

Two minutes of nightmare noises later, and Tristan's voice came into my head: –{Okay, I reckon I'm done.}–
"What do you hear?"
A pause.
–{Hmm… Sounds like Kaiba and… I don't recognize that voice. Kaiba's trying to get that bloke to explain Anzu to him, and just about everything else as well.}–
–{Actually, I heard Yugi shout at us before, to get down. It's probably him in morph}–, I replied coolly.
"Yug'?" That made Joey sit up, and turn the torch back on again – miraculously, it was still working.
The wolf nodded. –{That sounds like the most likely explanation.}–
Whaddawe waiting for, den?! He could be in danger! Look, I morph rhino, then we just rip open the door and–"
–{No. Think.}– I didn't want to rush headlong into this, but Joey obviously had other ideas.
"Think? Think?! Dere's no time!"
–{What if Kaiba sees us?}–
"Who gives a–"
The wolf let out a warning snarl. –{Quiet, both of you! I need to listen!}–

We both shut up – but sadly, the news wasn't good at all.
–{Bad news. Kaiba's woken up, and he's coming down to interrogate us now. Whoever's up there is refusing to talk, and Anzu's people are probably going to catch up with us sooner or later.}–
–{How'd he know we were down here?}–
–{Kaiba had thermal sensors installed down here, so he can tell if there's been any stowaways.}–
"So, now what?"
–{I say we freak him out – we've got nothing to lose, after all. Joey? Start morphing to dog – just hide behind Tristan, until you're not recognizable as Joey anymore.}–
The wolf smirked as best as it could. –{Scaring Kaiba? Oh, you are evil!}–
I grinned a doggy grin in reply. –{I know.}–
Joey laughed, and turned off the torch. "Y'know, ah reckon ah might like this plan… Awright, ah'll start."
"Start what?"

Heels clicked on metal, and Seto Kaiba strode into the room.
"Who's down here? What's going on?"
THUNK!
"Ah! Stupid low doorway!"

There was a loud crack from behind me, and I heard Kaiba's breathing speed up. "What was that?"
Tristan growled, and the CEO hesitated an instant before he laughed. "Very funny." Material rustled. "I know what you're trying to do – but Seto Kaiba doesn't scare easily! You're out of luck – because!"

A light flicked on, and I blinked, trying to adjust. Kaiba was crouched in the low doorway, triumphantly holding a torch. "Aha, where's your prank no–"
He stopped when he saw Tristan.
"What on earth?"

There was another series of cracks and crunches, and Tristan raised the volume of his growling. I joined in, and Kaiba started backing away. "There's… there's a wolf down here." He gulped. "And… that's not all…" He snarled a challenge into the darkness. "You! What's going on?"
There was another loud crack, and I heard Joey growl.
–{Awright, ah'm nearly done. Migh' as well geddout.}–
I would have smirked, if I hadn't been growling myself, and if I'd had a human mouth to smirk with. –{So, here's a new Step One: Terrify Kaiba into letting us out.}–
–{That's simple enough.}– Tristan replied.

Joey growled loudly, I let rip with a savage snarl, and Tristan took a single pawstep forwards.
"All right! I'm going! I'm going!"

He tried to slam the door shut on us – but Tristan lunged, wedging himself in the gap. Seto's boot lashed out, catching the wolf in the side – and I launched myself over the wolf's back, right at the CEO's face. My jaws found Seto's nose, and instantly the teen reeled back with a yell, tripping over Joey as he staggered about blindly. I didn't hang around to watch – as soon as I hit the floor, I was up and running again, claws scrabbling madly for grip on the smooth metal floor.
–{Go, go, go!}–
"STOP THEM!" Seto bawled, seemingly forgetting in the heat of the moment that he didn't actually have anyone with him.

–{Come on!}– Joey roared, and a Golden Retriever blew straight past me as I struggled for traction, followed by a wolf moments later.
"What's going on down there?" Yugi called down, and Joey put on an extra turn of speed.
–{Yug'! Ah'm coming!}–
–{Hey, wait for me!}–

We bolted down the short passageway, and found a ladder at the end, leading to a trapdoor. Another three minutes, and two teens scaled the ladder as fast as possible, climbing into the cabin. Joey didn't climb up right away – he waited for Kaiba, calmly knocking the CEO out in the dark, before climbing up himself. Once Joey was out, I locked and bolted the trapdoor down, just in case Kaiba woke up – only then did I look around.

Given the cramped underbelly, the cabin was surprisingly spacious for a tank – more like a room than a real tank's cabin. Then again, it was Seto Kaiba's tank – so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Sunlight filtered through an open hatch in the top – from what I could see, we'd crashed into a large tree that was leaning against someone's back fence.
"Oh, great – so we ran someone else's house over, too."
"Yug'!"
"Joey!"
I pointed to the sky above. "Visser Three!"

That killed the little reunion pretty quickly, as they all looked up to watch the ominous black spaceship fly overhead. The Yeerks hadn't spotted us yet – so hopefully, we could get away from the tank before they found it.

"Did Kaiba see you?" Tristan asked urgently. "If the Yeerks were to infest Kaiba, they might-"
"No, he didn't." Yugi's features blurred for a moment, and he grew several inches. "See?"
I blinked – there was now a tall, nondescript man standing in front of me right in the spot where Yugi had been. He shrugged, and shrank back into a short teenager."Kaiba thinks it's just a bunch of thugs who took over his tank."
"So, uh… Now what?" Tristan wondered, and all eyes instantly went on Yugi.
"Now? We get out of here. No birds, though – they'd spot us, start shooting."
" I'd say dogs for you three – I'll go with ferret."
"You acquired a ferret?"
"Well, my granddad has one..."
"And why exactly would your granddad have a ferret?"
"Well, he uses it to test out the mazes."
"He what?!"
"Let's just morph, shall we?"
Which is exactly what we proceeded to do.

Anyone watching would never have believed it – a Golden Retriever carrying a furry rat-thing, a Pharaoh Hound, and a German Shepherd, all jumping out of a Blue Eyes White Dragon shaped tank, only to be pursued by a massive black spaceship twenty seconds later. The thing swooped down on us like some sort of massive bird of prey.
–{Ahaha! Run, foolish Andalites! RUN!}–
TSEEW! The ground near my left front paw was vaporized by a lazer.
–{Dey're shooting!}–
–{What the frig else did you think they were going to do, make you a sandwich?}–
–{There's scaffolding to our left – head that way!}– Yugi yelled. –{They can't see us once we're in there!}–
–{Wow, you think?}–
–{Easy on the sarcasm, Marik!}–
TSEW!
–{Just run!}– Tristan roared.

Somehow, we made it to the scaffolding in a mad dash of lasers and paws, and the spaceship was forced to pull up and away from us.
–{I'll hunt you down! GET THEM!}–
There was a dull thump behind us, then another and another.
–{You know what? I don't even wanna know what that is.}–, I grumbled.
Needless to say, Tristan glanced behind him automatically. –{Not good. They're sending in Hork–Bajir.}–
–{Bladed, six foot tall, bipedal lizards, y'mean?}–
–{Yup.}–
–{Damnit!}–
–{See, I told you I didn't wanna know!}–
Yugi took charge. –{We need to get out of here, and fast. Head for the alleyways – Tristan, you go right, Marik, you go left. Joey and I will go straight ahead. We'll meet you two at Tristan's place, all right?}–
–{Awright, den. Let's scatter!}–

I ran left, out from behind cover. Unfortunately, the spaceship shimmered into existence above me. –{THERE! Get him!}–
TSEW!
I zig–zagged madly across the building site. I needed to find cover, and fast.
But where?
TSEW!
Aha! To my right, I spied neon signs, glass doors… and more importantly, a roof!

I raced for the shopping centre, dodging people as best as I could, trying not to run over small children. A security guard tried to grab at me, but I danced out of reach, running for the glass doors as fast as I could.
"Andalite!" yelled a little old lady, leaping out in front of me. No time to stop – I just put my head down and kept on running.
–{Yaaaaaaahhhh!}–
I crashed straight into the lady, and she went down, her legs shoved out from under her as I went charging across the pavement, somehow still running for those doors.
–{Fools! Get him! I'll kill all of you for this!}–
The doors slid open, and I blew through, dodging shoppers and Controllers alike… until I smelt food.

Chicken, to be precise.

–{FOOOOOOOOD!}– The dog instincts took over control, and I shot over towards the Red Rooster. In one leap, I'd cleared the counter, landing neatly on the other side. The chicken was right there, in a little brown paper bag – so I snatched it and kept on running.
–{Sweet!}–
"Hey, who let the dog–" A staff member came running out of the kitchens, and I slid through the door right before it closed, racing past ovens, scrabbling doors open, and finally bolting into the car park, to hide under a ute from the angry staff.

The smell from the meat was tantalizing, but sadly I still had things to do before I could claim my prize – I mean, I could hear Controllers yelling, staff bawling at each other, Visser Three venting his frustration in my head, and what sounded like the manager of the whole place wailing about what on earth they'd done this time, and didn't they how much a chicken cost these days? Obviously, now wasn't a really good time – they'd come out to the car park sooner or later, and then it would be a dog–hunt. They might even bring the dreaded man with the dog cage, and the treats, and the tranquilizer rifle!

Wisely, I focused one last time – on my eagle. The harder you work for something, the better it is.

Damn, that chicken had better taste good…

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