Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10
Chapter 13: Disbelief
Rachel's POV
Ben started hanging out with us a lot more. In the short time that he's been here, I think that we were is closest friends. I'm happy about that.
We were eating lunch when Ben came over over with a tray, looking like one of us when we just went through a really tough mission. Which was pretty bad.
"Hey guys." He said tiredly, practically falling on the seat.
Hey." Said Jake.
"What's wrong with you man?" Asked Marco
"I'm tired Marco." He said and pushed his tray away and rested his head in the table.
"You look it." I said honestly.
"What's happened?" Asked Cassie.
He looked up at Cassie and said. "Ever since monday there are like over fifteen different teams that want me to tryout and join them."
"I don't see the problem." She said, but I could guess why.
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." I knew it.
"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?" Asked Cassie, surprised by the number of different teams. I was also surprised that he was asked to join by all those teams.
"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?" Asked Cassie. "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." He explained.
"Why don't you join the soccer team then?" I asked, then I could imagine myself cheering at the stands at a soccer game and seeing Ben making a save. I have no idea where that came from, I'm not a sports fan.
"I don't want to. . ." He said.
I said bye to Cassie after class. Today was her turn to fly around the forest. I saw Ben in the hallway talking to some people. There were a bunch of guys talking with him. When he left them they waved and he waved back. He walked towards the doors and when he walked past me, I kinda stepped back into the wall of lockers hugging the books I carried tight, without knowing I did. He didn't seem to notice.
After a while, I calmed down. I put my books back into my locker and headed out. Today I felt like heading to the mall. Even though I was out of money, I'd just did the next best thing, window shopping.
I looked around the mall keeping an eye out for any new lines or shoes or maybe something that would catch my eye. So far, there was this really nice bikini and these great pair of jeans I took note of their price and store. Not much else caught my eye apart from one thing. Its crazy how this keeps happening, but I saw Ben through the corner of my eye. I quickly turned to see if it really was him. Damn it! Why do I always end up catching sight of him? And why do I keep looking at him?
I watched as he left the mall. It was in the middle of the afternoon, why would he leave the mall so early? So my curiosity peaked and I followed him.
I kept my distance as he walked. Hiding behind walls and cars in case he looked back. I kept following him until he reached the local soccer field. There were a bunch of guys who were in uniform and practicing. Their coach blew his whistle as he called out names.
I noticed that the players were the guys that Ben was talking with back at school. I guess they told him where and when to attend the practice.
"Hey!" I heard Ben shout. "Im here!"
The others stopped to take a look and then ran over to Ben. I could barely hear what they were saying. But i could heat the coach's whistle trying to get his team back into practice. I snuck over to the bleachers that looked over the field and I watched them between the seats of the bleachers.
The coached walked over and I could just hear them.
"So, you must be the kid that my team has been talking about."
"Yup, this is Ben." I heard one of the players say.
"Benjamin Tennyson." Said Ben. He shook hands with the coach.
"You're quite the athlete from what the boys have told me." Said the coach. "Have you played soccer before?"
"Yeah, I was the goalkeeper."
"Good, lets see what you got."
"But coach, Ben doesn't have a cleats or anything." Said another player.
"It's fine, anyone wanna lend him some stuff?" Asked the coach to the team.
"I got an extra uniform and cleats, he can borrow a pair of gloves from the stockroom." Said one.
"Alright Ben, get changed and well see what you got."
They walked away from the bleachers and I could see one of them go with Ben to one of the buildings next to the field. The rest of the team and the coach went back to the field and they continued what they were doing. I watched them disinterestedly while Ben was still getting changed.
When Ben got out of the showers he was wearing a different uniform. The others wore t-shirts, while Ben and the other guy wore long-sleeves and glove. The shirt was kinda loose on the other guy, but on Ben, from what i could see it was just a little tight. I could see the shirt strain slightly against his broad shoulders. I still remember that time during PE when I could see his toned body while he was doing pull-ups. I felt a shiver run down my spine.
I watched as they walked over to the coach and they talked a bit more. I was too far away to hear anything. I almost thought about morphing and getting a closer look, but the thought slipped from my mind as I watched him start running around the field for a bit of a warmup. It wasn't as boring as when I was waiting for him to change. I thought about sitting on the bleachers and watching from there, but then I would meet up with Ben. He'd ask why I was here. So i decided against it, i kept watching as Ben ran around the field.
After a while the coach blew his whistle and called back Ben and the other players. They talked for a while and the coach pointed to several players and then to the rest of them. By my count I guessed that they had about 14 people including Ben. 10 of the other players walked to the field while, Ben walked over to the goal. The three who weren't picked sat at the benches and watched the game.
They went back and forth through the field, passing the ball between each other. Ben stood ready at the goal as the ball got close. His arms are spread wide, ready to lunge and catch the incoming ball. I watched the other players come closer and closer to Ben. The one with the ball swerved right and kicked the ball to the upper right corner of the goal. Ben dashed and jumped, blocking the ball before it could make it to the net.
In my opinion, it wasn't the most spectacular save. But like I said, I'm not much of a sports fan.
Ben kicked the ball almost a third of the field and the team ran after it. I could hear the coach's whistle, I looked over to where he stood and he started waving his arms around. The team seemed to understand what he was doing and they suddenly changed formation and were like a different team. They passed the ball between each other more frequently, the ball weaved it way from player to player. As they got closer to Ben at the goal, I couldn't even guess who was going to kick the ball to the goal, let alone where.
They got close, then the ball was passed to a blonde guy and he kicked it towards the goal. The ball curved mid-flight and went from up high to down close to the ground. Ben jumped to try and intercept the ball, but didn't realize that it curved downwards and the ball bounced off the ground and hit the net, scoring a goal.
Ben straightened and walked over to the blonde guy who kicked the trick shot. They talked for a bit, when the coach blew his whistle and they had to resume.
X
The faux game went on until late into the afternoon. Ben caught almost every goal and, even though I hate to admit it. I kinda, quietly cheered behind the bleachers when he caught a shot I was sure that he was gonna miss. I didn't have a very good angle from under the bleachers so I could only see what he was doing. As the shadows stretched longer and longer the coach blew his whistle and called Ben and the other players towards him.
They were too far away for me to hear and from what I could see, the coach was pleased with Ben's performance. The rest of the team too, they jostled Ben in a friendly way and I could hear their laughing all the way to where I was. The laughter died down and they started to talk. Then I heard an audible groan coming from the team. I watched Ben in the dimming light of the field. I could barely see his arms moving around trying to explain to the team.
I decided that I should head home, but something in the back of my head made me want to meet up with him and walk home with him, but I shrugged the idea away and made my way home.
It was a wonderful sunday. I woke up, feeling totally refreshed and relaxed. The cool morning air felt great. I went through the usual morning stuff and went downstairs for breakfast.
I found Jordan and Sara sitting on the table eating cereal and I grabbed myself a bowl and sat next to them. I was surprised to see Mom looking over some papers while drinking coffee. Normally she would be leaving for work by now, but I guessed that this was one of the rare says that she could stay in and be with us for a while.
I was halfway through my bowl of cereal when the phone started to ring.
"I'll get it." Said Jordan getting up from her chair and walked to the phone.
I ignored her for a while and concentrated on my cereal.
" Rachel, it's for you." Said Jordan covering the receiver with her hand.
"Who is it?" I asked, after swallowing a mouthful of cereal.
"It's cousin Jake, he says he wants to talk to you." She answered.
I walk over and she passes me the receiver. "Hey, Jake. What's up?"
"A lot." He said. "It's a nice day out. We should go and enjoy it." He said.
I knew what he meant. "Yeah, that sounds great." I answered.
"See you there." He said and hung up the phone.
It was a code, we used it to ensure that no unfriendly ears know what we were planning.
I hung up the phone and finished my cereal. I changed into some better clothes and told my mom that I was heading out.
I rode my bike over to Cassie's barn.
When I got over to Cassie's barn, I was the first one there. Cassie was busying herself fixing up the barn. Sweeping away stray hay, mopping up spilled water or animal urine. The barn was quieter than usual, a lot of the cages were empty. I guess that the animals were having lucky breaks. There were only a couple of cages with inhabitants. A small skunk, a couple possums, a raccoon, a falcon, and a few more.
"Hi Rachel." Said Cassie looking up from her work.
"Hi, Cassie. I'm the first one here?"
"Yeah, and mom and dad are out. There's a couple bucks that got grazed by a big-rig and my dad went to check them out, and mom went along to help him." She explained.
"Alright."
I sat down and let her continue mopping up, there was a comfortable silence between us.
It wasn't long before the others got to the barn. Jake and Marco arrived at the same time and Tobias and Ax arrived from the trees soon after.
"Tobias, great to see you alive, buddy." Said Marco when Tobias flew in.
"We got some bad news." Said Jake.
"Yeah, real bad." Said Marco.
"What happened?" I asked. "Did you guys find whatever trashed the field?"
"We did." Said Marco.
"What did it look like?" I asked.
(Well that depends.) Said Tobias.
"What do you mean?" Asked Cassie.
To put it simply, this thing can morph." Said Marco deadpan.
I almost fell off my seat when he said that. "Are you sure? Couldn't it just be Visser three?" I asked. Dealing with that lunatic is bad enough.
"No, and to make things worse, Marco and Tobias told me that this thing can go straight between morphs." Said Jake.
Me and Cassie were silent as we digested the information. How could the Yeerks get their hands on the morphing technology? Not even the Andalites were able to go straight between morphs, how were the yeerks able to?
"And this thing has badder morphs than Visser three." Said Marco. "Remember that thing he morphed the night they went after David?"
"That huge, purple, ugly, four armed thing, that shot traffic cones from its arms? Yeah, how could I forget." I said.
"Well its got something like that, but it's like Mr. Universe on steroids. It lifted a freaking tree without breaking a sweat!"
(Not to mention a velociraptor looking thing that runs a lot faster than the garatron.) Said Tobias.
"Greeaat." Said Marco his voice dripped with sarcasm. "And I thought the walking campfire was bad enough."
"What else did you guys see?" Asked Cassie. "I mean, if this thing can morph, we got to know what we're going up against."
(Well, there was something that looked like it was made of the same crystal that was saw, A red fourarmed thing that lifted an entire tree, a walking ball of fire, a giant fly looking alien, and the velociraptor thing.) Said Tobias listing them. (We're not sure if this thing has more morphs and what they can do.)
"So, when are we meeting up with this thing?" I asked, my blood was boiling. It's been a while since we had a good mission and I was up and ready to go.
"We'd better keep a lookout for this thing at the field. Now that we know it comes back, we don't need to keep flying around the forest." Said Jake.
"I say, we go to back to the field." I said. "Who knows guys. That thing could come back and we can jump it before it really goes after us." My explanation was only half of what I really wanted. I also wanted to get going and do something.
"Well, for once I agree with Rachel." Said Marco. "If we found this thing today, we'd have surprise on our side. That thing wouldn't know what hit it."
"Actually, I'm having some doubts that this thing is actually Yeerk." Said Cassie. "What if it's just some alien that came to earth."
(I highly doubt that any species sophisticated enough for z-space travel and, though I'm skeptical, has a superior version of the morphing technology, would have any interest in this planet. The exceptions though, would be the Yeerks and Skrit-Na.) Said Ax.
"Skrit-Na?" Wondered Marco.
Just before Ax could start explaining, Jake spoke up. "I agree with going back to the field, just in case that thing would come back, but we shouldn't try to fight it yet. Cassie's right, if we wanna go up against this thing, we have to know what it can do." That struck a nerve in me. I wanted to get into action and get this thing.
"If this thing really is something that the Yeerks have, then we should go after it as soon as possible, before it goes after us." I said.
"And what if it morphs something we can't handle?" He retorted.
"Yeah, it's not like it can morph some 800 foot tall alien." Said Marco sarcastically.
I shot him a glare and looked back at Jake. "Alright." I said. "We'll just keep watch."
We morphed birds and headed to the field. Even though I don't want to admit it, Jake was right. I remember when he was gone and I was made leader of the Animorphs. When we went to that Yeerk meeting all in Polar-bear morph and Visser three morphed this disgusting glob and almost got all of us killed. Jake never would've let that happen, he really was meant to be the leader.
Getting to the field was slower that usual. There was a bit of a head wind and we had to put a bit more effort to keep going. It wasn't that bad, it could've been worse, it could've rained. But it was such a nice sunday, I really doubted that anything like that was going to happen, but weirder things have happened to us.
We got to the field and I was expecting to see it the same as ever, but it wasn't. The huge crystals were gone and there was a lot more damage done to the place.
(What happened to the crystals?) I asked, even though I was pumped up to beat this thing down, I was still curious about what happened.
(I have no idea what happened to them. When it turned into that crystal-like alien, I guess it can control the crystals.) Answered Tobias. (It's really hard to explain, but it can create those crystals and somehow control them.)
(Have you heard about anything like that Ax?) I asked.
(No, that sounds impossible.) Then he said. (But it might be, Andalites haven't been looking out for new species on other worlds since the war started. I'm not an expert in Xeno-zoology.)
(Ax, how much time do we have left?) Jake asked.
(We still have 70% of our time left before we need to demorph, Prince Jake.)
(Alright, if all of us will be keeping a lookout for today, when it reaches an hour, Rachel and Cassie will get out and find a place to demorph while we keep watch.) He said. (Then, when when our time is almost up me, Ax, and Marco will go demorph.)
(Got it.) Said Marco.
We soon separated and landed in different trees around the field, but we were all still in thought speech range of each other. We all kept silent while we waited, I was starting to cool off a bit during the wait. I mean there was absolutely nothing to do! Did Tobias have to deal with this ever since we found out about this place? I was really starting to get bored, and it was not even close to noon, it was going to be a long day.
When Ax told us that it was almost an hour since we morphed, me and Cassie took off from our perches and left. Surprisingly Tobias took off with us.
(There's a small clearing where you guys can demorph a short flight away. I'll show you where it is.) He explained.
He guided us to the clearing, we demorphed, remorphed, and took to the air. Tobias guided us back to the field.
When we got back, still nothing happened. We got back to out perches and continued to watch for any signs of the alien that Ax, Marco, and Tobias saw.
Another hour passed and Tobias led Jake, Marco and Ax to the same clearing. So for the next couple hours it went like that. I had completely cooled down by then, it wasn't our day. That thing won't show up and we'd be sitting in the trees all day. But it was, by my best guess, an hour before noon that I was proven wrong.
We all started talking about out daily lives to keep the boredom away when Tobias yelled out.
(Guys it's here!)
We all stopped talking, we all searched around the edges of the field desperately searching for the thing. When I spotted it I thought, Tobias was right. That thing did look like a velociraptor from Jurassic park. It looked like it was wearing a kind of helmet and it wasn't brownish but black, blue, and white. It stood in the center of the field. How come we didn't notice it walking to the center earlier? And I remembered what Tobias said, it runs as fast if not faster than the garatron. That made sense, if it was that fast we wouldn't see it until it was too late.
(Is that it?) Asked Jake.
(Yup, pretty much.) Said Tobias.
(What's that under its feet?) Asked Cassie.
From my perch I tried to get a better look, but my eye's weren't that good for long distance, they were meant for searching for fish underwater.
(Looks like it's standing on some small balls.) Said Tobias.
(Well I guess we found out what made those tracks, Ax.) Said Jake.
(Yes, I think we did, Prince Jake.)
(How much time do we have?) He asked Ax.
(You, Marco, and I have 1 hour and 40 minutes of your time left before we need to demorph. Cassie and Rachel have approximately 50 of your minutes.)
(Ax, on Earth, they're everyone's minutes.) Said Marco.
My eyes were glued to the thing, I was both scared and excited that it actually showed up. My birds eyes widened as it began morphing.
(Guys, it's morphing!) I said catching their attention. From where I could see they all turned to look at it as it morphed.
The velociraptor looking thing started to straighten up and stand straight. The first noticeable thing that changed was it's skin color, but birds eyes were never really that great with colors. Anyway, it's skin, if you could call it that, was changing from the blue, white, and black to a kind of really dark green. It's biker helmet looking head started to reshape and turned from black to red and yellow. It's shoulders became a lot stockier and its legs grew and thickened. The skin looked like it was changing it texture, but I wasn't sure. It looked like it went from a kind of latex or jumpsuit looking thing to something that reminded me of plants.
When it finished morphing the thing was only a bit taller than a full grown man, its head had a kind of red and yellow plume on it which looked its like hair. It had dark green to black eyes and what looked like red petals on its upper arms.
(Did you guys see it morph that thing before?) I asked Tobias, Ax, and Marco.
(No, this is something completely different.) Said Marco.
(Well, if it decides to morph that when it goes after us. At least, we're prepared.) Said Cassie.
(She's right. Ax, tell us if Cassie and Rachel are getting close to the 2 hour mark.) Ordered Jake.
(Yes, Prince Jake.)
(And stop calling me Prince.)
To be honest, the thing didn't look very intimidating. One swipe from my grizzly should take care of it.
We watched it silently as it looked at its hands, then chest and feet. It's hands sliding down its arms.
(What is that thing doing?) Asked Cassie.
(I don't know, but keep watching.) Said Tobias.
Then the thing held its arms up forward, palms out. What the hell was it doing? Then two balls of fire shot out of its hands and dissipated in midair, not burning anything. Whoa, just whoa. But something else surprised me. The thing looked like it just as surprised as we were when it shot out those fireballs. Then it started to shoot a barrage of fireballs and like the first two they all flew a certain distance before disappearing. Then the creature started to walk towards the edge of the field and was slowly demorphing.
Authors Notes: I'm really sorry for the delay guys! For those who haven't visited my profile, I'm a college freshman and I have a full 9 hour schedule this semester and add that to being on the varsity team and me going to the gym, you can guess how exhausted I am at the end of the day. I'm still getting into the rhythm of college life, so don't be surprised by delays. I'm really doing my best to try and bring out the chapters on time, but that's life.
Please Leave A Review!