Chapter 34

Marco

Once again, my boy Jake had pulled off the impossible. He'd gotten first a room full, then a planet full of people who hated the Yeerks to get on board with helping them. I had no idea how they were actually going to make it a reality – the whole thing was out of our hands now, a runaway train we'd set in motion. Well, that Jake had set in motion, anyway. The World Court had unanimously voted in favor of taking steps toward human-Yeerk cooperation. Rackar was a direct liaison to the Yeerk Liberation Council set up by the Court. We hadn't gotten the chance to speak with Rackar since the Kelbrid ship (and we could speak to him, thanks to the Andalite-made Yeerk boxes that let them at least communicate,) but I assumed he was happy, driving the work forward he'd so desperately gambled for.

The Andalites were royally pissed at us for our decision to help the Yeerks, but Ax had managed to calm the tensions. The same council that had been appointed to find a way to make the Yeerks ambulatory had been handed a list of demands from the Andalite high command, which had been quickly agreed to. The gist of the demands was this – the Yeerks were not to be armed, they were not to be given free space travel, and they were never to be allowed to take a sentient host. Both the Yeerk Liberation Council and Rackar had found these demands fairly easy to live with, and everyone was moving forward.

Home. There really was nothing like it. I have to admit, I had been beginning to take my opulent lifestyle for granted when we had to rush off to save Ax's butt. Nothing like living in space for a solid year to make you appreciate the comforts of home. The Animorphs were lounging in my living room. We were all watching my giant plasma TV – everybody still got a kick out of seeing themselves on world news programs.

Of course, now that we were back, all the stations were running their "What Are the Animorphs Up To Now?" programs. The world still cared what we were doing in our off-time, for some reason. In my case, it was hugely helpful – I'd been receiving calls from directors, producers, and investors almost non-stop since our return. I was taking a short break, but when I was ready to get back to work, the formula for success was there for me. I'd even had time to make the call to Ferrari. When Rachel's birthday rolled around, she was going to have a brand-new sports car from me.

As the news segment rolled into some story about Microsoft's newest bid to involve themselves in the Yeerk Liberation Project, Tobias stretched. "So, what do you guys want to get into today?" he asked.

I threw a piece of ice from my glass at him. "The first thing you're going to do is get your feet off my couch." He snickered and made a show of grinding his shoes into the cushion.

Cassie ignored this. "I was thinking we could go to the beach. I could use some no-pressure fun in the sun," she said languidly.

"I'm down," Rachel said instantly. "See if me and ol' Jake still remember how to hang ten."

Jake nodded enthusiastically. "Already got the boards in the wagon," he said, motioning toward the front of my house where his piece-of-crap Bronco was parked.

"Wetherbee!" I bellowed. He appeared damn near instantly, and I smiled, despite myself. 'It's so nice to be home,' I mused. "What's up, dude?" I asked him.

"Nothing, suuh," he replied in his professional, clipped English accent, drawing out the word sir. "How may I be of assistance?"

"Would you pack a picnic lunch for the five of us? We're going to be hitting the beach." Rachel shot me a dirty look, and I sighed but added, "Please?" Rachel insisted that I be polite to Wetherbee when she was around. Probably because she was jealous that I had a butler and she didn't. Probably.

Once Wetherbee had finished making the picnic and placed the coolers in the back of Jake's truck, he asked me, "Will suuh be requiring my services at the beach?" He looked disturbed at the thought he might have to get his impeccable suit sandy.

"Nah. Take the morning off," I told him easily. He bowed and disappeared into the house. Rachel and Jake slipped past him, coming out into the driveway dressed in their wetsuits. Rachel looked absolutely jazzed – there was no other word for it. She was literally glowing.

"I gotta ask," I said. "What is so exciting? Surfing? We've been in an intergalactic war for the past year – I'd think that surfing with Jake would be pretty tame by comparison."

"Since when do I have to be in the middle of a fight to be excited about something?" she asked, not losing her million-dollar smile.

"Uhh…since always?" I said. She just ignored me and flashed that perfect smile again.

"Guys, it's so pretty out here, I just can't stand it," Tobias said. "I'm going flying. I'll meet you guys there."

"Me too," Rachel said instantly. "Hitting a few thermals, then catching some waves? Pretty much my definition of a perfect day."

"I'll fly, too," Cassie said, as if it were contagious. And I guess it was catching, because all of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with the urge to fly, too.

"I'm in," I said, and dropped my baggy swim trunks, leaving only my bike shorts.

"Hold on a minute," Jake said, looking disgruntled. "Somebody's got to drive the boards and the food. That's not fair, I'm the only one who doesn't get to go flying." He looked at me with just as much seriousness as he ever had on any of our missions. "You're riding with me," he ordered.

I grinned. I knew I could make him drive by himself, but there was just too much optimism in the air to be contradictory right now. I slipped my trunks back on and hopped into the passenger's seat. "See you chickens in the sand," I told the other three as they began to morph. Jake pulled out of my ridiculously long driveway and hit the highway.

He reached into his center console and threw on his aviator shades. He turned to smile broadly at me. His long, shaggy hair whipped in the wind. "Tell me this isn't awesome," he said. "Tell me this isn't what we fight for."

I searched briefly for a smart remark, then shrugged. I was just too happy to be a smart-ass. "This is it, exactly. I can't think of anything more perfect, dude."

A convertible full of hotties, all decked out in bikinis, pulled up next to us at the red light we were stopped at. I leaned out of the open window. "What's up? Any of you girls know the way to the beach?" They all started gushing simultaneously – there wasn't anyone on the planet who didn't know who me and Jake were. I laughed as the light turned green and Jake gunned it, leaving behind the girls and their shouts of, "Oh my god!" and, "Jake and Marco? So hot!"

As we pulled into the beach's parking lot, a little of Jake's levity left him. "So Marco, you think you can do me a favor?" he asked.

"On a day like today? Maybe," I joked.

"Could you maybe throw a party at your place tonight?" I stared – Jake was the definition of the term low-key. I guess he realized how that sounded, so he said, "Not like the one you threw the last time we got back, with the politicians and movie stars. Something small and intimate – just us and the families."

In response, I got on my cell and called Cherie, my party planner. I told her what we wanted and told her where my black book with my contact info was located, and hung up. "Done. Eight o'clock, party on, Garth."

"Cool," he said, grabbing the boards out of the back of his "vehicle."

"This bucket of rust is going to explode with you in it one day," I said of his Bronco as I snagged the coolers out of it. "Jake Berenson, Hero of Earth, killed by his POS car!" I read the imaginary headline.

"Whatever. Calvin's got some years left in him," he said, stomping up the dunes toward the water.

"You named your truck Calvin?" I snickered.

"Yeah. He's got personality, like Calvin. You know, from Calvin and Hobbes?" he said defensively. I just made a crazy motion at my temple.

I started spreading out the towels as Jake planted his and Rachel's boards into the sand. "You gonna wait for Rachel before you hit the water?" I asked, laying out and snagging a beer from the cooler.

"Yeah," he said, getting his own beer. "She'd kill me if I didn't." He twisted off the top of the drink and flipped it into the cooler. He settled onto his towel and took a sip, and made a horrified face. "Are you kidding?" he asked, gesturing to the bottle. "This stuff is horrible!"

I laughed as I realized this was the first beer Jake had ever tried. "It's an acquired taste, my man." He responded by dumping it out on the sand and getting a Coke out of the ice chest.

We laid out for a little while, just enjoying the good old Earth sunshine. People pointed and took pictures, but no one invaded our privacy. "Think they're scared of us?" he asked.

"They're scared of you," I said. "Who wouldn't be intimidated by Jake the Yeerk Killer? You're the leader of a band of freedom fighters who use alien morphing technology in battle."

Jake looked disturbed, then shrugged. "Whatever. At least we don't get mobbed like we're movie stars or something."

I looked at him in amusement. "I do get mobbed. I am a movie star. I told you, it's you they're afraid of." We hung out in silence for a while, until Jake complained about the heat and started to peel out of the top half of his wetsuit. He was stopped by a thought-speech shout from above.

(Leave it on, Jake!) Rachel called. (I'm coming!) He looked up, and instinctively ducked as a huge bald eagle swooped down, wings at full stretch, and landed beside him on his towel.

"Come on! That's not funny!" he shouted like an angry parent as Rachel cackled and Tobias and Cassie swooped down behind her, landing at a more respectable distance away from us. They all began to demorph – Cassie made it look awesome as she transitioned from osprey to human, starting at her feet and slowly rising, like she was a glass filling up with liquid. Tobias and Rachel just looked disturbing – Rachel less so, since her mostly-black wetsuit was pretty close to the eagle's natural color.

Once she was demorphed, Rachel yelled, "Let's do it!" She snatched her board out of the sand and sprinted at full tilt toward the ocean. Jake gave Cassie a hug and kissed her.

"You okay with me going surfing?" Jake asked her softly. She smiled at him and nodded.

"I was going to go dolphin and go out there with you. You mind?" she asked.

He smiled like he'd won the Super Bowl. "Nothing would make me happier."

Tobias settled on the towel Jake had vacated, and I waved at the lovebirds. "Would you two get out of here? You're blocking the rays!" I said, but I made sure they knew I was kidding. They walked off hand in hand, and Tobias seemed to reconsider laying out.

"Think I'll go with them," he said. "Come on, Marco."

"Nah, I'm cool," I said, but the seed had been planted, and Tobias knew it. He waited expectantly, and I took a few extra seconds after I'd made up my mind, just to annoy him. "All right, KFC, let's go. Dolphin time," I conceded, already looking forward to the playful dolphin mind that was perfectly suited to my mood. I resisted the urge to run myself as we made our way to the water.