The Dragon Curve

by Locksoli

There's always a saying, that the worst things imaginable are always done with the best intentions. I didn't know whether mine were good or not. I only knew I had to do what was necessary.

2. The Invasion (Part 2)

Hey, look at this, Chapter 2. Hope you enjoy.

After this chapter, there will be a short interlude. Then I'll take a break from this fic and go back to my main ones again. But I hope you enjoy this really long chapter, because I'm really putting some elbow grease into the long ones now.

Thank you to follower and favoriters: 100Percentbadass, APictureofaGoshDarnHotdog, EclipsMirror, Fan1one, GALLANTMON123, Goku12345654, GreenMoon1990, Killamari, Lune The Twilight Fox, Negima Uzumaki, RavenOfTheVoid, ShastaNightshade, darnela0, lorenzo52lara, Peiguikin, DevilHistory, and Temudschin2009.

This may be the last story I do the thanks to followers and favoriters thing on for a while, since I've been so busy with other things that it just sorta all piled up too much. But to my other readers out there who read my fics, thank you for reading, and thank you for following and favoriting.

Disclaimer: Jurassic Park and all related adaptations are owned by Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg, and the late Michael Crichton. Animorphs is owned by Schoolastic, K. A Applegate, and Michael Grant. I own neither series, please support official releases.

---

When I woke up, I was in a hospital.

My first worry, of course, was that I was in a position where I could have a Yeerk shoved into my ear. The police were already compromised, I wouldn't put it past our public health officials to be in the same boat. That was my life now, everybody was an enemy, nobody should be trustworthy.

The nurses "gently" held me down on my bed, but they didn't try to inject me with anything right away. The only reason I let my guard down, even just a bit, was because the doctor had told me that I was at a private hospital, and something about not messing up my stitches. That settled me down just enough that I could convince the two nice men holding me down to let go.

Private hospital, that might be good. That meant that things might be more strict on certain matters, that employees might be more regulated. Public hospitals might just be the staging grounds for most of the invasion.

Apparently, the hospital I was in was sponsored by InGen, just one of many across the country. InGen invested in hospitals, and when people were brought in after nearly being eaten by a dinosaur, nobody asked questions.

While the nurses went to get somebody, the doctor told me the extent of my injuries. A few broken ribs, because being thrown onto the ground by a dinosaur will do that to anybody. My fingers were all in place, although I would have to take care if I didn't want them to be covered in scars.

Speaking of scars, I wonder if morphing would heal this potential gash in my stomach. It was big, ugly, and it had a bright red appearance even beneath the bandages. If morphing healed this, I'd have to explain a lot.

But I'd rather not have this. It just didn't sit right with me.

The nurses soon came back with my aunt and uncle. Upon seeing me, Aunt Jenna's hand flew to her mouth in horror. She stormed over to my side, grabbing at my arm and sobbing slightly as she held me close.

Uncle Reese simply stood there, gaping at me in mute shock. I clicked my teeth slightly as I gave the man a sardonic smile.

"Heya, Uncle Reese!" I said weakly.

"...You're not as thrilled about the real live-"

"I'm not as thrilled about the real live dinosaurs as I was before," I cut in. "Yeah, I'm really sorry. I think it's the coolest thing in the world, it's just...getting disemboweled always makes me kinda mad."

"I...Aaron, I'm sorry! We thought we had the Velociraptor contained-"

"Yeah, keyword being "thought" in this case," I said tiredly. "Look, I'm not mad at you, I just...I'm feeling rather hostile because I was almost eaten, so I'm sorry if I sound mad."

"Aaron, sweetie, we're not gonna blame you for that," my aunt said gently. "Just...I'm just glad you're okay."

"We're both glad you're okay," Reese said sincerely.

Aunt Jenna's biting look cowed him into submission. Which means they were fighting, most likely over my near death experience. That was going to be a rare spectacle to see, considering they were either dorking around each other all the time.

"Aaron...I'm sorry," my uncle stuttered out. "I-I didn't plan for this, I didn't want this to happen. Please, you can hate me for the rest of your life, but I don't want you to think that I'm not sorry-"

"I don't hate you," I said flatly. "I could never hate you, it's just...again, I was almost eaten! I'm not gonna hate anybody, but considering what happened I'm obviously not in the best of moods."

"I...Aaron, I was so worried. I'm glad that-"

The door to my hospital room opened, cutting my uncle off. It was Dr. Wu who walked in, his already distressed expression deepening upon seeing me. The geneticist audibly gulped before hesitantly taking a step towards me.

"Aaron, I am deeply sorry for what happened," Wu said, bowing his head slightly. "I thought that the security measures put in place would prevent this. If I had known there would even be a chance that the Raptor would have escaped-"

"D-Dr. Wu, it's alright," I said weakly, "I'm not mad...okay, I'm not in the best of moods, but still…" I shrugged slightly as a tired sigh escaped my lips. "Thanks for taking the time to visit. I promise you, I don't blame you for what happened."

The geneticist let out a relieved sigh at my words. "I'm glad you're alright. I don't think I'd be able to handle myself if things had gone worse, especially since everything was under my watch."

The doctor that had patched me up cleared his throat to get the attention of the room. The old man gave me a slight look, as if he were confused by my very presence, before asking Wu to follow him out of the room. The scientist made a confused noise, before turning back to my family and I.

"I suppose this is something about the company's insurance," Wu gave us a nervous laugh as he shrugged, before addressing my uncle directly. "I'll speak to you in a bit Reese. Just let me deal with this…"

I narrowed my eyes as the two left the room. The doctor-the one from this hospital-I doubted he was a Yeerk. But he knew something wasn't right about me, either from some sort of test they did after surgery, or something else, I didn't know.

I turned to Aunt Jenna with a tired expression. "So, you guys were fighting, huh?"

The woman only let out a short sigh at this. "Aaron, you were nearly eaten. Of course I gave your uncle a piece of my-"

"You wanted me to go too," I said flatly, causing my aunt's mouth to close instantly. "You can't just pin this all on Uncle Reese! What, did you not realize that "living dinosaurs" meant the ones with the sharp teeth as well?!"

"I...I...I didn't think that-"

"You both wanted me to go there, so don't point fingers at each other like that. Shit happens, alright!" I clicked my teeth when my uncle gave me a small frown. "Look, I get it. You guys thought it'd be a magical experience. And it was. I got to see real dinosaurs, I got to actually get close to them. It's just...I got a bit too close, and I'm not really thrilled about it."

"You...you don't hate me for what I do, do you?" my uncle asked nervously.

"No. I could never hate you for anything," I said quickly. "And what you do...I don't really hate it, I just think it's a bad idea."

"You think creating dinosaurs is a bad idea?"

"Repeat what you just said to yourself, and then tell me," a small chuckle escaped my throat when Uncle Reese went silent. "See my point? Every moment I look at you from now on, it's like I'm looking at a kid who just found his dad's gun. You're like an angsty teen who figures that fire is something cool to play with."

"But you don't hate what I do?" he asked skeptically.

"I respect what you do, Uncle Reese. You brought back dinosaurs, clearly that means you have tools at your hands no other person in the world has," I laid back onto my hospital bed with a tired grunt. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"I...I understand."

"...How long was I out?" I asked weakly.

"It's been maybe a few days," my uncle said gently. "You should be back on your feet by next week, but they'll probably tell you to take it easy at school."

"Which means no fighting," Aunt Jenna chided. "Even if it is against racism."

"Alright, alright. I'll tell a teacher when I see shit go down," I snorted at my aunt's short cry of 'language', before sighing. "So, how much homework did I miss?"

"Not nearly as much as you think. Remember, I still made it a point to grab anything you missed from school," Reese tugged at his collar nervously as I stared at him. "Due to the current state of your hands, you'll need an alternative way of handing in written assignments."

"You have a computer though. You can just type things out…" Jenna tilted her head, inspecting my bandaged hands. "Slowly and gently type it out."

I held up one of my hands, groaning at the spike of pain that lanced through my arm. A small noise escaped me as I laid the bandaged appendage back down.

"I think the only good thing that came out of this is that we'll be getting some money," my uncle shook his head furiously after he said this. "Not that I think this was the perfect chance to get money, just that it's a good thing. That, or I could convince Ludlow to stop moving us around."

I perked up at this, and leaned forward just a bit. "You could actually manage that?"

"I could try," Reese said nervously. "If Ludlow is willing to hear me out, then maybe I can work something out with him."

I felt...hopeful, actually.

Not having to constantly move around, being able to finally stay in one place. I could make some real friends, I wouldn't have to go to the movies or hang around at the food courts by myself all the time. It felt like I was dreaming.

I mean, the whole alien invasion and shapeshifting thing were contributing to that too. As were the dinosaurs…

What is my life now?

Uncle Reese let out a huff as his cell phone went off. "This is probably a company lawyer. They probably know that you're awake. I'll go and take this really quick…"

My uncle left the room, leaving me all alone with my still distraught aunt.

"Hey, Aaron," Jenna swallowed a lump in her throat and gave me a strained look. "A little over a week ago, you mentioned that you went through that construction site, right?"

...Shit!

"I did," I said slowly.

"Were there actually kids playing with fireworks there?" she asked, clearly concerned.

"N-No, there weren't," I said weakly. "There were other kids there but-"

I swallowed hard as I thought this over. She wouldn't believe me, would she? And what if she did? Then she'd know exactly why The Sharing was being so creepy, and she'll change her behavior. And they would notice.

I couldn't just tell her, could I? I had to gently push that I saw something that wasn't right that night. But I couldn't let on anything about what actually happened.

"Some other kids went through the construction site, I followed because I needed a shortcut home, and then as we were leaving...there were these weird lights in the sky," I shook my head as I fought back the urge to clench my fists. "And then there were noises from the site, and I thought I saw...things. I don't know. I didn't say anything because of the papers-"

"You were scared the cops would arrest you?" Aunt Jenna hummed at my weak nod. "You weren't worried that I would tell them, were you?"

"No, I'm not. I just...when I went out that day, some cops stopped me. They were acting really creepy, and I just felt scared," I shook slightly as I remembered the looks in the eyes of those two cops. "They kept talking about The Sharing. It felt like they were about ready to just abduct me and force me into a cult."

"You actually felt like that would happen? From the cops?" my aunt looked horrified when I gave her a half-hearted nod. "That's not something you should fear from the police!"

"But I am scared of that. One of them is literally our next door neighbor," I chewed the inside of my cheek as I leaned back. "I caught him staring at us a few times. Like, he didn't do anything but stare at our house, or at us whenever we leave it."

"...Y'know, it really does feel like something isn't right about this town," she chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck. "Sometimes, when I'm driving home, it feels like I'm being followed. Like, sometimes I know I'm being followed, because the same damn cars will follow me even when I try to lose them."

"And what about when there aren't any cars?"

My aunt clicked her teeth, a wild look flashing through her eyes. "I dunno, it still feels like I'm being followed. It just feels like somebody-no, something is somewhere behind me," my aunt shook her head furiously. "I know it sounds like I'm paranoid, but it's just been eating away at me since we got to this town."

Then she gave me a sweet smile, but I could see the strained look in her eyes. "Hey, Aaron. Don't forget what I said. If you ever feel like talking to me, or your uncle, we're here if you need it."

"I...alright, Aunt Jenna," I said weakly.

"I have to go call work," she said quickly, pulling out her phone. "My boss probably wants an update, I had to tell him you were in the hospital. I'm getting all these thoughts and prayers from my coworkers. I'll be back in a bit, I promise…"

Then she left, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I had acquired the DNA of four prehistoric animals, and I could change my body to theirs. If there was a way I could get into the InGen facility without getting caught, I could acquire more of them, and maybe even larger creatures. I could go into one of the Yeerk bases and completely obliterate their operations with the right morph.

But that meant that I had to find a way to break into InGen, and get into the containment cells of the big dinosaurs without either getting caught, or getting eaten.

I also had to find these "pools" that the Yeerks made their bases.

Damn it, this was gonna be impossible.

"You...can't be possible...test again?"

I flinched as Dr. Wu's voice echoed from outside the door to my room. I instantly went slack and closed my eyes the moment he passed the window on the door. One of my eyes cracked open for a split second, just in time to see the doctor from the hospital walk into view through the window.

"Are you sure?" Wu's voice echoed from outside.

"I'm sure. I mean, detecting traces of that animal through his wounds, I'd understand," the medical doctor let out an exasperated sigh. "But, it's not just the...well, that. It's multiple signatures, from multiple animals of yours and one that isn't. I'm not sure how to process this."

I felt a shiver running down my back when Dr. Wu sighed lowly.

"How many tests have you done?" there was a short silence, but I could feel Wu giving me a curious glance through the door. "This is fascinating...keep it under wraps for a while. And I want you to keep me updated when the bandages come off."

"I...I don't know, that has to violate-"

"I don't care what rules, laws, code, or oath it violates," the geneticist said firmly. "If you're really worried, I'm sure we could...increase some funding in order to help smooth any misgivings you have over this."

The doctor remained silent for several seconds before walking away. I can only assume he nodded, because Wu left only a minute after. I popped an eye open to be sure, before letting out the shaky breath I was holding in.

Wu knew.

He wasn't a Yeerk, he wouldn't have been confused if he was one. But the doctors had at least detected whatever piece of the alien technology was keeping the DNA in my body. Wu and that doctor knew that something wasn't right with me.

What would happen to me? Would he confront me here while I was laid up in a hospital bed, where I couldn't get away? Or would Wu bide his time before finally bringing it up, with the worst case scenario being in a situation where a Controller could hear.

What the hell was I going to do?

---

I was in the hospital for maybe another week or so before I was deemed fit to be released. I could finally be done with the bland tasting hospital food, and the strange doctor that was always giving me looks. I could finally go back to school, and spend time figuring out how to find a Yeerk base.

The entire day I had returned to school, I tried keeping to myself for the most part. Everybody saw the bandaged hands, and I had more than a few notes to hand to teachers along with any school work I had missed. I could be thankful that most of my teachers were giving me looks of pity, save for the Controllers, who were clearly interested in my cover story.

A workplace accident from take-your-kid-to-work day. That was the cover InGen came up with. And as long as I stuck to it, I'd get a settlement for nearly being eaten, with a chance to finally stop being shipped all over the country. All I had to deal with were these aliens that kept trying to infest me.

Lunch was...a bit different than normal. Cassie had joined Stevie and I, along with a friend of hers, in what I could only assume was a way to test the waters.

"And then he says "tooth hurt-y"!" the boy sitting across from us smirked as Stevie laughed at his joke. "Thank you, I'll be here all week."

Marco was the classic class clown of any school. I'd been around plenty before, and they were all cut from the same cloth. They loved to be the center of attention, and everything they did was to get a laugh out of others.

Unlike a lot of the other class clowns I had met, Marco knew the value of timing. That is, he knew there was a time and place for his jokes. If it was the beginning of class, or it was a slow day during the late summer or close to any holidays, he could even get the teachers to chuckle with him.

But he also knew which times would make the teachers want to smack him upside the head with a ruler.

I'd borne witness to much of Marco's antics during classes I had with him, but I knew him from elsewhere too. Namely, the school toilets, where different groups of bullies would berate one another for hogging the stalls while they were busy giving either of us swirlies.

"Here, I've got another one!" the boy ran a hand through his dark hair as a chuckle escaped his throat. "Did you hear that rumor about butter?"

"N-No, what?" the geeky boy said in between chuckles.

"Well I'm not going to spread it!" the brown-skinned boy joined in Stevie's renewed chuckles with his own low cackle.

I couldn't find these quite as humorous as Stevie could, but I could understand why they'd be funny to other people. Clearly I wasn't the only one, if I was to go off of Cassie's reaction to her friend's jokes.

"You're around him a lot?" I asked the girl.

Cassie dragged her hand from her face as she looked at me. "More than I'd like to admit, especially as of late."

"Oof! That's too bad," I said with a small ounce of genuine pity.

"Hey, mummy boy!" Marco gave me a bright smirk. "Do you know any jokes?"

I chewed the inside of my cheek at this. "I've got one...it's a little dark though, if I'm being honest-"

"It can't be that bad," the dark-haired boy said. "Go on, tell us!"

I imagined that this was Marco's way of breaking the ice. It was a test to see what I was like.

Honesty it is then.

"Did you hear about the guy who got his left side chopped off?" I bit my lip at the incredulous looks from the other three. "Don't worry, he's all right now!"

Stevie had been drinking some chocolate milk when I had finished that. He nearly spat it out in shock. Cassie made an almost laugh-sputter at my punchline, clearly unsure as to how to react.

And Marco was busting his gut.

"Oh! Oh no, that was...hahaha...okay, that was a good one!" he took a deep breath as his chuckles died down. "Where'd you hear that one?"

"My sister. She'd tell me all kinds of those jokes when I was younger," I said nonchalantly. "I didn't get them until...well, she's not 'around' anymore, same as my parents."

"Oh! Oh man…" the dark-haired boy rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Y-Yeah, I understand man. My mom, she went missing years ago."

"That's rough buddy," I said sympathetically.

"Hey, so how did you get those...uh…" Cassie pointed to my bandaged hands. "I mean, you were out for an extra week, and now you're handing notes out left and right."

"...I was at my uncle's "take-your-kid-to-work" day," I said tiredly, remembering the cover story an InGen lawyer had told me to get straight. "There ended up being an issue with some equipment malfunctioning, and then something went haywire. Now I've got a gash in my stomach, and my hands are all messed up."

"Oh, ow!" Stevie said with a wince. "Where does your uncle work anyway?"

"International Genetic Technologies. AKA InGen," I watched Stevie perk up at this, and Cassie's expression falling just a bit. "Yeah, you probably already know about them."

"You kidding? We're eating their ketchup right now!" the geeky boy held up a ketchup packet, pointing to InGen's logo at the bottom of it. "They're the guys who made the Flavorful Tomato."

"Yeah, that was Dr. Wu, he's my uncle's boss," I said nonchalantly as I shovelled some fries into my mouth. "My uncle, he actually made a Salmon that grows to full size at a quarter of the time normal Salmon do."

"W-Wait, I'm confused. What are you talking about?"

"Genetically modified organisms," Cassie told Marco. "Aaron's uncle works for a company that modifies living things. The Flavorful Tomato is a breed of tomato that's been modified to stay ripe and firm for a lot longer than normal tomatoes."

"Y-You mean your uncle is actually a mad scientist?"

"Mad is...stretching it. He messed with a fish, and it gets big really fast," I said without missing a beat. "His boss just messed with a fruit-don't even start on the "it's a vegetable", cause it's a fruit-and he made it so it didn't rot as quickly because people hate rotten tomatoes."

"I don't know how I feel about genetic engineering," Cassie said nervously. "It kinda feels unnatural."

"Humans have been messing with genes since we first came on the scene. Every time we bred wolves, cows, and plants, we were choosing which ones had the best traits. Which wolf was friendliest, which cow was meatiest, which plant was least poisonous and most tasty," Stevie snorted as he splashed some ketchup on his plate. "With genetic engineering, we're just cutting out a lot of the middle man. We can just choose the ones we know are beneficial, and remove anything that could cause problems."

It almost sounded like what that Yeerk said when I interrogated it. But it was a solid argument too. You couldn't really blame geneticists for messing with the genes of pets and food when farmers and pet owners had done the same for thousands of years.

The problem was that InGen wasn't sticking to food.

"I don't really have a big opinion about it, personally," I said with a shrug. "I mean, yeah, I feel like the people at InGen are playing with matches, and somewhere along the line, somebody's gonna get burned. But we've had these genetically modified foods for years, and if there were problems, they would have shown up by now."

"Huh, I guess you're right," Marco said with a small chuckle. "Mad science: 1. Tree Hugging: 0."

"It's not mad science," Stevie corrected. "It's just regular science, except they don't always know what they're doing in this case."

I wanted to say that yes, it was actually mad science. Only a lunatic would think that what InGen was doing was a good idea.

"So there's no conspiracy theories about InGen?" Cassie asked the geeky boy.

"Just the one where they brought the dinosaurs back," he chuckled at the incredulous looks of the other two. "Yeah, I know right? Who'd be crazy enough to believe that?"

"W-Where'd you even hear that?" I croaked.

"Dr. Ian Malcolm, he's a mathematician with a hard-on for Chaos Theory," Stevie shook his head as he continued eating. "He went on some talk shows and started a website, saying that InGen owns an island filled with dinosaurs, and he saw all of it."

Marco leaned forward in his seat at this. "Sounds pretty interesting. Any merit to it?"

"Nah, just some nut job with a dead career," the geeky boy said boredly. "Like, come on! Dinosaurs? What kind of idiot do they take us for?"

"Like, if they actually had dinosaurs when I went there, I'd have felt cheated," I said, fighting back the urge to laugh like an idiot. "I mean, the place was boring as hell."

Marco leaned back with an almost disappointed look. "Yeah, I guess if it's just fish and fruit, then it's not really interesting."

"So, did anything happen while I was out?" I discreetly tried to change the topic. "I-I was in the hospital, so I still need to catch up on the latest gossip."

"Oh yeah...so, remember how Chapman tried to force you to join The Sharing?" Stevie hummed at my curt nod. "Principal Everett put a stop to that because the School Board said no. But you'll never believe what happened."

"Don't tell me…"

"The board changed their decision like a few days later," the geeky boy said grimly. "A bunch of them started changing their tune, they said it doesn't matter if teachers start pushing it on us. The only reason they haven't made it mandatory is because a few of them are still against it."

"Only a matter of time before the reprogramming is complete," Marco chuckled with faux deviousness. "The evil plan is coming along wonderfully…"

"Marco!" Cassie groaned.

"Alright, alright! But yeah, it is kinda spooky," the dark-haired boy shook his head. "They already started putting up posters. You probably saw them already, they're a real eyesore."

I fought down a shudder at this revelation. If the School Board was backtracking like that...how easy would it be for them to take me. The Yeerks had a base that was close, that had to be the explanation behind it.

"That's just...disturbing. No, really, it's creepy," I said with a nervous chuckle.

"I know, right?" Cassie said nervously, her voice lowering to a near-whisper as a teacher walked near the table. After they passed, the dark-skinned girl swallowed nervously. "Do you ever feel like something is wrong with the people around us?"

"I feel like I'm being stalked by cops," I said weakly. Marco and Cassie didn't react visibly, but their eyes darkened slightly for some reason. "I know, it sounds crazy. But I've just been seeing cop cars pass me by while I'm out on a walk. It really wiggs me out."

The two of them shared a look for a split second. I couldn't describe it, but it was like I had passed some hidden test or something. I wondered if they...if they knew. Maybe they were-

"I don't know," Stevie said with a small shrug. "I mean, The Sharing seems like a creepy cult, but maybe they're just trying to meet a membership quota."

Damn! Lost my train of thought.

"What makes you think that?" Cassie asked in confusion.

"Eh, I mean...I learned just this month that Roswell was just a weather balloon crash because we were trying to figure out the nukes the Soviets had," the geeky boy sent me a comical glare for a split second before shaking his head. "So maybe The Sharing is just some weird community group that's trying to catch up to its competition because it's new to the playing field."

"I...well...okay, that's one way to look at it, I guess," I said dumbfoundedly. "But, it still doesn't excuse some of the creepy stuff their members are doing."

"Hey, maybe they're just a few bad apples," Stevie said blithely. "I mean, I haven't met any other members other than the jerk VP, and some weird cops."

"My friend Jake, his brother is a member of The Sharing," Marco said offhandedly. "He has some moments, but it's more like he's a door-to-door salesman about it. All he ever says is that they "have a lot of fun" there."

"That could mean anything...if you catch my drift," the geeky boy chuckled perversely, causing Cassie to blush, and Marco's cackling to start anew.

Then the bell rang, signalling that lunch was over.

"And like that, we can continue that conversation never," I said as the four of us stood to our feet.

"Yeah, yeah, alright," Stevie snorted as he turned to Marco. "We've got free study in the library. What about you?"

"The bane of all preteens across the face of the country…" the dark-haired boy said grimly, causing the geeky boy to shrink back slightly. "Pre-Algebra!"

"Truly, no greater evil has ever been unleashed upon this green earth," I said in a faux solemn tone. "You have my sympathies."

"Gee, I totally believe that…" Marco deadpanned. He let out a short snigger before giving me a light fistbump. "It was nice to meet you-like, actually meet you, not see you while we're being hassled in the bathroom."

"You'd think they'd try to coordinate a weekly swirlie schedule or something," I groaned. "And yeah, it was great to actually meet you too, Marco. You're a pretty cool dude."

The dark-haired boy gave me a wink as he made his way to class. As I was leaving with Stevie and Cassie, I noticed a brown-haired boy stopping Marco from the corner of my eye. He wasn't there to hassle Marco, judging by how they greeted each other.

But...that kid, he gave me a weird look. Like he was analyzing me, trying to figure out whether I was friend or foe. He and Marco exchanged some words, but he didn't stop taking the chance to stare at me.

"What's up with him?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Cassie asked.

"That kid, Marco joined up with him just now. He's still staring at me…"

The girl craned her neck to look, and blushed. "Ah! That's...that's Jake," she scratched the back of her neck nervously as she turned away when the brown-haired boy's gaze swept over her. "H-He and I, we kind of have...a thing?"

"Ah yes...a thing," I deadpanned.

"I too, understand the importance of having...things," Stevie chuckled.

"Things are neat to have," I said mirthfully.

"Alright, alright! I should have been clearer," Cassie clicked her teeth as she visibly fought down a blush. "He and I...well, we're not together obviously, but we hang out a lot."

"So he's getting jealous?" I mused, a small snigger bubbling in my throat when her blush darkened. "Relax! He has no reason to be jealous or anything."

"Really? You actually think that?" she gave me a strange look, then shook her head. "Yeah, there's totally no way he could get jealous."

"That's sarcasm," I said with confusion, turning to Stevie. "Why is she being sarcastic? Like, who would be jealous of me."

"Oh, well there was this time I overheard these girls…" the geeky boy shook his head with a sly grin. "No, it's nothing."

Okay, so I was being punked? Wonderful…

Free study was another story. Since I had woken up in the hospital, the thought of which dinosaurs InGen had cloned kept burning through my mind. Which ones did they have, which ones would be useful.

I felt icky, thinking about the live dinosaurs like that. They were in a world where they'd never be able to fit in, they were the results of humanity's hubris, and everything I felt boiled down to video game logic. Every stray thought about them was more like a "what weapon should I use?", not that they were living things.

But then I remembered Elfangor, and the monster Visser Three had morphed into, and I thought of all the monstrous theropods that could help me bring that slug bastard down a peg.

The books I had chosen before I sat down with the others were on either dinosaurs, or mosquitoes. Mosquitoes were the first I checked on, to figure out how long they've been around so I could narrow down InGen's menagerie of primeval predators.

"And that was when I realized that my uncle's dog was probably compromised," Stevie finished his tale.

"...Your uncle's dog?" Cassie croaked. "That's...wow...I don't even know where to begin."

"Hmm?!" my gaze lifted from the page, and I stared at the other two owlishly. "Oh, sorry, I was busy reading. I didn't really hear what was going on."

"That's okay, it's not entirely important," the geeky boy said offhandedly. "Now I can segway into the real meat. Do you know about Fruit of the Loom?"

"The clothing company?" the dark-skinned girl asked. "Yeah, I think most people know. I'm wearing a shirt from them right now."

"Check the logo really quick. Go on, just check," Stevie watched as Cassie nervously pulled her arms into her shirt and used them to turn it around from the inside. The geeky boy's lips twitched as he held back a smile. "Notice anything about the logo?"

"Y-Yeah, actually. It feels like something is...missing…" she said as she shyly readjusted her shirt.

"It should have a cornucopia," he said, shaking his head at the girl's confused look. "It's this container that looks like a goat's horn, you see it at thanksgiving celebrations a lot."

"Yeah, I know what that is! The big, weird looking basket thing, right?" Cassie smirked at Stevie's nod. "Yeah, I don't get it. It really feels like it should be there."

"That's because they've removed it. Fruit of the Loom used to have a cornucopia on their logo, but they did away with it entirely, and there's a government conspiracy to remove it from the public consciousness."

"Actually, they just put a cornucopia logo on every other ten thousandth product they make in their factories," I said offhandedly as I continued reading. Upon realizing the other two were staring at me, I snorted. "They do it because they know some people remember the cornucopia, so they make some with it just to screw with them."

"You're saying that a big corporation would mess with their consumers like that?" Cassie asked skeptically.

"Repeat that question to yourself, and tell me," I fought back a giggle as her face scrunched up, telling me all I needed to know. "See? It's not that much of a conspiracy...not that it isn't a conspiracy, because they're still hiding it."

"Ha! I've got one figured out!" Stevie said happily.

"Just the corporation though. The government has bigger things to hide than underwear manufacturers," I said nonchalantly.

"Damn! Alright, a corporate conspiracy is something at least…"

"Better get your aluminum underwear out," Cassie chuckled.

"Ha-ha," the geeky boy deadpanned.

"Don't mess up when you drill that hole in your head to remove the tracking device," I snorted.

"Yeah, so funny…"

"And don't forget to drill a hole in the tracking device to remove its tracking device."

"Hilariou-Oh shit!" Stevie hissed. "You're right! They would tag their tracking device too!"

"Exactly! I mean, anybody who's smart has to cover all their bases," I said offhandedly.

"But of course! They-hey, why are you reading about mosquitoes anyway?"

"...Science project," I said after a few seconds. "I'm gonna do the "evolution of mosquitoes" for it."

It wasn't a lie. Everybody in science class had to do a paper on something for the beginning of the year, as long as it was science related. So looking up the evolution of mosquitoes wasn't on the nose.

"And the books on dinosaurs?" Stevie asked.

"They're books on prehistoric life," I clarified, having made sure that the books were specifically not just about dinosaurs. "So ancient forms of mosquitoes might be included."

"It seems like a bit of a stretch," Cassie said as she grabbed one of the books. "I mean, most people only care about the big cool things that went extinct, so I don't think mosquitoes are included-that is a big shrimp."

I leaned over to get a better look at what she was pointing to. "Anomalocaris? Huh, haven't heard of that before," I mused, gently pulling the book from the girl's hands and scrutinizing the image of the shrimp-like creature, seeing the drawing of a human hand for scale. "If this thing is supposed to be obscure like that, then this is probably the book I was looking for."

"There were weird shrimp in prehistoric times?" Stevie gaped owlishly as I turned through the pages, revealing a menagerie of obscure prehistoric life across each piece of paper. "All of that is just...wow…"

I finally got to a page illustrating a modern mosquito alongside several prehistoric insects. One insect was stated to be an ancient ancestor of flies that had developed traits similar to modern mosquitoes, and may have been the instigator of the split between them and flies.

It's time period? The late Cretaceous, and even then there wasn't enough evidence that it drank blood. But if this was the oldest mosquito-like creature, then in theory that cut off anything that came before T-rex and his ilk as something I could acquire.

Unless they got the DNA from fossils. My uncle mentioned fossils, not just amber, when he was talking about how he cloned Count. So that meant that if there wasn't a way to get the DNA from amber, extracting it from a fossil could be the alternative.

"Hey, I gotta ask...what happened to Tobias?" Stevie asked Cassie out of the blue.

"H-Huh?" she looked like a deer caught in headlights at the question, "Ah...well, my friends and I aren't really sure, actually."

I lowered the book in my hands, and gave her a confused look. "What do you mean by that? Is he alright?"

"Well, he's usually staying with his uncle, but his uncle will dump him over at his aunt's all the way across the country," Cassie's expression shifted into a neutral one. "I don't think either of them care now…"

"Care about what?" I asked.

"He's just gone missing," Cassie shrugged. "I don't know if he's ran away, or if something happened. And nobody is even looking into it, that's the worst part."

I felt disgusted at that revelation. The way she described him, Tobias's life was a parallel yet opposite of mine. If I had gone missing, my aunt and uncle would go nuts trying to figure out what happened, but for Tobias, nobody who could help cared enough to try.

"That's terrible," I said sympathetically.

"Yeah, he seemed like a cool guy," Stevie piped up beside me. "I really hope he's alright."

Cassie looked to the side nervously, her eyes roaming in the general direction of a nearby window. I thought I heard feathers fluttering outside, and I swore I saw a Hawk. It wasn't an unusual sight but...something felt off about it.

---

I was supposed to meet my aunt at the mall after school. We were supposed to spend some time together, order something from the food courts, go around shopping, or maybe even watch a movie. It was sort of a thing we did when we were at a new place, because we both figured we wouldn't be there for long. And of course, Aunt Jenna didn't want me to be lonely.

I hadn't even gotten a quarter of the way towards the mall before I was kidnapped.

I know, it was pretty blunt, but there was no other way to bring it up. I was just walking along, and then a cop car sped through the street until it stopped at me. Those two cops from only a couple weeks ago came out, and suddenly I was being grabbed and dragged into the back of their squad car.

I screamed, I hollered, I cursed as loudly as I could. I wanted people to hear me, to know that I was being kidnapped by the damn police, and that I needed help.

One of the Controllers slammed a palm into my stomach hard, and I felt the air rushing from my lungs. It was worse, because it felt like some of my stitches tore from it, and I was already scared I was going to start bleeding again. I felt a cry bubbling up in my throat as the two of them roughly threw me straight into the car, and locked the doors.

They must have been past the school when my haziness died down. I heard them mention the school before that, but one of them said something about it being too risky. As soon as I woke up, I began banging on the doors and trying to open them.

"Damn it! Shut him up, he's making a scene!"

"Hey! Quit yelling punk!" the one in the passenger seat yelled. "If you keep quiet, this'll be so much easier. I hope the Yeerk we put in your ear has a better time dealing with you."

That only made me bang on the doors harder, and I kept pulling on the handles to the point that I felt like they would break. The Controller in the driver's seat growled angrily as I kept trying to escape, and he offhandedly slapped his fellow Controller's arm.

"Hey, get that little thing, the one that shocks!"

"The Dracon Beam? I didn't bring it-"

"The other thing, you idiot! The one from the police station!" the driver growled.

"Oh, that one?! yeah hang on!"

I didn't feel the two little probes go into me, not at first. The thing is, I only realized what I was happening when I felt the sensations starting and I had dropped like a sack of hammers.

It was like a full body cramp, like all of my muscles were tensing up and clenching far more than humanly possible. I was jerking around in place, but I couldn't move a muscle because everything had coiled up like a spring.

Eventually, it stopped, and I felt sore all over and I was still having trouble moving. I couldn't stop whimpering, I felt like I could cry.

The only reason I knew it was a Taser was because one of the Controllers were praising how useful it was.

I knew if I didn't act soon, I'd be done for. They Yeerks, they'd take me and my family, they'd find out about the cube, and the dinosaurs InGen had. And worse, there were those other kids from the construction site. They'd search for them, for kids who could cause trouble with their plans, who could morph just like I could.

Which was what I had to do. The only way out of this was to morph.

In between shaking from the memory of being tased, I tried to focus on one of my morphs. I thought about the cat at first, but I quickly shot that down. The cat wouldn't be useful here, I'd only make things worse if I tried it.

Then a thought burned into my mind, as if it were calling out to me.

The sharp, backwards facing teeth. The sickly yellow eyes that had stared at me with malicious intent. The thick claws on each toe, clicking the ground as it had stalked forward…

My face changed first, I could tell. I was shakily sitting up straight when I felt my entire face bulge outward, my entire head shifting into a more oval shape as it transformed from primatoid to saurian. My teeth seemed to just melt, the excess of my pearly whites falling away as they shifted into viciously sharp fangs.

My body came after, already I could see brown scales erupting across my pinkish skin, almost like it was a canvas being painted over. My fingers merged together, until there were only three, and soon large claws erupted from my fingertips with a small amount of blood red glaze that quickly disappeared.

I could feel my waist and pelvis shifting to better accommodate a tail. Said tail was already emerging from my rear, accompanied by the pops and crunches as new bones came into existence and filled it out.

Then my legs, that was the weirdest part. My legs didn't feel too different, though I knew immediately after they reshaped themselves that they were much stronger, and that I was much faster. But it was my feet that felt the most strange.

My feet had narrowed and shortened just a bit, my toes melting together and expanding all the same. Then my big toes shifted further upwards, and I felt a strange popping sensation, like when your leg or arm falls asleep, but only on my big toes. The sensation ended as my new toe claws finally finished their shape.

The morph finished when my hair seemed to just fall out. The morphing process was practically painless, I didn't feel anything save for a tiny bit of discomfort.

And when I was really finished morphing, I didn't feel anything at all. I tried to reign in the Raptor's mind immediately, but it was more than clear the moment it came to the forefront that it was nothing like the cat.

Then again, comparing a cat to a dinosaur wasn't going to be a fair comparison in the first place. Cats are mammals, they're quirky little things that will get up in your business because they want affection, and they'll bring you dead animals as a present because they think you aren't able to hunt for yourself. Yeah, they had a hunter's instinct and a lot of power for something their size, but they were pets, and they acted like a pet would.

R...R….R...

The Velociraptor was...smart, I guess is the correct word. And it was disturbingly smart. Not nearly as smart as a human, but close enough. The moment it's mind popped into existence, it was like a scary machine had been turned on.

K...K...K...

The Raptor was, shockingly, aware of its nature, aware that I could control it and direct all of it's behavior. There was no memory from the actual animal I had acquired, just the hardwiring of millions of years of evolution, and pure insanity, staring back at me. I felt like my skin was crawling, except it wasn't my own.

R-Rage...

Everything about my situation, one I felt helpless in beforehand, was now being analyzed by a problem solving intelligence more advanced than most primates. The only difference from a person or even some chimpanzees, was the fact that the Raptor lacked any form of restraint.

K...Kill!

The Raptor's first thought was how to best kill these two Controllers.

H-Head...N-Neck...Slash...Snap...

It wasn't "how can I disable them and escape?", it was "what is the best way to end their lives. How could I make a game out of it?". I tried to pull it back, but it almost felt like I was arguing with a child who was drawing on the walls. I tried to make it clear as day that we-that I couldn't kill those policemen.

Rage!

The Raptor protested my reasons, and fought back with its own.

The Enemy! Kill them!

To the Velociraptor, the word "police" was meaningless. They were the enemy.

Rage! Kill! AnGrY!

To the Velociraptor's small gleaming of my needs, it decided they had to go. They would see me otherwise, and we needed to make sure they didn't live to say so.

Enemy! Danger to pack! KiLl!

And they proved that the pack-that my family was in danger. I had to protect them, and I needed to prove that I could do so.

RAGE! Enemy! Attacked! PuNiSh!

Most importantly, these Controllers had attacked first, and then they had shocked me with a taser. They needed to be shown the consequences for messing with me, for caging me like a beast with the intent to use me like cattle.

KILL!KILL!KILL!KILL!

The consequences the Raptor came up were...messy. I didn't know if I could go through with them, just thinking about them made me sick. But the Raptor's logic was sound: I had to get rid of these two.

ANGRY!ANGRY!ATTACK!

And if I wasn't going to do it, then the Raptor would do it for me.

ANGRY!KILL!

Much to my own horror, I really couldn't do anything to stop it.

It was like I was on autopilot when I turned to the Controller in the passenger seat and let out a low hiss through my saurian mouth. He shook his head in confusion, muttering about how he was hearing things to his partner. I repeated my action, and that prompted the Yeerk to turn its host's head to look back at me.

I bit down on his face as hard as I could before he could even react. My clawed hands came up, meeting his skull and neck, and I began tearing through flesh and bone with my fingers and teeth. I could taste blood flowing through my mouth, I could feel it running from my jaws and spilling across the seats.

I relished it.

I hadn't felt a greater catharsis before then in my entire life. It was fun, it felt oh-so satisfying as I tore through the Controller's skull. I didn't stop even after his neck gave out from the punishment, and I had practically torn his head from his torso.

The only thing that would have made it better is if he had been able to scream.

The moment I had chomped down on the first Controller, the one in the driver's seat had obviously figured out what was happening. He had let out a terrified shout as he lost control of the squad car, and the entire vehicle ended up swerving around. The driver quickly reigned it in, barely managing to guide the out of control vehicle into the nearby abandoned lot we had nearly passed.

As he tried to open the door, the Velociraptor noticed.

I dropped the first Controller's head, stabbing a toe claw into the skull to kill the parasite. Then I began kicking the door to my left with all my strength, my reptilian lips curling up into a smile as I saw metal and fabric splinter and crack.

By the time the remaining Controller had opened his door, I had already busted through the back. Maybe he saw me, maybe he didn't, but regardless of that he still tried to run as fast as his fat little legs could carry him.

I put a stop to that really quick, all with a single pounce.

The Controller-or maybe it was the cop himself finally being given his body back-either way they started screaming. I felt intoxicated at this sound, it was like a musical symphony ringing through my ears as his cries for mercy echoed through the air.

I began tearing into his face just like the Controller before him. This time, my toe claws locked into his chest, shearing through his clothes and stabbing into his lungs, cutting off his screams into terrified gurgles. I relished the sound, feeling a pang of elation emanating deep from within me as I tore his upper torso to bloody ribbons.

I ended it by pulling one of my toe claws from the Controller's chest, and placing it onto his head. It was little more than a bloody pulp, with bones and flesh completely missing from the face. I could see the brain, and it was surrounded by something green and foul smelling.

My toe claw came down on it, causing ichor to spill from within the massive cavity I had carved into the human skull. It was exhilarating, killing the slimy parasite. It probably thought it could make it out alive, but I had ended that hope with a simple movement of one of my toes.

That was when the Raptor's mind came down from its high, and I was finally able to put my thoughts together.

First, I had to keep reminding myself that I was not actually a dinosaur. I was a person who had changed their body to be exactly like one with its exact DNA, yes, but I wasn't naturally a dinosaur. I didn't need to snap my jaws at every noise or every sign of movement around me.

Second, I was covered in blood, standing over the mauled body of a police officer while another one was in the back of the nearby police car.

I had already demorphed as fast as I could.

Once I had returned to my human self, I began shivering. Maybe that was because my clothes had ripped when I morphed, or maybe it was the fact that I had killed two people. I just couldn't stop shuddering.

And there was a ringing in my ears too. I had heard people describe that sort of thing when they were in a car accident, or a plane crash, or an earthquake. My ears just kept ringing as I stared down at the police officer at my feet.

I had killed a man-no, I had killed two men.

No, the Yeerks in them. They were sapient creatures, right? It was the Raptor's call to target them, it wasn't mine alone. But...no, even if the policemen were accidental, I had still deliberately killed those Yeerks, I had still made a direct thought on my own through the haze to target them specifically.

Am I...a monster?

I took a deep breath before looking back to the cop car. I could see the dash cam glinting in the afternoon sunlight. I was standing in clear view of it. People would know, worse, the Yeerks would see it.

I was still dazed as I walked back to the squad car. I pulled my backpack out first, alongside the tattered remains of my clothes. I had no idea what I was going to do about them, even if my clothes had remained intact they'd still be covered in blood.

Which made me feel kinda stupid, since I had the foresight to remove my backpack and stash it behind the headrests of the seat. My pack was fine, save for a small speck of blood on it that would be difficult to notice.

Would it be difficult to notice? These were hostile alien invaders, maybe they'd look for whatever they could. And they had telepathic aliens with all sorts of bullshit psychic powers. Could they figure me out just by looking at me?

I didn't know. I didn't even know half of what I should do to deal with all of this. I had no idea how to take out the car's dash cam, or even if that would matter and it was transmitting a feed to somewhere else. There could be dozens of Controllers following them already just waiting around the bend.

It felt like I could barely breathe, like my heart was pounding in my chest. I almost choked on my spit, and I wanted to vomit my lunch. Everything felt wrong, like I was becoming numb to the world around me.

My solution was to re-morph into the Velociraptor.

I felt myself calming down, but the Raptor's mind still made me uneasy. It was like I was now apart of a big ball of anger and murder, because that's all the dinosaur thought about. It was just generally angry, with every thought leading to finding something to kill.

I reigned the beast in, and set out to my first order of business.

Using my tail, I cracked the windshield of the car apart. The glass, while bulletproof, clearly had no way of stopping an ancient predator. Afterwards, it was just a question of cracking the dash cam apart in between my jaws.

I didn't want to take any more chances there. I had dragged my stuff out, as well as the...guh...the second body, from within the vehicle. Then I slammed into the hood, cracking it apart and hoping that I had caused something to catch fire.

I looked around, letting out a low hiss in relief. This lot was completely abandoned, it was around the fringes of the town. Nobody was coming near here, not for a while.

But if this was close to their base, it was worth checking it over later on. Maybe when things had blown over.

After a few more blows to the front of the police car, I grabbed my stuff and ran.

I ducked into the woods and demorphed. I had no way of dealing with my clothes, since they were too far gone to be of any use. I had even held them in my mouth while I ran, to keep them away from my backpack, exacerbating their already shredded appearance.

The only thing I was okay with was the fact that my bandages had been tight enough to morph with me. But I knew it was going to be a problem explaining how my wounds had healed completely to my aunt and uncle, let alone the doctors at the hospital.

I'd cross that bridge when I got to it.

My decision was to discreetly dump my clothes into a sewer opening I had found near the road, hoping that they wouldn't show up any time soon. I think, for the next time this may or may not happen, I'd be bringing a set of morph safe clothes to keep myself decent.

Getting home was...difficult, to say the least. I was trying to not be seen in my underwear, which meant I couldn't just use the streets normally. In fact, most of the time I had to morph my cat self and drag my backpack behind me as discreetly as I could. More than a few times I'd have to hide it, because people noticed a stray cat and instantly went for pets.

I'd only needed to demorph a few times before finally reaching home. All I had to do was jump over the back fence. I left my backpack out near the back fence gate, since I couldn't bring it with me right away.

After giving my neighbors a onceover, I felt safe enough to demorph and call it quits for the day. I got through the back door, and after waiting for anybody to holler from inside, I quickly charged up the stairs and got dressed.

A few minutes later, I was bringing my backpack in and thinking up a way to clean it. Then the phone rang.

I swallowed nervously, before slowly picking it up. "H-Hello?"

"Aaron?! Is that you?"

Shit!

Aunt Jenna, who I was supposed to meet at the mall. As in, she'd be suspicious if I didn't show up. Even though she didn't sound worried or angry, she'd have questions.

I had to think of a lie, fast.

"Uh, hey Aunt Jenna. S-Sorry I'm not at the mall, I was feeling kinda off so I just decided to come home-"

"No, no, it's fine. Gosh, I'm sorry you're not feeling well sweetie," there was an exasperated sigh from the other end of the line, "I was actually hoping for that-guess we need to get you your own cell-anyway, my company has to help with this big event for tonight, so I have to stay late. I was calling in hopes that your uncle would pick up, or you...well, you're there, after all."

"Y-Yeah, that's...uh...that's right," I said, trying to keep my breathing even.

"Hey, I'm sorry I couldn't-"

"No, it's fine Aunt Jenna," I said firmly, "I mean, there's always tomorrow-" I felt my mouth form into a flat line when she let out an anxious noise. "Next week then?"

"I'll have some time soon, I promise," she made a low groan as some other voices could be heard over the line, "I gotta go. I'll be home later in the evening, I promise. A-And I hope you feel better too. We don't want to have too many days off during the first few months of school, do we?"

"No, definitely not. It'll pass by tomorrow, I think," I felt a shudder coursing through, and quietly sucked in a breath of fresh air to calm my nerves. "I'll see you later, Aunt Jenna."

I hung up only a second after she had, the breath I was holding leaving me as a loud sob. I had all but crashed to the floor, clutching my stomach as the dam finally broke.

I had killed two people.

It didn't matter that they kidnapped me, and it didn't matter that they were infested by alien slugs. They were people, they were fucking policemen, and I had turned into an actual monster and ripped them to shreds.

The trip up to my room was done on all fours, as I could barely even sit up straight. I didn't even take the time to put my backpack away, I simply left it in the upstairs hallway before I entered the bathroom.

The next hour or so saw me spending it there, either curled up into a ball on the floor sobbing or making sure I didn't miss the toilet when I lost that day's lunch (and any of my previous ones).

All the while, my mind burned with the memory of what I had done.

The worst part? Somewhere deep down, I felt justified in doing it. That they had deserved it. Maybe the Raptor's mind had affected me somehow, or maybe my own brain was trying to rationalize it to protect me. But something about me was glad I had killed them, that they couldn't bother me anymore.

Everything just felt horrible...

---

The next couple of days went by, and I felt like I was going on autopilot. I would half-heartedly respond to Stevie at lunch, and make small talk with Cassie or Marco if they decided to join in. I really did try to stay involved with everything around me, but I couldn't.

The ringing in my ears was just too deafening. It had started ever since the day with the cops, and it was agonizing. There were times when I couldn't even will it to stop, it was just that incessant-

*SLAM*

I flinched back as Stevie shut his book hard.

The geeky boy noticed me, and gave me a concerned look. "Hey, are you alright? You've been acting weird for the past few days."

"I'm just feeling a bit under the weather," I said nervously, rubbing the back of my head. "I mean, I'm still on painkillers for my injuries, and they're kinda...y'know…"

"When do the bandages come off anyway?" he asked.

"Ah...a couple more weeks I guess," I said weakly.

Stevie looked around the library nervously, before giving me a shaky grin. "Hey, how would you feel about coming over?"

"...Eh? W-What do you mean by that?"

"I mean like, over to my house, y'know?" he noticed my owlish look, and chuckled. "Well, obviously not today. I mean when you get better-like, when you're almost out of your bandages and stuff."

"Y-You...you're actually inviting me to come over?"

"Yeah! We can play video games and compare high scores, talk about the freemasons and illuminati," Stevie shrugged. "You know, normal stuff."

"I...yeah, I'd be cool with that. I'd have to ask my aunt and uncle, but I don't think they'll be bothered by it."

"Sweet!" the boy chuckled. "So, what are you doing after school? We could hang out at the mall and stuff."

"Eh, I was gonna spend some time with my aunt, I think," I said cooly.

"Ah...well, free study is almost up," the geeky boy said dejectedly. "What do you have after this?"

"Home-Ec," I said simply. "We're learning how to make crêpes today. I'm actually looking forward to it."

"A-Aww, damn it!" Stevie whined. "I just have Pre-Algebra. How do you not have it?"

"I have it at a different period, I guess…" I mused. "Either that, or it's still early in the school year, and they're still shifting things around for a bit."

"Yeah, maybe…" he shrugged. The geeky boy stood to his feet and gave me a bright smile as he pulled his backpack along. "Well, I'll see you later. If you change your mind about hanging out, just hit me up before school ends."

"Uh, sure man," I said nonchalantly as I feigned pained groans while standing up. "Have a good afternoon, bud. I'll talk to you later."

I was actually planning on skipping my next class to do some reconnaissance. From what I remembered from...those cops...they had mentioned a pool beneath the school. My only option was to follow the Vice Principal to wherever he would go in between breaks.

Of course, I couldn't be obvious about it, which meant I couldn't tell Stevie that I was following a man who might be host to an alien parasite. As much as I felt I could trust him, he probably wouldn't believe me right off the bat.

Stevie and I parted ways in the hallway, as I ended up losing sight of him somewhere within the hustle of other students getting to classes. But for me, it was only a matter of using what time I had to get to a discreet location without being spotted.

My location of choice was a janitor's closet I had seen scantily being used beforehand. My target was an entirely different janitor's closet, one that I had seen Chapman go into and not come out until an entire class period had passed. Neither one was far away from one another, so it would be easy to get to one and back.

Once I got to the closet, I shed my pack and all but tore off my outer clothes. I had worn a tight-fitting shirt and my skin-tight pants for the endeavor, and I had at least one morph that I thought was suitable for the job.

Once I had forced my discarded clothes into my backpack, I focused. I had realized the best option wasn't a dinosaur, not if I wanted to follow behind unnoticed. The perfect morph for that was something I had found in a pet store at the mall, something that was small enough that Chapman wouldn't see it, but still fast enough to get to where I wanted to go.

When I focused on the creature I had acquired only a day ago, the first thing I noticed was that I was getting smaller, to quite ridiculous levels. I ran a hand over my head, and I swore my hair disintegrated beneath my hands. The skin on my balding head was loose, and it rippled as smooth scales spread across like a canvas being painted over.

It all happened so fast when the room around me became too big, like I was falling endlessly. I felt my hands and feet twist and shift as they changed shape, my feet themselves now no different from my hands. I heard the same familiar popping sounds as a tail emerged from my rear end. My eyes bulged outwards, my eye sockets widening to accommodate their new enlarged size.

And then I was a Gecko.

Not an exotic species of gecko, of course. I was a Western Banded Gecko, a native to the southern part of the State, in fact you might just catch sight of one in your house eating spiders. So finding such an inconspicuous little guy in a pet store was just perfect.

When I emerged from beneath the crack of the door, the lizard's brain was excited by all the sights and smells. This gecko was nocturnal, it wasn't fond of being around during the day. But it seemed to calm down upon sensing movement nearby.

...No...please no.

It was clear I still had to work out my experience with controlling the animals I morphed, because rather than stick to the mission, the gecko veered off course and charged towards a nearby cockroach. The ground flew past me, like a bullet I moved past or over everything in my way-scraps of paper, wads of gum, even...oh, a discarded rubber thing that should not be something a middle schooler should even have. I had just started to reign in the lizard's mind by the time we got to the roach.

It wasn't even a big bug, even compared to the gecko. It was maybe big enough for the lizard to swallow whole, but to a human it wouldn't be anything to worry about.

But that was the problem. Right now, I wasn't human. What I had become was hungry.

My head jerked forward, my jaws snapped, and suddenly I had a bug in my mouth. I could feel the legs of the insect wriggling as it fought, I could sense the thing squirming as it tried to escape. I wanted to spit it out, to vomit at the notion that I would eat a cockroach. But the gecko's mind overtook my own, and I could feel the bug going down my throat as it swallowed for me.

The roach did not go down easy. The texture just felt wrong, it was like swallowing some sort of aged cheese that had been shredded slightly to give it a sandpapery feeling.

I felt myself shivering away the sensation of the insect having fought being put into my stomach. I wanted to demorph, to forget that I had ever become a lizard in the first place, to go back to class and just say that I was late.

But I had a job to do. If I didn't pull this off here, I'd set a precedent for myself that I didn't have what it took to do something to stop them.

It was only a minute or so that I had found my target. Chapman was walking towards the janitor's closet, idly looking around for nearby students or staff. I sped behind him, using the shadows of the lockers to move around without him seeing me, all while the lizard protested against following the "giant" that could step on us. As the controller grew closer to the closet, his apprehension dropped, allowing me to follow him much more closely without getting caught.

Chapman opened the door, and silently entered the closet. I followed, running straight beneath the door as he closed it. I was already hiding by the time he had locked it, and I watched from the darkness as my Vice Principal did...something, with the sink.

He grabbed one of the hooks used to hand dirty mops, and twisted it, causing a small squeaking sound to echo through the room.

And then the wall opened up.

My reptilian nose registered strange smells, and there were stranger sounds too. But over everything, I felt like I might have cracked then and there when something echoed from beyond that doorway in the wall.

Somebody was screaming.

Not just one person either. Many people were screaming, a few were crying out for help. I could hear curses and threats, I could hear people begging and pleading. The cries of despair from beyond that doorway was deafening, especially in a morph as small as this.

Chapman walked through, and I quietly followed, not paying heed as the door closed behind me. There were stairs here, and they were leading to some underground tunnel illuminated with purple light. At first, I had thought it only a few dozen steps, but then I quickly realized it was endless.

Worried that I would be stuck in morph like Elfangor had said, I demorphed only a minute after I had stopped following Chapman, hiding further up the stairs in order to not be seen. As the Human-Controller descended down the stairs without me, I took the time to regain my bearings. It was only a few minutes later that I continued as my base self.

Metal became dirt, then dirt became rock. But eventually, the rock walls widened out as I nearly emerged into a cavern. I quickly hid behind the entrance, shuddering at the sounds I heard, at some of the things I glanced at.

It was now or never.

I quickly began to focus on a morph again, this time not a gecko like before. I remembered the small, wiry looking theropod laying sedated on a table, covered in small feather quills. I focused on the animal's DNA, the memory of its wide eyes staring at me with curiosity still bright in my mind.

The first thing I noticed was that I was getting smaller. Not ridiculously smaller, as a Troodon was maybe the size of a large dog, perhaps almost half the size of a Raptor. But I was getting small enough that it was noticeable.

As I shrunk, I could feel similar changes to when I had morphed the Raptor. My face bulged out, my hands melted together, and my legs and feet shifted to better suit a predatory lifestyle. The Troodon was similar enough to the Velociraptor that it was almost like a smaller version of it, but thinner and less robust.

The differences became apparent when I felt some sort of sacs expanding within my gums, and filling up with liquid. My eyes bugged out, the sockets widening to accommodate their new large size. There were little pinprick sensations as feathers sprouted across me, the quills on my head taking place of my hair.

The changes quickly ended, and once again I was a dinosaur.

It was different this time, though.

The Troodon was just as smart as a Velociraptor, but thought a bit differently. It was…I guess it's difficult to put into words. It was just more enigmatic and stranger when compared to the Raptor. And unlike the Raptor, which was very much not happy with being danced around like a puppet, the Troodon was far more complacent. It figured out what it was, that I could direct and control it like so, and accepted it.

In fact, the Troodon seemed more willing to actually play ball with me than the Raptor was. The Velociraptor, despite clearly being near sapient, still fought against my control and tried to do what it wanted. But the Troodon was actually working with me, shadowing and eclipsing my own mind to give me suggestions on what to do. The Troodon was guiding me just as much as I was guiding it.

It was a weird contrast to the Velociraptor. Maybe that had just been how the Velociraptors were, or rather all the ones created by InGen were that manic. But something about that thought didn't sit right with me.

I shook my head clear of that, reminding myself of the job I had set out to do.

With my new theropod body, I darted away from the stairs, the Troodon's mind silently reminding me to remember their location as I left. I hugged the shadows, taking care to keep the glow of my luminant eyes from being seen as I moved.

The cavern was massive, larger than two Astrodomes and with enough space for a few shopping centers to boot. The entire cave looked like it had been carved some way, it looked almost like a dome of stone around the entire area. At the top, I saw what looked like a hole through which I thought I saw bright red lights shining from within.

All around the edges of the carved dome were more stairways, just like the one beneath my school. They came in from every direction, leading down just like the one I had come from. This entire cavern was under the whole town.

This wasn't some little group of aliens coming to scout our planet, this was an invasion, full throttle. To make what amounted to an underground city without anyone suspecting a thing, it was terrifying.

What the fuck was I supposed to do?

Even as I began hyperventilating, I felt the Troodon's mind eclipse my own. I had to get moving, I was here to do reconnaissance after all. I swallowed my nerves, and clung to the darkness as best I could.

All over the place, I could see what looked like buildings and sheds around the rim of the underground dome. At the far end of the cavern, I could see earthmovers and cranes at work, probably increasing the size of their base. Those things almost seemed normal in comparison to everything else here.

I could see creatures everywhere. From the Hork-Bajir, which somewhat mirrored my own then theropod appearance, to the horrifying and disgusting Taxxons, and even things I couldn't have dreamed of. And there were humans too, far more than there were other aliens.

At the center was a pool, like a miniature lake that was at least a few hundred feet across, perfectly round, and filling up a good portion of the cavern. The water wasn't water however, at least not to my understanding. It looked and moved like melted lead, and it was practically the same color. It was sloshing around, and I soon realized it was doing so because of the hundreds of tiny things swimming beneath the surface.

The Yeerks, in their natural state, did look like slugs. But the similarities basically ended at body shape. Normal slugs had slim, tube-like bodies, but Yeerks had what looked like many flippers guiding them through the liquid. They were sickly green with bits of red and blue shimmering at the edges of their extremities, rather than the dull colors of earth slugs.

All around near the edges of the pool were cages. Some were filled with what looked like humans, others with Hork-Bajir, even some still were filled with things I didn't know the name of. They were the source of the screaming.

The humans cried, begged for help, and more still continued to act in defiance. Others simply sobbed quietly, and worse were the ones who simply sat in their cages, waiting for the inevitable. There were even children begging for their parents, crying out for somebody to get them.

The Hork-Bajir were all put in separate cages, much stronger than those of the humans. Many of them paced and howled, slashing at the air with their claws. Nearby controllers simply jeered and taunted them as they did so.

This was like a nightmare breathed to life, where hope died within you. This was hell, and I was all alone, weak and powerless.

‹Courage, my friends.›

Elfangor's words, and his dying courage, flashed through me like a lightbulb turning on. Then the memory of the Velociraptor's vicious motives burned through my thoughts. All of them settled along the Troodon's cold fury as it watched along with me.

I felt like I no longer had to regret what I had done. I no longer cared whether the Yeerks had evolved this way or not. Any sympathy I might have had for them died with this vision of horror before me. All I could think about was waging war.

I was already shuffling through the darkness, rage simmering down as I continued my mission. I had to know what I would be up against.

I got closer to the pool, and noticed a pair of steel piers attached to it. Hork-Bajir and Taxxons would lead humans towards the pool.

On one, innocent creatures would struggle as their heads were forced into the alien liquid for almost half a minute, only for them to emerge with no fight and a bright smile sent to their fellow Controllers. On the other pier, the Controllers would walk to the end of the pier and hold their arms out, allowing two large Hork-Bajir to grab hold of them. They would then bend over, keeping their heads just a few inches above the pool, allowing the Yeerk to emerge and return to the liquid to recharge. The former Controller would then begin struggling, begging for freedom and screaming for help.

But it was the other area that got me. I felt like the hatred and rage brewing within me would reach a boiling point when I saw it.

It was like a little rec room, or a lounge, with comfy chairs and couches. Humans would sit on the chairs, Hork-Bajir wherever they pleased, and quite a few Taxxons lethargically squirmed around like giant, content maggots. Some of them were sipping drinks, and all of them were watching TV.

A person screamed, but it was like none of these others in their lounge reacted. But something on that TV caused an uproar, as all the viewers would laugh and cheer with one another.

These were the collaborators.

They were people willingly allowing themselves to be controlled by these piles of slime, and they were happy about it. These monsters were sitting by while their own kind were suffering, and they were too busy having a laugh at SNL or something.

I wanted to screech, to finally put the Troodon's venom to use and see what it did.

But I couldn't, not yet. I felt a presence take up the entire Yeerk pool, and I clung back to the darkness, stricken in terror. I was frozen in place wishing I could cry at the metaphorical dagger pressed towards my heart.

It was him.

It was a blue furred being, with a body shape akin to a deer and about the same size. An Andalite...you could describe them as centaurs from their body plan, and you wouldn't be far off, but there were many big differences from the creatures of legend.

The upper "torso" of an Andalite was actually an elongated and thick neck that looked almost similar to a human torso. Just below where human shoulders and arms would be on a human torso were Andalite arms and hands. They were thinner than those of a human, but Andalites have seven fingers that seemed to move much more nimbly than ours.

The triangular head was only vaguely human-like, in fact it looked more like a deer's head that was flattened close to human proportions and had most of its facial features removed. Andalites had no mouth, instead having a trio of slits over the area where a human mouth and nose would be, most likely taking the place of the latter. Funny thing, I still had no idea how they ate.

Atop the head of an Andalite was an extra pair of eyes sitting upon stalks, which swiveled around to gaze at their surroundings while the Andalite's primary pair of eyes stared forward. They all seemed to share large eyes that all have similar shades of green, at least if I went by the two Andalites I've already seen at this point.

And of course, the Andalite's tail was long and almost snake-like, flicking around the air lazily like that of a sleepy cat's. But if needed, the tail could move with fearsome speed, and it didn't stop there with its potential lethality. At the end of the tail of an Andalite was a wickedly curved scythe-like blade, one that could pierce skin and possibly even slice through bone.

Andalites looked cool, in my own opinion. They were the first aliens I had seen, and the fact that the universe had defied my expectations of funky green men was both equal parts amusing and depressing. Amusing because they were these cute, quirky looking centaur-like deer that seemed nice. Depressing because there were no blue-skinned space babes like in movies and on tv.

This Andalite though, he was wrong. This was Visser Three, the only Yeerk to have an Andalite host. The only Yeerk who could morph like I could, and despite my budding arsenal of prehistoric monsters stored somewhere within me, I had nothing that could stand up to what he had beneath his belt.

Not yet that is, but if I didn't plan an escape correctly here, then that wouldn't be any time soon.

The Andalite-Controller was stalking around the edges of the pool with a confident stride and an arrogant expression. There was a group of humans following him closely, all vying for his attention as they debriefed him on whatever item they had been assigned to by him.

I was silently praying that they didn't notice me. I was begging my thoughts to stay in my own head, hoping that he wouldn't find me through them alone.

‹Iniss 226,› Visser Three's mental voice echoed through my mind as a group of Human-Controllers followed him. ‹I hope that the news you have for me is beneficial.›

Chapman walked forward, clearing his throat as he addressed his boss. "U-Unfortunately, sir, we've hit a bit of a snag. Two of ours, they were found dead."

‹Where were they found?›

"If you mean where they were both found," the Human-Controller scratched his head, "w-well, technically they were found near an abandoned lot. Their squad car was empty and slightly burned-"

‹Ah, those two! Tell me, what do you mean by "technically"?›

"Well, when we found them…" Chapman gave Visser Three a queasy look. "They were...all over the place...literally."

‹Of course...› the Visser growled angrily, ‹it was another Andalite! Yet again they continue to disrupt our plans.›

"Ah, yes sir. I'm well aware of the squad of Andalites that broke in just a couple of weeks ago."

Wait, what?

"Might I suggest beefing up security to prevent it from happening again, sir?"

‹I shall delegate to do so when I see fit!› the Andalite-Controller growled, raising his tail blade slightly.

Chapman backed away nervously, holding his hands up. "M-My apologies, sir!"

They mentioned a squad of Andalites, but there were no more Andalites on the planet, not after Elfangor was eaten.

Which means there could only be one explanation that made sense. Those other kids from the construction site who were given the power to morph as well. And they were making damn good use of it.

Now I just had to find out who they were. Just get that, and find a way to break into InGen, and I-we're all set. We wouldn't be able to bring an end to this, but if we could coordinate, we could make a big enough dent to stall the Yeerks in time for the Andalites to arrive.

‹Those two Policemen, they were after (Blank), correct?›

"The boy with connections to InGen, yes," Chapman nodded. "We're worried about that as well, sir. We think that he and his family are beginning to...notice…"

‹Then find a way to fix it!› the Andalite-Controller hissed. ‹Send in a pack of Hork-Bajir for all I care! Just capture them and bring them to me!›

No way in hell that was gonna happen!

‹Tell me, is that all there is?›

"N-Not quite, sir," Chapman gave Visser Three a shaky smile. "Uh, Visser Seven is here, he was hoping to talk."

Visser Three's four stolen eyes narrowed at the Human-Controller. ‹He should have been long gone by now. What reason could he have to speak to me?›

"It's about the resistance from the Anati system's-"

‹Or rather, lack thereof,› the Andalite-Controller huffed. ‹I distinctly remember Halfrek taking over the entire Anati system. More than a few Shuldidnians line our stocks,› Visser Three motioned to several of the cages around the pool before sneering at his subordinates with one of his stalk eyes. ‹What resistance is there? He has no reason to stay here when I am busy trying to-›

There was a soft voice echoing from nearby as somebody called to Visser Three out of my view. The Andalite-Controller's secondary set of eyes swiveled around, angrily leaning forward as he glared at the newcomer. Yet another few words were spoken in a language I couldn't understand, but I could feel something behind them, it was like I had to hang on every word even if I didn't know what was being said.

An entirely different presence filled the area, one no less oppressive than Visser Three's. Three individuals, all dressed in tight fitting black clothes beneath dark cloaks. If it weren't for the night vision of my Troodon morph, I would have mistaken them for weird humans.

But these three, they were different.

Not too different from humans, but different from Andalites. From Taxxons, from Hork-Bajir, from all the other alien hosts the Yeerks had that were bustling around the entire cavern. These human-like things, they were far different from what I had assumed to be the norm. Just the fact that they looked so human, yet not, was especially strange when compared to everything else.

So...those were Shuldidnians?

The word "elf" came to mind as I tried to attach a proper descriptive word to them. If Andalites were centaurs, then Shuldidnians were like elves, or even fairies, and I would hear either of those words being used to describe them for the next several years. They could fit both definitions too, either as pointy-eared supermodels, or funny looking little people that would be messing around in a shoemaker's shop after hours.

The three of them were all shorter and thinner than humans, even the tallest of them was only a couple of inches above me in height. They also looked extremely feminine-yes, all three of them-to the point that it was only because the one in front was wearing tight clothes that I could even tell he was male at first.

Their skin, or rather their skin colors, looked eerily like they could work on humans, but they were just plain unnatural. The male had golden skin-not a tan, but the color itself was actually a metallic pale gold color. Similarly, the other two Shuldidnian-Controllers had metallic reddish-brown skin, like copper.

Their hair was different shades of red. The leader had what looked to be burgundy colored locks that went down to his neck, while his subordinates had dark auburn and copper colored hair respectively. Their ears were pointed, yes, but they weren't ridiculously longer than a human's by any means, and with the Troodon's night vision I could see that they were somewhat similar to the ears of a bat, with small ridges running along the outer ear.

They had human-like faces, but they all looked so angelic and sweet in a way I couldn't describe. They had sharply symmetrical facial features that were quite literally exaggeratingly gorgeous, yet clearly too beautiful to be human. They had cute button noses, with softly pointed tips that twitched almost like a rabbit's.

And finally, the eyes.

Their eyes were something else entirely. They were a bit larger than a human's, but the iris itself took up a majority of the eye itself, to the point that it was harder to see the whites of their eyes even from where I stood. Their pupils too were very large, at least when they weren't contracted.

As they walked towards Visser Three, I could see that their eyes had a bright glow to them that faded as they grew closer to the lights over the Yeerk pool. The lead Shuldidnian-Controller's eyes glowed a fiery red before fading to a less bright but still unnerving pinkish-red color. His two companions mirrored him, their differing shades of glowing violet eyes fading to either dark blue or black.

I knew the one leading. The night Elfangor was eaten, this Shuldidnian-Controller was there, floating through the air and spewing flames from his hands. That he was near the top of the chain of command like Visser Three made everything worse.

‹Do you honestly think that the refugees from the Anati system are close by?› Visser Three growled with his mental voice as he leaned towards the Shuldidnian-Controller. ‹They would surely have heard from the Andalites by now that this system is not safe, wouldn't they Halfrek?›

Halfrek, or Visser Seven I guess, said something else in whatever language he was using. Upon seeing Chapman and several other Human-Controllers giving him looks, he let out a short sigh.

"I believe the news hasn't reached them yet, if we take into consideration your destruction of the Andalite fleet," the Yeerk's host had a melodious voice that still felt so wrong as it spoke through him. "We captured two scouting ships, so we know that their fleet is nearby. If I can capture just one of their Capitol Shuttles, I'll have acquired an entire third of the remaining population that wasn't infested."

‹And you think you can finally recoup from your failure to deal with these stragglers?›

"The Council of Thirteen didn't hold the loss of the 'stragglers' over my head," Visser Seven told the Andalite-Controller with a mocking voice. "Why, the takeover of Anati's race was far more successful than that of the Ssstram…"

Visser Three's tail blade surged forward threateningly, the Andalite-Controller letting out a mental growl as he came close to taking the elfin head off. It was only when sparks lit around Visser Seven's hands that the Andalite-Controller halted.

"And here I thought you appreciated my assistance, Esplin," the Shuldidnian-Controller clicked his teeth mockingly.

"Ah, my Vissers…" Chapman piped up. "Perhaps this isn't the best place to discuss this right now."

The two Vissers looked around, realizing that they were in fact near the front of the pool. Nearby Controllers had been nervously eyeing them when they had spoken, only looking away when their superiors finally noticed.

Visser Three let out a short huff through his nose slits. ‹Yes, it would be preferable to continue this conversation in private.›

"But of course," the Shuldidnian-Controller gave a command to his subordinates in the alien language he had used before. The two female Shuldidnians peeled away from him, and he motioned towards the Andalite-Controller. "Lead the way, Esplin…"

As the two Vissers left for a more private area, I realized I had to get going. I had done reconnaissance now, I knew what I was up against, and just how screwed we all were. I just needed to get past a large amount of Controllers that now stood between me and the door back to my school.

I think it was by pure luck that a Klingon showed up. Perhaps calling it a Klingon wasn't right, because the Controller that I followed only had a host that looked like one superficially, as it was far more armored and bird-like than the Klingons I knew from the movies and show. But just like in the movies, it was bulky enough to hide around as I moved without drawing attention from it or any of the other Controllers.

I felt eyes on me for only a second, and even at the Troodon's light insistence not to, I swiveled my head to get a good look. One of the Shuldidnian-Controllers Visser Seven had left behind was scanning the room. I swore one of them passed over me with their gaze, but it quickly became clear that they had far more important things to worry about.

One of the Shuldidnians in the cages had already woken up. I quickly found out why they were all drugged when arcs of electricity sparked from within the cage she was in, knocking away several nearby Hork-Bajir. The alien woman let out a slurred screech as she tried to will her electric discharge onto the locking mechanism.

The two Shuldidnian-Controllers Visser Seven had brought with him exchanged a single glance with one another, before silently stalking towards the now awake humanoid. With a single motion of their hands, the bolts of lightning from the woman in the cage were practically siphoned away towards them through one hand each, their free hands pointing residual electricity into the stone ground.

I wanted to help. To charge over and take a bite out of each of those freakish fairie-like aliens keeping that woman in the cage. I would figure out what the Troodon's venom did, and I'd save somebody from the fate I saw all around me.

But the dinosaur's mind was persistent. It eclipsed my own again, and with some gentle nudging, I was running past the Klingon-like creature as it stared on at the spectacle. My reconnaissance mission was over, there was no more for me to do.

Before I had gotten back to class, I had wetted my hair copiously with the sink in the Janitor's closet. Swirlies, for the entire first ten plus minutes of the class period, were strange but not unheard of, and my teacher seemed less angry and more sympathetic.

I didn't even care that I wasn't allowed to eat my crêpes. I was too busy plotting what I could do to at least try to fight them…

---

"You were nearly out for the first part of class? That's ridiculous!"

I shrunk back nervously. "W-Well, it's just a sort of...hazing thing, I guess. You know, screw with the new kid-"

"I think it's a bit much," my aunt said sternly as we walked towards the mall food court. "Seriously, what the heck set them off?"

"They thought I'd look nice with my hair wet," I shrugged, "I disagreed...they disagreed with my disagreement, and they weren't interested in agreeing to disagree."

"And you still have your bandages on," Jenna gave me an indescribable look. "You could let me know if anything happens, you know that? I mean, you don't have to keep this stuff bottled up."

"Nobody is s-stalking me after hours or anything, so there's not much to say," I said with only a small hitch in between, trying to maintain a tired expression within my voice. "I'm just gonna bear with it for the time being."

"That is not a good thing," she told me. "Look, I'll see if I can't call the principal about this. If anything happens, please just let a teacher know."

"Y-Yeah, alright Aunt Jenna. I'll try to be more proactive about it, I guess…" I trailed off.

The mall was as packed as ever, mostly with kids hanging out after school. I noticed more than a few classmates shuffling about as they tried to traverse the crowds. But the area was still clear enough that we didn't have to jump up to get a look at the store logos.

"Now come on! Let's get away from this mopey talk about bullies, and start snackitizing some Mickey Ds!"

"Snackitize is not a word, Aunt Jenna-"

"Snackatize is a word if I say it's a word!" she cackled, pointing to the nearby McDonalds with a wide grin. "Now come on, we're snackatizing!"

I let out an embarrassed groan as we walked up to the line. After several minutes, we had gotten our orders and sat down at a nearby table. All the while, I was hoping that nobody around us was somebody I'd recognize from school.

"So, your uncle says he's gonna talk to the CEO," Aunt Jenna said in between bites. "Since you had an incident with that "lizard", he thinks he can convince the guy to let us stay here."

"How would he do that?"

"Probably something involving a bigger "lizard" in the near future," she told me. "I'm pretty sure it has something to do with some facility in San Diego nearby."

"Is that so?" I mused, leaning back in my chair slightly as I eyed our surroundings. "Should we be talking about this in public?"

"Relax, as long as we're using code words it should be fine," my aunt shrugged. "Your uncle and I talk about work like that all the time."

"Ah, yeah! What about you? You never really mention your job that much."

"Pfft, what? You actually wanna know what I'm always busy with?" she gave me an incredulous look as I nodded, "well, that's actually a surprise."

"I know, I know! But, considering my incident with the "lizard", anything seems better to talk about," I deadpanned. "So yeah, I'd like to know more than just that you do catering or whatever."

"Oh, sure thing kiddo," my aunt took a big bite out of her burger, giving me a cheerful grin as she ate. "So, my company is like a party planning and catering company, but for big corporations and charity organizations and stuff."

"So, you guys set up big events, right?"

"Yeah, like there was this charity event that Weyland corp had a few months before we moved. My company was the one who set up the location and did all the planning and catering to the event," she let out a small giggle at my dumbfounded look. "Yeah, the big tech company. I was in meetings with their big brass in the months leading up to all of it."

I chewed the inside of my cheek and leaned forward a bit. "So, you said The Sharing had contacted you about stuff like that?"

"Yeah! I haven't met any of the big guys up top, but I have a meeting scheduled with one guy-Victor Trent, his name is-who's leading the local branch. He's supposed to be one of their leaders," Jenna tilted her head in thought. "He always seems sorta busy, so I haven't had the chance to meet him. Hell, the meeting I did get doesn't even go for a full hour."

Sounded suspicious. If this guy Victor was the leader of The Sharing, he'd need to be in long meetings all day to make sure things went smoothly, especially with public events. A person can't just confine themselves to a window of less than an hour, even if they are infested by a Yeerk.

Unless, of course, they weren't normally a "person" all the time.

"So, what's their event about anyway?"

"Just a basic one. They're mostly all over the country, but the one around here is a bit new, so they're basically trying to get themselves out there, show support for common hot button issues, the like," my aunt waved her hands slightly and shook her head. "I know you probably aren't a fan of them, actually. I can't say I appreciate one of their members acting like that either."

"Y-Yeah, what my school's VP did was nuts, but…" I shrugged. "I mean, I guess if they're doing some charity work, they can't all be bad."

Honestly, what am I supposed to tell her?

'Hey Aunt Jenna, be careful around that Victor guy when you meet him. I know he might seem nice and lead a cool community organization, but he's actually an alien parasite that's probably infesting another alien with the ability to shapeshift.'

I'd sound like a lunatic.

"So, n-nothing weird is going on with the event, is it?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could.

"Ugh, just some issues from the other day. I was dragged in because a bunch of my coworkers had just up and vanished," Aunt Jenna shrugged tiredly. "They showed up the next day, had these weird excuses. Now, they're clocking out a bit too early every few days or so. Kind of annoying if you ask me."

I fought back a shiver that threatened to run down my spine. If they were that close to my aunt, to getting her, I didn't know what to do. She knew I was in the construction site, and she knew I was near a Velociraptor.

I knew how the situation would end if things came to that.

"So, what about you? Anything, other than the...you know...happening at school?" a sly grin tugged at her lips. "Maybe something involving a girl?"

"No, nothing like that," I said tiredly. "I'll wait till I'm sure we're staying before I start trying to get into...t-that," I bit my lower lip slightly as I tried to hold back a blush. My aunt covered her mouth to stifle her chuckles, so I continued. "My new friend, Stevie, he actually wanted to know if I'd be willing to come over some time."

"...Like, a sleepover?"

"N-No, he just said if I wanted to come over to hang out," I shrugged. "Y'know, play video games, talk, maybe talk about conspiracy theories," I chuckled at my aunt's surprised look, and shook my head. "Yeah, I know. He's big on stuff like alien abductions and other things like that."

"Okay then...so, when does he want to hang out?"

"He said he'd be okay with waiting for my bandages to come off," I said, holding up my still covered hands, "so, I guess like in a week or so?"

"How do they feel?"

"Ah...they're better," I said, making weak flexing motions with my hands to keep up the illusion of injury, "I don't think I need to worry about opening them up, so I'm really just waiting for them to come off."

"Are you worried they're gonna look...well…"

"I'm worried that they'll look bad because of the incident with the "lizard", yes," I deadpanned.

"You'll look fine," she chided gently, "and yeah, I'm cool if you hang out at a friend's house. You're fine to get out and do stuff like that, I think it would be good for you."

"What about Uncle Reese?" I asked, "would he be okay with it?"

"Aaron, ask yourself that exact question," Aunt Jenna's lips twisted into a sweet grin in response to the look that must have been on my face. "Yeah, you know won't have any problems from either of us."

"I...I don't know…"

"Hey, if things work out, you won't have to worry about leaving everything behind again," my aunt gave me a gentle look when I sagged in place. "Things are gonna be different this time, I know it."

"Yeah, I guess things are a bit different here," I mused, remembering all the things that had happened.

"Hey, what movies are in the theater? I thought I saw one about aliens being advertised," she said in between bites. "What would you think if I bought tickets?"

"Wait, you mean Independence Day? I haven't seen it yet myself, actually," I dipped some fries in my ketchup as I thought it over. "I mean, if you wanna watch it after we're done eating, I'm down."

"Sweet! We can finish this up, and then, onto the action movie!"

"Yeah, sure. Just...don't be surprised when there's swearing-"

"It's an action movie," my aunt deadpanned. "I think swearing is gonna be par for the course."

"Yeah, sure, sure...oh, and no talking during the movie like last time," I finished, grimacing when she went silent for a few seconds.

"I promise I won't," she said nervously.

"Aunt Jenna, you have to promise you won't have a repeat of when we watched the

Neverending Story."

"It wasn't that bad!"

"Uncle Reese still cries over Artax!" I said sternly. "You could have ripped the bandage off gently after the scene ended."

"Alright, alright! I'll be quiet during the movie…" she groaned.

A few minutes later, we were finished eating and already on our way to the movie theater. She mentioned how she wanted to grab popcorn, even after I had shot it down due to us having just ate. But halfway towards the theater, I felt like something was...off…

There was a guy following us. He wore casual clothes, and even sunglasses, clearly trying his best to seem like he was a part of the crowd. But I realized I had seen him back at the food court, and for whatever reason he was following at a distance.

I was about to tell my aunt, when I ended up bumping into somebody.

By total coincidence, it was somebody I vaguely recognized. It took a bit for me to realize who this kid was, he was just a bit tiller than me, had dark brown hair, and a perpetually serious look in his dark eyes. But I knew him from...somewhere, I think.

"Jake! Oh gosh, I'm so sorry-Aaron?" Cassie's familiar face, now with an owlish expression, popped out from a nearby crowd. "Uh, hey! How's it going?"

Upon seeing my aunt perk up, I sighed. "Hey, Cassie. Aunt Jenna, this is my friend from school-" I realized Jake was giving me some sidelong glance with an expression I couldn't quite read, and I motioned to him as well. "And this is Jake, her boyfriend I guess."

"B-Boyfriend?!" the brunette sputtered, a dark blush spreading across his face. "W-We're not-I don't-"

"Eep! So nice to meet you two!" my aunt squealed happily. "I think this is the first time I've ever met any of his friends."

Jake looked like he might have said something, but it was obvious he saw my mortified look by the way he clenched his jaw. He tilted his head slightly at something behind me, narrowing his eyes slightly before turning back to my aunt with a cheerful grin plastered across his face.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed the strange man that had been following us walking away, still trying to be discreet as he hauled ass.

"Yeah, Aaron is a pretty cool guy from what I heard," the brunette said, his voice actually sounding pretty sincere. "That is, I heard about those guys in the library. I'm glad somebody was there to stick it to those jerks."

"If by stick it you mean losing, then yes. I'm glad I got my ass kicked too," I deadpanned.

"Well, I'm glad somebody at least stood up to them," Cassie cleared her throat as she fought back a flustered look. "And it's been pretty nice, spending time with you and Stevie at lunch and free study...and also going over conspiracy theories about underwear logos."

"Wait, what?" Jake wheezed out.

"Hey, is that Aaron?" a familiar voice called out. Marco practically slid around from behind the other two, a bright smile gracing his face. "Hey there A+, nice seeing you here. And who is this lovely girl you're on a date with?"

Jenna let out a barking laugh as I sputtered. "Haha! N-No, I'm his aunt. I know, I know, I look really young."

"Act like it too," I said offhandedly.

"Don't be a butt, Aaron!" she chided.

"That's not helping your case!" I took a deep breath, before motioning to the shorter boy. "This is Marco. He's pretty cool too, we shared some jokes at lunch the other day."

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am," Marco gave her a playful wink as he shook her hand.

"Please, none of that "ma'am" talk. I swear, I'm not that old," my aunt giggled.

Amidst Marco's chuckles, Cassie cleared her throat. "S-So, what are you two up to anyway?"

"We're just hanging out since we never get the chance-y'know, 'cause we never stay in the same place for long," she tilted her head at the three of them, glancing at me for a split second before giving them a beaming grin. "Are you three busy? Aaron and I were gonna watch a movie together. If you wanna come, I could pay for tickets and popcorn."

"Which one?"

"Independence Day," I told the dark-haired boy.

Marco's eyes lit up at this. "That sounds cool! I actually haven't seen it yet-"

"We're gonna have to decline, sorry," Jake said flatly, much to the shorter boy's indignation. "We have to meet up with my cousin, Rachel, so we can make sure she doesn't break her wallet over her latest shopping spree."

"Aww, phooey," my aunt said dejectedly.

"I...can't we just meet up with her later?" Marco pleaded. "Free movie? Come on Jake!"

"I mean, I guess I can hash out some cash for popcorn," I said offhandedly.

"See? He won't even let me have popcorn because we already went to McDonalds," my aunt let out a faux whine.

"I only said that I didn't want popcorn," I corrected, "I'll just buy some...I guess I'll get Twizzlers."

"It's a tempting offer," Jake said firmly. "But we're going to have to decline. We really need to meet up with my cousin to make sure she's alright."

"Jake, what about-"

"I wanna make sure that nobody goes overboard while shopping," Jake told Marco sternly. "The stuff we're looking to get can be pretty expensive, Marco."

Marco actually looked dumbfounded by the way Jake was speaking. Cassie seemed to understand whatever the taller boy was talking about, considering she was covering her face with her hand while letting out an exasperated groan. Despite this, and the shorter boy's pleading, Jake remained firm.

With the way he was acting, and how he spoke...it almost seemed like code of some sort. Maybe not the best of code, but he was using some sort of coded words that didn't make sense.

...Maybe they-

"Aww, that's a shame," Aunt Jenna hummed awkwardly as she lightly jabbed her elbow into my side. "Well, if Aaron and I see you guys again, the offer still stands. Or it'll just be Aaron, he could use some company."

I shook my head tiredly, annoyed that I had lost my train of thought yet again. "I mean, if they wanted to hang out, I'd be cool. But-"

"He spends his afternoons here brooding, you can't miss him," my aunt chuckled.

Jake seemed to be holding back a laugh at this, and gave me a short nod. "Yeah, it'd be cool to hang out sometime," the tall boy shrugged halfheartedly before holding a hand out towards me. "It was nice meeting you, man. Think about cashing in that rain check sometime."

"It was nice meeting you too," I said as I hesitantly shook his hand. "And yeah, I'll definitely think about that-maybe after my hands stop looking like they belong to a mummy."

The brunette tilted his head, taking notice of my bandages, and snorted. "Yeah, those look like they're strangling your fingers or something."

"And I'd rather not deal with the Pharaoh's curse, thank you very much," Marco piped up jokingly, still visibly disappointed but smiling nonetheless. "It was nice talking to ya, A+. Also, your aunt is way cool."

Aunt Jenna nudged my side excitedly with her elbow. "Did you hear that? He thinks I'm "way cool". Isn't that way cool?"

"Yeah, sure is," I said somewhat unenthusiastically.

"It was nice seeing you, Aaron," Cassie said cheerfully. Her expression fell when she received a sharp look from Jake, and she let out an exasperated sigh. "I-uh...I'll see you at school tomorrow. Oh, and it was nice meeting you too, Mrs. (Blank)."

"It was nice meeting you too," my aunt smiled at the girl, and gave all three of them a happy wave as they left. When they were further away, she nudged my side with her elbow yet again. "So, you're just friends, huh?"

"Like I said, she clearly has a boyfriend," I deadpanned.

"Ah, right," she chuckled. "Just guys being guys, calling dibs on everything."

"I'm into redheads anyway," I half-joked, "and like I said, we just moved here, and I'm only 13. I think I can wait a few more years."

He says while preparing to turn himself into dinosaur John Rambo to fight aliens.

...I never thought I'd ever use that sentence to describe my life. I wanted to be self-deprecating, but it just sounds so ridiculous. I can't believe that's what my life is now like.

"Alright, we gonna go see this action movie or what?"

"Or what?" I responded.

"Don't be a butt," my aunt faux chided.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll foot the bill for some popcorn."

"Wee!"

I think I felt something was off only a second after we began walking to the theater. While Cassie and her friends were farther away, they weren't entirely out of earshot. So I heard more than a few things that they said.

Jake, he was saying something about not "trusting" me. I could barely hear it, but Marco seemed to agree. This was all over Cassie's protests about how I might be the "one" they were looking for. When I turned my head back to discreetly look at them, their argument only seemed to be growing more heated.

"My friend Jake, his brother is a member of The Sharing," Marco's words from a week ago echoed in my head. "All he ever says is that they "have a lot of fun" there."

I felt a shiver run down my back. It wasn't too difficult to think about it, that every interaction I've had with Cassie and Marco could have been engineered. Cassie dropping her books, that by itself could have been a meticulous plan, and everything that happened immediately after was a simple fluke that made it seem more natural. All so they could get at least two people tracking my every move.

That explained it. How those two police Controllers were able to nab me just after school the other week. It explained Chapman snooping around before what happened with the Velociraptor, how the neighbors were constantly pushing past boundaries out of nowhere.

Just how many people around me now had been taken by them. That guy in the sunglasses, he could have easily been tailing us to keep track of our movements, but had to duck out because I had already figured him out.

"Hey? Earth to Aaron!"

"H-Huh?" I blinked as my aunt waved a hand in front of my face. "Oh, s-sorry, did I space out?"

"Kinda. We're practically here," she said motioning to the front of the theater as we drew closer to the entrance. "Come on, let's go before tickets sell out. This movie looks like it's really popular."

"Yeah, I'd imagine it is…" I trailed off.

Several minutes later, we were stuck in front of a big screen watching through the trailers, while listening to other moviegoers hissing angrily at each other in the dark. It gave me time to think about them, about how the Yeerks had slipped up.

That guy with the sunglasses, he had most likely called in some other Controllers when he felt his cover had been blown. That led to Jake, probably on command from his fellow Controller and brother, to intercept and provide a distraction along with Cassie and Marco. If the Yeerks had chosen anybody else, maybe some random person or even somebody my aunt knew from her job, I wouldn't have wised up.

But I wasn't gonna let myself get caught off guard by them again.

"Oh, oh! It's starting!" Aunt Jenna whispered. "Ooh, is that the moon? So cool~!"

I think it was ironic, the way the movie started. Mostly because they actually managed to catch the signal coming straight from the moon within the first 10 minutes of the movie.

If only it were like that for real.

---

"W-Wow, your hands," my uncle said owlishly, looking at my now unbandaged hands. "They, uh...they look pretty...clean, I guess is the word I'd use."

I sat in the hospital room, flinching back at the look from both my aunt and uncle, and the doctor that had fixed me up. The old man looked at me in muted shock, clearly holding back his incredulity that I was completely unharmed. Neither my hands, nor my stomach had the marks they should.

Rather, they retained what looked like the indents of markings across my skin. It's that thing that happens when you press down on your skin for long enough with a hard object or really tight fitting clothes. The bandages had been tight enough that they had pressed down on the general shape of all my injuries, and when morphing healed me, the marks stayed.

The skin indents would fix themselves in a couple of days, just like any other time, and the mark on my stomach, thankfully, seemed a darker shade of red than my hands, so it might stay a while longer...but still, it did look pretty bad. Sure, people could heal from animal attacks all the time, but having barely anything to show for it? Y-Yeah, this looked pretty bad from an outside perspective.

"It almost looks like nothing was ever there," Aunt Jenna said with a mystified voice. "I mean, maybe save for some weird red marks."

"It does all feel kinda...itchy," I said shyly.

"They're bandages. That's normal," my uncle chuckled, "I remember the first time I broke my leg. Your grandpa, he kept taking forks away from me because I was so done with the itching beneath the cast."

"Hah! You could use a fork?" my aunt shook her head. "Broke both arms once, I could barely use a straw to scratch in one."

"That is...very fascinating," the old doctor said absently. He gave me an indecipherable look, before backing away slightly. "If you'll excuse me, I have to make a phone call."

I fought back a wince as the doctor left the room. I knew he was going to call Wu, and what came of it I'd never know. Every trail of thought about it led to either blackmail, or reptoids knocking down my front door.

"This...this doesn't look weird, does it?" I asked my aunt and uncle.

Both my aunt and uncle tilted their heads, looking at me like I had grown an extra nose or something of the sorts.

"I mean...it looks...I guess..." Aunt Jenna hesitated for several seconds before giving me a firm look. "Aaron, you're alright now, that's all that matters sweetie."

I think it was then that I realized why nobody knew about the alien invasion, or at least most normal people. Because somebody has to have, at least once or twice, seen a Hork-Bajir or a Taxxon somewhere even by complete accident, and ignore it. Even the existence of The Sharing, which acts like a creepy cult, doesn't really bother most of the other kids in school.

"Yeah, it's...it's abnormal," my uncle just shrugged tiredly. "But right now, it doesn't really matter."

I think Uncle Reese summed it up best there. Of course he mentioned a "right now", meaning they'd have questions for later, but it told me everything. Even if his company knew something, my uncle was happy being in his normal life where he didn't have to deal with anything crazier than he was already used to.

Just like everybody else.

That it was my uncle, who worked with live dinosaurs, made it much worse. It was like there was some higher power trying to make sure everything stayed under wraps.

"Y'know, I'm pretty sure the doctor is checking with the company insurance," Uncle Reese said offhandedly. "That contract you signed covers these sorts of things-really, all the company contracts do-so you're probably getting a substantial check."

"Wait, really?"

"That you'll get when you're 18," Aunt Jenna said sharply, "we'll put it into a savings account where it'll grow. But you're not blowing any of that moola on blackjack and hookers any time soon, buster!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Save it for college," I said wistfully. "Pretty interesting to know you guys have that in there. T-The contracts, that is. I'm glad I didn't nearly get eaten for nothing."

"Spared no expense!" my aunt said, in a way that seemed to mock the phrase itself. "That'd be the company motto, per your boss."

"Spared too much, as of late," Uncle Reese said tiredly. Then he cleared his throat and quickly straightened his posture. "So, uh, I heard that your friend invited you over to his place."

"Oh yeah, Stevie. You met him when I got suspended-he was the geeky kid in the glasses remember? Um…" I scratched the back of my head nervously. "I said I'd try to hang out before I got these off...m-maybe now they're actually off, I might-"

"Aaron, you don't even need to ask," he chuckled, "You wanna go over to a friend's house? Go ahead, sport, I'm not gonna stop you."

"Really? You're okay with it, just like that?" I asked blankly.

"Aaron, I think it'd be good for you," he said kindly. "I...I know that since we never stayed in one place for long, you haven't made many friends. This time-" my uncle hesitated for a split second before continuing, "this time, it will be different. I promise."

"I...t-thank you," I stuttered out weakly, "and all of that, it isn't your fault. I mean, I managed to make do, I guess."

My uncle looked like he was about to say something, at least for a split second, before his cellphone began ringing. He looked like he was about to put it on silent, then his face scrunched up like he had eaten an entire bag of lemon candies.

"Mr. Ludlow, good to hear from you. I was just talking with my nephew, he was getting his bandages removed…" Reese tilted his head just a bit as he listened. "Yeah, he's fine. Could you just give me a second? I know you'd like this to be private," my uncle gave me and my aunt a strained look as he covered the phone. "This is sort of a work thing. I'll be back in a bit, I swear."

I felt myself sagging in place as he left. For the next several quiet seconds, I could only stare at my hands thoughtfully.

"God, now I'm actually worried about what he's doing with that guy," Aunt Jenna shook her head, then gave me a pointed look. "Hey, is everything alright?"

"Huh? O-Oh, yeah, I'm alright...it's just…" I traced a finger across one of the red marks still marring my left palm, "This doesn't look weird, does it? I mean, it's only been a month-"

"Aaron, Aaron! Relax! You're alright, that's all that matters," my aunt said gently. "God, it almost feels like there's more to this…"

"J-Just some stuff with school, I guess," I said tiredly.

"Hey, I actually wanted to talk to you about something," she silently scooted her chair over and laid her hands on my shoulders. "They haven't moved Sam from Portland just yet. I was thinking we could go and visit in a week or so."

I perked up just a bit at this. "Oh? H-How is she? Did anything change about-"

"Aaron, your sister is fine," Aunt Jenna said firmly. "There was some stuff...ah, how do I say it? Some family members were making a fuss over it again."

"O-Oh…"

"But that's nothing to worry about," she said cheerfully. "Look, we'll visit Sam, and we'll check with the doctors up there to see if they have any good news."

"That's...that's great, actually," I shook my head clear and straightened in my seat. "I mean, I could really use some good news. A-And even if there isn't any, well…"

"Hey, it's like your uncle and I say every time," my aunt's expression fell just a bit as she continued, "it's a new place, and tomorrow is gonna be a new day. We can always make the best of it."

I gave her a soft smile at this. I really wanted to believe those words. Now more than ever, especially, I wanted to keep to them.

If only so that whatever happened next, I wouldn't break under the stress of what life had become...

---

The library was mostly empty silent during free study, save for ourselves. During lunch, I had actually made it a point to avoid Cassie and Marco. After what happened at the mall a while back, I just felt too paranoid about them.

Of course, that had led to some questions from Stevie. But that day, I had come prepared to deflect any of the questions he could ask.

Or at least, I thought I did.

"So, did you hear about the police?"

I almost fought back a flinch at Stevie's words, and I dropped the book I was reading to cover it up. I knew what he was going to talk about, for the past couple of days after the news report it was all anybody talked about.

"Woah, slippery fingers!" the geeky boy whisper-yelled, "You sure you should be wearing those?"

"They're for my scars," I said in regards to the tight black gloves over my hands. "They just look bad. I'll probably wear these until I get to high school or something."

"Damn, that sucks...anyway! The police, you hear about that?"

"...Uh, Message in a Bottle?"

"W-What?" Stevie gave me a confused look.

"Y'know...ugh…" I ran a gloved hand across my face before clearing my throat, "I'll send an SOS to the world! I'll send an SOS to the world! I hope that someone gets my-I hope that someone gets my-"

"No, no! Not "The Police", I meant the actual cops," the geeky boy sounded angry, but he was also visibly holding back chuckles. "Great singing voice though. You could join the choir or something."

"Heh, you really think so?"

"Yeah, I-wait, don't deflect," he said pointedly, "you heard about what happened, right? And you're trying to deflect because you're scared of something."

"Stevie, who hasn't heard about it? Two cops died, of course people are freaked out!" I whisper-yelled. "I'm just glad you didn't bring it up at lunch. So what's the lowdown you have on it?"

"I think it should be very obvious," Stevie said smugly. When I simply gave him a blank stare, he cleared his throat and continued, "I'm saying that I know exactly what happened…"

I stopped looking at Stevie, and tried my best to look through him. With the way I had seized up, it almost felt like I was being tased again. Everything, even my own thoughts, simply froze as I waited for him to say it.

"Those two cops...they were with The Sharing. I remember them going around, being all creepy and everything," the geeky boy's smug grin widened, "and then, suddenly they end up dead within the same month. That can only mean one thing…"

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!

"They weren't recruiting enough members!" Stevie said as a matter a factly.

"...W-What?"

"Well, it's obvious that The Sharing is worse than we ever thought. Those two cops just weren't recruiting enough members, so a bunch of members cornered them and…" the boy then ran a hand across his throat, "if they're willing to do that over something so small, who knows what else they're doing. Just imagine what those psychos are capable of."

I let out the quietest sigh of relief I could manage. "Y-Yeah, sounds like they're getting more dangerous. How do you figure it went down?"

"No idea," Stevie shrugged. "My dad, he works for the Mayor's office, so I overheard him talking about it with my mom. If it weren't for some of the details, the cops would have thought some sort of animal did it."

"Huh, what? Like a tiger?"

"Unless the maniacs that did it bought a trained tiger with them to pull it off...no, maybe that is what they did," the geeky boy shook his head, "Anyway! So, they found the dashcam completely destroyed at the scene. They couldn't reclaim the footage either because the squad car was damaged and it caught on fire."

Oh thank god.

"Nobody knows what weapon they used either. My dad said one guy had his neck ripped apart like paper, and the other guy's head was practically pulp-"

"Ugh, I feel like I'm gonna be sick," I said honestly.

"Woah, sorry! I forgot we just had lunch and all, wouldn't want you to lose it," Stevie reassured me.

"No, no, it's fine! I'm cool, just...ugh…"

"Yeah, something weird is definitely going on in this town," the geeky boy mused. "It's like we're suddenly becoming the creepy versions of New England you read about in books."

I let out a small chuckle at this, "It's just, w-wow, one thing after another this month, huh?"

"Yeah, must seem insane. You move to a new town, and the first month everything starts going nuts."

"Uh-huh! Like, as if the near ton of homework wasn't enough, I also have to worry about crazy murder cults," I let out a dry chuckle as I made to grab for a nearby book. "Speaking of homework, uh...today is this friday, right?"

"Yeah, it's this friday, like I said," Stevie game me a bemused look, "it's the weekend. We don't need to worry about homework until monday."

"Phew…"

"And I'm 100% sure assigning homework on weekends is against the Geneva Conventions."

"Actually, those only apply during a war, and it's meant to protect imprisoned soldiers and civilians who were living within and around war zones-"

"Agh, alright I get it, you're a walking history book!" the geeky boy deadpanned. "Your aunt and uncle know, right?"

"Oh yeah, I uh, I told them," I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "I just have to make sure to let them know when I'm heading back home. Nothing too big."

"Nobody's coming to pick you up?"

"Oh, ah, no actually," my voice lowered just a bit, but I wasn't erring on the side of caution just yet. "My aunt and uncle work pretty late hours, so they let me be a bit independent with things. That's why I'm usually just hanging out at the mall."

"Ah, so it's not that you don't spend time with them?"

"Well obviously not...I mean, I was with my aunt at the mall the other day," I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, "p-plus, if it weren't for my uncle then I wouldn't have been in the hospital-wait, that came out wrong."

"No, I see what you're saying," the geeky boy chuckled. "So, what do you have for next period today anyway?"

"Science," I said tiredly, "I guess I should be specific and say it's biology, but the teacher is doing a different science for each different class."

"Plus there's a chemistry class, which is an entirely different thing," Stevie shook his head. "Oh, are you gonna head to the bathroom this time too? I'd come with, but…" he held up his visible noodle arms, "I don't think I'd be much help. Maybe they're more likely to stick me up rather than you, so I can be like...a, what's it called?"

"Sacrifice?"

"Peace offering! Yeah, that's what I was thinking," the geeky boy said cheekily.

The bell rang, signalling that we had about five or so minutes to get to our next class. Stevie and I quickly put the books we were reading back on the shelves, and made a few jokes before preparing to brave the hallway traffic. Before we parted ways, he made sure to tell me where to meet him after school, though he didn't say whether we were walking to his home or whether we were being driven.

If I were being honest, when I actually head to the bathroom, it's rarely for the fully intended purpose. I mean, I guess you could say washing your hands is meant to be done in a bathroom, but most kids only need to soap up, rub, and rinse. Do so for just several seconds, and boom, you're done. Hands washed.

Whenever I go to wash my hands, no matter what, I stop short. I look at them for longer than it should take to wash them, and then I try to wash them for far longer.

Every time I look at them, they're still covered in that red liquid. Sometimes, there's only three fingers, completely covered in scales and tipped with knife-like claws.

I wash, and I wash, and the scary look usually goes away. But the red never does. The red is always staying, and I wish I could stop shaking when I see it. It seemed like today would be no different from normal...well, except for one detail.

Somebody was crying in one of the stalls.

I honestly didn't realize it at first. Whenever I see the red, it's like all my other senses just shut off. I can't focus on anything other than the red, and then I can only focus on trying, to no avail, to get rid of the red.

When I did figure it out, it was confusing. I know it's surprising, but as a guy who's dealt with some...things throughout his life, I'm not really open with my emotions. And that seems to be a trend with most other guys I've met too. We just sorta act all stony all the time to deal with things, so a guy crying around other guys isn't something that's done unless with really close friends, as in you have to practically be brothers in all but blood.

Once I listened just a bit more, I realized why. The person crying wasn't even a guy at all. The voice was just pitched in a way, the sobs were a bit melodious, and I could hear the small but cute attempts at holding back hiccups.

My first thought was "oh shit, I'm in the wrong bathroom", and that just felt plain embarrassing. I hadn't thought I was so disturbed by all the red on my hands that I couldn't read signs. I felt like slipping out silently and pretending this never occurred, just this once.

Then I saw the urinals lining the walls, as well as all the very...colorful language that had been graffitied across some of the tiles.

I wasn't the one in the wrong bathroom.

I swallowed my nerves, and silently walked over to the stall where she was in. The unknown girl clearly didn't notice, she was just so caught up in her sobs. I raised my hand and gave a few short knocks on the door.

"Uh, h-hey, are you alright in there?"

The sobbing quickly cut off, safe for a few hitching breaths.

"W-What is one of you doing in here?!" she almost shrieked.

"Uh, well I hate to say this...but this is actually the boy's bathroom," I said nervously.

There was a long pause, and from the almost wheezing breath she made, I could tell she was having trouble processing it.

"Are y-you sure?"

"Yeah...I mean, there's a line of...u-urinals over here," I said, almost pointing to them but then stopping short when I realized she couldn't see me pointing, "and there's...uh...liquid...on the floor. And all the stuff on the walls about w-which girl in school has...h-has the biggest...y-you get the idea, this is where the guys go."

Another pregnant pause, and then it almost sounded like she slapped herself.

"I'm such an idiot!"

"No, no! It's fine, I won't tell anybody. I'm the only guy who came in here," I backed away from the door and turned to the sink, "I'll just go back to what I was doing. It's almost next period, so I'll let you know when to...I guess escape would be the right word."

"Y-Yeah, sure t-thanks!" she said with an increasingly high pitch.

I just continued washing my hands. Behind the red, I thought I could see brown scales. I blinked, and for a split second it looked like they were creeping up my arm. I blinked again, all the scales were gone.

Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.

Anything to get the red out, please!

The trance was broken when the stall door opened. I flinched, but continued idly washing my hands.

The girl that walked out was...familiar. She was a small, thin little thing that stood awkwardly behind me, practically bouncing on a single foot. Her skin was pale, she had pale gray eyes that were currently rimmed red, long platinum blonde hair fell past her neck, and her outfit screamed "popular girl" like the ones from the teen flick movies.

I've seen her before, sometimes at the mall, and sometimes at the YMCA. She's in their gymnastics class, I think, so I don't really know much about her. That's mostly because if I ever go to the Y, it's 'cause I feel like running on a treadmill or riding a workout bike for thirty minutes and pretending that I got a good workout for the day.

I idly regarded her reflection for a split second before clicking my teeth. "H-Heeeeey…"

"Hi…" she said almost blankly. "You...you're that new kid? Aaron, right?"

"Yeeeeah, that's me. T-The new kid, I guess," I said weakly.

"...You...uh...sure do like washing your hands," the way she said it, it almost sounded like she was mystified by what I was doing.

"I'm a bit of a crazy neat freak," I chuckled.

It was a lie, obviously. I washed just a bit more furiously for a small second. I sword one of my fingers had grown a claw on it from nowhere, but it was gone before I could get a better look.

I quickly dried my red-stained hands before nervously holding one out to her. "Uh, my name is Aaron-wait, y-you already know that-"

"Ah, no it's fine," she shook my hand shyly, the rest of her face quickly turning red as well. "I'm Melissa. S-Sorry for...well, this is just so weird."

I mean, I'd feel pretty embarrassed too if I had walked into the girl's bathroom to deal with my issues. Plus, she looked like she'd be the first person to actually die from embarrassment if I said the wrong thing, so it was probably a good idea to cut her some slack.

I was still curious though…

"S-So, you were...uh...in a stall...in the boy's bathroom…"

Just opening with that made me feel weird. But I had to get an answer.

"You are okay, right?" I asked softly. "I mean, you don't have to tell me-"

"No, it's fine...I just…" Melissa licked her lips nervously and looked away. "Everything just...it changed for me. Everyone has changed. My best friend, she just...she stopped being there for me, and my parents…"

I stood there silently as she seemed to unload. Melissa's friend, Rachel, seemed to have suddenly distanced herself from her within the last month. It wasn't abnormal, things in middle school usually changed like that.

Friendships ended. Sometimes you could rekindle them, maybe fix them, make them better. Sometimes you just got too distant from the person you knew. They changed, and you couldn't handle it.

And sometimes, the entire thing became a toxic thing that hurt you.

It was something I'd never really dealt with, but my aunt and uncle had explained it to me. And I'd seen other people deal with it, not just here but in every other middle school I'd been in, even if only a few weeks.

The problem was, Melissa seemingly losing her friend was just the cherry on top of a sucky sundae.

"I don't know what I did," she looked like she was about to cry again as she hugged me, "I mean, they just...they act like I'm not there sometimes. Everything about them is like some sort of robot took their place. I don't know why they don't love me anymore…"

I gently patted her on the shoulder. The way her parents behaved, and how it seemed to just happen out of the blue for no reason, combined with the basic timing, it all just clicked. They "acted" right, but the way she spoke about them meant they couldn't get that one thing down.

It almost seemed crazy to say it, that the Yeerks weren't capable of really mimicking that basic thing called "love". They had infiltrated everything, as far as I could tell. From the cops, all the way to what I assumed had to be much of the local government.

But as much as they could pretend to be human, to fool everybody who looked on the surface, they failed at being human. It wasn't something you could break down into data, it wasn't something to analyze or scan for, it wasn't something you could train with some high-tech simulation.

Love, empathy, creativity, the things that make us us, these things couldn't do. They'd never be able to achieve in a million years what we gained in only ten thousand. But that only meant it was worse.

They didn't just want our bodies. They wanted our souls.

If I didn't man up about this, then it wouldn't just be the agency of everybody in our entire race at risk. It would be everything that made each and every one of us who we are. And I wouldn't let that happen.

I'd put a stop to them by any means necessary. Even if it requires breaking into InGen facilities, acquiring the biggest and most dangerous predator I can find, and pointing myself at the nearest Yeerk hotspot. I'd kill a million of them if it meant they learned how fucked they were by making the mistake of coming here.

"H-Hey, it's alright," I said gently.

"It's not!" Melissa sobbed. "I mean, how does that even happen?! Can you actually imagine your parents just suddenly not loving you?! What could I have done differently?!"

I wanted to make a snarky remark about mine, and how they were currently pushing up daisies.

I wisely refrained from making that remark.

"I...I think it'd be hard for me to have that happen," I wasn't lying, if my aunt and uncle started acting the same way and I had no idea why I would be just as heartbroken. But one of the things she said bugged me the most, "hey, this isn't because of you. You can't just do something to suddenly make them act like this. That's all on them, something like this is never your fault."

Melissa slowly pulled away from me and wiped the tears from her face.

"Y-You really think so?"

"Yeah, I mean, if it's like a...a divorce thing or something," I used the word tentatively, but she nodded nonetheless, "that's not something that's on the kid."

Melissa shook her head, "n-no, I don't think it's that. But, you're right, it's almost the same."

I nodded slowly, biting my lip as I looked to the side. The girl tilted her head just a bit as I remained silent for a few more moments.

"Uh, so, I think it's almost time for next period…" I said finally, "and, h-hey I'm really sorry that this is happening to you, that you're going through this...but, if we leave the bathroom at the wrong time it's gonna look like-"

"Oh god, yeah!" Melissa went beet-red once again upon realizing the situation we were still in, probably also realizing that she had hugged me, making it a thousand times worse, "I uh, w-what's the plan?"

"Uh...I go out, just a guy leaving the boy's room, and then when the halls start to clear up I do a little knock to let you know you're clear to escape."

"A...a little knock?"

"Y'know, like in those old timey cartoons and stuff. The shave and a haircut thing they did in Roger Rabbit."

The girl simply gave me a dumb look like she had no idea what I was talking about. I let out an exasperated sigh before simply knocking on the sink the same way I had said.

"OH! That one? Yeah, that'll work!"

A few moments later, and I was standing outside the bathroom trying to be discreet. The hallway traffic had quickly died down enough that very few people still out and about had clearly checked out of whatever was going on around them. I leaned towards the door and gave the signal knock to let her know that it was all clear.

At least, I had thought it was all clear then.

The door opened just a bit, and Melissa's thin frame slinked out like a cat trying not to get caught by its owner stealing treats. She gave me a small smile as I shielded her, before mouthing the words "thank you" and trying to make good her escape.

"Excuse me?!"

Shit!

Who else but Iniss. Good old Iniss, here to not only try to destroy everything I could ever care about, but also to mess with my school life as well. And such wonderful timing on his part too.

Maybe referring to Chapman with his Yeerk's name was a bad idea. I might let it slip out by accident, and then I'd get dozens of Taxxons chasing me down.

But as the VP stalked towards the two of us, I couldn't think of him as Chapman. I could only think about the thing in his brain, and all the horrible things it wanted to-

"D-Dad?"

Wait, what?!

"Melissa? Melissa, what is…" Chapman finally reached us and lowered his voice, glowering at us with an almost disgusted look, "what is this?!"

The look in his eyes wasn't the same as the last time I had seen it. Chapman, whenever he was looking at me or anybody else, he was almost looking at me in this creepy way, like somebody who was hungry and/or thirsty but wasn't allowed to eat or drink what was in front of him. But this, it was different.

There was just a brief hint of actual anger lurking behind those eyes. It was like instead of wanting to kidnap me and force a slug into my brain, he'd rather pummel me till I was black and blue.

I licked my lips nervously, ready to throw myself under the bus.

"It's nothing dad, I promise!" Melissa said quickly, "I...I accidentally went into the boy's room, and Aaron found me when he went in because he needed to...uh, do...well...a-anyway, he was-"

"Helping her escape," I said with a mousy voice, desperately hoping nobody still in the halls looked our way lest the rumor mill churn, "because it'd look super weird if a girl and a guy both came out of the bathroom within the same minute, s-so…"

Chapman's rage filled glare mostly subsided, but it didn't go away entirely. But still, it was still pretty clear to see when his little tenant got back at the wheel.

It was like the switch went on in him, and he was back to being a human robot all over again. Everything about him evened out to a calm, eerily composed facsimile of how a person would act, right down to the too stiffened posture.

"Is that so? Well, I suppose I'll have to...discuss this with you at home," he said to her in his almost monotone voice. Then he turned to me with a faux apologetic look, "and Aaron, I would like to sincerely apologize for my...behavior at the beginning of the past month."

"Uh-huh…" yeah, real sincere of you, pond-scum.

"From what I can gather, you seem to be a kind young man who genuinely likes to help others with no thought to the benefit of yourself."

Wait for it.

"I hope that you understand that, regardless of whether you may have some...misgivings about us," the Yeerk paused, gauging my reaction for just a moment before continuing, "The Sharing is open to everyone, and I'm sure we'd be lucky to have you."

Oh yes, you'd be lucky to finally dig your claws into my uncle's job so you can figure out how to correct evolution's "mistakes" and fix your hosts.

Melissa scoffed loudly behind me, "that's all you care about these days, isn't it?"

Chapman practically looked through her when he turned to her. He didn't even respond to the jab, he just stared blankly through her. It was almost creepy how he was practically ignoring her existence when she was right there in front of him.

"So, I was going to just head to my next class now, sir," I said evenly.

That seemed to snap him out of his reverie for just a bit.

"Ah, yes, that would be best," Chapman hummed thoughtfully, "this was a nice talk, young man."

"I guess…" sure, just like choking on glass can be nice under the right circumstances.

"I'll see you later, Aaron," Melissa said shyly.

I almost thought I saw that angry look in Chapman's eyes again when she said that. I knew it wasn't the Yeerk in his head glaring at me that way.

I didn't dwell on it.

"Yeah, sure thing," I responded cheerfully.

As I walked to class, I didn't look back. But I could tell Melissa was glaring at her father. Which meant she wasn't a controller herself.

Maybe that was why Chapman was infested.

I didn't want to feel sympathy for him, because what he was doing was scummy as hell. But I could understand that to him, there really was no other choice…

---

When school ended, I made a quick call to my aunt's cell phone before meeting up with Stevie. It was short on both ends, me just saying that I'd be out for a while and that I'd tell her where when I got there, and her saying she was being let off work early. I even let her talk to Stevie so she didn't think I was being kidnapped.

The walk to the geeky boy's house wasn't too long. It was actually fairly close to the school, and not too far away from the mall either. I only took about a minute to memorize the street name and the number on his mailbox before walking through the door with him.

By the time I had finished the second call to my aunt, Stevie came out of the kitchen with a box of fruit roll ups.

It wasn't that I'd never had a fruit roll up. My aunt would buy a couple of boxes with groceries, and she'd sternly tell me not to "eat them all at once", then pull a "do as I say, not as I do" when she ate them all herself. My uncle and I always laughed it off.

Nobody had ever invited me over to their house and just given me a snack while we hung out. Hell, you could take out that last part completely, because it wouldn't matter. This was the first time I had made any sort of friend, the first time I had been invited anywhere.

Please, to whatever higher being existed in this universe, please don't let me screw this up.

The first thing we did was play video games in his room. Stevie, being a fellow nerd, had an SNES, and with that came Street Fighter II.

And it was glorious.

I had played the original in arcades, so it was easy to get back into it with my main man Ken. I was a bit surprised when the geeky boy chose Chun-li, and I was a bit vocal about how unimpressed I was with his pick.

I stopped being vocal when he nailed me the first round in under five seconds flat.

After that, I stopped underestimating him, and started taking his Chun-li a lot more seriously.

It was maybe half an hour later that the front door to his house opened. Stevie perked up immediately and paused the game.

"That'd be my parents. Come on! They'll want to meet you."

I stood to my feet and followed him downstairs. He seemed excited about introducing me, which I could understand. I don't remember a time when I ever had a friend over at any of my homes, so I'd act the same if I were in his shoes.

When we reached the living room, I saw two people that could have been his parents. His father, I think he was, I recognized as a member of the city council. Stevie's mother was clearly where he got his looks, slim frame, glasses and all.

The problem was that it wasn't just them.

Two strange men suddenly bolted to my side and held me by the arms.

Of course, being a young preteen who had been across the country and had multiple experiences with this sort of thing to hone my reactions, I handled this with utmost grace. I was quite calm and composed as I began hollering at them to let me go, and screaming for somebody to help.

One of the men slammed his forehead into my face, obviously drawing blood.

"Careful, careful!" the woman who might have been Stevie's mom growled. "We need him intact! His aunt and uncle will suspect something if he comes home with a broken nose."

The geeky boy walked up to his father with a smug grin, "and you wanted to follow the Visser's orders and send in a pack of Hork-Bajir."

"Yes, yes, you were right. This was much easier," Stevie's dad sounded exasperated as he looked at me, "I almost didn't think it would actually work."

The moment Stevie had said "Hork-Bajir" I wanted to cry. I didn't want to believe it, but there was no denying it. The two of them continued talking about the Visser, of which one I didn't know, but I already felt pure dread.

"Stevie, what's going on?! Tell these creeps to let me go!" I cried out. When the geeky boy turned back to me with an almost bemused look, I felt a vein popping in my forehead. "Come on! This isn't funny! Just let me go and-"

"I'm afraid that's not going to be possible, Aaron," Stevie said with an eerie voice. He took a couple of steps toward me before giving me a small smile, "and I'm sorry to say that the "Stevie" you have spoken to for the past month...well, he wasn't real."

"...W-What do you mean?"

It felt like the blood in my veins had gone cold. If this...if it was happening, how long had it been going on? How much of every event involving Stevie engineered, just to get me to here in this moment?

"My name-or rather, my real one-isn't Stevie. My real name is Kaldrid 5140, and I am a Yeerk…"

And then he began telling me what I already know. Not everything, in fact I think he was only saying what amounted to the bare minimum to make it seem less horrible. It didn't help, I don't think it would even if I didn't know.

He showed me one of their weapons, the Dracon beam. He even motioned for a single Hork-Bajir to walk into the living room, just to make a point. Maybe he was hoping I'd be too caught up in the real aliens to see reason, or maybe he was hoping I'd be scared.

The way he spoke, the way he talked about what was going to happen to me, he made it seem like there wasn't a way I could have avoided it.

I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat before speaking again.

"Was it real?" my voice was so restrained, and I was worried it would break.

"Hmm?"

"Our friendship, was any that real?!"

Stevie-no, Kaldrid looked just a bit disappointed. Not genuine sadness, not worry, not even any empathy. He just looked disappointed by this entire thing.

"I admit, you're...fascinating, in a sense. For a human child of your physical age, you're very intelligent and mentally mature, though I'm sure outside factors play a part in that," the Controller rubbed his chin in thought as an almost real smile tugged at his lips. "And I admit, you're very well versed in this world's-or rather this specific country's-history. I was impressed by your knowledge."

It was just a small thing, something that made me hope that I could convince him to just let me go-

"But that's all you are. You're interesting, but you are simply a means to an end," Kaldrid shrugged blithely, a sigh escaping from his host's lips. "I didn't consider you anything other than an assignment and a future host for one of my kind."

No…

"And Stevie himself was rather ambivalent to you as well. If anything, he felt sorry for you, but even then he still thought of you as that "strange new kid". He wasn't really interested in an actual friendship."

I felt like I could break right there. I was almost bawling at this point, it was too much.

"So he just went along with it? He's working with you? How long were you all planning this? What about Cassie and Marco, huh? Were they in on it-"

Kaldrid held his host's hand up to silence me, then cleared his throat. "Yes, he did go along with it. When we first approached the family, we did so because we learned they were avid "UFO Enthusiasts", and we worked from there."

"They believed that humans can't be alone in the universe," Stevie's mom took a step forward, a too sweet smile etched across her face, "they wanted answers, to know that there was more out there. And we gave it to them. They were willing to do anything if it meant they got to experience it. The wide world outside of your own, that is."

"And we plan to make good on that. They'll be shown the grand wonders that exist outside of this world," Stevie's dad, or his Yeerk, sounded genuinely happy to say that. "And you'll be a big help in getting them to where they want to be."

It almost sounded like they were telling me that I should give in and surrender, that I'd be doing some good.

I wouldn't.

"As for "engineering" everything...to be honest, I did play up the act of a weaker "nerd" as some people say. I had to, otherwise I'd arouse some suspicion," Kaldrid hummed thoughtfully. "That day, with those three boys, it was a complete accident. Those police-Controllers yes but dead now obviously-they had nothing to do with it. You just...found me, by complete chance. And I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity."

"I...I...y-you…" I felt like I couldn't breath.

"In fact, I'm glad I was able to keep up the ruse for so long. I'd like to think I'm very good at acting "human", but even I have trouble keeping it up," the Controller tilted his head, a smug grin stretching across his face. "But still, I was good enough to fool you. And you were looking out for anybody acting like me."

"You...The Sharing…"

"It's a front organization for us. It's how we normally gather willing hosts. But some of us make sure to not actively take part in it, to better weed out people like you," Kaldrid motioned to me with a dark smile, "people who are useful, but who have grown suspicious of The Sharing or outright avoid being involved with it in any way possible. Visser Three-our leader here on earth, he'd be like one of your generals-he didn't believe this type of undercover work would bear fruit. But once he gets his hands on you, on InGen, then he'll see how useful our operation can be."

I tried to flail again, hoping to escape. Everything felt wrong, I had to fight down the bile rising in my throat. I was surrounded, I was outgunned, and there was nothing I could do.

"I remember you asked about Cassie and Marco...they're not Controllers," Kaldrid almost sounded tired when he said the word, as if he disliked it but didn't truly hate it either. He gave me a sideways glance as I stared at him owlishly. "I admit, it'd be good to have more hosts for our kind, but...they're not somebody we'd consider "high priority". If they get caught, they get caught, but we won't put any effort into them unless we have a reason to."

I had started sobbing by then. It was all coming out.

I felt hurt. I felt scared. I felt like I couldn't do anything, or I'd be killed-or worse, they'd capture me and take me to him and he'd make me wish I was dead.

And I felt guilty.

I had killed people. I killed three people, two of them were police officers who didn't deserve to be caught up in this.

And I had basically abandoned somebody I had considered a friend. And now, the only other person I thought I could call that was standing in front of me, revealing what he really was.

I felt betrayed.

"I...p-please, don't lie to me," I sobbed out. "Will it be bad? You said your species takes over brains. Just please tell me the truth, just this once."

The Controller's lips twitched, and then a nervous hiss escaped his mouth.

"The Yeerk that goes in you...they may allow you some of your free will back. But most of the time, we take it away. We don't like it if a host has a chance to fight back against our control, and it's much better if we retain full dominion over them."

"So I'd be a slave?! Why?!"

"...W-Why what?"

"Why would you be okay with that?! That's wrong! Enslaving another intelligent being like that, taking away their free will, it's objectively wrong!"

Kaldrid tilted his host's head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

It felt like my heart had stopped when he said those words.

"What do I mean?! Sapient creatures like humans, a-and that lizard thing there, they don't deserve that! They don't deserve to be locked up and treated like property!"

All the Controllers in the room looked at me like I had grown a second head.

"I don't know how I could understand that. You say that it's...objectively wrong, that they don't "deserve" it...but, that doesn't mean anything to me. As long as members of our kind get a host, then that's all that really matters."

I felt like I could choke on my breath at this. These things, they had nothing. They had no love, no empathy, no sense of understanding sorrow and pain. And they wanted everything from us. They wanted our very souls, and they didn't understand that just taking them was evil in every sense of the word.

"Enough of this!" one of the Controllers holding me growled, "do you have the Yeerk for him?"

No!

"No, we do not. Visser Three wants to personally make sure one of his most loyal subordinates gets him," Stevie's mom said in annoyance. "We can't wait for him to fly here, he's busy. We can take him to the pool, the Visser will handle him later when his ship comes down."

"Fine...but he could try to escape-"

"That's why we brought him," Stevie's dad motioned to the Hork-Bajir nearby.

It only took a single snap of the geeky boy's fingers, and the large alien was stalking towards me with a low growl.

The last thing I saw, before everything went dark, was a reptilian fist coming down towards me…

---

When I woke up, I was being lifted by my underarms. My feet were dragging across the stone ground, and my clothes were visibly scuffed up.

And my hands were in chains.

The two Human-Controllers from Stevie's house were the ones pulling me along.

And where were we?

Take a good guess.

I was back in the hell that was the Yeerk Pool, only this time I wasn't morphed into a dinosaur. I wasn't able to keep my nerves up by allowing the Troodon to sooth me in it's own eerie way. I could only call on what I remembered from that night.

‹Courage, my friends.›

Elfangor's voice echoed within my mind, and everything cleared up.

I felt like I could breath better now. I could hear everything around me, my vision was becoming more clear than just the basics of my surroundings. Now I could figure out a plan to escape.

"He's awake!" one of the Controllers hauling me growled. "Do we-"

"Shut it! He's already here, it's not like he can escape," he said, before hoisting me to my feet and grabbing onto my chains. "We can pull on these now. He's not too out of it that he can't walk."

"W-Where am I?! Where are we going?!"

"You're in the Pool," one of them said simply. "We're taking you to a containment cell. Visser Three will come soon, and he'll have your Yeerk ready for you."

I felt the color drain from my face as he said this. I looked around, I listened, at least for anything that could get me out of this. I shuddered as I caught sight of the things around us.

I almost cried as we passed the lines to the Yeerk Pool. I could hear the people screaming up close, it was so visceral and filled with terror that I couldn't help the shivering feeling that crawled up my back.

We passed several aliens. I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach as I spotted one of them. Those multiple legs holding up a disgustingly bloated body, that horrible wide open mouth filled with teeth. One of the Taxxon's eyes narrowed at me, and he looked at me with a hungry gaze that was beyond any I'd seen before.

The Controllers pulling me along noticed, and told it off. The monster let out an annoyed hiss before skittering off. I almost fell to my feet in relief that I had been spared.

Then we passed the cages.

One of the people inside, they weren't a human. They were a small golden-skinned girl, with a nose that twitched like a bunny's, eyes that widened like kitten's, and pointy ears that dropped like a puppy's. She was drooling and barely able to move, but she saw me. She gave me a strained look, as if she was begging for help, for somebody to put a stop to it.

Around her, the other Shuldidnians laid in their prisons. They were all in the same state, barely able to move or not even conscious at all. Most of them drooling, some of them twitching on the floor. All of them nearly catatonic.

I heard some of the Human-Controllers guarding them, mostly talking about how they were the "deluxe" package, and how they couldn't wait to get one for themselves. They were talking about a living, sapient being like they were new clothes on sale.

But along with that, I heard a rather...interesting argument.

I started to formulate a plan to break my chains and handle these two controllers.

I was done being sorry about this. I was done wallowing in shame about all the things I had done. I wasn't just some kid anymore, I had the weight of our entire race on my shoulders and I wouldn't let my fear and guilt hold me down.

Soon enough, they were dragging me through the forest of buildings, further from where most of the other Controllers were working. Eventually, they dragged me to an area where there were less and less people, and those there were all too busy dealing with what had to be menial tasks. When we were far enough away from the rest of the pool that there was almost nobody in sight, my plan commenced.

"Ahem! So, uh, I had a question-"

"Shut it!" one of the Controllers said.

"It's important. It's about those elf things-"

"They're called Shuldidnians-"

"Oh leave it be. They're basically space gelflings anyway!" the other Controller cut the first one off, then he turned to look at me with a curious expression. "Why do you care about them anyway?"

"Uh...w-well, one of the girl ones looked really cute, a-and I figured if this has to happen to me then there can at least be a bright side to it."

The first Controller actually chuckled at this. "No, we don't know if they can make hybrids with you humans. Might be interesting to test out though…"

"That's not what I was about to ask!" I squeaked out, genuinely beet-red at the implications.

"Then what is it?!"

"...Is it Telekinesis, or Psychokinesis?"

The two of them stopped dead in their tracks, and both gave me an exasperated expression.

"What?!" they both asked at once.

"W-Well, while we were passing by the cages, I heard a bunch of guys arguing about it, and I actually got curious. S-So, which is it?"

"This is ridiculous!" the gruffier Controller growled.

"I agree. Wasting our time with this shit," the other one grumbled.

"Obviously it's Psychokinesis!" "Obviously it's Telekinesis!"

There was a pregnant pause, and then the two of them rounded on eachother with disgusted expressions.

"Excuse you?! What do you mean "it's Telekinesis"?! That's ridiculous!"

"You can't seriously think Psychokinesis is the better definition!"

"Well it is!" the first one said angrily.

"Oh, do tell me why it is?"

I backed away as far as my chains allowed me to without drawing their attention, and then I focused.

I focused on those slit pupils, on those backwards facing teeth, and those wickedly sharp sickle-shaped toe claws…

"Okay, so we used the Shuldidnian word, which was equivalent to the human word "Telekinesis", which is defined by…" I noticed the gruffy Controller motioning for his comrade.

My skin shifted, the hairs dotting it falling out as it was all slowly replaced by brown scales. I could feel my fingers merging together, until there were only three of each. My foot shifted until there were only three proper toes and an extra one rising further away from the rest.

The second Controller sighed. "The production of motion in an object (as by a spiritualistic medium) without contact or any other physical means," he sounded so done with the conversation when he finished quoting the dictionary definition for it, "I don't understand why I-"

"No, I'll tell you why. Because that definition implies that it's a wholly supernatural phenomena, which we know isn't possible, and that it can't be controlled by scientific means. It means the user doesn't actually have any powers, it's basically saying that an Ellimist is working through them."

My teeth melted, forming into shape like clay and quickly narrowing to sharpened points. Claws erupted from my three fingers in a short spray of blood that disappeared as fast as it came. That same feeling in my toes, like they had fallen asleep, came about as a massive sickle-shaped claw sprouted from my largest toe.

"That's the definition we used for what they do! That's always been the definition!"

"Well it's stupid! That's why they changed it!" the gruffy Controller growled. "The definition for Psychokinesis is: the movement of physical objects without use of physical means."

"THAT'S THE SAME THING AS I SAID!"

"No, you included the "spiritualistic medium" which means it's not through the control of the user!" the first Controller said. "Which means that Psychokinesis is right. Psychokinesis means that, while it's still paranormal phenomena, it's also technically a natural phenomena, and that means you can control it by scientific means. And since all the Shuldidnians can use it, it's a natural thing for them. Therefore, Psychokinesis!"

There was a series of popping noises resounding through my ears as a tail came into existence, the bones popping as they formed and expanded. My face bulged and stretched into a more oval shape, and my hair began falling out as my neck twisted and realigned its position.

"Okay, no! That's stupid! Just because I said the word "spiritualistic"?! They're literally just the same thing, but worded differently!"

"No, it's not! Telekinesis is based on the spiritual aspect, and that doesn't apply-unless you're saying the entire race has an Ellimist working psychic powers through them. Is that how they make their fire and stuff too?!"

"Psychokinesis sounds too imprecise when you get down to it! You can say a person with magnets is using Psychokinesis!"

"No, because the words mean "mind movement", and it has the same root word with the human word "psychology". So it's with their mind. Telekinesis means "distant movement", and that's the one where you could also do it with magnets or blowing air."

My waist and torso shifted to accommodate my tail and my new body plan. As my legs shifted, my overclothes finally gave way. I used my claws to ensure they were silently removed rather than ripping loudly to alert.

In a short few seconds, the final changes took place, and then I was once again a Velociraptor.

And there was just no way to describe it properly, even at this time when I was sure I could keep a grip on it. It was like I was a rubber band being pulled back to its absolute limit, and when I was released, the moment I snapped forward I'd shatter whatever stood in my way.

The Raptor's mind came back, in all of its murderous glory, ready to quell it's rage with an ensuing gorefest.

I pulled it back hard. I made sure it knew that I had a plan, that we needed to go about this carefully if we both wanted to get what we desired. The dinosaur simmered down, but it didn't go away just yet.

"That is stupid! It's Telekinesis, end of story!"

"You can say whatever you want, but you're still wrong. You can even ask one of the scientists about it and they'll tell you I'm right!"

"Scientists don't know shit!"

‹Yeah, guys this was really nice and all, but your argument stopped being funny a minute ago and I've already morphed into a dinosaur. I'm just gonna go ahead and kill you now.›

"Yeah, sure, whatever kid."

There was another long pause before they finally realized what I had just said, and how I had just said it. When they turned to look at me with shocked expressions, I broke through my chains and struck.

My teeth quickly snapped at the throat of the gruffy Controller, severing several vital bits and leaving him leaking red. He fell back to the floor, clutching his neck to try in vain to stop the bleeding all while gasping for air.

The second Controller attempted to pull his weapon out. I pounced on him, knocking him to the ground with a single blow and pinning him with both of my toe claws. My jaws opened up, and I lightly grabbed him by the temples of his forehead with my teeth. I made a quick motion with my reptilian head, and a snap echoed quietly around us.

I didn't waste any time. I placed one of my toe claws onto his forehead, and it came down with blinding speed. Skin ruptured, blood spattered, and bone cracked. And from within the hole I had made, some strange colored ooze began leaking all the way down to the floor.

Satisfied, I quickly walked over to the gruffy Human-Controller as he bled out. I repeated the process, and then set to work.

The first part of my plan involved their weapons. I would need maybe about five or so, but I was in the Yeerk Pool. If I could pick off single Controllers, I could easily get enough for what I was planning.

I stashed the weapons closeby, and strutted towards the pool area. I took a look at what I could while trying best not to be seen. I could see dozens of Controllers all over the place, human and alien alike, but none of them were in a hurry to come close to me.

Then I spotted something. A trio of familiar faces that filled me with rage.

Betrayal!

The Raptor shared the sentiment.

They were walking towards this spot. They might have wanted to talk to Visser Three when he arrived, to make sure he either gave them full reign over their operation, or to make sure that he didn't steal the credit. I turned and hid, knowing that they'd get close soon enough.

When they did, they only saw the bodies when it was too late.

I strolled out of the shadows with a low hiss. The three of them backed away slightly, not even remembering the weapons at their belts. They quickly found themselves against one of the buildings, unable to escape.

‹Heya, Stevie,› I said darkly through my mind-speak.

The geeky boy's eyes widened slightly behind his glasses as he put it all together. "A-Aaron?! That's you?!"

‹Oh yeah, it's me...›

I chuckled with the Raptor's mouth, but my slit pupils narrowed dangerously. I took a single step, and Stevie backed away. His parents seized up as I glowered at them, and all three of them quickly went ghost pale.

‹That guy you mentioned, Ian Malcolm...he was right about InGen. My uncle helped bring back the fucking dinosaurs,› my mouth opened, revealing the sharp teeth hiding behind my lips. ‹And that night at the construction site, Prince Elfangor gave me the power to morph.›

"H-Hey, let's calm down…" Stevie's dad said nervously.

"A-Aaron, I know Kaldrid said some things, but he was just trying to get under your skin," the geeky boy said shakily. "He was just playing with you. It wasn't true, honest!"

So he wasn't infested then, huh? But that didn't give him a pass. Because I figured out then and there that dinosaurs were good at sussing out liars. The foul scent that accompanied Stevie's breath when he said those things was more than enough for me to figure that out.

‹I'm sorry, but you and your family won't be going to space,› my body contorted into an attack stance, my jaws opening wide and my claws splaying out, both ready to rip and tear. ‹Because you'll be too busy burning in hell...›

And then, with an almost demonic shriek, I pounced.

---

I had five Dracon beams now. That was at least enough for what I had planned. That's all anybody reading needed to know.

The plan was simple.

Step one: sneak up to some of the humans in cages.

Step two: give them the guns, and tell them to wait for me to cause a big enough distraction.

Step three: WOLVERINES!

That last one boiled down to running at as many Controllers as I could and put them through the living primeval meat-grinder that was my Velociraptor morph.

Sounds crazy, I know. I'm a genuine lunatic for thinking up something so stupid, but I think the cold-blooded murder has that established by now. But the point is, if I could get a brawl going long enough, then the humans I gave the guns to would break out and reinforce me, and probably get more guns. And the ones not in shape to do so would be able get as many others to safety.

Hell, I wouldn't even mind just Humans. I can tell which Hork-Bajir are infested and which aren't simply by the smell, and the fact that the uninfested ones don't have uniform sashes like the rest. Maybe that was a cultural thing for the Yeerks, or maybe some higher power was making it convenient for me.

Whichever the case, I could manage. This plan was flexible, no matter what happened. Those other five kids from the construction site could come barreling down the stairs in whatever morphs they managed to get from the petting zoo, and it'd still function as intended...hopefully...probably.

I mean, as long as Visser Three didn't show up...

No, no! This plan would work. It had to work! I only had one shot, I couldn't screw it up.

I had long since demorphed from the Velociraptor, and had quickly morphed Troodon. The Troodon was smaller, which meant it was harder to detect, and it had the uncanny ability to simply melt into the shadows like it was nothing. I stealthily crept along as the smaller predator, before finally reaching my destination.

I scoped out who I thought would be best, before my eyes settled on five people. I quickly made my move.

The first was an older boy, one who was clearly just starting college. He was a standard pretty boy, with dark eyes and dirty blonde hair, and at first glance it would seem like he was that arrogant handsome jock type guy who got everything handed to him. He was most likely infested for his looks, so that he could lure girls into The Sharing with promises of not just dates, but of being a part of something.

If I hadn't looked deeper, I would have passed him up as a broody teenager. But he wasn't brooding. He was surveying. He was analyzing everything around him. He was looking for a chance to get out, or to at least try and get back at them. And based on his calloused hands and hardened expression, it was clear he wasn't just a pretty face.

‹Hey, you!› I thought-talked to him and only him.

The boy jolted upright in shock, and looked around in confusion. After a few tentative seconds, he stared off unsuredly into blank space, and pointed at his chest.

‹Yeah, you! I'm only talking to you dumbass!› I crept through the shadows until I was near the back of his cage. ‹Just come to the back of your cage-discreetly, don't make it obvious!›

The teen complied, and slowly slid to the back of his cage while feigning horror. Some of his cellmates regarded him for a second, but they looked too busy to care-either they were staring off into space hoping this was all a nightmare, or they were shaking the bars and yelling all sorts of obscenities at their jailers. The boy turned his head towards the rest of the pool, then cleared his throat to speak.

I quickly shushed him before stalking over.

‹I have a plan to get a bunch of you out of here. I picked a bunch of Controllers off, and I took their weapons,› my glowing eyes narrowed at him as he turned back to look at the shadows I hid in, ‹you know how to work these, right? Just shake your head if you don't, nod if you do-I guess that's kinda obvious.›

The boy licked his lips, but nodded slowly.

‹Good! Hold your hand out, and make sure it stays hidden from here on out. I've got about four more of these to give away.›

The teen complied, and I dropped the Dracon beam into his waiting hand.

‹Alright, good! Just remember, when I start charging in screaming and ripping stuff apart in one of my other morphs, you and any of the others get as many people out as you can. Doesn't matter if they're not human either, just free anybody stuck in a cage. If you think I need help afterwards, feel free to jump in, but getting everybody to safety is a priority.›

I ran off and got to work. I demorphed only once in between, but I managed to get it done.

The list was as follows.

A guy who looked like a normal cashier at a convenience store.

A teen girl and what looked to be either siblings or children she was tasked with babysitting huddling close to her.

A gruff looking man who was clearly getting on in years but hadn't lost any of his scars from whatever hell he had been through.

A businessman who, despite looking meek throughout the entire situation, screamed and hollered when he saw children being dumped into or pulled from cages.

I had my own set of sleeper agents. Now I just needed to start the wakeup sequence.

When I morphed, the Velociraptor's mind came back.

Kill! Kill! Enemy! Kill! ANGRY!

This time, I didn't hold it back.

In fact, I practically took the reins in my own hands, and dug my metaphorical heels in like a cowboy riding towards the town for the big showdown.

With several loud, challenging barks, I charged at whatever I could single out as easy prey. When I charged across the floor, my shriek sounded like a demon had come straight from the pits of hell to wreak havoc on them. And it wasn't just the Raptor shriek that sounded so visceral.

‹WOLVERINES!›

Some of the Controllers heard it. Some of the people in cages heard it. Most of them probably didn't understand it, but some did. Either way, everybody in the underground cavern who heard it grew confused.

The two Controllers I had lunged at figured it out pretty quickly. The first one, I simply snapped my jaws around his neck and bit as hard as I could. He wasn't going to be getting a-head in life any time soon.

I noticed the second Controller fumbling for his weapon. By the time he had it pointed at me, I had already made short work of his friend. It only took a simple flick of my tail to knock his Dracon beam from his hands, before I jumped at him with a fierce shriek and tackled him to the ground.

I noticed more Controllers charging towards me. I didn't want to waste any time by being excessive, so I opted to use my clawed foot to slam his head onto the ground as hard as I could. It popped like a balloon, and I moved to the next one.

I quickly found myself charging through blasts of energy, several Controllers already having armed themselves. I could feed bits of my hide being singed, I could tell parts of my flesh were burning.

A̵̩͗̌N̴̡͎̏̽͑G̵̙͚̱̏̕R̸͈̽̏Y̴̲̔̌!̴͖͍̉

It only made the Raptor more violent.

I used my long tail like a thick whip to throw two Controllers back. They crashed into a nearby building, breaking glass and walls and who knows what else.

The Raptor's mind pulled me into a crouch just as some of the remaining Controllers began firing at us. I jumped up with a single flick of my clawed toes, and sailed towards them. The three of them barely had time to react before I was upon them.

From then on, it was mostly a blur of claws and teeth from my end. More Human-Controllers joined the fray, but they were quickly taken care of. Those who weren't disposed of with tooth and claw were thrown into the air or knocked down and trampled by the oncoming troops.

It was when the Hork-Bajir showed up, that I began having problems.

Hork Bajir are just a couple feet bigger than a Raptor. And if you remember, they're covered from head to toe with sharp blades. The Hork-Bajir didn't need to carry weapons most of the time, because they were weapons.

The first indication that I'd have to reassess the situation was when I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder. A Hork-Bajir had managed to get a slash in when it had darted towards me. I could feel the red liquid dripping down my side.

I was much wiser the next several strikes. But I knew they were forcing me back just enough that I'd be too distracted to handle the Human-Controllers when they had regrouped. I had to come up with a plan.

Ǩ̶̫͇I̷̧̪͙͒̀L̸̝͔͘͘L̶̛͎̔!̶̧̐͋

As it turns out, I didn't really need to come up with one myself. The Raptor quickly took control of the situation, literally, and charged towards the lead Hork-Bajir like a train without breaks, a terrible screech erupting from my jaws as I sped towards it. The reptilian alien did the same in response.

And then, right at the second where we would have collided, I slid past the large alien. The Hork-Bajir kept up its momentum just long enough for it to not realize I was no longer in front of it until it was too late.

Then I pounced, jumping straight onto the Hork-Bajir's back and climbing all the way to its neck. When my jaws came around the alien's neck, it was so surprised that it couldn't prevent me from using my weight to pull it into the air for just the briefest of moments.

With a single movement, I used the lone Hork-Bajir I had caught as a club, holding it by its neck while swinging its body towards its fellows. Three more Hork-Bajir went down before it dropped, and when it fell, my jaws quickly snapped hard enough to cut through skin and chew bone, leaving its head dangling from what flesh still connected to its neck.

I quickly barreled into one of the downed Hork-Bajir, slashing and tearing as I kept it on the ground. Another Hork-Bajir nearby almost regained its bearings, so I kicked it hard in the face with a clawed foot before going ham on it.

In rapid succession, I was knocking three giant lizard monsters through buildings, sometimes using them as temporary spiked clubs when I could bait them into the same trap from before. More than a few of the Human-Controllers who had joined the fight were not as lucky as the first three Hork-Bajir I handled, as all quickly became good examples of what those spikes were capable of.

More Hork-Bajir closed in on me, and the Raptor's mind went ballistic. I pounced on one and struck it in the chest. We fell in a tangle of spiked and clawed limbs, a ball of slicing and dicing rolling on the floor for several seconds.

It rolled over to try and get up. I ducked under a blow from a razored arm, and responded by pulling it across the floor by his neck and throwing him. Several nearby Controllers had their legs swept out from under them as it rolled towards them like a bowling ball. More Controllers, human or otherwise, quickly met the business end of each and every one of the Raptor's most deadly weapons.

Then I saw it.

I almost cocked up then and there, at the worst of moments. Those bloated, elongated bodies. Those seemingly endless legs, the wide-open jaws filled to the brim with teeth. Several pairs of jiggling red eyes narrowed at me and me alone.

Three Taxxons, the ones I considered the worst, were skittering towards me. And I was so scared, it felt like I was frozen in place.

Ã̴̳̑̓n̸̺̼͈̾G̴̱̊͛͛r̵̻̭̓ͅŸ̶͕̥!̴̞̬̝͛̒

The Raptor didn't feel the same way. When the Taxxons sped up, I felt myself charging towards them like a lightning bolt. When the Taxxons let out their terrible noises, I responded in kind with an ear-piercing screech.

I don't think they expected me to meet them head on. I obviously didn't meet them-at least head on that is.

Before we could clash, I leapt towards the one closest to me. The bloated creature let out a shocked noise as I landed on it, a noise which quickly turned to screeches of pain as I got to work.

The Taxxon's body was soft, easy to tear into despite its great size. I had nearly ripped the thing in two, spilling sickly yellow blood everywhere as I tore at each segment I could get my claws into. Then I jumped away just as a second Taxxon charged me.

I geared up for another round, only to realize the second Taxxon wasn't very focused on me. It was too busy gorging itself on the first one, indulging on every piece of meat I had ripped apart and then some. If I were a human, I would have simply thrown up then and there.

Instead, I charged at the second one and tore at its midsection. The monster didn't seem to notice, too busy engorging on its fallen comrade to realize I had all but ripped it in two. Even after I had torn it in half, it continued eating, oblivious to the face that its meal had nowhere to go.

The third Taxxon, who was quite a bit larger than the other two were, almost looked like it would join in on the frenzy. But it was clearly keeping itself contained, even if it was twitching with restraint every movement. The two of us screeched at each other as a challenge, loudly daring the other to make the first strike.

It was the centipede monster that made the first move. It charged forward, twisting around like a macabre snake as it moved to bite and snap its lobster claws at me.

I jumped back, slashing at anything that came close. The Taxxon, finally catching scent of my blood on top of the blood of its fellow Controllers, finally went over the edge. The centipede monster went into a frenzy, charging and biting at me every chance it could get, lobster claws snapping at my flesh and tearing chunks of skin off.

A̸͔̘̿͝͝n̶̩̈G̷̢̩̘̕r̷͕̟̽̃ͅY̵̦̓͑̕!̸̪̽̽̾ ̸͕̬̾̍̊Ḱ̷͔̫̳͛ì̴̜͜L̷̛̯̼͂l̴͖̪͉̀̍!̸͓̿

With the Raptor controlling my body's movements, I quickly responded in kind.

I slashed and bit at whatever was in my sights, tearing gashes into the centipede monster's flesh and shearing off entire limbs from his bloated body. I felt the Taxxon tear a chunk from one of my shoulders, and I responded only with a demonic shriek that shook the air before I simply swung my clawed foot upward. My toe-claw sheared off two of the beast's eyes, leaving it half blind, and we collided in a tangle of claws and teeth, rolling across the ground for a brief moment.

More Controllers tried to join the fray. They didn't last long, considering what they were jumping into.

One one hand, the Taxxon was eating everything it could get its teeth into. Human-Controllers who tried to join the fight would, at best, lose limbs, and at worst they'd be bitten in half. Plenty of half-eaten bodies had quickly piled up around us.

On the other hand, those that escaped the Taxxon were unfortunate enough to get in my way. And the Velociraptor reacted accordingly, resulting in them looking like they had been put through a massive meat grinder. I was a primeval, rage-filled blender that turned everything in sight into paste.

Nobody could jump into the fight, save for a few Hork-Bajir, and even then they came out no better than the Human-Controllers who survived. Any Taxxons that joined in only exasperated the entire situation, turning the entire floor into a field of death and gore that only got worse and worse.

It was only when a blast of fire erupted towards us that I finally pulled the Raptor back. The Taxxon was enveloped by massive gouts of flame that engulfed much of the battlefield. Most of the other Controllers quickly took cover to avoid them, and I followed.

When the flames died down, I felt a sense of dread spreading through me.

Stalking toward me was a short man with pale gold skin. As he approached me, smoke wafted from his hands. He flicked his head to the side to move some of his burgundy colored hair away from his menacing glowing red eyes.

Flanking him were two slightly smaller red-haired women with copper skin, eyes both glowing bright violet. Electrical sparks danced around their hands, striking the floor every other second as they gave me steely glares.

"Ussta, ussta, vel'bol xun udos inbal ghil?" Visser Seven's melodious voice echoed throughout the cavern, and it made me feel so wrong, like I had to stay away. "Biu Andalite? Usstan ssiggrin gaer orn'la tlu mzild de' dos..."

I snapped myself out of the wrong I was feeling, and took a step forward. I let out a loud, enraged shriek, raising my claws and curling my reptilian lips as I contorted into a threat display.

The Shuldidnian-Controller seemed to regard me with curiosity for a few seconds, before a bemused smile stretched across his face.

"Sai, dos phuul maglust, siyo? Nindel mii'n dos phuul naut xuil l'byrren t'yin?" his smile turned predatory, his lips parting to show small but viciously sharp fangs neatly peeking out of his gums. Then he tilted his head, examining me with an intrigued look. "Nindel's reiyal biu tounle aterruce dos'in doera. Xal Usstan joros vel'bol ol zhah ul'kas?"

I didn't know what he said, but I was maybe 90% certain it was an insult of some sort. I took another step forward, letting out a deranged hiss to get the point across. I wasn't in the mood to talk or play games, either he shut up or I made him.

Visser Seven seemed annoyed as I drew closer, and held a clenched fist up angrily. "Ol mizil'ra naut. Usstan sieva Dorn inbal ulu plynn kyon d'l'martheo…"

The Shuldidnian-Controller's fist unclenched, revealing quite feminine fingers with sharp, needle-thin claw-like nails. He pointed his index finger at me, then made a sweeping motion with the single finger.

And then I was suddenly thrown in the direction he swept towards.

I didn't know how exactly, I didn't feel anybody grab me, nothing slammed into me and pushed me back. When I looked back at the place I had stood before, I saw that there was nobody anywhere close to me then.

All I know is that one second, I had been standing there. And the next, I was flung sideways and scrambling to my feet in an entirely different spot.

I looked back to Visser Seven. He was clutching one of his temples with his fingers, a tired sigh escaping his lips. He looked slightly strained, but he was still standing.

I remembered what I had heard about them. I honestly didn't care which word fit it best, just the fact that he had done it at all was important. I had to figure out a way around it, to buy more time for the people in the cages.

I stood to my feet and charged, an enraged scream erupting from my jaws. The Shuldidnian-Controller turned his gaze back to me, his red eyes glowing with a flash of annoyance.

He pointed at me again, but instead of using that ability again, he said a single word in his alien language.

"Elgg!"

Like a pair of well-trained attack dogs, the other two Shuldidnian-Controllers darted forward.

The closest of the two swung her arm out, catching my already injured shoulder with her sharp nails. I felt a pained shriek escaping my mouth, which was cut off when the second one slammed her foot into my side, throwing me back a few feet.

Then, the two of them held their hands out and pointed a finger at me each. Sparks danced around their forearms for a split second before traveling to the tips of their nails. And then all I could feel was pain pain PAIN!

The bolts of electricity felt ten times worse as when I had been tased. I could barely move, only twitch and shudder and twist as the electricity coursed through my body. It felt like my brain would turn into mush, the pain was so terrible.

In between my contortions, I could see the two Shuldidnian-Controllers stalking towards me, all while still locking me in place with bolts of lightning. As they got closer, I could see the murderous looks in their glowing eyes, I could see their small fangs glinting in the light as they smiled viciously.

"Srow!" the one to my right hissed. "Andalite Srow!"

"El! El wun treemma!" the one to my left growled hatefully.

Ṙ̶̳̱̩̋Ä̶̧̞G̵̘̼̍̐̾Ȩ̶̫̼̍̾̎!̷͚͂

Then the Raptor snapped. Maybe it was something in the tones of their voice. Maybe it was the extended, unwanted electro-shock therapy. It might have even been both. But something almost felt like it was some sort of genetic thing, as though something in its DNA caused it to be set off by the entire situation.

Ǩ̷̰̋̒Ḯ̷͈̭͛̚L̶̘͈̠̍̽L̴̰̰͘!̸̳̤́K̷̜̳̰̓Ȉ̸̲̣͆͝L̵̤͚̍̽L̸͖͓̈́̈̈́!̵̺͔͋̀K̸̺̺̔̀Ī̸͔͍͚Ḽ̷̑͘L̸͙̅̃̐!̸̞̫̄͛̏

My jaws snapped out when they had gotten close enough, clamping down onto the hand of the one to my right. The electricity from her cut off as a pained scream escaped her lips. I didn't let up, as soon as I felt the pain recede just a bit I pounced at the two of them.

The second one was knocked to the floor, cutting the electricity off entirely. I snapped my jaws at the first one, twisting her neck till I heard that popping and snapping noise I knew. I quickly placed my foot over her forehead, and my single toe-claw came down, rupturing her skull and ending both the host and the Yeerk for good.

The remaining Shuldidnian-Controller the Visser had sent at me finally regained her bearings and charged two bolts of electricity at me. I lunged at her, tackling her to the floor and biting at whatever I could. I felt a jolt run through me as arcs of electricity ran through my body.

Then, from the corner of my eye, I noticed the Yeerk Pool. I saw that I wasn't too far away from the edge, in fact a few more long steps and I would have fallen into it.

Then I felt another jolt run through me courtesy of the Controller I had pinned. And then an idea slithered into existence.

I pulled the Raptor's mind back just a bit, and then dug my claws into the Shuldidnian's sides before pulling hard. I felt a whole-body shudder run through me as she juiced me up with more voltage. I didn't care, she could make as much lightning as she wanted.

In fact, I was counting on her doing that.

As I dragged her, the Raptor took over again to forcibly make me duck under a ball of fire that sailed my way. I saw it fly over the pool, then it impacted on the other side of the cavern.

"Nau!" Visser Seven cried out, stalking towards me with a murderous glare. "Inbau tarthe dal ol!"

Whether or not he was speaking to me or his subordinate, I didn't care. I got the gist of what he was saying. He was going to try to stop me from going through with it.

I saw him raise a hand again, but instead of flinging me back with that one power, he instead snapped his fingers. It was fast, the way he did it, almost hard to track, but I could see the skin on his fingers glowing for just a split second. It reminded me of a match lit.

He did it again, and this time a small wick of flame appeared over his two fingers. When he opened his palm, the flame quickly grew in size and intensity.

I dragged the Shuldidnian as fast as I could, but I was sure it was going to be too late. I'd be more than just singed, I'd be the first prehistoric barbecue in existence.

*TSEEEEEW*

And then a bright beam of energy lanced towards Visser Seven. The Shuldidnian-Controller reacted almost immediately, dispersing his flame and jumping back in shock.

"WOLVERINES!" a voice shouted.

I looked back, seeing several humans now armed with Dracon Beams. I recognized some of them. The one in the front, it was the broody looking pretty boy I had chosen first to get one.

Alongside him, he and the other freed prisoners held their free arms high while shouting that classic warcry. Several Dracon Beams went off as they did so, forcing the Visser back as well as any of the Controllers that had either just regained their bearings from the fire before, or had just arrived.

Behind them, several Hork-Bajir growled and hissed, raising their bladed arms towards their former jailers with rage burning in their eyes. Some of them were already charging towards the enemy with shrieking war cries.

Several Human-Controllers who tried to take up arms were suddenly burned to a crisp or locked in place by bolts of lightning. A group of Shuldidnians slowly ran towards them, some barely able to stand, some almost losing their sense of direction, but all still fighting.

A smirk pulled at my reptilian lips as I tugged the Controller I had closer towards the edge of the pool. When she increased the juice on her electricity, I finally had enough. I shrieked directly into her face, before whipping her over the edge.

She must not have known what was happening until it was too late. Or maybe her discharge had been too high for her to simply turn off. Either way, when she fell into the pool she was clearly shocked.

I watched as the lead-colored liquid came alive with bright light for the longest of seconds. The probably millions of tiny, wriggling bodies that had swam within stopped suddenly, before floating up to the surface. Even after they stopped coming to the surface, the lightning went on for a while longer.

I liked to think Kaldrid was in there, since he wasn't in Stevie. It saved me a lot of trouble, got rid of all my loose ends then and there.

Part of me said I should feel guilty for thinking that way, for thinking that any of what I had just done was a good thing. I didn't though, not after everything I saw, after what nearly happened to me. I just couldn't find it in my heart to be sorry for doing it.

I turned on my heels, and quickly rejoined the fray. Several uniformed Hork-Bajir-Controllers had ganged up on one of the ones that had been freed, a smaller one that was barely holding his own. I immediately pounced on one of the Controllers, and knocked it to the ground. A quick sweep of my tail took care of another two, throwing them back and causing the others to put some distance between us.

Then several blasts of energy flashed towards them, either burning them or knocking them away. A ball of flame sailed overhead, impacting into a nearby squad of Human-Controllers. All around me, the place had become a battlefield.

I charged into the crowd of freed humans and aliens, and let out the loudest barks I could manage.

‹Come on! We gotta go!› I watched as several of them stared around in confusion before I let out a loud shriek. ‹Up the stairs! We're getting the hell outta here!›

They didn't need to be told twice. We surged forth like a wave, gunning down or trampling any Controllers that got in our way. More than a few fireballs were thrown out of the crowd, and plenty of Hork-Bajir formed a crude defensive barrier around us, slashing at anything that tried to break it from the outside.

We were going to make it. The plan worked. I couldn't believe it actually did.

Sure, Visser Seven showing up was a big hiccup, and now I knew that Shuldidnians were basically murderelves with elemental powers. But I had managed to free people, and I had taken out most of the Yeerks in the pool. Even if I was heavily injured, I still had almost an hour left in morph.

This was fine. I mean, it could have been way...worse…

...Oh...fuck.

He stepped down from the stairs.

He stepped down with a retinue of Hork-Bajir, Humans, and Taxxons. And when he spotted us, he almost looked shocked. Like he hadn't expected an entire crowd of people to just be charging their way towards the stairs.

When the crowd stopped, I sped to the front. The moment he spotted me, his eyes narrowed is both anger and bemusement.

‹And here I was expecting Halfrek to keep things tidy while I was busy,› Visser Three said. His Andalite body flicked its tail two and fro as he gave me a bemused look. ‹There were more Andalites in the last group that charged down here. Which means you're acting of your own accord yes? Perhaps you didn't even realize you still had comrades around...›

I said nothing, only hissing angrily as he spoke.

‹I'll admit, that's quite the impressive morph, regardless of size. We could identify the ones the others used, but I can already tell even some of these humans are surprised by it,› all four of Visser Three's eyes narrowed as he took a step forward. ‹It's clear you're quite resilient, to look like that, and yet have gotten so far. But you will accomplish nothing, little Andalite. It is time to die...›

Halfway through speaking, he began to morph.

His blue fur began to fall out in patches, quickly being replaced by stone-like scales that slowly spread across his entire body. His head began to enlarge just a bit, his stalk eyes receding into his skull and disappearing as his face split open and the stony scales spread across it as well.

His legs changed, his back legs thickening as they grew longer, while his front legs merged into a single limb, all his hooves slowly morphing into stony feet. His arms grew thicker and longer all around, his many fingers slowly merging together.

His long neck and torso shifted, enlarging along with his limbs and becoming thicker. All the while, his head remained the same size, only changing its skin and growing a large, stony mouth.

By the end of it all, he was nearly as big as a house, many leagues above my raptor morph. His three legs were as thick as redwood trunks, and his arms were long enough to reach over and pick me up. His head was comically small, a human size head on such a big body would be prone to that kind of assessment. But given the situation, I don't think I was in the mood to laugh.

‹RUN!› I shouted to the freed prisoners.

They managed it as best they could. But the rock thing the Visser had become caught up with us. He was throwing pieces of buildings around to stop us in our tracks, flinging any of his fallen subordinates from before to knock people down.

When he finally caught up with the crowd, he simply waded through everybody he could. They were crushed immediately. I could see them, human or otherwise, all being pulped beneath his three feet.

And then he started swinging his arms. Sprays of blood and viscera flew down all around us as he went to town. The way he began slamming his stony fists down almost seemed rhythmic, like he was playing a set of drums.

And at points, he even just opened his fists, slapping down swathes of people or sweeping them into the air with a single hand. At one point, when he did this, he would clap them in between both of his hands. I didn't look at it, I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it.

‹RUN!› I screamed to anybody who survived. ‹Get to the stairs!›

‹Yes, please!› Visser Three crowed. ‹Run, run from me! It'll make it all the more fun!›

Then he pulled one of the larger buildings from its foundation, and threw it.

I darted alongside a few of the freed prisoners just as it landed behind us. I heard the sickening sounds back there. I knew what it meant.

Looking around, I saw dozens of Taxxons coming our way. All of them slavering and screeching as they moved. This, all of this, wasn't a battle to them. It was a damn buffet, and I had been the one to give it to them.

I felt sick.

"This way!"

I heard a voice cry out, and I turned to find the few survivors charging towards a set of stairs at the edge of the cavern. I charged towards it, barking loudly to signal anybody who hadn't been caught in the rubble or crushed by the Andalite-Controller's morph.

As we charged towards the stairs, I noticed a few familiar faces. The pretty boy I had first given a Dracon Beam to, along with the grizzled, scar-covered man, were gunning down any Controllers that got in their way. The businessman and the teen girl ran alongside them, protecting the cashier-looking guy as he let a Shuldidnian lean on him to help her stand. In front of all of them, the small Hork-Bajir from before swiped at everything around them with his arms.

I charged, cutting the face of one of the Taxxons that had caught up with them in half. The remaining Taxxons chasing us quickly found a new priority when their next feeding frenzy started. I regarded them for a split second, before moving again.

I fell in the back, making sure to handle any Controllers that came at us from behind. I could hear them, the massive footsteps of Visser Three's morph as he gave chase. He was gaining, and fast.

I felt one of his massive, stony hands miss me by a hairwidth. I sped up, not willing to chance it again. I let out a loud warning bark, but everybody in front of me didn't seem to get it right away.

‹Faster!› I let out another bark as we grew closer to the stairs. ‹Must go faster!›

"We're going as fast as we can!" the scarred man growled.

I let out a bark again just as we reached the stairs. ‹Move! Move!›

We passed through the large entryway just as Visser Three finally caught up to us proper. With his size, he wasn't small enough to go more than a few feet through. We didn't give him the chance to morph back, we just kept running.

‹Run, run away all you want! It doesn't matter, I'll kill you! I'll kill all you Andalites!›

As I charged to the front and busted through the secret doorway, I thought of it differently.

My goal had been to save as many people as I could from that hell. I save what, six or seven individuals the Yeerks had unjustly enslaved? To me, that was a failure, and I know I'd never get over the people I couldn't save from them.

But everything else I had done was something that collectively put at least a dent or two in their plans.

I had removed what could have been a major operation that would target people against their front organization. Once Visser Three saw its failure, he'd never let it gain traction or grow again, I just knew it.

Not just that, but I had thrown down the gauntlet. I had taken on maybe a few dozen Controllers myself before Visser Seven showed up, and they were down. I showed them that they had another threat to worry about. And once I found those other kids, we'd be in business to take them down.

And of course, my encounter with Visser Seven. I knew not to underestimate the little elf looking things now, and I had killed a pool's worth of Yeerks in one go. It had happened by sheer luck, I hadn't even known I'd get the chance to do it.

Whatever building we emerged from, it wasn't too far from the wilderness. I let out a low bark and signalled for the others to go.

‹Go!› I said firmly, my breath hitching as my injuries finally started to sting. ‹Just get going, don't stop until you're sure you won't be found. Then hide.›

The blonde teen took a step towards me, a concerned look on his face. "What about you?"

My breathing felt ragged, I knew if I didn't morph back soon I'd fall over any moment.

‹I have to leave...› I trailed off, straightening myself to keep upright. I let out a low, curt chirp when they just stared at me. ‹What are you waiting for?! Go!›

That snapped them out of it, and they bolted into the undergrowth. I quickly ran into a nearby bush, and slowly demorphed.

Immediately, I realized I was screwed. I remembered that I had, thankfully, left my backpack at school beforehand. But now, it was already dark, and I was sure my aunt and uncle were worried.

At first, I thought I had no way home. But then I remembered I did…

I focused on the memory of Count, that fuzzy muppet-face pterosaur. I remembered his wide red eyes, his adorable face hiding nightmarish teeth, and his large wings.

The first thing that happened was that I began to shrink. It was much more noticeable than when I morphed into the Troodon or the cat. Count was just that much smaller than them, maybe as big as a large owl.

Then I felt my spine realigning, accompanied by a short popping noise as a small tail stretched from my rear. My bones began to feel lighter, like something was just flowing out of them and making them practically weightless.

The first big change was my arms. They stretched and bent in ways that looked wrong, but I didn't feel a thing. As claws emerged from some of my fingers, I saw my pinkie and ring finger merge together, then the newly merged finger grew, stretching longer and farther than even my arms. An extra bone popped out of my wrists, along with an extra layer of muscle and skin that slowly began falling from my arms and stretching all the way to my legs.

My legs too changed, lengthening and spreading out as I shrank. My feet melted together just as claws popped out of my toes, which soon spread around my foot until only four remained in front. The connective membranes of muscle and skin growing from my arms spread past my legs, and soon merged with my tail.

I felt my head reshaping, my skull shifting into that circular muppet-like shape. My eyes bugged out of my sockets for a split second before the bones grew to accommodate them. I could feel my teeth melting away, and my mouth quickly filled up with wickedly sharp and disturbing fangs. All over my body, tufts of something like feathers began sprouting, straight little black fur-like stuff that covered me from head to toe.

Soon enough, I was done. I had morphed Count. And I realized I liked this one.

Before, when I was either a human or a Velociraptor, I didn't have vision as good as this. The Raptor was better at night than the human was, but compared to Count he was practically useless. Count could see everything, he could see every last detail down to the color of a specific spec of dirt.

I could see movement too. Small animals like lizards and nightbirds moving around in the dark, it was all so easy to see. And the mind I was faced with was excited by all of it.

Every little thing about the dark, Count's mind loved. This was a safe time, this was when he felt energized. This was his time to shine, and he wouldn't waste it.

Movement nearby. A red shape slinking out of the shadows, stalking through the bushes. Small, dog-like but with the same grace of a cat. The triangular ears, the fuzzy tail tipped with black fur.

A fox.

If it were any other animal, I would have made sure to let Count know we had to go. Foxes weren't any problem for something as big as a human, but I was now the size of an owl, however large it was. The fox might see me as easy prey.

But Count's mind didn't see it that way.

Count saw the fox and thought "oh look, dinner!". And I didn't know what to do to stop him from gliding over to it.

The fox spotted us as well, and seemed to regard this strange new creature with confusion for a split second, before charging at us. I knew my fears would be proven true then and there, that I'd have to morph back again in order to escape.

Instead, what actually happened was that Count did a midair barrel roll to the side just as the fox pounced. The pterosaur then pounced in return, latching onto the red furred creature's neck with his nightmarish teeth.

I sat within my own head and silently watched as Count pinned the fox's face down and began drinking its blood. The poor thing let out several terrified yelps as it tried to escape, or maybe to try and lure in another predator to avenge him.

The animals around us instead opted to go elsewhere, clearly not interested in crossing paths with whatever kind of creatures I was.

Pretty soon, the fox fell limp, completely unmoving and silent. As Count contentedly drank the last of his lifeblood over the next minute, I pulled at the reins and took back control. I think I got why they really named him "Count" now. And I had to wonder just what kind of shit my uncle put in him to make him like that.

Using my front limbs, I vaulted into the air as fast as I could and took off.

Flying was...it was something else entirely. I felt weightless as I flew around, like nothing in the world could hold me back from this point.

The way air streamed past me, the best thing I could compare it to is like when a car window is open and you're going at high speeds. But that feeling is happening all over you, the wind isn't just blowing past your face but past every facet of your being.

I let Count's mind take over the flying from there, I needed to focus on surveying the land below us. I recognized my new town just a little, even at night I could pick out some familiar landmarks, but from so high up it was hard to place things right. It was so surreal, seeing the word this way, it wasn't like anything I had experienced before.

I quickly snapped out of my reverie and took control again. Once I spotted the mall, I bent my wings back and dove towards it. The ground came rushing at me, the air around me flowing back as I sped towards my destination.

It was scary, honestly. I was probably going as fast as a speeding car, and I was heading straight towards the ground. But even though it was supposed to be scary, I felt a rush as I did it. It was the same feeling as being on a rollercoaster, it was just so intense.

I could feel my tail, however small it was, moving as I dived, making tiny adjustments to keep me going straight. The edges of my wings vibrated at all the air rushing past me, and I could feel the fuzz all over me matting down as I fell.

‹WOOOOHHHHOOOOOOOOO!› I said to nobody in particular.

Then, with a slow and strained movement, I spread my wings again. I slowed down right as I reached the mall, I was practically flying right above it.

All I had to do now was retrace the steps I knew I always took. Now, if that down there was the front of the mall...then that would me that I'd be taking a right.

I saw the construction site, and I thought about how I'd want to avoid it and take the long way around. Then I remembered that up here, there was no long way. I could simply fly over to my house once I spotted it.

I looked to the left and saw it, home. I made a short dive towards it, and focused only on the windows. The living room window was open at least, and wide enough that I could simply fly in and land.

With another short dive, I flew straight through the window and then slowly landed on my living room carpet. I made a few short, experimental flaps of my wings before finally settling back on all fours.

Then I focused back on my normal self.

Pterosaur fuzz disappeared, wings turned to arms, tail receded, and body realigned to the right shape. In under a minute, I was back to my full size and proper shape, with tight-fitting pants and shirt to keep me modest.

I felt like I could pass out right then and there. I felt like I had just lived through ten years from this day alone. I wanted to just drop and pop off, not caring about what nightmares came to me from then on.

Then I heard a gasp from the couch.

And then I remembered, idly, that my aunt's car may or may not have been in the driveway when I dove.

When I turned to look, Aunt Jenna looked like she had just broke. Like she was still trying to process what she had just witnessed, and deciding whether or not it had been real.

"Ah...shit...h-hey Aunt Jenna," I said cheerfully. "I know this looks weird, but...I can totally explain…"

---

Aaron (Blank), morphs acquired:

Western Banded Gecko (Coleonyx variegatus)

---

And that's a wrap. Like I said, it's a pretty dark series, so you'll see some shady shit going on throughout.

Now then, onto the reviews...

Magusmon: And I deliver, as I always endeavor to do.

HeadPhoneKid: Done! Enjoy.

Peiguikin: Thank you, and I hope you enjoy the read.

Negima Uzumaki: Oh yeah, I've got a lot planned about this, specifically in regards to some of the larger morphs he's gonna get. But, that's a tease for the interlude, obviously...

As always, lease leave any thoughts, questions, and constructive criticism in your reviews. And thank you for reading.