"Cassie, morph back, now!" I snapped. "We don't want them to see a horse girl!"
She obeyed without question.
"Everyone else, block Cassie from view!" I added, as they looked like a bunch of deer frozen in headlights.
Three years of being team captain was paying off in more ways than one. I was good at snap seconds decisions. Although, granted, basketball wasn't technically a matter of life or death.
Don't tell Coach I said that.
Less than a minute later, a single cop emerged from the car.
"Morning," he greeted. "You kids, uh, hiding something?"
No, not at all, Officer. Just a half girl, half horse. Why do you ask?
I put on my classic smile. "Hiding something?"
The smile wasn't working its magic. Unsmiling, the officer ordered us to step aside.
We obeyed, of course.
Fortunately, Cassie had managed to revert entirely to human. I tried not to look too relieved.
The cop looked confused, but then, he just shrugged.
"Can we help you, officer?" asked Rachel in her respectful, talking to adults, voice.
"We're making some inquiries," he began, eyes still on Cassie. "We're looking for some kids who were shooting off fireworks in the construction site across the mall last night."
Marco began coughing, and I glanced over at him.
"Something the matter with him?" the cop asked, suspiciously.
"Nope, nothing wrong with him," Jake assured him.
"We want these kids. We want them real bad," the cop continued. Staring right at us, he explained, "See, it was dangerous what they did. Could have been someone hurt. So, we want to find the kids."
"I don't know anything about it," Jake insisted. Turning to me, and the others, he added, "You guys heard anything?"
We all shook our heads.
"Well, you call me if you hear anything about these kids in the construction site. I should warn you--they may come up with some wild story to conceal their guilt. But you're all too smart to believe a bunch of crazy lies, aren't you?"
I grinned. "They're smart kids."
The cop nodded, then gave me a closer look. "Hey, weren't you an associate member in The Sharing for awhile?"
Keeping a pleasant, talking to nosy adults look on my face, I nodded.
"Yeah, but it took up a ton of time. You know, with school and all..." I trailed off.
"He's captain of the basketball team!" Midget put in, obvious admiration on his face.
The cop nodded. "I suppose that would take up a lot of your time. Well, you're always welcome to join up again, if you change your mind. It's a great group. You kids, too," he added, glancing at the rest of us. "You're welcome to come to one of our meetings. Get involved, make new friends. Great if you're looking for a job this summer, too."
More nods, and he finally took off.
"Okay, rule number one," Rachel began. "We don't do anything to attract attention. We have to be secret about everything. Especially morphing."
Cassie looked very embarrassed, so I spoke up. "Not that we could have known some cop would just go barging in like that, Cassie. Rachel's right, though, we have to be extremely careful from now on."
"I will, Tom, I promise," she told me, and I gave her a reassuring smile.
"Hey, Cassie, how did you manage with clothing? Because when we did it, well, let's just say it's a good thing neither of you girls were around," Jake said, turning a little red at the end.
"It took some practice," Cassie explained. "And it can only be done with tight clothing. I tried it with a coat on. It got shredded. I don't know what we're going to do in the winter."
"That's not going to be a problem," said Marco, firmly, "because there isn't going to be any more morphing."
"Maybe Marco is right," Rachel began. "This is too big for us. We're just kids. We need to find someone important to tell this to. Someone we can trust."
"We can't trust anybody," Tobias protested. "Anyone could be a Controller. We tell the wrong person, we are all dead, and the whole world is doomed."
"Elfangor said that the Andalites would be back," I reminded them. "They could be here any day. Take this whole thing away from us."
"I don't think he would have given us the morphing powers if they were going to be back next week," Tobias said, grimly.
"Two weeks, then," I joked.
"Well, I don't want to stop morphing," said Cassie, softly. "Do you realize all we could do with this power? We could communicate with animals, maybe. Help save endangered species."
"Humans may be the next endangered species, Cassie," reminded Tobias.
Cassie turned to Jake and me. "What do you think?"
I wondered if Cassie was including me because I was older. Not that this translated into a ton of life experience in the way of fighting wars. I couldn't even enlist for another two, if I had any interest in joining the United States military.
"I think that this is too big for us to handle along, but the cop being an obvious Controller makes me realize just how much ground the Yeerks have covered so far. We're just kids--teenagers, sure, but kids--but we are all this planet has got. For now, anyway," I amended.
"Yeah? Well, I think this is a losing battle until after the Andalites get here, and there's a 99% chance we'll get killed!" Marco retorted.
"That's a 1% chance we'll survive." Rachel grinned. "Not great odds, but we've got a shot."
"We also have a shot of winning the lottery," Marco grumbled.
"Way less than that. And people still play," added Tobias, with a grin.
I rolled my eyes. "Me, I am in. Anyone who wants out, that's on you."
There was a silence, and Marco finally spoke up.
"Someone's gotta keep you from getting killed. I'm not saying that I am going to go into battle, but I can tag along while we try to find their headquarters, or whatever." Pausing for a second, Marco added, "I think we should check out The Sharing. The cop was really insistent on it."
"Tom was in it for awhile," Jake said, looking at me. "But he quit."
I shrugged, not liking where this was headed. Our dad was a full member, after all.
"It's like this coed Boy Scouts group, except for all ages. I don't know. It was cool at first, and seemed like a great way to get to know people, but it became kind of intense. Like, there are associate members, which was me, but then there are full members, with their own meetings." I shrugged. "Could be like they're the planning committee for the events they do, but they make it sound very...elite? Like this secret society? It felt weird. And, anyway, I had the team and school, so I figured it wasn't worth the commitment."
"Isn't your dad a full member?" Rachel asked me.
"Yeah," I admitted.
Jake paled. Neither of us liked the idea of our dad being a Controller. It was one thing to claim you couldn't trust anyone. Another to think that your dad, of all people, could have a slimy slug wrapped around their head.
"He wouldn't. There's no way he would agree, even if they asked him!" he insisted.
"He might not have had a choice, Jake. You still think it's a good idea to fight them? You and Tom could end up with slugs in your head. Then, the rest of us!" Marco snapped.
I had to restrain Jake from punching his best friend.
"Let's not jump to any rash conclusions. How about this? The Sharing sometimes has outdoor events. We can tell Dad we want to go, then someone can morph bug or something and spy on the full members meeting. If they start throwing around words like 'Visser' or 'Yeerk' or 'world domination' or stuff, we go from there," I suggested. "You guys cool with that?"
I let go of Jake, who gave me a momentary glare, then nodded. The others followed.
"In the meantime, we should keep an eye on our families and friends for anything that seems off. I know that a Yeerk would be able to play them pretty well, but I figure that if they start showing a lot of interest in finding the kids with fireworks, or even talking about them a lot, we need to keep an eye out," I continued.
"What about morphing?" Tobias asked.
I nodded towards Cassie. "If you're gonna do it, make sure no one is home. Acquire lots of animals, even if you never want to become one. Small stuff, like ants and termites and beetles. Worms, even. In fact," I considered, turning to Cassie, "while we are here, we should acquire pretty much every animal you have in your barn."
"I also need to teach you guys how to morph clothes. It takes practice, and focus, but it's actually pretty easy once you get used to it," Cassie said, with enthusiasm.
"Right. We'll look like a bunch of weird superheroes in getup like yours, but we won't be arrested for indecent exposure." I turned to Jake and Marco. "'Course, you twerps would totally dig the superhero outfits, right? It is all you talk about."
Jake snorted, and Marco raised his hands in the air.
"I will have you know, Tom, that the superiority of Batman versus Superman is a topic of great philosophical importance," Marco informed me.
Sure.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, kids, let's get started."
It took about a half an hour to acquire all the animals, and it wouldn't be enough for serious battle (I didn't think this planet held anything that could go up against the creature Visser Three morphed to devour Elfangor, except maybe the prehistoric dinosaurs), but it was something. I had an idea that just being able to run and hide and spy would be almost as important as combat, since we needed information most of all right now.
Like where the Yeerk Pool was. That was big on my list. If we could figure out how to destroy it, assuming Visser Three didn't stay close every day and we had enough firepower to take down dozens of Hork-Bajir, and maybe rescue a some humans and Hork-Bajir...
Despite what I had said earlier, I was already thinking about fighting.
We headed out, with Marco in the back seat with his bike. He and Jake began talking about Dead Zone 5, this video game they were planning on playing. The talk mostly focused on who was going to beat who.
Being fairly responsible, and not wanting to risk being a third wheel, I headed to my room to work on more homework. If I could finish History before dinner, I would just have a couple of chapters to read for English.
Our rooms were next to each other, so even with the door closed, I could still hear the video game. I focused extra hard on History, and had just finished answering the questions at the end of the chapter when I heard Dad knock on both of our doors.
"Tom? I need to talk to you and your brother," Dad said, his voice more serious than usual.