TWENTY-FOUR: TOBIAS
6:48 A.M.
(What do you mean we can't use our fish morphs?) Marco uttered.
(They're freshwater,) Cassie quickly explained.
(So?)
(They can't survive in saltwater. They'll dehydrate if their bodies take in too much salt.)
(They're fish. How can they dehydrate?)
(We need a saltwater fish morph if we're going through those pipes. And the Gardens don't have aquariums.)
(We can't spend our morning fishing like last time,) Rachel grumbled.
(And we can't go along with that Yeerk's plan. She won't even tell us what it is!) Marco uttered.
(Worse, she could figure out who we are if we did tag along,) Jake said.
I was up on a streetlamp keeping an eye out while everyone talked over our next course of action. Sure enough, Elle left the apartment - surprisingly calm after meeting the Andalite Bandits - and took off on her bike.
(Elle's leaving,) I told the others.
(Is it ok to let her roam free?) Marco pressed on.
(She has more to lose than we do,) Ax explained. (And we are pressing for time.)
(Right. We can go after her or we go get this battery. We can't do both,) Jake stated firmly. (Where can we find a saltwater fish?)
(The night market,) Cassie exclaimed. (Elle talked about it at the restaurant. It's bound to have saltwater fish.)
(Aren't fishes in markets...dead?) I asked.
(There's a supermarket there that keeps live ones. We can use those.)
(It's better than nothing,) Jake said.
Cassie led the way for us. I've never been to that part of the city, where the night market was. It wasn't that far from the coastline so of course, it was an ideal spot. Down the road from there was the supermarket she talked about - a Hong Kong chain. But I didn't see any tanks outside.
We perched nearby and decided on our next plan of action.
(The tanks should be inside,) Cassie said.
(I hate to break it to you but we don't carry money on us,) Marco pointed.
(We could cause a distraction. Like what we did for the parrots. At that restaurant!)
(Why are you sounding enthusiastic to do that?)
While they talked, I noticed a trunk parked at the back of the supermarket. It had the fish market's logo on the side so that's why it stood out. The driver stood by one of several large metal containers and opened the lid up for a staff member to look inside.
The opened container caught my attention the most. It had water. Something black swam inside it.
(Marco can yell that there's a bomb inside. Like last time,) Rachel proposed.
(Too risky,) Jake said.
(Or we can get a fish during delivery time,) I told them. They spotted the truck.
(Yeah. That could work.)
(Those containers look deep though,) Marco stated.
(Leave it to a professional,) I scoffed.
(Do you need help distracting the driver?) Jake asked.
(No need. This is a one-hawk job.) I opened my wings and caught a breeze to go higher. I needed the right height for this dive. The right timing too.
I circled around first. Waited for one of those silhouettes to swim to the surface.
There. One grew bigger. I took the dive.
Talons were wide open and ready.
Splosh!
"Hey!" It was all too quick for the delivery man. All he could do was watch a bird take off with his catch right out of the blues.
(Got it! Wow, it's kinda squishy.)
The fish had an odd texture. It felt smooth. I thought it might have been an eel, similar to the ones at the bait shop. Those were tasty-
Something wrapped around my leg. Many somethings! Creeping their way up my body.
(Whoa!) I yelled.
It was like something out of a horror film! Tentacles coming out of nowhere, their suckers sticking to my feathers as the monster stared at me with its bulgy creepy eyes. Only it wasn't some creature from a bad B-movie.
What I caught was a very angry octopus!
(Guys! I didn't catch a fish!)
I tried to drop it. But the octopus stuck to my legs. One of its arms made its way around my right wing.
(Hey! No! Stop! AHHHH!)
Gravity took us down. I tried fighting. Flapping my one wing. Anything! But this creep was relentless!
I was going to die by an eight-legged mollusc!
(Tobias!)
Nobody could catch me. I saw the ground zooming towards me.
THUD!
I felt pain but I didn't feel any bones snap. I did feel something soft cushioning me. Something saved my fall. The arms immediately peeled off me.
My heart pounded so loud I could hear it. The hawk was stunned. What happened? Did I die?
I felt something wrap around my body again. I couldn't move!
(AHHH! AHHH!) It still had me!
"Tobias! Stop! We got you!"
I looked up with my beak wide open. Instead of eight slimy tentacles, it was Cassie's hands holding me back from going frantic. Everyone was out of their bird morphs, looking worried at me. I think we were in some back alley. Away from people.
Then I saw my attacker, picked up by Marco. Pale-looking and limp.
(AHH! Keep that thing away from me!) I yelled.
"It's ok. It's knocked out. I think," Rachel assured me.
"Can we technically acquire DNA if this thing just died?" Marco asked. "Gack!"
The octopus came back to life! It lashed a tentacle onto his hand but before it could take over his arm, he ditched it into a nearby bucket. Lid shut.
"Yuk! Gross." He wiped his hands onto his shirt.
(Why was there even an octopus in those containers?!) I hollered. (I thought it was all fish.)
"It might have been caught by mistake," Cassie said.
"What should we do? It's not a fish," Rachel pointed.
"No. But it's still saltwater."
I eyed Cassie like she was joking. Didn't matter if I wasn't human to glare at her. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! (We're gonna morph into that thing?)
"These are pipes we're talking about. An octopus doesn't have any bones so they can squeeze through anything. As long as their beak can fit."
"Good point. We don't know how narrow the pipes will be down there," Jake said.
(Fine…) I grumbled. (The faster we do this, the better I can be done with this thing.)
"Not quite. Tobias, you have to be on lookout this time."
(Wait. Why?) I was still frazzled by my experience with the octopus that it took me by surprise. (I'm fine!)
"It's not about the fall. It's about our doppelganger Andalites," Jake explained. "We don't know when they're going to the Tsu'li. We need someone on the outside to keep an eye if they appear."
I couldn't disagree with that. But that meant I would be separated from the others. And Rachel.
I promised her I'd watch out for her. Make sure nothing bad happens to her. With this sudden change in plan…
That wasn't good. What if something bad really did happen? What if Rachel really did…
(Wait. How do we even know those Andalites are going?) I quickly asked. (This is from one Yeerk. A Werch.)
(He is correct. Although she isn't a threat to us, we should not take every word she said to heart,) Ax vouched.
(Exactly!)
(But there is nothing that says they won't go. My concern is the Tsu'li layout. If what that Yeerk said is correct, then the Yeerks could easily capture the Andalites with the Tsu'li.)
C'mon, Ax! Stop going in circles!
"We really got nothing to go on but her word," Marco groaned. "It's either we do it or we don't-"
"Let's do it."
I was shocked when Rachel said that. But then again, this was Rachel.
"We've been saying "we dunno, we dunno". And we've been doing nothing but that. We won't know anything until we go get this battery and stop those Andalites from hurting themselves." She folded her arms. "They got us involved in this mess they made. And we have to clean it up for them."
"Yeah...but…" Cassie's voice was weak.
We were all quiet.
"Pft. You can't get rid of me that easy," Rachel uttered proudly and angrily. But for a while, she became sincere. "We've never been stopped before. We can't stop now."
As much as I hated it, as everyone hated it...she was right. There was a lot at stake, with or without the Andalites. I couldn't shake this knot off me but… I trust Rachel.
"Wow. When did Jake rub off on you? Because that's so not you, Rachel," Marco droned, bringing the dial further down.
She smirked. "Shaddup. Don't make me punch your sorry mouth clean off."
"Just making sure we didn't get a doppelganger sneak in along the way."
Rachel looked back at me. This time, her smile was gentle and reassuring. Telling me it'd be ok.
"Well. What are we waiting for? We're burning daylight being out here."
"Jake?"
The only one out of the group was quiet. He didn't answer Cassie.
His face had darkened somewhere in the conversation. Without us noticing. Jake was having second thoughts. Moreover, he's been a lot more cautious since he found out about Rachel's visions.
We were only given a brief of whatever this Sario Rip we supposedly went through. I don't remember anything. I couldn't help but think there were some details Jake kept from us.
But that would be stupid. Jake? Nah.
"Jake."
It took a moment for him to snap out of his thoughts. This would usually be where Rachel would push his buttons. Fight at his authority for a bit.
"...It's your call. But I'd say we go with Marco's plan."
He must have held in a sigh for the longest time because he let it out in one go. "...We won't know anything if we don't do it." He gave one hard look at each of us. Waiting for any one of us to call it quits there.
"Pass the bucket around."
Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco and Ax acquired the octopus' DNA. I also acquired it too as a precaution. If I was on lookout, then I needed a way in too if trouble heads inside the Tsu'li.
There were a few hiccups… The annoying pest tried to escape the bucket every time we opened it. Once we were done, we tossed the octopus back into the ocean before we headed off.
Good riddance. Thanks to him, it took longer than expected.
The nuclear plant was located by the coast, outside the city. Kinda scary - if you were at the beach sunbathing and you saw the building so far away. Or swimming near a nuclear-powered plant.
"I've never liked that place," Cassie exclaimed with a frown once we arrived there. We found a spot where the giant intake pipe was by the shoreline.
"You don't like a lot of things that aren't environmental-friendly," Marco pointed. "It's not like it leaks radiation on a daily basis."
"No. But it has caused a lot of problems for the wildlife for years. There've some activists wanting to shut it down to save this beach."
"And that means causing blackouts for one part of the city. Hospitals. Emergency response. So on. You can only pick one, Cassie."
She didn't like it but she sorta understood. "Just wish it didn't suck in hundreds of fish species and keep them trapped inside."
(You know, I think I remember that rumor Elle was talking about,) I started. (Didn't a diver get sucked into the pipe and was found dead years later?)
Everyone looked at me.
"Ok, Bird-Boy. Stop making this scarier than it should be," Marco droned shakily.
"No. I think I've heard this before. Something from the 80s, right?" Rachel asked.
"It's an urban legend. Not real life."
"I dunno, man. Dying all alone without oxygen down there? That sounds gruesome to me," Jake added.
"We'll be octopi. We can't drown."
"But we can get stuck there if we're not careful."
"But we have suckers. Right, Cassie?"
"Yeah, sure," Cassie replied, but she sounded a little wary.
Jake sighed. "Let's get over with this."
All five of them went to knee-deep water. I perched back as the spectator. It wasn't an old thing, watching them morph while I stood by. But I knew better that morphing wasn't a pretty sight. For the most part.
Each of them morphed at different speeds but the change was generally similar. Organs and bones were the first to go, shifting out of them and into Z-Space for the time being.
Half of their bodies ballooned up. Their heads and torsos inflated together while most of their features melted away. Beige skin and blue fur turned into that rust-colored wrinkling, waterproof skin.
My friends' eyes bulged out while Ax's stalk eyes slurped inwards. Their irises narrowed in shape and turned horizontally in those pools of white. Looking demonic.
That wasn't even the freakiest part.
Their shoulders dislocated and arms dropped down before they 'exploded' into four tentacles. It looked like something from an Alien movie. My skin crawled, seeing hundreds of suckers pop up.
It was only recent but I was already getting flashbacks from that stupid octopus. Could birds shudder?
Their legs exploded too underwater. I imagined it was like their arms. Two legs split into four. Ax's legs didn't have to split but twist and turn now that his bones were taken.
Because of that, they descended faster into the water than expected. While shrinking altogether.
(Whoa!) Cassie was the first to disappear into the water.
(I'm not looking. I'm not looking,) Marco whined.
With their new forms sinking down, bubbles rose up. They were gone under the water. Out of sight.
They crept further away from each other for some reason. I almost lost track of them, even if in clear blue water.
(Uh. Guys. The pipe's that way,) I called them.
Rachel got darker. Bigger. With her arms curled up but spread out. She propelled forward as if she was going to punch one of them.
But it came off like a timid poke.
(Hey! Watch it!) Marco squirmed deeper into the rocks.
(Sorry! I-I think the octopus wanted you to leave it alone.)
(They are solitary creatures, after all,) Cassie explained.
(Alright,) Jake started. (You're on your own, Tobias.)
(Be careful down there,) I told them.
(We'll be back before you know it,) Rachel told me with confidence.
Their silhouettes faded in the water until I couldn't see them anymore. Now it was the waiting game for me.
I had no idea that it would be the last time I would see my friends again...
A/N: C:
The chapter I've been waiting to post since its brainstorming days. This has been long-awaited that because of one picture and a discussion post on Facebook, I dedicated my time to write this, as well as taking a ton of research about this one lil critter of the sea.
Tobias having to deal with a smart octopus.
It's been a year in development since I've made that discussion post on the Animorphs group and to get this far into this fic, I'm thankful for the many people on that group to give a lot of insights, thoughts and so much more for this one book series we love. It also helped me shape how the scenario had to go, with how different USA is compared to Singapore for me that I couldn't picture places like a night market (Thanks to a few members and one very good friend and reader, Kara, I learned stores and markets don't sell octopus, crabs and so on unlike the markets here). And most of all, gave me a good laugh as I was working on Tobias' incident. That's why I am dedicating to the people who helped me on that post for this chapter and also an Animorph member, Zachary Vaudo, for showing me a picture of a stunned hawk, as a source of inspiration. Thank you guys from the Animorphs group.
And as I write this, I feel kinda bad for Tobias. I dedicated a chapter to those people on a chapter where Tobias had to wrangle with an octopus in the sky. The poor boy really needs a break. I am so sorry Tobias. We should do more happy things for Tobias as dedicated fans.
Anyhow, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. I have one more to post before I'll be a stop to catch up on my later chapters' edit/creation.
PS. I still feel bad for Tobias here. X'D
27/7/21 - First upload.
PSS. Sad I can't link the picture here...boooo FFN.