TWENTY-FIVE: JAKE

7:49 A.M.

I could only see black and white with these eyes. But I could 'sense' color. There was a patch of coral to my right. A pink starfish and small sea anemones below me. It threw me off for a while.

Movement was a whole different thing too. An octopus didn't have fins. And it was slow to pull yourself around with eight arms. But when they want to move, they move fast. You had to suck in water and...as disturbing as it sounds, expel it out the other way to propel like a jet.

(This is cool.) Rachel particularly danced through the water. (Look at me!)

(Can't deny this is fun,) Marco droned. (With tentacles like these, I could do anything.)

(It's 'arms',) Cassie corrected him. (Tentacles are for squids, not octopi.)

(A crab,) Ax started and went away from us. (That looks delicious.)

(Focus. I see the intake pipe,) I said.

The octopus mind was something. It was on a similar level as a dolphin. So yeah, it took a bit of effort to get back on track.

One jet into the sixteen-feet-long entrance and I began to feel the current change.

(Here we go.)

The octopus didn't want to go. I had to remind myself - it's like a water ride. A very dark, confined water ride. Probably forty to fifty feet towards the nuclear plant from outside. For a human. Thankfully, it was a fast ride.

There was a light at the end of the pipe. Brighter and brighter. Then all of a sudden, poof, daylight. The current slowed down.

(That was fast. Way too fast,) Rachel murmured.

(Where are we?) It was somewhere big and metallic. I saw the surface, where the light came down.

(This must be the basin,) Marco pointed.

(The what?)

(Basin. It's used to filter anything from going into the cooling towers. Now to look for that pipe.)

(Sure. If it wasn't crowded,) Rachel said. Besides us, other fish had been dragged in by the intake pipe.

There was one that stood out. Because it was the biggest. Covered in many brown and white spots. Laid low to a floor made of square-shaped holes

And looking dead at us.

(Uh, guys? I don't like the look of that fish. Over there.) I tried to point with an arm. Tried to.

(A grouper,) Cassie said. (A big one.)

(Do you think it's been trapped here for some time?)

(I dunno. I'm not too sure what the workers do with the fish here.)

The grouper stayed where it was. Waiting.

I had a very bad feeling. And so did the octopus mind.

(Ok. Enough stalling. Let's look for a pipe that's going down,) Marco called out.

(Hey, Marco. I see a pipe. And two more,) Rachel began. (But they aren't going downwards.)

We approached one side of the basin, where the three pipes were. Too small for any fish to fit. They went horizontal, not vertical.

(What? Isn't one of them supposed to?)

(How would you know it's supposed to go down?)

(I just looked at a picture from a science book. I'm not an architect!)

(Guys, stop,) I tried to get order back. (Ax. How much time do we have?)

(We have used eighteen minutes of our morphing time.)

(Ok. Plenty of time. We just need to...figure out which pipe will take us.)

(Marco, if we're trapped here forever, I'm gonna kill you,) Rachel threatened. (With all eight arms!)

(Watch out!) Ax warned.

The attack was silent! If it weren't for Ax, I would be staring into an opened wide mouth.

When did the grouper sneak in?!

(Ah!)

(Cassie!) I yelled.

The grouper nearly sucked Cassie's cephalopod head into its enormous mouth. She jetted away in time but the fish bit her tentacles.

(Help!)

The water turned black immediately. Ink black.

(I'm free!) I heard Cassie yell.

(Did you squirt yourself? Ew,) Marco mumbled.

(Now isn't the time for jokes!) Rachel hollered. (We have to go!)

I scrambled far from the lurking grouper. (Ok! But which pipe?)

(We can't pick anyhow! We could end up in the steamer room!) Marco shouted

(This pipe. There is something in it,) Ax pointed.

(Now isn't a good time to be examining stuff, Ax-man!)

(...That is Yeerk design! A Bio-Gleet filter!)

(Of course they'd put one in this place!) Rachel groaned.

(What do we do now?! We are trapped! And I don't want to be killed by Rachel!) Marco uttered.

(No. Wait. It is damaged. I can disarm it!)

(Hurry!) I ordered Ax. We scattered around the basin floor, with the grouper deciding which octopus to eat. Why couldn't it go after the fish instead!

(...It is done!)

(Go down that way!) I ordered.

(Wait! What if that's not the way to the T'suli?) Cassie hollered.

(We have no choice! Go!)

Ax went in first. Sucking in to make himself so thin that the pipe slurped him in.

(It's coming back!) Marco shrieked.

The shadowy predator swam towards us.

I swooshed forward and flexed my tentacles out. Made myself bigger. Redder. Like how Rachel did to Marco earlier.

(Jake!)

Rachel joined in too. Made herself as big as she could go. Her skin pigment made ripples of colors that were almost haunting. With our sizes and the flashing, it was enough to scare the grouper away. Buy us some time.

Marco hurried into the pipe. Then Cassie.

I had only taken my eye off for a second, just to make sure Cassie was completely down the pipe.

The grouper did a fake turn to the left, then a whoosh to the right.

(Rachel!)

The mouth opened wide at her. But I latched four tentacles around its body and the other four stuck to some metal rod. Part of the whole cooling tower. I pulled with everything I got.

(GO!) I didn't know how long I could hold the grouper down.

Rachel hesitated but she propelled herself to the pipe.

Wrestling with a grouper was like riding a tied-up bull. The strength really showed! I felt something snap! Flung around by the grouper that I lost my grip.

The fish made one long circle around. Another incoming attack.

This time, I took a different strategy. I made myself bigger again. And at the right moment, I let it all out.

A thick cloud of black ink erupted out of me, creeping over the big fish. I didn't look back. It was a straight arrow into the pipe.

Whatever the pipe was taking us, it had to be better than staying. The current gushed me further with slights rights and lefts. Then it went down.

Down, down, down. Until I dropped into a bigger area - a water tank from the looks of it.

Everything became calm.

(Ok. Now this is the end of this ride,) Marco said.

(Finally,) Rachel exclaimed.

(Jake,) Cassie called me.

(I'm ok... Lost an arm back there.)

She sighed with relief. (At least it's only an arm, not an entire gulp… Groupers are terrifying.)

(Yeah.)

(No kidding,) Rachel added.

The tank was deep from the inside but not as dark as the pipes. It was translucent. The only way out was a circular opening. About four or five inches in diameter.

(I see a cap,) I said. (One of us has to demorph and unscrew it.)

(No need. Octopi are very intelligent creatures. Smart enough to unscrew a jar on their own,) Cassie explained. (Just turn it and we're out.)

(I concur,) Ax vouched. (Without these arms, I would not have disarmed that broken filter.)

(Wait. What if there are people walking around?) Marco quickly said.

(Ax.) I stopped myself. A big risk to do this but it had to be done.

(I understand. I will go first.) Without hesitation, Ax crept up the tank's walls and to the opening cap.

Eight legs stuck to the bottom of the cap. His octopus body spun gradually, loosening it off.

(This is very convenient!) he boosted and crawled out of the opening.

It felt like an eternity, waiting in the water. My mind was thinking up the worst possible outcomes up there.

(It is clear.)

I climbed out from the tank, inhaling a deep breath the moment I felt it hard to breathe. With a wet plop, I just dropped to the floor.

Then something fell on top of me while I demorphed. (Omph!)

(Sorry!) Cassie apologized. (I didn't see the floor.)

Four of my arms were stiffening and merging together. Quickly and carefully, I put her small body next to me and continued my demorphing. The others did the same. If anyone saw us, it would be like a scene from a B-rated horror film. The Four Things from the Deep. And One Andalite.

I was relieved that I wasn't missing my feet because of that grouper attack. The remaining tentacles merged together into my human legs and out came my toes. I gave them a wriggle. Yeah, they were still there.

Then I looked up.

"Whoa."

Cassie's eyes were wide. "It looks like a normal plant but...the walls."

It was something. You had the usual stuff: railings, grates, pipes, wires, valves, everything you'd see in a factory. But the walls, ceilings and floors were a different thing.

They weren't solid concrete. Every surface was made of many large, smooth panels. And each panel was strange - the shapes looked like they shouldn't fit together but they did so seamlessly. Some messed-up jigsaw puzzle that didn't use curves in the pieces. Because of that, it looked like the T'usli was eating up an industrial place from the inside.

This was Yeerk tech, all right.

(This is the right place,) Ax stated. (The T'usli.)

"We better morph before someone sees us," I told everyone.

"Elle said what? Fifty Controllers?" Marco reminded us.

"So we go in sneaky or loud." Rachel said.

"I reckon we should go careful. Not dumb!"

"Can we really go sneaky?" I asked. "This place is supposed to be like a prison. We can't get in or out."

"Then loud it is," Rachel cheered.

"How about we compromise? We go battle morph and be quiet until trouble comes our way?" Marco proposed. Ok?"

No objection there. We were in unknown territory. And we were down by one. Carefully, we left the water chamber and into what looked like large halls. Empty but going nowhere and everywhere.

Marco gruffed out a gorilla noise. (So...which way?)

(The surveillance.) Ax's eyestalks angled up to the ceiling.

(Are we caught on camera?) I asked.

(No. It's offline… The entire security grid in this area is turned off.)

(Isn't that a good thing? We won't have to worry about anyone seeing us,) Rachel said.

Was it? But I didn't say anything.

(Someone's here,) Cassie warned. She sniffed the cold floor with her wolf nose. (Recent.)

(One of the skeleton crew?) I asked.

(It's...Elle's scent?)

(What?)

A/N: Hello, all readers. Chapter 25 is up and at it with octopus morph. This reaaaaaaaaaally had a lot of research put in for how these kids' experiences would be. Actually, the whole getting into the T'suli base the usual Animorphs way was one of the hardest to figure out. I would accept I am wrong in how water is pumped into cooling systems for fish to end up in an area so that they can't go further in. But a T'suli is a Yeerk design so we can have some way to play around. To a degree.

Moreover, while the next chapters are gonna be action-packed and probably one of the better parts of this fic, I'll have to hold on in order to catch up more on future chapters. It's always an aim for me because I don't want to fall under a hiatus because I lock myself into a writer's block right after uploading completed chapters (especially cuz time travel and constant rechecking for consistency). I'm really eager to show the next five chapters but I want to dedicate in the futuring planning and writing. For the time being, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

I also need to reedit a chapter on some little nitpicks I've noticed myself and I think an unintentional inconsistency thanks to the chapters I'm working on. I think there might be some minor changes in order to keep the whole time-travel in order without some mistakes. I'll notify the changes in these notes like my timestamp below.

31/7/21 - First upload.