After a day of flying through the sky as birds for the first time in their lives, Jake and his friends begin to realize the true gravity of their choice to accept Elfangor's power. The Animorphs decide to expand their morphing arsenal and begin to make plans on how to do so, but while they're in the process of doing so, Marco arrives with information that must be shared with his comrades.

Filling the Deck I

Day 5, Afternoon

I was helping Cassie muck the horse pen, it was a much cooler day and with a lot of cloud cover. The cloud cover made the stench more tolerable.

"Hey, Jake? I have a question."

I turned to see Cassie putting the shovel away, then drop the bucket of horse manure. She took her gloves off and put them up on the same rack the shovel was hanging on. She still had a lighter expression on her face, though by the tone of her voice, it's serious.

"Alright, shoot," I said as I moved my last bucket of manure to the designated dumping bin.

"When we start fighting the Controllers, shape shifting is our biggest advantage. If we're going to fight, and I mean actually fight, then we have to start morphing bigger animals."

"Well, that is an inevitability," I agreed as I poured the manure in.

"And when we do, how are we going to get control of them? Agitating animals can make them aggressive, if one of us turns into a tiger or a bear, how can the rest of us wake the other one up?"

I dropped the bucket and looked at Cassie with a very concerned expression.

"I...didn't consider that," was the only thing that left my mouth. "Maybe-"

I was interrupted by the sound of the barn door opening.

"Knock knock," Rachel said, waltzing in with a backpack.

"Hey Rachel."

"Sounds like you were talking about something...is it the..." She had trouble finding the right words for it. "Mexican stuff?"

"Mexican?" Cassie asked, bewildered, I raised my eyebrows.

"I think we need a few more words," I told Rachel.

"You know, foreign activity? Alien crap?"

"Ah," I said, finally getting it.

"Marco and I talked a bit yesterday, he said that we need to be prepared to hook up in a place where someone might hear us. We can't exactly mention extraterrestrials to outsiders, but they're an especially hot topic, anyone who overhears our conversation may want to join in!"

"But don't we want more people to join in?" Cassie asked. "Our group, I mean? We could use a few helping hands in this."

"No, we shouldn't," Rachel said. "Marco said it's too big of a security risk, and I agree. The Controllers can impersonate people so well that we have no way of being able to tell! And we shouldn't assume that their facade have any discernible weaknesses. We don't even know how we can get them out. But enough on that, were you talking about that kind of stuff when I came in?"

"Yeah, we were," I nodded, slapping my hands together. "We just got done cleaning the stables when Cassie brought up a problem we're inevitably going to encounter in the morphing thing. Let's wait until Marco arrives."

"No," Rachel interrupted. "Marco says he's occupied, he can't come today."

"Okay then, I'll let Cassie explain it," I said putting my hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks Jake," Cassie said, turning to me and smiling. I got a feeling like butterflies in my stomach. "If we're going to fight we'll need meaner morphs than our current selection, a lot meaner. Mean enough to cause some serious damage to human beings, lions, tigers, and bears. What do you think is going to happen if we try to wake each other up from that?"

Rachel sat down on the haybales, and her smile vanished.

"Oh, that is definitely going to be an issue," Rachel huffed. "But Tobias is a morphing expert, he probably has a solution, even if it might be an unreasonable distance away, it's not like we can afford to let that to stop us!"

I nodded in agreement, "yeah. It's not like we can afford to let anything stop us, but how much stopping power are we going to have? What advantages do we have other than the morphing?"

"Uh, a few more, actually," Rachel spoke up. "I don't know if you still remember, but...internal clocks and compasses, ludicrous pain tolerance? Have you guys actually gotten those quirks yet?"

I had forgotten about those.

"No," I said. "Other than the morphing, I haven't noticed anything different."

"I've been trying to activate the other powers," Rachel said. "Took a stroll through the woods the other day and got lost until I turned into a bird. Tried to use my watch function and arrived twenty minutes late to this morning's gymnastics meet. And I don't want to repeat what I did to test my pain tolerance."

"Was Elfangor lying about that?" I wondered.

"I don't think so," Cassie said. "Maybe the other benefits need time to kick in? I mean, a lot of those functions are in our brains, I think the other abilities would have to arrive slower in order to prevent brain damage, or other negative side effects. That aside Elfangor said I was a...super morpher? I think that means I would be the first to start getting the other powers."

"Those are some good points," Rachel said. "So how are we-"

We were interrupted by the barn doors flying open. We all jumped away and looked out to our unexpected guest. He was sweaty and out of breath, having ran or biked a big distance quickly to get here.

"Marco?" Cassie said in surprise.

"I thought you said you couldn't come here?" Rachel accused.

"I...lied," Marco gasped out, he walked over to a barn wall and leaned on it. "There's something... I have to tell you."

"Hey, easy," Cassie said, walking over to him. "Just catch your breath."

It had been at least ten minutes since Marco arrived. Cassie had put a cold and wet towel on Maro's head, and got him some water with ice.

Marco took a swig from the cup and set it down.

"Thanks for your hospitality Cass," Marco said, fanning himself with the journal he keeps with himself at all times. "You're a real friend."

"You're welcome. I'm happy to help anytime," my girlfriend said with a smile.

"Anyway, I don't want to keep you waiting any longer," Marco said, stretching his back.

"What did you find?" Rachel asked with interest, her hands on her hips and her foot tapping the wooden floor.

"This morning, I overheard my Dad on the phone with ETCS. Talking about some...new stuff."

"Aren't you under strict orders to not speak a word of that kind of crap?" I questioned.

"Yes, but that was before the alien ghost town incident. Speaking of aliens; Dad mentioned a new one that they've been tracking in North America, a hostile one. I thought they had found a lead on The Controllers until he mentioned it was a shape-shifter."

I felt the hair on my back raise. A shape-shifter? A morpher, like us?

"Another Andalite?" Rachel asked.

"Visser 3?" I suggested.

Marco shook his head. "Not sure. If the Controller's leader was tagged, I doubt very strongly he would have allowed the tracker to stay on him, he would have had it removed. And whatever the creature is, Dad said it's close, it's heading North, away from us. But if the Animorph turns south towards our location, Dad said he'd take me and leave the town, possibly out of state."

I raised my eyebrows in shock, we can't afford to let that happen. Marco may not have the morphing power, but he's one of us, just as important a part of the group as the rest of us. The sounds of the animals in their cages went uninterrupted for some time.

"Wait, Animorph?" Rachel snorted. "Is that what you're really calling it?"

"I don't think the creature's name is something we should focus on, Rachel," Cassie pointed out.

"That aside, it's the ETCS's word, not mine!" Marco said defensively, raising his hands. "If I'm being honest, it sounds like a name a 2nd grade Sci-Fi book monster would have. Moral of the story is; if it sounds stupid but works, then it isn't stupid."

"I agree," I said, standing rigid as a nail. "We should be very worried about this. Whatever it is, this Animorph is apparently dangerous enough for Marco's Dad to seriously consider just taking him and leaving."

Marco and Rachel nodded in agreement.

"But how do we know he's even an enemy? Or an alien at all?" Cassie pointed out. "It might actually be Tobias, and we don't know enough about this creature to know what to expect."

"Yeah," I said. "I don't think it's worth it to worry about this thing, and as you said, Marco, it's heading away from us. We can ask Tobias about it when he comes back. And we have a more immediate issue to deal with," I said, turning to our host.

"What kind of issue? You didn't get caught did you?" Marco asked, leaning forward and using the tone he gets when someone does something stupid.

"No, it's another problem," Rachel said. "Don't get your panties in a wod."

"No, you," Marco retorted.

"Go ahead Cassie, lay it on him," Rachel said, walking to the haybales and lied down on them.

"Okay, you know how we have to wake each other up when we morph an animal for the first time, right?"

"Yep," Marco said. "That is somewhat obvious."

"Yeah," Cassie said, not missing a beat. "Well, if we're going to actually fight, then we're going to have to acquire more animals, dangerous animals. As in tigers, bears, lions."

"Oooooh," Marco said in realization. "I see the problem now. We'll have to get them under control, but provoking something that mauls humans and kills them every year is not a good idea."

"Yeah," I nodded my head. "Cassie's barn isn't exactly fit to contain a rampaging gorilla."

"No kidding," Marco said, laughing, before losing his humor completely. "But the Animorph wasn't the only thing I came to tell you about. I found something really bad going on."

"Why didn't you tell us this?" Rachel demanded.

"I assumed you might already know about it, judging by your talk of 'An Immediate Issue,'" Marco explained putting air quotes around the last three words of his sentence.

"This morning I decided to get a break from all of this morphing alien crazy weirdness going on. So I just decided to attend a community group, but got a lot more than I bargained for."

Marco took a deep breath before continuing.

"This group is called The Sharing, and I attended a meeting just this morning."

I froze up and looked at Marco, The Sharing? Tom's a part of the youth branch of that group, practically the spokesperson. I looked at his face to see if there was any humor, to see if Marco's joking. But his eyes were dead serious, he knew. No, no, it might not mean anything.

"It seemed like good community fun, the kids with their parents were having this awesome pool party at the Y. It's very obvious why the group's so popular. But then I noticed that the building where the indoor pool was had been blocked off from the rest of the group. Only the Full Members, kids and adults, of the Sharing were allowed in. Tom entered the building, someone who I think is his girlfriend in tow. I wanted to get in due to that place having better stuff, and so I waited until someone else was entering, a big strong adult dude. I hid behind his body so the person who was gatekeeping wouldn't notice, it worked perfectly."

Marco then started looking down.

"I went in totally unnoticed, it really does seem like nobody notices Latinos, I followed the guy and kept sneaking. Then we reached the pool area, but nobody was in there, nobody was swimming, the fountains and water pumps weren't even turned on! And no, they weren't undergoing maintenance."

Nobody? That smells very off.

"I knew something was up and stayed quiet, I moved with the big man because I didn't want to get caught. We reached the YMCA's gym, and there were rows upon rows of chairs, it was obvious someone was going to be speaking, everyone in there..."

Marco stopped talking for a second, trying to catch his breath.

"Everyone in there had these dead, lifeless expressions, this room was totally different from the rest of the get-together, there wasn't any talking, totally silent, like robots. There were plenty of chairs left empty, so I took a seat without being noticed. Then the speaker came in, some guy in a business suit using a cane and wearing these strange shoes. When this guy came in everyone's eyes were on him, even Tom. Then he began talking about things...they didn't say anything explicit, something about moving the cargo to a certain location."

"Oh here we go," Rachel muttered.

"The kind of stuff that was discussed is bad," Marco said. "Really really bad. I don't remember all of what was said, but at best The Sharing is a human trafficking ring, and at worst a front for the Controllers."

"If it is a front for the Controllers, wouldn't that still make it a human trafficking group?" Cassie pointed out.

"Jake-man," Marco said, turning to look me in the eye. "Tom was there, on the stage. He's-"

"No," I said, ending the discussion.

"Jake," Marco started. "I'm your friend, and I'm not going to abandon you under any circumstances. But you can't just deny it."

"No," I said.

"How do you know that?" Marco said. "Tobias said in his letter that they could be anyone, why not my Dad? Why not Tom?"

"Jake, for once I agree with Marco," Rachel said, holding her hand out. "We can't afford to assume anyone is innocent until proven guilty, it's not American, but we have to go by the opposite; guilty until proven innocent. It's safer to assume that everyone around us is infested, we can't afford to make exceptions to that rule."

I turned to Rachel, and opened my mouth, but before anything came out Cassie interrupted.

"Guys, I think we should stop talking about this," Cassie said. "Whether or not Tom is infested doesn't actually matter, we don't have a real for sure yes or no answer to that. We can investigate it later, but I think Jake has to be a little more careful from now on."

I closed my mouth.

"Agreed," Marco added. "It'll have to wait. And I think it would pay for you to visit the Gardens real quick, as soon as possible."

"But didn't you hear what Cassie said?" I asked. "If we try to morph those animals, we would hurt or even kill someone!"

Marco nodded in agreement, a smile on his face. "Yeah, you can't morph them until Tobias returns with a solution, but that wouldn't stop you from only acquiring them. Right?"

I stood there in silence, feeling like an idiot. I looked around and saw most everyone wearing the same awkward expression I was.

"I think I have an updated map for the Gardens," Cassie said, beginning to walk out the barn door. "I'll go get it, and Jake?"

"Yeah," I asked.

"You wouldn't mind taking the poo out, would you?"

"Sure," I said. "I'd rather be shovelling manure with you than going to...to...uh, a spa without you."

Rachel snorted, she tried to hold it back but it made my awkwardness all the more noticeable.

"Winnie the Poo! Winnie the Poo!" Marco sang while laughing. "He's the bear that neither takes a crap, and he shovels it out! Shovels it out!"

Day 3, Evening

It was a silent night in the forest, some miles north of where the summer camp Jake, Marco, Cassie, and Rachel went to a pit had been dug. Inside the hole there was a body, wrapped in a green fabric until not a single inch on the entire body was visible. In the body's hands was what looked like a plate made of brass. Tobias stood next to the pit, his hands covered in dirt, looking down at the fallen titan in his grave.

"I dedicated all of my heart, mind, and soul to helping you and the others overcome this. I fought with everything I had," Tobias said in a voice hoarse from two days of mourning and preparing for the funeral.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't enough," Tobias said as he dropped a seed wrapped in a wet rag on his father's chest and started to push the earth on his last family member. No, Tobias would not burn the body this time, he didn't care if something would desecrate his grave and harvest his DNA, no. Tobias observed the rites and laid his father to rest, then after he made the ground look like it was never disturbed Tobias flew into the night as a Great Horned Owl. There were no words, not even in telepathy, there was nobody to hear them.

He was on a mission, the torch had been passed on. Tobias he knew his friends would not be enough to fight to the Controllers, not yet. In his Father's database, he realized there was a lot of information he wasn't told. He would have to tread carefully from now on.