Chapter 1
My name is Jekkal-Corlen-Fahlo.
I am the only Andalite doctor on Earth. Although with only human tools for my use, very little of my studies come in handy.
I need to explain. Earth is under attack from the Yeerks. They are a parasitic species that ties into your brain and takes control. Only we Andalites stand in their way.
Well, not just Andalites. You see, Before Elfangor died... It's so hard to even talk about it... he gave five humans the power to morph. They've had some success in defeating them so far, but it mustn't have been enough. Because the Ellimist sent us here. He sent us to these humans and Aximili to help.
The four of us. Me, I've already told. Raeolin-Ashul-Tallien, an arrogant fighter pilot, Tashe-Kelane-Fahleen, an excellent technologist, Casten-Tellon-Harelin, a... I don't know- I never learned much about him before he died.
Then there are the others. Aximili-Essgarrouth-Isthill, an aristh who needs to be promoted-he's done enough-, Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, Visser Three's old host who acts half his age, Jake, leader of the Animorphs, Marco, the comedian, Rachel, the warrior, Cassie, the human veterinarian, and Tobias-Sirinal-Xertos, Elfangor's son and nothlit.
Note the 'son'. Elfangor had a kid in-between the time when we thought he was dead. I don't really hold it against him, since space-time wise, it didn't happen. It's not all that bad with Tobias around. He's even saved my life once.
I'm still getting used to Earth. So I wasn't used to what usually happens. I woke up with snow up to my waist. I was shivering. Tobias? Do you know how to survive the cold mornings?
If it makes you happy, I'm cold too. I'll try to see if Cassie has something you guys can wear. About a half-hour later, he showed up with a huge pile of artificial skin that seemed to be walking.
What is that? Alloran had just woken up.
"Come on. My dad made me wear all this stuff to get out the door, let alone go into the barn." Cassie explained. She handed out bundles of artificial skin. Some of it went on the lower body- some on the upper. After about a half-hour of configuring and fastening them down, we had the blankets and coats on.
A little bulky, but it works.
Come on, Jekkal. You said we needed to check on Haven today. Besides, we need to make sure they're okay. Over a third of that village is cold blooded. Alloran commented, It's already 11:00, Earth time.
I headed off with him. It took much longer than it usually did, since the snowfall was picking up, and it was difficult to move through it all. But we made it.
And we couldn't believe it.
Chapter 2
What the...!
The campground was covered in snow at least five feet deep. The ivy covering must have withered away, giving holes for the snow to fall through.
Cassandra! Anybody! WAKE UP!
"Say what, Jekkie?" A white head, undistinguishable from the snow around it, but could still be seen, popped out of the small 'hill' that in reality was were all the Semites slept. She seemed drowsy.
We just need to check up on the area. Make sure there's no problems, that there hasn't been any Yeerk activity, etc.
"None of that. Not for miles." One of the Hork-bajir had been awake and listening to the conversation. She was coming back with a bundle of bark in her arms. Bark is the staple of their natural diet. As far as I can tell, they seem to like the maple over pine.
Any problems with the snow- Alloran tried to ask.
FOOMPHF!
FOOMPHF!
A white sphere, not that well constructed, hit Alloran under the chin. Another hit me on my shoulder.
Huh? I saw them: a small group of kids that were making the spheres out of snow and throwing them around.
I grabbed a huge chunk of the snow, placed it on the flat of my blade, and hurled it over to where they were standing.
POOMT!
"Hey!"
"So that's how you're gonna play, huh? Take this!" Another child said.
"You take it!" Cassandra cried.
In about five minutes every Semite and Hork-bajir had gotten on one side or the other and sent a barricade of 'snowballs' into the other side and back. We were getting in some good hits, but the children had better aim. In the end, we were covered in snow worse than we were in the morning.
On the way back, I tried to shake it off, but most of the snow that hit me clung to my fur.
Little upstarts. Alloran growled.
Yeah, right. I seem to remember Selain talking about you before they split up the arisths. You've pulled worse stunts than that. He blushed, although with as cold as it was, you couldn't tell.
His embarrassment disappeared quickly. Just the same, it's war. They need to accept it and help fight.
How? I insinuated. He may be considered a war-prince, but he was disgraced, which made him no more powerful than I was.
He kept silent the rest of the way back.
Chapter 3
When we got back, everyone was awake. The Animorphs were also there, waiting for us to come back.
"Well?" Jake pressed.
It's okay as far as anyone's concerned. There was a small scuffle, though.
"Small? You're caked in snow."
I wiped away some of the excess around my main eyes. Well, they had more Hork-bajir on their side, and they are stronger. Besides, Semites can't aim.
"Aim?!" Everyone's face turned to us. Then they laughed. "Okay, a snowball fight is a little beside the point. We have a bigger problem on hand. Erek should be here anytime now."
Erek, as far as I've been told, is a Pemalite android who passes among the humans and the Yeerks. He usually brings useful information to the Animorphs, but I have never seen him.
"Hi." A new teenager entered the small clearing. He was almost as dark as Cassie, but looked like a taller Marco otherwise.
Erek, I assume.
"That's him, all right. So, what'cha got this time?"
He glaced over to us, unsure, and then spoke. "There's a new type of experimental dracon beam being tested. If it works, the Yeerks could easily stop any rebellion a- nd still use them for hosts. "
Well? What does it do? Aximili asked.
He shrugged. "According to the plans, it's a Sound Dracon. It sends a concentrated series of sound waves to the target. It's supposed to be a paralyzer, so the victim can be dragged to a Yeerk pool within the hour. They've hidden it in the collage's drama department."
There was not much more to the conversation, so Erek quickly made himself scarce. We tried to discuss on it.
"The drama department? Sheesh, I would've thought the Yeerks had more brains for hiding that!" Marco snapped.
That may be why. We're so used to high security mesures, they might be trying lower ones because we wouldn't even think about it. I vested. Cassie and Rachel nodded. The others just stared at me like I had a Yeerk on my head.
Sometimes, you scare me. Aximili noted.
Ax-man, you scare all of us when you go nuts at the mall. Or at least get every- one giggling. Tobias rebutted. He had a point-I only went once to the mall without the humans, because Aximili said he could teach us well enough.
Well. Although I did like the food places, even I tried not to let my morph get the best of me. I went one other time with Jake: he seemed much more helpful.
"Okay, back to the point: How the heck do we handle this Sound Dracon? According to Erek, that's pretty powerful stuff."
Spy it out.
Chapter 4
We moved out the next day towards the looming building. It was still over two and a half feet deep, so we went in raptor morph through an open window.
Demorph behind those curtains. The place looks empty, but we still need to watch out. Jake noted.
I headed towards the curtain and began to demorph. Two minutes later, We had five Andalites, two wolves, one tiger, one gorilla, and a Hork-Bajir examining the area.
I take it back- they did have more brains for hiding it. Marco said, We've been searching for an hour and we still haven't found it.
It's actually been only fifty-two minutes, but you're right. I'm beginning to think maybe Erek didn't convey the message correctly.
Bull. Erek's a machine. A smart one, but a machine anyway. He can't screw up. Besides, he's got good sources. If he says they hid it here, they hid it here.
TSEEEYYYAAAA!
Ahhhhhh! My brain was on fire! I grabbed my head with my hands, hoping to block the noise. But it didn't help.
The Sound Dracon! That must be causing it! I swiveled my stalk eyes around to see a human holding a dracon with the tip similar to a blade ship engine.
"Andalites! Well, the Visser will be glad about this!" She spoke. I would have gone and sliced the weapon away, but the pain!....
By chance, Jake was only a few yards away, but it was enough. I saw him shrinking.
Don't demorph! I cried.
I'm not. He stopped, now only as big as a normal earth cat. He got back up and moved toward me. He rubbed against my right foreleg.
Jake, This is not the time or the place. Come on! You need to regain control!
But Jekkie, I am. Quit worrying, lady.
What? I scooped him up. I looked around the rest of the stage area. Marco had also grown noticably smaller, Rachel and Cassie were okay, Tobias wasn't any different, but the others...
They were children!
Aximili? Raeolin? Tashe? Alloran?
They peered at me quizzically. I wanna leave. She mean! Raeolin accused, pointing a finger at the woman.
"Hmmph. A side effect, no doubt." She sneered. She had stopped projecting the Sound Dracon.
I headed over to Marco and scooped him up with the other arm, but he moved away and clung around my neck, riding on the back. If you want to keep that head of yours, I suggest you let us leave.
"Fine. You'll need to come back to us, anyway." She showed me the backstage exit. I ran the rest of the way to the forest, the others not far behind.
Chapter 5
Jekkal, are you sure you don't know what happened?
You've asked me that question fifty times already, Tobias, and my answer's still no. Now, if you're finished asking, here's one for you: How come you three didn't end up younger? We had reached a small shed in the forest, and tried to explain to Marco and Jake how to demorph. I know it sounds dumb, but they were too young to remember.
"Who knows? All we know is the boys are looking and acting like a bunch of kids." Rachel said.
You know that doesn't make sense. If it just affected boys, how come I'm not acting like an idiot?
Well... It could be that the sound rays cause the effect on the male chromosome. If I recall, your Hork-bajir morph was female, which made you the exception. I sighed. In other words, when she fired, it must have caused that side effect. I think we need to grab the Sound Dracon to reverse it.
I needed some energy. I needed it in the worst way. Not only did the Sound rays tire me out, but I swear I could hear an echo of the rays, except this time it seemed softer, more soothing. I would've fallen asleep right then, but I was too piqued by what happened.
"Okay, but can we just rest? We need to deal with those six little moppets right now." Cassie commented.
I don't think so. About the rest, I mean. That's just the aftereffects of the Sound rays. Is there anything we can use to stay awake?
"Bring everyone to the barn. I'll go see if we can get some coffee out there. It's no solution, but it'll do."
One problem: Alloran doesn't have a human morph. Tobias ponted out.
"Fine. Wait here. I'll be back." About ten minutes later, she came back with a two-colored cylinder and a few cups. "Here. Jekkal, Tobias, you might want to morph human for this one. "
I drank the concoction. It was very good, but quite hot. Still,it did the job: I became more alert after two refills.
"How come you don't get as keyed up about taste as Ax does?" Cassie asked.
"A drawback to being an estreen: I don't let my morph get the best of me."
I glanced back to the boys. They had all fallen asleep over each other. Lucky, I thought, They don't have to worry about the war at that age.
I demorphed. Okay, we need to grab the Sound Dracon, reverse the process, and they'll be back to normal. Simple enough.
"NO." I turned all eyes toward Jake. He must have been listening to our conversation. "Don't wanna."
"Don't wanna what?" Rachel cooed.
"Don't wanna go back. Hurt my ears."
"But you need to."
He began to cry.
Chapter 6
He started crying, and then Marco joined in. Fortunately, Andalites can't cry all that well, but two were more than enough.
Stop it! Stop it! Then I lost control. SHUT UP! That paused them for a few seconds, but then they came back loud as ever.
"Cripes. There's got to be some way to make them be quiet. " Fortunately, they were dozing off again, so we took advantage of the silence.
Okay. Tobias, You stay here and keep an eye on them. We'll try to go back and bring the Sound Dracon with us.
Why me?
Because I think your only female morph was the Hork-bajir. If any of us are hit, we can demorph. But you...
Okay, okay. I take care of the kids. he was morphing into his Andalite body, so he could keep a sharp lookout for trouble, namely in the form of four Andalites and two humans.
We flew back into the Department building and looked again for the Sound Dracon, This time in human morph since we were in plain sight to any human who walked by.
"See anything? Tha-ing? Ing?"
"Nothing but a crossbow." Rachel replied.
"What's a crossbow? Some type of weapon?"
"Come over here and see." I looked over her shoulder. It could almost have bee n a Dracon beam, but it had a springboard pulled taut by a wire, which was held in place because a slender thorn with barbs was held by a clamp.
It looked normal, until I saw the tip. An arched blade.
"That's it! Now we need to get it back to the others so we can-"
The others are here.
"Tobias? I had to do a combination call, since I was fairly sure he couldn't hear my human voice all too well.
Yeah. There was a wolf pack that was sniffing around, acting like they were looking for some thing. I had everyone morph to Canadian goose. We're on the backstage.
"Good. I've got the Sound Dracon." I went over there to confirm and to make sure I was aiming right. But I still needed a way to reverse the process.
Okay, I admit it- I'm no expert on Yeerk weapondry. You'd have to ask Tashe for that. But I had a fairly decent idea of how to handle this. Reverse polarity and change the frenquncy. Or is it change the polarity and reverse the frequency? I was too confused and worn out to remembe-
Wait. That wasn't just worn out. I was getting sleepier.
I turned around. Right behind me were four Semites, five humans, and the Visser, holding a Sound Dracon.
Chapter 7
"Well, well, well. This is certainly a surprise. Eight bandits? Hmmph. I'd thought there were more."
"Leave. Now." I was demorphing, hoping maybe I could slice the small band of controllers. By now my fur was beginning to show.
"No. But just to make it interesting, I'll give you one shot at me."
It has to be a trick, I thought. I eased my hand toward the trigger. As my last two fingers were splitting apart, I fired.
TWANG!
THUNK!
"AHHHH!" The Visser cried as the thorn drove itself into one arm. "You idiot! I thought you said that weapon was a prop!" He sneered to one of his henchmen.
"I thought it was, Visser. This body didn't know."
"I'll deal with you later."
TSSEEEYAAAA!
Ahhhhh! This blast hurt as much as the first one. I was almost completely Andalite, but I was tottering on my two hind legs. I had my tail, My stalk eyes, everything except my front legs and the section of body that separated them.
I tried standing up, rejecting the pain. But it clawed at me like a wild beast. I had to stop demorphing. It was hurting too much!
I fell back into a pile of artificial skin. Most of it covered me. I tried to get up, using my hands to help. A translucent green piece was on my head.
"Quit fumbling. You've a Yeerk with your name on it."
I dug deeper into the clothing. The skin gave me cover, but I had no clue how lo- ng. There wasn't enough time!
No, wait. maybe there was. For one morph.
I couldn't see the changes, but I could hear them. Hear it as my tail blade withered away. Hear the soft crinkling of my skin flaps. Hear the liquid poison filling my sacs.
I prepared for the soft, killing mind to appear. It preferred the clothing- reminded it of company. But it's senses were noticing further out.
I poked my head and hood out of the pile.
Click.
I didn't hear any sound this time, but a more soothing tune. My consciousness was drifting away.
Drifting...
HUHROWWR! A grizzly bear was coming straight for them!
TSSEEEYAAAA!
Ahh! She was shrinking rapidly. Oh, great. Now I've got a cub morph, and that's just plain useless.
You're okay otherwise?
Yeah, But I can't demorph here!
Don't worry. You did plenty.
Chapter 8
I lunged!
I grabbed a hold on the Visser's neck, but it was too big for me to suffocate him. I grabbed his wrist, hoping to take the Sound Dracon from him.
Got it! I fiddled around with the circuitry, until I was reasonably sure about it. Here goes.
TSSSEEEYAA!
I had to keep my finger on the trigger for the effects. I immediately saw six little geese grow larger, and a bear grow back to adult.
I flew off the visser, adjusted my wings, And turned for him. I quickly reset the Sound Dracon.
TSSSEEEYAAAA!
FLUMP! They collasped, but they ran for the exit, demorphing and growing younger at the same time.
Drat.
C'mon, Jekkal, we did it. Now can we just go home and get rid of this thing?
Get rid of what thing?
Alloran!
What's going on? One minute I remember looking for that Sound Dracon and the next I'm a Canadian Goose looking at you holding it!
Oh, not much. We told him later what happened, of course. But we had one more stop before we headed home.
Cassandra?
"Over here, girl."
We have a Sound Dracon for you to use if you do need protection. Just aim and squeeze the trigger.
"Thanks. You guys really need to get home now."
I suppose s-
FOOMP!
Why you little-
"THE BRIDGE!" Everyone yelled.
FLUP!
SC-RACK!
Cold. Very cold. Very cold. HELP!
About five minutes later I was on my knees, next to a fire and wrapped in a blanket.
"Lesson number one, Jekkal: Do not try to cross the bridge. Period."