Chapter 19 (Ax)
Everybody got it? Prince Jake looked to each of us seriously. His tiger-eyes sparkled dangerously. Ax? Do you know what you have to do?
"I must attempt to disable the Gleet BioFilter before your stage of the plan is completed. Pleeted. Com-pleeted."
Oh boy, muttered Marco in a pained voice, holding his huge gorilla head in his huge gorilla hands.
Just remember, continued Prince Jake, Ax may not be able to knock that thing out, so be ready for it.
There was a pause.
Rachel? Said Marco sweetly.
Yeah?
Your line?
Oh yeah. Sorry. Let's do it!
As Prince Jake and the others headed towards the building where they had last seen Joseph, I walked as calmly as I was able on these stilt-like human legs towards the entrance to the Yeerk pool that led to the MacDonalds. For the benefit of any Andalite readers, a MacDonalds is an establishment that serves various types of fast food. Fast food is a food group containing many styles of unhealthy earth food. It is quite delicious. I haven't time to go into the technicalities of taste at the present, but it is a most satisfactory sense.
My part of the plan was to provide a route of escape for my friends and Joseph. I was not sure what I made of this whole episode. The Ellimist having a human son seemed very unlikely, as well as being rather pointless. But, as I had said earlier, it did appear possible. So I prepared to disable the filters.
My heart leapt into my throat as I spotted the controls of the Biofilter. In appearance, they looked somewhat like a fuse box (controls for the electrical supply in human dwellings). The controls were in plain view. If I attempted to tamper with them, I would surely be spotted. I had to warn my friends!
At that point, an ear-splitting alarm sounded. I knew I was too late, they had been seen. And if I couldn't disable the Biofilter they would be disintegrated as they made their escape!
A Controller bumped into me. "What are you standing about for? Get to your battle station!" She ran a few paces, before stopping and turning slowly to face me. I did not wait for her to accuse me, I ran. I heard her scream of, "Andalite!" But I doubt anybody else did.
I quickly lost her and tried to get nearer to the filter. What could I do? Maybe someone would be stationed at the controls as a battle station. It was my only hope. I ran quickly towards my goal and, upon reaching it, flicked open the box. A series of coils and wires stared back at me. I thrust my hand inside and pulled. Nothing happened. If only I had my tail, I could get through the wires! But human hands were not designed with this sort of task in mind.
Suddenly, I felt a large hand on my shoulder. I was pulled roughly around to face the owner of that hand. A tall man with a heavy build glared at me. "Why are you tampering with the filter?" He paused for effect. "Andalite?"
I wrenched myself out of his grasp and ran. There was only one thing I could do. I tried to keep to the shadows as I returned to my Andalite form.
The first thing to appear was my fur, which washed over me like a wave. Then my eyestalks and my extra finger on each hand. I almost lost my balance as my front legs appeared out of my human chest. The Controller was trying to summon the attention of his friends. But I could not be caught until I had my tail and disabled the filter. Finally, I was an Andalite running around without a tail. With a satisfying crunch, my spine extended to accommodate my tail, and the skin at the end of it peeled back to reveal my blade. Now I was ready to fight. But I had a more pressing job first.
I reeled round and circled around my pursuer. My hooves clicked relentlessly against the rock floor as I pushed myself as hard as I was able.
Ax? Where are you?
I am coming Prince Jake.
I burst into plain sight and about half a dozen Controllers just stared at me in horror. The other half was staring at my friends. I saw a boy being held tightly by Marco, his back shielding Joseph from any blasts from the Controller's hand weapons. Without sparing another moment for sensible thought, I galloped over to the controls and sunk my tail deep into the wires.
I have accomplished my part of the plan Prince Jake.
Then move it!
Obediently I careened through the filter expecting to be burnt alive. Expecting to feel my eyeballs melt into little puddles. It never happened. Instead, I was confronted with an establishment full of diners. I could have stopped and asked if I could have some of the delicious delicacies, but that was not part of the plan. The screams of the diners told me that my friends were hot on my hooves.
Once outside, we tried to keep a low profile, keeping to side streets and alleys. Soon, we were out of the main city area and heading towards Cassie's house. As we neared the edge of our cover, Cassie spoke. Should I demorph and check out the house first? See if Mom and Dad are home?
Everyone agreed that that would be a good idea, so that's what we did. Cassie entered the house and we watched her systematically check each room. Lights clicked on and then off as she checked the different places. At last, she appeared on the porch and signalled that the coast was clear.
We all went into the barn and the rest of my friends demorphed. As they were doing so I checked Joseph over. He seemed to be all right, aside from being unconscious of course.
"We left Lee!" I turned to see Rachel fully human, with a panic-stricken look on her face.
Tobias hopped off the floor and flew up to his rafter. I'll fetch her Rachel, don't you worry yourself. I'll be back within the hour. With that he shot out of the barn door into a sky that was darkening with each passing minute.
I'm sure Rachel would have replied to Tobias's sarcasm, but Joseph caught her eye. "How is he?"
Jake looked thoughtful for a second. "I have no idea. I think he's been unconscious since Marco and Ax found him."
It was a Balyma. I stated firmly.
"What?" Marco made it sound as though I was mentally unstable.
A Balyma. Visser Three's Morph was a Balyma. The species has strong psychic abilities. Joseph could remain like this for at least a day.
"But he can't!" Cried Cassie.
I'm afraid he could Cassie.
"No! What am I going to tell my parents? What are we going to do with him?"
"He could come round before then though, couldn't he?" Rachel looked to me for confirmation.
I nodded. Possibly.
Rachel looked around at us all. "Then we wait until he does, don't we."
So we waited.
We waited and waited. Tobias and Lee flew in. We still had a while to wait.