Chapters 1-4

The Newcomer

By Tes-sama

Chapter 1

Every thing was a blank for a while, until I woke up sore and with a chicken that had a splint on its wing sitting on my chest. I was laying on a bail of hay. I looked up and saw a large hole in the roof. I looked around and noticed that I fell into a barn. The barn was filled with cages, most of which were filled with animals. Some animals looked like they were injured in some way.

Off in the distance I heard what sounded like a bunch of kids talking. I quickly ran to hide behind a couple bails of hay. Soon after I did, the door opened and five kids around the same age as me walked in. Shortly after, a hawk, a red-tailed hawk to be exact, came swooping in through the door to perch itself on the rafters above.

"Prince Jake, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to demorph. I have been in this form for almost two hours. Allllllllmossssttttteh." One of the boys said.

"Demorph? Prince Jake? What's going on?" I thought to myself, so confused that I could burst.

"Sure Ax, but don't call me Prince." Another boy said.

"Yes, Prince Jake."

My heart was pounding and I started to breathe heavily. I looked over the bail of hay to see what was happening. To my shock and amazement there was this creature. It looked like it was changing. Two stalks started to protrude from his head. A tail sprouted from his back and two.... things started coming out from his stomach. As this was happening, it started to turn blue. I looked at the others; they didn't seem disturbed by all this. When it was done changing I recognized what it was. I couldn't believe it. It was impossible. An Andalite?

Chapter 2

I ducked back behind the hay so scared and confused that I was sick to my stomach. Suddenly, I felt a sharp blade against my neck.

You will come out now! I heard in my head. It was thought speak. I had never heard thought-speak before, it was amazing! I saw that the blade pressed against my neck was attached to a long blue tail, and I thought I knew whom the tail belonged to. So I slowly stood up and put up my hands.

"Take me to your leader?" I tried to joke but the tail blade at my throat made that really hard.

Who are you? The Andalite asked.

"My name's Gina." I said.

"What are you doing in here?" A tall blonde girl asked. I could have sworn on my grandpa's grave that she looked like Rachel from Animorphs.

"I, uh...er, um..." I stuttered trying to think of what to say to them.

Answer the question! The Andalite ordered. I looked at the others; they were all staring at me.

They all looked so familiar. Yes! They were the Animorphs. Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill; who just happened to be the one that could send my head rolling if his tail just twitched. So I said it.

"The Ellimist brought me here." I said.

"Did you say the Ellimist?" Marco asked.

How do you know about the Ellimist? Tobias asked from the rafters.

"She was probably spying on us when we mentioned him last." Jake said.

"No, I wasn't spying on you." I said, trying to find a way to convince them. Then I remembered that I still had the bag with the books in it. I looked around to find the bag, and then I saw it. It was spilled out by the bail of hay I landed on. "My bag, get my bag." I said pointing to the bag that might save my life.

Marco went over to inspect the bag. He picked up one of the books "What the...? Animorphs...books?"

Chapter 3

A "Huh!?!" from the human Animorphs and a What!?! from Ax and Tobias almost made me laugh, but I realized that this was NOT a joking matter.

Then the Ellimist decided to pop in and help me explain. "Yes, Marco, Animorph books. Hello Aximilli, Tobias, Cassie, Jake, Rachel, and, of course, Marco. Allow me to introduce The Sixth Animorph."

Then Marco burst in and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the phone! Wait a sec!! Didn't we just get done with the whole The-Sixth-Animorph-Thing? We all, and surely you saw it, too, Ellimist, how that worked out. Now you come along," Marco said gesturing to the Ellimist with asperity, "and say that we have another one? Mind you we know nothing about…?"

"Gina." I supplied helpfully.

"Thank you," Marco continued, "Nothing about Gina, the same situation as David, and right now David is a rat on some island out in the ocean. Now will you please explain why you are doing this now that I've got the facts straight?"

"Why, Marco. I was about to when you burst in. Like I was saying, I picked Gina for the job of being the sixth Animorph for many reasons. One of which is the fact that she knows more secrets about the Yeerks, also she knows more about you than you know about yourselves. You can't afford to have her taken. You'll find that in the books that she carries is a biography of your lives ever since the…"

"Friday night you all decided to take a short-cut though the abandoned construction site and received the morphing capability from Prince Elfangor or Tobias's real father." I said, amazingly in one breath. Then I noticed that I was receiving stares from an Andalite, a hawk, and the four human Animorphs. That pushed me beyond laughter but to total hysteria, and I burst out laughing.

That earned me a chokehold against the wall of the barn courtesy of Xena: Warrior Princess. "Yo, yo! Xena! Calm down. You don't do this with Marco when he pisses you off," I yelped.

Then Tobias cut in with a sad note in his voice Let her go, Rachel. She's right. That's why that Degroot guy wanted to see me. He said that my father, my true father, was Elfangor-Sirinal-Shamtul, or Ax's brother. Might as well get this over and done with. Hello, Uncle Ax.

Chapter 4

Everyone tried to talk at once. Rachel wanted to knock me around the barn. Marco kept hitting me with questions once every two seconds. I saw Ax's legs buckle and Cassie ran to help him. Then I could see Ax was calculating human family relations and looking confused. Frankly, I wasn't surprised by his reaction.

Suddenly, Jake yelled, mostly to get over the noise, "ENOUGH!!!" A stunned silence fell upon the barn. "That's better," Jake continued, in the ensuing silence, "I'm going to regulate this game of 20 Questions. Everyone gets two questions, except for Ax and Tobias. They get four each."

Just then Cassie cut in and said, chuckling, "But, Jake, that's only 16 questions, not 20."

"Cassie, Cassie, Cassie," Marco said with a sigh, "Just because you're our fearless leader's girlfriend, does NOT mean you can take MY job of nagging on him."

I started chuckling. Then Marco walked over, put his arm around my shoulder, and with a look of satisfaction in his eyes said, "You know? There's a difference between you and David. A better sense of humor for one thing, but I still will bet a month's allowance that you'll freak out on your first morph." Then he started laughing, and that ticked me off.

Then I grabbed his wrist, twisted his arm, and flipped him on to the nearest bail of hay. Then I held Marco's arm behind his back in a relatively painful position with my booted foot against his neck and said "Marco! I'm shocked! You already forgot that I know about the morphing abnormalities that you have discovered? So you see, I will NOT freak!"

I let his arm go and took my foot away and stepped back from him while he scrambled to regain his composure in an upright position.

Then Rachel walked up to me cautiously and, offered her hand saying, "One, Welcome to the group. Anyone that can karate-flip Marco deserves to be in the group. And two, Jake, I definitely like this girl.

"So," I continued, "Now that we're done playing "Straighten Out Marco", shall we continue with "16 Questions"?", I asked as I made a phony bow to Jake.

Everyone started laughing except for Ax and Tobias. "Alright, we had our laugh. Now for the questions. I'll go first, then Cassie; third, Marco; fourth, Rachel; fifth, Tobias; and last, Ax," Jake explained.

Disclaimer: Sappy? Sucky? Short? YOU BET! I don't own The Animorphs, Ax, or the Ellimist. They're K.A.A.'s. I only own Gina. Stick around for the next four chapters.

~Tes-sama