The Second Invasion Part 3: The Brother
By: Andalite Girl
Chapter 1
Rachel
My name is Rachel. I won't tell you my last name or where I live so don't even ask. There are reasons for me being so careful. I know things that would chill your blood. I have done things that would give you screaming nightmares for a year.
It's just all in the fun of being an Animorph.
What is an Animorph you ask? Well it's means animal morpher. Yes that's right I can turn into animals and I do it all the time. It all started when I was 13 years old. My best friend Cassie, my cousin Jake, his best friend Marco, this cute guy that I barely knew at the time named Tobias, and I were walking in an abandoned construction site.
It was there that we saw a damaged Andalite fighter ship crash and it was there that we were warned by a dying alien, about a race of slugs called the Yeerks. But I will get to that part later.
The alien gave us a piece of technology. The power to acquire any animals DNA, simply focus your mind and to become a clone of that animal. Pretty neat huh? Well it would be except for we have to fight space slugs. It would be very easy if the Yeerks just stayed in they're slug form. But they don't.
Yeerks have evolved to drill into a sentient person's ear, wrap around the brain and control that person. The worst part is that the person is still there to witness every move the Yeerk makes as it controls them, to hear the Yeerk laughing as it infests the persons friends and family with fellow Yeerks.
That's what we had to fight. So we did. And after 3 years we drove the Yeerks away from earth. But now, a decade later they're back. They found out that we were mostly humans and not Andalites. They tracked down Jake and Marco. They didn't get Marco because he blew his brains out with a gun. But they got Jake./p
That was ten days ago.
When we finally stopped weeping and grieving for our friends, the rest of the Animorphs and our Andalite friend we call Ax got busy. We told the Chee and the free Hork-bajir to move out, because what ever Jake knew about them the Yeerks now knew.
Cassie and I disappeared from the human work world. We now live in a cave in the forest. Ax and Tobias moved out of the meadows that they lived in and found new ones. Before the Yeerks could infest everyone that Cassie and I knew, we all went to the Gardens and acquired as many animals as possible. Just in case.
" Hey, I got an idea." Cassie said. It was about 9:00 at night, Cassie, Tobias, Ax and I were lounging around a campfire. Cassie had a day old newspaper in her hands.
" What?" I asked.
She pointed to the sports section " Tom's team is playing tomorrow, its going to be the last game of the season."
So? Tobias began then he realized what Cassie was getting too. Oh no, no way! We can't trust an ex controller.
Since Jake got taken, Tobias has become our unofficial leader. But I don't think that he knows it yet.
I do not understand. Ax began. You wish to add Tom to our team?
I was beginning to warm to the idea. " Look," I said. " Last invasion we barely won with 6 morph capable people. Now were down to 4. I know that we can't replace…" I almost choked up. " We can't ever replace Jake and Marco, but we need more firepower and… and the Yeerks will never suspect Tom."
We could try Tobias said But how do we know that he is not a controller?
Ax supplied the answer. Tom is only a human sports player and not very famous. He is not high priority.
" Where's the game?" I asked Cassie.
" At the arena." She answered.
Ok, well everyone get some sleep. Tobias said from his perch. Tomorrow is going to be tough.
Chapter 2
Tobias
Well this is boring. I said.
We were in fly morph and it was the last part of the basket ball game. We were all sitting on the underside of the bench were the players sit. We had been here for half an hour and we were all getting a little edgy.
I just hope that they don't go into over time. Cassie said.
Suddenly we heard the buzzer go off. There were many vibrations and lots of sweaty guys passed us. The basketball players were heading to the locker rooms.
This was the tough part. We couldn't see with normal colors using these pathetic fly eyes so we had to guess on which team to follow. A really sweaty guy passed beneath us. After him! I said and hoped that I was doing the right thing.
Ax? How much time do we have left? Rachel asked.
45 of your minutes has passed.
Ax. There our minutes. Rachel said. Well someone had to say it. she grumbled when we went silent.
I…I Think we are in the locker room. I said trying to change the subject.
So what do we do now? Cassie asked.
We should fly in a group and listen in on conversations to find Tom I felt a little strange taking the role of leader. But someone had to do it.
We buzzed around for a few minutes then we found our man. There he is! Cassie exclaimed.
Which one? Ax asked.
The one in the yellow.
We landed on different parts of him and listened to the conversations until he announced that he needed his beauty sleep. Then he got picked up by a limo ( I think) and went to his hotel room.
We have only 10 of your minutes left. Ax announced.
Just at that moment Tom headed for the bathroom.
Ok, everyone just demorph here. I said. Ax, go into human morph as soon as you can.
Luckily Tom was in the bathroom a long time. We were all human by the time he came out.
" Whoa Rachel what are do doing here? Hey! Who are you guys?" Tom said.
Opps. I forgot that Tom and Rachel were cousins.
"You're going to need to sit down for this." Rachel said.
Tom gave us a hard look, but then he sat down at a table and motioned for us to have a seat. " So who are you and what to do want." He asked looking right at me.
I smiled. " Well Tom, we call ourselves Animorphs and we want you to return a favor."
" And what favor was that?" He sneered.
I looked at him in the eyes. " Your freedom Tom. We were the ones that set you free."
Chapter 3
Cassie
He kept his composure. I'll give him credit for that. " What are you taking about?" The only thing that gave away the tension was the way he clasped the arm of the chair until his knuckles turned white.
Tobias leaned forward and said in a very low voice. " You know what we're talking about. They're back. The Yeerks are back."
" How… How do you know?" Tom asked in a breathless whisper.
" We fought them." Ax said. " We drove them away from this planet."
" No! It's a trick!" Tom said
" Tom look at me. Look at me very closely." Tobias said. Then he began to demorph. Feather patterns formed on his skin, his eyes turned from light blue to fierce gold. His mouth and nose were merging together to form a beak when Tom yelled
" Enough!"
Tobias began to morph back into his human shape as Rachel spoke. " We need your help. We can't fight them alone."
" Hey, wait a minute." Tom said regaining his composure " There was six of you before."
We exchanged looks. This would not be easy. " Yes, there was two others." I said. " Marco…. Jake. Marco is dead and Jake-he's a controller now." I closed my eyes. It felt like I had just given up on Jake.
A stricken look came on Tom's face. " What could I do? I mean-"
" We can give you the power to morph if you agree to fight with us." Ax said.
" We need morph capable people to win again." Tobias began. " We need your help. Jake needs your help. Will you fight for the planet? For Jake?"
I watched as a tear slid down Tom's cheek. " For Jake." He murmured.
Chapter 4
AX
Power on. I told the blue box that was in my hands. We had held Tom in the forest for three days just to make sure that he was not infested. He wasn't, now we were in a meadow and I was planning to do something that I had only done once before. Give the morphing power to a human.
Last time I did it… Well I really don't want to talk about that. The box warmed up in my hands signaling that it was on. I looked up at Tom with my main eyes. Please put your hand on the box.
Tom did so hesitantly. " Will it hurt?"
" No." Cassie said. She was holding a goshawk that Tobias had seen being mobbed by crows.
I took a deep breath. Activate. I told the box.
" Whoa! Tom exclaimed as the box activated. " That was strange. What do I do now?"
" Put your hand on the goshawk." Rachel said. " Concentrate on it and its DNA is yours."
The goshawk tried to nip Tom, but it was slow from its injuries. It soon became relaxed as the acquiring trance took over. Then Tom began to change. His legs shrank first, making him fall to the ground. Feather patterns did not emerge from his skin, but they just burst from his flesh. His eyes got wide as they shrank and moved to the side of his head. Finally his arms became wings.
Now the bird mind is going to try to take over. Tobias said. Just remember that you're a human.
Tom let out a shriek and jumped back fluffing up his feathers. " Relax," Cassie advised. " You're a human Tom. Remember playing basketball?"
The ex controller got control of the goshawk instincts. Yeah I do. Hey! I can talk!
It's called thought speech. I said.
You guys better morph. Tobias said. Before you all get to far apart on the morphing time.
I focused my mind on my harrier morph. We all needed to fly so we could spy on a former controller called Chapman.
Chapter 5
Rachel
No way! Chapman's still the vice principle? I demanded. Doesn't that guy know the meaning of retirement?
Cassie chuckled a little. He's at the high school now.
Why is the school high? Ax asked.
We had been spying on Chapman for almost an hour now. All he had been doing so far is sit in the park reading a book and we were getting board.
Is it always this boring? Tom asked. I mean I thought we were going to kick some Yeerk butt!
Be careful what you wish for. Tobias muttered.
Just then I noticed a man walking toward Chapman. His walk was almost familiar… I couldn't place it. He walked right up to Chapman and started talking.
Who is that guy? I asked.
I don't- Tobias began. But then Chapman pointed at the sky. At us. The guy looked up and my heart skipped a few beats because I recognized the face.
Visser 3. Ax spat.
Let's claw his eyes out! Tom snarled.
I felt the same way. It would be so easy, I could just spill the air from my wings and rake my talons forward and…
No, Tobias said quickly. Visser 3 will have guards posted all over the place.
Yeah, that made sense. I reluctantly thought. But I had a twinge of doubt. Would Tom listen? Would he turn out to be another David?
Next time. Tom said.
Tobias called out. Ok everyone just drift on out of here like normal-
Suddenly… Dracon flash! Ahhh! Cassie screamed. I looked and saw to my horror that half of one of her wings had been burned off. She tried to flap her wings but she was too heavy. She fell like a rock right toward the laughing Visser 3.
Visser 3 caught her in his arms. " I have you now Anda… Human!"
Without thinking I dived toward them. I was about to hit the Visser with a face full of talon when a sudden updraft threw me aside. " TSEEEEERRRR!" I screamed in frustration.
A dracon beam lanced by me missing by inches. I saw Visser 3's guards, they were humans in normal clothing, except humans don't carry hand held dracon beams. I flapped to get higher, but the guards were ahead of me. I turned and head toward some dense bushes to hide.
Tobias started to rap out orders. Ax, Tom, you create a distraction, Rachel morph into something to escape. I'll get Cassie.
No, I'll get her. I'm bigger. Tom said
Don't be a- Tobias began, but it was too late, Tom was already diving for Cassie. Ax also flew down, but he buzzed the guards. Tobias screamed " Tsseeeerrrr!"/p
Later I found out that goshawks hunt geese and other large birds, that's why they're so strong. Tom flew between two human controllers that were surrounding Cassie and literally yanked her out of Visser 3's grasp.
" Shoot them!" The Yeerk roared.
But Tom was already out of there. He was wobbling because of Cassie, but he was well out of reach of the guards.
I finally made it to the bushes. The controllers that were chasing me had given up. I was mad, the Yeerks were shooting at my friends, and they were going to pay. I quickly demorphed. When I was human again I began to focus on my grizzly bear morph when I heard a voice behind me.
" So cousin we meet again."
I turned around to face… Jake. But it was not the Jake that I once knew. This was Jake the Yeerk. The real Jake was trapped in a corner of his own mind, probably screaming and cursing but not able to move one finger. The Yeerk twisted Jake's face into a lopsided grin. He pointed a hand held dracon beam at me. " Put your hands up Rachel… That's right keep em' where I can see them"
The Yeerk looked me up and down. " Don't you know how pathetic you are Rachel?" Jake began. " Four humans and a andalite filth against the Yeerks." He chuckled. " You don't have a chance. We destroyed the andalite home world, and now we are going to enslave Earth." He then pressed a button on the handle of the dracon beam. " This is Traner 2103. I have one of the human-"
I didn't let him finish. I charged him, knocking us both to the ground. The dragon beam skidded 15 feet away. Jake swung around and punched me on the side of the head. I fell back to dazed even to morph.
Jake got up and tried to run to the dracon beam, but I realized what was happening and kicked out my legs. My feet caught him in the back of the leg and it brought him to his knees. He grabbed for a huge branch and swung it at my face! It was too close, couldn't duck, couldn't move. Then…. FWAP! A flash of blue and the branch was cut in half!
Rachel, are you OK? Ax asked.
Jake got up and ran off.
Chapter 6
Tom
Two days later I was lunging around on the couch, vegging out on a little TV when I heard a knock on my door. " Who is it?" I called.
" Its Jake."
I felt my heart skip a few beats. Could he know? I jerkily walked over to the door and opened it. Jake was there wearing that smile that I've seen a hundred times before. But it wasn't really him.
" Come in midget." I said trying to sound happy and surprised. " What brings you here?"
" Well I just heard that you quit basketball." Jake said stepping in. " Is it true?"
I forced a fake laugh. " Well it was getting to easy for me. Besides the announcer job paid a lot more." I closed the door. " Do you want any beer?"
" Sure." Jake said.
I went in the kitchen. My hands were shaking. " Clam down Tom" I ordered my self. I got the beers and walked out. Jake was sitting on my couch looking like he needed a break. " Too much campaigning?" I asked handing him a beer.
" Yep, but it's worth it. I'm leading in the polls.
The rest of the visit was the same. It was completely and utterly normal. I desperately wanted to believe that it was all real. That Jake was actually Jake and that we weren't each other's worst enemy… But I'm not that big of a fool.
After about an hour Jake had to leave and I saw him to the door. We said our good byes and then he was gone. I shut the door. " You would have been proud of me brother." I said to the empty room.
And now a small part of: Book 4… The Finding
I was just a little worried. Rachel usually made my heart beat fast but this was ridiculous! Rachel something is wrong… I said but my own voice seemed far away.
"What is it Tobias?"
I couldn't answer her. It was hard to breathe. The branch seemed to be swaying under me I felt and I felt my talons loosing their grip. I beat my wings a few times to stay on, but a searing pain shot through my left wing.
Rachel. I moaned before toppling over, not even caring if anyone caught me or not. I was sinking in a vale of fog, a voice from far off cried. " Morph Tobias!"