"SHUT IT UP!" M.D roared. "Everybody shut up and sit down."
I pressed my lips in a firm line, but I obeyed, I sat on the grass, so did everybody, except for the bird, and the Andalite he stood watching us, me in particular, naturally I stared at him till he turned away. I kept on staring even though none of his eyes were pointed my way.
My name is Solo.
And here is what you have to know, you don't give yourself a name, your momma doesn't give you a name, well she does otherwise she'd be calling you young man, which, by the way, was exactly what my mom called me… but that doesn't matter, my point is, when you grow up -which in some peoples cases like say Cricket, takes a life time to achieve- that's when you get yourself a name, a name from your friends.
So, my name is Solo. I'm twenty-five years old, and a half.
I don't mean anything with 'and a half'.
I think I mentioned my name already, but in case you and I met on bad terms I'm turning a fresh page for you, I didn't mean to grab that black girl there but I needed control and fast, I would have grabbed the blond or the short guy with black hair, but they were further off.
As you may or may not have noticed, which you must have because only a blind guy could not notice my appearance as a bit strange, I am part of a cult.
We call ourselves SWAT.
No, no, not the Special Weapons and Tactics kind of SWAT, but the Save the World from Alien Tyranny; SWAT.
And we have our views on what we should wear, okay, so we've got our bodies pierced in way to many places, that doesn't make me alien, does it?
I'm Solo; one of my best friends is called M.D short for Mad Dog, or was it what we gave the abbreviation to mean? Couldn't remember.
I've got my head shaved, no thanks to M.D, he got me in this situation with other SWAT members that involved a bad game of Rty and the losers shave their heads off.
There was one loser.
Me.
Laugh all you like, it's too bad my fingers couldn't reach out of cyber world and strangle you for it, I could do a pretty good impersonation though, but then again…maybe not, it's a free world you can laugh, but don't laugh at me.
Ash short for Ashley. I care for the girl.
Yup and she liked my head much better before I disfigured myself, she said she noticed that my skull was a little irregular in shape but the rest of me is normal.
Ash owns three pets, and its hard to see that the skinny girl with bright red, spiky hair, pale completion, lips and nails painted black with a pierced nose, a pierced tongue and a pierced belly button could actually be a nature loving, tree hugging freak.
I am too.
Hard to imagine huh?
But if you live in this era you've gotta believe that looks aren't everything, and to some certain extent, backgrounds.
I know a human girl that fell in love with a taxxon nothlit, Andalite of course, only they've got the morphing technology.
Which personally kills Cricket, another one of my team members, by the way, before I go on, when I said SWAT I didn't mean my six friends and I as SWAT, I was talking about a cult of around a few hundred members. All anti-government.
Cricket, and when I say his name three things should flash across your mind; smart mouth, irresponsible and a sense of humor that's highly overrated. Other than that I guess he's okay, but he doesn't like me that much, and I don't like him either, it's not a whole 'I just can't stand your guts 'swati' brother but I gotta ram this knife in your nerve endings.' it unofficial, between the lines. Ever attended a literature class? How many times would your teacher repeat 'it's between the lines you just have to read. Dude.'
By the way, its only my literature teacher that says dude, the rest say something on the lines of…just forget it, I've got to intro the rest first, then we can have friendly chitchat.
Okay, you know M.D, he's the leader by the way, Ashley who owns the cheetah brothers; Korax, Chita and Sancowl. There's Cricket and me, and finally; Police.
Okay, let me back up a little, Police is not 'a' person, Police is two. But whenever you want to talk to either you'd have to say 'Hey Police' and the info goes in both of their heads.
Polly and Ice. Police. Siamese twins, literal carbon copies. And they act like it.
If Polly tilts her head one way sending her short white/blond hair on her eyes, on another planet, Ice would be doing that too. The girls have got an annoying habit of finishing off each other's sentences, a habit they were losing these days, maybe it was just me but these two were changing. Anyway. in tight situation, this could be very, very nerve wracking, take it from the guy who cracked and kicked one of them.
Police didn't get hurt. And I keep saying Police because I don't know which of them was it I kicked, and if one of them is hurting, I'll give you ten bucks she's going to sit down while her twin clawed hell out of my face, or arms, or whatever is in reach.
You want to know what's a rare sight? The twins talking to each other in public. I'm sorry to say I spied on Police but the girls, when alone, 'think talk' aloud. In public, the two engage in a conversation via us, and when you get to know them better you'd understand.
But that would be hard, this is because Ice rarely talks, take it form me, I've known the twins for just over two years, Polly's the big mouth; all talk and no action and her sister, Ice is all action and no talk. Personally, I don't like Ice, there's something dark about her. Polly is a good-natured sociable girl; Ice is anti-social, difficult to deal with, solitary. She also proved to think in a couple of dark levels.
Polly is older than Ice by ten minutes, as Police was explain to the amazed Andalite.
How is that so?
"Well, my mom couldn't have given birth to us at once. Well, it was an almost, if mom had us born premature then I suppose we'd have been literally 'stuck' together, but we weren't."
He frowned, And who is older?
"I am," Polly said nodded to her twin, "Not- not that it matters in anyway."
"Nope, not that it maters." Ice said looking directly at Ax.
This is highly unusual, it is as if one morphed the other.
"We're twins, what did you expect, don't Andalites have twins?" Polly asked.
No.
"I've heard of a woman having quadruplets. Four identical kids." Marco said brightly.
"What's it when they have five? I once saw a movie about a woman having five at a time. But she and the father couldn't support them since they needed special medical attention. And it was at that time were money was important. So," I said, "Sad story."
"Yeah. Solo and I watched it." Ash said smiling, recalling the memory, "And it was so sad, the woman had her children taken from her and the kids became celebrities and all the mother could do was watch them grow up on Tele."
What? Humans do things like that?
"Its pretend," Ash said, "Movie, actors."
"You never know," Black girl, whom I now know is called Cassie said.
"Sorry," M.D said grinning sheepishly looking out of Z-space, "About the way we came in here, but there was no time to explain."
"So were was it you said you're going?" I asked.
"Why would we want to tell a bunch of criminals?" The boy, Lynn, sneered, "Hey, why don't you stop pretending and do what you really came here to do, animals."
"If you say 'criminals' or 'animals' one more time, man, you and I would be on very, very bad terms." Cricket said cocking an eyebrow at Lynn.
"But it's true. You violate a lot of the human governments regulations," Lynn sneered, "And you're traitors, you be-friend Yeerks."
Jake raised an eyebrow. Cassie looked interested. "What?"
"It a peace thing," Ash explained, " Some of our members are willing symbiotic partners."
The Andalite, no big surprise, snorted, That is not possible.
"Cricket has a Yeerk partner," I said sounding surprised, "They lived together like this for over five years now."
Ax stared at Cricket, but Cricket was busy at the helm.
What if you are betrayed.
"We wouldn't. The Yeerks who join the SWAT forces are also against the Yeerk Empire."
Would you take a Yeerks's word?
"Would I take an Andalite's word?" Cricket countered, "Sorry, it's not that it's the Yeerk who's speaking through me, I just can't stand you blue guys. Where I come from"- a grin cracked his face into two-"Blue is baaad."
The Andalite stared at him.
"It's not a mindless thought." Cricket said, "I thought about it for a long time, nothing you Andalites do is impressive at all, you hide behind lies, you pretend to be doing things, you lose wars and still think the universe is yours, no wonder the Yeerks hate you so much, and I tell you this much, it isn't because of your 'intelligence'."
"Cricket, not the time." M.D said, he looked at the Andalite and said, "He has his views, we have others."
"How was Earth like?" Ash said dreamily, "You must have known. You animorphs, right?"
Cassie looked at her, "You've never been on Earth?"
"I wasn't even born on Earth." Ash said sadly, "Solo was, but he was too young to remember any of it, we all were."
"What about the preserves in the mother ship?" Rachel asked, "You'd know what Earth looked like if you walked through it."
"I've been through the preserve once," Ash said carefully, "That's before I turned SWAT, I'm not allowed on the She-Eagle. If they catch me they'll charge me as a criminal, just as your friend here noted,"–she nodded at Lynn-"but, even then I don't think the preserves are anything like Earth, I bet Sancowl's home was even bigger than the entire preserve."
"Who?" Marco said.
"Sancowl." Ash repeated, smiling, "He's a cheetah."
"Ah," Jake said, "I noticed them walking it, what are they pets?"
"Friends really," Ash smiled again, this time she looked at me, "Solo and I have been working on setting a preserve on The Beehive, SWAT mother ship, isn't that right Solo?"
"Uhuh," I said, "But Ash here got carried away when she raised the three brothers, she found them as cubs, their mother on Planet Earth abandoned them. And the cubs themselves grew quite found of Ash."
"Aren't they like, wild?" Rachel asked. "They're adults now."
"They are, but they are used to human being around them, we no longer are a threat to them."
But its an animal, it's still got predator instincts. The hawk said. Tobias.
"Yes, but they know what's food, antelope is, not human."
"If you excuse me," Ash said, "I'm feeling sleepy, and I better check on the bro's if you don't mind." She got up and entered the quarter she had them in.
"So you're going to the Andalite home world." Police said, "Think they'd let you in once they see not only humans, but SWAT?"
They know who you are? Tobias asked.
"Yeah," Polly rolled her eyes, "Who doesn't?"
"Frankly, the whole pierce thing freaks them out." Cricket sniggered.
"I'm not surprised," Jake muttered,
"So, how it like?" M.D asked Jake.
"How's what like?"
"Fighting the Yeerks on Earth, you know SWAT thinks very highly of you."
Jake smiled, "It was kind of desperate."
"Very, very desperate." Marco corrected.
"Did you believe that Yeerks were not all evil at that time?" I asked.
They all turned to look at Cassie.
"Cassie did, turns out she knew better than we did." Jake grinned.
"It started with one truce." Cassie said, "Between me and a Yeerk called Aftran, I wish she knew that our peace treaty was really worth it."
"She's alive?" Police said. It was Polly, I was sure of it, Ice doesn't engage in pointless conversations. Plus, she wouldn't have cared.
"Yes, free, she lives as a whale in Earth's ocean."
"You gave morphing technology to a Yeerk?" M.D looked surprised.
Cricket turned slightly. "I suppose he didn't approve." Cricket said looking at Ax.
"We all agreed it, and we believed it was for the best." Rachel said.
I said, "Cricket, how long till we reach our destination?"
"A day or two." He replied.
"Good, then since there is more of us we'd be able to convince the Andalite government of this conspiracy you told us about, Jake," M.D said, "I always thought that the human government was evil, I now know that it is."
Can you please review? I want to know what you're thinking about the plot and I have a question for all those Ax fans out there (I'm one by the way) ; whenever Ax mentions his name sometimes he mentions his parents, but he says; son of ... and... so which is his father? Is it Noorlin? I need that for an upcoming chapter...