Chapter 47- Estreen
I had failed to capture the Andalite Bandits. That much was true. But now the Visser would allow me to do it my way.
I hadn't come across a real challenge in awhile. Often I find my reputation helps. Or disadvantages me, depending on your view. But I was tired of walking into a room, pulling a Shredder or Dracon Beam or some other weapon's trigger and being off to receive payment. There was no fun, no real challenge there.
These Andalites intrigued me. But not as much as the girl. My sister. The one they thought was a human named Lauren.
But I didn't know where she lived. Nor did anyone else at the Sharing apparently. And I didn't know her last name.
That's when I had a thought. Chapman, hadn't he said his host's job was being a Principal at a school? I knew enough about earth to know that that meant he would most likely know where Lauren lived. But I couldn't call him at the humans' house with the mother around. The boy and Yeerk mostly ignored me, and the father was gone, as usual. But she seemed intent on marking my every move.
Mothers are very protective, no matter what species.
So I wandered around the house until I bumped into the boy. Jake.
"Hello," I said as pleasantly as I could despite my mood.
"Hey." He said with the same fake pleasantry.
"Jake, I was wondering if you knew a girl named Lauren. She's maybe a year older than you."
"Lauren?" He paused, considering. "No, I don't think so. Have you asked Tom?"
"Tom doesn't." I lied.
"Sorry." He shrugged.
I felt a small rage boiling in me. The casual manner of this boy, Jake, and his 'brother', the Yeerk Fannaer.
I breathed several times to relieve the anger. Then I smiled. Anyone who knew me would be ready to run from the room and hide. Jake was indifferent if he noticed, and I stalked off to 'my' room, hoping Jake's mother would get a life by the time I came out.
Chapter 48- Rachel
We stared at the girl, Lauren. She had just morphed wolf and demorph, she had gotten through it without almost any problems, but when she had morphed, she complained about a pain.
But now we stared as Ax explained why and how. They were maybes, but they were serious accusations. She was either a nothlit like Tobias, or she had the morphing power already, or she had some weird disease. Two of the theories meant she might be an Andalite in morph. Or Visser Three. The other one…well, who knows?
But there was no way of knowing. Unless Lauren told us.
She denied two of them. Already having the power and being a nothlit. The other one, there was no way we could figure out. Ax said the diseases would most likely affect only Andalites, but there could be human diseases that rejected the morphing power. It wasn't like Andalites had designed it for humans really. So what we're we to do?
That's what I wanted to know. Then…
Ax! Morph, now. Might want to hide Lauren, Tobias exclaimed. Cassie's dad is coming. Towards the barn.
Immediately, Ax began to morph. But not to human. A while back, we had a bad experience with Ax in human morph and Cassie's dad. He was going fly. Lauren dived into an empty stall and hid under some hay. Thirty seconds later, Ax was a fly. Marco was gone too. Just Jake, Cassie, and I were left. We started up a conversation about school. Something about the dance coming up in a month or so.
Here he comes, Tobias said. Get ready.
"No way is Alex taking Tiffany," I said loudly for Cassie's dad to hear.
Cassie's dad walked in.
"Oh, hi dad." Cassie smiled.
"Hi." Jake and I said brightly.
"Oh, hi kids." He acknowledged.
"We'll leave if you're busy." Jake said, still grinning idiotically.
"Just checking on the patients." He told us.
"I fed the animals," Cassie reported. "But I haven't finished giving them their meds."
"OK. Be careful with that new raccoon." Cassie's dad walked out. Tobias reported when it was safe for Marco and Ax and Lauren to come out of hiding.
"Whew. That was close." Marco said.
"Phel!" Lauren spat some straw out of her mouth. "Remind me to thank you for the wonderful journey and story. Don't forget to have me remind you I'm allergic to hay and straw." She sneezed and coughed some more hay up. "Yuck. Hay in the mouth, no good."
I nudged Marco. "She'd fit right in with your sense of humor."
"Ah yes. You have Tobias, Jake has Cassie, and I have Lauren, who does Ax get? That one genius Andalite girl that was here?"
"Exactly."
Lauren pulled hay out of her pockets and hair and socks while Jake talked with Ax about what was wrong. Cassie gave medication to the animals, and Tobias kept watch. Marco watched Lauren. I sat watching the others.
"Excuse me? Shouldn't we be planning on how we're going to beat that Estreen thing?"
"Estreen?" Lauren asked, still looking for more straw and hay.
"Yeah. Some psycho bounty-hunter Visser One sent after us. You found us at the first battle. She was some sort of weird slap-happy monster at the time. I was the gorilla."
"I was the bear. Cassie the wolf. Jake the Hork-Bajir-"
"It was him I saw in my dreams, wasn't it?" Lauren interrupted.
"What? What dream?" Jake snapped to our conversation.
"I had a dream before I started wandering around. Some bladed seven foot monster fighting some lava-green video game reject. That's why I came to the warehouse."
"Oook. Anyone want to call Erek?"
I'll find him. I don't have to morph to go get him.
"Alright, Tobias." Jake approved. "Now, Rachel, Marco, Cassie? Get her up to speed. Tell her everything. Ax? I need to talk to you some more."
Ax and Jake pulled off into a corner while Marco and Cassie and I began to explain everything to Lauren. The Chee, Visser One, the Hork-Bajir, the Gedds, Peace Movement, anything we could remember. Our salvation had been not telling David everything, but we had no time for suspicions. We had to defeat this Estreen thing, had to.
If Lauren turned out to be a traitor, we'd be in trouble. We had to have her feel she could trust us. That she was a part of our team. At the same time, we had to trust her. We didn't know anything about her really, but we had to hope.
Had to.
Chapter 49- Jake
Erek appeared while I was talking to Ax about possibilities of why Lauren couldn't morph. We had to understand why she couldn't morph, to see if we could do anything to help or…something.
"Tobias tells me you need my assistance."
"Who's that?" Erek asked, spotting Lauren. "Should I-"
"No." I answered, cutting him off. "Erek? Meet Lauren. She's the new member."
"You mean, you gave her the morphing power?" He demanded.
"Yeah. We did. Look, Erek, we might need you to cover for us again. The battle against Estreen didn't go too well."
He nodded. "Alright. Can do. Anything else?"
"We need all the information you can give us about Estreen."
Erek shook his head. "I don't know anything very useful. I know that she's some sort of well-known bounty hunter. She doesn't care who she's hired to kill, no matter if it is Yeerk or Andalite or some other species. She was born in the human year 1950-"
Marco interrupted with a whistle. "She looks pretty young for some space alien that's about-"
"Like I was saying, she was born in the human year 1950. I don't know what species she is, so I don't know her approximate age by her standards. Her two brothers were murdered, her mother is dead, and she had a sister, who is supposed dead. No one knows what happened to her father, if he's dead or what. She went into her current business when she was twenty by human standards. That's all I know."
I nodded. "Thanks Erek. That could be useful. We need to find out something more though; weaknesses, something."
He nodded. "I'll see if any of the other Chee know anything. I can see if there are any files on her from previous Chee memories, or Yeerk encounters."
Ax nodded. That could be useful. If we only knew a few more things, I'm sure we could come up with a satisfactory plan.
"Exactly. We just need to plan this well. Alright, boys, girls, aliens and freaks. We need more spy coverage. Ax, Tobias and Marco, you're on it again. I have three tests this week and I need to study."
"I have make-up work." Rachel sighed. "Plus tests."
"Same here." Cassie said. "Too bad we can't help."
"No problem-o. We are the master spies. We are Batman, Spiderman and the Fantastic Four all rolled into one. We have Ax, the computer hacker, Tobias the laser-eyes and me: Marco the amazing shape-shifter!"
We laughed. I was amazed at how much we felt like a group, even with Lauren there. We'd have to find out more about her. Which brought my thoughts about her morphing again. She couldn't morph. But could she be trusted?
Chapter 50- Estreen
I sighed in exasperation. The mother had finally left to go shopping. The boy was gone. Tom was gone. Which would let me do a bit of research.
I dialed Chapman's number and waited. One ring. Two rings. Th-
"Hello?"
"Is this Chapman?" I asked.
"Yes." His voice sharpened. "Who is this?"
"Genia." I added a laugh to it.
"Oh. Hello…"
"I need some information on a girl named Lauren *****"
"Why?"
"Just do it." I said, annoyed. It had taken forever for the mother to leave, and now I needed to use my time wisely.
"What information?"
"Where she lives."
"Give me a second."
There was a four-minute pause where I tapped my foot impatiently, eyes shifting colors and I focused, unfocused on things. I focused hard and the colors stopped.
Chapman returned. Gave me the address. I wrote it down, and scribbled a note saying I'd gone to get some things for myself at a small store, and that I'd be home soon.
Mothers fall for it all the time.
I grabbed my jacket and walked down the street. I was lost, basically. I didn't know this place at all, even though I had been here for almost a week. I paused, then headed down the sidewalk to my left, turned right, went straight-
And ended up even more lost. But I did find it. Somehow.
I knocked on the door. No one answered.
I headed around the house to looking in windows. I didn't see anyone. I returned to the door and knocked louder.
No answer. I stood a minute, waiting, but nothing.
I head to the back of the house, and became a small human bird. A sparrow I believe it was. Unlike the Andalites who had to touch animals to acquire them, I merely had to see them, and viola! I became the animal.
The bird did not have any special qualities. No teeth or claws, except for my little bird feet, and they couldn't exactly be used for anything except perching. My only defense was flying away.
The bird's sight was not exceptionally great, and I conquered the mind immediately.
Then I flew up. I circled the house looking for an open window.
More luck! The window to a room was wide open! I dived in, landed on the ground, and became human again.
I must've been in Lauren's room, unless she had siblings. Which I doubted.
I saw a small bed, four shelves, one entirely for books, another had drawing materials, one had pictures, and the last had various objects. There was one poster for some band, but someone had drawn 'Devil' eyes, horns, moustaches and grins on the people with bright colors. The one in the middle sported red, the one on his left had blue, his right had yellow, and the one on the far left had purple. I grinned in spite of myself.
There was nothing else in the room really, except a closet, bathroom and mirror. Not exactly high living.
I felt a growl in my throat, despite me being human. These humans, whoever they were, were not treating my sister well. I had passed the parents bedroom and it seemed almost like it was from a different house. It was despicable. I felt my hatred towards these people grow.
For once, I almost liked the Yeerks.
Chapter 51- Marco
Spy work. As usual.
Spying isn't that hard if you can, say, turn into animals. But spying on humans is a lot easier than spying on brain-stealing aliens that are bent on human world domination, or however you'd put it.
So what we did was: spy. Duh.
Tobias and Ax and I watched known-Controllers of any position that we knew. Some were cops, some were judges, and some were just kids like Tom. And there was our Assistant Principal. Champman.
This evening was Let's-All-Spy-On-Champman night. Tobias watched his windows, Ax helped him incase Champman did anything Yeerkish that was dangerous for us, like, say, pulling out a Dracon Beam and going crazy, so he could tell us what was going on if we didn't understand and could scream like ninnies.
We were in seagull morph. People ignore seagulls, and the Yeerks knew we had a red-tailed hawk morph, or at least one of us did.
Me, I watched people around him. His neighbors, I mean. I had to make sure none of them went crazy with Dracon beams.
Wow, he's really breaking a sweat here.
Huh? I asked.
He just received a phone call. I can kind of read lips, so I know when he's saying hello and all, but nothing else really. I just know that because that's all he ever says. Hello. Hel-
Does this have a point? I interrupted.
Well, he's all nervous. Like, pee-my-pants nervous. Lik-
You need a life.
All through this, Ax watched Champman for Yeerkish activity.
He's leaving the window! He reported.
Tobias and Ax swooped down and checked the other windows for him.
Got him! He's looking for something.
For two minutes he stayed over there, then returned to the phone.
He's hanging up now.
Wonder what that was about.
Yeah. Too bad we can't hear well.
I just noticed a bag of chips. OOOoh chips!
What kind?
Doritos! I think there's still some left!
I ate them earlier.
Speaking of earlier, we need to demorph. This is pointless. We should check out somewhere else.
Yeah, Tobias agreed. We flew off to the Dumpster where we had morphed. I landed on the ground, demorphed, and stood behind it. The glamour of being dead.
Tobias and Ax followed me, and soon we were a bird, a boy and some weird alien. Just your average every-day superheroes. No need to panic.
"Ew! That's one big rat!" I cried. It was like mutant-rat. Like, Godzilla vs. The Rat. I crawled from behind the Dumpster and joined Ax and Tobias. "Yuck."
Tobias laughed. Ax, being Ax, lost all the humor of the subject. Not that there was any humor.
"Who's next on our list of spying?" I asked.
A police officer. Ax said. Jared Rawlings.
Wasn't Rawlings an author? Tobias wondered.
"Alright. Here come the seagull patrol."
We need to go to the law enforcement center.
"To the Police Station Robin!"
And then we morphed.