Chapter 21
This day was definitely not turning out fun. Not only had our ship been totaled by an evil pain-in-the-you-know-what, and Tom had been hurt so badly he was still on the brink of death, but we had to land on the planet of annoying salespeople. The Iskoort were actually two species, the Isk and the Yoort, but they were symbiotic, and one could not live without the other. We actually believed that the Yoort were distant relatives of the Yeerks that had been brought to this distant galaxy by some unknown alien species, because the Yoort had created the Isk as a host species, but had to leave every three days to soak up Kandrona rays in the Yoort pool. However, the Iskoort were peaceful merchants, although very annoying, because they tried to buy and sell everything. Last time we had been on this planet, it had been to fight seven of Crayak's minions, the Howlers. We finally beat them with the memory of love. In order to pay for our visit, Rachel had had six inches of her hair cut off, and all of us sold our memories. We had been quite happy to leave. However, it looked like now we would be stuck here again, at least until we could get rid of the One and his cronies, and get our ships fixed.
All of us bounded out of the ships as quickly as possible, although Yahal, Jake, Jeanne, and Cassie were slowed because they had to carry out Tom, because we already knew the bite of the beam weapons on the Garatron's ship, and knew that the One would not hesitate to use them where innocent people could be hurt. We were afraid that they might shoot at the ship a second time after we were on the ground and kill us all. Sure enough, only about a minute after we had evacuated the ship, two twin beams of light shot down from the air and vaporized both ships.
My ship! I heard Yahal yell. My beautiful, wonderful Jahar II…
"Great," I whined. "Now how are we going to get home?"
"You know, we should probably start moving, in case they land…" said Santorelli.
Jake nodded his agreement, and started trying to get the rest of us moving, but most people were not planning on moving anytime soon. Yahal was looking with all four eyes at the scorched ground where his ship had been only a moment before, Toby was standing aloof about ten feet away from the rest of us, Jeanne was tending to Tom, and Rachel, Cassie, and I were watching her, and Tobias was sitting on Rachel's shoulder. Menderash and Ax were discussing how to get back to earth without a ship, General Doubleday and Santorelli were standing with them, although there was no way they could have done anything to help them. However, before Jake could get anyone to even move one step, the Iskoort were upon us.
Memories! Memories for sale! I buy memories as well! Would you like to buy some of these wonderful Skrit Na memories?
I will give you a very fine price for one of your kidneys!
Buy an eyeball, yes? I sell the finest eyeballs!
I can give you food and lodging for only one arm!
"Alright," Rachel said, "let me handle this." She turned to the Iskoort. "BACK OFF! WE DON'T WANT TO BUY ANYTHING RIGHT NOW! HOWEVER, HE-" she pointed at Menderash. "-WILL BE WILLING TO SELL HIS HAIR IF ONE OF YOU CAN BRING US TO GUIDE, THE ISKOORT ALSO CALLED GUIDE, GRUB OF SKIN-SELLER, BROTHER OF MEMORY WHOLESALER."
"Feisty today, aren't you?" I asked her. She just rolled her eyes.
We stood around for a few moments, with all the people who had not been on this planet before giving us strange looks, and fending off the eager merchants, until finally one Iskoort led another familiar one up to us. The unfamiliar one then pulled out some sort of blade and proceeded to shave Menderash bald, to his surprise.
"Guide, long time no see, whazzup?" I asked him.
What are you doing here? he asked. You beat the Howlers a long time ago. They left, and don't come here anymore.
"We just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to say hi," I said sarcastically.
We were being attacked and found that this planet was the closest one that would support our kind of life. We did not realize it was the Iskoort homeworld until we had nearly landed, Ax answered truthfully.
"We were actually hoping that you could help us again," Jake said to Guide. "We will need food, a place to sleep, a new ship, and supplies. We will also need things to take care of my brother with."
It may be hard to find these things, and it may be expensive.
"It has been a while since we left here, right? We will have had time to create plenty of new memories. In addition, if my brother is healed, he has the memory of being infested by a Yeerk, the aliens we were fighting last time we were here. And Ax has the memories of being held prisoner by an all-powerful being."
During this exchange, Yahal, Santorelli, Menderash, Toby, General Doubleday, and Jeanne were starting to look really confused. Tom was still unconscious.
"Okay," Santorelli said, annoyed, "We're officially confused. May we please ask what is going on and how you know this talking accordion? I did not realize you had been into Kelbrid space before this…"
"Well," I said, "It began like this: because these two all-powerful beings, Crayak and Ellimist, have this little millennia long game going on, and Ellimist is good, I guess, and Crayak is evil, they were trying to decide if the Iskoort here would be destroyed or not. Ellimist wanted them to live, and therefore leave open the possibility that the Yeerks would find them and see that there's a better way, because, you see, the Iskoort are really two species. There is the Isk, which is what you see, and the Yoort, that live inside the head of the Isk. They are symbiotic and can't survive without the other. Every three days, the Yoort must leave the body of the Isk so that they may swim in the Kandrona pool and soak up nutrients. We are pretty sure that the Yoort are a distant relative of the Yeerks, and were taken here by another, forgotten species. If the Yeerks had seen the Yoort, they may have learned that they could bioengineer a species for them to live inside and be symbiotic with as well."
"Whoa," Rachel cut in sarcastically. "Marco is using big words."
I gave her a nasty look, smiled, and then continued. "The way Ellimist and Crayak decided whether the Iskoort would live or not was that they both chose a team of seven people, and they had to fight. Whoever destroyed the other team first won, and the all-powerful being they fought for got to do as he willed with the Iskoort. Ellimist chose me, Big Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Bird-Boy over there, Ax, and Erek the-"
"Shush!" Cassie said. "Their secret."
"Yeah. Erek, the guy who's completely normal," I said sheepishly. Santorelli, Jeanne, Yahal, Menderash, Toby, and General Doubleday gave me very strange looks. "And we didn't realize that this was Kelbrid space before," I finished. "So anyway, this is Guide, he led us around last time we were here."
"Okay…" replied Jeanne.
"Let's get this show on the road, shall we?" I turned to Guide. "So will you take us around again?"
I suppose, replied Guide. But would you first like to sell one of those beautiful blades on that person's elbow? He was pointing at Toby. People would pay much money for it. They would pay even more for one of their blades on their tails though. He had started eyeing Yahal and Ax. Ax had stood up very stiffly, drawn up his tail so that the end was right over his left shoulder, and said, I would rather die than part with my tail blade.
"Remember," Rachel said, "If you bother us too much to buy or sell things, we won't pay you."
Guide became silent for a moment, but we were sure it would not last for long.
"Right. First we need a place to put Tom so he can rest. He still has not woken up," Jake said. "A soft bed, and things to take care of him and make sure the wound doesn't get infected."
Alright. This way, please.
He started to walk off, and we followed him. Jeanne, Jake, Rachel, and Cassie were carrying Tom as carefully as possible. Everybody was glancing around as we followed Guide, trying to see everything about that crazy marketplace. Yahal and Menderash were in a deep conversation, turning to ask Ax something every couple of minutes. I could only presume that they were trying to understand the Yoort, and having Ax explain things to them. I was arguing with Jake once again over whether Superman or Batman was stronger, when I heard something faintly. That was strange, I thought, that should not be something you should here in a different galaxy.
"Wait," I called out. "Stop for a moment!" Everybody stopped, and I looked around. I could have sworn that I heard a human girl's voice calling for help. There! I saw a flash of long blonde hair. I turned to Guide. "Have there been any other humans besides us on this planet?"
Not that I know of, but the Skrit Na bring every sort of alien that they have kidnapped here to sell.
"I'll be right back. I could have sworn that I saw something…" I walked off with Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, and Ax staring off at me, confused.
What? Tobias asked, but I was already too far away.
I continued walking toward the area where I thought I had seen and heard a human. In the distance, I finally saw it. There was a humanoid shape being dragged along by a rope held by a more aggressive looking Iskoort. I ran toward it. It came into focus, and I realized that what I was looking at was actually a girl, aged about eighteen, I guessed. She had blonde hair hanging slightly past her shoulder, green eyes, pale skin, and she was actually shorter than me! I thought she was quite beautiful.
"Hey!" I yelled. "You there! Where are you taking her?"
The Iskoort turned around. What do you want? he asked.
I turned to the girl. "Are you okay?" I asked, hoping she spoke English.
Fortunately, she did. "Do I look okay?" she replied. She had a strange accent, Minnesotan or something, her voice went up at the end of every sentence and her 'o' sounded funny. "I don't know who you are, or what you're doing here, but I just spent two months on a ship with some overgrown cockroaches, who didn't speak English by the way, and now I think I've been sold here as some sort of specimen on an alien planet, and you're asking me if I'm okay?!" She sounded slightly hysterical.
I turned back to the Iskoort. "What are you going to do with her?"
I'm selling her body parts. She was sold to me as an exotic animal by the Skrit Na, and now I will sell her.
"Great," I muttered to myself, as the girl's eyes grew wide. "I will give you…" I thought for a moment. "I will give you all the hair off of the animal I will turn into for the girl."
What animal? the Iskoort asked suspiciously.
I sighed. I really, really did not want to do this, but hey, the girl was not supposed to be on this planet on the first place; I was going to be her knight in shining armor. I thought about that, and realized we were not supposed to be on this planet right now either. I began my morph into a gorilla. The Iskoort made even more wheezing noises than normal, and I took that for excitement as the black hair grew out of my skin. The girl watched, entranced.
"It's Marco," I heard her mutter, "It's really Marco the Animorph!"
Yeah, I replied, It's me.
Wonderful, said the Iskoort. I like the fur. But there would have to be more. The girl is worth more.
I thought. What did I have that could give something up without killing me that would please the Iskoort? Ah. Of course. I demorphed back to my normal handsome self and then started a new morph. My nose bulged out into a long tube, and long, silky fur grew out of my body and hung down. Wicked claws formed out of my fingers. I felt my tongue narrow and lengthen as a sticky substance oozed onto it. I had become the giant anteater.
Nice, he said, Very nice. He grabbed the attention of one of his fellow passing aliens, and had them bring the same sort of shears they had used to get rid of Menderash's hair. After a few moments, the anteater was bald, and then they had me remorph to gorilla. It too soon became hairless. It looked pitiful. I demorphed again to my human body, and then motioned for the girl to come with me. Obediently, she followed. I guess she supposed that I was better than the aliens. "Hi," I said, "I'm Marco." I formally introduced myself.
"I thought so," she said. "I'm Sandra West." We walked in silence for a few minutes. I was waiting for her to explain how she had gotten here, and she wanted me to ask. Finally, she broke the quiet. "Where have you been? After you disappeared six months ago, earth went into uproar. They searched everywhere for you and Jake and Cassie. They said that two of his students were gone too, and so was some army guy that helped you out during the last few battles, but no one paid much attention to them. We were all looking for you. We still are. They refused to admit that you might be dead. Are you dead? Is this hell? Did I go to hell? It couldn't be heaven."
"Long story," I began, "But to make it short, Ax was kidnapped by the Blade Ship, you know, the ship with the last surviving Yeerks on it? And we went to go save him. Cassie and General Doubleday followed us a few days later, although we did not expect them to. Now what are you doing here?"
"I was in my backyard," she answered, "And I saw some lights in the sky. It was the stereotypical alien kidnapping, and those giant cockroach things and some other creature that walked on four legs held me while we came here. I guess they were trying to sell me. Did you save Ax?" she asked with a note of concern in her voice.
"Yeah, he's over where we're walking. Right now we're on the run from a deranged pack of Andalite look-alikes and an evil all-powerful being, and we're kind of stranded here."
"I don't think I want to know," she said.
"Well, they're right up ahead there, but I'm just warning you, you're in for a nasty shock."
"Why would I be in for a shock?" she asked innocently.
Just as the words left her full lips, the group became recognizable, and Rachel looked directly at us.
"Oh, my God. That's Rachel Berenson, the dead Animorph, isn't it?" Sandra asked, turning pale.
I nodded my head, and Sandra fell over in a dead faint.
A/N: You don't think Sandra is going to be a Mary Sue, do you? I really hope not, it's just that I feel bad for Marco, I always have! He's the only human Animorph without a significant other, and he really needs one! R/R, and let me know if you think that Sandra is too Mary-Sue-ish. Well, the little green men in my head say that I should probably go study for my chemistry test that's on my birthday now (that should be illegal, I don't think students should have to have tests in their hardest subjects on their birthdays…grrrr….) so I'll try and get the next chapter out soon! Also, if somebody would like to beta read for me, please email me at MyLittlePony204@hotmail.com to let me know! Bye!
~Ax
