Children of the Andalites Chapter 1: The Protector

by Sarah aka DEVI

My friend Lauren and I are HUGE animorph finatics. So why not put us in the story somewhere?-_-'....Hopefully will have more chapters to come... :) I do suck@summaries-_-'....Please R&R

3. Children of the Andalites Chapter 3: The...

The Prototype



My name is Lauren.

Just Lauren. I can't tell you what my last name is, or my middle name. It's too dangerous. Would you believe me if I told you that telling you my last name would probably mean that Earth was doomed? That evil aliens would take over all our minds and use us in their schemes? Of course you wouldn't, unless you were physcho, or unless you have been taken over already. I guess I'd better explain.

The Yeerks are the aliens taking over our planet. If you saw one, you'd see an ugly gray slug about as big as your fist. It doesn't look like it could take over whole worlds. But they can. And they have. What Yeerks do is get inside the heads of other creatures and wrap themselves around their brain. Then they control this person's every action. The person becomes a Controller, a tool of the Yeerks. If you're a Controller, you can't choose anything. You can't control where you look, what you eat, what you say, anything. It's a fate worse than death. I haven't experienced it myself, and I hope I never do.

THAT's why I can't tell you my whole name. If I did, the Yeerks would track me down and learn who we are. 'We' is the Animorphs. Morphers of animals.

Savers of our planet, we hope.

I am the newest Animorph, and the youngest. I never meant to have to be one, to go through what I am, but I did. Here's how.

"Oslo, Norway. Paris, France. Rome, Italy. Portugal, Spain. No, wait! That's a country!" A short red-haired girl skimmed her hand along the row of lockers as she walked down the hall. I was studying for my social studies test tomorrow, and not doing that good a job of it. I had completely forgot about the test last night- I had gotten wrapped up in my favorite computer game- Harry. Ooh, such a cool game. I wished I was in that game now, instead of going to rehearsal. We were rehearsing every day for the school play, and it didn't leave too much time for games or studying. I imagined I was in Harry's swivel chair, firing my staple gun at evil robots as I zipped through energy fields.

"Shooom Shoom Shooom. Zit Zit Zing! Haha! Eat staples, electrode breath! What's that? A doughnut? Yes! I-" I broke off suddenly. I had heard a noise. Someone was here! I felt a blush rush up to my cheeks as I investigated the noise. It came from a- locker? How could this be? I was creeping up to the locker when suddenly the strange noises stopped, and a big hand whirled me around.

"Well, missy, what are you doing here? School's over, you know. Did you miss math too much to leave?" I nearly snorted at the idea. It was Mr. Chapman, our assistant principal.

"I-I'm just going to rehearsal, Mr. Chapman." He didn't move. "F-for the play! " I waved the script I was holding. His gaze softened slightly as he saw it.

"All right. See that you get there," He walked down the hall, leaving me alone. I shuddered. Chapman scared me. I turned back to the locker , which was beginning to make noise again. I took a deep breath, then threw it open.

I don't know what I expected to see, but certainly not what I did- a horrible huge bird with human-like skin in places, human ears, wings with arms stuck to them, and- this was the worst- a huge black thing covered with patchy skin protruding from a nearly-human face! I opened my mouth to scream and found it full of gym clothes. I pulled them out, to disgusted to remember to scream. It's amazing that I found sweaty gym clothes more disgusting than some kind of human-bird freak. The creature took advantage of my confusion to leap from the locker and push me into a nearby teacher's workroom. We bumped into a teacher that was leaving. I looked at her in shock, waiting for the scream.

"Well, hello, girls! I thought I was the last one leaving today- I didn't expect to see you here!

"It-it's a rehearsal." I managed to gag out. It was my social-studies teacher!

"Oh! Well, that's nice. Goodbye, girls! Study for your test, Lauren!" I stared after her, then turned to see how the human-bird had managed to fool my teacher. Instead of the freak I expected, I saw a perfectly normal girl who I recognized- from my math class!

"S-sara?" I gasped out, sitting down very hard on the couch.

Now Sara is the last person I would see behind me in place of a weird bird person. She is the most normal person I know. We were in a project together and sort of became best friends. She has a sort of--alien quality to her personality. That is only supported though by her incredible green eyes and her quickness in running. I once saw her running on the track during practice. She was totally ahead of everyone else and still going quickly. Otherwise, she is fairly normal, tan skin, sort of brownish-blonde hair that is always a little messed-up and being a medium to tall height. All the kids always made whispers behind her back, because of her kind of out- of-place feeling whenever someone was around her. I once saw her staring at the sky at a circling hawk, acting like she was talking to it. That only added to the whispers. At the moment when I found her behind me, Sara was wearing a skin tight sky blue leotard that looked like it could pull off as a practice skating uniform.

"Ah- AAHH--" I had started to scream but Sara then put her hand over my mouth, preventing me from even breathing. There was total fear in her eyes as she just stared at me. I felt like she was looking straight into me, as if looking for something. Then, she took her hand away from my mouth once she was reassured that I would not scream. Sara breathed a sigh of relief.

"At least you aren't a controller." Sara said. "Please, don't scream. It could mean the end of human freedom as we know it if I am discovered."

My adrenaline level was racing upwards as she talked. A friend I just found in a locker just turned back from being an ugly form between a bird and a human.

"Wha-wha--" I stuttered.

"What do I mean?" Sara completed for me. I nodded. She put a hand to her head. "Shoot, you should have never had seen that. What were you doing here?"

Once I found my voice again, I gasped "Rehearsal..I was going to rehearsal."

"Can you miss it for once?" She asked now.

"I--I guess," I stuttered.

"Good, wait here." Sara said. She went over to the door and glanced about. "Perfect, he isn't around."

"Who?" I asked, totally clueless.

"Chapman." She replied. "He is one of the enemy."

"What enemy?" I asked. I hate it whenever someone doesn't tell me what is going on.

"Come with me," she said. "If you want to be free, come with me." That was one of the most cryptic answers I had ever heard.

We snuck outside for some reason or another and edged towards the forest behind the school. When we got towards the grass, Sara asked me "Do you think the grass looks good?" I just stared. "Just c'mon." She said and ran towards the fence bordering the forest.

I grabbed her arm. "Sara," I asked, "What the heck is going on? I see you in a locker as some sort of bird, I'm totally missing rehearsal, and now I am running across the field towards the forest for some crazy reason or another! WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?"

Listen closely and I'll tell you. I heard. It "sounded" like Sara but her mouth wasn't moving. She was using telepathy, or thought-speak, as I soon found out what it was called. Just keep moving towards the forest. My friends and I fight the yeerks, a race of alien slugs that enslave all kinds of beings. They crawl into their heads and take over the person's body. The yeerks have taken over the Hork-Bajir, the Gedds, the Taxxons, and now they're after us. My friends and I are the only defense against their silent invasion. You can't tell who is controlled by a yeerk so you can't trust anybody. We were given the power to morph any animal we touch, literally, become that animal. What you saw was me morphing into a red- tailed hawk. Here's the fence.

I just stared at Sara for a moment, absorbing all that she had said, and then climbed over the simple chain fence. She leaped over it totally, using her speed to jump over.

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"We're going to meet a friend of mine. We are going to a meeting of my friends. Then you can decide if you are going to help us or not." Sara explained, using her voice again.

After a few minutes of walking, we came to a clearing in the forest. Sara told me to sit down and she went into the center of the clearing.

"Tobias?" She called. The name sounded familiar. "Tobias?" She called again. "TOBIAS!!!" She called sounding terribly annoyed. "TOBIAS YOU COME DOWN HERE BEFORE I USE MY GOLDEN EAGLE MORPH JUST RECENTLY ACCQUIRED!!!" she called out.

Fine, fine, can't you take a joke? A voice said. Then I saw a hawk, red- tailed if I remember science class, flutter down and land squarely on Sara's shoulder.

"Tobias, I'm not in the best of moods. We have a problem." She said. "Tobias, meet Lauren."

What?!? I heard this bird say. How the heck did she find you?

"I couldn't help it Tobias, she found me morphing. I couldn't just leave her there to tell Chapman." Sara explained helplessly.

The bird calmed down, slightly. So what do we do with her?

"I think the best idea is to have her come to the Icicle Dome today with the others. Then she can have everything explained." Sara said. "She can meet the others and see if she wants to help or not."

That's crazy! The bird said, I say that we brainwash her. Then she will not have to take on the burden.

"Yes, but we can use all the help we can get." Sara defended. "Why don't we ask her ourselves?" They both looked at me.

"What do you want to do Lauren?" Sara asked. "You can be brainwashed so you never saw what you just did, or you can join us and help defend the world. The only thing is that your life will be on the line many times, you may die."

I thought hard about this. I was about to turn the offer down, but then I thought about what Sara said about human enslavement. I thought it was suicide, but I said "Sure, I'll take the chance. There's some crazy stuff going on and I want to find out." Sara smiled.

"Okay then, you'll need some info about morphing and such then. Unfortunately, it will take me a long time to explain it all to you." She explained.

Maybe not. Tobias said. Sara looked at the red-tail. Before Elfangor died, he gave me a sort of, huge information burst that taught us about the Yeerk pool. Maybe Ax can do the same thing, and Lauren here can meet her first alien.

"Alien?" I asked, totally clueless to what would happen next.

Sara looked totally blank, then said "It's worth a shot, but can we call him from here?"

I'll bet if we both thought called him, he would hear. Tobias said. From what I could tell, they were going to call this Ax character together. Their "voices" would carry enough that this Ax would hear them.

"Okay then, I doubt that anyone would hear from here." Sara said. "Ready then? One, two, three,"

AAAXXXXX!!!!!! I heard them call. The sound was deafening, if it could be heard by ears.

"Did that do it?" Sara asked.

I get the feeling it did. Tobias replied. Get ready for this Lauren, He said to me, Oh, and don't faint. I gave him a blank look.

Then Sara said, "I can feel the vibration. He's coming." I could feel it too in my feet. There was a distinct vibration in the ground, like a horse's gallop. Now I knew that this was not of this world.

Then suddenly, from behind Sara, came the weirdest looking thing I had seen yet. It jumped clear over Sara and sent Tobias screeching into the treetops. It was like a centaur, only blue and tan with stalk eyes coming from its head. Those looked around constantly. It had no mouth, just some slits to breathe through. The thing's eyes were an incredible green, then I noticed that they were the exact color of Sara's eyes, and what was even weirder, mine too. Actually, it looked kinda cute until you came to the tail. It was huge and looked like a scorpion tail with a deadly looking blade. This was apparently the thing called Ax.

Greetings Sara, The Ax thing said. Greetings Tob- It stopped suddenly in mid speech. Its stalk eyes were focused on me. Then suddenly FFWAP! I was on my knees with that deadly tail blade pressed against my throat. I started to whimper.

"No Ax!" Sara screamed. "She's fine! She's not a controller!" The alien did not back off.

Why is she here then? Ax said, a dangerous look in all four of his eyes.

"I couldn't help it Ax." Sara explained. "She saw me morphing in my locker. I brought her here. She has agreed to help us." Then, the alien relaxed his blade against my throat.

I apologize. Ax said. With controllers around, we can't be too careful.

I stopped whimpering. "Ax," Sara said, "Meet Lauren."

Greetings, Lauren. The alien said.

"Uh- hi." I stuttered.

Ax, can you do an info burst? Tobias asked.

Yes, I believe so. Why? Ax replied.

Lauren needs a brush up on morphing and what we do. Tobias explained.

Yes, I could do that, but I need a moment to collect the information. Ax said.

"Well, now that we are all acquainted," Sara said. "I brought you something Ax. You can eat it while you collect your thoughts."

Yes? Ax asked with interest.

Sara pulled out a bag of strawberries. "You said that you wanted to try a fruit? Well I managed to save some strawberries from my lunch. Don't go bonkers though."

A fruit? This I have to try. Ax said with enthusiasm. Then I saw him start to morph. It was similar to what Sara did, but he was changing to a human. It was strange, and very freaky. Hair started to sprout from his head. The stalk eyes and tail sucked in. The light fur retracted to show human skin. This was more than I could take. When his head split to form a mouth, I think I fainted.

When I finally awoke, Sara was shaking me to wake me up. She looked worried. Up in the trees I saw Tobias. Over on a log I saw a strange kid, strawberry juice all over his face. He was licking the juice off of his hands and saying "Taste! Taste! Wonderful! Ful." Eventually, I figured out that this was Ax, only human. He had no mouth, so he didn't eat or talk. His mouth to him I guess is like a new toy. That's why he was playing with sounds.

"She's awake." Sara said with relief. "I guess you are not used to morphs. This is Ax, the one you see with the messy face. He is in his human morph. Are you finished yet Ax?" She called to the boy.

"Yes. Es uh. I shall morph back now. Ow ow." He said, playing with his sounds. Then, I saw him reverse the morph. This time, I managed to deal with it, with only a few protesting noises from my stomach. It looked like what I had seen, only in reverse. Once he had finished, he walked over to me.

Do not be afraid. He said. I will not hurt you. Then, Ax took my hand, and placed his other many fingered hand on my forehead.

That's when tons of images flew through my mind. Some I caught, others I didn't. I saw Tobias as a human. I knew him now. He was a kind of kid who liked to daydream. Some of my friends had a tendency to make fun of him, but I never did. I learned about the deadly two hour time limit, the thrill of flying, the yeerk pool with the screams, what it was like to be a controller, and other visions. Finally, the images stopped. Ax drew back as I absorbed all this information.

"Now do you understand why you can't tell anyone?" Sara asked. I nodded.

Should she come to the meeting at the dome? Tobias asked.

"Yes," Sara said. "Then she can meet the others and I can tell you what I have found." Sara then turned to me. "Can you come to the Icicle Dome at 4:00?"

"Yeah, I guess, but I need to tell my mom." I replied.

"Okay fine, but tell her that you are going to ice skate. Don't tell her about what you have just seen." Sara said. "I'll see if I can find you when you get there, and try to lead you to where my friends are sitting. I am in the skating performance going on there. I'm third on the program. If you can't find me when you get there, just look for the person with the white leotard and rainbow skirt okay?"

"Um-sure," I said.

"Great." Sara said. "See you at four then. We are meeting at the Arctic Sun Cafe afterwards. Then I'll tell you what is going on. Bye."

"Uh-bye." I stuttered and started to walk back towards the school.

I went to rehearsal and endured a long lecture about being late. I tried to make up for it by singing extra loud and acting extra well, but I had a lot on my mind. I was glad when it finally ended at 3:30 and I could go home. My mother said I could go to the Icicle Dome, but, as she pointed out, I could not ice skate.

"Oh, I'm thinking about lessons!" I explained. She gave me a strange look but drove me anyway. I arrived at 3:50 and hurried in. I looked around. I had expected the Icicle Dome to be more jam-packed than it was. There were about fifteen people in ice skating costumes and maybe twenty others. I looked at the girls in sequined feathery costumes and soon found the one with the rainbow skirt. I hurried over, trying at the same time to look just like an interested bystander. As I made my way across the floor, weaving in and out of people, I noticed one group of people in a secluded corner. In this group was a two girls, three nervous-looking boys and one strangely handsome boy stuffing his face with nachos and chips- at the same time. One of the boys was trying to stop him, without success. I put the odd group out of my mind as I reached Sara. She was tying the laces of one of her skates.

"Hi, Sara!" I said cheerfully. "Nervous?" She looked up and smiled.

"Not really. I'm used to performances. Ooh- there goes the first skater. I come up soon. Here- you can wait over there." she gestured at the suspicious group in the corner.

"With the kid on a feeding frenzy?" I whispered. Sara smiled again.

That's the one! I've warned them about you, but you'd better be prepared for a little, uh, disagreement. I nodded slightly and set off for the rest of the Animorphs, which, as I now knew, was their collective name. As I approached them, a dark-haired boy stopped trying to wrestle a cheese- covered paper plate away from who I realized was Ax, the alien. He was looking at me. He turned to a black girl with very short hair and gestured toward me. She looked up and nodded. Soon they all were looking in my direction, waiting my arrival except Ax, who was busy licking the plate. I sat down in the empty chair.

"Well, so you're the one Sara's told us about," the dark-haired boy said.

"Are you sure you don't want to be brainwashed?" asked one of the other two boys. The blonde girl glared at him.

"Marco! She hasn't even been introduced! Sorry for the idiot," she apologized, glaring at Marco again. "I'm Rachel. This is Cassie, animal lover. This is Tobias, who you've met." I glanced over at the limp-looking blond boy with crazy hair in surprise.

"But- you're a hawk!" I blurted. He smiled sadly.

"The morph limit is two hours- Linda, is it?"

"Lauren, actually."

"Oh. Lauren. Anyway, the limit's two hours, and I went over the limit. I'm stuck as a hawk. I was unable to morph or anything for a while, but then an Ellimist- um, like Q on Star Trek- he gave me my morphing powers back and also took me back in time so I could 'acquire' myself. Pretty spooky, if you ask me. But now I can actually come to public meetings, like this."

"Oh," I said, blinking. "How about we stick with the introductions for now. Those I understand." They laughed, and took my advice.

"I'm Jake," the dark-haired boy said. "I'm our leader, I suppose."

"No supposes, Jake, of course you're the leader," Cassie said with a slight smile.

"I'm Marco," Marco said. "Cutest in the school, best hair, et cetera, etcetera." Rachel snorted at this and Marco glared at her.

"And this," Jake continued, "Is Ax. Ax, take your face out of the popcorn and pay attention to what's going on, please." The alien lifted his greasy face out of the bag.

"I am listening, Prince Jake. Lauren has arrived, and we are introducing ourselves. Elves. Hello, Lauren. I am Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, but my friends call me Ax. Can I have more popcorn?" Jake shook his head and Ax was about to eat the popcorn bag, but Marco pulled it away. I looked at Jake.

"Why does Ax call you Prince?" I asked. Jake winced.

"He's not supposed to. Andalites-" he looked around quickly and lowered his voice. "Andalites call their leaders princes, and since I'm our leader he calls me Prince Jake. Hey! Look- Sara's on. Boy- she's good!" We all turned to watch Sara as she performed different stunts. I was extremely impressed. Her rainbow skirt flew as she twirled on the ice.

"Man, who needs to morph a penguin when you can do that?" Marco said in admiration.

"Can you morph a penguin?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes, if we acquire it. Quiet." Jake replied, watching the spinning figure as she finished her routine. I was looking at the ice, wondering how they made it so smooth when I saw someone slip into a door on the other side of the rink. There was a sign on the door which said, 'Do Not Enter. Authorized personnel only.' I thought nothing of it, but wondered why Sara had been staring at it as she took off her skates. She came over to our table.

"That was great!" Rachel gushed. "Man, do you have flexibility! I could use some of that."

"Yes, that was impressive," Ax offered.

"Impressive? It was wonderful, Sara!" Cassie exclamed. Sara smiled distractedly, cutting the rest of the praise off short.

"Yes, thanks, everyone, but there's something more important. See that door?

Well, as I've been getting ready, I've watched the skaters, and noticed that quite often someone would go into that door. After five had gone in and none come out, I wondered. So I concentrated, and sure enough, the next two people who went in were Controllers. There goes another. Concentrate..." she paused. I looked at her, then at the tall, thin man entering the mysterious room behind the door, or whatever was there. "Yep," Sara growled. "Yeerk scum." Marco frowned.

"Another Yeerk pool entrance?" he asked.

"It sure looks like it," Sara said grimly.

"Wait a sec, hold on." I said. "Sara, how the heck can you see who is a controller and who isn't? I tried concentrating, and nothing happened."

Everyone looked at Sara, who then after a sad look that looked remarkably like the one Tobias gave me whispered "You see, I'm half Andalite, what Ax is." I listened intently, because my past suspicions were confirmed about Sara. She DID have an alien quality. "I don't know who my parents were, or even which one was my Andalite parent, but I had inherited some abilities from my Andalite parent, those include my eyes, my speed, the ability to use thought speak when not in morph, and the way I eat."

She received a blank look from me. Marco chuckled, and said "She can eat a pizza with her feet."

"What?" I asked. I thought that meant that she can pick up food with her feet and eat it.

"Like myself," Ax explained, "Sara can absorb nutrients from grass through her feet. This is also an alternate drinking method. That is why I--enjoy taste so much. uch uch."

My eyes bulged as this sunk in. Sara continued. "However, the mix of human and Andalite genes gave me some unique abilities, including speed morphing, or morphing extremely fast, the ability to acquire long deceased animals, and seeing who is a controller and who's not."

"Wow." Was my only response.

"You look slightly like Visser Three when he is in Human morph." Ax said acusingly

I shuddered, "I....I do?!"

"So what were you saying about the yeerk pool?" Cassie asked.

"Anyways," Sara continued, "I decided to quickly morph in and check out what went on in there. I could only stay for ten minutes though because flies don't like the cold very much. But I could faintly get the form of a bug fighter. There is definitely a docking bay or something there."

"Wait a sec," Rachel interrupted. "What about Lauren?"

They all looked at me, then Jake said, "Give it to her." Little did I know that "it" was going to change my entire life.

Sara then said "Its at my house, we need to go back. The locker room is not occupied at the moment, so Tobias and Ax can morph in there."

"I agree. Eee." Ax said. "Seventy percent of the safe time has passed."

With a little help from Marco, Tobias managed to get the popcorn away from Ax so they could get to the locker room to morph. Sara went with them in case something went wrong. I stuck around with I guess one would call the more normal people.

"What's with Ax and the popcorn?" I asked Cassie.

"Oh, he just is crazy about the sense of taste." She explained. "You probably noticed that he has no mouth as an Andalite. That means that he has never experienced taste since now. There have been more problems with Ax and taste than I want to remember."

"What are you going to give me?" I asked.

"Remember I talked about morphing a penguin?" Marco replied. I did not need any more explanation than that. A few minutes later, Sara, Tobias, and Ax returned. Ax immediately dove for the popcorn again which was saved by Marco.

"Later Ax, we need to go back to Sara's house." Jake said. We left the Icicle dome and would return later. I walked with Cassie, Rachel, and Sara because we did not want anyone to get the impression that we hung out a lot together with Marco, Jake, Ax, and Tobias. Sara's house was not too far away, about a fifteen minute walk or so. Sara's house was fairly simple, like the ones usually seen around suburbs. The only difference was that there was a really large backyard, but I was more concentrated on the man working on the bushes out front.

"Hi Uncle Gran!" Sara called.

"Hello Sara," The man called back. "How was the performance?"

"Great Uncle." Sara replied back. We were right next to him now. He was kind of odd in some way or another which I could not put my finger on. But, for some reson, I felt like I had alot in common with him. This uncle of Sara's was tall and thin, with glasses. "This is Lauren, a friend from school."

I shook his hand politely. Then I got a thought speak message from Sara. My uncle is actually an Andalite that is a permanent human, like Tobias. My Andalite parent apparently asked him to look after me. He has been my family for as long as I have lived.

She then gave a message to her uncle. She accidentally saw me morphing in my locker. Fortunately, she was not a controller so she has agreed to help. I am going to give her the technology.

His expression turned serious. "Lauren, I hope you know what you are doing. It is a dangerous task and you would be safer being brainwashed."

"I know," I replied. "But I know what I am doing."

We then left Sara's uncle to the bushes and went inside. The guys were waiting for us, taking the back door. The blinds were closed, so Tobias had morphed back to his true form. Ax was raiding the pantry. Finding some Oreos and whipped cream, he came back and sat down munching happily. All the time saying "Taste! Taste! Wonderful ful." with whipped cream all over his face. Everyone laughed at Ax's antics, including myself.

Once we had calmed down, Sara said, "Wait here everybody." and dashed up the stairs.

"What is she getting?" I asked.

"Let's just say it's no dice." Jake said.

After a few minutes, Sara came back down carrying a large box. It was sky blue and fairly large.

"This," Sara said, "Is a morphing cube. It will give you your morphing powers." I stared at the light blue cube.

"That?" I asked. "That little thing gives you the power to get inside an animal's body?"

"Well, actually, you don't get inside an animal's body- you get a copy of its DNA, then use this to create a duplicate animal- like cloning. You are inside this animal you create- your mind, your thoughts, your driving power. But the animal is there too, and you have to-" Ax broke off as he saw everyone staring at him.

"Yes, it does." he replied and buried his face in a bowl of whipped cream. Rachel wrinkled her nose at him.

"Lucky," she murmured. "He can eat all he wants and never get fat," I looked around helplessly.

"Look, you guys, could you quit with the technical stuff and get on with it? I want to be a horse." I said, trying to sound calm, even though my heart was racing like a skydiver tied to a rocket. Sara, sneaking a taste of the whipped cream, held out the morphing cube to me.

"Touch it," she said, "And think lovely thoughts." I guessed this was not important, but nonetheless filled my mind with thoughts of being a horse, and running through the grassy medows. Letting the wind comb my mane. Sara closed her eyes and sent the necessary impulses out to me. I gasped. Sara blinked.

"Did it hurt? It's not supposed to." I smiled.

"No, it didn't hurt. That feeling, somehow felt familiar to me. That's why I gasped." I replied. Marco rolled his eyes.

"Okay, Lauren, welcome to the club. Get ready to join the seven talking animals with human brains save the world from evil slugs. Get ready to risk your life two dozen times a day. Get ready to face worse enemies you could ever imagine. Get ready to do all that- and keep an A in math all the same." I gaped at him.

"Will morphing really let me get an A in math?" I asked excitedly. Marco moaned and held his head in his hands.

"She's as nuts as you, Rachel," he moaned. Rachel was tapping her foot impatiently.

"If you're quite done talking, can we PLEASE get on with our mission?" she asked.

"Okay okay Xena, calm down, sheesh." Marco said and rolled his eyes at Rachel. I'm guessing that Xena is Rachel's nick name. "We need to get Lauren a morph. I think cockroach would be best for this."

"Cockroach?!?" I asked in disgust.

"No, I don't think that a cockroach would be good." Sara said. I breathed a sigh of relief. "Even though they have wings, they would have to land on the ice in order to get to the door. That means we risk the chance of being sliced in half by a blade."

"Blade?" Ax asked. "Is that how you managed to go so fast?" I guess they don't have ice skates on Ax's home world. He was starting to morph back to his true form. I turned away because morphing is not pretty, from what I have seen. But at least he took his head out of the whipped cream bowl.

"Okay, cockroach is out." Jake said. "How about fly?" I think I nearly threw up at the idea of becoming a fly.

"That works, but we would not be able to stay very long because like I said, flies don't like the cold very much." Sara said. She then called to Tobias, who was sitting on the banister, "Can you see any flies around?"

The hawk looked around, using his sharp eyes. He then said, Nope, I don't see-- wait! There's one! He swooped down and carefully caught a speck of dust with his talon. When he came over, I could tell that it was a fly in his talons.

Sara went over to Tobias and took the fly in her hands, making a barrier which the fly could not get out of. She walked over to me. "Now, all you need to do, is touch this fly, and concentrate. The fly will become silent and you will acquire its DNA."

I took the fly from her hands, doing my best not to scream and drop the fly. It was very lively, trying to find a way out of my hands. Once it stopped flying around and landed on my hand, I concentrated on the fly immediately. It stopped flying around. Apparently, acquiring an animal calms it down and it sort of goes into a trance. After a few moments, I finished acquiring. I opened my hands to let the fly out. It just stayed there for a moment, and then flew off.

I shuddered. "So I'm going to become a garbage eating, dung sucking, unsanitary little insect?" I asked.

"Yep." Cassie answered. "But wait until you try flying."

"Speaking of which," Jake said. "I think that Lauren should try a practice run of the morphing process, just so she knows what it is like."

Sara nodded. "Good idea. If we have to get out of there in a hurry, she might need to morph very quickly." Sara then turned to me. "Morphing may seem like it is difficult the first few times, but after you get the hang of it, it will become much easier. What you need to do is concentrate on the animal you want to be. Picture yourself changing into that animal. Try it out.

I did as I was told, and concentrated. It seemed like nothing happened at first, but then I felt myself falling, like I just jumped off a building. "AAAAAAA--" I started to scream, but my mouth had become a huge straw-like mechanism, that the fly used for food. Out of my sides, huge legs popped out like some form of crazy cancer. My eyesight dimmed, then vanished. For a moment I could not see until suddenly I could, only it was fractured into many pieces, like a mosaic or something. Out of my back sprung two clear wings. By this time, I was about a foot long, and still going. After a few more changes, I stopped, and somehow managed to keep my lunch down. I had become a full fledged fly. But the morphing process, I....I...I don't know. Somehow it seemed so familiar.I tried out the wings, then lifted off the ground. YYYEEEEHHHAAAAA!!! I screamed in thought speak which I now had. It was incredible, like I had just had two bags of oreos, which the fly mind was screaming to go for, and a couple of pots of coffee. This little bug had energy! ZOOM! I flew into the kitchen. ZOOM! I was buzzing around Tobias's head. ZOOM! I was upstairs. It was like being a daredevil. It was a blast!

"Heeeelllppp meeeee!!!" I heard Marco say. I laughed in thought speak.

"Okay, Lauren," Sara said. "Go upstairs and morph out. Just picture yourself as a human again. I put your clothes upstairs in the bathroom. I also have a leotard up there for you too, because we can only morph minimal clothing. We need to get to the Icicle Dome again."

With much reluctance, I zoomed upstairs towards the bathroom. I reversed the morphing process and pulled on my clothes. I came downstairs for my first mission, defending the Earth.

The black-haired teen who rented out ice skates stared with boredom at eight flies buzzing off across the ice.

"Stupid flies," she muttered, getting out a small pair of skates. "Where do they think they're going, anyway? The food bar's over there." It was lucky this teen was not a Controller, or she would have realized exactly where the flies were going, and who they were.

Oh man, this is so cool! I shrieked, doing a loop-the-loop through a skater's hairbow.

Careful, Jake warned. A bunch of flies enjoying ice instead of dog poop might interest someone who knows what to look for,

Oh, let her have her fun, Jake, Cassie said reassuringly. It's her first morph!

That's okay, I said, falling in behind the others. I think the rush is behind me now. Man, but it's hard! This fly keeps wanting to go to the food place over there!

I wouldn't mind a greasy cheesy- what is it? Nacho again myself, Ax added.

I would have rolled my eyes if I could. Ax wasn't exactly the scariest alien-except when you had his tail at your throat.

Okay, everyone, get ready! Rachel interrupted my thoughts. Here comes someone- hey! Wait! I know him!

Visser Three! Cassie growled.

Huh? What's a Vizz Ear? Why are there three? I asked.

No time to explain, Ax said nervously. If Visser Three is here, this place is vital to the Yeerks' invasion. We must investigate! And with that exclamation, a fly zoomed down through the swinging door. Seven flies hesitated, then followed him. I didn't understand what was going on and was almost smashed when the door shut, but managed to slip through. Flies are good at slipping through. We followed the strange man who didn't look like an ear through a short hallway. Suddenly the hallway opened out into a huge room. The room was filled from wall to wall with about twenty huge luminous beetle- shaped spaceships.

Holy mackerel! I exclaimed. A docking bay!

You are correct, Lauren, Ax replied. Though I do not quite understand the connection with fish.

Forget the fish, Marco broke in. Check out the ship in the middle!

Woah! Rachel exclaimed. What kind is it, Ax?

I have no idea, Ax replied. I have never seen a ship of that description in all my time in school.

Maybe if we hang around a little while longer, we can figure out what the heck that ship is. Tobias suggested. We all signaled our agreement.

Sara, I whispered. What IS a Vizz ear? Like in normal talking, thought speak can be directed to only one person, or a whole bunch of people, like whispering and yelling.

Lauren, she whispered with some urgency. Visser Three is a very high ranking controller that is in charge of the invasion of earth. He is the only yeerk to ever take control of an Andalite. This means that he has the ability to morph like the rest of us, but he has a wider variety of extremely dangerous animals. Supposedly, he used one to kill Prince Elfangor, Ax's older brother. They think that we are a group of Andalites that are attacking him, instead of humans. That is why you NEVER speak directly to any controller while in morph. The only one that can do that is Ax, because he fools them into thinking that we are a group of Andalites.

I then turned my attention to figuring out what that strange ship was in the center, by listening to the discussions going on around me.

"How goes construction of my new blade ship Chapman?" The man in front of us asked.

Then I saw Chapman, our assistant principal, come up. So THAT was why Sara had to make sure Chapman was not around when I first found out. "Visser Three, the blade ship is almost finished. Once it is, it will be ten times more powerful than it would have been if you had not sacrificed it."

The Vizz Ear chuckled. "I believe I will name this ship-- the Jahar, after my host's pathetic wife. Heh heh, I believe I made my host very angry. He is fighting very hard."

Then, the Visser started to morph. He looked a lot like Ax did when he morphed into a human. When Visser Three finally finished, he was an Andalite significantly older than Ax. He had a sinister look in his eyes.

So that's it. Tobias whispered. I'll bet that they will use this if we ever try another steal of one of their Bug fighters.

Is that what those ships are? I asked.

Yes, they are the main fighting ships of the yeerks. Ax explained.

Hmmmm. I heard Sara say. Everyone groaned. Apparently she has a lot of crazy ideas. If this is going to be the strongest ship in the yeerk fleet, then why don't we steal this, and fly it over Washington. It will be the sure thing to uncover the yeerk invasion!

Well, I think that it is an insane idea. Remember when we were all caught in the Sario Rip that Jake and Ax keep talking about? Marco said.

Well c'mon, we need an answer. Jake said.

Quiet! Rachel hissed. They're saying something! Chapman was walking around the ship with the Visser, showing him the works.

"But watch this, Visser. This is the best part!" Our assistant principal touched a panel on the side of the ship and slowly the ship shimmered and disappeared. Chapman adjusted the dials until the ship was back in view, but dim and transparent. Visser Three did not look impressed.

"So. A partial cloak. How impressive."

"No, no, Visser! Watch!" To our amazement, Chapman walked directly into the ship and out the other side.

It's a ghost ship! Cassie said excitedly.

It's insubstantial! Ax exclaimed. We Andalites have been working on this technology, but have not been able to perfect it. Stupid Yeerks, I heard him add, trying to retain his dignity. Visser Three looked impressed now. He slowly extended his hand. It passed right through the ghostly hull.

Holy mackerel, I said. An insubstantial ship like that would be impossible to catch!

Not exactly impossible, Sara said thoughtfully.

Uh oh, Marco muttered. Sara continued.

Imagine this, guys. The ship- wait! They're talking again! Chapman had walked back around to the Visser and adjusted the ship's solidity.

"So, Visser," he began, "What exactly is the mission you want this new ship for?" The Yeerk leader grinned evilly.

"We have already taken over the humans' Congress. Now we will go directly to-what is it- Washing Sun and put a Yeerk in the President." Chapman blinked in surprise.

"Going for the big ones, huh, Visser? Who's going to be the lucky one?" The

Visser hissed in anger.

"Visser One," he replied. I heard Marco make a kind of strangled noise behind me.

Who the heck is Visser one? I asked Sara. First there is a Visser Three, who is powerful to start with, now who is Visser One?

Visser One is the most powerful Visser there is. It starts at One as the most powerful and goes down to probably Visser Thirty Two as far as we know. Sara explained. I guess Marco back there is getting a little too scared. Either that or you are being strangled by a piece of hair.

M-me? Marco staggered. N-no of course not. Sara decided to drop it there for now.

So what's your next crazy idea Sara? Let's hear it. Tobias asked with slight interest. I get the distinct feeling that Tobias likes Sara, but its not like LIKE. I can't explain it, like they have a bond of some kind.

Well, Sara explained. If we can steal that ship, I doubt that there are any bug fighters that can outfly and outgun us once we are off the ground. If we can get that ship and fly it over Washington before they can control the President, then their entire plan will be foiled, Controller Congress or not.

I guess for once I have to agree with Sara. Marco said. Everyone seemed shocked. I get the distinct feeling that he is not always the first one to volunteer for a mission. If it will blow the Yeerk's cover and get people to find out what is going on, then we should go for it.

Then I guess we all agree on that? Jake asked. Everyone said their approval.

We were about to go when we heard Visser Three speaking to Chapman again. So, when will my new ship be ready? He asked.

"Tomorrow evening at the most Visser. Then we will be fully armed to fight against the Andalite Bandits." Visser Three seemed pleased. Apparently, Andalite Bandits is the name Visser Three has for us since he still thinks that we are Andalites.

Well, at least we get some leeway. Cassie said. Why don't we hijack it tomorrow? After all, tomorrow is Saturday, and we can get Lauren some more dangerous morphs to fight with.

Really? I asked. The idea of fighting them with something like a lion made my heart race with excitement, even though I didn't really have a heart at the moment. Which reminded me. Shouldn't we morph out? We've been flies for over an hour now. That prompted us to leave.

We flew out of the secret docking bay and headed towards the locker room, which Sara said is locked when there is no practice. We flew in through a small crack in the door, where we morphed out and rested.

"So where will I get these morphs?" I asked once I had a mouth again.

"I think we'll make a pit stop at Cassie's barn before going to The Gardens." Rachel said. The Gardens is like a mush of an amusement part and a zoo. There is the amusement part with log rides and the like, and then there's the zoo part with things such as tigers, bears, giraffes, and so on.

"Why do we need to go to Cassie's barn?" I asked.

"You said you wanted to be a horse didn't you?" Marco asked.

Cassie's barn is actually a Rehabilitation center for wounded wild animals. Her dad, who is a vet, takes any animal that needs care. The barn was filled with cages full of screeching animals. There were raccoons, birds, even a wolf who had lost an ear. Cassie at the moment was cleaning a currently empty cage. Tobias had taken his usual perch on Sara's shoulder. Ax had morphed to his human form so there would be no questions asked if anyone who was not an animorph came in.

"You're in luck Lauren." Cassie said. "We just picked up a broad winged hawk who was in a battle with some crows. Those crows cut her up nicely too. Broad winged hawks are very tame so you should have no problem acquiring her."

"Um- okay, you're the animal expert." I said. Cassie nodded and went towards a small cage. In it was a small hawk weakly perched on the stick in there. It was a lot smaller than Tobias, but it was definitely a bird of prey.

"Easy girl," Cassie said with her voice soothing. She carefully opened up the cage and held her out to me. "Usual routine." Cassie said. "Just touch her."

I gingerly reached in steering clear away from those claws and beak, and touched the hawk's wing. The poor thing became even more calm, almost falling asleep. After a few moments, I broke the contact and now had my second morph, which I liked a lot better than the fly.

The we walked over to one of the stalls, where there was this big, beautiful Mustang-Stallion. "He's beautiful." I commented. "Can I aquire this one?" "Sure." Cassie replied. "Just be carfull, he's a wild one."

I reached over to touch the horse. I snapped at me. "Ahh!" I screamed. "When you said wild one, I thought you just meant a bit hyper." Marco smirked. Cassie went over to the freezer, and took out a needle. "This should calm him down a little." Cassie gave the horse the tranquilizer, and it became a bit dopey. I reach for him again, this time aquiring him.

"Okay people." Jake said, taking over. "Let's go get Lauren some dangerous morphs." Cassie's mother was busy tending a pregnant sea lion, and she said we could go in with Cassie to help with the other animals at the zoo's veterinarian center.

So there I was, staring at a jaguar with a gash in his side, bandaged up. The jaguar was awake and glaring at us.

"Do I really have to-"

"Yes." Marco replied. I glared at him. Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Lauren, you can't exactly fight the Yeerks with a fly, horse, and a hawk." I sighed.

"You're all right, of course." I reached my hand carefully in between the bars. The jaguar lifted his paw and I was sure he was going to take a swipe at me, so I quickly concentrated on acquiring him. The big cat instantly became quiet, almost in a trance. I finished getting his DNA and pulled my hand out from between the bars. I turned to the others.

"Okay, I did it. Can we go home now?" Jake nodded and smiled at me as we left the veterinarian room.

"It's not that bad, Lauren. Ever acquire a lion- NOT in a cage?" I gulped and walked faster. We soon reached the point where I split up from the others.

"Well, bye, guys!" I called, hurrying home. I had homework to do. This

Animorph thing was a full-time job!

I got home somewhat late, later than Mom wanted me to be home.

"Where have you been?" She asked in a mother hen like tone of voice. "I thought you had been kidnapped by some crazy bandit or something."

"Sorry Mom," I said. "The performance took longer than we had anticipated.

"I thought so!" She said. "Like, maybe two hours later perhaps?"

She had me cornered. So, I lied. "I was at Sara's house. Her team went there for ice cream, and she invited me so I went along." It was a lousy excuse, and my mom gave me the suspicious mother look.

"Allright then." She said. I nearly breathed a sigh of relief. "But next time get here on time. You nearly gave me some gray hairs. Now go on and get to your homework."

I trudged my way upstairs. I never realized that I would have to lie. I had never lied to her in my entire life! Jittery somewhat, I slowly did my homework, gnawing on what had happened that day. The rest of the day was normal. I had dinner with my parents, watched TV for a while, then went to bed, but I could not really sleep. All the things that had happened that day were still whizzing through my mind. I doubted that I would ever sleep again, but somehow, I managed to get asleep.

The next day, around eleven, I walked over to Sara's house. Technically, her house was not too far from where my house was, about a ten minute walk if you walked fast. We were going to meet up with the others at the Icicle Dome to hijack that ship.

I walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. After a few moments, I saw Sara's uncle at the door.

"Hello,- Lauren is it?" He asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "Is Sara around?"

"Probably up in her room writing, why don't you go ahead up?" Gran replied.

"Okay." I said. He gestured up the stairs and pointed out which room was Sara's. I thanked him and I worked my way up the stairs and knocked on Sara's door.

"Come on in." I heard from the other side of the door. I walked in. Sara's room was lightly furnished, with the bed in the center. Sara was writing something in a book. She looked up and saw me. "Hi Lauren! Ready?" Sara asked.

"Sure, I guess," I stuttered. "What were you writing in that book?"

"I haven't told the others yet," Sara whispered. "But this is a book which I will use to record all of our morphs that we acquire. This way, we can keep a running count and not forget. I also record our experiences, and any weaknesses we discovered about the yeerks."

"But, all a controller would need to do is come in here, look through the book, and then he would find out everything about us."

"Actually, I have a protection against that." She said, and walked over to a painting on the wall. She lifted it off to reveal a sort of safe that was built into the wall. Sara spun the combination, and opened it up. Inside was a large box that appeared to be seamless. She tapped it a few times in a certain order, and opened it up. Inside, was the morphing cube that I had used. She placed the book inside, closed up the box, and put it back into its safe. "Ready for your first mission?" She asked once the painting was back in place.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I said. She closed the blinds, so no one would accidentally see us morphing, took off her outer clothing to show the same leotard that she was wearing when I first saw her as a half bird. I had on a black leotard that used to belong to my mother. Apparently, morphing is limited to a bare minimum clothing, just enough to keep ourselves from dying of embarrassment whenever we had to morph.

I focused on my newly acquired broad winged hawk morph. They are pretty birds, with lovely undersides. At first nothing happened, and Sara was very far along. She said that her andalite/human genes gave her the ability to morph very quickly. Her mouth was hardening and protruding to form a deadly hooked beak. Her eyes moved to the sides of her head, and while all this was happening, she was shrinking and growing feathers.

I focused again, and I started to shrink again like I did in the fly morph. My skin turned a pretty pattern color, then SHOOP! Out came feathers that came out of my skin, first melding themselves out of my skin, then gaining their feather-like consistency. Like Sara, my eyes moved to the sides of my head like they had a life of their own. My teeth dissolved and my tongue shrank. My mouth started to come out of my face to form a wicked beak. After a few more changes, I was now a bird. And I was almost as fast at morphing as Sara was!

oh! cool! You can speed morph too? Sara asked.

I guess so. I answered.

The only reson I can is because of my andalite background. You are human, right? Sara questioned.

I think so I replied.

Cool. Sara said.

This mind was not as urgent as the fly's was. It was slightly hungry, but calm. My eyes had now really sharp sight. I could see every indentation on the wall, like I was right at it. Sara was sitting on the door rim, calmly preening herself, which is like what a cat does, always licking itself to stay clean. I looked at her plumage. If I remembered my science class, she was a female red-tailed hawk, and somewhat larger than me.

Wait a sec, I said. Isn't Tobias--

A male red-tail? Sara completed. Unfortunately yes. I had gotten this morph before I joined the others. Now whenever I use it, it makes Tobias a little nervous, but hey! At least if we have to fly close by, we won't look suspicious right?

Yeah I guess, but it still probably freaks Tobias out. I guess he doesn't like girls that much. We both laughed.

Yeah. Tobias was always shy and a little odd, but in a nice kind of way. I always liked Tobias, but it's in a way I can't explain. It's really weird. But on to other things. Okay, ready for your first flight and possibly suicide mission? She asked.

Yeah, sure I guess. I said, sounding slightly nervous.

Okay, it's simple if you know what to do. Try to catch a thermal if you can. It will be a lot easier then. Thermals are like pillars of warm air that rise from the ground. Apparently, a hawk or any bird of prey can catch one and rise up like riding an elevator. If you get too nervous or start to fall, release your control on the hawk mind a little. The hawk knows how to fly, and this is your first try. I've been flying for a while now and even I get a little shaky now and then.

I soaked all of this in and we flew out the window.

Flying was incredible! It was like some sort of dream or something, but all I knew was that I was flying, everyone's life long dream. I flew a short distance from Sara, because a red-tail and a broad winged hawk might look suspicious to any bird watcher, especially if they were a controller. Sara was right about the thermals. I caught one and started to rise rapidly, like riding an elevator. It was wonderful! I was a little shaky still, so I let go slightly. Immediately I started to stabilize. She was right. Birds are natural born pilots.

After about ten minutes flying, we saw some birds in the distance that were somewhat far apart. One of which I recognized to be Tobias.

Hi guys! Sara called. She obviously knew that it was them.

I'm telling you Jake, Spiderman would whip Batman's butt until he could not sit down for a month! I heard Marco argue to Jake. They are best friends if they bicker like that. I'll bet if Sara were human, she would slap her forehead in irritation at those two.

They haven't stopped arguing since we took to the air. Rachel complained. PIPE DOWN MARCO! She screamed. Marco stopped in mid-sentence at Rachel's anger. We all laughed.

Is this bickering natural for humans? Ax asked. He had a northern harrier morph.

No Ax, only in those two, and Marco is a completely different species! Rachel said. She obviously had a rough day.

Well anyways, on to the next adventure where we will all be hijackers. Tobias said. We all whirled around and headed towards the Icicle Dome.

We landed in back of the Dome and morphed into flies. It was a doozy of a trip around to the front, I can tell you. Flies aren't used to very long distances. We slipped in the door with a group of Girl Scouts flaunting matching pink ice skates and began off across the ice. We were traveling low because flies get nervous about heights, and didn't think about the possibility of getting hit. Suddenly someone's flailing hand hit me.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! I cried as I fell, trying to work my wings. I landed on the ice and froze. Not literally- I could stand the cold. But lethal blades were whizzing around me. I wished I could shut my eyes, shut out the strange compound vision.

Oh my God! Lauren! Sara called out in shock. Did you get hit? Where are you?

On the ice, I called up. I'm scared!

C'mon Lauren, you can do it! Hurry though, because you might get hit by a blade, Rachel warned. I built up my courage and leapt from the ice, beating my tiny wings. I watched as an ice skate slid cleanly through the spot where I had been just a moment before.

Whew! Jake breathed. Okay, let's hurry to the ship! We didn't want to wait for someone to go through the door, so we slipped through the crack at the bottom. Flies can get almost anywhere. We hurried down the corridor to the Bug fighters, then to the new ghostly Blade ship. We buzzed in through the half-open hatch and landed on the not-quite-seats built for Taxxons or Andalites. The fly which was Ax buzzed over the controls and landed on a tall lever.

Uh oh, he said.

What uh oh? Marco asked nervously.

I have no idea how to fly this thing, Ax replied. The controls are completely different!

Great, Cassie moaned. Now we have to wait for Visser Three and One or whoever's coming, and take it over while they're here! That'll nearly be impossible!

Oh, I don't know, I said, suddenly struck with an idea. One of us can spy and see when they come. When they're coming, we can quickly morph into something small but dangerous- anyone got something like that?

I have a rattlesnake, Ax offered. And nearly all of us have skunks. Can we hide four skunks and a snake? And what about you, Lauren, plus Sara and Tobias?

I'll spy, I offered.

I'll stay a hawk, Tobias said. My talons and beak will be enough for me.

I got an adder at Cassie's barn, Sara said. Okay, let's go! Lauren, you go spy. Watch your time! We've already been morphed for fifteen minutes. Ax, warn her periodically.

Let's do it! Rachel cried. They began morphing back to wait and to look

for hiding places. I hurried off to watch for the Yeerks' return.

I waited impatiently, buzzing to and fro around the entrance. I don't mind saying I would have been bored to death, or at least to sleep, if Ax hadn't warned me about my time every fifteen minutes. Finally, after an hour had passed and we were wondering what to do, I heard noises.

"Yes, Visser, It's quite ready. Maximum security, huh? No Andalite bandits anywhere near!" I recognized Chapman's voice and buzzed next to them so I could hear.

"Good, good. I'll take my new Blade ship up to that big sticking-up thing they have at Washington- what is it called?"

"Oh, the Washington monument, sir."

"Yes, that's right. There we'll meet Visser One. But it won't go as planned, not there." It was Chapman and Visser Three, in human morph. They were now directly under the doorway into the bay. Chapman stopped walking and Visser Three leaned closer to him.

"I will come on board Visser One's ship, as planned, to tell her where to go.

While there I will implant this- (he held up a tiny chip) into her computer.

It will cause her ship to suddenly blow its thrusters, after I am gone, of course. She will be out of sight and I will take over the President." Chapman stared.

"How will you convince her not to take your ship, as was planned?" The

Visser smiled.

"My new ship is still a prototype, correct? I will simply tell her it is malfunctioning, and her ship is safer. Well, here comes my escort. Shall we be off?" I paid no attention to the strange aliens now arriving- the escort,

I presumed. I hurried back to the ship to warn the others.

Hey guys, I said. We're going to have company in a few minutes. I get the distinct feeling that we should morph. I went into a corner to morph as fast as I could to human and then to hawk.

Cassie and Ax had already started to morph. Cassie's skin turned black and white, then became fur. She shrank while her spine made a sickening SLURP as it extended into a bushy tail.

Ax became stuck together, like all his extremedes were glued together. His fur slowly became scales and he became more elongated. I was human now, and I focused on the DNA that was the broad winged hawk.

Sara started to morph like crazy. Very quickly she was in an adder morph now. I was a full broad winged hawk now, revved up and ready for battle.

Only seconds later, some very strange aliens came into the cockpit of the craft. I resisted the urge to scream in terror. The first looked like some overgrown centipede, huge and slimy. It had two large red eyes that looked like chopped Jell-O, and tons of tiny legs. It was sickening.

The next one was even stranger. It was pretty much all blades, on its head, elbows, wrists, and legs. It had tyrannosaur feet and a snake like head. The third and fourth ones were another of the blade people and Visser Three himself.

Okay, we've got a mutant centipede and a salad shooter. Marco said.

What? I asked.

The big centipede is called a Taxxon, Sara explained. They are allies of the yeerks, allowing themselves to be controllers. The so-called Salad Shooter as Marco puts it, is a Hork-Bajir. They were once a peaceful race despite their dangerous look, but then they were taken over by the yeerks. Now there are only two free Hork Bajir that are living in a valley in the forest behind Cassie's house.

Okay, I replied. Let's battle.

"Tsseeerrrrrr!" Tobias called and dove straight for the Taxxon's eyes.

"Tsseeerrrrrrr!" I joined in and helped Tobias.

Ppphhheeewwwtttt! Jake had sprayed the Hork Bajir with his lovely skunk scent. The Hork Bajir recoiled in disgust at the spray all over his body.

"RRRooaaarrr!" The Hork Bajir yelled in frustration.

Sara and Ax then struck together. They each sunk their fangs into the Hork Bajir's leg, and then struck the Taxxon. I guess the combination of adder and rattlesnake poison was too much for them. Both fainted.

Okay, let's get these bodies out of here and let's get moving before anyone notices that there was a small battle here. Jake said, taking control. We did so, with Cassie watching Visser Three warily. We shoved him into a closet with the other Hork-Bajir that had been with them.

Everyone morphed out, Sara being first and starting to putter around with the controls once more. She was obviously good with computers. I guess she would be the pilot for our mission.

We were all out of our morphs now and back to our original forms. Jake and Marco had pushed the bodies out of the ship. Ax was fooling around with another console which I could only guess to be weapons. He looked in amazement.

I don't know how, but after the Visser came in, the controls unlocked. We have access now. Ax said.

"Well, it's better than nothing. Okay, I think I've got the hang of this thing, all we need to do is go." Sara said.

Perfect, I believe that I have figured out the weapons systems. Ax added. We will have no problems with the Yeerks attacking us.

"Well then let's go surfing in our new Porsche." Marco said.

"Are we all ready?" Jake asked. We all nodded. "Sara, fire her up."

Computer, power up. I heard Sara say. The ship hummed to life. Apparently like on Star Trek these computers respond to voice commands.

Prepare weapons. Ax added to the command.

Prepare for launch. Sara concluded.

"Do we know exactly what is going to happen?" I asked.

Well if its anything like a bug fighter, I suggest that you brace yourself. Tobias said.

"Is everyone ready for the launch?" Jake asked once more. He was obviously very worried. We all nodded.

Go to burn. Sara commanded.

WWWOOOSSSHHH!!! We shot out of there like we came from a gun. I was thrown off my feet. Everyone else did too except for Sara and Ax who were ready for the force. After staggering up again, I looked out the screen we were flying overhead with many dracon beams following us. They all shot through the ship without causing a dent in the hull. Apparently Sara had activated the cloak.

"Well," Marco said. "Let's go meet the president."

Our trip was long and boring. We had to go to Washington now because we had to fool the yeerks into thinking that it was Visser Three going there instead of a group of morph capable humans.

I listened to Jake and Marco argue some more about who would kick who's butt in a fight, Spiderman or Batman before going over to Rachel who was staring out the window.

"What is it really like being an Animorph Rachel?" I asked. This trip was going to be at least an hour and a half long so I tried to make small talk.

"Believe me Lauren, you have no idea what you are getting yourself into being an Animorph." Rachel said. "You have to lie constantly to keep your cover, your grades suffer, believe me because I am just barely keeping an C average. And many times your life is at risk in battles, and you can't morph out to heal because if you did you would be discovered, and possibly made into a controller. Speaking of which, we just recently discovered a way to force a yeerk out of your brain. If you are under control by a yeerk, access the instinct part of your brain. It is very hard, but it forces the yeerk out of your head. Not only is your life risked, your very freedom in jeopardy, you can't go to the mall every Saturday anymore! Do you go to the mall often?"

"Not really," I replied. "I just go there for the essentials, and-" Rachel cut me off.

"Oh good, I need some help with Cassie and Sara." Rachel replied. "Those two have to be dragged into a mall and forced to look at clothes. What do you say we form an alliance, and our mission is to turn those two into normal mall rats?"

I was going to protest, but I said, "Sounds like fun.", mischievously.

"Hey," Sara said turning around. "I heard that, and you will never turn Cassie and I into mall rats even if you tortured us to death. Right Cassie?" Cassie nodded. Sara then turned around to her controls again.

I just stared out the window for pretty much the rest of the trip. At times we were up in the air flying over the earth, and at others to save time we flew to the ground with the insubstantiality cloak on so we just flew through buildings and houses. Most of the time we were skimming the ground.

I was about to die from boredom but then Sara said pointing out the window "There's Washington D.C."

What is a Washington D.C.? Ax asked.

"Its where the world's most powerful man lives and rules the country." Marco said.

"Ooh, so Marco did stay awake during class." Rachel said mocking him.

Suddenly, a shrill alarm echoed through the ship. We all covered our ears in pain.

"What is that?" Jake called over the alarm.

Something's malfunctioning, we're loosing the cloak! Sara said, using thought speak so she didn't strain her voice. We're going to be visible and substantial in fifteen seconds! I started to shiver with fear as Sara fought the controls trying to reactivate the cloak.

Sara nervously fiddled with the strange controls, Ax at her side. Visser

Three started to bang on the closet door, and Ax called back,

Shut up, Visser, or I'll pull out my skunk morph! I seem to remember you don't like skunks.... The banging stopped abruptly and Ax turned his attention to the controls.

There! Our cloak's back up! he cried triumphantly. We cheered. It was safe to be loud, because the Visser's closet was soundproofed and he couldn't hear our voices.

"Whew," Sara whispered, sitting back on the floor. (There were no chairs, as Andalites and Taxxons don't sit) But Ax was frowning, or at least looking worried. Sara noticed and quickly stood up. Her face was tense.

"Don't cheer yet, guys," she warned, and we were silent. "We may have got back our cloak, but not our insubstantiality- we are very much solid and heading for- AAAAH!" We all stared openmouthed at the Washington Monument filling our viewscreen.

Hundreds of people looked up as the tall Washington Monument suddenly decided it was a snake and shook from side to side. Someone shouted, "Earthquake!" and everyone began screaming and running around, as if they could get somewhere. One little man ran around in circles, shrieking,

"Idiots!!! Idiots!!! It's not an earthquake, it's aliens!!! Aliens, escaped from Washington, yes yes, destroying our capitol, building by building!!!"

A group of important looking men looked at the shaking monument and the running people, then at each other.

"I wonder what went wrong with that idiot Visser's ship?" one of them asked.

Another looked up at the monument again before speaking.

"What I'm wondering is whose ship was it?" he replied. The first one frowned.

"Oh, certainly Visser Three- his ship was only a prototype, you know. Far too rickety to entrust such a mission to." Nodding slowly, his companions followed him as they wandered slowly to the Capitol building, weaving in and out of the running people, who were slowly beginning to calm down.

All this was being watched by eight very embarrassed Animorphs. Ax turned from the controls.

It's fixed. We will not run into any more of your pencils. Ax comented.

"Great timing, Ax. Oh, well, let's watch out for Visser One- she should be here." Right on cue, the communications terminal beeped. We looked at each other nervously. Jake waved toward the closet. Ax nodded, and Jake looked around at the rest of us. We all nodded, agreeing to his plan, but nervous about it. Ax went over to the closet. Sara morphed into her adder, and Cassie into her skunk. The rest of us hurried to hide. We heard Ax drag Visser Three over and place him in front of the communications terminal, his tail across the Visser's throat. The Visser's tail was tied to a heavy chair.

Sara was positioned on top of the terminal, ready to strike. Cassie stood dangerously nearby, tail raised. Visser Three gulped and snarled at Ax.

You child. You and your little friends will not have the best of me!

Gurrg- Ax tightened his tail and pressed the terminal on. The angry form of

Visser One appeared.

"You moron! What did you do? The monument is still shaking, and the President, in fear that it might be some kind of attempt on his life, has flown off. We don't know where he's gone! All because of you!" She glared at the cowering leader, struggling with his tail's bindings, then frowned.

"Are you all right, Visser? You look strange." The Visser looked at Ax. Sara hissed menacingly. With lightning speed he flexed his strong tail and its bindings disintegrated.

I'm doing fine on my own, thank you! If you'll excuse me, I have a few Andalites to tend to- his tail flashed for Ax, and Ax's own tail barely kept the Visser away. Luckily we had another weapon. Cassie turned, aimed, and fired. She didn't have time to warn Ax away, but the Visser was closest. He shrieked.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGG!!!! Ax quickly used his last bits of energy to throw the Visser into the closet and lock the door. The Hork-Bajir still in the closet shrieked as his smelly leader joined him, and sounds of a struggle were heard. Ax breathed a sigh of relief. Sara, still on top of the viewscreen, looked down at it. Visser One was still there, smiling slyly.

"Pull them in!" she cried, and something that looked exactly like a tractor beam began pulling the ship towards the Visser's docking bay. Sara turned the terminal off with her tail and quickly morphed out. Ax limped over to the control board and began working. Sara came over to help.

"Can we come out now?" Jake called. Rachel had already run out.

"Pow! Yuck! Cassie!" Cassie had morphed back to human form and was grinning.

"I doused him good, Rach," she said, smiling. Marco came in, swaying from side to side as his nose detected the skunk musk.

"Eyuck! Ax, I hope you're working on fixing the ventilation systems." The Andalite looked up from his work for a second.

"Actually, I'm putting the insubstantiality back on- hold on!" Suddenly the invisible ship broke away from the tractor beam and shot into the ground.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" we screamed.

Pull up! Pull up! Tobias yells

"I can't Tobias, the controls are jammed! We are about to become pancakes!" Sara yelled.

We were plummeting towards the ground at top speed. I was against the wall, pretty well saying my prayers. Visser Three and the Hork-Bajir were in the closet banging around because of the sudden changes in direction. They were lucky because they didn't have to worry about being tossed around the ship like a rag doll.

"Hold on!" Jake cried. "Are the insubstantiality controls on?"

Yes Prince Jake, they have not malfunctioned quite yet. Ax said.

"I really hope that you make sure they don't, or we will be stuck in the ground." Jake said with fear. I figured out what he was thinking.

"Oh yeah!" I cried. "Like that Star Trek episode where the Pegasus was stuck in that asteroid because its cloak malfunctioned and it materialized in a wall!"

"Don't remind me." Marco said, sounding like he was sick to his stomach. "I saw that episode."

Just then, the pavement rose up at us very quickly. We all started to scream, but then the pavement just vanished. Before us was dirt, dirt, and more dirt.

Marco lifted up his head. "Are we dead yet?" He asked. Then Marco and the rest of us got up from cowering and looked at the viewscreen.

"The ghost device was still on, so we are just plowing through the dirt." Cassie realized.

"There, I've got the controls back on line." Sara said triumphantly, but with her voice shaking. She probably got an adrenaline burst like the rest of us.

"Looks like Spock does it again!" Marco said grinning. Sara just glared at him.

I walked over to the controls where Sara was working. "Spock?!?" I asked.

Its a nickname he gave me when we first met. Sara explained in thought- speak. He calls me that because Spock was half human half Vulcan. I am half human half Andalite. See the relation? It's kinda like he calls Rachel Xena: Warrior Princess. Rachel I think is really an Amazon warrior at heart.

"Oh." was my reply.

I am picking up a hollow structure up ahead on the sensors. Ax interrupted my thoughts. He had curiosity in his voice.

"What?" I asked and walked over. "What do you mean?"

Marco came over as well. "I think it is like a secret base underground where the president and congress stay during a crisis. They thought that there was an assassination attempt going on so they freaked out and ran underground, like a bunch of rabbits." It sounded reasonable.

"Well, we'll find out, because we are heading right towards it." I said. I was figuring out some of the controls and had already understood the sensor panel.

Then, filling our viewscreen, was an iron structure, fairly large and cubical in shape. We went through a three feet thick wall, and then briefly shot through a few rooms with tables and drink machines.

I saw a quick glimpse of the president and his family. They somehow were staring at us, with a whole group of army dudes with machine guns. Then I remembered that we were partially visible, like a ghost. We shot through and saw a few more rooms with congressmen and their family. The army dudes were shooting at us now but the bullets just whizzed through the hull and us. One of them flew through my I saw a quick glimpse of the president and his family. They somehow were staring at us, with a whole group of army dudes with machine guns. Then I remembered that we were partially visible, like a ghost. We shot through and saw a few more rooms with congressmen and their family. The army dudes were shooting at us now but the bullets just whizzed through the hull and us. One of them flew through my head, but I was insubstantial like the rest of the ship, so I was unharmed. Marco was leaping around the room trying his best to get shot.

Sara then started us upwards again. We were pushed backwards by the force as we shot up through the ground. Then, blue sky filled our viewscreen as we shot towards the sky. I was never so relieved to see the sky above me. To our left was Visser One's ship, still searching for us.

"You know," Rachel said. "This is our golden opportunity to disable Visser One's cloak and reveal to the world that we are being invaded. If we can shoot in just the right place, the cloak will be disabled!"

We all looked at each other, and then at Jake.

"You know that I'm not the leader." Jake said sounding annoyed, "But I still say let's do it!"

We all cheered as Sara, Ax, and I went to the controls to power up for a battle that we thought was going to be totally easy.

Ax managed to pull up the specs for the shields in the ship's computer. He found the right place to shoot and showed us. Jake and Marco clamored for the weapons station.

"Oh, come on! I beat you in Doom! Remember- Level 26?" Marco begged.

"YOU? Beat ME? In your dreams, buddy! Hey, leggo!" Sara glared at them, waiting patiently. She counted to ten and then pulled them both apart and took the station. She readied her trigger fingers and nodded to Ax.

"Okay, Ax. Ready to go up?" Ax was looking interested in something up ahead.

Wait a moment, Sara. There's a long hollow tunnel ahead of us, and I'd like to see what it is. I have increased the power to the cloak- we are now completely invisible. The prototype Blade ship slid through the rock and soil into a tunnel. Suddenly we were starting into two glaring headlights heading straight for us.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" we shouted, ducking under the consoles. But I had been to Washington, and I realized what this was. I threw myself at the controls, throwing the thrust lever straight forward. The headlights passed a hair below our insubstantial hull and screamed on its way. I carefully maneuvered the ship back above ground to a slight coast high above the Mall.

Slowly everyone uncurled from their fetal balls, except Ax, of course, who can't exactly curl.

"What was that?" Marco asked shakily. I shoved my heart back down from my throat and smiled.

"Haven't you guys ever been to Washington? That was the Metro! The subway!"

Enlightenment began to crawl its way across Marco's face.

What is a subway? Ax asked. Sara quickly pulled herself together and began moving the ship.

"A subway's an underground transportation system, Ax. Okay, Visser One, Visser One, where are you? Ah, there you are!" I could see nothing where she pointed, but there was a blip on the tiny screen below the main viewscreen.

We headed toward the invisible ship. In the confusion Jake and Marco had forgotten about the weapons station. Now they remembered, and began elbowing each other for the place once more. This time, Rachel, not Sara, intervened.

"Oh, this is soo unfair!" Marco complained. "All the girls steal the weapons!" Rachel looked condescendingly at Marco.

"Marco, don't you have some homework to do?" she said in a perfect 'Mom' voice. Marco moaned.

"Ahh, that's right! I have a math test tomorrow! Man, I can't even remember what chapter we're on!" Rachel ignored him.

"Weapons targeted and ready, sir!" Ax looked at Sara and nodded.

Good. Tell the Visser back there we're about to foil their little scheme,

Tobias! Ax called back to Tobias and Cassie, who were guarding the noisy closet.

I can't! called Tobias. It's soundproof, remember?

I was kidding. Ax reassured him. Okay, let's go!

Twin red dracon beams lanced across the sky, visible only to those looking for them, and hit the shields of Visser One's ship.

The dracon beams laced out and headed straight for the Visser's ship. It scored a direct hit, but nothing happened.

"What?" Rachel asked. "Why didn't anything happen?"

"Because they probably have a shield like on Star Trek, dimwit." Marco said arrogantly.

Visser One's ship shot back at us, but the Dracon just slipped through us.

"Watch the ghost cloak Sara." Jake ordered. "We don't want the thing to fail while in battle."

"Right." Both Sara and I said. Sara's fingers flew over the controls like she was playing a piano. We swung around and headed for another shot.

"You know Sara," I said. "You are just like Tom Paris on Voyager, but not personality wise, I mean you have the same piloting skills that he has."

"Thanks." She replied, never once taking her hands off the panels.

"Stand by to fire." Jake said to Rachel. After a pause, he said "Fire." Another twin beam of Dracon came from our ship and hit Visser One's ship. I glanced at the sensors on my panel. There was a circle around the Visser's ship, that seemed to darken whenever she took a hit.

"Why am I having flashbacks to Star Trek?" Marco asked.

"Shut up Marco. I'm trying to concentrate." Rachel snapped.

"I think a few more shots will do it Jake." Cassie recommended.

"Okay, fine." Jake agreed. "Rachel, fire at will."

"Which one's will?" Marco asked, right on cue. We all laughed.

Rachel then fired rapidly at Visser One's ship. I watched as the shields fall rapidly. The other ship made a valiant effort at trying to get us, but all of the beams just flew through us. I felt that this was going to be a flawless victory.

"Man, why do I get the feeling that we will soon be getting something bad?" Marco asked. Just like Marco to be pessimistic.

"Those shields are down." I said excitedly as the circle disappeared.

"Great." Jake said. "Okay, does anyone know where the cloaking device is on a Visser ship?"

Well, Ax said. Unfortunately, the cloaking device is inside the ship, but we can disable the engines from out here. Rachel, just fire at the underbelly of the ship.

"Right." Rachel said with enthusiasm. More dracon beams came out of our ship, right under to the bottom of their ship. After a few minutes, she stopped dead in the air.

Yeah, take that you yeerks! Tobias cried. I admit that it was a terrible line, but it did express what we felt. Unfortunately, we didn't hear the activity behind us in the closet. We were just about to shoot off when Tobias stopped us.

Wait a sec you guys! I just remembered something. If the shields are down, then we can get aboard and fight our way to the cloaking device. That way, it will be a double victory.

We all looked at the hawk while everything sunk in. I was first to enlightenment. "That's perfect! Everyone will see the ship and the invasion will be foiled! I cast my vote to do it."

Immediately, Sara and Rachel's hands went up. Cassie, Jake, and Ax weren't far behind.

"I can't believe we're doing this." Marco said pessimistically. "Its insane I tell you, insane! We are going up against a ship full of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. Those odds aren't all that great."

"Yes, but you're still doing it." Rachel confirmed.

"Yeah." He replied. We all laughed.

"Haha, okay," Sara said after we were finished laughing. "I'm going to take her in insubstantiality and land her in the docking bay. That way no one will see us and we won't have to fight our way in. We all better start morphing though. I'll set her on autopilot."

"Pull out that jaguar morph of yours, Lauren." Cassie said. "It's time to try it on." After that, her skin turned gray and became fur.

I started to morph at a pretty fast speed. My skin first had this neat leotard pattern before becoming fur. My fingers shrank to become clawed paws. My ears wandered to the top of my head and became more triangulated. There was a sickening crunch as my knees reversed and I fell forward. I looked at the others. Ax and Tobias were going to stay the way they were. Jake was going through similar changes like me, but he was larger and his fur was black and orange. Rachel was getting larger and furry. Her mouth became full of teeth that were too big for her. Sara had hardly started at all, attempting to get the course into the computer. She had grown slightly, and you could make out the beginnings of scales. Marco had just about the same body structure, but he had grown in bulk and had black fur all over his body. I could tell he was a gorilla.

I always knew Marco was a monkey. Sara said.

"Wroursh!" Marco said. I guess his voice was changing, but I could make out that he had said "Hush."

What IS Sara turning into? I whispered to Rachel. I've never seen a reptile that big.

Do you remember that she has the ability to use the DNA of deceased animals? Rachel replied. That was all the info I needed.

I was finishing the jaguar morph when the mind of the jaguar erupted. It was the calm coolness of the predator. It knew that there were very few that would harm it. I easily suppressed it.

I quickly glanced at Sara again. Her head had expanded while her spine stretched to form a tail. When I saw the foot claws come, I knew that she was becoming the terror of Jurassic Park- The velociraptor.

Well, Sara said. Here comes the ship.

Our invisible and insubstantial ship docked with Visser One's ship. She didn't notice, because it's hard to notice something that's invisible and insubstantial. We leapt onto her ship, instantly becoming visible and very much solid. I snarled and leapt on a Hork- Bajir. When he went limp my heart suddenly froze. I had killed! I was a murderer! I sat back on my haunches, too stunned to move. A Hork-Bajir took advantage of my confusion and headed in my direction. The monster was instantly slain by Sara's deadly claws.

Lauren, what's wrong? she asked. C'mon! We've got to fight!

I killed! I sobbed. He's dead! I did it! Sara knocked over a Taxxon and came next to me.

I'm sorry, Lauren. I didn't realize. This is your first real battle, isn't it? Back at the ship, it was only two... she paused to slash at a Hork- Bajir that was getting too close. Well, we haven't got much time, but let me tell you this. The Yeerks take over human minds, as you know. When they have your mind, you can't control yourself. You know this too. But what you don't know is what they do to the planets they gain after the species that lived on the planet is enslaved.

What? I asked, controlling my inner tears. Sara continued.

They take stock of what plants and animals are needed to keep the host bodies alive, then annihilate the rest. Just vaporize them. Think of that. We don't need animals to survive, do we? There are many vegetarians- Vegans too. So they would probably kill all the animals on the planet. Then they would get rid of the extra plant life. Just like that. The Yeerks are about as close to pure evil as you can get, excluding the Borg, of course. This would have made me smile if jaguars could really smile.

All right, Sara. I said decidedly. Let's show those Yeerks how to fight! We leapt back into the fray.

I fought with new energy now, with Sara's insight in my head. We fought beside each other causing much havoc among the controllers. My sensitive nose could pick up the stench of the taxxon that Sara had sliced in half. I never want to be a taxxon now I can tell you that. After the taxxon was dead, a whole mess of other taxxons rushed over, forgetting the battle to eat their fallen comrade. It was a feeding frenzy! I would have thrown up if jaguars can even barf.

Whew! I heard Cassie say. Since she was a wolf, she picked up the stench much more than I did because of the more acuteness of her nose. Now I know I never want to be a taxxon.

So does anyone know where we are supposed to go? Tobias asked after clawing a taxxon's eyes.

I believe that there should be a map around here somewhere. Ax said looking around. Over there. He pointed to a panel over by the wall. Sara would you assist me?

Go ahead. Jake said. Well cover you.

I saw Sara jump over to the panel with Ax on her heels. I remembered from Jurassic Park that velociraptors are some of the most intelligent dinosaurs of the prehistoric. I took my post slaying any hork-bajir or taxxon who dared come close.

I took a glance behind me and saw Ax activating a panel to reveal an inside schematic of the ship. Carefully maneuvering her claw, Sara punched some buttons and a white dot appeared on the map.

The cloaking device is here. Ax said pointing to the dot.

Oh really, I thought it was over here. Marco said sarcastically. Something was really ticking him off but I couldn't tell what.

Okay, we'll split up taking both ways to the cloaking device. Tobias, Sara, Rachel, and Lauren take the first way. Marco, Ax, Cassie, and I will take the other way. We'll meet at the device. Jake said taking control.

Seeya on the far side. Sara said.

What? Ax asked.

Its an expression Ax-man. Tobias explained. It means I'll see you after the adventure.

Oh. Was Ax's only reply before we split up.

Sara, Rachel, Tobias and I raced down the halls towards the cloaking device. Many times we were blocked by a group of taxxons, hork-bajir, and humans. I did my best to only injure the humans, not kill. It bothered my conscience even more to kill humans.

Yaaa! Take that you taxxon! Rachel yelled. Taxxons were easy to kill off because they will generally swarm to any of their kind who was injured. We just had to kill one and the rest would be out of our way for a few minutes.

Man, these guys are desperate. Tobias said after we ran into our fifth group of controllers. They were never this nervous.

Well, this way you guys. Sara said banking a left.

How much more is it? I asked.

Just a little ways. Sara said. Here it is. In one of these doors. We were standing in a long hallway that was huge. I don't think I had ever seen that many doors.

Well, Rachel said. Let's pick.

We had barely taken a step when we were overwhelmed with controllers. They were surrounding us. I fought like I had never fought before. Hork Bajir and taxxons fell victim to my claws.

I had just killed the last hork-bajir and was looking around. There was no one there.

Sara? I called out. Rachel? Tobias? Anybody?

I was alone.

Suddenly there was a crash, and I looked up. A net was heading for me!

Without thought, the jaguar's and human's instincts in me let me jump so fast

I couldn't believe what I was doing. The net smashed to the ground beside me.

Fearing another attack, I dashed into a little niche and hid until the net was pulled up and all was silent. I wondered what to do. If I went out there, would I be captured? Confused, I shrank into myself, trying to hide into the hole I was in. As I did so, I noticed in surprise the hole went back. I turned around and crawled into the hole. I crawled for a while. It was some kind of maintenance tunnel! After a while I reached a room. There was a map on one wall. I looked at it carefully and recognized where the cloaking device was. It was on the other side of the wall! I put an ear to the wall and could hear it humming. Then I heard something else. Someone was talking!

I tried to listen. Jaguars' ears aren't especially good, but they aren't bad either. I could easily make out the voices.

"So, the Andalite bandits, huh? Visser Three would give his new Blade ship for you, and more. You know that, don't you?" There was no reply. I didn't blame them.

"Not very talkative, are you? Ah well, you have no need to be. You can just stay here, my little friends, while I decide what to do with you. See you in an hour!" I heard footsteps, and decided whoever it was that had been talking to my friends had left. I examined the wall and discovered an old wire that was frayed and cut up sticking through a hole in the wall. I bit it. The wire fell apart, leaving a hole in the wall. I put my yellow slitted eye up to the hole. I could see the others! They were in nets, still in their morphs. I called to them.

Hey! Guys! I saw a head move and an ear perk.

Lauren? Is that you? Where are you? That was Tobias.

I'm on the other side of the wall. Who's guarding you?

Nobody. We're alone, but locked in. I don't think they know they didn't get all of us. Rachel called out. I snorted.

Great sensors they have, if they can't figure out there's a jaguar roaming the ship, along with a lot of blade aliens- Hork-Bajir, is it? And ugly worms.

I fixed that. Sara said, sounding smug. Though I don't know how she managed to 'sound' like anything. I busted the sensors as we were being dragged along.

Great! I cried. Hold on. I'm coming through!

Wait, Lauren, I don't know if that's a good- SCRREEEECHH! My strong claws cut apart the wall, which was foolishly made of something about as flimsy as cardboard to jaguar claws. I leapt through the gap.

Okay, I'm here. Now what? I looked around. Is that the cloaking device?

Hey, how about untying us first? Marco asked.

Oh, I said. Right. Here goes- I bit through the rope and ripped it apart with my claws. Seven tired-looking animals crawled out and began to morph back to human. While they were doing so I inspected the cloaking device.

I hate how morphing looks anyway.

This looks pretty flimsy, I said. What say we bust it up?

"Bustin' it up sounds good Lauren." Jake said to me. "Just be careful that you don't underestimate that device."

"Why don't you morph out for a moment Lauren?" Sara asked. "You are nearing the two hour time limit. We won't do anything until are all safely back in morph."

Okay. I said and began to reverse my morph.

Ax examined the cloaking device carefully. He looked for the best way to totally mangle the cloaking device.

"Something isn't right." Cassie said "Wouldn't there be some guards or at least a shield of some sort?"

"You're right Cassie." Rachel said. "Why do I get the distinct feeling that something will come up very quickly?"

You better go ahead and morph back. Tobias said to everyone. The quicker we get this cloaking device down, the quicker we can get home.

"Right, I agree with Tobias so let's go." Marco said and started to grow fur.

We all crawled back into our dangerous morphs slowly, myself being last because I needed to rest.

Man! Rachel said once she got her thought speak. I would much rather use my elephant morph. These yeerk halls are much too narrow.

Cool! I said. You have an elephant morph?

Yeah, and rather would be using it than my bear morph. That sucker can lift a hork bajir and heave it twenty yards. Rachel replied.

Well, c'mon you guys, let's kill this cloaking device! Sara said.

That's our Gabrielle. Marco said.

Okay, Ax did you find the thing's Achilles heel? Jake asked.

What does that mean Prince Jake? Ax said.

It means did you find the device's weak spot? Jake explained. And don't call me Prince.

Yes Prince Jake. Ax replied. I think he actually does have a sense of humor. It is here at the base. We can cut off the power supply and then dispose of it from there.

Okay then, let er' rip! Rachel yelled.

"RRROAAARRRRRRR!" I yelled and began to swipe my paws to the cloaking device. Then something incredible happened. It didn't stop running or die off. My claws went right through it!

Oh man. Marco said with despair. This thing is a hologram! We've been had!

BWOOP! BWOOP! BWOOP! BWOOP!

The room was filled with light and sound. We had set off an alarm!

Any minute now this room will be filled with controllers! Sara said.

I say we fight through them and find our way to the escape pods. Ax said. These ships have similar configuration to the Yeerk mother ship so we can find our way to the escape pods and get back to earth. I still remember our escape.

That works. I said. Let's do it!

Right then, the door opened and in stormed about five hork bajir. We were going to make our escape.

It was five to eight, and eight of us were dangerous animals. Marco whacked a Hork-Bajir flat against the wall. Rachel slashed one apart with her claws. Jake and I leapt about, slashing and biting. Ax, in his Andalite body, cut Hork-Bajir apart left and right.

Were these guys really nice at some point? I panted, slashing my way to the door.

Believe it or not, yes, Cassie replied, getting rid of the last Hork- Bajir. They used their blades for cutting apart tree bark!

They were perfect for the Yeerks, Tobias said bitterly. Much more dangerous than the Taxxons, or humans. I stuck my head out into the hallway and looked right. Nobody. I stepped into the corridor.

Well, the coast's clear. Let's- Unfortunately, I had failed to look left. Suddenly my side was cut with shearing pain. I turned, holding back a scream. A Hork-Bajir was standing there, rearing back to slice a death blow.

NOOOOOO! Ax leapt into the hall, removing the Hork-Bajir's head from his shoulders with his trusty tail. I turned away from the gory sight and ventured to look at my side. It was bad. Very bad. I felt myself beginning to faint.

Morph out, Lauren! Morph out! Forget the risk! Morph NOW! Marco screamed. I weakly searched my brain for the DNA of the human I was. I saw my long, dark brown hair, the outfit I wore to morph, the strange looking leotard combo.

Slowly I emerged into the human body, bit by bit. Fully human, I was exhausted but unhurt. Now I really did faint.

The next thing I knew, I was staring at a strange metallic ceiling. I sat up.

"Lauren! Glad to see you back with us! You know, you almost ended up with patterned skin there. You just barely got rid of the jaguar's fur before you fainted." I smiled up at Cassie.

"So, I take it we're on the escape pod?"

"Yep," Cassie replied. "We dragged you to the docking bay. Once we were almost seen by a bunch of human-Controllers. Luckily they ran the other way." I sighed.

"So this is what it's like to be an Animorph, huh?" I asked.

"That's right," Marco said. "A completely insane existence where you kill aliens born on the other side of the galaxy who just want to eat tree bark, where you can't trust your own flesh and blood, and where you fly through subway tunnels in a ghost ship." Rachel glared at Marco.

"C'mon, it's not that bad. Flyings great!" I said.

"Oh yeah," Marco corrected himself. "The insane existence where you kill aliens who eat tree bark, you can't trust people, all that other stuff I said, and you can fly. That's being an Animorph."

"Sounds like fun!" I commented.