Chapter Twenty-Nine:
The policeman just shot the National Guard. It's insane! We've got total wild chaos out here!
Tobias! I shouted. The projector wasn't destroyed! If you ever want to do anything about it, now is probably the time!
Yeah, okay, he grunted. It was obvious he was fighting to keep himself together in whatever nightmare was rampant outside.
I heard a single drop of water slip from the hatch. I heard gentle sloshing as the Yeerk and I treaded water. All was stillness and peace inside our pool. The small circle of light on the water was the hub of the wheel we two formed as we slowly circled one another.
It was silent. Aside from the thin noise of the crowd, like a ghost's wail, that trickled through the hatch. Aside from the rippling water and the scrabbling of Rachel's claws as she bumped into the wall.
Okay, said Tobias. Okay. Okay. Okay, we're gonna do this. Yeah. Marco, Yeerk, I don't care what you're up to. I don't care if you have your jaws locked around each other's throats. If either of you want to live, morph eel. And I do mean now.
What's going on? I cried.
Jake's going to take out the tower.
How?
You'd better be demorphing while you're talking, monkey boy.
I glared across the shaft of light, across the wheel. Into the face of the bear. Its eyes were no longer smiling.
Are you still more interested in living than in ending my life, Yeerk?
I am willing to kill myself in order to end the threat of the so- called "Andalite bandits," she said.
Sure you are.
She was lying. We both knew it.
After a moment of hesitation, she added, Your body is too valuable to lose. So, no, I won't kill you.
I'm going to start to demorph, Yeerk, I said. She wouldn't kill me. Would she? I'm going to start to demorph. You'd better do so too, Yeerk. You inhabit Rachel's mind. You know that Tobias's voice doesn't shake when he bluffs.
She swam. I swam. The wheel turned. Then I stopped swimming.
I began to demorph, slowly. The eyes of the bear watched me. Took in every detail of my change. And then she started to change, too.
The fur shot into my body, leaving me cold in the water.
Giant, hairy fingers emerged from her paws.
My skull ground and shifted, changing shape.
She thinned, until she was a pathetic shadow of a bear.
My feet twisted and became human.
Her snout changed, flattened, transformed into her real face.
My gorilla senses dimmed and sharpened, turning me back into a mere mortal.
Her leotard faded into sight, and her hair unfurled over her head.
My outfit appeared at the same time, just as my muscles relaxed and thinned to humanity.
The Yeerk that controlled Rachel floated in the water for a moment. She was completely Rachel, but she was still bear-sized. Over nine feet tall. She was a giantess. She looked down at herself, and her huge face smiled.
"Fee, fi, fo, fum," she boomed. Her voice was deeper than a man's, resounding unnaturally in her huge chest cavity.
Then she shrunk, and was just Rachel.
Rachel and the Yeerk.
Booooooooom.
Suddenly, my skin buzzed. The water was vibrating. The steel around me echoed, resounded, groaned painfully.
Something had hit the tower. Something big.
The water in the tower shifted in the impact. It sloshed heavily against one wall. I was thrown next to Rachel. I looked down, and could see the bottom of the tank on the other side. For a split second, the water had all rushed away from the side that had been struck.
Then it started to move back for the other side.
Somewhere, on a deeper level than all the other sounds I had heard yet, as if the tower itself was speaking to us, I heard a rumbling groan, and then a shriek.
Sssccchhhreeee.
Something was shifting. Something was breaking.
Ssssssccchhhrrrrreeeeee.
Something vital.
I didn't know what was happening. But I knew that, whatever happened, I had no chance of coming out alive.
Ssssssssscccccccchhhhhhrrrrrreeeeeeee.
I began to morph. Faster than I have ever morphed in my life. I was going eel.
But it wasn't going to save me.
Sssssscsssccccccchhhhhhhhhrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee.
The policeman just shot the National Guard. It's insane! We've got total wild chaos out here!
Tobias! I shouted. The projector wasn't destroyed! If you ever want to do anything about it, now is probably the time!
Yeah, okay, he grunted. It was obvious he was fighting to keep himself together in whatever nightmare was rampant outside.
I heard a single drop of water slip from the hatch. I heard gentle sloshing as the Yeerk and I treaded water. All was stillness and peace inside our pool. The small circle of light on the water was the hub of the wheel we two formed as we slowly circled one another.
It was silent. Aside from the thin noise of the crowd, like a ghost's wail, that trickled through the hatch. Aside from the rippling water and the scrabbling of Rachel's claws as she bumped into the wall.
Okay, said Tobias. Okay. Okay. Okay, we're gonna do this. Yeah. Marco, Yeerk, I don't care what you're up to. I don't care if you have your jaws locked around each other's throats. If either of you want to live, morph eel. And I do mean now.
What's going on? I cried.
Jake's going to take out the tower.
How?
You'd better be demorphing while you're talking, monkey boy.
I glared across the shaft of light, across the wheel. Into the face of the bear. Its eyes were no longer smiling.
Are you still more interested in living than in ending my life, Yeerk?
I am willing to kill myself in order to end the threat of the so- called "Andalite bandits," she said.
Sure you are.
She was lying. We both knew it.
After a moment of hesitation, she added, Your body is too valuable to lose. So, no, I won't kill you.
I'm going to start to demorph, Yeerk, I said. She wouldn't kill me. Would she? I'm going to start to demorph. You'd better do so too, Yeerk. You inhabit Rachel's mind. You know that Tobias's voice doesn't shake when he bluffs.
She swam. I swam. The wheel turned. Then I stopped swimming.
I began to demorph, slowly. The eyes of the bear watched me. Took in every detail of my change. And then she started to change, too.
The fur shot into my body, leaving me cold in the water.
Giant, hairy fingers emerged from her paws.
My skull ground and shifted, changing shape.
She thinned, until she was a pathetic shadow of a bear.
My feet twisted and became human.
Her snout changed, flattened, transformed into her real face.
My gorilla senses dimmed and sharpened, turning me back into a mere mortal.
Her leotard faded into sight, and her hair unfurled over her head.
My outfit appeared at the same time, just as my muscles relaxed and thinned to humanity.
The Yeerk that controlled Rachel floated in the water for a moment. She was completely Rachel, but she was still bear-sized. Over nine feet tall. She was a giantess. She looked down at herself, and her huge face smiled.
"Fee, fi, fo, fum," she boomed. Her voice was deeper than a man's, resounding unnaturally in her huge chest cavity.
Then she shrunk, and was just Rachel.
Rachel and the Yeerk.
Booooooooom.
Suddenly, my skin buzzed. The water was vibrating. The steel around me echoed, resounded, groaned painfully.
Something had hit the tower. Something big.
The water in the tower shifted in the impact. It sloshed heavily against one wall. I was thrown next to Rachel. I looked down, and could see the bottom of the tank on the other side. For a split second, the water had all rushed away from the side that had been struck.
Then it started to move back for the other side.
Somewhere, on a deeper level than all the other sounds I had heard yet, as if the tower itself was speaking to us, I heard a rumbling groan, and then a shriek.
Sssccchhhreeee.
Something was shifting. Something was breaking.
Ssssssccchhhrrrrreeeeee.
Something vital.
I didn't know what was happening. But I knew that, whatever happened, I had no chance of coming out alive.
Ssssssssscccccccchhhhhhrrrrrreeeeeeee.
I began to morph. Faster than I have ever morphed in my life. I was going eel.
But it wasn't going to save me.
Sssssscsssccccccchhhhhhhhhrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeee.