Chapter 22-Marco (One Year Later)

My life was wonderful. It was what I had always dreamed of. I guess fighting the war had been worth it. I had done at least twenty appearances on Letterman, Leno, Conan, and Kilborn. The Today show? The Early Show? You name it, I've been on it.

The first couple of months after the war ended, we were the biggest celebrities on the whole planet. We, the Animorphs, had more star power than all of Hollywood and Washington, D.C. combined. If I told a joke, it would be front-page headlines. We could have told the Department of Education to ban homework, and they would have done it. The whole world would bend to our will.

Anywhere one of us went, we were mobbed by people. Everyone wanted the autograph of the world hero. I'm sure some of the autographs I've signed sold well on eBay. 'NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys didn't have as many girl fans as we did.

It made sense, I guess. We were the only world heroes Earth ever had. Everybody loved us. We could do no wrong. And how could nobody be thankful for what we did? The Animorphs had saved the Earth from enslavement. My friends and I were the saviors of the planet.

I had gotten offers from every TV station to do a show. UPN, MTV, even PBS, they all wanted me, Marco the Animorph. I was the center of everyone's attention. They knew I would make their ratings shoot through the roof.

In the end, I took an offer from CBS to work as a writer on Letterman's show. Dave is one of the few people that appreciates my jokes. I wrote most of the 'Top Ten' lists, and I got to work often on the 'Stupid Pet Tricks' segment as well. It was awesome. Every time Dave introduced me to the crowd, I got more applause than a rock star.

The first month I worked on Letterman, ratings went up fifty percent. We whipped Leno so bad, they begged me to come work for NBC. No luck for them. Too bad.

I also wrote a book. All of us did, actually. Mine was called The Joker Who Saved The World. The cover was cool. I was in gorilla morph, wearing a jester's cap. It was number two on every list, which was pretty good for me. I never did well in English class.

Tons of companies wanted me for their advertisements. I did ads for Hertz, McDonalds, and more. That made me millions more. We all did a 'Got Milk?' ad. That was the best one by far. It confirmed our status as superstars.

I was a multimillionaire, and I wanted to give back. I gave ten million dollars to various charities. My parents, who had worked so hard to give me everything I had, got a new beach house in Malibu as a birthday present. Nothing can describe the look on Mom's face when she saw it. I also bought both of them cars of their choice.

I lived in my own personal Xanadu, a beautiful piece of beachfront property. There were seven bedrooms, a ballroom, a huge pool, a mini-golf course, and a waterfall. Sure, it cost me an arm and a leg, but I had money now.

Dad, even though he didn't have to work, got a job with NASA at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. He was the chief Z-space expert, and was paid a hefty salary himself. Mom was a social worker, helping out disabled kids. She wrote a book about her years as a slave to the former Visser One. It was in the top ten on the charts.

The best part about the fame was the chicks. Hot girls that wouldn't have even given me a look before were now hanging off of my arms. I could ask any girl for a date and get it. I was a babe magnet.

A movie was made about us. It was called Animorphs, the same name I had come up with so many years ago, talking to Jake on the bus. We were all technical advisors to George Lucas, who was directing the movie. During the shooting, we got to take a tour of Skywalker Ranch, and we also saw how he did all of his awesome special effects. When the movie finally came out, it was the top box office movie for four months straight. It grossed more than Titanic and all the Star Wars movies combined. I sent most of the proceeds to charity.

Cassie was immediately offered a job by the President. She became the first Secretary of Alien Affairs. At sixteen, she was the youngest person to ever be in a President's cabinet. Finally, teenagers had a voice in the White House. She managed to take college courses and became a licensed veterinarian as well. The girl is amazing.

Some things I don't understand about her, though. L.L. Bean and Eagle Creek begged her to do ads for a million bucks each. Every time, she'd say she was busy checking up on the free Hork-Bajir or something. Who would turn down a million dollars to push some jeans? I know I wouldn't.

But Cassie was happy, and I was happy for her. I had no qualms about what I was doing, making loads of cash everyday. As long as I was happy, that's all that mattered. If people didn't like it, too bad for them. I gave back to the community. It wasn't like I was Scrooge, counting my money night after night.

Tobias was a professor of ornithology-the study of birds-at UCLA. He did live as a bird for three years, so he knew a lot about birds. Probably could rattle off all the bones in a bird's wing.

I couldn't call him Bird-boy anymore, which was slightly disappointing. He had gotten used to being a human fast. If you walked up to him today, you couldn't tell he had been a bird for so long. No longer was the eternally fierce stare of a hawk stuck on his face. He could smile, laugh, frown, just like any normal person.

When we started fighting the war, I barely knew him. I poked a lot of fun at him, especially after he was trapped as a hawk. Now, when I look back, I'm kind of sorry about what I did. He was a kid who had no family to begin with, and then he was trapped as an animal. I would have given up hope a long time ago. Tobias has a really powerful will, and that's what kept him alive, even through all things he's been through.

Tobias bought his mother, Loren, a nice house. She started her own crisis center, and now helped people who were about to commit suicide and do crazy things like that. I visited her sometimes. She's one of the nicest people I have ever met. Just being around her makes you feel good. Before we met her, she was blind from a car crash, and had terrible scars as well. Her sight was restored when she got the morphing power, and the scars disappeared. Tobias is lucky. He has a wonderful, beautiful woman as his mother.

Rachel could have chosen anything and done well in it. That's the type of person she is. Anyways, she decided to go into the fashion business. Rachel wasn't a model, she wouldn't like having to wear her hair so short anyways. She started her own clothes line, simply called Rachel. Kind of like Michael Jordan's clothes line. All of her clothes were original designs.

The first month on sale, Rachel apparel outsold all major fashion designers combined. She nearly put all of them out of business. Donatella Versace and Ralph Lauren literally were begging her to do something else. Naturally, she refused. No one shook the fashion world as much as Rachel did.

Who knows why her clothes sold as much as they did. I didn't see anything all that special about them. My philosophy is, if you can wear it, that's all you need. I guess people wanted to wear the same kind of clothes the Animorphs did. The whole world knew about how Rachel was miraculously saved from the Blade ship. She was called the Miracle Girl. Maybe people thought miracles would happen if they wore her clothes.

Whatever it was, Rachel was a multibillionaire instantly. She had more money than me, which annoyed me slightly. Even though we were good friends, we were intensely competitive. Every month, we compared our income. She, of course, always had more.

As a result of Rachel's fame, Rachel's mom became a well-known lawyer. She started her own firm, and now made a high six-digit income. The only times I had met her, she was always arguing about something. I guess that's what makes a good lawyer.

Rachel and Tobias had this awesome mansion in Hollywood, bigger than mine. They were the ultimate power couple, bigger than Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were. Everywhere they went, paparazzi photographers were always at their destination. Their book, Bird-boy and Xena: The Odd Couple, was number one on every list, barely beating me out. The world loved the story of a girl dating a boy trapped as a different species. It was like Beauty and the Beast, except the story was real.

Ax was a huge hero back on the Andalite home world. After years of being overshadowed by Elfangor, he finally stepped out on his own. He currently was commander of the Andalite space fleet, chief ambassador to Earth, and a million honorary titles the Andalites had bestowed on him. He was Aximili of Earth, Aximili the Yeerk-killer, the Great Aximili, and much more. I didn't even know it was possible to have so many nicknames.

Ax-man led the Andalite attack against the Yeerk home world. Our victory on Earth had decimated the majority of the Yeerk fleet. The Andalites incinerated the Yeerk planet, destroying the Council of Thirteen and the rest of the Yeerks on the planet. Next, they went to the Hork-Bajir world and destroyed the Yeerk establishments. The Taxxons surrendered when the Andalites agreed to give them the morphing power. In a few months, the Yeerk Empire was nothing but a small memory.

I was disturbed about the Andalites' method of destruction against the Yeerks. Yeah, the Yeerks had caused a lot of people trouble, but did that mean their planet had to be fried? I didn't think about it too much. We beat the Yeerks on Earth. The Andalites could deal with the other Yeerks the way they liked. Wasn't our problem.

Ax worked out a deal with some of the major corporations to transfer some Andalite technology to us lowly humans. The Andalites didn't want us to be technologically equal, which made sense. But the software these days are killer. Computers come with holographic projectors, and games can be played in 3D. Tomb Raider got a lot better than it used to be.

The Andalites wouldn't give us any weapons technology, period. As for space technology, they gave us the designs for Z-space engines. In a few years, NASA would be launching the first Z-space-capable spacecraft. Look out, universe. Mankind's bringing a Mickey D's to a galaxy near you.

My pal Jake, well, he always had a serious, silent side to him. Ever since his family's funeral, he had been different for some time. He would hang out in his apartment, only going out to get food. His skin had turned a pale white from the lack of sunlight, and he looked frail and unhealthy. I worried about him.

Eventually, he pulled out of his funk. He got to meet his favorite band, the Offspring, and got personal guitar lessons from their guitar player. After meeting a few other people who could play, he formed a band, called The Givers. Jake was the lead vocals and guitar. Most of his songs were depressing, sad, grungy songs about life and death. Still, people loved the music. Their first album, War and Peace, went multiplatinum the day it was released. It was number one on Billboard for six months.

Going on tour brought the old Jake, my best friend, back to life. Seeing the adulation from the crowds made him realize that there were people out there that cared for him. We started hanging out again, and he bought himself a house on the beach, a five-minute walk from my place.

Jake didn't write a book. I think he wanted to keep his thoughts about the war to himself. It was the right thing to do. Reopening that chapter of his life would have brought all the pain back. He spoke through his songs. That was good enough.

I never really figured out what happened between him and Cassie. I knew Jake loved Cassie, and Cassie loved Jake. But near the end, they had been torn apart. Now, it was like trying to put two magnets together. It wouldn't happen. It's not like they hate each other. They still speak on friendly terms, laugh at each other's jokes. But the romance that was there vanished. They both act like what happened during the war never occurred at all. I tried to convince Jake to get back together with Cassie. But he says he'll think about it, and never does anything.

The free Hork-Bajir continued to live in the valley where they had originally lived. The valley, along with the surrounding area, was designated a National Park by Cassie and the Interior Department. Toby was governor of the Hork-Bajir colony on Earth. Some of the Hork-Bajir returned to the decimated Hork-Bajir world. I didn't hear much about it.

The part of our high school that was blown up was rebuilt. Statues of each Animorphs' likeness were built in front of the school. We were worshipped at that building. Any seat we had sat in was revered, like an artifact in a museum.

Chapman was still vice principal. I heard from some of my old friends at school that he was a much nicer guy than he used to be. The Yeerk in his head must have made him act like a strict guy. Too bad he couldn't have been nice while I still went to school. He busted me way too many times for being late to class.

Anyways, life was good for the Animorphs. We regularly got together at someone's house and hung out. Sometimes we went to the mall and chilled in the food court. A whole security detail would followed us everywhere. Couldn't have the superheroes getting hurt. It was a scene.

During the war, we sometimes talked about being together after the war. It was wishful thinking at the time, because we were slowly losing the war. But in the end, even though the Yeerks won most of the battles, they lost the war. Our dreams had become reality. And when I was relaxing with my friends, sipping on shakes and sodas, life didn't get much better than that.