During Physics, Cassie confirmed that there was indeed a meeting after school, and that Jess and I were invited along. What the meeting was about, however, she refused to say.

At the end of Physics, the three of us - Cassie, Jess and I - went to meet up with Marco. I was still sniggering after the events of lunch, the events of which Jess had pretended she couldn't remember. Typical of her, really.

Sure enough, Marco was there, waiting patiently by Jess's locker. As we got closer, Marco tried to hug Jess.

"GET OFF ME, YOU PERVERT!" I think it was safe to say that everyone in the hallway heard Jess scream at Marco. He leaped about ten steps back then looked at Jess.

"But - but you, that is to say - at lunch, you -"

"I what?" Jess looked menacing. Jess looking menacing is not good. I still have the ingrained bite marks on my elbow to prove it.

"You hugged me, and said I was really funny, and really great and that you'd like to go out with me sometime." Marco was babbling like an idiot. I almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

Jess, however, clearly did not feel pity for Marco. "When would I ever say that?" She asked, her eyes flashing dangerously.

But Marco was a smart guy. "Never. Absolutely never. Coming?" He added hopefully.

"Come on, Jessie. Marco's not dangerous." Cassie said. She took Jess's arm and they walked out of the school.

"Great," Marco muttered ominously, "looks like I'm left with Lora. Again."

"I heard that."

But then Marco had a distinctly uneasy look on his face. "We'd better get going."

So we did. On the way Marco refused to say anything about the meeting, only deigning to forewarn me that everything that was going to be discussed was true. Naturally, this made no sense but something told me to keep going. So I did.

Eventually we reached this farm on the edge of the woods. I was informed that this was where Cassie lived. It was a big old building, with a barn attached to the rear. I followed Marco through to the barn at the back, and we both went inside.

Inside was a whole assortment of people. Cassie, doing something with a bandaged eagle, Jess, a tall blonde girl, an awkward looking kid and Jake, the person I assumed was in charge. He was helping Cassie out and had a pitchfork in his right hand.

Marco quickly introduced me. "Cassie you know, Rachel, Jake I think you know of, and that's Ax."

"Weird name." Well, it was.

Marco rolled his eyes. "He's a weird guy." He made a phoney bow towards Jake. "We did as you commanded, oh fearless leader. The twins are here."

So he was in charge.

With his spare hand, Jake indicated a mound of hay. "You two should sit down for this." He looked up into the rafters of the barn. "Are we all clear?"

Cassie's mum is in the living room watching television and her dad's upstairs working. Other than that, we're clear.

I looked at Jess. The voice, it was silent. I heard it, but then I didn't. I followed Jake's gaze up towards the rafters. A red-tailed hawk was calmly preening its feathers.

Jake must have seen the look on my face. "Ah," he said, "that's Tobias."

I blinked. "He's a bird."

"Just sit down." Jake sounded tired. After giving me a fish-eyed look, Jess sat down on said mound of hay. I did as well.

Jake walked around the barn once, then came back and faced us. "I…do you two believe in aliens? As in, sentient life on other planets?"

"Sure." Jess said brightly. "Marco."

"I'm being serious." Jake frowned. "Lora?"

"I suppose so…I mean it's always a possibility. And after all, Earth can't be the only planet in the entire universe that's capable of sustaining any kind of life."

I swear that as I said that, the gawky kid in the corner, Ax, smiled slightly. Strange.

Jake smiled as well. "Right. Now, if I was to tell you two that sentient alien life does exist in the galaxy, what would you say?"

That got me. "I guess I'd have to see proof of it, otherwise I'd never believe it."

"Same here." Jess said.

"That we can do." Jake looked over at the kid in the corner. "Ax?"

He ambled over, somewhat jerkily. "Yes, Prince Jake?"

Jess snorted. "What?"

Jake shot Jess a brief quelling look, then turned back to Ax. "Ax? Don't call me Prince. And demorph, will you?"

"Yes, Prince Jake." Ax's reply came back. Then he closed his eyes.

And the changes began.

Ax's lips melded together in one horrifying movement. Then he turned blue. Not pale blue, not the tinge you get when it's cold - I mean bright blue. All over. A second set of legs burst out of his torso, complete with hooves. I watched, repulsed, as the fingers on each hand melted together then split to form two hands with seven or eight fingers apiece. Two extra eyes burst out from the top of his head, and began scanning the barn, apparently capable of turning a full 360º if necessary.

As fur sprouted all over a now centaur-like body, I heard Jess run from the barn.

Then the tail appeared. It came out of the rear end, and grew and grew, with a scythe-like blade tipping the end of it. Not pretty. The tail flexed this way and that.

The changes stopped.

"I'll go find Jess. I'll talk to her." Cassie offered. She left the barn.

Jake had started speaking again. "This is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. He's an Andalite. In the war we're fighting, the Andalites are the good guys."

"That's what they want you to think." Marco muttered, averting his eyes from Ax.

"Marco? Shut. Up." Rachel spoke up at last, sending an evil glare in Marco's direction.

He shrugged it off and turned to me. "Now, as our fearless leader Jake was saying, it's a case of the Andalites versus the Yeerks. The Andalites are as you see a prime specimen here." He jerked his thumb at Ax. "But the Yeerks are different. They're no more than slugs, really."

"Slugs?"

"Slugs." Rachel affirmed. "They are parasites, they enter your brain through your ear and take total control of you. A person like that is called a Controller."

"My brother is one." Jake said flatly.

"So's my mother." For the first time, I heard sadness in Marco's voice.

"It's not only humans, though. Another species called the Gedds have been enslaved by the Yeerks. So have all the Taxxons and almost all of the Hork-Bajir have been enslaved as well. And now they're after good old Homo sapiens."

I didn't really know what to say. It's not every day that you find out about an alien invasion, is it?

"So, what is this all about?" I asked cautiously.

A smile appeared on Jake's face. "We fight the Yeerks. We being -"

" -Jake our oh, so fearless leader, Cassie the tree hugging nature nut, Rachel aka Xena: Warrior Princess, Tobias the Bird-boy, Ax our residential alien. And me, Marco the Mighty, Lord of the Playstation."

"Modest, too." I replied, shaking my head in mock disbelief.

"How could I not be?"

"So, how do you fight the Yeerks?"

These humans possess the ability to morph.

"The ability to what?"

Morph. To change shape. To become animals. Any animal that we can touch. A rustling of feathers told me to look upwards. The red-tailed hawk had fluttered over to the other end of the barn and was watching me intently.

"Grizzly bears and elephants." Rachel spoke up again. Then fell silent. Again.

Hawks or cats. There was a somewhat rueful tone to Tobias' 'voice'.

"Gorillas, lobsters, ospreys."

"Tiger, falcons. Any animal, any kind. But there's a time limit. You can never stay in any morph for more than two hours at a time."

"Why not?" I wondered out loud.

You get trapped. Tobias said. Just like me.

I was about to reply when Jess ran back into the room, screamed, "Maaaaaarco!", and leaped into his arms.

Marco looked shell-shocked. So did Rachel. Ax looked indifferent, and I got the feeling that he always looked like that. Jake had a look of slight bemusement on his face.

Cassie ran into the barn behind Jess. She was panting. She looked up at Jess, purring contentedly in Marco's arms and stopped panting almost immediately.

"Cassie? What exactly did you say to her?" Jake asked blandly.

"Well, I found her out by the cows we've got, and she looked kind of pale. I guess it was watching Ax demorph. I didn't want to talk about that, and obviously neither did she because she started talking about the cows, asking about them. I told her that my dad has them on loan from a farm thirty miles away from here, to help them deal with some economic problems they're having. Anyway, I told her that while we do have them, my mum's using them to make our own dairy products so that we can save on money as well, such as milk, cream, butter and so on. Then when I said that, she sort of twitched and ran straight back towards here."

"You have cows? Can I see them?" Hey, I like cows. They're cool.

Rachel's eyes narrowed. "Lora. We are talking about an en masse invasion here. By aliens who enslave the mind and remove free will. That we have to deal with. Saving the world comes first. Your obsession with cows can come after we've saved the world. Not until. Get it?"

"Look. The only proof I have that any of this is actually real is the blue thing standing in front of me. The silent voice, now that can be arranged. Tapes, recorders... No offence, by the way." I added as an afterthought.

None taken. the Andalite said, his eyes creasing together at the corners, almost a smile.

Cassie looked up from an injured animal. "Look, guys, it's getting late. Sooner or later, my dad's going to come in here to administer the meds and unless we are careful he is going to find six kids and an alien. Not the best scenario in the world, since I'd like to help save the world without being grounded. So maybe we should reconvene tomorrow and make any decisions then."

"What decisions?" I asked, an edge of doubt raising in my mind. Whatever strange things these people got up to in their spare time, I wasn't so sure I wanted to have anything to do with it. The morphing thing sounded pretty cool, but after watching Ax demorph, I wasn't so sure that I wanted anything more to do with Cassie, Marco and the others. It just looked way, way too gruesome.

"Decisions, as in we'd like to know if you and Jess want to become Animorphs." Jake said.

"Ani - what?"

"Animorphs. Short word for animal morpher. That's what we are. Animorphs." Jake said, running his hand through his hair. "But we can talk you through the whole thing tomorrow, go into more detail and so on and so forth. And like Cassie said, it is getting a bit late tonight. Maybe tomorrow after school?"

"Um…okay, I guess. Jess?"

She jerked her head up from where it had been positioned against Marco's neck. "What?"

"We better be going. Come on."

"But I don't wanna leave Marco!" Jess wailed, looking really sad.

"Jess," I replied patiently, "a couple of hours ago you screamed at Marco and called him a pervert for trying to hug you. One night without him is hardly going to make much difference."

"Well, I didn't mean it!" Jess said defiantly.

Rachel walked over to Jess. "Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. I can't believe I'm actually saying this to a girl, but get off Marco. You can see him tomorrow." She shuddered. "Ugh. Ughughugh."

"Promise?" Jess looked at me hopefully.

I sighed. Obviously, she was going to make things difficult. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

"Stick a needle in your eye?"

"And all the rest of it. Coming?"

"Okay." Slowly, hesitantly, Jess detached herself from Marco's arms. She walked over to me.

"Bye, Jess."

Bye, Marco. See you tomorrow."

Then (at last) we left the barn. About two minutes after we left, Jess slapped her forehead. "No!"

"What now?"

"I left my school bag in the barn." She turned around and went back into the barn.

I continued on without her. She could always catch up with me afterwards. She didn't come out. I stopped at a gate at the end of a dirt track and stood there patiently, waiting.

Minutes passed. No doubt she was canoodling Marco again. I wondered what was with her. I mean, my twin sister is strange sometimes, but strange doesn't account for mood-swings like these. Strange mood-swings, as well.

I waited. And waited some more. Watched the stars behind the clouds. Watched the moon as well.

No Jess.

Then I heard the voices.

Come fellow females! We will find the blue box of transforming power!

Not if we Helmacron males find it first! Onwards!

It was the silent voices again, and I couldn't tell where they were coming from. I heard a noise behind me and whirled around.

A small ship, like something form Star Trek: Voyager was hovering over the ground, at about my eye level. As I watched it, another one similar to it appeared as well. It stopped in mid-flight. And turned to face me.

I gulped.

A human! A filthy great human! We will capture it, o mighty Helmacron females!

A green beam lanced out from it, aimed straight at my heart.

When it hit me, I didn't feel anything. I wasn't dying; that was for sure. Instead, however, I noticed that the gate beside me was slowly getting taller and taller.

The dirt track now in front of me was getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider.

Even the moon seemed to be getting further away.

"Oh look! The world is getting bigger! Weird."

Then a red beam lanced out of the ship and everything went black.