Chapter 4: Marco's POV

The Mall. The center of suburban culture. A place to hang out. A place to spend money.

A place with a lot of food.

"Please? Pleeeze-uh? May I have just one? Wunn?"

"Man, we need to start bringing a leash for him...make sure he doesn't run off and bite somebody," I said.

Andalites don't have mouths. Therefore, before he first morphed human, Ax hadn't tasted anything before. Once he had his first cinnamon bun, he's been to heaven. He's never looked back. He's like an addict now. If he gets too close to one...

Maybe when this war is over, Andalites will come to Earth, acquire human morphs, and eat. And then, Eater's Anonymous will soon be founded.

My name is Aximili, and I'm an eataholic.

Hello, Aximili.

We met in the middle of the food court, with Ax (or "Phillip," if anyone asks) and the others. Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and Erek.

"Hey, where's Tobias? Doesn't he need to hear this?" Rachel asked.

Jake had the answer for that one. "He already knows. He's out scouting ahead."

"Knows what?"

"I'll take that one," Erek said.

"The Yeerks have started a factory. They're mass producing equipment."

Cassie interrupted. "What are they building? Portable Kandronas? Dracon beams?"

"Worse. Explosives."

"Explosives? What, they're going to come to my Fourth of July party?" I wondered.

"No, they're stockpiling for the upcoming battle for Earth, and they're shipping off equipment to other theaters of war. In short, this place is going to be a major supplier of the Yeerk war machine in this area of the galaxy. So, in other words, once this place ships out its first batch of bombs, a lot of people who don't want to become puppets will become dead instead."

Jake cut Erek off. "We need to make sure that first batch never gets off planet. We're wiping that place off the map, and we're doing it soon. Erek, when is the first shipment leaving?"

"Tomorrow evening. That's why I needed to meet you so soon, I just found out about it."

"So, all we do is we go in, use one of the made bombs to nuke the place, and get out? Well, that's simple. Want to go tonight or tomorrow?"

Rachel, of course.

"Down, Xena. Won't all those bombs set each other off and blow a good chunk out of the Earth?"

Ax chimed in. "No. If the Yeerks are using stolen technology, and they are, the bombs will be inert until activated. Vayted-uh. For safety reasons."

"So it's safe to use one bomb to blow the place to the Moon? Cool. Let's do it."

"Rachel, can you for once forgo your urge to blow things up? It's not natural. I mean, usually only men like to blow things up."

Rachel's elbow rammed itself into my chest.

"It won't be that simple, though," Erek added. "The Yeerks know this place will be a likely target. So, they're surrounding the place with not only guards, but human shields."

"What?!?" Cassie demanded.

"It's a Sharing community center. It's open twenty-four seven. There will always be Controllers there, but the place will have a lot of innocent people just visiting too. We need to figure out a way to clear them out."

Jake made the call:

"So here's our plan. We need to find a way to take out the factory, but make sure no innocent non-Controllers get hurt. Everyone needs to come up with a plan. We need to come up with something by about four o'clock tomorrow. We'll meet at Cassie's barn, then head over with the best idea we have."

I thought I had to say something here.

"So...let me get this straight. We're going to attack a heavily guarded weapons factory. Our current plan is to go home, then come up with a better plan?"

"Yup. You're surprised?"

Nope. I wasn't surprised at all.

* * *

Ryan's POV

The referee's whistle shrilled. It was the end of regulation.

It had been a long day, and it's not over yet.

We'd been playing our hearts out all day, but we're up against a better team, and we knew it. The Rockets had only lost one game this season, and it was to us earlier this year. How'd we win it? Simple. We scored on a lucky accident, One of their defenders was caught napping, and we were able to get a big break there, and we scored. It was one of maybe four times we were on offense, because they were pounding on us almost the entire time. Manny and I almost keeled over and died afterwards, but we played great and Jerry pitched a shutout. We won 1-0.

Now here we are again. Just before the end of the first half, Coach K (he's got a really long last name...we just call him Coach K) called the "Everybody Make A Suicidal Offensive Charge" play. Fortunately, we didn't lose the ball (Even Jerry was playing at midfield, to keep us on offense), and our "bet it all" approach worked. We scored.

Alas, we couldn't hold their attack off forever. Jerry had to give one up.

So here we were, tied at one goal apiece. We had a fifteen minute overtime period.

Here's the problem. If this period ends without a goal, the game will end in a tie. That'd be fine, but we're in playoff contention. Every point matters now, and we NEED to win. So, drastic times call for drastic measures.

"Okay, guys. This is must-win. Know what that means?" Coach K asked.

"Send everybody!" That's George, one of our wingers.

Coach K smiled. "Yup. Go all-out. We're just going to have to risk losing the one point for tying to get the three for winning. It worked earlier, so let's do it again!"

"Yeah!" most of us yelled in unison.

After a little more pep talk and a LOT of water bottles, we took the field. This period was supposed to last fifteen minutes.

It wasn't going to last five. Either we score or they do.

We had the ball to start. Our left forward passed it to the right forward, and then he held on to it for a few seconds.

The rest of us all charged. Even Jerry.

It was insane. We were passing the ball between ourselves like a game of Hot Potato, and they were desperately trying to break it up. They did once, but Manny way able to slide into him almost immediately, which saved us possession.

And also the game.

Eventually, one of the Rockets defenders committed a foul. It wasn't in the penalty area, though. We got an free kick.

I usually take the set pieces. (Free kicks from fouls, penalty shots, but not corner kicks. I'm a defender.)

The Rockets set up the usual human wall between me and the net. The rest of my teammates were constantly buzzing around, trying to find an opening.

I thought where I should put it. Hit the far corner? No, we might lose possession that way. Short? No, that'll give us the ball, but we won't get a good shot and we'd waste the free kick.

Might as well try for the goal. Why not?

I reared back, ran up, and booted it.

I tried to curve it. I succeeded a little, as it was initially flying at the right side of the net, but it was veering left.

The Rocket's keeper was caught off guard. He came left, and blocked my kick with the tip of his hands. He didn't catch it, though.

Loose ball in front of their net!!!

I charged. Hell, everybody did!

Carl, one of our forwards, got there first. Realizing that he was literally surrounded, he passed it away.

Back to me.

The ball came to my foot. I set my feet. I got ready to let it rip.

And then time stopped.

No, really. It stopped. I was there, frozen. The ball was at my feet. My foot was rearing back.

It must've looked funny, really. About twenty guys about to descend on little old me.

Wait a minute...they ARE moving. And so had I. My foot had moved about one more inch since this thing started.

I guess time was just moving slowly.

I started to turn my head, but it was moving real slowly. But then I noticed something.

The Rockets' keeper was set up perfectly to block my shot. I'd kick it right into his hands, he'd throw it upfield, and the Rockets would have a free breakaway at our open net.

If I shot now, we'd lose.

I tried find a better way. I looked around as fast as I could.

Hey...George is over there on the other side. He's open. I might be able to put a pass over there, and he can shoot.

My foot had reached the top of its swing. It was about to come down.

Pass to George.

Someone pressed the "Play" button.

I sent it to George. I was immediately slide tackled. I hit the ground, hard.

The keeper was totally faked out. He tried to leap out and catch the ball, but he wasn't that fast. He hit the ground too.

George had an open net in front of him.

Bullseye.

* * *