DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Animorphs, but I don't really care as much as I used to. I got what I REALLY wanted. . .**Shawn Ashmore's muffled cries for help are heard through the closet door** Shh! Ahem. . .**kicks door**
NOTE: Hello! I'm feeling very strange today, I'm not sure why. Must have something to do with the 2 liters of Nesquik I drank today. ANYwhooo. . .did I mention I love you guys? **hugs** I should really do a reviewer's response on every chapter like Jinako-Chan does. . .Okey dokey I'll do it for this chapter and you guys tell me if you like it or not. At the end. So on wit da sho0w! Warning: This chapter might be confusing. Actually, it just plain sucks. I tried to explain everything in one chapter. . . tell me if it sucks beyond all belief, please!
F-RECAP-LE: Damn, I forgot. Oh yeah, Rachel and Cassie are rescued from who-knows-what by a group of rebels called "Combins". They have a strange little conversation about friends and names in which Rachel and Cassie name a few freaks of nature Bobby, Pickles, Frankie, Joey, Steve, and Nicole. Then they reach the rebel base. Okay so what up with the boys?
Jake –
"This is insane." Marco muttered automatically.
We had just left the girls behind with a bunch of mutated aliens. Cassie. I didn't have a choice did I?
"It was the right decision." I whispered to myself. Besides, Rachel was there. Rachel was indestructible. She had been swallowed by a dinosaur once and STILL survived. And she was Cassie's best friend. She wouldn't let anything happen. To either of them. They would be fine.
I hoped.
Why would they want the females? Tobias wondered. I was carrying him, now that Rachel was gone.
"Isn't it obvious?" Kevin sneered. He did that a lot and it annoyed the hell out of me. But I knew what he was thinking. I suspected what the Nesk wanted to do. "Why else would they want females? They have something males don't have."
WHAT! Tobias demanded. Obviously this had not occurred to him. He squirmed in my arms. We shouldn't have left them! We have to go back!
"Tobias, calm down. We can't do anything. We have to talk to this foreign affairs guy." I said in an even tone. We had to stay focused. One thing at a time. I didn't want to think about what the Nesk wanted with Rachel and Cassie's. . .parts that we don't have.
Your cousin! Your. . .Cassie! Tobias yelled. I'm going back! He started to morph something big. The Nesk turned around and aimed at him in mid-morph.
"Tobias, chill!" Marco hissed.
Tobias, this may not be wise. Ax warned. Tobias hesitated, but reversed his morph. But not without letting loose a few offensive words un-Tobias-like.
The Nesk were marching us down a blank white hallway. All the white in this place reminded me of back when we visited a nuthouse. The whiteness was driving me nuts. It was stupid how they put crazy people in a room that makes normal people go nuts. Not that I was normal. Maybe I was nuts.
"Jake, you're babbling." I said to myself.
"You didn't say anything." Marco said, looking at me oddly.
"Well, Jake, then you're talking to yourself." I said.
"Dude, I think you're losing it." Marco said.
"It was only a matter of time. How long did you think a gaggle of human larva could tolerate the pressures of combatting the mighty Yeerk Empire?" Kevin said pompously. The jerk.
"I'm fine. Just shut up." I muttered. I was fine.
Moments later we reached a dead end in the white corridor. The Nesk simply continued walking and a door opened up in the wall.
"If this place didn't make me want to tear my hair out and bang my head against the wall, it would be pretty cool." Marco commented.
We entered a room that was way different than the ones we had seen. For one, it wasn't white. Thank god. It was a shiny metallic silver color. Secondly, it actually had stuff in it. There were weird looking panels blinking at us from weird looking computers. More Nesk creatures were operating these panels. On looked up at us and the Nesk prodded us forward.
WE ARE ERN. THE LEADERS OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. it said.
"Why do you want to see us." I asked bluntly. I wanted to cut the polite crap. We only had a couple hours before the Rip ended, and I wanted to get home.
YOU ARE THE ONES WHO INVADED US. WE ASK THE QUESTIONS. Ern said, just as bluntly. WHY ARE YOU HERE?
We are here by accident. Due to a phenomenon called a Sario Rip, we have been sent here against our will. Sario Rips are rips in space-time and the fact that we ended here was mere coincidence. Ax stated. Ern was not impressed.
DO YOU HAVE PROOF OF WHAT YOU CLAIM? Ern asked.
"Sure. In about six hours we'll just pop out of existence because we'll be annihilated by ourselves. That proof enough?" Marco said shrilly. Ern stared at him.
"We just need a nuclear explosive. We could get home by setting one off." I said. It sounded pathetic, even to me.
DO YOU THINK THE NISK ARE FOOLS? he roared.
"Nisk?" Marco asked. "Thought it was Nesk."
"You KNOW them?" Kevin said, surprised.
"Long story. You have no idea."
What are you going to do with the females? Tobias asked.
Ern looked at him. IT WAS NOT OUR DECISION. OUR MASTER FORCED US TO. He emphasized the word "forced". HE WANTS TO TRANSFORM ONE AND IMPREGNATE THE OTHER.
We stood there shocked. Then I remembered that it wasn't a Nesk that injected Cassie with the green liquid. It was some tentacle. The glowing monster.
You can't impregnate her! Tobias blurted. She, uh, she has a disorder were she can't bear children. Uh. . .nokidiosis.
Marco, Ax, Kevin, and I stared at him.
NOKIDIOSIS? Ern asked, bewildered. Suddenly. . .
BREEEEEEEEEEET! BREEEEEEEEEET! BREEEEEEEEET!
An absurdly loud alarm pounded my eardrums. The door in the wall opened again and one Nisk-creature stumbled in.
LORD ERN, THE FEMALES HAVE ESCAPED! THEY WERE AIDED BY REBEL COMBIN INTRUDERS! it gasped.
THE REBELS! Ern repeated. MOTROVELD WILL SURELY KILL US! The rest of the Nisk in the room quickly dropped what they were doing to accept orders. ALL NISK TO THE DOCKING BAY! WE WILL RECAPTURE THEM!
ERN, THEY HAVE DISABLED THE DOCKING BAY. THE MECHS REPORT IT COULD TAKE HOURS TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE.
Ern proceeded to yell a few alien swear words in our heads.
"They escaped!" Marco exclaimed.
FOOLS. THEY HAVE SIDED WITH THE REBELS. WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO KILL THEM. Ern said.
"What are they rebelling against anyway?" Kevin spoke up. "Your expiraments?"
Ern looked him over, like a parent who was deciding if his kid was old enough to have "the talk".
WE ARE FORCED TO HAVE THESE EXPIRAMENTS. Ern said. THE COMBINS ARE OUR CREATIONS. THEY ARE MERELY MACHINES WE CONTROL DIRECTLY. THEY HAVE NO MIND OR WILL he said. THEY ARE THE GENETIC MIXTURES OF SEVERAL SPECIES WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED PLUS A SPECIES FROM 65 MILLION YEARS AGO ON A PLANET IN SECTOR NINE. THE THIRD PLANET FROM IT'S SUN.
"Sectors? I thought that was all Star Trek." Marco muttered.
That's cruelty. You make sentient creatures your mindless toys! Tobias spat. I prepared to have my head blown off.
THEY ARE NOT SENTIENT! THEY ARE CREATED WITHOUT FREE WILL! THEY ARE NOT TRULY ALIVE.
Then how could combins side themselves with the rebels? Ax pointed out.
EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE A COMBIN EMERGES FROM HIS CHAMBER, HIS FREE WILL INTACT. THESE COMBINS, JOINED WITH SOME NISK, ARE THE REBELS. THEY DO NOT WANT TO JOIN IN OUR BATTLE AGAINST MOTREVOLD.
"Cassie is sentient!" I yelled.
THAT WAS NOT OUR DOING. IT WAS MOTROVELD.
Who is that? Ax asked.
YOU HAVE SEEN HIM. HE IS THE GREAT MONSTER ENCASING IMMENSE ENERGY IN HIS GUT THAT PULLED YOU INTO THIS LAB. Ern said with disgust. WE ARE FORCED TO SERVE HIS EVERY WHIM. BUT INSTEAD OF HELPING US UNITE TO OVERTHROW THE BEAST, THE COWARDLY REBELS WANT TO LEAVE THIS PLANET AND MIGRATE TO A NEW ONE.
I remembered that big, disgusting creature. I remembered it's long tentacles and the eerie glowing stomach. Then I remembered how we got to this madhouse in the first place. There were two ships.
The ships. Tobias said privately. There were two. One of them must have been a rebel ship and the other must have been one of these guys. The rebels want to conquer Earth!
"Well tell them to wait in line. They got there first." Marco muttered, indicating Kevin.
Rachel and Cassie. They're with these rebels right now! Tobias said.
THE REBELS ARE THE ONES BEING CRUEL. THEY ENSLAVE THEIR COMBINS, EVEN THOUGHT THEY HAVE FREE WILL.
"Why would the rebels want to save Rachel and Cassie?" I wondered.
THEY NEED SOLDIERS. THEY ARE GOING TO USE THEIR BODIES TO CREATE SOLDIERS.
"What, like you do? The DNA injections?" Kevin asked.
NO, THE INJECTIONS ONLY PRODUCE ONE BEING. THEY NEED MANY. BUT THEY DO HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO ALLOW TO DIFFERENT SPECIES TO MATE AND PRODUCE SEVERAL OFFSPRING. Ern said. IT WORKS ON VERY FEW SPECIES. THOUGH THIS WILL NOT STOP THEM FROM TRYING.
There was a long, stunned silence.
"D-does that mean what I think it meant?" Marco stuttered.
End of chapter 15! Okay, I know most of you are rolling around saying "Ack Freak Apple, you idiot! That was uber-confusing!" Okay, well I had a LOT of ideas swirling around in my head and I tried my best to organize them. I'm sorry it sucks. If you didn't understand a word I wrote there, tell me. I think it was okay, but that may be just because I'm the one who wrote it. So just review and tell me if you got it or not. Anyway here's my first Reviewer's Response!
SurrealSerpent – Yeah, it's weird. And if you understood that jumble of words I called "chapter 15", then you know it just got a hell of a lot weirder. Kinda sucks now, don't it? And perhaps there was hidden meaning to that quote. . .ya never know til you read more, hehe. Dun dun DUN!
EsotericEric – Nitpicky is good! Plus it's a lot of fun to say. **says it over and over** Anyway thanks for pointing that out. I bet you have a lot to be nitpicky about this chapter. And you're my friend too!? Yay! **looks at the FRIEND counter and watches it go from zero to one**
Amy Angelblade – HI! **waves** If it makes you feel good, I'll mention you every chapter. How bout THAT! Hehe. Shawn Ashmore is definitely freezy-goodness. Mmm-hmm. . .**taps on closet door and Shawn Ashmore resumes his muffled cries for help** Yes I am your friend! Me and Eric! **watches the FRIEND counter go from one to two**
Silent Bob – You're right, if we controlled the Animorphs we wouldn't have made such a crappy ending. Now you know why I'm obsessed with owning them. Theres oh so many things I want to make them do! Oh well, at least I have fanfiction. Thanks for thinking my random brain farts are funny. It makes me feel good : )
Stink E. Burrito – Yeah, I do update faster than some. But the ones that take a long time usually end up with these awesome-jawesome chapters that I only WISH I could write. **sigh** I'm such a rookie. . .
Jinako-Chan - I think Bobby and Pickles are cute too. **imagines what they're kids would look like** Okay, my brain isn't working right now. I keep picturing the Ninja Turtles. . . As for your idea, I have something like that in mind. . .you may have gotten a hint from this chapter. That is, if you actually understood this crap. **sighs** Okay, Ima say this again. If you guys out there didn't understand, TELL ME. And yeah, if you still want to put any of my storied on your site, go for it. I'd do it myself, but zip stuff confuses me.
DawnOfEast – I liked Pickles too! There actually WAS a Pickles the poodle on the Animal Planet, hehe. Anyway, I really wouldn't say I have a gift. . .
Kristen Goddess – "Wagner". I say it the stupid American way, cuz I never even knew the name was German until I saw X-2. But I love how Alan Cummings says it. "Vag-nuh, vagnuh!" And I love Animal Planet!
Aelle – You is gooot too! Huzzah!
Oobergoober – Hyperness is good.