The morphed Andalite shuddered again, this time in disgust. And the Sub-Visser was certain that if he could have, he would have sliced Sub-Visser Seven's head off with his tail-blade.
My name is Elfangor, Yeerk, he hissed. Remember the name. You'll be hearing it again. But you will never take me alive.
The Sub-Visser sighed, feigning disappointment.
"Pity. Stop the car!"
The car came to a nearly instantaneous halt.
"Open the door," the Sub-Visser said with silky menace.
The doors opened with a whoosh, giving them all an unobstructed view into the pit whose rim they were now peering over.
"You see those? Those are Taxxons, not Taxxon Controllers, Taxxons in their natural state. As vicious and bloodthirsty as any creature in the galaxy."
Giving this object lesson time to sink in, Sub-Visser Seven signaled to his troops, who quickly surrounded the Andalite. Sub-Visser Seven took a moment to observe the Andalite's reaction. He seemed calm enough for now. But that would soon change, Sub-Visser Seven was sure of it.
"Throw him out," Sub-Visser Seven said coldly.
His troops shoved the Andalite to the floor, rolling him toward the exit. The Andalite seemed to be panicking now, desperately kicking his Taxxon legs and trying without success to right himself. It was interesting to watch the Andalite's desperation growing as the Hork-Bajir rolled him across the floor of the car, finally pushing him through the open doors.
The morphed Andalite plummeted like a dropped stone, screaming the whole way.
Demorph! he shouted, and Sub-Visser Seven knew he was talking to himself.
The Andalite hit bottom with shattering force, causing the sides of his Taxxon body to burst open. Sub-Visser Seven sneered, Taxxons were weak but abundant, and for the most part easy allies to the Yeerk Empire. Even as Sub-Visser Seven watched, the Andalite's own body was slowly emerging from the shattered Taxxon form.
Even screaming in agony, the Andalite Elfangor maintained his concentration. This greatly impressed the Sub-Visser, who watched closer as Elfangor's tail-blade appeared at the end of the Taxxon body. Once Elfangor noticed it, the Taxxon feeding frenzy was ended quickly as he lashed out with his newly demorphed appendage.
Striking again and again, Elfangor drove the Taxxons slowly backward. Offering up a challenge even as he did so.
Come on you filthy, disgusting worms! Come and get me! Come on!
Sub-Visser Seven chuckled, this Andalite Elfangor was more reckless than any he had ever encountered. The Taxxons' violently cannibalistic instincts took over then, once they had discovered that they could not harm the Andalite. The wounded Taxxons were as good as dead, and the Sub-Visser disregarded them.
It was time for another test of Elfangor's abilities. How would he deal with this new turn of events?
"Kill him. Shoot the Andalite scum," Sub-Visser Seven ordered, silencing the Hork-Bajir Controllers' laughter.
They had started laughing soon after the Sub-Visser himself, only somewhat out of loyalty. Mostly because they didn't get this kind of entertainment all that often on a backwater, outpost planet like this. Every time any Controller did something that merited being fed to the Taxxons, a crowd of Controllers, those who did not have tasks to complete at the moment, would always gather to watch the execution.
But when Sub-Visser Seven gave the command to fire, they quickly forgot about the entertainment and did as they were ordered. Four streams of lethal red light burned the soil just in front of where Elfangor stood.
Do not disappoint me, Elfangor. Sub-Visser Seven ordered silently. Even as his subordinates fired their Dracon beams a second time. Elfangor seemed to be on the verge of panicking, and Sub-Visser Seven became impatient with him.
But the young Andalite did not give in to his growing fear, instead he seemed to be looking for a way to escape the notice of the Hork-Bajir Controllers firing at him. Studying his surroundings, which were not being all that conductive to his hoped-for escape, having nothing that he could climb in his Andalite body, he seemed to be at a bit of a loss. So instead, after some understandable hesitation, he dove under the cover of the Taxxons' vile bodies.
Sub-Visser Seven grinned in passing, then resumed his role as a Yeerk Sub-Visser.
"Go in after him! Cut him to pieces!" Sub-Visser Seven shouted.
It was what they would expect of him, and so he said that. His heart was not in the declaration, but he made sure to say it with enough force that no one would notice. Watching six of his soldiers leap from the car into the Taxxon pit, he wondered what Elfangor would do next.
Elfangor was still hiding in the mass of feeding Taxxons. But they would not provide cover from attacking Hork-Bajir for more than a few seconds, at best. As the Sub-Visser stared at the writhing mass of Taxxons, he wondered what Elfangor could possibly be thinking.
Could the young Andalite really be so unutterably stupid as to think a pile of squirming Taxxons would shield him from six well-trained Hork-Bajir warriors?
"Back, you Taxxon hogren kalach!"
Hork-Bajir were seldom chosen for their eloquence, of course, and these soldiers were no better than most. They still tended to mix Galard with their rather primitive native language. But they were efficient soldiers, and that more then made up for their small mental deficiencies.
Suddenly, an avian form burst out from under the writhing Taxxons. The bird had six wings, and was a strange and rather helpless-looking creature. Flapping, the bird, which Sub-Visser Seven knew had to be Elfangor, took off.