Chapter 6

That's letting the Cat out of the Bag (Marco)

            My name is Marco.

            I am the joker of the Animorphs.

            Enough said.

            I was now an osprey and I was following a train track with my buds.  Ax was wondering what a train was and asking technical questions about them that none of us could answer.  Well, Tobias could answer some of them.

            Look!  Up ahead!  There's a building up there!  Wait… not a building, a castle! Tobias yelled suddenly.  I followed his gaze and saw the building.  Oh, wow… oh wow, Cassie said, sounding awestruck.  I saw what she meant.  For Pete's sake, not even the Queen of England lives in a castle this big! I shouted.  Who is this Pete and what is so important about his sake? Ax inquired.  No one answered him.  We usually choose to ignore these questions.

            Hork-Bajir! Rachel said suddenly.  Where? demanded Jake.  There. I said, watching the walking Salad Shooters from hell walking across the lush grass.  The mutant worms called Taxxons were there too.  Both alien races kept themselves hidden from sight.

            Everyone demorph.  Then use your battle morphs. Jake said, landing in a nearby tree and demorphing.  I perched beside him and concentrated.  The first things to go were my superior osprey eyes.  Then all my feathers got sucked up into my skin, making me look like a plucked chicken.  Wrong! Rachel said, looking at me.  You don't look so good yourself. I retorted as my hard and cruel beak softened and became lips.  Suddenly I grew until I was a giant mutant Turkeyzilla.  My legs grew long and my three talons separated into five toes.  Fingers grew out of my wings and my wings became longer, forming arms.  Hair grew out of my scalp and I was a human wearing spandex, sitting in a tree.

            I jumped out of the tree and began my battle morph.  I sprouted another two feet and my skin became gray and leathery.  Hair sprouted on my arms and legs and my nose jutted out.  I suddenly had buldging muscles.  My fingers became thick and strong.  My toes became the same way.  I was no longer Marco the boy, but Marco the Mighty Morphing Gorilla.   Aliens beware!

            I glanced at Jake the tiger and Rachel the grizzly bear.  Tobias was himself and so was Ax.  Cassie was a wolf and her tongue was lolling out.  Let's go kick some alien butt! No offense, Ax. Rachel said.  One of Ax's stalk eyes swiveled around to look at her.  None taken. he said.

            We moved out and down upon the Hork-Bajir.  The Taxxons screeched.  Shut up, you overgrown mutant worms! Rachel said, roaring and swiping at them with one gigantic grizzly bear paw.  The two Taxxons died instantly.  The Hork-Bajir were another story.  They had blades all down their arms and legs.  Amazingly, they were for climbing and eating bark, not combat.  However, the Yeerks say different.  They use the Hork-Bajir as walking weapons.

            Jake lunged at the one of the Hork-Bajir's long, snake-like neck.  It opened its bird-like beak and screamed.  Jake took it to the ground and ripped its throat open.  I was helping Cassie with one particularly smart Hork-Bajir-Controller.  It dived and slashed me with its wrist blade.  I roared in pain and saw deep red blood seeping from the wound.  Oooh, you're going to be sorry for that one! I said, balling my fist and taking a swing.  It knocked the Hork-Bajir-Controller to the ground.  I saw something gray slither out of its ear.  I picked the Yeerk up in my fingers and squished it.

            Cassie howled.  Her shoulders sagged and she hit the dirt as the last Hork-Bajir-Controller stabbed her in the back.  Tobias took action and dived, giving a loud screech.  His sharp talons hit the Hork-Bajir in the eye and it fell back, clutching its face. 

FWAP!  FWAP!  Ax's tail blade was slicing the Hork-Bajir into Swiss cheese!  It fell to the ground, dead. 

Demorph, Cassie!  You'll die! Jake screamed.  Cassie's eyes were closed from the pain.  Her paws were bloody.  I knuckle-walked over and shook her.  She gave a small moan.  DEMORPH! Rachel shrieked.  Cassie's eyes squeezed shut.  Her ears were slowly crawling down the side of her face.  The fur was disappearing gradually.  Come on, Cassie!  Concentrate!  Concentrate! I said, feeling agitated.  Her tail slowly retreated into her back.  The bloody hole in her back mended itself.  Her muzzle was suddenly sucked into her face.  She gritted her wolf teeth.  They slowly changed back to human teeth.  Black hair grew out of her scalp.  She was, in every way, demorphed.  She opened her eyes and looked at us.  They were still wolf.  It looked creepy.  They slowly changed from amber to brown and the pupil became round.

When she was finished, she still lay in the dirt.  We all quickly demorphed and checked to see if she was okay.  You see, morphing heals all wounds and sicknesses.  She was perfectly okay, although she was mentally shaken.  She was also shaking visibly.  Jake hugged her and held her until she stopped.

Then we realized more had just entered the building.  "Battle morphs, again!" Jake cried, though he was exhausted.  "No, please, not now." Cassie said, tears pouring down her face.  Jake hugged her again.  "I'm sorry, Cassie.  We have to.  Innocent lives are at stake." He said, rubbing her back.  "Okay.  I'll do it for those people." She said, starting to morph again.  We all did.

Amazingly, no one saw us as we tailed the Hork-Bajir through the castle.  They entered a room, their snake-like necks twisting around.  "There's one!" said one of them.  "Yes.  I see." The other said.  No you don't! Jake said, lunging.  Yee-haw! Rachel yelled, bowling into one of them.  The two Hork-Bajir were dead in an instant.

We demorphed in the room.  Cassie slid down the wall, looking sick.  Jake hurried over to help her.  We were all exhausted.  Ax morphed human and so did Tobias.  Rachel still stood, panting and grinning like the maniac she was.

"Those are the slowest Animagi transformations I have ever seen." Said a voice.  Suddenly, a boy appeared from nowhere, pulling a cloak off himself.  He had wild jet-black hair and bright green eyes that were behind glasses.  He had a pink lightning-bolt scar above his right eyebrow.

"Guess what?" I said, holding my arms out wide.  The boy looked at me blankly.  "Evil parasitic alien slugs are taking over the world!"  I grinned widely.  "Well," Rachel said, "That's letting the cat out of the bag."