Thanks for the reviews everybody! Man, I have never received so much
feedback so quickly. Just as a side note, Glory will not exist in this
story, I have other plans for Dawn.mwuahaha! Anyways, on with the chapter!
Chapter 3
"So what, EXACTLY, did you tell her?" Jake demanded.
{Nothing.} Tobias confirmed. {She only knows that we will contact her. She didn't see us morph, and we didn't say anything to give ourselves away. She thought we were demons.}
Marco groaned. "Demons are real too?"
Jake paced back and forth. "This is happening faster than I would like. Dammit Tobias! I was hoping we could make this decision as a group, but it seems you've made it for us."
{I'm sorry man, but she was toast if I didn't help. I had to do it. Look, we watched her for three days, as well as her friends. None of them are Controllers, and I'm pretty sure the whole town is Yeerk free. Not that it doesn't have it's own infestation problems.} Tobias trailed off. {Blame me though, Ax protested.}
Jake sighed. "I know you had to do it. I would have done the same thing. So, now that you've got the ball rolling, any ideas on how we're gonna do this?"
Tobias smiled inwardly. {I just might.}
~~~~~~~
Buffy lay on her bed, thinking to herself about the events of two nights ago. She had kept her word and said nothing, but her friends could already tell she was hiding something. They hadn't started to press yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Buffy was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of a ringing telephone. She grabbed the handset from her nightstand. "Hello?"
"Buffy Summers?" A voice growled, sending a shiver down Buffy's spine. It was rough, low, and didn't sound entirely human.
"Speaking." She answered, getting up to lock the door while she talked. "You were the one who saved me?"
"No." The voice answered. "I did send them though. We need to meet. Will you house be empty at midday tomorrow?"
Buffy thought. Her mother would be working, but Dawn didn't have school and might be harder to get rid of. "Maybe. My sister might be here."
There was a pause on the line.
~~~~~~~
{Dammit Tobias you didn't say anything about a sister!} Jake mentally yelled from his partially morphed state.
{I'm sorry, I forgot. She's not a problem though. She mostly just hangs out with Buffy. In fact it might even be better if she were there. She'd figure it out anyway eventually.} Tobias said.
{Tom's Yeerk still doesn't know about me.}
{Tom's Yeerk isn't too bright.}
~~~~~~~
"Very well." The gruff voice said. "We have decided it is better if she attends as well, but only the two of you. Your friends must not know, none of them. Do you understand? When the time comes they will be informed."
Buffy sighed. "They already know I'm hiding something. I was never very good at keeping secrets from them. Besides, they might be able to help you. I owe you that much."
One the other end, Jake considered. "My men told me that your boyfriend seems involved with the military in some way. Is he? Answer truthfully."
'How the hell did they know that?' Buffy thought. "Yes."
"He must not know. Your other friends can attend, he cannot."
"But."
"No! Only the three closest to you and your sister. This is not a discussion. If we see anyone uninvited attending, and believe me we will, the consequences will be dire. Your house, tomorrow at noon." The line went dead.
~~~~~~~
"The consequences will be dire! Oh me oh my!" Marco mocked. "Man that was over the top. I bet she would've been laughing if it wasn't for your voice."
Rachel grinned. "You know how much I hate to agree with Marco, but."
Jake reverted from his part human, part wolf form and his voice returned to normal. "Oh shut up you two." Jake turned serious. "Look, there are gonna be five of them at the meeting, which is way more than I would have liked. We're going to have to do this carefully, or it could blow up on us. Tobias and I are going to go in."
{Me! Why me?} Tobias squeaked.
"Because if it wasn't for you this might not even be happening." Jake snapped.
{I hate going inside.} Tobias grumbled unhappily. {It's just so confined.}
"Too bad. Cassie and Ax are going in too, but as flies. You'll be making sure no one is hiding nearby. Rachel, you'll be outside, waiting as support. Marco, you'll take over Tobias' role as our air force." Jake stated in his best leader voice. "Everyone clear?"
"Ooh, he's just so manly and commanding." Marco cried, pretending to swoon.
~~~~~~~
Buffy opened the door to see Willow, Xander, and Giles standing in front of her.
"Hey Buff what's up?" Xander asked lightly.
Buffy ushered them inside. "The four of us and Dawn are going to wait here for." Buffy checked her watch, "the next 10 minutes."
"Umm, why?" Willow asked.
"Guys you might have noticed me hiding something the last few days." Buffy said truthfully.
Willow sighed. "Finally, I was wondering if we were going to have to start pestering you. So what's the deal?"
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know exactly. I think it has to do with owls I mentioned to you Giles. We're going to be meeting some, something in a few minutes."
"Something?" Dawn asked, coming down the stairs from her room. "Like a demon something?"
Buffy shook her head. "Maybe. I'm still not sure."
Xander whistled. "Gee Buff, I gotta say this really isn't sounding too good. Sounds kind of like a set-up."
"They saved my life." Buffy replied. "I owe them this much."
Suddenly a knock was heard from Buffy's back door. Buffy rushed over and opened it expecting to see a huge bladed monster, instead she saw nothing. Then she heard a low growl and looked down instead of up. Standing at the door was a full-grown Siberian tiger, with a hawk perched on it's back. Buffy just stared, mouth open.
{Umm, can we come in?} One of them asked.
Buffy just nodded, still at a loss for words as she watched a tiger calmly enter the house and wipe it's feet on the mat before heading into the living room, the hawk still perched on its' back.
"EEEEK!!!" Dawn and Willow screamed. Dawn dove behind a sofa, and Willow ducked behind Xander. "Buffy there's a tiger in here!" Xander shouted. "A really, big, mean looking tiger and, and a bird! A, well, a bird."
{I'm a hawk, doofus.} Tobias said indignantly.
"Oh, sorry. A hawk." Xander apologized, still watching the tiger, then his eyes widened. "Did a bird just talk to me?"
"Xander, do shut up." Giles said exasperatedly.
{Took the words right out of my mouth.} The tiger said, nodding to Giles. {Okay, down to business. Everyone take a seat.}
Buffy and her group took seats, Dawn sitting as close as she could to Buffy without actually sitting on her, Willow sitting as far as possible from the tiger. Tobias flapped off of Jake and perched on the back of an unused chair, and started to preen himself.
{Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jake, and my feathery friend over there is Tobias.}
Buffy spoke up. "What do you guys want?"
{Let me answer that question with a question.} Jake countered. {If I told you that right now, the Earth was being invaded by aliens, what would you say?}
"I'd say you were crazy." Dawn piped up.
{Why?}
"Where are the spaceships? The ray guns, the horrible slimy alien invaders? If Earth's being invaded, they sure are doing a bad job of it." Dawn answered.
{I know exactly what you mean.} Jake answered. {I once thought the exact same thing. Unfortunately, I was wrong.}
{You ready?} Tobias asked privately.
Jake sighed. {Let's do this.} He answered. {The Earth is being invaded by a race of aliens called the Yeerks. The problem is, they don't want our planet, they don't want our cities, or our food, or our water.}
"What do they want?" Dawn asked.
Jake stared at her with his powerful feline gaze. {They want us. They want out bodies. You see, Yeerks are a parasitic race. A Yeerk is really just a big, six inch gray slug. The problem is, Yeerks have a peculiar ability. They flatten down their disgusting little bodies and crawl down your ear canal, right into your brain. Then they seep into all the cracks and crevices, and they take control. They take over your body, and you become their slave.}
The five Scoobies stared at Jake. "I'm sorry," Xander blurted. "I need a minute here. A talking tiger that doesn't really talk just told me that the Earth is being invaded by mind-controlling slugs. Have I gone completely insane?"
{Been there man.} Tobias said. {The night I found out I woke up the next day believing it was all a dream. Unfortunately, it's not. The Yeerks are getting more and more dangerous everyday, and not just here. There are six billion bodies on Earth to infest. That makes for a lot of new soldiers. And the worst part is, as far as we know, we're the only ones who fight them.}
"What are you guys, anyway?" Buffy asked.
{We're the Animorphs.} Jake answered. {The first and last line of defense against the Yeerks.}
"So what, you're like natural protectors or something?"
Jake sighed inwardly. {I am going to do something, and no matter how much it may shock you, I assure you everyone here is perfectly safe, so no one get up and attack me or anything. Ok?} The Scoobies nodded.
The tiger in front of them suddenly started changing. His long, lithe tail suddenly sucked up and vanished. With a crack, the knee joints in the hind legs reversed, and the tiger stood up. The fur faded and vanished into the now pink skin, the fangs and claws drew back into normal teeth and nails, and before long, a boy of about 17 was standing in front of the group. He had wavy brown hair and blue eyes, and stood about as tall as Xander. He was wearing a tight t-shirt and long bicycle shorts. "Sorry about the clothes." He said sheepishly, "Morphing doesn't give you a lot of leeway in coverage."
The Scoobies just stared, collective mouths hanging open. "You're human?" Giles blurted.
Jake nodded. "Up until about 3 years ago I was just a normal kid. One day me and four of my friends were walking through an abandoned construction site on our way home from the mall when we saw a light coming down form the sky, or more specifically Tobias saw it. Anyway, as we watched an alien spaceship landed, and the pilot came out, badly wounded. I think you met his brother, Ax, the other night Buffy."
Buffy nodded.
"Anyway the Pilot, Elfangor, told us about the invasion. He gave us the only weapon he could to fight against them, the power to morph. All we need to do is touch an animal, and we can turn into it."
"Wow!" Willow exclaimed. "That's an incredible ability!"
{Yeah but it comes with a catch.} Tobias replied. {More than two hours in a morph, and you are stuck in that morph forever. I, the amazing Hawk Boy, am proof of that.}
"But weren't you the big blady thing?" Buffy asked, "And moreover what was that?"
{That was an alien race the Yeerks have enslaved called the Hork Bajir. And yeah I did but it was complicated. I'm still stuck as a hawk, I just got my morphing power back. Call it higher intervention.}
Buffy rolled her eyes, remembering her own experiences with so called, 'higher powers.' "Oh man don't get me started on those guys."
"Look, the Yeerks are everywhere." Jake said seriously. "Your favourite teacher, your best friend, the guy who runs the grocery store, any of them could be Controllers. Even members of your family." He said sadly.
"Okay, so why are you telling us?" Xander asked. "Even for us this sounds kind of out of our league."
"And it's not out of ours?!" Jake asked angrily. "I was fourteen when I started fighting to save the planet! Let me just say that that is WAY too much pressure for someone my age to take on. Anyway, the problem is, we aren't winning. We're slowing the Yeerks down, we've actually hurt them pretty badly a couple of times, but it's not enough. Every day, more and more people are being turned into Controllers. There are Yeerk pools in half the major cities in America." Jake shuddered at the word.
"Yeerk pools?" Dawn asked.
{Imagine hell, then think ten times worse. I've been down there a couple of times now, and every time it gets worse. You see, Yeerks need to return to a pool to feed every three days, so they make these huge underground structures, the size of two or three football fields. Then, every three days, the Yeerk returns to the pool and leaves his host, so the host is free for an hour or so.}
"Oh dear god." Giles said, horrified.
Jake shook his head. "The screams are horrible, people sobbing, threatening, pleading. But the worst are the ones who have been hosts for a long time. They know there is no escape, so they merely sit in their cages, devoid of any will to live, broken. I still have nightmares, and I probably always will." Jake's eyes grew cold. "I have to stop them, any way I can, I have to stop them."
"What can we do?" Buffy asked.
"We're here to recruit." Jake answered seriously, "Or at the very least I'd like to ask you to help us acquire some new morphs."
"Like what?" Buffy asked suspiciously, "Vampires?"
Jake nodded. "For a start."
"Umm can we have a minute to think about this?" Xander asked.
Buffy shook her head. "No Xander, we're going to do it."
"What?! Why?" Xander demanded.
"Because I owe them. Tobias saved my life, and they're trying to save it again. The least we can do is help them do it." Buffy answered sternly.
Jake grinned. "Great, then I think it's time you met the team."
End chap 3
So how is it so far? Please let me know what you thought, even if you have criticism let me have it. Thanks for reading!
Chapter 3
"So what, EXACTLY, did you tell her?" Jake demanded.
{Nothing.} Tobias confirmed. {She only knows that we will contact her. She didn't see us morph, and we didn't say anything to give ourselves away. She thought we were demons.}
Marco groaned. "Demons are real too?"
Jake paced back and forth. "This is happening faster than I would like. Dammit Tobias! I was hoping we could make this decision as a group, but it seems you've made it for us."
{I'm sorry man, but she was toast if I didn't help. I had to do it. Look, we watched her for three days, as well as her friends. None of them are Controllers, and I'm pretty sure the whole town is Yeerk free. Not that it doesn't have it's own infestation problems.} Tobias trailed off. {Blame me though, Ax protested.}
Jake sighed. "I know you had to do it. I would have done the same thing. So, now that you've got the ball rolling, any ideas on how we're gonna do this?"
Tobias smiled inwardly. {I just might.}
~~~~~~~
Buffy lay on her bed, thinking to herself about the events of two nights ago. She had kept her word and said nothing, but her friends could already tell she was hiding something. They hadn't started to press yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Buffy was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of a ringing telephone. She grabbed the handset from her nightstand. "Hello?"
"Buffy Summers?" A voice growled, sending a shiver down Buffy's spine. It was rough, low, and didn't sound entirely human.
"Speaking." She answered, getting up to lock the door while she talked. "You were the one who saved me?"
"No." The voice answered. "I did send them though. We need to meet. Will you house be empty at midday tomorrow?"
Buffy thought. Her mother would be working, but Dawn didn't have school and might be harder to get rid of. "Maybe. My sister might be here."
There was a pause on the line.
~~~~~~~
{Dammit Tobias you didn't say anything about a sister!} Jake mentally yelled from his partially morphed state.
{I'm sorry, I forgot. She's not a problem though. She mostly just hangs out with Buffy. In fact it might even be better if she were there. She'd figure it out anyway eventually.} Tobias said.
{Tom's Yeerk still doesn't know about me.}
{Tom's Yeerk isn't too bright.}
~~~~~~~
"Very well." The gruff voice said. "We have decided it is better if she attends as well, but only the two of you. Your friends must not know, none of them. Do you understand? When the time comes they will be informed."
Buffy sighed. "They already know I'm hiding something. I was never very good at keeping secrets from them. Besides, they might be able to help you. I owe you that much."
One the other end, Jake considered. "My men told me that your boyfriend seems involved with the military in some way. Is he? Answer truthfully."
'How the hell did they know that?' Buffy thought. "Yes."
"He must not know. Your other friends can attend, he cannot."
"But."
"No! Only the three closest to you and your sister. This is not a discussion. If we see anyone uninvited attending, and believe me we will, the consequences will be dire. Your house, tomorrow at noon." The line went dead.
~~~~~~~
"The consequences will be dire! Oh me oh my!" Marco mocked. "Man that was over the top. I bet she would've been laughing if it wasn't for your voice."
Rachel grinned. "You know how much I hate to agree with Marco, but."
Jake reverted from his part human, part wolf form and his voice returned to normal. "Oh shut up you two." Jake turned serious. "Look, there are gonna be five of them at the meeting, which is way more than I would have liked. We're going to have to do this carefully, or it could blow up on us. Tobias and I are going to go in."
{Me! Why me?} Tobias squeaked.
"Because if it wasn't for you this might not even be happening." Jake snapped.
{I hate going inside.} Tobias grumbled unhappily. {It's just so confined.}
"Too bad. Cassie and Ax are going in too, but as flies. You'll be making sure no one is hiding nearby. Rachel, you'll be outside, waiting as support. Marco, you'll take over Tobias' role as our air force." Jake stated in his best leader voice. "Everyone clear?"
"Ooh, he's just so manly and commanding." Marco cried, pretending to swoon.
~~~~~~~
Buffy opened the door to see Willow, Xander, and Giles standing in front of her.
"Hey Buff what's up?" Xander asked lightly.
Buffy ushered them inside. "The four of us and Dawn are going to wait here for." Buffy checked her watch, "the next 10 minutes."
"Umm, why?" Willow asked.
"Guys you might have noticed me hiding something the last few days." Buffy said truthfully.
Willow sighed. "Finally, I was wondering if we were going to have to start pestering you. So what's the deal?"
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know exactly. I think it has to do with owls I mentioned to you Giles. We're going to be meeting some, something in a few minutes."
"Something?" Dawn asked, coming down the stairs from her room. "Like a demon something?"
Buffy shook her head. "Maybe. I'm still not sure."
Xander whistled. "Gee Buff, I gotta say this really isn't sounding too good. Sounds kind of like a set-up."
"They saved my life." Buffy replied. "I owe them this much."
Suddenly a knock was heard from Buffy's back door. Buffy rushed over and opened it expecting to see a huge bladed monster, instead she saw nothing. Then she heard a low growl and looked down instead of up. Standing at the door was a full-grown Siberian tiger, with a hawk perched on it's back. Buffy just stared, mouth open.
{Umm, can we come in?} One of them asked.
Buffy just nodded, still at a loss for words as she watched a tiger calmly enter the house and wipe it's feet on the mat before heading into the living room, the hawk still perched on its' back.
"EEEEK!!!" Dawn and Willow screamed. Dawn dove behind a sofa, and Willow ducked behind Xander. "Buffy there's a tiger in here!" Xander shouted. "A really, big, mean looking tiger and, and a bird! A, well, a bird."
{I'm a hawk, doofus.} Tobias said indignantly.
"Oh, sorry. A hawk." Xander apologized, still watching the tiger, then his eyes widened. "Did a bird just talk to me?"
"Xander, do shut up." Giles said exasperatedly.
{Took the words right out of my mouth.} The tiger said, nodding to Giles. {Okay, down to business. Everyone take a seat.}
Buffy and her group took seats, Dawn sitting as close as she could to Buffy without actually sitting on her, Willow sitting as far as possible from the tiger. Tobias flapped off of Jake and perched on the back of an unused chair, and started to preen himself.
{Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jake, and my feathery friend over there is Tobias.}
Buffy spoke up. "What do you guys want?"
{Let me answer that question with a question.} Jake countered. {If I told you that right now, the Earth was being invaded by aliens, what would you say?}
"I'd say you were crazy." Dawn piped up.
{Why?}
"Where are the spaceships? The ray guns, the horrible slimy alien invaders? If Earth's being invaded, they sure are doing a bad job of it." Dawn answered.
{I know exactly what you mean.} Jake answered. {I once thought the exact same thing. Unfortunately, I was wrong.}
{You ready?} Tobias asked privately.
Jake sighed. {Let's do this.} He answered. {The Earth is being invaded by a race of aliens called the Yeerks. The problem is, they don't want our planet, they don't want our cities, or our food, or our water.}
"What do they want?" Dawn asked.
Jake stared at her with his powerful feline gaze. {They want us. They want out bodies. You see, Yeerks are a parasitic race. A Yeerk is really just a big, six inch gray slug. The problem is, Yeerks have a peculiar ability. They flatten down their disgusting little bodies and crawl down your ear canal, right into your brain. Then they seep into all the cracks and crevices, and they take control. They take over your body, and you become their slave.}
The five Scoobies stared at Jake. "I'm sorry," Xander blurted. "I need a minute here. A talking tiger that doesn't really talk just told me that the Earth is being invaded by mind-controlling slugs. Have I gone completely insane?"
{Been there man.} Tobias said. {The night I found out I woke up the next day believing it was all a dream. Unfortunately, it's not. The Yeerks are getting more and more dangerous everyday, and not just here. There are six billion bodies on Earth to infest. That makes for a lot of new soldiers. And the worst part is, as far as we know, we're the only ones who fight them.}
"What are you guys, anyway?" Buffy asked.
{We're the Animorphs.} Jake answered. {The first and last line of defense against the Yeerks.}
"So what, you're like natural protectors or something?"
Jake sighed inwardly. {I am going to do something, and no matter how much it may shock you, I assure you everyone here is perfectly safe, so no one get up and attack me or anything. Ok?} The Scoobies nodded.
The tiger in front of them suddenly started changing. His long, lithe tail suddenly sucked up and vanished. With a crack, the knee joints in the hind legs reversed, and the tiger stood up. The fur faded and vanished into the now pink skin, the fangs and claws drew back into normal teeth and nails, and before long, a boy of about 17 was standing in front of the group. He had wavy brown hair and blue eyes, and stood about as tall as Xander. He was wearing a tight t-shirt and long bicycle shorts. "Sorry about the clothes." He said sheepishly, "Morphing doesn't give you a lot of leeway in coverage."
The Scoobies just stared, collective mouths hanging open. "You're human?" Giles blurted.
Jake nodded. "Up until about 3 years ago I was just a normal kid. One day me and four of my friends were walking through an abandoned construction site on our way home from the mall when we saw a light coming down form the sky, or more specifically Tobias saw it. Anyway, as we watched an alien spaceship landed, and the pilot came out, badly wounded. I think you met his brother, Ax, the other night Buffy."
Buffy nodded.
"Anyway the Pilot, Elfangor, told us about the invasion. He gave us the only weapon he could to fight against them, the power to morph. All we need to do is touch an animal, and we can turn into it."
"Wow!" Willow exclaimed. "That's an incredible ability!"
{Yeah but it comes with a catch.} Tobias replied. {More than two hours in a morph, and you are stuck in that morph forever. I, the amazing Hawk Boy, am proof of that.}
"But weren't you the big blady thing?" Buffy asked, "And moreover what was that?"
{That was an alien race the Yeerks have enslaved called the Hork Bajir. And yeah I did but it was complicated. I'm still stuck as a hawk, I just got my morphing power back. Call it higher intervention.}
Buffy rolled her eyes, remembering her own experiences with so called, 'higher powers.' "Oh man don't get me started on those guys."
"Look, the Yeerks are everywhere." Jake said seriously. "Your favourite teacher, your best friend, the guy who runs the grocery store, any of them could be Controllers. Even members of your family." He said sadly.
"Okay, so why are you telling us?" Xander asked. "Even for us this sounds kind of out of our league."
"And it's not out of ours?!" Jake asked angrily. "I was fourteen when I started fighting to save the planet! Let me just say that that is WAY too much pressure for someone my age to take on. Anyway, the problem is, we aren't winning. We're slowing the Yeerks down, we've actually hurt them pretty badly a couple of times, but it's not enough. Every day, more and more people are being turned into Controllers. There are Yeerk pools in half the major cities in America." Jake shuddered at the word.
"Yeerk pools?" Dawn asked.
{Imagine hell, then think ten times worse. I've been down there a couple of times now, and every time it gets worse. You see, Yeerks need to return to a pool to feed every three days, so they make these huge underground structures, the size of two or three football fields. Then, every three days, the Yeerk returns to the pool and leaves his host, so the host is free for an hour or so.}
"Oh dear god." Giles said, horrified.
Jake shook his head. "The screams are horrible, people sobbing, threatening, pleading. But the worst are the ones who have been hosts for a long time. They know there is no escape, so they merely sit in their cages, devoid of any will to live, broken. I still have nightmares, and I probably always will." Jake's eyes grew cold. "I have to stop them, any way I can, I have to stop them."
"What can we do?" Buffy asked.
"We're here to recruit." Jake answered seriously, "Or at the very least I'd like to ask you to help us acquire some new morphs."
"Like what?" Buffy asked suspiciously, "Vampires?"
Jake nodded. "For a start."
"Umm can we have a minute to think about this?" Xander asked.
Buffy shook her head. "No Xander, we're going to do it."
"What?! Why?" Xander demanded.
"Because I owe them. Tobias saved my life, and they're trying to save it again. The least we can do is help them do it." Buffy answered sternly.
Jake grinned. "Great, then I think it's time you met the team."
End chap 3
So how is it so far? Please let me know what you thought, even if you have criticism let me have it. Thanks for reading!