Chapter 2
When Ax first got to our little house, he was a little disappointed. It wasn't a problem though. He decided indefinitely that he would be living and sleeping outside. Which was cool. Sam and I got our privacy, and Ax was happy.
But when we were showing him around, he asked what we used for communications and Such. We told him we used Tobias. Which was true.
[Why would you do that?] he asked. [Don't humans have computers for communication?]
"Well, we do have computers, but there is no energy out here to run one. And no internet to hook up to the rest. So we are out of luck."
[Surely you have a power source nearby that you can hook into.] he seemed kind of shocked. It bothered me. The concept was simple, we were out in the forest and there was no hydro out here.
"Ax, we have no way to het it here, no source, no wires to connect it, nothing. Why is it a big deal? We have dealt with it for a while, so we can deal with it longer." Sam said.
[It would be much simpler for all of us if you had some sort of device.]
Then it finally struck me. Oh, the possibilities that could come from this. It was obvious that he wanted it, and I knew I did. "Ax, if we could get you some power sources and the appropriate materials, could you make us some sort of little power circuit?"
[Why of course.] he said with a heavy hint of arrogance. [Such tasks are taught in the earliest years of the academic training, even the underdeveloped andalites could...]
I cut him off, "Okay, but you can."
[Yes, I...] I cut him off again with a wave of the hand.
"That's all." I Said. Sam looked at me sideways. I looked right back at him and said, "Sam, get one or two of the dracon beams."
He was still unable to see where I was going, but he went over to the wall with them hidden in it and got two of them out. He had to fly up a bit to get to them. It was a good place to hide them.
"Ax, do you think these would be able to run a primitive human computer? I mean, the amount of power they take." I asked.
[One of the energy crystals from the dracon beams would power an average human household for as long as it needs to. You see, the dracon beam uses compound light energy to form the beam, so the crystal source is unlimited. Or it would recharge. As long as it is not overused for too long, it will last forever.] Ax Explained.
"That's good. Because we have about six or seven of those things laying around. Maybe if we get the proper wires and stuff we could supply power to the house." Sam said, finally seeing where I was going.
"Okay, you have that morph, right?" I asked, "The one of all of us?"
[Of course. I will never lose it.]
"Morph it, we are going uptown."
So Me and Ax both morphed our respective cover morphs and I had to lend him some clothes. We got completely morphed and ready, when I noticed a minor flaw. Ax could barely walk. At least in the forest. When we were in the house on the mostly flat floor, it wasn't a problem, but when we went outside into the lumpy grass, he started to trip and stumble. It wasn't a pretty picture.
So we ended up letting him demorph and walk in his normal body until we reached the edge of the forest. We gave him back his clothes and he put them on. Somehow we managed to make the skintight clothes part of the morph, so that was pretty cool, and cheap, but we still had to dress him up when we left.
[I do not like having only two legs, it is very shaky.] he said.
"Well, I have had to deal with it for 13 years now, so I think you can manage, just don't run into anything and you will be fine." I told him.
This was fine for then, and he morphed back. We managed to walk to the bus station, where I had to tell Ax indefinitely to keep to himself.
"Now, Ax, I need you to be quiet, if you make too much noise, someone will look at you funny." I told him right as we were getting on the bus.
"I understand." He said, and said nothing more.
When we finally got to the mall, we got out and went in. Ax was seriously overwhelmed. "Wow, so many people, do you confuse each other? You all look the same."
"Yes, we do Ax, but what did I tell you about talking? And no, we don't get each other confused often. But it does happen." I grabbed his arm and led him slowly to RadioShack. It was difficult waving through all the people, and ax was always tripping.
"Very sorry to hurt you, are you alright?" I asked when he fell right out of my hands.
"I am fine, but two legs are very shaky." He said.
I rolled my eyes. "I know, we have come to this conclusion, now shut up, we have a job to do." I walked into the videogame section, because that was what I liked. There weren't many games worth getting that I haven't already played or didn't hear sucked.
As I was browsing through the games, deciding what was worth buying, I heard a loud siren going off. I rolled my eyes, stupid thieves, I thought to myself.
I was in the midst of determining whether or not I would go in and help the store when I had a dreadful feeling. I looked up to see what I feared, Ax, with a pile of supplies.
I quickly put the games back and walked over to where Ax was. He was looking around for me, and he couldn't find me.
He had walked out of the store before paying and the detectors detected him 'stealing'. I stopped the guard before he got to Ax. "It's okay, I've got him." I reassured. Surprisingly it worked.
I grabbed Ax by the Arm and pulled him back into the stores. The ringing stopped. "You have to pay for that." I told him in a stern voice.
I took him up to the counter and grabbed each and every package and put it on the counter. There were various wires, connectors, fuses and stuff. You know, electrical stuff. I quickly grabbed a few plugs so if we ever got stuff that needed it, we would actually be able to plug them in.
I paid for it all, it was like $100. I had plenty of money to go around. So I wrapped it up and left the mall.
Ax, unfortunately, discovered the many uses of his face before we made it far. He stopped right outside of radio shack and started sniffing the air.
"I smell something." He said. "What is it?"
"It is just the food court, don't worry about it." I told him. I turned and walked to the doors. I just got to them when I had a horrible thought.
"Hey, Ax, how do you plan on using a computer, I mean I don't have enough to get a low quality one, let alone a good one, especially by andalite standards." It was just a thought, but it was odd, there was no immediate response that completely brought us down as a technologically backward race. That was when I realized...
I turned around, and of course, there was no Ax. I rolled my eyes and started running towards the food court, because that was where he said he could smell it. I knew that was where he was going.
I ran through the crowd of people, making people get really mad at me. I kept hitting them with the shopping bag of electronics.
"Hey!" "Watch it buddy!" I got from random people. I ignored them and pushed on in my quest.
When I eventually made it to the food court, I saw nothing. No disturbances, no crowds, nothing. I had to look around before I found him. He was in line to the Starbucks. I was assuming he was just following the other people, because lot's of people were there. Therewere a few people ahead of him and I had plenty of time.
I ran over there and just barely missed him.
"Would you like caffeinated, or decaffeinated?" The lady serving the coffee asked.
"Caffeinated." Ax replied calmly. He must have picked it up off of one of the people in front of him.
I finally caught up to him and stopped him. "Don't worry about him." I told the girl behind the counter.
Once again, I grabbed. [Now, Look here Ax. If you are going to be here with us, you really need to be more responsible. I am serious, you are going to get hurt, or lost, or something. Think of the fate of the Animorphs and the entire human race. What would happen if you were lost and ran out of time. I know you wouldn't want to spend the rest of your life in this shaky two legged body, so you would probably morph, and that would cause quite a lot of stress for us. Now quit it! Act like the mature andalite soldier you really are.] I said in thought speak. I was the only one who could speak when I was human.
Ax seemed surprised by this. You could see the look in his eyes. I stared at him. He got the message. We both left the mall retaining a relative amount of sanity.
When Ax first got to our little house, he was a little disappointed. It wasn't a problem though. He decided indefinitely that he would be living and sleeping outside. Which was cool. Sam and I got our privacy, and Ax was happy.
But when we were showing him around, he asked what we used for communications and Such. We told him we used Tobias. Which was true.
[Why would you do that?] he asked. [Don't humans have computers for communication?]
"Well, we do have computers, but there is no energy out here to run one. And no internet to hook up to the rest. So we are out of luck."
[Surely you have a power source nearby that you can hook into.] he seemed kind of shocked. It bothered me. The concept was simple, we were out in the forest and there was no hydro out here.
"Ax, we have no way to het it here, no source, no wires to connect it, nothing. Why is it a big deal? We have dealt with it for a while, so we can deal with it longer." Sam said.
[It would be much simpler for all of us if you had some sort of device.]
Then it finally struck me. Oh, the possibilities that could come from this. It was obvious that he wanted it, and I knew I did. "Ax, if we could get you some power sources and the appropriate materials, could you make us some sort of little power circuit?"
[Why of course.] he said with a heavy hint of arrogance. [Such tasks are taught in the earliest years of the academic training, even the underdeveloped andalites could...]
I cut him off, "Okay, but you can."
[Yes, I...] I cut him off again with a wave of the hand.
"That's all." I Said. Sam looked at me sideways. I looked right back at him and said, "Sam, get one or two of the dracon beams."
He was still unable to see where I was going, but he went over to the wall with them hidden in it and got two of them out. He had to fly up a bit to get to them. It was a good place to hide them.
"Ax, do you think these would be able to run a primitive human computer? I mean, the amount of power they take." I asked.
[One of the energy crystals from the dracon beams would power an average human household for as long as it needs to. You see, the dracon beam uses compound light energy to form the beam, so the crystal source is unlimited. Or it would recharge. As long as it is not overused for too long, it will last forever.] Ax Explained.
"That's good. Because we have about six or seven of those things laying around. Maybe if we get the proper wires and stuff we could supply power to the house." Sam said, finally seeing where I was going.
"Okay, you have that morph, right?" I asked, "The one of all of us?"
[Of course. I will never lose it.]
"Morph it, we are going uptown."
So Me and Ax both morphed our respective cover morphs and I had to lend him some clothes. We got completely morphed and ready, when I noticed a minor flaw. Ax could barely walk. At least in the forest. When we were in the house on the mostly flat floor, it wasn't a problem, but when we went outside into the lumpy grass, he started to trip and stumble. It wasn't a pretty picture.
So we ended up letting him demorph and walk in his normal body until we reached the edge of the forest. We gave him back his clothes and he put them on. Somehow we managed to make the skintight clothes part of the morph, so that was pretty cool, and cheap, but we still had to dress him up when we left.
[I do not like having only two legs, it is very shaky.] he said.
"Well, I have had to deal with it for 13 years now, so I think you can manage, just don't run into anything and you will be fine." I told him.
This was fine for then, and he morphed back. We managed to walk to the bus station, where I had to tell Ax indefinitely to keep to himself.
"Now, Ax, I need you to be quiet, if you make too much noise, someone will look at you funny." I told him right as we were getting on the bus.
"I understand." He said, and said nothing more.
When we finally got to the mall, we got out and went in. Ax was seriously overwhelmed. "Wow, so many people, do you confuse each other? You all look the same."
"Yes, we do Ax, but what did I tell you about talking? And no, we don't get each other confused often. But it does happen." I grabbed his arm and led him slowly to RadioShack. It was difficult waving through all the people, and ax was always tripping.
"Very sorry to hurt you, are you alright?" I asked when he fell right out of my hands.
"I am fine, but two legs are very shaky." He said.
I rolled my eyes. "I know, we have come to this conclusion, now shut up, we have a job to do." I walked into the videogame section, because that was what I liked. There weren't many games worth getting that I haven't already played or didn't hear sucked.
As I was browsing through the games, deciding what was worth buying, I heard a loud siren going off. I rolled my eyes, stupid thieves, I thought to myself.
I was in the midst of determining whether or not I would go in and help the store when I had a dreadful feeling. I looked up to see what I feared, Ax, with a pile of supplies.
I quickly put the games back and walked over to where Ax was. He was looking around for me, and he couldn't find me.
He had walked out of the store before paying and the detectors detected him 'stealing'. I stopped the guard before he got to Ax. "It's okay, I've got him." I reassured. Surprisingly it worked.
I grabbed Ax by the Arm and pulled him back into the stores. The ringing stopped. "You have to pay for that." I told him in a stern voice.
I took him up to the counter and grabbed each and every package and put it on the counter. There were various wires, connectors, fuses and stuff. You know, electrical stuff. I quickly grabbed a few plugs so if we ever got stuff that needed it, we would actually be able to plug them in.
I paid for it all, it was like $100. I had plenty of money to go around. So I wrapped it up and left the mall.
Ax, unfortunately, discovered the many uses of his face before we made it far. He stopped right outside of radio shack and started sniffing the air.
"I smell something." He said. "What is it?"
"It is just the food court, don't worry about it." I told him. I turned and walked to the doors. I just got to them when I had a horrible thought.
"Hey, Ax, how do you plan on using a computer, I mean I don't have enough to get a low quality one, let alone a good one, especially by andalite standards." It was just a thought, but it was odd, there was no immediate response that completely brought us down as a technologically backward race. That was when I realized...
I turned around, and of course, there was no Ax. I rolled my eyes and started running towards the food court, because that was where he said he could smell it. I knew that was where he was going.
I ran through the crowd of people, making people get really mad at me. I kept hitting them with the shopping bag of electronics.
"Hey!" "Watch it buddy!" I got from random people. I ignored them and pushed on in my quest.
When I eventually made it to the food court, I saw nothing. No disturbances, no crowds, nothing. I had to look around before I found him. He was in line to the Starbucks. I was assuming he was just following the other people, because lot's of people were there. Therewere a few people ahead of him and I had plenty of time.
I ran over there and just barely missed him.
"Would you like caffeinated, or decaffeinated?" The lady serving the coffee asked.
"Caffeinated." Ax replied calmly. He must have picked it up off of one of the people in front of him.
I finally caught up to him and stopped him. "Don't worry about him." I told the girl behind the counter.
Once again, I grabbed. [Now, Look here Ax. If you are going to be here with us, you really need to be more responsible. I am serious, you are going to get hurt, or lost, or something. Think of the fate of the Animorphs and the entire human race. What would happen if you were lost and ran out of time. I know you wouldn't want to spend the rest of your life in this shaky two legged body, so you would probably morph, and that would cause quite a lot of stress for us. Now quit it! Act like the mature andalite soldier you really are.] I said in thought speak. I was the only one who could speak when I was human.
Ax seemed surprised by this. You could see the look in his eyes. I stared at him. He got the message. We both left the mall retaining a relative amount of sanity.