Chapter 9
So, the next day, we were all standing around Chapman's house. Everybody was looking at me like they weren't impressed with me. I guess they thought I was a coward or something because I wouldn't morph to an ant. I guess they were right.
I didn't talk about it though, I had my reasons and they were good ones.
We were all there. Preparing to morph to the ant. I was to stay here in case Chapman came home. You see, he was out for the night at a family thing, and we didn't need him coming home to a basement full of kids. Me, Tobias and Sam were to stay out here and tell them if he came home, that way they could morph and get out of there quick enough. If they didn't then sam was there to keep them busy.
"Comfortable up there, Sam?" I asked. He was in the tree with Tobias. I would have been there too, but I was staying down here for now.
"Could you take us to the wall when we morph?" Jake asked.
"Sure." I answered. "At least then I would be doing something to help anyways, huh." He just smiled a disappointed smile at me. So he was mad.
"So, we going to do this?" Rachel asked.
Marco shook his head. "I guess we have to. We all have to." He said the 'all' with a sarcastic tone. They were definitely mad at me. But still I decided not to press the issue.
"Alright, are you all ready to go? I will be in the tree for now, so if you need me, I will be up there, not stepping on you." I told them. I figured that would be best.
"Fine, but don't try and get in there with us, it is kinda dangerous as one ant. You could maybe pick up a morph and do it anyways." Jake said with a suggesting tone.
I just shook my head. "Jake, I would be better off that you are at this point. At least then I would have a morph that would fit in with the area." I said, "Look, you may have got an ant morph, but you don't have one from here. In case you didn't know, ants are incredibly territorial, and immensely hostile. No matter what you think, they will not think twice about ripping you in half and ending your pitiful ant existence. And if you could morph in time, it would do you no good, because you would be underground. So no, I am not going to go in with you, you don't need me."
They all glared at me, then began to morph. "Fine, if that's that's the way you feel, then maybe we don't need you. Right now, we have a job to do." Jake said, as he began to morph.
I just stared at him for a while. He was a big boy, but I was stronger than him as a human. I watched as quite possibly the worst morph in history began. It was almost horrifying, if I hadn't seen many worse things in my life. Jake's skin turned black and hard. His mouth turned into mandibles, and he grew antennae. All the while he was shrinking.
By the time he reached a height of a foot, I turned around and climbed the tree sam and Tobias were in. It was actually the tree I had to chase Fluffer McKitty up once. I liked this tree. It was nice.
A few minutes later, they finished morphing and Tobias called them to see how they were doing. [Hey, you alright? How's the morphs?] he asked. There was no answer.
I got up in a crotch of two branches and sat. I leaned my head against one of the branches and closed my eyes. [Come on guys, I've had just enough of your crap for tonight, just answer the bird.] I said in thought speech. It was kind of harsh, but I knew they weren't saying anything because I couldn't hear them.
[Why aren't they answering?] Tobias asked.
"Likely mad at Gordon." Sam said from higher in the tree. Despite knowing and even thinking about it, I forgot he was there.
"Probably." I agreed. "They all seemed pretty disappointed with me for not morphing. They wouldn't even talk to me about it."
[Maybe so, but they would have answered. That is what is important now.] Tobias said. [and they aren't answering.]
"Maybe the morph took over for a while, they seem to be doing that quite a bit, huh?" I said. "I guess they are weak. Can't even control a morph. I have never had troubles with it." Wow, I was more bitter than I thought. Jeez, it was just a morph.
[That isn't the point. We need to shake them from the trance before they go under. I can still see them, but barely. Hawk eyes don't work well in the night.] Tobias said.
"Fine then, keep trying." Sam said. He was pretty mellow as well. But right then, I began thinking of way back in my TV watching days. I had just, at that exact moment, realized why the little voice in my head told me not to do the ant morph. It was because of the social structure.
Ants are based on a monarchy, in a light meaning of the term. There is one queen that puts out pheromones and controls the way of the workers and such. Similar to a beehive, but less personalized. What I just realized was that the ants probably had no mind to speak of, only the empty, vacuous space reserved for orders. There was nothing really to take over and control.
"Umm, Tobias. I think I just realized why they aren't responding."
[Why? Are you sure?] he asked. I told him and he kept silent. [So, what you are saying is that there is no way to be normal again?]
I shook my head. "No not quite. It may be possible, but it will be hard. You see, the structure would eliminate any trace of individuality."
[What I don't understand is why you knew this but Cassie didn't.] Tobias said.
"Believe me," Sam said from up above. "He knows more than you think. He always knows what would be useless information. I guess he is worth having around." He laughed.
I smiled. "That's not fair, either way, we need to get going on this, before they get completely immersed." [Alright guys, enough is enough. We need to get on with the mission. You are not here to become king of the anthill.] I said. Gave them a sense of reality and humour. Keeps them on their toes.
[Come on!] Tobias said. Man, he was boring.
"Spice it up a bit." I told Tobias. Then I switched to thought speak. [Marco, if you don't get out of this, I will steal your playstation. And Jake, I will tell your brother everything you knew, really piss him off when you are an ant. Cassie, I will burn down the wildlife rehab clinic. Whitney, I will....] I couldn't think of anything to bother her, so I just made the first thing that came to mind, noting brilliant, [I will spread rumours about you and Marco. And Rachel, I won't go easy on you. I will destroy all the GAP, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren and any other places you go and blame it on you.] I said.
[What was that for?] Tobias asked.
"It was to connect them to something they know inside. If they make the connection subconsciously, then they can get angry at the suggestions and get in touch with their inner self and all that mushy spiritual stuff."
[Oh, I see. Smart. Let's hope it works.] he answered.
We continued saying things like that quite frequently until finally we got an answer from Whitney.
[Whoa!] she yelled. I was sure someone in the neighbourhood must have heard her, but it was a surprised yell, so nobody said anything. She sat there, repeating something up the lines of 'ohmygodohmygod'. Or something like that. She was spooked. Finally, she stopped and actually said something. [Gordon, Tobias. You are lucky to not have to do this, you were right, this was a bad morph, Gordon.] she said. It sounded like an apology or something, but that wasn't important.
[What's wrong? Lose yourself?] Tobias asked.
[Yes, like never before. There was no self, none. You were right, this was a bad morph!] she said again.
[Yes, I know. Now we need to get the others to come back to human consciousness.] I told her.
[Speaking of human, I am definitely demorphing now. I need out of this morph.] she sounded urgent, but I told her not to. She had already taken over the morph, so why go through that again? She agreed and stayed in morph.
It was another ten minutes before we got everyone back. One by one, they became aware of themselves and were horrified more and more each time. First it was cassie, then Jake, then Rachel, then ax, them Marco. Marco was exceedingly spooked.
It took the all of us to keep him from demorphing and going home.
[Marco, we need to do this and you are part of the group.] Cassie encouraged. [Come on, we need your help.]
[No you don't. Gordon said it all, you don't need all of us in there at once, I am going home!] he yelled. I could see a little black ball growing from beside the fence.
[Marco!] Tobias yelled. [You have to help them. Just this once. We will never do ants again, as long as you do this just once.]
It took a bit of persuasion, but the little ball did eventually shrink into nothingness in the grass. After that, Tobias had to guide them to the wall of the house and a crack. I was still confused as to the plan, but it was worth a try.
After the long and irritating task of leading them to the crack, we had to wait out there for like an hour before anything happened. Occasionally, I could hear Ax talking to the computer. Words like 'enlarge' and 'open'. Stuff like that. Eventually, when they were done looking for the device, I heard Ax go 'Ah Hah!' and before long, they were all on their way up out of the basement.
[Alright, we are on the way up. I am not sure, but I think we will be able to get this thing out no problem.] Jake informed me and Tobias.
It wasn't long before they suddenly started screaming and shouting.
[AHH! Help me!] they would all say. I didn't know what to do. There was nothing I could do.
I was straining my brain on what to do, when it occurred to me to ask what had happened.
[What's going on?] I asked.
[We just got attacked by another native colony of ants. Oh, god, They've got my abdomen cut right off. Please, help us. Anything, please!] Marco shouted.
It was odd. I had no clue what to do, so I advixsed the first thing that came to mind. [Demorph!] I said. [It may hurt at first, but it was worth a try.]
[Yeah, you couldn't be too deep in the ground, try it.] Tobias urged.
[we will try.] Rachel said, then a second later, [AHHHHH!]
Everyone let out a howl that was nothing more than pain, until I could see a large hump coming out of the ground near the base of the house. I was sure it was them.
[I hope they didn't wreck the device.] Tobias said, all concern for his fellow Animorphs gone. And rightfully so. Their bodies were almost completely formed in the loose dirt beside Chapman's house.
[Good to see you back.] Tobias said. [Got the transponder?]
As soon as they were completely demorphed, Marco started looking around through the dirt and picked up a little blue ball smaller than a pea. It was really super small.
"That's it, huh?" I asked.
"Yes!" Jake said before Marco could answer. "Now, give it to Tobias so we can get out of here. I never want to do that again."
"Amen to that." Marco agreed.
"Amen." The rest joined in. Marco gave the pea to Tobias, who flew away with it. We all followed.
So, the next day, we were all standing around Chapman's house. Everybody was looking at me like they weren't impressed with me. I guess they thought I was a coward or something because I wouldn't morph to an ant. I guess they were right.
I didn't talk about it though, I had my reasons and they were good ones.
We were all there. Preparing to morph to the ant. I was to stay here in case Chapman came home. You see, he was out for the night at a family thing, and we didn't need him coming home to a basement full of kids. Me, Tobias and Sam were to stay out here and tell them if he came home, that way they could morph and get out of there quick enough. If they didn't then sam was there to keep them busy.
"Comfortable up there, Sam?" I asked. He was in the tree with Tobias. I would have been there too, but I was staying down here for now.
"Could you take us to the wall when we morph?" Jake asked.
"Sure." I answered. "At least then I would be doing something to help anyways, huh." He just smiled a disappointed smile at me. So he was mad.
"So, we going to do this?" Rachel asked.
Marco shook his head. "I guess we have to. We all have to." He said the 'all' with a sarcastic tone. They were definitely mad at me. But still I decided not to press the issue.
"Alright, are you all ready to go? I will be in the tree for now, so if you need me, I will be up there, not stepping on you." I told them. I figured that would be best.
"Fine, but don't try and get in there with us, it is kinda dangerous as one ant. You could maybe pick up a morph and do it anyways." Jake said with a suggesting tone.
I just shook my head. "Jake, I would be better off that you are at this point. At least then I would have a morph that would fit in with the area." I said, "Look, you may have got an ant morph, but you don't have one from here. In case you didn't know, ants are incredibly territorial, and immensely hostile. No matter what you think, they will not think twice about ripping you in half and ending your pitiful ant existence. And if you could morph in time, it would do you no good, because you would be underground. So no, I am not going to go in with you, you don't need me."
They all glared at me, then began to morph. "Fine, if that's that's the way you feel, then maybe we don't need you. Right now, we have a job to do." Jake said, as he began to morph.
I just stared at him for a while. He was a big boy, but I was stronger than him as a human. I watched as quite possibly the worst morph in history began. It was almost horrifying, if I hadn't seen many worse things in my life. Jake's skin turned black and hard. His mouth turned into mandibles, and he grew antennae. All the while he was shrinking.
By the time he reached a height of a foot, I turned around and climbed the tree sam and Tobias were in. It was actually the tree I had to chase Fluffer McKitty up once. I liked this tree. It was nice.
A few minutes later, they finished morphing and Tobias called them to see how they were doing. [Hey, you alright? How's the morphs?] he asked. There was no answer.
I got up in a crotch of two branches and sat. I leaned my head against one of the branches and closed my eyes. [Come on guys, I've had just enough of your crap for tonight, just answer the bird.] I said in thought speech. It was kind of harsh, but I knew they weren't saying anything because I couldn't hear them.
[Why aren't they answering?] Tobias asked.
"Likely mad at Gordon." Sam said from higher in the tree. Despite knowing and even thinking about it, I forgot he was there.
"Probably." I agreed. "They all seemed pretty disappointed with me for not morphing. They wouldn't even talk to me about it."
[Maybe so, but they would have answered. That is what is important now.] Tobias said. [and they aren't answering.]
"Maybe the morph took over for a while, they seem to be doing that quite a bit, huh?" I said. "I guess they are weak. Can't even control a morph. I have never had troubles with it." Wow, I was more bitter than I thought. Jeez, it was just a morph.
[That isn't the point. We need to shake them from the trance before they go under. I can still see them, but barely. Hawk eyes don't work well in the night.] Tobias said.
"Fine then, keep trying." Sam said. He was pretty mellow as well. But right then, I began thinking of way back in my TV watching days. I had just, at that exact moment, realized why the little voice in my head told me not to do the ant morph. It was because of the social structure.
Ants are based on a monarchy, in a light meaning of the term. There is one queen that puts out pheromones and controls the way of the workers and such. Similar to a beehive, but less personalized. What I just realized was that the ants probably had no mind to speak of, only the empty, vacuous space reserved for orders. There was nothing really to take over and control.
"Umm, Tobias. I think I just realized why they aren't responding."
[Why? Are you sure?] he asked. I told him and he kept silent. [So, what you are saying is that there is no way to be normal again?]
I shook my head. "No not quite. It may be possible, but it will be hard. You see, the structure would eliminate any trace of individuality."
[What I don't understand is why you knew this but Cassie didn't.] Tobias said.
"Believe me," Sam said from up above. "He knows more than you think. He always knows what would be useless information. I guess he is worth having around." He laughed.
I smiled. "That's not fair, either way, we need to get going on this, before they get completely immersed." [Alright guys, enough is enough. We need to get on with the mission. You are not here to become king of the anthill.] I said. Gave them a sense of reality and humour. Keeps them on their toes.
[Come on!] Tobias said. Man, he was boring.
"Spice it up a bit." I told Tobias. Then I switched to thought speak. [Marco, if you don't get out of this, I will steal your playstation. And Jake, I will tell your brother everything you knew, really piss him off when you are an ant. Cassie, I will burn down the wildlife rehab clinic. Whitney, I will....] I couldn't think of anything to bother her, so I just made the first thing that came to mind, noting brilliant, [I will spread rumours about you and Marco. And Rachel, I won't go easy on you. I will destroy all the GAP, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren and any other places you go and blame it on you.] I said.
[What was that for?] Tobias asked.
"It was to connect them to something they know inside. If they make the connection subconsciously, then they can get angry at the suggestions and get in touch with their inner self and all that mushy spiritual stuff."
[Oh, I see. Smart. Let's hope it works.] he answered.
We continued saying things like that quite frequently until finally we got an answer from Whitney.
[Whoa!] she yelled. I was sure someone in the neighbourhood must have heard her, but it was a surprised yell, so nobody said anything. She sat there, repeating something up the lines of 'ohmygodohmygod'. Or something like that. She was spooked. Finally, she stopped and actually said something. [Gordon, Tobias. You are lucky to not have to do this, you were right, this was a bad morph, Gordon.] she said. It sounded like an apology or something, but that wasn't important.
[What's wrong? Lose yourself?] Tobias asked.
[Yes, like never before. There was no self, none. You were right, this was a bad morph!] she said again.
[Yes, I know. Now we need to get the others to come back to human consciousness.] I told her.
[Speaking of human, I am definitely demorphing now. I need out of this morph.] she sounded urgent, but I told her not to. She had already taken over the morph, so why go through that again? She agreed and stayed in morph.
It was another ten minutes before we got everyone back. One by one, they became aware of themselves and were horrified more and more each time. First it was cassie, then Jake, then Rachel, then ax, them Marco. Marco was exceedingly spooked.
It took the all of us to keep him from demorphing and going home.
[Marco, we need to do this and you are part of the group.] Cassie encouraged. [Come on, we need your help.]
[No you don't. Gordon said it all, you don't need all of us in there at once, I am going home!] he yelled. I could see a little black ball growing from beside the fence.
[Marco!] Tobias yelled. [You have to help them. Just this once. We will never do ants again, as long as you do this just once.]
It took a bit of persuasion, but the little ball did eventually shrink into nothingness in the grass. After that, Tobias had to guide them to the wall of the house and a crack. I was still confused as to the plan, but it was worth a try.
After the long and irritating task of leading them to the crack, we had to wait out there for like an hour before anything happened. Occasionally, I could hear Ax talking to the computer. Words like 'enlarge' and 'open'. Stuff like that. Eventually, when they were done looking for the device, I heard Ax go 'Ah Hah!' and before long, they were all on their way up out of the basement.
[Alright, we are on the way up. I am not sure, but I think we will be able to get this thing out no problem.] Jake informed me and Tobias.
It wasn't long before they suddenly started screaming and shouting.
[AHH! Help me!] they would all say. I didn't know what to do. There was nothing I could do.
I was straining my brain on what to do, when it occurred to me to ask what had happened.
[What's going on?] I asked.
[We just got attacked by another native colony of ants. Oh, god, They've got my abdomen cut right off. Please, help us. Anything, please!] Marco shouted.
It was odd. I had no clue what to do, so I advixsed the first thing that came to mind. [Demorph!] I said. [It may hurt at first, but it was worth a try.]
[Yeah, you couldn't be too deep in the ground, try it.] Tobias urged.
[we will try.] Rachel said, then a second later, [AHHHHH!]
Everyone let out a howl that was nothing more than pain, until I could see a large hump coming out of the ground near the base of the house. I was sure it was them.
[I hope they didn't wreck the device.] Tobias said, all concern for his fellow Animorphs gone. And rightfully so. Their bodies were almost completely formed in the loose dirt beside Chapman's house.
[Good to see you back.] Tobias said. [Got the transponder?]
As soon as they were completely demorphed, Marco started looking around through the dirt and picked up a little blue ball smaller than a pea. It was really super small.
"That's it, huh?" I asked.
"Yes!" Jake said before Marco could answer. "Now, give it to Tobias so we can get out of here. I never want to do that again."
"Amen to that." Marco agreed.
"Amen." The rest joined in. Marco gave the pea to Tobias, who flew away with it. We all followed.