Chapter 12
The next morning, I was awoken to see everyone else already there. They had already gotten ready and came to make sure we were going to do it right. Sam and I were not up.
Slowly I awoke and got ready. Sam ended up carrying the device, because he was the only one who couldn't morph. Us birds couldn't carry it. It was a bit too heavy. You see, we could only lift so much for so long. Not an endurance race.
So when we were all morphed, we were two peregrine falcons, a red- tailed hawk, two ospreys, a golden eagle, a bald eagle, a northern harrier, and Sam. Apparently Cassie had gotten Ax a northern harrier morph to travel in. And he sure made it known that he enjoyed it. {I do like this method of transportation far more than on human's two legs. That is very tricky, to stand on two legs.} he said.
{Don't worry Ax, being a bird is great. Now let's go.} Jake said, asserting the group.
Sam's eyes glowed red and he levitated off the ground and flew away in the general direction of where we were to go. The eight of us were soon to follow.
We were mostly silent, we were pretty tired, but Ax couldn't shut up. {This is amazing!} he said. {this is better than salt and grease.}
I was struggling not to say something mean, because I was flat tired. Instead, I said, {Ax, I thought you were an andalite cadet. You aren't allowed to have fun.}
{If you say so.} Marco said.
{Well, normally, activities for pleasure are hard to come by, but things like this are amazing. So I will try to enjoy it as long as I can.} Ax answered.
{Well, that's good for you, here, have a doggy biscuit.} I said.
{What is a doggy biscuit?} Ax asked. Nobody answered him because we were all too tired. We continued to fly for about half an hour, trailing behind sam all the way. We also tried to keep apart from one another to keep any potential bird watchers from suspicion. It was nice to cover all the boundaries.
So, when we finally got there, Sam was standing against the rock wall formed beside a quarry. The mountains came to an abrupt stop about fifty feet up. It was actually a nice little clearing, with a swim-able little lake and everything.
We all landed and demorphed, that was when Sam gave the transponder to Ax. "Do your magic." He said with a smile.
Most of us sat down, tired as hell, but Jake stood up, looking around all over the place. He was probably looking and mapping all escape routes. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. Would this work? And, where would we go if....
You know, the usual Jake things.
"So, after Ax turns that thing on, we will all hide in the bushes, even Ax?" Marco asked. And we are kind of the backup if he needs help?"
"Pretty much."
Rachel pushed some of her hair back off of her face, because she was nodding off. We were all tired. "So we only get to fight if ax can't handle one hork bajir and one taxxon?" She sounded disappointed.
"Pretty much." Jake said. He was tired too.
Then a solution dawned on me. "Ax, when you do the distress thing, does it send sound, or telepathy, or just 'come and get me I am here!'?"
{Well, it would depend on how I program it. It does have settings.} he answered.
I was thinking if maybe I could help. "Well, I was thinking, I am the only one with a hork bajir morph, and if you were planning on just sending a signal, then I have a better idea." I said. "It involves a hork bajir and a bit of blood. I was thinking instead of sending a suspicious call from someone they don't have a record of. Instead of having them dome to a clearing and seeing nothing, and possibly leaving, we give them evidence of a struggle." I suggested.
"You will morph hork bajir to lure them in...." Cassie started.
"Then have ax attack while they are tending to you." Whitney finished. Smart ones they were. No, seriously.
"And we get to morph and beat you up a little." Marco stated with a smile.
"Yes, it needs to look like I was attacked." I said.
Jake shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, 'sure, go ahead.' We were all tired still and didn't want to put much effort into anything.
I began to morph to hork bajir. {Don't forget, they need to see me beaten up, so get some blood.} I said as I morphed. {but not too deep. I don't want to be debilitated, just bloody.} Cassie was morphing wolf, while Whitney morphed Tiger. Rachel and Marco didn't morph yet, they couldn't draw any blood. Jake was tired, so he stayed out of it.
When we were all morphed, I tried out my mouth. "Thhhhhhh, Thissss. Thiss iss Illllnith. This is Illnith. AlllRight. I thhhhink I hhhhhaveit." {Alright. Come on.} I bared myself and let them do their work.
First, Cassie Jumped on my back and ripped some flesh off my shoulders. {Sorry.} she said. It was just skin, but it hurt. It wasn't clean, it was ragged and the air was making it hurt.
Cassie jumped off and let Whitney do some work. She slashed at my left arm and right leg. This left three tracks across. They quickly congealed, but were still large scabs. {That's cool.} Whitney said.
{Yeah, that is odd.} I agreed. It appeared as if hork bajir healed themselves faster than humans. Way faster. Those tracks were already thick line scabs.
{Okay, I think that is enough.} I said. {I don't exactly feel good.}
But, sure enough, it was Sam's turn. He stepped forward, katana pointed out.
"Don't Sam." Jake said.
In a split second, Sam leaned forward, lowering his sword. He stepped once, and raised it diagonally across the chest. The pain was sudden and intense. Like I had been open. It was a sharp pain that felt like electricity through my body, and gone as quickly. What followed was a dull pain so severe it made me almost sick.
I saw Jake get up, after Sam. But I was too dizzy to really pay attention at the time. I fell on my back.
{Gordon, Are you alright?} I heard Whitney say.
{Gordon, get up.} Cassie said. I was falling into a deep sleep. But that didn't last long. Almost instantly, I was back aware and slowly regaining strength. I got up and looked down at my chest. The gash was still open, but a scab. It was a fully formed gash, and it looked new, but the blood was hard.
I touched it, there was blood everywhere, then I looked up. I saw Jake giving Sam hell, so I went over. Everyone else backed away.
{It's alright, Jake.} I said. He looked at me.
"If you say so. We need to get going." He walked away. Then I turned to Sam.
{What the hell was that for?} I asked.
"Realism." he said simply. I turned around. Everyone was talking in a group. They were all demorphed. Well, all that could be. Tobias was sitting patiently in a nearby tree.
{That was odd.} he said. {Let's hope it never happens again.}
{Agreed.} I said. {Let's get this show on the road.}
Ax walked out and everyone else began to morph battle morphs. {Here. You press this to transmit. Then speak into it. It will pick up even thought speak, so I can't help you once it is on. You also have to speak with the hork bajir tongue, if you use telepathy, it will pick that up, and no hork bajir controller can use thought speak.} he said. {Do you understand?}
"Yes, I do understand. Can I have it now?" I asked with the voice. It was kind of raspy and hoarse. Ax gave me the device as the last of the Animorphs disappeared into the nearby forest. Sam passed me a Dracon beam for effect.
I flipped the switch, or pressed the button. All I did was touch it and it went off on it's own thing again. I waited a second, then said into it, "Illnith 182, I need help. I have been attacked by the andalite bandits. I have managed to throw them off, but I need help now. Anything would be nice." I said in a beaten down and hurt voice. I turned it off and went to lean against the rock wall. It was a cliff.
It was a good ten minutes before I saw anything worth seeing. I saw a little red dot in the sky, moving around. It was faint, because it was early morning and the sun was up. It seemed to circle uncertainly for a few minutes until it finally decided on landing only a few feet from me.
As soon as it landed, a door opened in the side. One hork bajir came out and I could see one taxxon working the controls. Just like Ax said. {All clear. Just as Ax said.} I said to everyone.
The single hork Bajir got out and came toward me. He looked like he was here to help, but as soon as he was clear away from the ship, Ax jumped out of the trees and went into the ship. Everyone else was also storming out of the woods. By the time the hork bajir realized what was happening and drew his shredder, Jake, Whitney, and Cassie were all on him in an instant.
Ax took care of the single taxxon in the ship with ease. Sam was nowhere to be found, and Rachel was just now coming out of the forest, booming with every step. It all seemed too easy. I wasn't normally a paranoid person, but this just didn't seem right. It was going all according to plan, but I knew it wasn't, for some reason.
Either way, I wasn't going to let this happen. Something was wrong, I didn't know how or why, but I knew. I went over to Rachel, who was busy trying to squish the hork bajir under her tree trunk foot. He just stopped moving. He wasn't dead, he was still breathing.
{Rachel, Back away.} she did. {Something is wrong here.}
{I know. He isn't even struggling.} she said.
Everybody backed off. We left the prone hork bajir alone, just staring at it. He still wasn't moving.
I heard the bug fighters engines blast out in a loud boom. The fighter hovered a few feet off the ground.
Then my paranoia became reality.
In an instant, a large ship shimmered from nothingness and shot at the side of the bug fighter. The ship was at least six times the size of the bug fighter and was shaped like a battle axe.
It was the Blade ship of Visser Three, our greatest nemesis.
Ax did jump out and ran to us, he barely made it when the blade ship fired and missed him by a few feet, and a laser that big is enough to reduce you to nothing.
One by one, bug fighters appeared out of nowhere. Ten, no, twenty, all at once. Even lines of hork bajir materialized out of the rocky cliffs above us. How long they had been there, I did not know. If it was too long, even if we did escape, they would know who we were and it would be over.
I still couldn't see Sam. He was nowhere to be seen, and that bothered me.
{Run.} Jake said silently.
{What good would it do?} I said. {They have us in a clear trap. If we move, they will kill us.} but even before we could make a decision, the hork bajir on the cliff shot the dracon cannon they had and they somehow formed a bubble of dracon mesh. It didn't shrink, thank god.
But it did leave us nowhere to run.
The next morning, I was awoken to see everyone else already there. They had already gotten ready and came to make sure we were going to do it right. Sam and I were not up.
Slowly I awoke and got ready. Sam ended up carrying the device, because he was the only one who couldn't morph. Us birds couldn't carry it. It was a bit too heavy. You see, we could only lift so much for so long. Not an endurance race.
So when we were all morphed, we were two peregrine falcons, a red- tailed hawk, two ospreys, a golden eagle, a bald eagle, a northern harrier, and Sam. Apparently Cassie had gotten Ax a northern harrier morph to travel in. And he sure made it known that he enjoyed it. {I do like this method of transportation far more than on human's two legs. That is very tricky, to stand on two legs.} he said.
{Don't worry Ax, being a bird is great. Now let's go.} Jake said, asserting the group.
Sam's eyes glowed red and he levitated off the ground and flew away in the general direction of where we were to go. The eight of us were soon to follow.
We were mostly silent, we were pretty tired, but Ax couldn't shut up. {This is amazing!} he said. {this is better than salt and grease.}
I was struggling not to say something mean, because I was flat tired. Instead, I said, {Ax, I thought you were an andalite cadet. You aren't allowed to have fun.}
{If you say so.} Marco said.
{Well, normally, activities for pleasure are hard to come by, but things like this are amazing. So I will try to enjoy it as long as I can.} Ax answered.
{Well, that's good for you, here, have a doggy biscuit.} I said.
{What is a doggy biscuit?} Ax asked. Nobody answered him because we were all too tired. We continued to fly for about half an hour, trailing behind sam all the way. We also tried to keep apart from one another to keep any potential bird watchers from suspicion. It was nice to cover all the boundaries.
So, when we finally got there, Sam was standing against the rock wall formed beside a quarry. The mountains came to an abrupt stop about fifty feet up. It was actually a nice little clearing, with a swim-able little lake and everything.
We all landed and demorphed, that was when Sam gave the transponder to Ax. "Do your magic." He said with a smile.
Most of us sat down, tired as hell, but Jake stood up, looking around all over the place. He was probably looking and mapping all escape routes. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. Would this work? And, where would we go if....
You know, the usual Jake things.
"So, after Ax turns that thing on, we will all hide in the bushes, even Ax?" Marco asked. And we are kind of the backup if he needs help?"
"Pretty much."
Rachel pushed some of her hair back off of her face, because she was nodding off. We were all tired. "So we only get to fight if ax can't handle one hork bajir and one taxxon?" She sounded disappointed.
"Pretty much." Jake said. He was tired too.
Then a solution dawned on me. "Ax, when you do the distress thing, does it send sound, or telepathy, or just 'come and get me I am here!'?"
{Well, it would depend on how I program it. It does have settings.} he answered.
I was thinking if maybe I could help. "Well, I was thinking, I am the only one with a hork bajir morph, and if you were planning on just sending a signal, then I have a better idea." I said. "It involves a hork bajir and a bit of blood. I was thinking instead of sending a suspicious call from someone they don't have a record of. Instead of having them dome to a clearing and seeing nothing, and possibly leaving, we give them evidence of a struggle." I suggested.
"You will morph hork bajir to lure them in...." Cassie started.
"Then have ax attack while they are tending to you." Whitney finished. Smart ones they were. No, seriously.
"And we get to morph and beat you up a little." Marco stated with a smile.
"Yes, it needs to look like I was attacked." I said.
Jake shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, 'sure, go ahead.' We were all tired still and didn't want to put much effort into anything.
I began to morph to hork bajir. {Don't forget, they need to see me beaten up, so get some blood.} I said as I morphed. {but not too deep. I don't want to be debilitated, just bloody.} Cassie was morphing wolf, while Whitney morphed Tiger. Rachel and Marco didn't morph yet, they couldn't draw any blood. Jake was tired, so he stayed out of it.
When we were all morphed, I tried out my mouth. "Thhhhhhh, Thissss. Thiss iss Illllnith. This is Illnith. AlllRight. I thhhhink I hhhhhaveit." {Alright. Come on.} I bared myself and let them do their work.
First, Cassie Jumped on my back and ripped some flesh off my shoulders. {Sorry.} she said. It was just skin, but it hurt. It wasn't clean, it was ragged and the air was making it hurt.
Cassie jumped off and let Whitney do some work. She slashed at my left arm and right leg. This left three tracks across. They quickly congealed, but were still large scabs. {That's cool.} Whitney said.
{Yeah, that is odd.} I agreed. It appeared as if hork bajir healed themselves faster than humans. Way faster. Those tracks were already thick line scabs.
{Okay, I think that is enough.} I said. {I don't exactly feel good.}
But, sure enough, it was Sam's turn. He stepped forward, katana pointed out.
"Don't Sam." Jake said.
In a split second, Sam leaned forward, lowering his sword. He stepped once, and raised it diagonally across the chest. The pain was sudden and intense. Like I had been open. It was a sharp pain that felt like electricity through my body, and gone as quickly. What followed was a dull pain so severe it made me almost sick.
I saw Jake get up, after Sam. But I was too dizzy to really pay attention at the time. I fell on my back.
{Gordon, Are you alright?} I heard Whitney say.
{Gordon, get up.} Cassie said. I was falling into a deep sleep. But that didn't last long. Almost instantly, I was back aware and slowly regaining strength. I got up and looked down at my chest. The gash was still open, but a scab. It was a fully formed gash, and it looked new, but the blood was hard.
I touched it, there was blood everywhere, then I looked up. I saw Jake giving Sam hell, so I went over. Everyone else backed away.
{It's alright, Jake.} I said. He looked at me.
"If you say so. We need to get going." He walked away. Then I turned to Sam.
{What the hell was that for?} I asked.
"Realism." he said simply. I turned around. Everyone was talking in a group. They were all demorphed. Well, all that could be. Tobias was sitting patiently in a nearby tree.
{That was odd.} he said. {Let's hope it never happens again.}
{Agreed.} I said. {Let's get this show on the road.}
Ax walked out and everyone else began to morph battle morphs. {Here. You press this to transmit. Then speak into it. It will pick up even thought speak, so I can't help you once it is on. You also have to speak with the hork bajir tongue, if you use telepathy, it will pick that up, and no hork bajir controller can use thought speak.} he said. {Do you understand?}
"Yes, I do understand. Can I have it now?" I asked with the voice. It was kind of raspy and hoarse. Ax gave me the device as the last of the Animorphs disappeared into the nearby forest. Sam passed me a Dracon beam for effect.
I flipped the switch, or pressed the button. All I did was touch it and it went off on it's own thing again. I waited a second, then said into it, "Illnith 182, I need help. I have been attacked by the andalite bandits. I have managed to throw them off, but I need help now. Anything would be nice." I said in a beaten down and hurt voice. I turned it off and went to lean against the rock wall. It was a cliff.
It was a good ten minutes before I saw anything worth seeing. I saw a little red dot in the sky, moving around. It was faint, because it was early morning and the sun was up. It seemed to circle uncertainly for a few minutes until it finally decided on landing only a few feet from me.
As soon as it landed, a door opened in the side. One hork bajir came out and I could see one taxxon working the controls. Just like Ax said. {All clear. Just as Ax said.} I said to everyone.
The single hork Bajir got out and came toward me. He looked like he was here to help, but as soon as he was clear away from the ship, Ax jumped out of the trees and went into the ship. Everyone else was also storming out of the woods. By the time the hork bajir realized what was happening and drew his shredder, Jake, Whitney, and Cassie were all on him in an instant.
Ax took care of the single taxxon in the ship with ease. Sam was nowhere to be found, and Rachel was just now coming out of the forest, booming with every step. It all seemed too easy. I wasn't normally a paranoid person, but this just didn't seem right. It was going all according to plan, but I knew it wasn't, for some reason.
Either way, I wasn't going to let this happen. Something was wrong, I didn't know how or why, but I knew. I went over to Rachel, who was busy trying to squish the hork bajir under her tree trunk foot. He just stopped moving. He wasn't dead, he was still breathing.
{Rachel, Back away.} she did. {Something is wrong here.}
{I know. He isn't even struggling.} she said.
Everybody backed off. We left the prone hork bajir alone, just staring at it. He still wasn't moving.
I heard the bug fighters engines blast out in a loud boom. The fighter hovered a few feet off the ground.
Then my paranoia became reality.
In an instant, a large ship shimmered from nothingness and shot at the side of the bug fighter. The ship was at least six times the size of the bug fighter and was shaped like a battle axe.
It was the Blade ship of Visser Three, our greatest nemesis.
Ax did jump out and ran to us, he barely made it when the blade ship fired and missed him by a few feet, and a laser that big is enough to reduce you to nothing.
One by one, bug fighters appeared out of nowhere. Ten, no, twenty, all at once. Even lines of hork bajir materialized out of the rocky cliffs above us. How long they had been there, I did not know. If it was too long, even if we did escape, they would know who we were and it would be over.
I still couldn't see Sam. He was nowhere to be seen, and that bothered me.
{Run.} Jake said silently.
{What good would it do?} I said. {They have us in a clear trap. If we move, they will kill us.} but even before we could make a decision, the hork bajir on the cliff shot the dracon cannon they had and they somehow formed a bubble of dracon mesh. It didn't shrink, thank god.
But it did leave us nowhere to run.