Chapter 19

Through the night air we flew. Tobias, Ax, and I. But it was not silent.

{So, how bad is it, is it because we blew up the other one?} I asked. We were all really far away, making sure nobody happened to see us and suspect anything.

{No, it was like that when we got there, and we haven't went in. Considering Rachel has a bear morph, we were planning on charging in, but when we saw there were like ten guards there, we decided to get you to help. I already got Jake, but him and Marco are having problems with the radio tower. They won't be coming.} Tobias said.

{Then what makes you think that our activities haven't already been noticed ant the guards haven't already increased?} Ax asked. Which was a good point. This wasn't looking very good.

{Then I guess we go right in and do something before it begins to be too serious!} I said excitedly. Man, I was gating into this too much. We had already made a huge statement at the Water tower. Now we are going to do more. Cool!

{Umm, I don't think that is the right attitude.} Tobias said.

{Why not? I mean, we have already done so much, why not do more?} I said. I swear, if Tobias could shake his head, then he would have.

{Do you not realize that ten guards is more than enough to kill us?} Tobias asked. {I mean, there are four of us. That means more than two each, we can't necessarily handle that.}

I laughed. {Tobias, when are you going to learn some strategy? I mean, seriously. If we can take a few out quickly, then there are less to fight, and less at a time. Don't you worry. And Rachel has a bear now?} I asked as it suddenly registered in my mind.

{Yeah, she said Elephant would be too much to fight in a building. Too big to be effective.} he said.

{That would make sense.} Ax added briefly. But we were there. With my falcon eyes, I could barely make out two dark figures sitting beside a big vent or something. It was cassie and Rachel as far as I could tell.

{Hey, is that you?} I called. They both raised their hands. It was them.

{Of course it is, who else would stand around on a rooftop at nine PM?} Tobias asked sarcastically.

{I was just calling to tell them we were here.} I said. {Lighten up.}

So the three of us all landed right beside the two girls and began to demorph. The barely noticed. "So, glad to see you finally came." Rachel said as she continued to stare into town.

{Good to hear it.} I said. {Here I come to save the day!} I shouted. But don't worry, only the ones on the roof heard me.

"Well, aren't we Mr. Enthusiastic." Cassie said sarcastically.

{Well, he did already destroy the water tower.} Tobias informed them. By then I had completed my morph. So I saw the twin bland looks on the faces of Cass and Rachel.

"We figured as much. We saw some unexplained light in your direction. Where's jaek and Marco?" Rachel asked.

{They are unable to come, they are still having difficulty with the radio tower.} Ax said calmly. It was amazing how he was able to keep control of his emotions so well. He should be at least a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to handle them.

"Well, that isn't the best news we've heard tonight." Cassie said as she got up. "Well, if we are going to do this, then we have to do it fast. The guards may be coming soon after your success."

Then Rachel got up to, "Get in there, hit fast, hit hard, and get out quickly!" She said with a raised fist.

I joined her. "And kill 'em all!"

"Isn't that a little much?" Cassie protested.

Ax's tail twitched as I raised an eyebrow. "Cass, we are probably going to kill a few thousand yeerks here. And if we need to demorph for any reason, we don't need anyone to see us." I pointed out.

She was reluctant, and disturbed, but I could feel she wasn't going to back down.

"Well, let's do it!" Rachel encouraged. I could see her already tall frame grow brown, shaggy fur. Cassie shrunk and got the shaggy, silver grey fur of a wolf.

Meanwhile, I grew large. Very large and green. I was morphing my hork bajir. My favourite battle morph. As soon as I was done, about the same time as Cassie, I walked up to the roof access door and tried to open it. It was locked.

{Ax, could you handle this?} I asked.

{No problem.} he answered. He walked up to the door and with a whip of his tail, the doorknob was gone.

{Thanks.} Rachel said. {The kandrona is on the second floor from the top as far as we can see.} she said. She must have looked, but who was I to argue.

I kicked open the door to show a square staircase. Ax was right behind me. Then Rachel and Cassie. I stormed down two levels, stopping long enough to ask Rachel if she was sure. {Rachel, are you one hundred percent sure it is the second from the top?}

{Yes, Cassie and I both checked from outside the window. It is a fairly large room, two stories high. In it is a big black and green cylinder and ten hork bajir warriors.} she said.

{Alright, let's get this party started.} I said. I heaved my hork bajir body into the door. Open it went, and the four of us stared into the eyes of ten half alert hork bajir guards. The peace was fleeting, as the first hork bajir saw Ax.

"Andalite!" It shouted. They lunged at us. No weapons, for fear of destroying the kandrona. Just red bands around their arms.

But we were quick to react. As the first got there, Rachel simply drove one in the gut with her shoulder and heaved him over her back. Ax managed to move nimbly to the side and cut ones hand off.

I simply blocked the nearest guy and pushed him into the wall. It wasn't until then that I noticed this room was definitely made originally for humans. It had a carpet, furniture, and a fireplace to boot. It even had plants around the outside edges.

But there was no time to worry about that. Instead I had three hork bajir on me. To one side, I sw Ax was fending off two, and Rachel, well, she was well in her own. Cassie was simply dodging and running long enough to keep them away from us.

But I had three, and that was work enough. The first came at me and tried to slash at my face with his wrist blade. I caught the hand and moved my head out of the way. I made sure the back of the arm was facing up and I forced my arm down on it. I could hear the audible snap as the bone broke and came out through the skin. I left him to deal with the bone himself.

Both the other two came at me, I leapt for the first, tackling him. He fell down and pushed me over his back. I flipped and tried to steady myself on my feet. When I turned around, the other one was jumping over the fallen one. I did the first thing that came to mind. I jumped back at him, feet first. The dropkick sent him sprawling.

But the other one was already getting up, and I was off balance. Luckily, the train that called itself Rachel was barrelling over to us. She caught the hork bajir in a tackle from behind and carried him long enough to have him hit the wall. Another loud snap echoed it's way across the room. I had to roll out of the way.

Instantly, I had another three on me. Two of Rachel's and the last of mine. I dodge rolled out of the way and let Rachel tackle yet another one. Down it went and the wind was knocked out of it.

But I had two still after me. I ran to the fireplace and picked up one of the pokers. The ones with the hook on the end. Oh, yeah! As soon as I had it, I spun around and swung it as hard as I could. It connected solidly with the closest hork bajir's beak. Shards of it went flying and it howled.

I pushed it out of the way and kicked the one behind it in the chest. He went flying back a few feet and landed on it's hindquarters. I went to run towards it, but the hork bajir behind me grabbed my tail. I almost fell, but instead turned around and swung again. I missed this time, because he ducked.

But I was quick and managed to thrust it straight forward as he put his head back to where it was supposed to be. The poker managed to go straight through it's neck, coming straight out the back. I continued to push until it was in the wall. The hopeless hork bajir slashed for three seconds before going limp. As I stared, I could see the life in it's eyes dim.

It was that moment when I began to waver. What would happen if that was me? They were only doing their job, and now he was dead. We attacked him this time, not the other way around, and now both he and the host he was in died. I managed to see the yeerk attempting to slither out, but death captured it quickly.

You see, I know a bit about yeerk physiology. All that sam taught me. I know that the yeerk feels the pain of the host, and when the host dies with a yeerk in it, the yeerk dies too.

Thinking this made me not realize when the other hork bajir began to attack me from behind. He kneed me in the kidney, or what would be a human kidney, and the blade went right up beneath the ribs. It hurt like a bitch, but I endured it.

He began to slash at my back, but I turned around and hit him with the backside of my balled fist as hard as I could. He staggered, but didn't fall. He came back up to slash at me, but I caught the fist and squeezed as hard as I could.

You see, the hork bajir I acquired was a personal guard to Visser Three, so it was bigger than the others. I overpowered the enemy long enough to bring it to it's knees. I grabbed his head with my other hand and brought my knee up, placing a knee blade in it's jaw, coming right up through it's skull and stopping at the base of it's own head blade.

The body instantly sagged like it was a puppet who's strings had been cut. It was a horrible sight. When I looked over, I saw Rachel with a hork bajir on her back and one under her, mangled beyond recognition.

I let my reaction guide me, because I could no longer think.

I barrelled over and tackled the hork bajir. He fell off Rachel and when he rose he was greeted by the tail blade of Ax. He lost his head.

When I got up, I was shaking. But we won. {See,} I said shaky, uncertain. {take them out, one by one, then we have less to fight.} I began to demorph. I was losing blood fast. Rachel also demorphed as she fell off the mangled hork bajir.

Cassie went over to the window to demorph. She didn't want to look at the mess. And I could see why, her jowls had no blood on them. Just on her shaggy coat could you see where her bleeding attackers spilled on her. My blades, Rachel's fangs, and Ax's tail blade were all stained with blood.

But I was getting ready to leave. Ax was trying his best to clean the blade off on the ground, unsuccessfully, I might add.

Rachel and I were demorphing, cleaning ourselves off that way. We were both on the ground, panting, exhausted.

"I think we should morph birds, and get the hell out of here." Cassie said while she was staring out the window. Her body never moved and she sounded like she was about to cry. But she was right. The three of us all began to morph to our respective morphs.

Rachel, on the other hand, was morphing elephant. "We came here to achieve a mission, and that would be pointless to kill them all to not do it." as the morph continued, we all stayed at the side, as birds.

It wasn't long at all before she was pushing the big kandrona across the carpeted room and into the window. As it first got there, the glass cracked, leaving huge spiderwebs. Then they began to shoot out as the glass started to fall apart. After a few good heaves, the kandrona was balancing on the edge. A human could have pushed that over.

So she demorphed. With the part that was supposed to be inside literally hovering an inch above the ground, she pushed it as a human and watched it fall sixty stories to it's destruction. She watched it all as a human, to add insult to injury, in a way.

She did her final morph and we all flew home together, not saying much at all, we were all very exhausted and ashamed.