The Generation
Notes: Max is going psycho! Max is going psycho! Lalalalala! Max is going psycho!
If you need definitions or stats for any of the terms, species, or characters, check out the Animorph's Vortex, (use the name as a keyword.)
Chapter 6- Max
The next morning I breezed Marco and Tobias in morph past BBA security in the state headquarters. "Excuse me Madra?" I stopped the youngest apprentice in the hallway.
"Oh! Hi Max!" She grinned, glomping me happily. "If you're looking for your mother, she's busy correlating the most recent data that Kenny sent her."
"Actually, I'm looking for Mr. Dickinson. I promised Marco and Tobias here that I'd introduce them to him."
Madra looked up, scrutinizing Tobias and Marco. "Oh, okay, he's in his office. Follow me!"
Tobias shivered. //Max, Madra is very likely a controller or the daughter of one. Madra is the Yeerk name for moon! Be really carefull!//
I nodded infinitesimally to show that I understood, before following Madra to Mr. Dickinson's office. "Ah Max! And who is this?" He asked.
"Hi Mr. Dickinson. These are Marco and Tobias." Madra closed the door. With his foot, Marco flicked the switch on the soundproofing device that Mr. Dickinson put in all of his offices.
"Mr. Dickinson, nice to meet you." Marco shook his hand. "Quite an honor."
"Why'd you drop by Marco?" Asked Mr. Dickinson.
We'd decided that Tobias and Marco would pretend to be Andilites in Human morph. "We want to ask you about a friend of your's one who was from... out of town." Tobias laid a gentle stress on the words, 'out of town.' "You see, I've traveled for a long time looking for my aunt Judin." Tobias said calmly. "My uncle Aximili showed me a family tree, and she was on it. He told me that Judin had been killed escaping from the Hork Bajir world." Mr. Dickinson's eyes were widening in comprehension and fear. "But then we found an underground chamber with her name on it."
"I... I don't know what you're talking about..." Mr. Dickinson stammered.
"But... Mr. Dickinson, the computer down there had your I.D. on it." Why was he being obtuse? Mr. Dickinson had told us everything before, without hesitation. Why was he being secretive NOW?
He turned eyes, expression closed, on me. "Max, stay out of this. This matter is over your head."
"It's over your head too human." Marco said coldly. "Perhaps Judin told you a little fairy tale about these creatures called Yeerks? Well they're here Mr. Dickinson, on your precious Earth, and one more Andilite could mean the difference between freedom and slavery."
Mr. Dickinson's expression was horrified.
"Well, I guess we're not going to learn anything from him. I suppose we could ask Voltaire, or Tyson's Grandfather." I suggested.
Mr. Dickinson looked down at the ground, expression unreadable. "The andilite in that picture died in a fire shortly before you were born Max. She is unable to help anyone now."
~later~
We made it back to my house and found mother on the phone. "Yes Mr. Dickinson, yes I'll talk to him. NO! I don't want my son involved in this. Thank you for telling me... bye." She hung up.
Then my mother turned a wrathful expression on Tobias and Marco. "What are you doing with my son??" She demanded. "I don't care how far up you are in the Andilite Military I don't want my son involved in a firefight against the yeerks!"
"Mom! This is important stuff! They need me! The other blade breakers are helping!" I pleaded.
Mother pointed a finger at the door. "I don't want to see the two of you near my son again! OUT!" She jabbed her finger at the door.
Marco glared defiantly up at her, but Tobias put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on Marco." He turned around.
I waited until they were gone, then I turned and followed them out. "Where are you going?" Mom demanded.
"To do something you'd never have the guts to do yourself!!" I shouted.
"Maximillian get back here!" Mother shouted.
I ignored her, storming out of the room. I slipped into an alleyway about a block down, morphed, and caught a good headwind all the way to Cassie's farm. I sailed into the loft, demorphed, and climbed down.
The other animorphs and Erek were waiting for me. "I was expecting you." Jake said.
"I figured as much." I grunted. All my life, my mother and I had never had an argument. I wondered absently if this was what family life was like during the civil war. How many children had felt like this as they stormed from their parents house to join the union or confederate armies?
"Listen Max." Tyson came forward. "We don't think that your mother is a controller, but to be sure we're going to have Erek and Tobias pull surveillance over our house for the next three days."
"How's Erek going to fit in?" I asked.
Erek's hologram dissolved, almost like when a bit beast is called back to their beyblade. Then another hologram built itself up in the same way. I gasped.
I was staring at a perfect replica of me! "Because she is not a dog, your mother will not be able to tell the difference, and it leaves you free to practice morphing and work on unlocking the computer in the grotto." Erek explained. He was using my voice!
I looked over at Jake with a gulp. "Do I have a choice in the matter?"
"Nope." Kai answered for him. "We can't risk you being infested, and personally, I think Judy has no right to pull you out of the fight, not with the stakes so high. You work on that computer, we'll work on the security."
I nodded. "Okay...okay then." I gulped. It felt like lying to my mother. She already knew some of what I was doing, if she knew that I was morphing... but she wouldn't. She wouldn't learn any more of what I was up to.
I felt sick. But then Marco rubbed his hands together. "Okay boys, girls, aliens and assorted wildlife, Rachel..."
"LETS DO IT!" Rachel pumped her fist in the air.
"LETS DO IT!" We echoed.
Cassie lent me a sleeping bag, and that night Ax let me ride him out to his scoop. My eyes widened when I saw it.
The scoop was open air. It was almost like a tiny bowl carved out of the ground. The southern half of the scoop was covered by a tarp to make a sort of open tent. In here Ax had jury-rigged a computer and the power to run it. Pictures of various foods were taped to the desk that the computer stood on.
//Cassie brought you some food for dinner. I'm sorry that its just fast food. Rachel said she'd come by with Mc Donald's in the morning.// Ax told me as I rolled out my sleeping bag.
"Thanks." I told him, opening the bag. It contained a supersized Big Mac meal. Morphing made me hungy. I tore into the burger.
As I ate, Ax studied me. //Max, I've been meaning to ask you, can you control the way you morph?//
I paused. "Sort of. I mean, when I morphed the hawk and the wolf, I just concentrated on morphing my arms and head first, then my legs and body." I took another big bite out of the hamburger.
//Ah. You are an estreen, that explains it.//
I swallowed. "What's an estreen?" I asked.
//A person who can control their ability to morph is an estreen.// Ax explained. //Cassie is one. She's the fastest morpher of the original group of Animorphs, and she is very good at controlling animal instincts.//
I took another bite. "Cool." Now I knew another andilite word. I felt like, like I was bringing back a memory that I'd forgotten with every morph, every word of Andilite that I learned.
I went to bed with an almost rosy feeling. I snuggled into the sleeping bag, and I dreamed...
I was walking through a forest, with a tiny andilite child at my side. //Judin! Judin!// The child tugged at my arm. //Where are we going?//
//This morning Elfangor, I will teach you your first ritual.// I said with a smile. //I'll be leaving soon to go to the Hork Bajir world, so mom said that you and I could have the whole day together. And then tomorrow it will be the four of us, but mother is preparing a surprise for tomorrow.//
//Oh Wow!// My brother's eyes widened, eye stalks straight in a gesture of eagerness.
//Here we are.// I stopped by a stream. //Now we wait for sunup.// I told him.
I turned and watched the horizon for the sunrise. There it was, the tiny crescent of gold peeking over the horizon. //Right, Elfangor, do as I do...// I dipped a hoof in the water. //From the water that gave birth to us...//
//From the water that gave birth to us...//
I crushed a tuft of grass under my feet. //From the grass that feeds us...//
//From the grass that feeds us...//
//For the freedom that unites us.// I spread my arms wide.
//For the freedom that unites us...//
//We rise to the stars.// I turned all for eyes upward.
I took on a fighting stance. //Freedom is my only guide, obedience to my prince my only glory.//
I delicately placed my tail blade at my throat. //I Judin Olarn Sorath, Andilite Princess, offer my life.//
I went limp.
Wait a minute! Tail blade? Humans didn't have that!
I looked down at my limbs.
I had four legs!
I looked at my hands.
I had too many fingers!
I looked down at my face in the water and screamed. I was human, but as I watched, my reflection began to change, change into an andilite about Ax's age, but the facial features were different enough so that I knew that I wasn't morphing Ax. My reflection grinned back at me as it morphed, and just before my/its mouth disappeared, it said, "LOOK BENEATH THE SURFACE!"
I sat up straight in the moonlight, shaking and sweating. //Are you alright?// Ax asked.
"I'm... I'm fine." I lied. I was so afraid, afraid of the dream. Then I remembered what my mother had once said, 'People are often afraid of the truth.' Was this dream the truth?
I shook my head in confusion. "Ax, I thought you were on watch."
//Rachel is keeping an eye on things now.// Ax explained.
"Do you think she'd mind if I joined her?" I asked.
//If you are not tired, an extra guard could only do good.// He agreed.
I ran through the woods, not morphing, just running. The wind whipped my hair, but I could not outrun the phantom sound of hooves drumming on the earth. Ax was not coming with me, so I knew that I was hearing things. All the time my brain screamed, /why, Why, WHY??/ As far as I could tell, none of the other Blade Breakers were having nightmares about their best friends turning into controllers. None of the others had dreams where their parents turned into an alien, or where they had turned into an alien. None of them dreamed about laughing butterflies. Why was I so special?
Then I remembered something that Tyson had said to Jake yesterday. "Max has always had strange powers. I mean, Kai is weaker concerning evil bitbeasts, but his empathy rating isn't as high as Max's."
Suddenly, "HURAOOOOOWR!" A grizzly bear rose up out of the bushes.
I screamed.
//MAX MAX! EASY ITS ME!// Rachel cried in thoughtspeak.
"Rachel, you almost gave me a heart attack!" I exclaimed.
//Sorry, I heard you coming and I thought you might be a controller.// Rachel explained.
I sighed and sat down. "Sorry, I couldn't sleep, so I thought that I should come and help keep an eye on the grotto."
//Great, you can keep track of the time. I can barely see my watch with these eyes.// Rachel chuckled. //Great sense of smell though.// She grinned. //Humans are such smelly creatures.//
I laughed. "Glad I can help you."
I leaned back against the false tree stump. "Sonic eat your heart out." I muttered.
//What?// Rachel asked.
I chuckled. "I was just reminded of Sonic the hedgehog, we might as well be guarding Knothole Village."
Rachel was about to retort when Tobias shouted... //ALERT!! MORPH!! PARENTAL UNIT ON ITS WAY!//
I was already starting. Unfortunately, I had lost focus on controlling the morph process. My knee joints reversed with a crunch. Desperately, I rolled into the bushes, praying that I was out of sight. My wolf hearing picked up, faintly.
"I don't think that it's a good idea to be out at night Judy." Mr. Dickinson was saying.
"We need to cut the Blade Breakers off from the Grotto. I'm sorry Dee, Sierran, but I don't want Max in there. There's a lot of dangerous stuff." Mom was saying.
"Are you doing this to protect Max or to hide from him?" Asked a voice that I recognized as Tyson's grandfather.
"I..." Mom was spared having to answer as Ax and I bolted from the trees and joined Rachel and Tobias. "Oh my god!" Her expression was horrified comprehension. "They've arrived, there are andilites here on Earth."
//Yes, I'm sure this is quite a 'newsflash' as Kai would put it.// Ax said calmly. //Human, you are being warned to turn back now and not to interfere with our attempts to unlock the Grotto.//
Mom glared at him, fists clenched in rage. "WHO DO YOU THINK BUILT THAT GROTTO YOU PILE OF SKRIT DUNG?? JUDIN COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT ON HER OWN! WE HELPED!"
//You mean like you won't help Max learn to fight?// I asked, barely concealing my rage. //He's willing to sacrifice everything in order to ensure his planet's freedom, and you hold him back? How selfish is that?// I asked.
"Max is too young to fight. It would be like trying to send an underage aristh into a full blown ground invasion!" Mom protested.
//You don't understand human! We are desperately underpowered, cut off from the homeworld, and the only weapon that we have is the morphing technology. It all comes down to a single escafil device! And what happens if we lose that? What do we do if our morphs are incapacitated?//
//Be careful what you say about underage arisths.// Ax growled. //I am an aristh, and when I joined the fight, I too was underage. I am stranded on Earth, I have made the most of it and thrown myself into the battle, as my brother Elfangor would have done!//
"STAY OUT OF THIS!" Mom shouted at him. She swung at Ax.
I didn't mean to do it. I didn't want to do it. I was angry, and it was an impulse. I leapt, at my own mother, and rammed her. Mom sprawled on the ground, eyes widening in fear. //How dare you attack an aristh? I was the one you were arguing with!// I growled at her.
"I will not lose my son. I will not let you teach him to morph, only to have him trapped!" Mom growled.
//And how do you propose to keep him from fighting?// Rachel asked, more calmly. She helped my mother to her feet. //Human, allying ourselves with other humans is probably the only way that we will win this war. And children are often better at morphing than adults. Human children have done amazing things. Didn't Beethoven compose his first song at the age of five?//
"Close." Mom admitted.
//And Joan of Arc was close to Max's age when she went off to fight.// Rachel answered. //You, human woman, must learn to let your children grow. I have heard from the human called Kai, that your Max is easily the most responsible human of the Blade Breakers. Consider that.//
"I'm not letting you block off the grotto." Mr. Dickinson said nervously, clearing his throat. He reached for the entry panel.
Again, that anger rose up inside of me. I jumped up on my hind legs and snapped at his outstretched hand. Mr. Dickinson jumped back. //STAY OUT OF OUR BUSINESS.//
"Yo dude." Tyson's grandfather told me. "I'm not trying to offend your andilite pride dude, but you have serious anger management issues."
They left. Tobias shadowed them. I demorphed and returned to Ax's scoop. I lay down in the sleeping bag and cried myself to sleep.
Notes: Max is going psycho! Max is going psycho! Lalalalala! Max is going psycho!
If you need definitions or stats for any of the terms, species, or characters, check out the Animorph's Vortex, (use the name as a keyword.)
Chapter 6- Max
The next morning I breezed Marco and Tobias in morph past BBA security in the state headquarters. "Excuse me Madra?" I stopped the youngest apprentice in the hallway.
"Oh! Hi Max!" She grinned, glomping me happily. "If you're looking for your mother, she's busy correlating the most recent data that Kenny sent her."
"Actually, I'm looking for Mr. Dickinson. I promised Marco and Tobias here that I'd introduce them to him."
Madra looked up, scrutinizing Tobias and Marco. "Oh, okay, he's in his office. Follow me!"
Tobias shivered. //Max, Madra is very likely a controller or the daughter of one. Madra is the Yeerk name for moon! Be really carefull!//
I nodded infinitesimally to show that I understood, before following Madra to Mr. Dickinson's office. "Ah Max! And who is this?" He asked.
"Hi Mr. Dickinson. These are Marco and Tobias." Madra closed the door. With his foot, Marco flicked the switch on the soundproofing device that Mr. Dickinson put in all of his offices.
"Mr. Dickinson, nice to meet you." Marco shook his hand. "Quite an honor."
"Why'd you drop by Marco?" Asked Mr. Dickinson.
We'd decided that Tobias and Marco would pretend to be Andilites in Human morph. "We want to ask you about a friend of your's one who was from... out of town." Tobias laid a gentle stress on the words, 'out of town.' "You see, I've traveled for a long time looking for my aunt Judin." Tobias said calmly. "My uncle Aximili showed me a family tree, and she was on it. He told me that Judin had been killed escaping from the Hork Bajir world." Mr. Dickinson's eyes were widening in comprehension and fear. "But then we found an underground chamber with her name on it."
"I... I don't know what you're talking about..." Mr. Dickinson stammered.
"But... Mr. Dickinson, the computer down there had your I.D. on it." Why was he being obtuse? Mr. Dickinson had told us everything before, without hesitation. Why was he being secretive NOW?
He turned eyes, expression closed, on me. "Max, stay out of this. This matter is over your head."
"It's over your head too human." Marco said coldly. "Perhaps Judin told you a little fairy tale about these creatures called Yeerks? Well they're here Mr. Dickinson, on your precious Earth, and one more Andilite could mean the difference between freedom and slavery."
Mr. Dickinson's expression was horrified.
"Well, I guess we're not going to learn anything from him. I suppose we could ask Voltaire, or Tyson's Grandfather." I suggested.
Mr. Dickinson looked down at the ground, expression unreadable. "The andilite in that picture died in a fire shortly before you were born Max. She is unable to help anyone now."
~later~
We made it back to my house and found mother on the phone. "Yes Mr. Dickinson, yes I'll talk to him. NO! I don't want my son involved in this. Thank you for telling me... bye." She hung up.
Then my mother turned a wrathful expression on Tobias and Marco. "What are you doing with my son??" She demanded. "I don't care how far up you are in the Andilite Military I don't want my son involved in a firefight against the yeerks!"
"Mom! This is important stuff! They need me! The other blade breakers are helping!" I pleaded.
Mother pointed a finger at the door. "I don't want to see the two of you near my son again! OUT!" She jabbed her finger at the door.
Marco glared defiantly up at her, but Tobias put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on Marco." He turned around.
I waited until they were gone, then I turned and followed them out. "Where are you going?" Mom demanded.
"To do something you'd never have the guts to do yourself!!" I shouted.
"Maximillian get back here!" Mother shouted.
I ignored her, storming out of the room. I slipped into an alleyway about a block down, morphed, and caught a good headwind all the way to Cassie's farm. I sailed into the loft, demorphed, and climbed down.
The other animorphs and Erek were waiting for me. "I was expecting you." Jake said.
"I figured as much." I grunted. All my life, my mother and I had never had an argument. I wondered absently if this was what family life was like during the civil war. How many children had felt like this as they stormed from their parents house to join the union or confederate armies?
"Listen Max." Tyson came forward. "We don't think that your mother is a controller, but to be sure we're going to have Erek and Tobias pull surveillance over our house for the next three days."
"How's Erek going to fit in?" I asked.
Erek's hologram dissolved, almost like when a bit beast is called back to their beyblade. Then another hologram built itself up in the same way. I gasped.
I was staring at a perfect replica of me! "Because she is not a dog, your mother will not be able to tell the difference, and it leaves you free to practice morphing and work on unlocking the computer in the grotto." Erek explained. He was using my voice!
I looked over at Jake with a gulp. "Do I have a choice in the matter?"
"Nope." Kai answered for him. "We can't risk you being infested, and personally, I think Judy has no right to pull you out of the fight, not with the stakes so high. You work on that computer, we'll work on the security."
I nodded. "Okay...okay then." I gulped. It felt like lying to my mother. She already knew some of what I was doing, if she knew that I was morphing... but she wouldn't. She wouldn't learn any more of what I was up to.
I felt sick. But then Marco rubbed his hands together. "Okay boys, girls, aliens and assorted wildlife, Rachel..."
"LETS DO IT!" Rachel pumped her fist in the air.
"LETS DO IT!" We echoed.
Cassie lent me a sleeping bag, and that night Ax let me ride him out to his scoop. My eyes widened when I saw it.
The scoop was open air. It was almost like a tiny bowl carved out of the ground. The southern half of the scoop was covered by a tarp to make a sort of open tent. In here Ax had jury-rigged a computer and the power to run it. Pictures of various foods were taped to the desk that the computer stood on.
//Cassie brought you some food for dinner. I'm sorry that its just fast food. Rachel said she'd come by with Mc Donald's in the morning.// Ax told me as I rolled out my sleeping bag.
"Thanks." I told him, opening the bag. It contained a supersized Big Mac meal. Morphing made me hungy. I tore into the burger.
As I ate, Ax studied me. //Max, I've been meaning to ask you, can you control the way you morph?//
I paused. "Sort of. I mean, when I morphed the hawk and the wolf, I just concentrated on morphing my arms and head first, then my legs and body." I took another big bite out of the hamburger.
//Ah. You are an estreen, that explains it.//
I swallowed. "What's an estreen?" I asked.
//A person who can control their ability to morph is an estreen.// Ax explained. //Cassie is one. She's the fastest morpher of the original group of Animorphs, and she is very good at controlling animal instincts.//
I took another bite. "Cool." Now I knew another andilite word. I felt like, like I was bringing back a memory that I'd forgotten with every morph, every word of Andilite that I learned.
I went to bed with an almost rosy feeling. I snuggled into the sleeping bag, and I dreamed...
I was walking through a forest, with a tiny andilite child at my side. //Judin! Judin!// The child tugged at my arm. //Where are we going?//
//This morning Elfangor, I will teach you your first ritual.// I said with a smile. //I'll be leaving soon to go to the Hork Bajir world, so mom said that you and I could have the whole day together. And then tomorrow it will be the four of us, but mother is preparing a surprise for tomorrow.//
//Oh Wow!// My brother's eyes widened, eye stalks straight in a gesture of eagerness.
//Here we are.// I stopped by a stream. //Now we wait for sunup.// I told him.
I turned and watched the horizon for the sunrise. There it was, the tiny crescent of gold peeking over the horizon. //Right, Elfangor, do as I do...// I dipped a hoof in the water. //From the water that gave birth to us...//
//From the water that gave birth to us...//
I crushed a tuft of grass under my feet. //From the grass that feeds us...//
//From the grass that feeds us...//
//For the freedom that unites us.// I spread my arms wide.
//For the freedom that unites us...//
//We rise to the stars.// I turned all for eyes upward.
I took on a fighting stance. //Freedom is my only guide, obedience to my prince my only glory.//
I delicately placed my tail blade at my throat. //I Judin Olarn Sorath, Andilite Princess, offer my life.//
I went limp.
Wait a minute! Tail blade? Humans didn't have that!
I looked down at my limbs.
I had four legs!
I looked at my hands.
I had too many fingers!
I looked down at my face in the water and screamed. I was human, but as I watched, my reflection began to change, change into an andilite about Ax's age, but the facial features were different enough so that I knew that I wasn't morphing Ax. My reflection grinned back at me as it morphed, and just before my/its mouth disappeared, it said, "LOOK BENEATH THE SURFACE!"
I sat up straight in the moonlight, shaking and sweating. //Are you alright?// Ax asked.
"I'm... I'm fine." I lied. I was so afraid, afraid of the dream. Then I remembered what my mother had once said, 'People are often afraid of the truth.' Was this dream the truth?
I shook my head in confusion. "Ax, I thought you were on watch."
//Rachel is keeping an eye on things now.// Ax explained.
"Do you think she'd mind if I joined her?" I asked.
//If you are not tired, an extra guard could only do good.// He agreed.
I ran through the woods, not morphing, just running. The wind whipped my hair, but I could not outrun the phantom sound of hooves drumming on the earth. Ax was not coming with me, so I knew that I was hearing things. All the time my brain screamed, /why, Why, WHY??/ As far as I could tell, none of the other Blade Breakers were having nightmares about their best friends turning into controllers. None of the others had dreams where their parents turned into an alien, or where they had turned into an alien. None of them dreamed about laughing butterflies. Why was I so special?
Then I remembered something that Tyson had said to Jake yesterday. "Max has always had strange powers. I mean, Kai is weaker concerning evil bitbeasts, but his empathy rating isn't as high as Max's."
Suddenly, "HURAOOOOOWR!" A grizzly bear rose up out of the bushes.
I screamed.
//MAX MAX! EASY ITS ME!// Rachel cried in thoughtspeak.
"Rachel, you almost gave me a heart attack!" I exclaimed.
//Sorry, I heard you coming and I thought you might be a controller.// Rachel explained.
I sighed and sat down. "Sorry, I couldn't sleep, so I thought that I should come and help keep an eye on the grotto."
//Great, you can keep track of the time. I can barely see my watch with these eyes.// Rachel chuckled. //Great sense of smell though.// She grinned. //Humans are such smelly creatures.//
I laughed. "Glad I can help you."
I leaned back against the false tree stump. "Sonic eat your heart out." I muttered.
//What?// Rachel asked.
I chuckled. "I was just reminded of Sonic the hedgehog, we might as well be guarding Knothole Village."
Rachel was about to retort when Tobias shouted... //ALERT!! MORPH!! PARENTAL UNIT ON ITS WAY!//
I was already starting. Unfortunately, I had lost focus on controlling the morph process. My knee joints reversed with a crunch. Desperately, I rolled into the bushes, praying that I was out of sight. My wolf hearing picked up, faintly.
"I don't think that it's a good idea to be out at night Judy." Mr. Dickinson was saying.
"We need to cut the Blade Breakers off from the Grotto. I'm sorry Dee, Sierran, but I don't want Max in there. There's a lot of dangerous stuff." Mom was saying.
"Are you doing this to protect Max or to hide from him?" Asked a voice that I recognized as Tyson's grandfather.
"I..." Mom was spared having to answer as Ax and I bolted from the trees and joined Rachel and Tobias. "Oh my god!" Her expression was horrified comprehension. "They've arrived, there are andilites here on Earth."
//Yes, I'm sure this is quite a 'newsflash' as Kai would put it.// Ax said calmly. //Human, you are being warned to turn back now and not to interfere with our attempts to unlock the Grotto.//
Mom glared at him, fists clenched in rage. "WHO DO YOU THINK BUILT THAT GROTTO YOU PILE OF SKRIT DUNG?? JUDIN COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT ON HER OWN! WE HELPED!"
//You mean like you won't help Max learn to fight?// I asked, barely concealing my rage. //He's willing to sacrifice everything in order to ensure his planet's freedom, and you hold him back? How selfish is that?// I asked.
"Max is too young to fight. It would be like trying to send an underage aristh into a full blown ground invasion!" Mom protested.
//You don't understand human! We are desperately underpowered, cut off from the homeworld, and the only weapon that we have is the morphing technology. It all comes down to a single escafil device! And what happens if we lose that? What do we do if our morphs are incapacitated?//
//Be careful what you say about underage arisths.// Ax growled. //I am an aristh, and when I joined the fight, I too was underage. I am stranded on Earth, I have made the most of it and thrown myself into the battle, as my brother Elfangor would have done!//
"STAY OUT OF THIS!" Mom shouted at him. She swung at Ax.
I didn't mean to do it. I didn't want to do it. I was angry, and it was an impulse. I leapt, at my own mother, and rammed her. Mom sprawled on the ground, eyes widening in fear. //How dare you attack an aristh? I was the one you were arguing with!// I growled at her.
"I will not lose my son. I will not let you teach him to morph, only to have him trapped!" Mom growled.
//And how do you propose to keep him from fighting?// Rachel asked, more calmly. She helped my mother to her feet. //Human, allying ourselves with other humans is probably the only way that we will win this war. And children are often better at morphing than adults. Human children have done amazing things. Didn't Beethoven compose his first song at the age of five?//
"Close." Mom admitted.
//And Joan of Arc was close to Max's age when she went off to fight.// Rachel answered. //You, human woman, must learn to let your children grow. I have heard from the human called Kai, that your Max is easily the most responsible human of the Blade Breakers. Consider that.//
"I'm not letting you block off the grotto." Mr. Dickinson said nervously, clearing his throat. He reached for the entry panel.
Again, that anger rose up inside of me. I jumped up on my hind legs and snapped at his outstretched hand. Mr. Dickinson jumped back. //STAY OUT OF OUR BUSINESS.//
"Yo dude." Tyson's grandfather told me. "I'm not trying to offend your andilite pride dude, but you have serious anger management issues."
They left. Tobias shadowed them. I demorphed and returned to Ax's scoop. I lay down in the sleeping bag and cried myself to sleep.