The Generation

Notes: There have been calls for Tyson. Therefore Tyson ye shall have! TysOOON?

Chapter 23-Tyson

Johnny came wading through the crowd. "Oliver's missing! And they took Max!"

"WHATTTT!!" I demanded.

"KEEP IT DOWN!" Hillary hissed, swatting me over the head with a newspaper.

Ax, Ezimili, and Tobias's jaw dropped. "I thought that they'd take you Tyson." Tobias shivered. "Excuse me. Johnny, would you mind covering me while I demorph."

"Where?"

"Men's room." Tobias gulped. "I'm the group messenger. Ezimili and Ax should demorph as well."

We followed Johnny, I pulled Kai and Rei aside as we went. "Kai, they took Max and Oliver. It's in motion now."

"Gotcha."

"Hey you guys!" Michael came sprinting over. "Have you seen Emily? She's been missing for at least half an hour. Some guy from the Sharing was going to offer her a biology scholarship, they went off to talk about it and never came back."

"No we haven't Michael." I said, putting on my best game face. "We'll tell her you're looking for her if we see her."

"Thanks." He headed off into the crowd to join Eddy and an ever-increasing crowd of teenage girls on the dance floor.

"Man whore." I muttered, derisively. MAX MAX MAX MY MAX!! I tried reaching his mind. No way! I couldn't hear him anywhere! If they'd hurt him I'd kill them, kill them all!

I didn't realize that I'd spoken out loud. "Easy tiger."

Tobias took cover in a broom closet. A few seconds later I heard. //This is Tobias! The yeerks are on the move! They've taken Max of the Blade Breakers, Oliver of the Majestics, and Emily of the All Starz! Johnny is taking Ax and Ezimili to change morphs! Hurry it up!//

A few seconds later Rachel and Cassie came barreling through the halls and met us outside the broom closet.

"Okay, who morphs where?" Cassie asked.

"Rachel and Cassie morph in the girl's room." Kai told them. "Hillary and Ezimili, Tyson and…"

"No way. I am not letting you into my head." I growled backing up.

Kai chuckled darkly. "Rock, paper, scissors Tyson?"

"No way!" I growled.

"Scared Tyson?" Kai insisted.

"I am NOT SCARED!" I shouted. "I simply have secrets that I don't want to share!"

"Tyson I have BLUE hair, blue! I am way, way too recognizable! You, on the other hand have black hair. Black hair is much, much more common than blue hair. And then there's the face paint. It doesn't wash off the first time I wash it. I've tried, but I can't get it off. I'd be recognizable in an instant. We're just lucky that the convention center doesn't have a gleet bio filter or a guard. Otherwise I'd be fried six ways to Sunday."

"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!" I capitulated. "But we make a deal. You don't blab my secrets, you don't delve into my memories! Got that?" I demanded.

"Okay." Kai said cheerfully.

Tobias came out of the broom closet. "Okay, I'm clear."

"How big is it in there?" Kai asked.

"Big enough for one pair up." Tobias answered.

"Well then, Hillary, Ezimili, in." Kai ushered them. "Johnny, clean up duty and then on guard."

"Right." Johnny said with a total lack of enthusiasm. "Is this because you don't like me? I mean, what's not to like?"

"Your attitude." Kai answered, as we walked down the hall towards the men's room.

The two of us slipped into the handicapped stall. "Ready Kai?" I asked, with a wicked grin.

"Ready." He answered.


Kai closed his eyes and began to morph.

The first thing that happened was his size. Kai began to shrink downward. His hair melted into his back and his skin became slimy. Kai's mouth and face began to melt into a pair of palps and a pair of antennae. It was pretty gross to watch. His arms and legs sucked in, becoming four tiny flippers. Kai's eyes closed and disappeared. His ears sucked into his head and his skin turned a very sickly gray.

He was complete. Kai had become the enemy. Worse, in this case, the time limit meant death. Because of the need for Kandrona rays, if Kai became trapped, we'd lose him after three days. I set my watch and picked up Kai, holding him to my ear.

Kai slithered his way into my ear. I felt nothing for a moment, and then incredible pain. Oh gods, no wonder Rei had collapsed! It felt, (in this case literally), like somebody was drilling right through my eardrum, into my brain.

//Sorry.// Kai said in thoughtspeak. //I think…//

I felt the pain cooling slightly. "What did you do?" I asked outloud.

//The yeerk produces painkillers.//

"Still hurts like…" Kai grabbed control of my mouth, hands, feet, legs. I felt him looking into my memories as he took control. Kai tried not to, but he ended up seeing, at the very least, how I felt about Max. Kai saw the incident at Ax's scoop.

//Aw man, that HAD to suck.// Kai rolled his/my/our eyes. //Hang on, I think I've got it.// He moved my hand, turning it palm up, palm down. He tried to walk, stumbling slightly.

//Watch it man!// I protested. //You're gonna get me all bruised up before we even get into a fight!//

"Sorry." Kai murmured. "ACK! Okay this is weird. I'm using Tyson's voice instead of thoughtspeak, hang on…"

//Hey you guys! Can you hear me?// He asked in thoughtspeak.

//We hear you. Come on Kai, there's no time to waste!// Cassie told us.

Kai began to walk.

I'll tell you, the weirdest sensation I have ever encountered during the whole stupid war was somebody else moving my legs.

We met Rachel/Cassie and Ezimili/Hillary outside the tunnel to the yeerk pool. We crept along, using the piles of building materials as cover. Kai pushed my bangs down over my eyes and kept my head low. Cassie and Hillary kept Rachel and Ezimili's hair shadowing their faces until we were out of the guard's sight.

As soon as we were around a bend I ran. We ran and ran and ran. Max, oh gods Max please be all right!

//Easy there Romeo.// Kai cautioned me. //We have to make it look believable.//

//Believability can kiss my ass Kai. They're mine if they so much as lay a paw on Max!//

Kai shook our head. "Tyson no, we can't do that."

We came to a fork in the tunnel about a hundred yards from the pool.

"psst! You guys!" A rock whispered.

"Erek is that you?" Kai whispered.


"Yeah, it's me. I'm not sure how you managed to fool the guard."

"He was sleeping." Hillary whispered.

"Right. Come inside of my hologram. I'll protect you while you demorph and remorph. It took at least fifteen minutes for you to get down here, but here's the deal; we need to find some way to open the cages to create a diversion. Toby and her people are spread out and waiting for us. When that happens we use the mayhem to morph and attack. Listen also, I'm programmed against violence. I can't raise a finger, there's a group of chee spread out throughout the cavern at ninety degree angles. They'll be ready to take you in when you need to escape. Toby will lead the hork bajir into battle, but when they leave, we'll leave, and you'll leave too. We can't show any interest in Max and the others, and we need to wait until there's one from every team, otherwise the whole thing will be blown wide open. Visser three is up in orbit, it will take him only half an hour to get from here to there. My fellow chee have rigged the blade ship to have a bit of engine trouble in order to stall him for another half hour."

I knew how to contact Max. //Kai, gimme control of my mouth for a second.//

"Tyson has something to say." Kai said calmly. "I'm disengaging. Everybody, get out and demorph, then switch places."

Kai slipped out, and about five minutes later he was human again.

There we stood, five humans and an andilite. "Look, I didn't tell you guys this before, but no matter where Max, is, for some reason, I can talk to him in thoughtspeak. Don't ask how, because I don't know, but that's what I can do."

I felt a rising sense of panic and fear that meant only one thing,

//Max!// I cried in thoughtspeak.

//Tyson?// Max asked groggily.

//Where are you?//

//I'm not sure.// He answered. //It's a cave. Oliver and Emily are with me. Where are you?//

//A taxxon tunnel, with Erek and the others. Are you ready?//

~tbc~