AN: Sorry it took so long, guys, but I have a feeling post are going to be sporadic until Christmas break. See, it's concert season, AND college app crunch time, and, well, I just don't have time. ^.^; This chapter is stupidly short, but I thought it was necessary to avoid confusion down the road. And I was trying desperately to climb out of the pit that is writer's block. So, I'm sorry, and there will be another, longer, more exciting one coming up.

Disclaimer: The usual. If it belongs to someone else, it's not mine. (Obviously.) And I'm not trying to use it as such. Don't sue me, because I'll lose my entire life's savings. All $4.50 of it. Yeah.

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Jake

This was one of those harebrained ideas you would usually hear from Rachel. And yet, I was the one who had suggested it. Life is funny sometimes.

At first it seemed like a good idea, right? We would morph something small and ride into the ship under the hologram of one of the Chee. There we would wait until we were far from land, demorph, remorph battle morphs and take over the ship. Then we would fly it into Japan, search for the new Andelites, get them small morphs and sneak them back. Erik and co. would then tell the Visser a harrowing tale of how he and his friends were the only ones to escape the furious battle which killed the rest of the crew and the strange Andelites. A good plan.

Several things wrong with that.

One. We would have to demorph and remorph right under the Controller's noses. We were going in a Bug ship, and there was no space to hide.

Two. During the battle, someone was going to have to keep the ship from falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Three. If any of the Controllers aboard saw us and transmitted the report to the Visser, well, we were doomed.

Four. We didn't know how long it would take.

And five. If Erik's story didn't fly with the Visser, for whatever reason, the entire Chee colony could be exposed.

Marco took great joy in pointing these five things out to me. All at once. Damn, that boy thinks fast.

But to my surprise, Erik had an answer to all of them.

"As long as none of the Controllers looks too close, you can hide under my hologram. And you don't all need to fight. There will only be two Hork-Bajir and one Taxxon on board. You need only send enough to take those three out."

I looked around at the team. Who would be the best suited . . .Ah. Of course.

"Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias. And me, of course."

Immediately there was an uproar.

Prince Jake! I wish to fight!

"Singling me out, ol' buddy. I see how it is."

"Shut up, you two." Rachel said. "It's because you're the techies. Duh."

Hmm. It surprised me that Rachel had been the one to figure me out. Of course, she was right.

Techies?

"It means we're the best with computers, Ax-man."

Ah. From the word 'technical', I assume? Interesting. But I still would prefer to fight.

"I know, Ax. But I need you to keep the ship under control while we take it over. Or we're all dead. Marco because he's got a morph with fingers, and he's most likely to understand you."

Ax was quiet. But I knew he would stick to his job. I was his prince, after all.

As much as I hate being called that, Ax's loyalty often came in handy.

"Well. You are decided, then?" Erik asked. "Because we leave in two hours."

"Almost. We don't know how long we're going to be gone. Can your people cover for Cassie, Rachel, Marco and I?"

"Yeah, and don't clean my room this time." Marco added. Erik nodded, ignoring him.

"We have already arranged it. We were simply waiting for your decision."

Marco and I exchanged glances. So the Chee had expected us to want to go with them.

"All right, then. Anything I missed?"

No one answered. "I guess not. So relax for a little, guys. Go home, wrap things up, grab some clothes, whatever. Talk to the Chee who'll be impersonating you. But be back here in . . . an hour and forty-five minutes."

^^^^^^^

As always, thank you to my reviewers! And look, I have so MANY!!

Chessrook: It's not so much that it WAS bad, but that it was on its WAY to being bad. Hopefully I steered it in the right direction.

John Chris: Thanks! And no, this is a single book. The non-Animorphs characters are of my own creation.

JulyFlame: Yessir!!….ma'am. Whatever.

Baranth: Yes, that was the idea. Actually, I got the idea for Rana and Mik from a picture I found on Elfwood. If I can find it again, I might post the address.

Celestial Star1: Thank you! I'm not surprised you like Sakura. See, she was originally supposed to be this sweet, shy, proper little Japanese schoolgirl. But she didn't want to be. Oh, no, Sakura poked me with a big, pointy stick until I was convinced to let her true feistiness show through. Lesson learned? Don't give your characters big pointy sticks.

LOOK!!!!! FIVE reviewers!! FIVE!!!! *happyhappydance*

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