A/N: I repent in dust and ashes for taking so long to update, and for
converting over to a different thoughtspeech format. I fought with FFN for
a long time, trying to figure out how to make regular brackets work, but
they wouldn't. So, for this chapter, at least, I was forced to use { }'s.
I really, really hated to do this. If anybody out there knows how to make
FFN accept regular thoughtspeech brackets, I would *LOVE* some instruction.
Thank you for your patience and your support. And now . . . on with the
show, this is it!
-------------------
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no."
"Marco . . ." Cassie sighed.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
"Marco," Jake said.
"Absolutely not! We have progressed beyond the point of insanity!"
{Marco,} Tobias began.
"Rachel pulling a Jekyll and Hyde act was insane. Going to the Iskoort homeworld was insane. Anytime Ax was in Cinnabon was insane. This is beyond all of that!"
"Marco, would you please shut up!?" I shouted. "You're not helping!"
He scowled, folding his arms and leaning up against the wall of the barn.
{I do not understand,} Mary Sue said. {I have offered to assist you in your battle against the Yeerks. Why are you not jubilating?}
Jake looked at Cassie. Cassie stared wordlessly at the floor.
Well, somebody had to be blunt with Miss Ego. "Because, Mary Sue," I said, "we don't know if we can trust you."
{Of course you can! I am a Helmacron!}
"Strike one," Marco muttered.
{Not only a Helmacron, but a Helmacron female!}
"Strike two."
{In addition, I also now possess the transforming power, as do the rest of you!}
"Strike three. Yeeeeeeee'rrrre OUT!"
{I do not understand,} Mary Sue repeated.
{Marco is referencing a human game, Mary Sue. In essence, he is attempting to communicate that he does not believe any of the reasons listed are sufficient to establish a firm trust relationship between us. I would tend to agree.}
Jake cleared his throat. He had been watching the rest of us. Letting Cassie think. Letting Marco rail. Letting me steam. Now, he frowned down at the Helmacron. "Look, Mary Sue, here's the problem. We have to be very careful what we do. We have to maintain total secrecy, all the time. And on top of the fact that we really have no reason to believe that you wouldn't sell us out to the Yeerks in a minute --- "
"NEEP!"
" --- there are also problems with your staying a Helmacron. Where will you live? How will you survive?"
"Yeah," Marco said. "How do we make sure some baby bunny doesn't inhale you?"
{All mere technicalities,} Mary Sue said dismissively. {The point is, you now have a formidable ally on your side. Me.}
"Funny," Marco said. "Seems to me like we have a formidable idiot on our hands."
{Then she is in good company,} Ax snorted from the shadows. I looked up at him in surprise. He glared back at us accusingly. {With all due respect, this should never have been allowed to happen in the first place. We should not have agreed to care for her, or given her the morphing ability. I was concerned from the outset that it was poor judgment to get involved. This entire situation could have simply been avoided if we had done as I suggested initially, Prince Jake.}
We stared. For Ax, that was pretty close to a tirade. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, though. He had made it perfectly clear how he felt about the situation from the start, and had been sullen since Mary Sue arrived.
"But Ax-man, don't sugarcoat it. Tell us how you really feel," Marco said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
I looked at Jake, then back at Ax. Both of them had been acting stressed- out lately. I wondered why. I mean, yes, a war with brain-stealing slugs will make you stressed, but we'd been through tougher times than these. Something weird was up.
Cassie stared at the ground.
Jake stood up, his jaw set. "Okay, Ax, so what do you suggest we do now?"
{Now?} Ax echoed blankly.
"Yeah. You want to be the alien-issues adviser. What do you advise we do with the alien?"
Ax hesitated. Obviously, he had not been expecting Jake to call upon him for an immediate solution. {Well, we cannot allow her to wander alone. And we are unable to trap her, as all bodies she might morph are larger than her natural form. We could . . .} he swayed his tail in a cutting motion.
"No. Okay, Ax, I want to listen to you," Jake said firmly. "But I refuse to kill her. She hasn't done anything wrong."
"Aside from whatever it was she was banished for," Marco muttered.
{Captain, listen to me,} said Mary Sue.
"Who?"
"She means you, Jake."
{I recognize that I have placed you in a quandary. You refuse to terminate me, yet you cannot simply allow me to exist on my own, for fear of my betraying you or being accidentally killed. Your preference would be for me to exist in some Earth creature form, far away from human habitation. This is, however, not an acceptable proposal to my mind. Therefore, you are left only one option. You must allow me to join your army.}
I looked at Jake. Jake looked at Cassie. Cassie looked at the ground. Ax looked just plain mad. Marco rolled his eyes. Tobias rustled in the rafters.
{She has a point,} Tobias said.
"Oh, yes," Marco said. "Goody. Let's make another David, only this time, let's make sure she's a super-egotistical alien the size of a dust mote. That's just beautiful."
"Okay," Jake said. "One more vote. But we're not leaving the barn until this is unanimous."
"Prepare to starve," Marco growled.
We stayed in the barn for the next three hours, arguing in huge logical and emotional circles. Cassie's dad came in once, and Ax barely avoided being discovered. Cassie silently mucked out all the horse stalls in the time it took us to come to a consensus. We were all frustrated, tired, and confused by the end.
Marco agreed fairly quickly, after he stopped whining. He's got a tactician's mind. He saw that the only way out of this mess was to accept Mary Sue as an Animorph. At least, for the time being.
The rest of the time was spent in convincing Ax. It took the combined efforts of all six of us, including Mary Sue, to get him to agree. You think mules and toddlers are stubborn. Try to talk an Andalite into something he's dead set against.
But, about ten minutes before the point where I probably would have snapped from the sheer frustration of it all, Ax finally agreed. The whole group breathed a sigh of relief.
I held my throbbing head in my hands. I'm pretty sure I spoke for everybody when I said, "Welcome to the Animorphs, Mary Sue. Cassie, break out the Tylenol."
-------------------
"No. No, no, no, no, no, no."
"Marco . . ." Cassie sighed.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
"Marco," Jake said.
"Absolutely not! We have progressed beyond the point of insanity!"
{Marco,} Tobias began.
"Rachel pulling a Jekyll and Hyde act was insane. Going to the Iskoort homeworld was insane. Anytime Ax was in Cinnabon was insane. This is beyond all of that!"
"Marco, would you please shut up!?" I shouted. "You're not helping!"
He scowled, folding his arms and leaning up against the wall of the barn.
{I do not understand,} Mary Sue said. {I have offered to assist you in your battle against the Yeerks. Why are you not jubilating?}
Jake looked at Cassie. Cassie stared wordlessly at the floor.
Well, somebody had to be blunt with Miss Ego. "Because, Mary Sue," I said, "we don't know if we can trust you."
{Of course you can! I am a Helmacron!}
"Strike one," Marco muttered.
{Not only a Helmacron, but a Helmacron female!}
"Strike two."
{In addition, I also now possess the transforming power, as do the rest of you!}
"Strike three. Yeeeeeeee'rrrre OUT!"
{I do not understand,} Mary Sue repeated.
{Marco is referencing a human game, Mary Sue. In essence, he is attempting to communicate that he does not believe any of the reasons listed are sufficient to establish a firm trust relationship between us. I would tend to agree.}
Jake cleared his throat. He had been watching the rest of us. Letting Cassie think. Letting Marco rail. Letting me steam. Now, he frowned down at the Helmacron. "Look, Mary Sue, here's the problem. We have to be very careful what we do. We have to maintain total secrecy, all the time. And on top of the fact that we really have no reason to believe that you wouldn't sell us out to the Yeerks in a minute --- "
"NEEP!"
" --- there are also problems with your staying a Helmacron. Where will you live? How will you survive?"
"Yeah," Marco said. "How do we make sure some baby bunny doesn't inhale you?"
{All mere technicalities,} Mary Sue said dismissively. {The point is, you now have a formidable ally on your side. Me.}
"Funny," Marco said. "Seems to me like we have a formidable idiot on our hands."
{Then she is in good company,} Ax snorted from the shadows. I looked up at him in surprise. He glared back at us accusingly. {With all due respect, this should never have been allowed to happen in the first place. We should not have agreed to care for her, or given her the morphing ability. I was concerned from the outset that it was poor judgment to get involved. This entire situation could have simply been avoided if we had done as I suggested initially, Prince Jake.}
We stared. For Ax, that was pretty close to a tirade. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, though. He had made it perfectly clear how he felt about the situation from the start, and had been sullen since Mary Sue arrived.
"But Ax-man, don't sugarcoat it. Tell us how you really feel," Marco said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
I looked at Jake, then back at Ax. Both of them had been acting stressed- out lately. I wondered why. I mean, yes, a war with brain-stealing slugs will make you stressed, but we'd been through tougher times than these. Something weird was up.
Cassie stared at the ground.
Jake stood up, his jaw set. "Okay, Ax, so what do you suggest we do now?"
{Now?} Ax echoed blankly.
"Yeah. You want to be the alien-issues adviser. What do you advise we do with the alien?"
Ax hesitated. Obviously, he had not been expecting Jake to call upon him for an immediate solution. {Well, we cannot allow her to wander alone. And we are unable to trap her, as all bodies she might morph are larger than her natural form. We could . . .} he swayed his tail in a cutting motion.
"No. Okay, Ax, I want to listen to you," Jake said firmly. "But I refuse to kill her. She hasn't done anything wrong."
"Aside from whatever it was she was banished for," Marco muttered.
{Captain, listen to me,} said Mary Sue.
"Who?"
"She means you, Jake."
{I recognize that I have placed you in a quandary. You refuse to terminate me, yet you cannot simply allow me to exist on my own, for fear of my betraying you or being accidentally killed. Your preference would be for me to exist in some Earth creature form, far away from human habitation. This is, however, not an acceptable proposal to my mind. Therefore, you are left only one option. You must allow me to join your army.}
I looked at Jake. Jake looked at Cassie. Cassie looked at the ground. Ax looked just plain mad. Marco rolled his eyes. Tobias rustled in the rafters.
{She has a point,} Tobias said.
"Oh, yes," Marco said. "Goody. Let's make another David, only this time, let's make sure she's a super-egotistical alien the size of a dust mote. That's just beautiful."
"Okay," Jake said. "One more vote. But we're not leaving the barn until this is unanimous."
"Prepare to starve," Marco growled.
We stayed in the barn for the next three hours, arguing in huge logical and emotional circles. Cassie's dad came in once, and Ax barely avoided being discovered. Cassie silently mucked out all the horse stalls in the time it took us to come to a consensus. We were all frustrated, tired, and confused by the end.
Marco agreed fairly quickly, after he stopped whining. He's got a tactician's mind. He saw that the only way out of this mess was to accept Mary Sue as an Animorph. At least, for the time being.
The rest of the time was spent in convincing Ax. It took the combined efforts of all six of us, including Mary Sue, to get him to agree. You think mules and toddlers are stubborn. Try to talk an Andalite into something he's dead set against.
But, about ten minutes before the point where I probably would have snapped from the sheer frustration of it all, Ax finally agreed. The whole group breathed a sigh of relief.
I held my throbbing head in my hands. I'm pretty sure I spoke for everybody when I said, "Welcome to the Animorphs, Mary Sue. Cassie, break out the Tylenol."