"Well, what now?" Marco sighed, dropping heavily down on a bale of hay.
"She's not a controller. We've followed her around for the three days, and all she did was go sightseeing on the second day" Rachel said, sounding angry. She had lost a lot of sleep from just following this girl around, and to her she seemed normal.
(I'm surprised you're not jumping for joy Marco) Tobias stated, sitting high in the rafters and preening his feathers.
"Well, I might if I had the energy, but..." Cassie cut Marco off.
"No, there's something else wrong here"
"Like what?" he asked her.
(Like the fact that she talks to birds that seem to understand her) Jake said as he fluttered in from the barn door, demorphing the second he landed. Ax followed, turning from bird to Andalite, then going straight into his human morph.
"So, you're saying this is more than just a Yeerk we've got on our hands?" Rachel asked, still not sounding happy.
"Could it be another Andalite?" Cassie asked.
(No) Was Tobias's instant response.
"He's right. We watched her for more than two hours at the Gardens, and she never even made a move to go 'hide' or anything" Marco added laying his head back and closing his eyes.
"Well... maybe she just likes birds" Rachel offered, shrugging.
(Who ever heard of someone liking a common crow?) There was distaste in Tobias's voice as he ruffled his feathers again.
"Tobias, you're too touchy when it comes to other birds" Rachel teased, and he just stared back at her.
"Oh great, so you're telling me I've been chasing a tree hugger for a date?" Marco sat up, glancing at Cassie before looking Jake. Cassie ignored him.
"Look, I we can figure out what she is later. Right now, we've got a bigger problem" Jake spoke up, glaring at his friend before turning his attention to the others.
"Yeerks, right?"
"Uh-huh"
"Oh yay. Do I get a prize for guessing right?"
"Marco!" Rachel snapped.
"The Yeerks are looking for a group of Hork-Bajir that have gone missing from the pool a few days ago. They were voluntary hosts, so it was much easier for them to get out undetected" Ax explained.
(What happened? Did they finally wake up one morning and say 'hey, we don't want to do this anymore, let's go?') Tobias was listening intently now, his hawk eyes focused intently on Ax's.
"The Chee don't know what happened, but these guys aren't fooling around anymore. From now on, all the hosts are in lockdown, just in case they decide to take tips from the Hork-Bajir"
"So it's Animorphs to the rescue huh?" Marco asked, smirking a little.
"You betcha" Jake replied.
"So how are we gonna find these guys?"
Look. How else?
"We can only use guesswork on this one. They probably would try to head for the areas most populated by trees, and keep hidden"
"But they're Hork-Bajir. Without the Yeerk in their head they're only a little smarter than average toddlers" Rachel pointed out, and Jake sighed.
"Of course. Either way, they'd still be moving as fast as they could"
"This is gonna be a looong night" Rachel was back in her 'mood', probably knowing she wouldn't sleep for at least the next week.
Break
Three days later, we were moved by my dad's company into and old apartment not far from the hotel. And for once in almost two weeks, I actually had some privacy. It wasn't easy having to sleep in the same room as my dad and brother, especially when they both started snoring. Plus, I got to call Amanda... with my dad's permission of course. It wasn't long, but it sure made me feel like I hadn't stepped into loopy land. She asked about guys, and I told her about Jake and Marco. She asked if I'd met into any 'cool American chicks' and I told her about Rachel and Cassie. Then she asked how I was doing. That's Mandy for you. Thinks with her heart, and obsessed with new and different fashions. I guess that's why she was my friend. She grounded me when I thought I was going absolutely nuts.
But the next afternoon, I decided to follow the two guys, Jake and Marco. I had noticed they both seemed to be a little up in the air. They looked awful, like someone they knew had died, and kept arriving late to school, and 'skipping' periods, especially the last period. As I've said before, I have a habit of being suspicious.
So I walked along, about twenty metres behind them, my headphones blaring, an old blue cap I used to wear when I was younger on my head, and humming away to the music. As I've been told, the best place to hide is right out in public. I wasn't about to do the traditional 'hide behind trees and houses and hope they don't see me' trick, since that never really worked anyway. And it looked completely stupid.
I knew I was going to have to find another way to follow them soon, but for now, I was actually having fun with it.
"I wont take nothin' less, than a deeper looove, let me tell you, you, you know, IIII... I need a miracle, I need a miracle..." I sang happily to my old mix tape, twisting my cap so it was on backwards. I liked it like that, plus, this was my lucky hat. I'd had it on during my first fight with the Terinans, and hey, I survived, so I'd call that pretty lucky.
Jake sort of glanced back at me, but besides that, they didn't seem to care that I was there.
Good, working already. Now, if I could just...
SCREEEEEEEEE!!!!
Out of no-where, I felt something hit the back of my head, then my hat was lifted.
"Hey!" I looked up to see a peregrine falcon, flying off with my hat!
{Come on you idiot, we're all waiting} came the voice, and I had to grit my teeth to keep from yelling out something obscene.
"Hey! Hey you stupid bird, come back here!" I chased the falcon down the street, past the boys and away towards where I saw a tree line.
"Uh, hey Jade, wait up!" I heard Jake's voice, but I turned my head and yelled out,
"It's ok guys, I can deal with it!" I ran faster than I ever thought I could run in my life, chasing the bird that was going to get a clobbering when I caught up to it. I tugged my headphones off, stopping the tape and chucking the whole cassette player back in my bag. Lousy little...
"Give me back my hat you stupid bird!" I yelled again, furious. I hit the edge of the woods and just kept going, not taking my eyes off the damn bird.
{I will, when you catch me} Robert mocked, and I screamed in frustration. He led me to a small clearing, where he dropped my hat. I stumbled in after, feeling like my chest was going to explode.
"You... stupid... little... a-"
I never got to finish, because at that moment strong hands gripped me from behind, holding me like a vice.
"No! How did you get there?!" I turned my head slightly to see a flash of dark hair and icy blue eyes, and I knew it was Robert.
"Sorry Jade, but I didn't have any other choice. Guys?" he called, and out stepped Ithiell, in his human form, and Amanda.
"Hold her tight, we need to make sure" Ithiell pulled out something that looked like what doctors stick in your ear when they're checking them.
"Make sure what? What are you doing?" I felt panic now, knowing they'd never act like this. Something was wrong. Something...
"Don't worry Jade, we just need to make sure of... something" Amanda's usually cool brown eyes were looking everywhere except at me.
"NO!" I snapped, kicking Robert in the place no guy wants to be kicked. He let go, dropping me to the ground.
"No, don't let her go!" Ithiell yelled, trying to catch me but I dodged him, stumbling and trying to get a foothold to start running. Before I could I was tackled to the ground, and two of them put all their weight into keeping me there.
To my surprise, I saw a bright red light out of the corner out of my eye, then a beep and Ithiell sighing.
"It's ok, she's clear" The pressure was released, and Amanda helped me up.
"Ok, what the hell was that about!" I snapped, turning on all three of them. Amanda backed up, looking guilty.
"I'm sorry Jade, but if you knew what we were up to.... and you were... you'd have tried everything to stop us"
"Why... what is going on?!! I said another word in between that, and making her step back a little more.
"We had to make sure you were clear. That's what I wanted to talk to you about" He slapped the funny looking stethoscope into his other hand, looking serious. Then again, he was almost always serious. He had been our 'group' leader when we were on other planets, so there was a lot of pressure on him. He's only a couple of years older, but he always finds a way to look about ten years older.
"Well, what is it?" As I said this, Robert stretched out an arm to give me back my hat, and I snatched it from him, glaring at his arrogant features. He was tall, and if he actually cared about any of us I would probably think he was cute. The dark curls always seemed to cover his face, and his eyes could make you shiver, even if it was above forty degrees. He was dangerous as an enemy, but... you could never really call him and ally, or be his friend. He'd never let anyone close enough.
"I've received reports from a Chanaiben government about a new sort of war that has started, but not between the same races as before" He assured me before I could get a word out.
"This one involves a race called the An-de-lites" He was thinking hard, trying to remember the name, but he shrugged and continued "And a parasitic race called the Yeerks"
"Yeerks? What?"
"They are parasitic species. They enter a... hosts'... brain through the ear canal, taking over their body and using it as their own. Now, their weakness is they need these host bodies to... well... do anything, really. Their natural state is the form of something simular to an earth slug, so they cannot hear or see. They live in a pool until they get a host body. They said something else... but our line was a little crackly before it cut out"
"Uh-oh. Is that normal? And what about these... Yeerks? Are you going to say the one thing I really don't want you to say?"
"Unfortunately, the answer for both, is yes"
I sighed heavily, knowing what was coming next but still needing to hear it to know it was real. Just when I was getting a life...
"Jade, these Yeerks are on Earth"
Break
Jake and Marco watched in the bushes, not believing what they had heard. They had raced after her, trying to stop her from going into the woods, and when they saw she was in trouble, they were ready to come to her aid.
But then they had let her go, and told her about the Yeerks. Neither of them was expecting what they heard from the boy with red hair.
"Jake?" Marco asked in a hushed whisper, and his friend nodded.
"Yeah, I heard"
"You know what this means, don't you?"
"Yeah. It means we might not be alone anymore"
Break
Just if any of you were wondering, the song Jade was singing was Toca's Miracle by Fragma.
And thankyou for actually reading this far. There will be a lot more to come, and I'll do my best to make it a lot more... thrilling.