Lookie! It's close to the beginning of the month, and I've updated again (look how timely the last couple of updates have been of late... pretty impressive, no?)

Anywho.. thanks to everyone who reviewed!

answering your questions / comments

EDSEL thanks! I'm glad you think I got Marco right, and that you liked the pudding scene. : ) also erm Tire Factory? You CAUGHT THAT?!? glares I didn't think anyone would get that! Thanks for the review!!! And for the beta-job!!! I love you !!!

Aldrea: sorry about the impersonation thing...maybe they didn't do it on purpose. And glad you liked Marco. Thanks for the review!

Farrellann Ocasio : Nice to see a new face! Yeah, Jake is totally a sorry loser right now (poor Jake!) I always had a crush on him... so it's doubly hard writing him like that...anywho.. thanks for the review! I hope that you continue reading! (and reviewing of course!)

Miss Piratess:Yep, Marco is definitely a moron (and I based some of his stuff after my little brother...so I guess read into that what you will! lol). Anywho...thanks for the review! Here's another Marco chappie, so that oughta be good, right? : )

Korean Pearl:Glad you think I got Marco right! Like I said, his humor is a bit more slap-stick than mine. And yeah, Marco hates politics (I figured all the speeches and such would really bore him). And yeah, I agree with you the General is kinda a steriotype, but I actually did that on purpose. (nononon really! Just lemme justify real quick.. I really did have a reason! )The general won't be re-appearing for a LONG time, and so I figured that by then the only way anyone would even remember him was if his character was either really odd or really simple. So I chose simple/steriotype. (but you know what's kinda scary? The General is actually based on this "loyal" customer at the grocery store that I work at. That customer is an old, grouchy man who seriously goes out of his way to make all the employees have a miserable day. (He was so rude that he made my friend cry once). I think that jerk has nothing else to do or something b/c he's at our store like twice a day being as nasty as possible. But so I was real happy to get my passive-aggressive revenge on him by writing him into my story and having "bird poop" hit him on the head) : )

Anonymous-cat: No! by all means keep up the Cassie argument. My best friend and I always argue. About everything. (I think we enjoy it or something. Or maybe we're just screwed in the head or something. Or both). Yeah, but so keep coming with the Cassie's : ) But I gotta tell you, I'm kinda opinionated about her. ( just in case you couldn't tell : ) but in this chappie, I think you'll be happy b/c I was pretty nice to Cassie here. And flames! Paa! Keep 'em coming too! It's much better to have feedback telling me what sucks with things rather than just have ppl get disgusted with me and stop reading altogether. Anywho.. thanks for the review!

Dark Ice Dragon: yeah, Gameboy. (you know how "with" it I am with all that stuff...i stopped paying attention since Super Nintendo came out). Glad you enjoyed this! Was really trying to get the humor there (and still make it Marco-ish) and that took me a lot of work! So I'm glad that you think it came out alright. Thanks for the review!

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Summary: gawd, this thing just gets longer and longer, doesn't it?

Let's see...Jake is depressed and stuff b/c the Animorphs are splitting up....Marco, Cassie, and Jake throw Ax a Going Away Party and Jake gives Ax his Grandpa's Purple Heart. (Jake's Grandpa, not Ax's)....The Phalanx race was decimated by the One, but Redan Fin-Va traps the One in this ship called the Trapli and sends him into free-space. The ship is programmed to avoid all LARGE gravitational forces....The Yeerks, led by the newly promoted Visser One (Efflit) are trying to rebuild the Yeerk Empire. They stumble upon an abandoned ship w/ a warning message (recording ) from Redan Fin-Va. They misunderstand the message and prepare to board the ship, so they can add it to their fleet....Meanwhile, on the alien ship (which we all recognize as the Trapli) the One is taunting his captive, Redan Fin-Va. We learn that the One kills creatures by stealing their souls. (Their bodies are left to die, after the One robs them of their "essence.") Anyways, the One wanders around the ship and forces Redan's essence to view his long dead body (frozen into the bulkhead). As the One (w/Redan's essence) stand there, they hear a pounding noise and then the entrance to the ship explodes. The One senses 10- no 20 presences and runs from the entrance to hide, so he won't "prematurely alarm his quarry. Anyways, the Controllers enter the "Alien vessel" and find Redan's frozen body. After being thoroughly creeped out, the Controllers split up into groups of five. One group is headed by sub-visser 67, Omeria, and the other by Visser Two, Turin. Anyways, Controllers explore the ship and what-nought when suddenly Omeria's group begins to pick up an AC current. The amplitude of this current is increasing like mad and for some reason the Blade Ship computer can't confirm Omeria's readings. It can't even confirm that there's life (the Controllers) on the ship... Anyways, the peak amplitudes of the AC current keep increasing, suddenly Omeria screams and everyone looses contact with her.

Anyways, Visser Two's group is sent to investigate what happened to Omeria b/c no one can get in contact with her. Visser Two's team finds Omeria's team all lying on the floor, still breathing, but not responding. Uh, Yaban (one of V-2's guys) picks up some increasing AC currents signals and they all jet out of the room where they found Omeria. So V-2 and Co. run to the exit of the alien vessel, but are confronted by the One. The One kicks butt, and V-2 tries to sacrifice himself so that the Blade Ship can get away. Only V-2 gets "killed," but the Blade Ship get away b/c the pesky magnetic seal on the docking terminal, won't de-magnitize (that wouldn't have anything to do with Dah One, would it?). Anyways, the One makes his way onto the Blade Ship and goes into the Yeerk Ship by somehow opening the entrance in the docking bay. (V-1 says that its magnetic, and we learn that the One can open magnetic doors...nifty trick, eh?) So, V-1 sends Sub-Visser 15 (remember the stupid HB on the bridge? ) and some other Controllers to try and slow the One down/ stop him. V-1, meanwhile runs to the Pool Room to protect the 700 free Yeerks in the Pool. He takes 4 HB's and 6 Human Controllers to guard with him. V-1 and friends seal the door and then barricade the entrance to the Pool Room. And they wait.... Anways.. so Efflit (V-1) is waiting in the Pool Room with his troops. His host, Regan, tries to get Efflit to him to commit suicide before the creature kills them both. (Regan's sick of being a slave and wants to be "free" with his family). Of course, Efflit refuses. Anyways, the Controllers hear a knock on the Pool Room door. Further inspection shows that the knocker is the wounded Sub-Visser 15 (the Hork Bajir). The Controllers let him in, only then the Hork Bajir transforms into the One. (The One was disguised as Sub-Visser 15). Anyways, there's a big fight..yada yada... everyone's down 'cept Visser One. Then the One attacks V-1. The One snacks on Regan (Visser One's host) and meanwhile Efflit (the Yeerk) hears about how the One really likes eating human life-forces. The sneaky Yeerk then strikes a deal with the One: if the One lays off the free Yeerks in the Yeerk Pool, then Efflit & Co. will lead the One to Earth and the 6 billion human morsels. The One agrees, and the chappie ends with Efflit realizing that he's in control of his "host body" only his host (Regan) is totally gone.

So after leaving the Efflit on the Blade ship, we suddenly zap to the beginning of book #55, and Rachel's scene with the Ellimist before she goes to "the resting place." Anywho, we learn that Rachel is like a ghost that gets to watch over ppl. Rachel, being dead, is no longer "constrained" by time, and so while her friends age on Earth, time passes quicker for Rachel b/c she's dead. Rachel visits Marco and Tobias (and neither can see her b/c she's dead and "doesn't exist on the same physical plane" as they living do). Anywho, while visiting Marco, Rachel realizes that the Animorphs won the war. Rachel overhears Marco talk about his mother attending some big security conference in Washington, and Marco says he's going to go and watch Eva speak. Tobias, meanwhile, is living in the forest like a hawk. Rachel "opened her heart" and "concentrated only on Tobias" and then she knew all the things that was going on with Tobias's life. (This is called watching over them, and it's a perk of being dead). Anways, Rachel wants to help Tobias, b/c he's such a wreck, but the Ellimist tells her that "there's little that she can do" and he can't do anything, and she should go to the resting place.

Next, we moved to Cassie. It was one month after the Ax party and Cassie was giving a speech to the National Alien Security Convention in Washington D.C. We see Eva and Marco at the NASC also. Cassie's speech pretty much covered this really bad terrorist attack (huge forest fire) on the Hork Bajir Habitat of Yellowstone Park. Cassie goes on to say that she is supporting the Smith-Chowders Bill Alien Security Bill. The Alien Security Bill attacks the "person" loophole by legally defining aliens as "persons." (Most U.S. laws are only defined for "persons" and so crimes against "alien foreign visitors" get thrown out of court b/c they're not legally defined as crimes). Besides, learning about Cassie's sponsoring of this very controversial bill (it's controversial b/c ppl are afraid that defining aliens as "persons" is the first step in aliens becoming U.S. citizens), we also meet Ronnie Chambers, Cassie's new boyfriend. Cassie and Ronnie have been together for 6 months.

New to Summary: After Cassie delivers her speech, we meet up with Marco (who is also at the conference). Marco's only at the conference to listen to his mom speak, and so after she's done he's bored out of his mind. Marco meets up with Cassie and Ronnie, and the three spend some quality time tossing pudding over the hotel balcony. Cassie accidentally hits someone, General Wallace. General Wallace is this grouchy southern good 'ol boy who hates aliens and mistrusts all the alien intentions. Anywho.. after pegging the general with bird poop colored pudding, Ronnie, Marco, and Cassie flee to Cassie's hotel room.

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Disclaimer: Animorphs aren't mine. And you know what! I don't think I have anything else to disclaim in this chappie! (that's a change!) OH! Wait here's a disclaimer! Nintendo! Shoot! I don't own Nintendo.

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The same night

The Carlton Hotel

It was about five hours later, and Cassie and I were seated in her penthouse suite talking. Ronnie had long since retired to his own room, giving Cassie and I "some private time to catch up on things," as he put it.

"So how is Nora doing?" Cassie was asking.

Nora is my Dad's new wife. Near the end of the War with the Yeerks, Nora became a Controller, and both Dad and I thought she was dead. However, a few weeks after the human victory, Nora was found. She and my Dad were reunited, and they married a couple of months later.

At first, the whole idea of Dad being with someone other than Mom kind of bothered me. I mean, after we rescued Mom from the Yeerks I had always hoped that she and Dad would get back together again.

But they didn't.

I guess that the years had changed my parents too much, and they were just too different. And then when Nora was found, Dad was-- well Dad was crying. And now Dad and Nora are married. And Dad's happy. And Mom's happy. And if Mom's happy with things, and Dad's happy with things, then I'm going to be happy with them too. Even if I have a math teacher for a step-mom.

"Oh, Nora's doing alright," I told Cassie. "Its my Dad who's going crazy. You'd think he was the first guy ever to have a pregnant wife, the way he acts. It's all 'Nora be careful.' and 'Nora are you alright?' and 'Nora don't walk down the stairs if it's too much trouble.'"

Cassie giggled. "Well, I'm sure he means well," she smiled. "He's just nervous about having twins, I guess."

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"Do they know if they're boys or girls yet?" Cassie asked.

"No, they got the ultra-sound back last week, but the doctors couldn't tell," I explained. "Anyways, I really don't care what the kid's sexes are-- as long as they're both boys."

Cassie shook her head in amusement.

"Hey, I've got to carry on the Marco-traditions!" I protested indignantly.

"Like what? Playing Nintendo?"

"Yeah, and the Zen art of cooking frozen pizza."

Cassie laughed.

"But so what about you?" I asked, steering the conversation in her direction. "When are the wedding bells going to ring?"

Cassie blinked in confusion. "What?"

"You know, when are you and Ronnie going to tie the knot?" I clarified. "Because I already call dibs on organizing the bachelor party." If Ronnie's friends were anything like the goody-two-shoes Ronnie was, the bachelor party was going to be really lame.

Cassie stared at me, slightly bewildered. "Marco, what are you talking about?" she asked stupidly. "Ronnie and I aren't getting married. We've been dating for only six months; we're not that serious."

It was my turn to flash the what-planet-are-you-living-on look. "Cassie, my friend, does your not-so-serious-but-totally-acts-like-he's-that-serious boyfriend know that?"

Cassie nodded assuredly. "Oh course Ron does. We're not even near that point yet; we're just dating. Ronnie wouldn't think that this is anything more that it is. Which is not very serious," she said firmly.

I cast her a skeptical look.

"He wouldn't," she insisted.

I shrugged. "If you say so."

"Anyways," Cassie yawned. "Its almost three in the morning." She shot me a rather pointed look.

"Alright, alright, I'm going already," I said, intercepting the implied meaning behind her look.

Cassie apologized. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to run you out, but the conference begins at nine tomorrow morning. And I don't want to be sleeping through it."

I sniffled, mockingly. "That's alright, you don't have to make excuses," I said, pretending to be hurt. "I know when I'm not wanted."

Cassie laughed. "Sorry," she repeated. "But I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

I shook my head. "No, not at the conference. There's no way! I've already done my time. But I'm staying at Mom's condo through Friday." I added. "If for some odd reason you get bored of listening to dull people making dull speeches for ten hours a day, go ahead and drop by."

Cassie nodded. "Alright, I will."

Then Cassie stood up and she walked me to the door.

"Good night Marco," she said.

"You too," I replied as I walked out of her hotel suite and into the hallway. "Oh and Cassie?"

"Mmhum?"

"Be careful with Ronnie," I cautioned. "If you're not serious, I mean. Because he's got that very serious look about him. I'm People's Hottest Bachelor of the year," I reminded her. "I can tell these things."

Cassie smiled, bemusedly. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." She replied. "Good night Marco."

"Good night Cassie."

Then Cassie shut the door, and I headed down the hallway to the elevator. I rode the elevator down to the lobby, called my limo, and then my chauffeur drove me back to Mom's condo.

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okay for all of you who are sick and tired of all this stupid intro stuff... it's over! (HOORAY!!!) I got everyone's "before" characters covered! (DOUBLE HOORAY!!!) anyways.. next chappie we're switching POV's. We're going back to the Blade Ship to figure out just what did happen to those pesky Yeerks.

So stay tuned for the next exciting epi-er update- of Animorphs: The One!

And now that you've just read the best chapter ever written (no, I don't have an over-inflated head : ) be sure and review! And I'd be much obliged!

: )

DH

PS: review, k? thanks much!