Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: Animorphs is not mine. Ettex, Allith, and the Mleb and Holk are mine, as are all new Andalite characters.

Author's Note: Just got a brainstorm... Read on! Oh, the thought-speak symbols are different; I changed them to ( ).

Fwapp!

Not a lucky shot this time. I saw that the Hork-Bajir was going to block my strike. Unfortunately for him, I turned my tail blade so that the sharp edge pointed toward his hand.

"Raaaaaaaaaaaargh!"

The Hork-Bajir did not have the top half of his left hand anymore.

TSEEEW! TSEEEW!

The visser's guards fired their Dracon beams into my bush. I ducked my upper body. One beam singed the top of my flank. The other beam hit the Hork-Bajir dead on.

I slammed my way out of the bush. I took aim at Visser 46. It was now or never.

TSEEEWWW! TSEEEWWW! TSEEEWWW! TSEEEWWW!

The beams struck me! I expected to be vaporized and feel the pain only a Yeerk Dracon beam can inflict as it strips you apart, molecule-by-molecule.

What I felt in reality was extreme pain as the beams burned holes into my flank. Four Dracon wounds. No less than torture.

(AAARGHHH!) I thundered.

The Hork-Bajir took aim again. They were ready to finish me off. But Visser 46 stopped them with a raised hand.

"No," he said in an extremely oily voice. "I will deal with this."

He was smiling. Smiling as though he had been proclaimed emperor of the Yeerk Empire.

Suddenly, from behind his back, emerged two tentacles. Two slimy, red tentacles that seemed to have most of the Mleb's flesh. They were the only parts of his body, aside from the hands and feet and head, which were not covered by exoskeleton.

I suddenly realized what the Yeerk was about to do.

(Noooo!)

The tentacles grabbed me. One closed around my tail, the other around my neck.

I had dropped the MSD-100 when I had been burned, so the Yeerk did not worry too much. He put my head against his.

I felt the Yeerk touch my ear.

(NO!)