Author's Note: Summer is, surprisingly, the worst time for story writing. Following chapters will be at least a week apart.
Mob: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Me: Ah, the Mob returns. Where were you?
Mob: WE WERE ON VACATION!
Me: (Falls down laughing at the sheer irony of it all.)
Disclaimer: (I'm laughing too hard to say it, so the Mob does.) SHE DOESN'T OWN THE ANIMORPHS! SHE ONLY OWNS RICKY, AMY, AND EFTLAK!
Me: Gee, thanks.
Mob: NOW GET ON WITH IT!
Chapter Twenty-One: Pete's POVI awoke at noon the next day with a killer hangover and Tobias' cat meowing in my face.
"Oh, shut up," I grumbled. That cat was such a pest sometimes.
I stumbled to my feet, splashed some water on my face, fed the annoying cat, and decided to go over to Ricky's place for a visit.
Halfway there, I remembered Alan. I also remembered Tobias, Loren, and the other people whose names I didn't know. I was mad at Alan, but I was also curious.
After a ten-minute debate, curiosity overwhelmed irritation. I decided I could apologize like a grown man—if Loren insisted on it, anyway. I personally felt that Alan was the one who owed me an apology.
When I got there, I knocked. I usually went right in, but with Alan there I was on edge.
"Hey, Pete. It's been a week already?" Ricky joked.
"Nah, I just can't stay away."
"Well, come in. Loren was ordering Alan to go find you and say sorry, but the only ones who know where you live are Tobias and me, and he's scared of you, and Amy didn't want me to leave. So I think you're safe here."
"Couldn't you have brought Amy with you?"
"Not if you were drunk," Ricky glanced at my reddened eyes, "which you were."
I winced. Ricky was very against Amy being near me when I was drunk. I would never hurt anyone on purpose, but when I got drunk I was unpredictable. Tobias' past injuries and current fear were proof of that.
"Well, come in, but don't expect a warm welcome," Ricky continued.
I followed him into the kitchen again. This seemed to be the general area Ricky used for visitors. My first impression was that it was very crowded.
"Hi, Pete!" Amy greeted me, with the enthusiasm only a five-year-old can muster.
"Hello, Amy," I said politely. Tobias dived under the table again. Alan moved to get between us.
"Alan, you are an adult, now act like one," said Loren firmly. Alan continued to glare at me. After a few moments, though, he glanced at Loren's equally angry expression and had to admit defeat.
"Sorry," he grumbled sulkily.
"As am I," I answered, as courteously as I could. "I ought to have given you the benefit of the doubt."
Alan looked rather surprised at this. Behind him and under the table, Tobias began to make weird sounds again.
"Are you okay, Tobias?" I asked him, crouching on the ground to see him better.
"He's still afraid of you," the black girl said timidly.
"Oh, right." I flushed slightly. I focused on the girl. "Who are you, anyway?"
"I... I'm a friend of Tobias'. My names Cassie."
"Nice to meet you." I glanced around the room. "Who're the rest of you?"
The tall boy with black hair stepped forward. "I'm Tom, I think we've met before." I nodded. He pointed to the boy with brown hair. "That's my brother, Jake," now the Hispanic boy, "his friend Marco," then the blonde, "and our cousin Rachel."
I nodded. Then I noticed one boy who Tom hadn't introduced. He was standing near Alan, and they seemed to be having a silent debate. "And who are you?" I asked him.
The boy began to speak, but Alan cut him off. "He's my brother."
"Ah," I said, rather amused. Then I addressed the boy again. "Well, do you have a name, or should I call you 'Alan's brother'?
He opened his mouth again, but was cut off again, this time by Amy.
"That's Axi."
"Axi?" I repeated.
"His real name's really long, so I get to call him Axi." Amy's face scrunched up in concentration. "His real name is Axi-mealy-Oscar-oath-Is-till."
I stared at the strange kid in shock. "That's... unique. Well... 'Axi'... can you speak for yourself or should I just ask Al why your parents named you that?"
"I can speak for myself," he replied, somewhat indignantly. "Ssssself. Sell-fuh. Why my parents - puh-air-unts - chose - chu-o-suh - to name me as they did did-duh, duh - is not your concern."
"I was wondering when he'd start doing that again," Marco hissed.
Alan turned on Amy. "How do you know his full name?" he snapped.
"You were yelling at him last night and you called him that."
"You also need to demorph," Ricky added.
All the kids tensed up for a moment, and then Tom laughed. "I completely forgot to mention—Ricky told Pete about the invasion a while after being infested. Pete covers for him at his job sometimes when Eftlak's feeding schedule and Ricky's work hours clash."
"You guys know about it, too?" I asked.
"Meet humanity's only chance of staying free and Earth's only chance of survival," said Tom, gesturing towards the kids. "They call themselves the Animorphs."
"The Animorphs?" I repeated skeptically.
"Yeah. I think it's an abbreviation of 'Animal Morpher', but according to Marco, who made up the word, it means 'idiot teenagers with a death wish'."
"Actually, both are accurate," Marco commented.
"Tobias? An idiot?" I asked. "Somehow I can't picture that."
"Tobias is a hero," said Alan through clenched teeth.
"You would think so," I said coldly.
"Are you calling my son a coward?" he asked furiously.
"Two hour time limit," Ricky said loudly.
"I'm not calling Tobias anything. I just said that you would, being his father, consider him a hero."
"Thirty seconds to go," Ricky announced.
Alan gave me a filthy look before he changed into an Andalite so fast the process was blurred. I stared at him for a while before I realized that 'Axi' had also turned into an Andalite and Tobias had turned into a bird.
"Okay. Let's back up," I said slowly, trying to process this new information. I turned to my sister. "Did you know that Alan was an alien?"
"Of course. I just didn't spread it around."
"Okay. I guess that's... good. So why is Tobias a bird?"
"It's complicated." By now, Tobias, Axi, and Alan were human again.
"MEOW!" The screech of a cat startled everyone. I saw a gray and black tabby cat pawing at the window.
"Dude!" Tobias yelled. "What's he doing here?"
"Dude?" Alan repeated. He sounded confused.
"Tobias' cat," I explained. "He must have gotten out. I left the windows open."
Tobias had run over to the window and let the cat inside. Dude purred loudly and rubbed against his legs. "I thought for sure you'd dumped him or had him put down or something," Tobias told me.
I laughed, shook my head. "No. I kept meaning to call your aunt and ask if you still wanted the dumb cat, but I never got around to it."
"Can I pet the kitty?" Amy asked in an awed voice. She really liked animals, but as far as I knew, she'd never had a pet of her own. Most cats were stays, and they'd bite if you messed with them.
"If he lets you," said Tobias. "Move slowly, don't scare him."
Amy slowly bent down and extended one arm reverently. Dude sniffed it, then began to rub against her as well. Amy giggled. "He tickles."
"He likes you," Tobias told her. Amy reached out with her other hand and began to stroke the cat's fur.
The two of them and the cat created an adorable picture. Amy was crouched on the ground, wide-eyed and enchanted, stroking the cat as he rubbed against her. Tobias was crouched a little ways off, smiling encouragingly.
"He's so soft!" Amy exclaimed suddenly. Dude appeared startled by the sudden noise, and Amy quickly realized her mistake. "It's okay," she murmured. "Nice kitty. Good kitty."
I remembered when Tobias had first found that cat. He was nearly ten, and he was in a park a short distance from home. Dude had been left in a tunnel at the park. He was just a tiny, half-starved kitten. Tobias heard him meowing and brought him home.
He was lucky that I was sober at the time. I wasn't overly fond of cats, or any animal, really, but it wasn't in my nature to kill or dump a helpless creature, especially since Tobias clearly had his heart set on keeping it. I told him, in a nutshell, that he would be responsible for 'it' and if it caused trouble, it would have to go. Being determined to keep his cat, Tobias did his best to keep us separated. It worked up until he disappeared. By then, I was used to Dude's company.
I had mostly allowed Tobias to keep 'Dude' because I felt that I owed something to him. He'd lost his parents, and I was never exactly parenting material. That was the main reason that I never got married. I got drunk a lot—it was my way to escape from pretty much everything. I was financially secure from my work as a roofer, but my work meant that I wasn't at home very much, and was also really straining. I had a short temper, little patience, and I felt a lot of anger towards Alan for leaving Loren. Somehow I could never hold anything against Loren herself. I saw her as the victim, although Tobias was equally victimized when first his father, than his mother, then his aunt, and finally I had denied him a normal family life.
Author's Note: I'm going to end it there—
Mob: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Me: Because I have writer's block.
Mob and Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Me: Anyhow, review response time.
Dragon: Emotional scene provided. (Oh, and I was out of town. You killed and ressurected my sister. Mom and Dad were not amused.)
Korean Pearl: Tobias WAS abused by his uncle, but only when Pete was drunk, which he really can't be held responsible for.
Anonymous-cat: It's okay; I may have done that once or twice myself. Yes, Elfangor was being rather paranoid, but put yourself in his situation. He thought Aximili was dead. Then he found out that Aximili was not dead. Then he woke up and saw his little brother holding a gun and pointing it at himself. Naturally he'd be alarmed.
tayk: The Mob would like to speak with you.
Mob: WE'RE BACK! BUT WE'RE TOUCHED BY YOUR CONCERN!