WHAM!! She hit Tom full force, right into the veiwscreen.
She moved so fast I barely had time to think about doing anything. And then dracon fire burned her right flank. But now she was one angry bear. She swung left and right, smashing apart the consoles beside her.
"No Shooting! You'll destroy the bridge! Morph! Morph you idiots!" Tom yelled just as Rachel swung a paw at him. He ducked and she missed him. But she went after him anyway, causing some serious damage to his body.
(Rachel, behind!) Jake shouted. She spun, and took out a still morphing leopard. Then she began to smash apart the bridge. But she'd overlooked...the others!
And I couldn't do anything! I'd wasted too much time just watching, and now... I couldn't shift without being seen before I finished and crushed by the others on the bridge. So I had to wait for the right moment. Had to... it was my only choice now!
Rachel, a mountain of grizzly, faced two lionesses, a cape buffalo, and a polar bear. And she talked to them, sounding fearless. Sounding just like she should. Then she lunged! Straight for the bear!
And then it was madness! The buffalo slammed her after she hit the bear with her deadly claws, then it came at her again! Then the lionesses struck! It was horrifying! Rachel tried to get them off, turning around in a weird sort of circle.
Stay still, I prayed, I can't help you if you don't stay still!
I buzzed over them, waiting for the right moment, watching in horror as the buffalo butted her again and again, and the lionesses attacked with everything they had! Blood spilled the floor. Hers and theirs!
(He's a snake!) Someone cried (Rachel!)
And then... too late I saw the cobra. It bit her, right in the eyes!
And she was down! But... not defeated yet! I buzzed, landed on another part of the ceiling, almost right above her, watching as the Yeerk that had been the polar bear remorphed.
(Help me Tobias) Rachel pleaded, and I swear my heart broke. I knew why she was... why...
(I can't... I...)
(Help me get him. Help me get him!) No, I was wrong! She wasn't giving up!
(Okay. Okay. He's... your left paw, toward your face. Get ready. Has to be fast)
(I'm ready)
(Now!) She jerked her paw, claws extended, and skewered the biting cobra. Tom shrieked, twisting both in pain as well as trying to break free. But she had him. She had him good.
(No!)
(Sorry)
(Jake, stop her!) The Yeerk screamed. But it was too late, she bit down on the snake. Then... she demorphed. I watched the others... the other Yeerks. They were all watching, waiting. Polar bear, buffalo, and two lionesses...
Now they surrounded her, and the polar bear loomed up in front of her. But she looked past him, to the viewscreen. To the human Tobias, and said the three words that snapped me into action. I began to grow, moving myself just enough so that when I dropped, I wouldn't drop on Rachel. I grew faster as I watched the bear raise its paw, ready to kill her.
(Hey you! Yeah, the polar bear. I'm talking to you!) I yelled, buying myself a few extra seconds. He hesitated. So did the others. Rachel tensed up, and I heard my friends sounded confused.
(You forgot to look up!) He did, and had about three milliseconds to think what? Before I hit, still a squirming mass of fly and polar bear. But I was heavy enough to knock him back and away from Rachel.
"What the...?" Rachel began, as I completed my shift to full polar bear, and shoved the other bear back, making it slide across the blood-slicked floor. Not far, but far enough. Then I ran at the buffalo, head butted him, nearly knocking myself out as well, and pushed him back.
(Sorry to steal your thunder, but...AAHHHH!!) I screamed as the two lionesses leaped and started trying to take chunks out of me. But it was mostly the blubber the bear has to keep it warm. Didn't mean it didn't hurt.
BAM!! The buffalo was back, head butting my back leg and making me sit down very, very hard.
(Jade?) A voice asked from the screen. A voice I knew all too well.
(Yeah, it's me guys! The cavalry!) I whipped my head around, bit down and snatched a large chunk of a lionesses leg, making it back off.
(You sent her to die too?!) Someone accused as I knocked the others back, getting shakily up and swinging my head left, then right. Standoff.
(I... I didn't... I thought she was back at the camp!!)
WHOOOMP!! Polar bear attacked, knocking me back and into an instrument panel. It hurt, but right now I didn't have time for pain.
(Jake didn't! I came myself! I wanted to help!) I told them, screaming in bear fury as the other Polar bear came at me again, swinging a paw but missing me as I dodged sideways, putting all the force I could into hitting the other bear, making him slip back on the floor, scrabbling to keep his footing.
"She must have been the flea I saw on your head Jake!" Tobias's voice was hopeful.
(Yep, that was me. And I took a ride on a bald eagle after all that stuff happened) I said painfully as the bear came at me again, but missed as the buffalo butted me hard in the side, and I slid across the floor and into the path of the remaining lioness. She leaped at my face, but I threw my paw out and hit her in mid-leap, sending her sprawling into the bear.
(Rachel! Help!) I cried as the lioness used the bear as leverage and leapt back at me and onto my back, with me screaming and rage and pain.
(Rachel!) Marco cried, sounding desperate. Oh god... had they attacked her when she was...
(Almost done. Just a few more seconds Jade!) She yelled as the buffalo once again hit me, sending me careening across the blood slicked floor, desperately trying to get some traction. I slipped and fell, with the lioness still trying to rip me to shreds. She'd managed to rip my ear off, and got one of my eyes with her claws, so now my blood joined the others blood on the floor. I closed my eye tight, hoping it would help and trying my best not to start screaming in pain.
Then... WHAM! Something hit the lioness hard, sending it flying into the wall, knocking it out. Rachel!
(Sorry it took so long. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing)
(Well, believe it) I said as I fought to stand up beside the grizzly, watching with one eye as the polar bear and the buffalo lined up beside one another, just like we were doing. The remaining lioness and a half morphed lioness were just behind them.
(Ready?)
(Do I have a choice?)
(All right then, charge!) She yelled and we took off, across the floor. The other two did the same, running straight at us. I was headed for the buffalo.
At the last second I used my momentum to slide to the left, then raised a paw, claws extended, and slashed the buffalo right across his body, and down to his flank. Beside me, I heard Rachel hit the other bear.
BAM!! Buffalo horn hit my flank! He'd turned around and came back at me! I tried to face him, but before I knew it, I had another lioness on me! I knocked her back, just before it hit me again, sending me sliding into one of the walls. I hit sideways, watching as he prepared to ram me again, and the lioness....
(Look! It's Tom! It's the snake!!) Someone screamed in horror. I looked with my one good eye and watched as the snake, now somehow fully regenerated, was coming slowly at me. Slithering across the floor. But... how did he...
(Ahhhh!!!) Lioness on me again! I hit her, hard, and sent her into the panel beside me. She fried on the electrical wires. Good, I thought, serves her right...
I backed up as much as I could as the buffalo hit the wall, hard. I grabbed onto the horns, and spun him into the wall behind me. He hit, stumbled, and tried to come...
(Jade, the snake!!)
A sudden sharp pain in my paw! I looked down groggily to see that damn cobra strike me again, pumping poison into my bloody paw. I slammed my other paw hard into the snake, almost breaking it in two, then slid it under a console. Now he was out of the fight... was it Tom...?
I sagged back against the wall, suddenly feeling groggy. The buffalo came at me again, but missed and hit the wall in front of me, hard. It fell, and seemed dazed... I wasn't doing too good...
(Jade! Oh god no, JADE!!) Someone screaming, someone...
(Shape-shift! Change! Do something! Just don't die!!) Jake's voice... at least, I think it was Jake, said... so far away...
(Jade, look at the tiger on the screen. See the tiger?)
(Ti... what?) My vision was going blurry, but I looked up at the thing in front of me. Tiger...?
(Yeah. See the big kitty? See him? I want you to become him, okay?)
(Oh. Okay) I said from far away. I looked at the kitty... big kitty... good kitty...
(Cassie, we don't know if...)
(Well its better than watching her die!) Voices, so far away... good kitty... can I be like you...
Slowly, very slowly, I felt my organs shift and change, and watched groggily as orange fur rippled across the white fur of the polar bear, and my knees reversed direction... then my eyes changed... and I had two eyes...
Then, as I became more like the tiger on the screen, I began to become aware of my surroundings. I saw the others on the screen, and Jake, the tiger I was now becoming, looking at me worriedly. Then a grizzly and a polar bear in a one on one battle. The buffalo, bruised and bloody, was setting himself up to come at me. The snake, which actually used to be the second lioness, demorphing. The other snake... Tom... was still on a mess on the floor.
Finally, my wonderful tigers tail sprouted from my spine, and my senses kicked into overdrive. I'd made it!
(Thanks Cassie) I said privately to her, then joined the melee once more. I ripped apart the still growing snake before it could even blink. Then I went at the buffalo, sideswiped, and latched my teeth onto its neck, carefully avoiding the horns as it tossed and turned, trying to shake me off. But I was a tiger now. I was liquid grace. Sure a bear is great for brute force, but I needed speed now. We were running out of time, and as the ship began to slowly drop, I knew others would be coming to the bridge to check out the situation.
(Tell me) I began, talking to the buffalo (Now or I'll kill you... tell me, where is it?)
He seemed confused, stuttering... but then I calmly explained it to him, and he shakily told me.
(Now, start demorphing and I'll let you go) I said. He didn't believe me, but I began to bite harder, and he complied. I let go as he became more human, standing only a few feet from him, and when he was done, I knocked him out with a single swipe of the paw.
I looked over at the two bears... only... a grizzly was standing over a still polar bear. A polar bear with a lot of blood. A wound on its neck told me everything.
(Come on, we've got to get off this ship!)
(Why, we...)
(Listen, we're falling, and I'm sure there are a lot more Yeerks that can morph on this ship, so I say we get out while we can)
(But...)
(Rachel, she's right! Please... you've done what I asked you to...) Jake trailed off, and Tobias just stared at her. But she nodded and looked at me.
(One more thing before we do) I added, quickly leading her to the place were the morphing cube was stored. I took it in my mouth and we raced towards a hatch, where the air pressure pretty much blew us out the door. But by then we were no longer a bear and a tiger...