Chapter 6

Twins: Takehiro

I nearly got a heart attack when Ax spoke to Zoe. Oh, god! Things couldn't get worse!

Perhaps some of you don't know Ax. He's an Andalite. Stranded on Earth after his ship was destroyed by the Yeerks. Now he's a trusty comrade of ours in the Animorphs.

And what were we doing in a mall with him? First off, he was in his freaky human morph. When we first found him, he had absorbed DNA from Jake and Cassie and Rachel and Marco.

Except me. Reason, I don't like the idea of someone taking my DNA. Really, I don't.

He was able to combine all four genetic patterns to make one person. And it was kind of weird seeing a person with bits of four friends I see everyday here and there.

Second, he wanted some gizmos to make some transmitter, or something to send a message to his home planet. We were trying to keep a low profile but we blew it.

"I can't believe it!" I shouted as we were on our way to Cassie's barn after that grocery-store incident. "I CANNOT believe it! Did you have to thought-speak to my kid sister? Next thing we know, you could be talking to anyone! Geez! Of all the people in this world, you had to talk to Zoe! Do you WANT to give our secret away?"

Before he could tell me the answers to the questions I just spat, I stopped him with one hand in the air. I did not need his answers. I just wanted to kill him.

"Hey, relax," Jake said. "At least, we got out of there without giving it away."

"Jake, next time you start to say 'so far, so good', remind me to hurt you," Marco remarked.

"I hope Zoe doesn't find out about us," I sighed. "Otherwise she might think she's gone crazy...or worse."

"We'll have to make her part of the team, then," Marco mumbled.

"NO, WE WON'T!" I snapped. "She is NOT going to have a life that's abnormal!"

"Hey, Daredevil, let me remind you something... Our lives are already abnormal!"

"Hey, Ax, where did you get that necklace?" Jake said.

I looked over my shoulder to see Ax fiddling with a necklace I never realized he was wearing. He didn't have it before.

"Your sister gave this to me. Gavye," Ax answered.

"She what?" I echoed.

"And why would she, a hot-headed girl, give you that?" Marco wondered.

"She said it was a gift. Giifft."

Marco suddenly gave us this wicked grin. "I wonder how this will turn out for an alien and a girl? Or before yet, how the wedding will turn out."

Okay, I didn't like him making jokes of Zoe and I CERTAINLY didn't like that little joke!

I grabbed his collar and was ready to throw a fist at him while glaring at him.

"I-I w-was just joking! Really!" Macro laughed nervously.

Jake tried to calm me down, which eventually he did. Ax, however, didn't understand what was going on here.

Anyway, we lived our life normal after that. Almost. We had couple of twists and turns here and there. And so far, Zoe didn't find out about us. I could only hope so.

Twins:Kaoru

Some months since the incident at the mall have passed. And the days were getting boring. But not today. Today was the usual day I spent time with my brother on dares. Kinda like a monthly celebration. And I had the prefect dare for him.

"Alright, Zack! Dare Day! Have I got a dare for you!" I snickered.

"Maybe not today, Zoe."

I could not believe what I was hearing. "WHAT? I came up with the perfect dare and you're backing off?"

"It's not that. I got a dance to go tonight," he said.

I gave him a look. Then smiled sinisterly. "Oooh. Zacky got himself a girlfriend, hasn't he?"

"NO!" he yelled, blushing red. Then took in a calm breath. "I'm supposed to play some music for the dance tonight. Can't believe I was talked into this in the first place."

"Oh. Oh, well. You ain't that good at getting dates," I sneered.

"What does that mean?" he threatened. I just smiled.

"But are you really going? Today's the day we do the most extreme dares! You can't be serious in turning that down."

"Zoe, it's just for today. And I really got to get everything prepared."

"It's a dare you can't back off. I bought roller blades for us. This dare is to jump over the sewage canal."

That stopped him. A whimper and a frown was his respond. I knew he couldn't turn it down!

"Zoe, I really can't as much as I wanted to. Please don't tempt me."

I looked down. Gave a sigh and told him to go ahead. I didn't go along with him to the dance. I didn't feel like it. And I also didn't have a date to go with. Being an outcast...sucks.

"...Hey, Zoe. Hold that dare for tomorrow. Because I'm gonna beat you at it!" he cheered. His joyfulness got me smiling but when he left, I was back to being gloomy. Seeing the brand new skates on the bed, I took them and set off to the canal.

It was kinda weird, doing a dare on your own. I looked over the railings. How deep and far the canal was. Luckily there was no one around. It was nearly sunset. I tossed on the skates and got up. This was the first time I ever wore skates. And you'd expect how many times I fell.

"Yaargh!" I yelled and fell on my head. "Ouch...!"

Someone laughed. I looked up to a kid. I realized I've never met this kid before. He has brown hair, just a little over his ears. And when did he appear? I was alone at the canal.

"What are you laughing at?" I snapped.

"Nothing," the boy replied. "But it is funny to see you fall fifteen times."

He counted how many times I fell. How long had he here?

"Hmph!" I said and steadily got up. "Don't need you to count anything. Or my stupid brother for this dare."

"Dare?"

I ignored him and neared to the railings. Estimating how far I should run before jump and how bad the results would be if I failed to do it right.

"Hey. I'm Erek King," the kid said. "What's your name?"

"Zoe. Now leave me alone."

"You know, I don't see why you should do this. You'll likely to get some broken bones or a loose disk. And besides, I don't think you can do it."

In my mind, I was thinking 'What...?'.

I sharply turned and frowned at him. "Oh yeah? Well, I'll show you!"

I skated unsteadily to a far distance and looked back at the canal. I breathed deeply. And I was off. Skating faster and faster as I gained more speed.

I jumped onto the railings. Then I leapt off.

You know what? It was like flying in the air. The wind at your face. You're meters away to death. And you have nothing to fear but fear itself. I was enjoying it.

That excitement was over when I landed safely on the other side of the canal. I did it!

"HA! HOW'S THAT?" I yelled back, still rolling on.

Erek didn't look satisfied. He just pointed at something. I turned around and found myself going to crash into a trashcan. Now where were the brakes for these things?

CRASH! KLANK!

I landed headfirst into the trashcan. Erek laughed even harder. My head popped out with a banana peel on top. I gave him an icy glare but he kept on laughing. I struggled out of the trashcan, brushed off the muck from my jeans and strolled away before his laughter would make my ears bleed.

"Hey!" he called. "Try some practice! I'll like to see you prefect your daredevil stunt! Alright?"

Somehow I thought I would still be angry with him. But it turned out I felt encouraged. I smiled. "You can count on that!"

Then I lost my balance and tumbled downhill.

The day quickly finished and it was already the next day. I kicked out of bed and swung over the railing, feeling hyper about this day. Even if it was a school day. I had never felt so hyper in my life. Like today was going to be a great day. But it was a good feeling.

I saw Zack still sleeping with the bedcovers over his head. Tsk, tsk. He must have stayed up the whole night.

"Oy, are you going to sleep all day? Come on! Wake up sleepyhead!" I said.

He didn't move.

"Zack? Are you okay?" I asked, reaching out a hand onto his shoulder. "Zack?"

That was when he suddenly bolted out and heaved at me.

"EEEEEEEYUCCK!"

That incident left me a stain on my favourite shirt, which will never be rid of even with detergent.

Zack had gotten the flu. Because of that, Grandpa told me I should sleep in Emily's room for a couple of days, till he'd get better. He didn't want us to get sick.

Zack kept on apologizing about the shirt and not being able to do the dare together. But I told him to get some rest and forget about it. I was more concerned about his health than a dare.

But deep inside, I felt a little hurt. That we couldn't do something together like brother and sister. It's been a while since our last dare together. Dares are like bonds to us.

The afternoon became long and boring without Zack around. Nothing to do. Nothing to talk about. I sighed and decided to take a stroll around the forest. I just needed to get away from the boredom.

I didn't care where I was going in the forest. I walked on. It wasn't easy to get lost here. Just find the main road and then take the left pathway to Grandpa's bungalow. While I was walking, I was thinking about the visions again.

I looked up ahead and saw a break in the forest. There was something red up ahead.

It was a barn. I didn't know there was one here in this forest. I looked out to see a house next-door and listened to the animals making noise in the barn.

Could this be the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic? I overheard it from some kids back at school. I never realized it wasn't that far from Grandpa's bungalow. Not too near either.

Then it hit me. This was where Cassie lived, the girl from my school. If she found me around, that wouldn't be good.

"Ah, nuts! Retreat," I said to myself, turning myself back to the forest. That was when I heard voices. Coming towards the barn.

Rats! I got to hide somewhere fast!

I scanned around for anything. Anything to hide in! Nothing. I looked up. The roof. I leapt onto a pile of bales of hay, grabbed the edge of the roof and with all my might, I swung myself over. My back hit hard on the roof, making a loud thud. I clasped my mouth shut, not to yell in pain, and laid flat.

For just a while, the voices went on. Then I watched a girl walk out. That was Cassie.

I sighed deeply as I lied flat for a moment. It felt weird, avoiding someone like a ninja when you are one. Especially when you don't want to make friends for a reason. But with a reputation from the past, how can one get friends?

I wished my past was gone, I thought. I really hated myself.

Five minutes passed. I needed to get out of here. I got up, took a start and leapt to a branch. Leapt onto another. I was so glad I learnt from Miaso how to leap tree to tree in stealth mood. It was practically easy.

CRACK!

I went down after landing on the fourth branch. The fourth branch broke off. I shrieked as I fell, hitting the earth hard. I groaned and rubbed the sore on my rear. If Zack was around, he'd say I'd need to lay off on the teriyaki.

"Hello, Zoe."

I shrieked. And came face to face with Erek.

"Oh man. Don't scare me like that!" I said. "Where'd you come from anyway?"

"Oh, I was visiting my friend, Cassie," he replied. "But what are you doing here?"

"Uh... I was just strolling around. Nothing else. Guess I got lost and landed here," I lied. I turned away. "See ya."

"Wait a minute," he said, stopping me. Great, maybe he wanted me to meet Cassie. I really didn't want to make friends now. But he just stood there, examining me from head to toe. The most unexpected question then popped right out of his mouth.

"You're a ninja, aren't you?" Erek asked proudly.

You might need to know how my expression went. My mouth hung open. My eyes were as big as dinner plates. I was in a frozen state of panic. My heart jumped into my throat. My mind was screaming questions like this one: HOW THE HECK DID HE FIND OUT?

"N-No! You got to be kidding me. A ninja? Come on, everyone knows ninjas don't exist!" I lied again.

"Then why are you jumping tree to tree?" he asked. "Or how did you get onto the roof?"

He saw me! This was bad. This was definitely bad!

"I have read somewhere where ninjas or 'shinobi' were, or are, stealthy agents of espionage and assassination, like the samurais. Following their own special code of conduct. Able to sneak away effectively through skills and agility."

This was getting worse by the second! He knew what a ninja was. He knew the moves I did. He saw me do them.

Exactly where did he see me do them? Argh! What was I thinking?

"C-Come on! I'm not a ninja. If I was, I'd be wearing black! I would be throwing daggers! I would have already disappeared by now!"

"You know awfully a lot about ninjas," he said. "And you aren't good at lying, are you?"

That was it. I was in a pickle. He could see me through. There was one solution to this mess.

Run as fast as you can!

I had no other opinions. My brain was desperately thinking of what to say when my body took over and I ran. Ran without looking back. Ran on and on. Till my legs started to ache and I was out of breath. I fell on my knees, catching my breath. I soon realized my biggest mistake.

What have I done? I let a guy find out I was a ninja.

I wondered how I was going to explain Zack someone found out our secret. Or at least my secret.

I sighed regretfully. Things couldn't get worse.

The moment I thought that, lighting crackled in the sky. Rain started to pour.

HHWWOOOOOOO!

The wind blew so chilly.

"Achoo!" I sneezed.