The Waiver 5
We lounged at Marco's house for five minutes, while he called all the banks to close his accounts and told his lawyer to activate his will. All his possesions pretty much went to his parents and a few charities.
Marco had met a few women during his time as a celebrity, but wasn't too interested in a relationship. He had confided to me once, that he could never find a girl who could insult him as well as Rachel. "I mean, come on, I'm not totally maschoshistic, but it would be nice to find the one girl in Hollywood whodidn't go to remedial classes in high school."
Well, back to reality. I shook myself out of my reverie and spoke up.
"Oh, come on Marco. Is that really nessasary?" I asked, absentmindedly batting away a fly. It gently landed on my shoe. I was about to squish it with the sole of my other shoe when I suddenly flashed to an old memory of being swatted in fly morph. I shuddered and left the thing alone.
"Jake. Let's cut the crap. Most likely we're gonna be gone for a long while."
I raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, fine. Most likely we're all going to die a horrible fiery death?"
I just smiled.
"You're sick, man. You're just sick in the head."
I started to walk away. Marco and Tobias followed. "Okay, now we have to head down to my work."
"Why? You want to leave a two week notice?"
I chuckled. "No we have to get two volunteers from the Delta-"
"What?" Marco interrupted. He grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. "What did you just say?"
"What? I said we have to get two volunteers."
"Why so we can ruin more lives? What thehelldo we need two extra people for?" He looked genuinely angry.
I shrugged and tried to defend myself. "We don't know what we're up against. I got some tough soldiers in my Team. They could come in handy." I said lamely.
Then something in Marco clicked. "Oh . . . I get it. You have Tobias, me and you." He said counting off on his fingers. "Add to that this Mender-whatever and then two others?" He stopped with six fingers up. "Jake, is it really nessasary?"
I tried to joke it off. "Hey, it's the magic number. Wouldn't want bad karma, now." I kept walking. Marco just stared at me, then followed, dropping the subject.
I looked down to kill that fly.
"Lucky little . . ." he was gone.
I stepped into the hanger and mentally steeled myself. This was going to be tough. I had called out to my NCOIC and told him to assemble the Team. Now they were all sitting or standing in small groups, drinking coffee and whispering to each other. Every few seconds, one of them would quickly sneak a glance at me, then look away.
When the last man arrived, I spoke out. "Alright, everybody to your seats. Let's go, come on. Okay everybody's here? Good," I said, getting the affirmative from my NCO aka the red beret man.
I took a deep breath and began. "People, we've been together a while now. And I think that I can trust you enough with a secret."
Everyone laughed then, since the entire Delta Team was one big secret in itself.
I gave a fake smile. "I am about to go on a dangerous mission-"
"The quest for a sense of humor!" a voice from the back.
"Dangerous? There is no onewho will send the great P.X. on a dangerous mission." another voice, this one with a Brazillian accent.
"- and I'm going to need two volunteers-" I continued, used to their frequent taunts.
"Yeah, to 'old the two ends 'o the 'ammok durin' yer cushy job, ya fibber!"
I continued quickly, before they could interupt. "Your actions will be denounced by your governments, there will be no pay, no benefits, no medals, a good chance of being arrested and a better chance of being killed. Your families will not be
notified and you leave right now."
That shut them up.
A hand slowly raised. Then another. And another.
The whole team volunteered. No one had their hand down.
"Okay, I get the point, put your hands down."
Knowing they would do this, I had pre-marked some files with certain information highlighted. Their next of kin.
"Jeanne, Santorelli? Congratulations. Now follow me."
I didn't bother saying goodbye to the team, they all knew how I felt about them and I left it at that. They pretended to go back to thier coffee, but I could feel them staring at me as I walked out of the hanger.
We made it back to the Hum-Vee and the truck that we "borrowed" from the motor pool, where Marco, Tobias and Menderash were waiting. Marco looked up.
"Geeze. What the heck took you so-" he stopped in mid-sentence as he noticed my two volunteers.
Or more specifically, he noticed Jeanne.
He looked at me slyly.
I shook my head frantically. He just leered and nodded.
"Hello, I appologize for my rudeness. A lady should never have to hear such harsh words." he said grabbing Jeanne's hand and bending to kiss it.
Jeanne snatched her hand back, just before Marco's lips reached her knuckles. "Zen, I vill be sure not to utter such profaniteez in your presence."
Marco's eyebrows raised and he gave me a genuinely happy smile. "Wow, Jake. You actually found the gift for the guy who has everything! Thanks man!"
Jeanne gave Marco a disapproving glance and then turned to me. "Proffesor? Are all ov your friendz compleete ee-diots?" she asked calmly.
Marco opened his mouth to speak, but I raised a hand to silence him. Then I pointed to the vehicles. "Everyone in, now."
We crammed into the two vehicles and made our way towards the drop point. The plan was simple: A yeerk ship with no crew was guarded by two Andalite Warriors in an open field. The guards were told they were to wait for a turncoat terrorist who wanted immunity in exchange for the locations of several terrorist arms supply storage and the names of the arms dealers marketing off the terrorist's rage.
No turncoat.
Just six shipjackers.
We piled out of the truck and met up with Menderash, Jeanne and Santorelli, who had ridden in the Humvee.
"Okay, Santorelli, Jeanne? It's crunch time. Let's see how much you two paid attention in class. We have an Andalite shuttle up ahead, only two Andalites inside. They were instructed to park their ship here and wait for a terrorist turncoat with some serious vital info. They're our ride."
Marco looked up at Jeanne. "Hi, I don't think I introduced myself properly before. I'm Marco. I have my own T.V. show. You may worship me if you wish."
"Remember, these guys are innocent. I don't want anyone going to the ER over this. Just give 'em a good pop upside the head and we'll take the ship."
Jeanne raised her hand, as if she was still in my class. "Six against two? This iz perhaps ovarkeel?"
Marco looked coyly at Jeanne. "Keel. Ovar-keel." he echoed. "I love that accent. It's so, how you say? . . . 'how you say'." he said with a wink.
Menderash scoffed and tilted his head, "They are Andalites, six is hardly enough." he muttered.
I smiled at him. "It's all in what morph you choose, trust me."
I rubbed my hands together and looked over at Tobias, nervous. "Tobias, go Andalite." I said calmly, as if I knew he would follow my orders, which I didn't.
I had long come to grips with the reality of Rachel's death. It took a lot of time and a lot oflong talks with Cassie. But I found the truth.
It wasn't my fault.
However, when Tobias flew out to my house after meeting with Toby, he hadn't said anything to me. He just showed up and we left for Marco's together.
Tobias looked at me with his human eyes. And in that moment, I felt the true force of his pain. In an instant, I knew that if had lost Cassie after all we had re-built . . .
Cassie.
I was broken out of my thoughts when Tobias nodded at me, noticing the look on my face and immediately began demorphing to Hawk, then straight to Andalite, with no rest between morphs. I think he was trying to tell me that any orders I gave he would now follow with no hesitation. I felt like things were coming back together.
The magic number.
Marco chose this sweet moment as a perfect time to resume whining. Which he had been doing the whole ride here.
"Ya know, I don't see why you and I can't just retire to Florida. I mean, come on, golf isn't so bad. Personally, I LIKE bingo. Why do we always have to go to war, huh? I wanna play a different game, Jake."
I just smiled at him. "It's like lotto, you have to be in it to win."
Marco just shook his head and started morphing to Gorrilla, I had already informed Tobias, Menderash and Marco of the game plan. Only Santorelli and Jeanne would be clueless until we were on-board and they couldn't take back their decision.
Cruel, I know.
We crept over to the back of the ship, being careful to avoid their sensor probes. Marco quietly clambered up on top of the ship and waited.
All set here. He reported.
"Okay," I whispered. "Tell Tobias to begin."
Yo, bird-brain! Let's go! He yelled over to Tobias.
"Oh, great. Make him mad, nice idea, Marco." I muttered.
Tobias yelled out to the ship at the top of his thoughtspeak range and "voice".
Help! Help me! Andalite vessel, I am in need of assistance!
The seamless hatch of the shuttle hissed open and two Andalites galloped down the extended ramp.
One of them spoke up. I am not sure. I believe I heard something, but it was very faint.
The other yelled out, Hello? You are in need of our assistance? I must inform you that no one is authorized in this area!
Wait! What's that? It looks like one of ours, Mithstill!
Where? I do not see anything.
There. On the horizon.
The Andalites focused all four eyes at the horizon, peering at the sillouette of Tobias, running across the hills.
They didn't see Marco creep behind them.
And they certainly didn't see him introduce their skulls together.
We raced into the ship and waited for Tobias while Menderash took the controls. "Rookies," he muttered. "What fool would use all four eyes on one target. An Aristh's mistake."
Tobias arrived and demorphed to make more elbow room. Andalite shuttles were mostly equipped with a crew of two and either a cargo or passenger. Not six humans.
I patted Menderash on the shoulder, "Take us up."
"Uh . . . Jake?" Marco asked, from somewhere behind me.
I sighed. "Marco, can you just shut it 'til we get there? When we reach the ship, you can complain all you want, I promise . . ."
Marco hesitated. "Jake? I think you should turn around, buddy."
It was his tone. I knew before he even spoke up.
Crap.
Without turning around, I stood up straight and stiffened.
"Hello, Cassie."
End of Part 5
Review Response:
J-Rae- Hmmmm. I wonder who spoke that last line? (here's a hint: look at the
title of the last chapter . . . figured it out yet?) ;)
Raspberry- How do you know if that's what I have planned huh? (pouts) lol
If you're really interested in the following plot developments, you may have noticed that I
slipped some foreshadowing in the previous chapters to hint at where this story's REALLY
going. (example: the last line in quotation marks in chapter 2 and others) check it out.
See if you can point out the other FS lines!
Gorrable: A new Reviewer oh goodie! I'm writing as fast as I can!
I'm gonna try and make sure that the waiver is on every time you click
the animorphs you'll NEVER have to click the next button.
A/N: Before writing this fic, I set up 3 ground rules:
1. I can only change the actions of the character who's in first person. Like the Ketran, I made
one small change to the story (the waiver) and showed how that one legal document could change
Animorphs history (I won't tell you how yet, cause I don't wanna give it away). So you're
NOT going to see the Elimist flash-bang in and say "all right, everything's cool now!"
2. I will not introduce any new major characters.
3. I believe that KA went way too fast with her last book. Her last hurrah should have been
as large as the Andalite Chronicals, but instead it seemed like she just wanted to get it
over with. ("Okay, so, like, then TWO YEARS passed and nothing really happened . . .") I want to
detail as much as possible the last chronicle of the Animorphs (and possibly continue on
to #55, #56, #57 . . . ect.)