Please Note: Any resemblance to reality is purely accidental and unintentional. Any resemblance to previous storylines is also unintentional but unavoidable, given the number of Animorph books and fanfics out there. (I can't read them all!) The Animorphs, and all references to them, belong to K. A. Applegate, and the storyline belongs to fanfiction writers everywhere. The words that come from my head belong to me.

Chapter 1

Hi.

I'm Marco. Also known as magnificent, cute, charismatic, and funny.

Well, at least I'm sometimes known as cute and funny. And if I wanted to I could be a seven-foot tall bronzed athlete with rippling muscles and babes to spare, even though right now I'm slightly short for my age. But if I became that seven-foot dream, then I wouldn't be me. Literally.

By now you probably know the routine. I can't tell you who I really am, where I'm from, or what I've done… at least, what I've done in the past. But for those who don't know, and for those who've forgotten, let me clue you in.

Earth is being invaded by a race of slugs called Yeerks. They don't want our land and they certainly don't want our backward technology. They want us. Or rather, our bodies.

You see, the Yeerks are a parasitic species. In their natural state they are nothing better than garden slugs, gray-green blobs that can slowly crawl from place to place. But centuries of evolution gave this slug a weird twist; when a yeerk comes into contact with another species' ear it crawls up it, oozes through the skin of the ear drum, and spreads itself out over the brain.

It sounds pretty creepy, doesn't it? The next part is even worse; after the yeerk has access to the brain, it plugs itself in to the brain's electrons. And then the horror begins. Any species, anybody who winds up with a yeerk in their head looses all control of their body. The hosts, or as my friends and I call them, controllers, can still see, smell, taste and think, but he/she/it cannot speak, move, or even twitch an eyebrow.

You probably already know a controller. Yeerks excel in mimicry. You could live for years with a controller and never know it. I know. My best friend, Jake, has a controller for a brother. My own mother was host to the highest-ranking Yeerk in the galaxy.

There is no stopping them. Earth has no defenses. No one to prevent this horrible thing from happening. Except us.

Who exactly is 'us'? Well, there is Rachel, the completely-insane-totally-amazing amazon warrior. Cassie, a gentle but exceptionally brave animal-loving tree-hugger. Jake, my best friend and the unofficial leader of our group. Tobias, the Bird-Boy, with the body of a red-tailed hawk and the mind of a human. The oddest member of our band, the Andilite warrior-cadetAximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. And of course there is me, Marco, the wisecracking, cute, cautious one. And did I mention modest?

We fight with the only power we have; the power given to us by the dying Andilite prince Elfangor. The power to morph.

So now you know why I said that I could literally become someone else. I can. Morphing is a very simple process; you just touch a creature, absorb its DNA, and then concentrate on the critter. And you become something your not.

Of course, I would never really morph someone just to attract girls. We Animorphs have a code of honor that we follow; number one, we cannot morph a sentient creature without its permission and number two, we cannot use our morphing power for personal missions. Or at least, we can't get caught at using our morphing powers for personal missions.

And I didn't plan on getting caught.

Oh, Marco, will you ever learn? Probably not! Stay tuned…