Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs or Stargate SG-1

Things happened way fast after the meeting on the beach. Too fast. While Jake was in dog morph, he learned that Assistant Principal Chapman was a Controller. I didn't say it to anyone else, but that scared me half to death. Not because Chapman was a Controller, but because his daughter was Melissa Chapman. It's kind of freaky when the girl that you have a crush on could be part of an alien conspiracy to take over the world.

Less than a week later Jake morphed into a lizard to spy on Chapman and accidentally discovered an entrance to the Yeerk Pool. Tobias had filled me in on the Yeerk pool. It was where the Yeerks had to leave their hosts every three days in order to absorb Kandrona Rays. Jake was meeting us at the mall to fill us in on what he'd discovered. It had seemed like a safe place, considering that nobody notices kids hanging out at the mall.

"Screams," Jake said. "Human screams. They sounded far off, but that's what they were."

Jake had been munching a lot of the big basket of nachos that we had bought to share.

"You were a lizard at the time," Marco pointed out. "Who knows what you heard?"

"I know," Jake said.

"I can't stand the thought of what's happening to people down there," Cassie said. She shuddered. "It's sickening."

"We have to do something," Rachel said.

"Yeah, let's rush down right down there," Marco said. "Then it can be us screaming."

"Marco you can't just ignore what's going on," Rachel said.

"Sure I can," he said. "All I have to do is remind myself that hey, guess what? I don't want to die."

"That's it then," Rachel demanded, outraged. "Just whatever's best for Marco?"

"I don't think Marco is being selfish," Cassie said. "Just the opposite. He's thinking about what would happen to his dad if Marco…"

"He's not the only one who's got people to worry about," Rachel said. "I have a family. We all do."

"Not me," Tobias said softly. He smiled sadly. "It's true. No one gives a rat's rear about me."

"I do," Rachel said. That was a little surprising to me. I don't think I'd have guessed that Rachel and Tobias would be some kind of couple.

"Look," Jake said. "I'm not asking anyone else to go with me. But I don't have a choice. I heard that scream today. And I know that Tom is going down tonight. He's my brother. I have to try and save him." He held out his hands, helpless. "I have to do it. For Tom."

"I'll go with you," Tobias said. "For the Andalite."

"Me too," I said speaking up for the first time in a while. "I've always said that you should never have to be a afraid to do what's right. There is a reason we all ended up at the construction site that night. I'm in."

"Thanks," Jake said.

"There's no one else who can do anything to stop these Yeerks," Rachel said. "I'm scared death just thinking about it. But I'm there."

Marco looked sick, and gave Jake a dirty look. He shook his head. "This is bad," he said. "This is so bad. If it wasn't for Tom I'd just walk away."

"Look, Marco, you don't have to--," Jake started to say.

"Oh shut up!" he snapped. "You're my best friend you jerk. Like I'm going to let you face all of this alone? I'm in. I'm in, to rescue Tom. That's it. Then I'm done."

Only Cassie had remained silent. She was looking dreamily off over the heads of the mall crowd. "You know, back in the old days—I mean the real, real old days – the Africans, the early Europeans, the Native Americans," she looked at me and smiled. "They all believed that animals had spirits. And they would call on those spirits to protect them from evil. They would ask the spirit of the Fox for his cunning. They'd ask the spirit of the Eagle for his sight. They'd ask the lion for his strength."

"American Indians," I said softly and then nodded. "Cassie's right." I said, "My grandfather used to take me on nature walks, and point out the various animals and plants that our people used to use to help us. My dad always said that everything that Man invented, God invented first and better. The Andalite technology has pretty much given us access to God's closet. We can now use what he invented. We've become the skin-walkers from my grandpa's stories."

"Will that strength be enough?" Jake wondered.

"I don't know," Cassie admitted solemnly. "It's kinda like Derek said though. It's as if God just gave us use of his animals to battle these Yeerks. All of the forces on this planet are being brought into the battle."

Marco rolled his eyes, "Thank you Derek and Cassie for your lovely story. But we're just six normal kids. Up against the Yeerks. If it were a football game who would you bet on? We're toast."

"Don't be so sure," Cassie said, "We're fighting for Mother Earth. She has some tricks up her sleeves."

"Good grief," Marco said. "Let's all buy Birkenstocks and go hug some trees."

We all laughed, including Cassie.

"Their right about one thing," Rachel said seriously. "The only thing that we have going for us is this morphing thing. And so far the only morphs we've acquired are a cat, a bird, a dog, a horse, a ferret, and a lizard. Derek said a few days ago that all we had were feeble morphs, he was right. We need firepower. We should head for The Gardens. We need to acquire more DNA ---from some animals that are not going to be easy to acquire."

"Yeah," Jake said. "Somehow I don't think that the hawk, ferret, horse, and lizard team is going to impress the Yeerks. Rachel's right. I think that we need some of the big guns from God's closet." He looked at Cassie. "Can you get us in?"

"I can get in free," she said. "You guys will have to pay, but I can use my mom's employee discount, so it'll be cheaper."

"Oh, I'm sure we could talk them into letting us in for nothing," Marco said. "Just tell them we're Animorphs."

"Tell them we're what?" Rachel asked.

"Idiot teenagers with a death wish," Marco said.

"Animorphs," Jake said.

"Animorphs," I said repeating him, "I like the sound of that."