Chapter 10

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

I scampered down the steps. No one noticed me as I darted across the floor. I looked like a mole or some other creature of the underground. A breeze tickled my fur and whiskers.

I froze. A breeze? Down here?

I looked up. A hawk had just flown over my head. It circled the air above Cassie.

(Tobias? Is that you?) I called.

(Derek? Is that you? Where were you? We didn't know what happened to you after The Gardens, man.)

(It's me,) I said, (I ran into some problems at The Gardens, but nothing morphing into a K-9 German Shepherd couldn't fix)

(Where are you now?) Tobias asked. He paused and seemed to consider. (What are you now, since you're using thought-speak?)

(Cool,) Tobias answered. (I got you now. We need all the help we can get. The others are about twenty feet behind you. We have to save Cassie!)

(Keep an eye on her. I'll be back.)

I scurried across the floor to the others. They were pretty easy to spot, the only kids staring in horror at the scene.

(Hey, it's me!) I called in though-speak. (Tobias said you guys were worried about me.)

The Animorphs looked around wildly. I felt slightly annoyed, but of course you can't really tell where thought-speak comes from.

(Look down.)

Marco almost jumped to the ceiling. "Why did you have to pick a rat?" he whispered.

(I'm not a rat, I'm a ferret,) I said, offended. (I'm closer to a cat or a dog than a rodent. I like humans. I don't bite.)

"Great," Marco muttered. "A rat who pretends to be a dog. Just what we need."

(You know, I can always make an exception to the biting thing,) I added.

Jake bent down to speak with me. "If I were you, I'd morph back to human. You might need a better morph than ferret. This place is crawling with Taxxons and Hork-Bajir."

(All right,) I said. (But Jake, I came down here with Tom! He's here! In a cage!)

"I saw him," Jake said tersely. His face told me everything. I couldn't imagine how awful it must be to see your brother like that.

I scurried behind a storage shed. Quickly, I morphed back to human. I thanked God that I had figured out how to morph clothes so quickly. Even if it was only a tight T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

Rachel poked her head around the shed.

"You'd better stay here. You need to gather your strength if you're going to morphs again. We'll come back when it's time."

I leaned against the storage shed and closed my eyes. I concentrated on slow breathing gathering my strength for the next morph.

It wasn't long before the others returned. Jake and Marco slid up next to me.

"You okay?" he asked. Morphing could be exhausting.

"What are you doing back there?" a voice said.

It's a human-Controller! Standing next to him was a Hork-Bajir, blade arms at the ready. A Taxxon stood on the other side, his spidery legs twitching, red Jell-O eyes glowing.

"Who are you?"

"Us," Marco asked. "Who are we? Hey, who are you?"

"Take them," the man ordered.

The Hork-Bajir advanced on us. The Taxxon slithered forward on its dozens of sharp spiny legs.

That's when I noticed Rachel. She was behind the guards. Rachel. Only it was Rachel with a long, long nose. A trunk. She was morphing into an elephant!

A braying noise filled the air as she felt the Elephant's power. (Ha HA! I did it.) She crowed.

The Taxxon noticed her first, but I guess he didn't know how to react.

Rachel charged. The Hork-Bajir was fast. He spun around and slashed at her trunk with his elbow blade.

Too little, too late.

(Puny little nothing!) Rachel cried outraged. (You attack ME!)

The Hork-Bajir went down, crushed under Rachel's monstrous feet.

The Taxxon tried to run. It turns out that Taxxons can move when they want to. It also turns out that elephants are faster than they look. The Taxxon didn't make it too far.

The human just stood there. He said, "An elephant?" Like he couldn't even think about it being real.

Rachel wrapped her trunk around his middle.

(Yeah,) she said. (An elephant.)

He must have figured out it was real, cause he started screaming. I never saw where he landed.

"Let's morph!" Jake cried.

"Nice work Rachel," Marco said. "Remind me never to make you mad."

I looked over at Cassie. She was almost at the end of the pier. That gave me an extra burst of strength. I concentrated hard. On the image of one of scariest animals I'd ever had the misfortune to run across.

I felt something grow out of my back. A tail. Sandy colored fur sprouted up all over my body. My ears became round and my head got big. My teeth sharpened into deadly instruments of terror.

I was a very fierce, hungry, and very angry hyena. And I had no fear.

The hyena's mind was within my own. It was different from the ferret, and the K-9 dog. The hyena was a murderous killer. Something between raving psychopath, and killer ax-murderer. If I had morphed the hyena at any other time I don't think I would have been able to control its mind. But I, Derek, was very angry. I wanted to hurt, and the hyena wanted that too. Our brains fell so perfectly in sync at that moment that I knew I'd never have a problem with the hyena brain again.

You look at the hyenas in The Lion King and you think you know them and don't like them because they're the bad guys. That's only the wimpy Disney version of hyenas. They're thousands of times worse. Disney was right about some things though. Lions and hyenas don't like to mess with each other.

I started towards Cassie, but a Taxxon got in the way. Not a problem. I ripped into him with my teeth. He tried to bite me back but a hyena is such an efficient killing machine that he was dead before he registered the pain. The hyena sniffed at the dead Taxxon and decided that Taxxons were not edible.

That was a little funny since in the wild a hyena will eat just about anything.

Marco was now Big Jim the gorilla. His huge muscles allowed him to punch Hork-Bajir, and the Hork-Bajir went down.

I saw a Siberian Tiger pounce on a Taxxon and take it down. Had to be Jake. I was instantly jealous. Jake acquired a tiger? That was so cool. I made a promise to myself to one day acquire a tiger.

To my surprise the hyena mind had no desire to attack my friends in morph. Even Marco the gorilla, who was prey in the wild. The murderous hyena instincts looked at them and it didn't even cross the hyena brain to attack them.

Of course foolish human, the hyena seemed to say, you don't attack the pack. You attack prey, and enemies, but not your pack.

Marco tossed another Hork-Bajir into the air like a doll. The rest scattered. So they are afraid of something.

We owned this place.

Marco was the only one of us with dexterity, so he headed towards the cages to unlock them. Jake was already bounding toward Cassie. Pack-mate in danger, the hyena said. I started forward to help Jake but a Hork-Bajir cut me off. He swiped at me with an elbow blade.

I sprung. I tore at his flesh, then jumped away. I stuck again, this time for the vulnerable fleshy part near his head. Wounded, I expected him to fall back. But instead he sprung forward, his elbow and wrist blades flashing. Rachel raised her foot and stomped.

(Thanks,) I said, the human part of me caused my hyena to shudder involuntarily.

(Another puny Hork-Bajir bites the dust,) Rachel said. She sounded positively bloodthirsty.

Tobias swooped down and clawed at the eyes of the Hork-Bajir who was holding Cassie at the end of the pier.

She broke away and ran.

(Morph!) I yelled along with Jake.

Even as I watched, Cassie's hair began to grow into a beautiful mane. It streamed out behind her as her legs extended, and she went down on all fours. It was amazing to see. Cassie was now completely horse.

(I say we follow Cassie and get out of here,) Rachel said.

(I'm right behind you,) I responded.

The people Marco released were panicking, running towards the stairs. The Hork-Bajir and Taxxon were trying to round them up. I slipped through them running hard.

Cassie and Jake leapt over surprised Taxxons. I remembered that Hork-Bajir weren't all that great on strategy so I faked left and went right…just like at The Gardens. I sailed over a pair of writ blades that tried to slash me at the last second.

I gained the stairs. Balls of flame exploded over my head. I leapt over a Taxxon who was aiming a Dracon beam at me: straight into the path of Visser Three.

(Whoops,) I said to the others. (Wrong way.)

Visser Three didn't look all that scary. Not compared to the Hork-Bajir or the Taxxons or even our earth animals. The hyena thought he looked like an antelope. I had to resist the urge to attack him. I knew that that would be fatal.

A Taxxon slithered up beside Visser Three and spoke. It was a weird, half-whistling sound.

"Ssssweer trrreeesswew eeeestrew."

The horrid evil voice filled my head. (This Taxxon fool says you are wild animals,) Visser Three said. (He wants to know if he and his brothers can eat you.) He laughed silently. (But I know you are not animals. I know who and what you are. So. Not all of you Andalites died when I burned your ship.)

(He thinks we're Andalites,) I said privately to the others. I was already motoring my hyena legs away from the Visser.

(I compliment you on getting this far. But it will accomplish nothing. Because now, my brave Andalite warriors, it is time. Time to die.)

He began to morph.

(I acquired this body on the fourth moon of the second planet of a dying star. It is called an Octiggarr. Like it?)

He morphed into a creature as tall as a building. Eight legs. Eight arms. And eight heads. Even the hyena inside me felt doubt. I couldn't take on this creature.

Cassie nudged two humans now freed from their cages and tossed her head. They figured out that she wanted them to ride her. She carried them to the stairs.

(You can't escape!) Visser Three cried.

"You filthy creep!" Tom yelled. Jake's brother launched himself at Visser Three.

(NO!) Jake cried. He sprang at the huge creature that was Visser Three, straight towards the eyes. He clawed at the face. Visser Three howled in pain.

Fireballs exploded. One almost got Jake. Tom fell off the stairs.

(Jake, run!) Cassie cried urgently.

With a howl of anguish Jake turned and headed up the stairs. A fireball struck one of the two humans riding Cassie. Rachel began to demorph. Elephants can do a lot of things but climbing stairs isn't one of them.

(You can't run!) Visser Three cried.

Oh yes we can. I thought. The stairway narrowed. Visser Three hadn't counted on us making it this far. In his huge morph, he couldn't make it upstairs.

(I'll kill you all, Andalites. Run away, it doesn't matter! I'll kill you all!) The Visser screamed.

And so we ran, ran, ran up those stairs with a thousand nightmares on our heels.