Note: I am making it a habit to look up my reviewers and read their Animorph fics. So if you will please make it a habit to leave signed reviews, or tell me your name if you don't feel like signing on, it will be greatly appreciated. And now, responses to your reviews.

LilManiac: OH!OH! YOU HAVE TO UPDATE SOON!
OHWAA!
this is brilliant! write on, dude or dudette!

Thank you. My updates will be slightly more spaced apart since we are back in school. By the way, I'm a dude. Steve's the name, satisfaction's the game.

LucreziaNoin86: sorry about the question, I have been reading so much fanfiction lately that I got your story confused with someone else's. Sorry.
Well anyway, I am really enjoying your's, it's been awesome. I love the way your writing the story that the books have but tweeking it just right. Please keep at it.
LucreziaNoin86

It's okay. But seriously folks, I hope to have everyone cringing later in the plot. It's going to be one hell of a ride (I hope).

Nora D: This is really pretty amazing, in that it's so close to the real books but slightly different. I'm used to the "alternate ending" fics fixing all of the mistakes, making everything peachy fine.. You're right, this is different. You're not meddling a whole lot. I like this. X3

Yep. Thanks. Well, it should start changing a lot right… about…NOW! BWAAHAHA!

Tobias

I was soaring, floating high above the meeting place of forest and valley. I hadn't eaten since noon, and was trying to find something to eat before the sun went down.

There! A lone pigeon, flitting through the trees toward the camp. Wondering for only a second why a pigeon was so far from the city, I dove.

Like a bullet, I…wait, there were more! Several more! I took a quick count, something poking at my mind. There were thirty.

If I were a human, I would have swallowed hard.

(James, is that you?) I was hoping it wasn't. The plan was for them to stay in the rehab center until everything was done. Plus I didn't like the fact that Jake, Cassie, Marco, and Ax weren't with them.

A voice, faint and almost indistinct, answered. (Yeah. Jake told us to fly this way and look for a valley.)

I panicked. (James, what happened? Are the others okay?)

(Everybody with me is. Jake and them morphed to fight off the Yeerks.)

It was worse than I thought. (How many were there?)

(A whole lot. They weren't on to us, it was just Visser One extending his power by attacking nearby towns.) All of the pigeons landed in the clearing at the head of the valley and started to demorph.

(James, I'm going to find Rachel and have her help you guys. Then I'm going to help Jake and get them to come back here in one piece.) I looked at the group. Now five people were standing tall. In addition to James, Craig, and Erica there was a tall redheaded guy and a fair-headed girl. Hey, you notice things like hair color when you're a hawk.

James smiled and stepped over to the two, who were walking around like they couldn't believe it. "The morphing process healed you, Alex and Jenna. Welcome to the club." He gave them a warm embrace. There were tears.

I banked toward the cabins, in one of which Rachel and her family lived. She stepped out, looked around, then up, and smiled. She started to morph eagle.

(Not right now Rachel.) She stopped morphing. (I need you to help the new Animorphs. They're at the mouth of the valley.) She put a pouty look on her face, then walked toward the thirty kids standing and sitting.

I banked again, heading for the rehab center. I had to at least try to help the rest of the gang. I just didn't know what they expected to accomplish fighting thousands of Hork-Bajir.

Halfway there I spotted an orange flash below me. Jake! I soon saw the rest of them.

(Jake! You made it! That's-)

(No time,) he said breathlessly. (They are. Hot on our tail. Must move faster.)

Then I saw what he was talking about. A dozen Hork-Bajir were following on foot. But they were falling behind. What worried Jake was the one smart Yeerk who took to the trees.

You see, the Hork-Bajir are arboreal. The move faster and more naturally in the trees. This Yeerk was catching up.

(I'll try to slow him down.) I turned sharply, then dove. Faster and faster, until I reached out with my talons.

"ARRRGGGHHH!" Blood was streaming through his fingers, which were clasped to his eyes.

(Thanks!) was all I heard before Jake and the others disappeared. I landed in a tree.

Uh-oh. The other Hork-Bajir had caught up. If I stayed still, they might not see me.

"There's the gafrash bird!" The one I had wounded was pointing at me and staring me down with one good eye. I screeched and started to morph.

Halfway to Hork-Bajir they hit me. Reeling, I grabbed a branch and swung away, completing my morph as I swung. They swung after me.

I let my Hork-Bajir reactions take over, swinging me faster through the trees. I was a blur, moving faster and faster as I snagged unseen branches and trunks. One Hork-Bajir was closing in. I sneaked a quick look behind at him.

He was huge! Probably eight feet tall, looking like he had just came out of a WWE wrestling match. Muscle layered over muscle, he probably weighed over four hundred pounds.

If he caught up with me at this speed and tackled me, it would crush every bone in my body. Unless I acted first.

I stopped as abruptly as I could, turning around to face my pursuer. We had long ago left all of the other Yeerks behind. If I could take this guy down, I could probably safely demorph and be gone by the time the rest of the Yeerks arrived.

He closed in, still incredibly fast. He had looked surprised, but now only loathing crossed his face.

"ANDALITE BAN-." He stopped speaking because I rammed my fist into his face, snapping a few finger bones. My arm bent at the elbow from the shock.

I had only meant to stun him, but he kept on flying and his neck ripped sickingly into my elbow blades. He fell to the forest floor with a dull thump.

I wasted no time. I started demorphing as I swung to a tree with a lot of leaves. As soon as I finished, I took off. Maybe ten seconds passed before the rest of the Yeerks stooped cautiously by the lifeless Hork-Bajir on the ground.

One Yeerk searched the sky. His eyes locked on me as he pulled a Dracon and fired.

TSSSEEEEWWW!

I dove and skimmed the tree tops, speeding away

-

Arriving in the valley, I found many of the disabled kids sitting in cheap wheelchairs around a fire. Jake and Cassie were off to the side, holding hands. Marco was talking to Ax, and Ax was searching the darkening sky with his stalk eyes. Rachel was crying.

I landed on a log. Rachel spun around and looked at me, then scooped me up in her arms.

"Tobias! We thought you were gone!" She was laughing now. I started to demorph.

"Marco gave Ax a look and said, "See? You owe me ten bucks." Ax looked puzzled.

Rachel gave Marco a dirty look. He just laughed and turned to me. "Well, I am personally glad you don't get to miss the fun."

I was puzzled. "What fun?"

Jake spoke up. "Right before the Yeerks saw us, they said something about unloading the Blade Ship. And Tom's Yeerk had helped start using the ship to transport alien metals to the surface pool. They are landing the Blade Ship for hours at a time and building a new fleet." He grinned.

I groaned. "You don't mean…"

He grinned even wider. "Yep. We're going to steal the Blade Ship."