Chapter 4

"Everything," Marco breathed, slowly taking this in. "All the important info along with the Yeerks. Example, I know Jake has a brother-Controller. I've seen him before at The Sharing, but I've never harmed him in any way." She looked to Marco directly. I was guessing she was privately letting Marco know that he and I were the only other ones to know that his mom is Visser One. I could see my best friend jump in place. "I can easily tell who's a Controller or not. I can see through their heads." "So, you can just see whether they're Controllers or not," I questioned Laura. She nodded slowly. "But I leave it up to you Animorphs to do the freedom thing. Not just out of respect, but because of my limits in helping." "It's just not fair," Rachel said, after a while. "Well, think about it, people," Laura said in frustration. "It's all I have for a defense mechanism, to take care of myself. I can't possibly go back and forth between all of your homes to help in the fight. I'm offering a hand, and if that's how you want to be, then…"

"Don't you even have a home?" Cassie cut in. "Yeah, but I live alone, pretty much. I got some friends in places from all over the world who aren't Controllers, but I've never told them about the Yeerks. Why? Well, if it got word to around the world, then the invaders would get suspicious. Put two and two together." "But you could easily cover yourself, right," Marco pointed out. He seemed to be right. "Yeah, but what could I do? I'm only one person, and like I said, I'm limited in some ways. They're better off not knowing until a more massive crowd gets the word in. I have to be careful. I'd might have to erase one's memory if I wasn't. I respect humanity, and I don't want to have to do it unless absolutely necessary." She threw her hands up in the air. "I have to take these complications. Sure, I could wipe out the Yeerk home world just by thinking about it, but…" "That would be too much interfering," Rachel scowled. "So, what good are you then?" "I'm getting there, Miss Warrior," Laura replied, in a low voice. "Let's see…unlimited amount of time to change into animals. Don't have to acquire, and I can go straight from one form to the other, and a lot of other simple little things."

"I've done some physical damage, and I can do camouflage, holograms, teleportation, I've heightened my agility, mind reading, memory erasing…" She paused. "That's only a few things on the list I could do." "Jeez, you're a one girl army!" Marco said. "Impossible to refuse me, right," Laura said, smiling. "So, you can help out a little, but not too much," I said. -(Every little bit helps,)- Tobias said unenthusiastically. "Could we see a demonstration," Ax asked curiously. "Deh-muh-stray-shun. Shunnn-nuh." See, in reality, Andalites don't have mouths. So Ax in human morph is always strange. He likes to play with mouth sounds from time to time.

"Sure," she said, and in one second, by the time I blinked, she was gone. For a moment, nothing else happened. "Hey, she ran off," Rachel began to say. -(No I didn't,)- quickly called a thought speak voice. Laura. -(It's just my invisibility. I can do thought speak in any form too. Even in my own.)- We all looked at one another. My friends felt the same way I had. Shocked.

She reappeared, slower than she had vanished. Then, her body flashed in white light as she turned into a cream colored, long haired cat, quickly. In a matter of a few seconds. "Mrow," she called vocally. -(I can usually control the animal instincts with not too much of a problem. To me, it's like jumping onto a wild horse at a rodeo. I can pull hard on the reins if I have a hard time getting in control.)- She then turned straight into another form, without having to go back to her human form first. A bald eagle. "Man, Cassie, looks like we have a better morpher," Marco said.

-(I can also make up a form,)- Laura said, and the bird grew slightly larger and most of the feathers immediately changed to white. A single golden feather emerged out of the top of its head, like a crest. The wings were silver tipped. There were two red circles on the cheeks, like a cockatiel's. That's what Laura looked like. A big, eagle-like, cockatiel. "Oh, wow," Cassie said in awe. -(Quite a beauty, huh? I only do this morph on very rare occasions. I don't do made up morphs around the Yeerks. I'd stick out like a sore thumb in the animal kingdom here if I did that,)- Laura explained.

"Impossible," Ax could only say. Our resident Andalite was speechless. In the next instant, Laura returned to human form. "This has always been my true form," she told us, and moved a strand of sandy blond hair behind her ear. She smiled, showing her teeth, and laughed. "When I first met the Chee, they were bewildered and all. Even when I could morph into one of them, without a problem." -(You've had all this since you were twelve… I'm guessing you're thirteen or fourteen now,)- Tobias assumed. "Fourteen," the supernatural human confirmed. "I've turned that age about months ago. That's when Ellimist decided to tell me about you guys. Although he's my friend, he's…kind of closed off. It's like he doesn't want me too involved with him." She didn't sound happy then. "He cares about me, but it's like he's nervous about getting too close."

What could I say? After seeing her morph so quickly and disappear… She could even point out Human-Controllers, so she claimed. "Well, enough about that," she said, uncomfortable talking about the Ellimist. "Must be hard for you, after losing your parents like that," Cassie said in sympathy. "Yeah, but I don't like getting into details about it, okay?" she snapped. Laura reminded me of Marco then. She looked like she didn't want to be pitied. "Sorry, it's just how I deal with it," she apologized. "I try not to think about it."

I felt most confident about letting her work with us, but I wanted everyone else to have their say first. And that I felt a little, weirded out. It's kind of creepy being around someone like Laura. Knowing about us like she did. "So, it's voting time," Laura asked, faster than I could say it. I looked to her, startled. She looked back to me and gave me an apologetic look. "Oops, my bad. Rushing too ahead of myself now." I shrugged and gave an look to everyone that meant, "Well…?"

"I say she's in," Marco said. "What she can and can't do, okay. I respect, but still…wouldn't it just be a whole lot better if she just wiped out the Yeerks in a snap?" Cassie nodded in agreement, saying, "Welcome on the team, Laura." "Sure, Cassie," Laura said, with a gentle smile. "Y'know, I love animals too." -(I don't see why not,)- Tobias said, but something in his voice told me he wasn't thrilled about it. Maybe he was disturbed about her as much as I was. And that he didn't like the Ellimist. I looked to Rachel. She sounded annoyed. "It would be a lot simpler if she could wipe out the Yeerks. No offense, but why can't she just stand up to Ellimist and not let him take the powers away?" "Hey, I respect his strict rules. He took me in when I was six," Laura countered sternly, mainly reminding my cousin. "All I can do in return for his kindness and small amounts of generosity is to follow his rules."

I started to feel that Rachel and Laura weren't getting along well. Maybe it was because of the psychic sense that Laura had used on her. "Okay, why don't the two of you should just chill?" I said to both of them. Laura became quiet and looked away from Rachel, who argued, "I don't understand you. Aren't you mad about that! I mean-" "Just stop right there, Xena," Laura warned, using Marco's nickname. She didn't even look at Rachel as she said that. "Don't go there." "Hey, I said chill," I repeated, looking at each of them. "Rachel, plain and simple, yes or no?" Rachel kicked a bale of hay and said, "Yeah, the more the merrier, right?" She didn't sound happy at all about it, but accepted.

Then Ax said, "I'll decide what you decide, Prince Jake." "Don't call me 'prince'," I said in automatic response for the two-thousandth time. Ax is a young cadet warrior Andalite and persists that I'm his "prince." I'm usually not real fond of that. I'm only kind of getting used to being the leader, because someone has to make the life and death decisions in this strange group. Everyone looked at me now. I looked to Laura, and sighed. "Well, if you're willing to help us…" "Yeah, sure, I could help in any way I could," she said. She held out her hand. I hesitatingly took it. "Good to be a part of the team," she added, shaking my hand. "I know I'm not technically an Animorph. I'm just a human with limited abilities similar to what Ellimist has. One of a kind. An…Ultra Being." "Ultra Being," Marco repeated, about to make a joke. "Yeah, super-natural's an understatement," Laura said. "And you can just call me Laura." She smiled. "No need to bow or anything. I'm just about as human as the rest of you." Marco laughed in response. "Oh, great," Cassie said, shaking her head with a smile. "We have two comedians now."