A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed the last chapter! I'm so excited because, with the next chapter, starts 'the good stuff!' The part of the story I've had in my head since before I put my pen to the paper and my hands to the keyboard. I hope (American readers) had a fun and safe Fourth of July.

On another note, I highly recommend the movie War of the Worlds. If you want to see it, go see it in theatres because the movie rocks (and I'm not a tom cruise fan, go figure!) and it will not do it justice to see it on a home television screen. :D It's so worth the money to see it on the big screen. :D

Onto the next chapter, as you are all only here for that.

Chapter 8

Rachel

"Now what?" Cassie asked, breaking our silence. No one responded for a minute or two.

"We hit them hard and fast." I began "We prove to the council of thirteen that we are stronger than they think. Stronger than Visser Three has let on. We need to make our Visser look like an idiot in front of his bosses."

"Are you insane?" Marco asked then added "Don't answer that, we already know you are! We can't just…" He trailed off looking completely exasperated.

"So what? You want to lay low and hope the yeerks just go away!" I demanded. "News flash! They aren't going to leave unless we give them a reason too."

Rachel… Tobias said to me, and from the looks on everyone's faces, he said it privately. I tilted my head slightly to let him know I heard him. Just drop it. Marco's being…well, Marco. I sighed and shook my head in annoyance.

"What if the council starts a full out war because they suddenly think we're stronger than they think? Did you think of that one oh mighty Xena?" Marco demanded.

I fumed. How could he ridicule me when no one else has any suggestions? From the look on Jake's face, I could tell he agreed with me. From Cassie's silence, I knew she was torn between doing what she knew was right and what she felt was wrong. Tobias indirectly told me he agreed with me. Ax…well, he'd do anything Jake told him to do. I knew I was right, but why did Marco's comments bother me more than usual?

"I don't see you offering suggestions." I snapped back.

"OK, guys, cool it for a moment." Jake said, and sighed. "We need to do something. That much is clear. Before we do thought, we need to think about our options. The angles. We need to figure out if we hit them, as Rachel put it, hard and fast, where do we hit and when."

"So, you're Okaying this suicide mission?" Marco asked, looking slightly surprised. Everyone gave Marco the 'shut up' look. "I was only trying to be clear." He muttered.

"We could hit sharing meetings, the Yeerk pool itself, known controller owned and operated businesses, the possibilities are endless!" I stated, hoping the others would see what I saw. We had to make the Visser look bad. That was our only hope.

"We can't get into the pool. Not easily anyway." Cassie said, looking at everyone for confirmation.

Actually, the Yeerks are installing a new entrance by the 7-11 up town. I don't think they have a filter up yet. Tobias stated. I felt a smile coming on. I could almost feel the pre-fight adrenaline rush. The down side, the yeerk pool. The one place on earth that could make Hitler and his SS officers cringe. I still have nightmares about our first visit to the Yeerk pool. I think we all do.

"OK, Tobias, check out that entrance and see if the filter's up and running yet." Jake said.

I'm on it. Tobias flew out of the barn and said to me only I'll see you later tonight.

"So, what do you want us to do?" Marco asked.

"Go home, do homework. We meet up tomorrow after school and if Tobias's entrance checks out, we go and do as Rachel said; we attack them hard and fast. In-and-out. We'll discuss any other attacks when we re-assemble back at Tobias's meadow." We all looked confused at that point. We usually meet back at the barn. "If for some reason, we get followed, we don't want to assemble here." Jake stated, and we all nodded.

We all said our goodbyes and headed home in separate directions, my mind wondering if I made the right call. For some reason, I felt a slight pang of dread. Like something was going to go wrong. I shoved my doubts aside as I walked back into my house and trudged up to my room to begin my math homework.

Thanks to IG88, rockergurl13 (yes I am a girl), Wolf-black-flame, and GenesisDragon, for the reviews. As always, I look forward to them all. Reviews motivate me to post more sooner, so if you want to see a new chapter at a quicker pace, review! (though my work schedule has a lot do with how frequently I post; the more spare time I have, the more I write and yada-yada)

Hope you all enjoyed (even those who didn't review)!