Chapter Two

"Wonder Woman! You're looking oh-so-fine! Good workout?"

Ferdie's voice rang in my ears long before we actually spotted him though the masses of people crowding the shopping centre.

"At least you're not the only one who gets called stupid nicknames," I said to Rachel as we pushed our way through the swarms of people. Rachel had this strange ability to make her way through crowds without ever coming into contact with a single other person. I, however, was constantly barging into other people, muttering 'scuse me, sorry,' over and over again.

"Hey guys," said Jake, once we'd eventually located them. Five guys and one girl sat relaxing round a table, drinking Cokes and snacking on burgers and chips. Rachel took a seat beside Cassie, and attempted to make her understand the techniques of a successful bargain hunt. Cassie attempted to turn the conversation towards animals.

"Hiya," I said, grabbing a spare chair and sitting down next to Ferdie.

"It was a great workout," said Rachel, replying to Ferdie's earlier question. "Good to get some exercise. But Sam here got totally thrashed!"

Philip, who was eating a salad, raised his eyebrows briefly but said nothing.

"I did not get thrashed!" I retorted. "I merely let my guard drop for a second, and consequently was…" I trailed off, watching Rachel's triumphant face. "Hey, you haven't fought her yet, so how can you mock me?"

"I'd love to see Xena and Wonder Woman in a fight together," said Marco from across the table. "Let me know if you ever decide, and I'll get some popcorn ready. And maybe a video camera."

Rachel delicately picked a wad of chewed gum from an ashtray, and flicked it at Marco. It hit his face, and bounced onto the floor. Cassie rolled her eyes and smiled at Jake, who laughed at his best friend.

"Hey, that was uncalled for!" Marco retorted.

I caught Ferdie's eye and grinned, grabbing a chip from the little polystyrene box. I relaxed and surveyed our little group. Philip, having partially morphed a musk ox, looked hilarious, his sensible-looking, aristocratic features framed by a mass of long, black, tangled ox hair. His face still retained its permanently distracted expression, however. He had also attempted to swap his normal tweeds for a black leather biker jacket, but as his multi-coloured morphing outfit poked out from underneath, he had yet to pull the look off. I could see Rachel staring at him, and I could tell she was debating with herself whether or not this called for another shopping trip for the four of us.

"Want some lemonade?" asked Ferdie, handing me a bottle. He had done a partial morph of a lynx, and his shaggy strawberry mane had been replaced by short, sandy coloured hair. His glittery-green eyes looked even more mischievous than they usually did, due to the presence of cat DNA. He had replaced his smart-causal polo shirt and beige corduroys for a pair of slack jeans and a long sleeved tee shirt. He still retained his classic Shakespearian looks though, and, along with that unmistakable upper-class self confidence, reminded me of Prince Harry trying to fit in at a Kaiser Chiefs gig.

Opposite Ferdie sat Maggie, looking slightly out of place among the sprawls of urban society. Maggie had been bought up in a variety of remote African villages, and was still rather apprehensive when it came to western civilisation. She had partially morphed a wolf, with striking blue-black hair replacing her normally red and bushy human hair. Her pink, sun-reddened skin looked dark and a little too grey to be natural. Her huge brown eyes had become smaller, beadier, and darker.

"Suits you," I said to Maggie, nodding at her hair. "Not sure about the eyes, but the hair is cool."

"Thanks," she replied, completely failing to hide her a thick Scottish accent. "I normally do a rat, but I thought I'd try something else today."

Suddenly, Marco stood up. "Uh oh, guys, here comes Ax with the Cinnabons. Better get the straitjacket ready.

A moment later, we were joined by the last two members of our team, Tobias and Ax, both original Animorphs. And, without meaning to be rude, a truly peculiar pair. Tobias, having become stuck in the form of a red-tailed hawk, was looking particularly out of place among us humans. Although he'd regained the power to morph long before the four of us had arrived on the scene, it was obviously that he still felt unease in human environments such as these. He placed a tray of doughnuts and bottles of juice down in front of us, his face perfectly expressionless, his eyes darting about the place like a sparrow. Ax, being an alien, was even worse. He had morphed his human form, a strange combination of Jake, Rachel, Marco and Cassie, the result of which was a disturbing good-looking male which was now gazing in blue-eyed wonder at the sweet smelling confectionary which lay before him.

"Bun-zuh…" he muttered quietly, his face leaning slowly towards the tray. "Sweet tasting, beautiful bun-zuh!"

Ax is as Andalite, and Andalite do not have mouths. Or, indeed, taste buds. Therefore, when Ax morphs a human, he becomes somewhat overwhelmed at the sense of taste. That, and his tendency to repeat words, or 'mouth sounds', as he likes to call them, makes for an inevitable afternoon of bizarre behaviour.

"Someone want to stop him from eating the plate too, this time?" asked Philip, making no attempt whatsoever to disguise his distinctive clipped accent.

"Yeah right," said Marco. "You want to get between that guy and a Cinnabon, that's your funeral. Me? I'm staying well back."

I heard a snort beside me, and turned to see Ferdie watching with interest as Ax proceeded to stuff the entire tray of buns into his mouth at once. He breathed deeply, eyes rolling with ecstasy, warm icing dripping down his chin.

"Buns!" he gasped, barely intelligible. "Oh, buns, bun-zuh! Such pleasure! Such sweetness, how I have never tasted anything so fine!"

"Prefer that to yesterday's motor oil, Ax?" asked Marco wryly.

Ax took no notice, instead grabbing a bottle of orange juice and pouring the contents into his already overstuffed mouth.

"Juice!" he cried, orange liquid splattering from his mouth. "Bun-zuh! And joos-suh! Where can I find more of this wonderful joos-suh?"

Ferdie ducked the flying crumbs which had once been contents of Ax's mouth. "Remind me never to take you to dinner at the Ivy," he said conversationally.

"Ok, Ax, I think you've had quite enough for one day," said Jake patiently, as if he was a psychiatric doctor speaking to a rather unpredictable patient. "Let's just leave the buns alone now, shall we?"

Ax's eyes widened in horror as a small piece of bun was removed from his sight and thrown into the bin.

"Bun-zuh!" he cried, staring at Jake like a beaten dog begging for forgiveness from it's master.

"Jeez, I think we've established that they're buns alright," said Marco. "Now, if you'd like to attempt to string more than two comprehensible words together?"

Ax finished chewing the last of this mouthful, his face red, his shoulders heaving, his tongue licking his lips in a final attempt to savour as much of the flavour as possible. Eventually, he calmed down, and took a sip of water, attempting to regain his composure.

"I apologise, Prince Jake" he said soberly. "That behaviour was inappropriate."

Jake rolls his eyes in exasperation. "That's ok, Ax," he said, sitting back in his chair. "Just don't call me Prince anymore, and we'll forget all about it."

"Of course, Prince Jake. Ake. Prins-suh Jake," he added for good measure.

Just then, Jake's mobile began to bleep. He took it out of his pocket, flipped it open and stared stonily at it for a second before sighing and replacing it in his pocket.

"Alright, that's enough, Ax," he continued. "Just shut up for a second." He lowered his voice and glanced around at the nine of us. "Um, look, I know I said that we were going to try and have a nice Yeerk free day, but I've just had a message from Erek."

"Aww, man, so much for a relaxing weekend!" groaned Marco, running a hand through his thick black hair. "I even managed to get my history paper done early, just so that I'd have nothing to worry about today!"

"Who's Erek?" I asked, looking confused at Jake. I could feel Philip, Ferdie and Maggie wanting to ask the same thing.

"Erek's one of us," Jake said. "He's the one who-"

Maggie cut him off. "There are more of you? More morphers, you mean?"

"Yes, just shout it out, for all to hear," muttered Ferdie.

Jake took over again. "He's not exactly one of us in the sense that he's an Animorph."

Marco scoffed at this.

"Ok," said Jake, "he not exactly one of us, in the sense that's he's not human."

"What, he's a…" asked Maggie, mentioning to Ax.

Jake let a nervous smile spread over his face. "Uh uh. He's not an Andalite. I guess you could call him an alien, but with a big difference. The dude isn't even alive."

"He's dead?" said Ferdie.

"What? No!" said Jake, looking surprised. "Look, Erek's an android. You know, like a robot. Created by a long-extinct race known as the Pemalites."

"Pema-what?" Philip asked. "You've lost me."

"Erek's race, the Chee, are androids, created by a species called the Pemalites," Jake repeated. His voice was low, and I had to struggle to hear. "They have been living on earth for thousands of years. They have the ability to create advanced and highly realistic holograms, as well as a variety of other advanced technologies. In their normal form, they look like dogs or wolves walking on their back legs, but they produce a hologram and a force field to pass as humans. If you saw one, you'd never know them for who they really were."

"Sounds a lot like a Controller to me," I said. "I take it they're on our side, though?"

"Yeah, they are our allies. They help us fight the Yeerks, but are limited to spying and passing on information."

"Why?"

"Despite their incredible strength, the Chee are hardwired for non-violence. It's in their programming. They can't harm or kill any living soul."

"Typical," said Philip, who seemed to be taking in this information a heck of a lot faster than I was. "Talk about ironic. Incredible strength, advanced technology, incapable of violence."

Jake shrugged. "Yeah, well, I guess it's just one of those things you have to deal with. The Chee have been incredibly helpful to us. No way we could fight this war without them."

There was a slight pause, during which the Animorphs looked slightly irritated, and us Fugitives just looked confused.

"So, what did Erek say?" asked Cassie.

"He told me he's meeting up with us in a few minutes. I mentioned on Thursday we'd be at the mall today, and he's coming to tell us something." Jake glanced at me and Ferdie. "In fact, he should be here any second. So you'll finally have a chance to meet a real android."