For anyone following my other story, "The Next Great War," rest assured that I'm not abandoning it. I've just hit a bout writer's block. I know what I want to say and how I want the story to end up, but putting pen to paper in a way that satisfies me is proving difficult. In the meantime, here's another story that been bouncing around my head for a while. The point of view is a departure from TNGW. I've decided to use the "My name is…" first person bit to try to make it more like an Animorph book
Oh, yeah. I don't own Animorphs.
Marco
"RRRRRAAAAUGH!"
I bellowed as a Hork-Bajir's wrist-blade cut into my shoulder. I knocked her aside with an enormous hairy fist. This operation was going from bad to worse. There had been more Hork-Bajir than we expected and reinforcements were undoubtedly on the way.
Whoa, maybe I should back up. I ought to explain why I was fighting things called Hork-Bajir. And why I had large hairy hands. The hands of a gorilla.
My name is Marco, and I'm caught up in a war, boys and girls. No, I haven't enlisted and been shipped off to Iraq or Afghanistan. This war involves the entire human race.
The Earth is in the midst of an increasingly militaristic alien invasion, only you wouldn't know it. Or maybe you would, if you had a Yeerk in your head.
The Yeerks are parasitic alien slugs. They have the slightly unnerving ability to crawl inside your head, wrap themselves around your brain, and assume utter control over your body. You don't speak, the Yeerk does. You don't scratch an itch, the Yeerk does. You don't even take a whiz, the Yeerk does. All you can do is watch hopelessly from the back of your mind as the Yeerks try to infest your friends, family, and eventually your planet.
Humanity is only the latest species to catch the eye of the Yeerks. They have already completely enslaved many races, like the Gedds, the Taxxons, and the Hork-Bajir. The chief nemeses of the Yeerks are the Andalites, a highly advanced race that is stretched thin trying to hold off the slugs.
An Andalite Dome ship came to Earth trying to head off the Yeerks. It badly underestimated the strength of the Yeerks, though, and was destroyed. A lone fighter from the Dome ship, piloted by a prince named Elfangor, came down to Earth. For better or for worse, my four friends and I were the first people Elfangor met. In an attempt to give the human race a fighting chance, he gave each of us Andalite morphing power, the power to turn into any animal we touch. Later we found a sixth member of our team, an Andalite who survived the Dome ship's crash and who was, coincidentally, Elfangor's brother.
Now me, my best friend and de facto leader Jake, Jake's beautiful but unnervingly vicious cousin Rachel, our resident animal expert Cassie, boy-turned bird Tobias, and the Andalite Ax are all that oppose the Yeerks on Earth. Together we make the Animorphs, a name that I coined.
OK, we're not all that oppose the Yeerks, but we are the only ones who actively fight. We have allies, the android Chee, who spy on the Yeerks and keep us in the Yeerkish loop. It was the Chee who told us that the Yeerks had recently completed a large weapons installation in the forest. A weapons installation that had to be taken out. Naturally, we went on our way to hopefully at least damage the installation.
We do stuff like that all the time. And nine times out of ten it shapes up to be an exceedingly bad idea.
This was one of those times.
The Hork-Bajir I had knocked aside had regained her balance and was trying her darndest to decapitate me. I managed to dodge the swipe she made with her deadly arm-blade, but what I didn't see was the kick she made. She embedded her knee-blade in my gut and I doubled over, bellowing in pain.
With me on the ground the Hork-Bajir was about to make another go at separating my head when it was tackled by an orange blur. A tiger ripped the alien's throat out before the animal turned to me.
(I think it is time to leave,) the tiger, Jake, said.
(Easier said than done,) I replied, glancing around. The other members of our team were all fighting for their lives. Cassie, in wolf morph and missing large patches of fur as well as both ears, was on top of a struggling Hork-Bajir. Rachel, in bear morph, was throwing one Hork-Bajir around even as another was slashing away at her back. Tobias was somewhere in Hork-Bajir morph hoping to spread confusion. Ax was in his natural Andalite body, whipping two and fro with his deadly tail. They were all busy with Hork-Bajir who didn't look likely to break off from the attack anytime soon.
(We need to-) I began. I heard a noise and glanced up, just in time to see two Yeerk Bug Fighters zoom by overhead. (Crap! Reinforcements! Jake we need to just break off and haul butt before those fighters land.)
Jake nodded. (Everyone-) he began before stopping. A loud shriek filled the air, different from the sound the Bug Fighters had made. This time everyone, Hork-Bajir and Animorph, stopped and looked up.
A lone ship whizzed by. It looked like an inverted boomerang, with the wings angled slightly downward. A long staff protruded from under each wing. It sure wasn't any ship I had ever seen.
The Bug Fighters must have seen it, because rather than landing and releasing the Hork-Bajir reinforcements they surely held, they streaked toward the strange craft. Without even slowing, the unknown ship shot several energy blasts from the shafts under the wings, easily destroying the two Yeerk craft, and streaking right on forward and out of sight.
A moment later it came into view again, this time lower in the sky. (Uh, guys,) I said (I have a bad feeling about this.) A second later, the ship opened fire, blasts striking the ground all around the battlefield.
(Everyone, get to the deep woods!) Jake ordered.
We fled from the chaos of exploding dirt and screaming Hork-Bajir. We had almost made the tree line when…
Keeew-BAAAAAM
(AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!)
Rachel screamed as she flew threw the air. An energy blasts had struck the ground just behind her. The grizzly bear went down hard, badly burned and with her legs and one arm twisteed into unnatural angles.
(Rachel!) Cassie screamed. (Demorph!)
(Can't…) Rachel said, her words strained with pain. (The…Yeerks'll see…me.)
Oh yeah, about that. The Yeerks think we're Andalite bandits, survivors from the Dome ship. And aside from the morphing technology, that's our best advantage.
Tobias looked back toward the melee. (Those Hork-Bajir won't be telling anyone anything,) he said. (They're toast.) He turned to Rachel. (C'mon, demorph. NOW!)
Rachel gave no response, but a second later the grizzly bear started to shrink. Its fur melted into its skin as fingers and toes emerged from fish hook claws. A moment later, Rachel, completely human, got off the ground and moved quickly behind the trees, with the rest of us running after her. Or hobbling, in my case. It's hard to run with a hole in your gut.
When we felt we had put enough distance between us and the killer fighter craft, the rest of us demorphed. Jake, Cassie, and I went human, while Tobias went to his natural red-tailed hawk form. Tobias is a nothlit, trapped in a morph because he went over the two-hour time limit. Thanks to some intervention from the nigh-omnipotent being the Ellimist, Tobias regained the morphing power, but as a hawk.
While the four of us demorphed and recovered from our injuries, Ax, in his natural shape, kept watch. His head was pointed back the way we came, while his movable stalk eyes scanned the skies.
"What the heck was that thing?" Jake asked. "It didn't seem Yeerk, and I doubt it was human."
(It is not a craft I am familiar with, Prince Jake,) Ax replied. (It seemed-)
He was cut off by the sound of explosions. We looked back toward the weapons installation but the trees were too thick to see what was going on.
"Birds. Now." Jake said.
"Please don't tell me you want to go back there," I said. "Please, Jake, I thought you had some sanity.
"We're just going to get high enough to see what's going on over there," Jake said, the imprint of peregrine falcon feathers already appearing on his body.
"And then…" I pressed hopefully.
"And the-ghk," Jake said, making the transition from voice to thought-speak. (And then we get the heck out of Dodge.)
"And that is a plan I think we can all live with," I said, then started morphing to osprey.
A few minutes later, two ospreys, a peregrine falcon, a northern harrier, a red-tailed hawk, and a bald eagle took to the skies. All in all, a motley assortment of raptors.
When we got above the trees the clearing where the weapons installation stood came into view. Or more accurately, where the installation had stood. The structure was a burning pile of rubble now. A two more craft had joined the first and they were busy shooting up something out of view on the ground, probably Yeerk stragglers.
(OK, I've seen enough. I'm all for invoking the 'get out of Dodge plan' now,) I said.
(Yeah,) Jake said, a little absently. (Let's get going.)
(OK, new question,) Cassie said, as we flew toward home. (Is this good or bad?)
(They did do our job for us,) Tobias said.
(Yeah, and almost killed me in the process,) Rachel grumbled.
(Why would they take out the weapon's installation?) Jake asked. (They must have something against the Yeerks.)
(Everyone has something against the Yeerks,) I said. (Come on, Jake, we've tried the whole 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' bit before. It doesn't work out to well for us.)
(Did I say anything about making friends?)
(No, but I know what you were thinking. You were thinking about going back there to watch those ships and try to divine their intentions, and risking a horrible, horrible death in the process.)
(OK, maybe I wanted to watch them a little more, but we risk dying a horrible death everyday.)
(I really try not to think about that.)
(Uh, guys.) It was Tobias, always observant in the air. (I think you need to see this.)
Tobias' attention was focused back to the ships. They were breaking off from their strafing runs around the Yeerk facility. They all started going up, up, up, and finally disappeared from view.
(OK, so they're definitely spaceships,) I said, (Peachy. As if we didn't have enough alien issues already.)
(Ax?) It was Cassie. (Could those have been Andalite ships? Could they have implemented a new design since you've been gone?)
(I seriously doubt it,) Ax replied. (Those would be a radical design departure from previous Andalite fighters. A redesign like that would take decades. Additionally, it appears far too small to comfortably hold an Andalite.)
(Just thought I'd ask.)
(OK,) Rachel said. (We have an unknown killer alien spacecraft on our hands. Ax doesn't know what it is. There's only one thing to do.)
(Ask Erek,) I said.