My name is James. I know that you guys probable don't know a lot about me, but you do know a lot about my friends. The Animorphs. You know Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, Tobias, and Ax. You know all about their adventures. Their war. Well, this isn't about them. This is about me and my Animorphs. There are 17 of us at the rehab clinic, and one living with the original team in the Hork-Bajir valley, Elena. Six in the original team. Twenty three Animorphs. We were more then a small band a guerilla warriors. We are an army.
I guess I will start at the beginning. Well, our beginning. Only about two months ago, I was approached here in our rehab clinic by Jake, Marco, and Cassie. The told me about Yeerks. They told me about Elfangor and morphing. They told me about their war. They even showed me. What did I say? What was my reaction? I was pissed. I was pissed and it wasn't because aliens were taking over our planet. It was because I figured some kids here wanted to come and rub it in that they were healthy and had families and were loved. Collette was the first one to believe them, so really except what they were saying. I guess I kind of felt bad, at first. After a while, I accepted what they had told us. I accepted the power they gave us and the responsibility that it entitled
What makes us different is that all of us are what you called "crippled" I hate the word, but it is true. We all have our problems. From multiple sclerosis to just being paralyzed, we are a mess. Jake and the others had the idea to give injured kids the power that they were carrying. They knew the Yeerks wouldn't want a whole bunch of worthless hosts. I know they didn't mean to be offensive, but it always makes me mad. We have learned to deal with our problems. We are a team and we have over come those issues. We realize that most of us have a short life line here on Earth, and this is our way to show the world that we aren't worthless. That we can defend them. I pray that our story will be told someday. I pray that the world will respect us, will honor us. I don't even know if we will live. It has been close already. From our first battle I wasn't sure. But I knew we had a responsibility. It wasn't Jake's or Cassie's or Rachel's or anyone's fault that we were in this war. They didn't ask for this war anymore then we did. They were just normal kids living their lives. They were given a burden that was bigger then them. They persisted and even fought back. Now it was our turn to help carry that burden. We had to defend Earth. I am proud of all of us, and I know that, even if we aren't remembered. Even if we lose or die, we did our part. We stepped up to the plate and fought back.
I guess I am what you can call the leader of the new Animorphs. I hand picked them and was there when they learned to morph. I was in charge of seventeen, including Elena, other Animorphs. The majority of the Animorphs. But I am not stupid. I am not going to take that power trip. Jake is the leader, and I will follow him. He and the others have been doing this for three years. I have only been doing it for a couple of months. They have the experience and knowledge to fight this war. There is a lot I can learn from them. I guess if anything happened to Jake, one of the others would take over. Probable Rachel or Tobias. I hope I never have to be the official leader. I am scared that that day might present itself. I am Jake's lieutenant. I like that. I am ok with that.
When I was four years old, I was in a car accident. It left me paralyzed from the waist down. My mother brought me to the hospital and never came back. I never had a family. I learned to take care of myself, but I was still dependant on the staff here at the hospital. I am seventeen now, and I don't know what I would of done next year when I would have to leave the children's clinic. I guess I would be right off to a nursing home. I didn't have a family to take care of me. No one to pay for school or anything. I don't know what I would do. But I don't have to worry about that. See, when I morphed the first time, it healed me. It cured my spinal injury that haunted me for thirteen years. I could walk, run, jump, swim. I was whole again. I could go live a real life. But I don't want it. Not yet at least. For reasons of security, I have to still pretend to be injured. I cant let anyone, mostly the Yeerks; know that there were new Animorphs living here. Even if we wanted to leave, most of the new team was in no physical condition to live away from the clinic. They need the doctors and nurses and machines to live. Only two other members of my team, Craig and Erica, were cured too. They also have to live the difficult life of pretending to be injured.
"James, lights out," the nurse who was on duty announced. I rolled over in my bed and looked at the clock. 11:00. The nurse, a kind woman names Julie, looked in. "You and your reading. What is this on?" she walked over and looked at the book I was reading. Deadly Animals of Africa. "Hmm, what an interesting read. I wonder what Mr. Nangil is teaching you kids. Goodnight James," She said with a smile. She was a nice woman, one of the few nurses who truly cared about us all as if we were her children.
"Night Julie," I called after her. I had called her Julie ever sense I was ten. She wouldn't let any of us call her by her last name. She closed the door and I heard her walk away. I flicked my light off and waited.
11:30. Time to go.
I got up, and in the darkness, walked over to my window. I pushed the window open and let the night air fill in.
"Sorry Pedro, but I have to go. I will tell you all about it as soon as I get back," I said to my roommate. His name was Pedro Klensit. He was fourteen years old and had been in the clinic for five years. He had been one of the big reasons I was in this war. I had made the condition that I would join the Animorphs as long as Pedro could get the power too. Jake agreed. Though Pedro could morph, he wasn't an Animorph. Out of all the children on this floor, he was by far the worst. I knew that this was why I shared a room with him and not my old room mate and probable best friend, Craig. I could look after him, and I didn't mind it. He was a really cool kid. In a battle, he would truly be helpless. The rest of us might be able to pull ourselves or something. Pedro has two morphs. A red-tailed hawk, which I brought him flying sometimes, and me. I had given Pedro my body so that someday, when this all gets out, he could become me and live a normal life. I didn't care if there was an exact clone walking around of me. Pedro deserved it. He just blinked his eyes in understanding, but I could tell he was sad.
I gave him a brave smile and began to morph. I felt my body shrink and become light. My bones hollowed out and my face extended outward in a sharp, curved beak. My toes grew together and formed into sharp, deadly talons. My arms became covered in feathers and my eyes became super eyes. I could see everything, as if it were day. I was a great-horned howl. It was a newer morph for me. I had gotten Cassie to get me the morph. I flapped up to the window sill and jumped into the night. I opened my owl wings and felt the wind catch me. I flapped a few times and soar up into the night air. It was amazing. I couldn't hear a thing. I flew up and onto the roof. I landed behind a large air-conditioner unit. Over the next ten minutes, the rest of my little team arrived. I had only picked six to come along on this mission. First to meet me was Collette, the first one of us to really accept the original Animorph's story. She was a sixteen year old who had been paraplegic her entire life. Next, Julio, a fifteen year old with cerebral palsy. Judy, Tricia, and Craig came next. I wanted to make sure Craig, being one of my second in commands, had experience incase he ever had to take over. I alternated between him and Erica on missions. Finally, Timmy arrived. Timmy's room was the closest to the nurse's station, so he had to make sure they wouldn't hear him. He landed on the gravel room in his little pigeon morph.
((Sorry I am late. Julie was sitting at the station for a long time, so it took me a while to feel comfortable enough to get out)) Timmy said. I couldn't help but laugh to myself. Suffering from a severe speech impediment among other things, Timmy found though speak to be probable the best part about morphing.
((Yeah, it is ok. So team, we are going to go fly surveillance around. We will get to the other's home town, and then we will take some time to demorph and remorph. Remember, Jake doesn't know about this and we don't want to royally piss him off. No heroics, and get out of there if anything happens. If we get separated, meet back here. Ready?)) When all of them agreed, I opened my wings and started to fly.
I must admit, few things in life are as great as flying. Just feeling totally weightless and being a mile above the ground is probable the craziest thing ever. It is also the most exciting. All of us loved flying, but none of the others possed a good at night morph. Only I had the owl morph. Craig, Julio, and Judy had Tobias's red-tail hawk morph while Tricia had a sweet bald eagle morph that Rachel had gotten her to acquire when they and a few others made a run to Cassie's old barn. Collette and Timmy had the pigeon morph. I made a mental note to at least ask Tobias to let them acquire him. They needed better morphs incase we ever had a dog fight in the air.
It took about a half hour to get to where we wanted to be. The Yeerks still were working under a thin veil of secrecy. Open war hadn't broken out yet, and the Yeerks were still trying to recruit new hosts.
The others had told us about the Sharing, a secret cover group the Yeerks used to recruit members. One time the sharing had me and some others from the clinic come to a big cook out at the beach. I guess it was to show how into the community they were. Really, the whole thing kind of sucked. We were all forced to sit on the concrete with our wheelchairs and talk to people who were being nice to us. It was really fake and I hated it. Now we all know it was a big act.
Sense Jake and the others couldn't really keep tabs on things going on with the controllers in town any longer, I figured us new guys would have to. I knew Jake probable wouldn't like the idea, so I had asked Cassie for help. She had gotten Tobias in on the plan and the two spent a few days showing us known controllers, Yeerk pool entrances, and other things. She had tried to get me to agree to never take the team out unless she or Tobias were there to help us, and I even pretended to agree. I am sure that she saw right through that, but I just couldn't sit in the clinic and do nothing while the rest of them were out there fighting. We had to step up to the plate and fight. We were going to show the Yeerks that were here to fight.