Jake

BRRRRRRRRING! The bell rang, and I nearly bolted from my seat. Mr. Ayers, the History teacher, tried to shout, "Class, remember your homew—" then gave up. It was no use anyway, even without all the people talking and shouting and shoving at the door.

I wormed my way through the bundle, got my things together, and burst from the school doors. Freedom! Humans weren't meant to sit for hours on end in cramped desks, I'm telling you. We had the whole weekend to do stuff…..but where other kids probably went to play Nintendo or play basketball, I knew in my gut that it was probably going to be yet ANOTHER weekend of stupid, near-fatal missions. ANOTHER Saturday morning spent getting killed instead of watching cartoons. ANOTHER Sunday night stopping parasitic slugs from ruling the world, instead of doing my homework.

I could see it now: "Uh, I couldn't do my homework, Mr. Ayers, it had Taxxon guts all over it." It's kind of hard to write an essay when a Hork-bajir's chopped off your pencil hand.

The others all had afternoon periods, but my schedule got out early, so off I went. Knowing Marco he'd probably skip the last class, but then again, that's Marco for you.

A shadow cut across the sun for a minute. (Hey there, Fearless Leader.) Tobias' voice came silently in my head. I shrugged, glanced up and saw a red-tailed hawk wheeling gracefully over the suburbs. (Come on to the usual place, Big Jake,) he continued. (You're not gonna believe this.)

I poked my head into Cassie's barn. Empty, thankfully. Her dad usually did the meds around this time. I slug my backpack in the corner as Tobias swooped in a window, alighting on a rafter. "So what's up?" I asked.

(There's a new visitor in town,) Tobias said bluntly. (Ran into him last night wandering around the woods.)

I froze. "What?" My mind worked furiously. Another Andalite? So soon after Arbat's failed assassination? What was the Andalite government up to, anyway?

I shook my head. "Get Ax," I ordered. "We'll need him to figure this out."

(On my way.) Tobias swooped out. I plunked down on a hay bale, flipped open a binder, and tried to concentrate on my nuclear chemistry. Cobalt-60 and Iodine-131 undergo beta fission reactions….I groaned. Yeah, this would be REALLY useful stuff to me. Maybe I could bore Visser Three to death.

A little while, Ax sailed into view, hopping over a fallen log and landing almost daintily, trotting into the barn. Ax was an Andalite. A kid too, I guess. A nothlit, which is like a cadet or something. Picture a deer. Then slap a boyish, almost-human torso onto the front half of the body. On top of that, stick a mouthless, angular face with two big green eyes and two smaller eyes mounted on tentacle-like stalks. Then cover the whole thing in blue and tan fur. Pretty weird, right? Now, don't get me wrong. Rachel or Cassie or whatever might think he's mostly cute, but when you see that tail, you know this bad boy's packing a punch. About as long as I'm tall, it's this massive thing, topped by a scythe blade that's seriously three feet long. Very fast, very strong, and very good on your side in a fight. I've seen it cut people nearly in half with just one slice, and lop off heads like dandelions.

Generally, Andalites aren't folks you mess around with, mainly because of the tail. But Ax is cool. We've fought more battles together than I can count.

(Prince Jake,) he greeted me, bowing. I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes. He's totally convinced that I'm his Prince, and sometimes he just doesn't shut up about it. I've sort of started viewing it as a running joke, but Ax? Who knew? We were still trying to figure out if he had a sense of humor or not.

Tobias swooped in again. (All right boys and girls,) he began, (here's the scoop. Last night, there was an alien running around our woods back here.)

Ax drew his shoulders back. (Is it…?)

(Sorry, Ax-man. It's not Andalite. Looks a lot like one, but different.) Quickly, Tobias summarized what he had seen, and his subsequent conversation with the guy. I turned away and folded my arms, unwilling to let my anger show.

"Tobias, you went ahead and took a very stupid—and unnecessary, I might add—risk," I said in a low voice. "If he was a Controller—still might be, for all we know—you might as well have marched us all down to the Yeerk pool."

Tobias preened his feathers and didn't reply. Ax aimed his eyestalks at him. (Tobias, I too am disquieted by your initiative,) he announced. (But as you humans say, what is done, is done. We must figure out who he is.)

"Yeah." I started pacing. "Didn't he say he was in high school around here, Tobias?"

(Uh-huh.)

"Ax, check the local high school records. Search for any…Oh, I don't know, any suddenly truant students."

(Someone who dropped out, maybe,) Tobias volunteered. (Or stopped coming to school. Being nothlit kind of affects your attendance record.)

"And other stuff too, come to think of it. Tobias, what was the deal with you in the early days?"

He shifted slightly. (Well, you guys know about my aunt and uncle. They didn't put up a big stink when I disappeared, didn't really care much about me. Nobody really noticed me leave school, either. But this guy sounds different, like he came from a better environment. Look around for missing-person posters, maybe. When a kid disappears all of a sudden, your average nice parent might think of kidnapping. Your average not-so-nice parent, well…) he laughed. (They don't give a damn.)

I nodded. "Missing-person reports, dips in attendance, the works." I glanced at the clock. "Marco and the others get out soon. Grab him and get online."

Ax bowed. (Yes, Prince Jake.)

(Any orders here, O Fearless One?) Tobias asked.

"Keep looking around," I answered. "There's no reason he'd travel very far, if he's smart. He's probably still in the area."

(Right.) Tobias swooped out.

I sighed, and collapsed on a hay bale. The hunt was on…