Part 8 – Many Meetings

Scott

After the encounter with the hobo, I stayed out of town for awhile. I'd been hoping to pass it off as early Halloween or something, but looks like that wasn't about to happen. What was it that guy said? "You're in more danger than you know?" Feh. I'd left that stuff behind on Planet Bizarro. Why would it follow me all the way back here? Talk about bringing your work home with you.

Meanwhile, I'd spent another cold night in the woods again at the base of a pine tree where I'd agreed to meet that kid. Now I had sap all over my back. Great. I sat for awhile and stared at the sunrise, contemplating my situation. Was this really how I was going to live…for the rest of my life? Nobody human would even recognize me. Was this truly my fate? To live on the bare edges of society, neither human nor inhuman, like some crazy type of tramp until I was discovered?

I slowed down and thought about that last bit, gazing at my red-scaled, three-fingered hands. What would the average human think upon seeing me? Fear? The hobo had pulled a gun on me, God knows where from. Was I truly that frightening? I curved my eyestalks over, staring at my now truly alien face. Glowing eyes, almost elfin ears, long angular bone structure…a blank stretch of scales where my nose and mouth should be rendered me about as emotive as rock. Not exactly the face of a terrifying monster, but a far cry from a Care Bear or Teletubby. Its very lack of expression was un-nerving, like some mask that I had a sudden urge to rip off, tearing the whole façade away. The knowledge that I couldn't brought me nothing but anguish.

However, I caught myself. Moping and weeping (a corner of my mind wondered if my new body could shed tears in the first place) would do me no good. Just like dealing with tough times in school or whatever, the key was to live day-to-day and stop thinking about the long term.

I sighed, looking around. As I did so, a rustling caught my ear. I aimed an eyestalk upwards at a red-tailed hawk that alighted on a branch, ruffling its feathers. I watched it for a while. It glared back at me with laserlike bird eyes, but didn't do anything.

Whatever, it wasn't like I was going to begrudge it a perch. There was another rustling in the bushes, and the kid from the other night stepped out into the clearing. I gave him a little wave and sighed, still feeling a bit low from my thoughts earlier. He stuck his hands in his pockets and slouched against a tree a couple yards away.

Neither of us spoke for a few seconds. Then he sighed. "What were you thinking, just walking into town like that?"

I shrugged. (I'm not really sure,) I admitted. (Sorta wanted to get food. Company or something. I--) I sighed. (Look, how the hell am I supposed to cope like this?) A thought struck me, and I swung my eyestalks to the guy. (For that matter, why're you just as casual-as-can-be about this whole thing? I'm a freakin' bug-eyed Martian, man! I mean, what gives?)

The kid looked at me for a second, chewing his lip as he tried to decide something or other. Then he shrugged a bit. "Oh, we've been around, seen some stuff," he said casually. "Turns out this place is crawling with little green men."

I stared at him. Pardon?>

He grinned, and jerked his head over my shoulder in a sort of "check it out" motion. My head snapped around as some bushes rustled, and a real, live Andalite stepped out. He was actually kind of young, not much taller than the other kids, but an honest-to-goodness Andalite nonetheless.

The kid's dry chuckle refocused my eyestalks on him. "My buddy Ax," he introduced the Andalite with a wave of his hand. "I'm Marco, and the featherball on the branches over there is Tobias."

I looked over to the red-tailed hawk I'd noticed earlier. He glared. (Don't make me come over there, Marco.) Marco just stuck his tongue out.

I groaned and put my face into my hands, more of a coping mechanism or force of habit than anything else. After a moment, I stared at Ax with my eyestalks. (If you've got this guy hanging out with you,) I said slowly, (that means y'all know about the Yeerk thing, right?)

Marco gave a smattering of sarcastic applause. "Ding ding ding! Johnny, tell him what he's won!" He deepened his voice. "A chance to Save The World! Move over, Captain America!"

I chuckled in spite of myself. (Where's your spandex?)

Marco rolled his eyes. "I keep telling Cassie we need to morph something else a little more modern, but noooo…"

I poked my head up and stared at Marco curiously. (Cassie?)

Marco just whistled, and three more kids stepped out of the forest, a serious guy, a blond bombshell and a shorter black girl. They all did a subtle double-take on seeing me Marco grinned. "Right on cue. Am I good or what?"

The bombshell rolled her eyes. "Only in your imagination, wonder-boy."

(Jake, Rachel, and Cassie,) Tobias supplied their names. (That about wraps it up.)

I made a noncommittal noise as I looked around the group with all eyes, studying them. 4 grade-school kids, an Andalite and a pet bird. None of them even blinked when I'd mentioned the Yeerk thing, and they were totally casual and at ease around alien wierdos like Ax and I. Combine that with what Marco said, and you come up with a band of kids against an intergalactic empire.

I eyed Marco. (You weren't kidding about Johnny, were you.) Not a question.

Marco stared back. "Dead serious, man. Here's the plan—"

(We hold the world ransom…) I began in a Dr. Evil accent. He just gave me a fish-eyed look. (…never mind.)

He shook his head. "Here's the thing. The way things are now, you're screwed if you stay out here on your own. You obviously know the lowdown on the Yeerks, so we don't need to cover that again. You know what you need to do, and you can probably guess that we fight them, too."

I gave him a dubious look. (Fight with what?)

"The morphing power," the serious guy, Jake, answered. "We've got a bunch of different animal morphs we use in our little war. Insects for spying, big predators for combat, stuff like that. We've hurt them a bit. We've harassed them. But we need to do more. And we need every fighter we can get."

My mind spun. (Slow down here a sec,) I protested. (You can turn back again once you morph?)

The black girl, Cassie, tilted her head at me. "You didn't know?"

(Not a clue,) I answered absentmindedly, already thinking about my old self. I tried to concentrate on that image, envision it, trying to will myself to change back. Nothing happened.

Tobias caught on first to what I was doing. (No dice,) he told me. (Once you're trapped, you can't turn back.)

(Trapped?) I echoed.

The young Andalite nodded his head, speaking for the first time. (The Escafil Device,) he explained, (due to the limitations of theoretical quantum particle physics, is only able to maintain its morphic field for a marginal duration.)

I narrowed my main eyes. Thank God that I was an English major, I could actually understand what he was talking about. (How marginal are we talking here?)

"Two hours," Marco answered. "You found out the hard way what happens if you stay longer than two hours in a morph."

I sighed. (Got that right.)

Jake stepped in. "So that's the deal. Now, I should ask you if you really want to join or not, but at this point, you've heard too much not to join. You'll be staying with Ax and Tobias."

Marco jerked his thumb at the Andalite. "Just don't let him get near the remote control, he'll watch commercials all day."

(Uh-uh,) Tobias interrupted. (It's These Messages.)

I laughed. What a bunch of freaks. Still, it wasn't as if I had much of a choice, or an alternative for that matter. Jake glanced at the darkening sky. "Getting late," he observed. "Dinner's soon. Get some rest, everyone."

And that seemed to be pretty much that. The kids filed off by themselves, Tobias fluttered onto Ax's shoulder, and we three freaks set off into the woods alone. Talk about burning your bridges.