Marco

The name's Marco. I'd give you a whole name, but I can't. I can't even guarantee that Marco is an actual part of my real name. I can't tell you where I live – no city, no state, no country (not that you can't figure out the last one). The reason why? Well, it's because you could be one of them.

You see, Earth's being infiltrated by an alien race. This alien race is called The Yeerks. They're basically parasitic slugs that enter your ear and wrap themselves around your brain. And once they do, they control you completely and have access to every one of your thoughts and memories, all while you're still completely aware of what's going on and unable to do anything about it. As such, you become a Controller.

You probably already knew that. You might be one of them. And that's why I'm being so secretive.

Anyway, the only thing that's standing between them and total world domination are five kids, an alien centaur with a bladed tail, and, sometimes, an android with holographic capabilities.

Yeah, about that part…

Five of us, after leaving a mall, decided to take a shortcut through a construction site, right where an alien centaur looking being – Prince Elfagor of the Andalite race – landed in his ship. He gave us the ability to morph – that is, to transform into organic beings whose DNA we acquire via touch – before Visser Three, leader of the Yeerk's Earth opration, and company arrived on the scene and ended his life in the worst way possible.

You'll hear more about him later.

For a little bit, it was the five of us. There was Jake, the leader of the group and the maker of the hard decisions. There was Cassie, the mother and conscious of the group, the closest thing we got to animal expert, and totally not a mutual love-interest of Jake. There was Rachel, the superhot blonde high school gymnast who's a warrior underneath it all. There was Tobias, the human-permanently-turned-Red-tailed Hawk who was often are eyes in the sky, and also Rachel's boyfriend (I guess now would be a good time to tell you that we can only stay morphed for two hours on a dot until we're permanently stuck in whatever form we morphed permanently). And there was me, Marco, the clown who laughed so he didn't cry.

Lovely, group, aren't we?

Along the way, we picked up a few allies, such as the sixth member of our group, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill… Or Ax, as we call him, the younger brother of Prince Elfangor. For obvious reasons, he lived in a shack in the forest, hiding away from humans and Controllers. Then there was Erek, a member of an ancient, pacific race of robots that often helped us by using their holographic technology to disguise themselves and infiltrate Yeerk operations to give us any needed information when they could. Oh, and he also happened to be a childhood friend of mine.

Can you tell my life is weird?

We've been at it with The Yeerks for a very long time, often getting the drop on them with guerilla tactics and often walking away with injuries that would leave us dead had it not been for our morphing abilities, which returned our human bodies back to peak health. We did quite a bit of damage to them. Problem is, Yeerks haven't let up. And we've been at it since the last year of middle school.

And it was wearing down on us.

Unfortunately, our lives wasn't a Saturday morning cartoon, where we'd have everything wrapped up by the time our high school career was over and we'd get to live out the rest of our lives like normal people. Fact of the matter was, we weren't even sure we'd ever reach the point where we could leave it all behind us. Like I said, we were all guerrillas fighting against a force that devastated and enslaved many races, just doing our best to hold on until the Andalites come and take over our side of the fight.

If they ever come.

So, with that on our minds, we had to think about what to do regarding life after high school. That meant we had to talk about the C word.

"We're going to have to have a meeting about college," Jake said. I sighed.

We were in the movie theatre at the mall. We were getting ready to watch a movie at 10 am on a Sunday – an obscure movie from back in the day called Chumscrubber. While I was a bit curious to see what it was about, and we planned on sticking around, we were there because the movie was mad empty – as expected, since, you know, no one goes to see a movie around this time on a Sunday.

"Honestly, with what we had to go through, it's a surprise my grades are good enough for colleges to not look at my transcripts and laugh," I replied. "All seriousness, though? This war pretty much sapped away any excitement I would've had for college. I really did want to experience it. I wanted to experience the college parties, the hot women, the ball games, all of that. But we're living in a world where every person outside of our circle could be one of them. So I'd have to be on my BEST behavior before I mess around and blab my whole life out and get everyone killed – all because I had a little too much beer or liquor in my cup."

"See, for that to be a risk, women would have to find you attractive and people would actually want to invite you to parties," Jake commented.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh ha-ha."

"But seriously, whatever we do, we have to do together." He looked forward at the screen. "So, we'll have to come to a group decision."

"What do you want to do, Jake?" I asked.

"Honestly… I'd like a chance to make something out of myself that didn't involve a war." He sighed in a certain way that made me frown. I knew Jake for a long time. Jake was basically the brother I never had. So, I knew how to read him. I knew he was having those moments – a moment where a wave of optimism crashes against the wall of reality.

"Look, we'll worry about that when the meeting happens," I said, wanting to change the subject. I reached over and grabbed a kernel of popcorn from the bucket on Jake's lap, smirking as he gave me a look. "Right now, I just want to pretend that I'm at least somewhere next to normal." After that, I tossed the piece of popcorn into the air. I watched as it reached its apex.

And it stayed there.

Had this been years ago, I would have been alarmed. But nowadays, I was only a bit annoyed. I knew what was going to happen next. In the seats near us appeared the rest of the Animorphs. Cassie, dressed in dirty overalls and a red shirt, appeared in the seat to Joey's left. In the seats in my right appeared Rachel, who dressed in set of light blue pajamas, and Tobias, who was in his human morph. And finally, there was Ax, who was standing in the nearest aisle in all of his Andalite glory, and Erek, who was in his human projection.

We all looked around at each other. Ax broke the silence.

(I suppose that we've been brought here by The Ellmist,) he commented in a tone of resignation.

"No, it was some guy named…" I trailed off, remembering that Ax's ability to detect sarcasm was hit or miss. "…I'm going to go out on a limb and say yes."

"And that'd be a rather sturdy limb, Marco," a voice confirmed. On the large screen in front of us appeared the usual old elvish face The Ellimist gave us.

So, yeah, quick explanation – The Ellimist is this all-powerful being that is constantly in a game with another all-powerful being known as The Crayak. They play this game because the last time they fought directly, they apparently caused a galaxy-wide disaster. We didn't know much about the rules of the game, except that the playing field has to be even. I wish I could tell you guys that he was the good guy. I wasn't even sure that he was the lesser of two evils. The only thing I knew was that we were on his side of the board and the Yeerks were on the other.

I groaned as I sunk into my seat.

"It's nice to see you all again," The Ellimist said jovially. "How are you – ?"

"Can we not?" Rachel interjected. "Like, can we not start with the pleasantries? I was having a decent morning before I was suddenly teleported here. So, if it's all the same to you, can we just cut to the chase?"

"Rachel," Jake said as he gave her a look.

"I agree," I said. Jake turned his eyes towards me. "What? The only time The Ellimist appears is when there's something major going on. So, if there's something we need to know, I'd rather not pretend that this is a social call."

Jake sighed. "I get that, but perhaps we shouldn't be poking a bear that can end our existence with a snap of a finger."

"I'd never do that to you," The Ellmist said with a smile. I didn't believe him. "There has been a shift in the game. A huge shift."

"How huge are we talking?" Jake asked.

"The Yeerks decided to move operations in your area to the other side of country. SOMEHOW, a high-ranking official amongst them suggested that perhaps moving the focal point of the operations to the Southeast would save them some headaches. This includes the shutting down of the Yeerk Pool and the construction of a new one. Apparently, the attacks by The Andalite Bandits have become too much."

There was a part of me that was a bit proud of the fact that we, a bunch of kids (the one actual Andalite included) and, to an extent, a dog-like android was able give the Yeerks that much stress. However, that pride was overshadowed by the fact that…

"We're going to have to move to a whole different part of the country, aren't we?" Cassie pointed out, worry in her voice.

"A whole different territory," Tobias added. I looked at him for a moment, seeing the look of concern on his face.

(That would be rather inconvenient for everyone here,) Ax chimed in. (Well, except for Erek.)

"What makes you think I'm okay with this?" Erek retorted. "I actually like where I live!"

"I think we're missing a certain issue here," Jake said, speaking up. "What about our parents and family? Are we supposed to be leaving them behind, too?"

"That will be taken care of," The Ellimist assured. "This shift is only a part of the major move. Apparently, the Yeerks also has a few other tricks up their sleeve. While I have faith in your abilities, things have become uneven. So, to even things out, you're going to gain two new allies."

Every one of us went quiet for at least a good ten seconds.

"…As in, two more Animorphs?" Rachel said.

We had a seventh member of the team before. Things went… awry.

"Whether they become Animorphs or not are up to you," The Ellimish replied. "I can only do so much. And even if I was allowed to give them morphing abilities, I wouldn't do so – both out of respect for your feelings and out of me being a bit… concerned… about a possible repeat of the last incident." He smiled sadly. "That is all I can say for now. I'm sorry for the shift. But, hopefully, these allies will help with the new battlefield."

After those words were said, everyone outside of me and Jake disappeared from the movie theatre. That same popcorn kernel I tossed into the air fell in my lap. The Ellimist was gone.

"Still in the mood to watch the movie?" Jake asked.

I didn't say anything at first. I then shrugged. "I guess."

Later on that day, we all met in Cassie's parents' barn. As Cassie herself tended to an injured feral hog, Jake started with the million dollar question.

"So, how are we going to justify having to move all the way to the other side of the country?" Jake asked.

"There's only one way I can think of for all of us to move to the southeast in the same area," I replied. "We'd have to become out of state students."

"It sounds so easy," Rachel said with a scoff. "Only problem is, we'd have to find a college – or colleges, assuming the area have more than one within reasonable distance of each other – that would accept you, Cassie, Jake, and me. And even if we're lucky enough to do that, we also have to worry about keeping our folks within arm's reach."

"Well, we'll have to find that college, or colleges, first," Jake said. "Any ideas on how we can do that?"

"Normally, I'd say go through the guidance counselor, but I'd rather not do anything to arouse Chapman's curiosity," I said.

"Well, from what I heard, there's supposed to be a college fair coming up soon," Cassie chimed in. We all looked at her. "We might as well check that out."

Jake nodded. "That may be our best bet. We'll check out this college fair. Hopefully we'll get clues as where we're supposed to go. Until then, let's just finish off the schoolyear the best we can."

(Is college such a big event for high school students on Earth?) Ax asked.

(It usually is,) Tobias explained. (For a lot of people, it's their first step into adulthood and the real world.)

(Then why don't you all sound excited?)

"Because, quite frankly, this whole war against the Yeerks makes normal life seem so…" Rachel began. "What's the word I'm looking for?"

"Irrelevant?" I offered.

"Pointless?" Cassie chimed.

"Not a priority?" Jake added.

"…Yeah, let's go with all of that," Rachel concluded.

With things settled, we all made our respective ways home.

When I went to bed that night, I didn't go to sleep right away. Rather, I looked up at the ceiling as I pondered what the next stage of my life was. There was a cynical side of me who all of this as an inconvenience – at best. It didn't matter if I ended up in some big port city with beaches crawling with babes in revealing bikinis or some small town that only had the college experience going for it, I didn't see how I would be able to enjoy any of it. As far as my cynical side was concerned, it was a different battlefield, the same war, same hazards… Basically, the same shit in a different toilet.

But yet, there was a small part of me that was… well, maybe not quite optimistic… but curious? Yeah, let's go with curious. There was a small part of me that was curious to see if anything would change – that if there was chance to enjoy some sense of normalcy in this life as an Animorph. For the first time in a long while, I thought about what I could be after this whole war – what kind of career I could pursue, what type of woman I could be with, stuff like that.

I scoffed. The chances of there being a bit or semblance of normalcy were paper thin.

…And yet, the fact that there was even a chance to begin with was enough to make me smile just a little bit.