The Dragon Curve

by Locksoli

There's always a saying, that the worst things imaginable are always done with the best intentions. I didn't know whether mine were good or not. I only knew I had to do what was necessary.

1. The Invasion (Part 1)

I ain't dead, and here's proof.

So, this fic came to me when I binged the entire JP series, and immediately found a Neil Cicierega video (you know the one) about Animorphs. And then, being that we're in an ongoing global pandemic, I was able to find E-Books of the Animorphs. And then I rewatched the JP series, again. Then I played some JW:E-

I think you get the idea.

So, this is my Animorphs/JP crossover. It'll include a fan race, like the Dayangs, or the Korla/Mak, or the Taruff. Based on what my race basically is, I'll try to make work with the setting and make sense, but feel free to critique them all you like. I added dinosaurs too, that should take your mind off of it if you don't like it. I'll leave a bunch of other stuff at the end, like explanations and whatnot.

Finally, for my other fics. So, writing is a process, one which can have a lot of roadblocks if you're not careful. And I have hit a hard writer's block, hopefully which I can get out of. Considering the shit I've been dealing with because of and during this still ongoing pandemic (fucking orange man), I'm just trying my best. So please, hold onto your buts, because I'll be getting on track soon.

Now then, without further adieu...

Disclaimer: Jurassic Park and all related adaptations are owned by Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, Steven Spielberg, and the late Michael Crichton. Animorphs is owned by Schoolastic, K. A Applegate, and Michael Grant. I own neither series, please support official releases.

---

I think I forgot what normal teens have to deal with.

Perhaps I should amend that, because I know what they have to deal with, I just don't know how it feels to deal with those things. Most normal kids that are just starting high school only have to worry about their schoolwork, how hard the next test will be, whether or not their teacher is a hard ass who will make their school life difficult. Their friends are normal, if a bit quirky sometimes, and they meet a nice, normal or plain girl and start a relationship with her.

Nothing about my life is normal.

Most of my teachers were probably infected with brain parasites. I was constantly fighting a war that I knew I couldn't win. My two best friends were a talking hawk and a funky blue centaur, my girlfriend was basically a space elf, and-

"KPNWAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Oh right, and there was the fact that I was probably about to be eaten by a dinosaur.

All this was somehow a part of the weird "take-your-son to work" that my uncle brought me on.

I'd get into that, but I'm a bit busy ducking around jungle trees and leafy undergrowth while I try to escape. And this thing, it keeps finding me every time I think I've been able to hide. Every spot I can think of somehow gets found out, and I'm always just inches away from the literal jaws of death.

I'd say that some higher power was messing me...wait, I know that some higher power is messing with me, and it sucks.

This thing, it shouldn't exist. Even compared to all of those other things that shouldn't exist, this one is the one that shouldn't be existing the most. But just like all of the others, those idiots probably figured it would make a "good exhibit" for the public. As if getting disemboweled was a good way to draw in tourists.

"KPNWAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Gah!" I let out a short hiss as I ducked behind a nearby tree, hoping that the shaking footsteps would fade far away.

They only got closer and closer, much to my growing horror. The shaking stopped just behind me, making me hitch my breath as I did what I could to quiet myself. A low growl erupted through the jungle, to which a shiver slowly made its way down my spine in reaction.

A large, crocodile-like snout peered around the side of the tree. The rust-colored scales shook slightly as the creature let out a low hiss that caused bits of spittle and blood to cascade from between its sharp teeth. Already I could hear slicing noises as monstrous claws tore deep into the bark.

And to think, years ago all of this started when I took a shortcut through a construction site...

---

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself by starting all the way in the present though. It's probably better if I start straight from the beginning. My mom always said it was better to tell a story right from the start, because it's never a good thing to be so disorganized. Her words, not mine, of course.

My name is Aaron, and that's all you get. No last name, not because I don't have one, but because I can't risk somebody figuring things out. If the wrong people (and I use the word "people" loosely) figured out who I was, it would all be over. My family, my friends...my two best friends and my girlfriend would get away in time, but things would never be the same. I just can't risk it.

My appearance and bits of my life? Well, I can give you the bare minimum of that to let you have a better idea of who I am. They're gunning for me specifically, so if they ever do find this, they'll already know what I look like anyway. It's no skin off of my back.

I'm not a short guy, nor am I a tall guy, in fact at the start of all this I was about average for any other kid my age. I'm a bit more pale than I'd like, in part due to getting less sun. I have blue eyes, and naturally black hair which I've been dying to bleach blonde since my last year of elementary. I like to dress in black, if only because it's my favorite color, and it usually makes people think twice about going near me.

That's another thing, I don't have friends. Not for a total lack of trying, of course, because I usually do try to reach out to others if I feel like I can trust them. But by the time I'm ready to really go the extra mile and finally get a circle of friends, my family ends up having to move across the country again. It's been like that since I was young, and the only upside is that I have a souvenir from every part of the country by now.

I mentioned my uncle before, and that's the last part I should touch on. No parents since I was in preschool, so I've been living with my aunt and uncle for most of my life. My uncle's job had us moving so much that sometimes we'd have a week in one place before having to leave again.

By the time all of this had started, I was praying that this place would be the place to stay.

That morning had been simple enough. I had gotten up earlier than normal, but the routine of getting a shower, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed stayed the same. Anything eventful always happened during breakfast with my aunt and uncle.

When I went downstairs, I was greeted by the sight of my uncle ferociously shoveling cereal into his mouth as fast as possible. Somehow, he was careful enough to not get anything on his lab coat and the business suit beneath it.

My uncle, being on my mom's side, looked a lot like myself. Black hair with a shock of grey at his bangs, and bright blue eyes. At company parties, he could hold the attention of the entire room with just a smile alone. Combined with his doctorate, and it was no wonder we were always moving.

As I walked closer, I noticed that in between bites, he'd be nursing the bandages covering his hands. Upon spotting me, and following my gaze, the man winced and lowered his hands in shame.

"Uh, hey uncle Reese…" I tilted my head as he tried his hardest to hide his hands beneath the table. "You alright?"

"Just something that happened yesterday at the lab," he said tiredly as he went back to eating. "I skipped dinner because...well, all of this was still gushing, and I knew your aunt would string me up by my toes if I came to the table like that."

"He's not wrong~!" a voice playfully sing-songed from the kitchen. "It's good that you're still remembering what I told you first day-"

"Deal with the little nips from work in the bathroom," Uncle Reese laid his spoon down and held up his slightly bloody bandages. "I really hate those Compys. I'll have to get some more gauze in a bit."

"Just make sure you clean up afterwards," my aunt sighed as she walked into the dining room with a jug of milk in hand. By the time I was seated, she had already set up a bowl of cereal in front of me, and gave me a pat on the head. "Remember, unlike your uncle you have plenty of time to get ready."

"Y-Yeah, I gotcha Aunt Jenna," I said tiredly.

The dark-skinned woman chuckled at this as she walked off. "I swear, you stay up so late nowadays. You really need to stop listening to music late at night-"

"It wasn't music! I was just catching up on homework."

"Now that is probably a more acceptable reason to stay up late," my aunt said cheerfully. "Wouldn't you agree, dear?"

"I don't stay up late late," Uncle Reese protested. "I was just busy with some paperwork. It took a while."

"Paperwork, huh?" a small amount of concern flashed through her green eyes as she leaned towards him over the counter. "And what are you all planning to make this time?"

My uncle shrunk in place slightly at this and looked away. "It's...pretty classified. This is one of those times I can't really say anything."

"So, not much different from how work normally is, right?" I deadpanned. "It's...what again? Genetics?"

"Y-Yeah, Ingen deals with genetic and biological science and technology," my uncle clicked his teeth as he leaned back. "And that's all I can really say about it. I'm not worried that you'd tell anybody, but my NDA says that if you did, then I'd be responsible."

"So you really don't wanna risk it, huh?" I watched as my uncle tiredly swirled his cereal around in the bowl.

"Maybe one day," my uncle tilted his head slightly, and shrugged. "Who knows, it might be sooner than you think."

"If you say so…" I trailed off, flinching back slightly as the man practically wolfed down his meal.

"Well, I should really get ready. Gotta apply new bandages, grab my suitcase," Reese checked his watch, and winced, before turning back to my aunt. "If Henry calls at any point, tell him I'm busy dealing with my *ahem* lacerations from the other day."

"Sure thing chief!" Jenna called out playfully.

"And you, sport! I'll see you when I get back home," my uncle patted me on the head as he walked by, letting out a wheeze as he stalked towards the bathroom. "Y-Yeah, pretty sure I just reopened some of these…"

I clicked my teeth as Reese slammed the door to the bathroom shut. My aunt simply shook her head as she adjusted her jeans slightly, and stalked back into the kitchen.

"I swear, with that incident, everything at that company is just getting worse," Jenna let out a short grunt while she started on the dishes. "I wonder what that Ludlow hack is even planning all the way in the city anyway…"

"Hey, you need any help with the dishes?" I asked quickly.

"No no, kiddo! Finish breakfast, I got this handled," she said sweetly. "Just focus on eating and getting ready. Your backpack should be in the living room, the bus will be here in maybe an hour," my aunt looked back to me with a withering gaze. "You know, you haven't really mentioned school that much."

"We only moved in a few weeks ago," I said flatly. "There's not much to say. Just getting a feel on the environment, it's not like I'll be there for long."

I could practically hear Jenna wilting at that as she let out a sigh. "Your uncle and I are here for you, you know that?" my aunt looked back at me with a strained smile. "If you ever feel like you need to talk to us about something-anything, really, just ask."

"Nothing is wrong, Aunt Jenna," I said reassuringly. "Everything in school right now, it's going by like a breeze. I promise…"

---

Obviously, it had been a lie.

I couldn't help ponder that fact as I walked home from school. Aunt Jenna was like an older sister to me, somebody who I looked up to and cared for. And I had lied to her about how bad it was.

It was, of course, bullying and weird teachers. The bullies I could handle, I've dealt with worse from the myriad of cities I've lived in. But there was just something...off, about some of the teachers.

If I ever did bring a complaint to them, a few of them would brush it off. But for others, somehow all conversations led to them assuming that I was being "untruthful" about how I was the one lashing out at other students. And that subsequently led to The Sharing.

Sounds like a cult, right? Well, my guess is the same. Just the fact that my teachers are so insistent on pushing me into joining some strange "community wellness group" with vague goals, it doesn't jell with me. Not by a longshot.

As of now, I wasn't ready to go home yet, not after today's swirly. I had skipped the bus entirely, and headed straight towards the mall for some R&R, and perhaps see if there was anything interesting in theaters. Myself and maybe a few fellow mall rats made miniscule smalltalk, but that was the extent of my interaction with other people even at a crowded place. I wasn't going to be in this town that long, so I wasn't here to make friends.

If only I had been so sure my life would stay boring like that. Not even five minutes after I had left the mall, everything spiraled to the point you saw at the beginning.

You see, to get home from the mall, there were a few routes for me to take. One was the long way, and it was already getting way too dark for me to listen to my aunt chewing me out. The other way was through the woods, with whatever wild animal or infestation of ticks came with it. And finally, there was the construction site, which was the quickest next to the woods.

I think I saw maybe a few other people go through it, so it was probably safe tonight. Just had to hope there wasn't an axe murderer or a door-to-door salesman skulking around for his next score. Easy, right?

No, not easy, because things started happening only seconds after I had followed those other people into the site. One of them pointed to some bright light in the sky with a shout, and the rest of them all stared in wonder as it approached.

It had started out as a flash of silver across the sky that moved almost too fast to track, then it became a bluish-white light that was speeding towards the ground. But it started growing slower the closer it came, almost like a car at a yellow light. Eventually, its shape was more than visible to make out what it really was.

I didn't even need to say the words. Somebody in the group ahead of me, a girl, shouted the words "it's a flying saucer!", and I was already on board. First contact, here we-

Don't go.

I immediately hid nearby, waiting out the close encounter, while one of the other kids began laughing aloud at the notion of an alien spaceship. But it was getting closer, as one of the girls in the group noted. And once it was nearly landing, I was able to see that it wasn't quite a flying saucer.

About the size of a school bus, albeit more round than one. The front end had a sort of pod-like shape, which already sent a shiver through me at the memory of so many movies I saw. The back of the pod had some strange shaft extending from it, most likely an exit/entry point, and splayed at the sides of the ship were stubby, crooked wings with neon blue tubes emerging from within.

I would have assumed some friendly, cutesy alien species if it weren't for the obvious weapon fitted onto the ship. It was almost like a scorpion tail, sharp and curving upward and forward, corned to a point that was almost needle-sharp. I almost felt my heart seize up at the thought that a laser beam could come out of that, and fry the kids on the ground.

After some excited shouting and laughter from some of the group standing beneath the ship, it slowly settled itself towards the ground only a couple of meters away from them. As the lights faded a bit, I could make out burn marks marring the entirety of the hull, and something about the way the pod looked was slightly too melted to be normal, even on a spaceship.

As the group of kids talked among themselves, one of them took a tentative step forward. "It's safe," he said, loud and clearly but in a way that was more reassuring than commanding. "We won't hurt you."

"Do you think they even speak english?" one of them seemed to wonder aloud.

"Well, everybody speaks english on Star Trek," one of the girls laughed.

The boy at the front visibly swallowed as he leaned forward. "Please, come out. We won't hurt you."

‹I know.›

And that was when I felt like I could really fall over and not wake up for several hours. There had been a voice in my head that wasn't my own, and from the reactions of the group of kids, it wasn't some trick made by the sounds from the abandoned construction site. There was a sickening feeling twisting around in my gut as the entire situation continued to unfold.

"Can you come out?" the boy at the front asked.

‹Yes. Do not be frightened.›

"We won't be frightened," the boy said, obviously ignoring the mutters and giggles of his friends.

It was harder to see at the angle I was looking from, but I could tell that there was a thin arc of light emanating from the side of the pod. The way it opened almost seemed like the phases of the moon, first a crescent-like sliver of light, then slowly to a full circle of bright bluish light.

And then what I assumed to be the first alien to land on our world strutted forth from the ship.

He looked quite human at first, at least until I saw more of him. Head, shoulders, and the torso were right where they should be, though everything was covered in blue and tan fur rather than skin. Below his human torso was one like a horse or deer, which made him almost like the centaurs of myth I had sometimes ended up fighting in video games.

While the face was almost reminiscent of a human's, there was no mouth, instead only three vertical slits which I assumed took the place of his nose. And then there were the eyes. I knew he had a pair of eyes on his face, though I couldn't get a good look at them from my current position. But it was the extra pair of stalk eyes sitting atop his head that made my jaw drop. The way they twisted around independently of one another, how they could survey the entire area around them. I almost swore he had spotted me for a split second, but the eye didn't settle on my hiding place for long.

It was the tail that I focused on for a bit longer than the rest of him. It was thick, but clearly flexible, and it almost looked like a scorpion's with how it curled upward. Not helping that was the fact that it was tipped with a wickedly curved, blade-like stinger.

The ship's design made more sense now, once I thought it over. The alien looked somewhat friendly, if odd...right until you got to the tail. The ship was a perfect match, and I could only think of what devastating weapons he had on board.

The alien began staggering, then fell out of his ship and onto the hard ground. One of the boys tried to help him up, but the being kept slipping from his grasp. I didn't understand why the spaceman wasn't standing right, until I spotted liquid dripping from the alien's side.

"Look!" one of the girls cried out. "He's hurt!"

‹Yes. I am dying.›

I couldn't quite catch what was said after that, just that somebody in the group mentioned an ambulance. The girl from before ordered one of the boys to give her his shirt so they could make it into a bandage.

‹No. I will die. This wound is fatal.›

"NO!" shirt-boy cried out. "You can't die! You're the first alien to come to earth. You can't die!"

‹I am not the first,› the alien said ominously. ‹There are many, many others.›

I felt my whole being seize up at this. Everything else the alien said, and whatever he must have done telepathically, I didn't catch immediately. He was starting to close his telepathy off to only the group in front of him, but enough slipped through that I figured out the gist of it.

An alien invasion, and the perpetrators were some creepy body-snatchers style freaks. There was something about their need for hosts, about how their ships had weapons powerful enough to vaporize anything they hit. About how his people, the Andalites, fought these other aliens wherever they went.

And that even if his people come to save us, it'll be too late by then.

In between his explanation to the other kids which I was barely hearing half of, it was like I could feel his emotions. His sadness, his pain, and the cold acceptance of what was to come, it was flowing through me, and it felt chilling.

The Andalite ordered one of the boys to go onto his ship, for whatever strange reason. The boy came back moments later with this strange, blue cube in his hands, and handed it to the alien. As they spoke, I felt another wave of sadness flow through me, no doubt something personal for the alien judging by the way his eye-stalks drooped.

Then the alien began speaking again. Bits and pieces reached me, about giving the other kids some sort of power, one that his species never shared. Something about the power to "morph", to change your body. He mentioned something about DNA, about how there were some limitations that he couldn't explain then.

‹But first, do you wish to receive this power?›

And then he asked those children whether they wanted whatever that cube would give them. There were protests, exclamations about how insane it was to be in their situation. One of the girls accepted right off the bat, but the others were telling her that this shouldn't be something she decides alone.

And then, hatred. That was what the Andalite emanated the moment he spotted those two bright red lights flashing across the sky. Then more appeared, each moving around like a bloodhound sniffing for prey.

‹There's no more time. You must decide!›

It took only a few moments, but every kid in that group seemed to come around. The alien ordered them to press their hands against the cube. There was a small flash of light around their hands when the Andalite's own joined them, and then the group pulled their hands away.

I could only hear the alien mention something about "two hours", before a sense of dread washed over him. The Andalite shooed the kids away much to their own protests, as several ships drew closer to the ground. The smaller fighter ships were now accompanied by some black monstrosity that could barely be seen within the dark.

Then, the alien quickly limped his way towards me, just as the other group scattered around trying to find a spot to hide. The Andalite's stalk eyes kept an eye on the sky, all while his primary set of eyes quickly spotted me as I tried to duck my head low.

‹I saw you before...how much did you hear?› his voice was a steady whisper within my head.

"I...I heard enough. Maybe not as much as I'd like," I raised my head, flinching at the sight of the alien clutching his wound. "You don't have to do this."

‹Hmm?› the Andalite's almost mystical green eyes looked at me in confusion.

"Your wound, you could survive," I said gently. "I can help you find a hiding spot, we can wait them out. You don't have to die."

The Andalite's eyes softened just a bit at this. ‹Your first thought was to help. Even though you know there's no chance, you still feel that need,› the alien closed his eyes, and made a slight humming noise through my mind. ‹That propensity for altruism, it's something I've always admired about your people...›

"You've been here before?" I asked, shifting in place slightly as I gave him a wide-eyed stare. "Wait, please, tell me what I can do-"

‹This,› he said simply, holding out the cube. ‹If you don't want to make the same choice as they have now, that's fine. But please-› the alien grasped his wound as a spurt of liquid dripped down his side. ‹Please, you must take this. Hide it however you see fit, just don't let it get into their hands.›

I felt my mouth turn dry at this, and I was doing everything I could to stop shaking. I could have said no to the offer, and just take the cube and bury it in a hole. I could have saved myself from everything that happened from this point on.

My answer was clear the moment I put my hand on the alien device. There was a tingling, like an electrical sensation akin to a shock, but it was more pleasurable than that, like a short tickle.

Then the Andalite's grip on the cube slackened, and I quickly grabbed onto the device to keep it from falling. I pulled the cube close, and desperately tried to shove it into my backpack as I watched the alien limp back to his ship.

‹Two hours,› the alien's voice echoed into my mind as he addressed me specifically for the last time. ‹Do not stay in morph for more than two of your earth hours. If you do, you'll never be able to go back.›

"Go back to what?!" I wheezed out. "Wait, I still have questions-"

It felt like my heart stopped when the beam of bright light swept across the ground. It was the spotlight from one of the fighter ships, no doubt, and it was soon joined by another. The red lights zeroed in on the Andalite and his ship, lighting them up like burning man on a cloudless night.

One of those other kids was close by when the spotlights flickered on. Whoever they were, their leg was in that spotlight. A twisting feeling settled in my gut, and time seemed to slow down as I contemplated bolting towards to get them out of the way. I only let out the breath I was holding in when they were able to scramble back into the darkness.

The ships descended, revealing insectoid machines built to kill. They were just a bit larger than the Andalite's own ship, and they looked like a legless beetle of sorts. The windows were like the compound eyes of a cockroach, and emerging from each side of its "head" were long, serrated spears.

"This is a dream," I whispered to myself. "This has to be a dream. I just fell asleep in the movie theater back at the mall, and I'm gonna be woken up by one of the employees. Or I've figured out it's just a dream, and I'll wake myself up," I shivered as I pulled at my own hair in desperation. "Wake up, damn it!"

Then the larger ship began to descend. The closer it drew to the ground, the more it felt like a knife was slowly being pressed towards my heart. Even as the ship descended, areas of the construction site around it began to vaporize. An earthmover directly beneath the black ship practically sizzled out of existence, as though it were never there in the first place.

At least eight times the size of the smaller fighters, the black ship was like some sort of medieval weapon. The main portion was like an axe handle, with a triangular point at the front of it, most likely the bridge. At the rear were two wings shaped like wickedy curved scimitars that curled around towards the front of the ship.

The ship landed, and a door opened with a terrifying hiss of air. It almost sounded like a scream was being cut off at the event, perhaps the invader's sick joke of a door bell or alien analogue to it. Perhaps it was a scream, from one of the other kids.

Based on what came out, I couldn't blame them.

They were like some sort of dinosaur, covered in spikes. They leapt straight from the ship, whirling around and slashing at the air with claws and the thick blades covering their bodies from head to toe. Their necks were like a snake, twisting around as their bird-like heads raked at their air, swiping with the sharp horns dotting their skulls.

‹Hork-Bajir-Controllers,› the Andalite said, and I felt a wave of sadness rush over me again. ‹The Hork-Bajir are good people, despite their fearsome looks. Each of them have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each of them has a Yeerk in their head. They are to be pitied.›

I couldn't tell what he had meant. I still didn't know whether these things were being mind-controlled, or if they had been assimilated somehow by these invaders-these Yeerks. Did the Yeerks take over minds? Bodies? Or did they replicate things? The Andalite clearly hadn't trusted me enough to state that information to me directly beforehand.

A gut-wrenching feeling settled in me at the next things that emerged from the ship. As if my Scolopendrphobia wasn't bad enough, these things only made it a thousand times worse.

‹Taxxon-Controllers,› the Andalite seemed to hesitate slightly as they moved towards him. He was trying to give me and the others any information he could, even if it wasn't much. ‹Taxxons are evil...›

They were like monstrous centipedes, longer than the tallest man is tall, and thicker than the trunk of an oak tree. They walked on dozens of (terrifying) legs that made disturbing clicking noises as they skittered around. Their upper bodies, near their heads, were held upright, and some of the legs there became smaller, becoming lobster-like hands.

Their faces were the worst, with four blood red eyes that wiggled and wobbled like jelly. And pointing straight up at the air were their terrifying mouths, all round and filled to the brim with rings of monstrous teeth. I felt my hands clamming up at the sight of them, it felt like I'd go mad if I kept looking.

Except I had to keep looking. I felt a pang of fear through me as one of the reptilians, the Hork-Bajir, walked towards the spot where I saw one of the other kids go. One of the Taxxons stalked towards my hiding spot, and I halted my breathing completely as I heard the gnashing teeth only a few feet away.

‹Silence!› the Andalite's voice hissed into my head.‹Hork-Bajir do not see well in the dark, but their hearing is very good. The Taxxons will not find you, so long as your breathing is quiet, and you are very still.›

He didn't need to tell me twice. The Hork-Bajir moved closer to where those five other kids were, and the Taxxon skittered a few inches closer to me every few seconds. The smell, it was overbearing, I knew it was the fetid meat of a rotting carcass left out to decay.

I could see, in my mind, the way this monster would bite my entire head off with a single motion, and probably keep eating till there was nothing left. My Aunt and Uncle would never know what happened to me, even if they ended up being caught up in this. I'd die alone, forgotten, no one to help me.

It was the worst feeling I've ever felt in my life. And I don't care if you think you'd be "man enough" to handle it yourself. I wanted to scream, to run, to breakdown and cry in the face of the inevitable. Everything from the pants-wetting urge, to the need to beg, it all felt completely natural.

‹Courage, my friends.›

The Andalite's voice, this time a gentle whisper, reached my head. And it felt like a massive weight had been lifted from me. I knew I was still scared, but there was a fierce feeling burning through me as I continued to watch the scene before me. I knew it was the doomed alien letting me, and probably the others, borrow his dying courage, even if he himself was terrified of his own death.

The Taxxon's claws clicked as it turned away from me, and it skittered back towards the ship. When I craned my neck to look, I saw every Taxxon and Hork-Bajir staring directly towards the ship. It was like they were standing at attention for some sort of commanding officer.

That was exactly what they were doing, because he strode out of the ship, straight towards the wounded Andalite. At the sight of him, I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to gag my small yelp.

It was another Andalite, if not slightly taller and more well built than the other. And obviously, he was not injured like the doomed alien. But there was something else there on the other Andalite, like a mask of false sweetness tugged over a twisted and foul visage. Even as the wrong Andalite walked, there was an air of smugness about him that just made me sick.

‹Visser Three,› the injured alien's voice echoed through my mind. ‹Only once has a Yeerk been able to take an Andalite body. There is only one Andalite-Controller. That one is Visser Three.›

‹Well, Well,› I heard another, more vindictive voice echoing through my head.

‹He cannot hear your thoughts,› the injured Andalite said, as if to save me from asking the question myself. ‹As long as you don't direct them to him. You hear his thoughts because he is broadcasting them for all to hear. This is a great victory for him, so he wants all to hear.›

‹What have we here? A meddling Andalite,› Visser Three leaned forward, his four stolen eyes squinting mockingly.

‹It's so lovely to see you too, Esplin,› the wounded Andalite bit back.

‹Always with the temper, old friend,› Visser three chuckled. ‹It's always such a honor to see you, Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. You've become quite the legend, after all. How many of our fighters have you shredded this time? Seven? Eight? Who knows! But the battle is already over.›

Elfangor didn't answer. But judging by the apparent sneer he gave this Visser Three, I'd imagine the Andalite-Controller was trying to downplay his hated enemy's accomplishments.

‹Yes, I'm afraid you're the very last Andalite in this sector of space,› Visser Three continued, the mocking tone in his telepathic voice growing more sickening as he spoke. ‹I'm afraid your Dome Ship has been completely destroyed. I watched it burn as it fell into the atmosphere of this little world.›

‹There will be others...› the Andalite prince growled.

The Andalite-Controller leaned towards Elfangor's face, all four eyes meeting the prince's own with a twisted glare. ‹Yes, and when they come, it will be too late. This world will be mine,› Visser Three made a flourish with his arms as a telepathic giggle echoed through my mind. ‹My own contribution to the Yeerk Empire, our greatest conquest. And then I'll be Visser One.›

‹What do you want with these humans?› the Andalite prince hissed. ‹You have your Taxxon allies, and your Hork-Bajir slaves. And other slaves from other worlds. Why these people, Esplin?›

‹Because there are so many, and they are so weak!› Visser Three sneered. ‹Billions of bodies! And they have no idea what's happening. Not like that other world, no, there's no chance they'll fight back. With this many hosts, we can spread throughout the universe, unstoppable. We'll have to build a thousand new Yeerk pools just to raise Yeerks for half this number of bodies,› the Andalite-Controller let out a barking laugh that reverberated through my mind. ‹Face it, Beast Elfangor, you have fought well and bravely, but you have lost.›

Visser three took another step towards the Andalite, until they were only a foot away from one another. Elfangor's fear emanated over me like a wave, but he stood to his feet regardless and gave his enemy a hateful glare. Despite the pain of his wound, he refused to die in fear of this Controller.

Unfortunately, Visser Three wasn't quite done.

‹Fret not, dear Prince Elfangor. Once we have this planet, with its rich harvest of bodies, we'll move against the Andalite homeworld. I will personally hunt down your family. And I will personally oversee the placement of my most faithful lieutenants in their heads. I hope that they will resist, so that I can hear their minds scream.›

Elfangor's movement was almost too fast to track. His tail whipped forward so fast, it was like a flash of light. The Controller cocked his head to the side, causing the tail-blade to miss it by a half-inch, but it wasn't in vain. The blade sliced into Visser Three's shoulder, causing whatever passed for his blood to spray out from the wound.

‹Aaaaaarrrrrgh!›

At the same time, a blinding beam of blue light fired from the tail of Elfangor's ship, just as I thought it probably would. The beam sliced into the nearest insectoid fighter ship, causing it to sizzle. All around, Hork-Bajir and Taxxons scattered as the fighter ship was completely vaporized into nothingness.

‹Fire!› the Andalite-Controller yelled. ‹Burn his ship!›

Then, everything exploded in a flash of blinding light, and I ducked my head in fear of being seen through it. When I looked up again, the Andalite's ship was gone, any remnants left still disintegrating. I swore I saw humans, or at least human-like shapes, behind Visser Three, but it was too dark to tell.

‹Take the Andalite!› Visser Three barked. ‹Hold him for me.›

Three of the Hork-Bajir grabbed Elfangor, and held him down. Their blades pressed against his throat, and one made sure to keep its weight on his tail. But they weren't moving to kill him.

That was the Visser's privilege, not theirs.

And that's when I saw why he was so high up on the Yeerk totem pole. I watched as his head expanded, growing obscenely larger by the second. His blue fur popped off, and blood-red scales spread across the skin beneath. His horse legs merged into two, then expanded till they were as thick as tree trunks. The small, human-like arms with too many fingers elongated and split apart, slowly shifting into scaly tentacles.

In the Visser's now bloated head, a mouth appeared that put those Taxxons to shame. Its teeth were massive, as long as an arm. Its mouth stretched across its entire bulbous head, a sickening grin that was only punctuated by its yellow eyes that glowed with malice. All the while, he continued to grow bigger.

"R-r-r-r-a-a-a-w-w-w-w-g-g-g!"

I had to cover my ears at the sound of the roar, and even then I could still feel the ground shake at the sound. I felt like the noise would continue to pierce my nightmares for years to come.

If only I had known I'd be seeing much worse in only a week.

"R-r-r-r-r-r-a-a-a-a-g-g-g!"

I felt like it was never going to stop. My teeth rattled from the noise, my bones shook along with the ground as I tried to keep myself steady.

When I looked back, the monster was reaching for Elfangor with his tentacles. The thing grabbed him by the neck, practically strangling the poor alien as it manhandled him. Then it pulled him into the air, ignoring the Andalite's futile attempts to fight back as it tried to strike it with his tail. The monster held the prince high in the air over its head.

Then it opened its mouth.

I thought I saw some movement nearby. One of the other kids from before, no doubt trying to charge into the fray in an attempt to save the injured alien. I could only watch in silent horror as the monster dangled Elfangor close to its teeth.

‹No!›

The Andalite's cry made me freeze. Whether he was crying to the others to stay put, or crying for mercy, I didn't know. It only hastened my silent sobbing as I watched the scene before me play out.

The monstrous tentacles let go of the prince, and he fell straight into the gigantic mouth. It closed, and the teeth shredded his body to ribbons with a single bite. And the thing kept chewing, visibly humming in delight as alien blood and gore dribbling between its teeth and down its lips.

Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul died. And I could hear his last dying cries. I knew they were no longer from a living thing, because they kept echoing through my mind long after he had been completely ripped to shreds. But I knew I'd never be able to shake the memory of them, not for a long time.

The Hork-Bajir were making some sort of huffing sound, like a laugh or an applause. The Taxxons, on the other hand, were rushing towards the monster and crowding around it. They were reaching up towards it, and I soon saw why. Some of Elfangor's flesh fell from the monster's jaws, and the Taxxon that caught it gobbled it up greedily.

And then there was laughter. Not from the Hork-Bajir, no, this was more familiar. The shadows finally made themselves known, revealing themselves to all be human, save one. The odd human shape out was the one that was floating, and a red glow emanated from their hands and eyes as they let out a sickening laugh. Even in the darkness, I could tell that I should recognize some of these people, but I couldn't place them. The sound was quickly swallowed by the huffing sound of the Hork-Bajir as they watched the monster shift back to Visser Three.

‹Ah,› Visser three's groan sounded cathartic, ‹nothing like a good Antarean Bogg morph for...taking a bite out of your enemies.›

Cheesy? Yes.

But the humans and Hork-Bajir laughed and huffed all the same. I felt bile rising up in my throat as the Taxxons continued to eat the scraps amid the laughter. And the floating shape snapped a couple of times as he laughed, causing what looked like fire to flash into existence every time he did so.

And then somebody, no doubt one of the other kids from before, started throwing up. Understandable, but it wasn't good, because one of the Hork-Bajir heard. Its snake-like neck swiveled around towards their hiding spot, no doubt staring directly at them and already having figured them out.

I did the only thing I could do.

I slowly emerged from my hiding place, grabbed a few pieces of metal rebar from nearby, and flung them as far as I could.

At least two hit a few nearby human controllers on their heads, being no more than a minor nuisance. One of them, however, slashed into one of the Taxxons, causing liquid to erupt from the disgusting thing's bloated body.

And then all hell broke loose.

The humans that had been hit by my useless attack panicked, bothing pulling out some sort of blaster and firing into the direction they thought the rebar had been thrown from, accidentally hitting a Hork-Bajir and Taxxon. Before any of the other Controllers could react, the group of Taxxons began eating the injured controllers, even from their own species, going into a feeding frenzy not unlike a shark. What ensued was more shooting, and angry shouts from the Visser.

I saw the other kids running through the shadows, straight to safety. And I followed suit, booking it as the maniacal invaders fought amongst themselves. I dodged Dracon beams, bits of Taxxon and Hork-Bajir gore, and pieces of rubble kicked up by the scuffle.

I ducked behind a nearby crevice just as the floating person shouted. He held his hand up towards the sky, and a jet of red-hot flame erupted from it, brightening the entire construction site for several seconds. And then, everything seemed to go silent, save for the vicious chewing from the Taxxons as they savored their newest meals.

There was some shouting, as some random homeless man emerged from one of the incomplete buildings, screaming about how it was his spot or something. He didn't seem to realize what he was dealing with, until all the alien invaders turned to face him.

I never checked whether he survived or not.

I only ran, and ran, and ran, until I couldn't stop running anymore...

---

Everything in between me getting away from the construction site and walking through my front door was a blur. I only knew that I had been shaking the entire trip, looking over my shoulder every other second for a spiky dinosaur or a horrible, disgusting centipede monster. I simply walked through the door, and briskly walked through the living room.

"Hey, kiddo! You were out a little late, y'know," my aunt called over to me from the living room couch.

"Uh-huh…" I couldn't even muster an excuse, only a numb response.

"You were at the mall, weren't you? I hope you didn't blow through your allowance in one go, sweetie."

"Uh-huh…"

"You alright, Aaron?" Aunt Jenna stood to her feet and paused whatever she was watching. "Did something happen at school?"

"N-No, nothing," I croaked out. "Just...kinda took a shortcut through this construction site, got lost in the woods for a bit along the way."

My aunt clicked her teeth at this. "Gosh, you're just like your uncle sometimes. He gets lost in our own house."

"It's a new place," I said weakly.

"Yeah, that's fair enough," she shrugged, grabbing the remote again as she turned back to the TV. "So, your uncle is gonna be late again-y'know how it is, work and all."

"Uh-huh…"

"So I'm ordering us some pizza. How does that sound?"

"Uh-huh…"

"Are you gonna say anything other than "uh huh" anytime soon?"

"Uh-huh…" I said absentmindedly.

"Well, alrighty then. Just make sure you get your homework done. I know it's not a school night but still..." Jenna craned her neck to look at me, giving me a sweet smile. "Hey, remember what I said? If there's anything you wanna talk about, just ask."

"Uh-huh…"

I trudged up the stairs numbly, everything going completely on autopilot. The moment I actually got to my room, I dropped my backpack and fell to the floor. My eyes became endless fountains of tears as I curled into a ball sobbing.

I couldn't quite place what I was sobbing for. It might have been Elfangor, the alien that had done what he could to help me and those others in his short amount of time left in this world. It could have been the entire situation, knowing that there was an alien invasion going on and I either had to help stop, or keep the tools of their enemy from getting into their hands. Or it could have been the fact that I was scared.

I had watched horrible monsters walk the ground, one murdering a good soul as he cried for mercy, and the others either waiting for the table scraps or laughing as it happened. And worse, I knew that some of those monsters wore human faces. Anybody around me could be one, they could be some sort of Body Snatcher, or Pod Person, or something like the monster from The Thing. And I'd never know until they were dragging me off to do the same thing to me, whatever it was.

My Aunt? My Uncle? My neighbors? My teachers? Could I trust anybody? Should I trust anybody? What was I supposed to think now? I wanted to pull my hair out at the agony of it all. Nothing made sense.

And worse, I was alone. Even if I ended up finding somebody who I knew wasn't one of these invaders, they'd never believe me. I'd look like a lunatic, and then the invaders would find me anyway. But if I stayed quiet, I'd end up watching as these invaders took over and brought everything to ruin.

Maybe those other kids, the ones who had talked to Elfangor, would help. I didn't know them, but I felt like I recognized their voices somehow. I could find them, tell them what I saw, show that I was on their side, even give them the cube.

"T-The cube…" I said through my dwindling sobs. I craned my neck to look at my backpack, slowly inching a hand towards the zipper, "No, this is all a dream. I'll wake up later, and this'll all be some horrible nightmare...the cube will prove it."

I opened my pack, digging through until I found the alien box. I pulled it out, marvelling as it seemed to hum with a small amount of energy.

"I'll just put this away, in a drawer or my closet," I said with a small snigger. "And then, when I check it tomorrow, it'll be gone, and that'll prove this was all some crazy dream."

I opened my closet, and gently placed the cube on the floor, swallowing nervously as I pulled my hands away. I closed the door quickly, my hands clamming up as I fell onto my bed.

"I'll just...wait for that pizza my aunt is gonna order, feed myself, and go to bed," I said, trying to reassure myself more than anything else. "And then, when I wake up tomorrow, there will be no alien invasions. Just a normal, boring middle schooler life…"

---

When I woke up the next morning, the cube was still there.

I had spent the next hour or so curled up on my bed, occasionally craning my neck to stare back at my closet. I had locked it after I had seen that alien device still staring back at me, mocking me.

I decided the only thing I could do was really see if it was real or not. I didn't want to go back to that construction site, but I could get answers there. I could see that there weren't any signs of the space ships, or funky dinosaurs, or evil alien centipedes that should all be destroyed.

When I walked downstairs, I saw my uncle eating breakfast and reading the paper. Reese was shaking his head tiredly as he turned the pages, an almost sour look on his face.

"I swear, that Sharing thing is like a cult," he grumbled. "I see them in the papers every day, and if I have to hear another neighbor get so forceful about inviting me, I'll seriously lose it."

"I thought it was just supposed to be a community group," Jenna groaned. "Like, Miss Sanchez was knocking on our door in the middle of the night over it. That's crossing a lot of boundaries if you ask me."

"Y-You guys talking about The Sharing?" I asked weakly, causing both of them to turn to me. "I think a bunch of my teachers at school are in it or something. They're...they're sort of pushing us to join, actually."

"Now that is just plain unprofessional," Uncle Reese hissed. "I hope they're not holding your grades over your head over it."

"Not really, just that The Sharing is good for extracurricular activities, and they "strongly recommend" that we join," I shook my head in annoyance. "I think one of the teachers tried to make it a mandatory thing for his class, but the school board nailed him to a cross for it."

"Well good! I get that it's supposed to be a community group, but an outside organization shouldn't be forced on children like that," my uncle grumbled. "There was an incident at work, apparently a bunch of people were trying to invite others to it. Upper Management came down real hard on them for it."

"I dunno, they're not all bad," Aunt Jenna clicked her teeth. "They've been reaching out to my organization, they want us to help host a bunch of charity events. We can't exactly say no to them now, can we."

"Fair enough...still, the way the neighbors are acting is a bit unnerving," Reese tilted his head, and then let out a short chuckle. "Wow! In what world does a group of kids playing with firecrackers look like a bunch of flying saucers?"

"W-What?" I croaked out.

"Yeah, says it right here! A bunch of people called about seeing lights and flying saucers over this old construction site near the mall," my uncle sniggered as he continued reading. "The police checked, and there were just a bunch of kids playing with fireworks."

It was a lie. I wanted to scream that the cops were idiots who didn't know what they were talking about. I was there, I'm pretty sure I remember the aliens, specifically the one who was eaten alive.

"Are the kids alright?" Jenna asked.

"Yeah, apparently they ran once they saw the cops. Nobody got a good look at their faces," my uncle clicked his teeth. "And what, the cops are offering a "reward" on any information on the whereabouts of the kids?"

I froze.

The cops…

The damn police couldn't be trusted. Yeah, they might want to find me or those other kids just to give us a "stern warning", but I highly doubted that. They could have easily said that in some police statement instead.

"Rewards for bringing in a bunch of kids? And the cops are wondering why people don't like them," Aunt Jenna growled. "Remember four years ago? It's like those riots didn't teach them their lesson, now they're going after kids."

"Sweetie, relax! It's nothing to worry about," my uncle gently reassured her. "They'll backtrack on it once they realize the language they're using. Like you said, all eyes are on them, they're not gonna do anything reckless."

"Yeah, yeah, I gotcha," my aunt said tiredly. She tilted her head in my direction with an owlish look. "You're dressed? Are you planning on heading out?"

"Yeah, just for a walk," I said nervously. "I feel like I need some fresh air, y'know. New place, new school, I wanna familiarize myself and clear my head a bit."

"That's fine kiddo. Just be safe out there," Jenna said sweetly.

"Uh, hey Aaron! Before you go," my uncle stood to his feet and cleared his throat. "I was hoping I could talk to you about something a bit later in the week."

"S-Something?" I asked nervously, hoping that this wasn't what I thought it was. "Uh, sure Uncle Reese, what is it."

"It's about my job, actually," the man gave me a wide smile, almost smug but somehow eager. "I think you're really going to like what I have to tell you."

"I...I guess if you're so sure," I said absent-mindedly. "I mean, it's not like I'm not excited about this. You never tell me much about your job, so maybe…"

"I know. But this time, I promise it'll be different. You'll get a better look at what Ingen does behind the scenes," Reese let out a small hum. "A really good look."

"I'm looking forward to it, Uncle Reese."

After that, I left the house and started retracing my steps back to the construction site. All the while, I was trying to be discreet about things. The police were definitely looking for me, or at least a kid. If I didn't take the long way to the site, I'd be a shoe-in for returning to the scene of the crime.

I was maybe half way towards the mall when a squad car came down the street. I tried to ignore it, but thinking that nothing would happen was a pipe dream. Upon spotting me, it slowed to a crawl and discreetly pulled up to me, much to my horror.

The window opened, revealing two stereotypical fat cops, one viciously devouring a donut as he stared at me blankly. The other lowered his coffee cup and pinned me down with a firm gaze.

"Hey, kid! We need to ask you a few questions."

Okay Aaron, be cool! Just act normal, don't tip them off, make them think you're not worried they'll try to kidnap you and force you into being assimilated or replaced by a freaky alien monster. Just be cool, maybe say something funny to break the ice.

I turned to the officer with a bright smile, and took a deep breath. "What seems to be the Officer, problem?"

NOT LIKE THAT YOU IDIOT!

Fortunately enough, the officer let out a short chuckle at this. "Relax, son. I just wanna know if you were anywhere near that mall last night," he leaned forward with a small smile. "Specifically, if you saw anything involving that construction site in the papers."

"Uh...I was at the mall," I said weakly. "And, I know about that construction site. I think it's supposed to be a shortcut some kids use," I rubbed the back of my head nervously as the two cops stared me down. "I took the long way around though. Last time I took a shortcut anywhere, I got lost in the woods for a bit."

"Ooh, tough luck, huh?" the two officers sniggered, but I knew there was just something fake about the way they did so. "So you didn't see anything?"

"I thought I saw some weird lights, but one of them looked like this big fireball or something. I heard all that banging and thought, "eh, fireworks". I've seen kids around school doing worse, and I haven't even been there that long."

"Right, right! You're one of my new neighbors," the donut-eating cop mused. "Your uh...dad, I'm guessing, he was rather rude to my wife earlier last night."

I chewed the inside of my lip at this. "W-Well, I think it was a bit rude of her to knock on our door at three in the morning."

"Ah, right. I should have reminded her about the curfew, I guess," the man continued voraciously eating his donut, continuing to speak while his mouth was full. "You have heard about The Sharing though, right? My partner here is one of the adult supervisors."

"Uh huh…"

"We have a lot of fun there," the officer at the window said in the creepiest way possible. "It's nice that the community can get together. Maybe you should come to a meeting sometime."

"I...I don't feel like it's for me, really. But, maybe I'll think about it," I shrugged.

"Huh, well that's a shame," the officer leaned back into his seat, and gave me a fake smile, "if you hear anything about those kids with the fireworks while you're at school, please don't hesitate to give us a call. We can make it worth your while."

"Ah, sure thing officer! I'll keep an ear to the ground," I said, giving them a polite wave as they drove off.

When I was sure they were gone, and some horribly disgusting centipede beast or dinosaur looking thing wasn't going to charge out of the woods and drag me away, I finally let out the breath I was holding in. The cops, they were definitely in on this thing with them-with the Yeerks, and that cult organization, The Sharing, was probably their means of tricking people into being replaced.

I had to get to the construction site, even just near it or on the outskirts. I had to get some answers.

My next roadblock came when I walked past a small park. There was a group of kids there, all from my school, and all the same grade. And I recognized a bunch of them, as they were the guys who regularly hassle me since the first day I got here.

I could handle bullies. It wasn't new, and I dealt with one every new school I went to. I even had the lines they always used memorized in my head, I could practically anything they would do simply by experience alone.

But they hadn't even noticed me, seeing as they were too busy with another victim.

He was a short looking kid with short, dirty-blond hair. His brown eyes were hidden behind wide-brimmed glasses that already had a crack on one of the lenses. The poor kid's sweater was all scuffed up, and one of the bullies was trying to pull it over his face.

I don't know what came over me, but instead of silently continuing my trek to the construction site, I instead stormed over to the other boys. In one quick motion, I grabbed one of them by the neck, pulled him back, and socked him in the face. The other two had stopped just in time to see my fists heading towards their guts. As the three fell over, I pulled the bespectacled boy to his feet and placed myself in front of him.

"You keep your hands off him!" I growled. "Pick on somebody your own damn size, assholes!"

The boy I had clocked in the face was wiping blood from his mouth with a hateful gaze. "Wow, new kid. Trying to play hero, huh?" the bully tugged at his dark hair and smirked, before cocking his head towards his underlings. "I don't know about you two, but what the new kid said, it kinda hurt my feelings."

"Mine too," the dopey looking brunette chuckled. "It sounded really mean."

The larger member of the group, a thick looking redhead, clicked his teeth. "Che, yeah! Maybe we ought to-"

"What?! You'll "give me the what for"? Show me "the pecking order"? Or, ohoho, the old favorite, "teach me a lesson"?!" I threw my fist forward in a mock strike, causing the three of them to flinch back. "Yeah, I've heard it all, doesn't scare me. Have some damn standards! It's the weekend, and I can't believe I have to deal with you punks on my time. I could be going to the mall, watching a movie, or anything else. But I have to stand here, in front of all of you."

"You could have just stayed out of it," the leader of the gang pulled out a set of actual brass knuckles and fitted them to his hand. "Now the geek and the goth are both getting it."

"I'm not a goth you fu-"

"Hey! What are you kids doing?!" a voice called out nearby.

I turned my head in time to see somebody, most likely a member of the park staff, charging over. The bullies, all of whom had their fists raised and clearly outnumbered myself and the other boy, realized exactly how the situation looked.

They quickly booked it, much to the chagrin of the adult charging over. He took one look at the scuffed up kid behind me, winced, and mentioned something about calling the police before stalking off in the same direction as the gang of punks.

Before I could leave, the bespectacled boy grabbed me by the sleeve. "W-Why?"

"Why what?" I asked.

"Why did you do it? If they see you at school, then…" his voice cracked slightly, and he shook just a bit. "You should have just ignored me. I'm nothing, I don't matter."

"Is that what they tell you?" I felt my expression falter at the boy's dejected look. It told me all I needed. "I can handle anything those creeps dish out. It's when others get hurt that I stop standing around like a wimp."

I was only several feet away when the boy called out to me again. I turned my head back, giving him a concerned look.

"W-What's your name?" he asked.

"My name is Aaron," I told him.

"I'm S-Stevie," he said nervously. "I...I guess I'll see you at school, Aaron."

I really tried to fight back the smile that tugged at my lips. I tried really hard. I didn't ever think I'd be in this town for more than a few months at best. But the way Stevie was looking at me, it was like a puppy that was being introduced to its new forever home.

And what kind of monster would I be if I let down a puppy.

"I'll see you at school too, Stevie," I called back. "Be safe, bud."

---

When I actually got to the construction site, I was more than shocked to find the bustling activity across the entire area. There were trucks going in and out, each with big yellow stickers that states they carried "hazardous materials". There was an entire roadblock nearby to keep the area clear, with some police nearby to help smooth things along.

The cover story they were given? Asbestos. But that didn't make sense, because there were fireworks there just last night, right? So why was the site being blocked off?

I snuck around through the woods, taking the path from before to one of the crevices in the site. I watched as people in hazmat suits combed the ground for anything. I fought back tears as dust was shovelled into a nearby truck-no doubt everything left of Elfangor and his ship.

"Work faster! There can be no signs that the Andalite was ever here."

The foreman clicked his teeth angrily as the workers protested. I guess that was the amusing part, regardless of whether they were alien body stealers, their unions probably sucked.

Then I saw a truck pull up right next to the workers, and out came a face I didn't expect to see.

It was Chapman, my school's Vice Principal. The man who was constantly on the prowl to pin the blame of anything bad on some random kid who probably did nothing wrong. The only way to get out of detention? Go to The Sharing.

And yet another connection to the big red thread. Because now I knew that it all went back to The Sharing. Whatever they were using for, I'd do...something about it. And that something would...cause things to happen.

I am so in over my head!

"What's taking so long?" I heard Chapman say.

"W-Well, we didn't expect this much debris…"

I winced as the Human-Controller tried to assuage Chapman over the work. That debris used to be a ship. Some of that ichor on the ground used to be a sapient being, and some of these monsters were probably there laughing as their boss killed him.

"Excuse me, but am I the only one here who can see this Hork-Bajir footprint?!" Chapman barked, pointing to the mucky spot on the ground in question. His face twisted into a scowl as the other Controllers stared at him owlishly. "Well somebody fill it in before it makes the front page!"

There was some grumbling from a bunch of the other Human-Controllers as the shovelled dirt around to cover up the reptilian claw marks. A few more of them pulled out sponges and mops, and got to work on the splashes of alien blood splattered across the ground.

I left as discreetly as I had come. I couldn't get answers from the construction site alone. I had to figure out how to get something out of a Controller, and that meant cornering one alone. And I didn't know how I could do that.

Or if I even had the stomach to go through with what I might need to do…

---

A few days later, I got suspended from school.

Yeah, I know, as if things weren't already bad enough.

The day had gone just like any other before it, save for the fact that I started it by checking on the cube to make sure it was still safe. The walk to the bus stop was an anxiety trip, either I was flinching at every person that came close to me for fear they'd pull out an alien ray gun, or I was looking over my shoulder in fear that a Taxxon would be skittering behind me.

Lunch, however, was different.

"And so that's what's really going on at area 51," Stevie told me, gesticulating wildly in his spot across from me at the table. "The reason nobody is saying anything, is because they've found some sort of renewable energy source made by these aliens, and they don't want to mess up the economy by releasing it to the general market."

I wanted to laugh at how ironic it was that I was being told how aliens worked. I knew how they really worked, a bunch of them were probably hiding in plain sight around us. But more than that, I wanted to laugh at his reasons for his conclusion.

"So, you've come to this conclusion after reading up on Roswell?"

"Well, duh! I mean, with how hush-hush they were about it, there's no chance it wasn't aliens," the bespectacled boy said triumphantly. "The truth is out there! I just know it."

He wasn't wrong. The truth was out there, on both of the things he was apparently obsessed with.

"Maurice Ewing," I said simply.

"Uh, wha?!"

"Maurice Ewing was a geophysicist and oceanographer who was helping the U.S develop new weapons and tools during WWII," I let out a small chuckle as I popped a couple of fries into my mouth, "he was there because the allied military wanted to make better equipment to locate submarines in their local waters, and improve their own subs."

"I...okay, what does this have to do with Roswell?"

"Just stay with me for a bit, alright," I reassured him. "So, Ewing discovers this thing called the "Sound Channel", which is this spot that's at about a thousand feet deep underwater. Because of the salinity, temperature, and density of the water around this area, sound waves in the Sound Channel don't really travel well either up or down. But horizontally," I made a motion with my hands to illustrate, "they travel much further, and for a lot longer."

"Really neat factoid, but I still don't get what this has to do with aliens," Stevie deadpanned.

"Like I said, stay with me. So, it's important because large disturbances at this specific depth can still be heard thousands of miles away, but only if you're using the right equipment," I leaned back in my seat as a smile cracked across my face. "So, he invents this thing called a "SOFAR Sphere". Think about yourself as a pilot. You get into a dogfight over the ocean, and your plane crashes, and now you're bobbing around on the surface. What do you do?"

"...I'm imagining this sphere thing has something to do with it?"

"Exactly!" I said cheerfully, snapping my fingers as I leaned forward. "You reach into your survival kit, pull out a SOFAR Sphere, and drop it into the water. It doesn't have electrical or moving parts, it's just calibrated very precisely so that when it reaches the Sound Channel, it implodes."

"Like...like a depth charge?"

"Yeah, but without the big explosion. The soundwaves from the implosion carry all the way to the shoreline where a bunch of underwater microphones are installed. With the right math to figure out how long it took for the sound to get to each mic, you can find exactly where it came from."

"And then you find the lost pilot," Stevie eagerly leaned forward as he took a sip of his chocolate milk. "That actually sounds really cool. But still, I don't get-"

"No, I'll tell you what it's got to do with Roswell, dude. See, before the device could be used, the war ended. So it's never been used...but Ewing wasn't gone," I chuckled as the geeky boy tilted his head. "See, they still kept him in the military, because the Cold War was ramping up. Since everybody was worried less about subs and more about missiles, he thought "wait, if there's a Sound Channel in the ocean, shouldn't there be one in the sky too?" and guess what, there is, at about a hundred fifty thousand feet or so."

"What would they need to check the Sound Channel in the air for?"

"Well, what if there's a large sound? Say, a certain type of bomb being tested in Russia?" I saw the gears turning in his head at this. "Yeah, if you can get access to the Sound Channel up there, you should be able to hear that all the way over here."

"So, you'd know everything about what they're doing. The location, the time, even the power of the nuke," Stevie said in realization. "I think I'm getting the picture. You could figure out exactly what the enemy was doing before even satellites existed."

"Yup! It was called Project Mogul. They were making high-altitude weather balloons with microphones attached," I gave the bespectacled boy an amused smirk. "One of them crashed into a farmer's backyard near Roswell, and a bunch of nutty people said it was aliens. And then the government covered it up."

"Aww!" Stevie threw his hands into the air in muted rage. "Come on! It was really just nothing?! Why did the government cover it up then?!"

"It was the Cold War," I reiterated, "it was better than having your enemies figure out that you could listen in on everything that they were doing."

"Damn it…" the geeky boy adjusted his glasses as a defeated groan escaped his mouth, "and you've known about this?"

"It was all declassified after the wall came down," I shrugged, chuckling as the boy deflated further. "Best case scenario, if they do have anything from aliens at one of those bases you mentioned...it's probably just one of their toilets."

"Salt on the wound!" Stevie whined.

I continued to let out a mirthful noise at his apparent misery, but gave him a kind smile nonetheless. A bell sounded out through the lunch room to signal the short amount of time we had left to eat, much to his shock.

"Ah, we were talking so much!" the bespectacled boy quickly began shovelling his food into his mouth like a man possessed.

"Slow down, we have plenty of time," I said, grabbing several fries and forcing them into a bouquet-like formation within my palm. "So what do you have this next period?"

"Free study, in the library."

"Same," I hummed as I chewed. "Most people use the time to play video games or something, but I'm always busy looking up neat facts like that."

"That explains a lot," Stevie mused. "I don't actually have much to do though, s-study wise I mean. So I sorta just read whatever I can find, I guess."

"Well, if we keep quiet, we can still talk," I said hesitantly.

"...Y-Yeah, I'd like that."

Like I said, I hadn't had any real friends in a long time, not since I was in kindergarten. And I felt like I could trust Stevie. He seemed like a cool dude, and the irony of his obsession with alien conspiracies was not lost on me.

But I had to make sure.

When we were in the library, and it seemed like nobody was listening in, I decided to test the waters.

"So, you know anything about what happened at that construction site a few days ago?"

"Ugh, not this again," the bespectacled boy groaned. "You sound like one of those creepy cops that stopped me on the street yesterday."

"So it isn't just me?" I asked, getting a confused nod in response. "Yeah, those guys were just...something felt wrong when they were talking to me, that's the best way to describe it."

"Let me guess, The Sharing?" Stevie snorted at my withering expression. "Yeah, they were really pushing it on me too. It really freaked me out, the way they were talking."

"My uncle says The Sharing is probably a cult," I clicked my teeth. "Maybe that's what's going on, huh? They were doing some occult ritual, and some kids saw it, so now the cult is looking for them to silence them."

Stevie was good. Stevie could be trusted.

But not with the truth. He didn't deserve that burden.

"You know, you might be right," the bespectacled boy said lowly. "A few weeks before you moved in, there was this kid-he kept talking about how he'd never join The Sharing, how it was like one of those NRMs that ruined his brother's life, and how The Sharing would go the same way as Jonestown."

"Maybe that crossed the line a bit?" I chuckled nervously. "But, hey, it was his opinion. Nothing wrong with that."

"Well, he changed his opinion pretty quickly," Stevie said grimly. "He went missing for a whole week, didn't come into school. And when he does, he can't shut up about how "great" The Sharing is, and how it changed his outlook on life."

"...So he was brainwashed?"

Or replaced, was my unsaid alternative.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Stevie adjusted his glasses and set a fierce look onto me. "People can say whatever they want about my alien conspiracies and stuff, but something is going on with The Sharing. And it probably goes back to that construction site and whatever really happened there. I'd go there myself but-che," the boy leaned back in his seat with a tired grimace. "No way I have the guts to go."

I fought back a frown at this, and made to comfort the boy with a snappy, perhaps cheesy one liner that would physically hurt to hear. I was only cut off when a girl fell nearby, dropping the large stack of books they held.

"Ah, hell! Hang on, I'll be right back," I told the bespectacled boy.

"Yeah, sure!" he said, tilting his head as I walked towards the fallen student.

As I helped her up, I got a better look at her. She was black, like my aunt, and she was wearing her hair short and tied up in a bun. All in all, her outfit was rather plain, consisting of a plaid shirt and jeans.

"Hey, you need help picking all this up?" I asked.

"Oh, uh, sure I'd appreciate it."

"My name is Aaron," I said kindly as I lifted a bunch of the books into a pile on a nearby table.

"Oh yeah, you're the new kid right? My name is Cassie," the girl held out her hand, to which I shook it. "My friends and I see you around the mall alot, actually."

"Y-Yeah, I'm usually by myself. I'm actually pretty sure I'm only gonna be here for only another month or so," I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly as I finished piling up Cassie's dropped books. "So I'm just messing around in my off time after school."

"Your...parents?"

"Aunt and Uncle," I corrected gently.

"They move a lot, I'm guessing," with how Cassie's expression faltered, the answer must have been written on my face. The girl beamed at me as a small smile tugged at her lips. "Well, if you're interested, I could ask my friends if they're okay with letting you guys hang with us."

"Uh...wait, Stevie too?"

"Yeah, Stevie too?" the boy in question asked in shock.

"Yeah, Stevie too," the girl chuckled. "You two seem pretty nice. I also thought it was funny when you talked about Roswell."

"Ah...she heard that at lunch…" Stevie said dejectedly. "I guess everybody now knows that my reality is a lie."

"Like I said, before; Alien toilets," I sniggered at the boy's groan as he lightly smacked his head into the table.

It actually felt nice, to have people to talk to. To maybe call friends.

A shame it was ruined when somebody threw a book into my face.

"Oh, that must have hurt," a familiar voice drew out sardonically, with accompanying chuckles not far behind. "It's nice that we finally caught up with you, new kid. Since we're on school time like you wanted, we can finally get to business…"

I wiped the specks of blood dripping from my nose with a short grunt. "Well, Cassie, it was nice to meet you. I'll take a rain check on that offer to hang out," I ignored the girl's sputtering and Stevie's protests, and took a couple of steps forward. "Go ahead and get going, you two. I can handle this."

"What?! They're going to kill you!"

"Hey, you said it, not me," the lead bully made a finger gun at the bespectacled boy, letting out a barking laugh when the smaller boy flinched. "Ah, no, he does have to leave though. This is a library, and I don't wanna be too loud after all."

"Stevie, just get going. I can handle this," I said gently.

"Yeah, tell the geek to get lost," the leader of the gang sneered as he tilted his head towards Cassie. "And tell her to get lost too. I can't stand her kind being around here."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the poor girl shrink back at the comment. The bullies only laughed harder at this, and things got worse from there. Words I'd never repeat, even on paper, were uttered by them, along with animalistic noises clearly made in jest.

At the sight of Cassie covering her face, I clenched my fists angrily. "Wow, as if you three chucklefucks weren't already pushing so many of my buttons," I stalked towards the boys with a deep snarl. "Time to put your money where your mouth is, punks!"

---

And that's how I ended up in the Vice Principal's office, my face covered in bruises and cuts.

I'd like to say that the other guys were worse off than me, but that was a complete lie. I had my ass handed to me on a pristinely polished platter, and it felt somewhat humiliating.

Stevie and Cassie had run off right when the fight had started, both yelling about how they would get a teacher. They had gotten the school counselor who, in her infinite wisdom, decided I was the culprit, that I was the one bullying others and harassing them. She even made it sound like I must have been the one to make Cassie cry like she did.

Yes, because the kid on the floor getting kicked like a downed piñata is always the one to blame for being a bad egg.

So now I was sitting in front of Chapman, the Vice Principal. I couldn't hold myself back from glaring at him with nothing but pure hatred. This thing in front of me had no right to regard me like a misbehaving child in its eyes, not when I knew it couldn't possibly see me as anything other than another host. A resource to use, maybe reuse, and then throw away when I had been worn out like a suit.

Chapman clicked his teeth as my hateful gaze followed him. "I'm very disappointed in you, young man. You've only been here for a month, and already you're causing trouble."

"They started it!" I growled, fighting back the urge to add in the words "Yeerk scum" to my defense. "I was only defending myself."

"I highly doubt that. Those young men you brutalized are well-liked around the school. Their teachers speak highly of them, and they just recently made the basketball team. So I highly discourage you from lying."

"I'm not!" I hissed, leaning forward with a wild glare. "You can ask those other two kids I was with, the ones that grabbed the school counselor," my teeth ground against one another at the Human-Controller's disbelieving expression. "Do you honestly think I was the guy causing trouble? My ass was getting kicked around across the library floor-"

"Language!" the alien-in-human-skin growled, slamming his hand onto his desk hard. "You need to keep your attitude in check, young man! I have half a mind to expel you for the school year."

I sat further back in my chair, never taking my glare off of the thing in front of me. Expulsion, it wouldn't be ideal, but I didn't think I'd be here for more than another few months anyway. I could handle being expelled.

"But I'm feeling generous," Chapman continued. "Once you join The Sharing, and get the proper counseling they can offer you, I might be able to smooth things over."

My body froze at this, my hate-filled glare falling into a neutral look as I tried to fight back the horror welling up from within me. The lighting in Chapman's office wasn't the best, so maybe he would see me turning pale at his statement.

"I-I'd rather not," I said quickly. At the Controller's confused expression, I swallowed hard. "I'd rather not join The Sharing, that's what I was trying to say. I have nothing against it, and if you're a member then that's your choice, but I'd rather not be involved with-"

"That's not my problem, Aaron," Chapman growled, slamming his hand down on the desk again to shut me up. "You don't have the option to say "no" here, young man. You will join The Sharing."

"...No," I said lowly. I felt a feeling swell within me, a fire I had felt only a few nights before. The same courage Elfangor had given me then, I had to remember now. I stood to my feet, and gave the Yeerk in front of me the most fierce glare I could manage. "You can give me the expulsion, Vice Principal, because I'm saying no."

"Excuse you? I told you that-"

"No, you don't get to say I don't have a choice, and you're crossing the line if you think that you can use your power to force me into some cult or something," I growled, smirking as Chapman was clearly taken aback. "If my uncle were here, he'd be telling you-"

"Just how unprofessional it is for you to use your position for something like this," a familiar voice bit into the air.

Uncle Reese stood in the open door, like a superhero arriving at the last moment to swoop in and save the day. He took one look at my bloodied and bruised appearance, and then directed his cold glare back to the Yeerk.

"I agree that my nephew may be in the wrong," my uncle stormed over to the desk, and smashed his hand onto the wood, causing the alien to jump back in shock. "But if you think that you have the right to forcibly indoctrinate a young man into something like that, you have the wrong idea. You will not threaten my son-nephew," the man took a deep breath as he corrected himself. "Into something like that without his or my own consent. Do you understand?!"

Chapman sputtered uselessly as he tried to collect himself. "I-the-you see...The Sharing isn't-"

"I don't care what The Sharing is or isn't! I care that you're overstepping boundaries that you've already been told you can't cross!" Uncle Reese hollered. "And clearly, you have the wrong idea about my nephew as well, you-"

"Sir, that's enough," the principal, a woman of slight build, came in and laid a hand on my uncle's shoulder. "I understand that you're angry at the events that transpired today, but they're being sorted out properly now."

Reese sighed, and pulled his hand away from Chapman's desk. "My apologies, Principal Everett."

"And Chapman," the principal rounded on the alien-in-human-skin with a stern gaze. "I told you to stay in your own lane. You and several others have crossed this line with The Sharing one too many times, even after being told to stop. This time it is clear what really happened, and I'll be going to the board with this."

Chapman chewed the inside of his lip, a dark look spreading across his eyes. "I understand, Everett…"

"Mr.(blank)," she addressed my uncle with an apologetic look. "Despite the circumstances of how your nephew was assaulted, and the events surrounding it, we'll still be needing to suspend him for the week, as I already said before."

"I...I understand," Uncle Reese said tiredly, holding a hand out for me to take. "Come on, sport. We're leaving."

When we got to the office lobby, I was greeted by a couple of familiar faces. The school counselor saw me, and gave me what sounded like a non-apology. A quick glare from both myself and my uncle shut her up, and she stalked off with a dejected look.

Both Stevie and Cassie were seated within the office lobby, along with a blonde kid I had seen around school once or twice. I gave the three of them a wave, causing the bespectacled boy and the girl's jaws to drop.

"Holy-I mean, wow, they really went to town, huh?" Stevie asked weakly as he stood.

"It's nothing. Are you guys alright?"

"I...yeah, the counselor yelled at me for lying," the geeky boy said dejectedly. "We told the Principal everything, since we were worried you'd get in trouble."

"I would have been fine," I said gently. I turned to Cassie and tried my best to give her a reassuring smile. "Uh, how are you? What those guys said-"

"I'm fine," she said quickly.

Judging by how she sniffled just a bit before she spoke, she probably wasn't. The blonde kid stood to his feet, giving the girl a gentle pat on the shoulder.

"I heard about what happened. Thanks for, uh, helping her out," he held out his hand and gave me a nervous grin. "I'm Tobias."

"Aaron," I said, taking his hand in my own. "It's nice to meet you...and it's unfortunate enough that I won't be able to make small talk during the week."

"Aaron, come on," Reese said quietly. "We have to get going, alright."

"Y-Yeah, I gotcha," I gave Stevie and Cassie a tired expression. "I guess I'll see you guys in a week or so."

---

"Agh, that stings!" I hissed.

"Well, good, that means it's working," my aunt grumbled. "I can't believe they didn't bring you to the nurses office. What was wrong with them?"

"Well, maybe if I had joined The Sharing, the VP would have let me go to the nurse," I growled, flinching back slightly at Jenna's concerned look. "S-Sorry, I didn't-"

"No, you're not wrong about what the Vice Principal did. But you're wrong for fighting," she chided, giving me a stern expression as she cleaned the cuts on my face. "If you're being bullied, you can talk about it. I've always said you could. Starting fights with them never ends well-"

"Aaron was in the right," Uncle Reese said as he walked into the bathroom. At my aunt's glare, he cleared his throat. "He, uh...he made a couple of friends, one of them is a nice girl. He was just defending them."

"More the girl then, I'm guessing? So it was you doing stupid stuff to impress the girl, huh?" Aunt Jenna shook her head in disbelief. "That's ridiculous-"

"They called her the N-Word and made hooting noises at her," I said blankly, causing her to freeze for a few seconds. I noticed my uncle wincing at my response before walking off, and I clicked my teeth. "It wasn't me trying to impress a girl, it was me trying to get rid of a bunch of racist dicks. I have nothing to regret, even if I did get my ass kicked."

Jenna bit the inside of her lip and let out a low chuckle. "You're just like your mom, you know that?"

I placed my hands beneath myself as I sat, unable to look her in the eye. "I-I'm sorry. I really didn't want this to happen-"

"You have nothing to apologize for, kiddo," my aunt said gently. "I mean, yeah I'm certainly not happy that you got into a fight, but the fact that you weren't planning on letting them get away with that...well, it obviously means we've been raising you right, huh?"

"I...yeah, I guess so…"

A few minutes later, and I was walking towards the dining table with clean bandages fitted to my face. My uncle gave me a reassuring smile as I sat down, and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Aaron, I want you to know...I'm proud of you. Yeah, getting into a fight and getting suspended wasn't ideal," Uncle Reese tugged on his collar nervously, and smacked his lips together. "But, when I heard why you did it, I felt...I don't know, glad I guess."

"Glad that I called out blatant racism?" I asked. "I thought that was supposed to be what you normally do."

"And that's why I'm proud of you, Aaron. It tells me the type of person you are, that you're going to be when you grow up. And I'm proud that you were willing to risk a lot to stand up for what you believed in," my uncle's smile turned melancholic as he stared at me. "Your mother and father, they'd be really proud too."

"I...thanks. I'm glad you think that."

"So, you got suspended," Reese pulled his hand away and gave me a mirthful smirk. "At least it wasn't for something stupid like chewing gum. I remember getting the worst from my teachers."

"Yeah, I'd get suspended again in a heartbeat if it were over something like this," I said firmly.

"I don't blame you. But it gives us time to have that talk."

"...I already know how sex works, Uncle Reese."

"Not that talk!" he hissed, a dark blush spreading across his face.

"Oh, good. Because I'd rather die than have either of you try to give me "the talk". I'd never stop slamming my face into the table."

"No, it's not that talk, I promise," my uncle pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket, and handed it to me. "It's about this. I was seeing it around work, and I figured I'd see what you thought about it."

I unfolded the paper, and bobbed my head back at what I saw. "Take your kid to work? Wait, it's at the end of the week?"

"Well, I figured since you're always asking about what I do at Ingen, this could give you a chance to see me at work," Reese smirked, clearly seeing my eyes widening. "For my specific branch, there's going to be an NDA involved, so you won't be able to talk about it with friends. But your aunt knows, so you can ask her more questions."

"W-Wait, what does Aunt Jenna know?"

"It's a surprise," my aunt sing-songed. "But it's of the very...prehistoric variety, if you will."

"Prehistoric?" I blinked.

"Primordial? Primeval? Either or, but it's quite the blast from the past," she chuckled.

"Especially since it was the past that got blasted first, if I'm correct in saying so," Uncle Reese grinned.

"...You guys aren't gonna tell me anything until I agree, are you?"

"No, you have to go to the event to figure it out," my uncle said cheerfully.

I chewed the inside of my cheek as the two of them restrained their giggles, looking at each other and wiggling their eyebrows as they smirked at their own little in-joke. Finally, I decided I had to bite the bullet.

"I'll go," I said. "I'll sign whatever I have to sign. I don't care, just as long as they don't put an alien in my head or something."

"Relax, it's just Din-very important discoveries in the field of genetics," my uncle coughed into his hand, red-faced, as he quickly cut off what he was going to say before.

"So, like that flavorful tomato thing you guys make or something?"

Aunt Jenna shook her head with a chuckle. "How bout, "or something"..."

---

I think it was halfway through the first day of my suspension that I realized what I needed to do. To learn more about these invaders, the Yeerks, and about everything else as well. The cube, the Andalites, the Yeerks and their goals, and what I would do next.

Fortunately, my aunt and uncle were away at work, Uncle Reese no doubt figuring out how to get me into his job for the "take-your-kid-to-work" event. That left me with ample time to figure out what I had to do, and plan for it.

I had to catch one of these Controllers.

That was really my only option. I know, it sounds crazy, but I couldn't figure anything else out. I had to capture one of these aliens, and threaten them into telling me everything I wanted to know. I knew I had the means to do it, but going through with it was another thing.

As a side note, when I had first thought up that plan, I was sure it was the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. I didn't know the bar had already been set by others long before that.

The plan was simple; find a Controller, corner them and hold them hostage, and interrogate them. Get them to spill everything about their kind, what they knew about the cube, and what I was supposed to do to fight his kind. Probably something that wouldn't work, but maybe I could pray that I found a cowardly Controller and he squeals like a pig.

All I had to do was find a Controller. And I had a pretty good idea as to where I might be able to find one…

So I grabbed my backpack, shoved the cube inside it, grabbed some rope from the garage, and fished an old souvenir from when I was living in Detroit out of one of my unopened boxes. I felt antsy, having those two things on me as I left the house. But I made it back to the construction site nonetheless.

The activity in the construction site had died down a few days after I had last checked. The Controllers checked it far less often than before, having clearly figured out that the kids from before weren't gonna come back any time soon. But they always left one guard to check the place, and rotated them out every four hours or so.

Today's guard was a shrimpy looking dude with short brown hair and a scraggly beard. He was scoping out some of the buildings with a flashlight in hand, muttering to himself angrily in some strange language as he stalked around the area. As he walked, I could see a futuristic gun-like object poking from within his coat.

Now I just had to take him down.

I wanted to say it was hard, that it was the most daunting task of my life. But all I did was grab a brick from the ground, wait for him to turn his back, and knock him upside the head with it. Sure, it had taken some time, and I had done it in the darker area of one of the buildings, but it was still so painfully easy.

I knew I was making a mistake by thinking like that. If I was gonna fight these things, I had to remember not to underestimate them. Not all the Human-Controllers were as easy to take out as this guy, and I could never take on a Hork-Bajir or one of those centipede monsters on my own, let alone Visser fucking Three.

I stripped the Controller of his weapon and tied it up, pulling it to a brighter area with a slightly worn table and chair. After seating the thing and laying my pack on the table, I waited. Not even a few minutes later, the Controller was groaning in pain as his eyes blinked open.

"What the heck…" the alien shook his head clear, a wild expression blossoming across his face as he spotted me. "Hey, kid! What's the deal?! This ain't funny-"

"Cut the shit!" I growled. "I saw your boss eat Elfangor the other night, so I'm not in the mood to play games."

"...Wonderful," the Yeerk's bewildered expression shifted into a sneer. "And let me guess, he gave you some sort of ray gun or something to deal with us?"

"Not quite. But I can handle you creeps," I leaned forward with the most menacing glare I could muster. "I'm the guy who threw those metal pipes. One of them slashed into those centipede freaks, and the others hit a few people on the head."

"Dude, fuck you!" the alien growled. "That was me! That hit me on the head, and I freaked out and started shooting, and that caused the Taxxons to go into a feeding frenzy. The Visser nailed me to a cross because of it, and I'm stuck guarding a shitty construction site-"

"Shut. Up," I growled lowly. "Don't act like you're a person, because you're not. And I could care less about whatever the Visser did to you. He ate somebody not even ten feet away from me that night."

The Yeerk's expression turned cold as it glared at me. "So what, you think you can kill me now too? You got a bunch of us that night, whether or not you were planning it, you did."

I didn't say anything, I only swallowed the lump in my throat. "What are you?"

"...Excuse me?"

"Before Elfangor died, he gave me the bare minimum of what happened. But that's it, just the bare minimum. So I don't know what you are exactly," I poked the thing's cheek, then it's forehead. "Are you like...a pod person, from Body-Snatchers? Did you kill this guy and shapeshift into him to replace him?"

"No!"

"So it's like The Thing, then?" I said, pulling my hand away in fear. "If I keep touching you, you'll assimilate me and make me a Cronenberg."

"No, no! I am a Yeerk! I didn't replace anybody, and I didn't assimilate anyone either," the alien said almost indignantly. "My host is still here, with me. I'm just taking over the body, and he let me do it."

"...Explain."

"We Yeerks, we're like...the best analogue to something on your planet is a slug. We look and function similarly, save for many minor differences," the Yeerk took a deep, hissing breath as he looked at my disgusted expression. "But the really big difference comes when we get to something we can take as a host. We go through the ear, dig through the skull, and get to the brain. We infuse ourselves into the brain, and diffuse ourselves across it. The person is still there, but we're in control."

"You're...a brain parasite?" I asked, shivering as the thing in front of me gave me a smug nod. "So, your host, he can still hear everything and see through your eyes?"

"Uh-huh. Basically, he's still in the car, but he ain't in the driver's seat," the Yeerk sneered. "Is that all? Because if you let me go-"

"I'll hit you with this brick again," I threatened. "I mean it. You already know I will, so don't pull anything over me. Keep talking!"

"I don't have anything to say to you-"

"Then the brick goes on the table," I said angrily, dropping the brick and digging into my pack. "And my friend from Detroit comes out."

*SHINK*

The Controller's eyes widened as I flipped the switchblade and pressed it to his neck. There was some small sputtering from him as she looked at me in horror. Then he tried to settle into a neutral expression as best he could.

"You won't use that thing. You don't have the-"

*FWOOSH*

"Ah!" the parasite gaped at the now bloody blade in terror. "Alright, alright! I'll talk, just please don't cut me again."

Guess I really did luck out and get the most cowardly Controller in existence. I took a deep breath, doing what I could to calm myself and ignore the blood pumping through my ears.

"Do you have a weakness?"

"We have to leave our hosts every three days in order to feed on Kandrona in our pools."

"What's Kandrona," I asked blankly.

"It's the light from our sun. If we go for three days without it, we die, and we can only get it while in our pools. We made machines which could generate the Kandrona rays anywhere, so we could travel to any planet we wanted."

"What happens if one of these machines gets destroyed before any of the other Yeerks feed off of it?"

"Then we execute most of the hosts, any that aren't important at least," the parasite squeaked out.

"You..you execute people?"

"We can't have witnesses going around and escaping," he whined. "The idea is to infiltrate with stealth. Having freed hosts running around messes that up."

"Where are your pools?"

"I can't tell you, and I don't even know where most of them are anyway!"

"What is The Sharing?"

"It's our front organization. We use it to get willing hosts most of the time, because we have less hassle with them, no need to worry about escaping," the Yeerk turned his head away as I absentmindedly held the blade forward slightly. "But if there are people who aren't willing, we still take them. We're always trying to convince useful people to join, so we can get into the right places."

"I fucking knew it," I hissed. "And that guy, the one from the other night. He looked like a human, at least in the darkness, but he shot fire out of his hand."

"You saw the Shuldidnian," he grumbled. "They do look like you, sort of. There's a lot of...differences, and they're hard to make into controllers."

"How so? How are they different, and why can't you just infest them like anything else?"

"Well, they have these psychic powers, crazy advanced telepathy being one of them, so a stealthy invasion like with you humans was right out," the Yeerk clicked his teeth angrily. "Those psychic powers of theirs, it makes them hard to control too because they can fight off the infestation with them...but, anything will break if you bend it hard enough."

I felt a shiver crawl up my spine at those words. "And the fire?"

"Pyrokinesis, it's another one of their powers. Different races from the species have a different power like that, Electrokinesis, Cryokinesis. All of them have Psychokinesis too," the alien shook his head at my confusion. "Your pea brained humans call Psychokinesis "Telekinesis", but that's not the proper name for it."

"Okay, so Shuldidnians are weird-looking humans that have psychic powers and can control the elements," I mused. "Next question. Do the Taxxon have a weakness I can exploit?"

"Why the hell would you care?"

"Mind your own business!" I growled. "Just tell me!"

"I don't know, and I don't care."

I clicked my teeth as I lightly ran the blade across its skin. "What do you know about Andalite technology?"

"We were given it, by one of them," the Yeerk chuckled darkly as it spoke. "Seerow, he found our homeworld with an expedition of other Andalites. He saw us, pitied us, and gave us everything. And we've been so grateful for his gifts," it twisted its host's mouth into a vicious smile as it leaned forward. "Couldn't you tell? We've been putting his generosity to good use-"

"Back up, or I slash the other cheek," I growled. "And then I move onto the throat. So what, you reverse engineered their tech, and started screwing things up across the galaxy? No wonder they're trying to put a stop to you! You're like a plague, and they feel responsible for unleashing you."

"You sound just like one of those Andalite scum-Gah!" the host's head flew back as my knife bit into his unmarred cheek. "What the hell is wrong with-"

"I'm sorry, but I have a bit of a problem with a literal pile of pond muck calling something clearly more evolved than itself "scum". Now, was there any Andalite technology you didn't get?"

"Plenty, but we filled in the gaps with stolen tech from other species, like the Hawjabran. We never did get the Escafil Device though."

"...You mean this?" I said, pulling the cube out of my pack. Instantly, the parasite lit up its host's eyes with excitement. "Don't start, don't even start! Just tell me how this works!"

"I don't-" the Yeerk was cut off when I pressed my blade to his throat. "Alright, just give me a bit to think over it."

"You've got ten seconds."

"Alright, calm your shit!" the parasite took a deep breath and tilted its host's head. "So, Visser Three has an Andalite host, you saw that right? The host is morph capable because of that cube thing, that means he can turn into any animal he's acquired the DNA from."

"Acquired?"

"Yeah, I've seen it sometimes. He gets predators from all over the galaxy delivered to him, he touches them and, I dunno, focuses on their DNA or something, and boom, he's acquired it and he can turn into any of them any time he wants."

"There's something else, isn't there? Something about a time limit?"

"The beast gave it to you, didn't he? The power to morph," the host's mouth twisted into a sneer. "Who says I have to tell you?"

I shoved the blade forward slightly, drawing blood and eliciting a yelp from the thing. "That says you have to tell me. You keep talking, or you'll see what it's like to bleed to death, and the knife will be waiting for you if you leave your host."

"Alright! If anybody who can morph stays in morph for more than two hours, they become a Nothlit. That means they're stuck as whatever they morph, and they can't go back."

"You even know the term," I said lowly.

"We've captured Andalites before, and they usually do it," the parasite clicked its host's teeth at my confused look. "They'd rather become Nothlits than let themselves be infested."

"Smart move...if Elfangor had morphed that night, would he have survived?"

"If he had morphed back afterwards, maybe," the Yeerk admitted disdainfully. "Morphing heals the morpher. Visser Three never stays wounded for long after he's been in a fight."

"That's good, so I just gotta find something that can stand up to that monster he morphed into…"

"Nothing can. The Visser's morphs are unstoppable, nothing you can think of would ever be able to go up against him."

There was one type of animal that had come to mind when he said that. But at the time, I had thought those specific animals were millions of years out of my reach.

In the present, I know a lot better now.

"Hey, I think I know you," the Yeerk twisted its host's mouth into a disturbing grin as it leaned forward. "Your...dad, is it? He works for that company, International Genetics, right?"

"...You want access to Ingen," I said blankly, realizing the truth behind everything that had happened to me the past few days.

The neighbors banging on the door at 2 AM to tell us how wonderful The Sharing was. Those cops getting really insistent about me joining. Fucking Chapman trying to force me into it with the threat of expulsion.

"Yeah, we don't know exactly what's going on in that company, but a genetics company would be really useful to us," the parasite's voice was almost mocking, with how it spoke. "We could use it to weed out any undesirable traits in humans once we finally have all of you. Removing unsavory things, like...Autism and Down's Syndrome, maybe people born blind or deaf, or even without limbs or such."

I felt a chill run up my spine at this. The way it spoke, it implied that there were people who didn't deserve to live, that were less than human and weren't good enough. He said it himself, "undesirable" traits. It was disgusting.

"All we need to do is infest one of you, that is. One of your family," the Yeerk's smile stretched ever wider across its host's face.

"Well, that's not going to happen," I said coldly. "And you're not gonna be able to tell anybody about this when you're dead."

"You can't kill me with that thing," the parasite said smugly. "You're too much of a coward to-"

*SHEEEEEEWWEEEEEE*

My hands shook as I stared at the Controller's slowly vaporizing corpse. The motion I had made to grab his stolen weapon was swift, and he had been too busy postulating to react. And he was right, I was too much of a coward to use my switchblade.

I was too worried I'd make a big mess.

I quickly packed my bag, and discreetly left the construction site.

As I walked home, I did everything I could to rationalize what I had done. It wasn't human, it was a parasite that had taken over a human. It was working with that Visser Three, and it was evil. The way it spoke, about weeding out undesirable traits, it sounded like somebody saying they were going to crush an ant.

And it talked about my family. Visser Three wanted my aunt and uncle, just so he could make our species better hosts. And I was supposed to be the Trojan Horse. I was the means to an end, and when I stopped being useful I'd be removed no doubt.

Then there was the human. I had vaporized a human with an alien weapon. But he couldn't have been a good human. He let that thing into him, he wanted to help it by allowing it to infest him. He was no better than the Yeerk.

When I got home, I chucked my backpack into my closet, and charged into the bathroom. The bile I had held back in my throat probably since the night Elfangor was killed in front of me escaped, and I spent the next hour bent over the toilet, unable to stop the flow of vomit. And then I curled up on my bed and cried.

I killed someone, and I couldn't handle it. I was some sort of monster…

I only played off my sickly appearance as a stomach bug when my aunt and uncle asked. I told them I just needed to sleep it off, that it was nothing to worry about. That I could still go to work with Uncle Reese at the end of the week, and see what was really going on at Ingen.

Maybe that'll help me figure out why the Yeerks want it so much...

---

It was a day later that I finally morphed for the first time.

It was...surreal, but after what I had done the day before, I felt like a weight was lifted from me when I did it. When I morphed, I didn't worry about what had happened, or what was happening around me. At least, at first I didn't.

It started when I went to the mall, and bought a can of tuna. Not the most glamorous way to go about this, but I wanted to start with something easy. A single can of tuna was all I needed for what I wanted my first morph to be.

I walked into an alleyway, sat the can of tuna down, and waited. And sure enough, a Bombay trotted out of the shadows, glee written all over his fuzzy little face as the scent of fresh fish wafted into his nostrils.

"Hey little guy," I said gently, my expression faltering slightly when the stray froze for a few split seconds. I pushed the can of tuna forwards just a bit, and gave the cat a reassuring grin. "Hey, come on, it's alright. I'm not gonna hurt you, bud."

The stray slowly walked forward until it was only a couple of feet away from me. When it realized that, no, I wasn't going to hurt him at all, he gleefully bounded towards the can of tuna and greedily ate. I felt a small tingle well up within me as I heard the cat purr. It was such a lovely sound to hear.

I licked my lips, and decided to get to work. I gently placed a finger on the Bombay's back, and ran it down his fur. The cat showed no response, save for his purring intensifying.

Then I added a second finger. Then a third.

Soon, I was petting him with my whole hand. And I focused on the cat, on acquiring his DNA to use. I felt something change then and there, but I just couldn't describe it. The cat went slack beneath my touch as I continued petting him, and stayed that way for several more seconds even after I had stopped feeling that change from before, his purring like a deep lulling sound as he closed his eyes.

He opened them a bit later, and eagerly continued to eat. After licking what was left of the contents of the can, he playfully jumped onto my lap and rubbed against my chest.

"H-Hey, stop!" I giggled. "I'm sorry, that was all I bought. But thanks for letting me pet you, you're a real sweetheart."

The cat mewled in response, continuing to rub against me and purr contentedly. After a few more gentle pets and snuggles, the Bombay jumped away and trotted back into the shadows.

When I got home later, I went up to my room and immediately tested it.

I had no reference for what to do, so I just focused on the Bombay cat I had just acquired. I saw the mental image of the cat in my head, juxtaposed across an endless blue sky. I focused on the image of the cat, and on placing that image onto myself.

I felt myself growing smaller, it seemed like the ground was slowly coming up to meet me. And my limbs, they felt like they were growing shorter too. I saw black fur sprouting across my hands, and sharp claws erupted from my fingertips, seemingly spilling blood for a split second. I could hear my bones crunching, but I didn't feel anything wrong.

I felt my face bulging out just a bit as my eyes drew closer together, and as I prodded my teeth with my tongue, I could feel my canines slowly lengthening and sharpening. There was a strange stretching sensation around my rear as I felt a tail emerge, with new bones audibly popping into existence.

Finally, I felt the change stop. The last bits of my human skin disappeared, and when I jumped onto my dresser to look in the mirror, the Bombay cat from before was staring back at me. And I felt confused by that.

Who was this other cat staring back at me? When I held my paw up, he held his up too, and pressing it against the strange surface caused him to press his against mine, but I couldn't feel anything but the strange surface. I jumped down from my spot, because it was confusing.

But what wasn't confusing was this place. It was mine now. I was the owner of everything, and I'd get all the treats and foods. That box over there, I checked to see if I could fit in it. I did, and I sat in the box. It was my new sitting box, mine, nobody else's.

Now I just needed to look for a mouse or a bird to play with. I'd chase it all over the carpet, across the high places, and when I finally caught it, I'd have so much fun. I'd need to give it away though, because these humans can't be trusted to do anything by themself-

"What have you to report?"

Oh, it's Chapman. Chapman was outside.

Wait, what? Chapman?

"I can't keep being so forceful, I've had run ins with the cops," another voice said. "I thought you had Controllers everywhere in the force."

Hold on a second! No, I am not a cat. My name is Aaron, and I am a human boy who just turned into a cat because he was given alien technology. I can turn back any time I want.

...That definitely didn't make it sound better.

"We have enough of the police force under our belt, but plenty more aren't infested. We're still working on it."

It finally started to dawn on me. When I morph an animal, I've acquired its DNA, which means I've acquired its instincts, it's mindset. Which means when I morph an animal, I have to deal with their mentality forcing itself over my own.

"Well, I can't keep trying to push the issue on them. Regardless of whether you have "enough" on the force, I can't risk jeopardizing my position here with an arrest."

I jumped on the window sill and looked out, and the cat eyes narrowed into slits at what I saw through them. Chapman was talking to one of my neighbors, and now and then he'd look at my front door with a sneer.

"Visser Three wants that man. And if the Visser doesn't have a Yeerk inside of him soon, he's going to be very unhappy," Chapman leaned towards my neighbor with a glare. "You and I both know that it would be quite unfortunate to be there when he gets unhappy."

I jumped back to the floor, shivering as I landed. Outside my house now? This was getting out of hand, and I couldn't let it continue. I had to find a way to put a stop to these Yeerks trying to get to my family.

Then I remembered the Controller I vaporized yesterday.

I sagged in place, a dejected look spreading across the cat's face. The cat was a predator, but even through that memory, the cat's mind was also saddened. I couldn't go through with that sort of thing again, and I didn't know if I had a morph that could.

When I stood to my feet, I realized something. My clothes were strewn around on the floor around me, from my shirt to even my underwear. Apparently clothes did not morph with the body.

But then why would they? Andalites obviously hadn't needed clothes, if Elfangor and Visser Three were anything to go off. And getting control of the animal's mind, that was another thing I had to figure out as well.

My first thought was that I could figure out how to morph at least one article of clothes. Just pants, that's all I was thinking. Find a pair of pants that morphed with me, and practice morphing so that I could get the animal brain under control.

The only thing I hadn't figured out was how I was going to hide all the shed fur…

---

"Alright, big day today, huh Aaron?" Uncle Reese chuckled at my tired groan. "I know, I know, it was hard to sleep with how excited you are, huh."

"You could say that," I lied.

It was actually because I had spent the entire night morphing and demorphing a cat trying to both train how I could hold back the animal mind, and find the right pants. I ended up pinning Bike Shorts and really tight fitness leggings, much to my chagrin. They chaffed, and I knew I'd be able to feel that even through morph.

"So, I went over it with one of my higher-ups, and we can get you in. They just want you to sign that NDA. I won't force it on you-"

"What Ingen have to worry about though?" I asked weakly. "I mean, an NDA agreement sounds pretty extreme."

"We've dealt with corporate espionage in the past," Uncle Reese chewed on his lip. "Well, it'd be more accurate to say that we've prevented almost every attempt at corporate espionage, save for two."

"Wow! What, are they hiring ninjas to steal stuff?"

"Yes, actually," he noticed my wide-eyed expression, and let out a sardonic chuckle. "Yeah, I'm not even joking. And ninjas weren't even the worst thing we've had to deal with."

"Who's sending ninjas after you guys?"

"Biosyn," Uncle Reese said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "They're a genetics company, like Ingen, but they hire more lawyers than they do scientists. Half the time, most of their ideas are stolen from other companies, and we only nail them down because we've already patented any of the ones they do steal from us."

"...Patents expire though," I said flatly.

"Exactly. We do our best to keep things up to date, but still," he shrugged, a small sigh escaping his lips. "Haha, funny story, I actually really had trust issues with your aunt, and even your dad, because of all this. I was supposed to trust no one because of all that. I mean, they proved they weren't out to get me eventually, but it was the work climate and everything," my uncle took a deep breath as a giggle fit passed through him. "I-I once even thought Lewis Dodgson-that's one of Biosyn's head scientists-was following me around for a few months."

"That's messed up," I said, letting out a small chuckle of my own.

It was understandable, despite how messed up it was. I could actually empathize with Uncle Reese, and the feeling that you couldn't trust anybody around you. That everyone was out to get you and everything you held dear.

Only, instead of a ruthless corporation that was willing to hire ninjas, it was alien brain parasites that turned people into puppet slaves.

Life is kind of funny in a weird way, huh?

"We're here," my uncle said cheerfully. "Go on, check it out!"

When I looked out the window, I saw what I assumed to be the Ingen facility that Reese worked at. At its base, there were several large and square buildings that were built in a tight arc together, but I could tell that was just the surface. Around the entire perimeter was a massive fence made of cables, metal, and thick concrete. At the top of each fence was a glowing red light, along with danger signs with stylized caricatures of lightning on them dotting different points of the fence.

"Why do they need such big fences?" I asked mutely.

"You'll see...but, I can tell you, it's not really there to just keep others out. It's to keep things in…"

Reese pulled his car up to the front gate, giving the gate guard a bright smile as he showed his id card. The guard took one look at me, and tilted his head with a deep scowl.

"What's with the kid?"

"It's take-your-kid-to-work-day, isn't it?" Uncle Reese said.

"...Y-You aren't supposed to actually do it," the guard hissed. "You do remember what we have here, don't you?"

"I do," my uncle hummed as he motioned to me. "But he doesn't, and I don't see any problem with showing him."

The guard clicked his teeth, but opened the gate nonetheless. "Whatever, I don't get paid enough to deal with this. I'll let Wu handle it."

A few minutes later, and I stood out the front doors of the main building. I would be lying to myself if I said I wasn't nervous. I knew that my uncle did a lot with genetics at this company, from making tomatoes that stayed ripe for longer all the way to making salmon that grew up faster. But every time I had asked "is that all?" he'd never say anything to me for the rest of the day.

"Hey, sport, you alright?" Uncle Reese gently laid a hand on my shoulder. "You've been acting kinda jumpy."

"I'm fine," I squeaked. "Just...still thinking about what happened before, y'know."

"Relax, you got suspended. It's not like you killed a man or something," he chuckled.

I felt bile rising up in my throat from the remark. "Yeah, that'd be ridiculous...so, we just go in?"

"Come on, let's get going."

My uncle led me into the building, making small talk with the girl at the front desk as I got my visitor's pass, and signed the correct papers I needed. During this, I was introduced to several scientists working for the company, all apparently lower on the totem pole than Reese was. Eventually, when we were finished, he led me to an area which required a higher level of security clearance, which I based on the sign alone.

And that was when we hit a roadblock.

"Like I said, I can't just let him in, even with authorization from upper management," the security guard said apologetically. "We've got sensitive stuff going on in there now, remember? Only way the kid can get in is if Wu himself says so."

"You're kidding me?" Uncle Reese deflated when the guard shook his head. "And Wu is probably already inside, right?"

"I...I'm not sure, actually. I got here a bit late, so he might have gotten here early and I didn't see it," the guard shrugged. "Maybe if you talked to him. I could watch the kid for a bit until you get back."

"I...well, I suppose-"

"Ah, Dr. (Blank)," a voice called out from behind us. "Just the man I wanted to see."

"Oh, thank god," my uncle let out a relieved chuckle as he turned around. "Henry, you have no idea how glad I am to see you right now."

When I turned around, I saw an asian doctor walking towards us. I hated that I thought of those classic stereotypes when I saw him, but he fit them to a 't'. He was a young asian man in a white lab coat, with short black hair, high cheekbones, and a bright smile stretching across his face.

There was just a slight look in his eyes, a tired look that showed disappointment and loss. Yet further back between them, I thought I saw something else, something that caused a slight shiver to crawl up my spine.

And there was the way he walked too. He walked around almost arrogantly, at what I didn't know, but it almost seemed like he felt he was above everybody else. For whatever reason, it looked like this man thought he was a god.

As I would soon learn, maybe he wasn't wrong in thinking so.

"And who might this be?" the strangely arrogant doctor asked my uncle as he looked me over.

"This is my nephew, Aaron," my uncle motioned to me, then to the doctor as he faced me. "Aaron, this is Dr. Henry Wu, my superior."

"Ah, it's nice to meet you, sir," I said nervously as I rubbed the back of my head.

"Nephew? I wasn't aware you were bringing him," Wu said, cocking an eyebrow as he gave Uncle Reese a confused look.

"It is take-your-kid-to-work day, after all," my uncle gave his boss a nervous smile as he shrugged. "S-So, I thought I'd bring him to see what I do here, since he's always asking about it."

"He's not your son?"

"I'm his legal guardian," Reese said quickly.

"Yeah, I came down with a bad case of dead parents when I was in Kindergarten," I said darkly, causing my uncle to sputter wordlessly. The security guard and Wu had slightly more muted reactions, but it was clear what they thought. "I wouldn't recommend it."

"I wouldn't imagine you would," Wu mused. He turned to Reese with a firm expression. "Has he signed any NDAs?"

"They had him sign it at the front desk, just like the other kids for the ground floor."

"I don't believe the ground floor has to worry about what we do," Wu tilted his head, scrutinizing me for several seconds, before turning to the guard with a smile. "Let him through."

"S-Sir, are you sure about this?"

"I'm certain of it. Let the young man through," the doctor said firmly.

"Alright, if you're so sure…"

When the guard opened the door, it led to a long hallway. Doctor Wu motioned for my uncle and I to follow, and we did. The walk was mostly done in silence, right up until we drew closer to the door at the end of the hall.

"Tell me, what do you think of the Dinosaurs?" Wu asked me.

"Uh...well, I think as a kid, I liked them a lot," I shrugged, confused by the nature of the question. "But I've sort of grown out of it. If I see something like a book, or I go to the museum, I'll be interested. But that's it."

"But surely, you could name your favorite right off the top of your head, right?" the scientist asked somewhat eagerly.

"...Spinosaurus," I said, clicking my teeth at the doctor's surprised expression. "Yeah, I know. Most kids in kindergarten didn't get it either, but I thought it was neat."

"Oh? Any specific reason why?"

"I think the mystery behind what it looked like...but more of showing how tragic it can be that the past can be swallowed up by issues in the present."

"Indeed. Quite a tragedy that the Holotype couldn't be recovered," Wu mused. The geneticist stopped in front of the door, and gave me a sideways glance. "You're probably wondering why I asked you this, aren't you?"

"I am," I deadpanned.

"Let me tell you why. You must have heard about how your uncle created a salmon that grew to its full adult size and then some, at only half the time wild salmon do," Wu shook his head and gave me a smug grin. "The truth is much more complicated, isn't it Reese?"

"We were competing with a duo of rival companies who had made two GMOs," my uncle explained. "One was a tomato that had been modified to have its ripening process slowed down, so that when it did turn red it wouldn't become soft as quickly as non-modified tomatoes. The other was the salmon, and it was made to grow using the growth hormones from a related species, and the promoter genes of an eelpout."

"Wait, did you...steal them?" I asked nervously.

"No, we were tasked with replicating them using our own methods," Uncle Reese let out a chuckle. "Not only did we do so, in a much shorter time than the other two companies, but we perfected them. The salmon I created grows to its full size at about a quarter of the time, faster than the original. And Wu's tomato is much firmer than the ones created by the original company."

"So, is that what you guys do? You make organisms that are better than normal?"

"Sport, let me tell you...that salmon and tomato...they were practically parlour tricks compared to what we really do."

Then they opened the door, revealing a massive lab floor filled with bustling activity from multiple scientists. On the far left, there were people handling bits of clear orange colored stones. Towards the center, there were some small domes on large cylindrical platforms, filled with oblong egg-like objects, and people handling large spherical white balls that also looked like eggs. And towards the right, there were men and women playing with some sort of virtual reality simulator, which I knew hadn't even been released to the public yet.

I was confused, until Wu and Reese motioned for me to follow them towards the back. There was a set of massive windows at the back of the lab, all overlooking a large room that was partially underground, and filled with bright lights. And it was what I saw in that room that made my jaw drop.

It was a potbellied animal covered in dark brown scales, it looked almost as big as a bus, and it had short but thick legs that ended in small, blunt claws, and a short tail. Around its head was a massive, spike rimmed frill that swept towards its body, and its face was tipped with monstrous horns. A pair of horns jutted out from its forehead, just above its small, amber-colored eyes. The third and final horn erupted from its nose, just shy of meeting its beaked mouth.

I watched in awe as several men in white suits crowded around the creature, each examining parts of its body. The animal wasn't moving much, just its tail and its beak here and there, and it would blink on occasion. Even through the glass, I could hear as it made a loud bellow from whatever was ailing it.

It was a Triceratops, a three-horned dinosaur that ate plants. Keyword being "dinosaur", because that thing shouldn't even be in that room. It had to be a fake, it had to be some sort of sculpture, or an animatronic. There was no way there could be an actual dinosaur in that room.

"W-What is this? That's not a real dinosaur, is it?" I turned to my uncle, and I felt like I could drop dead the moment he nodded. "How?!"

A smirk tugged at Uncle Reese and Wu's lips as the other doctor stepped forward. "Let me show you…"

---

"Go on, go and take a seat," Wu said kindly. "It'll be fine, go on ahead."

I watched as the doctor set up the projector in the nearly dark room, and quickly took a seat when the film started running. A logo appeared, the skeleton of a T-rex carved into stone with the words "Jurassic Park" carved beneath in stylized letters.

And soon enough, a second Henry Wu slowly approached through the screen.

"Hello!" the second Wu said.

"Go ahead and say hello, Aaron," my uncle said with a chuckle.

"H-Hi there," I gave the televised Wu a nervous wave as he smiled.

Then the virtual Wu turned to his real life counterpart, and chuckled. "Hello, Dr. Wu!"

"Oh, goodness! I-uh-I forgot that when John and I prepared this, I had some lines," the real Wu began digging through his pockets. "I think I was always keeping it on me just in case…"

"Oh, I'm fine, I suppose," the televised Wu said mirthfully. "But, ah, you have to tell me, doctor, how did I get here?"

The real Wu finally fished out a piece of paper from his pockets, and chuckled. "Well, let me show you. First, I need a drop of blood," the scientist looked away from the paper, and pointed to his virtual doppelganger. "Your blood, that is."

"Oh, right! Of course…" the virtual Wu held out his finger, and the real Wu poked him in the finger, almost seemingly for real based on the sound it made. The televised version of the scientist let out a shocked yelp. "Doctor, that hurt just a bit too much, don't you think?"

"Relax, Doctor! It's all a part of the miracle of cloning," Wu said happily.

And then a third Wu appeared directly next to the first copy. "Hello, Dr. Wu."

"A pleasure to see you, Doctor," the first copy said cheerfully.

Yet a fourth appeared, basically coming out from behind the first. "Dr. Wu!"

"A pleasure to see you, Doctor. Thank you for joining us," the first copy said.

And it continued until there were at least seven Henry Wus on the screen, all saying hello or some variation of it. The screen zoomed in on the first copy's finger, showing just a small piece of red at the tip. Then, something came out of it.

It was some cartoonish strand of colorful orbs, all stuck together in a somewhat humanoid shape. The humanoid thing twisted around the air like a snake, its large eyes widening as it gave the screen a smile before enacting its prank on the first Wu copy. It tapped the man on the shoulder, causing the man to yelp in shock.

When he saw what, or rather who, it was, he let out a short laugh. "Mr. DNA?! where on earth did you come from?"

"From your blood," the now named Mr. DNA said. "Why, just one drop of your blood contains billions of strands of DNA. The building blocks of life."

The scene changed, with a piece of blueprint paper filling up the entire screen. And Mr. DNA was soon squeezing his body through it, like a dog squeezing through a gap in a fence.

"A DNA strand, like me, is a blueprint for building a living thing," he quickly reshaped himself into a blueprint drawing of a long-necked dinosaur to illustrate his point. "And sometimes, animals that went extinct millions of years ago, like dinosaurs, left their blueprints behind for us to find," the living DNA strand rolled up the blueprint paper on screen, revealing an animated mosquito on a blocky brown background. "We just had to know where to look…"

When the mosquito pierced into the background and began to suck up red liquid, the camera zoomed out to reveal that the "background" was actually a long-necked dinosaur. The mosquito flew off, visibly still full of dinosaur blood.

"A hundred million years ago, there were mosquitoes-just like today. And just like today, they fed on the blood of animals, even dinosaurs," the mosquito landed in a tree, and suddenly the scene shifted to a live action shot of a mosquito drowning in tree sap. "Sometimes, after bitin' a dinosaur, the mosquito would land on the branch of a tree, and get stuck in the sap."

The scene quickly changed back to animated form, this time of a pair of men digging through the ground until they found an orange rock. The screen zoomed in when they did, revealing the mosquito trapped within it as one of the men shone a light on it.

"After a looong time, the tree sap would get hard, and become fossilized-just like a dinosaur bone, preserving the mosquito inside," the scene once again changed, now to men in lab coats drilling a hole into the fossilized tree sap to get to the mosquito's preserved abdomen. "This fossilized tree sap, which we call amber, waited for millions of years with the mosquito inside. Until Ingen scientists came along," the man drilling into the amber switched tools, quickly pulling out a needle and syringe and gently pressing it into the hole dug into the fossilized sap, until the needle was practically touching the end of the preserved mosquito's abdomen. "Using sophisticated techniques, they extract the preserved blood from the mosquito and...Bingo! Dino DNA!"

The scene cut to a doctor filling a vial with red liquid, no doubt the dinosaur blood that had remained preserved for so long. I couldn't believe it, there couldn't be a chance of that sort of thing happening enough times to get enough to make a dinosaur.

How did they manage it?

"A full DNA strand contains three billion genetic codes," the scene changed to a mass of letters travelling across the screen, moving and sounding just like the traffic of the big apple. Mr. DNA stood at the forefront of it, pointing back to all the letters while dodging them like an idiot walking through a busy intersection. "If we looked at screens like these, once a second, every single day, for eight hours a day, it'd take two years to look at the entire DNA strand. It's that long. And since it's so o-oohohooold-" I let out a chuckle as the living DNA strand was dragged off screen by one of the flying pieces of code. He quickly reformed, nonplussed, and continued. "It's full of holes. Now that's where our geneticists take over."

The scene changed to a lab not unlike the one I had been in only a few minutes earlier. Many scientists were looking through microscopes, as well as checking vials. It cut to one of the virtual reality simulators I had seen before, which showed a section of a DNA strand as a scientist checked through it.

"Thinking machine supercomputers and gene sequencers break down the strand in minutes, and virtual reality displays show our geneticists the gaps in the DNA sequence."

The scene switched to show a cartoon frog that slowly transformed into several strands of DNA, all separated from the main strand.

"We use the complete DNA of a frog to complete the holes, and complete the-" Mr. DNA grabbed one of the separated strands of DNA and pushed it back into place. "Code! Phew...and now, we can make a baby dinosaur."

The living DNA strand pulled down what looked like a curtain, only to reveal an egg. The egg hatched, and a long-necked dinosaur emerged and grew to full maturity on the spot. I couldn't help but stare at my uncle and his boss in awe as the dinosaur stomped around on screen.

"I mean...I can tell this was made for kids...but...no critiques here," I stood to my feet and took a step forward. "You guys, you actually made dinosaurs?"

"Yup!" my uncle said, popping the 't' playfully.

"What dinosaurs, though? I saw the triceratops-did you make the long-necked ones too?"

"Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Mamenchisaurus," Wu noticed my confused look. "Mamenchisaurus is a chinese species. Only Brachiosaurus and Mamenchisaurus have been bred though, we only have Apatosaurus embryos in storage."

"What about any of the big meat-eaters?" I asked. "S-Spinosaurus? Did you make that one?"

Wu's expression faltered just a bit, and he straightened himself. "We do not currently have Spinosaurus DNA in storage."

"...T-rex?"

"Why do you think we were moving all over the country a few years ago?" my uncle chuckled. "I think I made a few Tyrannosaurs, before Sorna closed down."

"You made a T-rex?" I squeaked, to which my uncle nodded. I felt like I could fall over right then and there. "This is...I can't believe this. This has to be some sort of dream or something."

"Aaron…" Uncle Reese took a step forward, giving me an excited smile. "Let me show you my babies."

"...I'm sorry, your what?!"

---

The place where my uncle's "babies" were being held was the on-site veterinarian's office.

The vet in question was a young woman of slight build wearing a lab coat, with short reddish-brown hair and green eyes. Upon seeing me, her eyes lit up, and she gave me an excited wave.

"You must be Aaron? I'm Lucy, your uncle mentions you a lot," Lucy tilted her head with a smirk upon noticing my expression. "That's the "I just found out there are living dinosaurs" look. So let me guess-"

"I just found out there are living dinosaurs," I said blankly. "Also, my uncle wants me to meet his...babies?"

"You're still calling them that?" the vet asked, eliciting a chuckle from my uncle.

"What can I say? I mean, I still do take the time to visit them," the man shrugged.

"Fair enough...was Wu with you?"

"He helped me introduce Aaron to everybody, and then he had to go," Uncle Reese let out a small cough. "He was dealing with our...our first test."

"Ah, that thing," the vet shook her head tiredly. "I really hope they ship it off to another facility. I know security has it on locks but...I just can't sit right with it around."

"You have my sympathies," my uncle tilted his head, and a frown spread across his face when he saw a shape on a nearby operating table. "Is that a Troodon?"

"Relax! He's sedated," she motioned to the shape. "Plus, he's having Acid Reflux, so I needed to give him some medicine."

"Why is a Troodon having Acid Reflux?"

"Because, at the facility where he was transferred from, some idiot was giving him cookies. So now he's having stomach issues until they finally pass."

I took a step forward to get a better look at the animal. It wasn't like the Triceratops, it was actually only a bit bigger than a large dog. But just looking at it unnerved me slightly. It had the same body plan as a T-rex-a theropod body plan, as my uncle had told me the terms before, but like I had said it was much smaller, and it was lithe as well, a far cry from a rex. In fact, if I hadn't known what aliens actually looked like, I would have said this thing fit the bill.

It's skin was a pale grey color, with an almost blue or green-ish tint to it. Running down its neck and across its back were quills or spines, not like spikes but feathers. Tipping its spindly hands and feet were small but sharp claws, with one really big and curved claw on its big toe. It's neck was long, as long as its tail, and a small, triangular head sat upon it.

The head was the most disturbing part. I could see its teeth hanging out, each side of each tooth was covered in little serrations like a saw blade. Its eyes were big and bulbous, and when it opened them I saw that it lacked pupils. As it blinked slowly, I swore it was looking right at me.

"Hey, be careful around that one," Uncle Reese called out to me. "One bite, and we'll have to give you the Anti-venom."

"Anti-venom?" I croaked. "B-But, it's a dinosaur. They weren't venomous."

"You'd be surprised at what real dinosaurs are like," he said lowly. "Just be careful around it. I'll get one of those two out in a bit."

"One of what two?"

"Just relax, kiddo," Lucy said gently as she walked over. "You can pet him, if you want. He won't bite."

"P-Pet him?"

Pet him.

Pet a DINOSAUR.

As in, touch him, which meant…

I could acquire a dinosaur.

And then I realized what had been presented to me. The stars had aligned in just the right way to bring me to this. The answer to most of the problems I had come across in the fight against the Yeerks.

The morph Visser Three had taken that night, the Antarean Bogg, was a monster. It had a mouth big enough to swallow an Andalite whole, it visibly towered over even Hork-Bajir, and it had an earth-shaking roar.

But, from what I saw, Elfangor actually hadn't been that tall, at least in comparison to those other kids at the construction site. And the Antarean Bogg, it had actually only barely peeked its head over the tallest of those unfinished buildings in the construction site, and thanks to the uneven ground probably wasn't even really as tall as that. That's not even taking into account that the morph wasn't even a quarter the size of Visser Three's ship.

Just in the past three years, there were supposed to have been two big predatory dinosaurs found that were bigger than a T-rex. And T-rex itself was another thing, if I could get into grabbing distance of one without getting hurt, I'd have a monster of my own to handle that Yeerk. I'd be the one thing in this world that could directly stop Visser Three in his tracks. And with everything that was happening, with how they were targeting my family and I...I was more than willing to be the big fucking roadblock in his plans.

"I'd be cool with it," I said happily. "What, just...a couple of fingers first, and then work my way up?"

"That's how it is with normal animals, but he's sedated-" Lucy watched as I gently stroked the theropod's feathered back. "I suppose if you don't want to stress him out though…"

Two fingers. Then three, then my whole hand. As the Troodon shifted in place slightly, I focused on acquiring it just as I had done with the cat a couple of days earlier. The dinosaur slowly settled itself as the trance from acquiring it set in. That change over me, like with the cat from before, occurred, and I felt an eerie sensation spreading through me.

After it was over, I pulled my hand away. The Troodon didn't wake up fully, having already been sedated, but it became slightly more aware. From it's tired eye, it gave me a look of curiosity that I couldn't describe.

"Wow, he seemed really calm there for a bit," Lucy chuckled. "I'll have to be giving him his medication before getting him back to his cage."

"Aaron, come on and check this out!" Uncle Reese called over.

When I turned to look, I saw that my uncle was holding a Muppet.

No, that's literally what this thing looked like. It was this thing about the size of an owl, with a circular head like one of Jim Henson's puppets that also included these big, dark-red eyes that stared back at you like a puppy's. It was covered in this black fuzz, almost like fur but not quite, and it's face even had whiskers.

But the two things that stood out to me were its arms and legs. It had four fingers at the end of its long arms, but the fourth finger extended into an oblong, oval-shaped wing that attached to its leg. Its feet ended in four clawed toes, three in the front with the middle toe being slightly longer than the other two, and one in the back, making it look like it had feet similar to a hawk.

"W-What is that?!" I croaked out. "It looks...it looks cute, actually."

"That is an Anurognathid," Lucy said from behind me. "They're a group of Pterosaurs-y'know, they're the same type of animal as Pterodactyls."

"I made a Pterodactyl too," my uncle chuckled. "But this one is my oldest baby. This is The Count," Reese patted the little reptile on the nose, causing it to make a small squeaking noise at the attention. "I named him that because he kinda reminds me of The Count, from Sesame Street."

"For real? Wow…" I nervously walked over, watching as the Pterosaur craned its neck to stare at me. "Is it...safe?"

"Yeah, relax, he doesn't really bite that much. He's mostly tame."

"Mostly doesn't really reassure me," I deadpanned.

"Relax, he's fine," my uncle stroked the little flying creature on the head. "Go ahead and give him a pet or two."

I swallowed a lump in my throat, and gently held my hand towards the Pterosaur. The creature shied away from it slightly, but stopped moving once my skin touched its fur-covered head. And then, as I began rubbing the top of its fuzzy, cute little muppet face, I focused.

The flying reptile went slack beneath my touch, making a low trill as I acquired its DNA. But even after I had finished acquiring it, I kept petting the little guy. His fur-no, they were more like feathers, they felt so soft.

"We actually don't know what species he is-or, at least, we don't have a name for it," my uncle mused as I petted the cute reptile. "We discovered fossils and amber deposits with its DNA in China. I guess we just sort of jumped the gun and made it before it was even named."

"Is that so?" I asked. "Do you know anything about it? What does it eat?"

"W-We uh, we know what it eats," my uncle clicked his teeth nervously. "It's...not pleasant, to say the least, but he's mostly docile as long as he's not hungry."

"Feeding time is pretty close though," Lucy said as she quietly returned the Troodon back to his cage. "I have it ready. You want me to feed him while you get your other "baby"?"

"I...yeah, sure," Reese gave Count a small pat on the head, sitting him down on a nearby table. As Lucy quickly took over from there, he moved to open another nearby cage. "Alright, it's time to get Terry. He's the Pterodactyl, by the way."

While my uncle worked to unlock the Pterodactyl's cage, I watched as Lucy gently lifted the muppet-like Pterosaur into her arms, and carried him to the fridge. The moment the fridge opened, Count's mouth popped open excitedly, revealing several pointed teeth. The vet brought out a cup of dark red liquid, opened it, and laid it on the table.

The formerly cute looking Pterosaur eagerly jumped off the vet, gliding onto the table and practically pouncing on the cup of red liquid. I had no idea what it was, but just watching the reptile lapping up the liquid with its tongue was...unnerving.

"Alrighty, here we are," Uncle Reese let out a grunt as a large, bird-like creature began to crawl all over him. "Agh, Terry! Cut it out, bud!"

And then the Pterodactyl jumped. And it landed straight into my arms, and didn't leave.

Terry was very different from Count, both in appearance and behavior. Count had a muppet-like face, while Terry had a long, toothy beak and a large backwards sweeping crest shaped like a fin on his face. Count had completely black fuzz, while Terry had the same colors I had seen on seagulls at the beach and a blue face.

And while they were both about the same size, there were many differences. The wings were the most obvious, with the Pterodactyl's wings having a soft point to them. Terry's eyes were much more like a bird's, with the bright orange orbs being much more expressive than Count's puppy-dog looking eyes.

"Ah, hey they big guy," I said nervously. "What are you up to?"

The Pterodactyl only gave me a loud squawk-like noise in response as it excitedly flapped its wings. I took a deep breath, and focused on the Pterosaur's DNA just like I had done before. The bird-like creature slowed its flapping down as it came over the trance just as every other animal I had touched before it.

Only a few seconds after I had acquired it, Terry was back to excitedly squawking again, though this time he was acting much calmer for my benefit.

"It looks like he likes you," my uncle mused as the Pterosaur climbed onto my shoulder, "for him to act that calm for just a bit, that's extraordinary."

"You think so?" I smirked as the excitable reptile preened itself on my shoulder. "So...why? Why did you guys all make living dinosaurs?"

A sad expression passed across Uncle Reese's face, and he let out a small sigh. "Do you remember that video Dr. Wu and I showed you? The one with Mr. DNA?" I nodded, to which my uncle took a deep breath. "So, the logo at the beginning of the little film there, you remember? It said "Jurassic Park", and that was this whole big plan."

"What plan?"

"We wanted to make a theme park, and fill it with exhibits that let the public see the real dinosaurs we made," Reese shook his head, his shoulders sagging as he gave me a dejected look. "The park, it was supposed to be on an island off the coast of Costa Rica. It...didn't pan out, and John Hammond-he's the founder of our company-he shelved the creation of dinosaurs for a few years. The only reason Wu and I have been able to manage it is because the board wants us to keep refining our skills when the "time is right", or so they say."

"So, you're the only guys creating dinosaurs now?"

"At the moment...I mean, Ludlow was able to get the board to fire Hammond as CEO and replace him, but I don't think that's much better," my uncle rubbed the back of his head tiredly, and closed his eyes. "We...we don't have much here. Dinosaurs, that is. We have some of the ones from Jurassic park, but to the rest of the company they're basically just salvaged goods."

"And Lulow is getting ambitious," Lucy noted. "He's been trying to get the board to go along with this crazy plan of his, the Jurassic Zoo plan. We're supposed to keep embryos on standby so that when the zoo is up and running, he can just add more animals to it."

"Wait, so you don't have any dinosaurs ready for it yourselves?" I asked, eliciting annoyed looks from the two of them. "How is he gonna start up his zoo then? It sounds like he's gonna try to get wild dinosaurs or something."

"How 'bout, "or something". Ludlow is already insane if he thinks his plan will work-" Reese blinked as a beeping noise resounded from within his pocket. He quickly pulled out his pager, and sighed. "They need me on the floor for something. Maybe a hatching, maybe something else."

"I can watch him for a bit," Lucy said. "He can spend some time with some more of our little dinosaurs."

"I..I suppose," my uncle pulled his keycard from his pocket, and moved to hand it to me. He only pulled back when Terry made to bite at it. "Terry, no! You behave!"

Terry only let out an indignant squawk in response.

"Aaron, I want you to take this. It's in case anything happens, that is," he said, handing me the keycard again.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Just...ugh! There's an animal here that everybody is antsy about. It's caused a few security issues over the year," my uncle let out an angry hiss as he muttered to himself. "Really, that thing should have been euthanized when they caught it…"

"Okay then," I said, ignoring the out of context remark.

"Lucy, I'll be back later to check on him. If you need any help, I'm sure Aaron would be okay with lending a hand if you asked."

"I would," I said quickly. "I mean, I get to see live dinosaurs. Who wouldn't lend a hand?"

"See? He's all too eager to help out," Uncle Reese said cheerfully. He gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder, and rubbed the head of the Pterosaur on my shoulder, before leaving. "I'll be back soon, I promise."

I felt myself deflate as I saw him walking away through the door window. "Will he be able to get around?"

"He has his ID, so security can help him out. As long as they know you're here, they won't give him any flak over you having the keycard," Lucy clicked her teeth as she pulled Count's now empty cup of liquid away. "If you're interested in helping, would you mind washing your hands? I'm gonna be handling one of the Compys in a bit, and they're...something. I'll give you a spare set of gloves too."

"Right, sure!" I said as I walked to the nearby sink, wincing at the weight of the Pterosaur on my shoulder. "Are they okay to be out?"

"Well, Terry needs to know not to push things by being so excited and-" the vet let out a sigh at the muppet-like Pterosaur's tired trill. "Count is nocturnal, and he just fed. Maybe putting him back in his cage real quick will be a good idea."

"I can help out with that," I said. "Terry too, if you're worried. I mean, it sounds like these...what, Compys? They don't sound friendly."

"They aren't. Alone, they're annoying, but together…" Lucy picked up the sleepy Pterosaur and walked over to his cage. "Make sure that when you grab Terry, you hold on tight. He gets icky when he has to go back into his cage."

"What do you mean by...icky?"

"I mean that if I were a bird, and somebody made me mad," the redhead let out a wild chuckle. "Well, I'd get very icky all over their car. That's what I mean."

I figured out what she meant just by that. I was not interested in being pigeonized by a prehistoric flying reptile, not now, not ever.

A few minutes later, we had returned the two Pterosaurs to their cages with little to no fuss. I was currently standing in front of another cage, the label "Compsognathus" etched above it. A small green looking creature was further within, giving me a wild glare with its beady little eyes.

"I thought he'd have feathers," I thought aloud.

"They really should. That's why your uncle got Terry and Count to look the way they do, so they looked truer to the animals they were cloned from," Lucy clicked her teeth angrily as she pulled out several medical tools. "That's the problem with the Ingen board and control groups. They were shown some more real dinosaurs, and they said "what on earth are these freaks?". They didn't want a real looking dinosaur, just the things they see in pop culture and cool movies."

"So, they're all modified to look different?"

"Mostly, it's the frog DNA. They use crocodilian and bird too, because they're actually related to the dinosaurs and they can stabilize the genome better. But the frog DNA makes them all look like mutants," Lucy pointed to the Troodon's cage with a half-grimace. "Though, he's the only one that has his full genome intact, and he still looks a bit mutated, so maybe it's just the cloning process in general. Wu always said he never ironed out any of the kinks."

"What kinks?"

"Can't say much, NDA and all y'know. But he's still miffed he can't create feathers," the vet let out a sardonic laugh. "Reese, he managed it on Pterosaurs. We know they had all that fuzz and stuff, and he finally got it to show up. Sure, they still look just a bit different, but a lot of the more science oriented board members said it was a big breakthrough. It might put us on the path to normal, less freaky looking dinosaurs."

"That...that sounds nice, actually," I said, tilting my head in thought. "I mean, most people still think that...Spinosaurus, my favorite dinosaur, they all think it looks like this big T-rex with a fin. I think people found out that it's supposed to look really different from that."

"Exactly! Give the board and the test groups a real dinosaur, and they'll go on about how boring it looks. I just feel like all the animals around me are theme park monsters," Lucy tilted her head towards the cage as she walked towards me. "Speaking of monsters, that Compy, here's what I want you to do. It's small, it's fast, and it's really bitey. The moment I open that cage, it's gonna go for your nose."

"What?!" I squeaked. "Why my nose?"

"He bites noses. Doesn't do much, but one guy had to get some medical treatment cause his broke while trying to get the thing off," the vet flinched as the dinosaur inside the cage let out a low hiss. "Look, I don't recommend hitting him, but your NDA said you couldn't talk about what we do here. If this little jerk nails you in the nose, or worse, feel free to smack him around a bit. He deserves it."

"Smack him if he bites my nose? I'm not sure-"

*KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK*

"What on earth?!" Lucy ran over to the door in confusion, a small gasp escaping her lips. "It's security."

"I'm guessing this is about the keycard then?" I sighed. "I'll give it back-"

"Open the door!" one of the guards called from outside the room. "Lucy, this is serious! Open the door!"

"They have guns…" the vet deadpanned. "Hang on, let me just open the door really quick!"

The two security guards filed in, and just like Lucy had said, they were armed with guns and even light body armor that had clearly been haphazardly applied. One of them gave me a sideways look, and sighed.

"You're Reese's kid, right? Keep that keycard on you," he grumbled, looking back towards the door. "We're gonna need it."

"What's going on?" Lucy asked.

"We have an escape. One of the assets got out."

"Which one?" the vet said nervously. When the two of them didn't answer, she stomped the ground and gave them a fierce glare. "Which...one…"

"The Big One," the second guard said.

"The...the amalgam?"

"No, the Big One," he said again. "As in, our worst perpetrator. The amalgam is locked up tight, so figure it out."

Luce turned ghostly pale, and turned back to the door. "We need to lock up. If that thing comes near here-"

"No, we're evacuating till the rest of the security team gets here," the first guard flinched as an alarm went off throughout the facility. "We wanted to make sure we got everybody to evacuate or hunker down before we did that. Now it knows we're onto it."

"You act like this thing is smart," I said weakly.

"It is," the man said hotly. "It's very smart. It can open doors, it can lay traps, play gambits on anybody stupid enough to fall for them," the guard clicked his teeth as he pointed his gun towards the door. "They should have killed that thing when they got it from Nublar. It's mother made everything go to shit, and it's been nothing but trouble."

"There's a panic room nearby, it's designed for situations like this," the second guard pulled out a flip phone and winced. "It might be too late. That thing is pretty close by."

"Why is it near here?!" the vet hissed. "Why would it be anywhere near here?! Its cage is near the Amalgam's as a contingency plan!"

"My guess is that the universe is really screwing with us today," the first guard said tiredly. "We could stay here and lock the door, but…" he pointed to the windows in the room that showed the outside hall. "It won't have any sour grapes about breaking through those. Best option is the panic room."

"And how do we get to the panic room, genius? What if we run into that thing?!"

"We get very quiet," the second guard said. He turned to me, and motioned for me to walk forward. "Kid, you've got the keycard, so you can open the door while we watch for the thing. ACU is coming to tranquilize it."

"Hopefully they'll get rid of it this time," the other guard said.

"I'm sorry, are you saying that I have to go out there where I could get attacked by a dinosaur? I'm not so sure about this-"

"We have guns!" the first guard growled, cutting me off. "These are live rounds too. If we nail him, he'll know the difference between these and tranqs, and he'll take off quick."

"And you know that for a fact?" I said, my mouth twisting into a frown when neither guard responded. "I'm not sure-"

"Look, it's either this, or wait for that thing to just find us. Now come on!" the first guard shouted, dragging Lucy and I to the door by the back of our shirts. "We need to get moving, fast!"

Once we were in the hall, I fought back the urge to cover my ears at the alarm. It wasn't blaringly loud, but it was loud enough that I was having a hard time focusing. One of the guards motioned for me to follow through the hallway to the left, and we moved as quietly as we could.

We traversed the winding halls in dark silence, watching every corner and every shadow in fear that something would jump out. The guards would point their guns around the corner and make a mock charge through, making a signal that I had already assumed meant "all clear" when they found nothing. I wanted to say it was agonizing to deal with, the constant fear that everything around you was out to get you.

I didn't like that I was starting to get used to it. Whether it be aliens or dinosaurs, just that I could get used to feeling like I was constantly being hunted was a terrifying thought.

Eventually, we reached the panic room at a three-way intersection of halls. It was a large metal door that I almost thought was a supply closet at first. But the supply closets I had seen didn't have mechanical door locks that could only be opened by a keycard.

"Alright, you get that door open, and we'll keep lookout," the first and most likely senior guard said, almost too quiet to hear over the alarm. "That thing shows up, we'll be ready."

I slid the keycard to the door.

It didn't open.

"It's not opening!" I hissed. "What do I do?!"

"Let me try!" Lucy said, gently pushing me to the side and bringing out her own keycard.

Yet again, the door didn't respond.

"What's taking so long?!" the senior guard growled.

"Our cards aren't working!" the vet hissed.

"Bullshit! Let me handle this!" he pulled both the cards from our hands, and tried them. A bead of sweat ran down his face when the door continued to remain firmly shut, even after pushing it and trying the handle. "That's not possible! That can't be!"

"Try your own!" Lucy hissed.

The guard took a deep breath, and dug his keycard from his pocket. He made a quick swipe on the door.

It still didn't open.

"Shit! Lucas, give me your card!" the senior guard turned to his coworker with an annoyed glare. "Lucas! Your card!"

Lucas only stared at the long hall that the panic room faced. He was holding his gun up, but his hands were clammy, he clearly couldn't stop shaking, and he had gone pale.

I think the others realized why pretty quickly. I did too. Because there's something you need to remember about the word "Dinosaur". It means "Terrible Lizard". It wasn't a name they just picked out of a hat, they picked the name for a reason.

And I got to see why they picked it right then and there, because I actually got to see a Dinosaur. This wasn't a Triceratops getting examined by a bunch of outside vets, it wasn't a half asleep Troodon that needed its medication, and it wasn't an angry Compy that would at worst give me a broken nose.

It stood on two legs, like a bird. It had that same bird-like strut, and it bobbed its head forward and back as it moved. But it was anything but a bird. It was a monster, no doubt about it.

Its whole body, from its head to its long tail, was covered in dark brown scales rather than feathers. Its hands were tipped with sharp claws that made slicing noises like a knife when it ground them together. On each of its big toes stood a monstrously large claw, which it clicked the ground with as it slowly walked towards us.

The monster's slender neck gave way to a graceful head. It had a lipped mouth that was twisted into a slight snarl, revealing rows of viciously sharp backwards facing teeth. But the eyes were the worst part. They were a sickly yellow, with a pupil that radiated between bird-like and cat-like, and they zeroed in on me with absolute glee and malice.

It was a Velociraptor. Any person who had read a book about dinosaurs would see it and not think much about it. It was just a freaky looking little lizard with big claws on its toes, not a T-rex, so it wasn't worth time to read about. Nothing but a weird looking turkey.

This thing was about the same size as I was, and it was probably a lot stronger. No doubt faster too, so running wasn't an option. The only chance I had was to pray that these security guards were crack shots.

"Ryan, what do I do?!" Lucas hissed to his superior.

"Shoot him!" the older guard growled back. "Shoot him!"

The Raptor must have understood what they were saying, or at least the specific words, because he raised his clawed hands up and charged. There was a horrible shriek, so loud that even the alarms were drowned out by it, as the monster leapt forward. The two guards each let out a loud cry as they opened fire, the gunshots matching the volume of the Raptor's screech as they tried to hit it.

When the animal dodged most of their shots and only got grazed by one, I knew I was doomed. This was cemented further when the Raptor knocked them to the ground with a simple swipe of its tail, discombobulating them for several seconds. The senior guard, Ryan, was flung into Lucy, knocking her to the floor as well.

And then the Raptor pounced on me, knocking me to the floor.

I don't know why my first instinct was to grab it by the face. It was a bad idea, it messed up my hands because I had locked my fingers in its jaws and squeezed as I both held its jaws apart and did my best to push its face away from me. But I wasn't getting my throat ripped out. I could stand a lost finger if that was the trade-off.

I think I realized that it was a bad plan when I felt something sharp pierce my stomach. It was the Raptor's toe claw, and it had probably stabbed through my intestines and several of my other organs. I would bleed to death, or most likely die right there if the animal decided to just rip my stomach open with a single movement. So I did the only thing I could do.

I focused on acquiring the Velociraptor's DNA. It was hard to do, what with the fact that I had to keep it from killing me at the same time, but I managed it. The Raptor's attack halted as it fell into the same trance as the other animals I had acquired, and it seemed to go slack under my bloody hands. I didn't stop squeezing and pushing, for obvious reasons.

The change I had felt all the other times came over me once again, and I knew I had the Raptor's DNA under my belt now. Using what strength I had left, I pushed the monster off of me, jumped back, and leaned against the wall while trying to hold my guts inside of me and staunch the bleeding as best I could.

The animal shook its head clear as the trance wore off, and turned to me with a fierce glare. It didn't pounce on me this time, instead opting to slowly approach me. It might have made an invisible connection, that giving me a chance to touch it would allow me to do what I had done to it again and was therefore a bad idea, even though I was more than sure that it didn't work that way.

Neither of us got to test it.

There was a hail of bullets that slammed into the side of the Velociraptor. The dinosaur fell to the floor as a bloody mess, pitifully twitching as it went back to being dead like it should have been all along.

Somebody called out my name several times from far away. I knew it was my uncle, I recognized his voice. But I couldn't call back, because it seemed like all the energy was draining from my body.

Everything quickly went dark…

---

Aaron (Blank), morphs acquired:

Bombay cat (Felis catus)

Troodon (Troodon pectinodon, cloned by Ingen and recaptured from Isla Nublar)

Unknow Anurognathid (Jeholopterus ninchengensis, currently unidentified, cloned by Ingen)

Pterodactylus (Pterodactylus antiquus, cloned by Ingen)

Velociraptor (Velociraptor antirrhopus, parents originally cloned by Ingen, offspring recaptured from Isla Nublar)

---

Yeah, so if you're confused about why it's dark right from the start...it's Animorphs. It's just like that.

and I read it regularly when I was 8. Jesus fucking christ...but, it was good.

So, yeah, I actually touched on a plot point there. Why didn't Elfangor morph when he was dying? Like, no he just had to die right then and there. I guess Applgate's hindsight is 20/20 or something, but it was sort of a plothole for me even as a kid.

I also did the first contact with Elfangor scene based on what I read from the Andalite Chronicles. I mean, at book one I don't think anybody was thinking that far ahead, so it can be forgiven. But I wrote it like that to make it more in line with how I remember the two characters had interacted from before.

And finally, the dinosaurs. Or, the Pterosaurs. I made them look accurate because I don't wanna mess up Jeholopterus. That mofo is cute as hell, I can't ruin him. I also chose the small dinosaurs for Aaron to morph, because I don't want him to be ridiculously OP and able to tange with Visser Three right off the bat. I wanna work my way up to it, but I feel like I could do that in a way that makes sense.

As always, lease leave any thoughts, questions, and constructive criticism in your reviews. And thank you for reading.