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.

4. The Plan

And we're back with another chapter of 'idiot teenager with a death wish...but with DINOSAWRS?!'

I'm glad this has been well received, and I'm gonna make another interlude and a chapter immediately after this one. But I'm also gonna keep trying to get back into my other fics, since I'll admit I've had to put everything off for a bit while getting things in order (y'know, work, home life, the whole deal).

I'll try to get back on track, and I'll keep people updated if I can, but if I don't answer PMs it's because I might be busy. Writing fics isn't a 'job' to me, and I certainly don't think I'm a professional. This is more of a hobby, something I do in my free time if I have the chance and can work myself up to it. So please try and be patient, and bear with me if I don't update.

No wall of text thanking anybody who followed or favorited, since FF isn't emailing me those anymore for some reason, so I can't track it. But if you've followed and favorited this story, or any story I have on here, then thank you so much. I can't really express how much I appreciate that you like what I'm doing.

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.

---

My name is Aaron.

I can't say more than that, not even my last name or the town I live in. Not because I don't trust you, but…okay, well maybe I really don't trust you. But I can barely trust anybody anymore, and it's nerve-wracking.

To sum it up; I met a dying blue alien in an abandoned construction site; he gave me the power to shapeshift, and now I had to fight evil alien brain slugs using said power.

I know, it sounded crazy, right? But the Yeerks, the brain slugs, were real. I've seen them in their natural state, I've seen them take over people, and I've seen their hosts. Some I've fought, but most are just walking around, pretending to still be free humans. And still, I can never tell if some random guy on the street is a Controller or not.

That's the worst part about it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Right now, I was doing something that most people would consider a 'bad idea'.

Honestly, there were multiple things that could be considered a bad idea. But what constituted a 'bad' idea? What truly made an idea bad? Was freedom a bad idea? Was love a bad idea? It was all subjective to everybody.

For instance, to me, subjectively, bringing back the dinosaurs was a bad idea. But stealing a car almost immediately after I finished being grounded for two weeks was genius, and you couldn't convince me otherwise.

Okay, so it was only the only idea I had, because where else am I gonna get a car that can fit six people in short notice? Besides, I had already robbed a gun store too, so I had to go all-or-nothing if I wanted to do this.

The idea had been simple; find an impound lot, stake it out until a car came along that fit the specifications, and then go steal it.

Any other issues with the plan, I could take care of in between.

I had already taken out the security cameras for the lot in question by using one of my smaller morphs, and the guys in charge had figured it was a normal animal after investigating. That meant that I wouldn't draw too much unnecessary attention when I did the deed.

In case anybody saw me, I had a crude disguise. A morphable outfit made up of things I didn't normally wear, a wig, sunglasses, and a checker-board colored bandanna as a mask. Nobody would ever connect Aaron to the theft of a vehicle, especially when he had a good alibi ready back home.

That only led to two final issues. The lot I was jacking from was still guarded by a dude, one lazy guy that sat at a desk at night and slept. That's because he never had to do any hard work when there were three huge rottweilers constantly making rounds throughout the entire lot.

The human guard was also the guy who kept all the keys to the cars. So, I'd have to deal with both problems without drawing attention to myself. If I went in there as a Velociraptor, screeching my head off and ripping apart everything in sight, I'd have a squad of Hork-Bajir on me before I could say the word 'go'.

So here I was, over a fence, with three huge dog bones in my hands, staring down three massive black shapes glaring at me. The only thing saving me was the fact that at least one dog was wagging his tail happily instead of giving me a low growl.

"Hey boys!" I felt a bead of sweat running down my head as the two growling grew more unruly. The one wagging his tail simply walked forward a bit, a very happy look on his face. "I'll give you these if you let me on through. Come on, who are some good boys?! Who are some good boys?! You are! Come on!"

The happy looking dog's tail wagged so fast, I could barely track it. The other two saw me waving the bones and had varying reactions. One's growl rose in volume, while the other's lowered. But neither of the other two came forward.

I slowly lowered the first bone, then rolled it towards the friendly dog. He let out a low 'yip' before grabbing at it mid-roll, then he trotted away with an almost literal skip to his step. I looked back to the other two and waved the remaining bones their way.

"Come on! You know you want it~," I sing-songed.

Finally, the less growly dog relented, letting out a low whine and walking towards me with an almost pleading look. I rolled the bone towards him, and he gave a thankful whimper before grabbing it and walking off, leaving the still growling guard dog to glare at me.

Eventually, it seemed even he couldn't resist, and his hackles lowered. I rolled the bone towards him, and he picked it up, but he didn't walk away like the other two. I tested him a bit by making a small movement, and he only quirked an ear up.

So he'd let me pass, but he was keeping an eye on me. At least he didn't immediately get the title of 'the worst guard dog' like the other two.

I kept my eyes on him as he began chewing his bone, and he never took his off me. As I got closer to the impounded cars themselves, his hackles rose again just a bit. They lowered quickly when he realized I wasn't heading towards the cars.

I needed to go through the office first, after all.

The office might have the keys and the files on the car. I'd have to get rid of everything on it, even if there were copies made. It would make locating it difficult for some time, enough that there would be plenty of time to get things done.

I snuck through the (thankfully unlocked) door and slipped past the guy on watch. He barely stirred in his sleep, so I hopefully wouldn't have to deal with him. I opened up the file cabinets, looking for the van I had cased out.

"Alright, let's see, description-can I go off the description? Ah, here it is!" I tilted my head as I took everything in, then went to the adjacent cabinet. "Let's look for everything on it. I'll make sure it can disappear for a bit."

After I had gathered what I could and prepared to destroy it, I looked at the next target. The key was here, in the office, and they'd be labeled, but they were in the one place I wish it wasn't. The guy on watch was asleep, but the keys were in the desk right next to him.

I inched towards the desk, and then, when I was sure the guy was well asleep like he should have been, I silently began opening the drawers. I felt my nerves crack every time the sound of sliding wood against wood rose a bit, but I fought down my fear and kept going. Eventually, I got to the drawer with the keys.

When my hand darted in, there was a small but audible jingling sound. I heard the man snort, and I froze like a deer in headlights. I waited, for several seconds I was kneeling on the floor completely frozen, not a muscle moving out of place. But when the man went back to peacefully dozing, I relaxed myself.

I carefully sifted through the pile of keys, desperately trying to find the one with the label I was looking for. Every time I put a key back in place, my eyes would dart back to the guard in fear that he'd hear it.

Eventually, I did find the keys to the van I had cased. I grabbed them, slowly shut the drawer, and tip-toed around the sleeping night guard. The man let out a short snort when I opened the door to leave, but didn't move.

At this point, I was basically home free. I only needed to walk straight to the van and pop the keys in, then hit the road. With how late at night it was, I could get out of the lot and head towards the edge of town with ease.

My only obstacle now…well…

Two of the dogs from earlier clearly finished the bones I had given them, or maybe they stopped caring once I started towards the cars. Either way, they were immediately back to guard dog mode, mouths foaming, and low growls erupting from their throats. They blocked my path, and I dared not move in case they decided to bark or go for a bite.

Welp, contingency plan Z goes into effect now.

I gently placed the keys on the ground and focused my thoughts, and within seconds, the skin on my arms turned into dark orange scales with black stripes. I pulled my feet from my sandals just in time for my toes to shift, my big toes growing larger and realigning as black, hook-like claws emerged from them. I felt odd sensations in my face and mouth as my skull reshaped itself and my teeth melted into completely new shapes.

The change quickly finished, and my jaws snapped shut with a low hiss. My knife-like fingers went 'snikt', and my hook-shaped toes went 'click' as I took a step towards the two guard dogs. I felt my lips curl up, revealing several needle-sharp teeth, and I let out a deranged hiss as I lowered myself into an attack position.

Predictably, the two rottweilers immediately backed up, turned around, and quickly trotted away with their tails in between their legs. I glared in their direction as though I could slash at them with a look alone, then huffed when I figured they had well and truly cheesed it.

A couple of minutes later, I was back to my normal self. Strange, right? The ability to just turn into another living thing entirely must sound absurd. But ever since I met Elfangor in that construction site, it's become a fact of life. It's my main weapon against them. In fact, it's the only one that would work consistently.

As for why I had been a dinosaur? Well, the short answer is 'it's complicated'. The uncomplicated short answer? My uncle is a geneticist, and while I love him, he works for some very short-sighted lunatics.

I put my sandals back on and grabbed the keys, then started back towards the van. As soon as I made sure I could get it out of the lot, I opened the door. I felt a grimace tugging at my lips as I waited for the shouting to start from the office. When nothing happened, I got inside and gently shut it behind me.

"Alright Aaron, this…this'll be easy. Aunt Jenna gave you the crash test-oh god that was not a good word to use for this," I shook my head and shakily held the key towards the ignition, "it's just like a video game…things you've barely played. But you've been to arcades, you've played those driving games with the wheels. You know how to…sorta drive? Sorta drive, yeah!"

Despite my shaky movements, I was able to jam the keys into the ignition. My lips felt so dry, and it felt like my heart was pounding in my chest. I'd robbed a gun store, how can stealing a car be so difficult? Granted, I was a cat most of the time for that, and it wasn't that hard to get what I needed once I-no, I'm trying to stall, aren't I? I've just gotta nut up and do this…

I made one twist-

*Va-Va-Vrooom*

And the van started.

"Alright, now, let's put this in reverse for a bit…is this the gas? I think it's the-"

*VWOOM*

"Woah!" I let out a shout as I backed up really quickly. I took a deep breath and grabbed the gearshift, "alright, this isn't bad. That was a little flub, but this should be a piece of cake. It's like riding a bike…I've never really ridden a bike…shit!"

I turned my head towards the office and felt a chuckle escape my throat. The guard had been woken up by my impromptu reversal, and had fallen to the ground, chair and all. My mirth only lasted for a few moments before I remembered that was also a bad thing, and I pulled the bandana over my face.

"And now, we're gonna start driving!" I said to nobody in particular as I revved the engine. I heard the guard leaving the office with a shout, and sighed. "Maybe some music will calm my nerves? Yeah, that'll work."

I clicked the radio on just as the guard charged towards me. As I hit the gas and started drifting through the entire lot, I couldn't help but laugh at the song that came on. It was so ironic, I couldn't help but hoot and holler as I drove in circles around the fat idiot.

"Revvin' up your engine, listen to her howlin' roar!~ Metal under tension, beggin' you to touch and go!~

I felt a rush of energy run through me as I drifted through the lot. Just before the chorus started up, I stopped almost a few dozen feet away from the front gate, the front of the van facing straight towards it. I grabbed the gearshift and properly put it into drive, and then I hit the gas.

"Highway to the…Danger Zone!~" I sang out as I sped towards the gate. Even when the guard tried to get in front of me, I kept going. He quickly realized I wasn't gonna shy away from a game of chicken, and dove out of the way. "Ride into the…Danger Zone!~"

With that, the van slammed into the gates. They were flimsier than I had expected, hell they practically flew into the street as I crashed through them. I only spared them a glance so I could avoid getting the wheels caught on them, and drove on.

Step one: Complete

Hopefully Aunt Jenna won't be too mad about that.

---

"I can't believe you actually stole a car!"

"And I can't believe you didn't take me seriously when I said I was gonna," I shrugged.

"Ohohoho god, why?!"

"Well, I have to get them something!"

"But this is breaking the law!"

"To be fair, 75% of the men and women currently meant to uphold the law are in an underground cave right now, either stuck in cages or in a cushy waiting room," I held my hands up as if weighing two objects while rolling my shoulders, "y'know, because they're infested with brain slugs? Kinda the reason I timed it like this, so that they'd all be mostly in the pool."

"And that means that you can break the law?"

"No, only disregard it from time to time."

Aunt Jenna stared at me for a few moments, then lightly smacked a hand to her face and dragged it down.

We were meeting in the woods not too far away from the edge of town. The back of her car was facing the back of my…'re-appropriated' vehicle. I had chosen this place specifically due to the proximity to my own goals, as well as the fact that it was remote and far from the few entrances to the yeerk pool that I knew of.

The reason why we were meeting in the first place? Well…

"Do you have the stuff?"

"Yes, I have the 'stuff'. I still think this was all a bad idea," my aunt said as she popped open her trunk. "I mean, what if the cops show up at our house? Oh god, the cops are gonna show up at our house, aren't they?"

"I'm wearing gloves, I was wearing a disguise, and I was very careful," I said curtly, "if the cops show up, then I'm gonna have to fight them anyway-"

"You are not killing any more public servants!" she whined. "Also, what do you mean 'careful'? A disguise isn't gonna help the whole time?"

"I morphed into a squirrel and cut the cameras a couple days ago," I said with a shrug. "After that, I just needed to work over my plan. Y'know, I had to optimize it, see if I could get infiltration down."

"So you can break into…that place again?"

"More than just the pool. Any place where they're operating, I'll need to get into so I can sabotage them. But…" I tilted my head in thought, "I also need to break into InGen. So this was a good practice run for all of that."

"Why InGen?"

"I need bigger dinosaurs," I said firmly, "things that can fight properly. Velociraptor is good for small fights, but it's better in a group or in cover. And it just can't fight anything Visser 3 can use, at least not in a straight fight."

"Okay, that makes sense…doesn't make me feel any less nervous about you being so casual about breaking and entering…" Aunt Jenna pulled out a very large box from her trunk and handed it to me. "But it makes some sense. You…you're not planning on doing anything now, right? I mean, you're taking a break after this?"

"No, I'm not," I said flatly, "there are…let's say I was looking into that company, the one yours is doing a charity event for…GammaCorp?"

"...You didn't."

"Let's say I noticed some oddities, and after investigating, I found several known controllers involved with it."

"Oh no-"

"Basically, I can confirm that the company is compromised," I said curtly as I dumped the box into the back of my stolen van. "And that guy you're supposed to be meeting with? Either he's Visser 3 himself, or one of his lieutenants."

"Oh god! So, all these meetings I was having with them…they really were just-"

"Waiting to capture you, yeah." I gave her a solemn nod as she grabbed another box to pass to me, "probably to get to Uncle Reese. They would have figured everything out then, even if you didn't know about me."

Aunt Jenna stared at me slack jawed for a bit. I just continued carrying the boxes into the van as quickly as I could, only opening a few up to make sure their contents were safe. When I saw my aunt shuffling in place out of the corner of my eye, I felt a sigh escaping my lips.

"You still want to help?"

"Well, you have the boxes handled-"

"I wasn't talking about that," I cut in gently. "I know what you're thinking. 'I can help him', or maybe 'I can figure out a way he can try that doesn't involve fighting'. I don't know if you should try either."

"But I could!" she said loudly. She stuttered for a few seconds, then took a deep breath before speaking again, "I…I know I can't stop you from fighting. In the past two weeks, I've had to think about…well, everything.

"I've noticed everything you said I would notice, about how people have been changing overnight, about how that group, The Sharing, is acting strange and creepy. And I've seen and heard things, things I know I shouldn't have," Aunt Jenna swallowed audibly, and when I turned to look at her, she almost seemed tired as she tried to muster up her words. It was like speaking was exhausting for her. "I've had more than enough time to come to terms with the fact that no matter what, I can't make you stop. Not when you're already this far…but I also don't know if I've come to terms with the fact that I could lose you.

"I'm not asking for you to figure out that cube thing so you can give me the same power. But I can help you. I can get into places you can't, I can get things you can't," she shook her head, her shoulders sagging like she was under a heavy weight. "You don't have to give me an answer about it now, because I know you don't want me involved in this. But…I know something that could help you. It's not something we could talk about here and now, but later…just, when we get home, hear me out and think about it."

"...I'll try," I said after a few moments.

I quickly placed the last box in the back of the van and shut the trunk. I felt a shiver down my back, and I took a deep breath as I tried to calm myself. Everything was set in motion. It was now or never.

"Do you think they'll be okay?"

"All except the one can leave. I'll need to keep checking on him, just in case." I walked towards the front door of the van, not even turning back to look at her. "I've gotta get going. I'll see you in a few hours…if I don't…well-"

"I got it," my aunt said softly, "please…be careful."

I didn't respond with more than a quick nod. I entered the van, starting it as soon as the door shut. I quickly pulled my mask up and replaced my wig, and drove off.

It was still so early in the morning that the sky had barely transformed from a midnight black to a cool blue. As I drove towards a familiar stretch of woods, part of me wanted to marvel at how mystifying everything looked. There was a light fog settling through the forest, and the dark blue light of the slowly approaching day made it look almost magical.

Soon enough I had arrived, and I turned and drove straight into the woods, flinching as the van bounced slightly when I trampled over some of the thicker undergrowth. But I had a reason for going off-road, because as soon as I passed a large group of clumped together trees, I found the clearing I was looking for.

I stopped in the clearing and got out, then I dove behind a tree and removed my sandals. I never went as myself before, so I wasn't gonna change that now. As I slowly walked towards the edge of the clearing, I morphed.

Soon enough, I was back to being a Velociraptor. I had been using it more frequently, so I had far more experience with getting it under control, but it was still jarring to be sharing my head with a prehistoric creature. The Raptor's mind was such a jumble of erratic emotions and thoughts that almost never followed the same thread.

I walked into the woods, and after a few minutes, after I had dove deep enough in, I let out a loud bark. It took a few more minutes, but I heard small bouts of movement from far within the forest canopy. I tilted my head up just in time to see a shape swing down from the trees and land right in front of me.

It was a Hork-Bajir, an alien.

Hork-Bajir were bipedal, dinosaur looking creatures that were taller than a man. They have long necks that move around like a snake, and beaked mouths filled with saw-like teeth. Their bodies were covered in blades, with a few on their head, most on their wrists, elbows, and knees, some running down their back and many running down their tail, which ended in a vicious-looking spike. They were strong enough to rip a man in two with just a swipe of an arm, and they were deceptively fast and agile.

Almost every Hork-Bajir was a Controller-a slave to a Yeerk, trapped within their own mind. Several races throughout the galaxy shared the same fate of having an extraterrestrial slug thing crawling into their head and taking control of everything. They lose their free will. They're treated as little more than property, and they have to listen as the Yeerk in their head constantly tries to bend their very soul to its command.

And humans were the next race on their agenda.

The Hork-Bajir in front of me wasn't like any of the others I had seen. Aside from being shorter and much less developed, he looked at me with his own eyes. He might have been the only free Hork-Bajir in existence.

And I was responsible, both for having freed him in the first place, and making sure he stayed that way.

The reptilian let out a low whistle and tilted his head towards me, "morpher A? Strange noise come from the woods! Thing come towards that way!"

I let my eyes follow the spot where the Hork-Bajir was pointing for a split second before stopping. He was pointing towards the van, meaning he had seen me drive through the tree line. Evidently, he had been keeping watch.

‹Relax, Jell. It was just me,› I told him gently using thought-speak, ‹are any of the others around?›

Jell let out what sounded like a low huff.

"Idiot human and small one on log."

‹…Okay?› I said after a few seconds.

I remembered he referred to the others with different names. I had trouble remembering which he was referring to.

"They do strange thing on log," Jell clicked his jaws together and made a sound…well, it sounded like he was sucking in a wet breath of air. "They make odd mouth sounds!"

‹You mean…talking?› I asked.

The reptilian creature shook his head and began lifting himself into a nearby tree.

"Come! Jell show morpher A! Come see!"

With that, the young Hork-Bajir began swinging and jumping from tree to tree. He only stopped a few trees away to motion for me to follow and patiently waited for me to do so. I almost wanted to be exasperated by the situation, but part of me felt like making a little fun race out of it.

As I started following Jell, I picked up speed. The saurian gave a cheerful huff as he began swinging through the canopy again. Although he was swinging around faster than any normal human could possibly keep up with, I could keep pace with just a light jog.

It was one reason the Velociraptor was my only viable morph for fighting at the moment. Speed, strength, problem-solving intelligence, and the fact that the Raptor seemed to be built to bring nothing but sheer terror to other livings things, they all came together perfectly. Until I got something bigger and/or more dangerous, this was all I had.

The race lasted maybe a minute or two, and the ending point was the top of a small hill lined with trees. Jell swung from the tree above and landed right next to me, letting out a small chirp as he turned to me.

"Small one and idiot human down there!" he pointed towards the bottom of the hill.

At the bottom of the hill was a clearing with several logs laid on the ground. As I walked down, I noticed the two people sitting on the log. Ian, I remembered, some older teen who had been a cashier at whichever generic convenience store was in town. Next to him was Amitela, the Shuldidnian I had freed.

Shuldidnians, another alien species. They were like weird, short little bat-elves with big owl-like eyes, metallic skin, and cat-like claws and teeth. They could throw you into the air or fling rocks and throw fire at you with their mind, which made me question what the hell was on their planet to make them evolve that. As if that wasn't bad enough, they may or may not have a host of other abilities that even the Yeerks probably don't even know about, which leaves a never ending amount of wonderful hat tricks Shuldidnian-Controllers could pull on me.

Unlike Jell, Amitela wasn't the only free Shuldidnian in existence, though she was the only one on earth. Through very broken english, she had explained to me how there were three ships somewhere not too far away from our solar system, with two bigger than an entire city each, and the third and first being almost a fifth as large as Earth's moon. Almost 90% of the original population from their world were taken as slaves by the Yeerks, and the remaining free Shuldidnians all lived on those three big ships. They were constantly traveling throughout the galaxy, always keeping themselves at essentially an arms distance from the Yeerks while gathering what little resources they could from empty or lifeless planets, both to keep themselves alive and to keep their jerry-rigged star cruisers from breaking apart like a house of cards.

At the moment, I could only see the back of Ian's head, which meant I could barely see the smaller humanoid at his side. Even from that angle though, I could tell that Amitela was pressed against the human to the point that I almost worried they would literally undergo a weird osmosis. The Shuldidnian girl had her arms around the boy's upper body, and I could see her auburn locks flicking around as she tilted her head.

It was only when I got closer that I heard the low moans, and realized exactly what was really going on. I felt my reptilian lips curl up in annoyance as the Raptor's mind clicked its toe claws into the ground.

‹Ahem!›

"Mw-Aaah!"

"Eeep!"

The two of them pulled away from one another, both falling off the log with startled gasps soon after. They quickly rose to their feet and held themselves in crude combat stances in the event of an attack. Once they saw it was me, however, they both dropped their arms and sheepishly took a step back.

"Oh, it's just A…uh, h-hey man!" Ian gave me a little wave as he rubbed the back of his head, "h-how's it goin'?"

‹I'm doing great. You enjoy yourself there, Captain Kirk?›

The teen stared at me for a few seconds with a blank look, then cleared his throat.

"Uh…Riker."

‹...Excuse you?›

"It was Commander Riker, from Next Generation that did that. Kirk from the original series was only confirmed to have done it maybe three times-"

‹Please stop talking!› I growled slowly through thought-speak.

"Who is this…Kirk?" the alien girl asked with some difficulty.

"Oh, uh, he's this…this character on a TV show," Ian responded nervously. "Humans don't have space travel, but we like to imagine what it's like. So we make actors wear outfits and makeup and have them perform what it would be like. They even have fake spaceships and everything to make it seem more realistic."

"Oh? Oh! Usstan zhaun, Usstan kampi'un! It is like that moving picture on box!" the golden-skinned girl tapped her chin in thought, "it is statha-our word for 'story'-just like Young and Restless!"

"Uh, yeah, just like the Young and the Restless," the human teen responded weakly.

The Shuldidnian girl practically stood on her tippy-toes at this, a happy giggle escaping her throat as she vibrated in place. I thought I saw the rear of her cloak billowing, and I tilted my head slightly at it. Was she using her psychic powers to make it happen?

I honestly didn't really care.

‹Hey, this is a lovely conversation and all, but do you know if any of the others are up?›

Ian blinked owlishly at this. "Uh, they should be in the cave. I think it's…Hideo and Billy were asleep last I checked," the teen scratched the back of his head in thought, "they might be up now. But, uh, Sarah was awake, and Trip is always up, usually with his spear."

‹Yeah, I remember how much time he'd spent sharpening that the last time I visited…› I felt a low hiss echoing from my mouth as I turned away from them, ‹I'll go see if anybody can see me. If I haven't killed the mood, feel free to continue with what you were doing before,› I let out a small snort as both teens, both alien and human, sported very dark blushes. ‹Yeah, I figured. But I'd say get that round of tonsil-hockey while you can, seeing as you should be in a car for the next several hours.›

"...W-Wait, what was that?"

‹You'll see in a bit. Oh, and try not to have too much fun,› I said as I walked back up the hill, ‹Jell, are you still there? We're heading towards the cave.›

The young Hork-Bajir bounced in place as I approached, and quickly darted up a nearby tree to resume our race. The cave the survivors were using as a hiding spot wasn't that far away, but it was close enough that halfway there, Jell decided to accompany me by foot rather than swing through the forest canopy.

"What they do?" the saurian alien asked.

‹Hmm? Oh, they were kissing.›

"What that?"

‹It's a…human mating thing, I guess.›

"Small one not human like idiot human," Jell noted, "how he make her kalashi?"

‹Ka-what-now?›

"How he make her wife?" He clarified, "she not same as him!"

‹I don't know how it would work myself…› I sucked in a deep breath of air through my nose, my clawed hands twitching as I thought about it. ‹But that never really stops humans. If a person doesn't look the same as us, be it skin color or something else superficial, we find it in ourselves not to judge. We usually make something like that work-and trust me, plenty of people would hope that it works.›

"But how they make kawatnoj?"

‹I'm going to assume that means…›

"Smaller ones!"

‹Ankle-biters, got it! I don't know, and I'm not interested in figuring it out,› I shook my head, an annoyed hiss escaping my lips. ‹I'll leave that to the amateur xenobiologist back there. I've gotta make sure everybody knows what the plan is gonna be.›

Jell remained silent for a few seconds, then swiveled his head towards me. A small, off-tuned chirp escaped his mouth as his shoulders sank.

"Is today, right?"

‹...Yeah, it's today,› I let out a low sigh as the saurian alien turned away from me, ‹I promised you that I'd come and check on you as much as I could. I'm not gonna let them take you again.›

"Jell understand," the alien said weakly. "Jell know that others can hide better, and that Jell make things bad if try to come with. Jell not want them hurt, no want to lose friends."

‹I don't know whether I can keep you from losing more people,› I said firmly, ‹but I swore I'd make sure you'd stay free. And I'm not going back on my word there, I promise you that.›

Jell gave me a nervous look and clicked his teeth, making what sounded like a weak whimper. After a few seconds, he nodded and gave me an affirming chirp.

Eventually, the "cave" came into view. I put quotes around that because it wasn't much of a cave, more of a small hole that had been dug into the side of a cliff. It was big enough for Jell, a small Hork-Bajir, and several people of average size to fit inside without issue, though you had to crouch down to get inside. It might have been made by some sort of animal years before, or it had been carved long ago and left there to be used by whoever came upon it.

Trip sat on a small boulder outside the cave, a somewhat crude spear made of stone in his hands that he was sharpening with a rock. The man raised his scarred face towards us, and one of his brows cocked upward as he spotted me.

"Lizard," he nodded towards Jell courteously, which told me he was tolerating the saurian better than before. He turned towards me with a curious look, "and A? I heard something movin' around further away. I'm guessin' you have something to do with it?"

‹You could say that…› I said tiredly, ‹I guess I should just come out and say that today's the day.›

"For real?! Heh, it's about time!" Trip rose to his feet, jamming the tip of his spear into the ground as he did so. "Lemme guess, you'll want help getting the rest of them up?"

‹I can get everybody else myself. Just deal with the idiot back that way,› I motioned towards the direction where Ian and Amitela were, an annoyed hiss escaping my jaws. ‹Make sure they're finished with their 'fun', and that they won't be too distracted afterwards.›

"Found out about his whole 'Captain Kirk' schtick, eh?"

‹I see everybody else did too…and let me guess, he said it was actually-›

"Commander Riker?" he shook his head tiredly. "Never watched that myself, but I heard about it back when it was all the rage…as for the kids? Fuckin' hormones! I honestly don't miss being your age."

‹I'm not sure I will either…› I muttered.

Trip's smile dropped, and he turned away. "I'll go grab those two. I'll leave you to handle everybody inside."

As he walked, I slowly approached the entrance to the cave. I crouched slightly as I entered, and I felt my nose twitching at the scent of smoke from deeper within. When I caught sight of the last three survivors, I felt my shoulders sag.

Sarah sat near a slowly dying fire, visibly shuddering as she patted her scuffed-up clothes. Nearby, Billy and Hideo were laying nearby, both either barely awake, or just faffing around with their eyes closed.

I took a few steps forward, my reptilian lips curling into a small grin as I snuck towards them.

Then I let out a loud 'bork'.

The reactions were immediate. Sarah jumped up, letting out a small squeak as she nearly fell over. Billy and Hideo jolted upright, both jumping around the cave while waving their fists around and shouting incomprehensibly.

"Who's there?! Are we under attack?!"

"G-Get the guns! I'll hold them off!"

"Come on! I can take you, I can-eh?!"

‹Morning!› I called out cheerfully, ‹figured you'd want to be awake. You've all got a long day ahead of you.›

"Dude, not cool!" Billy shook his head tiredly as he walked towards their meager stockpile of supplies. "I'm already jumping at shadows, don't need to start having more weird dinosaur dreams. And they always talk too, it's so weird."

"Where's Ian? And the smallish one, Ami…Amy…the alien!" Hideo tilted his head as he looked around. "where are they?"

‹Well, when I found them, Captain Kirk was getting his game on.›

"You mean commander Riker?" Sarah grumbled.

‹Yeah, you've already figured out what they're up to,› I snorted at their annoyed expressions, then I turned back towards the entrance to the cave. ‹I've got a little under an hour and a half here. So I figured it'd be good to get this out of the way.›

"Get what out of the way?" Billy asked nervously.

‹...Let me show you.›

Within a few minutes of saying that, they had gathered their meager belongings and left the cave with me. Jell bounded towards a nearby tree and hopped into the canopy once more, slowly swinging from tree to tree alongside us as I led them to where I wanted. An annoyed Trip joined us halfway, followed by a sheepish-looking idiot and his alien girlfriend.

When we finally got to the van, reactions were…mixed.

"How the hell did you get this?" Billy asked owlishly.

‹Stole it.›

"Back that up real quick!" Sarah turned to me with a flat look. "You stole a van? How and why?!"

‹Well, I did it because you needed transportation,› I tilted my saurian head in thought, ‹as for how…well, I jacked it from an impound lot. Before I stole it, I trashed what records I could.›

"Why an impound lot? And how were you not caught?"

"Also, wouldn't the tires be locked down?" Hideo's eyebrow rose as I turned to him. "I had a friend who worked at one of those. Unless it was severely under-funded-"

‹I cut the cameras days before, and their plan was to fix it in a few weeks,› I said tiredly, my lips curling up in slight annoyance. ‹Not only that, but the only tire locks they had were only on the expensive-looking cars. The only thing keeping somebody from stealing anything were a few guard dogs.›

"...What happened to the guard dogs?"

‹Dog bones,› I said flatly, ‹and they actually fell for them.›

The former Human-Controllers just stared at me slack jawed, eyes wide as they tried to process what I had just said. I nervously tapped my toe claws as I fought furiously to not bounce in place or fidget.

‹They were terrible guard dogs,› I said after a few seconds of silence.

Trip actually covered his face as he tried to fight down a laugh at this.

Hideo shook his head as he walked towards the front of the car, "did you drive this here? I seriously hope not…where are the keys?"

‹Driver's seat,› I told him, ‹and yeah, I drove. I'd like to think I'm a shoe in for getting my license in four years.›

"You drove off-road, into a forest," Billy deadpanned. "You are the last person who should get a driver's license. I doubt there's anybody who'd drive crazier than that."

‹There has to be at least one person who would,› I responded.

"So, is it only a van?" Ian chimed in, "or is there more? Like, do we gotta get our own food or-"

‹Pop the trunk open,› I said firmly, ‹you'll have an answer to that when you do.›

Trip trekked over to the back of the van as soon as I said that, and popped open the trunk as I had instructed. As soon as he did, the scar-faced man gave an approving whistle and turned to me with a grin.

"Did quite a bit of binge shopping, huh?"

‹There's enough food there to last a few months, maybe more if you ration it. Trail mix, chocolate, and mostly some healthy stuff,› I clicked my clawed hands together and tilted my head in thought, ‹there should also be some seeds in there, stuff you can grow like potatoes and the like. If you're going up to the mountains, then I don't know what you could grow, but no harm giving you the option.›

"Looks alright so far…there's nothing else?" Trip raised an eyebrow as he looked everything over, "you sure you didn't get more than food?"

"We have weapons, Trip!" Sarah growled.

"That need to be charged regularly," Billy muttered.

"That only have a few charges left each," Ian pointed out.

"And while it's unlikely they can track them, considering how long it's been…" Hideo tiredly doubled back around from the front of the van, "it'll be bad if we're seen with them. They'll know to look for us."

"Which is why we needed-"

‹Black boxes, dig a bit for it. They fill up the whole trunk.›

Trip turned to me, a confused look spreading across his face. After a few seconds of staring at me dumbfounded, he motioned for Hideo and Billy to come help him. They quickly rearranged the back seats and pushed the boxes of food forward, revealing two large, oblong boxes lined with black leather. One took up most of the trunk, being long enough that it almost didn't fit, while the other one was slightly smaller.

Trip opened the largest, and a gasp escaped his lips. The way his mouth twisted into a grin was not unlike a child on christmas. It was punctuated by an almost manic giggle, as if he had just won the state jackpot.

"Ho-lee-schitt! How'd you get these?" the veteran asked, "I…I think they're restricted? Yeah, they banned them just two years ago! How?"

‹Trust me, it was not easy.›

"You robbed a gunstore too, didn't you? Hot damn, you've got stones kid!" Trip chuckled wildly as he pulled the weapon out and mounted it against his shoulder, "the weight feels a bit off…eh, it's mostly meant to be a hunting rifle anyway. Hohoho-boy, you even got some accessories."

"Should we be concerned?" Sarah asked nervously, "cause he's holding that up-"

"Cool it, it's not loaded, and I'm only gonna be pointing it at slug-brains," the scar-faced man placed the weapon back in the box with a smile, "besides, there's more than a few in here. Enough to go around."

‹I also got a few handguns for you. You know, pistols? I tilted my head, ‹sure, the Dracon beams are fancy alien tech, and I know for a fact that they'll probably fry just about anything to dust. But can you honestly say no to some good ol' fashioned lead?

"The boy is speakin' my language!" Trip cheered.

"And what, is there ammo in there, too?" Sarah cocked her head to the side, a sardonic grin tugging at her lips. "What happens when we run out?"

‹You buy more? I figured that would be obvious,› before the girl could interrupt, ‹I clicked my teeth together and let out a loud hiss. And don't start with the whole 'where do we get the money?' stuff. If you have debit cards, here's what you do; get out of town, go to a bank or ATM in the direction opposite of where you're heading, and clean your accounts out. If people ask questions, or they catch wind, book it as soon as you have your money. Never use credit cards or the like from now on.›

"They can track that? No, why the hell am I asking that?" Ian shook his head, a strained look on his face. "Of course they can track cards. We'll need to ride through back roads in order to keep the license plate off the grid too, huh?"

"And they still might be able to track us even if we do," Hideo noted sourly, "they're probably tracking the van as we speak, right? We don't have any way of-"

‹It's unlikely that they'll attribute this to me-to an 'Andalite',› I said firmly, ‹they'll probably think it's a run-of-the-mill car theft, and deal with it accordingly. That's why I got here in the early morning.›

As I spoke, I tilted my head towards the sky. It was still early enough that it was pretty dark, but the dark blue from minutes before had slowly bloomed into a brighter shade as the still unseen sun prepared to rise above the horizon. They might be able to go in the late morning, but I didn't think it was a good idea to chance it.

"That's why you came so early, huh?" Billy closed his eyes and hummed thoughtfully. "you wanted to make sure we didn't lose that narrow window. We either get out now, or we keep hiding too close to the belly of the beast and continue to risk our freedom."

‹I figured this was the best way.›

"I'm really gonna miss this place…not the hole in the ground, obviously," Ian jabbed a finger back towards the cave, a tired sigh escaping his lips. "But, like…this town, it's home. I grew up here, and I can't ever come back."

The others shifted nervously in place at his words. Sarah clenched her fists, lips wobbling slightly as she visibly fought back tears. Hideo and Trip only looked at the ground, though I could see their strained expressions even then.

"Heh…I was trying to get my degree. I went to a few dig sites too, y'know? I only got to pull up fragmentary stuff, nothing big…only one dig, way out in San Joaquin, where I was there to see more than a femur and some teeth," Billy turned to me with a muted expression, eyes slightly misty as he leaned towards me. "We really can't go home, can we? We…we really just have to disappear and hide."

‹I don't know what else you could do. I…I'd never wish anybody else to fight. That's why I'm doing this in the first place,› even crazy as it was, I could feel the Raptor's own sadness at my words. The 'pack' couldn't be drawn into this, not as weak as they were, so we needed them to find safety. ‹That's why I didn't give you an entire armory. Defend yourselves if they come, but even if this is a war, you shouldn't be forced to join.›

Trip let out a tired chuckle as he laid a hand on my back, "A, you're an alright kid. I really think you shouldn't be caught up in this," the scar-faced man gave me a warm look, "if…if we can find a way to get in contact after we get to where we're going, you should ask me for advice. I know some things-even if your battlefield is different, I know a thing or two about being a pain in the ass for the enemy."

‹I…thanks, Trip,› I tilted my head towards the trees, and I felt my lips twitching as a frown settled on my reptilian face. The young Hork-Bajir was fidgeting in place nervously, a sad look in his red eyes. ‹Jell, is everything alright?›

"Jell…Jell want to say goodbye," the lizard-like alien said quietly. "Jell…Jell not want to, but Jell know Jell can't go with. So Jell come to say bye," Jell tilted his head, a morose chirp echoing from his throat as he walked towards us, "J-Jell…Jell not good at saying goodbye."

That seemed to be the final straw. Sarah broke down into tears and practically charged into the Hork-Bajir, pulling the scaled alien into a bear hug and crying somewhat incoherently. Some of the other survivors shook their heads, but shared similar sad looks.

"I…I feel guilty," Amitela said weakly, "l'ky'kiya d'ol jivviimir ji mzilt! He cannot go with them, but I can? I not know how to feel."

‹They can hide you easier. I brought a blanket and you can lie under it,› I responded, giving her a sideways glance. ‹I don't like it any more than you do, but he has to stay here.›

Trip let out a huff at this, "I never said I hated him, just didn't trust…agh!" the scar-faced man turned to me with a fierce look, "you'll look after him, right? He's a dumbass, but he's got a good heart. So promise you'll make sure he doesn't get taken again."

‹I promise, I said firmly, having already made it to myself and Jell as well.

"Hey, A!" Billy chimed in.

I gave him a confused look as I tilted my head curiously.

"Give 'em hell for us."

I felt a low hiss escape from my mouth as the Raptor's mind conjured up all the fights I had fought against the Yeerks. My toes clicked, and I felt my clawed hand grinding against one another as the Raptor excitedly thought over the idea of slaughtering our enemies.

‹I certainly plan to…›

---

"So, what is your plan?"

Once the survivors had left, I had grabbed my shoes and fled into the forest, before demorphing and waiting for my aunt to come pick me up at the prearranged spot we had agreed on. Now we were back home, in my room, with me pacing in front of a standing black-board while my aunt sat on the end of my bed.

"So, you see…I can't do much to them, honestly. The best I can think of is breaking into some spots owned by them and destroying everything and killing some of their guys." I motioned to the black-board and then began drawing with chalk. "Thing is, the Raptor isn't good at that. It's a pack hunter, and going alone makes it fight me more if it's not comfortable with the plan and has other options. So…"

I finished my crude drawing of a building, labeling it "InGen facility", and then I began drawing art of myself breaking in, represented by a series of stick figures. I followed that up by drawing a stick figure poking a barely recognizable blob on a floor that was supposed to represent me acquiring several dinosaurs. And then, next to that, myself as a cartoon T-rex attacking several poorly drawn Hork-Bajir and Taxxons.

"Easy plan! I break into the InGen facility where all the dinos are being held, acquire the biggest-and/or most dangerous-and then I morph them and go around breaking the Yeerk's things," I finished my final drawing, a drawing of Visser Three, poorly drawn as an Antarean Bogg that was being dragged around by the cartoon T-rex. In the background, Visser Seven, a stick figure represented by badly drawn elf ears, was screaming. "Boom! I have a solid plan that cannot fail!"

"That's the worst plan I ever heard!"

"...Ah."

"Aaron, think about this! InGen is easy to break into, yeah. They have a new case of corporate espionage happen every other minute," Aunt Jenna shook her head, "but getting out? Why do you think there haven't been any dinosaurs rampaging around the country?"

"...Fuck!"

"Language!" my aunt cried out, "and I don't understand why you need to do something now! Can't you take a break? Just the other month you, and I quote, pulled a 'toaster-bath' on their entire pool."

"And it turns out I only killed half of them in the pool…which is still half a pool-full of Yeerks, but still," I shook my head, "I need to keep up the pressure. I'm one guy, and I can't directly fight them much, like the Andalites do. But if I can sabotage them frequently, or take out large-scale operations, I can at least set them back. It isn't about 'winning' against them-I can't win on my own-it's about buying time."

"Until the Andalites finally arrive?" Aunt Jenna narrowed her eyes as I remained silent, then sighed. "Okay, well, just randomly attacking buildings they're in, hoping they'll be important. Why not actually try to set them back?"

"...Beg your pardon?"

"I have a friend who works at InGen, and he owes me a favor. He's for one of their technology departments, or IT, or whatever you wanna call it! Anyway, he's in the department specifically meant for counter-espionage." My aunt waved her hands around enthusiastically as she stood to her feet, "one thing they have is this virus they've had since '93. If somebody tries to download info from their computers without the right permissions and safeguards, then the virus forcibly downloads itself along with what they're taking, and then when they try to access it on their machines, it activates and basically destroys…well, everything."

"C-Can it be traced?"

"I don't think so. I think it deletes itself once it's finished making everything go belly-up," Aunt Jenna shrugged, a cheerful grin spread across her face. "But think about it! You could sabotage them and they'd never know until after the fact."

"It sounds like…a good idea…but, how would I get this virus into a system owned by the Yeerks?"

"Morph?"

"It won't come with me when I morph, and I don't know if it'll stay if I demorph," I said flatly, "that's why I have to wear special types of clothing. Clothes-"

"Don't morph with you? Well, why not find something that can hold a floppy disk, but doesn't morph with you while staying on your body when you morph?" My aunt's smile was practically stretching from ear-to-ear as she said this, "that way, you can get to a space in one of your morphs, sneak in, and then download the virus onto one of their computers, which will then leak it onto their whole network. And then boom! You've got an actual, smart win."

"...You want me to wear a floppy disk?" I asked incredulously, "what, do you want me to get a little ankle bracelet or something?"

"...How 'bout, 'or something'."

---

"Okay, how does that work?"

‹It's still too big! It's slipping off my leg, see?›

"Okay, but it's a start? The other two came with you when you morphed."

‹True…›

A few days after Aunt Jenna put forth her plan with the virus, she brought some strange black fabric bands to me. They all had some elasticity to them, and they had some weird compartment on them that looked like it could hold something. My aunt insisted that one of them would be essential to the plan, which she wouldn't tell me until after I had figured out which one would fit.

So now I was constantly morphing and demorphing my cat morph. Why the cat? Because it was apparently my only really stealthy morph aside from my squirrel morph, and people might not give it much thought like they would a dinosaur.

"Okay, so we should try the next one," she told me, pulling the band off my leg before grabbing the next one. "Okay, demorph!"

I did so, growing larger as the fur across my body receded and my cat-like features melted away slowly. I felt my legs shifting as they rearranged back into their original shape, and I had to use my slowly transforming hands to keep myself upright.

"So, should I really do this as a cat?"

"You can't do all of this as a…a…trudy thing? Troodon! You can't, because it's too conspicuous," Aunt Jenna tilted her head in thought, "speaking of which, we're gonna need to go to The Gardens later."

"The-what-now?"

"The Gardens! You know, it's an amusement park, a zoo, and an aquarium all in one! They're having a show on raptors this week-"

"RAPTORS?!" I cried out.

"Not those raptors! Birds of prey, stuff like that! You should acquire a Golden Eagle."

"Why? I have two flying morphs!"

"Pterodactyls are not inconspicuous," my aunt said flatly, "you need something that looks like it lives around here. Not like it crawled out of the 'timeless abyss of extinction to rule the skies once again'! They'll have a bunch of things you can pet there, so you can get modern morphs, and you're getting a normal bird."

"Okay! I'll acquire a Golden Eagle," I waved a hand towards her in annoyance, "now, can you give me the next one? I'll try seeing if it'll fit."

"Alright, here!" She handed me the band of fabric. "This one felt a little tighter than the last one. Go ahead and try it out."

I took a deep breath and sat back on my bed, and pulled the fabric past my foot and over my shin. As soon as the band was fitted snugly around my upper ankle, I stood back up and morphed.

Morphing into a cat still felt like an odd experience. I had to drop to the floor once it started, because my feet had begun to extend in ways that made standing difficult. I felt myself grow smaller and my limbs growing shorter, just as black fur began sprouting across my body.

My fingers shrank and reshaped themselves, small little claws popping out of my fingers as they changed. I could feel my face reshape and bulge as my teeth melted into a more predatory shape, and there were tiny little pinprick sensations as whiskers emerged from my face. Towards the end of the morph, I could feel a popping sensation as a tail emerged.

Once I had fully morphed cat, I turned to get a good look at my back left foot. And then I saw my tail waving around in the air, and the cat's mind got very distracted. I immediately tried to turn to catch it, glee running through my mind at how much fun it was to chase it. But I didn't catch it, so I turned again to keep trying. And I kept turning…

And turning…

And turning…

"Aaron!"

‹Huh?! What?!› I was cut off from chasing my tail by a voice.

After a few seconds of stillness, I had to remind myself that no; I was not a cat. I had no reason to chase my tail even if it was really fun-and I would not go back to doing it-because I had something more important to focus on. I forced down the cat's mind and tilted my head, trying to look at my leg.

‹It's still there!› I said once I finally caught sight of the black band of fabric around my ankle.

I felt the cat's mind brushing against my own, and there was an involuntary rumbling echoing from within my throat. I only realized what was happening when a dark shape slowly approached my head, followed by something pleasantly scratching about my head-

‹AUNT JENNA!› I cried out, causing the woman to stop scritching behind my ears. ‹What the hell?!›

"I'm sorry! You just look really cute right now, and you were purring, and your ears were flicking-andtheylookedsofluffyandIcouldn'thelpmyselfI'mreallysorry!"

‹Alright, alright! Calm down, I didn't mean to shout,› I said gently. I felt the tip of my tail flicking back and forth as I tilted my head. ‹I also didn't say to stop.›

My aunt's hand once again came to rest atop my head, her fingers scritching behind my ears as a happy noise escaped her lips. I let a rumbling purr echo from my throat as my eyes lidded and rolled back, and I felt myself leaning into her touch.

Then I shook my head clear and let out a loud 'meow'.

‹Alright, alright! Enough of that, back on track,› I said firmly, jumping away from her and darting onto my bed. I need to test my Velociraptor morph with this.›

"Why?!"

‹Because it's not just GammaCorp,› I responded, ‹do you remember the survivors I told you about? One of them worked for a company, uh…what's a company that provides internet called again? An…online internet service?›

"Online service provider?"

‹Yeah, it's sorta like one of those! It's this big company that works in software, communications, and it provides internet services,› I tilted my head in thought, ‹well, Hideo said that it's all been taken over. It has ties to GammaCorp, and they're using the company to run communications for their operations on and off-planet.›

"So, you want to really cripple them?" Aunt Jenna asked nervously. At my curt nod, she visibly sagged in place. "Maybe pace yourself? You can make a huge blow just by going for GammaCorp, there's no need-"

‹One of GammaCorp's subsidiaries is being directed by them,› I sent her a blank glare, and she wilted as I laid on the bed. ‹They're some sort of big Defense Contractor, they produce weapons and run a PMC on the side. They used to sell the military some nice and shiny 'toys' and would enlist their forces for small conflicts. Then, the moment the Cold War starts dying down, they're not getting as much money as they, because the military doesn't see use in buying all those guns and missiles when they have no reason to use them anyway.›

"And this is important because?"

‹Because in the last few years of the Cold War, they suddenly undergo changes in leadership and structure, get bought out by a bigger tech company, and start pulling themselves out of the public eye like a vampire trying to escape sunlight,› I stretched my limbs and arched my back, and then focused. I started to demorph, still facing my aunt as I changed. ‹From what Hideo told me, they might be manufacturing tech for the Yeerks, even arming and training their Controllers. Worst-case scenario, their hangars, airfields, warehouses, and depots might be where they build and keep their ships.›

"And you want to go into places like those? Where there's supposed to be hundreds of armed humans and dangerous aliens who are never far from their weapons?"

‹That's why I wanted to-› I felt my mouth finally realigning into its proper human shape, garbled noises escaping as my thought-speak cut off. "Gahhshheeheh-Agh! Sorry…anyway, that's why I wanted to go to InGen first. To get bigger dinosaurs so that I'd have a better chance of winning in a fight."

"Oh god! Look, you only need to go after GammaCorp to take out all their systems…well, unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Do the Yeerks have any ridiculous safeguards in place? Like, something in their system that would prevent you from getting in unless you brute forced it from multiple angles?"

"...I don't know," I said after a few seconds of silence, "I didn't ask Hideo. But they're advanced enough for space travel and have been hiding on our planet for who knows how long."

"So, they're probably harder-"

"They're probably harder to crack," I said with finality, "which means I'll have to go into those places. I can probably scout them out first."

I stood to my feet, and focused, feeling my brows furrow as I brought the image to mind. The Velociraptor's fearsome visage appeared in my thoughts, claws splayed out and teeth bared as it positioned itself to prepare a charge. Morphing it was like taking that still image and pulling on it, dragging it towards you-or at least it was like that for me.

I looked down to my arms to see my morphable shirt slowly being swallowed by the reddish-orange scales that were spreading across my body. My five fingers merged until they were three, and soon claws erupted from my fingertips. I felt my spine realigning and my pelvis shifting as my body contorted into a new posture.

My face bulged out as my skull reshaped, my teeth stretching out as it did so before their excess melted off and transformed from blunt, cud-chewing tools to sharp and curved instruments of death. I felt my feet shifting, my toes melding together much like my fingers and all the bones twisting as they shaped into a more gracile appearance. One-by-one, claws sprouted from my toes, until finally a large claw erupted from each of my big toes and molded like playdough into slashing, sickle-shapes. The tail-end of the transformation was signaled quite literally when a tail emerged, each bone making a much louder pop than the cat's did when it grew from my spine.

The final changes occurred in only a few short seconds, and I was a Velociraptor again. I quickly pulled back on the creature's mind the moment it made itself known, angrily preventing any thoughts of carnage before the creature could manage any coherent thoughts. Upon confirming that this human was close to me, the Raptor settled down and remained docile…well, mostly docile.

Aunt Jenna had shrunk in her seat when I had started to morph, both because she was still probably not used to seeing it, and…well, I was a dinosaur right now. Both of those probably had something to do with it.

"Huh, y'know I've never seen any of the carnivores…well, okay, 2, but they were behind big cages and they were…bigger," my aunt stood to her feet and took a few tentative steps towards me, a hand reaching out towards my face. "Like, they were both pretty close to T-Rex sized. I never got to see any of the smaller ones."

‹Be thankful you didn't,› I said, letting out a small huff as her fingertips met my snout. ‹It was not a fun experience.›

"...So, this is the same one that tried to-"

‹Kill me, yeah…› I tilted my head away from her, angling it so that I could get a better look at my left leg. ‹I try not to dwell on it. I just focus on whatever problem is at hand…it's still there.›

"So it is," my aunt said, nodding towards the black band of fabric around my ankle. "Is it slipping? It's not making it hard to move your foot, right?"

I lifted my left foot experimentally, and then when I put it down, I moved each of my toes from front-to-back. For the Velociraptor to be effective, the fast-twitch muscles in its foot would need to be unrestricted so the toe claw could be used to maximum efficiency. The elastic band didn't restrict the movement of my foot or leg. In fact it felt very…breathable, for lack of a better word.

‹It works!› I said, letting out a low chirp as I turned back to face her. ‹This one works! I guess now you'll tell me about that plan of yours?›

---

"And you called my idea about InGen the worst idea ever!" I hissed.

"Oh hush! Do you have that boy-game thing on you?"

"Gameboy, and yes, I do!" I responded.

I was currently in the Passenger seat of Aunt Jenna's car, and we were slowly heading towards GammaCorp headquarters, which rested within one of the larger cities within the county. When we reached the concrete jungle, I could only feel a sense of dread the closer we drew to our destination.

The plan my aunt had put forward was that she would meet with some of the company's higher ups, as well as the man leading The Sharing, Victor Trent. She would go ahead with the meeting, distracting them all while I used a trip to the little boy's room as an excuse to find a company computer and download the virus into it. It seemed like an easy plan, and she was pretty sure nothing could go wrong.

Except for the fact that, y'know, she'd be trapped in a room filled with Controllers! Specifically, she'd be in the same room as Visser Three, the psychotic leader of the entire Yeerk forces on earth. All of that sounded like a recipe for disaster.

"Aaron, will you chill out," my aunt chided gently, most likely noticing my still visible apprehension as we drove. "It'll be fine. I've got everything I need for the meeting already prepared, and I have a bunch of excuses lined up in case they try anything."

"What if they send in a squad of Hork-Bajir to capture you?"

"...Uh, well I didn't-"

"What if Visser Three demorphs and has a Yeerk placed into your head while I'm not around? What if-"

"Okay, Aaron! You need to calm down," she laid a hand on my shoulder and rubbed it soothingly, "you're only thinking about what could go wrong. We have no idea what we'll see when we get in there."

"Ever hear the phrase 'no plan survives contact with the enemy'?" I asked.

"Aaron-"

"Helmuth von Moltke the Elder said it, y'know. He was a Prussian field marshal-back when Prussia was still a thing-and he basically created the modern methods of directing troops in the field."

"Aaron, would you-"

"Like, one good example of the 'first contact thing' was-or two, actually-was when anybody tried to invade Russia," I shook my head nervously, "they're all thinking 'oh, this is great, we basically have Russia in the bag'. The french meet almost no resistance at first, and when the Nazis did it they were jacking all the copper they could…most of it was from air-conditioners I think."

"Oh my god!" Aunt Jenna chuckled.

"And suddenly, bam! Winter hits! Like, the French were screwing everything up before that happened, but that was like the final nail in the coffin," I let out a small laugh, "and the Germans didn't do any better. Shows how good they were!"

"I know you have the jitters," my aunt said gently, "but we'll get through this, okay? I'll be alright, I…I promise…"

A few minutes later, we were pulling into a large parking lot. GammaCorp's building loomed overhead, the company logo casting an ominous green glow even through the daylight.

"Alright, you got the Gameboy?"

"Yeah…"

"How's the…the virus doing?"

I tilted my head, then pulled up my left pant leg. Wrapped around my ankle was the band of fabric we had used before. Set in the equally stretchy compartment was a thin, black rectangular disk that laid flat against my ankle, making my leg feel a little stiff. It stored the virus, as well as the program that would implant the virus.

"It's secure," I said as I lowered my pant leg.

"Alright, let's go."

I followed my aunt out of the car and to the front door of the building. She greeted the security guard and handed him her ID and temporary building pass, while also explaining my presence. There didn't seem to be anything amiss, but experience had taught me in the past few months to trust my instincts.

One of the higher ups of the company had come down to greet us. He was an average man in a suit, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He didn't look like anything special, but I saw that look in his eyes that all Controllers shared, one hidden deep behind their fake emotions. It was like the look a dog presented with a bone would have if they weren't being allowed to take a bite.

A couple more of the Controllers leading the company showed up as the first one led us towards the elevator. I had to fight down a bout of anxiety at the thought of being trapped in a confined space with at least three Controllers. I simply pulled out my gameboy and played a random game I had brought with me, pretending to be a normal, bored preteen that couldn't care less about what was going on around him.

As my aunt made small talk with the Controllers, I idly watched the floors go up. Soon enough, we reached our intended floor, and I stepped out of the elevator along with Aunt Jenna. It was by pure chance that the next person to greet us was him.

Visser Three's human morph was…unremarkable, to be honest. He had dark hair with a receding hair-line, and dark eyes. He was taller than the other Controllers, he had a more fit build, and a wide face. He looked like a boring, corporate stiff with no unique features, and I had honestly expected more. But there was a bright smile on his face that looked far more charismatic than it should have been.

If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he had taken a bunch of boring office workers, put them into a blender to make an even more boring office worker by combining them, only to add the most charming salesman in the world at the last second. The fact that the man in front of me was the greatest enemy to all of humanity did not help ease my tension at the fact that he looked too…charming, for lack of a better word.

"Mrs. (Blank)!" he said enthusiastically, greeting my aunt with a firm handshake and a heartwarming laugh. "So good to see you again. I'm glad we could finally find the time to meet…oh?" Visser Three tilted his head towards me with a curious expression. "And who might this be?"

"Mr. Trent! It's lovely to see you too! Oh, this is my nephew, my husband and I, we're his legal guardians. W-we didn't have anybody to take care of him today since it's the weekend," Aunt Jenna made a motion above her head, painting herself as a ditz with the airy giggle that followed. "I figured since this was only going to be a short meeting about the logistics…"

I tuned her out and focused on actually playing my gameboy for a bit. Maybe she couldn't feel it, but Visser Three had a presence about him you couldn't describe properly. Maybe only other Andalites could sense it-no, I could feel it, which meant you could feel it if you could morph.

Even with that smile, 'Victor' was oozing with malice.

I noticed him approaching me, and I lowered my game just a bit as I lifted my head to face him. I had to fight down a small twitch for a second before I did so, and put on as much of a semi-bored facade as I could.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, young man!" 'Victor' said cheerfully, holding his hand out.

I took his hand in my own while giving him a small smile. "It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Trent."

"Ah, so you're familiar with me?"

"I've seen you on commercials about The Sharing," I responded as the handshake ended.

"Interested in joining?"

I fought back the bile in my throat and let the 'annoyed preteen' look spread across my face.

"Eh, not really. I heard it was like the Boy Scouts." I made a false wince. "I was a scout way back when. Wasn't really as fun as I had hoped."

'Victor' simply let out a wild chuckle at this. "We're being compared to those amateurs? Well then, I suppose we'll have to step things up a notch," he turned to the other Controllers with an amused smirk, "don't you agree, gentlemen?"

The group of Controllers let out fake laughs at this. My aunt let out a nervous chuckle herself and shook her head. One Controller motioned for her to follow, mentioning something about a meeting room.

I tuned them out and pulled my game out again, idly noting 'Victor' speaking about a waiting area for me to stay in. Aunt Jenna and I quickly separated, and a security guard led me away. I felt my stomach coil in terror as I waited for the mob of Human-Controllers or Hork-Bajir to tackle me…but thankfully I was safe. I was really just led to a normal waiting room, and the security guard simply grunted when I gave him a half-hearted thanks.

After several minutes of playing a generic side scroller on my Gameboy, I put it away and stood to my feet. When the security guard noticed me walking towards him, he tilted his head and let a curious look spread across his face.

"Do you know where the bathroom is?" I asked.

A minute or so later, I was in a restroom. The security guard, who I still wasn't sure was a Controller or not, grumbled as he walked away from the bathroom door. After waiting, I was sure he was gone for now, and got to work.

First, I pulled the vent open and pulled off my outer layer of clothing, leaving me in my skin tight morphing clothes. I hid my shirt, jeans, and shoes inside the vent and placed the cover back on. Then, after checking on the band of fabric around my ankle, I focused on morphing into a cat.

It took only over a minute to pull off the morph, to grow smaller and reshape my body. And once I had finally finished the morph, I realized that there may be a tiny problem with using the cat to infiltrate an area.

Specifically, that the cat was kind of small. Not bad for infiltration, but opening the bathroom door from this low on the ground was gonna be a bitch, especially when I had precious cargo to look out for. I turned to look at my leg, idly wondering if I could chance strenuous movements without breaking this.

I jumped up and tried to latch onto the bar-shaped door handle with retractable claws. I ended up falling down, barely landing on my feet. I tried a few more times, a part of my mind almost giggling at how fun it was…then I realized…

The door was one of those 'push-to-open/close' kind of doors.

…Now I felt really stupid. Thanks for wasting a whole minute, cat!

I butted my head against the door and pushed just a bit, wincing a bit as I forced it open with as much strength as I could. The door opened up just enough that I could speed through the gap, and I began trotting down the hall.

There weren't many security cameras, but they were there. They'd turn and swivel around on a pre-programmed path, staying still for about a quarter of a minute before they started rotating again. I'd probably be seen, even if there were blindspots, but I still tried my best to outwit the cameras as I passed.

I just had to find a computer lab-no, they probably didn't have those. Something that included a usable computer? Maybe a personal office? Something I could use to implant the virus into the system.

My breakthrough came in the form of two people emerging from a random room nearby. I could tell by the names they called each other, I couldn't imagine them being anything but Controllers. When I popped my head around the corner, I saw the two guys talking wildly about something I couldn't quite understand.

But parsing through the conversation, I figured out that the room they had just left was the company server room.

Perfect!

I inched closer towards the pair while they had their backs turned, using my literal cat-like tread to creep around them. One of them had been holding the door open because he was about to get something, and he had left it ajar while he was locked in conversation. Everything was almost too perfect, and I felt like I should be hesitating.

But I fought the urge down and took my one shot. I darted into the room and hid in a dark corner. The Controller finished his conversation and grabbed something from within the room. I almost worried he'd see me, so I screwed my eyes shut in case they started reflecting light, but a few seconds later I heard the door close and lock behind me.

Well, hopefully I can wait for somebody else who needs to come in.

I darted around the server room for several seconds before finally finding a monitor. The rest of the towers spread across the room wouldn't need them, so this was likely the one controlling everything, or at least used to provide access to them. I wasn't crazy tech savvy. I only knew I could see a working computer.

Fortunately, one of the idiots before had left it on and logged into an account.

Big mistake, boys.

I got to work immediately. First, I used my now cat-like flexibility to gently pull the floppy disk attached to my leg out with my teeth. It was a bit difficult, but cats could pull off some crazy feats of flexibility that even crazy contortionists couldn't match. Eventually, I was able to grab the disk and, after some repositioning to make sure it was lined up properly, I managed to get it into the port.

I jumped onto the desk where the keyboard and monitor were and trotted towards the mouse. The computer took a few seconds to accept the new and strange device I had just pushed into it, but afterwards there was a little notification about it. I gently moved the mouse, fighting away the cat's urge to play with it, and guided the cursor towards the notification.

The folder opened up, and a single program was inside. I had been shown how to pull this sort of thing off the night before by Aunt Jenna in preparation for this. All I had to do was click twice. The cat's paws weren't good for moving the mouse, so it was pretty damn difficult, but eventually the cursor was in place.

I clicked twice.

The downloading process started. This modified version of the virus would then conceal itself and any trace of its existence in the logs for at least a week, which meant I had to pull off my next few attacks soon, or else I'd lose this chance. The loading process might be a few minutes, but once that was done then I could grab the disk and get out.

Or at least, that was the plan.

There was a commotion somewhere outside the server room I could hear even from here. Controllers were shouting loudly, a few were barking orders, and there were loud footfalls. I jumped down from the desk and moved to hide, flicking my ears as I tried to get a better read on the situation.

"They're here? How many?!"

"Just two, in the basement-" there was a crackling, and the Controller must have picked up a radio, because there was a disconnected voice speaking through that I could barely hear. "Four! There's two of them with the Visser! They're in that meeting room! They might chase that woman off."

"What do we do? If the Visser is busy-"

"Tell those Hork-Bajir to come down and help us deal with the ones downstairs! Send someone else to chase the others."

Then the window to the door was blocked, darkening the room, and I heard a low rumbling. There were some more orders barked, and I could almost feel a deep pressure weighing down on me. Some of the Controllers had left, but one had, for some reason, lingered.

The door was suddenly unlocked and opened. I didn't know how, and I didn't know why, but I knew what came in through the door.

The Hork-Bajir hunched down as it entered, ducking its spike-covered head under the doorway before nearly raising it again. Even with it hunched over, the creature was still so ridiculously tall that its blades nearly scratched the ceiling. The reptilian alien took a few loud sniffs and lowered its head towards the spot I had used to hide before.

A sneer tugged at the creature's beaked mouth as it took in my scent. It raised the Dracon beam it was holding and growled. Saurian feet stomped through the room as the creature sniffed around, eyes darting around as it tried searching for me even in the low light.

Slowly, the creature approached my current hiding place, sniffing wildly as it lowered its head towards the ground. I felt every muscle in my body coiling up, and against my will I began shuddering. One of those clawed hands met the floor as the creature crouched low and continued to sniff, a low rumble echoing from its throat. It lowered its head further, and now I could see the tip of its toothy beak as it drew closer.

It was all over. I was caught. I just knew it. I'd have to fight my way out.

"Hey! Dumbass! What are you doing?!"

The Hork-Bajir nearly banged its head against the ceiling at the shout, then turned towards the Controller that had arrived. The reptilian alien growled and made some noises that I realized were actually some sort of garbled language.

"There's nothing in here! They're downstairs, now come on!" The Controller began to leave, then turned to glare at the Hork-Bajir when it didn't follow. "I said come on! Do you wanna tell the Visser why you were faffing about when we needed all hands on deck, or should I?"

The Hork-Bajir finally sprang into action and followed, the two Controllers speeding away from the room while leaving the door open. I waited for several seconds, then let out a low sigh when I realized they were gone.

I emerged from my hiding spot and trotted towards the computer desk, jumping back up and heading towards the keyboard. The download was done, and all I had to do was eject the disk. I did it, with some difficulty, using a couple of clicks to the mouse, before grabbing the floppy disk in my mouth and heading out through the wide-open door.

There were Controllers patrolling the hallways, which made being discreet more difficult. I had to sneak my way around corners, hiding behind potted plants and under small tables to stay hidden. I heard mentions about something going on in a basement and shipping bay, and how vents were being used. I couldn't parse through what they were talking about, but the Controllers weren't actively searching for me at least.

Eventually I reached the bathroom I had started in and pushed my head against the door. It opened just wide enough for me to rush inside as fast as I could. And just in time, because I swore I saw several Controllers rushing from around the corner.

I huddled in a corner and waited for them to run past. A few lingered for just a few seconds, mentioning how they saw the door closing, only to get yelled at. Soon enough, the commotion died down and the hallway outside remained silent.

I waited a few more seconds, then I began to demorph. My ears shifted, returning to the side of my head and changing shape. I felt myself growing taller, my limbs grew longer as my fingers elongated, fuzzy little paws changing into human hands. I felt the black fur covering me receding, and the tail was sucked back into my spine with a 'SLOOORP' sound that echoed in my ears.

After the last vestiges of my cat-self finally disappeared, I popped the vent back open and began hastily pulling my clothes on. I screwed the vent shut, made one last check on myself to make sure nothing looked odd, and then I stepped out of the bathroom.

When I exited, I almost slammed straight into the security guard who had led me there. I didn't know why he was there. Maybe it seemed like I had taken too long. Maybe whatever was happening that Hork-Bajir were required made everything hectic. I didn't want to think that they had figured me out. I had to act like everything was natural.

"Oh man, I'm sorry!" I said as I stopped short of pushing him away 'accidentally'. "ah, I didn't know you were-"

"It's fine," the Controller-for that was all he could be-brushed it off. "You took a while in there, you know that?"

"...Eh, my family had really spicy curry for dinner last night," I said weakly.

For once, I could tell that a Yeerk was genuinely making a facial expression on its own and not faking it. It was not a pretty expression, but it was funny enough that I had to bite back a laugh.

"Good to know…" the security guard said, "alright, let's get back to the waiting area. I think they're almost done with your old lady."

I silently prayed that she wasn't taken, that she was safe. I mean, she had to be, because otherwise this guy wouldn't be acting so 'normal', he'd be attacking me. Unless…he was playing a ruse? I wouldn't be able to tell if he was, would I?

The security guard led me around a corner towards the waiting area, only for the small group of people coming down the opposite direction of the hallway to stop right in front of us. The Controllers that were running GammaCorp were there, Visser Three was not. My aunt, on the other hand…

"Aaron, hey!" Aunt Jenna said in a normal cheerful voice, though she had a strained look that showed she was not happy. She speedily walked towards me and grabbed me by the shoulders, "eugh, it was awful! They crawled across my feet and everything! It felt so icky."

"...What?"

"Mice! Or rats! I dunno, maybe they were really small rats or really big mice!" my aunt looked positively grossed out, "I felt so wigged out!"

"Well un-wigg, maybe? They're just small furry things, they're not dangerous," I said boredly.

"Mice? Or rats?" the security guard questioned, though I swear there was a glint of disgust in his eye that was far deeper than what you should reserve for a simple rodent. "The hell happened? I haven't seen any rats!"

"W-Well, we might have a small infestation, and we're only hearing about it now," one of the higher ups of the company said, "we'll obviously need to call an exterminator."

"I'll see if I can get somebody on the phone," the security guard grunted and began to walk away, "I might know a few guys who can figure it out."

"Ah, Mrs. (Blank), Mr. Trent was wondering when we could reschedule the meeting? He's normally busy, and seeing as our meeting was…interrupted," one of the businessmen looked rather shaky as he spoke, "perhaps we could-"

"Ah, you'll have to inform him to contact my agency about that. I can understand a busy schedule, but I think it'd be better to change where we meet as well," Aunt Jenna motioned towards the direction of what I assumed was the meeting room, a grimace spreading across her face. "I mean, your headquarters seems like it's going to be…indisposed, right?"

"Unfortunately…" the other Controller mumbled.

"Well, I'm sure we can get in contact with them easily," the lead Controller said cheerfully, "why don't we have somebody show you out-"

"Ah, no, that'll be alright! We can get home just fine, besides I have some errands I need to run." My aunt grabbed me gently by the hand and pulled me along, sending a friendly wave back to them as we headed towards the elevator. "It was nice speaking with you! Take care!"

"Aunt Jenna!" I hissed as soon as I thought we were out of earshot of them, "what are you doing?"

She didn't answer. She just kept a cheerful look on her face, though there was something in her eyes that made me pause. Her smile was wide, but the longer she kept it the more strained it looked.

We reached the elevator, and she pushed the 'down' button. She didn't do it gently, either. She pushed it furiously. When the car didn't immediately come up, she pushed it again, and she kept pushing a few more times, to the point it seemed like she was desperate for it to just immediately come up.

When the doors did open, she peeked her head into the cabin, almost like she was afraid there would be something inside, all while still wearing a cheerful look. Then she pulled me in and pressed the button to close the door before our floor button. I felt her seize up at the sound of movement coming towards us in the hallway outside, but she relaxed a bit when the doors closed before whoever it was reached the doors.

"Aunt Jenna, what's-"

"Shh!" she said curtly.

"But what are-"

"When we get into the car, sweetie," she said stiffly, like she was trying to pretend nothing was wrong.

We reached the lobby, and Aunt Jenna briskly walked towards the door, pulling me along the whole way. She gave a friendly wave and goodbye to the woman at the front desk before she could get a word in, and then she almost charged through the doors. I swore if she had gone any faster, they would have cracked.

She seemed to relax when we started walking through the parking lot, but she motioned for me to get a move on as I slowed down. For whatever reason, she was trying to get us out of here as fast as she could.

When we both finally got into the car, she immediately locked the doors and moved to start it. Her hand shakily tried to push the key into the ignition, before she gave up and just sat back. She broke down then and there, shivering and sobbing, going pale as a ghost.

"Aunt Jenna…" I leaned over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, patting her a few times as I swallowed a lump in my throat. "Aunt Jenna, what happened in-"

And I didn't know what it was. Instincts maybe, because I was getting good at trusting those, and they were getting far better at getting me out of dangerous situations. Honestly, I didn't know what made me know that something would crash through the front doors of the building, just that I knew it would happen there, as if a vision of the immediate future came to my mind.

I let out a shout of "DUCK!" and pulled us both down. Barely a second later, there was a sound of shattered glass far away, as well as several something elses crashing to the ground. I peeked my head up, getting a good look at the front of the building.

What I could see of the lobby inside looked completely trashed. Something had completely decimated the doors, the metal and plastic framing completely blown off their hinges and strewn about the sidewalk, with a couple of pieces having slammed into the cars and denting or breaking parts. The formerly (somewhat)pristine pavement was now blanketed in shatter glass.

Standing right in front of the building were four Hork-Bajir armed with Dracon beams. And Across from them were creatures I didn't expect to be in front of a corporate office, let alone in this state or country without a huge cage separating me from them.

One was a large orange feline with some white fur around its face and black stripes across its entire body. The monstrous cat's fang-filled jaws were twisted into a furious snarl, and a sound like some mix between an angry shriek and a chainsaw ripped through the air as its hackles rose. Massive paws slammed into the ground as the creature made swiping motions at the Hork-Bajir, not backing down even as the aliens raised their weapons.

A tiger.

The other was a massive man-like thing that walked on all fours, its massive knuckles resting on the ground and not bleeding visibly despite all the glass. It was covered in shaggy black fur; it had huge arms that were long enough to reach the ground, and it had a sloping head. The creature rose to two feet and pounded on its chest, then pounded its fists into the pavement, all while letting out a loud hooting shriek of rage.

A gorilla.

Up in the air, I could see a bird flying high above. Even from the ground, I'd be hard-pressed to make a mistake when seeing the sun shining through those red tail-feathers. The Red-Tailed Hawk dove lower and lower, making it all the more easily identifiable.

I focused on the image of the Velociraptor in my head before I had even started removing my outer layer of clothes. The orange scales began spreading across my skin as my fingers melted together, claws erupting from their tips. I tried to push the door open, only to find it locked.

"Aunt Jenna!" I said, feeling my tongue shift and lengthen as my mouth began to change. "Tha toor!"

My aunt instead jammed her keys into the ignition, and she furiously began to try and start the car. I demorphed a bit as I stared at her in shock, then I kept trying to push the door open, even going for the lock.

"Aunt Jenna, you should go! I can-" I saw the lock go on even after I had just unlocked it, "Aunt Jenna!"

I turned my head back to the fight, having missed the beginning of it. The Gorilla was using its massive arms like sledgehammers, swinging them into the Hork-Bajir with such tremendous force that I could feel how broken their bodies would be, even from here. The Tiger had torn one of their heads clean off, and had moved to jump another that had shown up late to the fight.

"Aunt Jenna! I have to help-"

The car started, and my aunt floored it. I desperately tried to undo the lock and push the door open, and even unlocked it still wouldn't budge. I didn't get why until I saw her free hand darting away from somewhere.

The child locks.

Damn it!

I began fully demorph, but I still desperately stared at the battle even as we drove away. The last few things I saw were the Hawk dive-bombing one of the Hork-Bajir, and the Tiger braining another with a swipe of his paws. I wanted to jump in and help, to make sure they would have a better chance of getting to safety.

If those animals were the other kids from that night at the construction site, for some reason…I felt like I might not find them again. Or at least, I wouldn't find them for a very long time.

Eventually, we drove far enough away that the GammaCorp building was a line on the horizon. My aunt parked in a nearly empty parking lot, and I was almost prepared to lay into her. That thought cut short when she unlocked the doors, and practically leaped out of the car, sobbing uncontrollably and dry-heaving.

"Aunt Jenna! Aunt Jenna, what happened?!" I cried out as I left the car.

Could she really have gotten this worked up over some mice?

"W-When I was talking to the higher ups, M-Mr. Trent left the room," she choked out, weakly heaving as she turned to face me. "H-He went into this room…it was r-right next to the meeting room. He was talking to some others. I s-saw it, right out of the corner of m-my eye."

"Saw what?"

"Y-Ye…Y-Yeer…" Her voice hitched as she tried to say the word.

I already knew what she meant.

"They didn't…"

"I-I saw it through the window in the d-door. It was in a j-jar," she shook her head, her eyes screwing shut and she clutched her arms close to herself. "They came out, and I-I saw one of them h-holding the jar."

"What stopped them?"

"M-Mice!" she croaked.

The mice again. They ran over her feet, which meant they must have caused some more commotion as well. But the mice interrupting the meeting where the Yeerks were trying to infest my aunt seemed a bit suspi-Oh!

"There were five kids at the construction site that night," I mused. "They probably came to protect us. They…they don't know? How?! They have to have watched what we're doing…"

"A-Aaron?"

I turned my gaze back to my still sobbing aunt and let out a tired sigh.

"Okay, we should…we should get home. I'm not gonna focus on trying anything else for at least a day or two," I said gently, "not until you feel better, I promise. I'll even burn through my stash, we can order pizza and rent a movie or something."

Aunt Jenna let out a weak chuckle as she shakily stood up, "I...I don't think I'm g-gonna be okay. I don't think I'll ever be okay." She shuddered again and held her arms around herself, swaying in place to the point that I had to walk over and let her lean against me. "T-They tried to take me. I…I'm never gonna s-stop thinking about that."

"I did," I responded.

"How?"

I turned away and took a deep breath, not sure how to respond immediately.

"I just…I had reasons to keep going. Part of it was that I was angry at them, that I wanted to make sure they'd pay. The other part was doing what's right, because everything I saw when I went down to that living hell, it was…I see it in my nightmares. I knew I had to stop it," I turned to her with a gentle smile, and I will never say that the stinging in my eyes was anything other than the sunlight being caught in them, damn it. "The other part was that…I just wanted to make sure you were safe. That everyone I still could trust would be alright. That's what keeps me going. That's all I need."

My aunt gave me a wide-eyed look, then nodded.

"I…I see," she said weakly, a smile tugging at her lips. "Kiddo, I'll try my best to keep going. But…"

"But no more risky plans?" I supplied. She nodded way too enthusiastically, and I shrugged. "I don't think I can promise that. But I won't come up with a plan that risks that. Not you, and not Uncle Reese either."

"I was the one who came up with it…" she mumbled.

"And I don't blame you," I said cheerfully. "I got it in. It worked! You were right about this being the better idea."

"Yay!" Aunt Jenna cheered weakly, "so, you're really ordering pizza?"

"You'll have to share," I said firmly.

"No fair!"

The next two days I spent resting. It helped to settle my nerves and let me make sure my aunt was still alright. We'd had a talk about what happened right at the end of our plan, when those other morphers showed up.

I mentioned how I had been angry that I lost my chance to at least try and find a way to join up with them. But I didn't blame her, not when she had obviously been scared out of her mind already, knowing she was that close to being taken. Seeing a bunch of Hork-Bajir and jungle beasts crashing through the front of the building probably made it worse.

I honestly wondered whether I was really angry at my aunt for that. I was probably more angry at the Yeerks for what they've done. Maybe I was angry at the universe for forcing me into this entire situation.

And maybe I was angry at myself for being stupid enough to do all this.

---

I promised a few days. I didn't say I wouldn't plan during them.

After the last day of rest, Aunt Jenna and I went to The Gardens to see if I could acquire some morphs. There were all sorts of touchable animals on show, from reptiles to big mammals, and there was even a 'play with dolphins' show that looked actually fun. Aunt Jenna brought me to this one small show where I found several small mammals available for 'pets'. Afterwards, a reptile show, and then finally the raptor show.

As I went over the morphs I had acquired, I thought about how they could best be used. I had acquired a Golden Eagle obviously, which meant I had a 'proper' flyer that wouldn't draw suspicion. Aside from that, I also had a Brown Bat, and a Flying Squirrel. My snakes included two very exotic species, a Black Mamba and a 'Death Adder'-the latter of which I figured was a typical name for a venomous snake-and finally, the Sidewinder, which was claimed to be the fastest snake in the world.

Ironically, my modern morphs were probably far better for sabotage than any of my dinosaur morphs. Maybe that made sense, considering my dinosaurs weren't full dinosaurs, only mostly dinosaurs, with some stuff added that makes them jacked up mutant freaks. I doubt a real Velociraptor would have been able to survive being zapped by what amounts to a living cattle-prod. They were better for fighting, not for sneaking around.

Right now, I was sitting in a tree that overlooked the offices of the service provider Hideo used to work for. It was my first time morphing my new eagle morph, but after the initial issue of controlling the morph had passed, I had made great use of it. I had been spying on the company for a day before finally deciding to strike.

Right now, I had the band with the disk strapped to my leg. It made flying awkward, and I felt anxious at the thought that it could break. But I couldn't stop now, not when I was right here, on a roll and ready to get another win in the bag.

I watched as several trucks parked around the back of one warehouse near the building. I carefully flew through the trees in order to get a better look, watching as several Controllers hurried around the trucks and kept the area on lockdown.

There were Hork-Bajir emerging from the warehouse, and they were quickly entering the back of the trucks. The saurians quickly hunkered down as the cargo holds were quickly shut behind them. In some, I could see supplies locked inside with them.

Some of the Controllers were speaking, though I could barely hear it. Something about sending more security to GammaCorp, not just the main building either. They were spooked by what those other kids did.

Well, they had reason to be worried. But they wouldn't know what I'd done, not until I'd already finished.

One truck wasn't loading in Hork-Bajir. Instead, it came to unload, and the Controllers gave the truck a wide berth, with some even standing ready to fire weapons. When I saw what came out, I realized why.

Taxxons. Another alien the Yeerks had taken as hosts, but unlike the Hork-Bajir and others, I'd learned that the Taxxons had willingly given themselves up to the Yeerks. Elfangor had said, with some hesitance, that they were evil, maybe because he didn't want to truly believe that.

They were huge, bloated orange-yellow centipede creatures that could be up to ten feet long. On the sides of their head, they had four blood-red eyes that wobbled like jelly. They had several long blade-like legs up until you got to the front half of their body, at which point most of their limbs were more like crab or lobster pincers.

When they weren't crawling low to the ground, they held the front portion of their bodies upright, making them look as tall as a man. Either way, they could still use their mouths, which was another thing entirely. They had huge, wide-open mouths that looked like giant circular holes with a whip-like tongue lashing out. In their mouths were seemingly endless rings of serrated teeth that they used to eat, and eat, and god did they eat.

They ate any creature they could find, no matter what it was. They'd eat their own kind if they were kicked up into enough of a frenzy, almost like sharks or monitor lizards. Maybe that's why they gave themselves to the yeerks, so that they could get more things to eat. Because they probably ate all the things on their homeworld until there was nothing left.

Taxxons used to scare me, hell I was wigged out by anything vaguely centipede-ish in general. Then I fought a bunch of them, and I found out hitting one was like slamming a fist into a rotten piece of fruit. It only took one instance of me carving up some of them like they were expired pumpkins, and I didn't feel as worried about dealing with them anymore.

That still didn't change the fact that they wigged me out. That still didn't change the fact that I might have to fight some. Which, if I wasn't careful, could put the disk at risk.

The Taxxons said something in some strange language, it sounded like hissing and low shrieks. One of the Human-Controllers opened the door to the warehouse, and the insectoid creatures slithered into the building. The other Controllers were visibly nervous, but didn't say a thing as they walked single-file into the building through one of the side doors.

I guess the Taxxons were some sort of important body guards? They could hold weapons, from what I was told, and while they were fragile, they were very fast and could be pretty devastating in a fight. I'd been informed by some of the survivors that there were dozens of things Taxxons did really well, from swimming, to burrowing, to tracking.

So I would have to watch out for them? Wonderful!

Well, no use faffing about.

When I saw the trucks leave and the amount of Controllers diminish as they either left or went inside, I flew towards the roof of the building. I landed past the edge and slowly ambled my way further onto the roof before demorphing.

I started growing bigger. Feathers melted away as human skin reappeared, complete with my skintight morphing outfit. The light brown feathers around my head receded and changed color, turning back into bleach blonde with small black locks peeking out. Talons and wings shifted and reformed as they turned back into hands and feet.

Once I was back to being fully human, I checked the disk. It was fine, still, so I turned the fabric band around until the disk was behind my ankle, then pulled it a little higher up my leg. I had tried this with Aunt Jenna's help a while before, so I knew this would work.

First, I unscrewed the vent leading into the building, then I slowly crouched to the ground until I was on my hands and knees, like I was ready to do push-ups. I focused on one of my newer morphs, one that could get into the building with ease.

Under normal circumstances, I imagined that my legs would merge. Instead, one of my legs was sucked up into my body, a 'SWWLOOOOORP' echoing through my ears as it happened. My other leg reshaped and changed position until it was aligned with my back, and my foot melted and twisted as my toes merged into my leg, until my single leg was instead a tail.

I lowered myself to the ground just in time as my arms were sucked into my body as well. My torso narrowed, and I could feel it undulating as my organs shrank. I felt my teeth twisting, some of them receding even as they grew sharper than normal, and my canines slowly elongated and transformed into large fangs, which were slowly drawn back into small little 'pouches' that formed in my gums.

My skull flattened and warped as I laid flatter on the ground, my hair slowly falling off my head as almond-colored scales spread across my body. A bunch of scales erupted from my eyebrows and grew into small little horns that hung just over my eyes. And then I started growing smaller, while my body started growing longer.

The morph ended when I felt a weird popping at the end of my tail that signaled the formation of my 'rattle', and strange sacks in my jaw filled up with liquid. I tested my new forked tongue, and it felt so strange. I was literally tasting the air around me, it was…abnormal.

The Sidewinder's mind was simple, to be honest. Sit, wait for something to come by, and strike when that thing was close. Right now, the snake wanted to lie in the sun and heat itself up, then find a nice patch of sand to bury itself in and wait for a rodent or a lizard to walk too close.

I did not indulge it, obviously. I waited for it to feel like it had enough sun to get going, and then I moved. I slithered towards the open vent, and the snake idly showed annoyance at the extra weight of the disk around the base of our tail. I paid it no mind, instead I slithered into the dark vent, using my snake-like senses to navigate.

Snakes were perfect for a stealth mission for many reasons.

For one, if you're out in the woods near a snake, there's a good chance you won't see it. I've never seen a snake on purpose, and even when I've seen them by accident, I end up losing sight of them pretty quickly. A snake makes no noise as it moves, whether it's trying to hide or hunt, it will always be silent. If a snake doesn't want to be seen, you won't see it.

Second, the Sidewinder was a rattlesnake. All rattlesnakes were special, because they were these types of creatures called Pit Vipers. At the reptile show I'd acquired all my snakes at, I learned that pit vipers had these small openings just behind their noses and in front of their eyes, hence the name 'Pit' Viper. In these pits were an organ that functioned like an extra set of eyes, except they worked in infrared, meaning they could tell the heat of an object or living thing.

For normal snakes, they would use this to find their prey. They could do so even when they couldn't see or smell anything else, because their infrared sense was just that accurate. For me, I needed to find the most consistently air-conditioned room in the building, which would most likely be the server room where I could upload the virus.

The snake's sixth sense was sorta like seeing two different pairs of screens, but there was another part of it that was difficult to describe. I closed my eyes, and I didn't need to see at all to use the 'infrared-vision' the snake had. Sight wasn't a real factor in using it, but sight helped in accuracy when I did use the heat-sense.

Obviously, I had to eyeball it in the vents, seeing as they were all sorta the same temperature. I was a snake, not Superman. I couldn't see through walls or something. Heat-sense was basically useless if I was in a confined space. But once I got out, things were different.

There were places in the vents I could properly squeeze my whole body through, as well as the disk if I tilted my tail the right way. I peeked my head out from within the vents, and the world around me changed in the most radical way possible. Everything was a surreal mix of cold and hot colors, mostly blues and reds respectively, with every color in between being variations of or shifts between the two.

I could see Controllers walking around, playing at doing day-to-day tasks to blend in. I could see the computers they were using-the towers were hot in places, even with ventilation. I could see cold cups of water and hot cups of coffee. I could tell which meals were freshly heated and which ones weren't.

It was incredible.

When I peeked my head further from my hiding place, I noticed something nearby moving. To my heat-sense, it looked like a massive tube that was a quarter as long as the nearby hallway. It had heat, but it was incredibly faint, unlike the Human-Controllers who were shining like beacons in my new sixth sense.

I pulled my head back into the vent with a jerk, only raising my head to get a better look. The tube-thing walked past my hiding spot, sniffed a bit, and made small clicking sounds with its claws before skittering away. A Taxxon, probably patrolling the office, and I guess it made sense that they'd be cold-blooded, since they were insectoid creatures.

I slowly slithered away and further into the vent until I was finally in front of a grate that I felt comfortable leaving from. I only needed to peek my head out once, and then I slithered out while taking special care when I pulled the floppy disk out along with me.

There was a map of the building within the hallway I had emerged into. I raised my head slightly to get a better look, then I began slithering towards my destination. I ducked into small spaces and low spots when I felt movement around me or heard someone speaking nearby. I almost worried somebody might see me, but I hadn't morphed into a very large snake, so I remained unnoticed.

Eventually, I found the hallway leading to the server room. Some people came in and out, and I waited a bit to see if anybody would come in. Once I was sure that I could properly sneak in, I made sure the snake did its work.

The snake's mind questioned why we had to go into that place. With heat-sense, I knew it was colder than the other rooms. The snake did not want to be in the cold, so it was getting antsy. I basically told the stubborn little sand-noodle to get its butt in gear, and there were no more arguments.

The snake started its movement, and I felt awed at how simplistic and instinctual the little guy made it look.

When I let my body fall under the snake's control, the scales at the tip of my tail near the rattler were quickly planted firmly onto the ground. Then my head was suddenly launched forward, my body following along with it as I moved towards the server room. Once my lower neck met the ground, the tail would be anchored again, and the movement would be repeated. Not once did anything other than my tail and head touch the ground as we moved.

It was fast. I knew the sidewinder wouldn't be as fast as on a carpeted floor as it would be across desert sand, but it was still faster than I was expecting. We got into the server room faster than I had thought, and I quickly took back the reins and slithered us into a hiding space near one of the computer towers.

I demorphed, my tail shifting around and transforming back into a leg, followed by my second leg emerging beside it. When I started growing, it felt like I was shooting straight off the ground. There was a split second where I still had the skeletal structure of a snake, so it felt like I was waving around like one of those tube-men. I laid myself down on the ground for a bit as my proper human skeleton returned, followed by my arms.

Not long after my scales started fading, I felt my head changing back to normal. I felt some regret when the heat-sensing organs disappeared. They had been the coolest part about being a snake, and having them on hand in case something happened would be helpful.

I didn't dwell on that loss for long. Once I had fully demorphed, I walked towards the control terminal for all the towers in the server room. I crouched down halfway and pulled the floppy disk from the band around my leg, and when I reached the computer, I gently pushed it into the port.

I opened the files using the mouse when the notification popped up, then I started uploading the virus. It took less time than it did at GammaCorp, possibly because this computer was a better model or it simply didn't need to do much. I was able to remove the disk and put it back on the fabric band around my leg at almost breakneck speed, and I was about to leave too…then I heard it.

The skittering noise from outside the halls, the horrible gnashing of teeth that I couldn't forget…

I hid in the corner of the room and began to morph back into a snake, hoping that I had enough time before the Taxxon found me. I finished the morph just as the insectoid creature's head peered into the server room, and I slithered into a dark hiding spot just as it sniffed around for me.

The Taxxon skittered around the room, gingerly crawling over computers in its search for me and darting between the towers as it hunted me down. Every moment it searched, it seemed to grow closer to catching onto my scent. Soon enough, it was only five feet away from where I had hunkered down.

I nestled myself further and further back as the Taxxon drew ever so closer. The snake's mind was going berserk at the thought of a predator catching us. I had to fight it down as it desperately tried to wiggle the rattle at the end of my tail to threaten the alien monster.

Every other second, the snake's mind was panicking about the lack of sand to hide under, about how we weren't threatening the Taxxon properly to drive it away, about how it found us and we couldn't hide. I had to hold it back every second, hoping that the insectoid would leave even though it kept coming closer. There wouldn't be another controller to interrupt and pull it into a fight somewhere else in the building, because it was just the two of us here.

The snake pushed through just enough for its thoughts to scream about how we should rattle to scare it away, and if that didn't work, then to strike…huh? I just remembered that I was a venomous snake, and that I did have a way to force the Taxxon away.

The Taxxon was nearly a foot away from my hiding spot. I nestled myself just a bit further, and then I let the dam holding back the snake's mind break.

I gave it one simple task; Strike!

My head flew forward almost faster than lightning, mouth outstretched as it darted towards the faintly hot tube with too-many legs in front of us. I couldn't see them, but I could feel needle-sharp fangs surging out of my gums and snapping into position as my skull rocketed forward.

My strike hit home, my teeth hooking straight into a spot right between the Taxxon's top pair of eyes. I sunk my teeth in there for a couple more seconds than the snake itself was comfortable with, then I pulled away from the insectoid as fast as I could.

The Taxxon let out a pained shriek as it tried to claw its face apart. I slithered into a dark corner and searched for a vent, wincing as I heard the shouts. Some of the other Controllers were already approaching, and while I wouldn't have to worry about the first Taxxon, I could tell the others weren't too far away.

The Human-Controllers were the first to arrive. They didn't see me, but they saw the alien carnivore squirming around on the floor and shrieking in pain. Some more Taxxons came into the room, their mouths salivating at the weak scent of blood for only a second before they regained their composure.

"Srreeeeeer-awwwww-tsuooooooo-sreeeeet?!"

"Hruuuutin!" the envenomed Taxxon screamed in response.

The eyes of one Human-Controller widened, and a snarl spread across his face.

"Andalite?! Search the area!"

I was already slithering into any vent I thought could fit in. Eventually I found one that could fit me and the disk, and once I was inside, I started slithering around until I could find an exit. There wasn't a map for the vents, and I certainly didn't remember which way I came from, but eventually I found a familiar bend within them. While the Controllers scrambled in the building below, I took only a few small turns before finally finding my way back to the roof.

I felt elated, though that was short-lived. Controllers were emerging from the building, some wielding Dracon beams. They began patrolling the area, communicating with walkie-talkies and shooting anything that moved the wrong way.

I didn't think it could get any worse.

Evidently, the universe loved to fuck with me, because one second I was panicking around the top of the roof, worrying when the Yeerks were gonna check here, and the next, I was suddenly pulled into the air. I felt spikes of pain in my body as several sharp things dug into my flesh, breaching my scales and causing damage.

I looked up to see a hawk-not a Red-Tailed Hawk, but about the same size. Its wings and legs were covered in red feathers, yes, but instead of red tail-feathers, it had mostly black tail-feathers and a belly covered in white feathers. Its talons were digging deep into my flesh, and I could feel the blood dripping out of the wounds.

The creature bit at me in mid-air as it moved towards what I could only assume was its perch. It hurt like hell, and I felt a hiss echoe from my jaws as the snake voiced its displeasure. The hawk didn't pay it any mind, instead attempting to stab at my head with its beak.

It was going to eat me. That thought reverberated through my mind, and I went board-stiff at the realization that I might die. I started struggling again the moment the bird leaned down to try to peck my skull open again.

Finally, I had had enough.

‹GET OFF!› I cried at the hawk in thought-speak while smacking the side of its head sharply.

That actually shocked it for some reason, since it suddenly began to wobble around in mid-air. I heard some of the Controllers below shouting, and suddenly I registered several blasts of heat flying by, one narrowly missing my cheek. They were shooting at me-at me and the hawk.

One blast came too close for comfort, singing some of my scales and the tip of the hawk's left wing. The raptor suddenly lost balance and began careening towards a nearby forest, flying around haphazardly as lasers shot past us.

The hawk 'screamed'.

I screamed.

We both ended up falling into a patch of woods several blocks away from the offices. We bounced through trees and bushes until landing roughly on the ground.

The hawk looked no worse for wear, probably due to being a bird that was adapted to fly and was still not very far up before it fell. I felt like shit. I was bleeding profusely and I was sure I had a few broken bones.

I quickly demorphed just as the hawk started walking towards me. It stopped short when my human body parts appeared, and then it jumped back when I started growing in size. I ignored it, instead opting to check on the disk.

It was totaled. Completely broken and destroyed. And I still had another target I hadn't hit yet. If I hit the defense contractor without the virus to implant, then I was basically throwing paint at the wall, hoping it would stick. I was fucked.

I quickly morphed my new Golden Eagle morph, letting the large bird's mind take hold when it appeared. As the last vestiges of my human appearance melted away, I glanced into the eagle's mind inquisitively.

Turns out Golden Eagle's are huge jerks.

It also turns out that Harris's Hawks don't really put up much of a fight when you punch them through a few trees.

To be fair, he flew in the opposite direction the Yeerks were going-I knew that now because I saw the Taxxons getting closer-so it was as much for his benefit as it was my amusement. Maybe that would teach him to leave random snakes carrying floppy disks around their tails alone.

I flew away from the Taxxons and started lifting myself into the air. I ended up catching one of those huge columns of hot, swirling air that was rising into the sky. I didn't remember what they were called, but I learned about how birds and people on gliders used them to achieve lift.

Flying around in one, using it to soar, it was pretty intense. Flying was great in general, but there was nothing quite like prolonging your flight and soaring as high as you could go. The world beneath me was like some sort of toy playset below, or maybe even a very realistic map. The eagle's eyes could see the people down there in perfect detail if I focused, but without doing that, they were like little dolls on the ground.

Just being up here, this high, it felt amazing and peaceful…but I didn't have time to enjoy it. I had to get home and face the music.

I soared around for a few minutes until eventually I reached my neighborhood. Once I was sure none of my Controller neighbors were watching, I dove towards my house. I circled around the woods behind it for a minute before flying straight towards the window to my room.

My aunt must have seen me coming, because the window opened up seconds before I got close. I dove through and landed on my floor, walking across the carpet to steady myself before demorphing.

Aunt Jenna stood over me the whole time, a nervous glint flashing through her eyes. When I was back to being human again, I gave her a solemn look as I pulled the disk from the band on my leg.

"W-When I got out, something…happened. I was a snake, and this hawk…" I shook my head at the memory of nearly being eaten, "it thought I was just a snake, and hawks eat snakes. So it grabbed me. I got away, but the disk-"

My aunt put a finger to my lips and then pulled the broken disk out of my fingers. I blinked in shock, not sure what was happening, until she pulled something out of her pocket and placed it in my hands.

It was another disk, almost exactly like the first, but not all busted. I stared at it for several seconds, then tilted my head up to look her in the eye.

"H-How?"

"It's a floppy disk, Aaron! I knew this might happen," she shrugged, "I probably can't do much about the 'I nearly got eaten by a bird' thing. But this, I prepared for."

I couldn't help but laugh at that.

---

Today was the final stretch. The big cheese, the be-all end-all…well, at least until the next time I had to sabotage one of the Yeerks' operations. But this, combined with everything else, would set them back big time.

Aunt Jenna had driven me halfway to my destination, and then dropped me off. From there, I morphed an eagle and flew towards the base. Not easy to do when the sun was slowly setting, but that was the best part of the plan.

The base was actually just half an hour away from the city. It was a short drive for most, a long walk for others, and a decently long flight for me. I arrived at the headquarters of the military contractor just as the sun began dwindling into a faint orange glow, and I landed just around the forested area near the outskirts.

A couple of minutes after I was fully human, I closed my eyes and focused on the memory of the Troodon.

My Troodon morph was a nocturnal hunter. The thin blanket of darkness that oppressed and terrified most creatures would be like the welcoming embrace of a mother to the dog-sized dinosaur. Once I was inside the building, the shadows would never be safe for the Controllers.

Soon enough, the changes started. I felt myself shrinking first, until I was just a size larger than a small dog. My arms shifted position and my five fingers melted into three, and claws erupted from my fingertips. The process repeated with my legs, with the difference that a scythe-like claw erupted from my largest toes.

I felt my body narrow and hunch over as my spine realigned and changed shape. My face bulged forward as my skull became narrower. I could feel my teeth melting into serrated, needle-sharp teeth that gave the Troodon the 'wounding' part of its name. My neck grew longer as I felt the excess weight drop. Then my eyes bugged out as the sockets grew wide enough to accommodate their new size.

The pale blue-green scales slowly spread across my skin, and there was a tickling sensation as quill-like feathers popped out of my back. The morph started to finish when a tail shot straight from the end of my spinal cord, and it was complete when those familiar sacs buried below my gums filled with liquid.

The Troodon's sight wasn't like the Sidewinder's. The Sidewinder could see heat, whereas the Troodon could only see. But the thing was, it was early in the evening, yet the Troodon could see everything as though it were bright as day.

I slowly ran towards the base, the Troodon's mind silently taking its place besides my own and making little suggestions for my infiltration. There were several Controllers moving around, mostly towards the hangars and warehouses, so I wouldn't need to worry about getting into the building with all the computers.

Or at least, I had thought. I sat in the shadows for a minute, contemplating what to do with the two Hork-Bajir that were standing guard outside the office. The two of them had Dracon beams sheathed to their belts, but the Hork-Bajir were a weapon all on their own.

I figured I could just sneak towards them and slide into the building. I started creeping through the shadows towards them. The plan was shot immediately when I accidentally kicked a stone away. One of them twisted their heads towards me, a sneer tugging at the sides of its mouth.

I went stiff, but the Hork-Bajir had still heard me. He motioned towards his fellow guard, and the other saurian let out an annoyed groan.

"Haff!" the first one growled, then he said some more words in between that I couldn't make out. "-Gahfrash!"

The other Hork-Bajir snorted and began walking towards me. He lowered his head down and sniffed the air. A look of confusion spread across his face as he took in my scent. The alien squinted in the low light to see what was going on.

That was when I struck. I handed control over to the Troodon, and it quickly darted its head forward and bit down hard, snapping his teeth into a spot straight on the Hork-Bajir's nose. I let go just as soon as the saurian creature jumped back in shock, a pained bellow echoing from his jaws.

The other Hork-Bajir stiffened, and then charged past the first. He began sniffing around for my scent as well, looking for any trace of me. I had crept into another part of the shadows, so he wasn't able to find me in the spot I was before.

He was drawn away from his search when his fellow guard keeled over. The Hork-Bajir I had bitten began convulsing in place on the ground, eyes glazing over as he gurgled weakly. Soon, sickening black veins spread across his skin, and foam started leaking from his mouth.

Eventually, he stopped moving. The still living Hork-Bajir stared at his now dead comrade, poking and prodding him while still in shock. The alien went a shade paler when something came out of the dead saurian's ear.

The Yeerk wasn't moving. In fact, it looked like it had almost been fried in a pan. The small slug-like parasite was still bubbling, weird boiling black fluid oozing out of it.

The other Hork-Bajir flexed his feet as he prepared to run. I didn't give him the chance.

I charged out of the darkness and snapped my teeth deep into the alien's shin. He let out a low bellow of pain as I did so and moved to grab me. I pulled away just as his bladed arm got too close for comfort.

Then he too started to feel the effects of the Troodon's venom. The saurian alien wobbled in place and gurgled weakly before falling to the ground. He started convulsing as his gurgling grew louder. Foam and spit pooled below his mouth and the veins around his wound turned black.

Unlike the first Yeerk, the second one had started to eject itself from its host before the venom could reach it. The parasite slithered out of the Hork-Bajir's ear, no worse for wear, though it was moving at breakneck speed…which wasn't very fast.

Part of me felt guilty. The Hork-Bajir's moment of freedom consisted of it barely being able to breathe its last breaths. I saw the slug moving away as fast as it could, and I let out a low hiss.

A few nips later, and the Yeerk was completely unmoving, black ooze bubbling from its corpse.

I walked through the door to the building and quickly hugged close to the shadows. There weren't any Controllers near the door, thankfully, but I could see some of them. There were Human-Controllers working in a side office, some doing paperwork, and some in the break room.

"Apparently they're doing maintenance on the pool later," one of them grumbled, "something about how they're trying to give them a cooling element or something. I honestly can't imagine the Visser will be pleased."

"They can shuttle all of them up to the pool ship while it's happening. Nobody wants another incident like with the rogue in the main pool," another said tiredly.

"Heh, speaking of which, did you hear about the bandits? They attacked that company, GammaCorp," the Controller leaned forward with a smirk, "and then something happened at that service provider. You know the one?"

"That one? What happened?"

"They were sending Hork-Bajir over to a bunch of buildings owned by GammaCorp, and one of the Sub-Vissers had some Taxxons sent over to guard the halls."

"Taxxon guards? Not very bright…"

"Well, they're pretty decent as a normal deterrent, they leave no evidence after all…" the Controller let out a low chuckle, "except, get this…one of them got bitten by a snake."

"Bull!"

"It's true, it was a rattlesnake," the man shook his head. "People said it might be the rogue or the bandits. Probably the bandits. The guys there said they saw a bird carrying a snake away."

"So what? They were probably chased off and got nothing done," one of the other Controllers shrugged as he filed something away, "I'm more interested in what Visser Seven was here for."

Wait, what?!

"Apparently he's really pushing for his ship's repairs," another Controller shrugged, "I think he's worried he won't be able to catch the colony ships in time. Did you hear about how the council wanted him to assist with Japhom?"

"Japhom? I heard about that in passing," the first one said, "those Japhomit things, Visser Thirteen found them. I think they're carnivores…"

I tuned them out as they discussed yet another alien race that I definitely knew next-to-nothing about. Maybe I should have paid attention, seeing as I might end up meeting more and more strange alien fighters enslaved by the Yeerks. But I was more worried about the fact that they had spread out enough on this planet to use it as a springboard for other invasions.

And was Visser Seven still around? If he was, that would mean the plan might be shot if he ever showed up.

But that was a big 'if', right? If I stuck to the plan, then I could easily get the job done and get out in no time. I just had to wait…

"Those Hork-Bajir haven't checked in yet!" one of the Controllers called out, "why did they even bring them here? They're too conspicuous!"

"Because everybody is antsy about another bandit attack! If you're so worried about them, then why don't you check on them?!"

"Maybe I will!" The man stood to his feet and walked from his office chair towards the door.

It looked like I didn't have to wait for long.

When he was close enough, my head darted towards his leg. I felt my teeth being buried into his skin, and I could feel blood dripping around my mouth. I chewed for one extra second to ensure the venom would get in, then I pulled away.

"Agh! Motherffff-shit!" The Controller barely saw me, but he knew he saw something. He jumped away and ran towards the others. "Andalite! There's an Andalite here…s-sound the…woah…"

"Jinlk, what's going on?! What do you mean about an Andalite?" one of the other Controllers stood up and ran to him. When the one I bit began wobbling in place before falling, the other ones moved to help him to his feet. "What the hell happened?"

"S-Something bit me! I didn't see much, but I think it was an Andalite…"

The one I assumed was mostly in charge started pointing to other Controllers, "Go get somebody, tell them we're under attack! You, go get a Dracon Beam!" he motioned towards the two and they both tried to run, "be careful, but you can be quick! It's probably morphed a snake, it's nothing to worry about!"

‹Nothing to worry about?› I said as I moved through the dark corners of the room, ‹perhaps you should rethink that?›

I darted out of a shadowy corner and bit into one of the runners, specifically the one moving towards the office phone. I quickly retreated into the shadows and shifted along, moving toward the one trying to find a Dracon beam. Another bite, and he was suddenly falling to his feet in shock.

"Damn it! You think you're funny?! This is…just…a…woah!" the Controller I had just bit shakily scrambled to his feet, the look in his eyes showing that the venom was already taking effect. "The hell is this?!"

‹Not the venom of a simple snake, I assure you,› I informed them. ‹The two Hork-Bajir outside were quite allergic to it. They succumbed to it almost immediately. In fact, it might have outright killed them. Not something I was expecting, seeing as I'm aware of how the venom affects humans.›

"What did you do?!" one of the unbitten Controllers shrieked, "start talking, Andalite scum-"

The Troodon took over for just a split second, but I was grateful for that split second. Because with just that small window, the little dinosaur let out a terrible noise that shut the Yeerks up. It was a bone-chilling 'shkkkkkk...shkkkkkkk...shkkkkkkkkk…' kinda sound that even made me shiver just a bit.

"You…you're not one of the bandits…" one Controller said weakly.

‹I see my reputation is already proceeding. I assure you, I've moved on from dumping living electrical generators into your main pool,› I let that sink in for a few seconds, because the looks on their faces when they realized who they were dealing with were priceless. ‹That was a 'spur of the moment', to borrow a human turn-of-phrase. I've planned this out much better…now then,› I took a few steps towards him and let out another growl, ‹the server room. Where is it?›

"That's what you're here for? We have nothing there that you'd need!"

‹Now what makes you say that?›

"Don't Patronize me, Andalite scum! I-"

‹Quiet!› I yelled through thought-speak, letting the rattling hisses of the Troodon echo through the building as I did so. ‹You do not know what my goals are, Yeerk! But whatever you think I'd be here for, it certainly isn't to steal weapons or information.›

"Then why are you here?!"

‹I have no reason to tell you. All I need are directions.›

"I have nothing for you, Andalite! You can just kill me!

‹If you insist…›

Then I ran out of the shadows and bit him hard on his arm. He jumped back, clutching his wounded limb and screaming in anger. Then, he started to wobble in place, before falling to his knees and panting.

"W-What is that thing?! The thing you morphed…w-what did you do to me?!"

‹The venom is slow acting for humans. Just know that you'll start to grow weaker at first…then the delirium will set in. You'll see things that aren't there, hear things that aren't real. You might even react violently to them,› I titled my head in thought, narrowing my large eyes at the envenomed controller. ‹After a few hours, the convulsions will start…then, immediately after…paralysis. That will quickly be followed by brain death.›

"B-Braain?" one Controller slurred.

‹Of course, that is only in your hosts-and I do apologize to you, if you weren't willing,› I gave them a solemn nod as I regarded their enslaved hosts, ‹it is likely the Yeerks are allergic to the venom themselves, and will expire once it reaches them through the bloodstream. You might be freed…and I'm ashamed that you'll never get to live long enough to enjoy it.›

"You…how? Why?!" the lead Controller slurred out, "it won't work! You can't wwwin!"

‹Win? I never need to truly win,› I said smugly, ‹a small victory here and there? Maybe something that makes one of the Vissers look foolish? I can manage that easily. While your leaders are being torn apart by the political infighting, the main fleet grows ever closer,› I let out a low chuckle that sounded far more disturbing as a reptilian noise than a human one, ‹I never needed to win. That you actually thought that is quite amusing…›

"Quite amusing indeed!" a new voice called out.

I froze, and I slowly turned towards the voice. Strolling out of a nearby shadowed corridor were small, human-like shapes. I could see three pairs of glowing eyes glaring at me, and even with night-vision it was difficult to make them out before they stepped into the light.

Shuldidnian-Controllers. All three of them were wearing their standard 'uniform', which was more or less just tight-fitting bodysuits with robes and cloaks over them. Each suit had an insignia over their left breast. It was a stylized version of the normal insignia Controllers wore if they worked in the pool, and I recognized it as the one Visser Seven was associated with.

The leader was male, but he still looked very feminine, with an angular face and lithe build. He had wiry auburn hair, brilliant amber-colored eyes, and flawless metallic bronze skin. He held a hand up to reveal dainty fingers that ended in pointed nails, which quickly elongated into half-inch long claws.

"I'll admit, I'm intrigued by you, Andalite. Only the Anatian Arisas have been able to inspire a fear response in my host. Until you showed up with that little creature," the Controller held up a hand and prepared to snap his fingers, "I've many questions about it. What it is called, where you obtained it…but I don't believe you'll be around to answer-"

I darted forward as fast as I could, jaws open wide, to bite down on anything I could get. You see, the last time I let a guy monologue in front of me like a cartoonish villain, he ended up smashing dozens of people to paste. I was too terrified to act in time to stop it then, but I wasn't gonna make the same mistake.

What I got for my trouble was a kick to my side, and then a clawed hand swiping towards me the next second. The lead Shuldidnian-Controller jumped away while his two lackeys charged me, teeth bared and eyes blazing a glowing lilac as they forced me back.

I hadn't expected them to be close-quarter fighters. So I made the mistake of trying to escape their onslaught.

I realized my mistake when a ball of fire flew towards me. I jumped out of the way, my serpentine neck twisting as I watched the blast explode on contract with the ground I had stood before. I saw another one coming, and I quickly darted back into the shadows faster than you could say 'go'.

"Vez yinvezz, Andalite!" one of the Shuldidnians called out, "your little beast is smart, using the dark as cover. But we are isto z'hintekk! We can see the night just as brightly as you do!"

A bolt of electricity lanced towards me. I darted away just as it hit, wincing as sparks flew and singed some of my feathers. Another brilliant arc of lightning flew towards me, and I jumped high above it, snapping my claws and teeth onto a large beam and lifting myself over it.

I felt a blast of heat flowing past me, and even the Troodon's mind shrank a little when I saw the molten slag dripping down from a spot on the ceiling only a few feet away. The plan was shot, no doubt about it, hell I wasn't even sure the disk survived.

Best to just try to leave now.

"Idiots! You're gonna ruin the place!" one of the envenomed Controllers shouted.

"We aren't hitting anything vital, filshig! The ceiling can be repaired once it cools down," the lead Shuldidnian scoffed as the other Controllers continued to protest, "Visser Seven has us here to ensure his ship's repairs. We can handle this!"

I ignored the aliens below and darted across the beams and wires on the ceiling. I saw a vent nearby, old and rusted and with rickety screws keeping it in place.

I charged, jamming myself straight into it while crouching low. I felt a blast of fire just behind me, but pushed on until I was safely inside the vent. Even though it was a tight fit, the Troodon was wiry enough to fit just fine.

When I looked back, I saw the entrance to the vent blocked off by what had probably been the vent cover. Now, it was little more than molten slag that was still cooling. It looks like I'm trapped in here for a while.

Oh well, so long as I can demorph before the two-hour limit…how long have I been in morph again?

…Shit!

Okay, don't worry Aaron! Maybe these vents are too small to demorph in, and maybe you can risk finding an exit and demorphing there because there are Controllers everywhere. But you can get through this.

I just gotta find the server room.

As I moved around, I heard the Shuldidnians speaking. I was probably making enough noise that they could hear me. They started firing up at the ceiling, I could tell, but unlike before, their aim wasn't as on point.

Maybe it was because of all the garbage in here. Old bits of metal scrap and screws, dead bugs, huge balls of dust, some chewing gum that had made its way in here. I was shifting it around as I moved, and it banged in different places. It honestly made things easier, since the Controllers were taking shots at any bang, and plenty of those weren't close enough to hit me.

Eventually, I got to a spot where there was a vent opening. It was just above a hallway, meaning I could see the light wafting from outside.

The problem was that they had managed to keep up with me.

"Come on out, Andalite!~" the leader sing-songed as he tapped his foot, "you won't be able to stay up there forever. You're trapped, and if you stay there, you'll be trapped in more ways than one~"

I let out a loud 'shkkkkkk...shkkkkkkk...shkkkkkkkkk…' that echoed through the vents, most likely reverberating through the whole building. The Shuldidnians hissed in response, now doubt angry with my continued mind games.

I had to make my move.

There was a loud *bang* from the spot just around the vent cover. The lightning-wielding Shuldidnians fired arcs of thunder that lanced into the metal as concentrated jets rather than flowing through it. The section of the vent was cut apart, and the Controllers moved as it fell to the ground.

When they looked inside, there were muted gasps.

"H-How?! Daspen! Usstan ssiggrin udos inbalus ukta!"

Because I hadn't been inside.

I had thrown a few pieces of metal and a dustball around, hiding further back in the vents and safely waiting for them to react. If they popped the vent open, or better yet, cut a hole into it with their psionic powers, then I would get things in gear. It might have seemed simple, but the Troodon's mind hadn't seen this as a way to escape when it planned it.

This was a plan of attack.

One of the Shuldidnians had kneeled to the ground to get a look. I immediately charged from the open vent above and leapt onto her, digging my claws as deep as I could.

The Controller screamed, then she quickly began to try and shake me off by twirling around and throwing the two of us into walls. Eventually, she went balls to the wall and pulled out her special hat-trick.

Even with egregious amounts of electricity coursing through me, I held firm. I twisted my head around, trying to find an opening, and after half a minute of this psycho throwing herself into walls and lighting herself up like a bug-zapper, I got it. She slipped up just once, but it was a large enough window for me to snap my jaws into an exposed piece of skin.

Shuldidnian skin might have looked metallic, but it felt like ordinary human skin-actually, it felt better, smoother and softer than a human's. The blood wasn't quite red, maybe more of a red-violet color, and to the Troodon's mind, it was incredibly sweet.

I released the Controller and jumped down. As soon as I was on the ground, she fired a bolt of electricity at me…or, she tried to fire one at me. There were spots on her fingertips and palm that were lighting up, but while there were small arcs of electricity dancing across them for more than a few seconds, they started to wind down.

‹Oh, poor you. Are you fizzling out?› I tilted my head quizzically, my reptilian lips curling into a smile as the Controller gave me a shocked expression. ‹Trust me, when that venom works through your system, that'll be the least of your worries.›

I dodged another bolt of lightning and charged the Shuldidnian that fired it. She had jumped towards her partner's aid, and most likely wasn't expecting me to try to get close. I had figured out why they were so keen on trying to keep me at a distance, and I wasn't gonna let her have the advantage.

Electricity danced around her hands, but it was wild and unfocused. Better for firing at an opponent further away, because it wasn't helpful to use up close if your opponent wasn't quite in grabbing distance. The electricity arced around the two of us, but it was clumsily aimed, and I could duck and weave out of the lightning and get a few slashes in at one of her feet.

Maybe it was some sort of adaptation to prevent the Shuldidnians from harming themselves, or maybe it was only an issue with the Controllers, but it seems their powers worked at either a distance or through direct touch. If you got close, their elemental powers would act up and work incorrectly, causing them to have a harder time hitting you if you were in that sweet spot just between mid-range and touching distance.

The Shuldidnian cut the juice to her lightning attacks a bit and began swiping at me with her claws. I clicked my feet into the ground and jumped over her attack, then I slammed my tail straight into her stomach when she got too close. She doubled over, but was able to raise her arm and attempt to fire a bolt of electricity at me.

I jumped out of the way of the bolt, idly noting that it strafed across the wall for longer than it should have, then I charged. I twisted my neck around to avoid a swipe of her claws, then I slammed my entire bulk into her in order to knock her aside before she could stand to her feet.

Eventually, I got an opening. A flash of skin on her arm appeared, just for a split second, when her cloak lifted slightly from a jerking movement. I crouched low and slammed my clawed hands into the ground to gain the momentum needed to thrust myself forward.

It was barely a nip, but the bite was more than enough. The two of us grappled for only a second as she tried to remove me, but even though she was able to throw me to the side, it was already too late for her. Soon after, her electricity fizzled out, and she was visibly shaking as she crawled across the floor.

"Alright, alright, z'lonzic! You've had your fun, Andalite," the lead Shuldidnian said smugly. He looked around the room, a sly grin spreading across his face. "It looks like we've been successful. Tell me how to counteract the venom, and we'll leave."

‹I…excuse you?›

"Did you not hear me? Lu'oh brane', perhaps that morph of yours has poor senses, no?" the Controller tilted his head as a chuckle escaped his lips, "I said to tell us how to counteract the venom, and we'll be on our way."

‹And why should I believe you?› I growled back, a low clicking erupting from my throat.

"Because Visser Seven is listening in as we speak," the Shuldidnian tapped the left side of his head and brushed away some hair, revealing an earpiece attached to his elfin ear. "My orders were to make it look as though we were attempting to prevent you from stealing or attacking any of our grounded ships or the weapons plant. Ussta, ussta, I was under the assumption that you'd go for those first. But once I heard that you only wanted the server room, I knew the second goal could be completed."

‹Second goal?›

"Whatever you have in that disc is important, no?"

I froze, then tilted my head just a bit. The disk, it was fine, somehow it was mostly untouched. Even though I had been shot at with fire and lightning, it was still kinda intact, if only a bit scratched at the edge from my jaunt in the vents.

"It would be very embarrassing for Visser Three if something happened to a high-value outpost, no? Perhaps worse was that it affects the other Vissers directly, especially should anything happen that would cause issues with our infrastructure, no?"

I blinked at that, jaw dropping in shock at the realization of what was really happening.

Then I chuckled.

‹Those lightning blasts…you took out the security system for the building?› I felt my reptilian lips curl in amusement when the Controller grinned, ‹interesting. I only speculated about your politics. I figured none of the Vissers to go through with it…›

"They rarely get the opportunity to. Now then…ussta waenre?" he motioned to the two envenomed Shuldidnians on the floor, "tell me how to counteract the venom, if you please."

‹Carfentanyl,› I said simply, ‹you'll need a quarter mil…maybe less, due to smaller size. If you can't get that, at least try an etorphine blend, or any powerful tranquilizer to counter the effects.›

The Controller pressed his earpiece close and began speaking something in Shuldidnian. There was a response from the other end, followed by the Controller speaking more and mentioning the counter to the venom. More garbled words were spoken from the earpiece, and the wiry alien sighed.

"I'm being told that the dosage you're suggesting would kill them. Would you be willing to explain?"

God, how am I supposed to tell him without giving myself away? I only know what I do because I snuck into my uncle's office and went through all his notes and journals. I wish this was easier.

‹Trust me, it's the only way in the absence of anti-venom,› I responded, ‹and you'll need to make sure it's done quickly. I can't say much for the Yeerks themselves, but the hosts can be saved if you act fast. And If they start having convulsions, you'll need to forcibly hold them down for their own safety.›

"I see…" the Controller relayed this through his earpiece, sighing tiredly as he moved towards one of his subordinates. "I've sensed no lies from you so far, Andalite srow. Usstan orn khaless dosst khlurysten."

‹I don't see any point in lying here and now. It'll serve me no benefit.›

"You are interesting, Andalite…ah?" The Shuldidnian placed a hand on his earpiece, eyes going wide for a split second, before a contemplative look spread across his face as he pointed directly behind me. "A word of advice, from Visser Seven himself. Should you intend to reach your goal, you should choose the right path. But if you do not choose right, then you may not have another chance here again."

I watched as he left with his two subordinates, still eyeing him warily in case he tried something. After he walked around the corridor, I felt sure I could be mostly safe here. I turned around and thought about what to do.

I obviously went right, because come on, Visser Seven's 'advice' wasn't very subtle. I turned right and kept going until I came upon a single room further down the hall. When I got closer, it was very obvious that I had finally found my target.

I stalked into the server room and made my way towards the control terminal, demorphing as I did so. I pulled the floppy disk from the band on my leg and placed it in the slot, clicking the notification on the computer when the disk was recognized. With a few more clicks, the virus was slowly uploading into the systems of one of the Yeerks' main manufacturing centers.

I knew this would be the one that would set them back far more than my first go at them. And hey, maybe with them being crippled for a while, I could get some proper sleep at night.

The upload completed, and I ejected the disk before quickly placing it into the band on my ankle. In a few short minutes, I morphed Troodon again and sped away, ignoring the pitiful groans of the still envenomed Controllers as I doubled back around.

Once I was past the two dead Hork-Bajir, I quickly made good on my escape. Some alarms rang out from within the building, most likely a backup security procedure in case the normal system was down. I heard Controllers moving towards the building, and I booked it into the wooded hills nearby.

I demorphed as quickly as I could, then I morphed Count.

My body shrank, and fuzz started sprouting over my skin alongside smooth scales. My arms stretched and bent, an extra bone popping out of my wrist as thick muscular tissue connected it to my shoulder. My fingers melted together until there were only four, and the fourth finger quickly elongated with a 'FWOOP' until it was almost as long as my entire body.

Folds of muscle and skin began to slowly emerge from my arm and waist, looking almost as though it were being tugged and pulled taut. The skin connected to a spot on each of my legs just below my thighs, and soon they filled out enough to form my wings.

I felt my skull shifting as my head took on that ever funky-looking muppet shape. My eyes bugged out, the sockets growing larger to accommodate them. I felt my teeth melting away their excess material as they became sharp and vicious, perfect for feasting on the blood of living things.

I felt claws emerging from my hands just as my feet transformed. Soon enough, the finishing touches were made, and I was a strange vampiric muppet monster.

It was weird to think that this was a creature that existed long ago, even if it had to have been modified with DNA from who-knows-what. Without the blood-drinking deal, Count had been fairly cute, and his morph was perfect for a nighttime flight.

I took to the skies, flying high over the trees and towards the nearby roads. Just like the Troodon, Count could see the night as bright as I could see the day. Everything else was asleep, but I'd never felt more awake.

I had to reign the little beast in more than once at the sight and sound of warm-blooded prey below. Count's ears could actually hear the blood pumping through other living things, and the thought of eating them made him excitable. I accidentally veered off course once or twice and flew through the trees, but I quickly got back on track once I cleared my head.

With less of those warm columns of air around, I wasn't able to soar for very long. Count wasn't really meant for big bouts of flight like an eagle, his wings made small silent flaps like an owl's. Gliding through the air and catching what lift I could get was what I managed, but I knew home wasn't too far away.

I demorphed once before reaching town. When I reached town, I looped around the mall just a bit before flying high over the neighborhoods. Once I found mine, I circled back to the forest just behind it and flew into my window from there.

Aunt Jenna came in just as the last of my pterosaur features began to disappear. She made a nervous whine, probably because she was treated to the lovely sight of my still giant, bulbous red eyes and monstrous teeth. Once I no longer looked like a disturbing vampire, I let out a tired sigh and fell back on my bed.

"So, you pulled it off?"

"With some difficulty, yeah," I responded.

I felt her pulling at the band on my foot, and I tilted my head. She held the disk in her hand and gave me a cheerful grin.

"Good. Now I just have to throw this in a compactor, and then I'll call my guy at InGen," she said smugly. "I told you my plan would be better."

"I still had to fight a trio of Shuldidnians," I responded, "and the other day I still nearly got eaten."

"You would have nearly been eaten if you tried your plan," she said flatly.

"At least I'd be in familiar territory with the dinosaurs," I told her, "and don't start with the 'birds are technically dinosaurs' crap. Because I doubt even a T-Rex is as much of a jerk as a Golden Eagle. Hell, my Velociraptor tried to kill me before I acquired it, and it's still friendlier than the eagle."

"Come on, eagles are noble-"

"I had to share my head with a feathered asshole, Aunt Jenna." I ignored her cry of 'language' and let out a small chuckle.

"So, no more fighting this war for a while?" she said hopefully.

I let out a weak noise. "Maybe…at least for another few months. But I wanna at least keep an eye out for anything suspicious," I gave her a firm nod. "I'll try not to do anything drastic. I promise…"

---

"So, you're unusually happy today. Any reason?"

I blinked at the question. Since Melissa had been sitting across from me at lunch, she'd mostly do the talking while I'd listened. Most of the time, she would vent about her parents.

So I wasn't really prepared to answer her question right off the bat.

"Uh, w-well, I finished a lot of the stuff I missed while I was out," I said weakly.

"Yeah, you missed a couple of days. You didn't miss much," she shrugged, "funny story! My parents were pissing and bitching all night the other day. Apparently something is up with The Sharing headquarters."

"They have a headquarters?" I asked in shock.

"It's more like an office/community center," she grumbled. "They have meetings in the gym and sometimes they'll have their bonfires outside near the woods. They normally have their big meetings near the beach."

"Oh wow, an evil empire meeting on a beach," I muttered.

"I know, right?!" she chuckled.

Shit, did I say that out loud?

"Anyway, they're having a bunch of trouble with their computers," she let out a bored huff as she said this. "Guess they're not getting any work done for a long while."

"Hehe, perfect…"

"Huh?"

"I mean, uh, that's perfect!" I said quickly, giving her a smile in order to try to save face. "You know, because that means they can spend more time with you. R-Right?"

Melissa snorted loudly, then it quickly devolved into a series of loud cackles. Quite a few other kids looked at our table, which made me shrink in place just a bit. Eventually, her laughter subsided, and she gave me a flat look.

"Yeah, no," the girl blew a strand of hair out of her face and shook her head. "I asked dad if he wanted to go fishing. He's all 'that's nice dear'. I asked again, and he was like, 'what? I didn't hear you!'. Pfft!" the girl made a 'dumb face' and lowered her voice, "duuurh, I'm Hendrick Chapman! I'm such an idiot! I can't hear my daughter when she's right in front of me. It's not like I don't love her or anything."

"Oof! I mean, maybe he is busy?" I offered, to which I received a flat glare in response. "Man, I hope my uncle doesn't get that bad. He's been busy working on some important projects lately."

"Oh yeah, he works at InGen, right? The guy who made the fish?"

"Uh yeah…how did you-"

Melissa held up a fishstick and gave me a smile. "These fish! They're really good!"

"Ah yeah, I should probably spread it around that you shouldn't eat those if you have seafood allergies," I said offhandedly.

"W-What?!"

"Yeah, my uncle puts cuttlefish DNA in those," I said, pointing at the fishsticks. "It's supposed to help them deal with having their growth sped up. The 'failed' fish can change colors."

Melissa immediately flung the fishstick back onto her plate and started poking it till it was further away from her. A few other kids had turned their heads toward us and gave me queasy looks before turning away.

"Ugh, I did not need to learn that today."

"Just wait until they release the dwarf elephant," I let out a small snort, "the pet of the future! Now you too can own the elephant you've always wanted."

"Very funny," the blonde shook her head.

Oh, she thought I was joking? That's gonna be interesting to see in about six months.

"So, are you doing anything later today?" Melissa asked.

"Uh, w-well I was gonna…I actually don't know," I shrugged, "I was grounded for a couple weeks, and during that I was busy with homework and catching up on schoolwork."

"Now that you're out, you don't know what it's like to not be in," she mused, then she slowly sipped from a carton of milk with a solemn look. "That's how it always starts. Sometimes you think the warden was right, that it's better being on the inside once you've forgotten how to live out there."

"I was grounded! I wasn't in prison!"

"Same thing," Melissa shrugged, "anyway, so what are you doing? I was thinking…"

"Uh, what were you thinking?"

"Wanna go to the arcade at the mall after school?" she asked, a grin cracking across her face as she played with her hair. "I've had my eye on one of those really big stuffed animals. And if someone were to win enough tickets…"

"Huh, yeah, the arcade sounds good! Maybe I could invite my aunt too."

"...Ah, y-yeah, about that-" Melissa blinked at me owlishly for a few seconds, "you see…I was kinda hoping it'd be just you and me. Y'know," she motioned to me with both hands, "like…like a…w-well?"

"What?"

"Oh god, you're hopeless!" she groaned.

I tilted my head at her quizzically, then gave her a tired shrug.

"I mean, if you wanna just hang, I'm down!" I said cheerfully.

"Great, it's a date!" the blonde cried out. Then her cheeks turned a bit red, and she looked away. "I mean, w-well not really! It's just, we're hanging out-"

"Eh, I think today is the 21st," I said offhandedly. When she gave me a confused look, I cleared my throat. "Uh, you know, because you mentioned the date? Today's the 21st."

"...Never change, Aaron."

---

Aaron (Blank), morphs acquired:

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos, acquired at The Gardens)

Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus, acquired at The Gardens)

Flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus, acquired at The Gardens)

Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis, acquired at The Gardens)

Death Adder (Acanthophis antarcticus, acquired at The Gardens)

Horned Rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes, acquired at The Gardens)

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Alright, so that's out of the way. I tried to add a little bit more levity to this one, just in certain places. The normal Animorphs series had a decent balance of fun and seriousness all the way through, and after constantly rereading every book, I figured I'd ease my way into recapturing that effect. But this chapter is still mostly about Aaron just getting into the war and still being serious about things...mostly.

Now then, onto the reviews.

Negima Uzumaki: Aaron will get better dino-morphs next true chapter, and I've hinted at what he'll get in the previous interlude. As for David...Pfft, no, no David here. I had him on my original outlines early on, but then I scrapped all potential plot-lines he could have been involved in because it didn't serve any use to the story.

Matt: Ah yeah, those kids Sarah had with her have ambiguous fates. They might be alive, they might not be. It won't really matter to the story overall, honestly.

Magusmon: For Megamorphs 2, the fact that they didn't retain their dino-morphs from the past had to do with narrative reasons (it would be serious escalation if they managed to regularly curbstomp Visser Three with their T-Rex morphs), and lore-wise it had something to do with the nature of the Sario Rip locking the morphs they acquired from use because of how Sario Rips work. As for the setting itself...well, we know more about dinos know than we did in the 90s. I'll be using all that knowledge to my benefit, when I get there.

lorenzo52lara: Aaron doesn't actually know how to use the cube, just that it can be used to confer the power to morph. Because of this, he won't figure that out until he meets a free Andalite to teach him how to activate it. Fortunately, that might come sooner than you think...

Chandagnac: Thank you for your critique, and your insight. Yeah, Animorphs really was that one series that couldn't quite be placed well around pop culture of the late 90s/early 00s, especially with that bomb of a TV show. For me I'd basically pick up a random book in the series while in school at the time and read what I could, so I never read the series from start to finish until much later than that, what I got at first was a very non-linear picture of the series at first. As for your response to the Shuldidnians...yeah, I get it, space-elves are kinda 'eh'. Just having "Elves...but in SPACE" is kind of boring. Hopefully I can make mine interesting.

Cyrannus: For starters, sometimes Aaron's adventures will coincide with the Animorph's adventures, but not always. So next true chapter will take place during 'The Message'. As for the interludes, they're to show what everybody else is doing (I.E the Animorphs, the Yeerks, the people Aaron saved, InGen, and many other parties that will be involved). Many of the interludes do set up plot lines, especially the next one that'll involve a plot line in chapter 5...well, you'll see.

As always, lease leave any thoughts, questions, and constructive criticism in your reviews. And thank you for reading.