Mista got out of the truck and spotted Giorno. "Giorno! Hey, what happened?"

"Over there," Giorno said, pointing in the direction he had come. "There's something over there! These two giant centipedes with razor sharp teeth were guarding it. They shot at me with these laser guns! I defeated them using my stand, and one started eating the other and itself."

"What are you talking about?"

Taxxons. It sounds like Taxxons. They're aliens, and they're also cannibalistic, Tobias said.

"Who said that?" Giorno asked.

Tobias swooped down and rested on Mista's shoulder.

I did. My name is Tobias. What you just encountered were Taxxons.

"You're not crazy. The hawk can talk," Mista said. "He helped me in battle just now."

Bucciarati and the rest of the gang came running from the dock.

"What happened?" Bucciarati asked worriedly, seeing his teammates injured.

"I completed my mission. Sale is taken care of. I got shot in the process. Giorno was attacked by Taxxons," Mista said.

"What?" Narancia asked.

"Giant centipedes with razor sharp teeth. They were going to take a bite out of me," Giorno said.

"What's with the hawk?" Fugo asked Mista.

My name is Tobias, Tobias said.

"Who said that?" Abbacchio asked, looking around wildly.

"The hawk. He helped me in battle. He changed into this human-scorpion-deer hybrid thing and helped me take down Sale," Mista said.

Narancia laughed. "Now you've lost it."

He hasn't, Tobias said. I morphed Andalite and helped him take that guy down.

Tobias, what are you doing? Rachel's thought-speak voice asked. Tobias spotted a cat sitting nearby.

Rachel? Is that you? He asked.

Yeah, it's me. Everyone else is on my back in flea morph.

You helped that Mista guy in battle? Jake asked. And told him about us?

Yeah. I mean, the Yeerks are after them too. I think they have a right to know, Tobias argued.

Sounds fair to me, Cassie agreed. They're obviously not Controllers.

I don't like this, Ax chimed in.

"Andalite?" Fugo asked.

Shhh! Tobias snapped. If the Taxxons were nearby, human-Controllers could be too! Keep your voice down!

"Let's go to the restroom and away from this crowd," Bucciarati said. "We need to attend to their wounds."

Dang, this guy is really calm. I would've thought he'd be freaking out by now, Marco commented.

Bucciarati and Abbachio guarded the restroom door while Fugo tried to attend to Mista's wound by stapling it shut. Giorno wrapped a bandage around his Dracon beam burn and his injured hand.

Would it be okay if my friends demorphed? They morphed fleas, Tobias told Bruno. And that cat.

"We're going to need to talk with you afterwards," Bucciarati said.

Sure. Can do, Tobias agreed.

Ax demorphed in the handicapped stall in the men's room, while Jake and Marco took the other stalls. Rachel and Cassie demorphed in the women's room.

When Jake and Marco stepped out of the stalls, Narancia said, "You guys look familiar…..hey, you're the kids who Bucciarati paid for at the restaurant!"

Hearing his name, Bucciarati turned and walked into the men's room, Abbacchio following. "So you are," he said, looking at Jake and Marco.

Ax's stall door opened and he walked out in his human morph. "I am ready. Deee," he said.

"Ax is an Andalite. This is his human morph," Jake explained.

"Andalite? You mean that thing Tobias morphed to help me?" asked Mista.

"Yeah. Now can we come in?" came a voice outside the restroom.

Rachel and Cassie stood there. "Yeah, come on in," Marco said. "Surely this doesn't already look suspicious."

Cassie frowned at Mista's wound. "Was that at least washed before it was stapled?" She asked worriedly. "It could get infected."

"Yeah, I washed it," Fugo said.

"Who are you? Tell us everything," Abbacchio demanded.

"I'm Jake, this is my cousin Rachel, my friend Marco, my friend Cassie, this is Ax, and the bird out there, Tobias, used to be human," Jake said. "We're the animorphs. Animal morphers."

"Is that your stand?" Giorno asked.

"Stand? I don't think so. A dying Andalite prince gave us the power to morph- we can acquire an animal's DNA and become it. The Yeerks are invading Earth, and we're the only ones who can stop them. Our friend Erek, who's an Android, told us that the Yeerk in charge of invading Earth wants to infect your boss to get more Controllers."

"Controllers? Yeerks?" Narancia asked.

"They're like gray slugs that slither into your ear canal and squeeze themselves in your brain. They take control of your body. They've already enslaved other alien species- the Gedds, the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons- and we fight them. We kick Yeerk butt with our morphs!" Rachel said.

"I've been a Controller," Jake added grimly. "It's horrible. You can't move unless the Yeerk wants you to. The Yeerk controls everything you do. The Yeerks have to feed on Kadrona rays every three days at this place called the Yeerk pool. Their hosts are free for a little bit during this, and sometimes they scream and cry and beg to be let go. Others are silent because they've lost all hope of ever being free again."

"That's horrible," Giorno said softly. Bucciarati's eyes flickered with disdain.

"The Yeerks are after your boss. We took a plane here to try to protect him," Tobias's human voice came from outside the restroom. Wordlessly he was let through.

"It seems you already have powers you can use to protect yourselves with, but we're the Yeerk experts here. If you don't mind, we'd like to join your group until we defeat Visser Three here," Jake said.

"Visser Three?" Narancia asked.

"The Yeerk in charge of the Earth invasion," Mista explained. "Tobias told me about him. The only Controller to obtain an Andalite host body with the power to morph."

Abbacchio scowled. "If you think we're going to let you join our group, you're nuts. How do we know you're telling the truth?"

Turning to Bucciarati, Jake asked, "Do you mind if we morph? Or in Ax and Tobias's case, demorph."

"Go ahead," he nodded.

Tobias demorphed to hawk, Ax to Andalite. Cassie began to morph osprey, Rachel began to morph fly, Marco morphed cockroach, and Jake morphed dog.

In Marco and Rachel's cases, their morphs were especially not pretty to look at. Rachel's face was the first part of her to become fly, and the first part of Marco to become cockroach was his legs and arms. Narancia turned and vomited in the sink.

"Been there before buddy," Marco tried to say, but it came out as "Been ere efore-" before being cut off as his mouth became more roach than human.

When the morphing finished, Bucciarati's team was silent.

"Well, I guess they are telling the truth," Fugo said.

The animorphs demorphed. Some of their onlookers (like Narancia) had to look away.

"You can defeat these Yeerks and leave us alone," Abbacchio said. "Do it yourselves and just stay out of our way."

"I think having them join us could be useful," Giorno said. "When that Dracon beam got me and those Taxxons attacked me, I didn't know what to do. I'd never seen anything like them before."

"The Yeerks have obviously figured out your whereabouts," Jake said. "We can help you. We need to finish this mission now. If the Yeerks infest you, they'll sort through your memories and see us. The Yeerks think we're Andalites. If they find out we're just American kids, we and our families will be in danger." His voice darkened at the last part.

Bucciarati thought for a second. "You know what? You're right. You know the enemy. It could be useful to have your help."

Abbacchio was glaring at Jake. "You're just a kid. Who do you think you are, some sort of savior?"

Jake narrowed his eyes. "No. I think that this mission is crucial to defending Earth from the Yeerks. I'm not in it just to protect you. This is about everyone."

That shut Abbacchio up. He and Jake continued to glare daggers into each other before Bucciarati said, "Okay, animorphs, you should move out. We've got a message from the boss coming and you can't be around to witness it. Why don't you explore for a little while? We'll come get you. Just stay nearby."

"What, do you think you're our father? Our babysitter?" Marco sneered.

Jake silenced him with a look. "Sure, Bucciarati. We'll do that. But first, I don't think we've been introduced to anyone on your team."

"This is Abbachio," Bruno said, gesturing to him. "And I'm Bruno Bucciarati. You can just call me Bucciarati."

"I'm Mista, but you already know that," Mista said.

"Narancia."

"Fugo."

"I'm Giorno Giovanna."

"Nice to meet you," Cassie said.

"You'll have to tell us what stands are later though," Rachel said.

Bucciarati nodded to her. "We will, I promise," he said.

The four kids, one hawk-turned-human, and one Andalite-turned-human walked out of the restrooms.

"I can smell so much food. Fooo-duh," Ax was saying.

"Ax-man, we don't have money for food!" Tobias said. "Sorry."

As their voices faded away, Bucciarati looked at Abbacchio.

"I can't believe you let them join us," Abbacchio said. "I trust your judgement, Bucciarati, but I don't approve of this."

"Abbacchio, they'll be a good addition to our team. They may be just teenagers, but they can help us."

"How do you know they won't morph flies and spy on our meeting?"

"They're Americans, I doubt they're looking to get involved in the Italian mafia," Narancia answered.

Abbacchio just sighed.