"I'm glad you're okay," Rachel told Narancia. "I wish I could have helped out."
Narancia smiled at her. "It's no problem. I'm fine, everything is good."
"Ooooh, do you two like each other?" Mista asked teasingly.
"What? No! We're just friends," Rachel scoffed.
"She's kind of dating Birdboy here," Marco said, gesturing to Tobias. "If anything, it's Cassie and Giorno who like each other."
Cassie and Giorno exchanged glances and looked away from each other.
"Oooh, you're right," Mista whispered to Marco. "Aw, young love!"
Giorno narrowed his eyes at them.
"I think they're right," Narancia popped up. "When Cassie was a Yeerk in my head, I could sort of….feel her feelings towards Giorno."
It was Cassie's turn to glare at someone.
"You make the perfect couple," Trish said nonchalantly. "Girl who loves animals and nature and a boy who can create plants and animals? Match made in heaven."
Jake heard all of this going down and chose to ignore it, though it wasn't easy. He still had feelings for Cassie but he was trying to push them to the side. Easier said than done. He peered at the Cassie and Giorno out of the corner of his eye and noticed how close their hands were. They were touching, and the two were sitting right next to each other.
"Hopefully they don't invite me to their wedding," he mumbled under his breath.
Bucciarati gave him the side eye but said nothing. Jake burned with embarrassment realizing the capo had heard him.
When the gang and the animorphs arrived at the airport, Lourdes the Chee left the group. Having seen the violence they faced and unable to participate due to her pacifist programming, she didn't feel like she'd be much help. After she left, the rest of the group went into action. Narancia and Tobias were lookout. Ax was standing guard with Abbacchio and Rachel, Cassie and Marco had the turtle, and Giorno used his stand to check for signs of life on the plane they were stealing.
"Nothing. Not even a cockroach," he reported.
"Good," Bucciarati said. "We'll be taking this plane at a speed that no stand can follow. I hope it'll be fast enough to leave Visser Three behind as well. We'll be in the air for two hours before we land."
Abbacchio was going to use Moody Blues to pilot the plane, getting everything in place with Ax's help, in human morph. Giorno, Mista, Jake, and Rachel were outside guarding the plane still.
Someone is approaching the plane! Tobias called, landing inside.
A man was slowly walking toward them. Mista lifted his gun. "Hey! I'm gonna have to ask you to leave!"
Rachel, in grizzly bear morph, reared up on her hind legs. I'll take care of this guy!
"Rachel, no," Jake said. "Give him a chance to back off first."
"He's not doing that," Mista said, aiming his gun. "So I'll make him!"
And so Mista killed him. It turned out the guy was a stand user.
Giorno approached the body. "He's dead," he confirmed. "But that was almost too easy- it was like he wanted to you to shoot him."
"Jealous of our skills, are you?" Mista scoffed, insulted. Sex Pistols added their comments.
"Guys, let's go," Jake said impatiently.
They entered the plane, Rachel demorphing as she walked.
The plane took off.
"Do you know how reckless you were being? Trying to attack a stand user?" Jake snapped at Rachel. "You could've-"
Rachel cut him off. "Oh, so I'm not supposed to be reckless unless it benefits you somehow?"
"That's not what I said."
"It's what you're thinking! I know it. I'm supposed to follow your orders and be a good soldier until you need me to do something dangerous. You're saving me for a time when you need me to do something no one else would. Like go after David. Just admit it!"
Jake remained silent. Rachel marched past him, aware of everyone else's eyes on them, and stood beside Bucciarati's seat.
"Until we get back home, I'm not listening to any of your orders, Jake," Rachel said coldly. "Bucciarati is my leader for now."
"If that's what you want, fine," Jake said just as coldly. "You're his problem now." He took a seat in the front of the plane.
Rachel moved to sit behind Bucciarati's seat, but he stood up. She looked at him.
"Rachel," he said quietly, "I don't know much about your morphing abilities. But if you want me to lead you, I'll do my best."
"I trust you not to use me like Jake does," Rachel mumbled. "You'll treat me like a person instead of a weapon."
Bucciarati patted her shoulder, unable to think of a response, and sat down again, making a mental note to talk to her alone later, without Jake around. Rachel sat behind Bucciarati and listened as he and Trish discussed the boss.
"Mista, get your gun ready," Giorno said. "I hear something."
"Yeah, that's probably the engine," Mista responded.
"I'll morph," Jake offered. The tiger's stripes were already appearing on his morphing outfit.
Mista aimed the gun at the freezer and Giorno opened it. There were just ice trays there.
"Forgive me, Mista," Giorno apologized. "It must've been my imagination."
"Your sense of humor is sick, dude. What are those, chicken fingers?"
Giorno looked at the bottom shelf of the freezer and saw them- the dead guy's fingers.
"What's going on? How did those get there?" Marco asked.
Bruno stood up from his seat. "What's going on over there? Something I should know about?" He was already making his way over with Trish and Rachel behind him. Narancia joined the group and they crowded around to look at the fingers.
"There's no life coming from them," Giorno reported.
"So how did those stupid frickin' fingers get on this stupid frickin' plane?" Mista exclaimed.
"That's what I'd like to know," Bucciarati said. "We have to get them out of here. I'm going to throw them out of the plane."
"You can't open a widow," Narancia pointed out.
"Hold onto something. I'll open a zipper on the plane and throw them off."
He did that faster than seemed possible, and Narancia and Mista sighed with relief.
Everyone went back to their seats. It was quiet for a few minutes until Giorno shouted for his stand to cut off his arm.
This time, the animorphs found they could see the stand- a lump of pulsating flesh that was draining Giorno's life energy. Mista shot his hand clear off. Bucciarati and Cassie knelt down beside Giorno, concerned.
"You can heal yourself, right?" Cassie asked worriedly.
"I can," he responded. "But we have to figure out how it works."
Mista shot some more bullets at it but it got his stand, absorbing some of the Sex Pistols into itself. Mista cried out as blood spurted from his wounds. Narancia then tried to get it with Aerosmith but it too went after his stand and left him incapacitated.
"Trish, get in the closet and hide," Bruno ordered. Trish began to run toward the closet, but the stand chased her.
Giorno waved his arm and then the stand attached to his one good arm.
"Movement! It's attracted to movement!" he shouted.
Jake charged Giorno, and the stand moved from Giorno's arm to Jake's. Without a moment to spare, Jake smashed a plane window, holding his arm out, and cut it off using the broken glass. He collapsed, his arm a bleeding stump much like Giorno's had been. But he gritted his teeth through the white-hot pain and focused on morphing to undo the damage. Giorno blocked the plane window so no more air was rushing in. Then he began to replace his severed arm.
"Now I can heal Narancia and Mista," he said.
"Good job, Jake," Bucciarati told the animorph. "Now team, lets-" A sudden explosion shook the plane.
The Yeerks found us. They're firing Dracon beams at us, Ax reported from the cockpit.
Instantly the animorphs began to morph. Jake was already a tiger. Cassie morphed wolf, Tobias morphed Andalite, Marco morphed wolf as well, and Rachel morphed grizzly.
"Shit! That stand….it's back! But how?" Bucciarati asked.
Sure enough, that stand was back on the plane.
"Well, we're flying faster than the Yeerk ship to get away from them, of course the stand is attracted to us if it's attracted to whatever moves the fastest," Trish pointed out.
"Giorno, heal Narancia and Mista in the turtle," Bucciarati ordered. In a flash the three disappeared inside the turtle.
"Bucciarati, we're losing altitude," Abbacchio yelled from the cockpit. "We've been hit one too many times!"
"Rachel, guard Trish," Bucciarati ordered, remembering she had said he was her leader now.
Rachel nodded her grizzly bear head. Bucciarati went into the cockpit with Abbacchio and Ax, holding the turtle. Before the stand could attack him, Rachel moved quickly, and the stand attached itself to her.
"Rachel!" Trish cried out.
I'm okay, Rachel replied. It doesn't hurt but I'm beginning to feel….weaker.
Trish began to feel a surge of panic. What could she do? Nothing. She didn't have morphing powers. She didn't have a stand. She couldn't-
"Trish." She looked beside her in awe. Was that….a stand? "I am your stand, Trish. My name is Spice Girl. Your circumstances have awakened me."
Suddenly, another Dracon beam blow hit the plane and they fell forward. But to Trish and the animorphs surprise, when they slammed against the hard wall of the plane, it was soft.
Whoa, what's going on? Marco asked in awe.
"I've awakened my stand," Trish replied. "I…..I think I have the power to soften things."
"That's right, Trish," Spice Girl said. "And we're going to use your ability to save the others."
Spice Girl punched the stand on Rachel's arm, and it splattered into pieces.
Whoa, Marco said.
Stay very still, everyone, Jake said.
That turned out to be impossible to do, as another blast hit the plane. This time the stand latched itself onto Tobias. He slashed at it with his Andalite tail, but it attached itself to it. Spice Girl punched it off again.
"We can't keep doing this," Trish said desperately. "If we slow down, the Yeerks will blast the plane to bits. If we speed up, the stand will get us. It's hopeless!"
Before Spice Girl could say anything, Tobias spoke.
Trish, he suggested, maybe you could turn the outside of the plane soft? The Dracon beam might not have the same effect if it hits something soft.
"To do that, she would have to touch the outside of the plane," Spice Girl answered.
"I don't know if I can do it," Trish cried, trembling.
You can, Tobias answered. The others will distract the stand. I'll help you through it. I believe in you, Trish.
Something about Tobias's words struck a chord in her.
"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "Let's do this."
Jake pounced and the stand went after him. Rachel ran towards the cockpit while Marco ran for the closet. Jake leapt over the chairs. Cassie stood in front of Trish to protect her in case the stand decided to go after her. With the stand occupied, Tobias used his tail to slash the window cover off the broken window. Trish had just started to reach her arm out when Tobias curved his tail around her, knocking her to the ground. An explosion sounded, and when she got to her feet, the wing of the plane was missing.
"Thanks, Tobias," she stammered, swallowing nervously. She reached out her hand again and touched the side of the plane. Instantly it softened, spreading around the entire plane. It went from speeding towards certain death to drifting slowly to the ground. A Dracon beam blast caught the tail of the plane. A few moments later, there was an explosion, but the plane continued to drift slowly to the ground.
The Yeerk ship dove for the plane, but suddenly Ax (presumably) pulled the plane up out of the way. The ship missed the plane by mere inches. The stand dove out the window, attracted to the ship now that it was moving faster than the plane. Trish had done it. She had saved the day. The stand was now the Yeerks' problem. She covered the broken window.
Bucciarati came out of the cockpit. "What happened?"
The animorphs demorphed and Trish explained everything to him.
"You were very brave, Trish," Bucciarati said, a small smile on his face. "I'm proud of you."
Trish couldn't help but smile back. "Thank you, Bucciarati. That means a lot coming from you."
Tobias, demorphed to a hawk, flew and perched himself of Trish's shoulder. You know, you and I aren't that different after all, he commented, sounding thoughtful. I don't have any family left, either- I know it can be tough. If you ever want to talk, I'm here.
"Thank you, Tobias," Trish said. "I think I'll take you up on that offer, if you don't mind. And thanks for your help back there. You saved my life."
Tobias hopped from her shoulder to the floor, morphing to human. "Teammates help each other," he said when he was fully human. "I knew you had it in you to save everyone. You might have helped to stop the Yeerks following us, too." He smiled at her.
As both of them went to sit down to talk, Giorno, Narancia, and Mista entered, fully healed.
"I didn't know Trish was so badass," Mista said.
"I did," Narancia answered. "She's really strong."
"She saved us all," Giorno mused.
"Of course she did," Rachel replied, watching Tobias and Trish talk. She smiled to herself. Her boyfriend was finally making a friend.
The team waited for the plane to reach the ground.