The group found themselves inside the turtle again.
"Should we go outside and see where The Ellimist transported us?" asked Mista.
"Sure. Mista, Narancia, and Marco, you three go," Bucciarati ordered.
Jake narrowed his eyes at Bruno. "With all due respect, Bucciarati, Marco is under my orders, not yours."
"Shut your mouth, you little shit," Abbacchio snapped.
Jake turned his glare toward the tall stand user.
"My apologies, Jake," Bruno simply replied. "May I borrow Marco?"
"Sure. You seem to be borrowing a lot of my teammates lately," Jake muttered.
"Hey, I chose to be under his leadership," Rachel shot back.
"And based off of your attitude, I think she made the right choice. You're just a child," Abbacchio told Jake.
Jake's head snapped up; his eyes filled with rage. He clenched his hand into a fist to stop it from shaking. "This isn't the time for remarks like that," he said coldly. "I'll go with Mista and Narancia."
"Fine with me," Marco said.
The three boys went out of the turtle to find themselves on a boat.
"The Ellimist put us on a small boat," Narancia said. "We'll stay out here and steer it."
"We could morph dolphin and check the water for a Yeerk ship or an underwater stand user," Cassie suggested.
"Good idea," Giorno agreed. "Although do you have any underwater battle morphs for if you get into trouble?"
We've got hammerhead shark morphs, Tobias replied. Those seem like the better option.
"Alright, animorphs," Jake announced, "hammerhead shark morph it is. Ax, you can go tiger shark."
Okay, Prince Jake.
"Stay safe," Trish said, her face clouded with worry.
Rachel glanced at Bucciarati. "Should I go with them?"
"Sure," he answered, absorbed in his laptop, probably trying to find out more information about the boss.
"Alright then." Rachel rose from her seat, exiting the turtle with the others.
"Cassie, wait," Giorno said, taking off one of his ladybug brooches. "Take this. I'll be able to track you with it in case something goes wrong."
Cassie took it out of his hand. "Thank you, Giorno," she said, smiling at him. Her fingers brushed his. She turned and exited the turtle.
The others were already in the water, morphing. Cassie jumped into water beside the boat, focusing on the hammerhead shark DNA inside her body.
Her legs melted together to form a tail. Her face pushed out into a snout, and her skin began to turn a leathery gray. Gills replaced her lungs, and her eyes went to either side of her head. Controlling the morph so she still had her hands and arms, she reached over and attached the brooch to the side of her face, the shark brain hardly registering the pinch of the brooch's needle in its skin. She finished the morph and her arms and fingers melted into fins.
We're all set, Ax reported.
As we go down deeper we might not be able to reach you with our thought speak, Jake told Mista and Narancia.
"Will you be able to find us?" Mista asked. "There's a big possibility we might get separated."
"This is a big body of water," added Narancia worriedly.
We'll be fine, Tobias assured them.
We'll probably only be gone about an hour, added Marco.
Giorno is tracking me using his brooch, Cassie said. We'll be fine, like Tobias said.
The animorphs dove underwater and began their search.
Ax, how much longer till we have to demorph?
One hour and thirty earth minutes, Prince Jake.
You know they're your minutes now too, right? Marco asked.
A half hour since they had started, and there was no sign of anything.
Maybe we should split up, Rachel suggested. We shouldn't go too far away but we'd cover more ground if we were more than six feet away from each other.
Good thinking, Xena, Marco teased, calling her his nickname for her.
Let's not stray too far away from the group, Tobias added.
Jake gave his okay and the group separated a little further, still within thought speak range and able to pick up each other's scents.
What seemed like a short time later, Cassie broke the silence. Guys! There's a Yeerk ship headed for me!
Where are you?! Jake demanded frantically.
AHHHH! Cassie cried out.
Cassie! What happened?! Rachel cried out in distress.
Ship….hit me…..couldn't….swim away in time…. Cassie's thought-speak was jumbled.
Everyone get out of the way! I can feel the ship coming! Swim down and towards Cassie! Jake ordered.
The animorphs swam as fast as they could, down, down, and then followed Cassie's scent. Above them, the ship passed by. Rachel reached Cassie, nudging her and swimming upwards while the others helped.
Cassie, demorph now! Tobias shouted.
Cassie groaned in response.
Cassie, demorph or you're going to die, Jake said firmly, hiding his fear- no, terror.
Cassie began to shrink in size. She was doing it. She was demorphing. But they weren't even close to the surface yet.
Hold your breath, Rachel said.
Cassie's demorph finished, and she inhaled a bought of water into her lungs. She was drowning! She began to flail.
Morph back, Cassie! Concentrate on the shark DNA! Ax called to her.
Cassie's arms began to melt into fins. She hurried the process along as fast as she could, and soon she was no longer a drowning human girl, but a hammerhead shark once again.
That was close, she told the others, sounding shaken up.
We should report our findings back to the others, Tobias said.
Or we could go after the Yeerk ship and take it down, Marco suggested.
Wow, when did you get so brave, Marco? Teased Rachel. Am I finally rubbing off on you?
You do have a point- if we eliminate the enemy before they reach shore, we won't have to worry about fighting whatever stand users as well as the Yeerks, Jake agreed.
You okay, Cassie? Rachel asked her friend in private thought-speak.
I'm fine, Cassie replied, trying to shake it off. Let's find this Yeerk ship.
It wasn't long until the animorphs came across it. The first thing the ship did was detect them, and start shooting at them.
AH, SHIT! Marco yelled as his fin got hit, leaving a bloody stump where it used to be.
We've got to get inside the ship, Prince Jake, Ax said, dodging a blast by a millimeter.
How? Tobias asked. We go near it and we're dead!
Wait, maybe we don't have to get inside the ship, Rachel said suddenly. We need to get Giorno's brooch off Cassie near the ship, and the rest should be taken care of.
Huh? Why do you say that? Marco asked.
Remember how Giorno gave Bucciarati his brooch and made the clone of the turtle stand? And it sucked the boss into it, bought Jake enough time to pull him out of there. I bet Giorno did something similar with this brooch.
Cassie thought for a second. Knowing Giorno, he probably did. But how are we going to get close enough to the ship to activate it?
We distract the sensors on the ship, Jake answered.
Marco, can you swim okay? Rachel asked.
I can swim okay. Not great, Marco responded.
I'll swim right with Ax, and Tobias can swim left with Jake, suggested Rachel. Cassie and Marco can get the brooch onto the ship.
It's worth a try, Jake agreed. Now!
The animorphs began to swim in a frenzy, distracting the sensors on the ship. Cassie raced toward the ship, Marco on her tail.
Ah! Ax's thought-speak shouted. It got my tail! My tail is blown right off!
I've got you, Rachel exclaimed, swimming toward him to support him. He was losing a lot of blood.
Cassie was close enough to the ship that she managed to shake the brooch off and quickly she and Marco tried to swim away.
The animorphs found themselves being thrown backwards, a sudden current of water sending them spiraling. Even underwater, they could hear the sound of the Yeerk ship being crushed under the weight of the thing that Giorno's brooch turned into.
It's a whale, Jake said, surprised.
Mission accomplished. Let's get out of here before Ax bleeds to death, Tobias replied.
The animorphs supported their teammate as they rose to the surface, Ax demorphing as slowly as he could while the animorphs raced to the surface. Ax had finished his demorph before he reached the surface and, like Cassie, struggled to breathe, but the animorphs broke through the surface a few moments later.
"Hey! There's Ax!" Mista's voice reached them.
Mista steered the boat toward them, and he and Narancia pulled a wet Ax onboard. The animorphs each demorphed and were pulled from the water.
"The mission was a success," Jake reported. "Giorno helped us destroy the Yeerk ship. We didn't even have to sneak onto it."
"Good. We were beginning to get worried about you," Narancia said.
"Where are we headed?" asked Marco.
"Rome is our next destination," called Abbacchio from the turtle. "We should be there by nightfall."
The animorphs went into the turtle, where Cassie hugged Giorno and Rachel reported the mission to Bucciarati. Giorno and Bucciarati explained that while they were gone, there had been a message from some unknown ally on their laptop who promised to help, so they were headed there to meet him at the Coliseum. Jake wasn't sure he agreed with Bucciarati's decision, but he didn't voice his opinion.
"Rachel was the one who figured out what to do with Giorno's brooch," Jake admitted to Bruno. "And her plan worked."
Her plan was totally Rachel style, Tobias added.
The corners of Bucciarati's lips turned up into a small smile. "That's great, Rachel. You know, since Giorno joined the team, I've learned a lot about sharing leadership responsibilities." He looked pointedly at Jake, who looked away from his gaze.
"Right," Jake muttered. He couldn't help but feel annoyed. Bruno might be older than him, but he didn't have to deal with the things he did on a daily basis. There wasn't always time to stop and ponder decisions, sometimes he had to make a split-second choice. The others counted on him for it. But he didn't feel like telling Bucciarati this.
"Hmm," Abbacchio muttered purposely. Both Jake and Giorno didn't acknowledge him.
Instead everyone sat down and waited for the boat to reach Rome.