Story note: This story is told from the perspective of my Animorphs OC.
My name's Ryan. I can't tell you my last name or my address. I can't even tell you the name of the city or state I live in. What I can tell you is that Earth is in danger. Not just the usual dangers of global warming and deforestation and such. I'm talking something potentially worse. We're in danger from aliens.
Okay, I know. I sound like that quack scientist, Dr. Phenomenous. But I'm serious. And I'm not even talking about the well known alien threats seen in Angel Grove. If only we could be so lucky as to just have a team of superheroes come in and save us. But no. We aren't that lucky. Instead, my friends and I are stuck fighting a secret war against a parasitic alien race that could, literally, be using anyone as their host. And when I say 'anyone', I mean it. Your mom, your dad, your teacher. Hell, even the president could be one of them.
Those people hosting a yeerk? We call those controllers. And, as much as you might not think so, there's as many willing controllers as there are unwilling. I should know. I've not only seen the difference. I almost was one of the unwilling ones. That's the story I'm going to be telling.
To start, I'm one of those weird kids. I'll admit it. Hell, I embrace it. I love being weird. I sit there in class with my baggy jeans with the chains hanging off them and my black t-shirts. Yeah, I'm a goth. My moms, mostly the one who gave birth to me, find it annoying. She wishes I'd wear more color. You'd think she'd have been thrilled when I decided to add some crimson and such into the mix. Okay, dark colors, still goth. Mom wanted something like a pastel but that's never going to happen.
Alright, I'm going off on a tangent here. Sorry.
So, where was I...right, weird kid. I wasn't the type who you would see hanging out in the mall with the likes of the school's blonde bombshell and her sweet and gentle best friend. You wouldn't see me at an arcade with the school's biggest goofball and his more level headed best friend. I was more of a loner. You might see me in a corner of a library, reading books about the occult or perusing the horror movie section of the local video store. That all changed when I agreed to go to a Sharing meeting. Mom and Mim thought it would be good for me. Go to a place where a bunch of kids my age would gather and such. Makes sense...in theory.
For the most part, the meeting wasn't too bad. There was food, drinks, people milling about and chilling. All in all, a good time. Until things went from upstairs in a well lit space to down into what I could only describe as some evil villain's lair. Complete with the sounds of screams.
Understandably, I panicked. I did NOT want to be there. But when I tried to run, the others held me back and forced me into a line leading up to some kind of underground pool with an eerie red light shining over it. And the closer I was pushed towards it, the harder I struggled.
Admittedly, I needed to stop fighting so hard when a group of...creatures covered in sharp blades surrounded those of us who were trying to get away. I would later learn that those things were an alien species called Hork Bajir, but it would take a little while. Just as I would learn that the slug-like things swimming around in the pools were called Yeerks. Before that happened, though, I had to escape.
I never thought that I'd ever feel as scared or helpless as I did that moment. But it got worse as I was forced down on my knees and they shoved my head into the water. I barely got where I could hold my breath and I started struggling and trying to get free from the iron grips holding me down. The sensation of something trying to crawl its way into my ear caused something to click inside my mind.
'No!'
My mind screamed and I shut my eyes tightly, trying to will away everything and everyone around me. There was what sounded like an explosion and the feeling of...I couldn't explain it then and I still can't explain it now. The best I can compare it to is a bottle of soda shaken to the point it, literally, explodes. The water and the things inside were shoved away from me, including the one that had been halfway inside my ear. The people, those holding me down, those waiting patiently for their turn in the pool, those screaming and crying, and those blade covered monsters, they all went flying a few feet, at least.
I took only a moment, maybe two, to catch my breath as I was finally able to gulp air into my burning lungs. Once I realized I was no longer being restrained, I took off like a bat out of hell. I had no idea what direction to go in, but I figured it was better than waiting for everyone to gather their bearings and force my head back into the water.
It was during my escape that I collided with Jake, a boy I knew well enough from school. Thinking he was going to drag me back, I punched him in the face.
"Woah! What the hell?!"
I turned and saw it was Marco, followed closely by Rachel and Cassie and...
"What the fuck is that?!" I gasped, feeling like a stone was on my chest and I couldn't catch my breath. I was having an asthma attack while staring down some sort of blue centaur with no mouth and four eyes and a deadly looking blade at the end of his tail.
"Isn't that-?" Someone asked, I couldn't tell who, maybe Rachel? Sounded like her.
"Not now!"
I could feel someone pawing at the pockets of the cargo pants I was wearing. Why? What were they? Wait! I know that sound! My inhaler! Someone was shaking it! Thank the gods!
As soon as it was in my hand, I took as deep a puff as I could, coughing before taking a second puff.
'We should be going, Prince Jake. The Yeerks will be upon us soon.'
Wait a minute...that was in my head! Why could I hear it in my head?
Before I had a chance to ask what was happening, Jake and the others were rushing me down a tunnel. And they kept running and dragging me along once we were outside. The whole time, I tried asking them to wait. To tell me what was happening. But I couldn't hear anything beyond a faint squeak from my throat. Damn asthma.
'Stop! Tell me what's going on!' My mind screamed.
The sudden stop was jarring and I fell to my knees, coughing while trying to calm my breathing.
"You guys heard that, too. Right?" Marco questioned, fear in his voice.
"Yeah. But...how?" Cassie's voice was shaking, like maybe she'd just seen a ghost.
"Tobias? Ax? Tell us that you can alter how you sound with thought speak," Jake pleaded.
'I am afraid that is impossible, Prince Jake.'
Could that voice, the one in my head, belong to the one they called 'Ax'? Tobias sounded like a normal human name, at least. And that...creature did not look anything like a human.
'We seem in the clear. Maybe we can catch our breath-'
"Shut up! Just...shut up!" I was crying and shaking. Too much was happening and I needed to sit and catch my breath.
"It's Ryan, right?"
I looked up to see Cassie looking at me with dark eyes filled with concern. I nodded and she helped me to my feet.
The hike to Cassie's place and into her barn went by in a blur. I'm not really sure how long it took to get there but I knew it must've been late as it was well past dark. I'm sure my parents were worried and the first thing I asked to do was to call them so that they didn't fear the worst. Of course, I had kept the message to them pretty short and without detail. Just said I was at Cassie's and would let them know if I might spend the night or not. The two of them were cool with that and asked that I not wait too long to let them know. Understandable since Mim had an early shift at the hospital in the morning.
Once back in the barn, I made myself comfortable on a bale of hay and looked around at everyone in front of me. It would almost be a normal gathering of teenagers except for the dangerous looking alien and the random red tailed hawk.
"So...anyone want to explain what's going on?" I asked, kind of hoping this was all some kind of dream or nightmare.
'What should we tell her?' A new voice in my head. What was with the voices in my head? Was I going crazy?
"I could think of a few things," Marco chimed in, as if answering the disembodied voice. 'Like welcome to Roswell two point O.'
"Not funny." I couldn't help but snap at the school's resident funny man.
"Uh...I didn't say anything funny," Marco defended.
"Roswell two point O?" I challenged.
Marco's jaw dropped and he looked like he'd been slapped with a dead fish.
'I didn't say that outloud.' Marco, again, sounding exactly like those other voices in my head.
"Like hell you didn't! I heard you plain as day!"
'Stress must be making her looney tunes.' This time it was Rachel and I turned on her.
"Can it, Barbie Doll. Or I'll show you a looney tune."
Now it was Rachel's turn to look dumbstruck. What is it with people looking at me like I'm losing my mind?
Suddenly, my head felt like it was being bombarded. I could hear everyone talking all at once but none of their mouths were moving. Covering my ears didn't even muffle the majority of it. There was so much noise I couldn't hear myself think and I just wanted it to stop.
"Shut up!" I screamed, feeling that same pressure I had felt right before running from that pool. I looked up to see everyone, including the monster and the hawk, picking themselves up off the ground.
'Holy shit! She's an X-Man!' I could hear Marco say without speaking. How the hell was he doing that? What did he mean? Did he mean...? Was I the reason they were sprawled on the ground like that?
"Ryan? Are you okay?"
I jumped and looked at Cassie, seeing her worry as she placed a hand on my shoulder.
"I...I don't know," I admitted, already starting to cry. Everything was happening too fast. And it was all too loud, too. I wanted it to stop. Even if just for a little while.
"It's okay. Just take a deep breath," Cassie coached, kneeling beside me and gently rubbing the spot on my back between my shoulder blades.
That's what I did. Just trying to breathe and keep from having a second asthmatic attack. All of this was getting to be too much and I was really hoping it would turn out to be a nightmare. That I'd wake up in my bed, safe at home and listening to the sound of Mom fixing breakfast while I get ready for school. Gods, never have I wanted to be getting ready for school so badly.
"What…what's going on?" I asked with a quivering voice, looking up and around at everyone. "And….what is THAT?" I questioned, watching the 'centaur' which was laying on the ground with its legs under its body like a horse or deer.
"His name's Ax. He's an Andalite." How Cassie could seem so calm was beyond me, but it did help. If she and, apparently, the others were calm and cool with a clearly alien creature, then maybe it wasn't as dangerous as I thought.
"Okay. Is he…. Does he have something to do with what was going on back there?"
Thankfully, no one asked me to clarify what I mean. Cassie simply nodded while Jake straightened up.
"It's a bit complicated. But the cliff notes version is that an alien parasite is trying to take over Earth. They're called Yeerks and their hosts are controllers. They've been at war with the Andalites, like Ax, for a long time and now we fight them after one gave us the ability to turn into animals. We call ourselves Animorphs," Jake explained.
"Yeerks? That's what was in that pool? What tried getting in my ear?" No sooner did those words pass my lips, the centaur, Ax, leaped to his feet and I felt the tip of that tail blade at my throat. I sat there, frozen and wide eyed as I stared up at him. He stared right back, the eyes on his face and the ones on those stalks not looking away.
"Ax! Don't!" Jake called out, leaping to his feet.
'She may be a controller, Prince Jake. We cannot take any chances.'
"I-I'm not." I gasped, too scared to move.
"Not what?" Rachel spoke up now. Out the corner of my eye, I could see the blonde rising to her feet, eyes narrowed and looking as if she was ready for a fight.
"A controller. That thing….it tried getting in but something knocked it out when the pool exploded." I could feel the blade twitch as Ax maneuvered the eye stalks to look at everyone else.
"No one said you're a controller, Ryan," Jake tried to reassure me.
"I heard him!" I was crying again. "He said I might be one and not to take any chances."
Ax seemed startled and stepped away, tail and blade poised like a scorpion's, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
Everyone was looking at each other, even the hawk, and then looking at me like I suddenly sprouted a second head.
'I think we might need to try something. We all did get knocked down by some sort of…. Force, after all.' I couldn't tell who's voice that was. Maybe that Tobias person they mentioned? Wait, was Tobias the hawk?
"Like what, dude?" Marco questioned.
'Ask her what Ax called Jake.'
"He called him 'Prince Jake," I answered before anyone had the chance to open their mouth.
"Tobias, did you include her in the thought speak?" Rachel looked over at the hawk. Well, that answered the question about the bird's identity.
'No. And I don't think she even realizes she can hear Ax and me. Or rather, that what she's hearing is our thoughts.'
Their thoughts? Thought speak? What did they mean by that? Wait…. Was that why it seemed like their voices sometimes echoed in my head? Why everyone seemed so shocked? Why I wasn't able to even muffle their words when I covered my ears.
"Are you guys saying… I might be a telepath?" I blurted out.
'It would make sense. May even be telekinetic, based on what happened to us and what you explained happened at the pool,' Tobias explained. As he spoke, he fluttered towards me and began changing shape, turning into a boy about our age with dark hair and the only thing covering him being a pair of skin tight shorts.
All I could do was stare as he sat down by Rachel while Ax also took on a human form. Only he was completely naked and had to be given a pair of pants to pull on.
"You guys….shapeshift?"
"We call it morphing." Jake corrected. "We can only do it for two hours at a time and can only turn into whatever dna we acquire."
Nodding, I looked down and pulled at a couple pieces of hay. Why were they willing to tell me all of this when just moments ago one of them was ready to kill me for being something I wasn't?
"We understand you're scared. And you don't have to give an answer or anything right now," Cassie said. "But maybe we could work together to stop the Yeerks."
"What?" My head shot up and I stared at Cassie. "You want me….to get involved with all of this?"
"To be…eeeeee…eeeee" Did Ax have issues talking as a human? "Be fair, you are already involved….ved…ved…"
"That…. How do we know that wasn't a one time thing?" I asked, the idea of fighting against aliens terrified me. I mean, sure, I love movies like Alien and Predator, but that doesn't mean I want to live them.
"We don't," Jake answered. "But what are the odds you would be able to do something like that once or twice and you're still doing the mind reading thing."
"Not intentionally…" I muttered. The ground sure looked interesting right now.
"Look, just face it. You could give us a huge advantage in this whole thing." Rachel commented. "You can tell who's a controller and who isn't. You can pinpoint Visser Three-"
"Visser Three?" I looked back up, not liking how Rachel was basically making it sound like I was some kind of weapon."
"He is the only Yeerk with an Andalite host," Ax answered. "Making him the only one able to morph."
"And you want ME to be your spy?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Like Cassie said, you don't have to decide right now." Jake replied, giving his cousin a pointed look. From the looks of it, everyone but Rachel seemed to agree, which made me feel a bit better. And here I was, thinking that the group's actual alien might want to use me as a secret weapon.
"I….I'll think about it." It was all I could promise. To think it over. Right now, I really wanted to go home, hug my moms and go to sleep.