Hi, guys! I'm Rachel! I like to think of myself as the responsible one in the group. At least, that's the most palatable way for me to phrase the fact that I'm the one my friends call when they need something difficult done. Anyway, I know that reading is for nerds and whatever, but I've read all 48 of our books so far, plus Megamorphs. They're about me, and reading them lets me see how far I've come through this war. Let's hope the Yeerks never get our names from the publisher. I realize that saying this makes me sound like a bit of a narcissist, but if you've been following along with the books, you really should know who I am. If you ask the other Animorphs about me, they'd call me Xena: Warrior Princess, or say that I'm someone who can walk through a tornado and come out of it with perfect hair and makeup.
I was at the mall with my best friend, Cassie, trying for the millionth time to get her out of her animal-poop-encrusted overalls, and into something that someone might want to be seen wearing in public. I hadn't been able to talk her into any of the boutiques, so we were at Macy's. That's fine, I like a challenge.
"What about these?" she asked, showing me a pair of red mom jeans. I looked around for a few seconds, and pointed out a woman wearing the same style but in blue. She was using a walker to get around the mall.
"Okay, point taken," Cassie laughed "Maybe they're not the sexiest jeans. What about these?"
I nearly fell over into a clearance rack when I saw that she had actually picked out something good.
"Yes, Cassie!" I cried. "Go try those on right now."
I hoped her newfound good taste didn't waver before she bought them.
Suddenly, I heard screams from the Juniors department, near the entrance.
"There's a bird in here!"
"Hide in the racks!"
"TSEEEER!"
I turned and saw Tobias, flying through the store. He saw me too.
‹Rachel! Big news!› he said, as he flew into the fitting room. I jogged over to the men's department, and almost instantly found something that would look amazing on him, on a great sale, and jogged it to the fitting room.
He got out at the same time as Cassie. They both looked great in their new outfits.
I'm amazing, I know.
"So, Tobias, what's the big news?"
"I think Ax and Marco are here too," he replied. "I'd rather tell everyone as a group,"
A salesman ran up to us and asked, "Did any of you see where that bird went?"
The three of us walked through the mall, keeping an eye out for the other boys, but as we got closer to the food court, it became obvious that we were headed in the right direction.
"Who let Ax loose in the food court again?" I asked.
Cassie sighed and started going faster, just as Ax called out from behind us.
"Hey guys!"
"Wait, if you're here…" Tobias started.
"Then what's going on over there?" I finished.
We turned and saw a grown man climbing on the tables and eating food that had been left on the tables by frightened food court customers. People were throwing food to keep him away, but that only seemed to be encouraging him. A slice of Sbarro pizza flew through the air and hit me in the side of the face.
"How do you do that, Rachel?" Cassie demanded.
"Do what?" I asked.
I looked at my reflection in one of the mirrored mall columns, to find that my hair and makeup were flawless. And I had free pizza!
A group of four strong looking men rushed over to the man we all recognized as Visser One.
"Visser! This is too much attention!" we heard them say in hushed, yet urgent, tones. "Let's go back to headquarters, and we'll bring you some food there."
Visser One tensed with rage, but then slumped, suddenly aware of himself, and hurried off with them. Ax watched him go, a sympathetic expression in his eyes.
"Since we're here…" Ax said. "Would it be okay if I picked up a cinnamon bun?"
"NO!" we all replied in unison.
Ax frowned, and looked like he noticed something. "Has anyone seen Marco?"
We looked around, and right on cue, Marco ran up.
"Guys! Guys!" he called. "Big news!"
There was a lot of that going around today.
"Tobias said he had something important, too," I said. "Can he go first?"
Marco said it was fine, so Tobias told us about how the Ellimist had shown him a tall, red-haired man at the construction site, and how the man now had a part of the morphing cube.
Marco's eyes went wide, and then he told us how a man with the same description had come to the mall, told Visser One that he had something important, and had been yelled at for disturbing the visser's cinnamon bun experience before storming off angrily.
"Then I followed him to the changing rooms at The Buckle," he finished. "Then he disappeared, leaving his clothes behind. I found this note in the pocket of his jeans."
"That has to be the same guy!" I said. "Could the piece of the morphing cube have given him morphing powers? Maybe that's how he disappeared?"
"We've got to check his clothes for the shard of the cube!" exclaimed Tobias.
"Oh man! I got so excited about the note, I forgot to check the rest of the pockets! I'm on it!" Marco said, as he hurried off. "Meet back here!" he called over his shoulder.
Ax had a somber look on his face. "If this Yeerk has part of the Escafil Device, he could give any number of Yeerks the ability to morph. We may never be safe again."
"I had that thought too, Ax-man," said Tobias. "Would just a piece of it be enough to give morphing powers?"
"I'm not sure," Ax replied, looking down at the floor. "I was writing poetry for a female in my class at the academy the day we learned about how the Escafil Device works. The poetry was dreadful. I should not have bothered."
We talked and watched the janitorial staff clean up the food court while we waited for Marco.
"We probably should have had someone follow Visser One," Ax remarked.
After a few minutes, Marco ran back. He shook his head. "I didn't find anything else in his pockets."
"He must have hidden it somewhere or taken it with him," I said, clenching my fists in frustration. "What are we gonna do?"
I looked around, and nobody looked like they knew where we should go from here.
Ax looked like he remembered something.
"The strangest thing just happened to me at Radio Shack. Ack," he said. "I think it requires our attention."
