I had been hanging behind, up in the trees, like Jake asked. As the fight went on below me, it was getting harder and harder to resist morphing wolf and help, but I needed to be here in case Zenguh took off again.
I followed Jake and Zenguh as they tumbled down the small hill, Zenguh landing on top.
‹Cassie…› Came Jake's waning voice. If owls could cry, I wouldn't have been able to see. I got some more height, then took a page out of Tobias' book. As I dove, I could see the situation get worse and worse. If this worked, the Yeerk wouldn't be seeing much of anything.
My hoot didn't strike as much terror as one of Tobias' screeches would have, but it felt like justice as my talons found the panther's eyes. His roars were deafening as I swooped back up, and into a tree. I turned to see him writhing on the ground, paws clutching at his face.
‹My eyes!› he yelled. After a moment, he regained his composure. ‹We Yeerks have fought against you enough to know how to fix this.›
He began to demorph into the brown-haired woman. I flew down to Jake's side. ‹Jake! Wake up, Jake!› I screamed.
He was groggy and could barely move, but I knew that he couldn't demorph right now for the same reason I couldn't. We couldn't let the Yeerks know we were human, even if Zenguh said he wasn't working with them anymore. This would have to be up to me.
‹Hang in there, Jake!› I called, as I took off and fought for more height. I didn't have much faith that the same maneuver would work twice, but what other tools did an owl have to fight something so much bigger than itself?
Zenguh was now fully human. "Are you the backup that the tiger was talking about? One little great horned owl? Bubo virginianus?"
Jake snickered at that. Boys. At least he was still conscious.
Zenguh continued, his voice saturated with sarcasm. "Well, I can certainly see why he was so confident," he mocked, gesturing around the general area. "What with all this abundant firepower."
I flew behind a tree to break Zenguh's line of sight, hoping for at least directional surprise. My breathing was ragged with emotion, but my wings were utterly silent as I dove straight for Zenguh's face. At the last second, he turned and grabbed for me. His hands closed around my body, and he threw me, hard, onto the ground. He followed up the attack with a kick that sent me flying into a park bench. I could feel a broken wing, and probably a rib or two.
"I know that if I leave you two like this, you can morph back to Andalites," Zenguh spoke, calmly. "And you'll be able to come after me again at full strength. I could crush you here, with a rock or even my foot, but I've got a better idea."
A devilish smile crossed the Yeerk's face, and then the smile turned to fangs. Black fur spread over the brown-haired woman's body, and I watched helplessly as a fully grown black bear formed in front of me.
‹I'm going to eat you, instead, Andalite,› Zenguh said, walking nearer. He got closer and closer, savoring the moment. I closed my eyes as the bear's jaws opened, inches from my face.
‹Don't bring a cub to a bear fight!› roared Rachel, a seven-foot-tall grizzly bear, as she erupted out of the darkness.
All seven hundred pounds of her slammed full force into Zenguh, and the black bear was thrown through the air, hitting another tree with a stomach-dropping crack. Zenguh, amazingly, pulled himself to his feet and lunged at Rachel. He was faster than Rachel, covering her in shallow cuts, but Rachel punished any of his mistakes with devastating force. Rachel dodged a swipe, causing the black bear to overextend and lose balance slightly. Rachel grabbed him in a full bear hug and slammed him to the ground, putting most of her considerable weight onto his head.
The black bear's head struck the cement walkway, and he lay still. Rachel looked for a moment to make sure the fight was over, then stood on her hind legs and let loose with an ear-splitting roar of triumph.
Then we heard a familiar voice in the dark, "Do not be alarmed."
We turned our heads to see Mr. King, the Chee android who was currently acting as Erek King's father, drop his hologram and materialize out of thin air.
"I'll watch the Yeerk," he said. "If he wakes, he will only see Andalites leaving the park. Tend to your wounded."
Rachel turned back to me, still towering above me on two legs, and asked, ‹Cassie, are you okay?›
‹I'll be fine, but I'm not sure about him,› I said, looking at Jake. I began to demorph.
Rachel finally saw Jake lying on the ground, and fell to all fours. ‹Jake!›
She started demorphing and ran to his side, her run becoming a crawl as her legs changed lengths. I joined her as soon as I could walk.
"Stay awake!" I said, my voice full of urgency. Helping my parents with their veterinary work had taught me enough big cat first aid to know where to put pressure, but things weren't looking great.
Just then, out of the trees bounded a hulking silverback gorilla.
‹Gorillas are terrible long distance runners!› came Marco's exhausted voice.
‹Jake!› Marco gasped, and shuffled over to his best friend. He lifted Jake's tiger head out of the puddle of blood in his big primate hands. ‹Wake up, buddy!›
Jake groaned a bit, then lay back down, trying to fall asleep. Marco flicked Jake on the nose with his huge fingers, and Jake bolted to attention.
‹Hey! What was that for?› he asked, groggy but very irritated.
We made little sounds of joy, seeing him awake, but then I focused and said, "Jake, you're hurt. Badly. You need to demorph."
That got his attention, and slowly, the tiger began to morph into a human. Until it stopped.
"He's unconscious again!" I cried, my pain all the greater in the contrast of the joy of a few seconds ago.
A scuffing sound from where we had left Zenguh got our attention. We turned and saw the brown-haired woman fall to all fours as she became the antelope again.
‹What? Is that…?› asked Marco.
"It's Zenguh," I whispered. "He's getting away!"
None of us were in any condition to chase him.
"Mr. King," I said. "Can you follow him?"
"Jake is in peril," he said, approaching us. "My programming forbids me from leaving him in this state. I can, however, offer medical assistance."
"Please!" I begged him.
Mr. King knelt down next to Jake, and began cauterizing wounds, injecting fluids, and finally administering a jolt of electricity. Jake's eyes shot open, and he took a deep, gasping breath. Once he remembered where he was, he morphed human again, and I slumped on top of him with an exhausted, "Thank you."
"Did you know that the Chee were here?" Rachel asked Jake.
"I thought we could use all the help we could get," Jake said. Mr. King agreed to come along to provide cover if we needed it."
"I'm mad that Mr. King didn't help more," Rachel complained. "We got hurt pretty badly, and it was really hard to see Zenguh in the dark. But at least he still thinks we're Andalites."
"Yeah, and a light would have been helpful, too," I said, grinning.
