"Look, all I'm saying is the Lakers aren't a lock to win the championship this year," I told Jake through a mouthful of taco.

"What, and you think the Kings or the Clippers are?" Jake asked.

"Well," I thought out loud. "Why does it even have to be one of those three teams? There's a lot of other teams besides those. Why are you focusing on those so much?"

"No reason," Jake said. "Hey, by the way, where did the girls go?"

We looked around, but our little spot was abandoned.

"Didn't they say they'd be right back?" I asked.

"Yeah, but that was a while ago."

"Oh."

"So, should we keep with the plan?" Jake asked me. "There's only two of us now, apparently."

"We can't skip out now," I said. "Miss out on the Batman and Robin experience? No way. Let's…" I trailed off.

"What?"

I shuddered and answered, "I almost said 'Let's do it'."

"Close one, Robin," said Jake, suppressing a grin.

"Still, though, I could morph something and reach out in thought-speak, see if they're still close by," I suggested.

And that's why I found myself in poodle morph inside of a Porta Potty at the playground. The superhero business is obviously extremely glamorous. I tried thought-speaking to Cassie and Rachel, but either they were too far away to hear me, or they were unable to thought-speak back because they weren't in morph. Jake joined me, and we decided to go squirrel.

‹Sure could have used those cell phones at the mall,› Jake grumbled.

It's tough to notice a suspicious squirrel in a playground. So tough, in fact, that we actually walked right through the front doors of the convention center undetected.

‹That was weird,› I said. ‹Where is everybody?›

‹I'm not sure,› Jake admitted. ‹I don't even know where Tom would be at this point. The only time we've been to this place is through the playground tunnel entrance.›

‹I guess this part of the building wouldn't look particularly suspicious, right?› I asked. ‹I mean, this is where big events for The Sharing are hosted. It shouldn't scream "Aliens Are Here" or anything.›

We made our way down a few hallways, not totally sure what we should be looking for. The deeper into the building we went, the more nervous I got in squirrel morph. We were totally exposed, and I didn't think I could put up much of a fight in a form where my bushy tail was as big as my body. We decided to squeeze through an air conditioning vent and wandered around through the ceiling instead.

Finally, I heard something.

‹Jake, man, turn right up there, I think I hear voices.›

We got to the end of one of the vent shafts and peered through the horizontal grate of a vent. Sure enough, a ton of people were crowded into what looked like an office break room, and there was Tom in the middle of them.

"Quite down everyone," Tom said, sounding way more intense than the Tom I knew back before this whole war started.

"Our spies have confirmed that this Yeerk, Zenguh Two-Zero-Zero-One, still has the piece of morphing cube," Tom said to the crowd around him. So, this group was all Controllers. Good to know.

"Visser One is pretty annoyed by Zenguh," Tom continued. "Not only has this Yeerk refused to hand over Andalite morphing technology to us; he is also unpredictable. The visser has said to use any means necessary to get rid of this threat. We don't even have to wait for the traditional trial by the Council of Thirteen. We can eliminate him once and for all, ourselves, right now."

There was some generic murmuring from the group. You know, bad-guy-crony-type muttering.

One of the Controllers, a younger girl about my age, spoke up.

"How can we find him?" the Controller asked. "The Andalite bandits have been eluding us for years with morphing powers. He could be anywhere!"

There were nods and sounds of approval from the crowd.

"Ah, yes, the Andalite bandits," said Tom, with an edge in his voice. "The difference here is that the Andalite bandits, if that is indeed what they are, keep hidden and don't draw attention to themselves outside of battles. Zenguh, on the other hand, has built a bit of a home base just down the street, and is kidnapping people in this town left and right. I'll admit, it took us a few days to find his location, because we didn't look nearby. But due to some recent information, we have a read on him now, and backup is on the way."

Jake and I looked at each other. Jake used some inappropriate language. I agreed. It was already a challenge to beat Zenguh, we didn't need more Yeerks to complicate things.

Tom separated the large group into two smaller groups, and each Controller was given a Dracon beam.

"Two bug fighters will dock to this building any minute," he yelled over the excited army. "Let's get moving!"

A Controller, maybe in his thirties, raised his hand and asked, "If it's just down the street, why do we need bug fighters? It's such a nice day, we could just walk!"

Tom brought his hand to his forehead and rubbed his temples. Then he raised his Dracon beam at the man, and shot him dead.

"He's got a good point though," said Tom. "Let's make it worth our while. Someone tell the Hork-Bajir to get ready. I think they're playing pool downstairs."

We didn't know the location, but we had the Yeerks to follow. We quickly exited the building and went into our bird morphs, keeping an eye on the Yeerk teams before they disappeared under the usual holographic invisibility. And, as usual, we could follow with our superior bird eyes.

There was still no sign of Rachel and Cassie.

‹If we were going to get into a fight, I sure would like for there to be more than two of us,› I mentioned to Jake as we flapped through the sky.

‹No kidding,› he said.

He seemed distracted. I had noticed lately that the war was really taking a toll on my good buddy Jake. I would never question his leadership, but I still hoped I could truly get my best friend back one day.

We watched the bug fighters land, still cloaked, and extend an image to cover the alleyway behind what looked like a deli warehouse. To the average person, the alley would look completely abandoned, rather than hosting fifty armed alien-infested humans and Hork-Bajir, and two large spaceships.

Jake and I had barely demorphed before we heard the clear, unmistakable sound of an elephant trumpet from inside the building. The group of Controllers stopped talking and turned to the building. There was an eerie silence as the Yeerks put the pieces together and planned their next move.

We watched the points of the blasters on the bug fighters glow red, and the beams sliced through the air toward the building.