If this was a videogame, it would be a boss fight. Unfortunately, it was real life.
My life.
And at this moment in my life, I was punching a Hork-Bajir-Controller in the face with a gorilla fist the size of a frozen chicken. He went flying. Apparently, the memo that we were all on the same team didn't sit well with some Yeerks. This one had attacked me less than five minutes after Visser One's supposed "truce."
I turned to the next one.
‹Tobias! Come here!› I called out, even though I couldn't see him. A Hork-Bajir dropped down right next to me. He was bleeding a bit from his side. Instinctively, I raised my arm for protection.
‹Relax, it's me. What's up?› Tobias asked, casually swinging at a Taxxon that had slithered up behind and raised its upper third to attack. More alien guts spilled out onto the floor. There was a lot of that.
I seriously wondered if the Yeerks just brought Taxxons to make the battlefield inconveniently slippery.
‹I've got an idea, Tobias,› I said, and I told him my attack plan. It was ridiculous, but fun.
Minutes later, I was charging toward Zenguh's monstrous form as a gorilla, with Tobias in Hork-Bajir morph riding piggy-back on my shoulders. A saw blade was swung toward Tobias' head, and he ducked with his snake-like head, then parried the next spinning saw with his own arm blade. I grabbed Tobias' legs and spun in a circle, hurling Tobias at Zenguh's head. Tobias' wrist blade sank deep into Zenguh's face, just beneath one of his eyes. My momentum carried me into Zenguh's midsection, where I sucker punched him as hard as I could.
‹Woo-hoo!› I yelled, feeling a bit crazy with adrenaline.
Zenguh was down, but I knew that wouldn't last. In fact, how were we planning on finishing this? The battle around us was the most chaotic one I could remember, and I've been in a lot of battles.
I saw Rachel run toward the sawmill and duck inside the new, messy doorway that Zenguh had created. The cuts she took were brutal, but I knew Rachel would be okay. Xena the Warrior Princess always finds a way.
I yelled a joke about racing stripes, but didn't think she heard me.
Zenguh attacked a group of Hork-Bajir-Controllers. When I say attacked, it was very strange to watch. He melted into a shimmering blob and zipped right over to the group of aliens before morphing back to his hideous Jubba-Jubba-mechanical hybrid body and...well...disposing of them.
‹Guys, did you see that?› I called out to the rest of my group. ‹He just, like, melted as a form of transportation.›
‹I saw that!› Cassie answered. ‹Like that one drink commercial. I forgot the name, what was it?›
I looked over and saw her knock a gun out of the hands of a human-Controller with a swipe of her large paw.
‹It's been a while,› Tobias said. ‹Was it Kool-Aid?›
‹No, Kool-Aid had the pitcher guy jumping through a wall. But I guess he did that too, earlier. Wait, I've got it! Capri Sun!› I answered, suddenly remembering, and suddenly noticing the Taxxon climbing on my back. I took care of it.
‹That's right,› I heard Cassie again. ‹You know, I always liked fruit punch.›
‹Is "fruit punch" a type of attack, but with fruit?› Ax wondered from his side of the fight.
‹No, Ax-Man,› Tobias said. ‹It's—hold on.› Tobias sliced through three Taxxons in a row, immediately removing them as a threat.
‹It's just a sugary flavor,› he continued, as if nothing happened. The boy had really gotten brutal since I had met him so long ago.
‹Sugar?› Ax repeated. ‹I must try this!›
I could imagine Ax asking Jake for permission to leave the fight to try some fruit punch. Where was Jake anyway?
I loped toward the mill to see if anyone needed help. Visser One may have said there was a temporary alliance, but a lot of Yeerks were still attacking us anyway. Why not take down Zenguh and the Andalite Bandits at the same time? It made sense to me. It also made for a wild battleground.
Suddenly, a lot happened very quickly.
I glimpsed the orange-and-black flash of Jake, and briefly saw Rachel's golden hair.
Zenguh rumbled into view, diving toward one of them. I couldn't tell which one.
Visser One was running toward the mill, but was still too far away to see anything important.
I saw Rachel get shoved away, a tiger suddenly in her place.
And Zenguh's open mouth closed over him.
Jake was gone.
I promptly sat down. Everything suddenly seemed...not important. I looked around as the battle raged around me. Tobias was one-on-one with a Blue Band Hork-Bajir. Their blades clanged through the night as they blocked blow after blow from each other. I looked back at Zenguh. He had changed, somehow. He seemed to have grown into a new hybrid creature, one with many, many appendages. I guess they looked like tentacles. I didn't notice the details, couldn't focus. I blandly watched Ax and Visser One both charge Zenguh from behind, Andalite tails slashing over and over into the backside of his new alien form, fighting side by side in a visual I never thought I'd see in a million years. Cassie was far away, running toward the mill as well, snapping her jaws at any Controllers that got in her way. My ears were ringing, so I couldn't hear her snarls. Her face was covered in several different shades of blood.
All movement appeared to be in slow motion. Jake was gone. Jake was gone. What would we do now?
I looked down at my gorilla hands, scratched and bloodied. Jake was gone.
I heard a thumping sound, and looked up.
A creature, even bigger than Zenguh's new form, had appeared, towering over him menacingly. The creature looked vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place where I recognized it from. Zenguh suddenly looked less intimidating by comparison.
And this new creature, this giant...thing, made of gears and metal and muscle and who knows what else, it bent down and grabbed Zenguh, grinning.
And then it began to completely rip Zenguh apart.
