Alternamorphs 1: The Invasion Chapter 9, an animorphs fanfic

Disclaimer: I only own Casey and his family. All other characters are properties of K. A. Applegate and/or the other authors who are with me in this roleplay/collabfic.

A/N #1: {{}} = Thought-speech.

A/N #2: Personal thoughts are italicized.

A/N #3: Implied Gore Warning.

*~*~*| Chapter 9 - The Escape |*~*~*

*BAM BAM BAM!*

*TSEEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEEWWWWW!*

{{Structural Damage,}} reported the ship. {{Rear Fuselage Compromised. Evasive maneuvers recommended.}}

It was now or never.

{{"TAKE OFF!"}} someone screamed. Probably the Andalite.

*SCHOOOOOMMMMMM!*

The ship charged upwards with insane speed!

You know the Mustang that goes from zero to sixty in 2 seconds? Well, this one did about zero to a few hundred in about half the time. The g-forces took us by surprise, and all of us took a tumble - all of us, that was, except the Andalite, who was clearly prepared for whatever had just happened.

*THUD*. Pain lanced through my head as I landed on my side, neck whiplashing, head contacting the smooth, cold floor of the ship. That was definitely going to leave a sizeable bruise, and I could already feel a whanging headache coming on. "Ow…" I winced as I massaged the side of my head, belatedly recalling my parents' admonition to never stand with my weight on one leg.

{{Warning! Power Level Critical! Automatic shut-down in – three – minutes}} warned the computer.

As we struggled to our feet, a little battered after the shock of the sudden acceleration, we heard the Andalite give another command.

*WOOOOSHHHH!*

"HELP!"

"AAAAHHH!"

This time, the spacecraft raced forwards, knocking everyone off their feet. We were sent hurtling toward the rear, desperately reaching for anything that was bolted down on this godforsaken carnival ride. I instinctively curled myself into a ball and covered my head, trying to minimize the damage – my shoulder slammed into something hard, and a new agony blossomed right above my triceps.

The ship itself was not in the best of conditions, having previously been in battle, then fired at while in the construction site. As we sped through the sky, the ship shuddered and started to fail, while its computerized thought-voice spewed a veritable litany of malfunctions and errors at us.

*BOOM!*

*WOOPWOOPWOOPWOOP*

The lights flickered and died.

*SSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH*

"GET ME OFF THIS THING!" I heard Will yell.

And as if in response, the ship gave a final lurch, before its remaining engine died, and I felt an unwelcome sense of weightlessness. A glance through the porthole revealed a sea of trees spiralling up to meet us.

ShitshitSHITSHITSHIT…

*CRASH!*

*~*~*| 9 |*~*~*

The first thing I heard upon regaining consciousness was the Andalite's thought-speech.

I tried to focus on the words, but concentrating seemed to be more than just a little difficult right at that moment. My head and ears were ringing, and I had what felt like jackhammers pounding away at my skull from within. I could smell something metallic, something burning… I found my glasses nearby and quickly put them back on.

My vision wavered as I looked up, trying to locate everyone else.

There! I saw what looked like two Als and a really muscular Erik with a chest the size of a tree trunk.

Wait, what?

I got up and ungainly staggered over to them.

"…know where we landed?"

"Forest, farms… run."

"Help… think I'm broken," came a third voice.

"Anna! Casey! Get over here!", Al urged.

" M'coming!" I replied. "Wazgonon?"

Hold on… that didn't come out right… I realized belatedly. The headache wasn't diminishing, and I was nowhere near clear-headed enough to be properly functional.

What did Al want again?

I then discovered Anna, passed out and face down on the floor, the glowing cube lying next to her wrist. Her breaths sounded shallow – but thankfully, she was breathing.

"Anna?" I asked, prodding her shoulder, before shaking her gently.

"Unnnnh…" she moaned in response, stirring just a little.

"Anna, wakeup… we needa get outfhere fast!"

She was bleeding from a small cut on her forehead, the blood running nearly into her eyes. I clumsily tried wiping the blood off, but the moment I brushed her face, she started, sat upright and punched me square in the jaw with more strength than I would have expected.

"AAAAH! That hurt!" I complained. "Whazzat for?!"

Anna looked confused for a moment, before wincing at what she'd accidentally done. "I - I'm sorry…"

She glanced around, picked up the cube that was lying nearby, and then stared at something behind me. I followed her gaze, just in time to see Will… morphing?

It seems pretty different from when the Andalite did it. I suppose that's because he was going from human to human, so no extra limbs would have appeared anyway, but this morphing process seemed a lot more understated than previously. Will's body stretched upwards; his frame rippled and slimmed down and his cheekbones reshaped themselves. His hair lengthened. His clothes no longer fit him properly – because he was no longer Will.

He had transformed into Al.

There was one other thing that, even in my confused state, I noticed – some of the wounds that were visible on Will previously had closed up and disappeared. A limb that for sure appeared broken was suddenly working again.

Huh. Good to know morphing repairs injuries. That seems pretty helpful.

"Woah…" Will-Al marveled. "That's not my voice… hello...helloooo."

He even sounded exactly like Al. Now that… that was freaky.

"Thank you. You saved my life."

From beside me, Anna spoke up. "I don't… I don't know what's going on. Or where we are. But the sooner… the s-sooner we can g-get out of here… they're… looking for us. We need to decide where to go… and how to get there."

As she spoke, I unconsciously rubbed my hands together for warmth. It was rather late, and being where we were, away from buildings and civilization, just meant the surroundings were that much chillier. It wasn't raining, at least, but we were still wet, and I was shivering too. Soaked tee-shirts and cargo shorts weren't great for conserving body heat.

Speaking of where we were… where WERE we? We couldn't have gone very far… but "not very far" is hardly a good navigational instruction.

I saw trees. I saw stars. And back where the ship had crashed, there was a trail of exposed roots and furrows left in the ground that would definitely have been visible from the sky. And… I was still blank on what we could do to escape.

I was blanking on pretty much everything. The headache wasn't going away. I'd never faced a situation in which I couldn't think my way out before, and I'm not going to lie – it was pretty worrying.

"West will get us closer to the coast… something there. Find whatever… useful and let's get out of here, fast!' Will said. "Can everyone walk? Or run, for that matter?"

"Get everything you can, keep the cube safe, get more shredder cells… everything you can carry and still run with." The real Al took a deep breath, then continued. "Then we go north, the search party is going to be searching the forest the first… troops. The suburbs are largely safe, but… risk. We go north, still between the forest and the farms, we'd be getting away from… search parties." He took a few steps towards the remains of the ship. "Hurry up, I'll destroy what's left."

Yeah, pretty sure there was still some stuff my brain wasn't catching.

So as Al started to mess with whatever controls on the ship that were still operational, the rest of us were left trying to decide what to do. Will was preoccupied with examining Al's body, probably still taken by the idea of being somebody else (I know I would have). Erik was going around doing who-knows-what, and Anna and I were left in the clearing to… just figure out our next steps, I suppose.

"I don't think ssshould st…split," I pointed out, hoping that the rest could hear me. "Stick together. The woods… sk…stretch quite… quite far. Going further means… means we're more likely t'gets lot. Loss. Lost."

Okay. On second thought, I didn't want everyone to have heard me. I sounded like an idiot! The whole time, it felt like I was fighting my tongue, not being able to force it to make the right sounds without a monumental effort. The nagging feeling that something was wrong mounted under the unrelenting migraine.

Wait. Morphing gets rid of injuries, right? Will it get rid of whatever this is, too?

Surely it's worth a try.

"Let's ket clo… closer to Will," I muttered to Anna. As Will was the only person at this point who had any morphing experience at all, maybe he would be able to help guide me through the process.

Will looked up at us, face slowly melting back into his own, as we skirted around the remaining debris and slowly approached him.

"Hey, Will, do mind if I mor… morph you? Seems to heal injuries. I have this… this really terrible headache, and can't… can't think straight. Morphing might help. I hope."

Will stared at me for a moment, trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Can't think straight? Come here." He grabbed my shoulder and held up a finger in front of my face. "Try to follow the tip of my finger with your eyes."

It was surprisingly hard. The finger, despite how close it was, went in and out of focus, at times leaving my field of vision entirely. That once again confirmed something was wrong. This time, the word was on the tip of my tongue, but I probably couldn't remember what it was to save my life.

"I think you're concussed. You should definitely morph."

Ah, right. A concussion would explain it. Probably.

What did the Andalite say about morphing, again?

I think the concussion might've knocked that right out of my mind, too. Or perhaps some of the mental trauma I probably had from earlier might have done it. Either way, I was left staring at Will like an idiot. What the hell was I supposed to do now?

"Everything's set. We need to go, now!" Al had finished sabotaging whatever he could and began running ahead.

"Shit!" Will suddenly exhaled as he spun around, looking for something (or someone?), before turning back to face us. "Oh...uh...okay, grab my hand and follow me, we need to move first…." He grasped my hand and started to run, dragging me forwards. Anna was presumably following along behind. I wouldn't have known, though, because at that point I was busy trying to make sure I didn't lose my footing and injure something else.

The ground whizzed by at what seemed like a breakneck pace to my sluggish mind.

Root!

Tree trunk!

Stump! Roots!

RocksLeavesRootVineBranchesLeavesRootsTree…!

"Aaaah!" I yelled in frustration, as I received a faceful of leaves. Tonight didn't seem to be my night at all! Every few steps, I tripped over invisible objects; my arms and legs began to sting as various cuts and bruises made themselves known. I only managed to keep going because Will adamantly refused to let go. It was a relief when we finally entered a small clearing and stopped for a rest, probably a few hundred feet or so away from the ship.

"Okay, Casey, we need to make this quick, okay?" said Will, catching his breath. "Hold onto my hand and try to focus your mind on me. I- I think… Just look at me and make a mental note of what I look like, of my features."

Right. Will is pretty tall. He has a few inches on me. Brown hair. Weird moustache. Average build – not at lean as I am. Kinda pale. Looks like he could have been a runner once. I like running. Running is fun. Running in the forest sucks, though. I couldn't see where I was going.

Wait, what?

Concentrate!

I focused as best as I could on the man before me, trying to absorb whatever it was that would allow me to look like him.

"I don't know when or how long getting a pattern takes, but just focus your mind and-..."

Will suddenly fell silent. I'm not sure why, but whatever I did was working, I suppose?

But how am I supposed to know when it's done?

"Whathuh hell didyoudo?" Will mumbled, swaying a little and sounding a little drunk. Well, I suppose that was as good a sign as any!

I changed my focus – this time, I thought of being Will. I tried to picture him in my mind, and thought about being taller, about being a little broader about the shoulders, slightly more filled out than the lanky Al… and as the images went through my head, I could actually feel my body slowly taking on Will's physique. My arm and leg bones grinded as they gradually elongated; the muscles pulled and stretched as they were forced apart. It was an utterly bizarre feeling. Despite all the impossible physiological changes, with tendons, ligaments and skin being strained and twisted, it was surprisingly painless. It was, you know, sort of like being at the dentist for wisdom teeth removal when you're on anaesthesia. You can feel the dentist digging around in your mouth, and you KNOW it should hurt, but it just doesn't.

As the changes happened, I could also feel the fog that had been hanging over my every thought receding, and the pounding headache that had plagued me since we were on the ship was starting to lift. My memory of the last few hours had also come back. My mind was returning to normal! That was something for which I was VERY grateful. That being said, of course, the true test would be whether the changes would persist once I went back to being myself.

Along with the returning mental capacity, my brain immediately started throwing plenty of questions at me in an effort to better understand how the morphing technology worked. There were certain interesting questions that I shelved for the moment, resolving to take a closer look at them later – maybe with whoever else was interested in testing out morphing, but I wouldn't mind doing it alone too!

"Okay," I said, trying out Will's voice, as the changes came to an end. "I think I'm done." And just as the morphing process itself was strange, so was hearing myself speak with someone else's voice.

The words startled Will, who had momentarily entered some sort of trance when the process began. "What the hell was that?!" he exclaimed, then looked up at me. His eyes widened in shock as he came face to face with himself.

"GAH! Ohhh, now I don't like that one bit," he murmured under his breath. I could empathize – it would be weird staring at someone who was a carbon copy of me!

"We need to move! They're going to be close!" Al cautioned. "Oh, and cover your ears."

BOOOOMMMMMM!

No sooner had we done so than an explosion rocked the earth. The spaceship was definitely gone – vaporized in a rising ball of amber flames that heatblasted us all. It was surely a clear beacon to any Yeerks nearby and getting away from the scene of the crime was now more urgent than ever.

Focusing, I summoned a mental image of my original body – I would much rather be myself than continue being Will, and my clothes now didn't quite fit anyway, as Will was larger than I was. This time, I felt the changes happening in reverse. I was shrinking, now, instead of growing, and my bones shifted about, as if to get more comfortable within the body it was wearing.

Something was a little strange, though. I had some problems with vision earlier, but that was because of the concussion, right? I didn't feel the mental haze returning as I demorphed, but my eyesight didn't seem to be getting any better…?

I squinted and rubbed my eyes. Nope, my vision was still blurred.

Maybe it was my glasses?

I took them off for some hurried cleaning as I gazed at the orange flam–

Wait.

The flames were sharp.

I could actually see each individual tongue of flame as they danced and leapt about.

I could see them clearly – without glasses!

Could it be?!

The morphing – yes! It was definitely possible – if this technology was based on DNA and could heal injuries, then after morphing back, my DNA would only code for a predisposition towards myopia, but not the myopia itself!

OK, Casey. Think about the implications of this later. Get out of here FIRST.

I hitched up my shorts, which were now a little too loose after taking on Will's larger frame. I pocketed my glasses – I didn't need them at the moment, but would definitely need to keep wearing them once tonight was over. Looking around, I saw that Will was following the quickly disappearing Erik, while Anna was gazing back at where the ship had crash landed.

"Let's move!" I urged Anna. "The Yeerks will be here any minute!" With one hand holding Anna's and the other on my shorts, we made our way out of there.

*~*~*| 9 |*~*~*

As always, thanks go to /u/Shiiang (Anna), /u/mrmrspears (Erik), /u/tman008 (William and Elfangor), /u/deadbravo (Alazar), and /u/apostolicnerd (Zed, the 2nd Andalite) for allowing me to use their words in my retelling of the story.