Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10

Chapter 12: Impossible

Ax's POV

The Animorps gathered at my scoop to deal with the strange sightings within the forest.

Cassie and Tobias, have both said that they have seen a blue blur in the forest. I also reported to Prince Jake about my finding of the strange set of tracks in the forest. Only a few days after the meeting and surveillance of the area that they had spotted the blue blur. Tobias had reported to Prince Jake that he had found something.

When the rest of the Animorphs had come to my scoop we headed out, following Tobias to what he had found.

He brought us to a large field deep in the forest. It was something none of us even expected. The field looked like a battlefield. Trails ground was churned up and several trees have been uprooted and destroyed. Trees! Only the Yeerks would would not care for their significance and destroy them without a second thought. Trees are a very important part of my culture, so it affected me more that the humans. Like the rain. Humans seem to dislike it even though it held an important part in the complex web-like cycle of life.

We landed and demorphed.

In the air the damaged looked spectacular, but like most things you need to examine it closely to get a better understanding of it. The damage done to the field was no different.

The ground was churned up like some kind of large machine had passed over it. The grass was burnt in strange patches. What caught most of my attention were the large crystals that were at one end of the field. They were like nothing I had seen before. Back on the Andalite home-world one of our lessons in the academy was to learn all about the different kinds of naturally occurring formations. I have seen pictures of large crystals, but all of them were underground. I have never heard of any occurring on the surface. I stared out to the field in wonder at all the destruction.

"What could have done this?" Asked Prince Jake.

(I. . . I do not know Prince Jake. There is no species of alien that I am aware of that can do this kind of destruction.) I answered still awed at the sights in the field.

Then he called my attention again. "Ax do you know any species that leaves a trail of burnt footprints?" He pointed over to small patches of grass that had been burnt.

I examined the burnt patches of grass, they seemed to resemble the trail of a bipedal creature. (That sounds impossible Prince Jake. Although there are creatures that do thrive in extreme temperatures or give off such. I am not aware of any that can leave these kind of tracks.) If there was, then we wouldn't be able to get even close to it. (But if the Yeerks had found such a creature. I doubt that they would be able to use them as a host as they would die from the heat.) I said.

We heard a shriek I turned my stalk eyes towards the source, keeping my main ones to examine the burnt tracks. Rachel had slipped on a kind of slimy substance. I trotted over to where she slipped. Even though the smell of the strange slime was horrid it didn't keep my curiosity at bay.

I picked some of the viscous slime with the tip of my tail-blade, taking a close look at it. Noting it's viscosity and color, trying to guess what made it and what could it be used for. It didn't seem like it was synthetically made. It was probably organic. Many creatures have been known to use similar substances for defense or for catching prey. Most likely this was used for defense. The smell was a very, very good indicator for that. I wanted to take a sample, but I didn't bring along any equipment.

Flicking it off my blade I made my way to the large crystals that were at the end of the field.

Prince Jake and Marco were already examining it. Marco even went as far as to strike the large crystal with a rock. A good effort, but you would need something much harder than a simple rock to test how hard the crystal was. Like a tail-blade for example. I trotted over to the two of them. They turned to see me. By now, I am used to their strange evolutionary quirk that forces them to turn half of their body to simply look behind themselves. (Prince Jake, Marco. Step back please.) I said, preparing my tail.

I struck and my tail-blade made a dull thud on the crystal making a large scratch. I frowned, I struck again, my tail-blade embedded itself in the crystal. I tugged it out and traced a finger along the long thin scratch that I had made.

"Do you know what it is?" Asked Marco.

I answered. (No I haven't seen anything like this before.) Then I added. (It is very hard.)

One of my stalk eyes caught sight of Tobias as he flew over to land on the crystal.

(Hey guys, look over at those trees.) He said as he spread one of his wings to gesture over to the edge of the field.

We walked over to where he had indicated and we were surprised to find dozens of smaller crystals similar to the large ones at the other part of the field. Just like the Yeerks, harming trees without a single thought. Prince Jake tried to take out one of the crystals, but it stayed firmly in place. Even if the trees of this planet would not or could not speak, I asked for it's forgiveness and even though it pained me, I used my tail-blade to chip away around the crystal. When it came out, I suppressed a shudder at what I had done, but it had to be done.

I took out the crystal and estimated its size. The crystal was approximately 6 inches in length and and inch in diameter. The tip of the crystal had either formed or was cut into a sharp point.

Marco whistled and said. "Damn, I wouldn't wanna get hit by one of those."

"Yeah." Agreed Prince Jake.

I held onto the small crystal and went to look around. After a little bit of searching I was found the very same tracks that I had found before. I called Prince Jake. (Prince Jake?)

"Yeah, Ax?" He asked turning around to face me.

(Come over here.)

He walked over to where I was and I pointed to the tracks. Then he asked me. "Are these the kind of tracks you saw?"

(Yes, Prince Jake.) I answered. (They are very strange.)

We looked around for anymore clues as to what kind of creature had caused all that. We found more of what we had already seen, small crystal shards, evidence of fire, more of that slime. After we had found everything that we could, we morphed birds and left the field.


When we had made it back to my scoop, we demorphed and discussed what we were going to do with our discovery.

"I'm glad that we didn't need to spend too much time out flying around the forest." Said Cassie.

"Yeah I have better things to do." Said Marco.

"Yeah, like what?" Asked Rachel.

"Like getting a girlfriend." He said.

Rachel snorted. "As if a midget like you could get a girlfriend!"

"Yeah we were lucky." Said Prince Jake breaking up the argument. Back on the Dome-ship they would have gotten reprimanded for such behavior.

"Now we gotta keep watch for anything that happens over at that field." He said. "It will be the same routine we did for surveillance at the sightings."

"Only this time." He continued. "Tobias will be the one who will keep watch at the field while we scout around the area looking for more signs of whatever that thing is."

Marco groaned. "Great, so even when we found something we still have to fly around the forest."

"Shut up Marco." Said Rachel.

"We will sweep around the area for about five miles out. That should be large enough for us to find signs of anything."

"Like what?" Asked Cassie.

(Signs of bug fighters or ships landing and taking off in the middle of the forest.) I said. (There were no signs of any ships landing or taking off at the field, so we may assume that they do it from a distance.) I explained.

"I agree." He said. "They are probably landing in another field or have a kind of camp deeper in the forest. Whatever that thing is, the Yeerks are testing it out in the forest and are probably looking for us."

"Maybe we could ask Erek if they Yeerks have anything planned?" Asked Cassie.

"Yeah I'll ask him about it." Said Prince Jake.


A few says after we discovered the field we did what Prince Jake had planned. Tobias would keep watch over the field, while me and another Animorph would sweep the forest for anymore signs.

(Why is it that I get the unlucky draw?) Marco asked.

(You're just unlucky like that. All your luck gets spent on missions and there's nothing left for everything else.) Said Tobias from his perch in a tree

(Yeah, yeah Tobias. See you later.)

(See you later Marco, Ax-man.)

(We will be back by 12:00 of your time.) I said.

(Alright.) He said as we flew off.

We found very little in the forest. It was much the same scenery that I'd been flying over for several days. It was boring work, but it was important.

(Man, I wish I wasn't doing the sweep today.) Said Marco.

(Why?) I asked curiously.

(Well for one thing, I don't have to look over a sea of trees for the rest of the day.) Then he added. (Ben even invited me to watch his basketball tryout this afternoon.)

(Ben?) I asked.

(Oh yeah, I forgot you don't know him.) He said. (He's a new kid in school. He's been hanging out with us.)

(Is he a member of the Sharing?) I asked cautiously.

(He isn't, luckily.)

(But you can't be sure, just because he isn't in the Sharing, doesn't mean that he isn't a Controller.) I warned.

(We know that.) He said. (But he just moved into town, so maybe he isn't a Controller.)

(But still.) I started.

(We always have our guard up Ax, so stop worrying.) He said.

I kept silent, he had a point. They would never put their guard down, their lives depended on it, to never trust anyone.


We did the sweep as usual, demorphed and remorphed before heading back to the field. Marco and I expected Tobias to be on his perch and nothing had happened during our flight. But we were wrong, although I can't say that it was

a bad thing.

The field came into sight and we saw something that was impossible.

The huge crystals had disappeared and there was some kind of creature in the field, and it was on fire. Yes, it was on fire. But it didn't panic or run around in pain, it was as if it didn't mind the flames. It looked to be made of a red stone, it was bipedal in the same peculiar way humans are, they don't have a tail for balance. Then I saw that it left a trail of burnt grass wherever it stepped.

(Ax!) Yelled Marco using thought-speech.

I didn't answer him, but I knew what he meant. I dove quickly to the trees at the edge of the field and landed. Marco did the same, landing on another tree that was within thought-speech range.

The two of us watched as the flaming creature walked towards what looked like poles made of the blue-green crystal, same as the now gone giant ones. It knelt, it looked like it was examining the ground.

(What do you think it is, Ax?) Asked Marco.

(I, I don't know.) I said, and I didn't know. This creature shouldn't be able to even exist. The caloric intake of this creature alone should be impossible. If it even was a creature, it might just be a machine. Although the thought that the flaming thing in the field being a machine didn't sound right. The Yeerks must have managed to engineer it somehow. (It could be something that the yeerks have engineered as a new weapon, but I'm not sure why they would create a creature that would be unfit to be a host.)

(Why would they need something that practically burns, when they have dracon beams that do the job better?) He asked.

(I'm not sure, but maybe it is like the the time were were in the Arctic, maybe something that thrives in extremely hot temperatures.) I said.

(Why would they do that though? I don't think the yeerks would be interested in a host that would flambe them before they could get in its head and even if they could get inside, they'd probably be baked in its skull.) He sounded almost gleeful.

(That is true.) I agreed.

We kept watch as the the creature stood up and then it did the impossible. It started to morph! My eyes widened in shock as the creatures flames flickered and disappeared. How in the universe did the Yeerks get their hands on an Escafil device? No, they couldn't. s far as I know every Escafil device is on the Andalite home world, except for the one that my brother Elfangor used to give the Animorphs their morphing ability. Were the yeerks able to create their own? I don't think so, their technology may be superior compared to human's, but it's behind Andalite technology. So how was this creature morphing?

(Ax, are you seeing what I'm seeing?) Asked Marco.

(Yes I am Marco.) I said. (This creature can morph.)

(Great, I was hoping that I was just hallucinating and that we didn't need to deal with some morphing, walking fireball.)

Human humor is still something I have difficulty grasping. It seems that one needs to be raised with humans to understand their humor. I believe what he just used was sarcasm.

When the creature finished morphing it was large and had red skin, it had four arms and eyes and very muscled. It too was bipedal similar to humans, no tail for balance. It must have poor balance for it's size without a tail to help with balance.

Then it walked over to the pile of trees and what looked like little effort lifted out one of the large trees. I watched in amazement as the creature drove the tree into the ground with enough force to keep it upright. It stepped back to survey it's work. The tree stood firm as it could by being driven into the ground by and incredibly strong creature. Then, I guessed that it was displeased with it's work and picked up the tree again and threw it back on the pile. I cringed at the action, well something close to a cringe, birds do not make facial expressions like humans or even Andalites.

The creature stood still. I assumed that it would morph back into the flaming creature, but instead it started to morph into a completely different creature. With the powerful eyesight of our morphs we watched as Its skin started to turn from shades of red to green. The tall creature lurched forward and it's lower pair of arms started to thin and the hands began to turn into a pair of forelegs, catching itself before it fell flat. It's upper arms also began to shrink and become thin, but they stayed as hands. It's body thinned and became segmented. Its four eyes popped out and moved to the sides of its head, similar to my own stalk eyes. A tail grew out of the creature's hindquarters and was thick, then end growing large and spade-like ending in a sharp tip. Green insectoid wings sprouted from its back. The creature seemed to wear a morphing suit, similar to what the other Animorphs wear when they demorph in unexpected places. When it was finished the creatures limbs were green and it's body was white with black at the segments of it's body as well as its entire head. Now this creature had a more logical form. Its eyes could look behind itself and it had walked on four legs, it even had a tail with a blade.

This was impossible, you cannot morph from one morph to another. If the Yeerks were able to copy the morphing technology, they would still have to demorph before you can turn into another morph. But how was this creature able to go straight from one morph to the next?

(Great. And I thought the flaming thing the could morph into a crazy strong alien was bad. We're not ready to deal with anything that can go straight between morphs.) Said Marco.

(This is impossible.) I said and the creature took off.

At first I thought that this creature would not be able to fly as Earth's gravity is too strong to let anything that big to fly, but again I was proven wrong. The creature had no trouble flying around the field. Me and Marco hid between the foliage in the trees. If this really was something of the yeerks, we were no match we were three Animorphs short. Even if we were all here, I'm not sure if we could stand a chance against this creature.

(How is it able to fly?) I wondered aloud. (It looks too heavy for its wings to lift it off the ground.)

(Well maybe it's the same with bees.) He answered. (According to the numbers, their wingspan to body weight ratio says that they shouldn't be able to fly, scientists have been wondering why they seem to defy gravity.)

I didn't answer him, I highly doubt that any Earth insect of any biological creature has the ability to defy gravity. There has to be an explanation, but I will have look into that at a later date.

We watched as the giant insectoid fly between the trees, swift and sure. I could hear the hum of it's beating wings as it got close.

(Ax, how much time do we have left?) Asked Marco.

(We have 30% of time left, or 36 of your minutes.) I said.

(Well we'd better get out of here quick if we wanna get far enough from this thing before we get stuck in morph.) He said.

(I agree.) I said. (We should keep low and out of sight.)

(Yeah.)

We left from our perches when the creature was far enough. At first, I thought that the creature had seen us, I thought that we were caught. So, I was relieved when it didn't. I have without a doubt that if it saw us it would come over and kill us. The Yeerks were suspicious of every animal that they see, and they should, we could be anything.

Once we were far enough we demorphed and remorped to refresh our times.

(Do you think it saw Tobais?) Asked Marco as we flew towards my scoop.

(I don't think so, but we can't be sure. The flaming creature could possibly be able to cremate his body if he was caught.) I said. (All we can do is hope that he is alright and the creature didn't catch him.)

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