Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10
Chapter 16: Caught The Scent
Jake's POV
I sat on my desk late in the night. I was finishing up on some math homework, I wasn't the only one up. I could hear the mumbling through the door of the TV downstairs as Tom watched. No, not Tom, the Yeerk. I leaned back on my chair and took a deep lung full of air. I finished my homework, but my head was still filled with our problem. After a few weeks of searching we finally found the creature that's been hanging around the forest that Ax and Tobias lived in.
Tobias, yeah. Marco had told me earlier tonight that they didn't see him when they saw the thing in the field. I was worried about him, just then I heard a tapping on my window. I my head spun in its direction and my worries flew away. It was Tobias. He was alright.
"Tobias!" I whispered, I didn't want Tom to overhear us.
I opened the window and he fluttered in.
(Jake-) He started.
I cut him off. "It's good that you're alright." I really was glad that he was okay.
(Why?) he asked. (What did you think happened?)
"Marco came to me this afternoon and he told me that they couldn't find you at the field."
(Yeah, I saw them in the distance. I was hiding because I didn't want to be seen by-.)
"Marco already told me about the thing you guys saw."
(Yeah, I thought for sure that they were gonna be toast, literally.)
"So what else did you see?" I asked, turning to the door, just in case.
(I'm not sure what Marco's already told you, but this thing can morph.) I turned to look back at him and gave a nod for him to continue. (Its got a couple really dangerous morphs. One of them was a big red thing with four arms and is really strong.)
"Anything else?" I asked taking another glance at the door. "We can discuss the details tomorrow, just tell me what else you saw."
(Well I was only able to see a couple other of its morphs.) He said. (It has something that runs faster then the garatron, a giant insect thing, a morph of something that seems to be completely on fire, it also has some kind of morph thats made of the same crystal that we found on the field.) He paused for a moment, then finished. (Thats all I saw, it flew off when it turned into the giant fly.)
"Alright, better get out of here. Tom's still awake." I explained.
(Sure Jake.) He fluttered onto the windowsill. He was about to fly off into the night, Then I said.
"It's great that you're alright."
He turned and looked at me with one hawk eye. (Yeah, me too.)
He took off into the night.
The next morning after some breakfast, I called up the others. Told them to meet up at Cassie's barn.
I kissed my mom on the cheek and told her that I was going to hang out with some friends. She told me to have a good time and I left on my bike.
It was a good morning. Clear skies, warm and bright. I met Marco on the way to Cassie's place.
"Tobias came to see me last night." I told him on the long stretch of road.
"Is he okay?"
"He's fine, he told me more about the thing you guys saw at the field." I explained.
"What'd he tell you?"
"I'll discuss it later in the barn." I said. Even if there wasn't any people around, we still had to be careful and I wanted the others to hear it too.
When we made it Cassie's house, I saw that Cassie's dad's Pickup was gone. Me and Marco put our bikes where we usually did and got into the barn. Rachel was already there and Cassie was making herself busy with cleaning a few empty cages. Just then Tobias flew in and Ax followed through the bushes.
"Tobias, great to see you alive, buddy." Said Marco.
"We got some bad news." I said to the two girls.
"Yeah, real bad." Repeated Marco.
"What happened?" Asked Rachel. "Did you guys find whatever trashed the field?"
"We did." Said Marco.
"What did it look like?" She asked.
(Well that depends.) Said Tobias.
"What do you mean?" Asked Cassie.
To put it simply, this thing can morph." Said Marco, with deadpanned humor.
Rachel almost fell of her seat, then asked. "Are you sure? Couldn't it just be Visser three?"
"No, and to make things worse, Marco and Tobias told me that this thing can go straight between morphs." I informed them.
"And this thing has badder morphs than Visser three." Continued Marco. "Remember that thing he morphed the night they went after David?"
"That huge, purple, ugly, four armed thing, that shot traffic cones from its arms? Yeah, how could I forget." Said Rachel.
"Well its got something like that, but it's like Mr. Universe on steroids. It lifted a freaking tree without breaking a sweat!"
(Not to mention a velociraptor looking thing that runs a lot faster than the garatron.) Said Tobias.
"Greeaat." He said sarcastically. "And I thought the walking campfire was bad enough."
"What else did you guys see?" Asked Cassie. "I mean, if this thing can morph, we got to know what we're going up against."
(Well, there was something that looked like it was made of the same crystal that was saw, A red fourarmed thing that lifted an entire tree, a walking ball of fire, a giant fly looking alien, and the velociraptor thing.) Said Tobias listing them. (We're not sure if this thing has more morphs and what they can do.)
"So, when are we meeting up with this thing?" Asked Rachel, I could hear the excitement in her voice.
"We'd better keep a lookout for this thing at the field. Now that we know it comes back, we don't need to keep flying around the forest." I told them.
"I say, we go to back to the field right now. Who knows guys. That thing could come back and we can jump it before it really goes after us." She argued.
"You know, for once I agree with Rachel." Said Marco, that gave me a bit of a jolt. "If we found this thing today, we'd have surprise on our side. That thing wouldn't know what hit it." He finished.
"Actually, I'm having some doubts that this thing is actually Yeerk." Said Cassie. "What if it's just some alien that came to earth."
(I highly doubt that any species sophisticated enough for z-space travel and, though I'm skeptical, has a superior version of the morphing technology, would have any interest in this planet. The exceptions though, would be the Yeerks and Skrit-Na.) Said Ax.
"Skrit-Na?" Asked Marco.
"I agree with going back to the field, just in case that thing would come back, but we shouldn't try to fight it yet. Cassie's right, if we wanna go up against this thing, we have to know what it can do." I said, before Ax started giving us a lecture.
"If this thing really is something that the Yeerks have, then we should go after it as soon as possible, before it goes after us." Said Rachel.
"And what if it morphs something we can't handle?" I retorted.
"Yeah, it's not like it can morph some 800 foot tall alien."Said Marco interjecting.
Rachel scowled and him and looked back at me with the same look. "Alright." She said. "We'll just keep watch."
We made it to the field and I decided that half of us would take turns demorphing in a nearby field, while the others kept watch. There isn't really much to say about the first few hours. We chatted a bit, talked about normal stuff. That was one of the advantages of thought speech, you could have a private conversation that is impossible to eavesdrop.
We also discussed a lot more about the thing that we were waiting for. Tobias, Marco, and Ax gave us more details and we tried to come up with plans to try and beat it. I'm not sure what we'd do if it became that flaming thing that left the scorched footprints. No animal on Earth is exactly fireproof. While we talked, the more I heard about it the more worried I got. This thing is probably the toughest thing we'd have to face next to Visser three. This really puts a lot of things in perspective for us. I mean we never really forget it, but there is always something to remind us that we're only five kids and a Andalite cadet fighting an entire empire.
We had a couple plans if it turned into some of the others. If it turned into the bug thing, then we'd peck and scratch at it forcing it land and Ax would finish it off, but plans never really go that well.
(Guys, it's here!) Yelled Tobias.
I scanned the field and spotted it standing in the middle of it. Tobias was pretty spot on when he described it. (Is that it?) I asked.
(Yup, pretty much.) He answered.
(What's that under its feet?) Asked Cassie.
(Looks like it's standing on some small balls.) Said Tobias. I took a better look at its feet and sure enough, it was gripping a dark blue ball on each foot.
(Well I guess we found out what made those tracks, Ax.) I told him.
(Yes, I think we did, Prince Jake.) He responded
(How much time do we have?) I asked.
(You, Marco, and I have 100 minutes of your time left before we need to demorph. Cassie and Rachel have approximately 50 of your minutes.)
(Ax, on Earth, they're everyone's minutes.) Said Marco.
I scanned the surrounding trees and the sky. Looking for any signs of a bug fighter or the Bladeship.
(Guys, it's morphing!) Shouted Rachel, I looked back down at the field and sure enough the thing was morphing. It morphed into some kind of human plant thing.
(Did you guys see it morph that thing before?) Asked Rachel.
(No, this is something completely different.) Said Marco.
(Well, if it decides to morph that when it goes after us. At least, we're prepared.) Said Cassie. I agreed, this thing is dangerous, who knows how many more morphs it has.
(She's right. Ax, tell us if Cassie and Rachel are getting close to the 2 hour mark.) I ordered Ax.
(Yes, Prince Jake.)
(And stop calling me Prince.) I said out of reflex.
Then we watched thing thing run its hands on its arms and chest.
(What is that thing doing?) Asked Cassie.
(I don't know, but keep watching.) Said Tobias.
We all kept watching, then the thing begun to throw fireballs at nothing. I mean thats weird even for us. I'm sure that if Visser three wanted to test thing thing, he would've used a bunch of Hork-bajir to know if it was ready to go after us. Then why'd he send this thing out in the middle of the forest and just do something like this?
After a while the thing stopped tossing fireballs. Then it began morphing while it walked to a tree. I can't believe how good this thing is at morphing. We always had to stop to morph and this thing can do it while walking. It got shorter and its skin started changing color. I wondered what it was going to turn into next. When it finished morphing I was kinda surprised, it was a human morph. Why in the world would it morph human in the middle of the forest? Did it spot something in the trees where we couldn't see? But if it did spot some people, then we were gonna have some trouble. Then I saw that it was wearing regular clothes. Okay, now this is really weird. But it was nothing compared to when "It" turned around.
It was Ben.
(Is that?) Asked Cassie.
(Ben?) I finished. I couldn't believe my eyes when he turned around. I almost thought that it wasn't Ben, but it was. Then a thought came to me. What if it saw us? I almost panicked at that point, luckily I didn't, I don't panic, not anymore. Because if I panic, someone's gonna get hurt or killed.
(Think so.) Said Marco
(Is that the same Ben you have spoken about Marco?) Asked Ax.
(Okay, is anyone going to tell me what're you guys talking about?) Asked Tobias. (Who the hell is Ben?)
(He's the new kid from school.) I explained.
(When did he arrive?)
(Just before all the weird sightings.) Answered Marco, from his tone I could tell he was trying to match everything together.
(It can't be Ben.) Said Rachel. (That thing has to have just acquired his DNA.) I kinda wanted to believe that too, but here he was in the field, just turned human from an alien creature.
I watched as he stretched a bit, then morphed back to that velociraptor looking thing and dashed off, faster than my eyes could follow.
After a little while, Ax spoke up. (Prince Jake, I suggest that we return to Cassie's barn.)
(Yeah, we need to discuss this.) I said, then letting the bird's mind take over I took off from my perch and headed back to Cassie's Barn. The others followed me lead after a few moments.
When we made it back to Cassie's barn. We talked about what we were going to do with this new revelation. We were going to do some pretty standard stuff for anyone of consequence who we suspect is a Controller. Get Tobias to keep and eye on them and if any of us are free or coincidentally spot them, we'd tail them in case they meet up with any known controllers. Or head to one of the Yeerk pool entrances within the last four days. Only, the problem was that all of us were in more or less constant contact with Ben. And knowing how dangerous he is we all needed to be on our toes.
The following monday was really warm. I mean that in a bad way. When I woke up, my room felt really stuffy and hot and I was sticky with sweat. I threw off my blanket and opened my window. It didn't improve anything. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and grabbed a towel. I had never wanted to bathe that badly in my life, well, maybe there was that one time I fell in the Yeerk pool.
The walk to the bus was hell. When I waited for the bus, I was already starting to sweat from the heat. I mean it's the middle of school year! Come on! It shouldn't be this hot. I was grateful by the time the bus arrived and I hoped in. I could see the rest of the kids, every seat next to a window was occupied. Even in the early morning they were sweaty and I could tell they wanted the bus to get moving again.
I got a seat and a few other kids got on the bus. When the bus got moving it provided some relief from the heat, but it was still really hot. The breeze ruffled my hair. The school was gonna be an oven.
When the bus reached the school, everyone quickly got off and got to the closest patch of shade they could find. I was lucky enough to spot the shade under a small tree where Marco found some refuge. I walked over to him and he moved so we could both fit.
I heard a student pass by talking with his friend. "I'm telling you, it's not a myth! It's happening right now."
"Yeah, right. There's no such thing as global warming. You're just really paranoid." Said his friend.
"Morning, Big Jake." Said Marco as I stood next to him to get out of the sun.
"Hey." I said, wiping some sweat off my face. "Damn it's hot."
"I know, glad I decided to wear shorts today." He said.
Yeah, I thought the same thing when I woke up. This is totally weird the only time we'd get heat waves like this is during the summer.
"What's up guys." I heard a voice, I turned my head and saw that Ben was there. He had taken off his usual white jacket and used it to shade himself from the sun. "Got any room for one more?" It was still hard to think that Ben was the Alien in the woods, and yet here he is going to school with the rest of us and he acts completely normal. If he is with the Yeerks, then I don't know what his goal is. But if he isn't with the Yeerks. . . Well, we'll know by Wednesday.
"Sure." I said. "But we'd better get inside before we're late."
He nodded and we followed him inside the school. The moment we opened the doors, I was right. It was like a freaking oven inside. I was praying that the teachers would have enough sense to open the windows. We went our different ways to our respective lockers. I grabbed a couple books and stuffed them in my backpack. Then the school bell rang and everyone rushed to their classes. I slammed my locker shut an briskly made my way to first period. Ben was already in the classroom twirling a pencil between his fingers, his jacket hung on the back of his chair. The window next to his seat was already wide open and he absent-mindedly used a notebook as a fan. Several other students did the same thing, trying to keep cool.
X
School was horrible. Everyone was uncomfortable and it was so hot. Even the teachers didn't seem to want to teach in the heat. What a way to start the week. By the time that the bell rang to signal the end of classes, everyone rushed out like it was Friday to find some way to cool down. My clothes stuck to me like after I've been doing a tough game of basketball. After dropping off some of my books in my locker, I went to the mens room and splashed water on my face and ran my hands through my hair. The cool-ish water helped a bit as it dripped down from my face to my shirt. It didn't really matter today if I looked like I got sprayed by the water-fountain by some immature prankster. I wanted to cool off.
I walked out of the washroom and suddenly stopped face to face with Ben. Great.
"Hey, you okay man? Looks like someone just gave you a swirly." He looked at my wet hair, face, and shirt.
"Nah." I said. "Needed to cool off."
He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said. "Great idea." He walked passed me and entered the washroom. I heard the squeak of the faucet being opened and water splashing, a lot by the sound of it, then the faucet squeaked shut. Ben got out of the washroom. He was almost completely soaked, his hair was dripping and his bangs covered his eyes. He gave a sigh of relief. "Whoo, that feels great." He pushed his wet hair away from his eyes.
I noticed a couple of people were giving us weird looks, but I ignored them.
"Anyway, Ben. I got some stuff to do, so see you around." I said as if I didn't think that he was a morphing alien.
"Cool, I got some stuff to do too." He patted y back and walked down the hall a few steps before saying. "See you around." Giving me a friendly wave. I stared at him as he walked away, was he really that thing we saw back in the forest, or did that thing coincidentally happen to have Ben, the new kid in town, as a human morph.
The next day I woke up to the same heat as the day before. Ugh this was gonna be a bummer. Anyway, not at lot had happened at school that day. But there was something after that I should tell you about.
When the bell rang, signaling the end of the day, I noticed that the sky seemed a bit darker than usual, a storm might be coming. So I kept an eye on it, wondering if Tobias was gonna be alright, if my guess was right. Then I heard a call coming from the classroom door.
"Hey big Jake, come on! I thought we were gonna be playing some video games at my place?"
"I'm coming Marco!" I grabbed my stuff and we left school.
We got to his house and we both played for a couple hours until I needed to get home. I dropped my joystick and said bye to Marco, grabbing my stuff as I got out.
When I got out the front door, The sky was really, really dark. I hoped that it wouldn't rain before I got home. So I walked briskly back home in the already dark sky. Just when I got sight of my house the rain started to fall. I ran the rest of the way, I didn't want to catch a cold. I made it to the porch, just as the rain started pouring hard. I wonder if school was gonna be cancelled. I got inside, calling out. "I'm home!" To anyone who was listening.
I passed the living room and saw my dad watching a game. I dropped my stuff and joined him. We both enjoyed the game, until mom called us to dinner. As we ate, I could hear the rain falling even harder.
"Hope the power doesn't go out." I heard dad say aloud.
"Yes, I hope too." Said my mom.
After dinner I went to my room and did some homework that we were given that day. I looked out the window and the rain was really pouring, there was a flash of white and a second later the roll of thunder. I knew that Tobias was tailing Ben, I hoped he is somewhere safe, not caught out in the storm. I sighed and gave a wide yawn, closing my notebook. I went and collapsed on my bed and went to sleep
The next morning, I woke up to my alarm as usual. I could hear the pounding of the rain outside, just as hard as it was last night.
"Jake!" I heard my mom call from downstairs.
"Yeah, mom?" I called back, still groggy from sleep.
"School's been suspended because of the storm. It's on the news."
"Alright!" I called back, then I went back to sleep.
I was stuck in the house the rest of the day. I played a couple video games and watched Tv to pass the time. The storm did lighten and eventually stop for a while, then came back in full force. I went to the weather channel whenever my mom asked for an update on the weather. From the looks of it, it's just a quick storm thats just blowing through.
X
The storm ended sometime in the night, but school was still suspended. Apparently, they needed to do some repairs on the school before they could let the kids back in. So I spent most of the day in my room, thinking about what we were gonna do about our situation. Homer was with me as silent company. My window was left open, to keep my room from getting too stuffy. I heard a flutter of wings and saw Tobias land on the window sill. I got up from bed and ushered Homer out of my room, before he could spot Tobias and make a mess of things.
"Tobias." I said. "Are you okay, man? That storm was crazy."
(I'm fine, really hungry, but fine.) He answered. (But I have to tell you something.) I gave him my full attention. (I was tailing Ben just before the storm hit, he went inside the Mickey-Ds where the Pool entrance is.) I nodded, knowing what might be coming next. (Then when the storm hit I found some shelter and kept watch. I saw the employees leaving, but I couldn't spot him leave with one of the employees or by himself.) He continued to report. (I stayed watching over during the entire storm, I couldn't fly in those conditions. Then when the storm finally passed, I went looking for him in the Mickey-Ds in my human morph and he wasn't there.)
I knew where he was going at and that only meant one thing. . .
Authors Notes: *Bows down very low* I am very sorry for the 5-6 weeks of no updates. I had Midterms and in a couple of weeks from now Finals. I was super busy and really exhausted that I didn't have time to write much. I hope this chapter makes up for my delay.
ps. Bennet, I can't do TLOK this friday, I am too exhausted and can't finish it, but the chapter is about a third done, so it should be good next friday.
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