Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10

Chapter 23: Confrontation

Jake's POV

Right after Tobias ran out of the cave and told us that Ben had escaped, a huge black, green, and white blob flew out of the mouth of the tunnel and formed into a human-like shape.

"Tobias, behind you!" I yelled.

Tobias turned his head and sprinted away from the thing.

The thing looked around our camp. It was humanoid, and white on it's chest, the inside of its arms, and the front of its legs. It was black on the rest of its body with what looked like thick green glowing veins spread throughout its body. It had long arms and large hands, it also stood as tall as a Hork-bajir. Its head was small compared to the rest of its body and had a single green circle where it's face should've been.

"Jake?" It said. I could recognize his voice as Ben's, but his voice had a electronic buzz to it, as if he was speaking through an old radio, and the green circle lit up when he spoke. "This is crazy."

Then he ran out of the camp. We all stood there frozen. My mind was racing. How in the world was he able to morph? We never let him out of our sight.

I shook out of the sudden shock. "Guys, come on! We gotta go after him."

I tore off most of my clothes, leaving just my morphing suit on. Morphing into my tiger morph as fast as I could. Cassie was already ahead of me in her Great Horned Owl morph, taking off between the trees after him. When I was fully tiger, I ran after him, the tiger's keen eyes seeing through the darkening forest as if it were day.

The large alien had a bit of a head start and the forest was making it a bit difficult for the tiger's bulk to run through the trees and catch up with him. I could feel the tiger's instincts kick in as it thought it was on a hunt. I followed my nose as much as my eyes. The alien smelled strange, and at the same time it didn't have a smell, I know that this'll sound crazy, but it also didn't smell entirely alive. The tiger was confused, because to it, the alien Ben morphed into didn't smell like prey. It was metallic and almost organic at the same time. It's so hard to describe. So unless you've smelled it for yourself, you would understand what I mean.

I could smell Rachel in her Grizzly morph, she was probably lagging behind a bit because of the bear's size. I saw Ben run through where the trees were more sparse, the green vein looking things across his body glowing dimly in the dark forest making him very easy for the tiger to spot. The tiger found a spot where it could pounce, I followed its instincts and in a burst of speed, snarling unconsciously I pounced on Ben, throwing him off his feet, my claws digging into him. It was a strange sensation, it didn't feel like flesh, but almost like putty.

(Guys, I got him!) I yelled, while I let the tiger's fighting instincts take over. I clawed, bit, scratched, and pounded on the alien, trying to stay on him while the others caught up. Then there was a sudden flash of bright green and I was thrown off Ben and into a tree. I fell to the ground, stunned from both being thrown off and crashing into the tree. My chest felt warm and I smelled burnt hair. What had just happened?

Once I regained my bearings and got to my feet, I looked around for Ben, then hearing a branch creak. I looked up to the treetops and saw that he was climbing one of the trees. I don't know much about tigers, but I'm pretty sure that climbing big trees like these isn't one of their specialties. Though that didn't stop me from trying.

The others quickly caught up with me and Ben.

(Rachel, could you climb up there and try to keep him from getting away?) I asked her.

(I'll try.) She said, and started to climb up the tree at a quick pace, once again her grizzly morph surprising me with how fast it's able to move, despite how large and clumsy looking it is.

I looked up to see Cassie doing her best to distract Ben. Rachel was about a third of the way up where Ben was when he started to morph. Oh no, if Rachel doesn't make it, he'll get away and we could all be in danger.

(Hurry up Rachel!) Yelled Tobias. (He's already morphing!)

Rachel picked up the pace, knocking off small branches and shaking off loose leaves. But it was too late, he had already finished morphing into what looked like a giant flying bug and took off from the tree. His wings buzzed loudly in my sensitive ears, growing more and more quiet as he flew away, faster than most of our bird morphs.

We screwed up, we let him escape. Now we were all in danger.

X

We all demorphed at the base of the tree where Ben took off from. Cassie landed and joined us, just after most of us finished.

"I couldn't catch up with him." She said.

"It's okay." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It would've been like trying to catch Visser three, we don't stand a chance."

"What was that thing he morphed into?" Asked Marco. "The huge black and green thing."

(It seems that many of his morphs are of species that I'm unfamiliar with.) Said Ax. (But something doesn't make sense.) We all looked at him questioningly. (The creature seemed to be some kind of machine.)

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

(I saw him throw you off in the distance with what looked like a blast of some kind of green energy. I highly doubt that the kind of beam that threw you off was made by a fully biological creature.)

"We can't say for sure, for all we know his morphing abilities might be able to acquire morphs that are part machine." Said Marco.

"Marco's right, we don't know the limit of his abilities, and what we do know about them only gives him an advantage over us." I said, and I was right. He can go straight between morphs as well as go well past the time limit, and the worst part of it is that he knows our identities. At the moment he might be a bigger threat to us than the Yeerks. "Probably the only advantage we have is that there are six of us and only one of him."

(I think it would be better if we went back to the camp to discuss this further.) Said Ax. We all nodded, and walked back in the direction of the camp.

Once we were back, and the fire warming us, we continued.

"So now we're in big trouble, what're we gonna do if we run into him at school?" Asked Rachel.

"I don't know." I said. "We should try and talk with him, I guess. We can't really do anything else."

"Oh yeah we can be all like. "Hey Ben, sorry for knocking you out and having you bound hand and foot inside a cave in a location unknown. We thought you're part of the invasion of parasitic slugs that take over people's bodies. No harm no foul, right? It's an honest mistake, we'll treat you to Mickey-D's or Pizza Hut as an apology." I'm sure he'll go for it." Said Marco, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

(I don't think he'll agree with that apology.) Said Ax blankly.

"It's a joke Ax."

"Whatever's going to happen, we'll just have to deal with it then and there. It's no use trying to plan for something when we have no idea what's gonna happen." I said.

"I don't think we have to worry so much if we're somewhere public." Piped up Cassie. "He doesn't seem the type to suddenly morph in the middle of a crowd and expose himself, with all the effort he went through to go to the field and make sure he doesn't get discovered. He probably wants to keep his ability a secret as well." She explained.

"He also didn't seem to be the type to be morphing into aliens in a field in the middle of the forest either." Commented Marco.

"I think the best thing that we can do for now is to act normal, and if one of us runs into him try to talk to him." I said, the others nodded. "We also have to stay on our toes around him, I'm not entirely sure what he's gonna do next."

I just hope we get the chance to explain ourselves to Ben and that he'll explain himself to us.


The bell rang, signaling the start of first period. The other students were rushing into the classrooms before the teachers could. I looked over at Ben's chair, he still hasn't arrived yet. Damn, what'll we do if he doesn't come to school?

When most of the others settled down, Ben walked into the classroom, I sighed internally, I could talk to him and explain what we did and why. He then gave me a quick glance and his shoulders seemed to have tensed. He walked over to his seat, ignoring me entirely. Okay, if he's gonna ignore me the whole day, then this is gonna be harder than I thought.

Just before I got the chance to get up and talk to him, the teacher came in.

"Alright, settle down class. We'll start in a few minutes." He said.

The class quieted down, then the teacher started to talk. Well, I guess I have to wait until break for a chance to talk with him.

For the rest of the class I occasionally stole a glance back at Ben. He didn't seem to be paying much attention to the lesson, he just stared out the window for the most part. I wasn't paying much attention either, my thoughts kept going back to Ben, and what his next move will be.

The bell rang signaling the end of the class, and everyone started clearing out their stuff and leaving the room. While I was fixing my desk, I felt a rush of air, I looked up seeing Ben rush out of the class. Damn it, I guess I'll have to get him at lunch period with the others.

X

Marco met up with me in the hallway. He was waiting for me outside the classroom. I spotted him trying to flirt with one of the girls coming out of the class.

"What's up Carla. Wanna get some lunch with me?" He said to a small girl around his height. She had long wavy brown hair and was wearing a loose Red Hot Chili Peppers concert shirt that just barely showed her abdomen, and jeans.

"I'm all for it, so long as you're paying."

"Baby, you know we gotta split the bill on a first date."

"Uh I don't think so, Marco. Try that again with some other girl." She and a few other girls giggled. "And don't call me baby." She said before walking away.

Marco then looked over at me. "Girls just don't know what they're missing." He said.

"I think they know exactly what they're missing and are glad for it." I said.

We both walked down the hall, I dropped off my books in my locker before we headed to the cafeteria.

"Did you see Ben today?" He asked me.

"Yeah, did you?"

He shook his head. "Nope, I thought he wasn't gonna show up today."

"Me too, but at least we can talk to him and explain what's going on."

"Do you think he'll tell anyone?"

"I don't think so, if he exposes us, we'll expose him. He's smart enough to realize that."

We entered the cafeteria. I scanned the crowd, trying to spot Ben, but couldn't. Though I spotted Cassie and Rachel sitting and chatting. We lined up and grabbed some food before heading to their table and sat down.

"Did Ben come to school?" Asked Cassie.

I nodded, taking a spoonful of peas, I swallowed before saying. "Yeah he showed up for class, but I haven't seen him since then." Just as I took another bite of food, Ben walked in through the cafeteria doors and made a beeline straight for our table. We all froze in our seats. His shoulders were squared and stiff and the way he walked clearly showed that he shouldn't be messed with right now. But the worst of it were his eyes, they had a grim look to them. Once he reached our table he placed both hands down, gripping the edges of the table and leaned over.

"After school. Mall Food Court. Five o'clock. Bring Aximili. We'll talk then." He said quietly, the tone of his voice was unsettling to say the least. After that he left the cafeteria, leaving us agape. Marco was the first to shake off the shock.

"Hey Jake, are you gonna eat that or are you gonna wait until the flies get there first?"

I looked over at him, closed my mouth and put down my spoon.

"Well at least we don't have to try to convince him to talk with us." Said Rachel. "It seems that he's the one that wants to talk with us."

"Apparently." I said. "One of us will have to get Ax from the forest though."

"I'll do it." Said Cassie. "And I'll get Tobias too."

I nodded. "Good, but tell him that he won't be sitting with us at the meet up. He'll watch over us from above the food court and be our backup in case things get ugly."

"If things do get ugly, what do we do?" Asked Rachel.

"Run." I said simply. "If you get the chance to morph, use it to escape."

"But what if we can't, and our only option is to fight?"

"If we have to fight, we'll fight." I said heavily.

But to be honest, I have no idea what's gonna happen later.


Ax met up with us at the parking lot with Cassie. The five of us entered the mall, and headed for the food court.

"What do ooh you think he wants ahnts with us ss, Prince Jake?" Asked Ax on the way. Even when we were about to go face to face with a potential enemy or maybe even ally, Ax can't help but play with sounds while he's in his human morph.

"I'm not sure exactly. But I'm guessing since he isn't trying to kill us at the moment, he wants to talk." I said.

We made it to the food court, there were still quite a few people there. We looked around searching for Ben.

"These ese eyes are so inefficient, having to turn your-or entire head ed ed-uh to scan a large arge area ah aah." Commented Ax as we searched for Ben in the food court.

We then spotted him sitting alone on a table, resting his elbows on the table. We made our way to him. About halfway he looked around and saw us, he visibly tensed and waited for us to reached him and get seated. He sat at the head of the table, Cassie and Rachel sat on one side, Marco and Ax sat on the other, and I sat opposite to Ben.

We all sat in tense silence, with Ben looking over us one by one. At the corner of my eye I could see Cassie and, to my surprise, even Rachel avoiding Ben's eye. I looked directly at him, but did my best to look as non threatening as possible. Even with the murmur of people in the food court, the silence at our table was almost unbearable. It was only broken when Ben started.

"So, what do you have to explain for yourselves?" He asked, his voice still had that unsettling tone to it. But it was different to Visser three's, because it was just that, unsettling, not evil or venomous. He glanced over at the others before settling back on me. "Jake? Or is that really your name?" He looked over the others again. "Are any of your names your actual names?"

"Yes, they are our real names." I said, and he narrowed his eyes. "If you're just gonna stare at us then there is no point of us being here, why did you call us out here?"

"I want to know what's going on. Why are you here? Where are you from? How are you able to transform?"

"We can ask the same thing about you." Said Ax. "Why are you here? Where are you from? How are you able to morph?"

"You answer because I asked first."

"We won't be answering any of your questions until you answer some of ours first."

Ben glared at him, but he didn't flinch. "Fine, let's make it easier on ourselves. I'll ask one question and you'll answer, then you ask one and I'll answer. No lies, no tricks, just give and take, agreed?"

We glanced at each other before nodding and agreeing to the terms. "Since you're the one that called us out, we get to ask the first question." I said, and Ben nodded. I thought about what I was gonna ask for a moment, what is it that we don't know or weren't sure about him yet? We figured out a little bit back at the cave, but there are still some things that we need to know. So I decided to go straight to the point. "Are you our enemy?"

The question definitely surprised him, but not as much as I hoped. "At the moment, I'm not your enemy." He answered. "It all depends on what happens now, but since you all kidnapped me, I'm definitely thinking about it." This time I was the one to be taken aback. I wasn't exactly sure of what answer he would've given, but even though I was readying myself for almost anything, this was still totally out of the blue.

"My turn to ask." He said. "Why are you here?" He asked. "On Earth to be exact."

"That's a pretty broad question." Answered Marco quickly. "It's like asking for the meaning of life. Why are we here on this Earth indeed."

"I wasn't asking you." He said, making Marco flinch a bit. "I was asking him." He pointed at Ax. "Why are you here on Earth, Aximili?"

Ax wasn't sure as to whether to answer or not, he looked towards me with a questioning face. I gave him a small nod. I guess we'll have to tell him the truth if we want him on our side.

"I am here because the Yeerks are invading Earth." Said Ax.

Ben was just about to ask another question, but stopped himself and nodded at the answer, remembering our agreement. "Explain." He said.

"The Yeerks are a race of parasitic slugs that take control of its host's body by crawling into the host's ear, into its skull, and envelop the brain before taking over." Ben grimaced as Ax explained the process of how someone becomes a controller. "We call those who have been taken over by a Yeerk a Controller. The Yeerk is in complete control of the host, it can peer into your memories, hear your thoughts, and pretend to be you perfectly. They can be anyone you know and you can never tell that they're infected."

Ben sat quietly as he absorbed the information. From the way he reacted it seems that he really doesn't know about the Yeerks or invasion. Now we are doubly sure that he's not on any side, for now anyway.

"It's our turn to ask a question." I said and Ben nodded. So I asked. "Why did you call us out?"

"I called you all out here because I want to know what's going on, know why? Because my life here so far has been happily normal for a change. Then one day suddenly I'm knocked out and I wake up in some cave with an alien interrogating me. Then after that I find out that my friends have the ability to transform into animals and that they're teamed up with the alien who interrogated me, why is that I have no clue. I'm already tired of all this. So yeah I pretty much deserve to know what's going on." He answered immediately in a harsh tone.

The way that he answered made me feel guilty about suddenly dragging him into all this, since we found out that he has nothing to do with the Yeerks or the invasion. But there's nothing we can do about it, now that he's already involved.

Author's Notes: Hi guys, I'm sorry for the two months delay between updates. It's just that I'm really busy these days, both in and out of college. But rest assured that I'm not going to stop this story. It's just gonna be a bit slow for a while. I hope you guys understand. Also be sure to

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