Chapter 3

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"This is insane!" I heard the familiar voice from out in the main room, turning to my head slightly. In that split second, I missed blocking a kick to the gut, collapsing onto the floor of the dojo and holding where I'd been hit.

"Oh, sorry Jade!" Serah was at my side, looking apologetic.

"No, it's my fault" I grunted a little as she helped me up, then over to the small podium Splinter usually stood on.

"Kinda kicked you hard but" She continued, sitting in front of me, but I shook my head.

"No, it was a good kick. I let down my defense when I shouldn't have, so that's on me"

"Jade is correct. You are improving" Splinter was suddenly at the door, making us both jump.

"Sensei" I bowed my head a little.

"I have come to inform you that the others have arrived"

"Thank you Sensei" I lifted my head, sharing a look with Serah and following Splinter out into the main room.

From what I could see, it looked like all the Animorphs had arrived safely, and were spread out around the main room, talking to the others.

Ax and Tobias were on the either side of Mikey, and I could see a big grin on Mikey's face as Ax looked behind him with his stalk eyes. I saw Tobias shaking his human head and sighing. Cassie was sitting on a couch with Kristiana, and they both seemed to be talking about something or other. I noticed Raphael and Rachel were close by, seeming to have just greeted one another. They were both near where Marco, Ithiell and Leo were standing around Donnie, who was sitting on one of the computer chairs, tapping away furiously. I went to move over to the group, but something stopped me dead in my tracks.

I turned, and saw Jake of all people there, meeting his eyes in the half shadow he was in, leaning against a wall. His stare was cold and it honestly scared me, wondering why they had to bring him here with them. One less Animorph wouldn't affect the mission too much, would it?

I shuddered a little, watching as Splinter went over to Mikey and the boys, and Serah moved quietly to stand near Leo, wondering if maybe she had developed a slight crush on him. I'd seen her hovering around him alot lately. I wondered if maybe he noticed...

In spite of still feeling watched, I moved over to where Donnie was, putting my hands on his shoulders and making him glance up at me, before he continued his furious typing.

Just feeling his warmth under my hands seemed to calm my nerves a little, and I quickly tuned into the conversation they were all having.

"So, how do we get in there?" Marco asked, folding his arms. I noticed Raph had his arms around Rachel's waist, and in spite of the conversation, she didn't mind him doing so.

"Well, the skies will be a no go, and anything on the ground will be spotted and chewed to pieces. They'll have controllers everywhere"

"That really doesn't leave us with many options" Rachel shared a look with Marco.

"The sewers?" Leo offered, and everyone seemed to hum at once.

"Possible, but we don't know what they might have hiding down there" Ithiell pointed out "Especially if they're expecting us to try something like that.

"Maybe a diversion team could go in first, distract-"

"No" Ithiell shut Marco down "There are just too many of them now, for one thing, and for another... either or both teams could be killed"

"Well, I don't know how else we'll get in there" Donnie seemed worried, still working away. Soon, Ithiell sat down next to him, joining him on another computer next to him.

"How far have you gotten with hacking the Yeerk security?" I asked, squeezing Donnie's shoulders a little. He made a strange sound.

"Not as far as we hoped to get. Although, the Yeerks have probably upgraded their security by now"

"Very possible" Ithiell agreed "But... maybe a timed burst of electromagnetic-"

"Oh!" Donnie gasped, seeming to catch on "That is brilliant! We could use that to knock out the-"

"You people are idiots" Came the voice, and I think everyone stopped talking, looking over as Jake emerged from the shadows. His eyes kind of made me shrink back a little. I had never seen him this cold...

"And who asked you?" Raph grunted, but Rachel hushed him.

"The only way you're going to be able to stop this, is to take down that Yeerk ship hovering over the city"

"And how do we suggest we get in there, brainiac" Even Leo seemed hostile towards Jake, which wasn't like him. He and Jake usually got along, at least to some extent.

Jake's eyes locked onto mine again, and he started to move forward. I was surprised when Donnie stood up, placing me partially behind him, his hand resting at my elbow.

"Jake man, stop being stupid" Marco put his hand up, and Jake stopped, half smiling at me. His eyes... that smile...

Not even Robert could pull of a look that horrible and cold.

What the hell had happened to him?

The air in the room was tense, before Jake let out a strange laugh, moving to leave the room.

"Forget it, I'll do it myself"

"Jake, don't you dare!" Rachel snapped, but he was already gone, and we all looked after him. No one however, made a move to stop him.

"That...that..." Rachel looked ready to explode, but Marco put a hand on her arm, making her turn on him a little.

"Let him go. There is nothing he can do on his own anyway"

"He could tell them about this base" Donnie growled a little.

Marco shook his head "He's lost it, but he hasn't lost it that much"

"Marco" I moved to stand in front of Donnie, feeling his hands on my shoulders as I looked at Marco.

"Are you absolutely sure? He seems..." I shuddered "Kinda scary"

To my surprise, Marco frowned.

"No... I'm not sure. Right now I'm just hoping"

Well, that was sure comforting.

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So, it was decided that we would do recon only, to work out exactly what we had to work with in the city, since most of the raids we had pulled off had been at the edges of the city. Ithiell, Rachel, Marco and I would all go and try and get as far in as possible, and see as much as we could without being seen.

We knew it was dangerous, but we had to start somewhere. I half wondered if maybe Jake was right about taking out the Pool Ship, but then again...how would we even manage it? We were too few to pull off something like that. And Jake had no chance in hell of doing it on his own. I half wondered if he had a death wish or something... the way he was acting, if the Yeerks didn't finish him off, I got the feeling Donnie or Raph probably would. That is, if he pushed them hard enough...

As we were about to leave though, Donnie stopped me.

"Hey" I managed to get out, I looking up at him curiously. His hand was suddenly at the nape of my neck and I felt a sharp pinch, yelping and jumping away from him, looking up at him as I grabbed at my neck.

"Donnie, what-" That's when I felt something small and circular, frowning as he looked at me apologetically.

"I borrowed some ideas from Ithiell. It's a little device I made that can monitor any major changes in your pulse, or your-"

"Could have warned me beforehand" I grunted a little "Hope it comes off"

"It does" He placed one on Ithiell's neck, then gave the other two to Marco and Rachel, who were both half glaring at him. I guessed if he'd tried to put them on himself, he would have found a very angry gorilla and grizzly bear chasing him.

"So, this thing melts into our shifts and morphs?"

Donnie nodded, looking a little excitedly at Ithiell.

"So if anything happens to you while any of you are out, we can trace it here and warn the others, or come and get you ourselves"

"Interesting... " Ithiell muttered, pulling off what I saw now looked like one of those small round things that doctors stick to a persons chest to monitor their life signs.

"As I said, could have told me about it before you slapped it on me" I mumbled again, pulling mine off and seeing it had two little tiny prongs on the underside of it. I guessed so it could latch onto the skin.

"Sorry" He came up to me, kissing my forehead and giving me one last small hug before I placed the small thing back on my neck, feeling it pinch my skin as it locked into place. I wiggled my finger up at him, and he smiled a little, winking at me. Cheeky little turtle! I would have to give him a good boot up the behind when I got back...

"You guys be careful out there" Leo said, watching as the others came out to see us off. Raph went to Rachel, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back, smiling up at him finally and giving him a soft peck on the nose. He grunted, then fell silent.

"Come back alive, my children" Splinter said, surprised that even he looked worried. Then again, this was the first time we would be venturing back into enemy territory since we'd been found out, and this time we were all going in mostly blind.

I nodded to Splinter, then turned to Ithiell, who smiled.

"You ready?"

"Yep, let's do it!"

"Hey!"

"Sorry Rachel!" I couldn't help but let out in a giggle.

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Massive didn't do what I was seeing ahead of me any justice. Even from so far away, the size of the Yeerk Pool was beyond enormous. I would guess that even the Blade Ship, which had been huge, would have looked pretty small next beside it.

(Are you guys seeing this?) I heard Marco ask faintly, and we all responded with thought speak noises of agreement. I don't think any of us could really believe it. How the hell were we going to fight this thing, with only a handful of us?

And these things were all over the world! I wondered how we'd even be able to take one down, let alone all of them.

I felt a small bit of despair seep in then, now looking at this humongous beast in front of us. Was earth really lost? Did we fail?

(Ithiell?) I thought spoke to him privately, but finding I got no answer. He, as well as the others, were probably just too far out of range now. I felt the despair deepen, trying to shake the horrible thoughts from my mind. Instead, I tried to turn to the search that I was meant to be doing.

Under me, I slowly started to pick up signs of Human and Hork Bajir controllers, seeing random pockets of them, as well as some Taxxons, walking through the streets. Near the Pool Ship, I could see Bug fighters flying in and out what looked like hanger bays, some circling around the massive ship, others taking off into the night, disappearing from even the sharp sight of the owl.

So many controllers... so much-

Something suddenly caught my eye, and I was surprised to see what looked like a tiger of all things, creeping in the darkening shadows. He stopped, stock still suddenly, watching as a group went past, continuing to creep in the shadows.

(So that's where you went) I muttered to myself, unsure whether to follow him, or just keep going on my intended path. Either way, Jake wasn't aware of me, and unless I spoke to him, he wouldn't even know I was here. I half wished I was in range of one of the others, to let them know that Jake was doing something stupid again, but I doubted that even if they could hear me, any of them would be able to help being so far away.

The image of Jake staring at me earlier made me instantly shudder, part of me wondering if I should even help him if things went bad. After all, the look on his face...

He wanted to hurt me in some way. I could tell.

I started to wonder if maybe I'd triggered the events that eventually lead to his breakdown. I mean, it was entirely possible-

I started to get ahead of him, gliding silently higher above the now empty buildings, seeing more and more pockets of scattered controllers. They were looking for something...

Soon, I came upon a very strange sight. In the middle of a large intersection, it looked like they'd set up some sort of makeshift camp. There were tents here and there, and small fires burning around the camp itself, one large bonfire like structure almost in the middle. Near it, I saw some sort of large table, with what looked like a massive map of the city, although I couldn't see too clearly from this far away, and I wasn't going to chance getting closer.

I managed to land on top of a building not too far from the camp, looking out over the groups of controllers coming in and out of what I guessed was a home base for them. Luckily, my keen owl ears was able to pick up some of the conversation as I shifted myself on my perch, watching as quietly as I could. I was surprised they hadn't seen me by now, but from the looks of it... whatever they were looking for, meant more to them than some odd owl.

"Visser Two and Visser One have been at it again" I heard one of the Blue Bands below me mutter to a human controller. I heard her groan a little.

"If Visser One hadn't started the direct invasion, I doubt she'd still be Visser One after what Visser Two managed to do"

"Agreed. Visser Two-"

"Shh! She's coming!"

I saw a Bug fighter swoop down over the camp, instantly all the Controllers alert and at the ready. I saw some stand at attention, while the others rushed a little to clean up a few little somethings on the ground that I couldn't quite see.

It soon landed, and the hatch slowly opened.

"Visser Two has arrived!" Someone announced, and they all were instantly at attention.

"At ease" Came the voice, and something stirred in my subconscious as I saw a shadow come into the light of the bug fighter, then slowly make their way out into the open.

As soon as I saw her face though, everything just seemed to suddenly go in slow motion.

I'd had a feeling, I just didn't want to believe it.

April O'Neil stood with one hand on her hip, the other pointing and barking orders at the controllers around her, everyone instantly in a flurry of motion.

It suddenly all made sense. Everything fell into place.

How our identities were uncovered. How they knew where the turtles lair was... how they knew-

I felt a slight panic, wondering if she remembered the way up to the valley, hoping that the Ellimist would play his part and keep our friends, and families, safe at least.

April...what I guessed was now Visser Two... started moving towards the big map, hands on her hips and looking aggravated.

"Still nothing?!" She snapped, slamming her hands down on the map and slightly reminding me of Visser One.

I bet those two were beeeeest friends.

(CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!) I called out as loudly as I could, still getting no answer. I had to get back to the others and let them know... the others would be devastated... especially poor Raph... he was really close to April, from what I'd seen.

In a... non romantic way, of course.

We would have to find a way to free her later on.

"No ma'am, we have-"

"Not good enough! I want everyone you have in that ship looking! And I mean everyone!" She growled, moving away from the table, and towards a tent, moving her head to look inside, then yelling some more at whoever was inside.

I was about to open my wings and take to the sky, when something caught my eye. I turned my keen eyes towards a spot behind the tent, catching a familiar glow of eyes just behind it.

(Oh no...) I muttered, now realising what Jake was about to do, and what he had planned all along.

He was going to kill a Visser... no matter what the cost was.

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