CASSIE
"Everyone, get low!" Jake said. "Ax, any suggestions on how to stop these hunter robots?"
Ax got the miffed look he always has when we ask him about alien technology. (Prince Jake, these robots are of yeerk origin. I have no idea how they work. Their visual aiming system is the only weakness I can think to exploit.)
Jake looked expectantly at Tobias. Tobias stared back with his fierce hawk gaze.
(Uh-Uh, sorry.) Tobias said. (I only had one squirrel for breakfast; I cannot blind a whole army of hunter robots.)
"Um, Jake?" I said hesitantly. "I just thought of a really insane, really stupid idea that could possibly get us all killed."
Jake stuck his head around the side of the seat. "What's-"
TSEEW!
A hunter robot fired! Jake jerked his head backwards and ducked behind the armrest. "What's your plan?"
I quickly explained my plan. Jake agreed that it was crazy and suicidal, but it was all we had.
"On my word." Jake said. "Remember, stay out of the windows while you morph. If some controller sees us, we are done for."
Ax and I nodded. Jake, Ax, and I would be morphing to the one animal that could possibly take out the hunter robots. Tobias had the dangerous job of the distraction.
"Ax, go!" Jake whispered. Ax had to demorph to his andalite form first.
Ax was growing and stretching out, pressing tightly against me. "Watch your tail!" I hissed.
The hunter robots spun around and locked onto Ax's changing form. Their dracon cannons glowed red.
"Tobias, go!" Jake yelled.
TSEER! Tobias flapped into the air and dove for the hunter robots, beak first.
SWOOSH! The car jumped into the air, and Tobias missed! Missed by a hair, but still a miss!
(Ahh!) Tobias yelled, swerving sharply to avoid slamming into the wall. He bumped his left wing badly against the window.
"Marco, now is not the time!" Jake yelled.
TSEEW! Dracon beams shot into Ax!
Ax yelped, and I felt the heat rising from his burnt fur. I swatted at the hunter robots futilely.
"Keep morphing!" Jake commanded. "Cassie, Morph!"
I focused on my own morph. My teeth grew sharp and smaller, while the ground rushed up at me. My eyesight dimmed slightly, and my hearing and smelling increased. A tail shot from my spine, and my fingers and toes oozed together to form four stumpy digits. And then came the fur. The black fur, silky and long, sprouted from my body, with a single white stripe down my back. And finally, the calm confidence that made up this animals instincts.
My morph was complete. I was small, no bigger than a house cat, but one of the most dangerous animals on the face of the earth.
I was a skunk. And I was prepared to do what a skunk does best.
Amid the dracon fire, smoky air, and half morphed nightmares, I turned around with my back to the robots, looking carefully over my shoulder. And then, with the frightening accuracy of a skunk, I fired.
Bulls eye! One of the robots sparked, and starting wandering blindly around the van. The other robots turned towards me, guns glowing. I cocked my tail and pointed it at each of them in turn, hissing slightly.
(Wah Wah Wah.) Marco said, sounding like old cowboy music. I ignored him, muscles tense, the car vibrating underneath me. I waited, seeing which of us was going to fire first-
One of the robots twisted and fired at me, and at the same moment I fired at it! The dracon beam hit skunk spray, and a putrid smell filled the car.
"Oh-" Rachel gurgled, eyes watering up. She flung open the window and plunged her head out, but quickly yanked it back inside to avoid having it removed by a passing truck.
(Aw, man, Cassie!) Marco coughed, rubbing his gorilla eyes. (Try not to kill us, ok?)
I ignored him and continued trading fire with the robots. I was putting the skunk body through some serious exercise; Skunks are made for waddling, not dodging dracon beams. By now, two more skunks were lined up next to me, and we were shooting robots down like the artillery.
"They're-gasp-down!" Rachel coughed. Her eyes were filled with tears, and there was barf on the dashboard in front of her. "Stop already!"
(Yeah, and we've got some more trouble.) Tobias said darkly. (Got any more brilliant plans, Cassie?)
I peered out of the window, and saw three policemen speeding after us on motorcycles! One was short and several lanes to our right, and the other one was the same one we had seen earlier. He was several lanes to our left and looked pissed. The third one was two cars behind us, waving his gun madly.
(Okay, Okay.) Jake said, rapidly demorphing. (Everyone, get to human. We cannot let these cops see a van full of animals. Ax, stay skunk and get under a seat. We don't want them to see an andalite.)
We followed Jake's orders and demorphed, as we turned off the highway. We were almost at the mall, with three minutes remaining.
"Cassie and Rachel, take these." He said, handing both of us a dracon beam. He looked Rachel square in the eye. "Don't shoot unless absolutely necessary."
I felt the weight of the dracon beam in my hand. It felt like lead in my hands. "Jake..." I began.
"You don't have to shoot unless absolutely necessary." He said. "We'll be fine."
"Three minutes left, and four miles to go." Rachel said. "We're not going to make it."
(Four miles in three minutes.) Marco said nonchalantly. (80 mph as an average speed. No problemo.)
The speed gauge went even higher, and my stomach flopped up and down. I highly doubted that I would leave this van without at least one gray hair on my head.
"STOP!" The shorter cop yelled, swinging from the right and driving right next to the van. "STOP THE VEHICLE!"
The angry looking cop passed a jeep, and came towards us-
(They're trying to close us in!) Tobias said. (Move!)
Too late. The short cop and the angry cop had us sandwiched between them, preventing us from turning.
(The third cop has his gun out!) Tobias warned. (He's aiming for the tires!)
Marco couldn't do anything about it. I could.
I rolled down my window and leaned out. I could see the cop now, he was behind us, with his gun leveled right at the tires. I whipped up my dracon beam, taking careful aim. I tightened my finger on the trigger, ignoring the voices in my head.
The world, Cassie. The logical part of me argued. It's one life versus the world.
Six billion intangible lives were on a scale, being balanced against the one life right in front of me. I would have to see him die.
BLAM!
I had hesitated too long. The left rear tire popped, and went skidding across the road. The van jumped into the air, and then landed on it's right wheels. It balanced for an agonizing few seconds, and then toppled onto its side into a ditch filled with gravel.
CRASH! The windows smashed, and sent glass flying at all of us. I barely felt the pain as the glass buried itself in my skin.
What had I been thinking? We would never make it in time now. Our secret would be known. Our families would be dragged to the yeerk pool, and have yeerks crawl into their heads. I had just sentenced six billion humans to their doom. It was all my fault. But the worse thing was, I don't think that I even really cared. I felt relieved that I didn't shoot the cop, which made me feel guilty.
"Get out of the vehicle, with your hands in the air!" A voice yelled. Marco, with an effort, wrenched open the twisted door. In a haze, I followed him out of the door. Jake came out, hands in the air. Smart, he was leaving Rachel, Tobias, and Ax in the car. They couldn't know how many of us had been in there.
The three cops were all running towards us, hands in their holsters. I slowly stuck my hand into the air.
The smaller cop pulled off their helmet, and I gasped as a wave of red hair fell to her shoulders.
"You are all under arrest." Mary Sue said calmly, pointing her gun at me.
MARCO
"What?!?" Jake yelled in amazement. "You're a cop?"
"Youngest on the police force." Mary said, smiling sweetly and jabbing Cassie with her gun. "Now, I said you were under arrest."
I decided it was my turn to play the hero. Nobody else was in battle morph. So with all of the force I could muster, I punched the third cop square in the stomach.
"YAAAHHH!" He yelled, and went soaring over the side of the road and out of sight.
BLAM! BLAM! Several bullets passed through my shoulder. The angry cop and Mary Sue were firing their guns at me, with painfully good aim.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Move! Move! Move!" Jake ordered. "Somebody, grab those motorcycles and get out of here!"
I nodded, impressed. Jake was still trying to get us to the yeerk pool before Jessie, and he had found the solution while under fire. The boy had a brain up there, and he could use it when he wanted to. Although I would never, ever tell him that.
Bullets flew through air, and all of us Animorphs scattered like flies. I ducked and rolled, a very un-gorilla like movement. Rachel kicked open the side door and lunged out, firing her dracon beam.
TSEEW! TSEEW!
The tall cop dove out of the way, still firing. He had obviously had some seriously good training.
(Remind me to stop paying my taxes.) I muttered to nobody in particular, lumbering over to him.
He kept squeezing the trigger on his little popgun, like that was going to stop me. I swung my cinder-block fist and socked him directly in the chest. His helmet flew off, and I saw the face of the old man from the theater. Gary Stu.
Well, freaky Sue powers or no freaky Sue powers, he was down. Nobody except nobody gets hit by a gorilla and stays on their feet.
(Marco, a little help here!) Tobias yelled. I turned around and ran back towards them, but help was already there.
"AUUGH!" Mary staggered backwards, clutching her face. A yellowish liquid dripped between he fingers. A skunk was looking at her innocently.
(I believe that you required assistance?) Ax said calmly.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
(AUGH!) I yelled, grabbing the back of my head. I spun around, and saw Gary clutching his stomach with one hand, and firing his gun with the other. I had punched him! He should have been on a liquid diet for weeks! It was impossible!
"Die, human." Gary hissed, aiming at me again. I tried to charge him, but stumbled, blood leaking between my fingers.
TSEEW! A red light shot through the air and struck Gary before he could fire again. There was a bright red flash, and a sharp metallic smell. I shielded my eyes from the flash, and when I looked again there was a smoking crater where he used to be.
"That was actually refreshing." Rachel said, switching the dial on her dracon beam down from ten. "Somebody actually knowing that we're human."
(I believe that we have a situation.) Ax said, now andalite. He motioned to Mary, who was starting to recover from her spraying. (I had to demorph to my andalite form, because of injuries. I believe that she saw me.)
"Kill her." Rachel said coldly.
"She was just doing her job." I said, now human. For some reason, I didn't want her to die. " Gary is the one who actually shot at us."
(Yes. I do not believe Mary Sues are inherently evil.) Ax said, fully andalite. (But the fact remains that she saw me as an andalite.)
"I have a solution." I said to both of them. Jake, Cassie, and Tobias weren't here, presumably they had taken the motorcycles. Too bad Cassie wasn't here, she would probably vote with me. "We make her a temporary non-morphing member of the Animorphs. She helps us stop Jessie from getting infested, and we give her the power later."
"That's crazy, even from you." Rachel said. "Why would we do that?"
"Why not?" I shot back. "We have nothing to lose. Mary doesn't work out, the human race is screwed. We don't stop Jessie, the human race is screwed. Mary does work out, she uses her freaky Sue powers to save Jessie, and we live to fight another day, with a bonus two extra members."
Ax nodded. (Your logic is undeniable. I will agree to accept Mary's help.)
Rachel nodded slowly, after hesitating for a moment. "Fine."
I looked at Mary, who was still rubbing red eyes. The three of us gathered around her. The seventh Animorph.
"What do you doing?" She coughed. We all tried to ignore the stench rising from her.
"Mary, we are about to rock your world." I said.