Chapter Eleven

Andalite Season

"Daddy, I'm tired!" whined Helen. Her knees and feet ached from how long she was forced to stand with her father at the bridge of the blade ship. They were somewhere next to the middle of nowhere. A forest-- probably one of the last ones on the entire planet. Visser Three kept it there, knowing that the rest of the 'Andalite' bandits would take it as refuge. If he left it alone long enough, he knew that maybe they would get comfortable and their guard would drop. Hopefully.

If they weren't there, then they would surely be in one of the underground resistances. The empire left them alone because there weren't really a threat anymore-- and if they tried to attack, then they would have been gone in one fell swoop. A raid had been a long time coming to them in Visser Three's opinion-- better to take out every single enemy, and make sure that the opponents stay crushed for good.

Ahhh… It would be nice to finally get the brother of the great Elfangor-- a relief actually. Better yet-- his son also and at the same time. He didn't know yet what he was going to use them for (aside from his daughter's pet that is), but he was going to make sure that it was hours of his own enjoyment after all of the frustration they had forever given him. His life would then be almost complete-- he had to make sure that his Helen dearest made it to the council of thirteen of course too--

"DADDY!" yelled the girl even louder, yanking the Visser out of his thoughts.

He easily noticed how everyone on the bridge of the blade ship froze up, wondering how all of this was going to turn out. The Visser still had a reputation of being very unpredictable when it came to his temper.

((Yes?)) he asked as calmly as he could (he would kill one of his guards later, just for the fun of it.)

The girl lightly stomped her foot. "Have you found him yet?" she whined. Her eyes glazed over with a layer of moister-- tears that begged to fall.

((No, but we will find them soon,)) he reassured, not wanting to see her throw a tantrum.

"Sir," said one of the human controllers just in the nick of time, "We have found something on the life scanners." Visser Three sat up straighter, just hoping. The human had the intelligence to continue on with his report. "We think it's Andalite."

((Think?)) stated Esplin, his voice harsh-- a threat.

The human's face paled, and he quickly corrected himself, his voice stuttering. The Visser felt impatient, not liking the idea of there being an error. He already missed his wife-- he shook his head. Edriss wasn't married to him-- it must've been the host getting him mixed up again. Yeerks didn't believe in such fickle and romantic rituals.

((Nice try Alloran,)) he muttered to the back of his mind, towards where Alloran was somewhere hidden.

((Search and find the life sign,)) he ordered, snapping out of his hopes and dreams for about the billionth time that day. His daughter seemed to be bursting with joy, skipping about the bridge, and giggling with glee. It was going to be his best day yet.

The ship moved easily over the trees, cloaked from any normal eyes. A sneak attack would just be perfect. The Visser nearly burst out in evil villan laughter thinking of the look of horror on Aximili's face when they caught him and delivered him to his daughter. How fun would that be…

"We've got them," said the same human. "Two life signs," he verified after a second, looking from the Visser Three to the scanner.

Esplin rubbed his hands together with glee. ((Go in and bring them to the ship. Bring them both-- maybe I can knock Aximili into submission if I torture his nephew, eh?))

A millisecond later, a blue, centaur-like figure just like Esplin's appeared on the screen. A figure that looked so similar to his old arch nemesis. He sighed at the sweet memory-- the memory of eating the great 'hero.'

Everything seemed to have been going so well, too easily if the Visser had been thinking, instead of fantasizing. He should have realized the small detail of one of the Andalite's stalk eyes looking directly at exactly where the ship was hovering. He should have realized that the Andalite was intelligent enough to carry a portable scanner of his own-- and a weapon.

"We have trouble," snapped the human, his eyes darting to the Visser.

Before Visser Three could ask what was wrong, Aximili pulled out a gigantic rocket launcher-- out of thin air almost-- and aimed it at them. The size of it shocked Visser Three (it overshadowed the male, for Chaos God's sake!), but Helen, who stared at it with the most childlike happiness, giggled with glee. "Daddy, what does that do?" she asked, hoping that it did what she thought it did.

((Say goodbye Visser,)) cackled a young Andalite voice. The Visser just made out the detail of the one of the Andalite's fingers moving towards a red, shiny button, and hitting it. ((I may not survive in the end, but at least I'm taking you down with me.))

Everything moved in slow motion. Visser Three saw the red flame appear as the rocket was shot out of the tube of the ridiculously-sized thing, heading for the supposedly cloaked ship. One of the Taxxons screamed shrilly, moving the ship to the side just in time for the rocket to tear off one of the ends of the ship. It was damage enough to lose about half the power of the ship, and it began to sink quickly to the ground, smoke trailing above it.

Visser Three took one last look at the screen, watching his shattered dream getting away, before the screen fizzled out and went dark.