Before I start, I just wanted to give a big shout out to freak show for telling me how to put the line thing in between the story and author's notes. You rock!

-thriller107

2 Hours Later

Cassie

Yeah. Ashley got yelled at. Big time.

"Why… why would you do that?" Rachel screamed.

((Rachel, come on. We did some pretty dumb stuff when we were kids, too.))

"We were fighting a WAR, Tobias!"

((So is she.))

Rachel stormed off, leaving a flustered Tobias to fly after.

"Ashley, she just worries about you…" I began. She cut me off abruptly.

"I know, I know… I just can't believe that… that Henry Cook was such a fricking JERK!"

Cam just glanced over and muttered, "How do you think I felt when I found out Nicole Brown was a Chee?"

She glared at him. "That's different!"

"Right. Well. I'm going up to my room. Peace out."

"Shut up you stupid moron!"

"Ashley!"

"What? What do you want?" She stormed off to her room.

Ashley

Okay, fine. Maybe that was a little uncalled for. But, hey, I just found out that HENRY COOK was evil! He was like the human version of Visser One!

Wait a minute… that had to be it. Henry Cook was a Controller. A human-Controller, yeah! He'd never do that if he had control of his body! My cell phone started vibrating. My best friend - or rather, my best human friend - Jillian, was calling.

"Hey," I answered. "What's up?"

"Oh my gosh, Ashley. Guess what? Alexis Hall called, and we're both invited to her sleepover!"

Cam

I heard a loud scream from downstairs. A VERY loud scream. I fell off my chair. When I got up I actually sprinted down the stairs and said, "Is everybody okay? What happened?"

Cassie and Ashley just laughed. I glared.

"She got invited to some popular girl's sleep over," Cassie grinned. "The teenage years. I remember them."

"Who?" I asked. Hey, I was curious.

"Alexis Hall! Can you believe it?"

I blushed and went outside.

"Oooooooh, somebody's got a crush!" she called after me.

"Save it," I grunted. I don't want to get into it, but I've liked Alexis for a while now.

For the moment, I just wanted to try out this new cheetah morph. I pictured a cheetah, stalking its prey. It's spots blurring as it reached top speed…

Suddenly those same spots ran up my arms. I felt a tail sprout, and my spine shifted. Within 30 seconds I was a cheetah. Mom calls me an estreen, which I think is what the Andalites call good morphers. Ax says I might be as good as his wife, Estrid. Those crazy Andalites, huh?

Anyway, my point is, morphing is my talent. There. Short and sweet.

I took off, quickly hitting somewhere between 50 and 60 mph. I felt the breeze against my… fur. And then, out of nowhere, a Hork-Bajir. Holy crap.

((Take this you Yeerk fre-))

"Whoah! Chill! It's me, Toby!"

I skidded to a halt and crashed into her. Fortunately, Hork-Bajir aren't wimps. Unfortunately, I was. I literally bounced off her and slammed head first into one of the trees in our front yard.

((What are you doing here?)) I asked her.

"Let's just say it's not good news."