A character is going to be introduced who will speak in mostly thought-speech. Since FFN decided to be difficult, we can no longer use the canonically established thought-speech punctuation, many Animorph fan-fiction writers have taken to using ( and ) for Thought-speech.
I however use parentheses in my normal style so that might get confusing. However Brackets and Fancy brackets don't work either so I'm kinda out of options. This bites.
Getting it like this: >Watch Out!> takes a lot of work, I have to first write it like this #Watch Out!# and the replace all the #'s with >'s in the FFN editor. So I'm breaking down but still being different and using double parentheses, (( and )) for thought-speech.
Tell me which you like better.
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July 20, 2000 7:48 PM
So, my girlfriend and I were making out. We do that a lot. I wasn't wearing a shirt. She wasn't wearing one either. Or a bra.
Melissa's very petite and small. In that way. So she rarely wears a bra anyway.
And I guess to me, size doesn't matter. I'm not gonna be a pig and compare them to others I've seen. I'll just say I like them. I like them just fine.
Moreover, I liked the feeling of her skin on mine.
She was on top of me at the moment which was a change of pace. Fitting, since she was being really aggressive today.
It had been a little over a week since she told me she loved me. She didn't say it so I would respond with an empty "I love you", but because she actually loved me.
While it, of course, made me feel good, it also made me feel . . . bad. I didn't love her, and she knew that, but I think in her head she thinks that someday I will love her.
But I'm not sure I ever will.
However, I couldn't think about that now. Not when I have a beautiful, half-naked, nymph-like beauty in my arms with eyes that are hauntingly grey, and a touch that is delicate and firm at the same time.
But like I said we were making out. Heavily. I think we ceased having separate tongues a few minutes ago. My hands were caressing her smooth back, while hers were grasping my ribs.
Her lips departed mine and quickly latched themselves to my neck. Turnabout being fair play, I started nibbling on her earlobe which I knew drives her craaaaazy. Her hands slipped to my sides between my waist and ribs. While I nibbled, she squeezed my sides, moaning slightly.
And then her hands went further down to the waist of my jeans. She turned her eyes to me, and I was immobilized by her haunting grey eyes.
I didn't exactly give her permission. I didn't exactly stop her either.
She undid the top button of my jeans. And then she started to lower my zipper.
The front door downstairs opened and closed. Someone had come home.
"Melissa? Are you here?" yelled up Mrs. Chapman.
Melissa snapped out of her passion and released my jeans from her grasp. She quickly grabbed a shirt and put it on while I zipped up my jeans.
Truthfully, I was relieved. I wasn't sure I wanted to go that far with Melissa. Ok, sure, a very loud part of me wanted to very, very, very, very much; I mean, it's not like I lost my penis or something. And the idea of sex with a gymnast is almost too tempting to pass up, but still . . . .
"Yeah, I'm here, what's up, Mom?" She called.
"Can I come in?" Mrs. Chapman said on the other side of the door.
Melissa flashed me a look, but I couldn't find my shirt. I was already on my way to spider morph with or without it. I chose my smallest of my five spider morphs: the Barn Spider.
She opened the door and Mrs. Chapman entered her room.
I couldn't see that well, but I could feel the vibrations of the floor.
"Honey," Mrs. Chapman said in tone of false love. "Your father is in the hospital right now."
"What happened?"
"He was attacked by a buffalo."
"What?"
"The Gardens was transporting the animal and it escaped right in the middle of the road and attacked every person in sight, including your father." Explained Mrs. Chapman. "He has some swelling in his brain, but the doctors are going to fix that. Other than that, he just has a few line fractures and some severe bruising, but he's okay. Your father can be pretty tough."
"A buffalo?" Melissa repeated.
"Yeah. We're officially no longer sending money to the African Wildlife Preservation Society." Mrs. Chapman chuckled, and then seemed to waver. "Why are you wearing an AC/DC shirt?"
What? I looked around with spider eyes, and I could see the blouse that Melissa was wearing was crumpled up on the floor. Next to my trench coat.
"Ummmm," Melissa stammered, "it was my boyfriend's. He gave it to me. So I could have something that smells like him."
"Uh-huh." Said Mrs. Chapman, whose voice was getting more and more suspicious. "And is this his trench coat that's crumpled up on the floor next to the blouse you were wearing today?"
"Yeah . . . um, he gave it to me, uh, cause of the rain."
"It didn't rain today."
"There . . . . was a light drizzle . . . up in the mountains. Where we were."
If I had a head I could hang in exasperation, I would.
"Are you okay, Mom? Your face is twitching." Melissa asked.
"I'm fine dear. Is there a boy in here?"
"MOM!"
"A yes or no will be fine."
"NO! Jeezzzz!"
"Just checking, you know you've been acting suspicious lately."
"How nice of you to notice." Melissa replied sarcastically.
((Don't start a fight!)) I yelled at her.
"Excuse me, young lady?" Mrs. Chapman replied. "Your father's in the hospital, and you're giving me attitude?"
"You're the one freaking out over nothing!" Melissa yelled back.
"You need to get your priorities straight! You're grounded!"
"What!"
"For two weeks."
"I'm almost 16. I'm not a child anymore."
"I'm going to the hospital to stay with your father, it'd be nice for his only child to come and show some concern."
"Not like you show guys show any concern." Melissa mouthed off again.
((Melissa!)) I berated.
SMACK! I heard the sound of skin hitting skin. Mrs. Chapman had slapped Melissa!
I was about ready to demorph and overreact, but then I heard the controller say, "You little BRAT! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE DONE FOR THE TWO OF YOU!" Mrs. Chapman was practically shrieking.
(('Two of you'?)) I repeated incredulously.
Then in much more controlled tone of voice. "I want you to stay here and think about that while I stay with your injured father."
Mrs. Chapman left the room and I crawled out from under the bed. I slowly demorphed as to not startle Melissa. She was still holding her cheek with tears welling up in her eyes.
"Her face kept twitching, like someone was fighting her inside, and then, when she slapped me, she sounded like how my mother was."
"What do you mean 'how she was'? What did she me mean by the 'two of you'?" I asked.
"Me and my brother." She answered.
"You have a brother?"
"Had a brother." Melissa said solemnly. "He died five years ago. My mother went a little crazy after that. But then about three years later she and Dad decided to join The Sharing. You know, to get her out and about again. For a while, it didn't seem to help any, but then all of the sudden she was normal again. But then it was as if they didn't care about me anymore."
Melissa turned to me. "That's when it happened, didn't it? That's when they became controllers?"
It made sense now. Rachel told me that Melissa's mother was a voluntary controller, and her father also became voluntary after that to protect Melissa. It all made sense. Her mother was so distraught after losing her son, she accepts yeerk control, and her husband having lost a son to death and his wife to aliens, couldn't lose his daughter too. So he accepts yeerk control as well.
"What was his name?" I ask as I put on my trench coat. I decided to leave her the shirt.
"Zachary. Zach." Melissa remembered as she wiped tears from her eyes and changed the subject. "So, buffalo, huh? A real one?"
"Yeah friggin right." I say as I morph into a golden eagle.
"Wait, you're leaving?" Melissa asked. "No, you can't leave me alone right now! Please, don't!"
((Melissa, I have to check on them, make sure they've got the situation under control.))
"Don't leave me! Don't leave me, please!" Melissa pleaded pulling inappropriately on my wing. I fought down the raptor instincts to bite her. "Take me with you!"
((What? No way, dear!))
"Why not?"
((Look, sweetie, something could happen. I could never forgive myself if something happened to you.)) I said. ((That, and Rachel would kill me.))
"David! You're taking me with you and that's final!" She insisted, stomping her foot like a five-year-old. Stephanie used to do that.
((Fine.)) I said as I demorphed, "and you've certainly taken your aggression pills this morning."
She puts her arms around me and kisses me deeply. "Thank you."
"I hope this how you plan to end all our arguments." I say as I grab and squeeze her ass, just cause I could.
Her eyes go wide in pleasurable surprise.
We leave her house, despite her mother's proviso that she not, through the back door.
"Okay, try not freak out." I warn her. I only had one morph that could possibly carry her to Proteus. I began my morph to Metracroyle. Red wings popped out of my back and my legs doubled and turned into four large talons. I grew a long, but wispy bifurcated tail. My arms shrunk into my expanding chest and finally my face elongated into the long and sharp beak of the Metracroyle.
Melissa hadn't screamed, which surprised me. She did however start trembling and shaking.
((What?)) I ask.
"Uh. I. Uh. We've talked about aliens, but I've-I've-I've never seen one till like right now." She stammers.
((Yeah, it's a kick in the head, ain't it?)) I saw as I flap my wings and begin to lift myself slowly into the air. I get high enough and my two back talons grab Melissa lightly by her tiny shoulders.
"Whoa!" She said as we lifted off. It was a short flight, mostly vertical to the cloaked hatch of Proteus. It had been mostly repaired by this time, and I took the opportunity to give it a 'paint job' though it didn't ever involve actually paint. Proteus was now a cool dark blue.
We entered Proteus, and I set her down, landed, and demorphed.
"So this is your ship?" She asked.
"Yep, home sweet home." I said. "This is the Sea Bug Bay. Basically it houses all of my modified Yeerk Bug Fighters. I have ten. I've given two to the free Hork-Bajir."
"They're green."
"Yes, to distinguish them from their oily, black Bug Fighter cousins." I explained.
"David, there's a yeerk-controlled helicopter moving in this direction. What's she doing here!" Ayla rudely asked.
"Be nice, Ayla."
"Who's that?" Melissa asked about the voice that came from the ship.
"That is Ayla, she's a sentient computer program with an ego almost as big as mine. She's an invaluable ally and a good friend."
"Flattery will get you everywhere, David Hunting." Ayla coyly replied.
"What's the latest planet-side Yeerk activity, Ayla?" I asked.
"This yeerk-controlled helicopter I just warned you about is the latest planet-side Yeerk activity. It seems to be flying around everywhere in inexplicable patterns. Bug Fighters seemed to be accompanying it at certain points."
"Can you silently track it and tell me what it's doing?"
"You mean follow?"
"If that'll be more efficient."
"On my way, Captain! It may take awhile before I can form a decent theory as to the helicopter's movement. You may want to do something else to pass the time. Have fun, you two." Ayla replied lecherously.
"Ayla . . . ." I said, knowing that she wouldn't answer. One, she was focusing her computing power on the yeerk helicopter. Two, she simply just liked to piss me off.
"Well, I guess I could give you the tour." I said.
"Is this one of those tours that ends in your private quarters, Captain?" Melissa asked me coyly.
"Ayla was just being cute. I've never asked her to call me that."
I let Melissa to the Yeerk Pool room. I hadn't realized she had never seen any aliens. I figured it was time she met the enemy.
We entered the Yeerk Pool Room and instantly Melissa's eyes were fixed on the sludgy pool in the center of the room.
"David, is this . . ." Melissa began to ask.
"Yes." I replied.
"They look like slugs. These are the things that live in my parents' heads?"
"Yes."
"Can I pick one up?"
"Don't hurt them. A condition of their surrender was my promise to keep them safe."
Melissa tentatively put her hand in the pool and grabbed one of nine I had captured. Impossible to tell who.
I had been idealistic when nine of the fifteen controllers I had captured chose fealty to me rather than death. When I scanned their memories, I was disappointed to find that most of them surrendered not because they believed in the vague picture of a new yeerk empire I painted for them, but because they just didn't want to die. One of them, Mahou nine-nine-three, who was one of Visser Two's bodyguards, did plan on starting a mutiny and betraying me, but when he realized that I would know about it, he seemed to give up the idea and resigned to living the rest of his life as a blind slug. One yeerk, Delhis zero-zero-double-one lesser, a former Gedd-controller, really did believe in my vision. He even included in his private thoughts a message to me, saying that he'll do anything to stop the Yeerk War, if it meant not slaughtering his fellow yeerks by the poolful, like the andalites have planned. He even told me (unnecessarily since I could read it in his memories) that his twin was on the Council of Thirteen. He didn't know which councilor he was, though.
She lifted up whomever she grabbed out of the water.
"They really don't look like much, do they? They're actually not as revolting as I thought they'd be by looking at them. Their skin feels less like slug and more like a wet inner tube. Plastic-y even."
It was weird. I expected her to instantly hate the yeerks like the Animorphs did. Of course, the Animorphs first heard of the yeerks from a dying Andalite Prince named Elfangor and later from his brother Aximili, so naturally there's some bias there. I didn't hate the yeerks, (certain yeerks maybe) so Melissa didn't hate them either. She didn't inherit any bias, even though they have personally caused her much harm.
I guess it was the way I explained them to her.
"It must be horrible to live like this. To face either a life time of nothing or a lifetime of hearing the cries of a sentient captive. I don't think I could stand living with people screaming in my head all the time. I'd go crazy." Melissa said.
No hate. Sympathy even. She impressed me so much.
I guess I was smiling-staring at her again. "What?"
"Nothing. You're just so . . . . . wonderful." I said. Ecch. Why am I so mushy?
She smiled and chuckled to me. "You're not evil, are you?" she said to the yeerk as if it were a puppy.
"You know you should probably put it back. If they aren't inside the yeerk pool or on top of a brain, they don't want to be there."
Melissa put her hand underwater and released the yeerk.
"Let's go somewhere that isn't so depressing." I said.
I led her to the conservatory. I think the room was intended as a lab because it was nearly as big as the Sea Bug Bay. I filled it to one side with trees from Columbia and installed a lawn for Megadeth to play around in. Because I missed having a snake as a pet, I picked up a Boa Constrictor, coincidentally enough, called a Red-tailed boa. I named him Hellboy.
Hellboy and Megadeth both ate pre-thawed frozen rats which Ayla fed them at the appropriate time. Many times, though, if I'm on the ship, I'll do it myself. Megadeth and Hellboy seem to get along with each other. Hellboy is a great deal mellower than Spawn was and Megadeth was used to living with snakes, so he didn't seem to mind living with Hellboy.
But when Melissa entered the conservatory and the first thing she saw was Hellboy peaking at her behind a tree she jumped.
"He's not gonna hurt you." I reassured her.
"What is this?" She asked.
"I call it a conservatory, but I'm thinking of renaming it to 'The Jungle Room'. Megadeth's here too. Megadeth?"
"What's Megadeth? An alligator?"
"No, he's my cat." I said laughing.
"You have a cat? What kind?"
I knew next to nothing about cat breeds. "I don't know; the fat and mean kind."
Megadeth ran out of the trees and into the open grass. He was playing with a mouse-sized hovering robot I built for him to chase. Unfortunately, the hovering robot went near a garden Ayla and I had just planted and so naturally, Megadeth went trampling after it.
"Megadeth!" I shouted in protest. "That cat never listens. Just does what he wants, without listening to me at all."
"Yeah that must be annoying." She said giving me a knowing glare.
I poked her playfully in the side and she playfully hit me.
"Oh wow, a waterfall!" Melissa said, spotting the little bathtub-sized lake in the corner of the Conservatory.
Yeah, 'The Jungle room' sounds better.
Anyways, she looked at my miniature 'waterfall' which was a common decoration in Captain's quarters on Andalite ships.
"This room's nice!" she said. "Outdoorsy, but no bugs. Pretty surroundings." She took my hand and started fiddling with my fingers.
She does that when she wants to snuggle, but doesn't want to say it. I guess her aggression pills wore off.
I kiss her softly on her lips and then not so softly. Soon we're once again making out, only in much more romantic surroundings.
So naturally Ayla had to ruin it.
"David?" Ayla prompted, but was ignored. "David? Daaaaaaviiiiiiiiid?"
I reluctantly pulled my lips away from Melissa. "Yes, Ayla, what?"
"I'm sorry to interrupt your heavy petting session, but I can now theorize with 98 percent certainty the purpose of the yeerk-controlled helicopter."
"Well?"
"It seems the Yeerks have repaired and modified the Helmacron Ship and is using it to track morphing energy."
"That's why they showed up at my house. It detected you." Melissa rationalized. I was shocked that she figured that out so quickly.
"Wait, the helmacron ship . . . ." I tried to remember. "They not only can track Animorphs, they can track the Escafil device as well!"
"If they get their hands on that, that'll be major suck-age!" Ayla said.
"Escafil device?" Melissa asked.
"It's what can give people morphing powers." I explained.
"The Helicopter also has a Dracon Cannon on board." Ayla reported.
"All right, first, we have to drop Melissa off back home, and then find the Animorphs."
"Drop me off?" Melissa repeated. "We don't have time for that!"
"You're not coming with me!"
"She's right, David. We don't have time." Ayla said.
I grumbled "Fine, but you're staying in here." I said as I left the Jungle Room. "Ayla? Where's the Anti-Drac Field Shield?"
"In the Machine Room. You haven't tested it yet."
"No time like the present. Have a droid bring it to me in the Bug Bay."
I got to the bug bay and a droid handed me a metallic rod. The Anti-Drac Field Shield or ADFS was copied Korla technology. When I activate it, it should produce a dome-shaped energy force field that blocks Dracon Beams. Here's hoping.
"The Helicopter seems to be heading at full speed toward a point."
"Go ahead of them and see if you can figure out where they're going."
"I see in the middle of some trees an African Cape Buffalo and Cassie currently morphing into an osprey."
"Her morphing's drawing the Helicopter. It's gonna blow them to bits! Cassie might be fine, but whoever that Cape Buffalo is will be screwed. Get over their position. When I give the signal, open the belly hatch. I'll fall with ADFS and flash-morph to spider, and then demorph and activate it."
"What if you lose the ADFS in the fall during the morph?"
"Just trust me." I said.
"Why don't I drop it?" said a voice. Melissa was standing behind me.
"Melissa, I told you to—" Melissa gave me an 'I am woman hear me roar'-look she most certainly picked up from Rachel. "I don't know why I even bother. Fine." I said as I morphed to spider. This time, I choose the Wolf Spider.
I crawled up Melissa's leg and made my way to her shoulder.
"The Helicopter will reach the Animorphs in 43 seconds. 42 . . . . 41 . . . . . ."
((Open Hatch.)) I commanded as I crawled across Melissa's arm to the ADFS rod in her hand. The belly hatch opened over some trees.
"38 . . . . . . 37 . . . ." Ayla counted down.
((Drop me!)) I commanded.
I felt myself fall. As long as the ADFS rod remained upright, my plan would work, but there was always the chance that it would tip over in mid-air.
TWANG! The vibration told me that we had landed. I flash-demorphed and activated the rod. Just in time, as I saw a discolored Dracon Beam hit my yellowish energy shield and deflect. I looked around within my dome shield. I saw only whoever was in the Cape Buffalo morph. I didn't see Cassie in osprey morph.
I morphed into 'Terry Stevens'. ((Ayla! Project a hologram of some destruction. Pick us up!))
I looked at the Cape buffalo. ((I don't know which one you are, but some 'thanks' would be nice.))
The Cape buffalo just looked at me.
I felt myself get lifted up by Proteus's tractor beam. I and the Animorph giving me the silent treatment were lifted into the ship. We landed on our feet (or hooves) away from the hatch.
"You're back!" Melissa said. "And you're Terry!"
((Sometimes it's handy to have thought-speech.)) I explain. "What's the matter?"
"I don't know." She said wincing. "It kinda feels like I'm looking at an ex-boyfriend. Who's that?" She asked about the buffalo.
"I don't know. He's being anti-social. Demorph; it's all right."
Just before the belly hatch closed, an osprey zoomed in. ((David? Is the buffalo with you?)) Cassie asked me.
"Yes, he or she is being very mysterious and won't demorph."
The osprey landed and demorphed. ((No, David, you don't understand.)) Cassie became mostly human. "The Buffalo is –"
"AAAAAAH!" Melissa screamed pointing at the buffalo demorphing into human.
"Melissa," I say trying to soothe her, "relax. It's just another one of the Animorphs."
"NO! Look! It's my father!"
I looked at the shifting buffalo and it was Chapman.
"What the fuck!" I exclaimed. "Chapman can morph?"
"No. That's what I'm trying to say." Cassie started.
"That's not my father!" Melissa insisted.
"Chapman's not morphing the buffalo. The buffalo is morphing Chapman!" Cassie revealed.
"What?" was all I could muster to say.
"This buffalo touched the cube and got the morphing power. It acquired your father." She explained while acknowledging for the first time that Melissa was there.
Melissa stayed where she was as I inched closer to the Buffalo-man. ((What did you do?)) I asked Cassie in thought-speech, too horrified at this mockery of nature to speak conventionally.
"It was an accident." was all Cassie supplied, standing next to me in sorrow.
The Buffalo-man made alarming sounds.
"David, watch out!" Melissa yelled.
I turned around in the direction the Buffalo-man was yelling.
STAB! Something went through my chest! I looked down and there was Cassie with insect mouthparts coming out of her mouth. One of her mouthparts had stabbed through my chest.
Wait, this isn't Cassie. Cassie is on my other side.
The Buffalo-man rammed his head into the Insecta-Cassie. Insecta-Cassie stumbled back, her mouthpart breaking off and staying in my chest. Insecta-Cassie flung one of her half-insect, half-human arms into the Buffalo-man's head, knocking him aside.
TSSEEWWW! Shredder flash! Insecta-Cassie's arm disintegrated.
I turned slowly to see the source of the flash.
Melissa had fired the shredder! Both hands were holding the one-handed weapon as she shook uncontrollably in fear. She fired again, this time hitting the Insecta-Cassie's midsection, and the entire monster burned away in a flash.
I was losing a lot of blood at this point and I fell over onto my back.
Cassie and Melissa came to my side. "David!" Melissa sobbed.
"Demorph, David! Demorph!" Cassie commanded.
"I . . . can't. There's um . . . there's something . . . . . in me." I explain, my brain a little altered.
"If you morph, it'll go away!" Cassie tried to explain.
But Melissa took a different route. She grabbed the giant insect mouthpart that skewered my chest with both hands and ripped it out of me. "Demorph NOW!" She commanded.
I started to feel a little more level-headed, and I realized I had just demorphed. I looked up at Melissa and Cassie. Expressions of relief flooded their faces. Cassie held her head in exhaustion. Melissa just smiled her pretty smile at me with tears in her eyes.
"Melissa." I said as took her hands in mine. It was then I noticed her palms were sliced open and bleeding. "You cut your hands pulling that mouthpart out of me. You saved my life. Twice."
Melissa just chuckled, trying not to cry. This tiny woman has impressed me a lot today. I kissed her deeply.
"How'd you get a Shredder?" I asked.
"Ummm, I . . . kinda . . . . told her where to get one." Ayla admitted.
"That was awfully presumptuous of you, Ayla."
"You can spank me later." Ayla said as a droid carrying a First Aid kit entered the Bug Bay.
The Buffalo-man made grunting noises as it got up on its two human feet.
"Can you make it change back?" Melissa asked.
Cassie went up the Buffalo-man and got down on all fours. "It's time to go back, now." She said.
The Buffalo-man made a grunt in a questioning tone.
"Yes, you are good. You are very good." Cassie said.
The Buffalo-man made a grunt of satisfaction as he began to form into a full Buffalo.
Cassie backed away from the morphing buffalo with mix of fascination and sorrowful dread on her face. She took over my feeble attempts at dressing the cuts on Melissa's hands, "I didn't even have to show him this time. He just did it. He's getting smarter."
I looked at the Buffalo. I tried to wrap my head around the idea of a non-sentient animal morphing into something sentient. The kind of mind-fuck that would incur.
I had some idea. My composite Andalite morph is great deal smarter than me. Whenever I morph it, it feels like I'm going crazy.
This buffalo must be going through something similar, and yet . . . to become self aware . . . . how I can compare it? This creature should not exist.
"David. That helicopter is going after the others; I'm supposed to stop it." Cassie told me, finishing her dressing on Melissa's hands.
"Ayla, are we still following the helicopter?" I asked.
"Yes. We're about go over the ocean." Ayla reported.
"That's where the others are. The other Animorphs and the blue box!" Cassie said.
"Ayla, are we following behind them?" I asked.
"Yes." Ayla answered.
"Follow above." I commanded.
"What are you going to do?" Cassie asked me. "I mean, your agreement with Jake . . ." she said stealing a glance at Melissa. Melissa had gone to pick up the ADFS Rod and the Shredder she dropped. She stuck the shredder in the waistband of the back of her jeans, the tails of my way-too-big-on-her shirt bunched up around it.
"I know my agreement with Jake." I replied. "Ayla, can you punch into the helicopter's communications?"
"Does an Andalite shit in the woods?" Ayla replied flippantly, as we began to hear radio static.
"Ha Ha! Look at the little Andalites go!" laughed a human-controller.
"I still say we should have been aloud to shoot at them." Said another human-controller.
"Eh, let the taxxon-controller have his fun." Said the first human-controller.
"Taxxon-controller?" I repeat. "A Bug Fighter is there!"
"Besides eating and being disgusting, shooting stuff is the only thing they're good at. Besides, maybe not even they will be the ones who'll finish the Andalites off." Said the first human-controller jovially. "All that blood in the water is gonna attract the sharks! And if you think taxxons are brutal . . . ."
"Now who's being disgusting." Said the second human-controller.
"We must be over the water." I said as I morphed into Terry Stevens. ((Oh, Prince Jake? Are we having a little trouble?))
((David?)) Jake answered.
((David! Have you seen Cassie?)) Rachel demanded.
((I've seen her. She's standing next to me.)) I told them. ((We're in Proteus right over the helicopter. I know we have our agreement, Jake, about me using my ship offensively, but since I'm here and within chaperoning distance . . .))
((Do it!)) Jake commanded.
"Ayla, deactivate stealth mode." I commanded.
"What the fuck?" cried the first human-controller. "That looks like the Blade Ship. But it's blue!"
"It's him!" yelled the second human-controller. He said 'him' in reference to me in the same fearful and hateful tone we refer to Visser Three.
"They're afraid of you." Melissa realized.
"As they should be." I said. I looked at Cassie. I wouldn't have been surprised if Jake was giving her private thought-speech commands. Not that I blame him. "Ayla, capture the Helicopter!"
The belly hatch opened and a deactivated helicopter slowly rose up. As part of the capture process, any person onboard the helicopter was rendered unconscious by a low level shredder pulse wave.
((What about the Bug Fighter, Jake?)) I asked. ((Has it hightailed it yet?))
((No, it's aimed for your belly hatch! Close it!)) Jake warned.
Too late. The Bug Fighter rose up into my Bug Bay via the Belly hatch, pushing the helicopter, such that it rested precariously on top of the yeerk ship.
TSSSEEEWWWW! It fired its beams at the four of us! I'd killed us all!
A discolored Dracon Beam hit the yellowish energy shield and deflected. Someone activated the Anti-Drac Field Shield! I looked and, of course, as par for the course today, Melissa had once again saved all our lives.
((What's going on up there?)) Tobias asked us.
Once it was clear to the controllers in the Bug Fighter that they weren't going to be Draconing me to death. The rays stopped. Melissa however did not turn off the shield.
Only when the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxon exited the Fighter and began to advance toward us, did Melissa drop the rod and deactivate the shield. The Hork-Bajir began to rush us. I tried to morph to Hork-Bajir, but nothing happened. I remembered I was still in human morph and demorphed. Before I could start my new morph, the buffalo rammed the Hork-Bajir. The Hork-Bajir went flying into a wall, rendering him unconscious. I thought fast and pulled the Shredder from Melissa's pants and fired a first level blast at the Taxxon, knocking him out.
"That was three," Melissa said coyly, "and don't think I'm not keeping track, David."
The Buffalo cried out in victory.
"So what are those?" Melissa asked. She didn't know the names of the aliens she helped defeat?
"The horned one is a Hork-Bajir. The centipede is a Taxxon. Ayla, get some capture droids in here." I said as I walked over to the Taxxon to acquire it. "Send the humans to the Cold Pods, and the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxon to the Yeerk Pool Room."
((David? Cassie?)) Jake asked.
My hand turned lobster-ish. "Well, that's hardly useful." I commented.
I demorphed my arm and morphed into Terry Stevens. ((I'm freeing a Hork-Bajir and I'm going to drop him and Cassie off at the colony.))
"What about him?" Cassie asked me about the Buffalo as she emerged from the Helicopter with something in her hand..
This mistake of nature?
"I'll take care of him too." I said.
Neither the Hork-Bajir-Controller nor the Taxxon-Controller would take my offer, so they both ended up sucking Kandraina gas the hard way. The Hork-Bajir was sent with Cassie and the Taxxon was sent to the Cold Pods.
Cassie had taken the Helmacron ship with her. I suppose they didn't trust me with it. As Cassie and the newly freed Hork-Bajir left my ship, Cassie said this about Melissa,
"I'll tell Rachel she has nothing to worry about." Cassie said with a chuckle.
As for the buffalo, it kept wanting to morph human, we kept telling it to turn back. Melissa didn't want to see this thing turn into her father.
So I came up with something silly.
"We're going to touch it at the same time." I said.
"Why?" Melissa asked.
"So it'll acquire us."
"Why would we want that? It could then turn into both of us."
"If I'm right, it'll actually do what's called a frolis maneuver by accident. It'll morph something that's equal parts you and me."
Melissa grimaced like this wasn't exactly better. "Ooookay."
We both put our hands on the buffalo. I looked at Melissa and her eyes began to close, she was going through an acquiring trance. I felt . . . sleepy . . . . .
Oh right, the acquiring trance, both Melissa and I snapped out of it. Almost immediately the buffalo began to morph. Its new morph was definitely a male about my height. He wasn't quite as broad as I was. His skin was very pale and his hair was very blond. He actually looked a lot like me, but lacked some of my harder features and there was a little bit of Melissa's softer features in there: Melissa's dimples for instance. He also had Melissa's grey eyes. Fortunately, some of his more 'delicate' parts were still covered in brown Buffalo fur.
"Awww," Melissa said, suddenly very attached to the freak, "he's cute."
"Yeah. We make a good looking kid." I said.
"What are you suggesting, David Hunting?" Melissa asked teasingly.
"Guh. Guuuuuuuh?" the Buffalo asked.
"Yes, you are good." Melissa said, repeating something that Cassie told him. "He needs a name."
"The morph or the Buffalo?" I ask.
"The buffalo!" She said as if I was silly.
"We're not calling him David Hunting, Jr."
"I was thinking more like Bonehead." Melissa said.
"Bonehead!" I repeated. "That's mean!"
"No it isn't. He's a buffalo. He fights with his hard head. Bonehead!" Melissa said. "Bonehead von Buffalo is his full name!"
"Bonehead von Buffalo!" I repeated again. "That's worse than Fluffer McKitty!"
Melissa elbowed me in the gut.
"Hrrrmp! Ok, Bonehead von Buffalo it is." I conceded. "I'm calling him Bone for short."
"Guh. Guh. Guuuuhd!" said Bone.
"So what are we doing with him?" Melissa asked.
The 'we' annoyed me. "I don't know. He can't be acquiring things and morphing. Especially sentient animals, it must be so weird to suddenly so self-aware."
"What about those Proto-bots you told me about?"
"Protimus bots? They only work for twelve hours before dissolving. I guess I could make something more permanent, but that would require implanting something directly something into his spinal cord. I don't know if I could figure out how to do that."
"What about that alien morph you have that's smarter than you?"
"You mean that andalite morph I have? In that, I probably could figure anything out, but I don't like to morph it. It makes me crazy."
"Imagine how he feels." Melissa said stroking Bone's head. Bone smiled like a weirdo.
"Morphing is a biotechnology. If there's anyone better at biotech than Andalites, it's the Arn. The last arn: Quafijinivon." I said.
"Arrrr. Arrr." Bone mimicked. "Naaaaaaaaaaaa"
"I'm gonna have to go to the Hork-Bajir planet."
Melissa immediately stopped playing with Bone and gave me a really frightened look on her face. "You mean travel in space?"
"Well, I do have a spaceship."
"It's broken."
"She, Melissa. Ships are always a she." I said.
"She's broken."
"Ayla, can Proteus travel in space?"
"Yes. All outer hull damage has been repaired." Ayla reported. "However, the weapons systems are not yet operational."
"I promised Jake I wouldn't go bouncing around the galaxy like a warlord, so engaging in battle is not necessary. Besides, with Pemalite cloaking technology, they'll never find me."
"But what if you run into trouble?" Melissa asked.
"The Sea Bugs' dracons are completely operational." I rationalized. "I'll be fine."
"I'm coming with you." Melissa said again.
"Uh, no." I said. "Zipping around the town of California is one thing. Going with me to ends of the galaxy is another. The trip will take days, you can't go missing for that long."
"What if you die?"
"I'm not gonna –" I gave up in frustration. "Even if I did die, how would you being there make that better? You don't have morphing power."
"I did pretty good today for not having any powers, right?" Melissa asked.
I chuckled. "Sweetie, you did amazing!" I said right before I kissed her. "But the only reason you were here is because dropping you off would have meant death for Bonehead there, who I thought was an Animorph." I said as I shot Bone a look.
Bone was poking his own cheeks with his fingers, as if testing them out. Then he started feeling around the top of his head, as if looking for his horns.
"Aaaaeeeeh!" Bone grunted very Tim Allen-esque.
I looked at Melissa, and I suddenly flashed to my night with Stephanie.
Stephanie used a very similar strategy to try and convince me to take her with me.
Of course, those were in actuality the machinations of a yeerk. But I know Melissa isn't a controller, and she's using the exact same strategy.
I know the yeerk didn't love me; that was crazy. Did the real Stephanie?
"What?" Melissa asked when I hadn't said anything in a long time.
"Nothing." I said as I began to hug her. "You're not coming, but I promise I'll return to you as quickly as I can."
Melissa sighed. "Can't blame a girl for trying." Melissa said as she hugged me tighter, as if she didn't plan on letting me go for a long time. "I love you."
And again, regrettably, I was silent.
Erko
My name is Erko Zeair-576. I am a young adult dayang. My best friend Picum Passay-370 and I have just completed our first tour aboard a star-trader, the Rogin Gavic, in which we served as non-essential worker-privates.
I thought the idea of traveling through space, doing business with aliens was exciting. Truthfully, though, I thought we'd visit more alien planets. Then I figured out that Trader ships are too big to land on most planets. Even ours, we use an orbiting space station. We've met a lot of aliens though: yeerks and their various hosts, Hawajabrans, Ongachics, and unfortunately a few Skrit Na.
The most exiting time though, without question, was the human we met. David Hunting. David Hunting could morph like an andalite. He showed up out of thin air and Picum and I were the first to talk to him. He acquired bits of me and Picum and then soon, he and Dr. Orbin and Dr. Klika built some kind of technology that the Yeerks wanted. They wanted it so bad, we might have been able to achieve Wryphat'd. I wasn't sure what the technology was.
I was kind of interested though. I originally wanted a job in the Science division, but Picum was going into the worker division, and I guess I just wasn't brave enough to do something without my childhood friend.
But anyways, the deal fell through, and not only that, Captain Gwarver gets arrested! A lot of the older dayangs were disappointed. I wasn't. I'm still young; I have plenty of time to achieve wryphat'd.
Picum and I had been back on our home planet in our Capital City for two days. Picum was enjoying the downtime. Me, I wasn't sure what I wanted. I couldn't wait to leave again. I wanted to go back into space, but the life of a worker-private is a boring one. Maybe I should transfer to the science division, anyway. I mean, Picum doesn't need me. He's pretty much learned when to not talk weirdly or drop stuff or anything else Picum-like.
It's just, well, I don't know . . . . he's my best friend.
We were walking in a park, having spent the afternoon fishing. We passed by a garden, and I remembered another thing I've missed out on being a worker-private. I used to love gardening, but it's not something a worker-private does. Chefs or Scientists have gardens, not worker-privates.
As we walked I looked at Picum. He was carrying our fishing gear and the fish we caught with his tentacles. I hate it when he carries heavy stuff in his tentacles, because he always invariably manages to hit me with it. Especially with his tendency to slip his upper body forward and back along his lower body as he walked like he was a hyperactive child or something. However, he likes to keep his main arms free for doing Picum-like things like picking up random objects or breaking stuff that doesn't belong to him.
I'm not drawing a very nice picture of him, but I'm allowed to make fun of him; he's my best friend.
Well, he was.
Anyways, I was trying to get my nerve up to tell him that I wanted to transfer to the Science division. I don't know why I was so nervous. Picum is nothing if not tolerant of change.
"So, um, Picum, I was thinking . . ." I began, "when our vacation is up, I was thinking of transferring."
"You want us to transfer to a different trader?" Picum asked me.
"No, no." I quickly corrected. "We'll stay with Rogin Gavic, but I was thinking that maybe I should transfer to—"
Sometimes I think about this last moment. This last moment Picum and I were just average, working schmoes. Five minutes later our lives changed forever.
I was interrupted mid-sentence by the call of an old female.
"Pardon my interruption, but could you two young males help me?" asked the old female. She was very short. Her hair was completely clear, it looked almost white. Her tentacles barely moved and she kept her main arms close to herself. Even her ground arms looked atrophied.
"What's the problem, old one?" Picum asked, not being particularly polite. I figured I'd correct him later.
"I dropped something in the forest path. My main eyes aren't very good and my third eye is blind. Can you strapping young males help me?"
"Sure! No worries. Can you hold our fish?" Picum quickly replied.
I gave Picum a discrete flick in the head with one of my tentacles. "I'm sure we strapping young males can look for whatever it is you lost without putting our stuff down."
We followed the old female into the forest. After a few minutes we got to the middle of the path.
"This is where I lost it." Said the old female.
Picum and I started looking along the ground. "What was it you lost?" I ask.
((All pretense)) said a thought-speech voice.
I looked around suddenly at the old female. She started to shift. She was morphing like an Andalite!
"What damnation!" Picum screamed while sliding his upper body all the way back, hitting me in the face with our fishing gear in the process. I would have yelled at him if I weren't so transfixed by what was going on.
From the form of the clear-haired old female dayang came . . . . . a much larger, black-haired, less old male dayang. Then I recognized him.
"Captain Gwarver Passay-039!" I identify. "Or should I say, Ex-captain Gwarver?"
"Hey, Uncle Gwarver! How come you can morph?" Picum asked.
I'd forgotten that Captain Gwarver was Picum's uncle.
Two green-haired dayangs sauntered up behind us.
"Is this the whelp?" said the bigger and buffer of the two greens.
"Yes, the blue-haired one." Gwarver said, referring to Picum. "I'm not sure what we'll do with his friend."
Oh, feces. Gwarver was gonna kill me.
"I'm sure I can think of something. Ha Ha Ha Ha." Said the other green. I looked at him again, and I recognized him: Kartar Legles-283! AKA Krull the Serial Killer.
"Well, wherever I go, Erko can go!" Picum said, not quite understanding the situation we were in.
"I don't know about that, nephew." Gwarver replied.
"I say, take him with us." said a female voice. "The more friends the more fun."
The female stepped into few. She was about a decade older than me and Picum. She was beautiful. She had red hair and nicely shaped tentacles. In one of her tentacles, she carried some blue object.
"What are you doing, Gwarver? How do you have the power to morph?" I asked.
"With this," Gwarver said as the female handed him the blue object I could now see was a cube, "this little device that Lebla Synda-300 has stolen for us has given us the power to morph, and soon it'll give you two the power to morph."
"Coolness!" Picum said.
"What if we refuse?" I asked.
"You will not refuse." Gwarver said confidently as he began to shift.
The others began to morph as well, and soon I was looking at four wild animals.
The greens had morphed into Zeronexes, some of the most dangerous animals on Gianna Draquen. They had lower bodies like dayangs, but their ground arms were more like legs and they had claws at the ends of them. Their upper bodies had no tentacles, and their main arms were more like spikes that just waved about. Their heads were mostly mouths that were really fast and deadly. The green whose name I didn't know had morphed a Killer Zeronex, the deadliest and biggest kind with huge spikes-arms and a jaw that could crush rocks. Krull the serial killer had morphed a Fast Zeronex, a sleeker, smaller breed with small spike-arms. As the name suggests, it is the fastest zeronex breed, in fact, except for certain birds and insects, it is the fastest animal on Gianna Draquen. Certainly the fastest land animal.
Lebla had morphed a Xegapmar, a relatively slow but deadly creature. It was mostly a shell with four legs, one coming out of each "corner" of the shell. Four tails came out of the back, three large, slow, and powerful tails and one small, useless one. It had a large compound eye looking out of the front of the shell. It was the top of the shell where the xegapmar had its power. The shell had three 'trap holes' were more body parts came out, one in the center and two towards the front. The two towards the front had tentacles. Out of the center trap hole came what could be considered the creature's main body, though it was a great deal smaller than the rest of it. The main body was a torso and head with two simple eyes and the animal's mouth. The main body also had two arm-like appendages that shot streams of deadly venom.
Finally, Gwarver himself had also morphed into something vaguely Dayang. His lower body got bigger as his ground arms changed into digging claws. His upper body also got bigger and buffer, his main arms getting longer with muscle upon muscle being added to as the main arms got long enough to reach the ground. Then, his thin and limber dayang tentacles, became as thick as tree branches and grew spikes at the ends of them like andalite tails. His muzzle elongated, and finally, his black dayang hair was replaced coarse copperish fur everywhere, not just down the upper spine and on the arms like a dayang, but everywhere: upper body, lower body; everywhere but the tentacles. I recognized the creature: a Sabrayog. Our taxonomists think that Sabrayogs and Dayangs are related.
((You won't refuse.)) Gwarver repeated to us. ((That would be foolish.))
The zeronexes growled at us. The xegapmar aimed its venom shooters at us.
"What are we going to do with the morphing power Gwarver?" I ask.
The rust-red compound eye of the Sabrayog got very dark. ((Whatever we want!))
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I meant for this to be a much shorter chapter, but I subscribe to the Greg Wiesman's theory of storytelling: you do not write stories, stories are revealed to you.