CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

::Cassie::

‹Cassie?›

My head was pounding as I tried to open my eyes.

‹Cassie?› The voice was more urgent. ‹Wake up!›

How? I exerted as much strength as possible.

I felt a sharp pain in my side and wanted to scream, but no words came out. I tried to turn, but I seemed to be held back by an invisible force.

Finally, something bright seemed to flicker in the distance.

‹Cassie!›

I gasped and jerked upright, my eyes wide open.

‹Oh, thank god, Cassie, I thought you were dead!›

I spun around to see a gorilla quickly put aside a syringe. "Marco? W-what–" I stared around at my whitewashed surroundings. I had been lying on a hospital bed, and my surroundings were filled with trays of medicine and other medical supplies and equipment. "Where am I?"

‹A Yeerk hospital, I should think,› said Marco, as he lifted me off the bed. ‹I followed you here as a fly and managed to remorph in somewhere inconspicuous... please, Cassie, don't jump into hot soup when you're not supposed to!›

"What did I..."

‹You questioned Loren and ended up being whisked off by Visser Three,› said Marco, flatly. The vague memory of what he just said started to surface in my mind, and I cringed. ‹It took me some time to remember how you woke Jake up previously with adrenaline. Luckily, everything here's labelled,› he gestured to the syringe, ‹otherwise, you'd be›

He trailed off, staring at the door. I was about to ask what, when I heard footsteps.

‹Quick, morph to fly or something!› hissed Marco.

"I'm not leaving you to fight them alone!" I insisted, beginning my morph.

They were too near. Far too near for me to complete my morph.

Marco sensed it, too. Instantly, he lifted up the hospital bed and threw it onto its side, hiding me from the door's view just as it swung open.

"Andalite!" yelled someone.

"ROARRRRR!" Marco unleashed a furious gorilla cry as I willed myself to transform at top speed.

TSEEEW! They had Dracon beams! There was no way Marco could manage this on his own.

‹Arrghhhh!› Marco stumbled backwards, behind the table with me, the tip of his fist sizzling from a beam.

TSEEEW! The table in front of me was sliced into two.

"RROOAAAAARRRRRRR!"

Nothing can match the roar of the mighty polar bear.

"Oh my..." One of the Controllers stepped back, and he stepped back into Visser Three, who had just walked into the room.

With one clean swipe, the man fell down at the mercy of Visser Three's Andalite tail. All of the other Controllers had their Dracon beams aimed at both Marco and I, a gorilla and a polar bear.

‹This is great.›

‹Thanks to you, Cassie.›

‹Sorry.›

‹What now?›

‹Well, well, well...› Visser Three's stalk eyes swivelled from Marco to me. ‹I thank you for presenting yourselves to me, Andalites. I wasn't very sure that there were actual Andalites around, but now I can be certain. Tell me, what have you come to seek? Victory? Vengeance?› He laughed, and all the other Controllers joined in as well.

I was shaking with fear and anger. It was taking all my resolve not to launch myself at this vermin.

‹How did you come to Earth?› Visser Three's eyes narrowed at me. ‹And you have a morph of a creature that I believe resides in Earth territory that few living creatures go to.›

‹Cassie? Don't. Answer.›

‹Just give the word, Marco, and I'll tear him to shreds.›

‹That's generally not a good idea at the moment.›

‹Oh yeah?›

‹Keeping quiet?› Visser Three mused. ‹Well maybe I should make things more exciting.› He folded his arms. ‹Shall I invite the human Loren to join in the party then?›

‹Oh my God,› whispered Marco, as Visser Three stepped aside to show that Loren was being held by two Hork-Bajirs at the doorway. Her eyes were wide open with fear.

It's hot enough being a polar bear in a confined room. But it's boiling hot being a polar bear in a confined room who is filled to the brim with rage.

"ROOOOAARRRRRR!"

I swiped at the broken table before me, sending one half flying into a bunch of Hork-Bajirs and Taxxons. Marco joined me in shoving the other half towards the humans. Visser Three's Andalite tail whipped about, slicing the table halves into more halves, but he definitely wasn't prepared that I was about to ram into him.

‹Get out, Cassie!› yelled Marco, as I saw him punch a human in the gut at the corner of my eye.

BAM! I had sent the Visser flying straight into the wall. His tail swiped at me, but I gave it the hardest punch that a polar bear could possibly manage, and he roared in pain.

‹GET THEM!› He screeched, and the Taxxons were beginning to slither towards me, with the Hork-Bajirs overturning everything in their way. I turned back and barrelled into them, not caring that a few blades had struck down my side.

TSEEEW!

The door slam shut just as a Dracon beam flew past my ear.

‹Marco, get Loren out of here!› I screamed, tossing the man with the Dracon beam aside like a rag doll and biting down hard onto a Taxxon who screamed, "Screeeee!" like a banshee. I flung my head and sent the Taxxon crashing into its brothers, who had opened their big, devilish red mouths to latch onto the baggy skin of the dying creature.

Marco lumbered out and was nearly held back by a Hork-Bajir, but I spun around again and sent the bladed alien crashing against the wall, though I could feel a particularly bad gash that its elbow blade had dragged across my eye.

‹Cassie, you're hurt!›

‹OUT!› I screamed.

BAM! The door crashed open before Marco reached it. Before I could make out what it was, a blur of orange soared through the air and landed upon a Taxxon. In a second, it was tossed into the face of Visser Three, who had just sliced his way through the rubble.

‹AFTER THEM, YOU PIECES OF - STOP!›

The battle stopped almost instantaneously.

‹I wouldn't move if I were you.›

The Hork-Bajirs, half-wounded, immediately leaned forward. The tiger in the middle crouched and growled menacingly at them.

‹Jake!› I cried out, in relief. He turned his head towards me, then back at the Hork-Bajirs, baring his teeth. The humans were now shaking and dropping their Dracon beams one-by-one, as they stared past me...

I turned and saw Visser Three staring down furiously at a little furry black-and-white animal at his feet. My head was spinning from the blood that I was losing, and I was struggling to stay on my huge paws.

‹You don't scare me, you little creature,› said Visser Three, sneeringly. ‹What is this little kitty going to do?›

‹He doesn't know?› Marco asked, privately.

‹I don't think he has had his grape juice bath in this reality.›

‹Oh. Right. That wasn't funny.›

‹Marco? You thought it was hysterical.›

‹...right.›

‹I assure you, Visser Three, that if it fires, you will never want to have the use of your senses ever again, said Ax, very seriously. He proceeded to lift up his little skunk tail as he positioned his ass towards Visser Three.

"It's..." One of the humans shook as he spoke. "It's a skunk, Visser..." He whimpered as Visser Three's stalk eyes swivelled up at him. "It's got a scent ttha-att iss very potentt... it c-could knock you outt."

There was a brief silence.

"ROOOAARRRR!" Jake leapt out of the room, and Marco leapt forward to grab Ax. Before Visser Three's Andalite tail could react, I had rammed straight into him and past his soldiers, breaking down the wall in the process. I was half-blind by now, with blood running down my face and strength oozing out of me, but I had to keep running, running, running...

‹GETT THEMMM!› was the last I heard Visser Three yell as the four of us bounded out of the building, crashing through walls and bringing down everything in our way. As we ran, I could vaguely make out that Marco had Ax in one arm, and Loren over his shoulder. Relief coursed through my veins, all the way till we were out of that rubble. I was already demorphing throughout the run, and by the time we sneaked into a nearby alley, away from the screams and shouts and thunderous crashes of brick and stone to the ground, I was fully human again. Human and alive.

All of us were panting as we sank to the ground. Marco carefully leaned Loren against the wall, who was staring at us in complete bewilderment.

"You are not scared?" Ax asked.

Loren's eyes darted around, then narrowed in suspicion. "Who are you people?"

Jake looked at me, and I looked at Marco, who pressed his lips together.

Then I looked at Loren. "It's time we started telling each other the truth."