Sorry that I have been absent for a bit. But I am now better. :)

xxxxxxxxxxx

It was a few days after we had gone to Royan Island and we were gathered at the meadow where Arbron, Ax and Anji were staying. We were sitting in chairs in their shelter trying to think of ways to get into the new base and put a stop to their little operation; the only option we felt we had was to morph into sharks, hammerheads to be exact, and see if we could enter the compound that way.

I had considered telling Arbron about Visser One using my mother as a Host but I dismissed it. I was fairly certain that he would bench me for the remainder of the mission and I felt that we needed everyone for this one.

"As everyone here knows the Gardens doesn't have sharks, at least not yet." Cassie commented to us as she flipped through her biology book.

"But there should be some at that aquarium across town, the one that is really expense." Jake commented.

"Ocean World?" Tobias asked.

Jake nodded.

"Oh they have sharks all right. My family went there on a family trip last month and none of us liked parts of it. Honestly who thought it would be a good idea to have a tunnel where not only is there water on either side of you but above your head as well in several places." Tobias commented.

"Do they have hammerheads?" Arbron asks.

"Yep," Tobias responds as he checks the time on his watch. "I got to go; I told my mom that I'd help her with a surprise for my dad." He said as he stood and put his school stuff back into his backpack.

As if on cue Jake, Cassie and Rachel started to pack their school things.

I looked at my math homework and frowned. I was struggling with some of the stuff. My dad was a little busy so I didn't want to ask him for help and asking Tobias for help on math was like asking for Stephen Hawking to explain black holes. I turned to Anji and knew that I had my answer.

"Anji?" I called out.

Anji turned from her seat at one of the tables to look at me.

"I'm having a hard time with some of the new math concepts and math comes really easy for you so can you help me with my math homework?" I asked, hoping that I didn't sound like a boy desperate for a date or something since I wasn't.

"If you are willing to help with my history homework we have a deal." She answered.

"I'll help you." I agreed.

With that Anji gathered her math and history homework and we headed for my place.

Since my dad and I now live in a house I feel leagues better inviting the others over for different things. Best of all we don't have to worry about being overheard by neighbors and it's clean.

As we walked towards the front door I retrieved my keychain from my pants pocket, turned off the alarm and unlocked the door.

We dropped our backpacks off next to the couch and I headed into the kitchen to grab the fruit bowl since Anji shouldn't have any more junk food.

"Do you like going to school here?" I asked Anji as I set the fruit bowl on the coffee table in front of the main couch.

Anji looked at me, puzzled. "Why do you ask?"

"It's just that Max complains a lot about how primitive, backwards or incorrect what we learn in school is but you seem to enjoy going to school so I was just curious." I told her.

Anji sighed.

"I enjoyed school back home but the children were never nice to me. For a long time I never understood the silent hatred and the cruelty of the male students and how the female one didn't want to be my friend. I thought that some of it might be that I was talented but they would taunt me with personal Thought Speech so they could lie if I accused them of being cruel to me. I was once taunted by the son of a well-respected commander. He was the boldest; he only excluded the teacher from the taunts he threw at me." Anji paused in her story; her lips quirked slightly as if amused by something. "He wasn't as careful as he thought he was. He didn't take into consideration of anyone entering the room since the door was behind us and all eyes needed to be forward and his Thought Speech was in a certain radius. My brother, Kilipan, came to get me along with a school official and an officer. The idiot didn't even see my brother coming and Tilopid prided himself to be a great warrior."

Anji paused again apparently lost in her memories.

"Kilipan did get in some trouble but since he was defending his sister when no one else was it was over looked for the most part. He should have been a warrior not a scientist.

"School is better here. No one taunts me or anything, some even like the fact that I am smart." Anji finished.

I felt bad that I had drudged up painful memories.

Personally I was mad that nothing seemed to have been done to curb the cruelty she had dealt with.

I quickly pulled out my math homework so we could get going on the reason we were here.

We spent nearly an hour working on math problems then switching to history every so often for something different.

Finally Anji declared a short break.

I smiled and grabbed the TV remote and started to flip through the channels.

I stopped on a channel featuring some really stupid show and started to peel my orange.

"Is the woman your mother?" Anji's voice asked.

I jerked my head up and stared at Anji who was looking at a picture of my parents. I had a moment of panic; worried that she would recognize her as the Host to Visser One but Anji just seemed curious.

"Yeah, that's my mom." I told her; watching her reaction.

"She's beautiful." Anji stated.

I was glad that she left out the comment that my mom was beauty by human standards.

"Was your dad handsome by your peoples' standards?" I asked, remembering that her father was dead as well.

Anji jerked slightly, her eyes wide with shock.

Finally she turned to face me.

"Yes, everyone considered him to be well built and I was told he had a sense of humor."

"Maybe I would have liked him." I commented as I switched the channel to something less annoying.

Anji looked surprised before she gave me a shaky smile.

"Maybe you two would have gotten along.

A few moments later Anji came back to the coffee table and picked up the history book. I took the hint and turned off the TV.

I silently cursed the Yeerks for destroying our families. They took my mother and deprived Anji of having a father.

xxxxx

We decided to go to Ocean World in the middle of the night even though most of us could get the morph when they allowed us to pet the sharks. It would be so much easier and less stress if we snuck in at night to get the hammerhead shark morph.

We had already dodged several guards and at least I was questioning the wisdom of doing it under the cover of darkness.

None of us dared to speak just in case we alerted a nearby guard.

Finally we found ourselves in a passage way like Tobias had described: glass walls on both your left and right and glass above. Yes I know that it really isn't glass but it looks and can sound like it. The worst part was that it was really long and we could see sharks on the other side.

I looked at Anji and she looked ready to have a panic attack.

Suddenly we saw the beams of flashlights from around the end of tunnel. There was nowhere for us to hide and Anji, Max and Arbron were themselves.

"We need to break the glass." I whispered before I could stop myself.

Arbron looked at the glass then nodded.

/Everyone get ready to morph. Aximili, Anjinnl I am going to slash at the walls and I want the two of you to kick them as hard as you can./ He ordered.

Arbron swung his tail and the blade cut deep into whatever it's called but Anji didn't have to kick it too hard for it to break so we were unprepared for the wave. And to make things worse part of the roof gave away.

The water swept us down the corridor and one of the walls started to give away.

I was quickly separated from everyone else and the fear that I would drown occupied my thoughts as I was pushed around by the water.

Something rough brushed against my leg when the water slowed.

I nearly panicked on the spot at the sight of a shark fin.

I forced myself to calm down so it wouldn't attack me but that didn't mean that I liked something touching me.

After a few more deep breaths I looked to see what kind of shark it was. I nearly laughed when I saw that it was a hammerhead; just the kind we were looking for.

Carefully I moved over to it. Once I was near enough to touch it I did and acquired it.

A moment later I heard the sound of something swimming in the water. I turned and saw that it was a dolphin.

/It's just me Marco./ Cassie told me.

"I found us a hammerhead shark." I told her.

/Follow me if you can./ She said.

It was a little awkward pulling the shark and Cassie ended up having to demorph and I morphing into a dolphin so she could acquire it and keep it calm.

After what felt like forever we arrived where everyone else was.

Everyone else got back in to acquire the hammerhead and then we went home. I collapsed on my bed completely drained from the day.

In a few days we would return to Royan Island and learn what the Yeerks were up to.

xxxxxxxxxxssss

Wow, I ran the gauntlet.

I had considered a friendship between Marco and Anjinnl and decided to give it a shot. I originally didn't have the scene with Anji and Marco at his place but I tried and liked it.

Early Wednesday I am going with my mom to Idaho to visit my sister Red. The Internet connection might not be the greatest but I will endeavor to get updates done.