After they'd managed to pull off, at best, a fighting retreat from the Yeerks' logging compound, Tommy demorphed faster than he'd done in quite a long time. Or, at least that was what it felt like.

"Well, I think we've answered the question of whether or not the Yeerks are in command of that base back there," Marco said, as they all gathered together at the edge of the forest; near Cassie's parents' barn, but not quite close enough to be seen.

"By the way, thanks Ax," Cassie said, turning to the Andalite.

"Yeah," he said, finding himself thinking back on the running battle he, Cassie, and Marco had all been caught up in, before Ax had come to save them. "We were all in real danger back there."

"Yeah, that tail-blade of yours is really something," Marco said, sounding like he was trying for light-hearted, but only managing to come off as worried.

(I should have spotted the nets up in the treetops. I had detected the force field, and suspected there would be Dracon beams in the upper windows, but the nets were so primitive that I overlooked them,) Ax said, not sounding particularly happy with himself.

"None of us managed to spot the nets," Jake said, not sounding particularly happy with himself, either; he'd been in his falcon morph with Rachel and Tobias, watching over the three of them on the ground. "They must have been too well-concealed."

"The point is, they were waiting for us," Marco said, steering them all back on track again. "This is definitely a Yeerk operation, and since I doubt they're planning to go into the lumberjack business, this has to be a way for them to hunt us down."

"Yeah," Rachel said, folding her arms, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "They think we're Andalites. They know we've been hurting them around this area; they've decided that we must be hiding in these woods."

"They're kind of right," he said, rising back to his feet so that he could pace the length of the clearing where they were all gathered. "Ax and Tobias both live out here, and the rest of us do use the forest."

"You know, we're not the only things going on out here," Cassie said, sounding concerned.

"Yeah, I know," he said, stopping to put a hand on Cassie's shoulder.