Gasping for air with his newly reformed human lungs, Tommy tried to close his eyes to help himself concentrate, but quickly found that he hadn't quite regrown his eyelids just then. There were pitiful, shattered bits of crow all around him, but Tommy pushed the thought of what had happened to the poor bird out of his mind and focused on demorphing. He could only hope that none of the Controllers in the area would come to investigate.

That wouldn't be good for anyone.

"Are you one of Marco's friends?" a voice Tommy hadn't heard before asked.

Tommy jerked his head up, finding himself completely at the mercy of Erek, who was apparently an android. At least according to Ax, who did know a lot more about alien things than any of the rest of them.

"Who is this, Erek?" the girl who'd come up beside Erek asked, looking from the android to him and then back again.

"You know the 'Andalite bandits' Chapman is always talking about? The ones who use morphing technology to carry on a guerilla war?" Erek asked, turning to look at his friend.

"I do," she said.

"I think this human is one of them," he said; Tommy tensed, knowing that nothing good could possibly come of someone knowing just who and what they all were. "This is my friend, Jenny," Erek said, turning back to him with a calm, almost inviting smile on his face.

"Is she like you?" he asked, wary but still willing to give Erek a chance; if he had been an enemy, he'd have called the surrounding human-Controllers over to him just as soon as he'd spotted Tommy demorphing.

"There's nothing over here!" Erek called, as the sounds of approaching Controllers grew louder and nearer to where the three of them currently were. "Jenny just hurt her ankle! I'll help her; you keep searching. I think I heard something over there," he said, turning away for a few moments while he spoke.

Tommy couldn't help but feel slightly vindicated, considering how Erek was acting; the way he seemed to have protected Tommy reflexively, and hadn't even asked about the rest of the Animorphs.

"Thanks," he said, getting his feet under him but remaining crouched in the bushes so that he'd be less likely to be seen by any of the surrounding Controllers.

"Of course," Erek said, smiling gently. "Morph into something small enough to escape, then ask Marco if he still remembers where I live."

For a moment, Tommy wondered if it would be worth it to ask how it was that Erek knew Marco, but there were Controllers all around them and he really couldn't spare the time. Morphing as quickly as he could into a fly, since there was too much of a chance that he would be spotted by one of the Controllers in the area.