Author's note:
This is a direct sequel to my other story, Animorphs: The Weakness Reimagined.
This story continues the AU created in that story.
If this book had a cover, it would depict Ax morphing a Yeerk.
Note: { and } are used for thought-speak.
Chapter 1
My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.
My human friends call me Ax, as they find my real name too difficult to pronounce.
I am an Andalite.
I assume that if you are reading this, you know what an Andalite is, but just in case, I will explain it to you.
Andalites are a race of aliens, from another solar system many light years away from Earth.
We are blue and tan in color, resembling an Earth species called a "deer".
Not to be confused with the earth word "dear".
We have four green eyes, two of them are in the same relative place as humans. The other two are on stalks upon the top of our heads, and we can rotate them independently of each other.
We have two arms with seven fingered hands, which are comparatively smaller than human arms.
We have four large hooves.
We have bladed tails that we carry arched over our heads, similar to the earth species called a scorpion.
Finally, we do not have mouths, which most Humans find disturbing. We eat and drink through our hooves and communicate telepathically using thought-speak.
I, however, find having a mouth to be disturbing. There are so many disadvantages associated with a mouth. For example, an Andalite can eat and speak at the same time.
However, if a human attempts to speak while eating, their voice will be distorted and sometimes unintelligible.
Although, there are several advantages to having a mouth. The most obvious is the pleasure that comes with the human sense of taste.
Unfortunately, humans often find it socially unacceptable to utilize the sense of taste.
{Ax!} Tobias hissed in private thought-speak. {We already told you, don't put anything in your mouth. Remember, we're being watched!}
{My bad,} I responded. {These small spheres reminded me of popcorn.}
Marco smirked, but he couldn't respond as he was not in morph.
{They are called ping pong balls, Ax-man. And we need them to progress!}
Tobias, Marco, Prince Jake, and I were at a human entertainment center called an 'escape room'.
An escape room is a series of human puzzles where you use your brain to escape. However, the term 'escape' is quite misleading, as the room you're in doesn't get locked and you are free to leave at any time.
Very confusing, I know.
Initially, I was apprehensive of participating in this activity. Human logic is often confusing and outright backwards at the best of times, and this game would purposely confuse us as a 'challenge'.
However, to my surprise, several of the puzzles were based on math and patterns, something Andalites do well naturally.
"This puzzle doesn't make any sense," Prince Jake said. "What is the trick?"
"Perhaps we need to discover the location of additional ping pong balls," I suggested.
It had been Prince Jake's idea to participate in the escape room.
The past several days had been a stressful time for the Animorphs. It had been officially one week since we'd added two new members to our group.
Jordan, Rachel's sister, who we had been almost forced to recruit due to her knowing too much.
And Hannah, Rachel's cousin, who had been raised from the dead by the Ellimist as a favor to Rachel's now-deceased Aunt.
It is a very peculiar story. Rachel will probably be better at telling it than I.
We had decided a night of recreational activities would be good to destress.
Rachel, Cassie, Hannah, and Jordan had gone to the roller rink. There they would participate in 'rollerblading', a human hobby where humans wear artificial hooves with wheels on the bottom and 'rollerblade' in the shape of an ellipse.
The Animorphs try not to appear as a group in public, especially now that we had increased in size to eight members, so Prince Jake proposed the idea of a 'dude's night' at the escape room.
'Dude's night' is another confusing human phrase, as the word dude implies a human male, but I have observed human females calling each other 'dude' numerous times. Additionally, Tobias used to own a cat named Dude.
I suspect the addition of the word 'night' implies only the inclusion of human males, but I am uncertain.
Marco had expressed disappointment at the proposal of the escape room, stating that he wanted to watch me experiment with rollerblades.
Fortunately for me, he was outvoted. I was secretly glad, as humans are quite unsteady on their two legs, and adding wheels would just make it even harder to move about without falling.
"Ah-ha!" Marco exclaimed. "I figured it out!"
Marco had removed a lock from a cabinet. The rest of us gathered to see what new clues we had obtained.
"More ping pong balls!" Prince Jake exclaimed. "You were right A-...Phillip."
'Phillip' is my code name that I use while in human morph.
I turned my attention to the other item in the cabinet.
"What is this device?" I inquired, picking it up.
It was about two human feet in length and one human inch in diameter. It was flexible and had a red and black tip on one end.
"A back scratcher?" Marco wondered.
"No, it's a magnet," Tobias said. "But what are we supposed to do with it?"
"Let's keep looking around," Prince Jake suggested. "We have 20 minutes left, but I think we're almost done."
There were two more locked containers within the escape room. Presumably, once we had opened the last two containers, we would be able to solve the final puzzle.
The final puzzle was a circuit board with 20 switches, arranged in a 4x5 pattern. Each switch had three possible positions.
Prince Jake was looking intensely at the ping pong balls. We had 16 of them, and they came in three different colors: white, yellow, and blue. Each ball had a different number written on it, all the numbers between 1 and 20.
"I've tried every combination," Prince Jake complained. "I've sorted them by color, from smallest to biggest, evens and odds, even separating all the prime numbers, but it doesn't make sense."
"We probably do not have sufficient information to solve the puzzle at this time," I hypothesized. "I suspect the ping pong balls are used in the final puzzle with the 20 switches, but we only have 16. Most likely there are two more balls in each of the unopened areas."
"Good point," Prince Jake acknowledged.
Just then, Tobias cried out, "I found a small hole hidden in the bookshelf! Pass me the magnet."
"You mean the back scratcher?" Marco teased, as he passed the tool to Tobias.
Tobias reached the magnet into the hole, and then pulled it back out.
"A key!" he exclaimed.
With the key, we opened the penultimate container. Inside were two more ping pong balls and a small piece of paper. The paper read, "White = top, Blue = middle, Yellow = bottom"
"You were right Phillip!" exclaimed Prince Jake. "The ping pong balls must correspond to the switches in the final puzzle!"
Marco and I arranged the ping pong balls in order. The only missing balls were 11 and 14. We quickly flipped the known 18 switches to the correct positions, as given by the paper legend.
"Ten minutes left," Tobias announced. "The final lock is a 4 digit code. Search everywhere!"
We split up and looked all around the room. At this point I wished I had my natural four eyes.
"If there's only two unknown switches, and three positions for each switch, that means there's just nine combinations," said Marco. "I'm going to try each combination."
Marco hurried over to the circuit board and began flipping switches.
Prince Jake, Tobias, and I continued searching around the room.
Suddenly, a human painting caught my eye.
Human artwork is very hit and miss. Some human art is simply abstract multicolored lines with no apparent meaning. Others are hyper realistic depictions of things such as humans, buildings, or nature scenes. I have no idea why this is considered impressive, as humans have already invented the photograph. Some humans find it impressive to spend hours and hours depicting an image, when they could accomplish the same feat in seconds by taking a photo.
Like I said, humans are often backwards.
However, this particular piece of human art was very satisfying to look at. It depicted palm trees at the beach at sunset, but the colors were all unnatural. The water also gave way into space, which is impossible on the human planet. An impression in the sand looked particularly interesting.
"There's a number hidden in this painting!" I exclaimed.
Tobias and Prince Jake came over to look.
"Yep, looks like a 3 to me!" confirmed Prince Jake. I found it quite amusing that Prince Jake felt the need to confirm my interpretation of the human's written language.
"There are four paintings on this wall, I bet there's a hidden number in each one that correlates to the last lock!" Tobias said.
Prince Jake, Tobias and I each picked a painting and began to search for numbers.
It wasn't long before Tobias called out, "There's an 8 in this one!"
"The final code must be 8, something, something, 3," Prince Jake said.
Just then Marco cried out in frustration, "I've tried every combination for these switches, none of them worked!"
"There must be another clue in the last cabinet," said Tobias. "Come help us look for more hidden numbers."
"A clue for what? This is the last puzzle," Marco complained.
"Get your ass over here and stare at this art!" Prince Jake yelled.
Tobias laughed. I did too, although it was more of a reflex, I couldn't see what was so funny about an order from a Prince.
With two of us looking at each painting, the search took a lot less time.
It wasn't long before Prince Jake announced he'd found a 2, and almost immediately after that, Tobias found a 9.
"8293 is the code, enter it quick!"
I was the closest to the lock, so I quickly spun the numbers into the correct positions.
The door opened and we all peered in.
There were the last two ping pong balls, as expected, but there was also a relatively large piece of wood. I pulled it out and stared at it curiously.
There were several indents in the wood, arranged in a grid like pattern. Most of the indents had numbers, but there were a few that were colored and had no number.
The colors were all blue, white, and yellow.
Marco put the pieces together first. "Some of the ping pong balls must be extra, we don't need all of them. We put the balls in the indents with numbers, and the colors of the ping pong balls combine with the colors of the numberless indents to give us the code for the circuit board!"
"Good thinking Marco," Prince Jake said. "We only have one minute left, let's do it!"
"Ok, Rachel," Marco said with a wink at Prince Jake.
Quickly, we placed all the ping pong balls into the wooden indents and began flipping switches.
I felt a human chemical called adrenaline being pumped into my body. Adrenaline makes the body move faster, but also more difficult to focus. Adrenaline is usually released in situations with a physical threat, so it actually made flipping the switches harder.
When there were 8 seconds left, all the switches were in the correct position.
Tobias slammed his hand onto the red 'enter' button on the side of the circuit board.
I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I was definitely caught off guard when the bookcase slid open behind me.
Prince Jake was the first one through the opening.
"It's another room!" he exclaimed.
Just then, a buzzer sounded and the words, 'You lose' flashed across the television in the room.