Animorphs:The Second Coming

New Allies

Chapter 1

    My name's Jordan. Just Jordan, I can't tell you any more than that. My sister, Ritora-Fuloa-Maheen, and my cousin, Catara-Fitalia-Gooraora, can tell you their full names because they can't be found. No yeerks could trace their Andalite names to an Andalite family. But me and my other cousin, Tom, have to be careful. See, we want to stay alive. We have terrible enemies, and only four human kids on a strange world and an Andalite kid can stop them.
    I must sound crazy to you, but it's all true. I'll try to explain it more clearly. The yeerks are a parasitic species that go throughout the galaxy infesting entire races. They crawl in through the ear canal and take over the creature's brain. That poor sould has absolutly no control over themselves. They can't make move their arm, they can't stand up and walk around, they can't even decide where to look. All that they can do is sit in a corner of their mind and beg that the yeerk spare them and their family memebers.
    The yeerks have infested countless races. Their more prmominate species are Hork-Bajir, which are used as shock troops, and Taxxons, huge, vile, overgrown canabalistic worms that are used by the yeerks for more delicate work such as flying ships. The yeerks once tried to infest the yeerks, and would have succeeded, but a dying Andalite prince gave my parents, aunt and uncle, and my dad's best friend, the power to morph. The Animorphs, as they called themselves, fought a loosing battle with the yeerks for years. When things were looking dark for Earth and the Animorphs, the Andalites finally came back to Earth and supposedly destroy the yeerks. They only succeeded to drive the yeerks back to their own corner of the galaxy. The yeerks haven't attacked Earth, but they've chosen a new target, the Andalite homeworld, My home.
    But today, I wasn't thinking about that. I was out enjoying the beautiful thermals that I was getting over the Andalite plains. I was flying alone today. Ritora was over at Catara's house and Tom was out with some of his Andalite friends. I knew I was welcome with Catara, but I'm not so sure about Ritora. I know she loves me and all, but sometimes she sees me more as a pain than a friend. And my few friends were all on a pilgrimage to Earth to morph human and eat human food.
    Anyway, I was just flying around in my Osprey morph,which I like much better than the kafit bird, and suddenly I had this feeling that I needed to look down. Don't ask me why, but I looked down, and there running across the field was my friend Tellay-Mator-Calla. I didn't think anything of him running around down there, we weren't too far from his scoop, and this was his family's field, but suddenly I noticed somethingvery odd about him. He was flickering,like a hologram that's almost out of power. I wasn't sure what it was. Chee? I thought,Could Tellay be a Chee? The Chee are a race of androids that the original Animorphs met on Earth. No, couldn't be. Chee holograms were either up or down, no inbetween. So what could Tellay be???

Chapter 2

I flew around in circles for awhile, thinking about what I should do. For awhile I tried to convince myself that I hadn't really seen Tellay flicker. Your friends are not supposed to flicker. But I knew that I had. My Osprey eyes are awesome, and if they saw Tellay flicker, he flickered. At last I decided what I probably should have done in the first place, I'd go tell the others.
 I flew home as fast as my Osprey wings could take me. Nobody was home when I got there. There was a note on the table, It was from Mom and Dad, they had gone out with Uncle Jake, Aunt Cassie and Marco for an afternoon of flying. I sat around the empty house for about an hour before Ritora finally came home.
 "Ritora!" I said, jumping up from the chair I had been sitting in, "We need to call a meeting, and we need to call a meeting now."
 "Nice to see you too, Jordan." Ritora said sarcastically. That's the problem with Ritora and the rest of them. They never take me seriously, just because I'm a few years younger than they are. "Now why do we have to call a meeting?"
 "I don't want to have to tell it a bunch of times. You get Catara and Tom, I'll go fly and get Abata." I can be just as stuborn as you, Ritora. I thought to myself.
 After a few minutes of just standing there, staring at me, Ritora finally seemed to reallize that I wasn't going to budge. "Fine, I'll go get Catara and Tom." she said.
 I ran outside and morphed the Osprey again and flew towards Abata's scoop.
 < Abata? > I asked in thought speach, coming in for a landing.
 < Jordan? > Abata asked, also in thought speach. We can only use it in morph, but it's the natural language of Andalites. < Is something wrong? >
 < Meeting,my house. Hurry up and morph. >
 Abata started to morph his kafit bird morph, I flew around in circles over his scoop impatiently.
 After what seemed like forever, Abata finished morphing and we flew as fast as our wings would take us back home.
 Everyone else was just arriving when we got there. Apparantly Ritora hadn't gone right over to get Catara and Tom. She's not acting like the leader of the Animorphs right now, I thought. She's acting more like your typical annoying big sister.
 "What's this meeting about, Jordan?" Catara asked in a very big-sisterly fashion. I have wished countless times that Catara was my sister instead of Ritora. She's much nicer to me, and more understanding.
 "I saw the weirdest thing today..." I started. I went on to explain what I had seen happen to Tellay.
 "It was probably just a trick of the light, or something." Tom said.
 "That's what I tried to convince myself when I saw him, but I had Osprey eyes, Tom. You know how good Osprey eyes are." Both me and Tom have an Osprey morph. I turned to Ritora, our so called "leader", "So, what are we going to do?"
 "I guess we should go check it out. Do you know where he lives?" Ritora asked.
 "Duh, Ritora. Of course I do. He's only one of my best friends."
 That got on Ritora's nerves, "Fine, then," she said through clenched teeth. She wasn't going to loose her temper at a meeting. "Jordan, do you know of a place where we could spy on Tellay?"
 "Maybe, if we morphed insects, we could spy on Tellay." I suggested, "But it'd have to be a native bug. Tellay is an amature entomologist, he studies bugs in his free time." I noticed that everybody,except Catara, shivered the slightest bit at that.
 Ritora turned to Catara. She's really into animals, from all around the galaxy. "What bugs would be good for that kind of work?"
 Catara thought for a second, "Well, there is a bug that could work. I'm not positive of it's classification, it's got 12 legs, so it's neither arachnid nor insect. It's quite common, we could probably go outside and find one in the bushes right now. It's called an artichan."
 "Fine, lets go find ourselves an artichan." Ritora said with a bit too much enthusiasm.

Chapter 3

    We made our way outside, Catara got down on her hands and knees in the bushes in front of the house, poking and proding between the bushes and rocks, looking for the artichan.
    "Ah-ha!" she shouted triumphantly and started to crawl out of the bush. She carefully raised her hands up so we could see what she was holding. "Meet the artichan."
    The bug was fairly large, probably 3 inches wide and just as long. It was dark brown and pink. Probably camoflauge in the electric pink of the bushes. It had 6 legs on each side of it's body. And it gave me the creeps. I'd seen plenty of bugs in my odd life here on this alien planet, I've even gone with Tellay on bug hunting trips, but I seriously did not like this bug for some reason.
    "I'm aquiring him right now, which is why he's so calm right now. I'm not sure how he'll react when he comes out of his trance so hurry up and aquire him." Catara said, stretching her arm out so the bug was even closer to us.
    Ritora was the first, acting all brave about it, Tom calls her Xena: Warrior Princess because, although sometimes she's really responsible and stuff, she can also be reckless and fearless. He just calls me 'kid.' But, I'll probably end up being Xena soon too since Ritora is getting more responsible with her role as leader. She touched the hairy bug and began to acquire it.
    Aquiring is when you touch an animal and 'acquire' their DNA. Most animals become passive, like the artichan was, but there are a few rare occasions where the animal doesn't calm down. I've never expirienced that personally, but my dad once told me that when he had his morphing powers he tried to acquire a dolphin and it almost drowned him.
    I touched the artichan next. I felt a wave of nausea wash over me. I don't know why. Maybe it was that bad feeling I had had about it. Maybe it was just because most people don't like to touch hairy little creatures. But I couldn't tell the others. Especially not when Tom was there, he'd probably make some dumb joke about me being scared.
    Tom acquired the bug as quickly as he could. I don't think he wanted to touch that bug any more than I did, but he had an advantage over me, he could admit he didn't want to touch the bug. He could admit he was scared of going on a mission, I can't. Well, physically I can, but mentally I can't. I guess I'm alot like my mom in that aspect. She rarely ever admitted to the rest of the group that she was scared, and I don't admit it to anybody else. Maybe Ritora once in a while when she isn't acting like some bratty big sister, but that's a rare moment, usually only when we're in a life threatening situations. Which happens way too often for my likings.
    "I'll go take this guy over to Abata so he can aquire it." Catara said.
    "When? Now? He's in school right now." I said matter of factly. Unlike us, Abata's an Andalite and is required to go to school. I've never been very clear on why we don't go to school. Our parents teach us stuff that's absolutly necesary, math, reading, that kind of stuff.
    "Good point, Jordan." Ritora said. "When does he get out of school?"
    "In about an hour."
    "Okay, Catara takes the artichan to Abata in an hour. When do we want to go spy on this friend of yours, Jordan?"
    "Well, he's in school right now too, and he lives closer to the school than Abata does, so he'd probably be home by the time Abata acquired the artichan."
    "Okay. So, we have an hour to kill before we go."
    "Why don't we practice morphing the artichan?" Catara asked, "If this guy is an amature entomologist, he'd know right away if a bug wasn't acting right."
    "Good idea Catara. Let's go into the woods back behind the houses." Ritora said.
    "Wait a minute, we're actually going to try out a morph?" Tom asked incredulously.
    "That's what she said." I told him.
    "Why? We never try out morphs."
    "That's because we've never had the oportunity." Ritora said, "It probably would have been a good idea to try out, say, the agb morph."
    "And, our parents said it was necesary sometimes." I pointed out.
    "If you don't want to test out the morph, Tom. You don't have to come with us, either time." Ritora said, turning towards the woods. Me and Catara followed her.
    "Fine, fine." Tom grumbled, running to catch up with us. "I'll test the morph too."
    We walked a ways into the woods so we wouldn't be easily seen, and began to morph one of the creepyest animals I have ever seen.

Chapter 4

We walked into a clearing in the woods where we often go just to hang out. Or, if we have to travel to the other side of the woods on a mission, we stop here to demorph. We were sure that this far into the woods, nobody would be able to see us.
 Most Andalites were good, but, unfortunatly, a few have been taken by the yeerks. Thankfully, only a few Andalites outside of the military know why we humans are really here, and not on Earth. Any Andalites who know of us outside of the military or our close friends and their parents think that we're here to be studied,or something like that. I'm not sure.
 Anyway, once we agreed that we were far enough into the woods, we started to morph.
 The first thing that happened, was I suddenly had four legs popping out of me on each side, but the creepiest thing was that they weren't artichan legs, they were human legs.
 "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" I screamed. Ritora looked like she was trying to keep from screaming, or throwing up. Catara and Tom had first morphed the complex series of mouth parts of the artichan, so they couldn't scream. And, although I'm not too good at reading Andalite facial expressions, I'm pretty sure Abata thought it was disgusting as well.
 Thankfully, my extra legs began to morph as I started to shrink. Suddenly, I was blind! I couldn't see anything! Just as suddenly, I could see again. But not the way any normal person sees. The world was a complex mass of colors that made absolutly no sense. I couldn't make sense of anything, which was probably a good thing, since me and my friends were becoming very disgusting bugs.
 I felt, rather than saw, my skind go from being soft, tan human skin, to being crinkly, dark brown skin. I felt, rather than saw that skin sprout brown and pink hairs. I felt, rather than saw my mouth explode into the artichan's system of valves that make up it's mouth. Finally, as the morph became complete, I could finally begin to use the artichan's eyes to actually see things.
 I said. I didn't mean to sound snappish, but I was on edge. First from the bizzare way my legs had begun to morph, and second from bracing myself against the onslaught of instincts that were sure to be coming any second now.
 < They can, Jordan. > Catara said in her ever patient way. < You couldn't see as you were morphing because the artichan's brain, which is capable of making sense out of this weird sight, hadn't fully formed. Concentrate now, you should be able to see things now, although the colors do seem to be a bit mismatched. >
 Mismatched wasn't the half of it. I looked just ahead of me, I could faintly make out the outlines of my friends, but they weren't the right colors. The brown part of them was blue, the color of what the grass was supposed to be. The pink parts of them were black. But, it was possible to tell that they were artichans. I looked around, having to walk in circles on my 12 spindly legs, and although the colors weren't any wheres near what they were supposed to be, I could tell what they were. I could see where they huge derishoul tree that I liked to call mine stood.
 < These guys don't miss mu-- > I stopped in the middle of my sentance, the artichan's instincts had finally kicked in, and it was hungry. Hungry for anything living, even fellow artichans.
 I raced towards the nearest artichan, and climbed on top of it.
 < What are you doing, Jordan? >
 I paused for a second at hearing the voice in my head, but kept scrabbling to keep my hold on top of my prey.
 < Geez, Jordan must have lost herself in the morph. >
 < You could say that, she's about to eat me! >
 More voices in my head, disturbing me.
 < Jordan. You are human, you've just lost control of your morph. You need to remember being human. Remem-- >
 Suddenly, my prey, which had been passive up to this point, began to fight back! It was trying to flip me off it's back! I scrabbled all 12 of my legs to keep hold, but to no avail. I fell off, onto my back, with what had formerly been my prey standing over me.
 Suddenly, like an electric jolt, I came to. I remembered that I wasn't a bug. I was a human being! < AHHHHHHH!!! >
 I waved my legs in the air, trying relentlessly to right myself, it was pointless. My legs couldn't do anything up in the air.
 I tried rocking back and forth, as much to get my legs back on the ground as to avoid the killer blows being served to me by one of my friends. I tried to remember who's voice I had heard in my head when I was caught up in the morph.
 Was it Tom? No, he would have made some stupid remark about me trying to eat him. Catara? No, she was trying to calm me. That only left--
 < Ritora! > I shouted. I couldn't believe I had tried to eat my own sister! And now she was trhing to eat me! < Ritora, listen to me! It's Jordan, your sister. You are human, Ritora. Not an artichan. The morph's taken control of you, fight it! Remember being human! Remember Mom and Dad? Remember Uncle Jake and Aunt Cassie? Remember Tom calling you fearless leader? >
 Suddenly, Ritora stopped trying to kill me, and I quickly flipped myself back onto my legs. I surveyed the scene, it looked like Catara and Tom were just gaining control of their morphs.
 < Wow, I wasn't expecting that. > Tom admitted. 
 I said. < We'll need to be more careful about that in the
future. >
 < Well, I don't know about you guys, but I want to get OUT of this morph. > Ritora said.
 We all agreed with her, and began demorphing as fast as we could.

Chapter 5

I spent the rest of the day hanging out around the house, reading or watching TV on the set we got just a week or 2 ago.
 Ritora, on the otherhand, had stopped being the caring sister she was just a half an hour ago back in the woods and became the leader of the Animorphs again. She spent the time pacing either in her bedroom, or in the living room.
 "Hey, pace somewhere else. I'm trying to watch TV here." I complained as Ritora paced in front of the TV.
 "Why don't you do something more constructive with your time than watch the Pop-Upathong on VH1?! We do have a mission later on you know," Ritora snapped.
 "Chill out, Ritora! We're just spying on Tellay, not attacking the Yeerk Pool."
 "Chill? CHILL?!" She screached. "We don't even know what this guy is, and you're telling me to chill?!"
 This is why Ritora will never be a great leader like Prince Aximili or Uncle Jake, she gets way too keyed up, if she could get a reign on her anger, maybe she'd have a better chance. She's only the leader because she has this uncanny ability to quickly analize a situation and then make a decision, and I respect that about her. She just needs to get a handle on that anger she inherited from Mom.
 "Oookay, never mind I said anything." I shifted my position on the couch so I'd be able to see the TV, despite Ritora's pacing, and fell silent.
 Later that afternoon, Catara, Tom and Abata came to out house, ready to go spy.
 Abata had acquired the artichan before he and Catara came over.
 Ritora was still pacing around the living room, almost deliberatly blocking my view of the TV.
 "So, what are we going to do, oh fearless leader?" Tom asked as he walked in. Tom loves to pick on me and Ritora, calling her our fearless leader-which I know isn't true- and me Xena, a name of a woman on a TV show when our parents were kids. Unlce Jake's best friend Marco gave that name to my mom and suggested that Tom either give it to me or Ritora.
 Ritora looked slightly distressed, "To tell you the truth, I don't know." She admitted after a minute, "I was hoping Jordan had an idea. Tellay is her friend after all."
 I nearly choked on the Coke I was drinking.
 "What?!" both me and Tom asked in unison. Me, because Ritora wasn't letting me watch TV in peace, so it was almost unthinkable for her to ask me to lead a mission. I think Tom just screached because he wanted to give me a hard time. He probably expected me to jump at the chance to lead, but I'd seen what leadership had done to Ritora. When this war first started, she was more reckless that I was, and deserved the name Xena, like Mom. But now she's much more responsible, taking after Uncle Jake now.
 Catara, as always, was much more sensible. "It makes sense," she said. "Jordan would know the area around his scoop better than any of us."
 I considered that for a moment. She was right, none of them had even met Tellay, let alone visited his scoop. I gues I was the natural choice.
 But the though of leading my friends...my family...into possible danger scared me. I was way too young for that kind of responisbility!
 I must have looked hesitent, and Tom pounced on it. "Is the Kid scared?" he teased/ I'm sure he also knew I was the natural choice. Tom's annoying, but not dumb. He also knew that if I had the chance, I'd probably back down judging from my initial reaction. But he also knew I wouldn't let myself look weak in front of him, so I accepted.
 Ritora looked relieved, as if I had, to use a phrase Mom and Dad often use, just lifted a huge burden off her shoulders. "Great, now, what are we going to do?"
 "Ummm...well...why don't we morph...Kafit birds to get out there. He would know who we were if he saw us in Earth bird morphs," I paused. "Does that sound good?" I asked, unsure if it really was the right thing to do. I was new to this leadership stuff afterall.
 Abata, who had been silent so far, nodded his head solemnly. < Yes, Jordan. That does seem to be the correct course of action at this time. >
 Encouraged by what Abata had said, I contiinued with my plan. "Then we find a bunch of plants where an artichan would be, morph the artichan and find out what Tellay really is."
 "Sounds good to me, let's do it!" Ritora said, sounding like the Ritora I used to know.

Chapter 6

We filed out of the house into the back yard. We used to morph freely in the front yard, but we can't trust anybody. In fact, we weren't even entirely safe in the backyard. Andalite controllers had the power to morph, just like we do. But the backyard was the safest place we could think of, since Kafit Birds are too large to fly out of a house window.
 I concentrated on the morph. I'd done it before, so it was easy. As the morph started, I prayed that I wouldn't have a repeat of this afternoon's episode with the artichan with the Kafit's 12 wings.
 I was in luck, the wings were the last part of the morph to complete, but they were Kafit wings the entire time.
 I felt the onslaught of the Kafit Bird instincts. They weren't unfamiliar, I handled them easily, but they were uncomfortable. I've never really liked kafit birds, there are easier ways of getting around, and they are so cocky. They're not afraid of anything, not even larger animals. I know Tom likes them, but I know niether me nor Catara like them. I guess we're a bit more pacifist than Tom is, I don't know about Ritora. She never tells me these things any more.
 < Everybody finished morphing? > Ritora asked when she was finished.
 We all said we were.
 < Let's fly. >

Chapter 7

We flew towards Tellay's family scoop. A scoop is a kind of hole in the ground where Andalites live. Every Andalite family has an area of land, a scoop where the entire family lives, and a small building near the scoop to keep their things out of the rain. On the family's land, past generations of Andalites have grown what they consider the most delicious grasses available. Not being an Andalite, I wouldn't know, but that's what Abata says.
 It didn't take very long to get to Tellay's scoop. He doesn't live too far away from us. When I saw his scoop, I started looking around for a small area of woods where we would fit in as artichans. I quickly spotted two different places.
 < Hey, guys. I see two possible places for us to hide. There's a small patch of bushes practically on top of the scoop, and then there's a larger patch of trees and grass about 10 meters away from the scoop. I'm suggesting we go for the larger patch since it looks like a place where kafit birds would hang out. >
 Ritora said. < How about Jordan and me go down to the smaller patch. Catara, Tom and Abata go to the larger patch. >
 I flared all twelve of my wings and started a slow, lazy decent to the bushes that were practically below me. To my right, I saw one kafit bird - Ritora - break away from the other three and make her way down to the same bushes I was heading to. The other three birds - Catara, Tom and Abata - made a sharp right to get to the larger patch of trees.
 < Jordan, is Tellay or any of his family near the scoop? > Catara asked as we lazily flew to our perches.
 I looked around, < Nope, doesn't look like it. But there could be somebody in your area of trees, so be careful. >
 < Aw, the kid's looking out for her cousins. Isn't that just so sweet? > Tom mocked.
 I was about to come up with a great comeback, but I had started demorphing and was already more human than kafit bird. As I demorphed, I kept a look out with my consistently weakening eyes in case somebody was coming. Not that I could have done much good. Human eyes are pathetic compared to birds of prey, and I couldn't tell anybody without alerting whoever was coming. But I kept watch anyway.
 I waited patiently as Ritora finished demorphing. Me and Catara are the fastest morphers in the group, not that it's all that important. I could have morphed with out waiting for Ritora, but it's always best to rest between morphings. Morphing from one form to another with out a break can be exhausting, and we only do it if we're in a battle situation or something and it can't be avoided.
 Once Ritora had finished demorphing, I went into my artichan morph. She would rest untill I was finished demorphing, and make sure I got ahold of the instincts okay before she started to morph.
 I completed the morph quickly and with out any disgusting incidents like the leg incident earlier.
 < Okay, Ritora. I'm fine. Go ahead and morph. > I told Ritora after a minute.
 For a bug, the artichan had pretty good eyes. In this case, they were too good. It's not a pretty sight to watch your older sister turn into a bug. I powered up my hairy legs and turned around as quicly as I could. I couldn't see Ritora changing anymore, but I could still hear it. Turns out artichan's have excellent hearing too. After the disgusting sounds stopped, I turned around to see if Ritora was finished. She was. < Hey, Ritora. How ya' doin'? >
 She didn't answer. < Ritora? > She still didn't answer. < Ritora! >
 < I--I'm here. I'm okay. > Ritora said, sounding a little shakey.
 I breathed a sigh of relief. < Cool. >
 < Hey, Fearless Leader, Xena, you two okay? > Tom asked. I was surprised. I thought that we would have been out of thought speak range.
 < Yeah. How 'bout you guys? > Ritora asked.
 < We're fine, > Catara said. < You two stay there. We're trying to make our way over there. >
 < So, what do you think we'll find? > I asked her as we waited.
 
 < Hey! Did'ja miss us? > Tom shouted as he scuttled into the clearing, followed by Catara and Abata.
 < Actually...no, > I said, just to get him mad.
 < Uh-huh. Sure. Whatever, kid. >
 < If you two don't mind, > Ritora said to me and Tom, < we'd like to do what we came here for. >
 < It's her fault, > Tom grumbled as we turned to walk out of the bushes.
 < Whatever, Tom. > Catara said.
 < Hey, I think we're out! > Ritora shouted. She was in the lead.
 Abata, who was right behind her, walked up beside her, < Yes, Prince Ritora, I believe you are correct. But, where are we now that we're out? >

Chapter 8

I looked around. I couldn't see much, just a huge plane of grass. We could have been anywhere. I strained my eyes to pick out any landmarks that would help me get my bearings, but the artichan's eyes aren't very good at long distance viewing, and you can't see much of anything when you're a quarter of an inch up from the ground.
 < Can anybody see anything that would give us an idea as to where we are? > Ritora asked. We all answered no.
 < Great, > Tom said, < Now what are we going to do? >
 Before anybody could answer a huge, furry, blue tree slamed down, practically on top of us.
 < YAH! > I shouted, and powered up all my legs in the opposite direction as fast as I could.
 < Interesting. A group of 5 artichans all standing together. Very peculiar. >
 < Hey! I think that's Tellay! > I said, slowing down.
 < Of course, maybe these aren't real artichans. Hm? > Suddenly, two huge blue hands were picking me and my friends up.
 < Don't worry, whoever you are, and I have an idea as to who you are, I'm not going to hurt you. And, if you're who I think you are, I'll answer your questions as soon as we get back to my scoop. >
 < Prince Ritora, what should we do? > Abata asked, sounding as close to scared as I've ever heard him.
 < Well, he's bigger than us, he's holding on to us, I'd say we just stay here 'till he puts us down. How much time do we have left? >
 < Approximatly 30 minutes, Prince Ritora. >
 < Don't call me 'Prince', Abata. >
 < Yes, Prince Ritora. >
 We were silent as Tellay carried us back to his scoop. After what seemed like forever, we were inside a building and being set on a table.
 Catara whispered so Tellay couldn't hear.
 
 Everybody gasped. They had a horrible picture about what could go on in a lab where a kid studies insects. I tried to calm them, < Don't worry. Tellay wouldn't hurt anything. Especially since it seems that he thinks we aren't normal bugs. >
 < Yeah, but if he's a bad guy, I don't think he'd hesitate to kill us. > Tom snapped.
 Suddenly, a bright light snapped on above us. < Okay, you can all demorph now, > Tellay said, standing over us.
 < He knows! > Catara shouted, uncharacteristically frightened.
 < Alright you five must be awfully frightened. How can I prove to you that I don't mean you any harm? Well, first I'll prove that I know who you are. One of you must be Jordan. And I'm sure her big sister Ritora-Fuloa-Maheen is with her. And another two of you must be their twin cousins Catara-Fitalia-Goroara and Tom. I'm not sure who the fifth is, though. >
 < Ritora, he knows who we are, and we must be getting low on morph time, > I said.
 < Only 5 minutes are left, > Abata supplemented.
 < We might as well demorph. >
 Ritora was silent for a moment, < Okay, Abata, start to demorph, and try and get your tail first, just in case we can't totally trust whatever Tellay is, Jordan, start demorphing just a few seconds after Abata. >
 I saw the artichan next to me, Abata, start to demorph. I counted to five, and started to demorph too.
 I finished demorphing, and jumped down from my perch on Tellay's table. I stood next to Abata in the crowded shack that housed all of Tellay's family's things that could be harmed by rain, including Tellay's laboratory.
 < Hello, Jordan. > Tellay said. He looked at Abata, < Ah, very wise. Having the one with the natural weapons demorph before the rest of you, in case I was hostile. But you needen't worry, and the rest of you can demorph too. Or into more powerful morphs, if you'd feel more comfortable that way. > The others stood still for a moment. I realized they must be deciding whether or not to morph into something larger.
 Abata and I waited patiently as the others finished their conversation and demorphed.
 "Hey, Tellay. Um, I guess we have some explaining to do," I stammered when everybody had demorphed.
 Tellay looked at me with all four of his eyes and waved his stalk eyes back and forth.
< No, I am the one who should do the explaining. Follow me. >
 Tellay walked out of the small shack and toward the trees that Catara, Tom and Abata had demorphed in. Shortly after he walked out the door, he turned his stalk eyes back to look at us, and motioned for us to follow. We nervosly walked forward, not knowing what to expect.
 He walked to an exceptionally large tree and put his hand on the rough bark. He started to close his eyes, but opened them after a moment to look at me. < Jordan, you and your friends may want to hold on to each other. I'm not sure how you will fare on your two legs. >
 I grabbed onto Ritora's and Catara's hands just in time. We were suddenly zipping through the trees. Dodgin in and out of trees! Jumping over fallen logs! barely making it under a fallen tree that had caught itself on a neighboring one!
 "This is insane!" Tom shouted as we leaped over a river.
 I held onto Ritora and Catara tightly. Although we were moving faster than any living thing in the known universe, we didn't feel any wind. And there wasn't anything under our feet! At least, nothing I could see. And nobody seemed to notice us. The kafit birds in the trees continued to hunt for food. Small furry creatures that I had no name for scampered along the ground just inches beneath our feet. Tom was right, this really was insane!
 Suddenly, it looked like we were going to be smashed against a mountain! "AHHHHHH!!!" Catara, Ritora, Tom and I yelled. Andalites aren't very inclined to yell, so I wasn't surprised when niether Abata nor Tellay screamed.
 Suddenly, the mountain wasn't there anymore. Niether were the trees that had been in front of the mountain. Or maybe they were there. Maybe it was me who wasn't!
 "Ritora?" I whispered hoarsely.
 I felt someone squeeze my hand, "I'm here, sis."
 "Where is here?" Catara asked, taking my other hand in hers.
 I heard Tom and Abata walk up behind us.
 "Tellay?" I asked timidly.
 he said, and suddenly, the room was flooded with light.
 "Yah!" I shouted, startled by the intense light. I blinked a couple of times untill my eyes adjusted from the gloom of the room.
 I looked around at my friends to be sure they were still there and hadn't been shot by some ray gun or something.
 They were all there. Ritora and Catara had wandered away from me and were looking around. Tom was still blinking in the sudden brightness, and Abata was twitching his tail nervously.
 Tellay stood patiently nearby until we were used to the light. < Please, come with me. I have much to show you. >
 We followed Tellay through a small, crampled tunnel. The 6 of us couldn't walk by side, so Tellay took the lead, while the rest of us walked behind him.
 As we walked, I looked around the tunnel. The walls were bright yellow, as was the ground we walked on. And everyonce in awhile, there were tunnels that lead away from the one we were currently walking down. I craned my neck to look down one of the tunnels, but all that was there was a pond of green goo.
 "Where are we?" Ritora demanded impatiently.
 < You will see in a minute. >
 We walked out of the tunnel into a huge cavern. The walls had changed from florescent yellow, to a deep, midnight blue. Every few meters, there was a light source, though I couldn't see exactly what was making the light. In the very center of room, was a huge building. Unlike anything I had ever seen before. Large buildings were fairly uncommon on the Andalite world, but on Earth, they were commonplace. This building was larger than the largest on Earth.
 Scattered around the room were Andalites. I knew a few, but most were strangers to me. I noticed that here there was also several puddles of the green goo. The Andalites were very careful to stay out of it.
 As we were walking past a puddle of the goo, some suddenly shot up into the air, as if it was trying to jump out and grab us.
 < TELLAY! > a voice shouted from the goo. Everybody except Tellay and the other Andalites stepped back from the goo, which was, oddly enough, molding itself into the shape of an Andalite. An oddly familiar one at that.
 < Tellay, how DARE you bring these outsiders here? Not only an Andalite, but humans as well! >
 < Hello, Mother. I'm sure you remember Jordan,> Tellay pointed to me, < This is her sister, Ritora, and her cousins, Catara and Tom. And their friend, Abata, > Tellay pointed to each of us as he said our names.
 < Yes, yes. Of course I remember! > I was right! It was Tellay's mother, Falia, I believe her name was. < But that is absolutly no excuse for bringing outsiders here! What if they tell someone? >
 < Mother, these are the ones who are fighting the yeerks, they won't tell. >
 < And just how can you be so sure? >
 "Falia," I interupted Tellay's mother, "Sometimes, secrets are the only things that keep ups safe. If it means keeping our friends safe, we'll never tell anybody your secret. Not even our parents."
 Falia look a little pacified, but not much.
 < Besides, mother, they need our help. >
 < Why do they need our help? >
 < Don't you get it? Has what I've been telling you for months fallen on deaf ears? The yeerks are here! We know more about the yeerks than the yeerks do themselves! If we don't help them, the entire galaxy, if not the univers, is doomed! > Tellay practically shouted.
 By this time, other "Andalites" had joined us, from both the green pools and from around the great cavern. They either stood behind Tellay, or Falia. Obviously, others of whatever Tellay was were as divided on the issue of yeerks as Tellay and his mother were.
 < You know as well as I that we can't interfere with the Andalite's and human's struggle with those vile worms, > Falia looked at us. < You must know that we can't help you. We've tried before and... > Falia stopped. She got this far away look, like she was remembering something.
 "What happened, Falia?" I asked gently.
 < Nevermind, > she snapped suddenly. < Tellay, under no circumstances are you to help them. > And with that, Falia melted back into the green goo. Some of the Andalites behind her and Tellay did also, others went back to their work.
 Ritora looked at Tellay, "What was that all about?"
 Tellay started to walk away with out answering. I ran to catch up with him. "Hey, Tellay," I put my hand on his shoulder to make him slow down. "What was up back there?"
 < It's too long of a story. I can't explain. >
 I looked into his main eyes. "I have all day, besides, I can't leave here untill you do. And, long stories are often the best ones."
 I sat down crosslegged on the surprisingly soft ground in front of Tellay like I used to when I was little and Aunt Cassie was going to tell a story.
 As tellay was trying to decide whether or not to tell me the story, Ritora, Catara, Tom and Abata came to see what was happening. I held me finger to my lips to signal them to be quiet, and patted the ground next to me, motioning for them to sit down. Ritora, Catara and Tom all sat down, Abata stood behind us.
 Tellay waited expectantly as we settled down in front of him. < I..I am unacustomed to telling this story, > he stammered after a moment. 
 "At the begining maybe?" Tom suggested sarcastically.
 Tellay glared at Tom, < I'm not a fool, Tom. Do not rush me. It is a long story. >
 And with that, Tellay began to tell his awesome tale.

Chapter 9

< We call ourselves the Zupa. We are a race of shape shifters. The planet we originate from has many different races, but most of the sencient races are also shape shifters. We didn't have a care. We just ran and played all day, only going back to our pools to regenerate in the middle of the afternoon, around the time one would eat lunch, and in the evening, when one would go to sleep. > Suddenly, inside my head, I saw what must have been Tellay's world. The sky was a deep, dark blue, like the cavern we had met Tellay's mother in. The ground was covered in lush bushes and trees, in a rainbow of colors, and the grass was various shades of yellow, like the tunnels that had lead us here. And scattered around were ponds of green goo, the same goo Falia had come from. Running around the ponds were humanoid creatures. They stood about 7 feet tall, as tall as a Hork-Bajir, but much more peaceful looking. They walked on only two legs, with out a tail, a very strange sight. Humans seem to be the only race in the galaxy that evolved to walk on only two legs with out a tail for balance.
 < We never disturbed other species, the closest we ever came to harming another creature was to swat a bug away. But one day, a more terrifying species than anything we Zupa's had known before came. >
 The scene in my head showed a yeerk Blade Ship landing on the Zupa's home. Crushing trees, and landing right on a few pools of liquified Zupa.
 "Yeerks." Catara said shakily.
 < Yes, yeerks. > Tellay said looking at Catara. < The yeerks had come, and we had no way to stop them. We tried our best, we tried changing our shape into a shape more practical for fighting, but we found out that we can only have one shape untill that shape grows old and "dies." The yeerks couldn't infest us, we wouldn't have been of much use to them anyway, but they infested other races on our world. Other shape shifting races that were infestible. Our beautiful world was destroyed. >
 The scene in my head shifted to one of pure terror. Zupas were running in every direction, being chased by darcon beam weilding Dracon Beams, in other places, Zupas were left to evaporate from flesh and blood beings, to puddles of goo, to nothing at all. It was horrible. I looked over at Catara and Ritora, Catara looked close to tears, but what really frightened me were Ritora's tears. I could feel tears welling up behind my eyes also.
 < We managed to escape to a spaceport with only a few ships capable of space flight. Anly a few thousands of billions were saved. > I saw ships taking off from the wasteland that was the Zupa's planet into space.
 < We didn't know where to go at first, so we wandered through space for awhile, but eventually, we found this world, the Andalite's world. After studying the Andalites for awhile, we were able to create shapes in perfect likenesses of them, our former shapes were created on a whim centuries ago. We swore to ourselves never to take a shape that would be helpless again. We have lived here since then. Passing as Andalites, living as they did, and only retreating to here for research, meetings, or after our shape "dies" and we need a period of rest before taking on a new shape and personality. >
 The pictures in my head faded away, and once more, I was sitting on the floor of the tunnel with Catara, Ritora and Tom beside me.
 < When the yeerks attacked our world, we found their Dracon Beams gave us an especially horrible death. We were turned hard as stone. And then we slowly crumbled into dust. > Catara covered her eyes, crying. Ritora squeezed my hand and I squeezed hers. It was our signal to eachother that everything would be alright.
 < But we also found that a chemical could repel the Dracon Beam's effects, and our ability to have only one shape at a time. Unfortunatly, we were unable to produce the chemical in mass quantites. But, through our sources we've found that checmical here. Enough for all of us who want to fight the yeerks openly. If we had this chemical, our shape shifting abilities with your morphing power? The yeerks would be erradicated in no time! > Tellay's main eyes were shining excitedly.
 "So, where is this chemical?" Tom asked, standing up from his place on the floor.
 Tellay laughed, < Sorry. I got so exceited I forgot that you would need to know where the chemical was. Follow me, we'll take the train back to the woods and I'll give you the coordinates. >
 Tom whispered to us as we followed Tellay out, "Train?"

Chapter 10

Turns out, whatever we were on to get to the Zupa's under-mountain hideaway was the Zupa's version of a train. At the same time we were riding, dozens of other Zupa were riding the train too, but they were hidden by the same stealth technology that hid us from the animals.
 After follwing the same insane path we had taken to get to the Zupa's mountain for a few minutes, we were back at the woods by Tellay's scoop.
 We followed Tellay back to his family shed to the table that had his laboratory equipment on it. he picked up a data pad, punched a few keys on it and handed it to me. < These are the coordinates of the chemical. We'll need approximatly 20 of the canisters labeled "Gox 12". >
 Ritora grabed the pad from me to look at it. She looked troubled. Just as I was about to tell Tellay we'd do it, Ritora cut me off. "We'll look at this tonight and let you know tomorrow when we'll do it."
 < Good, > Tellay agreed, < Would you be able to meet me here at this time tomorrow? > We all nodded. < See you tomorrow. >
 We said goodbye to Tellay and morphed our Earth Bird of Prey morphs and started to fly towards home. Except for Abata, of course, who doesn't have a Bird of Prey. He just has his Kafit bird.
 < Ritora, why didn't you say we'd do it? > I asked as we flew.
 
 < Only for a moment, Prince Ritora. I couldn't clearly see them, but I,too, think I know where Tellay is sending us. > Abata is convinced that Ritora is his Prince, the highest rank one can recieve in the Andalite military. Ritora has told him countless times to stop, but he never quits.
 < let's look it over at the hose, > Ritora said, the house being our house. We almost always meet there. Don't know why exactly, maybe it's because she's our "leader".
 We flew the rest of the way home in silence. Each thinking our own thoughts. I was wondering where Ritora thought Tellay was sending us. I'd had a better look at the coordinates than either her or Abata had, and they hadn't meant anything to me. Oh, well. I thought as I saw our hose between the trees, Guess we'll find out soon enough.
 We demorphed on the front lawn and thundered into the house.
 "Mom? Dad?" Ritora called out when we were all in the living room. She shrugged, "Guess they must still be out."
 "Good. We won't have psyco Aunt Rachel around telling us to go stomp somebody," Tom said, joking. We all knew Mom had been slightly reckless in her days as an Animorph, and Tom was always joking about it.
 Catara, Tom and I sat down on the couch and chairs in the living room while Ritora went over to the bookshelf to find our map pad. Abata stood near the table in the middle of the room since Andalites can't really sit down in chairs.
 After pulling out several books and note pads from the bookshelf, Ritora finally found the map pad and set it on the table.
 After looking at the keys for a minute, Ritora loked puzzled. I guessed at what she was looking for a hit a green key. A hologram of the map on the screen popped up.
 "Whoa!" Tom shouted, "How'd you do that?"
 Catara slapped Tom's arm like he had said something incredibly dumb. "Ours at home does the same thing. If you ever bothered to actually read the instructions you might know that."
 Ritora tapped the coordinates into the map so a red dot appeared on the hologram where the point was.
 "Okay. Abata? Recognize this area?" she asked.
 < No, Prince Ritora. I don't believe I've ever been here before. >
 "Map," Ritora said, "Show all unnatural structures withing a twelve kilometer radius of the given coordinates."
 Suddenly a bunch of blue-ish, purple-ish, gray-ish squares and rectangles popped up on the holographic map.
 "Geez, maybe those instructions would be a good idea afterall."
 Abata gasped, 
 "That's what I thought too when I first saw those coordinates."
 "But why?" I asked, "Why send us to steal a chemical from the good guys? I am right in assuming that this is an Andalite facility, aren't I?"
 < Yes, Jordan. It is. If I remember what Aximili told me once, the facility mainly deals with medicines, but it also makes some of the chemicals necesary for shredders. One of those chemicals being Goxithimel twleve, a highly dangerous... >
 Catara cut him off, "Goxithimal twelve wouldn't happened to be abreviated 'Gox 12', would it?"
 < Yes, I believe it would be. >
 "And just how dangerous is this Goxithimel twelve again?"
 < Dangerous enough that it needs to be created and stored in labs, unlike the other chemicals that are created by families in their scoops. >
 "Let me get this straight," Tom said, "Jordan's friend, who was throught to be an Andalite but turns out to be a shape shifting alien wants us to break into the good guys chemical plant and steal their most dangerous chemical and bring it back to him and his pals just so they can have more than one shape? >
 "That's what we've come up with so far, yes," Ritora said.
 "Our lives are nuts."
 "They've been nuts since the day we were born, genius," I said. I turned to Ritora, "What're we going to do? I don't know about you guys, but I certainly don't want to handel a dangerous chemical used for shredders," I turned to Abata, "What's with the chemicals in shredders anyway? I thought they were energy weapons."
 < The chemicals are needed to create a super heater-->
 "Can we save the physics leason for some other time?" Ritora cut in, "We're going back to Tellay to tell him no way. We figured out what he wanted us to get, and personally, I don't trust these Zupas too much. At least not Tellay's group. His mother seemed genuinely afraid of his helping us. She probably knew that he'd ask us to get that chemical, and I somehow doubt a chemcial for shredders will give him the ability to shift more than one shape."
 "You guys come, but I'm going to tell him," I said. "He's supposedly my friend, and then he goes and pulls this on us. He's not getting away with this."
 "No argument from me," Tom said. "I'm not much for telling off weird aliens."
 "Fine, Jordan goes and tells Tellay we're on to him, in the meantime, I suggest we relax the rest of the day," Ritora said.
 No sooner had she said that when all of our parents, both mine and Ritora's and Catara and Tom's, and Marco came home. "Hey guys!" Mom shouted when she saw all of us in the living room. Then she saw the map, "Uh-oh, what're you guys planning?"
 We all looked at eachother. Finally Catara spoke up, "You would not believe us if we told you."
 Uncle Jake sat down next to her, "Try me."

Chapter 11

We spent almost an hour explaining the whole story to our parents and Marco. Abata was silent most of the time, only providing technical information when it came to the Goxithimel twelve. I did most of the talking. Uncle Jake, Aunt Cassie and Marco needed to know every detail of how I met Tellay and whether I had suspected anything before. Of course, I hadn't. After explaing that to Marco for the doezenth time, Mom finally told him to cut it out.
 "I've met Tellay dozens of times. I never suspected anything, and I was looking for strange stuff like that. Give the kids a break. I'm sure Abata needs to go home, unless Forlay was home when Abata got home from school, she's probably worried."
 < You are probably right, Rachel. Good bye, everybody. I shall meet you tomorrow to see Tellay, > Abata said.
 "We'd better be going too," Aunt Cassie said, standing up from her seat beside Catara. "Sounds like the kids have a big day ahead of 'em."
 "It's not that big," Catara argued, "Nothing like attacking yeerk pools, or anything. Just telling off a pushy alien."
 "No arguments, Catara," Uncle Jake said, "Bye Rach, Tobias, Ritora, Jordan," he started to push Catara and Tom to the door.
 "Bye," we all called.
 The next afternoon, Ritora was actually relaxing when Catara,Tom and Abata showed up. I was the one who was tense beyond belief.
 "Calm down, Jordan," Ritora had told me earlier, "You've spoken to him countless times, this time won't be any different."
 "Yes, it will be. I've never talked to him as a psyco alien!" Ritora didn't know what to say to that.
 "We going to go or what?" I asked impatiently when everybody was in the living room.
 "Do I sense a little tension?" Tom teased.
 "Do I sense a volunteer to talk to Tellay?" I retorted.
 Tom looked around the room and grinned, "Nope. Congratualtions, you get to keep the job."
 "I'm overjoyed. So when are we leaving?" I asked again.
 "She acts more and more like her sister everyday," Tom stage whispered with a wink to Abata, who was the closest person to him. Abata ignored him, 
 "Let's morph kaift birds to get there," Catara suggested, "That way if Tellay tries to pull anything on us, we'll have some defenses geared towards this environment. They're also a bit more manuverable than some of our morphs," she said looking at Ritora. Ritora has a bald eagle morph, a bird with a six foot wingspan. The rest of us have smaller morphs, except for Abata who never acquired one. He relies on his kafit bird to fly him around.
 Since the kafit birds are rather large, not quite as large as the bald eagle, but still quite big, we morphed in the front yard.
 Morphing's always weird, but I like morphing Andalite animals better than the Earth animals that my parents, Uncle Jake, Aunt Cassie and Marco prefer to morph. Maybe it's because I'm constantly around Andalite animals, and it's the Earth animals that are weird to me. Maybe Abata feels the same way, and that's why he's reluctant to acquire and morph Earth animals.
 The first change for me was the razor sharp beak. I felt my lips and teeth melt together and start pushing forward to form the beak. The exact size it would be...if kafit birds were my size. Which they aren't. Although Tom would probably start making jokes that I really am as small as a kafit bird anytime now...
 "Hey! Look! The Kid doesn't even have to shrink!" Tom shouted, still mostly human.
 I snapped my sharp beak in his direction since I couldn't talk. I was still mostly human, although changing rapidly, but Kafit bird beaks aren't exactly made for talking.
 Contrary to what Tom had said, I actually did shrink about two feet by the time I had finished morphing. I flapped all twelve of my wings to make sure I was finished morphing, and started to fly off in the direction of Tellay's scoop with the other's close behind.

Chapter 12

I flew towards Tellay's scoop in silence, I was too mad at Tellay to talk to anybody. I couldn't believe that Tellay, somebody who had been one of my closest friends here, turned out to be some psyco alien who wanted to use me and my family to benefit him.
 The others, on the otherhand, were as chatty as ever. Even Abata. I think they sensed that I was mad, and they were trying to lighten my mood.
 < You know, I bet these kafit birds would be bad dinner guests, > Tom said, attempting a really bad joke, 
 Everybody groaned. < Tom, you've told alot of bad jokes in your time, but that's the
worst, > Catara told her brother.
 < No it's not. I've told far worse. >
 Ritora told him.
 < Okay! Okay! It was bad! I admit it! Now, stop kicking a guy while he's down. >
 < But Tom, you are not down. You are several hundred meters up in the air, > Abata said, joining in the chatter.
 < It's a figure of speach I learned from Dad, Abata. >
 < Ah. Figure of speach. I get it. >
 By now we were almost at Tellay's scoop. I scanned the nearby woods with my excellant kafit-bird-vision,looking for Tellay. I saw him running in the woods. Jumping over logs, dodging trees, acting like any Andalite would. Too bad he wasn't.
 We all landed on a tree he was rapidly approaching. When he saw the five of us landing on the branch he slowed to a stop.
 < Hello Jordan, Ritora, Catara, Tom, Abata. How are you all doing today? > he asked.
 < Fine, > I said coldly as I started to demorph.
 When I was demorphed I jumped down from the branch to face Tellay. I looked over at Ritora, Catara and Tom. Ritora was as stone faced as I must have been, Catara's was slightly softer. Tom was smirking like this was the biggest joke in the world. Abata looked as calm as he always looked.
 Tellay noticed my glare and became concerned, < Is something wrong, Jordan? >
 "You. Lied. To. Us."
 He stepped back, shocked. < Lied? >
 I unclenched my fists, "Yes, lied. The whole Gox 12 thing. We did some research. Gox 12 is a dangerous chemical used to create the energy for shredders. And where were you sending us? An Andalite chemical laboratory. I can't believe you, Tellay. I thought you were my friend."
 Tellay lowered his head and stalk eyes, embarrased. He knew he had been found out.
 "Did you think we wouldn't figure it out? Did you think that just being humans and an Andalite kid that we couldn't figure it out? We were too stupid?" I was practically yelling. Catara put her hand on my shoulder to calm me down. I shrugged her off.
 < Well...I was hoping...I didn't think... >
 "That's right. You weren't thinking. Next time you want help, Tellay-Mator-Calla, get one of your own species to do your dirty work," I spun on my heels and started to walk away, trying to clear my mind enough to morph osprey and fly away.
 < Jordan! Wait! > Tellay called after me, I ignored him.
 I heard Ritora running up next to me, she grabbed my arm, I spun around angily to look at her.
 "Jordan. Calm down. I think we should go back and hear what Tellay has to say."
 "You go back!" I yelled at her, close to tears, "I don't want anything to do with him."
 "Jordan, you have to come back. You can't loose your cool just yet. If Tellay doesn't have a good excuse for using us, then he's all yours. You can do what you want. But we have to find out why first."
 I followed Ritora sullenly back to where Tellay and the others were. I stood as far from Tellay as I could, next to Abata, and glared at him. If looks could kill, Tellay would have been dead a thousand times over.
 < I realize I was wrong for trying to get you to get the chemical without telling you what exactly it would be used for. You were quicker to figure out what it could be used for than I had hoped. You were right in thinking that we were going to use the chemical for more than what I had told you. We were in fact planning on creating yeerk fighting weapons, > Tellay turned to me, < Jordan, I know you're angry with me. And you have every right to be. I was wrong in misleading you and your friends, but I was tired of sitting around watching the yeerks take over my home as they did my ancestors home. In fact, I'm glad you found me out. I was probably going to make a grave mistake and divide my people forever. > Tellay lowered his tail, head and stalk eyes, 
 I looked at my friends questioningly. Should we trust him again? Ritora and Catara gave slight nods. Tom smirked and nodded. Abata nodded seriously.
 "Alright, Tellay. We believe you."
 Tellay lifted his stalk eyes up slowly to look at me, < Really? >
 I smiled, "Yeah."
 < Thank you, Jordan. >
 "Whatever. Don't make a big deal of it. Just don't do anything that dumb again."
 
 I considered that statement carefully. "Yes you will," I said as I gave him a playful shove. It was just like old times again. Him saying he wouldn't do something, me assuring him he would. Just generally joking around. It's things like that you need to hold on to when your entire world has turned upside down.
 "C'mon guys, we've got to get home," Ritora said, "Our Parent's are probably worried to death over us."
 We said our goodbyes to Tellay, morphed kafit birds, and flew home.

Chapter 13

Ritora was right, Mom, Dad, Aunt Cassie, Uncle Jake and Marco were all waiting for us nervously in the living room of our house. When we walked in the door, they all jumped up and ran to us, saying stuff like "Oh, we were so worried!" and"What happened? Are all of you alright?" "Where's Abata? Didn't he go with you?"
 "We're fine, we'll tell you what happened in a minute, Abata went home," Ritora said quickly. Mom took my hand in one of hers and grabbed Ritora with her free hand and led us to the couch. She set us down and stood over us.
 "What happenend?" Then she burst out into giddy laughter and sat down beside me on the couch. "C'mon guys. Catara, Tom, sit down next to Ritora and Jordan. We want to know everything that happened."
 We spent the rest of the afternoon telling them everything that had happened with Tellay. From me yelling at him when we first got there, to me finally forgiving him.
 Aunt Cassie said I'd done the right thing. Mom said she couldn't blame me for being mad at him, and we'd all handled the situation better than she ever would have.
 The next morning, Tom and Catara came over. The four of us were going to fly to one of the few beaches on the planet and hang out there for most of the day. Just as we were getting ready to morph, there was a knock at the door.
 It took us a second to recognize what it was, hardly anybody who comes over knocks. If Catara or Tom come over, they just barge in and start looking for whoever they came to see. Aunt Cassie and Uncle Jake are a little more polite, announcinc their presance while they're still in the hall. They only knock if they aren't expected. And Ritora and I ususally go over to friends' scoops when we see them, they rarely come here.
 I ran to the door when whoever was there knocked for a second time. It was Tellay.
 "Oh, hi, Tellay. Come on in, what's up?"
 < Hello, Jordan. Are Ritora and the other's here also? I need to talk to all of you. >
 "Abata's not here, but the rest of us are. This way." Abata followed me down the hall, tail tucked low to his back to keep it from knocking anything over, into the living room.
 Everybody looked at Tellay warily when he walked into the room behind me.
 "Tellay says he needs to tell us something."
 < Yes, I do. I've talked it over with others who shared my opinion about the chemical and they agree with me on this. We can't help you fight the yeerks openly, and I regret that. I desperatly wanted to help you in your fight, but I tried the wrong way. But, we have figured out a way that all of us could help, even the ones who were opposed to us at first are willing to help on this, we could act as informants. If any of us find out anything, anything at all, about the yeerk movement here, we'll find a way to get in contact with you. I wish I could do more, but I can't do that with out risking dividing my people. >
 Mom and Dad overheard our conversation from where they were in the kitchen and walked in, "Sounds like the Chee," Dad stated as he walked in the room with Mom close behind.
 < Chee? > Tellay asked, confused.
 "The Chee were a race of androids that were programed by their creators, the Pemalites, to never harm another creature. They were incapable of violence. Once, we helped a Chee over ride that programing so he could help us in battle, much like you wanted that chemical," Mom paused in her explanation. "He, too, divided his people on the issue. And, after a horrific battle, he found out that perhaps helping us by being violent wasn't the best way to help us. So, he became an informant. Of course, he had an advantage over you, since he was an android, he could have a yeerk in his head with out it taking control of him. He could easily slip in and out of yeerk society and bring us back information."
 Tellay looked amazed, < Your friend was very brave, > he looked at me, < I don't know how helpful we'll be able to be. If any of us got a yeerk in our heads, we'd be over powered, so we can't help you that way. But we'll all do the best we can to help you. There isn't a Zupa in the galaxy that doesn't want to see the yeerk destroyed, and if we knew that we had played a part in their defeat, no matter how superficial, it'd be a dream come true for many. >
 "Thanks for the help, Tellay. We're sure to need it. This war is going to get worse before it gets better, I'm sure of it," Ritora said.
 We said our goodbyes to Tellay, assuring him we'd tell Abata when we saw him next, and went out to the front yard to morph. It was time for us to try and be regular kids for at least an afternoon.