Animorphs: The Second Coming

New Memories

Chapter 1

    My name is Catara-Fitalia-Gooraora. But you can call me Catara.
    Looking at my name you'd probably think I was an Andalite, if you even knew what an Andalite was. I'm actually a human. One of 9 humans that live alongside the Andalites on their homeworld.
    You're probably thinking Now Catara, who are the rest of the humans, and who are these Andalites? While we're at it, why don't you live here on Earth?
    The other humans are Jake and Cassie, my parents, Rachel and Tobias, my Aunt and Uncle, and Marco, my dad's best friend. They're the adult human populaton. Although my Aunt Rachel would probably say 'adult' is a relative term with Marco. The rest of us are kids. Me, Tom, my twin brother, Ritora-Fuloa-Maheen, my cousing who also has an Andalite name, and Jordan, Ritora's sister.
    We kids have lived here all our lives. Our parents have even lived here longer.
    See, they used to fight a parasitic race of Aliens called Yeerks, a burden which has been passed down to us kids. For awhile, the Yeerks were attacking Earth, they were trying to make controllers out of everyone on Earth. A controller is any being that has been taken over by a yeerk slug. After our parents, the Animorphs, had fought the yeerks for a couple years, the Andalites finally came back to help them destroy the yeerks. When the Andalites and the Animorphs finished off the yeerks, the Andalites offered to take them with them to their homeworld. They agreed. They wanted to get as far from the yeerks as possible, and at that time the Andalite homeworld and Earth were the safest places in the galaxy. Now, that safty here has been betrayed, the yeerks have begun the infestation of Andalites here. On the Andalite Homeworld. On My Homeworld.
    Now, it is our job to fight the yeerks. Us four human kids, and one Andalite, the little brother of Prince Aximilli-Exgarouth-Isthill, who helped our parents on Earth, Abata. We haven't been fighting the yeerks for very long, but we have already struck a major blow against them. We destroyed their planet side Kandrona. Which means it's going to be awhile before the yeerks can try to settle in here and infest more Andalite hosts.
    And we were going to take advantage of that. We knew that the yeerks wouldn't do anything for awhile, and our parents knew that too, so they were going to give us for kids a treat.
    "Hey, Catara! Tom! Get down here!" my dad yelled up the stairs. "I, um, we have a surprise for you!"
    I ran down the stairs from my bedroom. I love surprises, and couldn't wait to see what my dad had gotten me. When I ran into the living room, about a second before Tom, I saw everybody standing there. My mom and Dad, Uncle Tobias and Aunt Rachel, and Marco. Even Ritora and Jordan were there too, but they were looking impatient.
    "Ok, now they're here, can you please tell us what this is all about now???" whined Jordan.
    Rachel laughed, "Yes, Jordan. But," She winked at my dad "Our fearless leader here wants to tell everybody." Everybody got a laugh out of that. When they had been fighting the yeerks on Earth, my dad had kind of been there leader. Not because he wanted to, but everybody just thought of him that way.
    Maybe I should tell you alittle about myself and my friends. I'm short for my age, I guess. I can only go by what my mom has told me. But she says she was short at my age too. I have dark skin and dark brown eyes. I have shoulder length black hair. I don't grow it out too much since I don't like to mess with it too much.
    My brother, Tom is a little bit taller than me, and doesn't look much like me at all. By looking at us you wouldn't think we were twins. He has dark skin, but it looks more like he just got a really good tan. He has dark brown hair, and serious brown eyes.
    Ritora is my cousin and my best friend. She's also the "leader" of our group, but she's kinda reckless, like her mom was when she was fighting. But at times she's also kind of quiet and thoughtful, like her dad. She's very tall, like her mom, with sandy blond hair like her dad's. She has hazel eyes, kind of a cross between the blue of her mom and brown of her dad.
   Jordan is Ritora's younger sister by a year. She's about my height, so it looks like she's gonna grow up to be as tall as her sister. She has pale blonde hair like her mom, and whenever her sister isn't acting all gung hoe, she is. Otherwise, she's like her dad, thoughtful and quiet and making sure the rest of us don't get into too much danger.
    "Well, we've been thinking that after what you did to the yeerks, you kids deserved a special treat-" Dad started
    "And we wanted a vacation too!"Marco interupted.
    Dad gave him an iritated look, "We talked with Ax and he said that next week a flight is leaving for Earth. Said something about a pilgrimage for Andalites to eat Cinnabons or something, so, we asked him if it was possible to get 9 tickets for that flight and-"
    "We're going to earth?!"Ritora squeeled.
    "Yes."dad laughed.
    "Alright!"She yelled, and us four kids started dancing around the room.
    I had always wanted to go to Earth. I've wanted to see all the animals that my mom told me about, and see my realatives. Like Tom, who my brother was named after. Or Jordan, who Jordan was named after. I've heard so much about them from my mom and Aunt. Ritora just wanted to sample some of the "shoping" there. Those are her mom's fondest memories of Earth. Although I don't think she quite understands what it is, and I know I sure don't, she's been looking forward to it for as long as I can remember.
    "When do we leave?" I asked dad.
    "Tomorrow afternoon."
    "Tomorrow?!" we all shouted in unison,
    "I've gotta go pack!"
    "That's not enough time to say goodbye to all my friends."
    "I've gotta find a suitcase to put all my stuff in!"
    Jordan and Ritora started making their way towards the door. Rachel grabbed them and brought them back to our group. Mom grabbed me and Tom since we'd started heading towards the stairs.
    "Where do you think you're going?"Rachel asked us.
    "I've gotta go pack!" Ritora said.
    "And I've gotta go say goodbye to my friends!" Jordan added.
    Rachel looked at me and Tom, "Ummm... I've gotta see if I've even got a suitcase to pack my clothes in."I said. Tom nodded like he was thinking the same thing.
    You guys don't need to wory about that," Rachel assured us, "May I?"She asked, looking at Dad.
    "Go ahead."
    She walked over to the closet and pulled out Eight suitcasses "Two for each of you." Rachel passed out the suitcasses. Both of mine were green. Ritora got two black ones, Tom got two blue ones and Jordan got a black one and a blue one.
    "Can we pleeeeeeeeaassse go pack now?" moaned Ritora.
    "Not yet," Mom told her, "We're all going to eat dinner here, then you guys can all go pack."
    Ritora frowned, "Fine, then can we go eat now?"
    Dad laughed, "Yes, of course we can. What are we having, Cassie?"
    "Well, we've still got alot of the food that Ax got us. Tonight specialty is nice thick steak, mashed potatoes, salad, with salad dressing may I add, and for desert,"She paused dramatically, "Ice cream sundaes."
    "All right!" Jordan yelled and ran to her seat at the table, "Hurry up and serve that food, Cassie! I want some ice cream!"
    We all just laughed and sat down at the table.

Chapter 2

    That night after we had finished eating, Ritora and Jordan ran home to start packing, me and Tom ran upstairs to our rooms. Our parents and Marco stayed downstairs talking. They had already packed.
    I woke up very early the next morning and ran downstairs. I knew we weren't going to leave for Earth for a couple of hours, but I was too excited to sleep anymore. When I got downstairs, Mom and Dad were already at the table eating breakfast.
    "Hey,Mom, Dad." I greeted them, "What's for breakfast?"
    "Anything you can fix yourself. I'm afraid we both stayed up a bit too late last night and I could barely make coffee this morning,"Dad said, trying to stifle a yawn.
    I made a face, "Yuck, coffee," I opened the cupboard door, looking to see what cereal we had. I pulled out a blue box, something called "Rice Krispies." I hadn't tried them yet, so I poured myself a bowl, poured milk over it, and sat down next to my mom and dad.
    About half an hour latter, Tom came down, looking like he was still half asleep. He got himself some Rice Krispies too and sat down beside me.
    I quickly finished eating my breakfast and ran upstairs to get dressed for the day. I spent most of the morning reading. Around noon, Rachel, Tobias,Marco, Ritora and Jordan showed up at our house. We were all going to go to the station to board our flight together.
    It was quite a long walk. We could have all morphed to birds and flew there, but one member of our group couldn't. Uncle Tobias. When he was fighting the Yeerks as a kid, he got trapped in his Red-Tailed hawk morph. After awhile, an all powerful being called an Ellimist gave him back his morphing power, even the ability to morph into his old human form. But, once he came here, he decided he didn't want to be a hawk anymore, and got trapped in his Human body, mostly so he could marry Rachel. I think it's kind of romantic what he did, just so he could marry Rachel.
    We got to the station just as our flight was being announced. We gave our luggage to the clerk who brought it to a special loading dock. We went in line to get on the ship. We got our seats. Our parents made sure all of us kids got window seats since we had never been in space before, while they had a couple times, although they only really got to enjoy it when they were going with the Andalites. I looked out the window constatnly for the entire flight. It was amazing. The stars looked so bright out in space, and the planets were lovely.
    I was shocked when we entered Earth's solar system, I'd been told by my parents that Earth's solar system had some of the most beautiful planets in the galaxy, and they were right. Saturn's rings were awesome, and Jupiter. Wow, Jupiter was huge! And, finally, we were in orbit above Earth.
    There was a collective gasp from us kids as we all saw Earth for the first time. It was a little like the Andalite Homeworld, but there was more water. I could see the sun rising over part of the planet, my mom leaned over and whispered to me, "That's the Middle East, where the suns rising. That's one of the first views of Earth that I ever had. It's still one of my favorite."
    Before I knew it, we were landing. We crowded out the door and walked into one of Earth's space station.
    I saw humans everywhere. And square holes were made in the walls where clothing was given. I learned later that those were stores, and that the only reason they were free was because they were for Andalites who had morphed humans. I looked at some of the humans just standing around, with long lines of Andalites in front of them.
    "Why are the Andalites just lining up in front of those people?" Jordan asked.
    "They're there so the Andalites who haven't been here before will have a human morph. That's the main reason Andalites come here to Earth. To have the sensation of taste. Ever since Ax went back home and told his fellow Andalites about taste, expecially Cinnaman Buns, hundreds of thousands of Andalites have come to Earth." Rachel explained. "I wonder if they'll be as out of control as Ax was." She said to the adults, they all giggled.
    We pushed and shoved our way out of the crowded space station and walked out into the Earth landscape.

Chapter 3

    It was beautiful. Well, maybe to humans who lived on Earth it wasn't, but it was to me. There were humans everywhere. a few "humans" were talking funny and looked like they were about to tip over at any second, I figured those were Andalites in human morph. We made our way past the shops full of people. Past the cinnabon where I saw several "people" going crazy over the cinnaman buns.
    "Can we PLEASE stop somewhere to eat? PLEASE?"Jordan begged.
    "You can't be hungry already!"Tobias told her.
    "But I AM! PLEASE!Let's go eat!"
    "We're going to go eat at your grandmother's house."Rachel said, "You can wait untill then."
    Jordan pouted.
    "Fine. We'll get ONE cinnabon, once we're out of this area," Rachel gave in, "It's way too expensive out here."
    "Yea!"Jordan shouted.
    We walked for almost half an hour before we caught a bus to the mall where we were going to go to the Cinnabon.
    The mall was absolutly amazing. Lights everywhere, smells of delicious Pizza and Nachos wafted down from the food court. I looked over at Rachel, she kinda had a dreamy look in her eyes, like she was remembering something. Ritora kept pulling on her arm, begging her to take her shopping. She was acting just like a little kid.
    Jordan was begging her dad to take her to the food court. Tobias looked kind of uncomfortable, almost as if he felt like he didn't belong there.
    Mom was just standing around,looking about as uncomfortable as Tobias was. I rembered her telling me that she never did like the mall, and was half afraid that Rachel was gonna drag her all over the place again, looking for new "outfits."
    Dad and Marco were a little ways away, talking. I strained to hear what they were saying, they were talking about Prince Aximili, or "Ax" as they called him. They were remembering what had happened the first time they had taken him to the mall so he could make a Yeerk distress signal so he could steal their ship and fly it home. He had gone nuts. He tried to buy himself some coffee with out any money, then when he was told to throw the cup away, he just threw it over his shoulder. And then, of course, he went a little overboard when it came to eating the first time. I couldn't believe that they were talking about the same Prince that I knew!
   "Are we going to eat or are we just going to stand around like fools? People are begining to stare."Rachel said as she broke out of her trance.
    "Let's go eat!" Jordan said.
    "You know, Rachel, they're probably staring because we are the people who saved Earth." Dad explained to her.
    Rachel didn't say anything, she just walked to the escalator that would take us to the food court.

Chapter 4

    Rachel made us eat quickly, and then hurried us out of the mall. We were all going to her mother's house first, then Dad's house, then Marco's and finally Mom's. We weren't going to visit Tobias's house because he'd lived the last part of his life on Earth in a medow by Cassie's farm and when he did have a house to live in, he had the most messed up family I have ever heard of. He was shuttled back and forth across the country from one aunt or uncle to another.
    It didn't take us very long to get to Rachel's house. We could have gone faster, but the adults stopped at this old abandoned construction site for some reason. They just stood there for about five minutes, looking real sad and not talking. I didn't remember untill later that Prince Elfangor had given them their morphing powers in a construction site and had died in the same one, this must have been that site.
    Rachel knocked on the door of a rather large house. A woman who looked to be about in her 60's opened the door.
    "Hi, Mom." Rachel said.
    "Rachel?" The woman asked, as if she wasn't sure it could possibly be her. Rachel nodded her head. "Rachel!" she gave Rachel a hug, "Come in, come in, Who're all these people? Oh, tell me when you get inside. You have perfect timing, Jordan and Sara are here too, they're in the living room, why don't you go in there and get yourselves settled down, I'll bring out some drinks and cookies." She hurried off to the kitchen.
    Rachel led us into a room furnished with several chairs and a large couch, Sitting on one end of the couch were two women chatting like old friends. One had dark hair and the other had blonde hair like Rachel. They looked up when we all walked into the room.
    "Rachel?"They said in unison. Rachel nodded her head, and the two women ran to her and gave her hugs.
    I leaned over to Tom, "Why doesn't anybody believe that Rachel is Rachel and then when they realize it is they run to her and give her a hug?" Tom giggled and Dad looked at us sternly, as if we had done something wrong, Marco had overheard us and started giggling too, Dad just gave him an exasperated look and went back to the reunion.
    "Jordan? Sara?I'd like you to meet my family,This is Ritora-Fuloa-Maheen, or Ritora as we call her, my oldest,"Ritora shook hands with the two women. "And this, is Jordan, my youngest,"
    "You named your kid after me?"The woman with dark hair asked,"You shouldn't have Rachel."
    "Well, I needed to keep something earth like with me, so, I named my daughter after you, I was begining to feel particularly homesick when she was born."She went on with the introductions, "This is Tobias, My husband."
    Tobias shyly shook the women's hands, "Pleased to meet you," he mumbled.
    Rachel pointed to me, "That's Catara-Fitalia-Gooroara, or Catara, and Tom, her twin brother," she pointed at Mom and Dad, "And believe it or not, Jake and Cassie,"
    Jordan and the other woman, Sara, just kind of stared at Dad, "Jake?"
    "Yep, it's me."
    The both ran to him and gave him a hug, then gave Cassie a hug, "It's been such a long time since I've seen you!"Sara said as she gave Mom a hug.
    "It's good to see you too, Sara. You too, Jordan."
    "I see you've all met,"Rachel's mom said as she walked into the room carrying a tray full of cookies, a bottle of something called "Coke-Cola", cups and a pot of coffee, "Now,Rachel, you'll have to introduce me to everybody."
    Rachel went around and introduced us all as she did with Jordan and Sara. She looked kind of surprised when Rachel introduced Tobias as her husband and Jake and Cassie as a married couple, but was happy for all of them. Rachel's mom looked at us kids, "Well, then I guess that makes me your...Great Aunt Naomi, but that's kind of a mouthful, isn't it? So, just call me 'Naomi'"
    Naomi. I tried the name out in my head. It was a nice name.
    Soon, it was time for all of us to go and visit the rest of our relatives.
    "Can't you stay for dinner?"Naomi pleaded.
    "We'll be back, Mom, don't worry," Rachel leaned over and gave Naomi a kiss on the cheek, "I'll be sure to get these guys back here in time for dinner, but we have lots of other people to meet." She gave a quick hug to Jordan and Sara, "Will you guys be here for dinner?"
    "I wouldn't miss it for the world."Jordan said.
    "Me either." Sara agreed.

Chapter 5

    We stepped out of Naomi's house and walked down the street towards Dad's old house. His house looked very much the same as Rachel's, except it was a different color. Dad walked up to the door, with all of us following behind him. A man about Naomi's age answered.
    "Hey, Dad!" Jake greeted him.
    "Jake? Jake! Hey, Everybody! Nikki! Tom! Get in here! It's Jake!" The man, who must have been Jake's dad yelled over his shoulder. "Come in!" He said while pulling Jake into the living room.
    "Hi,Mom."He said, giving the woman who was standing in the room a hug.
    "Hi, Jake." She said, giving him a hug back.
    "Hey! Midgit, what's up?"
    We all looked towards the kitchen, there was a man, a little bit taller than Jake, and looked alot like him too. That must be Tom I thought to myself. Dad had told us about Tom when we were younger. When our parents were fighting the Yeerks, Tom had become a controller.
    "Hey, Tom." Dad walked over to the Kitchen and gave Tom a kind of half hug, half slap on the back. Tom did the same thing.
    "Ya' know, Jake, I never really had a chance to thank you for getting rid of that slug. Thanks a lot, man."
    Dad looked down, kind of embarrased, "Don't mention it. I, we, should have done it alot sooner."
    "Well, why don't we all sit down and introduce ourselves?"Dad's mom asked.
    We all walked over to the assortment of chairs and couches. All the adults sat on chairs or on the couch. Us kids sat on the floor.
    Dad introduced us all, first introducing Mom, "This is Cassie, she's my wife, Then there's Catara-Fitalia-Gooraora, you can call her Catara, and Tom, our twin kids, Over there is Ritora-Fuloa-Maheen, or Ritora, and Jordan, Rachel's kids," when he said Rachel he pointed at her, Dad's parents and Tom just kind of stared at her.
    "Yep, it's me," she said with a grin.
    Dad went on, "There's Tobias, sitting next to her, her husband. And last of all, Marco."
    "Well, I'm Nikki," Dad's mom introduced herself, then looking at us kids she added, "I guess I'd be your grandmother, wouldn't I?" We nodded, "Grandma Nikki," she said, so we could barely hear her, "I think I like the sound of that."
    "I'm Greg," Dad's dad said, "Grandpa Greg'."He said, looking at us.
    "And I'm Tom, of course," Tom added with a smirk, "Uncle Tom," he shivered, "Just stick to calling me 'Tom.' Uncle's too formal."
    We stayed and chatted for awhile, like we did over at Naomi's, but we had to leave before too long.
    "We still have to go to Marco's and Cassie's house," Dad explaind, "And then get back over to Aunt Naomi's house for supper." I almost giggled, it sounded weird having Dad call somebody his aunt. I could tell the Tom and Ritora and Jordan were about to start giggling too. I looked up at Marco. He was doing a terrible job at keeping a strait face. Dad saw him and made sure to get us to the door before Marco made a fool of himself.
    We walked over to Marco's and the same thing happened, except we didn't talk to Marco's mother. Nobody's sure what happened to her. She was the host body for Visser 1, but when the Animorphs and Andalites fought the yeerks at Earth the last time, the Yeerk Visser 1 dissapeared. We don't know if she was killed, or if just the yeerk got away and Marco's mom was destroyed or what. Marco keeps hoping that his mom is still alive, even if she is under control of the yeerk, and can't wait untill the day comes that he can rescue her, the others are slightly less pessimistic.
    At Mom's house, in between having conversations, her Dad would have to go out to the barn to check on some of the animals. Even after Mom left, her mom, my Grandma Alisha, continued to work at the Gardens, and her Dad, John, continued to run the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
    After talking with Mom's Parents, we caught a bus back to Rachel's house where Aunt Naomi had fixed a wonderful dinner for us. Well, not really fixed it, according to Rachel, she ordered pizza for us. "I figured you guys hadn't had decent pizza in years, and the kids haven't ever had a decent pizza."
    We had had pizza before, of course, but I didn't want to offend Naomi so I sat down at the table and took a piece of Cheese pizza out of the cardboard box that said "Pizza Hut."
    Wow! I had never had such good food in my life! The pizza that Prince Aximili had ordered for us while we were on the Andalite homeworld couldn't compare to this! I could see that the other kids felt the same way about their pizzas. The adults just looked amused as we ate almost all the pizza.
    "Well, come on guys, it's time we go find a hotel and go to sleep." Dad announced after dinner.
    "A hotel?"Naomi asked, "you have got to be kidding me, Jake. I will not let any of you go sleep in some hotel room when you've got perfectly good rooms here."
    "But Aunt Naomi..."
    "Don't 'Aunt Naomi' me, Jake. Jordan and Sara both live near by, so they aren't going to be spending the night here. Which means that there are 4 rooms left. Rachel's old room, Jordan's Room, Sara's Room and the guest room. We've also got the fold out sofa here in the living room, so there isn't a lack of space."
    Dad sighed and gave in.
    That night, Dad, Mom, Tom and I slept in the Guest room, Ritora, Jordan, Rachel and Tobias all slept in Rachel's old room. And Marco slept in Jordan's old room. Me, Tom and Dad all slept on the floor. Mom got to sleep on the bed. Lucky her.
    "Catara, Tom, time to get up."
    My eyes fluttered open, "Just five more minutes, Mom," and I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Mom pulled up the window shade and bright sunlight streamed onto my face, "Nope, up and at 'em. Rachel's taking us girls out to the mall today. As much as I'd like to stay around here or go to my parents house, we have to humor her."
    I groaned, but I got up still. I was looking forward to going to the mall, Rachel had told us about the mall on the trip to Earth and I thought it sounded like fun, despite my mom telling me that it wasn't when you went with Rachel.
    I pulled on a T-Shirt and jeans and went downstairs to the kitchen. I was the last one there. Even Tom was up before me.
    "Hey, sleepy head." Naomi said to me, "Want a cinnamon roll and some Orange Juice, it'll help you wake up."
    I nodded yes and Naomi handed me a sticky, warm cinnamon roll and poured me a glass of orange juice. I gulped down the juice and ate the cinnamon roll quickly. They were just as delisious as the pizza had been the night before. Ax might be able to order us food from Earth sometimes, but it was nothing compared to the food that we were eating now.
    "Come on, Girls. We're going out to the mall!" Rachel announced excitedly as she finished her breakfast.
    "Hey, what about me?" Tom asked, "Where do I go?"
    "You're coming with us. The girls are gonna go off and do their precious shopping with Xena,"Rachel gave Marco an exasperated look, "And us guys are gonna go do some guy stuff." Marco continued. Tom seemed happier after hearing this news.
    Naomi's house wasn't far from the mall, so it didn't take us long to get there.
    "Ok, I just want to tell you guys one thing before we go in there," Rachel said as we approched the massive brick building, "If this place is anything like it was when I was your age, this place is going to be packed since it's a Saturday. You three are to stay with either me or Cassie at all times. If you knew the mall better, I wouldn't be worried, but you guys haven't had much contact with humans and some humans that go to malls on Saturdays are quite odd."
    We walked in through what must have been the main entrance to the mall. There were people everywhere! I was overwhelmed, and I could tell Ritora and Jordan were too, even Mom was, but Rachel was as cool and calm as she always seemed to be. "We're near..." she seemed to think for a second, "JC Penneys, the Gap, the Bannana Republic, and Sears, if we want to get some clothes, but we're also near the music store, and the book store. Where do you guys want to go?" she asked us. We all shrugged, having absolutly no idea what the clothing stores were, and I wasn't sure what kinds of books or music we would find at the other two stores. Seeing our confused looks, Rachel made the decision for us, "Well, I want some new music, so let's go there first."
    We started walking to the right untill we came to a store that said 'Sam Goody' above the entrance. Inside were hundreds of thousands of plastic box looking things. According to Rachel, that's what the music came in. When we got closer to them, we found out that they weren't CDs like Rachel had thought they were, but LDs, Laser Discs, so we had to buy a new LD player too. Rachel and Mom went to the 'Oldies' section to pick out some music and told the three of us we could wander around the store and eache pick out three LDs for ourselves. Me and Ritora went to the rock music section, while Jordan wandered off to the kids section.
    "Oh wow! Look! Isn't this weird? "The Animorphs." Some band must have taken their name from our parents!" Ritora exclaimed.
    "Yeah, weird." I agreed.
    Ritora picked up two of their LDs,and a single from some singer who had songs that looked cool, but neither of us could pronounce her name. None of the bands in the Rock section looked good to me, so I wandered over to the oldies section where my mom and Rachel were standing. They each had gotten two LDs and were looking for another one.
Mom had gotten an LD of a band called Nine Inch Nails and a "movie soundtrack" from some movie called 'Titanic.' Rachel had gotten an LD from Celine Dion and Natalie Imbruglia. I didn't know either of them. I had heard of Nine Inch Nails once, but didn't know anything about them. And I know Marco once told me to stay away from anything that had to do with 'Titanic.' Muttering something about it not being fit for anybody to see, and that Leonardo was a bad actor or something. Whoever Leonardo was.
    I looked down at the assortment of LDs. A bright green one caught my eye. I picked it up, 'Chumbawumba.' Hm, weird name, but it sounded cool. I also picked up an LD by 'No Doubt,' who Rachel told me was a great band, and Alanis Morisette.
    Rachel paid for our LDs and we walked out of the store. "Where next?" Jordan asked.
    "Well, how would you girls like to go clothes shopping?" Rachel asked.
    "Cool." Ritora, Jordan and I said in unison. Mom grimaced, she definetly wasn't looking forward to clothes shopping.
    "Clothes shopping it is then. Let's go to the Gap."
    The Gap was just a few stores down from the music store, but it took forever to get there because Jordan had to stop and stare in every shop window before we could go on, but we did make it.
    "You girls go around and see if there's any clothes you like. I need to make Cassie here buy some decent clothes," and with that Rachel dragged Mom off to the women's department.
    Jordan went to the kids section. Me and Ritora had to ask Mom and Rachel where we should look. She pointed us to one corner of the store.
    I looked at the variety of clothing in awe, there were so many that it would have been impossible to choose just a few! Thankfully, Rachel said we could get almost anything we wanted, she wasn't going to hold us back on our first trip to an Earth mall.
    I walked over to one rack labeled "Retro." I didn't know what retro was, but the clothes looked cool. I grabbed a pair of jeans that were slim at the top, but near the end they flared out. I looked at a really cool shirt, but even though the tag said it was my size, it looked way too small for me, so I passed over it.
    I looked around the rack some more and found a jacket that was made out of the same denim as my jeans were, and got that too. I also picked up a few T-Shirts and shorts.
    After we had all chosen the clothes we wanted, Rachel told us we should try them on first, to make sure they fit.
    We all chose a dressing room. We took up quite a few. I had the one nearest the wall, Ritora had the one next to me, Jordan next to her,Mom had the one next to Jordan, and Rachel had the last one, the third one from the entrance to the hallway of dressing rooms.
    I didn't take long to try on my clothes, they all fit perfectly. As I walked out of my dressing room, I heard a creak come down from where Rachel's dressing room was, and then I heard a muffled "Oh my gosh..." and a scrambling sound from Rachel's dressing room, like she was trying to gather all her stuff up quickly.
    She stepped out from her dressing room calmly, acting like nothing had happened, but I saw that she walked to the door of the dressing room Mom was in and whispered something to the door.
    Me and Rachel waited for everybody else to get out, and then Rachel took us to pay for our clothes. Then we went to get some lunch from the food court. We went to a place called Taco Bell. I ordered the nachos, they were the only things that looked good. Ritora and Jordan ordered the same. Mom got a soft shelled taco and Rachel got a meat and cheese taco with extra letuce.
    "Why don't you girls go find yourself a seat? Me and Rachel have to talk about what we're going to do next." Mom said.
    Me and Ritora led Jordan to a table near a window looking out into the mall. Mom and Rachel went over to a secluded corner of the resturant and began whispering to eachother.
    "Are those two acting weird, or is it just me?" Ritora asked me in a hushed voice.
    "I don't know, but something's going on." I went on to explain what had happened in the dressing rooms.
    Jordan looked scared, "Do you think something's wrong?"
    "I don't know, Jordan." I told her, "I don't know."

Chapter 6

    After we all finished our lunches, we went back out into the mall, but Mom and Rachel seemed worried, like maybe we shouldn't be out in the mall, but I didn't think about that too much. I was having fun. We went to the book store, a jewlry boutique, where Ritora went mad and got her ears pierced, and even a place called a video arcade. But, we eventually had to leave. We headed back towards Grandma Nikki and Gradpa Greg's house, where we would spend the afternoon and probably evening, if Grandma Nikki was like Naomi.
    She was. That night, after a delisious steak dinner, Grandma Nikki insisted that we stay. Mom, Dad, Tom and me were to stay in Dad's old room, Rachel, Tobias, Ritora and Jordan stayed in Tom's old room, and Marco stayed in the guest room.
    That night, the adults stayed up late in the guest room talking, while us kids stayed up late in Dad's old room. We could almost hear what the adults were saying, since the guest room was next to our room. We only heard bits and pieces of the conversation.
    "...still down there..."
    "Think any...are still in there?"
    "...if there is? What should...do?"
    "Go...it. Nothing...loose."
    "Yeah...is..."
    "Tomorrow...kids stay...we go."
    "Whoa, it sounds big." Jordan commented.
    "Yeah, and I don't like what they're saying about us staying somewhere and they going to, well, wherever it is they're going."I said, "Now, if it sounded like they were planning something fun for us to do, it'd be one thing, but it sounds almost as if they're doing something dangerous."
    "Sounds like your Mom's kind of mission, Ritora." Tom joked.
    "Shut up, Tom." Ritora said, throwing a pillow at Tom.
    "Grow up, you two."I told Ritora and Tom, "I think I know where they intend to go. They're gonna all go back to the mall and go to...well, wherever Rachel discovered in that dressing room."
    "That'd be my guess too,"Tom stated, "But, what are we going to do about it?"
    "Follow them." Jordan stated plainly.
    Tom laughed, "Hello, our parents are practically superheros, you think they won't notice their own kids spying on them?"
    "Of course they would, if their kids looked human." Ritora said.
    "Good point, Ritora." I said, "So, what do we morph?"
    "Hold on," Jordan said, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but, Tom had a good point. Our parents were superheros. They may not have had to do any "dangerous" missions in a long time, but they're still gonna be pretty paranoid. We can't be, say, buzzing around near them in a fly morph, they'd figure us out in five minutes!"
    "What if..." I started.
    "What if what?" Tom asked.
    "Well, what if we ask them what they're planning on doing. We're superheros now, too. If they're doing something dangerous, we should be in on it too." I said nervously, not sure how the others would like it.
    "I think we should do it." Ritora said.
    "I don't know, Ritora..." Jordan started, but was interupted by my Mom and Dad coming into the room.
    "Hey, guys, time to go to bed." Dad said as he came in.
    "Ok, Dad,I'll talk to you guys tomorrow," I told Ritora and Jordan with a look that said don't mention anything to them yet.
    "Yeah, talk to you tomorrow," Jordan said as she left for her room.
    Me and Tom said our good nights to Mom and Dad, and then we both drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 7

    The next morning, us kids woke up before our parents, with our even planning. We used the time to talk about how we were going to approach our parents.
    "I think we should ask them what's up after they've gotten up and had breakfast or coffee or whatever." Ritora said.
    "I still think you three are mad." Tom complained.
    "Yeah, right, Tom." Jordan told him.
    "Can we stick to business here?" I asked, "We need to figure out how we're going to get them to let us come with them, and I think Ritora's right. If we ask them right away after they get up, they'll be too tired to think about it, but if we wait untill they've had a cup of coffee or whatever and they still say no, we'll be able to bug them all morning."
    "Ok, ok, fine, lets do that then, now can we eat?" Tom asked.
    We each got ourselves a bowl of cereal and some orange juice which we ate quickly.
    When we finished our breakfasts, we all sat down in the living room in front of something called a TV. I made a mental note to ask Mom and Dad if we could buy one of these and bring it back with us. We clicked something called a remote control to find a channel we wanted to watch. We ended up watching 'Saturday Morning Cartoons.' Most of them were really dumb, but Jordan and Tom seemed to enjoy them.
    After we watched for a while, our parents came down stairs. We murmered good morning to them and went back to watching TV, nervously waiting for them to finish their breakfasts.
    About half an hour later, I leaned over and whispered to Ritora, who was sitting next to me, "Let's ask." She nodded and leaned over to Tom, who also nodded and then he leaned over and whispered to Jordan, who didn't nod at first. We had to drag her away from the TV.
    We all stood up and stretched our muscles. We had been sitting for a long time. We all nervously walked over to the table where our parents were sitting and reading News Papers, which I guess were the Earth equivelant of the Andalite Newspad. The others nudged me forward. I guess since it was my idea, was chosen to ask them.
    "Um... Mom? Dad? Rachel? Marco? We've got something to ask you."

Chapter 8

    I told them about what I had heard in the dressing rooms at the Gap. I told them that we had all heard them the night before, and that we were ready to fight.
    They didn't like that idea. They said that they had more expirience fighting, so they should be the ones to do it, they said that the yeerks were their responsibility on Earth and a bunch of other excuses. Us kids stood firm. We were going to go with them. If they didn't let us come, we'd sneak in with them.
    "Catara, please, you can't come with us. We're not even sure what we've found." Mom pleaded.
    "Mom, I think you do know what it is." I accused. "I didn't remember it untill this morning, but I remember you saying something about the yeerks finding ingenious places to hide their entrances to the Yeerk Pool, including a dressing room in a store in the mall."
    I kept going, "You say that the yeerks are your responsibility, well, they're our responsibility too. We may not have been fighting the yeerks as long as you did, but we've fought them. We've fought them and we've won. Once we get back home, we're going to have to keep on fighting them, nothing's going to change that. Nothing you say or do."
    I guess I had surprised them. I'm usually calm and reserved, unless somebody gets me mad, and I was plenty mad right then. I think even Ritora, my best friend, was surprised.
    "Jake, I think we should let them go with us." Rachel said, "They've proved themselves as good fighters, I think they'd be able to handle whatever we'd run into down there."
    "Xena's got a point, Oh Fearless Leader." Marco joked, "These are some tough kids."
    Dad sighed, "Fine, you kids can come with us." We all cheered, "But you're going to try to stay out of the fight, alright?"
    Rachel leaned over the table, "Jake, you know they could handle a fight. Let them." she said mater-of-factly. Like she was going to get her way whether Dad liked it or not.
    "Fine, you can fight. Happy now, Rachel?"
    "Very."
    Dad looked back to us, "We're going to be leaving around 12 o'clock. Be ready."

Chapter 9

    The adults spent the morning talking about their plans to go down into the Yeerk Pool. We tried to sit around with them for awhile, but we got restless. It was a beautiful warm day outside, and like any normal human kids, we wanted to go out and enjoy it.
    We hunted around in Grandpa Greg's and Grandma Nikki's garage and found a basketball. We played a silly 2-on-2 game of basketball in the driveway for a couple hours. Me and Tom versus Ritora and Jordan.
    Around 11:30, we went inside for a quick lunch of sandwiches and pop. After lunch, Dad called us all into the living room. It was time to go.
    We all gathered in the living room and Dad told us the plan. Us kids were going to go with Rachel and Mom as if we were going clothes shopping. Dad, Tobias and Marco were going to come in about five minutes later acting as if they were looking for us. We had to be careful. If the yeerk pool was still down there, that could mean that there are a few controllers left.
    We all left for the mall together. When we got there, Rachel and Mom led us towards the Gap, while Dad, Marco and Tobias went off in the other direction towards the video arcade. When we got to the store, Rachel told us to look around and just grab something as if we were going to try it on. I grabbed a T-shirt, Ritora grabbed a sweater, Jordan grabbed a pair of jeans, and Tom found some jeans for himself. We all made our way towards the dressing rooms and tried to inconspicuously walk into the third one.
    Rachel pried open the mirror. So, that's what I heard yesterday. I thought to myself. Rachel started walking down the long flight of stairs that was behind the mirror. Mom was right behind her. Ritora was next, then me, then Tom and finally, a very nervous looking Jordan.
    We didn't go down the stairs to far. We had to wait for Dad, Tobias and Marco. They showed up about a minute after we had entered the stairway.
    "There can't be too many yeerks down here," Tobias said, "I don't hear any screams."
    Us kids looked back at him, "S-S-Screams?" Jordan asked. Normally, Jordan was almost as brave as her sister. I don't know why she was so scared this time, maybe it was because of Dad not wanting us to go on the mission in the first place.
    We walked down the rest of the long stairway in silence. The only sound was our shoes hitting the stairs. And, as we reached the end of the stairway, the sound of water, or some liquid, hitting a hard object, such as a shore.
    "Oh my god! It's still here!" Rachel yelled from the front of our line.
    "What is?" Tom asked.
    I hit him, "The yeerk pool, what were you expecting? The circus?"
    "Well, no..."
    "Just be quiet."
    We walked down the rest of the stairs, nervously looking out for any controllers that might be down there, but the place looked abandoned. The lights were fading, the big, ancient, machinery was rusty, and the sounds of our footsteps, and the sludge in the pool, was echoing throughout the huge cavern.
    "So. This is the yeerk pool, huh?" Ritora asked.
    Tobias gave her a quick little hug, as if to reassure her, even though he looked like the one who could use the reassurance, "Yeah, Ritora. This is the yeerk pool."

Chapter 10

    We walked around the pool, always on the lookout for Controllers. We didn't see any, but we were still careful.
    Hello Humans, and Cassie
    We looked around. "What was that?" I asked. "It sounded almost like thought speak."
    "More like Who." Mom corrected.
    It was me. Aftran 1090 of the Hett Simplatt pool. When you knew me, I was Aftran Nine-Four-Two of the Hett Simplatt pool.
    Mom looked like she was about to faint, "Oh my gosh. Aftran? But, how can you talk?"
    Shortly after giving up my host, the human girl Karen, all Yeerks who opposed taking unwilling hosts were fitted with speach synthesizers so the Higher ranking yeerks could ask us each and every day if we were ready to give up our treasonist ways. I kept my promise, Cassie. I'm glad to see you didn't have to keep yours.
    I walked over to Mom, "What the heck is that yeerk talking about, Mom?"
    "I'll explain it to you later," she whispered back.
    Who are these people with you, Cassie?
    Mom went through the introductions that had been said a half dozen times while we'd been on our vacation.
    "What are you still doing here, are there others?" Dad asked the yeerk.
    Yes, others are here.When you and the Andalites defeated the yeerks here on Earth, yeerks who did not want to take involuntary hosts were left here. Supposedly to die a painful death by Kandrona ray deprivation. But, as far us we can tell, the yeerks must have left a Kandrona somewhere, for no yeerk has died because of Kandrona ray starvation in all of the years we've been here. Aftran said a little snidly.
    Mom almost acted like she was meeting an old friend. I looked around at my friends, I guess they didn't know what was going on either, since they looked just as confused as I was as to why Mom was talking with a yeerk.
    "Dad," I whispered. "What are we doing here? Why is Mom talking with that yeerk? What are we going to do with all these yeerks? Just leave them here?"
    "I don't know what we're going to do with them, Catara," Dad whispered back, "And when we get home, I'll explain why Mom's talking with that yeerk."
    After spending the entire afternoon with Aftran and her fellow peaceful yeerks, we bid them farewell and took the stairs back up out of the yeerk pool.
    "That was only slightly odd," Ritora said to me as we walked out of the cavern.
    "I know. And neither Mom or Dad will tell me why Mom was acting that way towards that yeerk. They both say 'I'll tell you when we get home.' It's so frustrating!"
    "It's 'cause Mom's gone nuts." Tom said.
    "Shut up, Tom." Jordan told him.
    We all laughed, which seems really strange considering where we were leaving. Even the adults turned back to see what was so funny, of course, we didn't tell them anything. They won't tell us what was happening down there, so we weren't about to tell them what was going on in our group.

Chapter 11

    We went back to Grandma Nikki's and Grandpa Greg's house to pick up our luggage, and then we were going to go see Mom's parents. We were going to check our bags into a hotel room, but we figured we'd end up staying the night there too. We were right. Grandma Alisha was not going to allow her daughter and grandkids stay in some "cheap hotel where weird Andalites stay."
    Grandpa John made some of his "famous chili" for dinner that night. It was pretty good, a little hot, but otherwise it was good.
    We stayed up for a little while and talked, mostly about stuff we hadn't had a chance to talk about a few days ago. And then we went to bed. We were all tired. I didn't even care that I had to sleep on the floor again.
    We all slept late the next day. Even the adults. I don't know why we were so tired, we hadn't fought a battle or anything, but we were tired just the same. We all tramped down to the kitchen around 9:30, 10 o'clock in the morning.
    Grandma Alisha fixed us some wonderful Pancakes with syrup for breakfast. I'd never had such good pancakes in my life! They were delicious.
    After breakfast, we said our goodbyes to Grandma Alisha and Grandpa John, promising that we'd come back again sometime.
    "What are we going to do today, Dad?" I asked.
    "I don't know," he looked at the rest of our group, "What are we going to do today?"
    "I want to get a TV!" Tom said.
    "If we get one of those, it will be right before we leave for home. You don't want to have to drag a TV around with you for the next two days." Mom said.
    "Two days?" Ritora exclaimed, "That's all the time we have left?"
    "Yeah," Rachel said sadly, "We spend today here and then leave tomorrow afternoon."
    Jordan started pulling on Rachel's arm, "I want to go to the Gardens today! You promised we could!"
    Rachel laughed, "I did, didn't I? Well, how does that sound to you guys?" she asked turn towards us.
    We all agreed that it would be fun. So, we went to a bus stop and got on a bus headed towards the gardens.
   The ride to the gardens didn't take very long, which was a good thing, because we were getting bored just sitting on the bus. We weren't used to having to sit still for a long time, since back home we went everywhere either walking or flying. Me and Ritora talked about our strange encounter at the Yeerk pool the day before.
    "I want to go back down there," she told me.
    "Ritora, are you mad?! Why would any sane person want to go back down there?" I asked her.
    "We should find out if the yeerks have any weeknesses besides the Kandrona that could help us."
    "Ok, that makes sense, but how do we get down there? Neither of our mothers are about to let us go wandering around the mall by ourselves."
    "My mom will, and I'm sure yours would too, since we'd be together, and we might even be able to convince Tom to come to. I asked Mom last night if today us kids could go to the mall by ourselves since it's not a saturday anymore and it should be less crowded and she said we could!"
    "Oh, cool." I said reluctantly. I wasn't looking forward to going back down to the yeerk pool, even if it was deserted, but I wasn't about to let my best friend and cousin go down there alone.
    When we got to the Gardens, our parents said we could go around by ourselves. We went on a few rides, but soon got bored with them. Well, me, Ritora and Tom got bored with them, Jordan almost got sick, that's when we decided we'd better stick to games and the wildlife park.
    "Hey, as long as we're here, should we try and acquire some morphs?" Tom asked me.
    "Oh my gosh!" Jordan, who'd been standing next to me, whispered loudly, "Tom actually came up with a good idea!"
    "Shut up, kid" Tom said with a smirk.
    "Tom's right, let's acquire a few, with out looking to obvious." Ritora said.
    "Lets go to the dolphin tank," I suggested, "There are salt water oceans back on the homeworld, and who knows when the yeerks may decide to do something in them."
    We made our way towards the dolphin tanks. The dolphins were friendly so we were allowed to touch them. While in the park, we also acquired a monkey that was out of it's cage and being handled by a keeper so that people could see one up close.
    After we were finished acquiring the animals, we met our parents back at the entrance to the gardens.
    "Do you kids want to go to the mall now?" Tobias asked.
    "Yeah!" we cheered.
    "Ok then, just take the next bus to the mall, here's some money, have fun." Rachel told us.
    We ran off in the direction of the bus stop, got on and took off for the mall.
    "Ok, where are we going first?" Tom asked.
    "The Gap." I grimly told him.
    "Huh? We were just there yesterday!" Jordan complained.
    "Well we're going back down to the yeerk pool. We're going to talk to Aftran and the rest of those yeerks. We're going to need all the help we can get in this war against the yeerks on the homeworld." Ritora snapped at her.
    Again, we picked out some clothes to pretend to try on, then we went into the third dressing room. The entrance to the Yeerk Pool.

Chapter 12

    We carefully crept down the stairs. Occasionally giggling nervously at the insanity of our lives. None of us were looking forward to going down into that hole in the ground. Even if it was abandoned, it still had a feeling that it was evil. Unfortunatly, the stairs ended, and we walked out into the cavern known as the Yeerk Pool.
    Hello, young ones, what brings you here? Aftran's "voice" said.
    "We have some...Questions for you, Aftran." I said nervously.
    We went on to explain what we wanted and if she could help us.
    I think I can, young ones. Aftran told us, One of you, go over to that huge storage bin on the far side of the pool. I ran over Open it up and look on the...she paused as if thinking, Top shelf. There should be a lumpy looking sheet, lift that up. Underneath you will see a type of weapon.
    I followed Aftrans instructions. I found a long sleak object under the sheet. I could tell right away that it was a weapon. I walked back towards the pool with it.
    This weapon will slow down the yeerks. At least, it would have when your parents left. I'm not sure what effect it will have on the yeerks now. I do not know the capapbilities of their forces. Listen carefully, for I'm sure I will only be able to tell you once. I'm sure your parents will want you to return soon. Aftran went on to explain what the weapon would do.
    We learned all we could about the weapon from Aftran, thanked her quickly and ran out of the Yeerk pool to the front of the mall where our parents were waiting.

Chapter 13

    "Where have you four been?" Dad asked us impatiently as we walked out of the mall to meet them. "We've been waiting here," he looked at his watch "Almost half an hour!"
    "Sorry." I mumbled.
    "We got sidetracked, Dad." Tom told him, "Me and Jordan really got into a video game at the arcade and we lost track of time."
    Marco grinned, "Lighten up, Jake. Like we never got sidetracked at the mall?"
    Dad sighed, "You're right, Marco." he turned back to us, "We have to go now. There's a transport back to the Andalite homeworld leaving in 25 minutes. That gives us just enough time to get to the space port."
    "But why do we have to leave? You said we didn't have to leave until tomorrow!"Jordan complained.
    Rachel took her daughters by their hands to hurry them along, "We just got a call from Ax a couple minutes ago. He says we need to get home now. They need you guys."
    "But I wanted to get a TV," Tom mumbled under his breath. I think Mom and Dad may have heard him, I'm not sure, but I think they might have glanced at eachother when Tom said that. As if they knew something he didn't.
    We barely made it to the space port in time to load our luggage into the transport. We quickly gve our bags to the attendant and squished onto the already crowded transport.
    We pushed our way to the back of the transport where there were special seats for us humans to sit in.
    As the transport sped away, I looked out the window, and said a silent goodbye to the planet that I had grown to love.
    Before I knew it, we were home. We quickly stepped off the transport and out into the busy spaceport. Since Prince Aximili had made it sound very urgent that we get to the base, so we decided to fly there. Our parents flew home in their Earth Bird of Prey morphs, while we flew in the direction of the military base in our own Bird of Prey morphs that we had gotten from them.
   Before long, we arrived at the base.
    {Hey, is that Prince Aximili?} I asked, scanning the base.
    Ritora focused her bald eagle eyes on the base, {Yep, I think that's him.}
    We flew down and landed gently in front of Ax.
    {Hello, is this the Animorphs, or their children?}
    We giggled, {It's us, Prince Aximili.} I told him, and started to demorph.
    {Ah, good, glad you got here quickly, come over here, Abata is already waiting, I have important news.} We finished demorphing and followed Prince Aximili into the building that housed his office.
    When we got inside, Prince Aximili offered us a seat. I looked around and was surprised to see chairs.
    "I don't like this," Tom whispered to me, "this has got to be bad news if he's got chairs for us to sit in."
    "Shh," I whispered back.
    {Thank you for coming so promptly. I'm sorry I had to cut your vacation to Earth short, but it is important. Some of our spies have seen some suspicious equipment and such far far back in the woods behind your houses. We fear the worst, that the yeerks are attempting to create a yeerk pool here.} There was a collective gasp from around the room. {That is why you were called back so suddenly. You will help, right?}
    "Of course we will, Prince Aximili,"Ritora said right away, "We got this morphing power for a reason, and we're going to use it for that reason. Just tell us where it is."
    "Besides, we've got the ultimate secret weapon." I added under my breath.

Chapter 14

    Prince Aximili gave us a small data pad that showed where the yeerks were last seen. We all decided to go back to my house and develop a plan.
    We morphed back to our Bird of Prey morphs, Abata morphed his Kafit bird, and flew as fast as we could to get back home. Skipping the usual chatter that we almost always had when we flew. The impending mission was too important. And besides, us humans were suffering from a form of "Jet Lag."
    When we arrived, we quickly demorphed and walked inside the house. We all sat down in the living room to discuss what we were going to do.
    "Ok, the yeerks are way back in the woods, doing...well...something, maybe building a pool. What do we do?" Tom asked.
    "We go back there and roast some yeerks," Ritora and Jordan said almost at the same time, "But how do we do that?" Ritora continued.
    "What about that weapon that Aftran gave us?" Tom asked.
    <What weapon?> Abata asked.
    "When we were down on Earth, we discovered that the yeerk pool was still down there, but only yeerks who opposed taking unwilling hosts were still down there. One of them, aparantly a leader of some sort, showed us a weapon that, at the time it was created, could destroy a yeerk without harming the host." I explained to him.
    <What would it do?>
    "When it was created,shortly after our parents left Earth for here, it would have knocked out the host for about an hour and liquidate the yeerk. Bye Bye yeerk. But Aftran had no idea what kind of effect it'd have on the yeerks now." I told him.
    "So, let's go there. Now. Catch the yeerks by surprise. If the yeerks have been spying on us, then they'd still think that we were gone." Jordan said.
    <My brother said that the yeerks were seen more often at night than during the day.>
    "Ok then. We go tonight." Ritora announced.
    We hung around for a little while. Told Abata about our trip to Earth and such. With Tom coming in every couple minutes whining about how he didn't get a TV. After we had told Abata everything there was to tell about our trip, everybody went home.
    Me and Tom spent most of the day just hanging out. I went into my room and played some of the LD's I'd picked up on Earth, while Tom played some thing called a Game Boy. Dad bought it for him at an antique store.
    After dinner, a picnic of hot dogs, applesauce and other picnic foods in the backyard, me and Tom went over to Ritora and Jordan's house to get ready for the night's mission.
    "At least we don't have to wake up at midnight for this one," Tom joked. Most of our previous mission occured in the middle of the night.
    We met Abata outside Ritora and Jordan's house. Rachel answered the door when we knocked on the door. She hurried us into the living room, which looked like a battle zone. There were Data Pads all over the place, at a closer look at some of them, I saw that they were plans for how we would attack. I was a little scared. I've known since this awful war started that both Ritora and Jordan were really into this war, but I had never seen them this involved in the battle.
    "About time you three got here," Jordan said impatiently.
    "Shut up, kid," Tom snapped at her, "We're here, that's all that matters right now."
    "Will you two be quiet for once?" Ritora asked, "Just get over here,"she pointed to the couch, "we've got plans to go over."
    We all obidiently sat down on the couch and listened to the plan Ritora had carefully planned out.

Chapter 15

    < Will this be a spy mission, or an attack mission? > Abata asked after Ritora had hurridly explained her plan.
    "Hopefully spy, but we will be ready to attack if necesary."Ritora answered him.
    "So, let me get this straight," I said "We're sneaking in there our favorite agb morphs, spy on the yeerks, hope that Ax was wrong and the yeerks aren't building a yeerk pool, but if we are, we demorph and start shooting them with that weapon Aftran gave us?"
    "That's it," Ritora answered.
    "Hey, Xena, quick question, how do you propose to carry the weapon there?" Tom asked. My brother can be amazingly annoying, but he often sees tiny glitches in our plans.
    "Ummmm...I hadn't thought of that, yet," Ritora admitted.
    < Prince Ritora, it wouldn't be safe for any of you to walk around out of morph towards a possible yeerk stronghold, but I could pass through without suspision. > Abata volunteered.
    "Don't call me Prince," Ritora said automatically, "Good idea. So, when do we leave?"
    "Now." Jordan said automatically.
    "Ok. Now." Ritora replied, "Let's morph."

Chapter 16

    We had morphed agbs several times before, so the changes and instincts were familiar to me, but it's still a weird morph. Morphing is never predictable, and it never happens the same twice. This time for me, it started with the tail. I felt my spine enlongating and stretching, looking behind me, I saw a site that chilled me. Instead of growing skin over the bones that were becoming my tail, for a second, it was just bone, there was just a long bone tail sticking out of my butt.
    "EW!!! Gross!!!" I shouted, and willed with all my might that the skin and day-glo orange and yellow fur would be the next thing to come, Thankfully, my fur began to grow. First orange, and then yellow to fill in the patches that orange fur hadn't grown in.
    While I was suffering the extremely gross scene with my tail, I was also shrinking. When I was still about twice the size of the agb, I felt, and heard, my knees reverse directions. And, I saw my nose and mouth explode forward into the long rat like snout. Finally, just before the morph was complete, the agb's huge bulging eyes popped out of my still human eye sockets. The changes were complete.
    I watched the last few changes happen to my friends. Jordan got finished first. The others say that I'm the best morpher, that I have the ability to control the morph, if I do, I must not have been concerned about it during the morph. Probably because I was worried about the mission. I never liked having to resort to violence. They say that Jordan is the next best morpher, which was apparant this time. Nothing popped out suddenly, it just gradually grew.
    I watched as the eyes popped out of Tom's head, and imense, long whiskars sprouted out of Ritora's still growing snout.
    < Everybody alright? > Ritora asked once she had finished morphing. We were all used to the agb's instincts, but these little rodents had extremely strong instincts, and we never knew if we'd be able to control the instincts.
    < I'm ok. > I replied
    < Same here. > Tom agreed
    < I'm great, let's go. > Jordan said impatiently. She was always ready to go once she's morphed. Sometimes I get worried about her. It seems to me that she thinks that just because she's the youngest, she needs to act the bravest.
    We started running through the woods at top speed. Only stopping when Abata needed to catch his breath quick, which wasn't very often, or when we needed to stop and get our berrings so we'd know if we were still going the right way.
    We'd been running for about an hour and a half, getting ready to stop so we could de morph, when we came to the place Prince Aximili had shown us. We began to demorph as quietly as we could, making sure not to look at each other incase the morphing took a weird turn. We had to be absolutly silent.
    We peaked over a row of bushes. If you hadn't known what you were looking for, you probably wouldn't have noticed it.
    There were just a few work lights here and there so the yeerks could see what they were doing. Apparantly, they were digging a large tunnel into the ground. I had a sinking feeling I knew where that tunnel went.
    "Oh man! Tell me that that tunnel isn't going where I think it's going," Tom moaned.
    "Shut up, Tom," Ritora snapped at him, "Want to be forced to take a trip down that tunnel yourself?" We were all a bit tense, and when Ritora's tense, she gets snappy. "Guess we're gonna have to go fry some yeerks. How should we go about this?"
    We pulled back from the bushes a bit and sat down on the ground and talked in whispers.
    "I think we should use our shredders, blow those machines to smitherines, then start blasting some yeerks with that weapon." Jordan suggested
    "Why don't we just use our power morphs to destroy the machines?" I asked. I don't like weapons of any sort, and if we could do most of this mission with out weapons, I'd be happy.
    "Yeah, besides, we'd have to go to the base to get 'em. You know our parents won't let us keep the weapons in the house." Tom said.
    "Okay then. Morph your power morphs, Abata? You stay yourself. Set the weapon back here where it's safe so you can come join the battle. After we've stomped the machines, come back here and grab it and then follow us down." Ritora said heavily. None of us really likes fighting. Ritora and Jordan may pretend sometimes that they've always wanted to fight like our parents, but I know deep inside, they're both as scared as the rest of us are.
    We spread out since some of our morphs are quite large and we'd need lots of room to morph in. Abata stood by the bushes, watching the yeerks and providing cover for us.
    My power morph was a meader, a blue reptilian creature native to the Andalite homeworld. It had huge clawed feet, like a bird of prey, and slightly smaller arms. It usually walks on it's hind legs, but can go down on all fours when it's stalking prey.
    I concentrated on the morph. The first think that happened was my skin suddenly turned blue. Not a dark muted blue, but bright blue. Alot of animals here were brightly colored. As my skin changed colors, it began to get looser, like it was too big. With a sickening lurch my knees reversed direction. My mouth itched and tickled as my teeth grew larger, sharper and rearranged themselves.
    As the morph finished, I felt the meader's instincts rise up under my own mind. Since it was a predator, it didn't take over my own mind. I waited while the others finished morphing.
    < Hurry up you two! > Jordan said to Tom and Ritora. < I want to fry some yeerks! >
    < We're comin', kid, We're comin' > Tom said.
    < Abata, ready? >Ritora asked.
    < Yes, Prince Ritora, I am ready. > Abata said, reaching down to take the weapon.
    < Then lets go. >

Chapter 17

    We circled the area around the entrance to the pool. We made short work of the machinery. Apparantly the work crew had left already.
    < Okay, we don't exactly have to battle any Hork-Bajir to get down there, so how do you propose we get down, oh fearless leader? > Tom asked.
    < Abata would be able to get down no problem getting down there since they have Andalite controllers, but we'd be very noticable. > Jordan pointed out.
    < Did you guys aquire flies while on Earth? > I asked
    < Ew! Yuck! Of course not, Catara! > Jordan screeched.
    < Why would we have acquired bugs on Earth? > Ritora asked.
    < As flies we'd be able to ride on Abata down into the pool, hide, morph, and kick yeerk butt. > I said.
    < Everybody, demorph and try and grab a small bug. > Ritora ordered.
    < I've got a flea already, > Tom said, < Said it might come in handy sometime. >
    < Alright then, Catara, would you mind morphing the fly so me and Jordan can morph it? >Ritora asked me.
    "You two keep an eye on me, according to Mom, this guys instincts can be pretty strong," I warned.
    "No problem, sis," Tom said.
    Tom and Abata stood gaurd while me, Ritora and Jordan demorphed. I morphed the fly as fast as I could. I couldn't imagine that it'd be a very fun morph.
     Suddenly i was shrinking. Shrinking faster than I ever had before in a morph. When I was about 2 feet high still, two extra legs came exploding from my chest. I felt my skin get crispy, like I was being coted in black plastic. I was almost totally fly when the eyes came, and my face exploded into a complex mess of valves and a long sucking thing that the fly used to eat.
    I was unprepared for the fly's instincts. Suddenly, I was up off the ground and flying away. Before I got too far, I ran into a soft wall.
    < Catara, this is Abata. The morph has taken control over you, you need to reassert your individual conciousness, >
    I felt some vibrations in my antenae, I was barely able to interpret them, it was Tom. "What?!" he laughed, "is that andalitese for 'get a grip'?"
     < Yes >
    < Okay, whoevers got me, can let me go now. I've got ahold of myself. Ritora, Jordan, careful when you morph, this guys got powerful instincts, but man! Can it fly! >
    Whoever had been hindering my escape let go of me. I hovered in place untill I felt somebody else reach towards me. It took all of my will power not to fly away.
    "It's okay, Catara. It's me, Ritora,"
    Both she and Jordan acquired me. About 5 minutes later, we were ready to go down into the yeerk pool.

Chapter 18

    < Okay, everybody hop on the big blue guy, > Tom joked.
    We nervously rode on Abata's back down into the yeerk pool. I couldn't understand everything that was being shouted down in the pool. But I had a feeling I wouldn't like it once I could.
    Abata walked down the stairs with out drawing much attention. At least, he didn't draw any attention that I noticed, but then again, I was a fly.
    < Prince Ritora, we are behind one of the largest buildings. Are you ready to morph? >
    < Yeah, Abata, we are. >Ritora told him, not even bothering to ask Abata not to call her prince.
    We flew, or hopped in Tom's case, off Abata's back and demorphed. We immediatly began to morph into our battle morphs. We couldn't chance being seen as humans for even the smallest ammount of time. There were no more human controllers, and we'd be very noticable in our human bodies.
    "Good, I'm human again, being a flea was kind of creepy," Tom whispered.
    I concentrated on my morphing. This wasn't one of my favorite morphs. I mean, I like being big and everything, but I guess I take after my mom. I don't like morphing predators as much as I like morphing other animals. But, if I had to morph a predator, this was about the coolest you could get.
    Everyone started their various morphs. I went into my reptilian meader, Ritora started morphing her chatma,which looked like it was related to the sabre toothed cats of prehistoric Earth, Jordan started morphing a type of primate, a stanti,which looked almost like an Earth gorilla, but it had blades sticking out of it's elbows, knees, and knuckles, and was colored like an agb was, and Tom started morphing his battle morph. An animal that looked almost like an Earth wolf, but it had green fur and was about 10 times bigger. He had to crouch in order to not be seen.
    < Everybody finished? > Ritora asked.
    Everybody was.
    < Then lets do this! >

Chapter 19

    We all jumped out from behind the buildings at once. Letting out earth shaking roars as we jumped out.
    Abata ran our after we all had started fighting and started aiming the weapon at the controllers.
    < Prince Ritora! >
    < What is it, Abata? I'm kinda busy right now! > Ritora shouted back trying to fend off 3 or 4 Hork-Bajir.
     <The weapon seems to have no effect! >
    < Then get rid of it! Use your tail! >
    I was trying to fight off 5 Hork-Bajir at once while making my way to the cages that were near the pool. They were full of Hork-Bajir warriors. I fumbled with some of the locks, but I was losing conciousness fast. I was constantly being stabbed with Hork-Bajir blades.
    < Need some help, sis? >
    < Just a little, > I replied as Tom came up and started helping me bat away the Hork-Bajir. Once we had gotten rid of them, he stood behind me to fight of any more Hork-Bajir that tried to mess with me, since he didn't have hands that would be able to rip off the locks.
    I opened up five cages before Ritora ordered us to pull back. We had lost this battle.
    I didn't want to talk to the Hork-Bajir, if they figured out I didn't sound like an Andalite and they were recaptured, we'd be in serious trouble. So, I nudged them with my arms to signal that they should get out of the cages and run towards the nearest exit.
    I staggered towards one, almost collapsing from the pain of my wounds, but I managed to make it out.
    We lumbered out of the yeerk pool. We had all sustained serious wounds, but it looked like mine were the most serious. I barely got beyond the treeline where I collapsed and had to demorph. Everyone else started to demorph too.
    "Well, we majorly got our butts kicked." Tom commented.
    "Thank you, Mr. Optimistic,"Jordan muttered.
    "Not totally. We showed the yeerks that they are definetly going to have a hard time taking this world," I said, "We showed them that we are not going down with out a fight."