Animorphs: The Second Coming

#6 New Solutions

By: Forlay

Chapter 1

    My name's Catara-Fitalia-Goroara. But you can call me Catara, or, as some people here on Earth call me, Cat.
    Because of a Sario Rip, a rip in space-time, my twin brother, Tom, and my cousins once removed (or something real close to that) Ritora-Fuloa-Maheen (Called Ritora or Tori on Earth) and Jordan, we were all in the past, to the time our parents were our age. And we'd been careless.
    We were in a building with major Yeerk security, trying to get to the top floor where we could shut down a system the Yeerks were trying to implement so they could take over Earth's satellites and send subliminal messages through TV and stuff. Unfortunatly, we had to morph to get there, and we'd gotten way too close to the two hour limit, so we were currently in a room, with a small Yeerk Pool, and half a doezen human controllers armed to the teeth.
    The others say Jordan and I are the best morphers,I hoped I could make use of that talent now. As we morphed at top speed, I concentrated on controlling the morph. Not to look cool, but to keep the grossness factor to a minimum. I didn't need to have human legs come popping out of my stomache causing everyone to scream while we were in a room full of Controllers.
    As I shrank, a wave of pink spread down, leaving me the size of a two year old and hot pink. My legs and arms thinned and bent, becoming spindly artichan legs. My eyes were blind for a moment, then suddenly I could see again, in the weird mis-matched colors the artichan sees, but it was better than being blind.
    Finally, when the morph was nearly complete, fully formed artichan legs slowly grew from my chest and stomache.
    I used my keen vision to watch my friends finish morphing. Cassie and Jordan were both finished morphing already, we're all natural estreens.
    As I watched, Rachel's long blond hair was sucked into her fly head. Jake's eyes suddenly balooned out, forming huge compound dragon fly eyes.
    From under the door leading into the bathroom, Ax flew in, fully fly. He had to morph in there since we could crouch down and stay in the shaddows as we morphed, but he couldn't.
    Out of the corner of one eye, I saw a flicker of movement. I turned so I could see better.
    < Uh-oh,> I moaned. <Ritora! >
    She turned to face me, < What? Oh crap! Tom! CAtara! Get under that cabinet NOW! >
    I scurried under the cabinet after Ritora and Tom and hoped I wouldn't be seen.
    See, a controller had chosen that moment to turn around. We were all morphed, thankfully, but Tom, Ritora and I were all in morphs that were definetly not from this area of the galaxy.
    < What's wrong? > Jake asked. He hadn't seen what we had.
    < Controller looking this way! > Ritora shouted. < Spread out! Jake, Marco, I'm not positive, but I don't think you guys hang out in office buildings. We're under the cabinet. >
    A moment later, a spider as large as me hurried under the cabinet. < Oh, mand, that is not a nice looking bug...whoever you are. >
    < Thanks alot, Marco, > I said. Just then, Jake jerkily marched under the cabinet to join our party.
    < Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, Ax, Jordan! Where are you? > Jake asked.
    < I'm on the window sill, I think, > Jordan answered.
    < You are, > Tobias confirmed. < Rachel and I are up here, too. >
    < I am on the cabinet, Prince Jake. >
    < Cassie? > Jake called again.
    < I'm here. I'm on one of the dracon beams. >
    < THAT'S a safe place to be, > Tom said sarcastically.
    < How do we get out of here without being seen? > I asked.
    < Distract them? > Rachel mused. < I could morph my bear-- >
    Ax cut her off. < Prince Jake, perhaps I should demorph and give them an Andalite to chase. >
    < Rachel has the right idea. But demorphing and then having the controllers chase you is too risky. >
    < Then what do we do? > Jordan demanded.
    < Ritora, Catara, whoever knows more about whatever you call that bug, you think you could out run these guys? >
    < Catara? > Ritora asked me. I'm sort of the un-official animal expert of the group. Mom loves to learn about the Andalite animals, and she'd gotten me interested.
    I thought for a moment, < Yeah, we could. >
    < Alright then. One of you three run out there and distract the controllers while the rest of us get up in the ceiling. Once we're up there, you follow, okay? >
    < Who's going? > Tom asked. < It sure won't be me. >
    < I'll go, > I volunteered.
    That surprised everyone. < You sure? > Ritora asked me privately. We're best friends and she knows I"m not nearly as brave as her and Jordan.
    < Yeah, > I said. < I'm sure. I'm the only one who knows what this morph is capable of. >
    < Okay, > she said grudgingly. < Be careful, and good luck. >
    < You too, > I said to her. Then, to the entire group, < Be ready to run, or fly, whatever. I'm going in. >

Chapter Two

    I ran out from under the safety of the cabinet and into view of the controllers. No one saw me.
    I ran in circles a few times, but to no avail. < What's with these guys? > I asked myself. < Don't go anywhere yet, > I warned. < These guys are practically blind. >
    I ran around in circles like an idiot for a minute more before deciding that drastic measures must be taken. I gathered up my courage, and ran over one of the guards shoes.
    "What the...What is that?!" He yelled.
    < Okay, they see me! Go! Go! Go! >
    "Step on it!"
    "Shoot it!"
    "No, you idiots! Catch it! It must be one of the Andalite bandits! That's no Earth bug!"
    < Catara! Get out of there! > Ritora shouted. < We're all up here! >
    I was running in and out of feet in intricate patterns, hoping that I wasn't running under a foot, when I surprised them and jumped onto the wall.
    I climbed up the wall, avoiding calwing hands, and into the vent where everyone was waiting. < Ritora? > I said once I was up, < Don't EVER let me volunteer for something like that again! >
    Ritora laughed, Tom sighed. < I'll be sure to stop you. See, in this little group, we have roles to play. I'm the wonderfully charming, witty one, Jordan's the annoying kid who wants to follow in her mother's footsteps, Ritora is our fearless-slash-reckless leader, and you're the calm, sensible one. >
    < I'll keep that in mind. >
    We started walking and flying through the air duct again, Cassie leading the way.
    < Um, guys? > She said after five minutes or so. < I think we found it. >
    < Where? > Rachel asked.
    < Up here, through this vent. >
    One by one, we dropped down through the vent.
    < Anybody in here? > Tobias asked.
    I looked around, < Nope. >
    < Okay. Everybody demorph, > Jake said.
    As quick as I could, I demorphed. I'm not too fond of bug morphs of any king, but I'd been too petrified for most of this mission to worry about how much I hated the morph.
    "Whoa," I said as I finished demorphing and looked around the room. "This is major."
    The others had the same reaction.
    The room was wall to wall computers. You ever see old pictures of that place called Mission Control that was used on Earth to lauch space ships? Well, imagine all those computers shoved into a space the size of a classroom. You might just get an idea as to how this room looked.
    "Ax? Any idea how we can access this thing?" Jake asked.
    Ax walked over to a console and began running his weak hands over it. After a few minutes, he walked away in disgust.
    < I'm sorry, Prince Jake, but I could only access the most simple commands. >
    "Don't call me Prince," Jake said automatically. "Like what?"
    < What this facility is for. >
    "And that would be...?" Rachel asked impatiently.
    Ax walked back to the computer and typed a few things in. < This facility is for, "The advancement of the Yeerk Empire's rightful place on the planet Earth by using the human's primitive satellite system and sending what the humans call subliminal messages through various forms of their communication." >
    And you can't get in to scramble the code or something?" Marco asked.
    "Here, let me try," Tom said, pulling a chair up to one of the computer stations.
    < What makes you think-- > Ax started, sounding as if Tom had insulted him.
    "We have access to more advanced computer than you," I said gently. "If it's possible to crack the code on that computer, Tom can."
    "Yeah, I hate to admit it, but he does seem to have a talent for computers," Jordan said.
    "Ah-ha!" Tom said suddenly. "We're in!"
    "Shut up, you idiot!" Ritora hissed, walking up behind him, "You want every controller in this building to hear you?"
    "Sorry," Tom said, lowering his voice slightly, "But we're in! I've got access to all their files! You guys have got to see this!"
    We all crowded around Tom. Jordan and Ritora right next to him since they know alot about computers, too. Marco was near the screen too. Rachel, with Tobias on her shoulder, and Jake were trying to see. Cassie and I hung back a little, we're not that much into computers, but we made sure we could see.
    Ax stayed out of the group. I think he was insulted that a mere human cracked a Yeerk code that even he couldn't decipher.
    "is there any way to shut down the system?" Jake asked.
    "Wait," Rachel said before Tom could answer. "What's the best way to make Visser Three look bad? Make it look like a computer erroe? Or that he let the "Andalite Bandits" get the best of him again?"
    The answer was unanimous.

Chapter Three

    "Tom? Is it possible to, I don't know, download some information off of there?" Jake asked. After the vote, he jumped right into the same leader mode that Ritora has. The two of them may be only distantly related, but they definetly come from the same family.
    Tom looked around the room for a moment then pulled a disk out of a drawer. "Yep."
    "Okay, Marco, help him find some stuff that'll help us. Every one else? Battle morphs." He turned to Ritora, "You guys do have battle morphs, right?"
    She rolled her eyes. "Of course we do."
    I closed my eyes and concentrated on my meader morph.
    My skin grew pbbly and became loose, like it was too big for me. I grew taller, up to about seven feet! My knees reversed direction and my feet split apart to form huge talons.
    From behind me, a lean tail grew. My nose and mouth surged forward, forming a blunt snout. My vision grew slightly weaker while my hearing and sense of smell intensified.
    The final change was my coloring. My normally dark tan skin, which was now rough, turned a shocking blue.
    < Yah! That thing is huge! > Jake said as soon as he could thought speak.
    Cassie looked at each of us, < Well, those certainly are battle morphs. >
    She was right. Ritora's chatma was our swiftest and one of the most deadly morphs we had, with it's saber fangs and spiked tail. Jordan's kear looked like a cross between a gorilla and a Hork-Bajir. her fur was day-glo orange, and she had blades at her elbows, knees and knuckles. The first signs of Tom's vuri morph were starting to show. It hadn't taken long for him and Marco to find the necesary information. He was begining to turn a shocking green and grow fur.
    < Let's do some damage! > Ritora shotued. She surprised the Animorphs, she'd been really responsible so far. But then again, we hadn't had a fight during our entire stay. Ritora's very responsible, untill it comes to a battle. Like mother, like daughter.
    < Got the disk, Tom? > Jake asked.
    As Tom finished morphing, he drew back his lips, revealing a plastic disk between his dozens of sharp teeth. < Yep. >
    < Okay, do as much damage as you can in a short ammount of time. We dont' want to fight of bunch of Hork-Bajir if we can help it. >
    < Yeah, yeah, > Rachel said restlessly, then reared up so she was as tall as I was and brought one of her powerful claws down on a computer screen.
    "Warning. Warning. Enemy penetration in computer room."
    < What was that? > Jordan asked while she was using her knuckle blades to tear the guts out of a computer.
    < An alarm! > Cassie answered. < Hurry! We need to get out of here! >
    I joined in, using my clawed feet to rip pieces of the computers into shreds, but before I could do much damage a tail blade was at my throat.
    < I see you've brought in reinforcements. >

Chapter Four

    < Visser Three! > The Animorphs said while I was still trying to figure out what was going on.
    < Did you really think we were unprepared for an attack by you? Although I must admit that we weren't anticipating and extra four of you, especially in native Andalite morphs, > he turned his stalk eyes to Ritora, < Especially yours. I've always had an attraction to cat-like morphs. You new Andalites are very brave indeed, but you're stay here on Earth is going to be a short one. > He pressed his blade to my throat so blue blood began to ooze out. < And I believe your stay will be the shortest-- >
    < NO! > Cassie shouted as she leaped forward.
    With Visser Three distracted, I pulled my head away from his tail and swung my tail forward to trip him. I couldn't kill him, that'd alter the time line way too much, but I could hurt him.
    < Catara, you alright? > Ritora asked.
    < Yeah, I think so. But I gotta demorph soon. >
    < We will be. Tom, Jordan! Get out of the fight! If they kill him, fine, but we can't. Jake, we've gotta bail. >
    < What?! Why?! > he shouted.
    < Catara's gotta demorph, and we can't be involved in this fight. >
    < You guys got a bird morph? > he asked.
    < Yeah. >
    < Then go. Wait for us outside. >
    < Will do. Guys, behind that desk over there. Demorph! >
    I stumbled over to the desk. At first glance, my wound wasn't all that bad, but the meader has an extremely fast metabolism, cause it's heart to beat faster and more blood to be pumped out of a wound.
    As I demorph, I felt my strength returning. I took a few deep breaths and began morphing the peregrine falcoln I'd acquired from Dad when this fight with the Yeerks had all started back home.
    As the last part of the morph, my head, completed, the Animorphs lept behind the table and started to demorph.
    < What happened? > I asked.
    < Visser Three's calling for back up and we're hauling butt outta here! > Marco said as his human features emerged.
    "You guys get out of here, we'll be right behind you," Jake ordered.
    Ritora in her huge bald eagle morph, Jordan and Tom in identicle osprey morphs, me as a peregrine falcoln and Tobias in her normal form, flew out the window, which had been broken while we were trying to destroy the computer.
    < Hurry up, guys! > Tobias shouted as we flew in circles around the window. < The Hork-Bajir are almost up! >
    Just then, Cassie joined us in her osprey morph, followed by Rachel, Marco, Jake and Ax.
    Jake blew past us. < We gotta bail! The-- >
    TSEEW! TSEEW!
    < Whoa! > I said, rolling out of the way of the dracon beams. < Yep, we gotta bail! >
    We all flapped above the building and soared away from there as fast as we could.
    < So. How long 'till we need ta' get back to your classes? > I asked as I flapped along. The others could soar easily, but Jake and I were the smallest of the group so we had to flap alot more.
    < Oh, shoot! > Jake moaned. < We need to be there about five minutes ago! Hurry, demorph behind that office building right there. We can walk back over to meet our classes from there. >
    One by one we swooped down behind the building and demorphed as fast as we could, except for Tobias, who morphed to his human form.
    "This is nice," Jordan said once we were all morphed. "But what are we going to do about clothes? They're all still back at that McDonald's."
    "Rachel, you figure out how to morph a credit card yet?" Marco joked.
    She rolled her eyes. "How far are we from that McDonald's?"
    Jake ran around the building quick to see what street we were on. "Um, we're about a block down from it."
    We all jogged down the street to the ally behind McDonald's. Well, Ax and Tobias stayed behind. Ax because he could barely walk, let alone run, and Tobias to make sure he didn't get into trouble.
    We quickly pulled on our clothes, and brought Tobias' and Ax's back to them, then we all ran back to meet the teachers.
    "And just where have you been?" Ms. Parker asked Rachel, Cassie, Ritora and I once we were back.
    "Sorry, Ms. Parker. We were side tracked and lost track of time," Rachel appologized. Ms. Parker snorted and muttered something under her breath before walking away.
    We quietly followed our tour guides through the old building. I wasn't paying much attention, Mom and Dad had already tought me what I needed to know about Earth history. I don't think Rachel or Cassie were paying much attention either.
    After an extremely long and boring tour, we all piled onto the bus, after making a quick bathroom break allowing Jordan, Tobias and Ax to remorph, and started home.

Chapter Five

    "We almost back yet?" I complained. "I'm tired." Judging by the looks on Ritora's and Tom's faces, I wasn't alone.
    "You're tired?" Rachel asked. "How can you be tired?"
    "Simple," I explained, "I just am."
    "I think it's an after effect of the morphing," Ritora explained while stiffling a yawn. We all looked at her, waiting for an explanation. "I talked to Abata before he left. He'd talked to Pr--I mean, Ax here, and he said that along with the weird morphing, we got tired easier after morphing."
    < So it's the morphing rather than the late night missions that makes us tired, > Jordan said from her perch on my knee. She'd gotten used to the fly sense so she could join in our conversation.
    "Exactly," Ritora agreed.
    "Ax, how much longer do you guys have in morph?" Jake asked.
    < Approximatly 42 of your minutes, Prince Jake, > he answered.
    "They're everybody's stinkin' minutes, Ax!" Marco nearly shouted. Rachel sent him a death glared to get him to shut up, while Cassie giggled. Marco lowered his voice, "Seriously, Ax. We've had this conversation before, they are everybody's minute! We all use the exact same minute on Earth. Every sixty seconds equals a minute. And, since you're in the middle of an extended vacation here, you might as well start using local time!"
    "Anyways, you guys have plenty of time in morph. We won't have to stop before we get home," Jake said, ignoring Marco, just like we all do back in our own time.
    "What do you four wanna do when we get back?" Cassie asked.
    "Sleep?" Tom suggested from his seat next to Marco. He leaned against the window and closed his eyes.
    Marco elbowed him, "I don't think so. As long as you're here you need to sample some real American culture. You guys have spent, what, all of one week on Earth? You guys must be as bad as Ax here when it comes to real important cultural stuff."
    "So what do you suggest, Marco?" Ritora asked.
    "Who's up for some 'net surfing?"
    < Shouldn't we be working on getting them home? > Tobias asked.
    "Why don't we wait 'till tomorrow?" Tom asked, his eyes still closed. "I wanna sleep."
    "I agree, Dude," a guy sitting in front of Tom said, "This trip was boring."
    "What's ' 'net surfing' ?" I asked.
    Marco hit his head, "That's it. We're going to the library. You guys need to expirience some culture."
    < You go ahead and take them, Marco. I've gotta get back to my meadow. And I don't think it'd be exactly fair to the people studying there to make them put up with Ax, > Tobias said.
    "I better go just to make sure you don't fill their heads with garbage," Rachel said.
    "I'll go, but I have to do some studying, so I'll leave "protecting" them to you, Rachel," Cassie said.
    "Sorry, I've got homework to catch up on," Jake said.
    "Fine, I can show them the finer points of American culture by myself," Marco said.
    "Not by yourself, I'm gonna be there to make sure you don't get carried away," Rachel said protectively.
    Once the bus reached the school we all piled out. Jake started walking home, a few minutes later a red tailed hawk and a harrier started flying in the direction of the woods. Once Jordan had demorphed, we followed Cassie, Rachel and Marco to the library.

Chapter Six

    "This is the internet," Marco explained to us. I looked at the images on the computer screen, something called "Netscape Netcenter". Whatever. It didn't mean anything to me.
    Ding Dong
    "What was that?" Jordan asked.
    Marco calmly used his mouse to guide his cursor to a yellow figure that looked slightly like a person, it was flashing. "Instant Messanger," he said.
    "That would be...what?" Ritora asked.
    On the screen a blue box popped up with writing in it, I read it to myself:BBallGr124:Hey, Studly. Long time no chat!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Rachel looked over from her computer next to Marco's and laughed at BBallGr124's message. "Studly?" she asked. "Whatever happened to being the fifth Baldwin brother, or whatever?"
    Marco ignored her and started typing back to BBallGr124:
    Studly: Hey, BBallGr124. Yeah, been busy with homework.~yuck~
    BBallGr124:LOL. I'm on Spring Break. :-D
    Studly:Oh, shuuuuut up already!
    I was confused. "Marco, I don't understand a word either of you are saying...er...typing."
    Marco shook his head and started pointing to things on his screen. "This little squigly line thing means that whatever is between the two of them is an action. LOL means 'Laughing Out Loud', basically, she was laughing at me because of my homework--"
    "Ooh! I gotta meet this girl! Anyone who laughs at you can't be all bad," Rachel said, looking up from her conversation.
    "As I was saying, the colon, dash and capital 'D' make a sort of laughing face."
    I looked over at Rachel's screen. She was in something I later found out to be a chat room. In it, several people could have a conversation.
    Gymnastix: Hey, everybody!!!
    Mike-ale: Hey, Gym!!!!! Where ya' been?
    Elkanon: Yeah, where ya' been?
    Gymnastix: Been busy with gymnastics stuff. We just had a competition thing, so coach had a slew of practices.
    *********** Buckwheat enters the chat***********
    Mike-ale:Hey, Buckwheat!
    Elkanon: Welcome, Buckwheat
    Gymnastix: Good ta' see ya' again, Buckwheat.
    Buckwheat: Gymnastix! I didn't expect to see you here!!!!! Hey, Elk, Mike.
    Gymnastix:~sigh~ Can we please get over that? I've been in here for five minutes, and all you people have said is "Where ya' been?" or "Long time no chat with!" It's getting old, people.
    "What can you do on here besides talk?" Tom asked. He was fascinated by all this.
    "Hold on," Marco said. He clicked a small line in the corner of his conversation with BBallGr124 so that it shrank down to nothing, then in a box with more typing in it, he typed what's called a URL. "http://www.yahoo.com," he muttered to himself as he typed. "Here ya' go, Yahoo. One of the better search engines out there." Before any of us could ask what a search engine was, he explained, "Type in what you want to search for, and it finds a bunch of sites for you on that subject. What're you guys interested in?"
    "How about the Salem Witch Trials?" Cassie asked, pulling up a chair next to Rachel.
    "Witch Trials?" Jordan asked.
    Cassie shook her head, "Long story. Anyways, can ya' check it out for me, Marco?"
    Marco clicked in another small box and typed 'Salem Witch Trials'. A moment later, another screen popped up with a bunch of 'links', which were underlined in blue.
    "Okay, to visit one of these sites, you just click on the blue part. See?" he demonstrated, and a few moments later, we were taken to a different 'page'.
    "Cool," Ritora said. But obviously she was more interested in Rachel's conversation.
    We visted some other pages. Marco was floored by how little we knew about '90's pop culture. So, we visited web sites on his favorite bands, many which I had heard of before, finally found out what 'Nintendo' and 'Sega' and 'Doom' were. Marco talked about them alot in our time, but never really got what they were.
    Rachel typed a few more things on her computer, then pushed back. "I've gotta get home. You coming, Ri--I mean, Tori?" Tori was Ritora's "human" sounding name, mine's Cat.
    "Sure. See ya' guys tomorrow," Ritora said, standing up.
    "Feel free to come over to my house if Marco starts trying to torture you three, okay?" Rachel said to us.
    "We'll be fine, Mom," Jordan said, then quickly put her hand over her mouth, as if she'd said something embarrasing. Whenever somebody tries to get protective of her, Jordan comes back with something sarcastic, usually calling them 'Mom' or 'Dad'. This time, there was a ring of truth to it.
    "Um, bye," Ritora said, and quickly walked out of the library, Rachel on her heels.
    "I'd better be getting home, too," Cassie said, picking up her pile of books. "Cat? Jordan? You coming?"
    "Yeah," I said, standing up. Jordan stood up, reluctantly. Obviously more interested in playing on the computers than going to Cassie's.
    "See ya', Tom," I said as I walked out with Cassie.
    "What? No good bye for me?" Marco whined.
    I sighed, " 'Bye, Marco."
    Under her breath, Jordan added, "And good ridence."

Chapter Seven

    "Cassie? Cat? Jordan? that you, girls?" Cassie's mom asked as we walked into the house.
    "Yeah, Mom, it's us," Cassie shouted back.
    "Where have you girls been? It's nearly five o'clock!" Cassie's mom said, walking into the living room where we were standing.
    "Sorry, Mom. I had to get some books for a school thing, and I dragged Cat and Jordan with me," Cassie appologized.
    "It's alright. You three get washed up, we're eating dinner early tonight."
    We washed up and headed back down for dinner. Cassie's dad had made his "Chili of Doom", so we were all very wary of it, but it actually wasn't as bad as Cassie had warned.
    "So, Cat, Jordan, how are you two enjoying your stay here in town?" Cassie's dad asked while we were eating desert, ice cream sundaes.
    I shrugged, "It's pretty cool." Jordan nodded in agreement.
    Cassie excused us from the table soon after we finished eating. We had a meeting out in the barn with the others, planning how to get us home.
    We walked in right in the middle of an arguement between everybody, even my brother and Ritora. Who deserved the Xena title more, Ritora or Rachel?
    I put my head in my hands, "Somehow, I think we need to get back to our time as soon as possible, just to end this stupid arguement. It's much better when Rachel's too old to be called Xena."
    I didn't think anybody had heard me, but Marco had. "Too old? Hah! I can't wait 'till that happens!" Rachel dumped a handful of hay on his head, which got a laugh out of everyone and stopped the arguement.
    < So, how we gonna get these four home? > Tobias asked, from up in the rafters.
    "Any ideas, Ax?" Jake asked.
    "It sounds-ounds-zuh, sounds like a Sario Rip. Rip-uh."
    "Thank you, oh brilliant one," Tom mocked. "We figured that much out when we first came here!"
    "Sorry, orry. Can you please-ease, tell me what-tuh happened right-tuh before you came here-ere?"
    "We were on an old, obsolete...fighter, was it?" I asked.
    "Modified fighter," Tom answered. "Most of the weapons were taken out, leaving only a few really old shredders, and the quarters were expanded."
    "Okay, so we were on a modified fighter for a joy ride, thanks to my ever so bright brother. Up there, while we're just minding our own business when a Blade Ship appears, they shoot, we shoot, and next thing I know, I'm flat on my back in the middle of the forrest here, wondering why Rachel here is looking like she's going to rip my throat out," I finished. "No offense," I added to Rachel.
    She laughed, "None taken. But here's a question: What happened to your fighter?"
    "And the pilot," Jordan added. "I think you guys would have noticed another Andalite when you found us."
    "Were you and the pilot in the same immediate area? mmmeeediate.Ate."
    "Um...no, not really," Ritora said. "When we saw the Blade Ship start to fire, we threw ourselves to the other end of the bridge, away from the electronic stuff, but the pilot stayed at the helm and weapons consoles, trying to get us out of there and fire at the same time."
    "Then I believe I have a hypothesis. Buh-leive. Eve."
    "That would be....what?" Marco encouraged.
    "The time at which the Sario Rip effect occured was minutely different for you and your pilot. Lot. Not a great difference, but enough to send you to different places or times. But, whenever one of you resolves the Rip, both groups shall be returned to the correct time."
    "So. How do we fix this then?" I asked.

Back to Journal
Back to FFAP