Hi, I'm Jessie. I can't tell you
my last name. Or where I live. Or anything else about me.
If I did the Yeerks would be able to find me and my friends. And
we don't want them to find us. It's bad enough that we're protecting
my friend Colleen. See, she used to be a controller but then she
accidentally killed Janice and got in big trouble. So once we had
freed her the yeerks were after her even more.
Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
First of all, we means me, Theresa, Susie, Colleen and Sara. I have
brown hair, blue eyes, and most of the time I wear jeans, overalls, or
leggings with a skirt. I love shopping and am very particular about
how I look. I mean, I always make sure my hair isn't messy and my
cloths don't look babyish. My favorite animal is a cat and I seriously
don't like dogs, which is strange because I like every other animal (even
insects like spiders or cockroaches). I especially like birds.
Theresa is my best friend and has been
for 4 ½ years. She has brown hair, brown eyes, and most of
the time she wears jeans. She doesn't care how she looks and she
actually likes dogs! She's really smart and takes advanced math class
too. And she doesn't go shopping as much as I do.
Susie is my twin sister. Amazingly
we like all of the same stuff, look exactly alike, and never get into fights.
I think maybe she could be my real twin sister.
Colleen is also my best friend and has
been for 5-6 years. She has blond hair and most of the time she wears
jeans. She, like me, loves shopping and cares how she looks.
She likes both cats and dogs. She the one who used to be a controller.
Now we need to protect her from the yeerks.
And Sara is a girl stuck in red-tailed
hawk morph.
The yeerks are a race of parasitic slugs
that crawl inside you brain and make you into a controller. That's
what Colleen used to be. And Susie too. And Sara. But
we freed them all and now they're part of the team.
Even though Colleen can't morph she's
still part of the team. But now that she knows our secrets we have
to protect her. We can't let her get captured again. Though
sometimes I wish we could. Sometimes it seems like she tries to get
in trouble.
Chapter 2
It was early in the morning on Monday and
already things weren't going well.
"Susie, why are you trying to eat paint?"
I asked. It was art class and we were painting. And for some
strange reason Susie was trying to eat paint.
"It was a dare," she replied.
"Who dared you to?" I asked.
"Colleen," she answered. I stormed
across the room to where Colleen was sitting.
"Hi," I said. "I was just wondering why
Susie is trying to eat paint."
"Because I dared her to," she replied.
See, I told you the day wasn't starting off that well.
The next period was gym class.
"Susie, why did you lick a basketball?"
I asked.
"It was a dare," She replied.
"Who dared you to?" I asked.
"Colleen," she answered. I stormed
over to where Colleen was shooting hoops.
"Hi," I said. "I was just wondering why
Susie licked a basketball."
"Because I dared her to," she replied.
Next class, science. We were in
ecology.
"Susie, why did you eat a seed?" I asked.
"It was a dare," She replied.
"Who dared you to?" I asked.
"Colleen," she answered. I stormed
over to where Colleen was working.
"Hi," I said. "I was just wondering why
Susie ate a seed."
"Because I dared her to," she replied.
Next class, reading.
"Susie, why did you eat a piece of paper?"
I asked.
"It was a dare," She replied.
"Who dared you to?" I asked.
"Colleen," she answered. I stormed
over to where Colleen was reading a book.
"Hi," I said. "I was just wondering why
Susie ate a piece of paper."
"Because I dared her to," she replied.
Next class, lunch. Finally!
Chapter 3
Recess was when the trouble started.
See, at recess I normally play with the kindergarten. We all do.
But this time we had something else to do. We were playing with the
kindergarten when we noticed the shadow of a bird on the ground.
Elizabeth, my buddy, noticed it first.
"Look!" she cried and pointed to the sky.
There, just above us, was a red-tailed hawk. Sara, to be exact.
< Sorry to bother you Jess, but we
have a little problem here. And if you don't hurry Amanda isn't going
to be Amanda much longer. So tell the others, > Sara said.
She used closed thought-speak so noone else could hear. Thought-speak
is the way you communicate when you're in a morph. You can use open
thought-speak so every one can here, or you can direct it to only one person.
< Go get the others, and hurry! >
she said. I went over to Theresa and was about to tell her when I
noticed Liz right next to me. (Liz is Elizabeth's nickname.)
"Um, Liz? Can I talk to Theresa
for a minute?" I asked her. She nodded.
"Um, in private?" I said.
She frowned but backed away. But only a few feet. I thought
she wouldn't be able to overhear.
"That was Sara flying overhead.
She said we need to morph and get in school fast or Amanda isn't going
to be Amanda much longer. Meaning we're gonna need to ditch the KG
and get to school fast," I whispered.
"OK," she replied. I went over to
Liz. I hated having to do this. I wished I could bring her
along. I wished she was part of the team. But I knew she wasn't.
"Look Liz, I have to go for a while.
OK? But don't worry, I'll come back," I said. 'I hope'
I muttered under my breath.
"OK," Liz sighed. We met up inside
the garage that is in the KG area. Me, Theresa, Susie, and Colleen.
"Alright now, lets morph." I said.
By the way, I never really told you how we morph S.H. I mean, you
don't know what we say. Am I confusing you? Then let me explain.
You know how the Power Rangers or Beetle Borges say something before they
morph. Well we do that too. I know this may sound stupid but
it was Sara who programmed our watches. We say "Megamorph power up."
I told you it was stupid. But don't blame me, it was Sara's idea.
Anyway, we morphed and were about to head
for school when we made a discovery. A BIG Discovery.
Chapter 4
"Uh, guys? I think we have company.
And that company just saw us morph," I said. Lurking in the darkness,
just by the door, was Elizabeth.
"Man, we don't have time for this!"
Theresa moaned. "I bet Amanda's already a controller!"
"OK, then, you guys go ahead and I'll
deal with Liz," I said. "And Susie better stay with me too, or else
she might end up eating something disgustingly gross." The others
agreed. They all teleported except for Susie and Theresa.
"By the way who died and made you leader?"
She mocked.
"Ha, ha. Very funny. Now go!"
I urged.
Theresa finally gave up and teleported.
I was all alone in some sort of a garage or something. There was
a big tractor over at one part of the room and hiding behind it was Liz.
I slowly crept over, and she slunk back into the shadows. But for
some strange reason, I think she was actually afraid of me. I crept
closer and closer, and she kept backing up.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "I'm not
going to hurt you." But still she kept backing up. Every time
I would get about an inch closer, she would back up pretty far, until finally
she had her back against the wall. I had her cornered, but I'm not
sure that I was really glad about that. "Are you afraid of me?" I
asked her. She nodded. She wasn't talking very much.
I think she was pretty scared. "Look," I said, "I need to get going,
so we can't settle this right now. You want to come help?"
She thought for a minute, and then nodded. Liz and I made up a plan.
It wasn't too complicated and Liz didn't have a big part in it. She
couldn't since the yeerks didn't even know that she knew anything about
them.
"Ready?" I asked her.
"Yep, let's go," she said. We had
gathered up stuff like rope and made slingshots out of some wood that was
lying around. There was tools and nails so the slingshots were easy
to make. We also made a bow and arrow for both Liz and me.
This was the plan: you know that trapdoor
up above the yeerk pool. It was still open. I would teleport
Liz up there and she could use her sling shot and arrows from there.
We would kind of ambush them. I would teleport down below and surprise
them. Liz also would have the rope up there so when we had Amanda
we could pull her up there where she would be safe.
The plan was made and we were ready.
Chapter 5
When we got down there, there was a battle
going on. Liz was up in the passageway above us and I was down below.
I found Theresa and told her the plan. She found and told Colleen,
who found and told Susie. Susie teleported up to where Liz was and
Colleen hid behind some cages.
See, when they make you into a controller
they either take you against your will or you can be a voluntary host.
That means you can volunteer to be a controller. And believe it or
not, some people agree to let an alien slug control them. The people
who are taken against their will are kept in cages while their yeerk is
in the yeerk pool.
Any way, Theresa got Amanda and brought
her to me. Then Theresa fought off anyone who decided to come after
me while I brought Amanda over to where Susie and Liz lowered the rope.
Not too far away Theresa was still holding
them back but she was getting tired and the yeerks were winning.
I told Amanda to tie the rope around her waist, then I gave the signal.
Susie and Liz pulled her up then Susie teleported into position, and Liz
told Amanda the plan. Amanda found a good place to hide and so did
I. The yeerks didn't know where we had gone. I waited until
they were in just the right spots then,
"Now!" I yelled. We jumped
out of our hiding spots and attacked. Liz and Amanda got in a few
good shots but they missed. I tried and took down a Hork-Bajir on
the first try. Susie took down a few human-controllers and so did
Colleen and Theresa but only me, Amanda, and Liz could stop the Hork-Bajir.
We were actually winning the battle! Maybe that's why the Animorphs
never won that battle down at the yeerk pool that time. Because they
weren't doing it the right way. Maybe the key to winning battles
is ambushing them.
But something was wrong. They were
losing too easily. They were letting us win, but I don't know why
they would. But I was just about to find out why they were letting
us win. Over in the corner of the room something started growing.
It looked like a monster or something. That's what it was - a real
live monster. You know like those monsters that we make up in books
or see on TV. It looked like something you would see on "Are You
Afraid of the Dark" or "Goose Bumps." That's when the whole plan
blew up in our face. Liz screamed, Amanda ran, Susie wet her pants,
Colleen and Theresa teleported and I shot an arrow at him. Don't
ask why, I just got scared, which wasn't the brightest thing I ever did.
Then he was right on top of me practically!
Chapter 6
I didn't know what to do. I was
about to turn and run but then he fell back and slid across the room, like
someone had pushed him. I looked around just in time to see Liz jump
through the Trapdoor and land on her feet just like a cat! Visser
Three got up and tried to come after her. She kinda glowed for a
minute then zapped him again. He flew across the room and rammed
into a wall. The whole underground cavern started to shake, and crack.
It was gonna cave in, and we were still inside! Worst of all the
bell had rung and everyone was in the school! The others weren't
safe either, they were in the school and weren't morphed.
"LIZ!!!" I cried just as the ground
gave way and the school came crashing down on top.
When I woke up I found I had demorphed,
but that was impossible because the only way I could have demorphed was
if my watch had come off. I looked down, and found my watch was missing!
I sat up and looked around. The ambulance and fire truck were parked
nearby and the news station was there too. The yeerk pool was completely
destroyed and there was no sign of Visser Three anywhere.
"Liz? Susie? Where are you!"
I cried suddenly noticing that they were nowhere. I tried to get
up but my leg was hurt bad. I noticed my leg was pinned down by a
big piece of wood.
"Susie? Liz?" I called again.
It would take a while for the paramedics and fire fighters to find where
I was. There was desks and bricks and tables and all sorts of stuff
all around. I heard someone nearby.
"Hello?" I called. A fire
fighter came over and helped me get out. I tried to walk but couldn't.
"Where's my sister? Where's Susie?
Where's Elizabeth?" I asked franticly. I looked around but
they were nowhere!
"Liz? Susie?" I called again.
"Calm down," the fire fighter said.
"What does your friends look like?"
"Well, Susie's my twin sister and she
looks exactly like me. And Liz is my buddy at school. She's
in KG and has blond hair." I answered.
"What's their full names? Their
parents could already be here," he said.
"Their full names? As in last name
too?" I asked nervously.
"Yes," he answered.
"Never mind, I'm sure their fine,"
I said quickly. He gave me a strange look and then I realized, he
was controller.
Chapter 7
"What's their last names?" he asked again.
"I said never mind, I'm not looking for
them anymore," I answered. I didn't know what to do. Should
I tell him the truth, or should I lie and never find them.
"Leave her alone!" a voice suddenly
said.
"What? who said that?" the
fire fighter asked.
"I did," Liz answered stepping out of
the shadows.
"Liz!" I cried. "You're OK!"
"Yep, why wouldn't I be?" she answered.
"Who are you?" the fire fighter asked.
Liz looked over at me, I nodded.
"I'm your worst nightmare, yeerk," she
sneered. The man jumped up from where he had been sitting and pulled
out a gun.
"Freeze! Both of you!" He
said. I looked around, there was noone close enough to hear.
"You think that'll stop me?" Liz
mocked. She glowed again and then zapped him. "Anyone else?"
she asked. I didn't know for sure but I thought Liz had some sort
of special powers. This was getting too weird. My life had
been getting weirder ever since we got our new powers. Before everything
was weird but not extremely weird like it was now.
"I am so glad to see you," I told Liz.
"But we still have to find Susie. She's prob'ly fine though."
"Yeh, she is. She's with your mom
and dad. Come on let's go. They're worried sick about you."
Liz said. I tried to stand up but couldn't. I hadn't broken
my leg or anything , and the next time I morph It'll be better. See,
when you morph back any cuts or scrapes you have or gone, because you DNA
isn't hurt, just your leg.
I looked around for my watch so I could
morph and then I'd be fine. But it was nowhere to be seen.
I finally found it, but it looked like it was broken. The straps
were torn and ragged at the end and the glass had a small crack in it,
but to my surprise it still was working. The time changed just as
I looked at it! I put it on and concentrated. I just wanted
to morph my leg, and not much. I still wanted a few scrapes to stay
because then it wouldn't be so unbelievable. It worked, too.
I still pretended to be limp a little which wasn't too hard because my
leg still hurt, but I could make it to where my parents were.
Chapter 8
That night, the story was on the news.
They re-ran the tape from earlier when they had covered the story live.
You could tell right away that the newscaster was a controller, because
he just said that it was because of faulty foundation, while other newscasters
would probably have said that they had found an underground tunnel or something.
It made me kind of mad watching that. I mean, the newscaster was
lying on TV, and the news is supposed to be true stuff.
After watching the news, I called the
others. They were all OK, but some were pretty badly hurt.
Theresa had lost her watch completely, and mine wasn't working that great.
I couldn't morph as quickly as I used to be able to. Susie was OK
too, but unlike me, she couldn't morph. She was stuck with a broken
leg. Colleen ended up with a broken arm. Sara hadn't been there,
so she was fine. Except for the fact that she had almost gotten eaten
by a cat. But that's not exactly in the category that we were all
in. As for the teachers, they were all OK but Mrs. Bresnahan was
missing.
That night my mom kept fussing over the
fact that I was in the school when it collapsed. I was OK and I kept
telling her that but she didn't understand. I was just lucky I was
morphed at the time or I would have probably been killed. As for
Amanda, we don't know yet. She's hurt bad and right now she's still
unconscious. She's in the hospital in the emergency room, and so
are a few other kids but amazingly noone was killed. The only reason
Amanda was so badly hurt was because she was under the school when it collapsed.
I just couldn't believe it, the war was
over and we had won! The yeerk pool was destroyed and it would take
them months to rebuild it. By then most of them will have died.
But it all seemed too easy. We couldn't have won that easily, we
just couldn't. Something was wrong, very wrong. I ran over
to the phone and called Theresa.
"Hi," I said.
"Hi," Theresa said suspiciously.
I could tell she was still a little shaken up from what had just happened.
"Don't worry, it's me. I was just
wondering, who else was injured when the school collapsed?" I asked.
"Well, the only ones badly injured were
Amanda and Kristen. Since Kristen is a controller she was under the
school when it collapsed," she answered.
"Where is she now?" I asked.
Then I answered my own question. "Meet me at the hospital.
And tell the others."
Chapter 9
I don't know why but something told me
to go there. So I did. When I got there the others were waiting.
We went into the hospital room she was in.
"Hi, why are you here?" she asked.
I could tell she wasn't a controller any more. See, I'm physic.
That means I can tell the future, plus I can tell who is a controller and
who isn't. But she seemed different. I had a feeling she wasn't
real.
"Never mind," she said. It was like
she knew why we were here, even though I didn't even know.
"I know you're Megamorphs," she said.
"And I used to be a controller, so I know. I've got something for
all of you too. Extra powers."
"Why?" I asked. "Why help
us? Why give us powers when you could use them to resist the yeerks
now that you're free?"
"Never mind," she said again. "Just
trust me. I can help you."
"OK." We all answered suspiciously.
"Theresa, I have a present for you."
Kristen reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring. It was just
a normal looking ring though. "With this you'll have the power to
turn invisible." I was surprised that a plain old ring could be so
powerful. "The ring is all you need. All of you." The
ring glowed just like Liz had when she destroyed the yeerk pool.
Theresa jumped back and dropped the ring. For a minute we all glowed.
I looked down at my watch and it was fixed. The others all had watches
too. Even Susie, Liz, and Colleen! For a minute only I glowed,
then Theresa, then Susie, then Colleen, and then Liz. And then we
were all morphed. Except I used to have a black cat S.H. morph but
now it was white. There was a Gold collar around my neck that said
"Princess". Theresa used to have a monkey morph but now it was a
eagle. She had a silver collar that read "Jewel". Susie had
my black cat morph and a copper collar that read "Kitty". Liz had
a white mouse morph and a clear glasslike collar that read "Squeak".
Colleen had a wolf morph and a metal collar that read "Tania". And
suddenly Sara appeared. She was in S.H. morph too! Her morph
was a Red-tailed hawk and she didn't have a collar. I
knew why too. She could go S.H. but she was still stuck in morph.
I looked over and Kristen was gone!
Then, like thought speak I heard someone say:
< Good luck. And remember, the
yeerks may appear to be defeated, but they are stronger than you think.
> And I knew who had said that.