Second Animorphs

The Rescue

By:Forlay

Chapter 1

    My name's Forlay.
    Does that sound like a weird name to you? Good, it should. 'Cause it's not my real name. It's about as close as you're gonna get to my screen name. You know, screen name. The internet?
    I would love to tell you my real screen name, but I've got some major enemies that, if they knew my screen name, would kill me, or worse.
    But see, I've got some special powers to keep those enemies at bay. I'm sure you've heard of the Animorphs, right? If you haven't, where have you been? Anyways, the yeerks decided that centering their invasion on one coast wasn't enough, so they decided to start working on this coast too.
    So, our good friend, the Ellimist, decided to take matters into his own 'hands' and told the original Animorphs to head over here to give us the morphing powers.
    Oh, I forgot to say who 'us' was, didn't I? Well, there are five of us 'Second Animorphs'. We all met online, and I don't even remember most of their names, so they're just gonna be reffered to by something close to their screen names. There's Andagorilla, also called Anda and AG, who's our 'leader', she's actually the one who found the blue box. Elfy's the joker of the group. We're all a little like one of the original Animorphs, and Elfy is definetly like Marco, always cracking jokes, but there's a serious side to her...but we rarely see that. Yeerkiller, or YK, is a combination of several Animorphs. Jake, Rachel and Marco.
    And that leaves me. I'm practically Rachel's twin, except I don't have the whole super model thing going on. I definetly do have the insane Xena:Warrior Princess thing down though.
    Now, back to the Animorphs giving us the morphing powers. A couple weeks ago, AG went to Taco Bell to get one of those Animorphs toys they were giving out. She thought she had gotten the blue box toy where you're supposed to see yourself morph a tiger. Turns out the Ellimist had interefered (don't tell anybody I said that, it's supposed to be a secret) and given her the real blue box. So, the Animorphs came, gave us our morphing powers, taught us a thing or two about morphing, and then left us to fend for ourselves against the yeerks.
    And, along with all this, we have to keep up a sense of normalness. We still have school and homework, we all have other friends online that would freak if we suddenly disapeared, and we have to spend time with our families. Which is what I was trying to do on Saturday.
    "Is it my turn yet?" I asked my mom. We were playing Scrabble on line, and she was taking forever to place her word.
    "Um..." I heard the mouse click a couple times, "Go ahead."
    "Quiz?!?! On tripple word score?!?! No fair!" I looked at my tiles. No real good choices.
    I was about to give up and trade some of my titles when I heard the sound stating I had e-mail.
    "Go ahead and check your mail," Mom offered. "I have to go start fixing lunch anyway before your brother starts a riot."
    I quickly closed the game and went into my e-mail. It was from AG.
    "Please tell me she's just saying hi," I said to myself as I opened the message.

From:Andagorilla
To:Forlay,Elfy,Yeerkiller
Subject:Hey, all!

Hey,all!!!
Just wonderin' if any of you wanted to head out to the beach or something. We don't have too long before the weather turns and we can't go outside.

AG

    I sighed. That's one of our codes. In otherwords, AG wanted to get us all together and talk about a mission.
    "Hey, Mom?" I called up stairs.
    "Yeah?"
    "Can I go out with Elfy, AG and YK?"
    "Be back by Seven."
    "'Kay. Thanks, Mom."
    I hit the reply button and told AG I'd be right there.
    I ran to my room, changed into my swim suit/morphing outfit and rode my bike to the beach.
    I live the farthest out away from the beach so I was the last one to show up.
    "Yo all!" I cried as I locked my bike to a tree.
    "About time you got here," YK complained. "We were begining to think you'd chickened out not even knowing what was going on."
    "No, you thought she had chickened out," Elfy argued, "I knew that she'd be here, as recklessly brave as ever."
    I laughed, "So, what's up?"
    "Oh, nothing much. AG just had the idea that we should take a vacation to the Yeerk Pool this weekend," Elfy answered.
    "Sounds cool, let's do it."
    AG shook her head, "You don't want to know why? You just say 'let's do it'? I mean, you know what it's like down there, you should be scared!"
    "AG, I am petrified of going down there. But I'm not gonna run away, screaming like a 2 year old with a nightmare."
    "Good comparison," YK said darkly. "A nightmare."
    "Is there any particular reason we're going?"
    "Well, we think that there may be an Andalite down there," Anda said.
    "A what?! How do you know? Or think you know?"
    "We heard some controller's talking about a new Andalite down in the Yeerk Pool. They said they'd been attacked by a lone Andalite, and she'd been caught. She's in a holding cell untill Visser Three can get down there," AG said.
    "Whoa. Has anybody found an entrance yet?"
    "Well, didn't the Animorphs say when they first came here that the Underground had been closed for the Yeerk Pool?" Elfy asked.
    "Something like that," YK answered.
    "Okay then. All we need to do is find a way to get down there," AG said.
    "No problem. There's an old entrance practically in my backyard," I said. "I've noticed other entrances have been seeled off, but this one's wide open. The Yeerk's probably overlooked it."
    "Okay then. We've got an entrance, so when should we go?" AG asked.
    "Now's cool for me," I said. "I don't have to be home 'till seven."
    Everyone else was free for a couple hours too.
    "Alright then,"AG said, "let's check out this entrance."

Chapter 2

    I'm sure we didn't look too weird to any of my neighbor's looking out the window. Four girls in swimsuits and shorts inspecting an old Underground entrance.
    "This should be easy to get into," I said.
    "Yeah," YK agreed, "Just a wood door and a metal bar. Piece of cake."
    "We just gonna bust in there?" Elfy asked.
    "Sure. Why not?" I asked.
    "Because you think it's a good idea," Elfy joked.
    I gave her a playful shove, "Seriously. Let's do this."
    We set our stuff against a tree for us to come back to and started to morph our power morphs.
    I concentrated on my cheetah morph. I'd done this morph before, so it was as normal as morphing can be. But it's such an awesome morph, I couldn't help but be kind of taken aback.
    The first cahnge was the fur. A wave of yellow and black spotted fur ran down from my head to my feet. Then the super long tail sprouted out from behind me.
    From then on, the morph was totally weird. My knees reversed direction suddenly and I fell down onto my morphing hands. I felt the leathery pads grow from the palms of my hands and saw the black claws sprout from my fingernails.
    My ears became pointy, kind of like Vulcan ears on Star Trek, grew furry and started to slide up my head. My nose and mouth started to bluge out and my mouth itched as my pathetically dull human teeth became the ripping teeth of a big cat.
    As my eyes changed from dim human vision to super sharp cat vision, I watched as my friends morphed.
    Elfy was morphing another big cat, a lioness. She has a talent for morphing so she looks awesome when she's morphing. Nothing weird like wing bones shooting out of her arms when we're morphing birds happen to her.
    I watched as two big horns popped out of YK's buffalo head, completing her morph.
    AG was almost fully gorilla. The last changes were her hands, which looked totally weird before she was finished morphing. She was completly gorilla except for her hands. Then, slowly, he hands became black leather and trippled in size.
    < Everybody ready? > she asked.
    I stretched out, the cheetah was restless just standing around. She was designed to run.
< Let's go! >
    < YK, will you do the honors? > AG asked, gesturing with her huge hand towards the door.
    < Gladly, > she said, and ran towards the door, breaking it down easily. < Oh, that was cool! > she shouted.
    I sprinted after her, not going anywhere's near my top speed. I didn't want to leave everybody else in the dust after all. Cheetah's can go almost 70 miles per hour. Nobody else in the group can go that fast. Elfy can come close in her lioness morph, but I could still leave her way behind in a waste.
    Another reason I didn't go full speed, I really wasn't looking forward to the yeerk pool. If I'm ever not afraid of going to the yeerk pool, do me, and the rest of the world a favor, lock me up and throw away the key.

Chapter 3

    With my accute cat hearing, I could hear the screams and cries for help down in the Yeerk Pool area. We creeped stealthily down the stairs, praying that nobody would notice an odd heard of wild animals invading the yeerk pool.
    < The books say that the Yeerk Pool is terrifying, but that doesn't begin to describe it, > Andagorilla said. We all agreed.
    We stepped off the stairs silently and quickly went into the shaddows to remain unseen. Unfortunatly, there was a controller right where I was going. As he opened his mouth to yell for help, I quickly gave him a quick swipe with my paw, knocking him unconcious, and giving him a few claw marks. Unlike other big cats, cheetahs can't retract their claws, adding to their deadliness.
    < Oh, my gosh! It's KMB! > I heard Elfy yell in thought speak.
    < Who? > YK asked.
    < KMB. KingMeatBall. Don't you guys talk to him? >
    < I've talked to him, > I said, < But how do you know what he looks like? >
    < He sent me a picture. Duh. Look over in that row of cages. See the boy sitting in the cage closest to us? > We all did. < That's him. I saw him when we fought Visser Three and the rest of those controllers at the beach a couple weeks ago. I lost him in the crowd of controllers before I could get him out of there. >
    < Our first priority is finding that Andalite, > AG said, < Then we'll try and get KMB outta here. >
    < One question. Any idea as to where this alleged Andalite is? > I asked.
    < Over there, perhaps? > YK suggested, pointing with one of her horns.
    I looked where she pointed. All I saw was a big gray box.
    < A gray box? What makes you think the Andalite would be in there? > I asked.
    Elfy had caught on before me. < You think maybe it's made of ramonite? >
    < Ramonite? Oh. Yeah. That weird box thing that Visser Three kept Ax in, > AG said.
    < Yeah, but anyone have an idea as to how we're gonna get him out of there? > Yeerkiller asked.
    < Perhaps we won't have to. Look who decided to join the party, > I said. Walking through a sliding door, like those on Star Trek, was Visser Three himself.
    < Where's this Andalite I heard about? > He asked in open thought speak.
    "Over here, Visser," a controller answered.
    < Transparent, > The Visser ordered. Suddenly, it was as if one wall of the box wasn't there. Inside was an Andalite, slightly smaller and more delicate looking than Ax had been. Obviously, Visser Three was surprised. < The Andalites are now resorting to using female children to fight their battles? > he laughed evily. < Well, my dear. What is your name, > he said in a voice like a normal human would use to talk to a little kid.
    < I am Aisha-Jaribu-Kibi. Remember it well, yeerk scum! > The Andalite shouted.
    < I like this girl, > I said.
    < I shall, Aisha-Jaribu-Kibi. Believe me. I never forget the name of a controller. Ha ha ha. >
    Now I was getting mad at Visser Three. Aisha was too. She looked like the kind of Andalite that nobody laughs at and survives. Unfortunatly, she was locked in the box, unable to do nothing.
    I crouched, ready to leap at Visser Three. < Let's take him down. >
    < Forlay, don't be an idiot, > Elfy said. < You know very well that even you wouldn't get 10 feet before you were shot by 20 different dracon beams. >
    I stood up from my crouch and listened, impatiently, as Visser Three talked with his fellow yeerks. Finally, he said, < Ready the chains and sheath so she can't get away. Open the
box. >
    I went back into a crouch, ready to get the most speed possible, < NOW can we go? >
    < Alright. Elfy and Forlay? Go for Visser Three and the other controllers. YK? You're with me. We're gonna see about getting Aisha. >

Chapter 4

    I sprang out of the shaddows, running for the nearest Hork-Bajir ahead of me. Elfy was just behind me.
    ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!
    "AHHH!!!" the hork-bajir screamed. Then fell silent as a slashed at him with a killer claw and ran through.
    Elfy and I were knocking out Hork-Bajir left and right, but we weren't fast enough. Hork-Bajir kept coming. After a few minutes, three more entered the fight. Andagorilla, Yeerkiller and Aisha-Jaribu-Kibi.
    < Mind if we cut in? > YK joked.
    < Gladly, > Elfy answered.
    The battle had turned. We weren't able to get near Visser Three, he had retreated when AG, YK and Aisha joined the battle, but we were begining to kick hork-bajir butt. After we had gotten most of them out of the fight, the rest retreated.
    As we began to run, Elfy stopped and turned back.
    < Elfy!  What are you doing?! > AG shouted.
    < I'm getting KMB! >
    < We don't have time Elfy! >
    < Go on without me! I'll be right there! >
    I turned and ran back to Elfy. I'm not sure what I was planning to do, but I wasn't about to abandon her down there. < Forlay! > AG called after me.
    < Go on! Save yourselves and get Aisha out of here! We'll be alright! > I said to her, then to Elfy, < What the heck do you think you're doing? >
    < Get out of here, Forlay. This is a one girl job. >
    < I'll hold off controllers, you open the cage. >
    I turned my back to Elfy as she used her claws and teeth to break open the cage. Hork-Bajir were becoming brave and slashing at me. The human-controllers didn't have any natural weapons, and they didn't want to risk killing the hosts, so I had to fend off the Hork-Bajir on my own.
    < He's not in here! > Elfy shouted.
    < WHAT?!?! >
    < I had thought he'd moved to the back of the cage or somethin' but he's not in here! >
    We both jumped over the Hork-Bajir, out into the mostly empty area of the yeerk pool. I scanned the crowd of human controllers, looking for KingMeatBall.
    < There! By the stairs! > Elfy shouted.
    I saw him and sprinted towards him. He was a controller again, so I had to grab him by his shirt collar and drag him away. I lightly tossed him onto Elfy's back so she could carry him. I may be fast, but Elfy's definetly larger than I am, and better able to carry a passenger.
    We ran back to the stair way we had used to get in and took the stairs 10 at a time with Hork-Bajir close behind us.
    As we sprinted out of the yeerk pool, we ran right into our friends, either still in battle morphs, or they had remorphed.
    < Where were you two?! > AG roared at us when we untangled ourselves.
    < We were saving somebody, > Elfy explained.
    < It took you long enough. >
    < Lay off, AG, > I said. < You've talked to KMB too. Are you telling me you'd rather see him go as a controller than go free? >
    < He's not as important as either of you two, > YK said.
    < As Forlay said, lay off, > Elfy said. < We saved him, and we got out. That's all that matters. We succeded in what we set out to do. Let's drop it. >
    We all demorphed back to our human forms. KMB was slouched against a tree. I wasn't sure if I'd accidentally knocked him out in our hasty escape, or if he had passed out from the excitement. Then I noticed the Andalite for the first time.
    She looked as amazed as I was, < All of you, humans? I knew these two were, > she gestured to Anda and YK, < But one of you has a variation of an Andalite name and the other of you has an Andalite name. Yet you are all human. Please, explain. >
    "Are we going to have to have this conversation with every Andalite we meet?" I asked. The Andalite name she was referring to was, of course, my own.
    "We'll explain later, Aisha," AG said. "Right now, we need to get you a human morph, and get the heck away from here. And, figure out what to do with controller boy here," she added as an after thought.
    < If you do not mind, I shall acquire DNA from each of you. >
    Aisha reached out a hand and touch each of us in turn. When she touched me, I got kind of spacey, like I do in algebra, but it took me longer to snap out of it than in class.
    As we all came out of our trances, Aisha started the morph.
    Her stalk eyes shrivled into her head. Her main eyes became an interesting twist of hazel and aquamarine. Her front two legs withered and disapeared.
    "Yikes! Catch her!" YK said. She and AG drated out and grabbed Aisha just before she hit the ground.
    Aisha continued the morph. Her tail disapeared, her blue and tan fur turned to tan skin.
    The final change was the mouth. Where there had just been skin on her Andalite head, a line appeared, then split apart. Revealing two rows of sparkling white teeth.
    "Oh, this is great. We need to get her clothes!" Elfy said.
    I looked down at the pile of clothes and towels that was next to KMB. I grabbed my black shorts and someone's T-shirt.
    "Here, put these on," I said as I handed the clothing to her.
    "What's this?" Her eyes widened in shock. "Thissss. Is. What-tuh. Isssss. Thiiiiiiiiiiiisss. Th. Th. Thii."
    "They're called clothes. Here, I'll help you put them on,"I offered.
    I quickly helped her into the shorts and shirt. The shorts were a bit small on her, since I'm the shortest member of the group and she was about 3 inches taller than I am, but otherwise, it was a perfect fit.
    "Man, is this ever weird," Elfy said. "Now I know what the Animorphs feel whenever Ax morphs human."
    Weird didn't even begin to describe it. As I said before, she was about three inches taller than me, which wasn't all that unusual. Lots of people are taller than me. Her hair was shoulder length, brownish blond and slightly wavy. A combination of all of us. You could look at her and pick out different parts of yourself or friends. A frankenstein...with out the bolts and stitches.
    "Okay, one problem solved. One to go," AG said. "What do we do with him?"
    "I'd take him, but my mom would flip," Elfy said. The same thing went for Ag and YK.
    "How about we discuss this on the move?" I asked. "I really don't want to be standing here when the yeerks come storming out of there looking for us."
    "Good point," AG said. "Can we go to your place?" she asked me.
    "Sure."

Chapter 5

    Elfy and I carried KMB to my backyard. I held his arms, she, his legs. YK and AG helped Aisha get used to the idea of walking.Elfy and I set KMB down on the picnic table and YK and AG helped Aisha with the concept of sitting. With four legs, Andalites didn't have much of a need for chairs.
    "He could stay at here," I suggested.
    "Your picnic table?" Elfy asked.
    "No my house, duh."
    "What will you tell your Mom?" AG asked. "I didn't know she supported co-ed slumber parties."
    "She doesn't. But..."
    "What if he just stays in the shed, or something?" YK suggested. "It doesn't look used too much. We could keep him tied up in there and check on him every couple of hours to make sure he doesn't suffocate."
    "Sounds good to me, but I'll need help with that part. I can't be running out to the shed every couple hours. My mom will think I'm doing drugs back there."
    "We can help with that. AG, help me carry him to the shed. Elfy, open the door for us. Forlay, can you distract your mom so she won't think we've killed somebody and we're hiding him?" YK asked. "Aisha, just sit right there, and then we'll explain everything to you."
    "No prob," I ran back into the house and had a long conversation with my mom about nothing in particular, keeping her back to the window so I could see out of it, but she couldn't. After I'd seen that KMB was in the shed, I made some excuse about going back outside and met up with them.
    "He's still unconcious," Elfy said. "We didn't want a yelling, screaming controller in there, so we just left him unconcious."
    "Sounds cool to me," I said. "Now. What about her?" I looked at Aisha, who was chewing on a blade of grass.
    "Aisha, no grass. That's not a good thing to eat when you're a human," AG said, rushing over and taking the grass from her.
    "What is going on? Whatuh. Tuh. Goiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggg. Onononononon."
    "Where do we start?" I asked. "This is gonna be a complicated story."
    "How can you morph. Ph. phphph. Only.lyyyy. Andalites. Ites. ANDAlites can morph. oooooorph."
    "Nope, actually, they aren't. There are 9 humans who can morph," Elfy said.
    "Nine? Ine? Ine? But there are only four, oor, oor, of you!"
    "We're not the only group of Animorphs, 'Animal Morpher," AG started. "There's four of us on this coast, but there's another five on the other coast."
    We all explained our story of getting the morphing power from the Ellimist and the other Animorphs. Aisha just about fell off the bench when we explained how the original Animorphs got their power.
    "Okay, we've told you our story, now you tell us yours," I said once we had finished explaining our story. "Last time I checked, female Andalites had to stick to the arts and sciences."
    Aisha laughed, a very odd sound coming from her. "I am not a warrior. Arrior. Rior. Or. I was a stowaway. Stoooooow. Away. Wuh. Wuh."
    "Here's an idea, let's move into the woods so Aish can demorph and then it won't take her the full two hours to say two sentences," Elfy suggested.
    We all agreed. After checking to make sure KMB was still out cold, we carefully helped Aisha back into the woods so she could demorph and talk with out playing with the words. Then she told us her story.

Chapter 6

    < I have been told all my life that I am much like Aldrea, the outspoken fool of a daughter that the fool Prince Seerow had. She, too, was not content to stay in the sciences and other female occupations. In modern military, it's not necesary to fight with tail blades. It's a matter of skill piloting a fighter, or weaponry, or engineering or command. I pretended to be interested in going into the field of medicine and went aboard the dome ship GalaxyLight, pretending to look at the medical bay. I only intended to stay for a short while, perhaps be involved in a small battle and prove that females can fight as well as males, but the ship went on an unexpected course. >
    Aisha paused, obviously what she was about to tell wasn't a happy memory. < The captain...was a yeerk. > She spat the word out as if it tasted like brussels sprouts. Well, tasted isn't the right term since Andalites don't have mouths, but you know what I mean.
    < He was intending to deliver the entire crew of the ship to the Abomination. But, > she stood a little taller, < I found out his plan and stopped him from going anywhere. Unfortunatly, he had set the ship on a 'kill switch'. Somehow, he had triggered the ship to detect his lifesigns. If they ceased, the ship was to go into self destruct. No one was able to crack the cancellation code in time. So, myself, and perhaps five other Andalite warriors made it to the escape hatches. >
    "Are there other Andalites here?" AG asked excitedly.
    Aisha lowered her stalk eyes sadly, < No. Something malfunctioned in their escape pods. They burned up in the atmosphere. >
    "But you got through," YK said sadly.
    < Yes, I got through. While looking for a place to hide, I accidentally wandered into the yeerk pool. I was captured easily, I'm afraid to say. Thankfully, you four came and saved me. I am forever in your debt. >
    "You saved our butts down there in the yeerk pool. With out you, Elfy and I would have been toast," I said, "Let's call it even."
    < Please, explain to me your names. Elfy could possibly be short hand for an Andalite name, and Forlay is most obviously one. And AG and YK are merely letters. What do they all mean? >
    YK laughed, "I don't suppose in your Andalite schools you've ever heard of something called the internet?"
    < Yes, I have. But what do your names have to do with that primitive communications device? >
    "We all met on the internet, or online," AG explained. "It's not safe to use your real name on there, a bunch of wackos would love to find out the real names of kids like us and kill us or whatever, so we have what's called screen names. AG stands for Andagorilla, a cross between Andalite and Gorilla."
    "YK is for Yeerkiller, that should be pretty self explanatory," YK said with a grin.
    "Elfy is shortened, and feminised, version of 'Elfangor'," Elfy said.
    "And Forlay is the name of Ax's, or Aximili's, mother," I said. "Thus giving me an Andalite name. Which confuses the heck out of the Andalites we meet."
    < Yes, I can see how it would. >
    "Now that we all know eachother, where is Aish gonna stay?" AG asked.
    I spread out my arms, "Why not here? As long as she stays back away from the houses, she'll be fine. Absolutly nobody comes back here, except the occasional punk kid with a BB gun, but Aish should be able to avoid them easily."
    Aisha looked around with all four of her eyes, < Then I shall stay here. >
    YK looked at her watch, "Geez! I've got to get home! I was supposed to be home five minutes ago! Bye!" she ran towards my house, where her bike was, then headed home.
    "I've got to go, too," AG said.
    "Same here," Elfy said.
    "Okay, I'll talk to you two later." We walked back to my house together, then Elfy and AG grabbed their bikes and started home.

Chapter 7

    As I walked through my back yard towards my house, I peered through a dusty window in the shed to check on KingMeatBall. He was just begining to awaken.
    I went inside, grabbed a book and a snack, as if I was going to sit outside in the twilight and read, which I often do, and went back to KMB.
    Instead of sitting on our old treehouse, my favorite place to read, I went into the shed and stood before KMB as he woke up.
    "Where am I?" he moaned, playing the part of a human still.
    "Give it up, yeerk. I know who you are."
    His eyes narrowed in anger. "Andalite!" he hissed, then started trying to loosen the ropes that held his hands and feet together.
    I sat down in front of him on the dusty ground. "It's no use. You'll be staying right there for three days. And, to answer your accusation, no, I'm not an Andalite. I'm a human. The name Forlay ring a bell to you?"
    He stopped struggling and stared at me. "Yeah, I'm Forlay. Now, do you want some food, or not?" I held out a few oreos to him.
    I carefully changed the position of his hands so they weren't behind his back so he could eat the cookies.
    "No milk?" he asked, falling back into the roll of a human kid.
    "Nope, sorry. I'll bring you something to drink later. So, how are we going to spend the next three days?" I asked. "Are you going to be a cooperative yeerk, maybe even leave the poor kid's head, or are you going to be a stubborn yeerk, and sit there complaining about how you don't have any milk for three days?"
    He just glared at me angrily, silent.
    "Oookay. Maybe Elfy, AG and YK will be able to change your mind tomorrow."
    "Elfy?"
    "Yeah, she's in on this too. Night night, yeerk. I'll be back later with something to drink and a blanket for you to sleep on."
    Later that night, after supper, I went back out and gave him a glass of water and a blanket, made sure his ropes were securely tied and that the shed was locked as an extra precaution, then went to bed.
    The next morning, the yeerk in KMB's head was as uncooperative as ever. He refused the granola bar and orange juice I offered for breakfast and refused to talk to me.
    Then again, maybe his yeerk just wasn't a morning slug.
    I went back inside online and typed out an e-mail to the other Second Animorphs.

From:Forlay
To:Elfy,Andagorilla,Yeerkiller
Subject:Our close, personal friend ;-)

Yo all!!!
Our close, personal friend Mr. KingMeatBall is being *very* uncooperative. This morning, he wouldn't even accept a granola bar and orange juice. Anybody wanna come over and see if she can convince him? You're welcome to try.

--Forlay

    I checked out a few websites, then heard the signal that I had mail.

From:Elfy
To:Forlay
Subject:Re:Our close, personal friend ;-)

I'll be right over.

Elfy

A few momets later, I got the same messages from AG and YK. I logged off, then went outside to wait for them.
    < Forlay, may I come over? >
    I jumped about three feet in the air. "Aish?" I whispered.
    < Yes, this is Aisha. Is it safe to come over? >
    "Not as yourself! Morph human and...uh...wait a sec while I get you some clothes."
    I sprinted through the house into my room. I grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt for Aisha, then ran back outside and a little ways into the woods.
    "Aisha?"
    < I'm right behind you, Forlay. >
    "Don't DO that!" I said. "Us humans can't see behind us. It's a bad thing to sneak up on somebody!"
    She had started morphing while I was talking, and was already mostly human. "Sorry. Ry. Orry."
    "Yeah, yeah. Yikes! Look out!" I grabbed her as she started to fall over.
    Once she was finished morphing, I started to help her get the jeans and shirt on.
    "Forlay? Where are ya'?" I heard Elfy call from my yard.
    "I'll be right there!" I shouted as I helped Aisha pull the T-shirt over her head. I took her hand and carefully led her back to my house.
    By the time we'd gotten there, Aisha was scratched up from falling in the pine needles, and both AG and YK had showed up.
    "Have you guys looked in on KMB yet?" I asked.
    "Nope, but we heard him," Elfy said.
    "Yeah, he's been cursing you for the last couple minutes," YK added.
    "Looks like I'm not on that yeerk's list of favorite people, huh?"
    "Nope."
    "Elfy, you seem to know him better than any of us..." AG started.
    "Or so I thought," Elfy interupted.
    "Why don't you go in and see if you can get that slug to at least quiet down and eat."
    I unlocked the shed door and let Elfy in, making sure the door didn't latch all the way so she'd be able to make a quick exit if she needed to.
    While Elfy and the yeerk were having their heart to heart, YK, AG, Aisha and I stood around, talking, so we wouldn't look suspicious.
    It's sad the way the paranoia has creeped into our lives. We couldn't trust our families, our friends, our neighbors. Nobody was safe from the yeerks. And that's a depressing thought. We'd always known that there was a possibility of our online friends being yeerks, so we were always careful with our e-mails, but it's so much more depressing when you're face to face with one of those friends who's trapped inside his own body by a slug that, if it wasn't in a host, you could step on.
    After about five minutes, Elfy came back out. "Try giving him some food now, Forlay, he should listen."
    "What'd you do to him?" YK asked.
    "Just calmly and rationally explained to him that if he didn't cooperate with our demands I'd call in our friend the Andalite and she'd solve all his problems."
    I laughed and went inside and got food for all of us. When I came back out, Elfy, AG and YK were sitting around with Aisha on the picnic bench.
    I brought the food to KMB. Obviously, what Elfy had said had a lasting impression and he accepted the food quietly.
    "I still do not, notuh, understanduh the purpose,oooooosssssseee, of this skin-uh," Aisha was saying.
    "It's not skin, Aisha," I said, sitting down. "It's called clothes. And it protects you from the elements."
    "Elements? Ments? Ents?"
    "Cold, rain, snow, weather in general," AG explained.
    "But there is none of this now. Owowowow."
    "Aisha, just trust us when we say you need to be wearing it at all times," YK said.
    "All times. Imes. Alright. Ight."
    "Here's another hint about human society," Elfy said, "Say whatever you have to say, then stop. Just, stop."
    "Yes. Es. Sorry."
    We chatted for a little while longer, then Aisha had to go back to the woods and demorph, and every one else had to go home to their families. I said goodbye, then went into the shed.

Chapter 8

    I have absolutly no idea why I went into the shed with KingMeatBall the controller. Temporary insanity?
    "What do you want?" he asked darkly when I walked in.
    "Oh, just thought we could open up negotiations for leaving KMB without having to go throught the fugue."
    "Don't bother, I'm not going to leave him."
    "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Your three days are already down to 1 and a half."
    "I will get out of here."
    "Not if me and my friends have anything to say about it."
    He made a dismissive noise and fell silent. I sat down across from him with a book and just read in the shed's dim light.
    "Why are you trying to save this human?" He asked after half an hour of silence.
    I set down my book. "It wasn't my idea. We'd gotten Aisha out of the yeerk pool, and we were all set to make a run for it, when Elfy ran back into the pool with the suicide idea that she could save you.  I couldn't let her go back down there alone, so I told YK and AG to go on ahead without us with Aisha, and I went back down there with her to get you."
    "And why did Elfy want to save this human?"
    "I'm not sure. I guess she talks to you more than the rest of us do, or something. She talks to you more than I do, I know that for sure. She probably didn't want to see one of her friends go through life as a controller. I know if it had been one of my close online friends, I probably would have gone back and done the same thing."
    "Yeah, you seem like the idiotic type who would do that sort of thing. Now Elfy, she seems more of the passive type. Letting idiots like you do stuff like that."
    "Idiot? I'd watch your language. Last I checked, I was the one who could morph to cheetah and rip you limb from limb."
    "Oh, yes. I'm sooooo sorry, Forlay."
    "Yeah, whatever," I looked at my watch, "I've gotta go in now. I'll bring you some more food in a couple hours."

Chapter 9

    The rest of that day and the next was pretty much the same. I'd bring KMB some food, get into a slight sparring match with him, then leave. Neither Elfy, AG, YK or Aisha came over. We never really hung out in real life before we got our morphing powers. We met every once in awhile, maybe once every two weeks. Mostly we just saw each other between classes at school and online.
    Tuesday evening, I was up in my rickety old tree house, reading a book and eating fresh baked brownies, when I heard a tortured cry from the shed.
    "The fugue," I said to myself as I climbed down the rope ladder, abandoning my book and brownies.
    I unlocked the shed quickly and sat down next to KMB. I didn't have to worry about anybody seeing me, my parents were out at the movies and my brother was at a friend's house.
    "It's alright, KMB, you'll get through this," I whispered comfortingly to him.
    Man, I wish that somebody else had been there during that hour. I didn't really care who, just another living soul. It's horible to watch somebody go through so much pain and be helpless to stop it. Now I knew what parents must feel when their kid's being picked on in school or something and they can't do anything but tell them it'll be alright.
    Finally, after an hour of pain, the yeerk wormed it's way out of KMB's ear and fell to the ground. Before our eyes, it disintergrated into dust.
    KingMeatBall looked up at me from his position on the floor with tortured, hollow eyes. "Th--Thank. Ank. Thank you, F-Forlay." He played with sounds just like Aisha did, it'd been so long since he'd had control over his own mouth.
    I smiled, "Hey, don't thank me. If it weren't for Elfy, you'd still be a controller. Here, let me help you get these ropes off, then we can go tell the other's you're free."

To:Elfy, Andagorilla, Yeerkiller
From:Forlay
Subject:KMB

Yo All!!!

He's Free!!! Here's a quick message from him:

Thank you, all. I know you all took a huge risk saving me, but I'll be forever grateful.

--Forlay and KMB 1