Who do we fight? Who killed the Andalite?
Visser three. The aboination. A Yeerk.
Yeerks are parasitic species. A long time ago, they were on only one planet. They only had a dumb, stupid race to infest, the Gedds. But one day, an Andalite named Seerow came and gave them space travel, because he pitied them.
What a mistake! The yeerks spread like a disease, enslaving races, getting into their brains and controlling them totally. Now, they're on Earth. And the Andalites, who had been fighting the Yeerks ever since they first attacked, are too far away to fight them.
So the andalite, Elfangor, gave us the power to morph. All Andalite fighter had it, and it was an important advantage that the yeerks did not have.
Except Visser Three. The Visser had somehow infested an Andalite. And he was the one Yeerk that could morph.
Luckily.
Our limit is two hours. We can become any animal, but we must watch the time. After two hours, we must Demorph.
We can't let the Yeerks know that we're not Andalites. We go about our daily business as much as we can, but sometimes we have to lie to people. Just so they don't find us.
Tobais went to the extreme not to give away our secret. He had to stay in morph longer than Two hours.
And now, he's trapped. He is stuck as a Red-Tailed-Hawk, and even though a great creature called an Eiilmist gave him his power back, he cannot leave Red-Tail form for more than two hours, or he will be stuck once again.
My story begins, in the air.
Chapter Two
[This is fun.] I said. yeah, no new news. Flying is the best thing in the world. One of the good things of being an Animorph.
We were flying around the park, as seagulls. I would rather be in Osprey morph, because they see and fly better, but hey. Flying is flying.
[Except for the fact that this kid is eating a piece of pizza, savoring it. Mmm, juicy pepperoni, cheeze…]
[Rachel, Earth to Rachel.] Tobais laughed. He was higher up, as himself.
[I do not blame Rachel. I want to eat that pizza also.] Ax said. Ax is an Andalite youth, who crashed in the ocean and joined the Animorphs once we Rescued him. He likes to eat and talk in human form, because he can do neither in his Andalite form. Fortunately for the kid, we weren't in as humans.
We swooped up, and fluttered around a little. It was a peaceful day, and I was enjoying myself.
[Look, over there. Tell me that's not suspicious.] I heard Marco's thought speech in my head. I looked up.
A black grand cherokee was parked by the parkway drive, and although the windows were dark I could see two men with dark shades looking out at the park.
[Better check on it. Cassie, Ax, stay there, Everyone else this way.] Jake flew ahead.
I looked around. [Hey, look at those teens. They look like they're having a good time.] I chuckled, and Ax and I casually swooped up to a group of six. Three were teens, older than us, one was about our age, and the other two looked about thirty and—as far as I could see—were identical twin brothers.
[I just wish we could be like that again.] I sighed.
[Cassie, this guy has a gun…he's aiming…get out of there!] Jake called, waking me up. Ax and I were stunned for a second, then flapped out of there as fast as possible.
THUNK! THUNK THUNK THUNK!
The twins, one of the teens—a boy—and the guy our age jolted. They were hit!
THUNK! THUNK! Two more shots, aimed at the remaining two—a girl with long brown hair and a girl with even longer black hair—but the aiming was off and they hit two of the others again.
We were in hearing range. "RUN!" The boy teen said, collapsing. They were tranquiliser darts!
Jake and the others were coming as fast as possible. The two girls started running for the trees to the right of the park. The sunglass guys had gotten out of the car and were shooting like crazy.
[This is totally weird. What do we do? and boy does that girl have style!] Rachel said.
[Which one?] Marco joked.
THUNK!
[Umm, the one who's not hit?]
[Come on, let's do something. I'm going to contact that girl. She's reached the trees already. Tobais, you come with me. Everybody else, try to stall those…those…] I took controll.
[Dudes.] Marco helped. Some of The 'dudes' were loading the victims into the cherokee, and the others were off after the girl.
I got as much air as I could and flapped like crasy to get to the woods. Soon, I was dodging trees, but the girl was in sight.
[girl, girl! Listen to me or they'll get you. Turn left.] Tobais said, from higher up.
[jump that stream and turn sharp right. Don't slow down!] I said. She didn't.
Eventually, we led her about a mile from the searchers and hid her behind a large rose bush.
OKAY. #1, MY NAME IS Z O E. STOP CALLING ME 'GIRL' #2, WHO ARE YOU, #3, WHERE AM I?
Chapter Three
I litterally fell from my perch and on to the ground. I was still a seagull, and my little heart was beating so fast it wasn't funny.
[Uh, okay, Zoe, we're Andalites. You're…safe, hidden.] Tobais said.
WHAT IS AN ANDALITE. AND DON'T SAY A RACE OF HAWKS AND SEAGULLS, PLEASE.
[Alright, we ask the questions now, 'Zoe'. Who…what are you, where are you from, and how do we know you're not a yeerk?] Tobais said angrily.
Zoe spoke. "One, My name is Zoe hope, Two I'm a human, and three I don't know what the heck you're talking about." She smiled and looked at me. I noticed that she was wearing sunglasses.
[If you're human, than how can you think-speak?] I asked. She shrugged.
"We all can."
Suddenly, four raptors flew in and landed on a log. [who is she?] Ax said.
[I don't know, she claims to be 'Zoe Hope' But I don't think she's telling the whole truth. She can think-speek.] I filled in.
"But I am telling the whole- oops." Zoe twisted her face up and looked away.
You see, I was using PRIVATE thought speak!! No way she could hear me say that!
[Okay, speak up or else.] Jake growled. I saw Tobais fly away, he was going to morph. [What. Are. You. ] Jake said slowly and demandingly.
"What does it—A human. Hue. Man. Arms, legs. You are a talking peregine falcon. Uhh, I mean…"
Woah! No way she could have figured out that jake was the Falcon! Well, she might just be an expert on falcons, but…
[You've made too many mistakes. You're not entirely human. Reveal yourself, now.] Ax said. Rachel flew off. She was morphing too.
Sudenly…
HUROWWWRRRR! It was Tobais, as a Hork-Bajir!
"AAAIIIIIEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!" Zoe shrieked.
"Okayokayokay. What do you want me to tell you. But first, I want to know that you wont kill me and that you're on my side." She said quickly.
[Alright. Everyone, demorph.] Jake ordered. We did.
[and just in case…] Rachel warned, coming out, a full grizzly bear.
"Right. Okay , this all makes sense," Zoe said calmly. Then she started. "Well, my turn. Well, I am a human, partly. I mean I was born a human. Raised a human. Then, they found me and told me that I was truly one of them."
"Who?" I asked.
"The Oshmarriddian race. Those people—Jai, he was the one my age, he's like my boyfriend, you know, Dana, the girl with the brown hair, she's my best gal pal, Joey and Timmy, they're the twins, and Flame is the younger guy, with the glasses and red hair. You see, we generate with the power of the heartstones."
Zoe pulled out her necklace from under her shirt. It was purple. "This contains all of our power. With it, we can morph naturally, for any amount of time, do simple things like force feilds, or short blasts of mind reading, (which is how I found out that you saw us before we were caught, ) Telekenitcs, telepathy, and I guess I can read your private thought speech. Sorry. I did it again."
"What's with the shades?" Marco asked.
"Oh. Some of us need them, in order not to get caught. Our eyes are the same color as our heartsones. Because mine is purple…well…if you saw someone with purple eyes, what would you do?" Zoe removed the sunglasses. Sure enough, gleaming dark purple eyes were quite noticible. She folded them and pocketed them. "Jai has green eyes, and the twins have blue, so does flame, and Dana's are turquoise, so she has to wear them a lot."
[who were those guys?] tobais asked.
"Well, long story. They're not Yeerks…uh, sorry, I did it again…well, but their normal humans who know a little about us and want to capture us. Have you seen, uh, that T.V. show, My Favorite Martian? Or the movie that just came out?" Zoe asked.
"My dad said he used to watch it. You don't look like you'd be old enough to know about it." I said.
"Honey, I'm about fifty seven times older than your father, however old he is. Anyway, it's like that. We come here sometimes, and they're always on us."
I looked at Jake. He looked at me.
"Zoe, do you have any earth bird morphs?"
Chapter Four
I was an Osprey. So was Marco. Jake was a pereginie falcon, and Rachel was a bald eagle. Everyone was in their bird of prey morphs, and Zoe was in the lead as a Cooper's Hawk. She said that she could morph anything that she knew what it looked like. Or something like that.
We were going to save the other 'Oshes' Well, that's what Zoe called them.
It was easy to catch up with the black Cherokee. We followed it and followed it and followed it…forever and forever…(or so Rachel put it) but finally it pulled into a barb wire constricted area and parked, where about ten men and women in black came out and helped carry the five 'humans' into the building on stretchers.
[how do we get in?] I asked.
EASY. FOLLOW ME, I'VE BEEN TO THIS HELLHOLE BEFORE. Zoe proclaimed. We followed her coopers hawk in dive and landed on the roof. There were seven guards on the roof.
[HAULL BUTT!!!] Jake yelled, flaring.
NO, WAIT! Zoe landed and, so fast I could barely see her, morphed into a strange creature that could be described as a dragon—wings, scales, four feet, and fire breath—about the size of a cow. In about five seconds the roof was cleared. She changed into a human. We demorphed.
"Nothing obsures my landing pad." Zoe said.
"You go girl." Rachel laughed.
To our left was a large skylight thing, and we went over to peer in.
"Remember, no killing anyone unless absolutely nesscarry." Jake whispered. Below us, the five sleeping aliens in human morph were all being looked at by the average white coat scientists, like in movies.
"Who do we rescue first? Who can help us fight first?" Ax asked.
"Hmm… well I would say Joey, uh, he's the one to the far left, Timmy's on the right. Not that I'm dissing Timmy, but Joey's the commandor and he's not…but no. Get Flame first." Zoe pointed to the smaller redhead.
"Him?! But he's so small and he looks like he couldn't fight a fly!" Rachel whisper/moaned.
"Well, that would have been true, but like your friend Erek…sorry…can't help it…Flame is an android. And he's not programmed to be nice. Sorry again, I really, really can't help it." Zoe said. "Flame can be waken up easily—all you have to do is this: Grab behind his neck, pull out a sort of floppy disk thingie, shake it and stuff it back in. He can wake up the others."
"Gotcha." We all chorused.
"And one more thing." Zoe said. "Don't be suprised—"
THUNK!
"Zoe's hit!!!" I yelled.
"aaabbouuuttttt whaaaattt wweeeee mmmmigghhhhtttttt….mmmoorrrrphhhh….." Zoe collapsed.
"MORPH!" Rachel screamed. I started morphing my wolf, dodging a tranquilizer dart that was heading my way. Some guards had found us!
I was totally wolf. The others were only half morphed, and Ax was was holding them off. But he could only do so much, for a few guards managed to get by without getting harmed.
Rachel who was now fully a grizzly bear leapt into the fray. Jake was his tiger and Marco was a gorilla.
WHAM! Rachel ran into the advancing guards. We were winning, but we were totally pincushioned by tranqulizer darts.
Marco stepped out of the fight. So did I. The two forces separated. Then Marco started wavering on his feet. The sleep affect was occouring.
Rachel fell. Right onto the Skylight.
CRASH! Glass flew everywere. Rachel fell from sight.
And then sleep overcame me.
Chapter Five
I woke up. My first thought was "how long have I been in morph?"
[Cassie, Jake, Ax, anyone! Wake up, you have thirty minutes left in morph!] Tobais cried from above. There were people in the room, and I was in a cage.
[Tobais, I'm awake, but their's people in the room. What do I do?] I asked.
[Try to wake up the others. I'll try a diversion.] Tobais said.
[Rachel, Marco, wake up!] I yelled.
TSSSEEEEEERRRRR!!
Down through the gaping hole in the skylight, Tobais flew in and started wrecking the place.
"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" I howled, right before demorphing. That woke up Ax and Jake.
[Guys, Demor-*] My thought speech ended. I finished the morph. The others started demorphing.
"Tobais, get out of here!" Rachel yelled. Too late. Some scientists got a bed sheet over him and sank a siringe full of tranquilizer through the sheet.
I started working on the lock frantically as soon as I had hands. I lifted the bolt and dashed out of the cage as soon as the others did. I ran for the door. But a guard wrapped his big muscular arms around me, holding me still.
I saw one of the Oshes flinch. It was the black one… Jai. I kicked my led backwards and hit the guard…umm…there…and dashed over to the osh named flame. It took me a second, and I had a few guards all over me, but when Ax came in to protect me I felt around the back of his head untill I found a small opening. Somehow I got the disk out. It was small and blue, but other than that it was like a square C.D. I shook it franticallly and stuck it in.
I jumped back. Flame opened his eyes. They were all in restraints, and in human morph, so what startled me was that when I put the disk back in he wasn't a human.
I first thought, "It's a dog?" But then I saw that it wasn't exactly. He had a red mane—not like a lion's mane, but kind of like a mohawk—and he had three Tails like a lion, with an obviously un-natural metal weapon clinched onto the end of each. Other than that, and really long ears that were sorta like a horse's, he basically looked like a dog.
"Where the heck…AHH!" Flame looked around.
"I'm on your side, don't worry. Wake up the others, fast!" I cried.
"Right. I just need to program Zoe's watch…." He looked at Zoe's watch for a second. BEEEEP!!
The Oshes sat up and looked around. "How'd you do that?!" Jake asked, amazed.
"Hey, I'm a talking computer, I can do anything!!" Flame laughed. He didn't look so geeky in this form. It must be his normal form.
The other Oshes, Dana, Jai, Zoe, Joey, and Timmy, stood up, disposing what was left of the restraints.
"Sorry if I'm breaking up any wonderul conversation, but the blue deer thing isn't going to hold off an army of guards on the floor…" Jai said. Ax was unconcious!
"Everone morph!" Jake yelled.
"Nobody's going to do anything. Now, you can just step back and not move and your friends won't get hurt." A man in a black suit appeared. He must have been in charge. "All of the scientists, leave." He ordered.
Joey, (or was it Timmy?) stepped forward. Yup, I could see that his chrystal blue eyes matched the stone around his neck. "Who are you, and why should we follow your orders?" He said. He sure sounds like a commandor, I thought.
"My name is Feragho Netsis, I am in control of this building and you. Why? Because I have behind me, in the halls, and patrolling the area a not-so-small army, ready to destroy you."
[It's gonna take more than fancy words to destroy the Animorphs!] Marco sneered.
The other oshes demorphed. They were basically the same, Jai had a blue spiky quill like mane, and black fur, Zoe had brown fur and a very long black mane, Dana was the same with a brown mane, and the twins were tawny brown with black manes. Joey had a gold earring and Timmy a silver—the only way to tell them apart.
"And the beautiful Zoe!"
"And the commandor of the Hardra6!"
"The Hydra what?" (that was marco) Nobody answered.
"And his smarter older brother!"
"You're not smarter and You're only six seconds older!"
"Not true! And I'm cuter!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
[Can we get on with this?] Jake the tiger said, pulling the two Oshes apart.
"Right. It's people-butt-kick'n-time!" Dana smiled ruthlessly.
[I resent that!] Rachel laughed.
[CHARGE!!!] Jake yelled.
We lunged!
Chapter Six
We lunged. Feragho, or whoever he was, stepped behind a row of sheilded guards.
Joey and Jai were like lions on the attack. Lionesses, because the lions only sit around, when the lionesses are the ones who hunt…you don't want to know, do you?
Well, I watched, not really wanting to fight humans. I mean, they wern't even controllers!
ROOOAAARRRR!!!!
I didn't expect the Oshes to be able to roar. It was loud.
ROOOAAARRRR!!!! Jake echoed.
I snapped at a guard behind me. Ax and Tobais were in cages. If only I could get to them…
[Ax, wake up! Tobais!] No answer. I called again, but didn't see the crowbar coming from behind me.
WHACK! The iron hit my skull. It must have given me internal bleeding or something. I was hurt, but still okay. I knocked the guy over and scratched at his chest with my claws, trying not to kill him.
"OOOOOOWWWWWCCCHHHHHH!!!!" It was Dana. She had a knife in her back.
[Dana! Are you okay?!?] I yelled.
"Totally." She seemed to glow for a second. Turquiose color, the color of her heartstone! The knife fell away and she stopped bleeding. "Just another of our little tricks." She jumped back into the fray. I shook my wolf head. You had to like these Oshes.
The battle was about even. The Oshes were avoiding using their heartstone powers—it probably wore them out a lot. The humans weren't using tranquliser guns anymore. They were using high tech weapons, guns, anything that was handy. We had animal power on our side.
Then all activity stopped.
Well, I wasn't doing much actually, just helping my friends when they needed it. I really, really didn't want anyone to get hurt.
HE was here.
Visser three. The only yeerk with an andalite host.
"Wha-Wha-What the heck is that thing?" Yelled some guard, stepping back.
"Isn't that Ax?" Joey asked Rachel.
[No, He's a yeerk with a host that is the same as Ax's species.] I said, [Andalite. He's our main enemy.]
"What is a yeerk?" Timmy asked.
[They're parasitic slugs, they crawl into your ear and take complete control over your body…we've been fighting them…] Jake said. Of course, in private thought speech.
[Guys, if any of these people become controllers, they'll know who we are. So there are only two choices…] Rachel sounded worried, even scared.
[Sorry to interrupt, but your end is very near, andalites!] Visser three laughed.
[Hurry! We have to either kill all the yeerks here…Including the visser, or….] Jake stopped.
[Or we have to kill all of the humans.] Marco finished.
Great. Just great.
Joey hadn't been listening. Neither had the other Oshes.
[What's up with you? Hello?] Marco yelled.
"Yeerks…." Joey said, looking off into space.
"Yeerks….Zereks….Yeerks….Zereks?"
Chapter Seven
[WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??] exploded Marco.
"No time! Attack!" Jai yelled. The Oshes advanced.
Zoe was out in front, and she jumped onto Visser Three's back…from the front. She raked her claws through his fur and into his flesh.
[AAAHHHHHHHH!] The Visser screamed, slashing his tail through her face.
Then Joey jumped in. He kicked out Visser Three's front legs and he collapsed. But he was already morphing.
"Morph all you want….So will we!!" Timmy yelled furiously. He slowly started to change. Green scales covered his body, wings burst out of his back, and he was growing, growing, growing…
"TIM! NOT IN HERE!!!!! YOU'LL BE TOO BIG!!!" Joey yelled.
"DON'T CALL ME TIM!!" He yelled back, but demorphed.
Visser three became a large plant like creature, with long viney tentacles, and gaping jaws. He was bright yellow, with green flicks all over him.
"JO! LOOK OUT!!!" Jai yelled. He jumped, and white feathered wings shot out of his back. He flew over to where Joey was preparing to jump and knocked him out of the way. A splat of poison covered the ground right there.
Meanwhile, Zoe was slowly healing herself and Ax had woken up.
FWAPP! SLASH!!
Ax was free!
[Riss Twa Nebuur! I should have known that the monster had already aquired him!!] Ax said, running in.
His tail was raised. He was running full throttle at Visser three/Riss Twa Neburr. (whatever that happened to be)
[is tobais okay?] Rachel asked.
[He is fine. Just asleep. But you are very low on morph time! Twenty-five minutes!]
[As soon as this battle's over. Right, let's get going.] Jake said. We all advanced.
The guards were all huddled in a corner. They realized that this wasn't their fight. Except one guy.
"Hey, Wait! Who are you, blue deer guy? I'm on your side, I don't want to di-"
One swipe from Rachel's massive grizzly bear paw silenced him forever. It was the only thing to do.
Visser three began to demorph. As soon as he had it, he put a hoof on top of the winded commandor in front of him. Joey. Then he pressed his tail blade at his throught.
[Infest this creature. Bring in Visser twelve. NOW YOU FOOLS!]
A few human controllers came in, holding between them a canister, which undoubtedly contained a yeerk.
CASSIE.
[Yeah?] It was Jai.
HOW FAST DO YOU THINK YOU CAN TELL ME EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT YEERKS?
The visser was lowering the canister of Visser Twelve down to Joey's ear. I was blabbering as fast as I possibly could everything about the yeerks—from how they infest, their origin, and their (hopeful) fate, meeting the Iskroots. My mind was racing. If we didn't do anything soon, our secrets would be unveiled. Where would we go? What would we do?
[Visser Twelve, do you have controll of this host?] it wasn't a question, it was a demand. There was a blank look on the Osh leader's face.
[It's over, guys.] I sighed. I lowered my head.
When I looked up, I was utterly amazed at what I saw.
Joey, or Visser Twelve, I guess, stood up looked at Visser Three, and then lowered his head. A yeerk slug writhed out of it.
SQUISH.
[What the…] Visser three could have killed Joey. Right then and there. But he was too stunned. Joey attacked.
"THE UNINFESTABLE!! YEAH!!" Jai yelled. "YEAH! Thanks cassie, I was so scared untill you told me all that. I knew it I knew it I knew it!!!!"
[Knew what?] Ax asked. He was stunned, too.
"WE"RE TOTALLY DE-YEERKIFIED!! UNINFESTIBLE!!!"
Zoe laughed.
[What are they saying?] Marco asked.
[They're saying that it is impossible for a yeerk to take controll of an Osh!!!!] I said.
We smiled in our animal bodies.
[Cassie, we have 10 minutes left in morph.] Ax said calmly, in private thought speech.
[Okay, let's make the most of it then!] I said happily. I howled. But then…
"TIMMY!!!!!!!"
It was like a wail. A morunful wail of warning.
Flame.
Chapter Eight
"TIMMY! LOOK OUT!!!"
We spun around. Visser Three was racing for Timmy, thinking it was Joey.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Timmy screamed.
Out of nowhere…
"YAAHHHHH!"
WHUMP!
It sounded like running a car into a pack of fresh meat. A sickening sound.
Flame had run up, intercepting Visser Three, and smacked into him, sending the both of them flying.
It was almost funny, seeing this weakling alien push a horse sized Andalite about fifteen feet.
The problem was this: The wall was only four feet away. There was a one-way window right there. We couldn't see out the window, so we didn't know where it went. Andalite and Osh/Android crashed through that window, and even before the glass broke, Joey's yell could be heard. I guess that he could see through the one-way window.
I just stood there, not knowing what to do.
"FLAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMEEEEEE!!"
CRRRRAAAAASSSSSHHHH!
I saw what was on the other side of the window. A lap pool.
Have you ever dropped a floppy disk, or a CD, or any computer into the water? It's like sticking a magnet into a computer slot. It's never going to work again. Well, from the info that I gathered from the Oshes so far, Flame was a very, very sophisticated computer.
But, he was a computer still.
SPLASH!!!!!!!!!!
"FLAME! NOOOOOO!" Joey leapt through the window.
They seemed to hover in the air for a second before dropping into the pool.
[Ax! Go get Tobais! We have to bail out!] I was guessing that we had about two minutes left.
The Oshes were fishing out around the pool. I motioned for the other Animorphs to follow me. We found a good hiding place, and demorphed for a minute. Then we re-morphed. Ax walked up with Tobais, still asleep.
We returned to the Oshes. They were gathered around the soaking wet form of Flame.
Visser Three climbed out of the pool at the shallow end, and ran for the exit. We had to let him go this time. He was a coward.
Joey reached behind Flame's head and pulled out the disk. A little water trickled out of the slot. He held it up.
It almost scared me half to death. Flame instantly converted from a wet osh to a wet robot.
He looked a little like a Chee, except he was exactly the same shape as an osh. He looked very high tech, ya know?.
"This disk contained everything in my son's memory…his voice, his memory, his mind." Joey tossed the disk into the pool.
[Flame is his SON?] Marco asked.
IT IS TRUE. Zoe lowered her head.
"I can help."
We looked up. Erek the Chee stood there. He had a hollogram that made him look like a human. Bet we knew he was much more than that.
He walked over. He grasped the chrome arm of the robot before us.
SNAP!
Electric sparks. Erek's hollogram flickered for a moment. I could almost feel the energy volts flowing between them.
[So this is android CPR?] Marco said with a wavery laugh. When nobody laughed, he sort of coughed.
"I have tried my hardest. I cannot help him." Erek finally said. He stood.
We left. The Oshes morphed human, and we demorphed. We walked away in silence.
Then, when we reached the abandoned barb-wire gate, Erek dropped his hollogram and held out an arm to Jai.
They communicated silently, without words, without telepathy.
Jai took his arm, and opened it up. it had a mini keyboard. Jai typed in a few things, then deleted a few things. Then he closed Erek's arm and the hollogram reappeared.
Erek looked towards the building. "Pemalite spirits, forgive me for what I am about to do."
The building blew up.
Chapter Nine
We left. We all went home, to our houses, had dinner. I stared at my mom, who was passing out peas, and asking how our days were, and I felt like screaming, "I never get any praise!! I save the world like every day and I get nothing!!"
I later learned that twenty three people were killed in that explosion. They were innocent people, who had one day gotten the job that they had always wanted. They were MURDERED, as far as I wanted to think.
We didn't even know if all the people that had seen us morph were killed. We could only hope.
The next day, I skipped school. I told my mom I was sick. I was sick, emotionally.
I went out on a walk. To the woods. Mom was at work, I wasn't going to tell her were I went. I like fresh air.
[Cassie, you're not at school. Not feeling well?] Tobais flew in from the sky.
"No, I'm not. all of those people were killed." I moaned quietly. "I just need time to think."
[Cassie, you need to think of all the people who will live, after we win. And besides, those people wouldn't want Yeerks living in their heads, would they?]
I thought about it for a few minutes. Tobais gave me time. He was such a kind person, you know? I understood why Rachel liked him so much.
"What became of the Oshes?" I finally asked.
[Wanna go see?] Tobais asked. I smiled. I began to morph an Osprey. I guess seeing the kind-natured fighters would do me good.
Later, we were flying off, Tobais leading the way. [I followed them, and they're staying in a couple of hotel rooms by the beach. If you ask me, that's the place to hide out from evil. Yup.] Tobais said.
We found the window open, they were expecting us. We landed in Zoe and Jai's room. (Turns out they were more than just ordinary FRIENDS…these two were in loooooove.)
"Hey, guys! Tobais and Cassie right? Want to talk to Flame?" Jai seemed to be in a good mood.
I demorphed. "Talk to him? Wasn't he 'watered'?"
"Sure was. But we wouldn't go anywere without keeping Flame copies." He laughed. He was in human form. Suddenly, he flicked his hand and four of those 'floppy CD's' were in it.
"I've always wondered how people do that trick." I laughed. At least not all news was turning out bad.
"Me too. I do it the easy way…" Jai tossed the disks into the air and they vanished with a glow of light green. We laughed.
"Okay, type what you want to say to Flame on this keyboard. He's awake, just reading or something."
[oh, so he's in the computer?] Tobais asked.
"yup."
I put my hands on the keyboard. But I soon noticed that it wasn't in English.
"umm…"
"Oh, uh, sorry. What do you want to say?" Jai took the seat and let his fingers lightly touch the two-buttoned keyboard.
"How about, 'Flame, are you okay?"
Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap. There were only two charachters in the osh language—they looked sort of like ' / ' and a ' : ' so on the computer screen it looked a little like this:
::://:/::/://:///:/::/::://:/::/://:///:/::/::://:/::/://:///:/::/
The response was immediate. Except it was in English.
"I'm Okay. Why aren't you at schoollll"?
"Hmm, Flame made a little typo—" I started. But then it was corrected. I laughed.
When Tobais and I left, we had Zoe's beeper number, her hotel phone number for when she was on Earth, and a phone number that we could contact her in space by. I felt much happier.
Tobais was right. Twenty three people died. But if the Yeerks won, whole species of animals and plants would die, and millions of humans. It was a small casualty of war, that we would just have to take.
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