The Task

Prologue

My name is Michael.

You see. The others can't tell you my cave. I have white-gray feathers and a little bit of black on the tips of my wings much about themselves, but I can.

I live in a field near what use to be and tail. I also have what looks like a black mask of feathers. Kind of. Now you're thinking Feathers? Wings and tail?.

Well let me explain. A few months ago my friends Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco were cutting through a abandoned construction site when they saw a light come from the sky. It turned out it was an Andalite spaceship.

It was there that the dying Andalite prince named Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul gave them the power to morph into any animal they touched. It was there that they learned about the Yeerks. And it was there that they watched the Yeerk overlord Visser 3 murder Elfangor.

Now I bet your wondering what Yeerks and Andalites are. A Yeerk is like a parasitic worm. Like a tapeworm really. But instead of infesting your stomach it's your head they infest. They slide in through your ear canal and flatten themselves out into all the little cracks and folds of your brain. Completely controlling you. You think "Oh I would still be able to move and stuff" but you wouldn't. You can't move your legs or arms. You can't talk. You can't even move your eyes. You are a slave to the Yeerk in your brain. More of a slave that any human has ever been.

The Andalites are sort of the opposite of the Yeerks. They look like a blue centaur with a scorpion tail, no mouth, two eyes where they belong and two eyes on stalks that sit on top of their heads. The stalks can turn this way and that. So it’s impossible to sneak up on an Andalite. Andalites have the technology to morph into any creature they can touch. Like my friends.

The Yeerks have already taken over at least three species that I know of including the Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, and Gedds. They also have a few Leerans.

Like I was saying. Visser 3 morphed into some creature called a Anterian Bogg and ate Elfangor. Yes morphed. You see. There are thousands of Hork-Bajir controllers and thousands of Taxxon controllers. But only one Andalite controller. And that Andalite controller is Visser 3.

Well I'll give you a small sample of the really important stuff they did after that night. They went down to the Yeerk Pool and that's where Tobias was trapped in red-tailed hawk morph. They found another Andalite in a destroyed dome ship at the bottom of the sea named Aximili-Esgarouth-Isthill but we call him Ax for short. Tobias Got his morphing power back by an Ellemist and was able to acquire his old human self. They had another kid named David join the team but they later made him a nothlit a person trapped in morph. Like Tobias. Tobias found out he was Elfangor’s son. Another girl named Anna joined the team. They found out that she wasn't human. I joined after Anna and they found out I wasn't human either. I was killed down in the Yeerk pool. I was revived by an Ellemist as a different person. I also had the power to morph when the Ellemist brought me back.. And it was there that I was trapped in Merlin morph. A Merlin is a type of hawk.

Now you know why I have feathers and a tail.

Chapter 1

Michael

<You need to learn how to dive faster and better.> Tobias said.

I was being taught to be a better bird by Tobias because let's face it, I'm basically stuck as a bird the rest of my life so I might as well get use to it.

<Now tuck your wings back closer to your body. Like this.> Tobias instructed.

I watched as he tucked his wings back to his body and went into a steep dive.

<Like this?> I asked as I tucked my own wings back to my body and swooped down.

In a few seconds I had caught up to Tobias and went speeding past him.

<Good. You've go the hang of it. I think.> Tobias complimented unsure.

It was nice having a compliment on my flying. Especially from Tobias which I think of as the expert in flying. That’s my excuse.

I wasn't watching where I was going because I was feeling good about myself and I noticed that when Tobias yelled <Flare! Flare!>

I noticed where I was again and flared. Unfortunately I was too close to the ground and when I tried to pull up I landed on my face.

CLUNK!

I skidded a few feet and then stopped.

<Ouch. That just sort of hurt.> I said <I think I chipped my beak.>

Tobias landed about three feet from me.

<It would also help if you worked on the landing.> Tobias said with a laugh.

I was just getting up when I noticed an osprey and a bald eagle. A osprey is a type of hawk that eats by grabbing fish out of the water.

<Hey Michael. Hey Tobias.> Rachel called down as she was landing.

<How’d you know it was us?> I asked.

<There’s something strange about a red-tail and a Merlin going into a dive right after each other. So I figured it was you and Tobias.> Rachel said. <That, and the Merlin hitting the ground like wasn’t watching where it was going.>

I blushed. Well, I blushed as good as a Merlin can blush. Inside.

<Well anyway. Jake told us to come get you guys. There’s a meeting that is important.> Cassie said.

<You must be getting low on the two hour limit. You should demorph.> Tobias said.

<He’s right.> Rachel said.

I watched as legs came sprooting out of Rachel’s bald eagle legs. And talons changed to feet.

The same changes were happening to Cassie. But with her, the wings were changing into human arms.

I watched as Rachel’s head changed to normal. I could see her black leotard just appearing.

Cassie was almost finished. All she had left was an osprey head. It looked strangely cool. Then her human head changed back and she was completely human.

Rachel was completely human. Except she had a six foot wingspan still. Then it went away.

Rachel looked at Cassie’s morphing clothes. She let out a sigh. "Cassie, You have to get a better morphing outfit. I mean, purple and green does not go good together."

"What’s so bad about mixing green and purple?"

"It’s a major fashion no-no."

Maybe I should explain what these people are like.

Well Rachel’s a very pretty girl. She has blond hair and brown eyes. And she seems to have a secret spotlight on her all the time. She is a constant shopper. If you need to look for some good clothes, get Rachel.

Now Cassie. Picture a black, African-American girl wearing overalls that are four inches above her boots, trying to make an angry skunk to take it’s medicine. That’s Cassie. She and Rachel are best friends, but never look like they could be. Rachel is the kind of girl that would subscribe to a magazine like Seventeen. While Cassie on the other hand would most likely subscribe to a magazine such as The Smelly Mammals of America. She has never met an animal she didn’t like. And she doesn’t care about clothes. At all.

Jake is sort of the leader of the little group. If you were trapped in a burning building with him and didn’t know what to do, he would have an answer. Jake is the kind of person that is a born leader. Jake’s had to grow up a lot in the last few months. And he’s had to make too many life and death decisions. Also he likes Cassie. As in likes. But it’s supposed to be a big secret, so don’t tell anyone.

Now Marco is the joker of the group. Even if he was surrounded by guys with Uzi’s and was bleeding, he would tell a joke. Maybe. It seems as if Marco uses half of his brain telling jokes, and the other half laughing at them. But really he’s the person that will see something that everyone else misses. And he’s the one that takes care of all our little security problems.

Tobias is a red-tailed hawk. A nothlit, a person living out their life in another animal’s body. Like me. Tobias has been a hawk for a few months now. He’s excepted it as his life. He got his morphing power back from an Ellemist. It was a gift for freeing two Hork-Bajir from the Yeerks. The Ellemist also let Tobias acquire his old self. Tobias could morph to his human body and stay human for more than two hours. And stay human, but he doesn’t. I don’t know why. Maybe he doesn’t want to get out of the war with the Yeerks yet. Or maybe he prefers his life as a hawk more than a human, I don’t know.

Then there’s Ax. Ax is an Andalite. His full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Now you see why we call him Ax. The original members of the Animorphs found Ax in a Andalite dome ship that crashed down into the Atlantic ocean. Ax is where we get all our information about Andalite technology and Yeerk technology. But he is also very good in a fight. Believe me, when you see how fast Ax can move that tail of his in a fight, you don’t want to have to fight against it. Good thing that Ax is on our team.

And last of all, (other than me) there’s Anna. Anna is a Navarazzi. It’s a race of aliens that looks like one of those gargoyles on the show Gargoyles. I don’t really know much about Anna except that she moved to this town about a month ago. I think. That’s when she joined.

Well anyway.

<So anyway.> I said, interrupting Cassie and Rachel. <When and where is this meeting of Jake’s?>

"It’s in about two hours. At Marco’s house." Cassie said.

<Why at Marco’s house?> Tobias asked.

"It seems that Marco found something new on the Yeerk webpage."

Just then I heard something crashing through the brush. I caught a glimpse of blue and pale tan fur. I watched two stalk eyes bobbing up and down about a hundred feet away.

<Hi Ax.> I said.

Ax jumped through the bushes. <Hello Michael. Hello everyone.>

<Hey Ax-man. What are you doing out here?>

<I was eating while I was running and became very calm and passive and didn’t watch where I was going.>

<It happens to everyone I guess.> I muttered.

<Well I guess we can tell him about the meeting now that he’s here.> Tobias said.

"Yeah. Hey, Ax, there’s a meeting at Marco’s house in a few hours. Could you come? It’s something about the Yeerk webpage." Rachel said.

<I will come. Could you send Michael or Tobias to come get me when it’s time. I do not know where Marco’s house is.> Ax asked.

<No problem Ax-man.> Tobias said.

"Well I have to go. There’s a golden eagle that we’re releasing soon." Cassie said.

Both me and Tobias looked at Cassie.

<Where are you releasing it?> Tobias asked. He sounded mad at Cassie.

"Don’t worry Tobias. You either Michael. We’re not releasing it anywhere near either of your territories." Cassie said.

You see the reason Tobias and I didn’t like golden eagles is because golden eagles are known to hunt and kill smaller hawks.

"Well anyway. I have to go also." Rachel said. "There’s a sale going on at "the place." So you know I’m gonna’ be there."

Rachel looked at Cassie. "Maybe I could wait for you to get done with the golden eagle. Then you could come with me."

"Nope. I’m not going shopping with you at the mall while you power-shop and guys drool all over you." Cassie said quickly, with a roll of her eyes.

They both laughed.

<Well I’m gonna’ go. There’s a nice thermal over there by my cave. I can ride it a mile up.> I said. <I’ll see-ya guys later at the meeting.>

Chapter 2

All I did during that two hours was ride the thermals and catch my lunch. A nice tasty mouse. But eventually the time came when I had to leave for the meeting.

I flew over to Marco’s house. Marco was inside with Jake. They were logging on to the internet.

<Hey, let me in.> I said. I started beating on the closed window of Marco’s room.

Marco and Jake looked out the window. Marco came and opened the window while Jake locked the door.

"Come on in." Marco said.

I flew in and landed on the bed. I lied down so my head was on the pillow.

<So. What did you find?>

"I’ll show you when everyone’s here." Marco said. He grinned with anticipation. "By the way. Are all the hawks doing that now? Are all the birds lying on beds now?"

Jake made a coughing sound in his throat and was smiling. He was trying not to laugh. Marco had this big, dopey grin on his face.

<Marco, if your smile got any bigger, you wouldn’t have any room for that hedgehog sitting on your head.>

I heard a laugh from outside the room. Then "Hey, let us in."

Jake unlocked the door and Cassie and Rachel came in. Rachel was smiling and Cassie was trying to hold her smile back.

"Someone finally gave a better comeback than Marco could." Rachel said. "Amazing!" She was still smiling.

"Your dad just left, Marco. He said he’d be gone for a few hours." Cassie said.

I looked out the window and saw a squirrel climbing up the tree out front. It was meaty and looked good to eat. It reminded me of how hungry I was. I didn’t have a very lucky catch for lunch.

<Hey, Marco. Could you open the window for a second?>

"Sure. Why?"

<You probably don’t want to know.>

Marco opened the window. I got the squirrel in my sights and dove out.

I grabbed the squirrel while it was in mid jump and flew back up to the tree. I started munching on the squirrel.

"You were right. I didn’t want to know." Marco said. He looked sick.

<Want some, Marco? It's nice and tasty.> I said as I held out a talon with some squirrel meat on it.

That just made Marco look sicker. "Um, not really."

I smiled inside.

I finished my squirrel and flew back in. I noticed that Ax and Anna were there.

<Oh. Hi Ax. Hi Anna.>

"Hello Michael. Mike. El. Mik-a-el." Ax said.

I smiled inside again. It’s always funny when Ax plays with sounds in his human morph. But after a while it gets annoying.

"Hi Michael." Anna said.

I landed on Marco’s desk. I was staring at the computer screen. I always liked to play games on the computer. When I was human that is.

There was an ad for buying a VISA card for WAA. Marco dumped it. Something about a chain letter. He dumped that too. Then he got out of E-mail. Then he logged onto WAA.

<OK, I’m here. So what’s this big thing with the computer?> Tobias asked.

I turned around and saw Tobias standing on the bed. He was morphing to human.

I got a tinge of jealousy. See, everyone here that wasn’t human could either morph to human of shift. But I couldn’t.

I looked at the computer again. It helped me not to feel sorry for myself.

Marco was in a search engine. He typed in the word "Yeerk." A site came up.

I almost laughed. It was just crazy. The Yeerks had a webpage.

"So, what’s new on the old Yeerkpage?" Tobias asked.

I looked at him again. He was fully human.

"It seems the Yeerks put up a "news" section now. I looked inside and saw this." Marco said.

I looked at the screen. It said something about the change dracon plan being messed up. It would take them years to recreate the plans and how to make it.

<Well, that’s something good.> I said.

"Yeah. But look at this." Marco said.

He scrolled down the news section. Something about Royan Island.

<So? It’s about Royan Island. So what?>

"Oh, man."

<What? Tell me.>

"They’re bringing up the shark project again. This is not good." Cassie said.

<What shark project?>

"There was a project the Yeerks were working on with sharks. Hammerheads to be exact. They were producing them underwater around Royan Island. The sharks are for the attack on the Leeran planet." Jake explained.

<Oh. Well, then I’m out of this mission. How would I get down there?>

"OK. So Michael’s out of this mission. We’re still doing it though. We can’t let the Yeerks get more shark-controllers." Jake said.

"And how will I get down there?" Anna asked. "Navarazzi’s can’t hold their breath that long."

Obviously nobody liked the idea of both me and Anna not being there. I wasn’t to thrilled either. I didn’t like having my friends risking their lives and me not even being there.

"Well, OK. We’ll search it out tomorrow." Jake said.

<OK. See-ya all later.>

I flew out the window and headed toward my territory.

Chapter 3

There wasn't much to do the rest of the day. Except catch dinner.

I just kept thinking what was going to happen in the waters around Royan island. It was bothering me that I was going to be safe while my friends were down there infiltrating a highly guarded Yeerk facility. I couldn't put it out of my mind.

<They'll be OK down there. There's nothing to worry about.> I reassured myself. It didn't help much though.

I started thinking about what they would be encountering down there. Hammerhead controllers. Hork-Bajir controllers. Taxxon controllers. a few Leerans, definitely. Maybe Visser 3 himself.

I came back from my thinking and realized that I was at least two miles from where I wanted to go.

<Hello, Michael. What are you doing here?> Ax asked.

I looked down and saw a blue centaur. Ax.

<Hi, Ax. I didn't mean to come this way. I just spaced, I guess.>

<What is spaced?> Ax asked, sounding confused.

<When you're doing something and you start thinking about something else. Then you don't notice what you're doing and end up doing something else than you wanted to do.> I said. <At least that's how I refer to it.>

<Oh. I sometimes do that when I am eating.> Ax said.

I landed on a tree. It was getting dark and my laser-like hawk vision wasn't working all that well anymore. I turned on my eye-lights.

I looked around. I was at the far end of Tobias's field. I could see Tobias at the other end in his tree. He was sleeping.

I had to get back to my territory before some other creature of the night took it.

<Bye, Ax. I'll see you guys tomorrow before you leave on the mission.> I said.

<Good bye, Michael.>

I flew off towards my territory with the same thoughts racing through my head that I had heading there.

Chapter 4

I awoke that night to find that I wasn't in my tree. I wasn't even in my territory. I wasn't anywhere at all, really.

I was floating in sort of what looked like a green universe.

"Aw, man. This is familiar." I muttered.

Wait a minute. Said? In a voice?

I looked at myself. I was a strange mix of all four of the bodies that I ever had. The bodies of Michael, Mikili, Jared and my Merlin body. I had a beak and feathers like a Merlin. Wings like a Maheek. I saw my face in sort of a reflective green stuff that was all around me. My face was even stranger than my body. It was like I had a two face. Half of my face was that of Jared's and the other half was that of Michael's. My body was human also.

"Well, what can I do to help? I'm a bird, remember. It's what you did to me. I can’t exactly swim down there."

I felt a chill go up my spine. "What are you planning on doing to me this time?!"

I was shocked. "You mean I will be able to change from one of my bodies to another?"

"Do I have a time limit to the changes?"

Just then I was back in my tree. I wondered if it was all a dream. If it was, I’d find out tomorrow.

Chapter 5

I woke up to the sound of wings. I looked around and noticed Anna down on the ground eating a deer.

<Oh. Hi, Anna.> I greeted.

Hi Michael. Did I wake you up?

I blinked twice. <No. I was awake anyway. I have to be careful of other predators, you know.>

Well, OK. You hungry? Anna asked, holding out a chunk of deer.

<No thanks. I’m gonna’ go catch something over by my old cave. There’s a lot of tasty mice and rats over there.>

Well, OK. See-ya later. Remember, the others are leaving in a few hours. Some of them aren’t even up yet.

<Well, OK. I’ll be there. Where are we meeting before they leave?>

Cassie’s barn. Then they’re going to morph to seagull to get to the beach. Then remorph to seagull to Royan island.

<OK. I’ll be at the barn. Later.>

I flew off towards my cave caught breakfast. I was eating when I remembered the weird dream I had the night before. At least I thought it was a dream.

I formed a mental picture of my first human self in my mind. The changes started almost immediately.

<Whoa!> I yelled as my vision returned to normal human vision. It was a big change.

<Humans are so blind.> I grumbled.

Just then my legs decided to change normal. I came shooting up from the ground.

The rest of the changes went smoothly. I kept my wings till last. I don’t know why. I looked like some sort of strange angel. Then even the wings changed into normal human arms.

"So. I guess the Ellemist wasn’t lying."

Chapter 6

I heard a small snapping sound just outside the entrance to the cave. I changed to my hawk form as fast as I could. No one had to know about what happened just yet. Not just yet.

"Michael, you in here?"

I hoped I was fully hawk. I spread my arms. Yes! They were wings.

<Yeah I’m in here. A nice plump mouse ran in here.> I lied.

I saw Anna just coming around the corner of the cave entrance. "Well, I just came to tell you that the others are gathering at Cassie’s barn in about half an hour. So if you’re gonna’ come, you better head there."

<OK, I’ll be there in a little while.> I said.

Chapter 7

"Where have you been? We’ve been waiting here for about twenty minutes." Marco complained. "I mean, I could’ve stayed in bed and slept but who needs sleep when you can run off on a suicide mission to an underwater Yeerk facility to try to destroy a project that will save the psychic frogs."

"So in other words you’re glad to help." Jake joked.

Everyone laughed. Even Marco.

Jake looked at his watch. "Well we better start heading toward the beach. Ax and Anna said they’d meet us there."

<I’ll see you out, but I don’t do very well over water. Not many thermals. No thermals equals harder flapping.> I said.

"Let’s go seagull everybody." Jake said.

A few minutes later two hawks and four seagulls flew out of the barn.

It was hard flapping getting there. The sun was hidden behind a wall of clouds and there weren’t any thermals. But we got there soon enough.

I watched as four seagulls melted and changed into normal human kids.

<Well, I have to go.> I said.<There’s another hawk trying to take my territory from me.> I had made a pretty lame excuse to leave. But it worked.

"OK, We’ll see you when we get back." Rachel said cheerfully.

"If we do get back." Marco said grimly.

I left as the others were changing into seagulls once again. I saw Anna watching and I saw Ax changing also.

I flew off toward Royan Island hoping to get ahead of the others before they got there.

Chapter 8

Tobias

My name’s Tobias.

And I was one very wet and salty red-tailed hawk.

I was floating in the ocean changing into my morph of a hammerhead shark.

I had gotten the shark morph when there was trouble around Royan Island with the Yeerks. They were trying to create shark controllers for they’re attack on the Leeran planet.

We destroyed that operation completely but it seems that they brought it up again. Trying for a second attack on the Leeran world, I guess.

This whole thing seemed like a trap. It was too easy. And I didn’t see any sharks around yet. None.

Before they had sharks lining the perimeter of the facility. Now I didn’t see a thing.

I waited while the others finished they’re morphs. We had done this morph before so we didn’t have any trouble controlling it.

When we were all done with the morph, we started swimming toward the facility. Or the hologram that covered the facility.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dolphin swimming towards the hologram. Something seemed strange about it.

I watched as it disappeared through the hologram. Now it was our turn.

<Let’s do it!> Rachel said with the giddy sound she has in her voice when she’s about to do something dangerous.

Marco sighed. <You never learn, do you.>

We all dived into the hologram and saw the same thing that there was last time.

A pinkish building that looked like it could’ve come out of a Dilbert comic. But in Dilbert comics there aren’t Hork-Bajir.

I saw the dolphin swimming like crazy. Then I saw why. Right behind the dolphin were six hammerheads.

<If you guys can hear me, I’m gonna’ need some help in a few seconds.> A thought-speak voice said.

The six of us look at each other.

<Did you hear that?> Jake asked us.

We all answered yes.

I saw the dolphin pass a few feet in front of us.

<If that bunch of hammerheads I just passed is you guys, I’d really like to know so.>

<Michael?> Cassie asked confused.

<Yes, Michael. Now will you please help me before these sharks get tired of playing chase and decide to play catch. With my head as the ball.> The dolphin said snappishly.

I watched as one of the sharks veered off toward the base. And in a few seconds there were nine more sharks heading towards Michael.

<Uh oh.> Michael said.

We all went over toward Michael. I noticed he only had two sharks on him now.

Shark blood billowed in the water as we all went at it to help Michael.

<Michael, Get out of here. Get to the shore and start demorphing.> Jake ordered.

<Already heading there.> Michael said.

I watched the dolphin head toward shore. So did we a few seconds after.

Ten minutes later we were all staring at Michael. We wanted to know how he morphed. And why he wasn’t a hawk.

Chapter 9

Michael

"Well, it seems our all-mighty friend the Ellemist had that special task for me, but it wasn’t in the last mission. And he says that I was supposed to perform the task this mission. In all my new bodies. That’s why I can morph." I said.

<Now answer the second question. Why didn’t you tell us that you got your morphing power back.> Rachel said. She didn’t sound too happy.

"I knew Jake wasn’t going to let me come along."

<Why wouldn’t I have let you go along?> Jake asked.

"Because I know you’d think that it’d be too risky. I would most likely danger the mission because I didn’t have very many morphs. That I would do something stupid like get carried away with the morph and blow our cover. Or get too happy that I can morph again. I can take care of myself. I was planning on meeting you down there. But I knew you’d get there before me." I said. I was angry. But the person I was angry at was beyond my reach. I realized I was breathing hard.

"Why are you saying things that you don’t mean, Michael? What’s wrong. You don’t mean any of those things and I’m guessing that you’re mad at someone. But since I don’t think it’s one of us, I’m guessing it’s the Ellemist." Cassie said to me in a soothing tone.

I sighed. It would come out soon anyway, so why not get it over with now. "It’s the Ellemist. He said he’d give me back this power to change to and from all my different forms I’ve had and stayed in. But it’s only for this mission. If I fail, he says you all die and I’m trapped in my hawk body again. In the underwater facility. If I do the task correctly, we’ll all escape from the facility, but I’ll still be a hawk. But he’ll still let me have the morphing power. But I don’t think he’ll let me acquire my old human self like Tobias." At that last part I took a glance at Tobias.

Everyone just kind of stared at that. Nobody said anything for a good thirty seconds.

"Well, at least you’ll be a full member of the team then." Jake said. He didn’t sound too disappointed, but not too happy either.

"We have to get him a shark morph. Or he’ll never get in the facility." Cassie said. "And I don’t think any of us want to go back to Ocean World again."

"Nope. Absolutely not. No way. I was almost chomped there. And I don’t feel like having that same experience again." Marco said quickly.

I sighed. "So in other words, we’ll have to capture a shark from the facility itself. That won’t be fun."

"There’s no other choice, is there?" Jake said. "Any suggestions on a different way?"

Marco raised his hand like he was class. "We could all go home and watch some TV.

"I’ll take that as a no." Jake said with a sigh. "OK, so we steal a shark."

We decided the best way to steal a shark was to lure it into the shallow water. Then to knock it out. Of course Cassie had an objection toward this way, but we had to do this. We had to get a hammerhead for me to acquire.

Tobias and I morphed to dolphin. The others all morphed to shark and got ready to beat the poor shark senseless.

<So, think this is gonna’ work?> I asked Tobias just to make conversation.

<Who knows. I hope it does. It would help a lot if we had an extra person down there to help. Last time was a close call.> Tobias answered.

<How do you think were going to do this? I mean destroy the facility? It might be hard.> I asked.

<We might do the same thing we did last time. We used the self destruct thing on the computer. Erek says it’s the easiest way to destroy this place.>

I thought about that for a second. Then I realized something. <Who’s Erek?>

<Oh, Erek’s a Chee. They’re a race of androids that pass as humans with holograms.> Tobias explained.

<Yeah, and they’re even more advanced than the Andalites. They even got a web browser that actually works.> A thought-speak voice said.

<Marco, where are you?> I asked.

<Well, we found a hammerhead that’s alone. We’re to the right of you. So hurry up and get over here.>

I turned to Tobias. <Looks like it’s time.>

<Yep.>

We swam over to where Marco affirmed where they were. Them and the shark.

<Whoa! Catch the shark before it dies.> Jake ordered.

I watched as Marco left us to go help the other four sharks pull up the poor hammerhead. They were heading toward shore.

I quickly swam to shore and demorphed back to my human shape. It was strange not having feathers or wings.

When everybody brought the hammerhead on shore I stuck my hand on it’s skin.

A shark’s skin is made up of millions of tiny teeth called denticles. Those tiny teeth are so sharp that if you rub your hand the wrong way on a sharks skin you can cut your hand.

I felt the sharks DNA flow through my veins. I felt as the last bit of it’s DNA come into me and I took my hand away.

I sighed. "Let’s just get this over with."

I closed my eyes and started the morph. The first thing that happened was my legs twisted up like some kid twisting a pair of straws. My legs sort of melted together and became a tail. I couldn’t keep my balance and I fell over as a wave hit my changing body.

The next thing that happened was my arms shrank and changed shape to look like triangles. My body changed into that of a sharks. I felt a slight sensation of something coming out of my spine. I reached up with my morphing hand and felt the beginnings of a dorsal fin.

Now the creepy part of all this was I had changed entirely, except my head was untouched. I was a shark with the head of a human!

I felt as the last of the changes happened and the shark mind emerged.

I was hit by a wave and rolled back into the ocean.

I smelled blood. I started to swim toward the scent. It was getting stronger as I was getting farther out to sea.

The shark mind didn’t care about anything except meat. Food and killing it. The shark mind felt no sorrow for the creature it was about to kill. To shred, to rip apart!

<Um guys, I don’t think Michael has complete control of his morph. He’s heading right towards you!> A voice in my head said.

<Your right, Tobias.> Another voice said.

Voice in my head. Meaningless. There was blood in the water.

<Michael, listen. You are a human, not a shark. It’s me, Jake. Remember me.> Another voice said.

The shark brain was confused. It had never experienced these voices.

Those voices left just a small crack in the sharks ruthless mind. A tiny crack just enough for the human named Michael to emerge.

Me?

Suddenly I felt like I had been hit by a boat. Everything snapped back. All of my memories and feelings. All of it.

<Ack! Strong little brain. I should’ve expected it from a predator that’s lived for millions of years.> I said.

<OK, so Michael’s back. Time to give a little visit to the Yeerks.> Jake said.

<To our fellow sharks, sharkman!> Marco said.

<Not even slightly funny, Marco.> Rachel said to tease him.

As we plowed through the water towards the facility I felt a grudge at the Ellemist. He was the one that changed my life mostly. And now he was going to change it again in a big way.

I realized everyone had stopped. I stopped with them.

<Which door now? We’re not doing the middle door again though.> Jake said.

<Pick a door, any door.> Marco said.

<How about the right one.> Ax said calmly.

<Any particular reasons Ax?> Cassie asked.

<There seem to be many Hork-Bajir heading in that door.>

I looked at the right door and I noticed Ax was right. There were many Hork-Bajir in bizarre red diving suits and water jets strapped to their feet.

<OK, right door this time.> Jake said.

We swam towards the right door. And right on in.

As we got in I saw that there was nothing living in the place we were at. Nothing. It looked like a barren Toys’R’Us that had been dipped under water.

<OK, no one here so let’s demorph.> Rachel said.

I started to demorph then stopped when I had my human eyes. I took a peek out of the water. I saw no one around.

I finished demorphing and soon we were five human kids, an Andalite and a red-tailed hawk. And we were all soaked.

"So now what?" Cassie asked.

"So we stomp this evil place out of existence along with all technology in it." Rachel said.

Jake shook his head. "We’ll do what we did before. Three people go airborne and thr...four people get a distraction going."

"Well who gets to be the distraction group?" I asked.

"We do the same thing we did last time. Marco, Tobias and Ax go flying and the rest attack." Jake said.

I started shifting to my Maheek form. It would be best in a fight. I felt the tail extend from my spine. I felt as my fangs grew in. I felt the muscles ripple down my body. I felt the armor of scales replace my weak human skin. I felt as my wings grew out of my shoulder blades. And I felt as I grew bigger and bigger.

I was fully Maheek and Jake was just finishing up his tiger morph. Rachel was a grizzly bear that looked like it was wearing a blond wig, and Cassie was a wolf.

I saw a harrier, a red-tail and an osprey flying overhead.

When Jake was fully tiger there was only one thing left to do once we were in the actual building.

"Grrrrooooaaaaarrrrr!"

Every controller within the room stared at our small army. Nothing left to do but charge!

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Suddenly I had three shallow cuts in my chest. They weren’t very deep, but it hurt.

"Skreeeeeeeeeet!" I shrieked. The Hork-Bajir had gotten cocky. And it had cost him an arm and a leg. Literally.

I turned around and saw a wolf in the center of about fifteen large Hork-Bajir. I guess Rachel had seen it too.

It wasn’t long before there were only seven Hork-Bajir, but Cassie was unconscious and had more cuts in her flank than I could count.

I leaped into the middle of all the Hork-Bajir. Bad move. I suddenly could feel the inside of my stomach. I picked up the big Hork-Bajir that had sliced me open. I tossed him up in the air and impaled him on my knuckle spikes. I then had a feeling that the Hork-Bajir next to me had a use to the lifeless Hork-Bajir body. Let’s just say he wouldn’t be getting up for a while.

Jake and Rachel took care of the rest of the Hork-Bajir. I picked up Cassie and carried her to a corner near where we came in. I started running back to where Jake and Rachel were but I was cut off on the way there.

I was cut off by a creature that definitely wasn’t from around here.

It had the head of a bat. A really big, ugly bat. It’s arms (if you could call them arms) were covered in what looked like hollow spines. There were four wings coming out of it’s back that looked like dragon wings. It had legs that looked strangely like Hork-Bajir legs. And it had four of them. It had what looked like guns coming out of it’s shoulders. And in the guns were spear-like things. It must have had more parts to the body than I could see because two of the wings were covering the middle section of the body.

In my head I heard a menacing laugh. An evil laugh.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a wolf come up to my side. <Three guesses who that is.> Cassie said grimly.

<We knew that you Andalites would come. The whole primitive "webpage" concept was a trap to lure you Andalites here. And now, my brave Andalite warriors, you will die!> Visser three said.

All the time he was talking Cassie and I were just staring awestruck at the shape Visser three had taken. And to add to the creature’s looks it also looked very strong.

The Visser laughed. <You like this morph of mine, Andalite scum? It’s called a Fleet Naboura. Would you like to see what it can do?>

Visser three opened his bat jaws and out popped another jaw. It’s second jaw looked like the double-jaw that the aliens have on the movie Alien. Then he opened his wings and.... well let’s just say we wouldn’t be gutting him anytime soon.

The Visser fired his double jaw about a foot and a half out of his mouth. Then it swiveled around like an Andalite stalk eye and "looked" at Cassie.

The mouth drew back and I saw a bit of yellowish-green liquid dribble down the second jaw. I instantly knew what the liquid was.

There was no time to explain what it was to Cassie. I just ran towards her.

Cass, duck! I yelled.

<What?> Cassie asked.

The jaw fired the liquid strait for Cassie’s head. It wasn’t thinking that made me do what I did. It was Maheek instinct.

I jumped toward Cassie and hit her out of the way in a second flat. Instead of her taking the blow from the liquid I did.

Acid. That’s what the liquid was, acid. I have no clue what kind of acid but I know it was acid. What else would burn through my spine like a hot knife through butter. It also decided to burn through my internal organs also. I’m just glad that Maheek’s have more than one heart.

And it hurt. Oh, did it hurt! Imagine the worst pain you’ve ever experienced and multiply it by one-thousand. You might feel a fraction of what I was feeling.

I ran off away from everything and jumped in the water near me. I instantly started changing to my human form of Michael. That pain was too horrible to take anymore. I couldn’t think. Not even for a moment. Changing into my first body was all I could think of.

After I was done I realized that some of the controllers down there might recognize me in this form. After all., "I" died.

I changed to Jared as quickly as I could. I could still hear my friends shouts to each other and screams of pain.

I snuck out of where I was and what I saw almost made me scream. All my friends were stuck in a ramonite box. But that’s not what made me want to scream. On the outside of the box, acting as guards, were about thirty Hork-Bajir and fifteen humans. There was no way my friends could demorph without being seen.

Chapter 15

At that moment I felt a hatred toward the Yeerks. A hatred so intense that I felt like burning the slugs with that same acid that hit me. Dripping beakers of that acid on the Yeerks till they all fried. Actually...

I speedily changed to Maheek form as quickly as possible and before I was completely done I probed that Maheek brain as much as possible. I felt like I had run around the continent three times without stopping. I was so tired. But I found the answer. But it wouldn’t work without the Visser.

Use the acid. You need the acid. A voice in my head said.

I know. But the Visser has the acid. I said back.

Not Visser three’s acid. Your acid. It told me.

Something in my head snapped just then. I noticed the little sprinklers above me when I came in and knew they were for Yeerk nourishment. Not needed by Yeerks but it’s used often.

I drained all the venom/acid I could muster up into a jar I found lying around. I flew up to a sprinkler and drained the venom/acid into it.

Now the acid and venom would mix into the Yeerk formula and it would kill all the Yeerks inside the hosts brains. And leave the hosts alive.

Amazing what you can learn taking extra chemistry lessons whenever you can.

Now all I had to do was get the sprinklers to turn on. All that consisted of doing was find the generator for this place and turn on all the parts for the system. And hopefully find a way to blow this place up as well. All in under one hour and twenty-seven minutes.

Oh goody. Was I insane?

Chapter 16

"Oh great, this just keeps getting better and better." I muttered to myself.

<Michael.> A thought-speak voice from above said to me.

I looked up with my eyes only. I saw the silhouette of a red-tailed hawk. Tobias.

I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come down. I said to Tobias.

I walked until I could get out of sight by suspicious eyes and told Tobias he could come down.

<Why are you changing to Merlin morph?> Tobias asked me once he got down.

"I’m not. Why do you say I am?" I asked. I was getting a little tense when Tobias said I was changing. I didn’t want to change to Merlin. What was happening here?!

I took a look at myself and noticed I was morphing. At rapid speed. It was then that it clicked in my head.

<Why doesn’t the Ellemist mind his own business at times like this?! He lied to me!> I practically yelled to the whole facility.

<What are you talking about?> Tobias asked me.

<The Ellemist said I would need to use all four of my bodies on this mission, he never said I could only use them once each!! Man, this sucks.> I said. The Ellemist was messing my life up all over the place. He kept changing me.

I flapped my wings and landed on a beam that was supporting the roof of the facility. <Oh well, might as well make the best of it.>

<Two birds against this whole place?> Tobias asked skeptically. <As Marco would say, this is insane! And only one of us can morph anything useful. You don’t have any morphs at the moment.>

I sighed to myself. Then I came up with something.

<Hold still for a second, I’m gonna’ try something.> I said.

Tobias held still and I came over to acquire/copy some DNA.

Tsewwww! Tsewwww!

<Aaaahhhhhhh!!!> I screamed in pain. I fell back , off the steel beam and hit the floor. Other than my wings burned off, I must’ve had a few broken bones.

But there was no time for that now, had to morph, but what morph could I use? I searched inside my head for some morph that could do some damage. A Maheek? I knew my Maheek form was gone, but in the pain I just didn’t care. I tried it anyway.

And as I was just minutes away from death, I was amazed what I saw. Out of my hawk body a Maheek was merging. I watched as wings popped out of my back. I watched as my feathers changed to blue, scaly skin. I felt my broken bones inside of me, snap back together and become longer and thicker. I felt my internal organs shifting and changing. All the other changes happened during that time too. But when I was done, I was confused. How did Tobias get a Maheek morph? Was it from me? No, it wasn’t. I saw my reflection in the metal and noticed I was smaller than my other Maheek body, and my pupils weren’t red, they were blue. And my tail didn’t have the deadly blade that an Andalite has, it was like an ax strangely. A big ax.

As I was about to take off, three groups of large Hork-Bajir jumped out and intercepted me. In each group there was at least ten Hork-Bajir.

<Oh, crap.> I muttered to myself. <This is all I need.>

Then the Hork-Bajir didn’t feel like just standing there surrounding me.

Blades gleamed in the light of the facility as they came toward me. Three Hork-Bajir were ahead of the others and soon there were only twenty-seven. Too many.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

I was soon driven back and they were covering me. I wouldn’t last much longer.

I screamed as a Hork-Bajir blade sliced my arm nearly in two. I was still fighting though. I was bashing a Hork-Bajir’s head in and I suddenly felt a blade at my throat.

"Surrender and alcram Yeerk infestation or falecrah mah kneek Visser." The Hork-Bajir said in their strange mix of English and galard.

There were two options, 1: Accept to have a Yeerk put into my head, which was not gonna’ happen, or 2: Die.

Then I had three options.

The Hork-Bajir that had his wrist-blade to my jugular wasn’t there anymore. In it’s place there was another Maheek.

<Sorry I took so long, I was knocked out from the dracon flashback from you.> Tobias said.

After Tobias joined the battle it ended pretty quickly. Half a dozen Hork-Bajir ran away.

<So, we need to find the generator now. And in less than an hour.> I said grimly, trying to get back into the conversation.

<We have a big problem then. Do you know how many rooms there are in this place?> Tobias asked me.

I sighed. <Then we better start looking.>

Chapter 17

We went back to our original shapes and flew around for at least fifteen minutes.

<Hey, come over here. There’s something I think you should see, Michael.> Tobias yelled at me when I was trying to see past a door.

I looked over and noticed Tobias perching on a crossbeam above a heavily guarded door. And there were Hork-Bajir lining the perimeter around and four just standing there.

<Well, there are only three possible things that could be in there.> Tobias said. <One: the generator along with all other sorts of high tech stuff, two: a portable Yeerk pool, and three: Visser three with more Hork-Bajir. So how do you think we should get in?>

I thought for a second. <Maheek?>

<Actually we should go for Hork-Bajir morph first. We can just ask to go in. We don’t want them to think there are anymore "Andalite bandits" in this place.> Tobias said after thinking for a second.

I realized that he was right. It would be better if we tried the subtle approach first. The thought probably didn’t cross my mind because, unlike the others (except for Rachel, and possibly Anna,) I like to take action.

We flew around for another ten minutes until we could find a spot to morph. They had guards from top to bottom. <Gees, they have enough guards out here. This is taking too long.> I said.

<Yeah, we need to find the generator in ten minutes or less and get the others out also.> Tobias said grimly. <This is going to be impossible.>

<It’s not over till it’s over.> I said as a Hork-Bajir morph molded from my hawk body.

Neither of us said anything till we were done with the morph. Then as we were standing right in front I heard something that I never thought I’d hear Tobias say.

<Let’s do it.>

I partly smiled with my Hork-Bajir mouth. I guess hanging around with Rachel so much, something’s gotta’ rub off onto you.

I knew almost nothing about how the Yeerks acted, so I let Tobias talk to the guards.

"They told us to come here." Tobias said in his strange Hork-Bajir speech.

One of the Hork-Bajir controllers glared at Tobias and gave him a mean look.

"No one told us that there were going to be Yeerks coming here." The Hork-Bajir said. I was amazed at how well it speaked English instead of the Hork-Bajir mixed with English language they usually used.

"Who sent you?" The Hork-Bajir asked us.

"They." Tobias replied. Then he was silent like he wasn’t allowed to say any more.

The controller was getting annoyed with us. "You two get out of here or I’ll report to the Visser."

<I guess the subtle approach doesn’t work. Now we’ll try it my way.> I said.

We walked off and all the while I was wondering. What could be so important as to put all that many Hork-Bajir controllers for guards? It could be the generator, but I didn’t think that the generator would be that important. I had a feeling that those guards weren’t expendable guards.

I didn’t have time to worry about that though. We had around forty-five minutes left for all this. So once we were done demorphing, we started to go into Maheek form. Our bones snapped and moved around inside our bodies while our feathers molded together to form scales.

We were done fairly quickly. I think that we were done so fast because we knew that there would be a more heading towards us after we dispatched the first guards. I don’t know.

We tried the door. It was locked. We immediately started searching for some way to get in. Time was running out fast.

I was trying to get a part of the steel door to open, which I was just ripping off, when I had a strange feeling that something was missing.

<Tobias, do you have any part of this door open yet?> I asked.

Silence.

I turned around and saw that Tobias wasn’t with me. He was nearly two-hundred feet away.

I ran over to him and noticed he was playing around with something that looked like an awful lot like a control panel. He was pressing different symbols.

<Let me try that.> I said to him.

I pressed my hand on the panel and focused my mind to it. <I don’t know if this is going to work, but-.> I was interrupted by what sounded like a computer shutting down.

<Ah ha!> I yelled.

I stared over to where the door was and surely enough, it was open.

Tobias looked dumbstruck. <You Maheek have a lot of special qualities that we don’t know about, don’t you.>

I shrugged and headed over to the entryway that was now open.

I was right. It wasn’t the generator that was in the room. It was a whole lot more.

<Big.> Tobias said, still staring at the computer system.

<Really big.> I agreed.

After a few minutes I walked over to a panel of buttons, knobs and other thing I couldn’t even guess at.

I pressed a few things. Nothing happened. I pressed a few more things. Nothing again.

I slammed my clawed fist down on the panel. <Do something!> I yelled at it.

I slammed my fist down one more time and I realized that was one of the worst things I’ve done in my life.

I watched the computer sizzle a little and I also watched the electricity flow from parts in the computer.

<Tobias, I think we should back away.> I said.

<I think so too.> He replied.

He ran out of the room, with me a few feet behind him.

BA-BOOM!!

The computer exploded in a wave of blue, purple, and yellow sparks. Then everything blacked out.