<Enter.>

Toro 823 entered my quarters. His stood tall and saluted. "Sir, you have a message from the netherworld."

<Leave.> Toro hurried out of my chambers. I sighed and queued the Z-Space transmitter. <Yes, what do you want?>

"Visser Three, I presume."

There was no face attached to these words. Just a voice, speaking them in a sing-song way. <Who is this?> I demanded.

The voice laughed. "Perhaps I should be asking the same of you. Are you Visser Three? Are you Esplin nine-four-double six? Are you Alloran-Semitur-Corass? Who are any of us?"

<I demand you to show yourself!> I roared.

Something stepped out of my wall.

"Is this better?" the thing asked, grinning maniacally.

<Who are you?> I demanded of this green, misshapen thing.

"My master refers to me simply as . . . Drode," Drode said, walking slowly in a circle around me. "My master is not a patient person, so really, let's stop this chit-chat, eh?"

He was really beginning to irritate me. I had known him for less than five minutes, and already he was irritating me almost as much as those bothersome Andalite bandits.

Almost.

<What do you want?>

"So straightforward, aren't we?" Drode tsked. "Really, I would've thought one of my master's prized playing pieces would be much more understanding that things can't be explained so easily."

Prized playing pieces? What was I, a chess pawn? <I grow tired of this, Drode. Explain your purpose here before I explain it for you!> I held my tail up for emphasis.

Drode stepped back slightly. "Okay, okay. Look -- to make a long story short, have you ever heard of Crayak? Of course you have. He's the guy who runs the whole wastelands of the netherworld. Anyway, Crayak heard of this remarkable virus you've got, and what with the death of Visser Six and the disappearance of the traitor Nemu, well, you've got yourself a deadly weapon, eh?"

I had heard of Crayak, a little -- he interested me. <Go on,> I said, lowering my tail a bit.

"Well, Crayak's glad you're testing that virus on the golden communities and all, but he knows that's not what you really want. You want to use the virus to rewrite the universe." Drode smirked. "He can do it for you. He just needs you to do one teensy, weensy little thing."

<I'm listening.>

"See, there's this guy who runs the Golden Community of Elysia. Somehow, he managed to escape that community just before the Neutro-Virus came, and he's now hiding out in another community that the Ellimist is blocking from destruction. Crayak wants to send you -- and few of your most trusted personnel (along with some dead ones of his choice) -- to this place and basically, well, kill this guy. See, once he's dead, he'll go over to Crayak's side, and everyone will be very happy." Drode looked at me. "You'll also have a major edge -- since you're not dead, he won't be able to fight back."

I looked at him. <And if I destroy this person, then Crayak will change the universe so that Yeerks shall win?>

"And you'll be the Supreme Ruler of them all," Drode added. "That's the deal."

<Who's the person I'm being sent after?>

Drode grinned maliciously. "None other than the Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul."

Elfangor? Alive in the netherworld? <Tell your boss he's got himself an assassin.>

Drode smirked triumphantly.

"It's been two hours," I muttered, "and we're still sitting."

"Geez, Erek, since when are you so impatient?" Tobias said, tossing a rock in the direction of the bear. The rock bounced off the strange force field.

Rachel smacked him on the shoulder. "I am, too, Tobias. So watch it. You said you had a plan, and all you've been doing the past two hours is throw rocks at the stupid thing. Rocks that don't even hit it."

"Exactly," Tobias said. Then he went right back to throwing rocks.

Rachel moved over and sat down next to me. "I don’t get it," I said.

"Me, neither," Rachel agreed. "Tobias doesn't usually come up with plans, but when he does, they're good ones. Maybe this abyss is affecting his brain or something."

"Let's hope not," I muttered. Then I changed the subject. "How is he?" I pointed at Marco.

Rachel sighed. "Still out cold. The color's coming back in his skin, though, and his pulse is returning to normal. Those are good signs, I think. But I'm not M. D. Jake would probably know better than I would -- his dad's a doctor."

"How do you think they're doing?"

"Jake and the others?" I nodded. "Oh, I don't know. I keep thinking about that virus. What if it catches up to them or something? Even worse, what if it hits Earth?" She shrugged. "I just feel so helpless."

I started to say something, when suddenly Tobias stood up. "Hah!" he crowed. "Hah ha!"

Rachel and I looked at him like he was crazy. "Shut up, you idiot," Rachel hissed. "Do you want anything else to hear you? What happened?"

"The rock," Tobias said. He grabbed another one. "Watch." He threw the rock.

It flew through the air, same as the first three hundred. But just before it hit the barrier, it changed. It grew bigger. It still hit the barrier, and it still hit the ground, but it was a bigger rock. "Wow," I breathed. "How did you do that?"

"I was thinking about what the Ellimist said. You know, how things aren't what they appear to be. I once read a book -- I forget what it was called -- where these people entered this place where they could change the shape or size of something just by thinking about it. So I thought, maybe that's what's going on here." Tobias threw another rock, and it also grew large. This one hit just above the bear's head. He still didn't wake up.

"So what's the rest of your plan?" Rachel asked.

"Well," Tobias said, jumping off the platform he was standing on. "I was thinking: if it worked for the rock, why wouldn't it work for the bear?"

I looked at Rachel and Erek to see their reactions to what I was saying. For a moment, they just looked at each other. Then they glanced at the rocks that I had enlarged. "You know," Erek said slowly, "it just might work."

"First, we need to get into the same area as the bear," I said. "I tried changing some things in there from here, and it didn't work. Actually, only I need to go."

Rachel shook her head. "Someone should go with you. We need one person to stay here, with Marco, and the other to go watch your back."

"I need to go anyway," Erek said. "You stay with Marco. I'll go with Tobias."

"Are you sure about this, Rachel?" I asked softly. I didn’t want her to be unsure about staying behind. I knew I'd worry about her too much.

She smiled softly. "I'll be fine. You two better get going. We don't have much more time."

I nodded, and Erek and I cautiously crept over where the bear lay. It occurred to me too late that Erek might not be the best person to protect me. He couldn't even protect himself if it came down to a fight. His programming would be too afraid of hurting the people or things trying to kill us.

"Here goes nothing," I whispered as we stepped into the bear's area.

Immediately the bear raised his head. He hadn't been sleeping after all. He sniffed the air a few times, then managed to climb to his feet easily. He turned towards us. I knew Rachel was watching the fight, but I also knew there was nothing she could do. Erek stood defiantly where he was, but it was me the bear was really interested in. Erek just didn’t smell like something he'd want to eat.

I tried to focus my mind on the mental picture of the bear changing size. In my mind, I pictured him shrinking down to the size of a kitten.

"Tobias, look."

I opened my eyes just in time to see the bear doing exactly that: shrinking to the size of a kitten. There was just one difference from what I wanted and what the abyss decided to do. The bear not only became the size of a kitten, it also changed into a kitten. "Ooops," I laughed. "I guess it took my suggestion too literally."

Erek grinned at the baby cat. "Woof," he said in a pretty good imitation of a dog.

The cat freaked. He whirled around, tried to run, and smacked head first into the barrier. He recovered, and ran in the opposite direction. I glanced over at Rachel, who was laughing. "Be careful, you two," she called a moment later. "I don't want to have to come after you and save your butts."

I rolled my eyes and told Rachel we'd be fine.

"This way, Tobias," Erek said, motioning to the bright light in the distance. "We don't have much time."

<Are you two sure about this?> Elfangor demanded. Loren and Marco had just given us disturbing news that Visser Three and Crayak were both on their way to the Golden Communities.

"Absolutely," Marco and Loren said in one breath. "You can't really mistake a psychic vision for anything but the truth," Loren added.

"Yeah, what she said," Marco agreed quickly.

"When are they supposed to get here?" I asked.

Marco shrugged. "Like I know. All I know is they're coming. Isn't that good enough for you?"

<Why are they coming?> Elfangor asked.

Loren rolled her eyes. "What to we look like, an encyclopedia? All we know is what the vision tells us. All the vision told us is that they're coming, and that they're going to try and take over the Ellimists' Realm."

"Are you sure you didn't see anything else?" I asked.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Cassie said. She rarely raises her voice. "Will the two of you lay off? They've told you what they can. I'm sure that if Marco and Loren knew anything else, they'd tell you!"

I let out a deep sigh. "We're just making sure we're not missing anything."

"You aren't," Marco snapped irritably. "Besides, in my opinion, Visser Three and the Big Red Eye are the least of our problems. In case you've forgotten, Rachel, Tobias, Erek, and my body are still trapped between dimensions. We've got to get them out."

<We can't get them out until they destroy the virus,> Ax reminded us.

"What happened to the virus, anyway?" Laura wondered. "We haven't seen it for several hours."

I started to feel really uneasy. The fact that we had lost track of the virus wasn't making me too comfortable. "I wonder if its sudden disappearance has anything to do with the arrival of Visser Three."

<If it does, than the Visser is coming real soon,> Elfangor said. <Tell me, has he gotten any nicer since we last met?>

<"Nicer?"> Ax, Cassie, Marco, Laura, and I echoed incredulously.

"I think that answers your question," Loren said unnecessarily.

Elfangor didn't look to happy with the answer.

<You're not afraid of the possibility of facing Visser Three, are you, Elfangor?> Ax asked. He sounded as if the idea of Elfangor being afraid was ludicrous.

Elfangor coughed. <Well, um, he did kill me, you know.>

"He had an unfair advantage," Loren said matter-of-factly. "He attacked a helpless foe. And if I remember correctly you continued to fight him to the end. That makes you a hero. It makes him a coward."

Elfangor looked like he was about to argue, when suddenly Cassie drew in a sharp breath. "Oh, lord," she whispered.

I looked in the direction she was looking in. "What is it?" Marco asked.

"He's here."

No one needed to ask who he was.

I looked around the area in disgust. Everything seemed so peaceful. Well, except for the several holes in the ground, most likely left by my virus. I hate peaceful things. What's the point of living somewhere if you can't destroy something once in a while?

<Figures I'd have to get sent to the land of (shudder) good,> I muttered to myself.

Now. Where was Elfangor? Drode said that Crayak would send me to wherever my arch nemesis was hiding out.

Of course. I laughed silently to myself. That's where Elfangor was. He was hiding. Afraid to face me. Typical from a coward like him. Andalites, after all, are the biggest fools and cowards in the universe, always hiding behind their morphing technology when they get scared. Always hiding behind their insignificant laws whenever something blows up in their faces. Always hiding.

<Oh, Elfangor,> I called out across the silent field. What is it humans were always saying? Oh, yes. <Come out, come out, wherever you are.>

<Cut it out, Visser Three,> a voice snapped.

I turned around, and there he was. The mighty Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. The biggest fool of them all. He looked strong. I, however, knew that how he looked didn't matter. I had the upper hand. <Well, hello there, Elfangor,> I said, savoring the moment of triumph. <You're looking awfully well today. Awfully dead, but well just the same.>

<Whatever your business here is, finish it and leave.>

<Is that a surrender I hear?> I asked. <Because, see, my business is you. Destroying you, once and for all.>

Elfangor laughed. He laughed. I narrowed my eyes. <You had an unfair advantage last time we met, Visser.>

Now it was my turn to laugh, and I loaded it with as much loathe and contempt that I possibly could. <You don't seem to realize what kind of predicament you've gotten yourself into, do you?> I gloated. <In case you haven't realized -- I'm not dead. Which means that you don't stand a chance.>

Elfangor was already getting himself into a fighting position. <Full of it, aren't you?>

I snorted. <Well, wouldn’t you be if you knew there was absolutely no chance of you losing?>

He didn't say anything. I gave him credit for it. But then, Elfangor always had known when he was defeated.

Suddenly I turned to face him completely. <Even talk,> I snarled. <You're mine, Elfangor!> I leapt forward, lashing out with my tail. It arched over in a perfect line for his neck . . . when at the last second he completely dodged my blow.

<Arrggh!> I roared, spinning around to face him. He made a weak attempt at trying to knock my legs out from under me -- I guess he didn't realize that he couldn't even touch me.

I lashed out again, this time faking towards his neck but aiming for his leg. My tail struck, and a long gash appeared down the side of his flank. It was satisfying hearing him cry out in pain. I waited for the strike I knew he would give me in retaliation. I remembered something I had picked up from my host's mind years ago -- Elfangor always shifted his weight to his hind leg before attacking with his tail. I kept my gaze on his leg.

Suddenly . . .

FWAPP! FWAPP! FWAPP!

Three quick strikes came out of nowhere. I managed to dodge two of them, but the last one cut right through my arm, severing all feeling from my body. The arm was still there . . . but it was useless.

<What?> I gaped incredulously at the Andalite in front of me. <How did you do that?>

The Andalite stared smugly down at me. <I do a pretty good imitation of my brother, don't I?> he asked. <There's just one difference -- I'm not dead.>

I was pleased to see that Visser Three looked a little less cocky once he realized he'd been tricked into fighting an opponent who could actually fight back. All I needed to do was keep him busy until the others could get my brother to safety.

But the Visser had other plans.

<You insignificant little pest!> he roared. He leaped to his feet and in a course of one second delivered three lightning blows, each aimed at my hearts.

SHWOOP! SHWOOP! SHWOOP! FWAPP!

I blocked each of his attacks, then countered with one to the leg. The Visser blocked it easily. <You're nothing but a child,> he sneered. <A worthless warrior cadet. I have all the advantage here.>

Before I could react, he lashed out with his tail. The blade struck me in the shoulder, and suddenly, I could no longer feel my arm. <An arm for an arm, Andalite,> Visser Three laughed as he backed away. <And now, a life for a triumph!>

My back leg was already hurting something fierce. I couldn’t run away, even as he charged at me. I'd never be able to defend myself.

<Concentrate, Aximili.>

The tail flashed. I closed my eyes.

SHWOOPFWAPP! FWAPP! FWAPP!

In the blink of an eye, I blocked his shot, retaliated, and delivered two more blows. When I opened my eyes, Visser Three was staggering, just barely standing up. I had hit both his front legs and his rib cage. And for the first time, he looked at me with something in his eyes other than arrogance.

Fear.

<You may have had the fighting advantage,> I said, <but you forget one thing.>

<What?> he snarled.

<I may be a child, but I was born an Andalite. You merely stole the body of one.>

Visser Three looked at me with contempt. <You're too noble to destroy me. You'd never destroy a helpless foe.>

<You're right,> I said, lowering my tail. <I wouldn't. So instead, I'll just leave you here. Crippled. You should have brought reinforcements, Visser. Crayak can't help you now.>

I turned and began walking back to where my friends were waiting, leaving Visser Three barely able to stand up in the middle of the field, which was beginning to remind me of Swiss cheese. Maybe, once we got back to Earth, I'd pick some up at the deli. I was running low on cheese in my scoop. In fact . . .

"Ax, look out!"

Prince Jake's warning came not a moment too late. I whipped my stalks eyes around just in time to see Visser Three's tail come shooting towards my head. I adjusted my balance, brought forward my tail . . .

<Ahhhh!> Visser Three tried to dodge my aim for the base of his tail, but in doing so he'd made a terrible mistake. He'd put himself right in the path of my blade. He stared at me for several seconds. Then, he went limp.

I quickly pulled my blade out of his chest and stared as he slumped to the ground. <Oh, my, god,> I whispered. <Oh god oh god oh god. What have I done?> I couldn't think about the fact that I had just destroyed the Abomination. All I could think about what that I had destroyed the Andalite host as well.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. But I couldn't. Because of what happened next.

Visser Three's body began to glow. A small area in his head seemed brighter than the rest of the body. Then that glow died down to match the rest of him.

<What's happening?> I whispered.

Then, to my shock and surprise, he began to move. Not the body, but another form inside him. An exact copy, but lighter.

The copy moved away from the limp body and seemed to stare at it for a few minutes. Then it climbed to its feet, and turned to me. <Thank you,> he whispered, as if he hadn't used his voice for a long time. <Thank you.>

I turned to look at Elfangor, who was coming up beside me. <Elfangor?> I asked uncertainly.

But Elfangor could only look at the Andalite in front of us. <War-Prince Alloran,> he whispered, stunned. Then he swallowed and said shakily, <I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.>

Alloran -- Alloran's spirit -- shook his head. <It wasn't your fault, Elfangor. In fact, knocking me out was the best thing that happened to me. It taught me that there were other ways than being cold and ruthless . . . and insane. You did the right thing. You didn’t know it would result in the Abomination.>

I stared at Elfangor. <You caused the Abomination?> I exclaimed.

I winced at Ax's accusatory tone. I glanced down at the ground, ashamed. <Yes,> I whispered. <Yes, I caused the Abomination.>

Ax took a step away from me. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was at that moment. Suddenly Alloran grabbed his arm. <It wasn't your brother's fault, young one,> the war-prince said. <If anything, I brought the fate upon myself.>

Ax looked at him quizzically.

<When I first started in the Andalite military, I was very much like your brother. Then, I was stationed on the Yeerk home world as a guard of the Andalite-Yeerk Peace and Cooperation Center. I was there the day the Yeerks turned against us -- the day Prince Seerow was disgraced.>

My eyes widened. Even I hadn't known this. The others crept towards us, listening silently.

<Three or four Earth years later, we received a distress message from one Aldrea-Iskillion-Falan, daughter of Seerow, from the Hork-Bajir planet. She told us that the Yeerks were there. We sent a small fleet, not believing her when she said they were there in force. We were outnumbered.

<We Andalites took up housing with the Arn, a race of scientists living in the core of the planet. I was no longer a daring, eager military cadet. I had been moved up to the position of Prince, and I would do anything to prove that I could become a War-Prince. So I created a substance that would wipe out all of the Hork-Bajir, so that the Yeerks could no longer use them as shock troops.>

I stared at him, knowing what was coming. <You created a Quantum Virus,> I said. <I remember you talking about it at one point.>

Alloran looked at me and nodded. <I used a Quantum Virus on the planet. When the Yeerks began accusing us of using an inhumane weapon, the Electorate tried to cover it up. I was named a War-Prince shortly before we left that planet. But I was soon to be disgraced. I could keep my ship, my title, and my position in the military. But I reduced to errand work. Then one day, years later, I was told to transport two humans back to their planet, with a crew of two a arisths eager to prove themselves.

<Those arisths were Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul and Arbron-Latros-Ifinal. That was to be my last mission as a free soul.> Alloran held my gaze for a moment, then looked back at Ax. <Arbron discovered that the creatures who had kidnapped the humans from their planet, the Skrit Na, had also uncovered a dangerous weapon -- the Time Matrix. It was being taken to the Taxxon world. I plotted my ship's coordinates to that planet.

<I'm not going to bore you with all the little details, but to make a long story short: Once we recovered the Time Matrix and the humans (by this time, Arbron had been trapped as a Taxxon and had stayed behind on the planet), I ordered Aristh Elfangor to destroy several traveling pools of Yeerks. Murder them, basically. He refused. Elfangor couldn't murder helpless enemies. And I, who had been on the edge for years, finally went over. Elfangor had no choice to knock me out and assume command of my ship, the Jahar.>

<What I didn't know,> I added, <was that a Yeerk by the name of Sub-Visser Seven was hiding out in the head of one of the humans, Chapman.> For some reason, Jake, Marco, Ax, and Cassie all exchanged astonished glances at the name. Loren nodded, since she already knew the whole story. <The Sub-Visser crawled out of Chapman, who had sold himself to the Yeerk Empire, and into War-Prince Alloran.>

<Sub-Visser Seven was later promoted to Visser Thirty-two, then eventually Visser Three,> Alloran finished. He gave Ax a hard look. <So you see, young one, it wasn't your brother's fault. I brought my fate onto myself.>

Ax didn't appear convinced. He looked at me. <What happened once Visser Three took over Alloran?>

I laughed. <It's a long story. Basically, it involves an alternate universe, me running away to Earth and hiding the Time Matrix in a construction site, getting married, then getting sent back to the war, being promoted, and finally ending up in the same construction site where I had buried the Time Matrix. I broke the law of Seerow's Kindness, and I've been here ever since.>

"We could elaborate on what happened after Elfangor died," Jake said, "but I don’t think we should."

Alloran looked confused. <You broke the law of Seerow's Kindness? How?"

Marco, Ax, and Cassie all looked at Jake. He seemed uncomfortable. "Well, um, you know those Andalite bandits the Visser wanted so badly to catch?"

<Yes,> Alloran said.

"There's really something you should know about them . . . "

"This way," I said.

"You sure about that?" Tobias asked.

"No."

"Then why the heck am I following you?"

"Because you're behind me."

"Veeeery funny," Tobias grumbled. "Wish I could morph."

We'd already established that morphing was prominently impossible in the abyss. Tobias thought it had something to do with the fact that the abyss was mostly dreams and memories, and that you can't physically morph in your dreams. Personally, it seemed a little farfetched, even to me. I came up with a much better explanation that I decided against mentioning.

The Ellimist wouldn't let us. That's much simpler, wouldn't you agree?

"Can I be in the lead for a change?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

"You know, this is getting really annoying."

"I agree. Be quiet. You're sounding like Marco."

"Somebody has to fill in." Tobias fell silent.

We continued to walk in the direction I had pointed to. I was getting used to Tobias' pointless blather, actually. I almost missed it.

"You know, I think we're going around in circles."

"How can you tell? Everything's exactly the same. Boxes, timelines, more boxes, and more timelines."

"Maybe I should start leaving markers, just to make sure."

I spun around. "I know where I'm going, Tobias. I'm an android. This is not the same area that we were in the last time you mentioned you thought we were going in circles. We are getting closer to the core of the abyss."

Tobias looked over my shoulder. "I believe you."

"For the last time . . . what?" It took a minute for his words to register. "How come?"

"Look behind you."

I looked.

"Oh, man."

Alloran was . . . uh . . . stunned. To say the least. Once Jake finished telling him just who and what the "Andalite bandits" were, he just sort of stared at us, looking from Jake to Ax to Cassie to me, then back to Jake. <Humans?> he whispered incredulously. <The Yeerks have been having a fit over a bunch of humans? Un. Be. Lieve. Able. Unbelievable.>

I scowled at him. "Well, believe it. We're the Animorphs."

<I thought you said there were six of you.>

Cassie nodded. "Two of us are in another dimension right now, though."

"Yeah, some place called the Abyss," I said.

"Marco?" Loren asked.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You paused in the middle of that sentence." She looked at me worriedly.

"No I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"You did it again!" my mother exclaimed.

This was beginning to sound familiar. "Just like I told Tobias, Rachel and Erek, no I did not!"

"Marco?"

"Yaaaahhh!" I sat straight up and looked around wildly. Rachel was kneeling beside me, staring at me like I was nuts. I continued screaming for about ten minutes, then stopped abruptly to catch a breath. "Where am I?"

"The abyss," Rachel said, looking at me like I was crazy. "Where did you think I was?"

"Never mind," I shook my head. The psycation was over. "Listen. Crayak is going after the Ellimist's Realm. We need to get Erek and Tobias, and we need to get out of here. If Crayak gets the Realm, this whole place is going to collapse."

"Tobias and Erek went ahead to find the core," Rachel said, standing up. "I don't know how long they've been gone."

I cursed under my breath. "Okay. Look. Visser Three showed up in the Golden Communities and went tail-to-tail with Ax. Ax destroyed him, and now we've got the Visser's dead host hanging around."

"Visser Three is dead?" Rachel repeated.

"Yeah," I said. "It was actually pretty cool to watch." I was getting off subject. "But now that the Visser's dead, the virus is under no one's control. It's out of control. How do I know this? I saw it while I was snapping out of that stupid psycation. We need to get Erek and Tobias, we need to get that program into the center, then we need to get the hell out of here before Crayak and the Ellimist go mano a mano with each other and blow us all the Kingdomcome!"

Rachel looked at me. "Okay," she said calmly. "We can't morph. Let's run."

We ran.

It was the largest sphere of light I had ever seen. It reminded me strangely of the Time Matrix that we had seen back when we were fighting Visser Four (something Visser Four doesn't even know about now), but it was different. It was larger, for starters, and it wasn't entirely white. In fact, it seemed to be made up of hundreds of lights, swirling together in a circular pattern.

Have you ever seen the movie Men In Black? The one with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones? Remember the part where that doctor (Laurel Something-or-other) was writing up her findings and Orion jumps onto her table wearing that galaxy thing? Well, remember when the camera zoomed in on the galaxy and you saw all those stars and everything? Yeah. That's what it looked like.

It was so big, you couldn't even see around it to the other side. I desperately wished I had my wings, because I would've been getting a set of glorious thermals from this thing. "Wow," I breathed. Erek nodded, stunned. I looked at him. "Think you can download into this?"

He frowned. "If I could find its mainframe, sure. But this thing is just a bunch of swirling lights in a ball. I haven't a clue how to hook-up to it."

"What if you just touch it?" I suggested.

"I could just touch it," he muttered. (He hadn't heard me.)

While Erek got busy figuring out how to download and copy his virus program into the core's mainframe, I busied myself with trying to figure out how far away we were from Rachel and Marco. Let's see, I thought to myself. According to Erek, we went around in a circle about seventeen times, each time the circle getting smaller and smaller (apparently you couldn't just walk straight up to it). If the first circle was about two miles long, and each circle grew smaller by a foot, and if you subtracted the amount of space the core takes up . . . "Oh, forget it," I growled. "Who are you trying to kid, Tobias? You're not Ax. You got C's in Algebra, remember?"

Instead I looked in the general direction we had come from. I couldn’t see them. Not even a dot that might have been them. "I can't see them, therefore they're not close by," I said. "How's that for a scientific equation?"

Feeling pretty proud of myself, I turned around . . .

"Yaaah!"

"Oh, jeez!" Marco complained, jumping about ten feet in the air (okay, so I'm exaggerating. Slightly.)

"What are you two doing here?" I shouted after I managed to save myself from having a massive coronary failure (heart attack, for all you med school dropouts). "And how did you get here so quickly?"

"We ran straight here," Rachel said. "It only took about fifteen minutes."

I looked at Erek. "I thought you said we couldn't walk straight towards it."

Erek was busy pressing some buttons on a panel on his arm. "I said you couldn't walk straight towards it. I never said anything about running."

I glared at him, then turned back to Rachel. "I'm never going anywhere with him ever again," I glowered. Then I noticed the looks on their faces. "What is it?"

"We have to get out of here, " Marco said quickly. "Crayak's going to attack the Ellimist's Realm, and once he does this whole place'll collapse!"

"Erek, come on!" I shouted.

"I can't," he called back. "I've already started downloading."

"Abort it."

"It'll kill me!"

"Never mind!" I turned to Marco. "How much time do we have?"

"Not a lot."

I was sitting in my chamber, silently going over memos that my superiors had given me. Worrying about the mortals trapped in the Abyss. Worrying about the virus was that destroying everything my kind had been attempting to preserve for hundreds of thousands of millions of years.

I glanced at one memo. "What do they mean, I haven't done my planetary checks this millennium? I turned those in ten years ago!"

I set the memo in the 'return to sender' pile, and picked up the next message globe. "'The council hereby invites you to a celebration' blah blah blah. Yeah, right. I'm trying to save ten hundred species from dying out, and they want me to attend some wedding." I fast forwarded the message to find out who it was for. "Oh, big surprise. Dakof's getting married again. That's the eleventh time this century! I hope all his kids and ex-wives won't be there -- it'll be huge!"

Out of the entry tube, another message globe shot in, this one red. Red means urgent. I powered it up.

"Ah, so Alloran's finally decided to join us here," I muttered. "I hope that means Visser Three went to the wastelands as well." Normally, at this point, I figure out which community to send him to and go about my business. Unfortunately, I had to set Alloran aside with the other billion entrants waiting to be placed. "The communities are falling apart," I muttered. "I hope the council got my --"

"Yes?" I called. Of course, to whoever it was, it was more like 'yes?', what with my deep, all-around voice. "What do you want?"

Who would be banging on my

"Well, hello, Ellimist," a voice crowed.

I tensed up immediately. "Hello, Drode," I growled.

"Nice place you've got here."

"It's not a place where you're welcome." I stood up and moved around the front of my desk. "What does your master want? And if it's another champion match, you can tell him to forget it. I've got more important things to do than to cater to his ever whim."

Drode never lost his never-ending smirk. "Actually, that's not what the all-mighty all-powerful Crayak wants."

"Then what is it?" I demanded impatiently.

"What he's always wanted. The Ellimist's Realm."

I barked out a harsh laugh. "He's crazy. There's no way anyone can get in this Realm unless they're invited. And you better believe that I will never extend an invitation to your boss."

"Oh really?" Suddenly Drode's voice changed to a deep rumbling sound. I stared in horror as what was once a man-shaped green prune melted away into a large metal box with a red eye sticking out of the top. Long, spidery legs pushed out of the bottom of the box, and Crayak himself rose above everything.

"You and me, Ellimist," he roared. "This time, nothing in the universe will be destroyed."

Then he focused his bloodshot eye on me.

"But your 'champions' will never escape the Abyss alive."