Megamorphs 3 The Steeling
Chapter 1
My name is Rachel. Just Rachel. No last name. At least no last name I could tell you.
I am an Animorph. I guess I am on of the most hunted, endangered species on Earth. The Yeerks want me dead. They want my friends dead. So if they knew who I was, and how to find me, I wouldn’t have a chance.
That’s why I won’t tell you my last name. And I won’t tell you what state or city I live in. Because I want to go on living. I want to go on living so I can go on fighting them.
Are you one of those people who looks up at the night sky and wonders whether there is life out there among the stars? Do you wonder about UFO’s? Do you wonder whether aliens will ever come to earth?
Well stop wondering. The Yeerks are here. They’re a species of parasites—just little slugs, really. Little slugs that crawl inside your brain and make you do whatever they want you to do.
When that happens you stop being a true human being. You become a Controller. That’s what we call a human who is under the control of Yeerk. When you talk to a Controller, you may hear a human voice, but what you are really talking to is a Yeerk.
And they are everywhere. If you think you haven’t seen one, then you are wrong. The policeman in his control car, the clerk at the grocery stores, your teacher, your Paster, your doctor: any of these might be a controller. Your mother, your father, sister or best friend: they could all be controllers.
I know. My cousin Tom is one of them, Jake’s brother. They have taken his brother and my cousin away from us and made him our enemy. We see each other in school, at home, talking, knowing all the while that Tom is not Tom anymore.
And they have taken my friend Marco’s mother. She is one of them. Visser One. One of the most powerful Yeerk in the Yeerk Empire. Everyone thinks she drowned 2 years ago. But we know. The Animorph know. They can be anywhere. Anyone.
They tear lives apart. They do unspeakable thongs. And we stand against them alone. Only we know the threat. We six: five Animorph and one Andalite.
Five kids with the power to literally become any animal we touch. And a kid from another planet who looks likes a weird mix between a deer, human, and scorpion.
Tobias the weird bird-boy as Marco would say. I guess I really liked him. More than a friend.
We went flying together first on the sunny Friday afternoon. The thermals building incredibly. We flew just talking. The we reached our destination. We flew down to the patchy woods and Demorphed. Morphing for him.
I smiled as we walked into the mall. I could see Cassie on the top floor look down at us and smile, giving Tobias a thumbs up. Marco was in the arcade and looked out at us and gasped. He told Jake who was next to him who also gasped and then smiled.
"it is so weird being here. I fell like I don’t belong here." He said
"well you do so get used to it. Hey you want a coke? I got money." asked.
"Well sure I mean it can’t hurt, I mean, okay." Tobias said nervously
"Why are you so nervous? You shouldn’t be" I said to him.
"well the last time I had coke it was strange I felt like Ax. I was hyper for the next hour. I don’t exactly want that to happen again." He said.
"I remember." I said laughing. I recalled the time we all went to the mall together. Ax was wild grabbing every piece of food he could get and stealing all or drinks in desperate need of sugar. I had managed to give Tobias a sip and from the sip he burst out loud in laughter from the simple taste. I let him have the rest of it and he was hyper, pointing out every single blond that looked like me for the next hour. Marco had a ball of a time.
"man that was interesting." Tobias said laughing with me, "how about water"
"okay."
"you know Rachel, I think we should skip all the snacks and check a movie, I’ll pay." Tobias said with a wide grin I taught him. It was an old grin that I remembered him having and since being a hawk he lost all expression. It was hilarious teaching him.
"and where exactly did you get the money?" I asked suspiciously
He laughed "that’s for me to know and you to find out."
I was slightly annoyed "I pry it out of you eventually." At this he laughed even harder.
We went to the movie. Tobias seemed excited like it was his first time at the movies and he got to go all on his own. I smiled at him. He smiled back. I decided I really liked him. He cared about me and I cared about him. I saw the eyes of Marco looking at us with a laugh in his eyes.
Suddenly there was a fly at my side.
Chapter 2
So there we were all together that Friday night. Sitting they’re waiting. Waiting with worry and fear. Tobias could have gotten hurt and stranded and none of us would have known. He insisted he be alone, so it wouldn’t be that suspicious. But I half way suspected he was there alone to think.
"Where is he? I am totally tired of waiting." Marco said.
Chapter 3
"Okay now move! Heave. Come on Ax can’t you morph any faster?" Jake said. We were trying to push Ax into the small closet to hide and morph. Someone was coming we didn’t exactly want them to see an Andalite roaming the school.
"okay get in the closet before they see us!" I hissed.
Ax was morphing as fast as possible too human once again. He had nearly reached the two hour limit and if he didn’t morph all of us would be out of room to hide.
"Okay now I want you to make sure the Diractro bombs are in place." I heard a familiar voice say. It hit me. Assistant principal Chapman. One of the head controllers on earth, human anyway. Visser Three is the alien in charge. The only Yeerk to take the body of an Andalite.
"Yes sir, one is one the roof set and ready to go. The other will be prepared when the work crew get here in the morning," Tom said. Tom! I should have known he was here, man.
"Those blasted Taxxons, take forever to get here and forever to get out. I hope they work fast enough or we are going to have to unseal that entrance so the students won’t see. Ah." Chapman said.
"I will get to work placing the second one now. Maybe it will speed things up."
"Good. Good work to."
Silence. I knew tom wasn’t in here. I couldn’t hear him. The entrance Chapman was talking about? Oh yeah, the one we first entered to get in the. Yeerk pool. Horrible place. See the Yeerk pool is this place where the Yeerks have to go to every three days. There is this pool in the center where they must swim in to get Kandrona rays. They go down piers and bend over, it crawls out of the ear and then the host is free and you can see the fear in their eyes. They drag them to cages while they scream for mercy, beg and yell threats. And the worst part is when they go to the pier once again and the Yeerks crawls in. the person goes from screaming, to everything is all right.
"Okay, we need to move, Tom is bound to find us here. Ax grab that thing I don’t care just grab it and we leave" Jake whispered.
"Yyes Prince Jake"
"Don’t call me Prince" Jake said. We guess that the Andalite's need some kind of prince and since Jake is sorta our leader he gets the job.
We crawled out of the closet one by one. The light was turned off inside but not outside. I could see in the faint light a square thing. It was making no sound, I thought it was safe to hold.
"Get it will ya Ax?"
"Yes Prince Jake"
Ax grabbed it and held it firm. So far so good. Now all we needed to do was get out of here. I heard the faint squeak of tom’s old shoes. He was getting new ones but I would always recognize that squeak.
"Open the window, jump! Who is going to go first?
"Ax go first, I will go last to boost everyone up." I said
"No way" Jake said "what about you?
"Worried about me? I am a gymnast remember?"
"Fine" Jake, said
With that he opened the window and told Ax to go. I put my hands together and said "put one foot I my hands and step the other foot to the window then climb out."
Ax nodded and did. He had a few problems. He got stuck and then I pushed him and fell. Tom must have heard the noise cause we could hear footsteps getting closer. I nodded my head and Cassia rushed over and climbed the window with no problems. Marco next. The Tobias, and finally Jake. Tobias had a few problems though. Not quite used to human hands. Next I grabbed the windowsill and pilled myself up. Very hard to do. When I was out and running for my life I heard a gasp and a shout. Nothing more.
Chapter 4
"Okay, what is it again?" I said
"We already figured that out Ax, even us humans aren’t that dumb" Marco said.
Chapter 5
Tobias got his morph all-right it wasn’t that bad of a fight. I mean that owl was practically dead. It was in a trance state, Cassie put it.
We were flying to the mall in a hurry. It was getting late and we had to deactivate the bombs. We had done almost all the others. They were all over town, more than Tobias’s list. Now all we had to do was get the four bombs in the mall and the two in the school. Easy.
My name is Tobias. I was with Rachel when the thing went off. I was next to her. I was right beside her. But I was not human. I had finished morphing and felt I did not need to morph back to owl since I could see well enough in the dim morning light. Rachel fell unconscious for the briefest of moments. She closed her eyes and then opened them. She was smiling like nothing had happened. In fact I had never seen her happier. She laughed a few times when she saw the sun just rising high enough to see it on the roof. She even giggled and pointed when she saw me. That’s when I knew something was wrong. See Rachel is not the giggling person. She looked around her and looked like it was her birthday and she had just received exactly what she wanted. That’s when I got scared. What had that thing done to Rachel?
Chapter 6
My name is Cassie. That was my best friend lying there, laughing like an idiot. I cried to myself since an osprey can’t cry. I knew we would get our selves hurt one day. But I never expected to feel so helpless. There is nothing you can do to discourage anyone from being happy. Especially a fake happiness.
My name is Tobias. I was the only one who went over to Rachel when her laughter stopped. Even I don’t know why. I mean, I just felt this was something I had to do, like a duty. She had comforted me so many times; I felt I must do it. I asked the only thing that seemed right, "what is wrong Rachel?"
When her sobbing stopped, the only thing she said was, "help" With the smallest voice I had ever heard. Rachel’s voice is strong with might all the time. This wasn’t Rachel, Rachel doesn’t cry.
"Must go to Yeerk pool tonight, everything be better then, Yes" She nodded her head as if she needed to prove it to herself. I looked to Jake our leader and said, "What happened to our Rachel?"
I felt as though I wasn’t in control of my body. I knew there wasn’t a Yeerk in my head simply because Jake had described what it felt like. This just felt like I was doing something stupid and I knew it all along, but that didn’t stop me. I gave out a measly help. Tobias had come next to me and I felt somewhat better. Until I heard myself say, "Must go to Yeerk pool tonight, everything be better than. Nodding my head. I tired and tired o tell Tobias something, but I was weak, and tired. I sobbed and finally everything went black as night.
My name is Tobias. After a few minutes of sobbing. Rachel fell limp in my arms. I guess she fell asleep. She was so quite. So peaceful, so tired I could tell. But something had gone on when she told me those two sentences. Help and She needed to go to the Yeerk pool. Something had changed in her voice. The help was small and sad and full of, I don’t know, it was like saying that was the hardest thing she had ever done. Then the last sentence was full of determination and what seemed like, anger. Totally different from the help.
Chapter 7
My name is Rachel. I sort of got some control. After I jumped from the tree, I looked at my friends trying to say something that would tell them, something, I don’t know what. I was trying so hard that everything went black again. But it was like I was awake, I mean I was still conscious but I guess it didn’t look like it. I could feel the pain in my side from falling. I was mentally exhausted. I tired to open my eyes. I couldn’t so in my minds eye I looked and saw the one thing I needed to see. My friends. Everyone was there, Marco, Cassie, Jake, Ax, and Tobias. I smiled when I saw the boy who had a smile on his face. This was the Tobias before everything happened, and next to him was a red-tailed hawk. See the Tobias today was that red tailed hawk, Tobias in human morph was always expressionless. I knew I was losing control when I saw the Yeerk pool and smiled an inward smile. I heard voices but it was hard to hear. Large fury arms picked me up and cuddled my against a warm body. What ever happened next I am still not sure of, I guess I just gave in to sleep.
My name is Marco. I could see the awkward smile on Rachel’s face. I could see the way she cuddled against when I picked her up in gorilla morph. This wasn’t our Xena Warrior Princess; this was a sad and pathetic girl. Rachel was different, Rachel was my friend. This Rachel was alien to me. Strange word Alien, I never used it before, now it is all I think about. I turned my head from the smiling face and morphed human with her in my arms. We had tried but failed to pick her up when she was limp as a rag. She practically pushed us away when we tried. So Cassie was the one who thought up the gorilla idea. When I morphed human, she was more limp and seemed that she couldn’t struggle at all. We headed back to the barn, barefoot and tired. We had left all the bombs at the mall on and the one at school. But it was earlier that Ax predicted no kids were at school. Only a janitor and another car. We were planning to keep Rachel at Cassie’s house until we could get things sorted out. Cassie, Tobias, and me would take care of the Rachel problem. We would put her to bed and watch her sleep so she wouldn’t try to go to the Yeerk pool. Jake and Ax would see our problem about the bombs, who got hit by the bomb and who didn’t. Now all that was left to do was do our job, and wait.
"Well she’s not fighting any more, I think she fell asleep" I said
Cassie and Tobias just nodded their heads. We all cared about Rachel. There was really nothing we could do. And if we had any fights, I don’t know what would happen. Rachel is like our strength in fighting. She likes it; she always is the first to say "I’m in" or "Let’s do it." With her in this stage I don’t know what would happen.
"She’s awake!" I yelled.
"Oh dear, okay now set her down and I will take her to my house. Marco and Tobias pick, who wants to be our sky cover or our inside cover with me?"
She continued in with Rachel in hand who was practically excited about going into her best friend’s house. She suddenly dropped and almost screamed until Cassie put her hand over her mouth. She stopped struggling and Cassie let go. She looked meek sitting there helpless. Tobias went over, stood her up and she gave out a sob. She finally said something that I will never forget.
"Help, help noonot iin crontr—"she laughed after that. I could hear he fear, the pain, and the sorrow. I hated it. I needed to get out. So I took the job of sky cover.
My name is Tobias. Marco started morphing his osprey. I nodded my head accepting the job of inside cover. I knew why he took the outside job. I almost agreed with him. He wanted out. He hated this. He knew we would be hurt one of these days. He knew. I took Rachel’s hand, Cassie took the other and we led her into the house.
"Cassie, you can have friends over but not to late. Your father and I are going out of town to get some supplies. Can you take care of the house?" Cassie's mom asked.
"Sure, we can do it" Rachel said laughing
"Okay" Cassie’s mom, said.
Smiling we went in knowing the whole house was ours. It was almost nightfall and Rachel would want to go to the Yeerk pool. I don’t know what we would do then. This seemed almost hopeless. But I wasn’t sure.
We keep Rachel entertained for the two hours. It was dark when she fell asleep. We were exhausted. I had to remorph so I called to Marco when I was done.
Chapter 8
It was weird, I mean I knew I didn’t want to go to the Yeerk pool, but it felt like I needed to. The joy and happy was gone, I felt in control. But the weird needing for the Yeerk pool took the joy’s place. I couldn’t think properly. I was just sitting there thinking how much I needed to get in the Yeerk pool, swim and feel relaxed. Then it felt like this new person bubbling up and saying "Hey wait a minute, I don’t like the Yeerk pool, it was horrible and nasty and I have nightmares. After a while I would remember the longing and forget my nightmares, and the cycle would go on. I thought about the wave that hit me. Suddenly everything went black and then this joy incredible joy would come and sweep all my other emotions away. It was like… controlling a new morph. The animal’s instincts would be strong, and for once this joy was almost stronger.
"Rachel can you tell me anything?" Tobias asked speaking for the first time in an hour. He and Cassie had fallen asleep on the couch, while Marco watched me. I saw him stare at me, the fear the hatred almost. I simply said, "It’s okay" And nothing more. But deep down inside I felt the need to rip at his throat. It was weird.
"I feel like I want to go to the Yeerk pool. No need to go. It is like this weird longing. Weird." I said. I was staring into space still in deep thought. Which is not normal for me.
"She’s out of it." Marco said.
"I wonder how that thing made her think that she needed to go to the Yeerk pool."
Chapter 9
My name is Rachel. I have never felt anything like this. I now knew what it felt like to go through starvation by lack of Kandrona rays. I hated it. I felt like I hated everything. All of the sudden as my friends were pulling me somewhere I heard screaming, I knew they faking, but it certainly sounded realistic. Tobias knew the route to the Yeerk pool so I didn’t talk much there. The pain was too much to bare. I saw the place that I had imagined. It was the school. We went in the front door, which was surprisingly open. We went in and saw that the lights were not on but in their place were lanterns, not to be seen from outside the building. We went in until we saw the open door to my homeroom classroom. It had been closed off for a while by Principal Chapman, now I knew why. A few Hork-Bajir stood guarding a lightly lighted room. My mind’s picture had shown them so none of stared. We entered the room, after the Hork-Bajir saw that we were insane like. It was a long stair case just like my mind’s eyes saw. We were alone so the others morphed flea’s, and I picked them up. Everyone was in my hair, except Tobias, who could talk to the others through thought speak if anything happened. I was in too much pain to notice anything so the above is basically what Tobias told me. Then I saw it, the Yeerk pool. I ran toward it, but Tobias held me back by his thought speak.
Chapter 10
I guess he expected it. I stopped and then continued running I didn’t want to look obvious. I gave a glance at Tobias, I guess he understood because he ran to the Yeerk pool right behind me. I didn’t jump inn like some other people. See that was the Yeerks Plan. I guess what got me thinking straight was the fear of becoming a controller. As I was running to the pool in the middle I took the time to look at my surroundings for the first time, through the pain waves, anyway. There were people almost all around me. Screaming in pain. They ran with me to the lake. When the first ones reached the Yeerk pool they jumped in, some were taking the time diving. Some looked happy, some were at the same stage as me, screaming in agony. I don’t know how I ran, I just did. The pain seemed distant almost like it was going away, and then it would come back, stronger then ever.
Chapter 11
"AHHH Andalite!" he screamed. I guess he ran to get Visser Three also. I acquired Ax somehow before we came. I was fully Andalite, and I no longer felt the agonizing pain. I walked on my four arms and galloped to the storage room. It wasn’t the storage room where my friends were morphing but one where I could easily destroy to by my friends time. Galloping was fun. I practiced with my tail. Now one of those storage bins full of who knows what has a major hole in it.
Chapter 12
Later Tobias told me the Visser nearly died but remorphed to Andalite.
The End
By Xena, E-mail her at dragontg@warwick.net
Chapter 1
My name is Jake. Wanna know my last name? Too bad. Not to be mean or anything, but if I gave out that info me, my friends, and for that matter the entire world would be in deep trouble. You see, I’m an Animorph. That’s short for animal-morpher. Marco made it up. Back when we were just normal kids. Unlike today where every day we get hunted by Yeerks. I doubt you’ve heard of that word either. Yeerks are alien slug that crawl in your ear and control your mind.
Now right now you probably think I just watched “The Body Snatchers” a few hundred times. Or that I’m just totally insane. But I’m serious. I couldn’t be more serious. The Yeerks are here and we’re being invaded. You probably just lost all hope of growing up. But there are more aliens. If you thought that things got worse you’re wrong. These aliens are called Andalites. They are known as the good guys of the galaxy. They fight the Yeerks wherever they go. But when they came to earth they were ambushed by the only Andalite-Controller in existence, Visser Three. They lost the battle and couldn’t help earth. But ……..
…….But then there’s us. Five kids and an Andalite with the power to morph. We were given the power by the dying War-prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. So that’s it. All the protection the earth has. Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, Ax the Andalite, Marco, and me. Jake.
Oh, and did I mention, Marco’s great at video games. We were at the arcade. Marco was winning when…
“Game Over. Yes!!!!!!!! I beat you again Jake!” Marco laughed, “ Man, sometimes you suck at video games!”
Marco smiled. I knew he was going to rub it in bad. But that’s Marco for you.
“ I mean”, Marco continued “ how can you lose eight billion games in a row?”
“It wasn’t eight billion games,” I said “ it was only 32.”
“Your point is?” Marco asked.
“Um,” I said trying to find a way out “maybe we should go over to Cassie’s”
“Okay, and Jake,” he smiled “you’re not getting out of this.”
“Oh, great” I groaned.
On the way there Marco continued to bug me about how bad I was at video games and how good he was. I sighed. “How annoying can you get?” I questioned myself.
“Hi cuz” I heard someone say. Rachel of course.
“Hey”, I said “You wanna go over to Cassie’s and see what she’s doing?”
“Sure” she replied.
A few minutes later we got to Cassie’s house. And there was just enough time for Marco to fill Rachel in about me losing the video game to him.
“How do you lose 8,000,000,000 games in row?” she asked “and to Marco of all people?!”
“Hey!” Marco yipped.
I was going say something, too, but then we all heard a big ‘crrrrreeeaaaaakk’ from the hayloft.
Chapter 2
Creeeeeeaaaaaakk!!!
The three of us looked at each other, and then up at the hayloft. Slowly we all went up. We got to the top. For a moment nothing happened. And then something big happened. Someone jumped up out of the hay.
A boy said “Wow! I knew the Animorphs were real! Now I have proof!”
Marco looked shocked. But not at the kid. He was looking at Rachel who wasn’t Rachel any longer. Rachel swung one grizzly fist at the kid and he flew across the room.
He said something like “Oooooo, purple marshmallow teddy bears!” and passed out.
Just then we heard a voice from downstairs “Is anyone up there?” It was Cassie.
“Uhhhhhh” I said stupidly.
“Jake is that you?” she asked.
“Yah” I replied.
“He’s a genius.” Marco joked.
“Hi Marco. What’s going on up there?”
“Uhhhhhhh”, I said again “come up and look.”
She hurried up and said “Hi guys, what’s going o …… what happened here and who is that?”
“It looks like we have an uninvited visitor”, I answered.
“He knows what we are. He’s gotta be a controller. I say we kill him.” Rachel said.
That’s Rachel for you. Direct and to-the-point.
“Wait!” Cassie yelled, “we’re not sure. Let’s hold him for three days like we did with Jake. It will be easier since he can’t morph.”
“Sounds good to me”, I said. Rachel pouted.
“Cassie?” Cassie’s mom yelled.
“Um, yeah?” she replied.
“Your friend Phillip is here.” Her mom replied to the reply.
“Okay” she said. That ‘Phillip’ was Ax in human morph.
Ax came up. “Who is that?” he asked pointing to the mumbling person in the corner.
“That my friend,” Rachel said hoping Ax would agree with her “is an intruding controller.”
“No it isn’t” Ax replied.
“What?!” Rachel practically yelled.
“I can tell”, Ax said, “that isn’t a controller.”
Rachel looked like she’d been let down. While in the corner…
“What kind of heavy-weight machinery did you hit me with?” he said.
We stared at him. He stared at us. Five minutes later he was tied to a chair.
“How do you know about us?” Rachel sneered.
“I read your books,” he said.
“Someone found our books?” I questioned him.
“Yeah, an author named K. A. Applegate” he replied.
“Well let’s untie him,” I said.
We walked to the corner and talked about our options. Rachel offered to kill him. But finally we decided.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Patrick”
“Well Patrick, welcome to the Animorphs.”
Chapter 3
“Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!” Patrick exclaimed.
“You are now an Animorph.” I said. “Okay, now everyone get rest, we got an important mission tomorrow.”
“Bye!” said Patrick.
That night I had nightmares. Nightmares about a fight between a tiger and a lion. Nightmares of a cousin who wasn’t a cousin. Nightmares of a horrible scream
Chapter 4
We went down into the mall and entered the nearest restrooms to the store. Cassie and Rachel in the girls’, Patrick, Marco, Ax, Tobias, and I in the boys’. Then there was another problem.
“Of course I don’t have a fly morph!” said Patrick “I’ve only been an Animorph for two days!”
“Easily fixed” Marco said as he locked the door “we got plenty of flies to choose from in here.”
Patrick snatched two flies. The first one he killed by accident. The acquired the second one though. Then we started to morph. Tobias and Ax had to demorph first. A few minutes later, seven flies flew into the store. We heard a Controller talking.
“Well now that all of our fellow Yeerks have fed, I think it’s our turn.” he said “ I will feel a lot better after a nice dip in the pool.”
“Well let’s hurry!” another Controller said, “I haven’t eaten in two days!”
The two Controllers left and we demorphed and remorphed but again Patrick wasn’t exactly prepared.
“My toughest morph is my cat!” Patrick loudly whispered “or I could morph Fly and keep out of this.”
Nothing was working right. But I didn’t want to give away such a good opportunity.
“Or I could morph loon and poop on their heads” Patrick continued.
Chapter 5
Our fist mission with Patrick ended rather well. And next time he’ll be prepared. Now he has a cat, a loon, a fly, a dolphin, a wolf, a cheetah, a fox, a cockroach, and a great horned owl. Like Cassie said, that covers Patrick’s morphing problems. We have to be careful, but now we got seven. Now we got Patrick.
Story by anim0rph2,e-mail at anim0rph2@aol.com
the voice startled me at first but then I recognized it as Jake’s.
Tobias said. I looked around casually and saw Cassie in the back of the line. We got our tickets with Tobias’s secret money and marched on in the theater with a fly following us. Only then in the dark did I start asking questions.
