The
Knowledge
Written By M.M
Chapter 1
My name is Marco. I can’t tell you my last name. I can’t even promise you that Marco is my real name. It could be Marcus, Mark, or even Popeye, well of course it’s not Popeye but you get my point. Maybe I should establish something first. I am insane. My friends? Also insane. Rachel? Even more so. But, we fight anyway. We fight the Yeerks. If we don’t we’ll all, even you, either die, or have a fate even worse. See, about a year and a half ago, me and my friends, Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias and I were walking through an old, abandoned construction site one night on our way back from the mall. That was probably the last normal, sane moment that we ever had. We saw an Andalite space ship crash land right in front of us. A huge creature came out. It looked like a blue deer with the upper body of a man. Its face has no mouth and a little slit for a nose. It has two eyes, and an additional two stalk eyes that seem to follow you wherever you go. He was an Andalite prince named Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. He told us that Earth is in massive trouble. There are these little slugs-like things named Yeerks. They have the ability to crawl into your ear canal and cover your entire brain. Then they control you, all of you, forever. And they’re not alone; some of their host bodies are Hork-Bajjir and Taxxons, aliens that could seriously hurt you. I mean serious ow-wie. But he also gave us a gift/curse; he gave us the power to morph into any animal we touch. But with one problem, if you stay in that animal for more than 2 hours, than you are that animal forever. Lost without morphing powers. That was Tobias’s life, until the Ellimist gave him his powers back, only in the form of a hawk. Then we found Ax, Elfangor’s little brother. He’s our little fountain of knowledge. It crazy to me: he possesses the knowledge of the universe and goes nuts for cinnamon buns and “These Messages”. The last member of our little group is Katie. She found us, about three months ago. She is actually Tobias’s twin sister. Then you have our band of “Andalite bandits.” Anyways, I couldn’t sleep that night. I had just gotten back from our meeting in Cassie’s barn. Jake had told us of a big fundraiser event that The Sharing is hosting. The Sharing is a front organization for the Yeerks, to get hosts. It’s kinda like an evil version of the Boy Scouts. Xena, otherwise entitled Rachel, thought to storm the place. Trash it, and then everyone will know about the Yeerks. Cassie was quiet, as usual. Jake went over all aspects of the situations. Tobias, was as cautious as usual, while backing up his girlfriend, Xena. Ax was always in the background, until we needed him. Katie was too new. She kept looking like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t exactly. But she was all for Rachel’s suicide mission. Me? I was as normal as I ever get. I really had no opinion one way or another, but I was just trying to keep everyone laughing. Not an easy task when you know that you could be found and killed at any time.
Chapter 2
Dad came home, and found me half asleep on the couch. “Marco, Marco, wake up!” he practically yelled in my ear. “Yeah, Dad?” I asked, still exceptionally groggy. “You need to go to sleep,” he jeered. “Thanks for the input. If I ever get back to sleep, remind me to thank you again.” He laughed and picked me up like he did when I was little and put me in my bed. “You know, Marco. You’re eating way to much.” He said with mock sweetness. “Thank you, I work on it.” Now, I couldn’t sleep. Ever since I became an Animorph, I’ve had a little trouble sleeping. It seems like every time I close my eyes I keep seeing a giant Hork-Bajjir or a Taxxon. But now, I had something different on my mind. I’ve got a confession to make. I’m getting especially fond of a certain girl, Katie. Yes, bird-boy’s sister. She’s so cool though. She’s as funny as heck, yet she’s really sweet too. I’m trying to be really nice to her. There was a knock at my door. “Marco, that was Aunt Elena on the phone,” he stated. “What’d she want?” I asked. “Well, it seems like your cousin Matt is in the hospital. And well, she needs me to come and help take care of her kids and everything. Would you be okay if I left you alone for about 3 days?” Well, Jake will certainly be happy I’m free, I thought. “Sure Dad.” “Okay. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.” Tomorrow was Saturday. The day we all had planned to go over the plans for infiltrating the fundraiser. I fell asleep after that, thinking about a lot of things. The fundraiser, Katie, finals… You know you’d think that saving the world would get us excused from exams, but oh well. What can you do? The next day at Cassie’s barn, I noticed that Katie wasn’t there. “Where’s Katie?” I asked. “We don’t know. She’s missing. However, we do think that she got trapped in a movie with Josh Hartnett,” a voice said behind me. I turned around and saw Katie’s smiling face. Dang, I loved that smile. <Uh Sis, do me a favor and don’t start sentences with “We can’t find her” or “She’s missing”>said Tobias “Ditto,” agreed Rachel. We finalized the plans for tomorrow night’s attack. “So, Rachel’s at Cassie’s, Cassie’s at Katie’s and Katie’s at Rachel’s?” I asked. “Uh, I’ve got an idea. Since my parents are gone, how about you two spend the night at my house?” asked Katie to Cassie and Rachel. “Yippee! Slumber party! Can I come?” I joked. Strangely, even though I certainly didn’t mind it, Katie laughed. Nobody laughed but Katie. We broke off in different directions. Me and Jake went to the arcade. “So, do you like Katie or something?” Jake asked. “Huh?” came my intelligent answer. “Dude, it’s kinda obvious. You don’t joke around as much as you used to, especially around her.” “Attention everyone, Jake has left the building. Dude, you’re insane.” “Come on man. Cassie thinks she likes you.” “Cassie or Katie?” I knew that would get him. He just scowled and shoved me over. See, Cassie and Jake are boyfriend and girlfriend. “She does though?” I pondered. He just laughed, “You can’t tell? Do you remember when we first got her? When you started talking to her, she calmed down instantly. And no matter how stupid your jokes get, she laughs no matter what. I think you two would make a cute couple.” “It would be cool. It kinda seemed like I was the only one not paired up. I thought that I was gonna have to date Ax-Man for a while.” We just laughed and left.
Chapter 3
Ever since I first found out that my, once-presumed-dead-mom is really Visser One, I’ve been well, kinda… alright scared of spending the night by myself. I mean, if she were to find out who I am, I’d be toast, buttered and jellied toast. I called Jake to see if I could stay over there. His mom answered and said no. It’s ironic, the only times are parents ever object, is when we don’t seriously need it, like non-Animorph-related stuff. Then I remembered that Katie had said that her parents were gone. It was already 9:30, so I morphed a hawk and flew to her house. With my hawk eyes, I could see her sleeping. I flew up to her window and perched on her windowsill, she had left her window open. I flew on top of her and bounced off back to the window. She stirred a little bit and then spoke, “Tobias, what is it?” Then she turned around and pointed a finger at me, “You’re not Tobias.” <NO, I’m not.>I answered. She smiled and said, “Marco, what are you doing here?” She smirked and got up. I could see now that she had on these cute pajama pants and a T-shirt. “Sure, you morph back while I go fetch another blanket and a pillow.” I demorphed quickly and looked around at the pictures and posters in her room. I was captivated by a picture of her and a little dog, the same dog that we had first seen Katie morph into. I picked it up when she came back in. “You can have it if you want. I’ve got another.” “Thanks and thanks a lot for letting me stay.” “Well, I wasn’t about to send a poor, little hawk back on its way. I’m glad you came.” She laughed, and I kissed her. What the heck am I doing? I thought. I pulled away impulsively. “I’m, like, so sorry…” I mumbled. “Why? You know, I like you Marco,” she said. “I like you too.” She smiled again, and then turned away. “My brother’s gone with my parents, so you can sleep in his room. It’s in the room across the hall.” I took my cue and walked out. My mind was completely working overtime. Yes, yes, yes! I’ve got a girlfriend! She likes me! Katie likes me! When I lay down, I fell asleep in a matter of seconds. Now, if only we had a chance of stopping the Yeerk invasion…
Chapter 4
"Marco, where were you last night? I tried calling you because my Mom changed her mind. Where were you?” Jake asked in front of everyone. I shot a glance at Katie. Almost undetectable, she shook her head no. “Nowhere,” I shrugged. <HOW can you be nowhere?>Ax asked. <If you are somewhere, then they can’t be no where.>“It means, ‘no where special’,” Cassie answered. “Well, are we ready to go?” Rachel asked, annoyed. “Yeah, let’s do it,” said a very enthusiastic Katie. Rachel and everyone just stood there aghast. “Look, Katie. We get that you’re still new to us and everything. But we have one very important rule that cannot be broken. ‘Let’s do it’, is MY line. No one else can say it. Get it?” Rachel replied in a mock-angry tone. Katie laughed. “Then go ahead, Xena.” Rachel smiled and gave us our battle cry. “Let’s do it!” We all started morphing into our battle morphs, and let me tell you one thing. Morphing is not pretty. It’s down-right freaky. And if you thought me changing into a gorilla is scary, try watching Katie morph into a cobra, or Rachel into an elephant. It’s creepy. Right now, Jake was morphing to Tiger, Cassie was morphing wolf, Rachel-bear, Tobias-staying hawk, Ax-man- polar bear, Katie-cobra, and me-gorilla. We were good to go. Now it was time for Jake’s pep talk. <OK everybody. Tobias, you carry Katie in your talons...><Try not to squish me>Katie interrupted. <…Rachel come down through the front, Cassie and I will come from the back and Tobias and Katie from the right side. Then, once the rest of us have gotten through, Ax and Marco will come through the left. And remember, there might still be innocents in there. Just know down a lot of stuff, and wreak havoc. Everybody got it?> <Is there still time to back down from this mission?>I blatantly asked. <NONE>was Rachel’s reply. <LET’S do it!>we all went to our sides. <DON’T get yourself killed>came Katie’s private thought-speak. <Same goes for you, Buffy>I replied. <Buffy?>she asked. <Well, we’ve already got a Xena...>she laughed at that. Then suddenly, I heard a bang. <There goes Prince Jake, Marco>said Ax-man. Cassie and he took out the entire back wall. It looked like fun. <Yeah, we just gotta wait for the signal><Come on Marco!>I heard Jake scream in my head. He must be almost out of range. Me and Ax took out the wall. I heard someone scream, “Andalites!” We knock over a couple of columns and a lot of tables. Then, I saw Rachel leering over a very scared Controller and I heard her warning, <We’re here Yeerk. Now go home. Earth is ours now, you will never have it.>I gave her a private thought <Scary, Xena><Definitely>was the reply. There was mayhem everywhere. Jake was busy tearing up the podium, Rachel was threatening all the remaining Controllers. Cassie was turning over every table and chair in the place, Tobias was just swooping and scaring various people. This place was almost finished; Tobias hadn’t even bothered to let Katie out of his talons. I started pounding through the remaining walls. <Marco, are you thinking the same thing that I’m thinking?>asked a familiar wolf behind me. <Depends on what your thinking, Cassie.><That this is way too easy?><Bingo>Then, I probably did the stupidest thing of all. I hit the light switch. I didn’t mean to, but suddenly, the electricity was out. Then I heard a voice out of the darkness, the scariest of all, Visser Three.
Chapter 5
<That's enough!>he cried. He was in his Andalite form. He is the only Yeerk ever to have used an Andalite as a host, and one that could morph too. <You Andalite filth, do you still believe that you can win? Earth is ours now. If you surrender now, I might not kill you.>Ax is the only one of us who can talk to Visser Three, because he’s the only true Andalite. <Yeerk scum, we will never surrender to pathetic beings like you.>I looked around and suddenly Hork-Bajjir started appearing. <Jake, man, any ideas?>I asked. <None whatsoever>he answered. <Okay Xena, we need a suicide-mission-probably-gonna-die-but-don’t-care idea.>I said. Lucky for us, she had an answer. <Katie, can the Visser see you?>she questioned. <He’s got 4 eyes! Of course he can see me!>she screamed out of fear. <I mean, is he actually looking at you and Tobias?> she calmly asked again. <Well, no...>Tobias stated. <Drop her>she bluntly stated. <What?>I asked, this time. <Look Tobias, we have a hawk carrying a fully-grown poisonous cobra. If you put her near Visser Three, she can bite him and cause-><Major ow-wie>I put in. <And how exactly am I gonna slip her down there unnoticed?>Tobias asked. <We need a distraction, I’ll do it>Jake volunteered. <No, you’re too close. I’ll do it>came from a seemingly fearless Cassie. Suddenly, she started running around in circles. <Andalite idiot, what are you doing?>said the Visser. Then, Tobias crept down from the rafters and silently released Katie from his talons. <Ouch!>she cried. Luckily enough, only the Animorphs heard it. Then, she cocked her head toward one of the Visser’s legs. <This is gonna be gross...>she said as she bit into his leg. <What!?! My leg! What happened? The pain!>the Visser yelled. Then, he spotted Katie. <Stupid Andalite! You dare bite me?>Then he jumped on her. All four of his legs trampled her. <Katie!>I screamed. Then I heard her voice, very weakly. <Got...to...Demorph...Now...>Then it trailed off. Visser Three was retreating along with the rest of his army. He wasn’t used to snake venom. Katie started to demorph, slowly at first. It seemed like she wasn’t gonna make it. <Katie, come on girl. You can do it. You got Visser.>said Rachel. <Come on Buffy, you’ve got it>I said. Rachel gave me a strange look because of her nickname. The Katie finished. “Let’s never do that again,” she stated. We all wished it was so. Back at the barn, we all were just hanging out for once. Something we hardly ever get to do. Then Katie walked outside. I followed her. “Pretty rough day today,” I started. She just laughed. “After what I’ve heard, today was easy. So, what are we gonna do, about us?” I kissed her again. It was sweet, innocent, and oh so perfect. Then she smiled, “I hope that was your answer.” “Better believe it.” She put her head on my shoulder. Then I silently told God, “Thank you. She’s the answer to my prayers.” Then I could promise I heard, “I know.”