The New
Written By M.M

CHAPTER 1

My name's Tobias. That's about the only real human part left of me. I'm a hawk. A red-tail to be exact. I used to be a human. I used to have a family, a school, and heck, even a body. Now, I can only be human for 2 hours at a time.

You probably think I'm insane, right? Well, I probably am. Let me back up and give you the whole story. One night, me and my friends, Jake, Marco, Cassie, and Rachel, were walking through this old abandoned construction site. There, we saw an alien space ship crash land right in front of us. An Andalite named Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul came out. He told us that Earth is in trouble, MAJOR trouble. See, there are these aliens called Yeerks. When they're on their own, they are these slimy little slugs that you could probably stomp you're foot on. They are more like parasites. They expand and contract going through the ear canal and into your brain. Not very much fun. Then, they cover your entire brain until they have control over you. Complete control. That's what we call "Controllers", people or aliens that have been infested with a Yeerk. We know of some already. Mr. Chapman, our school's vice principal. Jake's brother Tom and various people throughout our community are known Controllers.

Thus, Elfangor gave us a tiny piece of hope. He gave us the ability to morph into anything we touch. But with one catch, we can only stay in morph for 2 hours. If we pass it, then we're stuck forever. Welcome to my life.

Your life probably revolves around school, home, and friends, right? Well, right now I'm searching for prey. There's been a drought lately, so it's getting hard to find food. <Tobias, is that you?> I "heard" in my head. I looked around for any other animals. See, you can only "thought speak" when you're in morph.

<Rachel? Where are you?> I asked.

<Right behind you.> she answered. Sure enough, when I turned around, there was a golden eagle following me.

<Jake sent me. There's a meeting in Cassie's barn right now. Are you coming?>

<Yeah.> I replied. We turned tail and flew to Cassie's barn.

When we got there, they all looked like they were waiting for me. "Tobias, we've got a problem. Someone's looking for you," started Jake. <It's not Aria again, is it?>I asked, remembering when Visser Three came looking for me.

"No, it's a girl. Her name's Katie. She's a new girl at school, and a few days ago, she asked me if I knew you. She said, and I quote, 'It's very important that I find him.' What do you think?"

<Could be a trap.> I answered.

"That's what I said," Marco replied.

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Asked Cassie.

"Alright, anyone wants to volunteer for a three day watch?" asked Jake, leading as always.

<I am at your side, Prince Jake> replied Ax, our resident Andalite. His full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. He was Elfangor's brother. Jake ignored Ax's name for him. We all nodded to volunteer.

"Do I have a choice?" asked Marco.

"That's the great thing about it, Marco. You don't," answered Rachel.

"Well, how about Cassie and Rachel kinda stick close to her during school?" They nodded and Jake went on. "Marco and I will watch before school, then Tobias and Ax will watch after school, and we split up nights?"

"Did you just come up with that now?" Marco asked in amazement.

Jake smiled, "Hey, I started thinking about this right after she asked me."

We waited expectantly for our blessing.

"Uh, Rachel…."Marco reminded her.

"Oh, sorry, let's do it."

We broke off from each other. Me and Ax headed back into the forest.

"You in the mood for a Cinnabon?" I asked, knowing the answer. He turned around and looked at me with all four of his eyes. A bit creepy if you weren't used to it. Heck, I still ain't used to it. Well anyways, his eyes got really big.

"Cinnabon? Yes, yes, Tobias!"

See, Andalites have no mouth. So they can't eat anything. That makes Ax very fond of Cinnamon buns when he morphs to human. Of all the morphs that we Animorphs have done, Ax-man's is probably the weirdest. He combined the DNA of Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and Marco. So he looks a little weird to us, but to everyone else… well, I heard Cassie once describe him as "a pretty guy". He's got an average height, somewhere between Rachel and Marco. His hair is brown with some of Cassie's curls. And his skin is a mix from all of us. But for now, he morphed a northern harrier.

In the mean time, I flew over to a tree where I had hidden a 10 dollar bill that I had found earlier. We flew off to the mall. We had hidden some regular clothes in a bush toward the back doors, outside the food court. We both morphed to human, changed clothes, and entered the mall. It's interesting. Ax and I are the only ones who have to morph to human, instead of de-morphing.

As we were walking, Ax whispered to me, "Tobias, I believe that that girl sitting over there is the one Prince Jake called 'Katie'." He nodded toward this rather good-looking girl sitting at a table eating a Big Mac. She was all alone.

"How do you know if that is her or not?" I asked. By now, my own voice sounded very foreign. "I was with Prince Jake when she talked to him."

I took another look at her. She had dark hair, and was of medium build. She was reading a book. My kind of girl, I though to myself. Since, I didn't want her to recognize me later, I turned away and quickly reminded Ax of the Cinnabon. As we were standing in line, she walked up. I whispered to Ax, "Just act natural." She didn't even look at us. After the hitting the Cinnabon, we got myself an ice cream and left. Ax and I didn't say a word on the way home.

Cassie and Rachel had reported seeing nothing unusual about Katie. She acted like any average 15 year old girl. Jake, Marco, and Ax had seen her go nowhere near the known Yeerk pools. And I hadn't seen any her go either. We had one day left. I sat on a branch with Rachel, outside the video arcade. We were right behind the window, so we had a clear view of playing an ancient game of Miss's Pac Man. There was nothing too weird. I and Rachel talked the whole time.

<Dang, she's heading toward the girl's bathroom!> I exclaimed.

<I'm on it.> she said and left. As she was gone, I wondered, what's she gonna tell me? That my father is Elfangor? I knew that. What else is there? That one of my aunts or uncles is dead or sick? I don't wanna be mean, but when have they ever cared about me? I mean, I've been a hawk for over a year now, and none of them have even noticed that I'm gone. That Visser Three has found the "Andalite bandits". Then, we'd be in trouble. Serious trouble. He still believes that we are Andalites, because of our morphing power. Visser Three is head of the invasion of Earth, and is the only Yeerk to have taken an Andalite body. An Andalite that can morph. That's about the time when Rachel came back.

<You know, I wish me and Cassie weren't out-numbered in our little group here. Every time we have to follow a girl, it's me and Cassie, me and Cassie, why can't we add one more girl?>

<Do you really want to go through the "David Disaster" again?> I asked, remembering what happened when this boy named David had found the morphing cube and had about killed me in a fight. She shuddered, as a golden eagle can. We looked through the window again, and saw her heading toward the exit.

<Gotta fly.> I said as we flew around.

Rachel and I stayed with Katie until exactly the three days were up. Then, at midnight everyone met in Cassie's barn.

"So, coach, what's the game plan?" asked Marco

"Well, I suppose I'll tell her tomorrow that Tobias is here and she can meet him…Where do you think would be the best place is?" asked Jake looking at me.

"What about at the food court? There are enough stores and booths to keep the rest of us hidden, if there's trouble," answered Cassie.

<What do you believe this Katie will tell you?> questioned Ax. I replied.

"So bird-boy, you're sure you wanna do this?" jeered Marco.

<Positive.>

We finalized the plans and left. I was to meet her at the Burger King the next afternoon. Marco was gonna wait in a photo booth right next to the place. It kinda helps when you're nervous about something to have a fully grown gorilla on call at your disposal. Well, not quite at my disposal, because it's Marco, but you get what I mean.

I couldn't sleep that night. I had a bizarre mix of fear, excitement, nervousness, and a really weird calm feeling that everything would be okay.

I flew to an alley a block away from the mall. There, Rachel had hidden some clothing for me. I morphed back to human. I looked at my arms as my feathers started shrinking, I grew taller rapidly, and my beak was becoming as dull as to where it was barely even there. Morphing is never pretty. I look like a freak, like a humongous warped turkey. You kinda try not to look at yourself when you're morphing. It completely scares you. Not just the shrinking and sprouting of feathers. But the feeling of your organs shrinking and twisting around inside of you. Dang, it's weird.

After if was over, I changed out of my morphing outfit and into my clothes. I walked into the mall. I looked around. Jake was in the video arcade. Rachel and Cassie were in the boutique right across from us. Ax was stationed on a table right next to the photo booth were Marco was hidden. Then I looked at Burger King. There stood Katie, sipping on a drink. I walked up to her and said, "Hi. I'm Tobias."

She smiled and said, "Hi, I'm Katie."

She motioned to a table. We walked over and sat down.

"I got a message that you wanted to talk to me?" I asked.

"Yeah, look, I don't know exactly how to tell you this, but I'm your sister."

CHAPTER 2

"Uh, what?" I pondered. Surely I had misheard her.

"I know it sounds weird, but I'm your sister," she said calmly.

"MY SISTER!?!" I exclaimed.

"Let me explain. I'm a foster kid. I get shuffled around a lot. Two years ago, I decided to start digging up stuff about my family. I looked through libraries, online, and I even broke into some places. I found two things. I have a brother named Tobias, that live right here in this city. And my father's name was Alan Fangor." Replied Katie, who wasn't smiling anymore.

"There's got to be a mistake. I'm an only child." I said.

"Well, you're not anymore. And not only that, we're twins. I found it out in the hospital's records." I caught a glance from Jake. Unfortunately she intercepted it. "You needed backup?" she asked with a laugh. "Yeah, I guess."

"So what do you wanna do about it?"

"I don't know. This is kinda a shock for me. What do you think we should do?"

"How about this, we meet again here tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Here's my number. Well, my latest set of parents' number, anyway."

She handed me a small piece of paper. 'Katie 423-8794

"Bye"

"Bye"

With that, she walked off and out the door. Now, I had to walk over to the "Japan Express" place across the way. If I took a free sample, then everything was okay. If I just looked into the window, then Jake would give a sign for Marco to come out. See, I couldn't go over and tell them anything, because if there was any Contollers around, they might get suspicous. So we always try not to hang out with each other that much.

"Hello and welcome to "Japan Express" Would you like to try our Mandarin Chicken?" the teenage girl behind the counter asked.

"Yes, please." I said.

It was gross, but I endured anyway. Then, I turned around and headed for the door. Once I was back into the alley, I morphed again and headed back to the forest. The plan was for me to head back to the barn for the others, but I had some serious thinking to do.

Well, I came to two conclusions. First, she's either a controller or worse, Visser Three again. Then, she might be telling the honest truth. But, if she knows who Alan Fangor is, then she might know, what he is. Then, we might be in trouble. Well, Rachel's or somebody's probably gonna come after me, so I better get to the barn. But heck, what am I gonna tell them?

Before I even made it through, Cassie stopped me outside. "Sorry, Tobias, but we just got in a bunch of eagles. Can you morph back to human? Jake's got clothes for you." She apologized again and I nodded.

Her barn is the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Cassie and her Dad take care of the sick and injured animals in this area. And hawks don't especially get along with eagles.

Jake came out with these jeans and T-shirt. I went to the side of the barn and morphed again. Sometimes, it gets really tiring having to morph to human all the time. From the second I entered, I was bombarded with questions.

"Who is she?", "What did she want?", "What was so important?", "Is she a Controller?"

Then Rachel became the voice of reason and calmed everyone down. Then I told them what she said.

"You have a sister?" Rachel asked in disbelief.

"Probably a trap," Marco said.

"But she knew about your father," wondered Jake. But I had a question of my own,

"What if she knows about Andalites, Yeerks, and even us?" The whole room fell silent. Even the birds and squirrels knew enough to shut up.

<Then, I believe, we have but only 2 choices. To kill her, or to make her one of us.> said Ax solemnly.

We weren't shocked. We knew that we'd probably have to come to that.

"Well how do we know if she knows? I mean, we can't exactly walk up to her and ask her, 'Hello, do you know what an Andalite is?'" scorned Marco.

I glanced at Rachel, and she gave her dangerous, daredevil, suicide-mission smile. "Why not?" she grinned.

"Uh oh. Xena's got an idea…" jeered Marco. "Well, think about it. We can ask her, and if she doesn't know, then we can make up some false definition for it," supplied Rachel.

"And what if she does?" asked Jake.

"Then, we take her, capture her, contain her, whatever. I guess we can hold her captive for 3 more days, you know we have Friday off this week. I guess then, anyways, she'd become one of us. "

"What about her foster parents? Don't you think that they would notice her missing for three days?"

"Not if me and Cassie call and ask if she can spend the night for two nights."

"It works, it's absolutely crazy, but it works," I said.

"What about it Jake?" questioned Rachel. "Is it doable? We can hide her in the same shack we had to tie you up in…" her voice broke off as Jake cringed, obviously remembering when he had been a Controller and we had to keep him tied up for three days.

See, Yeerks can only stay away from their feeding ground, or Yeerk Pool, for only three days. Otherwise, they shrivel up and die.

"I don't know. That kinda seems harsh. I mean, what if she does know, but is not a Controller?"

<That's a risk that we'll have to take. But what if she is a controller? Tobias would be put in a very dangerous situation. And that would greatly endanger the rest of us. We have to take this precaution. And besides, if she's not, when she's one of us, she'll be glad that we did this to her.>

"Do any of you happen to remember David?!?" Marco practically screamed.

We did. We had made David one of us, because he had found the morphing cube. The box that gave us our powers.

"How can we forget?" said Jake. David had almost killed him on the roof of a mall one night. When Jake was coming to find and save me.

"We have no other choice," Cassie said quietly.

"So, what's our false definition?" I asked, to change the subject.

"What about some kind of gum?"

"Huh?" came from Jake.

"Well, I can say, 'Hey, do you know what Andalite is?' and if she says no, then I'll tell her that she might be standing in it."

"That's cool," said Cassie.

<Well, if we're gonna take her, then it can't be in a mall.> said Ax

"How about the alley that we have to change in?" I asked

"I guess that'd be okay. Now how do we capture her?" questioned Jake.

"Now I've got the idea. We know that she is not Visser Three, because we have seen her directly for more than 2 hours at a time. So she can't morph into anything that can overcome us. Besides, we have an Andalite here to help us," she smiled at Ax. "We can get her out of there easier if we are ourselves. And not in a morph. After we have her down, then Ax can morph to human and we walk out there like nothing happened. We might be able to avoid a struggle if Tobias can convince her to come with us, at least till we're out of sight."

"Alright Cassie. Good plan," said Jake. Cassie and Jake liked each other. You know, like each other.

"Everybody in?"

"You know, Jake, oh buddy oh pal, I have an idea too," said Marco.

"Really?" replied Jake with a raised eyebrow.

"And every bit of it involves sitting at home watching HBO. Why can't we ever use one of my ideas for once?" asked Marco pleadingly.

"Because we plain don't like your ideas," the answer came.

"Et tu Brute!" exclaimed his best friend. Then he fell mockingly down on a haystack. We all laughed.

"Hey Ax, what's my time?" I asked. I didn't want to get trapped as a human. That would mean that I would lose my morphing powers forever.

<You have about 20 of your minutes left.>

Jake looked at everyone else.

"Well, let's meet at that alley tomorrow. Marco, bring Ax and Tobias's clothes. What time do you meet her tomorrow?" he asked me.

"4:00."

"Then let's meet there tomorrow at 3:45. Tobias, are you gonna call her?"

"He can call from my house, my folks are out," piped up Rachel.

"Wonder why?" muttered Marco. See, me and Rachel really like each other.

"Then, I guess that's it. Everybody's in?" Jake asked. Marco started to open his mouth, but Rachel cut him off. "Don't even think about it. Let's do it."

"I'm in" came from Cassie. The same came from me and Ax.

"Well then, till tomorrow. Same time, same place, same station."

We all laughed and I headed to the back of the barn. I morphed back to hawk and then back to human. I called from Rachel's house and left. I didn't sleep any better that night, knowing how quickly things could go wrong the next morning.

When I got there, everyone was present, except Ax. When I asked though, he came out from behind the dumpster. Then they all dove and hid in the cardboard boxes when Katie showed up.

"Hey Katie."

"Hi Tobias. Why did you wanna meet me here?"

"Well, hey," Here it was, the moment of truth, "Do you know what Andalite is?" She paused, still smiling though. Her eyes didn't flicker. Then she answered "Yeah, I think do."

CHAPTER 3

In an in instant, there was Rachel and Jake on top of her. "What the heck is going on?!? Get off of me! What wrong with you?" she was crying out.

Then Cassie looked at me, "I thought that you were going to try the easy approach?"

"Uh, I forgot, until just now, sorry Cassie." I said mournfully.

"Well, don't tell me that you're sorry, tell Katie." I looked up and Jake had her hands held behind her back.

"What's going on Tobias?" she said. I felt so bad. "Katie, we need to take you with us. We won't hurt you or anything; this is for your own protection. Believe me. Please believe me."

"Why are you doing this?" She looked like she was about to cry.

Then Cassie walked over, "You remember me from school don't you? I'm Cassie. Look, I promise that we're not gonna hurt you or anything like that. We're trying to keep other people from hurting you. You can trust me. You can trust all of us." Suddenly, Ax in human form came out from behind the dumpster.

"Katie, you'll be all right."

"Yeah, Katie, it's okay. We ain't gonna hurt you. We just wanna help you," said Marco. Then he showed this slow smile that I don't think any of us have ever seen before. And miraculously, Katie stopped fighting.

"Katie, listen to me," as Marco went on, "me and Cassie, Rachel, and Jake are gonna walk you over to Cassie's house. Tobias and Ax will meet us there. If you come peacefully, we'll let you go. You've gotta promise not to run though."

She nodded and Jake let go of her arm. They turned around and left. We didn't wanna pass up the 2 hour limit, so Ax and I morphed back, me to hawk, him to Andalite. I waited for him to morph back to harrier, and then we were off. We kept in eye sight of them. Katie glanced up at me for a second then looked back down at the ground like it wasn't much to see. Ax and I landed in Cassie's barn right before them. We had just enough time for us to morph. Ax hid behind some haystacks so he could morph back to human. When Katie walked in, she was crying.

"Ax-man, should we tell her about, you know, us?" I whispered behind me. He thought spoke to me. Then he did a group thougt speech

<Jake, who should tell her about us, Animorphs?>

"Tobias," he said out loud. Katie looked at me, with fear in her eyes.

"Katie, you're gonna think that we're absolutely nuts…" I started.

"And you're absolutely right…" Marco put in.

"But we, Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Marco, and I are called Animorphs," I finished. "That means that we were given the power to change into an animal at will," Jake added. "If we just touch an animal, we can turn into it. For up to 2 hours at a time." She looked at me.

"Katie, this might freak you out, heck, it still freaks us out…" I started morphing back to hawk. I expected her to be screaming. I looked at her. She had this puzzled look on her face. But she wasn't scared. Suddenly, I was scared, thinking of the only other person on Earth who could morph like us. Visser Three.

"Is that was this is all about? You Animorphs?" she asked with a small laugh. "I knew about you all. I've known about you all ever since I moved here." I felt for the other Animorphs, they could all hear my screaming.

"Listen, I'm an Andalite's daughter, ain't I? Not only do I know of you, I am one of you." Suddenly, she began to change. Brown and white fur grew along her skin. All of us watched in fright. She grew smaller and smaller until she was the size of a small dog, and ironically that's what she became: a beagle.

<Marco, look under the sole of my left shoe> she asked.

For once, Marco was completely silent. His eyes, wide from fear, looked around in her left sneaker. He pulled out a piece of paper.

<Now, hand it over to Jake. That's a good boy.>she said with a laugh. <Read it please.>

I flew over to the loft above Jake's head so that I could read along. Quivering, he started reading.

"My dearest Katie, I am sorry that I have never known you. But I am your father. And I am not human. My real name is Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. I am an Andalite, a species not of this planet. What I am about to tell you is vitally important for your survival." He paused for a second, as Katie morphed back to human. By now, I could hear Cassie's heavy breathing. Jake went on, "There is another alien race called the Yeerks. They are a parasitic species that can take over the minds of humans and aliens alike. I am truly and deeply sorry that I am not able to tell you this in person, but if I did not leave, Earth would be finished. So I am leaving you with the power to morph. Place your hand on this small blue box and say my name. Now, if you touch an animal and concentrate, you can become it. Then destroy the box so it is never found…" Jake's voice trailed off.

I would be crying right now if hawks could cry. Then Katie spoke up and finished it. <Lastly, in my last resort to save Earth, my plan is to give humans the power to morph, be watchful. Love forever, Alan Fangor. PS- I pray that you will find your twin brother soon…> with that she looked at me.

<I broke into the hospital that me and you were born in, Tobias, and recovered that letter. It was in a sealed envelope, so I think that I was the first to read it> she said solemnly.

Then Ax spoke with the words that we on each of our lips, but we could not force them out.

<Welcome to the Animorphs, Katie.>

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