Animorphs #55 - The Aftermath

[Blossom]

I'll say now that this'll be PG-13.

Anyways, for those of you who don't know about Animorphs, they are a group of six teens who were given the power to morph into any animal they can touch. They were given this amazing power by an Andalite prince, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. It was not for fun, but as a weapon, to defeat the Yeerk menis that was attacking planet Earth. The Animorphs fought the long battle for years, searching for an end to come. In the process, they learned of the wars between Crayak and the Ellimist, two multi-dimensional beings having differing viewpoints on life. Ellimist wants to promote life and freedom, and Crayak merely wants to kill. Katherine Applegate never gave a resolution to this story, but a certain Alakazam has decided to take over the reigns once again. So, long (very long) story short: the Animorphs defeated the Yeerks, but their Blade Ship managed to leave the Earth's atmosphere, headed to God knows where. Three years have gone by, and nobody has heard of these Yeerks, the last of their kind in the universe. Until now....

Also note that the first few lines of quotations are from the final chapter of the final book in the series. I then go on with my own ideas after that. ^_^

Chapter One

My name is Jake. Jake Berenson, that is. There are no secrets anymore.

I was staring at the foul creature on the ship's viewscreen. I couldn't help but recognize the similarities to Ax, and think I was staring back at my old friend and comrade. But I soon shook that off, as I knew it was no longer him.

"Can we shoot?" I asked Menderash. I made no attempts to hide my words from the alien. If he wanted to react, let him.

"His Dracon cannon have longer range and greater power," Menderash reported to me. "And his defensive fields have been enhanced. I doubt our cannon can penetrate them."

"Thought so," I admitted drearily. This was not going to go well, I reckoned. "But we're faster." It was not a question.

Menderash answered anyway. "Yes," he said, nodding. It was one of the many human gestures he had picked up since becoming nothlit.

"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath. I looked around the battle bridge at my team, a team that I would very well be leading to their doom. At Tobias, who would trust me to do what was needed, but who would never get over what had happened with Rachel. At Santorelli, one of our newest recruits, who I hadn't gotten to know that well, yet knew could be trusted. At Jeanne, the French officer who was also a new recruit of ours. At Menderash, the now Andalite nothlit, who had sacrificed everything to save his friend. And finally, I looked at Marco, who had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. Long before the war began, we were good friends. He was now the only one who could see through me, knowing what it was that was really going through my head. But, at the moment, I was thinking about something he had said a while ago, back when we were on Earth.

"What was it, Marco? 'Crazy, reckless, ruthless decisions'?"

He nodded, reluctantly. He was probably wishing he had kept his mouth shut by now, I guessed.

But he knew, and so did I. It was our only chance now, and we both could see it. We just weren't sure if we would all make it out of this one alive.

But there wasn't any other choice.

"Full emergency power to the engines," I said. "Ram the Blade Ship."

The alien's eyes widened when he heard that. The screen instantly went blank, and we were looking out at normal space again. The Blade Ship was right in front of us, and I could see its powerful Dracon cannon powering up from beneath.

"Menderash...." I said, keeping my eyes steadily locked on that red glow.

And then....

FWOOOOOSH!

The Rachel shot ahead at unthinkable speeds, shooting her Dracon cannon in succession. And all the while, Menderash was manurvering the ship, avoiding the Blade Ship's fire.

TSEWW! TSEWW! TSEWW!

TSSEEEEWWWW!!!

The Yeerk ship's firing was beyond anything that we have ever encountered before. The tremor was so enormous that everyone inside our ship had suddenly crashed onto the floor.

"Where were we hit?!" I called over to Menderash, who had managed to stay by the controls.

"We weren't," Menderash said. "We'd have been dead if we were. We were struck by air pressure."

"But we're in space," Jeanne said, confused.

"I know," Menderash responded, even more confused.

By now, I could see the Blade Ship backing away, but it was too slow. The Dracons had failed, despite their inconceivable power. This gave Menderash an opportunity.

TSEWW!

The smaller Dracon beam lacerated space, headed straight for the Yeerks. And, it struck! The Dracon struck the ship's bridge, causing massive explosions, that would have been even more massive had they been in the atmosphere.

Seconds afterward, the Rachel struck!

The collision rocked the ship, as it was enveloped by the much larger Blade Ship. I knew we were not going to make it out alive....

The last thing I saw, as the air drained from my lungs, was the planet in the distance. It was odd purple colour, like that of amethyst. A lot different from the bright blue oceans of Earth. I was dying, billions of light-years from home, and nothing could be done to stop it.

 

[Blossom]

Chapter Two

There he was, before me again. Biological, mechanical, or some strange mixture of the two. Or something completely different altogether. Nobody could tell.

The creature with the one large bloodred eye. The eye that seemed to follow your every movement, going everywhere all at the same time.

I waited for the eye to lock onto me, like so many times before. I was having this dream almost every week now, and even more so since we left Earth. Every time, the eye would look straight at me, and Crayak would utter a single word. A word that has haunted my subconscious for what would seem like an eternity by now.

"Soon."

I knew it was coming. I was no longer hoping that he wouldn't find me, as it was clearly inevitable. But, I still shuddered as I saw that bloated thing finally come around to stare straight at me.

And, he uttered a single word, once again. But, to my utter amazement, and to my utter horror, it was unlike any time before.

"Now." The bloodred eye, although he had no form of mouth, was smiling inwardly. "The time has come, Jake," he said, in his unavoidable voice. "The time for the game to end. Time for you to die."

----------------------------------------------------------

I opened my eyes.

It all came back to me, slowly at first, but then in greater detail. The Blade Ship. Prince Aximili. The alien who had called himself the One. And finally, the impact, and the outline of the purple planet, coming closer and closer.

I slowly looked around at my surroundings, trying to get an idea at what had happened. I was no longer on board the Rachel, that was for sure. Odd, violet coloured tree trunks towered around me. They branched out like Earth trees, but revealed long blue-coloured leaves, blocking most of the sky above me, with a canopy that had to be a mile high. There were spots where I could see the light yellowish sky, though-probably a result of the crash, I expected. There were several broken tree branches scattered around the vicinity.

I moved my leg, and felt immense pain. I did the same with my arm, and got the same effect. However, I managed to get up, fighting the pain. I needed a good idea of where I ended up, and where the others were.

I took a deep breath, getting some fresh air into my lungs. Immediately after, I began choking. The air tasted like vinegar! I had no idea what gases would create that effect on this strange planet, and I could only hope it wasn't harmful. At the moment, it was breathable, and that was all that mattered.

It was all my fault. If we had set up the precautions, we could have escaped the Blade Ship's gravity. Even with that thing, the being who called himself the One, we could have high-tailed it out of there before any fighting began. But no, I went offensive, possibly getting my team killed in the process. And now, we were stuck on an odd, purple planet with air that tastes like vinegar, in what was probably the most unexplored region of the galaxy.

But I had to stop blaming myself. What was done was done, no reversing that. What was yet to come was what I was in control of. I began walking, crunching some of the purple tree-branches along the way. They looked as hard as the trees back home, but to my amazement, they were surprisingly brittle. One step, and the branch cracked in half, as shards of dust sprinkled along the soggy ground.

<Jake, is that you who made that noise?>

I froze. "Tobias?" I questioned.

<No, it's Jeanne,> she said. <We were looking for you, Jake. Weren't sure if you made it out alive.>

"Where are you, Jeanne?" I asked, scanning the trees for any creatures I could recognize.

<Look up,> she told me. <Above the trees.>

I did, scanning the patches where the canopy had been rattled. And there, illuminated by the planet's sun, was a creature that looked completely out of place in this alien forest.

A great-horned owl.

As I watched, Jeanne lowered swiftly to the ground, not making a single sound. It was what made the species so dangerous to their prey: their feathers were so soft that it is nearly impossible to notice them until it's too late.

Jeanne flapped her wings, coming in for a landing. I watched as she landed right on top of a nearby rock, with precision that would have made an Air-Force pilot envious.

"Hello, Jeanne," I said to the owl. "Are the others all right?"

<The others are all fine,> Jeanne told me. <Menderash and I managed to stay in the ship for the duration of the crash, but the rest of you were scattered around this forest. We found Tobias almost immediately, and have been searching for the others ever since. And, now that I've found you, I can say that we all made it.>

"That's great," I said, unbelievingly. We had just survived that crash landing, all of us. I would have been overjoyed, if not for the so many complications that we now had. "Any idea where we are?"

<Kelbrid space,> she told me. <Other than that, I haven't the slightest idea.>

"How far is the ship?" I asked, already beginning my falcon morph.

<Not too far away,> she told me. <We can walk there. I'm been in morph for ninety minutes, anyway.>

I reverted back to human, and watched as Jeanne demorphed. He talons were the first to change, reforming themselves into fleshy human toes. The skinny bird legs then sprouted upwards, until they were almost two and a half feet tall, with the rest of Jeanne still looking completely owl.

As I watched, the bird's eyes shrunk in size, replacing themselves with Jeanne's smaller, brown-coloured eyes. As that happened, her beak reformed, softening into her own lips.

The wings had disappeared, replaced with strong human arms. The feathers were quickly retracting themselves, except for the ones on her head, which were breaking up, forming her long, black hair.

Once she was fully human, she began leading me in the direction of the ship.

"So, have you found any signs of a local intelligent species around here?" I asked her.

"None yet, Professor," she told me. "But I've haven't been looking that long, though."

Suddenly, something else occurred to me. "What about the Blade Ship?"

Jeanne remained silent for awhile. Finally, she said, "Menderash was awake the whole time during the collision. He says he saw the Blade Ship headed for the planet too, supposedly in a crash landing as well. Apparently, they didn't land too far away. My best guess is about three hundred kilometres due west."

"Then we better be on the lookout, then," I told her. I then looked up at the deep yellow sky, which only emphasized the fact that we were light-years from home. And now, I was beginning to realize that it wasn't that different.

The Yeerks were still among us, waiting to strike.

 

[Blossom]

Chapter Three

My name is Marco.

Marco Mingarelli is my full name, something I haven't usually had the ability to say. But the battle for Earth has long been over, and keeping our identities secret is no longer a priority.

It all started about seven years ago, back when I was a normal junior-high school student. Shortly after, my friends and I found ourselves in the middle of an inter-stellar war.

Elfangor was his name, who we then thought was the lone survivor of the space battle that had recently been carried out over the planet. Elfangor trusted us with his peoples' greatest weapon, the Escafil Device, the blue cube that gave us the power to morph into any animal we can touch.

We had been fighting the Yeerks for years, searching for an end to come. And finally, it came, as my friends and I managed to seize control of the Yeerk Pool Ship.

But that was no easy thing to do, let me tell you. We were already in small numbers, living in a refugee camp deep in the mountains. We thought we were toast, until we found help in an unexpected place.

Taxxons. Huge, cannibalistic worms. Fifteen feet long. Let me tell you, the one good thing about being in this far corner of the universe was that I wouldn't be seeing any of them any time soon.

Anyway, the Taxxons helped us, by creating a diversion. In the meantime, another unexpected ally-Temrash 223, aka the Yeerk inside Jake's brother Tom's head-had successfully gotten control of the Blade Ship.

Long story short: Temrash wasn't actually an ally, and some Yeerks ended up escaping into z-space with a Blade Ship full of morphing Yeerks. But Temrash wasn't one of them. He was killed in the final battle, along with several thousand Yeerks, and my comrade, Rachel.

Well, going back to one of those last points. The thing about being in this far corner of the universe....

I looked around at my surroundings again. I was looking at the smoking ruins of what was once the magnificent-looking ship known as the Rachel. She was a lot of things now, but magnificent wasn't one of'em. A big freakin' hole was now outlined through the hull, where we had made contact with the Blade Ship. And, within that hole, I could see what was left of the inside, the remnants of whatever we had brought with us on this journey.

"Can you salvage anything?" I asked Menderash skeptically.

He was a few feet away, examined what looked like some sort of way-too big computer. "I do not know," he answered me. "The ship is burning rapidly. It would not be safe to retrieve anything."

"So, no more Play Station?" I asked, in mock sincerity.

Menderash didn't get it, however. "I was not referring to your games, Marco. There is more important stuff on board. Like the star chart. Or our weapons."

"Relax, relax," I said. "It was just a joke."

Just then, I heard a rustling in the bushes. Menderash and I both forgot our conversation, looking immediately into the woods.

"Santorelli?" I asked. "Is that you."

No answer.

I looked at Menderash. "I'll go take a look," I told him, as I grabbed a hand-held Dracon Beam that had been taken out of the ship earlier.

I slowly tip toed over to the sound, snapping small patches of what seemed like the biological glass that the trees were made of.

"Hello," I asked. "Who's out there?"

Again, no answer. Just some more rustling.

"That better be you, Jake," I said. "I don't think I could handle Jeanne doing something this bizarre."

Now, definite breathing. And now I was certain: either Jake had suddenly lost what was left of his mind, or I had something else before me.

And then....

"WEEE! WEEE! WEEE!"

It was some sort of pig-like animal. Almost ovaloid, with a diametre of what must have been four feet. It was bright blue, which was a shocking sight in this violet wonderland. I think it had six dumbly clawed legs, but I couldn't say. To tell you the truth, I was looking at those nasty tusks. The thing had a face that even a mother would hate, jeez, that thing was ugly. Mean looking yellow eyes, a pig-like snout, and a mouth filled with nasty, razor edged teeth. Two of which were tusks.

Pointed tusks. Very pointed.

Before he could move another nanometre, I was going to make sure that those tusks wouldn't make it anywhere near my butt. I high-tailed it outta there!

"WEEE! WEEE! WEEE!"

The beast had it in for me, that was for sure. From the corner of my eye, I could see him charging straight for me, with what had to have been smoke billowing from his grotesque nostrils.

I soon realized that I could not outrun him, so I stopped, turned around, and aimed the Dracon Beam at the beast.

TSEWW!

"WEEE!" the beast grunted, and stopped running immediately. With one final sigh, it let out one final groan, and collapsed on the ground, three feet away.

"What have you been up to, Marco?"

I spun around, and saw Jeanne. She was standing right behind me the whole time, with that beautiful smile of hers.

"How long were you there?" I asked her. "Were you just going to stand there and wait while I become a Marco-kebab?"

"No, she wasn't. I told her to do that."

I looked around again, and saw Jake standing there behind me. He was grinning, and looking at the boiling remains of the beast that had tried to kill me.

I mean, shouldn't they be concerned? I was nearly killed!

Obviously Jake was not. I assumed Jeanne was, but maybe that was just wishful thinking. "So, want to come back to the ship?" Jake asked me, trying to hide a grin.

"Sure," I said. "I think that's where my butt is safest."

"Don't bet on it," Jeanne told me, as we set off.

With that, the three of us went through the forest, headed back to the Rachel.

"What is with these weird looking trees?" Jake asked curiously.

"Don't know, Jake," Jeanne told him. "The only thing I can say for certain is that it probably doesn't rain very much around here. If it did, these trees would be too shattered to actually be considered trees at all."

"Weird place," I agreed. "I hope we realize what we've gotten ourselves into."

"Remember," Jake said. "The Yeerks could be anywhere. Anything, for that matter. We need to have our guard up."

"Agreed, fearless leader," I said.

It wasn't long before we had arrived at camp. Santorelli had been helping Menderash retrieve some mapping equipment from within the ship.

"Any idea where we are, Menderash?" Jake asked.

"Not at the moment," the Andalite reported. "But I hope to find some useful data in these papers here. I assume we are somewhere near Quadrant M, but I need to perform some more calculations before I know for certain."

"Okay," Jake said. "Good work."

And then, we heard another voice speaking to us.

<Hello, Jake. Hello, Marco. Glad to see you guys made it back okay.>

I looked up, scanning the skies. And there I saw the red-tailed hawk, soaring over our heads.

Jake waved up at him, as did I. "Hey, Tobias. Glad to see you're all right, too. What do you see up there?"

<No, not much of anything,> he admitted. <There's a spectacular looking waterfall due south of here, but everything else is forest. No signs of Yeerks, no signs of a local intelligent species, nothing.>

"Well, the Yeerks landed fairly far off," Menderash said. "They could be anywhere."

"Yes," Jake said solemnly. "But we're going to find them."

 

[Blossom]

Chapter Four

My name is Tobias.

Tobias Fangor, that is. I haven't used that name in years. Even longer than the others, for that matter. Once I became a hawk, I lost all traces of my past life. The same happened to the others, of course, but it wasn't as sudden.

I sometimes wonder about those last moments before realizing I would no longer be human again. I used to wonder if whether there was a way out, and that I just failed to see it, so I could escape my life.

I probably would have gone crazy years ago, had it not been for Rachel. She was the first person ever to care about me in my life. She was the one who brought me back from the verge of insanity.

But she was no longer around. She was killed years ago, by the very Yeerks that we were now looking for.

But I rarely think of things like that any more. It will only make me depressed.

Now, I think about the mission. I think about what has to be done, and how I can help out my friends.

I was currently flying over this strange and majestic alien landscape, trying to find any clues as to where we were, and if there was any signs of an intelligent species. Or Yeerks. I found neither, which just confused me some more. The Yeerks wouldn't have been eyeing this planet if there hadn't been something of use on the surface. And I wanted to find out what that was.

I was now flying over a forest that consisted mainly of fragile purple trees. It was nothing like anything else I have ever witnessed. Off to the south I could see a river, with raging yellow rapids, which led all the way to a magnificant waterfall, falling so far down than even my hawk's eyes couldn't guess at its height.

Seeing that there was nothing suspicious in the vicinity, I caught a nice tail wind, and reverted myself back to the ship's wreckage.

Once there, I could see that Jake had returned. At the moment, he was talking with Marco and Jeanne.

<Hello, Jake. Hello, Marco. Glad to see you guys made it back okay.>

Jake waved to the sky, acknowledging mypresence. "Hey, Tobias. Glad to see you're all right, too. What do you see up there?"

<No, not much of anything,> I admitted. <There's a spectacular looking waterfall due south of here, but everything else is forest. No signs of Yeerks, no signs of a local intelligent species, nothing.>

Just as he said that, I heard a faint sound in the breeze. Almost a bellowing sort of noise. And, although I couldn't see it, I couldn't ignore it, either.

<Um, guys?> I said, looking down at my comrades. <I hear something coming from the west. Sounds like laughter, or screaming, perhaps.>

Suddenly, Jake was back into leader mode. His smile quickly disappeared, as he looked back up at me. "How far is it, Tobias?"

<I don't know,> I admitted. <But I'm pretty sure its coming from within the forest. The voice was travelling with the wind.>

"Okay, we'll check it out," Jake said. "Marco, Jeanne, Santorelli, go battle morphs. Tobias, you'll be our eye in the sky, as always. And Menderash, you stay here to hold the fort down."

"What fort?" the Andalite asked, confused.

"Just stay here, see if you can salvage anything else. And be on the lookout for anything suspicious."

"Yes, Jake," Menderash said. I couldn't help but understand how the guy felt. Back when I was permanently trapped as a hawk, I couldn't participate in all the Animorph mission. Now, I was, and Menderash wasn't.

"Ready?" Jake said. "Remember now, the Yeerks could be anywhere, or anything."

I watched from above as my teammates changed their forms before my eyes.

I watched as Santorelli was getting largeer and larger. His arms were growing shorter and thicker, as he finally fell down on all fours. The last thing to form were the two spiked horns, erupting from his face, as the rhinoceros morph went to completion.

Marco was now getting taller, as his skin grew dark and leathery. Long black hairs soon began sprouting on his arms and legs, until it was pretty obvious that he was fully gorilla.

When I looked at Jeanne, it seemd rather funny. Her long black hair was being sucked right into her scalp, as though it were spaghetti. Once she was completely bald, her skin turned a dark green colour, finally erupting in scales. All the while her mouth was stretching outward, creating a horrifying grin. I watched as the mouth began sprouting the immensely sharp ripping teeth of the crocodile.

Lastly, I looked over at Jake. His arms were growing orange and black fur, which soon travelled along the rest of his body. His knees suddenly changed direction, and he toppled over to the ground. By now, his mouth was growing large fangs, as he completed his morph into the Siberian tiger.

"Good luck," Menderash said, as he handed Marco a Dracon Beam. After all, he was the only one with opposable thumbs.

<Marco, take the lead,> Jake said. <Put the Dracon on stun, so you don't hurt anyone whose just gotten in the way. We're hunting the Yeerks, not the local species.>

<Aye aye, Prince Jake,> Marco said, putting the Dracon at his side like a military officer. <Kong,> he said. <King Kong.>

<More like King Wrong,> Jeanne said, revealing her mouth full of razor-edged teeth.

<Oh, very good, Jeanne,> Marco said. <Remind me never to kid around you ever again.>

<Fine by me,> she snapped.

<Okay, that was funny,> Marco replied. <I may have to reconsider now....>

<People, we have work to do,> Jake said, as he sauntered away deeper into the forest. I watched as the others followed.

It wasn't long before I couldn't see them at all. The trees were rather thick, with the only openings being the spots where my friends and I had landed.

<Can you see us from up there, Tobias?> it was Jake.

<Mostly,> I said. <But vaguely, as these trees block out a lot of the sunlight. Those pink trees are really quite dazzling, its hard to concentrate on what's behind them.>

<You can do it,> he told me.

There he was, reassuring me once again. Ever since the end of war, we haven't spoken that much. He was the one who had sent Rachel to her death, and that was something that I just can't get over. But the guy was trying, and I knew he carried that guilt with him every day. So, I have been trying to listen to him better lately. He was, after all, a great leader.

Then...<Jake! Over here!> It was Jeanne.

<What is it?> he asked.

<I found a footprint,> she said. <Not one of ours.>

I could definitely hear footsteps now, as Jake ran over to where Jeanne had been. <Is it Hork-Bajir?> I heard him say.

<No,> was the response. <Much, much bigger,>

 

[Blossom]

Chapter Five

My name is Prince Aximili-Esgarouth-Isthill.

Throughout my life, I have been known as the little brother of legendary war hero Elfangor. Only in the last few years of my life have been put in my own light, as the young Aristh who had destroyed the Yeerks along with his human friends, and in the process, received the quickest promotion in the history of the fleet.

Since then, I have been known as 'Aximili of Earth', and various other honourable titles. However, I still didn't feel the part, as I was one of the most unordinary Captain the Andalite people have ever seen.

Although I don't like to think much of it, I have called the 'Living Legend.' They would probably send half a dozen Dome Ships out to help if I was in distress. But not here in Kelbrid space. Here, I was entirely on my own, with no hope of my people coming to rescue me….

Once again, I scanned my surroundings. I was in a sealed chamber, with no apparent way out.

I had been in this cell for so long, I could no longer guess at the time frame. I have been given food on occasion, but have never seen those handling it.

Yeerks, probably. Was I certain, no. The one thing that seemed odd was that the Yeerks would very likely have wanted to take an Andalite as a host, not a hostage. Which made things ever more mysterious.

I have relieved the day onboard that alien craft every day now. My crew and I had sauntered onto the vessel, perhaps carelessly, perhaps not. Menderash had been certain that there had been no life onboard the ship, and I had no reason to refute him.

He was, however, awfully mistaken. I have little memory of what happened after that moment when I heard the first gunshots, leading up to my realization that I was in this cell.

Throughout my time hear, I have never heard or seen any signs of other Andalites, let alone the people who had taken me prisoner. I could only assume that it was either Yeerks or Kelbrid.

Niether brought me to a pleasant conclusion as to what would happen next.

So I waited in the cell, knowing not what was about to happen.

Until finally, a human knife lacerated the wall. No Dracon Beam, no claws, just a mere human creation. Although primitive, it was quite effective.

<Who is there?> I asked, unsure of whether I wanted to know the answer.

There was a low, feminine voice on the other end of the knife. I did not recognize the species, nor the language.

Which still left with two possibilities, Yeerk or Kelbrid. Yeerks could take on any body, and Kelbrid were unknown to me altogether. So I had to retain my guard.

Then, with amazing force, the alien female ripped back the walls that had kept me in isolation for so long.

I then got my first glimpse of the creature. She had to be four, maybe four and a half feet tall, no more. Humanoid, but her skin was a brilliant green colour. Like the humans, she wore 'clothing,' a type of material some species use to cover up themselves in order to stay warm.

Her clothing was brown, and looked like it had come from the hide of some wild animal that was unknown to me. Attached to the garment were several small weapons, ranging from a single Dracon beam, to some sharp-edges objects, and finally to the human knife that she had used to free me.

Beneath the hide I saw four arms, two on each side. All ended in long pointed fingernails, making the knives appear unnecessary. She had two almond shaped cyan eyes, pointed ears, and a long array of black-coloured fur trailing from her scalp.

She began to speak to me again in her language. I told her that I could not understand unless she said some more, and so she did.

It took several seconds for the translator chip in my head to kick in, showing how far away I was from home. In the more populated areas of the galaxy, one would get a reading almost instantly. It was obvious that this creature was of a species not known to my people.

"My name is Rana," she said. "I am a Jawnee, of the planet Kryptore. And you are Aximili, an Andalite Prince, far from home."

<How do you know me?> I asked Rana. <And where are we?>

"We have been captured by The Yeerks," she told me. "They plan to make hosts of us in a short while. But in the meantime, we have been consumed by the One."

<The what?>

"There is no time to explain," Rana said. "Please, come with me."

I did not know if I should trust this creature, the one that called herself Rana. I did, however, want to get as far from that cell as I could manage. And so I followed her.

As I kept my main eyes on Rana, my stalk eyes searched the room, looking for signs as to where I was. There was not much, to tell the truth: some old messages written on the wall in Galard; a second cell, which I had assumed must have been empty; and a window, revealing the pitch black of empty space, revealing nothing as to where I was, and who I was with.

"Through here," Rana said, opening a door ever so cautiously. I followed her out into another room, where I saw two unconscious Hork-Bajir and an Earth creature called a buffalo.

<We are definitely on board the Blade Ship,> I noted. <Earth creatures have rarely been known to be transported intergalactically. Especially endangered species like the buffalo.>

"You recognize those bladed things?" Rana asked me. "How about the horned beast?"

I couldn't help but smile. Not only was she unaware of Earth creatures, she had never seen a Hork-Bajir before, either! <The 'horned beast', as you call him, is the buffalo. The other two are called Hork-Bajir.>

"I have much too learn," Rana said quietly.

<As do I,> I added silently. <As do I....>

And then, footsteps!

"The Yeerks! They are onto us!" She then took a knife from her belt, handing it to me. "We'll have to fight our way out of here."

I looked at the knife, and frowned. <I have my own weapon,> I said, motioning my tail over my head. <But the Dracon Beam would be useful.>

Rana motioned to the beam weapon, and handed it to me. "Better in your hands than in mine, Prince Aximili."

<Thank you, Rana,> I said. <Now, where are the Yeerk scum?>

TSEWWW!
TSEWWW!
TSEWWW!

Three holes appeared in the wall, causing it to collapse. Behind that wall was a human, pointing a Dracon Beam straight at me.

In all my days, I have always stared at the weapon when it was pointed at my face. But now, today, it was the face of the human that interested me more.

He looked so familiar, so much like the Controller who had caused the Blade Schip to escape in the first place.

Tom. Tom Berenson, Jake's brother. He was alive....

 

[MasterWGS]

Holy crap. I thought I was the only one left on the planet who knew what Animorphs was... *Reads right away*

Alakazam, this is great! It feels just like the old books... I want to read more! Ooh, please tell me the next chapter is on its way!

 

[Blayze]

Ditto! Holy crap! That was excellent, written in the same style as Ms. Applegate! No fair that there's no more to read at the moment! Keep up the good work dude. I want to read more.