Fan Fiction ❯ Animorphs Reality: Megamorphs #1 The Invasion ❯ Chapter 4

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

<Yeerks!>

The twin red lights slowed. They turned in a circle and came back toward us.

<There is no time. You must decide!>

"We have to do this," Tobias said. "How else can we fight these controllers?"

"I'm in. People need us," Brian added.

"Ima kick some Yeerk butt!" Steve declared proudly.

"This is insane!" Marco said. "Insane."

"I'd like more time, but we don't have that choice," Rachel said. "I'm for it."

"I'm doing it. I can't let Casie and Rachel go without my help. What kind of friend would I be?" Nicole voiced.

"What do you say, Jake?" Casie asked me. It was odd. Like suddenly I was the one who had to decide for everyone, and even thought they already made their choices, they would only do it if I did.

I looked up at the Yeerk ships. What had the Andalite called them? Bug fighters? They were circling closer, like dogs sniffing for a scent. I looked down at the Andalite and remembered the picture of his family. Would they even know what had happened to him?

I looked at each of the people around me -- my usually funny, occasionally annoying best friend, Marco; Rachel, my smart, pretty, confidant cousin; Steve, my friend who, although smart, was usually acting pretty dumb; Brian, who enjoyed everything electronic and could only act serious when he absolutely had to; Nicole, a good friend of Cassie and Rachel, always with her friends when they needed her; and Casie, who everyone knew liked animals more than she did most people.

Finally, I looked at Tobias. It was weird, the feeling I had at that moment, staring at him. A chill or something.

"We have to," Tobias said to me.

Slowly I nodded. "Yes. We have no choice."

<Then each of you, press your hand against the square.>

We did. Five hands, each pressed against one side, three more touching the few empty spaces around the edges. One last hand, different from ours, with too many fingers on the open side.

<Do not be afraid,> the Andalite said. <Only remember this -- never remain in animal form for morethan two of your Earth hours. Never! That is the greatest danger of the morphing! If you stay longer than two hours you will be trapped, unable to return to human form.>

"Two hours," I repeated.

Suddenly some new fear washed throught the Andalite's mind. Linked as I was to him, I could feel it as a dread that crawled up my spine. He was staring up at the sky with his main eyes. Something else was up there with the Bug fighters.

<Visser Three! He comes.>

"What?" I was shaking with this new terror. "What's a Viser? Who's a Viser?"

<Go now. Run! Visser Three is here. He is the most deadly of your enemies. Of all Yeerks he alone has the power to morph. The same power you now have. Run!>

"No, we'll stay with you," Rachel said firmly. "Maybe we can help."

Again it was as if the alien was smiling at us with his eyes. <No. You must save yourselves. Save yourselves and save your planet! The Yeerks are here.>

We all looked up, craning our necks. Sure enough, thetwo red lights were sinking toward us. And they had been joined by a third ship, far larger, black as a shadow within a shadow.

"But how are we supposed to fight these controllers?" Rachel demanded.

<You must find a way. Now run!>

I jerked from the force of his command. "He's right. Run!" I yelled.

We ran. All but Tobias, who knelt beside the Andalite and took his hand. The Andalite pressed his other hand against Tobias's head. Tobias rocked back like he'd been shocked. Then he, too, was up and running, stumbling over theloose junk and potholes of the construction site.

A beam of bright red light snapped on. It was a spotlight from one of the Bug fighters. The beam lit up the fallen Andalite and his ship. A spotlight from the second Bug fighter joined the first, and the Andalite shone brilliantly as a star.

I hit the dirt hard. I saw my leg lit up within the circle of that spotlight. I yanked it to me and crawled fast, scraping my elbow and knees over sharp stones.

The five of use crouched behind a low, crumble wall, afraid to move, afriad to look, but just as afraid to look away.

Slowly the Bug fighters descended. It was easy to see where they'd gotten their name. They were slightly larger than the Andalite fighter and shaped like legless cockroaches. There were small windows, like eyes on the forward-thrust head of the bug. And on either side of the head were two very long, very sharp, serrated spears.

The Yeerk Bug fighters touched down, one either side of the Andalite ship.

"Okay, you can wake me up now," Marco said in a rattled whisper. "I've had enough of this dream."

The larger ship began to descend. I don't know what it was about the ship, but as it got closer I started to feel like I couldn't breathe. I tried to suck a deep lungfull of air and couldn't. I tried to swallow and couldn't. I wanted to run, but my legs were jelly. I was shaking from a fear so deep it was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. It was the same fear the Andalite had shown when he'd realized Visser Three was coming.

The ship settled toward the ground. It looked like it was going to land directly on a big rusted earthmover parked there. But as the Visser's ship descended, the earthmover just sizzled and disappeared.

Visser Three's ship was built like some ancient weapon. It reminded me of one of those battle-axes the old-time knights used when they were hacking off the heads of their foes. There was a mian part, like the handle of theax, with a big, triangular point on the front. That part had to be the bridge. At the rear were two huge, scimitar wings. It was eight or ten times the size of the Bug fighters.

The Blade ship landed. A door opened.

Cassie started to scream. I clamped my hand over her mouth.

They leaped from the ship, whirling and thrusting and slicing the air -- creatures that looked like walking weapons. They stood on two bent-back legs and had two very long arms. On each arm there were curved horn-blades growing out of the wrists and elbow. There were other blades at the end of their tails. They had feet like a Tyrannosaurus rex.

But it was the head that got your attention -- a neck like a snake, a mouth that was almost a falcon's beak, and, from the forehead, three daggerlike horns raked forward.

<Hork-Bajir-Controllers.>

I jumped, hearing the Andalite's words in my mind again. They were fainter than before, strained, like someone yelling from far away.

"Did you guys . . . ?" I asked.

<The Hork-Bajir are good people, despite their fearsome looks,> the Andalite said. <But they have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each of them now carries a Yeerk in his head. They are to be pitied.>

"Pity. Right," Rachel said grimly. "They're walking killing machines. Look at them!"

But our attention was draw away by a new form that crept and slithered and shimmied out of the Blade ship.

<Taxxon-Controllers,> the Andalite said. I knew he was trying to tell us all he could, even to the end. Trying to prepare us for what we were up against.

<The Taxxons are evil.>

"Yeah," Marco muttered. "I think I would have guessed that."

They were like massive centipedes, twice as long as a grown man.So big that if you tried to hug one, your arms wouldn't make it even halfway. Not that anyone would ever want to.

They had dozens of legs that supported the lower two thirds of their bodies. The top thrid was held upright, and there the rows of lega became smaller, with little lobster-claw hands.

Around the top of their disgusting tubular bodies were four eyes, each like a wiggling globule of red Jell-O. And at the very end, pointing straight up in the air, was a round mouth, ringed by hundreds of teeth.

Hork-Bajir and Taxxons poured from the Blade ship, spreading around the area like well-trained Marines. They were holding small, pistol-sized things that were definitely weapons. They formed a ring around the Andalite and his ship.

Suddenly, one of the Hork-Bajir came straight toward us. He took one big, bounding step and he was practically on top of us.

I hugged the dirt like it was my last hope. I wished I could dig a hole. I saw a flash of Marco's face. His eyes were huge. His lips were drawn back in what could have been a grin, except that I knew that it was an expresion of pure terror.