Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 17

quote:

Out went the lights and I quickly discovered that Hork-Bajir don�t have much in the way of night vision. Neither do elephants. But elephants don�t care all that much, since they can pretty well stomp anything that gets in their way.

HhhrrrEEEEE-uh! Rachel trumpeted and took off around the perimeter of the alligator lagoon, heading for Frank�s Safari Land.

I was amazed how fast she was. I could barely keep up.

I heard annoyed yelling coming from the building.

�Hey, turn on the lights!�

�I want my money back!�

We rushed at the closest wall. Rachel came to a stop and carefully pressed the flat front of her wrecking-ball head against it. She leaned her weight forward and we both heard a creaking sound.

<Heh-heh-heh,> she cackled. <Just wood. Doesn�t this little piggy know he should build his house out of brick? Come out, come out, little piggy! Or I�ll huff, and I�ll puff, and I�ll crush this dump like a matchbox!>

She reared back and slammed her weight forward.

WHAM! CRRRRREEEK!

<That should have gotten people to step back,> she said. <Now we go in.>

She backed up three elephant steps and lunged forward, hurtling her dump truck weight against the flimsy wooden wall.

WHAM! Crrrr-ACK! Crunch!

WHOOOMPF! The wall fell in.

Now people were really yelling. �Hey, I�m getting outta here!�

Rachel happily stomped in across the shattered timbers and splintered plywood, trumpeting like mad, swinging her big trunk back and forth and generally making the kind of destructive mess she loved to make.

<Everybody out!> she ordered in wide-band thought-speak. <Rabid elephant! Psycho elephant on the loose! It�s Dumbo-zilla!>

In the general panic, no one would recall that they didn�t really �hear� anyone shout that warning.

I followed gingerly in Rachel�s wake. She was busily tossing her trunk up and down, making the low ceiling jump with each impact.

I squeezed past her and searched for the little lost Hork-Bajir. I found him in his cage.

But I was not alone.

On the other side of the cage stood three men. Two carried standard handguns. The third carried a weapon I�d seen far too often before: a Yeerk Dracon beam.

The three human-Controllers gaped at me. Not the way actual humans would react to suddenly encountering a Hork-Bajir. But the way people already familiar with Hork-Bajir would react to seeing one where he wasn�t expected.

<Uh, Rachel?> I said.

<What? Sorry, I�m all turned around and can�t help stomping this place to pieces.>

<Save that for Jake,> I said. <We have company!>

�Who are you?� one of the men demanded. �Visser Three didn�t tell us that � wait! It�s one of the renegade Hork-Bajir! One of the escaped hosts!�

Bek looked at me pleadingly. The Controllers leveled their weapons at me. And one of them began yelling into a watch that must have also been a communicator.

This was going to get ugly fast. They were here to grab the baby Hork-Bajir. So were we. One big difference: They might not care if Bek lived or died.

They probably PREFER if Bek lives, but if he dies, he dies.

Chapter 18

quote:

�So, a renegade Hork-Bajir,� one of the Controllers said. �Let�s grab them both! Visser Three will be very pleased.� He raised his Dracon beam and leveled it at me. �You can make it easy or hard, Hork-Bajir.�

Bek was between them and me. If I attacked �

Fortunately, I was not alone.

I never even saw the wolf till it was on the Controller. Its big jaws clamped down tight over his gun hand.

�Aaaahhhh!� he screamed.

<Cassie? Good timing!>

<Yeah, it�s me, but don�t just stand there. There are more coming! Lots more!>

I didn�t hesitate a second longer. I leaped over Bek�s cage and landed, T-rex feet first, on one of the men. Hork-Bajir may not be geniuses for the most part, but they are quick.

My victim went down, yelling and scrambling to get away.

BLAM! The gunshot was so close the sound hurt worse than the bullet. The bullet knocked a neat, round hole in my left elbow blade.

I slashed instinctively. The gun dropped to the floor. And the Controller would now have a hard time counting past eight on his fingers.

We had a momentary advantage, Cassie and I. I fumbled with clumsy Hork-Bajir fingers at the lock on Bek�s cage. Then something black, shaggy, and massive pushed by me.

<Here. Let Gorilla-boy do that for you,> Marco said. <See, it requires delicacy, patience, a subtle touch.>

He grabbed the front of the cage, twining his sausage fingers through the bars and �

RRRIIPP!

He tore the cage open like a bag of chips.

<Come with me, Bek,> I said to the terrified Hork-Bajir baby.

�Ket Halpak?�

<Um � yes. Come.>

He took my hand, and that�s when everything broke loose.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

TSEEWW! TSEEWW!

The blinding light of muzzle flashes and even more blinding Dracon beams. Explosions that rocked the room.

Suddenly, an elephant.

Suddenly faces, angry, frightened faces visible in the flash of gunfire.

I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. For a moment I was confused. Had Bek hit me? No. A bullet! I could see the hole. I could see the blood.

Hrrreee-YAH! Rachel trumpeted.

And now there were more creatures. The lynx, loose from its cage. A tiger, roaring, rushing, slashing.

A gorilla, swinging fists the size of canned hams.

An Andalite, his tail flying like a bullwhip, slashing with terrible accuracy.

The attack was reckless, desperate, heedless. Bullets flying! Dracon beams burning holes in cages and walls. Flames rising around me. Smoke.
I clutched Bek�s hand and staggered back, looking for an escape route. But it was pretty dark aside from the angry weapons� flashes. The ceiling was sloping down in places where it had almost fallen. Walls were twisted. Cages were strewn here and there. Animals screamed. Human voices
shouted.

The pain hit suddenly. Late, but not forgotten. I doubled over, but kept my grip on Bek�s hand. He was yanking, tugging, pulling in panic.

Now the battle was becoming more organized. The Controllers had the front half of the building, and more were around the back, splashing hurriedly through the alligator lagoon to cut us off.

Rachel was demorphing. Her elephant bulk was doing more harm than good. As she shrank toward human she ducked out of sight and faded into the dark.

The Controllers - there must have been a dozen by now - had learned a little humility. They were cowering behind cover, shooting wildly around corners, waiting, no doubt, for our retreat to be cut off.

<Tobias! Get that kid out of here!> Jake yelled.

<You need me,> I gasped.

<Get. Him. Out!>

I grabbed Bek more tightly and began to back toward the crushed wall we�d come through. The pain in my stomach felt like someone had shoved a red-hot sword into me. I felt a cool breeze on my back. I turned, ready to plunge through the opening into the night beyond. But the way was not clear.

An Andalite stood there.

He was older than Ax, larger, battle-scarred. He exuded a darkness that was blacker than the night. A darkness that came from the twisted, evil slug that lived inside that captive Andalite brain.

Visser Three!

He whipped his Andalite tail forward, and I stepped back. But even as I registered the Andalite body that had once belonged to a powerful Andalite war-prince, I began to see the changes. He was morphing. Visser Three, the only Andalite-Controller. The only Yeerk with the power to morph.

Visser Three, who had traveled the galaxy acquiring morphs of the most deadly creatures of the known universe.

<Ah, a renegade Hork-Bajir,> he said, sounding delighted. <The little runaway and the renegade. Ket Halpak, if I am not mistaken. Well, my Hork-Bajir friend, I�ll soon have you back at the Yeerk pool. You�ll soon belong to us again.>

He remembers her. Do you think this is just basically spite? Like, Ket Halpak and Jara Hamee were the two original ones who got away, and he's been brooding?

# ? Jun 19, 2021 04:02

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 29, 2024 03:59

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Brooding? He's been throwing darts at their pictures.

# ? Jun 19, 2021 04:16

GodFish: Oct 10, 2012; We're your first, last, and only line of defense. We live in secret. We exist in shadow.

And we dress in black.

I'm surprised the yeerks ever bothered to record or report the hork-bajir names. They'd need to keep track of humans for the stealth invasion but otherwise remembering the personhood of your hosts seems like a loosing idea.

# ? Jun 19, 2021 07:43

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

They probably didn't care about the Hork-Bajir's names until they escaped. Jara and Ket yelled their own names about 200 times while running away.

# ? Jun 19, 2021 09:18

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

That's Ket Halpak, sir - one of your slave warriors from Sector 7G.

# ? Jun 19, 2021 10:48

Piell: Sep 3, 2006; Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer; Young Orc

Visser 3

# ? Jun 19, 2021 12:25

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

I infest the brain of my nemesis to always fill me with vengeance

# ? Jun 19, 2021 12:45

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

The Mad Men elevator meme with Ket Halpak saying "I don't think about you at all" because the Hork Bajir hate the Yeerks but are too simple to distinguish any individual Yeerk

# ? Jun 19, 2021 13:37

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 19

quote:

<Poor, stupid Hork-Bajir,> Visser Three said, dripping fake pity. <You can�t even appreciate the magnificence of this morph. It�s called a Kaftid.>

The Visser�s Andalite head narrowed and stretched forward till it looked like the head of a seahorse. You know, with that rigid, tubular mouth? His neck elongated. Two leathery wings that could not possibly have allowed him to fly grew just behind the head.

His four-legged body mutated, growing a fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth leg! The tail disappeared altogether, and where there had been blue fur highlighted with tan, there was now a green, slimy, froglike skin.

I yanked Bek close, fought a wave of pain, and tried to dodge around the monster that Visser Three was becoming. But Bek was in full panic. He was yelping and crying and trying to get back to what probably seemed like the safety of the building.

I tried to lift him up but I was unfamiliar with my Hork-Bajir body, and worried about cutting the young Hork-Bajir with my blades. At last I managed to get an arm around Bek�s middle and ran around the Visser�s right side.

Too late!

SsssPASSSS!

A liquid the color of antifreeze squirted from the monster�s pouting mouth. It missed me by millimeters and hit a fallen two-by-four.

Hsssssss!

Acid! In seconds the wood was smoking and disintegrating from the corrosion of the greenish yellow acid.

<Hah-hah-hah!> Visser Three exulted. <Are you ready to surrender, Hork-Bajir? You�re not a fighter! Your people were meant to be our slaves!>

Surrender. What an excellent idea. With Bek in my arms, I couldn�t risk a direct attack on this hideous, acid-spitting alien freak.

�I surrender!� I cried.

<Down on your face, then,> he snapped. 

�Yes. Down on face,� I said, trying my best to sound like a Hork-Bajir. I knelt and started to stretch out. And that�s when Visser Three got overanxious. He started to rush past me, desperate to reach the others.

He stepped a little too near. And suddenly, instead of eight legs, he had five. One fast, powerful swipe of my arm. Blade! Blade! Blade! I was like that new three-blade razor.

<Arrggghhh!> he bellowed in pain and rage. He began to topple over, unable to support himself with his one left leg. But even as he fell, he twisted his head and took aim. Point-blank range.

Point-blank at Bek.

Jerking every muscle in my body, I rolled over Bek, putting my back between him and the Visser�s acid spray.

Pain! Unimaginable pain! I was burning alive! I was on fire!

I couldn�t think, couldn�t control myself, not even for a moment.

I got to my feet, staggered, screaming in agony, to the lagoon, and plunged into the water.

Water. Blessed, muddy water diluted the acid before it could eat right through my spine.

Relief!

But even as I shuddered at the lessening of the pain, I realized that I had let Bek go. I rose up from the lagoon, dripping mud, and looked frantically toward shore.

No Visser Three. No Kaftid.

And no Bek.

<Nooooo!> I cried in anguish.

From the wreckage of Frank�s Safari Land came a burly, deceptively roly-poly animal. It ran to the water�s edge and stopped. It reared up to its full height, as tall as a Hork-Bajir.

The grizzly bear blinked nearsightedly. <Tobias?>



<Get out of that water or you�ll lose your butt!> Rachel yelled. <You�ve got gators coming after you!>

 I cried.

<Forget him,> she said harshly. <The Yeerks are bailing. So are we. There�s cops and fire engines and paramedics coming. We�re out of here!>

So, so much for saving Bek. It was kind of a disaster, but at least we got a new Visser Three monster.

Chapter 20

quote:

I had lost the young Hork-Bajir. The Yeerks had him. I had lost him.

Maybe they�d get him to reveal the way to the secret Hork-Bajir valley. Maybe.

Maybe they�d make him a Controller. All because of me. Because I�d let pain distract me. Because I wasn�t focused.

That had been the human in me. The human in me had given too much weight to pain. A hawk knew better. A hawk didn�t care about pain.

I was in my meadow. The sun was just coming up, rising to hide behind the gray blanket drawn across the sky during the night.

I was ravenous.

And why? Why had I not eaten? The human in me. How else to explain the strange confusion I felt, the horrific visions of myself as my own prey?

Human.

I could become human again. Right now I could do it. Right now I could tick off the two hours and never, never have to kill to eat. Well � at least not have to do my own killing.

A quick morph, two hours, and I�d be back. Back where I�d started. Human. Tobias the boy.

Ever since the Ellimist had given me back my power to morph and allowed me to reacquire my own original DNA, the question had hung in the air.

Rachel wondered, I know. Once she�d suggested it to me: Why not just become fully human again?

I hadn�t given her an answer.

I saw the other hawk float suddenly into my field of vision. He was getting bolder. More aggressive. How long till he attacked and I withdrew? If I�d been a true hawk, the battle would long since have been drawn. Even an old, sick hawk would have put up a better fight than I had so far.

He was floating above the rabbit hole. My rabbit hole. He was pure hawk. The real thing. Not some freak with a talon in one world and a foot in the other.

<Hey there,> I thought-spoke. <Yeah, you. Hawk. Why don�t you go pick on someone else�s territory?>

No answer. Of course not. Words meant nothing to him. They weren�t even background noise.

They might as well have been silence.

<Those are my rabbits, you jerk. Get out of here. I know I don�t eat them, but they�re still mine. I know I�m unable to hunt and kill like a hawk should, but do you have to rub my nose in it? My beak?>

The hunger came up in a wave.

What a sickening life. What a disgusting creature I was. To live my life as a hawk, I had to fight another hawk. A bird fight. And over what? A rabbit? A few mice? I was going to fight that bird for the right to kill and eat rodents?

Before, I�d had no choice. Now I did. I was choosing to live as a hawk. Choosing to build a life around a scruffy meadow and the pitiful rodents in it.

Maybe I was crazy.

Before, I�d been able to tell myself I had nowhere else to go. No one to take me in. No parents.

No family. Now there was this Aria person. She was actually going out of her way to find me, to care for me. Maybe.

<Tobias?>

I jerked, startled. I recognized Ax�s thought-speak voice and calmed down. He comes around sometimes. We are the weird couple of the galaxy: the alien and the Bird-boy.

<Hey, Ax-man, what�s up?>

<Up is the opposite of down. Although, of course, those terms are meaningless outside the context of a distinct, localized gravity field.>

<Ooookay.>

<Was that funny? I was attempting a joke.>

<Ah. Well � I�m probably not the guy to ask,> I said evasively.

I looked down from my perch on the eerie-looking creature who was my friend. When you look at an Andalite, there�s just no avoiding the obvious: They aren�t from around here. He was looking up at me with one stalk eye. The other was roaming left and right, while his main eyes gazed out across
the meadow.

<Have you eaten?> he asked. I could lie.

<No.>

<There is insufficient prey?>

<Yeah. And one too many predators.>

<Yes, I saw the other member of your species.>

 I said. <I�m a one-of-a-kind freak.>

Ax didn�t have an answer for that, I don�t think Andalites approve of self-pity or other pointless emotions like that.

I sighed. <Sorry. I�m hungry and in a bad mood.>

<Hunger is distracting,> Ax allowed. <Since the others are in their human school today, I thought perhaps we could investigate this Aria woman some more.>

<We should be finding that little Hork-Bajir I lost,> I said bitterly. <Not checking out my relatives.>

<You found the Hork-Bajir the first time by following the Aria woman.>

Was he implying something? No. It was just coincidence, wasn�t it? Aria was a nature photographer. She�d heard about this strange animal and had gone to see it. She couldn�t be a Controller. Why would a Controller complain about the treatment of animals at Frank�s Safari Land?

<Okay, Ax-man. It�ll give us something to do, anyway.>

I took a last look at my opponent. <Go ahead,> I said to him. <Go ahead, take the stupid meadow.>

Why WOULD a Controller complain about the treatment of animals at Frank's Safari Land?

Epicurius fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jun 21, 2021

# ? Jun 20, 2021 05:01

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

Why WOULD a Controller complain about the treatment of animals at Frank's Safari Land?

I like the idea that the Controllers have noticed that when businesses mistreat animals, the Andalite bandits show up to teach them the error of their ways. So it's not so much that the Controllers care about the animals' well-being, they're just like, "goddammit, if these places don't get their acts together, another loving elephant is going to stomp through their walls and we're going to lose a bunch more Yeerks and their hosts to collateral damage."

# ? Jun 20, 2021 06:17

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

Yeerks have like 3 species on their home planet so I choose to believe some Controllers are just hyped 24/7 because they can see a new kind of animal almost daily.

# ? Jun 20, 2021 08:13

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

Visser 3 loves cats, I'm sure there are other controllers that love animals. A little cognitive dissonance never stopped anyone.

# ? Jun 20, 2021 10:10

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 21

quote:

We took turns, Ax and I. He used the roofs of the skyscrapers to demorph and remorph. Out of sight of curious eyes.

All that day a red-tailed hawk and a northern harrier flew around the Hyatt Regency Hotel. When Aria went to lunch down the street, we followed. When she visited an exhibit of black-and-white photographs, I morphed to human and stayed with her.

We followed her. Hour after hour. Waiting, watching for some contact with a known Controller.

Looking for any attempt to visit the Yeerk pool hidden beneath a large part of our town.

A Yeerk must return to the Yeerk pool every three days. We couldn�t watch her for three days, but we could watch her for a lot of that time.

She didn�t.

Instead, after eight hours of watching, we had seen her eat, seen her read the newspaper, seen her walk in the park, seen her return to the hotel several times and go back out again.

No one had approached her.

We�d learned nothing. Nothing at all, except that she seemed to enjoy her hotel room. She�d go out for a while, but return every couple of hours. She�d leave the curtains open. We could watch her, except for when she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

<What is beyond that door?> Ax asked.

<Toilet,> I said. <You know. Peeing and so on.>

<Ah. Are there no � no toilet facilities except in the hotel?> Ax wondered.

<Sure there are. But, you know, I think women are more iffy about using public rest rooms than guys are.>

<Why?>

<Well, I don�t know. It�s probably the whole sitting down versus standing up thing.>

Ax had no idea what I was talking about. But I guess he figured he�d let it go. Besides, having made her pit stop, Aria was on the move again.

We caught up with her outside. She was walking quickly along the sidewalk. It was maybe three in the afternoon now. Time for us to be getting back to hook up with Jake and the others.

And that�s when it happened. A little girl broke away from her mother, turned around, and went running back into the street. A city bus was barreling straight toward her.

<Look out!> I yelled out of sheer instinct.

There was a scream from the mother. But she was too far away.

I saw Aria�s head snap around. She saw the accident about to happen. She dropped her camera and made a tackle-the-runner-on-the-two-yard-line lunge.

She hit the girl in the back, knocked her forward, and rolled with the little girl onto the narrow concrete median strip.

The mother came running. The little girl bellowed, but seemed okay. Aria got up and brushed herself off.

<She just saved that little girl�s life,> I said.

<Yes. And she could easily have been killed.>

<Oh, my God,> I said slowly, amazed. <She really is human. No Controller would ever have done that!>

<No,> Ax agreed. <That makes it very clear that Aria is not acting as a Controller would. Very clear.>

Something in Ax�s choice of words bothered me, but I forgot about it in the rush of emotions that followed.

I�d been assuming this was all a trap. I�d assumed Aria was a Controller.

But she wasn�t. She was what she said she was. A human woman looking for her long-lost cousin Tobias.

My last excuse for remaining a hawk, for refusing to become human again, was lost. Now I could have a home. Now I could have a family.

True. All of it true. I could have a home. Like a human being. A home!

I would not kill my breakfast. I would not eat roadkill. I would sleep in a bed. And Rachel would look at me without having to hide the pity in her eyes.

You notice that Ax didn't actually agree with him.

Chapter 22

quote:

I flew to Rachel�s room that night. I couldn�t sleep. And I was literally starving. But the last thing I could think about was hunting.

She�d gone to sleep early but had left the window open. I fluttered in and landed on her desk.

When I realized she was asleep, I started to leave.

�No, wait. Don�t go,� she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and sitting up. She did not turn on a light. I was relieved somehow.

�You missed the meeting,� Rachel said.

<Yeah. Sorry. What did you guys decide to do about Bek?>

Rachel tousled her hair. �Jake came up with the idea that the Yeerks would probably try to use him to trap the other free Hork-Bajir.�

<Yeah?>

�This facility the Hork-Bajir wouldn�t tell you about? The one where they�ve been raiding to free other Hork-Bajir? Jake figures they�ll take Bek there. As bait.�

<Or at least that�s what Jake wants to believe,> I said resentfully. <Jara and Ket and Toby trusted me with that information. Maybe Jake�s just looking for an excuse to squeeze the Hork-Bajir to reveal this place to us.>

Rachel looked at me like she was going to argue. Then she kind of laughed. �Maybe. Jake has gotten more subtle. It doesn�t matter. We don�t have another lead. Either Bek is at this site or he�s down in the Yeerk pool or he�s dead. In any case, we�re going in tomorrow in broad daylight. School�s out for a teacher conference.�

I cringed. 

�We almost did. It�s not your fault the Yeerks got him.�

I let that go. It was my fault, but there was no point in the two of us going �yes it was, no it wasn�t� all night.

<Ax and I followed that Aria woman,> I said.

�Yeah. Ax mentioned that.�



Rachel climbed out of bed and came over to sit at the desk close to me. �Of course it matters, Tobias. She�s family. And she wants to take care of you.�

I forced a laugh. <Yeah, that�ll work out real well. �Hi, Cousin Aria. It�s me, Tobias. No, over here: the bird. Yes, your cousin is a red-tailed hawk. Surprise!�>

�You don�t have to be.�

I pretended not to know what she was talking about. <What?>

�Tobias, you have the power to become human again. Fully human.�

<Uh-huh.>

�You can go to this woman as a human. You can be Tobias again. You can have a family. Someone around to take care of you.�

 I bristled.

Rachel jumped up suddenly. �Tobias, don�t play dumb! You know what I mean. You think I don�t know that you�re going hungry? I can look at you and see it. Something is wrong lately. I mean, I saw you - never mind.�

My heart was in my throat. <What?!> I almost screamed. <You saw me what? Eat that � that roadkill? How is that any different than what you do? Or any human? You go to the supermarket and buy beef or pork or chicken that�s been dead for weeks!>

�I don�t care that you ate roadkill. Stop being an idiot! I care about you. And when I see you doing that, I know things are going wrong for you. But you�re off in your own little hawk world and no one is allowed to help you. You�d rather starve than ask for help. You can�t ever admit that your life may suck because then you�ll feel weak.�

<I�m a hawk,> I snapped. <A bird of prey. When we�re weak, we die. That�s the law for us. I�m not a human being. Not anymore. No one helps a hawk. A hawk lives by his eyes and wings and talons.>

�You�re a hawk?� Rachel sneered. �You talk, Tobias. You read. You have emotions. Those are human things, not hawk things.�

<I know! I know! Don�t you think I know? That�s why I�m going hungry. Because I�m not hawk enough. That�s why I let Bek get away, because I was human enough to care more about my pain and fear than I cared about doing what I had to do.>

�That�s just stupid,� Rachel said angrily. �It doesn�t even make sense. You know what? You have to make a choice, Tobias. You can be a hawk. But you will never, ever, not in a million years, be a pure, true hawk. If you want to stay a hawk you�ll be like you are now: confused, conflicted, torn up inside, never knowing what you really are. Or � or you can be human again. All human. You can live with the Aria woman and eat at the table and sleep in a bed.�

<And never fly,> I said. <Never fly again. Never see with hawk�s eyes. Never morph again. I know you guys would all be nice to me, but I�d lose all of you. I�d lose being an Animorph.>

�You wouldn�t lose me,� Rachel said.

For a long while neither of us spoke. Then Rachel, in a whisper, said, �What am I supposed to do, Tobias? I�m a girl. You�re a bird. This is way past Romeo and Juliet, Montagues and Capulets. This isn�t Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio coming from different social groups or whatever. It�s not
like you�re black and I�m white like Cassie and Jake. No one but a moron cares about that. We are � we can�t hold hands, Tobias. We can�t dance. We can�t go to a movie together.�



�One more change, Tobias. Back to human. You�d be free of this stupid war and free of all the danger of living as a hawk. I wouldn�t have to worry about you anymore.�

I couldn�t take anymore. I just couldn�t. It was too much. I felt like I�d explode if I didn�t get away from her. I couldn�t be that near to her � couldn�t.

I turned and prepared to fly.

�Tobias. It�s tomorrow, by the way. Your birthday. I had Marco hack into the school records. It�s tomorrow you have to see the lawyer and Aria. Whatever happens there - whatever you decide - come see me afterward, okay? Maybe we can have a cake with a candle.�

I spread my wings and flew away.

First, I just wanted to start with a quick question about morphing and Tobias's hunger problem. I think I know the answer to this, but.... So, Jake gets his allowance, and he decides he wants to treat Tobias to a meal. So Tobias morphs human, they go to McDonalds, and he gets a Big Mac, fries, a chocolate shake....everything. When he morphs back to a falcon, that doesn't actually help him, right? Those calories just disappear? (It's probably a good idea for a diet....eat whatever you want, so long as you morph first.)

Also, while Rachel clearly has a motive here (dating a bird limits your social activities), she's also right. Tobias is as much human as he is bird, and his big problem is that he refuses to ask for help from people. I'm pretty sure they'd all help him if he asked.

# ? Jun 21, 2021 05:22

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

First, I just wanted to start with a quick question about morphing and Tobias's hunger problem. I think I know the answer to this, but.... So, Jake gets his allowance, and he decides he wants to treat Tobias to a meal. So Tobias morphs human, they go to McDonalds, and he gets a Big Mac, fries, a chocolate shake....everything. When he morphs back to a falcon, that doesn't actually help him, right? Those calories just disappear? (It's probably a good idea for a diet....eat whatever you want, so long as you morph first.)

Correct. I don't remember which book it was, but the narration in one of them said that explicitly. They've eaten things in morph and it doesn't affect their regular body, big or small.

# ? Jun 21, 2021 05:47

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER; Ultra Carp

Man this book is getting into Deep poo poo, it's great.

# ? Jun 21, 2021 07:03

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

quote:

It�s not like you�re black and I�m white like Cassie and Jake. No one but a moron cares about that.

This was one of the more powerful lines from the series, to me growing up. I'm from the Deep South, in a place where interracial relationships were *still* heavily stigmatized. As a preteen/teenager with very strong teenage feelings for a black girl at school, but my parents warning me that if we started dating they'd need to personally meet with my grandparents to gently break them into the idea first, this line resonated to me about the way things should be.

# ? Jun 21, 2021 12:43

SSJ_naruto_2003: Oct 12, 2012

Cythereal posted:

This was one of the more powerful lines from the series, to me growing up. I'm from the Deep South, in a place where interracial relationships were *still* heavily stigmatized. As a preteen/teenager with very strong teenage feelings for a black girl at school, but my parents warning me that if we started dating they'd need to personally meet with my grandparents to gently break them into the idea first, this line resonated to me about the way things should be.

Oh yeah, in high school I had various people warn me /question me about why I was hanging out with a black girl. Like what in the absolute motherfuck

# ? Jun 21, 2021 14:55

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 23

quote:

I didn�t sleep a lot that night. Talking to Rachel had not exactly made me feel peaceful. In the morning, in a couple of hours, we would all go to the Hork-Bajir. I would ask them where the secret Yeerk facility was. We would tell them that�s where the Yeerks had Bek. Maybe that would even be the truth.

There would be a battle. Maybe we�d survive and maybe not.

And then I would have a different battle to fight. One with myself.

Human or hawk? What was I?

I sat in my tree and clutched my perch and stared out across the meadow. The hunger was terrible now. Terrible enough to leave me weak. If I didn�t eat I would not have the strength to fly to the Hork-Bajir. I would not make it to the battle.

Was that so important? Hadn�t I done enough? Hadn�t I paid a high enough price?

I could morph to human. Stay human. Eat as a human. No fighting over territory, no fighting Yeerks.

And I would still have Rachel.

Such a simple decision. So easy. Any fool knew the answer. Be human! Be human!

I spotted the slight movement of grass in the dim predawn light. The rabbit coming out to feed.

So cautious now. She�d lost one baby.

Then I saw the other hawk. He was waiting, he was watching me. And I knew right then today was the day. He could see my weakness. He knew he could take me.

I began to shake. To tremble. Some combination of hunger and fear and emotions too numerous to list.

I saw the rabbits clearly. They were mine for the taking. But I knew the terrible vision that awaited me. I knew that as I descended on my prey I would become that prey.

It was the human in me. I had to fight it! If I wanted to be a hawk, I had to destroy the part of me that felt, the part of me that cried for the creatures I killed. No predator could feel for his prey. I could not allow myself to feel the terror I inflicted, feel the pain I caused.

<That does it,> I told the other hawk. <This is stupid. I�m not fighting you! I�m not going to kill those helpless creatures. I�m done with this. I�m a human being!>

I fluttered to the ground. And I began to morph.

Morph to human!

No. Not yet, I told myself. The others are counting on me still. The Hork-Bajir are counting on me. Later. After the battle. Then I can morph to human and go to Aria.

I flapped my wings and rose into the air. I needed food and I had seen a cat killed by a passing car. Just this one last time. Then I would put it all behind me.

One last time, picking the dead animal flesh from the pavement. One last humiliation, one last battle, and I would be done forever.

It was my birthday, after all. A good day to be reborn.

I found the cat. I ate as much of it as I could hold.

So it sounds like he's made up his mind. He's eating this last bit of roadkill, fighting one last fight and then giving up his hawkness and becoming a normal kid.

Chapter 24

quote:

We, the Animorphs, stood before the free Hork-Bajir. I rested on a low branch and did the talking. I told them about our failed rescue attempt. I explained our guess that Bek was at whatever facility the Hork-Bajir had been raiding.

�A trap,� Toby said.

<Yes.>

�And you want to step into that trap, anyway?�

<We have no choice. We will free Bek. We only need you to tell us the exact location of this facility.>

Toby considered this for a moment. Even now it was weird talking to a Hork-Bajir who could think and speak on my level. And maybe a little over my level at times.

�We will go with you,� Toby said.

�No, no,� Jake said. �We work alone. Besides, we�re just going to grab one little Hork-Bajir. We don�t need a whole army.�

Toby said, �This is a trap. But it is a trap because the Yeerks expect us to come after Bek. We must do the unexpected. We must surprise them even as we step into their trap.�

I looked at Jake. Jake raised an eyebrow at me in surprise.

 I said to Jake in private thought-speak.

�The Yeerks expect a rescue mission. Or at worst, a raid like the ones we have carried out: stealthy, in and out, quickly disappearing into the forest,� Toby explained.

�What do you want instead?� Jake asked her.

Toby got a hard look in her eyes. �Attack! Destroy the entire facility. Even if it means destroying other Hork-Bajir. Even if it means losing Bek.�

Even I was shocked. <That�s awfully harsh, Toby.>

She smiled grimly. �The Yeerks must not be allowed to think that they can use hostages against us.�

�Aren�t you kind of missing the point?� Cassie said quietly. �I thought the point was to save Bek.�

�No,� Toby said. �The point is to defeat the Yeerks. We must be strong. Once we free a Hork-Bajir, he must never be taken again.�

�Do you think the Yeerks will respect you? They won�t. They�ll come after you harder,� Cassie pointed out.

Toby nodded. �That is true. But the Hork-Bajir will respect themselves. A fool is strong so that others will see. A wise person is strong for himself. The Hork-Bajir will be strong for the Hork- Bajir. That way, when the Yeerks are all gone, we will still be strong.�

�Fair enough,� Jake said.

Marco stepped forward and jerked his thumb at Rachel. �Toby, meet Rachel. You two can visit the psychiatrist together.�

�She�s right,� Rachel said. �Someone pushes you, you push back. Doesn�t matter who it is. You have to make the other guy pay a price.�

Cassie rolled her eyes. �That�s like a perfect rationalization for gang warfare.�

�World War Two,� Rachel shot back. �The Nazis push, you push back. If you don�t, they kill you anyway.�

�Northern Ireland? The Middle East?� Cassie said.

Marco said, �They shend one of yoursh to the hoshpital, you shend one of theirsh to the morgue. That�s the Chicago way.�

Cassie and Rachel both just stared at him.

�Sean Connery in The Untouchables,� he said, disbelieving. �C�mon, don�t you people have cable?�

�Ah, Sean Connery. I thought you were doing Urkel,� Cassie teased.

�Marco is Urkel,� Rachel said.

It took Toby just minutes to assemble the Hork-Bajir. Ten of them ended up coming with us. More would have come but we insisted some be left behind. Just in case.

Ten Hork-Bajir and the six of us. Not exactly an army. But not exactly a group to laugh at, either.

If I went through with my decision to become human, it would be my last battle.

We traveled along the valley to its farthest end. It was a good walk. The valley was big enough to house a lot more Hork-Bajir. The Ellimist had been looking ahead when he�d chosen it.

�I fight you,� a Hork-Bajir I didn�t know said to me as I fluttered along, keeping pace with the group.

<What?>

�In Yeerk pool. Before. I fight you.� He grinned and pointed to a nasty scar across his left eye. Then he pantomimed a bird coming down and raking his face with its talons. �Fal Tagut say �Aaaahhhh!��



�No sorry! Fal Tagut not free.� He tapped his head with one long claw. �Fal Tagut have Yeerk. Now free. Good! Hork-Bajir and humans friends. Toby say.�

It was a long speech for a Hork-Bajir. Fal Tagut seemed worn out by it.

I wondered about the image of Hork-Bajir and humans living side by side if the Yeerks were defeated. Humans didn�t have a great record of getting along with people different from themselves.

Humans killed one another over skin color or eye shape or because they prayed differently to the same god. Hard to imagine humans welcoming seven-foot-tall goblins into the local Boy Scout troop when they couldn�t even manage to tolerate some gay kid.

Get pushed, push back. Toby had already seen it. She knew that the Hork-Bajir would need to be strong to defend themselves against humans once the Yeerks were defeated.

Get pushed, push back. The only way.

No, not the only way. There was another way. Don�t push to begin with. It�s the aggressors who start the cycle. It�s the guy who wakes up in the morning and decides he can�t get through the day without finding someone to attack, to insult, to hurt.

But where does that leave you? Letting jerks dictate your reactions? Always sinking to the level of whatever creep comes along?

My mind went to that other hawk. The one who wanted my territory. There it was: Push and push back. But it wasn�t a good comparison, was it? That hawk wasn�t human. All he had was instinct. Couldn�t blame him for doing what was natural.

So maybe humans were no better. Maybe you couldn�t blame a human animal for just being an animal. Except that my hawk opponent had no choice, no free will. He�d never heard �Blessed are the peacemakers,� or �I have a dream,� or �All men are created equal.�

It suddenly occurred to me, right then, for the first time, that what I thought was so unique about me - that I was half instinctive predator, and half human being - wasn�t so unique after all.

Every human - Jake. Rachel. Marco. Cassie, all humans - kind of lives on that edge between savage and saint. And the thing is that sometimes when you get pushed you do have to push back. And other times, you have to turn the other cheek.

I saw the scar on Fal Tagut�s face. I�d put it there. I�d been trying to kill him at the time because he�d been trying to kill me. Now we were on the same side.

I guess the trick is to figure out when to do which thing. When to fight, when to let up. A balancing act. And even if I went back to being fully human in body and mind, that balancing act wouldn�t go away.

Maybe realizing that should have made me feel bad. But it didn�t. Just made me feel human.

I really like this chapter. It's Tobias's realization that his experience in this book isn't a unique one. Every human being, by virtue of being a human being, faces this balance between predator and peacemaker....that's the essence of being human; deciding when to be aggrressive and when to step back

Also, Toby's great, and like Tobias realizes, she's playing the long game. She knows that even if the Yeerks are defeated, the humans will still be there, and to survive, the Hork-Bajir need to gain a sense of themselves. The Hork-Bajir have to be strong for the Hork-Bajir.

# ? Jun 22, 2021 04:26

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

It is also a pretty big departure from the earlier books, that had a much more black/white approach to everything.

This is the first time, I actually liked the differences in philosophy. Neither side was really depicted ad correct, they are just different approaches to a problem, coming from different perspectives.

And we really have entered the next stage of the Animorphs moral decline, Toby and the Hork Bajir are pretty hardcore.

# ? Jun 22, 2021 08:49

GodFish: Oct 10, 2012; We're your first, last, and only line of defense. We live in secret. We exist in shadow.

And we dress in black.

Big props to Tobias for calling out the boyscouts homophobia in like 1997 or something.

# ? Jun 22, 2021 08:53

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

GodFish posted:

Big props to Tobias for calling out the boyscouts homophobia in like 1997 or something.

1998.

And yeah, I would think things like that and what's going on with Tobias would have stood out to me. The bits with Aria might be a little familiar, but I can't remember anything else that's happened in this book, or the cover of it. I find it hard to believe I'd have missed a Tobias book, and I definitely read Visser and the next Megamorphs, but this would probably have been around the time I started dropping out of the series.

# ? Jun 22, 2021 09:18

Strategic Tea: Sep 1, 2012

Let's read Animorphs: They shend one of yoursh to the hoshpital...

# ? Jun 22, 2021 10:17

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 25

quote:

<It is a ground-based weapons platform,> Ax said. He was struggling to keep the slow-burn anger out of his voice. <You can see the Dracon beam already in place. They only need to position the targeting sensors to have it operational.>

We were at the edge of a perfectly round bowl blasted or cut into the earth. We were in dense forest. And anyone approaching from air or land would have still seen dense forest. Hologram projectors maintained perfect illusion. Until you got close enough.

Hikers or campers who got close enough would most likely never return. They�d be dispatched by the patrols of human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir.

A patrol had intercepted us. Now they wished they hadn�t. The human-Controllers were trussed up tightly and hanging from a very high branch of a very tall tree. The Hork-Bajir may not be rocket scientists, but they are very good with vines, roots, and trees in general. Those Controllers weren�t going anywhere for a while.

The Hork-Bajir-Controllers, four of them, had been knocked unconscious, their faces shoved into dug-out holes in the dirt. Apparently, this kept Hork-Bajir unconscious longer. These four would be coming with us. Unwillingly at first. But in three days or less, when the Yeerks in their heads died for lack of Kandrona rays, there�d be four more free Hork-Bajir.

We had slipped through the hologram and could now peer down cautiously from the lip of the vast hole the Yeerks had made. In the center was a single structure. It looked like some power station or something. Blank steel and bits of this and that jutting out at odd angles. Atop this structure was something that looked like a miniature Washington Monument mounted on a swivel base.

<Is that the Dracon beam? I�ve never seen one that large,> I said.

Ax swiveled his stalk eyes toward me. <The size is embarrassing, really. If the Yeerks were any good at engineering they could have an equally powerful weapon a third of that size.>

<Is it powerful?>

<It could vaporize entire mountains on your moon,> he said flatly. <Or destroy an Andalite ship in orbit.>

�Can it be pointed down? At the ground?� Jake asked him.

Ax peered closely at the weapon. Then he smiled that strange Andalite smile they do without a mouth. <Yes.>

�How do we get down there?� Rachel wondered.

�Fly? They�d see us and shoot us out of the air,� Cassie said.

<What would they do if they captured a bunch of free Hork-Bajir?> I wondered.

Toby looked at me and nodded. �They would cage us and hold us till we could be made into Controllers again. Until they could transport us to the Yeerk pool.�

�They know we were at Frank�s Safari Land the other night,� Marco pointed out. �So they know we have some contact with the free Hork-Bajir. And if they brought Bek here it means they�re expecting a rescue attempt.�

�Well, Visser Three knows we�re connected to the free Hork-Bajir. But does whoever is running this project know it?� Cassie speculated. �Maybe. Maybe not.�

Jake asked Toby, �When you�ve raided this place in the past, how many of your people have come on each mission?�

�Usually three or four. We did not want to risk everyone.�

Jake smiled. �Then we send in three or four Hork-Bajir. It�ll look exactly like previous raids. Only these four Hork-Bajir will have hitchhikers on board. They put up a fight, then let themselves be taken. Only then do we demorph and strike.�

Marco groaned. �We�re not talking fleas again, are we? I hate morphing fleas.�

He had good reason. Marco had come very close to being trapped in flea morph. Being trapped as a hawk is one thing. But a flea? I�d rather die.

�Pick a bug, any bug,� Rachel said with a laugh. �Flea, fly, mosquito. A bug�s a bug.�

�Yeah, right,� Marco muttered. �I�m an ant and I get chomped in half, I�m a flea and I almost get stuck in morph. I don�t have a good record with bugs.�

�I got slapped as a fly,� Jake offered, like that was helpful.

In the end, after some debate, four Hork-Bajir headed stealthily down toward the secret Yeerk facility. On board them was a collection of insects. A flea, a mosquito, two cockroaches, one housefly, and a wolf spider. Marco was the spider.

I went ahead and did the flea morph. They�re gross, mostly blind, bloodsucking, brainless little things, but have you ever tried to kill one? You could swat it all day and it would just laugh.

Unfortunately, I couldn�t see anything from my vantage point at the base of Jara Hamee�s front horn. I mean nothing. But I could listen to a running, thought-speak description courtesy of Marco. He, after all, had eight eyes.

<Okay, we�re sneaking.>

A few minutes later: 

Then, <Man, the Yeerks have no respect for the Hork-Bajir. I mean, a two-year-old would look at this and think �trap!� Come on, put some effort into it. Post some expendable guards. Something.>

I felt a sudden, violent jerk that translated itself up through Jara Hamee�s body. <Let me guess. We�re caught.>

<Yep. We are caught,> Marco said, sounding satisfied.

Few things here. I like how Ax manages to be smug about Andalite superiority even when he's outrage. I also like that these kids are at a place in their life where they debate which insect will be least unpleasant to transform into.

Chapter 26

quote:

<Okay, here�s the deal, as well as I can tell with a mix of simple and compound eyes,> Marco reported. <We�re in a cage. Big, thick bars. But a very conventional lock. A human lock. Bek�s here, hugging Jara Hamee.>

<How strong are the bars?> Cassie wondered.

<How strong would you make the bars if you wanted to lock up Hork-Bajir?> Marco asked.

<Ah. Strong, then.>

<We need to unlock the lock,> Marco said.

<Do you think?> Rachel mocked. <With your intellect, maybe you could be our �seer.�>

<Hah. Hah. And also, hah,> Marco said.

<We need the Hork-Bajir to hide whoever demorphs,> Jake said.

<That�d be me,> I said. <I�m smallest. Easiest to hide.>

No one argued. It was obviously true. I fired my springy flea legs and hurtled, somersaulting into the air. I fell for what felt like a very, very longtime. Then I hit.

Pht!

I had probably just fallen a thousand times my own height. The equivalent of a human being leaping off a building five times the height of the World Trade Center. And when I hit it was like,

�Okay, what�s next?�

I began to demorph. Very slowly. I grew to about an inch across, then stopped. <Jara Hamee? Do you see me?>
�Jara sees bug.�

<That�s me.>

�Tobias? Tobias is bug?�

I found myself wishing we had let Toby come along. Although she was too valuable to risk.

<Yes. I am the bug. Jara? You have to get the other Hork-Bajir to hide me. Form a circle around me.>

�Jara do.�

I demorphed some more. Till I was a six-inch monster with pinfeathers growing out of rust-red flea armor. Not a pretty sight. Trust me. You don�t want to see what a cross between a hawk beak and a skin-piercing, bloodsucking flea mouthpart looks like.

But I had eyes now. Dim, weak ones, but eyes. I looked around and sighed.

<No, Jara. You want to turn outward. This way it�s kind of obvious you�re shielding something.>

The Hork-Bajir turned outward and I finished demorphing. I was easily hidden by the forest of tree-trunk legs and tails all around me. All I had to do now was open the lock. Without benefit of fingers.

There were guards now. Now that the trap had been sprung. Six big Hork-Bajir armed to theteeth stood outside and around the cage.

But the entire prison was in the shadow of a sharp escarpment leading up to the weapon. It was maybe fifty feet high, almost vertical. A mound in the center of the scooped-out bowl.

I could see occasional glimpses of Hork-Bajir and Taxxon workers at the top of the slope, but they�d have had to look almost straight down to see us.

A road had been cut into the escarpment, wide enough to accommodate human trucks. We had to go up that road to reach the weapon.

I hawk-walked out the back of the cage. We hawks aren�t fast on our talons, but we do know how to walk. I walked right through the gap between the bars.

A Hork-Bajir-Controller looked down at me, puzzled, but then looked away. I looked at him, equally puzzled. Just how was I supposed to get a key from this guy? Walk up and ask him?

Actually �

I hawk-walked around behind a toolshed. It�s always weird when you find the Yeerks using normal, human stuff. This looked like one of the backyard toolsheds you buy at Sears.

I walked behind the toolshed and I began to morph. The one morph that would seem perfectly at home here.

I morphed Ket Halpak.

I swaggered confidently out from behind the toolshed and walked over to the Hork-Bajir who looked like he was in charge.

�They want to see you,� I said.

�Who?�

I jerked my head over my shoulder toward the main building.

�They.� It�s one of the things you can count on in this world: There�s always a they.

The Hork-Bajir scowled. The Yeerk in his head was half annoyed, half afraid. �The Visser isn�t here yet, is he?�

I turned my head and looked away. Like I wasn�t allowed to say more. Now the guy was ten percent annoyed and ninety percent scared,

I held out my claw. �Give me the key.�

And it was just that simple. He handed me the key. I walked over and unlocked the cage.

�What are you doing?� one of the other Hork-Bajir-Controllers demanded.

I turned on him and swung my left fist up in a vicious uppercut. It connected with his jaw. He went down.

The remaining four guards hesitated for a split second. Just long enough for Jara Hamee and the others to come tearing out of the cage. I caught sight of something growing fast on the dirt floor of the cage. It was still about halfway mosquito, but there was no mistaking the tail growing out of that bug.

There was a minute of sharp, brutal combat. Five free Hork-Bajir (including myself) against the four guards. Then Ax joined the fight and it all ended quickly.

We shoved and dragged the guards into the cage and locked them up.

Everyone morphed to battle morph. Me, I demorphed. We would need an eye in the sky. I caught a little breeze and floated up, just a dozen feet off the ground. I looked at our little force. Four free Hork-Bajir, a tiger, a wolf, a gorilla, an Andalite, and a very large elephant. A strange little platoon of warriors.

<The beautiful thing is, they can yell all they want. The Yeerks will just think they�re our Hork-Bajir,> Cassie said of the guards in the cage.

<Okay,> Jake said. <So far, so good. But we have a job to do.>

<Ooh, he�s getting all John Wayne,> Marco said with a laugh.

Jake ignored the remark. <We have to take that weapon and blow it up. Quiet and fast. We want to be in there before anyone has a chance to react.>

There was a moment of expectant silence.

Then Marco said, <Rachel! What�s keeping you>?>

<Oh, I forgot,> she said. And then, in true Rachel style, she yelled, <Let�s do it!>

<Thank you,> Marco said. <We can�t run off on another idiot suicide mission without the blessings of the always insane Xena, Warrior Princess.>

We formed up and then, on a signal from Jake, they tore out of there, out of concealment, out into the open, racing like mad to reach the weapons platform before something could go wrong.

But I was in the air, and I had my own hawk�s eyes. So I could see that already something had gone wrong.

I do like the fact that using Hork-Bajir to guard Hork-Bajir can just lead to that sort of confusion. I mean, eventually, they'll figure it out, but...

# ? Jun 23, 2021 04:33

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

I thought it was Hork-Bajir that aren't very bright, and yet the Yeerks fell for the very oldest trick that probably predates the book.

# ? Jun 23, 2021 05:41

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

Later on they take out Visser 3 by placing a bucket of water on top of the door to his Blade Ship.

# ? Jun 23, 2021 10:36

HIJK: Nov 25, 2012; in the room where you sleep

Yet again Yeerk forces are hamstrung by the fact that everyone is too terrified of Visser Three to think through problems like "should he actually be here right now?" he's so erratic and dangerous that they can't expect any consistency from him which means the Animorphs can just lie and it will be taken as true.

# ? Jun 23, 2021 11:39

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

HIJK posted:

Yet again Yeerk forces are hamstrung by the fact that everyone is too terrified of Visser Three to think through problems like "should he actually be here right now?" he's so erratic and dangerous that they can't expect any consistency from him which means the Animorphs can just lie and it will be taken as true.

Visser 3�s characterization ages poorly throughout the series. He is basically cobra commander in the first few books and never really sheds the cartoonish over the top persona, even when the series gets much more nuanced.

To me, he sticks out like a sore thump. The series really tries to justify his behavior, but he is a black spot in an otherwise pretty well realized universe.

# ? Jun 23, 2021 23:33

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

e X posted:

Visser 3�s characterization ages poorly throughout the series. He is basically cobra commander in the first few books and never really sheds the cartoonish over the top persona, even when the series gets much more nuanced.

To me, he sticks out like a sore thump. The series really tries to justify his behavior, but he is a black spot in an otherwise pretty well realized universe.

Did you notice that Visser Three being in place is actually the desired outcome of the Ellimist?

# ? Jun 24, 2021 00:36

HIJK: Nov 25, 2012; in the room where you sleep

e X posted:

Visser 3�s characterization ages poorly throughout the series. He is basically cobra commander in the first few books and never really sheds the cartoonish over the top persona, even when the series gets much more nuanced.

To me, he sticks out like a sore thump. The series really tries to justify his behavior, but he is a black spot in an otherwise pretty well realized universe.

Yeah I don't blame you for thinking that. Especially after books like Hork Bajir Chronicles where he's supposed to be a smooth operator master mind.

# ? Jun 24, 2021 01:40

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

HIJK posted:

Yeah I don't blame you for thinking that. Especially after books like Hork Bajir Chronicles where he's supposed to be a smooth operator master mind.

Much like Chapman in the Andalite Chronicles compared to Main Series Chapman, Visser Three in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles is basically a completely different person from Main Series Visser Three. But at least we have the inference that being bonded with Alloran absolutely scrambled Esplin�s mind into the monster we meet in Book 1.

Chapman, uuuhhh� I dunno, maybe he did a lot of growing up in the 20 years between TAC and Book 1?

# ? Jun 24, 2021 03:04

Grammarchist: Jan 28, 2013

nine-gear crow posted:

Much like Chapman in the Andalite Chronicles compared to Main Series Chapman, Visser Three in the Hork-Bajir Chronicles is basically a completely different person from Main Series Visser Three. But at least we have the inference that being bonded with Alloran absolutely scrambled Esplin�s mind into the monster we meet in Book 1.

Chapman, uuuhhh� I dunno, maybe he did a lot of growing up in the 20 years between TAC and Book 1?

He'd just read Ayn Rand for the first time. Lucky bastard got brain wiped and escaped the shame of being a libertarian teen.

# ? Jun 24, 2021 03:41

cptn_dr: Sep 7, 2011; Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies

I've known a few people who were shitheads as teenagers and then grew up to be genuinely really good educators & parents, so it's not impossible for Chapman to have changed.

Alternate answer: The Ellimist did it because he needed Chapman to be involved.

# ? Jun 24, 2021 04:05

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Sadly, I'm not going to be able to post tonight. The next two chapters will come tomorrow.

As for Visser Three, I think there's very much a Peter Principle thing going on, complicated by the extreme dysfunction and politicking of the important Vissers. We've seen how Visser One and Visser Three hate each other, and since the only way to rise in rank is the death or demotion of the people above you, Yeerk military culture seems to encourage paranoia and ruthlessness.

# ? Jun 24, 2021 04:33

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 27

quote:

Up the steep road my friends and allies ran. They were directly behind a big dump truck. Mostly invisible to the unsuspecting Yeerks above them.

But they were not invisible. Not to the helicopter that came fwap-fwap-fwapping its way over the trees and into the concealed facility.

It came around and swept low. It was a small helicopter. With one of those bubble canopies just large enough to hold a pilot and one passenger.

One human passenger. Nothing else would have fit.

The Hork-Bajir guard had acted as if Visser Three was expected. This had to be him arriving now.

The sun was on the canopy, blinding, hiding the persons inside. An eagle or an osprey might have been able to see better. They�re adapted for looking through sunlight on water. But all I could see was the vague outline of a human form. A finger pointing at my friends. And a flash of a pony-tail.

Aria!

The helicopter roared past, oblivious to me, spinning me roughly in its rotor wash. It disappeared around the far side of the mound.

How could I have been so stupid?

How could I have ever been stupid enough to hope? How could I have failed to know? Had I been blinded by some pathetic desire for normalcy?

It was all an act! Aria, saving the little girl�s life, just an act! A show put on for the benefit of any Animorph who might be watching.

I raged at myself. Raged and berated myself, piling anger on top of anger.

Anger was good. Anger was safe. Anger was so much better than the other emotions that threatened to surface and overwhelm me.

<Fool, Tobias! Fool!> I cried. <Every two hours she went back to the bathroom at the hotel.

Fool! How could you, of all people, have missed it? How could you, of all people, Tobias, not know what that meant?>

Two hours! Two hours in morph!

A morph! Aria was a morph!

I felt sick. I could barely flap my wings. I couldn�t think. I couldn�t see. Everything was just spinning around me.

I hadn�t realized till that moment how much this hope had meant to me. A home. A family.

<Not for you, Tobias, you idiot! You fool! I hate you! I hate you! I want you to die!>

I couldn�t fly. I landed hard and lay there in the dirt. I just kept saying it, over and over in my head. 

In my life as a human, in my life as a bird, I have never been lower than that. I knew my friends were fighting. I knew they needed me. But I couldn�t �

� couldn�t.

After a while, a clawed hand snatched me roughly from the ground and I realized I was moving very fast.

�Come with me, Tobias. The weapon is about to explode.�

It was Toby. In some distant corner of my mind I wondered how, why she had come. Later I would learn that the battle had gone badly for my friends. It was Toby who�d come to the rescue with the other Hork-Bajir.

She had seen me fall. She saved me. And when we were safe again, she handed me to Rachel. How did Toby know to give me to Rachel? I don�t know. All I know is I was carried, bundled up in Rachel�s arms, till we made it back.

They took me to the barn. Cassie looked me over, lifting wings and spreading feathers. Looking for an injury.

�Tobias, where were you hit?� she asked me, puzzled.

I felt like I had to pull the words out of a deep well, like they each weighed a thousand pounds.

 I said.

�Then what�s the matter?� Jake asked.

<It�s Aria,> I said.

�Your cousin? The woman who wants to take you in?� Jake said.

<She�s a morph,> I said without any emotion at all. <It�s all a trap. She�s Visser Three.> Then I laughed. <The �woman� who was going to be my family? She�s Visser Three! Hah, hah, hah! Now, that�s funny. That is really, really funny.>

So much for the idea that Tobias can be happy!

Chapter 28

quote:

I didn�t have much time to sit and feel sorry for myself. That would have to come later. I had an appointment.

It was my birthday. I was supposed to hear the last statement left to me by my father. Or my real father, whatever that meant.

All a sham, of course. But I had to go through with it. It was a trap, but the only way out of the trap was to step right in.

Aria was Visser Three. She/he had been looking for me. Which meant she/he suspected me. If I didn�t show up, the Yeerks would assume I had figured out the trap. They�d assume I was an Animorph.

Why did they suspect me in the first place? Who knew? But it was an easy leap from deciding I, a human boy, was one of the so-called Andalite bandits to guessing that the others were human, too.

To guessing that they were kids I had known.

From then on, it would be a deadly chess game with only one possible end.

They would get Jake. He had been my friend.

Let me just quote Jake's description of Tobias from book 1 for you.

"Well, anyway, we were out of money and getting ready to head home when we ran into Tobias. Tobias was . . . I mean, I guess he still is kind of a strange guy. He was new at school, and he wasn't the toughest kid around, so he got picked on a lot.

I actually met Tobias when he had his head in a toilet. There were these two big guys holding him down and laughing while they flushed, sending Tobias's straggly blond hair swirling around the bowl. I told the two creeps to step off, and ever since then, Tobias figured I was his friend."

So, yea.

quote:

Jake would be made into a Controller. Even if he died resisting them, they�d move from him to Marco, his best friend, and Rachel, his cousin. From Rachel to Cassie. Game over.

I had to find a way to walk into that lawyer�s office and let Visser Three spring his trap. And not get caught.

And worst of all, I had to do it alone. He would have his forces clustered all around DeGroot�s office. One glimpse of a strange animal and it would be all over. Visser Three would know.

In fact, my friends would have to be somewhere else. While I went in to face DeGroot and the foul fake of Aria, they would go back and launch an attack on the Yeerks, attempting to clean up the weapons site we�d hit earlier.

I morphed to human a long way from the office, just to eliminate any chance of being seen. I walked eight blocks to the lawyer�s office. Walked. I hadn�t walked that far in a very long time.

It�s a lame way to travel. When you fly, you�re living in three dimensions. When you crawl the earth like a human, there are just two. It was slow as well. And there were traffic lights and other people and cars and � flying was so much better.

So be happy, I told myself bitterly. It�s a good thing you aren�t going to be human again. You can still fly.

No family, but I could fly.

I was shaking and scared by the time I reached the office. It wasn�t so much for me. I guess at some level I didn�t care all that much if I lived or died right then. I just worried about blowing it somehow. For the others. For my friends.

I guess it�s true what they always say about combat soldiers. They may start out fighting for their country, but they end up fighting for the guy next to them in the foxhole.

I didn�t so much care about the fate of the human race at that moment. I wasn�t human. I was a hawk. But I cared about Jake, and Cassie, and Marco, and Ax-man, and Rachel. Always Rachel.

The receptionist was gone when I walked, trembling, through the door. I stood there, unsure of what to do. Then the two of them came from the inner office.

Aria smiled a big smile. �You must be Tobias,� she said.

I remembered seeing her for the first time. Watching her through her window at the hotel, me flying hundreds of feet in the air. Then it struck me. The thing that had bothered me then: Supposedly, she�d been in the African bush for years or whatever. But when she�d left her room, she�d paused to check her hair.

Perfectly appropriate for a normal woman. Just a bit wrong for a woman who spent her days hiding in blinds and racing around in open-topped Land Rovers.

I nodded. �Yeah. I�m Tobias.�

My role was tough street kid. It was easy for me to pull off, given that I usually forgot to make facial expressions and had a tendency to stare.

She came and put her arms around me. She hugged me close. The morph that called herself Aria.

Visser Three.

I stiffened and tried to pull away.

�It�s okay,� she said with perfect sincerity. �Tobias, we�re family. I want to take care of you.�

DeGroot came over and shook my hand. He said, �Come on in, young man.�

If you weren�t looking for it, you�d never notice it: the way DeGroot stayed back from Aria. Like she was someone he didn�t want to get too close to. Like she was someone he didn�t want to touch.

Someone he feared.

So, I thought, DeGroot is in on this. He�s a Controller. He knows who Aria is.

We all took seats in the office. DeGroot, looking to Aria for cues. Aria, playing the role of concerned, decent woman. Me, being the tough street kid.

One wrong move. One slight wrong move, and Yeerks would pile in on me from directions I hadn�t even thought of yet.

�We are here today to carry out the reading of an important document left for Tobias by his father. By � by a man different than the man you believed to be your father.�

I shrugged. �Whatever.�

Aria leaned toward me. �Aren�t you interested in finding out who your real father is?�

I laughed. �Did he leave me any money?�

DeGroot�s eyebrows shot up. �No.�

I rolled my eyes. �Figures.�

DeGroot tapped the pages to straighten them. �Then we�ll just go straight to reading the document. If that�s -�

Some little bit of Visser Three showed through then. �Read it,� she/he snapped. Then, forcing a smile, said, �I�m anxious to hear what this is all about.�

So the lawyer began to read.

I had forgotten how to use facial expressions. I was used to being a hawk and not a human. It saved my life.

So tomorrow, we get to The Reading of the Document.

# ? Jun 25, 2021 03:49

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Epicurius posted:

quote:
In my life as a human, in my life as a bird, I have never been lower than that.

Definitely the lowest Tobias has ever been... until his next book, maybe!

# ? Jun 25, 2021 04:18

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

quote:
It saved my life.

Actually, once we reached this chapter, I did remember this bit. Funny the phrases that stick with you over decades.

# ? Jun 25, 2021 05:07

Edna Mode: Sep 24, 2005; Bullshit, that's last year's Fall collection!

Yeah, I had forgotten almost everything else in this book but I remember that line and the next chapter really well.

# ? Jun 25, 2021 05:21

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

disaster pastor posted:

Definitely the lowest Tobias has ever been... until his next book, maybe!

Tobias is the Chief O'Brien of the Animorphs.

Bobulus fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Jun 25, 2021

# ? Jun 25, 2021 14:09

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Have to admit, it's an unusually subtle and clever plan of Visser Three's.

# ? Jun 25, 2021 15:47

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# ? Apr 29, 2024 03:59

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

Saving a child because an andalite terrorist might be watching is some extra-mile acting.

# ? Jun 25, 2021 16:44

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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