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

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FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

Jake is the leader only in the sense that you need someone able to, in the moment of panic, cut through that with a clear goal. It doesn't have to always be a good goal, a well thought out one, but you do sometimes need someone to say "gently caress it, this is what we're doing."

In team games (or hell in real life workplace situations) I usually end up in charge not because I'm smarter or better or even the best at coming up with a plan, but because I can say "Okay, this is what we're doing" and get people to all go do it. A group of idiots stumbling towards a goal is at least going to have better results than a bunch of unrelated idiots doing their own thing with no coordination.

Jake isn't even always the one to make the plans, it's been pointed out that the plans are usually come up with communally and it's often Rachel or Marco or Tobias who get the actual idea out. Jake's the one who, when everything's at risk of going in every direction at once, can make the team go "No, we're headed this way."

So I think Jake actually has a good understanding of his sitch? He's not really "in charge" so much as he's just... a focusing lens. I get that i been there.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 07:22

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# ? Apr 16, 2024 14:54

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

There's a book way down the track where Jake is out of town and delegates to Rachel, which seems like a real bad idea (especially by that point). Marco or Tobias would be the more natural second in command; Ax is too unfamiliar with Earth, Rachel is too reckless, Cassie too cautious.

Although when all is said and done Jake really just seems to be a leader in name only. They vote on stuff all the time, disagree all the time, and people go against his wishes pretty regularly. I just rewatched Lost and it's sort of the same dynamic: Jack is the natural leader because he's the humourless, handsome, square-jawed American, but ultimately the group trusts each other and gets along well enough to not really require firm leadership; squabbles and disagreements are mutually sorted out within the group and at the end of the day they all have each other's backs.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 10:01

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

Also just to add, it's not entirely, or at least isn't anymore. I lived in Northern Virginia about ten years ago, and did a lot of my shopping at Safeway.

Yeah I was going to say, I'm on the east coast and I've lived near one pretty much my whole life.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 10:26

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

FlocksOfMice posted:

Jake is the leader only in the sense that you need someone able to, in the moment of panic, cut through that with a clear goal. It doesn't have to always be a good goal, a well thought out one, but you do sometimes need someone to say "gently caress it, this is what we're doing."

In team games (or hell in real life workplace situations) I usually end up in charge not because I'm smarter or better or even the best at coming up with a plan, but because I can say "Okay, this is what we're doing" and get people to all go do it. A group of idiots stumbling towards a goal is at least going to have better results than a bunch of unrelated idiots doing their own thing with no coordination.

Jake isn't even always the one to make the plans, it's been pointed out that the plans are usually come up with communally and it's often Rachel or Marco or Tobias who get the actual idea out. Jake's the one who, when everything's at risk of going in every direction at once, can make the team go "No, we're headed this way."

So I think Jake actually has a good understanding of his sitch? He's not really "in charge" so much as he's just... a focusing lens. I get that i been there.

Plus he gets along with everyone. I can't see Rachel taking orders from Marco very well for example, or Marco being happy with Cassie as a leader. He's kind of an Eisenhower type, he's the leader but he lets his subordinates come up with the clever plans and focuses on uniting everyone.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 17:49

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.

Huh. Maybe there's just regions it isn't in.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 17:51

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

GodFish posted:

Huh. Maybe there's just regions it isn't in.

So I did some research, and it looks like Safeway started on the west coast, but in the 1920s and 30s it did a massive expansion, buying up a bunch of small grocery chains. Its first big purchase on the east coast was a Washington DC chain called Sanitary Groceries in 1928 (Sanitary Groceries is also responsible for a major Supreme Court case about the right to picket. New Negro Alliance v Sanitary Grocery. In 1936, they opened a store in a black neighborhood in DC, but refused to hire black employees. A group called the New Negro Alliance picked, with the slogan, "If you can't work there, don't shop there." Sanitary tried to get an injunction, saying that they didn't have the right to picked because it wasn't a strike or labor dispute. In 1938,the Supreme Court ruled that the public has the right to picket a business.)

Anyway, Safeway expanded east into DC, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Florida through acquisitions of smaller chains. In the '80s, though, they ran into financial problems and had to close or sell most of their eastern supermarkets except for ones in DC and Maryland.

# ? Oct 18, 2020 20:06

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

We used to have Safeway in Australia but it was absorbed by Woolworths years ago and it drives me up the wall when people still call it Safeway

# ? Oct 18, 2020 22:18

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

The Forgotten-Chapter 5

quote:

5:15 P.M.

�Hi, Dad, what�s up?� I asked when I got home. My father was in his La-Z-Boy, remote control in hand.

�What do you mean, �what�s up�?� he asked, genuinely surprised. �The fight�s on tonight. Forty dollars on Pay-Per-View. Corn chips, bean dip, loud grunting male noises, beer - for me - soda for you and Tom.�

I practically slapped my forehead. The fight! I�d totally forgotten. It was a big thing. Not because I�m a boxing fanatic. I�m not. But it was a big thing for my dad to actually spend forty dollars on Pay- Per-View. He was doing it as a male-bonding, father-son thing. Me and him and Tom, and probably
one or two of my dad�s friends from work.

�That�s tonight?� I asked. �What time?�

�Starts at seven o�clock. Do your homework, eat something containing vegetables to make your mom happy, and then grab some couch.�

I did a quick mental calculation. The fight started in a little over an hour. The last championship fight had lasted only three rounds. That would leave me maybe thirty minutes to morph and fly to the motel. Should I come up with some excuse for bailing out? No. No, there was no way my dad would
buy it.

�Excellent,� I said to my dad. �I�ll be here. Don�t eat all the bean dip. You know what happens when you eat bean dip.�

My mother came into the living room. �Am I even allowed in here?� she asked mockingly. �When does this room become the temple of male aggression?�

�Not till seven,� my dad said. �Until then we will allow females. Especially if the females remembered to pick up chips on their way home from work.�

�Chips? Wouldn�t you rather enjoy some nice carrot sticks and hummus dip?�

My dad and I just stared at her.

�Kidding,� she said. �Just kidding. I have chips. Are Pete and Dominick coming over?�

�Yeah, but you don�t have to feed them,� my dad joked. �Those guys are lucky I don�t charge them admission.�

I raced through my homework and hoped the fight would be the usual two-or-three-round easy knockout. The one good thing about rushing was that it didn�t leave me too much time to think.

Thinking meant worry, and worry gets in the way of getting things done.

It was a tense family gathering at seven o�clock. Tom seemed as anxious as I was to get away. I could guess why.

You see, Tom is one of them. He�s a human-Controller.

He had to keep up appearances of normalcy, same as me. But I guess he was trying to get away to go to the grocery store site, too. Same as me, again. Tom and I fought in the same war. On different sides.

It was strange thinking of Tom, still alive deep down inside his own head. Trapped. Powerless. But able to see and hear and think.

Did he enjoy watching the fight through eyes he no longer controlled? Was there anything, anything at all, he could enjoy?

It didn�t help, having thoughts like that. When I started thinking that way the rage would just build up inside me till I felt like I�d go nuclear. I told myself, for probably the millionth time, that I was doing all I could to help Tom. All I could. All I could.

I'm curious as to whether or not Yeerks like boxing now.

But there's a weird kind of parallelism between Jake and Tom-Controller. Like Jake points out, they're on different sides but in the same war. And neither of them can let anyone else in the family know. On top of that, they're both teenagers, and can't just do what they want. They both have the same goal right now....find a way to blow off the fight so they can focus on something more important.

quote:

Fortunately, my dad and his work friends made plenty of noise, so no one noticed Tom checking his watch. Or the fact that I kept glancing toward the kitchen, where I could see the wall clock.

By round six, I knew I was in trouble. In round seven neither fighter even looked tired. I decided if it went past round eight I�d have to make some excuse, no matter how lame.

In round eight, a lucky uppercut connected.

�Oh, that had to hurt!� my dad said.

�Five bucks says he goes down!� my dad�s friend Dominick said quickly.

He was right. The challenger staggered, wandered around on rubber legs for a few seconds, then toppled over. Boom! The fight was over.

It was now seven forty-five. I was already late.

I snatched the videotape out of the VCR. �Dad, can I take this over to Marco�s and play it for him?�

�It�s almost eight. It�s dark out,� my father objected.

�Yeah,� Tom said. �You might get lost and never come back. And that would be such a pity. I�d have to use your room for my weights and stuff.�

It was exactly the kind of dumb big-brother joke Tom would have made. But of course it was just something pulled up from Tom�s brain by the Yeerk in his head.

For just a second it occurred to me to ask him: �Hey, Tom, what�s the big secret with the grocery store? Just tell me, and I can stay home tonight.�

I smiled at the thought. Then �

FLASH!

Green. Green. Everything was green. It was the greenest place on Earth: trees, moss, vines, ferns. Green everywhere.

Marco was there. And the others. They were all there.

Marco was talking. � � in a jungle fighting brain-stealing aliens and ten thousand annoying species of bugs, and our resident space cadet is a hot-looking monkey. Somebody wake me up when we get back to reality.�

FLASH!

I was back. Back listening to Tom tease me like he was actually Tom. Back to hearing my dad say, �Walk, don�t ride your bike. Not at night. Especially not when it�s about to rain.�

The vision was so powerful. So real. Not like a dream at all. But like I was actually there in a jungle, listening to Marco complain.

I felt my heart pounding. I felt sweat forming on my forehead. What in the heck was going on?

What was happening to me?

I noticed Tom back out of the room, sliding away like he was going to the kitchen. That brought me back to reality.

I grabbed the videotape and took off, still reeling from the insane feeling of being yanked back and forth from one reality to another. I could hear my dad and his friends rehashing the fight round by round as I went up to my room and opened my window as wide as it would go.

It took me twenty-five minutes to morph and fly to the empty motel.

 I apologized as I came in for a landing.

I misjudged the distance to the ground, hit it too hard, and rolled over, a tangle of wings and talons.

<Nice landing,> Tobias said with a laugh.

Getting mocked by the guy who's now a professional hawk. That's gotta hurt.

quote:

�Are you okay?� Cassie asked me. She rushed over and picked me up. Then she set me back down because I was starting to demorph. And I was getting heavier pretty quickly.

�I�m fine,� I said, as soon as I could speak. �Embarrassed, but fine.�

It was a shabby little hiding place. The back windows of the motel were covered in plywood.

The plywood was covered with graffiti. There were overgrown weeds and broken bottles and, for some reason, an old washing machine.

�We get to visit all the best places, don�t we?� I said dryly.

Ax was hugging the darkness against the wall. He feels a little obvious out of the woods. With good reason. Anyone who saw him would run away, screaming like a little kid. Unless, of course, they were a Controller. A Controller would know exactly what he was.

�Well?� Rachel asked, looking at me.

She was waiting for me to say, �Let�s go.�

But for some reason, I felt a strange reluctance. I felt � I don�t even know what I felt. Just that that moment, that very moment, was terribly important.

The others all stared at me, waiting.

All I had to say was, �Let�s go.� Instead, I looked at my watch. Eight-nineteen. Eight-nineteen.

Like it meant something. Like �

Oh, man, I was going nuts! I was losing it. What was the matter with me?

�Should we do this?� I wondered. I was surprised to realize I�d spoken out loud. I�d been talking to myself.

�Why not? I say we do it,� Rachel said.

�There�s a huge shock,� Marco muttered. �Everyone who is surprised Rachel wants to go for it, raise your hand.�

�Yeah,� I said, shaking off my doubts as well as I could. �Yeah, let�s go.�

I was pretty sure it was the right thing to do, but the responsibility was on me. I could have stopped it. I could have talked them all out of it. I could have done something different.

But I didn�t.

At least not then �

�Let�s morph,� I said.

I have to think Jake is screwing up big time by not telling people he's having these visions.

Chapter 6

quote:

8:19 P.M.

�Let�s hope no one has a can of Raid,� Marco said.

I tried to laugh. But I hate morphing bugs.

Back when we started morphing, I figured we�d morph things like lions and bears and eagles. And we do. But we also morph things a lot smaller. The insect world is very useful. Sometimes smaller is better.

That never exactly makes it fun, though. There is no nightmare, no horror movie, no weird psycho vision as scary as actually turning into a cockroach or a spider or a flea or a fly.

When you morph a tiger, you still have four limbs. You have two eyes. You have a mouth. You have bones and a stomach and lungs and teeth. Maybe they�re all different, but they�re all still there.

The change to a fly is nothing like becoming a tiger. Nothing is where it should be. Nothing stays the same.

The problem with morphs is that they are never exactly the same twice in a row. And the changes happen in bizarre, unpredictable ways. It�s not smooth. It�s not logical. It�s not gradual. I started to shrink, but when I was still almost entirely human, still probably three feet tall, I felt
my skin harden.

See, flies don�t have bones. They have an exoskeleton. Their outer shell is what holds them together in one piece. And my exoskeleton was growing. My soft, human skin was being replaced by something dark, something hard as plastic.

My body was squeezed into segments. Insect segments: a head, a thorax, an abdomen.

And when I was still at least two feet tall, way too tall to be anything like a fly, the extra legs came bursting, squishing, slurping out of what had been my chest.

My own true legs collapsed as they shriveled down to match my new fly legs. I fell forward into the dirt. Facedown. Not that I had much of a face anymore.

My proboscis had already begun to form from my melting mouth and lips and nose and tongue. The proboscis was as big as my fly legs - a long, retractable, hollow tube. Flies eat with the proboscis. They spit saliva all over the food, wait till it gets mushy, then suck it up.

It isn�t pretty. But that wasn�t the worst of it. The worst was the eyes. I still had semi human vision when I saw Cassie, lying in the dirt beside me, suddenly grow fly eyes.

They popped out of her human eyes. Popped out, huge and devoid of soul. Big, black balloons that sort of inflated out of her own eye sockets. That�s a sight that will make you heave up your lunch.

My own vision went dark then. I was blind for a couple of seconds, then yow! The fly eyes turned on, and the whole world was different.

How can I explain what it�s like to look through compound eyes? It�s like you�re watching a thousand tiny TV sets all at once. A thousand tiny TV sets, all clustered together. And each set has really weird color. Like someone twisted all the color knobs. Yellow is purple, green is red, blue is black. It�s insane. Like some disturbed kid got loose with a Crayola box and colored in everything with different colors.

But what�s awful is the way the eyes look in all directions at once. I could see the tube, that was now my mouth, sticking out in front of me. I could see my own twig legs. I could see the stiff hairs poking out of my armored body.

Still, there is one good thing about being a fly - if you can get past the screaming horror of it. Part of what I could see was the pair of gossamer wings that sprouted from what should have been my back.

Flies can fly.

Man, can they fly.

<Everyone okay?> I asked.

<Aside from the fact I make myself sick? Yes,> Marco said.

Then � PAH-LOOOSH!

An explosion on the ground ahead of me. The dirt just seemed to blow up. Like a mortar explosion.

<What the �> Rachel yelped.

PAH-LOOOSH!

<It�s starting to rain, guys,> Tobias informed us calmly.

The explosions of mortar shells were just big, fat raindrops hitting the dirt.

<Jeez! I thought someone was trying to kill us,> Cassie said.

<Let�s get on with this,> I said.

I fired the springs in my legs and turned on my wings. I was airborne instantly. It�s not like being a bird. A bird has to really work at flying. For a fly, it�s automatic. Instantaneous. You think let�s fly and a split second later you�re zooming crazily through the air.

Across the weird mass of tiny TV sets I could see the others rise up from the ground. They flew like pigs. Like big fat balls with these tiny little wings that looked like they couldn�t lift a speck of dust.

But, like I said before, flies can fly.

I zoomed wildly upward. Like a wallowing rocket!

<Hah-Hah! Oh, man!> Rachel exulted. <I�d forgotten how great this was!>

<Disgusting, but oh yeah, these things can haul,> Marco agreed. <Tobias, you only think you can fly. You haven�t flown till you�ve flown Maggot Airways.>

<Maybe,> Tobias said calmly. <And, not to burst your balloon, but you guys are all heading the wrong way.>

Tobias is so over the rest of them right now.

quote:

<We are?>

<Yes. You�re heading toward a Dumpster,> Tobias said with a laugh. <Turn left. Turn left and get some altitude. Then you should be able to see the car lights on the road.>

I would have smiled if I�d had a mouth. The fly brain had been easy to control because we�d already done this morph before. But the fly�s instincts still had some input. See, the fly smelled rotting food in the Dumpster and it knew right where it wanted to go.

We followed Tobias�s directions. I rocketed higher, and then �

<Whoa! Whoa! What is that? Are those cars?> Cassie demanded.

<These eyes are seeing ultraviolet light,> Ax commented.

<They�re seeing something, that�s for sure,> I agreed.

The cars racing past were not cars so much as they were glowing, red-and-purple meteors. The road was a blur of movement, all of it strange and disturbing to the fly brain.

<Stay above the cars,> Tobias warned.

<Why?> Ax asked.

<A little something we call windshields,> Tobias said dryly. <A windshield moving sixty miles an hour is death to bugs.>

<Good point,> I agreed. <Going higher.>

I powered my wings and bobbed and weaved and rolled higher and higher.

But the fly inside my head didn�t like it. He lived close to the ground. The ground was where you found food. And food was all the fly brain cared about.

<It�s starting to rain harder,> Tobias said.

I began to notice more drops. They were sparkling meteorites, each three times my own size.

They plummeted around me. But in my fly scale of things they were fairly far apart.

Then � more rain. Closer together. Falling thick and fast all around me.

WHAM!

<Ahhhh!> I was slammed. I tumbled through the air, covered in something like heavy glue.

Water! Just water, but sticky as glue to my fly body.

My wings shook off the water and I found myself flying upside down. I spun around and advanced again.

<Oh, man,> I complained. <This is a whole new reason not to like rain!>

<I�m going ahead,> Tobias said tensely. <Raining too hard. I gotta land.>

WHAM!

A glancing blow from a raindrop the size of a truck. It spun me around in the air.

<Ahhhhhhh! Man!>

<Jake! Are you okay!> Cassie cried.

Once again, those amazing fly wings turned me around and kept me in the air. But suddenly I realized I was in a sea of brilliant lights.

Purple! Red! Green!

Green?

Motion! Every hair on my nasty fly body felt it. Every screen in my fly eyes sensed it.

Something moving. Fast! Big!

A monstrous wall came at me with impossible speed! It was a mountain! Huge. Tall. Sloped. A mountain moving sixty miles an hour right at me, glowing in a rainbow of eerie colors!

A windshield!

<Uh-oh,> I said.

That's the end of the series everyone. Hope you all had fun.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 02:34

Synesthesian Fetish: Apr 29, 2008; Ya know, I useta be President... I'll let you kids punch me anywhere but the face for a dollar.

A $40 pay per view fight makes sense but Jake's family seems to record EVERYTHING

# ? Oct 19, 2020 04:16

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

That's what we did in the 90s. Lots of favorite TV show episodes and cable movies ended up on tape. The first time I watch Star Wars was on a Betamax recording.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 04:45

wizzardstaff: Apr 6, 2018; Zorch! Splat! Pow!

At this very moment in my basement are several VHS tapes of original Angel/Buffy/Charmed broadcasts that my wife recorded as a teenager. I don't know why she still has them. But they exist as an artifact of what life was like before entertainment was on demand.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 04:49

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

Yeah to be fair, growing up I had bookshelves full of books, but also an entire bookshelf full of VHS tapes recorded from TV and duped rental videos.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 04:49

Kazzah: Jul 15, 2011; Formerly known as
Krazyface; Hair Elf

Yeah I remember like a wall of tapes, most of them with cramped labels from having a couple of things on them (except for The Matrix which was written in big spaced-out vertical caps)

# ? Oct 19, 2020 04:54

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013; Can't post for 10 hours!

Epicurius posted:

But there's a weird kind of parallelism between Jake and Tom-Controller. Like Jake points out, they're on different sides but in the same war. And neither of them can let anyone else in the family know. On top of that, they're both teenagers, and can't just do what they want. They both have the same goal right now....find a way to blow off the fight so they can focus on something more important.

This was always an aspect of the series that fascinated me yet ultimately seemed underplayed in the long run because we never got to see the opposing side of the dynamic in as great of depth for a number of completely understandable reasons. But something always felt strange to me that the series set up this whole Brother Vs. Brother (and alien parasite controlling Brother) sub-plot and always kept it at arms length, but as a necessity for maintaining a narrative status quo, and because following it up from the "Vs. Brother" perspective means grappling with exactly how specifically evil the Yeerks actually are. And that just invites misery porn in an already surprisingly misery porn-prone series. Especially because your only two options are either having an entire book from the POV of a broken body snatcher victim slave, or restoring his agency at the cost of making him an outright collaborator to the evil body snatcher slave empire, two equally unappealing choices.

The more I think about it the more those glut of "Tom and A Good Yeerk" fanfics on AO3 start to make sense as a way to fill in that hole.

Also $40 for PPV sports. Oh 90s economy pricing, where did you go?

FlocksOfMice posted:

Yeah to be fair, growing up I had bookshelves full of books, but also an entire bookshelf full of VHS tapes recorded from TV and duped rental videos.

Same here. We had actual VHS tapes of the Disney animated features, and then everything else was copied from VHS rentals, hilarious tracking and recording errors and all.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 05:10

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

I'm pretty sure if I dug around hard enough in my parent's basement I could still find my mom's old VHS recordings of Dawson's Creek.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 05:33

Rochallor: Apr 23, 2010; ふっっっっっっっっっっっっｃｋ

The only version of The Phantom Menace I've ever actually owned was recorded off of TV with the commercials painstakingly removed by pausing the recording the instant the commercials started, then pressing record again about two seconds before the end of the final commercial. Honestly one of the proudest achievements of my life.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 08:24

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013; Can't post for 10 hours!

Rochallor posted:

The only version of The Phantom Menace I've ever actually owned was recorded off of TV with the commercials painstakingly removed by pausing the recording the instant the commercials started, then pressing record again about two seconds before the end of the final commercial. Honestly one of the proudest achievements of my life.

That last sentence broke me in a way that nothing that actually happens in Animorphs ever managed...

# ? Oct 19, 2020 08:52

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

nine-gear crow posted:

The more I think about it the more those glut of "Tom and A Good Yeerk" fanfics on AO3 start to make sense as a way to fill in that hole.

Hmm, yeah. And at this point we know Tom's Yeerk has already been swapped out with a lower-ranked one, but we don't know anything about the newbie, right?

# ? Oct 19, 2020 09:33

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013; Can't post for 10 hours!

Fuschia tude posted:

Hmm, yeah. And at this point we know Tom's Yeerk has already been swapped out with a lower-ranked one, but we don't know anything about the newbie, right?

Nope, it's a complete blank slate at this point in the series. There was so much potential to take Tom's new Yeerk in so many interesting directions, but ultimately it just wound up being a somehow even shitter and stupider version of Temrash.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 09:49

CidGregor: Sep 27, 2009; TG: if i were you i would just take that fucking devilbeast out behind the woodshed and blow its head off

nine-gear crow posted:

Nope, it's a complete blank slate at this point in the series. There was so much potential to take Tom's new Yeerk in so many interesting directions, but ultimately it just wound up being a somehow even shitter and stupider version of Temrash.

Well poo poo, now I want to see some of these "Tom with a good Yeerk" fanfics. I never really thought about it growing up but it does sound like an interesting concept.

# ? Oct 19, 2020 23:16

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Book 11: The Forgotten-Chapter 7

quote:

8:25 P.M.
<YAAAAAHHHH!> I screamed in thought-speak as the deadly windshield blew toward me.

FLASH!

The jungle! Sudden movement in the deep bush.

A cocked arm.

A human arm belonging to a kid!

A spear flew!

I saw it coming for me. Saw the bamboo point, blackened with deadly poison. One scratch and I was dead.

I -

FLASH!

Spear! No, windshield!

My wings beat the air at hundreds of strokes per second. I was fast, but not fast enough.

A downdraft! A vicious wind that sucked me toward the windshield. I fought it, then � in a split second, the wind became a magic carpet.
The power of my wings, the slipstream of wind � I missed the top of the windshield by a millimeter!

I could actually see color-distorted human faces inside the car.

I saw their glowing eyes as I flew past and over and seriously hauled my little fly butt up and up and up.

<Jake? You still with us, Jake?> Rachel asked.

<Oh, yeah,> I said. <Barely. But I�m here. You know, they really need to lower the speed limit. Cars shouldn�t go more than maybe ten miles per hour.>

We passed the road and left the eerie stream of fast lights behind us. We all got slammed by more raindrops, but personally, I was past caring about that.

Then, even through the cleansing rain, I began to smell the grocery store.

The fly sensed food.

In case you didn't know, flies have very good senses of smell.

quote:

We didn�t need Tobias to guide us the rest of the way. Our fly bodies were eager to head for the smell of rotting garbage.

I was still reeling from the twin sensations of being attacked by a windshield and a spear. The jungle visions were so real. They were so absolutely real. I mean, I felt every single thing while I was in them. I felt heat and humidity on my skin, I felt bugs buzzing my face, I felt �

But I didn�t have time for that now.

The Safeway was beyond our ability to see. I mean, it was just so big it had no meaning to our fly eyes. What had meaning to the fly was that there was food up ahead.

We zipped in under the plastic sheeting that covered the damaged wall. Once inside the store, everything was very bright. I saw brilliant lights that seemed to be spewing a whole rainbow of unusual colors.

There were people walking around below us. There was machinery moving. And there was a mound, a mountain of food all shoveled into one corner.

The Controllers had simply used earth movers to shove all the shelves, the freezers, the refrigerators, the loose cans, the glass meat display case, the donuts and cupcakes from the bakery area, the flowers, the cooked chicken and beans � everything that had been in the store, all into one
corner.

<You know,> Marco said, <If you threw in some dog poop, this would be fly heaven.>

<We are not alone,> Ax pointed out. <There seem to be many others of this species here.>

He was right. We had chosen the right morph. There had to be ten thousand flies in that store. I could hear them and smell them and even see them as they flew past.

<Well, no one is going to notice us, that�s for sure,> Cassie said. <We could dive right in.>

<Excuse me? Hello? We�re not here to eat garbage and make maggots,> I said. <We are in and out, so let�s pay attention. What�s going on here?>

<Well � there�s that big thing in the middle of the room,> Cassie said. <That�s what all the Controllers are clustered around.>

<Let�s get closer,> I suggested. We zipped in our crazy fly way toward the middle of the store.

There was a huge object there. As big as a small house, I would have guessed. But it�s hard to tell how big something is when you�re less than a quarter-inch long.

<Wait � I think I hear Chapman�s voice,> Cassie said.

 Rachel grumbled.

<I�ve done the fly morph more than you,> Cassie said. <Remember, I was in fly morph when I spied on Chapman at the mall. There he is! I�m going closer.>

I couldn�t see where Cassie was going or where she landed. One fly looks pretty much like the next. And the store was like a fly airport. Flies were zipping all around.

<Cassie? Where are you?>

<I�m close to Chapman,> she said. <On his head, actually. On the bald spot.>

<Get off of there! He could swat you!>

<Wait � I�m listening �>

I buzzed around aimlessly, afraid for Cassie, and trying to figure out what on Earth the big � thing � was.

<Whoa!> Cassie said. <Whoa! Whoa!>

<What? What? What?> I asked.

<Whoa!>

<What whoa?!> I practically yelled in frustration. <What�s going on?!>

<It�s a Bug fighter,> Cassie said. <It�s something new. An experimental Bug fighter. Faster, more weapons � a new, prototype Bug fighter.>

Bug fighters are the small, basic Yeerk spacecraft. They look like a streamlined cockroach with two long, serrated spears pointing forward. Those are the Dracon beams.

<What�s it doing here? In a Safeway?> Marco asked.

<It crashed. Duh,> Rachel said.

 Cassie said. <Chapman isn�t talking about how it got here. He�s just telling this other Controller it has to be out of here in three hours or Visser Three is going to be madder than he already is. The guy says it�s almost ready to go, he just needs to run some tests. Three hours will be
no problem. Chapman says, �Good, because if it�s three hours and one minute, I�ll personally feed you to Visser Three for a snack.�>

<Three hours?> Tobias said.

I was surprised to hear his thought-speak voice. <Tobias! I thought you went for cover.>

<The rain stopped,> he said. <And I can see down into the store. They�ve knocked a hole in the roof so the security guys up on the roof can get down into the store quickly. There�s a ladder. I�m flying over.>

<What do you see up there?>

<A bunch of nervous human-Controllers with machine guns.>

<What should we do?> Rachel wondered. <In three hours they could fly this thing out of here.>

<If only we could get some TV news people here,> Cassie mused. <If people could see this thing, and have proof �>

<The Yeerks have too many people at the local TV stations and newspapers,> I pointed out.

<You know what we could do, though?> Rachel began.

<Uh-oh, a suggestion from Rachel,> Marco groaned.

<What we could do is steal this thing.>

<Steal it and do what with it?> Tobias wondered.

I laughed. <We could always steal it and fly it to Washington and land it on the White House lawn. Let the Yeerks try and cover that up.>

I meant it as a joke.

Really. A joke.

<Hey,> Rachel said. <That could work.>

<Ax? Can you fly that thing?> Tobias asked.

 Ax said. <That�s just a Yeerk fighter, even if it is experimental. No second rate Yeerk technology is too sophisticated for me.>

<But � we�d have to do this like right now,> Cassie pointed out.

<Yep,> Rachel said. <Right now. Jake?>

<There can�t be many people inside the Bug fighter,> Ax pointed out. <They usually only have a crew of two. At most there would be four or five technicians inside, Prince Jake.>

<Yeah, well, four or five people versus five houseflies is not good odds for us,> I said. It was moments like this that I resented. Moments when I tended to make the decisions. And when I would carry the responsibility. <Still �>

 Marco joked.

<Still,> I said. <There may be a way.>

I can see the advantage to them of landing a Bug Fighter on the White House lawn. Also, note Jake's resentment there about having to make a decision like that, which, is, obviously, a pretty major one.

Chapter 8

quote:

8:32 P.M.

<Okay, fellow flies, into the Bug fighter.>

We zoomed crazily around the outside of the huge-seeming Bug fighter till we spotted a door. Inside we saw the blurry, strangely colored shapes of humans. Actually, human-Controllers.

We buzzed right on inside.

 Rachel said.

<Just what we expected,> I said. I was trying to sound confident, to help everyone else stay calm. But I was tense. I was on edge. This was a spur-of-the-moment plan thought up by a guy who was having jungle hallucinations. It was a desperate, possibly stupid plan. I didn�t know for sure. It could easily end with Tobias dead. Maybe the rest of us as well.

But Tobias was thrilled to be playing a major role.

It makes sense. Tobias has been feeling pretty useless in this entire thing and sorry for himself. He's glad to be included.

quote:

<Tobias? You ready?>

<Anytime you say, Jake.>

<Once around the room, that�s it,> I warned him.

<You�re the boss,> Tobias said.

<Okay. Now!>

Outside, above the grocery store, Tobias had been gaining altitude. Which was extremely difficult in the cool night air. Hawks are not night birds. But Tobias flapped his way up and up, always keeping sight of the bright hole in the grocery store roof.

<Here I come!> Tobias yelled.

He plunged at maximum speed, straight for the hole in the roof. <I�m inside!>

I could tell, because right away there was shouting. Yelling.

Orders being barked out.

Then �

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Gunfire! They were shooting at him!

<These guys couldn�t hit � yikes! That was close!>

The plan called for Tobias to provide a distraction. The Yeerks knew we used bird morphs. And they would know that a hawk did not belong flying around inside a store. They would put two and two together. They would know Tobias was not a real hawk.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!

Someone was firing a machine gun. Even with my vague fly hearing I could hear the air shaking with the noise. Hundreds of rounds were being fired inside that store!

A human voice yelled something like, �Get out here and help! It�s an Andalite bandit in morph!�

That�s what the Yeerks think we are: Andalites. The technicians inside the Bug fighter went piling out the exit, glad of the chance to take shots at an Andalite �bandit.�

<That�s enough, Tobias! Bail out! Bail out of here!> I yelled. <Ax! Morph! Everyone morph! Now! Now! Now!>

BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!

<Can�t get out!> Tobias cried. <The guys on the roof are shooting down through the hole!>

Of course! Why hadn�t I realized that? Of course they would block Tobias�s escape.

I was still mostly fly, but morphing as fast as I could. I could feel myself getting bigger. I could see my fly wings shriveling away.

Tobias couldn�t escape. They�d get him. Sooner or later, no matter how fast he flew, they�d get him.

An answer � an answer � I needed an answer. I needed to -

<Tobias! Tobias! This way,> I yelled. <Inside the Bug fighter!>

<No, that will draw them after - YAH! Whoa! That one clipped my tail feathers!>

<Come inside!> I yelled.

<Whatever you say,> Tobias said.

My human eyes were just reemerging as Tobias blew in through the door of the Bug fighter. I looked left. A horrifying creature with a small scorpion tail and fly legs and a semi humanoid face with a gigantic proboscis was trying to work the controls of the ship with clumsy fly stick legs. It was Ax, halfway through morphing.

Suddenly, the door shut. Or in this case, the bulkhead simply dimpled and closed up again, eliminating the door.

�They�re in the Bug fighter!� I heard Chapman howl in rage. �They�re in the Bug fighter! Get them!�

I was mostly human now, but still at that stage where I wouldn�t have wanted to see myself in a mirror. The rest were coming out of morph, too. Cassie was fastest, as usual. She was already checking Tobias for wounds.

Ax was almost fully Andalite once more.

�Ax, get us outta here!� I said, as my human mouth returned.

<Yes, Prince Jake.>

I didn�t waste time telling him not to call me �Prince.�

<These are unusual controls,> Ax admitted.

BAP!BAP!BAP!BAP!BAP!

Bullets rattled against the Bug fighter�s outer skin.

Then I heard the grinding sounds of the engine. Through the cockpit window, I saw the Controllers turning big earth movers toward us.

�They�re going to ram us!� Marco warned.

�Ax?� I asked tersely.



�Just do it!� I yelled.

There was a whirring noise. Lights came on all over the cockpit. A sound like a low siren.

 Ax said.

"No second rate Yeerk technology is too sophisticated for me." Pride goeth....

quote:

�Great,� Marco said. �Now find the get-us-the-heck-outta-here switch!�

I felt the ship lift up off the Safeway floor. It rose just a foot and sort of wallowed slightly, side to side. The heavy equipment was still coming for us.

Ax turned the fighter, pointing it toward the missing wall.

<Is that plastic sheeting very strong?> Ax asked.

�Let�s find out,� I said.

Then � WHOOOOOOOSH!

It was like getting kicked in the chest. We all tumbled backward - all but Ax, who has four legs.

The acceleration was incredible. The Bug fighter rocketed forward. We blew through the plastic sheeting.

We blew across the parking lot.

We arched up toward the dark night sky.

�We did it!� Rachel yelled.

<Sorry about the acceleration,> Ax said. 

�Just get us out of here, Ax,� Marco said. �We�re going to Washington, D.C. to meet the President.�

The Animorphs are going to Washington, DC! Want to take bets on if they'll get there?

# ? Oct 20, 2020 01:40

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

For some reason the flys crossing the street part stuck out to me more than anything else in this book. That and I remember I first read it in a doctor's office waiting room during a midday rainstorm?

It's actually a solid plan in that they KNOW the president isn't compromised yet, because they foiled a plot to get a president-controller a bit back already.

# ? Oct 20, 2020 09:21

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Sorry about this, but a crisis has come up tonight and the next two chapters are probably going to have to wait until tomorrow. I'm very sorry.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 01:58

Synesthesian Fetish: Apr 29, 2008; Ya know, I useta be President... I'll let you kids punch me anywhere but the face for a dollar.

Uh oh, hope everything is ok! Take care

# ? Oct 21, 2020 02:29

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

It's all good! I think we've all absorbed enough Animorphs by now to write our own chapters.
Or, at least the Animorphs Opening Chapter� and a small treatise on thermals.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 03:44

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Tree Bucket posted:

It's all good! I think we've all absorbed enough Animorphs by now to write our own chapters.
Or, at least the Animorphs Opening Chapter� and a small treatise on thermals.

One of these days we need to feed all the books into a text generator and see what it comes up with.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 03:52

Synesthesian Fetish: Apr 29, 2008; Ya know, I useta be President... I'll let you kids punch me anywhere but the face for a dollar.

Epicurius posted:

One of these days we need to feed all the books into a text generator and see what it comes up with.

I can't tell you who I am, only that my name is Xena. warrior princess. We fight the evil half-deer, half-human, half-scorpions using the powerful Cinnabuns given to us by Prince Jake. We thermal thermals and thermal thermal thermaling thermals whale jesus.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 05:16

Ceebees: Nov 2, 2011; I'm intentionally being as verbose as possible in negotiations for my own amusement.

Epicurius posted:

One of these days we need to feed all the books into a text generator and see what it comes up with.

I.
Am a thermal. A pillar of warm air, rising off ground heated by the sun.
I can't tell you what street, skyscraper, or sunny meadow I rise from. I can't tell you what birds I have lofted skywards, like an elevator raising them above the surly bonds of gravity. I can't tell you what nimbus clouds I have made into thunderheads.
I can't tell you those things not because the earth is being invaded by brain-stealing alien slugs called "Yeerks" or anything, but because I am a temporary convection phenomenon, and not a conscious observer.

# ? Oct 21, 2020 05:45

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

"Jake, you have to check out this youtube video."

I rolled my eyes. Marco always wants me to check out this youtube video. The thing is, Marco has terrible taste in youtube. Last time he tried to show me something he called a deep-fried meme. I had only managed to follow the first ten seconds of the video before I had to call it quits.

"Marco, is this one of those let's players?" I asked him.

"Yeah. Yeah, this is Markiplier. He's one of the big ones."

I shook my head. I never got the idea of watching other people playing video games. I mean, sure, if you're hanging out with a friend, sometimes you take turns in a game. But to spend all day watching someone scream at a scary game? It didn't make sense to me.

He was playing some scary game about animatronics, really playing up how scared he was. He was clearly just acting. I wondered what Marco was showing me this for. A quick look at the video's title revealed this was episode 50 of this nonsense.

And that's when it happened.

"Well, that was spooky, wasn't it!" Markiplier's little face in the corner of the video smiled. "Big shout out to our new sponsor, The Sharing--" and that's when Marco paused the video.

"He's a controller," Marco said seriously. "Markiplier's a controller. He has 27 million subscribers, Jake. You know what we gotta do?"

I nodded grimly. "We have to cancel Markiplier."

# ? Oct 21, 2020 07:39

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Book 11:The Forgotten-Chapter 9

quote:

8:42 P.M.

It was crowded inside the Bug fighter. Especially because Ax takes up a lot of room.

But we huddled together and looked over Ax�s shoulders as he worked the controls. And we looked past Ax, out through the transparent panels at the front of the Bug fighter.

<This ship is very difficult to handle,> Ax said. <The design is strange. Some controls are psychotronic. But others require physical handling. Unfortunately, those controls are designed for Taxxons. They have more hands than I like.>

�Can we do anything to help?� I asked.

<Someone should take weapons station,> Ax said.

�Cool,� Marco said. He leaped forward, but I was closer.

I slipped into the area beside Ax. Ax�s pilot �seat� wasn�t a seat at all, of course. Taxxons are like huge centipedes, so they can�t really sit. Which was good, because Ax doesn�t sit, either. But the weapons station was built for Hork-Bajir. Hork-Bajir are seven feet tall and have thick,
spiky tails, but they do sit.

�No way you should handle the weapons,� Marco said, leaning over my shoulder. �I kick your butt in video games.�

�Yeah, right,� I said. �In some alternate universe, maybe.�

Marco's right. As we know, Jake always forgets that the SleazeTroll shows up whenever you cross the Never Fjord.

quote:

�Grab the joystick,� Marco suggested. As strange as it seems, there actually was a joystick. It was for much bigger hands than mine, and the two buttons on it were clumsy to reach. But it was a joystick.

�Maybe I should test the weapons,� I said to Ax.

<Yes,> he said tersely, distracted.

"Whatever. I'm busy here."

quote:

We were rising up through the atmosphere. We were above the clouds already. I could see brief flashes of the lights of the city down below, but mostly it was clouds and more clouds.

But we weren�t rising as fast as I would have expected. Ax was definitely working to control the ship.

I looked ahead, saw nothing in the way, and pressed one of the buttons on the joystick.

Nothing.

Ax glanced over. <That was the safety. The Dracon beam should be armed now. See the screen before you? The red circle is how you aim. Use a combination of moving the joystick, but also use your mind.>

Marco put his hand on my shoulder. �Phasers on full power!� he said in a Captain Picard English accent. �Arm photon torpedoes! If the Borg want a fight, we�ll give them one! Make it so!�

I moved the joystick and watched the target circle track across the screen. It still showed nothing but starry sky. That should be safe enough. I squeezed the second button.

TSEWWWW! TSEWWWW!

Twin red beams of light fired forward, converging too far away for me to see.

�Yes! Most splendid!� Marco yelled.

�Okay, that was cool,� I admitted, trying not to cackle like an idiot with his first video game.

�Boys with their toys,� Cassie teased gently.

<Prince Jake?> Ax said. 

�Why?�



It took a few seconds for me to track on that. �You mean � people can see us?�

<The clouds will hide us from people on the ground,> Ax said. <But human radar will observe us. In fact, they have already observed us.>

�Uh-oh. Maybe we better get higher,� I suggested.

<Yes. But we are rising slowly. I don�t know why. And there are two objects approaching us.>

�Probably just airliners,� Rachel said.

<The objects are moving at one and a half times the speed of sound,> Ax said.

�Okay, that�s not a passenger plane,� Marco said.

I groaned. �Military jets. Oh, man, it�s the Air Force after us. They�re �good guys.� They�re on our side. We can�t shoot them down.�

Suddenly �

SWOOOOOSH!

SWOOOOOSH!

Two pale gray jets blew past us. The backwash rattled the Bug fighter.

 Ax said. And a second later we heard the voice of one of the pilots.

�Um � Base Control, I � um � Bogie is of an unknown type. Say again, unknown type.�

�Definitely unknown,� the other pilot said. �Way unknown.�

�We�re coming around for another pass.�

I looked at Ax. �We really don�t want to get shot down by a couple of F-sixteens.�

<No, Prince Jake. That would be embarrassing. I believe I now know how to increase ->

FAH-WHOOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, we were outta there. Out of the clouds. Out of the atmosphere.

�Yes! This thing can move!� Marco exulted. �We need to buy this game.�

We heard a fainter, crackling voice over the radio. �Did you see that? Did you see that thing move, Colonel? Did you see that? What the -�

Then we were out of range, still zooming straight up into black space. Below us I could see the curvature of the earth. It looked just like one of those pictures the shuttle astronauts take from up in orbit.

�That�s so beautiful,� Cassie said. �Look at that! You can see daylight coming up over the Red Sea.�

<Excuse me,> Tobias said, <but I don�t think the Red Sea is exactly on the way to Washington, DC.>

This is the problem with having the guy who doesn't know Earth geography pilot the ship.

quote:

�Yeah, I guess not,� I said. Although it was such a wonderful sight that I almost didn�t want to worry about where we were going. �Ax, maybe we�d better slow down, get some idea of where Washington is and -�

<No! No!> Ax snapped.

I was shocked. Ax is always polite.

<No, Prince Jake,> he said, a little more calmly. <We cannot slow down.>

�What�s the matter?� Cassie asked him.

Ax pointed at one of the view screens before him. On the screen I saw stars. Then the moon came into view, a vast gray and white lightbulb.

And silhouetted against the glowing moon was a shape. It was like some medieval battle-ax. The rear half was a two-headed blade. From the middle, like an ax handle, extended a long shaft. At the end of the shaft was a triangular head, very much like an arrow�s point.

It was black on black. And even if you had never seen it before and had no idea what it was, you�d know right away it was death.

I had seen it. I knew what it was.

�The Blade ship,� I whispered.

The Blade ship of Visser Three.

Admit it, you were wondering how long it would take Visser Three to show up, weren't you?

Chapter 10

quote:

8:54 P.M.

Visser Three, leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth.

Visser Three, the only Yeerk in all of history to take control of an Andalite body.

Visser Three, the only Yeerk with the power to morph.

�Can we outrun him?� I asked Ax.

<No.>

�Can we outfight him?� I asked. My voice was a whisper. My mouth was too dry to work right.

Ax turned his stalk eyes to look at me. <No, Prince Jake. We might get in a lucky shot. But the Blade ship is very powerful. This is the Blade ship that destroyed our great Dome ship.>

�Here he comes!� Rachel yelled in warning.

A red glow illuminated the Blade ship as the Visser fired his engines and came for us.

<We can try and run. Or we can take a chance on a lucky shot,> Ax said.

He was looking at me. They were all looking at me. I grabbed the joystick. My hand was trembling.

�I feel lucky,� I said. It was an absolute lie, of course. I didn�t even feel slightly lucky. But it sounded good.

I caught Marco giving me a sardonic smile. He knew I was faking it.

I felt Cassie�s hand touch my shoulder for encouragement.

<Hold on. You may be unsteady on your human legs,> Ax warned.

He threw the Bug fighter into a quick, tight turn. Ax was right. I almost fell over before the Bug fighter�s systems compensated for inertia.

Then Ax really lit up the engines and we leaped forward, straight for the Blade ship.

<Ready to fire!> Ax said. It wasn�t a question. <Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Wait until � NOW!>

I swept the red target circle toward the black-diamond head of the Blade ship. I squeezed the trigger. And I kept squeezing.

Brilliant Dracon beams stabbed toward the Blade ship.

But at the same instant, the Visser fired!

Dracon beam hit Dracon beam.

ZZZZZOOOOOWWWW!

An explosion of light so intense I could actually see through my own hand. I could see Cassie�s teeth inside her head!

WHAAAMMMPPPH!

I was thrown against the ceiling.

I fell to the floor and rolled, out of control.

Rachel landed on top of me, knocking the wind out of me.

The Bug fighter was spinning. My eyes were filled with balls of light, like suns inside my own head.

Spinning � spinning � spinning �

And with each turn I was thrown hard. Into Ax. Into Marco. Tobias batted his wings wildly, trying to get some control. It was like we had all been tossed into a washer on spin cycle.

Then, with a sickening lurch, the Bug fighter came upright. There was a floor again. And a ceiling.

And through the window, there was a planet.

Earth.

Big, blue, and getting closer very, very fast.

�We�re going down!� Rachel yelled. �Ax! Ax! We�re going down!�

Ax scrambled to his hooves and made his way back to the controls. <Too fast!> he said. <We�re going down too fast!>

<Look!> Tobias cried. <Over there. To the left. We�re not alone.>

Tumbling down alongside us, just a mile away, was the Blade ship. It was twisting and twirling and falling, just like us.

�Wait �� Cassie said, sounding more confused than terrified. �It�s daylight in the western hemisphere.�

�Do I care?!� Marco yelled. �We�re going down!�

�It was dawn in the Middle East,� Cassie insisted. �Now it�s daylight in the western hemisphere.�

Is this a clue?

quote:

Suddenly, friction flames began glowing from the nose of the Bug fighter. We were going back into the atmosphere.

�Ax, can you pull us out of this?� I demanded.

 he said. <We are slowing down. But � but I don�t think it will be enough.>

�Great,� Marco moaned.

�At least the Blade ship will go down with us,� Rachel said.

�Does that make you feel better, Xena?� Marco grated.

Rachel actually smiled. It was a sad, brief smile. �Not much better,� she admitted.

<Ten seconds to impact!> Ax said. <Ten � nine � eight �>

FLASH!

I was no longer in the Bug fighter.

I was square dancing.

I was giving Rachel a resentful look as I bowed to her in time with the music.

What the �

FLASH!

<Four � three � hold on!>

I saw green. Green on green, rushing up at me.

And then we hit.

And for a while, I didn�t see anything at all.

Just to point out, this is the second time this ship has crashed.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 01:01

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

It certainly is not intentional, but Cassie noticing the inconsistency in the daylight is consistent with her being an anomaly grounded in the true timeline.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 02:56

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

Epicurius posted:

Spoken as someone who's owned a dog, I can vouch for that.

Lies. The way it really goes is that you throw the ball/frisbee, the dog catches it, and then she brings it back to you and drops it at your feet and runs back out to where you're going to throw it. Getting scratched after each throw is for dogs who don't have what it takes to go pro.

# ? Oct 22, 2020 22:03

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Book 11-Chapter 11

quote:

Time Unknown.

HOO! HOO! HOO! HOO! HOOHOHOHOHOHO! HAH! HAH!

KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH!

I woke up.

I woke up very suddenly.

KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH! YAHAHAHAHAH!

My head hurt, and the screaming noises didn�t help. My back hurt, too.

I was lying on the ground. On mildewed, rotting leaves. Trees towered over me. Insanely tall trees. Ferns dipped down to tickle my face. There was a root or something under my back, which explained the back pain.

But I was alive.

KeRAW! KeRAW! KeRAW!

VrrEEET! VrrEEEET! VrrEEEET!

I sat up quickly. But that sent a spear of pain through my head. �Oh, man,� I groaned.

Then I saw the bug. The bug on my lap. The big, giant, MONSTER bug. I guess it was some kind of beetle. It had yellow and black stripes and something that looked almost like curved antlers. I swear it was six inches long. Or at least three inches. It would have been beautiful, if it hadn�t been on me.
�AAAAAHHH!� I yelled and brushed the beetle away.

Then, I felt the itchy, crawling feeling on my leg. Ants!

There were a dozen ants climbing up my right shin.

I have been an ant. So you�d think maybe I have some sympathy for them. Wrong. I slapped at my leg till I was sure they were gone.

I climbed to my feet. I felt woozy and confused. Where was I? Where were the others?

I looked around. Green. Green everywhere. I mean, everywhere.

�The visions,� I said to no one.

I was in a jungle. I knew that for sure. I�d never been in a jungle before, but there was no doubt in my mind. Maybe it was the monkeys and birds screeching at an insane volume all around me in the trees that gave it away. Maybe it was the creepers and vines. Maybe it was a flash of an amazing red and blue bird flitting through the branches. Maybe it was the fact that beetles really shouldn�t be as big as that beetle had been.

It was jungle, all right.

Just like it had been in the weird flashes I�d been experiencing since that afternoon while square dancing.

�That�s what did it,� I muttered. �It was the square dancing that drove me crazy.� I decided to yell for the others. �Hey! Hey! Cassie! Marco!�

It was like my voice had no power. The sound was just swallowed by the trees and ferns and bushes.

�Okay, get a grip, Jake. Try to remember. You were coming down in the Bug fighter. Obviously you crashed. Duh. So look for the Bug fighter. It can�t be far away.�

I glanced around me at the solid wall of green in very direction. The air was steaming with humidity. And the smells of overly sweet flowers and tropical rot made me feel like I was walking past some department store perfume counter.

Then I spotted a tree where the top half had been snapped off. I started walking, trying to get a better angle on the broken tree. I saw a second tree, splintered. I began to notice what looked like a tunnel plowed through the dense foliage.

A tunnel plowed through the trees and foliage should lead to the Bug fighter.

�Or the Blade ship,� I reminded myself.

HOO! HOO! HOO! HOOHOOHOOHOO! HAH! HAH! HAH!

The jungle was quieting down a little, but there was still some fairly crazy screeching from up in the tall trees. The jungle animals sounded annoyed. Probably they didn�t appreciate someone crashing a Bug fighter into their home. And they didn�t like my looks, either.

The jungle floor was surprisingly clear. Down at foot level there wasn�t much growing, just dead leaves. But at face level there were vines and bushes and ferns, all slapping me in the face as I pressed on.

That's a true thing. Apparently, there's so much competition for sunlight high up, very little actually gets down to the ground, so not much grows/

quote:

Suddenly I came to a clearing. A hole in the canopy where a tree had fallen. Bright sunlight shone down through the gap. And it was as if every species of plant life you could imagine was crowding into that sunny spot. I found myself facing an incredible wall of vegetation: a dozen types of
brilliant flowers, mosses so green they didn�t seem real, small vines wrapped around bigger vines wrapped around tree trunks.

It was the greenest place on Earth. There were even plants growing out of the smooth trunks of tall trees.

I trudged on, back into the shadows of the forest, and when I looked up, I could no longer see the tunnel through the foliage.

That�s when I started to get really scared.

I was in a jungle. And jungle isn�t like forest, where you can usually see for hundreds of feet in any direction. Jungle presses in close around. It�s like being buried in green.

Ger-Ak! Ger-Ak! AKAKAKAK!

�Marco! Cassie! Rachel!� I yelled, feeling the edge of panic.

<How about Tobias?> a voice said in my head.

I looked up and saw nothing. Then I noticed him swooping down toward me from the high branches of a tree.

�Tobias!� I yelled. I waved. Of course, he�d already seen me, obviously. But I was massively relieved. So I waved again.

The red-tailed hawk body seemed almost bland, boring in the context of this jungle. He landed on a rotting, moss-encrusted log.

�Tobias! The others?�

<Everyone is alive,> he said. <It took a while to find everyone, though. I think the Bug fighter must have spun around a few times tearing through the trees. Cassie ended up practically on top of this snake. This extremely large snake.>

�Where are we?�

 Tobias said. <But I�m pretty sure this ain�t home. Come on, follow me. It�s not far.>

Master of understatement, there.

quote:

I followed Tobias, pushing and shoving and fighting my way through forest that seemed determined to stop me. I was dripping with sweat and gasping in the thick air.

Then, a clearing. Not a natural clearing, but one created by the crashed Bug fighter.

�Jake!� Cassie yelled and ran over to give me a hug. She had a nasty cut on one hand, which she�d bandaged with strips torn from her T-shirt.

�You�re alive,� Marco observed. �For now,� he added darkly.

�I told you he�d be okay,� Rachel said.

The Bug fighter was upright, but one whole side looked as if it had been peeled back. You could see right to the inside. The left engine pod was cranked out at a sharp angle.

Ax was inside the fighter. He lowered his head to peer at me through the hole in the fighter�s side.

<Prince Jake. I�m glad you�re all right.>

�I�m glad I�m all right, too,� I said. �Now � where are we?�

�Where is easy,� Cassie said. �Rain forest. Not Africa, because I�ve seen monkeys with prehensile tails. You know, tails they can swing by. Most likely, we�re in Central or South America.

Either the Costa Rican rain forest, or the Amazon rain forest.�

�I�m betting Amazon,� Marco said brightly. �I�m also taking bets on whether we live long enough for me to collect on bets.�

I laughed. �You�re always such an optimist, Marco.�

I turned back to Cassie. �Amazon rain forest, huh?�

�Like I said, the question of where we are is fairly easy.�

�Cassie, why do I have the feeling there�s something you�re not telling me?� I asked her.

�Remember when we were in orbit? Remember how it was night in North America, but the sun was just coming up over the Red Sea?�

I shrugged. �I guess so.�

�Well, after we fired at the Blade ship, as we were going down it was daylight here. Over South America.�

It took me a few seconds to realize what she was talking about.

Ax came trotting out of the Bug fighter. He wiped his hands on a rag. <Thanks to Cassie�s observation, it seems pretty clear that when we and the Blade ship fired simultaneously and the Dracon beams intersected, we created what we call a Sario Rip.>

�A what? A Sario Rip? What�s that?�

<We blew a small hole in space-time. And were drawn in through that hole.>

�English, please,� I warned. �Plain English, please.�

�We were blown through time, Jake,� Cassie said. �We aren�t where we want to be. And we aren�t when we want to be.�

I stared at her. �Did we go forward or back? Are we in the past or the future?�

<Yes,> Ax said. <It�s definitely one of those two choices.>

And they don't think he has a sense of humor.

Chapter 12

quote:

1:22 P.M. - Again.

�So let me just summarize here. We are probably in the Amazon rain forest. And we are either in our own past, or in our own future. We have no way to fly this Bug fighter out of here. We have no way of knowing if there�s a city or town or even a road near here.� I looked around at my friends. �Anyone have anything to add?�

 Ax said. 

Andalites have the ability to keep track of time naturally. Like some kind of internal clock. It�s useful. Of course, it�s more useful if you know what century you�re in.

Cassie held up her hand, like she was in school. �The rain forest is full of poisonous snakes, poisonous insects, poisonous plants, and poisonous frogs.�

�Excuse me?� Marco said. �Poisonous frogs? Did you say poisonous frogs?�

�Plus, there is at least one large predator, the jaguar.�

�Love their cars,� Marco said.

�Right now we have no food and no water,� Rachel added helpfully. �Also, no weapons.�

<Why do we need weapons?> Tobias asked. <Morph into birds and we�ll just fly out of here.>

�None of us can stay in morph for more than two hours,� Cassie pointed out. �Realistically, we can�t fly more than twenty or thirty miles an hour at best. That�s maybe sixty miles per morph. And we could be a thousand miles from nowhere.�

�Besides,� Marco said glumly. �What are we supposed to do? Find a town, make a collect call to our families and tell them we�re in South America? �Hey, Dad, guess what? I�m in Brazil. Or maybe Costa Rica. Could you come pick me up?��

�If there even is a town,� Rachel said. �If there even are phones. If our parents have been born yet, or are still alive. You�re kind of missing something we may be in the year two thousand b.c. Or � we might be in the year ten thousand a.d.�

�Ax, what�s the deal with this Sario Rip?� I asked the Andalite. �I mean, is there some way to undo it?�

Ax didn�t answer. Instead, I noticed his stalk eyes turning slowly to his right. <We are not alone,> Ax said.

I shot a glance in the direction Ax was looking. Something moved! I had a fleeting impression of a shoulder, arm, and head.

<Humanoid,> Ax said. 

�Swell,� I said. �Tobias?�

<I�m on it,> he said, opening his wings and flapping away through the trees.

<As for the Sario Rip, I � all I know is what it is. It�s a rip in space-time.>

�Yeah, you told us that,� Marco said.

 Ax hung his head. <Prince Jake, we studied the Sario Rip effect in school. But there was a game later that day. And I was thinking more about the game than class. Also, there was this female who distracted me.>

Marco laughed. �Ax, are you telling us you were too busy flirting with some girl to pay attention to the lesson?�

Ax didn�t answer. He just said,

Again, the Animorphs met the least studious Animorph.

quote:

�I�m thirsty,� Rachel said. �Whatever else we�re going to do, we have to find water. And food. Ax, can we fix the Bug fighter?�

<We can fly with just one engine,> Ax said. <The ripped skin of the craft is irrelevant as long as we stay in the atmosphere and fly slow. But the effects of the Sario Rip have wiped out the ship�s software. It�s been erased.>

�Can you rewrite the software?� Rachel asked.

<Yes. But it would take me twenty years, at least.>

�Better and better,� I said. �Hey. Wait. What happened to the Blade ship?�

Ax looked blank.

�I saw it going down along with us,� Cassie said. �But I didn�t see it crash.�

�So maybe, in addition to everything else, we have Visser Three and a shipload of Hork-Bajir warriors to worry about,� I said. �Someone please give me some good news.�

�Well, it�s still daylight,� Marco said, putting on a big phony grin. �When night falls, then we�ll be - �

<Jake! Duck!> Tobias yelled.

For once in my life, I didn�t stop to think about it. I ducked. And even as I ducked, I saw the face.

I saw the arm. I saw the spear.

It was coming straight at me.

Right for my face.

The vision! It was the hallucination!

I ducked. The spear went over my head and flew on harmlessly into the bush.

Tobias flapped wildly into the air. he berated himself. 

I was too weirded out to worry about Tobias.

�I knew that was going to happen,� I said. �That spear. The kid who threw it. I knew!�

Cassie looked strangely at me. �Jake, what are you -�

<Three people,> Tobias interrupted. <They almost look like they might be kids. They�re hauling butt out of here. Which is what we better think about doing, too.>

�Why?� Rachel demanded indignantly. �We can handle some kids with spears.�

<Forget the kids. I see a group of twenty � maybe thirty Hork-Bajir. They�re tearing up the forest and coming this way!>

�We can�t leave the Bug fighter!� Rachel protested. �How else are we going to get out of here?�

�We can�t stand and fight twenty Hork-Bajir warriors, either,� I said. �We have to pull back.�

I glanced over and saw Cassie. She had retrieved the spear from the bushes. It was a long, thin stick. There was no spearhead on it. It was just a sharp stick with the sharp end blackened.

�That doesn�t look too deadly,� I said.

Cassie shook her head. �No. You probably couldn�t kill much with this stick. Unless the tip was dipped in poison. And we are in the home office of natural poisons.�

�The local people � I guess they wouldn�t waste their time using a weapon that didn�t work, would they?� I said.

�No,� Cassie said flatly. �The chances are pretty good that this spear is poison-tipped. There are poisonous frogs and plants down here that are used for arrow and spear poison. Very deadly. Very, very deadly. The Hork-Bajir are definitely not our only problem.�

<Jake, you guys need to move,> Tobias warned. He was overhead again. I couldn�t see him, but I knew he was up above the jungle canopy. 

Decision time. Stay and fight? We�d lose. Run away? We�d be giving up the Bug fighter, our only way home.

�Ax? Is there something � anything � you can take out of the Bug fighter that would make it impossible for the Yeerks to fly it?�

Ax stared at me with his main eyes, even as his stalk eyes swept the forest around us. <Yes. Yes, I can think of something.>

�Then get it,� I said.

<Jake! There�s no time,> Tobias called down. He must have been close enough to hear me. But the foliage was so dense I had no clear idea where he was.

Ax hesitated, not sure what to do.

The others all looked at me.

�Do it, Ax,� I said. He raced for the Bug fighter. �Everyone else, get out of here.�

�I�m staying with you,� Rachel protested.

�I�m not staying. Minimum risk,� I snapped. �We only need Ax to handle this. No point risking anyone else.�

I plunged into the green. I grabbed Rachel�s arm and pulled her along. Cassie and Marco followed me.

<Jake,> Tobias called down. <If Ax isn�t out of there in under two minutes, he�s not going to get out of there.>

I didn�t answer.

It�s the worst thing about being a so-called leader - the times when you take a risk with someone else�s life. If Ax ended up dead, it was going to be very hard to explain to my friends.

And to myself.

Again, this is a look at the responsibility of leadership. Jake just sent Ax to do something that could kill him, and he's got to take responsibility for that. We've also seen Tobias's frustration with being a hawk and with feeling like he's not contributing to the team and the mission.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 02:13

Shwoo: Jul 21, 2011

quote:

HOO! HOO! HOO! HOO! HOOHOHOHOHOHO! HAH! HAH!

quote:

HOO! HOO! HOO! HOOHOOHOOHOO! HAH! HAH! HAH!

Wait a second, is that supposed to be a kookaburra call? (Sound warning starting about twelve seconds in) The Animorphs have even bigger problems than they think if they're hearing kookaburras in Latin America. Maybe the Sario Rip also knocked them into a Tarzan movie?

Anyway, Jake didn't have any visions of getting caught or dying, so I'm sure everything's going to turn out fine.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 05:27

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

quote:
Dracon beam hit Dracon beam.

Never cross the streams.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 13:31

Grammarchist: Jan 28, 2013

I hope above all else we get to see Visser Three commend the Andalite Bandits for their most assuredly intentional ploy.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 16:07

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

"Why couldn't it be a stupid alien? I mean, they gotta have 'em." - Sphere

# ? Oct 23, 2020 17:51

King of Foolians: Mar 16, 2006; Long live the King!

Two things that struck me in this chapter:

1) Aren�t they be in their morphing outfits? I was weirded out by the mental image of Jake walking through the Amazon rainforest barefoot in bike shorts and a tight t-shirt but the narrative just glossed over it. If I were him I would have morphed tiger as soon as I realized I was in a jungle.

2) why did Cassie tear her shirt to make a bandage for a cut on her hand? She could have just quickly morphed anything and demorphed to heal herself. And she should know this.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 02:05

Synesthesian Fetish: Apr 29, 2008; Ya know, I useta be President... I'll let you kids punch me anywhere but the face for a dollar.

Does anyone else think it's kind of sad that Jake didn't call out for Tobias, or hell, even Ax? Such white male human privilege... nothlit/andalite lives matter!

# ? Oct 24, 2020 02:35

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 16, 2024 14:54

Synesthesian Fetish: Apr 29, 2008; Ya know, I useta be President... I'll let you kids punch me anywhere but the face for a dollar.

King of Foolians posted:

Two things that struck me in this chapter:

2) why did Cassie tear her shirt to make a bandage for a cut on her hand? She could have just quickly morphed anything and demorphed to heal herself. And she should know this.

This bothered me as well. I also think it would have been interesting to have Jake wake up with broken bones or paralyzed and has to morph to heal. For crashing from outer space they faired well

# ? Oct 24, 2020 02:37

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

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