CHAPTER 1
My name is Sean. In one week I have become one of the most hunted people in the galaxy. I can't tell you my last name, I wish I could, but if I did it would cost me my life. I can't tell you where I live either, I must keep on fighting the Yeerks, If I told you where I lived I would be surrendering to the parasitic creatures that crawl into your brain and take control...of everything. When you have a Yeerk in your head you are called a Controller. Anyone could be a Controller and you wouldn't know it, your mom, your dad, your brothers, sisters, friends, teachers, the lunch lady, your bus driver, that guy on the corner reading the paper and waiting for a bus, You. It was last Friday night when I was completely normal, we were at the mall, My friends Robert, Jack, Meg, Jessie, and I, in the food court to be exact. At the table next to us there were two weird kids, one was looking at the food as if it was slime and the other was scarfing down tacos, cinnamon buns, ketchup packets, and hot sauce packets and slurping up about two large drinks.
They noticed we were staring and puled their chairs to our table.
"Hi, I'm Tobias." The kid who was grossed out at the food said.
"Greetings, I am Philip. Phil. Lip. Philip" said the human garbage disposal.
We introduced ourselves and said that we had to go home. It was an hour early but we just wanted to get away from the weird kids.
We were walking home through the construction site that was never finished, it looked like ghost town. There were beer cans on the ground that we were trying not to step on.
Jack stopped us abruptly. "Don't you feel that?" he asked.
"Feel what?" Robert asked him.
"Like you're being watched...." Jack said, then went on. "It feels as if someone, maybe even something, is watching us."
"Jack? Wake up and smell the coffee, the construction site is empty." Meg said with a laugh.
We all started laughing, even Jack, I guessed he felt slightly stupid.
We all stopped when we saw the eyes.
They were yellowish and looking at us from the shadows.
"Who's there?" Jessie asked.
Then a bird landed on the rusted crane.
We were surrounded, we soon figured out, when a tiger, a gorilla, a wolf, a grizzly bear, and a creature not from this Earth stepped out.
<Do not be afraid, we mean you no harm, you just have to trust us.>
CHAPTER 2
"Do not be afraid?! Oh yeah, like it's normal to be attacked by a group of animals and a blue, four eyed, four legged, scorpion tailed, no mouthed, psychic creature step out from behind an empty building and scare the heck out of us!?" Robert said.
<Listen kid, you are in danger, we all are, we want to help you by giving you a way to fight, so you have to trust us.> the grizzly told me psychically.
"We trust you." Jessie said quietly.
"Who's we? We are being mugged by a circus act!" Robert yelled.
"Robert, be quiet." I said.
"What power are you talking about?" Jack said.
The weird creature put a hand to his head and Jack fell back slightly as if he had been electrocuted.
"Sean, we should do this." Jack said. "They're telling the truth, we need to trust them."
"Lets put this to a vote." I suggested. "All in favor of taking the power, say I."
"I think we should take the power." Jack said.
"Ditto." Meg said.
Jessie nodded.
"Yeah, we should take this power." I said.
We all looked to Robert.
"Oh, don't give me that puppy dog face." Robert said. "I'm in."
The creature nodded to the animals and they began to mutate.
Suddenly the animals were gone, except for the bird, in their place stood four humans, I recognized them as Jake, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco from school.
The creature put his hand to each of our heads and we felt a power surge of knowledge enter our brains.
Then the creature took out a blue cube that was about the size of a squared off softball.
<Each of you must touch a side of this cube.> He told us.
We all put our hands to a side and felt a tingly sensation.
"Now go, tell no one about what has happened tonight, trust no one, remember, now you can morph into any animal you touch, but if you stay for more than two hours you'll be trapped as that animal." Jake said.
We ran, we didn't look back, we ran until we got to our houses, we were tired. I climbed into my bed at my house and fell asleep quickly.
CHAPTER 3
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!!!! My alarm clock woke me up the next morning, at about the same time I heard my mom knock on my door.
"Sean?" She asked. "The neighbors are complaining about Killer's barking, could you bring him in?"
"Yeah, sure thing mom." I said and got up.
I called my dog inside and began petting him, Killer is a German Shepherd, I thought about what happened last night and began to concentrate on Killer.
I formed a picture of him in my mind and he went into a trance.
Then I concentrated about becoming him and I slowly sprouted gray, white, brown, and black fur.
A tail sprouted out of my back and my nose protruded out of my face.
I watched as my hands turned into paws, and I felt my teeth grow longer and my jaw rearrange.
I was my dog, that is when my dad chose to say good morning.
"Huh???" He said in shock.
"I need more sleep." He said and walked away.
I realized that this wasn't a good place to try morphing so I morphed back.
I walked to the phone on my desk and picked up the receiver.
I dialed Robert's number. On the third ring his mother picked up the phone. "Hello?" she asked.
"Hello, this is Robert's friend Sean, is Robert home?" I asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry Sean, he went to Jacks house, I'll tell him you called though."
We both hung up and I called Jacks house.
His dad picked up. "Hello?"
"Hi, this is Sean, is Jack home?" I asked.
"No, I'm sorry, he is at Robert's house."
"Oh, Okay, tell him I called." We hung up, this time I wondered. "Both of them are unaccounted for, so where are they?" I wondered.
Then I realized that they were probably having fun playing with their new found power.
I scarfed down a waffle and ran out the door towards the logical place they would be heading: Cassie's Barn.
CHAPTER 4
Sure enough, Cassie, one of the girls who gave us the power was showing the others around.
I ran inside and they all greeted me.
"So what did I miss?" I asked.
They got me caught up by giving me a Goshawk morph, it had a broken wing.
"Okay, we have all the morphs you'll need right now from here, now lets head to the Gardens, my mom works there and I can get you some dangerous morphs." Cassie said.
The others all pulled off their clothes and were wearing leotards or bike shorts and tight T-shirts.
"Um, I have a little problem, when I morphed I was a dog my clothes were too big and slid off." I said. "Then when I morphed back, I didn't have any clothes on."
Cassie handed me a T-shirt and a pair of bike shorts.
"Thanks." I said, I put them on behind a pile of hay and walked to the others who had feather designs all over their morphing suits.
I began to morph the Goshawk I acquired.
I too got the same feather patterns and then they became 3-D, it itched but only a little. Then my lips and nose began to harden and turned into a beak. I shrank and my eyesight became supercharged, it was as if binoculars were glued to my eyes. I watched as my barefeet became talons.
<You ready?> Cassie asked.
I looked at the others who had various bird of prey morphs, Robert was a Golden Eagle, Meg was a Short-Eared Owl, Jessie was an Osprey and so was Cassie, and Jack was a Peregrine Falcon.
<Yeah, I'm ready.> I said.
<Okay then, lets fly!!> Cassie yelled.
We pushed off the ground and flapped to gain altitude.
We zoomed through the doors and caught a warm updraft of air that lifted us up about a mile.
As we flew to the Gardens I thought about what had happened, this didn't shock any of us, we felt perfectly normal doing this, another thing was why did they choose us? We landed in the Jaguar habitat. We all demorphed so that we could help eachother if there was trouble.
"Okay, who would like a Jaguar morph?" Cassie asked.
"I would." Jack said.
Cassie led us to a Jaguar that was conveniently sleeping.
Jack reached out a trembling hand and put it on the Jaguars neck.
I saw him concentrating hard.
When he was done Robert said: "Now, lets get moving before he wants a snack."
Cassie led us through the door that leads to the habitat and into a hallway lined with numbered doors.
"I think big cat morphs are good for you guys." Cassie said walking to a door. "This one is Cheetahs. Any volunteers?"
"I'll do it." Jessie said.
Cassie led her into the habitat while we waited in the hallway.
When they came back Jessie was smiling.
"Where to next Cassie?" Robert asked.
"How about Lions?" Cassie suggested.
"I'd like a lion, they're awesome." I spoke up.
Cassie led me into the Lion habitat.
I looked around, I was scared stiff, I kept thinking about lions teeth sinking into my flesh. It sent a shiver down my spine. Cassie and I crept towards a female lion. "But I'd rather have a male...." I started, but as if on que a male lion jumped out of the bushes and on top of me, he opened his mouth wide, his teeth were as sharp as daggers.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" I yelled, then, as if it was a reflex I wrapped my arms around the lion, hugging it.
The others had already help my shout and run in, I slid out from under the lion which was in a trance due to the acquiring.
"Are you okay?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, lets get moving." I said quickly.
We walked back to the hallway and I took a deep breath.
Cassie thought it was normal and led us to the next exhibit.
"This one is..." She read the sign. "Bengal Tigers."
That is what Meg chose, we had no problem with that or with Robert's Snow Leopard (The regular Leopards weren't available at the time).
"Well, I think you guys are all set, It's getting late, you should head home, tomorrow we are planning to attack the Yeerk Pool." Cassie said.
We all morphed back to our bird of prey morphs.
I flew home and landed in my old tree house, from when I was about 6 years old, and demorphed.
I walked inside, I looked at the clock in the kitchen, it said 8:33, I didn't feel like eating dinner, I realized that morphing tires you out, so I just collapsed into my bed and fell asleep.
CHAPTER 5
I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. I checked my alarm clock: 3:55. I grumbled but got up and answered the phone. "Hello? Who is it?" I asked.
"Sean? It's me, Meg, Listen, I just had a weird dream, I think the Yeerk Pool attack should be delayed, meet me in my backyard, I'm going to call the others."
"Meg? What happened in the dream that is so important at this hour." I asked.
"It's a creature, he needs our help." She said.
"Huh? How can you learn that from a dream?" I asked.
"Just be quiet and get over here!!" She yelled into the receiver and hung up.
I took off my outer clothing, AKA The clothes that I had worn the day before, and concentrated on the Goshawk DNA inside of me.
Feather patterns appears all over my skin and morphing suit.
As I morphed I opened the window. My toes melted into talons as the feathers became 3-D, my mouth became a beak, I was fully Goshawk.
I flapped out the window. It would be a hard flight to Meg's house without any thermals, as Cassie called them.
<Oooh, this better be good...> I mumbled and flew to my destination.
Of course it was, we all had to wait a while for Jack to come, he lived a far way away. Meg told us about her dream.
"And then, this big dog guy reached towards me and asked for help, I woke up screaming."
We all stared at her, trying not to laugh.
Robert ended the silence: "Oh great, Nightmare On Elm Street Twenty: Lassie's Revenge."
"I'm serious." She said. "Listen, tomorrow we are going to the Yeerk Pool, but we have to save the uh...Dog person." She said.
"I don't know about you people, but I'm tired, and if were going to the Yeerk Pool tomorrow then we'll need sleep." I said and began to morph into the Goshawk.
The morph was strange this time, it didn't begin with the feathers, first came the talons, my toes melded together and grew longer, then the stencil image of the feathers sort of drew itself on my skin and morphing suit.
Then the feathers popped out, it didn't hurt, it was sort of itchy and it tickled.
I noticed the others had agreed and were morphing by the time I was done, they were only halfway.
<All right, see you tomorrow...I mean, I guess it's today, be ready to fight.> I said, and lifted off Meg's pine covered backyard. Since it was late at night I had to flap the whole way home, which tired me out. By the time I got home it was already light out.
"Aw man." I said, after I had demorphed. "Am I ever going to get a good nights sleep?"
Infact I did, I had forgotten that I had the day off for some holiday, I was able to sleep in.
When I woke up (At about 11 o' Clock AM) I picked up the phone and called Robert.
"Hey Dude, do you want to meet up in the woods and go to the mall or something?" I asked.
"Sure, I'll meet you in the woods in Ten minutes." We hung up and I locked my bedroom door.
Pulling off my outer clothing I began to morph Goshawk.
then I opened a window so that I wouldn't have to open it the hard way. I concentrated on the Goshawk DNA inside of me. I looked down and saw the feather pattern spreading across my skin, It looked pretty cool, then the feathers popped out into 3-D, it didn't hurt, It just itched and tickled at the same time. My lips began to harden as my toes melded together, forming talons. All the while I was shrinking, it was like going downhill on a rollercoaster, you know it won't crash, it just creeps you out. My now hard lips protruded out of my face, forming a beak, then, it was as if someone handed me binoculars because my sight was amazing, I realized with this kind of sight that I should have vacuumed the carpet on Sunday. I was now fully Goshawk.
I pushed off the carpet with my talons. I used all the power in my wings to flap out the window, then I caught a nice thermal and glided up about a mile or so. I glided towards the forest, I had always wanted to be able to fly, about a year ago I would see hawks flying really high and wondered what it would be like, Let me tell you, Its totally awesome. Especially when little kids point at you and say: "Wow."
CHAPTER 6
I landed in the woods, Robert was already there.
<Hey Dude.> I said. <Let's morph back, maybe we can catch a movie or something.>
That was what we did almost any day we could, stuff ourselves with greasy food from the food court, then go see some action movie.
So we began to morph back, in the woods, unaware that a kid was on a hike.
When we were halfway human and halfway bird a boy that looked about our age emerged from the bushes.
"What the heck?" He asked in wonderment.
When we were fully human, Robert and I exchanged glances.
We had been stupid, there hadn't been a lookout who guarded us to make sure no one saw us morph, so we acted normal.
"Hi, I'm Sean, It's nice to meet you." I said, hoping he wouldn't tell anyone what he had seen.
"I'm Thomas." He said, the kid was taller than me and had dark red hair, he had blue-green eyes and a big smile.
"Hey, don't forget me!" Robert yelled. "I'm Robert."
"Listen Thomas, do you know what you saw?" I asked.
"Not really, I'm just pretty sure that I saw bird become you guys." He said, I thought I heard a hint of sarcasm.
We didn't know what to do, we hoped Jake or one of the other Animorphs would emerge from the bushes and tell us what we should do but I didn't see any of them.
But one of them could see me, it was Tobias, he was in hawk form and had seen what had happened, he came to the rescue.
<Tell him that he has to follow you and can't tell anyone what he has seen.> Tobias told us.
"Follow me." I told Thomas. "And you can't tell anyone what you have just seen."
<Now, take him to Cassie's house.> Tobias told us, we obeyed.
When we knocked on the door, Tobias walked up to us in his human morph.
"Hi Guys." He said.
"Hey Tobias." I said.
Cassie came to the door.
"Cassie? Can we go to you barn to talk?" I asked her.
"Sure." She said, then she called out. "Mom! I'm going to the Clinic to bandage the badgers paw!"
She led us to the barn and we told her what had happened.
Thomas was paying no attention to us, he was looking at the animals.
"I think we should give him the power to morph." I said.
"No, he could turn out like...David." She said.
"If he does, we will find a way to take away the power." Robert said.
"Ohhhh. Okay." Cassie said and reached her hand into a bale of hay, she pulled out the glowing cube.
"Hey Thomas, remember what you saw? Would you like to be able to do that?" I asked.
"Yeah. I love animals." He told us.
Cassie held out the cube.
"Touch a side." She said, he touched the side closest to him.
"It tickles." He said.
"Now, what is your favorite bird?" I asked.
"Definitely Bald Eagle." He told us, we looked to Cassie, she had already taken a Bald Eagle that had hit the antenna of a car and held it towards Thomas.
"Here, touch it and think about it." Cassie told him.
"Why should I?" He asked.
"Do you want to be able to morph into animals?" She asked him.
"Yeah."
"Well, then you have to touch it." She said, he did and the animal went into a trance.
"Now, you will have to learn the details from our friend." I said.
"Who's your friend?" He asked.
"His name, is Ax." I said.
CHAPTER 7
It was about three days after we had met Thomas, he had learned the details of the invasion and had acquired a Leopard (By then the Leopards were back in the habitat). We were ready to take a visit to the Yeerk Pool so we all met up in the construction site, it was a historical place, it made the others all sad for some reason, Cassie even left flowers on the dirt ground.
We were going into the Yeerk Pool through an entrance in the Gap.
We all went into the elevator, all twelve of us, and we went up to the second floor.
As we got off we all were nervous, we were fifty yards from possible death, wouldn't you be nervous too? Anyways, we took turns going into the dressing room with things like jeans and shirts as if we were trying them on but we never left.
When we were all in we opened the little shaft and walked down the long row of stone steps. It smelled putrid. As we walked down we all morphed.
Shaggy yellowish brown fur grew around my neck, it was my mane, I sprouted a long tail and my body was covered in the yellowish fur. My hands became paws and I grew claws.
I looked at the others, I saw an Andalite, a Hork-Bajir, a Snow Leopard, a Leopard, a Bengal Tiger, a Siberian Tiger, a Wolf, a Grizzly Bear, a Jaguar, a Gorilla, and a Cheetah.
<This is cool! It was dark in here but now it's really bright.> I exclaimed.
<Yeah, That's how cats are.> Jake said, at least I think it was Jake, it was hard to tell.
We trotted down the steps, I could smell very well so the farther we went down, the worse it smelled.
I smelled Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons, and an Andalite.
As we reached the bottom of the steps we heard screams and shouts.
<Hey can we join the party?> Robert asked.
<Yeah, we don't bite, much.> I said.
We were lucky Tobias was in Hork-Bajir morph, the Yeerks would trust him.
I fired up my legs and knocked the nearest Hork-Bajir off his feet and into the Yeerk Pool.
<Eight ball, corner pocket.> I said with a laugh.
<GET THEM YOU FOOLS!!!> Visser Three shouted.
About six Taxxons were on me in seconds.
<AAAAHHHH!!!> I yelled as the bit into my flesh.
Then in half a second the Taxxons weren't moving, I saw Ax waving his goo covered tailblade through the air.
<I believe that I have kicked some butt.> He said.
<Yup Ax, you did.> I said and knocked over a Taxxon.
The battle raged, Claw verses Claw, Tail Blade verses Tail blade, Visser Three and Ax were fighting.
I didn't see what happened next, It was just an instinct I guess. I jumped up, my claws out, and onto Visser Three.
He threw me off and I smashed into a shed.
I was dizzy, I was unconscious, but I was breathing.
CHAPTER 8
I saw the battle, I had gotten back up, the others were all fighting, then I remembered the purpose of this mission and I ran towards the cages.
Sure enough, I saw the creature we were here to save.
<Come with me.> I said and knocked the lock off the cage with my huge paw.
The creature agreed and climbed onto my back.
<Come on guys!> I yelled as I started up the steps.
The others followed, even Ax, I didn't want to look back, I didn't want to see what we had done, our plan had been stupid, but in a weird way we had succeeded. We had gotten the creature. We had saved it from infestation, they were probably waiting for an important Yeerk to arrive and infest it.
<A Pemalite? How is there a Pemalite?> Marco asked.
"I shall explain later." It said.
When we were safe (We ended up buying lots of clothes to cover up the Pemalite) we walked out to the construction site.
We morphed back, Ax morphed to Human and Tobias morphed to Red-tailed hawk then human.
"Humans? Humans an Andalite and a Bird?" The creature asked.
"Yeah, I'm Sean." I said.
"I am Kalarkaly." She said.
We all laughed slightly, except Ax.
"Can we just call you Kali?" Meg asked.
"Yes, you may." She said.
She stood four feet tall and looked like a dog.
We all introduced ourselves.
"Maybe you should stay with the Chee-" Marco started but Kali cut him off.
"The Chee? They're here? Are you serious! That's Great news!" She yelled happily.
So we took her to the Chee's underground hide-out.
We all got home without being grounded.
A week later we intercepted a Yeerk message talking about their plans. The plot thickens.
Ten kids, A Red-tailed hawk, and an Andalite against a million creatures that could take control of anyone. They'd better start packing.