We all morphed fly and, with serious group effort, pressed the button. Good thing the button was tiny, for button standards. I guess that helped Taxxons to press it, with their tiny little hands, or whatever those things were.
<That was fairly easy,> Rachel commented as we flew into the vast plain that was the fortress.
<Too easy,> Marco remarked. <I mean, whenever things start out easy like that, things usually just totally blow up in our faces. You know?>
<We can't worry about that now,> Jake interrupted, taking charge. <Right now we have to find a good hiding place so we can demorph, create a distraction, remorph, destroy this portal thing, then find a way out.>
<I just love it when the chances are so good and the plan so simple,> Marco sneered.
<Let's follow a Controller,> Rachel suggested, ignoring Marco. <We'll be bound to go past a shack or closet or something.>
<Maybe we should split up,> I added. <So one group could attack, then when the Yeerks start attacking them, the second group can join them and catch them off-guard or whatever.>
<Hmm,> Jake mused. <You're right. Okay. Rachel and Ax, with me. We'll be the first group. We'll keep them occupied. Tobias, Cassie, and Marco, you fly to your left. That's where the portal is. When the Yeerks have their hands full, you destroy it.>
We then separated, now with a more-or-less plan. <Hey,> Cassie said. <Let's follow that guy. He's walking in the right direction.>
So we followed him, and, after some zipping around and resisting the fly's instincts to dive in this gooey, half-melted candy bar in the Controller's pocket, and ignoring some Marco comments about how Controller should not be allowed to eat chocolate, we came to a small building of some sort. (Actually, to my compound eyes, it was just this huge, grayish, rectang- ular blob.)
<How's here?> I asked.
<Good a place as anywhere,> Marco muttered. <Let's just hope nobody's home.> We found a crack, probably from the door, and flew in. Then we demorphed. After finding a button that turned on the lights, I groaned.
There were two things we noticed immediately about the place, one good and one bad. Good thing: it was empty. Bad thing: the building apparently was a sort of high-tech bathroom facility.
" Hee, hee, hee, hee," Marco giggled. "Tobias-"
<Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it,> I commented, hardly in the mood for a typical snide Marco comment about the first time I morphed fly and nearly drowned in a toilet.
"Okay, you two, we need to get down to business, " Cassie interrupted. " We need to find a way to know when the others start fighting."
"What if we-" Marco began to say.
<Wait a second.>
Cassie and Marco both turned to me. "What is it?" Cassie asked.
<I just realized something. I can hear to the outside.>
"Hmm," Marco remarked. " Doesn't that mean we can just hear when people start screaming and yelling and stuff? "
<Exactamondo.>
To hear the outside better, I pressed my head against the wall, which is a little awkward to do when you're a bird. Eventually, I did hear the yells and screams of the frightened Controllers when the others struck.
Unfortunately, though, there was something else going on. Something we had no idea about, and weren't the slightest bit prepared for. At first, I just heard the boring, regular talk of the Controllers outside and the slight paddings and stomps and slithers as they walked. Then I heard running feet and a gasp for air. This is what I heard next.
" They've escaped!"
"Who?"
" The Andalites! They have escaped!"
" What?! HOW? They were guarded! There was no way!"
" The guards will be fed to the Taxxons. No one knows how they escaped. All we know is that they have."
" This is not good."
" Does the Visser know?"
" He's on his way."
" Well, find them, you fools! Visser Three will eat your guts!"
" There's no way the Andalites could escape from this fortress. We have made it faulty-proof. "
" It doesn't matter if they CAN escape, you better make sure that they don't. It was a struck of luck to find that crashed fighter, and the Visser will not prevent any mishaps."
They would have said more, except then I heard soft roars in the distance, and definite yells. The fighting had begun. I pulled my head away from the wall. I was dazed.
" Have they started?" Marco asked.
<Yes,> I said, still overwhelmed. Cassie started to morph, but then she stopped.
" Tobias, what is it? "
<Well, with the beginning of the battle, I also heard a conversation. Apparently, the Yeerks had captured Andalites. Real Andalites. Only they escaped. And I really doubt the others know any of this.>
I had made it into the fortress without the slightest fault. No suspicion. No errors. As far as the other Controllers around me knew, I was one of them. Except with some slight stumbling, I was doing well. But walking with two legs is somewhat tiring. I had come to rest on a small rectangular gray building when I heard the conversation regarding the others. This was met with both relief and worry. It was excellent that they had escaped, but now how would I find them? I took a deep breath and tried to organize my thoughts. But I never got the chance, for at that moment I heard a yell go up and a roar immediately following.
I looked toward the source in alarm. There seemed to be some kind of animal in front of a supply shack, lunging at a Hork-Bajir. I tried to recall my studies. It was a canine. Or was it a feline? I couldn't tell. It was extremely large and was covered in beautiful, elaborately colored orange and black fur. It also had deadly claws and teeth, as the unlucky Hork-Bajir was learning.
That's when dawned on me. A morph! It was a morph! The "Andalite bandits" the ones the Controllers had mentioned. Had to be. There was no way it could have been one of the crew. This was an Earth morph. It also couldn't have been a real animal, for after all, what would it be doing here? I have to help them, I realized.
I reached for my Shredder. The Controllers kept yelling, but now Hork-Bajir were running to fight them. They'd lose. It was obvious. I caught a glimpse of an Andalite, no older than I. Unfortunately, I had only two eyes at the time, and had missed the third.
"RRRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRR!" something roared horrifically, and so close I nearly lost my hearing. "An Andalite bandit!" a Controller hissed. I whipped around, which made me lose my balance. But that was not the worst of it. On the ground I looked up in horror at a beast. It stood as tall as a Hork-Bajir, and was covered in thick, brown fur. The claws were petrifying. I had no idea how it had been able to sneak up upon us, but it had.
The Controllers around me did two different things. About one half fled. The other half stayed and attempted to draw their Dracon beams, bold with hate. And one thing was painfully clear: no matter how powerful this thing was, there were two many Controllers, human and Taxxon and Hork-Bajir, to make it sizzle with the heat of at least one successful Dracon Beam. There was really only one thing for me to do.
Although I was nearly trampled, I was still capable of aiming my weapon. And there were many targets to choose from.
TTTTTSSSAAAPPP! A Hork-Bajir disintegrated. Again! A human! Again, and a piece of green carcass from an annihilated Taxxon fell on my head. The other Controllers hesitated, and gave the Andalite an opportunity to strike. As they battled with the Yeerks, I attempted to roll away, and nearly got stomped on from a large, running gray paw. It was a nightmare scene.
I needed to demorph, but didn't have the chance, trying to dodge feet and Dracon Beams, and then trying to get up. Then when I did get up, something exploded and smoke enveloped the air.
The scene I saw was impossible. The fortress looked about as long as a football field and maybe ¾ that wide. I couldn't tell how far the ceiling went, except it went very, very far up. The ceiling, walls, and floors were all painted this sort of dismal, ugly gray. There were many tall, dull-colored, sky scraper-like buildings to the sides close to the walls, and smaller, shack-y kind of buildings that seemed to be placed randomly throughout. Then, in the middle of all of this, a Star-gate portal stood.
This in itself was not at all what I expected. My idea of the place had been this sort of small, computer-wracked location, with maybe a dozen people bustling about. I was right about the bustling-about, though hardly accurate on the "dozen people" part. First, there were at least a hundred people in that place. Second, there were more than just your average human beings walking about. There were two other types of creatures. One of them looked like some kind of mutation of a bird-of-prey, a snake, and a knife rack. They stood about as tall as your sky-high NBA star, and had extrusions of blades on their elbows, wrists, and feet that seemed to be super-glued to they dark green skin. They also had three horns sticking from their reptilian head. Basically: they would be able to slice and dice a person in about 3 seconds.
The other guys were not as dangerous-looking, but gross beyond gross. They were like huge, vile-smelling centipedes. The front third of their bodies stood erect, held up by dozens and dozens of these teeny tiny little legs which turned into these teeny tiny little hands as you got closer to the heads, which were beyond disgusting, with these red-jelly eyes that didn't look like they could focus. All in all, I was pretty shocked.
I guess I shouldn't have been, with that Centaur-guy at the Sharing meeting. Anyway, I began to look around, seeing if I could learn what was happening. I was just listening in on this interesting if not slightly confusing conversation about how the Andalites (whatever they were) had escaped when total pandemonium broke out when these zoo animals started reeking havoc. I dodged out of the way a split second this massively large grizzly began making raw hamburger out of the people I had been listening in on.
I started to run, starting to make a plan. I tried to assess the situation: A gorilla, a wolf, and a hawk were totaling the portal as a bear, a tiger, and a slightly smaller version of the Sharing Centaur were tying to keep the fortress inhabitants at bay while the others did this.
Suddenly BOOMM! Part of the portal exploded, and I was quickly surrounded by smoke. I kept running, no longer sure where I was going. Then I was there. At the portal. It was about to collapse in on itself. But a dark figure flew out of the portal. I nearly laughed when I could make it out. It was Darth Vader. I don't know why I did what I did next. It was just this sudden urge of curiosity. I took off the mask. Oh, man. You think it was hard for Luke to take off the mask and find his father? Well, try taking the mask off and finding YOURSELF. I had not the slightest idea what it meant at the time, too confused and scared. But I knew I had to get her out of there. And as I was dragging her to safety I bumped into the gorilla.
Read Ultra Morphs 1, Part 6- Battle Maneuvers