I was at summer camp. Only this camp lasted for one week. Which gave my friends, the Animorphs and I exactly five days to figure out, and also ruin Visser Three's plans for the camp.

The bugle's sound rang in my head. I woke up and snapped my head up, totally forgetting that I was in the bottom bed of a bunk bed.

"Oww!" I cried, as I hit my head on the bottom of April's bed. She was my councellor. Councellors always get the top beds.

Almost all the other girls were doing the same. we all burst out laughing. All except Jessica, who was a Controller. She was a slave of the slug in her head called a Yeerk. I guess Yeerks don't have a sense of humor.

I got up, went into the bathroom and got dressed. When I came out, Jessica was waiting for me.

"Oh, hi, Jessica," I replied.

"Visser Three wants to meet you later," she informed me.

"Uh. . . okay," I said, desperately trying to keep my voice normal. "When?"

"He'll come find you when he wants to meet with you. He just told me, 'later.'"

A few minutes later, all of cabin 4 headed to the cafeteria together. On the way, I noticed a red-tailed hawk, a. k. a. my friend, Tobias, swoop low right above our little group.

<I'll keep watch for the rest of the week, just like we planned,> he said, in private thought-speech.

Of course, I couldn't answer him without drawing attention to myself, so I blinked my eyes several times to let him know I'd heard him.

Jessica was walking right beside me. "Something in your eye?" she wondered.

"Yep. I think we're having sausage. That always makes my eyes water."

I had chosen my favorite mare, whose name is Mystery. She's white with black patches. That was the horse that Cassie had aquired. <Hi, Monica!> she said.

"Yahhh! Cassie, is that you? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I whispered. "Did you aquire Mystery?"

<If that's your horse's name, yes. Sorry if I scared you,>

"What are you doing?" I wondered.

<Well, we all morphed different horses so we could keep an eye out for Visser Three, whom we've seen before in human morph, and this Controller named Jessica. Can you point her out to me?>

I showed Cassie a big brown horse named Sandy. "See that girl on him? That's Jessica."

Cassie laughed and said, <She's sitting on Marco!>

<What?!> he wailed. <This girl patted me and gave me sugar cubes. She hugged me. I thought she was a normal beautiful girl. I feel so betrayed! Oh, she's going down for this!>

With that, he reared up on his hind legs sending Jessica flying off his back.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" she yelled. She landed on her side.

Everyone crowded around Jessica. The nurse said that she had broken her arm, and would spend the rest of the week in the infirmary. They dragged Marco back to "his" stall, and ended riding for the day.

Later, during rest period, (Gag!) there was a knock at the cabin door. A nurse opened it. Standing behind her was Jessica. Perfectly normal.

"Hello," said the nurse, "It seems that we made a mistake. Miss Jessica had no broken bones at all. It was strange, though, because when we first examined her, she was badly wounded. But now, there's no reason to keep her in the infirmary."

I looked out the window beside my bed. Tobias was floating in the sky. <I saw her. This doesn't feel right.>

"Never mind that," she snapped, her eyes cold and angry, "Come with me. It's time for you to meet the Visser."

Uh-oh. What could I do? I let her lead me out of the cabin. The councellor saw us and was about to stop us, (which is what I was hoping she'd do), but Jessica waved her hand and the lady fell silent, obviously a Controller.

Tobias flew above us. <I'll get the others!> he said.

She led me to the woods, close to where my friends were staying. She did not know this, of course. She dragged me right through a tree, and we started to go down as if we were in an elevator.

"Dropshaft!" I shreiked. The Animorphs told me that Yeerks use dropshafts often.

"So you are connected with the Andalites!" she said, gleefully. "I thought so!"

"Whoa! Are you okay, Jess? Maybe you did hurt yourself when you fell off the horse,"

By now, we were walking down the stairs of a huge cavern. The cavern that was in my vision. The Yeerk pool. I'd had visions about the Yeerks and Animorphs, which is what helped me find them. Ax says it's part of being a Zeerinian.

Still holding my arm, Jessica began to change.

Blue fur replaced her skin and long blond hair. Her eyes grew large and bright green, while her mouth dissaprared and was replaced by three slits. Her hands grew weak. Extra legs shot out of her chest, and a scorpion tail appeared. Last to morph were her stalk-eyes, which shlooped out of her head like antennae.

"Visser Three!" I cried. I was not afraid but very shocked. Zeerinians do not scare easily, according to Ax.

<Yes, Visser Three. I had a feeling you knew what was happening to your planet. Now you will tell me where the Andalites are!>

"Never! You don't scare me!" I said, truthfully.

<Don't I?> he asked, amused. <Well, we'll see how brave you are when you become our slave.> He started to drag me to the Yeerk pool.

But I was not a helpless little girl. I was a warrior.

<You are a Zeerinian!> he cried. <Only Z-Zeerinians can fight An-Andalites and win! Fool! My host admi-mires your courage, but y-you will be ou-ours! The first Zeerinian-Controller! Ge-get her!> He was almost gone.

But just then, I felt a horrible pain in my side. Suddenly, I realized it. Duh! The Yeerk pool would be full of Controllers!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I cried in agony. I let go of Visser Three, who got to his feet, grabbed me, and carried me to the pool.

Just then, I heard a "Tsssssssssseeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr!" as Tobias swooped down and raked the Visser's eyes, which caused him to drop me.

I was in so much pain that I did not care when I hit the floor hard. A few seconds later, I was snached up by strong hands.

I desperately hoped that the person who had me was not a Controller. "Who. . .?" I gasped.

<Hang on, Gabby, Joxer the Mighty's here. We're blowing this popsicle stand!> That would be Marco. When we had figured out that I was a Zeerinian, he wanted to call me Gabrielle from Xena. I didn't mind at all, since she's my favorite charector, but just for fun, I told Marco that if I was Gabrielle, he had to be Joxer.

Rachel, who held the title of the mighty Xena, laughed for an hour afterwards.

Chapter 8

<Jake! Gorilla-boy to Tiger-dude! Me and Gabby are hauling butt!> The pain was unbearable now. I was squirming in Marco's arms.

<Okay! Everyone retreat!> Jake ordered.

We all headed up this long stairway. Everyone but Ax. He was battling Visser Three over the Yeerk pool. And he was slipping in!

<Hah hah hah! A Zeerinian host would have been wonderful, but a second Andalite will definately get me a promotion!> he sneered.

That made me sick. I would never allow an enemy to win. Not if I could do something to stop it. And, despite my pain, I knew I could help Ax.

Call it Zeerinian instinct, but what I did next was downright INSANE!

I rolled out of Marco's big gorilla fists and pushed past the other Animorphs: Cassie as a wolf and Rachel as a bear.

I started to run toward Visser Three and Ax. "

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" I yelled in my best Xena/Mortal Kombat call. And, just like Liu Kang on Mortal Kombat, I jumped up in the air and kicked my legs strieght out. I actually flew at Visser Three, kicked him in his back, and sent him tumbling into the pool.

"Thanks, Marco. Now I need a DOCTOR! Oww ow owowowowow!" the pain from that Dracon beam was horrible!

We headed once again for the exit. All seven of us. We came out of there through that tree. When we were sure we were safe, the others demorphed, with the exception of Tobias and Ax.

"Oh, man, Monica, you're hurt bad!" Cassie exclaimed.

"Yeah," I moaned, weakly. "I wish I could just morph my wounds away, like you guys," I'd meant is as a joke.

They all looked at Ax.

<No!> he snapped. <No! I will NOT give the morphing technology to a Zeerinian! It is forbidden! Do you humans realize that I took the blame for Elfangor giving YOU the power?>

"Ax! She just saved your life!" Rachel cried. "How can you be so selfish?"

I saw Tobias fly away. Probably angry at Ax. "Look, Andalite, I don't want to force you to give me the power, but I'd like to know: Why are you so anxious to see me killed?" I asked. Ax had been wanting to kill me since I met him. "If I don't recover from this Dracon beam wound, I'll die, right?"

Again, they all looked at Ax.

"Oh, great," Marco said, sarcastically. "One day left in her life? One day of suffering? And why, Ax? Because she just got stuck in a war and found out she was an alien warrior? One that her own "ally" doesn't like?! What happened to the almighty Andalites who are trying to save the universe, Ax? The UNIVERSE! As in ALL the races! EVERYONE?!"

Everyone stared openmothed at Marco. I did so mostly because of the pain. "Marco, I've never seen you like that before. Usually Cassie's the one who makes speeches like that!" Jake finally broke the silence.

"I'm Joxer," he sneered, glaring at Ax. "I have to protect Gabrielle!" I smiled, despite all my pain. I was wondering how he meant that.

"Usually, Gabrielle's the one saving Joxer," I said, good-naturedly. "Joxer useally gets his butt kicked."

"Joxer the Mighty! He is very tidy!" Marco started.

"Gabby is his sidekick, fighting with her super stick!" I added my part, surprised that I could sing like I was.

"Joxer! Joxer the Mighty!" we finished, together.

Just then, Tobias walked back to our little group. He had a blue cube.

"Yep, I got it. I would have flown but I would not have been able to carry it," he, replied.

"Where did you get that? We didn't bring it!" Jake asked.

"I heard this voice in my head. It told me where the box was," he answered.

"Elimist?" Rachel asked.

<The Elimist would do no such thing!> Ax said harshly.

Turns out it was not an Elimist. But that's a whole new story.

"Ahem, Oww," I said, calmly, reminding everyone that I was in pain.

"Give me the box!" Marco snapped. Surprised, Tobias handed it over. "Touch it," he said, nicely.

I did so. He placed his hand on the other side and I felt a slight tingle. "Joxer to the rescue!" he anounced. "Now, she needs an aquiree. Ax?" he looked at the Andalite, who backed away.

"Come on, Ax," Jake pleaded. "If it wasn't for Monica, you'd be a Controller right now. You owe her."

<Yes, Prince Jake,> Ax slowly stepped toward me. He took my hand. I concentrated on him, and his alien DNA became part of me.

Then I began to change.

Sloop! Sloop! The stalk eyes came out of my head.

Sloop! Sloop! The forehooves shot out of my chest.

My lower half turned blue, and my tail shot out.

"Whoa! You look awesome! Half Andalite, half human-er-Zeerinian-oh-whatever!" Rachel exclaimed.

I struck with my tail. That was the coolest thing! I sliced a little tree in two! I was pretty sure I could have gotten a big tree as well.

<Finish the morph,> Tobias advised.

"Oh, yeah, sorry."

My long blond hair flew up into my scalp, my hands grew a few extra fingers, the rest of me turned blue, my eyes turned bright green, my mouth dissapeared, and I was completely Andalite.

<She's a definate estreen,> Ax commented, his voice dripping with obvious jelousy.

I felt guilty all of a sudden, and demorphed. "Thank you, Ax. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, I won't use your morph anymore."

<I have been acting cruelly toward you. I am sorry. It's just that we Andalites have a law not to give our technology away. By giving humans the morphing ability, my brother had committed a crime that was worthy of death.>

After that, we broke up for the day. I went back to camp and got a horrible scolding from my councellors, and everyone else, but that was nothing compared to what my everyday life had become.

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