The First Journey

  He has been on the school beat for ten years. He loves the kids. He protects them from bullies, stray dogs, and fast cars.

  He certainly isn’t going to let a hyena endanger them.

  He runs up behind you and pulls his gun.

  Bang! You’re dead.

  Bad morph. You should have thought about Patrolman Teeter. Visser Three is still alive, and you’re just a dead hyena.

  A K-9 dog is highly trained for tracking. It is also trained in defense. It is a match for a pit bull.

  But is it a match for a pit bull controlled by Visser Three?

  The evil force of Visser Three joins with the powerful jaws and killing instinct of the pit bull. The combined force turns the animal into a creature three times as deadly.

  You leap on the dog’s back. You are bigger, and you use your bulk to force the dog down. You sink your teeth into the fur around his neck and pull him off Marco’s mother.

  The two of you roll backward. Patrolman Teeter runs forward. But he won’t draw his gun, not on two dogs.

  All you hear are the snarls of your adversary. You smell blood and terror. The terror is yours. You realize that you are outmatched.

  The pit bill’s teeth rip into your throat. You can’t bark. You can’t speak. You try to morph back, but your life force is ebbing.

  RIP — you’re dead. Go back to the end of chapter 22 and try again.

  You leap behind a tree to accomplish your giraffe morph. Your legs grow so rapidly that you crack your head on a branch. Your neck stretches. Your skin is patterned with tan and brown.

  With a clatter of hooves, you take off toward Marco’s mother. You are there in three powerful strides.

  Giraffes are peaceful creatures. Patrolman Teeter is stunned to see one appear, but he doesn’t go for his gun. He would never shoot a giraffe.

  You turn your back to the dog to give yourself greater kicking power. He launches himself at you, but he can only reach your leg. You shake him off, you pull back your leg, and —

  WHAM! You knock Visser Three into next week.

  FLASH!

  “— onions on it, too?” Mom asks you. She is stirring a pot of tomato sauce at the kitchen stove.

  She turns when you don’t answer. “Sweetie? Do you want onions on the pizza?”

  “Sure,” you say. “Everything. But I have to go to Jake’s for a minute. I forgot my … homework.”

  “It’s Saturday.”

  “Yeah,” you say, and run out.

  “Ask him over for dinner!” your mom yells as you hop on your bike. You ride like the wind. You find Jake and Ax in the bedroom. Ax is only halfway through his licorice whip. You spill out your story.

  “We were all there?” Jake asks. “And I knew I was in a second Sario Rip?”

  You nod. “And when we went back in time, Marco and I both knew we were in the wrong time. Marco knew his mother was dead. Gone. Whatever.”

  Jake looks at Ax. “Does any of this make sense to you?”

  Ax chews on the licorice and swallows. “No. Except for the motive of Visser Three. He manipulated the Sario Rip to go back farther in time.”

  “He knew it would happen?” Jake asks.

  “He was trying to kill his enemy’s host before it became the host,” Ax explains. “You see, some hosts are better than others. Obviously, Visser One has found a host that has extraordinary abilities. I also guess that Visser Three might have known you were aboard in some kind of morphs. That was a trap. Since he thinks you are Andalites, perhaps he thought he could send you back. That way, he would be prepared that first night when my brother, Elfangor, landed. He would make sure to kill you. Or else you would not be there at all. Alter the past, alter the future. He was willing to take the risk.”

  Jake groans. “So I fell into another trap in the Amazon? Great! I can’t even be smart in someone else’s Sario Rip!”

  “But it turned out well, Prince Jake,” Ax points out. “Visser Three was stopped by the giraffe morph. That is why the whole thing never happened. He returned to the original time of the rip so that he wouldn’t be stopped. The good news is that Marco’s mother was not killed. So Visser One is still Visser Three’s enemy. Which is good for us. To have them fighting for power distracts Visser Three.”

  “But I don’t get it,” you say. “If I was in Visser Three’s rip, why do I remember it? And why did you and Jake remember some of it back in the Amazon?”

  Ax thoughtfully braids a licorice ribbon, then bites off a piece. “Muffmsx.”

  “Is that Andalite language?” Jake asks.

  “No, it is a mouthful of licorice,” Ax responds. “The answer is, I do not know. My guess is that there can be breaks in the rip. Like this.”

  He holds up a braid of licorice. Light shines through the holes. “I was not paying attention the —”

  “— day Sario Rips were taught,” you finish. “We know!”

  Ax shrugs. “Someday we might figure it out. But you are alive. You saved Marco’s mother. That is the important thing. We have lived to fight another day.”

  “Ax is right,” Jake tells you. “You have to take what you can get, these days. Worry about the things you can do something about. You’re alive, and so are we.”

  You know he’s right. You have to take the moment. You’re safe. You may not have killed Visser Three, but you’re back in your own time. Alive.

  Jake puts his hand on your shoulder. “Don’t worry. There will still be more battles to fight.”

  You grin. “But first,” you say, “there’s pizza.”

  The poison-arrow frogs are a good cover. With your powerful hind legs, you leap through the rain forest to the site of the Blade ship. You lurk underneath a bush, waiting for Tobias’s signal.

  Tobias says.

  you say.

  Cassie adds.

  Tobias says.

  you say. You hop out a few feet into the clearing.

  Tobias says.

  You hop back. Together with the others, you make your way around the ship. Around you, you can hear the Hork-Bajir crashing through the rain forest. Every so often, you hear the sizzle of Dracon beams.

  It begins to rain. You’re thirsty, and your frog brain clamors for water. You hop forward and stick out your tongue. The water feels cool. You swallow gratefully.

  you say.

  Tobias asks.

  A brownish-greenish creature suddenly detaches itself from a tree. It appears to have no bones. But at the end of its five arms are sprinklerlike holes. They are spraying you with water.

  Ax cries.

  A three-foot-wide, sticky pink tongue suddenly shoots out of the creature’s mouth. It laps you up like cream. You thrash about, but you can’t escape as the tongue shoots you backward into the waiting mouth.

  Visser Three says.

  And SLURP — you’re finished.

  Oops. Try again. Go back to the end of chapter 22.

  The jaguar owns the rain forest. You realize this as you take control of the morph. You feel the power of your coiled muscles, ready to spring. Your gaze can pick out details in the darkest shadow. You spy the tiniest beetle and the sloth hanging above you and the parrot in the tree.

  They don’t concern you. When you are hungry, you kill to eat. It is the way of the forest. You have power and control and grace and mobility and will.

  Marco says.

  Cassie says softly.

  You know what she means. From the dirt under
neath your pads to the tiniest branches overhead, the rain forest teems with life.

  Rachel asks.

  Ax says.

  You pause. Your ears have picked up the same sounds.

  Jake says.

  Ax says.

  The Hork-Bajir have fanned out in the forest. They have made a pincer movement, and you have fallen into the trap.

  Dracon beams explode around you. One of the Hork-Bajir swipes at Cassie, and she snarls and jumps at them. Rachel isn’t far behind.

  You spring at the neck of a Hork-Bajir, and it goes down. You swipe at another with your claws, and it howls and falls back. You fight with claws and teeth and all the power of the jaguar, but there are more of them than you.

  Jake cries.

  You leap onto a tree in order to hurl yourself on a Hork-Bajir. You climb up the vines, your paws digging in. But then the vines move. They surround you.

  It is Visser Three in Lerdethak morph. He squeezes you. You feel your lungs collapsing. You feel something deep within you burst.

  you call weakly.

  Jake turns. You look into yellow jaguar eyes that suddenly seem human to you. They are full of sorrow.

  And you know it’s too late.

  Jake

  My name is Jake. Just Jake. No last name. Or at least no last name I can tell you.

  I am an Animorph. I guess that makes me one of the most hunted, endangered species on Earth. The Yeerks want me dead. They want my friends dead. So if they knew who I was, and how to find me, I wouldn’t have a chance.

  That’s why I won’t tell you my last name. And I won’t tell you what city or state I live in. Because I want to go on living. I want to go on living so I can go on fighting them.

  Are you one of those people who looks up at the night sky and wonders whether there is life out there among the stars? Do you wonder about UFO’s? Do you wonder whether aliens will ever come to Earth?

  Well, stop wondering. The Yeerks are here.

  They’re a species of parasites — just little slugs, really. Little slugs that crawl inside your head and wrap themselves around your brain and make you do whatever they want you to do.

  When that happens you stop being a true human being. You become a Controller. That’s what we call a human who is under the control of a Yeerk. When you talk to a Controller, you may be looking at a human face, you may hear a human voice, but what you’re really talking to is a Yeerk.

  And they are everywhere. If you think you haven’t seen one, you’re wrong. The policeman in his patrol car, the clerk at the grocery store, your teacher, your pastor, your doctor: Any of them might be a Controller. Your mother, father, sister, or best friend: They could all be Controllers.

  I know. My brother Tom is one of them. They have taken my brother from me and made him an enemy. I sit at the breakfast table every morning and make small talk, knowing all the while that Tom is not Tom anymore.

  And they have taken my best friend’s mother. Everyone thinks Marco’s mother is dead. Only he and I know the truth: She, too, is one of them.

  They are everywhere. They can be anyone. They tear lives apart. They do unspeakable things. And we stand against them alone. Only we know the threat. We six: five Animorphs and one Andalite.

  Five human kids with the power to become any animal we can touch. And a kid from another planet who looks like some weird mix of deer, human, and scorpion.

  The six of us against all the might of the Yeerks, and all the evil genius of their leader, Visser Three.

  Which is why Rachel was worried about leaving, even for a weekend.

  We were all together that Friday evening — Marco, Cassie, Tobias, Rachel, and me. Ax wasn’t there because he would have had to change into his human morph. He doesn’t like to become human. I think he feels naked without his deadly tail.

  So it was just the five of us in Cassie’s barn, surrounded by all the chattering, snuffling, chirping, preening (and smelly) animals in their cages. The barn is also the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Cassie’s parents are veterinarians. They use their barn to take in sick or injured wild animals.

  “It’s just this stupid, two-day gymnastics camp I signed up for a long time ago,” Rachel was saying. “It’s no big deal. It’s something I was going to do back … you know, before.”

  “Rachel, you should go,” Cassie said. “Our entire lives cannot be about fighting the Yeerks. We have to try to be seminormal. I mean, it can’t all be danger and battle and fear, right? So go. But for now, help me lift up this crow’s cage. He’s going up on that shelf.”

  Cassie was trying to get us to help clean up the barn. We used the barn to get together. It was one of the few places we could meet with Tobias. See, he can’t exactly go to the mall.

  Tobias said, in thought-speak that we heard only in our minds.

  Tobias was perched high in the rafters of the barn. From up there he could fly in and out through the hayloft. Tobias is a red-tailed hawk. Actually, in his mind, in his soul, he’s human. But the power to morph has a terrifying downside. Stay in morph for more than two hours, and you stay forever. Tobias was trapped forever in a body with long, powerful wings, ripping, taloned feet, and fierce, angry eyes that stared at you around his hooked beak.

  You would never guess that he had once been such a gentle guy. I guess he still is that guy. But he’s also a hawk.

  Tobias said in mock threat. Obviously, the crow did not understand thought-speak.

  Cassie smiled. “Tobias, I promise when we release this guy, we’ll take him far from your territory.”

  “I already told Melissa Chapman I wasn’t going,” Rachel said, going back to her own topic. “She went up to the camp this afternoon, right after school.”

  Marco, who had been lying back on a big bale of hay and staring at the ceiling, sat up. “Rachel doesn’t think we can survive without her for two days. After all, she’s the mighty. Xena: Warrior Princess.”

  It was Marco’s teasing name for Rachel. Rachel has a tendency to be very bold. Anytime there’s something borderline-insane that needs to be done, Rachel is always the first volunteer.

  “Marco? You have hay stuck in your hair,” Rachel said.

  He ignored her remark. “Rachel thinks if she’s not here and we have trouble, we’ll all just run screaming and yammering like a bunch of scared little kids.” He put on a phony-serious expression. “All I want to know is this: Why don’t you dress like Xena? I mean, the whole leather and sword thing would really work for you.”

  “Okay, shut up, I’ll go,” Rachel said. “I’ll go. I’m going. Just to get away from Marco for a couple days. I’ll catch the bus tomorrow morning.”

  “Think of me when you’re on the uneven parallel bars,” Marco said.

  But it wasn’t to Marco that Rachel looked. It was to Tobias. “You guys will stay out of trouble while I’m gone, won’t you?”

  Tobias said.

  I saw Cassie smile, and my gaze met hers. She gave a slight nod. Cassie has a theory that Rachel and Tobias like each other. Not that Rachel has ever said anything, even though Rachel and Cassie are best friends. Cassie thinks it’s sweet and romantic. I just think it’s kind of sad. I mean, as far as we know, Tobias will never be fully human again.

  “We should all just enjoy a nice, normal weekend,” I said. “Have normal fun. We’ve had plenty of danger and excitement.”

  Marco sent me a sly, resentful look. “Some of us are going to have more fun than some others. Some of us are going to pool parties that some of us were not invited to.” He shook his fists melo
dramatically at the ceiling. “Why? Why? What does that girl have against me?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Here we go again.”

  Cassie rescued me. “I need someone strong to come outside with me, help me carry in some new cages from the truck. Marco?”

  “Oh! My back!” Marco cried. “A sudden, shooting pain.”

  “I’m coming, Cassie,” I said. I gave Marco a shove, pushing him back on his bale of hay. “You are so pathetic.”

  “Don’t strain yourself,” Marco said with a cocky grin.

  Outside, out of the golden glow of the barn’s lights, it was getting dark. A full moon had risen, and you could just see the first stars off to the east.

  The pickup truck was piled precariously high with wire cages. I climbed up and began to untie the rope that held them in place.

  “It seems strange — Rachel going away — even for a couple days,” Cassie said. “And it seems even stranger that it would seem strange. I mean, it should be no big deal.”

  “Well, I guess when life turns completely crazy, it’s the normal things that start to seem strange.”

  Cassie nodded slowly. For a while she said nothing. She just stood there with her arms crossed, looking up at the moon.

  I climbed down off the truck. “What’s bothering you?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing. Just … a feeling. I don’t know. Bad dreams, I guess.”

  “I have those, too,” I said. “We all do. You can’t live through all this and not have it bother you. What’s the dream about? The ant thing?”

  We’d morphed ants once. We’d gone down into an ant tunnel and had been attacked by an enemy colony of ants. No one wanted to go through that, ever again. Not ever.

  “No, not the ants,” Cassie said. “At least not directly. It’s … it’s dumb. There’s … something. I don’t even know what it is. But it’s not a good thing. And it asks me to make a choice. In the dream I have to decide who lives and who dies.”

  I moved closer to Cassie and put my arm around her shoulder. There were goose bumps on her bare arms.