Animorphs - The Entire Series

Epicurius

Sep 7, 2021 19:52

Chapter 25

quote:

<Rachel!> Prince Jake said tersely. <Hit it again!>

WHAM!

Rachel hit the door again. No effect!

Slash!

A Hork-Bajir blade cut opened right across my chest. Not deep. Not painful. But frightening. Cassie was covered with matted blood. Marco was using only one arm. The other hung limp. Prince Jake was attacking, attacking, attacking with all the violent ferocity of his tiger morph, but he was tiring. Tobias was having difficulty maneuvering in a "sky" filled with floating cow carcasses.

<Hey! There's a keypad!> Rachel yelled.

I turned one stalk eye. There was a keypad. Not a Yeerk design, certainly. Too primitive. But then many of the people working at the facility were not Yeerks.

<Ax!> Jake yelled.

 I said. I backed away from the battle, yielding my place to Rachel.

I snapped my tail. My blade shattered the cover of the keypad. I reached in and twisted two wires together.

The door opened.

We plowed through the door. Bloody, exhausted, scared, injured.

Rachel closed the door behind us. I leaped to access the keypad on this side of the door. I ripped out every wire I could reach. Not an elegant solution, but effective.

<Geez, I could have done that,> Marco muttered.

A sudden silence descended. Through the door came only muffled sounds of hammering.

<They'll get through before long,> Tobias said.

<Visser Three will pour every Controller he has into this place,> Marco said. <He'll bring them down from orbit. He'll have thousands of them here!>

Only then did we look at the room we had entered.

It was, in most respects, identical to the room at the animal testing laboratory where the chimpanzees had been caged. Rows of cages.

Left and right. A concrete floor and white tile walls. Bright lights.

But there was one very significant difference. Where there had been chimpanzees, there were now humans.

Two dozen humans occupied the cages.

They did not move. They did not turn to look at us.

<Are they dead?> Rachel asked.

I said, <No. Bio-stasis, I believe. They can be released from bio-stasis and function normally.>

<What the ...> Cassie said. Then she reared up on her hind legs and placed her paws against the bars so she could look at a chart on the outside of the nearest cage. <Project Obedience,> she read. <Medication effective.>

She moved to the next cage. <Project Obedience. Medication effective.>

<What medication?> Tobias asked.

<Doesn't say. Just mentions "Formula Seventy-one.">

I spotted a computer console. Definitely Yeerkish in design, quite modern. By Yeerk standards. It was powered up, open, not protected. Someone had been using it quite recently.

<Project Obedience,> I said to the computer. <Define.>

It replied in a simulated human voice. "Project Obedience is the brilliant insight of our great and glorious leader, Visser Three, hero of the Taxxon rebellion, Scourge of the Andalite fleet, Conqueror of Earth."

<Good grief.> Rachel glanced at the motionless humans in the cages.

"Project Obedience is designed to use genetically engineered biological components to erase those portions of the human brain responsible for free will."

<Say what?> Marco said.

"Project Obedience has successfully tested Formula Seventy-one on chimpanzees, an Earth species related to humans. One hundred percent success has been achieved, thanks to the genius of Visser Three!"

<How exactly do you program a computer to kiss butt like that?> Tobias wondered. He was resting wearily atop one of the cages.

"And human testing has now shown Formula Seventy-one to be one hundred percent effective on humans as well! Phase Three is now ready: The widespread dissemination of Formula Seventy-one through the human food supply, followed by the rapid conquest of planet Earth!"

At least Visser Three's computer likes him.

Chapter 26

quote:

For a moment no one spoke.

Then Marco said, <They're gonna put some magic formula in meat and it's supposed to take away free will?>

 I said.

<That's insane!>

<If it worked it would allow the Yeerks to take over the entire human race without a fight,>

Rachel said.

<Reduce people to mindless automatons,> Prince Jake agreed.

<This is why we're getting killed? Over this?> Cassie demanded.

<What, this isn't serious enough for you?> Marco demanded angrily. 

Cassie laughed, almost pityingly. <Oh, please. No way this works.>

<One hundred percent effective.> Prince Jake countered.

<It's a lie,> Cassie said simply.

<You just don't want to face reality,> Rachel said harshly. 

<No,> Cassie said firmly. <They can't. Come on, we should unfreeze, or whatever, these people. We have to free them.>

<You can't free them,> Marco said. <Don't you get it? They've already lost their free will! We unfreeze them, they'll do whatever the Yeerks order them to do. Turn on us! Attack us.>

<We are NOT leaving humans in cages,> Cassie said angrily.

<They're not humans anymore,> Marco raged. <They might as well be Controllers. No free will. Slaves!>

<Now, you listen to me,> Cassie said. <No one, nothing can eliminate free will. Don't be ridiculous. Even with a Yeerk in your head, you have free will. Not the will to do, but the will to think, to believe, to hope or love or whatever.>

<This is worse than Yeerks, Cassie,> Prince Jake argued. <This goes deeper. One hundred percent effective.>

 I said. <However, one question does occur to me.>

<What?> Rachel sighed.

<If these humans have no free will, why are they in cages? And, indeed, why are they being held in bio-stasis?>

A sudden movement. At the far end of the room. A small, older human male wearing spotless white. And holding a Dracon beam.

"D-d-don't move! I'll sh-sh-sh-sh-sh -"

<Shoot,> Rachel supplied. <Don't move or you'll shoot.>

The human nodded. "Get-get-get out of here! Go back out there. You aren't allowed in here!"

 Prince Jake said calmly. Then, with a movement so swift and fluid that the human did not have time to blink, Prince Jake lunged and knocked the Dracon beam from the man's hand.

The weapon skidded away beneath a cage.

The human reacted strangely.

He began to cry. He collapsed into the chair before the computer console, placed his face in the palms of his hands, and made sounds of crying.

"He'll kill me! Of course, he was going to kill me, anyway. It was only a matter of time."

<"He" being Visser Three, I assume?> I said.

"Of course Visser Three," the man said bitterly. "Who else? This whole project is his idea."

<But it worked. So why would he kill you?> Rachel asked.

The man raised his head and rolled his eyes. "It didn't work. I faked the results. We all did. We had no choice! Visser Three kept demanding results, results, results! So we gave him results. Lies! Just a bunch of lies!"

<Ouch,> Marco said. <Swish! Three-pointer for Cassie.>

 Cassie said smugly.

"I wanted to tell him. I wanted to say, Look, it can't be done. You don't understand! There's no such thing as a human being without a free will. It's ... it's ... idiotic! But he's no scientist, much less a philosopher. You can't separate a sentient creature from free will. They are free will. Yeerk, Hork- Bajir, human, it doesn't matter. A sentient species has free will like an object has mass. You can't separate them! But Visser Three doesn't listen."

<Yes, we've noticed that,> Marco said drily. <He's really not a very nice person.>

<Is there another way out of here?> Prince Jake asked.

"I can't help you. He'll kill me," the man pleaded.

<You know, I'd probably feel sorry for you, except that guess what? You're scum! You locked these people up! These humans,> Cassie added. <We Andalites don't approve of that kind of behavior! They have families who must be tearing their ->

"No, no families that we know of. These are all street people. I'm not a fool. I knew we'd have to dispose of them in the end."

Cassie was at his throat before the human could draw his next breath.

She knocked him down on his back, pressed her two front paws down on his shoulders, and bared her teeth, inches from his face.

<We do not dispose of humans,> Cassie said. <We need a way out of here. Right now. Or we won't leave you to Visser Three. We'll unfreeze these humans and leave you to them.>

"Just let me escape with you," the man pleaded. "I'd rather die of Kandrona starvation than face Visser Three."

WHAM!

WHAM!

Someone was ramming a very large, very heavy object against the outer door.

<They'll bring up some Dracon beams soon,> Marco warned. <No time!>

<We are not leaving these people behind,> Cassie said.

<No. We're not,> Prince Jake agreed. <Ax. Rachel. And me, at the door. Everyone else, bust these people loose.>

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

The door rattled. Bent inward.

Looking back with my stalk eyes, I saw the caged humans begin to stir. Cassie turned off the biostasis.

The humans moved around in their cages.

"Animals! That's a bear!" one man cried.

"Yeah, well, what's that?" a woman said, pointing at me.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

<Everyone climb out of the cages. We're getting out of here,> Prince Jake ordered.

"Says who?" a gnarled old man demanded.

<Says no one,> Cassie said gently. <Your choice. Stay or go.>

"Yeah? Well, this shelter is terrible. I'm going back to the Salvation Army," the man said.

<Hmmm,> Cassie said. 

<You are going to gloat about this forever, aren't you?> Marco asked her.

<Yes. I am.>

<Okay, how do we get out of here?> Prince Jake asked the Controller scientist.

"Follow me."

We formed a bizarre parade. Cassie and me, with the scientist up front. A dozen shabby, confused, but free humans. And bringing up the rear, tensed and ready for the Yeerks to pour into the room, the rest of my friends.

 I told the scientist. <A scientific inquiry.>

"Andalites," he said without any particular anger. "At least your people genuinely appreciate science."

<The chimpanzees. You said your formula was ineffective because sentience cannot be separated from free will. So I must ask: Did the formula work on the chimpanzees? Are they, in fact, sentient?>

"The chimpanzees? The formula had no effect. But was it because their will remained unaffected? Or merely because there was no free will to affect? We do not know."

 Cassie said.

So Visser Three, bad boss. Lets just move to the last chapter.

Chapter 27

quote:

"In the annals of stupid, screwed-up, pointless missions that was the stupidest, most pointless of them all," Marco said.

It was the next day. We were at the mall. In the food court.

A food court is a sort of temple of exquisite foods. I was there in human morph, naturally. Meaning that I had a mouth. Tobias was also human.

And soon, very soon, as soon as Rachel came back from standing in the lines, I would have a delicious cinnamon bun.

"I mean, all this trouble for what? For a Yeerk plot that was already a total failure. We could have stayed home."

"We set some chimpanzees free," Cassie said. "And some humans, too, which, Marco, is even better."

Marco laughed. "Oh come on, you know you're a hopeless tree-hugging animal nut. Come on. You're wearing Birkenstocks right now, aren't you? Confess."

Rachel came back carrying a tray of foods. Including my delicious, incredible cinnamon bun.

She handed various items to my friends.

Then, at last ... the bun!

I began to eat it, taking care not to eat the paper plate as well, since I have learned that is considered improper.

"Here's your burger, Marco," Rachel said.

"Oh! I can't believe this. A burger?" Cassie said. "After Ax was nearly carved up? After being in that slaughterhouse?"

Marco opened his mouth wide and took a very large bite. He chewed as we all watched. The burger appeared to be juicy, with a great deal of tasty grease.

Rachel tapped her fingers on the table and stared at Marco with an indecipherable expression.

Prince Jake also stared.

"Be right back," Rachel said and stood up.

"Get me one, too," Prince Jake said. "Extra pickles."

"Mmmfff!" I said, unable to make proper mouth sounds because of the large wad of unchewed cinnamon bun.

"I think that makes three," Prince Jake said.

So lets talk about why the ghostwriter only wrote one book in the series. As I mentioned before, the way the ghostwriting worked was that Applegate would write an outline and then send it to the ghostwriter. The ghostwriter then would write the story based on the outline, then send it to Applegate who would make any edits to it. This was done with a pretty tight timeframe, because Scholastic was expecting a book a month so that it could include them in their monthly school book club sales. So, the disadvantage of having a ghostwriter for Applegate and Grant was that they lost a bunch of creative control over their characters.

Now, it's very subtle, so you might not have noticed, but this book takes a stance on animal testing and vegetarianism. This apparently upset Applegate a bunch. Applegate isn't a vegetarian, and got annoyed that the ghostwriter was using her characters as a mouthpiece for it. So, she rewrote the last chapter and said she didn't want Garvey to ghostwrite any more of her books, or so the story goes. Here's Applegate's comments:

quote:

"I took some grief for [the last chapter] from the fans. A fair number were upset that I ended with all of the Animorphs ordering hamburgers. I am in favor of being as humane as possible in dealing with livestock, but I'm not a vegetarian. I kind of think that I'll start worrying about the treatment of cows more once there are no more political prisoners, no more children dying of curable diseases, and no more fanatics blowing themselves up to murder civilians."

The tragedy here is that, her politics aside, Garvey seems, from this book, at least, to be a good writer. Ax's sudden TV addiction was funny, the banter and arguments between the Animorphs were good, and while the pacing was bad, there was a lot I liked about the book.

Next book is book 29, The Sickness, and it's a Cassie book, ghostwritten by Melinda Metz.

Edna Mode

Sep 7, 2021 21:10

That's odd that Applegate didn't like it since it seemed like every character's reaction to the animal testing was accurate to their personalities. And even if you're not a vegetarian I can't imagine visiting a slaughterhouse gives you a big appetite for meat.

Rochallor

Sep 7, 2021 21:53

It's odd that this was enough to get a ghostwriter bounced because I don't think it's that much of a polemic. It broaches the topics of animal testing and slaughterhouses, but it doesn't really have a whole lot to say beyond "yeah, being a cow in a slaughterhouse would probably suck." Even if it was rewritten, the last chapter does fit in pretty well: yeah, I guess the meat industry kinda sucks, but hamburgers are still delicious.

The only really bad part is how contrived the setup is to get them into the slaughterhouse in the first place. Though this is the same Animorphs who brought you the "swim up a space ship tube" plan.

Comrade Blyatlov

Sep 7, 2021 21:55

It feels like there's a slight meta commentary on "crisis of the week" type storyline too, since they outright acknowledge they could have just not gone and had zero impact on anything.

OctaviusBeaver

Sep 7, 2021 22:17

I think Ax was a little bit too funny and clueless in this one. He always has misunderstandings about humans, but it went so far in this one that he came off as kind of dumb. Ax is young but he's also a trained soldier which gave him a different perspective on things in his last books that I don't think really came through here.

freebooter

Sep 7, 2021 22:30

Found Applegate's response really surprising - like Edna said it's not exactly an unhinged rant. Would be really interesting to see what the original final chapter looked like, if it had them all swearing off meat forever or something.

Epicurius posted:

Next book is book 29, The Sickness, and it's a Cassie book, ghostwritten by Melinda Metz.

I recall this one being excellent.

GodFish

Sep 7, 2021 22:42

The ending really ties the book together, I thought this one was great.

Fuschia tude

Sep 7, 2021 22:54

Epicurius posted:

The tragedy here is that, her politics aside, Garvey seems, from this book, at least, to be a good writer. Ax's sudden TV addiction was funny, the banter and arguments between the Animorphs were good, and while the pacing was bad, there was a lot I liked about the book.

Edna Mode posted:

That's odd that Applegate didn't like it since it seemed like every character's reaction to the animal testing was accurate to their personalities. And even if you're not a vegetarian I can't imagine visiting a slaughterhouse gives you a big appetite for meat.

Rochallor posted:

It's odd that this was enough to get a ghostwriter bounced because I don't think it's that much of a polemic. It broaches the topics of animal testing and slaughterhouses, but it doesn't really have a whole lot to say beyond "yeah, being a cow in a slaughterhouse would probably suck." Even if it was rewritten, the last chapter does fit in pretty well: yeah, I guess the meat industry kinda sucks, but hamburgers are still delicious.

The only really bad part is how contrived the setup is to get them into the slaughterhouse in the first place. Though this is the same Animorphs who brought you the "swim up a space ship tube" plan.

The thing is, if the rewrote story is true, we don't at all know it was limited to the final chapter. It could have needed some extensive rewrites throughout, say to fix these character issues or remove more content she objected to.

Grant and Applegate have said they handled the whole ghostwriting situation badly. They were just winging it the whole time, with no prior experience managing a stable of authors; the 3-week timeline (in the 90s I believe they were still using hard copies sent via the mail, which adds even more delay) meant they barely had any wiggle room to bounce versions back and forth, and if after a short time the author didn't seem to be getting it, they just took over and rewrote it themselves. IIRC the lone Applegate-credited book before the very end of the series was the result of her/their deciding one manuscript was just unsalvageable, pitching it, and starting over from scratch.

freebooter posted:

Found Applegate's response really surprising - like Edna said it's not exactly an unhinged rant. Would be really interesting to see what the original final chapter looked like, if it had them all swearing off meat forever or something.

I bet it's something along these lines.

Cythereal

Sep 8, 2021 04:41

I liked this one, the author had a good knack for comedy.

ANOTHER SCORCHER

Sep 8, 2021 10:16

quote:

We formed a bizarre parade. Cassie and me, with the scientist up front. A dozen shabby, confused, but free humans. And bringing up the rear, tensed and ready for the Yeerks to pour into the room, the rest of my friends.

Am I incorrect or is the transition from this to the next chapter, with no explanation of how the Animorphs escaped being trapped with Visser 3 and an army about to pour in the room, incredibly bizarre?

GodFish

Sep 8, 2021 11:06

It was a really good door :v:

e X

Sep 8, 2021 13:28

Say Epicurius, are there any information how the original chapters went.

Ravenfood

Sep 8, 2021 14:24

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

Am I incorrect or is the transition from this to the next chapter, with no explanation of how the Animorphs escaped being trapped with Visser 3 and an army about to pour in the room, incredibly bizarre?

It felt a lot like a TV show, where once everyone knows the main characters can morph to something small and fly away safely, you don't need to see it because you've seen it for the last 15 episodes. Not sure how the newly unfrozen humans made it out though! :v:

Also, I feel kind of bad for the ghostwriter. If you told me you wanted me to write a story from the POV of a herbivore quadriped alien with a strongly environmentalist friend who can morph to animals about breaking into a chimp testing center and a slaughterhouse to stop a plan to remove free will from sentient being while aliens who are noted for their greed and disregard for the environment and are allied with rapaciously hungry centipede-things mastermind it all, I'd assume you wanted at least a hint of an agenda in there too, to be honest.

Epicurius

Sep 8, 2021 14:37

e X posted:

Say Epicurius, are there any information how the original chapters went.

I looked, but wasn't able to find anything, so if anyone else can, I'd appreciate it.

Comrade Blyatlov

Sep 8, 2021 14:48

Epicurius posted:

I looked, but wasn't able to find anything, so if anyone else can, I'd appreciate it.

Have you linked Applegate to this thread? I honestly think you should.

Tree Bucket

Sep 8, 2021 16:16

Ravenfood posted:

Also, I feel kind of bad for the ghostwriter. If you told me you wanted me to write a story from the POV of a herbivore quadriped alien with a strongly environmentalist friend who can morph to animals about breaking into a chimp testing center and a slaughterhouse to stop a plan to remove free will from sentient being while aliens who are noted for their greed and disregard for the environment and are allied with rapaciously hungry centipede-things mastermind it all, I'd assume you wanted at least a hint of an agenda in there too, to be honest.

...good point.

Fuschia tude

Sep 8, 2021 16:30

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Have you linked Applegate to this thread? I honestly think you should.

I'm not sure about that, or what you'd expect to happen.

Honestly, Grant has kind of become the main Animorphs-related face of the duo in recent years, giving interviews and going on podcasts about the series. I think that's mostly because his books in the last couple decades have mainly been YA and adult, so he has an older audience, many of whom remember Animorphs fondly. Meanwhile Applegate has seen a ton of success writing children's books in recent years, so her audience is again primarily children and pre-teens, and her public persona and social media presence and public appearances are primarily oriented towards that and those newer series. When they're not doing joint promo for Grine's comics, of course.

Epicurius

Sep 8, 2021 16:37

I don't really know what Applegate or Grant would think of the thread, or even how to approach them about it.

Tree Bucket

Sep 8, 2021 19:20

Stand in front of a mirror at midnight and say "thermals, thermals, THERMALS"

Epicurius

Sep 8, 2021 19:26

Tree Bucket posted:

Stand in front of a mirror at midnight and say "thermals, thermals, THERMALS"

Great, I just summoned Visser Three, and he's spent the past hour ranting at me about how terrible Andalite bandits are, called me a fool five times, threatened my life twice, and demanded I create an energy field over the city that will convert the sun's rays to Kandrona rays.

This was the worst advice ever, Tree Bucket!

Epicurius

Sep 8, 2021 19:28

Now we know that we shouldn't trust Tree Bucket for advice about the supernatural, it's time to move on to the next book.

Animorphs: Book 29-The Sickness
Ghostwritten by Melinda Metz.

Melinda Metz is an accomplished young adult author. In addition to this, she also wrote licensed fiction for the Buffy universe and the Everwood universe (2 books in the first, 4 in the second), some stand alone fiction, and the series Fingerprints, which is about a psychic girl who can hear her person's thoughts if she touches their fingerprints. If you've heard of her, though, it's probably for her ten book series Roswell High, about a bunch of alien teenagers disguised as human who are going to school in Roswell, New Mexico. It's been made into two tv series....Roswell, from 1999-2002, and Roswell, New Mexico, from 2019-the present. This is one of two books she's written for Animorphs.

Chapter 1

quote:

]My name is Cassie.

I wish I could tell you my whole name. Because that would mean I was a nice, normal girl. But I'm not either one. Not nice. Not normal.

Okay, my friends think I'm nice. Marco is always calling me a tree-hugger. And even though I don't actually hug trees, I do care about them. Which makes me nice, right? A girl who cares about trees can't be anything but nice.

Unless that girl has also ripped a living creature's throat out with her bare teeth. Which I have. I was in wolf morph, deep in battle. Seven Hork-Bajir against six of us. Jake gave the order to retreat. And either right before he said it, or right after, I yanked the throat out of the Hork-Bajir I was fighting.

I hope it was right before. I hope that I didn't go in for the kill when I could have just run. But I'm not sure.

That's why I don't think I qualify as nice. You've probably already gotten a clue why I don't qualify as normal.

Here's the short version: An Andalite prince named Elfangor gave the power to morph to me and four of my friends. He knew he was about to die, and he didn't want to leave Earth defenseless against the Yeerk invasion.

He showed us a small blue box. We pressed our hands against it. And we were changed.

This morphing cube was lost for a while. Now we have it again. We've used it once, to add an Animorph to our group.

Then we had to subtract that new Animorph. And we've kept the blue box hidden ever since.

Since that night in the construction site, since that change, the five of us, plus Elfangor's younger brother, have been fighting the Yeerks.

Yeerks are parasites. A Yeerk enters a host through the ear canal, flattens itself out on the brain, and takes over completely. The host creature can't scratch an itch unless the Yeerk wants it to. We call a being who has been taken over that way a Controller.

You must be thinking the Yeerks are pure evil. But let me tell you what it's like to be a Yeerk who isn't in a host. Yeerks are basically gray slugs. No hands, no legs, no eyes, no ears.

If a Yeerk wants to be free, free to really move, free to see the beauty of the world around it, free to hear music or even the sound of rain on leaves, if a Yeerk wants that, it has to have a host. If a

Yeerk wants to be free, it has to make another living creature a slave.

Not an easy choice, is it?

I know something about hard choices. I've made a lot of them since I became an Animorph. And one of the hardest was whether I wanted to be an Animorph at all. Because I know that when - if - this whole thing is over, it may be too late for me to be either nice or normal ever again.

Like I said, I know something about hard choices.

"So, Cassie, here's your choice. If you were on a desert island, who would you want to be with you - Baby Spice or Marco?" Rachel asked as we sat down at our usual lunch table.

"Huh?" What else could I say to that question?

"It's the desert island game," Rachel answered. "You pick two annoying people. Then you have to choose which of them you'd rather be on a desert island with."

I glanced across the cafeteria at Marco. He and Jake were sitting at a table by the windows.

"Marco is not -" I began.

Rachel grabbed me by the arm. "Hey, shush. Listen to Allison and Brittany," she whispered. I pulled my yogurt from my backpack and tried to eavesdrop without looking like I was eavesdropping. Allison and Brittany were sitting at the other end of our table.

"Maybe I should ask him to the dance," Allison said.

This is what Rachel wanted me to hear?

"Do it," Brittany urged. "Jake has gotten so cute."

Wait. Did she say Jake? The Jake? Or some other Jake?

I shot a glance at Brittany and Allison. They both stared over at Jake. As in Jake, the leader of the Animorphs. As in my Jake.

Now you're probably picturing us walking around school hand-in-hand, maybe kissing by the lockers before class. But it's not like that. It's more an inside kind of thing. We've only kissed one time. Although I would like it to happen again.

But most people at school don't have a clue we're together. Obviously.

"Hey, Allison. Hey, listen up." Allison looked over and Rachel shook her head slowly. "Uh-uh. Don't even think about it. Jake's with Cassie."

My face got hot as both Brittany and Allison started checking me out. I'm not beautiful like Rachel. And I admit I sometimes have a little bird poop on my jeans. I spend a lot of time helping my dad take care of the animals at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center he has out in our barn, and birds, being birds, will poop.

But that stuff doesn't matter to Jake. I know how he feels about me.

Allison tossed her long red ponytail over her shoulder. "It doesn't look like Cassie and Jake are together," she told Rachel. "He's sitting over there. She's here. There, here. Waaayyy over there, as opposed to right here."

"Yeah," Brittany chimed in. "Has Jake even asked her to the dance?"

They didn't even ask me their questions. They acted like I was invisible. I'm used to that. Rachel is one of these people who seem to go through life with a spotlight focused on them at all times.

"The dance? Of course he asked her to the dance," Rachel said.

Then she stood up and grabbed my yogurt in one hand and my backpack in the other. "Allison, Brittany, we, Cassie and I, are going over there. Waaayyy over there."

Rachel marched across the cafeteria toward Marco and Jake. I had no choice but to follow.

"You and my cousin make me want to hurl," she said over her shoulder. "Jake can face death every day, but he can't manage to ask a girl to a dance. And you're no better."

"Me? What am I supposed to do?" I protested.

"Duh. Even Allison the Airhead knows," Rachel said.

Rachel sat down next to Marco. She put my yogurt down next to Jake. I took the hint and sat next to him.

"We are all going to the dance Thursday night," Rachel informed Jake. "And you are taking Cassie."

Jake choked on his macaroni and beef. Marco started banging him on the back.

"So, Rachel, I guess that means you need a date, too, huh?" Marco said. "I could make time in my busy schedule."

"Look at that! A flying pig!" Rachel exclaimed. Then, "Oh, sorry, my mistake. I thought for a minute I saw a flying pig. But I didn't. And that's the only time I would go out with you."

Jake was recovering. His face was red. I waited for him to tell them we wouldn't be going to the dance. I thought he'd say that we had to spend that night doing some kind of Yeerk surveillance or something.

But Jake just smiled at me. "We could use a night doing something nice and normal."

"Oh, man," Marco moaned.

"What?"

"Every time we try to do something nice and normal it ends up turning out nasty and weird," he said. "Every single time."

This chapter has the standard "I can't tell you who I am or where I live" opening, Rachel demanding that Jake be a good boyfriend, and Marco proving he knows the series better than any of us.

I also like Cassie's self aware understanding, "Because I know that when - if - this whole thing is over, it may be too late for me to be either nice or normal ever again." Also, note Jake's last comment there. Same language of "nice and normal"

Chapter 2

quote:

The dance.

Picture loud music. Picture chips and dip and a bowl of trail mix. Picture the lights low, the decorations limp, the teachers standing outside the rest rooms discussing whether there would be a teachers' strike.

Picture guys mostly with guys, girls mostly with girls. But with lots of eye contact.

Not my kind of place, really. Rachel had forced me to wear a dress. She had dragged me through the mall, dressing me up like her own personal Barbie doll.

I had on shoes I could never run in. I was even wearing makeup.

I felt like the largest, most obvious dweeb in the history of dweebs.

"Ax-man, someone is checking you out," Marco said.

I wasn't surprised that Ax was getting some attention. His human morph is cute. More pretty than cute, really.

"No way. She's looking at me," Tobias said. He shot a quick look at Rachel to see how she liked the idea of another girl giving him the eye.

"Uh-huh. Maybe after the dance you could take her back to your tree," Rachel said, batting her eyes at Tobias.

Tobias laughed. "Hey, the chicks go wild for the feathers, bay-beee." He laughed again. "Sorry. Ax had Austin Powers on his TV last night."

I looked at Allison. Marco was right. She was staring at Ax. I guess she figured if she couldn't have Jake, she'd go for the cute new boy.

Not that Tobias isn't cute. And he might as well be a new boy. He went to our school for a while, back when he was human. Back before he was trapped in his red-tailed hawk morph.

Now no one seemed to recognize him. But, then, he's totally different from the kid bullies used to pick on. He doesn't project those I'm-helpless-so-come-and-terrorize-me vibes at all anymore.

Partly that comes from living a life where even the good times are dangerous. Partly it's that he's sort of forgotten how to express emotions with his face. Smiling when he's happy just isn't natural to him anymore, because hawks don't smile. Now when people look at Tobias, they notice the strangeness of his blank face, not the face itself. Even when he laughs he doesn't really smile.

"Checking me out? What does that mean?" Ax asked.

"It means that girl over there is warm for your form," Marco told him. "It means she wants your body."

Ax started to look a little nervous. "My bod-deee? Body, body, bawd-eee?"

Ax normally does not have a mouth. In human morph, with a mouth, Ax can be ... unusual.

"She's making her move," Marco told Ax. "Although if you want to get rid of her just try saying 'bod-eee' like that a few times."

"Buh-dee. B-dee," Ax said, continuing to play with the sound.

Of course if Allison knew what Ax really looks like, she'd run screaming in the other direction.

Ax's Andalite body is strange. Strange and beautiful and intimidating, too. Picture this: a blueand- tan deer-like body, a giant scorpion tail, a pair of small arms, a humanoid head with no mouth, and two extra eyeballs mounted on stalks.

Allison stopped in front of Ax. She smiled and tossed her red hair around.

"Hi. I wanted to know if you, you know, want to dance?" Allison said.

Ax nodded. "I would like to shuffle my artificial hooves to the music with you. But you cannot have my body. My bod. Dee. My bo. Dee."

Allison backed away. "Ah. Oh. You know what? I hear my friend calling me," she said. Then bolted.

A wild burst of laughter escaped my mouth. I couldn't help myself. The expression on Allison's face -

"Bo. Dee," Ax repeated. "I enjoy the way my tongue hits the front of my mouth when I say that. Dee. Oh! Food! Do they possess the delightful flavors of grease, salt, and sugar here?"

Ax also likes to use his mouth to eat. To a dangerous extent.

Sometimes when I watch Ax experiencing the sense of taste I find myself thinking about the Yeerks. When they enter a host they get hit with thousands of new sensations.

I can hardly wrap my mind around what it must feel like. I have to narrow it down for myself. I'll pick one thing, like color. Then I'll close my eyes and try to imagine I have never seen any color of any kind.

When I open my eyes the array of colors around me makes me dizzy. And color is only one part of sight. And sight is only one of the new senses Yeerks experience in a host.

I didn't bother telling my friends what I was thinking about. None of them are all that interested in considering the joys a Yeerk can find in a host. Not that I blame them.

Yeerks are the enemy. It's easier for us to do our job if we see them as evil. Pure evil.

I shook my head and told myself that a dance wasn't the time to get all philosophical. Especially my first real kind of date with Jake. A date involving an actual dress. And makeup. I tuned back in to the conversation.

"Baby Spice or Oprah?" Marco was saying, looking thoughtfully at Rachel.

"What do you have against Oprah?"

"She's on my list of 'people I've heard way too much about.'"

"You have an actual list?" Tobias asked skeptically.

I smiled. It was just dumb, normal, pointless conversation. It was nice to be normal sometimes. Jake must have felt the same way. Our eyes met. "Want to dance?"

"I'm not very good," I said.

"I dance like a lumberjack," Jake said.

"Like a lumberjack who's just chopped off one of his own legs," Marco interjected helpfully. "Like a one-legged lumberjack whose remaining leg is a tree stump and -"

Jake grabbed my hand and pulled me out onto the dance floor. The dance floor formerly known as the basketball court. And then I was dancing. With Jake.

I gave a little twirl of happiness. Is it horrible to admit that I hoped everyone was watching?

Especially Allison?

Even if it's horrible, it's true. I liked the idea of everyone knowing that I, Cassie of the sometimes- bird-pooped jeans, was with Jake.

Jake smiled at me. He has a great smile, even though it always looks a little strange on his face.

Just because he's usually so intense, making life-and-death decisions for us all. Making more hard choices than I ever have to make.

I smiled back, and gave another twirl. I spotted Ax, Marco, Rachel, and Tobias dancing in a group nearby. I hoped that Rachel and Tobias got a chance to break away and have a dance by themselves.

I tried to catch Rachel's eye. I thought maybe I could give her some kind of signal that she and Tobias shouldn't spend the whole night hanging with Ax and Marco.

But Rachel's gaze was locked on Ax. As I watched, an expression of amazed horror crossed her face.

What was wrong? I jerked my eyes to Ax, and felt my own face twist into an expression that mirrored Rachel's.

Ax's head! A lump on the top of Ax's head was throbbing to the music.

"We have a problem," I whispered to Jake.

You don't know. Maybe Ax is really into the music. And, this does sort of explore Cassie's feelings towards Jake.

Also, some random thoughts.....first, Ax is probably one of the 6 people on Earth who really is concerned that somebody else wants his body. Also, if there were a teacher's strike, what does the vice-principal do in that situation. Would Chapman go on strike, or would he be part of the school board's negotiation team. And how would he explain any of this to Visser Three, given that Visser Three's concept of a strike is what he does to decapitate an underling with his tail?

By the way, sorry if you got an incomplete post before. I was trying to switch windows with the keyboard and accidentally hit the post button.

Remalle

Sep 8, 2021 19:47

A lot of these middle-of-the-series books blend together, but I do remember that I'm down with this book.

Comrade Blyatlov

Sep 8, 2021 19:52

Fuschia tude posted:

I'm not sure about that, or what you'd expect to happen.

Honestly, Grant has kind of become the main Animorphs-related face of the duo in recent years, giving interviews and going on podcasts about the series. I think that's mostly because his books in the last couple decades have mainly been YA and adult, so he has an older audience, many of whom remember Animorphs fondly. Meanwhile Applegate has seen a ton of success writing children's books in recent years, so her audience is again primarily children and pre-teens, and her public persona and social media presence and public appearances are primarily oriented towards that and those newer series. When they're not doing joint promo for Grine's comics, of course.

I just want them to chime in with their thoughts and tidbits :shrug:

Piell

Sep 8, 2021 19:53

This is the first book that I don't think I have a memory of so I guess this is about where I started dropping off the series.

HisMajestyBOB

Sep 8, 2021 21:12

I like this chapter :3:

HIJK

Sep 8, 2021 21:49

the tree hugger line stuck with me all this time but I didn't remember the context.

Fuschia tude

Sep 9, 2021 02:14

Piell posted:

This is the first book that I don't think I have a memory of so I guess this is about where I started dropping off the series.

Yeah, knowing what I know about this book, I'm positive I didn't read it. I think Visser might be the only one upcoming I have read at this point, and that was probably because I was given it for Christmas that year or something.

Tree Bucket

Sep 9, 2021 03:59

"Even when he laughs he doesn't really smile."
Some genius at Scholastic looked at lines like that and thought, "what? Kids aren't gonna wanna identify with that troubled mystery kid who harbours a tortured inner world! Give him less books!!"

Epicurius posted:

Now we know that we shouldn't trust Tree Bucket for advice about the supernatural, it's time to move on to the next book.

Yeah, that's fair enough.

ANOTHER SCORCHER

Sep 9, 2021 10:07

This book is one of my favorites, and definitely top tier among the ghostwritten ones. Finding out the author was a successful sci-fi YA writer in her own right is unsurprising.

Epicurius

Sep 9, 2021 20:09

Chapter 3

quote:

Jake and I shoved our way through the mass of bopping, spinning, shaking bodies. By the time we got to the group, Marco had his flannel shirt off. He started to fold the shirt into a bandana just as - Boing!

Ax's eye stalk burst out of the lump.

I did a quick scan of the gym. Had anyone seen? No. Everyone was busy dancing. Or hoping someone would ask them to dance. Or psyching themselves up to ask someone to dance.

Rachel grabbed the shirt out of Marco's hands and wrapped it around Ax's head.

And here's the thing about Rachel, even in a crisis: The bandana actually looked good.

"Ax, you're starting to demorph. You've got to stop," Jake told him.

Ax giggled. "Demorph. Dee, dee. That is a very pleasant mouth sound. Dee!"

"He's delirious," I said. I felt the adrenaline start to pump through my body. This was a very bad situation here.

"Another dee," Ax said happily, swaying.

I heard a soft shushing sound. And a patch of blue fur sprouted on Ax's neck.

"Equipment room should be empty," Jake said. "To the right of the bleachers. Far side. Move, move, move!"

We formed a circle around Ax and headed across the dark, noisy gym as fast as we could.

We reached the equipment-room door. I grabbed the doorknob. Turned it.

Locked.

"Out the guys' locker-room windows," Marco said.

"Two teachers always supervising in there," Jake reminded him.

"Not in the girls'," Rachel told him.

"Go straight behind the punch table. The line in front will give us some cover," Jake ordered.

"You're telling me there's no teachers monitoring the girls' room?" Marco demanded. "That is so unfair!"

We squeezed between the punch table and the wall, all of us keeping one hand on Ax.

"We'll meet up in the parking lot," Jake said when we reached the locker room. He, Marco, and Tobias let go of Ax and turned toward the main exit.

I jerked open the door. And Brittany and Allison walked out in a cloud of Love's Baby Soft perfume.

"She wants my body! BDEEE! BDEEE!" Ax screeched in terror. He broke away from me and Rachel and bolted for the main exit.

"He's heading toward Chapman and Mr. Tidwell," Rachel cried.

Vice Principal Chapman. A known Controller. And Mr. Tidwell. The strictest teacher in the school.

We all tore after Ax. We caught up to him just as Chapman grabbed him by the arm.

Ax's flannel-shirt turban had gotten loose during his dash across the gym. One shake of his head could send the shirt fluttering to the floor.

Giving Chapman a good look at Ax's eye stalk. A fatal look.

"He's obviously been drinking," Mr. Tidwell said. "I know this boy. I'll call his parents."

Before Chapman could answer, Mr. Tidwell marched Ax out of the gym and into the hallway. We started after them.

Chapman blocked us. "No one is allowed outside the gym until the dance is over unless a parent gives permission."

"We're his friends. We have his medication," I blurted. A delirious Ax alone with Mr. Tidwell - that couldn't happen.

Chapman studied us for a moment.

"Two minutes," he said. He stepped aside and we slammed through the door.

We acted without hesitation. Rachel and Marco squeezed between Ax and Mr. Tidwell. Jake, Tobias, and I pulled Ax down the hall to the drinking fountain and shoved his head down. We huddled close, trying to block Mr. Tidwell's view with our bodies.

I took a quick glance at Mr. Tidwell. How were Rachel and Marco doing?

They stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of Mr. Tidwell, keeping some hallway between him and Ax. At least for now.

"He's from out of town," I heard Rachel say as I turned back to Ax. "Jake knows what to do."

"He takes special pills," Marco added desperately. "For narcolepsy. Or epilepsy. Some kind of epsy.""

In a few minutes he'll be fine," Rachel promised.

I shot another look their way. Mr. Tidwell hadn't budged. He was staring straight toward Ax.

I leaned even closer to Ax and whispered in his ear. "Ax, can you get your human morph all the way back? At least until we make it outside?"

Ax didn't answer. His lips were melting together.

"Mr. Tidwell! Some guys in the bathroom have cherry bombs. They're going to blow the lids off all the toilets!" Marco yelled. "It'll be a toilet massacre!"

Tidwell still hadn't taken a step back toward the gym. But Rachel and Marco had kept him from moving toward us. So far.

Two legs shot out of Ax's chest.

KA-BANG. KA-BANG. The hooves slammed against the tile wall over the drinking fountain.

Chinkle, plop, chinkle. Tile and plaster rained down onto the metal fountain.

Tidwell might not have seen that. But he had to have heard it.

"See?" Marco yelled. "Cherry bombs everywhere!"

Shloop. Shloop. Ax's legs sucked back into his chest.

P-p-pop. His lips separated.

Ax looked like a regular kid again. "The medicine is kicking in," I called. I shot a frantic glance at Mr. Tidwell.

"We should get him home,"' Jake said loudly. Then he lowered his voice. "Now we walk him past Tidwell and hope Ax can keep it together until we get outside."

Jake started down the hall first. Tobias and I each took one of Ax's arms and fell in behind.

It was going to work. Ax wasn't babbling or demorphing. Mr. Tidwell wasn't yelling for our parents' phone numbers.

In another three steps, we'd reach him. Then in two more steps we'd be past him.

One. Two.

Riiiip.

I did not like that sound. I did not like it at all.

I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Ax's giant scorpion tail tear through his pants, swing to the left - and knock Mr. Tidwell on his butt.

Axcould not keep it together until they got outside. So, yea, this is pretty bad.

Chapter 4

quote:

I rushed over to Mr. Tidwell and helped him up.

"Are you okay?" I asked. At least Ax caught him with the side of the blade. Otherwise Mr. Tidwell's head might be staring up from the floor at his own body.

Mr. Tidwell didn't answer. He just took me by the elbow and led me down the hall away from the others.

What was he doing? What did he want with me? The adrenaline had started pumping back in the gym. Now I could practically feel it slamming through my veins.

I shot a look over my shoulder. Marco and Tobias huddled around Ax. Jake was holding Rachel back from going after us. "Don't say anything," he mouthed to me.

I knew what was going through Jake's mind. It was going through mine, as well: Tidwell could not know. Could not. No matter the price.

"We really should get our friend -" I began when Mr. Tidwell pulled me to a stop.

"Don't. I know your friend is an Andalite," he told me, his voice calm and matter-of-fact.

My mouth went dry. My throat, too. Just became a total desert. I wanted to tell Mr. Tidwell that I had no idea what he was talking about. But I couldn't get out a word.

"I also know who you are and what you are. All of you," Mr. Tidwell continued.

Sweat popped out on my hands, under my arms, and down the center of my back. It was like all the moisture from my mouth and throat had migrated. Migrated and multiplied.

Mr. Tidwell was a Controller. No question about that. And that meant he could not walk away.

Could not live to hurt us, to destroy us.

I prepared to morph.

I heard Ax's hooves slam into the wall again. But I didn't take my eyes off Mr. Tidwell.

He looked so ordinary. Thinning gray-brown hair. A little bit of a paunch. Wire-rim glasses. Medium-blue eyes.

But that's the thing with Controllers: They look like anyone. They are anyone.

"I am Illim. I control Mr. Tidwell. We are both part of the Yeerk peace movement. We have a message for you from Aftran Nine Four Two," he continued.

I turned and gave Jake an I'm-okay-give-me-a-minute signal. I needed to hear what Mr. Tidwell had to say.

He knew Aftran. Maybe that meant Mr. Tidwell was a friend, too. Make that Illim, the Yeerk inside Mr. Tidwell's head, because that's really who I was talking to. I felt the muscles in my shoulders relax the tiniest bit.

Aftran is the Yeerk who made me think about Yeerks in a different way. Aftran made me realize that Yeerks are individuals, no two alike. She forced me to accept that all Yeerks are not our enemies.

The night I ripped the throat out of the Hork-Bajir, I also killed Aftran's brother. Aftran's brother was the Yeerk controlling the Hork-Bajir.

Aftran, in the body of Karen, her little girl host, had tracked me down, planning to turn me over to Visser Three.

Long story short: I saved her life. She saved my life. And then Aftran willingly returned to life as a blind, helpless, sluglike creature. She sacrificed her freedom to free Karen.

"Dee! Buh-DEE!" Ax bellowed, jerking me out of my thoughts.

I cleared my throat. "What message?"

"Aftran has been taken by Yeerk security," he answered.

"When?" I demanded. "Is she okay? What has she told them? Why didn't you find me sooner?"

Mr. Tidwell held up both hands. "Aftran is unharmed, for now. She hasn't been questioned yet," he told me. "Visser Three wants to handle the interrogation personally."

A cold lump formed in my stomach. Interrogation by Visser Three meant torture. I was sure Aftran would hold out as long as she could. But she would end up telling the Visser everything she knew. Which was everything I knew. Aftran had been inside my head. She had unlocked all my memories. She knew all there was to know about the Animorphs.

"When?" I asked. I wrapped my arms around myself.

I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. Ax's legs were slamming out of his chest and getting sucked back in. Over and over.

"The interrogation will be held in the next few days," Mr. Tidwell answered. "The Visser is attending a reinduction seminar on the Blade ship."

So we had a little time. We could stop this.

Mr. Tidwell's watery blue eyes searched my face. "I'm sure you understand that Aftran could destroy the Yeerk peace movement. And you."

I nodded. "Where is she being held?"

Mr. Tidwell swallowed hard. "Aftran is imprisoned in the Yeerk pool. We need your help getting her out."

The Yeerk pool. The perfect place for an ambush.

I told myself to start acting smart. I couldn't believe whatever Mr. Tidwell said just because he used Aftran's name.

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" I asked, searching Mr. Tidwell's face. "How do we know we can trust you?"

"If you couldn't trust me, you'd be dead right now," he answered. He glanced at the gym door "If I don't go back in, Chapman will come looking for us. I'll be in touch. Get the Andalite out of here."

Mr. Tidwell hurried back into the gym. I hurried back over to Ax and the others.

"Are we just going to let Tidwell walk back in there?" Rachel demanded. "After what he saw?"

"He's with the Yeerk peace movement," I said.

"Yeah, that's where they say please before they shove their slimy bodies into your ear and take control of your brain," Marco spat out. "What are you, crazy?"

"He saved us from Chapman tonight," I protested.

"So what?"

"Shut up!" Tobias snapped, in a totally un-Tobias way. "All I care about right now is getting Ax home."

"He's right. Let's move," Jake said.

I wrapped my arm around Ax's shoulders and helped Tobias lead him outside.

I didn't like the way Ax was looking. He was completely back in his human morph. But a gooey green-yellow pus was gluing his eyelashes together. And his lips were chapped, like when you have a high fever.

"How are you doing, Ax?" I asked.

"I am dee-dee-dee-lirious!" he cried.

So Ax is mysteriously sick, and apparently Aftran has gotten followers who are opposed to the war....which is what Aftran had said in the previous book....that there's a segment of the Yeerk population that just wants the war to end.

Also, we probably never will, but I want to hear more about Visser Three's reinduction seminar. Having had my share of mandatory office training myself, it's kind of reassuring in my way to know it's not just a human phenomenon.

Comrade Blyatlov

Sep 9, 2021 20:16

Christ, no wonder he's so angry all the time.

FlocksOfMice

Sep 9, 2021 20:58

If yeerks weren't jeerks I'd be cool with a yeerk buddy tbh. It's a pal you can take with you!

OctaviusBeaver

Sep 9, 2021 20:58

quote:

Ax giggled. "Demorph. Dee, dee. That is a very pleasant mouth sound. Dee!"

"He's delirious," I said. I felt the adrenaline start to pump through my body. This was a very bad situation here.

Yeah must be delirious, that's totally out of character for Ax.

Fuschia tude

Sep 9, 2021 21:00

Well, now I'm sad I didn't read this one. It seems pretty good. Maybe I would have stuck with the series longer. Then again, maybe this was the high water mark...

Tree Bucket

Sep 9, 2021 21:49

Induction seminars. How dreadful.
It is easy to imagine some mid-level Yeerk coming across the phrase "human resources" and drawing conclusions that are ~~entirely~~ slightly wrong.

HIJK

Sep 10, 2021 02:05

Ohhh this one's really good.

e X

Sep 10, 2021 02:36

I remembered the "Ax gets sicks" plot, up to its conclusion, but totally blanked on the Afran plot.

freebooter

Sep 10, 2021 06:20

I really dig the vibe here which, moreso than any book since #1, emphasises the superhero aspect i.e. we are shapeshifting interstellar warriors but also just normal kids trying to live our normal lives at the same time. And how they rush into action in human form to hustle their sick alien friend out of there amid the boringly familiar scene of an awkward teen school dance, hoping that the assistant principal/assistant earth conqueror doesn't notice. Easily the best normal/weird juxtaposition since Ax and Visser Three squared off on the roof of a SoCal McDonald's, or Jake and David crashed through the skylight of the shopping mall at night.

Gwaihir

Sep 10, 2021 08:54

This book was awesome, and very tense.

Epicurius

Sep 10, 2021 20:48

Sorry to do this, but chapters will have to wait until tomorrow.