Nov 5, 2021 06:10
It's how Tobias pulled Rachel, supper'n'thermals of an evening.
Animorphs - The Entire Series
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Nov 5, 2021 20:43
Chapter 7
So that's one attempt down.
Chapter 8
That question by Tobias was just the saddest one ever.
quote:
It's funny about gorillas. They're gentle creatures by nature. They don't give you the fear chills you get from the big cats or the bears. Mostly when you see them they're zoned out in some zoo cage.
But they are a whole different animal when they're moving. You see a big gorilla moving fast and you get a sense of just how much power you're looking at.
Humanlike? Yes. But like a human who's been built at the Mack truck factory.
Marco walked over to a car.
Grunting, he lifted it up by the rear bumper. Lifted it clear off the ground, back wheels not touching.
And dropped it.
WOOOEEEE! WOOOEEE! WOOOEEE!
I almost laughed. Car alarm!
Marco went to another car. He lifted it. Dropped it. And another. Lift. Drop.
WEEEEYOOOOP! WEEEEYOOOOP! WEEEEYOOOOP!
HONK! HONK! HONK! HONK!
WaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAA!
The night was filled with clanging, screaming, whooping car alarms.
And then a very familiar car. One we both knew.
Chapman's car. Chapman, our assistant principal. A leader of The Sharing. A Controller. An enemy.
Marco didn't lift Chapman's car. He punched it. He punched the driver's door with a fist the size of a gallon milk jug.
SHHHLUUUUUEEE! SHHHLUUUUUEEEE!
Then he crashed a huge, hairy gorilla fist down on the hood of my father's new car.
SPREEET! SPREEET! SPREEET!
<Hey!> I hollered, horrified. <That's our car! My dad's going to have a cow.>
<I hope so,> Marco said. Then with barely suppressed glee, <I believe my work here is done.>
He ran back into the shadows. In five minutes he'd be in the air.
It took approximately eight seconds for the doors of the computer store, Starbucks, and the antique store to begin spewing out very angry men and woman.
Chapman came running from the antique store.
So did my father, with Tom close behind.
"What the heck happened?"
"Vandals!"
"Lousy kids!"
"This neighborhood has totally gone to -"
"Call the cops!"
"I'm suing this shopping center!"
"Look at my door!"
That last was Chapman.
The rest of the Controllers from the antique store looked uneasy.
I waited, holding my breath, counting the seconds until my father, followed by a furious, scowling Tom wove through the crowd.
"My car!" my father cried. He practically fell to his knees. "Someone hurt my baby!"
"Mine, too," Chapman said, gazing angrily at the fist-sized dent in his car door. He looked around the street, then nodded at the two big, bulky men who were flanking him.
They split up and started searching the street.
<Chapman's got guys looking for us,> I called to Marco. <Better get out of here.>
<Well, come on, dude,> Marco replied. <I'm in a tree down the street. What're you waiting for?>
<I can't go yet, Marco,> I said. <I have to make sure my father's all right. I have to make sure he's still ... You know.>
I scanned my father's face. Had he become a Controller yet? Stupid. I didn't know. Couldn't know. It's not as if Controllers go around twitching or exchanging Yeerk high fives or playing with their ears. A Controller looks, acts, seems exactly normal.
My father could be my father.
Or he could be screaming, helpless, just beginning to realize that his eyes and ears and mouth no longer belonged to him.
I waited.
And then Tom gave me the clue I was hoping for.
"C'mon, Dad, calm down," he said, going over to him. "We can call and report it when we get home if you want to. Let's go back inside, okay? The meeting just started and a lot of important things are gonna happen tonight. You don't want to miss it. Trust me."
"'Go back inside'?" my father echoed, looking at him like he was insane. "I'm not going back inside! Somebody just tried to break into every car on this street! I'm going home right now and call Joe Johnson!"
"Who?"
"He's our insurance agent, you really should know that, Tom. Come on."
"But, Dad," Tom pleaded, shooting a furious, agitated look back at Chapman, who stood on the curb watching them.
The high wail of distant police sirens split the night.
Chapman shook his head slightly.
"I'm staying till the end of the meeting," Tom said sullenly.
"Then I'll expect you home by ten." My father unlocked the car and got in.
Face tight and twisted with ill-concealed rage, Tom stalked over and stood on the curb next to Chapman, watching as my father drove away.
<He's clean,> I said as an owl landed silently on a nearby ledge. <He's clean. He's okay.>
<Yeah,> Marco said. <Let's get going.>
<Deal,> I said, letting the falcon's keen senses carry me swiftly home.
<Jake? That's round one. You know that,> Marco said, after a moment.
<Yeah,> I said. <I know.>
The fight to save my father had only begun.
So that's one attempt down.
Chapter 8
quote:
"I can't believe you took that kind of chance," Rachel said, scowling. "You should have waited for the rest of us!"
It was late that night and we'd all snuck out to meet in Cassie's barn to figure out what to do next.
It wasn't going well.
I was distracted, nervous leaving my father alone in the house with Tom.
Tobias was perched high in the rafters.
Marco was strangely quiet.
Cassie was listening, her face filled with distress.
Ax was watching me with all four eyes.
And Rachel ...
Well, she was just plain mad.
Apparently Erek had gotten word about our search for my father to Rachel, who'd been shopping at the mall.
She'd rushed to back us up, stowing her packages in a rented locker. In her hurry, she'd forgotten to lock it.
By the time she'd morphed, found Tobias, and flown north, The Sharing meeting had completely closed down. They'd found nothing but cops writing vandalism reports.
When she'd gone back to the locker for her packages, someone had stolen them.
A mad Rachel is a scary thing, and I didn't envy the thief if she ever caught him.
"We weren't looking at a battle, we were just creating a diversion," I said. "Otherwise we'd have waited for you."
I didn't look at Marco as I said it.
<It was an urgent situation.> Ax said calmly.
"Exactly."
Tobias was in the rafters. He ruffled his wings. <A temporary victory. As long as your dad is trying to force Tom to go with you guys, your dad's in danger.>
"I know," I said wearily. "I've thought of trying to convince my dad to lighten up, but there's no way. He's not going to let Tom show disrespect for Grandpa G."
"This is so stupid," Rachel said. "I mean, we're suddenly in a knockdown, drag-out fight behind some funeral? This is idiotic! This is a nothing fight. No possible gain for us. All we can do is get hammered."
I nodded. "Believe me, I know, Rachel. It's out of nowhere."
"Had to be four days," Marco complained. "Couldn't be two days, which would be no biggie to the Yeerk."
<You will not attend this burial ceremony, Rachel?> Ax asked.
"No, I'm not really related," Rachel said. "Grandpa G was Jake's great-grandfather on his mother's side. We're related on his father's side."
<Ah. And that is important?>
<You know, maybe I'm not getting it, but why didn't Tom just tell your father he's not going and that's the end of it?> Tobias interrupted.
I looked at him.
So did the rest of us.
<What?> he asked, sounding defensive. <I used to do that whenever one of my aunts or uncles wanted me to go somewhere I didn't want to. They never made me go.> He was quiet a moment. Then, abashed, he said, <Oh. Duh. They didn't care what I did.>
"Your relatives are jerks and they didn't deserve you," Rachel snapped.
"My father said we're going as a family," I said. "And knowing my father, Tom would stir up more trouble than he could handle by directly defying him, you know?"
"Sure," Marco agreed. "It's hard to get to those Kandrona rays when you're grounded for life."
"Plus, if he acted really badly, then I'm sure your parents would start looking at him differently,"
Cassie added. "They might even decide The Sharing is a bad influence and try to make him quit."
I nodded. "Tom's Yeerk is passing as a normal, high-school kid. Bottom line, he can either follow family rules or he loses his cover. The Yeerks have a choice. Keep Tom in place by infesting my father. Or withdraw Tom's Yeerk, put him into a new host, and kill Tom to keep him from talking."
"There's another choice," Rachel said.
"Yeah," I said. I knew. I just couldn't make myself say it out loud.
"What choice?" Cassie asked.
"If the Yeerks can't make his father into a Controller soon enough, they could just kill him. As an orphan Tom's cover isn't affected. Might even be enhanced," Rachel said. And then, looking me straight in the eye, she said, "And Tom would probably be the one to do it."
That question by Tobias was just the saddest one ever.
Nov 5, 2021 21:57
Animorphs love to just drop some real shit on you out of nowhere.
Nov 5, 2021 22:42
quote:
"Mine, too," Chapman said, gazing angrily at the fist-sized dent in his car door. He looked around the street, then nodded at the two big, bulky men who were flanking him.
Chapman's like, "I recognize that fist-sized hole. It's that damn Andalite in gorilla morph!"
Nov 6, 2021 07:11
That town probably has multiple body shops that specialize in repairing exotic animal damage.
Nov 6, 2021 11:14
quote:
"'Go back inside'?" my father echoed, looking at him like he was insane. "I'm not going back inside! Somebody just tried to break into every car on this street! I'm going home right now and call Joe Johnson!"
"Who?"
"He's our insurance agent, you really should know that, Tom. Come on."
Nov 6, 2021 11:40
Love that Tom's dad is the comic relief extra from an action movie whose car gets destroyed btw. Later he will see the Blade Ship and either drop his icecream cone or he will make a confused face at the bottle of beer he was just drinking.
Nov 6, 2021 17:22
OctaviusBeaver posted:
That town probably has multiple body shops that specialize in repairing exotic animal damage.
A skyrocketing bubble industry that will ruin some small business owners when it collapses after the war
Fritzler posted:
This really made me laugh for some reason. Can only assume Joe Johnson is going to show up eventually. Why else waste a great name on him?
Lol me too. Yeah your 17-year-old son should REALLY know who your insurance agent is, I'm sure he's over for supper ever Sunday
Nov 6, 2021 18:59
Chapter 9
Many good things about being a roach, but being stepped on or having something fall on you is not one of them.
Chapter 10
Some excellent roaching there on Jake's part. Also, Pwnstar is right. Jake's dad is very much the action star comic relief character.
quote:
There was only one way to protect my father.
Surveillance.
From the moment he left the house for work in the morning until we left for the cabin on Saturday.
Twenty-four-hour surveillance.
I could do most of it. He was my father and although I didn't say it because I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, I really didn't think anybody would watch him as carefully as I would.
I did agree to some backup. I knew I couldn't be everywhere at once.
The next morning Tom was all sweet reason and compromise. He went out early, claiming he'd talk to some of the kids from The Sharing before school. See if they'd cover for the commitments he'd made. Right.
I waited until my father was in the shower, then called myself out of school due to a death in the family.
Luckily, I sound enough like my father.
I went down and lurked in the living room outside the kitchen. I heard the sounds of my father getting ready to leave: slurped coffee, the ritual checking of his beeper, the "Ow!" as he burned his fingers getting an English muffin out of the toaster.
Stupid to morph in the dining room. Idiotic. But I was going to roach morph and I couldn't travel far on those six little legs. Besides, Tom was gone. And my dad wouldn't come this way.
I focused on the roach.
Not my favorite morph. Not anyone's favorite morph. But I needed to be small, fast, and survivable. Maybe a fly would have been better but I'd had a close call as a fly once: Someone swatted me and smeared me all over the storage rack on a plane. Roaches are harder to kill.
I felt the changes begin. So creepy at the best of times. But standing there in my dining room, shrinking as the chairs grew, shriveling down toward the wood floor you'd gouged with a rake when you were four, falling into the shadow of the table where you ate your Thanksgiving meal ... that added a level of weird.
I caught unexpected sight of myself in the dining room sideboard mirror. The skin of my face was turning brown, glossy, hard.
I looked away. You don't want to see yourself turning into a cockroach. You don't want to see the way your mouth divides into insect mouth-parts. You don't want to watch your skin melt like wax under a blowtorch and then re-form into a hard, stiff armor. You don't want to be making eye contact with yourself when your eyes stop being eyes and become expressionless black pin-heads.
Maybe you'd think we'd all be used to it. Speaking for myself, at least, no. I'll never be used to it.
Morphing may be a great weapon. It is also a horror beyond imagining.
My bones dissolved. There was a liquid, squishing sound.
A pair of twitching, hairy, jointed roach legs exploded from my swollen insect body like a scene out of an Alien movie. I was expecting that. They matched what my arms and legs had become.
Long, feathery antennae sprouted from my forehead.
Crisp, glossy wings cupped my back.
My vision was extremely limited. But my antennae made up for some of that loss. You couldn't call what they did hearing or smell, exactly, more like some weird melding of the two. And yet, not like either.
The plan was for me to hitch a ride with my dad. Tobias would be gaining altitude, looking to hitch an elevator ride on a thermal. From high up he'd be able to watch almost all of my dad's drive from home to his office. Two miles, give or take.
But his reaction time would necessarily be slow. He'd be backup, but if there was an attack it'd be up to me.
I was a roach. I turned like a tiny tank and motored beneath the door.
Whoooom. Whoooom.
My dad's footsteps. Vibration and breeze. My antennae fixed his location. I fought down the roach brain's desire to run.
Whoooom. Whooooom.
Feet the size of an aircraft carrier floated past in the dim distance. No problem. I had roach senses and roach speed married to human intelligence. I was safe.
Safe until I got ready to hitch a ride. My dad wore cuffed pants. The cuff. That would be the place to ride safe and secure.
Just a question of getting there. Up onto the shoe. Up the sock. Should be no problem.
Right.
Light change! Movement! Above me!
I dodged.
BAMMMMM!
Many good things about being a roach, but being stepped on or having something fall on you is not one of them.
Chapter 10
quote:
It was the size of one of those big oil storage tanks you see on the outskirts of the city. It was ten times my height. A million times my negligible weight. It hit the linoleum floor like a bomb.
Smucker's raspberry preserves.
The jar slammed into the ground an inch from me.
CRASH! The glass shattered.
Huge globs of jam erupted. A glass shard swathed in goo landed like some kind of Nerf meteor beside me. The preserves, a wad twice my own size, hit me in the back as I scurried madly away.
My feet scrabbled insanely. Out of control! The roach brain screaming Run! Run! RunRunRun! in my head.
The goo fouled my back legs. I couldn't move!
I fought it, but that just made things worse. I lost my balance and rolled over onto my back, all six legs pushing frantically at the raspberry glue. Seeds like footballs jammed the chinks in my armor.
From far, far up in the stratosphere I heard my dad yell a word he's not supposed to use in front of the kids.
Then I guess he saw me. Because he said a worse word.
And I knew right then: He was going to kill me.
The glass shard! It stuck like a boat prow from the goo. I caught the edge with one leg and pushed. Leverage. Something a roach wouldn't understand. But I did.
A second leg grabbed the glass. It would have sliced human flesh, but my hard twig legs weren't hurt.
I pushed and scrambled, shoved, twisted, fighting my way out of the red goo - WHAM!
The USS Nimitz landed on the floor a millimeter from me as I hauled with all my might.
I was on all sixes again, but the goo was all over me, slowing me, dragging at me as -
WHAM!
The USS Elsenhower dropped a millimeter ahead of me.
"- roach!" a booming voice bellowed. "Now I've got jam all over my shoes!"
You're about to have Jake all over your shoes, I thought. I was getting clear of the jam, but it still clung to my spiky legs. I couldn't get traction. I couldn't get up any speed.
WHAM! The Elsenhower again.
The wall of shoe sole, twice my own height, appeared in front of me with horrifying suddenness.
I powered my legs and lunged.
I grabbed the sole. I pulled, I powered, I used all the energy that a combination of roach fear and human terror could provide. Up! I was on the shoe!
"Where'd it go, the lousy ..."
I tried to get out of sight. I ran for the shadow of the pant leg cuff.
"Aaarrrgghh!" he bellowed in a voice that vibrated every molecule of air in the room.
Now came the dancing portion. My father hopped on one foot, the foot I was on, while attempting to crush me with the other foot.
Not happening. Not now. I had my speed back now. I had the curves and swoops of polished leather, the same color as my own body, to race on.
Running toward the heel, perpendicular to the ground, I hauled. The other shoe poked at me, kicked at me, missed!
At the heel I turned a sharp left and headed vertical. Up the shoe. Over the top onto a soft cotton sock, a sort of gray lawn of scruffy, weirdly twisted grass.
I was in the dark now. Invisible to my father.
"Where'd you go?" he demanded.
Freeze. Just freeze, Jake. Don't move. Don't ... The preserves were very sweet. Very, very sweet, and my roach brain craved sweetness. Sugar. The ultimate lure. And it was still on me. On my legs. On my face.
My mouthparts moved.
I could eat the sugar sweetness off my own leg ...
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" my dad yelled.
He'd felt me. I'd moved. Now I was in trouble.
WHOMPF!
The dark folds of the sky dropped with sickening suddenness as my dad slapped his leg.
WHOMPF!
WHOMPF!
Don't touch the skin! I ordered myself. If I touched the skin he'd know for sure. He wouldn't stop then.
Had to tough it out. Had to hide. Make him think he was wrong, that he hadn't felt me.
The pants! The gray wool blend that made up the vertical sky. That was the trick.
WHOMPF!
Down it came. I reached, grabbed, and suddenly was lifted away from the sock. I clung to the pants. The banging stopped. Slowly the pant leg was drawn up. But I was in a fold, invisible.
The pant leg dropped. My dad wiped up the preserves and the broken jar, and drove to work.
Some excellent roaching there on Jake's part. Also, Pwnstar is right. Jake's dad is very much the action star comic relief character.
Nov 7, 2021 05:54
We really need it after the last book
Nov 7, 2021 20:11
Chapter 11
I will just say that I think Jake is wrong when he dismisses the "Prince" title as "just some kind of respect thing", even though I can understand him being wrong. We've seen, though, the Andalite military hierarchy, and how Andalite warriors will die or kill for their princes....how becoming a prince or a war prince is the ultimate goal of anyone in the Andalite military. Jake is being awfully dismissive here. It's not a surprise. He just doesn't know.
Chapter 12
So yet another false alarm, and Jake's dad being yet another comic relief character...this time arguing with somebody who thinks he stole his parking spot.
quote:
The drive was uneventful. I was glad. I couldn't really have taken much more excitement. Somewhere far above the car Tobias watched. I didn't care. I crept down and out and settled comfortably in the cuff. I was on the left leg so there wasn't much movement.
Ax was waiting at the parking garage by my dad's building. I could feel the car taking tight turns, going up the ramp.
<I believe I see your father, Prince Jake. Are you with him?>
Ax calls me his prince. It's an Andalite respect thing.
<Yeah, Ax. Barely.>
<You have completed two circuits of the open spiral and have ascended.>
That took a couple of seconds. <Oh. Yeah, it's a ramp. The cars use it to get to higher levels.>
<Yes, Prince Jake, it was not overly difficult for me to deduce the purpose of the open spiral structure.> Ax sniffed.
I'm Ax's "prince." But I guess the whole respect thing only goes so far.
We parked. I tensed. Things could get hairy again.
The leg swung out into chillier air and brighter light.
My dad stood up. Stretched. Pulled his medical bag out of the backseat. And we were off to the office. Swing forward ... Crunch! ... Swing back. Swing forward ... Crunch! ... Swing back.
<Jake, I'm here,> Tobias reported in. <No sign that anyone followed you.>
<That was quick travel!> I said.
<Soon as I saw you guys leave I headed here. And I was already more than half the way here.> Somewhere above me, invisible to my roach senses, were a red-tailed hawk and, if Ax had followed the plan, a seagull.
<There is a human watching Jake's father closely,> Ax reported. <He is a large human with more than the typical amount of facial fur. He appears to be forming facial expressions associated with anger.>
<A ticked-off bearded guy?> Tobias translated. <Can't see him. Must still be under the ... Okay, I got him. Yeah. He does look ticked off about something. But he's not making any kind of move.>
My dad stopped walking. Wooosh. A door opening. We moved. Closing behind us.
We were in.
As soon as my father stepped into his own office I shot down his leg and hid under the garbage can near his desk.
Waited.
No frantic swiping disturbed the air currents.
Good. Then he hadn't even known I'd hitched a ride.
The floor trembled.
Someone was walking toward my father's office.
"Good morning, Doc. We have a full schedule today. It's ear-infection central out there."
Ten minutes later the first kid came in with his mom.
I spent the day zigging and zagging, zipping along the walls and squeezing into crevices to avoid being seen and squashed.
Every two hours I demorphed and remorphed in the bathroom. The first time it was nervewracking.
I scrawled a hasty note on a piece of paper towel and stuck it onto the last stall with some used gum.
The note said OUT OF ORDER.
After that I felt a little safer in the out-of-order stall.
It was boring beyond belief. But it gave me a lot of time to think. Too much time.
I'd started out hoping this crisis would give me a way to destroy Tom's Yeerk. Now I was down to hoping I could save my dad from Tom's fate.
I was playing a defensive game. It's easier to attack. On the attack you can pick the time and place. On the defense all you can do is wait. Wait for the enemy to pick his time and his place. And wear out your resources and your people waiting, waiting, knowing all it takes is for the enemy to get lucky and all your tense, cramped-up waiting will be for nothing.
My dad's never been my doctor. I go to one of his partners. You know, it'd be creepy otherwise. I'd always thought it was pretty cool that he was a doctor. But I guess I hadn't really thought much about it.
On this day, though, there wasn't much else to focus on. So I focused on my dad. Always nice. Always gentle. Joking with the kids and reassuring the moms and dads. Staying calm while the littler kids screamed bloody murder and vibrated the very walls.
He was a good guy, my dad. Not just because he was my dad. Because he was a good person.
Because he did his work as well as he knew how and wasn't a jerk to the people around him. That doesn't make you a saint or anything, but I guess when I think about it, that's what I hope I'll do when I'm older: treat my family right, do my job well, not be a jerk to the people I meet. Maybe that's not a huge, ambitious goal, but it would be enough for me. I've done the hero thing. You can have the hero thing. Me, I wanted a day when all I'd have to do was be a decent human being. It was a long day.
"Good night, everyone," my dad called, finally. "I'll be back Wednesday at the latest. Have a good weekend, Jeannie. You, too, Mary Anne. Stay out of trouble."
A laugh followed us out the door. Now we were moving.
My father was heading out of the office. Back into possible danger.
<Okay, guys, we're moving toward you. We'll be back in the parking deck in a couple of minutes.> I called.
<Hey, Jake?> Tobias said worriedly. <Uh, I don't know if this means anything but the bearded guy is back, hanging around near the elevator.>
<Which floor?> I asked, although I already knew.
The one my father was parked on, of course.
Tobias confirmed it. Ax confirmed it, too.
Hesitate at the door. Then we were outside.
My antennae quivered at the change in the air.
No time to demorph and remorph. If the bearded guy was part of an attack, I was useless. Nothing but a roach in a cuff.
<Ax?>
<Yes,> Ax said. <I am by your father's vehicle.>
<Is there any place you can morph without being seen?> I asked.
<I have been demorphing behind a large trash receptacle in the alley behind this structure; however, I cannot get back from there to my present position without being seen,> Ax replied. <Should I proceed?>
I didn't know.
If an Andalite suddenly arrived on the scene to save my father, the Yeerks would put two and two together, realize someone close to Tom - like his little brother - knew about his plan, and the Animorphs would be dead.
But in our present morphs, we'd be helpless.
What should I do?
Lose everyone?
Or just my father?
I will just say that I think Jake is wrong when he dismisses the "Prince" title as "just some kind of respect thing", even though I can understand him being wrong. We've seen, though, the Andalite military hierarchy, and how Andalite warriors will die or kill for their princes....how becoming a prince or a war prince is the ultimate goal of anyone in the Andalite military. Jake is being awfully dismissive here. It's not a surprise. He just doesn't know.
Chapter 12
quote:
<Prince Jake, do you have any instructions for me?>
<Jake. Make the call, man.>
My family or my friends.
Save one man or save the world.
I
was a bug! I couldn't save anyone.
An overt rescue would save my dad and doom us all. Including him.
<What's happening now?> I asked.
<Your father is walking toward his car,> Ax said. <The man with the facial fur is following him.>
<How close?>
<He's about four feet behind your dad,> Tobias said. He was tense. <And closing fast.>
I scampered up and out of the cuff. Onto the pant leg. Around to the back of the knee. The fabric crinkled with each step. I was horizontal, with the ground on my right. I couldn't see far enough to be sure, but there seemed to be a large, dark wall moving in behind my father. <Am I looking at him?>
<Yes,> Ax said.
Okay. Fine. I might be in a bug's body but I still had a human brain.
I hauled a left and went vertical. Up the pants. Onto the jacket. Up the jacket. Zooming at roach speed along a vertical plane of dry wool fibers.
I came to a stop on the slope of a shoulder. An ear the size of Nantucket loomed above me.
Closer. The dark wall was coming closer. I could almost see a face, a blur, a bristling mass bigger than a rain cloud.
<Jake, what're you doing?> Tobias asked sharply.
<I'm doing what a roach does best,> I said.
<What?>
<Grossing people out and making them say ...>
I motored. I cranked open the roach's almost useless wings. I flew straight for that beard.
"Aaaahhhhh!" the man yelled.
I landed on his lower lip. The tiny hairs on my legs caught and clung.
He spit. A hurricane explosion of wind!
But I was down on his chin hairs now, walking gingerly from split hair to split hair, like I was tiptoeing across treetops.
"Ugh! Ugh! A beetle!" the man shouted. We began to spin and whirl. He slapped his own face.
"Get it off me!"
I zigged left. Then right.
Motored toward his ear. Little roach feet tickled waxy ear skin. He went wild.
I kept going, on up to his head. Onto thick, matted hair.
"What the heck ..." I heard my father say in astonishment. "Excuse me, sir, but are you all right?"
Go! I wanted to tell him. Run, Dad! Run for your life!
<On our way, Jake!> Tobias yelled.
<NO!> I yelled. <Back off! Back off!>
Suddenly, the air rushed and shimmered with the swoosh of wings.
"Tseeeeeer!" Tobias swooped down, talons extended. I caught an indistinct but terrifying flash of ripping talons.
"Aaaahhh! Aaaahhh!" the man yelled. He was literally beating at his face with one hand to kill me and waving the other in the air to fight off the lunatic hawk and the insane seagull.
Quite suddenly I realized I was no longer on the man. I was on his hair. But I was not on the man anymore.
The hair ... the toupee ... was in Tobias's talons being carried off like a doomed mouse.
<I'm going to circle back for-> Tobias began.
<No! No!> I yelled, angry. <We might as well tattoo "The Animorphs were here" on the guy's head! Stay back. Don't attack unless you see the beard move to attack.>
<Oh. Yeah.>
<This is not an attack,> Ax said. <Your father and the man with the facial fur are making mouthsounds. If this were a Yeerk attack they would not be making mouth-sounds together.>
<Drop the rug,> I instructed Tobias.
He did. The toupee hit the concrete and the man snatched it up and slapped it back on his head. I dropped out before he did and, with Tobias's help, headed in the direction of my dad.
"The bird's gone, the roach is gone, you're okay," my father said soothingly.
"Forget the stupid bug! Forget the stupid, stupid bird!" the man yelled.
He was clearly upset. A hawk had seemingly attempted to grab a cockroach off his head and ended up flying off with his toupee. That's the kind of thing that will put you in a bad mood.
"Is that your car?" the bald man demanded.
"Huh?"
"I said, IS THAT YOUR CAR?!" the man roared.
Like I said, upset.
"Yes," my father said, sounding puzzled. "Why?"
"Because it's parked in my spot! MY spot! Mine! I've been waiting to see who keeps taking my spot!"
"How can this be your spot?" my father asked. "There aren't any spots marked 'reserved' here."
"I've been parking in this spot for two years and four months! It's my spot! I don't care how many birds or ... or my toupee ... or bugs ... it's mine!"
<I do not believe this man is a Controller.> Ax said.
<What was your first clue, Ax-man?> Tobias said.
<My first clue is the fact that this human is not ->
<It was a rhetorical question,> Tobias said.
<Ah.>
No attack. An argument over a parking space. Funny, really.
Except that I was still left fighting the losing, defensive battle.
Worse, I had frozen. Tobias and Ax had asked for orders and I had frozen. Because I had frozen they'd made the wrong move.
My fault, not theirs. I was in charge, they'd asked me what to do.
I'd hesitated. I'd had no answer. No harm, this time. But if the attack had been real?
I was tired. Ax and Tobias were tired. We were measurably diminished, and the enemy had lost nothing.
The attack was still to come.
So yet another false alarm, and Jake's dad being yet another comic relief character...this time arguing with somebody who thinks he stole his parking spot.
Nov 8, 2021 01:16
Epicurius posted:
Chapter 11
Has his father being a doctor ever come up before? This feels like something new.
Nov 8, 2021 04:47
Fuschia tude posted:
Has his father being a doctor ever come up before? This feels like something new.
I think it is new. I don't think the books ever specified what he did for a living before.
Nov 8, 2021 15:42
quote:
He was a good guy, my dad. Not just because he was my dad. Because he was a good person.
Because he did his work as well as he knew how and wasn't a jerk to the people around him. That doesn't make you a saint or anything, but I guess when I think about it, that's what I hope I'll do when I'm older: treat my family right, do my job well, not be a jerk to the people I meet. Maybe that's not a huge, ambitious goal, but it would be enough for me. I've done the hero thing. You can have the hero thing. Me, I wanted a day when all I'd have to do was be a decent human being.
This reminds me of Marco a few books ago (15 I think) talking about how his dad is a good person, and when he grows up he'd like to be as good a man as his dad. I think it's pretty perceptive for kids their age. I'm lucky enough to have a good dad and a good relationship with my dad, but I was well into my 20s before realising and appreciating that that's unusual (or at least it was among my male friends in high school).
Nov 8, 2021 21:54
Chapter 13
So Chapman's the driver of a driveby now? Look, guys, this isn't this harm. Put a Yeerk in a baggie, give it to Tom. Wait until his dad is asleep, have Tom sneak into his room and drop it in his ear. Done.
Chapter 14
So that's cheery.
quote:
I cut Tobias and Ax loose. Told them to get some rest. Tobias objected. He said he'd get the others, they'd mount a surveillance on my house.
I blew him off. Told him to let everyone rest.
Why? I don't know. Maybe I wanted to handle it myself. That way there would be no orders to give. And no second-guessing.
My dad pulled into the garage and I scampered away. I demorphed behind the garage and raced up to my room.
I beat my dad inside. See, I knew his routine. When he comes home he walks down to the curb to check the mail and stands there going through it muttering, "Junk ... junk ... okay, magazine ... junk."
I was in my bed in seconds. Covers up to my chin. Playing sick.
"Jake?"
My door opened. Tom stuck his head into the room.
"What?" I croaked, having a heart failure. I hadn't realized he was home. Had he been home while I'd been demorphing? "When did you get home?"
"What are you doing? Faking sick?"
The Yeerk in his head played the role. Said the words Tom would have said.
I played my role, too. "Yeah. Wanted to stay home and watch Jerry Springer."
"Uh-huh."
"I'm feeling better now, though. I think I'll get up."
He gave me a disgusted look and left. I climbed out of bed and got dressed.
Dinner was chicken soup for me. To "soothe" my upset stomach. My father and brother wolfed down Chinese food.
"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" I asked.
"About nine, so you boys pack tonight and don't forget your suits," my father said, missing Tom's sudden, black scowl. "I talked to your mom. The funeral's on Monday and we'll be leaving for home Tuesday morning."
Tom shoved back his chair. "I'm done," he said, rising and stalking off.
My dad studiously ignored him. "Well, I'm gonna go out and water the lawn one last time before we leave."
"I'll load the dishwasher," I offered, rising.
I rinsed the plates, watching through the window as my father dragged the hose from the backyard to the front.
The house was so quiet. The air so still.
Tom had disappeared into his room.
I pressed my face to the window, leaving a nose smear, and searched the sky until I spotted Tobias gliding high above.
Keeping watch, though I hadn't asked him to.
He looked so free out there. So calm and confident.
I straightened. Looked around. And made my decision.
Five minutes, I thought, hurrying up to my room and locking the door behind me. I'll do a five minute, aerial surveillance. Just enough flying to get hold of myself again. Reassure myself. I'm no good to anybody if I can't think straight.
I stripped down to my bike shorts, opened the window, and concentrated on my peregrine falcon morph.
A lacy pattern rose and spread across my skin, softening into feathers. My fingers melted together to form wing tips as my guts gurgled, slithered, and shifted.
My skull ground and shrunk. My vision sharpened. I zoomed downward, falling, shrinking, wobbling on suddenly skinny, stick legs.
The breeze drifted in the window.
I flapped my wings and hopped up to the sill. Weird. After all this time the idea of jumping out of the second-floor window still bothered me. I was still human, still scared of heights, still not sure my wings would work. I wondered if Tobias ever felt that way.
I spread my wings and took off, swooping down across the backyard, taking care to stay away from Tom's bedroom window.
I caught a slight headwind, just enough to fill my wings, and began to work for altitude.
<Is that you, Jake?> Tobias called cautiously.
<Yeah, I figured I'd join you for a couple of minutes,> I said, leveling off and drifting along on an air current. My falcon eyes could see everything, including a mouse scurrying along the neighbor's fence. And my dad watering the lawn.
<How's it going?> I asked Tobias.
<I'm getting very little lift in this air,> he complained.
I smiled to myself. A typical Tobias answer.
<How's it going with you?> he asked.
<Tense,> I admitted. <It's very tense down there. My dad, Tom, armed camps, man. And me in the middle.>
Tobias didn't say anything. I looked at him. He was higher than me, maybe two hundred yards off.
<Tobias?>
No answer.
<Tobias! What's ->
<Chapman! It is him. I couldn't be sure in this light. Six blocks from your house. Him driving, some other guy in the passenger seat.>
I followed the direction of his gaze. A dark car, large, four-door. I focused my gaze. Was the passenger holding something?
<I don't like the feel of this,> I said.
<No,> Tobias agreed.
<My dad ->
<Gun!> Tobias yelled. <The passenger. He's got a gun!>
So Chapman's the driver of a driveby now? Look, guys, this isn't this harm. Put a Yeerk in a baggie, give it to Tom. Wait until his dad is asleep, have Tom sneak into his room and drop it in his ear. Done.
Chapter 14
quote:
I was in a stoop before Tobias had finished the sentence.
They were going to pull a drive-by. It was insane. A shooting in broad daylight? Just how important was Tom to the Yeerks? This was reckless!
I was falling ... no, not falling. I was a rocket on a collision course with Earth. Aimed like a cruise missile for my own house.
The car turned one street closer to mine.
I flared my wings to brake. The hurricane of wind nearly broke them. I strained every muscle, spread every feather. I landed, skidding on the back side of the roof.
No time to demorph inside.
I'd just have to take my chances out here, tucked into the shadowy corner. I began to demorph.
<Jake, what are you doing?> Tobias cried.
I could have answered. I didn't. Tobias knew what I was doing.
<This is stupid, Jake, but I'll cover your butt anyway,> Tobias said. <Don't see anyone watching you. Possible line of sight to the house behind and to the left. There's a little girl near her window.>
My feathers melted. My arms fattened. My beak softened like it was melting. I had to scramble to hold on with talons that were becoming stubby human toes.
<Here comes Chapman,> Tobias reported grimly.
NO!
Demorph! Demorph! Demorph!
Toes ... hands ...face ...
"Aaahhh!" I yelled in surprise.
Suddenly, I was sliding down the steep roof toward the edge.
<Jake! Your brother's right there in the kitchen on the phone!> Tobias shouted. <If you come down on that side, he's gonna see you!>
My fingers scrabbled across the rough shingles for a handhold but it was no use. My fingernails were practically liquid.
I was falling.
Over the edge!
Desperate, I grabbed the sharp, metal gutter.
Dangled. Arms stretched. I tried to haul my legs up, out of view.
<Tom hasn't seen you yet,> Tobias said. <He's got his back to the window. But Chapman is twenty seconds away. It's now or never.>
Tom's voice drifted out through the window.
"Perfect timing," he said coldly. "He's out front alone. Go for it."
I dropped, hit the grass with a dull thud, and gritted my teeth to stay quiet. I crawled past the window, then shot to my feet and tore around the house.
A dark car was turning onto my block. A hundred yards away. Fifty.
"Hey, Dad." I limped over to him, sweating, heart thundering. "Let me do that."
I took the hose.
My dad smiled. "Volunteering, huh? So. What is it you want?"
Twenty yards!
"Just wanted to get outside. Fresh air," I said.
"Unh. Well, thanks, then. I'll go do some packing."
He turned. Too slowly! He walked. Too slowly!
The car was there.
The window was down.
The gunman was staring at my father's back.
I jerked the hose. Water hit the side of the car.
The gunman yanked back in surprise; my father opened the door.
I waved at the car and said, "Sorry!"
The car passed by.
I breathed. My hands were shaking. My heart was a jackhammer.
I pretended to suddenly recognize Mr. Chapman as the car pulled away. "Hey, Mr. Chapman!" I waved.
I felt someone watching me. I spared a quick glance. Tom.
He was framed in our living room window. His eyes burned with rage.
He'd have killed me, too. He would have had my dad gunned down and if I'd gotten in the way...
And that wasn't the worst of it. Worse was knowing that my brother Tom, my true brother, had been trapped inside his own mind, trapped watching as the killers prepared to murder his family. Helpless, watching, unable to open his own mouth to shout a warning.
I was clenching the hose so tightly the water was petering out. But I couldn't relax the muscles.
Could not.
I don't know how this war will turn out. Don't know if we'll win or lose or even, somehow, compromise and make peace. But I know one thing: I will kill the Yeerk who has done this to my brother.
I will kill him.
So that's cheery.
Nov 8, 2021 22:06
Not even killing Jake's dad in a way that could be passed off as an accident. They must be desperate.
Also lol at Chapman getting every shit job that could land him in legal trouble.
Also lol at Chapman getting every shit job that could land him in legal trouble.
Nov 8, 2021 22:10
just a casual fucking drive by 
Nov 8, 2021 22:20
My opinions on life in America have been formed exclusively by Animorphs, early Simpsons episodes, and forums threads about police brutality and tap water that glows in the dark
Nov 9, 2021 04:23
So look. The character writing here is good. You really feel for Jake and what he's going through. This is still the dumbest fucking plan on either side. Read:
Also, so what if Jake's dad isn't the target of the drive-by? You know what else will keep the family in town? Tom's brother getting shot in the face! Also also, Chapman. Chapman. Are there like eight Yeerks? They can't get somebody less recognizable than the school principal? Visser Three wouldn't have botched this up this badly.
Epicurius posted:
Put a Yeerk in a baggie, give it to Tom. Wait until his dad is asleep, have Tom sneak into his room and drop it in his ear. Done.
Also, so what if Jake's dad isn't the target of the drive-by? You know what else will keep the family in town? Tom's brother getting shot in the face! Also also, Chapman. Chapman. Are there like eight Yeerks? They can't get somebody less recognizable than the school principal? Visser Three wouldn't have botched this up this badly.
Nov 9, 2021 06:48
Rochallor posted:
Also, so what if Jake's dad isn't the target of the drive-by? You know what else will keep the family in town? Tom's brother getting shot in the face! Also also, Chapman. Chapman. Are there like eight Yeerks? They can't get somebody less recognizable than the school principal? Visser Three wouldn't have botched this up this badly.
I think The Sharing has come to the conclusion that Visser Three doesn't need to be brought into this.
Nov 9, 2021 07:06
Why don't the yeerks just take over an ear doctor (or a dentist/opthalmologist, anything where people have to keep their heads in place) and just possess anyone and everyone who comes through?
Nov 9, 2021 08:39
I think they're focusing on:
1. Willing hosts (the Sharing)
2. Influential people (politicians, media, cops)
They probably could grab a ton of randos if they felt like it but they seem to only have one Yeerk pool so maybe they couldn't handle the logistics yet.
1. Willing hosts (the Sharing)
2. Influential people (politicians, media, cops)
They probably could grab a ton of randos if they felt like it but they seem to only have one Yeerk pool so maybe they couldn't handle the logistics yet.
Nov 9, 2021 11:26
If you want an in-universe explanation of all these zany schemes the Yeerks get up to remember that this is still the first generation of Yeerks to leave their homeworld and they almost certainly had to teach themselves warfare and espionage as they went. They are literally just winging it the whole time. Plus besides Alloran, no Yeerk host bodies besides humans would have knowledge of these things either they could draw on except maybe Taxxons and nobody really considers Taxxon-Controllers as sentient beings so they probably ignore anything those dudes say and just throw a piece of beef jerky to make them go away.
Nov 9, 2021 11:36
Pwnstar posted:
If you want an in-universe explanation of all these zany schemes the Yeerks get up to remember that this is still the first generation of Yeerks to leave their homeworld and they almost certainly had to teach themselves warfare and espionage as they went. They are literally just winging it the whole time. Plus besides Alloran, no Yeerk host bodies besides humans would have knowledge of these things either they could draw on except maybe Taxxons and nobody really considers Taxxon-Controllers as sentient beings so they probably ignore anything those dudes say and just throw a piece of beef jerky to make them go away.
That's actually a super good point. The yeerks have access to the memories of their human hosts, but not necesarilly their common sense or ability to think and plan. Chapman would know this is incredibly stupid, but he isn't going to volunteer that information willingly and his yeerk is likely to dismiss it in arrogance. The yeerks are very good at passing for human because they can copy and mimic, but outside of the situations where their host body already has patterns to follow, like, say, we have to do a hit on a guy, they're basically stuffed animals come to life who only understand earth through approximate play and when they have to step outside of the standard "games" it's just. What do they know about stuff?
It makes it more reasonable why Visser Three can be such a stupid cartoon villain and get away with it--they're still feeling out what works. There's smart and cagey and very clever yeerks but intelligence only goes so far when you have a weird situation like this and you think "Well, drive-by shootings are a thing. I need to be responsible for this because i'm the local yeerk in charge, so I gotta do the driving I guess. Okay, that's our plan, don't let V3 know!"
Nov 9, 2021 11:48
FlocksOfMice posted:
. Chapman would know this is incredibly stupid, but he isn't going to volunteer that information willingly and his yeerk is likely to dismiss it in arrogance.
I do really like the little snippets we see of Yeerk hosts working against their Yeerk. Marco's mum freaking out when she sees him, the Timetravel guy banging on constantly about Henry V, the free-Controllers in the Yeerk pool cheering at the Animorphs.
There's obviously a lot of horror in everything about Controllers, but I enjoy these hopeful/spiteful acts of resistance.
Nov 9, 2021 16:13
Epicurius posted:
I think The Sharing has come to the conclusion that Visser Three doesn't need to be brought into this.
I sorta feel like if they approached V3 and said they need to handle this Tom situation it would be like Mr Burns' reaction to Homer Simpson, irrespective of how high ranking Tom's Yeerk actually is.
OctaviusBeaver posted:
I think they're focusing on:
1. Willing hosts (the Sharing)
2. Influential people (politicians, media, cops)
They probably could grab a ton of randos if they felt like it but they seem to only have one Yeerk pool so maybe they couldn't handle the logistics yet.
I think this is the in-universe explanation, yeah. For better or worse they're trying to get a large swathe of the human population to go along with them (though are also obviously not averse to grabbing who they need on a smaller scale, which is why it makes no sense for Tom not to just infest his dad on the sly).
This changes later in the series when things start coming to a head and IIRC they re-route entire subway cars into the Yeerk pool
Nov 9, 2021 20:26
Chapter 15
So that was a pretty nasty meeting.....and it directly calls back to the last book, with Marco and his mother.
Chapter 16
So when you start tying kids up so that you can kidnap their parent in a last minute spur of the moment plan, you have to ask yourself "Is this really the best course of action?"
quote:
We met in Cassie's barn. All of us but Ax and Rachel. They were watching my house. My dad would be safe with those two.
Tobias calmly, without blame, related what had happened that day and afternoon.
"Stupid," Marco said.
"I can't believe you took a chance like that, Jake!" Cassie said angrily. Cassie doesn't get mad, but she was mad. "Were you looking to get shot?!"
"Obviously not," I said, meeting her gaze. "But what else was I supposed to do? Let them kill my father?"
"That's not the point," Marco said, as angry as Cassie, but colder about it. "You demorphed in plain view. And Tobias says it was a matter of a split second whether you ended up machine-gunned on your own lawn."
"The alternative was letting them gun down my father."
"So you figured to let them kill you, too?"
"It worked!" I raged.
Marco threw up his hands in disgust. "Why didn't you have backup? Tobias says you told him and Ax to get lost. And not to get any of us," Marco said. He was leaning back on a bale of hay. Leaning back, but not at all relaxed. "We're supposed to be in this together. If you needed help, you were supposed to ask for it."
"Yeah, I know," I said. "But you guys were in school during the surveillance and tonight, well, I didn't exactly expect Chapman to do a drive-by shooting, you know."
"A mistake on your part," Marco said.
"Yeah. A mistake."
"And today, earlier? Tobias says you froze up when he asked for an order."
"I didn't freeze up, I-"
"We can't afford you freezing up," Marco said.
I glared at him. "You're enjoying this, aren't you? This is payback for when I doubted you over your mother."
"I was ready to do what had to be done," Marco said.
"So am I!"
"No. You're not. You endangered all of us. You demorphed on your roof! On your roof! In daylight. With your brother in the house! If Tom had seen you do that you'd be head down in the Yeerk pool right now, and the rest of us would be standing in line behind you!"
"What's the matter with you all?!" I cried. "That was my father! My father! I'm supposed to just stand by and do nothing?"
Tobias answered before Marco could. <Is it worth exposing ourselves and risking everything, all of mankind ... literally all the human race ... just to save one person?> he said quietly. <I'm sorry, Jake. I know he's your father. I know what you're feeling. But it's something we have to think about.>
I looked away. My face was burning. "You know, we talked about this and we decided on surveillance. We watched my father in case he needed protection. Well, he did and I reacted. What did you guys really think I was gonna do?"
"Just what you did," Marco said. "You're too close to this. You can't make this call."
I barked out a laugh. "What, you're going to decide whether my dad lives or dies?" I looked at Cassie.
"Jake ..." she said.
"You need to back off on this," Marco said quietly. "You can't make this call. Not about your dad and your brother."
"You made it when it was your mom," I said.
Marco shrugged. "Yeah, well, that's me. If it's any comfort to you, I'd like myself more if I was like you. But the question here is, how far do we go to protect your father?" Marco said. "And who is going to make that decision?"
"I'm the leader of this group," I said.
Marco hesitated. He bit his lip. Then, drawing a deep breath, he said, "We need a vote."
"Rachel and Ax aren't here," I said.
<Ax will refuse to vote,> Tobias said. <He'll say it's a human question. He'll say Jake is his prince and he'll do what his prince says. But he won't cast a vote either way.>
"Rachel will back me," I said.
Marco nodded. "Yeah. She will. That leaves it up to Cassie and Tobias."
I didn't look at either of them. I expected to hear Cassie speak up. But she didn't. Silence. I felt like the ground was falling away beneath me. Cassie doubted me, too? Cassie didn't think I could handle this?
I heard a ruffling of feathers up in the rafters and looked up. Tobias cocked his head, his fierce, hawk's gaze meeting my angry, human one.
I was the first to look away.
Tobias had been there twice when I'd risked my life - and his - to save my father. He knew how important it was to me and he knew how far I'd go to do it.
<You guys are missing a couple of important points,> Tobias said quietly. <First of all, writing off a human life is something the Yeerks would do, not us.>
Cassie nodded. She looked troubled. Like she should have thought of that.
<Second, what if the Yeerks don't kill Jake's father? What if they succeed instead in making him a Controller?> Tobias continued. <Jake's already got one Controller in his family; if they make his father one, too, then there's gonna be a couple of very suspicious people watching Jake coming and going all the time, especially when there's Animorph activity. So I don't think it's a question of should we save him, but how we do it.>
Thank you, Tobias, I thought silently, staring down at the ground.
<But there's one more thing that nobody's talking about,> Tobias continued, stretching and refolding his wings. <I think we've been on the wrong path all this time. Sitting around waiting for the Yeerks to attack, then saving Jake's father again and again is no plan. The Yeerks may think it was a coincidence at the mini-mall, maybe a coincidence on the lawn, but they can count, you know? Sooner
or later they'll think, "That's too many coincidences.">
"Exactly," Marco said.
<So, why don't we get off the defensive? Do something. Something big that'll distract their attention away from Jake's father until he and Tom and Jake can leave for the cabin tomorrow morning?>
Marco hesitated. He knew the vote had gone against him. At worst he had Cassie on his side. That was two against three, leaving Ax out.
Finally Marco nodded. "Okay, we go on the offensive." He tried a semblance of his usual humor. "I always wanted to die kicking and screaming."
He stepped toward me. He held out his hand. "Nothing personal, Jake. I was just looking out for the group."
I left his hand hanging in midair.
After a while he withdrew it.
"So, what's the plan?" Cassie said, trying to break the hostility of that moment.
"Maybe we could think about -" Marco began.
"I have a plan," I said.
So that was a pretty nasty meeting.....and it directly calls back to the last book, with Marco and his mother.
Chapter 16
quote:
Did I have a plan? Not till that split second. Not till I was face-to-face with Marco and realizing I had to come up with something. Had to.
Sometimes emotion works for you.
We needed a distraction. The distraction I had in mind was big. And would hopefully last until I could get my father out of town.
"Kidnap Chapman," I said.
That made Marco stare. It drew a gasp from Cassie. Tobias laughed like I might be joking. Then he sort of moaned.
Then he laughed again and said, <Well, I'll say one thing: This is going to make Rachel happy.>
A daring plan? Yes.
Crazy? Suicidal? Stupid?
I hoped not.
"Forces the Yeerks to decide their priorities," Marco said. "Do they save Tom or Chapman? Who's more important to them? Chapman. They'll still try and help Tom with his situation, but Chapman disappearing will be a total Red Ball, Maximum Panic situation. It works."
Give Marco credit for one thing: No one is faster or better at seeing the ruthless solution. And Marco is honest.
It wasn't going to be a pretty mission. We didn't have time for subtle.
We hooked up with Rachel and Ax and explained the plan.
Rachel said, "Cool!"
I left Cassie and Tobias to guard my house. I'd have left Marco, too, but he would have taken it as me being afraid to have him around. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
Rachel, Ax, Marco, and I flew to a house across the street and down from Chapman's home on a quiet, suburban street. It was dark. Not late, but dark. I was twenty minutes away from my dad wondering why I wasn't home. Same with the others.
The house was for sale. Vacant. The bushes were overgrown and untended. Perfect for us. Almost roomy at first. Less so as we morphed.
"Move over, Marco," Rachel grumbled as his shoulders bulged and muscled up into a gorilla's massive form.
"Oh, come on, you love being close to me," he leered, just before his jaw swung out and his lips became a puffy, black rubber Halloween mask.
I shut my eyes and concentrated on my own morph.
Rhinoceros. For this job we needed blunt, brute force. And nothing is blunter than a rhino.
I heard the thin bone of my human skull crunch and split apart. Heard a sound like grinding teeth as new bone, layers and layers of new bone, filled in the gaps and made an almost impenetrable armor. My body thickened. My legs, arms, hands, feet, stomach, back, shoulders, all thickened. My skin thickened from human flesh to something resembling a car's leather seat to something as tough and dense and stiff as a saddle.
My ears crawled up the sides of my head.
My eyesight dimmed and blurred.
My neck lost all definition, sucking back into my expanding, blimp like body. Bigger. Bigger. Huge.
And then, at last, the horn. It grew from my face, down where my nose had once been. Long, curved, dangerous. A primitive, blunt weapon. A horn that could have impaled an armored knight.
But despite the formidable body, the terrifying horn, the power of the rhino, its mind was peaceful, placid. Basically, it just wanted to eat and to be left alone. It was watchful but not scared or angry. That was okay. I had enough fear and anger for both of us.
"Prince Jake, I am ready. Red-eeee. Eeeee," Ax said. He'd morphed to human, using the DNA combination he'd long ago absorbed from all of us. But he'd stopped the morph partway, distorting his features so Chapman wouldn't be able to recognize him later on.
In his standard human morph, Ax is a strange and beautiful kid. Now, with his eyes a little beadier, his nose stubby and squashed, and his hair darker and shaggier, he bore a startling resemblance to Quasimodo.
Minus the hump, of course.
<Well, Ax, I'll never again think of you as just another pretty face,> Marco said.
<Do you guys see anything suspicious?> I interrupted, twisting my ears around at each new sound and sniffing the air. <I'm half blind with these eyes.>
<Suspicious? Well, I see a bear, a gorilla, a rhino, and some weird kid standing in the bushes, but aside from that, no,> Marco said.
I didn't laugh. I didn't find Marco funny right then. I missed Tobias. We had no one in the air, and we had to cross the street.
<Come on, let's do this,> Rachel said impatiently.
<Ax, move out,> I ordered. <Marco, you, too.>
Ax began to cross the street. It was quiet. I heard bare human feet and bare gorilla feet. I saw shapes, shadows, little else. But I had excellent hearing. I did not hear any approaching cars.
Marco walked as much like a human as he could. A four-hundred-pound human. Once across the street he sidled into the bushes beside the porch. Ax walked up Chapman's porch and knocked on the door.
A wait of several seconds.
The door swung open.
Chapman stood there, holding a newspaper and looking irritated at being interrupted.
"Hello, is Melissa here? Hee-yer? I am a friend of Melissa? I have come here to speak to her regarding a class assignment. Class-uh," Ax said brightly, more or less following the script we'd worked out.
Chapman peered out at Ax and frowned. Sighed. "Wait here. I'll get her."
"Good," Ax said. "She is my close friend and also classmate and thus this is a perfectly normal thing for me to do."
Chapman gave him another look and went to get her.
<Ax,> I whispered. <What do you see?>
<It is as you suspected, Prince Jake,> Ax said. <This Controller has added security devices since our last infiltration. There are motion sensors camouflaged as a mirror frame in the front hallway. And I suspect Dracon beams concealed in the eyes of a statuette facing the doorway.>
<Okay then,> I said as my adrenaline started pumping. <Everyone be ready.>
<I've been ready,> Rachel said grimly.
The front door opened and Melissa stepped out. The door closed behind her.
She looked puzzledly at Ax.
Before she could say anything, two thick, hairy gorilla arms reached up over the railing and lifted her off the steps and down into the bushes.
"Aaahh!" she yelped before a massive hand clapped over her mouth.
Melissa was an innocent. She didn't need to see what was going to happen next.
<Got her tied up!> Marco yelled.
<Go! Go! Go!> I yelled.
So when you start tying kids up so that you can kidnap their parent in a last minute spur of the moment plan, you have to ask yourself "Is this really the best course of action?"
Nov 9, 2021 20:50
Holy shit. This is wild.
I am kind of surprised they haven't taken more pro-active actions against specific controllers before, honestly.
I am kind of surprised they haven't taken more pro-active actions against specific controllers before, honestly.
Nov 9, 2021 20:58
Ah, I've been wondering if this was that book. Now this is an actual good plan.
I'm not a big fan of this book but this is a real good scene here. All the characters know each other well enough that they can basically figure out how the absent members are going to vote, Cassie is clearly trying to figure out if this is a situation with a way out, or if it's time to go totally ruthless, and Tobias find another angle from which to look at the problem.
quote:
Marco hesitated. He bit his lip. Then, drawing a deep breath, he said, "We need a vote."
"Rachel and Ax aren't here," I said.
<Ax will refuse to vote,> Tobias said. <He'll say it's a human question. He'll say Jake is his prince and he'll do what his prince says. But he won't cast a vote either way.>
"Rachel will back me," I said.
Marco nodded. "Yeah. She will. That leaves it up to Cassie and Tobias."
I didn't look at either of them. I expected to hear Cassie speak up. But she didn't. Silence. I felt like the ground was falling away beneath me. Cassie doubted me, too? Cassie didn't think I could handle this?
I heard a ruffling of feathers up in the rafters and looked up. Tobias cocked his head, his fierce, hawk's gaze meeting my angry, human one.
I was the first to look away.
Tobias had been there twice when I'd risked my life - and his - to save my father. He knew how important it was to me and he knew how far I'd go to do it.
<You guys are missing a couple of important points,> Tobias said quietly. <First of all, writing off a human life is something the Yeerks would do, not us.>
Cassie nodded. She looked troubled. Like she should have thought of that.
<Second, what if the Yeerks don't kill Jake's father? What if they succeed instead in making him a Controller?> Tobias continued. <Jake's already got one Controller in his family; if they make his father one, too, then there's gonna be a couple of very suspicious people watching Jake coming and going all the time, especially when there's Animorph activity. So I don't think it's a question of should we save him, but how we do it.>
Thank you, Tobias, I thought silently, staring down at the ground.
<But there's one more thing that nobody's talking about,> Tobias continued, stretching and refolding his wings. <I think we've been on the wrong path all this time. Sitting around waiting for the Yeerks to attack, then saving Jake's father again and again is no plan. The Yeerks may think it was a coincidence at the mini-mall, maybe a coincidence on the lawn, but they can count, you know? Sooner
or later they'll think, "That's too many coincidences.">
"Exactly," Marco said.
<So, why don't we get off the defensive? Do something. Something big that'll distract their attention away from Jake's father until he and Tom and Jake can leave for the cabin tomorrow morning?>
Marco hesitated. He knew the vote had gone against him. At worst he had Cassie on his side. That was two against three, leaving Ax out.
I'm not a big fan of this book but this is a real good scene here. All the characters know each other well enough that they can basically figure out how the absent members are going to vote, Cassie is clearly trying to figure out if this is a situation with a way out, or if it's time to go totally ruthless, and Tobias find another angle from which to look at the problem.
Nov 9, 2021 21:12
I wasn't liking this one much but that exchange between Jake and Marco was really, really good.
It makes me wonder how much KA was giving the ghostwriters. Obviously it was at least a bare minimum plot outline, but in her shoes I could imagine myself wanting to personally write out some key scenes too.
It makes me wonder how much KA was giving the ghostwriters. Obviously it was at least a bare minimum plot outline, but in her shoes I could imagine myself wanting to personally write out some key scenes too.
Nov 9, 2021 21:51
Oh Christ. Now I remember this one.
Nov 10, 2021 01:57
Comrade Blyatlov posted:
Oh Christ. Now I remember this one.
...that sounds ominous.
Nov 10, 2021 05:33
Rochallor posted:
Ah, I've been wondering if this was that book. Now this is an actual good plan.
I'm not a big fan of this book but this is a real good scene here. All the characters know each other well enough that they can basically figure out how the absent members are going to vote, Cassie is clearly trying to figure out if this is a situation with a way out, or if it's time to go totally ruthless, and Tobias find another angle from which to look at the problem.
Agreed, although it's a bit of a cop-out to avoid having to get Ax and Rachel in the room, but it's done well enough that I really don't mind. Plus I think it's very accurate for Tobias to be the one who can most accurately predict the absent members' votes - he's the most insightful, and also the most socially removed, giving him perspective the others might not have.
I know I read this book and I have a general feeling that I liked it and it was good, but it was long enough ago that I don't really remember anything specific about it. But also
quote:
"Good," Ax said. "She is my close friend and also classmate and thus this is a perfectly normal thing for me to do."
This really got me giggling.
Nov 10, 2021 21:09
Chapter 17
You all still thinking this is a great idea?
Chapter 18
So I'm actually going to bring up something earlier that I didn't mention. When Jake was keeping an eye on his dad at the pediatrician's office, he said "My dad's never been my doctor. I go to one of his partners. You know, it'd be creepy otherwise." And as a rule, doctors don't tend to treat their own family members. It's not best practice. The reason for that is that doctors know that, if their treating their family, they can't be objective. They're going to weigh factors differently, they're going to make mistakes in diagnosis and treatment, they're going to be cautious when they should be aggressive or aggressive when they should be cautious, and not do a good job, because they love their family members, so they're going to make stupid decisions to protect them.
And yea, this relates to why it's a bad idea to put Jake in charge of all this in this case, and he finally realizes it. He isn't able to make good decisions because he loves his dad and wants to protect him.
quote:
<Go! Go! Go!>
I burst from the bushes. Rachel was right beside me, moving in the deceptively fast, rolling gait of the grizzly bear.
Ax leaped from the porch and rolled under cover to demorph.
I crossed the untended lawn, focusing my dim sight on the porch light across the street. But as my massive head swung left and right I lost sight of it. Lights. Everywhere! Which was ...
<Jake! You're drifting left!> Marco yelled.
I veered. Across the hard concrete of the street. A car! Twin lights raced toward me from my left.
Screeeeeeech!
The driver slammed the brakes. I ignored him. Too late to worry. Smash and grab and forget subtlety, I reminded myself.
I stumbled as my thick, tree-trunk legs connected with the porch steps.
<That's it!> Marco yelled.
I barreled, full speed, heedless, horn down for the door.
WHAM-CRUNCH!
The door exploded inward. The frame ripped. Plaster and molding showered.
"HHROOO-UH!" Rachel bellowed, right behind me.
TSEEEEW! TSEEEEW!
Hot, screaming pain. The stench of sizzling hair and flesh.
The Dracon beam in the statuette fired again, burning another black, smoking hole in my armored hide.
It hurt just enough to make me even madder. Now the rhino brain was enraged, too.
I drove forward, through the doorway, slammed into the far wall and knocked the Dracon concealing statuette over.
Crash!
TSEEEW!
It fired one last, scorching, agonizing beam up into my belly before I crushed it beneath my feet. Mrs. Chapman ran out from the kitchen.
"Andalites!" she yelled and leveled a handheld Dracon beam right at my face.
TSEEEEEW!
Searing heat sizzled my forehead, my ear, drilled a burning hole into my very brain, and I staggered, bellowing as the sledgehammer pain rocked me.
The rhino was hurt. Badly.
"GRRROOOWWRRR!" Rachel roared. With a paw the size of a man's head she smacked Mrs. Chapman and sent her flying into the wall. The woman hit, groaned, and slid to the ground, out of the fight.
A flash of blue fur and Ax was with us. <Chapman is escaping up the stairs!>
<Let him go,> I snapped. <We'll even give him a minute to sound the alarm.>
I was reeling. The rhino had taken a head shot. It was dying. The connection between brain and body were fraying.
I counted to ten. <Long enough. Let's go!>
<He's coming out the back window, upstairs.> Marco reported from outside.
<Ax, up the stairs. Rachel, with me.> I crashed toward the living room. The doorway was too narrow. I widened it.
I trampled over the couch and crushed the coffee table like it was made out of toothpicks.
Through the living room. Through the French doors. Literally through.
Chapman dropped from down to my right. Marco was there. Reached for Chapman with -
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Chapman fired a handgun. Primitive human technology. Point-blank.
Marco dropped straight back. He hit the ground. Chapman jumped over him.
<Marco!> Rachel yelled.
An Andalite form soared over my head and landed heavily on the grass. Ax had jumped from the second-floor window.
<Rachel, take care of Marco!> I ordered. <Ax! With me!>
Chapman was climbing his back fence. I hit the wood slats and sent him flying. He rolled onto his back and fired.
BLAM! BLAM!
Hammer blows that connected with my throat.
I staggered, plowed into Ax, and knocked him off his feet.
Chapman was up and running through the busted fence.
I was hurt, bleeding, reeling, clinging to consciousness.
And clinging, most of all, to rage. This creep had tried to gun down my father.
I hit him.
He flew, hit the ground, and rolled, groaning. The gun was five feet away.
I backed up a step. Tossed my head. Scented the air and targeted his moaning, prone form.
Die, Yeerk.
I charged.
<No, Jake!> Rachel yelled. <We need him alive! Ax! Stop him!>
I was going to scrape Chapman across the ground. Stomp him, crush him, dig my horn into him.
I saw the horror in his eyes as he realized what I meant to do.
<Prince Jake!> Ax yelled.
I charged. Then, at last, the injuries were too much. As if someone has sliced my legs off, I fell. My momentum carried me, skidding into Chapman.
Chapman tried to rise. Ax nailed him with the side of his tail blade. Chapman went down, unconscious.
I was swirling, swirling down into a black pit. Had to demorph. Demorph. It was dark ... dark enough that Marco couldn't say ...
Marco. Had I gotten him killed?
Melissa must have worked the gag out of her mouth. "Mommy? Daddy, where are you?!" Melissa Chapman wailed.
You all still thinking this is a great idea?
Chapter 18
quote:
I demorphed to the sound of Melissa's terrified cries and the wail of approaching police sirens.
I stood up, frazzled, confused. Rachel was there, human. Ax was gone. Marco ...
Marco reached down and lifted Chapman easily up onto his shoulder.
"You okay?" I asked him.
<Demorphed, remorphed, good as new,> he said tersely. <Let's move out. With your permission, mighty leader.>
We moved. Rachel and me providing what limited visual cover we could for Marco. We ran across the street and down. Back to the vacant "For Sale" house.
We were going to keep Chapman a prisoner right where no one would ever suspect: Within two hundred yards of his own home.
Ax had disconnected the burglar alarm when we got there. The back door was open.
We hustled inside. Marco dropped Chapman unceremoniously in the empty, wood-floored living room. Then he popped his fist through the glass of a door connecting dining room and living room.
The glass fell toward Chapman.
With his weak but nimble Andalite fingers Ax tied a rag over Chapman's eyes. Ropes went around his wrists and ankles.
We stood there, looking down at him. He was in our power. For now.
"I wonder -" Rachel started to say.
I shook my head and put my finger to my lips. He couldn't be allowed to hear human voices.
<He is still unconscious,> Ax said.
Marco reached down and poked Chapman in the ribs with a finger like a bratwurst. The Controller did not react.
I went to the kitchen. I found an empty coffee can someone had used to store nuts and bolts. I filled it with cold water, returned to the living room, and poured it on Chapman's face.
He sputtered and cursed.
Then he tried to move his hands.
<Okay, Ax, it's all yours,> Marco said, stepping back.
Rachel and I remained silent.
Ax moved forward, hooves clopping on the bare, wooden floors, circling Chapman on purpose, letting him hear that his interrogator was an Andalite.
<So, Yeerk,> he sneered imperiously. <Now you are mine.>
Chapman started to tremble.
He whimpered, soft and low.
I didn't look at Rachel; she didn't look at me. Neither of us was thrilled about this. We had to make Chapman think he was being interrogated by an Andalite warrior.
We had to make him think he would be tortured. Moments earlier I would have killed him. Even now, I felt no pity for him. But that didn't change the fact that we were trying to terrify another living, sentient creature.
If you're the kind of person who gets off on that, you need help. I was asking a lot of Ax. Too much. But he was determined to play the role.
<If you want to live - and I need not remind you that is in my power to end your life right now - you will answer my questions,> Ax said with exaggerated Andalite arrogance. <What is the extent of the Yeerk penetration of Earth?>
Chapman shuddered but stayed silent.
<Do not defy me, Yeerk filth!> Ax roared. <Name all the Yeerks in positions of power!!>
No answer.
<I will keep you here, you know,> Ax said, changing tactics and using a silken, deadly thoughtspeak voice. <Kandrona starvation, Yeerk. It is a terrible way to die. How long since you visited the Yeerk pool? How many days, how many hours do you have before the terrible need begins to ->
I'd seen and heard enough. I jerked my head toward the door. Rachel and Marco followed me. Marco demorphed as he went.
Ax's words had conjured up a dark, miserable picture in my mind.
The death he had falsely promised Chapman was the one my brother Tom was going to suffer, because the Yeerk in his head would be cut off from Kandrona rays.
"Jake?" Rachel whispered, once we were outside.
I shook my head. Couldn't answer.
I headed for home past the crowd of neighbors and cops and emergency vehicles that had clustered around the Chapman home.
So far, the plan had worked.
Ax would continue to interrogate Chapman.
Maybe get rough with him.
This was what I'd led us to. Marco nearly killed. Melissa Chapman terrorized. And Ax left to spin tales of horror for a helpless captive.
Marco wouldn't need to take another vote: I was done being the leader.
So I'm actually going to bring up something earlier that I didn't mention. When Jake was keeping an eye on his dad at the pediatrician's office, he said "My dad's never been my doctor. I go to one of his partners. You know, it'd be creepy otherwise." And as a rule, doctors don't tend to treat their own family members. It's not best practice. The reason for that is that doctors know that, if their treating their family, they can't be objective. They're going to weigh factors differently, they're going to make mistakes in diagnosis and treatment, they're going to be cautious when they should be aggressive or aggressive when they should be cautious, and not do a good job, because they love their family members, so they're going to make stupid decisions to protect them.
And yea, this relates to why it's a bad idea to put Jake in charge of all this in this case, and he finally realizes it. He isn't able to make good decisions because he loves his dad and wants to protect him.
Nov 10, 2021 22:10
freebooter posted:
I wasn't liking this one much but that exchange between Jake and Marco was really, really good.
It makes me wonder how much KA was giving the ghostwriters. Obviously it was at least a bare minimum plot outline, but in her shoes I could imagine myself wanting to personally write out some key scenes too.
They said they did do that in some books, usually after a couple back and forths where issues weren't getting fixed and the deadline was looming. IIRC the upcoming starfish book was a case where the she decided the whole manuscript was unsalvageable and she scrapped it and wrote a new one.
Nov 10, 2021 22:17
Fuschia tude posted:
They said they did do that in some books, usually after a couple back and forths where issues weren't getting fixed and the deadline was looming. IIRC the upcoming starfish book was a case where the she decided the whole manuscript was unsalvageable and she scrapped it and wrote a new one.
They also said that even in the books where they used the ghostwriter's work, a lot of times they rewrote big passages of it. Grant also admitted that they were, in hindsight, pretty terrible to the ghostwriters.
Nov 10, 2021 22:59
Chapman is dead. A rhino falling into him? He's dead
Nov 10, 2021 23:02
Epicurius posted:
They also said that even in the books where they used the ghostwriter's work, a lot of times they rewrote big passages of it. Grant also admitted that they were, in hindsight, pretty terrible to the ghostwriters.
Yup. I wonder if they had to find them all themselves or if Scholastic arranged any. You'd think a big serial publisher like that would run into this often, but I don't know how they worked internally.
Nov 10, 2021 23:54
Fuschia tude posted:
Yup. I wonder if they had to find them all themselves or if Scholastic arranged any. You'd think a big serial publisher like that would run into this often, but I don't know how they worked internally.
I'm curious as to how much oversight or even awareness Scholastic had of the Animorphs Xenocide Kidz Fun Hour.
Nov 11, 2021 00:08
Epicurius posted:
They also said that even in the books where they used the ghostwriter's work, a lot of times they rewrote big passages of it. Grant also admitted that they were, in hindsight, pretty terrible to the ghostwriters.
I am still angry about certain stuff that appears in the late series and I don't really hold Grant and Applegate in high regard as a result. But that's life I guess.