Animorphs - The Entire Series

Epicurius

Aug 11, 2020 17:13

I think the reason that Ax is sort of held apart, specially in the earlier books is sort of like the joke about when you sit down for breakfast and have ham and eggs, the chicken is involved in your breakfast, but the pig is committed.

Ax wants Earth not to fall to the Yeerks. He wants to avenge his brother and kill Yeerks in general and Visser Three in particular, and he wants to go home. But if Earth does fall to the Yeerks, for the Andalites the war goes on. It doesn't mean that Ax's friends and family all will be slaves.

For the Animorphs, though, if the Yeerks win on earth, that's it. So Ax and the Animorphs are allies with overlapping goals but not the same goals.

Bobulus

Aug 11, 2020 17:21

I'm pretty sure I read this book as a kid, but the plot completely escapes me. Are we headed for an amnesia plot with Rachel?

OctaviusBeaver

Aug 11, 2020 17:59

This is the one where it reveals that the entire series is set in the imagination of a kid staring at a snow globe

Epicurius

Aug 11, 2020 18:18

Bobulus posted:

I'm pretty sure I read this book as a kid, but the plot completely escapes me. Are we headed for an amnesia plot with Rachel?

Sadly, yes.

PetraCore

Aug 11, 2020 18:56

Epicurius posted:

I think the reason that Ax is sort of held apart, specially in the earlier books is sort of like the joke about when you sit down for breakfast and have ham and eggs, the chicken is involved in your breakfast, but the pig is committed.

Ax wants Earth not to fall to the Yeerks. He wants to avenge his brother and kill Yeerks in general and Visser Three in particular, and he wants to go home. But if Earth does fall to the Yeerks, for the Andalites the war goes on. It doesn't mean that Ax's friends and family all will be slaves.

For the Animorphs, though, if the Yeerks win on earth, that's it. So Ax and the Animorphs are allies with overlapping goals but not the same goals.

To be fair, I don't think the Andalites exactly see it that way, given how many humans there are and how interesting we are as hosts for Yeerks. If Earth falls to the Yeerks, the Andalites are fucked in fairly short order, to the point that the Andalite upper ranks are going to be willing to destroy Earth to prevent that. But Ax doesn't know that, yet. He's young, he's inexperienced, he's idealistic.

freebooter

Aug 11, 2020 20:27

Epicurius posted:

Ax wants Earth not to fall to the Yeerks. He wants to avenge his brother and kill Yeerks in general and Visser Three in particular, and he wants to go home. But if Earth does fall to the Yeerks, for the Andalites the war goes on.

Ax himself would be fucked, though. If I get stranded on a desert island, I'm all-in on helping the natives not have the island be overrun by fire ants or whatever.

nine-gear crow

Aug 11, 2020 20:36

freebooter posted:

Ax himself would be fucked, though. If I get stranded on a desert island, I'm all-in on helping the natives not have the island be overrun by fire ants or whatever.

And then your homeland's navy rolls up and blasts the island with a Trinity bomb to make sure the ants don't escape with all those coconuts they stole. :v:

freebooter

Aug 11, 2020 20:45

nine-gear crow posted:

And then your homeland's navy rolls up and blasts the island with a Trinity bomb to make sure the ants don't escape with all those coconuts they stole.

Speaking of - does Ax know what the Andalites did to the Hork-Bajir? I remember him having an arc at some point where he confesses to the others that it was Andalites who originally gave Yeerks space tech, and is relieved they don't blame him for it, but I can't remember if the Hork-Bajir genocide is actually common knowledge in general Andalite society.

Daikloktos

Aug 11, 2020 22:01

freebooter posted:

Ax himself would be fucked, though. If I get stranded on a desert island, I'm all-in on helping the natives not have the island be overrun by fire ants or whatever.

Doesn't "desert island" mean "deserted" and not "desert-ous"? Think that sentence might be accidental colonialism

Epicurius

Aug 11, 2020 22:38

freebooter posted:

Speaking of - does Ax know what the Andalites did to the Hork-Bajir? I remember him having an arc at some point where he confesses to the others that it was Andalites who originally gave Yeerks space tech, and is relieved they don't blame him for it, but I can't remember if the Hork-Bajir genocide is actually common knowledge in general Andalite society.

I don't think it's common knowledge among Andalites, no, hence Ax's feeling of moral disgust when a similar situation comes up in the series.

Comrade Blyatlov

Aug 11, 2020 23:44

Bobulus posted:

I'm pretty sure I read this book as a kid, but the plot completely escapes me. Are we headed for an amnesia plot with Rachel?

Yes, but it was the first time I'd ever read one, so it landed for me.

freebooter

Aug 12, 2020 00:02

Daikloktos posted:

Doesn't "desert island" mean "deserted" and not "desert-ous"? Think that sentence might be accidental colonialism

The natives in this scenario are a more benign species of ant

Daikloktos

Aug 12, 2020 04:30

freebooter posted:

The natives in this scenario are a more benign species of ant

Well that makes cinammon buns in the original analogy into aphid milk!

Epicurius

Aug 12, 2020 15:45

Megamorphs #1-The Andalite's Gift-Chapter 3
Marco

quote:

Look, it's simple," I explained patiently. "There's this party. This pool party. And I was not invited. Not only was I not invited, but the girl who's having the party went out of her way to not invite me."

By the way, hi! My name is Marco. I'm an Animorph, too. I'm the smart, cute one. No, seriously. Jake is the bossy one, Cassie's the nice one, Rachel is the stupidly brave one, and Tobias is a bird.

Marco's summary is a lot shorter than everyone else's.

quote:

I am the cute one. All the girls think so. All except Darlene.

<So you are not wanted at this party. But you want to go, anyway?>

That was Ax speaking. Well, not exactly "speaking." He's an Andalite, and Andalites don't have mouths. They do "thought-speak." It's like telepathy. We can all do it when we're in a morph. But for Andalites it's their normal language. Ax's real name is Aximili-EsgarrouthIsthill. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? Now you know why we just call him Ax.

"That's right," I explained to him. "I mean, Jake and Cassie were both invited. Rachel was invited, but she's going to that stupid gymnastics thing. Basically, everyone at school was invited. All I'm saying is, there must be a reason why I was not invited. And I think I know what that reason is: Darlene likes me. There's no other possible explanation."

Ax looked puzzled. <Is that common among humans? Do you avoid the ones you like?>

"Not like. Like. I like you, Ax. But I don't like you. There's like, and then there's like, like."

Ax stared at me with his main eyes. He has four eyes altogether. Two of them are fairly normal. The other two eyes are on these stalklike things that stick out of the top of his head like those little horns a giraffe has. On the end of each stalk, he has an eye, which he can point in any direction. Very weird. But you can't sneak up on the guy, that's for sure.

 Ax said.

"It's okay. You don't need to understand. I just want you to go with me."

<To the party?>

"That's right. We have to go to the party to see what Darlene says about me. She and her cheerleader friends are probably going to talk about me. I want to hear what they say."

<And you want me to go with you?>

"Yeah. You and me. I need someone to watch my back."

<But Prince Jake will be at the party, won't he?>

I rolled my eyes. Ax is! convinced Jake is his prince. I guess Andalites are into the whole royalty thing.

"Yes, Jake will be there. But Jake is not going to help me spy on Darlene, is he? Neither will Cassie. Cassie doesn't exactly fit in with the cheerleader crowd. They talk about clothes and guys. Cassie talks about animals and saving the world or whatever."

<Pardon me if I sound skeptical, and please don't be offended,> Ax said, <but I sense that maybe this is a dishonorable idea.>

<You sense right, Ax.>

Tobias. He zipped swiftly overhead and landed on a low branch. He was carrying something in his beak.

"Hi, Tobias," I said. "Do you have it?"

<Yes. And do you know how hard it is to fly around with a live, squirming mouse in my beak?>

"Drop it down to me," I said.

<You are a twisted, devious human being, Marco,> Tobias said. <Ax, if you have any sense you won't get involved in this.>

<Tobias, I am suffering. I have small, itching bumps on parts of my body. Marco has agreed to help me, if I will help him. He has a rare medicine that will help.>

<Marco, you're blackmailing Ax with flea powder? Ax, my friend, you just picked up a couple fleas. It's normal in the woods. Don't let Marco jerk you ->

"Just give me the mouse and stop acting like a parent," I interrupted. "I'm not blackmailing anyone. I'll bring Ax the flea powder. Jeez. The suspicion around here."

Tobias dropped the mouse and I caught it with one hand. It squirmed and I almost dropped it. But as I began to "acquire" it, it calmed down.

See, if you want to morph into an animal, you have to acquire it first. You have to make contact. Then you sort of focus on it, concentrate on it. The animal goes into a trance. And meanwhile the animal's DNA is being absorbed.

Don't ask me how it works. It's some weird Andalite biotechnology. I just know it works. When I was done acquiring the mouse I handed it to Ax. He had to use both hands to hold on. Andalite arms and hands are kind of puny. Of course, they also have four legs, and those are pretty strong. I mean, Ax can haul when he wants to. I'll bet he could do forty miles an hour.

Then there's that tail. The tail is the reason Andalites will never be considered truly "cute." I've seen Ax use his tail on full-grown Hork-Bajir warriors. And fast? Man, you don't even see it move. It's like WHAPP! and all of a sudden a Hork-Bajir only has one arm. I believe Ax could chop down a tree with that tail if he felt like it.

<Marco, you know Jake will roast you alive behind this,> Tobias said. <Morphing for personal reasons?>

"Hey, Jake was invited to the party, all right? He'll be soaking up the rays at poolside. He'll be having a good time. Meanwhile I, his best friend, was not even invited. Jake is big on justice. I ask you: Is this justice? No. Clearly not."

<Marco, Jake says the last time you were invited to one of Darlene's pool parties you floated a Baby Ruth bar in the pool and told everyone it was . . . you know. Maybe that's why you weren't invited.>

"I was like six years old," I protested. "I didn't know any better. Besides, it was funny."

<Marco, you were not six. You were ten.>

"Whatever. Who remembers this stuff?"

<Darlene does.>

I ignored Tobias. "Are you done acquiring the mouse?" I asked Ax. "If so, give him back to Tobias for lunch."

<I've eaten, thanks,> Tobias said. <But you shouldn't laugh. You want to go play mouse, you better remember something: There are a lot of predators who enjoy eating mice. It's a dangerous world out there.>

"And who would know that better than you, Mr. Predator?"

Tobias laughed. <Even we predators get ours sometimes. I saw a bald eagle get mobbed by a bunch of jays this morning. Slammed into a tree. I guess the eagle was going after their nest.>

Rachel, btw.

quote:

"There won't be any eagles at the party," I said. "The bird world is your problem, dude. I
have a party to attend."

<Darlene likes him,> Ax said. <But she doesn't like him.>

<That's pretty much how everyone feels about Marco,> Tobias said with a laugh

That's mean. It's....probably true, but it's mean. Also, wacky Marco and Ax adventure

Chapter 4
Jake

quote:

"I feel bad even going to this party," I said. "Darlene should have invited Marco. He wouldn't have done the Baby Ruth thing again. He's much more mature now. Sort of."

"I feel a little guilty, top," Cassie said. She lowered her voice to a whisper and put her mouth close to my ear. "But I seem to remember you saying we should all take the weekend off and be normal. So I am going to be normal."

We were both in our swim suits, sitting in those long pool chairs. You know - the ones you can adjust so you're lying down or sitting up.

There were forty or fifty kids around the pool. Darlene's family has money, I guess, because it's a very nice pool.

There was a long table loaded up with chips and dip and cold cuts. And there were coolers full of iced soft drinks. There was decent rock music playing on the stereo. Some kids were dancing.

It wasn't even noon yet, but the sun was already bright. It was going to be hot, that was for sure. I almost envied Rachel heading up to the mountains. It would probably be cooler up there.

"It feels weird to just sit around and relax," I said.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I heard a bloodcurdling scream.

"Yaaaaaaahhh!" someone shrieked.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" someone else cried.

I sat straight up. Trouble! I could feel the familiar rush of adrenaline. I quickly looked around, checking for the ways to escape, the places where we could stand and fight, the places we might be able to hide for a quick morph. People were running. No ... on a closer look, only a couple of girls were running. They were the ones screaming.

"That's Darlene," Cassie said. She sent me a puzzled, worried look.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Get it away from me!" Darlene screamed. "Get it awaaaaay!"

Darlene ran straight toward us. She ran like the hounds of hell were right behind her. "Help me!" she screamed. "It's after me!"

"What is it?!" I yelled to no one in particular.

"Mice!" this girl named Tracy yelled. "Miiiice!"

Then I spotted them: two tiny, harmless little mice. Two little mice, chasing Darlene like a pair of lions trying to bring down a buffalo.

Darlene dodged right. The mice went right after her. And then something very interesting happened. This guy named Hans yelled, "Darlene! Run this way! I'll stomp them!"

Darlene headed for Hans Hans raised his foot up, ready to stomp the mice as they shot past.

But suddenly the mice turned a sharp left, shot around behind Hans, and tore off after Darlene again.

Right then, I knew. The mice had heard Hans's plan. They had dodged away to safety.

"Real mice don't chase people," Cassie said, giving me a meaningful look!.

"No, they don't," I agreed.

"Marco," Cassie whispered. "And he must have dragged Ax into it, too."

"I'll kill him," I said. "Just as soon as we save him."

I raced around the pool. I tore through a mess of overturned chairs and soda cans and paper plates. Cassie went the other way.

"Help me! Help me!" Darlene screamed, running toward the patio door.

"Hey!" Cassie yelled as loudly as she could. "It's just a couple of mice. Nothing to be afraid of."

One of the mice hesitated. Marco had recognized Cassie's voice.

"You know, if those mice want to live, they should go to Cassie," I said, trying to sound like I was making a joke. "Otherwise, someone might kill them." Then, under my breath, I added, "Someone like me."

 Marco said to me in thought-speak.

I could hear his thought-speak. But since I was not in a morph, I could not reply. Probably a good thing. I might have used some words I shouldn't use.

It was total pandemonium! Forty kids running around like idiots. Half running away from the mice. Half running after the mice. Everyone making lots of noise.

"Come here, little mice," Cassie said loudly.

We were trying to make Marco realize he had to head for Cassie. I knew he could hear us - mice have excellent hearing.

But Marco either didn't get it, or had decided he wasn't done chasing Darlene.

"Aaaaahhh!" Darlene was not done screaming, either. She reached the patio door. She was still screaming as she disappeared inside her house.
Marco was after her like a shot, with Ax right behind.

<Don't worry,> I heard Marco say in thought-speak a few seconds later. <We're down in the basement. We're demorphing. Just make sure no one comes down to the basement looking for mice.>

"Oh, man," I muttered. I ran for the patio door.

THUMP!

I slammed hard into Hans, and both of us went rolling. No less than eight other people slammed into us, one right after another. It was like some bad football game, all of us jumbled together, yelling and giggling and pushing and trying to untangle our legs and arms.

As it turned out, that pileup saved my life.

I sucked wind and tried to stand up, and the sky above us grew dark.

It was so sudden and so complete that everyone just froze.

I looked up. The sun was hidden behind a swirling cloud of dust. Like a flat tornado. A tornado in a clear sky.

I felt a terrible sensation of dread from deep down inside.

The dust swarm grew solid. Within seconds, it assumed a shape. A shape like nothing ever seen on planet Earth.

And then it struck.

So that went bad fast.

I think this book has weird tonal issues, and I don't know if it's the fault of the multiple narrators. Plus, we're four chapters in, Rachel has been sidelined, and we've had two Jake chapters so far. I think part of the problem is that Applegate, at least so far, has had trouble writing a clear narrative voice for Jake. Marco and Cassie are good, largely because I think Marco is a young Michael Grant and Cassie is a young Katherine Applegate, They've been good at showing Rachel's vulnerability underneath her tough exterior, and Tobias so far has just been a Victorian tragic hero. Jake, on the other hand, is written like an adult writing a kid (which, of course, is what's happening). It's very "We were in our swimsuits, sitting in pool chairs, as us youth enjoy doing, and drinking some soft drinks from coolers." So far, I think the only time Jake has been interesting is when he's talking about Tom, and I think that's because, so far, at least, he's been a very bland character. Anyway, it's just something I noticed, and maybe its just me.

Kchama

Aug 12, 2020 16:01

I am always for wacky Marco And Ax Adventures.

Comrade Blyatlov

Aug 12, 2020 16:02

HOW DO YOU DO FELLOW CHILDREN

Comrade Blyatlov

Aug 12, 2020 16:04

For real though, Jake reads to me like someone who absolutely can't switch off, ever.

wizzardstaff

Aug 12, 2020 16:07

The Marco and Ax banter is genuinely fun.

Soup du Jour

Aug 12, 2020 16:17

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

For real though, Jake reads to me like someone who absolutely can't switch off, ever.

A lot of Jake's characterization is coming but even now there's a really fascinating bit that he's just utterly mediocre at everything until thrust into leadership by the war. Can't ever beat Marco at video games, already washed out of basketball in book 1, no hints that he's very good in school at anything beyond a love for military history that was probably spurred by the war. It's no surprise that he winds up totally consumed by fighting the Yeerks inside and out

ninjahedgehog

Aug 12, 2020 22:23

freebooter posted:

Speaking of - does Ax know what the Andalites did to the Hork-Bajir? I remember him having an arc at some point where he confesses to the others that it was Andalites who originally gave Yeerks space tech, and is relieved they don't blame him for it, but I can't remember if the Hork-Bajir genocide is actually common knowledge in general Andalite society.

I don't think Andalite society knows much about the Hork-Bajir fiasco at all, or at the very least arisths like Ax don't get the full picture in school. In the Andalite Chronicles when Elfangor (also an aristh at the time) first meets Alloran all he knows is that he's a disgraced war-prince for fucking up something, but he doesn't know why. Although tbf I don't think Applegate knew at that point either because the Hork-Bajir Chronicles hadn't come out yet.

Comrade Blyatlov

Aug 12, 2020 22:55

Not quite - one of the Yeerks throws it in their faces, leading directly to Elfangor subduing Alloran and allowing Visser Three his chance.

Epicurius

Aug 13, 2020 16:34

The Megamorphs #1-Chapter 5
Marco

quote:

Okay. Okay, maybe it was a little immature to sneak into Darlene's party as a mouse. But you didn't hear what she said about me!

Me and Ax morphed in a vacant lot a block away. Then we toddled on over on our little mouse legs to the party.

Of course, first we had to get used to the mouse morph. See, when you morph you don't just get the animal's body. You get its brain, too. And most animal brains are loaded with different instincts. Usually hunger. Also fear.

The mouse had a lot of each. He was very obsessed about food. And he was one scared little animal. It's often that way when you first morph a new species. As soon as Ax and I achieved total mousehood, those instincts kicked in big time.

RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!

The mouse didn't like being out in the open, in broad daylight. He was scared of predators. Seriously scared.

RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!

So we ran. It was like one minute you're a normal human thinking, Hmmm, isn't it fascinating shrinking down like this, growing a tail, having big whiskers? And the next minute that mouse brain kicks in and suddenly you are charged up with the energy of a thousand cups of coffee on top of a thousand bowls of Captain Crunch, and you are ENERGIZED!

 Ax wailed. <It's insane!>

<Just go with it,> I said. <It'll chill out eventually>

Let me tell you: Mice can move on those little legs. It was like being strapped to the front bumper of an Indy 500 car.

ZooooM!

We hauled butt, zipping in wild terror over leaves of grass as big as trees, pieces of gravel the size of beach balls, and bugs the size of collies. That much I'm used to. I've morphed small animals before.

But what was sick was that I really, really wanted to stop and eat some of those bugs. There was this one beetle, kind of bluish-black, and the mouse brain was like, Ah, cool, lunch!

But it was more terrified than it was hungry, so we just kept running like out-of-control lunatics, and I missed out on the flavor of bug. Eventually, we were able to get some control.

<Ax. You okay, man?> I called to him in thought-speak.



<Yeah. Scared little things, aren't they?>

<Animals develop instincts for a good reason> Ax said darkly. <If the mouse is cautious, it probably has good reasons.>

<Well, if we see any cats, we'll just morph back,> I said.

<Yes. If we live long enough.>

There's cheerful old Ax. Honestly, I don't get why some people don't think he has a sense of humor.

quote:

In any case, we toddled off to the party, two little mice looking for a good time.

Mouse senses are excellent, fortunately. Hearing is great. The sense of smell is great. The eyes are decent, but it's hard to see much when you're only an inch tall and your face is down at dirt level.

Still, I was able to locate Darlene by the sound of her voice. She was talking to her friends about the usual stuff: school, music, some cute guy on TV. Ax and I hid underneath Darlene's chair, so I was able to hear everything pretty well.

All I could see of Darlene was this enormous chair roof over my head - stretched bands of interwoven plastic, bulging down like they might burst and crush me. Quite a distance away I could see her legs, looking like two gigantic pink pillars.

<Well, this is boring,> I said to Ax.

<What did you expect?>

 I said. Then it occurred to me. I could thought-speak to Darlene! I would just say the word "Marco" in her head. She wouldn't know where it had come from. She'd probably think someone had said it aloud. With thought-speak, you can either do it so everyone hears you, or sort of aim it at just one person.

<Marco,> I said.

"What?" Darlene asked. "What about Marco?"

"Nothing about Marco," this girl named Kara said.

"Good, because I don't even want his name mentioned at my party. He's such a jerk. I mean, after what he did? Throwing Baby Ruth bars in my pool? Panicking everybody?"

"He's so immature," a girl named Ellen said.

"No duh," Darlene said. "He thinks he's so cool and so cute, but he's totally not. He always makes jokes about stuff that aren't even funny."

Well. I could stand them saying I was immature. That's what girls always say. But saying I wasn't funny?

I would show them funny. Oh, yes.

I took off. I ran for the legs. Ax came after me yelling, <What are we doing?!>

<We're just going to see how good Darlene's sense of humor is,> I yelled back. I ran for that big pink leg. I saw the foot pressing heavily down on the grass. I shot past her heel, which was like a wall to me, and aimed for the toes.

Let me just say this: Darlene thinks she's perfect in every way. But her toenails definitely needed trimming.

I scampered right onto her foot. I zoomed across her foot, then scrabbled wildly around her ankle and back over her toes.

<Yee-HAH!> I crowed to Ax. <That'll give her something else to complain about!>

"Oh! Oh! Ohhhhhhhhh!" Darlene screamed.

Up flew the foot! I jumped off just in time. And then she was outta there, screaming and yammering like a total ninny.
Naturally, I chased her. And naturally, Ax came with me.

It was total, absolute fun! I'm sorry, I know it was wrong and all, but man, it was so cool. That is, until I heard Hans yelling about how he was going to stomp me. That would never do. I did not intend to be stomped by Hans's big stinky foot.

I heard Jake's big voice yelling. And Cassie's sweeter - but still annoyed - voice.

<Oh, man. It's Jake,> I said to Ax. <Busted.>

I raced for cover, looking for a place to morph back to human. Big stomping feet were landing all around me. They were slow, but man, they were big. Everyone was totally overreacting. I mean, give me a break, I was two inches long! How scary could I possibly be?

Then it occurred to me. The house! We could run inside, race down to the basement where no one would be, morph back real fast, and then . . . Well, and then there I would be, just me and an Andalite. Great. That wouldn't look too strange.

<Ax! Stay with me. We need to demorph. Then you have to do your human morph real quick, okay?>



<Nah. Everything according to plan.>

ZOOM! Over the threshold onto the patio! ZOOM! Into the house itself! ZOOM! Past a hysterical Darlene, who was on the couch with a pillow over her head.

ZOOM! Along carpet till we hit linoleum.

Suddenly, the scent of dark places. Mouse places! Yes, it was going to work!

We ran across a step and leapt, falling . . . falling . . . PLOP! to land on the next step. Again and again, step after step, at a speed that felt like we were flying rockets.

It was so cool! If you overlooked the fact that it was maybe slightly stupid.

<Don't worry,> I called to Jake in thought-speak. <We're in the basement. We're going to demorph. Just make sure no one comes down to the basement looking for mice.>

We lost our pursuers. No one followed us down the steps. And even as I ran, I started to demorph.

I was halfway back to human, a strange mix of mouse tail and huge ears and human legs - a scary-looking creature. The way Mickey Mouse would look if he'd been invented by Stephen King. Ax looked even worse, half-mouse, half-Andalite.

Just as I was thinking> Hey, this will all be fine, the entire world just flew apart.

Crrrrr-RUNCH!

Sunlight streamed down! The entire roof had been ripped away! The entire roof!

Wood and beams and concrete just shattered and ripped and fell in huge chunks. I couldn't even make sense of it. I ran, the entire world around me was just being shredded. Shredded, like the universe was being run through a food processor.

Then I saw it. It was gigantic! Enormous! A creature that seemed to be made of nothing but teeth and blades and destruction. It was like twenty Hork-Bajir glued together and given dragon wings.

B-R-R-A-A-A-K!

It was ripping the house apart with unbelievable power.

The noise was terrifying. The scream of ripping wood. The shattering crunch of concrete being torn up - just torn up, like it was nothing! Pipes bending. Wires sizzling and popping as they exploded into showers of sparks.

"Look out!" I yelled to Ax with my now-human voice. Beams were falling around us. mSplinters were flying through the air.

I barely noticed that I had finished morphing. I was human again. Somehow Ax had kept his concentration and was fully in his human morph.

We were defenseless. Two kids without a weapon between us.

Above our heads, where there had been a house just seconds before, the beast hovered in the sun.

It looked down at us with a dozen weird eyes that seemed to be stuck here and there at random. It stared at us the way I'd seen Tobias stare at his prey.
It was going to destroy us. There was no question in my mind. And no question that it could.

"Oh, man," I moaned. "I don't like this."

Then ... the eyes all flickered at once. The beast seemed uncertain.

And to my utter relief and utter amazement, the thing began to disperse. He became dust again. Just a cloud of dust that thinned and disappeared.

I was shaking so badly I couldn't stand up. But I was alive.

How is this going to be explained to Darlene's parents? Like, how do they fill out the homeowner's insurance claim?

Chapter 6
Rachel

quote:

I woke up.

I was on my back, lying on a bed of pine needles and crispy dried leaves. I was staring up at trees. The sun shone through the branches.

My first thought was, What am I doing here?

I had no idea how I had gotten to these woods. Or even what woods these were.

"What am I doing here?" I started to say out loud. But the words were garbled, mangled.

They were more of a screech than actual words.

I felt a tingle of fear.

What was going on? What was going on? Why was I here? Why couldn't I talk?

I shouldn't be here. I should be ... where?

Where should I be? I tried to concentrate. How had I come here? Where was I before? Where . . . where did I belong?

But nothing came. Nothing! I couldn't remember how I'd gotten there. I couldn't remember where I had been. Ever.

Suddenly, it hit me in a wave of dread that made my heart skip several beats: I didn't know who I was. I did not know my own name.

I tried to sit up. And that's when I saw...

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!" I screamed in a weird, high-pitched shriek.

My legs . . . they were encased in a black leotard. And I could see that the upper half of

each leg was shaped like a normal human leg. But the end . . . the bottom half suddenly changed shape. And from the bottom of the leotard, huge talons appeared.

I looked at my hand. Five fingers. Five human fingers, but they sprouted; with feathers. There were feathers sticking out of my flesh!

I felt my face. Skin. Skin on my cheeks and my neck. But then, my bristling, feathered fingers felt my mouth.

It was a beak! A hard, tearing beak.

It was a nightmare! That was it, I was having a nightmare! I had to wake up. I had to get out of this dream.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" I screamed again. And the unhuman sound of my own voice frightened me still more.

I had to control the panic. I had to. I had to. But my legs! My face! My hands!

Don't panic, I ordered myself. You will not panic. You will not panic! This isn't real.

And yet I could feel the pine needles beneath me. And the warmth of the sun as it lanced through the branches. It all felt real.

Was this how I always was? Was I some sort of freak? Half-bird, half-human?

No. I knew that was wrong. And I knew that people did not become birds. And yet here I was, with feathers and a beak, and no memory of who I was. I looked like some horrible creature who was halfway through changing from bird to human - or the other way around.

Was that it? Had I been in the process of changing from one to the other? And which one was I really? Who was I? What was I?

Come on, I ordered myself. Get a grip. Get a grip.

But I could feel screams boiling up inside me. I could scream and scream and scream.

No. No. Start that and you may never stop, I thought. Use your head. Think. I strained to remember, but it was as if half my brain were wrapped in a dense fog. I couldn't see through it. No matter how I tried.

You're a human, I told myself silently. You're human, not a bird. And if you could change this far, maybe you can change more.

I closed my eyes. I wanted to concentrate, and I did not want to see my body. Terror rattled through me, shaking my bones, churning my in-sides.

I was human. I wanted to be fully human. Human again.

Then ... I began to feel changes. I opened my eyes. As I watched, the talons shriveled and split and became toes.

It was revolting to watch. It made me sick. But then I realized something. As soon as I lost concentration, the changes stopped. That had to be it! I must have been changing, and something had broken my concentration. I could not stay the way I was. I was a nightmare.
I had to get out!

I felt a shadow over the sun. I thought it was a passing cloud. I couldn't let myself be distracted.

I focused down again. Human. I wanted to be human. I felt the feathers melt into my skin. I felt my beak become soft lips.

The sun was very dim now. Something was blocking it. I felt a chill. I looked up. Just above the trees, a cloud of dust swirled wildly, like some flattened tornado. It swirled and concentrated.

A dust cloud. But not a dust cloud, really.

As I lay there, I had a terrible feeling. A feeling that this swirling, thickening cloud was watching me. Considering me. Focusing on me.
But I could not allow myself to be distracted. I was still not fully human. And I wanted to be human again. Maybe . . . maybe once I was human, I would remember who I was.

That's right, for Rachel they're going with an amnesia plot. Hit your head, get amnesia. Plot of many a tv sitcom.

Chapter 7
Tobias

quote:

I have seen a lot of strange things since that first evening when we walked through the construction site where the Andalite prince had landed his damaged fighter.

Back then I was just a kid. A boy. A dork, I guess. It's getting hard to remember. But yeah, I guess I was a dweeb. I remember that I met Jake because he stepped in to save me from some punks who wanted to flush my head in the toilet.

Well, a lot has changed since then.

I've gotten so I can deal with being what I am now. I've accepted the fact that I am no longer completely human. But I'm not completely a hawk, either.

Like I said, I've seen strange things. But nothing stranger than what I saw that morning as I floated in the high thermals, a mile above Darlene's house.

See, I was flying "cover." It's one of the ways I'm able to help my friends. Marco hadn't asked me to fly cover for his idiotic little escapade, but I figured I'd better. Besides, I'd already eaten. A small snake, an unusual delicacy for me. I had nothing else to do, really, but catch a thermal and ride it up.

A thermal is an updraft of warm air. You spread your wings and it lifts you up like an elevator. Once you're up, you can just float there forever. You barely have to flap your wings.
So I was up pretty high. High enough that I could see everything from the edge of the woods to the south, all the way to the center of the city a few miles away. But I stayed low enough that I could still watch Marco and Ax morph.

They ran around like fools till they got a grip on their mouse brains. Then, as they gained control, they set off purposefully toward Darlene's house.

Marco is an extremely smart guy. I don't know if Ax is smart for an Andalite, but he's really smart by human standards. Neither of them really understood how dangerous it is to be a mouse, walking openly across a suburban lawn in broad daylight.

I mean, you might as well just tie raw steaks to your legs and go for a walk with a wolf pack. Hawks kill mice. Cats kill mice. And let me tell you something: Two groups of animals you don't want chasing you are hawks and cats.

From the air I observed one fat tabby cat who spotted them passing by. But I guess he was full, or just feeling too lazy, lying out in the sun. The cat let them pass undisturbed.

I also spotted a Cooper's hawk checking them out. He was definitely thinking about mouse for lunch. I signaled the Cooper's that these were my prey and he backed off. Fortunately, I was bigger than he was, and he wasn't hungry enough to fight.

I watched as Marco and Ax reached Darlene's pool party. I relaxed then. If they didn't get stepped on, they'd probably be safe. Still, watching the party made me a little sad. The people seemed to be having a good time. Kids were splashing in the pool and! running around and yelling and talking.

It was a whole different universe than the one I lived in. I had the other Animorphs and Ax for friends. But I didn't have friends like myself. Hawks don't get together and have parties.

Mostly, when you see another hawk it means trouble, a fight for territory.

Down below, I saw Marco chasing some girl. Good grief, I thought. Why am I not surprised?

The girl ran inside the house. Marco and Ax ran after her, trailing a posse of guys, one of whom was clearly Jake.

Then I began to see something bizarre. A dust storm. That's what it looked like, anyway. Like one of those little dust devils that kick up out in the desert or prairie.

"I saw Marco and my alien friend Ax, transformed into mice, chase a girl inside a house, followed by a group of guys. Then I began to see something bizzare"

quote:

It swirled like a compact tornado. I was fascinated because wind is very important to me.

Wind is life and death to me sometimes.

The tornado was getting tighter. More solid. I strained my hawk eyes to see every detail. I spilled air from my wings and swooped lower to get a better view.

And then ... it wasn't a dust cloud anymore.

It was a creature! A beast made up of gnashing mouths and whirling blades.

It dived at the house, ripping it apart like it was made out of Legos. It seemed to be chewing its way through brick and wood and shingle. It was like watching a garbage disposal grind up a carrot.

Kids were screaming. They were running wildly, this way and that. Suddenly, half the house was gone. Just gone, and I could see straight down into the basement. Straight down at Marco, human once more, and Ax in his human morph.

I folded my wings back and dived like a rocket. Maybe I could distract the beast.

Then, for no apparent reason, the beast began to dissolve.

I pulled up sharply, still a few hundred feet up. I could see Marco practically faint from relief. Ax didn't look too happy, either. But they were both alive. And Jake and Cassie?

Both were staring up at the sky in horror.

The dust beast dissolved into a cloud again. A human eye would not have seen anything after that. But I didn't have human eyes. I saw the dust cloud disperse. But I also saw the individual particles streaming away toward the forest.

The particles were moving at incredible speed. They were not being blown by the wind, I was sure of that.

They were moving all on their own. Very fast, toward the woods.

Tobias, meanwhile....is also in this book.

Radio Free Kobold

Aug 13, 2020 18:11

what the fuck

Epicurius

Aug 13, 2020 18:16

Radio Free Kobold posted:

what the fuck

That covers so much....is this an "evil tornado" what the fuck, a "surprise amnesia" what the fuck or a "Applegate finally remembered Tobias existed" what the fuck?

nine-gear crow

Aug 13, 2020 18:23

Epicurius posted:

That covers so much....is this an "evil tornado" what the fuck, a "surprise amnesia" what the fuck or a "Applegate finally remembered Tobias existed" what the fuck?

The first Megamorphs always kinda screamed of a "Scholastic corporate wants you to do this or you don't get paid" and Applegate and Grant looking at one another and going "How can we write this so they never ask us to do another one?"

Like how they responded to a corporate note on the design of the Andalites. They were originally written as being typical grey aliens, and Scholastic wanted something a little jazzier in case the show got optioned for TV or a movie, so they made the Andalites stupidly complex almost out of spite. Then when the TV show actually came about they proved impossible to properly dramatize on a 90s basic cable live action children's drama budget.

SirSamVimes

Aug 13, 2020 18:28

I mean that was for the best because the Andalite design they ended up with rules.

Radio Free Kobold

Aug 13, 2020 19:50

SirSamVimes posted:

I mean that was for the best because the Andalite design they ended up with rules.

hell yeah it does. the sound effect of Ax's once-an-episode-disarming-someone would've had to have been a wilhelm which would only make it better.

Tree Bucket

Aug 13, 2020 20:03

nine-gear crow posted:

Like how they responded to a corporate note on the design of the Andalites. They were originally written as being typical grey aliens, and Scholastic wanted something a little jazzier in case the show got optioned for TV or a movie, so they made the Andalites stupidly complex almost out of spite. Then when the TV show actually came about they proved impossible to properly dramatize on a 90s basic cable live action children's drama budget.

"Fine, they've got blue fur."
"That's better than grey-"
"And they are centaurs!"
"Okay, that sh-"
"With tails. Scorpion tails, lightning fast!"
"Well, uhm, at least we shouldn't have too much trouble animating the upper body of th-"
"Oh and they've got extra fingers."
"How many?"
"Lots."
"Right, fine. And their faces?"
"..."
"..."
"Eye stalks. That are constantly moving."

freebooter

Aug 13, 2020 20:12

nine-gear crow posted:

Then when the TV show actually came about they proved impossible to properly dramatize on a 90s basic cable live action children's drama budget.

It baffled me why they went for live action over animated in the first place. Unless animated was perceived as being for a younger audience than the middle school demographic.

Epicurius

Aug 13, 2020 20:50

freebooter posted:

It baffled me why they went for live action over animated in the first place. Unless animated was perceived as being for a younger audience than the middle school demographic.

I don't know for sure, but the studiothat made it, Protocol Entertainment, already had a contract with Scholastic to make the Goosebumps series. So my though is, rather than worry about having to engage with a new tv studio, Scholastic just decided to leverage the existing relationship.

Starsnostars

Aug 14, 2020 05:25

How well do these books line up with mainline titles? Do Marco or Ax use their mice morphs later on in those for example.

Piell

Aug 14, 2020 05:34

Starsnostars posted:

How well do these books line up with mainline titles? Do Marco or Ax use their mice morphs later on in those for example.

They almost never re-use morphs other than their combat morphs/bird morphs, no matter what book they got it in. The Megamorphs books are canon, however, unlike the Alternamorph CYOA ones.

freebooter

Aug 14, 2020 05:48

Piell posted:

They almost never re-use morphs other than their combat morphs/bird morphs, no matter what book they got it in. The Megamorphs books are canon, however, unlike the Alternamorph CYOA ones.

I always dug it when ten or fifteen books down the line they'd crack out a morph they'd only previously used as a one-off. Like Cassie and Marco morphing venomous snakes to ambush another Visser, or one of them going chimpanzee to scale the rigging of a Napoleonic ship in the time travel book.

OctaviusBeaver

Aug 14, 2020 07:21

Also, Cassie gets a whale morph in this one that she uses later to scare off David when he's in a killer whale morph.

Epicurius

Aug 14, 2020 16:42

The Megamorphs #1-Chapter 8
Rachel

quote:

Human. Be human!

I focused with all my power on that one thought. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to remember who I was. What I looked like.

I felt my body change. It was a horrifying sensation. I could hear bones crunching. I could feel a sudden nausea as a human stomach reappeared. I seemed to itch all over as flesh absorbed feathers.

Had I done this before? It didn't seem possible. It was disgusting. Grotesque.

I opened my eyes.

Right above me! What was it?

Mouths with needle-sharp teeth! Staring eyes! Whirling blades!

It was after me!

Should I fly? Should I run? What was I?

I leapt up, hoping I had legs.

Yes! I could run. Yes! I ran. I ran! My own bare feet flashed ahead of me. Human feet. My arms pumped, but they still felt odd. The bones were connected wrong. I ran! Over pine needles that stabbed the tender soles of my feet.

B-R-R-A-A-A-K-K!

It was behind me! It chewed through a tree four feet thick. Chewed it up and left splinters
and sawdust behind.

"NO!" I screamed, and my voice was almost human.

NO! NO! It was after me. It wanted to kill me. Why? Why? What had I done? Who was I, that this monster wanted to destroy me?

I raced as fast as I could, but it was faster. Entire trees were ripped from the ground to make way for it. The very ground itself was ripped up as if by some huge plow. The shrieking of destruction was all around me.

What was happening to me?

"Help me!" I screamed. And now my voice was truly human. The last of the changes were occurring. My arms pumped smoothly now. My eyes looked past a normal human nose. The beak was gone.

But the beast... the BEAST! It was on me!

Suddenly, a road! Cars flashing by!

I ran for the road. The beast pursued me, ripping a path through the woods.

Cars zooming past! If I ran out into the road, they would hit me. If I stopped, the beast would devour me.

I ran.

SWOOOOM! A car shot past, missing me by inches. Six lanes! A freeway! I ran, hoping against hope to survive.

Horns! Blaring horns!

A truck.

The beast.

It hit the truck, or the truck hit it. I don't know which.

The cabin of the truck was crumpled. I caught a flash of the driver yelling, frantically working the steering wheel.

Then the trailer part, the part that said ben and jerry's, slammed into the dust beast. Screeching, screaming wheels! Then, WHAM!

I tripped and went sprawling into the median strip. I rolled down a grassy slope into dirty water. I looked up in time to see the truck turn over and skid wildly down the freeway, spraying sparks.

The beast shredded the trailer. Shredded it! Pints of ice cream exploded around like hand grenades. In the middle of terror I was pelted by pints of Cherry Garcia and Wavy Gravy ice cream.

Does Ben & Jerry's still have those flavors? I haven't eaten their ice cream in a long time. I used to love Cherry Garcia, though.

quote:

The beast rose from the truck. The driver climbed up out of the cab and ran.

As the beast rose into the air, a hundred manic eyes looked around. It saw me. There was no doubt about that, it SAW me.

But the eyes seemed confused. They seemed lost. The beast saw me, but did not recognize me.

Suddenly, as I cowered in the ditch of the median strip, the beast simply dissolved into a cloud; of dust.

Dissolved and blew away.

Traffic had stopped on all six lanes, as people hung out their windows to witness the
spectacle of a tractor-trailer lying across the road.

I climbed shakily out of the ditch. I was trembling so badly I could barely stand. I was muddy and wet and barefoot, wearing a black leotard. I stumbled across the road, toward the sheltering woods.

A man with a camcorder emerged from his car and began taping the wreck. From far off came the wail of a siren.

I just wanted to get away.

Whoever I was.

So, Rachel has amnesia, she managed to get away from the tornado monster, who dissipated rather than eating her.

Chapter 9
Cassie

quote:

Tornado my butt," Marco said angrily. "That thing was alive."

Man. After I just called it a tornado monster, Marco has to argue with me.

quote:

We were watching TV in my living room. Jake, Marco, Ax in his human morph, and me, Cassie. It was afternoon. My parents weren't home yet, so we were safe, talking freely.

The news was doing a special report. They had broken into a talk show to show film of what they described as a "freak tornado." They were showing what was left of Darlene's house. The reporter was standing right where we'd had the pool party. You could see Darlene in the background with her parents, picking through the wreckage.

"The storm hit late this morning, just before noon," the reporter said. "Some young people were having a pool party, and they describe a sort of funnel cloud that appeared quite suddenly out of a clear sky. Some of the kids who were here actually described it as seeming like a monster or a beast. But of course they were quite frightened at the time."

"They were frightened, all right," Marco muttered. "They were wetting their pants. I know."

"The house was virtually destroyed," the reporter went on. "Almost miraculously, there were only some minor injuries. A few of the kids suffered abrasions and minor cuts. The house itself was fully insured."

"That's a good thing," Marco said dryly. "Because we're talking a lot more than a paint job needed there."

"Now let's go out to the freeway where the same tornado - or possibly a second tornado - destroyed a tractor-trailer, holding up traffic for hours."

The screen showed a Ben and Jerry's ice cream truck that looked like it had been blown apart by a bomb.

Suddenly I saw something familiar.

"Hey! Look!" I said.

"What?" Jake asked.

"It's gone now," I said. "Are we taping this?"

"Yeah," Marco said. "What is it?"

"Back the tape up. Back it up."

Marco reversed the VCR tape. I watched as the camera panned back across the wreck. Then. . .

This came up in the book where Ax was introduced, I think. Jake apparently tapes the news, for some reason. I mean, I guess they want to avoid the "We happened to be watching the news and noticed a major plot point, but still, who regularly tapes the news?

quote:

"Right there! Right there!" I said. "That girl. See? She's only in the shot for a second. Can you freeze-frame her?"

"Why?" Jake asked. "What is it?"

Marco rewound, then advanced the tape a frame at a time. A blurry figure appeared. The frame froze.

"What is the matter?" Ax asked. "Matter? Ter."

Ax can be odd when he's in human morph. Having a mouth and being able to make sounds just fascinates him.

"Look at that girl," I said. "Tall. Blond hair. Barefoot. Wearing a black leotard."

Jake's eyes widened in shocked recognition. So did Marco's.

"Oh, my God," Marco whispered. "It is! It's Rachel. It has to be."

"She must have just come out of a morph," I said. "That's her morphing suit. And being barefoot and all?"

See, when we morph we can't morph much clothing - just something skintight. And shoes? Forget shoes. I've tried morphing shoes. They end up looking like an entire pack of dogs played tug-of-war with them.

"What is Rachel doing out there?" Jake demanded. "She's supposed to be up in the mountains at that camp."

"You know what this means?" Marco demanded. "That thing. That thing that came after Ax and me was also right where Rachel was. Coincidence? I don't think so."

Jake shook his head. "No. Not a coincidence." He looked at Ax. "Do you know what this is?"

"No," Ax said. "I do not. It is not any race that I have ever heard of. But I agree: It is no coincidence. Cidence. Co-IN-sid-DENSE."

"Well, what is it?" Marco demanded angrily.

"Tobias told us that it headed toward the forest at a very high speed," I said. "It was heading for Rachel. The timing is right. The location is right. It attacked Marco and Ax, but then it stopped and went tearing off for Rachel."

"Why? What is the point? If it's some Yeerk weapon, it should have finished us off. I mean, it had Ax and me cold."

"We need to talk to Rachel," Jake said. "Cassie?"

"I'll call." I went to the phone, the one in the kitchen. I dialed Rachel's number. I've probably dialed that number every day for years.

On the third ring: "Hello?"

"Hi, Jordan." Jordan is Rachel's younger sister. "Is Rachel home?"

"Duh, Cassie. She's at the gymnastics thing. The camp."

I felt a tingling up my spine. "So ... so she did go?"

"Sure."

"She didn't come back early or anything?"

"No. Why? Is something the matter?"

"Nah. Nothing. I was just thinking maybe . . . never mind. Later."

I hung up the phone and took several deep breaths. I didn't want to alarm the others. I went back to the living room.

Marco was still yelling at the guy on the TV. "It wasn't a tornado! Are people blind? A tornado does not have teeth."

Jake saw me first. I tried to conceal the fear I felt inside. But I can't hide anything from Jake. He knows me too well.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Rachel. She isn't home. They think she's at the camp."

Jake, Marco, and Ax all just stared for a moment. Then Marco rewound the tape and played it back.

Tall, blond, a model's body, wearing a black leotard and no shoes.

It was Rachel.

And she was definitely not at camp.

So, at least the rest of the group (except for Tobias) know that Rachel is alone out there. They don't know about the amnesia, but still, that's forward motion. And they realize that this thing seems to have been something targeted at them.

Chapter 10
Rachel

quote:

I spent hours just walking in the woods. Walking and trying to remember.

Who was I?

What was I?

I didn't know. My mind Would not answer me.

I remembered how to talk. I remembered what things were called. I knew that the sky was blue, and the moon was white, and the ocean was deep, and that winter was colder than summer.

I knew all the background things of life. It was like watching a TV show where you could see all the sets, but the characters were invisible.

Of me - of who I was and what I was - I knew nothing.

Or not quite nothing. I knew that I was some sort of freak. I knew I could have the feathers and beak and legs of a bird.

And I knew that I had some terrible enemy.

The pine needles and fallen branches made walking painful. But what else could I do?

Where was I supposed to go? Some terrible beast was hunting me. Who could I possibly trust?

"Answer me!" I yelled at no one but the trees. "Who am I?"

The sound of my own voice reminded me I had to be careful. The beast from the sky might be out there. Might still be looking for me.

I walked, always hoping the clouds would lift from my memory. I knew I had amnesia. I remembered the word "amnesia." But how had it happened? That I could not remember.

I stayed fairly close to the highway that sliced through the forest. I could see flashes of cars through the trees, a few hundred yards off to my right. But I stayed deep enough in the woods that no one from the road could see me.

I could not afford to be seen. Not until I knew what danger I was in.

Then, amidst all the greens and browns of the forest, I saw something bright yellow. It was deeper in the woods. Another few hundred yards deeper.

I crouched down low and walked on bent legs toward the splash of yellow. I moved as quietly as I could, placing each bare foot carefully.

It was a shack. The yellow was a cotton, ribbed top. From The Limited, probably.

I froze. What? From The Limited? What did that mean? I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated.

FLASH! A store. It was a store. Clothing. Tables covered with folded tops in bright colors. I was there. I was there shopping with ... I knew there was someone with me. I could feel the fact that someone was with me.

But I couldn't see any more. The memory fragment was only a brief snippet of time. It told me nothing.

I looked again at the shack. It looked like it had been built a long time ago. It was made of logs, some of which were rotted out. Had I been here before? It felt familiar. This place ... a place like it... but no. I was probably just imagining things.

She's maybe remembering the shack in the woods where they locked up Yeerk Jake in book 6?

quote:

The yellow top was hanging on a clothesline.I duck-walked left to see through the front doorway. It was open. There was no light inside the cabin. Should I? Could I take the risk?

"If you want to return the item you'll need a receipt," a voice said.

"Yaaahhh!" I yelled, and spun around.

A woman. Old. No, not so old. Just shabby. Wearing so many layers of clothing she looked fat. But she wasn't. She was thin. Dragging a bulging canvas bag.

Not a threat.

Remember that conclusion.

quote:

I forced myself to calm down. I tried to let the adrenaline flow out of me, but my heart was pounding and my muscles were tensed.

"You'll need a receipt," the woman said again. She stared at me in a challenging way and held out her hand.

"What?" I asked. "Do you know me?"

"If you want to return the item you'll need a receipt," she said again. She said it precisely the way she had the first time. The identical inflection.

She was insane.

"I don't have a receipt," I said.

She looked past me at something. Or nothing. Then she headed for the shack. I don't know why, but I followed her.

She was mentally ill, but she didn't seem dangerous. And I wasn't exactly normal myself.

I don't know what I expected to find inside the shack, but it was a shock: clothing. Piles of it three feet high. In every corner, clothing. Much of it was dirty. Filthy. Some was stained or burned. Some seemed fine.

The madwoman ignored me completely. She opened her dirty canvas bag and began pulling out more items of clothing. Stained shirts. Ripped jeans. One old sneaker.

"Excuse me," I said. "Ma'am?"

"If you want to return the item you'll need a receipt."

"Can you tell me your name?"

She stopped sorting the clothing. She turned a sly grin toward me. "My name? Or its name? We are two, not one. Yes. Yes. If you want to return the item."

"Your name, please," I said.

"It's gone now," she said craftily. "But it will be back. Oh yes, they'll be back. They never go away forever."

I guess normally I might have been frustrated.I might have even gotten annoyed. But I
knew now what it was like to have your brain betray you.

"Who does all this clothing belong to?" I asked.

"MINE!" she shrieked suddenly. "MINE! It's MINE!"

"Okay, okay! Okay. It's yours."

"I found it all. People throw it away. It's mine."

"Yes, it's yours. But I was wondering ... I don't have any shoes. I thought maybe you could let me borrow a pair of shoes."

"Will that be cash, check, or credit card?"

"I ... um .. ." I had an idea. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe it was even a little cruel. I bent down and picked up a chunk of pine bark from the floor. I held it out to the woman. "Credit card."

She took it. She looked at it in confusion. Then she looked up at me. There was something lost and desperate in her eyes. "Is this the store?" she asked.

"It's your store," I said.

She forced a shaky smile. "Let me know if I can help you find anything."

"I will," I said.

I began digging through the nearest pile of clothing. Shoes were stuck here and there. I dug each one out, one by one, and set them in a pile on the floor. I needed a size five. So far I had mostly men's shoes.

"Are you one of them?" the woman asked.

"One of what, ma'am?" I replied.

"The others. The ones who live in your head."

"I don't think so," I said. I was focused on my search.

"There's only one way to know for sure," she said in a soft, silky voice.

Success! One size six Reebok, and one size five Converse. They weren't exactly matched, but they were better than being barefoot.

I heard a creak of rusty hinges behind me. I turned to look. The old woman had opened a trapdoor in the floor of the shack.

I started to rise from my crouch, holding the shoes.

WHUMPF!

Something hit me from behind. I tried to suck in a breath, but the blow had emptied my lungs. The woman was all over me, shoving, clawing, scratching, and screaming.

"YEERK! YEERK! YEERK!"

I struggled to fend her off, but she was strong and driven by her insane vision.

I fell. Down through the hole in the floor.

"YEERK! YEERK!" she screamed.

I landed on dirt. I recovered quickly and leaped back up at the opening. The hatch slammed down on me.

I ducked, just in time.

"YEERK! YEERK! YEERK!"

FLASH! A gray, sludgy pool. An underground cavern. Something in the pool, swimming. Many somethings. Seething just beneath the surface of the pool. Like fish. No ... slugs.

Gray slugs.

"YEERK!"

My head swam with the sudden vision. But I couldn't focus on that. I had to get out. I pounded on the splintery wood of the hatch. "Lady, let me out of here! let me out of here! I don't want to hurt you."

No answer. I looked around. It wasn't a basement. Just a space beneath the shack. Maybe long, long ago it had been some kind of way to escape. Or maybe it was a place to store food for the winter. But it had the feeling of great age.

It was hard-packed dirt on three sides. The fourth side was a wall of vertical logs. I could see through the gaps in the logs. But I did not see a way out.

"Lady, let me out of here. I'm not going to hurt you."

She spoke in a much quieter voice. "No, no. You don't want to hurt me. You just want to crawl inside my head. Like you did before. Crawl inside my head . . . make me ... make me give you my husband. Make me give him to you. My children. All for you. All for YOU. Controlling me. In my head. But you died, didn't you, Yeerk?"

I felt a terrible coldness. She was insane. Insane. And yet... why did her raving mean something to me? That word . . . Yeerk. It meant something. Something evil.

Was I crazy, too? Was that the truth I was hiding from myself?

In other news, Rachel met somebody who hates the Yeerks as much as she does.

Comrade Blyatlov

Aug 14, 2020 17:01

I forgot about that woman. That poor woman :smith:

ANOTHER SCORCHER

Aug 14, 2020 18:04

Fan speculation is that's the woman from Book 1, right? I thought that woman escaped while her Yeerk was in the pool. Except this lady's comment about the Yeerk being dead suggests Kandrona deprivation.

Tulul

Aug 14, 2020 18:12

IIRC there's a popular theory that this is the woman they freed from the Yeerk pool in book 1 that runs off and is never mentioned again.

Also possible she's a Controller whose Yeerk starved after they blew up the Kandrona.

Either way: :smith:

QuickbreathFinisher

Aug 14, 2020 19:25

Yeah I had always heard it was the woman from book one. This time though, I'm thinking that her fixation on clothes and "the store" could indicate that this lady was formerly guarding the pool entrance over the Gap. Her Yeerk starved after they blew up the Kandrona, understandably driving her nuts, and she's been living in the woods ever since.

Pool entrance guard tracks to me as someone a Yeerk would deem replaceable in a life or death situation, too. And now that I'm thinking about it, there's even a parallel to be made between how Yeerks and humans treat retail employees :v:

This book is really out there so far. If I'm remembering correctly, doesn't this tornado thing (spoiler for this and a future Megamorphs) end up being from Saturn? If so, is this the only life form in the series from within our solar system? I remember the crabs and ants (and broccoli) from the dinosaur Megamorphs, but I don't think they were native to earth... I'm probably forgetting something big.

Epicurius

Aug 14, 2020 19:57

I don't think she's the woman from the first book. She's probably dead now. I assume the Yeerks tracked her down and killed her. This is probably a woman who's Yeerk died of Kandrona starvation, and good call on the idea that it could be one of the Gap employees. I'm liking that theory.