Animorphs - The Entire Series

Epicurius

Jan 5, 2021 20:04

Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 3

quote:

Erek the Chee used to be Erek this guy I knew from school. But Erek is a lot more than just some guy.

The Chee are a race of androids. They pass as humans by projecting a sort of holographic energy field around themselves that looks human. Erek may look like a kid. But he is older than human history.

The Chee came to Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. They were companions to the Pemalites, whose home planet had been devastated by a violent invasion. The Pemalites had fled, but too late. By the time they reached Earth, the Pemalites were finished.

Their deathless androids did all they could. They gave the essence of the Pemalites a new life. They melded them with wolves. And from this union dogs were born.

If you know how basically sweet and faithful and loving dogs are, you know what the Pemalites were like. And you also know a little of what the Chee are like.

The Chee are peaceful, but not out of weakness. Erek, all by himself, could have taken on every person in the mall that day, beaten them all, and ripped the mall down around our ears. Literally.

But the Chee are pacifists. It's the way they are. They are also enemies of the Yeerks. They watch the Yeerks and learn about them, and, in their nonviolent way, do all they can to delay the Yeerks.

The Chee are sweet, really.

quote:

Erek waited till we were done with our little prank. He waited till I was walking away through the mall with Jake. We had split from the others so as not to look like a "group."

"Hi, Marco," Erek said. "Hello, Jake."

We didn't exactly rush over to throw our arms around him. We'd seen what happened the one time Erek did go postal. It was hard to forget. Hard to treat someone that powerful like just another kid.

"Hi, Erek, how's it going?" Jake asked guardedly.

"Fine. And we know, through our sources, that you have been doing good work against ... against our mutual acquaintances." He lowered his voice. "I think we'd better have some privacy."

Suddenly, the air around us shimmered. All the noises of the mall were blanked out. And Erek was no longer human. He was a chrome-and-ivory robot, shaped a little like a lean dog, walking erect.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I extended my hologram out around us all. People walking by are seeing a group of security guards talking. No one will bother or overhear us."

It was a cool trick. But it made my stomach do a little flip. Erek wasn't going to all this trouble just to talk about sports or whatever.

"Rescuing the two free Hork-Bajir was a good thing. They may prove to be the seeds of something very powerful and good. You may have begun the salvation of an entire race."

I shrugged. "We like to keep busy. It's either rescue entire races or play Nintendo."

Erek laughed with his chrome dog's muzzle. Then he was instantly serious again. "I need to talk to you privately, Marco."

"Well, I don't have any secrets from Jake," I said. "I think that's the basis of a good marriage: openness, honesty."

"It's about someone who was once very close to you, Marco."

My heart stopped beating. I knew instantly who he meant. I started to say something, but my first words died on my tongue. I tried again. "My mom?"

Erek glanced at Jake.

"It's okay," Jake said. "I know. I'm the only one who does."

Erek nodded. "Marco, your mother has returned to Earth. She is overseeing some very secret new project. It's being run from Royan Island. Or, to be precise, it's being run from the waters around Royan Island."

I wasn't really hearing what Erek was saying. I was still back on the part about my mom returning to Earth. Jake understood. He took over dealing with Erek.

"What are they doing out there in the ocean?"

"We don't know," Erek said. "But whatever it is, it would have to be huge for Visser One to be overseeing it."

"Visser Three must be a little ticked about that."

Erek nodded. "Visser Three is not one of Visser One's favorite Yeerks. And vice versa."

"Yeah," Jake agreed.

"Look, I ... we weren't sure whether to tell you about this. But we've learned all we can. And I felt Marco had a right to know she was back on Earth. But you guys have to be clear about something. Visser One didn't get to the top of the Yeerk hierarchy by being nice. She is brilliant and dangerous."

Jake looked at me to see how I was reacting.

"You guys think I don't know what Visser One is Iike?!" I said hotly.

"I know you do," Erek said. "But humans are easily tricked by outer appearances. You judge people by their faces and eyes. The face of Visser One is the face of someone you trust, Marco. But if you Animorphs decide to investigate this thing on Royan Island, you may come up against Visser One directly."

I could see where he was going. And it made me mad. I don't even know why. "Look, Erek, I'm not an idiot, okay?"

He shook his robot head. "I know you aren't. But you love your mother. You want to save her. So you may make mistakes."

I swear I would have swung at Erek. But he would have let me hit him. And I would have just hurt my hand.

"There's one other clue," Erek said. "We have reason to believe that some new species of Controller is at Royan Island. We believe they are called Leerans."

"Thanks, Erek," Jake said.

"Will he be all right?" Erek asked Jake.

I didn't wait to hear Jake's answer. I turned and stepped out of the hologram. I saw a woman's eyes widen in shock. What she had seen was a kid stepping directly out of a casually chatting security guard.

Jake caught up with me a few seconds later.

"Erek didn't mean anything bad. You know that," Jake said. "He just meant -"

"I know what he meant," I snapped. "He meant if it came to crunch time, would I destroy my own mother to protect the mission? That's what he meant."

Jake grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. "And?"

I was still mad. But I knew why I was mad. It wasn't that Erek had insulted me somehow. It was that Erek was right.

"I don't know, Jake," I said. "I don't know."

Hardly a fun choice to have to make.

Chapter 4

quote:

<Yes, I know what a Leeran is. I have heard of that species,> Ax said. <But where did you hear that word?>

It was the next day after school, out in the woods where Ax and Tobias lived. Tobias was off hunting. I wanted to talk to Ax alone. He was in his own body, of course, watching me with his main eyes while his stalk eyes cautiously scanned the trees in every direction.

I had asked Jake not to say anything to the others about Erek. The others didn't know that Visser One was my mother. They all thought what I had thought for the past two years. That my mom had drowned. That her body had never been found.

I hadn't wanted the others to know the truth. That my mother had been made into a Controller. That the Yeerk inside her head was the original commander of the Earth invasion.

I didn't want their pity. I still don't. I'm a joker. I'm a comedian. That's how I deal with life.

See, I've always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say, "Oh, isn't it all so tragic, so grim, so awful." Or you can look at the world and decide that it's mostly funny.

If you step back far enough from the details, everything gets funny. You say war is tragic. I say, isn't it crazy the way people will fight over nothing? People fight wars to control crappy little patches of empty desert, for crying out loud. It's like fighting over an empty soda can. It's not so much tragic as it is ridiculous. Asinine! Stupid!

You say, isn't it terrible about global warming? And I say, no, it's funny. We're going to bring on global warming because we ran too many leaky air conditioners? We used too much spray deodorant,

so now we'll be doomed to sweat forever? That's not sad. That's irony.

Mixing up global warming and ozone holes here, but....

quote:

Note to Alanis: That is ironic.

But humor kind of breaks down when the tragedy gets up close and personal.

See, I saw what my mom's "death" did to my dad. And you know what? There wasn't anything funny about it. And I know that for a year I cried myself to sleep most nights, looking at her picture. I still feel like someone blew a hole in me. A hole that will never heal. A hole I don't want to heal, because I don't want to stop hurting for my mom, I don't want to get over it.

Jake knew my mom. So when we all came face-to-face with Visser One, he knew who she was. But not Rachel or Cassie or Tobias or Ax. And since we'd been in animal morph at the time, the human-Controller known as Visser One did not recognize "her" son.

<Where did you hear about Leerans?> Ax asked me again.

"Look, can you just tell me what you know about them?"

Ax hesitated. He is still a little uncomfortable being open and honest with humans. The Andalites are not used to trusting other species.

<They are an aquatic race. Their planet is mostly water, like Earth. Only their land masses don't have much life. The most advanced life-forms are in the oceans. The Leerans are a sentient race of amphibians.> He shrugged. <At least, that's what I learned in school. I've never met a Leeran, of course. They aren't allowed on our world.>

"Not allowed? Why not? Are they dangerous?"

Ax laughed. He gets this kind of superior, know-it-all attitude sometimes. <Of course not dangerous, More like embarrassing.>

"Why? Do they fart in public or something?"

<Leerans are supposed to be psychic. They can read minds. At least they can do it if they're within close range. We have technological and military secrets we don't want the Leerans to know. Plus, you know, thoughts you might not want strangers listening in on. Now, where did you hear about
Leerans?>

That delightful Andalite mix of superiority and xenophobia.

quote:

"Erek. The Chee. He says there's some kind of secret underwater thing going on with the Yeerks. He says some Leerans are involved."

Ax looked puzzled. <Yeerks and Leerans? It doesn't make sense. The Yeerks could never invade the Leeran world like they're doing with Earth. The Leerans are psychic. They would instantly know if one of their people were a Controller.>

"Yeah. You're right. On the other hand ... if you could make Controllers out of these Leerans. Psychic Controllers?"

Ax swiveled his stalk eyes toward me. <They would be able to root out spies. Like the Chee. They would be able to sense traitors.>

"And they would be able to find five human kids and one Andalite," I said. "They would see right through an animal morph. They would mean the end of us."

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Through a gap in the trees I spotted a hawk soaring just over the treetops. Maybe Tobias, maybe not. In addition to fantastic sight, hawks have excellent hearing. I wondered, if it was Tobias, if he'd overheard my conversation with Ax.

"I guess it doesn't matter," I muttered.

<What doesn't matter?>

"Anything," I said with a laugh. "It doesn't matter, does it?" I guess I always knew my secret would come out sooner or later. Funny-boy Marco is destined to look pathetic. My friends will look at me and think, Poor, poor Marco. I shook my head. "Never fails, you know. The Irony Gods. They wait for the chance to twist your life around. Mr. Cool-and-Detached ends up being the object of pity. Great. Perfect."

<These Irony Gods are a human religion?> Naturally Ax was totally mystified by my babbling.

"No. They're just a Marco religion," I said. "The Irony Gods wait to find out whatever it is you don't want. And that's what they do to you."

<And this is funny?> Ax asked. He's a little unsure of human humor.

"Absolutely," I said. "If it was happening to someone else, it would be hysterical."

Honestly, I think Marco is misreading his friends here, in large part, because he's so torn up by, first his mom's death, and then the discovery that she's alive but a Yeerk-Controller. There might be some pity, sure, but I think more of it would be Operation Let's Save Marco's Mom. This would still likely be a disaster, but they'd rally to him, not feel sorry for him. But Marco is obviously not emotionally ready to deal with who and what his mom has become.

Shwoo

Jan 5, 2021 22:41

Chapter One posted:

Tobias has regained his ability to morph now, but he's still a red-tailed hawk. He can morph into his old human shape, but if he stays in that shape more than two hours, he'll be trapped in it and never be able to morph again. He made the choice to live as a hawk and keep his morphing power.

I don't know if I'd have been tough enough to make that choice.

Chapter Three posted:

"Erek didn't mean anything bad. You know that," Jake said. "He just meant -"

"I know what he meant," I snapped. "He meant if it came to crunch time, would I destroy my own mother to protect the mission? That's what he meant."

Jake grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. "And?"

I was still mad. But I knew why I was mad. It wasn't that Erek had insulted me somehow. It was that Erek was right.

"I don't know, Jake," I said. "I don't know."

That was pretty good foreshadowing there, assuming it was intentional.

freebooter

Jan 5, 2021 23:29

quote:

I saw a woman's eyes widen in shock. What she had seen was a kid stepping directly out of a casually chatting security guard.

Another one for the dossier!

GodFish

Jan 5, 2021 23:42

quote:

The girl wearing the costume stuck her head up and said, “Hey! What’s the matter with you?”

<Aaaahhhh!> the visser moaned. <What kind of creature is that?>

This might be the funniest bit out of all the books this far.

Tree Bucket

Jan 6, 2021 00:01

GodFish posted:

This might be the funniest bit out of all the books this far.

Oh, for sure. With the bonus mental image of V3 attempting to Acquire a suit...

Epicurius

Jan 6, 2021 21:23

Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 5

quote:

In the end I told Jake we had to do it. We had to find out what the Yeerks were doing on Royan Island. But I told him not to tell the others the rest of it. About my mom. I still hoped somehow we'd be able to avoid my dark secret. And avoid pity.

"Royan Island is a small, private island about twenty miles off the coast," I told the others when we were assembled in Cassie's barn. The barn is also the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. The place where Cassie and her dad take in injured or sick wild animals.
It was Saturday morning. We were planning to take a first, casual look at Royan Island.

"It's about four miles long and three miles wide and shaped like a crescent moon," I continued.

"Very poetic," Rachel said. "Crescent moon."

"Hey, it's a quote from the guidebook, all right?!" I said. I winced. I shouldn't have snapped like that. I should have had a comeback ready. I looked tense, snapping at Rachel.

I took a deep breath. "Anyway, Ax says these Leerans are psychic. So we have to be very careful. We can't get near one of them."

"How near is near?" Jake asked Ax.

 Ax admitted. 

"How do we get to the island?" Cassie wondered. "By air or by sea?"

<Twenty miles is a long way to try and swim,> Tobias pointed out. He was up in the rafters, as usual. Keeping an eye out through the open loft and listening with his hawk hearing.

"So we do a combination," Jake said. "Fly out there. Rest. Morph to dolphin."

<Not everyone has a dolphin morph,> Tobias pointed out. 

I saw Cassie cock an eyebrow at Tobias. I think we were having the same thought. It was a little like Tobias didn't want to morph, now that he had his morphing power back.

"Ax has a shark morph from when we first rescued him," I said. "That will do as well as dolphin. And if Tobias doesn't want to morph -"

 Tobias said quickly.

Jake looked at his watch. "Tobias, you could still fly out to The Gardens and acquire a dolphin morph. The Gardens are on the way, more or less."

 Tobias pointed out. <Kind of obvious, a red-tailed hawk suddenly landing on a dolphin.>

"Yeah. Well. Never mind, then," Jake said. "Come as you are." He smiled. "You've always been our secret weapon just the way you are."

Tobias hesitated. <No, you're right. I should do the dolphin thing. Twenty miles over water ... those aren't really my best flying conditions. You tend not to get thermals over water. I'll do it. I'll acquire a dolphin morph. Okay. I'll definitely do it. And then, hey, no problem. Right? I mean, a dolphin in water, that's like a bird in the air, right?>

We were all staring at him. Tobias isn't usually a babbler. But he was babbling. It was Cassie who figured it out first.

"Tobias? Are you afraid of water?"

<Water? Afraid? Me?>

"I'd say that's a yes." I laughed. "You're not afraid to be a mile up in the air, but you're afraid of water?"

<Not water,> he said hotly. <It's just that, you know, there's no air in the water. You can'tbreathe. It presses in all around you.>

"Hey, how about if we stop busting on Tobias, okay?" Rachel growled. "If he doesn't like water, he doesn't have to like water."

<No, it's okay,> Tobias said shakily. <I'm cool. I mean, I'll be a dolphin, right? They live in the water.>
I nodded. "Yep. We've established that dolphins live in water."

"Okay, then," Jake said. "Tobias needs to go to The Gardens to play with the dolphins. And we need to make this fast. So let's fly, and let's hope we get lucky."

<They hold their breath underwater, right?> Tobias asked. 

"It'll be okay," Cassie reassured him. "You'll see. Once you've been a dolphin, you'll never fear the ocean again."

<The ocean. Oh, man. The entire ocean.>

I don't know why, but Tobias being scared made me feel better. I guess it's true that misery loves company.

"Let's morph," Jake said.

And a few minutes later, I had curved, swept-back wings, brilliant white feathers, and a serious passion for garbage.

I mean, water can be scary, especially if you've been a hawk for a while.

Chapter 6

quote:

If you want to fly high and far, take on a bird-of-prey morph. But if you want to be able to go anywhere, without anyone really noticing, be a seagull.

Seagulls and pigeons can appear anywhere and do anything without anyone getting upset. But if you show up as a bald eagle, people are going to notice.

We'd all done seagull morphs before, except for Tobias and Ax. We figured Tobias had enough to deal with having to acquire a dolphin, so no one suggested he do a gull, too. But Ax is a different story. Cassie had an injured seagull in her barn. So Ax had quickly acquired it.

Really handy Cassie has all these animals on hand, isn't it?

quote:

We flew to The Gardens swift and low, the way seagulls do. And we noticed every last piece of edible garbage on the way. Every stray french fry, bread crust, burger fragment, candy wrapper, cheese puff, and melted jujube. Seagulls are as good at spotting edible garbage as hawks are at spotting mice.

 Tobias sneered. 

Actually, Tobias wasn't exactly hanging out with us. He was flying higher, about two hundred feet above us. But Tobias has been a hawk so long he relates almost as much to other birds as he does to humans. He respects and fears golden eagles and falcons, both of which will occasionally attack a hawk. But he actively dislikes pigeons, seagulls, and above all, crows. I think it's something to do with the groupy nature of those birds. Tobias is a loner.

I spotted The Gardens up ahead. It was easy, since the roller coaster is about ten stories high.

And I saw lots of other gulls circling in the sky over the amusement park and zoo.

<Ah, our brothers and sisters await,> I said.

<They probably already got all the good food,> Rachel grumbled.

She was joking. I hoped.

We swept on a following breeze above the parking lots and above the fences and right over the gate where we would have had to pay if we'd been human.

<Let's go this way!> I yelled, suddenly excited. I've always loved amusement parks. I live for coasters. Or at least I did before I became an Animorph and discovered bigger thrills.

<Which way?> Jake asked.

<This way!> I banked my wings and suddenly shot left. Straight for the wooden roller coaster. A car was clank-clank-clanking its way up the first main hill. I flapped my wings and swooped right for it.

The first car had two guys in it. Not much different than Jake and me, I guess. They were holding their arms up in the air, getting that anticipation rush.

I flew straight for them and landed on the front railing of the car at the moment it reached the top of the hill.

"Whoa. Birds!"

<Marco, what are you doing?> Jake asked. <We're not here to play around.>

But he landed right beside me. Jake has gotten awfully responsible lately. But he's still my old bud.

"Get away, birds!" one of the kids said.

We ignored him, and just then, the coaster dipped over the top of the hill. Down we went. Down and down, faster and faster. I clutched the railing with all the strength in my seagull feet.

<Yaaaahh!> I yelled.

"Whoa-oh-oh!" the kids shouted.

The bottom of the hill rushed up at us. Down we shot. Then the bottom and up, up, up at a hundred miles an hour, and right then, at maximum speed, I opened my wings. The car dropped out from under me and I was airborne again.

<Yee-HAH!> I yelled.

<You're nuts!> Jake cried, but he followed my lead. The two of us blasted off like we'd been shot out of a cannon.

<Look out!> Whitewashed wooden beams were dead ahead, the supports for the coaster. I trimmed my wings, turned on my side, and blew through a gap in the timbers with no more than two inches of clearance all around.

<Come on. Now that was cool, admit it!> I told Jake.

<Yeah. That was cool.>

<We're still our old selves, aren't we? I mean, we haven't changed. Not really. No matter what, right?>

<Sure, Marco.>

<No, I mean it.> I realized I had grown very serious. I don't know why, but I wanted Jake to agree with me. It was important to me. <We're still just us. Nothing that happens can really change what you are. Right?>

We flapped side-by-side back to the others.

<Look, Marco,> Jake said wearily. <I'm not exactly a philosopher, okay?>

<Yeah. Well, I'm me, no matter what,> I said defiantly. <No matter how many morphs, no matter how many battles. No matter what. I'll still be me. Everyone better accept that.>

Jake laughed a little. <Marco, if it makes you feel any better, you'll always just be a punk to me.>

I had to laugh, too. <Thanks,> I said.

Do you think he's talking about himself here or his mom?

quote:

We flew over to the dolphin tank. Smooth gray torpedoes were swimming patterns against a blue background.

<This ought to be interesting,> I said. <A hawk making physical contact with a dolphin?>

I didn't know just how right I was.

Right. This is going to be fun.

Indie Rocktopus

Jan 6, 2021 22:10

Guze posted:

https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1347028287156080643?s=20

AlphaMale @USAWolfPack posted:

Mr. Wood. I am not antifa or blm. I'm a Qanon & digital soldier. My name is Jake & I

Animorphs reboot going in a really weird direction.

nine-gear crow

Jan 6, 2021 22:21

Indie Rocktopus posted:

Animorphs reboot going in a really weird direction.

<Iniss, what the hell am I looking at?>

"The humans call it QAnon, my Visser."

freebooter

Jan 6, 2021 22:45

I'm getting the feeling that what Tobias doesn't want to admit is that he can't actually swim. Which maybe isn't unlikely if he was getting shunted around between uncaring guardians who weren't about to pay for lessons? Although I would've thought that in California it would be part of the school curriculum.

Funny thing about the big open ocean. I grew up on the west coast of Australia and was always snorkelling, then moved to Melbourne for a few years, then was back again one summer, but in the interim there'd been a string of fatal shark attacks up and down the coast. And whereas I used to be completely carefree, after that I just... couldn't go out past the reef. Couldn't do it. The statistical odds were immensely unlikely that I'd ever even see a shark, but something about that huge immense stretch of water (and the water in WA is very clear) was just too creepy.

Then on the other hand, a few years later I was at Ningaloo to go on a whale shark tour, where a spotter plane will spot the migrating whale sharks and the boat drops the swimmers off on the path they'll take and then departs (so as not to spook them). And you're out of sight of land at that point. And I thought that would be really, really scary, but somehow it was fine, because I was surrounded by a dozen other people. I'm not sure how much of that is just humans being social animals who are more confident in groups, or a subconscious calculation that other people are other targets. (Also once the whale shark shows up it's immensely cool and you forget about everything else.)

Grammarchist

Jan 7, 2021 13:24

It'd be funny to imagine a Yeerk infesting a QAnon adherent and getting brainwormed themselves when their host embraces the slug and feeds it bullshit conspiracy theories 24/7.

Soup du Jour

Jan 7, 2021 15:18

Grammarchist posted:

It'd be funny to imagine a Yeerk infesting a QAnon adherent and getting brainwormed themselves when their host embraces the slug and feeds it bullshit conspiracy theories 24/7.

The Yeerks reading Qanon shit and deciding that they just need to find and infest the deep state would be a very funny story

Cythereal

Jan 7, 2021 18:07

Soup du Jour posted:

The Yeerks reading Qanon shit and deciding that they just need to find and infest the deep state would be a very funny story

Alternatively, a yeerk begging to be transferred to another host, any other host, because this one is fucking crazy and the yeerk is worried that the host is driving it crazy, too.

Epicurius

Jan 7, 2021 21:21

Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 7

quote:

I guess we hadn't really thought it through too well. See, as humans all we had to do to "acquire" a dolphin was to pet it as it came up to the side of the dolphin tank.

But Tobias in his normal hawk body does not have hands. He has talons. And if you've ever looked at hawk talons, you know they are weapons as much as they are feet. Hawks hunt with their talons, not their beaks.

Jake and I saw Tobias circling high overhead. He was hesitating.

<Might as well get it over with,> I called up cheerfully. I was still kind of powered up from the stunt on the roller coaster.

<Fine,> Tobias said grimly.

He wheeled, spilled the air from his wings, and down he came. Down like a bullet.

Now, I should mention that this was a Saturday. It was early still, so the place wasn't full, but there were plenty of people around. The dolphin pool was ringed with people in the bleachers and pressed up close to the pool.

But no one was watching the sky. Except for one little kid. One little kid, who pointed upward and in a clear voice that somehow penetrated above all the background noise said, "Mommy! That bird is going to hurt the dolphins!"

"Tseeeeeer!" Tobias screamed in his best red-tailed way.

Might be less traumatic for the dolphin if Tobias doesn't scream every time he's diving.

quote:

<Um ... is this stupid?> Cassie asked, way too late.

One of the dolphins shot up out of the water, clear up and out. And Tobias went for him.

"Ooooh!" the crowd gasped.

And Tobias struck. Like he was going after a mouse. Only this was a really big mouse.

Talons raked forward, wings flared to act as air brakes, Tobias struck. And then, he stuck.

Talons sank into smooth, rubbery dolphin flesh while the dolphin was still arcing through the air.

It was a weird aerial ballet: the huge dolphin and the tiny hawk, colliding ten feet above the water. It would have been beautiful if it hadn't been insane.

"Aaaahhhh!" the crowd murmured.

Down went the dolphin.

<Oh, man, I'm stuck!> Tobias cried. <My left talon is ->

And then he stopped thought-speaking because the dolphin had fallen back into the water. And Tobias had gone with him.

Pah-LOOOSH!

A huge splash. And now the crowd was on its feet.

"Whoa!"

"Is that part of the show?" someone said.

"No way. Look at the dolphin trainers. They're going nuts!"

This was true. The trainers were going ape. They were racing around the pool trying to get the dolphin's attention, hoping to get it to pull over and let them grab the lunatic bird.

But dolphins like to play. And this was a whole new cool game. I guess Tobias wasn't hurting the dolphin, because the dolphin just grinned his perpetual grin and went tearing through the water.

Up. Down. Up. Down. Flying high, crashing deep. And all the while Tobias kept yelling.

<Aaaahhhh! He's gonna drown me!>

We all yelled helpful advice.

<Hold your breath!>

<Gee, really?! Do you think?! Hold my breath?!> Tobias managed to respond.

<He must be okay,> I said. <He's still capable of being sarcastic.>

<Let go!> Ax advised.

<Why didn't I think of that?> Tobias answered. <Ahhhh!>

<Start acquiring him!> Rachel said. <It will put him in a trance.>

 Tobias said. <Guess what? He's not in a trance. Ahhhhh!>

I love how they're all helping.

quote:

<I'm going to help,> I said.

<How?> Jake asked.

<Kamikaze!>

I aimed for where I thought Tobias would surface next. I spilled air from my wings, trimmed my tail, and dived.

Suddenly, the dolphin leaped clear of the water. He leaped, in fact, straight toward a hoop that was suspended over the water. It was easy to see that the dolphin would glide effortlessly through the circle. And it was just as easy to see that the hawk on his back would not fit.

<Oh. No,> Tobias said matter-of-factly.

I rocketed down, a white blur. Tobias was a target, swooping through the air on the back of the dolphin. I made a last-second adjustment with my tail and ...

BONK! I hit Tobias hard, knocking him clear of the dolphin. The dolphin shot through the hoop.

<Ow!> Tobias yelled.

<Ow, yourself, I just saved your life,> I said.

Tobias flapped his sodden wings and labored for altitude. <Thanks. Next time find a way to save me that doesn't involve breaking any bones.>

There you go. I think we've discovered a problem with the hawk animorph plan.

Chapter 8

quote:

We flew from The Gardens out toward the ocean. Everyone was in a pretty good mood, with the possible exception of Tobias.

<The dolphin looked okay,> Cassie said. <Very superficial cuts. The vets will put some salve on him and give him a preventive antibiotic, I suppose, just to be careful.>

<Well, as long as the dolphin is okay,> Tobias said. <Because I really, really hope the dolphin is okay.>
<Are you going to be sarcastic the rest of the day?> I asked him.

<Yes. I am going to be sarcastic the rest of the day. I nearly drowned. Now I'm going to go become the thing that nearly drowned me. I will be sarcastic until further notice.>

I guess it's dumb, but, once again, I was kind of glad Tobias was in a bad mood. It distracted me from my own thoughts. If I could keep busy teasing Tobias, I didn't have to think about the fact that I was flying closer to where my mother was.

<You know,> I said thoughtfully, <that could be a regular act at The Gardens. Hawk and dolphin. Kind of a dolphin rodeo, if you really think about it.>

<Hey, Marco? You need to remember that you're just a lowly seagull right now, which is practically a pigeon, and I'm a hawk,> Tobias said. <You want to keep grinding my nerves, I'll be glad to show you the difference when it comes to aerial combat.>

<Dolphin rodeo. I'm just saying it has possibilities.>

I like sarcastic Tobias.

quote:

We flew across the beach and the surfline and out over sparkling blue water. It was a warm day and the water was calm. We weren't getting the kind of big, plump thermals Tobias liked for flying, but we weren't dealing with totally dead air, either.

Almost immediately, we spotted Royan Island. It was a dark, lumpy silhouette on the horizon. It took another thirty minutes of hard flying to reach the island.

There wasn't much of a beach there, which I guess is why the island had never become a tourist destination. It was pine trees gnarled by exposure to ocean winds, and tall grass with sprinkles of wildflowers. At one end of the island was a mansion surrounded by smaller buildings. A dock extended out into a small, protected inlet. There was a bloated motor yacht moored there. Behind it was a sleek, fast cigarette boat.

<So that's Mr. Royan's house, I guess?> Rachel asked.

<No. The original Royan was a bootlegger back in the twenties. According to the guidebook, the house is owned by the Marquez family now. Whoever they are.>

<Let's land as far from the house as we can get,> Jake said.

We landed in a stand of trees that lined a driftwood-strewn beach. I saw a couple of old beer cans and soda cans covered by grass. It didn't look like anyone had been there recently.

We all came out of morph. All except Tobias, who stayed up to fly cover.

<There are people in the house,> he reported. <A guard posted on the roof. Another guard down at the dock. Both are carrying concealed weapons.>

He flew back to rejoin us. He landed on a rotting driftwood log and began preening his feathers.

"Very useful, having your hawk's eyes," I said.

<Don't try to make up,> he said, but not angrily. <Dolphin rodeo, huh?>

"Guards don't mean anything," Rachel said. "Whoever owns that house is mega-rich. They can afford to be careful."

"According to Erek, what we're looking for is underwater," Jake said. "May as well get going. See what is down there. If anything."

"Okay. Let's morph. Everyone to dolphin. Except Ax, of course, who will be doing his shark morph." Jake looked at Ax. Then at Ax's hooves. "We need to get rid of those hoof marks in the sand. A Yeerk might possibly recognize them as Andalite."

<Yes, Prince Jake.>

"Just Jake," Jake said tolerantly.

We waded out into the water till we were up to our waists. It was cold. I felt sand rush between my toes, pulled by the current. Tobias came down and landed on Rachel's shoulder.

"Let's do it," Rachel said impatiently.

"Let's get fishical, fishical," I sang.

Rachel groaned. "Olivia Newton-John? Have you been listening to dinosaur-rock radio again?"

"How about you? You actually know who sang that song."

"My mom controls the radio in the car," Rachel said with a shudder. "And she wonders why I don't go places with her."

"Is there any chance we could just do what we came here to do?" Jake asked impatiently.

"Anyway, dolphins aren't fish," Cassie said. "Mammals."

<Oh, everyone shut up and let's get this over with!> Tobias yelled.

I winked at Cassie. "Tense. Very tense. Too many high-caffeine mice."

I had morphed dolphin before, so I knew what to expect. But even knowing what to expect doesn't keep morphing from being extremely weird.

I focused my mind on the dolphin. And almost immediately I lost my legs. They seemed to be stuck together. As if someone had Krazy-Glued my thighs and calves. I waved my arms wildly, trying to keep my balance. But then my feet began to wither up and it was all over.

SPLASH! I went down, facefirst, into the water. I opened my eyes underwater and looked back at my body. Like I said, every morph is different. And for some reason, this time I was morphing from my feet upward. The lower half of my body was already almost pure dolphin.

"Good grief, I'm a mermaid!" I said. Although since I was trying to talk underwater, all anyone else heard was "Bloop bleep bloym bl blomblay!"

What had been my feet had become a furled scroll of gray rubber. As I watched, the scroll unfurled to become a tail. Gray rubber moved up my body like a tide. But it was happening too slowly to keep me from needing air.

With awkward human arms, I windmilled my arms to bring my head above water. As I did, I noticed the bizarre sight of a red-tailed hawk with its feathers melting into gray skin. As Tobias's beak suddenly expanded outward into a dolphin snout, I slipped back under the water.

My arms were shriveling. My fingers stuck together, then grew a sheath of the same gray rubber flesh to form a flipper.

I felt a little tingle at the back of my neck and realized that as I lay facedown in the sea, I could breathe through my newly formed blowhole.

Suddenly, my eyes changed and the silty, stinging saltwater became clearer, almost like swimming pool water. I could see the others. They were almost totally dolphin. Only here and there were a few lingering bits of humanness. Jake's flippers still had pink fingers sticking out of them.

Cassie still had a human mouth. As I watched, it bulged out and split into the usual toothy dolphin grin. Of course, Tobias didn't show lingering humanity. His last fading traces were pure red-tail: He had reddish feathers sticking out of his dolphin tail.

But within seconds those final traces were gone and we were a normal pod of dolphins. All except Ax, that is.

We had rescued Ax from the submerged Dome of the wrecked Dome ship. He'd been down there for a while, so he'd acquired a morph that seemed useful to him. The morph of a shark.

I felt the dolphin consciousness bubbling up within my own. Dolphins are just about the coolest animal minds I've ever experienced. They may be the original party animals. Life is one big game to them. They like to eat fish, and they like to play.

But man, they do not like sharks.

And neither did I. See, the first time I went into dolphin morph, a shark cut me almost in two. And that kind of thing will stick with you, you know?

It's Ax, I told myself. Not a tiger shark, just Ax.

But he looked at me with those dead, blank shark's eyes, and I couldn't help but feel a chill, despite my dolphin playfulness.

Remember, dolphins are usually the aggressors in relation to sharks.

freebooter

Jan 8, 2021 00:32

Ahhh okay - I had a distinct memory of the others trying to hold someone up in dolphin morph so they didn't drown, and I suspected it might turn out Tobias couldn't swim and was too embarrassed to tell anyone, but it's the Marco scene from book 4. I only started reading this thread around book 5 so I'd totally forgotten that.

I also remember that Tobias dolphin acquisition scene being way longer. When I was a kid it was the funniest thing in the world. I also remember Cassie getting crushed by a tank in roach morph being way longer and more horrifying.

rollick

Jan 8, 2021 04:33

Epicurius posted:

Animorphs-Book 14:The Unknown-Chapter 17

Marco knows the score.

This is from the last book, but I always wondered as a kid if there was some way to make real money out of morphing, while still staying out of the public eye. It would be a lot easier to organise a guerrilla movement with a million dollar warchest and some sort of secret compound. (The racing idea is still bad though).

Cythereal

Jan 8, 2021 05:41

Epicurius posted:

Remember, dolphins are usually the aggressors in relation to sharks.

That wasn't understood at the time. It was the 90s, dolphins were supposed to be smart, friendly, cheerful, and good-natured.

Not the sex crazed thrill killers who torture pufferfish so they can get high off the toxins the puffers release when they inflate that we know they are now.

Epicurius

Jan 8, 2021 06:52

Cythereal posted:

That wasn't understood at the time. It was the 90s, dolphins were supposed to be smart, friendly, cheerful, and good-natured.

Not the sex crazed thrill killers who torture pufferfish so they can get high off the toxins the puffers release when they inflate that we know they are now.

<Throws pufferfish aside and eats a fish> Don't doxx me, please..

Interestingly enough the first big studies that came out about dolphin aggression were in the 90s. You're right, though, that it wasn't in the public consciousness. And, really, I think it still isn't. Most people still probably don't think of dolphins as sexually aggressive thrill killers with drug habits.

MrNemo

Jan 8, 2021 11:15

Does it ever get explained why this one morph doesn't seem to put the dolphin in a trance?

Epicurius

Jan 8, 2021 11:20

MrNemo posted:

Does it ever get explained why this one morph doesn't seem to put the dolphin in a trance?

It's funnier that way?

wizzardstaff

Jan 8, 2021 11:43

MrNemo posted:

Does it ever get explained why this one morph doesn't seem to put the dolphin in a trance?

That was the dolphin's tranced state, it was just really amped up for the performance.

disaster pastor

Jan 8, 2021 12:16

MrNemo posted:

Does it ever get explained why this one morph doesn't seem to put the dolphin in a trance?

Sometimes the animal doesn't go into a trance. I can think of one or two others but they're spoilers for later books. Also

Epicurius posted:

It's funnier that way

Epicurius

Jan 8, 2021 22:51

Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 9

quote:

<Let's just swim a circle around this island and see what we see,> Jake suggested.<I'm guessing what we'll see is fish,> I said. <The more I think about this, the more I wonder if maybe Erek was wrong. This island looks awfully peaceful.>

 Cassie said. <But look, why waste time worrying about it? Let's swim!>

Cassie took off at high speed through the water, and I couldn't help but give chase. Soon the five of us were tearing around at maximum dolphin warp, leaping out of the waves, diving to the bottom only to go ripping back for the surface, and just generally behaving like happy five-year-olds.

It was a party in the water. The water felt warm now. Warm and slick as it rushed across my smooth skin. I dove deep, holding my breath for long minutes. I skimmed just inches above the sandy bottom, then rolled over and looked up at the sun, a distant, wobbling yellow ball that jumped this way and that through the water distortion.

I fired a burst of echolocation clicks from my head and got back an amazing "picture" made up of bouncing echoes. My clicks bounced off fish, and off the shoreline, and off the rocks that jutted up from the bottom. The clicks also bounced off Ax, and the picture of his shark body disturbed the perfect happiness of my dolphin mind.

Get over it, I told myself. He's Ax, not a real shark. Forget sharks. Put sharks out of your mind.

<Okay, let's focus a little here,> Jake said, trying to impose some order on our idiot play. <Keep the shore to your left and let's take a quick run around the island.>

<You mean like a race?> Tobias asked. <Because that would be cool!>

In my head, I heard Cassie laugh. <So, Tobias. I guess you're past your fear of the water?>

<It's kind of hard to be afraid of anything right now,> he said. <This was worth it. This is so cool. It's like flying, but with a really thick wind. Come on! Race you!>

Because Tobias was a hawk nothlit for so long without the ability to morph, I wonder if he's not as able to control his morph's instincts as well as the rest of them, who have more experience.

quote:

He took off and the rest of us followed. Ax came up behind us, but he was slower. Maybe his shark brain automatically disliked dolphins as much as dolphins dislike sharks. I don't know. I didn't care. I was in a race!

Down and swim and swim, then up, break the surface to blow out old air and suck in new, then back down to swim and swim, and kick my powerful tail for every iota of speed I could get!

We were zooming madly through the water, each trying to be the fastest around the island. I hadn't been echolocating for a while but then, as we turned a corner, I fired off a burst. The picture that came back made me stop dead in the water.

<What is that?>

<What?> Jake asked.

<Shoot some clicks,> I said.

I heard everyone blasting away, machine-gun bursts of clicks.

<Whoa!>

<What is it?> Ax asked. <Are you sensing something?>

<What is that?> Cassie asked.

 Tobias said.

<Let's go see,> I suggested. <There are limits to this echolocation thing.>

We turned away from the island and headed farther out to sea. The thing we had sensed was composed of hard surfaces and sharp edges. And it was huge.

Now our human minds were in charge again. At least mine was. Because I guess I knew this was what Erek had told us about. And if that part of his story was correct, then maybe the rest was, too.

Maybe my mother was down there in that place of hard surfaces and sharp edges.

We were in deep water, maybe two hundred feet, when we reached the spot we were looking for. But there was nothing there. Nothing but waving seaweed and jutting rocks and schools of silvery fish.

I fired another echolocating burst. According to my echolocation, there was a massive underwater structure of some sort directly in front of me.

<Erek's trick,> I said. <They're using the same trick the Chee use. It's a hologram. A hologram of a normal seabed. That way divers who may come around won't see it. And it won't be visible to planes flying over on sunny days.>

<Yeah, but is it just a hologram, or a force field like Erek has?> Jake wondered.

<It would take a great deal of energy to sustain a hologram that large,> Ax pointed out. <To maintain a force field in water would take the energy level of a Dome ship.>

<Only one way to find out,> Rachel said. <Let's go.>

We headed straight for the place our eyes told us was just seabed. We swam for maybe fifty feet and then everything changed. It was like sticking your head through a movie screen and suddenly seeing the stage behind it.

There, less than a quarter mile from the mansion on Royan Island and two hundred feet underwater, was a pink-shaded structure built into the side of an underwater slope.

There were three vast openings, each big enough to drive a dump truck through. Two were closed by steel doors. The third was open, revealing a dark tunnel.

Between these large openings were two circular portholes covered by convex glass or plastic. I could see clearly through one of these transparent blisters. Inside there were humans working at computer workstations. It looked weirdly normal. Like any office full of engineers or whatever. A
Dilbert-looking place.

Except for the fact that it was in an underwater building.

And of course there was the fact that in Dilbert's world there aren't Hork-Bajir standing guard.

I could see two of the big aliens. Seven feet tall. Blades growing out of their wrists and elbows and knees. Feet like tyrannosaurs. Snake-like heads topped by two or three forward-raked horns. Spike-tipped tails.

Each had a Yeerk in its head. I'd met some free Hork-Bajir. They were kind of sweet, despite their deadly looks. But these were Hork-Bajir-Controllers, of course. And the humans were human-Controllers.

In the second blister window I saw nothing but a single room. In it were a desk and a couple of chairs. And nothing else.

<Okay, so this is the place,> Rachel said. <Now all we have to do is figure out what they're doing here.>

 I shot to the surface to blow out and refill my lungs. The others followed. All except Ax, whose gills let him breathe underwater.

We hung around on the surface for a few moments. I wanted to look around and see the normal world, I guess. Feel the air.

<Definitely a Yeerk facility,> Jake said. 

 Tobias said. <I'd be able to see what's on those computer monitors inside there.>

<Well, maybe we can just swim around the place a few times,> Cassie suggested. <See if they do anything. I mean, those three big openings are there for some reason. Something is going in and out of that place.>

<Excuse me.>

It was Ax. He was still down under.

<Yeah, Ax, what's up?> Jake asked.

<There are some fish that seem to be heading toward you.>

<Okay. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about.>

But something told me to ask for more details. <Large fish, Ax-man?>

<Yes. As large as my current morph. And they are strange in shape.>

<Strange how?>

<Their heads. They have heads that are flat in the front but extend out on each side. They have eyes at the end of each side extension. Also, they have fins like mine.>

It took a few seconds for me to process that word picture. A large fish with a dorsal fin and a head that ... My dolphin heart stopped beating.

<Hammerheads!> I yelled. <Hammerheads!>

In case you're curious as to why hammerheads look like that with the wide heads....sharks, all sharks have organs in their head called Ampullae of Lorenzini. These organs can detect electric fields, and that's the main way they hunt...they can detect the electric fields around other living things, and they use that to guide them to their prey. Since hammerheads have such wide heads, they have a wider sensory range than other sharks. I think that's kind of neat.

Chapter 10

quote:

We drove down beneath the surface, and there they were: hammerhead sharks.

<There must be ten of them!> Tobias said.

<Ten of them against five dolphins and a tiger shark,> Rachel said. <We can handle it.>

There are times when I really admire Rachel's reckless courage. But there are other times when I just want to slap her. We had fought sharks before. We had won, but it had been a close call. Very, very close. And there were more sharks this time.

<Easy, everyone. We don't know they're going to attack us,> Jake said, as calmly as he could with ten sharks heading straight for us.

<Sharks don't usually attack dolphins,> Cassie said. <Not unless they're really hungry and outnumber the dolphins.>

<Well, I count ten of them and five of us,> I said. <Would that qualify as "outnumbered"?>

<Let's hope they aren't hungry,> Tobias said grimly. 

<Yeah. Don't let them bite you.>

The sharks came on, straight for us. They came on like well-trained troops. I had a sudden, vivid flash of the searing pain when they'd bitten me once before. They had bitten my dolphin body almost in half. The lower third of me had been left hanging by a few shreds of flesh and some guts. I have been afraid many times since becoming an Animorph. But this was bad. There are few things as horrifying as watching a shark come at you. Knowing he intends to eat you.

<Okay, look, we don't need this fight,> Jake said. <Let's get out of here.>

<Just run away?!> Rachel asked in outrage.

<You're welcomed to stay behind, Rachel,> I said.

<Hey, we fight Yeerks, not sharks,> Cassie pointed out.

<Exactamundo and I am out of here,> I said.

I kicked my tail and spun around. And that's when I nearly passed out. Nearly died without a single bite being inflicted.

<Oh, my God,> Cassie said. <There are more behind us!>

Four more hammerheads were rushing toward us from behind. Fourteen sharks in all. More than two to one against us.

Jake had already given the order to retreat. But that's not why I did what I did next. What I did next came out of sheer terror.

I ran away.

I powered my tail and took off at right angles to the two groups of sharks.

<Move! Move! Move!> Jake yelled.

But I was already moving. And I didn't even care. I was scared. I could feel those shark's teeth ripping my flesh in my memory. I could feel it like it was happening right now.

I powered away. The others were close behind me, but I was definitely leading the way.

<Head for shore. They may not follow into shallow water,> Cassie said.

The two groups of sharks saw us trying to escape and changed course to cut us off. They were fast. Not as fast as us, maybe, but fast.

The shark groups converged. They were hammer and anvil and we were in between. We raced. They raced. Too late! Two of the big hammerheads cut me off.

I turned on a dime. All around us! We were surrounded. Fourteen sets of jaws. Hundreds and hundreds of triangular teeth, each as sharp as a knife.

<Focus on one,> Jake said. <Try to draw blood. The rest will attack whoever is injured.>

It was a good tactic. But I had a feeling about these sharks. Something was very wrong about them.

Jake launched himself at the closest of the monsters. The rest of us followed. Five dolphins and one tiger shark, all churning the saltwater, heading for one unlucky shark.

It happened too fast for the others to react. And I guess the shark we were targeting had gotten cocky. He was too slow to run. Jake slammed the shark with his snout. I was next, ramming the shark with every ounce of momentum I could muster.

WHUMPF!

The impact stunned me, disoriented me. For a few seconds I couldn't see straight. I was aware of the others all hitting the shark in rapid succession. Blood began to billow from the hammerhead's gills. It darkened the water.

<Now's our chance! While they're in a feeding frenzy,> Jake yelled.

But something was wrong. The other sharks didn't attack the wounded one. Blood like a waving silk scarf floated in the water and the sharks ignored it.

Instead, they came after us. It was like they'd had a signal between them. They deliberately moved all at once. They planned.

I knew I was going to die. And worst of all, I knew exactly how it would feel.

So, these sharks are acting unusually. First, some sharks do hunt in packs...certain reef sharks, certain dogfish, certain tiger sharks, and so on, but hammerheads don't. The ones that do tend to be smaller sharks that take on bigger prey. So that they're acting this way doesn't make a lot of sense in terms of normal shark behavior.

Second, lets talk about feeding frenzies. There's this common idea that, if there's blood in the water, certain predatory fish, like sharks and piranha go into this maddened rush, biting everything in sight. This isn't entirely true. Sharks are attracted to blood, because they tend to have good senses of smell, and sharks, like most predators, prefer to go after wounded prey, because it's easier to catch. Feeding frenzies happen, though, when there's a large amount of easily available food. This basically gets the shark, or whatever animal we're talking about, excited to gorge itself, because in the wild, you take food where and when you can get it. Sometimes if there's a large number of sharks, they'll bite each other by accident, but that's all it is...they go for a prey animal, they miss and another shark gets in their way.

If you want to see what a feeding frenzy looks like, here's a scene from "The Hunt", from BBC Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zOarcL1BSc

The image is a shoal of sardines hunted at the same time by sea lions, tuna, shearwaters, copper sharks, dolphins, and a Bryde's whale. It's something to see, and between them, they pretty much destroy the entire shoal.

Comrade Blyatlov

Jan 9, 2021 01:46

That video was incredible.

MrNemo

Jan 9, 2021 02:27

Epicurius posted:

It's funnier that way?

My immersion has been ruined by Tobias's immersion :mad:

freebooter

Jan 9, 2021 19:05

Hahaha that whale showing up at the end and just chomping the entire remaining school in one bite

Epicurius

Jan 9, 2021 21:49

Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 11

quote:

The injured shark continued spewing blood into the water. The other sharks continued to ignore him.

And the attack was underway!

<We have to break through and run,> Jake said. <Bunch up. Bunch up in a wedge and we'll power our way through.>

We did as he said. We sidled in close together, and on Jake's signal we shot straight ahead. We were one big dolphin fist.

<Don't stop for anything!> Rachel yelled.

But the sharks were already reacting. They had figured out our plan. They were rushing to cut us off. I glanced back and saw that they had left a rear guard just in case we turned around.

Impossible. The sharks were acting together. Like a pack of wolves. And they were plenty smart about it.
<Keep going!> Jake said.

More and more of the sharks had managed to get themselves in front of us. We were closing in on them, and they were closing in on us. I could see individual teeth as they opened their mouths in greedy anticipation of dolphin flesh.

Then I had a flash. A flash of inspiration born out of pure terror.

<Surface!> I yelled.

<What?>

<Sharks don't jump!> I said. <Sharks do not jump.>

Marco has never seen a Great White Shark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZVbSYRC9P0

quote:

Inches from the rows of ripping teeth, we turned and headed up. I rocketed for the surface.

FWOOOSH! Out of the water we came.

PLOOOSH! Down we came. But we came down on the other side of the row of sharks. They turned to chase us, but we had gained several feet on them.

We hauled. The sharks came after us. And unfortunately, we were aimed away from shore out into deep and deeper water.

<Can we outrun them?> Tobias wondered.

<We're about to find out,> I said.

Then ...

Scree-EEEE-eeee-EEEE-eeee-EEEE-eeee!

It was a siren, just loud enough to be heard with acute dolphin hearing. If I'd been human I doubt I'd have heard it at all. But instantly, without hesitation, the sharks turned around and swam away.

<What was that all about?> Rachel asked.

<Why did they retreat?> Ax wondered, after catching up to the rest of us.

Cassie expressed my own personal feeling at that moment. <Who cares why? Let's just get out of here before they change their minds again.>

<Amen,> Tobias said.

But like an idiot I said, <We should go below. See what called them off.> I guess I was starting to realize how it must have looked when I bolted before the others.

 Rachel said.

Naturally, Rachel agreeing with me convinced me I was obviously wrong. But it was too late.

We all sucked in a deep lungful of air and went down.

<Yahh! Look out!>

Not twenty feet below us was a submarine. But not a submarine any human ever built. It wasn't all that big, I guess, although it seemed like it when it was right below us. It was shaped like a stingray. It had downcurved water wings on either side. And at the back was a cluster of what looked like three engines, each a twenty-foot-long fattened cylinder, like a comical cigar.

But what was insane about the sub was that about three-quarters of it was perfectly clear. Except for the engines, and occasional tools, implements, and furniture inside, it was a glass submarine.

We could see directly into the sub. I saw three decks, all transparent. It looked like the crew, a mix of human, Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, and Gedd, were all just calmly walking and sitting and standing in the water itself. Plus moving by at a good twenty miles an hour.

At the front of the sub was what had to be the command bridge. There were Hork-Bajir and Taxxons working at red-and-yellow computer terminals. And in the center of the room was a chair. It reminded me of Captain Kirk's chair on the original Star Trek.

Standing beside the chair was a bizarre creature. It had pebbly yellowish skin that seemed slimy, like it was coated with Vaseline. It sat like a frog on big hind legs with webbed feet. But instead of a frog's tiny front legs, this creature had four tentacles spaced evenly around its body.

It had a big head that just sat on its shoulders with no neck. The face was curved outward, with a hugely wide mouth that seemed frozen in a sort of idiot grin. There were two eyes, both brilliant green and large.

As the sub passed beneath us, this creature seemed to shake, like he was having just a slight tremor. I saw him turn around to face us as we receded behind the sub. He gazed at us with his blazing green eyes.

That is probably a Leeran.

quote:

The person sitting in the captain's chair must have said something. Because the frog thing sort of looked troubled, then shrugged in a very humanlike gesture.

The person in the chair stood up. She stretched. She turned around and looked up. Right at us.

Right at me.

And I swear I had to stop myself from saying, <Hi, Mom.>

<Visser One!> Rachel said harshly. <So the main creep is here on Earth.>

The sub blew past without making a sound. The sharks fell in behind it. And the sub, its occupants, and the sharks all disappeared into the hologram of a nice, normal seabed.

So, as we all expected, Visser One is here. Fun for Marco.

Chapter 12

quote:

I had homework to do when I got home. Tons of it. I was supposed to do a book report, among other things, and I had to have it in by Monday. Five pages. And my English teacher doesn't respond well to five pages of babble and baloney.

I said hi to my dad. He asked what I wanted to eat for dinner. I said, "Anything but fish."

"Pizza?"

"No anchovies. That's all I'm saying."

I went upstairs and found the book I was supposed to read. It was under a dirty sweatshirt I'd thrown on my desk. I looked at the cover. Lord of the Rings. It was three books long and each of the three books was as long as three books. I only had to report on the first book, but even that was impossible.

Another example of the author's love for The Lord of the Rings.

quote:

"What was I thinking, choosing a book this long?" I moaned.

Of course, I knew the answer. I was supposed to have started reading it like a month ago. I flopped down on my bed and placed my headphones over my ears. Then I pulled a pillow over my head. I fumbled blindly for my remote control and hit PLAY.

Reggae. Some good old classic reggae. Bob Marley. I'd bought the CD at a point when I was considering growing dreadlocks. Never mind why. Okay, it had to do with this girl at school.

"Bob Marley, mon," I said. "Help me out, mon."

Bob didn't help. Bob was singing "No Woman, No Cry." And that translated way too easily in my head into "No Mother, No Cry."

"Great," I muttered. "Let's just wallow in self-pity."

I was not feeling good. No one had called me a coward. Maybe no one had even noticed the way I'd bolted. But I had.

I could come up with great excuses for being so scared. I was the only one who'd ever been chewed almost in half by a shark. And that was a pretty good reason to feel afraid.

But nothing changed the fact that I had run away.

And that feeling was crowded in my head with a whole ton of emotions about seeing my mother.

It was a terrible thing when my mom died. Or at least seemed to die. But as awful as death is, at least there's an end involved. You know what has happened. It makes sense. An awful kind of sense, but sense.

You meet other people who have lost mothers or fathers. You turn on TV and see stories about people who have lost parents or brothers or sisters. You read it in books. In newspapers. The counselors at school have a category for you, and they tell you things that are supposed to help. You hate it, but you belong to a group of people like yourself.

But what group is there for people whose mother isn't dead but is a slave to an alien presence in her head? What group do I belong to when I realize that what looks like my mother is actually someone who would kill me without hesitation?

I guess it's what Jake feels every time he sits down to dinner with Tom. I guess he feels the same way I do. Only Jake and I don't talk about that kind of stuff. Jake's my best friend. But he's my best friend because I'm me, you know? Because I'm funny and smart and I'd back him up anytime, any place.

I mean, what am I supposed to do? I'm me, Marco, not some touchy-feely, share-your-feelings-with- the-group kind of person. I don't share feelings, I
make people laugh.

Marco and Jake (and I guess Melissa Chapman, although she doesn't know it) should start a group. Anyway, more seriously, Marco is selling himself short here, largely, I think, because of his own insecurity. He's "I can't talk about this stuff with Jake, even though he's my best friend and we're going through the same thing, because the only reason Jake likes me is because I don't talk about serious things. He likes me because I make him laugh." I don''t think this is true, but that being said, it's a very 13 or 14 year old thought to have, I think, and I don't think he's the only one in the world who has that sort of insecurity of "I can't share personal stuff with my friends." And, of course, the humor is his way to deflect his emotions.

quote:

I have a picture of my mom next to my bed. I look at it every night before I go to bed. I can never decide what I want to see when I look at it. I don't know if I see the mother I lost, or the mother I want to rescue somehow. I don't know anymore.

I construct little fantasies in my head. Of how I'll get her away from the Yeerks. And I'll keep her locked up for three days until the Yeerk in her head dies from lack of Kandrona rays. And she'll be my mom again.

"And then what, Marco?" I ask myself. The Yeerks won't take it lying down. You can't just starve Visser One to death and take her host body and live happily ever after. We'd be hunted. We'd be hunted for as long as there was a Yeerk left alive on planet Earth. And if the Yeerks ever did catch up with my mom and dad and me, they'd know I was an Animorph. And then they'd figure it all out and the others would be done for. Jake, Rachel, Cassie,
Tobias, Ax ...

"I am way too young to have to deal with this kind of stuff," I yelled into my pillow. And then I pulled the pillow away from my face.

I don't know if there's ever a good age to have to deal with that kind of stuff, but you know, he really is. In a lot of ways, the saddest part of the whole thing is that these kids are forced into something they're too young to be psychologically and emotionally ready for. They're child soldiers, really. And I think one of the things that makes this different than a lot of children's literature is that you don't see it a lot in a lot of other literature....you don't see the psychological effects, and really the negative effects. And this is a Marco book, but you're seeing this with all of the kids....Jake is having trouble dealing with the responsibilities of command, Rachel is growing more aggressive and reckless, Tobias is psychologically almost as much hawk as he is human, and Cassie is feeling pretty constant guilt. Even with Ax , even though he's not human and Andalites seem to have less of an adolescence culturally than people....he's a military cadet already even though he's no much older than the rest of them. Even with him, he's dealing with the crushing weight of having to be the Perfect Andalite Representative. So it's kind of sad.

quote:

My dad was standing there, framed in the doorway of my room. He mouthed the words "I knocked." And he did a little pantomime of having knocked.

I yanked the headphones off. "Oh, hi. Um, hi."

"Sorry. I just came to see if you wanted to watch the game with me."

"Oh, yeah. The game," I said. "Um, I guess not. I have homework and stuff."

"Oh. Okay." He started to leave. Then he turned back and said, "You know, Marco, you can always talk to me."

"Oh. Sure, Dad."

"I mean, if there's anything going on that's bothering you."

It was a nice offer. My dad's a nice man. I'd like to grow up to be as good a man as my father. But you know what? Right then, dark suspicion was seeping into my mind. Why was he interested?

What did he suspect? Was my father one of them, too?

"Nothing's bothering me, Dad. I was just ... um, you know, singing along with the music. It was a song lyric."

"Ah. Okay. Well, I'll call up to you when the pizza gets here."

He left, shutting the door behind him.

"Nice world you live in, Marco," I said softly. I could trust my father and maybe end up dead. I could try to help my mother and maybe end up dead. And as a bonus I could get all my friends killed and doom the entire human race.

I looked at the book I was supposed to read. "That ain't happening. Not tonight."

And I thought about my father, sitting down in the living room and turning on the game. Who knew if he was my father any more than my mother was really my mother?

I couldn't really trust him. I couldn't go downstairs and spill all my problems out for him.

But you know what? I could sure go sit with the man and watch the game. I could do that.

Good! Good for Marco.

Time Trial

Jan 10, 2021 04:52

Marco not being able to talk with Jake about their common problem is a also a good example of the disfunction in men's relationships. Yerks probably are baffled by toxic masculinity. "that's why you have a boat?"

Epicurius

Jan 10, 2021 20:52

Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 13

quote:

"Those were not normal sharks," Cassie pointed out. "Somehow they were being directed. Controlled. They worked like a pack. Sharks don't cooperate."

We had met up in the woods beyond Cassie's farm.

"Are they Controllers? I mean, we discovered horses being made into Controllers," Rachel pointed out.

<No,> Ax said. <Cassie has shown me pictures of the internal structure of a shark. There is no room in that brain for a Yeerk. The structures would never support a Yeerk.>

"Could be implants," I suggested. "You know, electrodes or something."

Everyone just kind of shrugged at that. Who knew? All we knew was that we'd almost been slaughtered by a bunch of very unusual sharks.

<They were guarding that facility, that's clear,> Tobias said.

"All the more reason for us to go in," I said.

Jake kind of raised his eyebrow at me. Rachel nodded agreement. I knew what Jake was thinking. He was thinking I had my own reasons. Reasons only he and I knew about.

I shook my head slightly, telling him no. No, I was not going to tell the others. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

He shrugged and let it go. But I could see he wasn't happy about it.

"I agree we have to go back there," Jake said. "These Leerans Erek talked about. We cannot have some psychic Controllers running around."

"You think that frog-looking thing on the sub was a Leeran?" Cassie asked Ax.

<Yes. Probably.> He sounded uncomfortable. 

"Where do you get that encyclopedia?" I asked. "Do they have it at the local library?"

<The question is, what do we do to get a look inside that complex?> Tobias asked.

"You aren't going to like the answer," I muttered.

That got a laugh from everyone.

"We have to think about going hammerhead," Cassie said. "Those guard sharks went after dolphins and Ax's tiger shark. My guess is they go after anything that isn't a hammerhead. And we don't have any hammerheads at The Gardens. However, they do have them at Ocean World. They have a big shark tank. I called over there and found out they do have a big hammerhead. Fourteen feet long."

"Um, excuse me," I said, "but has anyone considered the fact that we all have to be in our own bodies when we acquire one of these sharks?"

I regretted saying it the minute it came out of my mouth. It was like one minute I was all gung ho, and the next minute I was the one weaseling. And after my performance the day before I couldn't afford to be sounding like a weasel.

So I said, "But hey, who's worked up by some little old sharks?"

"You are," Rachel said bluntly.

I felt like she'd kicked me. I mean, maybe she didn't even mean anything by it. But I found myself totally unable to think of a comeback. My cheeks burned. I turned away and pretended to care deeply about some bugs crawling up the trunk of a tree.

"We'd have to go at night," Cassie said.

"Tonight, I guess. And, of course, we have school tomorrow."

"Forget school," I said gruffly. "There's an assembly last period, anyway. We can bail out early and no one will care. Plenty of time to fly out to the island."

Jake nodded. "Okay. Ocean World tonight. The island tomorrow after school. We'll need some good excuses ready for parents in case we run late. I can't get grounded again."

And that was it. Until after sundown that night. I'd told my dad I was going to Jake's house to do homework. I said I might be home a little late. My dad had said to call him if I needed a ride.

We flew to Ocean World and landed in the dark, abandoned park. We demorphed, all of us back to human except Tobias and Ax.

It's funny, because I felt fine being in the dark, abandoned park in my seagull morph. But as a human I felt totally out of place. I felt like I'd get in trouble.

Ocean World is a very new facility. Basically, it's several big fish tanks. Big, as in apartment building size. There is a Plexiglas tunnel you walk through on a slow conveyor belt. The tunnel literally goes through the water. The fish are all around you and even above you.

But we weren't there to be tourists. We couldn't just look at the hammerheads. We had to touch them.

"I wish I knew how we were going to do this," Cassie whispered as she led the way to the shark tank. "Sharks are not dolphins. I mean, these sharks are all well-fed, but they aren't exactly pets."

"Shark-petting. Add that to dolphin rodeo and we have a whole new ESPN show," I said. No one laughed. Jake smirked. But it wasn't a happy kind of smirk.

Personally, I felt like my insides were morphing all on their own. Like my stomach was morphing to some burning liquid.

"I have an idea," Rachel said. "The shark doesn't have to be conscious for us to acquire it, right? So we morph to dolphin. We go into the tank. Six of us against one hammerhead." She shrugged, like we could figure out the rest.

Cassie was shocked. "Just go beat some poor shark half to death? When it's not attacking us?"

Rachel held out her hands, being reasonable. "It's a shark, Cassie. A shark. People eat sharks."

"And vice versa," I added.

"Beats just jumping in the pool with it," Jake said. "I mean, in human form how would we even catch a shark?" He looked at Ax. "Or in Andalite form."

Can Andalites swim? They don't seem to be made for swimming.

quote:

Cassie started to say something. But instead she just clenched her jaw tightly, the way she does when she disapproves of something.

"Sharks can all die as far as I'm concerned," I said. I laughed like I'd made a joke. But it wasn't a joke.

<They are just predators being predators,> Tobias said. <They aren't evil. Just hungry.>

"So you're on Cassie's side?" I asked him.

<No. Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. That's the predator's law. I know. I am a predator. I say we do what we have to do.>

Tobias has toughened up a bit since being trapped in hawk morph.

"Fine," Cassie said tersely. "Let's just get it over with."

We walked toward the fish tanks. They were three wide ovals. Like swimming pools almost.

They were built up to make room for the Plexiglas passageways beneath.

There was no sound but our footsteps on concrete. And the sound of Ax's hooves. Nothing to see but deep shadows, made all the darker by the occasional pools of dim light. Nothing to feel but fear.

We were on the pathway to the tanks. Carefully tended bushes lined the walkway. Tobias fluttered along, then dove suddenly.

<Someone's coming!> he said.

We leaped over the bushes. I landed hard on my elbows and rolled under the camouflage of tiny leaves and stiff branches.

Ax leaped, too. But the bushes were only about two feet high. And Ax cannot roll.

A flashlight beam!

"Freeze! Don't move! What the ..."

I heard the sound of a gun being cocked.

I peered through the bushes and saw a white circle of flashlight beam land squarely on Ax's upper body.

"What on Earth are you? Hey! Hey, Captain! Hey, over here!"

<Prince Jake, what should I do?> Ax asked.

More footsteps. Coming quickly.

"Captain! Look at this! Jeez, will you look at this?"

The first guard kept his beam on Ax. But the beam was shaking, wavering. Not surprising. Ax is not what you'd expect to find on a dark night at a tourist destination aquarium.

The captain aimed a second beam. And I heard a second gun being drawn and cocked.

"What's that?" the captain asked calmly. "Why, that's an Andalite, son. That is certainly an Andalite."

It certainly is.

Chapter 14

quote:

"A what?"

"One move, Andalite, and I shoot you. These human weapons may be primitive, but you'd be surprised how effective a lead slug can be."

"Captain, you gotta tell me what's going on here," the first guard said plaintively.

Suddenly ... WHAP! The captain swung his gun and hit the guard in the side of the head. The guard fell unconscious.

"A tiresome little man," the captain said. "But we'll have one of our people in his brain before he wakes up. Not that it will matter to me. I am off this tiresome detail! For capturing one of the Andalite bandits, I'll be Visser Three's new aide."

<Be careful what you wish for, Yeerk,> Ax sneered. <I've seen the fools who work closely with Visser Three. I've seen their heads go rolling across the ground when the Visser gets mad.>

Ax is right, there. Being Visser Three's aide isn't necessarily a good thing.

quote:

"What do we do?" I asked Jake in a voiceless whisper. His face was just two inches from mine.

"Ax needs a distraction."

It wasn't an order. Or even a suggestion for me to do something. But figured I was better at talking than any of the others. So I stood up on rattling knees.

"Hi. Is this the way to the souvenir stand?" I said cheerfully.

And at the same moment, something fell fast from the sky.

"Tseeeeer!" Tobias screamed. He raked the captain's face with his talons.

"Aarrgghhh!" the guard yelled as he clutched his torn face.

I leaped forward and grabbed the gun. Or tried to.

BOOOM!

The gun erupted. It seemed to explode in my hand. My hand went numb. I lost my grip.

BOOOM!

He picked it up and fired blindly into the dark. Inches from hitting me.

You know how guns sound on TV? Kind of like TEWW! TEWW!? Well, in real life, guns don't make cute little popping sounds. They sound like bombs going off.

Ax was still too far off to use his tail. And the Controller was in a panic now. He was firing wildly.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

"Run!" Jake yelled.

So we ran. But the gunfire had attracted other guards. Controllers or just normal human guards, it almost didn't matter. They all had guns.

We hauled, racing through the darkness, feeling betrayed by the noise our own feet made on the concrete walkways.

"This way!" Cassie whispered.

She led us to a door. She yanked on it but it was locked. And we were trapped. There was no turning back.

"Ax," Jake said.

<Yes, Prince Jake.> Ax whipped his tail, faster than the human eye could see.

CHWANG! A neat slice appeared in the steel door, right at the lock mechanism. Cassie tried it again. It opened, and we piled inside. Into a Plexiglas tunnel surrounded by water.

"I always wanted to come see this place," I said. "And look - no crowds."

It was eerie and dark. But not totally dark. There were red EXIT lights glowing. And moonlight came filtering down through the water in the tanks.

In some ways, that made it a hundred times worse. Without any light, we'd just have been in a dark hallway. But with the light, we could see exactly where we were.

We were in a plastic tunnel beneath millions of gallons of water. Literally, there had to be millions of gallons. Fifty or a hundred swimming pools' worth of water.

And as we trotted down the tunnel, I could see ghostly pale gray shapes gliding by us on both sides and over our heads. Staring fish eyes appeared out of the gloom. Fish mouths gaped silently at us. And long, sleek, cutting shapes seemed to shadow our movements.

<Now, this is an interesting human concept,> Ax said approvingly. <This hologram makes it almost appear that we are under the water.>

"Ax? It's not a hologram," Rachel said.

<Then ... we are underwater? Protected only by badly made human plastic?>

"Yeah."

<Why do you humans do things like this?>

I will never fail to love Ax being appalled by human recklessness.

quote:

"Freeze, Andalite!"

It was a new guard. A Controller, too, obviously. He was standing twenty yards up the tunnel. He was in a firing stance, gun leveled at us.

We turned to run back the way we'd come. But the captain came panting around the corner in hot pursuit.

"Trapped!" Cassie said.

"You got 'im, Captain?" the guard called out nervously.

"Yeah!"

"There are some kids with him!"

"Forget the kids. We get kids breaking in here all the time. They're irrelevant. It's the Andalite we want."

See, that's what gets your head cut off by Visser Three. "Forget the kids hanging out with the Andalite?

quote:

<If I go with them peacefully, they may let you all go,> Ax said.

"Forget it," Rachel snapped. "We'll get out of this."

Brave words. But the guards had us trapped. And two very large guns were aimed straight at Ax.

"Jake," I whispered. "This is bad. We need something drastic."

"I'm open to suggestions," he muttered.

"Okay. I suggest you take a deep breath."

"Oh, no. Oh, man."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Everyone take a deep breath. Ax-man? Just how badly made is human plastic?"

It took Ax just a second to figure out what I was talking about.

In a flash, he swung his tail. He swung it in a big arc. The blade sank into the Plexiglas. And it kept on cutting. It cut a three-foot gash in the plastic, and that was all it took. The water pressure did the rest.

Crrrr-ACCCKK!

FWOOOOOOSSHH!

The water poured in like Niagara Falls.

Everyone drowned. End of the series, everyone.

Homora Gaykemi

Jan 10, 2021 21:10

Epicurius posted:

Everyone drowned. End of the series, everyone.

Ohh, I don't like this new director's cut.

disaster pastor

Jan 10, 2021 21:19

Epicurius posted:

See, that's what gets your head cut off by Visser Three. "Forget the kids hanging out with the Andalite?

I never really noticed this before, but we're on book 15 and, even if you account for Visser Three being the worst boss, the kids should really have blown their cover probably ten times over at this point.

freebooter

Jan 10, 2021 21:23

Time Trial posted:

Marco not being able to talk with Jake about their common problem is a also a good example of the disfunction in men's relationships. Yerks probably are baffled by toxic masculinity. "that's why you have a boat?"

Yeah. It is a very 13 or 14-year-old thought to have, but also something a lot of boys never, ever grow out of.

Shwoo

Jan 10, 2021 21:46

These books are very anti-shark.

Fuschia tude

Jan 11, 2021 02:24

Shwoo posted:

These books are very anti-shark.

They're just fish

GodFish

Jan 11, 2021 04:04

For some reason the ocean world shark heist chapters are the only ones I can remember from this book. The random controller guard must have really stood out to me.

Cythereal

Jan 11, 2021 10:53

I love how quickly Ax goes from "Oh, now this is is a neat idea!" to "What is wrong with you humans?!"

Epicurius

Jan 11, 2021 21:42

Animorphs-Book 15:The Escape-Chapter 15

quote:

FWOOOOOSH!

A wave hit me and knocked my legs out from under me. The water picked me up and rocketed me down that Plexiglas tunnel. I went one way, everyone else was blown the other direction.

I saw the captain just ahead of me. I hit him with my feet, doing about fifty miles an hour. He went down and the water rushed over him.

"Jake! Rachel!" I yelled. But no one answered.

Then I couldn't yell anything anymore. The water swept over me, filling the tunnel completely. I fought my way to the top of the tunnel and tried to suck up a big, squirmy, silver air bubble I saw. I got a mouthful of saltwater instead.

Morph, you idiot! I told myself. I needed to go dolphin. No! Not dolphin. Dolphin needed to be able to reach the surface to breathe. I needed a fish. Long ago we had morphed trout. Could I still retrieve that morph?

All this time I was still shooting along, carried by the rushing water. And then I realized I wasn't alone. There were fish with me. Big fish, little fish. All swimming around me.

Air! I needed air!

Bump! Something hit me. It brushed by me, spinning me around in the water. A body? One of the others? I spun around in the water. And, seeing me move, the shark came back toward me.

I yelped in fear and gave up bubbles of precious air from my lungs. I shot my arms out and kicked my legs hard and backpedaled through the water. Morph a fish? The shark could eat either one of us!

I began swimming. I had to get back to the break in the tunnel. The hole Ax had made. If I could get through that, I could reach the surface.

Air! Air! My lungs were on fire! I could feel my throat spazzing as my lungs fought to fill themselves.

I swam down that tunnel with the shark following lazily behind.

Is it possible to sweat underwater? I felt like it was. My guts were jelly. My limbs were weak with fear, cramping up from lack of oxygen.

No time to morph. Only time to flee.

There! Was that the hole? Yes! It was a hole. A hole in the tunnel. No, wait. This hole was too round. Too perfectly round. No time to worry. I kicked hard and started up through the vertical hole. Suddenly my head broke the surface. Air! I sucked it down and spewed it out and sucked it down again, making gasping, sobbing sounds.

Where was I? I was in a sort of vertical tunnel. It was no more than three feet wide. It extended above me for another five or six feet. And at the top there was a metal grill.

"The air-conditioning," I gasped. My voice rang flat and hollow. I was in an air-conditioning vent. This was how they ventilated the tunnel. But I couldn't reach the grill overhead. And I was still treading water.

The shark! I stuck my face back in the water and opened my eyes to look.

I swear I nearly levitated. The shark was rising toward me like some kind of submarine launched missile. I didn't think, I just reacted. I slammed my feet against one side of the shaft, my hands against the other, and I pressure-walked my way up and out of the water.

My butt was still in the water when I saw that hideous face poke up to take a look at me. That hideous, hammerhead face, with its dead eyes at the end of each side.

That got me up another foot. But the plastic was slippery. And I was too weak to keep it up for long.

"Go kill something else, you monster!" I yelled at the shark.

The head disappeared beneath the water. But I knew in my heart it was still there. Still waiting. "Ahhh! Ahhh!" My left hand slipped and almost lost it. There was no way this could last. I'd fall. Sooner, not later. Only one thing to do. I had to acquire that shark.

Animals go limp when you acquire them, I told myself. Except when they don't. Like Tobias's dolphin.

This was insane! I couldn't hold on. And if I dropped, my only hope was in actually grabbing hold of a hammerhead shark.

The shark poked his snout above the water again. It was now or never.

]"If it turns out you eat me," I told the shark, "make it quick."

I released my pressure. And I dropped. Directly onto the shark.

It turns out, as tough as sharks are, they still aren't used to having screaming, flailing, panicstricken human beings dropped on them from the sky.

Pah-LOOOSH!

I hit the shark and knocked him downward through the water. The two of us sank together, back into the main tunnel.

Before the shark could recover its wits, I shot out my hand and I grabbed him by the dorsal fin, and I thought, Please, please, I'm begging you, be like a normal animal and go limp!

I focused my mind. And to my infinite, profound, world-embracing relief, the hammerhead became peaceful and sluggish.

I wrapped my arms around the big monster, happy I'd worn long sleeves, and we floated up through the gash Ax had made. Up toward air and the stars and freedom.

He was still in an acquisition trance by the time my head broke the surface. We were in one of the tanks. The walls around were higher than they should have been, since the water had drained out to flood the tunnels. But up around the lip of the tank I saw anxious faces staring down.

"Hey. What are you guys up to?" I asked.

"Marco! You're alive!" Cassie said.

"Yeah. And I brought someone for each of you to meet. Dive on in. It's hammerhead time."

So, while all my comments on this book have basically been in defense of sharks, I'll point out that there have been 17 recorded attacks on people by hammerheads since we started keeping track in the 16th century. Obviously, people aren't a shark's natural prey, and for most species of shark, we're just too big for them. And I'll point out that even though Marco was afraid of a shark attack, it didn't actually act aggressively at all in this chapter. That being said, I can definitely see Marco being traumatized by the ocean from now on.

Chapter 16

quote:

The next day there was a huge headline in the newspaper. A terrible accident at the Ocean World Aquarium. Two guards were missing. Also several fish.

The one guard who did remain told a bizarre tale of a half-deer, half-human creature. The aquarium spokesman sort of implied that the guards must have gotten drunk and shot up the place, causing the tunnel to shatter.

It was on the TV news and everything. CNN even sent a camera crew.

On Monday I handed in five pages of pure, total babble as a book report. I wrote it on the bus.

On Thursday I got it back. D-minus. The teacher wrote, "Nice try, Marco. Do it over, and this time try reading the book."

What can I say? Some teachers buy it. Some don't.

At least he's getting the chance to do it over.

quote:

]We had decided we couldn't go back to the Royal Island facility until the weekend. Sneaking out at night was risky. If one of us got caught and grounded, we'd be out of business for a while.

I had stopped worrying what the others thought about my running from the sharks. I felt like my actions at the aquarium balanced that out. And I kind of felt like I'd gotten past my fear of sharks.

More or less. I mean it's never a good idea to get casual about sharks.

Instead of obsessing over being scared of sharks, I found I was obsessing about the shark DNA inside me. I wanted to morph that shark. I wanted to be it. I wanted to know what it felt like to be so relentless, so unafraid. So totally without emotion.

Twice I dreamed about it. Both times in the dream I was a shark, only I still had my own face. And both times someone was doing something terrible. I can't remember what, I just remember thinking, Oh, man, that's awful. But in my dream I was a shark, and so whatever the terrible thing was, I was safe.

I wish I could remember what the terrible thing was. I think maybe it was someone being killed.

A woman's voice kept saying, "Help me, help me." I remember that much. But it was confusing because sometimes the voice would start yelling, "Help him, help him."

After school Thursday, I hung around for a while. I went to the gym. I went to the pool. To my surprise, it was empty. The swim team was somewhere else, I guess. Maybe off shaving their legs and heads. I don't know.

The pool is indoors. It smells of chlorine and mildew. It's one of those places that makes you think about athlete's foot, you know? It's white tile around the sides and dark blue on the bottom.

There's a high board and a springboard. There are windows high up on one wall of the room, but mostly the light is fluorescent. There are lights like car high beams in the water itself. But still, it all manages to be gloomy, no matter how many lights are on.

I knew what I was going to do. And I knew it was stupid. But I knew if I didn't do it here, I'd do it in some even stupider place. Like my bathtub at home.

Just for the record, if you have a saltwater fish (like a hammerhead shark, or really any), don't put it in fresh water. It will die.

quote:

I went to my gym locker and changed into my gym shorts. Then I went back and checked the pool once more. No one. No one in the bleachers. No one in the water. Not a ripple.

I jumped in, feet first, around the eight-foot marker. I bobbed back up to the surface and said,

"This is insane, Marco."

To which I answered, "So I'll be careful."

To which I countered, "You're talking to yourself, do you know that?"

"Oh, shut up," I said.

I began to do what I had been wanting to do since Sunday. I began to focus my mind on the shark.

I saw it in my memory. Saw it chasing me down that plastic tunnel.

I pictured the moment when I touched the shark's sandpaper skin and brought it under the acquiring spell. And then, slowly, I felt the changes begin.

It started with the squishy sound of my own bones dissolving. See, sharks don't have bones. Just cartilage.

I could hear my bones. The bones in my arms. The bones in my legs. My hip bones, and even my spine, were all starting to dissolve.

I could see down through the water, down to my feet. They shimmered against the deep blue background. They began to elongate. The toes stretched out and out, till each toe was a foot long. My calves followed them, stretching like Gumby. It was a total shock when I realized I was touching the
bottom of the pool.

Something was happening to my back. I felt something growing there, getting larger. It was building itself out of my melting bones.

I reached behind me with my still-human fingers and touched something triangular. I was growing a dorsal fin!

I felt the inside of my mouth itching. Itching amazingly, almost like teething pain. Shark's teeth were filling my mouth.
Then ...

"Hey, wuss, get outta the pool!"

There was a loud splash, then another. I spun around. Two heads coming toward me. Two sets of powerful arms churning the water.

Drake and Woo. Two total jerks. Two abject, total bullies. They were also great divers for the school team. At least Drake was. Woo was a complete burnout. He had the I.Q. of cheese.

"Get out of the pool, punk!" Woo said.

"Don't make us kick your butt, Marco-roni," Drake added.

I should have been afraid of them. But I was only afraid they might dive beneath the surface. If they went down there they'd see that I wasn't exactly normal. But from the surface they'd probably just think my ultra-long legs and toes were a distortion.

I started to reverse the morph. I'd been an idiot! I'd left myself open for something like this. Jake would kill me. If he found out. I demorphed as fast as I could. I felt my toes lose contact with the pool bottom.

Then Woo layed back in the water, raised one leg, and kicked me square in the chest with his foot.

I didn't see it coming. Couldn't dodge the blow.

"Ooomph!" The air burst from my lungs. I clutched at my chest.

"Told you to step off," Drake said. "Now we're going to have to stomp you for not having any respect. Unless you want to get your skinny hinder out of the pool."

Drake was giving me a chance to get away. All I had to do was turn around and leave. That was it.

"Yeah, run home to your mommy, Marco-roni," Woo said.

"He can't," Drake said, with a touch of normal humanity in his voice. "His mom's dead."

"Oh, boo hoo," Woo sneered. "Oh, boo hoo, boo hoo." He made a little gesture like he was wiping tears out of his eyes. "His mother probably just ran off with some dude."

Such sensitivity.

quote:

All I had to do was walk away. And all I did was to stare at Woo's throat.

I could see the arteries there. The ones that were pulsating on either side of Woo's Adam's apple.

"What are you looking at?" Woo demanded. "You're dead, man, eyeballing me like that."

But I noticed that Woo didn't move toward me. I wanted him to move toward me. I wanted him to.

"What's the matter with his eyes?" Drake asked. "Look at his eyes, man."

"Marco?" It was Jake's voice.

I saw the expression on Woo's face change. He was looking past me now. I heard footsteps on the tile.

"What's up, Marco?" Jake asked, trying to sound casual.

"Ah, isn't that sweet?" Drake said. "Big Jake is here to rescue little Marco-roni."

I swung my heard fiercely toward Jake. I grimaced, baring my teeth. "I thon't neeth you help." The shark's teeth that filled my mouth distorted my speech. I saw Jake's eyes flare in surprise. Then wary concern.

"Let it go, Marco," Jake said.

I turned back toward Woo. I could still see the pulsing blood just below the skin of Woo's neck. It would be so easy ...

"He dithed my mom," I said.

"He's not the one responsible for your mother," Jake said. "Don't punish him for the sins of someone else."

I don't know what the two bullies thought of this exchange. I just know they stayed silent. Woo's eyes kept darting from me to Jake. He was confused and worried. Bullies aren't used to hearing their victims talking and acting like they have all the power. Or maybe he didn't like the way I was still
staring at his neck.

"Save it for the real bad guys, Marco," Jake said.

I let the rest of my shark morph go. I felt the itching in my mouth as my normal teeth replaced the killing shark teeth.

I climbed out of the pool.

"What's the matter with you?" Jake demanded once we were out of there.

I shrugged and forced a smile. "Not a thing, Jake. I guess Woo just looked a little like a fish to me. He look like a fish to you? He does to me."

Not even slightly funny. But it was the best I could do. Jake gave me a long look.

"Maybe you'd better sit out this next mission, Marco."

I laughed. "Jake, you'd have to kill me to keep me away from that island."

I feel like Marco isn't in the best mental space for this, really.

Comrade Blyatlov

Jan 11, 2021 22:16

Oh, what's a little PTSD between friends anyway.

Also, I just want to point out, Marco willingly dropping onto a waiting shark is insanely brave. Like enormously so.

disaster pastor

Jan 12, 2021 07:21

Epicurius posted:

quote:
A woman's voice kept saying, "Help me, help me." I remember that much. But it was confusing because sometimes the voice would start yelling, "Help him, help him."

"And Snowden lay dying in back."

Ytlaya

Jan 12, 2021 14:20

quote:

"I know what he meant," I snapped. "He meant if it came to crunch time, would I destroy my own mother to protect the mission? That's what he meant."

Jake grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. "And?"

This is a pretty telling Jake moment; he immediately prioritizes confirming that Marco won't be some sort of liability, over trying to comfort him or avoiding the issue to bring it up later.

Jake is basically responsible for constantly monitoring his teammates and ensuring that there aren't any issues that could jeopardize their mission. The other Animorphs are basically "freed" to be more focused on themselves and their individual roles because Jake is essentially personally taking responsibility for the "big picture" (and I imagine his little jaunt into the past and experiencing failure just cemented this perspective, since he knows what real failure feels like).

edit: It's also real telling how everyone is always worried about how Jake will react when they do dumb things.

freebooter

Jan 12, 2021 16:26

quote:

"He's not the one responsible for your mother," Jake said. "Don't punish him for the sins of someone else."

I don't know what the two bullies thought of this exchange.

Marco and Jake killed Marco's mother and conspired to cover it up!