«Rachel's right,» Jake said from his distant location on one of Ax's legs. «You have no choice, Ax. Morph to human.»
«Yes, Prince Jake.»
I was waiting for Jake to tell Ax not to call him "prince." But the next thing I heard from Jake was very different.
«Rachel!» Jake yelled. «It's the Visser! That tentacle! Look out!»
And then Ax began to morph.
«Where should I go?» Ax asked, sounding as
135 frustrated as I felt. «Tobias! Cassie! Marco! Where should I run when I have formed my human legs?»
I tried to stay calm, but now the shouting between Jake and Rachel told of a fierce, deadly battle taking place amid blue Andalite fur.
Where? Where could we go? What could we do? How could we defeat an enemy small enough to be an ant colony? What weapon could we ...
And then, with utter simplicity and complete perfection, the answer came to me.
"Tobias," I said. "Tell Ax not to morph to human. We need to fly."
«Fly where?»
"To the zoo. We have to go to The Gardens!"
«But why?»
"To reload," I said grimly. "To reload."
136
O Most High and Tremendous! A calamity has befallen us! Our own ship has now been captured! But we fear nothing! We are the boldest of the bold, the bravest of the brave! Nothing will stop us as we take control of this vast expanse of huge blue fur, and from that base, launch again our plan to conquer the universe!
- From the log of the Helmacron ship, Planet Crusher
I had a plan. A pretty good plan. Just one little problem: We had to stay alive to reach The Gardens.
And that was getting harder real fast.
Ax was morphing from Andalite to northern harrier. That way he could fly and carry the Helmacron ship and the blue box in his talons. And
137 all of us were on him. Marco, Tobias, and I on his fingers. A bunch of Helmacrons on his wrist. Jake and Rachel on one of his legs, running and fighting Visser Three in morph and a bunch of very tiny human-Controllers.
Just one thing. When Ax morphed, not all his body parts stayed in the same locations. Each morph is different. I don't know why - they just are. And now, as Ax's body began to melt and shrink and run together, unfortunate things were happening.
The hand we were on was ceasing to exist.
It was like we were standing on molasses. The skin beneath us and around us melted slowly together. It ran beneath our feet, a slow-moving sludgy river. The gigantic finger to our left and the equally gigantic finger to our right were running together. The molasses skin filled the gap between, raising us higher relative to the fingers. But lower, too, because the whole time Ax was shrinking.
Suddenly we seemed to be moving on a swift conveyer belt that went off the edge of the world. It was like we were on a conveyer belt that became an escalator that then got steeper and steeper!
"Lookout!" Marco cried.
«Morph to birds!» Tobias shouted as he flapped his wings and went airborne.
138 I was slipping, sliding on my belly, grabbing frantically at slick, moving, flowing skin. Beneath me a fall of miles!
Then ... a handhold!
My fingers grabbed. Bare millimeters to grasp, but the ledge I held to was growing deeper. My wildly swinging feet found another crack. I clung to a shifting, melting, slithering cliff side!
The angle got worse still. I was upside down! And yet with my insignificant mass, I found I could hold on to the widening cracks.
Marco was dangling not far away, also digging frantic hands and blind feet into cracks in the cliff.
We would have fallen. But for the fact that gigantic feather patterns were appearing across the melting skin. The patterns traveled over the skin like the cracks on a thawing frozen lake. The patterns had just a bit of depth. Just enough for a sixteenth-of-an-inch-tall creature to
grip-Then, between Marco and me, an explosion! The "ground" erupted as the shallow feather pattern suddenly became fully three-dimensional. SPRRROOOOOOT!
A feather sprouted between us, sweeping us up into its heights. Gray and white vanes grew
139 out of the central shaft, thickening and stiffening till they felt like large bamboo sticks.
The feather lay back then, closely packed with feathers above and below and all around us.
At this point we were almost horizontal again. It was a gentle slope down the feather shaft to the "ground." I felt a slow, steady, up-and-down motion, though that changed the slope from down to up and back again.
"We're on a wing," Marco said.
Tobias came swooping in and landed hard. «You're on a wing feather,» he said, gasping and panting. «l can't fly. Too much turbulence! And we have trouble!»
"Trouble?" Marco said, mocking. "Trouble? What makes you say we have trouble? Everything seems fine to me. Perfectly fine. I have never been better."
Tobias didn't laugh. «Somehow we all ended up on the same wing. One of Ax's legs must have melded with his hand to make this wing. Jake and Rachel are just half an inch away. The Yeerks are coming on fast, and the Helmacrons are forming into what looks like an army about a quarter of an inch over that way.»
"See? I told you everything was fine."
"Marco, we have to morph. We can't let the Yeerks see us as humans," I said.
140 Moments later, a gorilla and a wolf resided in the weird forest of feathers. We trotted down the feather to the "ground," the dimpled bird flesh beneath us. And just in time.
A tiger and a grizzly bear came racing toward us, staggering through the slanted quills. Since Jake and Rachel had been shrunk while in morph, they, too, were a sixteenth of an inch tall.
Jake's tiger face was bloody. He was panting, but not beaten yet.
«Good to see you guys,» he said.
«Where are the Yeerks?» Tobias asked.
«0h, they'll be here pretty quick. The Visser is in some weird morph. Lots of bladed tentacles. Like a Hork-Bajir on steroids. Plus there's a bunch of very scared human-Controllers.»
«I'm tired of running,» Rachel said. «Let's just do this right here.»
Jake and Rachel joined us, shoulder to shoulder. A huge, lumbering bear, a lithe tiger, a powerful gorilla, and me, a wolf with senses that could smell and hear and almost taste the approaching Yeerks.
I was so focused on the Yeerks, I almost didn't hear the other sound.
But then the Visser's monstrous morph came rushing from the feather forest. It was like a blood-orange Medusa's head, each hair snake
141 carrying a scythe. Crowding in behind him were a bunch of very nervous-looking human-Controllers, including Chapman.
Visser Three came to a stop. We stood facing him.
I saw none of the Visser's usual cool arrogance. «Strange place to meet for our final battle, Andalites,» he said. «But battle we must»
That was pretty calm for him. I think maybe the fact that he was the size of a dandruff flake depressed him.
We faced off, Yeerk versus human, although the Yeerks still believed us to be Andalites.
And then, from the feathers to our right, there appeared dozens of four-legged, flat-headed, BB-eyed creatures.
«Hah! All our pitiful foes gathered together! All the better to quake in terror before Helmacron might! Surrender and live out your pitiful lives as our slaves, or fight us and die as weaklings!»
For a long, frozen moment, no one moved.
Twisting his tentacles aside to reveal a hideous face, the Visser looked at us. «l don't know about you, Andalites,» he said, «but these creatures are really, really, really annoying me.»
Now, I know it's not possible for a tiger to grin, but I swear Jake did.
142 And for the first and probably last time in history, humans and Yeerks turned as one to face a common enemy.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the truce didn't last long. Because just then Ax announced, «We are over The Gardens.»
I gave him quick thought
-speak directions and yelled to the others. «We have to get off this bird!»
«What?» Jake demanded.
«We have to jump,» I said. «We have to jump off Ax.»
«Excuse me?» Rachel said. «We're like a billion miles up!»
«Just trust me,» I said. «Go to the end of a feather and get ready to jump!»
143
I ran. They followed. We left the Yeerks to face the Helmacrons, who, naturally, were yammering happily about us. «Fleeing like quivering cowards before the very flower of Helmacron might !»
«l don't like running away,» Rachel growled. But she followed me as we hauled along a slanted feather shaft.
It was a long run, but suddenly we could feel a powerful wind blowing over us. Wind like a hurricane.
«Ax! Are we there?» I cried.
«0ne moment. . . Prepare yourselves . . .»
«Jake, Rachel, everyone,» I said, «when Ax says jump, leap off the edge of the feather. We're
144 too small to get hurt falling. Besides, we'll have a soft landing. As soon as he -»
Suddenly, the Visser's monstrous morph was rushing toward us. «l changed my mind,» he said. «l think I'd rather kill you»
«NOW!» Ax yelled.
We jumped. Each to the limits of his abilities. My wolf body jumped pretty well. And then I was falling. Falling forever, with a grizzly bear not so far above me.
Beyond the bear and the tiger, I saw a shocking sight. The Visser had followed us! His octopuslike morph was falling, legs flailing. And behind him, like so many suicidal jumpers, came a dozen or more human-Controllers.
Far above, at the limits of my vision, I saw a lemming rush of Helmacrons. But because Ax was moving slightly, we were all spread out across the sky. Us, then the Yeerks, then the Helmacrons.
We fell and fell and . . .
POOMP!
. . . landed.
We landed in rough fur. I tumbled between a pair of hairs and fell some more. In my wolf morph I couldn't grab hold with anything but my powerful teeth. So that's just what I did. I clamped my teeth around a stiff, springy hair.
Once I saw that Rachel, Jake, and Marco were
145 all safe on the skin floor beneath us, I let go and dropped.
I landed on all fours. And instantly I began to demorph.
«You going to tell us what this is all about?» Jake demanded, none too gently.
«I'm not totally sure,» I admitted. «But something occurred to me: When the Helmacrons shrank us, they also shrank all the DNA inside us. All the morphs were reduced to that same scale, right?»
«So?» Marco asked.
«Well, it occurred to me that new DNA, newly acquired DNA, might not be shrunk.»
Jake was already halfway to human. «Hey! You're saying that -» His thought-speak ceased as he made the transition out of morph.
I was almost fully human, standing crouched beneath a huge hair. "Yes," I said. "At least, I hope. We should be able to acquire this animal we're on and morph it. Full size!"
I dropped to my knees and pressed my hands against the flesh. But before I could focus, something hideous bounded wildly into the middle of our group.
"Aaaahhhh!" I screamed and leaped back.
Everyone fell back, shocked and horrified before the armored, inhuman creature.
The flea . . . because that's what it was, a
146 flea . . . didn't look at us with its tiny black ballbearing eyes. Its eyes didn't exactly focus. And we'd have been of no interest, anyway.
But even knowing that, the sight of a flea the size of a human was terrifying. They are vile-looking little monsters. I know. I've been one.
The flea seemed to consider whether it should do something. Decided not to. And fired its spring-loaded legs.
It blew up and out of sight with a speed that was almost comical.
"Let's get big before we run into any more of them," Rachel said. "I don't like this forest. Lions and tigers and fleas. Oh my."
I dropped to my knees again and focused on the animal beneath us. The others did the same.
"Hey, what are we acquiring?" Jake asked.
"The one animal in the world that is specially designed to see, attack, and destroy creatures like the Helmacrons," I said grimly.
"And that animal is . . ."
"Anteater," I said.
147
?Let's give it a try," Jake said. "Let's get big!"
I have morphed many times and many animals. But I don't ever remember such a satisfying feeling. I wanted to be big again. I wanted to get back to a world where fleas and mites were . . . well, fleas and mites.
I was growing swiftly, my human features already melted and distorted, as the Visser burst into view through the fur.
He gaped up at us as we grew.
«0f course!» he said.
But I couldn't worry about him right then because I was growing at a shocking, wonderful rate. Up, up through the fur! Up till my head was
148 clear of the anteater's back. Up and up till Tobias flying past seemed small.
Up and up till a much larger Ax in harrier morph seemed no bigger than a 747.
Up till I could see the others, all rising from the fur like hot air balloons ascending from a jungle.
The anteater gave a sudden shake, having felt us, and we tumbled to the ground. But it was wonderful. When we hit the dirt it was just dirt.
We were getting big again!
As you'd expect, the anteater I was becoming had good eyes, at least for small details. I could see Ax resting. I could see Tobias on his shoulder. And I could see the Helmacron ship with the blue box still attached, lying in the dirt with Ax's harrier talon wrapped protectively around it.
An anteater is a funny-looking animal. From the end of its bushy, feather-duster tail to the tip of its absurdly long, pointed head, it was maybe four or four and a half feet long. It stood as tall as a grown man's knees. Not a huge animal. But wonderfully big to all of us.
I looked out through keen, anteater eyes and saw a field of vision half-filled by the furred tube that was its mouth. It seemed to stretch out forever.
But even though the giant anteater is comical, it is not helpless. I was resting most of my
149 weight on my hind legs. I balanced on my front knuckles, the better to keep my wickedly curved scythe claws safe and sharp.
I felt the anteater instincts bubbling up beneath my own human consciousness. I braced myself for some extreme fight-or-flight reaction. But the anteater was a calm, lethargic sort of creature. Later I found out they have one of the lowest body temperatures of any land mammal. They're known to sleep as much as fifteen hours a day.
But this was not a stupid animal. I had excellent hearing and an excellent sense of smell.
And I could quite clearly see the rushing groups of Helmacrons and human-Controllers on the ground.
I was in such control of my more obvious instincts that I didn't really even think about what happened next.
Flit!
My tongue shot out an amazing two feet! It slapped a gaggle of Helmacrons, bathed them in sticky spit, snagged them with the tiny barbs of the anteater tongue, and snapped them back into my mouth before I knew what I'd done.
«Go, Cassie!» Marco said.
I felt something in my mouth, something kind of like teeth, only not, begin to chew . . .
«No!» I yelled, freezing my jaw muscles.
151 Then, to my utter astonishment, I heard from deep inside my own mouth, «Surrender now and we may spare you the eternal torment you have earned!»
I shot my tongue back out, and with a great effort of will, kept it there, sticking out, lying flat on the dirt. Stuck to my tongue were a couple of dozen Helmacrons.
«You know, I really don't want to have to kill you,» I said.
«Surrender and grovel before us!»
I heard another thought-speak voice. Lower and more sinister. «Sentimental Andalite fool,» Visser Three said. He had copied our trick. He
had also morphed the anteater. «You can't kill a Helmacron. They're a fungible species. Kill one and its mind, if you can call it a mind, is absorbed into another. They never die. Even when they're dead, they're not dead. But when it comes to Andalites . . .»
Flit!
His tongue shot out and snagged not an ant, but a very small bird that had been flying by.
«Aaahhhh!» Tobias cried.
«Tobias!» Rachel screamed.
The Visser stopped his tongue, holding a stuck and helpless Tobias a millimeter from disappearing into his tubular jaw.
150
«Now we shall talk,» Visser Three sneered.
Like lightning, Ax leaped. Like lightning, his tail blade came down and stopped, quivering, pressed against the Visser's anteater throat.
«Now we shall talk,» Ax said.
152
We worked out a deal.
Rachel and Jake lapped up the Helmacrons and held them hostage. It was a relief to know that Helmacrons were basically unkillable. Well, mostly a relief. In any case, they were stuck.
Marco and I demorphed back to our tiny human selves. We did it out of sight of Visser Three, of course. And then we boarded the Helmacron ship. We found some of the pathetically easy-to-intimidate males and had them help us work the Helmacron shrinking ray.
We unshrank Visser Three and Tobias while Ax stood guarding the Visser, the Helmacron ship, and the blue box, tail blade twitching.
153 We unshrank the human-Controllers and gave the Yeerks safe passage to leave. They weren't about to argue. After all, we were in control of the shrinking ray.
Visser Three decided maybe the conquest of Earth would work better if he was bigger than a semicolon.
When the Yeerks were gone, Rachel and Jake scraped the Helmacrons off their tongues and demorphed to human. We unshrank them.
Finally, we set the thing on automatic and Marco and I ran outside to stand in the beam.
But not before we had a good, long talk with some of the Helmacron males.
"You guys need a males' liberation movement," Marco told them. "Why should you put up with being treated like second-class Helmacrons?"
And many of the males agreed. «We could crush the females beneath our feet! Long would they wail and bemoan their fate as we assumed our places as the rightful rulers of all Helmacrons! We would then proceed with our just and righteous plans to conquer all the galaxy! Then all would grovel before us and . . .»