The Fronting
Hello. I am Rachel. One moment I'm a fashion freak. The next I'm saving the world from a parasitic race called the Yeerks.
I refuse to tell you where I live, my last name, or anything that might help the Yeerks find us.
How did I end up saving the world? It's a long story. First on one day we decided to take a shortcut through the construction site. Then we saw an Andalite fighter. At the time we had no clue what it was. Then an andalite (which we also had no clue about), named Prince Elfangor, came out of the ship. And told us about the Yeerks they head in your ear and head for your brain. Then they control that person. That person would be a controller.
But he gave us a weapon to fight them. We aren't totally defenseless. The power to morph. Change our DNA become animals. Basically we touch an animal think about it and then it happens. My first morph was a cat.
Tom, Jake's brother, Principal Chapman, and Victor Trent are all major controllers. Victor Trent is the leader of the whole invasion, Visser Three. But those are only a few out of many controllers.
There is no sure way to tell who is a controller or not. So my band and I don't trust anyone, not even our families.
Tobias, Jake, Cassie, Marco, and I are all the 5 Animorphs. Tobias isn't as lucky as us. He kept his wings for more than two hours. Now he spends his life-eating mice instead of nice Thanksgiving dinners. The Ellimist gave him the power to morph after being stuck for a little bit of time, but his natural body is still red-tailed hawk. We found Ax later. The reason he is not an Animorph is because he is not human. He is an andalite. He was the only survivor of his Dome ship crash.
I think finding Ax was great for us because he explains a lot of things. Like for instance, how to demagnetize a videocard. Another was the torf move. I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon, though. He has also helped explain to us the rankings of Andalites. See it goes like this. First, you are an artish, a warrior cadet. Then, you are a Prince, Great Leader ,lastly, a War Prince.
I now go to the mall, not for pleasure, but as a cover-up so they think I'm an ordinary kid. Don't tell the others please. Now I'm more concerned with alien slugs rather than a new GAP jacket.
Jake is the "leader" of the Animorphs. He seems fearless, but I know he is scared of something. That's why I dislike it when Marco says, "What should we do know, O' fearless leader?" He is also my cousin. He has always been the responsible type. That's why he is the unofficial leader of us. He makes most of the big decisions. Jake has probably been the leader of many things, so why can't he be a leader of saving the world.
Cassie is the exact opposite of me. She always wears too short jeans. But she takes care of animals with her dad, I don't. So I guess she wouldn't want to be a fashion freak. Her house is where we hold the meetings about what we are going to do about the Yeerks. But when we go there is always at least bad news. Really. Its real name is the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. I always prefer to call it the barn, though.
Marco is basically a guy who thinks he is the cutest guy in the world. He also thinks that every girl, who doesn't love him, should idolize him. I think that is absolutely nuts, or insane. Now, he's got me saying that. Marco is way too cautious. Although one time we should have listened to him when we went to the Wellness Center. Marco is really the opposite of Jake.
Aximilli-Esgarrouth-Isthill is Ax. Ax misses his brother. Ax's brother, Elfangor was the one who gave us the power to morph. But for now he is like a father since he is Tobias's uncle. Ax usually hides in his human morph whenever other people, who don't know Ax, don't freak. It would be even worse if a controller saw him. They would know we were hiding an Andalite. That's the info on Ax, or Ax-man, as we sometimes call him.
We usually go on missions to defeat the Yeerks, and I'm usually am the first to say yes. Why you may ask? Because no one else knows the fact that Visser Three's host is my father. The Yeerks are the ugliest thing that has happened to the planet ever.
Then after I finished writing that, the Tobias came in.
< We have major problem. > Tobias stated.
"Why don't we go to the barn and discuss it, then?" I asked calmly.
<Because Cassie is almost dead, she is over the hill about 10 miles away. >
"I am gonna morph to the falcon, I acquired it from Jake last night."
My mouth was turning into a beak first. The lips started to meld together as if someone was applying super glue to my lips. Jordan did it to me once. That's how I know. Then I got some movement of my mouth, but it wasn't much. Then my arms began to get really heavy. They felt like bricks. Then my arms started to lose weight as my wings started to develop. Next, my hands disappeared. Lastly my legs and feet developed into very, very small legs, and average sized talons, which they are still very useful.
I started to fly at 120 miles per hour. Then I saw her; she was bloody with her hands against the dirt. I knew what my only choice was. I had to hope a falcon could carry a 150-pound girl. I flew over her and picked her up with my talons. I though spoke to her, < Cassie, can you hear me? >, I paused hoping for an answer, < Cassie, c'mon girl, you can wake up! Oh Cassie please reply! > After that, I took her to Ax in the barn to see if he could help.
He examined her for a total of about 30 minutes before he thought-spoke; <Everyone Cassie is in an andalite state called abomination fever. >
"What is abomination fever, anyway Ax?" Marco piped up with rudely.
< It is when someone has fought someone higher than a normal ranking and won. The high-ranking yeerk poisoned her before he died. > Ax explained, then said, <Marco please do not be so rude. >
" Sorry Ax-man it's just I wanted an answer right away." Marco replied sadly.
<Who is her hoof-friend, I mean boyfriend? > Ax asked as if it were of great importance.
" I think Jake is, but he will probably deny it." I replied to Ax.
<Cassie needs him it is the only cure. > Ax demanded of someone to get Jake.
Marco got Jake, but he said it was a normal meeting. By normal I mean; we usually have meeting where we talk about the problems. Jake was now walking to where he would have to do something weird to cure Cassie. Excuse me, He is going to have to kiss Cassie in front of Ax.
"Ax, You said she fought a high ranking Yeerk, who was it?" I asked adding, "Was it him, Visser 3?"
<Rachel, thank you for asking politely, but I'm afraid only Cassie can or could tell us. > Ax replied. "Thank you"
<Your Welcome>
Then Jake and Marco walk in.
"I thought you said it was a NORMAL meeting!" Jake exclaimed at Marco.
"Jake every meeting is NORMAL, since there is NO normal meetings!" Marco yelled back.
"Ok quit acting like kids you two, let's get to the matter at hand, Cassie. Ax please explain to them what is going on." I told them.
<Cassie has abominal fever, it is where you have fought a high-ranking Yeerk, and won, but the Yeerk poisoned her before it died. > Ax said cautiously. "What is the cure, Ax?" Jake asked calmly.
<Her boyfriend kissing her, or the closest boy. > Ax told him.
Jake immediately says he would kiss Cassie, but with only Ax watching.
Cassie wakes up and says, "What a terrible dream!" "What dream didn't you fight a high ranking Visser?" I demanded.
"No silly, I became stuck as an alligator or crocodile. I don't remember what happened after that, though. I did fight someone for someone's Christmas. I am not gonna be specific though. Why? The would ruin someone's surprise, tonight on Christmas." Cassie said hoping we would think it was Marco's or Jake's Christmas gift. I never would have believed it would be mine.
"Good morning, sweetheart." My dad said. Then he asked, "Can I talk with you for a moment, alone?"
"Sure dad, what's up?" I told him curiously.
"Daughter, you are probably gonna think I'm nuts, but Yeerks are invading the Earth. The Yeerk in my head used to be Visser 3, until Cassie, what a strange name for an andalite, defeated him! Rachel, this body I am in isn't my natural one. See I fight the Yeerks, I am andalite..."
"Dad?"
"Yes, Rachel"
" I fight them too, watch."
I morphed my hand to gorilla to start off with; then my dad wanted me to stop.
"You must be part of the Andalite bandits my Yeerk wanted to capture."
"Dad, that Cassie figure was my best friend, would you like to join our band?"
"Yes, but let's ask the others first."
"Wait, let's celebrate Christmas as a family!"
We celebrated Christmas as a family. That made me real glad. We hadn't done that in 5 years.
After that my dad and I went to the barn.
Shocked to only see Cassie there, I whispered, "Thanks Cassie, but how did you find out War Prince Alloran was my father?" I asked
"I heard his Yeerk talking about how he wanted to infest you. His Yeerk said 'We must infest my host's daughter'"
"Daddy, I know that isn't your natural body. I know with human genetics that a newborn is half mom, and half dad. Is it the same with Andalites?"
<Yes, Daughter it is the same with all species. > My dad replied.
"Then I am part Andalite." I realized.
After that my dad said he needed to talk with me alone, and I wondered why. It took 30 minutes to convince her to leave without my dad and I.
<Rachel, there is an Andalite in you and I have no clue when it will emerge. So I have written excuse notes for about 2 weeks for you to miss school. You need to stay home because at first your Andalite will go totally insane because you know you are human, but you are really two people in one. Your human is just like my human morph and your mom put together. Your Andalite is a same cross except I injected Andalite DNA in her so you are two in one. This only happens 1 in a billion people. Rachel you are special even though you are the daughter of the only Andalite that had a filthy slug in his head. > My dad explained to me trying to remain calm. <Daughter, I need to go to the bathroom. >
"I'll wait here." I called. I wonder when I become two. Wait! That explains my personality! Then I started to feel like I was off balance. A tail emerged out! This is what my dad was talking about got with the flow and let it emerge. Two seconds later the Andalite equivalent of me was were the human me was.
<When you demorph, do it to this body so the Yeerks won't suspect that you are my daughter. > My dad thought spoke after he came in.
<Thanks, Dad, let's go to the barn. > I said. "I call dibs on driving." My dad had already morphed to human. After that I want to my human. And we were at the barn 5 minutes later.
"Hi, Rachel," Jake said, "we just got done discussing the next mission. And it is one you won't mind going on."
"Please, tell me about it." I told him politely.
<Where is Marco?"> Ax asked.
"The mission is for him." Jake said, "He can't know about it."
"Is it capture Visser One?" I asked.
Jake nodded.
Then I realized what we were gonna do…
We went down to the secret entrance that led to the Visser's area. My dad showed it to us. Then I knew we all had to morph our heads to not get recognized. I decided Andalite would be too obvious, but not monkey's head. It would get overlooked by the Yeerks as a Leeran head. I told everyone to morph to the monkey head and they realized why. Leerans sometimes try to blend in as humans but they leave their costumes on because they are so hard for them to get on. We walked in and saw all of the remaining Vissers. Then, trusting the Andalite in me, I thought spoke <Visser One there is a major problem, the Andalite bandits know of all of the high-ranking officers. > I paused and waited for her response. She said "I need to go the Andalites, Visser Three was supposed to take care of know too much."
<Visser, this way please. >
"Alright, but make it snappy."
<He he he>
"No you can't you just can't be!"
<Yes the Andalites have captured you and put you in a sound proof room. >
Then I demorphed to Andalite. Her Yeerk wanted us to make it snappy because her infestation was soon. She began the fugue. After 2 hours we gave Marco his mom for Christmas.
He and his dad were ecstatic throughout the next three months. Marco had gotten what he wanted and so had I.
<Now, the second part. > I thought spoke to Cassie only, <Get Jake home! NOW! >
Jake left. Then we were ready for part two…
Part two is to deinfest Tom, Jake's brother. We demorphed at needed my dad but where was he?! <DAD!> I thought spoke urgently!
<I'm on your shoulder. I can't let the Yeerks see me yet remember.>
<Sorry, Dad.>
Five minutes later, Taxxons blocked the entrance to the Yeerk pool.
I thought spoke to them <Move you idiots, it is me the Visser Three who escaped the Andalite bandits! >
The Taxxons complied and we were in the Yeerk Pool. Then I, alone, dared to walk over to Tom's cage and get the Hork-Bajir to move. I picked up Tom and tried to leave. The Taxxons blocked our way. I called the idiots and I lied saying I was gonna take him to the kiln room. Then kiln room is where the Yeerks burnt hosts that didn't deserve to have a quick death, and defied the Yeerks.
Once we were in the barn, and Jake discovered Tom wasn't Yeerked anymore, he was very, very happy! Tom explained to the family that the Sharing is very evil, and they believed him.
Then we decided to add Tom to the group. Tom knew a lot about how to tell controllers from normal people. Something, none of us, not even my dad could do. We gave him the morphing power after we performed the following ritual. "Tom, do you promise to never try to control the group unless it is under life or death situation."
"I promise"
"You must promise never to morph for selfish reasons, never expose yourself to the Yeerks, and never lie to us, unless it is absolutely necessary."
"I promise"
After those words, Tom was an Animorph. We had another more important decision to make who would our leader? We had three choices: Jake, My Dad, or me. I knew we could only do this one way, by a vote…
Ax and my dad said they would be happy with whatever decision was made. "I won't vote because you guys, as a collective term, may want me to be a leader." I commented. Jake used the same reason not to vote. That meant Marco, Cassie, Tom, and Tobias were the only ones voting. Marco voted for Jake. Cassie, Tom, and Tobias all voted for my dad. If I was voting I would have agreed, not that Jake was lousy, but my dad had been fighting this war for a very long time. We all agreed the Jake would be the temporary leader until my dad saw what kind of missions we go on then my dad would be the leader.
My dad said the only way to hurt the Yeerks was to kill their main Kandrona. And we all knew what that meant a trip back to the Yeerk Pool, but my dad did something Jake had never done before; he planned the other side's actions. He discovered that Jake's plan would have been destroyed in an instant because of Council 7's plan. They needed to enter through the Sharing entrance. The only problem was that other controllers, sorta use that entrance!! My dad said we would be morphed as very, very small animals like flies. After we found the wall we would demorph, then remorph to the fiercest morphs we had. Lastly we would destroy the Kandrona. Well, those were the ABCs of the mission there were a lot of mini missions we had to do first to make this successful. We had to first figure out who the bodyguards we gonna be and capture them. Then we had to see if there we any cracks in the wall for escape routes. Then the next day we would invade.
For now we decided to go the mall, you know have fun and do some shopping. After getting there we realize there were a zillion Yeerk scanners around the place! Then we came up with the only way to get in. We had to morph of heads to something the Yeerks wouldn't realize, because we couldn't leave without anything from the mall that was my alibi.
Then we all started morphing our heads. The others didn't have adequate morphs, and no one could risk acquiring me out in public so I was on my own…
I walked in and the scanner thought I was a Leeran. I immediately ran into the middle of two stores and demorphed my head to human. Then I had a good time shopping for about 30 minutes then a cop came by and asked my why I was actually shopping. I told him that it was for my alibi and let me go and I immediately ran outside, told the others what had happened, and went home to bed. I live for the next adventure…
By Marilyn
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