Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

«‹›236 »

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Ytlaya posted:

I think that this aspect is a bit less of an ethical dilemma because the alternative if they don't win the war (and this is only being proposed because they feel it's necessary to do so) is "Yeerks are still inside their head, but they have zero freedom, as opposed to the sort of mix of freedom and insane episodes that the oatmeal causes." It's not really making things any worse for the humans unless the alternate is a full victory (and they wouldn't be doing this in the first place if they knew how to achieve that alternative).

What they're doing to the Yeerks, on the other hand, is a sort of life-long torture. The situation is complicated a bit by the fact that the Yeerks themselves also mass torture their hosts, but it's definitely still a war crime they're proposing.

I suppose, but I would think that they'd naturally be more concerned about humans than Yeerks. And the general line of thinking so far has been that if they can win the war they can free the slaves, that that beacon of hope is always there; in fact Jake's Civil War analogy would be more accurate if, like, the North could have won the war by permanently maiming a lot of the slaves. An ugly yet ultimately acceptable deal in the long run, but... maybe not worth doing unless you definitely think you're going to lose otherwise? More of a tactical cost/benefit analysis than a purely moral choice.

Also, I like that (as in many discussions that verge on making the hard choice) Rachel and Marco find themselves allies.

Also (end of series spoilers!) there must be thousands or even tens of thousands of Controllers in California at this point, and post-war that would be so... weird! Like being a Holocaust survivor. I don't know why that never occurred to me before; that even though the Animorphs are fighting this secret war that only comes out in the open later on, there are also thousands of other people with direct experience of it.

# ? Feb 8, 2021 09:31

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 24, 2024 17:30

rollick: Mar 20, 2009

I guess the other fear might be that the Yeerks find out about the oatmeal hack, and work out a way to synthesis the drug without the side effects.

It does seem like this is a much bigger deal than a wacky one book sidequest. Wonder if it ever comes up again.

# ? Feb 8, 2021 13:28

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

rollick posted:

I guess the other fear might be that the Yeerks find out about the oatmeal hack, and work out a way to synthesis the drug without the side effects.

It does seem like this is a much bigger deal than a wacky one book sidequest. Wonder if it ever comes up again.

We also know from Erek that Kandrona technology can be miniaturized to the point of being able to hide it inside an android body the size of a teenager, though the Yeerks don't have that kind of technology [yet].

I always figured that was the logical end game of the Yeerks: developing artificial bodies (either androids or cloned organics) that they could 'infest' on blank artificial 'brains' as an interface.

# ? Feb 8, 2021 20:26

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 13

quote:

<This was not easy to figure out,> Tobias said proudly. <Hours and hours of following known Controllers. Then I had to keep stealing peeks in through the windows. I even morphed to human to check out the inside. That�s how I found out about the Happy Meal.>

We were flies. The six of us. We were inside a McDonald�s, zipping madly around. It was crazy. The scent of food was everywhere. Pickles. Meat. Ketchup. Grease. Special sauce.

My fly body thought it had died and gone to heaven. Outside of a good trash dump, there�s no place a fly likes more than a fast-food restaurant.

<What about the Happy Meal?> Cassie asked.

<Why is the meal happy?> Ax asked.

Tobias decided to answer Cassie�s question. <That�s how you signal. That�s the code. You go up to the counter and say �I�d like a Happy Meal. With extra happy.� That�s the signal.>

I flew upside down along the ceiling, looking for a place to land and rest. I buzzed to a nice greasy patch near the deep fryer, turned a back flip, and set down. My mouth - actually, it was more like some insanely long straw that could curl up - extended down and began spitting digestive juices onto the grease, then sucking up the resulting goo.

Hey, I know it�s gross. But it was either that or keep resisting the fly�s desperate cries for food! food! food!

<After you place the Happy Meal order, you go around like you�re going to the bathroom. But instead, you take the other door. The one that goes to the kitchen. You go in - and here�s the cool part - you go into the walk-in refrigerator.>

<Then what?> Jake asked.

<Then I don�t know. I could never see all the way inside.>

<Okay. So here�s the plan,> Jake said. <We watch till someone orders the Happy Meal with � what was it?>

<Extra happy,> Tobias said.

<Is it just my imagination, or did the Yeerks develop a sense of humor?> Marco asked.

So this book was adapted for the TV series, but in the TV series, they were worried about copyright infringement, so McDonalds was changed to "Tom's Burgers", and the secret password was "A cheeseburger, hold the cheese.", which is a lot less funny. But then, I guess being sued by McDonald's lawyers isn't funny, either.

quote:

<Once we have our Controller, we follow him in. No problem,> Jake said. Then he added grimly, <Oh yeah, no problem. A little picnic in the Yeerk pool. I�m sure they�ll all buy that.>

<Um, Jake?> Marco said. <You said that last part out loud. We heard it.>

<Oh. Sorry.>

<Mr. Inspiration,> I said with a laugh. <Come on. Let�s ->

<Uh-uh-uh! Don�t say �let�s do it,� Rachel,> Marco yelled.

We took turns hanging out above the counter. But we didn�t have too long a wait till a woman came in and ordered a Happy Meal with �extra happy.�

We buzzed easily along behind her as she went through the door and into the kitchen. Then into the walk-in refrigerator.

<Gotta get out of here, man,> I said. <This cold is slowing me down.>

<Yes, this body has no ability to regulate body temperature,> Ax observed. <What a strange idea. You humans do many unusual things.>

<Ax, I don�t think we�re exactly responsible for ->

<Yes, I know. I was attempting to make a joke. A human-style joke.>

<Great,> Marco muttered. <Funny Yeerks and now a wannabe-funny Andalite.>

The Controller woman waited patiently and after a few seconds, the back of the walk-in refrigerator split and opened wide.

She stepped and we flew through the opening. It really was going to be easy this time.

BrrrrEEEEET! BrrrrEEEEET! �Unauthorized life-form detected.� BrrrrEEEEET BrrrrEEEEET! �Unauthorized life-form detected.�

The Controller woman looked around. I saw her blue eyes, each the size of a swimming pool, turn and look. Through the shattered, splintered fly vision, I could see her focus.

Then she muttered under her breath, �Security fanatics. It�s just a couple of lousy flies.�

But the mechanical voice was giving instructions now.

�Shut your eyes tightly to protect against retinal damage from the Gleet BioFilter.�

<The what?> I asked.

<Get out of here!> Ax yelled.

<What?>

<Out! Out! Out!> he yelled.

Ax never yells. So if he does yell, you have to figure it�s a good idea to pay attention.

I spun around in midair the way only a fly can do, and I hauled wing for the still-open crack that led to the refrigerator.

Suddenly, the whole world blew up in a dazzling explosion of light. I felt my compound eyes melt. I flew on, blinded, blew through the rapidly narrowing crack and hit the cold air.

<I�m blind!> I cried.

 Ax said calmly. <We�re lucky to be just blinded. A Gleet BioFilter destroys all life-forms whose DNA is not entered into the computer controls. Andalite technology, of course. The Yeerks must have stolen the specifications.>

<Ax, are you telling me that filter thing will wipe out any life-form except the one they program it for?> Jake asked.

<Yes, Prince Jake. I�m sorry to say, yes. Everything but the particular human-Controller.>

<Then we�re shut off from the Yeerk pool,> Tobias said. <They must have this same technology at all the entrances now.>

It was hard to get too upset by the idea of being locked out of the Yeerk pool. But it was frustrating. And it kind of made me mad. I didn�t like the idea of being outsmarted by the Yeerks.

<There must be some other way in,> I said.

<I�d like to know what it would be,> Marco said.

For a moment no one said anything. Then Cassie said, <Well � there is one way.>

 Marco said.

That's ominous.

Chapter 14

quote:

Back at Cassie�s barn we gathered around and stared at a small cage.

�What is that, a rat?� Marco asked.

<It�s a mole,> Tobias said.

�Count on Tobias to know his rodents,� Marco said. He looked up at the rafters where Tobias was preening - cleaning his feathers with his beak. �How do they taste?�

<I�ve never caught one. They don�t come up to the surface very often.>

�That is one ugly creature,� I said. �And it looks way too much like a shrew.� I had morphed a shrew once. It wasn�t a good time. The shrew was way too hyped. Way too excitable. And way, way too hungry.

�It�s a lot calmer than a shrew,� Cassie said. �And like Tobias said, moles spend almost all their time underground. They dig tunnels. See how big the front feet are? They�re well-adapted for digging tunnels.�

Marco sighed. �Moleman. You can�t even picture a superhero named Moleman. What would the superpowers be? Digging?�

Mole Man is a Fantastic Four villain.

quote:

<Many of your Earth animals are similar to this in shape,> Ax observed.

�Yeah,� Cassie agreed. �It�s a very successful shape: rats, mice, voles, shrews, even squirrels and raccoons to a certain extent. Your basic low-slung, four-legged rodent shape.�

I sighed. �So let me get this straight. You�re suggesting we morph this mole and dig our way down to the Yeerk pool?�

Cassie shrugged. Then she winked at me. �Just trying to be helpful.�

�It�s probably, what, fifty feet down through the dirt to the top of the Yeerk pool?�

<At least,> Tobias said.

�That�s a lot of dirt,� Jake said. �But I don�t know of another way. If we�re going to do this, we need to get back to the Yeerk pool.�

�Has anyone figured out how we�re supposed to get a whole lot of oatmeal down there after we dig these mole tunnels?� I asked.

Jake nodded like he was going to say �sure.�

Instead he said, �Nope. But we need to start stocking up. Everyone start bugging your parents to buy instant maple-and-ginger flavor oatmeal. Lots of it. We�ll start with that. Then we�ll spend our allowances for more.�

Marco shook his head. �No need. I do the food shopping at my house. My dad drops me off, hits Target for all that kind of stuff, then picks me up. I can supply the oatmeal.�

�Okay, then,� Jake said. �Nothing left to do but acquire this mole here.�

I made a face. I was nearest the cage. �Does it bite?�

�I wouldn�t think so,� Cassie said. �It usually just eats � I mean, I don�t think it�ll bite you.�

I turned on her. �What does it usually eat, Cassie?�

�Well, it eats what you�d expect an underground animal to eat. It eats worms. Mostly worms.�

�Oh, great,� I moaned.

I stretched out my hand and Cassie opened the cage. I touched the mole and kept my hand there while I felt the mole DNA become a part of me. I suppose the mole became quiet and still, the way most animals do when you acquire them, but who could tell? It was already pretty quiet.

When it came to Tobias�s turn, the mole got a bit more excited. You have to be in your own body when you acquire new DNA. And now the hawk body was Tobias�s own true body. So to acquire the mole, he had to flap down to the cage and grab the poor creature with his talons.

Just as Cassie�s father arrived, we left the barn and went toward the school.

The Yeerk pool is a vast, underground complex. It�s like one of those covered football stadiums or whatever. In the center is the pool itself, but there is an open area all around the pool, so all together it�s probably a thousand or fifteen hundred feet across. I�m guessing. We never exactly measured it.

It�s big, for being a hole in the ground. It stretches beneath the school and clear over to the mall.

At least the entrances do. The entrances are concealed stairways that come in from angles all around the pool. We�ve found entrances in the janitor�s closet at school (the Yeerks eliminated that one later) and in the dressing rooms at The Gap in the mall.

<Based on the entrances we�ve found over time, I think the center of the Yeerk pool is right at this intersection,> Tobias said.

We were all at the intersection between the school and the mall. �Well, we can�t dig here,� I said.

�We wouldn�t want to,� Marco pointed out. �We don�t want to be right over the pool when we dig through.� He made a falling motion with his hands then said, �Splash!�

�Good point,� I agreed. The idea of falling into the Yeerk pool itself was nauseating.

Jake said, �However, we want to be close to the pool itself so we can tell exactly where it is when we dig through. That way we can dig a horizontal side tunnel out over the pool and use it to drop the oatmeal.�

Marco nodded. �I have the strange feeling this will involve some kind of geometry I should have paid attention to in class.�

�You are asking for a lot of precision, Prince Jake,� Ax said. �We have no instruments. Struments. Not even primitive human instruments. Struuu-ments. Mints? In-stru-mints?�

�We have to make an educated guess, Ax. And don�t call me �prince.��

�Yes, Prince Jake.�

Tobias had come to rest on a high lamppost. Hawks have amazingly good hearing, so he could still hear us talking.

I looked up at him. �Tobias? You�re the one who keeps track of entrances and stuff. What�s your best estimate?�

�And don�t forget, we could use some privacy for morphing,� Jake said.

Tobias opened his wings and flew up and up. He inscribed a swift, irregular circle in the sky, then came back to roost.

They're going to dig their way in! Plus, new alien tech....Gleet BioFilter!

# ? Feb 9, 2021 04:27

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

Cythereal posted:

We also know from Erek that

Speaking of Erek, he still faking a human controller and going down into the pool, right? I hope he has some means of fooling the BioFilter, or things would get awkward for him, fast...

# ? Feb 9, 2021 05:13

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Bobulus posted:

Speaking of Erek, he still faking a human controller and going down into the pool, right? I hope he has some means of fooling the BioFilter, or things would get awkward for him, fast...

Erek's not biological. He's a machine, and a machine that's significantly more advanced than either Yeerk or Andalite technology.. I assume the BioFilter doesn't detect him.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 05:42

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

Bobulus posted:

Speaking of Erek, he still faking a human controller and going down into the pool, right? I hope he has some means of fooling the BioFilter, or things would get awkward for him, fast...

It always bugged me that they never got another Chee to just pretend to be Tom as a controller and rescue Tom to live with the Chee for a while during the invasion

# ? Feb 9, 2021 06:32

Mazerunner: Apr 22, 2010; Good Hunter, what... what is this post?

how is it that I remember 'happy meal with extra happy', and the bio-filter but not any of the rest of the book.

also I think I'd actually mixed up the Jake gets squashed scene into this book's McDonald's scene

# ? Feb 9, 2021 11:20

Gun Jam: Apr 11, 2015

Meanwhile, IRL, the joint was burger king, and the code for "gimme a joint" was "french fries, extra crispy".

Terror Sweat posted:

It always bugged me that they never got another Chee to just pretend to be Tom as a controller and rescue Tom to live with the Chee for a while during the invasion

The "why didn't they ___ with Tom" talk could last all day.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 14:09

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Epicurius posted:

So this book was adapted for the TV series, but in the TV series, they were worried about copyright infringement, so McDonalds was changed to "Tom's Burgers", and the secret password was "A cheeseburger, hold the cheese.", which is a lot less funny. But then, I guess being sued by McDonald's lawyers isn't funny, either.

I distinctly remember this scene and I distinctly remember that when someone uses the codeword the guy's smile just drops and he looks incredibly suss and goes "...it's round back," like he's directing someone to a pedo ring.

Other thoughts:

- I really remember Ax flipping out and Rachel's line "Ax never yells." Alien castaway earning his retainer, consider him one of the Animorphs in the blurbs you fuckers :colbert:

- "Gleet" biofilter always made me think it was some kind of alien corporation cheerfully selling its tech to both Yeerk and Andalites
- I definitely remember Cassie's observation of the mole etc being a "successful shape" tying in with my vague concept of evolution, as a kid. Learning!

quote:

The "why didn't they ___ with Tom" talk could last all day.

The Jake thing worked because that particular Yeerk escaped a boiling Jacuzzi and was already presumed dead. If you just abduct Tom off the street, three days later he has questions to answer when he once again gets abducted off the street into a van by Controllers who want to know where his Yeerk went.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 15:01

rollick: Mar 20, 2009

I also remember nothing from this book except the extra happy.

Does the DNA filter need both a human and a Yeerk to pass through? If not, the taboo against acquiring humans is getting kind of ridiculous.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 15:02

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Terror Sweat posted:

It always bugged me that they never got another Chee to just pretend to be Tom as a controller and rescue Tom to live with the Chee for a while during the invasion

I guess the best answer to that is that the Chee are pretty secretive about who and what they are. They only let the Animorphs know because they figured them out. Tom is important to Jake, but not to the Chee, or at least not any more than any other Controller, except insofar as he lives with Jake and could find Jake out. Why risk their identities coming out.

Also, the whole process of kidnapping Tom is dangerous for the Yeerk and runs the risk of killing it. Maybe the Chee could talk it into going into a mobile Kandrona emitter, but there's a very good chance they can't, and the risk of its death is just too high a risk.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 15:04

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

rollick posted:

I also remember nothing from this book except the extra happy.

Does the DNA filter need both a human and a Yeerk to pass through? If not, the taboo against acquiring humans is getting kind of ridiculous.

I could swear this isn�t how they work later, but Ax says it is programmed for that specific human being. So somehow the Yeerks aren�t just letting humans in but specific human DNA is permitted to pass, probably just requires a medical scan of the host.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 16:03

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

Epicurius posted:

I guess the best answer to that is that the Chee are pretty secretive about who and what they are. They only let the Animorphs know because they figured them out. Tom is important to Jake, but not to the Chee, or at least not any more than any other Controller, except insofar as he lives with Jake and could find Jake out. Why risk their identities coming out.

Also, the whole process of kidnapping Tom is dangerous for the Yeerk and runs the risk of killing it. Maybe the Chee could talk it into going into a mobile Kandrona emitter, but there's a very good chance they can't, and the risk of its death is just too high a risk.

Animorphs kidnap Tom, have erek fake his death, let Tom live there for a while. Erek definitely owes them a solid

# ? Feb 9, 2021 18:11

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

Terror Sweat posted:

Animorphs kidnap Tom, have erek fake his death, let Tom live there for a while. Erek definitely owes them a solid

This plan would probably a bit on when in the series it would happen. (very minor spoilers) Up to book 30-something, the Chee's characterization is such that, yeah, they would be willing to go along with plans that result in, e.g., the death of Tom's Yeerk, as long as they're not personally aiding the violence or starvation. After a point, the tone of their pacifism shifts, and they would refuse to be involved at all; later-series Erek probably wouldn't agree to fake Tom's death, because that would do nothing but enable the Animorphs to starve out Tom's Yeerk. You can blame this on the ghostwriting, but given that it ends up being relevant in the finale, it's hard to say it's entirely on the ghostwriters.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 22:05

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

disaster pastor posted:

This plan would probably a bit on when in the series it would happen. (very minor spoilers) Up to book 30-something, the Chee's characterization is such that, yeah, they would be willing to go along with plans that result in, e.g., the death of Tom's Yeerk, as long as they're not personally aiding the violence or starvation. After a point, the tone of their pacifism shifts, and they would refuse to be involved at all; later-series Erek probably wouldn't agree to fake Tom's death, because that would do nothing but enable the Animorphs to starve out Tom's Yeerk. You can blame this on the ghostwriting, but given that it ends up being relevant in the finale, it's hard to say it's entirely on the ghostwriters.

I mean, it would seem more likely to me that the Chee recognise that the Animorphs are becoming as bad as what they're fighting and flatly refuse even tangential help.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 22:30

SirSamVimes: Jul 21, 2008; ~* Challenge *~

Epicurius posted:

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 13

So this book was adapted for the TV series, but in the TV series, they were worried about copyright infringement, so McDonalds was changed to "Tom's Burgers", and the secret password was "A cheeseburger, hold the cheese.", which is a lot less funny. But then, I guess being sued by McDonald's lawyers isn't funny, either.

That's a pretty bad code, seeing as that's something I have customers actually order from me sometimes where I work (not a McD though)

# ? Feb 9, 2021 23:25

wizzardstaff: Apr 6, 2018; Zorch! Splat! Pow!

SirSamVimes posted:

That's a pretty bad code, seeing as that's something I have customers actually order from me sometimes where I work (not a McD though)

Check the freezer now.

# ? Feb 9, 2021 23:58

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

disaster pastor posted:

This plan would probably a bit on when in the series it would happen. (very minor spoilers) Up to book 30-something, the Chee's characterization is such that, yeah, they would be willing to go along with plans that result in, e.g., the death of Tom's Yeerk, as long as they're not personally aiding the violence or starvation. After a point, the tone of their pacifism shifts, and they would refuse to be involved at all; later-series Erek probably wouldn't agree to fake Tom's death, because that would do nothing but enable the Animorphs to starve out Tom's Yeerk. You can blame this on the ghostwriting, but given that it ends up being relevant in the finale, it's hard to say it's entirely on the ghostwriters.

Nonono, you starve the yeerk out first, then foist Tom onto them so their only option is to shelter him or risk being complicit in his inevitable death

# ? Feb 10, 2021 00:40

StashAugustine: Mar 24, 2013; Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

wizzardstaff posted:

Check the freezer now.

Thats just where you keep the booze

# ? Feb 10, 2021 04:08

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 15

quote:

t turned out to be a toolshed. It was in the backyard of a house that was empty and had a decrepit �For Sale� sign in the weeds of the overgrown front yard.

The house was on the main road, sandwiched between a convenience store and a place that sold hot tubs. There was a lot of noisy traffic going by all the time. Some distance behind the house there was a forlorn little park. Just a few trees, some picnic tables, and a lumpy sort of hill with rocks
jutting out of the soil. It didn�t look like anyone had lived in the house in a long time.

The toolshed was rusted tin with a dirt floor. It was empty, except for some bags of potting soil and a rake.

�Perfect,� Jake declared. �A little cramped, but perfect. But once we�re all in mole morph, it�ll be roomy enough.�

Cassie cleared her throat. �Um � maybe I should have mentioned this earlier. But it�s not about all of us being moles at once. Not at first, anyway. I mean, only one mole can dig at a time.�

We all stared at her as we let that bit of information sink in. Somehow I�d had images of us all down underground digging away together. Now I was getting a very different picture.

�We�re gonna be down there alone?� Marco yelped. �Underground? Dirt pressing in all around us? No air?�

Cassie shrugged. �Well, you�ll be a mole.�

�Well, then it�s all right,� Marco said with shrill sarcasm. �We�ll be moles, so it�s okay to be under twenty feet of dirt with no air.�

�Oh, you big baby,� I said. �No problem.�

I say these things. I don�t know why. They just pop out of my stupid mouth.

�Ladies and gentlemen,� Marco said, placing his hand on my shoulder, �we have a volunteer.�

What could I say? I had to tough it through. �Okay. Fine, Weenie-boy. I�ll go first.�

It was hot in the little shed with all of us crammed in there. Hot and airless. And already I was feeling a little claustrophobic. You know, the fear of tight spaces.

I focused my mind on the image of the mole. And by whatever weird means the morphing technology works, I began to change.

The first thing I noticed was that there was more room in the shed. The bodies that had been pressed close were getting farther away. I was shrinking.
But I wasn�t shrinking at the same rate all over. My legs and arms were shrinking much, much faster. FLUMP!

My butt hit the floor!

�Whoa!� Jake yelled. �Catch her!�

Jake and Cassie grabbed me. Just in time to keep me from falling over. Too late to save my dignity.

Marco started giggling. �Heh heh, ha ha ha ha!�

Cassie was snorting desperately, trying not to laugh.

My legs had shriveled away, leaving nothing but feet. My arms were nothing but hands. I was still a human being, but with feet alone where my legs should have been.

Jake and Cassie held my shoulders and balanced me upright. I was like one of those blow-up clowns you punch and it rolls back. I was sitting down, waving my toes and fingers and wishing I could strangle Marco.

�Wait till it�s your tuuuuurn, nyarco!� I yelled. But my face chose that moment to start pushing out and out and out.

They laid me down on my face finally, since I was now about two feet long. Thick black-brown fur began to sweep across me, transforming me from mostly human to mostly mole in appearance.

My face just kept bulging outward, forming a fantastically long, ratlike snout.

But while most of me seemed to be shrinking, my hands seemed to be growing. Relative to the rest of me, anyway. I was growing hands like claw-tipped shovels. Big, flat, hairless, hard, with stubby claws on the ends of each �finger.� My hands twisted as I watched, turning outward.

My eyes went dark. I thought I was totally blind. Then I realized, no, I could still see. But all I could see were vague lines between dark and light. I was practically blind, but not completely.

Almost blind. With hearing that was dim and distant, like listening through a door. Even scent was nothing special.

However, a new sense reared up to fill my brain. Touch! My nose was insanely alive and so sensitive to touch I could feel the air currents around me.

Deprived of vision and much of my hearing, I felt panic. I was supposed to go digging down in the ground like this? Blind? Half-deaf?

And yet � I felt the earth beneath my shovel hands and my ratlike back legs, and scraping under my belly. My nose poked at the dirt and felt its texture, moistness, hardness.

It was certainly better underground. Safer. Oh yes, far safer underground.

Besides, I was hungry.

I began to dig.

From far away I heard a voice say, �Well, she�s getting right down to business, huh?�

�It still looks like a rat to me.�

I dug my claws into the dirt and shoved it back with my �hands.� Then again. More. And now the desire to dig was very much stronger. I had to dig! I was surrounded by big, lumbering shapes of gray on gray. When they moved I could see the shifts in the light pattern.

Dig! I could feel the warmth of the earth calling to me. In some dim part of my mind I could almost form a picture of a cozy little hole, deep down, filled with comfortable grasses and twigs and scraps of garbage.

I could curl up there when I wasn�t waddling through my tunnels. The tunnels where beetles might dig through and lay their eggs for me to eat. Where, in the absolute darkness, my sensitive nose would encounter the squirming squishiness of a plump, juicy earthworm.

Oh, yes, dig!

�You know, it occurs to me, maybe she�s not in total control of this morph.�

�Nah. Come on. You think a mole has strong enough instincts to take over Rachel�s brain?�

�Look at the way she�s digging.�

�Hmm. Rachel? Hey, Rachel? How you doing down there?�

Dig and dig and dig. Now my upper body was down in the warm darkness of earth. Dig harder!

Get all the way under. Darkness was safety. The safety of warm, moist earth pressing in all around.

�She�s not answering. She�s totally gone mole on us. I wouldn�t have thought moles had that powerful a set of instincts. Okay, better grab her before she gets all the way under.�

Suddenly, I felt something grab me! It grabbed my tail. It was pulling me backward. I dug furiously with my shovel hands. I scrabbled at the dirt, but it was too powerful.

Up, up, up through the air! Exposed! Nothing around me but air, air, air! Emptiness!

�Hey, Rachel. It�s me, Jake. Snap out of it. The mole brain has you.�

I snapped out of it. It was a sensation like � well, like emerging from a tunnel into daylight. I was back! I was me. Me, staring through those utterly useless mole eyes.

<Did not!> I said.

�Yeah, right,� I heard Marco say.



Jake put me back down by the shallow hole I�d made.

�Ooookay, Rachel. You were not having trouble. Everything was fine.�

I went back to work. But now the earth didn�t seem so inviting or warm.

I do sort of wonder why the mole took her so strongly. Rachel is usually pretty good at controlling her morphs.

Chapter 16

quote:

Down and down I dug.

Till my entire body was in the dirt. And now I was no longer hiding beneath the mole�s mind. I was a human being, digging blindly into the dirt.

Why should it have been terrifying? Why?

Was it the way the dirt pressed in all around me? The fact that I could not possibly turn around? I couldn�t breathe! Only I could breathe. Yes, I was breathing. But that panic, that terror of suffocating in a dark place, kept rearing up. I could push it down, I could reason with myself, but that fear of suffocation was too strong.

I was buried alive.

Correction: I was burying myself alive.

Claustrophobia is very bad if you're a mole.

quote:

Down I went, down and down. I knew I should be digging a vertical hole, but it was impossible. The mole couldn�t dig that way. The best it could do was slope downward.

I dug. How long, I don�t know. It seemed like a very long time.

And then, quite suddenly, I couldn�t stand it anymore. I needed air! I tried to back up, but no! I couldn�t move that way.

<Come on, Rachel. Get a grip, kid. Get a grip!> I said to myself. <Just dig a turnaround. That�s it. A little more off the sides. Yeah. Hang in there.>

No air! Oh, lord, I�m buried alive!

<No! No! Hold on. Keep digging out a turnaround.>

I scraped madly with my �hands,� shoving the dirt back beneath my body to be shoved back by my hind legs.

And slowly a chamber began to appear. A hole a few inches wide on either side of me. I tried turning. Not yet. Dig some more. Dig in blind darkness.

Finally � yes! I could turn around. My sensitive nose felt the empty, open tunnel ahead of me. It was crumbly and far from perfect, but it was a tunnel.

I raced down it, squeezing through the tight spaces, desperate, desperate for air!

My nose emerged into light. It seemed blinding now.

�She�s back,� Cassie said. �Rachel, are you okay?�

<Yeah. Yeah. Fine,> I lied.

�How far did you get? You were down there for twenty minutes.�

Twenty minutes? No. It had been an hour at least.

 I tried to visualize the tunnel I�d never actually seen but only felt. How long was it? 

�Three feet straight down?� Jake said with a whistle. �That�s pretty good. The top of the Yeerk pool dome is probably what, fifty feet down maybe?�

<Not straight down,> I said. <The mole can�t dig straight down. It�s just barely downhill. Maybe a foot deep.>

<Oh, man,> Tobias groaned. <This is going to take us forever.>

We took one-hour shifts. Between shifts those of us who weren�t digging or standing guard walked down to the Mickey D�s and bought fries and Cokes.

Six hours of digging till we had each done our shift. The day was over. We couldn�t stay any longer. We had to head home.

�Someone should carry a string down in to see how far we got,� Marco suggested.

No one volunteered. No one even moved. We were a haggard, unhappy-looking bunch of kids. Sweating and pale from the stress of fear and the constant morphing.

�I�ll do it,� I said. �It�s my turn.�

I morphed and Cassie tied the end of a string around my tail.

Down into the tunnels again. We�d each gone as far as we could, then dug a turnaround. Six turnarounds. I counted them as I passed each one by.

I would have been sweating if I were human. It was hot and close. Very close. Like being in a coffin. That image kept coming up. Like being in a coffin. Like being buried alive. Like you wanted to kick and scream to get out, only no one would hear you because you were underground. Buried alive.
Then my nose touched a wall. The end. I had reached the end of the tunnel. You�d think I�d have been relieved. But now the pressure to get out out OUT drove me to the edge of panic.

I could barely control myself. Barely keep from screaming.

I raced back along that tunnel as if something were chasing me. Was that light up ahead? No, I�d only passed three turnarounds. Or was it four?

Finally, I poked my snout up out of the ground, crawled free of the hole, and began to demorph instantly.

Ax was in his own body, having been in human morph too long. He measured out the string I�d carried down the hole. <Would you like the measurement in feet or in meters?>

I was human enough to be able to see Marco roll his eyes. �Whatever.�

<The total length of the tunnel is approximately forty-one feet long. I believe the slope ratio is about six to one. One foot down for every six feet of tunnel. That would mean we tunneled downapproximately six point eight feet.>

I was emerging into my human body now and still trying to shake off the unholy willies. �Six lousy feet!�

<Closer to seven lousy feet,> Ax corrected.

<Oh, man,> Tobias moaned. <If we�re right and we have to dig down fifty feet, that would take us a week. You�ve got to be kidding! I�m a bird. I have no business being in a tunnel.>

I almost agreed. In fact, I almost said, �Forget it! I�m outta here.�

But I didn�t. In fact, I was the strongest voice for going forward. See, I wasn�t going to let the claustrophobia scare me. I wasn�t going to let fear dictate what I did.

Or maybe I was just a fool.

Once again, these kids' insistance on not talking about their problems.

# ? Feb 10, 2021 06:23

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Man this series just serves up fresh new kinds of horror

Though I still think I'd rather do this than dive to the blackest, deepest parts of the ocean

# ? Feb 10, 2021 08:41

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

You know, I'm not an expert on underground chambers but I'm pretty sure something the size of the Yeerk pool is probably lined in concrete or something similar and not just bare earth. I don't think a mole can dig through that.

# ? Feb 10, 2021 09:26

rollick: Mar 20, 2009

Couldn't they just...dig with a shovel? This feels like the most convoluted plan since getting sucked up by a water intake system as fish.

# ? Feb 10, 2021 13:11

Piell: Sep 3, 2006; Grey Worm's Ken doll-like groin throbbed with the anticipatory pleasure that only a slightly warm and moist piece of lemoncake could offer; Young Orc

rollick posted:

Couldn't they just...dig with a shovel? This feels like the most convoluted plan since getting sucked up by a water intake system as fish.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a morph opportunity.

# ? Feb 10, 2021 13:33

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

Also, fifty feet down with a shovel is no small task, either. The hole would probably need to be larger at the top than the size of their shack, right?

# ? Feb 10, 2021 14:19

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

�Wait till it�s your tuuuuurn, nyarco!�

# ? Feb 10, 2021 21:55

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 17

quote:

We got better at digging as we became more experienced. But then we found ourselves running into rocky levels no mole was designed to dig through. We had to figure out ways around the rocks.

Long, time-consuming ways around boulders.

And we could only dig after school. We�d bring our homework and sit in that stifling shed and quiz each other on history or science. Ax would stand there, listening gravely to the history, and laughing at the primitive nature of our science.

I guess Tobias and Ax could dig during school.

quote:

One by one we�d go down that hole. We timed it out so the next person was always in morph and ready to go. Four more days we dug. Till Cassie came back up and said, 

�We are not blocked,� I said. �We have not been doing all this just to end up blocked. There has to be a way.�

So down I went. Like an idiot. Like I was all excited about digging the stupid tunnel.

Ax had calculated we were twenty-five feet down. Down through loose topsoil and clay and gravel. Down and down I scurried, pushing ahead with my little back feet, always clearing the tunnel of fallen dirt with my spade feet.

I reached the end. The darkness was so absolute that no eye could see. Let alone a mole�s eye.

My nose touched the end of the tunnel. I began to dig. Rock. I moved left. Rock. I started thinking, hoping almost, that Cassie had been right. No more digging. No more tunnel. No more being buried alive.

But then I found it. The seam between rocks. My nose felt it. I dug away some dirt and the seam grew. Yes, there was an opening.

I hesitated. Did I really have to tell the others? They would take my word for it if I said Cassie was right. No one else was going to come down here to check. No one liked this any more than I did.

I dug some more. And then �

<What?>

Air! A breeze.

<No way.>

But it was a breeze. Faint, and smelling heavy and damp and nasty. But a definite breeze. Air was flowing up between the rocks.

<Hey, guys?> I called up in thought-speak. But they were out of range. No answer came.

I dug away more dirt and now the breeze was stronger still. There was enough space for me to push my body through. But I sensed emptiness beyond.

I turned around and raced back to the surface.

 I said. <Cassie was right, it�s rocky. But there�s a breeze coming up between the rocks.>

Jake checked his watch. �Too late for today. We�ll hit it tomorrow. It�s Saturday. We�ll have more time.�

So on Saturday we were back. Rested and refreshed. Or as rested and refreshed as you can be after a night of nightmares where you�re trapped in a coffin screaming, �Let me out, I�m not dead!�

This time we all went down together. We dug out a larger area around the fissure in the rock. We made it large enough for all of us to fit. And somehow, as creepy as it still was, it was more or less comforting to know that everyone was down there with me.

Until it occurred to me that now there was no one on the surface to rescue us. The tunnel could collapse, we could be trapped � what could I do, morph to human? Under twenty-five feet of dirt?

Everyone took turns digging away the last of the dirt. Our noses told us we were standing around a crack that went down and down into the rock.
<This just gets to be more and more fun, doesn�t it?> Marco said sarcastically. <Now it�s solid rock.>

<Better than digging through dirt,> I said.

<Oh, yeah? Guess again. We�re moles. If a dirt tunnel collapses on us we can dig our way out. What do we do if rocks collapse in on us?>

He was right. I had to force myself to stay very still and not start running. If I started running, I�d never stop.

<If you�re scared, I�ll go in,> I said.

<I�m scared,> Marco confirmed. <Help yourself.>

There must be something kind of liberating, just being able to say �I�m scared� like it�s no big deal. I can�t do that. I don�t know why. I just can�t.

I pushed my sleek mole body down into the rock. It was rough, unworn rock. Rock that had been split open by pressure. I shoved forward. The path twisted and turned, but not too much.

If I demorphed in here, my human body would be a hundred times too big. What would happen? Would I become a part of the rock? Would I be able to scream and scream with no one hearing me, no one able to help?

<Get a grip!> I ordered myself. <Stop torturing yourself. It�s going to be okay.>

Suddenly �

<Aaaahhhh!>

I was falling! Falling blind.

So why can't Rachel admit she's scared?

Chapter 18

quote:

Falling!

<Aaaahhhh!>

<Rachel!>

WHUMPF!

<Rachel! What�s the matter?> Cassie�s thought-speak voice.

I landed on my back. I landed on something almost soft. Something that reeked in my mole nose.

I was still in total, absolute darkness. I couldn�t see anything. But I knew I was in a vast, open space. The Yeerk pool? No, of course not. There would be light there.

But definitely an open space. Large. Quite large.

And then I realized I was not alone.

I didn�t know what they were, but I felt their presence above me. Many, many of them.

<Rachel!> It was Jake now. <Answer if you can.>

<I�m okay,> I said. 

<Do you see a guy in a cape and a really cool car?> Marco asked.

<What?> I was too preoccupied to care about his dumb jokes.

<The Batcave,> he said. <I�m thinking you fell into the Batcave.>

It wasn�t until that moment that I realized whose presence I felt above me.

<Actually, Marco, I think maybe it is a bat cave. Come on down. You can jump. It�s a nice, soft landing on a bat-poop mattress.>

One by one they came, dropping down beside me. And soon we were six blind moles wallowing in mostly dried bat guano.

Now that I was out of the tunnel, out of the confined space, I wanted to laugh. <Well, this is pretty glorious, huh? We have tunneled our way into a major bat-poop deposit. A whole week, and we have reached a bat cave. You know what I think? I think this whole thing has been cursed. And I think it�s all my fault. I should have let that Edelman guy just splat on the concrete.>

<We can�t back out now,> Marco said. 

<We should demorph,> Cassie said.

<Why?> Tobias asked. <So we can really enjoy the lovely ambience?>

 Cassie said.

<Oh. I don�t have a bat morph,> Tobias said.

<Easily fixed in here,> Cassie said with a laugh. <I�ll bet there are a few hundred thousand bats hanging from the roof of this cave. Just hanging around and waiting for someone to come along and acquire their DNA.>

<You�re awfully cheerful,> Jake grumbled. <We�re in a cave way underground with no way out except a mole tunnel we can�t reach anymore>

<No, no, no,> Cassie said. <Wrong. Don�t you realize? The bats fly out of here at dusk. Out. As in out? As in exit!>

<Hey! She�s right!> I yelled. <We won�t be buried alive in here. Not that I was worried or anything.>

<No, we�ll just be buried in bat poop,> Marco muttered. <Let�s morph to bat like Cassie said.>

Yes, bat was a good idea. If you�re going to be in a bat cave, best to be a bat. But first we had to pass through our own natural bodies.

And oh, was that not fun.

You think it�s grim being a mole in a bat cave? Try being a human. For one thing, the cave was less high than we�d thought. For another thing, we all passed through the same helpless stage where we had big, swollen human bodies with tiny little feet and arms.

�Ah, MAN!� Marco moaned. �Buried in bat -�

�Guano,� Cassie said, supplying the word.

�Yeah, guano. That�s what I was gonna say. Guano.�

�Thisissoguh-ROSS!� I yelled.

My arms and legs reappeared and I had to stick my palms down in the stuff to raise up. The only good thing was that the awfulness of the grossness completely distracted me from the claustrophobia.

<What are you whining about, Rachel?> Tobias snapped grumpily. <Try having feathers in this stuff.>I raised myself up. I stood up. I raised my head. And that�s when I made the discovery about the cave not being as high as we�d thought.

You see, my head was entirely surrounded by soft, warm, fuzzy bats. There was really only one thing to do.

�Marco,� I said. �Be sure and stretch out. Up on your tiptoes now.�

�Aaaahhhh!� he yelped. �Oh, really funny, Rachel. That was so mature!�

�What, I should suffer and you shouldn�t, just because you�re short?�

And then, weird as it seems, we all burst out giggling. Thirty feet underground in a bat cave so dark you might as well be blind, lost, scared, and smeared with bat guano, we got the giggles.

I mean, gotta laugh so you don't cry, right?

# ? Feb 11, 2021 03:57

Edna Mode: Sep 24, 2005; Bullshit, that's last year's Fall collection!

Ugh, I hope Ax can turn off his hoof eating.

# ? Feb 11, 2021 04:47

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I have a whole new attitude towards bats in caves in the COVID era

# ? Feb 11, 2021 05:35

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 19

quote:

�Here. Have a bat,� I said. I held one for Tobias. I wasn�t afraid of bats. I�d been one.

<Thanks.>

�Watch out, he�ll eat it,� Marco said.

�You know,� Jake said in a conversational tone as we waited for Tobias to acquire the bat, �from the point where Edelman said �maple and ginger oatmeal,� I should have known this was going to end stupidly.�

�Instant maple and ginger oatmeal,� Cassie said.

�Battles that involve oatmeal are just never going to end up being historic, you know?� Jake went on. �Gettysburg? No major oatmeal involvement. The Battle of Midway? Neither side used oatmeal. Desert Storm? No oatmeal.�

We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight them with oatmeal...

quote:

<Excuse me, but what is oatmeal?> Ax asked.

�It�s a kind of food,� Cassie explained.

<Is it tasty?>

�You can think about food here? Here?� Marco said. �In bat-poop land?�

�Battle of Bunker Hill? No oatmeal used by the British, no oatmeal used by the Americans,� Jake went on. �D-Day? No mention of oatmeal.�

<Okay, I�m ready,> Tobias said.

�Let�s do it, and then let�s get out of this place,� I said.

I focused my mind on the bat. The bat DNA had come from a common brown bat. Not a very big animal. More like a mouse with wings.

It was a strange sensation. I was shrinking. Probably. But I couldn�t see anything. So I couldn�t see myself getting smaller. Couldn�t see any of the changes.

In the absolute darkness I was left with just my sense of hearing. I heard things I seldom noticed. I heard my thick, human bones grinding and suddenly squishing as they went liquid. I heard a sound like my stomach rumbling from hunger. Only it was the sound of my stomach and all my internal
organs shifting and moving. Some organs shrank. Some basically disappeared. All of it was happening inside me at a point when I didn�t even know if I was five feet tall or five inches.

I reached with my hands to touch my face and �see� how much I�d morphed. But my hands were restricted. They were weirdly jointed. And when I moved them I heard a faint sound like leather being folded.

I flapped my arms. Yes, I had wings. The paper-thin leather of bat wings.

And then, I felt that most vital of bat powers: I felt the echolocation. I fired an ultrasonic blast. Sound waves pitched higher than any human ear would ever hear. But I heard them. They came bouncing back to me and I heard every distorted, twisted, shattered echo.

<Oh!> I said in amazement. I�d been a bat only once before, and only for a short time. I�d forgotten the stunning array of information that comes from echolocating. It was as if I�d been blind and allowed to see.

Not �see� the way humans see. But to see shapes, edges, openness, and narrowness. I fired another burst and I �saw� the edges of a thousand bats clustered above us. I saw their tiny, doglike faces and their big feathery ears as they hung down with wings folded demurely.

It was as if all the world were drawn with pen and ink. Edges and outlines, no hint of color. And each picture was only a flash, only there as long as the echoes lasted. Now the others all began echolocating, and I redoubled my own efforts.

Yes! I could see the cave. A comic book drawing of a cave, thin lines and thick ones.

I flapped my wings and lifted off heavily, rising from the floor of the cave. I took a quick turn around, absolutely confident of where I was flying.

<It�s not quite like seeing, but it beats being blind,> Cassie said, sighing with relief.

I realized the others had been as stressed as I was by the utter darkness.

<To the Batmobile, Robin,> Marco said.

<How about if we just get out of this place?> Tobias suggested.

<I�m with that,> Jake said.

We flew. Through the cave, which wound and twisted, always beneath hanging bat stalactites, and above a carpet of bat-guano stalagmites.

I could feel the way out. I could feel the slight changes of air pressure, the changes of temperature that showed the way out. But then �

<You guys feel that?> I asked.

<It�s coming from our left,> Ax said. <My echolocation is showing an opening. But not an opening to the outside.>

<Oh, man,> I moaned. I could feel the nearness of the cave opening. But I could also feel this other exit. I had a pretty good sense of where that second exit might lead.

<We could just go home,> Jake said. He was offering us all a way out. Go home, forget about it for now. He didn�t want to �order� us to go on if we weren�t up for it.

Everyone in a group has a role to play. At least that�s how it always works out. My role was to say, �Let�s do it. Let�s go. That�s what we came here for.�

But I was tired. And I�d had a really, really bad few days digging down to this stupid cave.

So I said, <Let�s do it. That�s what we came here for.>

Sometimes it�s hard to get out of a role once you�ve started playing the part.

There's a famous line from Vonnegut's Mother Night that warns, �We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.�

Chapter 20

quote:

It was a vertical crack in solid rock. In places it was no more than eight inches wide. At its best it was a foot wide.

With wing tips scraping the rock wall, we flew. Through a world seen only in echolocating sketches, we flew.

<Cool! This is so Star Wars!> I said, genuinely enjoying it. <Remember when they�re attacking the Death Star and ->

Suddenly, the crack plunged downward. Down ten feet and then -

<Whoa ho!>

We blew out into a world of light! I could see again. People think bats are blind, but they�re not. I could see a vast, open area lit with stadium lights down below us.

We fluttered in a circle at the top of a dome. The crack we�d entered through was high up, almost at the very peak of the dome. And down below us was the Yeerk pool.

<Well,> Jake said, <we found our way into the Yeerk pool.>

<Yeah. Great,> Cassie said darkly. <Now what?>

<Now we figure out how to get that oatmeal in here and feed it to a bunch of human- Controllers,> Tobias said.

<You know � maybe we don�t have to give it to human-Controllers,> Cassie said. 

<Would it work?> Tobias wondered. 

<Yes,> Ax said. <Yeerks have mouths. Or what humans would think of as mouths. Actually, if I remember my exobiology classes, and sadly, I sometimes ->

<Fell asleep,> I said. <Yeah, we know. You didn�t like exobiology class.>

 Ax said, sounding injured. 

<Did you snore when you got all calm and restful and not completely alert?>

<The point is, on occasion I would pay some attention in class. And I believe that Yeerks have something called osmosis nodes. It�s what they use to absorb Kandrona rays, but they absorb other nutrients as well. They absorb from the liquid of the Yeerk pool.>

It's a Yeerk bio-fact

quote:

<So if we dump enough instant maple and ginger oatmeal in this Yeerk pool, they should absorb it, right?> Jake asked.

<Yes, Prince Jake. At least, I think so. Maybe.>

<Oh, good, I just love risking my life for a �maybe,�> Marco said.

<Hey,> Tobias said. 

I looked around. I saw two shiny steel balls. Each was about the size of a beach ball. My echolocation confirmed their size. And they were moving toward us through the air.

<Hunter robots!> Ax yelled. <We should leave!>

<Why?> I asked.

But at that very moment, I had my answer.

TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!

Three narrow Dracon beams fired from the balls. I felt a sharp pain in my right wing. I smelled something burning. And when I looked, I saw a neat, round hole the size of a quarter burned through the leather of my wing.

<Okay, let�s leave,> I said. I turned and headed for the crack, with all the others alongside me.

TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!

<Aaarrgghh!>

Tobias! He was hit. He was falling, tumbling downward, down to the Yeerk pool below us. I had a weird flash of poor Mr. Edelman falling, and then down I went after Tobias.

Bats aren�t all that fast in flight. Fortunately, Tobias had a lot of experience flying. He managed to use his one good wing to slow his fall. I caught him and grabbed with my tiny but strong little bat feet. Ax and Jake were there in a flash and we flapped madly, hauling him upward.

But the hunter robots were closing in on us.

TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!

<Aaahhh! I�ve been hit!> Ax yelled. His flying weakened. It was no longer even possible to get Tobias back up to the crack.

<We�re bats,> Tobias gasped. 

I realized what he was telling me. If we could get him to the rocks, any rocks, he could latch on and hang. Not exactly a solution, but the only thing we could do.

Down swooped Jake, just in time. He slammed into us deliberately, pushing us toward the sloping rock ceiling. Tobias scrabbled madly and managed to grab some rock with his feet.

The hunter robots came on, almost leisurely. Maybe they had enough intelligence to realize that they had us cold.

<Ax! Do those things have any weak points?> Marco yelled.

Cassie and Marco had flown off through all this. I couldn�t blame them. But I had wondered �

<Visual aiming system,> Ax groaned. <A lens. Like a human camera lens.>

 Cassie yelled.

BONK!

BONK!

My echolocation �saw� the tiny rocks go flying. They were like bombs dropped from divebombers. Cassie and Marco had each grabbed small rocks, dived toward the robots, and released them.

One must have hit. One of the robots began to veer away like it was lost. But the other was just twenty feet away when it fired. I swept my good wing over Tobias, trying to shield him.

TSEEEEEWWW! TSEEEEEWWW!

The Dracon beam burned the wing off. Clear off. I had a stump of a bat arm. And I fell like a stone. Down, down, down through the damp air.

Down to the Yeerk pool.

So that's bad.

# ? Feb 12, 2021 05:59

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

I really don't know How The Team Is Going To Get Out Of This Jam.
Still, I just love Ax's rather lofty description of zoning out during exo-biology.

# ? Feb 12, 2021 07:00

Acebuckeye13: Nov 2, 2010; Ultra Carp

Epicurius posted:

There's a famous line from Vonnegut's Mother Night that warns, �We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.�

Honestly, this series is really all about pretending to be what you're not. The Yeerks pretend to be human, the Animorphs pretend to be animals/Andalite bandits/normal teens, the Chee pretend not to be robots, even the Ellimist is...

Well, we'll get to the Ellimist.

But even on the individual level, each of the Animorphs except for Tobias and Cassie are putting up a front. Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Ax all have stereotypes they've created for themselves that they deliberately play into, often to a fault�like Rachel refusing to back down from a course of action despite being terrified, or Jake trying to make decisions when he's got no idea what the gently caress he's doing. And Tobias is only exempt from this because he accepted early on that he was living a lie, and was his personal situation (being trapped as a bird, obviously, but more importantly having no real family tying him down to non-animorph obligations) that gave him the freedom to accept that.

It's probably telling that Cassie, the one who is the worst liar, is the best at morphing, and whose internal struggle is about living up to her own values rather than projecting a version of herself to the rest of the group, is the only one to truly move past the war and not join the suicide mission at the end.

# ? Feb 12, 2021 07:37

dungeon cousin: Nov 26, 2012; woop woop
loop loop

I feel bad for Ax since it seems the rest of the gang don't always tell him everything that's related to whatever mission they're on. You'd think someone would have told him what oatmeal is in all the weeks they've been digging.

# ? Feb 12, 2021 08:26

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

I liked this part:

quote:

Everyone in a group has a role to play. At least that�s how it always works out. My role was to say, �Let�s do it. Let�s go. That�s what we came here for.�

But I was tired. And I�d had a really, really bad few days digging down to this stupid cave.

So I said, <Let�s do it. That�s what we came here for.>

# ? Feb 12, 2021 09:13

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Epicurius posted:

I caught him and grabbed with my tiny but strong little bat feet. Ax and Jake were there in a flash and we flapped madly, hauling him upward.

...

Down swooped Jake, just in time. He slammed into us deliberately, pushing us toward the sloping rock ceiling.

Come on Scholastic, should've caught that in editing. :colbert:

Acebuckeye13 posted:

It's probably telling that Cassie, the one who is the worst liar, is the best at morphing, and whose internal struggle is about living up to her own values rather than projecting a version of herself to the rest of the group, is the only one to truly move past the war and not join the suicide mission at the end.

Though a big part of that is that Jake specifically asks her not to. IIRC her first instinct is to join.

# ? Feb 12, 2021 09:22

Bobulus: Jan 28, 2007

dungeon cousin posted:

I feel bad for Ax since it seems the rest of the gang don't always tell him everything that's related to whatever mission they're on. You'd think someone would have told him what oatmeal is in all the weeks they've been digging.

The funnier alternative is that he once again started zoning out during the mission planning.

# ? Feb 12, 2021 15:27

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Bobulus posted:

The funnier alternative is that he once again started zoning out during the mission planning.

Ax's decision tree

1. Is this about my brother? If Yes, go to 7. If no, go to 2.
2. Can my human morph eat it? If Yes, go to 7 If no, go to 3
3. Is this a word that might be fun to say with a human mouth? If Yes, go to 7, if no, go to 4
4. Do Yeerks need a'killin? If Yes, go to 7. If no, go to 5
5. Is a hot Andalite girl involved? If Yes, go to 7. If no, go to 6
6. Eh, somebody will remind me about it later.
END
7. PAY ATTENTION! THIS IS IMPORTANT!
End

# ? Feb 12, 2021 17:15

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Book 17:The Underground-Chapter 21

quote:

I fell.

I saw Jake and Cassie come for me. But I knew. I knew they couldn�t make it.

<Back off, you idiots!> I screamed. And then I hit.

SPUH-LOOSH!

I landed on my back. It knocked the wind out of me. I gasped for air. But I was under the surface. I was in liquid the color of lead. But living, seething water. The Yeerks were everywhere! All around me.

I bobbed to the surface. I tried to fire my echolocation, but the liquid kept rolling over me in sluggish little swells.

I was in the Yeerk pool!

That awful fact was like an explosion in my brain. They were everywhere! All around me! They would get me now. I couldn�t escape. I flapped my single sodden wing, but all I managed to do was churn the water a little.

I started to call out to my friends. But no. No. They would kill themselves trying to rescue me.

No.

Only � what if the Yeerks made me a Controller? I would betray all my friends. I wouldn�t be able not to.

They can only make you a Controller if you demorph, I told myself. They can�t do anything to a bat. Too small a brain for a Yeerk slug. Stay in morph.

But then I began to notice something. The Yeerks didn�t seem to be paying any attention to me. It was like they didn�t even notice the presence of a floundering bat.

Maybe they didn�t.

Those hunter robots weren�t there specifically to kill us. They must have been programmed to attack any animal. The Yeerks were being careful. They knew we�d infiltrated the Yeerk pool before.

So they had brought the Bio-scans to the entrances. And they had activated the hunter robots. But a lot of innocent animals must have been fried over time. Other bats had probably wandered in.

So I was probably not the first animal to end up in the Yeerk pool with a Dracon beam wound.

THUD.

A Yeerk bumped into me. I froze. Nothing.

SLOOOP.

A Yeerk brushed against me. Nothing.

It hit me then. <Oh, man. They�re blind. They can�t see when they�re in the pool. They can�t see without using some host�s eyes.>

So how did they find their way back to their host when it was time? Smell? Sound? Some other sense?

I looked up and saw the domed rock roof so high up above. I looked for my friends, but I couldn�t see them. Maybe they were safe. Maybe not.

If they had been taken prisoner I had to save them. But I couldn�t thought-speak. They�d probably assume I�d been badly injured. Or worse. If I called them, they might be destroyed trying to save me.

What should I do?

If the Yeerks couldn�t see a bat, could they see a human? I could morph to shark and go rampaging through the pool, eating the vile slugs till one of the Controllers on shore saw my dorsal fin and burned me.

There was a vaguely circular current in the pool.

I was drifting around in a lazy semicircle. Coming closer and closer to that evil steel pier where they dragged the hosts and thrust their heads under the water to allow the Yeerks to re-enter.

Under the pier! If I was going to demorph, that was the place. Closer, closer I drifted. Closer, and I could hear the shouts. The cries. The screams. The utter despair.

�No! No! Let me go, you have no right! Let me go, I have children who -�

The voice was cut off. The woman�s head had been shoved brutally down under the surface. And seconds later, she stood up, perfectly calm. A Controller once more.

I could see the pier clearly, although from a very low angle. Bored Hork-Bajir-Controllers dragged unwilling humans and unwilling Hork-Bajir to the end of the pier, kicked their legs out from under them, and thrust their heads into the pool.

It was just a day�s work for the Hork-Bajir. The threats and pleading meant nothing. They�d heard it all before. Hundreds of times. Thousands and thousands of times.

The idea of morphing to a shark and laying waste through the Yeerk pool was starting to seem better and better. How I hated the foul slugs that surged and frolicked around me.

But that would be a suicide mission. Maybe there was still some way to stay alive.

The pier was coming closer. It was very low, just inches above the water surface.

What should I do?

Well, Rachel, I thought, you sure don�t want to end your life as a one-winged bat.

I began to demorph.

There, floating amidst the enemy, I began to emerge back into human form.

I was under the pier!

I reached, hoping I had something like a hand. Rough, stubby fingers scraped along the steel underside of the pier.

I thrust a face that was half-human and half-bat up into the three inches of air space.

I could see up through the gaps in the steel planks. I saw Hork-Bajir feet and the short Hork- Bajir tail go by overhead.

I saw human feet being dragged.

�Please, no. Please, no. Please, no,� the man whimpered.

I was larger now, a lot larger, so more and more Yeerk slugs were banging into me or brushing past me.

Oh, for my hammerhead shark�s razor teeth.

But that wasn�t the way to survive.

As aggressive as Rachel is, she's smart and knows that violence isn't her solution here.

Chapter 22

quote:

Fully human, I began to morph again.

I needed to be right at the end of the pier for it to work. I was going to get very, very small. The distances had to be small, too.

I was going to do the one morph I�d sworn never to do again.

I shrank. As I shrank I pulled myself closer to the end of the pier. When my arms became useless, I paddled.

I shrank and shrank till the low roof of the pier over my head seemed miles away.

An extra set of legs extruded from my midriff. Antennae shot from my forehead.

My body was severely squeezed into three segments. I was an hourglass with a head.

My skin grew hard as fingernails. Just like a cockroach�s exoskeleton. But I was not morphing a roach. I was going much, much smaller. A cockroach would be visible. A cockroach would be an elephant compared to the animal I was becoming.

I was less than an inch long and still shrinking. Becoming the most terrifying animal I had ever become.

I was becoming an ant.

I fought my way continually to the surface. I couldn�t afford to be trapped under the water. And soon, my natural buoyancy and small size kept me riding easily atop the swells.

I took a last look around with my fading eyes. I knew what was coming. I knew I�d be almost blind. I needed to pick a direction and know where I was.

A huge pillar, fifty times as big as a redwood, loomed up in front of me. Right in front of me.

My eyes went off like someone had thrown a switch. I was nearly blind. More blind than a mole. All I could see were vague, distorted lines between dark and light. Shadows. But I knew where I was.

My six ant legs splayed out. They pressed down on a rubbery surface - the water. It was like trying to walk on a trampoline. And my legs kept poking through the surface. But mostly I could do it. I could walk on the water. Or at least stand. Forward movement was very difficult.

It's all surface tension. She's too small and light to break the surface of the water, so she doesn't sink.

quote:

Fortunately, the water did that for me. A swell came along. I felt it well up beneath me, a vast, powerful wave that set me rocketing up and up on its crest.

I was surfing the Yeerk pool.

SPLUSH!

The wave crashed against the pylon. A steel wall loomed up before me, nothing but darkness to my ant eyes. I grabbed. I set my tiny claws grabbing wildly, grabbing at anything solid.

And then the water fell away beneath me. I had grabbed the steel pylon! Tiny surface irregularities, the very grain of the metal itself, were all I needed.

Up I raced. Up to escape the next swell.

It splashed. I felt the vibrations as the water hit the pylon. Felt the air move as it was displaced by the tiny, but huge-to-me, upward surge.

The top of the water swept my back feet, but I had four more legs firmly attached, and I powered them with all my human will.

I felt the ant�s mindless, machine instincts. They wouldn�t be any trouble. I had morphed the ant before. I was prepared. Besides, the ant was far from anything familiar. Far from the world of smell it inhabited.

Up I went, climbing and climbing. Always upward.

Ahead of me I sensed warmth. Body warmth and the smells of a living thing. Some poor creature, human or Hork-Bajir, or some foul, vile Taxxon, was being reinfested.

I raced forward, hanging upside down as I ran. Grabbing the encrustations and irregularities of the underside of the pier.

Upside down, inches from the water, I ran and ran and didn�t even slow down when I found myself no longer on steel but on fabric.

Then, up and up! I felt myself flying upward at an insane speed. But still I clung to the ropes that were threads in a cotton shirt.

The host had been reinfested. I was on a Controller. I was on his shirt, scuttling for cover beneath a damp collar.

<Hah! Let�s see the hunter robots find me here,> I said triumphantly.

Hunter robot sees her, zaps the Controller....Well, probably not.

# ? Feb 13, 2021 06:09

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 24, 2024 17:30

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I guess she's just hoping the biofilters are only on the entrances? Though I wouldn't have assumed the entrances/exits were one-way.

Also the idea of just standing there in the sludge with Yeerk bodies bumping against you is gross gross gross.

# ? Feb 13, 2021 06:29

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

«‹›236 »