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

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Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

OctaviusBeaver posted:

I'm not a Napoleon expert but I'm listening to a podcast about him and so far it sounds like he keeps making peace and then a new coalition forms and attacks France which he then defeats and takes more land. He's definitely expansionist, and he did try to take Egypt without provocation, but he doesn't seem to be uniquely aggressive for the time.

Ok, let me put it this way. If you're some British guy who needs to find a "great villain" and you're living pre-Hitler, lets say it's 1900 or something, you pick Napoleon. He declares himself Emperor, takes over large parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the Netherlands, he tries to isolate Britain diplomatically and economically, it takes 5 wars to beat him, and once you beat him and exile him to Elba, he comes back again.

# ? Oct 7, 2021 00:20

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# ? May 28, 2024 18:02

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I had a vague understanding that while the Napoleonic code was better than whatever feudal poo poo it replaced, it's still a less "free" system of law and government than English common law i.e. on mainland Europe the police have the right to stop and ask you for your identity papers which they do not in Britain. I remember being in Berlin on my Irish passport and subletting a place with a Finnish girl and when we moved in she went off to register her address with the police, and I was like "what I thought EU citizens here had the same rights as Germans?" and she had to explain that Germans have to do that too.

Fuschia tude posted:

I can't remember what happens in this scene, but I still can't imagine what V4 aims to do here. Nelson dying didn't even change the outcome; the British still won! And this battle was hardly the last nail in Napoleon's coffin, anyway; France remained a naval threat to Britain until Napoleon was defeated on land.

Crossposting from the Aubrey-Maturin thread:

Cessna posted:

One of the big problems with the timeline is the fact that the big battle which ended any real chance of France seriously contesting Britain's control of the sea happened in 1805, relatively early on. There was a lot more going on before then.

# ? Oct 7, 2021 01:13

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Epicurius posted:

Ok, let me put it this way. If you're some British guy who needs to find a "great villain" and you're living pre-Hitler, lets say it's 1900 or something, you pick Napoleon. He declares himself Emperor, takes over large parts of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the Netherlands, he tries to isolate Britain diplomatically and economically, it takes 5 wars to beat him, and once you beat him and exile him to Elba, he comes back again.

Oh yeah, totally fair, I get why he's the main bad guy in British history.

I think the British view seeped into American pop culture to the point where my impressions was that he was basically 19th century Hitler until I finally started to read about him and found out there was another side to the story.

# ? Oct 7, 2021 04:54

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Oh yeah, totally fair, I get why he's the main bad guy in British history.

I think the British view seeped into American pop culture to the point where my impressions was that he was basically 19th century Hitler until I finally started to read about him and found out there was another side to the story.

Well, I mean, Beethoven didn't like him.

Anyway, sorry, but we're going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out what time changing shenanigans ex-Visser Four is up to this time. I got caught up in a bunch of stuff to meet a deadline, and now it's 12:30 and past my bedtime. Tomorrow, though, we will have more fun with time travel.

# ? Oct 7, 2021 05:39

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

Visser Four subscribes to the Great Man view of history and is therefore an idiot, that's all you need to know really.

# ? Oct 7, 2021 07:24

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Ironically it would appear Crayak does too

# ? Oct 7, 2021 09:02

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

The Great Cybernetic Omni-Slug view of history

# ? Oct 7, 2021 10:39

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

OctaviusBeaver posted:

Oh yeah, totally fair, I get why he's the main bad guy in British history.

I think the British view seeped into American pop culture to the point where my impressions was that he was basically 19th century Hitler until I finally started to read about him and found out there was another side to the story.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Not the actual historic merits of the man himself, just that the pop cultural representation of him as some great historic villain was something that took me by surprise.

# ? Oct 7, 2021 11:10

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 24
Marco

quote:

Ax was beside me. Andalite, but right there beside me.

It was gloomy where we were. Maybe night, maybe not. There were murky candles somewhere, out of direct sight.

We were in a world of wood. A low wooden ceiling made up of planks hung on humongous, elephant-leg timbers. There was a wooden floor beneath my bare feet, a grate, actually. Ax�s hooves kept slipping through the holes.

The floor was tilted, moving slightly from semi-level to definitely not level.

Around us, forming a sort of wall, enclosing an oval space, were ropes, piled high, almost to the ceiling. Ropes as thick as Mark McGwire�s biceps.

<Where are we?> Ax wondered.

�A boat. Ship of some kind,� I said. �Down below. Morph to human, man.�

<Perhaps not just yet,> Ax said. <We appear to be trapped. Enclosed behind this barrier of rope.> He was right. We were trapped.

I tried to push at a coil of rope. My fingers were trembling.

�Sorry,� I said.

<Sorry for what?>

I leaned against the wall of rope and threw up.

Jake had slipped right under the water. Right under. They�d shoved him over the side and I couldn�t stop them.

A hole in his head. Like someone had put it there with a drill.

I�d told Cassie we could protect him. I�d agreed: Crayak wouldn�t have him. But it had

happened so fast. One minute, nothing. The next minute, death everywhere. No arguing, no heroic actions, no nothing. It had taken a millisecond.

And now � what could I do for him now? Nothing. No one could help him. His parents � he would never come home. What could I tell them? What could anyone tell them? I climbed up on the rope and peered out through the narrow gap. I saw two men, both with backs to us. They were wearing rough dungarees that looked like they�d been made out of canvas. Stiffer than new jeans. One
was an Asian guy. The other white.

The darker man was carrying a small barrel. The white man walked up behind him, produced a sort of short wooden club, and slammed it down hard on the other man�s head.

He clubbed the Asian man again as he fell.

My mouth opened to yell. But Ax�s Andalite hand was over my face. <It�s him,> Ax said. He had managed to get his stalk eyes high enough to see.

The white guy - Visser Four - hefted the barrel and carried it out of our sight.

�We have to get out of here!� I hissed, pulling Ax�s hand away. �Morph to something small enough to -�

FWAPP!

TWANG!

Ax whipped his tail, again, again, again, and each time another loop of the rope cable parted.

<This is quicker. I am very tired of being too late,> Ax said.

�Got that right, man.�

Visser Four was no longer in sight. Ax began to morph to human.

�Catch up when you can,� I said. I took off in the direction Visser Four had gone. A hallway going left and right. A stairway going down. Which way?

I looked down. A partial footprint, outlined in red.

Blood. From the man Visser Four had clubbed. I followed the trail down, down to a deck still darker and gloomier. And smellier.

I saw him quite suddenly. He was hunched over, waddling, carrying something heavy, low to the ground.

The barrel. Something was pouring out of it. It looked like liquid. No. A dark powder.

Gunpowder!

The Controller was laying a gunpowder trail so he could ignite the trail, run, and blow up the barrel. He wasn�t ready, yet. Neither was I.

I began to morph. It was a morph I�d done many times before. So I was used to the way my face turned rubbery. The way coarse black hair sprouted from every inch of my body except my face. The way my shoulders and neck swelled to ludicrous proportions. The way muscle layered onto muscle.

I�d been a gorilla before. But this was different. I savored every powerful muscle and sinew and steel-beam bone. I was going to enjoy using them.

<Hey,> I said.

The Controller who�d been Visser Four spun around.

I swung a fist the size of a football.

BOOOM!

The deck jumped!

Something shockingly powerful had hit the ship. My blow missed. Visser Four bolted.

<Not this time!> I yelled and went after him.

I didn�t know where I was, or when I was, or who was driving the ship. So I didn�t know who was going to see a gorilla racing around, and I didn�t care.

Visser Four had made a fatal mistake. This was a ship. There were only two ways off it: Swim, or use the Time Matrix.

He could lead me to the Time Matrix, or he could die trying to outrun me.

So Marco is gunning for Visser Four too,

Chapter 25
Rachel

quote:

Lieutenant, sir!�

�Silence! Stand by your guns, men!�

�But, sir: Look!�

The thing the lieutenant was being invited to look at was me.

I was human, wearing an outfit that was definitely not appropriate, and standing on the open upper deck of a very large sailing ship. I had simply appeared. One minute I�d been in the woods behind the Hessians, having demorphed, getting ready to morph to grizzly.
Then �

The lieutenant was a relatively young man, maybe twenty-five. Beside him was another person in uniform, probably no more than thirteen years old.

On either side of us were knots of tense men standing around huge, old-fashioned cannons. The cannons were aimed in the direction of another ship moving closer and closer.

The lieutenant, the kid, and the twenty or so men closest to me all gaped.

�B�Gad! It�s a girl!� the lieutenant exploded.

�A stowaway!� a man with a scar said.

�She�ll catch her death in that rig.�

The kid whipped the hat off his head and performed a bow. �Shall I escort the young woman below?� he chirped hopefully.

�No, mister, you shall not. You will present my compliments to the captain and the admiral and inform them that we have a stowaway aboard.�

�A rare beauty of a stowaway,� the young guy said, leering and blushing.

He ran off, looking back over his shoulder as he stumbled his way to the raised platform farther back. A deck of some sort.

�All right, men, you�ve all seen a female before this. The Frenchman is over there! Stand by your guns. Steady, men, wait for the order.�

The men went back to their guns, but with frequent looks over their shoulders. I ignored them. I was looking for a face with fewer missing teeth and no scars. I was looking for -

�FIRE!�

BOOOOM!

A huge explosion. The sound alone could have killed a person with a weak heart. It was as if every cannon on Earth had fired at once.

The cannons leaped back on their clumsy wooden carriages, and snapped hard against thick ropes that held them in place. Smoke billowed up all along the side of the ship. I don�t know how many cannon had fired but it was a lot.

Thirty, forty, fifty, I don�t know, but the concussion felt like a punch in the head. The noise left me half deaf, ears ringing.

Seconds later �

BOOOOM!

This time the smoke was from the French.

The railing not two feet from me blew apart. Huge splinters flew. A man was down, screaming.

The gun crews were already at work, swabbing, drawing the guns back with brute force, carrying round, steel cannonballs forward, manhandling them into the barrels of the cannon.

I barely noticed the man who shot up through a hatchway behind me. But I definitely noticed the gorilla who was after him.

�Marco!�

Visser Four ran. Marco followed.

I didn�t hesitate. I raced after them both.

There were shouts of dismay and amazement from crewmen. Roared orders from officers. A redcoated soldier, a marine I guess, tried to cut Marco off. Marco pushed him aside with enough force to send him sprawling.

But two more red-coated marines and a sailor lunged and grabbed Marco, slowing him down.

Visser Four bolted toward an open door. Then he stopped. Very suddenly.

A flurry of russet feathers, a flash of talons. Visser Four staggered back, clutching his face.

BOOOOM!

The cannon fired again.

BOOOOM!

The French answered.

A cannonball passed so close by my face that I felt the breeze. More men were down.

Pandemonium! A gorilla, a hawk, a girl in a leotard, all racing, chasing a man with too-clear skin and too-white teeth while blue-coated officers bellowed, red in the face with rage, and scarlet-coated marines and dungareed sailors formed a freak-show chase scene.

Visser Four jumped and grabbed a handful of rigging. He was strong and agile. His stolen human body had belonged to a young unsuccessful actor. He swung himself up a sort of complex rope ladder.

It was a smart move. Tobias couldn�t get at him without risking being caught in the maze of ropes. And as strong as Marco was, gorillas are not fast treeclimbers.

<You�re dead!> Marco raged, shaking off a pair of marines.

Visser Four glanced down then kept climbing.

Now the cannon were no longer firing in regular volleys. French and British alike were firing as fast as they could. It was a mad race of death. Which crew, British or French, could pull a ton of cannon back fastest? Who could swab the red-hot barrel, who could ram in the canvas bag of powder, the wadding, the cannonball, wrestle the cannon back up snug against the port, and aim it, all while being fired on by cannon and muskets?

Not my problem. Not my war. My war was with Visser Four.

I started to morph. Not grizzly. Not elephant. Marco had chosen the wrong weapon. This wasn�t a job for brute force.

Rough brown fur began to grow from me. I didn�t wait for the morph to be completed; I moved.

�Come back here, you!� someone yelled.

I was running. Bare feet on tilting wood that had been sprinkled with sand to sop up the blood.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Cannon fired. Sweating crews worked feverishly. Smoke choked my throat and stung my eyes.

The ships were now within a few feet of each other. It was simple violence, hammer blows, hammering, hammering, hammering, as timbers shattered and cannon were blown off their mounts, and sails and masts and rigging fell, and men were torn apart.

The wind tore a rip in the curtain of smoke. Tobias! I saw him clearly, flapping hard to get out from under a large falling spar.

Crowded onto platforms high on the masts, marines fired feverishly down on the French. Visser Four swung up and around them, unnoticed.

I grabbed a rope. The sailors were incredibly agile, racing up and down the masts and ropes to shift the sails, to replace ropes that had been shot away. Visser Four himself wasn�t bad.

But now I was a chimpanzee. The human hasn�t been born who can touch a chimpanzee in a tree.

Ka-Pop! Ka-Pop! Ka-Pop! Muskets fired.

I swung up into the rigging and shot straight up at a speed and with an ease that made even the most graceful sailor look like a lumbering ox.

Up and up, hand and foot, hand and foot, effortless. Visser Four was above me, heading higher.

Then, he looked down and saw me.

I enjoyed the fear in his blue eyes. I loved the fear in his eyes.

<That�s right: You are all mine.>

Sudden silence. The cannon had stopped firing.

CRUUUUUNCCCHHH!

The two ships crumpled into each other. Grappling hooks flew, snagging ropes and spars and railings. The two ships were lashed together. British sailors began to pour over the side, rushing with wild cries onto the French ship.

BOOM!

The French had swiveled some small cannon to face the onrushing Englishmen. Half a dozen men fell like they were bowling pins.

And worse, from my point of view, the French had a couple of small brass cannon mounted on swivels on one of the mid-mast platforms. They were firing into the rigging.

Ping!

The rope I was holding parted. I fell! My left hand reached out and snagged another rope. Effortless. This was my world. This was my environment!

Visser Four was as high up as he could go, the junction of the highest spar crossed the mast. He was clutching the mast.

<Now where do you go, Yeerk?> I asked him.

�Get away!� he cried in a shrill voice.

 I said. <Your personal history ends right here, right now.>

�No! Let me live and � and � the Time Matrix! You know you want it!�

<Where is it?>

�You�ll never find it without me!� he said.

I laughed. <It�s a ship. It�s only so big. I�ll find it.>

�You can�t kill me, Andalite,� he begged.

<Oh, but I can,> I said. <You killed someone I love.>

I shot up the mast, hand over hand. Three seconds and I would -

Falling!

I was falling, straight down, face up so I could see half a chimpanzee still clinging to the mast.

Falling, spinning now, the realization slow in seeping into my dying brain: I�d been blown in half.

Darkening eyes saw Visser Four crowing, laughing and -

So much for Rachel.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 03:24

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Rare and satisfying case of revisiting a morph for a completely different purpose than it was originally acquired for.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 03:55

cptn_dr: Sep 7, 2011; Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies

Oh, huh, I'd been remembering Marco as the Chimpanzee that got blown apart. Memory's a funny thing.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 04:19

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

Ah, the Joe Rogan chapter.

# ? Oct 8, 2021 10:23

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 26
Tobias

quote:

The chimpanzee fell to the deck. A hundred-foot drop.

The cannonball had separated head and left shoulder and arm from the rest of the body.

<Rachel! Demorph! Demorph!>

No answer. I knew. I knew. There would never be an answer.

Visser Four slid down the mast, grabbed a rope connecting to the foremast, and slid, screaming at the pain from the rope burn.

<NOOO!> I cried again.

<Tobias!> Marco yelled from down below. <He�s heading for the Time Matrix! He�ll get away!>

<She�s dead!> I cried.

Ka-BLAM!

<What? Who�s dead? Cassie?!>

<Rachel,> I cried. <Didn�t you see? Rachel!>

<Oh, God, oh, God!> Marco wailed. <It�s not just Jake! We�re all going to die!>

<Cassie! Ax! Where are you?> I yelled. I dove to intersect Visser Four.

He had reached the foremast. Marco was pushing through anyone who got in his way, trying to cut him off.

I dove, weaving through ropes, around masts and spars and men. Visser Four grabbed a vertical rope and slid. I could see the blood trail he left on the rope.

His feet hit the deck.

I flared my tail and swept my talons forward and ripped his right ear.

�Aaahhh!�

I caught a head wind and came back around in a tight turn. He stepped off the edge of an open hatch and dropped to the deck below. He stood up and ran. I dove after him, down into darkness.

Now I was at a disadvantage. It was cramped, with low ceilings and wounded men being carried below.

I flew hard and wild, but I couldn�t gain on the ever-receding figure. <Marco! I need help! He�s heading forward!>

I turned a tight corner. Wham! Into a wall. I hit the deck, stunned but not unconscious. Left, right! Gone! 

 Ax yelled.

<Ax! Where have you been?>

 I got airborne with great difficulty. No head wind, no tailwind, no lift, and a ceiling crowding

down above me. It wasn�t a place for a bird.

I flapped and landed, flapped and landed. Then down, down a stairway, left and �

An Andalite blew by. I followed him.

We erupted into a small room. A barrel of what could only be gunpowder was lying against one curved wall. The hull. A trail of gunpowder led from the barrel through a small door.

Ax and I raced for that door. And there, inside, stood a shimmering, six-foot globe. And Visser Four. He was holding a flintlock pistol. Cocked. But not aimed at us. It was aimed at the gunpowder trail. He grinned a grin made grisly by the fact that it seemed to continue in a red slash that went up to his ear.

�Nice try, Andalites.�

He fired. The powder burned.

The Time Matrix disappeared. Visser Four was gone.

The powder trail burned and spit and crackled as it went around the corner.

I looked at Ax. He turned a stalk eye on me and said a word he must have picked up from humans.

<Get that barrel!> I yelled.

<What?>

<It�s a bomb, Ax-man. The powder trail leads to a barrel of gunpowder. If it reaches it,

BOOM!>

Ax hesitated only a second. Then he ran. I fluttered after him. Marco plowed into the room.

Ax swung his tail. FWAPP!

The blade cut the powder trail just an inch from the barrel. Unfortunately, Ax�s tail blade struck a spark. The remnant of the powder trail blazed anew.

<Oh -> Marco began to say.

Oh, that ain't good.

Chapter 27
Tobias

quote:

Quiet. That�s what I noticed first. It was so No cannon. No muskets. No screams.

I opened my eyes.

I was at the base of a tree. It was fall. The tree was red and gold. Magnificent.

I staggered up onto my talons. I�d been time-yanked. I�d made it! The others?

I looked around. No battle. No armies. I saw big buildings. Old-fashioned, stone buildings. My first thought was that it was a college campus.

No one else. No Marco. No Ax. No Cassie.

No Rachel or Jake.

Was I the only one left alive?

Then I saw guys walking by, all wearing sports coats, all carrying books.

I looked beyond them, using my hawk eyes to see through windows, into the classrooms. Had to be a college. The kids were too old to be in high school. Although they looked strange: short hair, crew cuts, even. And something else: They were almost all men.

The professors were exclusively male. Here and there was a girl student. But not many. And then I noticed something else that took even longer to register: Everyone was white. Everyone.

It wouldn�t be easy spotting Visser Four here. His host body was white. And about as clean-cut as these people.

I called out in thought-speak. <Ja -> No. Not Jake. And not Rachel, either, unless there�d been some kind of miracle.

<Marco. Ax. Cassie.>

Was that all of us? Four left alive? And maybe not that. Maybe fewer. Maybe just me.

I felt sick. Rachel had not survived. She�d been dead before she hit the deck. Ax and Marco had been a split second from being blown up. And Cassie? I�d not seen or heard her at all.

<Ax! Marco! Cassie!>

We were getting ever more spread out across time and space. The resonance, this weird trailing of the Time Matrix was scattering us. Like an echo that grew ever more faint.

I landed in a tree and began to morph. I needed to be human to � But no. I�d stand out way too obviously here wearing stupid morphing clothes.

First, I needed to be able to pass. If this was a college there�d have to be a dorm nearby. Where there was a dorm there was clothing.

Hawk eyes made the search easy. I found a dorm, and a window open to the fall chill. Ten minutes later I emerged human wearing a pair of baggy slacks and a white shirt and a V-necked sweater.

I couldn�t do anything about my shaggy hair. Everyone would just have to deal with it.

I walked downstairs from the dorm, carrying some student�s books. I could only hope no one would recognize my clothes as belonging to someone else. But with everyone looking like Stepford Students and wearing the same thing, how would they tell?

I opened one of the books. It was stamped: Princeton University. The publishing date of the book was 1932. That didn�t mean this was 1932, but it did mean it wasn�t any earlier than 1932. It was a history book.

I whipped it open and scanned the contents. Revolutionary War. Revolutionary War.

No listing. But there was a listing under �Rebellion, Colonial.�

I flipped to the pages. I found what I was looking for.

�The rebellion collapsed following the disastrous attempt by rebel leader George Washington to attack British-allied Hessian troops. Rebel troops attempting to cross the Delaware River were ambushed by Hessian allies who had been alerted by a local resident. The result was a massacre. Washington was mortally wounded, dying three days later while in British custody.�

�Local resident.� Visser Four.

I sucked in air. I�d been there. How long ago? A hundred and fifty or so years ago? Or just an hour ago?

They didn�t mention the death of an unknown rebel. A boy with a bullet in his brain.

I scanned the contents page again. Another word jumped out at me. �Trafalgar.�

No mention of Rachel. No mention of gorillas or hawks or a chimpanzee. The entry simply explained that the British Navy had been defeated by a fleet made up of French and Spanish ships. Admiral Lord Nelson was killed when his ship, Victory, was sunk by an explosion below the waterline.

I shook my head. I didn�t know how it was supposed to turn out. I�d never even heard of Trafalgar. Didn�t even know what war it was.

I closed the book. I raised my eyes and saw the flag flying from a tall pole. It was pale blue, with a small British Union Jack filling one corner.

Princeton University was not flying the American flag. No one was flying the flag of the United States. There was no United States. What there was in its place, I didn�t know.

But the United States of America had died on a sleet-stormy night on the Delaware River.

Suddenly, down a wide alleyway between tall buildings, a dolphin appeared.

So Visser Four has made two changes. He's killed Washington at the Battle of Trenton, and he's led to the British fleet being defeated at Trafalgar. Oh, and a third. He's made Tobias dress like a preppie.

Epicurius fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Oct 9, 2021

# ? Oct 9, 2021 05:10

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

After so long in California, it's great to finally see New Jersey get the outsized representation it deserves in this book

# ? Oct 9, 2021 09:48

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

Y'know, the Mirror Universe Animorphs make a lot more sense if you assume that they're from the 'What if the British Empire survived into the 21st century?,' not some fascist takeover of the US.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 13:00

pastor of muppets: Aug 21, 2007; We were somewhere around the Living Hive, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold...

Okay so I�m a few chapters behind, but I wanted to jump in to show off this print I bought recently. I wonder if the artist is an Animorphs fan or just happened to depict a reenactment of the Jake vs David fight by sheer coincidence.

# ? Oct 9, 2021 14:13

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 28
Cassie

quote:

The battle had raged around me, above me, up on the surface. I didn�t care.

I was a dolphin. I was happy being a dolphin. I could reach down into the dolphin�s natural reservoir of childish glee, its sense of adventure, its basic contentment, and escape the awful pain.

Jake was gone. I couldn�t think about that. Couldn�t accept it. It was a burning hot coal that I couldn�t touch.

Around me the cannon boomed. Stupid. All of it, so stupid. From the cosmic battles between Crayak and the Ellimist all the way down to this battle, this stupid, stupid waste of life.

I headed away from it. Just away. Away from the pain and the stupidity of it all.

Escape, Cassie. Run away.

No.

I couldn�t. I�d tried that once. Tried to run away from war. It hadn�t worked.

I argued with myself, plowing through the water, trying to find a way out between the lines of slow-moving ships.

<You can�t leave,> I told myself. <There�s still Rachel and Marco and Tobias and Ax.>

But going back meant facing the fact that there were no longer six of us. Going back meant admitting that Jake was gone.

Then, suddenly, I was lying on cobblestones, dry.

Of course. What a fool I was. I couldn�t escape. I was still tied to the Time Matrix. And now I�d been yanked along again, helpless, unable to resist, unable to escape.

Maybe I could just lie there. A dolphin lying in an alley in some place, some time, probably some new pointless war � I didn�t want to be human again. I wanted to stay inside that dolphin brain. But, of course, that wasn�t happening, was it? The dolphin was no longer happy. The dolphin�s instincts were sending panic signals.

Beached! No water! Helpless!

I began to demorph.

Someone stood over me, knelt beside me.

�Come on, pick it up, morph!� Tobias said. �People are coming!�

Too late. My left eye spotted a group of people coming down the alleyway, leather-soled shoes loud on the uneven stones. Three guys, maybe nineteen, maybe twenty years old.

<Where are we?> I asked.

�Princeton University. Don�t ask me why.�

<The others?>

�Not yet,� Tobias said. �Not that I�ve seen, anyway. I don�t know � Marco and Ax were with me, right at the end. Maybe they made it. I don�t know. But Rachel � Rachel, she ��

He didn�t have to say it.

<No, no, no,> I moaned.

�It didn�t end with Jake,� Tobias said. �We all � Look, we have to end this. We have to take this guy down. So demorph, we have work to do.�

My beak melted away, the teeth turning watery, then rehardened, forming my own teeth. I did it all on automatic. Rachel! I should have been there for her. I had run away, nursing my wounds. I�d abandoned Rachel when she needed me.

�What is that thing?� It was a southern accent. He began trotting toward us.

�It�s a dolphin turning into a girl,� Tobias said. �I�d explain but trust me, you wouldn�t understand.�

�My God!� another student, short and dark-haired, gasped. �We must send for a doctor at once!� His eyes were wide with horror. I couldn�t blame him. I was a writhing mass of rubbery flesh and shifting bones. Legs were growing from a dolphin tail, arms from flippers.

�Just keep demorphing,� Tobias told me. �We have to get after Visser Four. Forget security, we don�t have time to worry about it. Hey! Any of you guys know what year this is?�

�Why, it�s a colored girl!� the third guy said. He looked down at me with concerned blue eyes.

�I�ve never seen the like of this!�

�Hey, guys, help us out, okay? What year? What country?�

�Don�t answer him, he could be a spy!�

I was almost entirely human. I stood up, shaky. �Sorry,� I said. �I know it�s kind of gross to watch.�

�How did you do that?� the man with the southern accent demanded. And then, like some vile punctuation, he added a word I won�t repeat.

Yea, I'm wincing here.

Chapter 29
Cassie

quote:

It was like a slap. I couldn�t answer. I just gaped.

�What did you call her?� Tobias asked.

The student shoved Tobias hard against his chest and sent him sprawling back. �I�m not addressing you, little boy; I�m talking to this creature, here.� He grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me. �Speak up when a white man asks you a question.�

�Hey, this isn�t Alabama, Davis,� the short student protested.

Davis ignored him. �Don�t tell me how to deal with coloreds, Friedman. Most likely this is some kind of runaway slave.�

I shot a glance at Tobias. In his human morph he could do little. And he�d have to pass through his hawk form before getting to what Marco would call �serious firepower.�

But that was okay. This small battle was all mine. I didn�t want any help.

�You don�t like black people, Mr. Davis?� I said pleasantly. �No problem. I can turn white. Watch me.�

Most of the time I�d probably have let it go. I�d been called names before. I�d run into racism before. Mostly I figured people like that were just sad, weakminded fools. So most of the time I just avoided people like that.

But I had been in three wars since breakfast. I had seen Jake shot down. I�d just learned that Rachel, my best friend, was gone.

I was sad and ashamed and filled with rage, all at once. So this wasn�t �most of the time.�

White fur began to grow from my face. Actually, it was clear fur, hollow needles of fur that were designed to keep the polar bear warm. But the fur looked white, taken altogether.

My hands swelled, big as dinner plates. Long, raked claws extended from the fingertips.

I was growing whiter. And bigger. Much, much bigger.

�It�s some kind of voodoo trick!� Davis wailed.

Tobias was back on his feet, arms crossed over his chest, looking on calmly. �You two guys may want to step back out of the way because I don�t think Davis here is going to be having a very good day.�

I loomed larger and larger.

Davis began to back away, pressing against one alley wall. But sheer amazement and disbelief kept him from running until it was too late.

Finally, he broke and ran. I slammed a pile-driver front leg into the wall and blocked his way.

<Don�t you like me?> I asked.

He turned the other way. I slammed my other front leg to block his escape.

�Nan, nah, don�t kill me! Don�t kill me!� He looked at Tobias. �Don�t let her kill me.�

Tobias shrugged.

With a sudden movement I opened my jaws, twisted my head sideways, and clamped my mouth over the guy�s face.

�HhhhhRROOOAARRR!�

Davis�s cheeks vibrated from the sound waves. His hair blew back.

�Personally, I�d apologize if I were you,� Tobias suggested.

Davis babbled his apology into my open mouth. He kept apologizing even after I let him sink to the ground.

�Whoa, Cassie! That is so Rachel,� Marco said. I recognized the voice immediately. He�d come up behind us.

And that was surprising enough. But then �

�Really,� Rachel said. �What are you doing? Stealing my act?�

�Rachel!� Tobias yelped. And a millisecond later he had spun around, grabbed her, and kissed her. Then he held her back at arm�s length. �You�re dead!�

<Rachel! You�re dead,> I agreed.

�No, I�m not,� Rachel said.

�Yes, you are. I saw it!� Tobias cried.

�I am seriously not dead.�

 Ax said. He was in full Andalite form, wildly out of place in a cobble stoned alley on a leafy campus.

Blue Eyes let out a moan. �What are you people? You�re not human!�

<You are correct. I am an Andalite,> Ax said.

�Let�s focus,� Marco interrupted. �Rachel remembers morphing to chimpanzee. She remembers climbing into the rigging. Then, nothing. Suddenly she�s here, and so am I, and by the way, not that I�m complaining because at least no one is shooting, but where is here?�

�Princeton University,� Tobias said.

�Say what? Why?�

�Good question. Now, we want some answers,� Tobias said, addressing Friedman and the boy with sympathetic blue eyes. �Let�s start with the basics: What year is this?�

Putting aside Cassie's awesome response here (and that Rachel's still alive), the chapter confirms that this version of America still has slavery.

# ? Oct 10, 2021 03:51

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

I kind of wish chapters 27 and 28 had come together, because they set up a good contrast. When Jake dies, Cassie checks out entirely and doesn't participate in the next fight at all. When Rachel dies as well, Tobias is devastated, but he doesn't lose sight of the goal; he chases Visser Four until the Time Matrix dumps them elsewhere, then immediately takes stock of the situation, gets appropriate clothes, and starts working on figuring out what's changed and what the new target might be.

Epicurius posted:

quote:
But that was okay. This small battle was all mine. I didn�t want any help.

�You don�t like black people, Mr. Davis?� I said pleasantly. �No problem. I can turn white. Watch me.�

This might be Cassie's coolest moment in the series, and I'm accounting for the fact that we just saw her do untrained brain surgery.

Epicurius posted:

quote:
Tobias was back on his feet, arms crossed over his chest, looking on calmly. �You two guys may want to step back out of the way because I don�t think Davis here is going to be having a very good day.�

quote:
He looked at Tobias. �Don�t let her kill me.�

Tobias shrugged.

quote:
Davis�s cheeks vibrated from the sound waves. His hair blew back.

�Personally, I�d apologize if I were you,� Tobias suggested.

Meanwhile, this probably isn't Tobias's absolute coolest moment, but it's top 5 or so.

# ? Oct 10, 2021 04:13

HIJK: Nov 25, 2012; in the room where you sleep

Polar bear Cassie owning the racist and Cassie doing brain surgery share the #1 Best Cassie Moment spot.

# ? Oct 10, 2021 04:18

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

Lmao at Rachel died, next episode she's just alive again, everyone shrugs and carries on

# ? Oct 10, 2021 04:58

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

This is the book's second (and much better) example of cracking out an older morph to use for something different to its original purpose

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Lmao at Rachel died, next episode she's just alive again, everyone shrugs and carries on

They address this shortly

# ? Oct 10, 2021 10:01

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

Oh I know and I remember it, but it's still hilarious

# ? Oct 10, 2021 10:03

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I actually distinctly remember Ax's upcoming theory on it because it's the first time as a kid I encountered the word "speculating" and it's such a good, dry shutdown of a briefly exhilarating idea the kids get in their heads

# ? Oct 10, 2021 10:20

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 30
Tobias

quote:

�It�s nineteen thirty-four,� Blue Eyes said. Then added, �sir.�

I looked at the others, perplexed. I shook my head. 1934? Princeton University? Why?

<Is anything happening here? Anything unusual?> Cassie asked the students. <l mean, aside from me and him?>

They shook their heads.

�Something weird about all this,� I said. �It�s Agincourt, a war, Washington crossing the Delaware, a war, Trafalgar, a war, then this?�

�What�s Trafalgar?� Marco asked.

The students must have thought he was asking them. �It�s a naval battle between Britain and France. The British lost, the French won. It led to us having to make peace with Napoleon.�

Cassie looked at me again, like I�d understand. I shrugged. �I don�t know, it�s a mess. Whatever was supposed to happen at Agincourt, I think it happened. We saved the king and all. But Washington wasn�t supposed to die, and he did. And I think maybe the English were supposed to win, but didn�t. So � so I don�t know!�

 Cassie said. <Maybe Visser Four has outsmarted himself. He�s here expecting something, right? But maybe whatever it was supposed to be has been altered by what he�s already done. He changed the past so whatever was supposed to happen here and now isn�t happening.>

�My head is going to explode,� Marco said. �You need to be Einstein to figure this -�

�Einstein?� Friedman interrupted. �Do you mean Albert Einstein, the German physicist?�

�Yeah. Albert Einstein. Like there�s another?� Marco said.

�But he�s in Germany.�

�You know,� Blue Eyes interrupted, �there was a crazy fellow over in the Dean�s office yelling about Einstein. He was dressed very oddly, like a sailor, perhaps. I thought at first he was a member of the philosophy faculty, but -�

�Big slash up the side of his face?�

�Why, yes.�

Marco snapped his fingers. �That�s it. Visser Four came here to kill Einstein!�

�But he�s not here,� Rachel said.

�Exactly. But he was supposed to be. Visser Four didn�t realize he�d already changed this time line. Something that happened at Agincourt or the Delaware or Trafalgar screwed this up.�

�Dude,� I snapped at Friedman. �What does �e� equal?�

�What?�

��E equals ��

�By �e� you mean energy?� Friedman said.

<They don�t know,> Cassie said. <They don�t know that �e� equals �mc� squared.>

�Maybe Einstein doesn�t know it, either.�

<No �e� equals �mc� squared, no atomic bomb.>

�Yeah. The question is: Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?�

It's certainly a thing!

Chapter 31
Marco

quote:

Cassie let Davis crawl away. We let the other two guys go, too.

We weren�t too worried about what they might do. We figured we wouldn�t be at Princeton mUniversity for long anyway. What were they going to do, arrest us? We�d had people after us with swords, lances, arrows, muskets, and cannons. Campus cops were not a major worry.

�Look, Visser Four has already figured out Einstein isn�t here,� Rachel said. �He�s going to jump again. Maybe already has. We need a plan. Fast.�

�Or at least a clue,� Cassie muttered. She was back in her usual form. She looked strangely at Rachel. �Tobias saw you blown in half, Rachel. Why are you back? Why are you alive? And why isn�t � why isn�t Jake?�

�I don�t know,� Rachel admitted.

<The Drode said Crayak had demanded a life in payment,> Ax pointed out. <The terms were negotiated between Crayak and the Ellimist. Perhaps the Ellimist had his own demands: That it be only one life.>

Tobias said, �Wait a minute. You mean � you mean the rest of us can�t die?�



�Yeah, guess not,� Cassie agreed.

Rachel slammed her fist into her palm. �We have to get Visser Four. That�s the bottom line, here.�

�Agreed,� Tobias said. �Visser Four is meat.�

�No.�

Everyone stared at me.

�No,� I repeated. �We�re missing the point. It�s not about Visser Four. It�s the Time Matrix.

Look, Washington has already died, the English have already lost at whatever, Einstein � I don�t know, but he�s not where he�s supposed to be, doing what he�s supposed to be doing.�

�So we still have to hammer Visser Four.�

�No. No. Don�t you guys get it? It�s not enough to take him down. We need the Time Matrix ourselves. Because Washington has to cross the Delaware. And Admiral Nelson probably has to beat the French. And Einstein has to come to Princeton. We can�t just stop Visser Four. We have to go back and rewrite history.�

They were all staring at me again. Cassie�s mouth was open. Rachel was beginning a slow grin.

I got frustrated. �Don�t you guys get it? We have to get the stupid Matrix and go back and - Oh � my � God!� It hit me then. What had already hit the others.

�Jake,� Cassie said.

Ax looked doubtful. <Crayak demanded a death.>

�He got a death,� Tobias said. �Jake died. Is there a law that says he has to stay that way?�

I intercepted Cassie�s gaze and then we both looked away. We�d been naive, stupid. We�d thought we could save him, that we could stop death from finding him. We hadn�t even been able to shout a warning.

There was a noise at the end of the alleyway. Two police officers were sauntering up, looking bored until they spotted Ax.

They drew their guns.

�N-n-no one move!�

�It�s okay, officers, there�s nothing to -�

Suddenly, I was at the mall. People were running. I heard someone babble, �It just appeared, this big round ball thing! Right in front of -�

Then, just as suddenly, I was standing on an open, empty desert plain at twilight or sunrise, it was impossible to tell.

�What the ��

I saw Rachel pop into view. She was as confused as me. Then Ax.

Instantly I was standing at the bottom of a hill, people pressed all around me. Some were wearing togas.

Not frat-party, let�s-drink-beer togas. The original togas.

And the building at the top of the hill had tall white columns I�d seen before. What was it called?

The � Colosseum? No.

<The Parthenon!> Tobias exclaimed, swooping down low over my head.

�What�s going on?� I yelled up at him.

<Visser Four,> Ax said, suddenly standing not five feet away and causing a near riot among the Greeks. <He is attempting to extend the diffusion effect.>

�You mean he�s trying to lose us?�

<Precisely. He�s jumping rapidly, time to time, hoping to delay us. Evidently what he plans next requires ->

I was on a grassy slope. It was hot.

It was going to get a lot hotter because up the slope I saw men behind barricades of dirt and logs and bales of hay. Long gun barrels were poking out from behind the barricade.

Down the slope was an army dressed in gray. They also carried guns and brandished swords and held big flags aloft. And they were walking resolutely up the hill.

�Oooookay, let�s just time shift again,� I muttered. �Let�s just not stay here. Let�s just go somewhere -�

A splash of icy water hit my face. I tasted salt. I was lurching, wallowing, in a boat again. But smaller, open. Steel. Gray steel beside me, an open-topped gray box.

Men pressed in around me. They wore dark green. Helmets were pulled low on furrowed brows. Shoulders hunched, flinching, faces scared white, teeth bared, eyes staring forward.

Ba-WHUMPF!

An explosion drenched me with spray. It rocked the boat like a hammer blow.

�Who the heck are you?� a sergeant demanded.

I bet the Sergeant didn't actually say heck. Also, I'm not really sure why the multiple time shifts would extend the diffusion effect?

# ? Oct 11, 2021 03:53

ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

Epicurius posted:

I bet the Sergeant didn't actually say heck. Also, I'm not really sure why the multiple time shifts would extend the diffusion effect?

V4 likely has absolutely no idea how the Andalite bandits are managing to follow him through time, I have to imagine it is extremely annoying. His attempt to lose them is goofy but it�s an attempt.

# ? Oct 11, 2021 04:04

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Lol Tobias just randomly went from human morph back to hawk

# ? Oct 11, 2021 04:20

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

freebooter posted:

Lol Tobias just randomly went from human morph back to hawk

They've been appearing several seconds to minutes apart. He may have appeared first and decided to go scout around.

# ? Oct 11, 2021 06:23

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 32
Marco

quote:

�Where are we?� I asked, chattering out the words. The fear was contagious.

Ba-WHUMPF! Ba-WHUMPF!

Explosions all around.

�You some kind of stowaway, kid?� the sergeant said, laughing humorlessly. �Picked one rotten place to catch a joyride.�

�Yeah, well, I don�t know if I�m staying or not. Where are we?� I asked again.

�We�re in the English Channel, son, but we are about to be in France. Normandy.�

Normandy. Even I knew what that meant. I�d seen the movies. D-Day. World War II. The invasion of Europe by American and British forces. Only, there was no such place as �America.�

�Oh, no,� I whispered.

The sergeant laughed. �Yeah: �Oh, no!� Here we go, ladies. Keep your heads down and your weapons high and dry.�

Scrrrunch!

The boat jarred to a stop.

The ramp dropped.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

The sergeant fell with two holes through his chest. Men were dropping all around me. It was the Delaware all over again, only now the death was faster.

I caught a brief glimpse of sandy beach. Men lying prone, alive or dead, who could tell. A bluff topped with barbed wire and a low, menacing concrete bunker.

I dropped on my butt, spun around, and hugged the floor. Men fell back on me. I began to morph.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I didn�t have a morph strong enough for this. This was massacre by machine gun. I needed to get small. Too small for the bullets to find me.

I was going fly, and I was going there fast.

Men were bleeding on me. I was screaming. I didn�t care anymore. I was just getting out of there alive.

I shrank. The bodies sagged down on top of me.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Machine-gun bullets continued pouring into the mass over me. Those that were still alive wouldn�t be for long. And I�d have been dead myself, but for the protection of men whose flesh protected mine.

I shrank. My bones crunched and shriveled and finally turned watery and disappeared.

My eyes bulged huge, faceted, glittering, then shrank along with the rest of me.

Legs sprouted from my chest. My own arms and legs became elongated, jointed sticks. Daggersharp hairs stuck out along their length.

But I wasn�t noticing much of that. I was noticing the fact that my brain was about to explode.

Too much death and destruction and horror. As bad as my life had been at times as an Animorph, I�d seen real hard-core combat now and it was worse. The men who died in these battles had been like Jake. They�d had no chance.

Here, at Agincourt, back on the Delaware River, or on the beautiful, slow-moving sailing ship.

No difference.

Men stood up in the face of the enemy and were massacred. Arrows found throats. Swords found vulnerable flesh. Cannons ripped away limbs. Bullets entered organs by neat, round holes and came out in a shredded mess. Men died never having the chance to resist, to fight, to run, to cry out, to prepare, to wonder.

One second they were scared and brave and alive. The next second they were dead.

Just like Jake.

Cassie and I had sworn to protect him. But there�d never even been a chance.

I shrank and morphed, less and less human. Gossamer wings sprouted from my back. My face, my tongue and mouth and teeth all merged, melted together, extended out into a hollow tube through which I would dribble saliva and suck up liquid food.

My fly eyes saw a world of shattered images, faceted, a broken mirror. Broken mirrors filled with huge limbs arrayed like a cage around me.

I fired my wings and rose up through the maze of arms and legs and heads, out into the air.

Explosions rocked me. But they did not touch me. The bullets would not find me except by the most amazingly long odds. Yet the air was so thick with flying lead that I still felt fear.

Up, out of the boat, which now drifted helplessly, its coxswain dead along with every other man who�d tried to come ashore.

The fly�s vision was not good at a distance. I could see only what was close. And then, not in detail.
I was glad. I didn�t want to see what was around me.

But I could not block the fly�s sense of smell. I smelled, tasted the spilled blood and drained bodily fluids. I couldn�t help but smell them.

D-Day. The smell alone would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Animorphs. The kid's series where one of the characters describes senseless slaughter while hiding under the corpses of the dead!

Chapter 33
Ax

quote:

I time-jumped into water. My hooves absorbed some of it. It had a high salt content. I kicked wildly, looking for bottom. My hooves touched sand. I propelled myself through the surf, onto a sandy beach. Ka-WHUMPF!

I flew through the air. I saw a gray sky overhead. I saw humans around me, running, lying down, falling. I hit the sand hard.

I lay there, breath knocked out of me.

My main eyes were staring upward. At the sky. The blue atmosphere of Earth, beyond which was the black of space, the now-invisible points of stars, the disappearingly small planets.

One of which, somewhere up there, far, far away, was my own.

I had never wanted to be there more.

I thought I understood humans. I understood nothing.

They were mad! Lunatics. Evil, violent, destructive, hate-filled creatures.

<Ax-man! Are you hit?>

It was Tobias. I saw him, drifting, wings spread wide, above the smoke of battle.

 I said. <But I must tell you: I am profoundly tired of your people.>

<I�m not exactly thrilled with them myself,> Tobias said. <But you need to morph, man. Nothing on that beach is getting out alive. I just talked to Marco, he�s in fly morph. Not a bad idea to get wings.>

Chnth-chnth-chnth!

Bullets hit the sand beside my head. I scooted sideways just as another burst tore up the sand where my head had been.

I began to morph. Tobias and Marco were both right: Wings. I was sprouting harrier feathers as the next explosion hit the beach near me and pelted me with sand.

<Anyone else here?> It was Cassie�s voice.

<Yes, I am here. So are Marco and Tobias,> I answered. <Are you safe?>

<As safe as anyone could be,> she said. <l materialized right at the bottom of the bluff, in some bushes. I morphed to osprey. I�m in the air, now.>

I was nearly done morphing. I had wings and talons. My front legs were tiny, shrunken appendages. My stalk eyes were gone. My main eyes had begun to acquire the piercing hawk intensity.

My face was a perfect melding of Andalite and harrier. Gray feathers and blue fur. An opening had appeared in my lower face, the beginnings of a mouth, a beak.

Ka-WHUMPF!

Dirt buried me. Blackness all around me. In panic I kicked with tiny talons and shriveled front legs. But the wet sand clung to me, refusing to be shoved aside.

Demorph! I knew I had to demorph. No other way to -

Ka-WHUMPF!

Something landed on me. Crushing weight. But the sand was off my face. I saw daylight. I pushed and shoved and wiggled my way, with a body that was almost useless.

I began to demorph, the panic under better control now that I had at least a glimpse of sky.

�I�m hit! I�m hit! Medic!�

The voice was shockingly close. Only then did I realize what had landed on me, pinning me down under the sand.

A human was lying on me, unaware. He struggled up, lessening the weight on me.

�No, nononono!� he moaned and fell back.

I had to get out from under him. Had to get away. All I had to do was get off the ground, reach the sky. Had to demorph to Andalite first, push my way clear.

But the human was moaning. He was crying. He was calling for his mother.

Not my affair. The madness of humans was not my concern.

Another human slammed into the sand beside me. �I�m here, buddy,� this human said.

My stalk eyes grew from the bird head. I pushed one up and out of the sand. I saw the injured human. I am not an expert on human physiology, but I believed the wound to be fatal.

The second human was tending to him. He ripped feverishly at the wounded soldier�s clothing. He jabbed a syringe into the man�s arm.

�Doc. Doc. Is it bad? It hurts. It hurts. Ohhhhh!� �You�ll be fine, soldier. Morphine will -�

Chnth-chnth-chnth!

Bullets ripped the sand. The �Doc� flinched. He resettled his helmet on his head. He did not leave. An explosion, not twenty feet away showered us again with sand.

�Don�t let me die, don�t let me die.�

�You�ll be okay, soldier. I�m just gonna -�

The �Doc� fell atop the wounded man. A bullet had penetrated his throat. Dead. While trying to save a man he must have known was doomed.

Was this Visser Four�s doing? Or was this all simply a part of human history? I felt a desperate need to think, to make sense of it all.

One thing I knew: The battle on the river had not been part of human history. My friends were sure of that. At that point Visser Four had twisted the strands of history.

The sea battle? No one seemed to know how that was supposed to have happened. Had the battle even taken place originally?

One thing was certain: Visser Four had miscalculated at the university. Things were not as he�d expected them to be. And if we were now even later in time, this battle, too, might not be all he�d expected.

Visser Four might be as confused as we were.

And yet, in the end, as we�d seen, Visser Four had altered history to create an Earth of harsh repression.

But then was then, that was �before� we had become involved. Before this new version of history where we�d stymied Visser Four at Agincourt.

What did it all mean? What was I missing? Surely there was a way to make sense of it all, to encapsulate all this mindless killing, all this violence, all this fear in a package of reason, logic �

I was afraid. The realization surprised me. I was hiding beneath two dead bodies, spinning the wheels of my mind trying to make sense of things.

Thinking was so much easier than sliding out from beneath this grizzly protection and facing the murder all around me.

I was a coward!

No, this was not my war. My war was with the Yeerks. This was human killing human in some dark, distant past. Insanity! Lunacy!

Coward!

No! I had no chance. Everyone on that beach was dying. Everyone was going to die. Everyone!

This wasn�t my beach. This wasn�t my war. Not my place to die.

Not my place to kill. As I had killed the Hessian officer.

<Marco! Rachel! Ax!> It was Cassie�s thought-speak voice. Faint. Faraway.

Don�t answer, I told myself. Hide! Don�t answer!

<Visser Four! Tobias and I see him. He�s in a jeep, leading a column of tanks! We need help.>

Not my war, I said again.

Then I began to morph and push the sand away.

"I am profoundly tired of your people is Ax at his mastery of understatement.

# ? Oct 12, 2021 03:43

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

This book is for 10 year olds.

# ? Oct 12, 2021 03:57

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

Chapter 33
Ax

quote:
beneath this grizzly protection

no that's Rachel

# ? Oct 12, 2021 08:48

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I love Ax in general but I really like how in this book in particular, he is the one who is the most switched on, the most mission focused, the member of the team who most keeps his head on his shoulders.

I also really liked how...

quote:

I dropped on my butt, spun around, and hugged the floor. Men fell back on me. I began to morph.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I didn�t have a morph strong enough for this. This was massacre by machine gun. I needed to get small. Too small for the bullets to find me.

I was going fly, and I was going there fast.

...morphing has just become an instinctive response for these kids, and at this point they're really loving good at quickly assessing a situation and picking the right one. We already know that Andalites don't actually use it all that much; you have to think that if Elfangor saw how these kids turned out a year or two after the construction site, he'd be goddamn proud of them.

# ? Oct 12, 2021 12:40

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

freebooter posted:

I love Ax in general but I really like how in this book in particular, he is the one who is the most switched on, the most mission focused, the member of the team who most keeps his head on his shoulders.

I also really liked how...

...morphing has just become an instinctive response for these kids, and at this point they're really loving good at quickly assessing a situation and picking the right one. We already know that Andalites don't actually use it all that much; you have to think that if Elfangor saw how these kids turned out a year or two after the construction site, he'd be goddamn proud of them.

Honestly I think Elfangor would be pretty drat proud of them charging into the pool in the first book.

# ? Oct 12, 2021 12:45

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 24
Cassie

quote:

It moved beneath me, a sinister gray snake, clanking and lurching and belching sudden gusts of black diesel smoke.

The tank column approached the beach along a narrow, winding road. At the head of the column, an open, jeep-style car pulling a trailer.

In the trailer was a glowing, golden ball as tall as a man. A weapon far more powerful than all the tanks of all the armies of the world combined.

The Time Matrix.

The Time Matrix had allowed Visser Four to reach the German tanks and tell their generals that

this was the real invasion. That this was the time to strike the allies.

In the passenger seat of the jeep, sitting with three machine-gun-toting German soldiers behind him, was Visser Four.

There was a bloody cut down one side of his face, barely concealed by hastily applied bandages.

The tank column extended as far as I could see down the road. More tanks had pulled off into fields defined by tall, impenetrable hedges.

Directly beneath me was the bluff overlooking the beach. It bristled with concrete bunkers and trenches and barbed wire. Dozens of machine guns, cannon, mortars, all aimed down at the vulnerable men on the beach below.

Beyond the bloody beach a huge, gray fleet kept station and lobbed shells that missed the bunkers and exploded harmlessly in the fields behind.

In ten minutes the first tanks would reach the bluff above the beach. And then, all hope of an Allied victory would die. The Germans would win. And the world would be the world we had glimpsed briefly.

<We need everyone!> I yelled, flapping my wings to regain lost altitude.

Tobias drifted close to me. <If no one else gets here it�s going to be up to us.>

<What are we supposed to do? All those Germans in all those tanks aren�t just going to let us attack Visser Four and steal the Time Matrix. Besides, do you know how to operate the stupid Time Matrix?>

<Me? I can�t program a speed-dial,> Tobias admitted. <But those tanks cannot reach that beach. This is D-Day, and if the Germans win, the Americans and the English lose the biggest war in history!>

<But there are no Americans,> I said.

<Whatever they�re called, what does it matter? This is D-Day! This is Normandy. This decides whether the Nazis go on or are stopped.>

<Where are the others?> I demanded. Not that I had any right. Where had I been at Trafalgar?

Hiding. Escaping.

<We can�t do this as birds,> Tobias said.

<No. I know. The road curves past that last stand of trees down there. That�s the place.>

<We�ll have to hurry,> Tobias said. He spilled air from his wings and glided toward the trees below us. I turned and followed him down.

We landed amid blasted trunks. Artillery had blown away all but a few desperate, spring-green leaves.

<What do you think the Nazis will make of a Hork-Bajir?> Tobias wondered. He began morphing as soon as he landed. Hork-Bajir horns sprouted from his forehead.

I focused on the wolf DNA inside me. The wolf was fast, strong. No match for machine guns. I might reach Visser Four before I was gunned down. I might not. Either way I wouldn�t survive.

Unless, of course, Ax was right and only Jake could be killed.

I felt sick.

<Thinking about how Rachel came back?> Tobias asked.

<Yeah.>

<Me, too.>

<Doesn�t exactly make it easier, does it?>

�No,� I said as I finished demorphing to human. I began immediately morphing the wolf. I could hear the clank-clank-clank of tank treads. I could hear the roar of their engines.

The Germans. The Nazis. The ultimate evil.

Worth dying to stop them. Yes. Worth my one, puny life.

But I didn�t want to die. No matter how great the cause. No matter the reason.

<Ready?> Tobias asked. He was fully Hork-Bajir.

I sniffed the breeze. My wolf�s nose told me stories of things far beyond this battle. It told me of cows and calves grazing peacefully in their fields. Chickens. Foxes. Rats. Sheep.

This was farm country. Not much different from my own farm, probably. But my nose also smelled cordite, charred wood, diesel exhaust, and blood.

I could hear too much, too well. I heard the tank engines, the tank gears grinding, the treads as they slapped the mud. I heard the explosions, large and small. The cries, distant but piercing.

<Maybe if we get the Time Matrix � maybe we can do more than just put it all back together, you know?>

<What do you mean?>



<Let�s just go get Visser Four,> Tobias said. <For Jake.>

<For Jake,> I said.

The words were out before I thought about them. For Jake. Revenge. Kill the killer. Avenge the wrong.

And I was going to rewrite history?

The jeep was close now. I could see it clearly through the trees. And I could see Visser Four.

I could also see the machine guns gripped tightly.

<Now,> Tobias said softly.

We began to run.

Fast! Faster! Stunted, ruined trees zipped by. We hurtled over scraggly bushes. The wind was in my face, the wind of my own speed. Tobias, Hork-Bajir, was running beside me, blades flashing.

I saw the Visser. I saw the Time Matrix. I saw the lead tank with its insignia emblazoned on the side.
I leaped!

Wrong!

Too late!

I was already flying, my bone-crunching jaws already open, ready for the enemy�s throat.

�Mon dieu!� the French soldier yelled.

BapBapBapBapBapBapBapBap!

Tobias tripped and went down. A line of bullet holes painted red circles across his chest.

I hit Visser Four and closed my jaw over his arm. We tumbled out of the jeep, onto the ground.

Only then did I see the handcuffs that held the Visser�s wrists.

Mon dieu indeed.

Chapter 35
Ax

quote:

I had joined with Marco and Rachel. We had taken to the air. We were still far away when we saw Tobias and Cassie morphing in the woods.

My harrier eyes spotted them easily. But not till after I�d spotted the Time Matrix.

It was an awesome thing to contemplate. It would not make an Andalite or a human the equal of the Ellimist in power, but it represented far more destructive power than the combined fleets of the Andalite people and the Yeerk empire.

I wondered how it had come to Earth. And I wondered how my brother, Elfangor, had known it was on Earth. Because surely he had known. Visser Four was right: Elfangor had chosen the spot deliberately. It was no coincidence that he had landed, had died, within a few feet of this machine.

Perhaps, if we survived, I could ask the Ellimist for an explanation. As certain as I was that Elfangor was involved, I was certain that the Ellimist was, too.

All of this was tied to Elfangor�s earlier sojourn on Earth. The lost time that had resulted in the birth of his son, Tobias. All of it led here.

<There it is,> Rachel said. <And there he is: Visser Four.>

<D-Day, man,> Marco said. He sounded shaken. I don�t know what he had encountered on that beach, but I could guess that it was not far different than what I had found there.

I was still trembling from the fear. From the fear of my own fear. From images I would never be able to wash from my mind.

We flew to intercept Cassie and Tobias. The breeze was with us. It would not take long. But would we be able to intercept Visser Four and stop his intervention? That was the question.

 I said.

<This is the big one of all big ones,> Marco said. <World War Two. The Nazis try and take over the world and almost do it. The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, John Wayne at Iwo Jima.>

<And the Holocaust,> Rachel said.

<Holocaust?>

<The Germans, the Nazis under Hitler, murdered six million Jews - men, women, and children>

Obviously Rachel had misspoken.

<These Jews were an opposing army?>

<No. Jews are a religion, or a race, I guess. My dad�s Jewish. Mostly the Jews in the Holocaust were Germans and Poles. You know, civilians. Normal people. Others, too: Gypsies, gays, handicapped people. They were taken to camps and shot or starved or killed with poison gas. Children killed in their mothers� arms.>

She spoke with no special emphasis. No anger.

Human emotion is often confusing, in part because each individual human expresses it differently. Rachel is quick to anger over small things. The larger things render her cold and seemingly emotionless.

But then what emotion could possibly be sufficiently intense to encompass the crimes she described?

Humans. I wondered, not for the first time, but now with renewed intensity, whether the Yeerks had any notion of the species they proposed to conquer. Humans seemed to exist across too broad a spectrum to even be considered a single species.

The same species that spawned my friends, Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, my shorm and �nephew� Tobias, seemed to revel in mutual slaughter and sank to depths no Yeerk would sink to.

Depths of depraved brutality that would be unimaginable to an Andalite.

<Even humans-> I began. I stopped myself. I should not insult humans. This was not the time or the place. We were racing to intercept the Yeerk, to save the future, to � But my mind was boiling.

Too much!

That human warrior would stand against human warrior and kill, that was wrong and foolish and stupid. But that humans, the species I was risking my own life to help, were capable of such a filthy, cowardly thing as the deliberate slaughter of innocents �

Not at all like the things I had done in combat. Not at all like fighting Hork-Bajir-Controllers, or Taxxons or � or Hessian officers.

I jerked my thoughts away from that memory. From the memory of my tail blade snapping forward.

<We Andalites have fought wars among ourselves in the past. We did not kill children. It is not possible to conceive of a greater evil than the deliberate killing of a child.>

<Yeah, well, we do know that, Ax,> Marco said resentfully. <Why do you think those guys down on the beach are dying?>

<Those tanks coming down that road? Those are Nazi tanks,> Rachel said. <So let�s stop them.>

<We are after the Time Matrix,> Marco reminded her.

<Maybe you are. You and Ax go get the Time Matrix. I�m getting a Nazi.>

It's a heavy chapter.

# ? Oct 13, 2021 03:38

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

Thats a fantastic loving line.

# ? Oct 13, 2021 04:49

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

quote:

<Yeah, well, we do know that, Ax,> Marco said resentfully. <Why do you think those guys down on the beach are dying?>

This is the line from this book that most stuck in my head. It's a good comeback. (Even if it's not, strictly speaking, true.)

# ? Oct 13, 2021 04:53

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

freebooter posted:

This is the line from this book that most stuck in my head. It's a good comeback. (Even if it's not, strictly speaking, true.)

One of the best small moments in Wolfenstein is when BJ is told by his black friend "back home you were the Nazis."

# ? Oct 13, 2021 05:39

feetnotes: Jan 29, 2008

That very 90s "end of history" feeling seems inherent to this book's premise. As though America is a uniquely powerful, uniquely morally correct entity, and that any alteration of historical events worldwide would be most noteworthy for preventing it from reaching this "perfect" form.

But from a yeerk's perspective, why would the outcome of bygone, sometimes ancient, political struggles significantly impact your chances of successful invasion? I can understand Visser 4 not wanting to hinder our technological advancement, since one of the stated reasons humanity is such a valuable target is our population, and that skyrocketed because of the industrial revolution. I could see that being a constant among galactic species - better food production, medicine, etc. always leads to a population boom. So they have to try other methods to alter the odds in their favor. But still -- would a yeerk really buy that George Washington was such a savior for the entire species that removing all traces of his existence fundamentally alters the capabilities of his species?

Though, maybe V4's just taking a lot of their host's opinions on the matter for granted.

feetnotes fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Oct 13, 2021

# ? Oct 13, 2021 21:25

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

I mean, it was written by an American in the 1990s for a mostly American audience, and even in world, America is where the Yeerks started their invasion, and the US is a superpower with a large population, advanced economy and large military, so making it a focus of early infiltration and conquest makes sense. The Yeerks probably aren't going to start with Nepal (no offense to the Nepalese).

# ? Oct 13, 2021 21:46

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

Yeah, V4's (and the vast majority of the rest of the Yeerks') views on history are going to be colored by mostly American sources. If your primary sources are random Americans' views of history, and especially the sort of Americans the Yeerks will prioritize going after i.e. people in positions of economic and political power, it's not surprising that you would end up believing in American Exceptionalism and Great Man Theory.

# ? Oct 13, 2021 21:54

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# ? May 28, 2024 18:02

HIJK: Nov 25, 2012; in the room where you sleep

You mean a book written by an American author for an American audience might be American centric?

# ? Oct 13, 2021 22:18

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