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 »

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

Jake got his tiger throat cut fighting David and Cassie had to inject him with adrenaline.

# ? Oct 4, 2022 03:15

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 27, 2024 11:25

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Not feeling well today, so postponing chapters
Feel free to discuss adolescent trauma.

Also to add, vegetarian Cassie got a chunk of Hork-Bajir flesh stuck in her teeth and didn't notice until her mom pointed it out.

Epicurius fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Oct 4, 2022

# ? Oct 4, 2022 03:33

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

- All of them nearly getting stuck as half-wolves because they almost ran out of time
- Jake and Cassie nearly getting stuck as horrifically burned half-roaches after the car explosion
- Marco almost getting stuck as a half flea
- Arbron getting stuck as a Taxxon

In comparison all of these make Tobias' fate seem downright marvellous

# ? Oct 4, 2022 08:25

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

Rachel almost getting eaten alive by ants, although that one timey wimey'd itself into not happening

# ? Oct 4, 2022 08:51

Vandar: Sep 14, 2007; Isn't That Right, Chairman?

Was it Rachel's bear or Marco's gorilla that had it's stomach sliced open during a fight and they had to hold their own guts inside of them to keep them from falling out?

# ? Oct 4, 2022 08:52

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Vandar posted:

Was it Rachel's bear or Marco's gorilla that had it's stomach sliced open during a fight and they had to hold their own guts inside of them to keep them from falling out?

Looks like Marco, book 7.

# ? Oct 4, 2022 09:05

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 11

quote:

I shoved the dead Hork-Bajir from my chest.

The Blue Band spit at Marco. �You die.� Then dropped his wrist blade like a guillotine.

<Marco. Kick. Now!>

I dove. Marco kicked. I hit the Blue Band�s feet as Marco thrust his talons into his gut. The Blue Band plunged backward. He slammed against the computer bank. His head crashed back onto his tail. And his own tail blades pierced his skull.

I leaped to my feet.

The other Blue Band was still holding Marco from behind. He jerked Marco back.

Cassie attacked. Elbow blade across the Blue Band�s shoulder.

He spun. �FILTH.� Swung at Cassie.

His other arm was still wrapped around Marco�s throat. I lunged for it. Clamped down. I ripped a beakfull of skin and muscle from his forearm.

�AAAAAAAHHHHHH.� The Blue Band released his grip.

Marco tumbled forward and I caught him.

The Blue Band leaped for us.

<NO-O-O-O-O-O!>

Cassie rammed him from the side. Her horns pierced his skin. He toppled over the wall of computers.

Marco sagged against me. Blood gushed from his gaping pit of face.

<Jake,> I called. <Marco�s fading fast.>

<Move toward the doors,> he ordered. 

I dragged Marco across the floor, sliding and stumbling through bodies and blood. Cassie covered our rear.

A Hork-Bajir hit the floor.

<Cassie?>

<I�m okay!>

Ax, still locked in bladed combat with two Blue Bands.

Fwwwap! Fwwwap! Fwwwap-fwwwap!

<Prince Jake, I had almost broken the security code,> he said. <Thirty seconds more at the keyboard and ->

<Leave it, Ax. Let�s go!>

The unconscious Hork-Bajir guard still lay, unmoving, by the door. Jake slid the palm of the guard�s hand over the door�s entry pad.

The door didn�t budge.

He slid the guard�s palm over the pad again.

Nothing.

The human-Controller cackled. She was standing beneath the electronic map. �I took the precaution of deleting the guard�s DNA from the security database before we entered the room.� She aimed the Dracon at Jake. �You�re trapped, dearies.�

Jake dropped the guard�s arm and slid his own palm over the pad. Banged it. Pushed it. Doubled his fist and punched it.

Nothing. Then �

Two thick metal prongs erupted through the doors.

The prongs rose. The doors crumpled open.

�GrrrrrrrOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWR!�

Rachel, in grizzly morph, bounded through the opening. Behind her in the passageway sat the monster forklift from the circus, motor rumbling.

<Don�t think of it as stolen property,> she told Jake. <Think of it as a really big key.>

<Let�s bail!> Jake leaped onto the forklift.

�No!� The human-Controller clattered toward us. Rounded the computer bank and leveled the Dracon.

Thwwwap!

Ax�s tail struck. Once. Side of his blade to the side of her head. The Controller dropped to the floor, unconscious.

The remaining Blue Bands lunged at Ax.

�GrrrrrrrOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWR!�

Rachel batted them with her mammoth grizzly paws.

I lifted Marco. Jake and I hauled him through the front of the forklift. I leaped up after him, turned, and caught a glimpse of the� map. The orange light was still blinking.

I pulled Marco out of the forklift, into the passageway. Ax leaped down after us, then Cassie, then Jake. Rachel dropped her thousand-pound grizzly butt into the driver�s seat.

Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep.

The forklift backed up. The mangled doors slammed shut, locked into place by the lift�s metal prongs.

Rachel barreled down from the forklift. <Let�s go, let�s go!>

Jake and I each thrust a shoulder under Marco�s arms. We bounded down the passageway.

Crunched over crumbled Sheetrock, broken glass, blood. Rachel was in the lead, Ax and Cassie at the rear. We didn�t bother winding through the hallways. Rachel had plowed a straight shot from the front door to the computer room.

<Marco,> I cried. <Demorph. Demorph!>

<Can�t. They�ll � see me.>

<Doesn�t matter anymore!> Jake yelled. <DO IT!>

Marco nodded. And closed his eyes.

<Marco!>

<I�m � okay. De � morphing.> Dark hair sprouted from his bloody Hork-Bajir head. His leathered skin grew soft. Pale.

�Freeze!�

A human-Controller leaped from a doorway and aimed a pistol at us.

Rachel swatted him like a gnat. He thumped against the wall. The pistol skidded under a flattened desk.

Fwwwap-fwwwap!

Behind me, Cassie and Ax battled a fresh group of Hork-Bajir.

In a group we scrambled over two heaps of steel - the front doors, punctured and ripped from the door frame. Marco, fully human, reached back and grabbed Ax, whose hooves skittered on the slick metal. Pulled him. Up. Over. Outside!

Rachel heaved the Dumpster in front of the doors. And we sprinted toward the alley.

We morphed as we ran. Cassie, Rachel, and Jake demorphed to human. Marco and Ax, already in their natural forms, morphed harrier and osprey. I demorphed to hawk.

Talons shrank. Feathers grew. Arms sprouted into wings. I flapped. Stumbled. Flapped again. Up. Up. Out of the alley.

I cleared the rooftops and circled back to the lab. Ax and Marco soared beside me.

KUUUUNNNG. KUUUUNNNG.

The Dumpster rocked.

<Hurry, Prince Jake,> said Ax. <The Controllers are escaping.>

The Dumpster tipped. Controllers poured from the building and into the street. Humans. Hork-Bajir.

The granny-Controller from the computer room. Dracon beam clutched in her bony hand, she squeezed through the crowd and vaulted toward the alley.

I spun. <Rachel! Cassie! Jake!>

I could see them below. Half human. Half bird.

<Fly,> I said. <Finish morphing in the air. They�re on you!>

The granny-Controller darted down the alley.

She stopped. Smiled.

And leveled the Dracon.

�You�re dead.�

TSSSSEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!

The alley exploded.

I will say....the blue bands are good

Chapter 12

quote:

<Rachel?>

I reeled. Smoke and dust coated my wings. My throat. Burned my eyes. Chunks of brick and asphalt hailed down on me.

Pigeons flocked in all directions, and behind me, Marco and Ax circled the lab. But no Jake, no Cassie.

No Rachel.

I flapped. High. Higher. One of the buildings had caught fire. A pillar of black smoke poured into the sky.

Ka-BOOOOOOOOOM!

A second explosion. Ash and debris spewed into the air.

<NO-O-O-O-O-O-O!>

<Tobias?>

Rachel�s voice. I whirled.

An eagle, a falcon, and an osprey rose from the smoke.

<Rachel! Are you okay?>

<Yeah. A little singed, but okay.>

<Cassie and I are okay, too,> Jake called. <Let�s get out of here.>

We climbed toward the sky. Black smoke billowed out below, between us and the Yeerks. Police cars and fire trucks screamed toward the blast site.

In a loose formation we shot over downtown skyscrapers, then split up and took separate routes back to Cassie�s barn.

I circled the city. Circled again. I knew where I wanted to go. But my wings would not fly me there.

I was Tobias the Bird-boy, the nothlit who devoured live mice and battled evil aliens. I�d stolen Yeerk spacecraft, raided Yeerk strongholds, and nearly gotten myself adopted by a Yeerk visser. I�d been stabbed and burned and mangled and tortured, and only moments ago got the crap beat out of me by Hork-Bajir that should be working for the WWF.

But I couldn�t face my mother. Couldn�t even face the roof of her house.

You want pathetic? All those years with my aunt and uncle, no matter what they said about her, I knew - knew - my mother loved me. She wanted me. Wanted to take care of me. But for some reason she couldn�t.

I invented reasons for her. Maybe she�d been wrongfully imprisoned by some tyrannical foreign government. Maybe she�d been shipwrecked on a deserted island. Maybe she�d been relocated in the Witness Protection Program.

Maybe I�d been relocated in the Witness Protection Program.

But not once, not one single time, did I imagine she lived eight blocks from me. That she passed my house every single day. And kept going.

I banked and headed for Cassie�s. By the time I flapped into the hayloft, everyone else had arrived and demorphed.

Cassie�s dad had stacked hay bales high against one wall. Marco was sitting at the top. I perched on a rafter above him. He nodded at me, then leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and stared at the piece of hay in his hands.

Rachel sat below him. Ax was helping Cassie change the doe�s bandage. Jake paced outside the pen.

And except for the scritch and thump of wounded animals, the barn was silent.

I caught Ax�s gaze. He gave me his mouthless Andalite smile. Warm. And sad.

Marco broke the silence. �I bet they�re backing up their hard drive big time now,� he said. It was a joke. Nobody laughed.

Rachel shook her head. �We really blew it.�

�Not we,� Jake said. �Me.�

Ax looked up from the doe. <Prince Jake, you cannot blame yourself. Even if we had succeeded, if we had erased the data, we would not have stopped Visser One. He would continue to collect blood samples until he discovered another match. It was only a matter of time.>

�Time. Yeah.� Jake banged his fist into the side of the pen. Cassie and the doe jumped. �And we just ran out. Why didn�t I think this through? No, I had to go for the surprise. In. Out. Before they know we�re there. Yeah, that worked. If they didn�t have samples of our morph blood before, they do now. We left our DNA all over their computer room. Man.� He rubbed his hands over his face. �What was I thinking?�

�You were thinking the longer we waited, the more danger we�d be in.� Cassie tore off a piece of adhesive tape. �The more danger our families would be in. And you were right.�

�Our families.� Jake leaned back against the pen. �They�re a bigger target now than before we raided the place. The Yeerks know we�re onto them. Once they find a match -� He looked up at me, his face twisted with guilt. �Once they find a match, they�ll move in. Cut off any chance our families have to escape.�

Silence.

<Then they must escape before the Yeerks find them.> Ax.

Rachel nodded. �We get them out. Now.�

�Can we do that to them?� Cassie looked around the barn. At the animals. Her dad�s equipment. His small, steady handwriting on the medical charts. �Can we take away their lives?�

�They�ll keep their lives,� said Rachel. �That�s the point. They�ll live. They�ll just live somewhere else.�

How�s this for ironic musing. The Yeerks were looking for humans who were related to human Animorphs, and where did they get the match? From a bird with no family. And then, the very moment I find out I do have a family, a mother, she�s snatched away. Worse than snatched away. The Yeerks had her name. Her address.

And I�d given her away to the Yeerks. I stared out the hayloft door. She couldn�t fight them off. Not by herself.

�Tobias.�

I turned. Marco was looking at me.

He kept his voice low. �Look, I know what you�re doing. Mapping out suicidal rescue missions, right? But you can�t go near her. She�s bait, okay? They know who she is. They�re watching her. Waiting for you. She�s probably already a Controller.�

<You don�t know that.>

�Yeah. I do know that. I lived that. Getting yourself killed won�t help her.�

I looked away. He was right, of course. He made perfect sense.

But perfect sense left my world a long time ago.

�We knew this day would come,� Jake was saying. �We�ve done everything we can to protect our families. To keep them out of this. Now we�ve got a decision to make. Go home. Get some sleep. We�ll meet back here tomorrow morning and take a vote.�

Meeting adjourned. I lifted my wings.

�Tobias. Don�t leave.� Rachel climbed the stack of hay bales. She stood on the top and rested her chin on my rafter. �Stay at my house tonight. You shouldn�t be alone.�

<Why not? I�ve always been alone.> My thought-speak was rougher than I�d intended. <Look, Rachel, thank you. I appreciate it. I do. But there�s something I have to � see ya.>

She nodded. �I know. I�ll leave my window open.�

A human boy would�ve kissed her then.

The hawk-boy flew out of the hayloft toward the city.

So this is pretty bad.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 02:59

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

Christ Jake, you're giving the Yeerks a whole day? Bad call. Really bad call.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 03:21

Vandar: Sep 14, 2007; Isn't That Right, Chairman?

poo poo has officially got real.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 03:22

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

freebooter posted:

- Arbron getting stuck as a Taxxon

Hands down this is the worst one, easily.

Epicurius posted:

So this is pretty bad.

Yeah this is really bad for them. Tobias being the broody loner is understandable, especially for a young character/audience and given what he knows of Loren. It's very hard to not want to give the lad a hug.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 03:23

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

On the plus? side they only need to get like 7-8 people out. Cassie's parents, Jake's parents and Rachel's mom and sisters (her dad probably lives too far away to reasonably extract) and they know the Yeerks haven't pinged them yet.

But still, goddamn they should be getting them out tonight if at all possible.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 03:32

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

I will say....the blue bands are good

Did their introduction in the other chapter feel like an "As You Know, the Blue Bands are the most efficient, well-trained, terrifying soldiers among the Hork-Bajir controllers" retcon to anyone else? Apparently, they were first introduced a few books ago, but I didn't notice them then at all.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 05:41

Ravenfood: Nov 4, 2011

Fuschia tude posted:

Did their introduction in the other chapter feel like an "As You Know, the Blue Bands are the most efficient, well-trained, terrifying soldiers among the Hork-Bajir controllers" retcon to anyone else? Apparently, they were first introduced a few books ago, but I didn't notice them then at all.

They were introduced as such but never showed it during the fight scenes, and initially got clowned on just as hard by the Animorphs as any other hork bajir.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 06:01

JesusSinfulHands: Oct 24, 2007; Sartre and Russell are my heroes

Marco telling Tobias not to do something crazy and reckless to rescue his mom is quite amusing.

# ? Oct 5, 2022 07:06

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 13

quote:

I found my old house first. My uncle�s dump. He obviously didn�t live there anymore. Somebody�d mowed the lawn and painted the garage.

I circled and headed toward my mother�s. I didn�t think about it. Didn�t give my wings a chance to refuse. I just flew. Five blocks down, three across. Over abandoned houses, rusted-out cars, and packed-dirt yards. My old neighborhood was scary. My mother�s was worse. If I were human, I�d never set foot there.

I found her street. And her house. Second from the corner, across from a burned-out grocery store. A tiny shack squeezed into a narrow strip of yard with two feet of weeds between it and the shacks on either side. It used to be white, and before that some shade of glow-in-the-dark green. Now it was mainly a few stubborn flecks of paint clinging to bare gray wood.

The doors were closed, the shades pulled. Hey, at least she had shades. The other windows on the block were either boarded-up or covered with old sheets.

I drifted over the house. No sign of Yeerks. No sign of any life-form except a scrawny mutt tied to a clothesline three houses down.

I perched in an elm across the street.

A TV blared in the house below me. The channel changed. Changed again. Pat Sajak gave the wheel a final spin. It landed on the $5000 space, and some idiot bought a vowel.

�Where you think you�re going?�

A woman�s raspy voice, maybe the remote-happy homeowner�s, rumbled into the evening air.

�Out.�

A younger voice. Male.

�Oh, yeah?� The woman again. �Who�s gonna watch Tiffany?�

�She�s your kid. You watch her.�

�I got plans.�

�Me, too.�

Reminded me of the enlightened and stimulating conversations I used to have with my aunt.

The door banged open, and a kid about my age stormed across the porch below me.

�Get back here.� The floor groaned. The door banged again. �Ricky Lee, you get your butt back in this house.�

Ricky Lee didn�t even turn around. He kicked an old couch that was lying by the curb and kept going. I watched him jog two blocks to a 7-Eleven.

I focused on my mother�s house.

The setting sun threw purple shadows across the street. A lonely streetlight hummed to life at the corner.

But Loren�s house stayed dark. Was she home? Did she work on Saturday nights? Did she even live there anymore?

I caught a breeze and circled above the street. Still no sign of Yeerks. I swooped low over her roof.

Movement inside. Footsteps. Not heavy, like a man�s. And not hurried. Cautious almost. Steady.

Then a clicking. Click-click-click. Click-click-click. A dog�s toenails clicking against the floor.

I listened. No other footsteps. Just one careful woman and a decent-sized dog.

A chain jangled, and the front door swung open. The woman stepped onto the porch with the dog. A German shepherd, wearing some kind of harness with a big, rigid handle. Like a guide dog.

Guide dog? I stared at her. She fumbled with her keys, then turned and felt along the edge of the door. She slid the key into the lock and turned it, using her fingers as a guide. She never looked down.

She was blind.

My mother was blind.

If she was my mother. Okay, so she had the same hair I had. And she was thin, like me. And pale. Like me. And her long, straight nose looked just like mine.

Didn�t mean she was my mother. She could be anybody. A friend. A new tenant.

A Controller.

The dog stood still, waiting. She leaned down and scratched his neck. �You�re such a good boy, Champ.�

Her voice was soft. Steady, like her footsteps. And a little � familiar.

Familiar? Get a grip, Tobias. You do not remember her voice. Even if this is your mother, she left you, abandoned you, before you were old enough to remember anything about her. Her voice is not familiar.

She straightened up. �Forward,� she told Champ.

They stepped off the porch. The woman gripped the handle of the harness in one hand. Champ trotted by her side.

They reached the sidewalk. �Left,� she said. They turned.

And that�s when I saw them. The scars. Deep gashes, running from the top of her skull to the corner of her mouth. Her right eye twisted downward. Her right ear was a mangled stub. Her hair grew in straggly clumps between the ridges.

She reached the corner and stopped. Champ halted when she did. She waited. Then: �Forward.�

They stepped off the curb and crossed the street. The woman never stumbled or hesitated. The dog never left her side. I followed them for six dark blocks. Past the 7-Eleven, past boarded-up houses and vacant lots. They slowed in front of an old brick church. Saint Ann�s, according to the wooden sign over the door.

They turned into a dark passageway beside the church and went down a flight of steps leading to the basement. The door at the bottom was propped open by a cement block. They disappeared inside.

I couldn�t exactly hurtle in after them. Not in hawk form. I flew to the steeple, morphed fly, and buzzed down the stairway.

Light and noise hit me as I entered the basement. Phones rang. Dozens of people sat around long tables, all talking at once. My fly senses zeroed in on the scent of mildew, coffee, sweaty armpits.

Dog.

I buzzed toward the dog smell. Champ was lying on the floor at the end of one of the tables. He eyed me, but didn�t move. His owner sat next to him. Less than a foot from me. I could smell her shampoo.

A phone rang. I heard a click.

�Saint Ann�s Crisis Center.� Her soft, steady voice. �This is Loren. How can I help?�

Loren. She said Loren. I heard her say Loren.

My fly wings nearly stalled out. I landed on the table beside her. Beside Loren. My mother.

�Take all the time you need,� she was saying. �That�s what I�m here for.�

And she was manning phones at a crisis center.

She was poor, alone, maimed, and blind, and she volunteered at a crisis center.

�Are you feeling better now?� she asked. �Good. I�ll be here till midnight if you need to talk some more.�

Woooosh!

My fly reflexes hurled me forward.

Thwack!

A slab of plastic smacked against the table behind me. A flyswatter. I shot toward a crack in the ceiling.

�Dang. Missed.� A man�s voice. �Flies sure are thick tonight.�

�Oh, don�t be so hard on them.� Loren�s voice. Warm. Laughing. �They�re God�s creatures, too, you know.�

I inched from my hiding place. Who was this woman? She cared about people in crisis. She cared about her dog. She apparently cared about pesky flies in a church basement.

But she didn�t care enough about her son to walk eight blocks for a visit.

I buzzed out of the basement and into the night.

I have to think Elfangor would be pissed off at this whole situation.

Chapter 14

quote:

�We got the circus in trouble,� Rachel said. �Channel 6 reported a rogue elephant escaped from the Civic Center, ripped up a blood bank, and damaged a gas main that later exploded, wiping out an alley and torching an abandoned warehouse.�

Marco shook his head. �Hmmm. And they didn�t mention that the blood bank is operated by aliens from another galaxy who are conducting research to help speed up the annihilation of our planet?�

The sun was barely up, but we were already assembled in Cassie�s barn. Again. Jake had brought Mr. King, one of the Chee.

�The Chee need to know our plans.� Jake looked at us. �Whatever we decide.�

Mr. King nodded. �We�ll help in any way we can. Information, holograms, shelter. Let us know what you need.�

�We need to make it go away.� Cassie was sitting on the floor in front of the deer pen. �Can you please, please just make this all go away?�

Mr. King, his hologram at least, smiled. �If we could, we would have. A long, long time ago.�

�I know.� Cassie leaned back against the pen. �I�m sorry. I�m just very tired. I spent most of the night out here, doing what I could for as long as I could.� She waved a hand toward the animals. �Who�s going to take care of these guys? If my dad�s not here, they have zero chance of survival.� She closed her eyes. �My dad. He doesn�t have a clue what�s coming.�

�I know.� Rachel smiled ruefully. �I spent last night helping Jordan practice her routine for the all-city gymnastics meet. And you know what? She nailed it. She could win the whole thing. Except she probably won�t even get to compete. She was all excited, telling me how their coach got them all matching jackets. And I played along, like it was really going to happen. Like everything was normal.�

Normal.

I didn�t tell the others what I�d done last night. That I�d stalked my own mother, and afterward landed my fly body in Saint Ann�s steeple and just sat there. I don�t even know for how long. Long enough that when I finally came out of my stupor, I was afraid that, yeah, I was still a nothlit. But a fly this time.

�I�m just so tired of lying to everybody,� Jake said wearily. �This morning at breakfast we�re all sitting around looking at sale ads in the paper. My mom and dad wanted to go look at a new lawn mower. Tom even said he�d go along. They wanted me to go, like a real family outing. But I made up a story about having to help Cassie�s dad here at the farm.�

�It wasn�t exactly a lie.� Cassie.

�It wasn�t exactly the truth, either.� Jake shook his head. �My mom doesn�t understand why I never have time for them anymore. At least if we do this, if we get them out, that part will be over. Lying. Sneaking around. Hurting their feelings.� He let out a breath. �But we came here to vote, so let�s do it. Rachel?�

�I�m in.�

�Cassie?�

�What choice do we have?�

�Marco?�

�We do it. Definitely.�

�Ax?�



�I vote yes. But �� Jake looked at us. �I�m taking Tom.� It wasn�t a question. �I know it�s a risk, but I think it�s a containable risk. My parents won�t leave him behind. I won�t leave him behind. So, as long as everybody understands that, I vote yes.�



�Tom�s part of the deal,� said Rachel.

Cassie and Marco nodded.

�Tobias?� Jake looked up at me. �You haven�t voted.�

<We get them out,> I said. <All of them.>

All of them. But I�m not sure Jake understood me.

He rubbed his temples. �Okay. Decision made. They�ll be safest in the new Hork-Bajir valley. Marco�s parents are already there. And the Yeerks think they destroyed it. We�ll take my family last. That way if anything goes wrong with Tom, everybody else will already be safe. We�ll have to watch them, guard them, for the first three days. To make sure none of them are Controllers. And to make sure ��

<To make sure the Yeerk in Tom�s head dies,> Ax said, in his usual blunt way.

�Right.� Jake nodded. �We�ll all be living with the Hork-Bajir, too. We can�t stay down here in the city. Too dangerous. The Yeerks would be all over us.�

�So. We pack our toothbrushes and run.�

�No, Rachel. We retreat,� Jake answered. �A tactical retreat. Save the army. Live to fight another day. But a toothbrush would be good. And extra deodorant. We�ll be out there a while.�

�The Yeerks have probably already mobilized.� said Mr. King. �I suggest you begin the evacuation soon.�

�How about now?� Cassie stood and brushed the hay from her jeans. �My parents are both home, which almost never happens. Let�s do it.�

So Operation Save The Families Tomorrow begins.

# ? Oct 6, 2022 03:43

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Oh yeah this book is already hardcore as gently caress.

# ? Oct 6, 2022 05:06

Jim the Nickel: Mar 2, 2006; friendship is magic
in a pony paradise
don't you judge me

gently caress, yeah, this is a good one.

# ? Oct 6, 2022 17:27

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 15

quote:

Cassie eased open the barn door. Her mom was on the porch, drinking coffee and reading the Sunday paper.

�My parents are scientists,� Cassie said quietly. �They believe in logic and reason, backed by hard evidence. We have to show them proof and explain it all rationally, or they�ll never buy it.�

Mr. King created a hologram of Cassie�s porch, barn, and yard. To anyone outside the hologram - driving by, flying overhead, lurking in the bushes - it looked like Cassie�s mom was still sitting alone at the porch table, absorbed in world news.

Inside the hologram, I flew across the yard and landed next to her coffee cup. She didn�t look up.

Clink-clink. I tapped my beak on the cup.

She peered over the top of her paper. �My. Aren�t you a friendly hawk.�

<Sometimes,> I said. <Although Yeerks and small rodents might disagree.>

She stared at me. �Oooooo-kay.� Shook her head and raised the paper back up in front of her eyes. �I did not hear that.�

<Not with your ears,> I said. <I�m speaking to your mind.>

Silence. Cassie�s mom didn�t move for a full minute.

Then she carefully lowered the paper, folded it into a neat rectangle, and reached for her cup.

�Coffee. I definitely need more coffee, because I�m still dreaming.� She scooted her chair back. �I knew we shouldn�t have switched to decaf.�

�It�s not the coffee, Mom.�

Cassie, Rachel, Marco, and Jake had slipped across the yard while Cassie�s mom and I were chatting. Rachel, Marco, and Jake took positions around the yard.

�What on Earth is going on?�

Cassie climbed the steps to the porch. She opened the kitchen door and poked her head inside.

�Daddy? Can you come out here?� Then she turned to face her mother. �You�re not dreaming, Mom. Tobias isn�t a normal hawk.�

Her mother looked at me. �You got that right.�

�He�s a human in hawk form,� Cassie went on patiently, like she was explaining a very complicated concept to a very young and innocent child. �He�s communicating through thought-speak. It�s like telepathy.�

�Telepathy. Uh-huh.� Her mother crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. �What kind of game are you and your friends playing, Cassie? Do you have a hidden microphone somewhere?� She glanced at the row of flowerpots behind her. �Are you taping this, me acting the fool?�

Cassie�s voice remained admirably calm. �We�re not taping anything, Mom, and it�s not a game.� She looked at me and nodded.

I focused on Tobias the boy. My feathers began melting to human skin.

�Look, Cassie, this is my first day off in a very long time, and I�m trying to enjoy - oh!� Cassie�s mom had caught sight of my swirling, brown-and-tan feather-skin. �Something�s wrong with that bird! Get back, Cassie.�

Before I could stumble away, she threw the sports section over me, wrapped me up, and scooped me under her arm.

�There�s nothing wrong with him, Mom,� Cassie said. Okay, now there was slight panic in her tone. �Put him down.�

Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Fingers shot from the ends of my wings.

�Good heavens.� Cassie�s mom stared at the human hands hanging out beneath the newspaper wrapping. �Cassie, get your father. Tell him to meet me in the barn. In the operating room. Stay back, all of you. It could be contagious.�

�Mom, wait!�

Cassie�s mother bounded down the porch steps, with me still growing heavier and taller, under her arm.

That�s when Ax ambled toward us across the yard.

�Ahh!�

THUNK!

I fell to the ground. My beak melted into a human nose and mouth. Talons stretched into human feet, and I was a boy. A boy lying on his head in the dirt. I sat up.

Ax turned his stalk eyes toward me. <Is she a Controller?> he asked privately.

 I answered. <But I don�t think so.>

Cassie�s mom slowly, slowly backed up the steps, her arms held out to her sides, barring Cassie from coming down from the porch.

�Get back, Cassie.� She kept her eyes on Ax. Her body between her daughter and the blue creature. �I knew those high voltage power lines would have an impact on the wildlife. Stay behind me. It could be Radioactive.�

�He�s not radioactive, Mom.� Cassie pushed past her mother and came to stand beside Ax. �He�s just a very long way from home.�

Cassie�s mother continued to stare at Ax. Then at me. The sports page was still wrapped around my leg.

She narrowed her eyes. �You were a hawk. I can�t believe I�m saying this, but a few minutes ago you were a hawk.�

I nodded.

She looked at Ax. �And he � ?�

�Is an Andalite,� Cassie said softly. �His name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. We call him Ax. He�s our friend.�

Ax stepped forward and bowed.

<It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mrs. Cassie�s Mother.>

�Uh, yes. You, too.� Her eyes shifted back to her daughter. �An Andalite? He�s talking in my head, too.� Then she looked back to Ax. Inched toward him. Circled him. �And he�s supposed to look like this?�

Cassie nodded. Ax frowned.

�Amazing.� Cassie�s mom reached out and ran her hand across the blue fur on Ax�s rump.

�Mom!� Cassie snatched her mother�s hand away. �Would you play with Jake�s butt?�

�Of course not!�

�Then quit playing with Ax�s!�

Cassie's mom, going to get canceled if she's not careful (Note, in this case, cancelled means being infested by a Yeerk).

Chapter 16

quote:

�"Hey". The kitchen door slid open. Cassie�s father stumbled out onto the porch, clutching a coffee mug in both hands. �I want to know whose brilliant idea it was to schedule sunrise at - whoa.�

He stared at Ax. Rubbed his eyes and stared again. Frowned and peered down into his mug.

�It�s not the coffee, Walter.�

�Sit down,� Cassie said. �Both of you.� She led her mother up onto the porch and planted both her parents in chairs.

And then she did an amazing impression of a wolf.

Her skin sprouted thick gray fur. Ears shifted upward and elongated. Her small Cassie nose shot out into a wolf�s sensitive snout.

And her parents watched, stunned.

<I�m okay.> Cassie dropped to all fours. <I�m still me. But for a while I�m also a wolf.>

As she finished the morph, she told them about the Yeerks. About Visser One and Elfangor. About Marco�s parents. And Tom. She explained morphing technology and our battle to save Earth. And then she morphed back.

Her mother scooped her into her lap. �Baby. Oh, my baby.� She stroked Cassie�s hair and kissed her face, over and over.

Her father wrapped his arms around them both. �Why didn�t you tell us, Cassie? We could�ve helped.�

�I wanted to keep you safe. For as long as possible.� Cassie shook her head. �But I can�t anymore. The Yeerks are closing in. We have to leave. You. Me. All of us. Now.�

�Now?� Her mother held Cassie�s face between her hands. �Baby, I can�t just leave my job, my house, and go running off to who knows where. I have responsibilities.�

�No, Mom. You don�t. You only have your life and your family. And if you stay here, you�ll lose them both.� Cassie turned to her father. �Daddy, you believe me, don�t you?�

�I believe you, Cassie, but your mother�s right. We can�t just leave. Too many people, too many animals depend on us.�

�No,� Cassie repeated firmly. �Not anymore. You don�t understand.�

�Perhaps I can help.� Mr. King seemed suddenly to appear. He�d dropped his human hologram and stood before us in his true metal-and-ivory, vaguely canine android form.

�Good Lord.� Cassie�s mom put her hand to her head. �What else is stashed in our barn?�

Mr. King maintained the large hologram of Cassie�s yard and barn. But inside it he projected another hologram, one only those of us on the porch could see. A 3-D movie of one of our old battles.

Images flashed. Cassie, in wolf morph, mangled and bleeding. A human-Controller, a cop, firing on her. Cassie jerking. Falling. Lying in a bloody, lifeless heap.

The images stopped.

For a moment there was silence.

Then Cassie�s dad spoke. �We need to leave,� he said. �Now.�

His wife nodded.

We waited while the family prepared to leave. Cassie�s dad dragged their camping equipment from the garage. Her mom packed some suitcases. Cassie threw her things in her backpack. Before she slid the backpack in the family�s truck, she pulled something out so we could see. It looked like
one of those square picture frame/paperweight things. The morphing cube, its blue surface hidden by photos.

Then we helped Cassie�s dad load the smaller animal cages into the truck.

Cassie fed the doe, then stood by the pen, stroking the deer�s neck. �I don�t know what to do. She�s too big to take with us, and I can�t come back here to take care of her.�

�Don�t worry.� Mr. King lifted an opossum cage and headed toward the truck. Cassie reluctantly followed. �I was Louis Pasteur�s lab assistant in a former incarnation. I was actually the one who suggested heat as a way to kill bacteria. I�ll look in on the doe, feed her, change her bandages. And when she�s able, I�ll lead her to safety.�

�Thank you.� Cassie squeezed his android hand and slid into the cab of the truck with her parents.

Marco morphed gorilla and leaped into the back. He hunkered down between the opossum cage and a pile of lawn chairs. <Think of me as a furry guardian angel,> he said and Cassie�s mom gave him a look.

Mr. King extended his hologram to cover the road in front of Cassie�s house. We watched the truck rumble away.

Rachel sighed. �My house next. And it won�t be pretty.�

So that's one family down.

One thing I wanted to say about this, and we had talked about it before is, in a lot of young adult and children's adventure fiction the parents are absent....either they're dead, or their missing, or they're far away ...So, for instance, in Harry Potter, Harry's parents are dead and he lives with his nasty aunt and uncle. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the kids are sent up north to avoid the blitz, and they wander into the wardrobe and end up alone in Narnia. In The Boxcar Children, at least at the beginning, the parents are dead and the kids are living in a railroad boxcar. Even this series did it at first, sort of, with the "anybody can be a Yeerk" thing.

And in a lot of ways, that makes sense. If the kids have parents nearby or other authority figures they trust, the question comes up, you know. why don't they ask them for help with the giant crisis that they're facing? One of a parent's responsibilities, after all, is to protect and guide their kids. So you have to take away that temptation to bring in tjhe parents by just cutting out the parents. one way or another.

This is one of the few books, though, that I can think of, that our kid protagonists find out their parents are in danger and try to save them with anything like success. So far, Marco saved his dad and his mom (if not his stepmom) and Cassie's just saved her parents. This seems to me to be an unusual thing in the world of children's literature.

# ? Oct 7, 2022 03:36

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

A good point.
I guess in Harry Potter and Lion et al, and even in The Hobbit, the kids have their adventures Somewhere Else (where there are no parents.) But the central idea of Animorphs is that the crazy stuff is coming directly to your own neighborhood. To continue the Tolkien comparison, it's one long Scourging of the Shire!

# ? Oct 7, 2022 04:01

Capfalcon: Apr 6, 2012; No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Series of Unfortunate Events solved that by making the adults unwilling to listen to children or actively malicious.

It's a choice, for sure, but it works for the story.

# ? Oct 7, 2022 04:21

CidGregor: Sep 27, 2009; TG: if i were you i would just take that fucking devilbeast out behind the woodshed and blow its head off

Capfalcon posted:

Series of Unfortunate Events solved that by making the adults unwilling to listen to children

This is honestly probably the most common way parents get 'involved' in kid-centric stories, maybe even more so than conveniently being entirely absent.

It also always reminds me of one of my favorite homestuck quotes.

quote:

TG: skepticism is the crutch of cinematic troglodytes
TG: like hey mom dad theres a dinosaur or a ghost or whatever in my room. "yeah right junior go back to bed"
TG: gently caress you mom and dad how many times are we going to watch this trope unfold it wasnt goddamn funny the first time i saw it
TG: just once id like to see dad crap his pants when a kid says theres a vampire in his closet
TG: "OH poo poo EVERYONE IN THE MINIVAN"
TG: be fuckin dad of the year right there

# ? Oct 7, 2022 05:27

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

Yeah, it's a terrible, lazy way to write, and very unsatisfying to read.
e: no I'm not bitter
ee: it's been ages since I read Homestuck; I need to give it another look

Tree Bucket fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Oct 7, 2022

# ? Oct 7, 2022 05:47

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Tree Bucket posted:

and even in The Hobbit, the kids have their adventures Somewhere Else (where there are no parents.)

Isn't what's his name like 60 elf-years old or whatever

# ? Oct 7, 2022 05:55

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Fuschia tude posted:

Isn't what's his name like 60 elf-years old or whatever

Yeah, no one is really a kid in The Hobbit. The youngest dwarves and Bilbo are all firmly in the 'young adult' age bracket and like half or more of the party is middle aged or older.

Even in The Lord of the Rings everyone is an adult, like the book opens on the combination 111th and 33rd birthday party for Bilbo/Frodo respecitively and the actual plot doesn't even kick in till a few years later.

# ? Oct 7, 2022 05:59

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

As in, Hobbit is a book for kids, not about kids.

# ? Oct 7, 2022 06:26

CidGregor: Sep 27, 2009; TG: if i were you i would just take that fucking devilbeast out behind the woodshed and blow its head off

Tree Bucket posted:

ee: it's been ages since I read Homestuck; I need to give it another look

Get the unofficial offline archive if you do, the original site is almost irredeemably broken since Adobe Flash died and Hussie has pretty much washed his hands of the thing completely.

# ? Oct 7, 2022 07:28

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Writer doing a really good job with Tobias' feelings here and especially the shock he feels at finding out that his estranged mother was living literally a few streets over. Especially the bit about sitting there obsessing over it and forgetting he was in morph and nearly getting fly-nothlited - horrifying! - which even he brushes off in one paragraph because he thinks he's being unreasonable and is trying to ignore it.

I also liked how he says they have to get everyone out and Jake doesn't twig what he means - Marco does, before he even says it, but not Jake. Even in his own band of brothers Tobias still feels like an ignored outsider sometimes.

Re: saving the parents, I think it's an interesting one. The initial trope is of course about thrusting kids into responsibility in order to appeal to the 10-15yo range - the parents or adults in general are a factor that simply have to be removed one way or another, or you don't have your YA story - but the series has been going on long enough that at this point it's the end of a coming of age arc. The Animorphs have seen and done more poo poo than their parents can possibly imagine, and at this stage it's the kids who are really the grown-ups and have to protect their parents. (The exception to this is Eva because of course she's also been dragged through hell, which is why I really admire the scene in Visser where she meets them in the Taxxon tunnels and, even though she loves and fears for Marco, treats him like an equal; which is also why I'm disappointed she's had virtually zero screen time since her liberation.)

# ? Oct 7, 2022 12:41

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

I really appreciate that a book that's so consequential is also so, so good.

# ? Oct 7, 2022 13:19

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 17

quote:

<Logic and reason won�t work here,> Rachel coached. <My mom�s a lawyer. There�s no arguing with her. She�ll win, whether she�s right or not. We just have to do what we came for.>

We�d flown to Rachel�s house in our various bird-of-prey morphs. Lourdes, another Chee, was waiting for us on the porch. Rachel, Jake, and Ax demorphed, and Rachel led us inside.

We crowded into the front hall. CatDog blasted from a TV in the living room. A woman�s voice drifted through the kitchen doorway.

Rachel rolled her eyes. �My mom. On a business call. Exactly where she was when I left this morning. By now her cell phone is probably vacuum-sealed to her ear.�

We crept toward the kitchen. Rachel�s sisters were lying on the living room floor in their pajamas. Too busy eating Pop-Tarts and watching TV to notice their sister, their cousin, an alien, and a red-tailed hawk slip past.

Amazing, a kid�s capacity to ignore the bizarre.

Ax guarded the living room door. I perched on a coatrack where I had a good view of Rachel�s mom pacing the kitchen. Rachel and Jake tiptoed upstairs. They returned a few minutes later carrying three suitcases and a Barbie overnight bag.

Rachel morphed grizzly. Jake crossed through the kitchen and positioned himself in front of the sliding glass doors.

�We�ve rescheduled this deposition twice,� Rachel�s mom spat into the phone. �We�re not doing it again.�

She looked up, saw Jake, and frowned. Where�s Rachel? she mouthed.

Jake pointed toward the hall. Rachel�s mom nodded, turned and paced the other way.

�Look, Harold, my client has been � it doesn�t matter. No. NO! We�re going ahead with it tomorrow as planned.�

She slammed the phone shut and rubbed her temples.

Rachel lumbered into the kitchen. I flew in behind her and landed on top of the refrigerator.

<You probably should�ve let them reschedule, Mom. Tomorrow isn�t going to be good for you.>

Her mother whirled. Backed up until she hit the wall. �Wha -? Rachel, where are you? Jake, run! Go around front and get Sara and Jordan. Girls! Get out of the house!�

�Sara and Jordan are fine, Aunt Naomi,� Jake said, in his talking-to-psycho-relatives voice. �And so are you. Ax?� He raised his voice, but kept it calm. �Can you make sure Rachel�s sisters don�t go anywhere?�

Little girl giggles erupted from the living room.



Ax clopped into the kitchen with Sara on his back. Jordan paced along behind.

�My babies! Leave them alone!� Rachel�s mom reached behind her and ripped a spice rack from the wall. And lunged at Rachel. Yes, lunged at a grizzly bear. With a spice rack.

I was amazed. Cassie�s mom had done the same thing. Thrown her own body between her child and what she believed was a mutant, radioactive deer.

This is what mothers did. This is how they acted. They put themselves in danger to save their kids.

<Oh, right, Mom.> Rachel held her mother back with one paw. <You�re really gonna do some damage with the bay leaves?>

�Rachel? I hear you!� Her mother collapsed against the bear. Pressed her ear against Rachel�s grizzly belly. �Are you in there? My God, this creature ate you alive.�

<Oh, brother.> Rachel rolled her squinty bear eyes. <Mom, listen to me. I�m not in the bear. I am the bear. Get a grip. You have to drive.> She heaved her mother over her shoulder. <Jordan, grab Mom�s purse.>

Jordan nodded and snatched a huge leather bag from the kitchen counter. Like I said before, it�s amazing, a kid�s capacity to accept the bizarre.

Rachel bounded across the kitchen and ripped open the door to the garage. Ax herded Jordan and Sara out after her. Jake gathered their suitcases and followed. I brought up the rear. Rachel dumped her mom onto the driver�s seat. Her sisters scrambled into the back.

<Just relax, everyone.> Rachel, still in grizzly morph, squeezed into the front passenger seat. There was some damage. <I�ll explain as we go. We all need a vacation, and I have a feeling this is going to be a long one.>

�How long?� Jordan frowned. �We have to call Daddy. How will he find us?�

Rachel didn�t answer for a moment. Then, in gentle thought-speak - gentle for Rachel - she said, <Don�t worry about Daddy. I�ll tell him. He�ll find us. I promise.>

She punched the remote, and the garage door rumbled open.

<I�ve got this one covered,> she told Jake. <You need Ax and Tobias with you.> She turned to her mother. <Let�s do it.>

Her mom started the car, threw it in reverse, and screeched out of the garage. I think she was very ticked. At the end of the drive the car spun. Then it lurched forward, and they sped away. Lourdes�s hologram masked their exit.

We watched to make sure no one followed them. Then Jake and Ax morphed wings, and we flew to the next house.

Jake�s.

And Tom�s.

Ax the pokey-man.

It's also interesting looking at Tobias's thoughts here....he's contrasting Cassie's mom and Rachel's mom, who went out of their way to protect their kids, with his.

Also, if you remember, Lourdes is the Chee who's taken the role of homeless crack addict, and who the Animorphs rescued from the crackhouse when all the Chee went motionless.

Chapter 18

quote:

<We take Tom first,> Jake said. <No explanation. No discussion. Just grab him. Give him zero time to react. It shouldn�t be hard. He can�t fight all three of us. Once we have Tom, my parents will come willingly. They won�t let us kidnap Tom without them.>

Of course they wouldn�t. They�d risk anything to save him.

That�s what parents did.

We circled above Jake�s house. A hawk, a harrier, and a falcon, looking for signs of alien activity. Jake was focused, the way he always is. Serious. Determined. All the normal Jake stuff, maybe edged up a notch or two.

But he also seemed, I don�t know, fearless. Defiant. His turns were a little sharper, his dives a little steeper. Almost like a fighter pilot. Almost like Rachel.

I watched him sweep over his neighborhood, spin, and plummet toward his house. Yeah, we were taking his parents. Forcing them to leave everything they knew, everything they loved.

But we were also taking Tom, and it was the moment Jake had been waiting for since this war began. The moment when he would liberate his brother from the Yeerks. The moment Jake would finally set the real Tom free.

We landed behind a row of shrubs.

Erek was waiting for us. �Nobody�s home,� he told us. �I came here right after you called, and the house was empty. I haven�t seen a soul since.�

Jake nodded. <They went shopping. I thought they�d be home by now. But that�s okay. When they get here, they�ll already be in the car. All three of them. They�ll pull into the driveway. Erek, you cloak the place in a hologram. Ax, Tobias, and I jump in, pin Tom down, and force my dad to drive away. This is good. Makes our job simple.>

Simple. Right.

Jake and Ax demorphed. Ax stayed hidden in the bushes. Jake unlocked the front door and slipped inside. I took to the sky. Still no sign of Yeerks. And no sign of Jake�s parents.

The garage door slid open. Jake stood inside, surrounded by a pile of bulging suitcases and other items he thought his family would need. His mom�s laptop. His dad�s golf clubs. Tom�s basketball. He scooted it all out into the bushes and closed the garage door. The ball rolled down the driveway. Jake ran after it.

<Prince Jake.> Ax�s stalk eyes scanned the street. <The longer they are gone, the more worried I become.>

<I�m with Ax.> I floated above the house. <We�re leaving a trail. Cassie�s farm. Rachel�s house. It won�t take the Yeerks long to find out the families are gone. And even less time to figure out your family�s next.>

�They�ll be home.� Jake dribbled back up the drive, toward the basketball hoop mounted above the garage door. �It�ll take my dad a while to decide on a lawn mower.�

<Lawn mower,> I repeated.

�Yeah.�

<With Tom.>

�Yeah.�

<Okay, think about this a minute. Tom is a fairly high-ranking Controller. By now he knows about the blood bank break-in. About a partial human DNA match. But he�s spending the morning shopping for a lawn mower. Does that strike you as odd?>

�No.� Jake faked left, broke right, charged the basket. �Lawn mowers are on sale. They went to look at them. Perfectly normal.� He shot. �A family looking at lawn mowers.�

Swish! Through the net. Jake loped toward the garage and grabbed the rebound. �Nothing odd about it.�

I climbed higher. Scanned the grid of streets. Below me I heard the steady th-thump of the basketball bouncing against the garage door.

�Do you see them?� Erek asked.

<No,> I said. <Nothing.>

Th-thump. Th-thump.

<Prince Jake?> Ax again. <Tom is infested with a ruthless, power-hungry Yeerk. And your parents ->

�I know, Ax.� Jake slammed the basketball against the garage door. �I know. My parents aren�t safe with him. He tried to infest my dad with a Yeerk. He tried to � he tried to ��

Kill him. Tom the Controller had tried to kill his own father.

Th-thump. Th-thump.

Movement. A flash of silver in the distance. I circled.



The thumping stopped. �All of them? Is Tom still with them? My mom. My dad. Are they okay?�

<They�re all inside. And they�re all okay. But ->

�But what?� Jake yelled.

I banked. Two SUVs were keeping pace with their car on parallel streets.

<It�s a trap, Jake. The Yeerks are onto us. We have to get out of here. Abort the mission.>

�I can�t leave, Tobias! They�re my family.�

<Prince Jake, remember. Tactical retreat. Save the army. Live to fight another day.>

�No! There won�t be another day. If we don�t get them out now, we may not get another chance.�

Jake dropped the basketball. Orange-and-black stripes erupted from his skin. Tiger fur. His parents� car sped up. So did the SUVs.

I dove. Rocketed toward the car. I had no idea what I was doing. A lone hawk against a Lexus.

Maybe I could get Jake�s dad�s attention. Turn him around. Get him to stop. Something.

I flew low and hard. Swooped past the passenger door. The window rolled down. I caught a glimpse of Jake�s mom. Her face, hard and twisted. Her hand, clenched. A glint of metal.

I spun.

Tssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!

Dracon fire blasted past. The neighbor�s birdbath exploded. I reeled. Choked on the stench of burned feathers. I flapped. The tips of my wings were singed.

Jake�s mom leaned from the car. She turned. Aimed.

I swept toward the sky. I could see Tom through the rear window. He reached over the backseat.

Slapped the Dracon beam from his mother�s hand. It bounced across the pavement.

Tssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!

A black scar ripped across the front of Jake�s house.

It seemed like an omen.

Unfortunately, even though they rescued Rachel's mom and sisters and Cassie's parents, they were too late for Jake's parents.

# ? Oct 8, 2022 03:30

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I just realised - major end of series spoilers - how incredibly depressing Tom's fate is. You don't really get to know him as a character, it's more about what he represents to Jake, but he literally never becomes free. Years and years of slavery and then you die a Controller.

# ? Oct 8, 2022 03:46

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

Chapter 18

Unfortunately, even though they rescued Rachel's mom and sisters and Cassie's parents, they were too late for Jake's parents.

Is Tom still a high-ranking Controller, though? I thought the whole reason he got his Yeerk switched out in #6 was he got promoted and replaced with a newbie. We haven't really heard anything about the replacement's rank in the hierarchy ever since, IIRC.

# ? Oct 8, 2022 05:11

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

Goddammit Jake what did I JUST say

# ? Oct 8, 2022 05:39

kiminewt: Feb 1, 2022

freebooter posted:

I just realised - major end of series spoilers - ]how incredibly depressing Tom's fate is. You don't really get to know him as a character, it's more about what he represents to Jake, but he literally never becomes free. Years and years of slavery and then you die a Controller.

Yeah. It's really bad. We didn't even get one moment with uninfected Tom except in the first book and glimpses of a broken Tom in jake's mind when he was infested by his old yeerk.

I'd love to have had even a paragraph of Tom maybe waiting to be reinfested talking to Jake.

# ? Oct 8, 2022 07:52

disaster pastor: May 1, 2007

I remember reading this book for the first time, getting to the part in chapter 12 when Jake says "go home, get some sleep, we'll decide tomorrow" and thinking "oh, no, that's way too long to wait."

# ? Oct 8, 2022 13:47

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Fuschia tude posted:

Is Tom still a high-ranking Controller, though? I thought the whole reason he got his Yeerk switched out in #6 was he got promoted and replaced with a newbie. We haven't really heard anything about the replacement's rank in the hierarchy ever since, IIRC.

So Tom's is basically "deputy head of the Sharing and head of its youth group". This is what the position of Tom means. So that's what his first Controller was, until he got promoted, and the new Controller got promoted to Tom.

So the answer is, he's important enough to have a high ranking position in the primary Yeerk infestation group.

# ? Oct 8, 2022 14:08

Capfalcon: Apr 6, 2012; No Boots on the Ground,
Puny Mortals!

Epicurius posted:

So Tom's is basically "deputy head of the Sharing and head of its youth group". This is what the position of Tom means. So that's what his first Controller was, until he got promoted, and the new Controller got promoted to Tom.

So the answer is, he's important enough to have a high ranking position in the primary Yeerk infestation group.

Yeah, he's a high ranking Yeerk posting and the book six Yeerk was getting promoted higher than that.

# ? Oct 8, 2022 14:14

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

kiminewt posted:

Yeah. It's really bad. We didn't even get one moment with uninfected Tom except in the first book and glimpses of a broken Tom in jake's mind when he was infested by his old yeerk.

I'd love to have had even a paragraph of Tom maybe waiting to be reinfested talking to Jake.

It's definitely a consequence of the insane deadlines, but I really really appreciate that we never get to know Tom. It really punctuates the tragedy of his fate to leave him this anonymous void. Like yes it makes dramatic sense to have an very heart-wrenching scene, but his absence makes much stronger thematic sense.

Also the Catdog and "Pokey-man" references are adorably dated.

And a hell of a thing to just casually go "oh yeah I gave your species the idea of Pasteurization" as an aside.

# ? Oct 8, 2022 15:29