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 »

Strategic Tea: Sep 1, 2012

Alternatively, V3 has killed his way through three whole teams of replacement analysts in various violent rages and none of them ever wrote down their work in case one of the FOOLS below them tried to copy it

# ? Nov 2, 2022 21:05

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 23, 2024 17:43

QuickbreathFinisher: Sep 28, 2008; by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

disaster pastor posted:

I would be certain they know everyone's identity. Even if they only got Jake and Tobias through blood, Tom's Yeerk would be very much aware that his aunt and cousins have disappeared, as has Jake's girlfriend and her family.

Marco is the tricky one. They almost definitely know he was an Animorph, because a gorilla showed up when they tried to infest his father. But they went and shot him, and they have no clear evidence at this point that he somehow survived that. So they may believe he faked his death and just not know how, or they may believe there's a mystery sixth they haven't IDed yet.

I can't remember, does anyone know Eva made it out alive?

I wonder if Tom has had any extended family members yeerked as well to keep from pesky questions about Rachel, her sisters, Naomi, and Jake.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 00:36

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

quote:

James batted a Taxxon with his massive paw. Guts spilled from the long wounds his claws had torn. Then he turned, leaped on a Hork-Bajir, sunk his teeth into the leathery neck until the Hork-Bajir lay still. Suffocated. Its throat bit out.

Kelly helped Marco clear a path through looming Taxxons. Horns punctured their baglike bodies, sending the foul contents spilling to the ground. Bulk and muscle shoved the remains out of our path.

<Yes!> Rachel. <Kick butt, folks. This is your chance!>

Slowly but surely James led his team further into the garage. Followed closely by Craig�s and Erica�s teams. Slashing, snapping, biting. Plowing through Taxxons, ducking Hork-Bajir blades, skidding on pooling blood.

Thank you so much for this. It's the perfect example of the dissonance of reading these kids books that feature hardcore violence, but are terrified to swear.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 01:22

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

mind the walrus posted:

Thank you so much for this. It's the perfect example of the dissonance of reading these kids books that feature hardcore violence, but are terrified to swear.

Well, swearing is bad.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 02:58

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 25

quote:

Jake was down, on his back, the visser�s tentacle wrapped firmly around his throat.

<Where is the morphing cube?> the visser roared.

No response.

Visser One tightened his grip. A small, pitiful sound erupted from Jake�s throat. The tiger�s windpipe was being crushed.

Rachel lunged. James roared.

Visser One�s punishing tentacles sent each one sprawling.

<Where is the morphing cube?> Visser One demanded.

Jake was dying in front of my eyes.

And at that moment �

�ARGHHGHGHGH!� Visser One let out an enraged howl of pain.

The tentacle that held Jake prisoner had been neatly severed.

Jake leaped to his feet. Slowly shook off the dead piece of flesh around his neck.

Visser One waved a bleeding stump in the air.

The crowd of Hork-Bajir shifted nervously, eyeing one another. Which one had done it?

It could mean only one thing. The Yeerk resistance was not dead! Somewhere, in the ranks of the assembled Hork-Bajir-Controllers, was a fellow freedom fighter.

And he had saved Jake.

Before the Hork-Bajir could attempt to ferret out the traitor among them, mayhem erupted. Taxxons, unable to restrain their appetites, converged on Visser One and his hemorrhaging stump. The loyal Hork-Bajir-Controllers tried to beat them back. Protect Visser One so that he could demorph safely.

And while the Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and Visser One were engaged, Jake gave the order to bail.

<Everyone! Get out!>

James repeated the order. And the Animorphs began to stream into the night.

We would live. But �

<Jake!> I cried privately. <The morphing cube! I�ll �>

I stopped in my tracks.

Because there stood Tom, unsteady, blood dried and streaked on his face. Clutching the blue box. And a Dracon beam.

His eyes were wild. They darted toward Visser One. I imagined what Tom was thinking.

Whoever had the morphing cube held the future of the planet in his hands.

Why would he hand that over to Visser One?

Tom ran.

I followed him to the edge of the ramp. Saw a pair of eyes gleaming in the dark below me. A crouched body, black and orange.

Jake!

He watched as Tom staggered past. Then padded after him. His paws nearly silent.

Again, I followed. Into the surrounding woods. Beyond sight of the school. Barely keeping Jake, the silent, bloody beast, in sight.

Still, Tom must have sensed something. Because suddenly he looked over his shoulder. Turned. And fired.

The Dracon beam singed Jake�s shoulder! But he kept moving forward. Toward Tom.

�Back off!� Tom screamed. �I mean it, I�ll kill you!�

Jake took another step forward.

Tsseeeew!

Tom fired again. The shot hit Jake in the back leg. He fell heavily.

Tom took off running. Sure that Jake would not, could not, follow.

But Jake lifted the tiger�s seven-hundred-pound body on three legs and started after his brother. Into the shadows. Into the darkest place Jake had ever been. The place where he would have to kill his brother. Or be killed by him.

Suddenly, I remembered my father�s face. His voice. �Is what you�re doing humane?�

No matter which way it went between Jake and Tom, I would lose Jake.

Because if Jake had to kill Tom, he�d never be the same. He would cross whatever line it was that separated us from them. And I was pretty sure there was no crossing back.

I ran ahead into the dark. Followed the trail of Jake�s blood.

Tom crashing through the woods ahead of me.

Soft, irregular thudding. Jake. Stalking his brother. Prepared to kill him. For what?

For a morphing cube. For �

It wasn�t worth it.

Suddenly, I knew the truth.

I reached the clearing where they both stood.

Tom was out of breath. Staggering.

Jake was only a yard or two behind him.

Tom turned. Lifted his arm. Aimed his weapon.

�I�ll kill you, Jake,� he said, voice ragged. �I will.�

Jake snarled. Crouched. Prepared to spring.

That�s when I shot forward and closed my jaws over Jake�s uninjured back leg. Clamped down.

Jake roared. Turned on me. Smacked at my head with his paw. The blow sent me sprawling.

Claws raked deep gashes in my side.

But it was worth it. The pain, everything.

I�d done what I had to do.

I�d made the sacrifice.

Tom disappeared into the night.

Jake and I lay there, panting with pain and fatigue.

We had nothing to show for this fight. Except that we were alive to fight another day.

And tomorrow, Jake could face himself in the mirror.

Chapter 26

quote:

The new team made it safely back to the rehab center and into bed without being missed. Everyone, including Kelly.

James reported that all was well. No one wanted out. No one was threatening to talk.

If Jake thought he was losing his nose for leadership, he was wrong. James was a good pick. If we went down, there was still a home team for the human race.

The blind red-haired girl who had been observed on infrared camera talking to Jake and Rachel had escaped. Before the Yeerks could come back for her, she�d simply walked out of the facility in Rachel morph.

And the original six of us?

Were we still a team?

I didn�t know. We�d been back twelve hours and Jake still hadn�t spoken to me. Hadn�t even looked at me.

Nobody but the two of us knew what had happened. They knew only that Tom had gotten away with the morphing cube. That Jake was devastated.

And they knew something was very wrong between me and Jake. But they didn�t know why.

Finally I decided to force the issue with Jake.

Jake stared at me, his eyes cold and hard. �Well?�

�Stop treating me like I�m the enemy,� I said.

Jake turned and began to stalk away. I trotted alongside him and grabbed his sleeve.

He yanked it out of my grasp and faced me. His face was white with anger. His lips were shaking. �How could you do it?� he cried, his voice breaking. �Why?�

I choked. �I was trying to protect you!�

�Protect me?� His brows lifted in amazement. �How?�

�You were wounded. He might have killed you.�

�Then why didn�t you go after him?� Jake demanded. �You weren�t hurt. With the trees for cover and the wolf�s speed, you could have taken him down!�

I couldn�t explain. Because I didn�t understand it myself. All I knew was that letting Tom take the morphing cube had seemed absolutely the right thing to do.

And something still told me I was right.

And that's the book.

So honestly, talking to people, these two chapters are the most controversial in the series. And the people who dislike Cassie dislike her for these two chapters. And i get it, really. On the other hand, eh, you know, i understand why she did what she did. The only thing keeping Jake going at this point is his hope that he saves his family. To kill Tom would destroy him.

Meanwhile, we're down to four books left, and the next book is book 51-The Absolute (I'm not the only one who notices that they seem to pick titles of books at random by this point, right? Like, Book 1 was The Invasion, which made sense because we find out about the Yeerk invasion. Book 8 was The Alien....we meet Ax for the first time. Book 10 was The Android, and we learn about the Chee and meet Erek. I understand why those books were titled this way. This book we just finished was "The Ultimate". What's that mean?

# ? Nov 3, 2022 03:12

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

Yeah, and here we are at the Animorph's actual lowest point.

The Yeerks have the ability to morph, literally the only advantage they still had going for them. Oh and also everyone and everything is absolutely shattered. This was an enormous kick in the gut to read as a kid.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 03:40

Kazzah: Jul 15, 2011; Formerly known as
Krazyface; Hair Elf

If I remember right, next book is The Last Caper

# ? Nov 3, 2022 03:45

QuickbreathFinisher: Sep 28, 2008; by reading this post you have agreed to form a gay socialist micronation.
`

Kazzah posted:

If I remember right, next book is The Last Caper

and what a caper it is :haw:

# ? Nov 3, 2022 04:08

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

I do find it very emotionally believable that a girl like Cassie would have the instinct to stop Jake from going after Tom as both an emotional move and strategic move, but be unable to articulate exactly why.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 04:11

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

Yeah, I thought she gave them the cube to try cause a schism in the Yeerk ranks. Stopping Jake from murdering his brother is an entirely different kettle of fish, and I can understand that completely.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 05:42

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

The morphing cube requires an already morph-capable person to pass the morphing power along, no? Elfangor put one if his hands against it in book 1, one of the Animorphs put their hands against it for David... they sort of skipped over the process in this book, but I think it's still the case, it can't just grant somebody the morphing ability by itself.

So Tom running off with it as some kind of power grab doesn't actually help him - the only person within the Yeerk ranks with the morphing power who can activate it is V1/Alloran.

edit - Also I completely forgot how this final scene plays out. I remembered it as Cassie openly choosing to just give the Yeerks the morphing cube as some kind of misguided show of peace or something. Not preventing Jake from killing his brother to stop them from getting it, which is way more extenuating.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 07:40

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

freebooter posted:

The morphing cube requires an already morph-capable person to pass the morphing power along, no? Elfangor put one if his hands against it in book 1, one of the Animorphs put their hands against it for David... they sort of skipped over the process in this book, but I think it's still the case, it can't just grant somebody the morphing ability by itself.

So Tom running off with it as some kind of power grab doesn't actually help him - the only person within the Yeerk ranks with the morphing power who can activate it is V1/Alloran.

edit - Also I completely forgot how this final scene plays out. I remembered it as Cassie openly choosing to just give the Yeerks the morphing cube as some kind of misguided show of peace or something. Not preventing Jake from killing his brother to stop them from getting it, which is way more extenuating.

Does Tom's yeerk know that, though? I could definitely see him being like 'ahaha yesss, yess, oh wait, poo poo. drat. Uhhhh uhhh ok hey Visser look what I fouuuuund! Had to hide from the andalites/animorphs for a bit though, that's why it took so long to report in..."

Major series ending spoilers: well, Cassie's heart was in right place, I guess. Too bad she just made things worse, Tom still dies on Jake's orders... but now it's their cousin who does it at the cost of her own life. I dunno, I think I have more to say but I'll wait until we get there

# ? Nov 3, 2022 10:15

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

Rando Yeerk resistance movement sympathizer saving Jake's life from Visser One always seemed like kind of an rear end-pull to me, but eh. Fortunately for that contrivance the only thing anyone remembers from the end of this book is Cassie stopping Jake from killing Tom.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 11:49

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

JesusSinfulHands posted:

Rando Yeerk resistance movement sympathizer saving Jake's life from Visser One always seemed like kind of an rear end-pull to me, but eh. Fortunately for that contrivance the only thing anyone remembers from the end of this book is Cassie stopping Jake from killing Tom.

I kind of liked this because I thought they'd completely forgotten about the Yeerk resistance only to suddenly remember it a book or two ago only to handwave it away as them having dropped out of touch.

I would have preferred it if the resistance had been a much larger part of the story from book 29 onwards (or in fact been introduced and used earlier - it makes a hell of a lot more sense as a plot-sparking intelligence source than the Chee, even though the Chee are great) but it's nice to see the concept even remotely reengaged with.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 20:08

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

I also like how it shows up, a chaotic moment in the middle of a battle. Its got to be fueling V1's paranoia, especially now that he knows they've been spreading around the morphing tech to others and they can't possibly know for sure they have all the Animorph's identities.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 20:29

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

freebooter posted:

I kind of liked this because I thought they'd completely forgotten about the Yeerk resistance only to suddenly remember it a book or two ago only to handwave it away as them having dropped out of touch.

I would have preferred it if the resistance had been a much larger part of the story from book 29 onwards (or in fact been introduced and used earlier - it makes a hell of a lot more sense as a plot-sparking intelligence source than the Chee, even though the Chee are great) but it's nice to see the concept even remotely reengaged with.

Every (both?) book that significantly involved the Yeerk resistance has been a banger, so my opinion would be more Yeerk resistance books.

# ? Nov 3, 2022 20:30

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

I didn't even connect that it was tied to the Yeerk Resistance of prior books. That moment could have been signposted a lot better, but yeah conceptually it's a great call to have it show up in the middle of a chaotic battle.

# ? Nov 4, 2022 02:34

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

We'll start the next book tomorrow night.

# ? Nov 4, 2022 04:20

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

mind the walrus posted:

I didn't even connect that it was tied to the Yeerk Resistance of prior books. That moment could have been signposted a lot better, but yeah conceptually it's a great call to have it show up in the middle of a chaotic battle.

Even if it's not officially The ~Resistance~ it's a demonstration that there's discord in the ranks. One thing KA consistently does really well is, instead of just having unified fronts of Alien Race 3 or whatever, there's different factions within the species. Yeerk, Andalite, Taxxon - even the Ketrans.

# ? Nov 5, 2022 00:41

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Book 51 was ghostwritten by Lisa Harkrader, who also wrote books 41 (Cassie in Australia) and 49 (the Animorphs try to save their parents from the Yeerks.

Book 51-The Absolute
Chapter 1

quote:

I dove. Tucked my wings. Folded my tail. Hurtled toward earth!

I was a bullet. A bullet with feathers.

And feeling pretty righteous until Tobias rocketed past. He skimmed the top of the freight train and looped sideways in a corkscrew roll, wing over wing. His feathers grazed the big gun of one of the tanks.

<Show-off,> I said.

<Hey, I�m a hawk.> He pulled out of the roll. <I only get so many hobbies, and perfecting my Red-Tail Spiral of Death happens to be my favorite.>

We pumped our wings and shot past the locomotive. Two guys wearing bib overalls and ball caps sat inside. One, the engineer, I guessed, was driving while the other watched the track ahead.

They weren�t wielding Dracon beams. Or weapons of any kind. And they weren�t paying any attention to the osprey and red-tailed hawk who�d dropped from the sky to spy on them.

<They don�t look like Controllers,> said Tobias. <Like that means anything.>

<Yeah. Everything looks normal,> I said. <Well, except for the tanks.>

I wheeled. Scanned the line of flatcars. Nothing unusual. Nothing that wasn�t supposed to be there.

Still, something prickled at the back of my brain. Something didn�t seem right. Battling aliens every day of my life has fine-tuned my already rampant paranoia.

I powered my wings and caught up to Tobias and the locomotive. A beautiful thermal radiated up the side of the mountain. I fanned my wing and tail feathers and soared on the billowing jet of warm
air.
The freight train clattered below. One engine pulling a line of flatbed cars, loaded with military tanks. M-1 Abrams.

Yeah, M-1 Abrams. I knew them as well as I knew my own PlayStation. All those hours playing Tank Commando had finally paid off.

The M-1s belonged to the National Guard. They were chained one to a flatcar, their big guns rotated toward the back. And they were headed toward the city.

Truck and Humvee convoys had been snaking into town for days. Battalions of National Guard soldiers from all over the state were bunkered in Guard centers around the city. Now they were bringing in tanks.

Ax had been monitoring all the local TV channels and the cable news networks, but nobody had mentioned a wide-scale urban training exercise. I couldn�t find anything on the Internet, and the Chee hadn�t heard anything from their Yeerk sources, either.

Tobias and I were here to do a little firsthand investigation. To find out if our state government had finally realized Earth was being invaded. To see if they were mounting a defense.

Or to see if this was a carefully laid out Yeerk plan. Were all those National Guard troops Controllers? Some of them, yeah. But all of them? We were talking thousands of soldiers. If they were all Controllers, we were in big trouble. We were talking serious doo-doo.

But we were betting they weren�t. Hoping they weren�t. Careful prior planning wasn�t Visser One�s usual MO. He usually jumped in with both feet and a lot of noise. And if the details didn�t work themselves out, he just ripped a sub-visser�s head off and plowed ahead with his next maniacal plan.

Besides, with a Blade ship and a fleet of Bug fighters at his disposal, the visser didn�t need a bunch of clunky tanks.

On the other hand, Visser One had been pushing for all-out war. To wage war, you need an army. And if you need an army in a hurry, why not hijack an existing one? If the highest-ranking National Guard officers were Controllers, Visser One could easily round up the rest of the troops for a mass infestation of host bodies. And if he got the tanks out of the way, non-infested troops couldn�t use them against him.

Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

The freight train rolled along the tracks. It wasn�t going all that fast for a train. About ten miles an hour. Maybe fifteen downhill.

But it was plenty fast for sustained, level, raptor flight. Tobias and I had started out over the engine, slipped back to the first flatcar, then the second.
Now we were somewhere near the middle and losing ground. My wing muscles ached, burned, and finally went numb.

I wheeled again. Studied the train. Something still seemed odd. What was I missing?

Nothing, Marco. There�s nothing scary on this train. If there were, your raptor eyes would�ve seen it a mile off. You�re just a paranoid freak.

A paranoid freak whose wings felt like they were going to snap off if I didn�t stop flapping them.

<This is stupid,> I said. <We want to know where the tanks are going, right? The train�s not going that fast. Why don�t we just land on one and find out?>

I dove toward a flatcar in the middle of the train and swept over the top of the tank. My talons skidded across the big brass padlock on one of the top hatches. I locked them around a metal cargo cage, pulled my wings down, and hunkered against the bottom of the cage. Wind whipped the feathers
on the top of my head.

A shadow slid over me. Tobias latched onto the hull of the tank, behind a big metal ring.

He hugged the metal. <Okay, this doesn�t look too weird,> he said.

The train groaned down a steep hill. I turned my head. The column of tanks stretched out behind me, chugging through pine trees that towered above us on either side of the track. Sunlight filtered through the pine needles and flickered over the camouflage green of the tanks.

I saw no other movement. No life-forms, extraterrestrial or domestic.

Normal. Everything looked -

Wait. <No guards. If this is a National Guard operation gearing up to fight aliens, wouldn�t they have soldiers posted on the train? And if it�s Visser One, you know he�d have Controllers crawling all over. Thirty-four tanks, and nobody�s watching them.>

<Oh, I wouldn�t say that,> said Tobias.

I turned my head.

Another red-tailed hawk swooped around a curve ahead. Behind it, in formation, flew a squadron of golden eagles and peregrine falcons.
We were definitely not alone.

As far as I know, Tank Commander was only on PC, not Play Station.

Chapter 2

quote:

The red-tailed hawk shot toward the train. The eagles and falcons followed, banking and diving above the tracks.

<They obviously don�t have much flight experience,> Tobias directed his private thought-speak to me. <They�re upwind. Flying in formation. A flock of eagles and the falcons acting like fighter pilots, taking orders from a hawk. These are not ordinary birds out for an afternoon of joy-flying.>

The eagles and falcons swooped past the locomotive and perched on the first tank. The redtailed hawk hung in the air and watched the train pass under it. They hadn�t seen us.

Yet.

Tobias slipped down the hull of the tank and crept underneath, into the dark cavern between the tank�s tracks. Where he could see without being seen.

But I was on top. On the turret. I couldn�t move without catching the hawk�s eye. I pressed myself against the floor of the cargo basket and watched.
Waited. Hoped my gray-and-white feathers blended in with the camouflage paint of the tank.

Right. We�re talking about hawk vision here. No such thing as camouflage.

The red-tailed hawk kited above the train. Examined each car, each tank, that passed below.

<So, who are they?> I peered through the wire cage. Twelve of them. Two of us. <Or should we be overly optimistic and hope it�s James and his gang?>

James and his gang. A group of auxiliary Animorphs we�d recently recruited to help us fight the Yeerks. Disabled kids by day. Superheroes by night. Or something like that.

The Animorphs - originally just five human kids and one Andalite - are trying to stop the Yeerks. I�m one of the human kids. Marco. That�s all I�m going to tell you about me. No last name. No address.

Not that it probably makes any difference anymore. The Yeerks know who I am. Or know who I was, anyway.

Yeerks. I�m sure you know all about them by now. If not, here�s the condensed version: slimy gray slugs that slither into your ear canal, flatten themselves out over the surface of your brain, and seize control of your body. Parasitic aliens who are conquering Earth, one human at a time.

My mother was a Controller, controlled by one of the most powerful Yeerks in the Yeerk Empire, the former Visser One. We rescued her, killed the Yeerk who�d slithered into her head, staged a fake death for my dad and me, and evacuated to the mountain valley of the free Hork-Bajir.

Which should�ve been great. And it was. For me personally. And for my family. Okay, so we were on a never-ending camping trip with seven-foot-tall bladed aliens who rarely, if ever, bathed. And no, I hadn�t seen an indoor toilet in weeks.

But I wasn�t complaining. I had my mom back. Had my family back. And, as an added bonus, algebra homework was now only a distant, quickly fading memory.

But for the Animorphs, and for the war we were fighting, my mother�s escape was the beginning of a long, terrifying, downhill slide. And we were about to hit rock bottom. Hard.

A big part of the reason we were struggling was that the Yeerks had had better weapons than us.

Plus, they outnumbered us about three gazillion to six. But we had a couple of advantages that helped level the playing field.

One: We could morph. We could touch an animal, acquire its DNA, then become that animal. A dying Andalite war-prince gave us that ability, and with it we could infiltrate, spy, destroy, and kick Yeerk butt in ways no human ever could. Two: Since morphing is Andalite technology, the Yeerks believed we were all Andalites. The former Visser Three, commander of the Yeerk invasion of Earth, had turned the planet upside down looking for a rogue band of blue aliens.

But he didn�t find us, because he never looked in places we might actually be. Cozy suburban houses on tree-lined, Leave-It-To-Beaver streets. Noisy school hallways between classes. The food court at the mall. Not your typical Andalite hangouts. Well, except maybe the food court. After this
war is over, I fully expect Ax, our resident Andalite, to spend the rest of his life in human morph at Cinnabon.

After we rescued my mother, though, it didn�t take Visser Three long to figure out the �Andalite bandits� just might be human. He was promoted to Visser One, and he poured most of his resources into finding us.

The other Animorphs were forced to rescue their families and flee to the Hork-Bajir valley.

Rachel with her mom and two sisters. Cassie with her parents. Tobias with his mother. And Jake. Alone.

We tried to get Jake�s family out. Even Tom, his brother, who�d been a Controller since the beginning of the invasion. But the Yeerks got there first. Turned his mom and dad into Controllers, too.

Turned Jake into someone none of us knew anymore.

Ax moved to the valley, too. It had become our new sort of base.

Bottom line: We were human kids, and the Yeerks knew it. And we�d thought that was the worst thing that could happen to us.

W were wrong.

We needed more help. More firepower. More Animorphs. So we recruited humans we knew we could trust. Humans the Yeerks had written off. Humans they wouldn�t infest.

Disabled kids.

The Yeerks caught on to what we were doing, and in the the last battle we lost the morphing cube. The blue box that gave anybody who touched it the power to morph. Our one weapon, the weapon Visser One had never been able to overcome, had fallen into Yeerk hands. Yeah, we could still morph. But now the Yeerks could, too.

Things were very, very bad.

I looked into the sky. The red-tailed hawk circled. Examined the tanks below. Its eyes locked onto mine.

Birds do not have lips. Birds cannot smile. But I swear this one did.

So, theory that the morphing ccube has to be activated aside, maybe it doesn't. Or maybe this is just a changed premise.

Epicurius fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Nov 6, 2022

# ? Nov 5, 2022 02:43

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

I mean even if it needs to be activated they have Alloran to do it. There isn't a chance in hell any Yeerk on earth is getting the ability without V1's direct oversight anyways.

Like is there a reason to think Alloran's body wouldn't be capable of 'activating' the cube?

# ? Nov 5, 2022 03:02

Kazzah: Jul 15, 2011; Formerly known as
Krazyface; Hair Elf

Jake unwittingly gave Tom the ability to morph when he handed over the cube.

There's zero evidence for this theory, but it's neat.

# ? Nov 5, 2022 03:11

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Zore posted:

I mean even if it needs to be activated they have Alloran to do it. There isn't a chance in hell any Yeerk on earth is getting the ability without V1's direct oversight anyways.

Like is there a reason to think Alloran's body wouldn't be capable of 'activating' the cube?

No. But it does disprove Cassie's theory in the last book that Tom wouldn't turn it over.

# ? Nov 5, 2022 03:26

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

Upside: Morph capable troops

Downside: Threatening them with slicing off their limbs isn't so effective anymore

dungeon cousin fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Nov 5, 2022

# ? Nov 5, 2022 09:20

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

I do think its pretty funny that between this and the Animorphs using Tobias as a backup for the Auxiliary Animorphs, Red-Tailed Hawks are now like the most common morph on Earth across the morphing population :v:

# ? Nov 5, 2022 14:37

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

If this section of the narrative had more time to be pulled out I would have loved to have seen an aside about how some bird-watchers or wildlife conservationists were getting very confused about the sudden erratic spikes in populations, sightings, and areas of behavior.

Hell you could go full-fore and turn that into a C-Plot about a bunch of environmentalist types, zoologists, biologists, etc. who unwittingly discover the Yeerks and decide to fight them, independently, solely as a result of tracking Animorph patterns. Suddenly the kids have a new adult faction on their side and it's like "wait what?"

# ? Nov 5, 2022 15:03

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

quote:

<They obviously don�t have much flight experience,> Tobias directed his private thought-speak to me. <They�re upwind. Flying in formation. A flock of eagles and the falcons acting like fighter pilots, taking orders from a hawk. These are not ordinary birds out for an afternoon of joy-flying.>

Interesting comment from Tobias here - I would've thought it was obvious that while the Animorphs were always very careful to avoid standing out while flying, the Yeerks have no reason to give a poo poo about that.

It also suggests to me that (this immediate situation aside) getting the morphing power isn't anywhere near as much of an advantage to the Yeerks as it is to the Animorphs, for the same reason the Andalites mostly only use it for their intelligence agents: it's good for surveillance and infiltration, good for a guerilla army, but when you have thousands of bladed Hork-Bajir warriors you don't really need to go grizzly.

edit - also, sympathies to the human-controllers who've spent years locked as prisoners in their own minds to parasitic aliens, who now also get to experience the body horror of morphing

# ? Nov 6, 2022 01:49

Rochallor: Apr 23, 2010; ふっっっっっっっっっっっっｃｋ

I love how often Tobias has yelled at the others to not fly in formation because birds of a different species don't do that. The Yeerks are making rookie mistakes and they don't have somebody who's been living Bird Life to tell them it looks weird.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 02:04

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

I think even humans who aren't controllers would notice that birds of different species don't really fly with each other. But humans also pay absolutely no attention to nature unless they seek it out of their own volition and I have a very hard time getting people to even go outside and look at a lunar eclipse while it's happening or the Big Dipper, so what the gently caress do I know.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 02:19

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

I still maintain that if Visser Three actually held regular marksmanship classes the series would be over by book two at the latest.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 02:59

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

I still maintain that if Visser Three actually held regular marksmanship classes the series would be over by book two at the latest.

Dracon beams must have a loving wicked kick. They're almost as bad as stormtroopers.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 03:03

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

mind the walrus posted:

If this section of the narrative had more time to be pulled out I would have loved to have seen an aside about how some bird-watchers or wildlife conservationists were getting very confused about the sudden erratic spikes in populations, sightings, and areas of behavior.

Hell you could go full-fore and turn that into a C-Plot about a bunch of environmentalist types, zoologists, biologists, etc. who unwittingly discover the Yeerks and decide to fight them, independently, solely as a result of tracking Animorph patterns. Suddenly the kids have a new adult faction on their side and it's like "wait what?"

As I morphed the californian condor-

# ? Nov 6, 2022 03:08

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Chapter 3

quote:

�TSEEEEEEEER!�

The red-tailed hawk rocketed from the sky, eyes gleaming in triumph.

Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

The freight train was giving me a free ride right toward my enemy.

I flapped to the top of the cargo bin and found a foothold.

<Marco?>

Tobias inched onto the bed of the flatcar. Four blocks of wood were wedged against the tank�s tracks, two in front, two in back, keeping it from rolling. Tobias stood beside one of the front blocks, in its shadow, out of the hawk�s line of vision.

<You do know a bird of prey is shooting from the sky, aiming for you, right?> he said.

<Uh, yeah.> My thought-speak actually sounded confident, like I really knew what I was doing.

<The hawk doesn�t have much bird experience, remember?>

I spread my wings. Flared my feathers. Fanned my tail. It�s what raptors do when they�re threatened. Make their bodies as large and menacing as possible.

What raptors do not do is plan suicidal fake-out maneuvers. No, that was purely a human move. My wings weren�t spread high and wide just to make me look tough, though I�m sure I was one intense-looking bird. My wings were actually covering a thick steel tube that jutted up behind me
through the cargo basket.

A steel tube I was betting the hawk, in his rush to skewer my guts, hadn�t noticed.

I glared at him. Dared him to hit me.

�TSEEEEEEEEEEER!�

I stood my ground. Held my perch. My tail feathers flicked up and down like a lever, adjusting my balance to the movement of the train.

Tobias watched from the shadows, wings tense, ready to blindside the hawk if I failed.

The hawk plummeted, his beak aimed at my exposed chest.

Six feet above me. Four. Two.

Now!

I dove. Sideways and down, toward the hull of the tank.

Thungk-crack.

The red-tail slammed into the steel pipe above me.

Thump.

And fell backward into the cargo basket. He lay on the bottom of the cage, unmoving, his neck twisted back and to the side.

<That was a little on the crazy side, don�t you think?> Tobias lifted his wings. <Now let�s get away from here before his buddies notice he hasn�t come up for air.>

The train rattled around a curve. We swooped over the side. Stayed low. And came beak to beak with the pack of golden-eagle-Controllers.

Did I mention that a golden eagle is almost three times as big as an osprey? That it�s got about three times as much attitude and, in my opinion, is wound just a little too tight?

And that�s just your regular, run-of-the-sky golden eagle. Stir in a crazed Yeerk and a terrified human host, and we�re talking one seriously demented bird.
I cut sharply to the right. Tobias was already ahead of me. We powered our wings and shot toward the front of the train, six golden eagles on our tails.

Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

The clatter of flatcars nearly drowned out the sound of beating wings. We whipped past one car. Another. We were gaining on the train.

The eagles were bigger. Meaner. But not as quick. If we could outlast them, we could outdistance them. I flapped my wings. We rounded the curve.

<Uh-oh,>said Tobias.

Five falcons circled above us. They weren�t as big as the golden eagles. Not even as big as me or Tobias. But a whole lot faster.

One of the falcons peeled off. Dove!

<Oh, man. Not this again. I am so tired of being dive-bombed by birds.>

But this wasn�t just any bird. This was a peregrine falcon. Not a bullet with feathers. A missile.

A missile shooting toward me at two hundred miles an hour.

Which gave me zero time to think up a suicidal fake-out maneuver.

We were absolutely, positively toast.

i don't know if this got mentioned, but the Peregrine Falcon is world's the fastest animal.

i forget if we ever discussed the different raptors people morph into. Anyone want me to go into that?

Chapter 4

quote:

The falcon dropped from the sky. Another peregrine zeroed in on Tobias.

I pumped my wings. Scanned the rail bed, searching for an opening. A hiding place. A shield. Nothing.

A wall of trees on one side. A freight train on the other. A flock of psycho-eagles behind.

<Under the train!> I yelled.

I dove between two flatcars. Tobias followed.

Chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk.

Metal grated against metal. We dodged under axles. Between wheels. Around brake boxes. It was reckless and desperate and stupid. Thousands of pounds of steel zinging along the tracks, a fraction of an inch from our wings, our legs, our heads. One wrong move, one slight miscalculation, and we�d be chicken nuggets.

But it was our only chance.
We shot between the rail bed and the floor of the flatcars above. Lost an eagle. And another. A

bird with a seven-foot wing span has no business under a moving freight train. But the falcons kept coming. From the front. From behind. Raking. Slashing. Pummeling.

<Did you ever see that old movie The Birds?> I screamed.

<Not funny, Marco!> Tobias screamed back.

I jetted out from beneath a car, two falcons on my tail. I shot up. Around the tank. In. Out! Lost one of the falcons. Spun around the big gun. Lost the other.

<AAAAAAAHHHHHH!>

Talons the size of meat hooks clamped around my back, pierced feathers, then flesh, as a golden eagle plucked me from mid-flight.

I thrashed. Tried to wrench free. My skin ripped beneath the eagle�s viselike grip. Claw scraped bone.

The eagle beat its wings and rose above the train. I dangled from its talons like a helpless field mouse, twisting and writhing.

<Marco! Get your wings out of the way!>

A flash of brown.

I tucked in my wings.

Tobias swept under the eagle in a Red-Tail Spiral of Death. His talons slashed the eagle�s feathered legs.

�KYEEEEEEER!�

The eagle screamed. Banked. Turned to face his attacker.

But he wasn�t as quick as Tobias, and he was weighted down by an uncooperative osprey.

�TSEEEEEEEEEEEEER!�

Tobias slammed into his throat.

The eagle veered. Raked a talon at Tobias. My neck fell from its clutches.

I spun, my butt clenched in one eagle claw, my head and shoulders flopping in midair, while

Tobias and the eagle threw down above me.

Tobias circled. In. Out. Over. Around.

The eagle whirled and dodged.

<ls there a barf bag on this flight?> I said stupidly.

Tobias ripped his talons across the eagle�s back.
The eagle lashed out, both feet open.

I was free!

I fell. Just plummeted toward the freight train below. Toward solid steel and jutting periscope housings. Fly. I had to fly! I focused. I pulled my wings up. Out.

Air filled my wings, like I�d opened a parachute. Somewhere above me an eagle screamed. I had to circle. Get back to Tobias and help him fight off the eagle. I swept over the train. Around a tank.

<Marco, look out!>

Smack.

It hit me from below. A falcon that came out of nowhere. I lurched backward, end over end.

Thunk.

And landed on the bed of the flatcar.

Just a thought, but do you think Yeerks have an advantage at morphing in controlling the instincts of their morphs, since they do that with their hosts anyway? Or is it a disadvantage? The fact that they take control over hosts means they don't have experience integrating the animal's needs and instincts with theirs?

# ? Nov 6, 2022 03:12

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

Star Man posted:

I think even humans who aren't controllers would notice that birds of different species don't really fly with each other. But humans also pay absolutely no attention to nature unless they seek it out of their own volition and I have a very hard time getting people to even go outside and look at a lunar eclipse while it's happening or the Big Dipper, so what the gently caress do I know.

What's your job?
(I remember my uncle pointing to Sirius and declaring, "see that? It's the planet Jupiter, also known as the evening star")

# ? Nov 6, 2022 03:40

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

I'd say disadvantage, because now it's 2 channels competing instead of just 1.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 03:48

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

Well now I'm wondering if they gave the morph power directly to any yeerks? or just to hosts? a mix?

I assume to hosts, because demorphing into a yeerk is an even worse situation than the disabled animorphs face. Also you can promote/demote/transfer a yeerk while keeping the morph body capable.

and of course there's maybe a risk of yeerks intentionally choosing to become nothlits. or just wanting it easier to keep them in line and 'loyal'.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 04:05

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

Tree Bucket posted:

What's your job?
(I remember my uncle pointing to Sirius and declaring, "see that? It's the planet Jupiter, also known as the evening star")

Not in astronomy or education.

I read too many astronomy books as a kid and got my screen name from my parents because of it.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 04:07

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

Wouldn't you have to give the morphing power to both the yeerk and the host or else the human just shifts around the yeerk and tears it apart? Does the yeerk then have to carefully morph itself and the human at the same time so that the resulting body horror show doesn't kill them both?

# ? Nov 6, 2022 04:43

Star Man: Jun 1, 2008; There's a star maaaaaan
Over the rainbow

None of that makes sense, because Visser One would never be able to morph while controlling Alloran's body.

# ? Nov 6, 2022 04:48

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 23, 2024 17:43

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

Edna Mode posted:

Wouldn't you have to give the morphing power to both the yeerk and the host or else the human just shifts around the yeerk and tears it apart? Does the yeerk then have to carefully morph itself and the human at the same time so that the resulting body horror show doesn't kill them both?

I mean its dumb but we have the Visser 1 and Alloran combo who has shown since book 1 if the host morphs it just sort of brings the Yeerk along for the ride and we handwave why.

Maybe when infested the Yeerk counts as 'part' of the host. Like clothes :v:

# ? Nov 6, 2022 04:49

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

«‹›236 »