The First Journey Read online

  “Let’s morph!” Jake cries.

  You look over at Cassie. She’s almost at the end of the pier. That gives you an extra burst of strength. You concentrate hard. You feel something grow out of the back of you. A tail. Your ears get round and your head gets big. Your teeth sharpen into deadly instruments of terror.

  You’re a fierce, hungry, and very angry hyena. And you have no fear.

  You start toward Cassie, but a Taxxon gets in your way. No problem. You rip into him with your teeth. He tries to bite you back, but you are such an efficient killing machine that he is dead before he registers the pain.

  Marco is now Big Jim, a huge gorilla. Rachel is trumpeting a fierce call as she mows down another Hork-Bajir. In tiger morph, Jake springs at a Taxxon.

  You own this place.

  Marco tosses another Hork-Bajir in the air like a doll. The rest scatter. So they are afraid of something.

  Marco is the only one with dexterity, so he heads for the cages to unlock them. Jake is already bounding toward Cassie. You start forward to help, but a Hork-Bajir heads for you. He swipes at you with an elbow blade.

  You spring. You tear at his flesh, then jump away. You strike again, this time for the vulnerable fleshy part near his head. Wounded, you expect him to fall back. But instead, he springs forward, his elbow and wrist blades flashing. Rachel raises a foot and stomps.

  you tell her.

  Rachel says. She sounds positively bloodthirsty.

  Tobias swoops down and claws at the eyes of the Hork-Bajir who is holding Cassie. She breaks away and runs.

  you yell along with Jake. Even as you watch, Cassie’s hair grows into a beautiful mane. It streams out behind her as her legs extend, and she goes down on all fours. It is amazing to see.

  Rachel says.

  you say.

  The people Marco have released are panicking, running toward the stairs. Hork-Bajir and Taxxons try to round them up. You slip through them, running hard.

  Cassie and Jake leap over surprised Taxxons. You remember that Hork-Bajir aren’t great on strategy, so you fake left and then go right, sailing over a long pair of wrist blades that try to slash you at the last minute.

  You gain the stairs. Balls of flame explode over your head. You leap over a Taxxon who is aiming a Dracon beam at you. Straight into the path of Visser Three in his Andalite form.

  The horrid, evil voice fills your head.

  He begins to morph into a creature tall as a building. Eight legs. Eight arms. And eight heads. You can feel that even the hyena inside you feels doubt. You can’t take on this creature.

  Visser Three cries.

  “You filthy creep!” It’s Tom. Jake’s brother launches himself at Visser Three.

  Jake cries. He springs at the huge creature that is Visser Three, straight toward the eyes. He claws at the face. Visser Three howls in pain.

  Fireballs explode. One almost gets Jake. Tom falls off the stairs.

  Cassie cries urgently.

  With a howl of anguish, Jake turns and heads up the stairs. Rachel begins to demorph as she climbs so she can fit in the stairway.

  Visser Three cries.

  Oh yes, you can. The stairway narrows. Visser Three hadn’t counted on your making it that far. In his huge morph, he can’t make it upstairs.

  You run and you run. You break through the janitor’s door and back into school. You keep on running until you’re outside, in the safety of the trees. And then you all morph back.

  You’re safe. For now.

  You look at your friends and see the same exhaustion on their faces. Even Marco can’t come up with a joke. Cassie puts her hand over Jake’s. Rachel stares back at the school building, her eyes blazing. Tobias flies closer and perches on her shoulder.

  You know that more terror lies ahead. You know that safety is now an illusion. You will never feel truly safe again.

  Excellent morph! Go to chapter 16 for your next Animorph adventure.

  Your ears grow straight up. Fur sprouts on your face and hands. You fall onto all fours. Suddenly, you smell everything. Oil. Car exhaust. Human smells. Mice. And over in the corner, a paper bag with a peanut butter sandwich.

  You trot over to the group waiting for the elevator. You stay behind them. When the elevator comes, you leap on just as the doors close.

  You make it down in the elevator without anyone really caring. The elevator hits the sublevel, but a Controller pushes a series of buttons and it keeps going down. When it stops, everyone files out. The last Controller pushes you back into the elevator.

  “Beat it, bub,” he says.

  The doors close, but you leap up against the panel and hit the STOP button with your paw. You wait. After a few minutes, you butt the DOOR OPEN button with your head.

  The doors open onto a small room. You see the last Controller just disappearing through the hidden door. You bound over and stick your body half-in to keep it open, then slip inside.

  But the Controller sees you.

  “Hey!” He looks at you, suspicious now. You take a step backward. You bare your teeth and try a growl. He drops back, but another Controller steps up the stairs.

  It’s Finley, the policeman!

  “Grab him!” he cries.

  The other Controller reaches for your collar, and you sink your teeth into his hand. With a howl, he steps back. But Finley springs forward and grabs your collar. He half drags you down the steps.

  You see a huge cavern patrolled by Taxxons and Hork-Bajir. There are humans in cages. The screams seem more terrible to your sensitive ears.

  Finley hands you over to a Hork-Bajir. “Keep it. Something’s weird about this dog.” The Hork-Bajir fastens a leash from a chain. He attaches it to a piece of heavy machinery. Then he holds one of his blades to your throat. The message is clear. Move, and you die.

  You decide to sit still. All you can do is watch.

  Watch as Jake, Rachel, and Marco morph into fierce animals. Watch as they attack. Watch as the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons fight them. Watch as Visser Three morphs into a horrible creature with eight heads, tall as a two-story building.

  You want to cheer when the others get away, running up the staircase. You want to cry when you see Jake’s brother Tom tossed back into the cage.

  Then one of Visser Three’s eight heads swivels. His eyes fix on you.

  His voice is like the sludge in the Yeerk pool. Thick and evil.

  You put your head into your paws, like a dog might. Your tail is stiff and straight.

  Visser Three says.

  He laughs, and you see his teeth glinting. They are sharp and pointed like daggers. He raises one of his many hands, and a fireball zooms past you.

  Visser Three says. His hand lifts again, and he sends another fireball your way. This one hits its mark.

  SIZZLE! You’re dead.

  Bad morph choice. You took the chance you might be recognized. You lost.

  “Pizza for dinner?” your mom says.

  “Awesome,” you say.

  It’s a Saturday afternoon. You just returned from the mall. Sometimes, you just need an ordinary day.

  You’ve been on plenty of missions with the Animorphs. Your close calls have given you nightmares. You are living in a world with new rules. Sometimes, you think you’ll go crazy. Sometimes you want to go crazy. Living with stark terror every day will do that to you.

  So whenever you can, you try to do something normal. As much as morphing into an osprey might be fun, it isn’t normal. Not by a long shot.

  So when you called Jake that morning to ask if anything was up, he just sighed. “I say we take a day off from saving the world,” he sai
d.

  The smell of green peppers fills the kitchen. You watch your mom chop. She makes her own pizza, and it’s the best in town.

  “Can we have sausage on it?” you ask.

  Mom grins. “Sure. It’s Saturday. Let’s live a little.”

  You reach into the refrigerator for a soda, and —

  FLASH! The heat presses against your skin. You hear the call of birds and insects.

  “Where did you guys go?” Rachel asks.

  “And where are we?” Cassie wonders.

  “And why don’t I have shoes?” Marco asks.

  FLASH!

  “— and a nice green salad,” Mom finishes. “I have to sneak something healthy in there.”

  Your hand is cold. You look at the sweat beading up on the can. Whoa. What was that about? It was SO real. The heat had been just as intense as the cold in your fingers right now.

  “Can you hand me that garlic?” Mom asks.

  You nod and reach for a garlic bulb in a bowl on the counter. You hand it to Mom, and —

  FLASH!

  “Really, a monkey morph?” Marco says, lifting an eyebrow. “Listen, I’ve been a gorilla. That would be quite a demotion, don’t you think?”

  “Marco, I’m just wondering,” Rachel says, her hands on her hips. “Do you always have to make things difficult? Is it like, your hobby?”

  “It’s my life,” Marco says.

  FLASH!

  “— would you do me a favor and pick some basil off the plant?” Mom asks. “Sweetie? Are you okay?”

  “I’m okay,” you say. But you’re not. Something is really, truly wrong. And you have to find out what.

  * * *

  “It sounds like a Sario Rip,” Jake says worriedly.

  You’ve ridden as fast as you can on your bike to Jake’s house. You only have a half hour before dinner. Ax is there, too, and he looks just as worried as Jake. He’d been eating his very first licorice whip, and he’d been really enjoying it. But he stopped when you blurted out your story.

  “Not again,” he says. “No, not again, Prince Jake. This is not good.”

  “What’s a Sario Rip?” you ask.

  “Are you sure it was a jungle?” Jake asks, instead of answering you. “Or was it a rain forest?”

  “Like I can tell the difference?” you ask. You’re starting to feel impatient.

  Jake turns to Ax. “But I reversed the rip. How can this happen?”

  Ax shrugs and begins to chew on the end of the licorice. “I don’t know. When they taught about Sario Rips in class, I was —”

  “Not paying attention,” Jake finishes impatiently. “I know.”

  “Young Andalite females can do that,” Ax says. He slurps up another inch of licorice. “This tastes red. R-r-rred. Tastes red. Red-duh.”

  “Cherry,” Jake says absently. “It’s cherry flavored.”

  “Will somebody please fill me in?” you demand.

  “A Sario Rip is like a hole in space-time,” Jake explains. “We’ve all experienced it, except I’m the only one who remembers it. That’s because I died back there, but not in this time, so I was able to come back.”

  “Oh, thanks,” you say. “That clears it up. Totally.”

  “The thing is that Ax said, you need some sort of huge explosion to blow you back,” Jake says worriedly. “I guess maybe it hasn’t happened yet.”

  “Terrific,” you say. “Something to look forward to besides pizza. Nuclear annihilation.”

  “Unless we’re in a rip right now,” Ax puts in.

  “A rip within a rip.”

  Jake frowns. “What does that mean?”

  Ax shrugs. It could be his first shrug, because he looks surprised at the motion. He does it again for practice. “I do not know. I am just guessing. Want some licorice?” He holds a piece out to you, and —

  FLASH!

  The trees soar above your heads. The leaves make a canopy so dense it blocks out the sky. The heat presses against your skin.

  “Whoa!” Jake cries. “What’s going on?”

  “Wait,” you say. “You mean you know you’re here? With me?”

  “It’s the same place,” Jake says, spinning around. “Hang on.”

  He darts through the trees, and you and Ax follow. You stop abruptly when Jake does, bumping into him. In a small clearing is a Bug fighter. It is scorched and trashed, as though it had crash-landed.

  “This is totally freaked,” Jake whispers.

  “I’ll say,” a voice says. It’s Rachel, who steps through the trees, Cassie and Marco at her side.

  “Where did you guys go?”

  “And where are we?” Cassie asks.

  “And why don’t I have shoes?” Marco asks glumly, staring at his bare feet.

  Tobias says in thought-speak. He swoops down and lands on a tree trunk.

  “There’s no city,” Jake mutters.

  “Pray tell, how do you know, O Fearless Leader?” Marco asks.

  “I just do,” Jake says. He frowns. “The first thing we have to do is take the onboard navigating computer. Visser Three will be coming back for the Bug fighter.”

  “How do you know this stuff?” Cassie asks. “The last thing I remember I was on the Bug ship. We were shooting Dracon beams at Visser Three.”

  “It’s a Sario Rip,” Jake says. Quickly, he summarizes what has happened.

  “So how do we get back?” Cassie asks. You can tell she’s trying not to look scared.

  “I’m not sure,” Jake admits. “Last time, I had to die. I don’t especially want to do that again.”

  “Are you all thinking what I am thinking?” Ax asks suddenly.

  Marco rolls his eyes. “What are the odds of that?”

  “Think about it, Prince Jake,” Ax continues. “You have been given a second chance. Last time, you made mistakes. What I mean to say is, you made good decisions, but things went wrong.”

  “Thanks for trying to make me feel better, Ax, but you were right the first time,” Jake says wryly. “We walked right into Visser Three’s trap.”

  “But this time, we will not walk into the trap,” Ax points out. “We know what is wrong to do. Now we must do what is right to do.”

  “You’re right, Ax!” Jake says excitedly. “We’ve been given a second chance! And the first thing we should do is not take the onboard computer. Can you just disable it instead? Make it look like it happened in the crash, but be sure that they can fix it. That will slow them down while we follow through on a plan.”

  “I can do this, Prince Jake,” Ax says, nodding. He takes off for the Bug fighter.

  “What plan?” Marco asks. “Call me crazy, but I have a feeling I’m not going to like this.”

  “It’s simple,” Jake says. “We’re going to sneak onboard the Blade ship —”

  “Already, I don’t like it,” Marco interrupts, groaning.

  “— and destroy Visser Three,” Jake says grimly. “Then we’ll re-create the rip and get back to our own time.”

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Rachel agrees. “Especially the ‘destroy Visser Three’ part.”

  “Of course you’d think so,” Marco says. “What do you need morphing ability for? You’re already an animal.”

  “The question is, what should we morph?” Cassie asks. “We have to get through the rain forest, and we’re barefoot. How about monkeys?”

  “Really, a monkey morph?” Marco says, lifting an eyebrow. “Listen, I’ve been a gorilla. That would be quite a demotion, don’t you think?”

  “Marco, I’m just wondering,” Rachel says, her hands on her hips. “Do you always have to make things difficult? Is it like, your hobby?”

  “It’s his life,” you say.

  Marco gives you a strange look. “I was going to say that.”

  “I know,” you say.

  “Com
e on, guys,” Jake says. “We have decisions to make. We have to acquire morphs that will help us cope with the rain forest. But we also need morphs that will help us sneak aboard the Blade ship.”

  “And we might need the help of that tribe you met last time,” Ax says as he reappears. “You said they were pretty helpful against the Hork-Bajir.”

  “What about using an ant morph again?” you suggest. You point to a tree. “I read about those ants. They’re called parasol ants. They can climb hundreds of feet. And we’d be so small we’d sneak onto the Bug fighter with no problem.”

  “That’s true,” Cassie says reluctantly.

  “No way I’m being an ant again,” Marco says, shuddering. “That was the worst.”

  You all begin to argue about what morphs to acquire. But you’re running out of time. You might only have time for one morph.

  You choose:

  A monkey. Go to chapter 18.

  A parrot. Go to chapter 19.

  A parasol ant. Go to chapter 20.

  You’d felt out of place in the rain forest. First of all, the bugs alone are enough to send you screaming toward the horizon. If there’d been a horizon.

  But once you morph a monkey, you discover that the vines you thought of as choking off air and light are … well, like monkey bars.

  Which gives you a chance to use what must be the coolest tail in the universe.

  Ax asks.

  Marco tells him.

  You all scamper up trees, grab vines, and swing. You reach the high branches and just let yourself go, out into space, and you catch a branch with your tail.

  KIKKKI CHACCHACH KI KI KI!

  You swing past Rachel, grab a branch with your hand, hang in midair a minute, launch yourself toward a vine. You bare your teeth at her.

  KIKI CHEE CHEE!

  Rachel calls. She grabs the same vine, swings over, and lands on your branch. She bares her teeth at you, too.

  Tobias sits on a branch near you. He sounds almost sulky.