M y name is Cassie.
And you wouldn't know it to look at me but I'm in the middle of a violent war to save Earth from an alien, parasitic species called the Yeerks.
Well, most of the time I am. Right now I was kneeling in the barn, waiting for an injured mouse's curiosity to get the better of him. And when it did, when he crept out from beneath the cage he'd scurried under, I was going to scoop him up and take a look at his crooked, back leg.
I guess that's just me. It's who I am. I don't like seeing an animal in pain if there's something I can do about it. And I usually am doing something about it, because my parents are vets and I

1 guess you could say I'm following in their footsteps.

Except that in one way, I'm already way ahead of them.
I'm an Animorph. An animal morpher.
My friends and I were given the ability to acquire the DNA of other creatures and morph them. This power is the only real weapon we have in our fight to save humanity.
But it's more than that. For me, at least.
Every time I morph an animal, I experience the world as that animal does, sensing it, sharing its instincts. That's knowledge my parents will never have. And I'm not sure not having it is such a bad thing.
I mean, it's one thing knowing that a humpback whale can weigh thirty tons but it's a whole other story to actually weigh that much. To cruise the ocean with the certainty that you actually are that animal. The only way to really understand is to become that creature, and they can't teach that in vet school.
But this isn't just about becoming an animal. It isn't just about the morphing. See, we use our morphs to fight this war. To divert and battle the Yeerks. That's why Jake, our leader, doesn't like us using the morphs for our own purposes. I can't say I never have — there's nothing like frolicking as a sleek playful dolphin, and being a horse has certainly come in handy on occasion — but I like Jake a lot — okay, maybe I feel even stronger than "like" — and what he says makes sense, so I try not to do anything that would put us at risk.
But the risk isn't the worst of it. This is a war and people die. And using this power to destroy others is hard to get used to. But as much as I hate inflicting pain and sometimes death on the other Yeerk-infested species, I can't just sit back and allow their evil to consume us, the human race, too.
The Yeerks are like a disease, except they spread with malice and intent. A Yeerk will squirm into your ear canal, flatten out its blind, deaf, sluglike body, and weave into the crannies of your brain. Tap into your thoughts. See through your eyes, speak with your voice. You are a hostage, trapped inside yourself. Screaming for help but no one can hear you.
We call people infested by Yeerks Controllers, and there are more of them every day. Like I said, the Yeerks have taken over other species, too, and they're using some of them to wage this poisonous war on Earth.
We, the Animorphs, are the only active resistance. Me. My best friend Rachel. Jake. His friend Marco. Tobias, who stayed in his red-tailed

hawk morph longer than the two-hour limit and now lives as a bird of prey. A nothlit, as Ax would say.

Ax is an aristh, an Andalite warrior-cadet, and it was his brother Elfangor who gave us the blue morphing cube before Visser Three murdered him, so that we could continue the battle.

That's pretty much it on our side. Well, unless you count the Chee, a nonviolent race of androids, who help us by spying on the Yeerks and infiltrating their cover organization called The Sharing. But when it comes right down to it, we're the only ones out there aggressively defending our species.

So you can see why I need to work with wounded animals. To help heal them. And in some way, I think they help heal me, too.

Movement.

A tiny, twitching nose poked out from under the cage.
The barn turned Wildlife Rehab Clinic was quiet today. We had only three patients and all were on the mend.
Their snuffling and scrabblings were familiar sounds.
But the distant, low-level drone thrumming through the air wasn't.
Achainsaw?
The buzzing grew louder. Sharper. Closer. A low-flying plane?
The mouse zipped out. Stopped. Nose twitching.
THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!
The drone was deafening now.
The mouse tensed.
My hand flashed out and scooped it up.
"Nobody's going to hurt you," I said, but my voice was lost in the thundering noise. Something deep in the pit of my stomach stirred uneasily.
It didn't sound like a plane, it sounded like a . . .
I stuck my head out of the open barn doors in time to see a helicopter pass and continue out over the woods.
The droning faded.
I shrugged and turned to put the mouse in a cage and nearly ran into Erek who was standing behind me. Erek is one of the Chee.
"Whoa!" I said, startled. "I didn't see you come in."
Erek nodded. "Good. You weren't supposed to. And neither were the Controllers in the helicopter. We have a major problem, Cassie." ,
"Uh, I'm the only one here right now," I said, realizing I was still holding the mouse. I gently put it in an empty cage and then waited to hear the rest of Erek's news.
"I'll notify the others, but we have to move on this. The Yeerks have managed to repair the Helmacron ship and they've reactivated the sensors that locate morphing energy."
Oh, great. The Helmacrons. Again.
The Helmacrons are an exceptionally tiny, exceptionally annoying species with delusions of grandeur and egos the size of Montana. Unfortunately, they also have very advanced technology.
Erek continued, "The Yeerks are tracking morphing energy."
"But I haven't morphed —"
The blue box. The Escafil Device. It was hidden here in the barn.
"The ship's sensors aren't operating at full potential but the Yeerks have managed to hone in on a weak signal from somewhere in this area. That would be the energy from the morphing cube." Erek's voice was muted as the helicopter did another flyby. "They're making another pass. If we don't get that cube out of here —"
"I'll get it," I said, heading to the darkest section of the barn. I'd hidden the cube where it wouldn't be found by anyone who happened to be stumbling around, but I hadn't counted on the Yeerks being able to repair something so minuscule as the Helmacrons' damaged and abandoned ship. "But what good will it do to move the cube, Erek? Won't the Yeerks just target it again?"
"Yes. That's why you and the others have to keep it moving until the Helmacron ship can be destroyed," Erek said as the helicopter's shadow passed over us, blotting out the sunlight streaming in through the doors. "If that cube falls into Yeerk hands . . ."
"Don't even say it," I said, tucking the cube into the waistband of my jeans and pulling my dad's huge, old, college T-shirt down over it. "Okay, let's go —"
But Erek had vanished.
"Cassie?" my mother said, from the doorway. "I'm off to The Gardens. I have animal transports to oversee and —"
"I'll go with you!" I blurted, while giving the barn a quick once-over for Erek. Was he that bucket? That bale of hay? The Chee were extremely good with holograms.
The sunlight behind my mother shimmered and for an instant, Erek was Erek again and not a hologram of a brightly lit barn door.
I looked at my mom. "Let's get going."

H ave you ever had one of those horrible dreams where something is chasing you and no matter how fast you try to run, you're not getting anywhere?
Well, that's exactly how I felt driving to The Gardens with my mother.
The helicopter was buzzing back and forth over the woods. And we were getting nowhere fast because my mother was talking while she was driving, and when she does that, she always takes her foot off the gas pedal. She doesn't do it on purpose but it's still nerve-racking.
Speed up. Slow down. Speed up. Slooowwww dooowwwnnnn. . . .

BEEEEEEEPP!

"What's wrong with him?" my mother asked, scowling into her rearview mirror at the car behind us; it was crawling right up our butts. "The speed limit's forty-five on this road."

"Yeah, but you're only doing thirty, Mom," I said, gazing pointedly at the speedometer.
C'mon, Mom, hurry!
"Thirty?" my mother asked, pressing the gas pedal. The speedometer needle was on the rise. Sort of. "There. That's better."
But it wasn't better because the car behind us floored it, passed us on a double line, then cut right back in front of us and promptly slowed down.
"What are you doing!" my mother shouted, braking and glaring at the back of the driver's head.
"Mom, don't say anything," I warned, watching as the driver finally sped up.
"But he's driving erratically," my mother said, speeding up and then slamming on her brakes as he slowed down again. "What is he doing?!"
"Mom, stop! He can't hear you!" I said. "Just back off. It's either road rage or. . ."
Or a Controller sent to steal the blue box.
I looked up at the sky. The helicopter was the size of a horsefly in the distance. If it had pinpointed us, it wouldn't send just one Controller for the box. No way. Stealing it would be a major victory for the Yeerks and they'd send an army to do it, not one bald guy in a Ford Taurus.
". . . or he's a complete imbecile?" my mother snapped, but backed off enough for him to pull ahead. "I don't know what is going on around here today."
"You mean with all those helicopters?" I asked as casually as I could while keeping an eye on the car in front of us. It was on the move now and was pretty much history. "I thought maybe an animal had escaped from The Gardens or something."
"No, they would have called me," my mother said. "And I haven't heard any news bulletins about any hikers lost in the area, either." She smiled. "I guess it's just one of those days, huh?"
"I guess so."
By the time we pulled into The Gardens, my neck was cramped and my stomach was twisted. One from watching the helicopter, the other from sheer worry. What if Erek hadn't gotten word to everyone?
What if he had?
Wouldn't the Helmacron sensors pick up three kids and an Andalite in morph? Of course they would. Tobias would be okay, but was getting us all together really that great an idea? The frantic fluttering in my stomach got worse.
I left my mother in the employee parking lot and headed into the park. I told her I was going to check out a few of the new animals and then grab a bus back home. I tried to look as normal as I could in my baggy, dirt-stained jeans with a blue morphing cube hidden beneath my T-shirt.
<Another bizarre fashion statement, huh, Cassie?>
Thought-speak. Rachel was here somewhere. Good. Even though I wasn't in morph and couldn't answer her, I felt better.
<She calls it cornfield casuals,> Marco smirked. <Bird poop-a-porter. We're in seagull morph, Cassie, so don't look up.>
<Erek told us about the Helmacron morphing sensors,> Jake said. <We're going to have to find a way to disable that ship. You have the blue box, right?>
I nodded slowly, paused by the American buffalo enclosure, and casually looked around — then up.
A red-tailed hawk circled high above me.
Two identical seagulls landed near the buffalo wallow. A third landed on a nearby Dumpster. A fourth strutted past, eyeing up a little girl eating french fries.
That one had to be Ax.

The kid giggled and threw him a fry.

He gobbled it down and screeched for another. And another.
<Hey, Ax-man, want to try and get a grip?> Marco quipped, swooping down and chasing Ax away from the kid.
<The clock's ticking here,> Jake said quietly but firmly.
I scanned the crowd, following one woman's gaze into the sky. Another helicopter had joined the first.
I glanced back at the woman, who didn't look surprised or even curious. Just sort of. . . eager.
She disappeared into the crowd.
The knot in my stomach was back with a vengeance.
The helicopters were circling closer and it wouldn't be long before they pinpointed a whole lot of morphing energy in one place.
I didn't know what to do. I couldn't communicate with anybody —
<Helicopters heading this way,> Tobias called down. <And there's a couple of guys in suits jogging toward Cassie.>
< Cassie, move,> Jake said tersely.
I stepped backward, away from the buffalo enclosure. Where? I mouthed silently.
<Anywhere! They're coming through the park, so head back into the employee area or something!> Jake shouted, taking off. <Everybody else, split up! We have to draw the sensors away from Cassie! Tobias, you stick with her since you're not in morph.>
<Cassie,> Tobias said. <They're closing in fast.>
And suddenly, I saw one of the guys in the suits.
I didn't run. I didn't want to attract attention. I waited until he turned away.
Then bolted.

< Nice,> Tobias said. <He didn't see you but the copters are still tracking you and feeding the ground guys info. Keep going.>

I did, my heart pounding in my ears. My alltoo-human ears.
I was so helpless as a human. I had brains but no brawn. No claws, no fangs, no wings. Nothing to give me even the slightest advantage over the Yeerk-infested human-Controllers tracking me.
If only I could morph without attracting the sensors.
If only the others could distract the Controllers long enough for me to get away.
If only, if only!
Deal with the realities, Cassie. Keep going.
The alley finally led me to the loading area, where a couple of huge trucks were parked.
<Watch out! There are two guys on the other side of that big black delivery truck, Cassie! They're looking around, talking into radios. They're splitting up!> Tobias yelled. <Get out of there!>
Where was I supposed to go? I flattened myself up against a white transport truck, the only thing left between me and them.
And if one of the helicopters buzzed over now, they'd see two Controllers not ten feet away from a terrified, trapped-looking kid plastered up against a truck, with the sharp corner of the morphing cube poking up from beneath her grubby T-shirt.
They would know it was me they were hunting for.
This was it. There was no escape.
No way out!
I couldn't morph so I couldn't fight or fly.
I couldn't drop the cube and run because if the Yeerks got the cube, it would all be over.
My stomach pushed into my throat.
<They're coming around the truck, Cassie! Wait, there's a driver getting into the cab. Your mother's making him sign something. The Controllers are at the back of the truck! If they look around the side —>
He didn't have to say anymore. I already knew what would happen. They'd see me. Grab me. My mother would get involved and then it was down to the Yeerk pool for both of us and total annihilation for my friends.
Trying not to hyperventilate, I inched along the truck toward the cab. At that moment, I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had to get farther away from the back of the truck.
Not that two or three feet would make that much of a difference, but it was all the space I had.
Something jabbed me in the back.
I flinched and glanced behind me.
A door handle.
There was a small, side entry door in the wall of the transport truck's bed.
"Chopper's picking up a reading from this area," one of the men behind the truck said. "If we find the Andalite bandits and the morphing technology, Visser Three will be extremely pleased. If we don't —"
"Don't even mention what'll happen if we don't," the other Controller said nervously. "The chopper pilot says the signal's strong in our radius. Let's just keep looking."
Panicking, I yanked on the door.
Nothing.
The truck started up. Idled.
It was going to pull away and leave me here, exposed.
I yanked again. Saw the pin. Pulled it out and pulled the door open, scrambled up into the back of the heavily fenced transport truck, and quietly closed the door behind me. Doubled over, panting, heart racing.
I had made it.
That's when something very large bellowed very loudly.
I shot up and staggered back against the wall.
There, looming in front of me, with its huge, broad head held low and its massive, curved horns, stood almost a ton of solid, muscled African Cape buffalo.
Aka the widow-maker.

Several things happened at once.
The truck rumbled and jerked to life.
The Cape buffalo stumbled backward, bound by two ropes around its horns and two around its neck. The ropes were knotted into metal loops on the truck's walls.
The ropes were frayed and flimsy-looking compared to the buffalo's massive head. But then again, most people wouldn't have to worry about the ropes because they would never, ever get into a truck with a widow-maker.
"But the reading says the signal's honed in on this area!" someone shouted from outside.
"Yeah, but it's also picking up four other readings in four other directions!" someone else said. "If you ask me, this is some kind of wildgoose chase."
"Don't let the visser hear you say that," the first man said uneasily. "He just pulled up."
The voices faded as the truck lurched forward, picking up speed.
<You're headed toward the back exit, Cassie,> Tobias was still around. Faint but around. Silence. <Uh-oh.>
Uh-oh what? I thought. I held still and watched the Cape buffalo watch me. Not a good feeling. Trust me.
It was hot and waves of the animal's thick, musky scent were nearly overpowering. Even for me. But the stench wasn't anything compared to the pure power in the broad, muscular body and the deadly threat of its massive horns.
The buffalo snorted, blowing a rush of hot, moist air out through its nostrils.
<They're going to stop you outside the gate, Cassie, at that stretch of road surrounded by woods.> Tobias was starting to sound a little frantic. <Visser Three's limo is right behind you and there's a bunch of other cars waiting around the bend.>
The buffalo snorted again. Tossed its head in a threatening, hooking movement, pulling the ropes taut.
The truck began to slow and lean into the bend.

The truck nose-dived, sending almost a ton of buffalo surging right at me. The ropes tightened as a rippling wall of muscle —

SNAP!

One of the ropes broke and pulled apart like a piece of thread.
I whipped left and flattened myself against the wall of the truck as the buffalo skidded forward and sideways, fighting the remaining restraints.
The buffalo bellowed again, thrashing in anger.
WHAP!
Another restraint. Gone.
The last two ropes were around the buffalo's neck. Somehow I figured they wouldn't be there for long.
It whipped its head around in a frenzy. The buffalo was going to break loose, and either trample or gore me to death. Impale me on those wicked, gleaming horns.
And then Visser Three would have the morphing cube.
There really was only one way out of this.
I inched sideways, watching the buffalo watch me. It was tense, just seconds from erupting again. I was shaking. I had to get past those horns but I knew it'd never let me get behind it where it couldn't see me.
The truck braked harder.
The buffalo stumbled forward, past me, to the ends of the remaining ropes.
Trembling, I laid my hand on the buffalo's thick hide, right at its midsection, and began to acquire it.
The buffalo gave one last thrash, then went into a kind of dreamy, semi-trancelike state. It happens to most animals when we acquire their DNA. Most, but not all.
"Hey, what's with the roadblock?" The shout came from the truck's cab.
The truck was barely creeping forward now.
In a minute it would be stopped and searched.
Would I have enough time?
I stripped down to my morphing outfit. Jammed my clothes out of sight behind one of the truck's wide, wooden slats. Laid the blue box on the floor of the truck and focused on the Cape buffalo's DNA.
Crrreeeaaaacccckkkk!
My skull split straight down the center and began to thicken, dragging my head down with the weight and back into my bulging, beefy shoulders.
Sproof! Sproof!
The bones broadened, following the contours of my huge head, shot out, and flipped up into three-foot horns on each sharp, lethal side.
My skin darkened and thickened into a tough, coarse-haired hide.
My body was bloating, stretching and expanding, bulking out further and further, piling on pound after pound of sheer muscle.
My fingers melded together and were sucked back into my hands. Tough hooves banded around the edges like metal plates.
"I'm telling you, don't open that! I'm hauling African Cape buffalo here, mister, and I don't think you want to —"
"Never attempt to think for me." A cold, sinister voice. A voice I had heard before. A voice I would never forget.
Visser Three.
My morphing had stopped when I'd lost concentration.
I refocused. Fast.
Schloop! Schloop!
My ears elongated. Sort of stretched out, drooped, and grew fringed hair.
The latch on the double doors clunked open.
"I'm telling you guys, don't do this!"
"Shut up and get out of my way!" Visser Three roared.
S proof.
A tail shot out of my hind end as the double doors swung wide.
"See, I told you —" The driver stopped, his eyes wide with horror. "The restraints broke!" He backed away. "Run!"
"Don't be a fool," Visser Three snapped. "I —"
The Cape buffalo gave an explosive snort through its wide, quivering nostrils.
And immediately, without warning, my own buffalo instinct kicked in.

Fury.

No fear.
Fight to defend. Fight the threat.
Protect the herd.
I tossed my head, blew a harsh whoosh of

air from my nostril, and surged forward, heart pounding, fueled by rage and adrenaline. "Run!" the driver shrieked, taking off.
The pitch of his screams hurt my ears and my hair-trigger temper exploded. Hooves clattering, I burst out of the truck like a tornado, slashing and hooking, slamming into cars and trampling Controllers beneath my powerful legs.
More screams. Shouts.
Human-Controllers fleeing in all directions. Dashing between the crooked, haphazardly parked cars. Hiding behind them. Hiding in them.
I saw them through a gray haze of fury, smelled their terror and followed it. No puny car could block my path.
Howls of pain.
I wheeled, broadsiding a human-Controller, sent him spinning.
Attack the threat! Destroy the threat!
Normally I was a calm, peaceful, grazing animal.
Until I was threatened. Provoked.
And then, nothing could stop me.
"Call the cops!" someone yelled. "Call back to The Gardens and get a tranquilizer gun out here!"
"Where's 'here'?!" another voice shouted.
"The woods along the highway! Outside the back gate! Hurry!" the guy hollered, crouching on top of his car.
<Cassie?>
The word echoed faintly in my enraged brain.
I ignored it.
I was a pile driver, wrecking anything and everything in my path.
<Cassie, I'm guessing that's you. Look, you have to get control,> Tobias said frantically. <They're calling your mom! She's bringing a tranquilizer gun! Cassie, where's the morphing cube?>

Huh? Who cares about some cube? Wait. Hang on. The box. Oh, yeah.
I fought the powerful animal's fury for a moment. Struggled to subdue its instincts and pull my human self back into consciousness.
"Two! There's two! Look out!"
I turned and saw the Cape buffalo I'd acquired pounding out of the truck, charging people with its horns and growing more agitated when it missed them.
Then it whirled and stampeded straight for Chapman. The assistant principal of our school. Member of The Sharing. And a high-ranking Controller.
THUD!
Chapman flew through the air and hit the ground with the same dull "whump" a watermelon makes when you drop it.
<Come on, Cassie!> Tobias yelled. <Get the cube and get moving!>
I ran back toward the truck. Stopped. Powered up my short, stocky legs and body-slammed Visser Three's limo with everything I had.
CRRRRUUUNNNCCCHHH!
The car alarm went off.
EEEUUUUU! EEEEUUUU! EEEEEUUUU!
The real Cape buffalo was going berserk. Smashing cars. Goring headlights. Bellowing and snorting and roaring with rage.
Panting, I leaped back into the truck, grabbed the blue box in my mouth, and barreled back out onto the highway.
I saw it all in one second.
Chapman, down and out on the pavement.
Cars wrecked and crumpled, Controllers sitting on top of them, clutching the roofs and looking petrified.
Visser Three, surrounded by a protective wall of frightened Controllers, screaming out enraged orders.
The original Cape buffalo, thundering across a field and into the woods.
I ran. The buffalo's herd instinct surged and I ran.

I crashed through the underbrush, trampling saplings and ripping through sticker bushes without a second thought.
The scent of the real Cape buffalo was thick in my nostrils. I followed it deeper and deeper into the woods until the screams and shouts of the Controllers back at the roadblock were completely lost.
The buffalo's hearing — my hearing now — absorbed and gauged every sound, checking for any potential threat to my herd.
My depth perception wasn't so great, but I had a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree, wide-angle range of vision, which was going to make it pretty tough for anyone to sneak up on me.
This was a good thing.
I couldn't run very fast — nowhere near the speed of my wolf morph — but what the buffalo lacked in miles per hour, it definitely made up for in sheer bulk and muscle. Nobody, and I mean nobody— except maybe a lion — would take me on, and I could still outrun a lion if I had to.
And then there was man. The most infuriating scent, the most unnatural threat.
But the air was clean of man-scent.
The buffalo's brain, so powerful in its fury, began to shift its concentration in the quiet woods. Sort of downgraded from an all-out, fight-to-thedeath attack mode to a standby alert that noted all sights, scents, and sounds, then dismissed them as nonthreatening.
It was a relief. It allowed me to get a firmer grip on the buffalo's natural instincts.
<Okay, Cassie, I told Jake you got away and you're all clear to demorph,> Tobias said, wheeling high in the sky above me. <The helicopters are still back over The Gardens trying to track down the others. Chapman got up but they loaded him into an ambulance. The Controllers are going nuts because they had to call in a whole fleet of tow trucks and Visser Three's limo'sa total disasters
<Yeah, I guess my buffalo buddy and I got a little carried away,> I said, kind of embarrassed.
I found a dense bramble thicket where I could demorph, then, thinking twice, moved on until I was in a small clearing surrounded by a few trees. The thorns and stickers might not have hurt the buffalo's tough hide but they would've ripped my skin to shreds.
<Tobias, has anyone come up with a plan for destroying the Helmacron ship's sensors yet?>
<No, but we're going to have to figure out something fast. Definitely before those helicopters decide to change their focus and come after the box again.> Tobias swooped down and landed on a nearby branch.
I opened my mouth and dropped the slippery, spit-covered box on the ground. Then focused on my own DNA and felt the changes begin.
Even though everyone says I have a talent for morphing — and I have to admit I usually can sort of control the process — it still doesn't follow any real, precise pattern. So I wasn't surprised when the first thing to go this time was my tail. It drooped slowly and then started to melt like hot wax, then —
SCHLOOP!
Was sucked right back up into my body.
Bones began to grind and crunch, reshaping themselves.
My eyes crawled closer together. My ears shriveled and shrank.
SPROOT! SPROOT!
Ten human toes shot out of the crumbling hooves. My bones adjusted and reformed into ankles, then knees, then hips. My massive horns crumpled, deflated, and rolled back up toward the cleft at the center of my head.
<Yuck,> Tobias said, ruffling his feathers and looking the other way. <No offense, Cassie, but that is really gross. I'm glad I haven't eaten anything in a while.>
I began to say, "I know," but it came out as, "waaaw waaw."
"I know," I repeated, once my jaw finished shrinking. I flexed my fingers, bent down, and picked up the box. "And I know something else, too. We might want to steer clear of the real buffalo if we can. I, uh, don't think it trusts humans very much."
<No problem,> Tobias said. <The last time I saw it was way ahead of you and still runnings
"Good," I said, exhaling. "The Gardens'll send out a search party and probably a helicopter ... "
Oh, that was a nice picture. And just what we didn't need. My mother buzzing around the sky, searching for a lost Cape buffalo, while we dodged Yeerks in helicopters who were trying to kill us.

Tobias cocked his head. Listening. <Uh-oh.> "What?"
<Tell you in a minute,> he said. I watched

him lift off, make a quick circle. <Helicopter, Cassie. The Yeerks are expanding their search. We'd better get going.>

"Are you sure it's the Yeerk helicopter, or is it the black one with a big 'The Gardens' logo on the side?" I asked.

he said tersely.

I took off at a trot, clutching the morphing cube and trying to keep to the soft carpet of pine needles since I was barefoot.

Tobias glided along only a few feet above my head. Every couple of minutes he'd flap hard for altitude, land in a treetop and check out the helicopter's progress.

<lt's getting closer but it hasn't pinpointed us yet,> he said, swooping back down and landing on a tree branch a few yards ahead of me. <l —> His head jerked and he fell silent.

"What?" I said, huffing a little as I jogged toward him. "What, Tobias?"
And then I broke into the clearing and I saw for myself.
The Cape buffalo stood there, quivering. Twisting. Its eyes bulging with panic. Its mouth gaping in a silent scream. The scene was pretty bizarre all by itself. But in our world things always had to be slightly more than weird.
See, the Cape buffalo stood there, but instead of a Cape buffalo head and face was our assistant principal's.
Chapman.

A freak of nature.
So help me, that's the first thought that swept into my mind, as I watched the buffalo stumble and squirm.
It sprouted a human leg covered with coarse, black animal hair.
Fringed, shaggy ears whipped out of Chapman's head, then shrunk into dachshund-sized ears.
<What the . . .> Tobias finally blurted, sounding a little nauseated.
"It's morphing," I whispered. I covered my mouth with my free hand and fell back a step. It was really terrible.
Chapman's skull split in the center and a pair of horns flowed from the crack like waves.
<How could it be morphing?> Tobias said, turning away and staring at me instead of the buffalo.
"It must have touched the blue box," I said helplessly, thinking back. I had laid the box down in the truck while I morphed . . .
"Oh, God. It saw me morph. In the truck. And then somehow, while I was out rampaging around the highway, it must have ripped free of its remaining restraints, brushed past the box, and then .. . It had plowed straight into Chapman and without even knowing it, had acquired his DNA."
I fell silent, not even realizing that I'd been speaking aloud.
<How could this happen?> Tobias asked, keeping his fierce, hawk's gaze fixed firmly on me. Like if he didn't see the buffalo, it wouldn't exist. <Cassie, we can't have an animal roaming around out here morphing Chapman! And what if it touches something else? What if it goes around acquiring, I don't know, everything, because it doesn't know any better!>
"It could, because it doesn't even know what's happening to itself," I said quietly, watching as the morph to Chapman finally became complete. "Look."
<l really don't want to,> he said, but did anyway
The buffalo — Chapman — was down on all fours, and though the human form was apparent it was covered in coarse hair — thankfully. Suddenly, it began tossing its head and making hooking movements even though it no longer had its horns. It snorted, then sniffed the air with its now-pitiful human nose. Slowly, watchfully, it lowered its head and bit off a mouthful of weeds.
"It's grazing," I said, feeling nauseous.
The buffa-human stiffened. It looked around, then spotted me. Issued a challenging snort and then a weak, warbling, "WAAAA!"
"I can't watch this anymore," I said, as the buffa-human — or Chapman or whatever it was — crawled and lurched toward me on its hands and knees. It was trying to charge, to hook me with its nonexistent horns, to kill me. To protect and defend.
I stepped aside as it lumbered past, its human head swinging and its tongue lolling out. Not even realizing it had missed me.
<This isn't too weird,> Tobias said, as the buffa-human stopped. Turned.
And slowly, creakily, straightened up onto its knees.
Wrong. It was all wrong! This terrible, twisted creature made my skin crawl. An adult — an assistant principal — was not supposed to huff and grunt and drool. Was not allowed to crawl and snort and pant. It betrayed everything I knew to be true about — about —
"It has a human brain, Tobias, but it doesn't have a clue as to what to do with it," I said, unable to stop staring at it, the way some people stare as they drive by car wrecks. It was grisly, it was gruesome, but I couldn't stop watching as the creature rose, wobbling and unsure, onto two legs. "Look, it's learning. It's watching me and learning!" The sight was both disturbing and exciting.
<Yeah, well, that's great except that we've got to get out of here,> Tobias said, flapping to the top of the tree for another helicopter check. <Oh, yeah. There's a whole group of people fanned out across the edge of the field and they're making their way over here.>
"We can't just leave it here," I said, watching as the buffa-human took a first shaky step toward me.
<Well, we can't take it with us!> Tobias said.
No we couldn't, not like this. But if I could get it to demorph back into its buffalo shape, then it would stop putting off so much morphing energy.
<Come on, Cassie, the Yeerks know at least one of those buffalo is giving off morphing energy —>
"Wait, Tobias. I'm going to morph back into

the buffalo to see if I can get it — him — to do it, too," I said. I focused on the powerful DNA swimming in my blood.

The buffa-human watched me, unblinkingly, as I fell forward onto four short, muscular buffalo legs.

My jaw ground and shifted into a long, hinged bovine one. My eyes slithered apart and my nose broadened. My nostrils stretched wide. Muscle upon muscle bulked up my body until I was huge and majestic and magnificent, with a tough hide and a hair-trigger temper.

But this time I was prepared for the buffalo's aggressive defenses, and I controlled them.
And then the other buffalo began to demorph.
Chapman's pale, human skin darkened and sprouted coarse hair. The flesh covering his bones shivered, rippled, and bent, forming into four bovine legs. His gaze remained locked onto mine as he fell forward, as his neck bulged —
And then the morph stopped.
<Come on,> I urged in thought-speak. I pushed aside the rising dominance I felt and moved slowly forward. Went nose-to-nose with the buffa-human in a sociable greeting. <Come on!>
The creature with Chapman's face stumbled backward, its legs thinning back to human's, fingers and toes bursting from its fading hooves.
<i don t get it. Why didn't it work? Two hours in morph and we'll have a really disturbing nothliton our hands,> Tobias called from the treetop. <Cassie! We have to leave him here. The Gardens search team'll find him sooner or later!>
<What, as half-Chapman, half-buffalo? That's insane! We can't leave him! He doesn't even understand what's happening to him!> I cried.
I was frustrated because what Tobias said was absolutely true. We did need to go, but how could I have created such a mutation, even by mistake, and then abandon it — him?
I felt a little like a twenty-first-century Dr. Frankenstein and it was not a good feeling.
<Cassie, if we wait any longer. . .> Tobias warned.
<AII right!> I shouted, then was immediately ashamed. <Sorry, Tobias.> I demorphed, avoiding the puzzled buffa-human's gaze, then, even though I was exhausted, immediately began to morph to wolf.
Thick shaggy fur sprouted all over my body. My spine stretched and crackled. The palms of my hands puffed and hardened into thick, protective pads. *
My skull shattered and ground into a canine skull. My snout shot out and my teeth grew into long, lethal fangs.
The buffa-human snorted and tossed his hu

man head. His torso was all bulky buffalo, his head and legs pathetically human. He was grotesque.

He lumbered toward me but I was a wolf now, and I moved with easy grace and lightning quickness.

<Okay, Tobias,> I called, picking up the morphing cube with my mouth. <l'm outta here. You fly back and get the others. I'll meet you guys up ahead.>

<Alone,> Tobias said, glancing pointedly at the odd mix of buffalo and human, and then launching himself into the air.

I looked at the creature, who was standing there, watching me.
<Alone,> I whispered, turning away in shame.
Because one way or another, his life as a normal African Cape buffalo was completely over.
As a creature morphing, he would draw the Helmacron sensors. And if he exceeded the twohour limit in morph, he'd become some kind of hideous nothlit. Forever a mutant. Even if The Gardens found him, they wouldn't know what to do with him.
And I knew I was leaving him to die.

I ran hard for a long time. Trying to put that last picture of the buffa-human out of my mind. Trying to forget how he'd started to follow me and how his plaintive, bewildered grunting still echoed through my head.
Leaving him was wrong. But I had done it anyway.
I had abandoned an animal with human DNA in its bloodstream.
Thwok thwok thwok!
I glanced up. Spotted a lone helicopter with no logo on the side.
The ominous drone was growing closer.
I paused, trying to figure out what to do.
In morph I was sending a stronger signal and the helicopter could keep an easy lock on me. If I quickly demorphed back to human — besides that one fast burst of energy — I'd be giving off no signal except for the energy from the cube, and maybe I could lose them again.
Hunkering down on my haunches, I crept into the hollow beneath a clump of bushes and demorphed in record time.
Thwok! Thwok! Thwok!
The trees stirred and the darkening sky vibrated with the dull, thundering rumble of the sharp, swishing blades.
Time to run.
I crawled out and took off, zigzagging through the forest. I was cold, clumsy, slow. Twilight had fallen and I couldn't see well in the growing darkness. My feet were battered and bruised.
But what I was losing in miles I was making up for in confusion. The Yeerks in the helicopter kept losing the cube's signal and wheeling off in other directions, circling wider and wider until they were far enough away for me to pause, rest, and takeoff again.
So this is how the hunters do it, I thought, trying to catch my breath as I staggered through the shadows. They don't even have to get dirty or tired. They can just sit in helicopters, probably drinking coffee, and chase their prey until it collapses.
The helicopter's ominous THWOK! THWOK! THWOK! had returned and it was directly above me now, running me ragged, beating me down until I had no strength left and my pounding heart seemed ready to explode. I felt the same sick, terrified desperation of the hunted, powerless to shake the ominous, stalking specter of death.
I veered right in an effort to throw them off.
Dragged myself under a rock ledge to remorph.
I had to break the lock the Helmacron sensors had on me. Weaken the signal.
THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!
If I didn't, the Yeerks would seize the blue box.
They'd hold me down as a Yeerk slug slithered into my ear and wove through my brain. I'd become a Controller, and then the Yeerks would know everything. That the "Andalite bandits" were really a bunch of human kids. They'd know where we lived, went to school, even what we ate. They'd know our families and take them, too.
They might even kill us. But they wouldn't kill Ax. Ax would be given to a Yeerk up-and-coming in the ranks. We all knew that another Andalite body, even one that was really just a kid's, was a coup.

They would find out about the Chee and annihilate them, extinguishing a race that had been around for millions of years. They would find out about the hidden colony of free Hork-Bajir and about the small but growing Yeerk resistance.

If I didn't find a way to break this sensor lock we were all dead.
I closed my eyes. Gathered up my shredded concentration.
Thwok! Thwok! Thwok!
I sat up and opened my eyes. Listened.
No, I hadn't imagined it. The treetops had stopped shaking and the leaves had stopped swirling around me.
The helicopter had moved off.
Exhausted, trembling, I grabbed the blue box and crawled out from under the bushes. Lay back on the carpet of pine needles and listened to the helicopter's faint thrumming. Watched as an assortment of owls and other birds of prey landed around me and began to demorph.
"Cassie?" Jake said, when he'd finished demorphing. "Are you all right?"
No, I definitely wasn't all right. I knew I was going to have to get up somehow, find the energy to morph again, and keep on running.
"I'm fine," I lied. Being an Animorph had made lying a necessary evil. For all of us.
"Good, because I've got some pretty decent news," Jake said, smiling. "Erek rigged up a device that simulates morphing energy and planted it back at the far edge of the woods. Once the Yeerks find it they'll know it's a fake, but at least it'll buy us some time to figure out what to do."
So. I hadn't saved us by demorphing that last time. The Yeerks had been lured away by a stronger signal in another direction. Figures.
"The Chee are taking our places at home, so we're covered for the night," Rachel added, glancing around. "I should've stayed in owl morph. How are we supposed to find a place to hide while we make a plan if we can't even see where we're going?"
"We should go wolf," I answered. "That way we can move quickly and I can carry the morphing cube. I'm pretty sure there's a cave a few miles from here. The one I found when I was lost with Karen." The thought of Karen gave me a good feeling. She was a little girl who'd been infested by a Yeerk. But now she was free and the Yeerk had become part of the Yeerk peace movement. The thought also helped me remember that a few good things have happened to us since all this started. I guess that stands for something.
The next voice I heard was Tobias's. <l filled them in on the buffalo, Cassie. They thought of something we didn't. Actually, Ax thought of it.>

I turned to look at Ax.
He stared back with two of his four eyes. His stalk eyes were in constant movement, scanning the dark woods. His scorpion tail was curved high and ready to strike.
"And?" I said wearily.
<Tobias told us that this mutant learned to stand by observing you,> Ax continued. <And if he learns to speak, he will, most likely, be able to identify you.>
"Forget learning to speak," I interrupted, realizing what I hadn't realized before. "He's seen me morph! If the Yeerks infest him and are able to tap into his memories . . ."
<Human or buffalo,> Tobias added quietly. <lt's seen you morph while it was in both forms.>

LjJolves can move. Quickly. Quietly. And for a very long time. The five of us blew through the woods until we finally found the cave. Tobias stayed overhead. Our own personal eye in the sky.
The helicopter was a constant presence, beating through the night sky like a distant pulse, rising and falling, keeping us on edge and very, very aware of every movement. And every shadow.
The cave itself was little protection from the Yeerk shock troops. But the feeling that* comes from being walled-in on three sides was false security enough for us to be able to rest for a little while.
The sun set as we huddled in the gray light. Well, I huddled. Rachel paced. Tobias perched on a low-hanging branch just outside the cave's entrance where Ax was keeping watch. Jake was sitting close by.
"Have I mentioned to all of you how much I hate this?" Marco grumbled, his voice eerily disembodied in the dim light. "I mean, it just doesn't stop."
"Neither does your mouth," Rachel retorted automatically, "C'mon, Jake, we need a better plan than just playing Keep Away."
"I know," Jake said, his fingers creeping over mine. "Any suggestions?"
"Well, I guess we have to find a way to disable the Helmacron sensors or destroy the ship, because no matter where we hide the cube, the sensors will find it," I said.
Marco snorted. "Do you think? You mean all we have to do is find a way to dodge the sensors and get up to the helicopter? All the while, we fight off the Yeerks' goon squad, find a puny, ultramicroscopic device, and smash it before we're either killed or captured. No problem-o."
<And don't forget about the buffa-human,> Tobias said.
"That one's easy," Rachel said dismissively. "We just have to get rid of it."
"But he's already acquired human DNA," I protested.
' So what? You're saying if we kill it, it's murder?" Rachel asked. "Come on, Cassie, it's not a human any more than I'm a bear or you're a wolf —"
"Or I'm a big monkey," Marco added.
Silence.
"Okay, so maybe Cassie does have a point," Jake said, obviously trying not to laugh.
"Nice," Marco smirked. "Very nice, Prince Jake."
Ax swiveled an eyestalk in Jake's direction. <Prince Jake, Marco and Rachel do make a valid point. I, too, have acquired human DNA. Does this make me a human rather than an Andalite?>
Silence.
"I hate these kinds of questions." Rachel. "There are never any concrete answers! I say we do whatever we have to do to protect ourselves and if that includes killing a buffalo, well, too bad. We know firsthand that cows die every day to make hamburgers —"
"Not in the school cafeteria," Marco said. "I'm pretty sure that's roadkill."
"Marco, let me ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"Is there any part of 'shut up' that you don't understand? 'Cause I'd be happy to explain it to you."
"C'mon, guys," Jake said impatiently. "We don't have a lot of time here."
He was right. We didn't know where the buffalo was or if the Yeerks had already captured it . . .
I shuddered. Forced myself not to mention the horrible possibility out loud.
The helicopter's engine still pulsed through the night like a dull heartbeat. A little louder. A little closer.
Jake sighed. "Yeah, well, we don't know anything for sure right now, except that we have to destroy those sensors if we plan on seeing our next birthdays."
<Okay, so how can we get inside the helicopter?> Tobias asked, sounding strained.
Jake looked toward the cave entrance and then back to us. "Why go inside it?"
"How are we supposed to destroy the sensory devices if we don't get inside the helicopter that's carrying them?" Rachel asked.
"Maybe we should take down the whole helicopter," Jake said. "Don't even risk going inside. We already know we don't exactly want to get up close and personal with Taxxons or Hork-Bajir if we can avoid it."
"I agree," I said. Hork-Bajir were lethal enough with their razor-bladed bodies, but the Taxxons — gigantic, cannibalistic centipedes with incredibly sharp teeth — were just disgusting. The stuff nightmares are made of.
"So, how do we take down a helicopter?" Rachel said. "We've totally lost the element of surprise."
"No surprise," Jake said. "We give the Yeerks what they want. We let them get a good look at the morphing cube —"
<Uh, Jake?> Tobias said. <lsn't that a little risky? I mean, you know that Visser Three wants this cube. What if once he's absolutely sure we've got it with us, he sends a whole Hork-Bajir army to get it? We're good, but we're not that good.>
"Exactly, and here's where the fake-out comes in," Jake said. "Once the Yeerks pinpoint the source of the morphing energy, 'cause we let them 'catch us,' they're going to be on the lookout for a trap, right?"
"Oookay," Marco said.
"So we give them one, only not from the direction they expect."
<Prince Jake, exactly what is the meaning of "fake-out"? I am not sure I understand^ Ax asked.
"You're not the only one," Rachel muttered.
"Okay, look," Jake said, sighing. "The guys in the helicopter are hunting the source of the morphing energy. We're it. We let the cube be spotted and then take off. While they're trying to run us to ground, one of us hangs back and ambushes them."
"Brilliant!" Marco stood up and applauded. "One of us against a bunch of Controllers in a helicopter. Which, I'm guessing, just guessing, is equipped with a bunch of weapons. What's the plan, morph a bird and peck the copter to death? Splatter poop all over the windshield and hope it crashes?"
"We could try to lure it down to the ground," Rachel offered. "And then attack it and destroy the Helmacron ship."
Marco shook his head. "Like they won't be expecting that."
"Do you have a better idea?" Rachel snapped.
"I kinda like the peck-'n'-poop thing, myself," he said brightly.
"You know, birds get sucked into airplane engines and cause crashes all the time," I said quietly, tightening my grip on Jake's hand.
<L)gh,> Tobias said uneasily. <Not a good way to go.>
"So, you're saying we do a suicide run?" Rachel said.
"Well —" Jake began.
"No," Marco interrupted. "Not a suicide run, a cartoon run! Oh, man, I am so good! Listen, what does Wile E. Coyote do when he wants to squash the Road Runner?"
"He straps one of those Acme rockets to his back," Rachel said. "Dive-bombs him or something."
Marco slapped his forehead and groaned. "Noooo! Come on, am I the only one educated in cartoon combat?" We all stared at Marco. "Oh, for. . . He drops an anvil on him! Don't you get it? We need to drop an anvil on the helicopter!"
"Ahhh," Jake said slowly. "Okay, yeah. It's perfect. We can't do it over the woods, though. The last thing we need is to cause a fire or something."
Everything was falling into place. "We lure the helicopter out over the ocean. And then we drop the anvil," I said calmly.
Jake smiled. "The sooner we get this done, the better. This is going to take split second timing to pull off."
<Jake?> Tobias said urgently. <Someone's coming. Taxxons.>
"Morph," Jake ordered. "Now!"

J. morphed.
I concentrated on the DNA and within a heartbeat, powerful horns popped through my scalp and were flowing and curving down the sides of my head and ending in sharp, deadly spears.
My internal organs slithered and gurgled, swimming and settling into my expanding bulk.
SPROOT!
My tail shot out.
My teeth grew, crowding my jaw and flattening into grinding molars. Coarse black hair sprouted and spread across my muscular tank body.
And when the African Cape buffalo's mind rose, I was ready. Got a lock on the aggressive, hair-trigger temper.
<The Taxxon trackers have spotted the cave, Prince Jake,> Ax said tensely. <l would not advise getting trapped in here.>
He was right. I glanced over at Jake, who'd morphed a sleek, deadly tiger.
At Rachel, a massive, towering grizzly bear.
Marco, a gorilla with enormous hands and the strength to tear a human apart limb from limb.
At Ax and Tobias who'd chosen their own forms. An Andalite whose razor-tipped tail was as lethal as lightning and twice as fast. And a redtailed hawk with talons created to puncture, rip, and tear.
<l'll go first.> Jake padded silently to the edge of the cave.
I followed him, the blue box wedged tightly in my mouth.
Clop clop clop!
<C'mon, Cassie, let's get movin', ole girl,> Marco joked, slapping me on the rump.
The buffalo temper flared and I twisted, tossing my horns at him.
<Whoa! Watch it, will you? You almost gutted me!> he said, leaping back just in time.
<Sorry about that,> I muttered.
I followed the others cautiously out of the cave, relying more on my sense of smell and hearing than on my eyesight. I was listening for even the slightest whisper of sound.
<We've got trouble,> Jake said.
<No problems Rachel threw back her head and let out an enraged roar.
"GGGGRRRRRRROOOAARRR!"
The night erupted.
The buffalo's overwhelming defense instincts kicked in and suddenly I was barreling through the weeds, tossing my horns, and impaling a Taxxon where it stood.
"SSSKKKRRREEE!" It fell, writhing and twisting, foul-smelling blood pumping from its wounds.
Immediately, two other Taxxons converged and tore it to shreds.
I began to bellow, enraged by the scent of aggression, by the invasion and threat to my herd.
WHAM!
I charged, slamming one of the feeding Taxxons into a tree. It burst, spewing guts everywhere. Frenzied, I trampled the second Taxxon, piercing its fat, squishy body with my hooves.
It slashed at me, spasming in its death throes', but I barely felt its needle teeth. My heart was thundering and adrenaline powered my massive body.
Nothing hurt. And nothing could stop me.
"SSSRRREEEWAAAARRI!"
I whirled and saw Jake rake open a Taxxon. "RRRROOOOOWWWRRR!"
Rachel, slashing and biting at a pair of HorkBajir, her chest matted with blood.
Fury rose and I stampeded a Hork-Bajir.
WHUMPF!
Its fiercely bladed arm split my shoulder.
I gored it, trampled it. Backed off.
It didn't move.
FWAP! FWAP!
Ax's tail blade was slicing and dicing, severing Hork-Bajir arms, hands, landing lethal blows, but there were too many and he was being driven back toward the cave.
A furious, gray haze misted my vision and I barreled through the Hork-Bajir, a tank, a steamroller, hooking them, goring them, scattering them like bowling pins.
More Hork-Bajir converged, wrist and arm blades slashing.
"TSSSSEEEER!" Tobias screeched, raking his talons across a Hork-Bajir's eyes.
It screamed.
Everyone was screaming.
Marco bellowed. Bringing down his huge fist onto a Taxxon. But his scalp was split, and one of his ears was missing.
<There're too many!> he yelled.
"GGRRROOOWWWWWR!" Rachel roared, as a Hork-Bajir blade carved a deep swath through her shoulder.
Jake leaped, grabbing a Taxxon and taking it down, ripping at it with his back claws. Leaped away and took down another one. <Keep fighting! If we retreat now, we're dead!>
I slammed into another Hork-Bajir. And another. Stomped them. Gored them.
Their blades sank deep into my hide, slicing me open, nicking my bones and making me scream in pain, making me charge in fury, making me fight to the death.
<l'm losing it, Jake!> Marco yelled, clutching his head and reeling away from a downed Taxxon.
<Prince Jake, we have to stop,> Ax said grimly, lopping the head off a slavering, chittering Taxxon. <We are severely outnumbered —>
That's when I heard the familiar bellowing. The enraged bellow was fresh and furious.
<lt's the buffalo, Cassie!> Tobias shouted. <The Yeerks didn't get it!>
I sucked in lungfuls of air and let out a resounding, answering snort.
The buffalo went berserk. It was a whirlwind of destruction. Trampled, pierced, gored, and gouged huge, gaping holes in the Taxxons. Battered the Hork-Bajir.
We all went a little crazy after that, on some kind of sick, bloody rampage spurred on by the African Cape buffalo who annihilated the HorkBajir ranks with sheer savagery. And finally, sent them howling, bent and broken, into the forest.
And then it was over.

W e were all pretty messed up. So with Ax and Tobias keeping a lookout and the buffalo following doggedly at our heels, we demorphed.

The buffalo watched us, then began its own morph.
Once again, unnervingly, the head developed first.
"Of all the people around, it just had to acquire Chapman?" Marco joked lamely, turning away. "That is so not cool."
<l don't think there1 was a lot of choice involved there,> Tobias said.
"It's becoming human," I said quietly, watching as the buffalo's skin faded and lightened, as the coarse hairs were sucked back into its body. <lt doesn t know what it's doing, Cassie,> Tobias said.
CCRRACK!
The buffalo's legs reversed, stretched, and hinged into human knees.
"There's something really gross about this," Rachel said, shaking her head. "It's so, I don't know, unnatural."
"So are we," I said, watching as the buffahuman wobbled up onto two feet.
Jake shot me a concerned look.
"That's different," Marco said. "We morph consciously. This buffalo's just mimicking what it sees. It doesn't know what the heck is going on."
"But what if it could learn?" I said. "What if now that it has a human brain, he learns to use it? What if it learns how to reason, or —"
"Nuh," the buffa-human grunted. "Guhhrnuh." It looked up at me and blinked.
"It's learning to talk," I said, feeling a mixture of hope and nausea.
"No way," Marco shot back. "That was just some kind of weird, random firing of neurons in the speech part of its brain."
"You're wrong," I said, stepping slowly toward the buffa-human, who went very still. "Hi. I know you can't understand me yet —"
"Nuh," it grunted, tossing its head. "Uhhhhnnn."

"Hi," I repeated.
"Heeeeehhhhh," it said, looking puzzled. "I wouldn't push too hard to teach it to talk,

Cassie," Jake warned. "If it becomes too human, it's gonna be a problem."

"Trust me, Jake, it's not gonna live that long," Rachel snapped. "I'm not being handed to the Yeerks by some lame Chapman mutation."

Thwok thwok thwok!
<Helicopter,> Tobias said tensely.
"We'll have to morph," Jake said, running a

hand through his hair. "We don't have a choice.

Everyone use your wolf morphs."
Thwok thwok thwok!
I concentrated on the wolf DNA. Immediately,

a ruff of thick, lush fur sprouted around my neck. My legs dwindled in size but didn't weaken. My chest and shoulders swelled, and my face began to bulge. My teeth grew into long, deadly fangs.

The buffa-human was morphing, too. Watching me as its defenseless, human body beefed up until it was a dark, massive rock. As the rolling, deadly horns sprouted from the center of its skull.

Mimicking.

THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

The trees whipped wildly and dirt flew. I scooped up the blue box in my mouth.

<Let's haul!> Jake ordered, streaking out of the clearing.
We dashed after him, slipping away into the darkness just as a blinding shaft of light pierced the clearing from above.
<Wait!> I shouted. <The buffalo!>
<We can't wait!> Rachel said, tearing past me.
<But we can't leave it!> I cried, pacing anxiously in the dense shadows.
<Come on, Cassie! It's not in morph. If it runs away, it won't draw the Helmacron sensors. We will, so let's go!> Jake said.
The real buffalo bellowed and snorted and barreled after me, bringing the searchlight with it.
I couldn't kill it and I couldn't let it reach me. If it did, the Yeerks would see the morphing cube in my mouth. And that just wasn't going to happen.
Whirling, I shot off after the others.
I could hear the buffalo crashing along behind me, snapping trees and crushing anything in its path.
The helicopter blades sliced through the air but I was already pulling ahead of the buffalo, dodging and racing through the woods.
TSSSEEEWW!
A pine tree behind me exploded.
TSSEEWW!
KA-BOOM!
A huge boulder blew apart, winging fragments like shrapnel.
<Bug fighters,> I heard Ax say grimly.
<No kidding,> Marco said.
"SSSSRRRREYYYAA SSSEEWWWITT!"
A pair of Taxxons burst through the bushes in front of Tobias.
"Grrr GrrOWWWRR!" I dropped the blue box and launched myself at the closest one. Felt its rows of tiny legs scrabbling through my fur. Sank my teeth into its disgusting body and twisted, yanking and tearing its flesh.
It screamed.
I bit it again, sinking my muzzle into its guts and ripping them out of its body.
I left it dead, and helped Tobias finish off the other one. Trotted back and picked up the blue box.
<Thanks,> Tobias said, running alongside me. <l didn't even see them coming.>
<Don't do that again, Cassie,> Jake called back sternly. <Don't leave that morphing cube anywhere. There could have been another Taxxon waiting to grab it! And then what?>
He was right, but his scolding tone still hurt.
<Sorry,> I mumbled.
<Rachel, drop back behind Cassie,> Jake instructed. <And if there are any more attacks —>
<l'll handle it,> Rachel promised, circling back around me.
I felt like a total idiot. Like I should have known better. Only I couldn't have stood there and let the Taxxons rip Tobias apart, could I? No.
<He's worried about you, Cassie,> Rachel said to me, in private thought-speak.
<He should trust me to do the right thing,> I said.
<He does, or he would've made somebody else carry the cube. That's why he put me back here. While you do the right thing, I do the necessary thing. Get it?>
<Well, when you put it that way,> I said, mollified.
SLASH!CCRRAAAAAAAACK!
Hork-Bajir exploded out of the woods around us.
And somewhere up ahead, I heard Jake howl in pain.

I t was total mayhem.
Screams. Shouts.
Grunts of pain.
Snarling.
Rachel shot past me, a lethal blur of fur and

teeth. Launched herself at the closest Hork-Bajir and ripped its throat out.

That's when the buffalo came up from behind me and charged into the fray, slamming and trampling Hork-Bajir, mindless of its own open wounds.

TSEEEEW! TSSEEEW! The clearing lit up with a blinding flash and another tree exploded.

I couldn't drop the blue box, so I couldn t fight. Couldn't help my friends. I was glad the buffalo had followed us, glad to see it take my place in battle, but I was afraid, too. If the HorkBajir-Controllers noticed I wasn't fighting, noticed my jaws weren't free to defend myself. . .

I hunkered down and belly-crawled under a thick bush.

THWOK! THWOK! THWOK!

The helicopter hovered directly above us. The downwash pounded us with dirt and pine needles and rubble. The spotlight flooded the clearing. There really was no place to hide.

It was a bloody, gruesome scene.
Severed Hork-Bajir arms and legs twitching in the dirt. Growing pools of blood. Taxxons feasting, drooling, like something out of a slasher movie — only this was real.
TSEEEWWW!
I bolted out from under the bush.
The spot near where I'd been hiding exploded in a shower of rocks and dirt.
<Run, Cassie!> Jake shouted. <Just go! Head for the beach! We're right behind you!>
Leave them and run? I paused in the shadows, torn.
THWOK! THWOK!
TSEEEW!
A pine tree shattered.
The spotlight shifted toward me. Searching for the morphing energy.
Searching for the blue box.
We took off, zigzagged, and somehow managed to lose the helicopter. The Bug fighters swooped and zipped through the sky, blasting anything and everything that moved, but at least they were still focused on the woods behind us.
<For now I guess they think we should be too beat-up to run,> Marco said, limping.
<Good,> Jake said, padding along beside me. <Let them keep thinking that.> He glanced at me. <You okay?>
<Yeah,> I said shortly, tightening my jaws around the blue box.
He must have noticed my tone, because he said in private thought-speak, <l'm sorry I yelled at you before. It kind of came out wrong.>
<That's okay,> I said, too weary to hold a grudge. <l understand. We can't lose the blue box, no matter what.>
<The forest is thinning and there is a road up ahead, Prince Jake,> Ax said, slowing. <Should we keep going?>
<Yeah, we're going to have to cross it to get to the beach,> Jake said.
<There's probably going to be a whole mess of them patrolling the road,> Tobias said quietly. Controllers,> Rachel sneered.
And probably even more Hork-Bajir, I thought.
We crept beneath huge clumps of sticker bushes lining the edge of the road.
<AII right, I'm open for suggestions,> Marco said. <How do we get across without being seen?>
<Morph toflies,> Rachel said immediately.
<Flies can't carry the blue box,> Jake pointed out.
<Okay, so I'll morph elephant, kick some butt, and carry it across myself,> Rachel snapped back.
<Not a good idea,> Marco said. <We've been doing okay so far because the goon squad's been so spread out searching for us. Now they know we're in the area and they're gonna swarm us. We don't need to advertise exactly where we are. Yet.>
<Do you have a better idea?> Rachel said sweetly, which for Rachel usually means she'd like to punch you in the face.
We shrank back from the road as a patrol car cruised slowly past, shining its spotlight into the woods.
<Well, we'd better think of something because the longer we stay here, the better our chances of getting caught,> Jake said. Especially if that buffalo catches up to us again.>

<But when it's not morphing, it's not giving off any morphing energy,> I said.
<No, but it's not exactly the quiet type, either, Cassie,> Marco said. <lt just charges in like . . . well, like a big ole buffal o
<Don't worry,> I said, with a confidence I didn't really feel. <We left it way behind us.>
Marco looked at me. I turned away first.
<We could break down the cube and each carry a piece across the road,> Tobias suggested, getting us back on track.
<No, because we'd still have to use morphs big enough to be seen,> Jake said.
And then it came to me. Pure. Simple. Ridiculously simple.
<Throw it,> I said.
<What?> Jake said, startled.
<Rachel said it before. It's like playing Keep Away,> I said. <We morph into flies, cross the road and demorph. One of us stays behind, demorphs, and throws the box over the road when nobody's looking. The rest of us get it, the thrower morphs to fly, buzzes over, and we're gone! Simple.>
<That's a lot of morphing energy in one place,> Tobias said uneasily. <We're bound to draw the Helmacron sensors and the helicopter. And then come the ground forces.>
<But staying here will also allow the Helmacron sensors to determine our locations Ax pointed out.
Thwok thwok thwok!
The helicopter.
<Okay, let's do it,> Jake said. <Sorry, Rachel. That's your line.>
<l'll let it slide this time,> she said. <But don't let it happen again.>
It was a simple plan and it should have been easy.
I should have known better.

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