ANIMORPHS #21: THE THREAT

"birds are not capable of stealing. what are they going to do, arrest me?"

hi hello everyone and welcome back to my burn book for the british monarchy, animorphs weekly. fuck those guys, right?

wanna read a book?

THE NEWEST ANIMORPH HAS A SECRET, AND IT’S NOT GOOD. . . .

there is so much good about this cover. the tagline alone was enough to stop me in my tracks. david? the new animorph who’s dad works for the nsa and owns a cat and a cobra? has a secret? and it’s not good?? no shit sherlock i can smell the trauma from here

this morph has got to be one of my favorites. look at the second-from-the-top face. look at that. definition of A Good Boy. also, the animorphs tv series airing on nickelodeon!! i haven’t done any deep dives into the world of the tv series, because i’m genuinely trying to avoid spoilers for this book series that was released in the 90s, but it Makes Sense that it was a nickelodeon show. i wasn’t allowed to watch nickelodeon shows as a kid, because my parents were very religious and they were worried the rugrats would convince me to commit sins. joke’s on them: i’m gay!

it’s a jake book!

SUMMARY

last week, we left off on a cliffhanger. jake, marco, cassie, ax, and new animorph with a terrible secret david were sucked out of a blade ship in cockroach morph, left to whirl around in the wind and plummet towards earth. applegate solves this pretty quickly: rachel and tobias, who were trapped outside the blade ship, swoop in and catch the roaches in their little bird talons. nice!

what’s not nice? everything else

the animorphs still don’t know if the man in the helicopter was bill clinton or a decoy. they know visser three acquired his dna and will be able to morph him whenever, and there’s still the issue of six world leaders coming together at a Marriot Hotel Inn & Suites TM to discuss…world issues, i guess, and possibly get yeerk’d

do you see why my grade point average has dropped? i have to deal with this kind of stuff. it’s enough to make your head explode.

mood!

the animorphs land in the dunes and demorph. because no one thought to prep poor david with a morphing suit, he demorphs back into human and is totally nude. tobias flies off, steals orange swim trunks and a grateful dead t-shirt from a nearby beach shop, and returns as david’s hero. david’s like, you know, it’d be pretty cool if we could use our powers for crime. marco’s like yeah we’ll turn into jewel thieves once we’ve solved the yeerk issue and saved the world from succumbing to parasite aliens.

“hey, i was just kidding,” david said. “i guess i forgot you’re the only one allowed to make jokes, marco.”

slam dunk’d

the tension is still high between marco and david. and between david and the rest of the team. but jake doesn’t have time to figure out how people work. they’ve got a resort to infiltrate. jake sends tobias out to grab a seagull so david (and tobias) can acquire the dna. tobias calls seagulls rats with wings. i laughed. it’s true! they are.

once in gull morph, the animorphs fly towards the resort. there’s a ton of security prowling the area, obviously. guys in suits, guys with dogs, and as david points out, probably a ton of security in plainclothes, too. marco makes another jab about david’s dad being a controller. he apologizes, but jake’s like, uh-oh. that could become a problem! what’s going on there?? poor jake. not a thought behind those eyes.

they’re all sort of gathered on a little post, trying to figure out what to do. because it’s so crowded, they can’t really morph on hotel grounds. if they were to go as bugs, they’d have to travel quite a ways just to get onto the resort, and that’s hoping nothing goes wrong on the way in. knowing the animorphs, something will always go wrong. speaking of, as they’re strategizing, jake gets hit with a wave of pain so agonizing he can do nothing but scream. it’s over in an instant, and then ax is hit with the same pain. jake looks around. where did that come from??

there’s a security man nearby. bald, glasses, and very, very interested in the birds.

turns out the guy’s sunglasses are a low-power dracon beam! scaring away all the birds (but not killing them, because a bunch of dead birds would definitely draw attention). in order to appear as normal seagulls, and not get murked, each animorph has to take their hit and then fly away. jake feels pretty bad about it, especially david, who’s new, but to everyone’s credit they all get shot and fly out of there. jake’s feeling pretty defeated. how are they going to save the world leaders if they can’t even get through the gates?

everyone goes home, except for david, who doesn’t have a home anymore. for now, he’s staying in the loft of cassie’s barn. just another problem for jake to solve. he’s really feeling the pressure of being the team leader now. and like, every other minute he’s alive. when jake gets home, his parents are waiting for him in the living room. they’ve got bad news: cousin saddler got hit by a car.

i’m ashamed to admit that my first reaction was not “poor saddler.”

mine is. what a terrible name!

apparently cousin saddler is two years older than jake and a real asshole. he also lives in a small town about a hundred miles away — so small they don’t have a hospital! cousin saddler’s injuries are so bad he’s being transfered to the children’s hospital in town in a few days (if he survives). jake’s mom and dad are driving to help aunt ellen and uncle george, which means jake and big brother tom will be alone for two days. once cousin saddler’s been transferred to the children’s hospital (again, applegate points out, if he survives, which, okay), aunt ellen, uncle george, and their other three kids, justin, brooke, and devil forrest will be staying with jake and his family.

big brother tom is like why can’t they stay with rachel?? they’re also cousins??? but turns out uncle george and aunt ellen don’t feel close with rachel’s mom - at least, not since the divorce.

:/

jake’s mom and dad drive off pretty much immediately afterwards, leaving big brother tom and jake alone in the house. jake starts to do some research on the conference, its attendees, and the resort itself. he discovers that the new prime minister of france has a wife who always travels with her two chihuahuas. that might be their ticket in!

big brother tom comes knocking on jake’s door. it’s ten o’clock - jake’s bedtime!! jake resists the urge to call his brother a yeerk and logs off the internet. the phone rings. it’s cassie. using a very clever code, she reveals to jake that david’s missing from the barn. jake, of course, is like, fuck. he tells cassie he’ll see her soon (again in code) and waits until big brother tom sneaks out of the house on some yeerk business to sneak out of the house on some animorph business. brothers!

when he arrives at the barn, rachel’s already there. jake’s in his morphing outfit, and rachel is dressed in regular clothes. it turns out that rachel keeps a few outfits at the barn, just in case.

in case what, rachel

in case what

cassie called marco, but his dad’s out on a date and is for sure going to check in on his only son when he gets home, so he’s out. the hunt for david will be marco-less. rachel and cassie will morph owls to go find tobias and ax, and jake will morph a wolf to see if david left behind a scent trail. he has to go outside the barn to morph, because homer is a dog, and dogs are incredibly happy.

it’s hard to resist happiness. it tends to kind of carry you away.

deep

cassie gives jake a t-shirt of david’s to sniff, and jake is on the case! (that was a paw patrol reference, in case you were wondering.) turns out david wandered for awhile as a human, then morphed into a lion (cool) and then morphed into the golden eagle. along the trail, rachel returns with tobias in tow. jake demorphs once they hit the golden eagle spot and takes a look around. there’s a little strip of fast food restaurants and a holiday inn - and suddenly, jake understands. he tells the others he’ll be right back. ten minutes later, he’s knocking on a hotel door.

“david, it’s me, jake. i know you’re in there.”

it’s me, your father

david opens the door and jake’s like, dude, you can’t just break into a hotel room and sleep here. david’s like technically i didn’t break in here. a golden eagle broke in here. i’m just sleeping here. jake’s like, cut the crap, david. this isn’t what the animorphs do. we’re not criminals. (jake also reveals that he mailed money to the beach shop from which tobias stole, which, is so sweet and so unnecessary.) david’s like, look, jake, what do you want from me?? my parents will turn me over to the yeerks. i don’t want to sleep in a barn. i want to sleep in a bed, like you and cassie and rachel and marco. ax and tobias don’t count because they’re not human. i am.

it’s a fair argument

but jake’s like, yeah, dude, i get it. it sucks. and i know i don’t have a solution for you yet. i’m thirteen! and right now some world leaders are being targeted by the yeerks, so i don’t exactly have the emotional capacity to figure out what to do with you, either. david tries to say that jake doesn’t have to worry about him, that david will take care of himself, but jake is not having it. you walk out of those doors, you’re an animorph. and you’re one of us.

“i don’t want to come down on you, but the way it is is like this: you want to go around using your powers in selfish ways, then we can’t have you around. you’re just a danger to us. and you’re against what we stand for.”

his eyes widened. he rolled off the bed and stood up. “are you threatening me?”

“no. just telling you the way it is. we’re the only family you have now, david. the only people you can trust. the only people who can help you. we’re all you have. deal with it.”

it’s fun to read this scene in different voices from schitt’s creek

anyway, jake’s like, come on son, we’re going home. and david follows him.

he’s just a boy!

the next day, cassie, marco, rachel, david, and jake all skip school. it’s a risky move, considering it draws attention and connects them together, and lest we fucking forget about assistant principal controller chapman!! but desperate times call for desperate measures, and it doesn’t get more desperate than this.

cassie has a plan for getting into the resort: dragonflies. none of the insect morphs they have now can travel far distances and like, see, so the dragonfly is a great option. marco points out that a cluster of dragonflies might raise some suspicion, but cassie has obviously already thought of that, marco. the dragonfly is huge, compared to most insects, and can carry passengers. specifically fleas. everyone stares at cassie for a second. jake grabs some pine needles. time to draw straws.

jake gets the short needle, so he reaches in and acquires the dragonfly’s dna. morphing a dragonfly is, as you can imagine, horrifying. his eyes go first. it’s brutal. everyone screams.

soon, dragonfly airlines is a go, and they’re in the air. (it does take a full hour for the flea animorphs to jump accurately on the dragonfly, which is a funny bit.) tobias guides them to the resort. there are no open windows, but the doors to the lobby are wide open. afraid of just zipping right into the lobby, the animorphs instead opt to hide inside a bellhop’s hat. sure! why not! the bellhop takes them into a hotel room, chattering away with a guest about hot ancherwomen, and as soon as he tips his hat again, dragonfly airlines is out of there. they need to find a place to demorph, and fast. jake zips into an air vent, trying to find an empty hotel room. at some point, jake discovers a huge ballroom with a scene that stops him in his tracks. but he doesn’t tell us what it is. mystery!

ax is counting down the minutes. they’ve got three minutes left. jake zips down the vent — right into a spiderweb.

GREAT

panic starts to set in. everyone’s freaking the fuck out - understandably - as the spider approaches. jake tries to demorph just enough to get him out of the web, but in doing so, he creates a semihuman artery and cassie’s flea fills with blood. she literally starts oozing blood. not a bit! and the horror only grows from there! jake manages to get out of the spiderweb. there’s a minute left in morphing time. there’s no choice. he goes back to the ballroom vent, flings himself through, and yells at the animorphs to start morphing.

marco starts screaming. he can’t get out of morph. his flea just keeps growing larger and larger. he’s a literal dog-sized flea. he can’t get back into his human form. everyone is freaking out. cassie demorphs and approaches the large flea that is marco. (i cannot stress this enough, applegate does not hold back in describing just how disturbing it is that marco is trapped inside a flea body and the flea body is large enough to pet.) anyway, cassie steps forward and looks into marco’s flat black soulless eyes (applegate’s words, not mine) and talks him out of his panic attack.

slowly, slowly, slowly, marco starts to morph back into himself. and then he - no jokes here - throws his arms around cassie and starts to cry.

they’re all kids and life is a nightmare

everyone looks at cassie like she is an angel (she is) and then marco’s like, alright. where the fuck are we. jake’s like, yeah, so, this is why i didn’t want to stop in here earlier. ax, keep your tail ready. rachel, we might need some firepower. they’re in one corner of the ballroom, surrounded by a bunch of decorations. and a small-scale, portable yeerk pool. rachel points out that someone, surely, would have noticed the swirling hot tub filled with soupy kandrona, but ax responds: they’re standing inside a hologram.

there’s a bit of science talk that, i’ll be honest, i don’t totally follow. it makes sense, i’m just a simple person with simple needs. the yeerks blew a hole in the ceiling and have put in a hologram to make it look like the yeerk pool is just part of the ballroom/ they’ve put a force field around it so no one accidentally walks in on it that’s not supposed to, and there’s an on-off switch for the force field in case a controller needs to get to the pool. cool? cool.

jake steps out of the hologram to get a better look, when suddenly, three people enter the ballroom. he doesn’t hesitate to throw himself under a nearby table. one of the voices is demanding that the ballroom get rearranged. potus and the other heads of state will approach the podium from the main table by going around the pillar there in the corner. sheila, who is probably overworked and underpaid, is like, tony that’s the opposite of what you said this morning!!! the three people sit down at the table that jake’s at, and jake understands: tony isn’t really tony at all, but visser three in tony morph. he was the guy in the helicopter! it’s all coming together…

the three of them leave again, and jake rejoins the others in the hologram. ax points out that they can escape the resort by going up the hole in the roof. it’s time to go. before they leave, ax points to the swirling kandrona rays, filled with wriggling yeerk slugs. he’s like, should we, you know (mimics a knife across the throat)? jake thinks about it. but if they kill these yeerks, the others will know that the animorphs are onto their plan. and they need the element of surprise.

i shook my head. “let’s fly.”

some decisions are smart. some are dumb. some manage to be a little bit of both. this was one of those.

mood

the animorphs, of course, can’t just go up through the hole in the roof. it’s being watched by a hundred security guards, including that guy with the laser sunglasses. they need a distraction. david points out the fire alarm - he’s pulled a few in his time - and jake’s like, okay. david pulls the fire alarm, we all morph gull and get the fuck out of here. david pulls the fire alarm and starts to run back to the others and absolutely WHIFFS it on a chair. slam! straight into the ground. almost immediately, the ballroom doors fly open, and four controller guards come rushing in. david hides under a nearby table. jake makes a call: the others escape now. jake will help david. go go go!!!

david, of course, is already morphing the lion. jake keeps whispering no like david is a bad dog and not a child under extreme duress. the controller guards bar the door. if it’s andalites, they say out loud, the yeerks in the pool will be dead. jake’s relieved! they left the yeerks alone, so they just have to ride this out until the guards leave. but david has zero (0) chill. he’s full lion. the guards discover the unharmed yeerks and are turning to go, walking right past the table hiding jake and david. david turns to lunge. jake grabs him by the scruff of his neck.

bold!!!!!

jake literally record scratches freeze frame “yep, that’s me” breaks the fourth wall here to be like, now, listen, i know grabbing a full grown lion by the scruff of the neck is pretty wild. but so is my life!

the guards leave, unharmed, and david’s like, bet you thought i was gonna lose it, huh? jake’s like no dude, no reason to think that. just being prepared. david’s like cool. hey, you ever wonder who’d win in a fight? lion versus tiger? then he laughs and is like, not like it would ever matter! but i think lion.

and then he demorphs back into human

that is a veiled threat if i’ve ever read one

in order to escape the ballroom, they pull the ol’ dragonfly airlines bit - except they don’t have time to waste, so jake tells david to bite him on the back. that way, when they morph, they’ll already be attached. david does, and nothing goes wrong, and they zip out of there and meet up with the others. the entire flight home, all jake can think about david’s theoretical question. who would win?

back in the barn, the animorphs discuss the yeerks plan. clearly, the president or other heads of state will walk around the pillar to deliver their speech. once behind the pillar, they’ll get grabbed and yeerk’d, while a hologram version of them delivers the speech. the hologram would then walk back behind the pillar, the new controller version of them would walk out, and no one would be the wiser.

following?

the reason visser three didn’t just make tony into a controller on the blade ship, the boys theorize, is that there’s no way a white house official could keep sneaking off every three days to get kandrona rays. only the president could have a yeerk pool installed in the white house without everyone thinking it was weird. (and at first, reader, i was like, really? and then i remembered that tweet about the diet coke button and also the photos of the neo-nazi putting his feet on nancy pelosi’s desk and i was like, yeah, i guess the president could order a yeerk pool.)

cassie laughs. she’s like boys boys boys. dumb dumb dummies. you’re probably right, but this is visser three we’re talking about. he’s driven by ego. he wants to be in the middle of the action so he can say he did it all himself.

they’re both right!

regardless, the animorphs only have a few hours to figure out how to bust up the plan. rachel’s like, ah, i gotta go home for a bit - jake, do you? jake’s like, oh, you didn’t hear about cousin saddler? he explains how his parents are out of the house because cousin saddler got into an accident. everyone makes the right noises of sympathy, even david. but there’s something in his eyes that makes jake uncomfortable. this really just hammers the point home: jake doesn’t really know david. there hasn’t really been time. and he’s done what he’s needed to do, been brave when he was supposed to. but he did kill that bird for no reason, and broke into a hotel room, and morphed lion when he shouldn’t have. something’s not adding up.

jake and cassie take a little walk. immediately, she’s like, you want to talk about david. he’s surprised by her intuition, but cassie’s like, well you’ve been staring at him all day, it wasn’t that hard to piece together. you know what is hard to piece together? david’s deal. cassie can’t figure him out either. but, she says, one problem at a time. first let’s focus on the plan for tonight.

the plan was pretty simple and straightforward. but it was ambitious, too. see, we didn’t just want to save the heads of state. we wanted to force them to confront the truth: that there were aliens among us and that we were under attack.

if we could do that, the world really would be saved.

i hate to be a debbie downer, but there are 30+ books left, so

anyway

in order to get past the force field and the hologram, the animorphs will need to drop in from pretty high up. once inside the force field hologram, they’ll have to take out any controllers waiting back there to dunk bill clinton’s head into the portable yeerk pool. and they can’t step outside the hologram or else security will be all over them like fleas on a dragonfly. not to mention one of the heads of state is already a controller. lots of complications here, but what’s new?

the animorphs all turn bird, except marco, who goes cobra. each animorph carries a weight: lead weight, plumb bob, fishing weight, etc. except for rachel, who’s carrying marco. they make it to the resort! cassie spots the president below. he’s walking from one cottage to another wearing gym shorts! hilarious. no time for autographs, though. they find a weak spot in the force field 200 feet above the ballroom. below, they can see three controllers. and then they drop their weights.

thunk thunk thunk

out like lights!

the animorphs swoop down and land inside the hologram. the three controllers have been taken care of. now for the rest of the plan. from inside the hologram/force field, they can see into the ballroom. it’s jam packed with very important people in very nice clothing. and lots of armed guards. like, lots of armed guards. the animorphs demorph and stick close. they’ll have to wait out dinner, and make it to the speeches.

the president takes his seat. the hair on the back of jake’s neck rises. didn’t they just see the president outside? walking to a different cottage on the resort? in gym shorts? but he’s here now, wearing a tuxedo. hm…cassie’s like, well, i must have made a mistake. oh well!

no time to think about that. the speeches are starting! ax, david, and jake acquire the dna of the three knocked-out controllers and start to morph. is it morally ambiguous? yes. do they feel guilty about it? yeah. but it’s the only chance they’ve got. quickly, they get dressed using the suits the original controllers are wearing. there’s a minor bit where cassie accidentally undoes a tie, and then all the boys stare at each other like tie ??? how d o u ou oyo u ti e a te ie???? and rachel has to be like heteros and tie all their ties for them. fashion!

the plan is simple(ish). the yeerks were already planning on using a hologram version of each head of state to deliver the speech, so the animorphs won’t mess with that. but instead of taking the speech time to turn each head of state into a controller, they’ll instead show the head of state the yeerk pool, and ax’s andalite form, and explain as calmly as possible that aliens are real and the war has already begun.

then we’d let the guy go and repeat the process with each new leader. insane, yes. but it was all we could think of. and it could have worked.

could have. if…if i’d stopped to think about how well a great horned owl can see at night. and just how recognizable the president is. and just how long it takes to put on a tuxedo.

uh-oh!

the animorphs are all clustered inside the hologram. the french prime minister rises, walks towards the marble column where the yeerk pool is…and keeps walking, straight onto the stage. david whispers that he’s probably the one who’s a controller. everyone agrees, but jake isn’t so sure. he’s got a Bad Feeling about this. the french prime minister delivers his speech, goes to sit down, and then the russian premier walks up. once again, the russian premier walks past the column instead of behind it.

that’s when i knew.

“oh, man,” i whispered. “it’s a trap.”

jake gives the order: battle morphs, now! as they’re all morphing, jake turns to ax. is it possible? a hologram inside a hologram? ax doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t have to. it’s written all over his face. the russian premier starts laughing. you’re laughing? the animorphs have fallen for a yeerk trap and you’re laughing???

from within the russian premier - or, for those of you ahead of the game, the hologram of the russian premier - steps visser three

SOUND THE ALARM

turn off the outer hologram, visser three said.

suddenly, the previously jam packed ballroom is empty, save for the wall of hork-bajir warriors with their dracon beams pointed right at the animorphs.

by the way, visser three gloated. the real banquet is tomorrow night.

i’m sorry

no one thought to check that???

i get it they’re all twelve

still!!!!

they’re trapped! visser three is gloating, as per ush, making empty promises. he doesn’t want to kill them. six andalite host bodies would be perfect for his trusted lieutenants. that’s just the boost he needs to become visser one.

jake’s like, wait, six? oh, shit! marco’s a snake! hiding behind the yeerk pool, he’s gone unseen by the visser. and all the hork-bajir. jake’s brain feels like it’s moving in slow-motion (been there). something isn’t adding up. meanwhile, visser three is pointing a dracon beam back and forth between the animorphs, threatening to kill them one by one if they don’t demorph. david, the obvious judas of the group, starts freaking out. he says he’ll demorph, and then cassie bites him in the leg. sick. david tries to get cassie, but her wolf is more agile than his lion, and also she’s just better than he is. jake tells rachel to get david to knock it off. rachel swings for the lion’s head with her grizzly paw. visser three threatens david again, and he’s like, no no i’ll demorph please! he starts to run towards visser three. none of the hork-bajir flinch.

and that’s when it clicks

a hologram inside a hologram inside a hologram

christopher nolan is quaking

the hork-bajir aren’t real! neither is time! ACTION

david is standing behind visser three now. once jake reveals that the hork-bajir aren’t real, david swings and knocks visser three down. who’s side are you on??? out of the hork-bajir hologram step six human-controllers. sure. a fight breaks out. visser three starts to morph into some huge alien beast even as david is attacking. rachel takes out a few human-controllers, and so does jake. cassie gets shot leaping through the air, and two human-controllers draw their dracon beams and aim them right at cassie’s head. ax manages to get his tail against the visser’s throat. a stand-off: unless visser three tells them not to shoot, ax will decaptiate him, no hesitation.

well, he’s not the visser for nothing

which one of you is the human? he asked, his thought-speak voice suddenly silky and insinuating.

ax tries to laugh it off, but the visser continues. he knows that a human boy named david found the morphing cube. and he knows the andalites found david. they either killed him or turned him, and the andalites aren’t exactly cold-blooded killers. so david’s probably in this room. david’s parents miss him. jake tries to tell david not to say anything, but of course, david is not a Listener. he yells at visser three, full-on you took my parents! visser three’s like yeah, i did. but i pinky promise if you come with me i won’t make you a yeerk and you’ll be able to play house with your mommy and bastard cop dad won’t that be fun? if you want us to take care of you, just come to your old house! meet you there!

the yeerks and the animorphs part ways in a shaky truce, and the animorphs leave the resort. shaky, doubtful, but still alive.

me

on the way home, david’s like, y’all know i was just faking visser three out, right? i wouldn’t have actually betrayed you. jake reaches out to each of the animorphs privately. the message is the same: don’t diss david. we all play along. rachel isn’t happy. she points out that david was probably going to turn on them and only switched back at the last second because it looked like the animorphs were going to win. she might be right. but jake’s the leader, and he calls the shots. david’s a flight risk. and there is the small chance that he’s telling the truth.

the animorphs split up and return to their homes. jake confers with tobias and ax before heading home. his house is empty, as anticipated. he sticks some pillows under his blankets to make it look like he’s asleep, and then he flies back to the barn. he hides out in cassie’s dad truck and waits. if david was telling the truth, well, there shouldn’t be any issue. time rolls on. midnight, one, two. nothing. and then, around 2:30 am, as jake is fighting sleep in the front seat of his not-quite-girlfriend’s-dad’s new pickup, ax spots an eagle leaving the barn.

tobias thought-speak came from somewhat closer. i see him. jake? i hope you hear me. because we have a traitor.

damn

jake tells tobias to follow him. tobias flies off and jake starts to morph. peregrine falcons aren’t great in the dark, but what choice do they have? (hi, me again, the animorphs manager: you should all have owl morphs. you should all have owl morphs!) jake meets up with ax, who’s also in bird morph, over cassie’s barn. they head towards david’s house. they keep calling out to tobias, but he isn’t responding. ax finally asks the question i’ve been thinking: if david is going to join forces with the yeerks, what are they going to do with him?

jake doesn’t know.

they keep calling out to tobias, and it occurs to jake that maybe tobias isn’t responding because he can’t. and not just because he’s out of range. david attacked a bird before in eagle morph. would he do it again? they approach david’s house. it’s still pretty banged up from the battle that blew out all its walls. down the street is a UPS truck, probably filled to the brim with hork-bajir. there’s no sign of david, visser three, or tobias. jake tells ax to demorph and wait nearby. ax protests - an andalite always stays with his prince - but jake insists. he’s got to go into the house alone. if there’s a chance of convincing david, he has to be the one to do it.

jake swoops into the house. it’s fucking creepy. everything’s still pretty demolished, but there’s a tv on. sitting in front of the tv is a golden eagle, and next to the tv, a crumpled mass of bloody feathers. tobias. jake tries to stay calm. he tells david he can’t go through with this. david’s like go through with what? turning myself over to the yeerks? no shit sherlock i’m not that dumb.

then what are you doing? i roared, suddenly not so calm. what are you doing, hurting tobias?

hurting him? oh, he’s dead, in case you were wondering, david said. definitely dead.

reader when i tell you my jaw dropped

he killed tobias?????

i had to take a lap

tobias is dead?????

jake’s like why are you doing this??? david’s like, what choice do i have? you heard the yeerks. they know who i am. my parents would turn me in. and the animorphs aren’t my friends either. you think i’m just gonna spend the rest of my life letting you all bully me because i want to stay alive???

jake is like bullying??? bullying??? you MURDERED TOBIAS

murder? i don’t think so, jake, he said with a laugh. he’s a bird. you may kill a bird, but it isn’t murder. i’d never do that. i wouldn’t hurt a human. but hey, an animal? that’s a different story.

murdering animals is one of the early signs of a serial killer, david

jake’s like, the yeerks will never stop hunting you. and neither will we. david’s like yeah, sure. if you can catch me. but there used to be six of you, and now there’s five. and it’s about to be four.

and then he flies towards jake

i am freaking out no joke there are i shit you not five pages left in this book what the FUCK is going on

jake drops to the ground and lets the eagle fly right over him. he scrambles under the bed. the golden eagle is too big to fit, so david starts to demorph. rookie move. while he’s midmorph, jake shoots out from under the bed and goes for the face. jake’s been in a lot of fights before, but he’s never moved with the intention to kill. but that was before david murdered tobias. jake rakes his talons over david’s face. suddenly! THUMP THUMP THUMP! the hork-bajir have left the UPS truck and entered the house! jake turns and flies out of the window, david close behind. three hork-bajir follow. jake’s little bird body is stunned by the impact of david leaping on top of him. he’s not going to be able to escape the backyard.

graceful as a deer, ax leaps over the fence and places himself between the hork-bajir and his prince. the hork-bajir hesitate just long enough for ax to reach down and gather jake in his weird little andalite hands and leap back over the fence. overhead, the eagle starts to soar. jake has to go after him. ax asks him to wait until he can morph and join him, but jake can’t. there’s no time to waste. instead, he tells ax to go find rachel. she lives nearby, and her owl morph will be able to find jake and david in the dark.

good hunting, prince jake.

normally, i would have said, “don’t call me prince.” it’s a running joke between me and ax. but this wasn’t a night for jokes.

ax? i think tobias is dead, i said. i think david killed him.

that would be a most terrible thing, ax said.

yeah. get rachel. if david’s killed tobias, we may have to do a terrible thing, too.

MY JAW

IS ON

THE FLOOR

it only took til book 21 but we are heavily contemplating murder!!!!

jake flies after david. they fly over the school. they fly over the construction site. they fly over cassie’s barn. they fly until they reach the roof of the mall. david lands behind a stack of air-conditioning equipment. jake has no choice but to land - and demorph. they’re getting dangerously close to their two hour limit. he calls out to david: you want this fight? let’s have this fight.

and then he starts morphing tiger

AAAAAAAAAAA

i had done this morph many times. i had long since learned to control the tiger’s bloodthirsty instincts.

but i didn’t want to control them. not this time. not with tobias lying dead.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

david comes out in full lion morph. it’s time for a showdown. immediately, david lunges. jake tries to bite him but gets only mane! david sinks his teeth into jake’s shoulder! there’s slashing and muzzle-slapping and circling. they move across the mall’s roof, slashing and biting and striking, until jake is standing on the glass skylight. david lunges, the glass shatters, and they start falling down, down, down. david sinks his teeth into jake’s neck, and blood starts gushing everywhere.

to be continued…

ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER

REVIEW

10/5 for the ending alone. i’ll be honest the first half of this book was a lot of hologram science that i was just Not invested in, but applegate brought me RIGHT BACK with the character development. david’s betrayal is JUICY AS FUCK and i am TERRIFIED about what’s going to happen next

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• uh???? tobias???????

• are they going to murder david???

PREDICTIONS

• tobias can’t actually be dead, right?

• right?

woof. that’s all i have for you this week, folks. big thank you to the patrons: trish, charlie, alina, sienna, jackie, and chris. i love u. thank u. if u would like to become a patron, you can do so here! go drink some water and pour one out for tobias. til next time.