"S. The Andalite bandits," she said. Her face was twitching with tension, but she tried to sound calm. "You've done me a big favor. When I turn you over to Visser Three he'll promote me two grades. Maybe three!"
"0r he may decide to destroy you for letting us get this far." Ax said coolly.
"Surrender. You can't escape," the woman snapped. "I'd rather take you alive, but the Visser would still be happy to have your corpses."
We stared at her. And we stared at the muzzles of the twenty automatic rifles that were leveled at us.
I held up my hand. Between my thick, brute fingers I held the Pemalite crystal.
The woman turned as pale as her hair.
"Give me that."
I shook my big gorilla head.
"Lower those guns," the woman snapped.
"What?" some guy behind her yelled. "We have them! We have them cold!"
The woman's jaw twitched again, but she stayed in control. "What do you think a bullet would do to that crystal?"
"But the odds that a bullet would hit the crystal ... It's not going to happen."
The woman smiled grimly. "That crystal is worth more than the mother ship and everything in it," she said.
Then she started yelling. "You want to shoot? Go ahead, fool! If you hit the crystal, you can explain it to Visser Three."
She got a grip on herself while the guy who had spoken out decided he was not interested in explaining anything to Visser Three.
"All human-Controllers, back. Weapons on safety," the woman snapped.
The rifles faltered, then lowered toward the ground.
But I knew better than to breathe a sigh of relief. See, I knew what was coming next.
The woman looked right at me and smiled.
"Hork-Bajir, forward."
The Andalite who'd given us our powers had told us that the Hork-Bajir had once been a gentle, decent race before they were all enslaved by the Yeerks. All Hork-Bajir were Controllers now.
But it was hard to believe the Hork-Bajir had ever been the sweethearts of the galaxy. They were death on two legs: seven feet tall, eight, if you counted the forward-raked blades that protruded from the top of their snake-heads. They had blades at their elbows, blades at their wrists, blades at their knees. They had huge claw-feet like tyrannosaurs, and a short, thick tail that ended in cruel-looking spikes.
They were walking razor blades. All sharp edges and lightning speed.
I've fought Hork-Bajir before. And I can count. Two dozen Hork-Bajir was at least a dozen more than we had any hope of defeating.
Then, behind the Hork-Bajir, beyond the retreating human-Controllers, outside the building, staring horror-stricken through the glass, I saw Erek.
Erek, who could do nothing at all to help us. Who was helpless to do anything but witness our slaughter. I felt like throwing up. The fear was all over me. The fear was surging through me, washing over me, drowning me from inside and out.
We were going to lose.
We were going to die.
And life, any kind of life almost, is so much better than being dead.
"Attack," the woman said. Her voice was nearly a whisper.
The Hork-Bajir leaped forward, a wall of slashing, whirling blades.
Right in front of me! SEEEEWWW! A huge Hork-Bajir slashed and a bright red line cut across my black leather chest! I swung my fist and hit the Hork-Bajir hard enough to fold him in two. But another leaped over him and came at me. I blocked his arm, but he kicked at me with his clawed foot.
I fell back. I looked down and saw a hole in my stomach.
A hole! I could see the gorilla's insides! My insides. My insides! "Ahhhhh!" I screamed in thought-speak, as the gorilla bellowed in agony.
The Hork-Bajir leaped on top of me. I swung again and knocked his legs out from under him. He toppled down, but landed beside me. My left hand went to his throat and I squeezed. I squeezed with all the strength I had. The Hork-Bajir slashed at me again and opened a gash in my hairy arm. But I kept my grip tight.
I screamed as the Hork-Bajir twitched and scrabbled wildly and began to jerk uncontrollably.
The battle raged all around me.
Screams. Cries. Bellows of animal rage. The garbled roars of the Hork-Bajir. Even the guttural roar of the human-Controllers, who watched and cheered the Hork-Bajir on.
I saw Jake leap through the air and close his jaws around a Hork-Bajir's face.
I saw Rachel swing her paw and open up a Hork-Bajir like someone cleaning a fish.
I saw Cassie dodging swiftly, biting, backing away, lunging to bite again, red foam flying from her muzzle.
And Ax, striking again . . . again . . . again with the deadly speed and perfect accuracy of his Andalite tail.
But we were losing. It would be over in a few seconds. We were losing.
"0h, God!"
someone screamed. Maybe it was me, I don't know.
"Help! Help! Get him off me!"
"Look ou!"
"No! Nooooo!"
It was all one combined thought-speech scream.
And still the alarm howled its screeEEEEET! I felt my grip weaken on the throat of the Hork-Bajir. But it didn't matter anymore.
It was safe to let him go.
My vision was red. Red and fading.
I felt a sharp stab as another Hork-Bajir sunk a blade into my gorilla heart.
None of it mattered, though. It was all coming to an end ... all coming to an end. . . .
Through a red mist I saw a face on the other side of the glass. Erek. Somehow, in the battle, I had ended up not far from the wall of windows.
Erek was just a few feet away. Just on the other side of the glass.
I felt something hard in my palm. The crystal.
I crawled. A vicious Hork-Bajir kick, and I went sprawling right against the glass.
"0h . . . no." I said.
I could see the damage the kick had done.
I was dead. I could feel my brain shutting down.
Human-Controllers were closing in around me, hammering me with the butts of their rifles.
With my last ounce of strength, I rammed my fist through the glass.
I felt strong fingers pry open my hand. I felt the fingers lift out the crystal.
And then . . . later, much later, someone slapped my face.
"Morph back, Marco. Morph back! Do it!"
-L woke up on the ground. Not a floor, the ground. Dirt and leaves.
I sat up very fast. I looked at my body.
"Human!" I said. I wanted to cry from the sheer relief of being myself again. Myself and alive.
I looked around. Jake. Cassie. Rachel.
Ax. All there! All human! Except for Ax, of course.
Tobias was perched in the tree above us.
Someone else was there, too. I heard a voice sobbing.
"You okay, Marco?" Jake asked.
"Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Man, I was so close to being dead!"
"You were," Jake said solemnly. "He gave you an electric shock to start your heart again."
"Who did?"
Jake jerked his head toward the source of the crying.
It was Erek, sitting in the dirt with his head down.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Little bunch of trees, just down from Mat-corn.
Or what's left of Matcom."
"How did we get here? How did we get out of that place? We were toast!"
Cassie came over and sat beside me. "You saved us by getting the crystal to Erek. He used it. He rewrote his programming. He's the one who . .