"Yell at me later, okay? Let's get some distances
I turned my long body easily and began swimming, using my big crocodile tail.
Cassie and Jake and Ax all turned on the speed and in ten seconds they were far out ahead of me. I saw Jake stop and look back.
"Alligators aren't exactly fast swimmers, are they?"
"Crocodiles," I corrected him. "And no. I guess not."
Then we heard . . .
PUH-WHUMPF!
It was a sound like a depth charge. Like something very large had just cannonballed into the water.
"Here he comes," Marco announced grimly. "Look out for those spears.
They look nasty."
"The what?" I asked. "The spears? What spears?"
"The thing Visser Three morphed into. I can't be sure, but I think maybe it shoots spears out of its mouth."
"Ah!" Ax said, speaking up. "l bet it's a Lebtin javelin fish! I've always wanted to see one of those. I mean . . . you know ... in a zoo or something."
"Well, we can't outrun it with Rachel in alligator morph," Jake said.
"Crocodile," Cassie said. "Not alligator."
"You guys get out of here. I'll take care of Visser Three," I said, sounding much braver than I felt. "It's my fault we're in this mess."
"Yeah, right, Rachel," Jake said.
Then he began rapid-fire orders. "Spread out. Thirty feet apart. Keep moving so he doesn't get an easy target. Marco? We could use your help down here. And for future reference, I don't give a rat's butt if it's a crocodile or an alligator, so long as it can fight."
I drifted up to the surface, showing just my nostrils and my eyes above water. I breathed out and refilled my lungs with fresh air.
The dolphins did the same, blowing out through the holes in the backs of their heads and sucking in fresh air.
In the few seconds before I dived again, I saw Jeremy Jason standing on the back of the boat. He had a huge, fierce grin on his face. He was pointing and laughing like a fan at a boxing match.
Something he yelled drifted to me on the breeze.
"Is he awesome, or what?!"
He was referring to Visser Three. He had just watched the Visser shed his human form, meld into his stolen Andalite body, then morph into a fearsome beast from some far-distant planet. And his reaction to it all was admiration.
I felt cold fury. What kind of a human being would sell out his own species?
Enjoy the show while you can, I sneered silently. It may not end the way you expect.
I sank back beneath the choppy waves, down and down. And then I saw it.
Him. Visser Three.
It was a bizarre morph. Like nothing on Earth, that's for sure. It looked like a vast, bright yellow stingray. Like a living pancake, flat and oblong. It sort of flew through the water by slowly flapping its sides. There were two stalk-mounted eyes on top, and two long, trailing antennae below.
All along its back it had spears. They were lined up flat. You know how a fighter jet has missiles tucked up under the wings? That's how it held the spears, only they were on top. But all neatly in a row, facing forward.
The spears - there must have been twenty of them - were each as long as a broom handle and just about as thick. They had irregular striping, yellow and green and bits of blue. It was probably camouflage back on the home planet of the Lebtin javelin fish. But here, in Earth's oceans, it seemed gaudy and too bright.
It flew through the water. Faster than my crocodile could ever have moved. But faster, too, than the dolphins or the shark.
"Fast," Jake said.
"Yep," I agreed.
"Probably not all that agile, though," he suggested.
"No. It will be slow in a turn."
"I've changed my mind," Ax said. "l do not think I want to see a Lebtin javelin fish."
I glanced left. Ax was holding position there. Beyond him was Jake.
Cassie was on my right. The javelin fish was now just a hundred feet away. I could only pray I wouldn't suddenly start morphing again.
Then . . .
The javelin fish - Visser Three - began to swell up. It seemed to inflate like a balloon. It slowed . . . slowed . . .
SHOOOOOOP!
A spear fired from the javelin fish's mouth! Like a rocket, it lanced through the water. I didn't have time to even think about dodging it.
"AHHHHHHH!"
The spear went through my tail, near the base. Pain shot up my spine.
Blood billowed into the water around me. My blood!
I looked down. The spear was still there, piercing my scales. All I could do was stare at it.
It seemed ridiculous. It was just stuck right through me!
"Rachel!"
"Hah-HAH!" Visser Three exulted. "It works! I just acquired this morph, and look how well it performs!"
I looked at Visser Three. One of the spears stored on his back rolled neatly into a flap. Then he began to swell again, ready to fire another spear.
"Look out! Move! Move!" Jake howled in our heads.
But I couldn't move. My tail was paralyzed. I wanted to charge the alien creature, but I could barely move at all.
SHOOOOOOP!
The second spear flew straight for Cassie. But her dolphin was too fast.
She kicked hard and the spear missed by millimeters.
No, she had been hit! I could see the cut across her back where the spear had opened the flesh.
"I'm okay, I'm okay!" she cried.
She'd been lucky. A split-second slower and she would have been impaled.
The javelin fish was still rushing at us. I rolled onto my back, pale belly up. "Jake! Back off. Get out of here. It's too fast! You have to split up and hope you lose him!"