Tobias used to be this kind of dweebish kid with crazed blond hair and a dreamy expression. But now he is a red-tailed hawk. The dreamy expression is long gone. It's been replaced by the laser-intensity stare of a raptor.
Tobias has had to accept the fact that he is not fully human anymore.
Inside, he's still Tobias. But he lives in the woods and hunts for his food, and that has changed him.
Then there is Cassie. Cassie is my best friend, although we're nothing alike. Cassie is probably the most capable, in-charge, amazing person I will ever meet. This is a girl who deals with school, has practically a full-time job helping her dad with the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, and handles all the stuff we have to deal with as Animorphs. I mean, who else can keep up a B-plus average while she's saving wild animals and fighting a war with the Yeerk empire?
Last, and definitely weirdest, is Ax. His full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill. Which is why we just call him "Ax." He doesn't usually come to meetings, because he has to travel in human morph. He doesn't like going into human morph because he thinks walking around on just two legs is dangerous.
Since we were safe inside the barn, Ax was back in his own body now. His body is a strange but cool-looking mix of bluish deer body, humanlike arms and shoulders, and definitely alien head. He has no mouth. He has two big, seminormal eyes on his face where eyes should be, and two extra eyes stuck on short stalks on top of his head.
And he has a tail. Like a scorpion's tail. Very fast, very dangerous in a fight.
Normally when we're in the barn, Cassie would be busily cleaning cages or giving medications
to skanky lizards or whatever. But I guess she felt like she had to help me defend myself. So she was standing there, looking guilty even though she hadn't done anything wrong.
"What was I supposed to do?" I asked Jake. "Let the little boy get chomped?"
"Yes!" Marco said, speaking up. "Yes. See, we're fighting to save the whole world, not one kid. And you endangered all that by trying to be the offspring of Xena: Warrior Princess and Superman."
"Xena and Superman have a child? I didn't even know they were dating," Tobias said in open thought-speak.
I smiled up at him. He couldn't smile back, of course.
Then, in a whisper that only I could hear, Tobias added, "Rachel. Ask Jake what he would have done. That'll get him off your back."
I carefully avoided nodding or giving any sign that Tobias had whispered to me. "Jake, if you think what I did was so wrong, what would you have done?"
Jake stopped pacing. "The point is, secrecy is absolutely important," he said.
"Jake," I repeated, "what would you have done in my place?"
Jake scratched his ear. He grinned sheepishly. "Just because I would have done the same thing doesn't make it right."
"I think Rachel was a real hero," Cassie said.
"Rachel was brave. Bravery is a great virtue."
Marco rolled his eyes at Ax. "Thank you, Obi-Wan Kenobi, for that wisdom. Of course she was a hero. She's always a hero. Rachel can't stop being heroic. Being stupidly brave is like some nervous tic she can't control. But what if someone had caught her morphing on videotape?"
That wiped the smile off my face. As much as Marco annoyed me, he was right. If someone had taped me ... the Yeerks are everywhere. If
they'd had evidence I'd morphed a crocodile they would know who and what I was.
The Yeerks believe we are a highly trained group of Andalite warriors.
If they ever found out we were just human kids . . . we'd be wiped out before we could blink twice.
"Okay, well, anyway, Rachel, you were very brave. You were also very lucky. The news reports say you 'fell into' the pit because you were trying to see the kid. Everyone is focused on how amazing it supposedly was that a kid could ride an alligator . . . crocodile. The kid's going to be on five different talk shows."
"Great. So I'm the idiot girl who 'fell' into the pit, and the kid is some big hero."
"Be glad it worked out that well," Jake said.
For a moment, I considered mentioning the way I'd felt sick while morphing the crocodile. But I decided against it. Why give Jake anything else to worry about?
Cassie raised her hand. "Are we done with yelling at Rachel? I have work to do."
Jake laughed. "I don't yell," he said. "I'm not anyone's parent."
"You tell 'em, Dad," Marco said.
We all laughed and the tension was broken. For about ten seconds - till Jake said, "Hey, by the way, Tom said something about how The
Sharing is going to hire that kid from Power House as a spokesman."
"That TV show?" Marco said. "Huh. That's strange. Well, anyway, I have homework piled up on my desk at home. Plus, I have the new Nintendo game. You know, the one where -"
He stopped talking and just stared at Cassie and me. Probably because Cassie and I were standing there with our mouths hanging open.
"What's with them?" Marco asked Jake.
Jake looked mystified. "What is with you two?"
"Jeremy Jason McCole is going to be endorsing The Sharing?" I asked in a wavering voice.
"Jeremy Jason McCole?" Cassie echoed in awestruck tones.
Jake shrugged. "Yeah, it's too bad, but it's not like anyone cares. He's just some wimpy little actor. I mean, it's not like he's Michael Jordan . . ."
"... or Brett Favre," Marco added.
" ... or Wayne Gretzky," Tobias offered.
"What is an actor?" Ax wondered.
". . . or anyone else important," Jake concluded. "He's just an actor. I mean, he's a dork."
"What is a dork?" Ax asked.
"That hair!" Tobias said derisively.
"I love his hair," Cassie said.
"Plus he's even shorter than I am," Marco said.
"The difference being that Jeremy Jason Mc-Cole is cute," I said.