Katherine Alice Applegate - Invasion

"Tobias! Come back," I called to him.

"We have to get moving," Rachel said. "We've been standing here staring for too long." She looked at Marco. "Don't be a jerk to Tobias, okay? We need everyone."

Tobias came swooping back toward us. <Cassie,> he said. <She's on the pier. The infestation pier. They're going to turn her into a host.>

With my normal human eyes I couldn't see that well in the purple gloom. I could just make out the cop's uniform and the small shape beside him.

"Do you see Tom?" I asked Tobias.

In answer he flapped his powerful wings and gained altitude. I saw him high over the pool. Then he came back toward us in a power dive.

<I see him,> he said.

I hesitated before asking. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer. "Is he in the cages? Or is he… voluntary?"

<He's in a cage,> Tobias said. <He's yelling his brains out at the Hork-Bajir guards.>

"Yes!" I knew Tom would never have gone voluntarily. I knew they must have taken him kicking and punching.

<Cassie is getting near the end of the pier,> Tobias warned. <We only have a few minutes before they infest her!>

It was time. We were at the bottom of the steps.

We ran over to hide behind a storage shed of some kind. Marco pulled me around the corner, drawing me close so that I could hear him whisper. "Look, before we do this, there's one thing, Jake. You have to promise me."

I knew what he was going to say.

"If I have to die, okay. But don't let them take me. Don't let them put one of those things in my head."

"It'll be okay — "

"You!" a voice yelled. A human voice. "You two. Who are you?"

I spun around. A man. Just one man. But beside him, flanking him, was a big Hork-Bajir, looking suspicious. And on the other side, a Taxxon.

Somehow the man hadn't seen Rachel. She was just around the corner of the building. But he had seen Marco and me talking. I guess it hadn't looked quite right to him.

"Us?" Marco asked. "Who are we? Hey, who are you?"

"Take them," the man ordered.

The Hork-Bajir advanced on us. The Taxxon slithered forward on its dozens of sharp spiny legs, red jelly eyes quivering, mouth opening and closing in anticipation.

I knew I had to morph. But I was frozen with fear.

Then I saw Rachel. She had gotten around behind the Controllers.

And she was getting very, very large.

Rachel was getting larger very fast. Huge leathery ears sprouted suddenly from the side of her head. Her nose stretched and stretched till it was longer than her body had been to start with. Her arms and legs were big as tree trunks. And from her mouth grew two enormous, curved teeth.

My cousin Rachel now stood almost thirteen feet high and weighed about fourteen thousand pounds.

The weird thing was, I was happy about all this. <Ha HA!> I heard Rachel's triumphant laugh. <I did it.> The Hork-Bajir and the Taxxon came closer.

Rachel began twitching her little ropy tail. Her front legs pawed the dirt floor of the cavern. She raised her massive head and stuck out her three-foot-long tusks.

The Taxxon was the first to notice her with his all-around red-jelly eyes, but I guess he didn't know how to react.

Rachel charged. One minute she was standing there, and the next minute she was barreling forward like an out-of-control eighteen-wheeler.

The Hork-Bajir was fast. He spun around and slashed at her trunk with his elbow blade. Too little. Too late.

Rachel was moving, and no little flesh wound was going to stop her.

<Puny little nothing!> Rachel cried, outraged. <You attack ME?!>

The Hork-Bajir went down, crushed under her monstrous feet. He bellowed, but Rachel's trumpeting was louder.

The Taxxon tried to run. It turns out Taxxons can move out when they want to.

It also turns out elephants are faster than you think. They can be very fast.

Rachel's foot caught the Taxxon's back end. The needle legs collapsed, cracking like broken twigs. Yellow goo oozed from the popped flesh of the big worm.

She just kept rolling over him, leaving behind a big, extremely disgusting pile of goo. The foul smell of the squashed Taxxon nearly knocked me out.

The human was still just standing there. He said, "An elephant?" Like he couldn't even think a bout it being real.

Rachel wrapped her trunk around his middle. <Yeah,> we heard Rachel say. <An elephant.>

The man screamed. I guess he figured out it was real. Rachel threw him through the air. I never saw where he landed. "Quick!" I yelled at Marco. "Morph!"

"Nice work, Rachel," Marco said. "Remind me not to ever make you mad."

I focused on the tiger. I knew his DNA pattern was in me. I thought of him, lying there in his habitat at The Gardens wishing he were back in the jungle, hunting and taking down his prey. I guessed maybe he wouldn't mind the use I was making of his DNA. This wasn't quite a jungle, but it would have to do.

<More Hork-Bajir coming!> Rachel said.

Rachel turned to face them, tusks ready.

I felt the morph begin. The hair grew from my face. The tail squirted out behind me. My arms bulged and rippled. They were massive! My shirt ripped. I fell forward onto my hands, now my front legs.

The power!

It was electric. It was like a slow-motion explosion. I could feel the power of the tiger growing inside me.

I watched claws, long, wickedly curved, tearing, ripping, shredding claws, grow from my puny human hands. I could feel the teeth sprouting in my mouth.

My eyes looked through the darkness like it was broad daylight.

But most of all, the power! The sheer, incredible power.

I was afraid of NOTHING!

Hork-Bajir were running at me, their arm blades slashing at the air.

I opened my mouth and I roared. The Hork-Bajir stopped dead in their tracks.

That's right, my little Hork-Bajir friends, the human part of my brain thought. Time to meet the tiger.

The muscles in my back legs coiled up. I bared my teeth and gave them another roar loud enough to make the ground quiver.

I leaped through the air, claws outstretched.

I sailed through the air and struck the closest Hork-Bajir in the chest.

Down he went with me on top of him. He rolled over and tried to get up. He was fast. I was faster.

He struck at me with his razored arm. I ducked under the blow. My left paw swung, so fast even I couldn't see it. It left four oozing tracks across the Hork-Bajir's shoulder.

Another Hork-Bajir! Wrist blades, elbow blades and talons whizzed. They were like a pair of lawn mowers on full throttle.

And still I was faster. I can't even remember what happened next. All I have is this image of the tiger — of me — with claws slashing and jaws snapping. I was a whirlwind of orange fur and black stripes.

The Hork-Bajir fell back. I roared. They turned and ran.

On one side I saw Rachel. She lifted a Hork-Bajir up on her tusks and tossed him back over her shoulder like he was a doll.

And then I saw Marco. Big Jim's massive body was ripping its way out of Marco's slight frame.

<Just call me King,> Marco said. <King Kong.>

The truth is, like Cassie said, gorillas are very gentle, peaceful, quiet creatures. The truth also is that they are strong. Real strong.

Basically, compared to a gorilla, a man is something made out of toothpicks.

Now, Hork-Bajir are pretty large creatures. They stand about seven feet high and are built for trouble. But Marco swung one big gorilla fist and hit the nearest Hork-Bajir in the stomach. The Hork-Bajir went down. Hard.

I roared. Rachel trumpeted. Marco lifted the Hork-Bajir up and tossed him aside like a rag doll.

The rest of the Hork-Bajir turned and ran.

<Now!> I shouted. <Before they get organized again!>

We charged. Rachel just plowed right through some of the small sheds and buildings like Godzilla heading for Tokyo.

Marco came loping along, swinging his massive forearms, punching anything that got in his way. Whatever he punched stayed down:

And I ran right down the middle, looking for any Controller dumb enough to mess with me. We reached the cages. The people and Hork-Bajir inside shrank back from us. They were almost as afraid of us as they were of the Controllers. Let's face it — a rescue party made up of an elephant, a, gorilla, and a tiger is not what they'd been hoping for.

Marco began ripping at a lock on one of the cages. The lock gave way. The door flew open. Marco did something very human to reassure them. He made a little bow, then crooked his finger at them as if to say come on out.

Tom was the first out. He looked scared and mad and determined. I was going to send him a thought message, telling him who I was, but suddenly there was Rachel, screaming in my head.

<Jake!> Rachel said. <Look. Cassie!>

Cassie was nearly at the end of the infestation pier. The Hork-Bajir and Taxxon guards were still sticking to their duties. As I watched, another human was shoved headfirst into the Yeerk pool.

<Cassie is next!> I cried.

<Don't worry,> Marco said. <We'll take care of Tom. Go. Go before they do it to her!> I hesitated for only a second, as a thousand thoughts went through my head. Later I would think about that moment. Think maybe… maybe… if only… I broke into a run. I had to get to her!

As I watched, the two Hork-Bajir on the pier grabbed Cassie by the arms. "Nooooo!" she cried.

I tore at full speed. I leaped over Taxxons. I dodged around Hork-Bajir. I practically flew. But I couldn't really fly. Not the way Tobias could.

I saw him high, high up in the cavern. Down he came.

Like a bullet.

The talons came forward. Tobias hit the first Hork-Bajir at about fifty miles an hour. He swooped away, leaving the alien clutching at the slimy mess where his eyes used to be.

That was all Cassie needed. She broke away and ran back down the pier.

I finally got there and went after the remaining Hork-Bajir-Controller.

<Morph!> I yelled to Cassie. <Morph and head back for the stairs!>

She looked at the other humans and Hork-Bajir behind her in the line. "Run! All of you, run!"

They did. Cassie plowed into the panicky crowd. Moments later a black-maned head appeared above the shoulders of the crowd. Cassie had become a horse and was racing for the stairs.

I started after her, racing back around the pool toward Marco, Rachel, Tom, and the crowd of hosts they'd freed from the cages.

The Controllers were starting to get organized. A group of Taxxons were slithering out to stop Cassie and me. Both the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons were carrying weapons now.

<Up and over!> I said to Cassie as we neared the line of Taxxons.

<Up and over!> she yelled back.

I leaped. Cassie jumped. Side by side, we sailed over the startled Taxxons. They fired their hand-held Dracon beams, but too late. The beams sizzled the air behind us and we blew past.

I could see Rachel's towering gray bulk just a-head. The stairs were near. I saw Marco with Tom.