The Invasion (12 page)

The Andalite struck!

His tail whipped up and over, so fast you couldn’t really see it. The Visser twisted his head aside. The Andalite’s tail blade missed the Visser’s head by a bare half inch. But it sliced into his shoulder. Blood—or something like blood—sprayed from the wound.

“Yes!” I hissed.

Aaaaaarrrrrgh!
I could hear the Visser’s howl of pain in my head.

At the same time, a blinding beam of blue light shot from the tail of the Andalite ship. It sliced into the nearest Bug fighter. Hork-Bajir and Taxxons scattered.

Even crouching behind the wall, I could feel a wave of blistering heat. The Bug fighter sizzled and disappeared.

Fire!
Visser Three yelled.
Burn his ship!

The night exploded in blinding light. Red beams lanced from the Blade ship and the remaining Bug fighter. The Andalite ship glowed, and, with a strange slowness, disintegrated.

Then, in the flash and glow of Dracon beams I saw … or
thought
I saw … humans. A small group of them, maybe three or four, back in the shadows behind the Visser.

“There are people over there,” I told Marco.

“What? Are they prisoners?”

Take the Andalite,
Visser Three ordered his soldiers.
Hold him for me.

Three big Hork-Bajir grabbed the Andalite and held him down. Their wrist blades were at his throat, but they knew better than to kill him.

That was to be Visser Three’s personal privilege.

Then we saw why a Yeerk as powerful as Visser Three would inhabit the only captured Andalite body. As we watched, Visser Three began to
morph.

His Andalite head grew large, larger. Much larger. The four horselike legs merged into two and then expanded, each leg becoming as big around as a redwood tree. The delicate Andalite arms sprouted and became tentacles.

“This isn’t real,” Cassie whispered. “This isn’t real.”

In the hideously bloated head, a mouth appeared. It was filled with teeth as long as your arm. The mouth grew wider and wider, becoming a monstrous, terrifying grin.

There was nothing left of the Andalite body. A monster had taken its place.

“R-r-r-r-a-a-a-w-w-w-w-g-g-g!” The roar of the beast Visser Three had become made the ground shake.

I covered my ears with my hands.

“R-r-r-r-r-r-a-a-a-a-g-g-g!”

My teeth rattled from the sound. I heard someone whimpering. It was me.

Visser Three had become a monster that made the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons look like harmless toys. He reached out with one thick tentacle and grabbed the Andalite by the neck.

“No, no, no,” I heard Cassie whispering over and over again. “No, no, no, no.”

“Don’t look,” Rachel said to her. She put her arm around Cassie’s shoulder and held her close. Then she reached for Tobias and took his hand. I guess you never really know someone till you see them scared. And even scared to death, with tears running down her face, Rachel had strength to spare.

Visser Three lifted the Andalite straight up in the air, tearing him from the grasp of the Hork-Bajir. The Andalite prince struck again and again with his tail. But each strike was like a pinprick against such a creature.

Visser Three held the Andalite high in the air.

And then Visser Three opened his mouth wide.

I
don’t know what came over me right then. I had been so afraid.
So
terrified. But it was like something just snapped in my head. I couldn’t just hide and watch. I couldn’t.

“You filthy—”

I jumped to my feet. I snatched up a piece of rusted iron pipe from the ground and started to climb over that wall.

I guess I just went crazy or something. It had to be craziness, because there was no way that I, alone, armed with a piece of pipe, was going to accomplish anything.

No!