The Invasion (7 page)

Marco laughed derisively. “Become animals?” Marco isn’t the most accepting person in the world.

You will only need to touch a creature, to acquire its DNA pattern, and you will be able to
become
that creature. It requires concentration and determination, but, if you are strong, you can do it. There are … limitations. Problems. Dangers, even. But there is no time to explain it all … no time. You will have to learn for yourselves. But first, do you wish to receive this power?

“He’s kidding, right?” Marco asked me.

“No,” Tobias said softly. “He’s not kidding.”

“This is nuts,” Marco said. “This whole thing is nuts. Yeerks and spaceships and slugs taking over people’s brains and Andalites and the power to change into animals? Give me a break.”

“Yeah, it is beyond weird,” I agreed.

“We’re off the map of weirdness by this point,” Rachel said. “But unless we’re all just dreaming, I think we’d better deal with this.”

“He’s dying,” Tobias reminded us.

“I’ll
do it,” Cassie said. That surprised me. Cassie isn’t usually so quick to decide. But I guess, like Tobias, she
felt
the truth of what the Andalite was saying.

“I think we should
all
decide together,” I suggested. “One way or the other.”

“What’s that?” Rachel asked. She was looking up toward the stars. Far, far overhead, two pinpoints of bright red light were shooting across the sky.

Yeerks.
The Andalite said the word in our minds, and we could feel his hatred.

Y
eerks.

The twin red lights slowed. They turned in a circle and came back toward us.

There is no more time. You must decide!

“We have to do this,” Tobias said. “How else can we fight these Controllers?”

“This is so insane!” Marco said. “Insane.”

“I’d like more time, but we don’t have that choice,” Rachel said. “I’m for it.”

“What do you say, Jake?” Cassie asked me. It was odd. Like suddenly I was the one who had to decide for everyone?

I looked up at the Yeerk ships. What had the
Andalite called them? Bug fighters? They were circling closer, like dogs sniffing for a scent. I looked down at the Andalite and remembered the picture of his family. Would they even know what had happened to him?

I looked at each of the people around me—my usually funny, occasionally annoying best friend, Marco; Rachel, my smart, pretty, confident cousin; and Cassie, who everyone knew liked animals more than she liked most people.

Finally, I looked at Tobias. It was weird, the feeling I had at that moment, staring at him. A chill or something.

“We have to,” Tobias said to me.

Slowly I nodded. “Yes. We have no choice.”

Then each of you, press your hand against one of the sides of the square.

We did. Five hands, each pressed against one side. Then a sixth hand, different from ours, with too many fingers.

Do not be afraid,
the Andalite said.

Something like a shock, only pleasurable, seemed to run through me. A tingle that almost made me laugh.

Go now,
the Andalite said.
Only remember this—never remain in animal form for more than two of your Earth hours. Never! That is the greatest
danger of the morphing! If you stay longer than two hours, you will be trapped, unable to return to human form.