Author's Note-Well, I've had this idea for a long time but finally just got
to writing it. I don't own Animorphs or Rurouni Kenshin. By the way, if
anybody could tell me how to use the thought-speech brackets, please tell
me. It'd be a big help. This takes place about a week after the Kyoto Arc
in Rurouni Kenshin by the way. So read, review, and enjoy.
{. . .} is thought speech
Marco
I yawned and doodled on my incomprehensible math homework. I considered asking Ax for help, but decided against it. He would probably start commenting on the inferiority of humans. Erek stood in the corner, his hologram still on, and Cassie was giving a good a vaccine. I lounged on my usual bale of hay. Tobias was in the rafters. And Xena. . .
{She's here.} Tobias announced. As if on cue, a bald eagle landed in the doorway. Demorphing is a bizarre process. By the time Rachel was in midmorph, she had bird toes, a humanoid yellow nose, white hair, and a feather pattern that looked like a body tattoo. Finally, she was fully human, with her long blond hair, blue eyes, and black leotard.
Okay, now I can guess what you're wondering: Who's the freak narrating, what the hell is going on, and why do they keep showing reruns of Inuyasha? Well, I can answer the first two questions, but the answer to the third question is unknown to me.
My name is Marco. Marco Marcathy. Marco Thompson. Marco Polo for all you know. Sadly, I can't give you my last name. Marco may not even be my name at all.
Now you're probably thinking, 'Okay, this is not just a freak, but a very paranoid freak'. I wish it was just being paranoid, but see, I have a reason for my secrecy. A reason that's very real, and usually ends up with my friends and I running for our lives, beaten-up and bloody. Literally.
No, I'm not from the FBI. If anything, you could say I was from the Men in Black. . .sort of. Ready for insanity? Alright. The Earth is being attacked by aliens.
No, these aliens are not like the aliens in Alien 1/2/3. These aliens are much, much worse. They're scary. Very scary. Even scarier than Michael Jackson's face. They're called Yeerks. They'll crawl into your ear and wrap around your brain. Then they'll control you and you watch helplessly as your friends, family, and everyone close to you get enslaved.
Long story short, we met a dying alien named Elfangor, were given the power to acquire an animal's DNA, turn into that animal, and now we're fighting the Yeerks. By 'we', I mean the cute, lovable me; our fearless leader and my best friend Jake; Rachel, Jake's cousin and warrior princess Xena; Cassie, Rachel's best friend and our tree-hugging nature loving maniac; Tobias, our official bird-boy; and Ax, our resident Andalite.
Apparently Erek, a pacifist android that has a human hologram and is an ally of ours, had information about something important, because he told Jake, Jake told us, and now we're all sitting here for a big meeting to discuss the next level of suicidal insanity we can bring our lives up to. Is my life hectic? Oh yes. Very.
"Alright, what's up?" Rachel asked, getting right down to business.
"It seems Erek has news." Jake said, looking over at Erek. Erek nodded.
"The Yeerks have acquired a new weapon and planning to put it to use tonight. It's very dangerous, and could possibly win the war. It's called the time matrix-"
"The time matrix?!" Cassie yelped. We exchanged looks. We all remembered our last encounter with that thing. To summarize, we jumped here and there in history, I stole George Washington's spare pair of boots, Jake died, and we all went to hippie land. It was not a fun trip.
"Yes." Erek said. Reading the looks on our faces and our reactions, he said, "I assume you know what it could do. The results could be-will be- disastrous if their plans follow through."
"Never assume anything." I said. The others stared at me, waiting to hear the punch line to a very old joke that shouldn't even be in my quality humor memory banks. But I don't do those kind of jokes. I shook my head. "Never mind. Bad old joke buggin me."
{Thank you for that interruption Marco.}Tobias said dryly.
"Anytime." I said.
{I do not understand. . .}Ax said. {What do you mean by saying that it is bad to assume?} His expression changed as Tobias told him. {Ah. Never mind. Humans have an odd sense of humor. . .}
By the way, just to let you know, Ax an Andalite and the younger brother of Elfangor. Andalites look like blue centaurs, only blue and without mouths. Their shockingly green eyes are almond shaped, and they have slits for a nose. On top of their heads are two twistable stalks with eyes on top. Their weapon though is a wicked scorpion tail. Another thing to note about them is that they have absolutely /no/ sense of humor. Zip. Zero. And don't let anybody tell you different.
"Anyways, back to serious matters. . ." Jake said.
"Yeah. Geez. . ." Rachel said. "I knew something was up. It's been too quiet lately."
"Rachel-Xena-" I said, exasperated, "quiet is good. We need a break. I mean, the marching band gets more breaks than we do, and they don't even have lives!"
"Hey, I was in marching band. . .once. . .I take that as an insult!" Cassie said, sounding slightly offended.
"Really? I've never seen you in marching band before. Never seen you play an instrument either." Jake said.
"It wasn't at our school; it was at a camp. I played the flute." Cassie said.
"Oooh, look, Cassie. Our pal Jake seems to be taking an interest in you." I teased. Jake threw a horse comb at me, which I dodged.
{What is this 'flute'?} Ax asked curiously.
Jake, our fearless and now slightly blushing leader, quickly decided to change the subject. He turned to Erek. "Where at and what time?" he asked. I sighed. It was gonna be another long night.
Rachel
It was ten o'clock at night and we were out at the Yeerk Pool. Well, more like at the entrance. To be even more specific, Cassie and I were in the girl's restroom at McDonalds. And we were about to go cockroach. I looked distastefully around the restroom. They really needed better management around here. One that's minus a Yeerk and with a better interest of keeping the bathrooms cleaner.
We locked ourselves into separate stalls and shoved our t-shirts, shoes, and pants behind the toilet, hopefully where no one would see them. Barefoot and in leotards, we locked ourselves in the stalls and began to go cockroach.
My skin turned brown and hardened as I began to shrink. Wings sprouted from my back as my hair sucked up in my skull like spaghetti and my face twisted and mutated. Gross. Cassie was probably having a better job at making her morphing a bit more graceful. Slightly.
Legs sprouted out of my stomach. Lastly, two of my blond hairs that were left sticking out of my skull came alive, sticking up from my head to become antennae. Then the roach's instincts kicked in.
Light! Light! Run! Hide! The instincts screamed. The roach wanted to run and hide in the shadows, but I had grown accustomed to the instincts of animal morphs and calmly ignored them.
I scuttled out of from under the stall as a cockroach. {Cassie? You done morphing?} I asked. Roach vision sucks, so it wasn't very easy to tell.
{Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm by the door.} Cassie called over. I waved my antennae around and crawled over to her. I suddenly felt a wind over my head and the ground pounded and shook. I faintly heard two screams, because roach hearing sucks too.
"Oh my god! There's roaches in here too!" one of the girls screamed.
"Oh, gross! There must be come kind of infestation going in this place or something! Let's go somewhere ELSE to eat!" another shrieked.
We crawled out of the bathroom and over to the four cockroaches huddled in the corner.
{Everyone here?}Jake asked. A chorus of 'yes's' came from the group.
{Physically, but not mentally.} Marco joked.
{Or intelligently.} I added.
Jake waited for us to finish our clowning around, then said, {Good. Let's go.}
We started through the restaurant. {Creeepy Crawlers-} Marco sang.
{Marco. Shut up.} I interrupted.
We crawled between the small crack between the wall and the doorframe where the Gleet Biofitler couldn't reach us. Then we proceeded down the staircase and into the Yeerk Pool.
Author's Note- Don't worry! Kenshin will show up in the next chapter. By the way, to all of those who have been reading Tangerine, it has been updated finally. So read, review, and I shall get the next chapter out soon. Ja ne!
{. . .} is thought speech
Marco
I yawned and doodled on my incomprehensible math homework. I considered asking Ax for help, but decided against it. He would probably start commenting on the inferiority of humans. Erek stood in the corner, his hologram still on, and Cassie was giving a good a vaccine. I lounged on my usual bale of hay. Tobias was in the rafters. And Xena. . .
{She's here.} Tobias announced. As if on cue, a bald eagle landed in the doorway. Demorphing is a bizarre process. By the time Rachel was in midmorph, she had bird toes, a humanoid yellow nose, white hair, and a feather pattern that looked like a body tattoo. Finally, she was fully human, with her long blond hair, blue eyes, and black leotard.
Okay, now I can guess what you're wondering: Who's the freak narrating, what the hell is going on, and why do they keep showing reruns of Inuyasha? Well, I can answer the first two questions, but the answer to the third question is unknown to me.
My name is Marco. Marco Marcathy. Marco Thompson. Marco Polo for all you know. Sadly, I can't give you my last name. Marco may not even be my name at all.
Now you're probably thinking, 'Okay, this is not just a freak, but a very paranoid freak'. I wish it was just being paranoid, but see, I have a reason for my secrecy. A reason that's very real, and usually ends up with my friends and I running for our lives, beaten-up and bloody. Literally.
No, I'm not from the FBI. If anything, you could say I was from the Men in Black. . .sort of. Ready for insanity? Alright. The Earth is being attacked by aliens.
No, these aliens are not like the aliens in Alien 1/2/3. These aliens are much, much worse. They're scary. Very scary. Even scarier than Michael Jackson's face. They're called Yeerks. They'll crawl into your ear and wrap around your brain. Then they'll control you and you watch helplessly as your friends, family, and everyone close to you get enslaved.
Long story short, we met a dying alien named Elfangor, were given the power to acquire an animal's DNA, turn into that animal, and now we're fighting the Yeerks. By 'we', I mean the cute, lovable me; our fearless leader and my best friend Jake; Rachel, Jake's cousin and warrior princess Xena; Cassie, Rachel's best friend and our tree-hugging nature loving maniac; Tobias, our official bird-boy; and Ax, our resident Andalite.
Apparently Erek, a pacifist android that has a human hologram and is an ally of ours, had information about something important, because he told Jake, Jake told us, and now we're all sitting here for a big meeting to discuss the next level of suicidal insanity we can bring our lives up to. Is my life hectic? Oh yes. Very.
"Alright, what's up?" Rachel asked, getting right down to business.
"It seems Erek has news." Jake said, looking over at Erek. Erek nodded.
"The Yeerks have acquired a new weapon and planning to put it to use tonight. It's very dangerous, and could possibly win the war. It's called the time matrix-"
"The time matrix?!" Cassie yelped. We exchanged looks. We all remembered our last encounter with that thing. To summarize, we jumped here and there in history, I stole George Washington's spare pair of boots, Jake died, and we all went to hippie land. It was not a fun trip.
"Yes." Erek said. Reading the looks on our faces and our reactions, he said, "I assume you know what it could do. The results could be-will be- disastrous if their plans follow through."
"Never assume anything." I said. The others stared at me, waiting to hear the punch line to a very old joke that shouldn't even be in my quality humor memory banks. But I don't do those kind of jokes. I shook my head. "Never mind. Bad old joke buggin me."
{Thank you for that interruption Marco.}Tobias said dryly.
"Anytime." I said.
{I do not understand. . .}Ax said. {What do you mean by saying that it is bad to assume?} His expression changed as Tobias told him. {Ah. Never mind. Humans have an odd sense of humor. . .}
By the way, just to let you know, Ax an Andalite and the younger brother of Elfangor. Andalites look like blue centaurs, only blue and without mouths. Their shockingly green eyes are almond shaped, and they have slits for a nose. On top of their heads are two twistable stalks with eyes on top. Their weapon though is a wicked scorpion tail. Another thing to note about them is that they have absolutely /no/ sense of humor. Zip. Zero. And don't let anybody tell you different.
"Anyways, back to serious matters. . ." Jake said.
"Yeah. Geez. . ." Rachel said. "I knew something was up. It's been too quiet lately."
"Rachel-Xena-" I said, exasperated, "quiet is good. We need a break. I mean, the marching band gets more breaks than we do, and they don't even have lives!"
"Hey, I was in marching band. . .once. . .I take that as an insult!" Cassie said, sounding slightly offended.
"Really? I've never seen you in marching band before. Never seen you play an instrument either." Jake said.
"It wasn't at our school; it was at a camp. I played the flute." Cassie said.
"Oooh, look, Cassie. Our pal Jake seems to be taking an interest in you." I teased. Jake threw a horse comb at me, which I dodged.
{What is this 'flute'?} Ax asked curiously.
Jake, our fearless and now slightly blushing leader, quickly decided to change the subject. He turned to Erek. "Where at and what time?" he asked. I sighed. It was gonna be another long night.
Rachel
It was ten o'clock at night and we were out at the Yeerk Pool. Well, more like at the entrance. To be even more specific, Cassie and I were in the girl's restroom at McDonalds. And we were about to go cockroach. I looked distastefully around the restroom. They really needed better management around here. One that's minus a Yeerk and with a better interest of keeping the bathrooms cleaner.
We locked ourselves into separate stalls and shoved our t-shirts, shoes, and pants behind the toilet, hopefully where no one would see them. Barefoot and in leotards, we locked ourselves in the stalls and began to go cockroach.
My skin turned brown and hardened as I began to shrink. Wings sprouted from my back as my hair sucked up in my skull like spaghetti and my face twisted and mutated. Gross. Cassie was probably having a better job at making her morphing a bit more graceful. Slightly.
Legs sprouted out of my stomach. Lastly, two of my blond hairs that were left sticking out of my skull came alive, sticking up from my head to become antennae. Then the roach's instincts kicked in.
Light! Light! Run! Hide! The instincts screamed. The roach wanted to run and hide in the shadows, but I had grown accustomed to the instincts of animal morphs and calmly ignored them.
I scuttled out of from under the stall as a cockroach. {Cassie? You done morphing?} I asked. Roach vision sucks, so it wasn't very easy to tell.
{Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'm by the door.} Cassie called over. I waved my antennae around and crawled over to her. I suddenly felt a wind over my head and the ground pounded and shook. I faintly heard two screams, because roach hearing sucks too.
"Oh my god! There's roaches in here too!" one of the girls screamed.
"Oh, gross! There must be come kind of infestation going in this place or something! Let's go somewhere ELSE to eat!" another shrieked.
We crawled out of the bathroom and over to the four cockroaches huddled in the corner.
{Everyone here?}Jake asked. A chorus of 'yes's' came from the group.
{Physically, but not mentally.} Marco joked.
{Or intelligently.} I added.
Jake waited for us to finish our clowning around, then said, {Good. Let's go.}
We started through the restaurant. {Creeepy Crawlers-} Marco sang.
{Marco. Shut up.} I interrupted.
We crawled between the small crack between the wall and the doorframe where the Gleet Biofitler couldn't reach us. Then we proceeded down the staircase and into the Yeerk Pool.
Author's Note- Don't worry! Kenshin will show up in the next chapter. By the way, to all of those who have been reading Tangerine, it has been updated finally. So read, review, and I shall get the next chapter out soon. Ja ne!