One Last Time

Chapter 1

My name is Rachel. I am an Animorph. A person with the ability to become other animals. But I知 also a
teenager. A teenager with a very busy life.

I知 like Superman. Mild-mannered (strong-headed) reporter (student) by day, faster than a bullet (able to
morph) when saving the world (at least that part痴 the same). My Clark Kent life is pretty normal. You
know, the usual stuff. School, shopping, guys, well, guy. Let me rephrase that. My Clark Kent life used to
be pretty normal. Now I don稚 have one. Because, guess what? I don稚 go to school anymore. And there
is no mall to go shopping in. Confused? Who isn稚? A lot of weird things happen to you when you池e an
Animorph.

This whole entire mess started a while ago. I was in English class, and Marco was cracking joke.

The entire class was laughing, including the teacher.

"Rachel." The teacher called. "Could you take this to Ms. Paloma?" She held out a note.

I stood up. "Sure."

I grinned at Marco on my way out. I knew he was annoyed I got to miss class and he didn稚.

I walked down the hall, and then felt a tap on my shoulder. I whirled around. "Erek!"

Erek is a Chee. An android older than the Rosetta Stone.

"Hello, Rachel."

"What are you doing here, Erek?"

"I have something to tell you. Could we meet up at Cassie痴?"

My heart thumped. Something was about to happen. "Sure."

"I値l see you there." Erek turned and walked away, leaving me to guess at his news.

That afternoon, we, as in the Animorphs, hooked up at Cassie痴 barn, our unofficial meeting place. Ax,
who usually doesn稚 attend meetings was there in human morph. See, Ax is an Andalite. And if someone
saw him, well, let痴 just say we wouldn稚 be a secret anymore.

After a few minutes, Erek walked into barn. "I have some news."

Jake got his worried look. "What is it?"

"We found the location of the new Kandrona."

"Yes!" I cheered. We were going to kick some Yeerk butt.

"It痴 at a building just outside of town. They池e using a transmitter in one of the office complexes to
direct the Kandrona rays."

^Why not just have the Kandrona in the office complex?^ Tobias asked.

"Too big. This one is the size of this barn. Besides, since it痴 out of town, they don稚 have to worry about
people seeing the Hork-Bajir guards. Also, no one is going to push it out of a window." Erek gave me a
look as he said the last sentence.

I smiled innocently. "Who, me?"

^So we go and destroy it?^ Tobias asked.

Jake nodded. "We go."

"Uh," Marco interrupted, "I hate to sound pessimistic here, but considering the number of guards last
time, don稚 you think there will be more this time?"

"Good point, but we do have better morphs." Jake replied.

"How do we get in?" I asked. "I take it we池e not storming?"

"No storming." Jake agreed. "Actually, I was thinking air vents."

"Bats?" Cassie asked.

"Bats." Jake confirmed. "Tomorrow痴 Saturday. We met here and fly there."

Erek gave us directions from the sky and we disbanded to go home.

Chapter 2
 

By midmorning of the next day, we were circling above the Yeerk compound.

There we several buildings squished together. The Yeerks were only using the middle one, so we flew
into one of the abandoned ones and demorphed

"My mother would be so proud." I mutter sarcastically as I looked around the dump. It was littered with
garbage and covered with graffiti.

Marco rubbed his hands together. "Let痴 morph boys and girls."

Bats aren稚 really great, like wolves or birds, but they池e better than, say, cockroaches or ants.

My first sensation was shrinking. That and the fact that my skin was turning brown. My fingers grew and
grew. A thin layer of skin attached them together. My long blond hair sucked into my head and my feet
became tiny claws. I opened my mouth and fired a burst of clicks. The echo showed a clear picture in my
mind. Everybody was done morphing.

^Let痴 do it!^

^You never forget, do you, Xena?^

^Nope.^

^This is the plan. We fly out through the broken window and land on the roof of the Yeerk building. We
get in through the air-conditioning unit.^

^Yes, mon capitaine.^

^That is a really bad accent.^ I told Marco as I flew through the window frame.

Fortunately, the AC wasn稚 on, so we got into the vents with no problems.

We flew silently through the twists and turns, blasting clicks at every air vent to get a layout of the room.

^Guys!^ Cassie called from ahead of us. ^I think this is it!^

I squeezed up next to her and shot of my own clicks. A picture of a large room appeared in my head.
There was a huge structure in the middle. But I also noticed the dozen or so Hork-Bajir guards at the
door.

^Anyone want to take on a few Horks?^ I asked.

<Uh, no.>

^How about this. Some of us cause a distraction to get rid of the guards, the rest destroy the Kandrona.^
Jake suggested.

^How do we mange that?^ Marco asked. ^It痴 huge. And we池e not forty stories up this time.^

^Ax, your tail can cut through that metal right?^

^Yes, Prince Jake.^

^I like the way you池e thinking, cuz.^ I said before Jake could reply to Ax.

^We need a place to demorph and remorph.^ Tobias pointed out.

^We passed an empty room before.^ Cassie flew off in the direction we came from.

I followed her to a vent opening into a room full of shelves.

^How do we get around the vent?^ Tobias asked.

^You can demorph. There痴 enough room for you, but not the rest of us. Then you morph fly and go
through the vent. When you get to the other side, demorph and morph human. Then, take the cover off
so the rest of us can get out.^

Tobias started his series of morphs. It must have been way tiring. Morphing always drains you. Tobias
had to take five minute breaks between each morph, so it took a while to get out of the vent.

Finally, I was able to return to my human body. When my eyes returned to normal, I finally noticed what
was on the shelves.

"Oh my God." I stared at the shelves of fireworks, gunpowder, and other volatile stuff. We were sitting on
a bomb.

Chapter 3

"This place must have been a fireworks factory before it closed down." I whispered.

"I guess the Yeerks didn稚 bother to clean it out." Cassie shrugged.

"All the better." Jake grinned. "This stuff is going to destroy the Kandrona for us."

CRASH! The door flew open. There was a Hork-Bajir standing there with a Dracon beam pointed right at
us.

"Uh-oh," was Marco痴 brilliant comment.

The Hork-Bajir must have noticed us, but the Yeerk in his head only had eyes for the Andalite standing
among us: Ax. He fired!

Ax dodged and the shot missed. But it hit a pile of fireworks and they caught on fire.

"RUN!" I screamed. I followed my own order and ran. I knew I would never get out of that building alive,
but still, I ran.

Ax cut through the Hork-Bajir and we all high-tailed it out of there. I could hear the small explosions as
the fireworks were set off.

I gulped, remembering the kegs of gunpowder in the room.

A group of Hork-Bajir appeared before us, cutting off our exit.

I glanced back. The flaming ball of heat was headed right for us.

I was going to die. I knew it.

I tightly shut my eyes and waited for my death.

                                                                                The End.

                                                                            Of the beginning
 
 
 
 
 

Final Goodbye

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