Chapter 9 - Jake I was shocked, because I was. I had never seen Cassie turn that way, but I just assumed she was following in the direction of Marco. I set my frozen jaw to the ground; she bit carefully. “Hey!” Cassie cried. I said. “He’s in a morph?” I said. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m going to try to stick my teeth in him.” I said. “He’s in red! He can’t get out!” I said. “Look!” Cassie cried, pointing to the man. “Marco!” “Marco! You’re in red!” “Tobias!” I said. “Where’s he gone?” Cassie cried. I said. “Did you?” Cassie grabbed my face. “Rachel!” I yelled. She turned away. Just then, I saw him. WHAM! He slammed against the ground. I was down. I fell, and fell, and fell, and fell, and fell, and fell, and fell, and fell. I hit a tree branch, and missed the tree. I hit a branch and hit it too hard. “Oh, God!” I cried. But my bones were gone and I was back in the tree. I cried. I was on my talon. I hit the ground hard, and hit it hard enough to see through the air. I saw the man. I saw the creature that had entered my morph. And I saw a glimpse of the blue mist. It was no longer a tree. But a mist, a black-and-white mist that could not be seen, could be smelled. I saw it reflected in my own vision. A vision of a human being. I saw my own eyes, seeing everything in my own mind and in the distorted, fragmented images that were my own vision. But I was losing control. I was losing the ability to see. I was losing the ability to feel what was going on around me. And I was losing the ability to feel pain. I was losing the ability to feel pleasure. I was losing the ability to feel fear. I was losing the animal mind. I had become a creature that could not be seen. Chapter 22 The hawk looked around. “We’re in a big, open space, right? I mean, most of the house is still rotted old, so you’d think it was built before. Right? “Got it,” I said. I grabbed the first, and last, hooks off of the falcon. Just enough to hang. I hung. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.” I started to morph, but my head was getting bigger. I was still mostly a hawk. I was still mostly bald eagle. But that would change. I was doing the rest of me a favor, I guess. I was getting used to the fact that I was something else. I was the hawk. I could hear the others, but they were all too small. And I guess they were not paying any attention to my body. I was eating the good old food of the hawk world. I wanted to eat more. I wanted to be a hawk. But I was not hungry. I reared up on my hind legs. I was about two feet tall. I was about six feet from the ground, with the wings folded back to allow me to soar. I was between the two of the big, muscular, dominant males. But the others didn’t seem to notice. They were all standing around a long table, eating, talking, just me and them. I’m not certain of what the difference was between me and the dominant males. I’ll have to ask my teacher to make me a better specimen, I guess. But I knew what I was doing. I had to do something to make the others feel better. I forced myself on the table, but I was leaving them feeling guilty. They seemed to feel better when they sat down and munched. I swallowed my first bite. I was not hungry. And what I ate was not tasty. I knew this hawk was not an easy animal to control. He had adapted to being controlled by a Yeerk. But when I ate with him, I felt the warm, no-nonsense power. I began to acquire his DNA. I was a new morph. It was a morph I had learned from the Helmacron ship. The Yeerks had made the morphing technology for the Yeerks to infest and control Hork-Bajir. I would acquire one of the Helmacrons. But it was risky. The morphing technology would be a big mistake. The morphing technology would be in the wrong hands. I had to think. I had to get control of my body. A terrible voice in my head said, “I see the hawk!” I lost control. I was human now. “What?” “What?” “I’m not a hawk. I can’t be a hawk.” Chapter 3 I was there, with the others. We all went into the bathroom. And I was our guide. Jake said. I morphed to human and began to demorph. “Okay,” Marco said. “It’s like a big, dark, underground cavern.” “It’s not just a sewer or a sink,” I pointed out. “It’s a hole. Your feet will be in it, Marco.” “I’ll morph to human,” Jake said. “I’ll be ready to go in the morning.” “Not much of a change,” I said. “Just enough to keep you awake.” Jake said. Marco and I went to the bathroom. I wiped my mouth with my hands. “Okay,” I said, “Let’s find the house.” I left the room. I was alone, in the dark. I had no clothes on me. I was wearing a T-shirt and a size 22 short-sleeved shirt, with a few sweaters down. A pair of shoes were on my feet. My feet were growing thin. My legs were growing heavy. My arms were becoming very big legs. I was no longer a boy. I was a huge, huge monster. I was a monster in a big, underground pool of blood. I’d never even imagined what I was going to do. I mean, I haven’t done anything since I was a human before. I’ve never felt this good before. “Where are we?” I demanded. “I don’t know.” Jake said. “I feel like the flashlight beam.” “Cassie, stay with me,” Marco said. “We’ll have to morph clothes and stuff.” “Okay. Here’s the plan,” Jake said. “We’ll go into the house and get our clothes.” “We’ll need some morphing technology,” I said. “What?” “We’ll morph to human and then to something else. But we’ll have to get our morphs in shape, right?” Marco nodded. “That’s not the point,” Jake said. “We’ll have to morph to human.” I laughed. “Oh, man, I hate it when you do that.” “Okay,” Jake said. “We’ll see what happens.” “Let’s morph something small,” I said. “Small enough to not look out of place, right?” “We want to look like a flea,” Marco said. “Small enough to be seen.” “Okay,” Jake said. “Let’s morph something small and stick with that.”