Animorphs 2.0

The Animorphs

Tobias

I was slightly surprised when my father asked to speak with me. I went in all the same and took a seat.

"Tobias there's something I haven't told you." My dad started.

"What is it, Dad?" I asked.

"I want you to lead this group."

I was taken aback. I'd thought he would lead us. This hadn't been part of the plan. "What about you?"

He shook his head. "I will be overseeing. Your superior officer, if you like. I will train you and give you your missions, but you will have them carry them out. I won't be there; I won't be able to see all the variables. There will be decisions you will have to make, ones I can't help you with. I trust you to lead this group well."

I started getting scared. I didn't think I was ready for this responsibility. "Dad, I don't think I can..."

"I know you can, Tobias. You have the strength in you. Just like your mother."

Tears came to my eyes to think about her. I was about to begin fighting like she had. I would carry on her work. I never felt closer to her. "What if I fail, Dad?" I whispered. "What if something happens to one of them and it was my fault?"

"You will be fine, Tobias. Remember, you aren't going into this untrained, I will help you." I nodded, drawing strength from his confidence in me. "One more thing, Tobias. To feel uncertainty is natural, you should question your leadership. But be careful, they must not see it. A captain must always seem confident to his soldiers. If they see you are weak, they will be weak. It's ok to second guess your decisions as long as you give them surely, as long as you seem strong." I nodded. This would be hard, but I understood its importance. I left feeling a good deal heavier than when I'd come in.

Once they were all done speaking to Elfangor, he took out the Escafil device and I watched them all touch the blue box. I saw the expressions on their faces and I couldn't wait for my turn. I had to know how it felt. I was last. I looked my father in the eye as I stepped up to receive it. I felt like I'd been waiting for this my whole life. Tears came unwillingly to my eyes.

"The moment has come, Tobias." He said. He smiled slightly. I could see that he was proud of me.

<For Mom.> He told me in thought-speech. That pretty much summed up how I felt. I nodded around the lump in my throat and put my hand on the cube. My skin began to tingle and I felt something stir inside me. I lifted my hand and looked into my father's eyes. He nodded, then turned to look at my friends as well and said,

"Tomorrow we begin your training."

The first thing to do was to get our morphs. Luckily, Cassie's mom worked as a vet at a local zoo and she let us in to see the animals. We needed some dangerous morphs which were harder to get, but we managed it without much injury. Fortunately, the animal you are "acquiring" goes into a kind of trance while you do it, which makes it easier. We also got some bird morphs from the animal hospital at Cassie's farm.

After that, my father began to train us. Every day after school, the five of us would congregate in my basement for training. My dad had built an underground bunker of some kind that allowed us to train. There was a hologram room the size of a school gym where we could have mock battles. I had no idea how my father had managed to build it, but it was very useful.

We always came separately, only two at a time, and took different routes, so people wouldn't notice the five of us constantly together. The key was to avoid attention. Any suspicion about any one of us and we all might fall. All the Yeerks needed was one of us to know all our secrets. We had to be extra careful.

The first meeting we had, all we did was morph. I was the first to try it. It felt really weird. All the bones and muscles in my body changed as I morphed into another creature. I first turned into a bird and by the looks on my friends' faces, it wasn't pretty. I won't tell you what I saw happening to my body; it was too strange, but soon it was done and now, I was a bird.

As soon as the morph was complete, I felt the hawk mind surface. My father had warned us about instinct. An animal's mind is ruled by it and it could take over ours. The hawk mind was telling me to fly, get away, maybe attack; I almost did. Then, I heard my father's voice in my head, helping me get control again.

<Tobias, listen to me. You are not a hawk, you are my son.> With my father's help, I took control of the hawk's mind. My first flight was the happiest time of my life. it wasn't as fun as it would've been outside, but the feeling of soaring in the air was nothing like I's ever experienced before. With my father's help, my friends soon joined me and we spent at least ten minutes laughing as we soared through the air. We tried all different kinds of morphs that day. I enjoyed the quickness of the leopard, the incredible nose of the wolf, and the sheer strength of the elephant.

My dad trained us for three weeks. During that time we were to learn as much as we could about the Yeerks. We tried to infiltrate the Sharing, but we had to be careful. We couldn't be seen there too much. We discovered much about the Yeerks and what they were doing, but there was one realization that outdid all others. Tom, Jake's brother, was a Controller. Apparently my dad had already known and told him, but it was a shock for the rest of us. When we asked him about it, he simply shrugged it off, muttering that it was fine. I felt so bad for him. He'd had a hard time.

There had been something noticeably different about him ever since Elfangor had talked to him. He was still very sullen and felt offended quickly, but he was quieter, and not only had he stopped bullying younger kids, but he'd also stepped in to defend them against other bullies.

It was only after a month of training that we went on our first mission. At first I was nervous. Though excited to finally be doing something, I had never done anything like this before. My father encouraged us over and over by thought-speak, assuring us of our abilities. I was happy my father had shown us what Taxxons and Hork-Bajir looked like before this. They would've scared the pants off us if we hadn't been prepared. Being the leader of the mission, I gave the order to attack. The moment the fighting started, I never felt so alive. I was in leopard morph. I felt it fitting; after all, I was doing this for my mom. My jaws snapped left and right, always finding flesh. The others were having as much of a success. We were like a well-oiled machine; the battle was over barely before it was started.

<Good work.> My father told us, as we surveyed the satisfying result of our first mission. After that, I led the way home.