A human voice yelled something like, "Get out here and help!

  It's an Andalite bandit in morph!"

  That's

  what

  the

  Yeerks

  think

  we

  are:

  Andalites.

  The

  technicians inside the Bug fighter went piling out the exit, glad of the chance to take shots at an Andalite "bandit."

  I yelled.

 

  BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!

  Tobias cried.
  down through the hole!>

  Of course! Why hadn't I realized that? Of course they would block Tobias's escape.

  I was still mostly fly, but morphing as fast as I could. I could feel myself getting bigger. I could see my fly wings shriveling away. Tobias couldn't escape. They'd get him. Sooner or later, no matter how fast he flew, they'd get him. An answer... an answer...

  I needed an answer. I needed to -

  I yelled.

 

  I yelled.

  Tobias said.

  My human eyes were just reemerging as Tobias blew in through the door of the Bug fighter. I looked left. A horrifying creature with a small scorpion tail and fly legs and a semi humanoid face with a gigantic proboscis was trying to work the controls of the ship with clumsy fly stick legs. It was Ax, halfway through morphing.

  Suddenly, the door shut. Or in this case, the bulkhead simply dimpled and closed up again, eliminating the door.

  "They're in the Bug fighter!" I heard Chapman howl in rage.

  "They're in the Bug fighter! Get them!"

  I was mostly human now, but still at that stage where I wouldn't have wanted to see myself in a mirror. The rest were coming out of morph, too. Cassie was fastest, as usual. She was already checking Tobias for wounds.

  Ax was almost fully Andalite once more.

  "Ax, get us outta here!" I said, as my human mouth returned.

 

  I didn't waste time telling him not to call me "Prince."

  Ax admitted.

  BAPFFBAPFFBAPFFBAPFFBAP!

  Bullets rattled against the Bug fighter's outer skin. Then I heard the grinding sounds of the engine. Through the cockpit window, I saw the Controllers turning big earthmovers toward us.

  "They're going to ram us!" Marco warned.

  "Ax?" I asked tersely.

 

  "Just do it!" I yelled. There was a whirring noise. Lights came on all over the cockpit. A sound like a low siren.

  Ax said.

  "Great," Marco said. "Now find the get-us-the-heck-outta-here switch!"

  I felt the ship lift up off the Safeway floor. It rose just a foot and sort of wallowed slightly, side to side. The heavy equipment was still coming for us.

  Ax turned the fighter, pointing it toward the missing wall.

  Ax asked.

  "Let's find out," I said. Then . . . WHOOOOOOOSH!

  It was like getting kicked in the chest. We all tumbled backward --all but Ax, who has four legs. The acceleration was incredible. The Bug fighter rocketed forward. We blew through the plastic sheeting.

  We blew across the parking lot.

  We arched up toward the dark night sky.

  "We did it!" Rachel yelled.

 

  "Just get us out of here, Ax," Marco said.

  "We're going to Washington, D.c., to meet the President." It was crowded inside the Bug fighter. Especially because Ax takes up a lot of room.

  But we huddled together and looked over Ax's shoulders as he worked the controls. And we looked past Ax, out through the transparent panels at the front of the Bug fighter.

  Ax said.

  "Can we do anything to help?" I asked.

  Ax said.

  "Cool," Marco said. He leaped forward, but I was closer. I slipped into the area beside Ax. Ax's pilot "seat" wasn't a seat at all, of course. Taxxons are like huge centipedes, so they can't really sit. Which was good, because Ax doesn't sit, either. But the weapons station was built for Hork-Bajir. Hork-Bajir are seven feet tall and have thick, spiky tails, but they do sit.

  "No way you should handle the weapons," Marco said, leaning over my shoulder. "I kick your butt in video games."

  "Yeah, right," I said. "In some alternate universe, maybe."

  "Grab the joystick," Marco suggested. As strange as it seems, there actually was a joystick. It was for much bigger hands than mine, and the two buttons on it were clumsy to reach. But it was a

  joystick.

  "Maybe I should test the weapons," I said to Ax.

  he said tersely, distracted.

  We were rising up through the atmosphere.

  We were above the clouds already. I could see brief flashes of the lights of the city down below, but mostly it was clouds and more clouds. But we weren't rising as fast as I would have expected. Ax was definitely working to control the ship. I looked ahead, saw nothing in the way, and pressed one of the buttons on the joystick.

  Nothing.

  Ax glanced over.
  your mind.>

  Marco put his hand on my shoulder. "Phasers on full power!" he said in a Captain Picard English accent. "Arm photon torpedoes! If the Borg want a fight, we'll give them one! Make it so!"

  I moved the joystick and watched the target circle track across the screen. It still showed nothing but starry sky. That should be safe enough.

  I squeezed the second button.

  TSEWWWW! TSEWWWW!

  Twin red beams of light fired forward, converging too far away for me to see.

  "Yes! Most splendid!" Marco yelled.

  "Okay, that was cool,"

  I admitted, trying not to cackle like an idiot with his first video game.

  "Boys with their toys," Cassie teased gently.

  Ax said.

  "Why?"

 

  It took a few seconds for me to track on that. "You mean . . . people can see us?"

  Ax said.

 
  human radar will observe us. In fact, they have already observed us.>

  "Uh-oh. Maybe we better get higher," I suggested.

 

  "Probably just airliners," Rachel said.

  Ax said.

  "Okay, that's not a passenger plane," Marco said. I groaned. "Military jets. Oh, man, it's the Air Force after us. They're "good guys." They're on our side. We can't shoot them down."

  Suddenly . . .

  SWOOOOOSH!

  SWOOOOOSH!

  Two pale gray jets blew past us. The backwash rattled the Bug fighter.

  Ax said. And a second later we heard the voice of one of the pilots.

  "Urn . . . Base Control, I ... urn ... Bogie is of an unknown type. Say again, unknown type."

  "Definitely unknown," the other pilot said. "Way unknown."

  "We're coming around for another pass."

  I looked at Ax. "We really don't want to get shot down by a couple of F-sixteens."

 

  FAH-WHOOOOOOOM!

  Suddenly, we were outta there. Out of the clouds. Out of the atmosphere.

  "Yes! This thing can move!" Marco exulted. "We need to buy this game."

  We heard a fainter, crackling voice over the radio. "Did you see that? Did you see that thing move, Colonel? Did you see that? What the -"

  Then we were out of range, still zooming straight up into black space. Below us I could see the curvature of the earth. It looked just like one of those pictures the shuttle astronauts take from up in orbit.

  "That's so beautiful," Cassie said. "Look at that! You can see daylight coming up over the Red Sea."

  Tobias said,

  "Yeah, I guess not," I said. Although it was such a wonderful sight that I almost didn't want to worry about where we were going. "Ax, maybe we'd better slow down, get some idea of where Washington is and ..

  Ax snapped.

  I was shocked. Ax is always polite.

  he said, a little more calmly.

  "What's the matter?" Cassie asked him.

  Ax pointed at one of the view screens before him. On the screen I saw stars. Then the moon came into view, a vast grayand-white lightbulb. And silhouetted against the glowing moon was a shape. It was like some medieval battle-ax. The rear half was a two-headed blade. From the middle, like an ax handle, extended a long shaft. At the end of the shaft was a triangular head, very much like an arrow's point. It was black on black. And even if you had never seen it before and had no idea what it was, you'd know right away it was death. I had seen it. I knew what it was.

  "The Blade ship," I whispered.

  The Blade ship of Visser Three.

  8:54 P.m.

  Visser Three, leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. Visser Three, the only Yeerk in all of history to take control of an Andalite body. Visser Three, the only Yeerk with the power to morph.

  "Can we outrun him?" I asked Ax.

 

  "Can we outfight him?" I asked. My voice was a whisper. My mouth was too dry to work right.

  Ax turned his stalk eyes to look at me.

  "Here he comes!" Rachel yelled in warning. A red glow illuminated the Blade ship as the Visser fired his engines and came for us.

  Ax

  said.

  He was looking at me. They were all looking at me. I grabbed the joystick. My hand was trembling.

  "I feel lucky," I said. It was an absolute lie, of course. I didn't even feel slightly lucky. But it sounded good. I caught Marco giving me a sardonic smile. He knew I was faking it.

  I felt Cassie's hand touch my shoulder for encouragement.

  Ax warned. He threw the Bug fighter into a quick, tight turn. Ax was right. I almost fell over before the Bug fighter's systems compensated for inertia.

  Then Ax really lit up the engines and we leaped forward, straight for the Blade ship.

  Ax said.

  It wasn't a question.

  I swept the red target circle toward the black-diamond head of the Blade ship. I squeezed the trigger. And I kept squeezing. Brilliant Dracon beams stabbed toward the Blade ship. But at the same instant, the Visser fired!

  Dracon beam hit Dracon beam.

  ZZZZZOOOOOWWWW!

  An explosion of light so intense I could actually see Through my own hand. I could see Cassie's teeth inside her head!

  WHAAAMMMPPPH!

  I was thrown against the ceiling.

  I fell to the floor and rolled, out of control.

  Rachel landed on top of me, knocking the wind out of me. The Bug fighter was spinning. My eyes were filled with balls of light, like suns inside my own head.

  Spinning . . . spinning . . . spinning . . .

  And with each turn I was thrown hard. Into Ax. Into Marco. Tobias batted his wings wildly, trying to get some control. It was like we had all been tossed into a washer on spin cycle. Then, with a sickening lurch, the Bug fighter came upright. There was a floor again. And a ceiling.

  And through the window, there was a planet.

  Earth.

  Big, blue, and getting closer very, very fast.

  "We're going down!" Rachel yelled. "Ax! Ax! We're going down!" Ax scrambled to his hooves and made his way back to the controls. he said.

  Tobias cried. <0ver there. To the left. We're not alone.>

  Tumbling down alongside us, just a mile away, was the Blade ship. It was twisting and twirling and falling, just like us.

  "Wait . . ." Cassie said, sounding more confused than terrified. "It's daylight in the western hemisphere."

  "Do I care?!" Marco yelled. "We're going down!"

  "It was dawn in the Middle East," Cassie insisted. "Now it's daylight in the western hemisphere."

  Suddenly, friction flames began glowing from the nose of the Bug fighter. We were going back into the atmosphere.

  "Ax, can you pull us out of this?" I demanded.

  he said.
  . .

  but I don't think it will be enough.>

  "Great," Marco moaned.

  "At least the Blade ship will go down with us," Rachel said.

  "Does that make you feel better, Xena?" Marco grated. Rachel actually smiled. It was a sad, brief smile. "Not much better," she admitted.

  Ax said.
  . .>

  FLASH!

  I was no longer in the Bug fighter.

  I was square dancing.

  I was giving Rachel a resentful look as I bowed to her in time with the music. What the ...

  FLASH!

 

  I saw green. Green on green, rushing up at me.

  And then we hit.

  And for a while, I didn't see anything at all. Time Unknown. 00! HOO! HOO! HOO!

  HOOHOHOHO-HOHO! HAH! HAH!

  KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH!

  I woke up.

  I woke up very suddenly.

  KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH! KEEYAAAH! YAHA-HAHAHAH!

  My head hurt, and the screaming noises didn't help. My back hurt, too. I was lying on the ground. On mildewed, rot ting leaves. Trees towered over me. Insanely tall trees. Ferns dipped down to

  Tickle my face. There was a root or something under my back, which explained the back pain.

  But I was alive.

  KeRAW! KeRAW! KeRAW!

  VrrEEET! VrrEEEET! VrrEEEET!

  I sat up quickly. But that sent a spear of pain through my head.

  "Oh, man," I groaned.

  Then I saw the bug. The bug on my lap. The big, giant, MONSTER

  bug. I guess it was some kind of beetle. It had yellow and black stripes and something that looked almost like curved antlers. I swear it was six inches long. Or at least three inches. It would have been beautiful, if it hadn't been on me.

  "AAAAAHHH!" I yelled and brushed the beetle away. Then, I felt the itchy, crawling feeling on my leg. Ants!

  There were a dozen ants climbing up my right shin.

  I have been an ant. So you'd think maybe I have some sympathy for them. Wrong. I slapped at my leg till I was sure they were gone.

  I climbed to my feet. I felt woozy and confused. Where was I?

  Where were the others?

  I looked around. Green. Green everywhere. I mean, every where.

  "The visions," I said to no one.

  I was in a jungle. I knew that for sure. I'd never been in a jungle before, but there was no doubt in my mind. Maybe it was the monkeys and birds screeching at an insane volume all around me in the trees that gave it away. Maybe it was the creepers and vines. Maybe it was a flash of an amazing redand-blue bird flitting through the branches. Maybe it was the fact that beetles really shouldn't be as big as that beetle had been. It was jungle, all right. Just like it had been in the weird flashes I'd been experiencing since that afternoon while square dancing.

  "That's what did it," I muttered. "It was the square dancing that drove me crazy." I decided to yell for the others. "Hey!

  Hey! Cassie! Marco!"

  It was like my voice had no power. The sound was just swallowed by the trees and ferns and bushes.

  "Okay, get a grip, Jake. Try to remember. You were coming down in the Bug fighter. Obviously you crashed. Duh. So look for the Bug

  fighter. It can't be far away."

  I glanced around me at the solid wall of green in very direction. The air was steaming with humidity. And the mells of overly sweet flowers and tropical rot made me feel like I was walking past some department store perfume counter. Then I spotted a tree where the top half had been snapped off. I started walking, trying to get a better angle on the broken tree. I saw a second tree, splintered. I began to notice what looked like a tunnel plowed through the dense foliage. A tunnel plowed through the trees and foliage should lead to the Bug fighter.

  "Or the Blade ship," I reminded myself.

  HOO! HOO! HOO! HOOHOOHOOHOO! HAH! HAH! HAH!

  The jungle was quieting down a little, but there was still some fairly crazy screeching from up in the tall trees. The jungle

  animals

  sounded

  annoyed.

  Probably

  they

  didn't

  appreciate someone crashing a Bug fighter into their home. And they didn't like my looks, either. The jungle floor was surprisingly clear. Down at foot level there wasn't much growing, just dead leaves. But at face level there were vines and bushes and ferns, all slapping me in the face as I pressed on.

  Suddenly I came to a clearing. A hole in the canopy where a tree had fallen. Bright sunlight shone down through the gap. And it was as if every species of plant life you could imagine was crowding into that sunny spot. I found myself facing an incredible wall of vegetation: a dozen types of brilliant flowers, mosses so green they didn't seem real, small vines wrapped around bigger vines wrapped around tree trunks. It was the greenest place on Earth. There were even plants growing out of the smooth trunks of tall trees. I trudged on, back into the shadows of the forest, and when I looked up, I could no longer see the tunnel through the foliage.