Tobias was trapped in a morph. Now, he's a red-tailed hawk. A predator who lives on mice and rabbits and sometimes other birds.

9 I still see him as sweet, gentle Tobias. But he has been a hawk for a long time now.

The gift of the Andalite, the power to morph, is a wonderful weapon. But like any weapon, it can destroy those who use it.

"Here he comes." Tobias called down in the thought-speak we use when we are in a morph.

"I think he sees us."

I heard the sound of fallen leaves being stirred, a faint drumbeat of pounding hooves on pine needles.

Then, with a leap, he cleared a fallen tree trunk and landed a few feet away from us. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. We call him "Ax" for short. The sole survivor of the destroyed Andalite Dome ship. The only living Andalite on planet Earth.

Ax is the brother of Prince Elfangor, the Andalite who warned us about the Yeerk invasion and gave us the power to morph. Prince Elfangor, who was destroyed by Visser Three, leader of the Yeerk forces on Earth.

"Hello, Prince Jake."

Ax said. "Hello, all. "

As much as I know Ax, and even consider him a friend, it's always a little bit of a shock to see him.

He looks like some odd cross of a human, a deer, and a scorpion. But not really like any of those things. His upper body and head are more or less the human-looking parts. He has thin arms and many-fingered hands. His face is flat, with slits for a nose and two large almond eyes. He has no mouth at all, which is why thought-speak is the natural language of Andalites.

From atop his head rise two stalks, each with an eye on the end. He can turn these eyes in any direction he wants. They're completely independent of his main eyes. His body is that of a pale blue-and-tan deer, or a thin pony. He has four legs that end in hooves. But his back slopes down, so that you would never be tempted to think of riding him.

And he has a tail. A long, thick, powerful tail that ends in a deadly scythe-shaped blade. I've seen him use that tail. He can strike so fast that the human eye sees nothing but a blur.

"Hey, Ax," Marco said. "How's it going?"

"It is going wonderfully. I was up in the hills yesterday, and I was attacked by one of those very large cats. What do you call them? Cougars? It was very exciting. "

"Are you okay?" I asked.

10 "Certainly, Rachel. And I did not hurt the cougar, Cassie. Not fatally, anyway. But he won't try to eat me again, I think. " Ax gave his strange Andalite smile, an expression he managed even without a mouth.

Marco rolled his eyes. "I'm telling you, Ax and Rachel belong together. The two of you are sick. Someday you could get married while bungee-jumping into an active volcano."

I squirmed a little. Not because I minded Marco thinking I was bold. But because I really was not interested in Ax that way.

"Okay, now that we're all here, Marco, maybe you could tell us why we're all here," Jake said.

"I have some news," Marco began. "Actually, Tobias and I have some news."

I glanced up at Tobias, sitting in the tree.

Of course he showed no expression. He just fixed his piercing gaze on Marco.

Marco swaggered just a bit as we formed a circle around him.

"It's a tale of initiative and courage and, yes, brilliance," Marco began.

"No, no, no. Just tell us, Marco," I snapped. "Don't try to milk the suspense."

"Okay," he said with an easy laugh. "My fellow Animorphs . . . and visiting alien... we have found a way into the Yeerk pool."

11 Chapter 4

The entrance to the Yeerk pool?" I echoed. "Where? How?"

I looked around at the others to see their reactions.

See, we had already invaded the Yeerk pool in an effort to save Jake's brother, Tom. Not a happy memory.

I saw Cassie shudder.

"Ax is the only one who wasn't there for our little vacation in the Yeerk pool," Marco said.

"As the rest of you know, the Yeerk pool is in a huge underground cavern. It's practically a small city down there. It's under our school, but it's so big that it also runs beneath the fire station, a couple of gas stations, and most of the mall."

Ax nodded. "Yeerk pools are generally large and elaborate. They are an important part of Yeerk life. The centers of their lives, really. The pools are, for the Yeerks, what forests and meadows are to Andalites. "

"Tobias and I have been working out a pattern of surveillance," Marco went on. "For the last week, we've followed our very favorite human-Controller, Assistant Principal Chapman, everywhere we can. Tobias tracks him from the air. Then I follow him when he goes into a building."

"Why didn't you let the rest of us in on this?" I demanded.

Marco shrugged. "It was a two-person job, that's all."

Jake looked as annoyed as I felt.

Then I realized why Marco had kept this quiet. Jake had just been through the terrifying ordeal of being infested by a Yeerk. For three days he had been a human-Controller, a prisoner in his own body. Marco had been letting him rest.

"So?" I asked, a little more patiently.

"So what?" Marco answered.

"So where is this entrance to the Yeerk pool? Duh."

"Well, I was hoping to amaze and entertain you all with the whole story of our brilliant detective work, but the short answer is - in a dressing room at The Gap. In the mall. That's the entrance. People go in, looking like they're going to try on clothes, and they never come out."

"At least, they don't come out through The Gap." Tobias added. "They come out through the movie theater. When the crowd leaves the movie at the end of the show, there are always more people leaving than went in. "

"In through The Gap, out through the multiplex." Marco laughed. "Are these Yeerks on top of popular American culture, or what?"

12 "Good job," Jake admitted grudgingly. "The question is, now what do we do?"

"Attack!" Ax said instantly.

"We tried that once," Cassie said quietly. "We didn't exactly win. There were dozens of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons down there. And human-Controllers. And he was there . . . Visser Three.That's when Tobias was trapped in a morph. Like I said, we didn't exactly win."

"We got hammered," I agreed. "Ax, you know I'm usually all for going on the attack, but the Yeerk pool is just too big."

"A warrior is judged by the power of his enemies," Ax said stubbornly. But he didn't sound quite as enthusiastic anymore.

"Attacking the Yeerk pool is out," I muttered. But an idea was occurring to me. "Hey, Ax?

What can you tell us about the Kandrona?"

He swiveled his head toward me, while his stalk eyes turned slowly this way and that, searching the woods for trouble. "The Kandrona is a miniature version of the Yeerks" home sun. It emits Kandrona rays, which concentrate in the Yeerk pools. It is what nourishes the Yeerks. That is why the Yeerks must swim in their natural state in the Yeerk pool every three days - they need Kandrona rays. "

"So their real weakness is not the pool itself, but this Kandrona," I said. "This miniature sun."

"But the Kandrona may be many miles away from the Yeerk pool." Ax explained. "The Kandrona rays may be beamed to the pool from almost anywhere. So, although I am in favor of attacking the Yeerk pool, we should not do it expecting to find the Kandrona there. "

"I agree," I said. "But what if we didn't attack the Yeerk pool? What if we just spied it out?