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Summary: A Daria/Animorphs crossover. Jane just walking home from the mall when a spaceship crashed right in front of her. Now she and her "friends" have the power to turn into animals— which they'll need to stop the alien invasion threatening the planet!
Visser Three
Quinn's ears were becoming giant, flat and papery. Her nose melted into putty, then stretched into a long hose that just kept growing and growing. Her clothes ripped—she fell onto her hands and knees—
One of the Hork-Bajir screamed something in Hork-Bajir-ese. The human just gaped at the weird, twisted, half-elephant thing that he only now noticed.
Quinn, twelve feet tall and still growing, let out a bellow and rushed forward. The rest of us jumped out of the way as she chased the three Controllers, sending one Hork-Bajir flying with a swat of her massive head.
"Raaaggghhh!" the alien screamed.
Quinn cried, sounding just as terrified.
The four of us all looked at each other. Then, not quite consciously, the rest of us turned to Jodie for guidance. She bit her lip, face going pale. "Morph!" she cried finally.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. My mind was racing, but I tried to shut out my fear and anger and confusion and focus on the tiger from the zoo.
I'd already been a cat; a tiger wasn't all that different in the basic design. I felt my nose flatten, my ears reshape themselves, my spine extend as a tail snaked its way out of my pants. But there was one kind of major difference: a tiger is big.
My skinny arms suddenly pumped with muscles, a bizarre sensation that made me feel like my skin was about to bust at the same time that it was sprouting itchy orange fur. Claws erupted out of my sneakers, which were already struggling to hold in my growing feet. My shirt ripped, more muscles appearing on my chest, my legs, my entire body. I could feel my teeth grow and twist into huge fangs powered by strong, powerful jaws.
Without thinking I let out a roar. It seemed to explode out of my mouth like thunder.
I can't even describe how I felt. My fear was gone! I was a tiger! What puny little runt was even going to dare to challenge me?!
And I wasn't alone! Daria was a wolf now, large and fierce yet somehow puny compared to me, while Upchuck clenched his massive gorilla arms and Jodie, a grizzly bear, reared back with bristling fur. For just a moment my tiger mind was confused and scared, before human-Jane remembered: they were my friends. We were a menagerie of menacing mammals, and the two halves of my brain agreed: the Yeerks were screwed.
Jodie cried.
There were about a dozen of them running toward the shed—I didn't even stop to think, I just jumped, hitting the nearest one in the chest and sending it crashing to the ground. It let out a roar and swiped at me with its bladed arms—I twisted my head back, then swung my paws—massive paws, they must have been bigger than a human's head!—and slashed it right across its face. Another Hork-Bajir leapt on me from behind—its blade connected with my back, ripping into my fur, but with a roar I spun around, biting and thrashing, not even thinking—
The ground shook—Quinn was coming back now, trumpeting her cry, and the Hork-Bajir were scattering. Her thought-speak voice still sounded panicked, though.
I bent my head almost to the ground, shaking it roughly as I tried to focus. I cried.
Upchuck led the way. A few of the Hork-Bajir guards near the cages scattered when they saw us coming, but a few raised their Dracon beams—Quinn let out another bellow as their blasts hit her in the side, then barreled down on them, while Daria headed for the piers—both lines were soon scattered as Controllers ran and guards lost a hold of their prisoners, who ran for cover—
The humans in the cages shrunk back as the rest of us approached. For a second I panicked, suddenly realizing that we didn't know how to get them out, only for Upchuck to reach forward and rip the lock off of the nearest cage. He opened the door, making a show of bowing like a doorman, which seemed to convince the captives that they could come out without worrying about us eating them.
He moved down to the next cage, then the next, and it was then that I finally spotted Trent, his tall frame and mess black hair standing out among the other ex-human-Controllers. I had to resist the urge to run forward and tackle him to the ground.
Daria suddenly cried, startling me from my thoughts.
I could tell that Jodie was extending her thought-speak so that the prisoners could hear it too—she got down on all fours and started to run back the way we had come, and most of the freed humans and Hork-Bajir followed as Upchuck stayed behind to rip the last cage door free.
A swarm of Taxxons suddenly rushed at us, their lobster claws clicking, their massive teeth snapping—I heard one of the human prisoners scream a Taxxon body-slammed him, let out a roar as I saw its jaws around his arm, blood sprouting everywhere. Daria attacked the Taxxon—
"WHOA!"
I spun around—one of the bloated centipedes was headed for Trent. My legs sprang without thinking—I slashed!
Taxxons, it turns out, are kind of like water balloons filled with rotten hamburger. It took a single swipe of my claws to literally burst the nearest one—its companions quickly leapt at it, gobbling up their brother's putrid guts. Quinn let out a horrified as she crushed half a dozen Taxxons like the giant bugs they were.
Trent blinked and looked up at me, an enormous tiger covered in alien guts looming inches from his face. He slowly raised his hands, eyes wide but his voice as low and detached as ever. "Whoa. Nice kitty."
I'm not sure what kind of reaction I was expecting, but that was just so—so [I]Trent, especially compared to the horrible act that the Yeerk had been putting on, that I burst out into mental giggles. I was about to say something, tell Trent who I was, when Jodie's voice was suddenly screaming in my head.
Upchuck punched an approaching Hork-Bajir with his huge fist, sending the monster flying.
He stopped in mid-sentence. I felt an unexplained chill and followed his gaze.
Visser Three had just stepped out of the crowd of approaching Hork-Bajir-Controllers.
I should have just attacked him right then. One of us should have. It wasn't even that he looked all that threatening—other than his tail his Andalite body just looked like a furry blue centaur.   But there was something about him that made me draw back in terror—even my tiger brain, as fierce as it was, somehow sensed that this was a predator bigger and badder than it could ever hope to be.
he said.
A Taxxon slithered over to him from the crowd, making a string of noises halfway between hisses and whistles. Visser Three remained impassive, watching us with his four eyes.
He suddenly gave a silent chuckle. he said, taking a step closer.
He was silent for a moment while I absorbed that statement. Quinn sounded confused.
Jodie said suddenly.
Visser Three continued, oblivious to our private conversation. He suddenly began to grow taller. he said as his fur began to disappear.
I took a step back; one of the freed prisoners, one who sounded like a child, screamed. Visser Three was getting taller and taller, and somehow even more creepy, he was growing extra arms, extra legs, extra heads—
Visser Three mused.
He was even taller than Quinn in her elephant body. He had eight arms, eight legs, eight heads. It was bizarre and reptilian, so scary that even the Hork-Bajir-Controllers were edging away.
Upchuck said fearfully.
Then one of Visser Three's head reared back, lunged forward, and shot a ball of fire out of its mouth. It exploded against a teenage girl we had just freed, who screamed as she fell to the ground and tried to extinguish the flames.
Animals and humans and Hork-Bajir roared and screamed and ran—Visser Three cackled in our minds.
A blast of fire exploded right where I had been a second before. Quinn let out a roar as another singed right through her ear.
Jodie screamed.
Upchuck swung his arms around and scooped up as many terrified humans as could fit his massive grasp, making a run for the stairs. Daria leapt at a Hork-Bajir, teeth sinking into its throat, only to cry out as a fireball hit her in the side. Quinn was in the lead, clearing a path through the Controllers with her bulk. She was almost at the stairs—
she suddenly screamed.
Daria cried, picking herself off the ground.
Quinn began to shrink, running up the stairs on limbs that were three-fourths elephant but shrinking rapidly. The rest of us ran after her, but Visser Three was following! There were more Controllers in his way and he just didn't give a crap—humans and Hork-Bajir were trampled, Taxxons burst with a slash of his claws as he rushed at us, sending more fireballs that fell more and more of the people we were trying to save.
Upchuck was hit—he cried out and dropped the people he was carrying, only for a Hork-Bajir to leap at him and leave a gaping wound on his chest. Visser Three was right behind me—one of his heads snapped forward at me like a snake, but I managed to just jump away when—
"Aagghh!"
I recognized the voice instantly—I came to a stop, spinning around with feline agility to see one of Visser Three's heads whip around, hitting Trent right in the side. My brother went flying, crashing to the ground. He wasn't moving. The triumphant head roared.
So did my tiger brain.
<[I]NO!>
My leg muscles sprang, my claws extended as I sailed through the air—my teeth sank into Visser Three's nearest neck, a vile, alien taste filling my mouth, and I slashed and tore as the monster roared in pain—another head spun around and fired, a blast of flame right in my flank, and pain, unimaginable pain, exploded in my body. I roared and fell—the scent of burned fur and skin hit my nose, but I still thrashed and bit, even as Visser Three spun around—
I couldn't even see straight through the pain, but I felt something grab me—I fought it, still crazy, as someone—I realized later that it must have been Upchuck—picked me up and began to drag my massive, injured body away.
Visser Three was still after us—Upchuck carried me up the stairs, dropped me, Visser Three was mere feet behind us, I had to run, up the tunnel—he had miscalculated, his huge morph couldn't fit through. The stairway narrowed quickly—Visser Three's heads shot up one blast more fire, snapping at us, but we ran as fast as we could as he struggled to climb any higher.
he screamed as we retreated, his visible heads all roaring.
Everything between that and getting to Daria's house is kind of a blur, to be honest. I'm sure mall security remembers it a lot better than I do.
The five of us got out, alive. I think one or two freed Controllers managed to escape too, but if so we lost them in the confusion. That was the extent of our victory. As for blowing up the Yeerk pool…stopping the invasion…freeing Trent…
It was several hours later before I finally got up the nerve to try calling his cell phone.
Ring…ring—click!
"Hello?"
I took a deep breath.
"Hey, Trent. Hope I'm not bothering you at work—I was just wondering when you're gonna be home."
My brother's voice sighed wearily. "There was a…[I]problem here. To be honest I'm probably not going to be home until morning."
I felt my hopes melt; my arm was suddenly shaking. "Oh. That sucks."
"Yeah. Anyway, don't wait up or anything. I'll probably see you when you get home from school tomorrow. Okay?"
"Yeah. See you then," I said, my voice very small to my own ears. I hesitated. "Love you," I added weakly.
"Yeah. Love you too, Janie."
He hung up. Immediately I dropped the phone into my lap and felt tears well up in my eyes.
"Oh, no—Jane?"
I looked up at Daria, my vision blurry. "Well…he's alive, at least. He said—" I sniffled. "He said that there were 'problems at work.' I guess that's a good assessment of a When Animals Attack set."
"So—he's definitely been…"
I nodded.
"Oh…uh, I'm sorry…"
I couldn't help it—I started to sob. I tried to stifle it—it was after midnight and Daria's parents didn't realize I was there—but it forced its way out, and without even thinking I collapsed against Daria's shoulder and began to cry into her clothes.
"It's—Jane, it's okay, it's okay." Daria reached up to pat me on the back. I knew Daria wasn't exactly a "huggy" person—neither was I, for that matter—but even awkward affection was a comfort at the moment.
"I just—I wanted to save him so bad, Daria," I whispered. "I just—kept trying to tell myself—"
"I know." She took a deep breath. "But don't worry, Jane. We will get him back. We'll keep fighting the Yeerks until we find a way to save Trent. And, if we must, maybe even the rest of the planet too."
I chuckled, but it combined with another sob to turn into something closer to a hiccup. "You promise?"
"Yeah…I promise." She sounded like she was reading her own death sentence. Or all of ours.
"Thanks, amiga."
END OF BOOK ONE

Description

Summary: A Daria/Animorphs crossover. Jane just walking home from the mall when a spaceship crashed right in front of her. Now she and her "friends" have the power to turn into animals— which they'll need to stop the alien invasion threatening the planet!
Visser Three
Quinn's ears were becoming giant, flat and papery. Her nose melted into putty, then stretched into a long hose that just kept growing and growing. Her clothes ripped—she fell onto her hands and knees—
One of the Hork-Bajir screamed something in Hork-Bajir-ese. The human just gaped at the weird, twisted, half-elephant thing that he only now noticed.
Quinn, twelve feet tall and still growing, let out a bellow and rushed forward. The rest of us jumped out of the way as she chased the three Controllers, sending one Hork-Bajir flying with a swat of her massive head.
"Raaaggghhh!" the alien screamed.
Quinn cried, sounding just as terrified.
The four of us all looked at each other. Then, not quite consciously, the rest of us turned to Jodie for guidance. She bit her lip, face going pale. "Morph!" she cried finally.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. My mind was racing, but I tried to shut out my fear and anger and confusion and focus on the tiger from the zoo.
I'd already been a cat; a tiger wasn't all that different in the basic design. I felt my nose flatten, my ears reshape themselves, my spine extend as a tail snaked its way out of my pants. But there was one kind of major difference: a tiger is big.
My skinny arms suddenly pumped with muscles, a bizarre sensation that made me feel like my skin was about to bust at the same time that it was sprouting itchy orange fur. Claws erupted out of my sneakers, which were already struggling to hold in my growing feet. My shirt ripped, more muscles appearing on my chest, my legs, my entire body. I could feel my teeth grow and twist into huge fangs powered by strong, powerful jaws.
Without thinking I let out a roar. It seemed to explode out of my mouth like thunder.
I can't even describe how I felt. My fear was gone! I was a tiger! What puny little runt was even going to dare to challenge me?!
And I wasn't alone! Daria was a wolf now, large and fierce yet somehow puny compared to me, while Upchuck clenched his massive gorilla arms and Jodie, a grizzly bear, reared back with bristling fur. For just a moment my tiger mind was confused and scared, before human-Jane remembered: they were my friends. We were a menagerie of menacing mammals, and the two halves of my brain agreed: the Yeerks were screwed.
Jodie cried.
There were about a dozen of them running toward the shed—I didn't even stop to think, I just jumped, hitting the nearest one in the chest and sending it crashing to the ground. It let out a roar and swiped at me with its bladed arms—I twisted my head back, then swung my paws—massive paws, they must have been bigger than a human's head!—and slashed it right across its face. Another Hork-Bajir leapt on me from behind—its blade connected with my back, ripping into my fur, but with a roar I spun around, biting and thrashing, not even thinking—
The ground shook—Quinn was coming back now, trumpeting her cry, and the Hork-Bajir were scattering. Her thought-speak voice still sounded panicked, though.
I bent my head almost to the ground, shaking it roughly as I tried to focus. I cried.
Upchuck led the way. A few of the Hork-Bajir guards near the cages scattered when they saw us coming, but a few raised their Dracon beams—Quinn let out another bellow as their blasts hit her in the side, then barreled down on them, while Daria headed for the piers—both lines were soon scattered as Controllers ran and guards lost a hold of their prisoners, who ran for cover—
The humans in the cages shrunk back as the rest of us approached. For a second I panicked, suddenly realizing that we didn't know how to get them out, only for Upchuck to reach forward and rip the lock off of the nearest cage. He opened the door, making a show of bowing like a doorman, which seemed to convince the captives that they could come out without worrying about us eating them.
He moved down to the next cage, then the next, and it was then that I finally spotted Trent, his tall frame and mess black hair standing out among the other ex-human-Controllers. I had to resist the urge to run forward and tackle him to the ground.
Daria suddenly cried, startling me from my thoughts.
I could tell that Jodie was extending her thought-speak so that the prisoners could hear it too—she got down on all fours and started to run back the way we had come, and most of the freed humans and Hork-Bajir followed as Upchuck stayed behind to rip the last cage door free.
A swarm of Taxxons suddenly rushed at us, their lobster claws clicking, their massive teeth snapping—I heard one of the human prisoners scream a Taxxon body-slammed him, let out a roar as I saw its jaws around his arm, blood sprouting everywhere. Daria attacked the Taxxon—
"WHOA!"
I spun around—one of the bloated centipedes was headed for Trent. My legs sprang without thinking—I slashed!
Taxxons, it turns out, are kind of like water balloons filled with rotten hamburger. It took a single swipe of my claws to literally burst the nearest one—its companions quickly leapt at it, gobbling up their brother's putrid guts. Quinn let out a horrified as she crushed half a dozen Taxxons like the giant bugs they were.
Trent blinked and looked up at me, an enormous tiger covered in alien guts looming inches from his face. He slowly raised his hands, eyes wide but his voice as low and detached as ever. "Whoa. Nice kitty."
I'm not sure what kind of reaction I was expecting, but that was just so—so [I]Trent, especially compared to the horrible act that the Yeerk had been putting on, that I burst out into mental giggles. I was about to say something, tell Trent who I was, when Jodie's voice was suddenly screaming in my head.
Upchuck punched an approaching Hork-Bajir with his huge fist, sending the monster flying.
He stopped in mid-sentence. I felt an unexplained chill and followed his gaze.
Visser Three had just stepped out of the crowd of approaching Hork-Bajir-Controllers.
I should have just attacked him right then. One of us should have. It wasn't even that he looked all that threatening—other than his tail his Andalite body just looked like a furry blue centaur.   But there was something about him that made me draw back in terror—even my tiger brain, as fierce as it was, somehow sensed that this was a predator bigger and badder than it could ever hope to be.
he said.
A Taxxon slithered over to him from the crowd, making a string of noises halfway between hisses and whistles. Visser Three remained impassive, watching us with his four eyes.
He suddenly gave a silent chuckle. he said, taking a step closer.
He was silent for a moment while I absorbed that statement. Quinn sounded confused.
Jodie said suddenly.
Visser Three continued, oblivious to our private conversation. He suddenly began to grow taller. he said as his fur began to disappear.
I took a step back; one of the freed prisoners, one who sounded like a child, screamed. Visser Three was getting taller and taller, and somehow even more creepy, he was growing extra arms, extra legs, extra heads—
Visser Three mused.
He was even taller than Quinn in her elephant body. He had eight arms, eight legs, eight heads. It was bizarre and reptilian, so scary that even the Hork-Bajir-Controllers were edging away.
Upchuck said fearfully.
Then one of Visser Three's head reared back, lunged forward, and shot a ball of fire out of its mouth. It exploded against a teenage girl we had just freed, who screamed as she fell to the ground and tried to extinguish the flames.
Animals and humans and Hork-Bajir roared and screamed and ran—Visser Three cackled in our minds.
A blast of fire exploded right where I had been a second before. Quinn let out a roar as another singed right through her ear.
Jodie screamed.
Upchuck swung his arms around and scooped up as many terrified humans as could fit his massive grasp, making a run for the stairs. Daria leapt at a Hork-Bajir, teeth sinking into its throat, only to cry out as a fireball hit her in the side. Quinn was in the lead, clearing a path through the Controllers with her bulk. She was almost at the stairs—
she suddenly screamed.
Daria cried, picking herself off the ground.
Quinn began to shrink, running up the stairs on limbs that were three-fourths elephant but shrinking rapidly. The rest of us ran after her, but Visser Three was following! There were more Controllers in his way and he just didn't give a crap—humans and Hork-Bajir were trampled, Taxxons burst with a slash of his claws as he rushed at us, sending more fireballs that fell more and more of the people we were trying to save.
Upchuck was hit—he cried out and dropped the people he was carrying, only for a Hork-Bajir to leap at him and leave a gaping wound on his chest. Visser Three was right behind me—one of his heads snapped forward at me like a snake, but I managed to just jump away when—
"Aagghh!"
I recognized the voice instantly—I came to a stop, spinning around with feline agility to see one of Visser Three's heads whip around, hitting Trent right in the side. My brother went flying, crashing to the ground. He wasn't moving. The triumphant head roared.
So did my tiger brain.
<[I]NO!>
My leg muscles sprang, my claws extended as I sailed through the air—my teeth sank into Visser Three's nearest neck, a vile, alien taste filling my mouth, and I slashed and tore as the monster roared in pain—another head spun around and fired, a blast of flame right in my flank, and pain, unimaginable pain, exploded in my body. I roared and fell—the scent of burned fur and skin hit my nose, but I still thrashed and bit, even as Visser Three spun around—
I couldn't even see straight through the pain, but I felt something grab me—I fought it, still crazy, as someone—I realized later that it must have been Upchuck—picked me up and began to drag my massive, injured body away.
Visser Three was still after us—Upchuck carried me up the stairs, dropped me, Visser Three was mere feet behind us, I had to run, up the tunnel—he had miscalculated, his huge morph couldn't fit through. The stairway narrowed quickly—Visser Three's heads shot up one blast more fire, snapping at us, but we ran as fast as we could as he struggled to climb any higher.
he screamed as we retreated, his visible heads all roaring.
Everything between that and getting to Daria's house is kind of a blur, to be honest. I'm sure mall security remembers it a lot better than I do.
The five of us got out, alive. I think one or two freed Controllers managed to escape too, but if so we lost them in the confusion. That was the extent of our victory. As for blowing up the Yeerk pool…stopping the invasion…freeing Trent…
It was several hours later before I finally got up the nerve to try calling his cell phone.
Ring…ring—click!
"Hello?"
I took a deep breath.
"Hey, Trent. Hope I'm not bothering you at work—I was just wondering when you're gonna be home."
My brother's voice sighed wearily. "There was a…[I]problem here. To be honest I'm probably not going to be home until morning."
I felt my hopes melt; my arm was suddenly shaking. "Oh. That sucks."
"Yeah. Anyway, don't wait up or anything. I'll probably see you when you get home from school tomorrow. Okay?"
"Yeah. See you then," I said, my voice very small to my own ears. I hesitated. "Love you," I added weakly.
"Yeah. Love you too, Janie."
He hung up. Immediately I dropped the phone into my lap and felt tears well up in my eyes.
"Oh, no—Jane?"
I looked up at Daria, my vision blurry. "Well…he's alive, at least. He said—" I sniffled. "He said that there were 'problems at work.' I guess that's a good assessment of a When Animals Attack set."
"So—he's definitely been…"
I nodded.
"Oh…uh, I'm sorry…"
I couldn't help it—I started to sob. I tried to stifle it—it was after midnight and Daria's parents didn't realize I was there—but it forced its way out, and without even thinking I collapsed against Daria's shoulder and began to cry into her clothes.
"It's—Jane, it's okay, it's okay." Daria reached up to pat me on the back. I knew Daria wasn't exactly a "huggy" person—neither was I, for that matter—but even awkward affection was a comfort at the moment.
"I just—I wanted to save him so bad, Daria," I whispered. "I just—kept trying to tell myself—"
"I know." She took a deep breath. "But don't worry, Jane. We will get him back. We'll keep fighting the Yeerks until we find a way to save Trent. And, if we must, maybe even the rest of the planet too."
I chuckled, but it combined with another sob to turn into something closer to a hiccup. "You promise?"
"Yeah…I promise." She sounded like she was reading her own death sentence. Or all of ours.
"Thanks, amiga."
END OF BOOK ONE