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"Mad? No, of course not. It's just . . . you know. You're different."
"But I'm better," I said. "I mean, I'm, like, nice. I'm not all crazy."
care about someone like me? It takes a fairly crazy girl to like a Bird-boy^
"You like her better?" I asked in total amazement.
"Her? Oh, you mean Evil Rachel?" Cassie laughed. "No. She's insane and
dangerous. I just want old Rachel back. No offense."
"But, you can't expect me to ever want her back inside me, can you?" I
asked.
106 No answer, because right then Jake came in with Marco, and Ax in his
human morph.
They looked wary.
"What do we have here?" Marco asked Cassie.
"Wimp Rachel," she said. Then winced. "Sorry."
"Oh fine, if you all like her so much, I guess I'll just go home!" I
pouted. "Only . . . it's getting dark out. Can someone walk me home?"
Jake rubbed his head like his hair was annoying him. "Rachel, look, we
need you."
Tobias wondered.
"And, Mean Rachel, I assume you're here in some morph spying on us, so
you can hear this, too," he said. "Look, we have this convoy thing.
Three trucks. Three directions. If we eliminate both Rachels that leaves
us with five people for three trucks. Meaning that someone is on their
own. I don't like that. Everyone needs backup."
 Ax said. He had morphed back to Andalite.
I had looked away.
"Even you need someone to give you some cover, Ax," Jake said. "I'm
sorry, but this has 'trap' written all over it. If the Yeerks are being
this careful, it's because they're worried. Which means they could be
waiting for us. We need six people, minimum."
107 Marco backed him up by holding up six fingers. "The question is, who
is number six? The psycho killer or Baby Spice, here."
"I can't go!" I cried in horror.
"Yes, you can," Cassie said firmly.
"I would have to morph!"
Ax pointed out.
been altered, your memories are apparently intact. Can you not draw on
those memories for courage?>
"No."
a new voice said.
It was Mean Rachel, of course. Jake had been right: She was hiding, in
morph. Something hideous was growing inside one of the empty stalls. It
looked like someone had taken a Barbie doll and a Beast Wars Transformer
and melted them together in the microwave.
Jake instantly began to morph to tiger. Ax moved toward her, tail ready.
Marco, too, began to change.
By the time Mean Rachel was fully human, she was facing a tiger, a
gorilla, and a very alert Andalite.
Only Cassie stayed human.
Mean Rachel looked around and burst out in a loud guffaw. "Got you all
scared, haven't I? Come on, fight fair, at least. I'll take on any one
of you. I morph to grizzly and we go at it."
108 Ax said confidently.
Mean Rachel seemed to consider that for a moment. Then she got a crafty
look on her face. "You know what the wimp tried to do today?"
 Tobias said.
That startled Mean Rachel. "What?"
"We watched you both," Cassie said. "I was close by at the airport. The
fly you waved off, Nice Rachel. Tobias watched you on the way there and
back."
Mean Rachel's lips were white with growing rage. "You all think you're
smart? You think you can handle ME?"
Jake moved with liquid feline grace over to stand in front of her.
me remind you of something, Rachel. We've been through this before.
David had morphing powers and he attacked the group. He's a nothlit now,
trapped in the body of a rat on that godforsaken little pimple of rock
out in the ocean.>
"I'm not David!" Mean Rachel spat.
Marco answered,
alliance with the Yeerks. You can't. The Yeerks believe in control. And
you are out of control.>
"I can fight! She can't!" Mean Rachel yelled, sticking a quivering
finger in my face. "She's useless!"
Tobias said.
109 nothing but rage and violence. You're a pile of gunpowder, ready to
go off with any spark. You blow up.>
"I blowupYeerks!"
in the right way at the right time,> Jake said.
"I am going on this mission!" Mean Rachel screamed. "You can't stop me!"
She lunged at Jake. She attacked him with bare hands. Jake ignored her
assault. He waited, while she punched and clawed and pounded on his head
and shoulders. Occasionally he would deign to block a blow with one of
his lightning-quick paws.
At last Mean Rachel sat down, spent. Burned out.
Jake said.
"I am go ing," she said weakly.
 Jake turned his orange and black face to me.
"Noway!"
into trouble. You'll have to morph, but you won't have to fight. I know
you don't like it. But, Nice Rachel, you are going.>
"Why do I have to go?" I wailed.
110 "My duty?" I thought about the word. Duty? What was duty? What did
that mean to me? Nothing!
Only ... it did mean something. To my surprise, it did. It was kind of
weird. But down inside me, untouched by the split, I felt the word resonate.
Mean Rachel got the courage. I got the sense of duty.
And now that I had touched that part of me, it seemed powerful.
Irresistible.
"Okay, now that was just, like, totally bad planning," I muttered under
my breath.
111
f she goes, I go," Mean Rachel yelled.
Jake relented.
Mean Rachel looked happy. Until Ax slapped her on the side of her head
with the flat of his tail.
Then she just looked unconscious.
"We can't restrain her," Cassie said, looking down at my double. "She
has all our powers. We can't exactly tie her up."
Jake agreed.
does, assume that she is an enemy.>
Marco said.
ill
112 Mean Rachel behind. This should be fun. If by "fun" you mean
terrifying and insane.>
Cassie looked thoughtfully at me and smiled. "I told Jake I thought your
sense of duty was part of this half of you."
"And I thought you were my friend."
Marco and Jake were demorphing. I forced myself not to look away. It was
hideous, horrifying, but I tried not to look away.
I wasn't brave. I wasn't. But Cassie, as usual, was right. Jake had
touched something still alive and strong inside me: duty.
Stupid word! Stupid idea!
No, not a stupid idea. But definitely a stupid word. I mean, it sounds
like "doody." I mean, puh-leeze. I had to go and get killed because of
something that sounds like you're talking about what dogs do on the lawn?
"Okay, here's the plan," Jake said. "Ax with Cassie. Marco and Tobias.
Me and Rachel."
Of course. Jake didn't trust me, duh. He wanted me with him so he could
watch me.
"We assemble in the air over BRI. The Chee have been alerted to take our
place at our homes."
Marco groaned. "I hate it when we do that. The Chee who plays me always
cleans my room. I can never find anything!"
"We stay on alert till we see the trucks move
113 out. One member of each team demorphs each half hour. That way we
all stay fresh and don't have time limit problems. Questions?"
Marco held up his hand. "If I split into two halves can I stay home?"
Everyone laughed. That nervous laugh we all have when we know Marco's
just trying to ease the tension.
It would take more than that to ease my tension. I felt like I must be
as stiff as an ironing board. I knew what was coming.
"Okay, let's morph," Jake said.
He winked at me. It was supposed to make me feel confident. It didn't.
I closed my eyes tight. Owl. That was the right morph for flying at
night. Everyone knew it. Owl. They weren't too scary. Not too scary. Not
too scary.
I squinched my eyes as closed as I could. And I let it start.
I saw nothing. And, of course, there was no pain. I mean, if you could,
like, really fee/morph-ing it would be beyond any pain. It would be like
burning alive while being put through a garbage disposal or something.
So I didn't feel it, not in that way. But I felt parts of it. Faraway,
like when you go to the dentist and they give you Novocain and it
doesn't exactly hurt, only you know it should, because, like,
115 they're drilling into your teeth, so it kind of does hurt?
That's what morphing is like.
And you can hear it, too. You can hear your bones crunching and grinding
as they shrink and twist and hollow out. You can hear your skull as it
changes shape and you think, Oh! Oh! My brain is being squished!
And you feel yourself totter, off balance, as your body changes shapes
and your feet become hard, scrabbly talons, and when you wave your arms [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]