Apathymorphs: The Invasion - Ch. 6

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!

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Courses of Action

I felt like I had been punched. My knees shook so hard that I fell onto my haunches.

"Uh-uh-uh," Ms. Li said, as if she were scolding someone for running in the halls. "We are trying to avoid unwanted attention, remember. We can't just go around killing children at a Sharing meeting, especially if we're not even sure they're the right ones."

"Killing them would be a waste of perfectly good bodies anyway," Sandi said haughtily. "And frankly, I don't see what the fuss is all about. A bunch of stupid human children are not going to stay quiet about this for long. We just need to set the bait and let them come."  

"But we should still try to find them first," another Controller said. "Who's to say who they'll blab to."

"It might have been Quinn and Stacy." It took me a moment to recognize the speaker as Tiffany Blum-Deckler, Sandi's sidekick. Her normal drawl was much less noticeable, and her voice had a hard edge to it that I had never heard before.  

"The other two members of the Fashion Club?"

"They were at the mall last night, but they were alone," Sandi said dismissively. "Reports say there were at least five humans. Frankly, the question is irrelevant. Those two are overdue for an infestation either way."

"Maybe we should take them now. And my host's sister," Trent said.

"I remind you, we do not have the resources to take every human here to the Yeerk Pool at once," Ms. Li grumbled. She cleared her throat. "But, if Sub-Visser Fifty-One feels that the Morgendorffer and Rowe girls should be infested immediately, then I—"

"Thank you, Iniss Two-Two-Six, but that won't be necessary. I think I can arrange a voluntary infestation on my own, if that's okay?"

"Um—yes, of course," Ms. Li stammered.

My head was swimming. This was too much—my brother and half of the kids from school were Controllers, they were talking about killing us mere yards away from me, and Sandi, in all her hyped-up Valley Girl glory, was bossing around the school principal. Suddenly being a cat seemed downright normal.

Ms. Li took a moment to recover. "And speaking of the Yeerk Pool, I am pleased to announce that we have repaired the mall entrance after the recent cave-in. Use will resume tomorrow and be accessible whenever the mall is open."

"Finally."

"Took long enough…"

<Jane?> Upchuck 'tone' was tentative but urgent. <Are you hearing this? …Jane?>

<Yeah, I'm…I'm listening.>

One of the other Controllers was talking now. "…can't make it for my shift on Monday night. My host has a thing."

"I have to go to the Pool Monday night," Trent said. "I can do a quick shift after I feed."

"Excellent, Temrash Two-Five-Two. Always good to see some teamwork," Ms. Li said—she sounded like she was giving a speech to the football team or something. "So, how else can we track down these little brats?"

They talked for a while longer—most of their plans were rejected for some reason or another, and I found it hard to keep up. Admittedly, it might have been easier to pay attention if my head wasn't spinning—or if Trent's voice wasn't echoing in my mind.

<Jane? Jane, I think we should head back now,> Upchuck was saying, again in a cautious tone that 'sounded' strange for him.

<Yeah…yeah, okay.>

I put my head down and walked across the sand, again unseen by the guards. Upchuck flew overhead, neither of us speaking. He didn't even make any lewd comments when we got back to the others and had to demorph behind separate sand dunes.

"How did it go?" Jodie asked as I silently began to pull my clothes back on.

I bit my lip. "Daria was right. Trent's a Controller."

Daria didn't look happy to be right.

"Wait—just Jane's brother, or all the full members?" Quinn asked, though I could tell that she had already guessed the answer.

"All of them. Including Sandi and Tiffany." Quinn looked like she had been slapped. For the first time in my life, I felt like I could relate to her. "And Ms. Li, too, believe it or not."

"Ms. Li?! Like our principal?"

"Yeah. Turns out she really is the evil monster we always thought she was."

"And they're definitely looking for us," Upchuck added. He emerged from behind his  sand dune, fixing the last button of his shirt . "Jane's brother said that he only brought her here because he's suspicious. Of all of us."

"Oh, hell," Jodie said, putting her hand to her face.

"Don't worry—Ms. Li and Sandi shot him down," I said, my voice still shaking. "I think they're the leaders. And weirdly enough, I think Sandi is higher on the Yeerk totem pole. Ms. Li called her 'Sub-Visser Fifty-Something.'"

"Sub-visser? Like that Visser Three guy?" Daria wondered.

"I guess. They all had these weird names full of numbers," I said. I rubbed for brow; I was getting a headache. "The point is, they're trying to wait us out. They figure somebody will come forward with information, like with that reward in the paper. And I think Sandi wants you and Stacy to become Yeerks voluntarily," I added, looking at Quinn.

"Voluntarily?! Like…let them put one of those things in my head?!"

"That seems to be what this whole Sharing thing is about," Jodie said quietly. "Brainwash these people into thinking that they have to be full members to be happy, so that they'll agree to do anything to make it happen."

"That's insane!"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And they mentioned something else, too," Upchuck said. "Something about a 'Yeerk Pool.'"

"A Yeerk Pool? What's that?"

"Wait…" Daria said slowly. "Didn't Visser Three mention something about that last night? That he would build a ton of them once the world was conquered?"

"Ms. Li made it sound like she would have to drag us down there to infest us," I said. "And they talked about having shifts there."

"So it must be something important?" Jodie suggested. "Like the place where they keep Yeerks before they infest people?"

"Something we can attack," I murmured, rising slowly to my feet.

"Wait—attack?!" Quinn cried. "Are you crazy?!"

I rounded on her. "Well, what else are we supposed to do?!"

"I don't know! But attacking that place would just—get us all killed!"

"So what?! You think we should just do nothing?! And let my brother stay a slave to those—things?!"

"And what do you think you're gonna do? Just break onto the alien mother ship like Will Smith or something?!"

"If I have to!"

"Quinn, shouldn't you be more worried?" Jodie's tone was calm but curious. "Sandi and Tiffany are your friends, aren't they? Don't you want to save them from the Yeerks too?"

I heard myself scoff. "Please. Quinn's probably just wondering she can use Sandi being an alien slug to boost her own popularity." I was surprised by how vicious I sounded, and by how fiercely Quinn managed to glare back at me.

"No! But why don't you think for a minute, huh?! You want to fight the Yeerks, Jane? Well, your brother is a Yeerk! What happens when you go to this pool place and it turns out he's the one shooting at you with this ray gun or whatever?!"

I opened my mouth to speak—and faltered. All the arguments and insults I had seemed to shrivel up on the tip of my tongue.

"Yeah. Didn't think about that, did you?" Quinn sneered.

"Okay—both of you, stop fighting," Jodie said, casting a look back at the beach party. "We don't want anybody to hear us. We just have to stop and think about this rationally."

"I hate to admit it, but Quinn brings up a good point," Daria said quietly. "If we do fight the Yeerks, how do we do it without hurting the people they're infesting?"

"Human shields," Upchuck murmured. He rubbed his chin like this was a puzzle he was trying to solve.  

"Yeah. It's like the Civil War, if they put the slaves on the front lines of the Confederate Army," Jodie admitted.

They all turned to look at me. Probably because I was the only one who had a direct stake in this. I looked away, thinking. What was I supposed to say? All I could do was picture myself as some massive animal, forced to fight Trent as he wielded a Dracon beam for an evil alien army.

"We can't just leave Trent like this," I muttered. "And we can't let the Yeerks just run free, either. Maybe I will have to fight Trent. Maybe even—" I broke off before I could even finish the thought. "But if we don't do something to stop them, do you think they'll stop at Trent? They'll take your brothers and sisters, too. And your parents. And your friends," I added, giving Quinn a pointed look. "We either fight these people to get them free or we'll fight them later when they try to infest us."

Nobody spoke for a while. Jodie finally broke the silence, though I'm not sure if she was talking to us or herself. "What can we do, anyway? Do we even know where this Yeerk Pool is?"

Upchuck perked up. "Actually, we do. It's in the mall."

"The mall?!"

"Well, Ms. Li said that the 'entrance' was in the mall," I muttered. "I think it's actually beneath it—she mentioned something about fixing a cave-in."

"The mall's pretty big. She didn't mention anything else?"

"Not really."

"But we could go and look," Upchuck suggested with a grin. "Scope the place out. There's gotta be some kind of clue somewhere."

"Finding something at the mall. Well, here's one part of the mission that you might actually be good at, Quinn," Daria said dryly.

Quinn turned her nose up. "I never said that I was going along with all this."

"So you're passing up a chance to go to the mall? And here I thought Jane turning into a cat was the strangest thing that I was going to see today."

"What about the rest of you?" I asked, my voice taking a harder edge than I intended. "Anyone else in?"

Nobody spoke for a moment. Finally, Daria sighed. "Aw, hell. Fine. At least until we come up with someone else to drop this on, I'm in. For you and Trent."

I felt my face break into a smile and, despite myself, threw one arm around Daria's shoulders. "Ha! I knew you still had a little crush on him."

"Shut up."

"I'm in too," Upchuck said with an oily smirk.

"What about you?" I asked, turning to Jodie.

She sighed. "I agree with Daria—we need somebody else to dump this on. I still don't think we can stop the Yeerks, or save your brother, or anything on our own. But…if it was my little brother or sister, I would want to do anything I could to save them. So if we can find this Pool thing and don't have any other choice, I'm in."

Quinn was looking very pointedly away, but couldn't seem to resist the force of the rest of us staring at her. She turned, then let out a growl, kicking at the sand with her overly-priced sandals. "Alright, fine! I'll help find the stupid pool thing. But this is still crazy!" Her eyes flickered back to The Sharing meeting. "Now let's just get back to the party before Sandi and the others get back and realize we're gone."

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We went back to the party, where all the associate members and non-members like us were still having a good time. It suddenly felt kinda scary to watch everybody dance around to stupid pop songs and trip over themselves playing volleyball. "It's so weird. None of them even realize what's going on just a few yards down the beach."

"Yeah."

"Shouldn't we, like…do something?" I looked over at the DJ; was he a Controller too? Maybe we could grab his microphone or…

"Forget it," Daria said, as if reading my mind. "For all we know, there still might be some Controllers in this crowd. And even if there aren't, what happens when Trent and the others get back and shoot us with their Dracon beams?"

"Yeah…I guess." I glanced past the crowd, breath catching in my throat; the full members were straggling back from their meeting. "And speaking of which…"

"Play it cool."

"Oh, sure…cool as a cucumber. A cucumber that's about to throw up, anyway."

Trent's head appeared over the crowd. He scanned the area, finally focusing on us and gliding over. "Hey, Janie. Daria."

"Hey, Trent."

"Yeah…hey," I said, feeling my stomach knot up. I forced myself to smile. "How did you 'secret meeting' go?" I was trying to sound mocking, but my throat was closing up and making it hard to speak at all.

(…either make her ours…or kill her.

Kill her.

Kill her.)

Trent smiled. Or Trent's face smiled, anyway. Trent hardly ever smiled---how could I ever have been fooled by this? He looked so fake. I could practically see the slimy slug wrapped around his brain, moving my brother's facial muscles like they were the strings of a marionette.

"Fine. Just some boring business stuff. Shifts, budgets, that kind of thing." The alien leaned against the refreshment table and popped a chip into Trent's mouth. Trent's teeth chewed it, then swallowed.

I swallowed too, unconsciously. Daria's face turned the slightest degree in my direction. Trent's mouth frowned.

"Hey, you okay, Janie?" Not-Trent asked. "You look kinda pale."

"That's because she ate the shrimp," Daria said. "I told her it was starting to smell funny." I have to admit, Daria was a good actress—her tone came out with just the right balance of deadpan and disdain to sound perfectly normal.

"Oh, really? Damn. Spent a lot of money on those, too."

"You know, it actually might just be better if I went home," I said, a bit more quickly than I intended.

"Do you want me to drive you?" The Yeerk wasn't nearly as good an actor as Daria. Trent's eyebrows knitted a bit, his voice changed an octave, but his concern sounded so phony, phony, phony that suddenly I just wanted to scream.

"No, I was thinking about leaving anyway. I'll drive her," Daria said. I was suddenly thankful we hadn't told him about Jodie giving us a ride—he was suspicious enough of our group, and me and Daria alone felt a lot more natural.   

"Okay then. If you're sure." Trent's voice sounded disappointed. The Yeerk's probably still upset that Ms. Li and Sandi didn't want to kill me, I thought. "Feel better, Janie."

Daria led me into the crowd, bending near to mutter "Let's go find Jodie. I really do want to get out of here as soon as possible. As if normal parties weren't bad enough."

"Yeah."

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"You sure you're gonna be alright?" Jodie asked as I stepped out of her car in front of my house.

"You can spend the night at my house, if you want," Daria added.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. As long as Trent doesn't try to slip a slug into my ear while I'm sleeping," I muttered.

Daria glanced at my house nervously. "No one else is home right now, are they?"

"Not until Mom gets back from Japan." Daria and Jodie looked at each other nervously. I shook my head. "No—don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Okay," Jodie said reluctantly. "But call one of us if you need anything. Okay?"

"Yeah." I shut the car door. "See you tomorrow."

"See you."

They drove off. I dragged myself inside and up the stairs, flopping face-down onto my bed without bothering to change.

I lay there for a long time, probably more than an hour, thinking and trying hard not to.

Trent, a Controller. Goofy, lazy Trent, now helping to orchestrate an alien invasion. The older brother I had once shared this room with, plotting to kill me.

I heard footsteps and tensed up. After what felt like a very long moment there was a knock at the door. I pulled the covers over my head as I heard the door slowly creak open.

"Janie? You awake?"

I didn't move, didn't breathe, but wondered how it was possible the Yeerk disguised as Trent didn't hear my heart hammering in my chest. What would he do if he thought I was asleep? Kill me? Pull one of his friends out of his pocket and slip it in my ear? What would I do if he tried? I wasn't sure if I could fight off Trent, and turning into a housecat didn't seem like it would improve my chances much.

The door creaked shut. I waited a long moment before sitting up and glancing toward the doorway. Trent was gone.

I immediately got up and locked the door, then moved my chair in front of it for good measure.

I crept back to my bed and pulled the covers back on, taking a deep breath.

"Don't worry, Trent. I promise I'm gonna get you out of this. No matter what."