"These are real?"

"No, of course n."

Cassie said impatiently. "How do we get out of here with that crystal?"

"We power our way ou."

Rachel said.

Ax said, "Erek's opinion was that there were many guards here in this building."

"We didn't see any on our way through the shafts." Jake remarked.

"But Erek's been pretty accurate so far. I have a feeling if he says there are guards here, there are guards here."

"No choice." Rachel said.

"We morph whatever we have that's big, mean, and nasty, then slam our way out of this place."

"Speaking of irony gods."

I muttered.

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"I mean, we came here to get this Pemalite crystal so the Chee could be free to be violent. And now, despite all our clever planning, all our sneakiness and subtlety, we're stuck in the end going for total Schwarzenegger."

"Rachel's right." Jake said. He sighed. "We're looking at a fighting retreat."

Cassie said, "I think there's a door over there. Try echolocating. You'll see a raised rectangular outline. I think it's a door."

"Yep." Jake agreed.

"Morph out, keep that direction in mind.

Remorph, and be ready to haul butt for that door.

Head for any way out of this building. Don't stand and fight, just try to force your way past anyone who comes after us."

It was times like this I was glad Jake was our so-called leader. We all knew what we had to do, but someone had to actually say it. And boy, was I glad it wasn't me.

"I have such a bad feeling about th." I muttered.

Have you ever watched those old war movies where the Americans would be heading for some enemy beach? You know, they'd be in a little boat, riding through the surf, getting ready to jump out on a beach that was going to be chewed up by machine-gun bullets and mortars? That's what this felt like. Like we were pretty calm now, but in a few seconds it was going to be life and death. Things would happen very fast. And none of it was going to be good.

I morphed back to human. Then I focused my mind on the morph I liked for fighting.

It was still absolutely dark, so I didn't see my body grow big and hairy. But I could feel my shoulders bulk up beyond anything any bodybuilder ever even dreamed of. I could feel the strength. Strength like no human could ever possess.

It was comforting to think that I was stronger than three, four, maybe five strong men. But not even the gorilla is invincible.

"Everyone ready?" Jake asked.

There in the darkness, near enough to touch, but invisible, was enough power to shred a small army. Jake was in his tiger morph. Cassie had gone wolf. Rachel was one of the few animals mightier than my gorilla: She was a full-grown, massively powerful grizzly bear. And Ax ... well, Ax was Ax.

And trust me, when you've seen an Andalite in battle, you know that tail is all he needs.

"Ready? Why, I'm looking forward to it." I said, trying to sound like I wasn't scared silly.

"l'll go first."

Rachel said. And before anyone had time to object . .

.

HHHRRRRRAAAAWWWWRRR! Rachel barreled past me, hitting me and practically spinning me around like a top.

A microsecond later. . .

ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! The alarm was deafening.

The others barreled after her. I hesitated for just a moment while I felt in the dark for the Pe- malite crystal. Aside from Ax, I was the only one with hands.

Then I went after them. I plunged wildly into total darkness with a tiny crystal in my massive fist.

Rachel tore a path through the alarm wires, and I could feel where she had gone. I slammed into Ax, then bounced into Jake, then sud denly - WHAM! - hit the wall.

ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEET! ScreeEEEET! Ka-Rrrrunch! A loud, screeching, tearing noise.

Sudden light! I could see.

Man, it was a relief to be able to see some thing at least.

Dim light came through the door. Or what was left of the door, after Rachel had given the door a thousand pounds or so of mad, ready-to-fight grizzly.

The door was splinters. It was steel, and it was still splinters.

I saw a flash of orange and black, moving fast but almost delicately -- Jake, in tiger morph. Cassie the wolf followed him. Right behind her was the one animal that wasn't from anywhere on Earth.

There was a hallway outside. Jake said "Left!" and we went left.

Past doorways, past offices, past normal things like copiers and computers and fax machines and desks and cubicles, we ran. Rachel was in the lead, a huge, lumbering truck on four legs.

Her roars mixed with the endless scream of the alarms.

ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! Suddenly, another door, a dead end. Rachel hit it with her shoulder, and the door was gone. There was a big room beyond. High ceilings, open space, a lobby sort of room. Windows! I could see faint stars through the tinted glass.

Escape was just a hundred feet away.

Freedom! Life! And all that stood in our way was twenty men: human-Controllers, armed with automatic rifles.

And behind them, two dozen or more Hork-Bajir warriors.

Rachel's bear had very poor vision, especially in this dim light. "Hork-Bajir?" she asked. "Yep." I said. "How many?" "Too many. Way too many."

DcreeEEEET! ScreeEEEEET! ScreeEEEET! The alarm was howling. And then, a far worse sound: Cha-Klick! The human-Controllers had cocked their rifles, chambering a round. If they fired, we'd be blown apart before we could twitch.

A human-Controller stepped out in front. She was a nice-looking, middle-aged woman wearing normal street clothes. She had bleached blond hair. She could have been someone's grandmother.

"S. The Andalite bandits," she said. Her face was twitching with tension, but she tried to sound calm. "You've done me a big favor. When I turn you over to Visser Three he'll promote me two grades. Maybe three!"

"0r he may decide to destroy you for letting us get this far." Ax said coolly.

"Surrender. You can't escape," the woman snapped. "I'd rather take you alive, but the Visser would still be happy to have your corpses."

We stared at her. And we stared at the muzzles of the twenty automatic rifles that were leveled at us.

I held up my hand. Between my thick, brute fingers I held the Pemalite crystal.

The woman turned as pale as her hair.

"Give me that."

I shook my big gorilla head.

"Lower those guns," the woman snapped.

"What?" some guy behind her yelled. "We have them! We have them cold!"

The woman's jaw twitched again, but she stayed in control. "What do you think a bullet would do to that crystal?"

"But the odds that a bullet would hit the crystal ... It's not going to happen."

The woman smiled grimly. "That crystal is worth more than the mother ship and everything in it," she said.

Then she started yelling. "You want to shoot? Go ahead, fool! If you hit the crystal, you can explain it to Visser Three."

She got a grip on herself while the guy who had spoken out decided he was not interested in explaining anything to Visser Three.

"All human-Controllers, back. Weapons on safety," the woman snapped.

The rifles faltered, then lowered toward the ground.

But I knew better than to breathe a sigh of relief. See, I knew what was coming next.

The woman looked right at me and smiled.

"Hork-Bajir, forward."

The Andalite who'd given us our powers had told us that the Hork-Bajir had once been a gentle, decent race before they were all enslaved by the Yeerks. All Hork-Bajir were Controllers now.