"I'm ready," Marco said.

And that's when fate intervened. Marco was climbing to his llama feet.

His hooves splayed suddenly on the waxed floor and he plowed into the back of Jeremy Jason's seat.

The actor - or the Yeerk in his head - was still frozen in horror. And he stayed frozen as he fell from the chair and landed directly in front of the crocodile.

The audience screamed in renewed horror.

Cindy Sue finally broke and ran.

Barry was yelling ridiculous directions in total panic. "Get a stapler!

Get a stapler!"

I think that's what he was saying, anyway. I was a little distracted.

Jeremy Jason was no longer frozen. "Ahhhhh! Ahhhhh! Save me! Save me!

Get it off me!"

And with my dim bear vision, I could have sworn I saw something slimy and gray come crawling out of Jeremy Jason's ear.

And that's when the lights went out.

"Okay, run for it!" Cassie cried.

Sudden darkness! Not pitch-black, but too dark for cameras or the audience to see.

Total pandemonium in the audience. It's one thing to see wild animals up on a set. It's a whole different feeling, sitting in the dark and not knowing whether those wild animals are going to come rampaging into the audience.

The entire studio was nothing but screams. Screams and animal roars. And above it all, the shrill, horrified scream of Jeremy Jason.

"Save me! Save me!"

I saw a rush of movement from offstage.

Suddenly an Andalite was leaping through the air. It landed directly on the crocodile's back. The Andalite tail flashed.

Flashed!

Flashed!

Flashed!

And suddenly the crocodile let go of Jeremy Jason.

"Ax?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, sounding grim.

I knew Andalites are tougher than they look. I'd fought alongside Ax before. But nothing ever impressed me as much as that. That crocodile was a tank. It was unstoppable!

And now it was stopped.

"Where's the Yeerk?" I asked Ax.

"l saw the Yeerk leave this human a few seconds ago."

So I had seen a slug crawling out of Jeremy

Jason! The Yeerk had panicked. It didn't want to be swallowed up along with its host body.

It was crawling around on the dark stage like a snail without its shell.

"Everyone okay?" Jake asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"Alive," Marco said. "Not happy, but alive."

"Then let's get out of here!" Jake yelled.

"Definitely," I agreed fervently. I looked down at the stilled crocodile head. You know, even dead, it just scared the pee out of me.

Possibly because it was still very close to a yelling, screaming, cursing, hysterical Jeremy Jason McCole.

I bailed. I ran for the far side of the stage. But as I ran, I felt one of my massive bear paws step on something.

Something warm and squishy.

Something that felt like a slug.

"l don't think the Yeerk made it too far," I said.

We demorphed in the ladies' room. Ax did the opposite, morphing into his human form.

But we had lost Cassie.

"I'll find her," I said. "You guys get out of here. I'm supposed to be here. But we can't explain why you're here."

I headed back toward the set area. It was still dark. Whatever Cassie had done to the lights, it was taking a while to fix them.

There was an awful lot of shouting going on. A lot of unpleasant language was being used.

I turned a corner and practically plowed into the back of a man who was standing there. He didn't even turn around. He was staring intently at a person standing just in front of him.

I heard a voice say, "Yeah, can you believe my luck?"

The voice seemed strange and familiar at the same time. Like I had heard it before, but not quite this way.

Then I realized.

"I mean, I fall in a crocodile pit, my house falls down on me, and now this."

I raised up on tiptoes and looked over the man's shoulder. What I saw was me. Me.

Actually Cassie, morphed into me.

The man she was talking to was one of the show's producers.

"You're a very unlucky girl," the man said.

"That's what I keep telling people," Cassie said. "They keep saying how lucky I am to survive. I keep saying, like, not!"

He nodded. "You know, for a moment there I wondered about you . . . ,"

he said, letting the sentence trail off. Then he shrugged. "But the crocodile has been destroyed. And yet here you are."

I flattened myself back against the wall. If he turned and saw me he'd definitely flip. And what if he was a Controller? I couldn't take that chance.

"Yeah, I'm glad it didn't get me," Cassie said. "I'm getting out of here. I have to find my dad.

He's here somewhere. It would help if someone would like, you know, get things organized."

Cassie pushed past the man. I turned my face away, not wanting to surprise her.

"Andalite!" the man snapped.

My heart stopped. He was testing Cassie. Waiting to see if she would react. If she would recognize the word. If Cassie hesitated or stopped he would know.

He would know.

I shouldn't even have worried.

When he rapped out the word "Andalite!" she kept walking and without hesitation said, "Yeah, a light would be helpful, too."

The man made a snorting, dismissive sound and turned away.

I fell into step behind Cassie. "Nice job, sister," I said.