| #37: The Weakness |
Detailed Plot: Jake's out of town visiting relatives (who aren't related to Rachel, incidentally), so when an opportunity for the Animorphs to strike at Visser Three arrives, they're left leaderless. Rachel steps into an aggressive role suggesting they go after Visser Three while he's vulnerable; while attacking him at a secret feeding ground, they find out that a creature called a Garatron is hovering around him and evaluating him. This Garatron is a candidate for a Council of Thirteen seat and he's clearly just waiting for Visser Three to make a mistake, so they hope to force one and launch a smear campaign. Most of the group is not too happy about trying to do something this important without Jake, but Rachel is determined. Rachel talks the group into electing her as the unofficial second-in-command of the Animorphs, playing her alliances and one-upping Marco for the position. And she determines that now, while Visser Three is being watched by the Garatron, they should attack the Yeerks regularly and publicly so it looks like they're getting harassed and overwhelmed, creating the illusion that there are more "Andalite bandits" than previously thought. Once alone, Rachel has her doubts about her leadership abilities, and later when Tobias comes by for their first mission she's startled to find she's not sure he would have voted for her, but they go on their mission and head out to a news station in the early morning. They attack the news set and rip it apart, making a big ruckus and scaring the Controller morning show woman. Rachel, in grizzly form, gives her a message for Visser Three--"Go home"--and they retreat. Tobias mentions that he thinks he saw an old man collapse at witnessing the events, but Rachel puts it out of her mind. Then they head off to a toy store that's managed by a Controller, and they start making a big scene there too. Rachel finds her leadership not exactly questioned, but also not followed unequivocally, and she starts being very bossy and aggressive, meeting with contempt from the others. Despite that, they do what they came to do, and Rachel again gives the target Controller a personal message: Visser Three should be told that they should go home, and that the Andalites know who they are. They hit a beauty salon. A sporting goods store. A bank. A cigar store. A fitness center. A copy shop. A law firm. A courthouse. A hardware store. Rachel is feeling on top of the world, thinking Jake will be proud and maybe even jealous of her when he returns, and they're about to hit the Yeerk-controlled Community Center when Rachel decides to stop while walking by a television broadcast, hoping to see a mention of their activities. But then something unexpected is broadcast besides news of their attack: a visiting man from Kansas had a heart attack when he witnessed the destruction by random wild animals, and he died. It's their fault for being the trigger. Rachel admits to the others that they caused the death, and they assure her that it isn't directly her fault. Everyone is still treating her very oddly, though, and she still wants to go ahead with the mission to attack the Community Center. The others become cautious, wanting to do some research and plan and see what they're up against, but Rachel gets angry that she's being questioned when she's the leader and they all chose her. They agree to follow her, and she decides they should go in as polar bears. Again her "troops" question her, thinking the morphs they're used to fighting with should be better, but she claims they want to have large morphs and also send a message that they are a lot of different Andalites. So she holds to her order and they follow her, morphing the polar bears. They wreak havoc for a little while before all of a sudden the Garatron shows up, and because he can move very quickly he manages to hurt them. Some of the human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir hurt them too. And then the Garatron doesn't want to finish the job; he chides Visser Three and leaves him to "clean up the mess." Visser Three morphs to a horrible stinking creature and Rachel tries to hold him off while the others escape, but though she seems to have succeeded, she realizes she made a fatal error. Cassie didn't get out. They're forced to withdraw to the meeting place in Cassie's barn, where Rachel freaks out. She wants to drop the "leader" position because she has no idea what to do, and she even resorts to crying. But Tobias surprisingly supports her and says they did choose her, and that she needs to do her duty. She feels that since this is all her fault, she should go to the Yeerk pool alone to see if she can rescue Cassie, but the others won't let her go by herself. She tries to run off and leave Marco in charge, but Marco comes after her and insists that while his strength is strategy, they don't need strategy for this. They need recklessness, which is her ballgame. She asks Tobias if there are any new Yeerk pool entrances, and he offers up a possibility that isn't confirmed, which he thinks might be a spacecraft entrance for the pool. Rachel develops a ridiculous plan to steal a plane--while in human form--and use it to crash into the Yeerk pool. She uses Ax's knowledge of flying technology to pilot the plane once they steal it, and most of the others morph into birds and jump out while Rachel aims the plane for the building that's thought to be a pool entrance. The roof doesn't retract like they'd hoped, but Rachel escapes half-morphed as a bald eagle, and almost doesn't finish her morph in time to fly, but she makes it--barely. Once inside the pool, she can see Cassie in polar bear form, with very little time left in morph. They're waiting for the visser to show up so they can infest Cassie; she's in chains. When Rachel alerts Cassie that they've arrived, she controls her morph subtly so she can demorph enough to escape the chains, and then she begins attacking. Unfortunately that's when the visser gets there, with the inspector, the Garatron. When Rachel tries to help Cassie get out, she's cornered too, and Visser Three offers the Garatron a chance to kill the Andalites, since he seems to think it's so easy. After seeming insulted at the simplicity of the task at hand, the Garatron accepts the challenge and attacks Rachel and Cassie, running around them while smacking Cassie with his tail. Rachel tries to stop him in her bald eagle morph, but she's defeated easily. But then in comes Tobias as his usual self, along with Ax as a northern harrier . . . carrying Marco as a cobra. Visser Three taunts the inspector and tells him to go ahead, finish them off if it's so easy. By that point Ax is morphing to his usual body and starts fighting the Garatron, but Marco is down there looking for a good point to strike. Finally he finds it, and the venom slows the Garatron down. Visser Three gloats, and Rachel orders Cassie to get into the Yeerk pool and morph through to a bird morph. She asks Ax to do the same, while the Garatron stumbles and takes stock of his situation. Soon the poison cripples him and he falls down, unable to chase the escaping Animorphs. Visser Three does nothing to help the Garatron and tells him he'll pass on his farewells to the Council. Everyone gets away. Rachel ends up nursing her emotional wounds by making contact with the family of the guy who'd had a heart attack. She apologizes even though they can't know she was responsible, and then Jake comes back and she runs into him. He jokes about how he's heard some funny things on the news and figures some people he knew might be responsible. Narrator: Rachel New known controllers:
New morphs acquired:
Cassie: Cheetah Marco: Cheetah Rachel: Cheetah Ax: Cheetah Tobias: None Notable: This book is ghostwritten by Elise Smith. It seems very unlike Jake to leave town and not either appoint a leader or give any instructions. It makes this book read like filler. There being no clear second-in-command after Jake, the alliances line up interestingly. Rachel has Cassie as a best friend and Tobias as a romantic interest, so both are more sympathetic to her with Jake gone. Since Ax won't take a stand and his closest friend in the group is also Tobias who is loyal to Rachel, it's clear that when it comes to people willing to follow her, Rachel wins IF the people who love her would actually vote for her. But since Marco is a very good strategist, he would be a good candidate for second-in-command if the others were willing to follow him. His downfall is his caution and indecisiveness, according to Rachel. A creature called a Garatron is introduced in this book. It is Andalite-like, but very fast in both movement and speech. When the Animorphs are wrecking a toy store, Cassie expresses that Marco should leave the books alone because she feels books are sacred. At the time that Cassie tells him not to wreck anything there, he's standing poised to knock over a section called "Intermediate Series." That's the category the Animorphs books were generally shelved in. Funny. There are a couple of errors where someone who has already spoken ends up being given a second line immediately afterwards on a new paragraph as if speakers have changed, but they haven't. It's hard to follow. Jake and Rachel refer to there being six Animorphs in this book. In other books they suggest that Ax isn't an "Animorph" because Andalites in the military all morph and don't need a special name to indicate their morphing capabilities. But it makes more sense to call Ax an Animorph since it stands for "Animal Morpher" and he does that, and is part of their team. This is just an inconsistency. Best lines: Marco: "But, and no offense, Ax-man, this job is going to require pretty intimate contact with humans. With, uh, society. And let's face it, you still don't accept Earth hours as your own hours. And your favorite TV shows are 'These Messages.' Not good." Rachel: Being the leader is mostly about other people.
Cassie: "Uh, Marco, you do know Teletubbies are for preschoolers, right?" Marco: "You're right. But you might want to consider one of those leadership workshops, Rachel. The ones that teach communication skills. Like how not to be a jerk." Marco: "We have an hour to save your best friend, Jake's girlfriend, and the entire human race. You got us into this, now get us out." Rachel: I had a terrible idea. A suicidal idea. I half smiled at Marco. "You wanted insane? I've got some insane."
Rachel: "I screwed up. Big time."
|