The Warning (Animorphs #16)

by K.A. Applegate

Tobias! It’s me, Aximili. Reassert your individual consciousness.> <Say what?> Marco laughed. <Reassert his what?

Okay, this is cool,> Tobias said. <Once you get past the fact that your own body makes you want to throw up.> <Marco feels that way in his human body,> Rachel said gleefully.

“Is that a bear?” “Yeah.” “Is it mopping the floor?” “Uh-huh.” “Have we gone nuts?” “I’m not nuts. It’s the bear who’s nuts. That’s carpeted up there.”

I found out my online girlfriend PrtyGirl802 is actually a seventy-three-year-old retired postal worker.”

If I were him, I’d spend my day rolling around in big stacks of hundred-dollar bills, paying Michael Jordan to come over and teach me how to improve my three-point shot —” “You have no three-point shot, Marco,”

A leader may be just as weak or scared or doubtful as anyone else. But he isn’t allowed to show it. People say they want leaders to be just like them, but I don’t think so. People want leaders to act the way people wish they could act themselves. Marco and Rachel and Tobias and Ax don’t want me to give them permission to be scared. They want me to help them to be brave.”

“My Yeerk designation is Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six.

“Yes, only one twin can be great,” Fenestre said bitterly. “Only one of us could be the mighty Visser Three.”

“What a terrible thing for me to do,” Cassie said. “What a filthy, disgusting thing for me to do.” “It was the best you could do,” I said. “It was all you could do. I guess it’s hard to fight evil without doing some along the way.” Maybe there was a little “I told you so” in my voice.

Cassie just walked away. I let her go. Not everything can be settled. Not everything can be smoothed over.

If someone set the fire, there was a long list of suspects. Visser Three. Cassie. One of the others. Me. I guess you’ll never know.