Animorphs Re-Read: Megamorphs #1 The Andalite's Gift (Chapters 5-8)

 Chapter 5

This chapter is narrated by Marco.

Marco begins the chapter by saying that he admits that sneaking into the party wasn't the right thing to do, but justifies it by stating you (the reader) need to know what Darlene said about him. He then says how Ax and him morphed the mouse.

Marco says that when he morphed the mouse he found the main instincts to be hunger and fear. Him and Ax find themselves unable to control the morph, Marco says to just let the mouse have time to chill out.

And now comes one of my favorite things about this series: animal facts.

Marco compares running as a mouse to being strapped onto an extremely fast car. Then he compares objects to other objects so you can better imagine how it felt running as a mouse. Such as comparing blades of grass to trees.

The one part of mouse instincts he's not too keen on is the need to eat. He gets disgusted at the mouse instincts to eat bugs. But, luckily for Marco, the mouse fear was stronger than its hunger.

Finally they get control of the morphs and Marco asks his boyfriend...I mean Ax, how he is doing. Ax replies that the mouse instincts are very strong. Marco tries to laugh it off but the Andalite points out that the mouse probably developed the instincts for a good reason. When the boy suggests they demorph if they get into trouble, Ax points out that they may die before they can demorph.

Wow, Ax, you're a bright ray of sunshine!

When they arrive at the party, Marco can't find Darlene with his mouse eyes, but he is still able to locate her.

But as he listens he finds a small problem:

[Well, this is boring,] I said to Ax.

[What did you expect?]

[I expected them to be talking about me, naturally] I said.

And this is one of the points that I really connect with Marco. Everyone should be talking about me at all times. There is no one more interesting than me. But, in half-seriousness, what did Marco expect? Did he really think Darlene didn't invite him because she loves him and so sort of fears him? Because MAYBE the story Tobias told hinting at Marco's ability to cause chaos is the real reason.

Just saying.

Marco then has the bright idea to privately message Darlene via thought-speak. When he does, she just thinks someone said his name aloud. The girls diss him and it is revealed that the Baby Ruth incident was the reason he wasn't invited to the current pool party. While they diss him the only insult that gets to Marco is that he isn't funny.

I had to take a few minutes to laugh after reading that line.

Marco then decides that since Darlene said he didn't have a sense of humor that he'd show her funny. This involved him and Ax running at her. For some reason I think every moment Ax spends with Marco is another moment Ax understands less and less of the human race.

Marco disses Darlene's toenails and then proceeds to run over her feet multiple times. Now thinking of him telling her that was him after the war.

Then Marco decides to chase her after she starts to run.

Marco makes this comment:

Naturally, I chased her. And naturally, Ax came with me.

I think this speaks so much about Marco and Ax's relationship, whether you ship them or not. He trusts Ax to be with him no matter how insane his ideas are. 'Naturally' implies no doubt about Ax's loyalty. Whether or not Marco trusts the alien fully, he trusts the newcomer to always be by his side.

Marco says chasing Darlene was fun even though it was wrong. Well...it was fun until Hans has the bright idea of stomping on Marco and Ax. It's at this point that Marco realizes they've been spotted by Jake.

Marco wonders why he's so scary as he's so small and harmless. He's got a point there.

The joker of the group finally realizes that he could demorph in the house. He tells Ax that they need to go into the house so he can demorph and Ax can demorph then morph human. Ax says he thinks the plan is a failure and Marco says that everything went according to plan. And both are being sarcastic.

As Marco finds a good place to demorph and tells Jake just to keep people away for a little bit. He demorphs as he continues running. Marco remarks that as he's demorphing he looks like something that only Stephen King could dream up.

Of course when Marco thinks everything will go right, something has to go wrong. The roof gets ripped apart by a creature that seems to be made of nothing but teeth and blades.

Marco describes it as such:

A creature that seemed to be made of nothing but teeth and blades and destruction. It was like twenty Hork-Bajir glued together and given dragon wings.

That's not something you want to see. Ever.

As all this chaos continues, Ax and Marco finish demorphing. Marco feels beyond helpless with this tornado monster of doom. He says the two are defenseless since I guess he doesn't think of Ax's tail-blade as a very useful weapon.

Marco is scared shitless as he notices the tornado beast looking at him like Tobias looks at prey. Now without any semblance of a roof between the Animorphs and the tornado beast. He says his last words and then the tornado beast looks confused and then turns back into dust. Leaving Marco free to have better last words than 'oh man' and 'I don't like this'.

Marco doesn't know why the tornado beast left, but he's glad all the same.


Chapter 6

This chapter is narrated by Rachel.

We finally get to see what happened to Rachel. And she has amnesia. She tries to talk, but I guess since she's in midmorph so she can't really talk. This frightens her as she also realizes she doesn't remember anything.

This chapter is starting off as pure nightmare fuel. I think the terrifying thing about this is that Rachel is such a strong character, even when it's just a front, that her fear is terrifying. Nearly unreal.

You remember how all the Animorphs comment on how disturbing morphing is? How morphing doesn't seem to make any sense? Imagine waking up in mid-morph with no memory? Yep, Rachel is freaked out and think it's a nightmare.

It was a nightmare! That was it, I was having a nightmare! I had to wake up. I had to get out of this dream.

Rachel tries to reel in her panic. But it is hard as her situation is...just horrible. She can't fathom that what is really happening is real.

She comes to the conclusion that she isn't really this nightmarish mesh of human and bird, but doesn't know which one she originally was. She finally decides that she was originally human and starts trying to reverse the process. She comments that it is disgusting watching herself morph but she quickly realizes she has to focus to complete the switch to human.

And while she is demorphing:

Just above the trees, a cloud of dust swirled wildly, like some flattened tornado. It swirled and concentrated.

Holy...is this it? Is this the reason the dust monster didn't finish Marco and Ax off?

Rachel has to remind herself to keep demorphing even while the dust monster is eying her and that maybe when she is fully human she'll remember something.

I must remind you that this shit is marketed towards children!


Chapter 7

This chapter is narrated by Tobias.

Tobias starts off this chapter by saying how he has seen a lot of weird stuff since that night in the abandoned construction site. There's nothing weird about encountering a god-like being, come on.

He recaps about who he was before and how he has changed. He even states that he's accepted that he's part boy and part hawk now. He states that the dust monster is the strangest thing he has encountered thus far. Really, stranger than the Ellimist?

Tobias was flying cover for Marco even though the boy hadn't asked. I think Birdboy is scared for Marco as Tobias tends to eat rodents and knows the dangers for that kind of animal. He also says he didn't have anything better to do that day. He didn't have anything better to do so he's making sure his friends don't do something to get themselves killed.

Isn't that Marco's job?

And we get yet another description of what a thermal is:

A thermal is an updraft of warm air. You spread your wings and it lifts you up like an elevator. Once you're up, you can just float there forever. You barely have to flap your wings.

As Tobias watches over Marco and Ax, he remarks on how they don't understand the danger of being a mouse. It's not because either of them are stupid, as he compliments the intelligences of both boys, but the danger isn't something they are really understanding at the moment.

He mentions that hawks and cats are two types of animals you don't want after you and those two types of animals hunt mice.

A Cooper's hawk starts to eye Marco and Ax, but Tobias signals that the mice are his prey. The real hawk backs away. Yeah, you don't mess with Tobias!

Tobias relaxes once the duo reaches the pool party. But he also gets sad watching the kids at the pool party. He knows he has his fellow Animorphs as friends, but he doesn't have anyone like himself. He says:

Hawks don't get together and have parties.

And now all I'm imagining is Tobias in a party hat eating a piece of mouse cake.

When Tobias sees Marco chasing Darlene, he isn't surprised. I think if Marco hadn't chased Darlene THAT would be the oddest thing he's seen up to this point. And I think that would be odder than the Ellimist.

As Tobias watches all the chaos that happened in the previous chapters, those narrated by Marco and Jake, he sees the dust monster appear. He's fascinated by the monster as wind is very important to him. Tobias describes winds as deciding if he will live or die.

He strains his hawk sight so he can take in everything. He watches as the dust monster tears the house apart and Marco and Ax are standing in the house. Well...the basement which now has no roof. Tobias dives down in hopes that he can save his friends. Before Tobias can get himself killed, though, the dust monster disappears for a reason that he can't understand.

He then sees something the other Animorphs can't: the individual particles of the dust monster heading towards the forest.


Chapter 8

This chapter is narrated by Rachel.

The chapter starts with Rachel yelling at herself to be human. She tries desperately to recall what she looked like when she was human. This girl has amnesia and doesn't know who she is, but I guess part of her will still remember what she looked like.

She thinks if she had ever done this before. She said it seems impossible that she would have morphed before and that the process is beyond disgusting.

Rachel looks up to see the dust monster over her. She thinks if she should fly or run as she doesn't know how far along in the demorphing process she is. She finds that she can run, but the bones in her arms haven't finished demorphing yet.

The dust monster starts destroying the forest as it tries to get Rachel.

NO! NO! It was after me. It wanted to kill me. Why? Why? What had I done? Who was I, that this monster wanted to destroy me?

Yeah, Rachel is blaming herself. I don't think she's wrong for doing so as she has amnesia and she doesn't understand morphing. So she probably can't comprehend a nightmarish creature attacking her for no reason. And she turns out to be sort of right in the end, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

She yells out as she finishes the very last of her changes. She's scared that the beast is after her and she screams for someone to help her. She then approaches a road. If she runs into the road she could die, but if she just stands still she can also die.

Rachel decides just to race across the road and hope she survives. That does seem like something Rachel would do. And, of course, she nearly dies. She hears destruction behind her but doesn't bother seeing who is causing what. A very one track mind of getting across the road.

She does see a truck crash and sees the dust monster destroying it. It is a Ben & Jerry's truck! No! Not the ice cream!

Rachel trips over the median strip and is pelted by ice cream as she looks back to see the destruction. Then the beast looks at her and Rachel knows it can see her, but it seems confused.

But the eyes seemed confused. They seemed lost. The beast saw me, but did not recognize me.

She watches as the dust monster dissolves and blows away.

Rachel climbs out of the ditch and just focuses on getting into the woods. She wants to get away from the scene of wreckage the dust monster left behind. She mentions a man with a camcorder.
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Animorphs Re-Read