For the TV series version, see Jake

Jake Berenson was the leader of the Animorphs who led the team in the Yeerk War for three years. Jake fought in the war with the hopes of saving his older brother Tom who had been infested, although he became depressed when his mother and father became infested as well. During the final stages of the war, Jake ordered Rachel to execute Tom, which led to the deaths of Tom, Tom's Yeerk, and Rachel herself.

Following the war, Jake became revered as a global and national hero, heralded as the individual responsible for ending the decades-long war against the Yeerk Empire. Despite the money and fame, Jake was extremely depressed and filled with regret over Tom and Rachel's deaths. He eventually became an author and a morphing professor for the United States Department of Defense to train morph-capable soldiers for global anti-terrorism units. Upon learning that Ax had been kidnapped, Jake went on a six month journey with Marco, Tobias, and two other morphers, where they came across The One. In a last ditch effort, Jake decided to initiate a suicide run and ordered his crew to ram The One's Blade ship, leaving his fate unknown.

Biography

Early Life

Jake Berenson^[1] was born in 1984^{[note 2]} to Jean and Steve.^[10] The younger brother of Tom, the brothers were close and they often played basketball together.^[8] His father was a pediatrician^[11] and his mother was a writer,^[8] and they lived in a well-off neighborhood^[7] in California.^[6] Jake was raised Jewish, with his father being Jewish,^[12] with dinners as a family involving prayers^[13] and no television.^[8] However, the family still put up Christmas lights and decorations,^[14] and the maternal side of his family celebrated Christmas.^[15] Jake was close to his maternal great-grandfather, Grandpa G, a World War II veteran whom Jake admired.^[11]

While he was quite young,^[3] Jake met Marco, a boy who lived in the same neighborhood and attended the same school as him, and the pair became best friends.^[8] Jake spent time at Marco's house and met Marco's parents.^[7] Jake and Marco often played video games and had comic book superhero debates. In 1993,^{[note 5]} when they were nine, they had a blueberry pie-eating contest that ended with Jake throwing up.^[16] Jake occasionally went to The Gardens, an amusement park-zoo with rollercoasters,^[8] one of which was his favorite,^[2] and was able to afford the very expensive admission fee.^[17]

Jake also had a paternal cousin^[18][11] named Rachel, who was the daughter of his father's brother, Dan. Despite knowing of one another all their lives,^[19] even being the same age and attending the same school, Jake and Rachel were not close,^[20] and their families did not often interact. Rachel's mother Naomi's eventual divorce from his Uncle Dan also led to Jake not interacting much with Rachel's younger sisters. Jake also had another paternal cousin named Saddler who lived in another town, whom Jake did not like as Saddler was the type to break stuff and blame the destruction on Jake.^[18]

Pre-Animorph Life

While in school, Jake once scored twenty-four points in a single basketball game, leading him to name his online chat ID close to "Bball24."^{[4][note 1]} In 1995,^{[note 6]} Jake was there for his friend when Marco's mother Eva was reported to have died in a boating accident.^[7]

Jake was quite tall and well-built for his age, and was described as having broad shoulders and looking two years older than he actually was,^[19] as well as having a physique more suitable for football than basketball.^[3] Although he was tall, Tom nicknamed him "m*dget" as Jake was still shorter than him.^[3] Jake soon developed a crush on a girl named Cassie,^[8] and while he occasionally sat next to her on the bus as well as during classes and assemblies,^[19] he never revealed his feelings to her.^[8] In 1996, when they were twelve,^{[note 7]} their friendship was strong enough that he was invited to her family's Thanksgiving, where her great-grandmother spoke to him about their family's Civil War history. During one of his trips to Cassie's farm, he took a picture of her putting a pill down a badger, which he then kept next to his computer in his bedroom.^[2] As Rachel was Cassie's best friend, Jake and Rachel began to see more of each other. Jake found Rachel to be very pretty, although he did not like entertaining that train of thought as she was his cousin.^[8] During this time,^{[note 8]} he purchased the comic Spider-Man #3 for his mother as a birthday gift on Marco's suggestion, although she was not a fan of the gift.^[3]

Around the time he started junior high, also known as middle school, Jake found his relationship with Tom waning, with Tom spending more time at a club called The Sharing. Jake decided to try out for his school's basketball team in an attempt to mend that relationship as well as follow in Tom's footsteps, as Tom had been a basketball legend at their middle school. One day, Jake walked into the bathroom and saw two bullies tormenting a boy named Tobias by hoisting him above a toilet and giving him a swirlie. Jake told the two bullies to stop, which they complied with. Tobias then began to see Jake as his friend and followed him around.

Near their local mall was an abandoned construction site, which Jake and Marco often visited despite Jake's parents forbidding him from doing so. Jake and Marco often noticed beer cans and liquor bottles, and during one such excursion, Jake climbed one of the rusted construction cranes.^[8]

Becoming an Animorph

Night at the Mall

One Friday in 1997,^{[note 9]} when he was thirteen,^[1] Jake was informed that he had not made his junior high school's basketball team. As his older brother Tom had been star player in the junior high team and currently in his high school team, Jake was dismayed that he could not live up to Tom and worried what Tom might think of him. After school, he went with Marco to the mall, where they played video games and spent time at a comic book store. Upon running out of quarters and noticing that it was nighttime, Jake and Marco decided to walk back home. Jake then encountered Tobias, who asked to walk home alongside them, to which Jake agreed. As the three boys reached the mall's exit, they ran into Rachel and Cassie.

Jake deemed that the quickest way home was through an abandoned construction site, and asked Rachel if she and Cassie had planned to walk home through it, informing them that they should avoid it since they were girls and it was dangerous. Jake immediately regretted verbalizing his thought, as Rachel mockingly asked him if he was "a big, strong man" who would protect them. Cassie then interrupted to state that she was indeed scared to walk home and appreciated the boys walking with them. The five thirteen year olds then left the mall and headed towards the construction site.^[8]

Gaining Morphing Powers

While walking through the abandoned construction site fearing for any murderers or criminals that might be lurking, Jake noticed that Tobias had stopped walking and was looking at up. Jake looked up as well and saw what he and Tobias both recognized as an alien spaceship. As the ship approached, Jake mused that the tail section of the ship looked to be a weapon, which Marco agreed with. Marco remarked that the ship seemed to have noticed them, to which Jake replied that they might get zapped with phasers on full power if they tried to run from it. When Tobias approached the ship to try and communicate with the alien on board, Jake pondered whether they would know English, only to hear a voice speaking English in his head.

Jake witnessed as a blue alien walked out of the ship and greeted them. Smiling, Jake was also surprised to find tears running down his face, feeling like the alien was someone he'd known and hadn't seen in a long time. Suddenly, the alien collapsed onto the ground, and Jake noticed a massive burn on the right side of the alien's body. Cassie told Jake to take his shirt off so they could bandage the wound, although the alien replied that it was pointless since his wound was fatal.

Upset at the thought of the alien dying, Jake exclaimed that the blue alien could not die since he was the first alien to come to Earth. The alien then responded that he was not the first alien to come to Earth, and that many other aliens, who were not like him, had already come to Earth to destroy humans. The alien explained that the other aliens were known as Yeerks and transmitted an image of a green-gray slug into their minds. He explained that the Yeerks were a parasitic species that take over bodies to use as hosts, after which the Yeerks become known as Controllers. Jake remarked that they were just kids and that this information should be told to the authorities instead. The alien, revealing himself to be a member of a species called an Andalite, added that it would take a year if not more for the Andalite forces to come to Earth, and urged the teenagers to warn humanity of the Yeerk threat. Jake then looked at Marco, who lamented that no one would ever believe them.

Suddenly, the Andalite exclaimed that they should go into his ship and retrieve a blue box. Looking around at each other, Jake felt that everyone seemed to think he should be the one to do it. Although he was scared to enter an alien ship, Cassie smiled at him and told him that he should go since he wasn't scared. Not wanting to back out in front of her, Jake agreed and entered the ship. Noticing the interior and a picture of an Andalite family, Jake retrieved the blue box and returned back to the Andalite. The Andalite informed them that he could use the box to grant them the ability to morph — by touching an animal and concentrating, they could acquire that creature's DNA and transform their bodies into that of the animal's. As the Andalite asked if they wished to accept this power, Rachel noticed something in the sky and wondered what it was, to which the Andalite replied that those were the Yeerks.

The Andalite urged them to decide quickly, and Cassie asked Jake what he thought. Looking around at his friends, Tobias told them that they had to accept, and Jake agreed, citing they had no choice. All five of them pressed their hands against the box, and Jake felt a tingle run through him as he received the morphing ability. The Andalite warned them that they should not stay in morph for more than two hours or else they would be trapped before yelling at them to run since Visser Three was coming.

Hiding behind a low wall, Jake witnessed as the Blade ship and Bug fighters landed next to Elfangor. The five teenagers watched as tall, bladed creatures emerged from the Blade ship, and Jake quickly clamped his hand over Cassie's mouth as she screamed. The dying Andalite used his thought-speak to mentally communicate with them, informing them that these were Hork-Bajir-Controllers and that the giant centipede-like creatures that were also emerging were known as Taxxons. The five kids then tried to remain silent as one of the Hork-Bajir-Controllers positioned himself near their hiding spot. They then noticed an Andalite emerging from the Blade ship, which the dying Andalite explained was Visser Three — the only Andalite-Controller to exist.

Jake watched as Visser Three greeted the Andalite as Prince Elfangor as he spoke of the great conquest of the Yeerk Empire, who planned to subjugate Earth and humanity. Jake silently cheered when Elfangor attacked the Visser. As the Visser ordered his forces to destroy Elfangor's fighter, Jake noticed a group of humans among the Yeerks. The kids continued to observe as Visser Three morphed into a monstrous creature with multiple ringed teeth. As the Visser used one of his arms to lift Elfangor, Jake picked up a pipe and tried to jump into action, although he was restrained by Marco and Tobias as Rachel covered his mouth with her hand, with Cassie him that Elfangor was dying for them and that he wouldn't want Jake to die for him. Jake then watched with tears streaming down his face as the Visser ate Elfangor and heard Elfangor's mental screams as he was being ripped apart before he died.

Jake quickly heard human laughter emanting from the Yeerks' celebration of Elfangor's death, noting that one of the voices sounded familiar. Marco then threw up, prompting the nearby Hork-Bajir-Controller to look in their direction. The five teenagers then bolted as the Yeerks began chasing them. Jake and Rachel both noted that Marco and Cassie were struggling to flee as they were short while Tobias was out of shape, so the two athletic cousins served as a distraction to ensure the other three escaped. Jake then tripped, but yelled at Rachel to run when she tried to come back for him.

Jake then overheard another familiar human voice inform the Hork-Bajir-Controller that they were allowed to kill the fleeing witnesses, so long as they retained the heads for identification. Pursued by the Hork-Bajir with a flashlight, Jake ran into one of the half-constructed buildings that he had explored before with Marco, believing that his knowledge of the layout would be to his benefit. Running through the darkness, he accidentally kicked a sleeping homeless man. As the man yelled at him to get his own space, the Hork-Bajir entered the room and shone his flashlight at the homeless man. Jake fled, using the man's death as a distraction to successfully escape from the construction site and return home. He then contacted the others to ensure they returned home safely before going to bed.^[8]

Testing Morphing Powers

The next day, a Saturday morning, Jake was suddenly awakened by his mother knocking on his door, informing him that Tobias was here. Jake was surprised, as Tobias had never visited his house before. As Tobias asked if he could come in, Jake agreed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as Tobias disclosed that he had successfully morphed into Dude, his pet tabby cat. Jake refused to believe him until Tobias morphed into Dude in front of him before demorphing back to human. Tobias was embarassed to find himself nude and stated that perhaps they could learn to morph clothing in the future. Jake was hesitant to accept that he could morph, to which Tobias replied that they could all morph and that they needed Jake the most, as he was their leader. Jake responded that he was not, but begrudgingly accepted when Tobias convinced him that he was the one who could bring them together as a team to help defeat the Yeerk Empire.

Jake then brought Homer, his pet golden retriever, into his room and acquired him. He then put Homer in the backyard and tried to concentrate on Homer. Believing it did not work, he laughed only for Tobias to redirect his attention to his hands, which had fur. Although Jake panicked, Tobias led him through the rest of the morphing process. Now fully a golden retriever, Jake found the happy dog mind enjoyable and began barking when his dog mind noticed another dog in his backyard, which Tobias reminded him was the real Homer. Tom then entered the room, wanting to tell Jake to silence Homer as their mother was on the phone, only to be stunned to see Tobias, who explained that he was Jake's friend and that Jake was elsewhere in the house. Tom then left the room, but not before telling "Homer" that he was a bad dog. While Jake was upset that his brother thought he was a "bad dog" he suddenly felt like his brother's voice reminded him as being one of the human laughter he had heard at the abandoned construction site after Elfangor died.

Jake then demorphed and got dressed before using the phone to call the others and ask them to have a meeting at Cassie's farm. As Tobias left, Jake was on the phone with Cassie when Tom walked in. Jake recalled that Tom would usually be the first person he shared stuff with, but refrained as he felt an urge to not share what he witnessed the previous night with Tom. Instead, Jake apologized to Tom that he did not make the junior high basketball team. To his shock, Tom merely shrugged and admitted that he did not care for basketball and had even dropped out of his high school team, adding that he had more important things to do with The Sharing.^[8]

Investigating the Yeerks

After finishing his chores, Jake got on his bike and headed towards Cassie's farm, where he spotted Tobias, Rachel, and Marco. Rachel and Marco gave Jake a newspaper to read, which stated that residents near the abandoned construction site had called the police about seeing spaceships and explosions. However, the police claimed they had investigated the matter and concluded there were no spaceships and that the explosions were just teenagers using fireworks, whom they were now looking for. Jake wondered why the police investigating would lie, prompting Marco and Rachel to respond that the police officers, along with the media, were Controllers. As they sat in silence, Marco told them that they should just forget what they've learned and move on with their lives. Jake noticed that Rachel and Tobias both looked at him expecting him to say something. Before Jake could finish his retort, Marco yelled that they could all get killed if they get involved, adding that if something happened to him, his father would stop deciding to continue living.

Rachel then stated that Cassie was headed their way, and Jake watched as a horse approached them and began to demorph. Jake decided to look away as he remembered that he and Tobias had both been nude, but quickly noticed that Cassie was not and that she had incorporated a skintight outfit. He watched in admiration as Cassie demonstrated an ability to control the process, making herself equally half-human and half-horse. However, before Cassie could finish demorphing, a police cruiser suddenly pulled into the farm. Jake then commanded everyone to shield Cassie while telling Cassie to finish turning back into human. The police officer then approached them and asked if they had information about kids being at the abandoned construction site the night before. Jake quickly realized that the man was a Controller and responded that they did not know anything. The officer then remarked that Jake looked similar to Tom, and when Jake replied that Tom was his brother, the officer left, although not before inviting him to join The Sharing.

Jake then listened to the others argue about what they should do, supporting Cassie's belief that they wait before finalizing a decision. Jake told the others that they should not say anything to anyone and go back to normal life before the group disbanded, with Jake heading back to his house with Marco. As they played in Jake's room, they were interrupted by Tom, who asked if he play with them. After a while, Tom gave the controls back to Marco and asked Jake if he knew anything about the children who were at the construction site. Jake informed him that he did not every time Tom pressed. Tom then left, although not before suggesting that he join The Sharing, citing that it would be a way for him and Jake to be close again.

Shortly after Tom exited the room, Marco told Jake that Tom was a Controller, prompting Jake to punch Marco in the head. Marco managed to subdue Jake, promising to let him go if he stopped attacking. The duo were then interrupted by a red-tailed hawk outside Jake's window, who quickly revealed itself to be Tobias in morph. Tobias explained that he had acquired the hawk at Cassie's farm and that he had been looking for a Yeerk pool. When Jake and Marco looked on in confusion, Tobias explained that Elfangor had given him visions and knowledge, including the fact that every three days a Yeerk must go into the Yeerk pool to absorb Kandrona rays.

Jake was then reminded by Marco that both Tom and the police-Controller had urged him to join The Sharing, suggesting that it might be a front organization for the Yeerk Empire. Swayed by Tobias' declaration of wanting to fight the Yeerks in honor of the fallen Andalite, Jake announced that he could not choose inaction. When Marco retorted that Jake might end up taking out Tom if he joined the fight, thus losing a family member, Jake realized that he had not suffered familial loss the way Marco and Tobias had. Jake then decided that he wanted to investigate The Sharing before making any decisions, to which Marco and Tobias were in agreement. Jake then spoke to Tom, informing him that he and his friends wanted to attend a meeting. Enthusiastic, Tom replied that they were having a beach bonfire and that they could join. Jake then called Rachel and Cassie and invited them to join, having informed them of his plan.

Jake and the others walked from his house to the beach, where they had Tobias hide behind a dune and assume his hawk morph in order to spy from above. Arriving at the meeting, Jake played night volleyball with Tom on his team against the other members while also enjoying some barbecue, coming to believe that The Sharing could not be Yeerks. As the bonfire winded down, Jake sat next to Tom, who informed him that while the activities were fun, there was more to The Sharing once he became a full member. However, when Jake asked Tom how he could become a full member, he noticed one side of Tom's face dropping as well as a change of expression in Tom's eyes. Jake quickly realized that Tom was indeed under Yeerk control and that he had tried to gain control of his body to warn his younger brother.

As "Tom" excused himself and left to attend a private meeting for the full members, the others rallied towards him. Jake notified them that he wished to spy on their meeting in Homer morph, citing that they wouldn't pay much mind to a stray dog on the beach. Jake then flagged Tobias down from the sky and asked him where the meeting was held before ordering Tobias to demorph. Using his golden retriever morph, Jake walked up to the private meeting and witnessed as his assistant principal, Chapman, warned the others that Visser Three wanted the kids from the construction site found. Jake was then aghast to hear "Tom" reply that he suspected Jake might be one of those kids and they could have Jake infested or killed that night. Jake listened as Chapman responded that there was to be no killing at a Sharing event and that they could no go around killing the children they might suspect as the public would notice their deaths. Jake felt despair at the confirmation that his older brother had been taken by the Yeerks, although the dog's instincts prevented him from succumbing to its effects. Continuing to loiter at the meeting, Jake overheard "Tom" telling another Controller that he would be returning to the Yeerk pool on Monday to feed.

Jake then heard Cassie's voice speaking with another familiar voice and headed towards her, where he noticed her speaking with the police-Controller from earlier that day. He watched as Cassie was admonishged for entering the private meeting grounds and walked next to her as she retreated back towards the beach. Regrouping with his friends, Jake informed them that both Tom and Chapman were Controllers. When Marco stated that they should forget everything and continue their normal lives, Jake replied that he could not let Tom remain a Controller and that he would fight, with Rachel, Tobias and Cassie agreeing to join him. The group then decided to disband for the night and head home, but as they walked Jake pulled Cassie aside and asked her if she had any useful animals at the clinic as he intended to spy on Chapman. Cassie notified him that there was a green anole lizard who could be suitable, so Jake went back with Cassie to her barn to acquire it.

On Monday, Jake went to school and waited for the first bell to ring. After all the other students left the hallway to attend their first classes of the day, Jake entered his locker and began to morph the green anole lizard. Successfully morphing and escaping through the locker's ventilation slits, Jake tried to locate Chapman, planning to hide out in his office all day to learn any news on the Yeerks. However, much to his horror, his lizard brain spotted a spider and chased after it. Despite Jake's attempts to resist, his lizard mind commanded the body to swallow the spider whole, with Jake feeling the still alive spider kicking inside his stomach. He was then stepped on by Chapman, who did not notice, and was able to escape, albeit losing his tail. Jake followed Chapman and was surprised to find out that he was heading to the janitor's closet instead of his own office. Jake witnessed as Chapman turned a combination of knobs to cause the wall of the closet to reveal a hidden passageway, which emanated a weird smell. He heard the faint sounds of human screams and realized that the passageway was the entrance to the Yeerk pool.^[8]

Acquiring the Tiger

Jake escaped and demorphed, although he did not attend some of his remaining classes. He met up with the others after school at the mall, where he purchased nachos out of a desire to consume lots of junk food to forget the spider incident. There, he informed the others of his discovery and that he intended to go to the Yeerk pool to rescue Tom. Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie voiced their support to join him, with Marco reluctantly agreeing as well, citing he was doing it only to save Tom and that he was done after that. The newly-formed team discussed that their current morphs were not strong enough to fight against the Controllers of the Yeerk Empire and decided to head to The Gardens to acquire more dangerous morphs. The five kids, dubbed the Animorphs by Marco^[8] as a portmanteau for "animal morphers"^[20] then left the mall and took a bus straight to The Gardens, where Jake took the opportunity to catch up on his homework. Arriving at The Gardens, the five pooled their cash to afford the admission, with Cassie able to get them an employee discount.

Cassie then led them to the employees' hallway, with doors connected to each of the animal enclosures. They first approached the enclosure of Big Jim, a Silverback gorilla, which Jake convinced Marco to acquire. Finding themselves at a crossroads, Marco decided to head in the direction of more dangerous animals while Rachel elected to go towards the dolphins. A security guard then noticed them and gave chase, prompting the group to split up, with Jake running after Marco while the other three went another away. The guard chose to follow the two boys, although they were to avoid him by stealing an electric golf cart. They were quickly spotted by two other employees, prompting the two boys to enter one of the doors. Both Jake and Marco then realized they were in a dangerous animal's enclosure when they noticed that the guards chose not to follow them through the doors.

Attempting to sit down, Jake partially sat on a male Siberian tiger. Terrified, Jake decided to acquire him to place him in a trance, noting how the tiger's strength was being absorbed into him. As the tiger fell into a trance, Jake and Marco ran to the ladder on the other side in order to escape, only to be chased by one of the other tigers in the enclosure. Narrowly escaping, the two managed to return back to the public space, although the two guards were there. Noticing a crowd, Jake advised Marco that they should head into the crowd and hunch in order to blend in. Successfully avoiding the guards, the two boys managed to return back to the main entrance and found the other three waiting for them. They then took the bus back to their respective homes.^[8]

First Mission

Jake returned home, where his parents and brother were about to sit down for family dinner. As they were eating chicken cacciatore, Jake's parents asked him where he was, and he replied that he had been with Marco. Still holding out hope that perhaps Tom may not be a host, despite having evidence otherwise, Jake asked "Tom" if they could play basketball, and when Tom declined citing other plans, asked Tom what those plans were. Tom brushed him off before leaving the house after dinner had concluded. Retreating upstairs, Jake called the others to inform them that Tom had left the house and that it was time to meet up across the school. However, when he called Cassie's house, her mother Michelle picked up, informing him that Cassie had not come home yet and that she was worried.

Jake then biked to school and met up with Rachel and Marco, and was infuriated when he saw that Tobias had already started his time limit as he had morphed into a hawk and was flying above. As Tobias descended, Jake was surprised to see him land on Rachel's shoulder as she then nuzzled him. Putting his observation aside, he informed them that Cassie was missing before the group entered the school through an unlocked window Marco knew of. Finding themselves in a classroom, Jake peeked out the doorway and saw a group of Controllers enter the janitor's closet. To his horror, Jake witnessed the police-Controller from earlier dragging Cassie into the closet and called upon Tobias to use his hawk eyes to confirm. After sharing this update with the others, they collectively headed towards the janitor's closet, where Jake input the combinations he had seen Chapman use. The four Animorphs then entered through the open passageway and made their way into the underound Yeerk pool.

As they began descending the many stairs, they were stunned to discover that the passageway in the janitor's closet was not the sole entrance and that were multiple access points, as the Yeerk pool was revealed to be a gigantic subterranean cavern that was situated under half of their city. Jake noticed Cassie being dragged by the cop-Controller and wished to morph, although Marco prevented him from doing so. The group watched in horror as the Controllers re-entered the pool on one pier, with their screaming hosts thrown into cages, after which they would be brought to the reinfestation pier. Jake noticed a group of Controllers laughing as they watched television, which Tobias explained were voluntary Controllers. Jake asked if Tom was a voluntary Controller and was relieved when Tobias informed him that Tom was in the cages yelling at his Yeerk captors, finding comfort in the fact that Tom had been taken against his will. Tobias also disclosed that Cassie was on the infestation pier and that they had mere minutes to save her.

Jake, Rachel and Marci walked away from the stairs and ducked behind a shed; there, Marco pulled Jake to the side, telling him that while he was okay with the fact that he might get killed, he wanted Jake to ensure that he wouldn't allow him to become infested. Their conversation was then interrupted by a human-Controller, who found them to be suspicious and ordered his accompanying Hork-Bajir-Controller and Taxxon to take them. Rachel, who hadn't been noticed, stealthily manuevered herself behind the three Controllers and morphed into an African elephant. Rejoicing that she had successfully morphed, she popped the Taxxon and flung the human-Controller away. Jake then yelled at Marco to morph before transforming into a Siberian tiger, relishing in the power he felt surging within him. Roaring at the Hork-Bajir-Controllers headed their way, Jake lunged at slashed at them while avoiding their blows before scaring them off with another roar.

Along with Rachel and Marco, the latter of whom had successfully morphed into Big Jim, the trio ran towards the cages, defeating the Controllers who attempt to impede them with ease. Jake watched as Marco used the gorilla's dexterity to rip off the locks of the cages, freeing the imprisoned hosts. Finding himself face to face with Tom, Jake was about to use thought-speech to reveal his identity and powers to his older brother when Rachel interrupted by screaming that Cassie was about to be infested. Jake then ran towards the infestation pier as two Hork-Bajir-Controllers brought a screaming Cassie to the pier's edge. Although he was not fast enough to reach them in time, Tobias came hurtling down in a power dive and gouged out both eyes of the first Hork-Bajir, allowing Cassie to escape. Jake was then able to reach the pier and took out the second Hork-Bajir before urging Cassie to morph.

Using the fleeing prisoners as cover, Cassie was able to morph into a horse and the pair sailed over Taxxon-Controllers while leading the freed prisoners towards the stairs. However, their escape path was blocked by Visser Three, who believed them to be Andalites in morph. Turning into a giant fire-breathing monster with eight heads, Visser Three spat out numerous fireballs, burning and incinerating many of the fleeing prisoners. Jake ordered everyone to run up the stairs and told Rachel to start demorphing when her elephant body was struggling to do so.

Ascending the many stairs, more and more fleeing hosts were burned by the Visser. Jake eventually found their path blocked by fire, with Visser Three slowly catching up to them from behind. To Jake's horror, Tom lunged at Visser Three and watched in horror as the visser swatted Tom away, causing him to fall off the stairs. Aghast, Jake launched himself at Visser Three, using his tiger's agility to twist around the visser's body and bite one of his eight necks. As the Visser screamed and shot a fireball at the tiger's flank, Jake disengaged himself and managed to run back up the stairs and through the fire.

The four Animorphs, minus Tobias, successfully escaped from the Yeerk pool and returned to their school's hallway, along with just one freed prisoner, a woman who had ridden on Cassie's back. Aside from Rachel, who was half-morphed, the other Animorphs were still in their battle morphs. They then split up, and Jake demorphed^{[note 10]} before he returned home. He then went to bed, where he silently struggled with the bad memories and trauma of that night's terror as he cried and shivered. Jake then listened as "Tom" returned home some time later, and lamented how he had failed to save his brother and how Tom had never known he was the tiger before falling asleep.

Jake was awakened in the early hours of the morning by the sound of wings outside his window. Opening the window, he realized it was Tobias and expressed relief that he had managed to escape. Jake then told Tobias to demorph and offered to let him sleep on the bed while he slept on the floor. Tobias notified him that he had to hide out in the Yeerk pool for over two hours in order to safely escape and thus was now trapped as a red-tailed hawk. This revelation caused Jake to start crying as he registered the fact that the hawk in front of him was how Tobias would look from now on. Jake looked up at the sky and mused that one of the stars up there was the Andalite homeworld which he believed represented hope. Tobias responded that one day the Andalites would come, but until then, the Animorphs would have to continue fighting the Yeerk Empire.^[8]

Early Adventures

Morphing Practice

Jake allowed Tobias to live in the attic of his house, and removed a panel on the roof to allow Tobias to fly in and out, while also placing a blanket in a drawer. Jake also brought up containers consisting of his dinner or leftovers, unaware that Tobias' hawk body could not digest most of it. Jake also wrote and send two letters on Tobias' behalf, one each to be sent to his uncle and aunt respectively, claiming that he was now living with the other permanently.^[14] At school, Jake secretly revisited the janitor's closet to check if the entrance to the Yeerk pool was still working, only to find that it was sealed off. Thinking of other ways to find a new entrance, Jake considered having Rachel use her friend Melissa Chapman, the daughter of high-ranking Controller Hedrick Chapman, to get close to Chapman and discover new intel. However, he chose to keep this thought to himself. Around this time, Jake was taught by Cassie how to incorporate skintight clothing, which included bike shorts, as a morphing outfit, allowing him to demorph without being nude. Jake also suffered from nightmares of his lizard morph experience, although he also had wonderful dreams of being a tiger.^[21] Around this time, Jake morphed into a tiger and ran across people's roofs at night.^[18]

Over a week after their trip to the Yeerk pool, the four morph-capable Animorphs acquired bird-of-prey morphs, with Jake acquiring a peregrine falcon. The four then walked to a run-down church near a beach by some cliffs and made their way to the abandoned bell tower. Stripping off their outer clothing, the Animorphs morphed into their raptor morphs for the first time and joined Tobias in the sky. Due to the falcon's small wingspan, Jake struggled to flap his wings for altitude compared to his friends, although he was able to speed past them while diving. The Animorphs were then shot at by a teenager, whom the Animorphs then attacked. They then made their way back to the bell tower and demorphed, where Jake gushed about the experience of flying and watched in awe as Cassie skillfully controlled her demorphing. As the group walked home, the Animorphs discussed how they could've used morphing to have a showbiz career. They then walked past the abandoned construction site, which brought back memories. When the discussion of trying to find another chance to attack the Yeerk Empire came up, Jake informed the group about the janitor's closet entrance no longer being viable. Rachel then suggested that they follow Tom to find a new Yeerk pool entrance, although Jake quickly shut it down, stating that he did not want to risk the Yeerks noticing and killing Tom. Cassie then put her arm around Jake's waist and told him that they would save Tom someday, causing Jake to stroke her head before quickly pulling away, embarrassed. Jake then suggested using Chapman to find a new lead, intentionally not looking at Rachel, which caused her to realize that he wanted her to use Melissa. Rachel replied that she did not want to involve Melissa, to which Jake responded that Melissa was already a part of it due to her father being infested.

The next night, after school, Jake, Marco and Cassie were invited to Rachel's house, where Rachel informed them that Melissa was not open to hanging out with her; she also revealed that she had been harassed by a grown man while walking home, who tried to get her into his car before chasing her. When Rachel disclosed that she had partially morphed into an elephant to scare him away, Marco yelled at Rachel for risking their identities by publicly morphing. Jake, who like Marco did not register the true danger Rachel was in, also believed that Rachel had committed a mistake, although he told Marco to ease off. Jake then discussed what their next strategy to get close to Chapman would be since they couldn't use Melissa directly, to which Rachel divulged that Melissa had a pet cat that she could morph.^[21]

Chapman Investigation

One night, the Animorphs traveled to the street where the Chapmans resided, bringing a cat carrier with them. Tobias flew towards them, informing them that he had located Melissa's pet cat, which Rachel revealed was named Fluffer McKitty. When Tobias mentioned that he could see rats and mice and that he found them to be juicy and plump, Marco berated Tobias, stating that he could not be friends with someone who ate rats, which angered both Rachel and Jake, with Jake reminding Marco that they were still friends despite the fact that he'd eaten a spider. Tobias then led them to the lawn where Fluffer was. As Jake and Marco waited, Rachel and Cassie crossed onto the lawn. Jake watched as Fluffer scratched Rachel and climbed up a tree, which prompted Rachel to acquire and morph into a shrew to get the cat to come down. As Fluffer pounced, Marco snatched the cat, only to nearly let go when he'd been clawed. Jake managed to grab Fluffer by the nape of his neck and stuffed him into the cat carrier with Cassie's help. Noticing Rachel's discomfort when she demorphed, Jake mused that should have used his lizard morph to lure Fluffer; when Rachel responded that Jake had been traumatized by the experience, Jake merely replied that now Rachel was traumatized as well. Jake noticed that Rachel was feeling unwell, and when Rachel asked if they could postpone their infiltration for another night, Jake readily agreed.

The next morning, Jake got on the school bus and sat next to Rachel, who he noticed looked tired and asked if becoming a shrew had freaked her out. Rachel immediately became defensive, wondering whether Jake thought she was bothered by the experience because she was a girl, although Jake quickly assured her that he was asking in general and revealed that he had a nightmare when he became a lizard. The pair then discussed their dreams and the possibility that they might have to morph into bugs someday. Jake then assured Rachel that her upcoming morph would be better since Tobias enjoyed being a cat and added that he personally enjoyed being a dog and that he wished he could morph into a dog every time he felt depressed. The bus then reached the school, where Rachel noticed Melissa. She then bid Jake farewell, who reminded her that they were all in this together.

A few nights later, the Animorphs regrouped outside the Chapman Residence, where Tobias informed the group that the real Fluffer was nowhere near the house. Jake watched as Rachel morphed into the cat and waited outside the house along with the others as Rachel began the infiltration. An hour later, the team noticed that Fluffer was trying to return home and tried to capture him, to no avail. As Rachel now had less than an hour in morph, Jake became angry when he found out Rachel was choosing to stay in the Chapman house for a while longer and told Tobias to use his thought-speak in order to tell Rachel to leave. Tobias notified Jake that Rachel had told him that she would not leave yet because Melissa needed her, prompting Jake to remind Rachel, via Tobias, that her job was not to comfort Melissa, although Rachel refused to leave. The group waited outside until Rachel eventually rejoined them, with only ten minutes left on her morphing clock. Jake uttered that he hoped Rachel at least learned something useful, and Rachel divulged that Chapman had a way to communicate directly with Visser Three and that the Yeerk Empire still believed them to Andalites.

The next day, Jake decided to hold a meeting at the church tower and informed the other Animorphs. Arriving at the tower, Jake was weary of a conversation regarding superheroes and comic books and tried to veer the conversation back towards discussing their next plans, even clamping his hand over Marco's mouth to prevent a retort. Rachel declared that she wanted to return to the Chapman Residence, which Jake did not think was worthwhile since they already learned enough; Rachel then added that she thought a return visit might cause her to learn the location of the Kandrona, which the Animorphs could then destroy. Jake stated that he did not want Rachel going back alone, to which Rachel made a flippant suggestion that one of them could morph into a flea and ride on her back. Tobias privately informed the Animorphs that Rachel was hiding something from them. Jake then agreed to let Rachel return to the house before the Animorphs disbanded for the day, planning to meet up outside the Chapman house later that night.

However, not trusting Rachel entirely, the other Animorphs hatched a secret plan. Taking Rachel's carefree suggestions to heart, Jake acquired a flea, and practiced the morph on Cassie and Marco. The quartet then traveled down the street of Chapman's house before Rachel was to join them, where Jake morphed into a flea and was picked up by Cassie. When Rachel appeared, the others lied that Jake was grounded and couldn't make it. Rachel then morphed into Fluffer McKitty, after which Cassie put her hand on the cat's back, allowing Jake to jump onto Rachel's fur. After a while, Jake made his presence known to Rachel, who was aghast at the idea that he had morphed into a flea and was on her back. Rachel then informed Jake that Chapman's Yeerk was in a holographic meeting with Visser Three and thus she was hiding, to which Jake replied that she shouldn't have to hide since she was a cat that lived there and thus it wouldn't be suspicious for her to be in the room. Rachel then divulged that she had been caught the night prior and that Visser Three believed she might've been an "Andalite in morph," causing Jake to yell at her for hiding it from them and still choosing to return. Rachel was then spotted by "Chapman" and Visser Three, which resulted in Rachel, and by extension Jake, being captured. Rachel was then placed in a cat carrier, who then informed Jake that both Chapman and his wife were rebelling and regaining partial control of their hosts, which shocked Jake. The Chapmans managed to regain control of their hosts, after which Chapman placed the cat carrier in his car. Jake thought-spoke privately with Tobias, telling him to follow the car and bring the others to wherever they ended up.

Arriving at the construction site, Rachel asked Jake to leave, telling him that she wouldn't demorph and reveal their identities but that she might die in the process. Jake refused to leave, stating that they hadn't been beaten yet and that there was still time. Rachel was adamant that Jake jump off her body and escape and began trying to scratch him off. Jake then agreed to leave and told Rachel that he had jumped off. Rachel then claimed that she had changed her mind and asked Jake to stay with her, although Jake correctly deduced that Rachel was just lying to check whether he was there or not. Jake then continued to remain hidden on Rachel's back and was able to hear a one-sided conversation between Visser Three and Chapman's Yeerk as he could hear the Visser's thought-speak. When the cat carrier containing Rachel (and by extension Jake) was placed on the Visser's Blade ship, Jake, who had ten minutes left in morph, decided to try a double morph.

Jumping off Rachel, Jake landed on a dark corner of the Blade ship, and rapidly demorphed from flea to human and then rapidly morphed into a Siberian tiger, with the entire double morph process taking less than a minute. He then rushed at Visser Three and clawed his Andalite body while avoiding the Visser's tail blade. Noticing that Rachel had freed herself from the carrier, Jake yelled at Rachel to run. While Jake was fast enough to outrun the Hork-Bajir-Controllers on his tail, Rachel was not, prompting Jake to tackle the Hork-Bajir pursuing them. Visser Three then morphed into an Unnamed Three-Legged Rock Beast and tried to kill Rachel, who was then snatched by Tobias and flown away. Jake then ran away from the site and successfully escaped.

A few days later, Jake reconvened with the other Animorphs, by which point Rachel had disclosed to the rest of the team that Chapman had become a voluntary host to ensure Melissa's freedom. Rachel then revealed that she had used her word processing program to print a cryptic letter to lift Melissa's spirits. Jake remarked that at least the ordeal resulted in the destruction of a Bug fighter, which Marco and Cassie had done at the construction site, along with Visser Three being more nervous of them. Marco then interjected that they also all came out alive, which Jake cheerfully agreed was the most important thing. Tobias then affirmed that the Animorphs would keep fighting until the Andalites came.^[21]

Truck Ship Operation

On a Saturday, Jake saw a live commercial for Dealin' Dan Hawke's Used Cars on television where a red-tailed hawk freed a captive red-tailed hawk while an elephant stomped on the cars. Immediately realizing that it was Tobias and Rachel, Jake, along with Marco and Cassie, made their way to Rachel's house and waited in Rachel's room until she got home. As Rachel returned home and entered her room as Tobias flew in through the open window, Marco yelled at them for their carelessness while Jake made the two promise not to do something stupid like that again. The argument quickly turned jovial, and the group decided to go their separate ways for the evening. Jake then asked Tobias if he was coming home; when Tobias said he would return later as he wanted to spend the evening flying, Jake told him he would leave some dinner for him in the attic, asking if Tobias was able to open Rubbermaid containers, which Tobias affirmed that he could. As the Animorphs left Rachel's house, Jake and Cassie secretly brushed their hands against each other.

The next day, the Animorphs convened at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic on Cassie's farm, where Tobias notified them that he had seen an invisible Yeerk Empire ship coming to and from the mountains. As the team began an argument about their respective involvement, Tobias stated that he was going to the mountains the next morning regardless of what everyone else did. Rachel, Jake and Cassie agreed to come with him, although Marco pointed out the next day (a Monday) was a school day and that if they skipped school to attack the Yeerk Empire, "Chapman" might suspect them. The Animorphs then decided to go to the mountains after school the next day.

On Monday, the Animorphs regrouped at the clinic. Deciding not to fly out to the mountains as their assortment of raptor forms could be spotted by bird-watchers, it was decided that they would get to the mountains by running through the forest as wolves. There was a pair of wolves at the clinic, one male and one female; however, Cassie stated that wolf packs had a hierarchy and there could only be one male per pack. Jake and Marco then flipped a coin for it, with Jake winning; Jake then acquired the male wolf while the other three acquired the female. As Cassie's farm bordered the national forest, they entered the forest on foot and walked a good ways in before morphing into the wolf, after which they ran through the forest at twenty miles an hour. As a male wolf, Jake constantly stopped to pee on trees to mark his territory. Tobias, who had been performing reconnaissance, informed them that there was a nearby lake surrounded with Park Ranger Controllers armed with automatic weapons alongside Hork-Bajir-Controllers. They then decided to walk to the lake in order to witness the situation for themselves; there, they marveled at the sight of the uncloaked disturbance that Tobias had seen, which was revealed to be a giant spaceship. Noticing that the giant ship had oxygen intake and was currently draining water for the lake, the Animorphs realized that the ship, which they dubbed a Truck ship, was carrying oxygen and water to orbit, most likely to the Pool ship.

Deciding to retreat, they returned to the forest, where they accidentally entered the territory of a rival wolf pack that had just killed a rabbit. The rival pack believed the Animorphs were encroaching on their territory to steal their kill, and Jake was forced to stand his ground as Cassie remarked that looking weak might cause the other pack to attack them. Tobias then swooped down and snatched the rabbit, redirecting the wolf pack's attention which allowed the other Animorphs to escape. As they ran through the woods, Tobias screamed at them via thought-speak to demorph, telling them that they had no time left in morph. While Cassie quickly demorphed without issue, Jake and the other two struggled with the process. However, as Cassie held his hands and urged him to come back to her, he successfully demorphed. With Marco and Rachel also managing to demorph, the four rejoiced at the fact that they were not trapped in morph. Tobias then flew away from them and Jake, feeling regretful, called out to Tobias, although Tobias did not return.

The next day, Jake called for a meeting in his room after school, with his house being safe since Tom would be away at a Sharing meeting. Jake then asked the team what they should do regarding the Truck ship. Rachel brought up the idea of destroying the ship, stating that perhaps the Yeerk Empire may leave Earth if they ran out of air and water, although Cassie pointed out that they did not know how many other Truck ships the Yeerk Empire possessed. Marco then brought up the idea of turning off the Truck ship's cloaking technology while it was flying above the city, thereby allowing everyone to see it. Jake and Rachel became excited at the prospect of the rest of the world discovering the invasion and letting the authorities handle it. Jake then announced that they would be using fish morphs to enter the Truck ship through its water pipes in order to uncloak the ship. With a plan set, Rachel and Cassie left, leaving the boys alone in Jake's room. Jake told Tobias that the next mission would have to be on a Saturday, as he wanted them to get to the mountains in the morning long before the Truck ship was scheduled to appear later that day. Jake then began to ask Tobias if he could scope out the area, which Tobias agreed to. Marco then asked if he should go to the mall to see Rachel or if they wanted to play Doom, although Jake told Marco that he had homework and that Rachel would attack him if he caused her to mess up her exhibition.

Jake was later informed that shortly after leaving his house, Tobias had flown to the mall and tried to hurt himself before fleeing. When Tobias did not return to the attic and disappeared, Jake became depressed. However, a few days later, on Friday night, Tobias returned to Jake's house and informed him that he had lost himself to the hawk mind and was now living in the wild as a true hawk. Tobias added that that he still wanted to commit to the original Saturday morning plan on going to the woods early. Early in the morning, the Animorphs gathered and solidified their plan: they would morph into wolves and travel to the lake, where they would then start fishing. Once they acquired a fish, they would practice the morph before retreating to a nearby bear cave that Tobias reported was empty. Then, when the Truck ship arrived, they would slowly make their way to the edge of the lake, morph into fish and swim towards the Truck ship, where they would then get sucked up into the ship. Rachel fashioned a tan-colored nylon pouch, which contained a watch, a fishing line, some fishing hooks and a lighter, and tied it to Tobias' leg.

At the lake, Jake and the others spent hours trying to catch a fish before Cassie caught a trout, which they acquired. Just then, Tobias informed them that the Park Ranger Controllers were arriving and the four of them ran into the cave to hide. They were shortly joined by Tobias, who notified them that Visser Three had arrived on the site, along with additional reinforcements. As they debated on whether to terminate their mission, since they could no longer walk to the water's edge without being spotted, Cassie suggested that they morph into fish while in the cave; since trout could survive outside of water for a few minutes and was small enough to be carried by a red-tailed hawk, they could morph in the cave and be flown into the water by Tobias.

Once Tobias deposited them all into the lake, they swam towards the Truck ship and were sucked in by the water pipes, where they found themselves in a water tank with a grate above them. Jake and Cassie then demorphed and tried to open the grate but were unable to. Realizing that they were now trapped within the water tank, the four agreed that they did not want to be taken alive and thus decided that when the Truck ship docked with the Pool ship, they would assume battle morphs and go down fighting. However, Rachel, still in trout morph, quickly thought-spoke with Tobias, relaying their predicament to him. Since the Animorphs did not want to risk being taken alive, she asked him if there was anything he could do to destroy the Truck ship, as it would kill them in the process.

As the four of them treaded water in the water tank, Tobias had seized a Dracon beam and destroyed the Truck ship's controls, causing it to lose altitude. The careening Truck ship then hit a Bug fighter, which collided into the water tank and exploded, destroying the tank. As the water poured out like a waterfall, the four Animorphs fell out of the hole and began hurtling towards the ground. Jake then rapid-morphed into a peregrine falcon as the other three also rapid-morphed into their respective raptors. They regrouped with Tobias in the air and the five flew into the woods as the Truck ship slammed into the ground, creating a concussive shockwave. The Yeerk Empire then destroyed the grounded Truck ship to eliminate evidence as the Animorphs escaped and returned home.^[14]

Rescuing Ax

On a Sunday night, Jake was watching the late night news at home when he saw a broadcast where a man had found a weird piece of metal that had washed up on the beach. Jake recognized the writing on the metal fragment shown on television as having the same writing he had seen inside Elfangor's ship when he entered to retrieve the morphing cube. Jake then recorded the news broadcast on a VHS and put the cassette in his bag. The next day after school, the five Animorphs met at Rachel's house, where Cassie and Tobias revealed that they both been experiencing the same dream about a voice calling to them from the ocean. Jake then pulled out the video cassette and asked Rachel if they could use her VCR, and the team went downstairs to the living room. Jake inserted the tape and showed them the footage; he added that he recognized the writing on the fragment and believed that the metal fragment was actually part of an Andalite ship. Just then, both Cassie and Tobias fainted, although Jake managed to catch Cassie before she could hit the floor. Jake then saw a brief flash of a vision himself. When Cassie and Tobias came to, they revealed that the voice calling for them was stronger now and was definitely thought-speech, and concluded that it was an Andalite under the ocean who was sending out a distress signal. While briefly considering that the Andalite ship fragment and the Andalite voice from the sea could be a coincidence, Jake nonetheless decided that they should go to the beach that night to see if Cassie would experience another vision from being closer to the sea.

While at the beach, the girls wondered why Tobias and Cassie were the only ones on the team to receive the dreams; Jake theorized that the Andalite distress signal might only be accessible by those with morphing abilities, and Marco clarified that despite all of them being able to morph, he believed that it was only Cassie and Tobias receiving them because Cassie had a talent for morphing while Tobias was trapped in morph. Tobias, who had been flying above them, then informed them that a group from The Sharing was also on the beach with flashlights and that "Chapman" and "Tom" were with them; additionally, Tobias had eavesdropped on their conversation and learned that the metal fragment was indeed part of an Andalite ship and that Visser Three was also receiving the visions, which Marco believed was because he had an Andalite host body. Just then, the Controllers noticed the Animorphs' footprints and began to follow them. The four human Animorphs then ran towards the water; as it was nighttime, the Controllers could not see them clearly, although they could see their silhouettes, prompting one of the Controllers to shoot at them with a handgun. Jake then told everyone to get into the water and morph into trout, despite Cassie pointing out that trout was a freshwater fish and the ocean was saltwater. Struggling with the burning sensation that they felt in their gills, they were able to survive in the saltwater long enough to swim to another shore, where they demorphed and returned home safely.

As he did not spend his time studying, Jake failed a test at school and was assigned to write a paper as makeup work. The Animorphs then resumed their regular lives for a bit, although both Rachel and Marco inquired what their move would be. On a Wednesday evening, two days after the beach incident, Jake rode his bike to Cassie's farm, where he helped her shovel manure. Jake then notified her that the rest of the team was waiting on her to decide if they should have a rescue operation. Cassie initially did not want to decide and asked Jake if he could decide for her, to which he replied that he would do so if that's what she really wanted. Jake told her that he believed in her and that he and the others supported whatever decision she made. Cassie decided that she did believe her dream was real and wanted to help the Andalite calling out to them. With Cassie's approval, Jake affirmed that they would proceed with the rescue mission and added that they needed to acquire some aquatic morphs at The Gardens. Jake then rode his bike back home, although not before telling Cassie that he would rather shovel manure with her than do homework without her any day.

After school on Thursday, he took a city bus with Rachel, Cassie and Marco to The Gardens so that the four of them could acquire bottlenose dolphins. As they made their way through the park, Jake looked at one of the roller coasters and reminisced how it used to be his favorite thing in the world before, but that it paled now in comparison to being able to fly and dive as a falcon. The group then reached the dolphin tank, where Jake playfully greeted one of the dolphins before acquiring its DNA. The next day, the Animorphs did not have school due to a teacher conference. They met at a river estuary in a park since the river flowed into the ocean. Finding a spot that was isolated enough for them to morph, Rachel tied a Timex watch onto Tobias' leg so that he could keep track of time while the other four morphed into dolphins and swam from the river to the ocean. There, they spent forty-five minutes frolicking before sensing a humpback whale being attacked by multiple tiger sharks via their echolocation. The four of them charged forward and attacked the sharks, although Marco was nearly bitten in half. When the sharks left, Marco stated that he was going to die in the ocean just like his mother. Jake then urged him to demorph, and when Marco reminded him that he did not know how to swim, Jake replied that he was there to help him. As Marco demorphed, the grateful whale carried him to the surface. The humpback whale, dubbed the great one, then telepathically showed Cassie a vision of where the Andalite was. Ten minutes later, Marco remorphed into a dolphin and the Animorphs returned to the river estuary.

On Saturday, Jake went to Rachel's house to discuss their next steps with Cassie and Rachel. Cassie then made her way to Rachel's house, where she planned the mission with Rachel and Jake. Going over some maps with Jake, the pair determined where the Andalite's location most likely was. However, it was too far for the dolphin to get there in under two hours, prompting Rachel to suggest that they acquire and morph into seagulls in order to land on a container ship that would be traveling in that direction, after which they could jump off the ship and morph into dolphins. Sometime later, Tobias and Marco appeared and were filled in on the plan before everyone dispersed. Despite his house being in the opposite direction, Jake began to walk with Cassie towards her house. Cassie remarked on their mission being dangerous, which Jake acknowledged. Cassie then took one of Jake's hands within her hands and asked him not to get hurt, to which he laughed and declared that he was indestructible before leaving her and walking back towards his house.

On Sunday, the Animorphs went to Cassie's barn where seagulls were kept as patients and acquired them. Flying out of the barn, the four seagulls and Tobias flew towards the beach and across the ocean when they spotted a container ship called Newmar. The Animorphs all landed on the ship and found themselves a secluded spot away from the crew. Tobias then left them the watch before flying back to shore as the four human Animorphs demorphed. After an hour had passed, Jake announced that they were going to enter the water; since Marco did not know how to swim, Jake's plan was for him to morph into the dolphin on the deck so that the other three could pick him up and throw him into the ocean, although Rachel pointed out that Marco would weigh too much for them to support his weight. Jake admitted that he had not factored in the dolphin weight, but Marco began to morph while leaning against the railing, having come up with a solution where they would push him into the water while he was half-morphed. Jake then helped Rachel and Cassie push Marco into the sea before jumping in themselves and morphing into a dolphin.

They noticed a helicopter dragging a sensor through the water and realized that the Controllers were very close. The four Animorphs then dove into the water and swam to the ocean floor before proceeding onward, where they came across a Dome ship. Jake noticed a hatch and opened it, and the four dolphins entered an airlock that then began to drain the water. Having demorphed back to human, the Animorphs opened the door to the Dome ship's interior when they were knocked out by an Andalite. When they came to, they informed the Andalite of who they were and what they were capable of. The Andalite, an adolescent named Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, revealed that he was Elfangor's younger brother and offered to fight alongside the Animorphs until he could return to his own people. He asked them who their Prince was, prompting Rachel, Cassie and Marco to all look at him. Jake then grumbled that he was no one's Prince before Ax pledged to loyalty to "Prince Jake."

Ax began to give them a tour of the Dome ship, which Jake marveled at, likening the experience to being on an alien planet. Ax then notified them that the Yeerk Empire had a habit of making the planets they colonized barren, much like the Yeerk homeworld, and only kept enough species to sustain the local host population; in addition, he added that were now only three species left in the galaxy who fought the Yeerk Empire, and that Andalites would not come to Earth for another year or two. Jake was aghast at the realization that it would take two years for Andalite reinforcements to come and that the five kids were the only ones who were fighting the Yeerk Empire on Earth, to which Ax chimed in that there were six of them now. As the Animorphs decided to make their leave, Marco asked Jake how they were going to get Ax out of there, and Jake, who had not thought of this, asked Ax if he was capable of swimming; Ax responded that while he would not be able to traverse the ocean in his Andalite body, he had acquired an Earth sea creature that had previously wandered into the airlock.

Just then, the Animorphs noticed the silhouette of the Blade ship above them as sonar pings began to reverberate. They all ran to the airlock chamber and started to morph as water filled the chamber. They then exited the ship, with Ax in tiger shark morph, and swam away just as depth charges shattered the reinforced glass of the Dome ship. While swimming, Ax inquired as to what host bodies the Yeerks were using on Earth, and Jake responded that they had only seen them use Hork-Bajir and Taxxons aside from humans. As multiple Taxxons were dropped into the ocean from the Blade ship, Ax asked Jake if they should deal with the Taxxons, to which Jake agreed. The four dolphins, alongside Ax in shark morph, then fought and killed the Taxxons with relative ease. They then continued to swim towards the shore, where Ax revealed that he had the mental ability to accurately keep track of their morphing time.

However, at that moment a large alien aquatic creature began to pursue them, which Ax confirmed was called a mardrut, a creature that lived one of the moons of the Andalite homeworld. The group realized that the mardrut was Visser Three in morph and pushed their bodies to continue swimming for over thirty minutes, although the Visser, who confirmed his identity by thought-speaking to them, gained on them. With the five of them unable to keep swimming, Rachel declared that it was time to turn around and fight. Ax chimed in that they couldn't win, to which Jake responded that he would rather die fighting than allow the Visser to kill them one by one in a chase. Ax remarked that Jake's response was something an Andalite would say and that they had a lot in common. Believing that they were about to die, Cassie began to try and confess her feelings to Jake, and he indicated that he knew and that he felt the same. Just then, a group of wild whales, led by the great one, arrived and attacked the mardrut mercilessly, causing Visser Three to scream in rage and retreat.

With their morphing time almost depleted, they demorphed, and Cassie notified them that the great one would ferry them back to shore. They then climbed onto its back as it began traveling towards land. Jake watched as Cassie fell asleep, and when she woke up, he smiled at her as he told her that they had only successfully saved the Andalite because she had trusted her feelings about the distress call. He then brought up Cassie's discomfort of turning into a dolphin, and Cassie replied that while she still felt that it wasn't right, she now realized their mission to morph into animals and fight the Yeerk Empire was not just to save humans but all life on Earth. The great one got as close as it could safely before the Animorphs and Ax were forced to disembark; they then remorphed into their aquatic morphs and swam back to the river estuary.

The four Animorphs began to get dressed with some outer clothing they had hidden by the riverbank when Tobias appeared, and Cassie introduced Tobias and Ax to one another. Jake then wondered what they were going to do with Ax, as they had nowhere to keep him and he could not travel in town with them. Cassie offered to hide him on her farm, as it contained forests, meadows and woods that extended into the national forest. Marco chimed in that they still couldn't bring Ax to the farm in his Andalite state. Ax then declared that he needed to morph and approached Cassie.^[2] Asking for permission,^{[note 11]} Ax acquired Cassie, Marco, Jake and Rachel in succession. Jake then watched as Ax began to blend the four acquired DNA strands into one unique strand; as the four DNA samples he acquired contained two male DNA and two female DNA patterns, Marco wondered whether Ax was going to be biologically male or female, and the Animorphs turned away to give Ax some privacy. Jake then told Ax that he had an extra pair of boxers and a T-shirt and told him to get dressed. The Animorphs then turned around to find Ax holding up the shirt as his bottoms and wearing the boxers on his head like a hat. Jake then asked if the morph was biologically male or female, and Ax replied that he had made it male since he himself was male. Jake then told Rachel and Cassie to turn around while he and Marco helped Ax get dressed properly. Ax struggled to walk on two legs and began to play with his words while verbally speaking, as it was his first time having a mouth. As Ax nearly fell, Jake caught him, and the Animorphs walked Ax back to Cassie's farm.^[2]

Helping Ax

Mall Fiasco

Following Ax's rescue, Jake and Cassie spent a few days visiting him in order to speak with him about his future plans, where Ax told them that he wanted to return to the Andalite homeworld. Ax told him that the Andalite homeworld was 82 light years away from Earth, and Jake tried to use a calculator to figure out the distance in miles, although he failed. Shortly after, Jake informed the other Animorphs to come to Cassie's farm. While walking, Marco informed them how last night he had saved an old man from being attacked in an alley by three men and that he had morphed into a gorilla to save him, only for the old man to shoot at him. Jake remarked that saving the old man was good but indicated that Marco should not have risked his life getting involved. Switching topics, Jake then told the others about Ax's desire to go home that they would have to steal a Yeerk Empire ship so that Ax could fly there. When Marco wondered how they would do so, Ax informed them that he could signal a Bug fighter to come to them using a Yeerk Distress Beacon, and added that when he returned home, he could ask for Andalite reinforcements to come to Earth sooner. Jake then put the decision to help Ax to a vote, and the Animorphs decided to help him. A few days later, on a Saturday morning, the Animorphs gathered at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic; Jake had formulated a plan for him, Marco and Ax, the latter using his human morph, to take the bus to the mall so that he could buy the parts Ax needed for the beacon from Radio Shack. Despite basing their plan on the accurate timing of the bus schedule, the trio made it to the mall on time.

Entering the mall, Jake wondered where Radio Shack was, but quickly noticed that Ax was no longer with them and was instead on an escalator to the second floor. Jake began to run after him, but Marco grabbed his hand and reminded him that mall police might think he was stealing something and that they needed to not draw attention since there were probably Controllers at the mall. Jake and Marco eventually made their way onto the escalator and arrived on the second floor. Jake remarked that as long as Ax didn't demorph they were fine before he spotted Ax waiting in line at Starbucks. Jake and Marco then made their way towards him, where they overheard Ax place an order for a double latte.^[7] Jake pulled out three dollars^{[note 12]} to pay for it before he and Marco guided Ax into Radio Shack. Inside the store, they watched Ax removed several components from pegboards and grabbed other items such as batteries and coaxial cable. Ax then told them that all he needed now was a Z-Space transponder. Jake and Marco were confused, and Ax clarified that the transponder translated a signal into Zero space, and then explained to a still perplexed Jake and Marco that Zero space, or Z-Space, was an anti-reality dimension where faster-than-light travel occurred. Jake chimed in that they could worry about it later and took the items Ax had chosen to the counter to pay for it. As he finished paying, Ax threw his Starbucks cup at the cashier's head, prompting Jake and Marco to apologize on Ax's behalf and state that Ax had a condition; the cashier then responded that he was just glad Ax left the store. Shocked, Jake grabbed his Radio Shack bag and joined Marco as they ran out the store, where they noticed a crowd moving towards the food court.

Arriving at the food court, Jake and Marco witnessed Ax rush from table to table, grabbing other people's food and stuffing it in his mouth in a mad frenzy as a crowd pointed and laughed. However, when mall police arrived, Marco yelled at Ax to run. Jake and Marco ran alongside the cops as they chased Ax, who began to demorph, causing shoppers to scream and flee. Jake, Marco and Ax ran out of one of the mall's exits, with mall police still following them, with city police also began to converge on them. As they ran through the parking lot, Jake spotted a grocery store on the other side and the three ran into the store as city police surrounded the building. In order to prevent them from entering, Marco asked Jake to help him push the grocery carts towards the entrance; Marco then yelled out that there was a bomb inside the store to get more shoppers to flee, hindering the police's attempts to enter the supermarket. As they were surrounded, Marco indicated that their only way out was by morphing into lobsters as he pointed towards the giant lobster tank at the back of the store. Jake, Marco and Ax then acquired a lobster each before they stripped down to their morphing outfits and placed their outer clothing, along with the Radio Shack bag, in a nearby trash can. Jake and Marco waited for Ax to partially morph into a lobster so that they could carry him into the tank before he and Marco, who had climbed into the tank and were standing inside of it, morphed into lobsters as well. Due to the lobster's poor eyesight, the trio could not see outside of the tank, and Jake told Ax to keep track of their morph time as Marco recommended that they wait as close to the two-hour limit as possible. However, after an hour, Jake, Marco and Ax were pulled out of the tank and placed into a bag of ice with three other lobsters as they had been purchased by a woman. Arriving at the woman's home, Ax informed them that they only had seven minutes left in morph, and Jake told them to demorph regardless of the potential risk. As he demorphed, Jake found himself in a kitchen as the woman began screaming. Marco and Jake told the woman to calm down, assuring her that it was a dream, while Ax morphed to human. Jake then advised the woman not to tell anyone about her "dream" as it would get her in trouble with certain people, before adding that people would also think that she was crazy. As she nodded her head vigorously in agreement, the three of them walked out of the woman's house.^[7]

Ant Morph Trauma

The next day, a Sunday, Jake met up with the other Animorphs in the woods. With the Radio Shack bag retrieved from the grocery store trash can, Jake and Cassie brought screwdrivers, a solder gun, a battery-powered drill, a hammer, wrenches, pliers so that Ax could build the Yeerk Distress Beacon. Ax showed them the beacon when it was complete, but acknowledged that it was useless without a Z-Space transponder. Marco and Rachel both lamented over humanity not having such technology, and Cassie sidled up to Jake, giving him a sideways hug. Flying down, Tobias wondered whether the Yeerk Empire would have a Z-Space transponder, specifically reminding them that "Chapman" had a device that he used to communicate with to Visser Three's Blade ship. Ax confirmed that such a communication device would have Z-Space transponders, and that they could steal one of them without the theft being immediately noticed. Cassie asked Ax how small the transponder was, and Ax indicated that it was the size of a pea. Rachel declared that they could not infiltrate the Chapman Residence again, as the last time they had done so, they nearly caused Melissa Chapman to be infested. As Jake agreed that they would not endanger Melissa, Cassie suggested a morph that would allow the Animorphs to enter Chapman's basement and steal the transponder without Chapman being aware they were there: ants.

The next day at school, a Monday, Jake approached Marco at his locker and told him that they would be morphing black ants, since Tobias had done reconnaissance and confirmed that most of the ants in Chapman's garden were black. Marco responded that he did not want to be a bug; Jake tried to assure him that it would be fine and mentioned his experience as a flea, but Marco immediately pointed out that he had sucked blood, to which Jake replied that it was Rachel's blood before clarifying that it was cat blood. Marco asked Jake if he ever listened to himself, and Jake mirthlessly stated that he tried not to. He then stressed the importance of their mission, stating that keeping Ax around was a danger since he could be spotted by Controllers, who would then wonder what he was doin on Cassie's land. Marco admitted that Jake was right, but claimed that unlike Jake, he was not the hero type and recalled how he had nearly been boiled alive the other day. Marco then told Jake that the upcoming Sunday was his mother's two-year death anniversary and that it would be a really bad week for him to be killed as well. Marco then walked down the hall, and Jake chose not to follow him.

As Jake knew that "Tom" had a meeting of The Sharing that evening, a meeting that Chapman would also be attending, the Animorphs planned to use this time to infiltrate Chapman's house. Heading to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic after school, Jake and the others, minus Tobias, acquired black garden ants. They then went to the backyard of an empty house next to the Chapman Residence that was for sale and morphed into ants; however, they lost their sense of self and individuality. Although they managed to regain their consciousness shortly after, they were terrified at what had happened. The five of them made their way to Chapman's backyard, with their ant minds informing them that they were in enemy ant territory and that enemies were nearby. Reaching the foundation of Chapman's house, they entered through a crack and found an enemy ant tunnel, where Rachel spotted an enemy ant scurrying away from them and Ax reported that he could sense air coming from a side tunnel, which Jake told him to follow. They emerged into Chapman's secret office, where Marco demorphed and turned on a lamp. Noticing the change in light, Jake told Marco to flick the light if it was safe, and when Marco did so, the others demorphed. Ax then went to Chapman's desk and retrieved a Z-Space transponder out of the communication device; while doing so, he activated a Yeerk Empire computer and read a document, and notified the Animorphs that Visser One, who had a human host body, was coming to visit.

Not wanting them to stay too long, Jake told them to put the transponder near the crack and that it was time to morph back. Remorphing into ants, Jake and Marco went ahead through the crack while Rachel, Cassie and Ax pushed the transponder through it; as the three of them pushed the transponder, Jake and Marco cleared the way for them. In an instant, they were swarmed and ambushed by the native ant colony, to whom they were intruders; the five of them mentally screamed in pain as the ants stung them with poison and ripped out their limbs while using their mandibles to bite their waists in an attempt to bisect them. Realizing they were about to be swiftly killed, the Animorphs demorphed while still underground, and they burst out of the ground and into Chapman's backyard. Jake then inquired about Cassie, and she replied that she was okay, while Rachel grumbled about Jake not asking her how she was. Marco then picked up the transponder from the ground before Rachel started stomping on the ground, as well as the ants on the ground, to flatten the hole from where they emerged. As Marco told Jake that they shouldn't morph into ants again, to which Jake agreed, and the team escaped from Chapman's backyard. The next day at school, Jake and Cassie were in the cafeteria when they noticed Rachel getting into a fight with another girl.^[7]

Meeting Visser One

A few days after the ant incident, Jake and the other Animorphs met up on the far fields of Cassie's farm, where Ax had finished integrating the Z-Space transponder into the Yeerk Distress Beacon. The Animorphs discussed where to set off their trap, and quickly ruled out Cassie's family land, as it was the only place they had to keep Ax if the plan failed. Tobias informed them about a gravel quarry that was an hour's flight away that would work; Jake told Cassie that Ax would need a bird morph, and asked Ax if he would be okay with acquiring one, to which Ax agreed. Jake then told the others that the best time to initiate the operation would be on the upcoming Saturday, and the meeting was adjourned. After saying goodbye to Cassie, Jake walked home with Marco, where they talked about the NBA and whether Spider-Man would win in a fight against Batman. However, Jake was able to tell that there was something Marco was not telling him, and asked him what it was. Marco then informed him that the upcoming mission would be his last as he was quitting, and stated that he had done enough. As they walked, Jake told Marco that he had done more than enough, and agreed when Marco said that they had had way too many close calls with death. Jake then asked Marco what he would be doing on Sunday, and Marco responded that while he wasn't sure, he did not want his father to leave flowers on two graves in the future.

On Saturday, Jake morphed into his peregrine falcon and flew with the others to the quarry. Upon landing and demorphing, they took shelter in an overhang and assumed their battle morphs as Ax activated the beacon, with Jake turning into his Siberian tiger. Marco, who was a Silverback gorilla, told Jake that he could kick his butt, and Jake retorted that he didn't think so; Rachel, who was in her African elephant morph, then walked up to them and declared that she could beat both of them. The distress beacon then relayed a returning signal and they assumed their positions, and watched as a Bug fighter landed and a Hork-Bajir-Controller stepped out. Tobias, who had been up above, plummeted down and raked the Hork-Bajir's face, and Jake used the opportunity to tackle the Hork-Bajir, knocking it down to the ground; he then rolled away as the Hork-Bajir began slashing wildly. Rachel then told Jake to move aside and she pinned the Hork-Bajir with her foot.

However, before they could proceed with their mission, the six of them were surrounded by a hundred Hork-Bajir armed with Dracon beams. Jake quickly told the others to stay in morph and not divulge that they were human. Visser Three then made his presence known, ridiculing them for using an outdated frequency before he praised their choice of battle morphs, specifically complimenting Jake's tiger morph as a morph he approved of. Ax began to talk to the Visser out of anger, but Jake interrupted and told Ax to remain silent. Visser Three then ordered them onto his Blade ship, which uncloaked itself, and told them that he would be transporting them to the mother ship in order to present them to Visser One. Jake noticed Visser Three's tone when he said the name of his superior and asked Marco if he had noticed it, which Marco confirmed. Jake then joined his teammates as they were herded onto the Blade ship and confined in a dimly-lit room.

Stuck together inside the room, Jake remarked that at least they were still alive. He reminded the others to stay in morph, citing that if they demorphed, the Yeerk Empire would learn their identities and then go after their families. A window was then opened up in the Blade ship, and Jake and the others saw Earth before the mother ship,^[7] also known as the Pool ship,^[22] came into view. Jake asked Ax how much time they had left in morph, and Ax responded that they had used up 40% of it; as Marco translated that they had been in morph for 48 minutes, Tobias suggested that they attack as soon as the doors opened, regardless if it meant death. Jake extended his tiger claws and conferred with the tiger instincts, but then retracted the claws and announced that they needed to retain hope, to which Cassie responded by nuzzling him. The Blade ship then docked inside of the Pool ship and a door was opened for the Animorphs to disembark. As Visser Three informed Visser One that he had captured the Andalite bandits, Jake spotted Visser One and immediately recognized her host body as Eva, Marco's mother.

Upon seeing his mother, Marco immediately sat down, and Jake privately thought-spoke with him, and warned him not to do or say anything; he added that the woman in front of them was no longer his mother but rather a Controller. When Visser One walked away, Jake privately thought-spoke with Marco again, and urged him not to rush forward in an attempt to rescue her, reminding him that they would all get killed before they took two steps. Marco agreed but asked Jake to not share the fact his mother was Visser One's host body with the others, as neither of them had met Eva, to which Jake responded by stating that Marco was his oldest and best friend and assured him that no one would hear it from him. With Visser One no longer in the room, Visser Three deliberated on what to do with the "six Andalite bodies" and mused at the thought of giving them to six of his lieutenants. When Ax retorted that Visser Three was filth and an abomination, Visser Three asked them why Ax was the only one of them who had spoken to him and why the rest of them remained in their Earth morphs rather than demorphing, although he then shrugged it off and ordered that the Animorphs be confined to a holding cell.

In the cell, the Animorphs discussed possible escape strategies, and Marco suggested using the ant morph to escape. Jake brought up that Tobias was unable to morph, and Tobias replied that the group needed to do what was best for them and that he would take his chances. Jake then agreed to the plan, but before they could begin, the door to the cell opened, revealing three gold-uniformed Hork-Bajir-Controllers standing by a group of either knocked out or dead red-uniformed Hork-Bajir-Controllers. Jake immediately noticed that Rachel and Marco were poised to attack the Hork-Bajir and told them to stand down. One of the gold-uniformed Hork-Bajir-Controllers notified them how to get to the dropshaft and that if they took it down fifteen floors, they would find an escape pod that was programmed to return them to the quarry. The Animorphs wondered why someone in the Yeerk Empire would want to help them escape, and Ax pointed out that the gold-uniformed Controllers were part of Visser One's guard, and that if they escaped, it would look bad for Visser Three. With a laugh, Cassie remarked that Visser One was helping them escape for political reasons, and Jake decided that they would follow this new escape plan.

Rachel led the charge as they ran out of their holding cell, although some of Visser Three's Hork-Bajir-Controllers came rushing towards them. Rachel bemoaned that she could not turn around in the tight hallway, but Jake told her to keep moving and to make her way to the dropshaft. As Marco and Ax took care of some of the Hork-Bajir, Jake spotted two more heading their way and told the Animorphs that he would handle them. He then let loose a loud tiger roar, causing the two Hork-Bajir-Controllers to hesitate. Jake then lunged at one of them and sank his fangs into their neck, while the other Hork-Bajir-Controller decided not to engage. The Animorphs made their way to the dropshaft and used it to arrive on the floor with the escape pods; as they ran into the pre-programmed escape pod, Jake asked Ax how much time they had left in morph, and told everyone to demorph when he realized they only had six minutes left. As the escape pod detached from the Pool ship and flew the team back to the quarry, Marco privately thought-spoke to Jake and reminded him not to tell anyone about his mother, to which Jake assured him that he would keep silent.^[7]

Infested by a Yeerk

Spying on Tom

As the Animorphs successfully returned home, they decided to take a recovery period to try and resume their normal lives for a while and work on bringing their grades back up. During this time, Jake approached Ax and asked him how exactly a Yeerk was able to infest a brain, and learned that the Yeerk melted itself into the crevices and nooks before attaching their Yeerk neurons to the host's neurons. At home, Jake noticed "Tom" making phone calls, although "Tom" made sure that the family was unaware of his conversations. When Tom left, Jake used the automatic redial feature to discover that the five numbers "Tom" had been calling had been five doctors, including a Dr. Berman, and that all five doctors were part of the Berman Clinic, a hospital in the city. Jake quickly realized that the Yeerk Empire had taken over the hospital, at least partially. Jake also deduced that "Tom" had risen up very fast in the ranks and had received a promotion, and was now just under "Chapman" in terms of Yeerk Empire hierarchy. At the same time, Jake began having dreams where he was chasing Tom in a tiger morph before Tom became the tiger and he was the prey, and wondered whether the day would come when he would have to kill Tom.

Wanting to learn more information on the hospital plan, Jake concluded that the Animorphs needed to infiltrate a leadership meeting at The Sharing's Headquarters. Believing that cockroach would be the best morph, Jake caught one in his house and kept it in a matchbox, which he placed in his desk drawer. One Saturday morning, Jake's mother and father left the house in order to play tennis. Jake went to the kitchen and ate some Wheaties for breakfast when "Tom" walked in. After greeting "Tom," Jake waited until "Tom" left before going to his room. Taking advantage of an empty house, Jake pulled out the matchbox and acquired the cockroach. Jake once again mused on whether he would have to kill Tom, but pushed the thought aside for the time being.

He then morphed into the cockroach, and regretted his decision to have done so while standing in front of a mirror. Upon completing the morph, Jake was relieved to find that the cockroach mind was calm and controllable unlike that of the ant's. However, when Jake's mother returned home and went into his room, Jake's roach mind panicked, causing Jake to run under the baseboard and through the walls of the house. Noticing another cockroach in the walls, Jake made his way to the kitchen, finding himself behind the refrigerator. Jake planned to make his way to the garage and demorph, but he found himself unable to move when he walked inside of a Roach Motel. Jake tried to free himself, and realized that he could sort of make out sound with the distortions he was hearing. Eventually, he was able to hear that his parents were in their bedroom. Unable to free himself, Jake demorphed, pushing the refrigerator out. Jean then entered the kitchen and wondered why Jake was behind the refrigerator with a Roach Motel stuck to his hair.

Jake then made his way to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, where a meeting was held with Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco. There, Jake notified the team of the roach incident; while the other Animorphs found it funny, Cassie did not, and she stepped up to Jake and ordered him to never morph alone again no matter what. Despite mentally acknowledging that Cassie was in the right, Jake felt the need to defend himself upon being called out before finally apologizing to Cassie. Marco then inquired why Jake had acquired and morphed into a cockroach to begin with, prompting Jake to inform them of his surveillance of Tom, "Tom's" promotion, and the Yeerk Empire's infiltration of the Berman Clinic. Rachel inquired why the Yeerk Empire would take over a hospital, and Jake hesitated to explain why before Marco answered on his behalf: that the Yeerk Empire were using the hospital to infest host bodies; a patient would check in for a medical procedure and then check out infested with a Yeerk.

Returning home, Jake had dinner with his family, consisting of broiled chicken, potatoes, and veggies, which Steve had delivered from Gourmet Express along with cheesecake from Santorini's. When "Tom" returned late that evening, Jake stared at Tom's head, picture the Yeerk within. "Tom" then called Jake out for staring at his forehead, and Jake quickly retorted that he had thought he was staring into blank space, but that with Tom's intelligence, his forehead was the same thing. Accepting this, "Tom" threw a dinner roll at Jake, which Jake caught. Jake remarked that Tom's reflexes were slower ever since he joined The Sharing and ate barbecue; as Tom glared at Jake in silence, their parents noticed the awkward tension and rushed to fill in the silence. Jake then asked if he could be excused to work on his homework, and his mother reminded him to come downstairs later for cheesecake. As Jake made his way up the steps, he was stopped by "Tom", who demanded to know why Jake was so against The Sharing. "Tom" claimed that Jake could be a part of something greater rather than be "a nothing kid," to which Jake retorted that he did not want to be "a part" of anything and would rather be "a nothing kid." This remark caused Tom's Yeerk to use Tom's facial muscles to express contempt, which Jake noticed. Tom then walked away while Jake went to his room and did some homework. Later that evening, Jake went back downstairs and ate cheesecake with his family while watching television. That night, as he slept, he had the same dream about hunting Tom again.

Since Jake's plan was for the Animorphs to acquire and morph into cockroaches in order to infiltrate The Sharing's meeting, the rest of the team acquired cockroaches as well. However, as he had learned firsthand that it took practice to be able to figure out how to hear human speech while in roach morph, Jake insisted that the other Animorphs had to master this ability before embarking on their new mission. On another night, the group, including Tobias and Ax, went to Marco's new apartment. As Jake sat on the bed, he thought of how Marco's father was back at work and how he was glad Marco did not have to do the heavy lifting in supporting his family any longer. Jake and Tobias then watched as the other Animorphs morphed into cockroaches, and he spent an hour speaking to them out loud until they mastered the ability to interpret human speech. As the others demorphed, Rachel remarked how disgusting the experience was, prompting Jake to suddenly declare that he could handle the mission alone. This prompted them to stare at him, as Cassie correctly remarked that he was worried about Tom.

Jake then told them about the dream he had been having where he hunted Tom while in tiger morph. He also told them that he believed "Tom" to be in charge of the hospital mission, which meant that if the Animorphs sabotaged it, there could be a chance that Visser Three would execute Tom. Cassie then exclaimed that they should abandon their mission, which Jake refuted as it meant they would be turning a blind eye to the Yeerk Empire mass-infesting humans; however, internally, Jake wanted to agree with her but could not bring himself to say it out loud as he found it to be selfish of him. Marco, who also knew what it was like to have a family member be a host body to a Yeerk, suggested that they still continue with the surveillance mission in order to learn more and that they did not need to decide on whether to abandon the hospital sabotage mission right away, to which Jake agreed. In order to prepare for their surveillance, Jake, Rachel and Marco performed reconnaissance at The Sharing's headquarters and located an abandoned restaurant's basement nearby, which they realized they could use in order to morph into cockroaches and enter the headquarters.

On Thursday night, the Animorphs, with Ax in his human morph, walked to the abandoned restaurant as Tobias flew above them. Arriving inside the restaurant, they morphed into cockroaches, and with Tobias guiding them, made their way inside The Sharing's headquarters through a crack in the wall. Emerging in a meeting room, Jake was notified by Tobias that a limousine and two other vehicles had suddenly pulled up to the entrance, and that a man had exited the vehicle alongside armed guards. The man who exited from the limousine entered the meeting and was revealed to be none other than Visser Three in a human morph, which shocked Jake and the other Animorphs, although Ax reminded them that he could morph a human as well. The Animorphs listened as Visser Three discussed the hospital takeover, and how they were projecting approximately 200 hosts per month from the hospital. Visser Three then revealed that the state governor needed a minor operation and how his secretary, secretly a Controller, had steered him to their hospital, where he would then be infested. Jake remarked that this would be bad as the governor controlled the National Guard as well as the state police, only for Rachel to inform them that their governor^[3] was planning to run for President in the next election.^{[note 13]}

As Ax was confused what this meant, Jake responded that if the Yeerk Empire succeeded, the "most powerful man in the most powerful nation on Earth" would be a Controller. Having heard enough, the Animorphs decided to secretly exit the building and return home; however, just then, they were spotted by other Controllers. When one of the Controllers dismissed the cockroaches, they were murdered, causing Jake to worry that it had been Tom, as he was in attendance. The Animorphs scattered, and as Jake wildly ran about, he was hit with bug spray. He managed to make it right to the door before his body stopped being able to move, although he was rescued by Tobias, who flew him to the rooftop of a Boston Market. Losing consciousness due to the poison, Jake focused on his human self while also thinking of the dream he had been having of hunting Tom as a tiger, only for him to become the prey and Tom to become the tiger. Jake regained full consciousness and found himself fully demorphed on the rooftop, no longer poisoned, and thanked Tobias for saving him. Tobias informed him that the others had gotten away safely and that "Tom" had been present at the meeting. Jake was relieved that Tom was not killed, and Tobias added that he had seen "Tom" exiting the building with Visser Three, and that the pair seemed pretty close. This prompted Jake to once again wonder what Visser Three would do to Tom if "Tom" failed him, although Tobias did not answer.^[3]

Hospital Mission

The next day at school, a Friday, Jake played basketball in gym class with classmates Juan and Terry. Juan attempted to stop Jake from taking a shot, but as Jake shot the ball and missed the net, he fell onto Terry and Juan. Laughing, Terry pulled Jake back up and joked that he was not surprised that Jake had not made the team, Jake retorted that he was still able to beat Juan, who was on the team, prompting Juan to claim that he had not used his full skills. Juan then uttered that Jake, who had fallen on him, had "crushed his legs" and referred to Jake as an ox due to his physical stature, adding that Jake should have been playing football instead of basketball. Jake grinned at Juan and declared that he would tackle him, only for the basketball coach to blow his whistle. As Jake told Juan that he had been saved by the whistle, Terry mused that Jake should have inherited Tom's skills, such as his jump shot; Juan affirmed this, stating that Tom had a gift and that he could have had a future playing college basketball at a good school had he not resigned from high school basketball. Jake then went to the locker room to take a shower before getting dressed in order to head to his next class.

Jake encountered Marco as he exited the gym, who informed him that the governor was going to the hospital on Tuesday; when Jake inquired how he knew this, Marco revealed that he had pretended to be a reporter to acquire the governor's schedule and presented the faxed schedule to Jake. Marco asked if they should infiltrate the hospital the next day, on Saturday, which caused Jake to make a facial reaction. Marco asked him if he was okay, and Jake gave Marco a friendly push and brought up that Marco was no longer reluctant to go on missions. Marco softly reminded Jake that he knew the true reason and that he still did not want the rest of the team to know and feel sorry for him. As the bell rang, Jake confirmed that they could infiltrate the hospital the next day, but wondered what morph they would use. Marco then began walking inside of the gym and told him that Cassie already had an idea, and gave Jake a hint in the form of "think dog poop", which Jake eventually realized meant a fly morph. After school, Jake went to the mall with Cassie and Rachel in order to buy his mother a birthday gift, with a budget of fifteen dollars. Rachel redirected them to the second floor of a department store, where she found a silk blouse that was originally thirty-three dollars but was on sale for $17.50. As she celebrated Jake's savings, Jake inquired how he was saving when he was only planning to spend fifteen dollars, to which Cassie responded that Rachel used a different math when it came to shopping. Rachel then left them to check something in the Juniors department and told them that she would meet with them later at the food court. Jake asked Cassie about her idea, and complained that he did not want to morph into a fly as he had seen The Fly before — both the 1958 film and "the new one with Jeff Goldblum." Cassie groaned as she remembered the film as well, and recalled the scene where the man who turned into a fly was crushed to death.^[3] Jake then paid for the blouse^{[note 14]} and walked out of the store with Cassie. With no other suggestion, Jake contempted that they would only use the fly morph to enter the hospital, as Cassie chimed in that they would then demorph and morph into something else to cause trouble; Jake finished the thought by stating that they could then escape the hospital in another morph. The pair then agreed to proceed with their fly morph plan as they headed to the food court. That night, the 1958 version of The Fly was on television, which Jake chose to watch.

The next morning, a Saturday, the Animorphs gathered at the barn to acquire houseflies. Cassie was chosen to be the first to morph, although the sight of her bug eyes popping out of her human face caused Jake to scream. Upon completing the morph, Cassie flew around while Jake worriedly kept asking Tobias to make sure he did not lose sight of her. Regaining herself, Cassie was exhilarated by the sheer thrill of the speed of the fly's flight and informed the others about it. The other Animorphs, save for Tobias, joined her in morphing into flies and spent a short while flying around before they then landed on Tobias' neck. As Tobias flew them to the Berman Clinic, Jake noticed a flea, but lied to Tobias that the flea had jumped off. As they arrived at the Berman Clinic around 9:00 A.M., they jumped off of Tobias, who guided through an open window. Arriving inside a hospital room, Jake split them into two teams — Cassie and Ax with himself, and Rachel and Marco as the second team. Jake, Cassie and Ax flew into a hallway where Cassie stated that she recognized a somewhat familiar smell. Following the trail, they entered a room where the smell was originating from. Jake ordered Ax to demorph first since he was an Andalite, and shortly after, he heard the sound of something falling to the ground. Ax notified them that the sound was a human, but that it was now safe to demorph. Returning to human, Jake spotted an unconscious man, and Ax explained that he merely knocked the man out instead of killing him since he knew Tom was a host body and thought the man could be Tom. Jake clarified that the man was not Tom but that avoiding killing human hosts was a good thing as the man was somebody's son, brother, or even father.

Jake noticed a Jacuzzi whirlpool that was being used as a portable Yeerk pool, although it was unplugged and its control panel had been yanked out, leaving behind exposed wires. Jake asked Ax what would happen to the Yeerks inside if the Jacuzzi was activated at 120°F, and Ax responded that the Yeerks would die. Deciding to boil the Yeerks inside alive, Jake told Ax and Cassie to guard the door, and asked Cassie to assume a dangerous morph as she did not have her own battle morph; Cassie asked if the wolf morph would be fine, which Jake confirmed, and Cassie assumed the morph. As Cassie and Ax guarded the door, Jake used a nearby pair of pliers and tape to reconnect the wires; he then plugged in the Jacuzzi and watched as the Yeerks began to boil. Moments later, two human-Controllers entered the room, and Cassie leaped onto the female Controller while Ax engaged with the male one. Two guards, also human-Controllers, then entered and called for backup. Jake, hidden from view from the Controllers, prepared to morph into the tiger when the guards pulled out their guns. Jake yelled a warning at Ax, who used his tail blade to slice off the arm of one of the armed guards, although the second guard succeeded in firing bullets into the room. While Cassie and Ax managed to avoid the bullets, one of the bullets ricocheted and hit Jake in the head, causing his head to fall into the Jacuzzi.^[3]

Becoming Temrash 114's Host

As Jake was unconscious, with his head submerged into the broiling whirpool full of dying Yeerks, one of these Yeerks took the opportunity to enter Jake's ear and infest him. Jake eventually came to, and emerging out of the water, struggled to breathe as he had swallowed the Yeerk water, and vomited on the floor, all the while noting that there was an immense pain coming from his ear. As he looked at the other Animorphs, including Rachel and Marco, who arrived in wolf and gorilla morph respectively, he heard a voice in his head remarking with wonder and surprise that the Animorphs were human. With Jake struggling to gather his bearings, Rachel ordered Marco to cover Jake's face and to carry him to safety as she demorphed and remorphed into an elephant. Jake observed as Marco picked up him and covered his face with a lab coat and was carried out of the Berman Clinic, remarking that several people tried to grab at him and that he had been dropped at one point. Arriving outside of the hospital, Marco ran into a patch of trees in front of the hospital, Marco placed Jake on the floor and asked him if he was okay. Struggling to speak, Jake managed to tell Marco that his head was hurting and that he could not think properly, although Marco dismissed it as a headache. Cassie then demorphed and remorphed into a horse and carried Jake to safety as the other Animorphs covered their escape.

They made their way deep into the national forest, where Cassie jumped a fence, causing Jake to fall off; however, Jake noted that the pain felt like it coming from far away. He noticed his hand and eyes moving without his input, and then once again heard the voice in his head. As he wondered what the voice was, it told him to put his brain to work and referred to him as "the servant of the Andalite filth," which caused Jake to immediately realize with horror that he had been infested by a Yeerk. As Jake yelled in his head in outrage and despair, the Yeerk informed him that his name was Temrash 114 and that he had been the Yeerk who controlled Tom. This revelation cut through Jake's hysteria, and Jake wondered if that meant Tom was free, to which Temrash called him stupid before notifying him that Tom had been given to a new Yeerk of a lowly rank to control. Jake watched in horror as Temrash accessed his memories and addressed Cassie, Marco, and Tobias, telling them that as soon as they knew Rachel and Ax were safe, they were to separate. Jake felt despair as he realized his friends were unable to tell that he had been infested and that he would be a slave forever; however, just then, Ax sneaked up behind Jake and tapped him on his shoulder. As "Jake" turned around, Temrash was surprised to see an Andalite right in front of him, and caught off-guard, was unable to prevent Jake's facial muscles from making a face of hatred and contempt. Ax, who had suspected Jake had been infested when he fell into the Yeerk pool, quickly put his tail blade to Jake's throat and declared that "Jake" was a Controller.

Jake observed as Temrash tried to talk his way out of the accusation, but Cassie and Marco remembered how unresponsive Jake was after he had fallen into the Yeerk pool. As a result, the Animorphs, now suspicious, decided that they would detain Jake for three days. As Jake's parents would notice his three-day absence, Cassie proposed that Ax should morph into Jake, and Jake mentally remarked that he wished he could tell Cassie how smart and cool he found her as he mocked Temrash's loss of confidence. Ax then stepped up and placed his fingers on Jake and began to acquire him, and Temrash, disgusted and furious at an Andalite touching him, yelled "Get your hand off me, Andalite filth!", which confirmed the Animorphs' suspicions. Despite Temrash trying to defend his actions, the Animorphs decided to hold Jake at a shack that Tobias knew of, where they (minus Ax) would take shifts guarding Jake. Temrash was escorted through the woods, where he tried again to convince Cassie, whom he singled out as the Animorphs' weakest link, that he was just having a bad day. Ax then retorted that it was not that bad a day as many Yeerks were boiled to death, and Jake realized that Temrash felt so much rage at that remark that Temrash could not suppress his emotion from Jake.

Nearing the shack, Temrash took this opportunity to plead with Cassie, casting doubt on Ax's ability to pretend to be him and that if "Tom" found out, they would all be killed. Rachel turned around and told Temrash to shut up, and stated that between her, Cassie, and Marco, they would manage to teach Ax to pass for Jake. Temrash merely responded that it would never work, but Ax, who had morphed into Jake, disagreed that the plan would fail as humans believed what they saw. Temrash then grinned at Ax using Jake's mouth and replied that Ax looking like Jake would not be enough and that "Tom" would discover him in about an hour. The Animorphs shared a look before Marco called Temrash stupid for his choice of response, noting that the real Jake would have helped Ax play the part in order to prevent "Tom" from noticing, with Rachel chiming in that Temrash had "blown Final Jeopardy" by not wanting them to succeed. Despite this, Jake felt a sense of confidence from Temrash, likening Temrash's mood to a poker player holding an extra ace. At the shack, Jake was tied up with a bit of rope that Tobias had found, with Rachel and Tobias taking the first shift while Marco and Cassie instructed Ax on how to portray Jake.

Inside the shack, Jake watched as Temrash had a fantasy about escaping and delivering the Animorphs to Visser Three on his Blade ship and mocked him for it. In response, Temrash accessed Jake's memories and forced Jake to view a fantasy Jake had of being a pro basketball player praised by Tom, much to Jake's embarrassment. Jake then began mentally yelling about how Temrash would lose, causing a smug Temrash to access one of Tom's memories, specifically the memory earlier that week at the breakfast table. Jake experienced the memory the way Tom did, and felt Tom's utter hopelessness and desire for death. During the breakfast conversation, when Temrash (as Tom) tried to convince Jake to join The Sharing, Tom mentally begged Temrash to spare Jake, although Temrash quickly quelled him. The realization that Tom had given up fighting and was awaiting death to free him greatly saddened Jake; despite this, Jake remained confident that the Animorphs would succeed and that Temrash would die.

That night, Jake fell asleep and had the same dream about hunting Tom while in tiger morph. When he awoke, he realized that his body was already awake as Temrash had been awake. Temrash amusingly commented on Jake's tiger dream and focused Jake's eyes on Rachel, who had fallen asleep. Jake then noticed with horror that his body was morphing into a tiger, having failed to realize sooner that Temrash had access to his morphing capabilities. As Temrash completed the morph, Jake was worried that Temrash would kill the sleeping Rachel, although Temrash stated that he would not kill Rachel as her body was morph-capable and therefore of value to the Yeerk Empire. As Temrash made his way into the forest as a tiger, he smelled the scent of humans nearby while also realizing that the tiger could not tell which direction led out of the forest. Temrash then began running, but due to tigers not being long distance runners, he quickly tired himself out. Once again, the tiger picked up the scent of nearby humans, which both Jake and Temrash found odd for humans to be this deep into the forest in the middle of the night. Jake pointed out that they only had two hours in a morph and that Visser Three would not want his body to lose its morphing capability, and Temrash snapped that he did not need Jake to tell him what Visser Three wanted. Temrash then demorphed back into Jake's body and began morphing into a falcon, deciding to just fly away, when they were attacked by a great horned owl, which tore through Jake's shoulder and the tendons below, preventing the falcon from taking flight. Jake then began to inform Temrash what the owl was, much to Temrash's irritation, who tersely stated that he could read Jake's mind and therefore knew everything Jake knew. To Jake's surprise, the great horned owl was not a wild owl but rather Cassie in morph, who revealed that Rachel had pretended to fall asleep as the Animorphs had suspected that Temrash would morph, and apologizing for injuring him, assured him that the others were also in the forest.

Jake relished in Temrash's fear and observed as Temrash looked at all of Jake's available morphs. Temrash considered morphing into an insect, doubting that Cassie's owl vision would be able to see it, but Jake pointed out that the insect would not be able to travel very far in two hours, which angered Temrash. Jake reveled in bothering Temrash, as it was his only method of fighting back. Temrash then morphed Jake's body into a wolf and began running, and to Jake's chagrin he realized that the wolf was able to tell which path led deeper into the forest and which path led back to the city. As they ran, they heard the sound of two wolves howling before they smelled a rival wolf pack approaching. Laughing, Jake realized that the rival pack was the one they had encountered in the forest during the Truck ship mission and chided Temrash as to whether he thought he could take on the pack. Jake also realized that the two wolves howling were two Animorphs, who had notified the wild wolf pack of his presence. As the wild wolf pack emerged, blocking their way out of the city, Jake and Temrash found the path behind them blocked by Marco and Rachel, the two wolves who had been howling. Marco stepped out in human form, with Rachel having remorphed into an elephant, and addressed Temrash, urging him to return to the shack. Jake felt Temrash's anger and desire to attack Marco, which Marco seemed to sense as well; Marco claimed that Temrash would not have much success with a wild wolf pack and an elephant to contend with. Temrash surrendered, and Jake noted that unlike humans, who fought to the very end even when they knew they would lose, Yeerks were the type to surrender. Temrash responded that it was foolish to fight when there was no chance of victory, although Jake believed that humanity's decision to keep fighting is why they would one day win. Temrash then demorphed back into Jake's body as they were escorted back to the shack by Rachel, who had demorphed and remorphed into a great horned owl.^[3]

Freedom/Glimpsing Crayak

On Sunday morning, Temrash 114 morphed into an ant to try and escape, but only got three feet before a rival ant colony tried to dismember him, forcing him to demorph. On Monday, during the daytime, Temrash tried to morph into the falcon once more, but was caught by Tobias, who put his talons around Jake's head while he was in mid-morph. Tobias threatened to kill the half-morphed falcon if Temrash did not demorph, prompting Temrash to finally speak to the Animorphs as a Yeerk. Temrash reminded Tobias that if he killed the falcon, Jake would be killed as well, to which Tobias pointed out that it was better to die than to be infested; however, Tobias added that he did not need to kill him as he could simply gouge the falcon's eyes out, which would prevent Temrash from flying away. Accepting his defeat, Temrash demorphed. As the evening approached, Temrash struggled to concentrate and Jake viewed Temrash's fantasies of being rescued by the Yeerk Empire, although even in his fantasies Temrash realized he would not be rewarded even if rescued since he had failed to overcome the Animorphs. As night fell, Jake noted that Temrash's body wracked with pain as Temrash felt immense hunger.

Around 4:00 A.M., Temrash spoke to Jake about how humans would not win since they were still unaware of the invasion, adding that the Andalites would not arrive to Earth on time, to which Jake merely responded that even if that were the case, Temrash would not live to see the Yeerk Empire's victory and that he had only five hours left to live. Temrash accused Jake of being cruel for laughing at him for dying, prompting Jake to retort whether Temrash expected pity, which Temrash denied. As the hours passed, Temrash began talking about the Yeerk homeworld and how their hosts were the Gedds; Temrash stated that he was in a Gedd body when the Andalites first arrived on their world, and Jake quickly asked what happened when the Andalite arrived, although Temrash told him to ask Ax about the story instead. Temrash told him that the fugue was beginning, and explained that the fugue was the final moments of a Yeerk's life when he died of starvation. Jake became aware as the pain became more immense, but noted that he was not able to feel it himself. Just then, Cassie walked in and took Jake's hand to comfort him.

Temrash's mind then began deteriorating, and the mental wall he had erected between himself and Jake collapsed, allowing Jake view the memories Temrash was currently thinking of, which consisted of when he first infested a Gedd, which Jake recognized as the ape-like creatures he had seen when he was on the Yeerk Empire's mother ship. Jake also witnessed Temrash's experience of being able to see and hear, and felt sickened as Temrash's glee as he crushed the Gedd's simple mind; he also saw Temrash's memories of living on the Yeerk homeworld, his control over a Hork-Bajir, which he used to subjugate other Hork-Bajir. To Jake's shock, he realized that, in his dying moments, Temrash was transferring these memories and the emotions attached to them into Jake's mind. Temrash then shared his memories of Tom; since Temrash had been inside Tom's mind, Temrash had all of Tom's memories within his own mind, and thus shared the memory that led to Tom's infestation. Jake observed as Tom had a crush on a girl who was a member of The Sharing, and joined the group himself to get close to her; however, Tom became jealous that she was seeing another boy whenever she went to the private meetings. As a result, Tom had crashed the meeting, only to see Visser Three in his Andalite body. Jake watched as the human-Controllers quickly subdued Tom and tied him up before bringing him into the Underground Yeerk Pool Complex, where Temrash then infested him. As the memory came to an end, Jake recognized that part of the Gedd, the Hork-Bajir, and even Tom himself, would forever be a part of his mind now.

As Temrash's pain became immense beyond comprehension, Jake opened his eyes to look at Cassie and realized that he had control over his eyes. Temrash then told Jake that he had won against him right before Jake's vision changed, and he realized he could see in all directions, as well as into things, as well. His vision then showed him a machine-like creature with a single blood-red eye and became extremely fearful, hoping that the eye would not see him. However, the eye did notice him, and as it looked at him, Jake cried internally in terror before the vision dissipated. Jake found himself back at the cabin, looking at Cassie, who told him that it was over. Jake then got to his feet, finally in full control of his body once again, and noted Temrash's body on the floor, which eventually shriveled into nothingness.

Jake returned to his normal life, and that night, was seated at the dinner table eating pasta and tuna fish when his mother asked him if he was okay. Jake then learned that his family had been worried as "he" had been eating ravenously the last few nights, and Jake hid a smile as he recalled how dangerous Ax was around food. He then looked at Tom, mentally remarking that a new Yeerk now controlled his older brother. That night, Jake watched the news on television and learned that the Berman Clinic had been shut down due to the damage and destruction that had occurred there, and Jake realized that the Animorphs had significantly hurt the Yeerk Empire, as the closure of the hospital meant that the governor's infestation had been prevented. As he went to bed that night, Jake was fearful of having a nightmare on the eye who looked at him, but instead had the tiger dream involving Tom once again. The next day, Jake and the Animorphs went to Cassie's barn, where Jake used Cassie's father's cell phone to call Tom. Before dialing, Jake partially morphed into a wolf in order to disguise his voice. When "Tom" picked up, Jake told him not to give up before ending the call.^[3]

Destroying the Kandrona

Return to the Yeerk Pool

On a Monday, Jake walked to the woods with Rachel, Marco, and Cassie after school, with Tobias flying above, as Marco wanted to tell them something. While walking, Rachel shared how she had gone to the circus the night before and had morphed into an elephant to attack an abusive trainer who used cattle prods on his elephants, which culminated in Rachel throwing the trainer through the air. Jake told her that it was not their job to handle every instance of animal cruelty before they met up with Ax. Marco revealed that he and Tobias had spent the last week surveilling "Chapman" and that they had located another entrance into the Underground Yeerk Pool Complex in a dressing room of The Gap at the mall, with an exit passageway in the movie theater. Jake congratulated them on successfully finding an entrance but wondered what they would do with this information. Ax immediately suggested attacking the pool complex, although the others were hesistant, due to their previous encounter where they barely escaped with Tobias becoming trapped in morph. Rachel inquired about the Kandrona, and Ax explained that the Kandrona was a miniature sun that beamed Kandrona rays into the Yeerk pool for the Yeerks to feed on, although Ax added that the Kandrona could beam the rays from miles away and therefore they should not attack the pool complex if their goal was to destroy the Kandrona. Realizing that destroying the Kandrona could severely hurt the Yeerk Empire, the Animorphs decided that they would indeed be returning to the Yeerk pool complex so that they could perform surveillance in order to find out where the Kandrona was located, and Jake remarked that he still had nightmares from their first trip.

The following day, on Tuesday, the Animorphs decided that they would try and enter the Yeerk pool and formulated a plan: Rachel and Cassie would meet up at the food court while Jake and Ax, the latter in his human morph, would enter the mall as their own group, with Marco entering on his own; separately, the three groups would make their way to The Gap and enter the second last dressing room, where they would morph into cockroaches. As they would be shedding their outer clothing, Jake, who was to go in last, was tasked with recovering everyone else's clothes and storing it in a rented coin locker. That evening, Jake and a human-morphed Ax entered the mall and made their way to the arcade to play video games. While Jake played games, Ax took a cigarette butt out of an ashtray and put it in his mouth.^[20] Jake warned Ax to not eat cigarette butts as they were bad for him^[13] before the pair made their way to The Gap. Jake and Ax waited for Rachel, Cassie, and Marco to enter the store and go into the dressing room, after which Ax went. Shortly after, Jake entered the dressing room and picked up everyone else's outer clothing, which he placed in a bag. He then left The Gap and made his way to the coin lockers, where he stored the bag. Returning to The Gap, Jake entered the same dressing room and morphed into a cockroach, sacrificing his own outer clothing to be found and discarded by store employees. The five Animorphs then made their way to the next dressing room, and when a human-Controller opened the mirror, revealing the passageway into the underground Yeerk pool, Jake instructed the team to follow the man, and they successfully made their way through the passageway before the mirror shut closed behind them.

As they made their way down, Jake checked in with Ax about their morphing time, and Ax notified him that twenty-eight minutes had passed. As they finished their descent, Ax informed them that they had been in morph for forty-one minutes. Jake reminded the team that there had been buildings in the back of the complex during their first visit and that he believed these contained generators, air purifiers, and offices, and that they should check those areas. As Rachel wondered how they would get there since the roach's eyes were bad, Cassie stated that the roach was able to smell and they could just follow the scent of humans, adding that she could smell fries and that she believed the human-Controllers needed to eat. With a laugh, Jake told the group to follow the scent of fries. The Animorphs followed the scent through a crack in the wall and emerged into a lunchroom. However, the five of them were quickly spotted by a nearby Taxxon, who used its tongue to snag all five of them.^[20]

Meeting the Ellimist

Before the Taxxon could eat them, time suddenly stopped and Jake and the other Animorphs were automatically demorphed by a mysterious force. As they stepped outside the lunchroom, Rachel spotted Tobias standing there, now back in his old human body. The force responsible for demorphing them and pausing time soon revealed itself to be an individual known as the Ellimist, an all-powerful being who could also read their minds. As Ax informed them of the vast power that the Ellimist possessed, Jake asked the powerful entity why he had paused time and why he had reverted Tobias to his original body, to which the Ellimist responded that the Animorphs had to decide the future of the human race. The Ellimist transported them into the ocean, although he used his powers so that they could still breathe and would be unharmed by any factors. As they looked at the sea life, the Ellimist remarked that it was lovely before transporting them to the African savannah, where they floated in the sky and observed the various animals. The Ellimist then transported them to the jungle, where Jake saw jaguars, monkeys, and snakes as the Ellimist told them to look at the planet's beauty, stating that in all the universe, there was no greater beauty than Earth. The Ellimist continued his tour, transporting them to New York City, a village by a jungle river, a rock concert in Rio de Janeiro, a political meeting in Seoul, a soccer game in Durban, and an an open-air market in The Philippines. The Ellimist declared that humans were crude and primitive yet capable of understanding, and showed them a painting of irises.

Returning them back to the temporally-paused Yeerk pool, the Ellimist claimed that they would lose their fight against the Yeerk Empire and that humanity would be rendered extinct; in order to prevent this extinction, the Ellimist offered to relocate the Animorphs, their close family members, and other humans of genetic diversity, to another planet where they would be free to live their lives. Jake asked the Ellimist how long they had to make this decision, to which the Ellimist responded that the Animorphs had to make the decision immediately; if they agreed, he would transport them and their family members to the new planet instantly, and if they refused, he would revert time to the way it was, with Tobias once again stuck as a red-tailed hawk while the other Animorphs would be back to being on the Taxxon's tongue in roach morph. Jake grumbled that while the Ellimist may be well-intentioned, he did not think the Animorphs should be the one making the decision. Tobias then announced that he would not accept the Ellimist's offer, citing that the Ellimist was using Tobias being stuck as a hawk as a way to influence the Animorphs' decision. Cassie urged him to reconsider as they needed to factor in humanity as a whole while Jake reminded him that he would be giving up being human again, although Tobias remained firm in his stance. As Rachel also voted against, Cassie implored them to reconsider; however, just then, Jake and Marco noticed a dropshaft inside the pool complex, and cocked his eyebrow at Rachel as she also noticed it. Marco voted against the deal, causing Cassie to try and convince them otherwise. Jake then remarked that he did not believe the Ellimist could truly see the future, claiming that if he could, he would already have known what the Animorphs' answer was. Realizing that Jake had also voted against and she was the only one who was in support, Cassie sadly stated that she would change her vote to support the rest of the group. Jake held Cassie's hand as he told the Ellimist that he now had their answer; however, as he was finishing his sentence, the Animorphs, minus Tobias, found themselves back on the Taxxon's tongue in roach morph. The Ellimist then notified them that he would ask for their answer again if they managed to survive and then unfroze time, causing the Taxxon to suddenly put its tongue back in its mouth.

As the Taxxon began to digest them, Jake yelled at the Animorphs to demorph. As they began to reassume their original form inside the Taxxon, they started to suffocate due to the lack of air, although Jake hoped that they could burst out of the Taxxon. Just then, Ax asks Jake if he should use his tail blade to slice open the Taxxon, which Jake emphatically supports. The Animorphs burst out of the Taxxon's remains, covered in Taxxon goo, only to see the lunchroom full of human-Controllers staring them. The Animorphs ran from the lunchroom as human-Controllers, along with Hork-Bajir-Controllers, began to chase them, and Jake yelled out loud for the Animorphs to assume battle morphs. Despite this, Jake remained in human form as he, Marco, and Cassie managed to run to the dropshaft. As Marco and Cassie took the dropshaft out of the Yeerk pool, Jake looked back and noticed in horror that Rachel and Ax were a hundred feet away and that were dozens of Controllers between them. Rachel then yelled out for Jake to escape, calling Jake by his name. While the human-Controllers looked at Jake, Hork-Bajir-Controllers quickly converged on Ax and Rachel, and Jake watched as Rachel morphed into a grizzly bear, a morph that she had never used before. Jake then morphed into his Siberian tiger and rushed over to help Ax and Rachel defeat the Controllers; however, due to Rachel having given into the bear's instincts, which allowed her to incapacitate many of the Hork-Bajir, Jake also had to endure Rachel trying to kill him. Jake, Ax, and Rachel managed to make their way to the dropshaft, and as they ascended, Jake yelled at Rachel to demorph as she was out of control. Jake and Rachel demorphed within the dropshaft and found themselves within the base of a water tower behind their school.

Rachel apologized to Jake, citing that she had never morphed into the bear before, to which Jake replied that the grizzly was the reason they had succeeded in fighting their way out. The Animorphs then went their separate ways to return home, with a plan to meet up at Cassie's barn the next day after school. The following day, on Wednesday, Jake noticed that Rachel did not come to school. After school, Jake went to the barn, where Cassie, Marco, and Tobias were. Rachel soon joined them, barefoot and in her morphing outfit, confirming that she had morphed and flown there. When Tobias revealed that Rachel had been in morph all afternoon, Jake yelled jumped up and yelled at Rachel, putting his face up to her as he stated that he did not want to hear her sarcasm; in addition, he stated that she was being reckless, which endangered the team, and that she should not have acquired a grizzly bear by herself from The Gardens without backup. Rachel raged about the futility of their situation; Jake then sagged, with red eyes and troubled breathing, and iterated that he did not want to argue with her or find any answers, and that whatever Rachel chose to do was now on her. Sitting in silence, Rachel revealed that her father wanted her to move out of state with him and lashed out about the decisions she had to make. Following Rachel's statement, Marco announced that he was changing his vote, much to Jake's shock, who refused to give up.^[20] Cassie then told Jake about a scar she once received^{[note 15]} from a raccoon she tried to rescue, and likened Jake's refusal to let the Ellimist save them to the raccoon who fought against her rescue efforts. Marco added that if the Ellimist could save certain people, he would accept the deal. Jake and the Animorphs then looked at Rachel to break the tie, but before Rachel could answer, the Ellimist telepathically spoke to them and told them that he would now show them something.^[20]

Visiting an Alternate Future

Jake and the other Animorphs, including Ax, were suddenly teleported to a scruffy field near a ruined building. While Tobias, who had been reverted back to his human form once more, recognized the building to be that of their school, Cassie pointed out the weird color of the sky, which Jake acknowledged was sort of yellow. Cassie stated that she believed they were in the future, and feeling unsettled, Jake suggested that they head towards the mall. The Animorphs headed to the nearby highway, which was completely empty, and they spotted a nearby high-speed train system. The team then arrived at the mall, where they observed that the building had become a Taxxon hive, with several holes drilled inside Sears and JCPenney that Taxxons slithered in and out of. They noticed a nearby Taxxon using a dropshaft to ascend to a platform where the high-speed train would be making a stop, and Marco pointed out that since the Yeerk Empire had won in the future, any human walking around would be considered a fellow human-Controller; as such, the Animorphs could walk around freely. With this in mind, Ax assumed his human morph while Rachel decided that the Animorphs should use the dropshaft to board the train.

As the train arrived at the Downtown stop, Jake silently alerted the Animorphs that they would be disembarking. While they walked through Downtown, they noticed that several of the buildings had either been destroyed or turned into Taxxon hives, although the EGS Tower remained standing. As they came across a massive surface-based Yeerk pool, a human woman-Controller bumped into Rachel, causing Rachel to call her out. The woman Controller quickly turned around and asked for Rachel's name, accusing them of being spies, to which Tobias pointed to Ax and claimed that they were with Visser Three. As Ax demorphed, the Controller apologized, although she stated that Visser Three had since been promoted to Visser One before running away. Jake wondered how long the Ellimist would keep them in this timeline, to which Cassie replied that the Ellimist wanted them to see something. Just then, a Bug fighter landed near them, out of which the real Visser Three/One and a human woman emerged, which Rachel recognized to be her future self in her twenties.

Future Rachel, who was actually a human-Controller, gloated how the Yeerk Empire had defeated the Animorphs and had succeeded in subjugating Earth while Visser One divulged that he knew that the Ellimist had sent the six humans that were the Animorphs forwards in time to make a decision before sending them back. As Future Rachel's Yeerk remarked that they had made the correct decision, Jake defiantly shot back that when the Ellimist sent them back to their original time, they could choose to take the Ellimist's deal, which would cause Rachel to end up on the new planet and prevent her infestation from ever occurring. Shortly after, Rachel shared her realization that the history of this future timeline was different, and that the Visser, who had been looking at Ax with a confused expression, had stated earlier that the Animorphs consisted of six humans because that was what he expected them to be.

Enraged, Visser One divulged how he had captured the Animorphs of this timeline and how he had given them as host bodies to his lieutenants; Tobias, who had been trapped as a hawk in this timeline as well, had instead been killed, roasted, and eaten with barbecue sauce. Jake and Rachel were both furious upon hearing this, and when Ax remarked that he did not think Visser One would kill them out of fear that their premature deaths could alter his history, Jake replied that the inverse was not true for them and that they were free to hurt the Visser. However, before they could take out Visser One, they found themselves in the woods behind Cassie's farm, having been teleported back to their original timeline by the Ellimist. Rachel raged that she felt sick of everything and that there was no point in fighting as they knew what the world would become like once they lost to the Yeerk Empire. Jake attempted to convince her to keep fighting, and Rachel revealed that she had intended to vote against the deal just before the Ellimist whisked them away to the alternate future, but that she was now voting to accept the deal.

The vote became tied, with Rachel, Cassie, and Marco voting to accept the Ellimist's deal while Jake and Tobias were still against; as Ax sided with Jake, this left the group with a split vote. Tobias then remarked that perhaps if humanity existed on another planet, they could one day return to save Earth much like how wolves had been reintroduced to their national forest. Jake asked Tobias if he was changing his vote, and Tobias indicated that he would be remaining firm in his decision and that he would not run from their fight. Jake then chose to break the tie by flipping his vote, and called out to the Ellimist to inform him that they had accepted. However, despite the Ellimist having offered to teleport them to the new planet instantly, nothing happened. Eventually, the Animorphs realized the deal would not be honored, and Jake returned home to resume life as normal.^[20]

Battle at the EGS Tower

Around 3 A.M. on Saturday, Jake was awakened by Rachel to come to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic for an emergency Animorphs meeting. Rachel informed the group that she had deduced the location of the Kandrona from what the Ellimist had shown them; when Rachel stated that the Ellimist had been the one to show them the dropshaft, Jake argued that they were the ones to have seen it, only for Rachel to rebuttal that they had only seen it because the Ellimist had allowed them to exit the lunchroom before appearing near the dropshaft, thus ensuring that they would notice it. Jake listened as Rachel claimed that the reason the Ellimist had sent them to the future was so that they would notice that the Yeerk pool that they had seen Downtown, which had been built around the EGS Tower, was because the EGS Tower's upper floors was where the Kandrona was situated; in addition, Rachel declared that that the Ellimist had made the offer to evacuate them as a way to help them without interfering directly. Jake wondered whether destroying the Kandrona would prevent the future they had seen from coming to fruition, to which Cassie told him that they could not be sure but that the butterfly effect could result in some changes. Steeled in their resolve, the Animorphs headed out to destroy the Kandrona immediately.

At 5:10 A.M., the Animorphs arrived at the plaza outside of the EGS Tower and noticed that there was only one security guard inside the lobby. Jake commented that the EGS Tower had various law firms and other businesses comprised of non-Controllers, and cautioned against them hurting any innoncent bystanders, including the security guard should he be uninfested. Jake asked Tobias to fly above to keep an eye on them while they assumed their battle morphs, and when Tobias reported that a drunk man was heading toward them, Jake told Cassie, who had already finished morphing into a wolf, to scare the man off. Jake c as he stopped Rachel, in her grizzly bear morph, from barrelling into the lobby, instead suggesting that Marco, in his gorilla morph, take the lead. Marco confirmed that the guard was indeed a human-Controller and punched through the glass door to knock him out, and the Animorphs swiftly entered the building. Jake alerted the team that the destruction of the glass door might have set off an alarm as they headed toward the elevators. Marco pointed out that the elevator would not be able to handle their weight, and Jake quickly stated that he, Rachel, and Marco, as the heaviest, would take the freight elevator while Cassie and Ax took the regular elevator.

Entering the freight elevator, Jake asked Rachel to press the button for the top floor since he could not do so with his tiger paw. As the elevator began to ascend, Jake asked them if they had seen any movies lately; Rachel responded that she wanted to see the latest Keanu Reeves movie, and Jake asked if Keanu was considered cute, which Rachel affirmed. The elevator then arrived at the top floor, and three human-Controllers and two Hork-Bajir-Controllers rushed at them. Jake and Rachel took down the Hork-Bajir-Controllers, although he sustained a deep cut in the process, while human-Controllers fled. Jake notified the group of his wound, and as Cassie and Ax arrived, he remarked that he would still carry on as the fight was not over yet. Rachel then led the way into a room with eight Hork-Bajir-Controllers and several human-Controllers; before they could consider retreating, Rachel charged, and Jake commanded the rest of them to join the fight as well. As the human-Controllers ran away once more, the Animorphs entered their first severe close-combat fight against Hork-Bajir-Controllers, and Jake rolled around in a deadly embrace against a Hork-Bajir; while the team sustained severe injuries, they succeeded in defeating half of the Hork-Bajir Controllers. During the fight, Rachel shoved a Hork-Bajir out of a window, which allowed Tobias, who had been flying outside, to enter and attack one of the Hork-Bajir.

As the three remaining Hork-Bajir-Controllers fled, Marco barricaded the door shut before notifying Jake that he had to demorph due to his severe injuries, and Jake told the rest of them to demorph as well. As they emerged into their human forms, they walked to the next room and spotted the Kandrona, which had been secured. Jake then asked Rachel if she could morph again, this time to elephant, as they had no other method of moving the Kandrona. With Tobias flying outside to ensure that there were no pedestrians on the sidewalk below, Jake watched as Rachel morphed to elephant and slowly but surely pushed the Kandrona out of the window, causing it plummet sixty stories before slamming into the concrete, destroying it. Jake advised that they retreat before the Yeerks arrived while Marco wondered if they had managed to change the future; suddenly the Ellimist suddenly telepathically spoke to them, stating that everything changed the future. The Ellimist divulged that the Yeerk Empire already had a replacement Kandrona scheduled to arrive in three weeks, and Ax clarified that three weeks with no local Kandrona would indeed result in the deaths of many Yeerks. Despite the Ellimist already stating that everything changed the future, Jake still asked if they had changed the future, although the Ellimist did not respond; Rachel then Jake that she didn't think the Ellimist could see their future due to the butterfly effect, which caused the Ellimist to laugh. Having earned their first major victory against the Yeerk Empire, the Animorphs morphed into birds and flew out of the EGS Tower.^[20]

Veleek Chase

Jake was notified by Cassie that she believed that Rachel and Tobias had a crush on each other and that she found it to be sweet and romantic, although Jake considered it to be sad since they didn't know if Tobias would ever become human again. Around this time, Jake and Cassie were invited by their classmate Darlene to attend her pool party, although Marco was not invited since, when they were ten, he had put a Baby Ruth bar in her pool during one of her pool parties and claimed it was feces, which had disrupted the party. On a Friday after school, Jake and the other Animorphs, minus Ax, met up at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic as Cassie wanted them to help her clean the barn. There, Rachel informed them that she had signed up for a weekend gymnastics camp prior to them becoming Animorphs but was now hesitant to go, although Cassie convinced her that she should still attend since they should strive to continue their normal lives. Jake noticed that Rachel looked at Tobias as she worried if they would be okay without her, and Jake and Cassie exchanged looks with each other as Cassie nodded to silently confirm her theory. Cassie then asked Marco to help her carry heavy cages from her father's truck, although Marco pretended to have back pain.

Jake decided to help Cassie instead, and as the pair exited the barn, Jake jumped into the bed of her father's truck and began untying the ropes for the wire cages. As he did so, Cassie mused how Rachel beign away from them for a weekend felt strange, to which Jake remarked that their lives were so strange that normal things were what truly felt strange. Noticing that Cassie was silent and looking at the moon, Jake jumped out of the truck and asked Cassie what was wrong, and she told him that she had been having dreams where she had to decide who lived and who died. Jake put his arm around Cassie's shoulder and noticed that she had goose bumps. Cassie told Jake that prior to them becoming Animorphs, she had never been afraid of anything, only to now be constantly fearful of everything; Jake, not wanting to talk about feelings as he believed that not talking about it would make it go away, merely remarked that Cassie was dealing with it.

The next day, on Saturday, Jake and Cassie attended Darlene's pool party and lounged on chairs in their bathing suits. Jake felt guilty about coming to the pool party when Marco had not been invited, and told Cassie that he believed Marco had matured since then. Just then, Jake heard some screams and jumped up as he scanned areas where he could morph safely. He then realized that the screams were coming from girls who were being chased by two mice. When a boy named Hans announced that he would crush the mice, the two mice went around him. Jake realized that the mice had understood Hans immediately told Cassie that real mice did not chase people like that, and Cassie remarked that she believed it was Marco and Ax in morph. Jake muttered in anger that they needed to save Marco and Ax from being crushed by other guests but that he would kill Marco after. Jake then told the mice to go to Cassie if they wanted to live before adding under his breath that he might kill them; Marco, realizing that Jake knew it was him, thought-spoke to Jake and told him that they were going into Darlene's basement in order to demorph. As the mice ran inside the house, Jake tried to follow only to run into Hans and end up in a pileup of other guests. At that moment, a dark dust cloud with blades appeared above them and destroyed Darlene's house before it then dispersed and flew away.

Marco and Ax, the latter in his human morph, emerged from the basement and regrouped with Jake and Cassie, while Tobias, who had been flying above, informed them via thought-speech that the dust monster was headed toward the woods. With the pool party having come to an abrupt end, the four morphers traveled to Cassie's house since her parents were not home. In the living room, they watched a news segment on the attack on Darlene's house and learned that the "freak tornado" had also attacked a freeway. During this segment, Cassie suddenly noticed that Rachel was visible on screen, barefoot and in her morphing outfit, causing Jake to wonder what she was doing there since she was supposed to be at gymnastics camp. Realizing that Rachel had come out of a morph just like Marco and Ax had when the monster had attacked, Cassie went into the kitchen to call Rachel's house while Jake, Marco, and Ax continued to watch the news footage. Cassie then returned to the living room and notified them that Rachel's family believed that she was currently at camp. Realizing they needed to find Rachel, Jake decided to have the boys search the woods and tasked Cassie with searching for Rachel around town, although not before getting one of Rachel's shirts that Cassie had left behind. Putting the shirt in a bag, Jake and Marco took the bus in order to enter the woods near where Rachel was spotted, while Tobias and Ax would enter the woods near Cassie's farm and meet up with them, all while searching for Rachel in the process. As they got off at their spot, Jake spotted the remains of the Ben & Jerry's truck that had been destroyed and chastised Marco for causing it to destroy Darlene's house as people could have gotten killed.

Jake and Marco entered the woods and met up with Tobias, who told them that Ax was a mile away and that he had not spotted anyone in the woods other than a madwoman near a shack. Taking Rachel's shirt out of their bag, Jake and Marco stripped down to their morphing outfits and placed their outer clothing in the bag before morphing into wolves, as their plan involved tracking Rachel through her scent on her shirt. Jake asked Tobias to fly above and ensure that they were safe, only for Tobias to shout while they were in mid-morph that the dust monster was headed their way. Jake and Marco finished their morph, as Jake declared that they would have a better chance as a wolf, when the dust beast suddenly appeared before them. The two wolves immediately began running, and Jake realized that the trees were slowing the beast down. Jake told Marco to use the trees to their advantage, and they used their wolf's instincts to guide them north. As they ran through the trees, Tobias notified them that they were approaching an open meadow where they would have no trees to protect them. Just before they reached the meadow, they sensed the nearby shack go up in flames while the dust monster, who was about to catch them, decided to spare them in order to go to the shack. The three boys then headed to the shack as well, where they noticed bare human footprints, grizzly bear footprints, Andalite hoofprints, and copious amounts of grizzly bear blood. Marco remarked that the bare human footprints and bear prints must have been Rachel, as their forest did not have grizzlies natively, and that she must have gotten injured badly by fighting the dust beast.

Tobias informed them that the grizzly bear pawprints went all the way to the river, where they stopped, although there were no traces of the Andalite hoofprints continuing. As Tobias blamed himself for not having thought of it, Jake assured him that he couldn't have known and that it wasn't his fault, although he internally blamed himself for not having realized that Rachel was in trouble. Jake then wondered what Ax's role in the incident was, and why his prints suddenly stopped, although Tobias iterated that Andalites were tougher than they thought. With the belief that Ax had been carried away, the Animorphs wondered what to do next. Since it was getting late, Jake told Marco that they needed to return home before his parents called the cops, and that they would meet up at Cassie's barn after dinner to continue the search. The two of them trotted back to the bus stop, and the two wondered why the dust beast, which was associated with the Yeerk Empire, had not attacked them at their homes if it knew who they were. They then demorphed and took the buses back to their respective houses.

That night after dinner, Jake rode his bike to Cassie's barn to meet up with the other Animorphs, where Cassie informed them that she had gone to the mall and had spied on "Chapman", where she learned that the dust beast was a morph-hunter known as the Veleek. With Tobias having been unable to find Rachel or Ax, Marco wondered why the Veleek had spared him and Ax at Darlene's house. As they wondered how the Veleek operated, Tobias commented that predators relied on movement, which allowed Cassie to deduce that the Veleek had spared Marco and Ax because it had sensed someone else morphing, and that the reason the Veleek had stopped chasing Jake and Marco in the woods was because it had sensed either Rachel or Ax morphing by the shack. As Jake realized that the Veleek was locking onto their morphing efforts, Marco stated they were safe as long as they never morphed again. This caused Jake to retort that not morphing meant that they would no longer fight against the Yeerk Empire, and asked Marco if that is was what he wanted to do, although Marco merely responded that in Rachel's absence, he would voice her opinion that they should find a way to take out the Veleek. The four of them exited from the barn, and as Tobias flew into the woods, Cassie's mother Michelle called out to them and reminded them that it was almost 9 P.M.

Cassie decided to walk Jake and Marco to the road while Cassie mused that wherever Rachel was, at least the night was warm and that the moon was bright. Just then, the three of them spotted the Veleek against the moon. Realizing that either Ax or Rachel were currently morphing and that the Veleek was headed toward them, Cassie brought up that the Veleek would kill innocent people if it rampaged through the subdivision. Jake suggested that they play "keepaway" with the Veleek by distracting it and luring it away from whomever was morphing in the subdivision, although Cassie reminded him that they could not morph and fly to the subdivision since morphing would cause the Veleek to turn around and come straight for her farm. Marco then pointed at her father's truck and asked if the keys were in the ignition, indicating that they could steal the truck and drive there. Although Cassie refused, Jake approved of the plan, and the three got into the truck as Marco, who claimed that he could drive since he played Wipeout, started the engine and drove them out of the farm as Jake decided that their plan would be for the three of them to morph in intervals to continually lure the Veleek until it got tired. En route to the subdivision, Jake and Cassie screamed and gave Marco warnings as Marco drove erratically, narrowly avoiding other cars while also going on the opposite side of the road. When Marco took a left and drove through someone's lawn and onto the sidewalk, Jake yelled at him to get off the sidewalk. Marco then drove through four trash cans on the sidewalk as he told Jake and Cassie to chill out, prompting Jake to rhetorically ask if he hated trash cans. Marco replied that he could not drive with Jake yelling in his ear, to which Jake retorted that Marco could not drive at all and that he would kill Marco if they survived.

The trio then spotted elephant with pink human ears, which they realized was Rachel, who was running from the Veleek. As the elephant turned to defiantly face the Veleek, the dust beast wrapped its tendrils around the elephant, although it was unable to pick Rachel up due to her weight. Jake then enacted his plan and began to morph into the tiger, which caused the Veleek to immediately forget Rachel and hone in on them. With Cassie jumping out of the truck while Jake got into the truck bed, Marco put the truck into reverse and turned around, with smoke coming from the tires. He then drove them onto the highway, with Jake slowly morphing in the truck bed to ensure the Veleek was locked onto him. However, just as Jake finished the morph, Marco went off the road and into the bordering woods; as he swerved the truck, causing the sides to strike against trees, Jake leaped out of the truck bed and warned Marco to morph in five minutes and to not to destroy the truck as Marco drove away. With the Veleek headed straight toward him, Jake lunged at the Veleek before canceling his attack and ducking under the Veleek, and noted with surprise that the Veleek had a weakness when he noticed that it took the Veleek several seconds to turn around. Jake ran around the forest and doubled back on his path to ensure the Veleek was always onto him, but as the tiger was not built to run continuously, Jake hoped that Marco would morph in time and that the Veleek would tire out before them. With the tiger unable to run any longer, Jake used the last of his strength to run up a tree, only for the Veleek to then destroy the base of the tree, causing Jake to jump back onto the ground. As a tired Jake bared his teeth at the Veleek, who had extended its tendrils, the Veleek suddenly sensed the energy of Marco morphing and abandoned Jake to find its new target.

Jake made his way through the woods back into the housing development area, where he spotted Rachel and Cassie, now in great horned owl morph, about to be attacked by two Hork-Bajir-Controllers who had jumped down from two Bug fighters above the street. Jake roared as he tackled the first Hork-Bajir, saving Rachel, while the second Hork-Bajir turned to look at him, which allowed Cassie to fly away. Jake then jumped off the Hork-Bajir and took off running, with the girls following him in owl morph. As they ran, Jake asked them what had happened to Marco, and was informed that the Veleek had taken Marco; additionally, Jake learned that Rachel had amnesia for the majority of the day, but that she was regaining her memory after Marco hit her with the truck. The three went to Cassie's house, where Rachel was spending the night since Naomi believed Rachel to be away at gymnastics camp. Jake then made his way home and arrived just before midnight, where he found his parents waiting for him. Jake apologized for worrying his parents and was promptly grounded for two weeks without Sega or television, along with a 5 P.M. curfew, while also being tasked with taking out the trash, washing all the dishes for those two weeks; in addition, he was tasked with cleaning out the garage sometime in those two weeks.

Following this, Jake went upstairs to his room and collapsed on his bed without changing his clothes. As he fell asleep, he remarked that the Animorphs had been beaten as they could never morph again due to the Veleek, but that he felt relieved since he had grown very tired of the war effort. The next morning, Jake was suddenly awakened by Marco being in his bedroom, and Jake was stunned to see that his best friend was alive and had somehow escaped. Marco nonchalantly told Jake that they needed him to mobilize their counterattack against the Veleek, and when Jake responded that he was grounded, Marco revealed that he had spoken to Jake's father, who had given Jake permission to leave the house to hang out if Jake cleaned out the entire garage first. Jake asked Marco if he would help, which Marco declined as Jake smiled. Jake told Marco to give him three hours to clean the garage and to assemble the others to meet at the edge of the woods in three hours, and stressed that he did not want any of them morphing. Marco then left, and Jake spent the next three hours cleaning out the garage before he made his way to the woods to meet up with the others. During the meeting, the Animorphs exchanged the information they had each learned, and Marco and Ax divulged that Visser Three had used water to restrain the Veleek. Jake initially believed that the Veleek was unbeatable, although Cassie responded that she had figured out a plan of counterattack, but only on the condition that she got to be the one to enact it.

Cassie's plan consisted of them going to the ocean so that she could acquire a humpback whale while the rest of them used their aquatic morphs to lure the Veleek over the sea; Cassie would then allow herself to be caught, but would quickly demorph and remorph, this time into a whale, whose weight would serve as an anchor and pull the Veleek into the ocean, therefore killing it. Jake found the plan to be immensely dangerous and questioned why Cassie had to be the one to pull it off, and Cassie revealed that she wished to atone for her cowardice from the night before, revealing that she could have used morphing to lure the Veleek away from Marco but had been too afraid, which resulted in Marco being kidnapped. Despite Marco and Rachel attempting to assure her that it was okay, Cassie remained adamant. Jake looked at Cassie and pleaded with his eyes as Cassie took his hand and squeezed it before telling him that it was a good plan and that she had the best chance to pull it off as she was their best morpher. Resigned, Jake accepted the plan and the Animorphs headed to the beach; since they could not morph and had to walk, Ax was forced to stay behind. The human Animorphs arrived at the beach, where Tobias reported that he had found a humpback whale. Jake tried to convince Cassie that she did not have go through with the plan, although Cassie stood firm.

The four of them made their way into the water, and once they were deep enough, they started to morph into bottlenose dolphins. Tobias yelled that the Veleek was headed their way, and as they finished the morph, they realized that while the Veleek was now hovering several feet above them, it was keeping its distance to avoid the water. The four dolphins used their echolocation to find the whale and swam toward it, and as Cassie demorphed, Jake and Rachel provided support for Cassie's human body so that she could stay afloat and acquire the whale. Cassie then morphed into a cockroach while Tobias flew down to grab her; to prevent the Veleek from going after Cassie since she was the last person to exude morphing energy, Jake, Rachel, and Marco partially demorphed and then remorphed to keep the Veleek locked onto them. Tobias flew over a thousand feet up and dropped Cassie, who demorphed to human as the Veleek rushed upward to grab her. The Veleek ensnared Cassie with its tendrils, although Cassie successfully managed to morph into the humpback whale, whose weight dragged the Veleek into the ocean, killing it. Cassie cheered in victory and let out a whale song, and when Jake asked her what the song meant, Cassie told him that it represented hope.^[23]

Trouble with Ax

Very shortly after their victory over the Veleek, Ax informed the Animorphs that he wanted to learn more about humans. Jake and the other Animorphs privately discussed this, where Rachel and Marco brought up that Ax had never told them anything about Andalites or his home planet and that they did not even know how Ax ate without a mouth. Despite this, Jake told them that they should have trust in Ax and show him what he wanted to know. Jake decided that Ax should see a movie, and planned for him and Marco to take Ax to the mall movie theater to watch a Star Trek: The Next Generation movie. Since Ax would need to be in human morph and he only had two hours to be in morph, Jake decided that Ax would morph in the woods, after which they would travel to the theater and watch only the first hour of the movie before making their way back to the woods so Ax could demorph. However, in case of an emergency, Rachel and Cassie were to wait outside the theater, where Rachel would take Ax to Nordstrom's since they had the biggest dressing rooms in the mall, where Ax could demorph and remorph should the need arise. Knowing that Ax needed more than his morphing outfit to wear, Rachel went shopping and purchased clothes for him.

On the day of, Jake met up with the woods with the others to prepare for their trip to the theater. When the others started discussing Yeerks, Jake quickly stated that they had just defeated the Veleek and that, along with their recent destruction of the Kandrona, they deserved to have a break. Rachel grumbled that they should be using the time to strike against the Yeerk Empire while they were weak and that they still had one more week left before the Yeerk Empire got their new Kandrona, to which Jake pointed out that they had yet to see any signs of the Yeerk Empire having been affected or weakened by the Kandrona's destruction. Wanting to get their plan in motion, Jake asked Ax to morph to human, and supported Ax when he nearly fell. As he finished the morph, Jake told Ax to wear the clothing that Rachel had bought for him, which Marco complained about as he claimed Ax looked like someone about to play polo at a country club and thus was a bully magnet. Jake assured Ax that he would protect him if someone tried to bully him, and the group made their way to the mall.

Arriving at the theater, Marco bought popcorn and the three boys made their way way to their seats. Ax was confused by a preview, and Jake explained to him that it was a showcase of an upcoming movie and was not the movie they had come to watch. Marco offered Ax some of his popcorn, and Jake warned Ax to be careful since he knew how Ax got around food. The movie then began, and Ax remarked that the USS Enterprise looked like a Hawjabran freighter. Jake "explained" to Ax that the Enterprise was not a real ship and was fictional, to which Ax retorted that he knew that already since he knew what an actual interstellar spacecraft looked like, which caused Jake and Marco to grin at each other. Jake and Marco continued to watch the movie when they heard a commotion and Marco notified Jake that Ax was no longer sitting by them. Jake and Marco spotted Ax on the floor eating Raisinets and M&M's while demanding a child to give him their candy, and the two made their way to Ax before grabbing him by the arms and leading him out of the theater.

Emerging out into the mall parking lot, Jake asked Ax if he was okay now, and remarked that chocolate was not good for Ax while clarifying to Ax what Raisinets and M&M's were. Tobias, who had been flying above the mall parking lot, asked them if the movie was that bad before notifying them that a man screaming about Yeerks was headed their way. Jake watched as the man screamed at nearby people about the Yeerks and scratched at his ear, and Ax told him that the man was a host whose Yeerk was dying of Kandrona starvation, which Jake affirmed, having experienced it himself. Jake told Rachel and Cassie, who had noticed their exit from the theater and had followed them, to not approach them as he did not want them to appear as a group or get involved with the man, although Cassie and Rachel approached them anyway. Jake gleefully remarked that he was waiting for weeks for this scenario to happen and that once enough humans were freed, the world would know about the Yeerks. Despite Rachel wondering why the Yeerks were showing signs of starvation now, two weeks after the Kandrona had been destroyed, Marco celebrated alongside Jake and held the belief that the Yeerk EMpire would not be able to conceal their existence once enough humans had been freed. Content with their role in destroying the Kandrona, Jake remarked that this was great and the Animorphs dispersed.

In order to further Ax's study of humans, Jake decided to have Ax come to school with them the next day while pretending to be Jake's cousin "Phillip" who was visiting from out of town. The next morning, Jake brought some clothes for Ax to wear and then went to school, where he met up with Cassie, and the pair walked across the school field toward the edge of the woods where Tobias and Ax waited for them. With Tobias ensuring that no one was watching them, Jake gave Ax the clothes to wear and reminded Ax to not call him "Prince Jake" and that he was to be Phillip. As Ax got dressed, Tobias remarked that he thought the notion of Ax's first day of school was cute, to which Jake clarified that it was Ax's only day of school. Jake, Cassie, and Ax went toward the school entrance, where they met up with Marco and Rachel, and Jake "introduced" Phillip to Rachel and Marco. Ax "introduced" himself to Rachel and Marco as "Prince Jake's cousin," causing Jake to hiss at Ax to not call him "Prince" at school. Jake and Cassie led Ax into the school, where they went to Cassie's locker. Ax suddenly spotted a photo of Jake inside Cassie's locker and asked her why she had that, causing Cassie to lower her head in embarrassment while Jake smiled widely at Cassie. Just then, the bell rang, causing Ax to scream, and Jake told Ax to calm down before leading him to homeroom.

As they entered the classroom, Jake told his homeroom teacher Mr. Pardue that his cousin Phillip would be spending the day at school with them, and was taken aback when Pardue irritatingly told him to take his seat. Making their way to the back of the class, Jake told Ax to take an empty seat before clarifying that he meant for Ax to sit in it. Pardue then shouted what the commotion was before he started screaming and clawing at his head, yelling at the Yeerk to get out. Jake looked at Ax and whispered that they had now seen two cases of hosts being freed, and Ax whispered back asking if he had known that Pardue was a host, to which Jake replied that he had not and that Pardue had been a nice teacher. Pardue continued to claw at his head, drawing blood, before collapsing and screaming, and Jake told Ax that he could not stand by and watch. Jake then rushed to Pardue's side, where he whispered in Pardue's ear that he had once been infested and was now free, and that he knew what Pardue was going through. Jake squeezed Pardue's shoulder for support when "Chapman" entered the room, having been alerted to the situation by a student who had run out of the classroom earlier, and ordered the students to all leave. Jake remained at Pardue's side, and "Chapman", referring to Jake by his name, told him to leave. Ax pulled Jake up, and as they headed to the exit, Jake asked "Chapman" if Pardue would be okay, to which "Chapman" responded that no one could say. As they walked out the door, Jake turned around and saw "Chapman" inject a cylinder into the back of Pardue's neck, which caused the screaming Pardue to fall limp and stop screaming. Realizing that Pardue had just been killed, Jake pushed through the crowd of students in the hallway and ran outside the school building, with Ax following him.

Outside, Jake struggled to breathe as he blamed himself and the Animorphs for causing Pardue's death by destroying the Kandrona, and asked Ax if the Yeerk Empire would kill every human host whose Yeerk died of starvation, which Ax confirmed. Jake asked Ax how he knew, and when Ax did not answer right away, Jake pushed Ax up against a wall and repeated his question. Ax responded that Earth was not the first planet the Yeerk Empire had invaded and that the Kandrona had been destroyed before, and that the Yeerk Empire did not allow witnesses and former hosts to live. Aghast, Jake blamed himself once again for their actions, although Ax stated that it was war before sharing an Andalite war saying. Irritated, Jake told Ax that he felt like the Andalites saw humans as some primitive species in the war between the Andalites and the Yeerks and that they were seen as too dumb to be informed of what was going on. Jake added that he viewed Ax as a friend and that Ax was one of the Animorphs and therefore should have shared what he knew with the team, and reminded Ax that Tom was a host and that he had a right to know that Tom's life was endangered. This caused Ax to retort that if he had shared information with Jake earlier, perhaps Jake would not have destroyed the Kandrona, which Ax saw as a vital mission in the war. Angered, Jake put his face close to Ax's and told him that Ax was right to learn about humanity since his current belief of what they would do was incorrect. Jake then stormed off and left school to return home while Ax returned to the woods.

Jake informed the other Animorphs of Pardue's death and his conversation with Ax, which infuriated both Rachel and Marco, the latter of whom offered to trick Ax into giving up information. Jake was against this, and told the others that he still saw Ax as a friend and that he believed they should continue to help Ax learn about humanity so that Ax would see that he could trust them with information. As such, the Animorphs decided to buy Ax a book about humans, and the group pitched in their money for a book fund so that Marco could take Ax to a bookstore. Two days after the school incident, Jake and the others were informed by an irate Marco that when he had brought Ax to his house to get the money, Ax had tampered with the software his father had been writing for a radio telescope at the observatory. Jake joined the others as they morphed to birds-of-prey and flew to the woods to confront Ax. Demorphing, Jake listened as Marco yelled at Ax, who believed that the computer program had been a children's game, and Jake clarified that it had to do with Marco's father's work. Upon realizing that his changes to the radio telescope program would allow for something, the Animorphs asked Ax to elaborate, although Ax refused to do, causing the Animorphs to walk away.

The next morning, Jake read in the newspaper that a business man had seemingly gone crazy during a meeting and deduced that was another Controller who was starving to death. Later that day, Jake and the other Animorphs learned that Tobias was flying around with a piece of a bloody shirt on his talons and that he would not answer where it came from since he had made a promise. Knowing that none of them had made such a promise with Tobias, they realized it had been Ax, and Jake ordered a meeting at the barn. During the meeting, Ax confirmed that he was the one who had made Tobias promise not to say anything, much to the indignation of Marco and Rachel, who yelled at Ax for not being forthcoming and for treating them as inferior. Ax told them that he could not answer their questions due to a law that prevented Andalites from sharing technology with other species and explaining why they couldn't. Rachel moved to lash out at Ax, although Jake quickly grabbed her arm to stop her and gave Cassie a look. Jake then told Ax that he could understand the Andalites not wanting to share weapons technology but wanted to know why Ax could not share information that was vital to them, and Cassie remarked that it was because the Andalites had done something that they felt guilty and shameful for. Jake asked Ax what the Andalites had done, to which Ax merely replied that the Andalites were once kind when they should not have been kind. Jake inquired if that was all Ax would tell them, and when Ax nodded, Jake stated that he could not accept that. Jake ultimately told Ax that if was not going to be honest with them, he could not be a member of the Animorphs and would have to be on his own. Ax responded that he was grateful for how wonderful they had been to him and admitted that they would not have been together for much longer anyway before walking out of the barn.

The next day, Jake and the other Animorphs were approached by Tobias, who asked Jake to "order him" to answer questions regarding Ax, which Jake complied with. Tobias then revealed that he and Ax had gone to the observatory and that Ax had been entrusted with a mission to assassinate Visser Three at a meadow. Knowing that Ax was in danger by dealing with Visser Three and his guards by himself, Jake and the other Animorphs followed Tobias to the meadow, where they assumed their battle morphs. Jake morphed into a Siberian tiger and climbed up a tree, where he waited for the opportune moment before taking down a Hork-Bajir-Controller. Tobias coordinated their movements as Marco and Cassie took down other Hork-Bajir-Controllers, and the group, including Ax, converged on a weakened Visser Three, whom Ax had envenomated using a rattlesnake morph. However, Visser Three escaped from his Andalite host body by slithering out of his ear and into a nearby stream, leaving the Andalite warrior free. Weakened by the venom, the Andalite, who was War-Prince Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, asked Ax to kill him, although Ax refused as he could not bring himself to kill an uninfested Andalite. With Yeerk reinforcements on the way, Jake ordered a retreat, and the Animorphs and Ax escaped from the meadow, knowing that the next time they saw Alloran again, he would once again be the host body of Visser Three.

Two days later, Jake and the other Animorphs were invited by Ax to join him in the woods. Ax decided that he would tell them everything he knew, and began with the Law of Seerow's Kindness. He explained that Seerow was the Andalite who headed the first expedition to the Yeerk homeworld, and that Seerow felt bad that the Yeerks, as an intelligent, sapient species, were incapable of traveling the stars. Cassie realized that Seerow had given the Yeerks advanced technology, and that this must be the shame and guilt that the Andalites had, which Ax confirmed. Ax added that the Yeerk Empire had taken over billions of individuals and that it was all because of the Andalites, and Marco brought up that Elfangor had broken Seerow's Kindness, to which Ax stated that he had taken the blame on Elfangor's behalf. Ax believed that the Animorphs would despite the Andalites, and Jake told Ax that Seerow had just tried to do a good thing while hoping for the best before adding that he still wanted Ax to be a member of the team and to be honest with them. Marco also chimed in and claimed that Seerow had helped out with the wrong species and that if Andalites wanted to travel the stars with another species, humans were the ideal race and that they would bring food. Ax remarked that humans might someday be greater than the Andalites, which Jake denied, stating that humans and Andalites would work together and learn from one another. Ax believed this would not be possible due to them two different species from two different worlds, which caused Tobias to ask Ax what the Andalites fought for; when Ax responded that it was for freedom, Tobias and the others echoed that they too fought for freedom.

Ax laughed and stated that humans had indeed succeeded in teaching Andalites something new, and that they were indeed fighting the same battle for the same goal. Ax agreed to tell the Animorphs anything they wanted to know, and Rachel pointed out that the Andalites on his planet might not agree with the idea. Ax admitted that they would be upset, and Tobias told Ax that Elfangor at the very least would be proud of him. Jake then asked Ax if he would be a member of their team, and Ax agreed. With their friendship restored^[13] and Ax now an official member of the Animorphs,^{[note 16]} Marco told Ax that there was a question that all of the Animorphs had been wondering, and asked how Ax could eat without a mouth. Ax revealed that Andalites ate through their hooves, as their hooves could absorb grass and water. Tobias remarked that this explained why Ax stuck a hoof in the water during his morning ritual, prompting the other Animorphs to ask what the morning ritual was, and Ax explained it to them.^[13] Ax also informed the team that Tobias was known as a nothlit, the Andalite word for one who was trapped in morph.^[24] Additionally, Ax also revealed that he had placed a call to his homeworld and had spoken with his superiors^[25] while at the observatory by using the radio telescope along with the software changes he had added to Marco's father's computer.^[13]

Logging Operations

While at school on a Friday, Jake overheard two guys claiming that they had been chased by a pair of rats, causing Jake to realize the rats had been Cassie and Rachel. Later that day, Jake was notified by Tobias that a meeting needed to be held that evening at Cassie's barn, and Jake informed the other Animorphs. As he and Marco rode their bikes to the farm, they discussed Spider-Man fighting Batman, with Jake believing that Batman would beat Spider-Man. Marco disagreed and remarked that Spider-Man would win, to which Jake claimed that Spider-Man's webs would not stick to the Batsuit and thus Batman would win. The boys entered the barn, where Rachel and Cassie were waiting for them, and Jake told Cassie about the story he heard about the rats, which she denied knowing anything about in a high, shrilly voice. Tobias then flew into the barn and notified them that he and Ax had become aware of a logging company that had built a command center in the woods. While Cassie cried about the loss of animal habitat and environment, Marco wondered why they cared, and Tobias elaborated that the logging camp was patrolled by armed guards and was also protected by a force field. Suspecting that it was the Yeerk Empire, Jake split the team into two, with him and Rachel morphing into a peregrine falcon and bald eagle respectively to fly with Tobias to the logging station while Cassie and Marco traveled on the ground in their wolf morphs.

Jake flew above the camp and observed the guards, and thought-spoke to Cassie and Marco when they arrived. As Cassie and Marco slowly made their way closer, they were spotted and shot at, with nets falling from a tree; while Cassie avoided her net, Marco was caught. Just then, Ax came out of his nearby hiding spot and used his tail blade to slice the net, freeing Marco, and the Animorphs retreated while Ax, Marco, and Cassie avoided gunfire from the human-Controllers. Arriving at the edge of the forest, Jake and Rachel landed and demorphed along with Marco and Cassie. The team discussed their next move, and Jake decided that they would have to stop the deforestation attempts since the forest was home to Tobias and Ax and was also useful for their efforts. Cassie retorted that the forest was important beyond that and they should save it for environmental purposes, prompting Marco to fire back that he did not care, and Jake tried to quell the argument by stating that it did not matter why each Animorph wanted to save the forest so long as the forest was saved. Cassie wondered how the Yeerk Empire had received legal permission to start logging, and as Marco scoffed that they had no reason to care, Cassie pointed out that if the Yeerk Empire did not have permission, they would be subject to attention from both the authorities and the media. With Marco speechless, Jake cocked his eyebrow at him and remarked that Cassie was a nicer person than Marco since she was not responding sarcastically. Jake and Cassie realized that they needed to find a way to enter the command center, and Cassie told them that they would have to be use a morph that was very small.

The next morning, on Saturday, Jake was visited by Tobias, who informed him that he had been watching the command center and that he had spotted termite holes in the wooden building; additionally, he had learned that the Controllers had transponders on their belts that allowed them to pass through the force field. Tobias told Jake that while the Controllers were renovating the command center, they had cut off some of the wooden parts of the building and had placed them outside of the force field, allowing Tobias to grab one of the soldier termites from the same colony and bring it to them. Jake acquired the termite and kept it in a glass vial before searching up termites on the Internet. Jake called a meeting with the others at the mall that day and arranged for himself, Marco, and Ax in his human morph to arrive as one group before "coincidentally" meeting up with Rachel and Cassie. Jake informed Marco and Ax of what Tobias had told him and allowed them to acquire the termite before placing the vial in his shirt pocket. The boys then went to the mall and visited the arcade before going to the food court, where Jake bought a plate of nachos for Ax. As Cassie and Rachel approached, Jake offered the empty plate of nachos in jest, which Ax claimed tasted like engine oil, prompting Jake, who had once told Ax not to eat cigarette butts or dryer lint, to add engine oil to the list as well. Jake then disclosed what Tobias had told him and quickly hissed at Ax not to say the word "Yeerks" in public. Jake assured a worried Cassie that termites were not like the ants they had once acquired and that Tobias had grabbed the termite from the same colony. Jake reminded them that they needed to infiltrate the command center to figure out how the Yeerk Empire had gotten permission to log and that they would not morph termites unless everyone was in agreement. Taking the termite vial out of his shirt pocket, Jake emptied the termite onto Rachel's palm as Rachel acquired it before passing it onto Cassie to acquire. The Animorphs made plans to infiltrate that very night, with Jake telling his parents he was sleeping over at Marco's house.^[5]

With Jake, Marco, and Ax having acquired great horned owl morphs,^{[note 17]} the Animorphs met up at the edge of the forest at 3 A.M. Jake told the team that he believed the owl morphs would be best due to their night time vision; Tobias bemoaned that he could not go with them due to his poor night vision, and Jake reminded Tobias that he had been the one to find a way into the command center and had obtained a termite from the colony for them to acquire and morph. As they stripped off their outer clothing and stood in their morphing outfits, Jake announced his plan: they would fly to the compound as great horned owls until arrived within two hundred yards of the compound, at which point they would demorph, crawl as close to the compound as they could, and remorph into termites in order to bypass the force field and enter the command center. Leaving Tobias behind, the five morph-capable Animorphs flew to the compound. As they landed within a safe distance and demorphed, Jake realized a flaw in his plan when he remarked that they could not get close enough to the compound as humans, nor could they morph into termites from two hundred yards away and crawl to the command center since termites could not move that fast. Ax suggested that he intentionally run across some Controllers as a distraction, thereby allowing the others to make their way toward the compound, but Jake told Ax that he needed to be part of the infiltration since there was a high chance of Yeerk computers being inside the building.

Jake asked the other Animorphs if anyone wanted to volunteer to be the distraction, and looked at Cassie, although she chose not to volunteer. Jake then decided to draw straws and picked four blades of grass and cut one short only for the others to pick the long straws. As he was left holding the short straw, Jake agreed to serve as the distraction and decided to use the wolf morph, and cautioned the others to be careful as he walked away. Jake morphed into the wolf and intentionally triggered the Controllers' attention before howling, giving the others an opportunity to infiltrate. Jake kept the Controllers distracted before he was eventually joined by Ax and the others, who had morphed into wolves to escape from the command center as they did not want to exit as termites. With Ax having temporarily disabled the force field, Jake and the other Animorphs ran out of the compound and escaped safely. Jake was then notified about Cassie's traumatic incident inside the termite colony after having to kill the termite queen, and was also told that the Yeerk Empire needed approval from a man named Farrand before they could proceed with their logging activities.

The next morning, Jake was with Marco when Tobias came to see him, and Tobias informed Jake that Cassie had gone to a skunk den to protect skunk babies. Jake, Marco, and Tobias arrived at the skunk den nearly two hours later, although Cassie was nowhere in sight. Realizing Cassie most likely morphed into a skunk and entered the den, Jake yelled out for Cassie, and when she responded in thought-speech, he warned her that she had nearly been in morph for two hours. As Cassie ran out of the skunk den and began demorphing, Jake yelled at her and reminded her that the Animorphs were a small army of only six members and that one of them had already been trapped in morph, adding that at least in Tobias' case it had happened while fighting the Yeerk Empire. He questioned Cassie's decision to risk trapping herself in morph to protect skunk babies, and Marco tried to calm Jake down by pulling him back and telling him that it was okay since Cassie had managed to demorph in time, although Jake spat out that it was no thanks to Cassie and that she had only avoided being trapped in morph due to Tobias. Jake then told Marco and Tobias to take a walk so he could talk to Cassie privately as he tried to tell Cassie that he could empathize with the trauma she had endured in termite morph and the nightmares that came with it, and told her to shut up when she tried to interrupt and claim that she was fine.

With his anger subsiding, Jake told Cassie that he and the other Animorphs cared about her and that they needed her. Cassie replied that they needed her to fight and brought up the idea of not fighting anymore as she had done enough, to which Jake responded that she had done far more than enough but that they needed to keep fighting against the Yeerk threat. Cassie simply uttered that the strong ate the weak and that humans always won against other animals, and that maybe it was time for the human race to lose. Jake told Cassie that he was not fighting to protect the human race but rather the humans that he knew and saw every day, such as his brother Tom, and rhetorically told Cassie to tell Tom that he was to continue being enslaved since it was humanity's time to lose. As he began walking away, Cassie told Jake that until her father returned the mother skunk in two days, she would still continue morphing the mother skunk as the skunk kits needed to imprint on their mother. Jake reminded her that she could not be in morph for that long, but Cassie remained adamant, stating that she needed to bring them food and ward off predators and that keeping them alive was something she needed to do. Tobias, who could still hear them due to his superior hawk hearing, told Jake that he would help watch the skunk kits, and Jake relented as he told Cassie that the Animorphs would save the skunks. Cassie thanked Jake and apologized for scaring him, telling him that she would be okay now, and Jake responded that he would be okay as well so long as Cassie was around him, causing Marco, who was also within hearing range, to make a gagging noise.

Later that evening, Rachel and Ax joined them at the skunk den as they discussed their plan to save the skunks. Getting a headache as he listened to Cassie, Rachel, and Ax discuss what animals humans ate, Jake told the group that they were going to be "mommy skunk" since the skunk kits were young and therefore needed to imprint on their "mother," adding that they could not have the kits be at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic since the kits would imprint on humans. Cassie then explained her plan, where Ax would morph into the mother skunk while they were at school while the others would take shifts after school and at nights, all while Tobias kept watch; since Tobias would be unable to leave and hunt, Cassie would bring frozen food for him to eat. Marco wondered why they were saving skunks and jokingly asked Cassie if they would get T-shirts and bumper stickers. Cassie responded that she knew it was stupid and that they did not need to help her, but Marco assured her that it was not stupid; Marco then added that he was not doing well in school and that his father believed he had joined a gang as he spent a lot of time away from home, remarking that he struggled to adequately sleep as he brought up his termite nightmare. As he stated that he was now spending his spare time to stop Farrand from being infested and joked about how the middle school years were tougher than he expected, Jake chimed in that it sounded like Marco was eager to help, which got a laugh out of Marco and the rest of the group.

Jake, along with Ax, Rachel, and Marco, acquired the mother skunk at the barn and spent the next two days morphing into the mother skunk to watch over the kits. During this time, Marco named the four baby skunks Joey, Johnny, Marky, and CJ, after Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Marky Ramone, and CJ Ramone of The Ramones, whom Marco considered the godfathers of rock music. On the third day, Jake and Rachel were notified by Marco and Ax that Farrand's visit had been rescheduled and that he was arriving at the Yeerk logging compound later that day. Following by his dog Homer, the Animorphs walked to the national forest and made their way to the skunk den to inform Cassie and Tobias, who were still watching over the kits as the mother skunk had yet to be released back into the wild. Homer ran ahead of Jake toward the skunks, causing Cassie to spray Homer in self-defense; Jake was disgusted by the smell as Cassie apologize to Jake, who refused to let Homer come near him and told Homer to run all the way back home. Jake grumbled how his parents were not going to be happy about Homer returning home smelling like skunk and asked the group to move to a different spot to get away from the awful skunk smell.

Jake informed Cassie and Tobias that Farrand would be arriving in an hour and that they had less than an hour to come with a plan and get into position. Rachel stated that the Yeerk Empire would not be leaving anything to chance and that they must already have a Yeerk in a vat at the compound waiting to infest Farrand when he arrived, although Ax wondered if maybe they would simply try and convince Farrand since the Yeerks preferred voluntary infestation and might not take the risk of trying to infest Farrand if they could avoid it. Tobias then interrupted them to notify them that of the sounds of engines, which Jake initially chalked up to the Controllers simply rearranging their vehicular equipment in neat rows for Farrand's visit before thinking it over and asking Tobias to go and check on the compound. As Tobias flew away to check, Jake reiterated that Farrand was the key as he decided whether the Yeerk Empire could start logging or not, to which Rachel uttered that the Yeerks might not let Farrand live if he refused. Cassie remarked that the Animorphs' job was therefore to keep Farrand alive while also preventing his infestation, which the group agreed to. Tobias then returned in alarm and warned them that the Controllers had already started using their machinery to cut down trees, which Jake and Rachel took as proof that Yeerk Empire were indeed planning to infest Farrand. As the other Animorphs discussed saving the skunk kits who would be in the path of the machines, Jake asked them if they had a plan on what to do, and Cassie suggested using the fact that the Controllers had turned off the force field so that Farrand could enter as a way to enter the compound themselves and grab Farrand before he could be infested.

Jake agreed with the plan but remarked that they also needed to find a way to stop the tree-cutting machines, and split them into two teams: he assigned Tobias and Cassie with getting to the compound by air while he, Rachel, Marco, and Ax traveled by ground. Jake led his team and they walked to their position, where he morphed into his Siberian tiger while Marco and Rachel assumed their wolf morphs. Jake ran toward to the compound as Farrand arrived but was unable to get there in time as Farrand was seized by human-Controllers. Jake then fought alongside Ax, Rachel, and Marco, the latter two having demorphed and remorphed into their usual battle morphs, and seized control of the tree-cutting vehicles. The Animorphs redirected them toward the compound so that it could destroy the command center, forcing the Controllers to put up the force field. As the vehicles strained to move against the force field, Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Ax took out a group of human and Hork-Bajir-Controllers. Standing just outside of the force field, the Animorphs saw that Visser Three was present, Farrand was unconscious, and that Cassie was in skunk morph, although he and the other Controllers had moved back, some of whom were gagging while others had run away. Using private thought-speech, Jake asked Cassie what had happened, and Cassie revealed that she had sprayed them. Jake then relayed this news to the others and asked Ax to communicate with Visser Three as he told Ax to inform the Visser that they would be making a deal: in exchange for Visser Three letting Cassie and Farrand go, in addition to bringing Farrand to a hospital safely, they would tell him how to get rid of the skunk stench. The Visser reluctantly complied and had his subordinates drive Farrand to a hospital, with Tobias following from the air. Jake made his way to the hospital and morphed into a fly as he hid in Farrand's hospital room, where he witnessed Farrand regain consciousness and make a phone call to reject Dapsen Lumber Company's permit application while also threatening to press charges against them; Jake also overheard Farrand claim that he had seen the spirit of a giant skunk with the eyes of a human girl. With Farrand safe and the logging permit denied, the Animorphs "held up" their end of the bargain by telling Visser Three that grape juice was the key component in neutralizing skunk stench.

The next day, Jake and the other Animorphs helped Cassie return the mother skunk to her den, where they watched as the mother skunk walked away with her kits. As they began making their way out of the forest, Jake noticed that Cassie was quiet and hung back to let the others go ahead so he could speak to Cassie alone. He asked if she missed being a skunk mommy, claiming that she did not look happy, and asked what was bothering her. Cassie told Jake that she was struggling to make sense of the favt that Tobias had eaten one of the skunk kits yet had helped her protect the rest, how she had felt bad for killing the termite queen in order to save her friends yet had no issue attacking Visser Three to save her friends, how she had morphed a rat to defend a rat but then had fed mice to Tobias, and once again reiterated that Tobias had protected skunks he would usually have tried to eat and wondered how it all fit into the same system. Jake was taken aback and stammed that he did not know what to say, and Cassie asked if he could at least answer whether she was to live by the laws of nature, which included kill or be killed, or if she was to abide by something else as she was human. Jake pondered the question as they walked in silence before he told Cassie that both would apply, which Cassie remarked was not a helpful answer. Jake then told Cassie that while every animal looked out for themselves, humans were the only animals with the intelligence and power to save all the other species, causing Cassie to state that Jake was pretty smart sometimes as Jake joked about her saying "sometimes." Cassie mused that while he was correct, humans had to first save themselves and that she found the situation to be complicated. Just then, Tobias, who had been spying on the Yeerk logging compound, landed near them and revealed that Visser Three had spent most of the night and well into the day in a pit filled with truckloads of grape juice and that the smell had not gone away. Cassie wondered if maybe they should have told Visser Three the truth that it was tomato juice that would help neutralize the skunk stench^{[5][note 18]} and not grape juice, prompting Jake and the others to laugh as they decided otherwise.^[5]

Quest for the Pemalite Crystal

Investigating Erek King

To be added

Meeting the Chee

To be added

Matcom Infiltration

To be added

Amazon Sario Rip

To be added

Jeremy Jason McCole Investigation

To be added

Hork-Bajir Liberation

To be added

Zone 91 Infiltration

To be added

Royan Island Expedition

To be added

Chat Room Investigation

To be added

Drug Warfare

To be added

Battle of Leera

To be added

In the Time of Dinosaurs

To be added

Cassie's Departure

To be added

David Dilemma

To be added

Embracing Leadership

As the battle with the Yeerks went on, Jake was forced into situations that tested his leadership skills and made him start to make some tough decisions like deciding on how to deal with Tom on one occasion attempting to take out his father and teaming up with Visser Three to escape an underwater civilization.

He even once found himself in a possible future where the Yeerks won the war, which had taken a toll on all of the Animorphs, especially Cassie, who became more brutal and calculating than her original pacifist nature.

Losing his Family

When the Animorphs realize that the Yeerks finally realize that the “Andalite bandits” are actually humans, the Animorphs plan to run away and take their individual families to the hidden Hork-Bajir valley for safety. Although Rachel’s and Cassie’s families are taken to safety, Tom’s Yeerk manages to infest both of his parents beforehand and set up a trap for Jake. Before escaping, Jake morphs into falcon in front of the Yeerks, wanting to show that he has been fighting all along to inspire fear in the Yeerks and hope in his family that he will rescue them.

Endgame

Proposing to Cassie

Jake proposed to Cassie before the final battle against the Yeerks, although she suggests that he ask her again a year after the war ends, unsure of whether Jake can live a normal life post-war, should they survive.

One Final Plan

During the final days of the Yeerk War, Tom’s Yeerk gives Jake a deal: allowing Tom’s Yeerk, along with a hundred of other Controllers, to take the Blade Ship and an Escafil device to make war on another species in exchange for giving Jake and the other Animorphs a way to enter the Pool Ship, control it, and defeat the Yeerks once and for all as well as promising the freedom of Jake’s parents and Tom. However, Jake is aware that Tom's Yeerk is planning to betray them and concocts a countermeasure, doing his own version of the plan while secretly ordering Rachel to follow Tom’s Yeerk.

Jake’s plan succeeds and ultimately ends the war with the Yeerks, but not without a cost. Not only were seventeen thousands of Yeerks killed in the Pool Ship’s central pool, but Rachel was forced to kill Tom, shortly before she, herself, is killed.

Post-War

2000

To be added

2001

After the war, Jake is idolized as a national hero and is coveted by various colleges, brand deals and government institutions, although Jake refuses, become withdrawn and depressed, living with his parents, who are now freed, and visiting Rachel's memorial at night, sitting there for hours and hoping for Tobias to show up. Additionally, he and Cassie are no longer together.

Trial of Visser One

Jake, along with Marco, Cassie, and Ax, are called to testify against Visser One. During Jake's testimony, Esplin's lawyer dubs Jake a war criminal for his actions during the war, which bothers Jake. The other three Animorphs knock Jake unconscious and dump him into the ocean, forcing Jake to morph into dolphin, hoping that the dolphin's natural joy would override Jake's depression, although it fails. As Jake rages, he explains that being branded a war criminal bothers him, and reveals that he relished flushing the 17,000 Yeerks into space, which, while understandable to Marco and Ax, causes Cassie to become further distant with him.

2003

Realizing it was time to move on with his life, that none of his action wouldn’t bring back Tom or Rachel, Jake got a job for the Department of Defense, working as a morphing professor. He also wrote his own biography about the Yeerk War, telling people more about Rachel and Tobias. Using the money from those sales, he bought a house for his parents and moved to a house closer to Marco, where they started hanging out again.

A New Mission

Jake developed a personality similar to Rachel by this point, becoming reckless, ruthless and enjoying war and the subsequent violence, a trait noticed by both Cassie and Marco. When Jake discovers that Ax has been kidnapped, Jake relishes the idea of entering another war, citing it as a lifeline for him, with Cassie surprised that she did not notice how much Jake's demeanor resembles Rachel's. After more than six months captaining the Rachel, a state-of-the-art Yeerk ship named by Tobias, Jake encounters a Blade ship—one containing the last fugitives from the Yeerk empire. Ax's captor, a monstrous being of unknown origin known only as "The One", makes its unsettling appearance through a communication channel between the Blade ship and the Rachel. Undaunted, Jake gives his final order, instructing the pilot to power up their engines and ram the larger ship.

Personality

At the beginning of the Animorphs series, Tobias announces to the team that he thinks that Jake should be their leader. The other Animorphs quickly agree, and Jake reluctantly accepts the position. Few would disagree that he is naturally fit for the job, as he is brave, responsible, cool under pressure, and able to take charge during a crisis. He is described by his cousin Rachel as a person who can give orders without sounding overly bossy. At first, Jake doesn't view himself as a leader, and thus isn't willing to accept the role, but when he learns that his older brother Tom is a Controller, his desire to save his brother serves as the fuel to his unyielding determination in his fight against the Yeerks.

In the first book, Jake is the only character with pre-existing ties to each of the other Animorphs; Rachel is his cousin; there was a mutual attraction between him and Cassie; Marco is his best friend; Tobias was rescued by him from bullies sometime before the series began and had a mild case of hero-worship towards Jake. While Ax didn't appear until the fourth volume, The Message, Ax quickly accepts Jake as his "Prince" ("Prince" being a rank in the Andalite military hierarchy) and is deeply loyal to him. Jake's status as Ax's Prince led to a recurring joke between them:

One of Jake's more harrowing experiences occurs when he is infested by a Yeerk, Temrash 114. Fortunately Ax realizes something was wrong (because Jake's face momentarily twists into an expression of disgust when he sees Ax), and the Animorphs tie Jake up for three days until Temrash dies of Kandrona starvation. Jake gets his first glimpse of Crayak when Temrash died. He is also left with partial memory imprints of Temrash and his former hosts: a Gedd, a Hork-Bajir, and his brother Tom (who is now host to another Yeerk).

As the leader of the small band of guerrilla warriors, his leadership, his choices and mistakes, and the responsibility he assumes are recurring themes in the Animorphs series. Despite his best efforts, Jake never attains his main goal for joining the fight: saving his brother from Yeerk infestation. After he fails to save Tom from the Yeerks, he is left emotionally damaged and unable to lead. Before the final battle, Cassie manages to lift him out of it, but her success is short-lived. Eventually, Jake's personality becomes very much like his cousin Rachel's, to the point where he employs ruthless and reckless decisions and smiles amidst the carnage, unable to live without a war, with the similarity noted by both Cassie and Marco.

Physical Appearance

Jake was described as having a big, strong-looking build.^[21][14][19] He had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, and was White.^[8] According to Marco, Jake had "sensible brown hair, and trustworthy brown eyes, and one of those confident chins."^[7] At the age of thirteen, he was noted to look at least two years older than he was. He also had broad shoulders.^[19] According to Tobias, Jake was big and solid, but did not have the build of a football player,^[14] with Cassie remarking that Jake was big but not "hulking big."^[19] However, a classmate referred to Jake's physicality as being more suitable for football than basketball.^[3] Due to Jake's stature, Marco gave him the nickname "Big Jake." When he was thirteen, Jake was described as being fairly tall for his age,^[3] and by the time he was sixteen, Jake's height was just short of 6'0".^[1]

Relationships with the other Animorphs

Marco

Jake and Marco had been best friends for years before the war, and generally maintained a close relationship throughout the series, despite several tests of their friendship. Towards the end of the war, Jake and Marco's friendship suffers. In the post-war period, Marco is concerned for his friend and makes a plan with Cassie to try to get through to him.

Cassie

Jake and Cassie were attracted to each other ever since the start of the series, and their relationship kept growing as the series progressed. They end up kissing in The Attack, and admit the depth of their feelings for each other. After they kiss, Rachel remarks, "It's about time.". However, they grow apart towards the end of the series due to Jake's depression and his distrust of Cassie after she allows Tom to escape with the Escafil device. They make up before the very end of the series, and Jake even asks Cassie to marry him in The Answer, but she declines, saying she would marry him "a year after this is all over." At the time, Cassie correctly suspected that Jake had been changed by the war, and after it's over, he becomes too entrenched in depression and guilt to be able to pursue a romantic relationship.

Rachel

Despite being cousins, Jake and Rachel weren't particularly close until they became Animorphs, with both of them eventually loving the other. Jake found Rachel to be very beautiful and attractive, although he tried to not think about this as she was his cousin. As the war progressed, Jake became worried about Rachel's violent nature, and Rachel occasionally found herself wishing to challenge Jake's leadership, despite respecting him as her leader. Overall though, the two got along very well and were mostly on the same side of arguments. After Rachel's death, Jake mourned her passing deeply, often visiting her grave late at night and spending hours there in silence. He eventually came to adopt Rachel's demeanor, craving war and employing reckless tactics.

Tobias

Before Jake became an Animorph, he helped Tobias escape from bullies, and because of this, Tobias looks up to Jake and has a deep respect for him, almost never questioning his decisions. But after the end of the series, Tobias is unable to forgive Jake for his part in Rachel's death, although they make amends, Tobias realizing he cannot muster the rage he believes he should harbor towards Jake and putting aside feelings of animosity in order to save Ax.

Ax

Ax deeply respects Jake, and calls him his "prince." This is a running joke between the two, as Jake is biologically younger than Ax, and holds no real rank. However, Ax does respect Jake's position as leader, and at times, Jake uses his "rank" to overrule Ax's objections. While Jake keeps a certain distance from Ax, as he is Ax's commander, there is a strong bond between the two. Jake is protective of Ax, believing him to be a soldier under his command, and therefore Jake's responsibility (when Ax is kidnapped in the final book, Jake describes him as "one of mine").

David

To be added

Morphs

Morph	Book Acquired
Golden Retriever (Homer)	The Invasion
Green Anole Lizard
Siberian Tiger
Peregrine Falcon	The Visitor
Flea
Wolf	The Encounter
Trout
Bottlenose Dolphin	The Message
Seagull
American Lobster	The Predator
Black Garden Ant
American Cockroach	The Capture
Housefly
Termite (acquired but never used)	The Secret
Great Horned Owl[note 17]
Skunk
Brown Bat	The Android
Spider Monkey (unusable; Sario Rip morph)	The Forgotten
Jaguar (unusable; Sario Rip morph)
Racehorse	The Unknown
Parrot (white)	The Escape
Hammerhead Shark
Rhinoceros	The Warning
Mole	The Underground
Mosquito	The Decision
Leeran
Tyrannosaurus Rex (unusable; Sario Rip morph)	In the Time of Dinosaurs
Dragonfly	The Threat
Human (adult male)
Giant Anteater	The Suspicion
Baby Ringed Seal	The Extreme
Polar Bear (Nanook)
Howler	The Attack
Giant Squid	The Exposed
Chimpanzee	The Experiment
Eel	The Sickness
War Horse (unusable; timeline erased)	Elfangor's Secret
Hork-Bajir	The Prophecy
Squirrel	The Proposal
Cockatiel
Orca (Swoosh)	The Mutation
North American Beaver	The Resistance
Anaconda	The Answer

Books Narrated by Jake

The Invasion The Capture The Andalite's Gift The Forgotten The Warning In the Time of Dinosaurs

The Departure The Threat The Attack Elfangor's Secret The Conspiracy The Mutation

Back to Before The Familiar The Resistance The Answer The Beginning

Trivia

• In the original idea for the series, Jake's name was going to be Matt and he was going to have a little brother named Joseph.

• 

  According to the official Scholastic background profile, Jake's original career goal was to either be a medical doctor (like his father) or to become a Navy pilot.^[26]
• Jake's real WAA username is close to being Bball24.^{[note 1]} It is a reference to his best basketball game, where he scored 24 points.
• Jake has the most books in the series, narrating 17 books in total.
  • He also narrates a small portion of Cassie's book The Departure due to Cassie being stuck in a chrysalis as a butterfly.
• Jake owns a Sega,^[8] is a big fan of the NBA,^[3] and believes Batman to be superior to Spider-Man,^[5] while Marco prefers PlayStation, college basketball, and Spider-Man.
• In the Anibase, K.A. Applegate had this to say about a very memorable scene in The Attack:
  • "The Jake and Cassie kiss was not only something Ani-Fans had wanted for a long time, it was our small homage to the first interracial kiss on TV, the famous Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Uhura moment. That long-ago kiss ignited a storm of angry response. For us, we always got lots of fan mail, and not a single letter that we ever saw complained about the kiss between a black character and a white character. Mostly what readers said was, 'It's about time!'"

Gallery

"Someone took a picture of me? Not cool. Do you see what I'm wearing? I'm Spandex-boy. Totally not cool." The image gallery for Jake Berenson may be viewed here

Notes

References

Animorphs
Animorphs	Jake | Rachel | Tobias | Cassie | Marco | Ax | David
Auxiliary Animorphs	James | Collette | Timmy | Kelly | Craig | Erica | Julio | Liam | Tricia | Jessie | Judy | Ray