A pit bull is no match for you, a killing machine. You leap forward with the high-pitched, almost-human cry of the animal.
ERRRR-UP! EURRR-UP! RRR-UP!
Your teeth find the pit bull’s leg. You chomp down and hit bone. Snarling, the pit bull turns. That exposes its neck, and you pounce. You have Visser Three in your jaws. You savor the moment.
What you didn’t count on was Patrolman Teeter.
He has been on the school beat for ten years. He loves the kids. He protects them from bullies, stray dogs, and fast cars.
He certainly isn’t going to let a hyena endanger them.
He runs up behind you and pulls his gun.
Bang! You’re dead.
Bad morph. You should have thought about Patrolman Teeter. Visser Three is still alive, and you’re just a dead hyena.
A K-9 dog is highly trained for tracking. It is also trained in defense. It is a match for a pit bull.
But is it a match for a pit bull controlled by Visser Three?
The evil force of Visser Three joins with the powerful jaws and killing instinct of the pit bull. The combined force turns the animal into a creature three times as deadly.
You leap on the dog’s back. You are bigger, and you use your bulk to force the dog down. You sink your teeth into the fur around his neck and pull him off Marco’s mother.
The two of you roll backward. Patrolman Teeter runs forward. But he won’t draw his gun, not on two dogs.
All you hear are the snarls of your adversary. You smell blood and terror. The terror is yours. You realize that you are outmatched.
The pit bill’s teeth rip into your throat. You can’t bark. You can’t speak. You try to morph back, but your life force is ebbing.
RIP — you’re dead. Go back to the end of chapter 22 and try again.
You leap behind a tree to accomplish your giraffe morph. Your legs grow so rapidly that you crack your head on a branch. Your neck stretches. Your skin is patterned with tan and brown.
With a clatter of hooves, you take off toward Marco’s mother. You are there in three powerful strides.
Giraffes are peaceful creatures. Patrolman Teeter is stunned to see one appear, but he doesn’t go for his gun. He would never shoot a giraffe.
You turn your back to the dog to give yourself greater kicking power. He launches himself at you, but he can only reach your leg. You shake him off, you pull back your leg, and —
WHAM! You knock Visser Three into next week.
FLASH!
“— onions on it, too?” Mom asks you. She is stirring a pot of tomato sauce at the kitchen stove.
She turns when you don’t answer. “Sweetie? Do you want onions on the pizza?”
“Sure,” you say. “Everything. But I have to go to Jake’s for a minute. I forgot my … homework.”
“It’s Saturday.”
“Yeah,” you say, and run out.
“Ask him over for dinner!” your mom yells as you hop on your bike. You ride like the wind. You find Jake and Ax in the bedroom. Ax is only halfway through his licorice whip. You spill out your story.
“We were all there?” Jake asks. “And I knew I was in a second Sario Rip?”
You nod. “And when we went back in time, Marco and I both knew we were in the wrong time. Marco knew his mother was dead. Gone. Whatever.”
Jake looks at Ax. “Does any of this make sense to you?”
Ax chews on the licorice and swallows. “No. Except for the motive of Visser Three. He manipulated the Sario Rip to go back farther in time.”
“He knew it would happen?” Jake asks.
“He was trying to kill his enemy’s host before it became the host,” Ax explains. “You see, some hosts are better than others. Obviously, Visser One has found a host that has extraordinary abilities. I also guess that Visser Three might have known you were aboard in some kind of morphs. That was a trap. Since he thinks you are Andalites, perhaps he thought he could send you back. That way, he would be prepared that first night when my brother, Elfangor, landed. He would make sure to kill you. Or else you would not be there at all. Alter the past, alter the future. He was willing to take the risk.”
Jake groans. “So I fell into another trap in the Amazon? Great! I can’t even be smart in someone else’s Sario Rip!”
“But it turned out well, Prince Jake,” Ax points out. “Visser Three was stopped by the giraffe morph. That is why the whole thing never happened. He returned to the original time of the rip so that he wouldn’t be stopped. The good news is that Marco’s mother was not killed. So Visser One is still Visser Three’s enemy. Which is good for us. To have them fighting for power distracts Visser Three.”
“But I don’t get it,” you say. “If I was in Visser Three’s rip, why do I remember it? And why did you and Jake remember some of it back in the Amazon?”
Ax thoughtfully braids a licorice ribbon, then bites off a piece. “Muffmsx.”
“Is that Andalite language?” Jake asks.
“No, it is a mouthful of licorice,” Ax responds. “The answer is, I do not know. My guess is that there can be breaks in the rip. Like this.”
He holds up a braid of licorice. Light shines through the holes. “I was not paying attention the —”
“— day Sario Rips were taught,” you finish. “We know!”
Ax shrugs. “Someday we might figure it out. But you are alive. You saved Marco’s mother. That is the important thing. We have lived to fight another day.”
“Ax is right,” Jake tells you. “You have to take what you can get, these days. Worry about the things you can do
