The Capture (Animorphs)

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Animorphs Books
The Capture
Narrator	Jake
Number	#6
Release date	February 1997
Cover art	Jake morphing into a housefly
Cover quote	Now, he's one of them...
Author	K. A. Applegate
Illustrator	David B. Mattingly
Pages	154
Preceded by	The Predator
Followed by	The Stranger

The Capture is the sixth book in the Animorphs series.

[edit] Plot summary

The Animorphs morph cockroaches to infiltrate a meeting of The Sharing. They discover that the Yeerks have infested an entire hospital staff and are using them to turn patients into Controllers. Not only that, but next week their state's governor - who is a Presidential candidate - will be checking in for surgery.

The Animorphs morph houseflies to infiltrate the hospital, and discover a Jacuzzi that has been converted into a miniature Yeerk Pool. Jake demorphs to human and turns the Jacuzzi on to kill the Yeerks, but the Animorphs are discovered by the Controllers. In the subsequent fight Jake is hit by a bullet ricochet and his head falls in the pool. He is infested by a Yeerk named Temrash 114 who seeks to escape death.

The Animorphs escape from the hospital into the woods, and Jake panics as he realizes that none of his friends have noticed anything different about him. Fortunately, Ax notices something amiss and acuses Jake of being a Controller. Temrash loses his cool and insults Ax, and the others realise he is indeed a Controller.

The others decide to hold him for three days until Temrash dies of Kandrona starvation. In the meantime, Ax morphs Jake and takes his place at home and school. The others tie Jake to a chair in an abandoned shack out in the forest, but Temrash still has access to all of Jake's morphs. He morphs to tiger in the night and escapes. He becomes lost in the forest and morphs to falcon to try and fly away, but Cassie stops him as a great horned owl.

Temrash morphs to wolf and again tries to escape, but is stopped by a rival wolf pack. Rachel escorts him back to the shack in elephant morph.

Temrash begins to taunt Jake, revealing that he was once the Yeerk controlling Jake's brother Tom. Jake tells him that he will never give up.

The next morning Temrash again tries to escape, this time as an ant, but is forced back by an enemy ant colony. Temrash begins to die of Kandrona starvation. As he does, Jake shares his pain, and in the final hours catches his first terrifying glimpse of Crayak.

Jake returns to his family to find that he has apparently been acting strangely lately, because Ax is unused to being in human morph. A few days later he morphs partway to wolf (to disguise his voice) and telephones Tom to give him a message of hope.

[edit] New morphs

• Jake: cockroach, housefly
• Rachel: cockroach, housefly, great horned owl
• Cassie: cockroach, housefly, great horned owl, flea
• Marco: cockroach, housefly
• Ax: cockroach, housefly
• Visser Three: human

[edit] Trivia