The Decision (Animorphs)

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The Decision
Ax morphing into a mosquito
Author	K. A. Applegate
Cover artist	David B. Mattingly
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Animorphs #18
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Scholastic
Publication date	April 1998
Media type	Print
Pages	161
ISBN	0-590-49441-4
Preceded by	The Underground
Followed by	The Departure

The Decision is the eighteenth book in the Animorphs series, written by K.A. Applegate. It is narrated by Ax.

[edit] Plot summary

The Animorphs discover that Hewlett Aldershot the Third has been run over by controllers and is being kept secretly in a hospital where he is heavily guarded. They decide to morph mosquitoes with the theory that they can acquire him by sucking his blood without being in their natural forms where the yeerk guards might notice them. When they do, they are transported to Z-Space when their extra mass is caught in the slipstream of an Andalite ship heading for the Leera where there is a Yeerk invasion underway. Right before they suffocate, they are rescued and taken aboard. Unfortunately, the commander of the ship is a traitor and the ship gets blown up. The Animorphs head across the major landmass of Leera to try to find friendly Andalites. Tobias mysteriously disappears and the rest go over the ocean. Rachel disappears and the rest meet some Leerans who they acquire. Then they get told that the Andalites have planted a bomb but that they need to go to activate it and Cassie disappears. Marco disappears and they meet a Leeran-Controller who reads their minds and discovers their plans. When they get to the bomb, Jake disappears leaving Ax alone. He activates the bomb but a bunch of armed Hork-Bajir appear to disarm it. The Hork-Bajir fires at him but he disappears right before the beam hits him. The bomb goes off right after he disappears. Somehow all the Animorphs arrived back to the hospital where they were before they got sucked into Z-Space.

[edit] Morphs

In chapter 15, in the battle for control of the Ascalin, several of the Animorphs are hidden in fly and cockroach morphs. The book never specifically indicates which of them was what insect.

[edit] Trivia

• An important part of the story involves Ax's despair when he sees Visser Three morph into a Kafit bird, a species of bird native to the Andalite home world and found only there. Ax reacts by immediately assuming that the Yeerks had managed to infiltrate the Andalite home world, in his mind, the last safe place in the galaxy. However, Ax fails to consider the possibility that the Kafit was a morph acquired by Alloran-Semitur-Corass, Visser Three's host body, before he became a Controller; according to Ax himself, the Kafit is a popular morph among young Andalite Arisths.
• In chapter 24, when Marco asks why the Animorphs must be the ones that go and arm the quantum bombs, Commander Galuit responds that despite all Andalite warriors being morph-capable, few ever acquire morphs or use them, as the ability is mainly exploited by Andalite spies; of the few Andalites that were present on Leera, none had the variety of morphs the Animorphs possessed. This suggests that out of all morph-capable beings, the Animorphs are among those who most use their ability.
• There is an editing mistake in chapter 23: on page 131, the Animorphs demorph from their Leeran forms ("We demorphed."). Despite this, as well as Ax's introducing the Animorphs as humans, when Galuit asks Jake for their help in taking the planet back from the Yeerks, Jake replies in thought-speak ("<Yes,> Prince Jake said.").
• The inside front cover quote is, "Ax is about to bug out...."
• The front cover quote is, "Change a little. Change a lot. Just change...."