<Subjects: A>

A Reason to Fight

Page numbers in parentheses are for the rereleased editions.

“I decided that I don’t care what it takes, or how many risks I have to run. I don’t care what happens to me. I hate these Yeerks. I hate them. I hate them. And I will find a way to stop them.” ~ Rachel, Book #2 pg. 110

“There isn’t much point in doing any of this if we forget why we’re doing it.” ~ Cassie, Book #2 pg. 115 (116)

“Something about the lonely, defeated, yet courageous Andalite prince touched me so deeply that I could never regret fighting to settle the score.” ~ Tobias, Book #3 pg. 11

“Since all of you guys think you have to save the world, and since you’re all my friends, more or less, I figure someone has to keep you from being total idiots.” ~ Marco, Book #3 pg. 15

“There are human beings all over, trapped in bodies controlled by Yeerks. Trapped. Unable to escape. Rachel, I know how they feel. Maybe I can’t escape. Maybe I am trapped forever. But if we can free some of those others. Maybe...I don’t know. Maybe that’s what I need to do to stay human.” ~ Tobias, Book #3 pg. 102

Warning: Spoilers for rerelease from this point to the next section.

“Aren’t lost causes sometimes the best causes, Elfangor?” ~ Arbron, AC pg. 154

“It’s not so bad to die for what you believe in. There are much worse deaths. Many worse deaths.” ~ Aftran, Book #29 pg. 148

      “They’re here because of me.”
      “No.” Yami’s grandfather touched my arm.
      I looked down, startled.
      He drew a sharp breath. His face twisted in pain, but his eyes stayed bright and alert.
      “They’re here because they’re evil.” His voice was a low rasp. “You fight these creatures, yes?”
      I nodded. “Yes.”
      “If you did not fight them, do you think they would leave us alone? Do you think they would stay away from this place and never hurt us? No. They would come. They would take our land, destroy our home. Our life would be gone forever. This I know.” He swallowed. “Do everything you can, and anything you must.” He closed his eyes. “I only wish I could help.”
      I touched his cheek. “You already have,” I said.
[Book #44 pg. 119]

“Okay. The Yeerks want Earth. Well, they can’t have it.” ~ Jake, Book #46 pg. 22

      “Ah, the glamorous life of a soldier,” Marco said, keeping an eye on the door.
      <Not so much worse than the lives of some of the crew on board this carrier,> Tobias said. <Guys who work flight deck get hazardous duty pay on top of their regular sea pay.>
      <You see, that’s what I’m saying,> Marco pressed. <What do we get for risking our butts? Nothing. Nada.>
      <What about the satisfaction of knowing you’re protecting the freedom of all human beings?> Cassie asked.
      <Huh. Well, there is that.>
[Book #46 pg. 54

“Jake didn’t understand any of it any better than the rest of us did. If he defeated the Yeerks, freed humanity, rescued Earth, that was good. But that was a bonus. His main goal was much simpler. To save his family. That goal was what had given him strength. That goal was what had kept him sane. Allowed him to retain a center of calm focus amid the awful chaos.” ~ Tobias, Book #49 pg.103

“This is not the time for panic. It is the time for each of us to reach into our souls and pull out the courage we may not even know we possess. Our enemy is strong. But we are stronger, because we are fighting for our lives and our freedom. For our very existence.” ~ the governor, Book #51 pg. 149

Aliens

Page numbers in parentheses are for the rereleased editions.

Warning: Spoilers for rerelease from this point to the next section.

“Hork-Bajir have no enemy. No prey. Hork-Bajir not kill. Yeerk kill. Yeerk kill Andalite. Andalite kill Yeerk. Hork-Bajir die.” ~ Jara Hamee, Book #13 pg. 94

“Skrit Na are constantly going to peaceful planets and kidnapping the local species. Sometimes they perform medical experiments on them. Sometimes they just fly around with them and then let them go. But often they carry local creatures away to add them to zoos on the Skrit Na home world. Like I said: a weird species. No one understands the Skrit Na. Personally, I don’t think they understand themselves.” ~ Elfangor, AC pg. 24

“Those darn aliens still won’t let me sleep.” ~ Crazy Helen, Book #14 pg. 10

      <Do you inhabit this continent?>
      <Well...> Prince Jake said. <That’s kind of a long story. Um, Ax? You probably can explain better than I can.>
      <Yes, Prince Jake. We are from the future,> I said.
      <Hey, that’s a much better explanation than Jake could have come up with,> Marco said. <“We are from the future.” Thank goodness we have a brilliant alien Space-boy here who can explain things.>
      <The future?> the Mercora said. <How far in the future?>
      <A...a long, long way,> I responded.
      <Not to get all technical or anything,> Marco said dryly.
[MM #2 pg. 153]

“We may be simple people. But we don’t use biology to invent monsters. And we don’t enslave other species. And we don’t unleash a plague of parasites on the galaxy, endangering every other free species, and then go swaggering around like the lords of the universe. No, we’re too simple for all that. We’re too stupid to lie and manipulate. We’re too stupid to be ruthless. We’re too stupid to know how to build powerful weapons designed to annihilate our enemies. Until you came, Andalite, we were too stupid to know how to kill.” ~ Dak Hamee, HBC pg. 172

“The Pemalites may have been the most advanced species ever to exist in the history of the universe. So advanced they forgot all about primitive stuff like wars and worry and sadness.” ~ Marco, Book #25 pg. 11

      <Maybe we should try to channel the Helmacron personality,> Tobias suggested. <They aren’t afraid of being small.>
      <Maybe they think small is scary,> Cassie said.
      <Then they’re going to be terrified of us.>
      <Now what?>
      <Let’s try to reason with them first,> Jake said.
      <Oh, yeah.> I laughed. <That will work.>
      <We don’t want them shooting Dracon beams if we can avoid it,> Jake said. <And Tobias, watch those blades.>
      We marched forward until we were standing right beneath the Helmacrons. They paid us zero attention.
      Jake addressed them. <Surrender now! Surrender, and we’ll let you live as our defiled beasts of burden. Resist us and—and we’ll sneeze in your general direction!>
      <Very original,> Tobias whispered.
      <You call that reasoning?>
      <Reasoning Helmacron-style,> Jake explained.
[Book #42 pg. 63]

      <Perhaps our basic assumption is incorrect.>
      <What assumption?> Tobias said. <You go into an airless environment, you suffocate. Where’s the big debate?>
      <The bloodstream isn’t airless,> Cassie said. <Blood contains oxygen. The main purpose of blood is to carry oxygen around the body.>
      “Yeah, but you’d have to be a fish to breathe it,” Jake argued.
      <You’d need specialized lungs.>
      “How do we know the Helmacrons aren’t fish?” I asked, knowing in a flash that we’d royally screwed up. “The Helmacron home world could be an aquarium somewhere in Iowa for all we know.”
      <They walk on dry ground,> Tobias said.
      “Maybe they’re, you know, those animals that can live in water and on land,” I suggested. “Like frogs. Or turtles.”
      <Amphibians,> Cassie said.
      <Or maybe they do not breathe at all,> Ax said.
      “How can you be alive and not breathe?” I argued.
      Ax blinked his main eyes at me. <Trees are alive and they do not actually breathe.>
      “If Helmacrons don’t breathe, why do they have noses?” Jake.
      <It is possible the organ has another use,> Ax said. <Although it is hard to imagine what it would be.>
      “This from a boy who eats with his feet,” I said dryly.
[Book #42 pg. 88]

“They teach you about the solar system. They give you a glimpse of the Milky Way. But do they ever suggest how much is really out there? How many very real chances there are that somewhere beyond our ability to scope, in a place so distant our bodies couldn’t hope to live long enough to journey there, life thrives?” ~ Marco’s Dad, Book #45 pg. 11

“Battling aliens every day of my life has fine-tuned my already rampant paranoia.” ~ Marco, Book #51 pg. 2

Animals

Page numbers in parentheses are for the rereleased editions.

“It’s not bad enough we have to fight Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and Visser Three, we also have to fight sharks? Sharks?” ~ Marco, Book #4 pg. 82

“It isn’t necessary to believe whales are as smart as humans to believe that they are great. They don’t have to know words to sing songs. They don’t have to be anything but what they are to be magnificent. And even though I don’t really know what a soul is, I know this—if humans have them, then so do whales.” ~ Cassie, Book #4 pg. 140 (142)

“Okay. We’re bugs. Let’s get this over with, because I have to tell you—I have a major urge to step on myself.” ~ Marco, Book #6 pg. 33

Warning: Spoilers for rerelease from this point to the next section.

“Hey. We’re in show biz! I always knew I’d make it. Maybe I didn’t exactly expect to make it as a llama...” ~ Marco, Book #12 pg. 126

“You don’t want to mess with animals when Cassie is around.” ~ Marco, Book #15 pg. 3

“It turns out, as tough as sharks are, they still aren’t used to having screaming, flailing, panic-stricken human beings dropped on them from the sky.” ~ Marco, Book #15 pg. 87

      “We can’t all morph the same mosquito,” Cassie said. “Only females suck blood. Males are useless.”
      “Amen,” Rachel said, then laughed.
      “So what’s that mosquito in your hand?” Marco demanded.
      “Like I know?” Cassie said. “I don’t have a magnifying glass that good. And even if I did, how exactly do you tell a male from a female?”
      “That’s easy,” Marco said. “The males think loud belching is funny and the females don’t.”
      “Is there any chance we could just get on with this?” Prince Jake asked.
[Book #18 pg. 44]

      <What I’d really like to know is, who thought up this leg/tail arrangement?> He waddled between two fiberglass trees. <Look at my butt.>
      <Uh, thanks, Tobias. I think I’ll pass.>
      <Seriously,> he said. <I’m sure it’s great for swimming, having the motor in the rear like that, but walking? My legs are so far apart my whole back end bobs up and down every time I take a step. Up and down. Side to side. Like a...like a...>
      <Like a duck?>
      <Yeah. It’s humiliating.> He swept a wing over his flat duck bill. <And this is just wrong.>
[Book #51 pg. 63]

      “Well, if it isn’t Lobster Boy.”
      <Hey, Jake. Remember this morph?>
      “Uh-huh. Some reason why you’re morphing to lobster?”
      <Ummmm...I dropped my keys down in the pool? I was going to go get them?>
      “Well, then it’s a good thing you have the ability to turn into a lobster, because otherwise, what would you do? I mean, normal people, they drop their keys in the pool, they’re just totally helpless. Those keys stay down there. Forever.”
      I stopped the morph before I lost my eyes and began to reverse it. As soon as I had a mouth I said, “You seem perky, today. You want something to drink?”
      “What are you going to do, morph a cow and squeeze me out a glass of two percent?”
[Book #54 pg. 130]

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All pictures and books copyrighted by Scholastic, Inc. Books by K.A. Applegate, and pictures by David B. Mattingly.