Ax continues to try and escape the security guards by morphing while running.  Apparently, even though he only started morphing so he could run faster, it doesn’t occur to him that having his body change mid-stride would slow him down more than just running on two legs.

And, in fact, he does trip and fall in a sprawl because his weird body parts are getting in the way.

It was then that I heard the nearest mall cop, in an awed, frightened whisper, say, “Andalite!”

‘Then’ means when Ax’s tail reappears.  Even though he had his quadruped body, extra eyes, and blue fur, the guy couldn’t tell he was an Andalite until the tail?  Are there a bunch of other four-legged, blue-furred aliens in the galaxy?

The Controller cop drew his gun from his holster.

And this is why calling the mall guards ‘cops’ pisses me off.  You’re not going to find armed guards in a mall in California.  I don’t think you’d find them many places at all, actually.  There’s already a lot of confusion between the authority and duties of a guard and a cop, and this right here actually makes it kind of hard to tell what’s going on.  Is this guy a guard?  Are there actual cops around?  (I can’t get a job at my local mall because the in-house security there only hires off-duty or retired police force.  Weird, I know.)

I can’t really say that this is wrong, because people make these mistakes all the time, so of course Marco could be calling the guard a cop.  And it could be that this guy is an armed guard for some reason.  It’s one of those things that makes only me twitch, and only because I know too much about the subject.  So now all you guys know.  Guards are not cops, and they don’t all carry guns.  Go forth and be better informed.

Back to the story.  Ax runs out the door, quickly followed by Jake and Marco, who all then talk together about what to do next.  There’s guards right behind them, clearly able to view these two human kids chatting with and assisting an Andalite.  I swear, the only way these kids weren’t caught for three years is because the Yeerks are willfully ignorant.

Then real cops show up, too, because this town has the fastest response time evar.  So the boys run in a grocery store to hide there.  (While still clearly being observed, and also probably caught on video.  Even in the 90s, stores had security cameras.)

Everyone freaks out because they see Ax and…Marco thinks the fastest way to clear the store is to yell “BOMB”?  What?  Why couldn’t he just yell “ALIEN” or “RUN THAT WAY!”  People are already freaked out and trying to get away, what does a bomb add?

While the police are trying to deal with the fleeing customers, the boys morph into lobsters to hide in the tank. 

I said.

…anyone looking at their enormous claws?

The boys all chat about how lobsters are weird, they’re scared, and also no one can see outside the tank.  An hour later, they’re taken out and bought.  Um, really, the police cleared the scene that fast?  And the store reopened right away, with no need to pause and clean up, or call in replacement employees so that the ones that just saw an alien/bomb threat can go sit and cry somewhere?

They demorph as some lady starts cooking them and freak her the hell out.  All they do is try and tell her it was a dream, then ask her to let the rest of the lobsters go.  Now, human brains are weird, so the dream thing might work. Maybe.  Even if it does, what happens if/when this woman gets infested?  They’re taking kids, so I assume they’re taking everyone they can get their hands on.  Even if she assumes it’s a dream, it wasn’t, and the intense fear and shock she got from the experience is going to leave a mark on her memory.  She’s going to remember this, even if she doesn’t believe it’s real.  Any Yeerk in her head is going to know it’s real.  So why not explain things to her, so that she can get out of town and away from the threat, taking their secret with her?

That night Marco has a nightmare and his dad wakes him up.

“Mom?” I asked.

Silence. Then, “No.”

[…]

“It’s just me,” he said. He let go of my shoulders.

PETER FEELZ!

The scene between Marco and his dad is really sweet, if a bit clunky with exposition thrown in the middle. 

But it’s hard to forget a nightmare that’s true.

I hate it when characters think things and then fail to apply those things.  Why can’t Marco apply this same thought process to the lobster lady?

The next day Ax builds his fake distress beacon, except for the one and only part that he can’t get from Radio Shack.  Tobias thinks Chapman would have on they can steal.

He talks to Visser Three on the Yeerk mother ship, or on the Blade ship. Wherever Visser Three is.

Why can’t V3 be chillin in the fancy mansion of some underling host?  We’ve had no indication at all that V3 always cools his heels in space.

They decide they need to sneak into Chapman’s house and they’re going to do it as ants.  Marco isn’t thrilled with the idea.

“I try not to think about it,” he admitted. “But look, we want to try and give Ax a chance to get home. And if he stays here he’s a danger to us. We’ve got this big Anda – ” He looked around to make sure no one could hear, and lowered his voice.

Jake, honey, you just had a whole conversation about how turning into a flea was no big deal.  If there’s any Controllers around, they’ll have figured this out already.

Or, considering how fail-tastic the seem to be, you could just stand on the cafeteria table and show “ANDALITE” loud as you want and nothing would happen.

Marco says he doesn’t want to die on the two-year anniversary of his mom’s death, but then that starts him thinking about Ax’s parents, so he changes his mind and says he’s in.