Alternamorphs #2: The Next Passage is the second and final book of the Alternamorphs series, a spin-off of the Animorphs series. It involves a second-person narrative so as to allow the reader (You) to actually take part in the story. It lies outside of the regular Animorphs continuity. The Next Passage was ghostwritten by Emily Costello.
Official Description[]
It's time for our next mission and it's up to you to decide whether you want to join us. You probably already realize that each mission - each battle - could mean infestation, or worse. You probably already realize that we win about as many as we lose. But we are managing to hold the Yeerks back, and one more person could make all the difference.
Just so you know, there are going to be a lot of decisions to make. The right answers keep us alive. The wrong ones -- well that's pretty obvious. So what do you think?
Are you ready to be an Animorph?
Plot Summary[]
This book loosely follows the plots of Animorphs books #20: The Discovery, Megamorphs #2: In the Time of Dinosaurs and #26: The Attack. The book narrates from your point of view, as a sixth Animorph, and you are able to choose your morphs as the story progresses.
The storyline begins by you being new to a school and accidentally finding the blue cube on the way back from a construction site. Marco contacts you, but it's too late, and Visser Three learns about it, attacks you at home, and abducts your parents. You can give the Yeerks the morphing cube in exchange for their freedom and yours, but they will immediately renege on the deal and infest you anyway. If you refuse, the Animorphs will save you and the box and offer you to become one of them and fight the Yeerks.
After you agree, you'll be given morphing powers, and you'll morph into a horse from Cassie's farm and run around their compound. After you return to the others, you tell them that you are ready for the battle.
But at this moment the Ellimist freezes time and appears as a raccoon. He is seriously upset and requires you to prove your worth to be another Animorph. This will require an adventure. If you make the right decisions, he will later free your parents, but if you make the wrong decisions, you will be killed. You agree, and push one of two buttons on a remote control that appears. Button A leads you and the other Animorphs to Iskoort, Button B leads you and the others into the time of the dinosaurs.
If you chose Button A, you are on Iskoort. The other Animorphs remember it from The Attack, and the Ellimist says he will take away their memories of it to make this test fair. He then offers you three morphs. Shark, Andalite and komodo dragon, or Hork-Baijr, red-tailed hawk and fly. The last three morphs are the correct choice. Choosing the first three morphs will result in you and the others fighting the Howlers, and regardless of the morph you choose (unable to use the shark due to not being in the water), the Howlers will kill you, either using their howls (if you morph an Andalite), or their weapons (if you morph a komodo dragon, whose hearing is bad enough for the howl to not hurt it too badly).
If you choose the last three morphs, then shortly thereafter, the Howlers attack, but manage to escape for the time being by morphing a fly. Shortly thereafter, they find you again, and resume the attack, this time pumping insecticide into the room you are in to prevent you from escaping the same way as last time, leaving you to morph either a hawk or a Hork-Bajir. Morphing the Hork-Bajir will result in jumping out the window (after the others have morphed birds of prey and flown out) and falling to your death. The hawk is the correct choice, enabling you to escape again, but Cassie is killed by one of the Howlers. Rachel accuses you of being guilty and demands that you promise her to keep you out of the next fight. Giving her the promise is the right choice. If you do not, Rachel forces you to morph into a fly and traps you in a jar, leaving you there until the two-hour time limit has passed, after which it is mentioned that flies only live for two weeks, leaving you with a very short remaining lifespan.
If you give the promise, then the Howlers attack again, and the other Animorphs fight them while you morph a fly and hide. After the Howlers are defeated, the Ellimist says you've proven yourself to him, but makes fun of you in a wicked way. He also says he will only save one person because Cassie was killed by your guilt, seemingly forcing you to choose which of your parents to save.
However, you make the right choice and tell the Ellimist to instead get Cassie back, which he does. This leaves both your parents still prisoners of the Yeerks, but you have the chance to free them because you are now a full and accepted member of the Animorphs (though Rachel will probably not like you that much).
If you decide on Button B, you travel with the others to the time of the dinosaurs. There you are immediately attacked by a T-Rex, but the Ellimist gives you the choice between two morphs, wolf or cockroach. Cockroach is the correct choice. Morphing a wolf will result in an attempt to run away, in which you will be killed due to not being fast enough.
The T-Rex attacks you, but as a cockroach you can escape him and later find out that Ax killed him. Shortly thereafter, a herd of herbivores stomps on you, and you're in danger of being trampled to death. This time, it's the right decision not to morph but just to flee, morphing will get you crushed and killed.
Soon after, you will be attacked again by a T-Rex, and you will survive again by morphing into a cockroach. This time it's Jake who kills the T-Rex, and you see a city from a distance (probably a city of the Mercoras). The others let you decide if they go to this city or not, and to visit the city is the right decision. Refusing to will get you killed by a Deinonychus after the group stops to rest by a river.
After choosing to visit the city, the Ellimist brings you and the Animorphs to an empty movie theater, where he shows you a video of human history. Afterward, he praises you and brings you back to your time, a week before you found the box and are now just moving to the Animorphs' town. Your parents are free because they never became Controllers, and you can choose for yourself whether you want to be an Animorph, or if you prefer a normal life.
Trivia[]
- Despite adapting The Discovery, and the Ellimist's "test" occurring immediately after the reader is recruited, the Animorphs remember fighting the Howlers on Iskoort, if the reader chooses to push Button A, before the Ellimist takes away their memories of it to make the test fair. However, in the real timeline, the events on Iskoort didn't happen until well after the Animorphs had already reclaimed the Escafil device. It is possible that in this timeline, the events of The Attack occurred before the events of The Discovery.
- Similarly, in the real timeline, the events of In the Time of Dinosaurs occurred before the Animorphs reclaimed the Escafil device. However, if the reader pushes Button B and the Animorphs end up in the Cretaceous Period, none of them make any reference to having been there before. Again, given the separate timelines, it is possible that the events of In the Time of Dinosaurs did not occur in this timeline.
Gallery[]
.png "The Next Passage (E-Book Cover).png (4.11 MB)")
