The Predator

The Predator, published in 1996 and written by K. A. Applegate, is the fifth book in the Animorphs series. It is narrated by Marco. Plot summary Two years before the events of the novel, Marco's mother vanished in a boating accident; her body was never found. Marco's father has fallen into deep depression and Marco is having second thoughts about fighting the Yeerks, parasitic aliens that are the main antagonists of the series, as he does not want his father to lose him too. Ax wishes to return to the Andalite home world, and to do so, he needs a ship. He intends to build a communicator to broadcast a Yeerk distress signal and lure in a Yeerk ship which he can then hijack. He, Jake, and Marco go to the mall to buy the equipment to build a communicator. Ax finds the food court and runs wild sampling food left over on tables, overwhelmed by the new sense of taste. He is chased by security guards and, frightened, demorphs in the middle of the mall in front of many people. Ax, Jake, and Marco run out of the mall and into a nearby grocery store where they are chased by Controllers. They morph into lobsters and hide in a tank. They later narrowly escape being boiled alive. Ax builds his device, but needs a zero-space transponder. Vice principal Hedrick Chapman regularly communicates with Visser Three from his basement, so the Animorphs morph into ants and retrieve the Z-space transponder that he uses. As they are returning from Chapman's house, they are almost killed when attacked by ants from another colony. They are able to demorph in time, but everyone is upset by the experience.