- Narrator: Marco
The morphing cube is recovered from the abandoned construction site by a boy named David.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: David kills a crow in golden eagle morph. He claims it was his morph's instincts taking over, but it's unclear if that's true.
- Bigger Is Better: In a choice between a merlin falcon and a golden eagle, David acquires the eagle.
- Cliffhanger: The book ends with the Animorphs in cockroach morph falling from a flying helicopter.
- He Knows Too Much: What forces the Animorphs to take David in is the fact that he knows that Marco was too interested in obtaining the blue box, which would give them away to the Yeerks if he becomes a Controller.
- Impersonation Gambit: Visser Three refuses to let another Yeerk have the American President as a host, as that would mean they could subvert his authority, so his plan is to acquire the president and morph into him instead. How Visser Three planned on impersonating Bill Clinton long enough for his plan to work is questionable, but no one ever said the Visser wasn't Stupid Evil.
- Killed Offscreen: Spawn, David's pet cobra, is mistaken for Marco and captured by the Yeerks. Marco privately notes that Spawn will most likely be tortured until Visser Three realizes its not an Andalite in morph, and killed right after this realization.
- MacGuffin Melee: The Animorphs infiltrate David's house to recover the morphing cube. David fights back with a BB gun, and later on, Visser Three shows up with an army of Hork-Bajir Controllers. When the dust settles, the Animorphs have the morphing cube and David, while the Yeerks have David's parents and pet cobra.
- My Instincts Are Showing:
- Marco as a cobra eats Ax in spider morph. He regains his mind and frantically tells Ax to demorph.
- David quickly gets a handle on his golden eagle morph, but kills an unfortunate crow while flying around. Or so he says.
- President Evil: The presidents and prime ministers of America, Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and Russia are all headed for a summit... and one of them is a Controller, but Erek doesn't know which one. It's clear that this is an irresistible target for the Yeerks.
- Refuge in Audacity: Double subverted. To prevent David's father from discovering Ax, Marco talks to him in thought-speak, pretending to be a friendly alien. When that doesn't work, Marco informs him that David skipped school (which he did), and David's father immediately leaves to punish him for it.
- Scaled Up: Marco acquires David's (illegal) pet cobra. While said cobra has had its venom sacs surgically removed, the cobra morph does not have that problem.
- Sixth Ranger: The Animorphs reluctantly add David to their team after Visser Three trashes his house and takes his parents to become Yeerk hosts.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Marco and David do not like each other. David proves to be an arrogant Jerkass even before the Yeerks take his parents, and Marco quickly loses patience with him during the missions, especially when David keeps trying to be the tough guy.
- Tempting Fate: As they watch David morph for the first time, Marco privately tells Jake that he hopes David won't morph with exposed bones like what Marco went through earlier in the book. That exact thing happens to David then and there.
