- Narrator: Ax
The Animorphs and the military make a plan to blow up the Yeerk pool.
Tropes:
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The Yeerks did damage control after the governor's broadcast, meaning a lot of humans believe the Yeerk invasion is an elaborate hoax.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ax, Cassie, and Marco are cornered by three Blue Band Hork-Bajir Controllers in the train as it heads for the Yeerk pool. James had the foresight to send one of the Auxiliaries in red-tailed hawk morph to bail them out.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Ax has been privately communicating with the Andalite fleet because he's been noticing the Animorphs breaking down. It's only when he concludes that the Andalite fleet plans to blow up Earth once enough Yeerks have gathered there does he remember where his loyalties lie.
- Evil Lawyer Joke: Ax notes that lawyers are very intelligent, but use said intelligence for arguing. He also notices that lawyers aren't very popular even if humans find them necessary, and after spending time around Naomi, he understands why.
- Heads or Tails?: Cassie and Marco introduce Ax to this method of decisions. He finds it explains so much of human behavior.
- Impersonation Gambit: James uses his peregrine falcon morph to blend in with some Controllers in the same morph, allowing him to back up Ax and Rachel before they get cornered.
- Internal Reveal: The rest of the team learns that Cassie let the Yeerks get away with the morphing cube, causing a schism between her and the rest.
- Kill the Lights: Ax takes out the lights in the subway, allowing Rachel in great horned owl morph and James in lion morph to rain hell of the Controllers in peregrine falcon morph.
- Logical Weakness: The Yeerks are inexperienced in using their morphs, allowing the Animorphs one last advantage over them. Several remain in a diurnal falcon morph then the lights go out, allowing Ax, Rachel, and James to use more nocturnal morphs to defeat them. Another tries demorphing in the middle of battle, leaving him open to be killed mid-morph.
- Police State: The Animorphs' hometown has become this now that the Yeerks can use police and military authority to arrest people and send them to the Yeerk pool.
- Properly Paranoid: With the morphing cube in the hands of the Yeerks, the Animorphs find that they're jumping at any animal near them. Given how effective it was for them, they have no doubt that the Yeerks could use their own morphs to spy on them.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ax finds that several Yeerks have trapped themselves in morph and left the war to be free. Hopefully, they were all only Yeerks in morph and not human-Controllers, or the unfortunate host would be trapped forever...
- Series Continuity Error: Timmy is called Tuan in this book. The only way you'd know it's him is that he's using the bobcat morph established as his primary battle morph two books ago.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Controllers have always been a problem for this reason, but the war gets complicated because the Animorphs can't tell who's a human and who's a Controller when they see the military evacuating people at gunpoint.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Subverted. Ax feels like he learns that Cassie let the Yeerks steal the morphing cube, which extends to the others when they allow her to remain on the war council. But when he sees six wolf-Controllers gunned down, he fears one of them is Cassie and doesn't calm down until he sees she's alive.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Naomi is able to use her fast-talking lawyer skills to get the military to listen to the Animorphs. It helps that she already knew the captain from one of her previous cases.
- Trash the Set: The Yeerk pool is destroyed by the Animorphs, and some of their hometown along with it.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The plan to blow up the Yeerk pool inevitably results in the deaths of dozens of innocent hosts and humans captured to be hosts. While the Animorphs and their allies are generally reluctant to execute the plan, they've lost any chance at avoiding needless death. Unfortunately, this plan also costs them the alliance with the Chee.Toby: This is a war. There is no question that people will die. The only question is, who?
- Wham Line: Ax secretly communicates with the Andalite fleet, who decree that Earth will be quarantined once enough Yeerks have gathered there.
- Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": Officially, the Andalite fleet is going to quarantine Earth. Ax tries denying it, until Tobias flatly asks if the Andalites are actually planning to blow Earth up.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: Ax still isn't too fond of vecols, but James and the Auxiliaries have been proving their worth in his eyes.
