- "It was a big area, surrounded on two sides by trees, with the highway separating it from the mall area. There's a broad, open field between the construction site and the nearest houses. It's a very isolated place. Originally it was supposed to be this new shopping center. Now it was just all these half-finished buildings looking like a ghost town. [...] It was a totally deserted place, full of shadows and sounds that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up."
- ―Jake
The Abandoned Construction Site was originally intended to be a shopping center, but was abandoned and left unfinished. It was the location where the Time Matrix and Escafil Device were hidden, where the Animorphs received their power and where Elfangor was killed.
History[]
Burying the Time Matrix[]
- "The Time Matrix was a sphere, taller than a human. Destroying it was physically impossible. But it could be hidden. For a while, at least. He found an empty place. Nothing but trees. Using only the equipment available to any human, he dug a hole and rolled the device into it. [...] Many years later, he returned to the same spot. Desperate enough to try to use the Time Matrix. The spot had become a construction site."
- ―Prologue
After arriving in Southern California[2] in 1976, an Andalite named Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul went to a forest where he buried the Time Matrix, a space-and-time machine.[3] By the 1990s, this burial site had become a construction site where a shopping center was to be built.[4]
Elfangor's Crash[]
- "It's this huge area of half-finished buildings with rusted earthmovers and cranes and backhoes scattered around. I guess it was originally going to be a shopping center, but for some reason they never finished it. We didn't take the shortcut through the construction site, like we would have in the old days, though. See, it was at this construction site that we saw the Andalite prince's damaged fighter land. It was here that the Andalite warned us of the Yeerk conspiracy and gave us our special powers."
- ―Rachel
By 1997, the site became abandoned, as the plans for the shopping center fell through. The abandoned construction site became a place where homeless people and delinquents frequented. The construction site was also used as a shortcut by many people. During the daytime, Jake and Marco visited the site to explore, despite Jake's parents threatening to ground him for years if he were to enter the site.[4] One Friday night, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul flew his fighter to the site where he had buried the Time Matrix, intending to use it. However, Elfangor was surprised to find out it was now a construction site, with the Time Matrix now buried under a half-finished building.[3]
Jake and Marco, along Rachel, Tobias and Cassie, walked through the construction site that night, where they witnessed Elfangor's crash landing. Elfangor informed them about the truth of the Yeerks' secret invasion of Earth before using the Escafil Device to give them the power to morph. As Visser Three and the Yeerks from orbit descended onto the site, the five human teenagers hid as Elfangor's ship was destroyed.[4] The force of the ship's explosion propelled the Escafil Device into one of the walls of the construction site.[5]
After witnessing Elfangor being eaten alive by Visser Three, the five humans ran, catching the attention of a Hork-Bajir-Controller and causing the Yeerks to pursue them. As the five fled, Jake ended up leading his pursuer towards a homeless man who was living in one of the buildings, and used the man's death as a distraction to successfully escape from the construction site.
Many of the residents who resided near the construction site called the police to inform them that they had seen spaceships landing along with explosions, although the police and media, which had been infiltrated by the Yeerks, officially declared that the police investigation concluded that there were no spaceships and that the explosions were merely children playing with fireworks. The Yeerks then opened an investigation to find the teenagers whom they had been chasing,[4] but they abandoned their hunt after the Andalite bandits made their presence known.[6]
Skirmish[]
A week later, the five humans, now calling themselves the Animorphs, returned to the construction site in order to save Rachel, who had been captured by Chapman and taken to Visser Three, whose Blade ship had landed at the site. They were able to rescue Rachel and escape the construction site once more.[6]
David's Discovery[]
Much later, David, a student at the Animorph's school, finds the Escafil Device at the Construction site.[5] When David becomes traitorous, the Animorphs return to the construction site to trap him in the form of a rat. They were able to lure him there by claiming that they had hidden the device there; trapping him in the various pipes in the area, they were able to lure him into a box and keep him contained until he was trapped in his morph.[7]
Time Matrix Discovery[]
- "Visser Four was right: Elfangor had chosen the spot deliberately. It was no coincidence that he had landed, had died, within a few feet of this machine."
- ―Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
To be added
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ According to VISSER, the Animorphs' hometown is a mid-sized coastal city. According to The Beginning, it is in California, near Santa Barbara.
- ↑ The Beginning
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Andalite Chronicles
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The Invasion
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Discovery
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Visitor
- ↑ The Solution