ANIMORPHS

Animorphs: Humans with the power to morph, "animorphs" is a term coined by Marco, one of the Original Five. The Original Five were recruited by Prince Elfangor on the night he died, to fight against the Yeerk invasion and rescue their world.

Cassie: She is the peacemaker of the Animorphs, described as a black girl with short hair who dresses in comfortable clothes (i.e., flannel). She has a special link to animals; her parents are vets at The Gardens, and her home is a wildlife preserve. She helps her parents tend to wounded animals and this gains her excellent access to an entire arsenal for the resistance. Her best friend is her fashion-plate polar opposite, Rachel, and she has romantic feelings for Jake. She's the one who always pulls him out of a brash situation, or at least reminds him to think before hurtling into something. Cassie alone has the ability of all the Animorphs to morph gracefully, making it look like a thing of beauty rather than a hideous waking nightmare.

Jake: The reluctant leader of the Animorphs, Jake's best friend is Marco, who offsets his serious personality with a wiseacre one. Jake and Rachel are cousins; both share a strong competitive streak and a desire to be the best at what they do. Before the war, Jake's primary concern was to make the high school basketball team.

Marco: Marco is the most hesitant of all the Animorphs to join the fight, despite coming up with the term they use to refer to themselves. In the beginning, he is the one who stays grounded and reminds them all what loss feels like; his mother drowned a few years before the war began. Jake is his best friend; Marco provides a sarcastic wit and a sense of comedic relief against the leader's strategy and seriousness. He's naturally flirty and likes to tease Rachel.

Rachel: Jake's biological cousin, Rachel is described as a girl with typical fashion magazine good looks; blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair taste in threads. She shares a very competitive nature with Jake, in stark contrast to Tobias, with whom she is romantically linked. Rachel has two younger sisters, Jordan and Sarah. Her parents are divorced. She prefers the company of her father, who works as a weatherman on TV, but lives with her mother, an overworked lawyer, in order to be closer to the resistance. Her favorite catchphrase is "Let's do it!" She's so fierce and willing to go into the fray sometimes that Marco has nicknamed her "Xena, Warrior Princess." Despite being polar opposites, Rachel's best friend is Cassie. She is an aspiring gymnast, even though she says she's too tall to ever really be any good at it.

Tobias: The outsider of the group, Tobias is the only one who is not linked to anyone by blood or best-friendship. He had his head in a toilet when Jake stopped the bullies that were picking on him, and from then on, Tobias just supposed they must be friends. He's described as a blonde boy who's shy and quiet and a little strange, and when the Andalite Prince lands on Earth, Tobias is the one who seems to share the strongest link with him. Early in the series he becomes a nothlit - a person who is trapped in a morph as a result of staying in it past the two-hour Earth time limit. The other Animorphs sometimes speculate privately that Tobias became a nothlit on purpose to escape his human life; his parents died when he was young and he's been shunted between aunts and uncles on either coast, with neither wanting or caring about him. Before becoming a nothlit he develops a crush on Rachel; his sense of mercy and fair play clash with her warrior's persona that grows gradually more bloodthirsty. Rachel speculates that it is Tobias' very gentleness that draws her to him in the first place. Tobias' nothlit form is a red-tailed hawk which can sometimes take over his human instincts, a fact he often feels very guilty about. He serves as the Animorphs' chief spy and aerial scout.