Escafil Device - The Escafil Device in Animorphs

The Escafil Device in Animorphs

As Elfangor lay dying, he decided to give the morphing power to the five kids surrounding him. Jake went and got the box, and five kids and Elfangor pressed their hands to the box. After giving them a quick set of instructions, including the two-hour warning, Elfangor confronts Visser Three and is eaten alive. In the ensuing battle and destruction of the evidence (the newspapers report it as "some kids playing with fireworks"), the Animorphs assume that the box was destroyed.

However, in The Discovery (#20), Marco is surprised to see a kid named David carrying the box. David says that he found it in the abandoned construction site. He also says that he has received an offer for the box. Marco, sensing trouble, calls the other Animorphs, and rushes over to David's house. The person making an offer turns out to be Visser Three. In the ensuing battle, the Animorphs manage to save David and the box, but the Yeerks take David's parents. The Animorphs decide to make David an Animorph, as his parents have become Controllers and he knows everything. However, David soon becomes disillusioned and begins insisting that he wants to leave the group. He also wants the Escafil device because he was the one who found it. The Animorphs feign an agreement and send Rachel with David to the old construction site where they "hid" the device. After trapping him in rat morph, they reveal that the blue box piece was just a Lego. The Escafil device secured, Cassie hides the blue box in a water pump outside of her barn.

The Escafil device comes into play against the Helmacrons, who see it as a power source. In #24, the Helmacrons' two ships try to seize the box; their ship can sense where the box is located and who holds that power. They succeed in taking the box and use its power to shrink other beings to their small size. The frustration leads to a very minor alliance between the Yeerks and the Animorphs. In the end, however, the Animorphs manage to get the box back and unshrink everybody.

The Yeerks later find a damaged Helmacron ship and fix it in their attempt to find the Escafil device. The sensoring technology is placed in a helicopter, where the Yeerks home in on the signal. The Animorphs break up the cube into six pieces and try to elude the Yeerks, morphing at various times to distract the ship. They finally plan to bring down the helicopter by having Cassie morph into a humpback whale and fall onto the helicopter. However, as she is tired from so much morphing, she messes up the plan. Fortunately, a seagull flying by at the time is sucked into the engine, destroying the helicopter.

When the small skirmishes turn into a full-fledged war, the Animorphs feel outnumbered and trapped. They decide to recruit other Animorphs, calling them the Auxiliary Animorphs, who would take their place in case the original five were killed. They bring along the box three separate times to a disabled kids' home and give the morphing power to 17 other kids. When they go to a school of the blind, however, they discover that it is under surveillance by Controllers led by Tom, who seizes the box. A select circle of Yeerks receive the power to morph, complicating the Animorphs' fight.

In the final battle, Tom still has the Escafil device, and presumably takes it up on the Blade Ship. Jake secretly sends Rachel to the ship with Tom. When Tom hails the Pool Ship, he is shocked to see that Jake is still alive. Jake sends the order for Rachel to kill Tom. She succeeds, but the Blade Ship manages to escape, and the original Escafil device remains in the hands of Tom's closest associates.

In the negotiations following the Animorphs surrender of the Yeerk Pool ship to the Andalites, Ax receives four Escafil devices for his personal use. Like the Animorphs promise, they have the remaining Yeerks acquire an animal to become a nothlit. The Taxxons also become nothlits, morphing into giant anacondas and "other way-too-big snakes", as Marco puts it.The police (some controllers,) almost catch Cassie demorphing.