Rachel's good at faking it. She knows that. That's how she's made it this far without more than the cursory, mostly disgusted looks of all the thugs in armor hanging around. Man, this place is in serious need of a Gap treatment, pronto. But the thing is, nobody's looking at her too closely. There are plenty of other things to pay attention to in here -- the glaring neon signs hanging over shop clerks yelling out to potential patrons, the grunts and mutterings of gun-toting aliens, the hustle and bustle of the crowd that stops for no one. And what's more, even though nobody here moves like they're a bigger part of anything, Rachel's still not ready to rule out the possibility that there might be Yeerks involved here. And if there are, she definitely doesn't want to draw too much attention to herself. So it's impossible to notice when somebody comes sidling right up to her, and she jerks just slightly in surprise, the expression of wide-eyed surprise sliding onto her face a moment later.

"Marco?" she exclaims, and she looks and sounds totally incredulous, but there's a touch of relief to her expression, too, and the way some of the barely-visible tension in her shoulders slips away. She can't help the little flip her stomach does at the sight of a familiar face. Granted, she'd been hoping to run into Jake, or Cassie, or...well, admittedly, any of the others before Marco; even Ax would be helpful right now, because he might at least be able to identify some of these aliens. But hey, even for all of Marco's dumb quips and that obnoxious smirk he gets sometimes, she's glad to see him. She still feels totally thrown by all this, like she can't get her footing. Marco means she's not alone here, at least. And it means that the rest of the Animorphs can't be too far behind, right?

"Finally. Jeez, Marco, I've been looking all over! I seriously thought I was here alone. Where's Jake and the others?"