Part One

Rising Threat

Chapter One

Gregor woke up in his room and looked at the clock. It was six o-clock P.M. He got out of bed and looked at his calendar; it was Saturday. He smiled happily because he didn't have home schooling today. His smile faded as he counted the days sense he left the Underland. Today marked 106 only four and a half months and he still felt like it was yesterday. He missed his friends like Howard, Ripred, Hazard, Vikus, and, of course, Luxa.

When he left his little cramped room his sister was sitting on the couch watching her morning shows. Gregor went over to the little kitchenette they had in they're apartment and got himself some toast. He walked over to Lizzy and sat down next to her and took a bite of his toast.

Was watching Sponge Bob, which Gregor hated but lived with it. They watched in silence as the show ended and something Lizzy didn't like came on and she turned off the TV.

"Good I hate that show" said Gregor.

"Well you live with me so you also live with Sponge Bob," said Lizzy

"Here, take this," Lizzy said handing him a colorful box.

"What's this?" Gregor asked.

"It's your birthday dummy."

"Oh yeah, thanks. Why are you giveing me this now?" he asked.

"I want to see your face when you see it," Lizzy said.

As Gregor opened his gift he wondered what it could be. When he opened it, he smiled at the picture frame that was the perfect size for his photo of Luxa. It was a simple frame, it was a rectangular one with a silver look on the outside.

"Thanks Lizzy your the best," Gregor said as he pulled out his wallet where the picture was and carefully fit it into the frame.

"I know I am," at that they both laughed "Gregor you know you haven't been keeping you're promises,"

"What promises?"Gregor said as he thought about promises he had made.

"You promised me we would be able to...," she stopped and whispered in his ear "go back to the Underland. You also promised Boots the same thing."

"Lizzy, I know you want to see your friends again and so do I, but we can't,"

"WHY!" yelled Lizzy. Lizzy was also not one to yell so she must have thought a long while on this subject.

"Lizzy, I don't even know why Mom won't let us go."

"Than I don't care I'm doing the laundry at the building's laundry room." she said as she got up to take the laundry out with Gregor when Boots came out.

"Why you so loud," she said being rather loud herself. She waddled herself over to them and tried to get Gregor to hold her. "Up, Up!"

"Okay but not for long, your becoming a big girl now and your getting to heavy to carry," explained Gregor.

They all went to the laundry room and made sure Mom hadn't followed. They sorted the lights from the darks and the colored. Gregor piled a load into a washer and checked the vent; no mail. Frustrated, Gregor shouted down the grate. He thought he heard some bats talking and was afraid they would come for him. Gregor backed away from the grate.

After a while Gregor's sisters went back up to the room but Gregor stayed. It was going to be a while before the laundry was done. Gregor could't help but look a the vent. Finally he decided to atleast open it.

Suddenly Gregor had an idea. He would use his echolocation skill to see the bottom of the pit. He opened the grate and at the bottom he couldn't believe what he saw. Atother bottom was a pile of Underland envelopes lay.

"How long where they trying to contact me?" Gregor thought. Than he noticed a half a pice of paper stuck on the left side of the grate.

Suddenly the dryer stopped and the laundry was finished so Gregor went back up to the room.

"Good morning family, and happy birthday Gregor," said Gregor's dad as Gregor walked in."You hungry Gregor?"

"Not really thank you though," he replied. "Where is mom?"

"She's getting groceries for dinner,"

Gregor went into his room to get ready for the day. When he got out his mom was home with groceries.

"Where going to see grandma in about an hour so get ready," said Gregor's mom.

"Good, I'll have enough time to talk to Lizzy about the message in the grate," thought Gregor. The message happened to need to be translated with the tree of translation witch Lizzy had memorized.

Later when Lizzy was watching TV again Gregor sat next to her.

"Hey look what I found Infound in the laundry room," Gregor whispered showing her the note. "Can you translate It for me?"

"Yeah, but I'll do it after we see grandma," Lizzy replied.

"Alright kids, time to go," said his Dad.

Then they headed off for the hospital.