CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

::Jake::

My roach nerves were all fired up.

‹Yeerk pool?› I echoed Marco's words. ‹The one where all the slugs are kept?›

‹Aye, aye, captain. And that's where we're going.›

My parents. They were at the Yeerk pool. My feelers were twitching uncontrollably at the very thought. No matter what, I had to do it. I had to get them out of there. Marco and the rest didn't understand. The mission was important, but nothing meant more to me than the fact that I had to save my parents.

‹Come on then, what are we waiting for?› I demanded as I scurried towards the door.

‹No, no, it's more complicated than that!› yelled Marco, instantly. I felt him bump against my back. ‹The Gleet BioFilter activates a –no, JAKE, NO!›

There was a deafening siren! DANGER! Run, run, RUN!

‹That's the Gleet BioFilter,› said Marco, strangely calm. ‹Activates when an unidentified body enters it.›

‹Nice time to tell me that!› I gasped, turning around wildly as the two men immediately leapt out of their seats and swung out strange-looking guns. ‹NOW WHAT?›

‹GO LEFT!›

Marco sped right and I dodged left as the two men noticed us and began yelling to each other. But what was worse was that they had swapped those guns for something more lethal to a roach.

Bug spray.

"Andalites!" hissed one of the men. "I will KILL you!"

"No!" yelled the other. "We must catch them alive for Visser Three!"

I was scurrying in circles, loops, figures of 8, up and down, left and right... the chasing shadows were freaking me out horribly and I could sense that more people were coming towards this room from outside.

This. Was. INSANE!

‹MARCO, WHERE ARE YOU?›

‹I DON'T KNOW! HE'S RIGHT BEHIND... AAAHHHH!›

‹MARCO!›

‹GO, JAKE, JUST GO IN SINCE IT'S ALREADY ACTIVATED!›

And I just dove into the crack of the nearest 'invisible' door before the spray breezed past my back.

There was a thunderous pounding on the door as the man outside yelled, "Help me get this thing opened! Where's Magri?"

My roach body was filled with adrenaline, but at the same time, it was horribly weary. I felt like collapsing with my limbs all spread out on the –

This was barely a room. It was just a narrow space with something against the wall, and it was dimly illuminated by a small light above. There was enough space for a human however. I immediately demorphed, not caring that the men might open the door any moment – there was only one thing on my mind, and if this was the way to get to the Yeerk pool then...

I blinked as I demorphed back into tee and biker shorts. There was a control system before me with many lights, buttons and screens. I had no idea what this was, but I had a good feeling that this was not the door to the Yeerk pool.

The other man had mentioned getting Magri to open the door. So this was the door Magri had come out from. But only he could access it. Why?

I pressed the power button. The screens began to light up – they were security cameras for the building. One focused on the lobby area where David's parents were still bound up in chairs. The man who was Magri was standing in the middle, speaking to Visser Three and the rest. What was he talking about?

My gaze shifted to the other screens. A few Controllers here and there... except for three screens. Empty rooms.

I stared closely at those three screens.

Something was odd.

The other rooms with the Controllers... I could easily map out which part of the building they were given the shape of the room, because the Sharing building was in a very unique geometric shape that had a lot of protusions in various directions.

The empty rooms... one of them was a room that I figured out was at the corner of the building facing the main road. But the strange thing was that I could not place where the other two was. It seemed impossible that they existed given their shape and – the lack of windows.

Why would those rooms have no windows? There couldn't possibly be more 'invisible' rooms, could there?

I looked up and down the small area that I was in. Each invisible door could only have that much space, otherwise the extension of space would be visible from outside. The Yeerk pool would also have to be...

Underground.

I stared back at the screens. Those two rooms had to be underground. There was no other explanation for it. I stamped my foot a little and heard hollow sounds.

And realised that there was no more commotion outside.

Marco! I felt my insides clench. Did they get him?

Morph. I had to morph to contact Marco and figure out how to get underground. Something small would do it. A cockroach might be too big for the cracks in the floor. What other insect was smaller?

In no time, I found myself shrinking as I focused on the image of an ant. I had no idea whether I had acquired a black or red ant, but I just went ahead with the most common option – black.

‹Marco?› I urged the moment I could thoughtspeak. ‹Talk to me, Marco!›

Silence.

There was a chill running through my ant body... and then...

My mind was blank. I began to sense something.

No smell in this room.

Food. Where could I find food?

Outside. Go outside.

There is light. But it feels like danger too.

I moved slowly towards the light. But my legs felt glued to the ground.

Out.

No. Something's not right.

Out.

No!

Out.

‹MY PARENTS!› I yelled from the back of my mind, and suddenly my body went limp.

I shuddered as I struggled to control the ant mind. It was horrible! So blank and yet so filled with instructions. How could such a small creature have such a crazy mind? What in the world...

Focus, Jake, focus! Now's not the time to dissect ant psychology.

I tested the movement of my ant limbs and crept slowly to the edge of the floor plank. Now I could feel it; the light breeze of air, like a wind vent. There was something below.

‹Marco?› I called out again. My voice was quivering.

I was alone. I was alone on a mission – actually, make that two missions. Missions that I wasn't even supposed to be embroiled in at all. That I shouldn't have been embroiled in at all.

I could feel my tiny ant heart palpitating like crazy as I leant over the edge slightly. The ant legs were sticking firmly to the ground so that I was standing perpendicular on the edge of the plank. There was a sliver of light and I had to jump towards it.

But light doesn't just mean danger. It could mean death from that height.

This was supposed to be some false reality, right? If I died, what would happen?

Tom and my parents were already Controllers, slaves of these heartless slugs. There was nothing I had to lose.

Here goes.

‹AAHHHHH!› I launched myself into freefall. This was it. I was going to dieeeee...

‹Oomph!› I landed on something soft. My limbs cracked a little and I groaned at the sharp pain in my sides.

My first thought was: I'm alive. I never thought I would have to deal with that so obviously in my life.

Immediately, I focused on demorphing and found myself emerging from the threads of a carpet into a small room.

A room quite similar to the one above. A control room with screens.

"Great," I muttered, looking around tentatively to make sure nobody was around. "Cue Jake the technomoron to work this out. Time to best Marco with your sleuthing skills man."

The videos were the same as above, except to my utmost amazement and shock, one of the rooms that I had deduced to be underground, was no longer empty.

And there was no mistaking the person inside, curled up against a wall.

"Oh my God," I whispered as I ran to the door and opened it. It led to a dimly-lit corridor with grey patchy walls. The corridor curved at both ends, and when I ran to each, it led to more curves. This whole place was a maze, I realised, and I would be finding a needle in a haystack.

I had to morph to something that was small and nimble enough to navigate this maze. Something that could see in this light. But most of all, I needed to communicate via thoughtspeech. If there was one thing absolutely cool about morphing, thoughtspeech was it.

I began to shrink for the hundredth time today. Feathers began to sprout from my limbs and I could feel my eyeballs shifting. My vision blurred for a moment, then suddenly, it felt like something pulled it taut from all corners – it was instantly clear. It wasn't like it was a hundred percent sharp, but I suddenly felt like I was energised and this dim environment was my comfort zone.

I spread my owl wings and began to zip round the corners as I yelled out,

‹Tobias! TOBIAS! It's Jake! Can you hear me?›

A/N: In case anybody wonders why Marco tells Jake to enter the room with the Gleet BioFilter when he could be destroyed... let's just say he forgot (i.e. the author forgot when she wrote it, but she's now blaming it on Marco).