Gasping for breath as he dragged himself away from what used to be the tunnels full of enemy ants, Tommy drew on all of his martial arts training in order to calm down. Sure, it hadn't ever been intended to help someone calm down after nearly being torn apart by vicious ants, but it was still the best way that Tommy knew how to settle down and focus again. Helping some of the others back to their feet – at least the ones that hadn't managed to stand up on their own – Tommy joined Rachel in her efforts to smash the ground back into shape again.

And, if Tommy imagined that he was stepping on those horrible ants, well… that was really no one's business but his own.

Once Ax had managed to build the distress beacon – once he'd gotten all of the components – Tommy found himself called back to meet with the rest of his fellow Animorphs. They'd all met just at the edge of Cassie's farm, right where the leading edges of the national forest pressed up against the fence at the far edge of Cassie's family's land; this was one of the places that all of them had agreed that they needed to keep secret. This place, after all, would be the only place where Ax would be able to stay if they couldn't manage to get Ax off the planet after all of this.

In the end, Tobias was the one who suggested a place that might work: (There's a gravel quarry further inland, there's never anyone there, and it's just about an hour's flying time away.)

After they'd made plans to get Ax at least some kind of a bird morph, they all decided that it would be best if they carried out their plan on Saturday, since there was no school then. And Tommy himself didn't have any kind of martial arts tournaments, either.