When they all met up again, it was to actually discus using cockroach morphs – of all things – to spy on Jake's brother, who seemed to be rising higher in the Yeerks' ranks. After they'd all ribbed Jake for his close call for a bit, though the thought of any one of them being trapped as an insect was more than a little unsettling, their conversation turned to what they were going to do next. First, of course, the rest of them were going to have to acquire a cockroach morph of their own.

After Jake had offered them the cockroach to acquire for themselves, enough time had passed that they all needed to leave, so they all did, though not without determining what would be a good time to hold their next meeting. The one where they were actually going to test out the cockroach morphs they'd just acquired.

"I can't believe we're actually going to practice a morph," Marco said, once they'd all gathered back together again; they were actually in the new apartment that Marco and his father had moved into some time ago, a place that Marco had obviously wanted to show off, given how quickly he'd invited them over when they'd been talking about where to hold their next meeting. "We never practice a morph; we just do it, and then we deal with it when it inevitably goes wrong."

"We need the practice," Jake said, before Tommy or anyone else could say anything like that. "We're going to be going in as spies. We're going to be trying to figure out what people are saying, and it takes awhile to use the cockroach's senses to find out what people are saying."

Marco's dad was far enough away, and would be gone for long enough, that both he and Ax were able to stay in their normal forms. It was a nice change of pace, at least.

As the five of them all turned away from each other, mentally preparing themselves to begin morphing. Jake was going to stay human, to see if he could help them learn to interpret the sounds that a cockroach could hear into something a human would be able to understand. Tommy also had the feeling that he wasn't particularly eager to morph into a cockroach again, and Tommy could hardly blame him for that.

He wasn't particularly eager to morph into a cockroach, and this would be his first time.

(Okay, we're bugs now,) Marco said, his thought-speak carrying about the same amount of disgust that pretty much all of the Animorphs – with the notable exception of Ax, who seemed to be more interested in the process of morphing itself, as far as he could tell – seemed to be feeling. (Let's get this over with, because I have to tell you, I have a serious urge to step on myself right now.)

(Steady, Marco,) Tommy said, aiming his thought-speak at the younger Animorph in particular. (We're all here with you.)

(Yeah, thanks,) Marco said, though he sounded more than a bit sarcastic.