by A. J. Ponder
Quickly and quietly you sneak down the stairs, and into the corridor, glancing into the various rooms, trying to find your classmates.
Footsteps echo behind you.
You run, almost colliding with a figure standing in the shadows.
An arm reaches out and grabs you.
You look to see who it is… “Kennedy?”
“Shh, you’ll blow our cover,” she whispers.
“Someone’s behind me!” you pant.
“Don’t worry, that’s only Greg. He’s been working undercover as a janitor here for months.
“Hey Greg,” says Kennedy. “It looks like Ms. Xavi— I mean, the Chief’s not coming. It’s a shame, but we’re going to have to go in without her.”
“What?” Greg says. “We can’t go in without the Chief. This is her World of Spies operation. And it’s much bigger than we thought.”
“World of Spies?” you say. It’s kind of weird in here. Recruitment signs for WOE are everywhere, but World of Spies would be WOS.
“Oh dear,” Ms. Xavier says. “The World of Evil has been busy.”
Nobody else seems to hear.
It’s difficult to know what to do. Should you trust these crazy people? Are they really part of the World of Spies? You can’t be sure, but either way, you have a choice. Do you:
Say you have Ms. Xavier in your pocket?
Or
Keep quiet and don’t mention Ms. Xavier.
Say you have Ms. Xavier in your pocket
“I know where Ms. Xavier is,” you say, pulling her out of your pocket.
“So she’s shrunk,” Greg mutters, eyeing the tiny Ms. Xavier cupped in your hands. “Frankie needs to keep a better eye on her inventions.”
“Shh, Greg,” Kennedy hisses. “You’ll blow our cover.”
“Hey,” Ms. Xavier calls. “We need to go left, then right, then left again. And we need to move quickly. The good news is, we know what WOE is up to. The bad news is, the Bugman’s helped them, and they’re massively ahead of schedule. Now, put me on your shoulder, I’m not going back in that pocket.”
You put her on your shoulder, and continue following her directions until an ant the size of a German Shepherd comes galloping toward you, jaws snapping. It’s horrifying.
“Quick, in there,” Ms. Xavier calls. She points to a door.
Kennedy woggles a stick with spikes around in the lock. “I can’t get it open.”
“Focus,” Ms. Xavier snaps.
At last, the door clicks open.
“There we are,” Kennedy says, rushing you through the door. “Sorry, nerves must have got the better of me.”
Inside the room are a line of cells. Inside the cells are Frankie, most of the students from the school trip, and some museum staff. You can tell they’re museum staff because of their brightly colored bug t-shirts with the museum logo.
Kennedy rushes to unlock Frankie’s cell, and then makes her way around all the cells to free everyone – including Mr. Adams, who is cradling a broken guitar. As you go to help, the newly-rescued Frankie pulls you aside.
“Do you know where Ms. Xavier is? I have some very important information for her.”
“Of course,” you say.
Ms. Xavier squeaks, “I’m right here.”
“Oh, sorry,” Frankie mumbles. She stares at your shoulder. “Is that really you, Ms. Xavier?”
Ms. Xavier waves her arms. “Who do you think it is?”
“Good. I’ve designed a cancellation device, but I need some help from WOS. Can they broadcast this infrasonic signal? We need to get it transmitted over the whole museum.”
She presses the play button on her phone. You don’t hear anything, but Ms. Xavier starts to grow.
You fall over, half crushed by Ms. Xavier before she rolls away like an action star.
“Frankie! You could have given us some warning!” she yells.
“But I did warn you.” Frankie says. She explains using technobabble so dense even Einstein would have trouble understanding.
“Never mind that.” Ms. Xavier brushes herself off. “Let me just turn on my encrypted connection and we’ll have your anti-transmogrifying signal broadcasting in no time.”
“Awesome,” Kennedy says. “For a while there, I thought we weren’t going to survive this. But it’s going to be easy now.” She grins around at everyone. “And it’s all thanks to my new bestie.”
Does she mean best friend? Probably. You hope so. Some of the class are tittering. Is that good or bad?
“Well done,” Ms. Xavier says. “Come on though, we still have to save the day!” Everyone traipses down the WOS corridor into a room full of screens and together you put the Bugman under arrest. It’s easy now that he doesn’t have any giant ants. Besides, Ms. Xavier even has handcuffs. She lets you put them on the Bugman, before the police turn up.
A policewoman gives Kennedy the stink eye. “I hope you’re not getting into trouble, Kennedy Stevenson?” she says.
“I’ve been perfect, Mum, why don’t you ask Ms. Xavier?”
“A delight,” Ms. Xavier says, ignoring the officer’s glare. “I don’t suppose you’ll mind, but this has been very stressful on all the students.” She looks around. Half of them do look upset. They’re the half from your class. Mr. Adams says, “Come on class. We’ll get back to school. I know this has been stressful, but we’ll all feel better when I get my second guitar and we’ll have a chat and a sing along.”
Ms. Xavier has a quick word with him. Apparently she wants you and Kennedy to be in her class. “Come on, this is going to be fun,” she says. “We’re going to have a party.”
She buys everyone a pizza, and then half the class goes home, but she says she wants a word with the rest of you. There’s lots of nudging and winking going on. What is this? It’s not a prank is it?
No! It’s a celebration. You’re brought to the World of Spies headquarters, where they shower you with praise for saving Ms. Xavier, or Chief X, as she likes to be called. Then someone in a dark suit gives you a certificate that looks like a piece of paper ‒ until you wave a black light over it underneath a full moon. There’s a big long boring speech, of course, but nobody else is listening either. It’s pretty obvious you’re not the only person playing with a World of Spies’ gizmo when a flash of light scorches the podium. You look around and see a boy playing with a laser lipstick.
“Right,” Ms. Xavier says. “I can see we still have discipline problems. Detention for a month.”
The whole room erupts in cheers and wolf-whistles.
You look confused and Kenney whispers to you, “That means more training.”
Now you’ve been made an honorary member of the World of Spies, you have access to the most amazing gadgets you could ever imagine, and plenty of opportunities to save the world. Still, with adventure only a heartbeat away, sometimes you wonder what other choices you might have made on the fateful day of your museum trip.
Serving your ant masters, throwing exploding gum at ladybirds, even becoming an author of tall tales – or, to be more precise, terrifying tales about very small creatures.
For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
Keep quiet and don’t mention Ms. Xavier
The more you think about it, the happier you are with your decision not to mention Ms. Xavier. For a start, you don’t know this janitor guy. What if he’s working with the Bugman? And why is Kennedy here, anyway?
You might not trust these two, but you do want to find the rest of your class, so you stick with them.
Because she’s so small, they don’t notice Ms. Xavier jump out of your pocket. You bend down to hear what’s she’s yelling, but it’s hard to understand with her voice all squeaky from being so small. Maybe she’s talking about the posters for WOE. Or maybe it’s something else. Before you can figure it out, you hear.
And then you see
it. A huge ant, as black and shiny as Darth Vader’s dog, scurries through a door at the end of the corridor. It’s the size of a German Shepherd, and it’s coming your way, fast.
Kennedy is scrabbling in her pockets. She turns to the janitor. “I don’t suppose you could help?”
The fake janitor guy points something at the creature. Lipstick? It flashes, singeing the ant.
The corridor stinks of burnt hair.
“Holey socks!” the janitor yells and starts fiddling with the dial.
Time freezes. Or it just seems to go really slowly as the giant ant continues toward you, jaws opening. You hit the armored creature as hard as you can. “Ow!” The armor plating on that thing is tough! You hit it again.
It doesn’t seem to notice your blows and scoops you up with its spiky jaws.
You scream and flail, desperate for it to let you go, but it’s gripping you so tight, it’s drawing blood. Ow! Ow! Ow!
With you firmly in its jaws, it runs back down the corridor. One moment you can see every little detail, even read the posters. The next, you’re flashing past a doorway.
More ants arrive. Lots more ants. They swarm Kennedy and Greg, the fake janitor. Kennedy throws something and an ant blows up. But that doesn’t stop the ants for long, it just makes them angry.
Soon there are bits of Kennedy and Greg the fake janitor all over the corridor.
You kick and punch harder than ever, not that the ant notices.
You scream.
Still nothing. The ant only stops when it reaches a big room filled with screens.
You’re dropped at the Bugman’s feet.
“Ah.” He grins. “Nice of you to drop by.” Then he laughs at his own terrible joke, leans over you, and yells, “Join me or die.”
Do you:
Say you’ll join the Bugman?
Or
Tell the Bugman you’d rather die?
Say you’ll join the Bugman
You smile up at the Bugman as non-threateningly as you can. “Of course, I’ll join you. Where do I sign up?”
The Bugman walks to a set of honeycomb shaped drawers and pulls out a wad of paper, then roars with laughter. “You think minions get health insurance? You do the job or you die.” He gives you a dustpan and brush. “Now here’s the giant ant pooper scooper. Your job is to keep this bunker clean.”
Two ants chaperone you around the building. At first it’s not so bad, but more dangerous giant insects are arriving, every day, every hour, and every minute. The drudgery and the smell are overwhelmingly terrible. Not only is there more and more bug poop, but the more insects there are around the Bugman, the less chance someone will get close enough to overthrow him.
As you rush off to clean more ant poop, you can’t help thinking how unfair life is now that the Bugman has taken over the world and declared himself Grand Ruler and the Greatest Entomologist in the World. To make it worse, Ms. Xavier has disappeared without a word. You’re not sure when. It was probably on the first day when you agreed to become a World of Evil minion. There are rumors that she hates WOS more than anything, and that she’s out riding ants somewhere and enjoying her life as a miniature spy.
Your fellow minions also whisper the codename for a courageous inventor working hard to invent a machine to return Mr. Wilder’s bugs to their proper size. Frankenstein. Others say the inventor is Frankie, and she’s going to release her device any day now. There are more whispers that she’s dead. It’s hard to have any hope in this terrible bug-infested new world. It’s all whispers and innuendo. Almost nobody dares step out of line, and the ones that do are eaten by the Bugman’s ant militia.
Now you have little to do but pick up ant poop, you have plenty of time to reflect. Maybe it could have gone differently, if only more people had resisted earlier. If only you had. With a different choice you could have become a world-class spy, a famous entomologist, or even had the honor of dying one of many horrible deaths that lurk in the Bugman’s world. Sometimes, during a mission, an attack of either acute stupidity or rampant bravery is required. Which is why, win or lose, you should celebrate taking a stand. Besides, in an adventure like this, isn’t gore half the fun?
To help you on your way would you like to:
Find out what happens when you stand up to the Bugman and say you’d rather die? (Scary ending!)
Or
Start at the museum?
Tell the Bugman you’d rather die – warning, this ending is too scary for one of the authors!
“I’d rather die than join you,” you yell.
“Good on you,” Ms. Xavier squeaks. (She’s climbed in your ear and it’s tickling.)
“Awesome.” The Bugman grins. “I was hoping you’d say that. We’ll feed you to the giant and lins.”
“The giant and what?”
“Giant antlions. Don’t you know what antlions are? Where do you kids get your education from? Cornflakes packets? Or plain old-fashioned state-sanctioned indoctrination?”
Struggling and protesting, you’re dragged into a mini-stadium with a huge sandpit in the middle. Once, it must have been a pool with blue tiles edging the water. Now, there’s nothing but sand sloping down into a large pit in the center.
You’re led right up to the tile edging.
Sand moves at the bottom of the pit. No, it’s not just sand, there’s something down there.
You stare at the giant funnel of sand in horror. “No!” you yell, struggling to get away.
“Mwah ha ha ha, not likely.” The Bugman pushes you into the pit.
You fall, Ms. Xavier holding tight to your ear, and land sprawling. As you try to get up, the sand slides out from under you and you fall again, tumbling down the slope toward the dark nightmare shadow and black spindly limbs below.
“Slow, but sure,” Ms. Xavier squeaks.
You right yourself, and begin to crawl.
Sand cascades beneath you, but you’re making progress – slow but sure. Ignoring the friction burns on your hands and knees you doggedly keep going, climbing just a little faster than the sand is sliding away.
A glob of sand hits you.
Ouch! You look back.
The horrible, spindly-legged antlion stares at you, snapping its mandibles.
You scurry harder.
Another glob of sand. It lands in front of you, starting a mini avalanche. Sand’s collapsing around you, under you. No matter how hard you scrabble, it falls faster, and you slide down again, right into the long chitinous limbs of the hungry antlion.
Up close, it’s even uglier. Those limbs are very strong, and hard.
You fight valiantly, hitting and kicking it as hard as you can. Ms. Xavier’s fighting too. She tries to defend you with her miniature handbag, but the antlion doesn’t even see her as she bashes at its eyes.
The antlion’s jaws pierce your chest.
You scream. Then you scream even louder as you realize the hollow jaws are acting like straws – and the coldblooded antlion is drinking you alive like a giant smoothie.
The last thing you hear is Ms. Xavier saying your brave and your noble death will not be in vain.
(This does, in fact, turn out to be true. While you were distracting the Bugman with your untimely death, Ms. Xavier’s young spies were able to infiltrate the Bugman’s lair and destroy much of his equipment. When Ms. Xavier does eventually escape, she manages to organise her spies and all the good people of Greenville using a bodged ham radio. Together, they save Greenville from the Bugman’s giant insects. But Ms Xavier never forgets your bravery, or that your brave actions were the turning point that stopped the Bugman from taking over the whole world. So she commissions a statue of you to be placed in the town square with the words, “Never Surrender” engraved underneath.
I’m sorry, you’ve been eaten by an antlion. The world of bugs is a dangerous one, which is what makes it so exciting. Next time, when you head out on adventure, you may like to die a hideous death or join the bad guys – on the other hand it might be
fun to save the world like you did here. And even better if you can live to tell the tale.
For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
Sneak through the green door
On the other side, Kennedy and Greg and two students you don’t really know are talking in terse whispers.
“Hi.” You wave to Kennedy.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Greg mutters, as if he’s the boss of everyone.
“Quiet, Greg,” Kennedy says. “Hey, awesome, you figured out the code.”
(If you didn’t figure out the code, you can go back and solve it now or leave it for another time. No one will know. If you want help, or enjoy codes, keep an eye out for the You join WOS as a spy ending, for code-cracking ideas.)
“You must be coming for the meeting,” Kennedy says.
What meeting?
Nobody notices your confusion. They shine their torches on the walls to reveal ultraviolet arrows that glow under the torchlight and stride off along the corridor. You follow, until they come to a top outside an office door marked in ultraviolet, fluorescent pen: Top Secret. World of Shoes business only (phones optional). Raised voices are coming from inside. You can’t quite hear what they’re saying, but it doesn’t sound like it’s about shoes. Not unless they’re arguing about shoes that’ve disappeared, or been stolen or something.
Kennedy hesitates, but you’re curious, so you push the door open. Ten people are arguing in strained voices, like they’re trying and failing to keep quiet. You recognize Steve. How did he get here so fast?
He turns to look at you, and then resumes arguing. “Let’s wait just a little longer for Chief X, then we...”
Chief X? Could that be Ms. Xavier? The uptight schoolteacher? Or maybe it’s a relation of hers? It’s hard to think of Ms. Sensible Shoes Xavier as a spy. Still, not many people’s names start with X.
Steve stands up and wipes the back of his hand over his pimply forehead. “This was supposed to be a practice.” His voice cracks. “But now we have an emergency. I’ve just received an SOS alert from Chief X. Only, it was cut off midstream, and now I can’t reach her at all.”