by A. J. Ponder
You know the world is about to get a whole lot worse, as the Bugman creates a nest of giant spiders and places you in spider-web chains.
Your orders are to look after the baby army ants. So you shuffle off to the newly dug nursery. The baby ants look like white boogers as they sway and wiggle for food and attention. It’s a miserable life. Sometimes you dream of what might have been if you hadn’t betrayed Eric and Ms. Xavier.
Maybe you could have saved the world, and then celebrated with cake and lemonade, or earned the golden key to the WOS zoo, so you could visit any time for free. On the other hand, you could have died horribly and have nothing but a statue to honor your bravery, or a time machine to get you out of trouble. It’s hard to know, unless you really could go back into the past. But that’s impossible isn’t it? Then, one day, you come across a strange piece of weird paper that feels like very fine, soft chainmail. It says:
Click here to go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and pick any part of the adventure.
Keep quiet and hope Eric and Ms. Xavier are okay
You bravely say nothing, not even flinching when the Bugman threatens you with the transmogrifying remote.
Some of the students are crying as the Bugman shrugs and says, “Pathetic. I was going to let you see me take over the world, but now I have a better idea.”
He takes you through a series of interconnected corridors, and down into a high-ceilinged arena that once must have held a swimming pool. Now the pool is filled with sand.
“Mwah ha ha ha,” the Bugman laughs. “Welcome to the Sand Pit. Home of the soon-to-be-amazing giant antlion. Who’d like to be first up for dinner?”
Everyone steps back.
The Bugman points to someone holding a sand-filled terrarium. “You,” he says. “You two with the antlion terrarium, bring it here and I’ll spare your life.”
“That’s us,” Joe whispers. He shuffles forward.
“Wait,” you whisper.
He doesn’t stop. You’re very close now, close enough that you could almost reach out and touch Frankie’s transmogrifier in his hand.
“Now!” Joe yells and you drop the terrarium on his foot, duck away from his reaching arms, and dive behind a nearby seat.
A loudspeaker squeaks. The feedback is so terrible, you want to cover your ears, but you can’t because you’re holding a terrarium.
“Stop!” the voice thunders. “Jeremy Wilder. You are surrounded. Drop the weapon, there’s no escape.”
“Never,” the Bugman yells. He grabs you out from behind the seat, and waves the transmogrifier threateningly at your face. “Mwah ha ha ha. You’ll never stop me.” He waves the transmogrifier around, singeing seats and lighting up patches of sand.
The sand in the sandpit begins to boil. It’s not actually boiling, but erupting with enormous insects.
A mottled black creature emerges from the sand revealing long spindly legs on a leaf-shaped body. Very slowly, it reaches out two black claw-like limbs toward the Bugman. You struggle to get away.
Someone yells from behind the highest seats. “Hey, watch out, it’s a whip scorpion.” It’s Butterfly boy, Eric. You can tell by the voice – and the bug t-shirt.
“A whip scorpion?” The Bugman says. You break free as he turns to face the terrifying beast. Frankie’s transmogrifier clatters on the tiles at the edge of the pool. The creature grabs him with its claw-like caricature of human hands, pulls him into the pit, and begins to eat – its crunching echoing horribly.
Gunshots ring out. Screams.
You duck for cover, and hunker down until the bullets stop. When you look up, the whip scorpion and the Bugman have disappeared into the sand.
Reunited with her transmogrifier, Frankie returns Ms. Xavier to her rightful size. Not that it helps Frankie any, she’s been given detention for the rest of the year. So have you. You tell anyone who will listen about how unfair it is, but no one listens.
Even Kennedy laughs. “Awesome, you’ll love it,” she says.
It takes you a week to realize that detention in your new school is really spy training. You become really fit, especially with all the obstacle courses, and really clever with all the extra worksheets. A year later, you’re taken to a special ceremony to induct you into World of Spies headquarters. They congratulate you for helping save Ms. Xavier, and give you a blank piece of paper. You’re not stupid, you know it has code on it, but you hardly care. What you’re most interested in, aside from extra helpings of WOS pizza (it’s twice as tasty as real pizza, but three times more dangerous) is an opportunity to visit the President and his or her children when they’re elected.
You’re going to be vetted so you can become a Junior Secret Service agent and make sure the President’s family remains safe, wherever they go.
Well done, you’ve saved the day, your class, Greenville, and possibly the world. Who knows how much trouble giant bugs could have been? With your new training, you have even more opportunities to do remarkable things. And if saving the world gets boring, you can press this button and join the WOS mailing list. Because even spies like to relax with amazing books.
For more adventure, like feeding ants, fighting a lady bug, or accidentally helping to blow up the museum, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
Obey instructions and grab a terrarium
You grab a terrarium, and a red-headed boy rushes over to help. “Hi, I’m Joe.”
Most of the students hurry to grab terrariums too, as the Bugman shines the transmogrifier onto ants, making them the size of bulldogs, then sprays them with various cans.
“Where’s a giant ant-eater when you need one?” Joe, the red-headed boy mutters.
“Shut up,” the Bugman says and orders everybody out. “This way — and quick!” He leads you through an emergency exit, out of the museum and into a courtyard filled with statues. With so many people all around, you can’t see what’s happening. There’s a whirring sound and the ants start herding you into an open hatch underneath an elephant statue.
Slowly, you and Joe manhandle the terrarium down the stairs. You’re almost there when he trips on the final step.
The terrarium appears to drop in slow motion. You scrabble to get it back under control, swiping at it ineffectually. It smashes. Shards of glass fly everywhere.
The Bugman looks back.
“Was that my whip scorpion?” He looks at the black mottled creature with thin legs and strange limbs with hand-like claws. It’s got a shard of glass sticking right through its leaf-shaped body.
“Is it a really a scorpion?” Joe whispers. “It doesn’t even have a scorpion tail.”
“Fools. Bugs don’t need venom to kill you.” The Bugman stomps around, looking inside all the terrariums. He points at one. “Put it down,” he says.
He points the transmogrifier at something inside. A praying mantis. It reaches down, picks up Joe and eats him.
Everyone tries to run away.
“Don’t drop those terrariums,” the Bugman warns as he and the ants usher you all into a room filled with lab benches and strange funnels that drop down from the ceiling like oxygen masks. “See, this,” he says. “Isn’t it the most beautiful invention you’ve seen in your life? The tubes will suck up the insects, send them to Frankie’s transmogrifier before letting them loose on the world.” He holds up his arms as if waiting for applause, but nobody claps or says a word.
“Idiots,” the Bugman says, checking the last bit of plastic tubing connecting the funnels to the ceiling. “This way, then.” He orders you all in a tiny room and locks the door.
One by one, students are dragged out by giant insects. Some people don’t make it out the door before bits of them are bitten off.
There’s very few of you left when a praying mantis enters the room. Joe’s praying mantis. It grabs you with its big sharp foreleg
s and bites your head off.
I'm sorry, you’ve been eaten. 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 with new and exciting bugs, save a toddler from an explosion, or have a toddler save you. There’s even a chance you’ll be taught by a miniature teacher smaller than your thumb.
For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
You choose: Ant. Grasshopper
On the other side of the rubble, Frankie punches in the two code words while the countdown drones on. “Self-destruct in ten seconds and—”
The countdown stops. Everybody still caught inside cheers.
“Quick!” you say, pulling away rubble to clear a path. Richard and Kennedy lend you a hand. On the inside, Frankie and the other students have formed a human chain, moving rocks away from the slip.
The hole is almost big enough for people to squeeze through when the Bugman arrives with his giant ants. “You meddling kids thwarted my evil plan,” he yells. “I will destroy you. Ants, attack!”
His giant ants charge at Frankie and the rest of the survivors. Bravely, they turn to defend themselves.
You scrabble at the hole desperately. People are being eaten. Body parts and blood are scattered amongst the rubble. Finally some of the debris gives way, and you squeeze through with Kennedy and Richard close behind.
“We can’t use my exploding gum,” Kennedy yells. “It might collapse the whole corridor.”
“We’ll have to get the transmogrifier off the Bugman,” you tell them. Together, you fight your way through the dust and past the ants, picking up bits of rubble and throwing them at the giant insects. Others join in.
The ants have been forced to retreat, but as you approach the Bugman, they rally, their jaws snapping.
You grab a piece of plaster and throw it at the closest ant. It staggers back, but it’s not deterred. It picks itself up, jaws wide. Then it bites Kennedy’s hand off.
The Bugman’s right there waving Frankie’s transmogrifier. Richard disappears in a flash of light.
Reaching for another missile, you slip.
The Bugman’s noticed. He leaps over.
You roll out of the way.
The ant snaps its jaws, tearing the fabric of your top. You roll back again. The Bugman’s pointing Frankie’s transmogrifier at you.
There’s no one to back you up. It’s either die by ant or be transformed by Frankie’s machine. In desperation, you grab the Bugman’s leg.
He wobbles.
Someone throws plaster at him, and he falls, the remote slipping from his fingers.
You both scrabble for it.
The ant approaches, its jaws wide open. It’s going to eat you—
You feel its jaws pierce your arm, and then suddenly it’s shrinking.
You must have pressed a button on Frankie’s transmogrifier remote. Somehow. Or maybe the Bugman has. Both of you are still wrestling for it, white knuckled and determined not to let it go.
Kennedy, her wrist still bleeding profusely, shoulder-barges the Bugman with her good arm. It’s not very hard, she is missing a hand, but it’s just enough to help you wrestle Frankie’s transmogrifier off the Bugman.
He puts up his hands and surrenders.
Everyone still alive cheers.
You, Kennedy and Richard all receive medals for your bravery. Although Kennedy can’t be at the ceremony, she’s still too week, and Richard can’t be at the ceremony because he’s still planning to be a spy. Kennedy’s not so sure. “Wait until after I get my robot hand,” she says.
The mayor and the town applaud you for your courage.
Ms. Xavier brings you back to the World of Spies headquarters, where they also shower you with praise. They give you a blank piece of paper and tell you to wave a black light over it underneath a full moon. The certificate says you’re an honorary spy and a partial member of WOS. It’s a perfectly useless certificate, you can’t even show it to anyone who isn’t a World of Spies agent.
The other thing they’ve given you is much better – it’s a mousepad that says, “I saved the world, and all I got was this useless mousepad.” Underneath the mousepad is a long button with the words, Need adventure? For help and special offers join the WOS mailing list. Hey why not?
Or you could rewind time and try this adventure again. Frankie says she has a time machine, and Kennedy says her robot hand is cool and all, but it’s not the same as having a real one. What would happen if you went back into the past and chose a different path? Would you learn how to solve spy codes, or be attacked by insects that are armored and dangerous? Would you blow up the Bugman’s underground lair? Or bring home a pet mouse?
For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
You choose: Bee. Caterpillar
“Sounds good,” Frankie says.
You can hear her typing on the other side of the rubble.
“Self-destruct in ten seconds and count—”
The countdown stops abruptly.
“Hooray,” everyone yells. “You’ve saved the day.”
“Anomaly detected,” the countdown voice says. “Self-destruct now in five – four – thee – two—”
A rumble. You feel it under your feet. In your teeth. In your eyeballs. Then the whole world explodes, tearing you into tiny fragments of blood and bone and gristle.
Oops. You’re very dead. It’s probably no consolation to know everybody else is dead and the museum is destroyed, but, if you like, you can take this moment to try one of the other endings. Ant Grasshopper or Cat Lepidoptera.
Or you could go on another adventure; maybe you will fly on the back of a butterfly, save the world with spray cans, or fight off a giant ladybug.
For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
You choose: Cat. Lepidoptera
“Okay,” Frankie says. “Here goes.”
You can hear beeping from the other side of the rubble. The self-destruct starts talking. “Does not compute, twenty three minutes remaining, and counting.”
The others all exchange looks, but there’s not much time for anything else before a flash of sound and light hits your senses. When you pick yourself up off the floor, it’s hard to stand up.
And then you look down at your paws – PAWS!?!?! You squeak in horror. Somehow, you’ve been turned into a mouse.
Other mice are turning around and around in circles, squeaking in terror. Although a few are casually washing their whiskers as if nothing is wrong.
“Quick, this way,” a mouse says. You’re pretty sure it’s Frankie. She leads all the other mice through the rubble toward you and then makes a megaphone out of old posters and a bit of wire. It takes a bit of yelling through the megaphone, but the police do eventually come down to see what’s happening. Once they see the mouse yelling through the megaphone, they grin. A voice booms out very loudly. “We’d better send for Frankie’s mother.”
#
After weeks of living at Frankie’s house, drinking terrible potions and getting changed into rubber balls, strawberry plants and jellyfish, you’re all turned back into people.
Back at home, you receive a mousepad with a cat on it in the mail. On it are the words, I survived The Great Mouse Incident. Never Again. But in the end, it’s not so bad, because becoming a mouse made you discover your love of cheese. You move to France and become the best cheesemaker in the world, crafting all kinds of specialty cheeses. Royalty and celebrities are the only people who can afford your most expensive product, Crafty Cupcake’s Camembert. Each of these cheeses is worth a time machine. And that’s the best part, because you disco
ver there’s plenty more adventure to be had by going back in time.
If you make different choices you can blow up the entire museum, join the bad guys, or find your own mouse companion – a diabolical varmint who will plot revenge against you from under the kitchen cupboards.
For more adventure, click on a link to:
Go back to the museum.
Or
Go to the Adventure Contents and choose any path.
Insect Glossary
Ant
Ants are a common insect around the world, and some species of ant have been known to lift fifty times their own body weight. More than 12,500 species of ant have been classified. Ants are also related to wasps and bees. Most landmasses on earth have ant species, with a few exceptions such as Antarctica and a few remote inhospitable islands.
To return to the School trip, click here
Antlion
The antlion included in this book is a larval antlion, or juvenile – which means it hasn’t grown into an adult yet. Juvenile antlions burrow into soft sand or dirt, creating a pit trap. When insects slip inside, the juvenile antlion throws sand at them, forcing them to slip into the pit into the waiting jaws of the antlion.
Due to their lacy wings and stick-like abdomen, adult antlions are commonly mistaken for damselflies. Distinguishing features are their longer clubbed antennae and nocturnal lifestyle.
Take me back to the sandpit!
Take me back to Frankie and the Scientists
Butterfly
The Monarch Butterfly is the butterfly species featured in this book. It is commonly found in the Americas, as well as parts of Australia and New Zealand. They are bright orange butterflies with striking black markings. Monarch Butterflies can live to up to 8 months in the wild. Monarch Butterflies start off as black, yellow and white striped caterpillars and feed on the plants they hatch on until they are big enough to form a chrysalis and transform into a butterfly.