Direwolf: Silken Threads - part 2 "I have a very bad feeling about this...."
by Direwolf

Skip enjoyed mornings at the City University Campus. With the dawn light painting the brick buildings in soft pastel shades and the walkways nearly empty, he could imagine the presence of all those who had come before. It was as if the ghosts of knowledge collected among the buildings to whisper secrets to each other and, perhaps, to the ears of the first to walk into a seemingly empty room. The rational part of Skip's mind knew that was no more than an idle fantasy. But then, the world wasn't the same as when he had started as an undergraduate at City University in the fall of 1959, the oldest son of a retired coal miner in West Virginia. His father had died two years later of respiratory collapse and only by working full time in the campus bookstore had Skip been able to keep going to school. Now it looked as if he would be the only member of his family to make it to college. One of his brothers was at work in the mine while the other had joined the Army, and his sister, just out of high school, was talking about marriage.

"But I'll do it, even if Dad never sees it," Skip told himself. In two more years, he'd have his masters in molecular biology. And with his grades, there were dozens of firms who would hire him in an instant, assuming he didn't enter a doctorate program somewhere.

As Skip approached the physical sciences building, his mind was awhirl with thoughts of the future. He nearly didn't notice the odd construction in the shrubs by the back door.

"Now that is weird!" Skip said as he climbed the stairs to the steel fire door. It looked like a gray funnel of spun string, nearly five feet across, leading back to a disk like patch of the same material flush with the ground. The whole thing was woven through the laurel bushes alongside the building.

Skip figured it was one of three things. It might be an art project. The art department graduate students liked to erect odd pieces of sculpture around the campus at night to see what sort of effect they would get the next day. In Skip's mind, five bales of straw impaled on a flagpole wasn't art, but that might be one of the reasons he was hard science rather than an art major. Or it could have been a prank. Some of the frat boys had taken to making their own junk sculptures around the campus as a jab at the art students' efforts. The dead cow outside the dean's window had been an example of that and the dean still swore that if he ever found who did it, they would be billed for the cost of removing the carcass.

The third possibility was a bit more ominous. This building had been the focal point of Déjà vu cloning chaos here at the University campus. A vast amount of odd forms of radiation had been cast about that day, both by the huge cloning ray and in the subsequent battle between Freedom Force and the crazed, rhyming villain. Skip was considering the possibility that the odd gray structure might be a side effect. Perhaps some of the local fungi or plants had been affected.

"I'll have to check it out after I look in on the cooked spiders," Skip muttered.

The door into the back of the science building was open. That wasn't surprising, it was often left open to help with ventilation. But when Skip reached the door that led down to the basement, he knew something was wrong. This was the main security door to the cyclotron and was supposed to be kept locked at all times. Puzzled, Skip swung the door all the way open. The mechanism looked fine.

"Maybe Mike forgot to shut it," Skip mused. He held onto his key card and descended the flight of metal stairs into the renovated basement. The next door, another key-locked door, was also hanging open.

"I have a very bad feeling about this...." Skip pushed the door open and it swung wide with a slight squeak.

The control room looked deserted, the doors leading off to the side chambers of the accelerator ring were all shut but the door that led to the target area was open.

"Mike, you here?" Skip called, wishing his voice sounded steadier. "Quit fooling around, Waverly and Snyder are going to be here soon."

His words echoed slightly and there was no answer. Skip walked slowly to the door into the short corridor that led to the target area and looked down it. He saw the air lock door to the target area was also just barely open, and the red lights of the target area backup system shining through the crack looked uncomfortably bloody. Skip picked up a wrench from a worktable and started forward.

He paused by the door and quickly checked the radiation monitors. They showed the levels in the target area were safe, hardly above background. Skip pushed the door open with his foot. It swung about a quarter of the way in and stopped as if it had hit something unyielding on the floor. Skip took one deep breath to steady his nerve and slipped through the doorway into the red-lit room.

There was someone lying on the cement floor. His feet had stopped the door from opening.

"Ah, jeeze," Skip hissed. He was sure it had to be Mike. For some reason, he must have shut down the beam then come in before the radiation fully cleared. Just to make sure, Skip checked for a pulse. There was none. Skip refused to panic. This wasn't the first time he'd confronted a human corpse, though all the others had been on steel slabs as part of anatomy classes. Skip struggled to keep a sense of detachment and examined a little further.

As he drew back the white lab coat, Skip confirmed that yes, it was Mike, and there was something odd about his flesh. It looked as if a chuck of tissue about the size of softball on his neck and jaw were desiccated, little more than dry skin hanging over bone. The surrounding tissue looked intact. Skip took a closer look and realized that there were numerous spots on the body that showed the same sort of damage, with loose flaps of skin barely concealing the cavities from which the soft tissues had been extracted. He rolled the body over and saw that the abdomen was nearly gone.

"Could radiation produce this effect?" Skip wondered. He knew concentrated bursts of high-energy radiation could destroy living tissue, but that didn't seem to fit the pathology. Whatever killed Mike had turned him into Swiss cheese.

Skip rocked back on his heels and considered what to do next. Then he spotted the cages in the target area. All of them were open. It looked as if the wire mesh was torn from the inside out. And Skip's mind suddenly assembled all the data into a horrifying picture. Some spiders chewed their prey. Other spiders fed by injecting their prey with digestive enzymes that broke down the soft tissues, then sucking them dry.

Face white with horror. Skip stumbled backwards and collided with something that grabbed him. In a panic, he shouted and swung his wrench at whatever was holding him. Professor Waverly ducked.

"Mr. Carson, what has gotten into you?" the dean of the Life Sciences department demanded. In his mid forties, Professor Douglas Waverly was just under six feet tall and an avid tennis player, giving him a lean body and a dark tan. His white mustache quivered in excitement as he ducked back from Skip's wild swing.

"Uh, sorry, sir," Skip stammered. "It's Mike, the cyclotron operator. He's dead and the spiders got him!"

"What are you talking about? Is this some sort of joke?"

"No, sir! He's right in here." Skip pointed to the fallen student. Waverly's eyes widened in surprise.

"If there has been an accident, we have to call campus security at once." Taking charge, Waverly led the way back to the control room and reached for the phone.

"Oh, no!" Skip gasped in understanding. "That's what's by the door!"

Waverly set down the phone. "What are you talking about?"

"By the back door, it's not a fungus, it's a web!"

Waverly stalked out the door. "Come along young man, we'll get to the bottom of this."

With a rapid stride, Professor Waverly led the way out of the basement and up to the back fire door of the building.

"There, in the shrubs, do you see!" Skip pointed at the odd gray structure he had spotted on the way in.

"Very odd. Now, let me have that." Waverly took the wrench, stepped forward and unceremoniously poked the center of the gray mass. What happened next occurred nearly too fast to see.

Something brown with gray and black markings and larger then a grown man erupted from beneath the gray trap door. The huge spider grabbed the startled professor and Skip saw two long black fangs extend like huge needles and jab into Waverly's chest. As quick as the monster appeared, it vanished back into its lair with its prey.

Skip was stunned. It was one thing to intellectually decide that the test spiders had somehow been affected by the radiation and had escaped, killing Mike in the process. It was quite another to watch a giant trap door spider drag the dean of the Life Sciences department into its lair. Skip listened to the slow thunder of his own heartbeat and stared at the now shut trap door. He idly wondered when he was going to start breathing again.

Then the rational part of his mind reasserted control. He shuddered and moved back a pace.

"I can't give in to panic," He thought, "There could be a dozen of these monsters loose and in a couple of hours, the campus will be swarming with people. I've got to do something now."

Skip understood that hunting down giant spiders was outside of his league. He needed someone who specialized in this sort of crisis. Fortunately, he knew just the person for the job.

It took Skip only a few minutes to race across the campus to the Earth Sciences building and pound up stairs to Jason's tiny office. The only problem was, he wasn't there. For a horrible moment, Skip's mind went blank he was paralyzed with the fear that the spiders had already gotten Direwolf. Mercifully, he was able to calm himself with the realization that it was far more likely he was just not as his desk.

"Ok, if he's not here, who might know where he is?" The grad student hall was empty so no one answered his rhetorical question. Skip glanced at his watch. The timing was just about right for Devon to be arriving, which would take him right past the trap door spider's lair.

"Oh, man, what if he gets too close!" Skip took off a dead run.

Still feeling muzzy headed, Devon trudged across the nearly deserted campus towards the Physical Sciences building. He didn't think he was really awake, but he was considering when he could get access to an oscilloscope. He had a break between the Thermodynamics class he was proctoring and the Mechanical Engineering 102 study session this morning.

He paused by the stairs leading up to the back of the building. There was something odd in the shrubs. Devon adjusted his glasses and moved closer to get a better look at the odd gray structure amid the laurels. It looked like the art students were at it again.

"Don't touch it!"

Skip's shouted warning caused Devon to pull back in alarm. He looked around and saw Skip pelting at him across the grass, a look of near panic on his face.

"Ok, ok, I won't touch it!" Devon exclaimed. "Now what is going on?"

Heaving for breath, Skip stumbled to a stop. "Giant spider, really giant spider. Something went wrong with the experiment last night. They got out, killed Mike. One of them is in there and caught Waverley."

Devon paused, then smirked. "Oh, I see, you're joking, figuring I'm so tired and haven't had my coffee so I'll believe giant spiders are loose in the Physics building. Well, I am not buying it!'

Skip grabbed Devon's shirt and pulled him close until only a few inches separated their faces.

"This city has been invaded by giant ants, killer robots and even gray headed aliens," Skip hissed, "and we live with a super hero. Are you telling me giant spiders are unbelievable?"

The smirk instantly vanished. "Jeeze, you aren't kidding are you!"

Devon looked at the gray web in the shrubs. A shiver of real fear traced his spine as he realized just how big a spider would have to be to spin a web that size.

"Do you want to see Mike's body? He's in the target area. And if we don't do something very soon, a whole lot of people are going to be walking around this campus and who knows what might be hunting them? Do you know where Jason is?"

Devon ran a shaky hand through his fine black hair. "Yeah, I think so, let's go."

John Miller was quite glad to have left high school behind for the halls of Patriot City University. The classes were more challenging, the choice of subjects more extensive and there were far less of the ‘bully subspecies' to deal with. Although, John reflected, the latter really wasn't much of an issue for him any longer, not since the bolt of purple light struck him and he found himself imbued with amazing powers that mimicked those of ants. John had fashioned a costume for himself, taken the name The Ant and was now a member of Freedom Force, though he still tended to question if he was worthy of that high honor. With people like Minute Man, El Diablo and Bullet on the team, did they really need ‘bug-boy'? But John was determine to show he was part of the team and could pull his own weight.

"That shouldn't be too hard, given that the average ant can carry at least four times that amount," he thought to himself.

John's internal musings were interrupted by the sound of the professor's voice. He was in an early morning class on entomology and though John suspected he might have been able to teach the class himself, he was too good of a student to ignore the possibility that he might yet learn something new. In any case, by paying attention, he'd have a better chance of knowing what was going to be on the midterm exams. John sat up straight in his chair and opened up his notebook.

"...So to give us an overview of the importance of insect morphology and the way it can be used in paleontology research, we have a guest speaker, one of the graduate students from the Earth Sciences department, Mister Jason Cross."

The professor stood aside and John watched as a tall young man stood up from a stool by the blackboard. He moved to the podium and John realized just how tall and powerfully built he was. He looked more like a first string football player than a hard science graduate student. The stereotypical image was marred by the fact that he moved with the smooth grace of a stalking cat.

"Good morning, I trust everyone is awake? I'll try not to put anyone else to sleep with my droning voice," Jason said, looking over the lecture hall. There were about thirty undergraduates watching him. "Professor Worrell has asked me to talk this morning about how we use the changes in insect body structures in paleontology."

Jason moved to the blackboard and sketched out a quick stratagraphic column, explaining how the progression of layers marked the passage of years and how the fossils set down tracked the shifts of life. He paused to pass out some samples of fossil insects and arachnids so the students could get a feel for what he was talking about. As he walked towards the front row, his sensitive nose caught a faint familiar scent, formic acid. Jason paused for a moment, in recollection. The last time he smelled that scent had been in the elevator on the way up from the Freedom Force interrogation when he had met The Ant and the young man had offered a gloved hand of friendship.

"He has to be in the room some place," Jason thought.

Just to see if he could, Jason moved across the front of the room, still talking about how fossils formed and how insect carapaces were good candidates for fossilization. He used his eyes and his nose to see if he could isolate the faint acidic tang. And there, in the second row back right in the center was a young man with lank black hair studiously writing down everything he said in a precise hand.

"That's him," Jason realized, "The Ant's an undergrad at school. Humm, I wonder if we have any other Freedom Forcers here in disguise?"

Jason filed that thought away for future consideration and went back to his lecture.

John was making sure his notes were meticulously accurate. Mister Cross sure knew his subject and was enough of a speaker to keep the narrative moving. He paused for questions, didn't talk down to the students and made sure everyone was following his discussion. At times, when he really got going, his flat Maine accent started coming through. In those moments, John almost thought he recognized the voice.

He looked up from his notebook when he realized the voice had just stopped. Mister Cross had just moved to the side door at the back of the room and was speaking with someone John couldn't see outside the room. Mister Cross looked suddenly concerned and glanced back in the room. For a moment, John was sure their eyes met, then Jason went over to the professor. The two exchanged a brief flurry of whispers and Professor Worrell looked both confused and angry. Jason obviously apologized, grabbed his backpack and raced out of the room.

Worrell walked to the podium. "Mister Cross has been called away by some sort of personal emergency and will be back next week. So let us resume our discussion on the phyla that comprise the insect kingdom. Mister Jackson, can you begin for us?"

Puzzled, John drew a neat, ruler straight line under the last of Jason's comments and began a new set of notes. He was even more confused when someone tapped him on the shoulder few moments later and passed him a folded note. He looked back. It was Skip Carson, one of the Life Sciences graduate students.

"I was told to give this to you, no idea what it means," Skip hissed before quickly leaving,

John assumed Skip wanted to avoid Worrell's anger. Surreptitiously, he unfolded the note and nearly jumped out of his chair in surprise.

"Ant, I need your help. Come to the back of the Physical Sciences building fast!" It was signed, ‘Direwolf'.

John quickly glanced around to see if anyone was watching him. Everyone seemed to be following Worrell's lecture. Now he had to decide what to do. Direwolf wasn't part of Freedom Force, a fact Minuteman had made explicitly clear to every inquiring reporter in Patriot City. But John had read the reports of the action down at the piers when Captain Kraken attacked the city. He felt sure Direwolf was on their side, making it unlikely this was some sort of trap. That meant he had to take the request seriously.

"Excuse me," John whispered to the student sitting next to him. As quietly as he could, he slipped down the line of desks and escaped into the hall. The bathroom was nearby and John Miller was very glad his red and brown costume was under his clothes.

"Giant spiders on campus, this city just gets weirder and weirder," Jason complained as he donned his black leather mask. He had one of his black t-shirts emblazoned with the snarling white wolf's head on under his shirt and his motorcycle boots and gloves were in his backpack.

"Where's your coat?" Devon asked, stuffing Jason's now nearly empty backpack into his book bag.

"Back at home. Didn't figure I would need it today and it's kind of bulky."

"You should pack it in your saddle bags," Skip suggested. "Come on, we're nearly there. And what was with that note you had me deliver?"

"May give us some back up. We'll see." Jason paused by a tree to balance himself while he buckled his boots into place then pulled on his battered leather gloves. Punching through stone tended to wear them out rather quickly. He felt himself settling into a relaxed, slightly forward leaning posture that seemed natural for Direwolf as he moved towards the Physical Sciences building. Fortunately, the campus was still nearly empty though he could see some students were already heading for class. Soon, the walkways would be thronged.

One of the passing people was a young woman named Cassandra Torelli. Cassandra wasn't a student, but she taught a few gymnastics classes at the school to augment her meager salary as part of the Patriot City Ballet Company. Today, she had happened to come by early with the hope of finding the gymnasium empty. She wanted to practice some of her maneuvers, the ones she used to travel across rooftops as Miss Mantis. She spotted the three men moving purposefully towards the Sciences building and did a double take. The tall one in the middle was unmistakably Direwolf. Even without his long leather coat, she recognized him.

Casey's heart skittered with excitement. If Direwolf was on campus, it was a safe bet something was wrong. And that meant a chance for her to obtain some hands-on practice. Gym bag over her shoulder, Casey ran into the nearest building looking for a place to change.

Direwolf, Devon and Skip arrived at the back of the Physical Sciences Building. The web funnel was still in the laurels. Direwolf crouched down and sniffed the ground. A low, involuntary growl rumbled in his chest.

"Yeah, I can smell it in there."

He moved to the stairs and examined them as well. "Yes, there are a bunch more. They came out this way and seem to have spread out. You say the one in there got Professor Waverly?"

Skip nodded. "It was like something out of a horror movie."

"What is the meaning of this?" Professor Zachary Snyder, flanked by two of the campus security guards had just rounded the corner of the building and was closing in at a rapid walk.

Direwolf stood up. "There appears to have been some sort of accident with the cyclotron last night, sir. Mister Engles and Mister Carson have informed me that the test subjects.... were affected and escaped, killing a young man named Mike in the process."

Snyder recoiled in surprise. Jason didn't know the dean of the Physics department very well. He knew Snyder had a deep interest in atomic energy and, according to Devon, was a major proponent of pursuing military funds for school projects. Zachary Snyder was a slender man in his fifties; his hair was mixed white and iron gray. His clean-shaven face had an intelligent, foxy look about it. Rumor was that Snyder had been part of the Manhattan project before coming to Patriot City University after the war.

Right now, Snyder subjected Direwolf to the same withering gaze that terrified undergraduates. "And who, sir, are you?"

"I go by the name of Direwolf."

Both security guards set their hands on holstered guns.

"I have read about you, young man, much of it not very complementary."

"We are wasting time!" Skip interjected. "I saw it get Professor Waverly and he still may be alive. Trap door spiders paralyze their prey and save it inside their lair until they are hungry!"

Snyder's eyes narrowed as he considered. "I am going to trust you, young man and you..."

He looked directly at Devon. "I know you from the department. If this is some sort of prank...."

He never finished the threat. As far as Devon was concerned, he didn't have to.

"It is no joke, sir!" Devon looked meaningfully at Skip who nodded in agreement. "The test subjects from last night's experiments have broken out!"

"Interesting, they must have survived quite a dose of hard radiation." Snyder looked suddenly thoughtful. "Nonetheless, we still must deal with the current situation."

The two guards jumped down and approached the web funnel. Even before his danger sense went off, Jason had a sudden premonition of what was about happen.

At a nod from Snyder, the first guard drew his nightstick and jabbed it into the gray mass of webbing.

"No!" Direwolf shouted.

He sensed the faint tremor in the ground, as if something big was moving. He jumped as quickly as he could.

Miss Mantis had changed into her costume and was now closing in at an easy run, her staff shrunk to the size of a long baton. She was only a dozen yards away and saw everything as it unfolded.

The center of the web funnel snapped open as the huge spider exploded out. Direwolf was already moving, so he was able to knock the two campus guards out of the way but the eight-legged hunter was far faster then he was. It swarmed over him in a tangle of flailing legs.

The impact knocked Direwolf sprawling. Mantis saw the thing rear back as its long pedipalps extended like a pair of extra, fang tipped legs. It pinned Direwolf to the ground and was ready to bite. Miss Mantis was sure Direwolf was done for when the grass erupted in a spray of dirt. The Ant rose from the ground, grabbed the huge spider and heaved it into the air. The squirming creature lost its grip on Direwolf and reared back.

Casey saw at once that Ant was in trouble; the spider's legs were so long it could reach the ground even with him holding it. In a matter of moments, it would be free. Casey shouted to center her inner energy and charged. In her hands, the staff extended to an eight-foot pole. She used it like a spear.

Held above Ant's head, she had a clear shot at the monster's cephalothorax. The titanium shaft punched through the creature and a spray of cream-colored viscera burst out around the metal staff. Miss Mantis let go and rolled clear. Ant jumped back. Direwolf scrambled aside. He immediately dove into the now open tunnel.

The spider thrashed in mortal pain, spraying more ichors and tearing up the ground with its powerful legs. Long black fangs slid spastically from its pedipalps. Miss Mantis realized the monster was about to trample the black haired young man and threw herself at him. The two of them tumbled free. The Ant rushed in, grabbed the protruding shaft and hoisted the monster into the air, holding it away as it finished the process of dying.

It was still twitching as Direwolf wiggled free from its den with the silk wrapped body of Doctor Waverly.

"He's still alive!" Direwolf shouted.

Skip raced over. Ever since Jason became Direwolf, Skip had found himself cast in the role of Doctor, and was taking the responsibility seriously. He'd tracked down a surplus army medic's field kit and constantly tinkered with the contents. He dug the kit out of his book bag.

"Are you sure he's alive?" Skip asked while Direwolf tore away handfuls of the clinging webs. Waverly looked dead, completely motionless and rigged as a plank.

"Yes, I can faintly hear his breathing but it's very slow. The venom must have paralyzed him. See what you can do." Direwolf took a look around assessing the situation. He was surprised to see Miss Mantis climbing to her feet and helping up Devon. The Ant had the still twitching spider safely out of the way. The two campus guards were staring at the huge spider in shocked surprise while Professor Snyder had taken refuge by the staircase. To Jason, Snyder seemed more interested than afraid.

"Miss Mantis, thanks for the back up, your timing is impeccable. Ant, thank you for answering the call."

"Yeah, Direwolf, glad I could lend a hand. Though about the way you contacted me..."

The spider was no longer moving so John lowered it to the ground. He set his foot on the massive carcass and pulled the staff out. Before he passed the viscera slicked staff back to Miss Mantis, he got a pretty good look at it. The staff was a marvel of engineering, light and yet very strong by the feel. It looked like it was constructed of a series of rings that somehow slid and locked into place.

"Yeah, sorry about that. For what it's worth, the secret is safe with me, just like I'm trusting you guys not to say what I look like sans mask."

Under his own mask, John Miller felt his face redden with embarrassment. He understood Direwolf's leashed anger. In their first meeting, a misunderstanding had led to a fight in which Freedom Force had beaten Direwolf unconscious and then taken him to their headquarters for interrogation. As part of that process, Minute Man had stripped away Direwolf's mask. Since then, Minute Man had insisted on a strict ‘hands off' policy with Direwolf though John felt sure Minute Man was just waiting for Direwolf to step over the line. If a warrant was ever issued for ‘the masked vigilante known as Direwolf' John was sure Minute Man would be leading a wolf hunt. And it was likely the publisher of the Patriot City Herald wouldn't be far behind, shouting, "I told you so" all the while.

"I think I can trust you with that secret," John said, realizing he had no choice. "So, what's the story behind the giant spider?"

Direwolf gave him and Miss Mantis a quick run down on the morning's events.

"You mean, there're eleven more of these things out there?" Miss Mantis asked as she wiped her staff off on the grass, and then collapsed it to the size of a long baton.

"Not exactly," Skip answered, looking up from Professor Waverly. "There were pairs of a number of species, including both brown recluse and black widows. They are much more venomous than trap door spiders."

"Is the professor going to be all right?" Direwolf asked.

"I'm not sure. He's not dead, just paralyzed. But he needs to get to a hospital as soon as possible in case there are complications."

The Ant was about to make a suggestion when Direwolf stepped in.

"Professor Snyder, I think this proves we aren't pulling some sort of stunt. Can you deal with the campus authorities? We need to restrict movement as much as possible. The other trap door spider should be close by so we may be able to start with that. And I think I have the scent of the rest of them."

"You can smell them?" Miss Mantis asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, there is an odd...tang for lack of a better word that I suspect might have something to do with radiation."

"I think we should call for back-up," The Ant announced. "This is too important to risk making a mistake."

Whatever Direwolf was going to say was lost in a sudden flurry of sound from the street just north of the hedges that bounded the university. First came the squeal of locking brakes, followed by the crash of a car into something very solid and then a number of voices shouting in panic.

Direwolf, Miss Mantis and The Ant all reacted in the same way, racing towards the sound of the crisis. Direwolf outpaced the other two, jumping over the brick fence in a single massive leap. Miss Mantis vaulted over the wall with the help of her staff. The Ant hopped to the top of the wall and assessed the situation.

The street was in chaos. A driver, startled by what was going on, had lost control of his car and smashed into a pair of parked vehicles. Steam leaked from under the crumpled hood while the driver fought to get free of his seat belt. People were running in panic, which the Ant thought was understandable, considering what else was moving through the streets. Two orange and black Tarantulas, each more than ten feet tall, were stalking down the roadway. While the Ant watched, one of the huge hairy spiders seemed to accidentally flip over a parked car with one of its huge legs. The spiders looked lost and confused by the honking horns and shouting voices. As one of them reared back and explored the face of a building with its long legs, glass exploded inward from windows crushed by its exploring feet the spider returned to street level.

"Ok now I really think we need back up on this!" The Ant exclaimed.

To be continued...