Chapter 3

The rain pounded down on green grass, pelting through leaves, bringing life to dry plants, while, underground a little blue orb shook, as much as it was able with its nonexistent muscles, in fear.

Hours later the rain finally stopped, and the relentless pounding ceased. Expecting the worst Josh sent one of the old Workers to the surface, the Ant crawled up the spiral tunnel finally, poking its head out of the nest. Loyal to the bitter end and not receiving further orders the Ant stood there valiantly, his antennas waving.

Josh frowned, inside his head of course, no mysterious blue orbs had face muscles. The Worker had stood at the top of the nest and since he didn't die, Josh began to relax, but suddenly the point of feeling representing the Ant had disappeared.

Still worried Josh quickly sent another Worker to the top, then focused on it so he could see what was happening, everything was tinted blue for some reason. Remembering the first time he saw through a Ant, it wasn't blue, but then again it had been dark in the tunnel.

Suddenly the point vanished again, now resolved to find out what was killing his Ants, Josh sent one to a nearby outpost. After the Ant arrived and looked above the tunnel entrance, nothing happened, then this Ant also died. Deciding that whatever it was could see all around the nest, Josh sent another Ant to the edge of the clearing up in some tree roots. Because by golly if he could not have a sky base he was going to have the next best thing!

The Ant finally reached the tree, and started climbing up, this time Josh took control of the Ant from the first person perspective, it was the weirdest experience of his life, having six legs, and going almost vertical while speeding at an incredible 3 inches a second.

Once Josh felt the Worker was high enough, he turned its head and looked toward where the nest was, and saw a large blue sea, various back spots speckled the surface. Josh suddenly realized why no other Ants had settled in the clearing, and why the Workers had blinked out of existence.

A while later (3 hours, 47 minutes, 26 seconds, and 14 milliseconds to be exact) Josh had sent half his Workers, all the upgraded Workers, and all his Soldiers to the tree outpost, or as Josh liked to call it 'operation bat tree'.

Remembering ant videos from earth, which were watched during the ads in cat videos, Josh formed the workers into a large ball thing in the water, with the Soldiers and upgraded Ants on top. (A/N: think in Ant Man, in the tunnels under the corporation building)

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'And launch, the HMS Antly, is off!' The Ants on the bottom and sides of the ship used half their limbs to paddle, while holding on to other Ants. Above them or to the side. As the Ants paddled toward the nest, Josh took control of two Ants and moved them to the front of the ship, before having them stand up on their back two legs.

Their antennas waved into the wind as the one in front spread its top four legs, while the one behind hugged it, all the while Josh hummed the Titanic music in his head.

As the living ship floated towards the nest, Josh kept an eye out for any hostile creatures. The Antly was quite literally a sitting Ant, with the range for the Soldiers poison spit being quite small, and the poison was barely corrosive.

After Josh learned about the new surface, he immediately thought of a water core, wanting a Worker or Soldier that could do stuff in a water environment. So keeping a lookout for a small, water dependant creature, while avoiding the larger ones, the journey passed to the nest.

The entrance or the nest greeted them with a sad sight, the brave explorers, stood tall, antennas waving in the currents.

That is until a large bug flashed by a second later and scooped them into its mouth. 'Charge! Avenge our already dead comrades' Josh mentally shouted this while giving chase to the Bug, it was small enough that he and his Ants were capable of taking it down.

Knowing that his Ants were not fast enough, Josh moved all his Ants into a net, with the Soldiers on the inside. They were linked together red rover style, with several layers of Workers, Josh then sent two of the old Workers into the middle of the net as bait.

Josh anxiously waited for the Bug, knowing that if it took too long, his Ants might drown. As the seconds ticked by, and as Josh was about to recall his Ants, a ripple, well, rippled through the pond. The Ants grips tightened, and the Bug slammed into the net! Several Ants were crushed, but the rest floated strong, and as the Bug sped off the Ant net was pulled along like a funeral shroud.

As the Ant net was pulled by the Bug, the Soldiers on the inside were pressed against the Bugs side, they immediately began stinging and biting. After several minutes of this, the Bug finally began to slow as the Ants poison coursed through its veins and pierced its heart.

After the Soldiers had latched onto the Bug Josh had his Workers let go and form the platform again, and once the Bug was dead, they began paddling towards it. Once they reached the corpse, they formed around it and began toward the bat tree, dragging the Bug with them.

Once they reached the bat tree, Josh had the Ants begin cutting the Bug into pieces, while searching for the core. They finally found it in the stomach, apparently the cores were used to filter nutrients into a sort of mana or life force, like a magic stomach, while Josh used his to create the life force of the Ants.

Ants typically do not need much life force to live. The cores also seemed to be used as a regular digestive tract, hence the placement in the stomach.

The dismemberment of the Bug, took five minutes, Josh was astounded, before remembering videos of Ants completely eating tarantulas in short amounts of time, and tarantulas were four or five times as big!

The core was the size of one of his Ants and aquamarine looking, it was also perfectly bowling ball shaped.

(A/N: hah! Not what you expected right!? *smile smugly and takes a bite of a cookie*)

The Ants rolled the core back through the tunnels towards the throne room, the core was big enough to scrape the walls and ceilings. Josh was salivating at the thought of a complete core, and all the little water minio-Ants it would create.

As the core rolled closer to the throne room it began to hum, Josh frowned as much as he was able, and decided it must be because two complete cores were so close together.