3 Shrinking!

Chapter 3 SHRINKING! "What's going on, Water Bug?" Andrew asked. "Are you out of fuel or something?" glurp… "Checking, checking, checking," said the Water Bug. "Do not know." Judy turned to Burpp and pushed her face close to his beak. "Did you do something to the Water Bug?" she asked. Awk! "Burpp didn't do anything!" said Burpp, chewing on a broken claw. "Please don't blame Burpp!" "Thudd," said Andrew, "call Uncle Al." meep… "Okey-dokey," said Thudd.

Uncle Al was Andrew and Judy's uncle and a top-secret scientist. He invented Thudd and the Water Bug. Thudd pressed the big purple button in the middle of his chest. The purple button blinked three times. The Water Bug kept drifting down. Outside, animals that looked like strings of Christmas lights fluttered through the darkness. "Look!" said Andrew. He pointed to a red jellyfish as big as a washing machine. A long, skinny fish zipped by. Lights glowed along its side like the windows of a spaceship. A squad of umbrella-shaped squids floated up to the windshield. "Wowzers!" said Andrew. "These guys are amazing!" Up and down the arms of the squids ran dots of flashlight-bright colors—blue and yellow, purple and red. Even the squids' eyes sparkled with light.

meep… "Squids got living light, too," said Thudd. Awk! "Maybe the squids are sending a message," said Burpp. Suddenly the hood of the Water Bug started to flash colors. It flickered sky blue, then leaf green, then pearly pink. "Jumping gerbils!" said Andrew. "The Protectum coating is going wild!" glurp… "Telling squids we come as friends," said the Water Bug. Judy's eyes narrowed. "Cut the squid chat," she said. "Let's get the Water Bug fixed! Now!" "Oh, right!" said Andrew. He pushed buttons and turned dials. But still nothing happened. They drifted deeper and deeper. Strange new creatures prowled the night ocean. With their jagged shapes and awful mouths, they could have hatched from bad dreams. Some had fangs so long they couldn't close their mouths. One looked like a giant mouth

attached to a long sock. Some looked like messy piles of seaweed with mouths in the middle. One wide-open mouth had a light inside. A tiny fish swam up to the light, and the mouth snapped it up! As the parade of creatures glided and squirmed by, Thudd squeaked out their names: dragonfish, hatchetfish, gulper eel, fangtooth, ghost shark, saber-toothed viperfish! Suddenly the big purple button in the middle of Thudd's chest began to blink. It popped open and a beam of purple light zoomed out. A hologram of Uncle Al appeared on the dashboard. "Hi there, guys!" said Uncle Al.

He was smiling, but he looked tired. His shaggy hair was even shaggier than usual. "Hi, Uncle Al!" said Andrew. "Hiya, Unkie," said Thudd. Awk! "Hello, Professor Dubble!" said Burpp. "We've got a problem!" said Judy. "I'm not surprised," said Uncle Al. "And it sounds like you've got Soggy Bob's parrot with you! I hope he's not the problem." When Uncle Al visited them by hologram, he could hear them but not see them. "We had to rescue Burpp," said Andrew. "He's on our side now."

"The bad news," said Judy, "is that the Water Bug lost power and is sinking!" GRAAACK! came a sound from the back of the Water Bug. Andrew and Judy turned to see what had happened. A lightning-shaped crack ran halfway down the rear window! "The back window cracked!" yelled Judy. Uncle Al's bushy eyebrows tilted up to his shaggy hair. "Uh, that's because the Water Bug is shrinking," he said.