Gregor and the Marks of Secret
Suzanne Collins
 The story takes place in New York where 8-year-old Lizzie is preparing for camp and 12-year-old Gregor is preparing for his echolocation training in the Underland with Ripred. Mrs. Cormaci now knows about the Underland and gives Gregor some pasta to bring to Ripred. Gregor rides Nike, the princess of the bats to the city of Regalia. When under the palace, Ripred informs Gregor that there is one more prophecy that Gregor is in called the "Prophecy of Time". But whenever Gregor asks anyone about the prophecy, no one will answer. Gregor then finds that the Bane has been brought to his lessons, and grown to an even 8'. Ripred taunts the Bane repeatedly and is finally attacked by him. And it is also revealed that the Bane's real name is Pearlpelt and that Snare was Pearlpelt's father. Later, Gregor receives an invitation to a party from still traumatized Hazard and his soon-to-be bond and joker, Thalia. When Gregor returns with a camera, he goes to Ripred to tell him that he gives up on echolocation training, but once there, is attacked by Twirltongue and two other rats./ His rager skills kick in during battle, but suddenly give away when he loses his flashlight, revealing that he can only fight if he can see and needs echolocation more than he thought. He escapes and blocks the door and asks also traumatized Vikus from Solovet's betrayal about the strength of the door. When he says it will hold, a now relieved Gregor heads to the party with 3-year-old Boots. There, Gregor meets up with his mom. 12-year-old Luxa approaches Gregor and asks for a dance. Gregor agrees and afterwards takes one look down at Luxa and realizes he likes her. A crown landing right by them kills the moment and they both realize that it's the crown Luxa gave to the nibblers (Underland word for mice) in case they were in need of help. Gregor, his bond Ares, Luxa, and her bond Aurora go to the nibblers' colony and find one of Luxa's friend nibblers dead. They also find a strange symbol on the ground that looks like a lowercase "r". Later, a group of baby nibblers were brought to the palace from the river in a woven basket./ This causes Gregor, Ares, Luxa, Aurora, Howard, Nike, Boots, Hazard, and Thalia to inspect what is going on. A series of events happens including an earthquake, Luxa develops a crush on Gregor, the team reunites with Photos Glow-Glow and Zap, they find a nibbler named Cartesian, they discover Ripred being tortured in a pit and rescue him, their bats are nearly killed in wind currents, Gregor and Luxa strongly argue, and they find out that a now 12-foot Bane is planning on taking over the Underland. The team heads to a volcano and find that there is a colony of nibblers being herded toward it. They suddenly realize this and try to escape but fall to the ground, gasping for air. Gregor realizes that they are suffocating, and also that the nursery rhyme and song is actually a prophecy and that the part about the nibblers in a trap is happening right now./ The nibblers suddenly stay still and when Boots says that they are sleeping, Gregor finally tells her about dying. He then discovers that the queen in the prophecy is not Luxa, but the volcano. It erupts and engulfs the team in smoke. Gregor wakes up lying in a cave. He walks further in to the cave and find the team okay, but knows someone is dead when he sees their faces. He sees Hazard crying and finds Thalia lying in his arms, stone dead. Later, Ripred tells him that he must get his sword, but Gregor is confused at this since he has a sword, but Ripred says he needs Sandwich's sword. Before Gregor leaves to Regalia, Luxa asks why he helped her with the nibblers, and Gregor tells her that he did it because they saved her. The story ends with Gregor gazing at the sword in awe.