Ant Attack (6 page)

“What is it?” gasped Josh. “What could
be making that happen? It's vaporizing everything in its path!”

Danny gulped and squinted up. Above them—high, high up in the sky, was a round glow, like the sun. Shooting out from the round glow was the pillar of fire. A dim shape loomed up somewhere beyond it. “OH NO!” shrieked Danny. “I know what it is! I know what it is! Josh! Don't stand there looking! RUN! WE'VE GOT TO RUN BEFORE HE SEES US!”

“He?” spluttered Josh. He legged it along behind Danny as fast as he could. “Who's he?”

“It's Tarquin!” shouted back Danny.

“Tarquin? With a death ray? Who made him a god?”

“YOU did!” Danny reached the bottom of the redbrick tower. “When you let him pick up your magnifying glass! If he likes picking legs off things, I bet he's into frying things too. He's making the sun shine through the glass like a laser and frying everything that moves!”

“Oh no!” wailed Josh. He spun around as he reached his brother and took in the terrible sight behind them. “It's coming this way! He must have seen us!”

The crackling, smoking, white-hot beam wandered off to the left for a second, exploding something that looked like a poor little beetle. Then it moved relentlessly toward the brick wall corner that Josh and Danny were now backed into.

“Quick—we've got to run around the bricks and hide!” squeaked Josh.

“No—up and over! It's quicker!” yelled Danny. “I don't care about the birds! We've got a death ray to worry about.”

He scrambled up the wall as fast as his three pairs of legs could carry him. Josh hurried up alongside him. Glancing backward, he could see it was hopeless. The death ray was speeding across the slab, heading straight for them. Any second now, one of them would be toast. And then the other.

“If he gets me first, just keep running!” gasped Danny. He was also looking back over his shoulder. But the beam, as it got closer, was big enough to get them both. It swept up the wall, sending up a plume of hot, fine, redbrick dust. “Oh no—we're done for,” wailed Danny. He scrunched up into a ball on the edge of the brick. “Bye-bye, Josh. You've been a great brother … for a freaky little bug geek.”

Josh scrunched up into a ball as well. “Bye, Danny,” he gulped, sadly. “You too … for a skateboard nut.”

THWACK!

“You nasty little tick!” Petty Potts slammed her net down over Tarquin's head. “Are you really setting fire to innocent insects?”

Tarquin squawked with rage. He dropped the magnifying glass onto the sidewalk and struggled to get the net off his head. “Get off! Get it off me, you horrid old woman! My mother will have the police on to you, I tell you.”

“Murderer,” muttered Petty. She kept the net firmly in place and waved a small flashlightlike device at the sidewalk.

“They're only ants!”

Petty gulped. It was ants she was looking for. Her S.W.I.T.C.H.ee detector was bleeping off the scale. Now she was certain that Josh and Danny had been S.W.I.T.C.H.ed—and very likely barbecued. That would be a little awkward. Shoving Tarquin out of the way, she knelt to peer at the bricks where the loathsome child had been directing the magnifying glass. She could just about make out two of the little creatures. They were cowering close together on the top edge. Could that be Josh and Danny? Could it? If so, they should be about to return to their proper shape any moment now, judging by her calculations. She turned off the S.W.I.T.C.H.ee detector and checked her watch.

“GET THIS OFF ME!” shouted Tarquin again. He was still struggling pathetically with the net.

Petty flicked it off the boy. “Go—shoo, you repulsive little gargoyle!” she told him. Tarquin ran away, much to her relief. Now, were those two really Josh and Danny? Or was that just wishful thinking?

“Danny!” whispered Josh, unscrunching a little. A cloud of hot brick dust swirled around him, stinging his eyes. “Danny? Are you there?”

Danny looked out from his own scrunch and waggled his feelers shakily. “Yes. I'm here. What happened?”

“It's gone! The death ray—it's gone!”

They stared all around them. There was no sign of the death ray.

“Phew-hoo!” hooted Danny, running over to Josh and doing a high five with him, with one feeler. “We're not little piles of anty ash!”

“It's gone,” sighed Josh. “We're safe.”

“Josh—Danny—is that you?” whispered Petty, screwing up her eyes and trying to see. Oh, here was the magnifying glass. That would help.

Considering she was a genius, Petty had occasional moments of being very, very stupid. This was one now. She picked up the glass and held it over the two ants.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” screamed Josh and Danny as a blast of white heat suddenly hit them.

Petty was just beginning to realize that she was in fact killing the little ants she was hoping to help. Then she was walloped in the face.

It was Danny who bashed her glasses sideways and nearly flattened her nose. To be fair, he was just about to perish in a sea of flame when he abruptly returned to human form. So you couldn't blame him for lashing out a bit. The sea of flame did cause a slight mark on his knee, he later discovered.

Josh didn't smack anyone in the face. He just sprawled into the sandbox. The blaze that had started on his right eyebrow was instantly put out.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! What a relief!” gasped Petty, fanning her face and swaying on her knees.

“Give me that!” Danny grabbed the magnifying glass. He shoved it safely into his pants pocket.

“It wasn't me trying to incinerate you!” protested Petty. “I was just trying to find you and save you. Sorry it got a bit hot, though. I forgot about that magnified sunlight business for a few seconds there. No—the one who was trying to kill you was that ghastly child from around the corner.”

“What—
that
ghastly child?” said Josh standing up. Tarquin came back into the garden holding on to their mom's hand. He was looking wounded and sulky.

“Now, now, boys—Tarquin says you won't play with him,” said their mom. “Oh, hello, Miss Potts.”

“Hello, dear,” said Petty standing up. “Just looking at insects with your sons. I'm sure Tarquin is very welcome to join in. I'm off now—see you all later.”

And she hurried out of the garden with her S.W.I.T.C.H.ee detector, whistling with relief.

“No, he's not welcome,” said Josh. “He just tried to kill us.”

Mom looked astonished. “Really, boys, don't be so silly! What possible harm could little Tarquin do?” Little Tarquin smirked at them from under her arm.

“Well, if he'd got the chance he'd have pulled our legs off,” said Danny.

Mom laughed. “You boys! Really! Here—I've brought some Popsicles for you all.” She gave them to Danny to hand out and went back into the house.

Danny grinned. He'd had an idea. He whispered to Josh as Tarquin ripped off his Popsicle wrapper and began slurping noisily. “Shall we?” said Danny, and Josh grinned back and nodded.

“Come on then,” said Danny. “Let's sit here.” He led Tarquin over to sit on the sidewalk. As they walked, Danny mashed his own Popsicle in one hand. He let it drip onto the ground.

They all sat down. Danny melted more Popsicle while Josh kept Tarquin talking. Soon the sweet little yellow blobs made a pathway from a crumbly bit of soil at the edge of the sidewalk. Right up to their visitor's pants legs and a little way inside. Then Danny shuffled closer to Tarquin. He patted him on the back a few times, in a friendly, sticky way.

Tarquin didn't notice the crazy sugar pop festival for quite a while. Not until it had gotten up across his jacket, scurried down inside his collar, and marched some way up his pants leg.

“Who was screeching?” asked Mom a few minutes later. She emerged from the house with Tarquin's mom.

“Is that my Tarquin, doing a little dance down along the garden?” said Tarquin's mom.