10 The Bunker, Mark II

10 The Bunker, Mark II The four of them made their way down the long flight of stairs and found themselves in a bright, circular room with three large openings cut into the wall. Above the one on the left was a sign saying 'Arsenal' written in bright pink handwriting, above the middle one it said 'Transport' in bright blue, and above the one on the right it said 'Map Room' in pink. Peanut, Rockwell and Little-Bit dutifully followed Doodle through the one marked 'Arsenal'. 'WHOA!' exclaimed Rockwell. 'This is INCREDIBLE!' In front of them, laid out on the floor and arranged with military precision, were row upon row of art materials: weapons ready to do battle in Mr White's attack on creativity.

There were pens, pencils, crayons, pastels, paints, paintbrushes, palette knives, jars of ink, cans of spray paint, and much, much more, all grouped by type, and all hand-drawn in either bright pink or bright blue pencil. They filled the brightly lit, high-ceilinged room, which Peanut reckoned was about the same

size as the sports hall at Melody High. There must have been hundreds of thousands of items.

Isn't it amazing what a couple of old pencils can produce?' said a friendly voice from behind them. The three children spun around to see a small lady with snow-white hair piled up into a neat bun, and a pair of very large, black-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose. She was holding two ancient-looking pencils, one bright pink and one bright blue. 'MRS M!' all three of them cried in unison, before enveloping her in a group hug. Oh, it's lovely to see you again,' said Millicent Markmaker, pushing the pencils into her hair bun, 'I'm so glad you're back! I trust you kept safe and didn't run into any trouble on your way here?' 'Yes!' said Peanut, 'We didn't see a single RAZER.' 'Thank goodness!' said Mrs M. 'Especially as I see you have a new bandolier! I love it. Practical, hardwearing, yet tres chic. Bravo, young lady, bravo!' 'So did you draw all of these?' asked Little-Bit. Her eyes grew wide as she surveyed the thousands of items in front of them. 'Teamwork makes the dream work, my dear,' said Mrs M.

'The little production line that we started the last time you were here has gone from strength to strength, and, as you can see, we have built up quite the arsenal. One hopes one won't need to go into battle, but I fear that is inevitable now if Chroma is to survive. 'Where's Mr M?' said Rockwell. 'Is he here too?' 'He certainly is. Shall we go and see him?' They left the Arsenal and walked through the door marked 'Transport'. This room was just as cavernous, but much, much busier. Lots of people, all armed with pink and blue art equipment, were buzzing around the many large vehicles that filled the hall. There were jeeps, trucks, lorries, tanks, hovercraft and helicopters. Immediately to their right, a tall woman wearing a headscarf was painstakingly colouring in the tread on the tyres of a large armoured car, while a very cute unicorn was sitting on top of it painting the gun turret. 'He must be from the Cute Quarter,' said Rockwell, nodding towards the unicorn. The children knew from first-hand experience that not everything from the Cute Quarter was as adorable as it looked. He shivered at the memory of Lulu Kawaii, an evil robotic panda they had encountered the last time they were there. Ah! There you are!' A very smiley man, wearing glasses similar to Mrs M's, had popped his head out of the hatch. 'Great to see you all again.

'Hi, Mr M,' said Peanut. ' Wow! You guys have been BUSY!' 'Yes, well, it's very much a case of "seize the moment", I'm afraid,' he replied. 'Who knows how long my wife will manage to keep her old pencils away from Mr White's clutches.' He heaved himself out and, very nimbly for a man in his seventies, jumped down from the car. 'Right then. Who fancies a cup of tea? We have a lot of catching up to do.'