5 The Northern Line

Chapter 5 The Northern Line Rocky?' Peanut laughed as they made their way to the tube station. 'Like the boxer? So do you do a bit of fighting in your spare time? Put 'em up, PUT 'EM UP!' She and her sister adopted their best Muhammad Ali stances and danced around in a circle pretending to throw punches. 'Very funny,' said Rockwell, shaking his head at their little charade. 'To be honest, I'm not sure you and Little Shrimp here are in a position to be taking the mickey out of anybody's nicknames.' Fair point, thought Peanut, as the three of them went through the ticket barriers. 'So, did you hear the news?' she said when they

reached the Northern Line platform. About that painting in Spain?' 'Yeah. Another one bites the dust.' Rockwell hitched his rucksack further on to his shoulder. 'What was it called? Guenevere, wasn't it?' Peanut shook her head. It never failed to amaze her just how little her friend knew about art. ' Guernica, by Picasso. And that's the tenth priceless work of art to disappear in less than three months.' She pulled a piece of paper from her dungarees pocket and unfolded it. She shook her head. 'We shouldn't have left it so long before going back to Chroma. Maybe we could have saved some of those paintings if we'd returned sooner.'

'Oh, come on, you remember what happened the last time we were there,' said Rockwell. 'We came this close to being imprisoned forever by Mr White!' He held his finger and thumb a centimetre apart. 'We're lucky not to be locked up in the Spire right now, being guarded by RAZERs!' The RAZERs, or Rigorous Attitude Zero Empathy Robots, formed the mechanical army used by Mr White to enforce his rule as Mayor of the City. There were thousands of them policing Northern line. Chroma's citizens across the twelve districts. And Rockwell was correct: had it not been for Peanut's quick thinking, they would definitely still be imprisoned in the Spire right now. Luckily, they had managed to escape and, with the help of Mr and Mrs Markmaker, the leaders of the Resistance

movement against Mr White, return home safely to London. That had been the first time they'd used the top-secret Green Valleys portal which led to the National Portrait Gallery via a small hidden door behind a bust of Queen Victoria. The tube train arrived at the platform with a rumble and the doors slid open accompanied by the familiar 'Mind the gap announcement. At least we know why White wanted your pencil so much,' said Rockwell as the three of them boarded and sat down. 'He's obviously using it to travel between Chroma and the real world so that he can destroy all of the most-loved artworks on the planet. As the train lurched out of the station, Peanut thought back to the time she had sketched a picture of a door in her bedroom using Little Tail. It had turned out to be the portal that first led her to Chroma. That's when she'd discovered one of the pencil's most amazing powers: it was a magical portal-making device, a power totally unique to Little Tail. No wonder Mr White had looked so happy when he'd finally

got his hands on it. He now had the ability to create doors between the two worlds wherever and whenever he liked. 'The thing that's confusing me,' said Peanut thoughtfully, is the way he is destroying the artworks. Disintegration. How would he even do that?' The train's brakes screeched noisily as it pulled into the next station. ' Huh! It's obvious, isn't it?' said Little-Bit, not looking up from her copy of 2000 AD. Is it?' said Peanut. 'Here we go,' sighed Rockwell. Come on then. Let's hear it, Sherlock.' Little-Bit lowered her comic and looked at Rockwell. 'Well, Mr White must have made copies of the paintings and sculptures in Chroma and then, somehow, switched the fakes with the real things.' Peanut and Rockwell frowned. 'Think about it,' continued Little-Bit. 'When you draw something in Chroma, it becomes real, right? And it stays

real there. But whenever you draw something with Little Tail in our world, it crumbles away to dust as soon as someone touches it. 'She's right,' said Peanut. 'Remember, Rockwell, when I drew that apple in the science lab at school to show you how the pencil worked? When you picked it up, it turned into that silvery grey powder.' 'Exactly,' said Little-Bit, 'And I bet it's the same with the magic stuff you draw in Chroma. If you were to bring something through to our world, a painting, for example, it would also disintegrate when touched. ' Mmmm. I suppose...' said Rockwell. He seemed reluctant to admit that Little-Bit might be right. 'So if it is only the fake artworks that have been destroyed,' said Peanut, 'what's happened to the real ones?' Come on, surely even you two can work this out?' Little- Bit smiled, clearly enjoying herself now. 'I would bet my entire comic collection that he has stolen the originals for himself and is hiding them somewhere in the Illustrated City.'