71 The Joys of Spring

Chapter 71 The Joys of Spring A few minutes later, they reached the bottom of the spray-painted skateboard ramp and landed on the crowded concrete expanse at the bottom of the Spire, which was now dotted with blooming flowers and blossoming shrubbery. 'THERE THEY ARE!' Mr and Mrs Markmaker rushed over to greet the group, their feet still covered with plaster. As they skipped through the daffodils, snowdrops and tulips, they somehow looked twenty years younger. They were, quite literally, full of the joys of spring. 'CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?' shouted Mr M. 'Look at the

lake! Look at the Spire! Look at the city! Everything is back to how it was when I was a boy! This has all turned out better than we could ever have hoped!' 'I've never been so happy!' chirruped Mrs M. 'Even before 67 trapped us all in the lake, we thought it would take years to restore Chroma to its former glory. But now look at it! It's more beautiful than it's ever been!' 'Did you see what just happened?' asked Mr M, excitedly. 'It was just like the stories my parents used to tell me about Conté and his ribbons of colour. I don't know who was responsible for that explosion of colour, but, if I were a betting man, I'd put a lot of money on it being you, Peanut. Actually, it was L—' Peanut began to say. It was all of us, interrupted Leo. ' A true team effort. And what a team you make!' beamed Mrs M. 'The best there's ever been!' The Resistance leader turned around to call to the throng of operatives, who were celebrating on the flower-strewn concrete. 'Everyone—come over here! Look who I found!' '72!' yelled a delighted Little-Bit as the robot, whose eyes were currently displaying as bright pink hearts, approached. 'You look fab!' Doodle, meanwhile, had jumped up onto Jonathan Higginbottom's tail and run along the entire length of his

body before covering the alligator's long snout with a thick layer of doggy slobber. 'ROCKWELL!' shouted Josephine as she dashed over to greet her young apprentice. 'Josephine!' he replied, eagerly. 'Tell me, tell me, tell me! How did you do it? How did you stop the Giant X and get everybody out of the lake before it filled with plaster?' 'It was actually quite simple,' she replied. 'I just used the same technology that 67 did to gain control of the RAZER army in the first place. I overrode their protocol, forced the exocetia out of their little holes and back across the lake with their steel cables, which allowed everyone to get out. Then I ordered the RAZERs piloting the Giant X to turn their taps off and land safely in the North Draw. Oh, and I also reversed the paralysis of the RAZERs you incapacitated with my device. With a little bit of clever programming, I've even managed to turn them all to our side. Even 67. 'I KNEW IT!' shouted Rockwell, turning to Peanut. 'Didn't I say that's what she would have done? Didn't I say that, Peanut?'

'You did,' Peanut laughed. ' Well, I had a lot of help from these guys, too,' said Josephine, nodding to her right. The superheroes stood in a long, curved line, like the cast of an extremely bizarre pantomime about to take their final bow. They had somehow managed to arrange themselves so that they were beautifully backlit with their hair caught perfectly on the breeze. Every single one of them had adopted a dynamic hands-on-hips stance, which allowed their cloaks to billow out heroically behind them. Table Guy stepped forward and spoke to Peanut. ' Citizen! We stand here today humbled by your magnificent and selfless contribution to Chroma's long and courageous struggle against tyranny! To the ongoing battle of good versus evil, freedom versus oppression, light versus shade!' He stared into the middle distance. 'This may be your victory, but it belongs to each and every one of us! Throughout history, our trials, tribulations and struggles have been met by an unbending resolve, which has The superhero was stopped, mid-speech, by Woodhouse who had zipped along the floor and climbed up his cloak. ' Och, you're a lovely fella,' said the rat, laughing, 'But you don't half talk a lot!' Then he planted a big, wet, rodenty kiss on Table Guy.