Free Ant Attack by Ali Sparkes Page A

“My mother says you can’t help it that you’re not as clever as me. It’s not your fault.”
    THWACK! Danny brought down his sword. He aimed for the back of Tarquin’s neatly combed head. But Josh caught it with an upswing of his own sword. “
Stop it!
” he mouthed at Danny. Tarquin put down the magnifying glass and moved on.
    â€œWe
do
know quite a lot about science—especially nature,” said Josh. “We know about creepy-crawlies. Let’s take my magnifying glass outside. I’ll show you some in the yard if you like.”
    Tarquin shuddered. “Ugh! If you show me a creepy-crawly, I’ll stamp on it.”
    Josh was shocked. He was a great nature lover. He had adored all kinds of creepy-crawlies long before he’d ever been one. Even Danny, who wasn’t fond of them at all, would never deliberately squash one.
    â€œYou can’t
step
on them! That’s just stupid!”
    â€œNo—sometimes I look at them first,” smirked Tarquin. “It’s quite fun to pull their legs off.”
    â€œIt’s not fun for
them
!” said Josh, feeling quite hot in the face. He picked up his sword, ready to swing it into Tarquin’s head. But this time, Danny grabbed it, raised his eyebrows, and waggled his finger at his brother.
    Tarquin opened the door to their toy cupboard. Then he screamed.

Danny and Josh knew to hop quickly out of the way whenever they opened the toy cupboard door. Tarquin was not trained to handle the danger. The avalanche that engulfed him took him completely by surprise.
    He squealed loudly. He struggled to sit up in a river of games, books, Legos, blocks, old stuffed animals, trading cards,
Thunderbirds
aircraft,
Thomas the Tank Engine
characters and bits of railroad, assorted guns and light sabers, action figures, and remote control cars. And quite a few cheesy socks. “I’LL GET YOU!” warned the talking Action Man.
    â€œOops! Toy quake!” said Josh, with a delighted smile. The toy cupboard had done exactly what he and Danny had been longing to do. It had smacked Tarquin off his feet and wiped the smug look off his face.
    A couple of water pistols bounced out, and Danny picked them up. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go and play with these outside.” He and Josh ran downstairs without waiting to see if Tarquin was following. They shot through the front door. They ran around the side of the house to fill up their water pistols from the outside faucet.

    â€œAh! Josh! Danny!” said a voice above them.
    They looked up to see Petty Potts leaning over the low brick wall. It separated their two houses. She clutched a large net on a pole. “How are you both since last week’s adventure? Any aftereffects?” She glanced around shiftily. Then she peered closely at them through her dusty spectacles.
    â€œWe’re fine,” said Josh, putting the stopper into his filled-up water pistol. “Danny’s not rubbing his legs together anymore. We’ve both stopped spitting out brown goo and jumping all over the room when we get nervous.”

    â€œGood, good,” smiled Petty, placing a spray bottle on the wall. “I was a bit concerned. But you were
splendid
grasshoppers, I have to say! Still on the lookout for the REPTOSWITCH cubes too, are you? Haven’t given up the search, I hope.”
    â€œWe’re always on the lookout, you know that,” said Josh.
    Danny looked warily at the spray bottle. “What’s
that
?” he asked.
    â€œOh—another S.W.I.T.C.H. spray. Very fast acting. Going to try it on some ducks in the pond at the park,” said Petty, airily. She tugged at the net. “I haven’t S.W.I.T.C.H.ed any birds yet. I need a nice strong squirty jet to reach them before they fly off.”
    â€œYou should be careful!” warned Josh. “One day someone’s going to catch you doing it!”
    â€œOne day,