Taken from the chapter - Battle of the Spinney

The children froze, trying to do their best impression of a bush and blend into the shrubbery, but it was no use: they'd been busted. Up ahead they could hear sounds of someone moving.

"Who's there?" came the voice from the trees.

Stupidly, the two children did not answer.

"Who's there?" came the voice once again.

Douggie and Maggie glanced across at each other. Neither of the children knew what to do, so they just hid like frightened sheep.

"Ok. That's it," the voice yelled from up ahead. A whistling sound and a deep thud followed. Soon the trees in which the children were hiding were being pelted with a barrage of tiny white objects.

"Incoming," Douggie yelled as he jumped on the floor.

Tiny pieces of bark fell all around them as the fast moving objects whizzed above their heads and hit the trees hard. From the safety of his bush, Douggie picked up one of the objects that had come whizzing through the trees and hit the floor; it was chalk.

Under the hail of chalk fire and flying debris, Maggie's temper was beginning to boil. A strange feeling was rising up from her heart and her head began to pulse. Douggie glanced over at her.

"Uh oh," he said to himself.

All around Maggie the air glowed a shiny silver colour. Maggie threw Douggie a stern glance, which he immediately avoided by looking down onto the ground. When he finally looked up, Maggie had jumped to her feet.

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" she screamed at the top of her voice.

To Douggie, Maggie seemed to be standing about six feet tall surrounded by a shimmering silver glow. Pieces of chalk bounced off the pulsating bubble of light that encased her. Douggie looked at Maggie's face; her eyes looked as black and as mean as a lion's. He'd never seen anything like it and crawled further under his protective bush.

A final barrage of chalk came ripping through the spinney, slicing up the trees like jelly. Maggie's protective energy reached its climax and her body was shaken as pulse after pulse of energy flooded out of her. As each chalk stick hit, Maggie's determination became stronger. The final piece of calcified chalk rocketed furiously against her sending out a ripple of silver shockwaves across the spinney. The calcified bullet fell to the floor harmlessly.

But it wasn't over. Maggie had one trick left; she thrust her arms forward and a silver ball hurtled forward, leaving Maggie behind. The ball of translucent energy engulfed everything in its path, either knocking it down or blowing it aside like paper in a storm. Up ahead, a small boy was lifted off his feet and dumped unceremoniously into the stream behind the trees followed by a shower of old soda cans, leaves and twigs.

The silver energy ball continued to swathe out a path in the forest until it finally ran out of power and disappeared, leaving only sparks and a few leaves glowing silver. Maggie was not far behind.

Copyright © 2009. Scanner Kidz in The Kiddy Care Conspiracy by Chanse