Chapter 22

The Missing Piece

Ty learned that screens really hurt to get thrown into. That was the closest he could get to a positive thought. He pushed himself out of the human-shaped indentation his body left in the cracked surface. He didn't know why he wasn't paste on the floor. Another positive, he supposed.

But was it really? When it was his friend that had tried to kill him?

Forty-Four flew into view, hovering over the boy as his new red slits for eyes leered down at him. His mouth looked like a picture of human teeth distorted and disfigured with lines of computer code.

Ty got to his feet.

“Forty-Four, what's wrong with you? It's me.”

The evil expression remained unchanged. There was no sign that the robot could even hear him let alone recognize him. This was bad. Very bad. Whatever was going on had to have something to do with that thing the Elf put in his back. It needed to go.

Ty looked past Forty-Four to where the board lay. It faced too far to the left, so if he turned the thrusters on now it would reel off in that direction, accomplishing nothing. He needed to get to it. The only problem was his threatening, mind-controlled friend.

Ty took a step forward. Forty-Four mimicked him.

Another step. Forty-Four floated closer.

Interesting.

Ty took a step to his right. Forty-Four followed.

Blocking the door seemed to be his main purpose, a task the robot took quite literally. Ty could use that to his advantage.

He took off running to the right, Forty-Four matching him with little effort. Ty put his finger on his watch and skidded to a stop, the board and Forty-Four's back now in perfect alignment. He set the Bat to top speed. The monstrous machine whirred to life, clearing the distance between it and the robot in just under a second. Forty-Four didn't even see it coming. It pelted into his back and knocked him off into the distance, his body skipping along the screen like a pebble on water, each bounce leaving cracks along the surface.

Ty slowed the Bat down and leapt back on top of it, heading after Forty-Four. His plan was to destroy the machine on his back, but he feared he may have over done it.

Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, please don't be dead, Ty repeated the mantra. He didn't know how to go on living with himself if he ended up killing the poor robot.

Ty slowed when he came upon the wreckage that was Forty-Four, face down in a crater of broken glass and wires. Ty remained on the board, worried for his friend but not stupid enough to rush down there when he was a lot more likely to strangle him to death than give him a hug.

The little box was still on Forty-Four's back, except now sparks and noises came out of it. That couldn't possibly be good. Ty put his finger on the speed control, readying himself for a hasty retreat.

“Forty-Four. You in there buddy?” He took the arms bursting out of his back as a very angry no.

Ty pulled back, dodging the worst of the attack, but the bottom of the board bumped against the hands as they passed, spinning Ty around. Moving quickly, Ty's feet made adjustments and used the spin to his advantage, righting himself and shooting off in the direction of the door. Not only had Forty-Four got him in the right direction, he also taught him how to make quick turns. This was going very w—

A deafening noise rose up that sounded like a tornado bearing down on him. Ty looked back. What he saw was much worse than a bunch of wind.

The sea of bricks spilled from its pit, pouring down around Forty-Four, lifting him into the air. Below him a structure took form, coming to life.

Ty looked away, vowing not to look again no matter what he heard, and flicked the board to its highest setting. It wasn't enough. A wave of bricks cracked on top of him, washing the boy off his board, the gravity panel useless against millions of plastic toys.

Again it was the wall that stopped his rolling. His back pounded against it and he slid to the floor, thousands of bricks piling up around him. Ty's head slumped forward. He found it abnormally heavy all of a sudden, not worth the trouble to lift up.

All the while, the monstrosity continued its construction. The bricks circled Forty-Four, moving upwards, every part they passed leaving a new piece of the monster. All eight of Forty-Four's arms were armored in layers of bricks. Four of them became legs, pushing the expanding creature up off the ground.

The bricks made their final loop around the body, completing a huge square torso with Forty-Four's normal body placed on top, looking hilariously out of proportion with its new figure. This was quickly remedied, the robot's eyes glowed an even brighter red and shot out a larger projection of them. Below, the bricks moved to form a mouth.

The newly completed face roared, loose bricks flying out like dribbles of spit.

That got Ty moving. He pulled himself out of the bricks, using the wall to keep himself balanced while he collected his bearings. To his right, off about a yard or so, he could see a piece of his board sticking out of the pile of plastic. There's no way he'd reach it in time, and there was no guarantee it still worked.

Forty-Four kept roaring as his legs and arms worked together to walk his massive new body toward the small and helpless boy cowering against the wall.

No, he was not helpless. Giving up and letting things happen to him was no longer an option.

Acting on reflex, his hand closed around the grip of his sword, reminding him that it was there. He pulled it free of his belt loop. Surrounded by bricks, this was the perfect time to finish it.

Ty snatched pieces from the pile at random, holding them beside the sword to see if he felt any kind of connection. Twenty bricks—and counting—were tossed aside as quickly as he’d picked them up.

Forty-Four's charge continued, the ground shaking with each fall of his hands and legs.

Ty frowned and tossed—ironically—the forty-fourth brick to the side.

What are you missing!? Ty screamed at the stupid thing inside his head.

He twisted it all around, looking for some spot he missed that would give him a clue to—there.

On the bottom of the hilt, there was one last open space. He grabbed more bricks, held them up to the spot, threw them away again. The pile bounced up into the air with Forty-Four's every advancing step, making the whole ordeal even more difficult.

Ty threw away his last brick, and stared intently at the bottom of the hilt. It had to be here. Somewhere, there was one piece that would be a perfect fit—and he'd seen it before. He closed his eyes, wracking his brain for the answer.

He went back further, to when he was in his world. The blur of images slowed, focusing on one memory. He was on his trampoline again, with his eyes closed.

“Okay,” Anna's voice said. “Now open!”

The golden brick shone inside of his mind. He couldn’t believe he forgot about it.

His hand slipped into his pocket and closed around the missing piece.

Forty-Four was within range. He roared, one of his arms homing in on the small boy. Ty looked down at his weapon, pressed the brick into place, and the world was enveloped by blinding light. Every piece of the sword glowed in harmony, the bricks' colors blending into each other as if by an invisible blowtorch. But instead of actually melting, the sword smoothed out, becoming a shining, solid weapon.

Ty’s fear melted away as he raised his sword up in front of him, staring down the blade at Forty-Four's hand. It hit, the sword tearing straight into it. Ty remained against the wall as the arm kept on, splitting in two and continuing on either side of him.

Forty-Four screamed in pain and rage, taking several steps back as his ruined arm thrashed about in the air. Ty's sword stopped glowing and revealed its completed glory. He swung it, relishing the satisfying feel of the blade cutting through the air.

When he got out of this mess, he was so going to give Anna the biggest hug ever.

But for now, he was still very much in a mess. He dashed to the board and dug it out of the pile. Thankfully, it was still intact. He flipped it around, got on, and flew toward the rampaging monster.

He had a weapon and a flying Dragon Bat—all he needed to do was get behind Forty-Four and cut off the mind controlling device. As he circled around, Forty-Four got wise and severed his wreck of an arm, letting it smash the floor to pieces. He screamed in agony once more, and then was back in control. He locked eyes with Ty while his arms darted down, plunging into the floor.

The arms dove through the screen, then back up again, tearing it to shreds wherever they went. And they went far—stretching to the left and right and deeper into the room, soon going out of sight. What the heck was he doing? Ty turned toward Forty-Four and sped up. If he didn't wrap this up soon, he knew something even more awful would happen.

Two of Forty-Four's legs slipped under the part of the screen he stood on and, with a huge ripping noise, flipped a large chuck of the floor into the air.

“Whoa!” Ty leaned to the right, narrowly dodging it.

The path the other arms took exploded open in a similar manner, panels of the screen-floor going everywhere. Beneath was more of the sea. Ty thought that the front part of the room was the “shore” but, as it turned out, the entirety of the room was nothing but bricks underneath. And before his eyes, they lifted out of the sea in twirling pillars of solid plastic, bursting up all around Ty as he made his flight toward Forty-Four.

The robot remained motionless, almost looking smug. Ty understood why when another torrent of bricks shot up around him, protecting the robot like a shield. Ty pulled back, barely stopping himself from flying into the deadly wall. He looked at the door, which was blocked in a similar manner, leaving Ty with no other options.

He fled, flying deeper out to sea as pillars shot up all around him.

#

On top of playing a game of Dodge the Deadly Pillars (where one wrong move would result in death or a lot of pain), Forty-Four himself also gave chase. And he was fast, not only keeping up, but gaining.

The sea in front of him poured up, forming a wall in his path. That was new. He pulled back and flew straight up, hoping to go over it. The wall mimicked him, growing larger at the same speed. He turned to the left and the wall did the same. It dawned on Ty that Forty-Four could have done this from the start—he’d been playing with him all along.

Creepy, wiggling, arms and hands came out of the wall, grabbing the bottom of the board. Ty swung his sword at them, but with each group he broke, more were built to take their place. The hands overwhelmed him, climbing over the side of the board and latching onto the boy. Ty continued swinging to no avail. They plucked him from the board and pulled him into the wall. Bricks pounded on him from all directions, forcing him deeper inside to the depths of the sea below.

Ty couldn't open his mouth to scream, nor could he move his limbs to fight. The only option available to him was to hold onto his sword. Even that soon became impossible as it started to shake violently in his hand. At first, Ty thought the hands were trying to pry it out of his grip, but then it started to glow. He could feel the light piercing his eyelids.

CRACK!

The bricks burst apart—the entire sea around him flying up into the air. With nothing holding him up anymore, Ty fell the remainder of the way to the ocean floor, plopping onto it, dazed and confused.

What in the world just happened? He glanced at his sword, the last of the colorful lights going out. If he could figure out how to make it do crazy stuff like that at will, he would be unstoppable.

If only he had the time.

The sea was all around him, gigantic walls of bricks, frozen in the air. Ty thought that this was another awesome feature of his sword, but then Forty-Four came into view at the top of the pit, his eyes somehow looking even more angry. The bricks joined into one entity, every piece of the sea rising up into what had to be the tallest wave in the universe.

Ty was on his feet and running in a heartbeat. Ahead, suspended in the sky, he saw the platform where he'd spent so many hours. A large metal pillar connected it to the bottom of the ocean floor.

That was certainly interesting, but did absolutely nothing to help him survive a wave of plastic. The Bat falling toward him, however, did.

Ty jumped for it, felt his feet pulled into place, and was off, racing skyward. The wave fired chunks of bricks at him, fast and powerful as cannonballs. He headed for the column, flipping over to the other side, using it to protect him from the onslaught.

That only worked for so long, however. The chunks that hit the column split and changed into hands, scampering up and after Ty. He fought them off, swinging his blade at any that got too close.

Ty accidentally leaned a bit too far, spinning around to the other side of the column. The hands were caught unawares when Ty's board came up behind them and shattered them into pieces. Ty continued the spin, running over hands and cutting the ones he'd missed until he ran out of column to climb.

Ty pulled back, going under the bottom of the platform, the hands still after him. He sliced behind one last time and then he was free, clearing the platform and continuing on into the sky where the hands couldn't follow.

Now it was just a race (with a little bit of dodge “ball” thrown in for good measure, chunks of bricks still flying everywhere). Ty went higher as fast as he could, the wave matching his speed, becoming larger by the second. Would Forty-Four ever run out of bricks? He doubted it; the wave could chase him to the ceiling and beyond.

He couldn't keep this up. He still wasn't sure how high the ceiling was or if he would even be able to tell if he was near it. And if he instead went for the other side of the room, the wave would simply follow until he came to a dead end. A frontal assault was his one and only chance.

Please, he begged his sword, give me one more light show.

He turned the Bat around and held his sword out in front of him, putting all of his faith into his weapon.

#

His sword did not let him down. It shook violently in his hand again, the familiar colors sprouting to life. Boy, board, and sword plunged into the wave. The sword's strange power cleared a small hole barely big enough to fly through. And Ty did just that, grinning with a sort of pride at his weapon.

Time to put an end to this.

Forty-Four's angry slits widened in surprise when he saw the boy fly safely through his wave. He roared, which usually meant that some new brick-based threat was going to be thrown Ty's way. This time only a few stray cannonballs whizzed through the air. They didn't even come close to hitting him. The robot seemed confused by this, but Ty thought he knew what was wrong; he spent too much energy.

Controlling billions of bricks to form a massive wave had to be very taxing—even for a robot. Ty doubted that Forty-Four was even built with such a thing in mind, likely given the bare power necessary to manage and control the production of the LEGO part of the factory. Beyond that, he didn't have the energy to keep things moving around, trying to kill his house guests.

Sure enough, behind him, the wave crashed to the ground, returning to its less deadly ocean form.

Ty smiled. The tides had turned.

Forty-Four resorted to his only other means of attack—his large armored limbs. One came for Ty, fast but not enough to catch him. He leaned to the side and sliced at the arm as it passed. The small cut was as meaningless as a bug bite to the robot.

Ty used the same technique as on the column, spinning around the arm and slashing madly at it, which only served to make Forty-Four angrier. Two more arms reached for him, forcing Ty to retreat out of range. This was not going to work. He may be short an arm and unable to control any more bricks, but the three remaining limbs were more than enough to guard his back. Could his sword handle another blast? It was too risky; one hit from those pincers would be the end. What did that leave him with? He had no other way of destroying the arms...

The robot emitted an electric growl and snapped at the air with his pincers. Ty followed the movements of the arms, looking for a pattern or opening he could use. He went lower, into range of the pincers. The arms lashed up and knocked against each other in their haste to get to their prey. Forty-Four stomped two of his feet in a fit of defeat.

He was as easily frustrated as ever. Coupled with what he'd observed from the hands...

Ty dove, barely giving Forty-Four enough time to compose himself. The arms came for him, missing by yards.

“What's the matter?” Ty yelled at the robot. “That all you got!?”

Forty-Four snarled, one of his arms raced back, ahead of the others, chasing after Ty. The boy angled himself in front of it, leading it out several hundred feet, then pulled up—hard.

“Come on! You're so slow! What, are you running on dial-up?”

Forty-Four did not like that last crack at all. The arm went up, following Ty in his loop back around. He looked for the other two arms. One mimicked Ty on the other side to cut him off; the other went straight up, to meet them in the middle.

Ty's arc reached its highest point. He hung upside down in the air, pincers bearing down on him from all directions.

“I'm sorry about this,” Ty whispered as he pressed his watch, killing the gravity panel.

He dropped, flipping forward around the arm coming from below. The three hands collided with the Dragon Bat, destroying it in an explosion of bricks.

Forty-Four screeched in pain, his pincers reduced to stumps. Blinded by his pain, he was oblivious as Ty continued down, head first. He kept his arms out, using them to steer away from the thrashing arms and closer to his goal. Ty pulled his legs up and fell the rest of the way in a cannonball position.

He went right through Forty-Four's fake projection eyes, aiming for the smaller form of the real Forty-Four. He held his sword over his head and slashed downward as he passed his friend, severing the mind control device on his back clean in two. Ty hit the head of the monster, skidding along the plastic surface as sparks went everywhere from the broken machine. Ty swung the blade around and dug it into the surface of the head to stop his slide.

“Forty-Four!” He called as he ran back to his friend. “Don't worry buddy, I've got—”

The monster took a tumble, the bricks that held it together broke apart all over its body, causing its downfall. The parts below Ty's feet shifted, snapped, and could no longer hold his weight. He fell, trying desperately to swim up the waterfall of bricks to Forty-Four. He pumped his legs, swung his arms, but still he drifted over the side of the monster's crumbling head. The last he saw before he went over was Forty-Four coming down with him, his screen completely blank.

Ty's shouts were lost in the onslaught of plastic pounding on plastic.

#

Forty-Four felt the sensation of air and bricks around him. He heard wind and plastic roaring... and in the midst of it all, a boy yelling.

His screen flickered to life, the familiar pixelated face Ty knew and loved returning—worry written all over it. He saw nothing but Ty, everything else was blocked out. He flew down after him, his arms that still worked—the ones that acted as the monster legs—shed the rest of their brick armor and raced back to Forty-Four.

Ty felt the screen bump into him, thinking it was a large part of the monster that remained intact to crush him. Ty felt Forty-Four's arms embrace him protectively; he thought it was Death, welcoming him to oblivion.

Boy and robot hit the bricks and were lost from sight as they piled up around them.