1.24

“Michael, any word from Stick yet?” Hunter asked through his communicator.

“No. Not yet, but its nothing she can’t handle.” Michael sounded confident, but Hunter thought he could hear otherwise.

“Where is she? We can help out.”

“No, really. Its okay. There is possible back up if its needed but its nothing your team is prepared for yet.”

“Fine.” Hunter struggled to hide his annoyance.

“Hunter. Your team is doing well, but just not yet.” Michael smiled again. Hunter could hear a beeping noise coming from where Michael was, a kind of alarm.

“What’s wrong?” Hunter asked.

“Trash golems have been reported in. Your team is needed over at Crooked Downs.” With everything that had been happening over the last few weeks, Hunter had completely forgotten about the Trash Queen.

“Is it possible you can keep Bulldog away?” Hunter remembered his evening with his uncle. Hunter clenched his fists.

“You know I can’t do something like that. Mister Blade told me what happened, and I get it. But I can’t purposefully keep someone away. I don’t hold that much sway.”

“Is there some way we can get there faster than on foot? All we can do is run.”

“No, sorry.” Michael’s face changed to that of deep concern. Michael felt bad.

“That’s okay. But we should try and work on something. I’ll rally the others and we’ll be on our way.” Hunter flicked off his communicator and suited up.

Hunter informed the rest of his team what was going down. They suited up and headed out toward Crooked Downs.

The team arrived at the commons area of Crooked Downs, a quadrangle of some staple shops and a few benches. One trash golem was destroying a bench, another was devouring trash from a bin. A third was looking right at them. Silas imagined if it had a face, it would look surprised.

“Brute force and splatting seem to work best when I last encountered these things.” Hunter informed them.

“I’m not sure how much help I’ll be,” said Gauzelle.

“Hey, me neither. What can dust do?” Hunter quipped.

Silas inflated up and kicked off the ground. He bulleted toward the trash golem that stood there and ploughed into it without a problem. The golem splattered, leaving its feet where it had originally stood.

The other two trash golems were now looking at them.

“They don’t seem too tough,” Jimena commented. She shot at the one that had been bin-diving. Her projectiles knocked it back a few steps, but it pushed on. She increased the size of the slime balls and she made quick work of the golem.

Hunter and Gauzelle stood back, unsure of what to do.

“We got this,” Silas called out. He slammed down on the remaining trash golem and the threats were gone.

“Michael, it was nothing. The golems have been taken care of.” Hunter spoke into his watch and surveyed the area.

“No, its not. I’ve had sightings at over thirty. Those must have been outliers. Push further into Crooked Downs.”

“All right, you heard him. Let’s keep going.” The team swept through some of the back alleys and encountered another two golems. Silas made quick work of them.

“Is everything okay?” A voice came from above. Hunter looked up to see an elderly lady sitting on the fire escape. She looked scared.

“Yeah, everything’s okay. We’re cleaning up the mess,” Hunter replied.

“Thank you.” Hunter guided the team to move further into Crooked Downs. The buildings gradually looked more dilapidated. A pungent smell in the air grew stronger and the district grew darker.

The team rounded a corner and were startled to see Brickla. She was in her normal form, no extra bricks surrounded her. She noticed them and stuck her thumb up.

“Heya Mite. This your team?” she clobbered a trash golem flat into the ground.

“Yeah. Gauzelle, Balloon Boy and Quagmire.” Hunter motioned to each in turn. Each waved.

“I’m Brickla. Mite, we need to move. I’ve heard there’s a few golems congregating on an area. If we don’t stop them now, they’ll combine into a bigger form. That’s when they get harder.”

“Is there anyone else around?” Hunter asked.

“I heard Bulldog was around somewhere. I’m not sure if there’s anyone else.”

“Great,” Hunter muttered under his breath.

“You lot coming?” Brickla asked.

“Yeah.” Hunter nodded and his team followed after Brickla.

They reached the centre of Crooked Downs without running into anymore trash golems.

The stench at the centre of Crooked Downs was overwhelming. It brought tears to the teen’s eyes. A haze hung about the air.

“Where’s Bulldog?” Jimena asked.

“Who knows.” Hunter replied. A noise came around from the left. Jimena shot her slime balls into the dark.

“This is the spot?” Silas asked. He felt uneasy, like when he met Whacko Jacko.

“That haze in the air, that’s a clear sign.” Brickla informed them. She stretched out her arms and a close to fifty bricks circled around her. They formed around her in a constant shifting armour.

A louder noise clanged from behind them. Silas and Gauzelle whirled around. Gauzelle unravelled and slithered silently along the ground.

“I’m gonna scout around,” she told them.

Three trash golems ambushed them from the right. Brickla knocked two out in an instant but one grasped Jimena and started to gnash at her. It pulled on her arm and was about to take a bite when suddenly, its head was no more. Brickla had sent some of the bricks flying into the golem.

“Thanks,” said Jimena.

“No worries.”

“Hey guys,” Gauzelle slithered back from the darkness.

“What’s up?” Hunter asked.

“It sounds like there’s something really big roaming about. I don’t know where it is exactly.”

“Damn. That’s gonna be a problem,” said Brickla.

“Big problem?” Silas asked.

“Yeah,” replied Brickla.

“Oh,” Silas sounded deflated.

“Any ideas on how to stop it?” Jimena asked.

“Depends on how big it is.” Brickla stepped out into the darkness. Hunter opened a flask of dust, though he had no idea what he could do with it.

“Run into the Trash Queen often?” Jimena asked.

“Yeah. You could say she’s part of my rogue’s gallery. She’s part of many heroes’ enemies.” The rest of the group followed Brickla into the darkness.

“Do you think she’s nearby?” Silas asked. He was trying to distract himself from the impending sense of danger.

“Nah, not yet. She needs to gain more strength. Shhh.” Brickla put out an arm, cutting the teens off.

“What?” Silas silently asked.

“Stay here,” Brickla stepped further into the darkness.

The team waited in the night for a few tense minutes before they heard a thump and loud crack.

“It’s bigger than I thought it’d be,” Brickla called out. Her voice sounded a little strained. There was another thump followed by numerous cracks. There was a loud groan and the sound of something big collapsing.

“You all right Brickla? What was that?” Hunter called out.

“Just an abandoned building I was thrown into. I think you lot need to get out of here.” She sounded like she was distracted.

“Silas, you can help.” Hunter instructed his friend.

“That thing just smashed her through a building.” Silas looked scared.

“You’re nigh invulnerable when you’re inflated. She needs help.” Silas nodded and inflated himself half larger again than he ever has before. Silas kicked off the ground and sailed into the darkness.

“Incoming,” Silas called out.

Silas sailed through the darkness. A large shadow loomed to his right.

“What can you do kid?” Brickla called out. She was running along a rooftop and jumped at the shadow. The trash golem was about two storeys high.

“I gain kinetic energy the more I bounce around.” Silas bounced with his stomach off the building Brickla was on. He rebounded and sailed backward toward another building.

“That’s really cool. Here, I’ll knock you around a bit, speed things up a little.” Brickla leapt off the building and slammed into the side of the head of the trash golem. It leaned from the impact but righted itself again.

Silas kicked off the building and flew toward Brickla who leapt off the shoulder of the golem. She spiked Silas and sent him back to the ground. As Brickla was falling, a giant fist slammed into her back. Brickla shot to the ground, leaving a slight imprint as she smashed into the pavement.

“That hurt,” said Brickla. “Hey Balloon Boy, can you inflate yourself anymore?”

“I think a little more. It makes my head spin.” Silas took in some more air and inflated some more. His head felt like it was dancing among the clouds.

“Here I come,” Brickla focussed all the bricks around one arm, reminiscent of a huge bat.

Silas ricocheted toward Brickla. She pulled the brick bat back and swung in hard. Silas felt the impact of her weapon. He had never noticed hits before when inflated. Brickla meant business.

The trash golem brought a fist toward Silas. Silas closed his eyes. He splattered the hand off the golem and crashed through the head. Trash of all sorts rained down around. The burning smell grew worse.

Brickla swung into the legs of the golem, causing it to tip over.

Hunter, Jimena and Gauzelle joined Brickla.

“Your friend has some amazing powers.” Brickla gave a thumbs up. Jimena and Hunter searched for him and found him in a daze in a pile of rubble.

“Did I win?” he groaned.

“Yeah. You did great,” said Jimena.

“Awesome. I deserve my own trading card for this.”

“Hey Michael, we did it,” Hunter informed their mentor.

“Great job. Go back to the treehouse, Stick is back.” The team parted ways with Brickla. Hunter was relieved he didn’t run into Bulldog.

When they entered the treehouse, they were greeted by a battered and bruised Stick.

“You all right?” Hunter asked.

“You should see the other person,” Stick laughed.