Chapter 8

Blink

He was back in less than a minute and Root was still there, waiting. "She's coming," he said. "And she's really...zoned out. Even more than I get." He wasn't sure how to describe Ribbon. She had been sitting in the middle of the crowded club, head back. It had almost looked like she was asleep.

"You should see her line to Shaunice," Root said. "It's the opposite of yours to Ash. The poor thing is starving."

Blink couldn't imagine. He and Ash shared so much energy and so many thoughts that neither of them knew where they were half the time. He didn't think he could stand being cut off from his human like that.

"Come on," Root said as she walked toward the hex court. "I put your name in. It looks like everyone is anxious to see what will happen to Squat tonight. You're up."

"What?" He had thought he'd have some time to watch some other challenges, to get some ideas from them and make a plan on how to beat Squat. This meant he'd have no time at all.

A doll stepped up to him as he moved toward the court. She had on a black leather jacket and a plaid skirt. It was Twister. "It was Squat causing the trouble? Not James?" she asked.

Blink nodded, not sure what to say. A crowd seemed to be following her and they seemed to be anxious for another fight. He stopped. Twister did too, and the trailing dolls angled off, tried to look like they had something to do. "Would you corner for me?"

Twister pointed to one end of the hex court. Sticks, Root and Ribbon, in her worn out clothes, stood in the nearest of the two safe zones. "Looks like you have your coaches already."

He hadn't expected that Root and Ribbon were going to corner for him; he had just wanted to make sure they were there.

"If you let him do something, anything, he'll get overconfident and leave you an opening. But don't let him hit you. He nearly opened up a seam on my head last night," Twister said.

"Ok. Thanks," he said as she pushed him into the safe zone. Once in, he stopped. Sticks walked up to him. "What do I do?"

"You haven't done this before?" Sticks asked.

He shook his head. "Most people just leave Ash alone."

"Wow, that is weird." Sticks pointed across the court. At the far end, Squat stepped into the other safe zone, but stood alone. "It's a lot like the ring. If you get thrown out, you lose. Otherwise, you have to yield. You come into the safe zone to get hexes to use against him, and charms to protect yourself. The hexes aren't active in the safe zone. You have to go out onto the court to make them work."

"Twister said I should let him grab me or throw me or something...to make him overconfident," Blink said.

That brought a stare from Sticks. "Yeah...she's nuts. Do you know how strong he is?" Blink didn't answer. "Me either," she said. "Don't find out."

A bell rang somewhere nearby. Blink looked around for its source until he felt Sticks pushing him forward. A long table appeared in his safe zone, covered with an array of charms and hexes, each one differently shaped. He stared at them all. There were too many to count, let alone figure out which to use.

"We're here to help you pick what to use against him, and you can come back into the safe zone for more, but you won't be able to stay during the fight," Sticks said. "You can't hide here."

"No?" Blink tried to keep his disappointment hidden.

"Whenever the bell rings three times, get out there fast. Or else," she said.

Root walked up, slid a little glass disc onto his wrist as the bell rang twice. "Windshield. Most hexes will slide past it, but the sticky ones will hit it, make it hard to see through." She pointed at the far end, where Squat was picking up something. "Don't let him see it until you're ready to use it."

She ushered him over to Ribbon, who grabbed a hex without looking. It was a bar of soap. "This place is amazing. They're so excited," she said. She looked less exhausted and even her clothes seemed less worn than they had moments ago.

"What is this?" he asked.

She looked down at the soap. "Oh. I don't know. Maybe it gets him clean?"

"You gave him suds? A freaking soap bubble?" Sticks asked. She pressed a toy truck into his free hand. It was yellow, with a wide, empty bed. "Dump Truck. Trust me." The bell rang three times and she shoved him out onto the court.

"Don't die!" He recognized Twister's voice. Blink grunted and walked forward.

Squat stepped out, one arm loaded with a pile of hexes. Before Blink could think of what to do, Squat threw one. As it came nearer, the hex became more solid, grew into an anvil the size of Blink's body. An image of James' fist came to him and with a reaction that belonged more to Ash than himself, Blink threw up both hands defensively while he ducked.

The windshield charm extended out from his wrist, a see-through plate with a powerful rush of wind flowing over it. The anvil met the air current and sailed off course, over Blink's head. It slapped against the safe zone barrier without a sound, and then clanged loudly as it slammed into the ground at the feet of the crowd. Dolls scattered, barely avoided being flattened. Behind the barrier, his corner team waved him on. Inside that zone, they were the safest dolls in the whole area.

Another hex flew at him, a hammer. Next came a cement block and a giant dumbbell. As they rebounded off the windshield, Blink realized that his opponent was simply using the strengths he already had, and that he could do the same. If Squat was going to use his strength, then Blink wanted to follow Twisters advice and test it.

He stood up straight, dropped the windshield charm as the next object flew at him. He didn't take the time to see what it was, but teleported to the side. Squat looked back and forth a moment, obviously the doll didn't remember what Blink's ability was.

Blink stared at Squat and teleported. He reappeared on his opponent's back. Squat jumped, dropped all of the hexes in his arms. "Gah!" But Blink had only a moment to smile before Squat reached up, grabbed him by the arm and hurled him away.

The court flew by under him as Blink soared through the air. He twisted his head around and saw the edge marker only a few feet away. He thought of the other side of the court and popped over there. But he was still soaring straight through the air, not arcing down to the ground at all. He wondered just how strong Squat had to be to defeat gravity like that as he approached the edge again.

This time, he looked for Squat before he teleported. He reappeared right behind the other doll again and crashed into him. They tumbled down together and Blink scrambled to get away. But Squat got to his feet first. He stood over Blink, arms empty of any hexes, but still more than a match. Squat leaned down, one cloth fist clenched.

"Dump truck!" Sticks' voice was clear, even over the screams of the crowd. Blink tossed the toy truck up and it tapped against Squat's chest. For a second, nothing happened.

Then, a wave of sand poured out of thin air and pounded into Squat's chest. The doll tumbled back under it and Blink scurried away.

Sticks and Root waved him back to the safe zone. "He's got no leverage with that sand under his feet. Hit him with a wrecking ball while he's weak," Sticks said.

Blink stepped toward the safe zone and the hex she held out, but stopped. "He needs leverage, something to push against, to use his talent?"

Both Root and Sticks nodded back to him. Blink thought a moment. Smashing Squat would help settle the score between James and Ash, but that wasn't the whole reason he had made the challenge. He needed something better than one beating to get Squat to really change.

He looked over at Twister and smiled. "Any repair charms?" he asked his crew. Ribbon held one up and Blink stepped in to take it from her. "Thanks."

At the far end, Squat had worked himself to a standing position as the sand began to slow down. The doll punched at it, sent individual grains of sand rocketing across the court and into the audience. A section of the front row fell back like they'd been hit by a sand storm.

The flow of sand faded out as Blink stepped up. Squat stepped out of the pile. Without a word, they faced each other. Then, Blink threw the soap.

Squat batted it away, but the instant it touched his hand, the bar of soap exploded into a bubble that wrapped all around him.

Blink took a step back as Squat tried to come after him. But the doll's foot slipped against the inside of the bubble and Squat tumbled forward, ended up in a pile inside the gently bouncing bubble.

Blink paused for a moment as relief sank in. He hadn't been sure that the soap bubble would work. When Squat tried to stand, Blink raised the repair charm, a portable sewing kit, and opened the lid. As he did, the case melted away and he was left with a threaded needle in his hand. He thought of the suture kits that Shaunice had mentioned earlier that day.

"No. No needles," Squat said.

Blink held it up, not quite believing what he was about to do. He took a deep breath. "You know I teleport, right? That's my thing."

Squat didn't move from his spot at the bottom of the bubble.

"I'm not just going to stick you with this," Blink said. "I'm going to teleport it inside of you and leave it there. How do you think that's going to feel? What do you think that will do to your human?" He pulled the thread free, it wasn't needed.

"No needles." Squat tried to crawl away, but only slid back down.

Another deep breath and Blink felt ready to do it. "You're going to stop making James do things like that. This will help remind you." He stared at Squat's chest, tried to picture the stuffing inside and how deep his arm would need to go in to leave the needle in the middle.

Suddenly, his head jerked to the side. Blink felt himself take two steps away before he was able to stop. It was a call from the message center, the kiosk at the center of town. He had no idea who would want to talk to him there. "Not now," he said. Then, he saw the bubble start to roll. Outside the court, all of the dolls were hurrying toward the kiosk. All of them.

"No! Not now!" His anger was barely muted by the wonder at seeing all the dolls called at once. He had never seen that before. He had been so close to stopping Squat, but there was nothing he could do for now.

He followed everyone else to the center of town.