Short Story Serial: Fifth Installment

The opening ceremonies were complete. The head of the city’s Special Crimes Unit wished good luck to all the participants and then ran off the field as fast as he could. No sense in risking any collateral damage.

The early rounds of the tournament were underway. Leonard, Bouncer, and Stampede managed to get through the first round of the competition thanks to a forfeit. Turns out the scheduled competition, all of whom were long past retirement age, didn’t realize the tournament was the same evening as Movie Night. And Movie Night always had free popcorn, which was more than could be said for the tournament.

Their second opponents never made it into the stadium. In their excitement, one of the competitors activated her power of disorientation, which resulted in the other team members wandering off despite her efforts to round them up in time to compete.

Now Leonard found himself standing in the center of the arena flanked by his new partners. The crowd cheered raucously, although whether it was for their victory, or their defeat, was hard to tell. Either way, it was still intimidating, and Leonard found himself more than a little nervous.

Abruptly, the crowd became even louder. Leonard understood why: their opponents for this round, four in total, were entering the arena from the far end. As they got closer, he saw Bouncer grimace.

“What is it?” Leonard asked.

“I know those guys,” he replied.

“So do I,” Stampede volunteered. “Except for the one in the cloak. Anyway, it’s not good.”

“Hey, look,” shouted one of them. “It’s Beach Ball.”

“And Dr. Moolittle,” laughed another.

Leonard turned to his partners, perplexed. “I thought you said –“

Bouncer answered. “Yeah, we have history.”

The two groups walked towards each other, one with confidence and the other with something that would never be confused with confidence. They met in the center of the grounds.

Leonard had no idea what the protocol was. Do I shake hands? Start battling? Scratch my nose? Wait. Why is my nose so itchy? It’s really, really itchy. In fact, it’s maddening.

As Leonard desperately tried to relieve the itch, he noticed that his partners were having the same issue.

“Not so fast, Scratch,” said one of Leonard’s soon-to-be opponents to another. “Let’s get acquainted, first.”

Just like that, Leonard’s nose stopped itching.

The leader, looking ordinary in jeans and a faded t-shirt, addressed Leonard directly. “I’m called Prankster. You’ll find out why soon enough. The guy on my right is Scratch. You already had a sample of what he does. And this is Skipper,” he said, gesturing to a young woman who was hopping around while whirling a jump rope impossibly fast.

“We already know these two clowns,” Prankster continued, acknowledging Bouncer and Stampede. “Who are you?”

Leonard tried to appear confident as he announced himself. He had come up with a new name for the occasion. “I’m Combine.”

“Combine?” laughed Prankster. “Like farm equipment? What do you do? Make hay? This is too perfect.”

Another failed attempt to come up with an appropriate alias, Leonard thought. Why is it so hard?

“Who’s that?” Leonard asked, pointing towards a smallish figure standing off to the side in a dark, full-length cloak with hood. It was unusual to see anyone other than a first-tier in anything resembling a costume. Second-tiers and scrubs couldn’t afford them.

“You don’t want to meet her,” Prankster cautioned with a slight shiver. “Anyway, we’re going to be more than enough for you, Farm Boy. Don’t worry, though. This should be quick.”

And quick it was.

When the scoreboard clock signified ten seconds before the match was to start, Pranskter and his team began to step back, apparently getting into a predetermined formation. Except for their cloaked accomplice, who simply stood still.

For their part, Leonard and his team looked blankly at each other right up until the bellow of the crowd signified that the match was on. Leonard called to Stampede and Bouncer to move closer together.

“We’ll have a better chance if we’re close enough for me to reach both of you. Otherwise, I can’t merge your abilities.”

He was promptly ignored.

Stampede was rolling on the ground, having succumbed to an itching frenzy instigated by Scratch. Bouncer, on the other hand, launched himself towards a stadium wall, and to his credit, caromed with significant velocity towards Prankster. Before he could make impact, Skipper effortlessly capered between them and struck Bouncer with the wooden handle of her jump rope, knocking him to the pitch, where he lay stunned.

“Stampede!” Leonard didn’t know what to do, so he shouted hazy, unhelpful instructions instead. “Move! Do something! Cows!”

Stampede only looked back helplessly, later explaining that even if he could overcome Scratch’s onslaught, there was only one dairy cow in the area, and it was locked in a cage at a petting zoo on the other side of the city.

Reacting more than thinking, Leonard made a run towards Bouncer, but immediately fell flat on his face. Somehow his shoelaces had been tied together. He looked up to see Pranskter laughing at him.

“I told you it would be quick.”

Throughout the entire affair, which according to the stadium clock, lasted less than a minute, the figure in the cloak never even moved.