3.21

Stick and Hunter returned to the treehouse. Silas was there now too, under instruction from Michael.

“What do we do?” Silas asked.

“I don’t know,” said Hunter. Hunter was pacing the floor, shooting glances at the silent t.v.

“We can’t just sit around and wait for something to happen,” said Jimena.

“No, you’re right. But Inventor Pete could be hiding anywhere. Could be doing something, anywhere. Athena City ain’t exactly small.” There was frustration in everyone’s voice, but Gauzelle sounded the most strained.

“Stick, what do we do?” Hunter turned to their mentor.

“We have to get people down on the ground, seeking him out. We need to get constant news feeds in case he’s spotted doing something else. Let me get some feelers out there.” Stick got into contact with Brickla, Grim Stopper and Traffic Control.

“But what do we do in the meantime? I don’t just want to sit here and wait.” Jimena was standing now and pacing the room in time with Hunter.

“We get out there. We go on patrol,” suggested Silas.

“But what good is that if he’s noticed on the other side of the city? At least here, we have a kind of central point,” rebutted Gauzelle.

“We split up,” said Hunter.

“Including Stick, that’s only five of us. Not really an even split,” said Silas.

“It’s okay, I can hold my own. Don’t worry about me, I’ve handled worse than this guy.”

“All right. Gauzelle, you’re with me. We’ll go north. Silas and Jimena, you two go south,” said Hunter.

“I’ll take the whole middle strip, east to west.” Stick’s weapon was already on her shoulder, and she was halfway out of the door before the others were ready.

Hunter and Gauzelle went north. Hunter ran through the streets and Gauzelle flung her body around to get a good view of what was going on.

Hunter hated the feeling of not knowing what to do. He felt useless with the random running around. What could he do exactly, what could the team do? Unless they found the needle in the haystack, they couldn’t do anything until Inventor Pete had already acted.

Hunter’s phone vibrated and he stopped to take the call.

“Hey Hunter, are you able to come into work in about thirty minutes? I’ve just gotten a call from my mother. She’s not doing too well.”

“I wish I could Anh, but I’m on patrol at the moment. We’re trying to find Inventor Pete. He’s hurt Hummingbird real bad, and we gotta stop him. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I’ll just have to close the shop early for the day. Good luck finding the bad guy.”

“Hey, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll get Justice Punch into the shop. Please, don’t fire me, I wanna be able to work something out.” A surge of panic rose in Hunter’s chest, he really didn’t want to lose his new job already.

“Whoa, whoa. I never said anything about firing you buddy, I knew what I was in for after learning you were Mite. I kept you on. I’m gonna have to find a casual of some sort. Stay safe, team. See ya.” Anh ended the call and Hunter breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey Hunter, I don’t think its our guy, but there’s something going on up ahead. We should check it out.” Gauzelle landed on the ground next to him.

“What is it?”

“I dunno. I see a lot of bees.” Gauzelle and Hunter made their way toward the bugs.

*

Silas had inflated himself and was rocketing ahead. He bounced between buildings and floated over the heads of residents of Athena City. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Jimena stood sentry on a nearby rooftop, waiting for something to happen.

“So like, do we kick this guy’s butt as soon as we see him. Do we wait for backup?” Silas asked the Jimena as he bounced around.

“We’d assess the situation and react accordingly.”

“Do you think we need a fifth team member?”

“I don’t know. What do you think?”

“I think we need to seriously discuss it, as a team. The four of us make a good team, and we have some good variety in our skillsets. But I can’t help but see some glaring holes in our team. A few gaps we could still plug.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Well, for starters, we’ve all got powers. What if we needed someone who doesn’t have powers, coz we come across some kind of effect that negates powers. I know we’ve all started martial arts training, but like, powers.”

“You make a rather good point there. What else?” Jimena continued to scan.

“Like, some kind of crowd control power? Or buffing?” Silas saw nothing out of the ordinary as he bounced around.

“Sounds like you’re spouting off some kind of role-playing adventure party. Tunnels and Drakes, perhaps?” suggested Jimena.

“No way, you’re a fan?” Silas blurted out.

“Of course I am. Rogues all the way.”

“Nah, Wizards are where its at. I’ve ac-”

“Hey, I think I see something.” Jimena felt rude for cutting Silas off, but she couldn’t ignore what she could see.

“Is it our guy?” Silas bounced his way back to Jimena and stood on the rooftop with her.

“Dunno, hard to tell. There’s always something going on in this city.” The two of them took off toward where a crowd was gathering.

*

“Michael, I’m a little worried for my team. This guy seems dangerous. Maybe he’s out of their league?” Stick was jumping along rooftops as fast as she could.

“I get that. But there’s been reports of more trash golems. If they want to help with the Trash Queen, they need to step up fast. This might be the kind of thing to help push them.”

“Why’d you agree to let them do that? The Trash Queen is way too dangerous.”

“I made a promise. Not just to them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Blockade.”

“You promised him that his kid could take on the Trash Queen?”

“It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Hey, I gotta go. Something’s happening.” Stick flicked off her communicator.

Sparks of electricity arced through the air. Stick made her way to what she figured was about to become a problem.