11 - The Pumpkin King

Flatfoot and Teckstyle are standing at the ramp of the train station in Salamanca.

"This is scenic Croatoa? I rode a train for three hours, with YOU, for this?" Teck growls.

"What?" Flat shrugs. "It’s a sleepy little resort town by a lake. I don’t see anything wrong with it."

"Look at it! There’s nothing to do here! Its farmland!"

The two watch a farmer wheel a barrow filled with gigantic pumpkins.

"Those are some big gourds," Teck says absently. A female controller nearby hears the remark, storms over to Teck, slaps him across the helmet, and storms off.

"What?" Teck protests. "I said gourds!" He rubs the chin of his helmet. "That didn’t even hurt," he mutters as an aside, then turns back to Flat. "Geez man, people are so touchy."

"I know, everybody always thinks its about Me Me Me nowadays."

"You heard me. I said ‘gourds’. Its not like I said ‘those are big melons’."

A female scrapper who was passing by at just that moment, turns, huffs and slugs Teck in the gut.

Teckstyle doubles over. "Ok. Maybe I deserved that one."

Flat pays him little attention. Instead, he’s still looking at the wheelbarrow. "I gotta wonder, there’s no way that someone can finish one of those up in one sitting. Maybe a team of tankers or something, but not normal people. Do you think they can them for storage?"

Teck thinks for a moment. "Those would be some mighty big cans."

A female tanker flying into the station hears this and lays into Teck with a mean right hook.
After regaining consciousness, Teck stands up, looks up to the sky and says "Oh come on! That’s it. I’m leaving."

"Whoa, easy there. Give the place a chance. They have a winery."

Teck pauses. "Really?"

"Not really."

"I hate you Flat."

"Oh come on, it’ll do you got to get out in the countryside."

"In case you haven’t noticed, I thrive on technology. If it doesn’t have neon lights, I don’t care."
"Suit yourself. Me? I’m going exploring."

With that, Flat speeds off into the city. Teck looks around. The only one left in the station is the man with the wheelbarrow. Teck sighs. "Well, let’s see what we’ve got in here." There is a beep from inside the helmet. "Pong it is, I guess."


Five minutes later, Flatfoot’s already explored most of the place. "Man, this place sure is nice. Quiet little village, some farmhouses, forests, a lake. I mean, I don’t really get those wolf guys with the antlers wandering around, but whatever. Maybe they’re jackalopes or something?" Flat looks over to the lake shore. A group of heroes are standing there anxiously. Some have binoculars.

"Hey, what’s going on over here?" Flat asks a giant glowing man.

"We’re looking for the lake monster."

"Lake monster? Cool. What’s it look like?"

"Er, no one’s really seen Sally. Mostly we’re going on rumors from the locals."

"Uh…great." Flat says, attention span wavering.

"You’re welcome to join us. We could use another pair of eyes."

Flat looks down at his wrist, where his watch would be. "Actually, I’ve gotta get going. Busy busy, you know."

The glowing hero has by now stopped paying attention to Flat. "What’s that moving over there?!" he shouts.

Immediately, a combination of every power imaginable flies out to the lake. Arrows bounce off of sheets of ice, which are cracked and melting from everything else. When the dust settles, one tanker goes in to the water to examine the target.

"No. No that wasn’t Sally," he calls back to the shore. "It was just a duck. False alarm everyone."
A collective groan issues from the shore.

Meanwhile, Flat’s already across the city, looking for ghosts to hunt.

And by that, he is totally lost in the forests outside of Salamanca. He rounds a bend in the trail, and comes face to face with four serious looking heroes.

"Flatfoot, you are needed," says the one in front, a tank by the name of Darc Lady.

"Oh…uh, hi guys…Long time no see," Flat stammers.

"You *do* remember your super group, right?" asks Enershia, the blaster hovering over the other three.

"Of course! Of course! I’ve just been, um, looking all over for you guys."

"We’ve got a situation," Princess Mystic, the scrapper says. "Where’s Teck?"

"Left him at the station." Flat shrugs. "He didn’t seem thrilled to be here."

"He’s not there," the other tank, IronDan rumbles.

"Well, maybe I can help?" Flat offers.

"We kind of need Teck for this."

"Why?"

"Range." Says Enershia.

"Oh." Flat says. "Well, maybe if I dressed up like him it would help? Just as good, right? No one’ll know the difference."

Teckstyle played pong for about an hour before beating it three times and got bored. Sadly, he didn’t find any other games in his suit's system, and rather than resign himself to a lifetime spent hitting a circle between two lines, he ventured out into the wilderness.

By now, Teckstyle had gotten himself deep in the forests to the south of Salamanca, and was also utterly lost.

The blaster flies round a bend and spies a group of creatures marching by. They have pumpkins for heads. Teck blinks and stifles a laugh.

They had pumpkins for heads.

He flies over to the lead creature. A scowl is carved into its face. It is taller than the rest.
The creature seems to ignore Teckstyle. The blaster lands and gently taps the head of the lead creature. It tips over, slowly at first, the arms flailing wildly, then at about 80 degrees, the whole thing falls over.

"Heh. This is fun," Teck says. By now, the creatures no longer ignore him, and rush forward to avenge their fallen leader. He starts pushing them over one by one as they come to him. "Is this some kind of joke?" He asks.

Soon, more and more of the pumpkin creatures swarm Teck, grabbing his arms so he can’t push them over anymore. Still, they don’t do anything to hurt him. Bored, he unleashes a nova to get them off of him.

"Well, that was fun while it lasted," he says, surveying the carnage.

Just then something big and round lands on his head, plunging him in darkness. His hands feel what it is, then rotate it so he can see out the eyes. "Well that’s just great," he mutters. "Now I’ve got a friggin’ pumpkin on my head."

He turns to see a bigger group of pumpkin creatures approaching him, they look bigger than the ones from before. On them, the faces actually look menacing.