❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

"It was salt in an open wound.
Even my own mom, a grown-girl, knew who Babe Ruth was, then again, Jordan knew of him also.

I was dead meat.
We had all thought that that ball Benny had busted the guts out of meant something amazing was gonna happen.

Now I figured my life was over."

Everyone met back at the treehouse, trying there hardest to figure out how to retrieve the ball.

The blonde girl laid her head on Benny's lap, as he played with her hair; they both were short on ideas.

"Hey, I got it!" Scotty perks up, "Why don't we just go over... and knock on the door and ask Mr. Mertle—"

"Are you out of your mind?" Squints protest, "Mr. Mertle's the meanest old man that ever lived. He's the one who made the Beast eat that kid. It's not an option, Smalls. Forget about it."

Honestly, Scotty's idea seemed like a great one in Jordan's mind. She sure as hell didn't believe Squint's story about everything, but she was scared of the man who did own the Beast.

"L-Let's just look out the window," She suggested.

The whole team scrunched up together at the small square window.

The entire backyard was chaotic with junk - toys, metals, and useless things- but what made it so eerie was the old worn down dog house right by the back porch, where the Beast had lived.

Jordan held tightly to the wooden frame of the window, hearing the growls of their enemy, almost as if it was ready to fight then at any moment.

They all hurry over to there spots, with Benny pulling Jordan toward him and in his arms.

She wasn't too scared - not trembling or having some sort of panic attack - but she was sweating and taking her deep breath to prevent an attack.

"He's daring us," Tommy states.

"We're on his territory now," comments Ham.

"Anybody got any bright ideas?" Benny asked his group of friends.

"After we'd all thought about it real hard, we had absolutely no idea what the hell we were gonna do. So things started primitively."

Squints and the Watts girl stayed up on the tree house, as the glassed boy looked into a cereal box binoculars, seeing the ball in the dirtied yard.

The rest of the team pulled out an olden board from Timmy and Tommy's backyard fence to Mertle's house, leaving a small hole in the metal fence.

With a wooden stick, they tried to pull the ball toward them to grab it.

"Go," Shorty orders quietly, seeing the Beast nowhere in sight.

The stick moved in but it was nowhere near the baseball.

"Farther," Squints tells.

"Farther," repeats the girl.

The team did as they were told, moving the stick upward, and so close.

"Just a little bit."
"Just a little bit far—"

With no time, the Beast's massive paws stomped on the stick, making Squints scream and jerk back, having Jordan stumbled away in confusion.

The whole team screamed, with Jordan silent from shock.
Benny and his friends had to scream as they fought to get back the wooden stick.

As they did, the end of the stick was cut short, having it broken, meaning them all to scream some more.

♢

This was their second attempt, this time being Jordan's idea.
Think of the last idea, she thought it would be best to have something to cup the ball into place.

The sandlot duct tapped a small pot to a metal stick, so it would be easy to retrieve back.

"Farther," Watts' instructs, having them do as they told.

They soon manage to get the pot in line, slowly turning the pot.

"Almost," Squints drags, seeing the action with his 'binoculars'.

It was a success: the pot had captured the signed baseball.

The boy gave a thumbs up to the girl making her smile and turn it the boys. "You got it! Pull it back."

As they were about to do so... again, the paw of the Beast smashed down on the iron pot, as if it was styrofoam.

Everyone screams in fear, with the gigantic dog pulling the metal pole out of their grasp.

All the kids stare in shock, seeing was once a straight metal pole, got thrown into the air, getting twisted like a pretzel at ease.

They all gathered around the broken piece of failure.

Timmy says, "I think we've seriously underestimated the Beast."

"Obviously, we're dealing with a superior intelligence," replies Squints.

Jordan sighs, "Son of a bitch."

♢

This attempt was from Bertram, who thought about sucking the back up like a vacuum.

Using a power generator, another metal pole from DeNunez house, and an old mitten, they made the baseball vacuum.

Seeing Jordan and Scotty work on the generators, Bertram tells his peers, "Okay, guys, almost ready. We're connecting power now."

"Power connected," announced the teen girl, plugging the two cords together.

The stronger boys had of hold to the pole, lowering it down close to the ball.

At this point, the priceless baseball was chewing and covered on saliva, by the Beast.

"Okay, we're ready," Ham nods.

The small glassed boy announced, "Initiate retrieval suction."

The word passed around till it hit the three kids with the power generators.

"Initiating retrieval suction number one," told Timmy.

"Initiating retrieval suction number one, now!" Bertram fires, flicking the switch, causing the suction to start.

The boys holding onto the pipe grunts in trying to handle there grip.
It wasn't enough though, the ball barely moved beneath it.

Squints spread the word around, like last time. "Fire number two."

"Initiate number two."

"Firing two now!" Shorty states, flicking the switch.

The ball started to move under it, but it wasn't enough to make it suck up to the pipe hole.

"Fire number three."

Scotty nods, "Number three now!" He flicks on the last generator.

It was a strong suction, as the boys grunt in keeping the vacuum on their grip.

The suction ended up working, with the signed baseball suctioned to the vacuum, as planned.

"Ha!" Squints smiles, "You got it. Haul it up."

As the boys then started to pull it back up, smiles, and cheers on there faces, it was stopped.

The Beast ended up biting onto the suctioned pipe, making the team scream in the sudden fright.

The Beast of a dog dented into the pole, making the ball fall back onto his junkyard and effecting the generators.

As the two boys with the machines smiled and grinned, Jordan noticed the three generators along to shift a little.

"What's going on, Squints?" Ham questioned, feeling the pipe shaking and not being able to see through the thick leaves and tree.

"The pipe... it's pinched shut," He tells.

This a definite chain reaction to the generators, which moved intensively making an uneasy noise.

"Turn it off! Turn them off!" Jordan shouts, trying to make the machines stop.

"I can't!" Bertram says.

"They're shorting out!" Scotty repeats," They're shorting out!"

Back to Squints, he looked confused in hearing the weird noise coming from the treehouse.

"What the hell is that noise?"

As the whirring continues, Jordan didn't hesitate to tell the boys up on the top, as the two others left immediately.

"The vacuum's clogged. Let's get the fuck gotta here!" She warns, going back down to get out of the treehouse.

Everyone rummage their way to try and get out.
The blonde girl used the fireman pole and waiting out for Benny.

With all the boys using the pole to there exit, it was already immensely occupied.
Ham saw the rope-board ladder to get down but was taking his time.

DeNunez and Benny didn't have the time and were in a panic. They ran out and jumped out of the treehouse, falling on their backs in landing.

"Fucking christ on a cracker!" The girl says to herself, running to her boyfriend, helping him up, and running away from the bomb of a house.

As the two teens tried to run to a good distance, the treehouse exploded behind them, having them fall down to the ground; thankfully, without getting hurt.

Everyone else was fine, seeing all the boys pile upon one another, to shield each other.

The two helped each other from the ground and turned around from a sight.

"Oh shit," Benny and Jordan say, seeing only one unlucky boy be suck in the house.

They all huddled together, seeing Timmy walk out of the treehouse, he walked to his groups, talking about his own observation, after shaking off the smoke and soot that covered him.

"We've been going about this all wrong. I blame myself," He sighs, "We need a total surprise. An airborne attack. The Beast will never expect it."

Timmy explained his own plan and called it a day, walking into his home to clean up and stay inside.

This plan of his involved one of the lightest of the team to be hoisted up and grab the ball themselves.
All the team looked over to Shorty, the lightest girl - and only girl - on the team.

"Oh, hell no," She answers.

"Come on, Shorty! Think about the greater good," Ham persuades.

"My greater good is my life, Hamilton!" The blonde argued.

"You're not making Jordan be bait," strictly denies Benny.

The team caused a huge ruckus.
All in one the team tried to persuade the older two kids, in having Jordan be the hoisted for the plan.

It didn't matter what the team could say, Jordan will not be apart of the palm like that, especially when she could face the Beast again.

"I'll do it!"

Everyone went silent, seeing Yeah-Yeah - the lightest boy of the team - stood bravely in facing what could be ahead.

Everyone nodded and agreed and was set to work.

Making the contraption, they made a harness for Yeah-Yeah, having Ham use his strong legs to wheel his friend up and down, while the team held onto a rope, with Jordan and Benny weighing and holding onto a ladder, that was holding him up and steady since the tree branches beside them were too weak to hold.

"It's clear," checked Squints.

"Take me up," Yeah-Yeah declares.

Ham muscles his way into picking up the kid, making Jordan growl to keep the ladder in place with Benny.

The small boy roughly gets over the fence and was brought down to grab the ball.

He looked at the destroyed ball in total disgust, not after seeing if the Beast was anywhere near him.

"I think he has it!" Jordan whispers, trying to peek a view.

"Hey, don't let go!" Benny scolds, having the girl continues to hold the bar steady.

As the two then started there bickering, Yeah-Yeah was in complete shock and fear, being face-to-face with the Beast.

The dog's mouth was dripped in saliva and grunted fangs, his growl was so intimidating, it almost made the boy pee in his own pants.

In fear, the boy tries to say something, but his stammering stutter kept him locked.

It didn't matter, because Squints had the words for him, as he screams, "Pull him up! Pull him up!"

Hamilton was caught off guard, having his feet slide off the pedals with a scream in fright, leaving Yeah-Yeah to be stuck on the other side.

"Oh, fuck!" Jordan curses, hearing the commotion below her and feeling the burn of her muscles working her strength.

The boy in the bottom scrambled to the rope, having to man-handle pull on the jump to get there friend out.

Roughly, Yeah-Yeah was pulled up and out of the way, but dropped the slippery ball out of his hands went getting to his safety.

Screams were shouted from everywhere.
Benny and Jordan grunted there teeth, in the abrupt weight of the boy, knowing what a disaster the plan was.

♢

"It was my last chance.
So we quit messing around and pulled out all the stops.
I collected every piece of erector set I had, and it finally became... science against nature."

Scotty had his final hope, using his bright brain and all the scrum piece of bent and twisted metals.

The Smalls' kid made a toy cart, to scoop and toss the ball out to the fence.

As half of the team helped Scotty set up the ramp and equipment in the treehouse, the other half - with Benny and Jordan - stayed in the ground to catch the ball when it flies.

Soon, the ramp was set and the toy cart was in action.
When the toy made it to the other side, Squints confirms, "Okay, you're on the ground."

"Moving forward," Scotty announced, directing the cart to move to the ball.

It was too far, so they reserved.
In making those actions, the Beast's dog house was growing, with the dirt moving out as it breaths heavily as if it was waiting to make a move itself.
This goes unnoticed by the team.

"Drop catapult."
"The catapult is dropped."
"Open catapult."

The kids on the ground were eager to catch this ball, they all had hope that he was the one plan that would work out.

"We're gonna get it. I know it," Bertram encourages.

The kids communicated, the machine opened and closed, having the ball rest safely inside the catapult.

Jordan's heart was racing in happiness.
This would be an all-star memory of how a bunch of kids outsmarted the big bad Beast.

"Oh, my god. We actually got this," She grins, making Benny smile.

Squints saw the Beast stalk his way to the ball, which made him shout in the repeat to fire.

Scotty flicks the switch and the ball was sent flying in the air.

All the kids stare at it in shock, but it didn't hesitate Jordan.

The Watts shouts, "I got it! I got it——"

She didn't.

Out of nowhere, the Beast had jumped off the ground, swallowing the ball down its throat.

Seeing this is petrified fear, he blonde lost all her coordination, tripping herself over her own to feet, landing on her back, shaking out of her own skin.

Benny ran to his girlfriend, helping her off the ground and holding her tight as he moved her out of the way, with his teammates following behind.

Scotty stayed where he stood, watching every second as the Beast took down the ramp with its teeth and destroy the machinery, with there last chances gone down the drain.

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖