We were walking along the train tracks, passing by pocks of overgrown weeds, an abandoned shopping trolley, and lots of graffiti.

I had since rendered my resin-board and staff to dust in the meantime. Likewise, Snap had reabsorbed her ink-coloured blood-rubber into herself again. And Clang finished letting off steam.

The quiet night was filled with the sound of Clang eating his share of the snacks Snap had packed.

I was peckish, but couldn't bring myself to eat. Knowing I was so close to home, and my family, filled me with a sense of joy and hope. And those two things in turn caused a different kind of anxiety in me.

I noticed the frown on Snap's newly beautified, and still anime-esque and raccoon-ish face. She hugged herself as if for warmth, though I knew the cold night air had little sway over any of us. I moved closer to her side, and felt tempted to put a hand on her shoulder, but second-guessed myself from doing so.

"You okay?" I said.

Snap chewed her lip and seemed almost indignant.

"Are you?" she said.

"Yeah," I said, not really knowing what else to say.

She looked at me then, studying my resin-visor obscured face.

"What do you think–?" she began to say, but then her ears twitched.

And my own ears pricked.

We kept walking, but from the look and small nods we gave each other it was clear we both understood the same thing.

A faint noise up ahead had drawn our attention. The noise we had picked up on had sounded like a length of fabric being suddenly yanked. Nothing less than our superhuman hearing would have picked it up among the myriad natural sounds of the night.

Whatever had made the noise up ahead had remained out of sight.

"This is it," I said, trying not to give away how much I was straining my hearing and vision to spot the unseen something out there in the dark.

"What?" said Clang, seemingly oblivious to the possible threat.

I stopped walking, and so did Snap and Clang.

"It's Lowem's Park Station," I said, "We're in Stowchester now. Lowems Park is where I grew up."

"Oh, cool," said Clang.

"Do you know the way to your house from here?" said Snap.

I nodded.

"We could follow the train tracks down further, we could be there in about twenty minutes if we walk, or," I gestured to the road which cut across the tracks up ahead, "We could take the roads left or right - I know either way."

"But it's your childhood home, right?" said Snap, "So your family won't be there?"

"Yeah," I said, "We would need to carry on over to Ripperly to be where my family are."

"Where's Ripperly?" said Clang.

Snap turned her back to the station platform up ahead and faced us. She walked backwards, her eyes searching all around to see if she could spot whoever it might be lurking behind us instead.

I kept my eyes fixed on the station platform ahead as the three of us continued moving towards the left-side station platform.

"Stowchester's made up of three districts," said Snap.

She pointed one of her sharp-nailed fingers through the air and drew an invisible upside-down triangle.

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"Lowems Park," said Snap, fixing her finger at the bottommost point of the triangle.

She moved her finger over to the top right corner, stopped, and said, "Ripperly."

And then she moved her finger to the left-most side of the upper triangle, and said, "Larkston. Get it?"

Clang had just finished unwrapping one of his chocolate bars which he had just stuffed into his mouth.

"Yeck," he said, with his mouth full.

Snap reached the station platform, which was tall enough that it came up to her neck. With a single springy jump she cleared the distance, standing atop the platform.

I sprang up next and joined her side.

And of course Clang jumped up too, his feet landing with a metallic double-clang.

"The next charity shop we pass you're gonna get yourself a thick pair of slippers," Snap snapped.

"If he gets slippers, I want slippers too," I said, wryly.

"And you have to wear slippers," said Clang to Snap.

"If it means you not clanking around like the tin man then I'll wear 'em too," said Snap.

Clang finished swallowing his mouthful.

"So," he said, "You guys not gonna mention there's someone watching us then?"

Snap and me shot Clang a look.

"Dude," I said, flabbergasted by his lack of subtlety.

"You heard them too?" said Snap.

"Yep," said Clang, "And I see 'em."

He gestured with his eyes over my shoulder to the platform on the other side of the train tracks.

There, perched like a ninja atop the roof of the platform, was a lone figure, silently watching us.

It appeared to be someone dressed all over in what could only be described as a full body suit made of autumn leaves. A cape of moss-covered brambles hung from her shoulders to the small of her back. And her face, masked in the same autumn leaves of various browns, was rendered void of all but the most subtle face indentations. Her hair was either hidden beneath the all-encompassing autumn-leaf covering, or she didn't have any to begin with.

Perhaps the most unnerving aspect of this new figure looming over in the distance was that she was perfectly still.

"Hello?" I resonated, adding Slip's usual resonation to my tone.

The autumn-leaf figure continued to just look at us.

"We're not looking for trouble," I resonated.

Still silence from the figure.

"Nice outfit," Clang's voice rang.

Steam was rising out of his mouth and his golden–metallic-cowl eye sockets.

"Can we at least get a name?" said Snap.

There then came a sudden loud voice echoing around the train station platforms. It was unlikely it belonged to the figure perched atop the opposite platform because it was a man speaking.

"What's your name," said the voice with gusto, and then again, "What's your name?"

"Slip," I resonated, as I looked around for the source of the voice.

At my ushering Clang and Snap mumbled their names too.

And then a dim light, like a partially contained lightbulb, shone up ahead on the same platform the three of us were standing on. At the far end what looked like a tall male mummy, like something out of a horror movie, walked casually into view.

The glowing came from beneath the mummy's wrappings, similar to when I used the power to bulb up. But there was more to this second figure, because the mummy-wrappings were, strangely, what looked to be spools of celluloid filmstock. The light beneath the wrapped spools of film brought out the technicolour images printed in hundreds of frames wrapped around the figure – the figure's whose eyes also glowed with a dull technicolour light.

"If you can dream," said the celluloid-mummy-figure, in an accent that sounded like someone from 1940's England, "And not make dreams your master."

"Snap, Clang," I resonated, raising my fists as if to fight, "Keep an eye on the girl over there."

Snap and Clang orientated themselves to face the figure, who still hadn't moved an inch.

"I've got the mummy," I resonated.

Both Snap and Clang grunted little affirmatives.

"If you can think, and not make thoughts your aim," said the celluloid mummy-man, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same."

I know this, I thought. What the celluloid-mummy was saying was something I had heard before.

"You'll Be a Man My Son," I resonated, saying the name of the poem the lines the celluloid-mummy recited were from.

"Bravo! Yes, bravo!" said the celluloid-mummy, raising his arms high as if in victory.

"Good evening," he said, "Pleasure to meet your acquaintance. Since it isn't Halloween I might assume you three are mice?"

"Yep," said Snap, "What about you?"

"I suppose so, yes," said the celluloid-mummy.

"We gave you our names," Clang's voice rang, "What's yours?"

"Oh yes!" the celluloid-mummy exclaimed, "I am, the enduring Emulsion-Man!"

It was impossible not to share an enthused look with Clang.

"And your friend?" I resonated.

Emulsion-Man leaned coolly against the post at the end of the platform.

And he recited," In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago."

Emulsion-Man gestured with a celluloid-wrapped finger to the still unmoving perched figure atop the other platform roof.

"May I introduce you please to the unbending - Bramble!"

It was then Bramble jumped into the air and landed with gravity-defying grace onto the edge of the opposite platform.

"Hey," I resonated in a whisper-shout, "If you keep making noise the police will hear us."

"That is not a concern," said Emulsion-Man, "Because the police do not police in Stowchester."

Sensing our confusion, Emulsion-Man clarified, "You're in no man's land, don't you know?"

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