DANGER MOUSE:
CAUGHT IN THE WIND
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
(Contains Spoilers For "Twysted Sister")
At the Mayfare H.Q of the Danger Agency, we find Pefold, Danger Mouse and Professor Squawkencluck stationed at the Professor's lab, she hard at work on her report of recent events trying to make sense of a most topsy turvey day.
The professor was seated at her desk, with a knitting ball opposite her. She was tempted to start a session of Danger Knitting earlier than scheduled, but first came the priorities of work.
Anything to relieve the tension of typing out her report while DM and Penfold leaned over to check on how long she was taking by looking at the time on her computer's digital clock.
"We have a perfectly traditional clock on the wall fellas, you can stop gawking" said Squawk.
"I'm sorry Professor, we're just finding different ways to distract ourselves while you finish up" DM said.
"Well you're distracting me, so go make yourself busy elsewhere" Squawk snapped.
"Well, we would, but I'm afraid we're still trying to get that creature your twistyverse counterpart left behind out of our apartment"
"That was your own fault, you impulsively decided to take her out of her home dimension just to try and teach me a lesson"
"And the lesson needn't have been taught, you already had the means to turn older and wiser at any point, you just wanted to have fun" Penfold said.
"I'm surprised you're even standing up for her Penfold, she seemed fixated on humiliating you when she was younger"
Penfold conceded that Danger Mouse had a point.
"You're right Chief, she did pick on me a lot, I mean, sure so did you, but she was enjoying it far too much"
Squawk reached the point in her report where she had to bring that up.
"Oh dear, how can I best put it?" she thought.
Penfold leaned over and read some of the report, which frustrated Squawk even more so.
"That's it, I'm heading to the toilet, and at least there I know I won't be disturbed"
"You can't Professor, you're still grounded and confined to the lab" DM insisted.
"I'm a grown woman and I helped you save the world, there's grounds for ungrounding me" said Squawk.
"Danger Agency regulations. All grounded agents and staff are to endure at least twenty-four years of curfew before reassessment" said DM.
Squawk was close to tearing out the feathers in her hair, she needed to finish the report without prying eyes peering over her shoulder.
Penfold then asked her a question.
"Professor, what changed you?"
"I have no idea what you mean"
"Well, at that age you were wide-eyed, exuberant, not afraid to put aside protocol and acted more impulsively...you were an ill-fit for the Agency in your condition, but at the same time the Colonel put up with it and you came up with a strategy that DM used to save the world from the Twistyverse, when did having fun become such an issue for you?"
"Believe it or not Penfold, it's the work. Oh sure it's what I've wanted to do since I was a wee hen, but as you grow and evolve, the ideas become more complex to you, and requires thorough thinking and sometimes over thinking, it demands more responsibility. If you aren't responsible for your ideas, if you just put them together without any concern for the long-term ramifications, they can go from being powerful tools to powerful playthings, and in the hands of the playful, they can be dangerous" Squawk explained.
"I see...being in our line of work, it's so hard to see where pleasure ends and business begins, because I'm so caught in the wind, blown over by excitement and impulsiveness, the thrill of being right after all the times I get it wrong. It must have been quite humbling for you to go through all of that in a day Professor" Danger Mouse added.
"To be fair, I probably did enjoy it too much" Squawk admitted.
"What are you referring to? Being caught in the wind, or picking on me?" Penfold asked.
"I'll tell you when you're older" Squawk said as she figured out how to finish her report.