The Despair of Danger Mouse

by btamamura

What if Danger Mouse had failed to collect all of the ingredients Greenback ordered him to? Alternate ending to 'The Four Tasks of Danger Mouse'. Contains major character death and minor British cursewords. Rated to be safe.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danger Mouse or any canon characters. They are the property of Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall. I do own the pair of medics though.

Notes: This idea would not leave me alone, even after a few days, so it had to be written. I am terribly, terribly sorry for the immense feels you are about to have reading this. Penfold's parents' names are from The Danger Mouse Files. Aunt Doreen has been seen in the series. Pretty sure Uncle George had been mentioned in a scene in one of the later episodes.

Warnings: Major character death, potential OOC.

I hope you enjoy this.

(Linebreaks hate me, so they will be replaced with DMEP.)

DMEP

Everybody knows how The Four Tasks of Danger Mouse really ended, but what if things had turned out differently? I warn you now that you won't like what will happen, and I am not saying that because I usually find this rot to be complete and utter nonsense.

Danger Mouse watched as the twig from the witch's broom flew back to the cottage. "There goes the last ingredient. I was so close too." He started pushing himself out of the ground. "I'll have to find some other way to rescue Penfold." He hurried to the Mark III, praying that his attempt at a rescue would go well.

Penfold's life was on the line, it was pretty much in his paws. He jumped into the vehicle, started it up and made his way to where Baron Silas Greenback had told him to deliver the ingredients.

DMEP

He parked the car and jumped out. There had to be some way he could sneak in and free Penfold from his dangerous confines. Don't worry, Penfold. I'm coming to save you. He tiptoed down the hall, ducking and dodging into any potential blind spots. He was approaching a large door. His finely tuned hearing picked up the sound of Greenback making threats to Penfold.

"If your friend doesn't show up soon, then Stiletto here will light the fuse, and I will push this button. You'll be no more, and you'll only have Danger Mouse to blame."

Not if I can help it, you wicked toad! He took another step nearer, but accidentally tripped an invisible sensor. Alarms blared. Good grief!

DMEP

Greenback turned to his screen and watched as it fizzled before showing a picture of Danger Mouse. "So, he has arrived." He turned back to Penfold. "You'd better hope he got everything I asked for, or else."

"Oh, crumbs!" Penfold muttered as he continued struggling against his bonds.

"Well now, I'd better let our guest in, hm?" He pressed a button, allowing the door to open. "So, you have arrived, White Blunder. Have you got all of the ingredients?"

Danger Mouse carefully scanned his surroundings while Greenback addressed him. If he distracted the wicked trio, he could maybe, just maybe, rescue Penfold in time.

"Chief, help!" Penfold cried when he saw Danger Mouse standing at the entrance to the room.

"Come closer and hand me that sack," Greenback demanded.

Knowing the wrong move would only spell disaster, the White Wonder did as instructed. He was not entirely surprised but highly alarmed when a steel cage dropped over him. "You fiend!"

"Tut tut, you can't expect me to think you wouldn't double-cross me, hm?" He pressed yet another button on his control panel. It allowed a tube to enter a hole in the top of the cage and suck the sack into it. He pressed the button again, allowing the tube to pull out of the cage, the other end being right above his desk. The sack dropped into his fat fingers and he cackled with wicked glee. He opened the sack and had a look inside. "Hmm...feathers from a vampire duck, hairs from a yeti, a piece of the fog monster...but, I don't see a twig from a witch's broom in here." He pulled back, his smile gone and instead replaced by the foulest grimace he could muster. "You have failed. I hope you know what this means." The grimace slowly melted into yet another wicked grin. He was going to enjoy what he was about to do. "You have first-row seats too, isn't that exciting?"

While Greenback had been looking through the contents of the sack, Danger Mouse had tried pulling the bars apart. For a mouse with his strength, it would normally be a walk in the park, but the bars seemed to be made of a much stronger metal. "Hardly, you fiend!"

"Stiletto, light the fuse."

The crow cackled. "Si, Barone!" He struck a match and lit the fuse he was holding.

Danger Mouse couldn't let them get away with what they had planned. He continued pulling at the bars, but to no avail. He tried gnawing at them, but it only served to hurt his teeth. He brought out any tools he carried that would normally work, but again, nothing. He tried pushing himself through the bars, but he was too large for the gaps. All he could get through was his arm.

Penfold's escape efforts were also getting more frantic as he saw the lit fuse had almost reached the boxes of dynamite surrounding him.

Stiletto and Nero laughed wickedly as Greenback started a countdown. "Five. Four. Three."

Danger Mouse couldn't do anything more. There was no hope. "Penfold!"

The struggles stopped. Penfold realised what was about to happen couldn't be avoided. He looked to Danger Mouse. His eyes filled with tears, but he was smiling. In his last few seconds, he allowed himself to remember the good times, the fun, the adventure...sure, a lot of it involved him being captured one way or another, but Danger Mouse had always been right there with him. "DM...!"

Greenback pressed the button.

Danger Mouse could only watch in horror as the fuse reached the dynamite, just as Greenback pressed the button. All at once, the loudest explosion he'd ever heard sounded through the room, drowning out his cries to his best friend, as well as the wicked laughter of the evil trio.

"Of course, I'm not completely heartless," Greenback chuckled as he pressed a button, causing the cage to ascend. "Stiletto, we're leaving." He picked up Nero and snuck out, deciding that waiting around to witness the utter despair of the white mouse wouldn't be a good idea, lest he run right to him, tackle him and maybe kill him for what he had done.

Danger Mouse hurried and caught Penfold, just as he dropped from his position on the wall. The explosion had caused the chains holding his shackles to break. "Penfold! Penfold, speak to me! Open your eyes!" His paws were coated with the hamster's blood. "Penfold." There was no response. "Come on, wake up. We're cartoon characters, right? We've been through worse than this, and though a bit burned up, we always came out of it alive. Y-You should be fine in a minute, right? Penfold?" He fell to his knees and lay the hamster down. He finally noticed the red staining his paws. "No, it...it can't be...Penfold, you're not, right?" He leaned close, listening for any sign of breath. Nothing. His ears couldn't hear a thing. "M-Maybe it's because of the explosion, maybe it's affecting my hearing..." He watched for a rise and fall of the hamster's chest. Nothing. "Y-You're fine, right...? Penfold...? Of...of course you are! Come on, I'll take us back home, and then we...we can watch the new Jake Thunder: Super Spy movie, alright? I'll let you have sweeties for tea. We should get back home. Come along, Penfold." He scooped him into his arms and carried him out of Greenback's base, back to the Mark III. He put him in the passenger seat, fastened the seatbelt then climbed into the driver's seat. "Let's go home." As he started the vehicle, he noticed his vision was getting a lot blurrier.

DMEP

They returned to the pillar-box flat they called home. Danger Mouse carried Penfold to his bedroom and lay him on the bed. "You're going to be fine after a good rest, right...? Just...just stay here, I need to call Colonel K." He left the bedroom, telling himself to stop crying, that Penfold was going to be fine after a good rest.

He stood in front of the videophone. "Calling Colonel K. Come in, Colonel K."

The screen blinked on and there was the chinchilla. "K here...great scott, DM! You're covered in blood! What happened? Are you alright?!"

"Blood?" He looked down at himself and noticed his chest was just as red as his paws. "Oh. So it is."

"What happened? Were you able to save Penfold?"

"He's here, Colonel. I have him resting on his bed. He needs a doctor, he was hurt."

"So, that's Penfold's blood on you?"

"Yes."

"I'll send our medical team over there right away. What of Greenback?"

"He got away, Sir."

"Oh. Bad show, that. Still, at least you saved Penfold. DM? Why are you crying?"

"I'm not, Sir. My eye is just a bit weepy. That's all."

"Hm. If you say so. Right then. Over and out."

He watched the screen turn to static before going blank. All he could do was wait for the medical team to arrive.

DMEP

"We heard someone here needs our help?" one of the medics asked. He was a rat.

"Yes, this way." Danger Mouse led the rat and lizard to his assistant's bedroom. "He's in here." He opened the door and led them inside.

The medics raced forward at the sight that beheld them. If they hadn't already seen enough, the sight of the charred, bleeding hamster would've made them pass out. They conversed quietly while treating the wounds, but found they were too late. The lizard approached Danger Mouse. "How long has he been like this?"

"Forty minutes. He wouldn't wake up. He's surely just asleep, right? He...he can't be dead. It's not possible."

"I'm afraid...he is. Judging by the progression of the rigor mortis, he's been dead for forty minutes."

"No. It's not possible. I mean...he's my assistant. My best friend. He...just can't be..."

"He appears to have lost a lot of blood." The rat looked to the mouse. "What happened?"

Danger Mouse explained about Greenback's explosives and firearms.

"It looks like he died instantly. We need to take him to the morgue."

"No! He's not dead! He's going to be fine if you just treat his wounds!" He grabbed the lizard's arm as he tried walking past. "Stay and help him! He'll wake up!"

"Danger Mouse. Let me make this perfectly clear to you." The rat sighed as he approached the mouse, pried his grip off of his partner's arm and placed a paw on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but there is nothing we can do for him now."

"N-No, it's...it's not possible..."

"I'm sorry."

DMEP

Danger Mouse watched with a heavy heart and tears in his eye as the medics zipped up the bodybag, placed it onto a stretcher and proceeded to carry the hamster out of the room. "He...can't be..." He continued to whisper that even while the medics made their way out. Once they had departed, he finally collapsed onto his knees and let out agonising wails. "Penfold...Penfold!" Tears ran down his cheek like a river, his body hunched over and he curled into a ball, clutching his paws to his chest and doing little more than screaming his best friend's name while crying.

DMEP

"I just heard the news, DM. I'm sorry," Colonel K stated as soon as Danger Mouse accepted his call. "I hate to ask this, but have you called his family?"

"I have. His father yelled at me for failing to keep his son safe, even though I'd promised to; his mother is a little more understanding of the risks involved in the job, but she does share her husband's sentiments. His aunt told me off for letting our playtime go too far. None of them are happy with me right now. I'm not happy with myself either."

"You did the best you could, DM. Surely, Penfold knew that."

He thought about the hamster's teary smile before the explosion. "He knew."

"Did they agree to allow him to have a memorial service with the agency?"

"His mother insisted on it, knowing if he didn't have one, he would've been upset."

"I see. You have enough going on so I'll make the arrangements."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Will you be permitted to attend the service?"

"His mother said I should. They hate me right now, but they still know I was Penfold's best friend."

"Right. I'll inform them when the service can be done. For now, you take care of yourself. Actually, I'm having Agent 57 sent to stay with you at the moment. You'll need someone to look after you."

"Alright." He couldn't even argue against it. His pride would normally force him to say he would be fine on his own, but at that moment, he couldn't.

"Right then. Over and out."

He walked over to the circle sofa and sat down, just waiting for Agent 57 to arrive.

DMEP

The miniature fox entered the flat, not pressing the doorbell or anything. He hurried right to Danger Mouse's side. "I just heard the news. I'm sorry, DM. How are you holding up?"

"It should not have happened. I should've been able to save him. I always had in the past, so why not now?"

He sat beside him, placed a paw on the mouse's back and rubbed it.

"He smiled. He didn't blame me for what happened. He was just...too good to be true. All that time he'd been counting on me to save him, and in his final seconds, he turned to me and smiled."

"DM..."

"I failed him. I couldn't gather the ingredients, I couldn't sneak in and rescue him when Greenback wasn't looking. I couldn't get out of the cage Greenback trapped me in. All I could do was watch and cry out to him." He shook his head. "We're cartoon characters, how could this have happened? He's supposed to be just a little hurt but fine and then we can be ready for next week's adventure...but next week's adventure will never happen for him. I was in denial."

He shifted closer, lifting his paw and instead wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"I kept saying he was just asleep. I brought him back here and called Colonel K. He was the one to call the medical team when he noticed I was covered in Penfold's blood."

"You still are. You should consider washing up, DM."

"They arrived and I took them to Penfold's room. Within a minute, they turned to me and tried explaining he'd died. It finally started to sink in when they sealed him in a bodybag and carried him out of here. His family despises me right now, I hate myself too. I should've done better. I should've been able to find a way to save him. I should've tried finding another twig from a witch's broom. I should've...I should've done a lot, but nothing I say can change that Penfold is...he's..."

"DM..."

"He's gone, 57. Penfold's gone. I'm never going to hear him make corny jokes, I'll never hear his laugh, never see his smiling face, never...never...he'll never come on a mission with me anymore...he's..." Tears filled his eye again. He turned to Agent 57 and clung to him. Never mind his standard composure, his stiff upper-lip as it were, he didn't care about any of that. He started sobbing harshly. "He's gone!"

He wrapped his other arm around him and held him, letting him cry out his grief. He didn't say a word, there were no words that could comfort Danger Mouse in that situation.

DMEP

The day of the memorial service arrived. Though there was still a bit of hostility towards him for what had happened, Penfold's parents approached Danger Mouse and spoke with him. "Anytime he came home for a holiday, all he could talk about was how amazing you were," Bronwen, Penfold's mother, had remarked while shaking his paw. "He never divulged any information about your missions, but his eyes always sparkled whenever he mentioned you."

Danger Mouse nodded, a solemn expression on his face.

"We'll never see him smile like that ever again," Arthur sighed. "It's our fault for allowing him to become a secret agent."

"No, Sir. I should've saved him. I'm...I'm the one at fault."

"Bloody oath you are!" Penfold's uncle George barked. He was holding Doreen.

"I told that silly boy that those games weren't appropriate. It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Or their life." Doreen glared at the mouse. "I will never forgive you for letting it get that far!"

"I know," Danger Mouse whispered.

Bronwen looked to Doreen and George. "Come now. It's not really Danger Mouse's fault." She turned to the mouse. "I'm not happy with you for things turning out like this. But, you weren't the one who actually...were you?"

"...I may as well have been. All I could do was stand there and watch. I couldn't get out of the cage I was trapped in. Your son...he smiled at me before he..."

"Smiled?"

"He was crying, but he was also smiling. He...he didn't blame me. He..."

"That's utter bollocks! You're just trying to get the guilt off your shoulders!" George bellowed. "Mark my words, if you weren't my nephew's best friend, I would make it impossible for you to attend the service!"

"George, that's enough!" Bronwen scolded. "He's hurting too!"

"Likely story. But, I'll get off his back. For now."

"Everyone, if you could please enter?" Colonel K called. "The service is about to begin."

Everyone marched into the church, heads bowed, some eyes filled with tears.

DMEP

"If Danger Mouse could please deliver his eulogy?" the vicar called.

Danger Mouse rose to his feet and made his way to the podium. He glanced at everyone in attendance. He could hear George whisper to his family that he believed the mouse had no right to deliver the eulogy. "You've already heard from his parents what Ernest Penfold was like in his youth, how his life with his family was. I wish to share with you the Ernest Penfold I knew as my best friend. He was the most loyal hamster I ever knew. A true friend from our first meeting. Always enthusiastic to help out, and even though he made mistakes, he made an effort to ensure he wouldn't the next time. He would always say he was a coward, but to me, he was the bravest hamster I'd met. He may have wanted to avoid our missions, but he still agreed to come on them. He had many ideas. He would often get in trouble, but he always came through in the end. Sometimes, he was the one to help me." His eye filled with tears. "No matter the situation, he could always be depended on to make a joke. They may have been corny, but...they were his." He looked to the coffin. "He never held a grudge, always made an effort to learn how to improve his skills on and off the field. I was fortunate to know him. I'm going to never forget him and will always miss him." He sniffed. "Thank you." He returned to his seat.

DMEP

George sighed as he approached Danger Mouse at the wake. "I'm sorry for being so harsh with you earlier."

"No no, I deserved it. I don't mind your anger being released upon me. You're deeply hurting from your loss."

"Your eulogy made it clear that, just as you meant a lot to him, he meant a lot to you as well. You're also hurting."

He shook his head. "I'm fine with accepting your rage. I should've saved him."

"Having us lash out at you for this is not going to help when you're already doing it to yourself." He sighed once more. "I'll tell Arthur and Doreen to stay off your back."

"It's fine."

"It's not fine. Listen. You should get some help. You shouldn't allow the guilt to burden you forever. Didn't you tell us earlier that Ernest didn't hold what happened against you? I didn't want to believe it at first, but that is what he's always been like. He really did never hold grudges against others. If he can forgive you, and if I can try to forgive you for what had happened, then shouldn't you try to forgive yourself?"

Bronwen ran over to the pair. "George, I told you not to attack him anymore!"

"It's alright, Mrs. Penfold, he's not. He's actually trying to get me to make peace with myself," Danger Mouse explained.

"I see. I'm sorry, George."

George nodded. "After the way I behaved earlier, it's no wonder you drew that conclusion when you saw us talking."

DMEP

That night, Danger Mouse sat in Penfold's room. He was hugging the hamster's favourite teddy bear. It helped him feel a little closer to the hamster at that moment. Tears fell silently from his eye. He didn't know how he was going to recover from that loss. Maybe it was time to retire from being a secret agent. There was no way he could even conceive the very thought of hiring another assistant. His grief would impair his decision-making. He'd be nothing but a hinderance to the agency. "What should I do, Penfold...?" he whispered before closing his eye and falling into uneasy slumber.

DMEP

If things had ended that way, then our heroes' adventures would be over. Thankfully, this is not how it happened, but a what-if scenario by a writer of fanfiction. So, you can always depend to tune-in to the new adventures of...Danger Mouse!

DMEP

After-notes: I am so sorry for this! I can't apologise enough for this! To you, to DM, to Penfold...I can never apologise enough for this! I really must make it up to them for putting them through such angst and tragedy; not just with this but my current multi-chapter project. I am not being kind to them! I'm sorry!

Thanks for reading, you don't have to review if you don't want. Although I certainly deserve some backlash for this, I do ask that you please not flame this? Constructive criticism is okay.