In Brightest Day, In Darkest Night

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 11:

In Jimmy's room Goddard activated himself from sleep mode and perked up his ears. His auditory sensors, far more sensitive than the ears of any organic dog, had detected the sound of a dull impact somewhere outside and he swiveled his head back and forth as he tried to locate the source of the sound that had roused him. He filtered the sounds around the vicinity of the Neutron's house – the hum of the electrical wiring, a cheeky mouse moving stealthily through the grass near Jimmy's clubhouse, a caterpillar munching noisily on one of Judy Neutron's prized flowers, and hundreds of other background noises. As he did so he detected, quite clearly, the sound of a weak human voice calling out "Jimmy." Goddard recognized the voice as that of the boy Jimmy had met with several nights before and identified the speaker as one of Jimmy's friends, and determined that the friend was in the back yard and in trouble. With a decisive bark he dashed out of Jimmy's room and began searching the house for his master. He found Jimmy in the living room watching the latest newsbreak about Dyno Lad and barked for attention.

"Not now, boy," Jimmy said, trying to catch what the newscaster was saying.

"…but two incidents this morning at the intersection of Gate Way and Ram Drive, where a semi had overturned," the news reporter was saying. "After righting the vehicle with his incredible strength and clearing the roadway, the boy wonder then narrowly averted a second disaster by diverting another truck and preventing it from striking a second vehicle that had entered the intersection against the light. No one was injured, and once again Retroville owes a debt of gratitude to its resident champion, Dyno Lad. And now, back to The Morning Show With Brandi and Alexander."

"Gas planets!" muttered Jimmy, sinking back in the couch. "Still no news. Could I have been wrong?" Goddard barked, attracting Jimmy's attention. "What is it, Goddard?" Goddard gave Jimmy another bark, followed by an expectant sideways look "Is there a problem?" Goddard barked once again and then ran for the back door, followed closely by Jimmy.

Once outside Jimmy immediately spotted the unmoving form of Dyno Lad sprawled on the grass near his clubhouse and realized that his worst fears had come to pass. "Come on, Goddard!" he called, racing to the limp figure. "We have to get him into the lab!" But as he half-carried and half-dragged Ernest into his lab Jimmy wondered if that would do any good. Despite his earlier research he still had no clear idea as to what had actually happened to Ernest, nor how to reverse the effects. A more chilling idea was that the effects might not be reversible and that it might already be too late. Pushing the grim thought aside Jimmy removed Ernest's Dyno Lad costume and laid him on a table while considering what to do next. At length he decided that the only thing to do was to try to obtain more information about Ernest's physical condition.

After only a few moments of examination Jimmy's concern changed to outright alarm. Ernest, he discovered, was literally burning up. His pulse was somewhere over 200 beats per minute, his blood pressure too extreme to measure accurately, and his body temperature 110° F and climbing. His readings might have been normal enough for the average hummingbird, but for a human they would be fatal in a matter of minutes. Jimmy thought furiously as he paced back and forth. "There's no point in putting him into stasis," he said. "That would keep things from getting worse but not fix the problem or tell me anything about what's happening. Whatever is happening I have to find a way to stop it. But how?" He came to a decision. "I need to locate the source of the ultradrenaline production and find some way to shut it down. It has to be somewhere in the brain so maybe a magnetic resonance imaging scan will localize it. Goddard! Activate medical analysis subsystems! Configure for MRI!"

Obediently Goddard opened his utility compartment, extended a semicircular coil, and positioned it near Ernest's head as Jimmy activated a number of medical screens on the main video monitor. "Okay, Goddard, begin scan! Maximum resolution!" Immediately Goddard began to slowly pass the semicircular apparatus over Ernest as Jimmy watched the screen labeled "MRI" intently. On the screen false color images began to appear as Vox interpreted measurements of subatomic reactions to the electromagnetic pulses and rendered 3-dimensional images of Ernest's internal structures. After a few seconds Jimmy shook his head in frustration and despair.

"It's no good! It looks like everything in his brain has become hyperactive. There's no single neural center to concentrate on. If I try to shut everything down he'll die, and if I don't he'll die anyway." His head fell forward in defeat. "I've failed, Goddard."

Goddard, also watching the video monitor, barked. When Jimmy didn't respond he barked again, more insistently. Reluctantly Jimmy looked up at the video monitor again, and had to take a second look. Ernest's pulse, which had read 204 beats per minute, now read 193 beats per minute. His blood pressure had similarly decreased and was not at 182/130, and his temperature had dropped to a feverish but lower 106° F. As Jimmy continued to watch the readings dropped slightly more, causing him to react in baffled delight.

"I don't get it, Goddard," he confessed. "Maybe Ernest's body is recovering on its own. There's no other explanation. All we did was run an MRI and –" Suddenly a thought came to him. "Magnetic resonance imaging," he said to himself. The radiation that had given Ernest his fantastic abilities had been channeled into him by the hypermagnetic fields of Jimmy's telemonitor. When the radiation had struck him the machine's safety features has shut down the fields, but before that happened the fields might have polarized the magnetic orientations of the atoms in Ernest's body, trapping the radiation in side him. The MRI pulse, like a sharp rap to the stuck lid on a jar, might have loosened some of the atoms so that they could re-orient and permit some of the radiation to escape. There was only one way to find out.

"Goddard! Re-run MRI scan!" Jimmy ordered. Again Goddard passed the apparatus over Ernest and as the Jimmy watched the medical readings again decreased, apparently confirming his hypothesis. For the next several minutes Jimmy ran MRI scans on Ernest until at last Ernest's medical readings were close to normal for a 12-year-old. Despite the apparent success, however, Jimmy continued to monitor Ernest's readings for some time until he was satisfied that the danger was over. As he dropped into a nearby chair, emotionally drained, he heard someone calling his name.

"Jimmy?"

Jimmy looked over at Ernest. His eyes were open, and while he looked very tired he didn't seem to be in any discomfort. "Ernest? Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"Tired." He closed his eyes for a few seconds and Jimmy thought he had fallen asleep. Then his eyes opened and he gave Jimmy a weak smile. "I guess… should have believed you and…tried to find you earlier. Meant to but…the accident…"

"I know," Jimmy answered quietly. "You were willing to risk yourself to help someone else. That's what being a hero is, I guess." He hesitated, and then went on. "I'm afraid that Dyno Lad's career is over, though. I had to bleed off all the radiation that gave you your powers."

Ernest gave a wry smile. "S'okay. Always more around…Cindy…right…" Ernest's eyes closed again.

"Right?" Jimmy looked at Ernest in curiosity. "Right about what?"

"About…heroes…" Ernest's voice trailed off and his slow, even breathing told Jimmy that he had in fact fallen asleep. Deciding that letting him sleep was the best medicine for him Jimmy covered Ernest with a blanket and settled in a chair, intending to catch up on some experiments he had been forced to neglect for the past few days. Without realizing it he fell asleep as well.

When he woke some time later he looked at the wall clock showing Retroville time and was surprised to see that it was nearly 8:00 PM. He woke Ernest, who was still asleep, and offered to accompany him back to his house in case Ernest required substantiation for whatever he had to tell his parents about being gone all day. Ernest accepted the offer and together they walked the short distance to Ernest's house, with Ernest still yawning mightily as they went. When they arrived Ernest's parents were home and they welcomed Jimmy warmly. The also readily accepted the story that the two boys had been out all day doing "usual kid stuff".

"Yeah," Ernest yawned in conclusion. "It was quite a day. In fact, I don't mean to be rude, but I think I'm going to turn in and sleep for a week."

"By all means," fretted Mrs. Parker. "I'm glad you're having fun outside with your friends, but you mustn't overdo it. You know how frail you are."

"Now, now," said Ernest's father. "He's not a child anymore. Exercise is good for him. How do you expect him to be ready to chase any girls in a couple years?"

Mrs. Parker was firm. "Exercise is fine. But in moderation."

"Well, I won't argue the point tonight," said Ernest, heading for the stairs. "Good night all. And thanks, Jimmy." He paused and turned around. "Thanks for everything."

"Any time," Jimmy replied as Ernest disappeared up the stairs.

Mrs. Parker looked curiously at Jimmy as Mr. Parker moved to turn on the television. "Thanks for what, Jimmy?"

"Oh," Jimmy fumbled, "probably helping him to get to know some of the other kids. It's not easy being the new kid in town."

"Thunderation!" Mr. Parker called, startling both Jimmy and Mrs. Parker.

"What is it now?" Mrs. Parker asked, moving over to see what was going on.

Mr. Parker shook his head in disgust. "It's 8:00 and I wanted to watch the Classic Action Movie, but those reporters are still blathering on about that professor fellow downtown."

"That's no reason for bad language," his wife chided. "We have a guest. And those movies are always so violent."

Although he wasn't sure why Jimmy had a very bad feeling about what Mr. Parker was talking about, and he edged over to the television to see what had been so disturbing. The newscaster he had seen that morning was on the air, and her voice was charged with tension.

"…still not known how he managed to escape, but police appear unable now to stop him. In addition to a special harness – visible in this video image taken a short time ago – which appears to give him incredible strength, Professor Calamitous appears to also have some sort of weapon capable of short-circuiting electrical systems. It appears that this weapon was what permitted him to disable the protection systems at the Retroville Federal Reserve…"

Professor Calamitous? thought Jimmy. Here? He suddenly became aware of Ernest's parents looking at him with some concern.

"Now, you see?" Mrs. Parker reproached her husband. "This sort of news is quite upsetting to sensitive young boys. Poor Jimmy looks ready to faint."

"No, really," Jimmy protested. "I'm okay…really." He nearly missed the newscaster's next words.

"…seeking vengeance against the city because of his defeat and capture here several days ago. No one has yet been hurt, but with officials helpless to stop him it may only be a matter of time before this becomes a tragedy of unprecedented magnitude. And now, as Professor Calamitous continues to rage unchecked through Retroville, the question on everyone's mind at this hour is, 'Where is Dyno Lad?'"

End of Part 11.