Hello again! Exciting things are happening! Here's Episode 12! Read and review. I hope you all like it. I love and appreciate all of you and your reviews.
Danger S1E12: Overload
September 21, 2021
"We've got them!" Brainstorm whisper-yells into the comms.
"Shh!" Shoutout hisses at him. "They'll hear you."
"I'm whispering." He protests back at her.
"Where?" Danger's voice responds over the comms.
"The sewer under Main Street, just south of 3rd." Shoutout answers quietly.
"Good. Keep them there. We'll be there to back you up shortly." Danger responds.
"Will do." Shoutout says.
"Cool." Brainstorm says. "Ready to catch some lizards?" he asks his best friend beside him.
"Always." She smiles back, "You and Blue?"
His smile turns mischievous, and he responds by standing from their crouched hiding spot and shouting, "Let's go!"
She covers her ears as she jumps up beside him. "You do know this place echoes like crazy, right?"
Together they charge into battle with the startled Lizard twins. "Oh no!" The boy lizard says.
"Danger Force." His sister yelps. They take up their 'reptilian' fighting poses as the two teens and the monkey come upon them.
"Dang right Danger Force!" Shoutout says.
The four trade blows, the villainous twins falling quickly into defensive. "We've got to get out of here!" Lizard Girl shouts to her brother.
"You're not going anywhere except jail!" Brainstorm asserts. He cartwheel-kicks Lizard Boy in the face. "Tell us what you did with all the Zoo's snakes and lizards and turtles and stuff."
"Reptiles." Mika supplies for him, a touch breathless.
"I'll do you one better." Lizard Girl says, retreating several steps from the young heroes, tugging her brother along with her. "I'll call them here!" and she does, the call is low and reverberates through the walls around them.
"Great, that'll make it easy to take them all back." Brainstorm quips unaffected. Failing, as he speaks, to see his teammate falling to her knees behind him, clutching her head and looking like she might throw up. "Let's take these two out, Shoutout!" he turns at her lack of response. "Shoutout!?" he asks in alarm.
Incoherent sounds escape her for a short moment as she looks at him, eyes fluttering and glazing. He drops to her side, the lizard twins forgotten entirely as he reaches for her. Blue leaps from Brainstorm's shoulder to Shoutout's with a shriek.
"Shoutout?!" Brainstorm repeats more concerned as she doubles over again with a cut-off shriek of her own. He catches her by the shoulders, she's almost laying in his lap. "What's wrong?!"
She's trembling, fingers digging into her scalp, palms pressed tightly over her ears. Despite her panting and dazedness, she manages to respond smally, "What… What is that?"
"What is what?" He returns. She doesn't expound, her breaths coming quicker still.
"What's wrong with her?" Lizard Boy asks, drawing Brainstorm's attention back in surprise for a moment.
"Does it matter?" Lizard Girl says, "Let's get out of here while she's down."
Brainstorm doesn't chase them as they run off into the dark sewer tunnel; after a moment, Blue does. "Blue!" Brainstorm calls after his pet, but the monkey doesn't return the call. Shoutout in his lap jerks violently, heaving but not releasing anything from her mouth. "Mika?" he asks more quietly than his former concerned calls, but with more terror. She shakes her head. Her face covered in tears and sweat, utterly agonized.
Bose clutches her to him, hoping to help keep her steady. "What's wrong?" he asks again. She shakes her head again and sobs hugely once. It fizzles out in whimpers to silence. Not knowing what else to do, Bose calls out, "Help!" She pulls against his hold forcefully with choked sobs.
Answering voices echo through the tunnel, from the opposite way as the Lizard twins had run. "Brainstorm?" he distinguishes the three voices of his friends and teammates.
"Here!" he calls back desperately. All the while Mika continues to writhe about.
Three pairs of footsteps run towards the suffering pair. The moment Brainstorm and Shoutout come into view of the three their questions change from, "What's going on?" to "Oh my god! What's wrong?" midsentence.
"Mika!" Miles screams as he drops to her side and lays worried hands on her back and shoulder. She kicks out in protest, rolling over in Bose's arms. "What did they do to her?" Miles demands of Bose.
"I don't know." He murmurs, terrified tears dripping from his face. "We were fighting, then she just collapsed."
Henry and Chapa too kneel beside the pair, Henry crouching low to check on her. "Mika?" he asks gently. She shakes her head. Her breathing has become shallow now, he can barely hear it despite the way he feels her body heave with each gulp of air. Henry looks to Bose expectantly, requiring some kind of answer.
Bose just shakes his head, "I don't know what's wrong."
"Was she bitten by a venomous snake or something? Did the lizard twins do something to her?" Chapa asks. "Where are they anyway?"
"They ran away." Bose says.
"Where?" Chapa demands.
"We can worry about them later." Henry dismisses but notices as Mika whimpers that she is pointing down the tunnel corridor.
Chapa too notices. "They can't be far."
"Blue followed them." Bose adds.
"Should we go after them?" Chapa asks Henry.
"I'm not leaving my sister." Miles maintains vehemently.
Henry stares down the tunnel, then at Mika. "We need to get her taken care of." He states firmly, "But if you and Brainstorm want to, you can track the Lizard twins." He directs at Chapa.
"But Mika." Bose protests.
"We'll get her to the Man's Nest; we'll find out what's wrong. And I'll come help you two again as quick as I can." Henry assures, ever-so gently pulling Mika into his own arms, away from Bose's. "Go stop the bad guys and find your monkey."
Bose still looks unsure. "C'mon, Dude." Chapa encourages, despite her own concerned glances at Mika that she tries to repress.
Bose acquiesces after another short moment and follows Chapa down the tunnel, saying, "Make sure she's okay."
"We will." Henry promises. "Miles…" he doesn't even have to complete the instruction before Miles is teleporting the three of them to the Man's Nest. As soon as the room has shaped around them Mika rolls over violently and vomits with a short, broken sob. She curls in a ball on her side, laying in her own bile without care. Tears and sweat pour from her eyes and skin.
"I'm sorry!" Miles cries at her backing away with terror and guilt etching his own cheeks with tears.
"Oh my!" Schwoz cries, dashing over from the computer. Henry already has an arm back over Mika, leaning in close despite the sour scent and searching frantically for the answer to the question Schwoz and everyone else has had. "What is wrong with her?"
"Mika." Henry says gently. She sobs again, without a sound but the air rushing into her lungs. "You gotta tell us what's going on." He insists, "I'm not the smart one, you've gotta give me a clue."
All three men study her as she shakes her head, trying to speak and only managing an, "I…" and a spasm of gagging amidst her quiet hyperventilation.
"You're making yourself sick, sis." Miles frets, coming back towards her. "You've gotta breathe."
"Breathe Mika." Henry also encourages. "We'll do whatever we need to to help you, but you have to breathe and tell us how. What's wrong, Mika?"
Mika shrinks from them both but makes a real effort to control her breathing, leading to her coughing, followed by a new wave of tears and quite sobs. Miles looks hopelessly lost at Henry, who returns it with an equal amount of cluelessness. Mika flinches sharply once again as Henry's phone dings with an incoming text. Inhaling deeply once she spits out a small desperate plea of "Make it stop."
"Make what stop?" Miles and Henry ask. She does not speak again, instead pressing her head more firmly between her arms. Her hands now clasped in the back and her elbows locked over her ears.
"Oh." Schwoz seems to put something together and runs off to dig through his chest of tools and gadgets. While he does, Mika goes on crying and writhing. Miles holds one of her hands. "Here!" Schwoz announces victoriously. Acquiring a soft whisper tone to say, "Sorry Mika" while returning to her side holding a pair of headphones. "Here, Mika take these." She whimpers and shakes her head, not even looking at what he's got. "They're noise cancelling headphones." He continues to whisper.
Then Mika does stop, staring hopefully, desperately at Schwoz as he places the headphones over her ears, which she allows him to do. Henry and Miles watch confused. Regardless of them Mika clutches the muffs to her ears with eager relief; her breathing evening out. "Noise cancelling headphones?" Henry questions.
"I can hear everything." Mika speaks, her tone quieter than normal but understandable. "I can still hear so much. Why can I hear everything? Why aren't these blocking it all out?" Tears still leak down her face.
"eh.." Schwoz utters, "I think you may have just come into your second power."
(Theme Song: Henry's Voice dubbed over the image of Captain Man's bronze statue. "It all just kinda happened. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He shouldn't have died. But now here I am, doing his job." Cut scene to Man's Nest in chaos as the members of Danger Force and Schwoz run around reacting to an emergency alert blaring through the base. "I'm not sure I'm ready for this." Henry states and the music of the theme song begins to play...)
Now sitting on the round couch, Mika holds the noise cancelling, or at least noise muffling, headphones to her ears. They make little difference in her ability to hear what's going on around her. Henry and Miles are blowing bubbles a few feet away, riding themselves of their soiled uniforms. "That was gross." Henry says.
"Sorry." Mika says.
"It's okay." He assures, matching her softened tone of voice and taking a seat next to her, giving her her own gumball to change. "As long as you're okay."
"I can still hear so much." She whimpers. "And it's making my head really hurt."
Miles leans in, side-hugging her, from her other side. "But hey! You got your second power! You've got Super-hearing!" he tries for optimism.
She laughs humorlessly and says, "I guess so. I got my new power… and it totally sucks."
"I'm sure it will not always be this intense. It's just because it's new." Schwoz tells her.
"God, I hope so." Mika sniffs.
"I want to run some tests to figure out how enhanced your hearing is;" Schwoz goes on, "as soon as you're ready. I want to know if you're hearing things with amplitudes too low for regular human hearing, or it your hearing frequencies greater or less than that of twenty hertz to twenty kilo-hertz."
Mika nods, "Maybe later," she says, "Not right now."
"When you're ready." Schwoz repeats kindly.
"If you're alright, I'm going to go help Bose and Chapa." Henry asks for Mika's assurance. "Miles will stay here with you." Miles nods eagerly, squeezing his arm around her shoulders a bit tighter.
Mika nods. "Find the Lizard Twins."
So, Henry gets off the couch, blows another bubble and takes the tube out into the city before calling the other two to find out where they are.
(Commercial Break)
September 22, 2021
The next day, the crew of six meet in the Man's Nest. It's much quieter than normal. "Hey, are you feeling better today?" Henry asks Mika as she and Miles step out of the tube.
"Mika!" Bose whispers wrapping her in a hug. Which she returns with a smile. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She speaks at an almost normal level. "It's not as bad as yesterday; just a minor headache."
"But we had to keep the radio off in the car when Mom dropped us off at school." Miles tweaks.
"It is still a lot." Mika concedes, "And too much becomes too much very quickly. But it's not as overwhelming as yesterday was. I can just hear a lot more than I used to be able to. It's kind of really weird."
"I believe it." Schwoz chortles. "Are you okay enough to figure out how your hearing has changed?" he asks eagerly.
"Yeah, I guess we can run some tests." She says. Schwoz smiles and hops about getting his stuff ready. "How did the rest of the mission go yesterday?" Mika asks her friends.
"Did you guys catch the Lizard Twins?" Miles follows up.
"No." Chapa grumbles. "We lost them, again."
"But we got the reptiles back to the zoo." Bose adds more optimistically. "So at least they can't do whatever it is that they wanted to do with them."
"That's good." Mika smiles.
"The zoo people seemed happy about it." Chapa shrugs dully.
"Naturally." Mika remarks.
"Yeah, but Blue wasn't happy to be back at the zoo." Bose says, petting his monkey. "I think he was afraid he'd have to go back in the monkey cage; he was hugging me so tight."
"Well, he should never have to worry about that. He should know you'd never give him up." Mika says, reaching over to pet the monkey too.
"Okay, Mika." Schwoz says, coming over to her with the noise cancelling headphones. "I'm going to have you wear these so that you're getting the least amount of noise interference from other sources while I'm testing your ability."
She nods, takes them from him and places then over her ears. She sighs, "These work pretty well. Especially now that I'm not as overloaded as yesterday."
"But you can still hear us, right?" Bose asks.
"Yeah. These make it almost like I'm hearing normally. I can hear you guys talking and I can still hear the machinery and whatnot in the walls, but most of the general ambient noise is gone." Mika says.
Schwoz nods and explains, "The headphones really only muffle sound. They do it very well to block out almost all audible sound for a normal person, but with your elevated hearing I think you can still discern much of the higher amplitude noises around you. What I want to test is how low amplitude of sound you can hear, that's why we have to block out as much of that ambiance as we can. Later I also want to see your frequency range."
Mika nods agreeably to him and says, "Okay. I'm ready as I can be. Let's get started."
Schwoz goes to the computer, open with a program tracking and controlling the sound to fill the headphones. "I'm going to start you off at a tone equivalent to average human speech and work down from there. Tell me when you can't hear it anymore." He instructs Mika. "Everyone else be quiet. Don't make any noise if you can help it, or you might mess with the accuracy of the test." They all do as instructed, watching with interest as Schwoz conducts the experiment.
As it begins, Mika's face screws up uncomfortably. "That's louder than I remember normal speech being." She comments. Schwoz chuckles and begins quieting the sound. Mika grows more comfortable as he does so; her face relaxing as she listens to the diminishing tone. Schwoz works it down more and more slowly as they go, wanting to identify the exact amplitude at which she can no longer hear the sound. After a couple minutes of it, she finally begins to seem to have to listen intently. Her head tilts, closes her eyes and holds the headphones, hoping to block out the remaining ambience she can still hear.
Schwoz stops the sound's descent. "Mika?" he asks.
She shakes her head. "I can still hear it. Keep going." He does. Slowly they descend until finally she says. "It's gone." Schwoz raise an eyebrow as she opens her eyes again to look at him. "I can't hear it anymore."
"I would hope not. It's not making any more sound; my program can't produce anything quieter." Schwoz says.
Mika looks surprised. "It was that little?" she asks. Schwoz nods. "I knew it was quiet. It was getting hard to hear, but I could still hear it when I was listening for it."
"It was more than 'quiet'." Schwoz says.
"So, she can hear anything, no matter how quiet it is?" Miles asks.
Schwoz nods, "At least when she's trying and has no distractions. I'm sure if something louder had come up she would've lost the quiet sound."
"It did get harder when it hit the same volume as other things, like your guys' heartbeats." Mika says.
"You can hear our heartbeats?" Chapa asks, "Even while wearing those headphones?"
"Yeah. If I listen for them." Mika answers. "I can still hear a lot of things with these on if I try."
"Your hearing is really powerful." Bose says awed. Mika might've preened a little at that.
Schwoz hums amusedly. "Indeed, but, in theory any human should be able to hear things at any volume in the right conditions. The real test of skill comes with her range of frequency."
"What?" Bose asks.
"How high and low of sounds she can hear." Schwoz says.
"You mean she might be able to hear a dog whistle?" Henry asks.
"Yes. And more. We'll see." Schwoz says.
"Great. Is this going to make my headache worse?" Mika asks.
Schwoz pauses with a guilty smile. "mmm…Maybe."
She groans quiet complaints, "…Fine. Let's get it over with."
"You don't have to." Henry offers to her.
She squirms and admits, "I know. But I kinda do want to know how high I can hear."
"Nerd." Miles mocks her.
"And unashamed of it." She snaps back smartly.
"Everybody be quiet, so I can start this test." Schwoz orders. "I'm going to start you with infrasound, it should be less irritating than higher frequencies and there is less of it to get through."
Mika nods and everyone else shuts up to watch her interested despite how little they really understand of sonics. "Woah." Is all she comments as the sound descends past normal human hearing. She seems unaffected by the sound she's hearing for a minute or so. After that she's swaying about, throwing her arms out for balance as the world seems to spin around her.
Henry grabs her concerned as she pitches far to one side "Mika?" he asks and looks to Schwoz inquisitively. "Is she alright?"
He nods, "She should be okay. This shouldn't hurt her; it may be making her dizzy."
Mika nods, lips pressed sourly. "Don't you puke on me again." Henry tells her, much to the amusement of the rest of the team. She shakes her head and grips his arm as she continues to sway.
Lower and lower the sound descends with Mika giving no indication that she cannot hear it. Even the moment when she presses her palms to her head and complains, "That kinda hurts," she doesn't say the sound is fading. Soon after that she says, "I think I'm losing it." Schwoz stops it. She looks to him curiously. "I could still hear it a bit."
He nods, "I know, but I don't think there is a point in going any further, we've already surpassed the capabilities of all other living things and most machines. I think it is safe to say your limit is nearly limitless. From what you've done in these two tests, I think that as long as you focus on the sound you want to be hearing, you'll be able to hear it; whether it's as low as tectonic rumblings or as high as bats echolocating."
Mika, in surprise, notes "That's a lot."
"Yes." Schwoz says. "But Dr. Pennant did tell you all that your powers are extreme and unique. We should not be so surprised."
"We are awesome." Miles says.
"You're going to test Mika's high frequency ability too, right?" Henry asks.
"If she's up for it. It could be useful." Schwoz says in a nerdy-excitement.
"Okay." Mika says with a similar air. "You really think I could hear echolocation frequencies?"
"We'll have to see. You did say you were beginning to reach a limit on the low end, perhaps you have one on the high end too." Schwoz says. She stares at him imploring, waiting for his real opinion. "Yes." He confesses. "I think you will be able to hear that high."
She shifts with a nervous smile, "Does that mean I could learn to echolocate?"
"That would be so cool." Schwoz says swiftly, eyes alight. Mika nods along, smiling excitably despite her headache. "But you might have to be able to produce those sounds yourself to do that."
"Maybe I can." she says.
"Okay, nerds." Chapa mocks. "You gonna run this test or not?"
They both sulk at her but do conduct the test. Mika's face is the subject of interest for her friends to watch. Her expression grows more excited and yet more pained as the tone goes up and up. It's quite a few minutes before she tells Schwoz to stop because she's losing the sound again. He does so with that excited air about him, a huge smile directed at her. "You can definitely hear echolocation." He declares, "You're well over 200 kilohertz."
"Cool." she says, more subdued than him, "It was annoying though, a little painful."
Schwoz frowns, "Sorry. I hope it's not too much. We're done now."
"Good, my head's had enough." She pulls the headphones off then scrunches her nose up in irritation. "Maybe I'll keep these on for a while, though," she says, going to replace the headphones over her ears.
Henry stops her with a startled, "Woah, wait!" and a stalling hand on hers. She stares at him confused. His eyes don't meet hers as they peer in concern at the side of her head. The thumb of his other hand brushes by her ear. "Your ear is bleeding." He shows her the red droplet on his thumb.
The others press in worried; Mika just stares at the blood a bit consternated herself. She drops the headphones to probe gently at both her ears with her own hands, coming back with more blood on each. She ignores the worried questions of her friends around her.
Schwoz presses them all to the side, bringing gauze to soak up the blood and a magnifier to look inside her ear. "It's not too bad." He says making Mika flinch because despite his whisper tone, he is still right next to her oversensitive ear. "Sorry." He says, pulling away from her. "I probably should have taken it slower; not run all the tests one after another."
"The single frequency was still better than everything at once." She tries to comfort him. "I'm okay."
He doesn't smile, still feeling guilty, "You should keep these on, I think." he hands her the headphones again. She puts them on, a wisp of relief breezing across her face. "As long as they help, it would be a good idea to keep them. I'm also going to send everything we've learned today to Dr. Pennant. She'll want to know. Perhaps she has experience with similar powers, and she'll be able to help you deal with them."
Mika nods, "Thank you."
"Maybe, but she told us all our powers were unusual." Chapa argues. "If she's never seen anything like Miles, do you think she'll really have seen anything like Mika?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Miles asks.
Not acknowledging his comment, Schwoz answer Chapa with, "Maybe so. But she's the world's expert on superpowers and I've found her ideas to be ingenious. So, I'll consult with her on this too; as I have done with everything else that surpasses my level of understanding."
(Commercial Break)
September 27, 2021
In the SW.A.G. classroom, Henry stoops down beside Mika's desk. She fills in the answers on her math paper while rubbing her hand over her temple; both moves are sluggish and her eyes swim with discomfort. "Are you feeling okay?" he asks her.
"Yeah. Just a little noise." She says.
"Why don't you put the headphones back on?" he suggests.
She shakes her head quickly, and immidietly regrets it. "I'm fine. It's not very loud right now. I shouldn't wear them all the time."
He raises one eyebrow, "But if they help…"
"They attract too much attention." She cuts off. "My parent's keep questioning why I'm wearing them so much. And people will notice if Shoutout goes out in them. It's a danger to become reliant on them; I need to get used to my hearing without them."
"I have never met anyone as dedicated or thoughtful about keeping their secrets as you." Henry says wryly. "But if you're hurting, you should wear them. No one here is going to question why you have them."
She nods, "That's why it's a good place to train myself; I can put them on if really needed."
Henry frowns at her. She stubbornly continues to work on her math. It's only anohter few moments before she's faltering again for her distracting irritation. Henry pulls the headphones from her backpack and places them on the desk beside her. He encourages, "You should put them on. Scwhoz can probably make you something smaller so you can wear them whenever you want without problems. But until then, don't torture yourself." She stops her math and somewhat reluctantly decides to listen to him.
She doesn't have time between grabbing the headphones and the emergency alert blaring to put them over her ears. The alarm rings abruptly, making her eardrums feel as though they're exploding. She cries out with pain and drops them again. All the attention is pulled to her. The rest of the team cursing the alarm along with her. Henry doesn't waste a second in forcing the noise-cancelling headphones over her again bleeding ears as she curls into herself. "Shut it off." He orders the others.
Miles doesn't even bother running, he teleports to the control panel and turns the alarm off. Then he's at his twin's side. Chapa, Bose, and Kris Hart too are gathered around her, silent in their concern for her. Mika is crying into her desk, pressing the headphones tight to her ears.
Many looks and simple gestures are passed around the group. Silently asking each other, "What do we do?"
Bose makes some much more dramatic hand gestures, looking imploringly at Henry. At Henry's confused look, Bose repeats the motions. It takes Henry a minute to figure out the younger boy must be using sign language, but he still has no clue what Bose is trying to communicate. He shrugs and shakes his head at him Bose frowns and points very emphatically at Mika then upward, before reapeting the sign where he waggles his first two fingers back and forth while moving them upwards, as if they are legs climbing stairs. Henry gets it.
He nods and points to the kids' vacated chairs and to the button on Mika's, then upstairs. It's a much more rudementary sign language, but they seem to get it. He shakes Mika enough to get her to look at him a moment so he can warn her before he presses her button and sends her up to, with her permission. As soon as he has, he runs to the back room to take the tube.
"Will Mika be okay?" his mother asks after him.
"I hope so." he replies. "We're going to do everything we can to help her. See you later."
In the Man's Nest, Mika is still sitting in her chair while the others are up, grabbing their gum tins and watching her. Schwoz meets Henry as he comes out of the tube. "It's Dr. Karate." He whispers.
"We'll take care of him." Henry acknowledges in an equally hushed tone. "You help Mika."
"Aye. I'm sorry, I didn't know the alarm would affect her so much." Scwhoz says back.
"How can we know how anything might affect her? Her hearing is powerful; your tests showed that. And she didn't even have the headphones on to help." Henry tells. Schwoz scowls anxiously. After, blowing his own bubble, Henry calls mutedly and gestures to the others, "Come on. Let's go."
Mika stands abruptly and goes foe her locker. "Wait! I want to come." she says.
"Not right now." Her friends all deny almost synchronously.
"Please don't bench me." She begs despondently. "I'm still a superhero."
"Yes, you are. You can come out again when you're not hurting. Once you've got better adjusted to your power." Henry promises.
"Please." She begs.
Henry shakes his head. "Stay here."
With great infuriation of her part, she stays behind while the four of them go down the tube. She sits down with a great huff and crosses her arms. Then slumping to mope with her chin resting on her arms on the table. Schwoz slides in beside her, "It'll be alright Baby Girl. I'll help you get geared up to fight crime again."
"How?" she demands in a whisper shout, "I'm entirely incapacitated without these stupid things." She gestures to the headphones. "I can't do a quiet test at school without them on. But they're too bulky and ridiculous looking to wear all the time."
Schwoz hums thoughtfully, "Well, we can do something about that, I think. I could engineer you something smaller, more discreet, maybe even more powerful to better filter the sounds you can hear. Maybe something like hearing aids, except with the reverse affect."
She grumbles and slouches back down. "I don't want to have to wear hearing aids for the rest of my life. What's the point of getting a new superpower if I only have to suppress it to be able to function?"
"You don't have to wear them all the time." Schwoz says.
"Apparently, I do!" she says, gesturing frustratedly again at the muffs on her head.
"You can learn to use your power, to handle the influx of sound." Schwoz says to her disbelieving scoffs. "Mika, your brain is great at taking in information. You're like a sponge for knowledge. It might be a little bit of a headache to get used to, but I'm sure you can handle all the information you can now take it with your ears. You'll learn to filter the sounds out to listen to only what you want to."
"It's not all a mental game. The ear bleeding isn't from my mind. The queasiness when I'm hearing so much." She protests.
"Your body will adjust itself to the physical differences too, I'm sure." Schwoz comforts. "Just give it time."
She mutters bitterly, "Miles' power didn't take him any time to get used to."
"His' visions began in his dreams; you all thought Time Jerker was messing with him." He rebuts. "Your hearing came on more swiftly. It's not like your hearing was getting a little more every day until you reached this point; it hit you and overwhelmed you all at once."
"Maybe." She confesses, "I think there were times my hearing was more than what it should've been."
"It still overwhelmed you in the sewers." Schwoz argues. "And Miles did have to take some time to get used to his powers too. Just because you can get used to your new powers doesn't mean you have to deal with it all at once or even all the time after you have. So, stop arguing with me and let's make you a pair of reverse hearing aids." He stands up with firm hands on his hips.
"Replacing the headphones with hearing aids was not what I was hoping for." Mika frowns sarcastically at him. "And my parent's will still certainly notice
"You may be 'the Smart One' but I am the real genius here, I know what I'm talking about. So, trust me to be able to help you with that." Schwoz says.
Her frown is replaced with a glare, but though her comment of, "I am too a genius!" is full of indignation it also bears an air of affability.
"Then help me make the best pair of reverse hearing aids possible." Schwoz retorts. They share a challenging smirk and get to work together.
September 28, 2021
The emergency alert goes off again while the team is training on Tuesday after school, now made of blinking lights with only an infrequently recurring beep. The change in alert confuses them for a moment. Their reaction time is slow to it. None comment or complain though, for Mika is as able to react to it as the rest of them and suits up with her teammates as Henry answers the phone. He curses as he finishes the call. "It's the lizard twins, they've been spotted downtown."
"Then let's get them." Miles says.
"And not let them slip through our fingers again." Chapa adds.
"Let's go." Henry says, blowing his bubble. Taking a moment to ask, "Are you sure you're up for this Mika?"
"Yes." She says stubbornly. "I'm going with you."
"Have you and Schwoz finished your new ear things yet?" Bose asks.
"No, not quite. I'll just keep the muffs on for this one. I'm not going to stay here." She snips more stubbornly the last sentence with arms folded across her chest when Henry opens his mouth with what she assumes is a dispute against her.
He raises his hands placatingly. "Okay. It's your choice. You can come as long as you're sure about it." he says seriously. "Call came from the Pet Me store on 5th street." Henry instructs Miles. Who then takes his sister's hand, the rest grabbing hold as well, and teleports them all to the location.
"Woah." Shoutout complains as they materialize, pressing her hands over her headphones. "It's way louder out here than I thought it'd be."
"This is the first time you've been back out in the city since you got your super-hearing." AWOL says smartly.
His sister frowns at him. "How observant. I do know why."
"Is it going to be too much?" Danger asks.
"No. I'm fine." Shoutout insists. "Let's find the Lizard Twins."
Pet Me has been cleared out of all humans, only the Lizard twins remain inside. Predictably, they are bagging all the reptiles. "This isn't going to be anywhere near enough." The girl lizard says to her brother. "Our plans won't succeed with only a handful of snakes."
"We won't be able to run another successful op at the zoo, though." The boy lizard replies. "We'll just have to hit every pet store we can."
"Only if you plan to adopt those animals properly." Brainstorm quips.
"And if your so-called plans with them aren't illegal." Shoutout adds.
The twins freeze, "Aw no!" Lizard Boy exclaims. Both spinning on the spot to look in alarm at the heroes.
"You didn't think we weren't going to show up, did you?" AWOL asks.
"Hurry, Sass, let's get out of here." Lizard Girl says, gathering their bags on snakes in her arms and making a break for the back door.
Lizard Boy doesn't follow, still standing, staring at the team. "What are you wearing?" he asks Shoutout, laughing.
She flushes annoyed and responds by aiming a shriek at him. Unfortunately, it hurts her more than it does him. He is tossed backwards, crashing into the backdoor, and is promptly able to escape through it with his sister. Shoutout recoils from her scream. The pain and her teammates resulting check up on her allow the two villains to get a head start. "I'm fine. I'm fine." She insists through the ringing in her head. "We've got to keep after them."
The five heroes' search through the back alley leads to the conclusion that the Lizard twins could've only gone down the sewer entrance. They follow the trail into the dank, odorous tunnel. "Which way did they go?" Volt asks.
Danger shrugs, "They said they were going to hit all the pet stores. Anyone know where the next closest one is?"
Volt snorts. "Nope." AWOL echoes her sentiment.
"The Cute and Fluffy Emporium is on Captain Man Street number 4." Brainstorm offers.
"They went that way." Shoutout says, pointing down the tunnel to her right.
"Are you sure?" Danger asks.
"How do you know?" AWOL asks as quickly.
"I can hear their footsteps and anxious chattering to each other." She answers. "I can't tell how far ahead they are, this place echoes way too much, but I'm sure they're that way."
"Cool." Volt says.
"Let's go then." Danger directs.
The five of them run quickly down the tunnel for several hundred feet before coming to a intersection with another perpendicular tunnel. "Now which way?" Brainstorm asks Shoutout. "Can you still hear them?"
"Yes. Uh…" Shoutout says.
"Which way?" Volt asks.
"Shh." Shoutout hisses. "I'm trying to listen." They wait a moment for her to sort out the echoes and direct them. Finally, she says, "I think they went straight."
They run on, pausing at each fork and intersection for Shoutout to tell them which turns to take. Her responses grow surer and quicker as they go on for blocks. Her headache growing worse as well, though she neglects to mention that to her friends. One tunnel to the next they run through the dark. The whole place smells of waste and standing water.
Eventually, Shoutout stops in her tracks, eyes closed and listening hard. It takes those in front of her a moment to realize that she's no longer running. "Shoutout?" they ask.
"They're getting out of the sewer." She says. Pointing the direction, they've been running, "Somewhere up this way. They're climbing out of a storm drain. I won't be able to track them after this."
"Then let's hurry." Danger urges her on. "Tell us when you think we've hit the spot they got out at."
It's not a quick journey. Each storm drain they pass under has Shoutout looking up and questioning, but she says nothing, believing they'd been farther away than this one… and the next one. "Is it that one?" Brainstorm asks as they pass under another. All their paces have slowed in questioning uncertainty. They now stop to hear her response.
"Um… maybe." Shoutout says. "We're close. Is there another one not too far ahead?"
AWOL teleports away to see, his flashes of yellow light blinding in the dark tunnel. He comes back after a few moments. "There's another about a hundred yards away." He reports.
"That might be it." Shoutout says.
"Are you sure?" Volt asks.
"No." Shoutout confesses. "But I think it is. Maybe."
"We'll give it a try." Danger determines and leads them to said manhole. They ascend the ladder and come out cautiously into the street above them. Fortunately, there are no cars driving down it as they hop out.
There are, however, several people sitting at an outdoor café just off the side of the road. They jump up excitedly and call out to the heroes. Shoutout cringes away from the noise, but it's all around her. Danger stays beside her, questioning her concernedly, while the other three approach the diners. "Have you seen the Lizard twins?", "Did they come this way?"
"They came out of that manhole just a few minutes ago." One girl says.
"They ran off down the road." A man adds.
"I just called it into the hotline." Another girl says.
Brainstorm looks off the direction the man is pointing. "There!" he calls. "There's a Total Beast shop on the end of the block."
"Can we get your autographs?" The waiters at the diner ask.
"Danger! Shoutout!" Volt calls, "We've got 'em!" she directs their attention down the road to the pet shop. AWOL has already teleported himself to the storefront.
Danger nods and turns back to ask Shoutout, "Are you sure you can keep going?"
She nods, says "I'm fine", and goes with him to meet their team at Total Beast.
Employees and shoppers are running out of the door. Inside, Volt has managed to fry a whole tank of gold fish and corner the Lizard Girl against a rack of fish foods. They grapple knocking over shelves of pebbles and accessories. Shoutout dashes over to help. Brainstorm levitates the bowls of betas from the shelves the two ladies have already knocked over.
After a minute, AWOL comes running out of the back room chased by an angry cockatiel and macaw pecking at him. Soon after, the Lizard Boy follows him out the door with an overstuffed cage under his arms. "Siss, I got the lizards! Grab the turtles and let's blow this place."
"I'm a bit busy." Lizard Girl says. "I could use a little help."
Lizard boy peeks around the shelves dividing him from her to see the scrabble she's in. Just as quick he ducks back out and runs to the dog aisle, telling her, "I got you!"
Danger meets him there, seeing the criminal grab a dog whistle from the shelf. His eyes flick back and forth from the little instrument to Lizard Boy's face and an understanding passes between them. Danger lunges at him, knocking the reptilian man to the ground and grabbing for the whistle. His attempt is unsuccessful; Lizard Boy blows it as hard as he can before Danger can wrench it from his hand. Immediately, Shoutout cries out from the other aisle. Danger instinctively looks that way and takes a foot to the face for his distraction.
Lizard boy gets to his feet just faster than Danger. "Let's go, Siss!"
She comes running down the aisle to meet him. "Sass! Something happened to Shoutout!" she declares, "She collapsed, just like the other day."
"Yeah. You're welcome!" he says, grabbing her arm and pulling her along, Danger on their tails.
"What do you mean? Did you do something?" Lizard Girl asks as they weave through the aisles, turning corners as the heroes appear at the ends of them.
"Yeah. I blew a dog whistle." He tells her proudly.
"What?" she asks.
"It's too high for humans to hear, but Shoutout must have some enhanced hearing thing, now. That's why she keeps collapsing, and why she's got those giant muffs." Lizard Boy explains. "Ow!" he injects as a shock from Volt hits him in the tail. "I used the whistle to weaken her."
AWOL appears in front of their path. "Yeah? Well, no one gets away with hurting my sister." He punches Lizard boy in the face.
"Aw!" the Lizard Boy whines, holding his now bleeding nose. Lizard Girl retaliates for him, slashing her hand down at AWOL. He disappears before she connects. She glances around for him, not seeing him, then runs out of the store, leaving the cage of reptiles behind in favor of pulling her brother with her.
All five heroes are out shortly after them, Danger and Brainstorm supporting Shoutout, who shakes them off. "I told you. That dog whistle isn't anywhere near as high as I can hear, it just took me by surprise. I'm fine. Why won't you believe me?"
"You screamed." Brainstorm says.
"And I've been saying the same thing for months, but it was never true." Danger adds. "You were already having some trouble with the noise today before they hit you with a super-high frequency whistle."
She bites her bottom lip and insists, "We can't let them get away."
"I think we have. They're gone again." Volt says, pacing down the street looking.
"Back into the sewers?" AWOL asks unhappily. There is another manhole only a few feet away.
"Probably." Danger sighs.
"Give me a second and I'll try to hear them." Shoutout says, drawing near to the manhole as Danger pulls the cover from it. She takes a moment to breathe before focusing back on her sensitive ears. She drops her head close to the hole and closes her eyes.
There is a lot of sound but she can't make out the criminal twins direction. Instead she can hear her friends rapid heartbeats and breathing beside her, excited fans watching them from down the road, and car driving around the entirety of the block. "Well?" Volt asks.
Shoutout shakes her head. "I can't hear them."
"You're just overwhelmed. Maybe you should take a break." AWOL suggests. "I'll take you back to the Man's Nest."
"No." she refutes stubbornly with a glare at her brother. "Just be quiet." She listens more intently still. "I can't hear any footsteps down there."
They heroes share a look. "Are they just hiding down there? Maybe they went down and didn't run." Brainstorm suggests.
"They do know you have super-hearing." Danger agrees.
"We should check it out." Volt says, pushing Shoutout aside and dropping down the drain. AWOL follows by teleportation.
"Wait." Shoutout says. She can still hear their presences, though they've gone down there, but she still can't hear anything of the Lizard Twins. "They aren't down there."
Danger looks between the hole and her. "Then where…?" She listens, but still can't hear more than before. With great resignation she pulls her muffs off her head and a whole slew of sound is suddenly forcing it's way into her ears. "Mika!" Danger admonishes quietly. He makes to put her headphones back on her but she forestalls him by grabbing his hand.
"Don't." She hisses pained. "Just… can you make them shut up?" she asks about the onlookers.
He looks at her dubiously. She doesn't back down. He turns and makes aggressive, clear 'cut it out' and shushing gestures at the people. Some of them confusedly obey. "I'll do it." Brainstorm says, running to them with ordering voice and much more elegant signs.
Shoutout listens again, doing her best to filter out the noise she already knows, searching for a sound that'll indicate where the Lizard Twins have gone. Then she hears it, the slightest scrape of scales over metal and stone. She turns toward the sound and lets out sonic scream.
She falls flat on her back, Danger not catching her as he jumps completely startled at her outburst. But it's all made up for as two stunned bodies comes tumbling down off the quivering façade of the building. The lizard twins fall to the ground in groaning heaps. "Grab 'em." Shoutout orders Danger tiredly. She curls up on the cement and covers her throbbing ears.
He obeys. AWOL and Volt joining him as they climb out of the manhole to figure out what has happened.
It takes Mika through the night to recover, the whole time being quarantined in a soundproof room in the Man's Nest. "I'm okay." She assures her friends when she finally comes out. "And if I'm not much mistaken, which I never am, I am the greatest superhero in Swellview." She proclaims with a smile, prancing around the room and going on, "Because I just beat the Lizard Twins, with my new superpower, despite the fact that you were all so worried and thought I should come back to base before we completed the mission."
Miles rolls his eyes. "You're the one's who's been crying about it hurting all week."
"I see you're feeling yourself again." Chapa comments grudgingly.
"So, does that mean you're totally fine with your new powers? Everything worked out and you no longer need the reverse hearing aid thingys Schwoz made for you?" Bose completes the trifecta of comments.
"Oh no." Mika stops. "No, no, no. I definitely want those; the world is so loud. Are they ready?"
"I finished them this morning." Schwoz says, presenting her the small buds with a grand flourish.
"Thank you!" Mika says, taking them and pressing them into her ears. "Woah! That is amazing."
"I'm glad you like them, and that you are feeling better." Schwoz smiles.
"These work great." she says. "I don't think I can hear anything more than a normal person."
"Yes, they're on the strongest setting; it would make anyone else totally deaf." Schwoz says, "But they have several other levels you can adjust them to so that you can filter out what you need or let yourself hear as much as you want."
"That's amazing!" she gushes excitedly.
"She'll have no trouble getting back to normal then?" Henry asks for assurance.
"Nope, she's as good as new." Schwoz says.
"Better actually." Mika argues. "I've got a new superpower."
"Good for you." Chapa says sarcastically.
"Oh, what's the matter, Chapa?" Mika asks somewhat mockingly. "Are you jealous? I thought you didn't care about getting a second power?"
"I don't." Chapa insists unconvincingly. At her friends chuckles she sneers, "Whatever!"
"I'm jealous." Bose says, "I really hope I get my new power soon."
"It won't surprise me if you do." Schwoz says to him. "If all of you do." He adds looking pointedly at Chapa and Henry.
"Can't wait." Henry says, "It can only be a good thing, right? Miles' visions and Mika's hearing, despite the difficulties, have solved missions for us that we couldn't have done without them. And with how powerful we apparently are, according to Dr. Pennant, the rest of us will be just as awesome."
"Yes. I'll be fascinated to see what you all can do." Schwoz says with that mad scientist gleam in his eyes.
"But," Mika interjects, "While we wait for that, remember that I am the number one hero this week and none of you can take that away from me." The rest of Danger Force groan and roll their eyes at her. Henry chuckles and Schwoz raises an amused and proud eyebrow at her.
Next Episode S1E13: A Dangerous Pattern Emerges