Here's the next episode! Hope you enjoy it. If you do, please leave a review, I love to hear from you. Stay tuned, there's more to come and the next episode is quite intense.
Danger S1E14: Power Vacuum
October 26, 2021
Late in the night, in an old, decrepit storage facility, one desperate man weaves between piles of rubbish and scrap. His lab coat stained and torn, Dr. Horatio T. Minyak searches through the piles for one specific bit. Finding it near the bottom of the pile he yanks the piece of plastic out and rushes with it back to his workstation, ignoring the rest of the pile as it crashes to the already covered floor. He meticulously places the newly found bit into place on the device he's building. It fits perfectly into place. Minyak attaches a set of plastic tubes to the ports of the device. Then with some final finagling of the wires and buttons his machine soon hums to life.
Minyak stops his work and pulls back and stares in a frantic kind of awe. He ever so slowly reaches towards his creation, almost as if he's afraid to touch it, and picks it up most gently. "Aahhh…" he sighs softly. "ahh…Hahahaha!" he devolves into delirious villainous laughter and he says. "Yes! Yes! I have done it! I have the power to defeat those so-called heroes. Nurse Cohort, my dearest, will rue the day she walked out on me. This will make her come crawling back to me, never again to call me an incompetent fool. No one will ever mock me again after this. I will be known as the greatest supervillain Swellview has ever seen!" He screams to the cement ceiling, his eyes alight with mania.
(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...)
Swellview Park bustles with people: biking, picnicking, and playing on the newly reconstructed playground. It's a perfect day and Dr. Minyak couldn't agree more as he strides down the sidewalk in his most sinister black and purple trench coat. He carries with him a blaster covered in baubles swirling with colorful gas. With no regard for the people around him, he fires his weapon, hitting and melting the plastic tube slide. He also shoots the swing set, two picnic baskets, and several trees. Cackling all the while. The parkgoers run screaming.
In little time, Minyak gets the result he's come for, Danger Force appears before him. "Minyak? What're you doing now?" Danger asks mockingly.
Instead of getting irritated, as he usually would've, Minyak smiles at the heroes. "Hello! Just the people I wanted to see."
"Really?" Volt asks condescendingly. "Because I'm pretty sure us being here is the worst thing for you."
"She's right. In case you've forgotten, we have beat you literally every time we've fought." Shoutout agrees.
"Well, not this time!" Minyak decrees.
"What's so different about this time?" Brainstorm asks.
The heroes take slow, casual steps towards the villain and he takes shuffling steps backwards to maintain the distance between them. "Because this time I have a plan so brilliant that even you wretched children will not be able to stop me." He declares, stepping back more quickly as they increase their speed a bit. "I have created an ingenious new weapon that will incapacitate all five of you."
"What? That thing?" Volt snorts and zaps his blaster with her lightning.
He drops it with a shrieked, "Ow!"
She laughs more. Her friends unable to entirely stop their own. "Just give up now, dude, before you embarrass yourself anymore." AWOL says. "You know how this is going to end."
Minyak glares and sneers, "Yes. It'll end with you all defeated and the world at my mercy."
"You know, Minyak, I can almost admire your continued delusion that you have any chance against us. It really is amazing that you can still believe in your capabilities after being beaten so many times." Danger compliments wryly. "But c'mon, don't do this to yourself. Just take the easy out."
The villain surveys the heroes without comment. They are all obviously ready for a fight but also seem so bored. He glares dissatisfied at them, "You will learn respect for me." He tells them, then turns tail and runs.
"Ugh." Volt complains.
"And he's running." Shoutout says.
"He can't be serious." AWOL agrees.
"What was that all about?" Brainstorm asks. Mocking Minyak's voice with his words, "'You will learn respect for me.'".
"He's definitely acting weird." Danger agrees. Then beckons them to run with him. "Let's not lose him."
AWOL teleports ahead of them, cutting off Minyak's path. The villain sees and turns clumsily but abruptly to the side, running through a bush. AWOL stays long enough to direct his teammates to the change of direction before teleporting again.
Soon they are gaining on the doctor, who's panting and not glancing back. Across the grass and out of the park, Dr. Minyak runs back and forth, turning wildly as if he can shake them. He heads for the nearest building across the street on the west side of the park, an old Cache for Cash storage facility. He stumbles into the first door and struggles for a moment to get it open. He does though. He gets inside and slams the door right as AWOL is appearing on the doorstep.
"Dude!" AWOL complains, yanking the door open again to see only a dark basement hallway. The only evidence of Minyak is the echoing sounds of his footsteps down the hall.
The rest of the Dangers come down the three steps to peer into the dark hallway too. They don't hesitate to enter and make their way down the hallway following Shoutout's hearing to direct them. "Come on out Minyak. What are you trying to play at here?" Shoutout asks the darkness.
"Yeah, what is he doing? Does he think he's gonna be able to get out of here without us noticing?" Brainstorm asks.
"I don't know." Danger says, "He's usually much bolder and more open about his intents than this."
"Minyak!" Volt calls impatiently, "Come out, come out wherever you are. I thought you had a genius plan. Don't tell me this is it; hiding in the dark?"
"Would be nice to have a little light." Brainstorm comments. "So, we could see him."
"He's close." Shoutout says, "I can hear him panting in a room ahead."
"A room?" Danger asks.
"It sounds wider, the echoes are different." She explains.
"I'll teleport ahead." AWOL says.
"Wait." Danger orders, blocking the younger's hand from raising into the air. "Let's stay together, this isn't Minyak's normal approach, and I don't like it."
"You think it's a trap?" Brainstorm asks.
"Maybe."
"Good grief." Volt says, "Even if it is a trap, it's Minyak. He's a total joke. We'll be fine."
"It's still better to be cautious than reckless." Danger says.
"He's right through here." Shoutout whispers.
Danger reaches out in front of where she'd stopped them to feel a door. Finding the doorknob he instructs, "Get ready, he'll probably have some kind of defense inside."
"It won't be a problem." Volt retorts.
Danger turns the knob and pushes the door open quietly. Immediately the heroes are met with a rapid firing of laser blasts. Just as fast as they come, Danger puts his force field up around them and the lasers deflect off it. "I knew you'd get my first gun, Dangers. So, I made sure I had another." Dr. Minyak says. "I'm ready for you this time."
"Your lasers can't break my forcefield and won't outlast it, Minyak. You haven't won anything." Danger says.
"Not yet." Minyak insists, "But soon."
"He's moving, coming this way." Shoutout reports.
"You won't get past my shield either, Minyak." Danger warns.
"Volt, there's a breaker board over here." AWOL says, "Can you light it up?"
"Absolutely." She says and sticks her hand out to blast it. The room floods with light as the overheads come on in response to her power. Minyak stops firing as the lights come on and they're all momentarily blinded.
The evil doctor is dashing across the room, not quite towards them as Shoutout had thought but to a panel on the wall a few feet from them. It's clearly rigged to cables trailing across the room and he's punching buttons, activating whatever it is they're supposed to do. "Stop him!" Shoutout yells. But Minyak renews fire, albeit with very poor aim as he's looking at the panel and not them, and Danger once again puts his shield up to defend them.
"AWOL, go." Danger orders.
AWOL does so, teleporting swiftly to the other side of the villain and knocking him to the ground. As soon as the lasers have stopped AWOL pulls the gun from Minyak's hand and throws it across the room where it smashes to pieces. "No!" Minyak growls, then changes his mind to cheer, "Yes!" as the machinery around the room turns on.
There's a great hissing of moving air and humming of electricity running through the cables. A timer on the opposite wall begins counting down. "Uh, what's that?" Brainstorm asks nervously.
"You'll see soon!" Minyak promises and takes off running again.
"That can't be good." Shoutout observes.
"Nope." Danger agrees, "Can you stop it?"
"I'll try." She says, rushing to the panel Minyak had left.
AWOL has followed Minyak across the room to a different door and chases the villain through it, Volt on their tails. Just after they've gone through the timer above the door hits 2 minutes and stops, the cables it's connected to surge and there is a sudden BOOM! "Oh no." Shoutout can be heard saying as the room collapses around them. Danger grabs hold of Brainstorm beside him and drags him along as he dives towards Shoutout, glowing green anticipatorily as they reach for her.
In the hallway beyond the second door AWOL, Volt and Minyak fall to the floor as the building shakes. Once it's stopped, they look around, the two kids in shock and horror and the villain in triumph. The open door behind them is blocked entirely by slabs of concrete and steel rods. The two young heroes run to the mess and call out in fear for their friends. "Shoutout! Sis? Brainstorm?" "Danger! Shoutout!"
(Commercial Break: cause it would happen here, obviously.)
AWOL and Volt stare in horror at the blocked doorway to the collapsed room where their friends have just been buried by Minyak's bomb. "Shoutout!", "Danger!", "Brainstorm!" they alternate calling as they press experimentally on the rubble. Volt turns with an agonized glare of unequivocal loathing to Minyak. "I'll kill you for that." She swears and sends an enormous blast of electricity his way. He has only a millisecond to look alarmed before he's hit and screaming on the ground under her rage storm.
AWOL stays in the doorway calling for his sister and friends and trying to move the stone in his way. For a couple long minutes his attempts seem futile, then the slab begins to move. Except it moves upward and definitely not under his influence. AWOL backpedals as the slab floats into the air and exposes the space behind.
There stands Brainstorm lifting it and a couple more slabs that are the way of him, Shoutout and Danger getting out of the room. Danger's forcefield is up protectively around them as the three run out of the death trap. Once they're clear, they both release their holds on their powers and the room behind the once again collapses on itself.
After catching his breath Danger looks up to see Volt electrocuting Minyak. He doesn't berate her but walks swiftly over and lays a hand on her shoulder as he says, "Don't kill him just yet. Let the rest of us have a go."
She starts hard and looks back at him with wide, aggrieved eyes. "Danger?" she mutters in shock and looks around to see the other's alive too.
"We're all okay." He assures.
"I thought he'd killed you." She says with a renewed glare at Minyak.
"He tried!" Shoutout says indignantly and joins them, dragging her clinging brother along, to give the villain a glare of her own. "You tried to blow us up!" she shouts at the man.
From the floor Minyak laughs, "Yes! Yes, I did!"
"We almost died!" Brainstorm complains, "And that bomb didn't even hit zero!"
Minyak laughs only more villainously. "I know. I wanted you to all think you had time to stop it; but you didn't!"
"Why would you do that?" Brainstorm asks affronted.
"Because I'm EVIL!" Minyak decrees, "I'm the most evil villain in the world!"
"STOP LAUGHING!" Volt screams as he resumes doing so. Her raging red lightnings flare up again and Minyak stops to scramble away from her in fear.
The five heroes pursue him. "Well, your trap failed, Minyak." Danger says.
"As always." Shoutout says.
"And now, you're going to pay for almost killing my sister!" AWOL tells him.
Minyak gets to his feet as fast as he can so that he may run away. "Not today, Dangers!" He decrees and turns a corner, only to promptly fall on his face as he trips over the extendable plastic tube of a vacuum cleaner.
Before he can get back up the Dangers have him surrounded. Minyak fumbles with the vacuum tube and aims the plastic suction tube at Volt first as she draws nearest to him. "Don't come any closer!" he warns.
She is not the only one who laughs at his position. They all take a step closer. "I'm terrified." She says in the very most sarcastic tone she can.
"I'm warning you." He repeats.
"What do you plan to do to us with a vacuum?" Brainstorm asks.
Minyak glances his way and does the only thing he can, he flips the vacuum's on/off switch and jabs the suction hose at Volt. It catches her in the stomach and she squirms away with an uncharacteristic laugh and a complaint of, "That tickles!" Minyak jabs at her again.
She dodges with a step back, but her friends make their own advances. Minyak swings the vacuum hose around at all of them. "Stay back! I'm warning you! I'll not repeat myself!" he says with a look of hopefulness.
"You literally just did repeat yourself." Shoutout points out. Minyak jabs the hose at her head, she tries to scream but the end of it catches her in the mouth in the same moment and she back away with an objection and a cut lip, which she presses her hand against.
"Leave her alone!" AWOL says, leaping upon Minyak. The villain is flattened, his swinging of the vacuum hose limited to back and forth across the floor. Unfortunately for the heroes it works out for him as the hose catches around Brainstorm's foot and he trips while trying to help AWOL. The whole mess ends with Minyak back on his feet repeatedly stabbing the hose at the two boys.
Danger grabs Minyak from behind, locking his arms in place. "Release me!" Minyak demands. "Release me this instant!"
"No." Danger says.
"You meddlesome little hero." Minyak complains. "You have been a thorn in my side too long. I almost wish my bomb had killed you."
"What? Almost?" Danger questions.
"That wasn't my real plan, fool. Only a part of it. I was sure you'd all find your way to survive that explosion; you always do." Minyak grumbles the last part. "I told you my plan was genius, foolproof. You have all fallen into my true trap already."
"What did you do?" Danger asks, confused and concerned. Minyak only cackles and tries to escape Danger's hold. Danger casts his gaze around in search of an answer. AWOL and Brainstorm are back on their feet, ready to resume the fight if needs be and looking around too as they try to decipher what trap Minyak thinks they've fallen into. Volt is just behind the boys, making fists and glaring at them confused. Shoutout is messing with her anti-hearing-aids, apparently not having heard the evil doctor's words. Danger does not see anything amiss. "What did you do?" he asks again, staring at the villain.
"Um…" Shoutout interrupts Minyak's cackles. "Guys? Somethings wrong." That draws their attention. "I can't…" she says and takes out her anti-hearing-aids all together. "My super hearing is gone."
"What?" several voices ask.
Minyak looks smugger than ever. "Yes. Yes. Just as I intended."
"What did you do to her?" Brainstorm demands.
"The same thing I did to you. To all of you." Minyak jeers.
"But I didn't have super hearing." Brainstorm argues.
"My sonic scream is gone too." Shoutout says.
"My lightning…" Volt hisses, flexing and shaking her arms around with a look of consternation on her face. Not a spark of red comes from her.
"Our powers?" AWOL concludes fearfully and throws his fist up to try his own luck. Nothing happens. He tries again, and again. He switches fists to try again. Minyak laughs aloud, less villainously and more humorously. "What!?" AWOL demands.
"You look ridiculous!" Minyak says, his legs turning to jelly as he laughs so hard. Subsequently becoming more difficult for Danger to hold.
"How did you take our powers?" Shoutout asks, leaving Brainstorm and his attempts at moving objects with his telekinesis to get in Minyak's face.
"By my own genius. Let me show you." He says.
Danger reaffirms his grip on the villain in anticipation, but the villain doesn't attempt a sudden run from him. Minyak instead snaps his head back into Danger's face and steps backwards forcefully, making the stunned hero move backwards too. Danger's back collides with the wall hard and he loses a bit more of his control, enough that Minyak breaks his hold enough to get one of his arms out.
"I told a bit of a lie just a moment ago." Minyak confesses, swapping the vacuum hose to his free hand. "I hadn't yet done the same thing to all of you." he stabs the hose behind him, into Danger's chest. "But now I have. Behold my brand-new invention, the Power Vacuum."
Danger reacts to the pain of the hard plastic end of the tube being shoved so violently at him and pulls one arm to himself to force it away. That is the last thing Minyak needs to escape his hold entirely.
Minyak swings his vacuum around and moves down the hall. "I have defeated you, Dangers. You are all powerless now. There is nothing you can do to stop me."
Volt charges him with a scream, she lands a punch but without the advantage of her power assisting it, it's merely a slight irritation to Minyak and he whacks her with the hose in return. "Get him!" Brainstorm shouts and all of Danger Force charge the doctor. Minyak runs down the hall. Danger follows them all.
Without their powers the chase is far harder for the young heroes. They cannot slow him with zaps or shrieks or teleporting in his way. The labyrinth of hallways in this basement are dark as ever and without the glow of Volt's lightning it becomes treacherous. The lack of Shoutout's super hearing makes it equally as difficult to track where Minyak is going as he moves through these passages he clearly knows well. He is almost lost to them in the darkness several times.
Finally, they come to a lighter place. A staircase is visible at the end of this hall, with a door at the top, letting in sunlight through its window. Minyak is at the top already. He's pressing buttons on a panel there. The door opens with a whoosh of fresh air.
Troublingly, with the light comes not only the sight of the stairs and Minyak but the sight of cables trailing down the tunnel. Minyak presses a few more buttons on the panel beside him and the cables hum to life. Danger recognizes the sight and sound. "Stop!" he commands his team. "It's another bomb!" They all recognize it too and do as he says. The stairs are still many yards away, the timer near them reads 2:05; they'll surely not make it to them before the bomb goes off. "Get back!" Danger orders.
They all dash back down the hallway as the timer counts down the last seconds to 2:00. They get a decent way down before realizing it's been more than the five seconds they were expecting. Looking back the timer now says 1:37 and the bomb hasn't exploded. Minyak is laughing again.
"Wait, how much time do we have?" Shoutout asks.
All the Dangers look confused and unsure. Maybe they could make it. But getting up the courage to try when they don't know for sure is hard. They all hesitate. The timer hits 1:00 and keeps counting down. "Should we run?" Brainstorm asks.
Danger nods sideways, "Yeah, probably. One way or the other."
"Which?" AWOL asks.
"Not sure." Danger admits, glaring at the laughing Minyak, hoping for a tell of some kind.
"Let's just go." Volt says. "Before we're definitely out of time."
Danger nods. "Go." He commands.
They begin their mad dash. The timer hits 0:30 and the bomb goes off. With cries of alarm, they all reverse direction, which is difficult to do and therefore does not go well. They stampede away from the collapsing part of the tunnel with all effort of speed. "HAHAHA! Enjoy your tomb Dangers! I'll be doing my worst in Swellview without you." Minyak calls through the commotion and exits the building.
The tunnel becomes pitch black. It takes several moments for the ground and walls to still. The air is filled with choking dust, leaving the heroes coughing violently. "Is everyone alright?" Danger asks.
"Yeah." Shoutout says shrilly.
"Yeah." AWOL also responds in a tired and frightened tone.
"Peachy." Volt growls, panting.
Brainstorm sniffles and coughs. "Brainstorm?" Danger asks when he doesn't get any other response.
"I think my nose is bleeding." He says, sounding a bit nasally. "And I really hate the dark."
Danger pulls his phone out and turns on the flashlight, placing it on the ground beside him so the beam will reflect off the grey walls and give them some illumination. Shoutout swiftly copies him, doubling their light. Danger looks over Brainstorm's face, which is indeed covered in blood from his nose. "Pinch your nose at the end of the bone to cut off the blood flow. And don't swallow any blood." He tells the younger boy when Brainstorm licks at the blood that trickles over his lips. "You'll be fine. Any other injuries?"
"Maybe some bruises." AWOL shrugs.
"I'm okay." Shoutout assures, probing her cut lip to confirm the bleeding has stopped.
"Tt. Yeah, perfectly okay." Volt sneers. "We're powerless and buried alive in a maze of dark corridors with no idea how to get out. While Minyak's running through Swellview, probably causing destruction and hysteria. We're all perfectly okay."
Danger eyes her a moment, "Yeah, alright. You've got a point." He says casting a dejected look down the corridor. "But at least we're alive, we're not hurt. Just because we lost our superpowers doesn't mean we're powerless. We're more than just our abilities."
"Blah, blah, blah…" she interrupts, "Don't give me some cheesy dumb speech about 'the power within' or whatever. We're trapped. I can't so much as make your hair stand on end right now, let alone blast apart that debris." Volt snipes with a glower and gestures towards the caved-in entrance. "Brainstorm can't lift it; AWOL can't teleport us out. None of us can do anything about it."
"So, you wanna give up?" he asks. "Just resign ourselves to being trapped and let Minyak win?"
She glares. Her teammates watch her with inquiring frowns. "He already did." She says despondently. "He beat us."
"Only if we let him." Shoutout argues. "He took our powers, which really sucks. I was beginning to really like my super hearing." Shoutout continues lecturing in a disapproving tone. "And I really doubt they're going to spontaneously come back. That doesn't mean we're not still superheroes. You're still Volt, the most vicious member of Danger Force who always gets the bad guys."
"I'm not Volt without my lightning! That's what 'Volt' means." She argues furiously.
"Your powers don't make you a hero." Danger says. "Being a hero comes from inside you, not some weird energy you accidently got infused with. Of the seven years I've been doing this superhero thing, I've had different powers three times, and between them all its only added up to about three years of my time as a crimefighter. I've now lost all three of them, but it's never stopped me. It's not going to now either. We're going to find a way out of here and stop Minyak."
"We can't stop him. We already tried and he was ready for everything we did. Nothing we did made a difference to him." She rejects yet again.
"I don't think he expected you to knock him on his butt." AWOL says.
"He certainly didn't plan on you nearly killing him right then." Danger agreed.
"He still got right back up." She rejects yet again. "Right after he'd almost killed you three! You'd all have been blown up if Henry hadn't had his force field; and now he doesn't. We won't survive another attack like that." Her revealing words leave the corridor in a short ringing silence.
"Chapa, we're okay." Bose says. He wipes away the leftover blood on his face and scoots over to sit beside her. "We're all okay. He didn't kill any of us. None of us are even really hurt." She ignores him. "I know you're scared."
"I am not!"
He brushes past her comment, "I'm scared too. I really hate the dark. Especially here, running around these concrete halls, dealing with traps and explosions. It kind of reminds me of that day at the power facility; and that scares me so much because I don't want this to end the same. I don't want anyone else to die." He breathes, no one else says anything. "But we didn't. We almost got blown up twice, Minyak called this place our tomb; he was trying to kill us. But we're all alive, and we can't stop fighting him because we're scared he might kill us. He's going to hurt others and with or without powers we have to be the ones to stop him, because we're the heroes. We have to do the saving; no one is coming to rescue us."
Chapa's lip trembles and she says, "Then maybe we are dead, we can't get out on our own. Minyak made sure of that. He called it our tomb because he cut off our only exits."
"Well, maybe." Mika says. "We can't get out after him here and I doubt there's another way back to the door we came in, but that doesn't mean there's not another way out. There's a lot of hallways down here, so, surely there's more than two exits. Probably at least some stairs, this is a multilevel building; there must be something we can do to get out of here."
"I agree." Miles says, folding his arms calmly. His sister eyes him gratefully. "Our path is definitely not going to end with Minyak defeating us." He says the last three words sardonically. "So, we should follow the only path there is in front of us. Let's explore the dark, creepy hallways; we'll find the way out."
Mika's appreciative smile falls into an exasperated scoff. "I'm not going to say anything about your weirdness, because you're agreeing with me for once." She grumbles.
"You just did say something about it." He points out. Bose chuckles lightly with the twins and Henry. Chapa's lips momentarily twitch up in an almost amused way.
"Let's get going. This could take a while and my phone battery is already dropping with the use of the flashlight." Mika says and stands. Miles hops to his feet too and Bose joins them as well, beckoning hopefully to Chapa. She still sulks.
Henry crouches next to her. "C'mon, you can't stay here. I can't guarantee this won't end up like last time, none of us can. I used to take for granted that it wouldn't; I never doubted we'd always be okay, I thought it was a given. But getting hurt or even killed is the risk we take to live this hero life. We take that risk every day. We also run the risk of losing our friends. They might be the ones who die, and we have to live without them." He breathes weightily and blinks very slowly.
"I don't want to lose anybody else." She mutters.
"I know, neither do I. But it could happen anytime. We never know which mission could be our last. Still, I'm pretty sure it's not this one. Despite how well he planned all this here, today, we're still fighting Minyak. He is not going to be the one to kill us." Henry says glibly. "Yeah, he did really well today, and we really underestimated him. He outsmarted us. But now we know better. We'll be more careful next time and we'll fight smarter."
"How?" Chapa asks.
"Yeah, doing anything 'smarter' is more Mika's thing than mine." Bose says.
Henry looks a little stumped. "Well, we'll not just rush at him without a plan. We'll have to assess his weapons and watch out for traps. Maybe try out some things we don't normally do so he can't predict our moves."
"Oh." Mika says.
"What?" the rest ask or at least question by look.
"That's our advantage. Minyak's plan is done: he took our powers and trapped us." She says.
"Yeah, that's what I've been saying." Chapa says.
"No, his plan is done." Mika stresses. "He thinks leaving us powerless and trapped is all he has to do to win, he doesn't have any more planned to stop us… probably." Chapa raises an eyebrow.
"Okay, sure." Miles says, "So, how does that help us right now? Does that mean we shouldn't have to worry about more booby traps down here?"
Mika nods, "Maybe. But what I really mean is that he's not expecting us to get out of here and even if we do, he doesn't think we'll come after him again without our powers or a bunch of new weapons or something. So, if we can get out of here, and do it fast, we can catch him way off guard."
"The faster we get to him the easier it'll be to take him down." Henry agrees.
"So, to beat him all we really have to do is just not give up." Bose figures. "But how do we find a way out of here fast? There's a lot of dark halls we have to look through."
"Well, we start by starting. We can't make any progress until we get moving." Mika says. Chapa sighs. "That's right, girl, get up. If it was one of us moping around you'd drag us out by the foot…"
"Or any other body part of us you could get ahold of." Miles says.
"… so you're going to come with us." Mika finishes, grabbing Chapa's hand and dragging her friend to her feet.
Chapa trudges along with them as they make their way down the concrete corridor with only the light of their phone flashlights to guide their way. They walk through one hallway after the next, turning corners and feeling thoroughly lost. At no time more so than when they find themselves back at the caved in exit where they'd started. "Great, what now, oh optimistic ones?" Chapa asks.
"We should find a way to mark off the corridors we've tried." Mika says.
"Do you have some cookie crumbs for us to drop?" Chapa asks sarcastically.
"No, but maybe we can leave a mark on the walls." Mika says. "If someone has a marker or…"
"Why would any of us have a marker?" Miles asks.
"I do." Bose says and pulls a blue sharpie out of his pocket.
Everyone stares at him in surprise. "Why do you have a marker?" Miles asks.
"To sign autographs." He explains, "I've always got girls asking me to."
Mika laughs and take the marker. She uses it to write an X on the wall. It's small and not very noticeable, the marker doesn't draw well on the surface. Chapa snorts, and it's surprisingly more amused than derisive. "We might need something that works a bit better." Mika admits, handing Bose back his marker.
Henry considers, then pulls out his laser remote and burns an X into the wall over Mika's marker marks. "How 'bout that?"
"That works." Miles says.
They make their way once again through the corridors, this time burning marks into the walls they pass so they know not to take that same way again. It takes a long time. Far longer than any of them like. Murmured complaints about their predicament soon begin to escape each of them in time, but they press on until finally they find something. It's a dead-end corridor far, or at least seemingly far, they've really no idea at this point, from their starting point; but the wall at the dead-end features a pair of dirty and beaten elevator doors. "Is there any chance those still work?" Chapa asks.
Henry pushes the up button. Nothing happens. "Nope." He says. "But maybe we can get the door open, there might be another way up." He grips at the break between the doors, trying to get his fingers in between them. Danger Force quickly gather to help him.
Together, with much difficulty, they force the rusty doors open. A flow of musty air flows out of the elevator car sitting heavily on the bottom of the shaft. None of the buttons inside work either. But Bose points out a trap door in the ceiling of the car.
"If we can get out of the car, there should be a ladder of some kind in the side of the shaft that we can climb." Mika says. She, being the smallest, is lifted on Henry's shoulders to reach the hatch and crawls out first. She helps haul her friends up after her. Henry comes last. On the wall of the elevator shaft is a series of rungs that at one point had been a ladder. Now it is a set of rusty, half missing metal bars fixed to the old brick.
"Do you think it'll hold us?" Bose asks Mika. She grimaces.
"One way to find out." Chapa says and pulls herself up the first few rungs she can reach. Some of them shift a little in their places but ultimately, they hold her. She looks down at them and shrugs. "You guys coming? You keep telling me we have to keep moving so get climbing."
They do. The journey up is treacherous and more than one rung breaks underneath the lot of them before they reach an exit point. There are three floors above the basement level and each has a set of elevator doors, but the heroes on the precarious rungs have no way to force them open as they go. Only the hatch at the top of the shaft, directly above the ladder allows them an escape.
Henry brings up the rear as they all climb onto the roof of the Cache for Cash building with great sighs of relief. The autumn air is cool in the twilight, but all is obviously not well in the city. Sirens can be heard several blocks off. "Wild guess, but I think I know where Minyak is." Miles says dryly looking out towards the sirens and flashing lights in the distance.
"And what are we supposed to do about that, exactly?" Chapa asks.
"We go stop him." Bose says.
"How?" Chapa presses. "As much as I'd love to punch him in the face, repeatedly, how exactly can we go about doing that? How are we even supposed to get there? Without AWOL's powers we can't just pop over there and surprise him. We don't have any of the Man vehicles here. Should we just start running, so we're exhausted before we've even begun the fight?"
The air is filled again with only the faint sirens for a few moments. "She does have a point with that." Mika says. "We don't exactly have a good form of transportation available at the moment."
"We could take that taxi." Miles offers points to the street below their rooftop. His voice sounds as enthusiastic as the rest of them feel about the proposition, that level being not very, but they don't have a better option. Descending the fire escape of the building they run over to the taxi.
The cabbie is sitting inside, jamming to the radio and eating a churro. He looks up at them in total amazement when they knock on his window. He rolls it down with his jaw agape. "You- you're D…" he stutters.
"Danger Force." Volt finishes for him. "Yeah."
"Yeah… uh…hi, c-c-can I help you?" the cabbie asks.
"Yes, we're terribly sorry sir," Shoutout says, "but is there any way we could commandeer your vehicle?"
He stares at her, starstruck. "You- you need a ride? Of course! Hop in!"
"Um…" the five Dangers look at each other and thought it is humiliating, they decide not to waste time clarifying for the cabbie. They crowd into the back of the cab.
"Where to?" the cabbie asks excitedly.
"A few blocks northeast. Just follow the sirens." Danger directs.
"Yes Sir!" the cabbie says and peels away from the curb. "Are you guys on a mission? There's been crimes going on all day and rumors that you guys were missing."
"Just please hurry. We need to find Minyak." Danger prompts to the cabbie over the man's jabbering.
"Speaking of, what is the plan once we've found him?" AWOL asks.
"Working on that." Danger responds, "It depends on where we find him and what he's doing. We'll need to take him by as much surprise as we can. I want this over quickly, especially since you four have very little experience fighting without your powers."
"Could we find a way to get them back?" Shoutout asks. "I mean, like, if we get vacuum from him?"
"It could have a reverse button or something?" Volt asks hopefully.
"I don't know, maybe." Shoutout says. "But it's worth a shot."
"Yeah, yeah. If he still has it on him." AWOL says. "He only needed it to stop us, he might've tossed it afterwards."
"Maybe. But I think he'll like to keep it around as a trophy. He is all about being the greatest villain so he'll want to show it off as proof that he used it on us." Danger says. "Shoutout, Volt I want you two focused on getting it from him." They both nod.
"AWOL and I will help you fight Minyak?" Brainstorm asks.
"Maybe." Danger answers, "We'll have to see what he's doing. If there are civilians or hostages involved. We'll figure it out once we get there. I'm sure the police will fill us in on the situation."
The cabbie listens to the conversation curiously from the front. He drives them as close to the police cars lining Center Street as he can despite the nearest officer's protesting gestures. They stop once they see the Dangers getting out of the back seat. "Thank you." Shoutout tells the cabbie. "What do we owe…?"
"No. No." he insists. "No charge, just stop Dr. Minyak, save the city. And I hope you get your powers back."
She nods her thanks and advises, "Get out of here." He does so without protest.
The scene is a mess of emergency vehicles and personnel. The nearest police officers rush over to the heroes. "Danger Force! You're here! Thank God!" one shouts.
"Where have you been? We've been calling the hotline all day! We really needed your help." Another says.
"Where's Minyak?" Danger asks, ignoring their questions to get to the point. "He is the one behind this, right? What's he doing?"
"Yes, it's Dr. Minyak. He's up there 'negotiating' with Chief Stalwart and Mayor Blithe. He's been running around destroying things and stealing every expensive thing he can get his hands on all day." The first officer says. Before she or any of the others can ask any more questions the Dangers take off again. Many of the emergency personnel call out in shock and wonder as the heroes run through them. The heroes pay no mind until they've come upon Chief Stalwart and Mayor Blithe.
"Madam Mayor." Danger greets coming up beside her.
She startles, nearly dropping the megaphone she's using to talk to Minyak, who is standing at the doors of Swellview Bank. "Danger? Danger Force?"
"Where have you all been?" Chief Stalwart demands exasperatedly. "We've been calling all day! Your science guy kept promising you were on your way, he got more panicked each time we called to say you hadn't shown up. Dr. Minyak has been attacking people and robbing banks all over the city with his weird weapons. We haven't been able to take him in. Where were you? Why haven't you been here to stop him? What have you been doing?"
"Long story. Sorry." Danger cringes.
"Something with Shadow Man?" Stalwart asks.
"No. Minyak. A trap. Again, long story." Danger says. "Don't worry. We'll stop him."
Across the way, Minyak stops shouting his demands upon noticing the Mayor and Police Chief aren't paying any attention to him. "What are you do- You!" Minyak screams furiously upon seeing the five Dangers standing there, alive. "No! No! You do not get to ruin things for me again!"
"Yeah, well, you don't just get to try to blow us up and bury us alive without us paying you back for it!" Danger calls back equally as indignant as the villain.
"He has the Power Vacuum!" Shoutout points out to her teammates. They all sigh in hopeful relief.
"We'll have to get all those other weapons away from him to stand a chance of taking it from him." Volt says, fists clenched anxiously.
"We have to get it. The two of you can do it; I've no doubt. Us three will deal with Minyak and the other weapons;" Danger glances quickly but deliberately to AWOL and Brainstorm. "As long as you two are ready to go toe to toe with Minyak without the extra defense of your powers."
"I had you beaten! I won!" Minyak screams, unaware of their conversation.
"We are." AWOL says.
"Yeah." Brainstorm agrees.
"Wait, what do you mean without their powers?" Mayor Blithe asks.
"Minyak stole them." Brainstorm says.
"What?!" she and Chief Stalwart exclaim together.
"Yeah, it's been a rough day." Danger repeats his answer to them before nodding his team into action. Turning to Minyak, he calls, "Dude, if you want to take us out, you'll have to do better than that! Did you really think your little vacuum would keep us out of the way?"
"I had you defeated! I buried you under that rubble! You should all be dead, you couldn't have stopped it! How could you have escaped?" Minyak screams.
"Your plan wasn't as fool-proof as you thought." Danger says.
"And we absolutely refuse to lose to you. Taking our powers wasn't enough to discourage us." AWOL adds.
"I stole your powers and left you to die! You couldn't stop me with them; you cannot defeat me now!" Minyak refutes.
"I've been kicking your butt since I was thirteen, long before I had any powers." Danger says. "And these guys are way more prepared than I was in the beginning. What you did is just an annoyance."
"A huge annoyance." Volt sneers. "But not enough to keep me from hurting you."
"I am more than an annoyance! You will learn to fear me. I will make sure none of you leave here alive." Minyak swears aiming his blaster at them.
As he shoots, Danger calls out an order for his team to scatter. They jump in different directions, dodging the blast. "Get the weapons from him! Don't get hit!" Danger orders.
All five of them running at him from different directions gives Minyak a lot to deal with, which is not something he's good at. He can only aim his gun at one of them at a time so as a whole they make a lot of progress towards him while he's dealing with one individual at a time.
Brainstorm gets to him first and throws himself at Minyak's aiming arm, knocking the gun away from its aim towards Volt. She comes up next and tackles his waist. They all go down in a crash. Brainstorm gets the gun away from Minyak and Volt rips the Power Vacuum from the holster at his side. "No!" he cries and punches her in the face.
She rolls away with an irritated grunt and lands on her knees. "Is that the best you got? Your punches are weak." She goads. He seethes and breaks towards her. "AWOL, catch!" she says tossing the vacuum to him as he comes close. He catches it and diverts his path to take him and it further from Minyak. Volt turns back in time to barely miss another hit from Minyak. Danger pulls the mad doctor back just enough by the lab coat that his flailing limbs miss her. He twists, dragging Minyak around to stumble away from them. Without preamble he attacks the villain. Knocking him down with only a few quick moves. "Okay, I might need to learn how to do that without my lightning." Volt admits with admiration.
"I'll teach you." Danger promises. "You're all going to get some no-power training."
"You'll need it." Minyak spits, "You're never getting your powers back."
"I wouldn't bet on it." Brainstorm says, cuffing Minyak. "We'll reverse what you did. Right, Shoutout?"
"I think so. AWOL, is there a reverse button?" Shoutout calls to him.
"I don't know." He says turning the device over and over in his hands. "I don't see one. Come help me figure it out."
"There isn't one. If nothing else, I will have this victory. I will be remembered as the one who crippled you all." Minyak seethes. "And from this you will be defeated. None of the villain community will let you live. They are out for your blood, Danger; and will not stop until you are gone permanently."
"I'm not worried." Danger says dismissively.
"You should be. You should've stayed hidden away. We will make you wish you'd really died on Mt. Swellview. We will hunt you down until we've reunited you with your boss. Then we'll destroy everything the two of you ever stood for and make all your efforts meaningless." Minyak vows.
Danger tenses and glares, but it's Volt who knocks the villain out. She's huffing for breath and glaring wetly at the unconscious villain. "Volt?" Danger questions.
"He doesn't get to… he can't say that about… None of them. I won't let them hurt us. They don't get to take anything from us, again. I won't let them." She seethes.
"It's okay." He placates. "We made it out of this one just fine, and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure the rest of them don't get to us, either. We're going to be okay."
(Commercial Break)
"Schwoz?" Henry asks apprehensively. The team has finally returned to the Man's Nest after their long day dealing with Minyak. They wait around the room with the pretext of relaxing, but really they are all still tense waiting for him to finish his work. "What's the verdict? Can you get us our powers back?"
"Well…" Schwoz drags out, putting the Power Vacuum down on his worktable. "No. Not exactly."
"You can't make the vacuum give our powers back?" Mika asks.
"No. Minyak was right about that, I cannot reverse the power of this weapon." Schwoz says. "However, he made this, he knew what he was doing. It is impossible to reverse what it did."
"You can't make it just spit our powers back out of it?" Miles asks.
"It's not like that. It didn't steal them and store them inside it. It simply disconnected you from your abilities." Schwoz says apologetically.
"Well, can't we do something about that?" Chapa asks.
"Um… yes… and no." Schwoz mutters.
"Which is it?" she persists.
"There is no way to reconnect you to you powers quickly. You will have to go without them for a while. But, with that said, your powers aren't really gone." Schwoz explains. "As Dr. Pennant told you, the Omega Weapon recoded your DNA and gave you powers. Only another rewrite in your DNA could take them away permanently. This 'Power Vacuum' couldn't do that, so your powers will come back. Eventually."
The five Dangers nod attentively. "Do you have any idea when? How soon?" Mika asks.
Schwoz hums thoughtfully. "I cannot make any guarantees. I think it should take a few weeks. But it could be much shorter or longer than that. And when it happens it won't be all at once. You'll start having little bits of your powers return as your body processes the changes and reconnects everything properly."
"But it will all come back?" Bose asks, anxiously petting Blue's furry head.
"Yes, definitely. It's just a matter of time." Schwoz says.
"Alrighty then." Henry nods. "Then we'll just have to wait. In the meantime, we'll have to up our non-powered fighting. Training starts tomorrow. Tonight, you should all get home before your parent's wonder where you are."
In Swellview Prison, Dr. Minyak sits in handcuffs in a small room. The door is guarded by one uniformed man, who keeps an eye on the villain as he makes his phone call. "Nurse Cohort." He greets hopefully as the line is picked up.
"Yes? Minyak is that you? What do you want? I told you I was done with you." His former partner responds.
"Yes, it is I. I was wondering if you'd seen the news tonight." He says.
"I have." She say in a flat, clearly unimpressed tone.
"You saw that I have done it?" Minyak says excitedly, missing her obvious disinterest. "I've taken the super-powers away from all those pesky Danger heroes!"
"Yes, I heard. What of it?" she asks.
"What of it?" He repeats confused. "I took their powers!"
"So?"
"So?" he again mimics with an even more incredulous tone. "Do you not understand? I crippled them! I Dr. Horatio T. Minyak succeeded in trapping Danger and his force and stealing the powers. That's a big deal. Do you not see how incredible I am?"
She laughs once, meanly, and says, "What I saw is that you got taken down by them in three seconds despite the fact that they were powerless. You didn't trap them or kill them; you don't even seem to have hurt them. And you want praise? I'll bet you're not even calling me from your own phone. You haven't broken out of that prison they put you back into, have you? You're calling me from there, expecting me to be impressed by your inadequacy and come crawling back to your employ? Fat chance! I'm hoping to never have to see your unsightly self ever again."
"What?" he asks sadly. "You can't mean…"
"I told you I was done with you." She says. "I can do far better on my own."
"But… Nurse Cohort!" he begs.
"Goodbye, Minyak." She hangs up.
"No. No." he whispers brokenly, "She can't do this to me. I was so close. I am the greatest super-villain." The guard behind him snorts once, much too much like Nurse Cohort just had. Minyak turns with a glare. In a second, he's rushing the guard with a deranged energy, he attacks with all the strength he has. The guard cries out for help in shock as he fights with the mad scientist.
Next Episode: S1E15: Nemesis