Here's the next episode. I hope you all like it. Leave a review. See you again in a few weeks for the next one.
Danger S1E16: Double Down on Danger
November 19, 2021
"Stop." Henry commands Mika. His parent's and Danger Force created a rotating schedule to make sure he's never left alone, and it is Mika's turn now. She stops beside him with protesting gestures as he stands. "Please. I can take my own dishes to the sink." He insists, pushing past her and limping across the room.
"You shouldn't stress yourself." She protests, snatching the plate from his bandaged hand. She rushes ahead of him to take care of it.
"Mika!" he complains unable to keep up because of his braced knee and booted foot.
"Just sit down and relax," she says, shooing him back to his spot.
He huffs irately and says, "I don't want to relax. I want to do something."
"You can do something after you've healed. You almost died two weeks ago." She says, this time physically prodding him back to the couch, very gently since he's in a boot, knee brace, arm sling, five finger splints, and heavy bandages around his abdomen.
"I am healing, but I'm dying of boredom here," he says. "You gotta give me something to do. At least tell me what's up with Danger Force. What crimes are happening? What do you know about Drex? Or Shadow Man? What can I do?"
She frowns at him. "You don't need to worry about that. We're handling it."
"Just because I can't fight again yet, doesn't mean I can't help." Henry reiterates. "I can help Schwoz at the Man's Nest. I've got to get out of this house."
Her look of pity is as irritating as the coddling behavior. "Maybe you should take Babe's offer and go hang out in New York for a few days."
He rolls his eyes, "Getting me out of this city isn't going to make me want to know what's going on any less. I am still Danger and I'm your boss; so, tell me what's going on with our searches for Drex and Shadow Man."
She sighs with what he feels is an unwarranted level of frustration. "We haven't found them."
"I know that much." He scoffs.
"We'll let you know when we do." She finishes. That is all she gives him.
He falls back onto the couch with a complaining groan, truthfully, it's because he is tired and sore, and has been constantly for the past two weeks, but he'd never admit to that being the reason. In absolute annoyance he lies in silence, looking anywhere except at her. Mika keeps a close, concerned, and sympathetic eye on him. She says, "I get that you feel helpless and think we're smothering you. But we're just trying to help. You've still got a lot of healing to do."
"I am well aware of that." He says bitterly.
"So, enjoy the time off. You don't need to worry about anything except healing." She advises.
"I've been lazing about for weeks; I can't take it anymore! I'm so excruciatingly bored." He complains. Miles flashes into the room in his AWOL uniform. The two of them flinch in surprise, which for Henry, hurts quite a bit. "Ugh! Ow!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" Miles says, "My aim is still a little off."
"What's going on?" Henry asks in return pressing his less injured hand against the sorest point in his abdomen, where he'd been stabbed and burned.
"Uh, it's just a crime thing. We need Mika so I came to pick her up." Miles says evasively.
"Miles." Henry complains.
"What is it?" Mika asks, grabbing her gum tin and stepping beside him.
"Drex!" he hisses, not as quietly as he intends.
"What about Drex?" Henry asks.
"You couldn't have said that a little quieter?" Mika snips at her brother. "My super-hearing is working better."
"Sorry." Miles whispers back.
"Where's Drex?" Henry asks and heaves himself, somewhat unsteadily, to his feet.
"Uh…" Miles says.
"Just tell me what's going on." Henry demands.
Miles and Mika share a look. After a moment, she nods. He sighs and says, "Drex is dead."
Henry and Mika react appropriately, both alert and alarmed. "What!?" they both shout.
"Yeah, he's dead. We found his body just off Captain Man Street number eleven," Miles says.
Henry shakes his head, gawping soundlessly for a moment. "Show me." Henry says, grabbing his own gumballs out of his pocket. "Take me there."
"What? No!" The Macklin twins protest.
"Yes." He says, "I need to see this for myself. Take me to him."
"Henry!" Miles admonishes. "You're in no condition to go out."
"You yourself acknowledged that you're not healed enough to go out fighting yet." Mika adds.
"This isn't a fight," Henry says. "If he's dead, how can there be? I have to come with you."
"No!" Miles asserts and takes several steps away from him quickly, tugging his sister along with her. Henry can't step as fast so he's unable to go with them when Miles teleports them away.
"No! Guys, wait!" Henry calls to them, but they're already gone.
He grumbles furiously and chews his gum more slowly. Feeling irritated and rebellious he doesn't spit it out. He blows a bubble and just about collapses as his clothes change. His knee brace makes his skinny jeans bulge uncomfortably and his vest it tight around his chest; it's very different on his healing wounds than the lounge pants and sweat-shirts he's been wearing. It takes him a minute to readjust to breathing, then a few more as he limps his way out the back door. Avoiding sight and moving as quick as he can, Henry makes his way across town towards Captain Man Street number eleven.
He almost makes it there. Four blocks away he gets distracted. A rush of people comes screaming down the road, running from someone shooting ray-beams. The villain cackles and delivers cheesy puns while shooting, such as, "Time to go!" and "You can't beat the clock."
Henry stops at the corner of a building and peers around it, cursing the Time Jerker's timing. Some people round the corner and stop in their tracks upon catching sight of him. "Danger?" they ask in amazement and hope, then in concern with the addition of, "What happened to you?"
"Shh." He hisses at them. "Keep moving."
"The Time Jerkers out there. Can you stop him?" one man asks.
"I know he is. And yes, I'll go distract him," he says with hesitance, "just do me a favor and call Danger Force, I might need their help."
"This'll only last a minute!" Time Jerker calls, coming closer.
"Go!" Danger tells the civilians and steps out into the clearing street. "What are you up to, Time Jerker?" Danger challenges, trying his best to keep from limping or trembling.
"Ah! Just who I was waiting for!" Time Jerker calls, "I was wondering if you'd even make time for me, Danger. No one's seen you in weeks. Though maybe that has to do with the alarming way you look today. Tell me, what happened? Some instance of wrong place, wrong time?"
Danger tries hard to not let on how extensive his injuries are. It would not do to have everyone, especially the villains of Swellview, know what bad shape he's in. "What do you want?" he repeats.
"Revenge on you, of course!" Time Jerker cheers, brandishing a new blaster and a long club-like device humming with a violent red energy. "What all the villains in Swellview want. I've been watching my clock for the right moment to attack, and it seems I found it. You're even more vulnerable than I could've hoped, I hardly think I needed to concoct a plan so complicated as I have."
"What plan is that?" Danger asks, dropping his hand to tightly grip his leg. His knee feels like it's about to collapse beneath him.
"You'll see in a minute." Time Jerker laughs and fires his ray-gun at Danger. Who, being as injured as he is, reacts too slowly and catches it in the chest. He flies a few feet backwards with a surge of new pain in all his nerves. A chorus of screams echo as he crashes into a storefront window. The blast of the time-ray had rather surprisingly, not knocked him into another time. It had, though, released an epic amount of energy that tore apart the window and displays and left Danger in a heap of mannequins, clothing and debris, hurting too much to get back up.
Something moves beside him. An almost familiar voice asks, "What the?" and a humming green energy flashes in the corner of his eye. Whoever else had been caught in the blast gets up quickly and runs out into the street. "Time Jerker? What're you up to now? What did you do to me?" the voice asks, a young boy by the not quite matured sound of it.
Danger can tell there's a lot of commotion going on but cannot make out what it is. Surprised shouts are coming from all over and Time Jerker is laughing victoriously.
AWOL must appear with the rest of Danger Force in tow. Multiple of their voices call out Time Jerker but they all quickly fizzle out in surprise, "…what the?" Brainstorm asks.
"Who are you?" the unknown boy asks them with as much surprise, "How did you do that?"
"Oh my god!" Volt shrieks, "How are you here?"
"Danger?" Brainstorm asks, though it's no longer a call as Danger would expect. Whatever's happening up there, he needs to get up and see it.
"Here!" He says as loudly as he can manage. He tries and fails to lift the debries off himself. His evicerated shoulder and collar bone protesting greatly at the attempts.
Shoutout clearly heard him for she is the one that responds with a "Woah! What? Did you guys just hear that?" She runs his way; moving the debris off him and helping him stand.
"What…? How…? Are you okay?" she asks
"I still hate that question," he mutters, hunched into himself, breathing through his aching everyhting. "Yes, I'll be fine. Just worry about him."
"But, what are you doing here?" she asks more crossly. "What did he do? How are you…" she looks back towards the newcomer on the scene. Danger gets his first look at the young boy too and can't make a single noise as his eyes bug out at the sight.
The skinny kid is dressed in a blue, red, and silver uniform. He stands unafraid before Time Jerker, who's enjoying the moment far too much to act on anything. The Kid seems almost as stunned to see Danger as Danger is to see him. "Who're you?" Kid Danger asks Danger, unaware of how out of place and time he is. "What the butt is going on?"
(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...)
"Danger?" AWOL questions.
"What are you doing out here?" Volt explodes at him.
Danger can't respond still staring at his younger self.
"Woah!" Brainstorm says, "What is happening? How're they both…? Danger and Kid Danger?"
"What?" Kid Danger asks.
"You're Kid Danger!" Brainstorm says.
"Yeah; and who're you people?" Kid Danger asks, "And why do you have a monkey?"
"Oh, this is Blue." Brainstorm introduces. "We're Danger Force."
"Danger Force?" Kid Danger questions.
"Brainstorm! Is that really what's important right now?" Shoutout asks.
Brainstorm looks confused. "Danger: incapacitated. Time Jerker: attacking." Volt reminds.
"I am not incapacitated!" Danger protests. He leans heavily on Shoutout for support.
Danger Force all frown unimpressed at him. "That's good to know. To me it looks like you've just about run out of time." Time Jerker says.
Danger glares annoyed at the villain. "I'm fine."
"Oh, so we're using that word again." Volt derides. She gets a glare too.
"You do look pretty awful, dude." Kid Danger says to Danger.
"Thanks" Danger says sarcastically.
"And also, will someone explain to me who you people are, why you're in Swellview, what is going on here, and how I got pulled from the Mancave to the Pretty in Purple dress store's window?" Kid Danger says with a gesture to the smashed window.
"Uh… that's a little complicated." AWOL says.
"And an excellent question." Shoutout comments, turning to Time Jerker to ask, "How exactly did you do that?"
Time Jerker laughs, "Why, with time, obviously."
"Yeah, obviously, Time Jerker," Volt rolls her eyes, "But you haven't done it like this before. So?"
"He's got a new blaster," Danger explains. "He shot me with it."
His team glance curiously from him to the blaster. "And this Kid Danger, what? Came out of you?" AWOL asks.
"Yes. Yes." Time Jerker cheers. "My temporal extractor locked onto his DNA when I shot him and pulled his younger self from exactly five years in the past. I thought it would be easier to kill a younger version of him. Looking at the pair of them now, I think I might've been wrong."
"Alright, I'm a little injured right now, but could you all just shut up about it?" Danger grumbles.
"A little?" Volt questions.
"What did I just say?" Danger asks her, she frowns back stubbornly.
"Wait, are you saying you pulled me from five years in the past?" Kid Danger asks. "By using his DNA?" he asks pointing to and staring at Danger with the expression of unwanted comprehension. "Does that mean that he… that we…?
"Yes. Welcome to the future, Kid Danger." Time Jerker aims his weapon, "See the failure you've become: this mess of a hero."
Kid Danger and Danger eye each other intensely. "You're me?" Kid Danger asks astonished.
"Uh… yeah." Danger says.
"Yes, indeed. Now its time for you to die, so these fools and all they've done to me may be removed from my past." Time Jerker says and comes barelling down towards the Kid.
"Nope!" Kid Danger yelps and dodges the incoming villain with inhuman speed.
"Woah!" AWOL says.
"That was so cool!" Brainstorm agrees.
"Hypermotility." Danger notes with a nostalgic edge to his voice.
"We should get you outta here." Brainstorm says.
"Both of him." Shoutout agrees.
Brainstorm shrugs, "Looks to me like Kid him is okay."
"You heard Time Jerker," she says, "He trying to kill him to reset the timeline."
"Yeah. What does that mean?" Brainstorm asks.
"It means, unless we keep Kid Me alive and find a way to get him back to his proper time, everything we know will cease to exist." Danger says. "If Kid Danger disappears or dies at age fifteen, the whole world will change."
"And Danger Force will most certainly not exist." Shoutout adds.
"That sounds bad." Brainstorm says.
"Yeah." Danger nods seriously, "So, go stop Time Jerker from killing him…me."
Kid Danger turns to look curiously at Brainstorm coming up beside him. Unfortunately, he does so at the wrong moment and is brushed by Time Jerker's club. "Woah!" he shouts, ducking away from the brunt of the swing.
He spins around and brings his leg up to roundhouse kick the villain in the side.
"Nice move!" Brainstorm cheers him.
"Thanks." Kid Danger nods and says, "Watch this."
He proceeds to punch Time Jerker many times with Hypermotility speed. "Awesome!" Brainstorm says
"I know. It's my new superpower and it's so cool!" Kid Danger enthuses.
"Ooo! Watch what I can do." With effort, Brainstorm uses his telekinesis to lift the blaster out of Time Jerkers hand and float it out of reach over his head.
Kid Danger's eyes bug and he looks back and forth between Brainstorm and the floating weapon. "You have telekinesis?!"
Brainstorm nods, "And a monkey!" Blue jumps up to catch the blaster out of the air.
Time Jerker curses at the capuchin but turns his anger towards the heroes. "I am going to stop all your clocks." He threatens.
"Oh god, stop with the dumb time puns." Volt says and shoots a small zap of electricity at him.
Kid Danger watches it come from her in awe and says, "Okay, you guys really need to explain to me who you are. You know, after we've beaten Time Jerker's butt."
"Beaten me?" Time Jerker says, "I brought you here to kill you." He swings his club down forcefully at the young sidekick.
"Not gonna happen!" Danger asserts and expands his forcefield to surround himself, Danger Force and his younger self. It stops between the Kid and Time Jerker, knocking them both backwards and off their Jerker's club ricochets off the green barrier and flys out of his hands.
"Woah!" Kid Danger exclaims. "What the butt?"
Danger groans in pain and drops painfully to his knees at the same time he drops the shield.
"Danger!" Volt and AWOL exclaim. Shoutout kneels beside him, supporting him.
"Ow!" Time Jerker complains, getting back to his feet. "That hurt!"
"Yeah." Danger grunts in agreement.
"Well, maybe if you didn't try a forcefield so big when you haven't done a full one in a month." Shoutout berates, hoisting him off his fractured knee.
"AWOL take Kid Me to the Man's Nest!" Danger commands over her fretting.
"AWOL take both of them to the Man's Nest!" Shoutout counters the order and rushes to join the fight.
AWOL does as he's told, grabbing hold of Kid Danger, despite the Kid's protests and disappears with him. They reemerge next to Danger a moment later, Kid Danger looking pale and dizzy. AWOL grabs ahold of Danger and teleports again. Both Henry Harts fall over once they've reached the Man's Nest.
"What the heck was that!?" the younger asks.
"Oohhh, that did not feel good." The older says, sprawled on the floor.
"Sorry man." AWOL says. He hovers concerned over him. "You okay?"
"Yeah." Henry groans and sits up laboriously. "Peachy."
"Miles?" Schwoz asks, "Henry!" he shouts concerned seeing the injured young man on the floor. "Henry?!" he exclaims more shocked seeing the kid version standing to the side.
"Schwoz?" Kid Henry says in relieved recognition, taking a few steps nearer to the familiar face, "Will you please tell me what's happening? Where are we?" he asks looking around, eyes stalling on the panoramic windows and beyond them.
"What happened?" Schwoz asks, tearing his stunned gaze from the young boy to the others. "What is he doing here?" Kid Henry throws up his hands behind Schwoz's back and shakes his head at having his questions ignored.
"Time Jerker jerked him out of his time," Miles says. "Can you find a way to send him back?"
"Possibly." Schwoz says. "Can you get me whatever Time Jerker used to bring him here?"
"I can try," Schwoz says.
"Then, I should have no problem." Schwoz says.
"Great, the others are still out fighting; I've got to go back out and help. But, before I do, help me get this idiot on the couch and make sure he's not re-injured himself." Miles nods at the older Henry.
Henry, the older, rolls his eyes furiously. "I'm fine. I can get to the couch by myself." He denies their help. When he tries to stand his knee gives out and he cannot very well catch himself, which in turn sends waves of pain through the rest of him, coalescing into sharp, furious aches in the worst injuries. He groans.
"Really?" Miles questions sarcastically, "Because it looks to me like you're going to fall on your face." Henry reluctantly lets them help him to the couch. "There you go." Miles patronizes, getting a sour frown from Henry. "Schwoz, keep an eye on him… and the other him." he says pointing to Kid Danger wandering around the room looking at everything curiously. "I'll be back soon."
The younger Henry startles at the flash of yellow. "So, he can teleport?" he asks.
"Yep." The older Henry says.
"Okay. And who is he? Where did he come from? And all those other heroes, Danger Force, or whatever it was? Who're they?" Kid Henry asks dramatically gesturing. Before the older Henry or Schwoz can answer he's going on. "Also, what is this place? It's got a lot of stuff that looks like the Mancave, except it's not all cavey and underground. Am I really in the future? Are you really an older me? I mean I can kinda see it; if I ignore the haircut and the weird costume and all the injuries, you do look like me. But what…?"
"Henry!" Henry the older finally gets his younger's attention. Kid Henry looks at him and stops whatever question was going to come out of his mouth next. "Calm down, dude. Yes, I am you, except older and more handsome."
"Hey!" Kid Henry says.
"Sorry, but that haircut is so early twenty tens." Henry the older says.
Kid Henry nods, "I'm not the one with all the bruises and cuts on my face. What happened to you… or to me… or us?" he sorts through the pronouns unsurely. "Whichever it is I should say. Why are you so injured? What happened?"
Older Henry sighs irritably, "Drex happened."
"Drex!?" Kid Henry says, "He beat you up!?"
"He nearly killed him." Schwoz corrects.
"But, I can take Drex. I spanked him and froze him in a machine like a week ago." Kid Henry argues. "How did he get you so bad? You've gotta be better at fighting than me, you're way older."
"Kid, calm down." Henry the older repeats.
"How am I supposed to calm down? This is totally freaky; and probably the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. Which is saying a lot." Kid Henry gushes.
Henry the older raises placating hands, "I get that. But honestly, this is not the weirdest things that has happened to me."
"Pretty close though." Schwoz comments.
"Not really." Henry argues, "I've time travelled several times; I met a younger me once, though he was only twenty minutes younger not five years. I've also met a future version of Piper who's the leader of a rebel army fighting against alien robots that look like kids. I've been to multiple other dimensions, been trapped in a curse that made me sing and dance uncontrollably, defeated a computer virus that sneezes and been infused with butterfly DNA so you could win a bet on scaring me."
"Oh yeah." Schwoz says, tilting his head in consideration and amusement.
"What?!" Kid Henry asks.
"Yeah. That's not even the half of it. Your life does not get any less weird going forward." Henry spoils for himself. "And it only gets more complicated and exhausting."
"Great." Kid Henry says hopelessly. "Any good news? Do I at least have a hot girlfriend? Or is my future just an awful mess."
"Uh… no girlfriend… right now. But it's not all that bad, most of the time. You're a famous superhero. You have your own team that you're the boss of. Who mostly follow your orders," Henry the older says.
"What about Ray?" Kid Henry asks. Henry the older carefully ignores the question and the immediate reaction of his heart thumping forcefully.
He goes on saying, "At least they do when they're not acting all protective and bossy, like right now. Which is super annoying, and I wish everyone would stop it!" Henry the older directs the last part at Schwoz with a pointed tone.
"We wouldn't be so annoying if you'd just do as your told." Schwoz responds bringing a scanner of some kind to run over Henry the older, checking on his injuries.
"You expect me to sit still at home after Miles tells me Drex is dead?" Henry the older retorts angrily. "Fat chance. Since none of you seem inclined to tell me what's going on, I had to go find out for myself. I was on my way to where Miles had said they found Drex's body when I ran into Time Jerker."
"We didn't want you to worry about it, you are supposed to be on a break while you recover." Schwoz says.
"Drex is dead?!" Kid Henry disrupts the argument.
Schwoz sighs, giving into the pressure of two Henry's identically seeking gazes on him. "Yes. Drex is dead;" Henry the older sighs in clear relief, at least until Schwoz says, "and it looks like Shadow Man might've been the one who killed him." Then, Henry the older goes pale and speechless.
"Who?" Kid Henry asks. Henry the older hesitates. Kid Henry presses the issue with, "Who or what is a Shadow Man?"
Letting it soak in a moment more before answering, Henry the older says, "The only villain I've ever hated more than Drex." Kid Henry's curiosity peaks. "We don't know who he is or how he does anything, the only description we've got comes from Danger Force who said he was a shadow, so that's what we call him."
Kid Henry nods, "If he's a villain, why would he have killed Drex?"
"Who knows?" Schwoz says, "Who knows why he does anything? He killed…" he stops and changes his sentence when Henry the older gives him a small warning headshake, "…all those people, who were pretty good people. Then he led Danger Force to where Drex had you, saving your life; you would've died if we'd found you any later. And now he's killed Drex. I cannot find a logic to his actions."
"This Shadow Man is supposed to be a really bad villain? But he killed Drex and saved your life?" Kid Henry asks his elder. "How does that make sense?"
"Exactly." Henry the older says.
"We don't know how." Schwoz says. "We're looking for the answers: who Shadow Man is, how he's killing any of his victims, let alone those who possess powers of indestructibility, or why he's doing it. But Dr. Denouement can't even do an autopsy because Drex's powers remain though he's died. So, we're really lacking on ways to answer any of them."
"Not that an autopsy would've helped much, right? None of the others seem to have." Henry the older points out bleakly.
"'Drex's powers'? 'Those who possess the power of indestructibility'?" Kid Henry asks.
"Er, right. Drex is indestructible." Henry the older explains. "After he escaped the petrifying machine we put him in he went back in time and went through the particle densitizer."
"But wouldn't that have left him with some horrible side effect?" Kid Henry asks. "Isn't Ray the only one who's been able to go through without getting something weird and awful too?"
Schwoz and Henry the older nod, "He got a freaky monster claw hand. Unfortunately, it only made him more formidable."
Kid Henry blinks wordlessly at them for a long moment before asking, "Are you sure I've come to the future? This place sounds more like a messed up alternate universe."
"It's the future." Schwoz promises.
"Really?" Ked Henry doubts, "This isn't my headquarters, I work in a cave a half-mile underground, not on top of a mountain with a window overlooking all of Swellview."
"This is our new base," Henry the older explains. "The Mancave was destroyed."
Kid Henry looks astonished then frightened. He interrogates, "What about my team? Ray? Charlotte? Jasper? Where are they? Why do you have Danger Force instead of them?"
The older nods calmingly with the questions, "Charlotte and Jasper are in college; they only help on occasion. We took the kids on after they accidentally got superpowers while helping us out." He shrugs, "Life keeps going, even superhero teams change. Sometimes people have to move on."
Kid Henry frowns and glances around worriedly, "So, then, where did Ray…?" A flash of yellow brings Danger Force into the room. "Jeez!"
"I got the Temporal Extractor." AWOL cheers. "So, how do we use this to send the little Henry back to his own time?"
"Let me see it." Schwoz scrambles out of his chair to take the weapon away and examine it.
"Little?" Kid Henry asks offended, standing up to face Miles. "I'm taller than you."
"Not really." Miles says, "And we have to call you something to distinguish you from the Henry we already have. You're definitely little compared to him."
"No, I'm not, he's only got an inch or two on me," Kid Henry protests. "None with his slouching."
"I'm only slouching because I'm injured." Henry the older insists. "I am taller than you, I have grown a few inches since I was fifteen."
"Doesn't mean they can call me 'little Henry'!" the younger boy protests. "I'm Kid Danger! Not some lost little boy in a supermarket."
"Alright!" Henry the older cuts in. "We'll call you Kid Danger or Kid Henry, if you prefer."
"Mmm, I might still call him little," Chapa says.
Kid Henry glares at her annoyed. Henry the older dissuades him from arguing with the advice of, "Ignore her. She was made from the same mold as Piper. The more you fight back, the worse she'll be."
Chapa smirks smugly.
(Commercial Break)
"We lived in Dystopia? That place is a crime ridden toilet, why would we go there?" Kid Henry asks Charlotte and Jasper over the video chat. The Man's Nest and its occupants had been receiving calls nonstop in the hours since the fifteen-year-old hero had been pulled out of the past. Friends and fans alike had been eagerly seeking answers and the opportunity to see the Kid.
"It was an adventure." Jasper says.
"A break from normal life," Charlotte agrees. "And a big step to being qualified adults. We had to figure everything out on our own: money, housing, food, and heroing."
"It was terrifying." Jasper admits.
"Only when the two of you just had to follow the criminals into the shady no-go zones of evil," Charlotte says. "If you would've listened to me, we wouldn't have had to deal with the worst things."
"We were not responsible for the Gore Wraiths!" Jasper protests.
"I stopped going so far after Blackout tried to eat my soul!" Henry argues from across the room as well. He is chatting with Babe at the moment, filling all the Game Shakers interests on the situation.
"What?" Kid Henry asks frightened.
"You don't need to worry about it." Henry the older says.
"Yet." Charlotte amends. "Unless you smart enough to totally avoid it in your future, you will have to worry about it eventually."
"Please, yes, tell me whatever I should know to avoid any stupid things he did." Kid Henry requests pointing over his shoulder to the older Henry.
"Hey!" Henry the older protests.
"How long do you have before Schwoz sends you back?" Charlotte asks, "This'll be a long list."
"I'm not that stupid!" Both Henry's protest together.
Charlotte raises her hands yieldingly but rolls her eyes in disagreement. "If you wanna be warned about what mistakes not to make, I'll tell you. It's not my fault if I can remember more of them than you want me to." Jasper and Babe laugh from their sides of the telephone lines as the two Henrys pout pretty much identically.
Schwoz, from his workstation reconfiguring the Temporal Extractor, laughs as well but gives the contrary remarks of, "It doesn't matter what you tell him anyway, he won't remember any of this, so he's just going to end up doing the same stupid things that our Henry did."
"I didn't do that many stupid things!" Henry the older protests again to seeming deaf ears.
"What do you mean?" Kid Henry asks, turning to Schwoz. "Why wouldn't I remember this?"
"Because you can't," Schwoz says, "You can't go back remembering."
"Why not?" Jasper asks before Kid Henry can.
"Because we can't let him." Schwoz says, "If he goes back knowing anything about the future, he's going to end up changing things. We're going to have to wipe his memory so that he doesn't."
"Wiping my memory?" Kid Henry asks nervously. "I don't really like that idea."
"Seriously, why is wiping everyone's memories the first reaction of you people?" Babe's voice echoes from Henry the older's phone.
"We didn't wipe your memory." Henry reminds her.
"Because I bribed you with a video game." She retorts.
"Well, we can't send Kid Henry back without wiping his memories," Schwoz says.
"Why not? What's the problem with me changing some things? There's gotta be something I could make better. At least I could avoid whatever trap Older Me fell into so Drex could beat me up." Kid Henry proposes. The older tilts his head yieldingly.
"No, knowing too much about the future is dangerous. You might end up causing something to happen that you didn't mean to. In your efforts to fix something that happened, you're just as likely to make them worse." Schwoz explains, putting his stuff down to explain more focused on the Kid.
"But if I know what to change, then won't that mean I'll be able to fight smarter and cause less trouble?" Kid Henry asks. "I could stop some villain before he destroys something; or save people's lives by knowing about a catastrophe before it happens."
"It doesn't work like that." Schwoz says. "Any tiny change you make can alter things far greater than seems possible." Kid Henry looks dubious and confused.
"Schwoz is right. You've time traveled before, you know how it can mess things up." Henry the older explains thinking deeply back. "You… I… we went through Time Jerker's time portal the first time I… we fought him, and we ended up living that day over again. We changed things like the whole nest of bees stinging us and Piper's stupid cake prank trying to scare us, even though we were just trying to make it a better day for ourself and it didn't make sense, those kinds of actions changed things for everyone around us too. Charlotte didn't get into LIMP, Jasper's project got broken and had to go to the hospital to have all the toothpicks removed from his face." Kid Henry nods while Charlotte and Jasper protest that those things hadn't ever happened. "We had to go back in time again to fix everything we'd messed up, and still things ended up a little different, we couldn't put everything back exactly the way it was."
"You never told me that story." Jasper complains.
"But we also used the time travel to beat Time Jerker." Kid Henry argues. "If I was careful about not changing everything else, I could do some good. Couldn't I?"
"You would have to know every detail about every day for the next five years to do that." Charlotte argues.
"And even if you did, you could still slip up and do something to mess things up. It's too big of a risk." Schwoz agrees with her. "I'm sorry, Henry."
"So, you're going to wipe my brain?" Kid Henry asks with a frown. "How is that better? The memory wiper will wipe all my memories, I do need to know who I am and everything that's happened up to the point I got pulled here in order for your past and my future to happen."
"The memory wiper could be adjusted." Charlotte says disapprovingly, "Schwoz just thought it was funny to erase people's entire brains."
Schwoz cackles darkly, "It was."
"That doesn't matter anyway," Henry the older says. "The memory wiper was destroyed."
"Ee… right," Schwoz hums. "I'll have to come up with another way to erase Kid Henry's memories."
"Your guys' methods are a little messed up." Babe comments dryly.
"So are our situations." Henry the older asserts.
"No kidding." She responds dryly.
"Well, I guess it makes sense," Kid Henry admits. "Seeing this future, it does seem like nothing bad enough has happened to risk me messing up the timeline. So, if that's true, then okay, I guess I'll let you take away the memories you have to. I'll just feel bad forgetting all the cool stuff here: like Charlotte being a cyborg, and me leading my own team, and the video games my pretty friend from New York has made about me." His grievances get laughs from his friends.
(Commercial Break)
Danger Force come bursting into the Man's Nest excitedly after school. Charlotte, Jasper and Babe have to hang up to go on with their days. An emergency call comes in sending Danger Force and Kid Danger, who'd begged to go with, out to stop a shoe fight at the uptown boutique of Heart and Sole.
The five young teenagers come out of the shop laughing and laden with one or more box each of new shoes, a thank you gift from the owner for stopping the fight. Outside the street is crowded with peoples and cameras, so many the heroes find it impossible to move, remaining in the doorway. Cheers of elation blast them from every direction, prompting Shoutout to cover her ears defensively. "What the butt!?" Kid Danger asks in complete shock.
"Why are there so many people out here?" AWOL asks, equally amazed.
"I have no idea." Brainstorm says.
It takes them a moment of listening hard for them to make out the words being cheered by most of the crowd. "Kid Danger!" "Oh my god, it's really him!" "Kid Danger!"
"I guess we're walking with a celebrity now." Volt says
"Aren't we all kind of celebrities?" Brainstorm asks, waving at the crowd.
"I'm not this famous. What is wrong with them?" Kid Danger asks. "They see me all the time, right? I am a superhero still."
"Well, yes." Shoutout says, "But as famous as Danger is, and he really is these last few months, you, fifteen-year-old Kid Danger, came out of time which should be an impossibility. No one ever expected you to show up."
"Kid Danger! Kid Danger!" one voice calls more aggressively loud than the rest. Brian Bender and his news crew are trying to push through the crowd.
"He looks eager for an interview." Volt scoffs. "Are you ready for your closeup?"
"I mean, sure." Kid Danger says, waving friendly at the cameras. The crowd goes all the wilder at his acknowledgement.
"Kid Danger!" Brian calls, "Can you tell us how it is that you are here?!"
"Uh, Time Jerker!" he calls back.
"When did you come from? What's it like coming into your future?" Brian asks. "What do you think of Swellview now? And of your older self? And Danger Force?"
"Um…They're great." Kid Danger says with a shrug and a bashful smile.
"Are you going to be staying here?" Brian asks, pressing forward more to get his microphone right up in Kid Danger's face.
"Uh, no. I'm only here until our science guy can reverse the effect and send me back to my time." Kid Danger says.
The whole crowd gives a great rolling "Aww!"
"How soon will that be?" Brian asks.
"Uh, I don't know." Kid Danger says, "Probably soon. It shouldn't take him long to fix it."
"That's too bad." Brian says, "But it makes a great story. What're you going to do with your one day in the future?"
"Well, I just stopped a shoe fight." Kid Danger says, "I don't know what else. Is there anything really cool that's changed in the last five years that I should check out?"
"Oh well… um… let me think." Brian says.
"Have you been to the memorial?" Someone in the crowd asks.
"The memorial? What memorial" Kid Danger shakes his head.
"The Captain Man and Kid Danger memorial!" Brian latches onto the subject. "Up on the slopes of Mount Swellview below the Man's Nest. First made when we all thought you were dead…"
"Wait, what?" Kid Danger asks in response, glancing at Danger Force curiously, not getting why they all look suddenly nervous.
Despite their sudden alarm they don't stop Brian before he rambles on with, "…redone for Captain Man's funeral. It's a magnificent…"
"What?" Kid Danger asks taken aback. "What did you just say?"
"Which part? About Captain Man's funeral or when we thought you were dead?" Brian asks.
"Captain Man's what?" Kid Danger asks, numbness spreading at the words. He turns to Danger Force. "What does he mean: Captain Man's funeral?"
"Uhh…" Shoutout blinks.
"We should go." AWOL says.
"What is he talking about? Captain Man's funeral?" Kid Danger repeats more distressed
"Oh." Brian says, "Did you not know that part yet?"
"Know what?" the Kid demands defiantly. The crowd still chatters around them, most not knowing what is happening at the front, but the solemnity of the moment slowly filters back as the rumors are passed.
Danger Force look guilty and solemn. "We should go." AWOL says again, grabbing hold of Kid Danger, the rest of them latching onto him, and teleports them away.
"Wait! No! tell me what's going on." Kid Danger commands as they vanish and then reappear in the Man's Nest.
"Hey! How'd it go?" Henry the older asks, "Schwoz finished repurposing the Temporal Extractor to send Kid Me back."
"I- I'm sorry," Mika shakes her head at the younger Henry, ignoring the older. "You weren't supposed to find out this way."
"Where is Ray?" Kid Henry asks.
"He-he died." She admits smally.
Literally and figuratively, Henry recoils from the news. "No." he says and backs away, right into his older self, who has stood up in his own alarm at hearing the conversation. Schwoz too had stopped his work to listen.
"What happened?" Henry the older asks, steadying his miniature.
"Where's Ray?" Kid Henry demands of the older. Older Henry looks shocked and dismayed at the question, taking in the Kid Henry's teary, terrified face and Danger Force's worried and guilty ones. "Where is Ray?" Kid Henry enunciates. "Where is he? Why are you the boss now?"
Henry the older pales grief stricken and looks to his team for an explanation. "You told him?"
"Brian Bender was talking about the memorial. We didn't mean to." Mika says while crying.
"Where is he?" Kid Henry demands again. "Tell me! Tell me they're lying! He's not dead! Where is he?"
Danger blinks repeatedly and looks down to his kid-self with grief and apologies. "I wasn't going to tell you. I thought we could get you back before you found out."
"No." Kid Henry rejects. "It's not true."
"He's gone, Kid." Henry the older says, holding Kid Henry's shoulder and holding the kid's eyes though he doesn't want to. He understands, he hates facing it himself. It still hurts more than he feels he can bear.
Kid Henry pushes the older's grip off and says, "D-don't call me Kid. Stop saying he's dead! He's not! He can't be dead, he's Captain Man, he's indestructible."
"So was Drex." Chapa says sullenly. "It doesn't matter with Shadow Man. He can kill them; he did kill them."
"No." Kid Henry denies, as if he can escape the awful truth. "That's not possible."
"You think we want it to be true?" the older Henry asks in broken breaths. He too is wet from tears, shaking, and looking entirely as grief-stricken as the kid who just found out about it. Shaking his head, he wipes his eyes and runs his hand over his hair. "I'd do anything to get him back." He sobs.
"He can't…." Kid Henry says, breathing shakily. "He can't be dead, that's not fair. He's Captain Man! He supposed to live a long time, I met the old him from fifty years in the future!"
"Henry." Schwoz says, "I'm sorry, but he's gone."
"But- but…" Kid Henry looks about fervently searching for some kind of answer, blinking the tears away as best as he can. "He can't just be dead. There has to be a way to save him."
"There's not," Henry the older says, doing his best to stifle his tears, and failing spectacularly when his voice cracks. "There is nothing you can do."
"Yes, there is! I can! I- I'm from the past, where Ray is still alive." Kid Henry says, "I can do it. I can save him, if I know what to… how to. You're going to send me back to my time anyway. So, I just have to know what to change to keep him alive."
Everyone else looks at him speechless. The reactions vary greatly from surprised, contemplative, and hopeful on the faces of all of Danger Force to the reluctant and forlorn on Henry the older and Schwoz.
"You mean once you go back, you can change the past and Ray will never have died in the first place?" Bose asks.
"Yes!" Kid Henry says. "I just need to know how."
"No. You can't go back with your memories." Henry the older reminds. "It's not safe."
"You said there wasn't a good enough reason to risk me going back with my memories. This is a good enough reason!" Kid Henry contends.
Henry, his eyes downcast, a guarded sorrow locked behind them, quietly tells his younger self, "You can't."
"Yes, I can!" Kid Henry shouts. "I can figure it out. This isn't about fixing a bad day! This is to save Ray's life!"
"No!" Henry the older says.
Kid Henry looks stressed and betrayed. "But Ray! I have to save him! Don't you want that?!"
Henry the older frowns wretchedly back. "Of course, I want that! But… we can't."
"I thought you said you'd do anything to get him back?" Kid Henry throws.
The older Henry's lip trembles guiltily. He struggles to speak, at war with himself. "I…"
"Who cares about the risk?" Kid Henry argues. "It's all worth it to save Ray! Whatever the cost, if I have to have a thousand bad days to get it. If I have to give up being his sidekick; I'd do anything, as long as he'll be okay."
Older Henry tilts his head away and struggles to breathe; it feels as difficult to do so now as it had when he'd had fluid in it from the beating and Drex had been literally choking him. More than anything, he doesn't want to be saying this, to force this reality, this truth onto himself, especially not his fifteen-year-old self. He wants to tell the kid to go back and do whatever it takes to save Ray, and take whatever consequences come. But he knows he can't. Shaking too much to stay on his feet and speak at the same time, he sits. "Do you really think the cost will be something you can live with?"
"I don't care about the cost." Kid Henry tries to argue.
"And what if the cost is someone else's life? Your parent's, your sister's, Charlotte's, Jasper's? What if to save Ray, you have to trade his life for another? Or what if it's all of them? Can you choose that?" Schwoz lectures painfully.
"I…" the little Henry looks so distraught. "You don't know that. I can fix it."
"Even if it's a stranger's life, you can't risk it." Schwoz says woefully, "You can't change anything. You can't save him."
Kid Henry sobs furiously and says, "I can't just go back and let him die."
"You won't remember. I made this," the scientist says, showing them a small green pill. "It'll wipe your memories from the past twenty-four hours." Schwoz holds it out to the younger Henry.
Kid Henry scowls reluctantly at the offending pill. He makes no move to take it.
"What if he can do something?" Miles asks, "Can't we just let him try?"
Five pairs of young teenage eyes land on Henry the older pleading. He doesn't speak. "It's not a good idea." Schwoz pipes in.
Kid Henry glances at him then back at Henry the older. That Henry answers the imploring stare. "You know the risks. Make your choice, Kid. It's all on you."
Kid Henry looks at him with a frown, surprised and unsure. He looks back at the pill in Schwoz's proffered hand. "I'm not taking that." he says.
"Henry…" Schwoz tries to argue.
"Just send me home Schwoz. I don't want to be in this future anymore." Kid Henry says.
Schwoz looks to Henry the older anxiously. That Henry looks away, feeling too much. Against his better judgement, he shoots the time-ray at Kid Henry and the Kid vanishes from that time.
Henry sits heavily on the couch once the Kid disappears, face pressed in his hands miserably.
"How do we find out if he did it? If he saved Ray?" Bose asks.
"Shouldn't everything around us change with the timeline?" Mika asks looking around.
"It should." Schwoz nods. They all look around. "Nothing looks different. I don't know what…"
Henry gasps miserably, a strange old, or maybe it's new, memory coming to his mind, finally understood. A wave of unassailable guilt washes through him.
"Henry?" Bose asks.
Henry doesn't respond, his whole team gathers around him concerned but he doesn't say a thing. Somehow, the younger him had been convinced to let Ray die. Maybe it'd been him, this him who'd done it. Regardless, it's his fault. He'd let Ray die. Henry sobs uncontrollably, lost in his own despondent mind, overwhelmed by the many months' worth of emotional turmoil trapped inside him. He continues to deteriorate for a long while, his friends watching helpless and confused.
Next Episode: S1E17: Thanksgiving Takeout