Here's the next episode. I don't have much to say today. Read and review, I love to hear from you. Hope you all enjoy!
Danger S1E18: Zombkinis
December 8, 2021
Henry slouches in the stiff plastic chair until his head rests on the back of it, forcing his neck to bend uncomfortably. It is anything but alleviating. He's horridly bored at the same time as very anxious. The computer screen above him ticks down another moment on the countdown; seventeen more minutes until he can board the plane; after that another four-ish hours in the sky. Henry hums glumly and shifts again.
Finally, he is doing it: taking a break. After Thanksgiving, he really had hit the wall and allowed himself to be convinced to leave for a while to recuperate. Swellview, crimefighting, and even Shadow Man are on the back burner for the next few days. He will be in New York, relaxing and being distracted by the Game Shakers; it's the only place he feels he can go to escape the Danger side of his life.
The airport around him bustles with people and their luggage. The noise level is at no less than twelve, impossible to ignore while being totally incomprehensible save for the occasional shouts that echo at double the volume. Henry leans his head on his hand, elbow propped on the thin plastic armrest of the chair. Looking for something to do he pulls out his phone and composes a text to Babe.
She sends a sarcastic frowning emoji in response to his complaints. Then a longer text with flirty words and questions confirming when he'll be flying in.
"What's that?" a little girl's voice asks nearby him. Henry ignores it, believing it has nothing to do with him, and sends Babe a response. "Hey!" the little girl's voice speaks again, right next to him and a little finger pokes his shoulder.
Henry looks over in startled surprise at the child. She is small and dressed in a little white ballerina costume, her brown hair pulled back in piggy tails with matching white bows, her bright blue eyes seem almost too big as she stares at him. "What?" he asks her.
"What is on you?" she asks her question again, pointing at the three remaining splints on the fingers of his right hand.
He glances at them, "Finger Splints."
"Oh," she says, though likely still not knowing what they are. "Why do you have them?"
"So that my fingers can heal correctly." Henry responds, deciding to humor her for a minute.
"They're owie?" the little girl goes on with a curious frown directed at his fingers.
"Uh, yeah." Henry answers. "They're broken."
"How'd you breaked them?" she asks.
"Car accident." He answers automatically.
"You crashed?" she asks blue eyes going all the wider in fearful surprise.
"Yeah," he nods and quickly diverts the topic by asking her, "Where are your parents?" Henry asks looking around and seeing no one watching him and the little girl. "Are they looking for you?"
The little girl shakes her head. "Momma's getting food." She points towards the little café across the way.
Henry raises an eyebrow. "She left you alone at the gate?"
"No. There's lotsa people here!" the little girl argues.
Henry frowns. "Well, how 'bout you stay with me until your mom comes back?"
"Okay!" she says and climbs into the empty chair beside him.
"What's your name?" Henry asks her.
"I Maribel." She says pointing proudly and puffing up her chest. "Who's you name?"
"I'm Henry." He introduces and holds out a hand to shake hers.
She giggles as they shake hands and declares just after that, "I like you, Henry."
"Thanks," he smirks. "You're pretty cool yourself. So, are you going on an airplane?"
She nods exuberantly. "We go flying to vation place."
"Vacation? That's cool." Henry says. "Where are you going?"
"New apples!" she says and bounces.
Henry smiles confused as he tries to figure out what she means. "New apples?" he questions.
She nods then stops. "No. New big apples place thing." She hums trying to sort the name out right for herself. "Says on TV." She points up at the screen.
"New York?" Henry checks.
She shakes her head and insists, "Is apple place."
"The Big Apple," Henry nods at her, "that's another name they call New York."
"Yeah! That is!" she cheers.
Henry smiles and nods. "I'm going there too, my friends live there."
"Momma got work friends we see. And Momma say we get new dresses in fancy stores." Henry chuckles at her enthusiasm. "And I see you there!?" Maribel asks hopefully.
"Maybe," Henry shrugs. "I'll be with my friends at their video-game company but maybe we'll run into each other."
"Please, please, please!" she nods.
"Bel? Maribel?" a woman's voice calls from nearby.
"Here Momma!" Maribel calls.
The woman turns and comes over to the pair, casting Henry a suspicious look. "Bel, what're you doing? I told you to wait over there with the luggage." She chastises.
"I is meeting Henry." Maribel explains.
Henry takes a moment before speaking, surprised to recognize the long dark hair and displeased expression of the woman. "Evelyn Hall?" he asks.
She raises an exquisitely sculpted eyebrow. "Do I know you?" she asks.
He blinks, "No, no. But you used to be the KLVY field reporter."
"You watched the news? I thought your generation didn't do that." Evelyn says.
He glances around uncomfortably, "Well, sometimes I watched it, especially when it was about Captain Man and Kid Danger, which you covered a lot. You kind of dated Captain Man once. … Er, right?"
Evelyn flushes irritably and crosses her arms. "I went on a few dates with him, that's it. And it was awful, he was bad at communicating and uncommitted to anything but himself."
Henry tries not to smirk at the silly old memory. "Momma don't like Captain Man." Maribel says. "She say he ruin her wedding."
"Maribel!" Evelyn scolds her daughter.
Henry pauses and thinks, "Did he crash or something?" Henry is sure he'd have heard that story and if not, it'd be because Ray was embarrassed, which makes Henry only want to hear it more.
Evelyn glares. "I never had a wedding and it's all his fault."
"What?" Henry asks. "How?"
"It's not any of your business. Excuse us, we need to go." Evelyn says and picks up Maribel to carry her away. Maribel complains as she's taken but Evelyn takes no heed, just scolds the girl again for having left her place. Henry follows them curiously with his eyes. What could Ray have done to mess up Evelyn's engagement to her camera man?
The time winds down towards their chance to board the plane. They're mere minutes away when a chorus of screaming works its way down the hall. The noise is very different from the endless chatter of normal airport goings; it's fully terrified and confused. Henry, Evelyn and all the other people around them turn to look in the direction it's coming from, asking, "What the…?" None can glean an understanding from what they're seeing. Several dozen people are dancing in a group down near the security check. A flash mob? Except they're not dancing in sync, the number of people in the crowd seems to be swelling, and the rest of the people are running hard away from them.
The first of the runners fly past the peoples waiting at the gate, yelling at the rest of them to run too. The mob of dancers soon follows and they all get to see the problem as one man steps towards them to ask what's going on and is set upon by several of the dancers, only to come out of it dancing and with a dazed expression that the rest of the crowd seems to share. "What the…?" several people again question. The Man's companions move toward him to see what's wrong and receive the same fate of dazed dancing. The rest of the people quickly pick up that they should not engage the dancers and they run.
Henry gets up too but doesn't make the same dash for safety as the others. He instead limps quickly to find a place to blow a bubble. He emerges from the bathroom after his short moment of transformation to hear Maribel's voice crying out, "Momma!" He turns to see Evelyn being pulled in by the dancing mob. Maribel has been knocked to the floor just in front of them and is getting up to run for her mother. Henry steels himself and makes a mad dash to scoop up the toddler before she is taken by the mob as well. They stop by crashing into a closet and slamming the door behind them.
Henry cradles Maribel and breathes tightly through his teeth as he holds the door closed with his back and rides the waves of pain from his remaining injuries. Maribel is screaming and squirming while Henry tries to hold onto her. "Let go! Let me go! Momma!" she cries fearfully.
"Stop!" he begs, "Hold still! Calm down! You're fine! Mari-!" he is cuts off, and nearly loses his tongue as her foot catches his lower jaw with a surprisingly strong kick. "Ugh!"
She stops almost immediately as she does it and asks, "Henry?"
"Ow. Mari." he complains rubbing his bruising jaw.
"Henry!?" she repeats and wiggles up to lay against his chest. "Is you Henry?"
"Yes," he assures. "It's me, It's Henry."
"But you is superhero- Danger." She notes.
"Yeah," He says. "I'm Danger, that's what you should call me right now, okay?"
"Okay," she says, sniffling. "What the peoples do to Momma?"
"I don't know," he replies. "I don't know what's happening. We're going to wait a few minutes, then find a way out of here." She nods.
He opens the door a crack to peak out, the dancing mob is still making their way through the hall. Once they've moved on far enough away down the hall, he dares to open the door. Seeing the way clear he picks up Maribel and runs as fast as he can in the other direction. "Danger!" someone calls out from off to the side, a flight attendant ducked behind a podium. Danger is first startled, then relieved to see she too is not dancing. He diverts to duck behind the podium with her.
Another attendant is tucked behind there as well. Danger collapses beside them, already gasping for air. "Are you two alright?" he asks.
They nod. "None of them came to check back here. What is wrong with them?"
"I wish I knew," he chokes. "I need to connect with Danger Force, my team will be able to help." The ladies nod. "We need to get out of here and take anyone else still normal with us." They agree.
"Let me carry the girl." The first flight attendant offers, hands held out for Maribel.
"Thank you." Danger nods.
"No!" Maribel protests and clings to him.
"Yes, Mari." He instructs. "I can't carry you and run fast. You need to go to her. It's okay." The little girl pouts and protests but clings to the woman as the little group runs away as fast as they can.
(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 braces himself against the side of the airport shuttlebus as they speed through the streets, the multitudes of dancing Swellviewians seeming single minded in their pursuit of the small group of unaffected inside the shuttle. His arms are beginning to ache from the flex he's been holding to create a forcefield around the shuttle to protect them. The little Maribel curled up against his side serves as motivation to hold it despite the discomfort.
"Where are we going?" The flight attendant that'd been with him the longest asks from her seat across the aisle.
"Uh…" Danger pants. "Good question, this… whatever it is, isn't as small as I'd hoped. There might be somewhere safe but finding it might be difficult. I need to call Danger Force or Chief Stalwart; they might be able to help." Since he can't grab the phone from his belt while holding the shield he instructs Maribel to. She crawls over him and pulls it out, opening it with ease once he whispers the password to her. He helps her find the right contact and they wait as it rings through.
Chief Stalwart doesn't pick up, so they try Mayor Blithe; she answers with an exclamation of hope. "Danger?!"
"Hi," he starts.
"Hello!" Maribel says over top of him.
The mayor reacts appropriately, asking, "Hello? Who is this?" with a confused and wary tone.
"I Maribel." The little girl introduces. "Who you?"
Danger can't help but chuckle. "I'm the Mayor of Swellview. How did you get this phone?" Mayor Blithe asks, not hearing or not understanding his laughter.
"Danger gave me." Maribel says.
"What? Is he with you?" Mayor Blithe asks.
"Yes." Danger calls, "Mari, can I talk to her?"
"Okay." Mari says and holds the phone up to him.
"Mayor Blithe," he greets, "glad to hear you're not a mindless dancing zombie."
"Funny, Danger Force called them the same thing." She comments and returns the greeting, "Glad to know you're still with us, they said you'd gone out of town."
"I tried," he grumbles. "You've been in contact with Danger Force? Are they with you?"
"No," she says apologetically. "AWOL's been in and out, bringing in other who've not been affected but the rest are at the shelter they set up in Hip Hop Puree."
"Shelter?" he latches on to the helpful information.
"Yes. We have two set up, they're at Hip Hop Puree and I'm at another in City Hall." She tells him. "Where are you?"
"In an airport shuttlebus and on the move. I've got a couple dozen others with me. Do you have room for us? We're closer to City Hall and would love a place to shelter." He asks.
"Of course," she says. "We'll meet you at the front door and I'll call Danger Force to tell them you're almost here, they'll be glad to hear it."
He nods, "Great, we'll be there in like five minutes." The airplane pilot who is driving the bus nods, all the passengers on the shuttle having listened in on the conversation. The phone is hung up and the pilot floors the pedal to get them to the safe haven as quickly as possible.
AWOL meets them outside the hall as soon as they've come to an abrupt stop on the staircase in front of the building. "Hey." He greets.
"Sup?" Danger responds, "Get these people in there as fast as you can."
"On it." AWOL nods. He takes as many of the people from inside the forcefield as he can into the building with him. Then repeats the action a few times to get the rest.
Once inside Danger lets down his forcefield with a breath of relief. It is very short lived, for as soon as he's caught his breath, AWOL, the Mayor and Officer Fulcrum are there to swap stories on the day. It's not a moral booster to hear the level the takeover has reached in such a short time.
"We think Frankini is probably behind this. Shw-" AWOL is saying but cuts the name off, with a look at Mayor Blithe and Officer Fulcrum, "…uh, well, you know who, is tracking him down."
"Great," Danger says, mostly sincere. "Does he have any clue how Frankini's doing it?"
"Not yet." AWOL grimaces looking elsewhere.
Danger nods and sighs, "Alright, we should help him with that, and find anyone else still un-Frankini-Zombified, and protect the shelters to keep the rest of everybody from being turned."
"Already done." AWOL says with amused confidence.
"Excellent. You don't even need me, I'll let you handle everything." Danger rolls his eyes.
"Wish you'd got on that flight?" AWOL teases.
"So bad," Danger doesn't lie. "If Frankini had only waited a few more minutes." He shrugs, "Well, let's get to work. The sooner this is over, the better."
AWOL nods, amusement gone. "Agreed."
Officer Fulcrum cuts in with, "Before you go, you are aware there's a small child on your leg?"
Danger glances down saying, "Yes, this is Maribel, and I'm well aware that she's attached herself to me. It's fine for now, until we go out to fight Frankini."
Not a half an hour later, Danger and Danger Force are assaulting the Swellview Amphitheatre. Frankini is dancing on the stage and cheering at all the zombie-dancers around him. His suit is as loud as his personality.
"So, he's here. But does anyone see a clue as to how he's doing it?" Volt asks. "Cause I don't."
"No machine. Nothing out of the ordinary." Shoutout checks.
"I don't see anything." Brainstorm confirms. "Should we just go get him?"
"It won't be that simple." Volt dissuades.
"And we don't know much about what's going on. We will be risking infection with the dancing-zombie thing." Shoutout makes a case.
Her brother is quick to retort with, "We're not going to learn anything by staying up here. We gotta take action."
"Agreed," Danger say decisively. "We need to get down there but be careful. Don't let him get you with anything. Keep your eyes open. Let's kick his butt and get back to what we were doing before."
"You really did want that break didn't you?" Volt teases.
"Just grab on." Danger retorts.
AWOL takes them to the stage. Frankini starts a bit at the yellow flash of light but greets them excitedly, twirling. "Danger Force! And Danger! I'm so happy to see you! Don't you love my performance?! Isn't it the best thing ever!?"
"Uh no?" Brainstorm answers.
"What is even the point of this?" Shoutout questions.
"For fun!" Frankini says shimmying over to stand closer to them. "Don't you wanna join in?"
Danger gives Frankini the deadest of glares. "We are not going to join in your dancing," he says. "Just tell us what you did to make everyone dance."
"Mmm, nah, I don't really want to," Frankini shrugs and struts fluidly back across the stage. Danger pulls out his laser remote and fires it at Frankini. "OW!" he pouts back at Danger. "Someone's clearly grumpy. What's got you rumpled this time?"
"Just stop the stupid mind-controlled dancy thing." Danger says.
"He's supposed to be on a hot date." AWOL answers at almost the same moment.
"Dude," Danger chastises AWOL.
"Ooo!" Frankini jumps and claps. "That's sweet. Is she somewhere in the city dancing alone right now? 'Cause that's an easy fix, you just gotta go dance with her."
"No! No." Danger waves an aggressively dismissive hand. "There was no date planned. I was just going out of town to hang out with some friends."
"Ooo, I smell denial." Frankini smile is like a shark, his eyes wide and hungry. "Tell me more."
"This is not what we're discussing here!" Danger derails.
"Can we please focus?" Volt agrees. "We're here to tear Frankini and his awful zombie dancing plan to shreds."
Frankini places his hand over his heart dramatically, "Ow, Volt, that stings, going after my dancing like that. I mean, hate me, sure; but you of all people should be able to appreciate my incredible moves. You're the one who once asked me to help you teach the other's your incredible Clikclok dance. You know I'm good."
"Yeah, you're great sweetie," Volt says with the highest level of sarcasm. "But just because you and I have sick moves, doesn't mean the rest of the city does." She splays her hand out to gesture beyond the amphitheater walls. "It's complete torture to watch how horrible it is."
"Hmmm," Frankini stops to consider her. "You're not wrong." He admits, pacing away contemplating. "I could use some more talent in my performance. Maybe like a general to whip the talentless plebes into shape." He smirks, he says turning abruptly. "That's a great idea. Let's do it. Volt?"
She frowns confused at him. "Uh…what?"
"You're gonna be my general!" Frankini says, pulling something from his sequined pocket.
"Uh, no. No, I'm not." She states firmly. "I'm the general who's going to stop your army."
Frankini scrunches his face up. "Mmm. Nah. I like my idea better," he says and throws a small orb that glows with a pinkish lightning at her.
Reacting totally on instinct Volt catches the small object. She stares confused at it in her palm for a minute. "What is that supposed to be?" AWOL asks.
"Is something supposed to happen?" Volt questions looking back up at Frankini with incredulous amusement.
He smirks back animatedly. "Just wait."
Volt glances back down at the gelatinous marble. After a second, it bursts like a popcorn kernel and the rosy sparks erupt from it. Volt freezes entirely as the substance from the orb sinks into the skin in her arm.
"Uh, I don't think that's good." Brainstorm says.
Volt starts trembling, her eyes glazing over and her limbs moving in an unnatural way. Frankini's eyes glint and he sings, "Here we go!"
Volt's movements turn into stiff movements that are clearly dancing. All four of her teammates back away a few steps. "Yeah, nope. Not good." Danger agrees.
"Au contraire." Frankini says. "This feels quite great, doesn't it Volt?"
She smiles vaugely and sways. "Mmm-yeah." She mutters.
"Oh god, she's a zombie! What do we do?" Brainstorm shrieks.
"That's simple, you join her!" Frankini advises. "Volt dear, show your friends what fun they can have if they join our dance."
The same vague smile sits on her face as she turns towards them and raises her hands in dance moves that are growing steadily smoother. "Run! Run!" Shoutout commands as Volt's lightning arcs towards them.
They scatter. "Volt?" Danger calls warily. She zaps at him again with a flourishing spin.
"I'm sorry, Volt's taking a break. This is my general." Frankini gushes leaping across the stage to take place next to her. He orders her, "Go on, get them."
"Move!" Danger orders. The stage becomes a sight of the running and bouncing as the four unaffected heroes dodge away from the attacks of their friend.
"We've got to stop her," Shoutout says, straight up flipping backward to avoid the red lightning. Standing back up she sends a sonic scream back at Volt.
"But we might hurt her." Brainstorm protests.
AWOL shrieks and teleports, barely escaping a blast. "She doesn't care about extending us the same courtesy. And we can't let Frankini use her, so we gotta do what we gotta do. Grab her!" he and his teammates
"Oh, yes, please do." Frankini mutters deviously.
"No!" Danger warns, "Don't touch her, that's how it spreads. We can't let Frankini get control of any more of us."
"Then what do we do?" Shoutout asks near hopelessly.
Danger rolls away from an attack and tackles her away from another. Frankini dances gleefully around in the background cheering, "Yes! Yes! Get them! You're all going to be my back up dancers!"
"We gotta get outta here." Danger says, keeping a hand on Shoutout and moving them around to AWOL.
She looks at him with great pain. "We can't leave her."
"I don't want to," Danger responds shamefully. "But we can't do anything to save her. We don't know what's going on and we're in over our heads. Brainstorm c'mon." He beckons to the boy.
"Uh, no, no." Frankini says far less pleased. "Stop them. Don't let them leave."
Brainstorm frowns as deeply as Shoutout. His delay means the three huddled have to separate and regroup after another attack. They link up around him. "We have to go." Danger repeats to him.
"He's right, buddy. We need to regroup and come back with a plan." AWOL says and grabs hold of Brainstorm. They all disappear in a yellow flash with Frankini whining his displeasure behind them.
They emerge back at City Hall where their remaining allies await with more bad news. "Dangers! Thank goodness you're all back!" Mayor Blithe says frantically, rushing towards them. They look at her in surprise and dismay. "Are you alright?" she asks.
They all cast their sorrowful and guilt-ridden gazes away. Danger sighs, "Things didn't go exactly as we'd hoped. What's wrong here? What happened?"
She looks as guilty as they feel as she tells them, "We got word from Hip Hop Puree a few minutes ago, they've been breached. We don't know if anybody made it out."
"Oh no." Shoutout gasps.
"I'm on it." AWOL says and leaves.
"That's really not good news." Danger says, rubbing his head. "Are we still secure here?"
"Yes." Mayor Blithe nods, "At least for now. I don't know how long we can hold out."
"Is there anyway to keep it safe permanently?" Brainstorm asks anxiously. "We have to protect the rest of the normal people."
"We're trying but this place wasn't built to hold off a dancing zombie army." The mayor responds.
"Is there somewhere we could go that is?" Shoutout proposes.
"I think…" Mayor Blithe is cut off as AWOL reappears beside them looking panicked.
"Aaa, that was bad. It is not friendly turf over there anymore." He exclaims shrilly.
"Any non-zombies?" Danger asks.
AWOL breathes some of his tension away for a moment before responding, "Not that I could find. The place was a mess, I barely escaped."
"That's not what I wanted to hear." Mayor Blithe says.
Brainstorm agrees and begs, "This sucks. Someone please say they have some good news."
"Madame Mayor! Danger!" Officer Fulcrum calls in a voice that does not promise anything good.
"What's wrong?" Danger asks wearily.
"A group of the dancing Zombies has broken in through a window in the east wing. We've cut them off and are moving everyone this way, but we have nowhere else to go." Officer Fulcrum pants, coming to a stop near them. "We need an escape route now!"
"That is not good news." Brainstorm complains.
She frowns tiredly at him and says, "Sorry, but no. You guys obviously didn't manage to stop Frankini either, which I was hoping to hear and …. Wait where's Volt?"
The heroes all deflate a little. "That's our worst news," Danger sighs, "Frankini got her. She's one of his zombies now."
"I'm really looking for a ray of sunshine here, people." Brainstorm mopes. "Just give me something. What do we do? Where can we take everybody?"
The mayor and police officer shrug helplessly. "Uh…"
"Where in the city is even going to be safe? Everywhere's been run over." AWOL points out.
Shoutout has her eyes closed as she thinks and listens hard. "Well, the Man's Nest has like nine hundred rooms, most of which we don't use. And it has the best security system around. We could shelter a bunch of people in there."
"You want to let everyone into the Man's Nest?" AWOL checks.
"It's an emergency." She insists.
"It's all we got," Danger agrees, "and we'll be able to protect everybody there. Besides, we need to go there anyway to get Schwoz's advice. Might as well take everyone we can."
"Schwoz?" Officer Fulcrum asks.
"Dang it." Danger curses his slip up.
(Commercial Break)
The Man's Nest is an excellent shelter, and could easily hold many, many more than the hundred or so people they'd gotten out of City Hall safely. The citizens are tucked safely in the many rooms inside the mountain, away from Henry's and Schwoz's of course. The Danger Force team are joined in the main room by only Mayor Blithe and Officer Fulcrum, who is highly amused to meet Schwoz. The collective sigh of relief as they find seats and a quiet moment, is followed immediately by a burst of dry laughter. Outside the bay windows the sunset over Swellview casts a growing shadow too reminiscent of the problems therein.
"Today sucked." Danger groans laying across the back of the couch.
"Eloquent way of putting it," Officer Fulcrum chuckles. "But yes. I mean, I can't deny being here is cool, but I'd rather it be under better circumstances that I get to see the inside of the Man's Nest."
"But you also are only getting to see it because we're in such a dire emergency." Shoutout says.
"Oh, the equilibria of life. One thing for another." Officer Fulcrum laments.
"I don't know what any of that means." Brainstorm notes, Blue perched on his shoulder grooming the boy's hair.
"I'm excited, maybe fangirling a little, about being in the Man's Nest," she clarifies. "It's awesome. And really impressive how accurate the game 'Danger Games' got it. Even down to that little Captain Man shrine thing on the wall. How did the designers get such detail right?"
Henry blinks slowly, a dissatisfying realization hitting him. He pulls his phone out. "Actually, we made that shrine after seeing the game. That detail came from them." AWOL explains.
"That's cool," Officer Fulcrum says. "What about the rest though? It's like they got to see inside here, and check things out. Did you guys give them a tour or something?"
"Uh…" Shoutout says awkwardly. She is saved from having to answer as Danger gets to his feet muttering curses at himself.
"What?" all the others rise alertly. "What is it, Danger?" Schwoz asks.
"I'm an idiot." Is all he mutters as he presses the call button on his phone and presses it to his ear. It rings about one time before she's picking up on the other side.
"Henry?!" Babe's concerned voice says a little too loudly.
"Yeah, hey. I am so sorry. I totally forgot to call you and I haven't looked at my phone in hours, so I missed all your messages. I spaced the fact that you wouldn't know what was happening. I- I'm sorry." He rambles.
"It's okay. I'm just relieved to hear from you. Are you okay? What's going on?" She responds.
"Yeah, yeah, we're… holed up in the Man's Nest," he tells honestly. "It's kind of a mess here."
"What happened?" she asks, "We showed up at the airport to pick you up and found out the flight had never arrived, and the airport people couldn't tell us why. Then you weren't picking up your phone so I went online trying to see what could be going on in Swellview and people had put together that something was happening but no one knew what and everyone who actually went there to see never reported back…"
"Yeah." He cuts in when she stops to take a breath. "That would be because Frankini turned the whole city into dancing zombies." She does not respond, and he can picture her speechless face as she tries to process. He goes on, "Which is why anyone who comes in hasn't got out."
"Oh my god." She manages. "I suppose that's reason enough to forgive you for ditching me."
"I really wasn't trying to ditch you or anything, I just got stuck." He frowns though she can't see it. "I was looking forward to hanging out with you. Maybe next week?"
"Don't jinx yourself," she says. "But I'd love to see you as soon as you can escape."
"I know," he grumbles rubbing his face tiredly, "If I could've got on that plane I would've."
She giggles and says, "Might be a good thing you didn't through. I suspect they need you more than I do right now."
He nods and hums in agreement. "Still, I'd rather be with you than dealing with Frankini." She laughs again. "He may have put me off of dancing ever again."
"Oh, well, I'll fix that next time I do see you," she says. "Dancing is very fun, at least when you have the right partner and are…"
"…aren't under the full control of an egocentric madman?" he finishes for her.
"That too." She answers.
"You're going to have to do a lot of convincing to get me to dance again after this." He says.
"Gladly, as long as you give me the time." she responds.
"I will do my very best." He promises.
"Um, what is he talking about? Or who to?" Mayor Blithe asks. Danger goes on chatting, having not been entirely oblivious to his audience but focused on other things at the moment.
"I believe he is flirting," Officer Fulcrum says. "I believe he's talking to his girlfriend. And from the sounds of it he was supposed to fly out to meet her today."
"Yep." Brainstorm confirms. "That's Danger's Girl."
"Though they're not totally official." AWOL amends.
"They talk often enough to be." Schwoz comments sardonically.
Mayor Blithe nods, "Okay, then. That is far less worrying that I thought when he jumped up all anxious. After everything else that's happened today, I was seriously worried."
"Sorry," Danger comments to them, not yet off the phone. He listens to whatever Babe says on the other end and responds, "Yeah, I ought to. We still have to figure out how to stop this thing. I'll talk to you later. And I'll come visit as soon as I can. Bye."
All eyes are on him as he takes a seat with them again. "Great," Shoutout says, "Now with that crisis averted…"
"I forgot to tell her I couldn't make it." Danger defends.
"… Can we get back to the one at hand?" She goes on over top of him.
"Well, what did you learn when you went to fight Frankini?" Schwoz asks, "How did he make Volt his 'dancing-zombie-general'?"
"He threw a marble thing at her and it popped in her hands." Brainstorm tells. "It was pinkish and kinda sparkled."
Schwoz considers the description. "It popped out in a gooey spurt and absorbed into her skin." Shoutout adds.
Schwoz pales, "A gooey pink marble with sparks and went into her cells?" he confirms. When they nod he screams, "Aaiii!" and grabs panicked hold of his own head.
"What? What?" they all ask alarmed.
"I think I know what he did!" Schwoz shouts, running to his tech cart.
"What?" they all repeat.
"Neuro-shifting-plasmatic-induced-mania!" Schwoz says.
"Uh… what?" Danger repeats. He is not the only one confused.
"Neuro-shifting-plasmatic-induced-mania." Schwoz repeats, receiving no more comprehension from them the second time. "The pink marble rewrites the neural connections of the people it touches, putting them into a manic state so they cannot control themselves and will follow a simple pattern of hysterical behavior, in this case Frankini's dancing. After joining the dance, the victims can infected other people by static shocks, by touching them."
"So Frankini hit a bunch of people with these things and they spread it, and like dominoes the whole city got infected?" Shoutout asks.
"Ya, ya." Schwoz says. "He must've made himself immune to keep his own mind clear so he can be the one in charge."
"It's a sickness?" Mayor Blithe asks.
"Kind of." Schwoz shrugs. "More like a bio-weapon."
"Will the effects wear off?" She asks hopefully.
He considers, "Yes… well, maybe… not exactly. The people will stop dancing when their brains get a chance to reset, which happens in REM sleep."
"They just have to sleep? This'll be over in the morning? That's great." Brainstorm says.
"What's the 'but'?" Danger asks.
Schwoz grimaces sheepishly. "With the induced hysteria being dance, they won't sleep," he says. "They will keep dancing despite exhaustion or hunger or thirst or injury or anything, until their bodies and brains cannot physically take it any longer."
"Huh?" Brainstorm asks.
"They're going to dance until they die?" Officer Fulcrum deduces.
"Eh…" Schwoz says, "Ya, basically. That is the most likely scenario."
"Huh?" Brainstorm repeats in a higher tone.
A moment of tense silence passes. "So, how do we stop that from happening?" Danger asks, gesturing stiffly, holding the terror he's feeling inside.
Schwoz taps a wrench on the top of the cart. "We would have to put them to sleep."
"The whole city." Officer Fulcrum says.
Schwoz nods and says, "Yes, all of them, into a deep sleep, all at once, so the infection stops entirely. Especially Volt, her power means she can infect lots of people at once from a distance."
"That adds up." Shoutout nods.
"Again, How?" Danger asks.
"I don't know," Schwoz admits awkwardly. "I might be able to make a serum to put them to sleep, but it'll take a little while."
"Okay, how long do we have until they start dying from this dance?" Mayor Blithe asks.
Shoutout answers before Schwoz can, "A couple days, probably, according to similar historical cases of mass hysteria. These kinds of things have reportedly happened, though I don't recall mention of any Neuro-shifting-plasmatic bioweapons in those stories."
"I don't recall those stories." AWOL states. "Where the heck do you learn these things?"
"I read, and watch educational videos," she snips back sassily. "Maybe you should try it."
He blinks and says, "No thanks," rather quickly.
"Alright, Schwoz," Danger waves off the twins' sidetrack. "Please create this serum to save everybody as fast as you can."
"No duh, I wasn't planning to take my time with it." Schwoz grumbles and pulls out his science stuff.
"You going to need some help?" Officer Fulcrum offers, approaching him.
"Not unless you know how to synthesize a narcosis-inducing serum in large enough quantities to be administered to all of the roughly one hundred seventy-four thousand people in this city and can be disseminated instantaneously to all of them in a potency that is efficacious enough to put them all into a state of real REM sleep without being so potent it leaves anyone in a comatose state or worse, dead." He says briskly pouring some different chemicals into one flask and frowning at the resulting puff of smoke.
"Uh…" Officer Fulcrum says.
"I didn't think so!" Schwoz says.
The rest of them stand for a while, watching him work. The air becoming thick with gasses of different color, scent and irritability to the eyes and skin. More than one of them yawn in that time, the condition being spread around the room in the way it tends to. Danger speaks up, "We should get some sleep. We can't do anything to help him science, but we'll definitely be needed once he gets it figured out, so we shouldn't exhaust ourselves staying up needlessly."
They gladly take the excuse to depart to the rooms below. "I'm gonna go relax in the hot tub room." AWOL says.
"Do not fall asleep in the hot tub," Shoutout scolds him. "You could drown."
"Don't tell me how to live my life." He retorts.
Danger is the last to leave. "If you need anything Schwoz…" he offers.
"Go to bed, Henry." Schwoz returns. Henry does so, not even remembering hitting the bed as he flopped onto it.
December 9, 2021
He wakes to knocking on his door, feeling somewhat better than the night before but with sticky crusty eyes. He rubs his face as he answers the door to find Bose, his Brainstorm uniform looking fresh and his hair brushed out from the tangle it'd been last night. "We've got company," he warns, "Zombies outside. Schwoz says they can't get in, but we might be running out of time."
"I'll be right up, let me get changed, I made the mistake of sleeping in the mask." Henry says.
Bose frowns wryly, "Been there."
After, blowing a bubble, soaking his head under his sink spout, and blowing another bubble, Henry enters the still smoky control room of the Man's Nest. Schwoz is a ruffled mess with several charred stains on his jumpsuit; and he is still slaving over his chemicals. "How's it…?" Henry tries to ask.
"Shh!" Schwoz hisses back, "I've almost got it."
Henry holds his hands up and lets the man alone. Danger Force are gathered around the back door, looking out at a small group of Frankini's dancing zombies. The showboat himself is at the front of the group shimmying and waving perkily, Volt is at his side.
Between dance moves she sends attacks at the building but so far, the shielding systems are deflecting her. Mika is on a tablet, monitoring the systems. "We can't hold her off indefinitely," she says. "We'll be fine for the better part of the day unless she really unleashes, fortunately the dancing does seem to be holding her back. But if Schwoz doesn't get the sleep-serum solved, we're all doomed."
Henry shakes his head, "if it comes to that I'll put my forcefield up around the building. We can't afford to let them get in until he gets that done."
"Can you handle that?" Miles asks. "Can you maintain a forcefield that big?"
"Can you even make a forcefield that big?" Mika adds.
Henry puffs his cheeks and blows. "I'll have to try."
They make it to the late afternoon. Schwoz continues to repeat that he's so close to figuring it out. People wander up from the tunnels and get sent back down; Maribel popping in more times than anyone else. The zombies continue their assault on the Man's Nest, Frankini growing more impatient by the hour. His victory comes as the sun has begun its final descent towards the horizon, the shield gives out under Volt's continued electrical pirouettes.
For a minute neither side seems to realize the full meaning of the alarms going off. They startle the hyper focused Schwoz so bad he knocks over his beaker with a cry of "NOOOOO!"
"YEEESSS!" Frankini rivals. "Forward my dancers!" he orders and they do so, dancing their ways through the door.
Danger responds quickly activating his power. The zombies are pushed back by the green barrier as he expands it as far and as fast as he can until he loses it. The collapse makes him stumble. "You good?" Brainstorm asks, helping Danger balance on his broken foot.
"Too much." Danger responds, trying the shield again. This time focusing it to hold the space only from him to the door, blocking entrance. "Schwoz, hurry!"
"I had it!" the scientist laments his broken beaker.
Shoutout runs to his side, "You figured it out?" Schwoz nods morosely. "Then we can recreate it. Show me how." She says, pulling on a pair of goggles.
"Do it fast!" Danger encourages.
They work as quickly as they can. Officer Fulcrum and the other remaining officers come up from below to ask what the alarm is for. Volt backs off her attacks on Danger's shield and Frankini pouts before smirking with the light of an idea in his head.
He and his zombies disappear from Danger's view through the door. "Uh, guys, they're going somewhere."
"Away?" AWOL asks hopefully.
"I doubt it." Danger says.
"Don't let your forcefield down." Officer Fulcrum advises, standing as near him outside the shield as she can.
"Didn't plan to." he retorts
"It's likely a trap." She says.
"I know that." he nods. "But out defenses are down all over, they could get in another way. Keep an eye out."
"Yep." She, the other officers and the Danger Force boys get on the defensive. They don't have to wait long. Volt blasts through the ornate front doors with a stylized jump whilst the people inside are pushing the couch in front of it.
"Ah!" Officer Fulcrum yelps, "She's here!"
Frankini follows Volt in, exclaiming, "Entrance!"
"Not good!" Brainstorm says, taking fighting stance against the incomers.
Volt unleashes a wave of lightning with a dramatic move and hits half a dozen of the officers at once, each getting up to dance shortly after having been knocked down.
Very quickly the heroes find themselves outnumbered and pressed backward to avoid the infectious touch of the zombies. Danger gathers them all near enough to Schwoz's worktable to put a forcefield up around them. The assault of the zombies doesn't end so easily.
The synchronously moving mob looks really cool circling the barrier but Volt stands out as the star with her stellar dance moves being augmented by the bursts of lightning she sends at the forcefield. "Volt," Danger intones, "you might as well stop; you know my forcefield is impenetrable."
Frankini kicks the shield and says, "Shut up. We'll get you. You can't hold it forever. Volt, keep attacking."
Danger holds firm, utterly unaffected by the attack. It goes on in this stalemate, the sun descending towards the horizon and the zombies under Frankini's spell dancing endlessly despite their exhaustion growing clearer by the minute. Danger makes no move beyond glancing hopefully at Schwoz and Shoutout recreating the sleeping serum. Until the metal door to the rest of the Mans Nest opens and a small face peers in curiously for the ninth time that day. "Oh no," he mutters. "Uh, tell me you've got that serum stuff done!"
Schwoz hums intensely while pouring his vial into Shoutout's. "Yes! Yes, we've got it."
"Great, use it." Henry orders.
"We need to get it out to them," Schwoz says, "and you'll need to keep your forcefield up so we don't get knocked out too."
"That would be counterproductive." Officer Fulcrum agrees.
"I'll keep the forcefield up. AWOL take the serum out there and get yourselves back in here quickly." Danger orders, nodding subtly at Maribel.
Schwoz hands the beaker and a small tablet of something to AWOL. "Drop that in the beaker and get out fast," he advises.
AWOL nods, flashes out behind the zombies and Frankini, who've been trying to decipher where it is he will appear. He places the beaker on the floor in the moment it takes the zombies to turn towards him. It's too late for them to do anything, with one hand, AWOL grabs Maribel, he drops the tablet into the beaker with the other. Once it hits the liquid in the beaker, the whole things fizzles and begins to smoke. AWOL and Maribel are gone before it's begun its explosive spread throughout the room.
The pale blue cloud swells to fill the whole room, rolling over Danger's forcefield and leaving all those inside it feeling trapped. The electric attacks end. Frankini's singing and cheering has silenced. However long it really takes for the gas to disperse, it feels like an eternity to those inside the forcefield. "Don't let it down quite yet." Schwoz tells Danger. "We do not want to risk breathing any of it in."
"We'll need to make a few more doses to be able to cover the entire city." Shoutout says.
She and Schwoz spend the night making the extra doses while the rest of them fall asleep, a natural sleep unlike the many unconscious bodies on the floor. Come morning they pass off the job of dispersing the serum across the city to their rested friends so they can take their turn sleeping.
Danger flies the Man-copter in low sweeping rows back and forth across Swellview with Brainstorm and AWOL dispensing the serum out the door. Soon the entire city is shrouded in the billowing smoke.
It takes two days for the former zombies to wake up. In that time, the heroes do what they can to clean up the city. They take Frankini to jail and leave him in a cell. The rest of the people unconscious in the Man's Nest, save Volt, are removed and gathered at City Hall.
City Hall is also prepared for the reawakening by opening a lost persons center to help people find their children or other family members. It is here that Henry says goodbye to Maribel. "You stay outta trouble, okay Mari?" he tells her.
She nods as seriously as a three-year-old can, "Okay. I see you later?"
"I'm sure I'll see you around." He nods.
She smiles very wide and throws her arms around him. "I like you, Danger. Even dough Momma say heroes stupid, dirty trysters." She tilts her head and asks, "What that mean? Momma not tell."
"Uh," Henry thinks. "I'm not entirely sure, but I'm pretty sure it's not something you should be repeating. It sounds really mean and bad."
"It certainly is." A man near them says, he's carrying a child even younger than Mari. "Who's your mom that she'd teach her child those words?" he asks.
"Maribel!" Evelyn Hall calls running over to her daughter.
"Oh." The man says rudely, "That makes sense. Takes a dirty tryster to know one."
"Cam?" Evelyn pales standing to look at him.
"Evelyn," he replies with so much contempt. "I hear your mongrel is living up to the legacies of indecency both her parents so surreptitiously are. You must be so proud."
She frowns woundedly at him. "Are you seriously going to stoop so low as to insult a three-year-old?" she asks.
"Only the one born of a woman as despicably adulterous as you," he says brackishly. "If you had to cheat on me a month into our engagement you could've at least picked someone better than that idiot."
"You were clearly devastated," she replies sarcastically, "you were married to a different woman two months later and spared no time in knocking her up."
"At least I'm still with her. How long did your handsome hero stay? The night? Less?" the man sneers and walks away to join a beautiful woman in leaving.
Evelyn walks quickly the other way with Maribel, not noticing or saying anything to Danger. Henry blinks confused between the two parties, puzzled and disturbed by the argument he's just witnessed.
Next Episode S1E19: It'll be fine