Hello. Here it is, Blinking Lights part one. It's a two parter but the last one should maybe be considered a part as well, so yeah. Make of it what you want. Read and leave a review, I hope you enjoy it.
Extra note of important information. My update schedule may slow down for the summer. The next chapter will come out in about two weeks but I cannot guarantee dates and a regular schedule after that. I've just started a new job and the hours are a bit unrelenting at the moment so my writing time has all but vanished. Hopefully that will improve very soon, it supposedly will, but until then... pray for me, this job is currently emotionally killing me and my sanity. I promise I will post new chapters as soon as I am able, I am in no way going to let this story fall by the way side, it just might be a little slower for a couple months.
S1E20: Blinking Lights Part 1
December 19, 2021
More lights flash in the back lot of the goodwill that Henry's ever seen at once anywhere. Emergency vehicles crowd the area and dozens upon dozens of cameras, news and civilian, crowd the barrier around it. With the darkness gone, the entire place seems to twinkle in the late afternoon light.
Standing in the center of it all is deafening. Between the onlookers shouting indecipherable questions at them and the actual discussions going on between the heroes and the police, it's hard to hear oneself think.
Henry's head is beginning to ache.
He and Danger Force are gathered at the back of an ambulance where Brainstorm has just woken up. The young boy is alarmed and disoriented when he comes to but is still quite weak. "Wha-what!? … What happened? Where's Shadow Man?" he asks, alarmed but calming as he sees his friends around him. "Ugh, what did he do to me? I thought I was dying. And my arm really hurts." He says, laying back on the cot.
"You could've died," Shoutout fusses, holding his hand, Blue on her shoulder for now. "I- we were so worried when he grabbed you! Are you okay? What did he do to you?"
"I feel like he took a bite out of my arm and tried to pull my insides out through it." Brainstorm says, clutching the forearm Shadow Man had grabbed in the fight.
The paramedic who is supposed to be tending to Brainstorm presses her way back to his side saying, "Let me have a look at that arm." She pulls his glove and arm guard off, pushing his sleeve up until she finds the very obvious source of the pain.
Burned dark red and deep into the skin on his forearm is the malicious swirl mark denoting all of Shadow Man's attacks. "Oh my god!" Volt declares.
"That is one nasty burn." The paramedic comments, brushing her fingers carefully around the affected area.
Brainstorm flinches away from her with a small whimper. She mutters an apology while he says, "It really hurts."
"Stalwart! Denouement!" Danger calls out urgently. "You need to come see this!" The police chief comes running immediately, the coroner following after finishing with the last body.
"What is it?" Chief Stalwart asks, looking over the youngsters' shoulders to see what they're all looking at. "Oh my god!"
"What does it mean?" AWOL asks.
"Nothing good," Volt assumes.
"Maybe," Shoutout says, letting Brainstorm squeeze her hand as the paramedic takes another look at the wound. "It's the mark, but he's not dead. So, it could be a good thing. Maybe it'll help us figure out how Shadow Man is killing."
"But it hurts," Brainstorm complains. "It's not going to kill me, is it?"
"No, it's just a burn." The paramedic lady assures him. "Albeit a nasty one. But you should be okay."
"From what I've studied of this same burn on our other victims, the burn is not going to heal well," Dr. Denouement comments, having just joined the conversation.
"And Danger's burns haven't," Shoutout says.
"Yes," Dr. Denouement nods, "though his has a slightly different constitution, it's a bit more severe than the others."
"It is?" Shoutout asks concerned.
"Does this mean my hair isn't going to grow back?" AWOL interjects furiously. "Because that would not be okay!"
"I think your hair should be fine." Shoutout tells his with an eye roll.
"Even if it doesn't, you could rock that half-buzzed style." Volt comforts.
"I'm sorry," the paramedic interrupts, "Can we go back to the 'others'? How have you already had time to study the other victims from this attack?"
The heroes and city task force members freeze and cast glances around each other. Chief Stalwart sighs and concedes to them, "I don't believe we will be able to keep this situation secret any longer. Things have become more public the last few days and with this attack… we cannot say nothing."
"That's not great. What all happened this weekend?" Danger asks, a little stressed.
"This attack is connected to the murders?" the paramedic asks.
"Yes. We have had five attacks since Thursday." Chief Stalwart explains. "We were expecting another today, so everyone was out in the streets on alert. We never expected it to be like this."
"Why did you not call me sooner?" Danger asks wearily of his team.
"You were on vacation," Brainstorm says. "We didn't want to bother you unless it was really super important, and we really needed your help."
"Clearly this is, and you did." Danger says, feeling exasperated.
"Shadow Man hasn't done anything like this before." AWOL says. "The public appearance. The battle. It's not like him and it was all very sudden."
"I'm not sure you being here would've made much of a difference." Shoutout says placatingly. "Until today, it was just like any other attack, except there were several in quick succession."
"Yeah, sure," Volt says, clearly disagreeing. Her frown is pessimistic, and her hands are clenched and sparking lightly.
"What would his being here have changed?" Shoutout questions persuasively.
"You can't blame all these deaths on Danger being gone." Brainstorm agrees.
Volt looks at them all seriously and stops sparking to calmy say, "Shadow Man was toying with us, he's spent the whole weekend relentlessly attacking people and had no issue beating us down in that fight. But as soon as Danger showed up, he left. And this uptake in attacks didn't start until Danger was gone."
"You think he only attacked because I left?" Danger asks. "How would he have known?"
She has the attentions of all present. She shrugs and nods. "How did he know when you were coming back to Swellview? His first attack coincided very exactly with your return. If that's a coincidence, it's a huge one. Now he ups the ante as soon as you leave and quits as soon as you arrive back? Seems like too much of a coincidence to me."
With a nervous nod, Shoutout agrees, "She has a point."
"But what connection could Shadow Man have to Danger?" Dr. Denouement asks. "Why do his movements have anything to do with Danger's presence in the city?"
"Seriously," Danger nods, "until about twenty minutes ago, I'd never even seen the guy."
"I don't know!" Volt snipes. "I'm just putting things together. How should I know what he wants with you? It just seems like he does."
Danger frowns, not happy with the possibility and greatly wanting it to just be a coincidence. Still, no one can deny the plausibility of what she says. Chief Stalwart blows a tired breath. "If this is true, then at least it's a lead. It gives us something to go off, which is a good deal more than we've yet had."
"Perhaps it means we'll yet be able to avenge our fallen friends and Swellviewian neighbors." Dr. Denouement adds optimistically.
"It took this long to find that Shadow Man might have a connection to Danger, how many more people are going to have to die before we make real progress?" Volt asks pained.
"I don't want anyone else to die." Brainstorm says. "I don't want to lose any more friends."
"None of us do," AWOL says.
"We can't save everyone. Shadow Man has us beat! He's going to keep killing and we can't stop him." Volt seethes with a toss of her hand, fortunately not accompanied by an electric blast.
Out of seeming nowhere, an old, rusted cake pan comes flying from out of a dumpster nearby, at the back of the goodwill, and hits Volt in the side of the head then rebounding against the ambulance's back door with a clang. They all jump startled, Danger's forcefield going up for a moment. "Where did that come from?" Brainstorm asks.
"Ow," Volt says, holding her head.
"Did someone throw it?" Shoutout asks.
"Are you alright?" Danger asks Volt. She nods but still holds her head where she'd been hit.
"There's no one over there." AWOL counters Shoutout's question, staring into the shadow of the building of the goodwill.
Brainstorm whines fearfully and says, "You don't think Shadow Man could be like invisible over there or something?"
"I hope not." Dr. Denouement says.
"That would be really worrisome." Danger says.
"And scary," the paramedic adds.
Chief Stalwart pulls out his flashlight and shines it towards the place. "His power seemed to have to do with darkness, not invisibility. He doesn't seem the type to do little petty things that don't do any damage."
"Either way, I think it'd be best for me to take the bodies away from here," Dr. Denouement says.
Danger deflates heavily. "All the dead from today were officers of the task force?" he asks for clarification.
Chief Stalwart nods. "Or working with us for the day."
"And Officer Fulcrum was among them?" Danger asks sadly. The chief simply nods. Danger rubs his head and sighs mournfully.
"I'll be sure they're treated with the utmost dignity." Dr. Denouement says.
"Thank you." Both Danger and Chief Stalwart express their gratitude.
Before they all disperse to deal with their new duties, Shoutout says, "She knew him." which none of her listeners understand.
"What?"
"Officer Fulcrum. She knew him. She knew Shadow Man." Shoutout takes a breath and explains to all their surprised expressions. "I heard her, when I was chasing after them. She'd cornered him but she said things like she recognized him, like she might've known who he is. But he killed her before she could say anything else, before I could see." She trails off frowning.
No one knows how to respond to the news.
It takes several long moments before someone speaks. AWOL frowns at his sister and says sarcastically, "Great. More good news."
"It's something to go off," she contests. "She knew him, so he must exist somewhere in the city. He must have a civilian identity."
"Good… that's good." Chief Stalwart nods.
"Sure, but the only one who we know of who recognized him is dead." Volt says.
"Your pessimism isn't helping. It's bleak, we know. But can we not focus on the few good things we have right now?" AWOL tells her.
"Sorry," she says insincerely.
"We have things we need to attend to," Chief Stalwart says. "Denouement: the victims… our friends, yes, thank you. There is evidence from today that will need to be processed. The task force will need to be regrouped, reevaluated, and perhaps recreated entirely. And we need to deal with the public."
Danger sighs and nods, "Yeah, let's get this new nightmare started."
Shoutout nods, her unenthusiasm shared by her teammates. "We'll be back." She tells Brainstorm. Then she tells the paramedic, "Check him over thoroughly, please. Make sure he's okay." The paramedic lady nods back.
(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...)
December 20, 2021
By the next morning, all of Swellview knows about Shadow Man. Henry wakes up to the story all over the news; with an alarmingly serious and sedated Trent, and a Mary proclaiming that this will "Roon Christmas!". Which is a statement that seems to be coming true as an air of gloom settles all over the city.
Henry sighs and mutes the tv. He's got every file on the case pulled up on the holographic computer screens and was trying to sort through them to find the connection between himself and Shadow Man. As far as he can see, there is nothing. Perhaps it was just that there was so little they knew about Shadow Man. But from what he did know, they'd never met. He'd never faced a villain with powers like Shadow Man's, he hadn't recognized him in that moment before the killer had run. Granted, the black cloak and helmet made him pretty indistinct as a person. Henry considers, muttering all his thoughts quietly to himself.
"What are you stressing about now?" Jasper asks in lieu of a proper greeting as he comes out of the tube.
"You saw the news?" Henry prompts.
Jasper nods acquiescently, "Yeah, you came face to face with him, are you okay? What's up with all that?"
"It super sucks, Bro." Henry grumbles. "And Chapa thinks he's got a thing with me, but I don't know what it is."
"You've never even met him before! What thing could he have with you?" Jasper asks.
"I don't know!" Henry tosses up his hands. "I'm not the one who suggested it. Chapa just thinks there's too many coincidences between my presence in the city and Shadow Man's actions."
Jasper tilts his head, thinking hard. He says, "Huh, that is weird. Is there something between you and Shadow Man?"
"No! Not that I know of." Henry frowns at his friend. "I see the weird correlation between things, but I don't know why they could be. What does he have to do with me? Or what do I have to do with him?"
Jasper shrugs. "You'd know better than me. Did you ever mess with any psychotic darkness wielding serial killers in Dystopia that you didn't tell me about? You know I would've done it with you!"
"No." Henry replies defensively. "Blackout is the worst I messed with, and he wasn't nearly as bad as Shadow Man."
Jasper scowls and says, "He did eat people souls, and you ran halfway across the world from him."
"I had a cowardly moment, but Blackout was never this level of threatening. Danger Force and I took him down in seconds. Shadow Man…" Henry shakes his head, sitting on the couch. "He's powerful. Which we've obviously known since he killed- killed Ray… and Drex. But from what I've heard about the fight, he thrashed Danger Force and the police with ease."
"But he left when you showed up?" Jasper asks.
"Yeah, Chapa thinks he's scared of me or something." He replies.
"If he's scared of you, and you were scarred of Blackout, then how can Shadow Man be worse? It this like Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Jasper asks.
"No, dude," Henry admonishes. He sighs, wondering how to explain it to Jasper. "We don't know if he's afraid of me. Why would he be? He's the scary one."
"True, he's terrifying." Jasper nods.
"Whatever reason he left when I showed up might not be fear. He could have some diabolical plan for me. I don't want to be part of that." Henry says.
"You would be the best person to use to sabotage the city," Jasper notes.
"Dude!"
"What? I'm just saying, you're the most famous person in Swellview, maybe the most important. If I was a bad guy, I'd totally try to use you to my advantage." Jasper says with a smirk.
"You are not helping." Henry complains. "I'm scared of him, Jasp. He's attacking the city, killing people; some of them being my friends. If he's attacking Swellview because it's my city, then it's my job to stop it. I don't want to be responsible for people I care about dying, or anyone for that matter. Or what if his thing with me is an utter loathing and he wants to torture me? I can't go through that again; I'm still not recovered from the last one and it's terrifying to even think about ever having to go through something like that again. Or that someone wants to do that to me."
"He's the one who led Danger Force to save you from that," Jasper reminds. "Why would he do that if he only wanted to do the same? He could've killed Drex and tortured you himself then."
"I don't know," Henry answers. "But that's the problem: I don't know why he's doing any of this. The more evidence I get, the more confusing it becomes."
"I've always found that to be true in our superheroing adventures." Jasper says. "That's why we always needed Charlotte around. Maybe she can help make sense of this."
Henry nods, smiling slightly in amusement. "Probably. She should be here…" the emergency alert cuts him off. He rushes to pick it up, "Captain Man hotline, this is Danger, what's your emergency?" he asks.
"It's the Shadow guy!" a terrified voice screams at him.
"What?" he asks equally alarmed.
"I saw him, he's down here!" the person says.
"Where?" Henry demands.
"Walking up State Street down the block from Inside Out Burger!" the person hisses fearfully.
"Get out of the area!" Henry advises. "Stay away from him, I'll be right there!"
He hangs up, dumping a gumball into his hand and turning around. Jasper is already chewing his gum. "Voy contigo, Amigo," he says, after blowing his bubble.
"Si, bro." Henry nods, changing and leading his sleeping friend to the tube. "I'll send an alert to Danger Force too."
It takes only a few minutes for the two young men to reach the location on State Street but Henry already fears it's too late and Shadow Man will be gone. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case as the find people there running away and screaming his name.
"Where is he?" Danger asks rushing the opposite way as them.
"Over there!" "In the costume shop!" "I saw him go in there!" The people scream many things at random, being only mildly helpful. Almost as many people as ran away are standing around the costume shop. "He's in there!" the people nearest the door shout.
"Move! What're you still doing here? Get away! Shadow Man isn't someone to mess around with!" Danger shouts.
"We got him trapped!" a woman cheers, holding the door to the shop closed.
"You can't trap Shadow Man!" Danger says.
"Corre!" Siesta Niño shouts at them. "El te matara!"
Danger pushes past them and into the store, Siesta Niño following behind him. They creep cautiously in and look around. Only a few people are in the store: the teenage employee behind the counter cowers and directs them to the other two people in the back corner. A pudgy man holds a figure in dark clothes against a rack of costumes. The dark figure is obscured in the mess of cloth and feathers and ribbon. "Oh my god!" Danger says upon seeing them.
"Danger! I got him! I got Shadow Man!" the pudgy man says, his voice the one from the emergency call.
"Alejate de el! Peleare con el!" Siesta Niño says.
Danger stops him, all alertness gone but irritation filling its space. "That's not Shadow Man," he says.
"Que?" Siesta Niño asks.
The figure in dark clothes pressed into the costume racks doesn't wear a helmet or a coat. He is tall and skinny with pale skin and heavy eye shadow. "What?" the pudgy man asks. "This is Shadow Man, I caught him!"
Danger stalks over and pulls the pudgy man off the young man. "This is not Shadow Man! This is a goth kid."
"I'm not goth," the kid protests lethargically.
"Emo? Whatever!" Danger says. "Either way, this is not Shadow Man. Shadow Man is a dark, faceless figure with powers of extra-dimensional darkness. And if you'd tried to pin him down, he would've killed you."
The pudgy man looks confused. "Oh."
From the door, Danger Force comes barreling in. "We're here! Where is he?!" Shoutout demands looking around.
Danger drops his head. "What's going on?" AWOL asks looking between Danger, the pudgy man and the emo teen.
"False alarm." Danger mutters. He points to the pudgy man and says, "This idiot thought this kid was Shadow Man."
"He's all in black, he looked just like him." the pudgy man defends.
"No, he doesn't." Danger says. "Just because someone wears a lot of black does not make them Shadow Man."
"We got called out for a goth guy in a costume shop?!" Volt growls
"Shadow Man's not really here?" Brainstorm follows.
"Nope." Danger says, ushering them all back towards the entrance. "Everything is fine here."
They march irritable in front of him with grumbles and incensed gestures. A clothing rack to one side topples over with a metallic clang and goes careening across the room, scattering costume pieces. The group of heroes stop and stare. Volt and Brainstorm stepping back as they're the nearest to where it had been. "Que fue eso?" Siesta Niño says.
"How did that just happen?" Shoutout questions with a nervous point at the bar.
"I didn't do it." Brainstorm says.
"That happened yesterday with the pan from the dumpster," AWOL recalls for them. "Are we sure Shadow Man's not really here?"
No one says anything in reply, nervously watching the clothing rack and shuffling out even faster than before. Outside many people are still gathered near watching and calling out "Did you get him?" at the heroes as they leave the shop.
"So, I was right?" the pudgy man asks. "Shadow Man is here?"
"I'm not the Shadow Man." The emo teen says lowly. "Though that is a sick name."
"But the real one is here. He made that clothing rack move." The pudgy man says.
"Shadow Man can't have made that happen. He can't be here." Shoutout says with certainty.
"Then how did that rack go flying?" AWOL counters. "None of us made that happen."
"It wasn't me," Brainstorm insists.
"And nobody else's powers could do that," AWOL concludes.
"I don't know how that happened," she responds. "But if Shadow Man was here, there'd be some sign of it. He's not subtle about his deeds, just sneaky and fast at doing them."
"Girl's right about that," Volt supports. "But Danger's here, so maybe he's too afraid to show his face and is just trying to mess with us."
Danger shakes his head and says, "We don't know that he's afraid of me. That is an entirely unproven theory."
"Still a possibility," Volt asserts.
He huffs but doesn't argue with her, it is a possibility, however small he thinks it. "I agree with Shoutout. This was a false alarm; Shadow Man is not here." His word is enough for the team but the average people still hanging around to spectate are not appeased. Danger dismisses the pudgy man and non-Shadow Man teen to go about their days, telling everyone, "We're all good here. It's the holidays, go enjoy your day. Finish your Christmas shopping. Spend time with your families. It's all going to be alright."
"But what about the real Shadow Man?" "Where is he?" the people begin to bombard the heroes with questions. Danger, Siesta Niño and Danger Force try to quell the barrage, but no one can hear their assurances over the worries of everyone else in the crowd.
Another figure approaches rapidly, drawing everyone's attention. Rolling Thunder rushes at the team, forcefully demanding of them, "Where is he?!"
"He's not here," Danger says, catching her. "It was a false alarm."
"What?" she demands irritably.
"Shadow Man isn't here, so calm down," he orders her.
"Don't tell me to calm down," she growls. He lets go of her to raise his hands in surrender. "Where is he?"
"I don't know," Danger says and explains the pudgy man and his misidentification. Which has her rolling her eyes and pacing around in fury. "So, there's no problem here. Let's go back to the Man's Nest."
"There is a problem: I was coming to pound him to mush and he's not here! He needs to pay for what he did to-" Rolling Thunder growls.
"Yeah, I know," he cuts her off. "But he's not here and we've got real Shadow Man problems we can sort out at the Man's Nest. So, let's go there."
"Si, mi amigo!" Siesta Niño says.
"Grab hold," AWOL directs them, "I'll drop you all off, then Shoutout and I need to get back to the family Christmas party."
(Commercial Break)
Three days and about seventy false alarms later, the heroes are so very done it all. They've divided up to take care of all the false calls, one person checking to ensure if it's real before calling everyone in. None have thus far been real.
The level of irritation slowly rises and the responses they give to the panicky public become increasingly impatient. "Just because someone is wearing black doesn't make them Shadow Man." AWOL grumbles at a bunch of shoppers.
"He's a grimy, starving homeless man," Siesta Niño, not having bothered to take his sleeping gum, lectures the man who'd called the hotline. He gestures to the sickly-looking man on the ground and tells the accuser, "How about you help him get to a shelter and get some food instead of accusing him of being a vicious serial killer? Have a little charity, it's almost Christmas."
"This isn't Shadow Man! This is a lady; he's not a lady!" Brainstorm tells a woman who'd called in a panic. He wonders aloud, "How dumb do you have to be to get that mixed up?"
"Please, think about what you're seeing before you call in a panic." Shoutout strains to keep herself polite while addressing a small group of carolers in a park.
"Stop calling unless you literally see someone dying." Volt orders a repeat caller after her sixth false report.
"You are literally stupid!" Rolling Thunder accuses some teenagers who'd tied their own friend up thinking he was Shadow Man. They whine and grumble against her but she leaves without another word.
Even Haywire, who'd been there two days less than the rest, has to strain to not growl in irritation as she takes a half an hour to explain to an old lady with thick glasses that the man who'd knocked on her door was a delivery man bringing her a Christmas gift from her daughter in France.
December 23, 2021
Danger goes to answer another call downtown with a grumpy and unamused mood. He finds the caller on the sidewalk beside a supermarket. She is the only person there. "What is the problem?" he asks with only a hint of his irritation.
She rushes to him, whispering fearfully, "Shadow Man was here!"
Barely alerted by the expected statement, he asks, "Where? When? Tell me what you saw."
She points down the sidewalk. "It's over there!"
There is something over there, on the wall of the supermarket. Danger moves quickly towards the dark shape. He stares at it and glares. Sprawled across the concrete is the black swirl of Shadow Man's sign, huge and ominous.
What's more is that it is accompanied by a dark, scrawled warning of "You're next".
"See?" the girl asks, wrapping her arms tightly around Danger as she presses against him.
He huffs more irritated than ever. "Shadow Man didn't do this," he tells her.
"What?" she asks in disbelief.
"This wasn't Shadow Man," he repeats. "It's nothing to worry about, just some vandals. So, you can go home or do whatever it is you were doing before and don't worry about this." He gets her off him, though it takes a minute of work this time as she's so desperately clinging to him.
He eventually gets her to leave and pulls out his phone to take pictures of the graffiti and the artist's signature at the bottom. He sends them to his team with the message, "We got a new problem. Meet me at Man's Nest."
The whole group meets him there promptly. "This is a real emergency?" Chapa asks relieved.
"Yep." Henry says.
"Yes!" she cheers.
"That is somewhere between actually being worse and a relief." Charlotte says.
"I know what you mean," Henry says. "You all see the picture I sent?" he asks while displaying it on the screen. They nod.
"Shadow Man is vandalizing things now?" Jasper asks.
"No. That's a Wall Dog mark." Shoutout says, pointing to the signature.
Henry shakes his head. "It's Veronika."
Charlotte mutters exasperated.
"Is it just her?" Mika asks, "Aren't the other Wall Dogs in prison?"
"Yeah, at least I'm pretty sure she's the only one still out of prison, but she's bad enough on her own." Henry says.
"Do you think she's in kahoots with Shadow Man?" Miles asks. "Could he have gotten her to do this?"
"I doubt it, she's really not the kind to help someone. She's probably just doing this for her own amusement." Henry says irritably.
"Why would she do that?" Jasper asks.
"Because she's awful," Henry says. "She likes to cause chaos and hurt people. The public learning about Shadow Man gives her a chance to spread fear."
"She's going to make the whole situation worse by putting graffiti like that up. People are already freaking out enough." Charlotte says.
"Exactly why this is an emergency," Henry says. "We need to stop her. The last thing we need is her helping Shadow Man's scary image spread."
"That's just great," Piper says sarcastically. "Where is this stupid vandal? I'll go pound her."
"If I knew that, she wouldn't still be out there," Henry says. "She's slippery and tough. I haven't been able to catch her for months."
"She and Shadow Man would make good friends," Chapa comments.
"Let's pray they're not. Divided is better for us." Schwoz says. "If she's not got help from Shadow Man, I may be able to find ways to track Veronika."
"That'd be great," Henry says. "Can you do it fast? You've got a plane to catch tonight, right? I don't want you to miss that."
"Yes. But I'll see what I can do before then," Schwoz promises.
"Should the rest of us go out and patrol for signs of Veronika and/or Shadow Man?" Mika asks, fully prepared.
Henry frowns and shakes his head. "No, go do whatever you want to do. Christmas is in two days, and we can't let all this spoil it, Shadow Man has taken enough from us."
"Is tomorrow really Christmas Eve?" Piper asks rhetorically, "I haven't got a present for Dad."
Henry laughs in an overwrought and embarrassed way. "I haven't got presents for anyone."
"So, shopping?" Charlotte suggests. "I've got a few more things I should pick up."
"I'm in." Miles says.
"Me too." Jasper raises his hand.
"I have a fancy holiday dinner I have to go to with my mom and vice stepdad," Bose frowns.
"I'll stay here and help Schwoz," Mika also declines, "I'm done with my Christmas shopping, and walking around stores for no reason isn't my favorite pastime."
"Fair enough." Henry shrugs. "If you're coming, let's go."
The Swellview Mall is crowded two days before Christmas. Every shop is packed with last minute shoppers and the line to meet the mall Santa stretches nearly to the food court. The whole place is covered in blinking lights and red, green and gold ribbons.
"We'll have to move fast to hit every place we need. What's most important to get first? What's the best order to hit the stores in? Who wants to go where?" Henry asks.
Piper rolls her eyes at him. "This isn't a mission, Captain Danger."
"This is Mission Christmas shopping, and it is a go!" he retorts with great sass directed at her.
Their group swims through the crowds of shoppers. They spilt up to go to different stores and reconverge at times to go to others. This time in the afternoon so soon before Christmas, some items are getting hard to find so Piper and Chapa aggressively shove people aside to get what they're after. Store after store, bag after bag, they keep moving.
It's hours later when Henry stops and finds a place to sit with all his newly bought presents. Charlotte joins him after one last diversion to look at a watch in a jewelry store nearby. "Got everything?" she checks with him.
"God, I hope so," he says. "I don't think I could handle another shop."
"You did leave it all until the last minute," she teases.
"Not on purpose!" he whines. "But I think I've got stuff for everyone: my parents, Piper, you, Jasper, Schwoz, the kids, Babe, the Game Shakers, even Phoebe and her family. Plus, some cookies and things for, you know… me to give to the mayor's office and the task force."
"Most of which you bought at a single toy shop," she continues to razz.
"Jasper is a bad influence," he blames.
"Jasper made you buy seven plush kitties at Kraft-a-kitty?" she gives him a mocking look of disbelief.
"He begged me to go in with him and they have a new line of Swellview exclusive Danger Force kitties! I thought I'd be fun to get them for each of the kids!" Henry says. "They're cute and funny."
She nods sarcastically, "Sure. Yeah, and the other three?"
"Well, they came out with a Danger one too, so I obviously had to get the whole set." He defends.
"You bought yourself a toy this close to Christmas?" she asks more seriously. "Don't you think that lacks tact? What if someone else bought you a Danger kitty as their fun idea of a present?"
"That'd be fine," He admits meekly. "I didn't buy it for me. At least, I think I'm going to gift it."
"To whom?" Charlotte asks.
He squirms and reddens a little in the face. "Um, well… it's kinda normal for a guy to get the girl he likes a stuffed animal, right? It's cutesy?"
Charlotte all but facepalms herself as she chuckles, "Oh my god, Henry, you're unbelievable."
"Is it a bad idea?" he asks genuinely concerned. "I thought she'd like it. She invited us to Double G's New Year's concert and I figured it'd be nice to bring her a gift. You know, assuming we make it there without Swellview imploding on us."
She pats his arm and assures, "It's okay. She will probably love it; she'd love anything you give her. You just do some weird things sometimes." He blushes and slumps in his chair more awkwardly. She corrals her amusement enough to ask, "So what about the last two, the old Captain Cat and Kitty Danger designs? Who're they for?"
His redness fades quickly. Opposingly, his answer is slow in coming. "No one," he mumbles, his overall jovial composure wilting.
She raises an eyebrow. "Hen?" she asks. He doesn't respond. She bumps him and repeats more insistent yet delicately, "Hen?"
"I bought them for Ray… and me," Henry confesses. "Because they are Ray and me. It's silly but I couldn't not buy the Captain Cat one, and the Kitty Danger goes with it. He would've liked them as a gift too."
"Especially the one of him," she nods, getting a new smile out of him.
"And the fact that he got a revenue for every licensed Captain Man product, so he would've got paid for buying it," Henry jokes back before returning to more subdued sincerity. "So, I thought I'd buy him them and maybe I'll take them up to his grave."
"That's really sweet," she says. "It's a lovely present. Should we take all this out to the truck and find everybody else?" He agrees gratefully.
They get out to the Man Truck and are met with a call from Mika. "Hey, what's up?" Henry answers.
"We got an emergency call from the mall," she says unenthusiastically, "are you all still there?"
"Yeah," he says. "But we haven't seen anything suspicious."
"The caller says they saw some strange shadows around Santa's workshop." He can practically hear her eyeroll as she says it. "But since you're there, do you mind checking it out?"
He grumbles, "Of course" and they head to where she'd indicated. The lights are going out in all the shops and decorations, blinking into darkness.
In the center of the mall is an open square of sorts, Henry and Charlotte make it to the balcony of the second floor to see that on the bottom floor, where 'Santa's Workshop' is set up for pictures, the already chaotic mall has become somehow even worse. The cause is no mystery, the black form of Shadow Man stands out against the bright holiday colors and the lights on the tree, though they blink out in his presence. The people who had been waiting in line are running over each other to get away.
"Oh no!" Henry says.
Darkness is flowing in writhing whisps from Shadow Man's body. He's caught a young boy by the coat sleeve and is reeling him closer. The boy screams as Shadow Man holds him firm and puts his darkness-leaking hand on the boy's face, forcing him to look directly at the villain'.
"No!" Henry shouts, chewing a gumball as fast as he can. Charlotte likewise chews beside him.
Down below, the scene becomes somehow even stranger as Shadow Man is tackled by Santa. The young boy runs away as soon as he's released from the villains hold. But Shadow Man easily switches targets and latches onto the fat man instead. In only the few moments it takes for Henry and Charlotte to change the mall Santa goes from fighting the dark villain to laying motionless at his feet. A certain something, indescribable, leaves him and is consumed by the dark tendrils of Shadow Man's power.
Danger leaps off the balcony with barely a thought. Grabbing hold of a huge, hanging red ribbon he slows his fall but he still crashes to the ground fairly hard. Shadow Man startles as the hero lands. "You," he mutters backing toward the shadows of the darkened tree.
"Me," Danger says. "I'm going to kill you."
"Are you insane!?" Haywire shouts through the comms. "Do you want to break your foot again? You're not out of the first boot yet!"
"No. Our fight is not yet." Shadow Man backs away towards a shadowy corner behind the Christmas tree, sending a bolt of darkness towards Danger. Danger activates his forcefield and the bolt sizzles in a tiny implosion of darkness across the surface. Each succeeding bolt produces more little implosions that each suck in some of the light and power from his forcefield, pulling at it without making a dent.
"Danger!" Volt shouts, her and Rolling Thunder joining the scene. Haywire with them, having taken a more sensible way down from the upper floor. Volt throws a bolt of lightning at the retreating Shadow Man.
He pauses long enough to intercept it with a bolt of darkness that annuls the electricity. "You can't get me with that!" he scorns her.
She clenches her fists furiously as he runs. He is stalled as several ornaments near him come flying off the tree in convergent paths. He dodges them and they fly past him towards Volt, who only narrowly dodges them herself.
Shadow Man melts into the darkness and is gone. "Dang it!" Danger exclaims, searching the area futilely. His friends too curse the villain's vanishing.
Another set of ornaments come flying off the tree. "What the butt!?" Volt cries as she narrowly dodges them again. "Why is he throwing them at me?"
"How is he throwing them at you?" Rolling Thunder counters. "What is his powerset? Dark blasts, disappearing in shadows, some weird method of killing and telekinesis?"
"I don't know!" Volt fumes.
Haywire kneels by the fallen Santa. "He's dead," she whispers to Danger as he drops beside her.
He nods. "I know. I'll alert the task force, whatever's left of them."
(Commercial Break)
"What happened to Santa?" the little children question as the coroner covers him and takes him away. "Is Santa okay?" "Is he dead?" "Santa can't die!" "Who will bring us our Christmas presents now?"
"It'll be fine," Rolling Thunder assures them quickly. "Santa is magic, so everything is going to work out."
"He'll still be there to give you good kids presents and eat the cookies," Danger promises. "Just wait and see."
Those promises calm most of the kids, though the poor boy who'd nearly been killed is less than okay. He's sporting a fresh counterclockwise swirl burn on his jaw. He and his parents are being looked after and comforted by Haywire, Chief Stalwart and a medic. The parents of the kids and other assorted adults in the mall are still curious and concerned.
With only four other officers beside the chief having answered the call to come with the task force today, there's little they can do to control the mob. So, Danger addresses them. The phone cameras directed at him mean that his words will reach everyone in Swellview by tonight's last news broadcast.
"Who was that?" One woman asks.
Danger recognizes her as a false alarmist he'd met earlier in the week. He breathes deep and says very seriously, "That was Shadow Man." The gasp from his audience is expected, though more surprised than it really should be. "If you ever see him: that man in that dark cloak with those creepy powers, you need to call us right away. If you see someone that doesn't match exactly the person you all just saw, you don't need to. He isn't everywhere, he can't be everywhere. So, please, be sure of what or who you're looking at before you call in. We've got a lot to do to catch him without chasing after hobos and goths."
They look more terrified than before and nod seriously to what he'd telling them.
He continues more lightly, trying to be happy. "You all don't need to stress about this too much, just be cautious. Now please go enjoy your holidays. Be with your families and friends. Remember and let them know how much you love them. This is a time for joy. Find it any way you can, even through the hardships. I know that may seem difficult, many of us have lost people recently…" he gulps as subtly as he can over the lump in his throat. "But we are never alone. Don't let the darkness take you over, or Shadow Man's victory will only be more complete." He nods at them and bids them adieu with a "Merry Christmas. God bless the city of Swellview."
"We're going to need it." Volt mumbles in response as he joins them.
He frowns at her but doesn't argue.
"That speech was sooooo cheesy!" Rolling Thunder mocks.
His frown turns on her, though less serious that it had been. He defends himself with the excuse, "It's Christmas, and the city really needs some sappy, over the top inspiration right now."
"True enough," AWOL agrees. "I'm sure our troubles are far from over."
"Don't jinx us!" Volt admonishes him. He, in turn, gapes in amazement and a little bit of offense at her for having said that to him. "What? You're the one who keeps going on about putting bad mojo out into the universe. I just think you ought to practice what you preach."
The moment of silence that follows is somewhere between awkward and amusing. "Let's all get outta here. We'll deal with Shadow Man and Veronika after Christmas." Danger determines.
"You keep saying that like you believe it's possible," his sister scoffs.
"Don't jinx us!" both Volt and AWOL shout at her.
After they've all changed back into their civilian outfits, they gather at the Man Truck and try to maneuverer themselves very carefully in among the many bags of Christmas presents. After a long time Miles gives up, "This isn't working. I'm going to teleport back, anyone who doesn't want to pile with Henry in that overstuffed truck can come with me."
"Me!" Piper is quickest to volunteer.
"Me too!" Chapa says. squirming out from the spot in the back seat she'd almost been in many times faster than she'd gotten into it. She shuts the door quickly on the bags before they can tumble out after her.
"I'll go!" Jasper stands beside Miles.
"You're all going to leave me to shuttle the shopping bags?" Henry asks, feeling a little slighted.
"I'll go with you," Charlotte says, moving to the passenger's side of the truck.
"Cool, then let's go. Chapa?" Miles asks. She hasn't moved away from the truck door she'd shut. "Let's go!"
"I'm trying!" she yells distressed. "I can't get my hand off the stupid door handle! Did someone put super glue on this or something?" Confused looks get passed around the group. Chapa tugs at her hand but it remains fixed to the handle. The truck door opens again as she tugs, but her hand does not come loose. "Get off!" she shouts at the truck.
Her friends gather around her to see if they can help. Henry can't get his fingers under hers. "Unclench your hand at least," He requests.
"I can't! My fingers are stuck!" She growls and braces her free hand against the flat part of the door to leverage her pulling better. It doesn't help. "What the heck is going on? Now that hand's stuck too!"
Jasper grabs her arm to help her pull it free but despite his grunting he only ends up cracking their heads together, and not pulling away after. "What are you doing?" he asks her.
"Me?" she demands. "You're the one on me! Get off!"
He lets go of her and tries to push her head away from his but can't seem to. "I can't! Something weird happened that dragged my head to yours and now I can't get it off!"
"I am so confused," Piper says. Miles nods.
"Oh!" Charlotte says like she's figured something out. She moves to take a closer look at the two stuck together.
"What?" Henry asks.
Charlotte smiles and says, "It's Chapa. She's doing this."
"I am not!" Chapa argues furiously.
"Not intentionally," Charlotte says seeming amused. "But I'm pretty sure it's you. You're the electric one. Or, more precisely the electromagnetic one."
"This isn't my electric powers!" Chapa says.
"Not your electric powers," Charlotte agrees. "Your magnetic ones."
After a short moment Henry asks, "Chapa's magnetic? That's what you're saying? She's got magnetic powers now?"
"Her second power?" Miles asks.
Charlotte nods, "She's stuck herself to the truck, and the metal plate in Jasper's head."
No one speaks for a minute. Eventually Chapa shouts a "What!? Magnetic!?" Chapa asks.
"Yep." Charlotte says. "It also explains the ornaments. Shadow Man wasn't throwing them, you were attracting them."
"And the costume rack, and the cake pan, and all the weird things that have to do with metal, that've been happening around us for the last few days." Miles adds. "Chapa's a magnet."
"Yeah," Charlotte nods.
"Okay, great! How do I turn it off so I can stop being stuck to a truck?" Chapa demands.
"And how do I get off her?" Jasper asks desperately.
To Be Continued
Next Episode: S1E21: Blinking Lights Part Two