Hi guys, thank you so much for your patience. I'm sorry this summer has been so slow on updates, but here is the next one. Read and Review, tell me your thoughts, your predictions, I love hearing from you. See you in the next one.
S1E23: Sidekick Showdown
January 30, 2022
"Ya know, this isn't what I meant when I told you to find better friends, Goomer," Danger says while dropping onto the mattress the big criminal is dragging off the display bed.
Goomer drops it and stands up with a cheerful smile. With a wave he greets, "Hi, Kid Danger."
"I'm not a kid, Goomer. It's just Danger," Danger reminds. He leaps off the bed at the criminal and knocks him away from the almost stolen mattress.
"You always gonna be Kid Danger," Goomer insists kindly.
Danger rolls his eyes good naturedly and blocks Goomer's next attempt at getting the mattress. He moves back and forth in sync with Goomer's movements in order to keep himself between Goomer and the bed. "You aren't getting past me, dude."
"I need that bed!" Goomer says.
"Don't worry, Goomy. This is why we're partners," Nurse Cohort says, swooping in from behind and blasting Danger with a beam from her little, futuristic looking, orange gun.
"Gah! Ow!" he says taking the blast and falling to the floor. "Seriously, Dude, of all the people you could've befriended, why did it have to be her?"
"Cause she's so nice! And so pretty!" Goomer gushes with hearts eyes directed at her.
She preens a bit, and tells him, "Grab the mattress, you big hunk, and let's get out of here. Danger won't be a problem and I already dealt with the sidekicks. We've got to hit up Lover's Covers for some bedding before the days out."
"Okay," Goomer says, heaving the king sized mattress over his shoulder with ease.
"Wait! No, you don't!" Danger says pulling himself to his feet.
"Uh, yes we do," Nurse Cohort says and shoots at him again. He dodges behind the headboard of another bed, giving the two a good head start on him.
Danger chases them through the warehouse of furniture until they're near the back entrance and his attention is pulled by many familiar voices shouting at him, "Danger!" Shoutout, AWOL and Brainstorm are trapped, pressed between huge mattresses that are stacked in a massive pile against the wall. Volt and Lil' Dynomite's voices call out muffled from somewhere nearby as well.
"What the…?" Danger says, stopping in his tracks.
"Help us!" Brainstorm begs.
"What happened to you?" Danger asks.
"I did!" Nurse Cohort gloats. She holds the door open for Goomer to take the stolen mattress through. As they leave she calls out, "So long for now! We'll be back to humiliate you duds again soon!"
Danger grumbles and curses quietly as they escape but puts his effort towards getting his team unstuck. Brainstorm is the easiest to get out, Danger grabs hold of him and tugs him out of the pile of mattresses. Brainstorm tumbles to the ground with a "humph!"
Danger helps him to his feet and says, "Help me get these off the others. Levitate as many as you can off the pile. It'll be easier to get them out."
"Okay," Brainstorm nods and does as he's told. With effort he lifts more than half of the stack and AWOL is able to get his own fist unpinned and teleport himself out of trouble to help Danger get Shoutout unstuck too.
"Thank you!" she says once she's on her feet.
"You good?" Danger asks.
"Yes," she nods.
"Good. Where are Volt and Lil' D?" Danger asks looking through the stack and not seeing them anywhere within it.
"In the murphy beds," Shoutout says.
"Hmm?" Danger asks.
"In the murphy beds," she repeats. He follows her to the wall nearby where there is a series of beds that fold upwards into the wall.
From behind the beds Volt and Lil' Dynomite's voices call out for someone to let them out. Danger pulls on the cord to open the murphy bed down and Lil' Dynomite falls out with the mattress, lucky that it is there to cushion him. Brainstorm pulls the bed with Volt out, she comes free just as Lil' Dynomite does. The two scramble out of the beds with much haste.
"What happened? How did you guys end up trapped?" Danger asks them all.
Immediately Five voices begin streaming out explanations at once. Danger only manages to pick up bits and pieces as they talk over each other. Shoutout says something about "Nurse Cohort came at us with that gun of hers and we got ready to fight but then…" but Danger doesn't hear it all over Brainstorm's words of "…blasted me backwards and she came at me like a…". AWOL shouts out, "…knocked my teleporting off course so I ended up in the middle of…" He in turn is drowned out by Lil' Dynomite's, "We never had a chance and the bed's folded up on us. We couldn't get them to fold back down…" And Volt screaming "…dang new sidekick got in my way..."
"Woah. Woah!" Danger says. "I did not get any of that. Say again, but like one at a time." Shoutout immediately raises her hand like they're in class. "Yes, Shoutout," he calls on her.
"Well, Volt and I found Nurse Cohort looking at the mattresses over here, so we fought her. We were winning but then she pulled out her gun and blasted us. It was way more powerful than I thought it would be. I got stuck hanging upside down on the rack that holds the mattresses and Brainstorm came over and helped me down while Volt and Lil' Dynomite fought Nurse Cohort." She explains.
"I came to help too," AWOL injects himself in. Which prompts the others to start speaking again with their own commentary.
"It was really hard getting Shoutout off that," Brainstorm says.
"I was doing great against Nurse Cohort but then Lil' Dyno-midget…" Volt sneers venomously, gesturing rudely towards Lil' Dynomite.
"I sent a fire blast at the Nurse at the same time as Volt shot her lighting. Our powers crossed in midair and caused a little explosion," Lil' Dynomite says.
Shoutout tries to take control of the story again by saying, "There was blasting and yelling everywhere. While Brainstorm was pulling me down, there was an explosion and things went flying I slipped between some of the mattresses while they went airborne and they came back down on top of me."
"I tried to help," Lil' Dynomite says, "but I ended up in the murphy bed. And that Nurse, Cohort, got us all trapped."
"I lost Shoutout and there was so much happening!" Brainstorm says. "Everyone else was getting stuck in the beds."
Volt keeps angrily ranting, "After the explosion Nurse Cohort had a moment where she tried to hit me again but I didn't get to stop her because he again interfered and pushed me. He got blasted into one of the folding beds and I was distracted so she shot me into one too."
"And let me tell you, Nurse Cohort is really good. She blasted me right as I was teleporting and I ended up in the middle of those mattresses with my hands pinned down." AWOL explains dramatically.
"I don't know how exactly I got stuck in the mattress too but there I was!" Brainstorm finishes his part.
Danger whistles sharply, having failed to get all their attentions any other way while they talked. They all fall quiet at the sound and he says, "There we go. Guys, you can't all talk over each other like that, I'm barely following the story. Somebody's powers collided and exploded? Nurse Cohort blasted AWOL off course and the two of you into the folding beds?"
"Yep," AWOL says.
"Basically," Shoutout affirms.
"We just got our butts kicked by Nurse Cohort and Goomer?" Danger asks rhetorically from confirmation, an exasperated and disbelieving expression on his face.
"Kinda," Shoutout responds anyway.
"Totally," AWOL says.
"We were creamed," Volt grumbles. "We got flattened by Nurse Cohort and Goomer because Lil' Disruptor here messed things up."
Lil' Dynomite frowns hurt and ashamed and says meekly, "I'm sorry."
"Woah," Danger chastises Volt, "There is no need to go assigning blame like that."
"He messed up my lightning throw and got me stuck in a wall-bed!" she points accusingly at Lil' Dynomite.
"Volt," Danger cautions.
"All he ever does is get in the way!" she shouts. "He shouldn't be here, he's not even part of the team!"
"Volt!" Shoutout admonitions with a kind but disappointed tone.
"You know I'm right!" Volt shouts back. "He used to be our enemy! He hated Captain Man! Why should he be part of the team now?"
"Don't be mean!" Brainstorm begrudges.
"I just wanted to help," Lil' Dynomite mutters.
"You didn't!" Volt spits at him. "You messed things up!"
"Volt!" Danger snaps commandingly. "Enough. We've discussed this; Lil' D is part of the team now. You need to treat him like it; you need to be nice."
"Whatever," she grumbles and walks away.
"Volt." He commands firmly. "Volt."
She doesn't come back. "I'm going to go find those two crooks."
Danger sighs frustratedly.
"I'll go after her," Shoutout volunteers.
He nods his approval. "Cohort said they were going to hit Lover's Covers next. We'll head over there to try to cut them off. Meet us there if you can, I'll let you know if we change plans."
"Okay," she says and runs off after Volt.
"I'll get us to Lover's Covers," AWOL says.
Brainstorm grabs hold of the teleporter immediately, but Lil' Dynomite doesn't. Danger steps close to him and puts an arm over his shoulders, blocking him from the others' sight to give them some semblance of privacy as he asks. "You okay, Kid?"
"I don't think Volt likes me very much," Lil' Dynomite says sadly.
"She takes a while to warm up to people. Just give her some time, she'll come around," Danger assures. "It'll be okay."
(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...)
February 2, 2022
For the next several days the team chases Nurse Cohort and Goomer all across town to different furniture and home décor stores. After stealing everything for a bedroom they move on to other household furniture. The team is on constant alert and has set up several alerts and possible traps but nothing seems to wok to catch the duo of criminals.
One cold afternoon, as soon as Mrs. Hart has released them from school, the kids rush up to the Man's Nest to take hold of the free time. There is sure to be another crime soon but for a little while they have nothing to do and want to make full use of it. Schwoz is using the computers to run some science experiments but the kids take over the largest screen to boot up their own entertainment. "Hey! Hey!" Schwoz complains, "I'm scienceing here."
"Hey! We're gaming here," Miles retorts. Each of the kids grabbing their own color coordinated controller.
"I call being me!" Bose says.
"Obviously we are playing ourselves," Chapa says.
"We could switch it up sometimes," Mika suggests. "Play as each other."
"If you wanna switch it up, play as Danger, only I get to play the awesomeness that is me," Miles tells her.
"Millions of people across the world have downloaded Danger Games," Mika responds with an eyeroll, "at least a small fraction of them play as you."
"And she can't play Danger, Dawson is. He doesn't have an avatar, so he gets to play Danger," Bose says.
Dawson is sitting beside him on the end of the round couch. He says, "It's okay. You can all pick who you want and I'll play whoever's left."
"You can play Danger if you want," Mika assures. "I was just saying we don't always have to play as our own avatars."
"But we usually do and since you don't have one, you get to play whoever's left over," Chapa says a bit nastily to Dawson.
"We could ask the Game Shakers to make you one," Bose suggest, frowning at Chapa's attitude.
"They can't just add him in, it's called Danger Games and he's not a Danger," Chapa argues.
"But he's part of the team," Bose fights back. "You know Babe would do it if Henry asks."
"Doesn't mean we need to ask them," Chapa says.
"Can we just play the game?" Miles asks.
"Please!" Mika agrees, confirming the character choices and booting up the game play. "We got two mission options: Zombkinis in the New Year or Time Jerker Time Loop. Which one should we do first?"
"Cohort and Minyak at Sofa-sticated," Henry says, having just entered the room in uniform.
All his sidekicks groan, "No!" Chapa complains.
"C'mon!" Miles gripes. "We didn't even get to start."
"Sorry," Henry says. "I can't control crime, no matter how hard I try."
"Isn't that literally your job?" Miles asks sarcastically.
"Our job," Henry corrects. "And we need to get to work now."
Mika and Dawson are quickest to get up and chew their gum. "Let's go. We can play later," he tries to persuade. "We need to stop these villains."
Chapa groans and throws her controller down.
At Sofa-sticated, Nurse Cohort and Goomer have evicted all other patrons from the furniture warehouse by the time the heroes get there minutes later. They're no where in sight and only faint echoes of motion can be heard from somewhere in the store.
"Pair off and find them. If you spot them, call for backup and don't engage. They're too good at picking us off, better we attack all at once," Danger instructs his team. They all agree and he says, "Great. Lil' D you're with me."
Volt scoffs at their backs as they walk off one way. AWOL and Brainstorm head off in another and Shoutout grabs hold of Volt's arm to direct her in a third. "What's wrong with you?" Mika asks exasperatedly of her friend.
"Nothing," Volt mutters and frees her arm from Shoutout's grasp.
Shoutout chases after Volt and grabs hold of her arm again to stop her. Volt reacts with a spark, making Shoutout let go with a yelp, "Ow!"
"Sorry," Volt says sarcastically with a frown at her.
"You're obviously upset about something," Shoutout says, shaking out her shocked hand. "You've been angry for days. More angry than normal."
"I'm fine. Peachy," Volt says. "In fact, everything's peachy, just ask Danger. Things are great; he's got a new sidekick, one of his very own, not just a hand-me-down he reluctantly took on."
"Are you still on the Lil' Dynomite thing? What's your problem with him?" Shoutout asks, hands on her hips. "Are you seriously jealous that Danger took him on as another sidekick?"
"No!" Volt shouts. "My problem is that he is an obnoxious little punk. He hated Captain Man, he's a villain, he stole the 'Flight Attendant' movie drive from us. He's irritating and gets in the way."
"He's just…" Shoutout doesn't get to say.
"He's so cheery and polite! It's disgusting!" Chapa complains. "He's not one of us. We don't need him. We were a great team, Danger didn't need to let him join the team."
"So, you are jealous. You think Henry likes him better than us?" Shoutout wonders. "That's ridiculous."
"Is it?" Volt sneers.
Shoutout shakes her head, "He's training Lil' Dynomite, what's wrong with that? Lil' Dynomite's working to help us stop Shadow Man, what's wrong with that?"
"We don't need his help!" Volt says.
"We need all the help we can get," Shoutout counters. "And Lil' Dynomite wants to be a hero. He didn't like Captain Man because he was really mean to him and used him to make us jealous. He duped us on the movie job to make himself a hero. Danger's trying to help him. He likes him, yeah, but not more than us."
"He made him his solo sidekick!" Volt argues.
"He didn't want to force him into the team, our team," Shoutout retorts.
Volt turns with a spark and a magnetic flare pulling the metal-legged furniture a few feet nearer to them, "That's exactly what he's doing!"
"No. Lil' Dynomite isn't part of Danger Force. Danger specified that," Shoutout persuades.
"Then it's worse. He's making his own team outside of us," Volt says.
"What?" Shoutout asks confused.
"He's picking himself the sidekick he wants, someone cool and new, making us obsolete," Volt says emotionally.
"Obsolete? What're you talking about?" Shoutout almost laughs.
"We've always just been place holders. Here to fill in the empty sidekick roll. First with Captain Man after Kid Danger left, then with Danger when he took over. Now he's got his own sidekick. So, how important are we anymore? How much do we matter? They're got the dynamic duo thing going on. We're just the others. The extras."
Mika has stopped, the two of them standing together in an aisle of refrigerators. "Chapa," she mutters quietly, sadly gazing at the other girl. "That's not true. You know that's not how Henry sees us."
"He didn't choose us. Neither of them did. Captain Man chose Kid Danger, Danger's chosen Lil' Dynomite. We're just the super teens they got stuck with, they both only took us on out of responsibility." Chapa says.
"Maybe…" Mika sighs, "that's how it started out; Captain Man took us on because Kid Danger left, he needed sidekicks and we had accidentally gotten powers. But that's not what it is. He grew to see us as real partners, real friends. He cared about us and so does Henry. He's not going to replace us with Lil' Dynomite, or anybody. He's just trying to help Dawson too. We can all be friends."
"I don't want to be his friend," Chapa grumbles.
"Oh, come on. Lil' Dynomite is cool; he saved our lives. Plus, he's really nice," Mika says with a teasing smile. "You can't totally dislike him."
Chapa huffs. "He's too nice, too happy. You can't trust someone who smiles that much."
"Bose smiles almost that much," Mika argues.
"What makes you think I fully trust him either?" Chapa quips back.
Mika smiles, "You trust Bose. You…" she stops with a gasp. Going fully serious she asks, "Do you hear that?"
"No, I generally don't hear the things you ask that question about," Chapa sasses.
"It's Nurse Cohort and Goomer! They're right over there." Shoutout points up the aisle and to the right.
"Let's get them," Volt says.
The two girls walk as quickly and stealthily as they can until they find the criminals. They're looking at a little kitchen table made of fine gold and crystal. "Oh, this one is lovely!" Nurse Cohort says. "It's so elegant and it's the perfect size for the two of us. What do you think, Goomy?"
"It's really pretty," Goomer coos.
"It's perfect for our little romantic dining room," Nurse Cohort says. "And those chairs over there would match it so well. Let's put them all in our cart." Goomer does the heavy lifting, moving the table and chairs onto the large pushcart they have with them. It's piled with several other pieces of furniture.
"Did she just say 'romantic dining room'?" Volt asks. "Like she wants to make one for the two of them?"
Shoutout nods, "I've been getting that vibe off them all week."
"Gross!" Volt says.
"I think it's sweet," Shoutout counters. "They're so good to each other."
"Shoutout!" Volt berates.
Shoutout raises her hands in surrender to placate the angry girl and says, "Let's send a signal to the others and stop them from stealing that romantic and very expensive table."
"Yeah, let's," Volt agrees.
"Oh, Goomy, you're so strong!" Nurse Cohort says once he's finished loading the chairs. "This is going so well! I'm so happy I found you!" She throws her arms around him and plants a big kiss on his lips.
"EWWWW!" Volt screeches.
"Awwww!" Shoutout coos at the same time.
Nurse Cohort and Goomer pull apart quickly to look at the pair of them. "Uh oh!" Goomer says.
"We've got to move, Goomy. If these two are here, then the rest must be close by," Nurse Cohort says. She takes his hand and grabs the cart. Together they run down the aisle.
"We weren't supposed to engage," Shoutout cringes.
Volt is still gagging but takes up the chase quickly saying to Shoutout, "Can't change it now. Let's not lose them!"
She and Shoutout send blasts of sound and lightning after the villains and Nurse Cohort returns fire with a red gun that shoots a ball of lightning back at them. They round a corner sharply and sprint down a row of China cabinets.
Halfway down the aisle, AWOL and Brainstorm show up. Goomer and Nurse Cohort screech their cart to a halt. "We found them!" Brainstorm cheers. Nurse Cohort shoots at him. "Hey!" he protests.
"I'll shoot you again if you don't get out of the way," she says.
"Good luck with that shot," AWOL says, teleporting from her line of fire. He reappears beside her, grabs hold of the gold and crystal table, and vanishes again, taking it with him.
"Not our table!" Nurse Cohort screams.
"It's not yours unless you pay for it!" Lil' Dynomite says, flying over a low glass doored cabinet. Danger vaults himself over the top of it behind him.
"What happened to waiting to attack together?" Danger asks his team.
"They were being gross, I reacted appropriately," Volt says, throwing lightning.
Shoutout deflects a shot from Nurse Cohort's gun before she counters Volt with, "They kissed, you shrieked in a total overreaction and gave away our position."
"They what?" AWOL asks rhetorically, nose wrinkled distastefully.
"Gross," Danger says with a nod, kicking the red gun out of Nurse Cohort's hand. "You guys are dating?"
"Hey!" she complains. But out of seeming nowhere, apparently from a holster hidden under her coat. She pulls out her orange plasma blasting gun and a blue one. The act of pulling them out reveals she has at least a couple more guns of different colors still hidden.
She immediately hits Danger point blank with the orange gun. He crashes hard into a cabinet and slumps with a pained wheeze as the wind is knocked out of him. The wood splinters and the glass shatters on impact, falling around him. The front of his uniform is very singed.
In response, the sidekicks rush to attack her. Nurse Cohort picks her shots carefully to stall their approach. The ray of the blue gun hitting Bose and sending him reeling back into the air, and not falling to the floor. He floats weightlessly in the air; without anything to help him he is unable to move from his place above the battle.
AWOL is not among the attack as he is teleporting the stolen furniture back to its place, dodging around Goomer each time he comes back. It takes many tries but Goomer manages to get a hold of AWOL when the boy comes back from returning a bathroom vanity. Goomer picks AWOL up and heaves him across the aisle. AWOL crashes into a fridge with a screech.
Shoutout jumps on Goomer's back with a hope to knock him down. Unfortunately, she only ends up dangling from the large man's back. "Oh man!" she mutters before being heaved bodily into AWOL, just as the teleporter is getting back to his feet.
Volt and Lil' Dynomite continue the battle with Nurse Cohort, but between all their crossing powers, an explosion inevitably sends them all careening backwards. Goomer runs to Nurse Cohort with a concerned cry while Danger pulls himself away from his crash site to help Lil' Dynomite and Volt. "Are you guys hurt?"
"Not badly," Lil' Dynomite says, Danger helps him stand.
"Peachy!" Volt growls dishonestly, a glare directed at the both of them, getting to her own feet.
She turns back toward the villains.
Goomer has pulled Nurse Cohort to her feet and is frowning at the heroes. "Don't you go hurting my Nurse lady!" he says and lumbers towards them.
Volt raises her fists to fight but he's already too close and has grabbed hold of her and Lil' Dynomite so she can't get a shot at him. Goomer smashes their heads together, knocking them out and throws them both away to lay in a crumpled heap down the aisle.
In retaliation, Danger attacks Goomer. He kicks Groomer's knee and says, "Don't you go hurting my sidekicks!"
The twins are also back on their feet, dodging attacks from Nurse Cohort who shoots at them with her guns. Shoutout deflects the blasts with her scream. AWOL dodges around, trying to get in close. She is ready for him to appear and catches him point blank with a shot in the chest. He goes floating upward next to Brainstorm and doesn't come back down. Shoutout loses ground as Nurse Cohort directs both weapons at her and continuously shoots them both. Shoutout ends up with her back to a dishwasher and is overtaken, knocked unconscious on the floor.
Danger, all the while, is still battling Goomer. With all the others defeated, Nurse Cohort joins the fight. Danger gets blown off his feet, flipping around wildly until he crashes into a display kitchen. "Ow" he groans.
While he's down, Goomer and Nurse Cohort make a run for it. "Let's go, now," she urges. She grabs her red gun from the floor and hops on the cart with their stolen furniture. He pushes it with great speed down the aisle and out of sight. Annoying evil cackling follows them as they end up out of sight.
AWOL grumbles, "And they're gone."
"We got our butts kicked again," Brainstorm nods.
"Yep," AWOL says very lackluster.
"How're we gonna get down from here?" Brainstorm asks.
AWOL punches the air and teleports to the ground, he grabs onto a counter fearing he'll start floating again but he doesn't. "Like that," he says. "Just wait a second and I'll get you down too."
He punches the air to teleport to Brainstorm but in the second he's gone, Brainstorm unexpectedly falls to the ground on his own. AWOL appears and sees the situation, "What the?" he asks and quickly re-teleports so he doesn't crash hard like Brainstorm has.
"That hurt," Brainstorm says.
Volt groans with a shared feeling. "Someone get this Dweeb off of me!" She shouts, wriggling and pushing at the unconscious Lil' Dynomite on top of her.
(Commercial break)
February 7, 2022
The SW.A.G. classroom is arranged for hero training. Henry spends time going one on one with each student, pairing off the other four to spar. He's with Dawson to start. "Harder this time and remember to follow through, aim behind the target not on the surface," Henry tells him, wielding the punching pads on his hands for the kid.
Dawson nods and throws another cross punch with a serious determined look on his face.
"Better," Henry nods. "Now throw a hook." Dawson does. Henry instructs more punches to be thrown, quicker as they go on. Dawson throws each with effort, taking each correction and encouragement to heart. "Good. Good," Henry calls him off after several minutes. He pulls his hand out of the pad gloves and shakes it. "You're getting the punches down great. Now grab your gauntlets, I want to work some with your plasma powers."
Chapa directs a scowl so cold at the pair while Dawson runs to get his gauntlets that all the others in the room can feel the chill, save the two guys at which it is directed. "Focus, Chapa!" Mika encourages before sending a fresh attack at the other girl.
Chapa retaliates with a powerful strike of her own. They clash repeatedly until Chapa gets Mika with a blast that lands her on her back on the floor and Mika retaliates with a sonic scream that sweeps Chapa's feet out from under her.
Chapa's fall puts her in the path of Bose and Mile's fight. Bose, with a frown on his face and dodging a punch from Miles, ends up tripping and falling over her. "Watch out!" Miles tries to warn too late.
"Ow," Chapa complains. Bose echoes her.
With two of the three spars having stopped Henry takes notice and stops his own training with Dawson. He looks at the Danger Force kids and asks, "You guys good?"
Mika and Chapa both get back to their feet quickly with the responses of "Yes" and "Peachy". Bose, however, sits slouching on the floor, frown bigger now than before. "I'm fine," he mumbles.
Henry raises an eyebrow at him. Taking off his punching pad gloves he comes to them. "Bose?" he asks seriously. "What's up?"
Bose again mumbles something.
"What was that?" Henry asks, kneeling down beside the boy. "I'm not Mika, you gotta speak up."
"Ha, ha, hilarious," Mika says sarcastically.
"And accurate," Miles says far more sincerely but with a teasing smile at his sister.
Bose smiles a bit at her. "I'm fine," he repeats. "I'm just hate losing."
Henry nods with a little frown. "Sorry, buddy. Loosing's part of the gig sometimes."
"But Nurse Cohort and Goomer have beaten us like five times already," Bose says. "And they do it so well. They don't just get away, they trap us or knock us out."
He gets several faces and noises of agreeing irritation. "They are unexpectedly dangerous," Mika concurs.
"And a totally weird couple." Chapa adds.
"How did the two of them become good enough to stop us?" Miles asks.
"Seriously," Mika agrees with an emphatic gesture. "He's a bumbling nincompoop and she was a villain I'm not sure I'd ever really heard of before."
"She was Minyak's assistant," Henry says. "And I honestly never thought much of her either. She was just kinda there, she didn't do much. Now, I'm not sure she wasn't secretly the brains of the operation."
Mika nods, "Clearly he was holding her back."
"Both of them. Minyak and Frankini," Henry agrees. "When Nurse Cohort and Goomer were their sidekicks, they were both nobodies, nonthreats."
"Well, can they hold them back again?" Bose asks with a frown.
"I doubt it, buddy," Henry apologizes. "That's why we're training. So, we can get better and not get ourselves beaten next time."
"We could do it if we didn't have the Lil' Distraction around," Chapa mutters. Dawson is the only one who seems to hear or pay her comment any attention. His posture wilting as a hurt frown tugs at his lips.
"Really?" Bose asks Henry.
"Yep. And you're with me next. Let's go," Henry says pulling the mopey Bose to his feet. "You four switch up partners too."
While Henry takes the turn with Bose, the sparing pairs switch to be the twins against each other and Chapa against Dawson. He smiles lightly at her, hoping for some returned camaraderie. She glares back distastefully. They both raise their hands to fighting position.
She strikes first. He dodges the lightning and responds with a plasma-blast. She dodges and they both rush in throwing punches. Through the entire fight Dawson keeps a peppy attitude and expression; cheering her on with things like "Nice one!" when she gets a hit in on him. It enrages Chapa.
Chapa throws a punch, which he dodges, and increases her magnetism level to pull any loose metal towards them; her reason for doing so is that the rack holding weapons is just behind him. It collides with Dawson's back and sends him sprawling. Chapa zaps him before he can get back up. He gasps in surprise and discomfort. "Woah. Ow," he says. "Good move."
Dawson tries to get back to his feet but Chapa tackles him. "Woah!" Miles shouts as they crash into the space he and Mika are sparring.
"Hey!" Mika cries.
"Ow!" Dawson cries trying to fight Chapa off. "Stop! Please, Chapa!"
Henry takes notice as the Macklins jump away and shout at the brawling duo. He and Bose come over saying, "Woah! Woah! Chapa, Dawson, enough!" he grabs at them. It takes a moment and some help from Bose's telekinesis to get them apart. "What are you guys doing? This is training not a death match."
Dawson pants and shakes on his feet. "I'm sorry, sir. I don't know why it went that far. I didn't mean for it."
Chapa too is panting but not from fear and exhaustion as he is. She huffs with rage and restrained violent energy. "Chapa?" Henry prompts.
"What's up with you?" Bose asks her. "What's got you so agitated?"
She growls back, "Nothing."
"Chapa?" Henry asks with less sureness at her.
"Nothing!" She repeats forcefully and stomps away.
"Uh…?" Bose says.
"She really doesn't like me," Dawson says, convinced. Miles shrugs in seeming agreement.
"It's not that…" Henry tries to reassure but feels like he's lying because he's not sure he believes it himself. Dawson can see his disbelief.
"It really isn't that," Mika says much more convincingly. "She doesn't hate you. She's not even actually mad at you. You're just, a much easier target for her rage."
Dawson frowns at her, wanting to believe her. "Then what is she mad at?" he asks.
"And why is she taking it out on Dawson?" Bose asks too.
"Well…" she draws out, glancing at Henry.
He does naught but blink at the unexpected revelation. "What did I do?"
Mika purses her lips and decides against answering forthright. "You should talk to her about it."
Henry stares curious, trying to come up with what he could've done to offend Chapa. "I will," he says. "After she's had some time to cool off."
"Probably smart," Miles acknowledges.
(Commercial Break)
After finishing training with the four students who'd stayed, Henry finds Chapa sulking in the Man's Nest. He pulls up a seat beside her and ignores the glare she gives him out of the corner of her eye. "So," he begins. "You wanna tell me what's up?"
She ignores him. He waits, staring at her expectantly and hoping it drives her crazy sooner than it does him. They sit in silence for several long minutes. Her eyes flick to him and away again quickly the entire time, the frequency growing as the minutes pass by. Her irritation clearly growing as well.
"Chapa?" he probes.
She doesn't answer but sends out a magnetic wave that pushes his chair away. Startled, he ends up tipping the chair and tumbling over it to the floor.
"Chapa!" he complains and chastises.
"Sorry," she replies with unparalleled sarcasm.
He stands up with an annoyed gripe at her, "If you're upset about something, you need to tell me, not throw me across the room."
She sends a small bolt his way, he deflects it off his shield.
"What exactly have I done to offend you?" He asks.
This earns him a full glare. She looks directly at him but with a stare full of malice. Still, she does not speak. He holds her stare, silently asking her to talk. Neither blinks for several minutes, both stubbornly refusing to cede.
The emergency alert startles them out of it. Schwoz is the first to run into the room in response. "Ugh, more Nurse Cohort and Goomer." he grumbles, checking the alert.
The rest of the sidekicks come up in their chairs. Chapa moves to join them. "Oh no you don't," Henry says blocking her path. "You're not going anywhere until you talk to me."
She glares more fiercely than before. "You're going to stop me from going on a mission because I don't want to talk to you?"
"Pretty much," Henry nods. "We'll join them as soon as you tell me what's wrong."
"You're not coming?" Dawson asks a little distressed.
"We'll be there soon, as long as Chapa talks," Henry assures.
"Not like them being there is going to make a difference," Bose grumbles. "We're going to get our butts kicked, again."
"Think positive," Miles encourages. Bose nods, albeit sulkily. They suit up.
Chapa tries to step around Henry to get to her locker. He cuts her off repeatedly, matching her frustrated expression.
The rest watch awkwardly, unsure what to say, or if they should. They gather on the tube pad.
"Mika's in charge until we get there!" Henry instructs them before they go.
"Yes!" she celebrates.
"What?!" Miles demands offended.
"You heard him," Mika says smugly. "I'm in charge."
"Don't let it go to your head," Henry commands as she calls out the command to send them down the tube.
"Wait!" Chapa calls. She rushes at Henry, shoving as hard as she can to get past him. As he takes her shoulder to the chest he also grabs hold of her. With simple effort he diverts her path, sending her tripping over air to crash to the floor well away from the tube pad.
She gets up in a rage and charges him again. He meets her blow and presses back. "You want to fight about it? Fine, but you're still not going."
She screams and electrifies her fists and forearms. He dodges her punches nimbly. She pursues with heated movements. He drops and hoists her by the legs over his shoulder.
"Oh my!" Schwoz says. "I'm going to go now." He rushes out.
Chapa gets back up, and throws lightning at Henry. Barely in the nick of time he activates his forcefield. He drops it, letting her get in close and retaliates with a punch of his own. She stumbles back.
"Don't react. Think about what you're doing before you act," he advises.
She rushes back in with the cry of, "This isn't training!"
"Sure, it is," he says easily dodging her attack again and using her momentum against her. "You ditched that early and I'm not here to fight you for real, so now we're training. And I'm telling you to fight smarter. You're letting your anger control you instead of fuel you. I suggest you get whatever's irritating you so much off of your chest."
Chapa continues to glare at him but doesn't come back at him. She throws a bolt at him but remains standing still and tense, hand outstretched, even as he dodges. Henry waits for her to make another move. Nothing seems to happen for a long time, only too late does he react to the slight scraping sound at his feet. Chapa has magnetically pulled a metal cable across the floor to herself, also right beside Henry's ankle. He looks down and understands his predicament an instant before she lights up and he receives her shock through the cable.
It's enough of a jolt for him to momentarily lose his sight. His vision clears with him on the ground and her right on top of him. She brings many a punch down on him, he deflects and tries to cut her off. "Chapa. Chapa." But she doesn't pay him any heed, breathing heavy and smashing her fists at him even when he puts a small forcefield around himself.
She stops a minute later, panting and a slight bit less tense. She sits heavily to the side of him. He gives her another minute to come down from her rage before asking, "Feel better?"
She punches him again, much less powerfully.
"Gonna tell me what's wrong now?" he asks.
She breathes deeply. After a moment she says, "It doesn't matter."
"Yes, it does," he retorts with an eyebrow raised. She rolls her eyes. "It's got you all in a rage… more than usual, so clearly it matters to you."
"But it doesn't matter to you!" she gripes.
"Of course, it matters to me. I care about what's going on with you." She scoffs at his statement. "I don't care if it's silly or whatever, you're my sidekick and my friend, I want to know if you've got a problem."
"I'm not your sidekick, Lil' Disaster is," she argues dejectedly, looking away from him.
"Yeah, Lil' D is my sidekick too," he says. "Why does that mean you aren't?" He pauses to wait for a response from her but doesn't get one. "Chapa?"
"Because you didn't pick us out like you did him," she bursts. "You just got stuck with us."
"Picked him out?" Henry asks almost amused. "I didn't pick him out."
"You didn't have to take him on, you chose to," she argues.
"I didn't have to take you on either," he retorts. "I chose to make all of you my sidekicks."
"It's not the same!" she insists.
"Why not? How is it different?" he asks.
She huffs angrily and tries to explain, "Because. You took us on because we were Captain Man's sidekicks. If we hadn't been, you wouldn't have cared. You made him your sidekick just because you wanted to."
He frowns. "Okay, kind of, but also not really at all," he says. "First point, it's the other way around; Captain Man only made you his sidekicks because I told him he should. After the Omega weapon blew up, I didn't want to leave you all dealing with new superpowers unaided. Especially since it was partly our fault you got them. If I didn't care, you'd be on your own. After he died, I stayed here to teach you because I care. I want to make sure you're all okay, even though I don't think I'm remotely ready to have sidekicks."
"So, you took on a fifth, that makes sense," she comments.
"I made Lil' D my sidekick because I care about him too, and I feel responsible for him," Henry says. "When I agreed to let Neighborville try to recruit me as their superhero, they brought Lil' D to be part of their persuasion act: giving me a sidekick who'd always tell me I was 'great'. I didn't pick him out of the crowds any more than we picked you and the rest of Danger Force."
"That's not your fault and it doesn't mean you had to take him on now. You turned down that job," she objects.
"Yeah, I did. But Lil' D still ended up trying to be a hero, except that he didn't have any powers, or training or help. Anyone who was meant to no longer could: me, all those Neighborville people whose memories we erased. He was hiding his costume and power suit in his bedroom, hiding from all the other people in the house. He didn't have anyone and I'm partially responsible. I feel responsible for helping him, same as I do for you guys." Henry says. "You're all my sidekicks, I want to help all of you."
"Yeah, well, you clearly favor him," she comes up with another argument.
"I don't, I promise," he says.
"Yes, you do. You have been ever since the avalanche," she insists. "You do everything with him; missions, training sessions, hanging out."
"I'm trying to make him feel comfortable, because someone has been insulting him and making him feel unwanted," he says with a pointed look. "I've been trying to train him because he's never had any. I partner with him on missions because I know you and the rest of Danger Force can handle yourselves, but I'm not sure how ready he is to face a lot of our villains alone. Especially Nurse Cohort and Goomer, who have been kicking our butts for over a week."
"Well…" she tries to come up with something else to fight. He doesn't let her.
"I don't like him more than you. He's not here to replace you as my sidekick." Henry wraps an arm around her in a half hug. "Him being here doesn't mean you are anything less to me. I want us all to be friends, to work together to get Shadow Man."
She sniffs and curls her lip. "I still don't like him. He's too nice."
Henry chuckles. "Maybe you could learn a thing about niceness from him. Try to be nice to him. I'm not asking you to become BFFs but try to make him feel welcome. Please."
"Whatever," she shrugs him off. "Can we go to the fight now?"
"That depends," he says considering her. "Is there anything else we need to talk about?"
She turns away and grabs her gum tin.
They come upon the home décor store 'Find You' and slip inside. Once inside, it becomes apparent where to go. They can hear and soon thereafter see the fight. Shoutout, AWOL, Brainstorm, and Lil' Dynomite are worming themselves out of stuck spaces under collapsed shelving and untangling themselves from decorative blankets and linens while Nurse Cohort and Goomer run away.
Danger and Volt rush to help their teammates. "How'd you end up stuck in blankets?" Volt asks. "And how did they get so well tied to keep you stuck?"
"Nurse Cohort is very talented," AWOL says.
"I've noticed," Danger says. "Let's get you out of this and get after them."
"They're probably gone by now," Shoutout says forlornly. Danger pulls her out of her trapped space and sets her on her feet. She's the last one to be freed.
"Shouldn't we go check anyway?" Volt proposes, inching towards the back door. "They aren't Shadow Man. They don't just vanish into darkness."
Before anyone can respond to her a shout of alarm seems to come from outside. "What the…?" Brainstorm asks.
The yelling goes on, the words of it indistinguishable. "That sounds like Nurse Cohort," Shoutout says. The shouts turn to wordless cries.
"We should check it out," Danger says.
"Let's go!" Volt encourages, already running to the door.
Outside the six of them find nothing. Nurse Cohort and Goomer are nowhere in sight. Nor is anyone or anything that could've produced the wailing. The only thing of note is the cart of throw pillows and décor tipped over the curb a few feet away. "That's the stuff they were stealing," Lil' Dynomite notes.
"Why would they leave it behind?" Brainstorm wonders.
"Where did they go?" Volt asks.
"Something weird happened," AWOL says. He wanders, looking around curiously.
"She was yelling at someone," Shoutout says, "not Goomer. Someone else was here and she sounded panicked."
They find no answers, nothing but the cart of merchandise is around, no matter how long they look.
"We should take this stuff back inside the store," Lil' Dynomite suggests, picking up the merchandise.
"Yeah," Danger nods. "We'll figure out what happened to Nurse Cohort and Goomer later. We can ask them at their next robbery."
But that next robbery doesn't come. After returning the stolen goods to Find You, the team has a very quiet week. Neither Nurse Cohort or Goomer are seen anywhere, and they don't rob any other home making stores.
"I thought the robberies stopping would be a relief," Dawson admits after several days. "But I actually feel more worried than before."
"Good instinct," Chapa says. "There is definitely something off about all of this."
"What could've happened?" he asks her and the others, looking to them to have an answer because they have more experience.
None answer for a long time. The silence is tense and worried. Eventually Bose says, "Who knows?"
"These days, I'd believe anything," Mika says.
"It'll all come to light eventually," Miles says optimistically.
"I'm not sure that's really comforting," Henry comments. "We might not want to know the truth of everything."
"I don't. I'm sure it's going to be bad," Chapa says. "There's nothing good going on in this town lately."
Next Episode: S1E24: Mystic Mystery