Welcome back! Thank you all for your patience and sorry for the long wait, again. This year has been crazy and my writing has suffered.
AnyRay, I hope you all enjoy this episode. Leave a review. I'll see you all next time, there is much more to come.
S2E3: Unstoppable Force
"Where is he?" Danger wonders looking around the alley.
"Probably hiding. Maybe hoping to catch us in a trap," Captain Man says, much more cavalier than his partner. "As if he has a chance to hurt us."
"Don't underestimate him Bro," Danger advises. "Occasionally he does execute plans that are a real threat."
The villain in question bursts from a doorway just behind them, tripping on his way out and smirking at him. The heroes whirl to face him at the clattering sound. "Yes, let me show you how much of a threat I am," Dr. Minyak shouts.
Captain Man laughs. "Uh, not at all," he asserts.
Minyak glares at him, and aims the tube end of his weapon at Captain Man. The tube snakes around his back to connect to a larger device with an empty chamber and a handful of buttons. Danger eyes it with apprehension, wondering if it is what it looks like. When Dr. Minyak jabs it into Captain Man's chest, Danger is more certain.
"Is that supposed to hurt?" Captain Man questions.
"It will soon," Minyak says with a malicious glint in his eye.
"Oh no," Danger mutters.
His partner raises his eyebrow at him as a result. "What?"
Minyak smirks at him. "Yes, you know what I've done to him. Now, it's you turn."
"Nope!" Danger says, putting up his forcefield between them before he can get hit.
Minyak repeatedly stabs the green forcefield with the hose of the power vacuum. "Gah! Not fair!" he complains.
"Not fair? You're trying to disable my powers!" Danger contends.
"And I will!" Minyak cries.
"Disable your powers?" Captain Man questions, grabbing the villain from behind. "Is that what this thing does?"
"Yes!" Minyak decrees. "I have concocted a way to detach you super-beings from your mutated genes that cause your abilities. And I have already got you with it, so prepare to be hurt, Captain Man!" Minyak drops the power vacuum hose to instead grab a regular energy gun from his belt. The angle over his shoulder means he has little control in the aim but from such a point-blank distance he doesn't miss his target of Captain Man's face.
The hero falls back with a cry of surprise and pain. "No!" Danger shrieks as well. Running to his friend's side, shoulder checking Minyak as he passes, he grabs Captain Man in concern. Captain Man blinks as he sits up, apparently unscathed. "Are you okay?" Danger asks.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Captain Man nods. "But, I thought he said that thing was supposed to take away my power. Shouldn't I not be okay?"
"Uh, yes," Danger says. "You shouldn't be indestructible."
"Impossible!" Minyak wails furiously. "You cannot be okay. I built this weapon to perfection. I improved upon my design! I made it compact, mobile and more powerful! You cannot still have your power!"
Captain Man stands with a cocky laugh, "Well, obviously you failed. Your silly little toy doesn't work. I'm okay! And you're just as weak as I remember!"
Dr. Minyak seethes and tosses his hose behind him to drag along, "I'll fix it! I made it work once, I will again! And I will be the one to kill you! Permanently!"
"Ha! Delusional!" Captain Man laughs. "You can't hurt me!"
"He did make it work last time," Danger concedes with a shrug. "Of course, we still beat him easily without our powers."
"Of course, you did!" Captain Man says. "He's Minyak." They both laugh. Minyak fires hopeless, enraged shots at the pair, none of which do anything.
A flash of yellow takes the three men by surprise. They turn to see Nurse Cohort has joined them. "Oh, and here's his no better sidekick," Captain Man laughs, not taking her seriously as she takes aim at him with her black magic gun. Danger deflects the shot with his forcefield, having dropped his nonchalant attitude at the sight of her. "Woah! What was that?" Captain Man questions staring at the collision spot.
"Magic," Danger answers. "Nurse Cohort? What are you doing?"
"This is my battle, Woman!" Minyak shouts at her. "Get out of here!" Without a word or even a glance to him, Nurse Cohort trades her yellow gun for her blue one and hits him with the telekinetic energy that sends him floating several feet off the ground. He yelps and clutches to his power vacuum, since it is the only thing he can reach. "What have you done to me?" he demands. "Let me down this instance."
She again ignores him and fires another couple magical shots at the still active forcefield. "Stop," Danger commands. "You can't get through it."
"I'll find a way," She promises.
"Just let it down, Kid," Captain Man prompts. "We can take her."
"No. Minyak might not be able to hurt you, but her magic gun can. I'm not taking that risk," Danger says quickly. "Nurse Cohort, what are you doing?"
"I'm here to kill him! And maybe you!" She sneers, standing inches away outside the forcefield.
"Why is everyone trying to kill me?" Captain Man asks. "I just came back from the dead, people. Can't I be allowed to enjoy it?"
"I'm not going to let you kill him. And why are you trying to kill me again?" Danger sighs. "I killed Shadow Man, I thought we were on slightly better terms."
She glares, "We killed him. We avenged our dead. I helped you, you couldn't have beat him without me!"
"I know," Danger tries to placate.
"Then where is my reward!? You got him back!" she gestures at Captain Man. "What about Goomer!? Why didn't he come back too? Why only Captain Man?!"
"Goomer?" Captain Man questions.
"Bleh!" Minyak gags theatrically. Nurse Cohort blindly shoots him again, making him yelp.
"I don't know," Danger tells her. "I didn't choose who came back. If I could have, I would have brought everyone back. I don't know what happened."
"I want Goomer!" She shouts.
"Ugh, why him? The crush on Captain Man I could understand, but that oaf?" Minyak mutters.
Nurse Cohort turns to him and orders, "Shut up, you incompetent failure." Her shot takes him square in the forehead, knocking him out of the air where he hovers and out cold.
Danger's attention is pulled from the villains as the hulking yet translucent frame of Goomer forms behind the villainous nurse. The ghost looks around surprised and confused. "What happened?" he asks with only Danger to hear. "Is the storm over?"
Danger's stomach turns as he stares at Goomer. He doesn't dare speak to the goon; he doesn't need his enemies thinking he's crazy nor the fact that thousands of ghosts are haunting the city to get out to the public.
Nurse Cohort questions, "What are you looking at?" and looks over her shoulder. Goomer smiles excited as she looks in his direction. Calling her name, "Lindiwe!", he throws his arms around her like he's going to pick her up in his embrace. Instead, his limbs pass through her and she shivers in confusion, taking a step back.
Goomer looks surprised as well, his confusion growing as he again fails to touch her. "What's going on? Lindi? Why can't I touch you?"
Danger is so distracted he lets his forcefield slip. The shield comes down and immediately Captain Man makes to fight Nurse Cohort while she's still half turned away. She turns back quickly and wrestles with him as he tries to take her black gun.
"Leave my Nurse Lindi Love alone!" Goomer commands trying to pull Captain Man off, also not tangible to him.
"If Goomer can't live again, neither can you!" Nurse Cohort shouts at Captain Man. Her finger is on the trigger of the gun and she fights to get it aimed at him.
"It's not my fault he stayed dead and I didn't!" Captain Man protests shrilly, struggling with her.
"What?" Goomer asks, looking confused at the both of them. "I'm not dead. I'm right here." Even as he says it he seems to be taking himself in. "I'm alive," he insists and tries to get their attention, growing more distressed at their continued ignorance of his presence. "I'm not…dead… right?" he asks.
"I'll kill you!" Nurse Cohort insists getting not the black gun but her blue one into place to shoot Captain Man.
"Wait! Stop!" Danger shouts at them. The situation had become way too complicated in a very short time. Captain Man reaches to deflect the telekinetic shot away and Nurse Cohort has the opening to ready the more lethal gun. Desperate to help, but knowing he can't well form his forcefield between the two so thoroughly entangled, Danger runs at them and throws his hand down in a chopping motion as if to block the blow. Only he is not near enough to come between it and Ray. "No!"
Something else slices through the gap between them, right through the gun, inches from Captain Man's face. It's thin and glows green. Both of them go cross-eyed at what they're not sure they'd really seen. The front half of the black gun slides from the back half and clatters to the floor, breaking into more pieces. "What the…" Captain Man says.
"What just happened?" Nurse Cohort echoes.
They step away from each other and look back and forth at the broken pieces of the gun. Then they cast their gazes around. Danger is staring at his own outstretched hand, palm flat and facing sideways, wondering if he was perceiving the past moment correctly. Goomer asking, "How did you do that?" is a secondary affirmation to him that he is. That… whatever that was… had come from his hand; burst out of his fingertips.
"Kid?" Captain Man asks. Staring at his hand now too. "Did you do that?"
The way Danger's gaping and studying his fingers is enough of an answer, though he cannot form an oral response.
"What did you do?" Nurse Cohort demands. "What was that?"
"Uh- I- uh," he stutters. He moves his hand around, flexing his palm and fingers in different ways until another blade of green energy bursts out. It flies across the warehouse and cuts right through a solid iron post supporting a raised platform. The platform lists and crashes to the ground violently. They all flinch away from it surprised. Danger squeaks and retracts his fingers. Captain Man gapes at him, shocked and impressed. Nurse Cohort considers him for a moment before replacing her broken black gun with her yellow one and hightailing it away. Goomer calls out after her but can't follow.
"Dang, Kid! I wasn't expecting that," Captain Man says.
Danger nods slowly. "Me neither. I guess it's about time but… this was a lot more out of nowhere than I thought it would be."
"It's cool though," Captain Man says, throwing his arm around Henry's shoulders.
Danger smirks, considering it, "Yeah. I broke her magic gun."
"Where did she get a magic gun?" Captain Man asks.
"Uh, I'm pretty sure she made it, and all her other guns," Danger says.
"The one that made Minyak hover and the one that made her teleport?"
"And others. She's been replicating as many powers as she can." Danger says.
"Nurse Cohort?" Captain Man asks. "I thought she was just Minyak's assistant. You gotta tell me how she became a threat. And what's this about her not having a crush on me before? Did she say she's in love with Goomer? Were she and him…?" he scrunches his face in disgust at the thought.
"Dating. Yeah," Danger confirms. Captain Man gags.
"It's not gross," Goomer says, frowning at Captain Man. "She's perfect. I wanna be alive with her. I don't wanna be dead."
Danger glances at the ghost sorrowfully. He sighs, deflating. With barely a sound he mutters, "I'm sorry Goomer."
The ghost looks at him surprised. "Can you see me, Kid Danger?" he asks.
"Yes," Danger answers looking at him. Even as he does, the large man starts going wispy.
He looks concerned at himself, then meets Danger's eye. "I don't want to go back to the other place." He says and is whisked away.
Captain Man peers in the direction Danger is looking. "Goomer? His ghost is here?"
"He's gone now," Danger says. All the chaos of the last few minutes has left him feeling sick as the tension evaporates.
"But he was here while Nurse Cohort was? While she was talking about him?" Captain Man asks. "That's an odd coincidence."
Danger nods and shrugs. He looks to the mad doctor unconscious on the ground. "We should take Minyak to prison."
"Okay," Captain Man nods. "Then, let's go show off your new powers. Schwoz is going to want to put you through all kinds of tests."
Danger groans, "That's going to be painful."
(Theme Song:)
Chapa alone glowers amidst the cheers of her friends as they watch Henry destroy every projectile Ray and Schwoz launch at him with precise hits from his new power. Small rockets and throwing knives turn to scrap metal on the floor. Schwoz rummages through his drawers and hidden shelves of supplies every few minutes trying to find new materials to test the power with. Every time Henry's slashes of energy cut cleanly through them. "Woah!" Schwoz states after a while. He examines the pieces of what had been a black disc. "There is no sign of resistance here. You cut through this carbene like it was nothing."
"Cool," Henry smiles. "I do not know the significance of that."
"It's very strong and hard to cut," Schwoz patronizes with a superior tone.
"Yeah, we already know he could cut hard things," Ray retorts.
Schwoz sighs in disappointment as he explains, "It's not just hard, it's virtually indestructible, and he cut it like warm goat-butter."
"So, he's really powerful," Mika nods.
Beside her Chapa slumps down with a pout. Schwoz answers "Yes. Very, very powerful!" But before he can break into his intended science spiel, Ray is pulling a basket of fruit up and preparing them for launch.
"Hey, Kid, slice me up a snack!" he says and lobs an apple towards Henry.
Henry easily bisects it and laughs. "I think this power cooks them a bit," he comments of the smell emitting from the two halves. The surface of the slice is crispy and lightly browned. Ray proceeds to lob more fruit across the room. Schwoz's protests to the actions go ignored. The smell of burnt oranges, mangoes, lemons and even grapes soon mingle with the apple and Henry has piles the sliced projectiles all around him. The cheering and laughter resume around them, drowning out Schwoz's attempts to divert the conversation.
Ray begins calling out throws as he tosses them more challengingly. The others begin tossing stuff into his line of fire as well, Piper starting it by retrieving the larger chunks of fruit remains. Henry slices as many as he can in the barrage for several minutes until one of his energy beams narrowly misses a half-pineapple and instead hits the wall. A flood of sparks comes from whatever he'd damaged therein and the lights flicker unstably. They all stop moving in surprise.
Except Schwoz. "AYE!" he cries.
"Oops," Henry says.
"This is what I was saying! You're going to break something!" Schwoz repeats his protests that they had all been ignoring. He pulls a chain that comes from somewhere up in the ceiling and climbs into the wall to find the issue, all the while chastising, "Your power is too powerful to use in a place like this! There are too many important systems in here! You don't even realize what kind of damage you could cause!"
"Dude, that's the only shot I've even missed," Henry protests. "One in like three hundred. And it was barely a miss."
"Seriously," Miles agrees. "Henry's got mad skills with this power!"
"What's in that wall that I could've damaged so badly with one hit?" Henry asks.
"Nothing," Schwoz grumbles. "You just damaged some power lines. But if you had hit that part of the wall over there," he points. "You would've shattered the iridium crystals and blown up the Man's Nest. Which is a problem because we only have one!"
"But I didn't hit them," Henry says. "Not even close. It's all good, dude."
"It's more than good," Ray agrees. "With this power, no villain is going to be able to stand up to us. It's not even going to matter that Drex is back from the dead because you'll be able to take him down so easy."
"True," Chapa grumbles. "None of the bad guys are going to stand a chance against you and your super destruction power."
"You sound upset about that," Dawson comments with a questioning raise of his eyebrow.
She continues to glower and gives no response. "She's jealous," Bose explains.
"What?" most of them laugh. She shoots him a glare and says, "Stay outta my head."
"Jealous?" Henry asks.
Chapa huffs and answers. "It's not fair! All I get is spoons stuck to me and you can break anything, even Schwoz's super unbreakable frisbee. I wanna do that!"
More laughter follows. "Your magnetism is really cool," Mika encourages. "And has the potential for so many applications."
"I don't want many applications; I just want to destroy!" Chapa says.
"Well, sorry," Henry says, mimicking her frequent sarcastic lilt on the word. "We were both hit with the omega weapon, not my fault my DNA reacted more violently than yours."
She almost smirks through her glare and throws something at him. He reacts accordingly, cutting the projectile out of the air with his power.
"Hey!" Dawson complains. "That's my shoe!"
The sneaker lays in tattered, smoking pieces on the ground. "It was your shoe," Piper corrects.
"Sorry, Lil' D," Henry says. Shooting a look at Chapa.
She smirks and echoes, "Sorry." Her tone is as sarcastic as ever.
Henry sighs, "I'll get you a new pair."
"Well, then, you might as well destroy the other one," Chapa says, pulling the second off Dawson's foot, unaffected by his protests.
Henry sidesteps the throw instead of countering it. "Don't destroy other people's stuff."
"I didn't," she protests with false innocence. "I don't have the power to blast things apart; I only threw the shoe." Henry rolls his eyes.
Ray laughs. "Right," he says. "You're the one who got the super-destruction power. So, it's not our fault if we throw, say this screwdriver," he grabs one from Schwoz' cart, "and you destroy it."
That precise thing happens and Henry complains, "Dude!" Ray laughs and throws more of Schwoz' tools at Henry. "Hey!" Henry complains. He dodges most of them and rapidly sends three blades of energy to destroy the mallet and wrench that get too close too fast. "Ray!" he berates. Ray has stopped throwing things; his laughter has died as well. His expression has become one of surprise and pain and his right hand presses tightly to the front of his left shoulder.
"Oh my god!" Mika exclaims.
"Ray?" Henry questions.
"Wh-what the…?" Ray mutters shakily staring at his own shoulder.
"That's a lot of blood," Charlotte comments, standing quickly. The red fluid oozes out around Ray's palm and between his fingers; not a little trickle, but a constant leak.
His face notably pales at the sight. "That's not possible," he says. Beneath him, his legs quake. Henry darts forward to catch him as he begins to collapse slowly. The others leap up as well, pressing in with questions and concerns. Charlotte moves to the front to help Henry lay Ray down. Schwoz climbs out of the wall, asking, "What happened?"
Ray grows paler and his hold against the wound slackens. Henry firmly presses his own hands against the wound, the perfect cut running straight through his shoulder, having been unhindered by all in its path. Discussions go on around him, his friends trying to figure out what to do, where to get medical attention. Henry only catches it in snippets while trying to stem the flow of blood: Ray is losing too much blood, he's going into shock, no hospital would be able to do anything to save him because he was indestructible. The focus in Ray's eyes dims as the seconds tick but and Henry is stuck, staring at him, unable to get himself to do anything else. Even breathing is a chore. Someone is talking to him, but he can't make out the meaning behind the words. All that is real is that Ray is dying in front of him, again, and that it's Henry's fault.
(Commercial break)
The image of Ray's dead body at the power station and Ray bleeding out on the floor of the Man's Nest, battle and merge in Henry's mind. The blood still coats his hands, though they now lay helplessly in his lap, shaking and tensing into fists. Ray is somewhere, presumably nearby, though out of sight behind the doors across the room. Someone is supposedly working to heal him; to fix the damage Henry had so effortlessly wrought. It shouldn't be possible; Ray was indestructible, Henry shouldn't have been able to hurt him. Yet, here they were, Ray dying a second time because Henry had messed with something powerful that he didn't fully understand.
Short, shallow breaths are the best Henry can give as the guilt wracks him. As the horror and anguish of Ray's death echo from the year before, his whole body tenses and his forcefield reacts. He can't go through that again. "Hen," Jasper says from the chair beside him and Henry forces himself to release the forcefield. Keeping himself in control is important.
Jasper scoots back towards Henry, leaning over to assure, "Ray's going to be okay. If something had happened, they would've come to tell us already; so, he must be okay. They're fixing him right up."
Henry nods with his words passively, placating his friends and wishing he could believe it himself. The amount of Ray's blood on Henry's hands and clothes and how much more Ray must've lost since being taken away is not an encouraging factor. The time they are taking to fix it is also highly troublesome. Unless Henry's perception is being warped. Every second is stretching out. Maybe it's only been a few minutes. How much longer would it take? Is taking longer a good thing; meaning he's still alive? Or does it mean they're struggling to save him? Is he already dead? The possibilities are too terrible to contemplate, yet Henry can't keep them from forming in his mind.
He closes his eyes and tries to block it out. He can't freak out. He must stay in control.
"Do you want to get up?" Dawson offers; he is sitting at the foot of Henry's chair. "Do you want to go wash your hands?"
Henry gives only the smallest shake of his head. Moving doesn't feel possible at the moment; and he doesn't deserve to be clean of Ray's blood, not if he's killed him. He remains unmoving in his chair for the duration of their wait. Barely a word is spoken amongst them, none perceived or acknowledged by Henry until the doctor, or nurse, whatever he is, comes out to inform them of Ray's condition.
Schwoz is with him; and he is the first to speak. "Ray's going to be okay."
That one sentence takes a long time to fully absorb into Henry's understanding. His knees almost give out beneath him though he's only just stood. Dawson braces him. Sighs of relief permeate the rest of the group. "He lost so much blood." Mika worries.
"We were able to get it under control," The doctor says. "It was a close call. Fortunately, the subclavian artery was only nicked by whatever hurt him, so he retained enough blood to survive. He will need a few days to replenish and to allow the wound to close."
"Haven't you closed the wound?" Jasper asks.
"That is not possible," the doctor states. "His powers affect every one of his cells. The ones that were hit took damage but those surrounding them completely retain their indestructability. We cannot stitch his skin to close the wound; and to close the artery would require both surgery and stitches. All we could do was fill the open wound with a biomorphingel. From here he must rely on his own natural healing."
"You can't fix him?" Henry asks.
"No. He's all but impossible to treat because he's indestructible," The doctor explains. "The only consolation there is that his power means he's immune to infection and further accidental tearing. There are very few things in the world able to bypass his density; not even he could do it to himself. He can only be further injured by something alike unto whatever hit him to begin with.
"And to that point, what did hit him? There are forces that can negate his power, others that would destroy him. But what was able to injure him so efficiently and minutely?" the doctor asks. "That kind of power is not something we want running about unchecked. What villain caused this?"
Henry flinches away slightly, fist's clenched so tight his knuckles are white and his finger nails dig into his palms. "It wasn't a villain," Schwoz answers. "It was Henry. His newly developed power." Everyone looks at Henry, mostly with pity, the doctor with surprise.
"You…?" he mutters. Henry avoids eye contact, shriveling under the stress. "You need to get that blood off your hands." The doctor notes after a moment. "I'll show you where you can wash off. Then I'll show you all to Captain Man's room."
Henry spends a while scrubbing Ray's dried blood from his hands. Scouring under his fingernails hurts, a welcome counterpoint to the lack of feeling he is getting from most of his body. His stomach is clenched and his throat tight against airflow, but he can barely feel the discomfort. The water in the sink turns pink. His mind is floating, detached from his physical self as he ponders how close he'd come to killing Ray. He has to brace himself against the sink and breathe very consciously. His eyelids press together, lined with moisture, and his teeth grind.
He raises one shaky hand, palm flat, flexing the way he'd discovered today. The blade of green energy slices through the sink. A chunk of the ceramic crashes to the ground. Henry pulls his hand back to his chest, curling into a fist, and steps away from the sink. The bloody water trickles onto the floor. Henry turns and all but runs out of the bathroom.
Ray's arm is held in a stiff sort of sling, preventing him from moving his shoulder. He lays still on the bed, trying to not let his pain be seen. It doesn't fool Henry. He sits in a chair, staring at Ray's shoulder as Ray tries to make jokes and tenses against his will.
"Don't strain yourself, Ray," Charlotte chastises. "You'll tear, or displace, or somehow mess up whatever that biom-something-gel they put in your wound."
"Ah, I'm fine," Ray waves her off. The action provokes more pained flinching from him. "They patched me up and I'm always okay."
"That stuff didn't fix you; it just stopped your bleeding for a bit. If it doesn't hold, you'll start bleeding out again." Mika points out.
Ray shrugs. "But it's holding and my artery was barely torn. I'm not going to bleed out. It's not the first time I've been hurt; I've always recovered."
"You won't recover if you die," Chapa argues.
Ray smirks. "I did last time." No one so much as smiles at his joke. "I'm okay. Seriously. Henry looks more dead than I do." He gestures at the younger man. No argument rises to that comment either. Henry frowns at him; then glances away as soon as Ray makes eye contact with him. Ray raises an eyebrow at him. "Did they check you for shock, Kid? You look like I felt while they were fixin' me."
"I'm not in shock," Henry promises.
"Wow, that was a convincing mumble," Ray mocks. Henry sighs. "Kid, stop worrying. I'm okay."
"You almost died," Henry grumbles and glares. "You still could; you're not healed. And there's no magic spell to break this time. You're not going to come back from bleeding out. If I had hit you an inch different, maybe millimeters different… how thick is an artery anyway? How much more could have been cut before it would've been impossible to save you?" his tone turns more fretful.
Ray is quiet a moment after that. "Kid, I'm not gonna die again. Okay? Not today. Not from this." Ray winces as he moves himself up towards Henry. Despite the pain, and ignoring their friends protests, he grabs Henry's arm and firmly attempts to comfort him with the assurance: "This was an accident; it wasn't your fault. I'm okay."
Henry slumps in his chair, looking away from Ray, not wanting to disappoint him with his disbelief while being unable to lie about it. Ray lays back down with his own dour frown.
"It was a close call," Charlotte says. "Henry's going to have to be more careful with his new power in the future."
"Which is what I was saying in the first place," Schwoz grumbles. "But nobody listens to me."
"Ah, he messed up one shot," Ray dismisses. "The rest of the day he kicked major butt: against Nurse Cohort and all the test stuff. We don't need to panic because of one slight miss."
"That 'one slight miss' almost killed you!" Henry argues. "And if it could kill you, it can kill anyone. There's no room for mistakes with this."
"Kid," Ray pleads.
"He's right Ray. These new energy blades are very powerful. Before Henry goes out fighting crime with his new power, we need to get a better understanding of it," Schwoz says. "I've already contacted Dr. Pennant. She has the facilities here to more thoroughly and safely test your limits. She wants us to meet with her in the morning."
(Commercial break)
Henry leans against the doorframe of the same power testing chamber Dr. Pennant had tested his forcefield in. The all-but impervious to damage, black dwarf diamond walls give a seemingly safe barrier from the rest of the building; they having only damage from the quasar ray Henry's forcefield had been tested against. The power specialist stands further in the room with Schwoz discussing how they can test Henry's energy blades. "The damage to the carbene disc and Captain Man's flesh indicates a level of power that is as incredible as I've come to expect from your five supers. But it poses a problem for quantification, because there is simply not enough else more difficult to break than those substances to give us a very precise reading. I don't dare ask him to try to cut the quasar remnant, putting that much power into that energy magnifier would likely be disastrous."
"Still, you've got the equipment to get a more proper read of the energy," Schwoz prompts. "Maybe something to help him understand and control it."
"Yes, I think so," she nods and searches through some files on her tablet. "I have some things we can try. If you're ready, Henry."
He sighs and approaches them, mumbling, "Do I really have any other choice?"
Dr. Pennant stares at him with a slight frown. "Of course, you have a choice," she says. "Is there a reason you don't want to learn about your new power?"
He shrugs his shoulders, the noncommittal act a complete lie. "Maybe it's better if I just don't use it. I don't want to hurt anyone else. I've got enough ghosts haunting me without causing anyone else to join their number."
"You won't hurt anyone here; and learning to control it will prevent future accidents. That's why we're…" Dr. Pennant cuts off her own argument. Frowning slightly, she questions, "Ghosts? Are you being facetious or literal?"
Henry huffs, feeling sick in his gut. The whisps of figures and the blowing of the spectral hurricane begin to present themselves. He shakes his head and tries to focus on answering Dr. Pennant's questions. "I don't know what facetious means."
"Literal," Schwoz answers for him. "There are real ghosts that show up to him and Danger Force almost every day."
Dr. Pennant, however, is no longer listening, staring around at the indistinct figures. "What is this? What are these?"
"You can see them?" Henry questions.
"Yes," she says. "But these aren't… these aren't…ghosts?" Her confident statement withers as two of the figures come into focus. The rest of the figures vanish like candle smoke in a gust of wind.
"They're the souls of all Blackout victims. What else would you call them?" Henry asks.
"There's ghosts here?" Schwoz asks. "I thought they were haunting Swellview."
She shakes her head, mystified as she stares at Kris Hart and Officer Fulcrum. "I've never heard of ghosts being vague blobs like that. They should be visible to those with true sight and invisible to those without it."
"True sight?" Schwoz questions.
"The ability to see things in the otherwise invisible spectrum," she explains. "All supers and a small portion of the ordinary population can see ghosts and such."
Ah," Schwoz nods in understanding. "But I've seen ghosts before. We had a lady haunting SW.A.G. when I bought it. And Ray cannot see these ones either."
"Ray is not a true super. His power is chemical, not a genetic deviation." She explains. "As for you: the owners of haunted buildings are capable of seeing the ghosts that haunt them. But since these ghosts haven't taken up permanent residence in your building, you and Captain Man cannot see them."
"Ghosts?" Kris Hart asks. "What ghosts? How did I get here? What's going on? Henry?" she reaches for him but her hand passes right through his face. He looks mournful at her, biting his lip with nothing to say.
"We're ghosts," Officer Fulcrum surmises.
"Didn't you know you're ghosts?" Dr. Pennant asks.
"No. I suppose we should've guessed. We were killed by Shadow Man. But he trapped us in that darkness, so we didn't move on; and that light didn't really free us either." Officer Fulcrum says.
"I'm sorry," Henry mutters. He shrinks into himself, terrible guilt marring his face.
"Henry, baby," his mom tries to touch him again. Her attempts at comfort an expected failure.
"Mom," he sighs, casting his eyes to the floor. "Fulcrum, I'm sorry. I wish..."
Officer Fulcrum steps toward him. "Danger?" She questions. "You are Danger?" He nods. She offers the consolation, "You stopped Shadow Man. You freed us from him. The storm we've been in, while terrible, is better than his darkness was."
"Storm?" Dr. Pennant wonders.
Officer Fulcrum glances at her, "It's a terrible wind that we're trapped on. We never touch the ground or each other or anything. We just spin, too fast to see anything but random light and darkness, surrounded by the terrified cries of everyone else. Trying to find a way to grab hold of those you know but constantly tossed round and round in circles like a hurricane." Fulcrum describes. Henry shrinks away from the description of the storm that haunts his dreams. She turns to him, "It's going to pull us back in, won't it? Like before. The last time I saw you. I was out of it for only a minute."
"I'm sorry," he repeats. Fulcrum nods with nothing else to say, forlorn but accepting. "I want to help you, but I don't know how."
"You did what you could, Baby," his mom assures, now hovering her hands near his face, pretending she can hold him though she knows she can't. "You helped us enough."
He shakes his head. "Mom-" his voice cracks.
"Henry," Schwoz is able to grab his shoulder. "It's going to be okay."
Henry is unconvinced but tries to relax for his friend's sake. "It's okay, Baby." His mom echoes. Officer Fulcrum nods along with her and even as the two are taken from view, she takes it with a calm acceptance. A shimmer like unto a tear glints from his mother's eye as she vanishes and a real tear falls from his own.
No one says anything for a long moment. Dr. Pennant staring quizzically to where the ghosts had been. Henry looks deliberately away from it. "It was your mom?" Schwoz asks. Henry doesn't and needn't answer.
Dr. Pennant pulls her attention from her thoughts to say, "I didn't know your mother was one of the victims." Henry still doesn't respond. She goes on, "I'm sorry. Non-supers with the 'True Sight' call it 'The Gift', but in many situations that can be a misnomer."
Henry scoffs and runs his hand over his head. "A gift? Every person you've ever failed to save showing up and begging for help while you're powerless to do anything before they're whisked away by the wind that's there but isn't? Yeah, sure. Best gift ever."
"Are you okay?" she asks. "Perhaps we should…"
"Let's just get this test over with." Henry determines. "What do you need me to do?"
She looks at him for several long moments before answering after Schwoz nods his prompting. "Let's start simple. I just want to see you in action. I'll place a block of carbene down the room and have you slice it so I can study the effect your energy blade has on it."
So, when she's placed the target cube and got well out of the way Henry obeys her request. With a slow raise of his hand and a careful aim, he flexes his palm, releasing a blade of green energy. Then he moves back to lean against the wall and fold his arms against his chest tightly again.
Meanwhile Dr. Pennant and Schwoz, fascination ignited, rush to grab the now halved carbene cube and analyze the area that had been cut. Each of the scientists holding either half, running their hands over the surface, holding it up to catch different angles of light. "It's not as hot as I expected." Dr. Pennant comments. "For an energy of such intensity I thought it would give off more heat."
Schwoz considers and counters with, "It had enough heat to crispen the surface of the fruit he cut. But it wasn't hot enough to cauterize the wounds it inflicted on Captain Man. The energy of it is not thermotic in nature. The little heat is only a byproduct of the energy."
"Yes," She mutters, sliding her finger studiously across it. "But what is the energy? This sliced surface is pristine, not a rough patch. I want to put it under my electron microscope, see to what level the smoothness exists." She sets the piece down and examines the stool she'd set it on. "This is barely scratched." She traces the slight groove on the top of the stool. She moves the wall behind the stool. "And there is little here either. The energy must've been absorbed or dispelled when it cut through the carbene; whatever remained continued to move to the wall. I wonder the process it takes. We'll need to observe the interaction more carefully. Record it and go frame by frame." She mutters her thoughts mostly to herself.
Schwoz follows her through her observations, looking just as intrigued. "Perhaps a slow motion camera," he suggests. "To be sure we have enough frames to fully capture the events."
"Yes. Yes." She nods and quickly rushes out of the room to gather supplies. Schwoz follows right on her heels.
Henry, left behind, sighs and slumps on the wall. "This is going to be a long day."
His words are true. The two scientists work him through a series of many tests. They film him slicing apart targets from a variety of angles and watch the playbacks from normal speed to ridiculously slow motion. As they do, they discuss with each other about: "This energy dissipates into the target micronomically, the blade reacting as if it's made of its own particles that cancel out the atoms of the object. The molecules absorb it independently and are fissed from themselves, leaving those untouched by the energy blade unaffected and with an atomically smooth surface."
"Only within the solid object. It has no reaction with the air before it hits the target." Schwoz counters Dr. Pennant's assessment.
She nods, "So it appears. We should be recording any reaction therein as well. It must be, at the very least, heating up the gases molecules around it."
"Why not try it out in a liquid too, while we're at it?" Schwoz suggests. "Perhaps we can establish the reactivity of the energy blade."
So, they put Henry through more exercises, ignorant in their excitement to his continued unenthusiasm. He breaks targets across the room and right up close. He fires into tanks of water and whatever mystery science liquids they concoct, cracking the tanks or breaking the targets within and causing small leaks to spring up.
"It seems neither the gases nor the liquids have any hinderance to the blade. Though they are affected thermally." Schwoz note.
"It seems that way," Dr. Pennant agrees, placing a great emphasis on the word 'seems'. "But it also seems that the size of the solid object provides no hinderance. No matter the depth of the object it is always cut perfectly through without fail."
"Depth-wise, yes," Schwoz says. "But some of the width of the object is not always accounted for. The small ones are cut perfectly apart, and those with a thinner face directed towards Henry, but the targets with a wider surface only have a cut of a few inches through them."
"Hmm, yes, a very consistent length too," she thinks. "But then, the smaller objects don't seem to share that consistent length, there is no excess blade that flies beyond them, only the slightest amount of energy that exceeds those of smaller width. Which seeps around to cause only infinitesimal damage to the next solid surface beyond the target."
"Interesting," Schwoz agrees. "But why does it behave this way? How can it be so perfect one way and not the other? Henry are you in some way choosing the depth of it? And the width?"
"I'm just firing at the targets you tell me to," Henry mutters, slouching in a corner some distance from them.
"But you must be doing something to control the intensity and longevity of your blades," Dr. Pennant asserts. "They cannot all be identical facsimiles, no distance to or through the objects results in a different effect. You must be putting more energy into the blades you send through the thicker objects; and you must be affecting the width of the blades you fire at the thinner faces. Can you not make the width exceed those few inches?"
"Uh… I don't know," Henry shifts uncomfortably. "I really don't do anything to the size or anything. At least not anything I know of. I just see the target and fire a blade to cut it."
"Could you try?" She presses, moving towards him with an eager zeal. "Try to become conscious of your control of it. Make it bigger or make it exceed the end of the target object."
Henry frowns at her. "Why?" he asks.
"What?" she returns, not understanding his reluctance.
"Why do you want me to make it bigger?" His frown hardens.
"For science!" She says.
"To understand your full potential," Schwoz seconds with his own zeal.
Henry rolls his eyes and steps away from them; his breath quickening. "'Full Potential'? Is it not dangerous enough for you? You want me to make it worse?"
Schwoz sighs and cools his fervor. "Henry," he pities.
"Your power is like nothing I've ever seen! And if this is only scratching the surface… if you can do even more…"
"More?!" his voice cracks on the word. "More than what I've already done? You want me to actually kill someone next?"
"Henry," Schwoz consoles. "You didn't kill…"
"If the blade had been any wider I would've," Henry cuts him off. "I could kill someone without even trying as is, let alone if I tried to make it more than what I can do now. Not even Ray is safe from me."
"You're not going to kill anyone," Dr. Pennant assures. "There's no one here except us. You're only going to hit the carbene blocks and the walls. You know they can take the damage. Can't you just try? We want to know they full capabilities of this new power; don't you?"
Henry shakes his head at the ceiling and runs his hands through his hair. She begs him again to try. Irritation flaring, he flexes and flicks his hand toward the already thoroughly filleted targets. The green light flares and leaves behind a new and indeed very long scar across the blocks and through the walls and ceiling. Dr. Pennant jumps in shock at the unannounced outburst but rushes with delight to inspect the damage. Henry scowls at her back. Schwoz pats his arm, which Henry shrugs off, then walks slowly toward Dr. Pennant to help her.
"This is not the same," she declares quickly. "The damage here is different than the rest have been. It's wide across yes, but only some of these have been cut clear through. Why would it change? What did you do different?" she looks to Henry.
He looks away and doesn't respond. Schwoz takes a stab at answering for him. "I think he sort of slashed it. This is a cut across, not a stab through. The rest of the tests he's shot the blade straight from his hand into the target. This time he sort of swung his hand as he shot. So, like a knife or a blade, when it's thrust forward, or stabbed into something the wound can only be as wide as the blade; but when slashed it causes much more damage across the surface, though it may not reach as deep."
"It appears as a rather small blade when it is released from his hand," She states. "Do you suggest that it spreads it's destructive power more than it appears it can."
"I think that has been obvious," he replies. "The cuts have often gone deeper than the length the blade would appear to indicate."
"Yes," she hums. "Fascinating. We should find a way to measure the lengths, so we can know for certain."
Schwoz looks briefly at Henry and shakes his head. "We should stop. We've got plenty to study for now. Let's be done for the day."
She almost argues but considers the time and cameras around the room. "Yes. And I may be able to deduce lengths easiest from the footage we took. I also have many cuts here to investigate more." She agrees and steps to the back wall to study the residual damage it had taken from all the energy of the blades that it had taken.
Schwoz nods for Henry to leave, much to Henry's relief. He turns to the door, but a shriek of surprise and an enormous crash come from behind him. For as soon as Dr. Pennant had touched the black dwarf diamond wall, it had begun to fall. She leaps back as quickly as she can and runs. The room continues crumbling in from that point. The ground shakes and sends a chain reaction up through the earth above the testing room. Henry and Schwoz run from the collapse, pressing against the far wall and covering their faces as dirt and dust pour into and across the room. The room shakes violently enough they also have to brace themselves. When it's done, a pile of rubble fills the entire back quarter of the room, and dust fills the air. Only one of Dr. Pennant's arms is visible within the debris.
The hand twitches and Schwoz runs to it while Henry remains frozen against the wall. Schwoz pulls the rubble away until he finds her face. She coughs feebly, and blood dribbles from her lips. "Antonia?" Schwoz questions her worried.
"I may have… underestimated the effects the energy would have on the black dwarf diamond... It seems the damage… is more extensive than I predicted it would be," she says. "I got too invested in the power… overlooked the obvious… always been a problem with me…"
"Are you badly hurt?" Schwoz asks.
She huffs what could almost be a laugh. "Seems likely… I'll be okay."
"We'll get you help," Schwoz swears. Turning to enlist help, "Henry…" but Henry is gone.
The young man had run at the sight of the scientist's bloody face and the sound of her labored breath. Unconsciously, he sprints from the damage, from his latest victim. He is unaware of his path until he slams the door to Ray's hospital room and leans against it. His own breath labored.
"Hey, Kid," Ray greets. "How'd your testing go? Did you feel that earthquake a minute ago? The news says it's because a big sink hole just opened outside the Hero League's science building."
Henry mouth is too dry to speak, even if he'd been able to respond. The TV is on, showing the scene Ray describes. The reporters are saying there is no answers as to what had caused the sinkhole yet. Ray is not paying attention to the breaking news anymore though; he stares at Henry concerned. "Kid? What's wrong?" he asks, sitting up in his alarm. Even as he does, he flinches, pained by his shoulder. More guilt rips through Henry. "What wrong, Henry?" Ray presses.
Henry shakes his head and stutters through the proclamation. "I can't- I can't use that power. Never again."
Next Episode: S2E4: Brothers
