Adventure Time – Baby Finn dancing
It was a dark and stormy night in Maretropolis. Many of the people were all in their homes, safe from the storm, with their loved ones. But it was on this night that there were some poor unfortunate souls.
A woman was sitting at a coffee shop. Thought, from the looks of the disdain expression on her face, it would seem she has been stood up and that she's been waiting for a long time.
"Argh! The nerve of this guy!" The woman scowled. "I spent a whole week getting prepped up for this date and he didn't even bother to text or call that he's running late for our date? I'VE WASTED HALF AN HOUR ALREADY!" With a huff, the woman paid the tab and was on her way out the coffee shop, in the pouring rain, with only her purse to cover her head.
She was on her way to her car, when she was approached by a man, in a hoodie, carrying an umbrella.
"Sorry I'm late," The man greeted. "The storm caught me and–"
"Whatever," The woman scowled. "You've got a lot of nerve. No call? No text? Anything to say you were running late?"
"My phone was waterlogged," The man replied. "But I'm here now. So...can you ever forgive me?"
"Hmmm, that depends on where we're goin' on our... date?" The woman was caught off guard, when the man pulls out a can that sprays a strange gas that immediately knocked the woman out.
The man then turns to look at some more hooded figures in an alley and calls them out.
"Load her up, boys," The man chuckled under his hood. "We've got ourselves another one."
The next day
Ken was at an ice cream shop, with his friends, Thor, Spruce Spanner, Gwen, and May.
"Check this out," May began as she showed the latest gossip on her Power Blog. "Someone went into the Blackwater Woods and they were able to escape in one piece."
"And were they able to see what goes on in those accursed woodlands?" Asked Thor.
"So far, they were only able to catch snapshots of relics of Celtic, Nordic, and Slavic origins that were in the woodland," May confirmed.
"Celtic, Nordic, and Slavic?" Gwen asked.
"Is that like the vikings' culture, or something?" Ken asked.
"Something like that," May shrugged. "And there's more, from a man known as Crazy Joe, who claims to have seen a creature called the Blackwater Devil."
"Blackwater Devil?" Ken whistled.
"Oh my!" Spruce Spanner gasped.
"That's a new one," Thor commented.
"What is the Blackwater Devil?" Gwen asked.
"From what Crazy Joe describes," May reads. "It's a nocturnal creature that is known to stalk its prey, through the woods, on the ground, or even in the trees, and can be see for its glowing red eyes, and strange blue will-o-wisps that accompany it. When you're alone at night, always watch your back. Crazy Joe barely escaped this devil, when it nearly tried to hunt him, and received quite a scratch from it."
With that, May pulls up a photo that the man dubbed "Crazy Joe" posted, of a large scratch mark he received, on the arm. It looked almost as if it was the kind of mark received from a bear, or a wild animal with sharp claws.
"Yikes, I'd hate to run into something like that," Ken grimaced.
"Don't worry, Ken," Spruce comforted, pulling the boy close for comfort. "We'll protect you."
Gwen, looking jealous if not miffed by the attention, immediately pounced on Ken's other side and consoled him, "Yeah! We'll protect you, Ken," Gwen chirped, while shooting a glare at Spruce.
"Oh, wait, there's more!" May called out, looking back at her tablet. "Lately, there's been a rapid growing cases of people going missing!"
"What?!" Ken and the others exclaimed as they crowded around May. "What's going on?"
"What's happening?" Gwen asked.
"Where are all these cases happening?" Spruce asked in concern.
"Police are still investigating," May explains as she reads the latest blog. "But it says here that all their friends and families have reported that they all received some sort of strange invites, or letters, asking them to meet at a local cafe, or restaurants, for some offerings, when they went missing without a trace. Like they just suddenly vanished into thin air."
“That’s terrible…” Spruce exclaimed.
“Strange invites, or letters? Hmmm,” Ken pondered, until he suddenly had an idea, “Hey May, do these invites come from emails?” He asked.
“Most of them. Why?” She asked.
“Just curious...” He replied, before he turned to Spruce Spanner, who seems to catch on what he’s thinking.
Gwen was the only other person in the circle to notice the exchanging glances between Ken and Spruce. With that, she couldn’t help but look suspicious, if not jealous.
In the meantime, Ken took out his phone, pretending that he received a text, or a notification.
“Oh! It’s cousin Megan,” Ken said. “Gotta go…help…with…the restaurant!”
“Me too!” Spruce added, before she stammered, “Uh, I mean… I have to…water…some…sheep!”
With that, the two secret superheroes took their leave.
Later, back in the Power Princesses’ crashed ship, Ken explained his idea of foiling the latest crime wave.
“You want to use the ship’s computer for what?” Spruce asked.
“To track down those letters and invites.” Ken replied. “If we can trace the signals to whoever is the sender, then we may be able to track them down to where they are taking all the kidnapped victims.”
“Hmmm, I see your point,” Spruce nodded.
“So, can this ship’s computer do it?”
“I think so. To be honest, Trots Summers is a better, how do you say? Tech wizard, than I am.”
“But still…these Harmonian technologies, you know how to work with them, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I need you to walk me through them, to understand how they work. Just the basics and maybe we can build our way up from there.”
“Oh…okay,” Steeling herself with a look of determination, Spruce nodded, “Okay. Let’s do this, for the people!”
Turning their attentions towards the spaceship’s computer mainframe, Ken began to press on what appeared to be the keyboard, with Spruce explaining to him the functions of each buttons and switches.
“Enter the name of the missing person here,” Spruce Spanner instructed. “Their addresses here. Street, or e-mail, it doesn’t matter, I think. And I think this is where you type in their Wi-Fi password.”
“How are we supposed to know that?” Ken asked.
Eventually, after a seemingly long hour of trial and errors, Ken and Spruce eventually got the spaceship’s computer to run a scan across the entire city, for traces of the same invites and letters, sent by their suspects.
“Wow, whoever’s been writing these messages, they’ve certainly been busy,” Ken commented.
“How could they do this to all these people?” Spruce Spanner asked. “What have they ever done to them?”
“We’ll find out later,” Ken replied, looking up at the monitor screen, until he gasped and pointed at several blinking dots. “Whoa! Check it out. It’s not just one person. There’s more of ‘em! They’re all over the place!”
“So then…how do we track down our culprits now?” Spruce asked.
Ken scratched his chin, as he ponders, “Dad…what would you do in a situation like this? How would you find criminals? How do you catch them in the act?”
The boy scratched his head, before he reached an epiphany.
“The jam cams!”
“What?” Spruce asked.
“The jam cams!” Ken explained. “There are traffic cameras all over the city! Whatever happened to all the missing people…”
“…then maybe the cameras got a recording of them!” Spruce gasped. “Good thinking, Ken!”
“Heh, I have my moments,” Ken smirked proudly to himself.
Taking out his phone, Ken looked up on May’s Power Blog, and checked the time of day, and the location of the latest kidnapping.
Turning back to the computer screen, Ken searched the specific dot on the map, before he pointed.
“There! That one is fresh!”
With that, Spruce Spanner started typing kn the keyboard, and somehow gained access to the jam cam for the scene of the crime.
Before long, a video recording was displayed on the big screen. In the video, a mysterious vehicle was pulled up and several masked strangers stepped out to load their latest victim onboard.
"A-ha!" Ken commented, satisfied to at least have the criminals committing a crime on camera. "Now let's see where you're going?"
Ken and Spruce all scrolled through the cameras, following the vehicle with the kidnapped victim. The two superheroes watched as the vehicle drove through the streets, until suddenly, there was nothing but statics.
"Huh? Hey! What gives?" Ken exclaimed.
The young hero-in-training selected the next few traffic cameras, but was met with statics. Only after he checked about ten static traffic cameras, he finally comes across a functional camera, but finds the vehicle gone.
"Oh goodness!" Spruce Spanner whimpered. "Where did it go?"
"C'mon, c'mon!" Ken hissed through his teeth, as he scrolled through the next cameras, searching for the vehicle. "Dammit! These kidnappers are smarter than we thought. They knew to take out the cameras to hide their trails..."
"But we can't give up, Ken!" Spruce said, sounding rather desperate. "We have to find those poor people! We've just got to–!"
"Hang on..." Ken noted, when he noticed a new blinking red dot on the screen. "What's that? A red alert?"
"Well...it did sorta showed up," Spruce confirmed. "I suppose it is recent."
"Hmmm," Looking at the screen, Ken checked the address before he confirmed: "It's Brick's house!" Suddenly, another notification appeared on the map, to which Ken confirmed: "And Boomer! Brick and Boomer are next!"
Later that night, Ken and Spruce both suited up to become Hum Drum and Saddle Rager, once again. The young hero-in-training and hero mentor were on another stakeout, perching atop a rooftop, keeping a long vigil on Brick and Boomer, at a pizza restaurant, where they were instructed to meet.
"Live baits, check," Hum Drum noted. "Restaurant minutes away to closing time, check. Now all we gotta do is wait for any suspicious vehicles, or characters to appear. I almost feel kinda bad for Brick and Boomer. Sure, they maybe bullies, and a couple of morons. But even they don't deserve to be kidnapped, just for accepting a blind date."
"Oh, they can't be all that bad, can they?" Saddle asked.
Before Ken could answer, he looked down and noticed a dark car had pulled up to the cafe. Both Hum Drum and Spruce Spanner watched as the car's doors opened up and some strange people, wearing pairs of shades exited the car, followed by a woman. The two heroes watched as the woman enter the restaurant, flanked by her supposed bodyguards.
The woman approached both Brick and Boomer to engage in a lively conversation with the two bullies. At first, it seemed the meeting was normal, with the exception of Brick and Boomer making a fool of themselves with their bumbling natures and sorry attempts at impressing the lady, ending it sourly with a pizza flying and landing on Brick's face. However, things went south when the woman lead the two boys out of the restaurant, into an alley, where she gassed the boys, knocking them out cold. Before long, the woman's bodyguards proceeded to drag the unconscious boys into the darkness of the alley, where a pair of headlights lit up, revealing themselves to belong to a large track.
"It's them!" Ken shouted, as he reach into one of his cape pockets. "We've got our criminals," Ken took out a Dragon–Fly, holding the little bot out in the palm of his hand. "Ok, little buddy. Do your stuff."
Taking his phone out, Hum Drum proceeded to switch his Dragon–Fly to life, making it buzz its wings, flying fast, down onto the unsuspecting criminals, until it latched itself on top of the vehicle's roof. With that, the bot activated a homing beacon, allowing Hum Drum and Spruce to track its movements, on the former's phone.
With the vehicle on the move, Hum Drum and Saddle Rager gave chase across Maretropolis, leaping across rooftops, making sure to stay out of sight, so as to not alert the criminals that they were onto them.
Eventually, the chase lead the two heroes into a passageway, where the vehicle suddenly takes a turn through a maintenance tunnel.
"Of course," Hum Drum noted. "If I were a criminal, and I want to avoid surveillance, then I'd have to take the maintenance tunnel..."
"And speaking of which..." Spruce pointed Ken's attention to several security cameras that have been tampered, and destroyed.
"Then no doubt about it, we're on the trail," Hum Drum nodded, before he looks back on his phone, to see the signal moving away. "Hurry! We gotta catch up to them!"
With that, both Hum Drum and Saddle Rager ran down the maintenance tunnel, to follow their runaway criminals into the unknown, and taking one step closer to finding the kidnapped victims.
Upon exiting the tunnel, both Hum Drum and Saddle Rager found themselves in a run-down district, with a dreary atmosphere.
"Oh my goodness!" Spruce exclaimed in horror. "What is this terrible place?"
"This is the slum," Hum Drum confirmed. "It's not a very friendly neighborhood to live in."
Everywhere the heroes looked, the street is littered with trashes, garbage cans that were turned over, teeming with stray cats, fighting for every scraps of foods they can find, with rats, raccoons, and crows picking off the scraps they could find. The buildings all looked like they've seen better days, as they appeared to be on the verge of crumbling, with broken windows, cracked walls, and crude graffitis drawn all over them. There were also cars that have been vandalized, with shredded tires, broken windshields, burning up dirty smogs that polluted the air.
"Heh, so much for cleaning up every streets of Maretropolis, like he promised, our mayor," Ken scoffed, as he leads Saddle Rager through the slum. "Then again, I doubt anyone here are the mayor's types of 'modeled citizens.' It's like Arkham City, but real."
Looking back down on his phone, Hum Drum turned his head to the right, "This way...and stay close."
Spruce Spanner nodded as she followed Hum Drum down the desolate streets of the slum. Though all the same, Spruce couldn't help but cringe in worry and disgust at the dreary nature of the area.
"I can't believe this horrible town even exists in a large city," Spruce cringed.
"Me neither," Ken agreed, as he and Spruce pass a homeless woman, with two children, on the street.
Spruce stopped to cast a sympathetic glance at the woman, and her starving children, with a sign next to them that reads: "Homeless. Need food."
"Oh, you poor dears," Spruce whimpered, feeling her heart ache, before she reached into her pocket and gave the family some money.
"Thank you, ma'm," One of the children squeaked, watching as Spruce ran off to regroup with Ken.
"That was a very nice thing you did there," Hum Drum commented.
"Well, someone has to show people like them a bit of kindness now and then," Spruce lectured.
"I know. So much better than our esteemed Mayor Verko could ever do," Hum Drum rolled his eyes, before he said, "How about after we're done here, we could put in some good words with Rain Shine and Phoenix Dawn?"
"I think it's an excellent idea!" Saddle clapped her hands in approval.
"We're here," Hum Drum announced, once he and Saddle Rager at last arrive at their destination.
Looking up, Saddle Rager looked to see that both she and Hum Drum now stood in front of a large, rustic mansion. The windows were shattered, with their shutters off their hinges, walls were overgrown with vines, and the floorboards were in tatters.
"Oh my!" Spruce whimpered. "It looks pretty dangerous!"
"And it looks like no one's lived here since the Salem Witch Trials..." Hum Drum commented. "Makes sense for the crooks to come here. No one would ever think of looking in there," Looking down at his phone, Hum Drum checked to confirm that the homing beacon from his Dragon–Fly bot was indeed transmitting from inside the manor.
Putting his phone away, Hum Drum walked up to the front doors, carefully grabbing the knob to pull the rustic doors open. Though, strangely, they remained in place.
"They're locked alright," Ken noted. "But there's gotta be another way in..."
With that, he began to walk around, looking for a way in. Tapping his fingers, he activated the sticky paddings on his gloves, allowing him to climb the rickety exterior of the house, like a gecko, or Spider–Man, whichever comes first.
"Be careful!" Spruce whimpered cautiously.
"I've got this," Ken reassured, as he crawls up the house, into a window. "See you on the other side," The boy said to his superheroine friend, before he chirped, "Miss you already!"
Turning around, Ken ventured into the house, only to be startled by what appeared to be a demonic goatman, wielding an axe.
"AAAHH!!!" Ken screamed, falling on his back at the gruesome.
Outside, Spruce Spanner heard Ken's scream, "Hum Drum! Are you alright? What's happening?"
For a moment, Hum Drum stumbled across the floor, pulling out his metal rod to keep the goatman at bay, when he realized, "Wait a minute..." Upon a closer inspection, Hum Drum deduced, "It's just a statue..."
"Hum Drum? Speak to me! Are you okay?"
"I'm okay, Saddle! Just...startled...by a statue."
Getting up on his feet, dusting himself, Hum Drum turned to the nearest door, and stepped into a hallway, filled with even more bizarre, exotic, and by extension, creepy antiquities. From dusty, cobweb ridden suits of armors, to other stuffs that looked like they came out of a horror movie.
Hum Drum cringed in disgust when he passed by an old, shriveled hand with long sharp nails, as sharp as Freddy Krueger's claws. Ken nearly had a heart attack when he came face-to-face with a stag's head, mounted on the wall. The stag seemed to be practically laughing at the boy, and for a moment, Hum Drum swore he saw blazing red auras in the deer's eyes.
The next ancient relic Ken finds in the hallway of horror was a large painting – estimated to be in the 14the to 17th century – of a beautiful woman, with a shining orange hair that reached past her shoulders.
Hum Drum paused for a moment, as he experiences a flashback of his childhood.
Seven Years Ago
"Hello? Ken?" Kara called out, when she came across an open bathroom door and sees young Ken, dancing, and singing...in his underwear.
Adventure Time – Baby Finn dancing
Kara stifled, struggling to hold in her laughter, until she couldn't hold it any longer. She fell to the floor, laughing, holding stomach, which startled young Ken.
"AAAH! Kara?!" Ken screamed, grabbing a towel to cover himself.
"Oh, relax, Ken," Kara rolled her eyes. "It's not like the first time I've seen you...like that."
"That's because I was in my swimming trunks!" Ken blushed.
"So?"
"That was different!"
"...Boys will be boys, I guess," Kara shook her head.
After the awkward moment subsided, both Ken and Kara were playing a board game of Dungeons and Dragons, when Kara decided to strike up conversation.
"Y'know, Ken..." Kara smirked. "If you like to punch witches for fun, then can I tell you the story of a very bad witch?"
"Really?" Ken asked, curiously. "You know a witch you'd like for me to punch?"
"Oh yeah. She's the worst of them all, and I would so love it if you can punch her for fun, for me..."
"Who is she? The Wicked Witch of the West?"
"Oh, much worse. She's called...Countess Porcina!"
"Countess Porcina?"
Kara nodded as she began to narrate the story, "A long, long time ago, Porcina was a young countess who was treasured by all of Europe for her beauty. But she's also very vain, snobby, and a stuck-up. Her world is her own reflection. She was one of the first settlers who came here, from Europe, looking for gold, to enhance her beauty. Heh, like she needed gold to make herself even more beautiful than she needed to be?"
"So...what happened to her?" Ken asked. "How did she became a witch?"
"Well, a lot of stories say that she ventured off into the Blackwater Woods, and she got her hands on some kind of dark magic, and next thing you know, there was a plague in town. Everyone died, except for her. She built herself a tower, somewhere in the woods, where she locked herself away as a last minute effort to keep herself from going sick. Ha! A lot of good that did for her. The plague was carried by the winds, and she got sick anyway."
Kara then dons a sinister tone, as she ended, "But before her last dying breath, she uttered a curse. A curse to one day, rise up from the dead, and reclaim her lost youth, from the livings... Or at least, that's how the story goes," Kara ended on a chipper tone. "But, nothing my little guy, Ken, couldn't handle. Right? Right? ...Ken?"
The response Kara received from young Ken, was a frozen face of utter horror.
Present
"Brrrr," Ken shuddered, shaking himself back into the present. "I'm still gettin' goosebumps just thinking about that story..." He was on his way through the hallways of the manor, looking for a way to get Spruce in. But everywhere he looked, Hum Drum just can't help but be creeped out by the manor's nightmarish interior.
"K-K-K-Keep it together, Ken," Hum Drum said to himself. "You're a hero. No-no, you're a superhero! You can do this," He grinned boldly, before it turned to a coward frown. "But...that doesn't mean I'm Superman...or even Batman... M-M-Maybe...maybe some singing will calm me down..."
With that, Ken began to sing himself a comforting song:
We can turn this sketch into a masterpiece
Wh-Wh-When you're here, I feel like I'm complete
Y-Y-You are my E-E-E-E-Equestria Girls
"What was that, Ken?" Saddle Rager asked from the outside.
"N-N-Nothing!" Ken blushed a shade of pink.
The boy hadn't realized until later that he had just arrived at the front doors. Upon walking to the doors from the inside, he finds the doors had been bolted shut by rows of wooden boards. Surprisingly enough, the boards looked brand new, compared to the rest of the house's rotting structures.
"Hey Spruce! You there?" Ken called. "Doing my best to refrain from knock knock jokes."
"I'm out here, Ken," Spruce answered. "Is everything okay in there?"
"I'm fine. And I've found our 'lock,'" Ken went up to inspect the boards holding the doors in place. "Just a bunch of wooden boards nailed in place. This shouldn't take long."
With that, Ken activated the sharp nails in his gloves, which he quickly used to slash through the boards, cutting them apart, and freeing the doors open.
"Open sesame!" Ken shouted proudly, as he opened the doors up to a startled Saddle Rager.
"Oh! Hum Drum! It's just you..." Saddle Rager sighed in relief. "Any luck finding our culprits?"
"So far...no," Hum Drum shook his head. "Just a bunch of cobwebs and dusts...and some junks that looked like something you'd see in a horror movie."
"Oh! How dreadful," The alien superheroine whimpered. "Obviously, someone here doesn't have good tastes..."
"We'll worry about that later," Ken held out his phone and checked to see the Dragon-Fly was still transmitting its homing beacon. "According to the radar, our culprits are close. I mean...they should be...it says here, we're on top of them?"
Hum Drum and Saddle Rager kept on walking, until they stepped on something, that rattled and sounded hollow beneath their feet. Looking down, the two pulled a rug out of the way to reveal a hidden hatch, which they quickly opened up, to reveal a staircase, leading them underground.
Saddle Rager whimpered a bit, "Wanna hold hands?" Hum Drum offered, holding his hand out.
Though a little bashful and ashamed at first, Saddle Rager nodded, "Definitely," With that, she took Hum Drum by the hand and they walked down the creaking stairway together.
On the way down, Hum Drum decided to strike up conversation, “I hope it’s not a touchy subject, but uh… what are you so afraid of? I mean, back on this Harmonia planet of yours, don’t you and your fellow defenders deal with scary missions 24/7?”
“Not always,” Spruce admitted. “It wasn’t always a daily basis. We’ve only been sent on dangerous missions whenever they happened, or whenever Queen Celestia approved them.”
“I see…” Hum Drum noted. “So…you don’t go on scouting missions, or plan any countermeasures or defensive strategies, in case of attacks? Is that what you’re saying? You don’t bring the fight to the enemies, before they attack you?”
“Well, we have observed the behaviors and ethics of other hostile alien races that threatened to invade our home world.” Spruce lectured. “But as long as anyone were concerned, they’ve never attacked us, so no reason to attack them. However, we’ve planned our defensive strategies accordingly, just to be safe.”
Spruce sighed, as she remembers her former home world’s destruction.
“But you can see how that worked out for us…especially poor Princess Twilight Nova…”
“…Yeah. I’d be upset to if some alien warlord came and blew my home up…” Ken frowned in sympathy. “But, uh…when you’re not fighting crimes, or saving the world, what do you like to do?” He asked, wanting to change the awkward moments.
“Oh that’s easy,” Spruce smiled. “All I want is simply to relax, with a nice spot of tea, with a good book, and in the company of the cute and cuddly animals.”
Ken couldn’t help but nod in agreement, “Yeah, in a way, I can relate,” He replied. “Granted, there’s nothing more relaxing for me, than to pass the day, playing video games, indulge myself into my comic books, and hanging out with my friends.”
Spruce nodded, “It does goes to show you that even though we’re heroes…”
“We’re still people at our cores,” Ken finished.
“But here we are, doing what heroes must do. Saving lives.”
“Now I know how dad must feel. Which is why I feel like it’s my job to make his and the Police Department’s life so much easier.”
Spruce turned to Ken, tightening his hand in her grip, stroking it tenderly.
“You’re a good boy, you know that, Ken?” Spruce smiled. “Sometimes, I can’t help but be afraid for you, than I do for the other girls. A part of me wanted to see you grow strong, fast, and heroic, like you always wanted to be…but other times…I just want you to…to quit, drop everything about being Hum Drum and run away. Be safe. Live a normal life.”
“Well, it’s not like you girls have ever given me the choice, or the chance to live a normal life. You gals did suddenly crash landed in my city, in a ball of fire, and since then, crime is gradually decreasing, so…” Ken shook his head as he put it bluntly, “I know what I’ve signed up for. I’m not turning back now. For what it's worth, this is the only way to make the world a better place…”
Spruce gave Ken a shy loving smile, until the heroes noticed they’ve arrived in what appeared to be a dungeon. Along the walls are rows of empty rooms, with metal bars that covered the openings. Hum Drum held out his phone, turning on its flashlight. Immediately, both he and Spruce nearly jumped out of their skins, horrified to see skeletons in the cells. Many of them looked as if they died trying to escape, but to no avail.
"Oh! Oh dear goodness!" Spruce whimpered. "What happened here?"
"I don't know," Hum Drum commented, looking at all the bones. "But I hope we don't have to know." At that moment, Hum Drum noticed a bright light at the end of the dungeon, behind a closed door. "Hey look! There's light at the end!"
Spruce looked up, and held a hand up to her ears, "And...that sounded like people!"
The two heroes quickly ran up to the door, carefully opening it to the side, poking their heads in, to see a horrifying discovery.
Behind the door, beneath the run-down mansion, is a huge garage, probably a loading dock, packed with trucks, and several goons in dark clothings. Furthermore, the goons were loading their kidnapped catches onto the trucks.
"Well, we've found our kidnappers," Hum Drum said.
"But what are they doing to those poor people?" Spruce asked, while tightening her grip on Hum Drum's shoulder.
"Ow! Spruce, that hurts..."
"I'm sorry, Ken. I...I can't help it..." The girl seethed with anger. "Just seeing some people being so cruel to all the other poor, innocent people...it makes me so mad, I could..."
"Steady there, Spruce! Steady there!" Ken advised, cautioning the girl from transforming. "First thing's first, we gotta get these people out of here..."
Spruce took a deep breath, calming herself, and she nodded in agreement, "You're right, Ken..." She sighed. "First, let's get these kidnapped people out. And then we can pummel their kidnappers... Do you have a plan?"
"Hmmm, not at the moment," Ken shook his head, before he remembered, "Oh, wait!" He took out his phone, selected the Dragon–Fly app, which he used to activate the Dragon–Fly bot, switching on its built-in camera lens. "Great! No one discovered you, little guy. Alright. Do your stuff, my little akuma."
With that, Ken used his phone to move his Dragon–Fly, making it scamper under the unsuspecting goons, and under the trucks. From their perch, via the robot's lenses, Hum Drum and Spruce Spanner made some notes as they surveyed the layouts.
"They're holding their captives inside of those vehicles," Hum Drum noted, comparing the similar vehicle that took Brick and Boomer. "Brick and Boomer may be in one of them, if we're not too late."
"And it looks like these criminals are loading them into those trucks," Spruce noted. "But where are they taking them to?"
"We'll find out later," Hum Drum replied. "First, we gotta free these people. But where? And how can we do it without being seen?"
Turning back to his phone, Hum Drum controlled his Dragon–Fly to scurry across the floor, before he found a manhole.
"That looks like the way out," Hum Drum noted. "We can free these captured people and help them escape through the sewer!"
"Sounds gross," Spruce winced. "But, I don't think we have a choice..."
"Now all we need is something to distract the goons with," Hum Drum added, as he drives the Dragon–Fly to scout around, until he sees a large machine, with a symbol of an electric hazard. "There's a fuse box. We can use that to short out the lights in this room. Then we can...no, that won't work. How will we even see?"
“Hmmm,” Saddle looks around at their surrounding, before noticing the fire sprinklers hanging above their heads. “See those sprinklers? Maybe if we can turn on the fire alarm, then the goons will be distracted and disoriented that we can sneak in, free the captives, without being detected.”
“Worth a shot, but how exactly are we going to set off the alarm?” Ken asked. “Do you have a box of match on you?”
“Or maybe we can just pull on that lever, over there,” Spruce pointed, directing the boy’s attention to the said lever.
“Oh…yeah…that can work too,” Without a second to waste, Hum Drum and Saddle Rager pulled on the fire alarm, which startled the goons, as the sprinklers turned on.
"What the-what's going on?" One of the goons exclaimed. "Where's the fire?"
"Now's our chance," Hum Drum said to Saddle Rager, as they went to work.
Hum Drum carefully rolled across the floor, shimmying against a truck to avoid detection. Saddle Rager crouched behind a wall, watching Hum Drum's back, and keeping an eye out for the crooks. She looked to the left and saw a goon, walking in their direction. She cautioned Ken to be at the ready. With his metal staff at the ready, Hum Drum waited as the goon was passing the boy. Then, without warning, Hum Drum leapt up, linking his staff around the guard’s neck, and slammed his head onto the ground, knocking him out cold.
Spruce came out from her hiding spot and helped Hum Drum hide the unconscious goon, under a truck.
Another unsuspecting goon was passing by, when he heard a scratching sound to his left.
"Huh? What was that?" He asked, walking over to investigate, to find scratches on the side of a vehicle. "What the–"
WHAM!
Before the goon realized it, he was hit on the head by a metal staff, and was out like a bulb. Once again, Hum Drum and Spruce stashed the unconscious goon away, in the back of the vehicle.
A couple of goons were engaged in a social conversation, when a popping sound was heard.
"Huh? What was that?" One of the goons asked.
"I don't know," The other goon replied. "Go check it out."
The first goon complied as he walked away to investigate the commotion, leaving his friend alone. No sooner did he walk away, when Hum Drum pounced, with his stun gun, electrocuting and knocking out the second goon. The first goon was about to turn around, barely missing Hum Drum, who spring-jumped into the ceiling.
"Fred?!" The first goon exclaimed, as he ran over to check on his unconscious buddy. "Fred! Are you okay? Speak to me!" Just then, the goon felt a tap on his shoulder, to which he turned around and finds himself punched in the face, by Spruce Spanner, effectively knocking him out cold.
"You couldn't have just snuck up behind him and knocked him out cold?" Ken asked.
"I don't like to hit people when their backs are turned," Spruce replied.
"But they're bad guys."
"Well, even I wouldn't stoop low to their level."
Before the conversation could continue, the sprinklers were suddenly shut off.
Then, the sound of a door opening was heard, alerting Hum Drum and Saddle Rager to hide behind a shelf of boxes. Peeking through the gaps, both superhero mentor and mentee watched as a tall, intimidating man stepped in, followed by a lanky man.
In appearance, the tall man has a messy, silver, flowing hair that almost looked like clouds, bushy brown eyebrows, above his yellow eyes, and a noticeably large red nose. For attires, he wore a black suit, with white cravat tucked under a dark gray shirt.
Standing beside him, the lanky man has a wavy hairstyle that is reminiscent to the 90s, colored white with black stripes. For attires, he wears a magenta jacket over a pink shirt, with a gold chain around his neck, and skinny jean pants, black and white shoes.
Hum Drum gasped as he recognizes the tall man, “That’s Eric Erebus PhD!” He confirmed. “A brilliant physician. What’s he doing here?”
“Mr. Zeb,” Erebus called.
“Sir!” The lanky man, identified as Zeb, answered.
“What’s the count so far?”
“So far, we’ve jumped up to 50. If we keep this up, we may meet the demands of our clients from TARTARUS on time.”
“Excellent.”
Saddle Rager and Hum Drum turned to exchange horrified glances with one another.
“TARTARUS?” Saddle Rager asked.
“Never heard of it,” Hum Drum replied. “But it doesn’t sound like a welcoming doctors convention. Let’s get these people out ASAP. As soon as possible.”
With that, both Hum Drum and Saddle Rager resumed the task at hands, knocking out the goons.
Hum Drum looked up to see he was standing in front of a prison room, housing all the kidnapped people.
“Shhh! We’re here to save you!” Hum Drum shushed.
With a tap of his fingers, Hum Drum unsheathe the sharp nails from his gloves, to pick the lock on the door.
Unfortunately, at that moment, Brick and Boomer came in front of the crowd, and were elated to see Hum Drum and Saddle Rager.
“Omigosh! HUM DRUM! SADDLE RAGER!” Brick shouted.
“D’oh!” Hum Drum smacked his head.
“Uh oh!” Saddle Rager whimpered.
“What?” Alerted, Erebus turned and both he and Zeb were shocked to see Hum Drum and Saddle Rager. “Who are they?!”
“Boss! That’s one of the Power Princess!” Zeb answered. “And that boy is their boy wonder!”
“And soon to be dead heroes!” Erebus scowled, snapping his fingers. “Wind Shadows! KILL THEM!”
With that, the criminals — identified to be Wind Shadows — held up their guns and opened fire on the heroes.
“HUM DRUM! Duck!” Saddle shouted, throwing herself at Hum Drum, as they ducked behind a crate to hide from the bullets.
Taking out his Nerf Gun, Hum Drum loaded it with his cousin’s Funny Elephant Toothpaste pellets, peeking through the gaps in the shelves, and fired them at the Wind Shadows.
Two of them missed, and only one managed to hit one of the gunmen.
“What is this stuff?” The disgusted crook asked.
From behind their hiding spot, Hum Drum activated the sticky paddings on his gloves, allowing him to scale the walls, up to the ceilings, like a gecko, while Saddle Rager hid herself behind a crate.
“Where’d they go?” One of the gunmen asked.
“Spread out and look for them!”
The gunmen proceeded to search the room, trying to find Hum Drum and Saddle Rager.
Clinging to the ceiling, Hum Drum spoke to Saddle Rager via the comm on his glove.
“Saddle!” Hum Drum called. “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”
“I’m fine, Hum Drum,” Saddle confirmed. “But what do we do?”
“Uh…I think now is a good time for you to get angry…”
“But what about the people?”
“Uh…I’ll keep these thugs busy. You work on getting the people out of those prison cells and down the sewers to escape.”
“I’ll try,” Saddle Rager said uneasily. “But…will you be okay?”
“I’ll try not to worry you,” Hum Drum replied, as he went to work, taking down the Wind Shadows.
From the distance, Hum Drum can hear Erebus ranting, “We’ve come to far now to let all our efforts go to waste because of some hero fanatics!”
“I don’t know sir,” Zeb replied. “From what the MPD have gathered, and the looks of those recordings, their powers seem too legit to be fanatics.”
“Shut up, Zeb! We’re moving these people out now! TARTARUS have paid us in advance. And they’re very strict about their intolerance for failures.”
Back in the fray, Hum Drum pulled some heavy boxes from a shelf, causing it to fall hard on top of a gunman’s head, knocking him out.
Turning to the next goon, Hum Drum used his Zipper device to hang mid-air, before lowering himself downward, like Spider-Man, to get a drop on a goon, using his staff to hit them on the head, knocking them out.
A gunman was cautiously prowling around the room, with his gun at the ready.
“Talk to me you guys,” The gunman asked in his comm. “What’s happening?”
Hum Drum was crawling on the side of a semi-truck, behind the gunman, when used his gloves’ built-in nails, to scratch the vehicle, alerting the gunman.
“Hmm?” The gunman turned around, to find nothing but a noticeable scratch marks. “Hey! I think I got something here…” The gunman went over to investigate, when he was suddenly electrocuted from behind, and was out cold.
“Score another for my stunning friend,” Hum Drum smirked. The boy turned to look at the vehicles and trucks in the room, “These guys are in a hurry. If we keep this up, they’ll move the people out, before Spruce can free them. Looks like I’ll just put a hole in their plans.”
With that, Hum Drum unsheathed his nails to slice the tires of the vehicles.
Meanwhile, Spruce Spanner went to work on freeing the kidnapped people.
“Well, at least Hum Drum took care of the locks,” Spruce said to herself, before she guided the captives the way out to the manhole.
“Come on everyone,” Saddle Rager beckoned, as she lifted up the manhole. “Get in!”
A snooty woman took a whiff of the foul stench, and recoiled, “Oh come on! Really?”
“Deal with it lady!” A spunky little girl with yellow hair bow said, a she jumped in. “It’s time to get DIRTYYYYYYYY!”
One by one, all the captives entered the sewer, escaping to freedom, with Saddle Rager guiding them.
All was going well, until a gun’s safety was clicked off, “Don’t move!” A gunman threatened, with a gun next to Saddle Rager’s head. “All of you!”
“Eep!” Saddle Rager squeaked, as she held her hands up, along with all the other captives.
“Step away from the manhole, nice and easy,” The crook ordered, which everyone did as they were told, while the gunman herded them all back into their cell, with the addition of Spruce.
Brick and Boomer, however, poked their heads up from the manhole, to see what was happening.
“We gotta do something man!” Brick said to Boomer.
“But what can we do?” Boomer asked. “We’ve got no super powers, or super gadgets. We’ll get blasted!”
“Hmmm. Hey!” Brick turned his attention to the manhole covering that Saddle had removed, getting an idea.
“How could you do this?” Saddle Rager asked. “To all these people? What did they ever do to you?”
“Missy, it’s nothin’ personal,” The thug replied. “I’m jus’ tryin’ to make a living, and I’m paid handsomely not to care.”
However, without warning, the gunman was hit on the head by the manhole covering.
BONG!
In an instant, the crook dropped his gun and fell face flat on the floor.
Saddle Rager and the people looked up to see the heroic was courtesy of — not Hum Drum — but Brick and Boomer.
“Hey everyone!” Brick boasted. “Look who’s kicking bad guy’s heinie and knocking their heads upside down.”
“Us! That’s who!” With that, Brick let out a high-pitch laugh. “Ha Ha Ha Ha!”
“Hey! What’re you two doing?” A gunman shouted, pointing his gun at the two boys.
“YIKES!” Boomer screamed, jumping into Boomer’s arms.
“Zoinks!” Brick screamed. “C’mon, Boomer! Let’s make like a piñata and BEAT IT!”
With a rev of his feet, Brick took off running, with Boomer in his arms, leaving behind a smoke shape of their outlines, while the Wind Shadows chased the boys, shooting their guns after them.
“Oh dear,” Saddle whimpered as she opened the door. “I hope those boys are okay.”
“Saddle!” Hum Drum shouted as he regroup with the super girl. “I‘ve finished tearing up the tires. The Wind Shadows aren’t going anywhere. How’s it coming?”
“Everyone are on their way out,” Saddle pointed to the people leaving via the sewer. “But—“
“Great!” Hum Drum pounded. “Then all that’s left is catch Erebus, along with the evidence, and he’ll be—“
“Wait! Hum Drum!” Saddle stopped the boy. “Brick and Boomer are in trouble!” She pointed to the two bumbling boys running around the room, and looking goofy while doing it.
“Those two can be like Scooby and Shaggy sometimes,” Hum Drum commented. “But yeah, we definitely need to save them."
With a click of his heels, Hum Drum activated the springs in his boots, allowing him to literally spring into actions, before he landed and bounced on the chasing gunmen's heads. Disoriented, the gunmen dropped their guns and were at the mercy of the young hero-in-training, who proceeded to thrash, spin, and smack the criminals on the heads, with his metal staff.
"Yeah!" Brick and Boomer cheered for their secret enemy-in-superhero suit.
"Knock 'em dead, Hum-Dum!" Brick whooped. "Whoo whoo whoo whoo!"
"It's Hum Drum..." Hum Drum frowned.
One of the Wind Shadows grabbed Hum Drum from behind, only for the boy to thrust his metal staff into their toes.
"AH! Got my bunion!" The Wind Shadow screamed, dropping Hum Drum.
During the fight, Hum Drum accidentally triggered his gloves' sticky paddings. As a result, the boy got one of his hands stuck on a Wind Shadow's face, and they got into a rather uncomfortable tug-of-war.
"Get off me!" The Wind Shadow thug groaned, as he tries to pull away from Hum Drum.
"I'm trying!" Hum Drum said, struggling to pull himself away.
RIP!
Hum Drum landed on his back, looked up. Immediately, he, Brick, Boomer, Spruce, and the rest of the Wind Shadows stared, eyes widened at the sight.
"What? What is it?" The confused thug asked.
"N-Nothing," Hum Drum smiled sheepishly, before he waved his hands. "D-Don't look in the mirror!"
"Why?" The thug asked, looking into a truck's rear view mirror anyway. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" His eyebrows, eyelashes, and a part of his mustache were ripped off.
"I told you not to look in the mirror!" Hum Drum shrugged.
After overcoming the shocking, and embarrassing sight, Spruce turned her sight on Erebus and his assistant, Zeb, trying to make a run for it.
“Hold it, right there!” Saddle Rager shouted, chasing after the two villains.
“Uh oh!” Zeb shouted, upon seeing the alien girl chasing after them. “Boss?”
“This isn’t over yet,” Erebus reassured, as he ran towards a control panel, pressed a secret switch, and escaped via a secret passageway. “Auf wiedersehen.”
With that, the madman and his assistant disappeared.
“No!” Saddle Rager screamed angrily. “Argh! Got away?”
“Saddle Rager?” Hum Drum asked, as he continues to fight on his own against the Wind Shadows. “Little help here, please?”
“Oh! Hum Drum!” With a graceful leap, Saddle Rager joined in the fray, as both she and Hum Drum stood back-to-back.
The surrounding Wind Shadow goons lunged into for the attack, throwing punches, kicks, and a swing of their bladed weapons at the two heroes.
In the meantime, watching from their hiding spot, Brick and Boomer watched in awe at the fight, happening before them.
Hum Drum spun his staff, to block a kick, another spin to deflect a stab from a Wind Shadow’s knife, before Hum Drum retaliated with a jab to the nose.
“How are you, Saddle?” Hum Drum asked.
“This guy is fast and persistent!” Saddle whimpered as she blocked and dodged a few attacks.
“DUCK!” Hum Drum shouted to Saddle, as he spin his staff around to Saddle’s opponent on the right side of his face, stunning him.
“OOH!!” Brick winced.
“That’s smart!” Boomer commented.
Hum Drum turned and rolled himself across Saddle’s back, to landed a side kick to the Wind Shadow’s chest, followed by a sweep of his leg, and a jab to the stomach, from his staff.
“Yeah!” Brick and Boomer cheered.
Saddle stood up, and lunged forward to kick a Wind Shadows away from Hum Drum, while pulling the boy away from another.
Hum Drum and Saddle Rager were holding hands, as they spun, kicked, and punched bad guys together.
“Oh wow!” Saddle exclaimed softly. “It feels like we’re dancing!”
“Yeah. What a feeling,” Hum Drum commented.
Before long, all of the Wind Shadows have been beaten, and sprawled across the floors.
[End of Fight]
“Well, I guess our work here is done,” Hum Drum said. “Now all that’s left is to alert the police and they’ll be here put all these guys away.”
“Definitely,” Saddle Rager agreed.
“Hey, you two,” Hum Drum called to Brick and Boomer. “You guys okay?”
“Oh yeah!” Brick exclaimed happily. “We’re okay!”
“Never felt better!” Boomer added.
After another job well done, Ken and Spruce Spanner returned to Ken’s house, late on another school night. Up in Ken's bedroom, the young man and Spruce Spanner reported their latest ordeal with the Wind Shadows and what they've found.
"...And that's about it," Hum Drum concluded.
"So, what do you think, Twilight?" Spruce asked.
Scratching her chin, pondering in deep thoughts, Trots Summers paced around the room, "I think this calls for some thorough and deep investigation," The leader said. "If what you say is true, then without a doubt, this Dr. Erebus is the mastermind behind the Wind Shadows operation. But something about this TARTARUS certainly has him on edge."
"Well, obviously, anything secret organization with a big name, with all the letters capitalized, and referring to something from Greek Mythology can't be a good sign," Mary Allen stated.
"Still, I'm going to conduct a thorough investigation to see if we can find out more about TARTARUS, and their connects with Erebus," Trots turned to Ken and Spruce. "You both did a good work tonight. So you all deserve a good rest."
"Now you tell me," Hum Drum yawned, stretching his arms out. "Tomorrow is another day at school...for us..."
"Oh, right," Trots Summers yawned as the rest of the alien heroes joined in. "I guess we should all get some sleep. I'll conduct my investigation first thing, after school, tomorrow..."
Meanwhile, from the safeties of their homes, Brick and Boomer were engaged in a live chat, as they exchange their giddiness of what they’ve experienced.
“That was one of the Power Princesses!” Brick exclaimed. “And their boy toy, Hum Dumb!”
“I know!” Boomer agreed. “Man, no one will believe us if we tell them we were saved by one of the super girls and their boy sidekick.”
“Oh, they’ll believe us,” Brick grinned. “They’re real alright. You heard them, right? They can talk. They can fight. And we even touched one of them, so they’re real people!”
At that moment, Brick hatched a devious scheme, “Boomer my friend. We are going to find out who the Power Princesses, and their boyfriend, really are!”
“Right!” Boomer agreed, before he asked, “But how?”
“Don’t worry! I have a plan. And it’s going to make us famous!”
“We’re gonna find out who they really are!”
As usual — for the past days since their arrival — Ken was greeted to the sight of the other Power Princess sleeping in his room, in his bed, or on the floor, in their sleeping bags.
“Another job well done,” Ken yawned, after changing into his pajamas, plopping into bed.
He was about to let sleep overtake him, when he felt an arm wrapped around him.
“Can I please hold you close, Ken?” Spruce pleaded.
Ken contemplated. After what happened today, he nodded, “Go right ahead, Spruce.”
“Yay!” Spruce cheered quietly, before she wrapped her arms around Ken, pulling him close for a loving embrace. “You were wonderful today.”
“Thanks,” Ken smiled. “…but I couldn’t have done it without you…”
“Maybe. But you were still magnificent today, Ken. The way you fought those Wind Shadows and saved those people. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Ken was blushing a shade of pink, at the low-lidded eyes Spruce was shooting him, complete with a loving smile, and haunting voice.
He turned away, hiding his face, “Well, you were awesome today too,” Ken stammered. “And you didn’t have to hulk up to save the day.”
“And that’s a good thing,” Spruce whimpered. “If I, as you put it, hulk up, then I could do more harm than good. I might even hurt you, by mistake.”
“Well, She-Hulk or no She-Hulk, you’ll still be…my…super…girl…”
Unable to keep his eyes open any longer, Ken fell into a deep sleep, snoring loudly, with his hand on Spruce’s face.
Spruce giggled as she put her hand over Ken’s, keeping it on her cheek.
“Sweet dreams, my little hero,” Spruce leaned over to kiss Ken on the nose. “Sleep tight.”