Now go watch the series. The animation style is 2D as opposed to CGI, but with the exception of Wasabi, most of the film cast returned for the TV show. As a result BH6:TS very much feels like a continuation of the film and it’s a really good show.

 

Ha, I might! Since Marvel Agents of Shield is on hiatus for a while longer, I'm not watching scripted TV programs. I tried one ep of Archer, but it's just not for me and I sure thought it would be. :/

 

Big Hero 6 is easily the third best recent Disney series after Milo and Ducktales. In that order.

 

That's good to know. I thought the San Fransokyo setting provided 50 percent of the film's appeal, the sterling non-princess plot 20 percent, Baymax 20 percent, and the characters 10 percent. Wasabi was particularly fun.

 

Episode Forty One


Cavendish had barely driven half a block before he turned down a side street. He clunked through the gears into park and pulled the key out of the ignition. The engine died and they piled out. The side street in which they had parked was deserted. There were a few overflowing dumpsters scattered here and there down the alley, which was lit with a dull orange light from overhead street lights. They started walking. Garbage from from the overflowing dumpsters was scattered here and there on the ground. A battered looking metal sign on the opposite wall said that this was “Good Luck Alley.” Light from a number of open doors spilled into the deserted space. They had names like “The Golden Buddha” and “The Lucky Dragon.” Music, the jangling of slot machines and a pungent aroma that Zack couldn’t identify wafted through the open doors as they passed. From the brief glimpses that Zack caught of the interiors as they passed, they looked decidedly seedy. From the other end of the alley the bright lights of Night Market Square cast a long puddle of multicoloured neon into the alley. They all eyed the cop car parked at the opposite end of the alley, where it opened onto Night Market Square and looked at each other.

“So how do we get inside the police cordon?” asked Amanda.

There was about a minute of silence as they pondered the problem. They couldn’t simply ask the police to let them in. The police had no reason to do so and would likely never believe their story. Zack sighed and unslung Milo’s backpack. I’m probably going to regret this, he thought. He set Milo’s backpack on the ground and quickly rifled through it, extracting a long handled crowbar. Even as he did, he thought he could feel the iron bands around his chest again. He ignored them, found the nearest manhole cover and began trying to jimmy the crowbar under the heavy metal cover.

“Zack, what are you doing?” asked Phineas.

Zack spoke through gritted teeth as he grunted with the extortion of trying to lift the manhole cover. “Something I’ll probably regret,” he said. The manhole cover shifted slightly.

“Are you sure about this Zack?” asked Amanda slightly skeptically.

Melissa nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you don’t have to do this,” she said. “This isn’t Danville,” she added. “We don’t know these sewers at all.”

The manhole cover shifted a little more and Zack jammed the crowbar solidly underneath. “No,” he said, “this isn’t Danville. If we were at home, we’d probably be in some other insane situation, but Milo would be here to help us figure out how to get out of it.” Zack grunted again as he levered the manhole cover up a couple of inches. A strong sewer smell came wafting out. “And yes, Milo has a better head for the Danville sewer system than I do, but Milo could actually hurt someone and we don’t have time to waste talking to the police, who probably won’t believe us anyway, so why don’t you help me move this thing before I chicken out!”

There was a enough of a gap between the manhole cover and the lip for Cavendish and Dakota to get their hands around the edge. They grabbed hold of it and with some effort, Zack, Cavendish and Dakota levered it into a vertical position. They let go of the manhole cover and it fell over backwards, landing on the pavement with a dull clang, which reverberated loudly in the confined space of the alley. Everyone flinched.

Melissa, Amanda and Phineas all looked a little like deer caught in on-coming headlights. Zack suddenly realized that they were staring at him. Zack picked up Milo’s backpack and shrugged it back on to his shoulders. “I’m sorry, guys I-,” he began.

Melissa opened her mouth to say something, but Dakota cut her off. “Somebody probably heard that,” he said, motioning to the manhole cover. “We need to get moving.”

Zack looked down at the open manhole cover. It seemed to be a mile deep. He took a deep breath and fought the urge to hyperventilate. OK, he thought, this is your bright idea. He suddenly remembered something and reached over his shoulder, thrusting his hand into Milo’s backpack. Milo always packs three or four flashlights, he thought. His hand closed over several flashlights almost immediately. He extracted them and handed one each to Amanda, Ferb, and Cavendish. He kept the fourth for himself. Zack shrugged Milo’s backpack higher on his shoulders, clicked on his flashlight and stuck it in the pocket of his jeans. He crouched down and lowered himself into the open manhole. The sewer smell was strong in his nostrils and he tried breathing through his mouth so he wouldn’t have to breath in the stench, but it didn’t really work. He suddenly noticed a bitter taste in the back of his mouth and had to actively resist the urge to throw up. Why does this sewer smell so bad? Zack wondered. He had been down in the Danville sewer system dozens of times with Milo and Melissa and it didn’t smell even remotely this bad. Zack suddenly realized that he was fighting two opposing instincts. The sewer was narrow. They would have to walk in single file. In the confining space and inky darkness, Zack wanted to hyperventilate, but he was trying not to breath deeply, so as not to breath in the nauseating smell. Zack craned his neck to see who was standing behind him. It was Dakota. His normally dark sunglasses glowed a vivid electronic green. Zack opened his mouth to speak to the time agent, but Dakota spoke first.

“Oh fertilize me, this smells awful,” muttered Dakota. “Zack, hold still,” he said. He pushed open the flap on top of Milo’s backpack. “I’m going to see if Milo packed filter masks.”

Zack nodded. “Good idea,” he said in agreement. He felt Dakota rummaging through the contents of Milo’s backpack. A sudden thought occurred to him, “just to warn you, Dakota, they might be-,”

“Doctor Zone masks?” said Dakota, “really?”

Zack had half expected that. Milo, Zack and Melissa had once stayed late after school to look for Melissa’s missing math book. An encounter with the hall monitors had left them coughing on a cloud of chalk dust. Without blinking, Milo had produced three filter masks from his backpack.

“And they look like circus animals because-,” Zack had asked only a little sarcastically.

Milo had given a trademark casual shrug in response. “They serve a variety of purposes,” he had replied.

Zack sighed to himself and took one of the masks proffered by Dakota. Between claustrophobia and being able to breath properly, he’d take breathing. Zack pulled on his mask and took a deep breath. The air entering his lungs tasted flat and filtered, but at least it was clean. He took another breath and another and another. Zack felt himself noticeably relax.

“OK,” Zack said, mostly to himself. He sounded as though he was trying to psych himself up. “OK, lets go.” He started walking. He could hear the muffled footsteps of the others behind him squelching in the sludge that lined the bottom of the tunnel. Zack had to work at not thinking about what it was. The tunnel ran straight with almost no deviation for what seemed to Zack like several hundred meters. He started slightly when Dakota tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look over his shoulder. The night vision mode of the time agent’s sunglasses cast a creepy green glow through the eyes of the Doctor Zone mask. “What is it?”

Dakota pointed down the tunnel. “I think I seen an exit up ahead. Another hundred meters.”

Some of Zack’s relief crept into his voice. “Are you sure?”

Dakota nodded. “Yeah,” he said. He tapped his sunglasses. “I can see a ladder.”

Zack nodded, “OK” he said, “lets keep going.”


They resumed their march and a short time later, which seemed to Zack to last several eternities, they found themselves at the base of the ladder that Dakota had seen. In actuality, it had really only about ten minutes. Zack felt as though his sense of the passage of time was being warped by the dark confines of the tunnel. He took a deep breath. Everything’s fine, he thought, you haven’t been down here that long. His breath felt hot against the inside of his mask. Zack stuck his flashlight in his pocket, put his hands on the rungs of the ladder set into the tunnel wall and began to climb. Zack estimated that he had climbed maybe about twenty five feet when the top of his head struck something hard and metallic. “Ow!”

“Zack, are you OK?”

Zack looked down and saw Dakota just below him on the ladder. He could feel a lump the size of a chicken egg rising on the top of his head. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. Zack looked up and saw that he had hit his head on the bottom of a sewer grate. “I’m underneath a storm drain.” He studied the underside of the sewer grate for a second or two. “I’m going to see if I can move it,” he called down. Zack carefully leaned back and braced himself against the opposite wall. He could feel the prongs of Milo’s grappling hook digging into his back, but he ignored this. He reached up, placed his hands on the underside of the sewer grate and pushed upward. The sewer grate came loose with a dull metallic scrape. Zack pushed it aside and climbed out of the sewer. The others followed close behind him.


Zack pulled off his Doctor Zone mask and straightened up. He took a deep breath, taking a lungful of clean air. Zack felt his tension ebb as his claustroavoidance melted away. He looked around. They had emerged in the centre of a large plaza. It was ringed on all sides by tall glass and steel skyscrapers. They strobed and pulsed with green and purple neon lights. Something flickered in the corner of his eye and a slim athletic looking woman in a chef’s uniform, an impish looking figure in a violent purple jacket and what Zack could only assume was some kind of robot stepped out of the shadows. He, Zack assumed it was a “he,” but it was hard to tell for sure. It looked like some kind of corporate mascot. The figure in the spangly purple jacket had a wicked looking face and long, clever fingers that looked as though they were itching throttle something. It had a clump of bright green leaves on its head instead of hair and it was surround by what Zack initially took be a collection of small plants, except that they were like no plants that Zack had ever seen before. For a start, they had faces. Zack had never heard of a plant with a face and they were making noise. They kept repeating the same word over and over again. “Mayoi. Mayoi. Mayoi.”

Zack was suddenly aware of Melissa whispering in his ear. “Zack, where is Milo?”

 

Cute and clever visual here.

Good question and who are the newcomers?

 

Thanks, and the newcomers are Big Hero 6 villains. BH6 has really fun and eclectic rouges gallery.

 

Episode Forty Two


Zack looked frantically around him at the three figures standing in front of them and the multicoloured skyscrapers that edged the plaza. A decorative fountain tinkled happily in the middle of the square. LED screens on the surrounding buildings announced, “welcome to Night Market Square! The heart of San Fransokyo’s entertainment district!”

Zack looked around again, wondering if he had somehow missed something. No broken glass, he thought, no rubble, no burst water mains, no explosions, no nothing. A tall construction crane stood off to one side. If Milo had been here, that would not still be standing, Zack thought eying the crane.

He was suddenly aware of Melissa speaking in his ear again. “Zack-,”

“I don’t know Melissa,” replied Zack anxiously.

“Well, you’re not Big Hero 6.” It was the strange little man with the purple jacket and the leafy green hair who had spoken. There was a trace of a maniacal laugh in his voice. Zack immediately decided that he didn’t like it.

Zack, Melissa, Amanda, Cavendish and Dakota all trade confused looks. They were all clearly thinking thing the same thing. Big Hero who?

“Sorry to disappoint you,” replied Dakota, “but we have no idea what that is.”

“We’re just looking for our friend,” added Amanda. “We thought he’d be here.”

The little man blew an extra loud raspberry and cackled loudly. “Oh, I’m sorry little girl,” he said sarcastically. He spread his arms wide. “As you can see, there’s nobody here but us-,”

“-And us!”

Zack was suddenly buffeted by a blast of hot air. He turned and gaped open mouthed as a huge hulking robot in gleaming red armour touched down in the square behind them. A pair of slender wings sprouted from its shoulders and cradled several people in its arms. A figure in dressed in black and purple armour clung to its back.

Ferb gave an impressed whistle and Phineas nudged his stepbrother and said, “looks like he used your design after all.”

Ferb gave a little nod. “Well, it looks like you were spot on about the colour.”

Go Go and Honey Lemon dropped lightly down from where they had been perched on Baymax’s back, on either side of Hiro. Go Go was wearing something that looked like a high tech cycling suit. She was covered from head to foot in yellow and black armour. She balanced nimbly on what appeared to something that looked a bit like a pair of rollerblades. On the back of her wrist gauntlets were a pair of nearly paper thin throwing discs. Her helmet sported a sleek, aerodynamic fin.. Honey Lemon wore knee high boots, along with a breast, backplate and helmet with a face shield, all in matching shades of pink and lavender. If it weren’t for all the armour she was wearing Zack though that she looked as casual as if she were planning on spending a day at the mall. A handbag was draped casually across her chest. It appeared to have some kind of outlet on one side, along with a keypad in the form of the periodic table. The armoured robot knelt down and deposited Wasabi, who was wearing jade green shoulder pads, gauntlets and greaves, and what Zack took to be some kind of robot gently on to the ground. The robot, or what ever it was, was blue and black, had three eyes and large, curving horns on its head. A smaller white robot was perched on its shoulder.

Hiro surveyed the square from where he was perched between Baymax’s shoulders. In addition to Milo’s friends and the rest of Big Hero 6, the only other people he could see in Night Market Square were Momokasse, Noodle Burger Boy and Mr. Sparkles. He made a mental note of the dozen or so Mayoi surrounding Mr. Sparkles. Those things could be a problem if this gets out of hand, he thought. There was no obvious sign of Milo or Karmi. He keyed his helmet mike. “Baymax, perform scan. See if anyone else is here.”

Baymax’s voice spoke soothingly in Hiro’s ear. “What would you like me to scan for, Hiro?”

“Genetic anomalies and negative probability ions,” replied Hiro, “and filter out Momokasse and Mr. Sparkle. We already know they’ve been genetically augmented.”

“Understood,” replied Baymax calmly. “Please stand by while I complete the scan.”

Go Go’s voice suddenly spoke in Hiro’s ear. “Hiro, I have a bad feeling about this,” she said.

Hiro nodded in agreement. “So do I,” he said. He surveyed the square again. “Baymax, now we doin’?”

“Hiro, I have completed my scan,” replied Baymax.

Information began to scroll down Hiro’s head up display. Hiro quickly absorbed the information and keyed his helmet mike again. “Heads up,” he said to the rest of the team. “Milo and Karmi are both here.” Three blinking icons appeared in on his heads up display. One was emanating a strong negative probability field. The other two were genetic anomalies. Wait, thought Hiro, two? He gestured subtly with his hands swiping aside the icon that was Milo and zooming in on the two genetic mutants. One was definitely was Karmi. The other one was, “Orso Knox?” said Hiro, mostly to himself. He had momentarily forgotten that he was on an open channel.

“Wait, Hiro,” asked Honey Lemon, “are you sure?”

“Positive,” said Hiro. He sent them the genetic signature.

“Ohhhhhh,” said Fred, “unexpected plot twist. These are always the best. You never know what’s going to happen next.”

“Yeah we do,” cut in Wasabi. “The last time we had to fight Knox, we got pasted remember? And why is he here anyway?”

“No idea,” replied Hiro. He eyed Milo’s friends. “We need to get them out of here. This smells like a set up.” He suddenly had an idea. He swiped through several menus until he found his contact list. He gestured again, scrolled down the list of names until he found, “Flynn, Phineas.” He tapped “call.” In his ear piece he heard the sound of ringing. More distantly, he heard the muffled sound of Phineas’ ringtone. The Duck-tective Theme, thought Hiro in surprise, I never would have taken him for a fan. He watched as Phineas pulled his phone out of his pocket and put it to his ear.

“Hiro?” asked Phineas, “where are you? I thought you were going to meet us here?”

“I’m behind you with Baymax,” replied Hiro.

The young genius started to say something, but only got as far as, “I-,” before Hiro cut him off.

“Listen carefully,” Hiro continued, “this whole situation smells. I’m sending you some data.” Hiro was gesturing as he spoke. “Milo is definitely here somewhere, but Baymax can’t pinpoint his exact location.”

“Why not?” asked Phineas. He cast his eyes around the square, mentally assessing possible hiding places and how long it might take to search them all.

“Not sure,” replied Hiro. “It could just be all the buildings, or something else, but either way, it’s not safe for you to be here.”

Phineas nodded and hung up. He shared a momentary look with Ferb, as if something significant had been confirmed, then turned to the others. “It’s not a good idea for us to stay here,” he said. “Hiro sent me some data he thinks can help us find Milo,” explained Phineas.

“But how can he know that if he isn’t here?” asked Cavendish.

“There isn’t time to explain,” replied Phineas. He started walking and the others began to follow him. They had barely gone ten steps when they heard a slightly squeaky, high pitched voice.

“Where ya going Mister?” They all stopped and turned at the sound. It was the little corporate mascot robot who had spoken “Your order’s up Mister,” it said.

They all looked at each other, slightly confused. Melissa opened her mouth to say something, but before she could say anything several things happened at all once. They were all suddenly bathed in a harsh white light and buffeted by the rotor wash of a helicopter. A voice spoke over a loud speaker. “Attention Big Hero 6! This is the San Fransokyo Police! You are in violation of a police quarantine! You are required to vacate the area immediately, or you will be arrested!”

Later, Zack thought he remembered the strange little man in the spangly purple jacket say something like, “finally, this party is getting interesting.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cavendish go sailing through the air and land in a heap on the pavement about twenty feet away. He turned just in time for something large and green to grab him. It was one of the Mayoi. Somehow, the strange plant-like creatures had gone from being the size of a small dog, to being at least eight feet tall. Zack started to say, “what the hell?” but he never got the words out because it suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder straps of Milo’s backpack and threw him as if he were a doll. The world spun crazily and he landed hard enough to forcibly drive the air from his lungs. Zack lay still for a second checking for injuries. There was blood in his mouth. He spat it out and spat a molar at the same time. Something hot and sticky was dripping into his left eye and Zack realized that he had a bad cut on his forehead. He sat up in time to see something large and grey come crashing through a concrete wall into the square. The air was filled with cries and shouting.

As Zack got to his feet, Baymax thrust out a gauntleted hand and pointed it at the grey monster rampaging around the square. The armoured fist suddenly detached from the big robot’s arm at the wrist. It flew straight for approximately fifty feet, then suddenly veered off course, corkscrewing wildly through the battling figures. That’s definitely Milo, thought Zack. Wasabi was engaged in a duel with Momokasse. Her graphene sword blade flashed through the air in a translucent blue arc as she slashed at Wasabi. A glowing plasma sword had appeared in his right fist. He parried her attack and then blocked with the energy shield in his other hand as she stabbed at him with a chef’s knife. A long gun barrel had appeared from Honey Lemon’s hand bag and she was firing multicoloured balls in what seemed to Zack to be several directions at once, striking the grey beast with what appeared to be some sort of pink goo, as it charged at Baymax, whose right hand had since been reattached. She shot a lavender something at one of the Mayoi, which froze and shattered, sending bits of Mayoi flying everywhere.

Zack was distracted by the sound of running, as the three-eyed robot with horns vaulted into twenty feet into the air and landed in the midst of the meelee spewing flames. Melissa ran up. “Zack, are you OK?”

With some difficulty, Zack pulled his eyes away from the sight of the small white robot as it went streaking across the square, flames shooting out of the bottom of feet, barrelling into the other robot which leapt into a corkscrewing backflip, its head spinning a full three hundred and sixty degrees on its neck. It was shooting lasers out of its eyes and singing.


I’d do anything for a Noodle Burger

Cause Noodle Burgers are really swell

If I could I’d marry Noodle Burger

Cause Noodle Burger rings my bell!


Zack paused momentarily to wipe away some of the blood that was trickling into his eye. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, “I think.” Dakota was hauling Cavendish to his feet. Phineas and Ferb were pelting toward them with Amanda following closely behind them.

“This the most insane situation Murphy’s Law has ever landed us in,”said Zack.

Melissa nodded. “Yeah, we need to get out of here and find Milo,” she said.

“OK, but where is he?” asked Zack. He told Melissa what he had seen. “I’m pretty sure he’s here somewhere, but there are a lot of buildings to search.”

Before Melissa could answer, Phineas came pelting toward them, waving his his phone. “Zack! Melissa!” he shouted, “I think I know where Milo is.”

“Really? How did you-,” began Melissa.

Phineas cut her off. “No time to explain,” he said quickly. He turned and pointed at a tall, half built skyscraper. “He’s somewhere in there.”

Zack, Melissa and Amanda all traded a look. They were all thinking the same thing. A construction site, of course. They set off toward the building, skirting around the edge of the battle. Zack felt the heat of an errant laser beam on the back of his neck, and pulled Melissa back just in time as a black and yellow throwing disc buried itself in a wall where her head had been a second before. Before any of them could move, a beam of blue-white energy cut across their path, pulling the throwing disc out of the wall. A hole yawned in the chain link fence surrounding the construction site. As they approached the hole, Zack felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. At the same instant, a loud sound like the CRACK! of a gunshot echoed from somewhere overhead. They all looked up at the sound and saw a large bundle of structural steel plummeting downward rapidly. At the same time, metal strapping began to hit the ground all around them with a loud clatter as they hit the pavement.

Dakota shouted, “everybody go!” The tall construction crane was leaning precariously. Zack could hear the sound of creaking metal as its structural supports buckled. Bolts began to break and went whizzing past them, ricocheting off of the exposed steel and concrete like bullets. Dakota was shouting again.”It’s coming down! Go! Go, go, go!” They ran for the cover of the unfinished building as the crane collapsed into a pile of twisted wreckage with a deafening crash.

Milo was definitely here. Somewhere.

 

Nice touch showing his reasoning out .. the obvious! Hee!

It's realistic that a scalp cut bleeds what seems a disproportionate amount of blood at the time ...

LOL at the singing in the midst of battle.

And soon we will find Milo, who ... may not know them, depending on how mutated he is?

 

I wrote that in that way because I liked the idea of Zack being faced with a situation where he has to do something that makes him intensely uncomfortable and doing it anyway, which is what Milo is faced with all the time. I’ve always found it interesting that Milo readily admitted in Snow Way Out that half the time he’s completely terrified, he’s just learned to push through it. I thought it would be interesting to put Zack in that kind of situation. A lot of what he says in that moment is really meant for himself, because he’s trying to psych himself up for something that he knows he isn’t going to like. I really like the absurdity of Noodle Burger Boy. The dichotomy of an evil robot who’s also a cute, cuddly fast food mascot is kind of amusing. Yeah, it remains to be seen whether or not Milo will actually recognize the people that he cares about most. Cavendish thinks he might not.

 

Episode Forty Three


Zack’s ears were still ringing from the sound of all the rent and twisted metal crashing to the ground. He saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Something instinctively told him to move. As he did so, something with a long mane of dark hair, a feral face, skin like fish scales and gaping red gills suddenly burst from among the scattered pallets of tools and building supplies. It was Karmi. She uttered a feral snarl as Zack interposed himself between Karmi and Melissa. Karmi barrelled into Zack. The two of them tumbled to the bare concrete floor. Karmi snarled again. She brandished her long slender talons and slashed at Zack’s face. Without thinking, Zack reached out and grabbed for her wrist. She was much stronger than she looked, he realized. Her pointed claws were only a few millimetres from his eyeballs and then shadow fell over them and she was being pulled off of him. Cavendish stuck out a hand. Zack took it and the tall time agent pulled him to his feet.

“Are you alright?” asked Cavendish.

Zack took a deep steadying breath. He was suddenly aware of the rapid beating of his heart. It was the second time in less than fifteen minutes that someone had asked him that, he realized. Zack nodded. He suddenly felt slightly unsteady. “I-uhhh-yeah, Cavendish, l’m fine.”

The time agent looked sceptical, but before he could say anything, they were both distracted by the sounds of a violent scuffle. They both turned to find Hiro and Wasabi grappling with Karmi. Hiro was flat on his back. He had Karmi’d arms pinned behind her back and his legs were wrapped around her waist in a leg lock, but she was struggling violently. Zack thought she looked to on the verge of wriggling out of Hiro’s grip. He grunted as she fought his hold. Wasabi was circling Hiro and Karmi as the wrestled on the ground with his plasma sword in his hand.

Cavendish gently pulled Zack away from Hiro who was still grappling with Karmi. “Come on, Zack,” he said. “Milo’s definitely here somewhere. We need to find him before someone gets hurt.”

“How do we do that?” asked Zack. “We know Milo’s here somewhere, but how do we find him?”

Cavendish looked thoughtful for a moment as he pondered the question, then an idea came to him. He gestured for everyone to stop moving and gather round. “We need to find Milo before he hurts himself or someone else.”

“How do we do that?” asked Melissa,”when we don’t know where to look.”

“We need to spread out,” replied Cavendish. “We’ll be able to cover more ground that way-.”

“Cavendish,” interrupted Dakota, “are you sure that’s a good idea? Look at what that Karmi kid almost did to Zack.”

The tall time agent nodded. “You are quite correct, Dakota,” replied Cavendish, “We’ll break into groups. Milo is definitely not himself at the moment.” He paused for second or two. “We can’t be certain that he’ll recognize us. It might not be safe to be alone with him in his current state.”

They divided into groups and fanned out into the maze of steel and concrete. The building site was mostly dark. Here and there light from the surrounding buildings left pools of neon light amidst the shadows. Zack had found himself paired with Dakota. The time agent’s sunglasses had reacquired their e

electronic green glow. The light from Zack’s flashlight seemed feeble in the semi-darkness. They threaded their way among the bare steel and concrete. Tool carts and pallets of building materials cast weird shadows everywhere. They were walking quietly and slowly, listening for the slightest sound. Zack felt as though Milo’s backpack was weighing heavily on his shoulders again. He surreptitiously tried to shrug Milo’s backpack higher on to his shoulders to bear the weight the better.

Dakota seemed to notice because he turned to Zack and said, “you’ve wearing that since yesterday afternoon. Let me take it.”

Zack shook his head, somewhat defiantly. “No, I’ll be OK,” he said.

“Are you sure?” asked Dakota, “that looks heavy.”

Zack shook his head again. “It’s not that bad,” he insisted.

It was Dakota’s turn to shake his head. “Zack,” he said, “you don’t need to prove anything to anyone,” and before Zack could stop him, Dakota took Milo’s backpack and slung it over his shoulders. The time agent felt the weight settle on to his shoulders. Fertilize me, Dakota thought to himself, Milo must have packed forty pounds of gear.

Zack felt his shoulders lighten as their burden was lifted. He suddenly and unaccountably felt as if he was naked. Calm down, Zack, he thought to himself. Dakota is here and he has Milo’s backpack. Zack drew in a breath and let it out slowly. Everything’s fine, he told himself, except that your best friend was kidnapped by a creepy corporation and turned into a weird mutant, he reminded himself. And you have no idea if he can be-. With some difficulty, Zack stopped himself from finishing the thought that had been in his head. No! Zack thought to himself emphatically. We are going to find Milo, he’s going to be alright and we’re going to go home. He looked around. On the other side of the building site, Zack could the the electronic green glow Cavendish’s night vision googles. In the other direction, the semi-darkness was cut by a cone of light from Ferb’s flashlight. Phineas was using the flashlight function on his phone.

Zack and Dakota stopped to listen again. Zack thought he heard a shuffling noise. He turned to Dakota and started to say, “I think I heard something,” but before he could get the words out, several things happened at once. The hair on the back of Zack’s neck stood up in warning, at the same moment, his flashlight died. As the darkness descended on them, Zack heard Dakota say, “hey! What the-!”

“What happened?” Zack whispered. He was speaking in a low voice, trying to listen for the shuffling noise again.

Dakota shook his head. “I’m not sure,” he said. “My glasses just went out.”

“Forget to recharge the battery?” asked Zack.

Dakota shook his head. “No, I-,” a sudden thought struck him. “Zack, have you got your phone?”

Zack nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

“Check your battery”

Zack fished his phone out of his pocket. He tapped his password into his screen and immediately got a low battery warning. “The battery in my phone is almost dead. I had almost a full charge a couple of hours ago.”

“Has your phone ever been affected by Murphy’s Law before?”

Zack thought for a second or two. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “Milo breaks his phone a couple times a week, but-,”

“Turn off your flashlight,” said Dakota suddenly.

Zack was confused, “What, why?”

“Turn it off, “ said Dakota again, “and we might be able to-.” He didn’t get a chance to finish he sentence. Zack’s flashlight died of its own accord. At the same moment he heard a feral snarl, the sound of metal scraping on bare concrete and Dakota shouting, “DUCK!” Zack felt himself being pushed to the floor and Dakota landing on top of him as a tool cart went sailing through the air and landed with a loud crash somewhere in the darkness. Zack felt himself being pulled to his feet as Dakota rolled off of him. By the time Zack had got to his feet, his eyes had adjusted to the semi-darkness and he spied a familiar hazy blue aura.

The hazy glow of Milo’s negative probability field looked brighter to Zack, but he wasn’t sure if that was just his imagination or not. From where he was standing, Zack could see the others turning in reaction to the noise and a sudden realization struck him. They were all about to converge on Milo at once, leaving him cornered. In his current state, Milo not be capable of recognizing his closest friends. Somebody could get hurt, thought Zack.

“Dakota-,” Zack began.

But the time agent seemed to have reached the same conclusion at almost the same time, because he motioned to Zack and said, “c’mon, this way.” They picked their way through the various obstacles and somehow managed not to walk into anything in the dark. A couple times Zack checked his phone, in the hope that he might be able to text Melissa or Amanda to tell them to give Milo some space, but his battery was still dead. He guessed that the AR functions in Dakota’s sunglasses were still disables as well. They rounded a corner, paused and looked around. They couldn’t see anything.

“Have we lost Milo?” Zack whispered.

Dakota nodded. “I think so,” he said. “We should retrace our steps and-.” He stopped suddenly. He had thought he had heard the sudden sharp intake of breath and the sound of shuffling footsteps. At the same moment the time agent suddenly felt all the hair on the back of his neck stand up as though an electric current were running through his body and a split second later a ghostly tendril of probability knocked Dakota off his feet. Dakota was momentarily winded and he saw stars as the back of his head hit the concrete. Zack saw a familiar silhouette and leapt over Dakota’s prone form.

Heedless of his surroundings, Zack started running, dodging through the maze of tool carts, spools of cable, bundles of piping and pallets of building supplies. It’s time to end this, he thought. He back peddled suddenly as a bundle of pipes suddenly burst from its strapping and had to sidestep quickly to avoid an out of control tool cart. Zack just barely avoided being buried under an avalanche of cement mix as he came around a corner. Zack paused momentarily. Not far away from Milo were several large tanks of propane. They were leaning against a thick concrete pillar. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t really matter, but Zack reasoned that Milo and propane was probably a really bad mix. He took a deep breath. Cavendish had warned them all that Milo might not recognize them and might be more dangerous than usual be around. At some point we have to try to talk to him, thought Zack with a mental shrug might as well be now.

“Milo?” asked Zack. His voice seemed extra loud in the semi-darkness. “Are you in there, buddy?” Zack stood very, very still, hardly breathing, wondering what Milo would do.

Milo’s head snapped around at the sound of his name. His eyes glowed luminously in the semi-darkness and Zack suddenly felt uneasy. This may have been a very bad idea, he thought. Milo opened his mouth and a deep guttural snarl came out of Milo’s mouth. “Zack,” Milo growled, “help me.” At the same moment, Zack was shocked to discover that he could almost understand what Milo was saying.

He suddenly realized that his heart was beating very, very quickly. Zack’s mouth was dry and he swallowed. His eyes flicked from Milo to the tanks of propane and acetylene. I’ve got to get him away from those, he thought. “Yeah, buddy,” he said slowly, “we want to help you. I’ve got Melissa and Amanda and Phineas and-.” From somewhere to his left he heard footsteps. It hadn’t occurred to Zack that the others would hear all the crashes and bangs of the various thrown and falling objects and come running. Milo was bathed in a cone of yellow light from a flashlight. Zack tried to wave off Melissa, to give Milo some space, but it was too late, the moment of connection was broken.

Milo turned and with a wordless roar, he lunged at Melissa. Zack was already moving. He was only vaguely aware of Cavendish, Dakota, Amanda, Phineas and Ferb. He barrelled into Milo as he was about to collide with Melissa and the two boys tumbled to the bare concrete. At the exact same moment, the concrete floor gave way and Zack suddenly realized that he falling. In the same instant, he heard a loud hiss and a series of metallic bangs, along with numerous shouts and cries, and the propane and acetylene tanks burst and went rocketing all over the place. He heard a dull crump and an orange flash as one of the acetylene cylinders exploded somewhere in the distance. Then the floor of the sewer tunnel beneath rushed up to meet them.

 

Episode Forty Four


Zack hit the concrete with a jarring thud that made his teeth rattle. Stars burst in front of his eyes and the air was forcibly driven from his lungs as Milo landed on top of him. Zack lay very still for several seconds, slightly amazed that he was still alive. Milo wasn’t moving. Zack gently pushed Milo off of him and tried to sit up. Everything hurt and his vision swam momentarily he tried to sit up. He winced as his muscles protested loudly. Zack felt nauseous and he was pretty sure he had a concussion.

“Zack?! Are you OK?”

Zack was suddenly bathed in a pool of yellow light and looked up to see Melissa pointing a flashlight down at him. He nodded. “Yeah, I’m OK,” he called up.

“What about Milo?” asked Amanda. “Is he-.” She broke off, her concern was palpable in her voice and she couldn’t bring herself finish her sentence.

Zack turned and looked at Milo, who was still unconscious. “I don’t know,” he called up. “Let me check.” He took hold of Milo, rolled him onto his back and ran his hands over Milo’s arms and legs, checking for broken bones. Milo’s left leg stuck out at an odd angle and Zack guessed that it was broken. He put his ear to Milo’s chest and heard the faint beating of his heart. The steady throb of Milo’s heartbeat allowed Zack to relax, at least a little, despite his aches and pains. Milo was at least alive, and this wasn’t the first time he had broken his leg, but whether or not the rest of what had been done to him could be undone, was a question that Zack didn’t even know how to begin to answer. “I need Milo’s backpack,” he called up, “Milo has a broken leg. He usually packs bandages and splints in his first aid kit.”

Dakota nodded. “We’ll be right down,” he said.


When they arrived where Zack and Milo had landed after after their fall, it was with Hiro and Baymax in tow. Zack immediately jumped from where he had been sitting next Milo’s unconscious form. He took Milo’s backpack from Dakota, and together with Melissa, quickly rifled through it until he found Milo’s first aid kit and extracted a splint and some bandages. As Melissa took the bandages and splint from Zack, he noticed that her hands were shaking slightly and she was focusing intently on Milo’s leg and not looking anywhere else.

Zack put hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be OK,” he said. He couldn’t decide of he was saying it because Melisa needed to hear it, or because he wanted to believe it himself.

“Is it?” asked Melissa, “I mean how do we even-“ she trailed off, as if she didn’t want to think about it.

Zack shook his head, “I don’t know,” he said, “but he’s in there somewhere.”

Melissa momentarily stopped what she was doing. She stared at Zack. “How do you know that?” she asked.

Zack tried to shrug, but it hurt too much and he stopped with a grimace. “He talked me,” he said, “or tried to at any rate. He asked me to help him.”

Melissa slowly let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she had been holding. She was about to say something when Hiro knelt down opposite Zack and Melissa. He cast an eye over Milo’s scaly features. “Baymax, perform scan.”

“What would you like me to scan for Hiro?” asked Baymax.

He eyed the splint that Melissa had applied to Milo’s leg. “Scan for injuries,” he said after a moment, “and scan for active parasynths.”

The blue laser grid appeared, tracing over over Milo’s body from head to foot. “Milo has multiple internal bruises, a concussion and his leg is broken in two places,” replied Baymax.

Hiro nodded. “And what about the parasynths?” he asked.

“The parasynths are in a state of low activity,” said the big robot calmly.

“So, is it safe to move him?” asked Zack.

“I believe it is,” answered Baymax. “I have already called 911.”


Zack didn’t really have a clear recollection of what happened after that. He vaguely remembered Baymax gently lifting Milo as he were made of glass and walking down the long sewer tunnel feeling dizzy and tired. When they emerged into the open air, an ambulance and two paramedics had been waiting for them. Baymax gently deposited Milo on to a gurney.They quickly checked his vitals and loaded him into the back of the ambulance. They then turned to Zack. They cleaned the cut on his forehead, bundled him into the back of the ambulance and made him lie down next to Milo. Zack figured he must have blacked out completely after that because he didn’t remember anything else.


By the time Milo woke up, it was mid-morning. A bright shaft of sunlight was streaming through a window. A TV was mounted on a wall bracket in a corner. It was turned down very, very low. Milo had to strain to hear the newscaster.

“Big Hero 6 appeared in Night Market Square late last night, along Momokasse, Mr. Sparkles and Noodle Burger Boy-.”

“Hey, buddy, glad to see you back to normal.”

Milo started slightly and looked around to see who had spoken. “Zack? What the-I-what happened? And where’s my backpack?” He looked down at himself. He had suddenly realized that he was wearing a hospital gown over his underwear and nothing else. A second a later he realized that Zack was attired in the same way. There were stitches above his left eye. “Oh,” he said looking sheepishly at Zack’s stitches, “did I do that? I’m-.”

Zack waved away his apology. “No, it’s OK, Milo,” he replied, “this wasn’t Murphy’s Law. I was thrown by, well, I’m not really sure what it was exactly.”

Milo looked at his left leg, which was in a cast. “Where are we?” he asked, “and when did I break my leg? And-.”

“How much do you remember?” asked Zack.

Milo thought for a second, trying to piece together what had happened to him. “Well, I remember in a field in Danville with you. Then I blacked out. When I woke up, I was in that creepy lab, then I must have blacked out again. The next thing I remember was I in some kind of jail cell, and you guys showed up with my backpack.” Milo paused. He had suddenly realized that his backpack was missing. “Where is my backpack?” he asked.

“Oh,” replied Zack, “Dakota has it. Do you remember anything after that?” asked Zack.

Milo shook his head.”No,” he said, “I don’t remember anything else until now.”

Just then, the door opened and a gaggle of people piled into the room. Melissa and Amanda pushed through the little knot of people and threw their arms around Milo, almost knocking him backward on to his pillows. “Milo,”said Amanda, “thank god you’re OK-.”

Melissa nodded, “-yeah,” she said. She took a steadying breath. “We were really worried about you.”

Milo surveyed his friends. Ferb’s nose was wrapped in bandages, Phineas’s right arm was in a cast and there were bandages around his chest under his orange and whit striped T-shirt. There was a lump on Dakota’s temple and Cavendish had a black eye. They all looked disheveled, grimy and tired. After they had been patched up at the hospital, and Milo had been taken off to have the parasynths removed, Hiro, who had already been working with Karmi on a way to deactivate and remove the parasynths when she had been taken, had been able quickly develop an effective procedure for restoring Karmi and Milo. Afterwards, he had taken the others the his aunt’s café, The Lucky Cat. Zack had wanted to go with them insisting that he was fine, but the ER doctor who had examined him insisted that he needed to stay in the hospital overnight for observation, due to his concussion.

Milo’s nose wrinkled instinctively. They all carried the strong odour of a sewer. “So, what happened to you guys?” asked Milo. It took them half an hour to fill Milo in on everything he had missed. They took turns telling the story, but as if by unspoken consent Zack did most of the talking. When they were finished talking, Milo couldn’t help but feel a little unaccountably guilty. He knew that the thought was irrational as soon as it occurred to him. He was, as ever, grateful that Zack, Melissa, Amanda, Cavendish, Dakota, Phineas and Ferb had flown across the country to look for him, but at the same time he couldn’t help but feel a little bit responsible for what they had gone through anyway. Milo’s thought’s were interrupted by the sound of the door opening again. Everyone’s head turned to see a boy of around Milo’s age with a slender build, a dark blue hoodie, knee length cargo shorts, battered running shoes and an unruly mop of black hair. Wasabi, Honey Lemon and Baymax followed Hiro into the room.

“Hi,” he said, “mind if we join you?”

“Oh, hi, Hiro,” said Phineas. He turned to Milo. “Milo, this is Hiro Hamada. He’s a friend of ours and he helped us find you.”

Hiro shrugged. “It actually wasn’t that hard,” he said. “Baljeet’s tracking algorithm needed some fine tuning, but it worked pretty well overall.”

“What happened to you guys after we left Sycorax?” asked Zack. “I thought you were going to meet us at Night Market Square.”

Hiro suddenly looked a little uncomfortable, and Zack once again had the sense that there was more the Hiro than he let on. He remembered the conversation that they had had with Phineas and Ferb and he thought he saw Melissa and Amanda exchange a look. He guessed that they still had the same questions about Hiro that he did.

“Yeah, we’re really sorry about that,” said Honey Lemon, with what appeared to be a slight pained look on her face.

Hiro shrugged. “We were caught up in the police cordon and they wouldn’t let us through.”

“So what happened to you guys after we got separated?” asked Wasabi.

For the second time in forty-minutes, Zack told them what happened. Wasabi suppressed a slight shudder and seemed to want to throw up a little. “I can’t imagine anything worse than having to go down into the sewer.”

Milo shrugged in response. “We end up in the sewer in Danville fairly often,” he said. Wasabi shuddered again.

“Oh, that reminds me-,” said Dakota.

Melissa nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “Doctor Zone filter masks? Really, Milo?”

Milo chuckled. “I’m just glad they came in handy,” he said.

“There’s one other thing we found out,” said Dakota slowly. Cavendish, Dakota and Melissa exchanged a significant look.

“What?” asked Milo.

Melissa took a deep breath. “We think that Cavendish and Dakota saved our lives.”

Milo’s face wore a look of momentary confusion. “What, yesterday?” he asked, “Yeah, thanks for tha-.”

Melissa shook her head. “No, Milo,” she said. “I meant when we were six.”

Ten seconds of ringing silence fell over the room. Melissa thought that Milo looked a little like a deer caught in on coming headlights. He looked back and forth between Melissa and Cavendish and Dakota. “But, I-how did you-,” he began.

Melissa shrugged and nodded at Hiro. “Hiro asked us how we become friends, so we told him.”

Cavendish nodded. “Our story tallies perfectly with yours,” he said. “A most remarkable coincidence.”

“Yeah,” said Dakota, nodding in agreement, “that’s a weird coincidence.”

“What,” asked Milo, “does this mean something?”

“As we’ve been banned from using time travel, its hard to say for sure,” replied Dakota, “but no it probably doesn’t mean anything.”

 

Episode Forty Five


At that moment, the door opened and a tall, thin man with with a few wisps of grey hair, a long pointed nose, a lab coat and glasses entered the room. A stethoscope stuck out of his pocket. He exuded an air of quiet competence. He pulled the two charts from a holder by the door. “Milo Murphy and Zack Underwood?”

“Yes,” replied Milo and Zack together.

“My name is Dr. Dunwood,” he said. “I’ll be your attending physician.” He flipped through their charts, examining the notes the admitting nurse and the ER doctor had made in the small hours of the morning.


Name: Underwood, Zachary Alan Butler

Age: 14

Date of Birth: July 14, 2002

Height: 5’ 6”

Weight: 112 pounds

Blood type: A-

Allergies: None

Pre-existing conditions: None

Notes:

· Fourteen year old African-American male was admitted to San Fransokyo General Hospital at 01:33 AM along patient designated M Murphy following an encounter with the vigilante superhero team known as Big Hero 6 and the following known supervillains:

o Momokasse

o Mr. Sparkles

o Noodle Burger Boy

· Patient was admitted with symptoms consistent with a grade four concussion, numerous contusions and a laceration above the left eye.

· Patient was examined for additional injuries. None determined to be present.

· Patient was given twelve stitches for facial laceration and admitted to hospital for observation of additional symptoms in relation to concussion.


A signature had been scribbled at the bottom.


Dr. Dunwood pulled a small penlight out of a pocket and shone it in Zack’s eyes. He watched carefully as Zack’s pupils dilated in response to the stimulus. He scribbled some notes on Zack’s chart. He put the penlight away and held up his index finger. Zack’s eyes slowly moved back and forth in response. He scribbled some more notes. “I’d like to ask you some questions, if that’s alright,” said Dr. Dunwood.

Zack nodded. “Sure,” he said.

“Have you experience any headaches?” asked Dr. Dunwood.

“No,” replied Zack.

Dr. Dunwood scribbled some notes. “How about dizziness?”

“A little,” replied Zack. Dr. Dunwood kept scribbling.

“Have you experienced any sensory sensitivity?” asked Dr. Dunwood.

“No,” answered Zack. More scribbling.

“Balance issues?”

Zack shook his head. “I don’t think so.” Still more scribbling.

Dr. Dunwood examined Zack’s medical chart again. “Your chart says that you’re from Danville, is that right?”

Zack nodded. “My regular doctor is my Mom,” he said, guessing at Dr. Dunwood’s next question. “She’s a trauma surgeon with Danville Municipal Hospital.” He rattled off Dr. Underwood’s work e-mail and phone number as Dr. Dunwood continued to scribble quickly.

Dr. Dunwood stopped writing and looked at Zack’s chart again. “Based on these notes, you seem to be in relatively good health,” he said. “I’m going to recommend keeping you in the hospital for one or two more days just to be on the safe side, but no longer than that.”

Zack shrugged. “OK,” he said.

Dr. Dunwood replaced Zack’s chart in the holder by the door and turned to Milo. He quickly glanced through Milo’s chart.


Name: Murphy, Milo Danger

Age: 14

Date of Birth: October 24, 2003

Height: 5’ 3”

Weight: 96 pounds

Blood type: O+

Allergies: None

Pre-Existing Conditions: Extreme Hereditary Murphy’s Law

Notes:

· Fourteen year old Caucasian male was admitted to San Fransokyo General Hospital at 01:33 AM along with patient designated Z Underwood.

· Patient was admitted with symptoms consistent with an extreme physiological and genetic transformation, in addition to substantial internal bruising and fractures in the tibia and the fibula in the left leg. The patient’s presumed legal guardians, B Cavendish and V Dakota, described witnessing the patient transform from natural state to a state described as that of a reptile-human hybrid almost instantly.

· They additionally claim that the situation was complicated by the existence of a pre-existing condition known as EHML, which causes the sufferer’s body to emit a field of negative probability ions, which automatically skews all outcomes toward negative results.

· The patient’s mutated state was reversed with the application of an experimental treatment of nanobots designed to undo the physiological and genetic effects of the initial mutation.

· Due to the unusual of the nature of the patient’s illness, treatment and pre-existing condition additional follow-up tests are recommended.


Dr. Dunwood proceeded to ask Milo a much longer and more detailed list of questions than he had asked of Zack, who interjected several times with answers of his own, all of which Dr, Dunwood dutifully wrote down. After a solid half hour of questioning Milo, along with additional questions for Hiro, Cavendish and Dakota, Dr. Dunwood ran his eye down his extensive notes. After a second or two, Dr. Dunwood scribbled a few final notes. “Milo, I’m going to recommend that you stay in the hospital for a few days. I’d like to run some additional tests, just to be sure we haven’t missed anything. Do you have a family doctor?”

Milo nodded. “His name is Dr. Gardner.” Milo rattled off Dr. Gardner’s phone number and e-mail.

“You can also talk to my Mom,” interjected Zack, “she’s familiar with Milo’s situation.”

Dr. Dunwood nodded and made a couple of final notes on Milo’s chart. “The orderlies will probably come to get you this afternoon,” he said. He strode to the door, replaced Milo’s chart in the holder on the wall with Zack’s and went out.


The orderlies came to collect Milo an hour after lunch. He pushed aside his lunch tray and levered himself out bed and into the wheelchair parked next to his hospital bed. It collapsed with a clatter of metal and Milo landed on the floor with a thump that send a jolt of pain shoot through his broken leg.

“Ow!” he said with a slight grimace.

Zack turned his attention away from the episode of Cash Wheel on the TV in the corner. A boy in a blue and white baseball hat had landed on “Cash Tsunami,” and was deluged in tidal wave of money. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and planted his feet on the linoleum floor. It was slight cold. “You OK, Milo?”

Milo nodded. The throbbing pain in his leg had subsided a little. “Yeah. I’m fine,” he said.

The two orderlies surveyed their charge, sitting splay legged on the floor surrounded by the wreckage of his wheelchair. “I…,” said the tall one.

“Yeah,” said the short one in surprise. “That’s never happened before. The wheelchair must have been defective.”

Milo shook his head. “No, it wasn’t defective,” he said.

The two orderlies looked confused and Zack and Milo both chuckled. “This was Murphy’s Law,” replied Milo. “Zack, do you mind helping me up?”

“Sure thing, buddy.”

That jogged the two orderlies. “No,” they said to Zack, “you’re not supposed to over exert yourself.” They knelt down and on the count of three gently lifted Milo to his feet. He wobbled slightly, putting most of his weight on his right foot. He almost fell again until Zack thrust his shoulder under Milo’s right arm and guided him over to the edge of Milo’s hospital bed. With something solid under him, Milo was able to take most of his body weight off of his bad leg. The two orderlies disappeared and cam back ten minutes later. They were both pushing an empty wheelchair. Milo slowly lowered himself into the closest one and everyone waited for something to happen. When nothing did, the orderlies secured Milo’s broken leg to ensure that it wouldn’t move or collide with anything and wheeled him out of the room.


The neurology unit was only four floors down, but it took forty five minutes to get there. The elevator broke down twice and extracting Milo and the two orderlies was complicated by Milo’s broken leg. Eventually, Milo was wheeled into the examination room. The room was slightly chilly and Milo felt goosebumps run up his arms. An array of surgical lights on an articulated arm hung from the middle of the ceiling. A long stainless steel table stood along one of the room’s tiled walls bearing various pieces of medical equipment. Several high definition TV monitors hung on the opposite wall. In the middle of the room, in a bright pool of light cast by the surgical lights, stood a metal chair. The whiff of bleach hung in the air and made Milo’s nostrils burn slightly. The two orderlies wheeled Milo into the middle of the room. They helped him out of his wheelchair and he hobbled over to the metal chair and levered himself into it. The metal was slightly cold on the backs of his legs and Milo shivered slightly as he sat down. The two orderlies turned and left.

From somewhere behind him, Milo heard a door open, then close and accompanied by the sound of foot steps on the linoleum floor. A slightly heavy set woman in with short blond hair walked into his field of view. She was wearing a lab coat over hospital pants and a T-shirt. She glanced at the clipboard in her hands and quickly glanced through her notes. “Hello, Milo,” she said. “My name is Dr. Wendover. How are you feeling today?”

“Fine,” replied Milo with a shrug, “well,” he amended, “aside from my leg.” He nodded to indicate his cast.

“And how did you break your leg?”

“I don’t really remember,” replied Milo. “I was not exactly myself at the time.” He suddenly felt a little uncomfortable again. Zack had explained how he had to interpose himself between Milo and Melissa when Milo had tried to attack her. Milo wasn’t sure he could have lived with himself if any of his friends had gotten hurt. Except someone did get hurt, Milo reminded himself. Zack had a concussion. He’ll be fine, Milo thought. Almost as soon as the thought occurred to him, Milo thought, that’s not really the point.

Dr. Wendover scribbled some notes on her clipboard. “Milo, I’d like to ask you a few questions before we begin, OK?”

Milo nodded. “OK, Dr. Wendover.”

Dr. Wendover proceeded to ask Milo a long list of questions. Including some of the same questions that he had answered for Dr.Dunwood, but he answered them again anyway. After about twenty minutes of questioning, she stopped writing, glanced through her notes and looked up at Milo. “OK, Milo,” she said, nodding to the technician who was standing out of Milo’s field of view. The hi-def TV monitors came to life. “We’re going to run a few neurological tests. Nothing invasive, all routine, just to make there are lasting side effects from your mutation, OK?”

Milo nodded in understanding. Dr. Wendover nodded to the technician and placed a pair of electrodes on Milo’s forehead. He heard the sound of clicking keys as the technician entered commands into his computer via the keyboard.

“OK, Milo,” said Dr. Wendover, “I just want you to looked at the TV monitor. I’m going to show you a series of images. All you need to do is look at them while I record your responses.” She took the leads and plugged them into the EKG machine which stood on a metal table next Milo’s chair. She plugged them in to a port on the side of the machine and turned it on. Milo could hear the slow scratching of a stylus On the wall, the monitor began to display a series of random image and abstract shapes. They flicked by slowly at first, then faster and faster. They became more complex and began to appear in different parts of the screen. They moved back and forth changed colours and orientation. The test was approximately when the TV monitor flickered once or twice then went blank. Dr. Wendover opened her mouth say something to the technician, when the the TV monitor suddenly fell to the floor with a loud crash and the tinkling sound of breaking glass.

Milo started slightly. He had been slightly mesmerized by the increasingly abstract parade images and shapes. “Oh, I’m sorry-,” he began.

“Was that-?” began Dr. Wendover.

Milo shrugged and nodded. “Murphy’s Law? Yeah.”

 

Episode Forty Six


Zack was discharged from the hospital the next day, the doctors having determined that he had suffered nothing than the usually side effects of a mild concussion. Milo stayed in the hospital for almost a full week. Over the course of the next several days, under Dr. Dunwood’s supervision, Milo was subjected to a full battery of tests. In addition to the neurological tests he had undergone with Dr. Wendover, Dr. Dunwood had ordered a complete work-up, starting with a full physical. Milo had been weighed and measured and made to stand in only his cast as he was examined from head to foot, including the embarrassing parts he preferred not to think about. Milo was also subjected to a number of specialized test. Milo was injected with barium, which made him feel as though he was walking around with a bowling ball in his abdomen. Milo’s abdomen was then X-rayed, along with his broken leg, which was found to be healing well. He was given an eye exam, which confirmed that he had 20/20 eyesight. They took tissue biopsies, as well blood and other fluid samples, all of which cause no end of chaos in the lab. When the hematologists tried to put Milo’s blood sample in a centrifuge to separate the plasma from the platelets, the latent negative probability field in Milo’s red blood cells caused the centrifuge to spin itself to pieces. A sample of muscle tissue taken from Milo’s forearm result in a microscope that refused to focus properly and another that had to be sent for repairs when all of its lenses cracked.

Milo’s friends came to visit him every day, which he appreciated. On the third day of his stay in the hospital, Dakota had snuck him a bag of fast food from Noodle Burger, for which Milo had been grateful. He had found that being cooped up in the hospital and subjected to what seemed like an endless barrage of tests had left him feeling a little stir crazy and Milo found that he had to actively work at not taking his feelings out on his friends.

“Thanks, Dakota,” he said around mouthful of his noodle burger.

The time agent shrugged. “Don’t worry about,” he said. “The one constant of every timeline I’ve ever been in is that hospital food is always terrible. It’s like it’s a universal constant, like the speed of light, or Murphy’s Law, or gravity.”



Milo was finally discharged from the hospital three days later, having undergone an additional two days of medical testing before Dr. Dunwood, following a consultation with Dr. Gardner, was satisfied that Milo had exhibited no permanent side effects as a result of his mutation. They threw Milo a kind of celebratory dinner with his favourite pizza, pepperoni and sausage, along with several large bottles of soda and a couple big bags of potato chips. The nurses on the ward had come to like Milo and turned a blind eye when his friends stayed after the end of official visiting hours. They were eventually gently ejected by the nurses because Milo had fallen asleep.



Milo woke up at around 7:30 the next morning, to the sound of the hospital orderly coming through the door with his breakfast tray. After finishing his breakfast, Milo levered himself out of bed. He hobbled over to where his backpack and body armour sat on the chair in the corner. He picked them up and hobbled into the bathroom. After a shower, which was cut short when the shower head barely whizzed past Milo’s left ear and embedded itself in the opposite wall. He quickly shut off the water pouring from the broken faucet like a fire hose, before the bathroom floor flooded. Milo rummaged through the contents of his backpack and pulled out a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste and a hairbrush. When he was finished brushing his teeth, he pulled a towel and his usual spare change of clothes out of his backpack. Milo dried himself off. By the time Milo had finished getting dressed and opened the door, he found his friends waiting for him, along with an orderly with a wheelchair. Milo shouldered his backpack. “Oh, hi guys,” he said.

“Ready to go home, Milo?” asked Amanda.

Milo nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “let’s go home.” He picked up his crutches and thrust them under his armpits. He quickly cast his eye around the room, checking one last time to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Milo turned to go, hobbling past the orderly and the wheelchair. “Oh,” said the orderly, “hospital regs require that-.”

Milo stopped and turned. He realized that the orderly waiting for him to sit down and he chuckled. “I think I’ll walk, thanks,” he said, “I got stuck in the elevator twice on the same day this week.”


When they got the hospital atrium, they found Wasabi waiting with his car. They crossed the hospital atrium, which was dotted with little knots of people scattered among bright, leafy green plants and glowing information kiosks. They walked outside into the bright morning sunshine and piled into Wasabi’s car. He started the engine, checked his blind spot and pulled into the flow of traffic. The drive from the hospital to the Fredrickson compound, where Phineas and Ferb’s jet still sat on the helipad where it had landed a week ago, took twenty minutes. The elaborate wrought iron gates opened as Wasabi approached and he drove through, turning out of the flow of morning traffic and on to the long driveway. They wound their up the long, winding driveway through the perfectly manicured grounds until they stopped in front of a large mansion. Everyone piled out of Wasabi’s car and went inside.

They were met in the lobby by a tall, bald headed man with a permanently bored expression on his face. “Good morning, Master Wasabi,” said Heathcliff in a bored voice.

“Don’t mind us, Healthcliff,” replied Wasabi, “we’re just passing through.”

“Very good, sir,” replied the butler. “I believe you’ll find Master Fredrick in the back garden by the helipad.”

“Thanks, Heathcliff,” said Wasabi. They walked across the large entry hall, with its expensive looking oil paintings and mahogany furniture. Everything was brightly illuminated by long shafts of mid morning sunlight. They walked down a hall and then through a set of double doors, across a large patio dotted with furniture and up a winding flagstone path to a large helipad. Hiro, Honey Lemon, Fred, Go Go and Baymax were standing waiting for Milo and the others, under one of the sleek jet’s broad wings. There were several rounds of thanks and good byes, hugs, hand shakes and exchanges of contact information. The jet’s door stood open and Milo hobbled up the metal staircase, ducked low, went inside and sat down.


When Milo walked from his house to the bus stop at the end of Druid Drive, the following Monday morning, it was to the accompaniment of whispers from the other kids waiting for the school bus and the usual snort of indignation and disbelief from Bradley, along with the usual wild gesticulations from Elliot.

“Oh, hi Milo.”

Milo turned at the sound of his name and found himself face to face with Mort Schaefer. “Oh, hi. Mort,” he said.

“I knew you’d be back today,” he said.

“Really?” asked Milo.

Mort nodded. “I saw it in the emanations from my amethyst.”

Milo wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. “Oh,” he said, “ummm…..thanks.”

“So,” Milo suddenly found himself casting around for something to say, when he suddenly seemed to recall that the Geckos had had a basketball game that week. They had gone to the national finals for the first time in the history of Jefferson G County Middle School. “How did the basketball team do?” he asked.

From the way Mort shook his head, Milo guessed that the game hadn’t gone well. “We lost,” he said after a minute or two. Mort was the basketball team’s student manager.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Mort,” said Milo in sympathy. Like everyone else, Milo had become swept up in the excitement of the Geckos going on a winning streak. Like everyone else he was a little disappointed to learn that the team had not done as well as everyone had expected.

“Echo Creek had new point guard,”continued Mort. “He was really good. We were tied for awhile, then we fell behind in the third quarter and never caught up.”



The school bus arrived ten minutes later, only to settle onto its rims when all the air escaped from its tires. As a result, everyone walked to school instead. Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda brought up the rear, talking amongst themselves as Milo hobbled along on his crutches. Milo almost fell twice crossing the school parking lot, and spent the rest of the day fielding what seemed like an endless barrage of questions, mostly from people he didn’t know. Ordinarily, Milo didn’t mind. He was well aware that his various absences and mishaps often elicited questions from other people, and most of the time Milo was happy to answer them, but for some reason, that he couldn’t really put his finger on, Milo found that this time he wasn’t really in the mood. More than once, Milo found himself looking at his cast. It was covered with almost a dozen signatures and get well messages. Milo appreciated the gesture of support and sympathy from his friends, but the sight of the all signatures made Milo feel uncomfortable. He still had no memory of what had happened and the doctors in San Fransokyo had told him that it was entirely possible that he would never remember what had happened at all. Milo found that he was having a hard time deciding how he felt about that. On the one hand, Milo was quietly proud of how Zack had pushed through his insecurities. He was also grateful that Zack had interposed himself between Milo and Melissa when Milo had tried to attack her after he had been mutated by the parasynths. He got lucky, Milo thought to himself, Zack almost had his eyes clawed out. It could have been a lot worse. Milo had wondered off and on for the last week if he should say something to Zack, for overcoming his claustroavoidance and for trying to protect his friends. By the end of the day, Milo had decided that he would talk to Zack as soon as he found an opportunity.

 

Ya think??

Poor guy. I guess it would be scientifically interesting for him to learn how he felt and observed things as a mutant, but it might be psychologically overwhelming. :S

Milo and Zack can compare hero notes, if nothing else.

 

Well, I thought I initially thought of doing a lot more with the tanks of propane, but I decide not to because I thought that it would unnecessarily complicate everything.

Yeah, it might be, although I have kind of toyed with the idea of Milo eventually having some mental break and having PTSD.

I’m not sure either of them would do that. I think they both think, “he’d do it for me,” and leave it at that.

 

If the fic becomes more angsty such as with PTSD and such, might that deflect from its focus on action among a group of friends and how Milo really does deal well with his condition, with the help of his friends, of course?

Whenever I hear of propane, I think Hank Hill ... who sells propane and propane accessories

 

Well, I don’t really want to do full blown teenage angst, like say some parts of the later Harry Potter books, where you just want to reach into the book and hit Harry or Ron at certain points, but at the same time I don’t think it’s totally unrealistic to imagine that Milo sometimes feels conflicted about his situation. He loves his life, is clearly really, really good at living like this and deeply appreciates that Zack, Melissa and Amanda stick by him, and stick up for him, when almost nobody else does at times, but at the same time he’s a walking catastrophe, which means that somebody that he cares about could get hurt.

 

Episode Forty Seven


Milo pushed these thoughts out of his mind with some difficulty as he hobbled on his crutches into the library at the end of the day. Amanda had asked all the members of the WIBA committee to stay after school. She had been in touch with the rest of the committee through e-mail and social media during the week she had spent in San Fransokyo with Zack and Melissa, while Milo had recovered from his mutation, but her unexpected absence had still meant there were fires to put out and the WIBAs were only a few weeks away. As ever, as Milo entered the library, Amanda gave him the impression of a general commanding her troops.

Amanda quickly ran her gaze over the various papers scattered across the table in front of her. “The design for the stage backdrop looks good,” she said. She shuffled through some of the papers in front of her and picked up a piece of paper. Milo tried to read it upside down. The title across the top of the page read, “38th Annual WIBA Awards Category List.” He thought of Zack and suddenly had an idea.

“Hi guys,” he said.

Everyone turned at the sound of Milo’s voice. “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “I got stuck in the supply closet on the second floor.”

Amanda waved away Milo’s apology. “That’s OK-,” she began.

She was interrupted by Bradly, who snorted in contempt. “Oh, of course,” he said sarcastically, “let’s all make excuses for Milo. He disappeared for an entire week and just shows up in school as nothing happened-.”

Amanda’s face flickered for a second and Milo thought that he detected a harsh rebuke there, but she appeared to Milo to have bitten her tongue and said, “Milo’s had a hard week-.”

Bradley snorted again. “Has he?” he asked, his voice edged with sarcasm.

Amanda sighed, “yes he has,” she said. “Look, just shut up Bradley,” and she suddenly wondered just what it was about Milo that Bradley didn’t like. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You weren’t there.” Her face flickered again, and it took some effort to push away the memory of Milo lying unconscious on a tunnel floor.

“Actually, Amanda, I see the category list?” asked Milo.

“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry, Milo,” she said. Amanda coloured slightly. She had momentarily forgotten that he had been standing there. “Of course.” She handed him the category list. Milo took it and ran his eye down the list.


Jefferson G County Middle School 38th Annual Winter Break Awards



Athletics

Varsity League Most Improved Player

Varsity League Most Valuable Player

Varsity League Player of the Year

Intermural League Most Improved Player

Intermural League Most Valuable Player

Intermural Player of the Year


Arts and Music

Poetry Contest Winner

Creative Writing Contest Winner

Art Show Contest Winner

Music Recital Winner

Drama Award


Academic Achievement

Quiz Bowl Winner

Achievement in Mathematics

Achievement in Geography

Science Fair Winner

Essay Writing Contest Winner


Individual Student Achievement

Most Dependable Friend

Best Gardener

Best Green Thumb

Greatest Perseverance

Best Juggler

Best Unicycler

Most Improved Bowler


“I’d liked to propose adding a new award category,” said Milo after he had finished looking through the list.

“What category is that?” asked Bradley waspishly, “The ‘How to Ditch School for a Week and Get Away with it Award?’”

Everyone else ignored him. ”I was thinking of calling it the Greatest Personal Improvement Award,” replied Milo. He paused, “unless someone has a better name,” he said. He glanced at Amanda and suddenly found that Amanda appeared to unreadable. He glanced around at everyone else and thought that a few of the other kids seated around the table seemed to be receptive to the idea of adding a new award category. After a second or two, Amanda nodded. She took the award list from Milo and scribbled the words Greatest Personal Improvement Award underneath Most Improved Bowler. “I think that sounds like a good idea,” she said. “Thanks for the suggestion, Milo.”


The meeting broke up half an hour later. The late afternoon sun cast long, slanting shadows across the library book shelves, leaving everything in a dappled mix of light and shade. Milo squinted against the low, late winter sunlight as he stepped outside. There was a slight wind and the air was chilly. He paused momentarily and pulled his scarf tighter around his face. Milo tried to a step and immediately felt himself begin to skid. He tried to steady himself on his crutches and immediately felt a hand on his elbow. Milo turned and found Amanda standing next to him. ”Oh, hi Amanda,” he said.

“Hi Milo,” she said.

Milo steadied himself, planting most of his weight on his right foot. He leaned forward and carefully planted planted his crutches on the top step and attempted to lowered himself down. No sooner had he done this, than he lost his footing and fell splay-legged on to the hard, frozen concrete. A jolt of pain shot through his broken leg and Milo grimaced.

Amanda thrust out a gloved hand and Milo took it. The hood of her winter coat was pushed back and Milo was suddenly aware of how her hair caught the sunlight. With her help, he levered himself back into an upright position. Planting his weight on his right foot again, Milo carefully bent over and picked up his crutches, then straightened up. “Thanks, Amanda,” he said. He took another cautious step forward and when he didn’t fall again, Milo set off across the school parking lot.

Amanda fell into step beside him. “You’re welcome,” she said. The perfectionist and the hapless teenager crossed the school parking lot in companionable silence. Amanda seemed to be screwing up her courage, because when she spoke again, it was in a rush, as if she was afraid she were going to lose her nerve. “Milo,” she suddenly, “I think what you did for Zack was really-.”

Milo adopted an innocent look. “I don’t know you mean, Amanda,” he said in protest, “I just thought that-“

She didn’t let him finish. “Yes you do,” she chided him gently, but Milo could hear the clear note of approval in her voice. “He’s claustrophobic-“

“Claustroavoidant,” corrected Milo.

Amanda pressed on, ignoring his interruption, “either way,” she said, “I think you did a good thing for Zack.”

Milo gave his usual casual shrug. “From what he told me afterwards, it sounds like he went through a lot.”

“I think he did too,” said Amanda in agreement. She kissed Milo and he felt himself flush despite the chilly weather. “I hope he wins. He deserves it.”


Milo and Amanda told Melissa what Milo had done at the meeting three days later. Zack had stepped out after finishing his lunch to use the bathroom. Melissa nodded in approval when they had finished talking. “I think you did a good a thing,” she said around a bit of her sandwich, “After what happened in San Fransokyo, I was thinking of nominating him for Most Dependable Friend, but this is a lot better.”


The rest of the week seemed to pass by with almost interminable slowness. The sensation that the week after Milo’s adventure in San Fransokyo was moving by at a nearly glacial pace wasn’t helped by the week’s worth of missed school work he had to make up for as a result of having been in the hospital. By the time Saturday came, Milo had mostly managed to work through his backlog of missed assignments, but was feeling slightly wrung out. As result, he felt glad that he didn’t have to get up early to pick up alien garbage with Cavendish and Dakota.

After they had all returned, there had been another informal celebratory dinner for Milo’s safe return from San Fransokyo, during which Milo, Zack, Melissa, Cavendish and Dakota had explained everything that had happened after they had all woken up and found Milo gone. Cavendish and Dakota had also tried to apologize for leading Milo and all of his friends into what what in retrospect was clearly a trap laid for Milo.

Afterward, Martin had found himself full of conflicting thoughts and emotions he had watched Milo talking and laughing with his friends. On the one hand, he had been thankful that Milo had come back from San Fransokyo with nothing more serious than a broken leg, but remembered how elated Milo had been when he had come home from the first day of first grade with a skinned knee, a black eye and a new friend in tow. Over the next seven years, Milo and Melissa would become virtually inseparable. She had sat at their table on many occasions, laughing, talking and joking with Milo and Sara and he had had to remind himself on more than one occasion that she was not one of his children. Milo, he had come to appreciate, made few, if any distinctions between his family and his closest, and for many years, only, friend.

Several times during dinner, Martin’s eyes had slid back and forth between Milo and Cavendish and Dakota and he had thought of how excited Milo had been to go to school for the time and how Milo’s first day of school had almost had a completely outcome. By Martin’s estimation, the time agents had almost certainly saved Milo’s life, and Melissa’s as well. Cavendish and Dakota had seen two children being dragged behind a school bus with a rocket engine lodged on its roof and had simply reacted. Cavendish’s time vehicle had had the ability move three times faster than local time and the two time agents had been able to catch the two children before they had hit the ground. They had all then gone their separate ways. Over the next thirty years, or seven, depending on the point of view, Cavendish had died several hundred times and Dakota had rewritten his own timeline each time to undie his partner, which was a blatant violation of Bureau regulations and had resulted in the creation of a small army of time clones. It had also eventually resulted in Cavendish and Dakota being stripped of their time agent credentials and being banned from using time travel for life. In the meantime, Milo and Melissa had grown up together and had become close friends. Martin had always been grateful that Melissa had proven to be such a good friend to Milo. She had given him a sense of stability, that Milo might not have had otherwise. Then Cavendish and Dakota had walked back into Milo’s life and in the process of saving his life, and the lives of his friends, several more times, the two time agents had not only taken Milo and his friends under their wing, but had earned Milo’s absolute trust.

“So, what does it all mean?” he had asked.

Milo, Cavendish and Dakota had all looked at each other. “Actually, Dad,” Milo had said with a shrug, “we don’t know.”

Cavendish and Dakota had both nodded. “It’s a certainly an unusual coincidence,” Cavendish had said in agreement, “but, as Dakota and I are barred from using our time vehicle, we have no way of ascertaining what Milo being alive in this particular timeline actually means.”

 

Episode Forty Eight


As February gradually faded into March, Danville was buried by a late winter blizzard. The storm dumped a foot of snow in two days, grinding everything to a halt. Zack was awakened earlier than usual by the ringing of his phone, which sat on its charging stand on his nightstand. Zack groaned blearily and rolled over. He clicked on his bedside lamp and immediately wished he hadn’t. His eyes screwed up painfully against the sudden flood of light. After a second or two he was able to pry open his eyelids. The alarm clock on his nightstand read 5:30. Who could possibly be calling me at 5:30 AM on a Wednesday, he wondered. Zack pushed back the covers and retrieved his phone from his nightstand. The caller ID on his screen read, “Chase, Melissa.” What does Melissa want? Zack wondered. He cast a glance around his darkened bedroom, wondering if Melissa had forgotten a school book again. They had been working on their history project for Mr.Draco until 10:00 last night. As far as he could tell he didn’t see one. Wondering what she could possibly want this early in the morning on a Wednesday, he tapped his screen and put his phone to his ear. “Melissa?” he asked sleepily, “it’s 5:30 in the morning, its Wednesday, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t forget anything at my house last night, why are you-,”

Melissa’s voice spoke excitedly in Zack’s ear, interrupting him before he could finish his sentence. “Zack?” she asked, “are you awake?”

Zack sat up in bed.“I’m awake,” he groaned. His voice was edged with annoyance. “Why are you calling me so early in the morning?” He paused. Melissa usually didn’t call him this early in the morning, even on the weekend. “Is everything alright, Melissa?” he asked, “has something happened with-.”

“-what with Milo?” she asked, “In the last five minutes? I don’t think so.”

Zack had gone from half asleep to annoyed to confused. What could she possibly want? he wondered. “So, why-,” he began again.

Melissa interrupted him again. “Go to the window,” she said.

Zack sighed, pushed back the covers and got out of bed. He was dressed in his boxers and nothing else. He stepped carefully around discarded clothes and books, stumbling and almost tripping over a wayward pair of running shoes. OK, thought Zack, what am I supposed to look at? Awkwardly cradling his phone between his ear and his shoulder, Zack pulled back the curtains. He squinted again as his eyes were assaulted by a suddenly burst of dazzling white light. At the same moment, he heard something fall to the floor with a clatter and Zack realized that he had dropped his phone. He could hear Melissa distantly saying, “Zack? Zack? Are you still there?”

He bent over and picked up his phone. By the time he straightened up, Zack’s eyes had adjusted to the change light levels and he surveyed the scene outside his bedroom window. The dull, slushy grey of Danville in midwinter had given way to a thick, fluffy white blanket. Zack estimated that there was at least a foot of snow on the ground. He put his phone to his ear. “So, snow day?” he asked. With this much snow on the ground, the school busses would be canceled at the bare minimum.

Melissa laughed in his ear. “Oh, this is definitely a snow day,” she said.

“So what were you planning on doing today?” asked Zack. They were supposed to have had a math test today, but with the unexpected snowfall, Zack figured that it had been put off until next week at the earliest.

“Well, Milo’s driveway probably needs shovelling,” replied Melissa, with the suggestion of a shrug in her voice.

“So, Milo’s house today?” asked Zack.

“Yeah,” said Melissa, “Milo’s house.”


Zack was showered and dressed an hour later. He bolted down a quick breakfast and paused on his way out the door only call out a hurried, “bye Dad,” after tugging on his snow suit, hat, boots and gloves. He opened the front door and felt a blast of chilly winter air. He stepped out on to the front porch, closing the door behind him. Zack felt the cold on his cheeks. His breath misted in front of him and stray gust of wind spun the loosely packed snow in a snow in a snow devil. It skittered across the unplowed road to collapse before reaching the opposite curb. Zack picked his way down his unplowed driveway and turned toward where Oakmont Street ran into Watertown Road. He crossed to the other side of the road at the intersection and kept walking. It took him twice as long as usual to walk from his house to Milo’s. The thick layer of powdery snow came up to the middle of his shins in places. Here and there it had been sculpted by the freezing winter wind into larger drifts. The few cars that had been left out overnight careless owners had once again been turned into oddly shaped snow covered hummocks. On a couple of occasions, Zack skidded, slipped and nearly fell on unseen patches of ice. I knew I should have worn my spikes, he thought. He considered going back to get them, but he was halfway to down the block and turning around would take too much time, so he kept walking.


Zack ran into Melissa, who lived a block in the other direction from Milo, as he was about to turn on to Druid Drive and off of the main road. Melissa was bundled up agains the cold in a hat, scarf and light blue winter coat. Zack’s eye was immediately drawn to her. Melissa’s red hair and blue coat were the only spots of colour in the pristine white blanket that lay over everything. The steady crunch-crunch-crunch of her spikes on hidden patches of ice and frozen concrete seemed to echo overly loudly in the early morning stillness.

“Morning Zack,” she said.

“Oh, hi Melissa,” replied Zack. Her cheeks were flushed a deep pink from the cold. That shade of pink brings out her- Zack suddenly thought. He felt his cheeks grow hot, despite the very cold weather. Stop it! he told himself. Having a crush on Milo’s best friend is-shut up! Zack thought to himself. He had to actively work at making small talk with Melissa to silence the little voice in his head.



When Zack and Melissa arrived at Milo’s house ten minutes later, they found Martin in the garage with the snowblower in pieces. Milo was sitting on a stool with his right leg hooked casually behind the crossbar. His left was stuck out awkwardly in front of him. The left leg of his snow pants was rolled up to above his knee . The heel of his cast was propped up on the edge of Martin’s open tool box. Milo’s crutches lay on the floor next to his stool.

“Oh, hi kids,” said Martin brightly.

“Hi guys,” said Milo, with a wave.

“So what happened to the snowblower?” asked Zack.

Martin cast an annoyed look at the snowblower, as if it had offended him.

“Doof,” replied Milo simply.

“Milo was supposed to see Dr. Gardener, today,” interjected Martin.

“Was your cast finally supposed to come off?” asked Zack.

Milo shook his head. “No,” he said. “It’s not supposed to come off for a couple of more weeks. This was just supposed to be a routine X-ray.” He shrugged. “But then again, X-rays and Murphy’s Law don’t really mix very well. So maybe this was a blessing in disguise.”

“What did Doof do anyway?” asked Melissa. She pressed a gloved hand to her mouth, stifling a snigger.

“He took my snowblower apart,” said Martin. His voice wore a clear edge of annoyance.

“Why did he do that?”asked Zack. His face twitched. Zack was struggling not to laugh.

Milo shrugged. “He said he was going build us a snowblowinator,” he said.

Zack and Melissa looked at each other. “Wait, OK,” said Zack, “he basically tried to build you a snowblower-.”

“-by taking apart a snowblower,” finished Milo. He sighed. “Yeah.”

It was Melissa’s turn to shrug. “Well, it looks like you’re in luck,” she said. “School’s canceled, and we thought Milo might need help with the driveway, so we thought we stop by.”

Martin cast another dark look his partially disassembled snowblower. “Thanks, kids,” he said. He hadn’t really been looking forward to shovelling the driveway by himself. “That’d be a big help. I’ll have to get Perry or Cavenpuss to help me put this back together later.”


It took twenty five minutes for Zack, Melissa and Martin to completely clear the driveway.They would have finished in less than twenty, except Martin broke three snow shovels and had to have his ankle wrapped by Melissa, after he sprained it slipping on a patch of ice. Amanda arrived just as Zack and Melissa were finishing the bottom third of the driveway.

“Oh, hi guys,” she said.

“Hi, Amanda,” said Milo brightly.

“Hi, Milo,” she said. “I heard that school was cancelled, and with all this snow, I was worried about Milo, so I thought I’d come by and just make sure he’s OK.”

“I guess we all had the same thought,” replied Zack. He gestured to the mostly shovelled driveway. “We thought we’d come by and see if Milo needed help with his driveway-.”

“-we’re most finished,” continued Melissa, “but there are a couple of unbroken shovels in the garage. What don’t you grab one? You could help us finish.”

Amanda retrieved a spare shovel from the garage, and together with Zack and Melissa, they quickly finished off the bottom third of the driveway. By the time they were finished , the sun had risen well above the surrounding houses, and the cloudless sky was a clear, translucent blue.

“Come on inside,” said Martin, “and I’ll make the three of you breakfast.”

They trooped in behind him, with Milo bringing up the rear on his crutches. They stopped only take off their boots and winter clothing, before traipsing as a group into the kitchen. They found Brigitte sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of hot coffee and a half eaten bagel with butter at her elbow. A set of architectural drawings were scattered across the table in front of her. She immediately gathered up the collection of plans and drawings as Milo hobbled into the room.

“Morning, Mrs. Murphy,” said Melissa.

She surveyed Milo’s friends. “What a nice surprise,” she said with a smile. “I it take school was cancelled?”

They all nodded.

Martin gestured to Zack, Melissa and Amanda. “They all showed up with half an hour of each other worried about Milo in the snow and offered to help me shovel the driveway,” he said.

She got up and moved toward the kitchen counter, “why don’t you all sit down and I’ll get breakfast going.”

 

Episode Forty Nine


Brigitte opened the cupboard, reached up and pulled down a mixing bowl, measuring cups and a box of pancake mix. She walked over to the fridge, open it and extracted milk and eggs.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to do that?” asked Martin.

“No, that’s all right, honey,” she said. Brigitte gestured to the ceiling, where there was an electric waffle iron half embedded in the drywall. “Do you remember what happened the last time you tried to make breakfast?”

Martin’s gaze followed her pointing finger upward toward the ceiling. “Oh, right,” he said, “on second thought, I’ll just go and sit down.”

Sitting at the kitchen table, Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda, had overheard the exchange between Milo’s parents. Amanda’s eyes had also noticed the wayward waffle iron. “Milo, why exactly is there a waffle iron embedded in your ceiling?” she asked.

Milo shrugged, as if a flying waffle iron was a perfectly normal thing. “Dad tried to make us waffles for breakfast a couple weeks ago,” he said, “and the result were,” he paused momentarily, searching for the right word, “explosive.”

Zack and Melissa traded a knowing look. They could remember when something much larger than a waffle iron had been stuck to Milo’s kitchen ceiling. Not long after they had become friends, Milo had invited Zack, along with Melissa, to his house for dinner. Milo had been taking a cooking class at Danville Community College at the time and had decided to cook dinner for himself and Zack and Melissa. They had been skeptical at first, particularly as Milo’s cooking class had ended in disaster, when Murphy’s Law had struck and blown up the ovens, but they had come around when they had realized that Milo, as usual, knew what he was doing. That reassurance had lasted about as long it had taken for Murphy’s Law to hit, which had caused Milo’s pot of Mac and cheese to spontaneously explode, which had in turn left Milo covered in Mac and cheese from head to foot and stuck to the ceiling.

“And what is it about Murphy’s Law and X-ray machines?” asked Zack, curiously. He traded another look with Melissa. He could tell that she had been wondering the same thing. Milo had always been fully open with Zack, Melissa and Amanda about his life, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t occasionally caught off guard by aspects of Murphy’s Law that they had simply never thought about. Milo’s surprising dislike of lace-up running shoes had been one such instance. His apparent dislike of of X-ray machines was another.

Milo shrugged again. “They behave oddly around me,” he said.

“Milo, lots of things behave oddly you,” said Melissa, “that doesn’t really mean anything.”

Milo nodded in agreement. “True,” he said. Parking metres had been known to tick over from full to vacant as he walked down the street and ordinarily inert substances such as carbon dioxide and water sometimes burst into flames in his prescience. “Do you remember the first winter I took skiing lessons at Bluster Mountain?” he asked.

Melissa shrugged and nodded. “Yeah, I remember that,” she said, then she chuckled, remembering, “We were eight. Your lesson lasted about as long as it took you to go head first into a snowbank. You broke both your wrists.”

Milo nodded. “Do you remember what happened after that?”

Melissa thought for a second or two, remembering the incident. “You went to the hospital to have your wrists X-rayed and-,” she broke off, as if making a sudden connection that she had never seen before. “Wasn’t there a power outage?” asked Melissa.

“There was,” interjected Martin. “The entire Tri-State Area went dark for four days.”

“Wait OK,”said Zack, “Milo took a skiing lesson, had an accident and broke both of his wrists,” he said. “For Milo, that’s pretty normal. He then went to the hospital to have his wrists X-rayed. OK, also pretty normal, except that Milo having his wrists X-rayed caused a city-wide power outage? How does that happen?!”

“We never found the cause,” replied Martin. “The black out lasted for four days because that’s how long it took to reset the breakers, but once we reset the system and turned the power back on, everything worked.” He took a swig of his coffee and continued. “We then spent the next eight months upgrading the city’s power distribution system so that it could happen again.”

Amanda frowned slightly, as if she had noticed a flaw in Milo and Martin’s story. “But, Mr. Murphy,” she said, “Milo had his leg X-rayed in San Fransokyo and nothing happed.”

“Well a lot things went wrong that night,” said Milo, “maybe everything that could go wrong already had, so-,” Milo trailed off. He suddenly looked slightly uncomfortable. “Actually, that reminds me,” he said, “I never said-.”

“Milo, you don’t need to say anything,” said Amanda.

“Yeah, buddy,” replied Zack. He put a hand on Milo’s shoulder. “We’re your friends. What else would we do?”

Melissa nodded. “Yeah, nobody gets left behind.”


It took three days for Danville to dig out from the storm. Jefferson G County Middle School remained closed until the following Monday. They spent the extended weekend mostly camped at Milo’s house, playing video games, binging Doctor Zone and Skyping with Reggie. Early on Saturday morning, they got an unexpected text from Phineas.

“I wonder what he wants?” asked Zack as they waited at the bus stop at the end of Druid Drive.

“I have no idea,” said Melissa. “He just said that he had something cool to show us.”

“The last time he had something cool to show us we ended up in another dimension,” replied Zack.

“Yeah, but how much of that was Phineas’ fault as opposed to Murphy’s Law?” asked Amanda.

“That was definitely Murphy’s Law-,” said Milo.

“-see,” interjected Melissa.

“-I mean what are the odds of us being sucked through an inter-dimensional wormhole a second time,” said Milo.

Zack opened his mouth to say something in reply to Milo and Melissa, but the arrival of the city bus prevented him from speaking. It stopped at the bus stop with a squeal of cold breaks and the door sighed open. They boarded the bus, swiping their transit cards over the reader. It registered them each them with an electronic beep-beep-beep, except for Milo’s card, which seemed to cause an inexplicable malfunction. Milo thrust a gloved hand into the inside pocket of his heavy winter coat and pulled out his wallet. He opened it, extracted the cash fare, handed it to the driver and sat down.


The ride from the bus stop at the end of Druid Drive to the bus stop at the intersection of Maple Street and Povenmire Road took thirty five minutes. It was ordinarily only a twenty minute bus ride from Milo’s house to Phineas’, but the combination of bad roads, some of the side streets still hadn’t been plowed, and Murphy’s Law had meant that it had taken almost twice as long. As Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda stepped off the bus, they could see the large, rambling two storey house with a tall tree in the backyard. It’s branches were bare and delicately dusted with snow. In between the tree and the house, and apparently occupying most of the backyard was-

Zack shaded his eyes. The sun was still low. “-is that a-?”

Melissa whistled in amazement. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that big before.”

“Come on,” said Milo.”Let’s go find out what it is.”

It didn’t take long to walk from the bus stop and the corner of Povenmire and Maple Street to Phineas’s house . The sidewalks had been shovelled and salted and Milo only skidded on his crutches once. When they arrived in Phineas and Ferb’s front yard, they found the gate hanging slightly open. They pushed into open and went into the backyard. They gaped as they took the scene. Phineas, Ferb and Baljeet were huddled around a drafting table covered with blueprints. The object of the blueprint occupied most of the large snow covered backyard. The three boys turned as one as Milo and his friends entered the yard.

“Oh, hi Milo,” said Phineas. “What do you think?” He gestured casually to the snow fort occupying most of the yard, as it was normal for ten years to build a snow fort the size of a house. It was huge. The top of the battlements stood level with the top of the roof. Round towers stood at each corner, where walls formed right angles. A square keep rose well above the walls from inside the space framed by the walls, which were made of perfectly laid blocks of pressed snow. Brightly coloured flags snapped in the breeze from the tops of towers and the keep.

“I-,” began Milo.

“Wow,” said Zack in amazement.

“Yeah,” said Melissa, clearly impressed, “this is some snow fort, not the like the one that we built when we were eleven, you remember Milo?”

Milo chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, there was six inches of snow on the ground and it melted.”

Phineas gave a modest shrug, as if the huge edifice were nothing at all. He walked over to a large pair of heavy looking double doors made of oak and held in place with hand forged wrought iron hinges. They swung easily as Phineas pushed them open. Milo, Zack, Melissa and Amanda followed him inside. Milo’s eyes were drawn to the heavy wooden portcullis hanging in the. It swung slightly from creaking chains as it swayed gently in the slight breeze. He momentarily wondered how it stayed up, then he felt as if he was somehow running afoul of Murphy’s Law just by thinking about, and he pushed the thought out of his mind. Milo followed the others into the huge inner court yard. Rows of windows with pointed gothic arches stared down at them from all sides. Phineas gestured to something in the middle of the court yard. Milo turned and looked and saw a crudely made semi-circle, with two little stumpy looking towers on each end.”We originally built this,” he said, “but we had all this left over snow and thought ‘why waste it?’”


They spent the rest of the day exploring the huge snow fort. It was full of trap doors, secret passages and hidden rooms. The afternoon consisted of a series of snowball fights, all of which Milo lost. The last one devolved into a free for all. Milo nearly won that one, except that he was unexpectedly deluged in a sudden barrage of snowballs launched from a catapult by Buford. By Sunday night Milo found that he was looking forward to going back to school the next morning. He had enjoyed the extended break brought on by the sudden bout of bad weather, but he found that having nothing to do had left him going a little stir crazy and he was looking forward to the usual routine of school and homework.


“Hello! Hello! Is this think on? Can anyone hear me?” The voice of Principle Milder cut through the sleepy fog of a classroom full of eighth graders early in the morning. The early morning sunlight cast bright squares across the floor of Mrs. Camillichec’s home room. As usual, Principle Milder sounded as if she wasn’t entirely sure if anyone was actually listening to her. “Good morning Jefferson G County Middle School! I am excited to announce that today we in are the final countdown for The 38th Annual Jefferson G County Winter Break Awards! I will now turn the microphone over to the head of the WIBA Awards planning committee, Amanda Lopez.”

There came the momentary sound of shuffling as Principle Milder handed to the microphone to Amanda. “Good morning, Jefferson G County Middle School,” she said, “this year we will be holding the 38th annual Winter Break Awards! The WIBAs are your opportunity to show your fellow students just how great think you think they are! The WIBAs will be handed out on Saturday, March 28th. I and the other members of the WIBA planning committee will be visiting your class room later today with ballots. Voting will open today,” As Amanda spoke over the PA system, Milo rummaged through his backpack, pushing aside his school books, his usual spare change of clothes, a bicycle tire, his first aid kit, a pair of night vision googles and several of Diogee’s chew toys. His hand closed over a sheaf of papers. Milo pulled them out of his backpack, which he picked up and slipped on to his shoulders and got up out of his seat. He thrust his crutches under his arms and hobbled around the class room, depositing a ballot on everyone’s desk.

Amanda was still speaking over the PA system. “Voting will end on next Monday and the results will be counted on the following Friday,” she said. “Each category will consist of up to five nominees. You will able to nominate your friends for up to five categories. We are also looking for volunteers to help us decorate the gym for the award show. The sign up sheet will be posted outside Principle Milder’s office. The cut-off date is two week from today. It takes a lot to set for the award show and we appreciate all the help we can get, so we hope to see you there.”

 

Good for motorists, bad for the city's coffers, I expect.

Nice visual! I should like to see one in RL, such as those at the St. Paul Winter Carnival.

Milo did a nice thing for Zack, hope he wins!!

 

That’s typical Phineas and Ferb. They take something really simple, like building a snow fort and go totally balls to the wall with it, purely because they can.

Yeah, Zack deserves it, one thing that Milo rememberers in universe, but that didn’t make it on to the page was an incident where Milo, Zack, Melissa, Amanda, Mort, Chad and Bradley all wound up in detention because of a hardass substitute art teacher, during which Zack said that he sometimes feels as if Milo makes him feel like a spectator in his own life. Milo recognizes that it was hard for Zack push through his claustrophobia and he feels like Zack deserves some sort of recognition for doing that.

 

Episode Fifty One


Milo spent the rest of the following week filling out his WIBA ballot. His leg ached slightly when ever he put his weight on it, as a result not having walked on it for several weeks. He had had to completely start over three times. The first time, Milo had found his ballot shredded to confetti by Diogee. The second time, it had been snatched out of his hand by a hawk and the third had burst into flames and crumbled to ashes as soon as Amanda handed it to him. On the following Friday, Milo once again spent most of his lunch break going from classroom to classroom collecting everyone’s ballots and crossing off names on his list. After the last bell had rung at the end of the day, Milo casually sauntered into the library where he found Amanda and several students whose names he didn’t know sitting at a table with tabulating sheets in front of them. There were also stacks of ballots scattered amid the tabulating sheets. Amanda looked as Milo approached.

“Oh, hi Milo,”she said.

“Hi Amanda,” replied Milo. He noticed that there was an empty seat next to her. “I have the rest of the ballots,” he said. Milo took off his backpack and put it on the table. He opened the flap, thrust his hand inside and pulled out a sheaf of paper. Some of the ballots were singed around the edges. Others were waterlogged. “Sorry, Amanda-,” Milo began, but Amanda took the sheaf of ballots from him and began to rifle through them, separating them by class number.

“It’s OK,” she said, “actually, I need your help.”

“Sure,” replied Milo, “what do you need help with?”

“Well, I need help with a couple of things actually,” she said. “Joni was supposed to help us count all the votes, but she had an accident walking from Mr. Drako’s room to the music room.”

“What happened?” as Milo, a slight edge of concern in his voice. Joni had always been nice to him, if a little stand-offish.

“The water fountain outside of Ms. Murawski’s class room was leaking again,” replied Amanda. “Joni slipped and broke her ankle. She had to go the hospital.”

“That’s too bad,” said Milo. “I hope she’s OK.”

“She’ll be alright,” said Amanda, “but it means that we‘ll be short a presenter for the award show as well, and I was hoping I could count on you.”

Milo suddenly felt himself blush a little. He had been locked out of the gym during the previous year’s WIBAs and had not made it on to the stage to receive his award until after the show was over. He knew how hard Amanda worked putting these school events. He didn’t want to be the one to ruin what he knew was a really important night for her. “I don’t know,” he began, but Amanda cut him off.

“-I originally had Joni penciled into give the Greatest Personal Improvement award,” she said, “but she’s been told to stay off her feet, and given that that award was your idea in the first place, I thought you might like to do it.”

Milo blushed a little deeper. It hadn’t occurred to him at all to volunteer to be one of the presenters. He was suddenly very interested in a fly buzzing near Amanda’s ear. He couldn’t remember a time where he had had to speak publicly and it had gone well. He remembered the speech he had had to memorize in the fourth grade. He wasn’t sure Murphy’s Law would let him forget it. Every year the students of John P Tri-State Elementary School participated in a school wide public speaking competition.The students were required to research, write and memorize a three to five minute speech on a topic of their choice. The best speeches from each grade would be given in front of the entire student body, the teachers and all of the parents. Milo had chosen dinosaurs for his theme. He had slaved over his speech for weeks, agonizing over the delivery of every word. He had wanted it to be perfect. To Milo’s great surprise, a long with everyone else’s, his speech, which had clocked in at six and a half minutes, had been one of the best speeches in the entire fourth grade. Milo had come from school elated and announced that he had been selected to give his speech in front the students, the teachers and all of the parents. Milo had been on pins and needles for an entire week. He had been nervous and excited at the same time. He kept practicing his speech. He hadn’t wanted to let anybody down. On the following Saturday, Milo had stood behind the curtain on the stage in the school gym, his palms slightly sweaty, listening to the kids from first, second and third grade gave their speeches. Finally it was his turn.

As if from somewhere very distant he had heard Principle Marsh say, “And now from Mrs. Hirano’s fourth grade class, Milo Murphy!” There had been a smattering of polite applause from the assembled crowd.

As he had stepped out on to the stage, Milo had suddenly felt accurately aware that everyone that everyone was watching him. It was as if he had nothing on and was standing in a very bright light. Milo distinctly remembered looking around the gym for something to concrete to focus on. His eyes had settled on Amanda. She had been wearing a lavender sun dress and a matching hair band. Milo had felt his heart beating very rapidly and had taken a deep breath. “Fellow students, teachers and parents,” he had said, “good afternoon-.” That had been as far as Milo had gotten.

Before he had been able to say another word, the gym had been filled with a bluish-white light and a sound like a thunder clap. That had been immediately followed by shouts, screams, the sound of stampeding feet and the clatter of overturned chairs. Milo had instinctively thrown his hand up in front of his eyes to shield them from the sudden glare. When the light and noise had faded and he could see and hear again, Milo had brought his hand down to find a herd of dinosaurs rampaging around the gym. They had stomped their feet and bellowed before battering their way through a wall to the outside, where they had proceeded to cut a swath of destruct across Danville before disappearing at the corner of Brand and Sanchez. Where they had come from and where they had gone would remain a mystery. Milo had stayed away from speaking in public after that.

He suddenly realized that Amanda was still speaking to him. “Milo?” she said, “Milo, did you hear what I said?”

Milo started. “Huh, oh, I’m sorry, Amanda, what were you saying?” he asked.

“I thought you might like to hand out the award,” replied Amanda, “seeing as this award was your idea.”

“Oh-,” Milo began again, somewhat uncertainly, “I-.”

Amanda shuffled through the papers in front her. She quickly found the list of presenters. She crossed off Joni’s name and wrote Milo’s next the Greatest Personal Improvement Award. Milo swallowed. He thought he could hear the sound of stampeding dinosaurs and had to work to push the thought away. “It’s OK, Milo,” said Amanda. She seemed to have guessed the reason for Milo’s hesitation, “lots of people have a fear of public speaking,” she said. “It’s a perfectly normal thing. All you have to do is read the name on the card.”

Milo still looked somewhat uncertain. “Well, OK,” he said at last.

“Thanks, Milo,” said Amanda. “I really appreciate it.”

Milo stammered. “Oh, ummmm…..you’re welcome, Amanda,” he said at last.

“There’s a full run through of the entire show schedule for next week,” said Amanda. She gave Milo a reassuring smile. “And don’t worry, Milo,” she said. “You’re going to do fine.”

Milo didn’t look reassured. I hope so, he thought.

 

Oh those minutes and eternity have a lot in common. Dinosaurs? I'd like to have seen them!