Captain Muscles and the Amazons: Amazon Attack

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 1- Some Good Luck & An Evil Plan

In the depths of his Milwaukee hideout laid the headquarters of one of the world's most wanted criminals, The Candy Man. He was known to most people as the man who has time and time again tried to stop Spectrum from kicking his butt. The usually quiet temple that served as the Candy Man's base was a buzz of activity, for he was on the verge of pulling off his greatest plan yet. Recently the Candy Man had had some disguised good luck.

Specrum's top pilot Jennifer Jones had managed to track him down, to one of his lesser homes in an abandoned remote village about fifty miles away from his current location. The Hood had in the past attacked this village so that he could claim the expensive religious artefacts, to fund one of his many schemes to get rich. Jennifer had come and found him, foolishly only backed up by Marion Wainright and Joanie Simms. The Candy Man had quickly hypnotised both of them, and forced them to reveal who they were and then the valuable information about Specrum.

The Candy Man had to admit he was somewhat surprised that Colonel Alfred 'Al' Grey was behind it all. His team were all successful and the Candy Man so desperately sought after them. This fact led him to realise the biggest weakness of Spectrum, capture one of them and the rest will come running to help, possibly without thinking. To make things even better he knew exactly how to get one of those pilots now.

All the Candy Man had to do was hack onto the Spectrum staff list and find out when the next visit from one of the male members would occur. Then he would find out where that particular young man would be staying. Once in the hotel, all the Candy Man had to do was lie in wait for the unsuspecting young man to walk into his trap.

The next step would be drawing the rest of the gang to him where he would be able to take at least one of the Spectrum vechiles and possibly kill a few of those annoying guys in the process.

This was the reason for the usually deserted temples comparative crowdedness. The Candy Man had the world’s best computer hacker Daniel Humphrey working on finding out when Spectrum would next be graced with the presence of one of the boys. There was also Captain Matthew Anders and his men who were all making sure that the Candy Man was safe, and would also be later playing parts in the kidnapping of the unassuming boy.

But before his plan could take place he had one little problem to get rid of, Jennifer. He had brought her here so that could learn as much about his enemy as possible. That was where the Candy Man could be found now.

“Good morning, Jennifer.” grinned the Candy Man.

Jennifer glared at the Candy Man; she was handcuffed to a chair along with Marion and Joanie who were unconscious. Jennifer couldn’t believe how much she despised the man that stood before her. How had she gotten into this mess? What did the Candy Man plan to do with her and her copilots? How was she going to get them out? Did Al know where she was? Was he coming to help? The Candy Man spoke again to her pulling her out of her thoughts.

“I've come to get some last minute information from you and then you can be on your way.” explained the Candy Man.

What did the Candy Man mean? Last minute information? She hadn’t told him anything, had she?

“I won’t tell you anything and I doubt you'll just let me go.” spat Jennifer, her upbringing quite forgotten in her hatred for this man, who was still grinning insanely at her.

The Candy Man had indeed wanted to kill Jennifer as she was just as bad as Spectrum’s for meddling in his plans, but he did not want to give the Spectrum staff any clue as to what was about to happen.

“That's where you're wrong, young lady. I'll get my information, then you and your girls will toddle off home with no recollection of this little incident.” he sneered at her.

How could the Candy Man possibly be able to do the things he says he has done, unless he can actually wipe my memory? Jennifer realised in horror.

“Al'll know something's wrong as I've not called in in days, they’ll be looking for me and will have tracked me to here.” she replied confident in her friend’s resources.

The Candy Man laughed at Jennifer at this point, how can this woman keep fighting, can’t she see that she is well and truly beaten.

“Wrong again, Jennifer, you may have been here days but you've regularly called in to say that there's nothing to report. Al knows where you are but he thinks that I'm not here as you told him that yourself. To Al, you're simply looking around this area while you’re here, enjoying the scenery.” revealed the Candy Man drinking in the pleasure of watching Jennifer’s face fall as the news sank in.

The Candy Man must be telling the truth, how else could he name Al like that, thought Jennifer in horror. what have I done? How am I going to warn everyone if I can’t remember doing the things he tells me I've done?

“Now back to business, I want to know what the protocols for stolen Spectrum vechiles and missing boy is.” he asked as he allowed his eyes to glow, making sure Jennifer would tell him everything he wanted to know.

The Candy Man smiled to himself, this plan would easily work. If it didn’t he would still have the consolation prize of having one of the Spectrum men to play with.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 2- It's good to be Home

Spectrum seemed just like any other base but it hid a secret that only a select few people knew, it was the place were Captain Muscles was reborn. At this moment in time, the base was peaceful, providing its workers with a perfect facade so that their brilliant work can go ahead without being hindered. If however you had seen the island a few minutes before, you would know that the calm had been destroyed by a certain red space rocket landing in an underground hanger hidden by a structure known as the round house.

They were looking forward to some well earned time off. Arthur 'Fonzie' Fraiser was now in the process of updating them on their Charles 'Chachi' Griffith's latest report which were as usual unbelievable if you didn't know him.

"Warren, Rogie,you should have seen the look on his face when he saw his hair. laughed Fonzie were ascending on the couch to Al's office

Apparently, Al and Howard Donohgue had been keeping themselves busy. One of them had put a bit of brandy in Fonzie's soda, not enough for him to notice, but almost making him vomit when he drank it.

Fonzie was just about to start his usual lengths that morning when Howard and Al had joined him, unusually early for both of them. Fonzie just shrugged off the feeling that something was wrong at first even when these two seemed to think his drinking was something to laugh at. Slowly but surely the rest of the house stirred and Al went inside to get them all. It took Fonzie a few minutes to realise that everyone was there, trying (some not very hard) to keep a straight face. It was only then that Fonzie thought that he must be doing something wrong but was completely confused as to what. It was then that Howard spoke up.

“Fonz, you don't look good.”

“What have you done, Al?” Fonzie growled as everyone laughed out loud at his expense.

“Me, I haven’t touched a hair on your head, I swear. came the almost innocent reply.

Fonzie was still confused and felt that he had to find out what was wrong with himself before everyone started laughing at him again. Fonzie choked as he left the canteen. When he got to his room he slammed the door in their faces so as not to give them the satisfaction. He then marched over to his mirror and stared at his reflection. His usually flesh colored face was not flesh colored anymore, it was pale! In spite of himself, Fonzie had to laugh, he did look funny. However he found that he couldn’t figure out how that older guy had done it. It was time to face the little demon.

“Alfred!” he yelled storming out of his room where the commander was stood merrily taking photographs of Fonzie.

Then as if he couldn’t make things worse, Al sweetly asked “Do you like it?” before running down the corridor in the direction of the gardens.

Fonzie just turned and glared at the rest of the people stood outside his room as they continued to laugh at his expense. Seeing that he was well and truly beaten, Fonzie turned on his heel and went back into his room to try and undo the damage.

“I can’t wait to see those photographs Al took.” said Potsie smiling at the memory, “I also got told by Howard that they had hidden a video camera by the pool to see the full show in case they didn’t get up in time.”

“Has Fonzie got them back yet?” asked Roger wearily.

This kind of thing happened all too often. Roger had had the pleasure of being the subject of a prank or two. Only the last time he had been down had Chachi put black ink around the eye piece of his telescope and allowed him to walk around the house for at least an hour before Chachi asked him.

“Been having problems with doors, Fonz?” before scampering off.

“Fonz hadn’t left his room before I came to get you, I hope I haven’t missed the show” Potsie replied.

At this point they emerged into the living room when all hell seemed to break out. Chachi launched himself at Roger and started to use him as a human shield against Fonzie who was armed with a water pistol. Roger had to laugh when he caught sight of Fonzie's face; he had expected it not to be pale anymore as he assumed Fonzie would have washed it out.

“Rogie, you’ll protect me from this mad man won’t you please?” begged Chachi indicating Fonzie.

“Come out come out, Chach, Roger'll take my side in this and you know it, and if he doesn’t he’ll get soaked along with you.” stated Fonzie looking mightily happy with himself considering he still had a pale face.

“Hey what did I do to deserve this?” exclaimed Roger struggling to make Chachi let go of his arms that he had somehow managed to pin to his sides.

“You laughed at my face.” pouted Fonzie.

“Come on even you have to admit it’s funny.” replied Roger still trying without success to make Chachi to let him go.

At this point, Potsie finally decided to join in and grabbed Chachi from behind tickling him to make him let go of Roger.

“Hey, Potsie- let me go- please- what have- I ever done- to you?” begged and pleaded Chachi in between laughing.

“What have you done to me?” exclaimed Potsie in a surprised fashion, “where do I begin, Chach, I've got a list as long as the distance to London and back, if I start I won’t be able to stop.”

“Hey, Pots what do you think we should do to get him back, I was thinking we should firstly kick his butt?” threatened Fonzie.

“Itching powder in his pants.” joined in Potsie with a pained expression on his face at the memory of that one.

“Paint on his face while he's asleep.”

“Dunk him in the pool.”

Roger kept quiet as the punishments got worse and worse. He smiled to himself, home may be noisy but life was never dull, it was good to be back.

"Hey guys, you know the worst punishment there is don't you?" asked Roger slyly.

Potsie and Fonzie stopped and looked suspiciously at Roger; Chachi however took the opportunity to plead his innocence.

“I was only having a laugh all those times honest, I mean life would be dull here if I didn’t pull a prank every so often.” stated Chachi.

“That it would, Chach, especially as the best part of your pranks is getting you back.” replied Fonzie.

“See, I live to serve, now I think you’ve gotten me back good and proper-,” started Chachi.

“Oh come on, Chach, you need to finish the job once you’ve started, we still need to exact our revenge on you.” smiled Potsie with a mock intimidating look on his face.

“Yeah,” agreed Fonzie. “now, Rogie, what did you have in mind.”

Roger looked from Potsie and Fonzie’s hopeful faces to Chachi who was mouthing, “please be nice,” to him.

“Maybe it is too harsh.” teased Roger turning away.

“Roge, you can’t leave us in suspense like that you know,” begged Fonzie. “If you don’t tell us, I’ll soak you.” he continued indicating the water pistol.

“Threats will get you no where.” said Roger with an air of superiority which earned him an immediate drenching from Fonzie.

“Okay, okay I give in,” Roger spluttered having got a face full of water, he turned to Chachi with a mischievous grin on his face, “You could always talk Al into making Chachi go with Potsie once.”

The result Roger wanted was immediate, all three of them looked horrified at him as they all knew that Chachi got very badly space sick.

“That’s nasty, Roger.” exclaimed Potsie letting Chachi, who promptly jumped out of harms way, go

“I said it was harsh.” replied Roger winking at Chachi, who suddenly realised Roger was taking pity on him.

“I’ll remember never to pull a prank on you again, Roge, in fear of you forcing me onto the space rocket shaped torture chamber.” shouted Chachi as he ran for freedom.

The three young men left laughing. It was then that Alalked into the room.

“Potsie, Roger, it’s good to see you as always,” he said as he hugged them. “I see you haven’t been home five minutes before you’re soaked.”

“At least it’s not as bad as last time, though I’m still waiting to be forced into the pool fully clothed.” laughed Roger, it had happened too many times before to really bother him.

“I see that’s our cue.” exclaimed Potsie as he and Fonzie each grabbed one of Roger’s arms and led him towards the pool, to which Roger only pretended to get away.

Al smiled to himself he was really glad that the boys got on so well and mostly took the pranks and teasing in their stride. He cringed as he heard a massive splash that obviously meant Potsie and Fonzie had succeeded in getting Roger in the pool by the only way they knew how, go in with him. It had become something of a tradition every time either one of them came home, though Roger always took it more graciously than Potsie ever did.

A few minutes later, the boys came into Al's office again all completely drenched. Al raised his eyebrows in surprise at Chachi.

“Hey, it looked fun so I threw myself in with them.” he answered the unasked question grinning.

“You’d all best get dried up and come and sort out this floor or Marion'll eat you alive and lunch'll be ready in half an hour.” warned Al.

There was a grumble of acknowledgement as they trudged up to their rooms. Al had to smile, Fonzie’s extra trip to the pool had only made his face worse.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 3- A Proposition

As promised, dinner was ready half an hour later. The gang had cleaned the floor, so they were all still in one piece. Thankfully, Fonzue's face managed to turn back to mormal after Roger gave him the Hiemlich maneouver. This had led to more play fighting between Fonzie and Chachi, which had led to Fonzie vowing revenge. Chachi had let slip that Joanie was also involved in the prank, which meant that Chachi had four weeks to come up with a suitable scheme that would allow him to get vengeance on both Chachi and Joanie.

Chachi was now in the process of handing round the pictures he had taken earlier of Fonzie. Fonzie’s face was indeed funnier than his hair, Fonzie had admitted chuckling to himself. He was a lot happier now that his face was its normal colour again. He was actually looking forward to seeing the video Chachi and Joanie had made to see if his face had actually gradually turned green as Chachi had told him.

Elsewhere on the table, Marion was busy “feeding up” Roger and Potsie as they were home. Roger was allowing this to happen without arguments as no-one could resist that amazing Apple Pie. Potsie and Howard were discussing the latest modifications that were to put in Potsie's power ring, which included better cameras for finding victims buried underground. Al on the other hand was busy thinking about Arnold's Drive-In.

Al took over Arnold's when Arnold left the US. It was this drive-in that had allowed to Jeff to become a billionaire, therefore being able to afford to create Spectrum. It had started out as a small company that tested planes but over the years, it had expanded until it was more like many companies all under the same name. Al rarely visited Arnold's as he could take care of most of the work from Spectrum. However, every so often he felt that he and his sons had to make sure that his employees realised who they were working for. Al felt that it was time for one of the gang to make an appearance so that they actually looked like they were working for the company, therefore keeping Spectrum a secret.

It was now that Al announced this fact. Immediately there were excuses, groans and moans, after all why would anybody under 25 want to be forced to sit at a desk all day? Al, however, was surprised to see that Roger didn’t seem that bothered, in fact he looked hopeful.

“I’ll go,” he offered. “It’ll give me a chance to go to the city which I haven’t done in what seems like years.”

Quickly, the others agreed that Roger should go as he went to Arnold's the least anyway due to being with Potsie so much.

“Are you sure, Roger? I mean you’ve only just got here.” Al asked him.

“I am as long as I get to go to see some museums, a musical maybe.” he said hopefully.

“Sure,” replied Al. Going to the mainland did have some advantages even if it did involve boring work. “How about going the day after tomorrow?”

“Fine by me,” said Roger. “Well I’m off to research what I can get up to in Milwaukee.”

As he left, Potsie and Fonzie followed him, giving him ideas as to what to do varying from seeing the latest James Bond film to travelling to LA to go to Disneyland. A few impossible adventures were thrown in inevitably by Chachi.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 4- A Plan In Action

The Amazons were in a very good mood, the Candy Man had only let Jennifer go a day ago and already his enemy was falling into his trap. Daniel Humphrey had found out that Roger was going to Arnold's Drive-In so that was where the Candy Man was headed now.

All he had to do was get into the men's room where Roger was know. That was not going to be a problem, hypnotise the waitress to tell him where he was. Then he will just wait for the unwitting guy to walk into his trap.

The Candy Man was slightly disappointed however, he had been hoping it would be the cocky Captain Muscles or Potsie, who had foiled his plans so many times before, rather than the rarely seen communications expert.

Before the Candy Man knew it he had arrived at Arnold's and was in the men's room. He had to admit it was stylish, if he didn't have more important things to do, he would have stayed a while and enjoyed himself. However he had to find a hiding place so that Roger wouldn't have time to get help when the Candy Man struck.

Due to the rooms size there were plenty of places but he had to be careful, if anyone came with Roger, the plan would be ruined as the room would have to be investigated. The Candy Man could not risk anyone sounding the alarm and alerting Spectrum.

Hiding under a sink was out of the question, however behind the door was great and if it got the job done, it was worth it.

When the Candy Man was safely behind the door, he went over his plan a few more times to make sure that everything had been taken care of.

As if on cue, Roger came though the door, tagged along by his younger brother Flip who was obviously eager for a tip. Flip was quickly taken gotten rid of by Roger with a generous tip, the Candy Man almost laughed, it was so typical of Spectrum to give away money. The Candy Man would never dream of giving money to the stupid kid. The Candy Man took this opportunity to get out of his hiding place. When Roger came in and laid eyes on the Candy Man, he didn't have any time to react before he was under the Amazons spell.

"Now, Roger, does Colonel Alfred Grey expect a call from you?" the Candy Man asked.

A pained expression crossed Roger's face but the Candy Man soon squashed the pitiful attempt Roger made to free himself.

"Yes, he does." admitted Roger, his face now expressionless.

"Well, go ahead and call him, tell him you're safe and will call again sometime tomorrow." said the Candy Man with confidence, this was just too easy.

Roger did as he was told and the Candy Man smiled as he then instructed Roger to firstly take off his watch and then to leave with him. The Candy Man led him to a car where Captain Anders was waiting for them.

"Drive on, Matthew." the Candy Man instructed when both he and Roger were safely in the car.

"Yes sir. I take it everything went according to plan?" asked Captain Anders as he pulled the car onto the road heading for the airport.

"Of course Matthew, I told you it would!" answered the Candy Man, somewhat annoyed that Captain Anders had the nerve to ask him such a silly question.

They arrived at the airport soon afterwards and Captain Anders led the Candy Man and Roger to the waiting plane. Once safely inside, Captain Anders injected Roger with a knockout drug so that he would not cause them any problems and then proceeded to making the plane ready for take off, so that they could get back to the Candy Man's hideout.

When they had taken off safely without causing any suspicion, the Candy Man allowed himself to relax. The first step of his greatest plan yet was now complete. It was time to start the second step, that would destroy his enemy for good.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 5- A Problem is Discovered

The next day found Al having a normal uneventful morning. Things were rather quiet, as only Potsie and Fonzie were with him that morning. Then the phone rang.

“Spectrum Headquarters, Al Grey speaking.” he answered.

“Hello, Sir. It’s Mrs Greenwood, I was wondering if I had got it right to expect Roger Svenson to come in today?” Mrs Greenwood asked.

Mrs Greenwood was Al’s personal secretary and one of the few of his employees that spoke to him on a regular basis. She was one of his most trusted employees, although she tended to worry too much.

“That's correct, why?” Al replied deeply concerned.

“He hasn’t turned up, Sir, I don’t want to get him into trouble sir, but I don’t want to find something happened that I could have prevented-” babbled Mrs Greenwood.

“Calm down Mrs Greenwood, you’ve done the right thing; I'll get in touch with him now, okay. Thank you, Mrs Greenwood.” he said and put the phone down before she could say anything else.

He could see that she had taken hours to pluck up the courage to phone him, but he knew she truly cared about himself and the rest of his team, even though they were her employers.

Al was now very worried, yes, Potsie in the past had skived off going to the office, but never Roger. Roger was more reliable; if he said he was going to be there he would, even if he had to move heaven and earth to do it.

“This is base calling Roger Svenson, come in please.” he said to the cleverly disguised microphone on his desk.

There was no answer. After Al had tried twice more, he was on the verge of panicking. He forced himself to calm down and come up with a plan of action. Firstly call Chachi to see if he had any better luck reaching Roger or to identify a communications failure. If that plan failed, Al would call the police to see if there were any clues there. If there were still no answers, then Al would panic, but not before letting the rest of the team know about the situation.

"Chachi, come in please." asked Al.

"This is Chachi, receiving you, Al." Chachi answered immediately.

When Chachi saw the worry and confusion on Al's face, he himself started to worry. "What's wrong, Al?"

"Can you get in touch with Roger please, Chachi?" said Al; he refused to panic his youngest male member until he knew for sure that something was definitely wrong.

"Okay," replied Chachi hesitantly and went about for filling Al's request, he quickly became frustrated when Roger would not answer his hails. "He's not answering, Al." Chachi concluded.

Chachi saw Al have to consciously control the panic that had obviously increased due to Chachi's statement. This did nothing to calm him down, he suddenly felt a lot worse.

"Chachi, can you locate Roger?" asked Al again refusing to tell Chachi the whole story until it was apparent that there was definitely a problem.

"Sure," said Chachi, it took him a few seconds to locate the homing device inside of Roger's watch. "He should be at Arnold's, Al. Please tell me what's going on, is something wrong with Roger?" Chachi pleaded.

"I don't know but when I find out, I'll tell you, I promise. Over." Al finished before Chachi could argue.

Al tried to convince himself that everything was alright. "He just lost track of time." he said to himself, knowing full well that Roger never lost track of time.

Al quickly located the number and dialled. He explained that he was having trouble reaching Roger and needed to talk to him immediately. He was told to hold the line while someone went to the men's room.

After what seemed like a lifetime and a half of annoying adverts for Arnold burgers, the waitress came back on the line. He was told that Roger was not in the men's room or anywhere else in Arnold's. Al thanked the waitress on the phone and hung up.

Where was Roger? Arnold's would have said something if anything looked amiss in his room, wouldn't they? But Roger wouldn't go anywhere willingly without his watch, would he?

Al was quickly becoming very confused, he realised that it was time that he told everyone about the situation.

Maybe Roger told one of them about a change of plans. he thought as he pressed the alarm that would alert the island to come to the living room immediately.

Marion arrived first as she was only down the hall in the kitchen when the alarm was activated. Next came Fonzie towelling himself dry, as he had clearly been swimming. Potsie and Fonzie came together via the secret entrance to Jennifer's plane, where they were working on the upgrades for the craft. Joanie and Jennifer entered from the direction of the gardens and Howard brought up the rear having been in the laboratory. While everyone was assembling, Al tols Chachi again so that he could hear about the state of affairs at the same time.

“What’s wrong, Al?” asked Potsie knowing that the alarm meant.

Al hesitated, he couldn’t believe how hard it was to explain the situation, it was like something between his brain and mouth was disconnected. Thankfully, Chachi helped out.

“Is it about Roger, Al? Can you still not get in touch with him?” he asked, desperately wanting to be told everything was alright, but by the presence of everyone in the living room, he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Immediately everyone expressed their concern, they, like Al, knew that of all the male staff, Roger was the most reliable. Eventually, Al held up his hand silence and he instantly received it.

“Please everyone, calm down.” he said.

Everyone with the exception to Howard (of course) sat down but did not relax. Al then proceeded to tell everyone what he knew and asked if Roger had told anyone that had changed his plans. As Al was expecting, Roger had done no such thing. Then Al told them that he was going to tell Marion to see if she would help out, which he was sure she would, but whether she could was a different matter.

Al couldn’t help but feel completely useless he was sure something was wrong but only half the evidence pointed in that direction. The fact that he didn’t know where Roger was and the fact that he didn’t have his watch meant he was in trouble. On the other hand, the Arnold's room had nothing out of ordinary within it meaning that Roger was fine. That is what confused Al and indeed everybody else that knew about the situation it will like Roger had freely disappeared off the face of the planet.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 6- The Reason Behind it All

In his secret hide out in Malaysia, the Candy Man couldn't help but feel very happy and proud of himself. He could just imagine Al scratching his head wondering what had happened to Roger. The mental image made the Candy Man smile smugly, as he had caused the confusion.

The Candy Man was planning on letting Spectrum stew in their own juices for a while before revealing his amazing plan to them. It also gave him the time to get the next stage of the plan ready.

By which time they'll be falling over each other to try and help Roger, then I'll pounce on them before they can possibly react.

The Candy Man looked over at Roger sitting before him handcuffed to a chair, completely at the mercy of him.

"About time you woke up, Roger." he said and as instructed, Roger awoke.

The Candy Man saw the confusion then the fear as it dawned on Roger who stood before him.

"Welcome to my secret headquarters, Roger," the Candy Man said making emphasis on Roger's name. "Don't even attempt to try and tell me that is not your name. A friend of yours, Jennifer Jones told me all about you, your cohorts and Spectrum." the Candy Man sneered.

Roger was completely confused, what had the Candy Man done to Jennifer to make her give away those secrets.

As if reading his mind, the Candy Man answered "Yes, Jennifer's told me everything, with only a little persuasion. Don't worry, she's okay."

The Candy Man laughed as he said this, he was trying to get Roger to react but it seemed as if he was not listening. This fact was starting to annoy the Candy Man.

"I should have known Captain Muscles was your friend Potsie Metcalfe all along. You're all too good to be real. Donating money to charity. Being nice to your employees. Living in Spectrum Headquarters where you can hide those marvellous machines from the world."

Roger was desperately trying to find a way out of this mess. He was aware that the Candy Man was trying to engage him in conversation but he was not going to give him the satisfaction. He was however very upset that the Candy Man did indeed seem to know everything that Al had tried so hard to keep a secret. What really stung was the fact that it was someone that they had all trusted, that had betrayed them.

Roger was also trying to figure out how he was here. The last thing he remembered was going into the men's room in Arnold's.

Then it came to him, the Candy Man was there when he had exited the men's room. His eyes had glowed and then Roger could remember feeling like he was being pushed away mentally rather than physically. Being forced away from controlling his own body. It was a strange and very scary experience.

The Candy Man was watching Roger who was so deep in his own thoughts looking for answers that the Candy Man couldn't help but be impressed. He had expected threats, denials, arguments, swearing and more, not the almost calm silence that he was now receiving. The Candy Man then remembered that Jennifer had told him that Roger was the most thoughtful of the Spectrum male staff.

The Candy Man put his hand under Roger's chin and lifted his head so that he could look at his face. Although Roger's face was amazingly blank, his eyes gave away the helplessness of his situation.

"Now, Roger, I know you want answers and I'm now going to give them to you." said the Candy Man and then proceeded to tell him everything about Jennifer and his kidnapping.

Roger sat in awe at what he was being told. Was it that easy? Roger could tell that the Candy Man was telling the truth by the way he was looking at him in almost sympathy. Roger now realised that Al not only didn't know where Roger was but he might not even know that he was in trouble.

It was that information that scared Roger the most. The Candy Man could do anything and there was very little that Roger could do about it. There was no way that he could escape and a rescue probably wasn't coming as no one knew that there was any danger.

There was also the detail that the Candy Man could make Roger do anything he liked, that made Roger's blood run cold. He had known that the Candy Man had some kind of special powers but having experienced them at first hand suddenly made them very real and also showed how powerful the Candy Man was.

Now Roger had to ask the Candy Man questions, he knew that that was what the Candy Man wanted but Roger had to know.

"What are you planning to do with me?" he asked fearfully.

The Candy Man smiled. "Ah, you do speak. Well, Roger, you're the bait."

If it were possible Roger got even more anxious at this remark. "Leave Spectrum alone, please, you can do whatever you want to me but leave them alone." he begged hoping for a miracle.

"Oh, Roger, you know that I'm not going to let them keep Warren showing off as Captain Muscles when I can have his powers all for myself," he teased, "I'm using you as bait so that he'll come to me then I'll kill you both then walk away with Warren's powers. A bit of hypnotising you and a bit of worrying from Warren will draw him into my trap, then, BANG!" he shouted the last word making Roger jump. "The two of you will be blown sky high."

Roger was so upset now he could hardly breathe. He had to admit that the Candy Man was definitely capable of doing what he intended to do. Roger's only hope was that Potsie didn't fall into the trap but the chances were remote.

"Why are you doing this?" Roger asked.

It was a good question. The Candy Man had been more evil since he became the Amazons #1 agent.

The Candy Man smiled, Roger had impressed him again. The Candy Man knew that Spectrum knew who he was and why he did what he did. That fact had allowed him to get at them so many times that he couldn't count. He now understood, thanks to Jennifer, that Spectrum had been lucky all those times.

Should he give away his secret? He contemplated this idea and decided. Yes. He would not fail this time, so there was little harm in allowing Roger to know why this was really happening.

"My real name is Anthony DeMartino. I'm Al's second cousin and Milwaukee's #1 counterfieter. As you know, Al's a kindly soul but very weak. Both attributes he inherited from our grandfather. Luckily, I didn't inherit those characteristics, I may look like my father but my personality's identical to my beloved mother. I also share my gift of hypnotism with my mother, who tutored me in its use. My father was a very rich man, this hideout we're in now was his. He was married to Al's mother's best friend when my mother first met him. My mother used her hypnotic powers to force him to leave his wife and to marry my mother. I was born sometime afterwards. Years past and my father died. I assume Al’s mother also died at around the same time, as Al left Milwaukee and went to study his passions of cooking and gardening. He did quite well for himself, I'm not pleased to find out. It was soon after this time that the UN declared war on Italy. This is because they did not agree with my mother’s way of controlling people. During this war, my mother was killed in an assault by the US air force. I was only sixteen. Some years later after wandering around Milwaukee struggling to look after myself, I found that I had a special link with Al. I found out that he was still doing well for himself. At first I planned to use my link to get money until Al let slip that he was working for a an ex- air force pilot that I now know to be Howard Donoghue. Al never revealed Howard’s name but he told me that he was in the air force at the time of my mother’s death. It didn’t take too much imagination to allow myself to believe that he was responsible. I tried again and again to find out who Howard was and eventually he cracked. He didn’t give me a name but he did tell about the plans for Spectrum. Suddenly, revenge was in sight. I would destroy Captain Muscles and use his powers to terrorize the world and make myself the richest man in the world and Al would get the blame. But you proved to be more protected than I realised. The more I tried to get your secrets the I was humiliatingly stopped by you. Now it has gotten to the point where I don’t want Warren. I want to make him pay in the worst way possible. You, being a team, has allowed me to construct a plan. I wonder if Al can survive losing both you and Warren.”

Roger had watched the Candy Man carefully throughout the explanation and was now sure that the Candy Man was nuts. Nothing apart from death would stop him achieving his goal. He silently prayed that Potsie would find a way to protect themselves but he knew full well that the Candy Man would just find another way to get at them if they managed to escape this nightmare.

Roger was shocked to learn that Potsie's own girlfriend had given away the secrets of Spectrum and had never realised it. Roger also knew that the Candy Man would probably do the same thing to him, if it would help get his revenge.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 7- The Next Step Begins

It had been two days since Al had found out that Roger was missing and still no word had been heard to suggest where he was or even if he was alive. The waiting was slowly driving Al crazy. Then all of a sudden, Chachi called in.

"Go ahead, Chachi." said Al hopeful of news.

By the look on Chachi's face, Al knew that there was indeed news but by no means good news. Al braced himself for the worst.

"Al, the Candy Man's radioed in demanding to speak to you. He says he's got news of Roger but he also knows exactly who we are.” stated Chachi in a hallow voice.

If anything hearing news of Roger from that particular source was enough to make Chachi fell very scared. He was used to being able to rely on Potsie or Roger to protect him from the majority of the bad situations, all he could think about was how alone he was at the controls more than he ever had before. It made him feel almost claustrophobic even though the controls were relatively big.

Al heard the words Chachi had said but it seemed to take hours for them to make sense to him.

What? How? Why? Circled his brain. The Candy Man was behind this? The Candy Man knew about them? And most importantly why was this happening? What had they done to the Candy Man that would lead to this situation?

The more Al thought, the more questions presented themselves. What had the Candy Man done? How had he got Roger? Had Roger given away their secrets?

That last question made Al want to kick himself. The Candy Man must have known everything to be able to get Roger. Al thought to him self still mentally telling himself off for even thinking that Roger would ever give away their secrets.

But who had? Had the Candy Man got Roger by coincidence and tortured him?

“Al?” said Chachi’s worried voice breaking Al from his own mental torture.

“Can you patch him through, Chachi?” he asked.

Chachi noticed how unsure of himself his father looked, it was not like him. Chachi had only known his father to be in control at all times. In fact, this situation had taught Chachi something. Al was actually human just like the average man was. Chachi had never really thought that that was how he had seen Alan.

Chachi put the Candy Man through to his father as asked and half hoped not to be able to hear the conversation, in fear that the news about Roger was what they had all put as their worst case scenario, which was that he was dead and there was nothing they could do to help him.

“Hello, Alfred, it's me, Anthony.” came a voice which sounded very pleased with itself.

“What have you done to Roger, Anthony?” growled Al, he desperately wanted to pound the living daylights out of this man.

“Manners, Alfred, you don’t want to annoy me in case something unfortunate happened to poor Roger.” sang the Candy Man obviously basking in Al’s despair. “I teel you, Alfred that I've got Roger with me. I have to admit that he's an impressive young man so I hope you can carry out my instructions to the letter as I'll remind you that Roger's completely at my mercy.” the Candy Man added clearly enjoying the situation.

Al was proud that Roger had somehow got one on the Candy Man, to have earned his respect but he had a bad feeling that that could quickly stand for nothing if Al couldn’t find a safe way to bring his son home.

“What do you want me to do, Anthony?” asked Al knowing full well it was bound to have something to do with getting his hands on Captain Muscles or Potsie.

“In exchange for Roger’s life, I want Captain Muscles delivered to me personally by Warren Metcalfe who'll also hand over to me the specifications to his powers in exchange for Roger and a Helijet, which can be used to fly to that lovely island paradise you call home.” stated the Candy Man as if merely explaining a simple and perfectly innocent business proposition.

“Okay, Anthony, when and where do you want this to take place?” asked Al also sounding business like.

“I'll send you the coordinates and time as soon as I've finished talking to you. Although I’m sure young Charles will be tracing this signal as we speak, a waste of time I can assure you.” replied the Candy Man with a smug smile as Al’s plan fell flat.

Al had not expected for Chachi to be able to get a fix on the signal as the Candy Man would be able to block the tracers. Even so it was a blow.

“I'll leave you to get ready to do as I have instructed, remember it's in Roger’s best interests that you follow the guidelines to the letter, Alfred or Roger’s blood'll be on your hands.” the Candy Man stated and cut off the transmission.

As promised the coordinates and time were received. Al stared at the time and realized that Potsie would only arrive with a few minutes to spare if they launched immediately. The Candy Man had undoubtedly planned for this to happen, so that plans for a rescue would be severely hampered. Al quickly raised the alarm and once again everybody assembled in the Living room.

“Potsie, turn into Captain Muscles and find Roger.” Al ordered in such a way that even the US president wouldn’t want to argue.

Potsie went to his appropriate hidden doorway that led to the lab. He was moving at top speed, he guessed that it must have something to do with Roger and was scared at the fact that he did not seem to have any time to plan a course of action.

“Howard, I want you to send the specifications for Captain Muscles to the computer aboard Thunderbird 1.” Al commanded in his threatening tone.

Howard, immediately jumped into action and was at the exit heading for the lab as Al finished his instructions. He could see that Al was willing to throw away years of hard work just so that the whole gang were safe. Howard knew that if was in the same situation he would be doing the same but he still had a nagging feeling that obeying the Candy Man would not lead to a happy ending as a family and definitely not as Spectrum.

Howard liked Roger a lot, they had got on well as Roger was cleverer than Potsie and had helped with the computer systems for all the ring Potsie had as well as base. All Howard wanted at this moment was to have Roger home safe and sound but would they be safe if the Candy Man had Potsie's powers. Howard had now arrived at his lab and quickly set about doing as he was told.

Back in the Living room, Al had sent Fonzie and Marion looking up any and all information about the area surrounding the coordinates. Chachi was still trying to trace the signal in the hope that there was a weakness in the jamming sequence.

Al was going to tell Joanie and Jennifer, who were in San Francisco where they were trying to find clues that would lead them to Roger. He would update them on the news and then have the whole team together (via radio) to try to come up with an idea as to how they could beat the Candy Man.

Jennifer as expected was shocked at the news but offered her help before Al even had chance to think about it, finally things could get moving.

“Okay everyone, we have thirty minutes exactly until the deadline, what do you propose we do?” Al asked everyone, hoping at least someone would have a plan as he didn’t.

He had come up with many ideas but all were as hopeless and dangerous as the last. Outside help would be detected and also held the possibility of leaking their identities. Setting the specifications with some sort of self destruct device would only cause major damage to Captain Muscles even if Potsie could rig up such a contraption out of spare paper and clothes that were lying around the lab. They wouldn’t dare to go in guns blazing in case the Candy Man decided to do something to Roger.

“I've got an idea, Al,” said Potsie who looked deadly serious for once. “It won’t stop the Candy Man getting his hands on me but at least we might be able to undo the damage at a later date.” continued Potsie somewhat timidly which was very unlike him.

“Go on.” said Al, any idea was better than none at all.

“I'm a super hero and can always access anything, right?” asked Potsie, still looking awfully unsure of himself. “Plus we can listen to all radio etc.”

“That's right, Potsie!” replied Howard who thought he knew what Potsie was getting at.

“We let the Candy Man get what he wants but then stop him every time he tries to use my powers. We contact the relevant people to warn them or something. We in the meantime come up with a plan to get me back. At least we can be sure of getting Roger back safely.” suggested Potsie although he thought that the Candy Man was bound to pull a fast one on them.

“I don’t like the idea but as it stands we don’t have any other choice as far as I can see.” stated Al accepting defeat.

At the look on everybody else’s faces, they were also feeling beaten too. They knew that this was the only safe option. They all knew how dangerous the Candy Man could be, the whole world knew.

Everyone lapsed into an uneasy silence, why was this happening? They still had no clue as to how the Candy Man had got Roger or how the Amazons knew who they were. All were hoping and praying that they could get Roger home safely and that he might be able to answer a few questions and help them sort out this mess.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 8- Danger Zone

The Candy Man allowed himself to smile, his enemies were walking into a trap and he would be able to watch from the safety of his temple, which was far away from the warehouse he had bought for this special occasion.

He had decided that he may as well keep Roger with him as he had grown to like the young man, shame about his morals or he would make a brilliant accomplice. Who knows, Roger may change and help the Candy Man when he realized that his ethics were misplaced.

The Candy Man would probably be disappointed if Roger did, as it was his determination or some would say stubbornness, that the Candy Man admired the most.

Besides, Roger being nearer to the Candy Man allowed him to be controlled more easily as Roger still had a part to play in drawing Potsie into the warehouse and the Candy Man’s trap.

The young man in question was in a forced sleep until he was needed or so the Candy Man thought. Roger had spent the majority of the past three days under the Candy Man’s spell and had managed to figure out a weakness.

Roger had found that the Candy Man found it a lot easier to control him if he was upset, angry or surprised. If he kept a check on his emotions, Roger hoped that he may just be able to help Potsie.

He realized however that this would not solve the problem just delay it. He wished that his coworkers would be able to find a way to protect themselves.

Roger also knew that if he succeeded in his plan, the Candy Man would be very angry and Roger would be in big trouble. He had been trying to think of a way to beat the Candy Man at his own game, there must be a better way to protect yourself from his hypnotic powers.

“Come on, Roger, time to wake up, I wouldn’t want you to miss the show, especially as Warren's the main character.” called the Candy Man waking Roger from his half sleep state.

Roger looked around the room, he had been moved, but he could tell he was still in the hideout. He now had the honour of being sat in the Candy Man’s control room. There was radar equipment, radio consoles, everything and more that the Candy Man might require to bring the downfall of Spectrum.

Daniel Humphrey had even been able to listen in on radio conversations all around the world, thanks to Roger’s unwitting help. This would allow the Candy Man to scupper any plan that Potsie came up with. The Candy Man also had missiles on stand by targeting Captain Muscles (who was Potsie in disguise) to ensure that he would get what he wanted.

“Ah, Roger, you’re awake. You know I do believe that you're the only member of Spectrum that owns more than half a brain, not including Howard of course,” the Candy Man teased. “They have a plan as I expected them to but it is to follow my instructions and deal with the implications later. Ludicrous, so disappointing.”

Roger could feel his temper flaring desperate to be let out. He quickly swallowed it and fought away the despair that also wanted to surface. What if he couldn’t fight the Candy Man? Captain Muscles would walk into the trap and-. Roger couldn’t think about the possible outcomes, they weren’t going to happen he decided. He would save his best friend if it was the last thing he did.

“Captain Muscles has arrived at the warehouse, Boss.” stated Daniel Humphrey.

“Is he also that idiot Warren Metcalfe?” asked the Candy Man in excitement, the final stages of his idea were finally happening according to plan, how could he fail now.

“They're one and the same, Boss.” replied Daniel.

“Are you ready, Roger, it’s your big moment.” the Candy Man tantalized Roger as he hypnotized him.

“He's landed, Boss.”

“Hail Spectrum.”

“Right, Boss, doing that now, Boss.”

“This is Spectrum.” answered Chachi.

When Roger heard Chachi’s voice, he managed to get somewhat free from the Candy Man’s control, he knew that it was now or never.

“Hello, Charles, Roger here is going to tell you what I want Warren to do.” said the Candy Man smugly, it would make Potsie more frantic if Roger gave the message than if he did.

Chachi’s heart leapt at the prospect of being able to talk to Roger, to able to reassure himself that Roger was okay and minutes away from safety.

In the hideout, the Candy Man was urging Roger to tell Potsie to, Go into the warehouse, leave Captain Muscles' power ring and specifications behind unguarded; I'm in the warehouse waiting for you.

Roger however was concentrating on his own speech.

“Chach.” he managed in a clearly strained voice which immediately got Chachi very worried.

“Roger, are you okay?” Chachi asked as soon as the words left his mouth he regretted it, it was a stupid question, of course he wasn’t, who would.

“Chach, tell Potsie to get away from the warehouse now, it’s a trap.” shouted Roger finally breaking free of the Candy Man’s control.

“What? Roger, what’s-,” Chachi started but he was cut off by the Candy Man.

“What the hell do you think you’re playing at? They’ll die anyway but you're going to be in trouble that you can’t even imagine,” screamed the Candy Man. “Fire the missiles now.”

“No please-,” started Roger but the Candy Man hit him with such force that Roger ended up on the floor unconscious still handcuffed to the now broken chair.

Meanwhile, Chachi had thankfully listened to Roger’s advice and immediately radioed Potsie.

“Captain Muscles, fly now, it is a trap, get as far away from that warehouse as possible.” shouted Chachi.

Captain Muscles argued with Chachi asking what was going on, not making a move.

“Do as I say NOW!” screamed Chachi.

There was no room to argue with that so Captain Muscles took off immediately. The superhero was into the air and away in his usual swiftness.

Captain Mucsles silently thanked Chachi for saving his butt from certain death as he breathlessly watched the remains of the warehouse burn as he flew away over the horizon.

Before he was able to even think about anything else, a new problem presented itself, a loud siren sounded, indicating that missiles were following him.

“Captain Muscles to base, I've got missiles on my butt.” declared Captain Muscles. “However, I'm gonna try and do some evasive maneuvers but I don’t think it'll be too successful.”

Even though aL knew that Potsie was putting himself in danger, they knew that it would be easier to fool the missiles if there were two craft to deal with. Also Potsie had had training in the Air Force to deal with sort of situation and had had training of course but it was not to the same standard.

The missiles were still locked on to him as he was quickly diving, going right. Nothing seemed to work. There was only one thing that might work and that was to hope that Captain Muscles wasn't hit while waiting for help from the UN Air Force. The three minutes seemed to drag by in the struggle to keep the missiles at bay but finally they were over and “help was at hand” as Chachi had put it.

The UN thankfully made short work of the missiles due to special craft designed especially to destroy missiles coming to the aid of Spectrum's #1 superhero. The UN planes followed for a while afterwards, to make sure that their favorite superhero was indeed safe before allowing him to return to whatever emergency there was. They were also thanked countless times by Captain Muscles.

Once that Potsie felt that it was safe to talk freely again, discussion as to what had happened took place.

It was definitely a trap like Chachi said, I saw the warehouse blow, thankfully from a safe distance, thought Potsie. I owe a thanks to Chachi.

“You spoke to Roger?” asked Chachi. “Is he okay? What happened?”

It was not a nice feeling, even worse, base did not yet know what had happened, that job fell to Potsie and he was not looking forward to Al’s reaction.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 9- Deception and Torture

“Ah you’re finally awake, Roger, did we enjoy our sleep?” chided the Candy Man with that annoying sly smile on his face.

Roger’s head was banging, but somehow he managed to gather the strength required to glare at the Candy Man and keep himself from answering back and giving the Hood some satisfaction.

Candy Man quickly remembered what had happened, his mind filled with questions. Had Chachi listened to his advice? If he had, had Captain Muscles followed Chachi’s instructions? What were the missiles for? Was everyone Roger held dear to his heart okay?

Worry and panic filled Roger making him feel sick. What was the Candy Man going to do now?

“I'm pleased that you're worried about your freinds, Roger, it shows that you care, but I assure that your energy could be better spent, especially now.” said the Candy Man with the air of an overactive game show host.

“What did that comment mean?” asked Roger not bothering to keep the anger and panic out of his voice. What had the Candy Man done while he was unconscious?

“I've got the great pleasure of informing you that Captain Muscles is no more. I killed Warren, Roger.” the Candy Man almost sang completely insane.

Roger was in torment, how had this happened? Was the Candy Man telling the truth? Was the world defenceless? For how much longer was the Candy Man going to delay putting him out of his misery?

“How?” was the only word Roger was able say and he didn’t really want to know, but then again, yes he did.

“You may have saved him from my trap, Roger but I was prepared for such an eventuality, so I fired the missiles. Warren was hit like a sitting duck, you know as well as I do that Warren’s weakness is his size. He offered some resistance, but obviously got distracted by his complete destruction sealing his fate. Don’t worry, there was no survivors some of my best men assured that they personally saw Warren's bosy spewed out over at least a mile square. My men saw to it that he didn’t live much longer and ironically we managed to salvage the plans to his powers so my plan is still on track. Next I targeted missiles at the defenseless Spectrum headquarters that you so happily told me the co-ordinates for. Then I proceeded to take over your base. I received very little resistance, due to the recent tragedies. All at base were killed, Alfred, Howard, Marion, Arthur, Joan, Jennifer, even Charles who were there trying to help look for you. You're the only one left, Roger, for how much longer depends on how you behave yourself.” mocked the Candy Man enjoying the look of pure sadness and loneliness on Roger’s face.

The Candy Man subtly used his hypnotic powers to make sure Roger believed his story; he needed to pay for destroying the Candy Man’s plans. The Candy Man knew Roger cared very much for Potsie and the gang so this was the perfect way to torture the young man.

The Candy Man left Roger on his own to come to terms with his “loss”. Potsie was very much alive thanks to Roger’s meddling, his plan was destroyed and Roger was going to pay and so was Potsie.

Another plan was forming in his mind he could easily get the plans for Captain Muscles from Roger or at least Roger’s knowledge of the computer systems for Spectrum Headquarters, would allow the Candy Man to get at that information. But how could he destroy Al?

Then the perfect plan came to him, he would play the same trick on him as he had just played on Roger, on Al. With a few minor corrections, the main thing that Roger had died not them and the Candy Man would be able to get his revenge on Al and get his hands on his wonderful technology.

This plan would not fail as Al would not come looking for Roger but for the Candy Man and when that happened the Candy Man would be ready to finish his cousin Al for good.

The Candy Man looked at the computer screen displaying what Roger was doing. The Candy Man took delight in the obvious distress that Roger was in, even though the news had not yet sunk in fully. The Candy Man again marveled at Roger, he had managed to fight the Candy Man’s powers; he had a right to be respected. If only Roger was on his side, they would make a great team, the Candy Man’s power and Roger’s intelligence and determination would make them unstoppable.

The Candy Man contented himself in composing the speech that he would be giving Al and the others and planned exactly when to use his powers so that the account would be believed no matter what.

The Candy Man knew that Potsie was safely back home and all members of Spectrum were now discussing what to do next, all their ideas and half formed plans were soon to be found in vain.

The Candy Man selected a mask from his vast collection, then contacted Spectrum and for the first time ever selected the visual link. It would allow him to use his powers to force them to accept his story; it would also be nice to see their faces when they found out they had failed.

He knew that the distance would make his powers weaker but it would only take a bit of convincing to allow anybody to believe that the worst had happened.

“Hello, Charles, it’s me again, I want to talk to everybody at Spectrum, I've got an announcement to make.” said the Candy Man managing to sound both annoyed and happy at the same time.

Chachi was by no means surprised to hear from the Candy Man but he was none the less been dreading the moment that it happened. By listening to the tone of the Candy Man’s voice, Chachi was more petrified that the Candy Man had done something to Roger. He was however surprised that he was seeing the Candy Man’s face. The dark bushy hair and moustache was what Chachi had expected, it was too normal for the evil that could be seen in the man’s eyes.

Chachi somehow managed to contain is feelings so that he could put up a link between Al and the Candy Man and then wait on tender hooks to find out what the Candy Man had to say.

“Hello, Alfred, how are you? Having a pow-wow I see.” the Candy Man said in a sarcastic manner.

“What do you want now, Anthony?” growled Al, he had no patience for the Candy Man now, he had nearly succeeded in killing Potsie and he still had Roger somewhere, Al could only hope that Roger had not been in the warehouse.

“Come now, Alfred, I think this is the second time today that I've had to remind you about your manners and in front of your team as well, shame on you, Alfred.” the Candy Man teased, it was a wonderful sight to see Al come down a peg or two.

“What do you want, Anthony?” repeated Al through gritted teeth.

“I thought it would be courteous of me to let you know of poor Roger’s death,” smiled the Candy Man as he watched the looks of disbelief and despair, this was way too easy. “After he foolishly shouted out to save Warren's life, I could hardly let him live now, could I. Anyway, his fate was sealed as soon as he entered that warehouse.”

It was at this point that the Candy Man used his powers so that none of Spectrum would ever doubt his words. He then cut off the link allowing Roger’s co workers and family to mourn for him.

The Candy Man was now very satisfied with himself, his new plot was now beginning this time there was nothing Roger could do protect the others as he now believed that he had no team. Also there was no rescue for him as his family believed that he was dead. Revenge is sweet.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 10- Attack!

Two days had passed since the Candy Man’s scheme had started. He was keeping a close eye on all the Spectrum making sure that they believed his story. He had noticed that Chachi had been away from the cnotrols and Potsie and the angels had gone back to Milwaukee so that they could all come to terms with their loss.

Roger on the other hand was still with the Candy Man, answering his questions with such resistance that the Candy Man was surprised. Roger has “lost” all that he held dear to his heart and still felt that he should be trying to save the world.

The Candy Man was now however was getting annoyed as he wanted his plan to be put in action now. He needed to try a different angle and that’s when it came to him. Emotional torture had not worked, could physical torture work?

The Candy Man did not like the idea, he was usually not a “hands on” person but most people were not like Roger, he needed another way to make Roger cave. The Candy Man sent for his most trusted and evil henchman, Captain Anders.

Captain Anders was one of those people, who could convince you he was a good man, then out of no where, his violent streak would flare up and you just had to hide to survive. That was what the Candy Man liked about Captain Anders, people who lose their temper easily are very easy to control which the Candy Man took complete advantage of.

The Candy Man ordered Captain Anders to make Roger talk in any way possible. The Candy Man had lost all sympathy for Roger when he realized that Roger was hampering his efforts of becoming the richest man in the world. He had however learned some of the vital parts for Potsie's power ring he would require, if he were to need Potsie's powers. He was going to call himself “Captain Deadly” and he would strike fear into people all over the world.

He had already got his contacts to track down these parts and have them sent to a nearby secret disused factory, so that his wonderful machines could be built. He was also getting close to being able to control Spectrum thanks to his amazing computer hacker Daniel Humphrey. With no one being on board either, it was being made easier.

What he lacked was the codes to gain complete control of Spectrum and it was this that Roger was so reluctant to reveal. He was doing this as Spectrum could very easily be modified into a powerful weapon. The Candy Man could not do anything with Spectrum if he did not have those codes and he had big plans for the craft.

The Candy Man stood outside of Roger’s room, listening to the shouts of Captain Anders and the cries and grunts of pain that were obviously Roger’s.

The Candy Man sighed. Why did people have to be so stubborn? He had had many people try to defend themselves against him, because he wanted things from them, money usually. It always ended up in failure on their part, the Hood always succeeded eventually.

Suddenly there was a huge BANG! It caught the Candy Man completely off guard. The electric lighting flickered and then failed, plunging him into darkness.

He could hear screams and yells of alarm, fear and pain coming from the direction of the control room. Captain Anders had somehow managed to find his way into the corridor where the Candy Man stood and immediately crashed into him in the confusion, knocking both of them to the floor.

“Get off me, you great oaf.” hissed the Candy Man in pain.

Captain Anders had inadvertently kicked the Candy Man in the shin in the struggle to untangle them. Captain Anders finally got free then helped the Candy Man up.

“What’s happening, Boss? Do you think we are being attacked?” Captain Anders asked sounding annoyed, he would much rather be in the thick of it than standing around in the pitch black of the corridor that he now found himself in.

“Captain, get to the control room; find out what is going on. This is indeed an attack.” replied the Candy Man.

“Boss, I suggest you get yourself to safe-,” started Captain Anders.

“I need that code from Roger first.” growled the Candy Man cutting Captain Anders off.

“Okay, Boss but I'd be quick if I were you, I'll hold off whoever it is as long as possible.”

With that Captain Anders was off, stopping briefly to grab a weapon from the appropriate room further along the hall.

The Candy Man meanwhile wasted no time and immediately allowed himself into Roger’s room. He couldn’t see the state Roger was in but he knew he was still conscious by the comment that was thrown at him as he entered.

“You’re finally getting what you deserve,” Roger yelled at him in anger. “I hope you rot in hell.”

The Candy Man was relieved to see that Roger was angry; this would make getting the code easier. He used his powers and Roger almost immediately gave him the code.

“Thank you and goodbye, Roger.” the Candy Man said as he left Roger to the devices of whoever had dared to attack him. The Hood made his way to the secret passageway which would lead him to safety, promising himself that whoever had attacked him would pay, no matter what.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 11- Introducing the ROTCMS

Roger found himself lying down for the first time in what seemed like years. Where was he? He could tell by the faint noises he could hear that he couldn’t be in the temple anymore. What had happened? Everything then came flooding back, the Candy Man’s hideout had been attacked but by who? Was Roger with them now? If he was what did they plan to do with him?

Roger chanced a peek at his surroundings and found himself in a brightly lit room, which caused him to immediately shut his eyes again and groan in pain.

“Hey, you’re awake, sir. You had me slightly worried, you know.” answered a female voice to the groan of pain.

Roger opened his eyes slowly this time allowing them to get used to the light. He found himself in what like a hospital room. Why was he here?

“I’m Doctor Sophie Patterson, sir. You may call me Sophie if you like. There's no need to worry, you’ll be safe here. We are all sorry that you got involved in all of this, we would never have stunned you if we had known who you were.”

Roger tried to move to see the woman that was talking to him only to find that it hurt to move.

“We're not responsible for that sir, I promise. You've got a few bruised ribs but they’ll be fine with time.”

Roger finally got to see the woman that was talking to him. She had curly brown hair that was tried up in an unruly ponytail, she was small and wore glasses. She looked at him with concern.

“Would you like a drink, sir?” she asked.

Roger realized that he was very thirsty and nodded. What was meant by we? There didn’t seem to be anybody else around.

“There you go, sir, take it easy, okay.” she said to Roger as she helped him into a sitting position so that he could have his drink.

“Thanks.” Roger said politely when he had finished.

“You talk as well, I'm impressed,” Sophie joked, “The General's on his way, and he’ll answer all the questions that you must have. Don’t worry, he’s my uncle and he's a wonderful man."

It was at that moment that a man entered the room; he had graying hair, but by no means acted like he was old. He smiled at Roger as soon as he saw him and Roger could see that it was genuine.

“Hello, sir. Sophie, would it be alright if you left us alone, please?” asked the man.

“Sure, give me a yell if I’m needed.” as she left the room.

“I’m General Peter Taylor; call me Pete, everyone else here does. I've got a confession to make, Mister Svenson. I came across your name and what you do on the Candy Man’s computer, I honestly didn’t set out to find out who you are, I just kind of did, sorry. I haven’t told anybody else, not even my niece Sophie.” apologized Pete.

“It’s okay I suppose, probably the world has figured out now anyway.” mumbled Roger.

“How do you mean?” asked Pete in confusion.

Roger told him what the Candy Man had apparently done. Pete’s face fell as he heard the news.

“I didn’t know, we haven’t heard anything about what’s happening in the rest of the world for months. I can’t believe that man-,” growled Pete in despair and anger but stopped himself before he swore.

“How come? What are you lot doing?” asked Roger feeling anxious to find out who these people were, did they really care or were they just pretending.

“We call ourselves the ROTCMS. That stands for the Revenge on the Candy Man Squad and that is precisely what we're trying to do. We're a team of ten men and one woman. The Candy Man's done things to us all. So we've decided that he deserves to be brought to world trial. We all used to members of the UN military but we all broke off unofficially which is why we have no contact with the world. The attack that was executed on his temple yesterday was us trying to get the Candy Man in our custody. Unfortunately he outsmarted us but we managed to get all of his henchmen. They're being escorted to a UN prison as we speak where their crimes will be punished fairly. Daniel Humphrey was one of them, I know for a fact that many governments'll want him for causing damage to their computer systems and Captain Anders will also be wanted for his involvement in many attacks against defenseless villages to steal their money and priceless artifacts. I’m sorry we were not able to help out sooner but it was ironically the launch of those missiles that led us to his hideout.” Pete finished with regret.

“The Candy Man's still out there?” panicked Roger.

“I'm afraid so but we're trying to locate him as we speak.” answered Pete.

“What happened when you attacked the Candy Man?” Roger asked.

“Firstly we knocked out their power supply plunging the temple into darkness. We then entered the Candy Man’s temple with infra red glasses on taking advantage of the darkness and confusion. We used infra red cameras to find out where everyone in the temple was. Most were in the control room, a few were at the entrances and three were in a room down a corridor away from the control room, one of them was you. We used stun guns to knock out all the people that we could find in the temple including yourself, sorry. Thankfully we didn't receive much resistance as most people were too shocked by the power being switched off to do anything. One person however, Captain Anders somehow managed to arm himself and injure one of my men, before we could stun him. Thankfully Luke wasn't seriously hurt. In the confusion, the Candy Man must have escaped down a secret passageway.” explained Pete.

Roger listened in awe, it sounded so simple but then they had not come face to face with the Candy Man. Did these people know how dangerous the Candy Man was?

“If you had come up against the Candy Man what would you have done, you do know that he can hypnotize people right?” inquired Roger, he did not want these people to walk into a trap sometime in the future if he could of prevented it as Pete seemed to be telling the truth and really wanted to help Roger.

“We know about his powers and we think we have found his weakness, that’s why we're out here.” replied Pete.

“You mean he struggles if a person represses their emotions.” stated Roger.

“I didn’t know that, I meant that we think if he used his powers while looking at himself in a mirror, he'd hypnotize himself or something then we'll be able to stop him hurting anymore people.”

Roger realized the simplicity yet difficulty of the task they wanted to do.

“How exactly are you going to get the Candy Man to look into a mirror while using his powers?”

“Well, that's a problem of course; we were hoping we'd be able to trick him.”

Roger thought about the problem for a bit, and then the answer came to him.

“I've got an idea.” he declared in excitement.

“Really!” exclaimed Pete then he remembered himself. “You don’t have to help us, you know. We’ll let you go to wherever you want to go, if you want?” Pete told Roger not wanting to let him think that he had to help them.

“I want to help. The Candy Man needs to be brought to justice. He's got information about Spectrum, he mustn’t be allowed to use it.” implored Roger.

“If you’re sure, you’re help would no doubt help us out. What did you have in mind?” inquired Pete.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 12- Surviving Without You

In the three days that had passed since Roger’s “death”, life in Spectrum had been very subdued. There was none of the usual teasing, laughing and definitely not a word about Spectrum.

Jennifer had informed all of Spectrum’s agents and the rest world of the bad news and governments from all over the earth had offered their sympathy on behalf of their people.

Even though Roger was the quietest male of the team and was usually away with potsie, the HQ still felt much more hushed and empty.

Al had taken the news particularly badly, it was his idea to build Spectrum and it was he who had asked Roger to go to Arnold's so he naturally blamed himself.

There was also the nagging feeling that this was far from over, the Candy Man still knew who they were and this made Al terrified that he would lose another of the gang.

Al still didn’t know how his cousin had gotten this information, he desperately wanted to believe that it wasn’t Roger who had given it away but who else could of? If it wasn’t Roger, then that meant that one of his cohorts were traitors and had allowed Roger to be killed.

Al needed Roger to help him see reason, to weigh up the facts and give him his opinion. Or maybe Roger could actually tell him what had happened, but that wasn’t possible.

Why was this happening to him, all he had ever tried to do was help people, why was the Candy Man so intent on destroying their lives?

Al had found himself at night staring at the stars that Roger loved so much, just to try and feel nearer to him. It hadn’t worked, all it did was remind him that Roger wouldn’t ever again call in excited at his most recent discovery or at finishing the latest chapter of the book he should now be working on.

Al was praying that Roger's maternal grandfather was looking after his older grandson whose life had been stolen from him by the lunatic only known as the Candy Man.

Every time Al thought of that man his blood boiled, he wanted revenge, he needed to make the Candy Man suffer for what he had done. How could a man kill someone and feel happy about it as the Hood had done, it wasn’t right. Al knew he had to be strong for the others who were all missing Roger just as much as he was.

Potsie was blaming himself as he always felt responsible for his best friend. Potsie couldn’t help but think that maybe he could have done something to help Roger.

If I had gone to Arnold's with Roger then this wouldn’t have gone so wrong, if only I hadn’t been so selfish.

Roger had never done anything wrong to anyone, ever, he didn’t deserve any of this, none of them did. Potsie now realized now that Roger was his best friend and vice versa.

Potsie felt guilty for not offering to take his place every so often so that Roger could go to the mainland and have seen the things he went to San Francisco to see. Maybe then this would never have happened.

What would he do without Roger’s advice and calming nature? How could Spectrum survive without Roger’s communication expertises?

He was also the closet in age to Roger, there only being three months between them. However, Roger always tended to be left out, partly because he was quiet and partly because Potsie was more popular than Roger was.

He would never be able to call Roger up at all hours of the night to ask him questions he would never be able to ask any of his other brothers. Roger seemed to be the only one that knew Potsie was as mature as he was. He just needed the jokes to stop him remembering things like the times he argued with his father, his Air show plane crash and now Roger’s death.

However, he was thankful for Roger’s warning as it had allowed him to survive but it wasn’t the same but now Potsie would never have the chance to resolve the problem, if by some amazing miracle things turned out alright he promised himself that he would find a way to spend more time with Roger.

He could always remember the way Roger had come to him for help or advice and he still did but Roger wouldn’t anymore.

What would happen now? Were they safe? Would they ever feel safe? Would they ever get to accept the loss?

He thought of Roger as the brother he never had. Although they tended to get on the best that did not mean that they cared any less for the others. He always felt that she was in debt to Roger, he always helped him but he never seemed able to return the favor. Now he would never be able to what he so desperately wanted to do.

Roger also treated Potsie as the older brother he never had and usually that was a wonderful feeling, as Roger did not get on with his own younger brother. But now he almost wished that he were had not gotten as close as it meant that they also shared in the feeling of loss. He could see that Jennifer was very upset but what could he do or say that would make everything better.

Al had never told Potsie or Roger had never told anybody but he had noticed that the Candy Man sounded familiar; his powers were very similar to his own aunt. Al knew that Anthony’s mother had been killed many years ago and the Candy Man was a man. So that meant that other people shared those frightening powers, but whom? Why was it that Al had that feeling that he should know more.

Potsie knew Al had had the task of telling all the agents of Spectrum the devastating news. It was by far the hardest thing that she had ever had to do. All the agents were in some special way connected to Al and Captain Muscles whether they were old friends, distant relatives, worked with or had been rescued themselves by Captain Muscles.

All the agents were traumatized by the news but their extreme training had soon kicked in and they were soon offering help, although they didn’t really know how they could help except one. The agent in question was called Lisa Pilling who was responsible for the area near to the warehouse where everything had happened. She was especially upset and had suggested an investigation of the warehouse but Potsie forbade any such action, Spectrum could not afford to lose any other members.

Potsie had also informed the rest of the world soon afterwards; again his news was met with shocked silence as everyone tried to accept the terrible news.

Why had she not been able to prevent this? How had the Candy Man managed to find and trick us so easily when we spent the majority of our time trying to make that that didn’t happen? Why have I got this nagging feeling that I've forgotten something important? Something that could help the others out.

He couldn’t help but feel powerless as he could not help Al in his hour of need. Al had watched him talk to the other agents, watched her want to cry, he wanted to comfort him but he couldn’t, that wasn’t what was supposed to happen, the colonel was never supposed to do anything without being specifically told to do so.

He knew Howard had been right; the Candy Man was never going to allow them to safely get Roger back. The Candy Man only wanted to destroy Spectrum; he didn’t care about people’s feelings or lives. Howard wished that he had been wrong; he hated to be right in a situation like this.

Howard had immersed himself into his work of improving the security of the island so that the island’s inhabitants would be safe from any future attacks. He would work himself so hard that he almost forgot why he was doing this extra work for, and then the shocking events of the past week would overwhelm him again. He knew that working the way he was was not healthy but it was the only way he could stop feeling guilty about how he had not been able to help Roger when he needed it.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 13- Preparation

Agent Lisa Pilling had listened to Jennifer’s words of warning, but there were things that just didn’t add up. Why did they believe the Candy Man when there was no evidence and more importantly what were there weird goings on in the area? There had been reports of an attack recently on a temple that was supposed to be unused. There was a sudden mass arrest of many wanted criminals from the area. And there were rumors of a military group after the Candy Man.

Lisa had been to the attacked temple which showed signs of recent inhabitation. There were signs of an attack having taken place. She had tried to find out what had been going on by looking at the computers that were left there, but their memories had been wiped clean. Lisa had again drawn a blank, there was still this military group to investigate but where should she start looking?

Lisa owed so much to Al. He had allowed her to follow her dreams. Ever since she could remember she wanted to live in the middle of nowhere and survive like they did when there was no electricity and other such technology. The only thing that was stopping her was the money issue. She had known Al for many years and she had told him all about her dreams. When he came up with the idea of Spectrum, Al realized that he would need agents posted all over the world so that the organization could be safely run. It was then that he asked Lisa if she would go to Milwaukee to do that particular job but also realize her dream. Lisa jumped at the chance and has always kept her eyes and ears pealed for any mention of Spectrum but before now there had never been anything, a few rumors about the Candy Man were all she had ever heard.

It was five days after Roger’s death that she happened to stumble upon a Lieutenant Luke Slater who was a member of the secretive military group.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked startling Lisa.

“Oh god, you scared me. Sorry I was just curious as to what you are doing here. I’ll go if –,” Lisa started, unsure of what the man with the expressionless face was going to do.

“If I were you I’d get as far away from here as possible, it’s not safe.” Luke said and started to walk away.

“What?”

Luke paused and looked at the woman stood before him. She was cocky he could see, she wanted to know what was going on. She was the perfect candidate to get the word out. “You have heard about the Candy Man, right? And what he can do?”

“Of course, who hasn’t?” answered Lisa feeling uneasy at the memories of the recent past.

“There are rumors that he is around here somewhere.” Luke said vaguely.

“I had heard about that.”

“Then what are you still doing here, you know he can kill anybody he likes, even Spectrum wasn’t safe from him.”

“Well I have been ordered to get away but I want to help-”

“You can’t. We have everything under control.” Luke cut her off.

“You have a plan?” wonder running through her mind.

“Not really, we have something important to him though, which is why you should listen to those orders and leave; get as many others as possible out with you.” he implored desperately.

“You’re planning to go against the Candy Man? Why? You said yourself that he's dangerous. Why are you risking your lives to do this?”

“If we don’t do something who will? Someone needs to teach that man a lesson. He can’t do what he did to Spectrum and get away with it. Besides he has information that he can easily use to destroy anybody that gets in his way.” said Luke solemnly, what he said was true, they were the only ones out here that even had a chance of catching the Candy Man.

Lisa looked at Luke, he seemed to have accepted the fact that he was the only one that could destroy the Candy Man and he would do exactly that or die tying. She desperately wanted to help them but what could she do? Then something hit her. “You attacked the Candy Man a few days ago, didn’t you?”

Luke looked at the woman stood in front of him and gave a sigh of exasperation. “Is it that obvious?”

“The Candy Man'll want to get you back for that.”

“I know, which is why you should get out of here while you still can.” and with that he gently forced her away from the city and then bid her good bye.

The plan was going perfectly. Many people had turned up like Lisa and Luke had given them the same treatment. The more people that knew the safer the general public was and the easier and swifter the plan would take place.

The ROTCMS and Roger had meticulously planned their strategy over the past two days and everything was coming together perfectly, they were ready to fight the Candy Man.

Luke walked into the main building of the village where everything was taking place; he smiled at his colleagues who smiled back before continuing their watch over the city. It was they who had noticed Lisa and informed Luke who had gone to talk to her.

Luke entered their control room to find General Peter Taylor, Doctor Sophie Patterson and Roger. All three were checking over their scheme for the hundredth time.

“Another person has been told, I hope they all take the bait.” Luke announced.

“So do I. The Candy Man's destroyed enough lives in this region. I hope he'll come soon as I'm fed up with this waiting.” answered Pete.

“I know what you mean. I can’t help but think that the longer he remains out there the people are put at risk.” agreed Sophie.

“Yes, I just hope that we can sort him out for good.” Luke put in as he left the room, going to make sure everything was still in it’s rightful place.

“What do you mean he has destroyed lives in this region?” asked Roger when Luke had left.

The other two in the room looked at him; they tended to forget that the other man in the room had only been with them a few days. Roger had spent most of his time completely immersed in work that made up his part of the plan. Roger had never been told specifically why they wanted to arrest the Candy Man.

“The Candy Man's used this area as his own bank for years to fund his schemes to get rich. Anyone that stood in his way was killed. This is why we are out here; those people that have been killed are our friends or family. We want to stop others getting into our situation. My sister and her husband, Sophie’s parents, lived here for many years helping people in this area improve their quality of life. They were doing well for themselves until the Candy Man targeted Milwaukee for his next money grab. The city owned several priceless religious artifacts; it was those that the Candy Man wanted. The artifacts meant everything to the city of Milwaukee; they didn’t want a heartless man like the Candy Man stealing them. The Candy Man wouldn’t stand for that however, he killed all that stood in his way including my sister and brother in law. Thankfully Sophie here was in England at the time, studying for her degree, so she was safe. All of us here have similar stories about the Candy Man; we just want to prevent this happening to anybody else, again I’ll tell you I only wish we could have done something earlier.” explained Pete the regret and grief obvious in his voice and face.

Roger sat for a moment wishing that he had never opened his mouth, the Candy Man was worse than he had thought, though it felt oddly reassuring to find out that he wasn’t the only one that the Candy Man had targeted. It also renewed his resolve to make their plan work like clockwork as the Candy Man had information that belonged to Spectrum that he would doubtless use against many defenseless people just so he could get his money.

“We’ll stop him this time, I know it.” said Roger with confidence.

“Yes we will, we're ready for him and we've got a fool proof plan that we all know inside out.” agreed Sophie with a sad but determined smile on her face.

At this moment, the door crashed open to reveal a flustered Luke. “He’s here.” was all he said before running off to make sure his part of the plot would take place correctly.

The remaining three gave each other silent luck and also got ready.

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 14- Time for Revenge

The village was small; it consisted of one main building and a few smaller buildings that must have been houses at one time. The Candy Man had been in this position just outside the city for a while watching the group of people that called it their base. He knew they had not seen him as they had not tried to attack him.

When the Candy Man watched the men that were standing guard of the main building, he could feel his anger flare. How could they have dared to attack me? He contented himself with the promise that he would destroy them and get Roger that was inevitably with them back. He knew that he could not leave the young man with them as he would eventually be reunited with his family and the Candy Man could let that happen. If it did, he would be found out and his plan would be ruined.

Due to the UN’s involvement his efforts had already been severely hampered. If they had not helped Spectrum out and possibly the greatest superhero of all time, Captain Muscles. Then he was sure that this military group he was about to destroy had a link to the UN as he had found out that his people had been taken to the nearby UN army base where they were quickly transferred to a prison a long way away which was also controlled by the UN.

As the Candy Man was musing to himself about the unfairness of the past few days, he saw something that positively brightened up his day. Roger had left the main building alone and swiftly walked to the small house behind the main structure. It was time for the Candy Man to get his revenge. He knew that he was hopelessly out numbered but no one could fight against his powers.

The Candy Man started to make his way towards the village and when he got close, Roger reappeared heading towards the main building again. The Candy Man smiled as his prey did not have any clue as to what was about to happen.

“Hello, Roger, nice to meet you again.”

Roger whirled around to face the Candy Man, terror clear on his face. The Candy Man smiled he loved it when he saw that particular reaction.

“I suppose that you thought that you were safe here, what a stupid thing to think, those morons don’t have a clue what's about to hit them.”

Roger continued his silent look of horror which caused the Candy Man’s insides to glow with happiness; Roger would do anything he wanted him to do. Suddenly, Roger did something that caught the Candy Man off guard, he ran towards the main building. The Candy Man overcame his surprise quickly and immediately followed. As the Candy Man approached the main building, the soldiers at the entrance tried to stop him but the Candy Man stopped their movements long before they became a danger to him. The two guards returned to their posts as if they had never known that anything was wrong.

When the Candy Man entered the main building, he was surprised; it was not the wide open space that he had expected, it was a narrow corridor with many rooms off to the sides. Roger could be seen running in to an open door at the end of the corridor and the Candy Man quickly made his way towards it.

When the Candy Man entered the room, he could see that Roger was trapped as there was no way out of the room except from through the Candy Man. He smiled at his prey stood pressed against the wall which was decorated with many tiny mirrors in the style of tiles.

“You didn’t really think you could get away from me did you, Roger? It was stupid to run, what did you even hope to achieve?” taunted the Candy Man.

Roger mumbled something incomprehensible which caused the Candy Man to laugh, he was in complete control, Roger would not be able to escape him now.

“You're not like that goody goody I call a cousin, Roger, he would have swore at me, shouted and screamed, not stood there gibbering.” he teased wanting Roger to answer him; he loved it when his victims tried.

“Al's not like that, he'd never swear.” growled Roger taking the Candy Man by surprise.

“Al was a rude man like all of Spectrum, destroying my plans, making me look a fool.”

“You're a fool to think that you could have got away with those ludicrous ideas of ruling the world, if we hadn’t stopped you, then someone else would have.”

“How dare you insult me, I'm better than you or any of your team and you know it, I killed them if you had forgotten, that fact alone proves that I'm better, I got you and used you to allow my dreams to come true. I'll rule the world and there'll be no one on earth that even has a chance to stop me. You're coming with me now whether you like it or not and will assist me in my plans.” shouted the Candy Man as he allowed his eyes to glow with their hypnotic powers.

Almost immediately, Roger mysteriously disappeared leaving the Candy Man hypnotizing the mirrored wall behind where Roger had been. The Candy Man realized far too late that he was in trouble; he did not even have time to be surprised at Roger’s disappearance before the full force of his own powers took over his mind. He couldn’t see, hear, feel or move anything. All he knew was his own evil yellow eyes boring into him via the mirrors. Without warning however his grip on, the world began to decline, he recognized the fact that he was now losing consciousness. As he slumped to the ground, he realized that this not due to his hypnotic powers but some sort of sedative. As he fought against its affects, he noticed that he was not alone in the room. It was full of the military group that he had come to destroy. His last conscious thoughts were of despair, he was beaten.

The ROTCMS watched as their enemy finally fell into a harmless sleep, they couldn’t resist a smile; they had finally achieved what they had set out to do. They did not however have time to celebrate right now, the Candy Man had to be safely restrained, the base still had to be guarded against any of the Candy Man’s friends, who might decide to come along and then there was the issue of what they would do now they had finished their job.

Sophie quickly checked the Candy Man’s pulse and breathing and carefully administrated an extra dose of the sedative she had given him earlier, to ensure that he was kept unconscious long enough for them to have transported him to the UN army base which they had earlier deposited the Candy Man’s henchmen.

Once this was done, Sophie, Luke and seven others left the room leaving Pete, one of the ROTCMS, and the Hood alone. Two of the seven that had left headed off in the direction of the truck that had been transformed so that the Candy Man could be transported to the UN. The rest were headed outside to keep guard.

When they exited the main building however, they were shocked to find that there were a young man flying their way, not only that but this young man was Captain Muscles. The ROTCMS were confused as to what to do, was this hero dangerous or was there a chance that Roger had got it wrong?

Roger sat back and watched as the Candy Man was carefully handcuffed and watched by Pete and one of the other ROTCMS. It was over, but he couldn’t help but think that it was an anticlimax. rOGER didn’t really know what he had expected or even what he had wanted. Maybe it was just the fact that he now had nothing to do that was getting to him. He kept thinking back to everything that had happened, to what the Candy Man had said before they had managed to trick him.

It seemed like a lifetime ago since the Candy Man had taken him from Arnold's drive-in even though it had been only been eight days ago. Ever since he had woken up in the presence of the ROTCMS, Roger had thrown himself into work in the hope that he would not remember what the Candy Man had done, it had worked somewhat and the ROTCMS were always willing to talk to him about unrelated topics which had also helped.

The story that he just been grudgingly told by Pete however had brought it all crashing back to him. He would never be able to talk to his father about their experiences in space. Jennifer would never worry needlessly after a difficult rescue requiring Roger to calm him down and point out the good parts. Potsie’s music would never be there to listen to when he needed time to relax. Chachi’s latest practical joke would not happen to bring a smile to his face breaking him from the monotony of his work. Fonzie would never call him up to complain about something, pleading for help to end the torment that came with being the coolest. Marion would never force him to eat four helpings of her wonderful Apple pies. Howard would never call him up excited about his latest idea for updating the Thunderbirds. John would miss Al’s fatherly support and Joanie’s female influence on the otherwise male base. There would be no more Christmas parties at Jennifer’s where he and Potsie would have all play fighted to get a chance to dance with Jennifer herself.

Roger knew his life would never be the same again, he would have to start again as he would never be allowed to live in peace as Roger Svenson for he had deduced that the world must now know that it was Captain Muscles that was the greatest superhero since Superman. Roger hoped that he would be able to stay with the ROTCMS for at least a small amount of time longer until he could figure out what he could do with the rest of his lonely life.

Why didn't I stop this from happening? Why had the Candy Man been able to control me so easily? Now that Roger was actually allowing himself to think about everything, he felt guilty. It was his fault. He should have fought harder. He should have checked the men's room at Arnold's properly. He could have done so many things differently but it was over now, he alone held the blame for allowing his cohorts and best friend to be killed. Captain Muscles would never fly to the rescue ever again.

As Roger was torturing himself however, the door opened causing Roger to freeze. No one was supposed to come in here for a while yet, he was supposed to come out by himself when everything was sorted out to ensure his safety. Roger had of course objected but the ROTCMS had pointed out that he would have only got in the way if he hadn’t stayed here. Is something gone wrong? Is whoever who's coming in a friend or a foe?

[Race's Girl]

Chapter 15- Reunion and Understanding

“Roger?”

It can’t be. Roger whirled around so that he was facing the source of the voice. The shock and hope that covered the face was a reflection of his own feelings. For there before him stood none other than Captain Muscles.

“Captain Muscles. What? How?-,” John tried without success to make sense of what was happening.

Captain Muscles however ran over to him and flung his arms around Roger and held on to him making sure that he was not imagining things. Roger returned the hug when he also realized that his mind was not playing tricks. He was not alone anymore. It was a wonderful thought.

“Oh, Roge, we’ve missed you so much, I can hardly believe that you’re actually okay.” gushed a very excited Captain Muscles.

The words however made Roger take a step back from Captain Muscles. “We?” he asked.

The dark haired superhero gave him a confused look before it finally dawned on him that Roger was just as surprised to see him as he was to see Roger. “Oh, Roger, everybody’s fine especially now that we know you are. Wait they don’t know yet!” exclaimed Captain Muscles as he reached for his radio still smiling like a Cheshire cat.

General Peter Taylor was busy ensuring that everything to do with the Candy Man was sorted and that there was no slacking due to everything going according to plan. Suddenly, the door burst open revealing a man with graying hair and an angry face in a white Spectrum uniform. Pete immediately recognized the man to be Al Grey.

“I’m sorry, Pete, this man just kind of barged in, I didn’t know what to do, I mean he’s Spec-.” started Luke who had followed Al into the building.

“It’s alright, Luke, you stay here and keep an eye on things in here for me, I’ll talk to this gentleman.” answered Pete before returning his attention to Al. “Sir, please come away from here everything is okay, we've got everything under control. My name's Pete by the way.” he continued as he steered Al out of the building who surprisingly allowed this.

“I hoped that we would be in time to help out or something.” Al mumbled in way of an excuse, now looking dejected.

“I bet you wanted to hit him after what he’s done to Roger.” Pete answered immediately assuming that Al alone had somehow managed to survive.

Al however didn’t seem to be listening, he was too absorbed in his feeling of loss. Pete looked at him with concern, why didn’t he ask about Roger? Had he given up all hope?

“Sir, would you like to see Roger?” Pete asked.

Al looked up at Pete. What did he say? Who is he? What does he know that I don’t?

“Are you alright, sir?” asked Pete when he saw Al’s confusion.

Al however never answered the question as his radio sprang to life.

“Hey, Al, Roger’s here! He’s alive!” cried an excited Captain Muscles through the radio.

Al stared at the radio as if he had never seen one before. However, the radio was a buzz of what’s, how’s and where’s?

“What are you on about, Captain Muscles?” a puzzled Al finally said being the only one to somehow be able to come out with a coherent sentence.

Captain Muscles, however, took quite a bit to answer but eventually an answer came. “Al, just get you and everyone else to the small building behind the main dwelling.” said a voice that was unmistakably Roger’s.

Al felt his face smile for the first time in over a week. He looked at Pete, whose turn it was to frown in confusion at what had been said on the radio. He however swallowed the feeling.

“It’s over there, Sir.” Pete pointed towards the building and watched Al run off towards it. He finally realized that the man and Captain Muscles were both from Spectrum; the Candy Man hadn’t destroyed them all. It was a brilliant feeling to know that.

Pete turned back towards the main building where the vast majority of his people were staring at him in bewilderment. He swiftly walked over to them with a huge grin on his face.

Roger could hardly believe his luck. He was currently being shown that it was possible to be hugged by two grown men at the same time. Under any other circumstances he would have felt awkward, but he was now just enjoying knowing that Potsie and Al were okay, if a little bit excitable at this moment in time.

When they had all calmed down some however, it was time to start exchanging stories. Roger told Al and the Captain about the Candy Man being at Arnold's, what happened in the Candy Man’s hideout, the Candy Man’s original plan and his revised plan when Captain Muscles escaped and the ROTCMS. They were unsurprisingly shocked, especially at Roger being led to believe that they were dead.

Soon enough, Roger had told them everything that had happened, so the inevitable question of why it had all happened came soon afterwards when everyone had digested everything. Roger immediately felt uncomfortable. How much should he say? Would Al and Jennifer get blamed for everything even though they were just as much victims as he was? He had to remember that he had also given away information, not only to the Candy Man but to the ROTCMS as well. There was also the fact that all this might not have happened if Al had not been in the US air force. Roger eventually decided that he had to tell the whole story as he knew his friends would see through him lying and saying that he didn’t know. So Roger plowed on keeping his eyes on the floor not able to bring himself to look into the faces that were not expecting the information he was about to tell them.

When he had finished, he was met with a stunned silence so he kept his gaze directed at the floor afraid of what he might see if he did not. The silence was broken however by Captain Muscles who was also Potsie and Roger's best friend.

“Everything turned out okay though, that’s the main thing. The Candy Man'll be behind bars or mirrors so we've got time to figure out a way to protect ourselves in case he ever did get out. This is no one's fault but the Candy Man’s, if we start fighting over who's to blame he's winning, I, for one, won't let him ever do that.” Captain Muscles said with such confidence that Roger looked up from the floor to face him and found Captain Muscles staring at him again with a smile.

“Captain Muscles’s right, you've got to jump back on the horse when you’ve fallen off it or something like that, anyway, this is our equivalent.” added Al who winked at Roger.

The rest of the team also voiced their agreement; Al, however, was glaring at the floor as Roger had been doing only seconds beforehand.

“Al?” asked Captain Muscles hesitantly but when he didn’t receive any response, Captain Muscles continued. “Al, this isn’t your fault, you must see that right?”

Al looked up and stared at Roger with tears in his eyes. “I only followed orders, I was helping save people from those dictators. If I had known it would lead to this-.” but he stopped unable to carry on.

Roger immediately moved over to hug Al. “I don’t blame you for any of this as you said you were saving people, we can all understand that, that’s what we do.” he finished with a smile when he finally got the point across to Al.

“So, Roger, you never said how you got the Candy Man to hypnotize himself with the mirrors, how did you do it?” asked Fonzie eager to get away from the blame game and to find out who the Candy Man was eventually defeated.

“Holograms.” Roger answered simply. The looks he received showed him that although he thought that writing such complex computer programs was part of every day life, his family did not.

“Typical you to come up with the hardest way possible.” joked Captain Muscles suddenly but secretly very happy that it was Roger that had taken by the Candy Man, how else could the Candy Man been tricked so easily? And who else would have been able to do it?

“Thanks, Captain Muscles,” Roger replied shaking his head. “I want to know what you lot have been up to in my absence.”

So again the story telling began, Roger was told about Tessa Greenwood’s phone call alerting them too late to the problem, the anxious search for clues to Roger’s whereabouts, the Candy Man’s call and demands, what happened after Roger alerted them to the Candy Man’s evil plan, their depression when the Candy Man forced them to believe that Roger had been killed.

“Then a few hours ago, Agent Lisa Pilling called in saying that a military group were planning on destroying the Candy Man, the ROTCMS.” said Al.

“So we decided to come and help.” added Captain Muscles.

“More like come and join in.” Roger pointed out with a smile.

There was a knock at the door and General Peter Taylor popped his head around the door.

“Hi,” he said hesitantly. “I just came to tell you that the Candy Man's safely on his way to the UN army base.” then started to leave.

“Pete, wait a minute,” called Roger and Pete came back into the building with an uncomfortable look on his face. “Guys, this is Pete, he’s in charge of the ROTCMS.”

Pete found himself shaking hands with Al and Captain Muscles and being thanked. He was so shocked by the fact that they were down to earth people that he could hardly think straight, so he just stood there dumbly smiling. Soon enough though, they were gone, on their way back to Spectrum headquarters. He promised himself as he had Roger that neither he nor any of his people would ever reveal that they had met let alone helped the most famous secret organization in recent history. He was just glad that everything had turned out alright in the end.