Danger Unlimited - Plot

Plot

The only story arc of the series is called “Phoenix Agenda” and is set in 2061. The 20th century backstory is interwoven throughout the four books out of sequence via flashbacks.

In December 1959, the Carson family meets explorer Mike Worley in South America to investigate an ancient spaceship that had crashed in the Amazon jungle in the distant past. The ship's systems trap the four and expose them a substance that was supposed to give the ship's crew powers as warriors on whatever planet they visit. The substance would later be nicknamed, "Gunk." They escape after brief exposure to the Gunk, but it gives each of them superpowers which they use to fight for good as the original Danger Unlimited. The members include Miss Mirage (Connie Carson), who can project illusions. Her brother Thermal (Calvin Carson) can project heat and cold. Their father, Doc Danger (Robert Carson), is a brilliant scientist who had his intellect augmented even more, continuing his mutation over the years with an increasingly enlarged cranium and atrophied limbs until he became nothing more than an enormous head by 1985, supported by a flying platform with robotic arms. And Hunk (Worley), who gains rough, stonelike, superhard skin and superstrength. In 1985, the team engages in a final battle with Umbra, their most powerful foe. During Umbra's attack on DU's headquarters, Thermal is seriously injured and Doc Danger places him into a biological stasis chamber. Nobody knows what happened after that, but Doc Danger shuts down all systems and places the headquarters into a "timelock" time suspension force field. The team was missing and presumed dead.

75 years after the battle, the timelock disengages and the new Earth government moved in to demolish the headquarters. A sudden energy signature inside draws a military team to investigate. Calvin bursts free from the containment pod and loses consciousness. A sample of Gunk was also stored inside the pod and explodes over Corporal Teresa LaFayette. When they awake, Calvin has partial amnesia and no longer seems to have his powers. LaFayette has gained the power to become a giant, spiky, rocky humanoid. Professor Davis Palmenter, who was studying what happened to LaFayette, realizes it was Gunk at work again and smashes the sample vial of it with his hand. He is split into three identical but independent clones. It is explained to Calvin that an alien race called the Xlerii invaded Earth in 2010. All superhumans mysteriously vanished in 2011 during the ensuing Alien War. The ship that the Carsons investigated in 1959 was a Xlerii advance scout. After defeating the bulk of Earth's military forces, the Xlerii offered Earth a deal for peace and prosperity but in reality are taking over, altering the global environment to fit their needs. The Earth is now perpetually dark and shrouded by clouds, with very frequent rain. Discussion of the superhumans and their disappearance is forbidden under Xlerii rule.

Calvin and LaFayette flee to her great-great-grandmother's house in Louisiana. The three Palmenter clones arrive, sent by LaFayette's commanding officer, Captain Brewster, who's also a freedom sympathizer, and convinces them to become the new Danger Unlimited, with additional encouragement from LaFayette's ancestor, who remembers the time before the Xlerii arrived and there was still sunlight in the sky. LaFayette takes on the name "Belabet," based on her great-great-grandmother's Creole exclamation of "La belle et la bete" (Beauty and the Beast) upon seeing her transform. Palmenter calls himself (himselves?) "Caucus." They plan to pursue two main missions: to drive the Xlerii from Earth and to find out what happened to all of the superheroes. Calvin would continue to try to regain his memories and discover the fate of his Danger Unlimited teammates.