Episode 4- "Power Corrupts."

Outbreak Season 2, Episode 4- “Power Corrupts.”

The episode begins with a view from the eyes of someone drowning underwater, bubbles drifting up in front of the camera, lightning flashing in the air, dimmed by the waves between them and the viewer. The viewer then sees hands raised in front of the camera, trying to swim to the surface, merely inches from it. Then the hands blur with enhanced speed. The camera pans above the waves, as Ben, the superhumanly fast seaman from the first game, who was last seen presumed dead, crests the waves and takes a big gulp of breath. He looks around him, as the lightning bolts rage down from the sky, and the waves continue to roil. He then chooses a direction, and swims at superhuman speed as the episode titles play. The camera then continues with Ben as he swims to the beach with the wrecks, the devastation left by the fracas between the military and the other super-powered. As he reaches the shore, he slows his swimming speed, keeping eyes above the water but otherwise remaining submerged, trying to go unseen. He manages to emerge from the water without attracting attention. He finds three dead soldiers in containment suits, two with broken spines and twisted limbs, and the other has cracked his head open on a rock (and their brain matter is exposed.) He strips one of the dead soldiers, tearing off all of his wet clothes, and puts on the soldier's uniform, flak jacket and even his containment suit, as well as taking his weapons (despite discovering them to be a nerf gun and a cap gun, he keeps them anyway) and also takes a frag grenade and a smoke grenade. He then sees tyre tracks along the beach, in front of the bizarre unnatural wall, and decides to follow them, as he goes pounding along the beach at around the speed of an automobile. He fails to notice the five blue fiery trails in the sky, seen at the end of last episode. He does however hear the horrifying scream of the spider, in the direction he is going. Yet, seemingly now thinking himself indestructible, he carries on, though at a slower pace, to investigate.

The action cuts to Zach and the others, as Zach hears the spider's scream and says “That can't be good.” He also explains about the lights in the sky that only he saw, and his thoughts that there might be more meteors, and Joe at least partially confirms the theory when he surmises that the blue fire likely means something burning up in the atmosphere. The group generally agrees that going out of their cave with the spider about would not be clever at all, so they decide to remain in the cave. Joe decides to experiment with his powers, now that he possesses Harken's, whilst Zach suggests a game of cards to pass the time. Zach plays with Carter and Leviathan, whilst Joe concentrates on Zach, and Zach wins effortlessly, whilst Carter points out that his card hands seem to be 'impossible', and the two start trading the usual insults between each other. Zach does some experimenting with his own powers after he grows tired of hearing Carter whining about his wound from the propeller blade. Though he could heal Norman's injuries, being unable to see them, he manages to seal over Carter's wound, and after a comment by Carter, turns his back to metal as well, leading Leviathan to request a a metal finger. Antics abound as they start to discuss Zach's 'code name' of 'Tuxedo Man', and Zach proceeds to shoot down any suggestions Carter makes, as the man continues to get annoyed at Zach, and shuts his powers off temporarily, causing their rivalry to continue. Joe renames Leviathan 'Double Take', which he seems to approve of.

Events then cut to where we last left Daniel Anderson, cuffed to a chair in a military quarantine tent. Simms has left the central space where Daniel is, but Anderson notes that there are many other sections to the tent and sees that Simms has gone into a room with several people within it, that it sounds like he is briefing, though Daniel can't hear the words spoken. He notices that Greg and Gerald are being kept in adjoining rooms, and that Greg seems to be begging them not to touch him, and that Gerald is being loudly defiant, though neither of them seem to be hurt. Daniel also notices another section of the tent where there appears to be someone lying unmoving on a table. Daniel then hears the shriek of the Spider, and notes from several shocked reactions, that the soldiers and doctors do as well. Daniel calls Simms out to speak, and Simms does so, though rather grudgingly, with the several soldiers he was briefing watching, amusedly. Daniels asks if Simms heard the noise, and then explains that its the Spider he was talking about, and that its quite capable of killing everyone in the base. Simms adheres to Daniel's warning to some degree and instructs one of his soldiers to ensure that all of the soldiers are aware of the potential threat and that the perimeter is secure, but, he makes no intonation that he is going to abandon the base as Daniel seems to think that he should. Daniel criticises that he isn't taking him seriously, which gets a very angry response from Simms, who then stalks away to go back to briefing his scientists and soldiers.

Ben continues his run down the beach, stopping completely as he hears a second scream. After some pause, he hears some other sounds striking the ground, and then nothing. He then slowly and quietly continues his way up the beach, and then hears the flow of a river, and a small waterfall, trickling into the sea. He notes that there are rocks placed across the river and attempts to cross them. As he attempts to cross the river, dashing over the rocks at enhanced speed, he slips backwards and slams his head on a rock, which shatters in half. Ben, however, seems completely unharmed, as he gets to his feet and crosses the river. He sees some kind of moving shape ahead of him in the darkness, and then a bizarrely shaped, strangely burning sword flies at him. The sword embeds in his throat; the sword looks advanced, with heat flowing up the blade from the hilt through several channels in the metal. The blade seems to get stuck after breaching Ben's hardened skin, causing the wound to smoke horrifically. Ben tries to tear the sword out but fails, and as he sees a pair of metallic footsteps coming towards him, he runs back where he came. After repeated attempts, he eventually tears the blade out, but the pain of the act causes him to collapse in agony. After repeated attempts, over several minutes, he pulls himself to his feet, and leaving the blade behind, he runs off down the beach, having outran his mysterious pursuer.

The prison escapees decide that they need to go and get help for Norman as soon as they can, as they don't know the breadth of his injuries, but he still remains unconscious. As they don't know the exact way to the nearby village, and because it is so dark, they decide to go and raid the nearby wrecks to see if they can get medical supplies to help Norman. Zach uses his power to create umbrellas for the group; in his continuing mocking relationship with Carter, he turns his umbrella pink, and in Carter's typical way, he becomes furious, and as a result, Zach's power shuts down, including all of his creations. Carter punches Zach hard across the face, cracking his jaw, warning him to not try any more of his mockery, or it will really hurt. With his powers gone, Zach's usual confidence instantly fades and the loss of his defiance stops Carter from hurting him any more, his warning given. They set off down the beach back to the helicopter wrecks, where they attract the attention of sentries left by General Simms, who demand the imminent surrender of the escapees. Joe works out where there voices are roughly coming from and squeezes off five shots, miraculously killing four soldiers. Zach creates a floodlight at the top of the cliff, lighting up the remaining soldier who gets shot between the eyes by Joe.

With Simms gone again, Daniel asks one of the soldiers if there is a toilet. The soldier laughs and tells him that there is a cliff face he can piss off, not trusting him alone in a toilet. Four soldiers accompany Daniel outside, once they put him in a basic white medical containment suit, and trot him out of the military camp with a gun barrel against his back. Once he gets to the cliff edge, he decides to make his escape as he attempts to grab the gun barrel on his right. The soldier behind him notes the movement, and fires without question, as Daniel tumbles off of the cliff edge.

Ben comes thundering down the beach towards the helicopter wrecks, and the escapees hear his approach, all of them clambering into a wreck and hiding. They watch as the seemingly super-powered soldier stops and looks around. Carter sees a flash about him, and informs his fellows with a whisper that its the guy that was on the boat fighting the spider. They don't reveal themselves and watch as Ben attempts to climb the cliff at superhuman speed. He climbs it well, but the movement at such great speed causes rocks to fall from the cliff edge, flinging him off, as he falls towards the ground. Carter says with confidence that he'll be fine, but Zach creates a bouncy castle, nonetheless to catch Ben. Carter then explains that he would have been fine, that its another of Ben's powers. Ben seems immediately unhinged as the others reveal themselves to him, explaining that he 'can't die' and that he was attacked 'by a robot'; the group immediately start to doubt his sanity. The search of the helicopters yields some success but the medical supplies are fairly basic, not enough to give Norman the proper medical help he needs, so the group agrees that someone needs to go into the local village and steal some transport so that they can get Norman to a hospital or someone else who can help him. Ben climbs the cliff again, this time at a more human speed, and is doing so effectively, but is outdone by Double Take, whose adaptive powers allow him to simply adhere to the cliff. The two get to the top of the cliff, as Double Take's eyes adapt to both the dark and immense distance, telling them that the village is visible on the other side of the forest, but looks like it will not be a walk they can make before it starts getting light, and the group are in vast need of rest. The group agree that Ben should use his enhanced speed to get into the village as quickly as possible, and come back with a car, which he agrees to do, after Zach questions whether he can stomach stealing, the former ship worker seems not to have a problem. Zach creates a ladder for everyone to climb to the top of the cliff, except the unconscious Norman, and then he temporarily summons 'Knuckles' to grab Norman, and permeate through to the top of the cliff face with him. The group all watch as Ben races down into the forest, as Double Take watches, tracking his heat signature, updating the others on his progress once he quickly passes out of their sight.

Daniel awakens with an aching back, but seems relatively uninjured considering he has been shot in the back and then fell from a cliff. He presses the skin at his back and finds it to be oddly pliant. He then slowly limps his way alongside the river, heading back in the direction of the beach. The soldiers return to the base and tell Simms that Daniel is dead... Simms meanwhile has just had one of his scientists inform him that the particular strain of the virus in Daniel's blood seems to be constantly altering. Simms demands if the soldier visually confirmed his death, and the soldier rightly states that such a form would kill any man. Simms yells at the soldier, telling him that Anderson isn't dead until someone sees him die, and says he is still out there, demanding that they go back to where they last saw him, and bring him, whether he is dead or not. Simms then speaks to the female head scientist, telling her that he wants Anderson's blood tested immediately.

Daniel runs the ten miles to the village in ten minutes. He finds a farmhouse and a car outside. It is at this point that it becomes clear that he has never stolen a car before. He smashes his way into the car with a fist, setting off the car alarm. This alerts the owners of the car and the house. Rather than run away, Ben then climbs into the car, and fails utterly to hot-wire it, having no idea how to do it. A large red bearded man comes out of the farmhouse with a shotgun, pointing it at the car, demanding that Ben (still in military garb) get out of the car. Ben takes out the fragmentation grenade he stole and holds it up obviously, demanding that the farmer throw him his keys, or he will get blown up. The farmer throws the keys, as his wife watches from the window, screaming. Ben starts the car and drives it... backwards. The car goes through the stone wall behind it. The farmer uses this chance to fire his shotgun, but misses, as Ben then drives the car off down the road, the farmer in pursuit, as the wife continues to watch and scream. Ben, completely unable to drive, careens down the road and crashes through another wall, this time carry on into a sheep field. He then flies out of the windscreen as the car drives over him. Miraculously, he is still unharmed as he gets to his feet. The farmer runs into the field, and seeing the lack of grenade in Ben's hand, fires again, and again misses. Ben runs over to the wrecked car and tears the door off. He then grabs and throws the grenade, getting it precisely on target, blowing the farmer to bits. In shock, Double Take relates these events to the others. Zach says 'he's on his own.'

Simms watches as his head scientist injects a mouse with Anderson's blood. He has a solider shoot it. It dies as you'd expect. And then the mouse is the next cage along hisses, as yellow fangs grow from its mouth and quills from its back. <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:'LucidaGrande','TrebuchetMS',Verdana,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;line-height:18.1875px;">Anderson stops stumbling his way along the river, dropping to his knees, as he recalls what has happened to him, and finally acknowledges his powers. The episode ends as he laughs 'I'm ****ing Superman!' as the sniper scopes of soldiers zoom in on him...