Yellow Jacket

Yellow Jacket features in the fourth episode of Nightmare Time 2, and is the sixth story of the second season of the live-stream reading. It was performed on November 13, 2021 and was uploaded on YouTube on June 10, 2022.

Summary[]

When Hannah Foster has an accident in shop class, she racks up a massive medical bill that her sister/primary care-giver, Lex, has no way to pay. But Hannah’s not like other fifteen-year-olds. She has a gift. A power. An immense psychic ability she can’t control or understand. Desperate for cash, Hannah decides to use her “gift” in a deadly competition that’ll pit her against other psychic kids for a chance to win big. But there are nefarious forces behind these “games.” Does Hannah have the sting it takes to survive? Can she become… the Yellow Jacket?

Synopsis[]

Hannah Foster is a 14-year-old freshman attending Hatchetfield High. Her peers bully her because she is reserved, childlike, and talks to an "imaginary friend" she calls Webby.

In shop class, Mr. Tom Houston stops Brad Callahan from making fun of Hannah. Tom praises her woodwork design and tells her that her older sister Lex showed similar talent. Hannah then goes to cut out her design. While using the class band saw, Hannah is suddenly drawn into a vision of a pale-skinned, blue-veined boy brutalizing a Boy with a Bloody Nose in front of a cheering crowd. In her trance, Hannah accidentally saws her finger off. Her classmate Stephanie tries to intervene but is too late.

Hannah is rushed to St. Damien's Hospital. Lex arrives and speaks with the attending nurse, Becky Barnes. Becky reassures Lex that Hannah's finger was successfully reattached. However, Lex is horrified to discover the medical bills will cost $24,000. Upset, she takes Hannah home to their apartment.

Lex's boyfriend Ethan tries to comfort Hannah with a joke story about how his friend Vinnie cut off his thumb and fixed it with car glue. He fails. Ethan decides to leave Hannah alone and fix the apartment's leaky tap, but gives up. Ethan then goes to tells Lex about the tap and finds her studying. Lex takes out her stress on Ethan. She yells about how she cannot pay the hospital bill, but she cannot get a better job without passing her high school diploma equivalency test - a test she has no time to study for because she works exhausting hours at Toy Zone. Ethan decides to try again with the tap and asks Lex to pass him the wrench. She throws it him in frustration, accidentally breaking a hole in the wall and creating yet another expense.

In another room, Hannah summons her eldritch friend Webby to talk. Webby attempts to cheer Hannah up by manifesting several avatars of herself for a slumber party, but Hannah refuses to play along. She blames Webby for sending her visions of cosmic disasters and causing her accident. Webby responds that Hannah taps into these visions because of her innate power. Webby claims she tries to intervene to make the visions clearer and easier on Hannah, but even Webby cannot fully control them. Webby also admits she cannot help Hannah obtain money for her hospital bills. Hannah angrily tells Webby she is useless, and Webby departs, saddened that she can no longer comfort Hannah the way she could in the past.

A few weeks later, Lex is scheduled to write her equivalency test after her shift. Lex directs Ethan to pay their rent and finish the chores before running to work, forgetting it is also Hannah's 15th birthday. Ethan chooses not to remind Lex so that she can focus on her test.

Instead, Ethan takes Hannah to Pizza Pete's to celebrate by themselves. Hannah decides to win an iPad from the arcade so she can sell it and help Lex pay their bills. To everyone's shock, she uses her powers to win an absurd number of prize tickets. But when Hannah attempts to redeem the iPad, the manager takes her and Ethan into the office of Pizza Pete's owner, Eddie Chiplucky. Eddie explains that the arcade's purpose is to identify "special" children like Hannah. The "gift" peaks when a child reaches 15 years of age, and Hannah's gift has the most potential of anyone he has ever seen. Eddie promises Hannah can use her gift to win a lot of money.

Meanwhile, Lex's shift runs long and she arrives 20 minutes late for her exam. The lazy proctor demeans her and refuses to give her the full exam time. Lex is so rattled she must ask the proctor for the date. When the proctor tells her it is October 5th, Lex realizes she forgot Hannah's birthday.

Eddie takes Hannah and Ethan to Hatchetfield Roller-rama. Though it was supposedly abandoned, the town's elite class converted the rink into an arena where they can bet on fights between special children. Hannah recognizes the arena from her shop class vision. A fight begins between two costumed teens called Spitfire and Stopwatch. Hannah notices that when Stopwatch holds his breath, he freezes time for everyone except himself and Hannah. She involuntarily and telepathically shares this information with Spitfire, who stops Stopwatch's power by generating smoke forcing him to cough.

Eddie then offers Hannah the chance to compete for cash prizes. Hannah wants to take the deal, but Ethan refuses the offer out of concern for her safety.

When Ethan brings Hannah home, they find Lex waiting with a pitiful balloon and a cupcake on a paper plate. They choose not tell Lex about the arena. Lex recounts that could not focus on her test because she thought Ethan also forgot Hannah's birthday, so she ripped up her test and ran out to look for party supplies. She could only get leftovers from the liquor store. Ashamed, angry, and facing a morning shift, Lex slams the door on her way to bed. Seeing Lex overwhelmed prompts Ethan to give Hannah permission to fight.

A few days later, Hannah meets Stopwatch in the Roller-rama locker room. He tells her his real name is Daniel and treats her kindly. Hannah is delighted. Eddie then brings Hannah a yellow biker jacket and gives her the fighter name "Yellow Jacket." He gives her a special blue "mind milk" and tells her that it enhance the fighters' gifts for 30 minutes. Hannah drinks the milk before entering the arena.

Hannah is matched up against Spitfire. Spitfire is indignant about Hannah's unwanted help in the previous match. She sends a stream of fire at Hannah, but Hannah is able to create a deflecting shield with her mind. Hannah then accidentally reaches into Spitfire's mind and turns off her powers. Spitfire yells at Hannah to get out of her mind, but when Hannah tries, she accidentally reads the minds of all the spectators. Only spectator notices: a pale-skinned boy watching from a private box. The boy welcomes Hannah and tells her she will be with "us" soon. Hannah is about to respond but gets distracted when Spitfire grabs her and tries to drag her off the edge of the platform. Just before she loses, Hannah telekinetically blasts Spitfire out of the ring with enough force shake the building. Hannah then returns to the locker room where Daniel and all the other kids congratulate her. Spitfire enters and congratulates Hannah too, revealing her real name is Sophia. The kids then go and skate on the roller rink together, and Hannah is truly happy for the first time in a long time.

As Lex is finishes her shift at Toy Zone, her arrogant boss Frank tells her that Ethan called and asked her to come to a high-class address. He rudely warns her that Ethan must be planning a crime there because the address is too nice for someone like him. Frank complains to the nerdy man-child Sherman, who Frank has adopted.

Lex finds Ethan and Hannah in a beautiful penthouse apartment. Ethan tells Lex the apartment is their new home, and that he and Hannah got the money to pay for it by investing in the stock market. Later that night, Lex tells Hannah she is happy now and tucks her into bed. She then goes to Ethan in the master suite and hooks up with him. Afterwards, Lex tells Ethan she is worried about Hannah's visions and conversations with Webby. Ethan suggests Hannah may have superpowers and Webby might be real. Lex scoffs and says she used to play with Webby as her own imaginary friend, causing Ethan to realise that Lex also has powers like Hannah.

In a dark room beneath Hatchetfield, the pale-skinned boy waits in a high-tech facility. A smarmy magnate named Charles Coven enters and calls the boy "Otho". Charles suggests a match between Otho and Spitfire, but Otho says nothing will matter after he fights Hannah. Charles reminds Otho that he can detonate a bomb in Otho's head anytime, and warns Otho to avoid ominous threats. Otho coldly promises to comply, and Charles promises he will try to arrange a fight with Hannah after Spitfire.

Eddie purchases an engagement ring for Lex. He tries to propose to her before she leaves for work, but he gets interrupted by Eddie knocking at the door. Eddie tells Ethan that he has arranged another fight for Hannah. Hannah wants to leave immediately. At the Roller-rama, Hannah receives a warm welcome from her fans and friends. They tell her Spitfire is about to fight the arena's undefeated champion. To Hannah's horror, the champion is Otho, who enters with the Boy with the Bloody Nose. Hannah perceives that Otho's mind now inhabits both bodies. Spitfire impressively fills the platform with flame, but Otho reveals his bodies can fly. Otho immobilizes Spitfire and begins to consume her mind. Hannah telepathically tries to stop him but is too weak without the mind milk. Spitfire becomes Otho's third body and jumps outside the ring.

At an empty bar, Eddie explains Otho's backstory to Ethan. Scientists created Otho by synthesizing a strange blue substance from outer space with human DNA. Otho could only control opponents' minds at first, but revealed he could also assimilate people into a hive mind one month ago when he snatched the body of the Boy with the Bloody Nose. Charles interrupts with bodyguards and bouncers. He kicks Eddie out and offers Ethan millions of dollars to let Hannah fight Otho. Ethan refuses to pit Hannah against someone so dangerous, but Hannah uses her power to control Ethan's make him agrees to the fight for $100,000,000.

As Hannah waits for her fight in the locker room, Webby manifests in front of her. Webby begs Hannah not to fight Otho. She reveals Otho is actually a vessel for her eldritch brother Pokey. Pokey is not the most clever, hungry, tricky, or sadistic of her brothers, but he is the most insistent and wants to assimilate everyone into his hive mind under his control. If he assimilates Hannah, he will be able to break out of his vessel in his true form and doom the world. Hannah ignores Webby, saying she needs revenge for Spitfire. She drinks a glass of mind milk and proves her power by pushing Webby's presence out of the building.

Hannah then goes to fight Otho. Otho fights with all three of his vessels at the same time. Hannah prepares a valiant blow, but finds she cannot bring herself to attack Spitfire's body. Otho seizes the opening to capture Hannah and prepare to assimilate her. Hannah calls out to Lex for help.

Lex is restocking the shelves at Toy Zone. She opens a box and finds it is full of blue dolls labelled "Sing-Along Pokey". When she looks up, she sees shelves filled with Pokey dolls. The dolls come to life and swarm Lex, pushing her to the ground and vomiting blue goo on her. Lex sinks into the blue goo. Suddenly, Lex is transported to a black void where she's joined by a familiar presence: Webby. Webby tells Lex that Hannah is in trouble. Webby guides Lex to reach through the void outside spacetime and teleport herself into the arena. Otho uses Spitfire's body to create a ring of fire around Lex, then uses the Boy with the Bloody Nose to hold her down. Thinking quickly, Lex uses her powers to find the detonator in Charles' pocket and transport it through the void into her hand. Lex then detonates the bomb in Otho's head, killing his main body and causing the other vessels to collapse.

Despite losing his trillion-dollar investment, Charles is delighted at the display of Lex and Hannah's powers. He has his bodyguards clear the arena forcefully and attempts to kidnap the sister, but Ethan steals a weapon from one of the guards and forces Charles to call off his men at gunpoint. Even after Ethan flees, Charles tells his men to open the doors for the trio and let them go, promising to see them later.

Lex, Ethan, and Hannah return home. Ethan attempts to apologize to Lex, but she tells him that they'll talk in the morning and leaves to go to sleep in Hannah's room. Before she leaves, Ethan tells Lex that he loves her, and she tells him that she loves him too. The next morning, Ethan awakens to find Lex and Hannah gone. In a letter, Lex writes that Charles will never allow her or Hannah to have a normal life. She explains that she is releasing Ethan from their fate, and asks him to be young for all of them. As Lex drives Hannah away from Hatchetfield, Hannah asks if they'll ever go back. Lex tells her that she doesn't think they will. Lex tells Hannah to try and get some sleep and stares at the horizon.

Cast[]

Creative Team[]

Songs[]

Trivia[]

• The synopsis for the episode was released on November 10 2021
• The cast list was uploaded on November 11 2021
• Since Kendall, who originated the role of Hannah, was occupied with school, Lauren Lopez reprised her role