No Stairway to Heaven

**No Stairway to Heaven** is the sixth episode of the first season of Tales from the Weather Radio. The story revolves around a Led Zeppelin song causing faintings across parts of California. This episode introduces an overhaul of narratives before and after scenes, and is the first to have mass voice acting.

## Synopsis

The story begins at a Guitar Center store in Orange, California, where a guitar player begins to play the opening riff to "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. An employee stops them, and tells them to look at the sign to the entrance, as the camera cuts to a door with a sign saying "NO STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN" on the front. As the guitar player realizes his mistake, he suddenly drops to the floor unconscious. The employee then attempts to call for help, but suddenly begins to collapse as well, and a mass fainting begins, leaving the entire building quiet.

Two guitar-seekers walk in to the building, only to find that everyone is asleep. The former is wanting to know about what happened, but the latter intervenes, stating they would have to head to another guitar store around the city. The two then leave the scene. An emergency alert pops up not long after on a radio station playing rock music, warning of the incident that just happened. It also notes that there could be a virus present, and issues a quarantine of the Orange Shopping Complex.

Several hours later, footage of the incident has fallen into the hands of a corrupt police unit, primarily Officer Teudyme and two of his rookies. As they chat about the incident, one of the rookies is wanting to know what they plan to do with the footage. Teudyme states that he has a plan. Several minutes later, he arrives at the hideout of a gang in disguise. Teudyme meets a member of the unnamed gang and provides said member with files containing the incident, claiming they "might find it fun to exploit". The member then meets his leader, the latter telling him to hand the information over. The next morning, another member of the unknown gang checks up on the leader, only to find him unconscious. The leader quickly wakes up, unaware that he slept in his office, but quickly re-evaluates the scene. Believing the last thing he saw was the footage of the mass fainting at Orange with sound on, that same member says to him that they may have found the issue behind the faintings. The leader re-assures that hardly anyone listens to such music nowadays.

At another Guitar Center in Fountain Valley, two employees are chatting about the previous incident when the building's radio suddenly begins producing static, and then begins to play the song responsible for the faintings the previous day. This begins another round of faintings throughout. Another warning is broadcast during a infomercial, this time about the recent mass fainting event. The alert also mentions that authorities are struggling to figure out how the events are happening.

Two days later, a radio station is preparing a rock music marathon, but is suddenly interrupted by static, and then the same song plays on that station, this time at a much lower quality. This begins another mass fainting event, but at a much larger scale, and ultimately results in vehicular crashes in Los Angeles traffic. Another warning is issued, documenting the mass crashes across areas in and outside of Los Angeles.

A day later, a dialogue box states that the FBI now has an advantage in the information relating to the situation at hand, and results in a 1-on-1 conversation between an agent and a higher-up. Now revealed that either the gang or the police unit was sabotaging the collection of information, including the fact that the second mass-fainting was pre-meditated, with the higher-up stating that the camera-feed was cut off before the song was played. The higher-up also announces an operation to turn in Officer Teudyme, with the higher-up selecting the agent to spearhead the operation, claiming that the agent has knowledge of the situation, and is trained in combat.

Another day passes, and Teudyme now believing to be in danger, broadcasts a distress message to his friends, advising that he is hiding at an undisclosed location and severing communications to ensure safety, and advises his rooks to hijack any warnings and play the same song responsible for the faintings. Teudyme also reveals that if the authorities catch him, he will nuke himself to ensure the obscurity of the information. Several minutes later, we see the agent appear at Teudyme's hiding location. The agent breaks in, and Teudyme begins warning him of their impending doom, as he sets off a timer that is rigged to an explosive, right before the agent shoots Teudyme dead with a single shot. Outside the hideout, the agent can be heard screaming from in the hideout before the bomb explodes in a violent manner. A narrative adds that it rocks the city of Malibu.

An automated message is sent out confirming Teudyme's death, and informs the rookies that operation "Highway to Hell" is to commence, which is what he told them to do prior; hijack any alerts and play the song. A more sinister emergency broadcast is then sent out that warns areas surrounding the city that Malibu has been destroyed by the explosion. As the message goes on, it is hijacked and that song is played, but the hijack along with the broadcast as a whole is quickly terminated by an unknown source.

An epilogue in the form of a news break summarizes what occurred, with anchorman Collin Jovanni giving a brief description of what recently happened. He hands over the report to his reporter Sophie Calisto, who gives more details on the incidents that occurred, and also shares the fates of several people; Some members of the police (not related to the corrupt unit) were killed in the blast, the agent is revealed to have barely survived, and is in critical condition "fighting for his life" as said by Sophie, and also informs of the arrests of members of the gang and what is left of the corrupt police unit. The camera zooms out to quickly reveal that the news is being watched on a television. As Sophie hands the reporting back to Collin, the person watching the news, now revealed to be the higher-up, turns the television off and shows his disapproval of the situation, ending the episode saying "Well, shit."

## Trivia

There are several references to pop-culture in No Stairway to Heaven; a majority of them being Wayne's World and Guitar Center references.

* The title is a reference to a rule believed to be present in Guitar Center stores across America.
* The thumbnail graphic has a sign saying "NO STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN", and loosely resembles the one seen in Wayne's World. This sign is also seen near the opening scene of the episode.
* One of Officer Teudyme's rookies quote Wayne's World, saying "No Stairway! Denied!" after Teudyme corrects one of his other rookie, believing the quote to be from Bill and Ted.