Candidate Calamity

*"The girls get a "big break" in journalism as they are invited to tag-along with the press corps following a presidential hopeful, Senator Adams S. Bushrod, however the train trip takes an unexpected turn as Drs. Tara Daffida and Horace Peemosis turn up. Will Mari and Niko foil whatever plan Organization ORKO has in store?"*

**Candidate Calamity** follows The Druid's Secret Story and precedes Lost on the Trapped Planet in the 2021 version of The Improbable Girl and The Wonder Kitty. This story began as a serial for the *Yeet Presents...* publication by Mike Jones. It is written and illustrated by J.E. Carrales, III.

## Plot

Mari Solinski and Zandra Niko are given an opportunity to "crack" a big news story as 2012 presidential hopeful, Senator Adams S. Bushrod visits Kingsville, Texas as part of the run-up to his 2012 campaign. Along for the ride is resentful Peggy O' Shea who considers the assignment a from of "babysitting." Mari Solinski and Zandra Niko are especially interested as it marks their first big press conference and, thus, the next in growing line of "Big Breaks" which never seem to pan out.

Initially Niko is given the opportunity to ask a question but, before she can actually ask anything Peggy, believing Niko's giggling personable behavior to be unprofessional, interrupts belittling Niko and creating an outrage from the rest of the press corps. Senator Bushrod, knowing of Peggy's reputation as a journalist, allows her to ask a question about the Space Program which results in Peggy being ridiculed as the "butt" of a joke. This allows Niko to continue successfully with her question about a new Interstate Highway, Interstate 69, being built in South Texas.

Mari, attempting to show Peggy that Niko truly is a trained journalist, is stopped mid-sentence as she senses that something is wrong. Behind her, and unbeknownst, we see Dr. Tara Daffidda, an agent of Organization ORKO, sneaking into an unused room. As a sort of compensation that they had been derailed by Peggy's comments, Senator Bushrod invited Mari, Niko and Peggy to join him on his cross-country train campaign aboard the South Texas train, The Valley Pioneer. Bushrod has chartered this train as "The Bushrod Special" and plans to announce his candidacy when the train reaches St. Louis.

The trio arrive at the Kingsville, Texas depot where the train is being boarded by various press dignitaries, including members of THE LION GAZETTE's rival newspaper, The Weekly Brahma. As they all settle in and the train departs, Mari begins to have some anxiety for no apparent reason signaling that something is extremely wrong on the train. Niko dismisses this as Mari "behaving like she (Niko) usually does" and decides to stave off Mari's trepidations by KITTYFORMING and making a search of the train.

Mari releases a KITTYFORMED Niko into an air conditioning duct as is seen by WEEKLY BRAHMA reporter Xavier Daniels. Daniels turns off Mari with what appears to be brazen "flirting," however it is revealed that he was in fact merely trying to both recruit Mari and Niko to the WEEKLY BRAHMA organization of the collective "writing circle" of which said reporters belong.

Meanwhile, Peggy O'Shea is resisting Mel Brewster's attempts to "reconnect with her." Eventually leading Peggy to storm out of the dinning car and directly into a coach where Dr. Peemosis is mentally controlling Senator Bushrod.

It would seem that there is, in fact, a very strong ORGANIZATION ORKO presence at play with both Dr. Daffida and Dr. Horace Peemosis on board the train testing a new mind control chip. Peemosis has a limited number of them on hand and intends to acquire a large number of them once the train stops in Houston, Texas for a short campaign event.

In an attempt to silence Peggy, Dr. Daffida orders the mindless Bushrod to "rip Ms. O'Shea to pieces" as Bushrod watches on in horror and who called out against it. Peemosis Agrees as Peggy, despite being somewhat "over the hill" is still a respected journalist and would be a fine candidate for a mind control chip.

## Characters (in order of appearance)

* Zandra Marie Niko
* Mari Ashley Solinski
* Peggy O'Shea
* Adams S. Bushrod
* Melchizedek Brewster
* Celia Briarwood
* Dr. Tara Daffida
* Xavier Daniels