History Main / GotTheCallOnSpeedDial

Usually, for this trope to be in effect, the Hero would have to go back to "square one"--[[BroughtDownToNormal being a relatively ordinary and unremarkable person]]. If they still retain some power, albeit only a fraction of what their peak was, then The Call never truly hung up. This trope is meant for the characters who could, at any time, choose to go back to an ordinary life, but steadfastly refuse and [[JumpedAtTheCall Jump At The Call]] once more.

* Alex, the main character of ''[[VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar Lunar: Silver Star Story]]''. He loses his powers near the end of the game, and even winds up deposited right back at his peasant village. Meanwhile, the BigBad is still progressing his evil plans for world domination. In the end, Alex manages to restore his powers and returns to the villain's tower to save the day.

->''"Guess who's back? Back again? Green is back, tell your friend! Guess who's back? Guess who's back?"''

** Ichigo loses the powers he gained from Rukia, only to undergo TrainingFromHell to gain his own shinigami powers. He loses them again later, but TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive and offers to give him his powers back... in exchange for taking ''[[CursedWithAwesome a whole new set of powers]]'' off the Call's hands as a trade. [[spoiler:And then he loses ''those'' powers, too, but the Call won't give up so easily, and ''the ENTIRE set of Captains/Vice-Captains of the Gotei 13 are thus ORDERED to give him all new powers for the THIRD TIME!'' Damn, Ichigo. Why don't you just ''marry'' The Call at this point?]]

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the player party invokes this during one of the MultipleEndings. [[spoiler: With The Hero dead, their TimeMachine destroyed, and every [[PortalNetwork Time Gate]] closed permanently, the party builds their own Time Machine and reunites the old gang to go time-hopping one more time to search for a way to bring their dead comrade back to life]].

** Uryu from the same series provides another example. Early on, he burns out his powers by supercharging them with an UpgradeArtifact. In a {{Filler}} arc, he gets a temporary UpgradeArtifact that breaks at the end of the arc. Then, back in canon, he undergoes TrainingFromHell to regain his original powers.

* [[spoiler:Vulkan]] of ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' seems to have this. Despite leaving in direction unknown ten thousand years earlier, he shows up literally seconds after conditions of his return are met.

* After he quit being ComicBook/{{Robin}}, Dick Grayson had the chance to live a normal life, but he quickly gave it up to become ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}. In the original story, he never intended to have a "normal life". He simply felt it was past time for him to be a "Boy Wonder" and handed the identity over. He simply hadn't decided on what his new identity would be and took some time off to decide.

* At the end of the first season of ''Anime/SailorMoon'', [[spoiler:all the Senshi are restored to life, having forgotten about their powers.]] When the next season's villains shows up, [[spoiler:Usagi becomes Sailor Moon again, but tries to let the others live a normal life. The very next episode, a Cardian attacks and the other girls witness it, and despite having no powers or memories of their time as the Sailor Senshi, [[JumpedAtTheCall they still stand up to fight it.]] Luna promptly restores their powers and memories.]]

See also ChronicHeroSyndrome

*** This got made pretty explicit in the [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary]] episode "Dimensions in Danger", where Tommy possesses a golden "Master Morpher" which lets him morph into any of his Ranger forms while only needing a single TransformationTrinket, and can even change from one form to another without having to de-transform.

* Guy Gardner once had his ComicBook/GreenLantern Ring taken away. Not being the type to just sit around, he proceeded on a quest which led to him stealing Sinestro's ring (to be fair, Sinestro was dead at the time...), and used it for a while. When that got destroyed in a battle with Hal Jordan after he went crazy, he went on a quest for the mythical Warrior Waters, for the express purpose of gaining new powers to continue answering the call. The Warrior Waters resulted in activating his Vuldarian genes, which he learned he had due to an ancestor being part alien, to become [[NinetiesAntiHero Warrior.]] While not quite this trope, due to the powers coming to him, he did explode due to Parallax's meddling, and thanks to that (along with Hal returning to being a Green Lantern), he got his ring back, this time for keeps (sort of). He also had a Red Lantern ring [[ComicBook/BlackestNight at one point]]... oh and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Green Lantern ring at the same time.]] Later, he'd trade in the Green Ring for a Red Ring as part of Hal's plan to infiltrate the Red Lanterns, but as always, Guy returned to being a Green Lantern.

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the player party invokes this during one of the MultipleEndings. [[spoiler: With The Hero dead, their TimeMachine destroyed, and every [[PortalNetwork Time Gate]] closed permanently, the party builds their own Time Machine and reunites the old gang to go time-hopping one more time to search for a way to bring their dead comrade back to life. Pulls double-shift as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.]]

* Guy Gardner once had his ComicBook/GreenLantern Ring taken away. He proceeded to steal Sinestro's ring, and used it for a while. When that got destroyed, he activated his Vuldarian genes to become [[NinetiesAntiHero Warrior.]] When he exploded thanks to that, he got his ring back, this time for keeps. He also had a Red Lantern ring [[ComicBook/BlackestNight at one point]]... oh and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Green Lantern ring at the same time.]]

[[folder: Anime/Manga ]]

* At the end of the first season of ''Anime/SailorMoon'', [[spoiler: all the Senshi were restored to life, having forgotten about their powers.]] When the next season's villains showed up, [[spoiler: Usagi became Sailor Moon again, but tried to let the others live a normal life. The very next episode, a Cardian attacked and the other girls witnessed it, and despite having no powers or memories of their time as the Sailor Senshi, [[JumpedAtTheCall they still stood up to fight it.]] Luna promptly restored their powers and memories.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', [[spoiler:Ichigo loses the powers he gained from Rukia, only to undergo TrainingFromHell to gain his own shinigami powers. He loses them again later, but TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive and offers to give him his powers back... in exchange for taking ''[[CursedWithAwesome a whole new set of powers]]'' off the Call's hands as a trade.]]
** [[spoiler:And then he loses ''those'' powers, too, but the Call won't give up so easily, and ''the ENTIRE set of Captains/Vice-Captains of the Gotei 13 are thus ORDERED to give him all new powers for the THIRD TIME!'' Damn, Ichigo. Why don't you just ''marry'' The Call at this point?]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* This is a regular occurrence for [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]], who constantly sees his latest suit destroyed, only for him to go back to the workshop and create a bigger and better one.

* [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Mary Marvel]] tried this in the ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'' series. ...It didn't quite work out for her...

* Just about every member of the ''ComicBook/XMen'' has lost their powers at some point, and their responses tend to vary. People BlessedWithSuck (like Beast or Rogue) tend to feel heartfelt relief, while others who enjoy their powers (like Angel or Iceman) fall into despair. There's also Quicksilver, who no longer had the mutant gene following the events of ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', so he stole ''ComicBook/TheInhumans''' "Terrigen Mists" to gain new superpowers. HilarityEnsued.
** After ComicBook/HouseOfM, this became the motivation for a huge number of depowered mutants who [[IJustWantToBeSpecial Just Wanted To Be Special Again]]. Polaris joined Apocalypse to get her powers back, Magneto made a deal with the High Evolutionary to get his powers back, Rictor tried to get his powers back but never succeeded, etc. There were even multiple teams of depowered mutants speed dialing the call. One was a ComicBook/NewWarriors team using technology to give themselves new powers, while the other, X-Cell, had characters such as Callisto, Marrow, and the Blob relying on their natural skills to force Quicksilver to restore their powers.

* Guy Gardner once had his ComicBook/GreenLantern Ring taken away. He proceeded to steal Sinestro's ring, and used it for a while. When that got destroyed, he activated his Vuldarian genes to become [[NinetiesAntiHero Warrior.]] When he exploded thanks to that, he got his ring back, this time for keeps.
** He also had a Red Lantern ring [[ComicBook/BlackestNight at one point]]...oh and [[{{CrowningMomentOfAwesome}} Green Lantern ring]] [[{{DualWielding}} at the same time.]]

* After he quit being ComicBook/{{Robin}}, Dick Grayson had the chance to live a normal life, but he quickly gave it up to become ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}.
** In the original story, he never intended to have a "normal life". He simply felt it was past time for him to be a "Boy Wonder" and handed the identity over. He simply hadn't decided on what his new identity would be and took some time off to decide.
* [[ComicBook/AstonishingAntman Cassie Lang]] was Stature of the ComicBook/YoungAvengers, but was killed. When resurrected, she found she was BroughtDownToNormal. She wasn't happy, and eventually got her powers back thanks to a criminal organisation, taking the new codename Stinger.
* Cutter's tendency to constantly Jump To The call was parodied in the first ''ComicBook/ElfQuest New Blood'' special.
--> '''Cutter''': A quest! Happy happy! Joy joy!
--> '''Leetah''': Oh, no you won't! First it was an [[TitleDrop Elf Quest]], then it was a Holt Quest, then it was a [[RuleOfThree Fuzzy Dice Quest]]! You go on this jaunt and your next quest will be for a new lifemate!

[[folder: Film ]]

* Doc Brown from ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture''. Although his greatest wish near the end of the story is to destroy his own time machine, the trilogy ends with him and his family boarding a new one . . . ''[[CoolTrain made from a 19th Century TRAIN]]''.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Tommy Oliver from the various ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' series makes a habit of this trope, having lost his powers around a half dozen times, and getting new ones each time, although there ''was'' a seven year break at one point.
** In fact, it would be possible for Tommy to form a full five man Ranger team of all the incarnations of his powers ''before'' the break, with the after the break, the Black Dino Ranger being once again the mentor and SixthRanger. Granted, there would be two Red Rangers (Zeo and Turbo) and two White Rangers (MMPR S2 version and MMPR S3 Ninja version). This doesn't include his clone, either.

** Jason Lee Scott put the call on speed dial instead to become the [[SixthRanger Gold Ranger]] in ''Series/PowerRangersZeo''.
*** Depending on definitions of "retaining some of their abilities", Billy might have attempted this trope or never hung up the call.

* For ''Franchise/SuperSentai'', most teams just put the call on hold after beating the BigBad, staying ready to return to action if their enemies return while leaving new threats up to the later teams. In ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'', after one massive battle in which every previous hero answered the call, they all lost their powers. Now that they've been found again, and are being used by the Gokaigers, some of the previous heroes (such as [[Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger Kaoru]] and [[Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger the Hurricanegers]]) have tried to reclaim them, one ([[Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman Hyuuga]]) offered to take over one of the new heroes' powers, and others have moved on from superheroism.
** [[spoiler: At the end of the series, all the heroes get their powers back.]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Ben Tennyson from ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' and its sequel series, ''[[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Ben 10: Alien Force]]''. In numerous episodes, he has lost or misplaced the Omnitrix, and fought to get it back. When he did finally retire after the original series, he finds and dons it once more when it's clear that he's needed.

%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/PowerRangers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tommy4suits_5.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-Clockwise from upper right: [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Tommy Oliver]], [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Tommy Oliver]], [[Series/PowerRangersZeo Tommy Oliver]], and [[OverlyLongGag Tommy Oliver]]. Not pictured: [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Tommy Oliver]], [[GratuitousNinja Tommy Oliver]], nor [[Series/PowerRangersMegaforce Tommy Oliver]].-][[note]]Or any of Tommy Oliver's 14 personal zords.[[/note]]]]

->''"[[Music/{{Eminem}} Guess who's back?]] Back again? [[SixthRanger Green is back]], tell your friend! Guess who's back? Guess who's back?"''

[[caption-width-right:350:Clockwise from upper right: [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Tommy Oliver]], [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Tommy Oliver]], [[Series/PowerRangersZeo Tommy Oliver]], and [[OverlyLongGag Tommy Oliver]]. Not pictured: [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Tommy Oliver]], [[GratuitousNinja Tommy Oliver]], nor [[Series/PowerRangersMegaforce Tommy Oliver]].[[note]]Or any of Tommy Oliver's 14 personal zords.[[/note]]]]

[[quoteright:340:[[Franchise/PowerRangers http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tommy4Suits_5815.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:340:Clockwise from upper right: [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Tommy Oliver]], [[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Tommy Oliver]], [[Series/PowerRangersZeo Tommy Oliver]], and [[OverlyLongGag Tommy Oliver]]. Not pictured: [[Series/PowerRangersTurbo Tommy Oliver]], [[GratuitousNinja Tommy Oliver]], nor [[Series/PowerRangersMegaforce Tommy Oliver]].[[note]]Or any of Tommy Oliver's 14 personal zords.[[/note]]]]

->"[[Music/{{Eminem}} Guess who's back?]] Back again? [[SixthRanger Green is back]], tell your friend! Guess who's back? Guess who's back?"

-->--'''Creator/JasonDavidFrank's Official Website/{{Facebook}} Fan Page''', after his return is confirmed for ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce''

-->--'''Creator/JasonDavidFrank's Official {{Facebook}} Fan Page''', after his return is confirmed for ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce''

** Tommy has had a record of 14 zords total: MMPR's Dragonzord, White Tigerzord, Falcon Ninjazord, and White Shogunzord; Zeo's Zeozord 5 (Phoenix), Red Battlezord, and Super Zeozord 5; Turbo's Red Lightning Turbozord[[note]]yeah, just the one, he retired before the Rescue Megazord set came up[[/note]]; and Dino Thunder's Brachiozord, Cephalazord, Dimetrozord, Stegozord, Parasaurzord and Ankylozord. Several of which could be their own megazord. ''Clearly'' Tommy lists The Call on his speed dial as "Personal Taxi Service".

* This is a regular occurrence for [[IronMan Tony Stark]], who constantly sees his latest suit destroyed, only for him to go back to the workshop and create a bigger and better one.

* Just about every member of the ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' has lost their powers at some point, and their responses tend to vary. People BlessedWithSuck (like Beast or Rogue) tend to feel heartfelt relief, while others who enjoy their powers (like Angel or Iceman) fall into despair. There's also Quicksilver, who no longer had the mutant gene following the events of ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', so he stole ''ComicBook/TheInhumans''' "Terrigen Mists" to gain new superpowers. HilarityEnsued.