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Three years have passed since Henry got his job as Kid Danger. A lot of shit has gone down, which at this point has resulted in a long list of triggers. Not that Henry would admit that to anybody, ever.
Which is unfortunate, because Piper decided that despite knowing Henry was having the shittiest of days, she was gonna play call of duty at full volume, screaming at her tv while an innocently exhausted sixteen year old Henry laid flat on his ground staring at the ceiling.
His first reaction should’ve been annoyance, his twelve year old sister is blasting Call of Duty right next to his room and screaming, of course he should’ve been annoyed. He’s not all that surprised that that’s not what happened.
His first instinct is panic, then duck and cover and he rolls onto his side and covers his ears. Then, it’s protect, and apparently his panic-addled mind doesn’t process that it’s a game and she’s fine because now he’s outside her bedroom.
He slams his sisters door open, eyes wide and chest heaving in panic, the girl turns to him and her tv lets out a death sound and she screams, “Henry, you made me die! I am not okay!” her voice is shrill and just as annoying as it’s been since she first started screaming like that. Henry eyes her tv, which is still playing gunfire from where she’s spectating the match. He flinches, “Henry, get out!” Piper screams and Henry flinches again, turning his attention to her.
He would’ve just left! He should’ve just left! He’s just slow and tired and his heart is racing and he can’t breathe and it feels like someone shoved cotton swabs down his throat and tried to fix it with a life saver only to fail miserably. He doesn’t leave quite fast enough, and something blows up in Piper’s game, and that sends Henry spiralling. Flinching violently and hands going to his ears and falls against the doorframe, sliding down to the floor.
“Kid, get out of there!” Ray shouts from outside, he and Henry were busting some guy who was trying to rob a store and it was just revealed that there’s a bomb in the store.
Henry is very much still in the store, specifically because he wants to try and get the bomb out of said store with minimal damages. Not the best plan in hindsight, he’ll admit. Ray rushed out of there as soon as he could, without realizing he’d left Henry behind– as Ray Manchester is wont to do.
“I’ve gotta find the bomb! We can’t just let their store get destroyed!” Henry shouts, he’s somewhere in the back of the store, from what Ray can tell at least, and Ray curses himself for not keeping track of the kid.
“Kid, that bomb is gonna blow any second, you’re going to get-” he’s cut off by a loud explosion and a scream. Smoke billows out the door and Ray is blown back. He’s on his feet the second the smoke clears and sprinting inside the store, “Kid?!”
Loud coughing comes from the backroom of the store, and Ray rushes back there to see an unconscious Kid Danger and the store owner curled in the corner, “He-He-,” the man coughs, “He saved me,” Ray looks between Kid Danger and the man before rushing over.
“Get outside, this place could come down any second,” Ray commands and the man nods hurriedly, shoving himself off the ground and coughing into his hand. The smoke in the room is thick, and if he wasn’t invincible he’d probably be coughing up a lung..
Henry is coated head to toe in patches of soot and grime, he’s gotbruises and burns all over him and blood is dripping down the side of his head, “Jeez, kid,” Ray whispers, running a hand through his hair before picking up his sidekick.
“Don’t worry, i’ve gotcha,”
“Henry!? I said-!” Piper turns away from her game again, eyes widening at the boy with his face scrunched up in pain on the floor of her doorway, “Henry!” she squawks, closing her game and clumsily leaping out of the office chair to help her brother, “Henry, what’s wrong!?”
Henry lets out a loud sob, hands moving from his ears to his hair, his eyes are wide open now but they’re blank and he stares straight through his sister. He’s sobbing openly– something Piper hasn’t seen him do in, in, well, ever.
“Henry!” Piper says, reaching forward and grabbing Henry’s shoulders to shake him, the sixteen year old lets out a loud shriek and kicks at his sister.
“Ray?” Henry croaks out, the restraining feel of his suit still clinging to him, but there are cold spots that lead him to believe his suit is probably ripped up. He groans when he realizes they probably got in a nasty fight of sorts.
Half of his face, most of his back and the upper portion of his left arm is burning, he can feel scrapes and scratches all over him and he groans loudly, he can hear someone rushing around at that.
“Henry? Henry are you awake?” it’s Ray, and he sounds worried, Henry groans when a hand lands on his shoulder and the hand quickly withdraws, “Henry, can you open your eyes?” Henry squeezes his eyes shut tight before attempting to pry them open.
Opening his eyes is so much more work than it should be, and his left eye almost feels like someone stuck tinfoil onto the lid and super glued it there. His skin crinkles painfully and he whines loudly, resisting the urge to squirm since he knows how painful that would probably be.
“I’m calling mom!” Piper shouts, rushing away from her brother to find her phone, but Henry grabs her wrist when she attempts to leave.
Henry whines and Piper squirms in his grip, but it only tightens. The blonde girl hesitates before crouching down beside her brother once again, “Henry, what can I do?” she whispers, and Henry loosens his grip slightly before wincing and tightening it again, “Henry, do you want me to call Charlotte?”
“Henry, Charlottes on her way here with Jasper and Schwoz, they’re gonna fix you right up, alright?” Jay soothes, “Just stay awake for me, alright? Everything is gonna be okay,”
Henry sobs, reaching out to grip Jay’s wrist tightly. His mom always made him squeeze her hand when he was in pain, and apparently it’s become something he just does.
Jay’s other hand lands atop Henry’s, and the blonde teen tightens his grip. Henry opens his mouth and pulls in a gasp of air, his throat and mouth are painfully dry but he doesn’t think he could stomach anything, including water, at the moment, “Char?” he croaks out.
“Yeah, Charlotte’s coming kiddo, just hold on,”
“Char?” Henry croaks out, eyes closing once again and head thunking against the wall. Piper nods, looking around the room and trying to find a way to get her phone without leaving Henry.
“Yeah, I'm gonna call Charlotte,” Piper whispers, worry evident in her young voice. Her eyes land on her Alexa, and she lights up, “Alexa, call Charlotte Page,” she calls to the device, watching it light up blue, before responding.
“Calling: Charlotte Page,” and then it buzzes a total of two times.
“Piper?” Comes Jasper’s voice, Piper makes a face.
“Jasper? Why do you have Charlotte's phone?” she asks, before Henry whines loudly and she cuts Jasper off from saying anything more, “Whatever, Jasper, I need you and Charlotte to come over, Henry’s freaking out and I don’t know why!” she grows panicked, and there’s shuffling from the other side of the phone.
Piper can tell Jasper shoved the phone against his chest, but he’s still very much audible, “Charlotte, Piper says Henry’s freaking out and she doesn’t know why,” there’s talking that she can't hear which she assumes is Charlotte, before the phone is passed to the woman.
“Piper, kiddo, what happened before he started freaking out?” Piper scrunches her face up at being called ‘kiddo’.
“Uh, I was playing Call of Duty and he busted into my room, I yelled at him cause I died in my game and, uh,” she looks back to Henry from the device, thinking, “Oh! There was an explosion in the game and then Henry like fell into the wall and started freaking out!”
Charlotte lets out a shaky breath, shoving the phone into her hand, “Jasper, tell Ray i’ll be back, Henry’s having a flashback,” is what’s said, and there’s footsteps that she assumes is Jasper sprinting off, “Piper, I’ll be right there, keep an eye on Henry and make sure he doesn’t hurt himself,” Piper doesn’t get a chance to ask what that means before Alexa announces she’s been hung up on.
Piper rolls her eyes before taking a deep breath, “Alexa, what to do when somebody is having flashbacks?”
“Here’s something i’ve found on the web, according to Health.Wa.Gov.Au many people seek counseling because they are experiencing constant reminders of a traumatic event in the form of nightmares and flashbacks,” [Deadass asked her and this was her response] comes the female voice of Alexa, Piper groans loudly.
“Thanks a lot, Alexa! That doesn’t help me at all!” she flinches when her shouting causes her older brother to tighten his grip on her wrist and whine.
“Thanks a lot, Kid Danger!” angry sarcasm is dripping from the store owners voice, KD and CM had returned to the shop that had blown up only a week prior, and the shopowner is pissed, “Ya blew up my shop! I lost everything! My money, my business, my antiques, everything!” Henry flinches at the shouting.
“Look, sir, we tried our best,” Captain Man begins, stepping in front of Kid Danger in an unintentional act of protectiveness, “It was not our fault the bomb went off, in fact, Kid Danger nearly died trying to save your shop from the bomb. You would be dead if he hadn’t protected you, so why don’t you be a little more grateful?” he snaps, and both the shopowner and Kid Danger stare at him with wide, surprised eyes.
“Y-Yes, of course, sorry,” the shopowner mutters, and Captain Man nods.
“Alright, Kid, let’s go get some Nachos,” he turns around, setting his hand on Kid Danger’s undamaged shoulder and guides him away from the shop.
“Alright, uhm, uh,” Piper hums quietly, muttering to herself, “Uh, Henry, Henry, you’re, you’re having flashbacks, none of what you're seeing is real, can you, uh, can you look at me?” she attempts, Henry’s grip on her wrist only tightens.
”Henry, look at me, what you’re seeing isn’t real, alright?” Charlotte calls, her voice firm yet scared. Henry and Ray had been out in a battle and Henry started having flashbacks. He had ended up running away from the scene and hiding behind a nearby building, where Charlotte caught up to him hyperventilating on the sidewalk.
Henry shook his head wildly, dirty blonde hair flying out of his face, “Charlotte?” he whispers, tears pouring from his eyes that are fixated on the ground, “What’s going on?” Charlotte winces.
Ever since a battle from a few months prior, where Henry got his memory scrambled and badly injured. He had later explained he was confused and scared and everything hurt and he only recognized Charlotte nad Jasper. Everything felt wrong and he didnt quite know how to explain the amount of panic it caused.
That was his fourth panic attack on the job. That was his fourth panic attack period. And he had no idea what was going on.
Since then, if something triggers a flashback to that specific memory or sometimes without any reason (about a year later, they’ll realize it’s about five different words that can trigger it) his mind will scramble itself as a side effect from the machine.
“You ran away from a fight because something triggered a flashback, alright Henry? I need you to look at me, can you tell me who I am?” Henry pulled his gaze from the ground and locked eyes with Charlotte.
More tears welled in his eyes and he shook his head again, “No,” his voice is small and he’s scared out of his mind, Charlotte thinks this is a lot like the time he broke his leg in second grade. He looked so small to her.
Piper winces, her big brothers grip on her hand tighter than she expected he could manage. She could practically feel the bones in her wrist being squeezed inwards, and it’s entirely too uncomfortable for her liking.
She absently wonders what the hell is causing her brother to even have flashbacks, he’s never really been one to pick fights or even be around them. In fact, she doesn’t think he’s ever been seen around a fight since before he went into middle school.
The only reason she assumes it’s from a fight of sorts is because the trigger was clearly the gunshots and explosions from her game, but that means he had to be around like.. Kid Danger and Captain Man level fights, and pretty bad ones at that.
Had he been involved in one of them? Was he a hostage and she just never noticed?!
Piper is struck out of her thoughts by loud footsteps sprinting up her stairs and her brother flinching at the sound. Charlotte comes into view a few moments after the noise, “Oh, Henry,” she mumbles, crouching down beside the boy and gently prying his hand out of his hair, “Henry,” she calls to the blonde, voice stern.
Hery shakes his head rapidly, gripping Charlotte’s hand and matching the tightness he’s got on Piper’s hand and the girl winces.
“I’ve been trying to snap him out of it! It isn’t working!” Piper whines, waving her free hand around, “Is he alright?” she says pitifully, eyes welling up with worried tears.
Charlotte spares her a glance before turning her attention back to the tear stained face of her friend, “Henry, what you’re seeing isn’t real, you’re in your house, Piper is here, can you open your eyes for me?” her voice is surprisingly soft, and Piper watches as Henry complies.
His eyes crinkle further, but eventually he does open them, facing the ground. He eyes both of the wrists he’s gripping and his brows furrow.
“Look at me, can you focus on my voice?” Henry’s eyes seem to unfocus and Charlotte rests her hand atop Henry’s and squeezes it gently, “Henry, nod your head if you can hear me,” it takes a moment, but sure enough, Henry nods his head gently, “Alright, good, can you look around you and tell me what you see?”
Henry drags his gaze up from the ground, breaths hiccuping and tears soaking his face still, he takes in his surroundings, looking almost confused and entirely too frightened, “Pink,” he mumbles, “And, uhm,” he clears his throat, closing his eyes, “Carpet,” he shakes his head, “Ray,” Piper’s face scrunches up in confusion.
“Ray isn’t here, he’s at Junk’N’Stuff, alright? He’s safe and he’s with Jasper and Schwoz right now,” Charlotte informs, “Just like you, you’re safe, you’re in your house, Piper is here with you and so am I,” she searches his face for recognition, and let’s out a figurative breath of relief when he opens his eyes again.
Piper looks to Charlotte, fear and worry is evident in her young face, “Charlotte?” she whispers, glancing to Henry, “Is he okay?”
“He will be, just give him a couple more minutes,” she whispers back, “Henry, I need you to breathe and remember your grounding exercises, alright? Everything gonna be alright,” Henry nods minutely, and Piper watches him squirm slightly.
His grip on both of them loosens, and he adjusts himself so his feet are firmly on the ground. After a second it’s evident he’s breathing in the 4, 7, 8 rhythm. Mostly confirmed when he starts tapping on both the girls’ wrists that rhythm.
Piper starts squirming uncomfortably after three minutes, mostly bored but feeling bad for it and not wanting to try and leave her brother. It’s at five minutes that Henry lets go of both of them and shakes his head out.
“I’m good,” he croaks out, wiping the tears from his face, “I’m good now,” he stretches his face out in various ways, before running his hands through his hair. Strands of dirty blonde hair fall to the ground when he pulls his hand away, the girls wince sympathetically.
“Are you sure?” Charlotte inquires, and the boy nods. Charlotte helps him stand, and Piper doesn’t miss the fact he adamantly voids looking at her.
“Do you need anything? Like a water or--?” Piper nervously asks, still unaware of how to help. Neither of the elder teens say anything for a brief moment, and Piper almost thinks she shouldn’t have said anything, before her brother wipes at his eyes again and turns back to her with a strained smile.
“Yeah, that’d be great,” his voice is still cracking, and he sounds completely exhausted, “I’ll get out of your room,” he brings a hand up to nervously rub at the back of his neck, and Piper wishes she could put aside her own selfishness for once, and tell him he isn’t a bother.
Something stops her from doing it, and she just gives him a nervous smile, before slipping out between the pair and making her way towards the stairs. She pauses when she hears the duo begin talking again.
“Henry,” it’s Charlotte who starts, and her voice is almost scolding.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Henry sighs, and Piper can almost imagine him rolling his eyes and going to walk away, which is why she almost starts going down the steps again, when she hears her brothers footsteps. However, they stop, and she assumes Charlotte stopped him.
“No, you don’t,” she replies sternly, “I thought you said you were getting better? That you weren’t having them anymore?” Piper scrunches up her face. You’d think the smart one of his friend group would know things like that aren’t usually a one time thing.
“Well, I lied!” Henry snaps, and it’s silent and tense for a brief moment before he sighs, “Look, I can’t have you, or Ray, or Jasper worrying about me over some stupid thing I can handle by myself! They’re just.. Brief freakouts, and they go away on their own,”
“Henry, you could barely breathe,” Charlotte’s voice has taken on a gentler tone now, and Piper has to take a brief step back to hear everything, when it’s silent for another moment she continues, “It happened in front of Piper,” and Henry inhales sharply, “You need to talk to someone about this,”
And then there’s footsteps, and Piper rushes down the stairs to grab Henry’s water. When he glances down the steps for her, she’s managed to sit on the couch, acting as if she was waiting for him.
He makes his way down the stairs quickly, snatching the water up and purposefully looking away from his little sister, muttering a brief, “Thanks,”
The two don’t share even a glance, and Henry returns to his room with his head down. His sister stays on the couch for the rest of the night, and she isn’t sure why. Maybe she’s waiting for her parents to come home, or for her brother to tell her what happened late in the night.
Do you think he’s up thinking about her? Feeling bad for not telling her?
Probably not..
She doesn’t sleep well that night, or the next, or the next.. It’s never brought up again, and Piper continues to worry, even when she finally discovers the source of the attack years later.