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Kid Danger delivered a strong kick to the door before him. Which wouldn’t have the intended reaction if it were any other boy his age, but hypermotility put velocity on his side. As a result, the door shattered upon impact. Shattered, not splintered, meaning that it was glass - glass that was more than sharp enough to make some deep tears into the sidekick’s suit. “Shit.. I hope Captain Man hasn’t caught up yet..” The teenager hissed under his breath, looking around shortly before entering the room that Dr. Minyak was in. Captain Man had agreed to stay behind and let the kid lead this mission for once. Truthfully, he had no clue why his boss suddenly let him lead their next villain mission. Not so long ago, Kid Danger had been begging the Superhero to let him be in charge of dealing with a villain for weeks, and each time he answered with a stern ‘no’.
Shaking his head, the teenager decided it was best not to overthink it, especially when he had Dr. Minyak waiting for him. Upon entering the room, the first thing that the boy noticed was that the evil scientist was staring at him with an expression that appeared to be a mix between stupefied and distasteful. “Must you shatter that door? No matter how cheesed off you are, there’s no reason for you to botch things up around here!” Those words made the kid blink for a moment, “Cheesed off… English, Minyak.?” By now Kid Danger definitely knew that the doctor loathed being called just his name instead of including his surname of ‘doctor’. In fact, he was purposely taunting the British man. “That is English, you shirty fool!... Henchmen, grab that boy!” Dr. Minyak ordered with a scowl.
Immediately, two men went to grab Kid Danger. Instead of putting in any effort to dodge, the boy attempted to fight them off with his own hands. But the teenager didn’t hit them with his hypermotility, that’d cause far too much injury if a single kick could shatter a glass door. Rather, the kid elbowed one of them in the gut and punched another in the jaw. Which other than making them stumble, resulted in very minimal effectiveness. Each henchman simply powered through and grabbed the teen by his arms, resulting in a position that looked rather similar to the Jolly Beetle incident. “Let go of me! You.. You jerks!” Kid Danger growled, kicking the air.
Dr. Minyak knew that the sidekick was smarter than simply rushing into a fight recklessly and taunting the enemy. It felt like the teen was being almost.. Purposeful with riling these criminals up. Not that it was any of the scientist's concern, this just gave him an easier chance to beat the brat up. “Now what’s gotten you so wonky, Kid Danger? If I didn’t know any better, then I’d say you’re trying to get yourself hurt on purpose!” Dr. Minyak inquired mockingly with a slap, using that chance to take his anger out on the troublesome boy always messing up his plans with Captain man. “What if I am.? Huh? It’s none of your concern anyway, and Captain Man hasn’t noticed yet. Instead of asking invasive questions, how about you invest in some better furniture?”
“Well if you’re going to have an attitude with that, how about you get some more of that pain you’re begging for? Henchmen, go ahead and beat up the lad.” The evil scientist sneered, watching as one of the men threw the teenager into the wall. Those two men cornered the boy, letting go of him just for one of them to kick in the gut. “Oh, how I wonder what this does..” The other inquired before grabbing a beaker full of highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide, not caring for what was in the beaker but just pouring it on the kid’s leg to see what would happen - evoking an agonizing scream from Kid Danger. Just then was some wonderful timing, since that was exactly when Captain Man finally entered the room. Appearing rather cautious when walking through the shattered glass frame of the door. “You’re still here.?” At first the superhero appeared confused, but then he looked around and saw his sidekick up against the wall all banged up. “Kid?!” He exclaimed in surprise, promptly running over to the henchman and dealing with them. Not having time to investigate the boy about his injuries and why the villains didn’t have a dent in them yet, he stormed over to Dr. Minyak.
A moment before he could throw a punch at the man, the scientist quickly let out a startled yelp. “Wait! Before you beat me up, don’t you want to know how your sidekick got himself so injured?” Hesitantly, Captain Man lowered his fist, but still kept the threatening gesture. “There’s nothing more than those henchmen having the upper hand! Don’t listen to Minyak!” Kid Danger had to keep himself from yelling out. “Well now I’m very curious about what Dr. Minyak has to say..” The superhero also purposely used the way that the scientist preferred to be referred to, but just to get on his good side. “Thank you, Captain Man, at least someone has manners.” “Yeah, now tell me about my sidekick being injured.” The hero impatiently ordered. “Right, of course. Kid Danger was purposely getting himself hurt! He was taunting my henchmen, he wanted to get hurt.” Then Captain Man beat up Dr. Minyak and, dragged, or more like, carried his kid off to the Man Cave.
Why hadn’t the hero come to that conclusion earlier? The entire reason that the man let the kid lead this mission was just to see if he was going to keep being that reckless. Now Kid Danger ended up with a severe burn on leg that could have easily been prevented! As much as the superhero wanted to scold his sidekick for his actions, he couldn’t just chide him over an obvious mental health crisis. Besides, guilt was eating at the both of them - Captain Man for letting this happen, Kid Danger for letting his boss find out that he’s been purposely getting himself injured when fighting criminals. Usually the older man would never believe such a claim, from his enemy no less. But this all added up to his latest behavior of acting far more reckless than necessary while he was fighting. If only the hero found out his kid was doing this sooner so he could prevent it.
.
Upon first entering the Man Cave, they both changed into their normal clothes by blowing a bubble. But then Ray carried Henry into the infirmary, part of him secretly glad that no one else saw the two of them. Setting the boy onto the medical treatment table carefully, he handed the kid a medical gown and turned around. “To get a better look at that burn.. You should at least take your pants.. Off.. just put the gown on over the rest of your clothes, I’m trying to make this less invasive.” Now, the man certainly wasn’t a doctor, but no one else here was. The closest they had to a doctor on their working staff was Schwoz, who he planned to call in after this conversation.
Henry reluctantly took off his pants and put on the gown to cover the rest of his body, "You can turn back around now, Ray.” His voice sounded like a mix of irritation but also anxiety, like he was scared of what his boss was going to say to him now that he found out the reason behind his recklessness. Already just from that nervous demeanor Ray’s expression softened when he turned to face the boy. “Kid, if you’re worried that I’m upset with you that’s not true. There’s nothing for you to worry about when it comes to yourself. At most, I’m upset that those criminals weren’t nearly as injured as you, and that you were so reckless. But clearly there’s something going on that I don’t know about. Something that makes it so I can’t be getting mad at you for this.” He put a comforting hand on the teen’s shoulder. Knowing that it was better to soothe the boy than say anything that might distress him more.
As a hero, Ray was qualified in First-Aid, so not only did he at least have some basic knowledge of wound handling, but he knew to calm down the injured person before anything else. Someone who is panicking is not someone who’s able to receive the best possible treatment. And considering that Henry wasn’t actively dying, there was no reason for him not to calm down the boy first. No matter what appeared to be distressing him the most at the moment. If it was what his boss thought of him for this, then fine, Ray would focus on assuring his kid that he wasn’t upset with him for being mentally unstable. What came after would be treating the injury once the teen was stable enough to handle it. “You’re.. Not mad at me for purposely getting hurt?” The young male looked confused, as if it wasn’t a response he could possibly expect.
Just the fact that the kid was expecting his boss to be angry at him in the first place made Ray’s heart break a little. What could that boy possibly be thinking of himself, of what other people think of him, to expect that kind of response? The older man sat behind the teenager, specifically on the side with his injured leg so that he got a chance to look at it, which made him suppress a hiss of ‘that looks painful’, though his eyes certainly showed the sentiment. But the hero quickly turned his gaze to Henry, not wanting to emphasize his pain over his comfort. “Of course I’m not mad at you, kid. I’ll reassure you on that as much as you need, no matter how much that is. That’s not to say I’m not upset at your wounds, at how hurt you got, at how minimal those criminals got hurt in comparison.. But you clearly have something going on, something that makes it so I’m not about to blame those things on you. Something that makes it so I won’t take out any negative emotions about that on you.”
Even if it wasn’t much, those words made Henry feel better, they made him untense and feel relaxed enough to stop panicking. “I still feel awful, Ray.. You weren’t meant to find out about that..” But Ray interrupted his kid before he could keep rambling about those thoughts. “Your feelings are valid Henry, but I’m glad I found out when I did. If anything, I wish I found out sooner so that you didn’t get hurt like this. As your boss, it’s my job to keep you safe, at least considering you’re a minor and I’m a prominent adult in your life - that’s to counter any arguments from you. I want to be a safe adult in your life, Henry. And I won’t try to find out the reason if you aren’t comfortable with telling me about it.” Then the man stood up, putting on gloves to treat his burn.
The entire time, Ray was gentle with taking care of the burn, doing his best to soothe Henry when running the cold water to flush out the chemicals for those twenty minutes. As well as being very mindful of all the materials he was using, making sure not to use regular gauze but rather non-stick gauze instead when he was bandaging the burn loosely. Then he took care of the other scrapes and bruises, a few deep cuts from the glass were concerning but nothing else really. This was just basic First-Aid, the superhero was planning to contact Schwoz about what they’d do later about it. Ray wasn’t going to rush into completely treating the burn, he didn’t believe that his sidekick was in the right mental state to rush into medical treatment like that. “Ray.. The reason I got myself hurt on purpose in those fights was because I felt like a bad friend, a bad sidekick..” Henry admitted after the basics of his injury was taken care of.
That had the older man pause for a moment, but he tried not to let it show - solely for the fact that he didn’t want the boy feeling any worse than he already did. Turning around, Ray wrapped his arms around Henry in a hug, doing his best not to crush him in his grip. “Kid, you’re an amazing sidekick. I know my words won’t magically change your insecurities, but I can do my best to try. And I bet your friends think you’re a great friend too, I personally think you make a great one. But what do I know, I might have a bias from being your boss.” He chuckled a little at the end of his sentence, patting the kid on the back. “Really? But Ray.. I’ve messed up so many times in the past, I even messed up today!” Ray interrupted that thought process too, “Everyone makes mistakes, everyone messes up, even Captain Man. What counts is that you learn from your mistakes and grow, not wallow in your self-loathing.”
Henry held himself back from crying, but his boss had a gut feeling that he was doing that. Knowing from his own experience of holding in too many emotions when someone was doing the very same thing. “Let it all out kid, I won’t think any less of you for doing what you need to do. Holding that stuff in isn’t healthy, and if I want anything from my sidekick, I want him to be healthy. That includes mentally healthy.” Ray ran a hand through the kid’s blond hair and ruffled it while he was crying, never chiding him over it, just holding him as he let it all out. “Thanks Ray.. I.. I’m lucky to have you as my boss, even if you keep hitting on my mom.” It was great that the boy was feeling better, but he immediately decided to jab at him for liking his mom. “I am a pretty good boss, but I’d make an even better dad too.” Oh well, might as well play along with his sidekick while he was in a good mood.
“Sure you make a good father Ray, but I’m not exactly interested in you parenting me after that one time you tried to steal my dad’s spot in the family a year or so ago” Henry was specifically referring to when his mom’s purse was stolen and Ray really took his dad’s spot in the house. “Oh come on kid, you know I was just trying to suck up to your mom.. I’m a much more relaxed boss than that!” Ray jokingly argued, standing back up to playfully hit the kid on the shoulder. “I bet you’d continue sucking up to her if you actually did marry her - which I don’t want you to do, Ray!” There was just a back and forth banter of that for half an hour before Schwoz came in to check on Henry, which is when they decided to wrap it up for now - they can mess around more after the kid finishes getting his wound treated.