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As he heard the line come to abrupt stop and the voices of Charlotte and Jasper disappeared, Henry knew he had signed his life away. Never would he had thought that he’d be in this situation, but here he is. Standing on a blimp heading straight for his death.
“This is not gonna feel good!” He sheepishly yelped, staring death straight in it's cold, dark embrace.
Hopefully he’d be remembered as a hero. Well, he’d literally saved all their butts by sacrificing himself. He was definitely gonna become the town’s local ghost if he didn’t at least get a statue or something. Sweat dripped off his brow as he instinctively curled back and braced for impact while still holding on tightly the blimp’s ropes. His ribs ached as his breathing picked up.
He suddenly heard a loud whoosh through the air and felt something collide with his front with a squawk. He opened his eyes just to see a seagull whooshing back behind him.
“Wait, what?” He blurted out, smiling in confusion. Although the abnormally high seagull had collided with him at full force, he only felt the collision and felt no pain. He looked down to discover that nope - no impact. Maybe that had to do with the green glow that randomly just encompassed his body. Henry, though, quickly dismissed whatever that was and continued steering the blimp into Mount Swellview. The mountain got closer, closer, closer while Henry’s heartbeat increased tenfold. This is it. He was actually going to die. At least he were gonna die a hero. Tears he didn’t know were coming fell from his eyes, he was going to die.
He remembered his parents, the ones who raised him. Although they sometimes hadn’t been the best parents in the world, they still cared about him and Piper. In the last time he'll ever see them, they showed their love and proudness for Henry. He’ll miss them.
He remembered Schwoz, the loveable goofball science nerd who took care of Henry whenever he was injured. Henry looked up to Schwoz, both as an inspiration and as a sort of person to lean on when Henry needed help or advice. He'll miss him.
He remembered Piper, his one and only sister. The two always had trouble getting along, but deep down they still cared so much for each other. From the moment his little sister was born, he swore he would protect her from anything. He hopes he didn’t fail as an older brother to his hot-headed sister. He’ll miss her.
Jasper, one of his best friends. Although he wasn’t the brightest (by a large margin) he was consistently there for Henry. He acted as a motivation whenever he wanted to give up, someone to fall back on when things failed. He’ll miss him.
Charlotte, basically the only reason everyone back in the man cave is still alive and functioning. The girl who he’s been able to rely on for so many years and vice versa. At his lowest points in his life, that girl was always there as a shoulder to lean on. He’ll miss her.
Ray, Captain Man, Cap, whatever names they’ve come up for him over the years. His mentor-slash-father figure. The last face he’ll ever see. His hero. They’ve had their ups and downs over the years, especially since recently. But, no matter what happened between the two, Henry still loved him. On one hand, Henry knew Ray would be devastated and would most likely blame himself for his sidekick’s death. He prayed that wouldn’t be the case. On the other hand, he would technically be his sidekick for the rest of the life. Despite everything, he’ll miss Ray.
Henry let out a broken sob and struggled to stay on his feet as the blimp descended downwards. So this was really it...
He sucked in a deep breath, closed his eyes, held the ropes tight and braced himself for his death.
He didn’t even scream when the blimp crashed into the ground below.
~~~~~~~~~
…
……
….?
What?
Henry felt his fingers twitch. His ears rung.
He felt the ground underneath him.
…
He was…still alive?
He immediately opened his eyes and sat up as smoke entered his nostrils, the sudden movement making him dizzy. He began to cough violently as he looked around and saw nothing but flames. Whatever spirit or God that saved him didn’t seem to be able to prevent smoke inhalation. As he looked around, he was surrounded by adorning flames and near molten ground.
He let out a wheeze and slowly made it to his feet, letting out a groan as he did so. His coughing picked up as the flames slowly came towards him. Henry looked around desperately before singing a small pathway where the flames couldn’t reach. “I’m definitely going to *cough* die now..” He muttered under his breath, his voice faint.
He ran through the flames.
He kept his hands over his mouth as he ran, desperately clinging onto survival. He didn’t even realize he was out until he reached near the end of the Swellview mountain. He let out a wheezy breath and quickly checked himself over. No injuries again. Even after running through flames? Even after literally crashing into a mountain? Yep, it definitely had something to do with his green force field. He held up his wrist to look at the green glow of it and closed his eyes and relaxed his body.
The next time he opened his eyes, the green glow was gone. His knees also happened to fall under him.
His body limply rolled the few feet down the rest of the mountain before his back landed on a sturdy tree. He let out a miserable groan as he now felt a stabbing pain in his left ankle. He choked on a groan as he barely managed to lean up against the tree. Fatigue was flowing throughout his body like a tidal wave and he closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to ground himself. Henry let out a pitiful sob as he wheezed. And then a pained whimper at the jostling of his probably sprained ankle. Great, one new thing to the series of unfortunate events.
Despite the pain in his lungs and ankle, plus the fatigue in his bones, he had to get up. Half his mask was uncovered. He didn’t want to have to deal with anything else today. He shakily lifted himself off from his right foot and put his left hand against the tree. When his knees threatened to buckle again, he put most of his weight against the tree and sighed. He flinched when he heard the crackling of his earpiece. A voice? He must’ve not heard it before due to the ringing in his ears.
“Kid, I’m approaching the base of the mountain now. Please tell me you can hear me.”
...Ray?
Henry immediately lifted up his available hand to his ear piece and spoke, “Ray? I-I can hear you.”
No response. The thing that allowed him to communicate back to Ray must’ve broke from the fall.
“Kid…, where are you?”
Henry’s heart ached at the pain of his hero’s voice.
~~~~~~
“Kid…, where are you?” Ray breathed somberly, praying for a response.
When Henry pulled the chord on Ray’s parachute, he felt his heart stop. He half considered taking off the parachute and falling to the ground, but inside he knew it was just plain stupid - there was no way he’d be able to reach Henry when he was dead, splat on the ground. He didn’t want anyone else to die today, no matter how much guilt gnawed at him. He watched helplessly from a nearby building he had landed on as the blimp devolved into a ball of fire.
“Oh god..” He shakily gasped before quickly taking out his communicator. “Kid?! Are you okay?”
No response.
Ray’s breath hitched as he practically flew down the stairs of the building. How could he had been so stupid? Letting Henry pull the chord to his parachute when he wasn’t focused enough. On one hand, he was infuriated - his sidekick pulling a dirty move when they were getting all emotional. On the other hand, he was so proud of his kid’s improvement.
As he exited the building he took another quick glance at Mount Swellview. It was basically blown to bits. He continued to race towards the mountain.
Ray remembered his argument with Henry back at the man cave. How in the world could he do that to Henry? His sidekick, his protege, his family . Henry was most likely dead.
He shouldn’t have ever treated Henry that way. He saw the look on the kid’s face when Drex threw Ray off. Henry cared about Ray so, so much. He was his hero. And Ray failed him. He failed as a mentor and he failed as a hero. Dang it, he was even asking himself if he even should’ve hired Henry. The kid put so much effort into this job, so much time on his hands the point he was willing to sacrifice his life for it.
He remembered Henry’s last words before he pulled the parachute. “I love you, buddy.” Just as Ray was about to respond, Henry sent him on his way. If he was dead…Henry would never know how much Ray loved his kid just the same.
As he reached the base of the mountain, he felt himself start to lose hope. He grit his teeth and clenched his fists and let out a half-suppressed sob. A few tears dripped down his face against his will. Henry, his kid was…
Ray suddenly heard footsteps to his left, but was way too out of it to care. He didn’t care that his mask was off and his identity would be revealed. Henry died for Christ’s sake. He-
“R-Ray…?”
Ray felt his eyes widen as a whipped his head around.
“Henry…?”
The kid seemed exhausted. His eyes were half-lidded and his face was abnormally pale. His breaths were wheezy and uneasy and he gripped tightly onto the left side of his torso. He was swaying dangerously on his feet, favoring his right foot as he trembled uneasily. Bruises had started to form on his left eye and his neck and jaw, but he seemed relatively unscathed considering what had just happened.
Definitely didn’t look like he'd crashed into a mountain at full-force.
Ray’s breath hitched as he slowly took a step forward. He could feel more tears forming in his eyes as he reached up his shaky hand to gently graze Henry’s cheek. “I’m okay.” Henry smiled, his voice weak. Ray practically lunged at Henry, tackling them both to the ground. They both didn’t seem to mind, though, as they wrapped their arms around each other.
Ray could feel tears soaking into the crook of his neck. “I love you too, kid.” Ray whispered, squeezing his sidekick as tight as he could.
Henry let out a sob as he struggled to suck in a breath. “I’m sorry,”
Ray softly shushed his sidekick as he gently flipped them over so Henry was splayed out on top of him. Henry let out a whimper as his ankle was jostled and clutched Ray’s shirt. “You have nothing to be sorry for.” Ray admitted, reaching up his hand to gently stroke Henry’s hair and let out a chuckle with no humor behind it. “I should really be the one apologizing.” He felt Henry shake his head minutely before falling limp into his boss’s arms, threatening the hero to tremble. As the adrenaline eased out Henry's bones, it left only exhaustion.
"I'm really sorry for everything, kid." Ray muttered, struggling to get the words out of his mouth. "I'm sorry for always being an egotistical maniac. I'm sorry for the fight we had back then. I'm sorry for being insensitive when you weren't feeling good. I'm sorry I let you leave yourself to die. I'm sorry for all the pain and exhaustion and struggles I've forced you to dealt with over these six years. I'm so sorry for not giving you the life that you deserve, Henry."
Ray felt Henry tense up, the hero let a few tears escape his eyes. "I'm sorry, kid."
Henry shook his head, "Out of all the things I regret over the years...I could never regret becoming your sidekick."
Ray's breath hitched at the words. What did he do to deserve Henry? Ray tightened his grip on his kid and let out a shaky exhale. "I'm proud of you, Henry. So, so proud."
Henry let out a half-painful-half-happy sob and curled in tighter towards the man he had always considered to be his guardian.
“Are you okay?” Ray hesitantly asked after a moment of silence, his voice trembling, “You sure don’t look like you crashed into a mountain.”
Henry paused for a moment before bending his knees towards Ray. “L’ll be alright.” He shoved his face into Ray’s chest, “Are you okay?”
The man in question sighed before ruffling Henry's hair. “As good as I can be, kid. What’s going on with your ankle?”
“Fell down the mountain.”
“…Did it hurt?”
Henry snorted, “What do you think?”
“Well, you survived crashing into a mountain, why wouldn’t you survive falling down a mountain?” Ray said, letting out a small laugh.
Henry smiled and relaxed further into his hero. He paused for moment and his smile slowly disappeared and he blinked slowly, “I’m tired, Ray.”
Ray closed his eyes and moved his hand from Henry’s hair to the back of his bruised neck. “I know, Hen. I know.” Loud sirens began to blare in the distance, making Henry flinch, hard. Ray gently shushed him before eyeing the red and blue lights in the distance.
“We gotta go..” Henry warned in a raspy voice, letting out a grunt as his most likely broken and/or cracked ribs were jostled as Ray shifted. “You don’t have your mask on. If they were to recognize you…”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Ray soothed, “I’m gonna take you back to your house, okay?”
Henry’s eyes widened at his words and he curled up impossibly closer towards his boss. “Please- please don’t leave.” Henry whispered, tears welling up in his eyes again.
“Woah, woah, don’t worry, kid. I’m not gonna leave you.” Ray eased, “Can I pick you up?”
Henry eventually nodded slowly and Ray kept his right arm under Henry’s back and moved his left arm under his knees.
“1..2..” Ray took a deep breath and lifted Henry off the ground as gently as he could.
Henry let out a pained groaned and shoved his face further into Ray’s neck. He let out a small whine as he trembled which made Ray’s heart break just that little bit.
“I’ve got ya, kid.” Ray comforted, tightly squeezing Henry’s body - which seemed so much smaller when he was in Ray’s warm embrace. When Henry stopped squirming in his hold, Ray slowly and steadily began to walk away from the scene.
After a few moments, Ray felt his kid relax into his arms. “I think I’m gonna fall asleep…” Henry sleepily murmured.
“That’s okay.” Ray smiled, “L’ll be here, Henry. No matter what.”
He felt Henry smile against his shoulder before hearing his breathing mellow out. Ray held Henry as tightly as he could and sighed. They would have to patch up Henry's various wounds when they got the chance. Henry let out a wheezy breath. What the hell were they gonna do? Henry couldn’t keep going like this. He couldn't keep sacrificing everything he has for this job.
When Henry made a soft noise from the back of his throat, Ray knew his decision had already been made. It was time for his kid to be free.