Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ray realizes what Henry is about to do when the kid grabs the speer, new confidence in his eyes. He knows Henry is not going to give up when he sees the determination. He reminds him that they are going to go up in a giant ball of fire if they do this, but Henry just shrugs.
He is scared, Ray can see that, but he’s not scared enough. He doesn’t care that this will happen. He doesn’t care that he’s not going to make it out alive out of this one.

But Ray cares.

So he tries to grab the speer, but Henry pulls it away, stubborn as always. How many times had they complained about the other being way too headstrong for their own good?

And now they are arguing on top of a blimp with broken control panels that is going straight for Mount Swellview.

Ray’s been scared many times in the past, no matter how much he tried to act like he wasn’t. But now he doesn’t have his indestructibility to protect him, and Henry has never had it. And Henry is scaring him with this newfound determination.

Deep down, he’d always known that if it came down to it, it would be Henry who would make the ultimate sacrifice. Ray has a lot of regrets in his life, but the biggest one of them might just be his selfishness.

Henry might have a big ego sometimes, but really, he is selfless, more than anyone he’s ever known. Ray would’ve jumped off this blimp and let it crash into the hospital with the babies in a second if Henry hadn’t disagreed with him. He would’ve made it someone else’s problem.

But Henry won’t let him. So he’s trying to steer the blimp into the mountain. To save a city that doesn’t give a damn about him.

Well, technically, that’s a bit harsh. But they’ve saved this city so many times and there’s still not a lot of gratitude for them, they are still not being forgiven for the smallest mistakes.

Ray can’t let his sidekick - former sidekick - die for them. He just can’t.

He tries again to grab the speer, but Henry jumps out of his way, grabbing it tighter and watching him closely. He is not going to just give up.

“You’re not even indestructible anymore,” he yells over the howling wind.

“You never were,” Ray shoots back, frustration seeping into his voice.

In that moment, Henry looks so young. He looks his age. And why was it now that Ray realizes that? What had he thought, picking Henry to be his sidekick? A child?

He’d joked about it before, they all had, honestly, but it was never that obvious to Ray. Now, Henry looks so painfully young, but he’s not as naive anymore as he was when he first started being Kid Danger. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

“ I am the superhero, you are the sidekick,” Ray stresses. It sounds selfish again, like he is trying to be the hero here. Like this is about his image. Like he doesn’t want Kid Danger to get all the glory and attention. And a few years ago that might’ve been true.

But now, he’s just trying to get Henry to leave because he can’t bear to see him go down in a crash he can’t possibly survive.

It’s not fair that they even have to have this fight. It’s not fair that a 18-year-old should even have to consider sacrificing themselves. It’s not fair that he put this burden on Henry’s shoulders when he was just thirteen years old.

But that is what it means to be a hero. To give your everything to save others who can’t save themselves. Even if it means giving your life.

Henry has understood it now. He’s understood it for a while, probably.

Henry’s fierce gaze meets his. “I quit, remember?” And isn’t that just a knife through the heart?

Then Ray attacks again and he manages to grab the speer, holding onto it tightly. He can’t let his kid do that.

No way.

“Swellview needs you!” Henry shouts, loud and clear. His words make Ray pause. Does Henry think that Swellview doesn’t need him? That it doesn’t need Kid Danger?
“Swellview needs Captain Man!”
I need you.

There’s tears in Henry’s eyes and he has that same desperate look on his face that he had when he quit. When he told Ray that he was never ever going to be Captain Man.

Ray remembers then that Henry had given up everything for this job already.

And Ray was so caught up in it all that he didn’t realize that Henry wasn’t going to school anymore, that his kid was changing his mind about the job.

How much had Henry given for this and gotten nothing in return?

It takes everything in him not to yell at Henry, to just drop the damn speer and let him have this. He knows what he’s got to do, so he pulls harder. Henry isn’t weak at all, nor is he ready to give up, but Ray is still stronger.

They wrestle for a few moments, but then Ray has the speer and he’s pushing Henry back when he tries to take it again.

“Ray!” He sees the desperation so clearly on the kid’s face and he knows then that this is truly the end. He’s not indestructible anymore and he’s not going to let Henry do this. “You can’t do it.”

Unshed tears glisten in Henry’s eyes and Ray realizes only now that he’s crying too. The thought of letting Henry go breaks his heart. He’s been trying to protect this kid since day one, has seen him grow up and change.

He can’t believe it’s already been five years.

And to think that he believed the world would end with Henry quitting. No, it ends here, on a blimp high up in the sky. Only one of them can make it and it’s not going to be Ray. Because he’s put himself before Henry so many times, he’s not doing it again.

He’s got Henry’s fate in his hands now and he knows what he’s going to do with it.

He’s going to let Henry grow up, for real. He’s going to make sure that it was all worth it - sacrificing his youth, his teenage years, his education, everything.

“Henry?”

He looks up at him, a dejected look on his face.

"Yeah?"

“I love you, kid.”

And then he activates Henry’s parachute.

The moments between landing on the ground and finding Ray pass by in a blur.
Henry sees nothing, hears nothing but the rushing of the blood in his ears.

They are all there, Charlotte, Jasper, the kids who helped them before, Schwoz. He’s not alone, but he couldn’t feel more alone.
They have all tried to talk to him, get him to tell them what happened and where Ray is, but he can’t answer. Even when he tries, he can’t get himself to say a word.

He’s on autopilot and when he arrives at the place where the blimp crashed, he just starts digging, pushing the rubble out of the way and looking for his mentor. He knows Ray’s gotta be here and yeah, maybe there is no way that he’s still alive, but Henry is not letting him be here alone to be found by the rescue team later on.

He’s still in his Kid Danger uniform. He barely remembers the others asking what happened to it, why half of his mask is ripped off. They kept asking about Ray then.

Their voices are out of focus, the words are slurred and quiet and they blend together in a tangled mess. He doesn’t care.
He just wants to find Ray. He needs to find Ray.

Someone is grabbing his shoulder and trying to pull him back up, but he pushes them off. He doesn’t give a fuck who it was or if he hurt them, no one is going to stop him before he finds Ray.
He doesn’t stop even when his hands start bleeding from all the trash he has to push to the side. He doesn’t stop when the others join in and tell him  they’ve got it.
He’s probably being unfair right now, pushing them out of the way and ignoring them, when they’ve lost someone too, but then he remembers that they don’t know.

He doesn’t stop until he finds Ray.
He kind of wishes he didn’t.
Henry pushes the rubble to the side and grabs Ray’s slack arm. It terrifies him, how he doesn’t move, doesn’t even tremble or twitch when they pull him out. Henry’s finger clutch Ray’s uniform tightly, burying themselves in the dust-covered material. Anguish tears at his heart as he uncovers Ray’s face, so still and stiff. The others are next to him, helping him get his friend out of the ruined blimp, but he can’t help them carry Ray. He can’t let go of him either.

“Henry.” Charlotte’s gentle voice breaks him out of his trance and her hand finds his shoulder, resting softly upon it. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, her voice breaking as she looks at Ray. No, not Ray.
Just Ray’s body.

Henry tries not to lose it when he feels Ray’s wrist again and again only to never feel his pulse. He tries not to scream and cry like he’s never done before when he touches Ray’s face and stares into his dead eyes, feeling the cold skin under his fingers.

There is no doubt now. Ray is dead.
Ray is dead and it’s his fault.
Ray is dead and he isn’t coming back.

Mika’s heart sinks as the realization settles in. She is not that sure why she and the others even followed Kid Danger here, but she guesses she’s in this now too, now that all of them have powers. And when Miles teleported them to the place where the blimp crashed, she just joined them. It only felt natural.

But now she stands there, not knowing what to do, watching the others pull out a slumped figure from under the destroyed blimp. They haven’t been searching for that long, but it feels like it’s been a while.

Kid Danger frantically moved everything out of the way and it didn’t click until just now what they were searching for.

She swallows heavily when they recover the body. She feels like her heart was just pierced by an arrow and now she’s bleeding out. She feels strangely detached, watching this sorrowful scene.

Even Chapa doesn’t know what to say or do as she backs up. They’ve tried to save Captain Man, they really did.

Kid Danger was desperate to find a sign of life in his (former?) boss, but then a girl with dark curls and a blond boy showed up and tried to pull him away from Captain Man’s body. They weren’t very successful.

Mika knows she has seen and heard more than she should have and maybe she shouldn’t have gone with them, but oh well. It’s too late now. She wishes she hadn’t come with them though.
She’s never seen a dead body before, though she still has trouble even thinking of Captain Man as dead.

It’s Captain Man , after all. The guy who always bounces back, who is always okay.

Who always wins.

Mika clings to her brother. Even Miles, who is normally so carefree and calm, is scared. “Why is he not getting up?” Bose asks. Apparently, he isn’t the brightest. Or maybe he is just very naive and doesn’t want it to be true.

She agrees with that. She can’t believe it either, but realistically, no one can survive something like that.

Kid Danger has fallen to his knees, cradling Captain Man’s face in his hands. He doesn’t even seem to notice that there’s people near him. She tries not to listen when he begs Ray - Captain Man ?- to wake up and come back, his pleas obviously falling on deaf ears.
She can’t help but feel like two heroes have fallen today.

“Guys? Can you help us move him?” The girl with the dark hair calls out to them. Mika thinks her name is Charlotte. She looks completely distraught and there’s tears in her eyes too. She doesn’t know what she - or the boy who she thinks is called Jasper - have to do with any of it, but apparently, they are very close to Kid Danger.

She tries to talk to the young hero, but it seems like barely anything gets trough to him.

Mika and Miles exchange a look and she gently nudges him towards the others. Bose looks unsure of what to do, but Chapa joins them without a second thought. The three older teens who sit by Captain Man’s body seem more than exhausted and they are all weary and distressed, but they still try to help. Mika has no idea where the small man with the accent went, but she can’t ask questions now. They’re all gravely silent while they carry Captain Man further out of the rubble. It’s probably very inappropriate to ask children to do that and Mika feels very weird when she touches the hero’s cold, dead body and lifts him up, but she doesn’t dare to step back.

They gently lay him down away from the mess and Charlotte puts an arm around Kid Danger, who slowly seems to focus on them again.

“Henry?” She whispers. Normally, Mika would’ve probably freaked out about knowing Kid Danger’s real name - hell, knowing his identity. He’s only wearing a half-mask after all.

But now it just feels wrong.

Jasper sighs and wipes a few tears away. Kid Danger - or Henry? - blinks at him like he’s seeing him for the first time, and then he falls into Jasper’s arms.

Charlotte joins them with a tearstreaked face.

The moment is too private to watch, so Mika just turns her head away. It feels bad to be here, to witness all of this. The reality of the situation starts to settle in and she feels like crying too.

“Let’s get out of here,” Henry says, very low, but she hears him anyway. His voice is rough and breaks, but they all still listen to him. It seems like he’s gaining new determination, like he’s pulling himself together. He looks more like Kid Danger now, only more serious and with dirth all over him. He clears his voice and dissolves the hug. His friends seem to catch new strength as well. Maybe they are just trying to look tough for them, but then Mika hears the sirens. Of course the police is going to come. They saw the blimp crash down and someone probably called them anway.

“We can’t be here when the police comes," Henry says, sounding so much more like Kid Danger now.

He takes one last look at Captain Man, and then they're gone.

Chapter Text

Henry barely remembers anything from Captain Man’s funeral. It seems to pass him by in seconds. He gave a speech about his boss, spitting big words about loyalty and sacrifice and friendship, but he didn’t get through what he really felt. Words can’t describe the pain.
His friends and family kept him grounded somewhat at least. He kind of wishes that he didn’t reveal his identity to his parents, because now they are extremely worried, calling him every few hours and even reaching out to Charlotte and Jasper to try and get through to him.
Henry keeps ignoring them.

They try to offer nice advice and hopeful words, but they don’t understand what he’s just lost. They don’t understand that it should’ve been him. That he is going to remember and regret that night on the blimp for the rest of his life.

He feels like a shitty friend for ignoring Jasper and Charlotte, and hell, he probably is one. They’re grieving too, but he can’t bring himself to try and comfort them. He’s tried to pull himself together for them, for the team, but once the annoying kids who just kept talking until he couldn’t listen anymore were gone, he couldn’t pretend anymore.
He hasn’t broken down in front of his friends yet, but he also can’t act like it isn’t affecting him. He’s tried to put on a brave face and take charge, but it’s getting to him now.

Days pass by, or maybe even weeks, and nothing changes.

Ray is still dead, the world moves on.

Henry lies in his bed from sunrise till sundown, rarely talks to anyone and just waits. For what exactly, he doesn’t know. Maybe he’s still waiting for a change. Maybe he’s waiting for Ray to come back, barging into his room and yelling like a maniac, “I pranked you, Kid! You didn’t really believe that, right? I’m so funny, man.”

Sunlight creeps into his room and wakes him from his restless sleep as Piper enters. He hasn’t seen his sister all that much in the last days - weeks? - because she’s always busy with college stuff that he doesn’t get to care about. Or perhaps he just never really notices when she’s there.
“Are you gonna get out of bed anytime soon?” She has that voice, the one she uses when she’s about to force someone to do something for her and when they refuse, she keeps nagging them about it until they do it for her. Henry can only blink up at her. Funny. He doesn’t remember ever seeing her so worried when using that tone. She’s only ever looked pissed off when she used it.
She folds her arms over her chest and stares down at him. Henry doesn’t move, doesn’t speak. It seems like all he can manage to do nowadays is open his eyes and stare off into nothingness. He wishes he could tell her how hard it is to even look at her right now. He wishes he could tell her of the pain in his heart, the feeling that something is wrong, that something is missing. He wishes that he could tell her that it feels like he’s drowning and everytime he tries to keep his head over water, it’s pushed into the floods again.

“You can’t stay in bed forever, Henry. Life goes on.”
Piper’s voice blurs into a string of voices telling him that this is not the end, that things get better, that they understand.

Doesn’t she get it?
The world may keep moving and everyone goes about their lives like they did before, but he can’t do that. He sees Ray everywhere. In every smile, he sees his mentor telling a dumb joke that only he finds funny. In every yell that echoes across the streets he hears Ray loudly complaining over something that won’t matter at all an hour later.

“Henry?”

It’s Piper again, but her voice sounds so far away. There’s movement in his peripheral and he notices belatedly that she’s sat down on the edge of his bed. Then, she lightly touches his shoulder. She’s acting all gentle and caring now and it confuses him more than anything. Piper is neither gentle nor very caring. Sure, she’s grown up and learned to be a better, kinder person, and he knows she loves him, but she’s still Piper, after all.
And now she’s here, wasting her time on him, patting his shoulder and looking at him like he’s a lost cause. Which he probably is.

Maybe he could tell her about the gaping hole in his heart. Maybe he could tell her about the waves of anguish that tear at him.

One day he would, maybe. Not today, though. He can’t get any words out.

Wherever he is, Ray is probably laughing at him, recognizing how absolutely pathetic Henry is. He wonders what Ray would do, if the roles were reversed, and it were him that was dead, and Ray’s the one who needs to keep moving?
Ray wouldn’t be in bed all day, right? Ray would be strong for the team, he’d move on, he wouldn’t be such a wreck.

God, he wishes it were him that is dead.

Danger Force is a stupid name, Henry decides.

Charlotte told him about it earlier, when he was actually listening and not drifting for once. He honestly doesn’t understand why she keeps visiting him. Where does she find the strength? He can’t be great company.

She told him that the kids who helped them in the fight against Drex and his cavemen reached out to them. They want to join the team, whatever that means. Probably train their powers and become superheroes, or whatever.
Henry wouldn’t recommend it.

He doesn’t remember what he said back then, or if he even said anything at all. The day is over fast and he forgets about it pretty soon. He doesn’t care all that much what those kids do with their powers. Perhaps he should warn them that being a superhero isn’t that great when you think about it and that they shouldn’t repeat his mistakes, but oh well.

The kids are very persistent, as it turns out. They don’t let up easily. Next time, it’s Schwoz who tells him about them. Yes, Schwoz also comes by sometimes. Henry remembers waking up and actually getting out of bed for a while. He doesn’t remember much else, but he knows that Schwoz talked about Miles being able to teleport and Chapa shooting electricity from her hands, and the vice mayor’s stepson can apparently lift things and throw them around without physically moving them. He would be more impressed and interested if he weren’t so damn tired all the time.

“Come on, Henry. Give it a try,” Charlotte says even though he doesn’t recall what they were talking about. He’s sitting on his bed, looking pathetic and like he hasn’t showered in days - which is true, to be fair - and she sits opposite of him with that look on her face. “It’ll help you distract yourself.”
He wants to ask what she’s talking about, but it’s like his tongue is twisted and he can’t talk. It would take so much effort anyway. His thoughts keep drifting back to Ray and he wishes again that he were here, or that their places were exchanged at least.
Henry doesn’t think he can bear it for much longer.

“It’s your fault anyway,” the treacherous voice in the back of his mind reminds him and he flinches involuntarily.

Charlotte raises an eyebrow. “That bad?” She asks, but as always, she receives no answer. Man, he should really pull himself together. “You need to go out again, Hen. Those kids could distract you from - you know.” She sounds tired and he feels like shit for pulling her down with him. She’s supposed to go to college, to become a genius scientist or something, and here she is, holding his hand because he’s too weak to face the truth and get over it.
Charlotte was close to Ray to, not as close as he was, but she still manages to deal with it and balance the rest of her life.

He tilts his head gently, barely acknowledging her. It’s better than nothing though and she seems to take it. He’s already forgetting what she talked about, but he remembers a discussion about “Danger Force”. It’s still a stupid name, he thinks when his mind clears up a little. But maybe she’s right.

It takes a few more attempts to convince him until they finally manage to get Henry to leave the house. It feels strange to walk down these streets. At every corner he remembers an encounter with a criminal. Hell, he and Ray were busy. No wonder he missed so much school and didn’t even notice it.

His feet take him to Junk’n stuff automatically, though he has no business being there. He feels numb as he stares at the entrance to the store. It’s destroyed, but from outside, it seems simply abandoned. Like nothing is wrong.

Henry stares at the dirty glass front like Ray is going to walk out any minute and he catches himself expecting exactly that. The memories grow stronger and the numbness is overtaken by an overwhelming ache that buries itself deep in his chest.

Henry pulls at his sleeves, distracting himself, and turns around. He can’t deal with this now.

Maybe this was a bad idea, he thinks as he walks down the street, leaving the place behind that had been his second home time for the last five years.

S.W.A.G is on top of a mountain, noticeable from afar and designed in a style that reminds him painfully of the Man Cave. It’s a school, apparently, though he has no idea why Schwoz would buy a school. He also doesn’t get why it’s located on top of some random hill and why he has to meet Danger Force there. As if it wasn’t exhausting enough to get up in the morning.

Schwoz greets him at the entrance and guides him through the empty halls. Henry would never admit it, but the presence of his friend and former? coworker eased his nerves a little bit. He still wished that Jasper or Charlotte or even Piper would be here, but they’re busy with college preparations. Stuff he’ll never have to worry about, he thinks and convinces himself that it doesn’t hurt.
“Ray wanted me to buy this school so that you can go there and graduate,” Schwoz admits quietly when they reach the main hall. The words hit Henry like a train and suddenly he can’t breathe. His chest gets tighter and he forces himself to remain calm, acting like he hasn’t even heard the man. In truth, Schwoz might as well have driven a dagger through his heart. Ray had bought this. For him. So that he’d return and go back to being Kid Danger. Ray didn’t want to be left alone in Swellview while everyone else was leaving. And Henry would have left him behind. He would have, he knows. He already quit, and he knows he wouldn’t have come back. He kind of hates himself for it.

“And now: meet the Man’s Nest. The new Man Cave, so to speak,” Schwoz continues. He’s obviously just as tense as Henry and he has to remind himself that this guy worked with Ray for years too. It must pain him to go on without Ray.

The young man doesn’t trust himself to speak, so he stays silent. He has barely used his voice these past days. He buries his hands in his pockets as they step onto platforms that remind him of the tubes back in the Man Cave. A strange feeling of nostalgia overcomes him and Henry blinks back the tears. He can’t look weak now. He can’t be pathetic.

Apparently, he’s not that good at hiding his emotions though, because he can clearly feel Schwoz’s eyes burning into him as he keeps watching him from the side. He ignores it and calls “Down the tube” like Schwoz had told him to. It’s weird, after thousands of “Up the tube”s and hundreds of crazy elevator rides in that murderous elevator. His mind is drifting again and his vision blurs in and out of focus, like a broken camera. He’s dizzy and shoves down the wrongness that he feels when he goes down the tube and enters the new Man Cave.
Man’s Nest.
Whatever.

They are greeted by four kids, all of them as young as he was when he started, watching them eagerly and anticipating. He hates it already.
The bright, blinking colors of the place sting in his eyes and he regrets ever entering the place. Everything screams Ray, from the colors to the design. He’s also once again reminded of the fact that the Man Cave is gone, and with it all the memories it withheld.
It doesn’t feel right to stand here, without Ray. It doesn’t feel right to stand here at all.

He feels out of place, surrounded by all that he thought he’d left behind when he quit, in front of those kids who have no idea what it’s like. They saw Ray’s body and they know what happened and that it’s all real, and they can still smile at him to brightly that they might just outshine the sun (except for Chapa, the angry girl who’s phone had been stolen a while ago). He wonders how they do it.

“Hey, Henry,” Miles greets him happily, waving at him. Again, Henry hates it. How can he be so chill about this? How can he even bear to look at Henry when it’s supposed to be Ray that’s standing here, talking about teaching them?

He exchanges a glance with Schwoz, but the guy is no help. All he knows is that the kids want to learn how to control their powers and maybe fight some crime on the way, but he doesn’t get it. He isn’t here to teach them or to go back to being Kid Danger. He doesn’t want to be a mentor.

What he wants is for his mentor to come back.

Henry swallows down his anguish and faces them as friendly as he can. He never felt so empty, trying to smile. “Hey, guys. So you want to train your powers, huh? I’m here to help you with that.” He’s trying, he really is.
It still feels unnatural and he sees in their faces that they don’t believe he’s actually there for them. And to be honest, he doesn’t even know himself why he’s here. Maybe because Charlotte forced him to, maybe because he hopes it will distract him from the grief, maybe something else entirely.

Chapa clasps her hands together and the air begins to sizzle, red sparks fly threateningly. “I don’t need to train! Look at that!” The twins share an exasperated look and Henry lifts an unimpressed eyebrow, though his heart twinges at the reaction. He remembers feeling like that too when he first got superpowers. He’s without them now, but he remembers the feeling of invincibility just like it was yesterday. He almost smiles before he also remembers that he gained those powers to fight Drex, and now it was Drex again who took everything from him.
Henry mentally shakes himself and draws a deep breath. “And that’s exactly why you need training,” he forces out. Chapa finally lowers her hands and lets her powers die down. Good thing, he didn’t plan on getting burned today. “How’d you even get those powers?” It’s the question that he would have asked earlier, had he not been so caught up with everything that happened with Ray.

“The Omega weapon gave them different superpowers,” Schwoz explains, looking somewhat proud.
The girl with the dark curls, Mika, if he remembers correctly, sighs deeply. “My powers haven’t shown yet,” she complains like it’s the worst thing in the world, and honestly, he gets it. When he gave up his powers because of Rick Twittler, he also felt like the world was ending.

Still, Henry doesn’t have the energy for this. “They’ll show eventually. Now, we have to worry about your training.”

And that’s how it starts.

Henry forces himself to get out of bed every morning from then on and walks to the fake school Ray bought just for him until he moves there. It’s not just because he doesn’t have to go all the way up there, it’s also to escape his parents. Now that Piper is caught up with her own stuff and they have more time to worry about him. He fucking hates how they look at him, like he’s some sort of mishappened science experiment. It’s understandable though. He looks like shit and he feels like shit.

Henry doesn’t understand why he does this. He hates training Danger Force. He hates being in Ray’s stupid fake school. He hates watching these naive, young kids be exactly like him, all bubbly and excited about becoming a real superhero, only to be disappointed in the end.

He hates all of it and most of all, he hates himself. Still, he stays. He has no idea why, but he can’t bring himself to leave. He could run away. To Dystopia, perhaps. He could fight crime there, away from all these awfully painful memories and the reminders of a different time.

He’s thought about it before, but he’s still here.

Weeks go by and he’s still training Danger Force, preparing them to fight even though he knows he wouldn’t win a single fight now. He used to love fighting crime, but now he just sits back and thinks of Ray all the time, and how this was their thing, but now Ray is gone and Henry can’t live with it anymore.

But still, these kids find a way to make him stay.

Chapter Text

Weeks pass by as Henry trains the new "superheroes" and every time they train, he questions why he keeps doing this, but at the end of the day, their skills seem to improve - little by little, they are working their way to becoming more talented in combat. It's far from great and he is convinced that when he first started, he was better and learned quicker. Then again, they are a big group and he's only one person to instruct them, and all of them have serious problems with listening and following instructions.
Seriously, they get distracted by every little thing.

Henry knows they aren't ready for missions. Maybe he should just tell them the truth; they can never be ready for it because one day, they might get a mission that literally changes everything. A mission that makes you rethink everything  - all of your choices, your past, everything.
He doesn't tell them that in the end because it just sounds depressing.

Briefly, he wonders if they are going to end up like him and Ray.
Maybe they will really become a tightknit group and they'll hang out together aside from the job. And it will feel like a little family. And if that will only be an illusion ripped apart by cruel fate.

He decides not to think about that further. Those times are over anyway. Their little found family is gone, torn apart. Ray's gone and everyone is going their own ways, doing their own stuff, and Henry is left to figure out the rest.
But well, it's not like he has something else to do. After all, he didn't graduate, there's no university waiting for him.

So he keeps training them and they keep begging him for a real fight, not understanding that missions can't be forced. But Swellview's villains don't wait for long.

Maybe they were just waiting to see if Captain Man is really gone so they can take advantage of his absence.

It all starts when a guy keeps stealing stuff; starting with small things like purses, and then moving on to big items from people's houses. Henry doesn't care at first. That's not a superhero's job, that's a job for the local police (although it is debatable whether or not the Swellview police has ever actually done their jobs). He does start to care when the robberies get bigger and bigger, more and more stuff is stolen and every time, the thief disappears like he was never there to begin with.

The kids keep plastering him about it, wanting to be involved.
Henry doesn't tell them when he finds out who the thief is and where he's hiding. Just decides to go there on his own, confront him and defeat him. It's hardly a difficult task. While the man is a master thief, he doesn't seem to be a master combatant and he's alone, so Henry suspects it'll be pretty easy.

And he's right.
It doesn't take much to track the thief down, and when he does, they have a small fight, but it doesn't last for long because the man doesn't know how to swing at all and nearly all of Henry's punches and kicks hit.

Maybe he did a little more than necessary. That kick when the guy was already down probably wasn't that useful. He just has this anger inside, this growing rage, that sits searingly hot in his chest, and he needs a way to let it out.

It's almost like old days, only Ray is missing.
It feels wrong to defeat a criminal without his mentor being there; without having Ray to joke to about how bad the thief's fighting skills are and without having to argue with Ray about whether or not they should take some of the robbed stuff he's found home, because they found it, so now it belongs to them. He smiles as he reminisces and imagines the hero being next to him, doing exactly that. He definitely would have stolen something and then passed it off with a ridiculous excuse.

However, reality isn't like that. It's not blissful and nostalgic. It's harsh and brutal and unfair.

And that's why all of a sudden, there's movement all around them, they hear twigs cracking in the forest and quiet voices. Henry nearly jumps up in fear, but forces himself to stay calm and alert. He's learned that much in all his years of being Ray's sidekick.
They're directly next to a dark forest and on their other side is just the Swellview prison, holding pretty much every villain he and Ray have ever caught.
Henry pauses and gazes into the woods. Maybe it's just prison guards. But then why would they be in the woods?

The harsh prison lights flood the space between the building and the trees and enlighten the two figures on the floor. Henry has the thief pressed to the ground, secure and firm. Still, he has a bad feeling. He's alone and very, very visible - an easy target.

But as it turns out, he isn't the target. And the people approaching them are no strangers or villains.
It's Danger Force, and they all jump out of the bushes at once, running towards them like maniacs, with Chapa igniting the lightning in her palms and Miles teleporting randomly from one spot to another.

Henry actually jumps up now, ready to fend off an attack only to realize they're his co-workers. "Relax, it's just me!" he yells at them, but they are kids, and kids don't listen. They launch at them anyway, yelling and screaming and kicking, but Henry isn't sure who or what they are fighting. Chapa sends her crackling lightning bolts across the floor and before Henry can get out of the way, they catch him. It sizzles on his skin and a sharp pain spreads across his body, forcing him to release his grip on the thief.
"Sorry!" Chapa calls, but it's too late. Henry falls back on the floor, groaning from the momentary pain. It's already fading, but the lightning hit him good.

"Oh no, he's escaping!" Mika's scared voice echoes through the clearing and Henry whirls around just in time to see the thief get up and start running away. Miles teleports into his way, but before the boy has the chance to act, Henry knows it'll all go to shit now. The thief barrels straight into Miles and they get into a fist fight that doesn't actually bear much resemblance to a real fight, and then Mika is screaming.

She's yelling at the top of her lungs for the man to let her brother go, so loud that Henry has to cover his ears. He gets it, really, he does. If it were Piper, he'd feel the same way. Still, he'd act differently. He shakes his head disapprovingly. What a bunch of useless heroes, he thinks grimly.
Once again, he wishes for Ray to be there. His mentor may not have had the greates morale compass, but at least he could handle villains. Most of the times, at least.

Then, something really weird happens.

Mika is still yelling, but it feels different this time. When Henry looks towards her, he gapes. The floor starts shaking and an invisible force seems to brush over the clearing, crashing into everything in its way and sending both Miles and the thief rolling on the ground.

It's like she unleashed some kind of force that destroys whatever it hits. And, unfortunately for them, it hits the wall of the prison. Henry can only watch in horror as the wall starts to crumble and the bricks fall to pieces, dissolving into a pile. A giant hole gapes in the wall, with disturbing darkness inside.

Mika stops screaming and just stares in both awe and shock.

"The hell did you do?" Chapa asks, eyes wide and mouth open. The other girl doesn't say a word, but her lips twitch into a small smile. She doesn't seem to get it at first, but then she full on grins like she just won some big price and announces, "I got my superpower! I've found my superpower!"
Time seems to stop for a moment. The reality of the situation seems to completely pass by the four teenagers.
They all start yelling and clapping and celebrating at once, glad that Mika has finally figured out her powers and how to use them.

They don't even notice the people that slowly start climbing out of the hole in the wall, discovering freedom once again.
Henry gets up from the floor, mouth set in a grim line. It's all of them. All of Swellview's villains from the last five years.
All the villains they successfully got into prison - Frankini, the toddler Jeff, every single one of them. They crawl out like rats out of a sewer, and he just knows they're gonna problems again.

Only this time, Ray isn't there to help and Henry doesn't have superpowers and he's stuck with four pretty much useless sidekicks with powers they can't control.

"Guys," he calls out to the kids and steps in front of them when the villains notice them. Actually, he should just leave and let them deal with this on their own. They wanted a mission, after all. Besides, it's their fault for releasing them in the first place.
The anger rises once more; stupid, annoying anger. Because all those villains - Ray put into prison. Fought for that and worked on that for years. And Henry too. Hell, Henry gave up his education and career to get these people behind bars; he sacrificed whatever he had for this job, with the sole goal of putting these guys away. And within a single minute, they're all free and all of Henry and Ray's work is gone. Evaporated. Worthless.

He has to push his fury down - but definitely reminds himself to chew them out later - because some of the villains charge at them. Most of them leave, not wanting to be caught by security guards who are likely to show up any minute.
But others, they run towards them, recognizing the person who helped put them into prison.

"I'm sorry," Mika cries out when she realizes what she's done. The initial shock and happiness about her newfound powers has died down and everyone turns serious. The kids only recognize their situation when it's almost too late. A woman charges at them. Henry barely remembers her name or anything about her, but knows that they've fought her. He's pretty sure that woman swore revenge on them because Ray kept mocking her hairstyle or something.

Henry lifts his fists and is ready to charge into battle, but it's basically one person versus everyone else; even the kids are not really on his side. They seem to be causing more problems than the actual villains. He takes note to complain about that to Charlotte, but he doubts she'll see it the same way he does. She thinks he looks better since he started working again; says it's good for him to interact with others and fall into old patterns. He isn't sure he can keep that up for long, but it'll have to do for now.
Besides, it keeps the others from worrying to much about him.

"Down!" He yells when another villain attacks them and he catches the man's fist in his own. Henry kicks the man back while Bose does some telekinetic stuff that makes the angry woman fly a few feet in the air. The others have ducked as to not get hit by the man who launched at them. Chapa sends out electric bolts, but Henry makes sure to stay away from her. Getting shocked didn't feel very good.

"Behind you, Kid Danger!" Mika warns and before he can think too long about the name and who last said it to him, he turns around just in time to see one of the toddler's goons run straight at him, ready to strike him down. And he definitely would have gotten Henry.

If Henry hadn't suddenly been encased in some sort of big, translucent, green screen. It warps around him like a protective layer and the villain bumps into it like it's a brickwall. The shield crackles and crumbles and then it's gone, but the shock stays deep in his bones.

He's got superpowers, he realizes as he fights off the remaining villains on autopilot.

"Dude, you got a forcefield?" Miles yells in surprise, but the voice passes him by.

He moves like the moves are ingrained in his brain, like he has never done anything else in his life. But his thoughts never once stray away from that green shield. The shield that kept him safe just now, that wrapped around him and protected him from any outside harm.

The fight is over quickly despite some more power mishaps, and Henry's green shield doesn't show up again.
They have a lot more villains to catch and put back, but first, they're gonna go to the Man's Nest and he's gonna tell them to never do shit like that again.

But when they start to go, his legs feel like jelly and he has that awful sinking feeling in his stomach. Because he tries not to ponder it too much, that can't be good, but he just keeps wondering:

Would the forcefield have saved him if he'd taken the blimp down that day? And wouldn't that mean that Ray had died for nothing, because if Henry had done it and saved Ray, he also would have survived?