Chapter Text
The cool night air was chilling, but this didn't bother Henry as he made his way to his front door, stopping before his fingers could brush the metal handle. He backed away, looking back at his watch, his face scrunched at the remembrance. It sickened Henry to think about- more than he would ever like to admit.
He loved Ray, and would never want to let him down, he loved everybody he worked with, God- he loved his job! Who wouldn't? He loved being a protector of swellview, he loved being a hero to all, instead of being a stick-in-the-mud failure.
A failure to school,
To his family,
To his friends.
No doubt they would protest to the last statement. He could never be there as Henry Hart. But, he could always be there as Kid Danger…Always there to save the day. Or was Kid Danger the mastermind behind all mistakes, excuses, and failures for Henry Hart?
Without a second thought, he let his watch fall to the ground.
He pushed through the door, rubbing his face with an exasperated sigh, as he fell back against the door closing it shut.
The pages and letters splayed over the table, couch, and floor were the first to catch Henry's attention, he looked up to find his parents sitting at the couch. His father eagerly read over his wife's shoulder. The click of the front door closing was the only sound in the room to signify his arrival home.
“Henry Hart! Young man, how dare you hide these from us!”
“Hide what?” he tiredly asked, rubbing his temples.
“We went snooping in your room, and found these hidden letters from school! How dare you miss so many days of school!” She exploded, standing up, shaking a letter in each hand for emphasis. Henry's dad, unshaken, mumbling beneath his breath.
Henry, already making his way to the staircase, reaching for the banister like a lifeline. “I know this seems bad-” Henry tried to reason, preparing for the worst.
“Did you know you're not even graduating? Your sister is graduating before you! Your Sister! She's younger than you, and somehow she's graduating and you are not!” Henry's mother interrupted, “My sons a failure!” Henry's father sobbed, making it obscenely obvious what he was mumbling. “My sons a failure!” he shouts again.
“Look what you've done to your father!” She ran over to his father, hushing him in sympathetic tones, “What have you been doing with your life? What could possibly be taking up so much of your time you've missed three years of high school?” she puts a cupped hand to her mouth with a look of surprise, curiosity and disgust mashed into one, “you're not doing illegal substances, are you?” she raised an eyebrow. Before she had another chance to interrupt, Henry stood straight, “Actually, mom, for your information I've been protecting this town. For years. And I'm sorry that I missed so many years of high school. You're not the only one upset I'm not graduating- I've spent so much time protecting Swellview,” he pauses to catch his breath, “even the world, so I'm sorry. But it doesn't matter anymore, because I quit.”
“Henry, what in the world are you talking about? Your job at junk n’ stuff? That's what you're so riled up about?” Henry's mother questions.
“My sons a quitter too!” he groaned, still sobbing, catching the attention of his wife.
“No mom. I'm Kid Danger.” Henry deadpans, ignoring his father.
“My son is a liar!” Henry's father sobs into his hands, sullying the papers with salty tears.
“I am not a liar, annnnnnd I can prove it to you…” Henry spits back, shoving his hand into his pockets, only to be left dumbfounded. “If only I didn't quit.” He groans in defiance of his own actions.
The house is so still, you could mistake it for a picture. Everybody is at a loss for words. Luckily it didn't last, as a dramatic banging echoed through the backdoor, until the glass inevitably shattered, along with the door cracking under pressure into the ground. Henry's parents shrieked climbing off the couch, backs to the farthest wall from the intruder. Henry steps around the staircase, peering around the corner to see the raggedy remains of a man. Like he jumped out of a museum, Henry amusingly thought, chuckling to himself, before returning to the situation at hand.
Staying out of sight from the intruder, he waited for the right moment to strike, and just as the caveman was about to pass the threshold unbeknownst to Henry, Henry's mother in a shrill voice screamed, “Henry?! What are you doing?! Get away from that… uh… man!” Losing the element of surprise, the caveman peeked his head around the corner, only to have a quick jab to the face by Henry's fist. Henry backed away from the corner, preparing for more than a head to punch. Before he could take another step back, another caveman knocked the front door off its hinges,and landed with a deep thud. The caveman gave Henry no time to reposition himself, and brought him into a bearhug, locking most limbs in place. Henry's mother watched in fear, but Henry's father looked smug at the violent intruders, with a notion of henrys ‘Lies’.
“Well,” Henry started with an annoyed smile, “If you're looking for Kid Danger, he actually just quit, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.'' He looked at his parents, with an ‘I told you so’ look.
But to his surprise, his father still believed him none, “you know, I went to the theater school in St. Juilliard, I know a stunt man when I see one!” Henry's father claimed with a finger pointed towards the ceiling, and calmly walked to the caveman standing alone, still beside the staircase.
“Hello! Whatever my son is paying you to pull this-” Henry's father paused, but before he could continue the caveman let out a guttural roar, and swung his hand aiming for his head. Henry's father ducked just in time, and equally as fast backed away, joining Henry's mother.
The cavemen gathered around their victorious companion who captured their long lost opponent. Grunting to one another, Henry decided he'd had enough of this.
“Okay, I'm done here.” He freed an elbow, and threw a blow to the caveman's stomach, allowing himself to be dropped from the caveman's grasp. He took the opportunity to grab the caveman's arm and flip him over before the other cavemen could make a move. He moved his way to the door frame, quickly realizing- there isn't exactly a door to take advantage of. One of the cavemen comes headfirst at Henry, but He easily evades it, the caveman runs through the door frame out to the front porch, and before he can turn around another caveman bowls himself straight into his companion, being made a fool of their enemy.
Henry looks his enemies up and down, knowing they aren't out of the game for long. Henry's parents linger in the corner of the kitchen, Henry's mom with one of the kitchen knives.
“Come on! This way, up the stairs!” Henry's mom obliges and begins to follow him up the stairs, before looking back to find Henry's father walking calmly, still with the notion of a stuntman in use. “Henry, I've gotta tell you, you've found some excellent stuntmen- really.” His lips form an approving straight lined smile. Henry's mother tries to pull him along, eyeing the caveman gaining consciousness.
“They aren't stuntmen dad, please go up the stairs.'' He motions more aggressively up the stairs than before, acknowledging to himself the cavemen outside making their way through the door frame.
Finally Henry's mother, impatient, runs up the stairs without Henry's father, who is still rambling on about the fine art of theatrics, as one caveman starts running at henry. The caveman's hands grab Henry by the side and slam him against the stairs, he grunts and sucks in through his nose kicking the caveman in the face, the caveman bounds back, cradling his face in his hands. Henry turns over to his stomach, crawling up the stairs painfully slow. Trying to urge his father who is intrigued with how Henry faked the blow. “But Henry, how did he fake hitting you against the stairs? Have you practiced this? Is this what you've been skipping school for?”
“Not stuntmen, again. No, and no. Keep moving." Henry grits through his teeth gripping the banister. He checks behind him as another caveman stomps up the steps. Henry turns the corner, and as the caveman follows, Henry gets hold of the wall and rail, and kicks both feet out at the cave man's chest, sending him flying through the railing down to the first floor, knocking out the entire supports for the railing, and railing itself.
“You know, I'm starting to wonder if these are real stuntmen.” Henry's father pondered with a worried face, trying to look over the edge of the staircase, whilst walking to Henry's room.
Henry shuts the door and locks it leaning against the door, taking time to rest. He felt his back for anything abnormal, feeling nothing out of place… he hoped. He isn't a doctor.
“Block the door.” Henry calls to his parents, and like summoned, the cavemen try to barge in, banging on the door, although being unsuccessful. Henry flips a canvas, revealing weaponry. He tosses a round shaped gun to his mother. She catches it, examining the instrument. “How long have you had this here?” she asks, beginning to wonder if his being Kid Danger could really be true, “I told you, im Kid Danger,” he responds, running over to another canvas tossing another gun, more originally shaped to his father. Henry's father juggles it in his hands like it is seething in his hands, “What are these?” he questions, pinching it at what he assumes the least lethal limb of the weapon. “They are blasters, in the case of an emergency, I keep them here.” realization hits him, as he climbs across his bed to… wait for it, another canvas. This one reveals his famous gumballs, “Like these!” he runs to an open space, and pops a bubble into his mouth.
“What are you doing?” his mom asks, but not before Henry transforms into the one and only, Kid Danger. His parents' mouths are agape. With all the commotion, they hadn't realized the stillness in the room, or better phrased, outside the room. “Now do you believe me?” he questioned, wasting not a second to make his next moves. “Wait… so who's Captain Man?” she wonders to herself aloud, “Well if he's Kid Danger, Jasper has to be Captain Man!” Henry's father answers with most certainty.
“Or His boss.”
“From Junk n’ Stuff?”
“Oh my god! And that's where the Man Cave is then, right?”
“Yea.. Mom, you got that pretty much perfectly.” Henry paused to stare in awe of his mother.
“So, Jasper isn't Captain Man?”
“No dad, he isn't.” almost disappointedly, he responds.
Before Henry makes another move, he cues his parents to move from the door. The lock clicks out of place, and the door creaks open to reveal an empty hallway. And a battered door. Henry thinks to himself, there is no way they would just leave, right? And as if on cue the glass to his bedroom window shatters, and a familiar face crawls through the window, his mutant hand scraping across the glass.
“Well if it isn't Henry Hart. sorry- Kid Danger, that's your name, right?”
“Drex.” Henry spits out.
“Mom, Dad, get out of here, call Piper.” he says, not losing sight of Drex. Henry doesn't need to see to know his parents are resisting his command.
“Go-”
“No henry, we are staying, and helping.” She says, earnest.
“Foolish.” Drex snarls
His parents shoot the blasters as soon as Drex takes the first step. Their fingers don't leave the trigger until they recognize Drex completely unfazed. Unlike Henry, his parents didn't know Drex too was indestructible.
“Please get out of here.” Henry begs his parents one last time, looking back to hopefully win them over. They begin to walk back through the door, not breaking eye contact, until they find Drex standing before henry. Henry notices this, and snaps back to Drex.
Drex hits Henry in the face with a quick jab, and sends Henry to the floor, Henry recovers quickly though, wiping a split lip. Henry hits Drex in the kidney, and stomach a few times, but when he tries to strike Drex across the face, Drex catches his fist in his clawed hand. Drex swings him over to the ground, this time Henry does not recover as quickly, and gives Drex just the time he needed, Drex drags him up by the neck and holds him high against a wall. Henry spots his parents peering from out of the doorway, with one last ounce of energy, he kicks Drex off balance and lands on the ground winded.
“Get out, call Piper,” he grasps his throat, “Now!” Before he could say anything else Drex was on top of him, punching him into the ground. Finally Drex climbed off from Henry, leaving him with what Drex deemed enough, for now at least, a black eye, bruising around his entirety of his midsection, (who knows with his back,) and bruising on his throat. Drex looms over Henry, looking down at the ‘special’ sidekick. Not so special, Drex thinks. Henrys fading in and out of consciousness, black dots swirling in his vision, Drexs mouth moves, but he can't hear anything. Henry is only aware of the aching pain traveling through his whole body, he hasn't any time to focus on Drex. he tries to clear his throat, use it, or anything but comes to the conclusion it's no use.
Maybe I should have been listening to Drex, He wonders before a fist flies at his face leaving the world in an empty onyx sea.