Chapter Text
Captain Man and Kid Danger raced through the trees, trying to catch up with the criminal of the week. They were making progress, slowly closing in on Scott, who had robbed multiple gas stations, but they were never quite able to get close enough to apprehend him and they were both starting to get frustrated. Because of their frustration, they didn’t just want to let him go and catch him another day. But as they went deeper and deeper into the Swellview Forest, they were starting to consider backing off. Mostly Henry, who was starting to feel the effects of his exhaustion.
Ray was torn between feeling elated at the action and discouraged at their lack of progress. They’d probably been chasing the guy for at least half an hour, and they had still yet to catch him. Whoever the criminal was, he must’ve known the forest pretty well if he was able to evade them for so long.
Ray leapt over a rock, nearly tripping on a tree root as he landed. He shouted behind him to Henry, “Watch out, Kid. Don’t trip on the root.”
A few seconds later, Henry responded, sounding out of breath. “Thanks, Cap.” Henry swallowed hard and panted another gulp of air. “Hey, Man, do you think maybe we should call it? Head back to the Cave?”
“What?! Are you kidding?” Ray shouted back, trying to sound as playful as he could. “Look, we’ve almost got him!” Ray pointed forward, where Scott was running about 50 feet ahead of them.
“I know, but-” Henry took in another mouthful of air. “I haven’t eaten much today, and I- I probably would’ve thrown up already if there was anything in my stomach...”
Ray’s sprint slowed a bit as he looked behind him towards Henry, who was looking pretty rough. Honestly, Ray was impressed he was still able to hold a conversation. He was pale, sweating, practically gasping for air, and it looked like he was a few seconds away from collapse. Not that he would—Ray knew Henry would rather eat tuna salad with celery than show him any sign of weakness—but still. Henry was not looking too good.
Ray briefly weighed his options before making a plan. “Alright, Kid. How about I run up ahead to cut him off, and you keep doing what you’re doing. Try to steer him towards me if you can.” He didn’t wait for a response before he kicked it into overdrive and sped up. Sure, he was getting pretty tired too, but if pushing himself a bit more than he was comfortable with was what got Henry able to rest sooner, he’d gladly run himself into the ground. Besides, he was Captain Man. He’d be okay. Henry was just a kid. (Sure, a kid with a pretty cool super power, but still just a kid nonetheless.)
As Ray dashed ahead, he was able to find a route to take that allowed him to get ahead of Scott without him noticing. Ray continued to run, ignoring the ever-present exhaustion threatening to take him over. He kept needing to remind himself that this was for Henry, that he was emptying his own fuel tanks to keep Henry from emptying his. He was a superhero, after all, so saving people (including his sidekick) was kinda his thing.
Once he felt he was in a good enough position to cut off Scott, Ray started closing in. Ray did his best to avoid stepping on any leaves or twigs as he neared his target, but it was a bit difficult to dodge small debris on the ground when he was in a dead sprint. Even if Scott had heard Ray’s approach, it didn’t register until Ray was close enough to tackle him.
To Scott, it seemed as though Captain Man came out of nowhere. Ray had practically just appeared from behind a tree and leapt out to body slam him. As their bodies collided and they both experienced the sudden halting of momentum, they smashed into the ground and ended up rolling down a small hill together. It wasn’t enough of a hill to do too much damage to Scott, but it was still significant enough to keep the pair on the ground for a second. Ray recovered first, obviously, and quickly righted himself to put the cuffs on the guy.
As Ray worked to secure the restraints, he looked around for Henry. Where he had rolled, he couldn’t see the trail he’d been on a few seconds ago. He watched through the trees for a second, hoping to see a bit of movement or the bright red of Henry’s uniform, but he couldn’t see anything. Ray pressed a finger to his ear, activating his comm. “Kid Danger? Kid Danger, do you copy?”
Static.
Scott laughed from where he was still cuffed on the forest floor. “Your ear pieces won’t work this deep in the forest, Cap.”
Ray rolled his eyes at Scott’s demeanor, but he was grateful for the information. While still pressing Scott into the ground with his knee, Ray cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Kid Danger!”
He waited for a few seconds, listening for a response.
When no response came, Scott chuckled again. “Maybe a bear got to him.”
“Shut up.” Ray stood from the ground and dragged Scott to his feet. Ray scanned the surrounding area, looking for a meadow or a clearing of some kind where radio signals could break through. As he searched around, he noticed the dark clouds starting to roll in. He remembered Henry mentioned something about a big storm blowing in because of a cold front or something.
Eventually, Ray saw a clearing in the trees. It wasn’t big, but it was big enough to get a signal to call Schwoz and request the Man Copter show up to take everyone back to base. He dragged Scott with him towards the clearing, barely listening as Scott complained about anything he could. (His cuffs were too tight—no they weren’t, Ray made sure. His shoulder hurt—not much Ray could do about that at the moment. He was tired—so was Ray. He wanted something from Nacho Ball—not many of those around at the moment.)
Ray made it to the clearing and called Schwoz over the comms. He briefly explained the situation—how he needed the Man Copter to pick up him and Scott, how Kid Danger was missing, and how there wouldn’t be enough room to land so Schwoz would need to lower a rope and harness—all while quietly hoping Henry was somehow able to hear the transmission too. Ray gave Schwoz their coordinates, and Schwoz promised to be there in a few minutes.
Those few minutes were spent with Ray constantly scanning the trees around, looking for Henry, and Scott loudly complaining about anything he could think about, just to get a rise out of Ray.
Schwoz flew the Man Copter over the pair and lowered the harnesses. For as annoying as Scott had been this whole time, he surprisingly got in the harness without much resistance. Schwoz started to lift the pair into the helicopter as he flew up and away from the Swellview Forest and toward the Man Hangar.
Once they got back to base, Ray made quick work of getting Scott into one of the holding cells before he headed for the main room of the Man Cave, hoping to call an emergency staff meeting. Luckily for him, Schwoz had read his mind and already gathered all the staff: Charlotte and Jasper sat on the couch, confused and anxious, especially after seeing that Henry wasn’t with Ray; Bork and Laylani stood near the Sprocket, awaiting instruction; and Schwoz lounged in the computer chair, waiting for Ray.
Ray sighed and ran his glove through his hair, trying to come up with a plan on the fly.
/\/\
It took far too long for Henry to realize that he was alone. Maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t eaten much the past few days, maybe it was because all the trees looked exactly the same. Somehow, Henry had ended up lost and alone in the middle of nowhere, with no phone to guide him and no friends to lean on.
“Alright, Hart.” Henry spoke out loud, hoping to keep his thoughts in order. “I know you weren’t the best scout growing up, but you’ve got to remember something, right?”
Henry looked around, hoping something would spark his imagination and give him something to do. He knew one of the best things to do was stay where he was. If he wandered too far from where Ray had last seen him, it probably wouldn’t end well. Henry decided on an area, a relatively small patch of even ground where he could set up camp for the night (and hopefully not any longer than that).
Henry knew one of the most important things for him to do was make a fire. The fire would help keep him warm throughout the night and also help alert potential rescue to his location. He found some small twigs nearby that were the perfect size for tinder, and he gathered them together in a small pile on a patch of dirt. He also found some small sticks that could work as kindling, and he arranged those on top of the tinder so the fire would burn well. It took a bit more searching to find some pieces of wood that would work well as fuel, but he eventually found some small logs that could work.
With everything arranged how he was pretty sure it should, he pulled out his laser and aimed at the tinder. Luckily, his aim was good and the setting on the laser wasn’t too strong, so the tinder caught on fire and didn’t explode. The fire quickly spread from the tinder to the kindling, and then to the fuel. Henry watched for about a minute, making sure the fire wasn’t likely to spread past the dirt patch and cause a forest fire. The wind wasn’t too strong where he was, despite the cold front moving in, so Henry was pretty confident he wasn’t going to be the one to destroy a forest.
After admiring his work for a second and absorbing as much of the warmth as he could, Henry decided his next biggest issue would be shelter. He didn’t have any tarps or blankets or anything, but he seemed to recall watching a YooHooTube video where someone made a wall-thing with sticks and mud and grass and stuff, and a bed out of grass and leaves. Seeing as that was his only option, he set out to find as many suitable sticks as he could.
While still being mindful of his fire, Henry walked around the immediate area in search for a few sticks long enough to be the supports to his shelter. He found a few next to each other that would be the perfect size, but as he leaned down to pick them up, his eyes briefly lost the ability to focus and he couldn’t quite get his knees to agree to keep him upright.
Henry collapsed on the ground near the sticks he was trying to grab, suddenly reminded of the exhaustion that just overtook him. “Oh, right. Forgot that was a thing.” Henry chuckled to himself, hoping to dispel the tension and trick himself into thinking he was fine. He pulled himself up onto his hands and knees, and started to arrange the sticks in his arms. He ended up grabbing an additional stick that was a bit longer, deciding to use it as a walking stick if his body decided to give out again.
Henry returned to his makeshift camp and started laying the sticks against a nearby tree, having the top stick lay horizontally against the tree while two more held it up from an angle, creating a right triangle against the tree. Now all Henry had to do was get more sticks to fill out the rest of the ‘wall’ and use some mud and stuff to seal it up. Easy enough, right?
He set out on his new mission, hoping to find more sticks as easily as he did the first time. He searched around for a bit, looking at the ground in hopes of more sticks that were the perfect size. It was starting to get a bit too dark to see, so Henry had to pull the flashlight out of his utility belt in order to scan the forest floor.
He was able to bring a few more sticks back to his camp, but not nearly as many as he would need to seal his shelter. Even still, it was better than nothing. Henry knelt down next to the bones of his bed and started to lay the sticks up against it.
As he worked, however, Henry couldn’t help the strange feeling in his gut. It wasn’t until he doubled over and full-body gagged that he remembered just how much he had overworked himself already that day.
His body continued to retch and gag as nothing came up. He did his best to avoid throwing up, since the last thing his body needed was to lose more fluids, but his body seemed determined to get him to vomit. When something finally crawled its way out of Henry’s throat, it was just a culmination of mucus and stomach acid.
Henry’s body had seemed to use up all its energy to throw up, and now Henry was empty. He couldn’t find the strength in him anymore to maneuver the sticks into position. He couldn’t find the strength in him to even stand. All Henry was able to do was sit back onto the ground, lean against a nearby rock, stare at his fire, and try to control his trembling as his entire body started to sweat.
“Well,” Henry was shocked to hear just how exhausted he sounded, “this can’t possibly get any worse, right?”
Henry’s words had taunted fate, and fate decided to answer him in kind.
A loud boom of thunder disrupted Henry’s brief involuntary rest. Henry froze for a second as his mind sluggishly worked to register the sound. When it did, he felt his heart sink through the floor.
“Crap... The- the storm...!” Henry barely had the energy to voice his thoughts aloud anymore, but he needed to listen to something other than the impending catastrophe and no one else was around to fill the silence.
He knew he needed to work fast to finish his shelter if he wanted to stand a chance at surviving the incoming thunderstorm. In spite of his body’s protests, Henry pulled himself off of the rock and started off in search of more sticks to use.
He only made it a few steps before his knees decided they didn’t want to work for him anymore. Henry did his best to slow his descent and keep his upper half from slamming into the forest floor, grabbing at the rock he was just leaned against in a fruitless attempt to gain some purchase.
His body hit the ground hard, with most of the impact absorbed by his shoulder and his hip. He grunted upon impact, almost involuntarily. The world spun around him, almost as if to show off how freely it could move while he was still stuck in a body that refused to cooperate. Henry just rolled his eyes, ignoring how everything seemed to mock his helplessness. He’d drag himself around to where he needed to be if he had to. He refused to let nature get the last laugh.
But, just as his knees had betrayed him a few seconds before, Henry’s arms seemed to be almost unable to support his weight, too, and he nearly face planted into the dirt beneath him.
“Oh, wow... This is just perfect.” Henry said, sarcastically. He was somehow able to roll himself onto his back, giving him a good view of the clouds rolling in—the clouds that were going to kill him. “I’m gonna die out here.” He laughed to himself, since no one else was around. “I’m gonna die out here because I was too weak to keep up with Captain Man.” His laughter quickly morphed into a sob as reality started to set in.
If Henry had been faster, better, stronger, healthier, fitter, smarter—he wouldn’t be in this situation if he had been the sidekick Ray thought he’d hired.
As the skies opened up above Henry, pouring rain down on his patheticness, so too did the floodgates open in Henry’s eyes. He couldn’t help it as the crushing weight of everything he wasn’t suddenly hit him like a freight train. The fear and anguish he felt was only secondary to the complete and utter disappointment he knew Ray would feel when he found his sidekick laying in the mud next to a half-made shelter and a tiny fire.
Henry curled up onto his side, unable to discern between his tears and the rain anymore, and stared into the fire. It was still burning, at least for now, and it offered Henry enough warmth to remind him that he was still alive, but that was about it. Once the fire died, Henry was sure he’d follow suit. He wasn’t sure how exactly he felt about that, either. That’s what scared him the most.
/\/\
“Kid Danger!” Ray shouted for the umpteenth time, hoping to be heard over the pouring rain. Schwoz stood nearby under an umbrella, fiddling with one of his devices in the hopes of tweaking it in just the right way so that he could locate Henry’s tracker. Ray looked towards his friend, hopeful but not confident. “Any luck, Schwoz?”
Schwoz shook his head. “Not yet. I’m close, though. Just give me a few more minutes.”
“That’s what you said a few minutes ago...” Ray pulled out one of the special radios Schwoz had made that were able to transmit through the forest. “I’m going to check with the other groups and see if they’ve found anything in their section.”
Ray knew it was a long shot, since he had assigned himself and Schwoz to the area of the forest Henry was last seen in, but he still felt the need to reach out and see if Henry had somehow wandered off.
He pressed the button on the side of the bulky radio and waited a second before he spoke. “Team Blue for Team Red.”
Charlotte’s voice responded. “Team Red for Team Blue. Go ahead.”
“Any luck?”
“Negative. Jasper and I haven’t found anything. With how heavy it’s been raining, any footprints or traces of life were likely washed out by the rain an hour ago. Unless we’re able to find him, I don’t think we’ll have much luck.” Charlotte sounded apologetic for her bleak outlook, but that’s why Ray kept her around. She was a realist.
“Well, aren’t you a little ray of sunshine today, Char.” Ray teased, although his tone made him sound more agitated than he was. “Team Blue for Team Yellow.”
This time, Laylani responded. “Team Yellow for Team Blue. Go.”
“How is it in section three? Any sign of Henry?”
“Not yet. Bork and I are looking as hard as we can, but we can’t find anything other than mud and wet leaves.”
“That’s alright, I guess. Schwoz and I haven’t found much either.” Ray paused for a second, sending another glance towards Schwoz who was currently absorbed in his screen. “If any of you find anything before our next roll call, make sure to radio it in. Okay? Over and out.” Ray put the radio back on his belt and continued trekking ahead, scanning with his flashlight.
Schwoz followed behind him, tapping on his tablet and trying to make something work. Ray was starting to get frustrated at Schwoz’s lack of helpfulness, but he’d known Schwoz long enough to know that, from Schwoz’s perspective, he was doing the most helpful thing he could. Even if Ray couldn’t see it, Schwoz was working just as hard as anyone else in the forest to try and locate Henry.
Ray continued forward, searching around the wet forest with his flashlight and being mindful of the ground he was walking over. He didn’t want to trip on anything and end up sliding down a hill again, and he certainly didn’t want Schwoz to trip on anything and end up destroying any of his fancy equipment or spilling the first-aid supplies in the backpack.
The rain continued to pour, muffling any sounds the forest could have made. Luckily, they hadn’t run into any wild animals, other than a few birds and confused squirrels. Hopefully that meant that none of the larger predators were roaming the forest in search of a tasty sidekick snack.
Lightning lit up the sky, with rolling thunder following almost immediately after. Ray didn’t need to fear the lightning thanks to his powers (heck, he’d been used as a superconductor before), but he still took a second to check on Schwoz and make sure his companion was alright. Schwoz barely seemed shaken by the thunder and lightning happening above their heads, since he’d grown used to it at this point.
As Ray paused to look at an unfazed Schwoz, he heard something strange. It almost sounded like a whimper of some kind. He put his hand in the air, causing Schwoz to freeze where he was and listen, too. Ray waited for a few seconds, hoping to hear it again. The seconds passed with only the sounds of rain crashing down onto the forest canopy. Ray shrugged it off, assuming it must have been the wind or something. He took another step forward, electing to ignore it.
But, something in his gut screamed at Ray to stay, and he couldn’t quite place it. He froze again, having been a superhero long enough to learn when to listen to his weird feelings.
Schwoz walked up to him, and quietly asked, “Ray? Vhat is it?”
Ray barely responded to Schwoz as his eyes darted from tree to tree, hoping to see something he’d missed. He tried to listen to something else, something other than the rain, but it was just too loud. He had to fight the urge to shush it, since he knew it wouldn’t do any good. His gut feeling wasn’t telling him much else other than ‘stay’ and ‘listen’ so he didn’t have much else to go off of.
In a last ditch effort to understand what his feelings weren’t telling him, Ray decided to call out one last time. “Kid Danger?!”
This time, both Schwoz and Ray heard the faintest of whimper coming from their left. Immediately, Ray took off after the noise, leaving Schwoz to stumble behind him with his limited light.
After a few seconds of running blindly through the forest, Ray stumbled upon a small clearing. His flashlight scanned around, and he noticed the frame of a rudimentary shelter with sticks laying around it. Nearby, without the aid of his flashlight, he could see the faintly glowing embers of a fire that was currently more ash than anything else.
Just as Schwoz caught up with Ray, his flashlight landed on the one thing he both wanted to see and didn’t: Henry, curled in a ball and exposed to the elements.
Ray immediately ran forward, heading straight towards Henry. He frantically tried to shake him awake. “Henry? Kid, wake up. We need to go.”
Henry didn’t respond. And, looking closer, Ray could see Henry’s eyes were still wide open, staring forward at what used to be a fire. Ray’s stomach dropped as he thought he was too late, but then he noticed the hyperventilation. Because of Henry’s hyper motility, his breathing was almost too fast for Ray to see.
“Aw, crap...” Ray leaned down, hoping to get into Henry’s field of vision, but it was clear Henry’s eyes weren’t perceiving the world around him anyway. “Kid, listen: you’re safe now, okay. I’m here, and I’m not gonna let you die, okay?”
Henry didn’t respond.
The sounds and feeling of the nearby rain suddenly stopped, as Schwoz deployed one of the prototypes he’d brought along in his backpack. A barely visible canopy grew over the area, blocking the rain from pelting into Henry anymore. Ray looked up towards Schwoz, giving him as genuine of a ‘thank you’ nod as he could muster, before his attention went back to Henry.
“Henry. Henry, look at me. Please?” Henry still wasn’t responding too much, too caught up in his own thoughts and hypothermia to do much else. Ray watched Henry with growing concern. He knew if he could just get Henry to breathe, he could get through to him. But he couldn’t even get Henry to process the world around him.
Ray’s mind was racing as he tried to think of a way to help Henry. Although Ray couldn’t feel if Henry was cold or not since Ray himself was freezing, it was safe to assume that Henry was pretty cold. Ray shifted his objective from getting Henry to breathe to getting Henry warm. If Henry was warm enough to not feel like a corpse, maybe his mind would let Ray get through to him.
Somehow, Ray was able to communicate his thoughts to Schwoz, and Schwoz immediately moved to the fire to see if he could salvage it to keep Henry warm. Ray moved to Henry’s side and gently shifted him to a sitting position. The ground was probably freezing, so Ray figured if he was able to get Henry’s essential organs off of the cold and wet floor, he’d start warming up.
Ray sat next to Henry, wrapping his arms and legs around his sidekick to give him as much warmth as he could.
It took a few minutes, but eventually, Henry started making some progress. It was difficult to see with the naked eye, but since Ray was making contact with Henry’s body, he could feel that Henry was shivering, amplified by his hyper motility. If he was vibrating at super speed, he should be able to warm up enough in no time.
A bit after the shivering started, Henry’s eyes started to focus a bit more. He stared into the fire that Schwoz restarted, watching as the flames danced and helped to warm the area. His eyes shifted from the fire to Schwoz, and from Schwoz to Ray.
“Ray! I-” Henry sobbed and curled in on himself, hyperventilating more and hiding his face.
“Hey, Kid. Don’t worry, it’s okay. We’re gonna get you out of this, alright? I just need you to breathe for me, okay? Think you can do that?” Ray did his best to get through to Henry, but Henry didn’t seem to comprehend enough to accept it. “You’re gonna breathe with me. Sound good?” He waited for a response that didn’t come. “Alright. In... 2... 3... 4... Hold... 2... 3... 4... and Out... 2... 3... 4...”
Henry wasn’t listening to Ray, still too caught up in his emotions and his thoughts and his imminent peril. His body’s survival instincts were working in overdrive due to his panic attack, and his hyper motility was only amplifying those effects, so it made sense that Henry was as out of it as he was.
After Ray tried and failed to get Henry to do the breathing exercise, he sighed. “Henry, you have to do the breathing if you want your brain to stop running off without you. I can’t breathe for you, Kid. That’s not how this works.”
“Vell, I mean, I could make a machine to-”
“Not the time, Schwoz.” As much as Ray would love a machine or gadget to allow him to briefly take over Henry’s breathing, he really didn’t need any more distractions at the moment. Quietly, Ray added. "If only we could hold on long enough for you to make something like that, Schwoz..." Ray watched Henry for a few more seconds, trying to think of a way to get through to him, before he pulled the radio off of his belt and passed it to Schwoz. “Let the other teams know we found him. And ask if they have any ideas to get him to breathe?”
Schwoz took the radio and stepped to the edge of the canopy, giving Henry and Ray the space they needed. Ray trusted Schwoz enough to handle the radio communications on his own, so he fully focused on Henry and what he needed.
Ray listened to the radio chatter, mostly for any ideas from Charlotte or Jasper, since they knew Henry best. All he heard them suggest though was to keep talking to Henry until he decides to come back down to earth himself. Schwoz moved to suggest that to Ray, but Ray had already heard it and tried his best to heed their advice.
As he enveloped Henry in a warm hug, Ray just kept talking to Henry, letting him know that he was safe and he wasn’t alone and that nothing bad could ever happen to him so long as Ray was around. Ray repeated the same few lines over and over, occasionally throwing in more as they came to him, and he just hoped that Henry would latch onto his words and decide to bring himself back.
A few more minutes passed, but eventually, Henry’s super-speed shivers turned into normal shivers and his amped-up breathing slowed to normal hyperventilation. This, Ray could work with.
Ray gently walked Henry through the same breathing exercise as before, and this time, Henry actually followed along. Ray kept instructing Henry on how to breathe, and Henry slowly but surely started to calm down.
Eventually, Henry was back to himself enough to return the hug. He held onto Ray like his life depended on it—from his perspective, it probably did—and openly bawled into Ray’s shoulder. Ray tightened his hug, remaining resolute in his hold on Henry, deciding that his only place in the world right now was to be here supporting his Kid.
“R-... Ray... You came back?!?” Henry clutched onto the back of Ray’s jacket.
“Of course I came back, Kid. I couldn’t imagine leaving you out here all by yourself.” Ray squeezed Henry, offering him as much love and support as he could give.
Henry took a few deep breaths. “But... why?”
Ray froze. “What do you mean?”
“Why did you come back for me?” Henry pulled back off of Ray’s shoulder, loosening the hug. He still didn’t look him in the face as he spoke. “It would’ve been easier to leave me here. And you could’ve found a new sidekick; one that could actually keep up with the job, and one that could actually build a survival shelter, and one that wasn’t as pathetic and stupid and-”
Ray pulled Henry back into the hug, cutting him off. He sent a panicked look up towards Schwoz, who was just as concerned and shocked as he was. Ray rubbed small circles into Henry’s back for a few seconds before he finally responded. “We will talk about this later, alright? After we get back to the Man Cave, we both get a good nights’ rest, and a full meal. Then and only then do I want to hear about whatever you’re trying to talk about right now. Okay?”
Henry didn’t talk anymore, not trusting his voice not to crack. Instead, he reluctantly nodded into Ray’s shoulder.
Now that Henry was mostly out of the (metaphorical) woods, Ray and Schwoz silently worked together to bring Henry back to where the Man Copter was parked. It was about a 20 minute walk uphill, and Henry was in no shape to walk it himself. So, instead, after wrapping Henry up in the biggest jacket he could find in Schwoz’s backpack, and after he put out the fire, Ray carried Henry the 20 minutes back to the Man Copter.
Charlotte, Jasper, Laylani, and Bork were all already at the Man Copter, waiting. They had already started it, cranking up the heater as high as it could go. All they were waiting on was Henry.
Ray carried Henry inside the Man Copter and put him directly in front of one of the air vents so he could get the most heating. Schwoz moved to the pilot’s seat and set course back to the Man Hangar. After Ray got Henry settled in his seat, he moved to the co-pilot’s seat, knowing Schwoz could use as much help as he could get to fly through the storm. Jasper and Charlotte moved to sit on either side of Henry, quietly talking to him and sharing their body heat. Laylani moved to check on Henry’s vitals, imploring him to breathe better and to drink some water out of her water bottle. Bork worked to put their equipment back in their bags.
As Ray helped Schwoz fly the group back home, he was both excited and terrified for the conversation he’d promised he’d have with Henry. He had suspected Henry had felt that way for a while, but he had always hoped he was wrong. Apparently, he wasn’t, and now Henry had to deal with the consequences.