Remorse
"Ray? Ray, where are you going?"
"Out."
"You never go out. Not when you-"
"Don't question me. Whether you like it or not, I'm going out."
"But what if someone commits a crime? And if a villain-"
"Henry's good. He can handle it."
"But you-"
"C'mon, Schwoz! He'll handle it. He's done it before. Why would tonight be any different?"
...
"Is this about Dr. Minyak?"
"If Henry does get into trouble, you contact him. If not…" He sighed. "I'll be back at sunrise. Up the tube!"
Captain Man parked the Man-Van at the side of a small road, one not many people took to go to the Swellview Hospital. It generally was only used when the hospital was to be evacuated. In other words: it was the perfect place to leave it for a couple of hours, in the dark, when nobody would find it because nobody would be here all night.
He walked the last hundred yards to the hospital. The dirt road ended at the edge of the parking lot. He stood there for a moment, looking at the hospital. Somewhere in there, Dr. Minyak lay in a hospital bed. He took a deep breath.
Here I go, he thought as he took his phone out of his pocket. He soon found the number he was looking for: the one of the nurses' office. You know, just in case anything happened to Henry. He wasn't indestructible.
It didn't take too long before someone picked up the phone. "Swellview Hospital, what can I help you with?" It was a woman who asked him the question. She sounded British. Ray smiled.
"Martha Jones," he replied, having recognized her voice. "It's me."
"Captain Man. What do you want?" she then asked him. The tone wasn't as nice as the other times they'd talked. Ray knew why she'd said it like that.
"I need to see Dr. Minyak," he told her.
"We have visiting hours," Martha said after a short pause. "You should consider stopping by when the sun rises."
"Don't hang up," he said quickly, knowing Martha would do such a thing. "I need to see him now. Incognito."
Silence followed. For a moment, Ray thought she had already hung up the phone (when he was talking) and briefly considered hanging up himself.
"Go to the fire exit at the back," Martha eventually said, and Ray sighed in relief.
"Thanks, Martha. I owe you," he replied. He hung up the phone, but it back in his pocket and walked to the back of the hospital. It was a short walk in the dark and arrived at the back after two minutes. There were a couple of fire exits. Since Martha didn't specify which fire exit, he waited outside for her to open the door. (He knew her – she'd do that.)
There weren't a lot of lamp posts around, so he could clearly see the stars from his position. He never could recognize those constellations, but watching them distracted him from the reason why he was here. He tried to find one of the Bears – or whatever it was called – but it was to no avail.
Eventually, the second exit on his right opened and revealed Martha Jones. The Latina immigrant had been a friend of Captain Man since she helped him to find an antidote for some virus which threatened the city. They stayed in touch afterwards and she was always there to help whenever Henry needed medical attention. And so Martha Jones became a non-active member of the team, only called upon when needed.
He smiled at her, in a way of greeting her. Him appearing there wasn't met with happiness, though. She was waiting for him, arms folded and glaring at him. she did not look like she was going to talk.
"Nice to see you, too," he then said, ready to walk into the building through the fire exit. Martha blocked his way and shook her head.
"What did you do?" She wasn't just asking him, she was accusing him. He preferred to interpret it using the first option.
"You know what I did. It was all over the news."
"That wasn't you," she replied. "You stop when a criminal is defeated."
"I know," he said, looking away from her. He hoped to conceal his despair and shame from her – her prying eyes and indifferent tone could make it worse. "Why do you think I came at this hour?"
There was a brief silence, in which he could do nothing but to replay what he's heard today. Looking at the stars was a nice distraction, but now he could not avoid hearing Henry's cries for help from earlier today.
"Captain Man!"
He bowed his head and looked down. Even with open eyes, he could still see the beaten kid. He was so in thought that he barely noticed Martha had stepped away, granting him permission to go inside. He lifted his head, turned it to her.
"He's in room 316 in the left wing. Be careful," she said softly. Captain Man only nodded and muttered a quick "thanks" before walking inside. She followed right behind him, closing the door and then resuming her work.
He knew his way around the hospital, so he walked straight to the room. Every time he took a step, there was a peep, thanks to the contact with the polished tiles. He could not stand the sound, but he did not change the way of walking. Before he knew it, he stood in front of room 316.
There you go, he thought. He reached out for the doorknob, but at one point he stopped his hand, leaving it mid-air between the doorknob and his body. He wasn't afraid, though he was worried about how he would find his old enemy. He did not want to be confronted with the result of his worst side.
Look at me. More afraid to open a door than running into a dangerous situation. With the help of those motivational thought, Captain Man took a deep breath, grabbed the doorknob and opened the door.
There he was, lying on that hospital bed. Dr. Minyak. Ray never imagined he would find his foe this way. He'd always assumed they'd meet anywhere, everywhere, but here. Wasn't Captain Man rated the most villain-friendly hero by the fans? He never left his villains with any injury whatsoever. Even the Toddler came back unscathed after being thrown in that ball pit, didn't he?
Captain Man closed the door behind him and approached the man, observing him and taking in all the details. Dr. Minyak was connected to at least three different machines. Electrodes on his arms (and possibly on his chest) transferred the information onto the screens. One tube was going in his mouth, maybe down his throat, though that was hard to see. He was not wearing his suit anymore, so one of the nurses must've changed his clothes. The nose had stopped bleeding and they had cleaned the blood off of the head, though you could still see where Captain Man hit him.
"Captain Man!"
"Kid!"
Ray gulped and slowly backed away from him. This was not what he wanted. This is something he never thought would happen. He created his no-hospital rule for a reason. 'Don't make them go to the hospital.' It dated from before Henry became his sidekick, but he still applied it. Today seemed to be an exception, but he could not just watch Dr. Minyak torture Henry.
"Captain Man! Stop it!"
He sat down in one of the chairs, still staring at the villain. So many things crossed his mind, including a lot of apologies in several different ways, as well as fragments of what happened this afternoon. Yet, he did not say anything. He could not. His mouth was too dry and he was unable to speak. All he could do at this moment, was to sit and stare at his adversary, thinking about the apologies and perfecting them in his mind.
At one point, he must have dozed off. He was already tired and just sitting down in a chair was a good incentive to fall asleep. He did not sleep until the morning, because a noise woke him up. The door creaked and he opened his eyes, a bit drowsy and stiff from this position. Someone walked into the room, closed the door behind him. No, her. It was a woman. He did not need to know anything else to figure out who she was. What would a doctor be without his nurse?
"Nurse Cohort," he said. Saying this betrayed his position in the room. The villainess turned her head – if he hadn't spoken, she wouldn't have noticed for a long time.
"What are you doing here?" She asked him with underlying anger.
"I was just…" No, not like that. Rephrase. "I'm here for the same reason as you." He quickly glanced at Dr. Minyak, whose situation hadn't visibly changed since the hero had fallen asleep.
Nurse Cohort glared at him. "Are you going to arrest me?" She asked him. he could've sworn she sounded a bit anxious, though he could always be wrong – he hadn't slept that well and still felt a bit drowsy.
He shook his head. "I'm not going to arrest you. Not here, not now." Not in this situation. That would be unfair. "But only if you don't attack me," he added. He did not take his eyes off of her, waiting for any reaction at all, hostile or not.
"Fine," she eventually said in response, and then folded her arms. She still glared at him. "You didn't answer my question."
He had to admit he was a bit vague when answering it. "I'm here because…" he trailed off. He gulped inaudibly and took a deep breath before continuing. "I crossed a personal line. I'd like to make amends."
"Kid!" Captain Man shouts.
"Come and get him!" Dr. Minyak taunts.
He almost missed the villainess' reaction. "It's too late to apologize." Nurse Cohort turned her back to the hero. Finally she approached Dr. Minyak. She did not see how Captain Man shrugged, as to say 'better late than never'. Instead, she focused on her employer. She reached out for his face, tenderly caressed it. Captain Man briefly smiled. Even if something brought them to the dark side, they both still had someone they cared about.
"Look at him…" Nurse Cohort said," Look at what you've done to him."
The smile disappeared. Memories of today's events resurfaced again.
"Captain Man!" It is a cry for help, cry of despair, a heart-breaking sound of a young man in pain.
"Yes," Dr. Minyak says, "scream for him."
Nurse Cohort turned around again. There the glare was again, though it somehow seemed less harsh than before. "I never agreed with that plan," she said calmly.
"But you did assist him." He replied with an equally calm tone, "You're lucky I didn't see you, otherwise you could've joined him here."
If looks could kill, Captain Man would've been dead five times already. That wasn't surprising – he placed her partner in this situation. But he did blame her for what happened today, whether she agreed with his plans or not. he blamed her for still assisting Dr. Minyak and setting up the trap.
Dr. Minyak had the brilliant idea to try and kidnap Kid Danger. They orchestrated a plan to draw the heroes out, resulting in Henry being dragged away to Dr. Minyak's lair. Once there, he had to go through hours of hell and torture – all because the madman wanted Captain Man to come out and show his anger, his dark side. That was the point: make the people of the world believe that Captain Man is not always as friendly as he seems.
If you asked someone, anyone, they would tell you indirectly that Dr. Minyak's plan succeeded. Seeing Henry there, bound to the wall with iron shackles, unable to move without hurting himself in a way, covered in wounds, seemingly broken beyond repair, sitting next to the man who had broken him, who was smiling… Something snapped once he saw that. What had happened next was a blur, though in retrospect, he knew what he had done. He had no idea how long it had lasted, but only Henry's cries snapped him out of it.
"No!" Henry shouts, trying to make him stop, "Captain Man, stop it!"
Nurse Cohort hadn't been there. She could've been, but in that case, Captain Man hadn't seen her. He was too preoccupied with punching his foe and, later, making sure he'd go to the hospital and would be offered the best care possible. He also did not know whether she was informed about her boss' plan of being injured by the superhero, but either way she was blaming Ray for what had happened.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. He still hadn't found the courage to say it out loud. What could words do in this situation? It was just an apology; the best way to express your remorse. But it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. Only multiple actions could fix what he'd done. This wasn't just a question of foe versus foe: it was a question of image, of morality, of crossing a line.
"You'd do the same, y'know," he then said, louder than that apology. Nurse Cohort turned her head to him. "If there's one thing we share, it's love for our partners. If I'd maimed Minyak the way he maimed Kid Danger, you'd come to his rescue, too." She briefly turned her head to Captain Man.
"I wouldn't lose control," she said coldly.
"and I never thought I'd put a man here," he said, "and you see how that turned out."
She didn't respond. She solemnly stood next to Dr. Minyak, probably having chosen to ignore Captain Man completely. Since it was no use to talk to someone who didn't want to talk with him anymore, he looked at his watch. Ten to four in the morning. Time to go home. He had a shop to open at nine in the morning. Gooch was still gone and he did not trust Schwoz behind the counter, so it had to be him.
He stood up from his seat and stretched. He still was rather stiff from spending half a night sleeping there. Once he was done stretching, he walked to the door and put his hand on the doorknob.
Before he left, however, he delivered one more message to Nurse Cohort. "The early morning shift starts in two hours. If you want to leave unnoticed, you'd better leave at five."
He closed the door before he could see how Nurse Cohort reacted to that news – that is, if she responded to it. Maybe later, he'd regret telling her and letting her stay here, but at that moment it felt like the right thing to do. She was, after all, just a visitor. If she went during the visiting hours, she'd surely be recognized and taken away to prison. He didn't want that to happen just yet. First, Dr. Minyak has to wake up before he'd bring her to prison.
Leaving the hospital was just as easy as entering it. he went out through the same fire exit as he'd entered the hospital with, and waited until the door had fallen back into the lock. He walked back, looking at the stars above. He thought to have recognized something that looked like a frying pan, though he believed it was more of a coincidence than an actual constellation. Astrology never interested him, anyway.
Sitting in the Man-Van, he turned on the radio. Even at this hour, they were still discussing Captain Man's morals. The host was talking about how he could stray down the 'good path' again and hurt a villain in a similar way again. Her co-host seemed to agree with her and gave his own reasons for being cautious around the superhero from now on.
Honestly, Ray couldn't care less about what they thought. The important part was that Henry was safe and that he regretted his actions. No doubt he'd have more than enough opportunities to explain himself in newspapers, late night shows and anyone willing to hear it. Even though he was remorseful, if Henry was put in a similar situation, he'd do it again, albeit it with more restraint. But he'd do it again.
He just hoped he wouldn't have to do such a thing again.
Hey guys! I've been playing with this idea for a while and finally decided to write it down. Even though the show will never go this far, I do believe Captain Man will do everything to keep Henry safe, which may include beating villains so much they have to stay in the hospital. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot and see ya next time!
-Writer207