Henry Hart.
That was the name of the boy that had become Charlotte's new mission. After about an hour of hard core research (stalking), Charlotte had found him. It was actually a lot harder than she thought it was going to be. He had no pictures in any of the last three yearbooks, and the teachers that had taught the required classes couldn't remember ever having a Henry in their class. Even though the search was tedious, Charlotte was invested. His face blazed brightly in her memory, and she found it slightly hard to believe that no one would remember a boy like that. A stunning boy with kind eyes, soft looking lips, and cute hair… Charlotte snapped herself out of it. She had seen him one time. She couldn't develop a crush on him. It was bad enough that she had accidently memorized his school schedule and phone number.
She was just going to check up on him to see if he was okay. That was what she had told her teachers who let her have access to the school records, and that was exactly what she was going to do. Nothing more. Nothing less. At least, that's what she told herself as she took her free period after lunch to go find him. He apparently had a Physics class with one of her favorite teachers. (Because she was a L.I.M.P student, she had taken Honors Physics in her Sophomore year.)
As she was on her way to the class, she saw him in the hallway, on the outskirts of a small group of sketchy looking high school students. The Kid Danger in her kicked in, and she hid behind a group of nearby lockers to eavesdrop.
"How about the Swellview Library?" One of the kids said, a rough looking brunette with pale skin and a scar on his forehead. Charlotte's eyebrows crinkled as she saw that the tips of his index fingers were a bright blue. Are these guys a part of that vandalism crew, The Wall Dogs?
Charlotte thought to herself, and she immediately took in the group of kids to realize that they all paint stained fingers, except Henry. He looked really out of place. He didn't even seem to be paying attention to the meeting that was going on at all. His eyes were downcast, his hands were stuffed in his pockets, and he was paying attention to his shuffling feet.
"Is that too risky of a drop off location? Maybe we should do that warehouse instead?" A girl with creamy skin and black and purple hair said. Drop off location? What are they talking about? Charlotte thought to herself.
"She has a point. With that other gang in jail, Captain Man and Kid Danger might start paying attention to us." A dark skinned girl said, her dark brown wavy hair falling over half of her face.
"They just think that we're a simple gang. They're not looking into us right now. We should go all out. We have to dominate that other rival gang." A copper haired boy with bright green eyes and a creepy smirk said. The whole gang mumbled in agreement.
"Either way, we're gonna need paint." The brunette with the scar said; he seemed to be the leader of the group. The leader with the scar scanned the group until his eyes landed on Henry in the back, who was still staring at his shoes. The brunette's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion as if he was trying to remember Henry's name or something.
"Yo… sweatshirt. Go get us some paint." Scar face said, and suddenly all of the attention was on him. A tall girl with blonde hair elbowed Henry in the ribs. He looked up from his shoes abruptly, anxiety written all over his face. Charlotte could tell that Henry wasn't used to anything good coming from receiving attention from these people. Parts of the gang were already giggling at his expense and calling him an idiot under their breaths. It got worse when Scar face threw some keys and a wad of cash right at Henry's face. It hit him with an audible thud right in the nose, and Henry's face flushed a bright, beet red as the whole gang burst into laughter. Without even uttering a word of complaint or defending himself at all, Henry picked up the keys and money off of the floor. Charlotte felt terrible for him, and she had a strong urge to grab the packet of gumballs from her jeans, blow a bubble, and transform. She couldn't though. It was too dangerous for her to fight this gang all by herself, and it might compromise her age and identity. In despite of her hero's instinct, she stayed in the shadows.
"Well, we'll talk about this later at HQ. Sweatshirt, don't buy the wrong paint this time. We want spray paint, okay?" Scar face said to Henry slowly, like he was too stupid to understand. The gang chuckled again, and Henry's face got even redder. Charlotte could barely restrain her anger. What did he ever do to deserve this? She thought to herself just as the gang dispersed. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was standing right next to Henry.
"What are you doing with them?" She asked abruptly with her arms crossed over his chest. Henry's eyes widened in shock, and he looked toward the direction that the gang went, to see if they were still paying attention.
"What are you…? How did you…? You can't be here. We can't be seen together." Henry whispered to her, his eyes still focused on where he saw Scar face disappear to.
"I'm not scared of them." Charlotte said, grabbing his sweatshirt clad arm. Henry looked away from the hallway to stare at her incredulously.
"You should be though. They're dangerous, and they would hurt you without a second thought." This confused Charlotte even more. Why is a guy like this involved in a gang like the Wall Dogs? She thought to herself. Most gang members would have turned her in already. He didn't seem like he had any intentions of bringing her to Scar face. In fact, he seemed to be imploring her to leave before they came back.
"Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself." Charlotte said confidently. Henry looked at her skeptically.
"You couldn't even get up by yourself earlier." Henry quipped, and it threw Charlotte off. From all that she saw, she didn't think that he would be giving sassy comments. Charlotte felt her heart flutter in her chest, and she beamed up at him.
"So you do have a spine?" Charlotte teased him. Henry blushed and coughed.
"Why do you let them treat you like that?" She said with anger creeping in her voice as she stared at his nose which was starting to turn a strange purple color. Henry rubbed his nose self-consciously.
"They're my friends." Henry said quietly, not looking at her. She scoffed.
"You're kidding, right? They don't even know your name." Charlotte said defiantly, daring him to contradict her. Henry continued to rub his nose.
"That's just a joke. I'm pretty sure they know my name. Well, probably." He said quietly. He fixed his baseball cap nervously, giving Charlotte a flash of those gorgeous blonde locks.
"Look, I don't know how you found me, but you shouldn't have been watching us. They'll hurt you, and I don't want that. Just forget about what you saw, okay?" Henry said, pleading with his eyes for her not to get them both in trouble.
"Not a chance. Henry, you don't deserve this. You deserve real friends. People that care about you. People that remember your name. They're trouble. Leave them before it's too late." When she said his name, Henry's face brightened, but it became cloudy quickly as he took in her warning.
"I can't. They're my friends. Maybe not great friends, but they're all I have." Henry said, slightly annoyed. Charlotte wanted to scream. How could he not see the risk that he was putting himself in? Before she could say anything else, Henry was walking out the front doors of the school, probably to go buy the paint.
Charlotte spent the rest of her school day thinking about Henry and that stupid gang. When the bell finally rang for them to be released, Charlotte practically sprinted out of the school to Junk-N-Stuff. She tore open the door, barely out of breath, and she headed downstairs to greet Ray.
"Ray, I think I just got some intel on that gang you hate, The Wall Dogs?" Charlotte said to Ray who was eating some nachos on the couch. As soon as he heard the words Wall Dogs, he threw his nachos on the ground dramatically. Charlotte groaned as a chip landed on her boots.
"Was that necessary?!" Ray ignored her comment and jumped out of his chair.
"The Wall Dogs?! Tell me, tell me now." He said while resting his hands on her shoulders.
"Get off of me, Ray." Charlotte said, slightly annoyed. Ray huffed and moved his arms.
"Yeah, I saw some kids at the high school with paint on their index fingers talking about a drop off location. I'm not completely sure, but I think that's them." Ray hummed and stroked his chin.
"Paint on their index fingers? You sure it wasn't the art club?" Ray said, completely serious.
"Yes, Ray. I ran down here to tell you about some kids in art club." Ray raised his hands in a surrender motion.
"Jeez, no need to be sarcastic. What do you think they meant by drop off location? Did they say anything else?" Ray said, moving towards the computer with Charlotte following behind him.
"Well, they were talking about which would be a better target. The library or the warehouse. I don't know what exactly they were talking about, but it didn't sound legal. They were pretty afraid that we'd start paying attention to them." Charlotte said as she watched Ray sit in the chair and furiously press some buttons on the computer.
"The library? We have one of those?" Ray asked Charlotte as he looked through some of the crime scene photos with the Wall Dogs 'work'.
"Yes, Ray. Our city has a library." Charlotte said while rolling her eyes behind his back.
"Well, it sounds like their smuggling something. I guess we're going on a stake out tonight."
"Yeah, I guess, but which location are we going to go to?"
"Well, I think we're gonna have to split up. You go to the library, and I'll go to the abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. You up for it, Kid?" Ray said, raising his eyebrow and turning around in his chair.
If Charlotte was being honest with Ray, she would have said no. She was definitely not up for another late night. She was really tired, had a lot of homework to do, and couldn't stop thinking about Henry. No wasn't the right answer though, and Charlotte couldn't say no. She was a super hero sidekick, and evil never rested.
"Yeah, where's the stake out gear?" She said, forcing a smile to form on her face.
That's how she found herself on the outskirts of the library at eight o'clock at night with a large coffee cup and a packet of gummy bears. Apparently, libraries were too boring for Captain Man to patrol.
She was laying on the ground, behind a faded white wooden bench near a rosebush, with her binoculars hanging around her neck, when she heard voices coming from the direction of the parking lot.
"We have to be in and out of here quick, got it? We have about twenty minutes until the buyer gets here. Do your worst. Sweatshirt has the paint." Charlotte heard Scar face say. She grimaced as she heard them refer to Henry as sweatshirt again. She was repositioning herself to try to get a better look when she heard a loud shout.
"Sweatshirt! You only bought one color? How hard is it to buy paint?!" She heard someone say.
"God, what color did he even buy?" Another person asked.
"Freakin' white." The whole gang groaned. Charlotte bit her hand to keep from bursting into laughter.
"How are we supposed to vandalize anything with just white paint? The library is already white. It'll just look like we repainted it wrong." Charlotte couldn't help herself. She laughed loudly, and she prayed that they didn't hear her.
"What was that? Did you guys hear that?"
"Yeah, it sounds like someone laughing…"
"Everybody, make sure that the premises are clear. We can't let anybody see what's going on here." Charlotte chastised herself internally for letting them know that she was there and not calling Ray immediately. Now, it was too late to do anything but lay low. She regulated her breathing until it was almost inaudible and tried to move as little as possible. She was almost confident that they had given up when she heard the ominous sound of footsteps heading her direction. Charlotte tensed in her spot, and she whipped her in front of her. Hopefully, it wasn't an important Wall Dog member, and no one would notice that they were gone.
The footsteps came closer, and she stopped herself from swearing as a pair of familiar Vans came into view. They stopped a few feet from the bench, and her heart started beating in a wild frenzy as Henry started crouching to look under the bench. A few seconds later, she was looking straight into his breath taking brown eyes.
"Kid Danger?" Charlotte let out a small sigh of relief as she realized that Henry didn't recognize her.
"Wait…you look a lot like that girl-" Before he could even finish the sentence, Charlotte had zapped him unconscious with her Wiz Watch. Charlotte grimaced as Henry fell hard on the ground.
"Sorry."
Author's Note: I know what you're thinking (registered psychic, obviously): "Lizlen, why are you hurting Henry? He doesn't deserve this torture, and it's really rude." ... I have no real response to that. (I blame Jace getting that really cute hair cut.)
Anyway! I was actually seriously surprised that anybody (but me) liked this? Since I kinda turned the whole show around, lol. I know that there aren't actually a lot of AUs in here, but I live for AUs. So, thanks everyone for the positive support. (I'll need it to survive tomorrow, so keep it coming please.) Believe it or not (you probably should though since I'm writing the story...), there is actual plot in this story.
Question: Does my lack of covers bother you guys? I'm always on my phone, so I don't see covers.
This chapter is dedicated to Alore because I've enjoyed talking to them, and they gave me some interesting ideas for a new one-shot! You're awesome! XD
News: Since it's almost Valentine's Day, and it's my second favorite holiday (even though I have exactly no love life), I wanted to show the archive some love! So, I have like a huge plan for Valentine's Day, and I'm hoping that you'll like it. I'll let you know more about it when I update again, but let's just say: I'm pretty excited, and you'll see my name in your emails that week... (*winks obnoxiously*)
The sad news is: I will be gone (not updating) for the rest of the weekend, most likely. I will also (most likely) be gone the week of the 7th because there's way too much going on for me that week. (Besides the LEGO Batman movie, which I'm forcing my friends to take me to see. XP)
- Lizlen
