Chapter 7- The Renewed Hero

His senses felt groggy and dulled. To Archibald, it almost felt like he got hit by a truck or fell down a cliff. He made a very faint groan as he wondered what happened.

His mouth had the taste of something awful and his head pounded with a slight headache. He tried to focus harder, but he could only make out the sound of a light beeping and the low hum of a machinery, which added on to his growing headache.

"...still...-vering...not sure when...e'll be..." a distant voice said.

"...wait then.." said another voice.

"...for a day...weak and tir-...-oken jaw...-eak clear-...either..."

"That's...I want...-thing to him."

What was Archibald doing before? He remembered it being cold and dark. But there were bits of white too.

"...-"chee-..."

The voices sounded male, but they were so distant it was hard to tell.

Archibald remembered driving. He remembered driving fast. But there was ice! He was driving fast on ice, he remembered that.

Archibald tried to sit up but instead found he was unable to. He felt numb all over and extremely tired, but he wanted to get up just to see where he was. If the last thing he remembered was being in a car, why was he in bed somewhere.

But it wasn't a car, Archibald thought to himself. It was more than a car. Archibald realized he was driving in the high-tech LarryMobile. But why.

So he was driving on the highway...away from the LarryManor. Archibald scrunched his face in determination, trying to think harder, putting words together to see if they reminded him of anything else.

LarryMobile. LarryManor.

Larryboy.

Larryboy!

Archibald felt a pang of memory hit him. He was escaping from Larryboy. It was after the night that ended so badly with the other superheroes. He was feeling angry and scared.

"...know...hear...need to...-portant."

The crash.

Archibald remembered it clearly now. The truck crashing into the LarryMobile. Both vehicles crashing

down past the guard rail. The pain from tumbling around in the crashing vehicle as it broke apart...but then what happened? He figured he was still alive, but where? And who was talking? What was that beeping sound? Where was he?

Finally and slowly, Archibald opened his eyes into narrow slits in his face. Bright lights poured into his vision, making him squint. All he saw was one figure above him. It looked colorful.

Archibald had many questions to ask but he could not find a way to open his lips without just taking in a tight breathe. Archibald decided to relax a bit into the warm softness surrounding him. The bright colors of white everywhere was blinding him.

"Archie?" a soft, friendly, hushed whisper called to him.

The whisper came from the shadow above him. Archibald squinted at the unfocused view of the person standing above him. Green skin, purple helmet, plungers- wait...

"...Le...Arry," Archibald croaked.

Larryboy gasped and stared down at Archibald. "Archie!" he called out in a childlike way.

It was Larryboy after all. But the terrible memories from before toppled into Archibald's thoughts. But he disregarded them for now. In fact, even though he was escaping Larryboy before, now he felt like he wanted to be with his best friend. Yes, best friend. He was not going to correct himself this time, even though before adding former was not much of a correction.

Larryboy was here after all. He was by his side again.

"'ank 'y-" Archibald's sore jaw moaned in happiness, his heart feeling warmer.

"Archie, I'm so sorry! For everything! I lost control! I never wanted it to be like this! Becoming like that was my worst mistake. No, hurting you was my worst mistake. No, combining them was my worst mistake. I made many mistakes, Archie!" Larryboy said quickly, beginning to shake again,"I'm sorry! I remember you saying you were just going to leave me, and I don't blame you. You can leave me if you want, I won't get mad! You won't have to see me again!" Archibald's hazed eyes looked up at Larryboy. Archibald's vision still was not clear, but it looked like Larryboy was...crying?

Archibald weakly smiled.

"I forgiv' y'", Archibald said.

"What?" Larryboy asked.

"Forgive," Archibald finally managed to mutter with all his strength.

"Archibald," Larryboy gasped whispered. Archibald could make out the outlines of a smile on his face before his eyes began to droop and he fell asleep again. He was exhausted.

But he was smiling still.

His best friend was back.

"The snow looks really nice, doesn't it, Archie?"

Archibald smiled at the vastness of the city, skyscrapers coated with snow and the streets white. It has not stopped snowing for two days now.

Larryboy and Archibald stared out a giant window in a hallway of the Bumblyburg Hospital. Archibald was in a wheelchair now, recovering nicely. Larryboy liked to push Archibald's wheelchair around to keep him company.

Archibald was glad Larryboy was able to do this. Larryboy was able to apologize to all the superheroes, and in the end they finally forgave him. Everyone was surprised how simply Archibald did it, but Archibald would just say that mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them, and that would end it.

Of course, even though Larryboy apologized, that did not make up for all the damages he did. The resolution was more bittersweet than likable.

Rather than being sent to jail for the major damages, Larryboy, despite his apologies, he was to stay at the hospital for a while in the mental ward and undergo a couple of weeks of therapy. Larryboy did not necessarily like this idea, and Archibald was not a fan of it either, but Archibald also insisted on it, thinking it would be for the better. Larryboy admitted he was a little scared, but decided to just go through it after all.

Besides, they would still be together, side by side in their own roads to recovery. Then soon Larryboy could resume protecting the city and Archibald would help him behind the scenes, still important though.

"Hey, Archibald, let's go get some hot chocolate!" Larryboy said excitedly, pulling the wheelchair away from the window and wheeling it down the hallway.

"That's sounds delightful Larryboy," Archibald replied. After all, it was going to be a cold and bitter evening. But despite that and everything else, life was good. It was really good.

Larryboy sighed again. "I'm glad we can just be friends again, Archibald."

Archibald smiled again and turned around to look back at Larryboy. "Me too."

They say what goes up must come down.

They also say what comes down can still go up and bounce back with enough effort, strength, and a renewed heart.

Well, they do not actually say that, but in a story like this, you can tell it is still possible.

THE END

Another story drawing to a close...aww.

First of all, I'm sorry for hurting in Archibald and twisting Larryboy in this story, but it was interesting.

This story was so much fun to write! First of all, making Larryboy go insane is a fun thing to do and is lightly touched. Big Idea has done that a few times or at least close to, but I went far with it. Of course, it got hard to write Larryboy insane yet at the same time stick to his normal wacky behavior. To me, when you combine the two, it's a little humorous and scary at the same time.

Most of my stories that are more than one chapter long are from ideas I had for some time while my one-shots are from my ideas that I just made up quickly. So I'm surprised at how long this story went, since this is my first story that involved an idea I quickly made that did not turn into a one-shot.

It was also interesting writing this story because I was writing and finished no one but two one-shots while writing this story. The first one-shot was DeAd End and the second one has yet to be posted by the way.

I also feel kinda bad because this story has been done for a while but I just wait a while before I actually publish the chapters because of how busy my life is right now. But it's here now...and its over! X((

Apparently the phrase "What goes up must come down" is not a quote about life but a rule of science. Oh well. it applies to life anyway!

I got the idea for this story from the Vocaloid song (yes, this story spawned from Japanese singing synthesizers) "Daughter of Evil," even though the song and the story are completely different, but leave it up to my brain to come up with weird ideas. But eventually I found another Vocaloid song titled "Super Hero," which was the perfect song for this story, and I got more ideas from that.

And how it's time for credits. For most of my stories, I listen to music to help the ideas flow and get me a little inspired, but this is only my second story where I actually used song lyrics in the chapters. And once again, the lyrics are from more Vocaloid songs, which I probably listen to too much. So, being guilty of using someone else's words, I have to give credit:

For chapter 4, I based off a couple of Larryboy's lines from when he was chasing the other superheroes from the song "Bad∞End∞Night."

For chapter 6, when Larryboy is yelling at the crowd, besides the ideas from the song, I also used some phrases from "Super Hero." As for the second half of the chapter, I took lyrics from "Tokyo Teddy Bear," although I twisted them around to fit the story more.

So if you want I guess you could check out the songs above and if you liked this story, please be sure to check out my other stories! I have a more stories on the way, possibly not so sad as this one (Ok, that's a lie...) and check my profile page where I post updates on my stories' progress. And review this story!

I think that's all I have to say...bye! ;)