The water was freezing.

Freezing, but not frozen. Little chunks of ice floated around. A blanket of white snow covered every inch of ground around a shivering Henry.

Who happened to be stuck in a snowbank, unable to move anything but his head. His nose and ears were blood red, thanks to the cold. His Swellview body was not built for North Pole weather. Everything felt numb. He wasn't sure if he preferred numb or feeling the cold; attack least by being cold he knew everything was still attached to him.

But Henry wasn't thinking about the extremely unusual (to say the least) weather conditions. He was thinking about Charlotte.

He had watched her jump right into the freezing water, wearing a bright yellow suit that practically glowed against her dark skin. The suit was dotted with little brown ponies that were wearing earmuffs, scarves and other cute winter wear of assorted colors. She really stood out in the snow and gray sky.

But that wasn't the point.

Charlotte didn't even seem to have been aware of the freezing temperatures, let alone the snow and ice. It had been a full minute (and twenty-three seconds, but who's counting?) and she hadn't resurfaced.

This is not good, thought Henry. Worse than not good.

As Henry struggled to find his way out of the snow bank, he realized that it had somehow morphed itself into a small jail cell with only the smallest amount of space between the think bars of snow- no, ice. The bars were made of solid ice so thick he could barely see through them.

The ice was smoother than glass concrete and cold enough to get a tongue stuck. That was Henry's guess, anyway- not that he was going to try. He wasn't that stupid.

Henry didn't hesitate before reaching to grab a laser, or a stun gun, or anything to get him out.

Except he wasn't in uniform, nor was he wearing his Whiz Watch for some reason. He didn't have a cell phone or anything in the pockets of his swim trunks. He was on his own.

Henry tried using his Hypermotility to shatter the ice, knowing it wasn't malleable (hey, all that studying with Charlotte payed off!) and wouldn't just flatten out.

But the ice was stronger than he thought; it took over a dozen hits to even get a crack into a single bar.

All of a sudden, Henry slammed his body into the cell bars… and the trap was no more, as if it had been made of soft snow all along. This was way confusing to Henry, but he had other things on his mind.

Henry was so startled by his achievement that he landed headfirst in the snow and spent a solid minute pulling himself up and out. (He accidentally ate snow off it- at least it wasn't yellow snow. Well, he didn't see yellow, anyway.)

Finally, he was free.

Henry sprinted to the body of water before him and dived in. His eyes were open and freezing, like the rest of him (which had gotten some feeling back- he was all in one piece), but he could still see Charlotte, who was getting closer… and closer…

And smacked right into Henry.

Charlotte's body was still and pushed him up to the surface. He desperately tried to drag her to the shore. As Henry practically threw his bestie's body into the snow, praying she was still breathing. She wasn't.

He could hear a million voices in his head that were saying things like "You… failed...!" among other phrases with barely audible words. The voices belonged to Ray, Schwoz, Jasper, Charlotte's family, his own family, and his own.

I failed my best friend.

Henry bolted up in the bed, launching a pillow at the window. It bounced off and hit the floor but didn't make any noise. Henry spun his head around and was beyond relieved to see Charlotte. He sighed and got up to retrieve the pillow, but not before he had watched Charlotte for a minute and saw that she was breathing.

Henry knew one thing for sure: he was not going to get back to sleep anytime soon. He grabbed his phone from where it was charging next to him. It was four-oh-three in the morning. Henry opened an app on his phone and did the first thing that came to mind: he went to the official Man Fans website.

Henry scrolled through all the recent posts, occasionally posting a comment using a fake account so no one could trace it back to him. He eventually exited the tab and scrolled through the newest news feeds about him and Captain Man, which were mostly about how they fixed a gas leak underground. (Surprisingly, there wasn't much else.) What the news reporters didn't get right was that it was only Captain Man to seal the leak- they had just assumed that Kid Danger was there, too. Obviously, they didn't know the real whole story. Only the usual people did.

After scrolling through for a while, Henry found an old news report about him. A very old news report:

We all know and love Captain Man, our brave superhero crime fighter who is dedicated to protecting our beloved city Swellview.

Henry had a thought: He's also very dedicated to winning bets. He shook away the thought and memories and kept reading.

But for the first time ever, Captain Man was not working alone. This evening, he was helping rescue people from the Jandy Bridge Disaster- with a little help.

Captain Man was called hearing his alleged new sidekick "Kid Danger". Kid Danger showed to be almost as brave and capable as the Captain-

Henry's first thought when he had read the news article for the first time so long ago was Almost?! Looking back now, he realized how much progress he had made, especially with his new superpower.

-while rescuing civilians. As of publishing time, the stats of Kid Danger- age, height, whereabouts- are unclear. After the last few people were rescued, both the superhero and sidekick disappeared.

Some people think that Kid Danger might have gone home, perhaps as the person we've seen tonight or otherwise. The question everybody's asking themselves and others: will he return? As of publishing time, reporters are scouting the city, hoping for a chance to interview both Captain Man and Kid Danger- however, neither of them have yet been found. Several pictures of the new addition to Swellview's crime fighting team were taken by spectators.

There was a photo of Henry as Kid Danger that had obviously been photoshopped, since he never stopped helping people to pose for the camera with a tough guy face.

As of publishing time, no one has again seen neither Captain Man nor Kid Danger. Everyone wants to meet Swellview's newest favorite young man. Moreover, everyone wants to know who is behind the mask- it could be someone you know!

Henry glanced over at Charlotte, who was still sound asleep. She had figured out his secret so fast. Then Jasper accidentally found out…. And now some random person who was probably a bad guy might know about everyone. Henry looked back at the screen.

This article will be updated with more details once they are found.

But the reporters haven't added anything. They still have no idea who Kid Danger could be. Some people think he might not even live in Swellview, as a way to keep his secret identity a secret. Others thought he and Captain Man lived underground.

Well, those people are half-right.

Henry found himself reading the next few articles until he felt like he could get back to sleep. Maybe this time he'd dream about having a ping-pong game with Ray, or of winning a basketball game (even though he hasn't played in forever). At any rate, it would be nice to be able to escape the world for awhile. Some dreamy bacon would be nice, too.

Except as soon as he turned his phone off and plugged it back in, he heard a noise.

Yay! Chapter 25!

*Sigh*

I have to go back to school tomorrow, which unfortunately means no more days of sitting around writing instead of doing math problems that bore me. On the bright side, I was able to get a few chapters ahead of the story, so those are almost ready :).

I guess that's all I have to say.

Ciao, and Happy Reading!