SHUT UP; I KNOW IT'S BEEN A YEAR AND A HALF IM SORRY. I'M STILL UPDATING THIS, I PROMISE. HERE YOU GO, JUST TAKE IT. TAKE IT RIGHT NOW.


12 Years Ago

Ray wakes up long after his fight with Drex.

He sits up dazed, his hand quick to stabilize him, but a flash of pain drives through his arm does he remember his shoulder was dislocated. He breathes heavily before quickly and carefully setting it back in place and is completed with him cringing at the sound of it popping back in.

His vision clears up and he looks around as he recalls his fight with Drex. How it got to this point, he genuinely doesn't know.

There's broken glass all around him and items knocked over spread all throughout the floor. 'This will be a pain to clean up,' he thinks.

Ray wobbles his way over to the couch and sets his head back against the arm rest. His head is pounding but nothing like his chest. That thing, the weapon Drex had, being hit with it felt like he was being burned from the inside out, the pain was just simply put indescribable. It was a mix of being on fire yet an intense feeling of pins and needles. Ray wishes to never feel something of such ever again. That only is a wish though.

He picks his head right up when his breathing has finally evened. The pain has settled enough for Ray to stand. His hands drop to his knees and he realizes he'll need to start all over again, find a new sidekick but one he can truly trust this time.

'But that won't be for a very long time,' he thinks.

Ray proceeds to pick up the littered trash around the Man Cave and sees this as a symbol of moving forward with whatever comes next. He has no clue what Drex's next move will be, nor does he really care at this point. All he cares about is getting back up and continuing to be the hero he's always been. He'll be more careful this time around selecting a new sidekick and maybe, just maybe, he'll have this new partner who shall be trustworthy enough and strong enough and join him on his ventures this time around.

Drex would soon repay his debts. Drex will realize what a horrible mistake he has just made, and he promises in due time, he will make him pay for what he has done. That's what he promised, and a promise he will honor indeed.

With one last look at the room does he realize Drex will know for sure he'd been here, that is, if he does return.

Henry silently closes the door to said room before turning on the flashlight he had found moments earlier and shining it down the lengthy hallway. He would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't terribly afraid of what he'd find further down to the opposite side of his living quarters but he could only hope it would lead to a way out.

Quick to prop himself, Henry stood on his feet careful to not make any sudden movements. He was no doctor so he knew his stitching was not so great. Any kind of sudden pressure would surely undo his work.

Walking down as he had done so before, Henry carefully wobbled his way down. His senses on high alert terribly afraid he will hear those heavy footsteps again. He walks far enough to see a different room up ahead without a door. Henry is quick to take a peek but what he sees makes him nauseous.

That room, where he was tied to a table, tied to his toes barely touching the hard floor below. Blood staining the concrete below. The metallic smell almost makes him vomit right then and there. But he keeps his composure and continues down as if he had seen nothing.

Puddles of water line the floor beneath, and the brief times water droplets are heard from afar. The walls direct him to take a right and more doors are found further down. Curiosity quickly is placed elsewhere; there is no time to be looking in these rooms. He needed to get out, making as little disturbance as possible.

Henry makes another right, and he finds light shining from yonder, as he gets closer, what he finds leaves his mouth agape.

The outside world, plants lying right in front of him, trees seen from a close distance. The flashlight drops from his grasp and then he's running before he even registers it.

His stitches have slightly ripped but he doesn't care. He looks back retaining what the building he was held in had looked like. It looked to be an old factory, it didn't seem that big to him nor did he realize it was more than one story tall but right now he doesn't care. Nothing matters. He's running as if his life depended on it which it really did. He's tired and in so much pain. He doesn't know where he is but he's just running. Running hopefully in the direction of home.

"I got the Van's last known location!" shouts Schwoz.

Charlotte and Ray are quick to run over to the monitors, "It seems like it was left in a wooded area, around 25 miles from here. It seems like an odd place to dump the thing don't ya think?"

Ray intervened, "It doesn't matter where it is and how it got there, all that matters is that it's there and we need to get to it now. Hopefully it'll lead us to Henry."

Ray is swift with his movements as he goes to pull out his signature gumball tube and blows a bubble in time to change to his uniform.

"Let me come with you," Charlotte stipulated.

Ray sighs, "Charlotte—"

"Come on Ray, I don't think you should navigate those woods alone, we can't keep in contact with you with the location being so far out. Let me come help you. Let me come save my friend," Charlotte vocalizes, almost desperate.

"Charlotte, I appreciate the aid but I think I'm better off doing this alone. You're a brave young woman and I know you would be a great help but right now I need you here. I can't let what happened to Henry happen to you. Trust me we want Henry back home and he needs our help, but that starts with all of you staying here. You've been more than enough help and support through all of this. So please, I'm asking you, stay."

Her eyes watered with disappointment yet with determination. She hugs Ray as she tries everything in our power to prevent those tears from overflowing.

"J-Just please, bring him home. Whatever it takes."

Ray too, begins having a hard time keeping his emotions in check. Waterworks of course.

He pulls away from her and kneels to her height, "I promise he'll be home before ya know it."

"We trust you Ray," a new voice joins the conversation, Jasper as he steps away from the platform that the tubes were located on. "We know you'll bring him home so go, we'll be waiting here."

Ray looks around, the trio looks at him as the answer to all their questions, he runs on over beneath his tube and once more says his known line, "Up the Tube!"

He stops running, he doesn't know how far he's gone or how long he's ran for but he stops. Henry's vision starts to become a blur and his legs were on fire from the lack of usage. His knees give out and he sits in the middle of the woods with no sense of direction or how to get home.

Daylight is quickly ceasing and the dusk only leaves him with just a few more hours to find somewhere to go.

'I can't stay out here,' he thinks. He runs into too much of a risk of running into Drex, he doesn't even know if he's getting any closer to the city or further away. All he knows is that he needed to get out there.

He's cold, so cold as the wind begins to pick up. Henry is sitting on his knees with his hands in his lap as he shivers. His eyes are half open, watching the wind take some leaves along with it. Then he laughs. It's a soft laugh at first but then grows to a full on laugh, he's laughing until his stomach hurts and then falls onto his back. He's not in that room anymore, in that cold lonely room. He's out. Oh how he wished to see the look on Drex's face when he comes back to realize he failed to keep him captive while he was gone.

He's laughing so much that Henry's eyes are glassy and watered and then he's crying. Crying from the pain, crying from sadness, crying for his friends he doesn't really know why he's crying. He just cries and those become loud sobs that rip through the woods. He sobs his heart out until he can no more. The night has since settled and he feels his senses heighten as he is uneasy about the fact he'll run into something or someone for that matter he shouldn't.

Henry sits up and closes his eyes, he breathes heavily in and out and he regains his composure. The cold night is unforgiving. Toes and fingers start to become numb and his hunger isn't helping the situation. He's sitting a couple minutes later as he swipes his forearm across his eyes to rid any evidence of his despair as he picks himself up and leans against a thin tree as he recovers from his dizzy spells. When he recovers he continues to run. Running to who knows where and finding who knows what but running because there's no turning back. The only way he'll find himself back in that hell hole of a place is if Drex finds him and drags him back there but he certainly won't go down without a fight, even if it gets him even more injured.

His side is heavily bleeding but he doesn't care. Henry doesn't care that there's a line of blood flowing down to his thigh down to his leg. He doesn't care that he can smell that awfully well-known metallic smell he's gotten so used to. He doesn't care that his hand still has not regained full feeling back, he doesn't care.

Henry's so tired, he feels his body shutting down. His eyes are fighting to stay awake. He doesn't know how much longer he can go on without collapsing. He's running and keeps running until he stops.

He heard a noise. Leaves crunching and twigs breaking under heavy steps.

Henry's terrified to look behind him. He's still as a statue in its place, he hears it again, even closer.

Involuntarily, his hands rise towards his head, like a fugitive who had just been caught on the run. He feels those heavy tears run down his cheeks again. Somehow he knows it's Drex and he's found him and he has no idea why in the world he thought he could get away without being caught. Henry has his teeth and eyes clenched so hard it hurts and can't bear to make a move. He wants to say he's sorry but he can't. Then those steps pick up the pace and he feels two hands on his shoulders as it turns him around to face them and he's so ready for a beating that his body braces itself but then he realizes nothing new hurts.

That's when he opens his eyes and he realizes it's not Drex before him, it's Ray.

"Oh my God. Oh my God Henry."

Henry is so still Ray is afraid he scared the poor kid to death. His eyes are so full of fear and his mouth twitches because he's just so shocked, so surprised to find Ray before him. He thought it could've been anyone else, ANYONE else but Ray and his head feels like it's threading through mud as his brain is slow to process that it is in fact Ray. His mentor, his friend, his father figure. His hero. When it finally catches up to him he hugs him too fast and clings on hard almost too hard that Ray is taken aback. He hears the kid cry and all he wants to do is cry alongside him because none of this would've happened if he just set aside his ego for one second.

This kid, this young boy had grown to be so much more than just a friend. Losing him for as little as he did made him realize how much Henry impacted his life. How much of a better man he made him. Without him, it felt pointless to pretend he did all this for show. He loved him, more than the kid will ever come to realize.

Henry didn't want to let go of Ray. Couldn't let go. He was afraid oh so afraid that it was all a dream, a sick twisted hallucination from the lack of food and water. But he kept hugging him, refusing to let go, and Ray let him. At some point his exhaustion caught up to him and his cries slowed and his grip loosened, at that point, Ray was able to carry him bridle-style back to the Man Cave with the promise that he'd be all right.


In all sincerity, I've read all your comments and I've wanted to say thank you so much for your support. It means so much to me. I do apologize for the very slow updates, I can't make any promises but I will try to get one or two more chapters out before the end of the year. I fully intend on finishing this story, but how long it'll take me fully depends on how much motivation I have. I want to thank every single one of you for your patience. Also, I apologize for any misspellings I did not catch before this posting. Until the next one!