I forgot to edit this

"You see our enemies on that crystal screen, my friends?" Ray asked, slamming his cup down. "I pity them. They were brought here with more combat expertise than anyone here could hope to have. They outnumber us six to one. They're fast and they're mean. Every single one of them will be dead by sunset. They think we're demons with swellview wrapped around our finger. They think they can wipe us out. However, they couldn't be more wrong. You see, my friends. They are no soldiers. They live a sheltered life in Their leader's hideout. While they sit sunning their wretched hides in calm meadows, we fight unspeakable horrors in the harshest conditions, protecting the land of swellview with our lives! Our suffering is our strength, let's show them the unbreakable fighting spirit of captain man and kid danger! Shred their bodies with a storm of lead! Rip out their organs with your swords! Crush their pathetic skulls with your iron boots! SLAUGHTER THEM ALL!"

"Calm down, Ray. It's just dr. Minyak with an army of weird magic rats." Henry brought his friend back to reality, all nine of his orange tinted fox tails curled around himself as he sat on the ground.

"Oh, so I can't give a pep talk?" Ray replied, crossing his arms and curling his scorpion tail.

"No, just maybe you should save your big dramatic speeches for murderous shapeshifters and pissed off dragons." Henry said, Grinning a little. "We could definitely use it more then."

"Whatever." Ray said as he got to his feet, two massive scorpion claws on the front of his body helping him up. "Let's go stop minyak and his army of 'magic rats', as kitsune boy here calls them." He said as he made air quotes.

"Sorry, scorpion man. I have a big test tomorrow, I need to get home early to study."

"Hey! So you're just going to leave me to fight those things on my own? Then it'll be, like, 100 to 1!"

"Ask Charlotte to go with you, she's an amazon! You're not the only one here who belongs to some fancy warrior race."

Ray crossed his arms. "I guess it'll be nice to have a real warrior around for this one." He teased.

Henry's ears flattened. "Hey! Just because Charlotte is an amazon and always wears armor doesn't mean she's any kid danger! I have hypermotility!"

"Don't you have to study?"

"Yes! It's important."

Ray nodded. "Alright then. Charlotte, I'll go grab your hero armor. Looks like we'll have to show them the unbreakable fighting spirit of captain man and red Valkyrie."

Charlotte stood up and saluted him. "Can I use that scythe?"

Ray nodded and jumped on the back of Ray's scorpion body and they headed off to another room while Henry walked over to a magic doorway, leading to junk-n-stuff.

He walked out and took a look at the potions, amulets and spellbooks littering the walls, locating Jasper behind the counter, helping an elf check out a few potions. Once they left, Jasper walked out from behind the counter and closed up shop.

"Hey, jasp. Where are you going after work?" Henry asked, his tails fanning out.

"Oh, I'm just heading home." He replied, his intricate and beautiful antlers bumping into a shelf, causing him to flinch a little from surprise.

"Can you give me a ride to crystalline lake?"

Jasper's hooves clicked against the ground as he turned around, as if he were surprised he'd ask.

"Of course! Hop on!" The cervitaur replied, grinning.

Henry thanked him and switched to his kitsune form, jumping on Jasper's back and laying his head on his paws as Jasper walked out the door.

It was sunset, and the town of swellview looked even more enchanting and beautiful than it typically did. Several small wyverns flew right past Henry, a bird stopping to rest on Jasper's antlers. The buildings around them stood tall, nearby trees glowing faintly in the slight darkness. Beings and beasts alike littering the paths beside the road, a time where the adventures of the day began to calm down. Henry watched as a mother gryphon carried her young on her back to a nest high in the sky, his currently foxlike face curling into a drowsy smile.

In what felt like no time at all, Jasper stopped at their destination.

"Here we are, crystalline lake," He said, watching Henry jump off his back and to the ground before switching to his Humanoid form. "Do you have your water amulet?"

Henry rifled through his pockets and took out a small circle that looked as if it had small scales with an ocean wave painted on it, and put it around his neck alongside his kid danger talisman. "Yep."

"Good, see you tomorrow!" Jasper said and scampered off.

Henry turned to look at the lake, it seemed to go on for miles, a bridge right in the middle, the other side of the lake reaching all the way to downtown swellview.

The kumiho looked down at the lake, and took a deep breath and clutched the water talisman, and dived in. He had friends in that lake, the magical kind.

Henry felt the water hit his face, as he went deeper, a flurry of bubbles unveiled him as a satisfying chill ran through his body. Slowly, he tested himself and let a little air out, no bubbles rose up.

With the help of the talisman, he could breathe underwater. Slowly Henry became more accustomed to it, short breaths, then deeper ones.
Slowly he opened his eyes, before him stood a wonder he completely forgot about.

An underwater city, lights of bioluminescent kelp illuminated the streets. Buildings covered in aquatic plants as far as the eye could see, and beautiful sea creatures to match. A school of fur-bearing trout sped past Henry as he began to swim down towards the bottom.

The blond wasn't sure if he knew where he was going, he hadn't been in the underwater district of swellview in a while. There were a few levels, after all. He had only come down recently to stop a threat, and even then he spent a lot of it practically carrying ray, whose species didn't swim well due to their heavy scorpion bodies.

He paddled further towards the city, then stopped to rest on top of a second level building.

I'm here, but I've completely forgotten where to find what I'm looking for. He thought, deciding to take some time to look around.

"Hi Henry!" A familiar voice called to him.

He turned to see a satyr with short black hair, beige skin, and glasses.

"Oliver?" He replied, his ears perking up.

"What are you doing down here?" The satyr replied, sitting down on the roof of the building with him.

"I'm looking for Sidney's place," Henry was distracted by a kelpie swimming by. "Although I've completely forgotten where it is, I don't come down here often after all."

"That's fine, I'll help." Oliver replied as his own water amulet glowed and translucent, ghostly bat wings appeared.

"Woah!" Henry was amazed by the newfound magic appendages. "How did you do that?"

"water amulets can recognize it's wearers swimming abilities and help them accordingly." Oliver explained as he got ready to lead Henry to their destination.

"How come mine doesn't do that then?"

"I don't know, maybe because your tails can work like fins?"

Henry shrugged and followed Oliver as they began to swim again. They weaved through buildings of all kinds; coffee shops, clothing stores, and they even passed a huge dome Oliver said was like a botanical garden, but for plants and creatures found in the ocean.

He missed his trips down here, he didn't know why he stopped. It was like an entirely different world, everything felt silky and ethereal, high speed races through the clouds high above swellview were nothing compared to the odd peacefulness found here. Not many on the surface really seemed to bother with it, some even considered the thought of what could possibly be contained in that lake unnerving. As for henry, he considered it an almost safe place, where the waves would gently caress you and let you feel peace, drifting alongside creatures you'd never see on land.

"Hey, we're here." Henry's admiring of his surroundings were stopped once he realized where he was.

He was in front of what appeared to be a typical house if it were built at the bottom of the ocean, carvings of seashells and Celtic symbols decorating the exterior. Henry recognized the place immediately.

Oliver knocked on the door, and not much later a merperson answered who had short black hair that caused the large fins protruding from their ears and arms to stand out, and wore a gray shirt to compliment the blue and white hues of their tail. Henry recognized this creature as Sidney.

"Henry? I haven't seen you in forever." They said, pleasantly surprised by his presence.

"Decided I'd come down with Oliver to visit." Henry replied, his ears twitching a little.

Sidney invited them both in, and the two land-dwelling creatures sat down in relief, the underwater district of swellview was nice and all, but it was definitely tiring to navigate. The three took some time to catch up, it had been a long time after all. They told each other about all things that had happened above the water, and Sidney told them the events of the lake, as the two districts were a bit detached from each other. Suddenly, the merfolk asked Oliver to leave. He said he'd meet Sidney by a certain pub henry never caught the name of, and headed off.

"Sidney? Why did you want me alone?" Henry asked, a few of his tail tips facing up but curling, the others twitched a little.

"Because I can tell something's bothering you." Sidney said, crossing his arms. "I could tell before you even showed up today."

"How?" Henry asked, one of his tail tips twitching.

"I know a little plant magic, remember?" Sidney reminded him, showing Henry a line of aquatic plants near a windowsill. "Each one is named after a friend of mine, if a plant starts to droop or look unhealthy, it's a magic indicator that something is bothering the friend they're named after."

Henry nodded. Sidney was right, something was bothering him, he just hoped to hang out and forget. That plan had failed.

"Look." Sidney pointed out a small pondweed plant with curly leaves, and it seemed to be turning brown near the ends. "That's yours. So, what's bothering you?"

"It's nothing, really."

"Plant magic doesn't lie, Henry."

Henry's ears flattened in reluctance, how was he supposed to say this without revealing he was kid danger?

"There's been a lot of mysterious appearances up on land, and it's getting a little creepy." Henry admitted. "My boss up at junk-n-stuff says it's happened before a few times, like some pattern."

Sidney tilted his head. "Are you sure it's not some dragon with an unusual hoard?"

"No, no." Henry continued, shifting from side to side ever so slightly. "If it was, captain man and kid danger would probably return with the creatures that disappeared, and my boss said that every time this has happened, they don't come back. Apparently captain man and kid danger don't find a dragon or anything."

Sidney suddenly froze as he remembered something. "Henry, I think I might know what's going on. You have every right to be scared."

Henry's ears flattened again and his tails curled back. "What do you mean?"

"I saw something on the surface last night. I know it'll be safe here in the water, so you're welcome at my place in the face of something happening."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't want to worry anyone else. Just take this and address it to the man cave, make sure it's submitted anonymously." Sidney gave him a waterproof scroll.

"A scroll? Sidney, people just use paper and envelopes."

"Not when it's important."

"Right..."

"Anyways, I'd suggest keeping your mind off the disappearances. I'll make sure your plant gets extra sunlight."

Henry thanked him and swam off, heading to the surface and switching to his kitsune form, scampering all the way home with the scroll in his jaws.

* * *

The next day, Henry managed to get Sidney's cryptic message off his mind. He was sitting in the man cave with a video game controller in his hand, much more relaxed now. Despite this, he couldn't help but wonder exactly what was written on that scroll. Scrolls were only reserved for messages of utmost importance, so what would they know that captain man and kid danger didn't?

His thoughts were interrupted by ray bursting into the room, wide-eyed and holding something.

"HENRY! Get ready for the biggest mission we've ever gone on!"

Henry' ears perked up as ray headed over. He was holding Sidney's scroll. "This was just mailed to us with no return address or anything, and it has everything in it to finally put an end to an ongoing crime!"

"What kind of ongoing crime?" Henry asked.

"There's been random periods of time when a bunch on swellview citizens suddenly disappeared, without returning. I've been chasing whatever's responsible for it for nine years!"

Henry nodded, only half listening.

"I couldn't figure anything out about it to save my life! But this scroll, this has everything I need to know! Whoever wrote it has all the missing information!" Ray went on before rolling it open.

"Cool."

"Those mysterious disappearances, they were murders! Victims of some kind of hunt! The scroll says a marrashi was planning it!"

"What's a marrashi again? Aren't they usually peaceful?"

"They're beings that look like jackals with bird's feet and wings that stand on two legs, they can't reproduce normally, so they craft enchanted arrows and shoot them at a living thing and that technically kills them and turns the body into a new, sentient marrashi. But here's the thing, that doesn't happen anymore. Marrashis are civilized, they create magic statues and shoot those so nothing has to die! They just shoot animals if anything at all!"

"Sounds cool, dude."

"But this specific one, he calls himself mizain the bold, has been building an army! And he doesn't use statues, he's been killing innocent swellview citizens! For nine years! And he's going to attack tonight!"

"Mizain the bold? That's a cool name."

"Not when it's the name of a brutal murderer!" Ray shouted back. "Tonight we're going into the woods next to crystalline lake, I'm guessing that's their training ground. Bring your most powerful weapons, we'll take the part facing swellview. wait a second, have you even been listening?"

"I have. Now go away, I'm training my mind for battle."

"Henry, you're playing video games."

"Exactly, training. Now leave me alone, you're distracting me."

*     *     *

And so, night fell. Ray, Henry, and Charlotte stood outside the woods, each one clad in their respective armor, their best weapons with them.

"Okay, here's the plan." Ray began, snipping his claw a few times in thought. "Charlotte, you stand guard here. Make sure to take down any marrashis that make it past us. only the hostile ones in some kind of armor, don't go attacking any innocent citizens."

"Tell me something I don't know already." Charlotte said, crossing her arms.

"That's a dangerous statement. There are many things you don't know, and there's even more things that should be kept secret."

Charlotte was clearly surprised by his response. "You're annoyingly cryptic, captain man."

Ray smirked and shrugged. "I try."

"alright, general. Let's go." Henry said, jumping on Ray's back so he'd have some time to get his weapons ready.

As they walked around looking for their enemies, Henry has brought a large rucksack and continually took weapons and their holsters out and strapped them to him armor. Henry had brought weapons ranging from shurikens to gauntlets, and needed everything to be accessed easily. As he was doing this, he took out what appeared to be a dull sword with a hook at the base.

"How are you going to do any damage with a sword that dull?" Ray asked, looking at the weapon his sidekick was holding. "I told you to bring only the best weapons."

"Best offensive weapons." Henry corrected him.
"And this isn't just any sword, it's a hachiwari."

"Okay? It just looks like a bad katana."

"It's more than that."

"A sword that dull is totally useless, kid!"

"Only if cutting and stabbing are it's only uses." Henry replied, his tails fluffed out in annoyance.

"That's what you use a sword for."

"didn't you bring a bow and arrows?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Then by using that you're not expecting your enemies to be wearing any metal! The arrows will just bounce right off them! With a hachiwari, it's made specifically to tear off armor-"

"Sounds a little creepy to me."

"So you can make them an easier target for things like arrows! Who doesn't wear something underneath their armor? That's just bad planning."

"I do that sometimes!"

"That's weird."

"You're weird."

The two stopped, Henry put the hachiwari in a holster on his back and instead took out an intricate red and silver gauntlet. Ray curled his tail as if ready to sting and put his claws in front of him defensively as he grabbed a battle axe.

"Keep watch for anything." Ray whispered.

They were out there for quite a while, looking around for something, anything to indicate that mizain the bold was coming. After what felt like hours, they heard a rustle in the bushes. Henry noticed something nearby.

"Captain man, it's just a deer."

Ray stood wide-eyed and held his battle axe closer to himself and held out a claw in front of Henry.

"Stay back, kid."

"Why?"

"That's not a deer anymore."

They watched as what they thought was a deer's antlers seemingly melted off, as their ears decayed away and new, taller ones at the top of their head grew in their place, it's front hooves slowly seemed to melt off  and handlike paws appeared underneath, it's back hooves elongated into large bird's feet. The rest of it's body looked like it was rotting, shrinking a little and turning a dark brown with small spots, it's snout elongated and wings sprouted in a process that looked so painful it was hard to watch.

Henry seemed to recognize this transformation after a while, it had been hit by one of the enchanted arrows, and it had become a marrashi.

"Surprised, are you?" An unnerving voice called out to them.

Henry and ray turned to see one of these creatures, clad in heavy metal armor and blue paint on it's face. Behind it stood what looked like an army of creatures of the same species.

"Who are you?" Ray shouted, brandishing the large axe.

"The name's mizain. I'm here for swellview." They replied.

"If you want swellview, you'll have to get through us first."

Mizain grinned and drew a broadsword. "That won't be an issue."

The crowd behind mizain all drew their weapons. The marrashi grinned. "Get 'em, boys!"

The army charged foward, Henry's ears flattened and he hissed as he charged back and punched an attacker right in the snout. They snarled and swung their sword. Henry blocked it.

He ran around to the back using hyper motility and climbed onto them and jumped off their head as a booster, tossing several shurikens at enemies below.

He landed on another marrashi and slammed their head into the ground before getting hit in the stomach by a mace-wielding enemy. Henry hissed in pain and tried to deflect the mace, but it was no use. He almost took a blow to the head, but the opponent's weapon was knocked out of their hand. Henry quickly glanced behind him to see ray with a longbow, quickly winking before returning to the fight.

Henry ran and quickly grabbed the mace and finished off the attacker before heading off to another, the rush he got from all intense fights kicking in. He slammed the mace into the head of an approaching attacker. Then into the wings of another particularly determined one. They punched him in the neck.

Henry gasped for air and hit them with the mace again. And again. And again. Henry just barely missed getting stabbed with a sword and dropped the mace, mizain swooping down and grabbing the weapon.

Henry wrestled the attacker to the ground and punched with the gauntlets until they gave up.

"Who's next?" He growled, drawing his sword.

Five attackers answered to that call, each swooping in with their swords.

Henry's tails drooped as his eyes widened. "Oh no."

He took the hachiwari in his other hand and ended up in quite the sword fight. He could barely hold them off.

"It's over, kid danger!" One bellowed before getting knocked several feet in the air by a familiar blue battle axe.

Ray had arrived to help out his sidekick. together, the two were knocking marrashis off their wretched evil feet.

Henry was about knock out a particularly vicious one, but he noticed something about it. It looked familiar. Too familiar. Henry's grip softened as something came back to him.

"What's wrong, kid?" Mizain taunted, his lips curled into a devilish smile. "Was this someone you knew?"

Henry's heroic fighting high melted into shock. Henry looked up at the leader. "You..." he whispered.

The shock ignited into a raging fire of anger and vengeance. This fire consumed him as he activated the claws on his gauntlets.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO KILLED MY SISTER!" Henry screamed and charged at mizain, tackling him and ripping off his helmet and stabbing and slashing him anywhere he could, watching the blood spurt out like it were a firework show.

Once mizain was for sure dead, Henry switched to his kitsune form and sunk his jaws into the neck of another attacker, the need to bring justice morphing into bloodlust.

He went back and forth between every remaining member of mizain's dark army, switching between humanoid and kitsune forms, mauling any one unfortunate enough to catch his eyes.

"DON'T YOU DARE THINK YOU'RE GETTING OUT ALIVE!" Henry screamed as he snapped the neck of an attacker, the remaining fleeing.

"Come back, I'm not done with you yet!" A kid danger drenched in marrashi blood shouted, running after one of them.

Suddenly, ray picked him up off the ground and pulled him close, holding him back from doing any more damage.

"Henry, stop! You've gone hysterical!" Ray shouted as Henry struggled to get out of Ray's grip, but to no avail.

Henry squirmed and kicked and hissed, screaming to be let out and about how he wanted all of them dead. Ray kept him close, making sure he didn't get out again no matter what. After a while, Henry calmed down.

Henry slowly came back to his senses, taking deep breaths. His eyes, however, were closed.

"Good, good. It's okay, Henry. I'm here. Mizain's gone. Nothing can attack you anymore." Ray said, looking down to make sure he's okay.

Henry's eyes slowly opened, he saw the damage he caused. Marrashis across the ground for what seemed like miles, dead.

His ears dropped to the sides of his head, similar to that of a sad puppy. Then, he cried. Silently, but ray could clearly hear his sniffing.

Ray was shocked. He'd never seen anyone cry like that before, tears were streaming down Henry's face so fast it looked like a waterfall. He slowly put Henry down.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

All ray got back was Henry's hysterical babbling.

"Do... do you want to go back to the man cave?" Ray asked.

Henry nodded.

"Here, you can ride on my back." Ray said, helping Henry on.

The whole walk back, he kept checking on henry, and he didn't know what to do. Just minutes ago he watched Henry shred through countless enemies like a murder machine, and now he sat sobbing hysterically in his blood-soaked armor.

He could only wonder what had happened to send Henry into such a state.

Once they got to Charlotte, even she couldn't help Henry. He just had his face buried in his gauntlets, tears dripping down.

Once they got back to the man cave, they sat Henry down on the couch.

Ray took off his armor plates, revealing scuffed chainmail.

"Henry, Henry..." ray began, drying Henry's tears with a finger. "Speak to us, Henry."

Henry sniffled. "I... killed them back there..."

"They were our enemies, it happens..."

"No, ray! You don't understand! I killed them! There were like, a thousand or more! I don't even know how many I got..." Henry sobbed. "I'm a terrible person..."

"No, you're not..." Charlotte said, unsure of what else to say. "What do you remember?"

Henry looked up at her.

"It's just us here." Ray gently reminded him.

"I... I was fighting... and I saw this one try to attack me.. I was going to... I was going to hit back." Henry began.

"and?" Ray asked, putting his hand on Henry's shoulder.

"It was... it was Piper."

Ray's eyes widened. "What do you mean it was Piper?"

"When... I was eight, Piper got hit by some cursed arrow that killed her... and she came back as a ghost person... but that's what her body turned in to." Henry explained through sobs as he hid his face in his tail. "I realized mizain killed her... and I don't remember what happened next. All I know is ray was holding me off the ground and all the marrashis were dead, and something told me I did it... I'm a murderer, ray! A crybaby and a murderer! Why would captain man want a sidekick who's a murderer?"

Ray didn't know what else to do besides hug Henry close and try to comfort him. Henry buried his face in Ray's shoulder and cried even more.

"It's okay, they were enemies out to destroy swellview. If anything, you saved us..." he said, hugging Henry tightly back.

Once Henry calmed down, he went off to go take a shower. Charlotte had to go, and ray sat alone in the man cave.

He didn't know what to make of it. All he knew was he wished he could have done more, and maybe Piper wasn't the brat he thought she was.