Part I: King tulip

"Over there!" Kid danger pointed at three masked figures running at full speed from a museum. Captain man, noticing the villains, started to lower the mancopter and once it landed promptly grabbed his sidekick and they both ran to stop the criminals.

The mysterious villains were masked, though not in the same way others they've encountered were. No fancy bit of cloth around their eyes, these unfamiliar people had masks covering their entire faces, or obscuring everything so only their eyes were visible. Captain man wasn't sure which one he found more unusual.

The superhero opened his mouth to say one of his signature clever quips before saving the day, but unlike most opponents, these seemed unphased. The group exchanged looks and began running again like they'd never been stopped. Captain man and kid danger began to push them back.

"Hey, hey! What's your problem?" Kid danger shouted.

Captain man decided to try a quip once more. "Now that you've acknowledged we're here, you artifact-snatching crooks are going down!"

One of the Thieves walked up to captain man rather casually, and looked right at him with their masked face, completely still.

The superhero blinked in surprise. Did this criminal want to resolve the encounter peacefully? Why? Didn't they just steal some kind of ancient artifact? Hey, if they wanted to talk it over, it'd save both of them a lot of time and energy.

"Alright, if you want to just talk this out, than I-" captain man gasped for air as he received a nearly immobilizing blow to the chest that sent pain shooting through his upper body. He hissed and kicked his opponent in the side. They responded with a few frantic swings. He grabbed him by the shoulder and punched his masked face as many time as he could before getting thrown off balance.

Captain man hit the ground and immediately scrambled to his knees. He tried to ignore the stinging of his kneecap as he grabbed his opponent by the leg and sent them to the ground too. The two wrestled on the pavement for a while. Kid danger rushed to his companion's aid.

"Kid? I thought you were fighting the other guys!"

"I think I got them to give up." Kid danger responded.

Once the opponent at hand was unconscious, the two went after the other thieves. The one remaining delivered a devastating blow to captain man's jaw, earning them an equally powerful kick.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out. Kid danger ducked at superhuman speeds and captain man immediately looked around in terror. The sound of brass hitting concrete felt like a taunt. Another shot tore through the air. Captain man grabbed kid danger and huddled around him like a human shield.

Since when did anyone in swellview have a gun?

Another loud bang! Rang out. Captain man pushed his sidekick aside. The bullet cut through the brick of a nearby building instead.

"Stop shooting at me!" Kid danger shouted.

Neither superhero nor sidekick knew how to handle this.

Suddenly, several shots rang out in immediate succession from several directions.

Captain man felt several bits of hot metal bounce off of him. That heat seemed to shoot through him when one bounced off his hand, which was guarding his sidekick's head. His entire body felt stiff. An icy claw seemed to have a deathly tight grip on his heart. He feared for kid danger's life, his life, and the now-growing amount of bystander's lives.

Once captain man heard police sirens, he took off running with kid danger close behind. The two bolted out of the streets and into the mancopter, taking off before the criminals could hurt either of them.

"Kid, are you okay?" The superhero asked once they were safe in the air, driving with one hand and messaging schwoz to get out all the medical equipment with the other.

"I'm not sure." The sidekick replied.

"That's not good enough! They almost killed you, I need to know if you got hit anywhere else."

"I didn't. I think a bee stung me, but that's it."

"I didn't see any bees around."

"Maybe not, could have just been leftover pain from the fight before those guys tried to kill us."

Captain man nodded and the rest of the flight back was silent. He wasn't really sure what he was feeling. Was it fear? Frustration? Hopelessness? A mix? It was entirely beyond him. All he knew was a voice in the back of his mind that hadn't spoke in years had suddenly began preaching destruction again. The destruction one does to themselves, that is.

Soon enough, they reached the man cave. Captain man practically ran over to schwoz with kid danger holding on to him like a crutch.

"Schwoz! Can you check up on Henry?" He said, his tone dripped with franticness.

"Why? what's wrong?" Schwoz asked in a voice all too calm.

"We just got back from a really dangerous mission, can you make sure he's not hurt?"

"Sure, but, what happened?"

"I don't even know where to begin. Just watch the news tonight." Was all captain man could say.

"Alright, Henry's going to have to stay the night though."

"That's alright."

Charlotte and Jasper walked in After schwoz brought Henry back to his lab where a lot of medical equipment was. Captain man changed out of his uniform and put his gum away.

"Hey ray! Are we starting the new season of hostakishima tonight?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah, You said you wanted to show it to us tonight." Jasper added, following her in. "Seems like a nice change of pace from dog judge."

"Huh? Oh, Yeah we are." Ray said as he glanced at the clock. "It's going to be on dragonroll soon. I'll order sushi dushi."

After what felt like hours, Ray, Charlotte, and Jasper all sat down to watch hostakishima.

"Hey, where's Henry and schwoz?" Jasper asked.

"Schwoz is checking up on Henry right now." Ray explained. "Some really dangerous stuff went down on a mission today."

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked.

Ray switched to the news. He didn't want to talk about it himself, as this was supposed to help distract him. It was easier like this.

The KLVY reporters had much more serious looks on their faces than usual. Charlotte and Jasper had never seen those two look so businesslike. Something grave must have happened.

"Happening right now," Trent overunder began. "Streets have been blocked off as swellview police continue their search for the people accused of firing shots at captain man and kid danger."

Charlotte's face went from confused to shocked in under a split second. Jasper lightly gasped.

"Live in the city square, Evelyn hall, she's live on the scene and we'll be handing it over to her with the latest developments on this case, Evelyn."

The tv screen switched to Evelyn hall, on the sidewalk where ray was only hours ago.

"Hey there, Trent. What started as a museum robbery earlier this afternoon has escalated to a large scale investigation with multiple investigators involved, both on the ground and in the air. Police say two people are in custody and are searching for a third suspect."

After that, ray switched to the dragonroll homescreen and started searching for their show.

"You mean to tell me someone tried to shoot you and Henry?" Jasper almost shouted, leaning forward and looking over at ray.

"Yeah. I'm fine, but I don't know about Henry yet." Ray replied, popping another roll of sushi into his mouth. "Schwoz is checking up on him."

"Did you like, see any blood or something?"

"I think nobody got hurt, Henry said he thinks a bee stung him, though."

Jasper shrugged and the three started the show.

Part II: bring out your dead

"Okay, so I have some bad news and some good news about Henry." Schwoz explained. Charlotte listened attentively as did ray. Henry sat on the couch and scratched the back of his head nervously.

"So, he definitely got injured, but it's something he'll be able to recover from."

"Well, what happened?" Charlotte asked.

"Remember, Henry will recover, it'll just take weeks, but-"

"I got shot in the shoulder," Henry cut him off.

"What?" Ray shouted. "Is he going to fully recover? Will he need some kind of prosthetic arm? Can he still be kid danger? Is-"

"Stop freaking out for a second and let me finish!" Schwoz said. Ray fell silent.

Charlotte kept glancing back at Henry and then at schwoz. She had a lot of the same questions ray did.

"So, henry will fully recover thanks to the advanced technology we have," He began. "Usually it'd take up to a year or more, but Henry will be out for a month or two. He can still be kid danger afterwards. If he wants, that is."

Charlotte's stomach dropped. If he wants? Does that mean Henry might stop being kid danger? Ray would be devastated! What would that mean for our jobs?

"It was so weird, dude." Henry's words got Charlotte to snap back to what was going on. "I just felt a tight pressure, I didn't think I'd been shot at all."

The next few days were filled with uncertainty. Charlotte kept a close eye on him whenever they were in the same room. Not only was she wanting to be there if Henry's arm began to hurt him, something in her mind was oddly curious about how he'd been handling it. She wasn't sure why she felt like that. She speculated it was because she wanted to be sure Henry wasn't going to hurt himself more than he already had. Charlotte was sure he wouldn't, but Henry was an unpredictable boy.

Ray's concern seemed to grow along with Charlotte's. As Henry began the healing process and ray began tracking the mysterious criminals, he refused to let Henry fight crime with him again until schwoz had given his kid danger uniform an upgrade that would help protect him better. Of course, the incident had only occurred not much more than a week ago, but ray refused to let him take any more chances.

However, captain man needed a temporary sidekick. And he knew the person just for the job.

At first, Charlotte wasn't very willing. She'd done it before, and she ended up a muddy mess. Ray suggested she could design a robotic suit for herself, that way she wouldn't get uncomfortably dirty, only the suit.

So, she reluctantly agreed, and ray helped her design the suit. The planning stage took almost six hours of nonstop energy drink fueled "discussions" that ultimately ended with ray getting kicked out of the man cave garage.

After three weeks, Charlotte had managed to create an impressive looking suit for herself. It was mostly salvaged parts due to the time restraint, but it seemed to work well enough anyways. It was made of smooth metal that wasn't quite form fitting, but not bulky either. It had intricate patterns reminiscent of old video games, it's steel was dyed hues of purple, blue, and green. Across the suit's back a large depiction of the red and blue symbol on captain man's suit could be found. The boots at the bottom had a strange blue neon light on the soles that allowed the wearer to glide along the grounds with antigravity technology. The helmet resembled an eagle's head in shape, The protrusion that would be considered the beak, however, stopped abruptly to create an almost angular headpiece. Two thick plates of metal covered most of the surface, only allowing an indentation for some one-way glass allowing The wearer to see. Finally, three blue steel spires protruded from it, resembling a crown of some sort.

Charlotte called it 'scanset'.

Upon seeing her work, ray was definitely excited to bring "scanset" out for a mission soon. However, he was worried it wouldn't be affective because of how long it took to be built. He always kept a close eye on Charlotte when she was teaching herself how to use the suit.

Several days later, the alarm in the man cave sounded. Charlotte scrambled into the room.

"Charlotte, go put on the scanset suit!" Ray instructed. "That gang from before is holding a bunch of people hostage in swellview park!"

Charlotte darted off and returned in her suit. Ray blew a bubble and changed into his captain man uniform, and the two went up the tubes and into the mancopter, and then flew off.

As they made their way over, Charlotte couldn't help but feel weird. Sure, she'd been on a mission with captain man before, but that was a pig farmer, of all things, that she had to deal with. The one time she did have to fight someone, she managed to talk it out. For the first time in her life, there was no escape from violence. Sure, she had the scanset suit, but that didn't help much.

She shifted nervously in her seat. There seemed to be a tight feeling in her chest. Scanset shifted again.

Captain man seemed to notice. "Are you nervous?" He asked suddenly.

Scanset turned to look at him. "...a little."

He looked at her sternly.

"Okay, I'm really nervous."

"Do you know what you're nervous about?"

"I don't..."

"That's alright." Captain man spoke softly. "I know you'll do amazing. Remember the last time we went on a mission together? You were great!"

"Yeah, but what about scanset? It was made in only three weeks, what if it totally falls apart and I'm defenseless?" Charlotte responded, taking her helmet off for a moment.

"It won't, I asked schwoz to test it to make sure it was stable. Anything that went wrong during those tests got fixed."

"Really?"

Captain man began to land the mancopter. "Yeah. You'll do great out there, I promise."

Charlotte put on her helmet, feeling a lot more confident.

"By the way," captain man said, opening the doors to get out. "Tap the button on your wrist. We installed a radio."

"Why would i need a radio?" She asked, tapping the button anyways.

"I don't know, it just plays music that makes you feel cooler and makes you want to kick butt."

Charlotte shrugged and just kind of accepted it before rushing into battle.

Charlotte flicked her arms and two blades emerged. One of the gang members came to face to face with her. She frantically punched her opponent. They landed a few well aimed blows with their brass knuckles. She flinched. Captain man fired a few laser shots at the opponent.

Charlotte ran off and snuck up behind a knife wielding villain. She slashed at them with her blades. The opponent hissed and did the same. She kicked them in the leg and saw them hit the ground in seconds.

How did I do that? They were massive and I'm not strong! She looked down at her scanset boots. Oh right. Antigravity boots.

Three more gang members ran up to attack. Charlotte frantically punched them. She whispered a command and a small cylindrical object emerged from her suit. It began spinning and rapid firing lasers. The three scattered, but a few more showed up once she ran out of energy for it.

Despite her best efforts, she couldn't fight all of them a once. Captain man managed to distract them while Charlotte got away. Suddenly, she saw a car full of the mysterious gang members try to escape.

As they drove off, she followed them. She jumped on top of the car. Unfortunately, she wasn't sure what to do now. She kicked at the window. It didn't break. Members were noticing she was there. Bullets bounced off her suit. She fired back with frenzies of lasers. The driver swerved into a less crowded road, scraping a wall.

One of the windows was open. Charlotte readied any useful abilities the scanset suit had and jumped in. The antigravity boots threw off some of the villains. A few of them tried to hold her back. She elbowed them back. The blades left slight wounds.

A small iron staff appeared in her hand. She rammed it into a few of the attackers. After that, the door opened and she fell out of the car. Charlotte immediately got up and turned her antigravity boots to a faster setting and went speeding off after them.

At last, she caught up again. This time she got on top of the car and blocked the driver's view with a hail of lasers thick enough to be considered a fog. The car spiraled out of control into an alleyway and Charlotte jumped off and sped away as she heard an ear-piercing crash.

Once she arrived at the park again, captain man had been freeing the hostages.

"Scanset? Where have you been?" He asked.

"I took care of the rest of the gang members, now we need to get out before something else bad happens!" She responded.

So, the two got in the mancopter and began their journey back to the man cave. Charlotte took off her helmet and took a deep breath. She hadn't been this tired in a long time. She almost missed the feeling. Despite how hard it was to do, she had managed to defeat criminals of swellview and enjoyed it. That tired bliss was soon interrupted when she went stiff and felt a hot shock rush through her. She knew today would change a lot for her. But that was a long mental trek she wasn't going to take right now.

Part III: nicotine patches

The night was dark, but it was perfect for a lone patrol. That's exactly what ray did. The freezing cold air seemed to wrap around him like a python trapping it's prey, even through his captain man uniform.

He sighed quietly. It was nights like this where everything seemed to really catch up with him. A solvable, but challenging, problem brought everything crashing down.

Ray looked around. He thought back all those times when he was younger where he'd try to drink himself to death, only to realize indestructibility covered alcohol poisoning as much as it did getting stabbed.

I feel so dead. Not even in an "oh I'm dead inside" way you hear now and then, I feel like I'm just dragging my own corpse around.

That thought seemed to be slowly flowing into him like a nicotine patch.

It was just another regret to add to the list.

But, he hoped as time went on, the cold air and night sky would draw it out. Ray tried focusing on the area around him. There was something calming about seeing the lights of downtown swellview shining in the distance. Even if he felt dead, the shining city reminded him that there was life out there. It pulsed through the walls of every building and underneath one's feet in the roads. If you stayed there long enough, it would flow into you too.

It wasn't a fake feeling of life that stayed exactly the same regardless of the time, it was as real feeling as it got. At this hour, it was peaceful. The slightly dimmed lights seemed to chase out bad feelings. It was temporary fix, but at least it was a reliable one.

So, he decided to go. Ray grabbed his wallet and jumped on the subway, and arrived in downtown swellview. He still had half an hour before a local cat cafe closed. To ray, It was impossible to be sad there.

It was still somewhat empty here. It was the calm before the storm.

Suddenly, he noticed something drive by. A huge truck sped down the road far too fast to hold anything legal.

Ray, clearly tired and annoyed, took out his blaster and aimed.

Please, whatever higher powers might be out there, if I never land another shot in my life, let me land these two.

He pulled the trigger. And pulled it again.

A loud skrrrrrrrrrrt! Rang through the air. Ray ran over to the truck. Relief washed over him, but he was too tired to care. The two back tires had their rubber reduced to shreds flapping in the air, bringing everything to a grinding halt.

The door opened. Ray prepared for a fight.

To his surprise, the offenders didn't even engage. In fact, he didn't think they had the capacity to.

Several machines left the vehicle. Humanoid, yes, but there was no way they had pilots. Ray let out an exasperated sigh and used his blaster to paralyze them, and dragged the bots off somewhere else before handing off the truck and whatever was in it to the police.

From there, he headed to the cat cafe, got his food, and finally had a chance to clear his head.

As he sat down with a cat in his lap and some pocky in his mouth, he began to write down a plan.