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vilandel · 3 months

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Silver Cats & Black Roses

Chapter 22 – Elite

A/N It's been a while since I posted a chapter for this already finished story here, time to continue... A little insight about the world of fashion in Clover, plus our main guys missing their girlfriends so much that they are so bold to sneak into the modiste shop 💙💜

Ao3 link

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“Gosh, isn’t this exciting? The shop isn’t even open yet and so many customers are already waiting!”

“I guess. But I was never in such a luxurious shop before, I can’t really tell or compare.”

“Same here, but I’m still really excited. Well, it’s normal that those dresses are so well-loved. I mean, have you SEEN this emerald silk gown with the cream and golden butterflies? Or the red dress with the little roses that looks like a rose itself? Oh, I bet it looks even more like a rose when you turn around in it. Oh, and that black gown with the pink and teal flowers, such a style!”

Vanessa grabbed Grenadines arm, just to point at more and more dresses she saw in the shop. She already did that with the unfinished ones in the atelier, since the other knights and herself had to take the back entrance of Soie Velours’ shop.

It was the first day of the mission the most renown modiste in the Clover Kingdom gave the Magic Knights and ten knights, two from five different squads, came for the official start. Vanessa herself came along with Noelle for the Black Bulls, although she wasn’t sure if her squadmate was excited or not.

The Silver Eagles were represented by Nebra Silva and Grenadine, the nice newbie Vanessa already have seen several times and who was a bastard from a noble. From the Crimson Lions, two of the rare female knights of this squad, Lital Lys and Meli Ambrosia. The Blue Roses have sent Églantine Roselei and even the captain herself, Charlotte Roselei. As for the Coral Peacocks, they were represented by Kirsch Vermillion and someone called Rick Cornell, the only men in today’s group.

The only ones missing were still the Blue Roses, but it was still some time before the shop was opening. Besides, knowing captain Charlotte, they would still come on time and if not, the captain of the Blue Roses was concerned enough to let the modiste know in time.

The lion ladies were still back in the atelier and on another corner of the mezzanine, Kirsch was posing and doing some… things about beauty, while the knight called Rick seemed like he wanted to be far away from here. Poor guy.

Noelle and Nebra immediately were caught up in a discussion, so Vanessa took Grenadine aside to look over the shop from the mezzanine that leaded to the atelier and also the upper floors.

In fact, Vanessa wanted to get to know more about the Silver Eagles, since they were Nozels knights. There has to be some who were nice, hopefully. Despite everything, Nozel really enjoyed to be a captain and she didn’t want that some corrupt noble knights would took this away from him.

Besides, Grenadine was the first Silver Eagle who wasn’t either a royal or a noble and this was still a fascinating topic for Vanessa.

Grenadine seemed to be a bit shy and definitely overwhelmed by Vanessas complete attitude, but there was also a small, mysterious but encouraging glimmer in her eyes. A reason for Vanessa to not give up on getting along with this sweet girl.

“I don’t know a lot about noble houses, but I’m sure most of today’s customers will be from nobility.”

“Certainly, especially if they’re from high nobility. Like house Évantail… the house of my father. That’s going to be awkward if some of them would be here and I find myself in front of them. But well, I’m here on duty and I asked captain Nozel about this, there is nothing they can do against it.”

Aw, how cute it was of Nozel to reassure his junior knight.

Vanessa wished he could be here with her, right now. But this fashion world wasn’t really something he was the most interested in and besides, with the nobles coming today, it was better he was absent. They would either jump on him with marriage proposals or sneak on him with remarks and comparisons.

Still, Vanessa missed his presence, his arms around her, his lips on her skin or even better, on her own lips, his talks to her, how he cared, how he loved… With this ball full of marital traps around the corner, she felt the anger and the fear of the risk of being separated, mostly by this horrible Lac Silva. And it was in Nozels arms that Vanessa felt herself becoming braver about this.

She looked at Grenadine. House Évantail, huh? One of Nozels problematic knights had that family name as well and if Vanessa remembered correctly, it was also Grenadines older half-brother. And goodness, the Blue Rose accompanying captain Charlotte was an Évantail as well! Hopefully that one would be a nice Évantail, otherwise there’s going to be some tension in today’s group of knights.

Thankfully, it wouldn’t come from the Silva sisters. Vanessa glanced at them. They looked like they were arguing or bickering, but from what Vanessa could hear, it sounded more like a typical sibling argument. And it was about the ball gowns they could wear at the ball.

“No, no, no, Noelle! You CAN’T wear that, especially with that body type of yours!”

“What’s wrong with my body type?”

“Nothing is wrong with your body type, but it’s not the right one for this kind of dress. You’re more on the small side and you’re not chubby. You’re going to be drown in lace and silk if you were this kind of overly puffy dress. And why orange? Orange is not your colour and definitely not a colour Silvas can wear that easily. Especially flashy. Gosh, your taste in fashion is almost as terrible as Solids. Nozel is a bit better, but he’s not interested in fashion enough. If it weren’t for my lessons, he would have appeared on every celebration with his usual clothes and his Silver Eagle robe.”

So, Nebra was the fashion experts of the Silvas? Vanessa couldn’t help but giggle slightly. The typical Silva clothes were difficult to understand, for her and probably in general. Oh, they were looking comfortable and stripping them from Nozel before they slept together was very exciting for Vanessa. But from a fashion sense? So difficult to understand.

Vanessa looked at Nebras typical skirt. Asymmetrical and with some kind of slit on the side, it was actually very stylish.

Noelles Silva clothes didn’t have a piece of clothing in this style. Maybe Nebra asked for this kind of skirt specifically? Anyways, she was definitely the fashion expert of the Silvas and Vanessa was relieved to not be the only one anymore to care about Noelles disastrous fashion sense.

“It wasn’t only orange, it was also pink,” Noelle tried to argue. But of course, it wouldn’t be a strong argument.

“Orange and pink? ORANGE AND PINK? Noelle, this one of the worst colour combinations ever and a very risky one at that! Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Vanessa did, but-“

“See? You should listen to your witch squadmates, she might be the only one of the Black Bulls to have at least some fashion sense.”

“Oh, thank you, sugar!” Vanessa said loudly from where she stood, smiling brightly. She had some concerns at first, but getting along with Nebra Silva came along better than she thought, despite Nebras kinda bitchy attitude. And it was so wonderful to see Noelle getting along better and better with another of her siblings. First Nozel, now Nebra. Solid might come later, but it was hopeful at this point.

“Yeah, you’re welcome,” Nebra replied with a flick on her hand, completely focused on her little sister. “Seriously, Noelle, you can just appear at the ball looking like a too big flashy candy with small arms and small legs. We’re royals, we can’t allow ourselves to be ridiculous.”

“Kirsch is ridiculous.”

“But he made his ridiculous side part of his charm and he’s owns this flashy style to a point it’s not a reason to mock anymore. It’s his personality. But wearing a ridiculous ball dress that’s not even your style? That is just ridiculous and not even your personality. I can’t let you wear an overly puffy dress with such flashy shades and a horrible combination of colours. Because you’re a royal and also… because you’re my little sister. I just can’t.”

Nebra blushed, before slightly looking away. Oh, it might have took her a lot of will power to say this out loud, but Vanessa find it so adorable. Noelle had that side too, and Nozel. Was it a Silva trait, did Solid have it too?

Noelle was blushing too, clearly touched by her sister’s words. But she still worked up the courage to speak up still, “What do you want me to do? Getting lessons about fashion? Or letting you choose the ball gown for me?”

“Why not both? You definitely needs some lessons in fashion, at least for the basics. And please, don’t say that you don’t need those or you might end up like Solid and going to the ball in chequered flannel pyjamas.”

That seems like a very strong argument, Noelle didn’t say anything against it.

“As for deciding what you should wear for the ball… why not? I have enough trust in my fashion sense to actually find a dress for you that will suit you perfectly. Let’s see… You’re a water mage, so something in any shade of blue and anything that would remind of water. There are so many possibilities with that. Also, you told me once that you like green. Well, that’s a colour that works very well with our silver hair, especially darker shades. But brighter shades of green would suit you as well. Not to mention that both of us can easily wear pink, it matches our eyes. Purple too, especially if the garments are silver. In fact, we Silvas should rather use silver garments than golden ones, it’s more our brand. You can wear yellow too if you want, Noelle, but I would rather suggest you pastel shades in this case. As for the shape of the dress… You can wear puffy sleeves if you want, especially if it leaves your shoulder free, but I wouldn’t suggest it for the skirt if you don’t want to look like a fat pudding. I think you would look rather amazing in dresses with either flowy skirts, that turns around you like water or dresses that are closer to your body. There’s a shape that is called mermaid and you have a form like that with your magic, right? It would fit you perfectly in many ways. Of course, it is difficult to sit casually with that kind of dress, but you’ll still look fabulous.”

Nebra knew a lot indeed and looked totally in her element. Vanessa was impressed, maybe she would ask her some tricks and such for her own ball dress.

Noelle seemed like she came to that conclusion as well, only that she put it on a different level. “You know what, Nebra? Since you’re so confident on this topic, how about I let you decide for my ball gown?”

“Really? You would… let me?”

“Yes, it’s a deal.”

“Deal. I’ll make sure you will be the most beautiful lady in the ballroom. Or at least one of the most beautiful, I need to look fabulous too, after all.”

“Nebra!”

Just in this moment, the two Blue Roses came on the mezzanine. Captain Charlotte said immediately, “I’m sorry we couldn’t come before. There had been a… matter back at the base.”

Was it just Vanessa or did the captain of the Blue Roses just slightly blushed for a second?

The knight that was with Charlotte, a pretty young girl with beautiful azure corkscrew curls and turquoise eyes, snickered smugly. Oh, was it an embarassing matter or a spicy one? Vanessa wanted to know more.

But before she could even ask, she felt Grenadine tense beside her.

Oh. She almost forgot. Both Grenadine and the Blue Rose had the same eye colour. A shining turquoise. But Grenadine was a bastard daughter of the Évantails, while this Blue Rose was legitimate.

Said Blue Rose must have felt the tension as well, as she turned around to them. Her eyes widened when she saw Grenadine.

Captain Charlotte would certainly scold her subordinate deeply if she would say anything snarky towards the bastard daughter of her family. But Vanessa was ready to take the defence of Grenadine as well. She still wanted to make a friend out of her. And she was one of Nozels knights, she had every reason to defend Grenadine.

But to her biggest surprise, the Blue Rose let out a happy squeal and immediately run towards Grenadine to pull her in a tight hug.

“Oh, you must be my lost half-sister? I’m so glad to meet you finally! My family would never allow it, but that’s just not fair! You didn’t choose to be a bastard! But I would love to know you more! I’m so grateful to captain Nozel that he gave you a chance, the Silver Eagles are lucky to have you! I would have loved to have you as a Blue Rose like me, but we can still hang out and meet more if you want. Oh, please tell me you want! Pleeeeaaaase? I have little brother who would love to meet you as well and a great-aunt, who is pretty modern for her age. By the way, my name is Églantine.”

“Um… I’m Grenadine.”

“I know that already, sweet pie! We both have names that end in -ine, isn’t that great!”

Well, that was surprising. But also beautiful. At least, there was one Évantail accepting of the bastard. It reminded Vanessa a bit on how lady Orchidea – or auntie Dea, like the Black Bulls called her – immediately put Luck in her heart as if he was her own son.

It was reassuring to know that not every noble was an asshole.

“Églantine always wanted to meet her half-sister the moment she learned about her,” captain Charlotte said as she joined Vanessa at the balustrade of the mezzanine.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Églantine is just like that. I wanted to bring Grenadine into the Blue Roses at the Entrance Exam, but she chose the Silver Eagles instead.”

“It’s still not a bad choice, still.”

“Indeed. And if the Silver Eagles can take a bastard girl in, it’s the proof that it’s not status that should be important by being a knight, but the skills, the dedication and loyalty. Among other things.”

Vanessa couldn’t agree more. If only nobility could understand this as well.

“Oh, how wonderful, all the knights are here.”

Each one of the Magic Knights turned around, to see the modiste in person appear from the first floor.

Vanessa never had saw Soie Velours before and she had admittedly been curious about this most renown modiste. Well, she couldn’t say that she was disappointed. Soie Velours was one of the most elegant woman she ever saw, who seemed like to make her flaws into fashionable accessories. There were strands of grey hair in her red curls, but instead of hiding them like most woman would do, she was practically showing them of.

That was actually impressive, Vanessa hoped to be able to act the same once it would be her turn to have grey hair. Hopefully not so soon, though.

Soie Velours hold the hand of such an adorable little boy, who looked timidly at all the knights, especially Nebra and Noelle, but his smile was genuinely welcoming.

“My nephew, Lin Velours, and also my successor. Trust me, as a modiste, he is already on the way to surpass me one day.”

Soie Velours might be a firm business woman and probably very direct, but in this very moment, no auntie could have sounded more proud.

“You all know where the bathrooms are in case of a little toilet break? Good. You also know any place where you can eat your lunch? Very good. You also know where you can go if you want to spent your break with others? And where you can go if you want to be alone for your break? Very, very good. Well, I guess that those questions are all answered then. So, your job is to guard and watch that the customers don’t get overwhelmed, especially the most arrogant ones. Make sure that my workers can work in peace and that the customers don’t make them lose their times with flimsy things, like Ah, but this embroidery is not matching with the rest or Are you SURE it won’t make me look fat, you know, stupid stuff like that.”

Vanessa couldn’t help but giggle. Damn, this modiste really had a sense of humour. Even better, she knew how nobility could act and wasn’t even impressed by it.

“You might also need to help my dear workers with some tasks. Oh, not to make dresses for them, they have a reputation to lose and myself as well. Now, just bring any tools like needles or scissors or anything they need to sew. On the occasion, you might also need to bring them some samples of fabrics or dresses to show them to the customers, maybe you would need to show them yourselves. And also, most of customers will be nobles, especially from high nobility. You already saw the many doors on the first floor. One of them is my office, others belong to my workers, be it other offices or smaller ateliers. But most of those doors lead to private salons. Some families of high nobility book their own private salons, for anything they can also do in the shops. It’s just that some nobles prefer to have their deals and orders made the most privately as possible. There’s going to be some nobles who would use their private salon today and then, your job would be mostly to guard the door until there is satisfaction with the deal, clear so far? Very good. Also, I know that some nobles might don’t want to talk to some of you, due to reasons. If they complain, all you need to say is that you’re on duty on my behalf, nothing else, and if they’re not happy, they’re free to engage another modiste, but also that it’s almost impossible to find another one who will gave them complete satisfaction like me.”

Vanessa giggled again. Gosh, Soie Velours was very self-confident, but also knew how to handle nobles. Guess that she needed to, since nobility gave her most of her customers. But she seemed like a more than decent woman, so Vanessa decided to like her.

“Well, it’s now opening time. At first, I’ll ask you all to stay on this mezzanine for the first twenty, thirty minutes to observe everything. You’ll be surprised what can possibly happen during the first minutes. Then, you can start with your tasks. Also, don’t hesitate to make rounds in the atelier, in case there are some problems. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to come to me or even my nephew.”

One last cheeky smile and the modiste left the mezzanine to greet the first customers in person.

So, it started. The first fashion related mission Vanessa ever got as a Magic Knight. She couldn’t say that she wasn’t excited. Because she was.

Even when she was first just watching over from the mezzanine with her companions, the minutes and then the hours were flying by, she never got bored even for one second. Helping the workers, especially the seamstresses, talking with some customers, bringing samples of fabrics or dresses… The dress samples were just the miniature versions of the gowns, put on tiny dolls, something Vanessa found quite fascinating. One of the workers told her that Soie Velours often used leftovers from fabrics to make those miniature dresses. Not before long, the shop even started to use those fabric leftovers to make some little gowns and other little clothes for toy dolls, a little extra that was already very popular.

“Soie Velours is a true business woman,” Vanessa commented hours later, early in the afternoon.

“She is indeed. And she needs to, given how she created her shop and her ateliers from nothing and how she imposed herself in the world of fashion,” Lital Lys replied, leaning on the balustrade just next to Vanessa.

The two of them just had lunch, bonded over their meal and decided to take a short breather on the mezzanine before going back to work.

Vanessa liked Lital. She was someone very nice, not judging at all, maybe a tiny bit timid at first, but once she opened up, they could talk for hours and hours. Lital was also very pretty with her curly, purple mane she tamed by braiding some fangs out of her face and those really fascinating nacreous eyes.

Somehow, Vanessa had the feeling she had seen Lital before, but she couldn’t remember when.

Lital hummed happily, pointing at Églantine and Grenadine, who were fussing on the table where fans were exposed. “It is very nice to see how accepting those two sisters are. It’s not always the case for bastard situations.”

Vanessa nodded, thinking how auntie Dea practically adopted Luck immediately, contrasting her husband’s behaviour, who chased his son and the mother away.

“You told me that you were a bastard, Lital. So, you’re talking from experience.”

“You can say that. And I was only legitimized due to a circle of circumstances.”

“How so?”

“Imagine a noble couple, who can’t have children at all, but doesn’t know who’s sterile out of the two. So, the husband engages a prostitute, one from the slums at that, and pays her a big amount to see if he could make her pregnant. It’s not uncommon for nobility, even though it’s not so often either… and not quite legal. Now, imagine that the prostitute gets pregnant, the husband is so happy that he’s not sterile he forgets to pay the prostitute for the abortion. So, she returns to the slums, with a work accident in her womb. She doesn’t like her child at all and said child hat to spend the first ten years of her life surviving and taking care of herself. In the meantime, the noble couple still don’t have any children at all, the wife being sterile, the husband being too lazy to do something about it. Now, imagine that the wife isn’t quite an arrogant noble and has her heart at the right place. She wanted a child despite her sterility and even more, she wanted to make up for the mistake of her husband and help someone in need. So, the wife went to the slums, find the bastard daughter of her husband, took her with her and since then, raised like her own and loved her like her own.”

Vanessa took in a breath. This story was actually pretty dark, but Lital spoke about it like it was nothing, which was kinda impressive. She must have come to terms with her past. And given that she lived in the slums for years, Lital might be able to take a lot.

Lital just smiled at Vanessa. “I was hurt for long and I needed time to come to terms with it. First thanks to my mother, lady Corazòn. We’re not blood related, but she is my mother in every way. Then the Crimson Lions, who took me in like a second family, not caring for the rumours of my past. And also… Fuegoleon.”

Lital blushed immediately and Vanessa couldn’t help but tease. “It’s really serious between the both of you. When is the wedding? Can I be a bridesmaid? Please!”

“Well, how can I say no to those kitten eyes? Once we can organize everything, I will come to you. But it shouldn’t be for too long, we were dating for ten years after all.”

“Ten… ten years!”

“No need to be so shocked, it’s not like Fuegoleon and I are old like grandparents already.”

Vanessa nodded, but still… ten years before deciding to get married? She couldn’t believe that it was uncertainty, Lital looks perfectly certain in her love and captain Fuegoleon wasn’t known to be unsure.

Lital and Fuegoleon had, in some ways, a different kind of relationship than Vanessa and Nozel. Similar still, but not quite the same. Vanessa was patient, but she doubted she would be able to wait a decade before marrying Nozel.

Wait… had she just thought about that for REAL?

“Is something wrong, Vanessa?”

“What? Oh, no, nothing at all. I just… Now I remember where I saw you already. Finrals wedding with Finesse and you were dancing with captain Fuegoleon that day.”

“Finally, I was wondering when you would remember. And I saw you dance with captain Nozel that day.”

“Oh? Yes, he’s quite the dancer, I must say.”

Hopefully she wasn’t blushing too much. After all, her own romance with Nozel was still a secret and she wasn’t quite ready yet to spill the beans to the whole world.

“Oh, seems our help is needed,” Lital suddenly said, pointing towards to shop beneath them and towards the first floor where some words of an argument were heard.

“You better go down there, you said that you know this lady pretty well,” Vanessa casually commented, looking down at the ginger haired noble girl who discussed something with one of the cashier girls.

“I’m not friends with Rubinia Châteaubriand, but yes, I know her quite enough,” Lital sighed and by the tone of her voice, Vanessa assumed that this Rubinia wasn’t someone she would like to spend time with. “Look what’s the matter in the first floor, I’ll go defend that poor girl against the ruby monster.”

Ruby monster! Vanessa hold back her laugh while Lital went downstairs as quick as a shooting star. Well, Lital had star magic.

“Ah, Lital, good you’re here,” a pompous voice yelled, that could only belong to the ruby monster. “Could you please tell this bitch here to not insult me? I want my gown and she refuse to give it to me!”

“Dear Rubinia, I understand that you’re upset, but please, watch your language. You belong to the elite of nobility. Which dress are you talking about?”

“One of the collection Glory Sunrise, lady Lital. The golden version.”

Vanessa giggled. It was quite funny that Soie Velours gave each of her creations a name, but will, captain Rill gave each of his paintings a name too, so why not doing the same with dresses?

“Yes, and I want my dress, I haven’t ordered it just for the sake of it!”

“Of course not, but Rubinia, you will get that dress. The golden Glory Sunrise is just very popular and they need to sew more, since they’re already gone. You’re going to have it later today, trust me.”

“But I want it NOW!”

“If you will let the seamstresses work on your dress now, you might going to have it in less than two hours. Haven’t you told me that Patience is your second name?”

Lital was doing great. No wonder captain Fuegoleon was in love with her.

Vanessa sighed and made her way to the first floor. There were only two people in the hallway, noble ladies given the luxury of their afternoon dresses. One had blonde wavy curls and royal blue eyes, the other had straight pale pink hair and turquoise coloured eyes, exactly like Églantine and Grenadine.

Another Évantail, Vanessa assumed.

Both of them were holding three sample dolls each, while looking at each other with hate and disgust.

Vanessa frowned. Hopefully those two weren’t fighting over the dresses. This was one of the most ridiculous fights Vanessa knew. She looked quickly at the dolls. During the morning, Vanessa had a lot of fun learning the names of each dresses.

The Évantail girl was holding a green sample dress called Lovesick Frog, a white and silver one with green and pink patterns of leaves and flowers with the poetic name of Summer Snow, as well as a moiré burgundy gown, Wine Mirror. A favourite name for Vanessa.

The blonde girl hold a bright blue dress called Sunny Sky, a purple gown with bright pink embroideries named Heartbroken Plums and a puffy, shiny brown dress with the funny name of Treasure Hidden In Chocolate Cream.

“Who do you think you are, Athénaïs Vitrail?”

“No, who do you think you are, Prudence Évantail?”

Athénaïs Vitrail and Prudence Évantail, good to know.

Prudence snorted, “Don’t you think that you have any chance against me on this race, Athénaïs. I’m not scared to use boldness to get what I want.”

Athénaïs didn’t seemed impressed. “Oh, I know that, Prudence. It is a strategy of the desperate ones, after all.”

“Why, you-“

“Unlike you, I know which words and which weaknesses to use to get what I want. Why do you chase after Nozel Silva anyway? We both know that you’re only the second daughter out of your siblings and your older sister married into nobility, NOT royalty. What are your chances to catch a royal?”

“I’m not as stupid as my older sister and don’t forget that Ursula married into YOUR house. Which ones of your cousins is she married again?”

“I think you’re just as stupid as Ursula, just unnecessary more stubborn.”

“Do you really think you have more chances than me to marry lord Nozel? It’s actually the other way around. Unlike what everyone believes, you’re not the perfect match for a royal. The perfect one is me.”

The moment Nozels name fell, Vanessa froze and fight the urge to either puke or to slap both Prudence and Athénaïs.

The latter just sighed dramatically. “We both know that out of all the potential betrothed for Nozel Silva, you and I are considered the top two candidates. But you’re only second place, compared to me. Unlike you, I have power already, you would need to marry into royalty to finally gain that.”

“Does your power even mean anything, since you still need to get married? Unlike you, I’m patient for getting power. Once I’m married, I’ll be someone to not mess with.”

“You’re pathetic, Prudence. You won’t be a female Lac Silva, you might only end up like the late Eislyn Silva, lord Nozels grandmother. You’re going to be in the shadows of the Silvas and end up absent and longing for a life you’ll never get.”

“You’re wrong, you’re going to end up like the late lady Eislyn. And unlike you, I won’t stay in the shadow of my pathetic husband. I’m going to be someone! How about you catch lord Fuegoleon instead? He also matches your standard.”

“But he’s not the head of house Vermillion. And house Vermillion is in perfect shape, unlike house Silva. Which means that I’m going to be the one saving house Silva from falling apart. The heroine putting the Silvas into a perfect shape.”

“Oh no, Athénaïs. This is going to be me. Nothing would change that, even though you’re my rival.”

That was not a good rivalry. It wasn’t like with Asta and Yuno, Nozel and captain Fuegoleon or captain Yami and captain William. It was a straight-up fight and not even for Nozels heart, but for his position, to become a royal through marrying him. And this was the kind of women Lac Silva wanted to marry his son to?

Vanessa clenched her fists. She hated Prudence and Athénaïs already. She hated how they talked about Nozel like he was a prize or someone they could so easily manipulate. Saving house Silva? More like form it in a way it suited them. They would look down on Noelle, making Nebra and Solid stand in their shadows and try manipulate or even threaten Nozel if he doesn’t act like they want.

Prudence and Athénaïs might be considered the top candidates to marry the head of house Silva. But Nozel would never choose any of them. Those two would never get along with his siblings and more importantly, none of them would get into his heart. That was Vanessas place.

But both Athénaïs and Prudence have clearly no interest to win over Nozels heart. They wanted to become royals and as much as Vanessa hated to admit it, they didn’t seem stupid. Surely Prudence and Athénaïs would use the ball to try and trap Nozel into an engagement. Not on Vanessas watch! She needed to protect him, to be there for him! She would never let them get their filthy clutches on the man she loved.

But just as she took a step towards them, a door of a private salon opened and another young lady look outside. Vanessa was taken aback of how thin and fragile she looked like, not to mention pale with the white-blonde hair and the pale grey eyes. And still, her attitude seemed subtly determined in a way.

The pale girl looked around, as if she was analysing the situation, before she actually called in a soft voice, “Athénaïs, can you please come back? I have no idea which fabric I should choose for my dress.”

Athénaïs turned around and suddenly had the brightest smile on her face. “Of course, Rosette. It would be a shame if I let my little sister alone when she obviously needs my counsel.”

Was it just Vanessa or did Rosette slightly rolled her eyes?

Prudence began to smile brightly as well. “I won’t hold you back longer, my dearest friend. I’ll go back to my families private salon as well. My cousin Blanche and my aunt Clémentine might need my counsel for their dresses as well.”

Both so-called rivals gave each other a poisoned glance while smiling brightly, before leaving for their respective private salons. Rosette didn’t disappear immediately, though. Instead, she looked at Vanessa, being the only one to have seen her.

Vanessa was surprised by the genuine kindness in her grey eyes.

“They’re not worth it, don’t worry,” Rosette whispered before closing the door behind her.

Those words let Vanessa stunned. What was that supposed to mean?

“Lady Rosette is right, you know.”

Vanessa turned around immediately, only to fall upon Lin Velours.

“Oh, you heard them as well, little one?”

“Yes. But don’t worry, lady Vanessa. Lord Nozel won’t choose any of them. He already chose you, otherwise he wouldn’t have created an account in this shop for you.”

“He… did what?”

Did Lin actually realized what a bomb he just dropped? Nozel created an account for her? In this shop?

“Yesterday,” Lin replied, as if it was perfectly normal. “He was very determined that it was on your name and that you could choose yourself what kind of dresses you want, but that the bills should be sent to him. That shows that he cares a lot about you.”

Yes, that sounded so much like Nozel. In so many ways. Vanessa had no idea what to say.

“He’s here to see you.”

“Huh?”

“Lord Nozel. At the back door. That’s why I’m here, to tell you he’s waiting for you.”

“Oh, thank you cutie pie. I better not letting him wait.”

Indeed, Nozel was outside, alone in the backyard, arms crossed. It wasn’t a place where people came during working hours, as she learned, so the risk of getting spotted wasn’t big at all.

Vanessa immediately pulled him in a deep kiss. Of course Nozel gave in immediately, placing his arms firmly on her hips.

“What was that for?” he still asked as they break the kiss, but not letting go of each other.

“For the account you created for me, silly eagle,” Vanessa laughed, pecking his chin. “I would ask why haven’t told me about it yesterday night, but given what we did so passionately, I don’t blame you that you had something else on your mind.”

Nozel blushed, making Vanessa giggle. He was so handsome when he was blushing.

“I… I wanted to tell you… sooner, but…”

“Come on, there’s no need to be stuttering. Besides, Lin told me.”

“Lin? Ah, you mean Lin Velours, the nephew of Soie Velours. He was there when I discussed the details with his aunt.”

“He’s such a cute boy. But as much as I love having you here, why did you came? Did you missed me that much, my sweet eagle?”

She poked his cheek, making him blush.

“Well, that too, but… Maybe I shouldn’t have, but… I was worried about you. I heard that… Prudence Évantail and Athénaïs Vitrail would come here and-“

“And those two are considered the top candidates as your future wife within nobility, I know. I learned about it like not even five minutes ago. I saw them fighting, not really over you, but over the position of being your wife. Don’t look so scared, honey, they haven’t seen me, too focused over their stupid rivalry over you. But I was really close to slap them.”

Vanessa sighed and snuggled against his chest. “I hate how they talk about you. As if you were a prize or someone they could easily manipulate for their own schemes. As if you weren’t a person at all.”

“A lot of nobles think like that about me.”

“That’s not an excuse. Both Prudence and Athénaïs don’t know you. They have an image of you in their mind they believe to be real and they refuse to see the truth about you. I really can’t take it. I love you, that’s why I hate so much how they view you.”

Nozel didn’t answered immediately. He just sighed, holding her closer to him, running his fingers through her hair.

All those gestures were so comforting, Vanessa swore she melted. How amazing it was that being in Nozels arms, being hold by him, suddenly transformed every problem into something unimportant.

Simple and precious.

“You know that I’ll chose none of those two…” Nozel whispered after a while.

“Even before me?”

“Even before you.”

Vanessa smiled. She suspected that already, but it was nice to have Nozel confirmed that Prudence and Athénaïs never would have been an option during the period he would have sacrificed himself for his siblings.

Unlike those stupid noble ladies, he always had a heart and he still had sense of honour.

“It’s you I want to spend the rest of my life with,” Nozel whispered again, pushing the fabric of her robe aside, planting a kiss on her shoulder.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Vanessa chuckled, planting a peck on his neck.

They started making out, holding each other, letting their lips and their tongues dance together. It was enough to lit a fire within them and Vanessa couldn’t wait for tonight, for coming in his room again, to spend the night with him.

They haven’t talked about marriage, of course not. It was still too soon. Vanessa wasn’t sure if she would even get used to the life of royalty, to fit in completely. It was a scary and a complicated world.

But Vanessa also won’t let her fears be stronger than her love for Nozel. If he would ever propose to her one day, she knew already that she’ll say yes, no matter what.

♣♣♣

There was a huge lack of customers between four and five o’clock, which had surprised Charlotte. But as she asked Soie Velours about this, the modiste just shrugged and told her that it was completely normal. Most of nobility had their afternoon tea around this time and so, it was like a break for the shop, with some occasional customers.

Charlotte was also told that after that afternoon-tea-break, a high amount of customers will come, more than during the day. Apparently, it was pretty normal that the evening was the time during which the best sell was made.

In the meantime, Soie Velours, invited the knights to some tea, cakes and cocoa, a little break before the bit storm. And Charlotte had to admit that she loved this interlude.

“Where are lord Kirsch and his squadmate?” Lital asked, while eating a slice of lemon cheesecake.

“My dear cousin wanted to have a closer look to the beauty of the newest creations, as he said,” Nebra replied casually. “And the Coral Peacock with him went with him to hold him back if necessary. Trust me, knowing Kirsch, doing this is vital.”

Given the reputation of Kirsch Vermillion, Nebra might be right. Even though Charlotte had to say that despite his extravagance, Kirsch was still a very capable vice-captain for Dorothy and the Coral Peacocks.

It reminded her a bit of her own vice-captain, Risacca. Without the extravagance.

Charlotte took another sip from her tea.

All things concluded, it hadn’t been such a bad day. Of course, most nobles had been arrogant and some had made not so subtle hints about potential bachelors within their families. But thankfully, none from the Roseleis had shown up yet. Charlotte would have had no idea how to deal with them. Especially Rosamund.

If her aunt would have seen Charlotte eyeing more than she should in the corner of Soie Velours’ wedding dresses, Rosamund would have never let her hear the end of it. Probably she would have even prepared the engagement with Reginald Évantail even before the ball.

Charlotte hold back a sigh. Why had she been so specifically interested in those wedding gowns in the first place? Imagining herself wearing one of those dresses, with a veil and a bouquet, and Yami…

Of course. Because she wanted to spent the rest of her life with Yami and even though she learned how to be calmer around him since they were in a relationship, it still didn’t make her wildest dreams and fantasies less. In fact, it was almost like she had them more often since their first kiss and their first night.

But it was way too early to even think about wedding and children and… Wait, did she just thought about children?

Now Charlotte hold back a groan. It was worse than when she was just longing for Yami, now she was thinking about having children with him! Not that she was against it, she would love it. Yami maybe too, Luck was already eager to be an uncle and her mother would surely be happy to become a grandmother.

But it was too soon, way too soon.

Not only that, but their situation was still secret and given how things were in the kingdom, not that ideal. Especially with most family member trying to find a so-called perfect match for her and marry her of.

Charlotte forced herself to stop overthinking. Once she started just that, she would be unable to stop. They would see what the future had in store for them. In the meantime, it was the presence and each minute spend with Yami was a gift.

Oh, Yami…

How she wished he could be here with her right now. He declined being a part of this mission for Soie Velours, as fashion wasn’t his world. Knowing him, he might be on the toilet for hours now. Which was kinda disgusting in a way, but Charlotte didn’t mind… that much. It was just so typical of Yami and she would be damned if she didn’t embrace each and every one of his flaws, even that one.

Maybe it was good that he wasn’t here today. This so-called elite of nobility would have get on his nerves very fast.

They were getting on her nerves as well. Telling Prudence Évantail to leave a cashier girl alone, supporting the endless rant of Athénaïs Vitrail about incapable maids these days, just because her own almost fell while carrying a bunch of packages, and this and that…

Not to mention those little six or eight years old brats, spoiled and already snobs, who somehow believed that paying was only for peasants and commoners. Charlotte didn’t know exactly where the education went wrong exactly. But it went wrong, that was a fact.

She would NEVER teach her own children such a bad behaviour.

And now she was thinking about her potential future offspring again. Was she that desperate to marry Yami?

Well, being not desperate would be a lie, Charlotte would admit that. But still, she couldn’t be THAT desperate!

Should she talk with her mother about this? Or directly with Yami? Probably not her girls, they would get terribly excited if she says wedding and Yami in the same sentence.

Charlotte looked discreetly at Lital Lys. At this point, it was practically an open secret that she and Fuegoleon were dating, it was only a matter of time before they would announce their betrothal.

Apparently, they have dated for ten years now.

Ten years…

The same amount of time she had been in love with Yami, longing for him.

Was she able to wait ten more years before getting married to him? Or after all those long years of hesitation, didn’t she had the patience anymore? Wasn’t it possible to have something in between?

She clearly wouldn’t say no if Yami would propose to her. In fact, she would say yes before he could even finish his question. But given who Yami Sukehiro, he certainly won’t go the traditional of proposing. Charlotte couldn’t even imagine what he would do.

And now her thoughts drifted again! She was so hopeless.

Charlotte needed a distraction from this overthinking and so, she decided to listen very closely what the sever other women were saying.

“Mrs. Velours really comes with the most original names for her dresses,” Meli Ambrosia said, the young Crimson Lion, a nice girl with golden eyes and black, braided hair. “I mean, Lovesick Frog or Heartbroken Plums are already very original. And this one,” she pointed at one of the dolls standing on their table, a dark blue gown covered with a lot of lace, “is called Snow And Light In The Night. She clearly has so much imagination not only to create dresses, but also to name them.”

“My personal favourite is Treasure Hidden In Chocolate Cream,” Vanessa added with a laugh. “It’s certainly not my type of dress, but I would buy it still just for the sake of this funny name.”

“I really wonder how Soie Velours can come up with this kind of names.”

“You could ask her, lady Noelle,” Églantine replied, her nose stuck in a book. This sight made Charlotte frown. Since when was Églantine such a bookworm?

“I did, but all she said was that it was her artist secret. What is that even for a reason?”

“Probably a common reason artists have. Fuegoleon told me that captain Rill uses the same excuse about the names he gives his painting.”

The moment Lital said Fuegoleons name, her eyes began to uniquely shine and a smile appeared on her lips. Charlotte wondered if she would do the same while mentioning Yami.

“All artists are like that,” Nebra said with a flick of her hand. “It’s not only the privilege of painters. Besides, the names Soie Velours gives her creations are often a good description of the dress itself.”

“Not directly, you have to admit,” Vanessa smiled. She looked extremely happy since lunch. “I’m still trying to figure what Candy Beach is supposed to look like, both shape and colours. I have honestly no idea. At least, Pearl Mermaid is pretty straight forward. Ocean blue dress in mermaid shape with pearls all over it.”

Églantine nodded, “That’s a very beautiful dress. I also saw a version in white instead of blue, really stylish as well. That would be a good dress for the ball, don’t you think?”

“Isn’t the white version a wedding gown, though?”

“Not specifically, Meli. Not every wedding dress has to be white and ball gowns can be white as well. Speaking of white, I saw a really beautiful dress in white and gold called River Of Milk And Honey.”

“I… I honestly haven’t thought about that yet. And besides, just because I have honey magic doesn’t immediately mean that I will wear something in that shade.”

“Honey magic?” Grenadine immediately asked, looking up from her cocoa. “Are you related to granny… I mean, to Julia Ambrosia?”

“She’s one of my great-aunts! Oh my, you and lady Nebra must know her, since she is in the Silver Eagles! Oh, Julia and another great-aunt, Ophelia, were one of the reasons why I wanted to become a Magic Knight.”

Charlotte smiled. She actually knew Ophelia Ambrosia. She had been the captain of the Blue Roses before Charlotte took over. Ophelia was now retired, enjoying her old life observing her flowers and grandchildren grow.

“You’re actually lucky, little honeybun,” Vanessa smiled towards Meli. “With your black hair, you can practically wear any colour.”

“The witch is right, black hair goes with almost everything,” Nebra said. “For my part, I want to try something new. Black, with maybe a bit of red. Or blue.”

Was it just Charlotte or did Nebra Silva suddenly blushed for a second?”

“You, black?”

“Yes, Noelle. Me, black.”

“Oh, black would suit you so well, Nebbie,” Vanessa said with a wink. “As for me, I don’t have such a specific idea, but I certainly would love purple. A colder shade, maybe metallic. It has such an elegance.”

For some reason, Charlotte had the feeling that Vanessa wasn’t really talking about the colour of her dress…

How strange was it? That ball was a serious issue and her companions still were talking about the dresses they might wear that day.

“I haven’t thought about it either. The only ball dresses I wore belonged to my mother. Old-fashioned, but comfortable. This will be the first I’ll ever wear a new dress just for me. And don’t forget that this shouldn’t be our priority for the ball, given what kind of ball it is and all the thievery in the Common Realm.”

Lital was really spending a lot of time with Fuegoleon. He would have said something like that as well.

At least, the other girls nodded without pouting too much. Charlotte smiled. All of them haven’t forgotten their primary mission concerning the ball. They just also didn’t forget to relax and have some fun.

Should she do this as well? Thinking about a new dress for the ball, thanks to the offer of Soie Velours? Honestly, Charlotte hadn’t wasted any thought so far about her gown. She vaguely planned to wear for a third time the blue dress her knights gifted her.

But what if she tried something new like Nebra Silva? For Yami? Okay, he wasn’t interested in fashion at all and he probably wouldn’t care at all about what she would wear. But still…

Maybe instead of going for blue, she should choose another colour. Maybe black with a bit of gold…

But before Charlotte could think further or rather scold herself for such a stupid way of thoughts, she heard a new customer entering the shop.

“Is someone here? I need an extraordinary dress for the upcoming ball!”

Oh no! Please, not her aunt Rosamund!

“Can I leave you girls for now before we’re going back to work? I need some fresh air before that.”

She mostly needed to avoid Rosamund as much as she could.

But before Charlotte could reach the back door, Églantine stopped her with a tiny smug smile. Not good.

“How about you start reading this before we’re back on duty? It’s a little something from Puli and me, just to give you some more ideas with captain Yami. Don’t worry, it’s not those stupid soulless romance novels you despise so much.”

And Églantine run back to the table with a satisfied laugh after putting two books in her hands. Charlotte looked at those, confused? What did Puli and Églantine imagined again? Oh, all of her girls always meant well and were so supportive, but there were times Charlotte was either overwhelmed or didn’t know what to think about their ideas.

“What kind of books did she gave you?”

Charlotte yelped at the sudden voice. But thankfully, it was just Vanessa.

“Oh, sorry love, did I scare you?”

“Nothing, don’t worry. Églantine just gave me two books, but I don’t know why exactly. My knights have sometimes the weirdest ideas when it comes to get me out of work. Or to help me out with personal matters.”

“Sounds to me that the Blue Roses would get along very well with us Black Bulls.”

Probably. They were already getting along with Finral, Gordon and of course Luck.

The title of the novels were Rose & Sword and The Prince & The Witch. What did Puli and Églantine had in mind with those kind of stories? At least, it seemed promising and didn’t look like it was only romance.

“Oh, can I borrow that one?”

Vanessa immediately took one of the books before Charlotte could even answer. The Prince & The Witch. She looked at the cover like it was the most wonderful thing she ever saw. Charlotte frowned again as she saw the same glimmer Vanessa had when she talked about the possible colour for her ball dress.

Charlotte had the feeling she was missing some clue…

“Um, sure. You can even keep it if you like it.”

“You sure? It’s a present from your knights, after all.”

“Well… then keep it as long as you want. If you like the story, I’ll give you another exemplary of this book.”

“Aw, thank you. I’ll owe you one if I love it. And I definitely will.”

Vanessa smiled at her before turning around, almost dancing away.

Charlotte sighed. Well, at least she made someone happy. Maybe Vanessa would indeed love The Prince & The Witch. As for herself, she would find out if Rose & Sword was something for her.

But when she stepped out the back door, she wasn’t alone.

“Yami?”

“Hi there, Prickly Queen. I missed ya.”

“We last saw each other this morning.”

And that was also the reason why she and Églantine had come later than planned to Soie Velours’ shop. Just because Yami needed another round of beddancing, as he called it, before her departure.

Charlotte sighed. He was impossible, but damn, she loved that side of him. So, still with the clear intention of scolding him, she pulled him in a tight hug.

“Didn’t I told you to wait until my shift for today is over?”

“Yeah, you did… But I just happened to be nearby, so I sneaked here, hoping to catch a few minutes with my Prickly Queen. Oh, and I saw your bitch aunt enter the shop, so I better checked out if you’re fine.”

“I’m fine. In fact, I… practically fled when I heard Rosamunds voice. She certainly not only came for a ball gown, but also to talk to me. It’s so frustrating how bolder and bolder she becomes, wanting me to marry Reginald Évantail.”

“Sounds fishy to me.”

“I know.”

“Let’s not talk about Rosabitch, you’re already too tense for your own good. Too bad I can’t take you in this place.”

“Yami!”

He just laughed, pretty much satisfied with his teasing. And honestly, it made Charlotte wanna laugh as well. After all, she would have loved him to take her, but this really wasn’t the place. And now, because of this new fire, she couldn’t wait until they could meet in her room again this evening.

But now, she has his presence, she has his comfort, that was more than she could ask from him. Except maybe a kiss.

As if he heard her thoughts, Yami practically crashed his lips on hers, pulling her into a passionate kiss. Charlotte immediately gave in, as if she needed it to live. Well, it was vital to her. She needed this for the rest of her life.

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queen-of-writing-bad-things · 7 months

Text

Henry Danger Reader Insert | Captain Man x Reader: SEASON 5

Episode 7: Part 2: A New Darkness

Call this the worst day of (y/n)'s life - or one of them, certainly.

It was all right for some; whilst the city remained in blissful ignorance of the storm cloud of doom looming over them, it was all go-go-go for Captain Man, his sidekicks and those in the Man Cave. Well, it was for Charlotte anyway, as per usual, Schwoz and Jasper were a little more laidback, mainly because they didn't grasp the full severity of the situation as she did.

They'd been fooling around ever since she'd received the distressing message from the Captain that they had a super-duper, code red emergency that trumped all other emergencies and as she scurried around trying to get stuff ready for what she assumed was gonna be one of the biggest fights of the year, the boys were playing dress-up. With Kaitlyn. Because she was cute and death and destruction aren't.

"Captain Man, Swellview's in danger!" "You're the only one who can save us!" "Time's running out! You gotta act now!" It wasn't actually Ray they were speaking to, lord knows that they'd never stroke his ego like that. No, it was Kaitlyn, who had adorably dressed in a tiny Captain Man costume that made her look like the famed hero if you looked her in the furry face, and Schwoz and Jasper were taking great delight in pretending that she was their boss and not the real Captain Man. He was not cute, well, he might have been to (y/n) but to them, he was just the nutjob who paid them.

"Up the tube!" Schwoz squealed as he pretended to lift the dog up to the tube's mouth under the false pretence that she was blasting off on some dangerous mission to save the city, one paw-punch at a time. He'd never had this much fun with Captain Man before and was thoroughly enjoying messing around since the real heroes weren't around to throw them funny looks, the only one concerned about what was happening outside the four walls being Charlotte.

"Guys!" she yelled above their cooing and fussing whilst also holding armfuls of weapons and equipment. The message had said something about a big disaster, danger and the possible collapse of society as the world knew it so she wanted to be prepared, even if the eleven blasters she'd swiped were a bit of an overkill. "I'm gonna try and rescue, Ray, (y/n) and Henry. Now, do you wanna come with me or do you wanna stay here and play super-pooch with Captain Kaitlyn?"

"Ughhh, tough question," Jasper pulled a face at the predicament that honestly wasn't that hard to answer. Possibility of death and lifelong maiming or playtime with a doggie? He chose life.

"Ray is very mean to me..." And Schwoz didn't even have to think. Whilst Henry and (y/n) were very nice people, he'd long been shot in the butt, bullied and beaten by Ray ( in the most affectionate way but still) so he decided that this would teach him a lesson. The sidekicks would just have to be regrettable collateral damage, oops.

"Seriously?" Charlotte groaned, hating the idea of having to storm the Honey Factory and tackle the Beekeeper and that lying little sneak, Rick Twitler, herself but after all her preparation, she didn't have to. Like the gods commanded it, the tubes sounded and dropped, bringing home the weary and disappointed and defeated heroes to what definitely wasn't a heroes' welcome.

Henry was like a limp noodle as his feet hit the metal and the two in the adjacent tube weren't doing so hot either; after a gruelling struggle and a lot of coordination, he'd helped to pull their tired bodies from the wreckage of the plasma gas traps, allowing them to escape the factory. Freedom was nice but there was no getting away from one simple thing - Twitler had flown and taken his internet virus with him, leaving their pride bruised and the kid powerless.

"Oh, thank god." Charlotte sighed and dropped her bundle of kit once she saw the familiar blue and red uniforms and for a brief, shining moment, she thought that all was okay, the situation had been dealt with and they could all relax, but no. Her gaze narrowed in worry as Henry fell limp with the support of the glass around him and Ray and (y/n) had to look sharpish and untangle themselves from each other to catch his body before he hit the floor.

"Okay, we gotcha', kid. It's gonna be oooo--oh my god, that's adorable!" Ray began by carefully walking his youngest sidekick down the steps, helping his sweet girl by taking most of the kid's weight as she guided their movements to get him to sit down on the couch.

And it was a sweet gesture from the man, it made (y/n) proud that he was being serious in a serious situation for once. That is until he reverted to type when he caught a glance of Kaitlyn in her little doggie costume; then, it was bye-bye Henry and hello poochie, which left her to hold him and then drop him as the kid buckled without the man's support. It was up to Jasper and Charlotte to grab both of them as Ray rushed to Kaitlyn to fawn over her and it was safe to that that if looks could kill...(y/n) wouldn't be glaring so hard because everyone knew that she could never live without her dumb doofus.

"Raymond! Forget about the damn dog!" The woman growled as she tiredly pushed on her knee to straighten out before bending to help Henry. Yes, Kaitlyn was lovely, she thought she was great, her dream walking around on four paws but this wasn't the time. The kid looked like he was about to pass out and she was feeling like sixty-one, not thirty-one. Her back was aching from that metal slab crushing her kidneys, her arm was still aching from being stretched out for so long and her temples were throbbing from the huge headache of a problem they were facing, namely that Henry was powerless.

"But sweet girl, she's wearing a cute costume..." the man fluttered his eyelashes and stuck out his bottom lip in the best pout he could muster since it usually swayed his best girl into cracking her icy glare. However, nothing was gonna melt Charlotte's anger nor her confusion considering the last time she heard, they were all in mortal peril.

"Forget about the costume. How did you guys get out of Rick Twitler's trap?"

"Whoa...whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You knew we were walking into a trap?" Henry frowned at her as (y/n) and Jasper helped him to the couch. Despite his clear exhaustion and delirium after having his superpower sucked away, he was still able to give her an ugly stare, one that was half accusing and half confused because a heads-up would've been nice before walking into that place.

"Yeah..." "And you didn't tell us?" Ray asked in a similarly accusing tone as he picked up Kaitlyn and held her close to her chest. Y'know, for a guy that had said no to his fiancée's whining and begging about getting a dog over the eleven or so years he'd known her, he was getting quite attached to their new pet. It's always the ones who hate the dog that'll end up loving them the most.

"I tried to call you but you never answered! I left you voicemails!" The girl snapped back at her boss since she was about to be bullied into submission. No one could say that she, Jasper and Schwoz hadn't tried to contact them but as always, the heroes didn't pick up when they needed them to, so in the end, it just made more sense to work on something else than continuously call someone who'd never answer.

"Okay, Char, I'd normally be grovelling and begging for forgiveness for leaving my phone on silent at this point but come on, who leaves voicemails these days? Couldn't you have just texted us?" (y/n) asked with a hint of tiredness in her voice as she wandered over to Ray's side to fondle Kaitlyn's long-haired ears. She wasn't fond of how he rushed to her side but that didn't mean she wasn't in love either.

"You're old." Rude. Charlotte gave them a bored expression as the couple looked at each h other, back to her and then back at each other with horrified expressions because old?! There wasn't a single grey hair on their head and they didn't wear sensible shoes when driving and they didn't make satisfied groans whenever they sat down. They weren't old. Hell, if (y/n) was old (which she most certainly wasn't), what did that make Ray? Ancient? Very rude.

"We are not old!" Ray hissed, feeling very touchy on the subject, especially after Rick Twitler mocked him so cruelly only an hour ago. Sure, he was in his late thirties and he hadn't achieved half of what he wanted yet but that didn't mean he didn't plan on doing so; he was certain of it, marry (y/n), kids with (y/n), house with (y/n), retire with (y/n), the whole nine yards. Was it really so bad that he'd waited a little longer than normal and no longer connected with youth culture as he moved towards a more mature part of his life?

"Who cares how old Ray and (y/n) are?" Jasper rolled his eyes as they got off-topic. Yeah, they were the adults in the Man Cave, so what? Well, he said adult, even at thirty-seven, Ray still acted like a child.

"Thirty-six..." A definite child. What difference was one year supposed to make? And anyway, it's not like he was fooling anyone, not when his sweet girl was in earshot.

"Ray, I'm thirty-one and you're six years older than me. That makes you thirty-seven. There's no shame in it, sweetheart," (y/n) reassured her doofus as he moodily stared at the floor and stroked Kaitlyn's back for comfort, which only came when the woman lovingly planted a kiss on his cheek. At least when he was with her he didn't feel old, love didn't understand age, no matter what those young whippersnappers said or mocked.

"Did you guys really walk into a trap? Is Rick Twitler in jail now? Did you bring us some honey?" Jasper ignored their little moment in favour of blasting the questions. It was unfathomable for him to think that they'd been defeated because they were the city's go-to heroes, they seldom lost. Although, his hope for a tale of victory and a sweet snack died when Ray solemnly placed Kaitlyn into her cosy bed with (y/n)'s hand rubbing his back comfortingly and a glum expression on Henry's face.

"Yes, no and no." the boy answered, feeling his anger and bitterness come flooding back as every moment, mistake and terror replayed in his mind.

"Twitler got away." "What?" Schwoz's eyes widened at Ray's shocking news. That man was like a bloodhound when it came to sniffing out criminals and tenacious when it came to sinking his teeth into them. The fact that this one had managed to escape came as a shock but not the biggest one.

"And he stole Kid Danger's superpowers," "What?!" (y/n)'s addition made everyone's eyes widen and practically fall out of their heads. Well, that was shocking and worrying and...it couldn't be true, right? Disasters happened, sure, but never anything like that because Kid Danger usually punched anyone with his super-fast reflexes before they could get him. Had Twitler truly managed to pull something off like that?

"Yeah, check it out. Testing rock!" Ray being Ray, couldn't just make them take his word, no, that would be boring. So instead, he decided that throw a small rock that he'd pulled from a cabinet (because of course, they kept rocks in the Man Cave), and threw it at Henry's face. And without his powers, it came as a horrifying surprise to his friends that he wasn't able to catch it with a blur of his hand, but rather he caught it with his face...painfully.

"Ow!" "Raymond!" His sidekicks groaned and glared at him furiously as the dense rock ricocheted off Henry's face and rolled onto the floor, leaving him with an angry red mark on his forehead and (y/n) feeling tetchy. If he didn't look so adorable from being proud of himself right now then she'd give him a piece of her mind...or something like that.

"See?" "Oh, that's where my rock is. Where have you been hiding, Dwayne?" Schwoz bizarrely said to the sedimentary as he happily scooped it up from the floor and examined it between his fingers. Oh good, Henry's face hadn't caused any damage, that was all right then.

"Tell us what happened," Charlotte moved on from Schwoz's bizarre affection for the pebble he was stroking with all the admiration in the world and turned back to face the heroes. Even to her, the smart one, failure didn't make sense and neither did her best friend losing his power. That was just crazy and she knew how much he relied on it, how much he loved being able to do something cool.

"Okay..." Henry began with a deep breath and as with any teenage boy, he couldn't help but add a little flavour to the story to make himself a little spicier, "So I got to Swellview Honey Factory. Then, I drop in from the ceiling like, bam! And I land right on Rick Twitler and he's all, owie! And I was like, sorry to drop in like this! And everyone was like, that was a totally sick entrance line, bro. And I was like, I know."

"Hold on, hold on. Nobody said any of that stuff," Ray butted up, causing the others to look over at him and (y/n), who also wore a sceptical expression. Maybe they'd missed those parts when they were trapped in those horribly uncomfortable plasma gas things or maybe it was just the kid trying to build himself up into an epic hero - obviously, it was the latter. And no one was falling for it, no matter how hard Henry tried to make it sound realistic.

"Well, they were about to so..." "Just skip to the part where they steal your powers, otherwise, you won't be able to walk through the door with the size of your head," (y/n) waved off his excuses with her hand and a smirk that caused Henry to look slightly bashful for a second before he carried on. He preferred it when she was too engrossed with her fiancé to pick apart his exaggerations.

"Okay, I'll skip, I'll skip!... So, I'm stuck in Rick Twitler's trap, I'm lookin' super cool and Rick Twitler's all, euhhhhh, I'm gonna steal your powers and put it in this computer virus and destroy all computers forever, 'cause I'm lame! And then he used this machine to start sucking my powers right outta my mouth and Captain Man and Miss Danger were all, noooooooo!! And I was all, you'll pay for this, Twitler! And also, there was this bee flying around my head and Rick Twitler kept making goo-goo eyes at (y/n) like, oh mer geurd! I'm gonna marry Miss Danger and we'll have lots of evil babies! And Ray was all, I'm gonna kill you, Twit—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Schwoz butted in right at the good part. It was true that Ray had wanted to rip Twitler's head from his body for blatantly leering at his sweet girl when he was next to her and Jasper and Charlotte were eager to hear if any head-ripping had gone on but one small detail irked the resident genius. As much as he liked the drama, he'd heard something intriguing.

"What, what, what?" "What was that last thing you said?" He asked, causing Ray to scowl even more than he already was. His arms circled around his girl's waist and tugged her back into his body in a protectively needy embrace that hadn't been possible when they were at the factory but it was now and there was no asshole CEO around to act like he had a chance with her. He hated it then and he hated hearing about...babies now. And evil babies no less.

"About Twitler hitting on (y/n) all the time like, join me and we'll be evil and have an evil wedding and evil children because we'd be mean and bad and in love! Blergh—blergh—blergh!—?" Henry suggested and this time, his description was so troubling that it warranted (y/n) momentarily turning in her lover's arms to connect their lips. Evil people were so sure of themselves, so confident and she would never be up to the task, so no matter how suave and hot Twitler saw himself, Ray would never lose his sweet girl. Plus, she was already a little in love with someone else and far too sweet to ever go sour.

"No! About the bee! You said a bee flew near you when the machine was sucking the power from your face," Schwoz elaborated impatiently, wanting to know more about the elusive insect because if he had the perfect conditions, they might just have a miracle on their hands.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! This bee flew right past my face when Twitler was stealing my power! Actually, it sort of glowed for a second and then, flew away really fast," the kid retold the story of how the bee was suddenly flying around his nose and then...nothing. It just whizzed off right after straying too close and for some reason, that fact really excited Schwoz.

"Ayyyyyyyyyeeeeee! I know what we should do!" He exclaimed, knowing some clever, scientific method of using that bee to their advantage and despite how irrelevant it seemed, he knew that that small creature was the answer to all their problems. One of his finest moments, for sure.

"Me too," however, it was not one of Ray's, "we gotta find that bee...and kill it." "No!" Schwoz cried. Did he not understand the whole miracle thing? If that bee died then they'd had it, Twitler had won and they'd have to shut down their entire operation because the world would fall into so much chaos that it would be every man/woman/child for themselves. Jeez, no wonder (y/n) had to be the brains in the relationship, he had none.

"Well then, I'm outta ideas..." "Wait, are you think that maybe some of the superpowers were transferred to the bee when it flew by Henry's face?" The woman asked after her doofus went to sit down at the computer because clearly, this was a time for the smarties, and he was not one of those. Oh well, he preferred to sit back and watch his sweet girl do smart things anyway, not to mention the fact that from where he sat, her ass and hips looked superb in her costume.

"And if we can bring the bee back here to the Man Cave..." "We can kill it?" Jasper jumped in, clearly thinking that he could be a smartie too and it did not work out. Charlotte, yet another smartie, Schwoz and (y/n) looked at him in horror for such a suggestion after they'd already ruled out killing their only hope at salvaging Henry's powers. Just because Captain Man said something dumb, did not mean he had to follow suit.

"Yes!" "No! Raymond, sit down!" "Ughhhhhh!" The man jumped in from his seat with elation at the thought of his original plan panning out, only for him to groan loudly and slump onto the couch when his happiness was shot down by his sweet girl, no less. Why did they have to be such party poopers? Kaitlyn understood her daddy, she'd want to kill the bee too if she was given the chance, he was sure of that, but if his lover said no, then the answer was no. He respected her enough for that.

"If you bring that bee back here, then I can transfer Henry's superpowers back into his body," Schwoz explained and for once in his life (and without (y/n) having to tell him), Ray buttoned his lip as he processed that information. So, they couldn't kill the bee? When it was put like that, it did sound a little bit more important than something he wanted to squish with a flyswatter.

"Then, let's go to the honey factory, find that bee and bring it back to the Man Cave!" Henry didn't need telling twice. With renewed energy, he stood up from the couch and looked at his boss and (y/n), reaching his hand out towards Ray for them to clasp together as all bros do. He'd do anything to get his powers back and give Rick Twitler a super-fast kick in the teeth and if he had to find a bee in a huge factory to do so, then he would with his fellow heroes by his side.

"Dead or alive..." Ray was quick to meet him, connecting their hands in a silent pledge to search for the insect with the same enthusiasm and determination...just fewer brains. Had he been staring at (y/n) so much that his ears had stopped working again?

"Alive!" "What is wrong with you?" Schwoz and Charlotte groaned and threw their heads back. Twitler did have a point in some ways; what did (y/n) see in him? Or rather, what had that thick-skulled nitwit done to impress her so much that she fell in love with him? Because they were just polar opposites, one being the top of her class but painfully shy and the other a jock but a total dunce.

"Sweetheart, we are not killing the bee, okay? Hurt the bee and I'll be sleeping in my old room for the next three months," (y/n) told her doofus with a straight face and it was enough for Ray to see that she meant it—the bee was off-limits. However, as straight-faced as her threat was, deep down she knew that it didn't carry any real threat; she'd never be able to go through three months of sleepless nights because that's all she'd be getting without her doofus to snuggle up. Also, Ray wouldn't be able to stand the heartbreak and would end up pawing that the door like a forlorn puppy with an apology spilling from her lips the moment she opened the door to let him in.

"All right, fine! You're the boss, sweet girl," he replied quietly and pecked her forehead as a smile graced her lips," come on, kid, let's—" Ray tapped Henry's chest after grabbing his girl's hand and he was just about to lead her up the staircase to the tube when the computer started beeping. Odd...

"It's a video message!" Schwoz said as the notification came up on the screen and he and Charlotte moved to answer it. It didn't feel like a normal video message; for some reason, (y/n) got a sense of foreboding as she hovered with Ray and looked at the flashing screen but perhaps that was just her tummy - it had been fluttering ever since Twitler's betrayal.

"Eh, it's probably Charlotte, just let it go to voicemail," Ray shrugged off their concern in a moment of stupidity that had to be one of his thickest moments. Not only was he blind to the girl right in front of him but he'd also stitched himself up by proving that he often ignored her texts and calls and left them to go to voicemail, which had been strongly denied only moments ago.

"I'm right here!" She frowned, wondering how one man could be so...dense. How could she call them anonymously when they were watching her every move?

"Good point, let's listen," "Yeah, that's probably for the best, doofus," (y/n) teased him and hugged his arm close to her chest as he tried to hide his lightly dusted, pink cheeks and smile from her words. He was a good listener when he wanted to and with a final kiss placed on the top of her head, the couple focused their attention on the monitor.

"Hey there! It's me, Rick Twitler. How ya doin'?" The message started and their frustration immediately shot through the roof when Twitler's annoyingly smug face appeared on the screen. It had been infuriating enough to see it in real life in that factory and now, Ray had to put up with it and that stupid, well-cut, tailor-made suit in his Man Cave. It was enough to make him feel sick and angry. Very angry.

"How am I doing?" "We're coming for you, Twitler!" Henry and he snapped at the screen, wishing they could strangle him with their bare hands and drag him around by his styled quiff for ruining what should've been a peaceful week until he turned up. And in their anger, it was easy to forget that the villain had pre-recorded his message and sent it to them, so no matter how much they shouted, Rick Twitler was not going to answer or get scared.

"Guys, it's a video message. He cannot hear you." Jasper pointed out flatly as he paused the message, for once being the voice of reason in their madness because even he wasn't beyond knowing that men in videos cannot hear things in real-time. He understood their passionate need to kill him for the things he'd done and said but right now, they were just wasting their breath.

"Y-yeah, I knew that..." "Obviously...let's move on," So, to spare their blushes and any more awkward stammering, Jasper resumed play and Twitler began talking again. Honestly, he was so much better when nothing came out of his mouth.

"Now, I know you're upset with me for stealing Kid Danger's powers, putting it in this and flirting with Miss Danger, but I think you have other things to worry about. Like, oh, I don't know, protecting Kid Danger's family from the thugs I just sent to his house. Or should I say, the thugs I just sent to Henry Hart's house?" Rick smirked at the startling threat. Unlike (y/n)'s, this one was full of malice and would most certainly be acted upon if it had not already.

Of course, he'd be free to do whatever he wanted whilst they were off at the kid's house saving Mr and Mrs Hart and Piper, plus, it came with the added bonus of preying on Captain Man and Miss Danger's relationship. Would she want to stay with a man who'd drool the moment he swept Kris Hart off her feet in a bid to save her? Probably not, and then Twitler would get to know the girl he'd read about on that stolen file whilst simultaneously piecing together her broken heart. It was foolproof.

"How do you know my real name?" Henry asked sharply, having not caught up on the part where Rick Twitler had read up on their personal lives after having into the Man Cave computer but still. The video was still a message and Twitler was never gonna answer back.

"Is what—is what I would say if he could hear me. Which I know he cannot. So..." Henry stammered as Jasper paused the video again. With this level of expertise and genius, the mission was gonna be a walk in the park. Or not.

"Just play the video, Jasper. I don't want to look at this creep any more than I have to," (y/n) told the kid, feeling antsy the more she had to look at the guy. It was like he was one of those paintings where the eyes could follow her around the room—his stare was unending and not to mention disturbing. So, it was a good thing that she had six feet of hard muscle and soft doofus to hide half on her face into as Jasper hit play again.

"Let's see...uh, I did the introduction, made a threat, sent thugs to Henry's house. Yeah, I think I'm done. Any questions?... Oh, right, this is a video message..." even at the end, Twitler fumbled with the same mistake as Ray and Henry had and everyone released a sigh of relief when it was finally over. He had thought of everything; it wasn't like they could leave Henry's family to get hurt whilst they fought for the internet, that just wasn't how they did things.

"Okay...okay, I gotta go protect my family, you get the bee! Or...or you guys should come to my house and someone else should get the bee. Or we should all get the bee and bring it back to my house—" "Henry, calm down—" "I can't, (y/n/n), I'm freakin' out, man, I"M FREAKIN' OUT!" Henry screeched as he let his worries and anxiety get the best of him. As much as he wanted to save the rest of the world, his family was his world and the thought of some big, hairy, mean gorillas going to beat them up because of his enemies made his stomach turn so badly, that not even crying into (y/n)'s shoulder was helping. Jeez, he was really freaking out and in need of some best friend support.

"Hey, hey, hey! I'll get the bee! I got the perfect jar up in Junk-N-Stuff!" Jasper volunteered kindly, seeing that his friend couldn't make heads or tails of the situation in his current state of panic, so he took out a factor to make things simpler. Whilst he could punch people, he could definitely catch a bug in a jar and the soft smile that twitched on (y/n)'s face was enough to tell him that he was doing the right thing. It was a load of the boy's mind anyway.

"And I'll be Jasper's adult supervision." Charlotte followed after him, heading for the elevator. As sweet and noble as Jasper's actions were, he was quite clumsy and irresponsible on his own, so it was always a good idea to send someone dexterous and responsible to monitor what he was doing and Charlotte was ready to rally around Henry because he was her friend too.

"I'll go get some poopy bags for Kaitlyn," Schwoz was also helping out. Not directly since Henry didn't care much for the dog or what business she did right now but still, one job done was better than nothing, so the final task was for the trio to go out and kick some butt before someone got hurt.

"Come on, man. Those thugs are gonna attack my family!" Henry stressed as he nervously paced to the tubes, intent on heading out without thinking first. That would do for (y/n) and Ray though, who knew that he was getting rash because he wanted to go save them but going without a plan wasn't gonna help, rather, things would start to go wrong. First and foremost, they needed to take a deep breath and assess the situation so they knew what they were doing before they went gallivanting off.

"Just relax, okay? I mean, first of all, is your family even at home?" Ray asked, wanting to know if they were worrying over nothing. For all he knew, the Harts could be out on a trip or at work or school and the thugs were turning up to an empty house. In that case, all they'd have to do was roll up, do some surprise sneak attacks and their work would be done.

"Yes, they're at home," Bummer. There went that plan. Okay, people at home weren't great but it wasn't terrible either, ow they just had to be extra careful and extra sneaky. Tactful and smart, if Ray could ever be that.

"Even your mom?" "Especially my mom!" In a moment that definitely lacked tact and intelligence, Ray couldn't help but ask about Henry's regretfully attractive mother and Henry, in his panic, couldn't help but rub it in for poor, old (y/n). She felt a twinge in her heart at his elated tone and the catch in his breath, knowing that even though it was probably a slip of the tongue, a second of forgetfulness or some bullshit like that, he still said it and it still hurt.

"Then what are you standing around answering questions for? We gotta go!" The second blow came from the way her stupid, stupid doofus pushed Henry out of the way and scrambled up the steps to the tubes, standing on his tube pad and hitting his belt so fast that she nearly didn't have time to join him under the glass.

It was weird, she didn't cry and neither did she feel the same heartache she normally did, not even when he repeatedly hit his belt to cause the tubes to fall quicker or when he screamed the command to launch them upwards. Mrs Hart had been a thorn in her side for too long and she'd spent long nights coaching her mind to not pay attention to when her idiot of a fiancé said something stupid because that was just him, it didn't mean he loved her any less or vice versa. But at the same time, she couldn't help but wonder about her life, her choices, her relationship.

She just felt numb and as she swift wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on, a seed of doubt planted in her mind. Had Rick Twitler been right?

~Henry's house~

Was it possible to love someone with all of your heart and want to punch them in the teeth too?

(y/n) was debating it as she trudged a few metres behind Ray and Henry, staring at the approaching Hart residence with a black look. Every time she came here, it ended in a sore heart and an argument and right now, with all of the problems that they were facing, she didn't fancy getting distracted by something as petty as a few spoken words. Therefore, she deemed it wise to hang back a bit, and trudge a bit slower than the stampeding boys since she figured that if she didn't hear their conversation, she'd have nothing to worry about. What the heart doesn't know about won't trouble it.

That was her working mantra anyway as they got closer to the house and walked up the driveway. For a while, it was working; there were a few mumbles here, what sounded like a few tense comments there and as she dragged her heels the boys loitered before the door, evidently a little apprehensive to go in. She could only think why.

"Come on! Let's go, let's go! (y/n), hurry up!" Henry shouted to his slow friend as she barely made the effort to pick up her feet, preferring to wait for Ray to go inside and get whatever love he had for the kid's mother off his chest before she had to hear it. Maybe it was cowardly to do nothing but after trying and trying and trying, this just seemed easier - just let it go and let it be.

"Wait, wait, wait! Stop!" "What? Why stop? We gotta get my family outta the house!" The kid was not fond of his friends' slowness, not (y/n)'s lack of energy and certainly not Ray stopping before his hand could grasp the door handle. Did they not know that his baby sister and parents could be battered and bruised in there? Did they not care? He thought (y/n) would've cared given how close she was to Piper, even if there was a little...tension between her and his mom, but for the life of him (and Ray), he couldn't think of what had gotten into her. A moment's thought would tell them straight away.

"Yeah, I know but uh...how do I look?" Ray asked, not thinking and not worrying because this was a rescue mission, right? He had a reputation to uphold, even if they were out of costume and mere citizens right now, it still did well to seem suave, manly and heroic as he swooped in to save the day, and a messy, crumpled outfit and bad hair wouldn't help that. It wasn't so much Henry's mom that he was worried about, more like the image that she was a part of; that classic hero who fought crime and looked good doing it, the image of a man in his prime and not steadily moving away from his glory days.

"What? I think you look fine. I don't know, whatever," the kid responded, causing (y/n) to narrow her eyes when she saw the look of confusion written on his face. She was barely moving now, having come to an almost standstill halfway down the drive when she saw that they'd stopped to talk and something told her that she didn't want to listen. Could anyone lend her a kid so she could be a hot mom just for one day? What would it be like to turn his head like that?

To have his unyielding attention in a relationship that made sense because moms were his type, they had to be. The feeling he got with her, or his reaction at least, seemed...stale in comparison—like his smile was more of a routine than a reflex, an obligatory gift he had to give her when she entered his line of view because she was his fiancée. Or she was supposed to be.

"You think, you think?! Your mom's in there!" Ray hissed, causing Henry's stomach to drop and his chest to tighten.

"Oh my god..." God almighty, he thought this problem had been wheedled out ages ago, back when he swore that it meant nothing, never had and it would never happen again. He couldn't believe it, he just...was it just him? The guy had everything he'd ever wanted, the girl he'd pined after for a decade and he was still pretending that he was that guy. The guy who loved the ladies, took a new one out every night, the guy who never needed anyone because the one person he wanted wasn't his to love. Those might have been Captain Man's greatest days but Ray Manchester's life was starting right now, he was months away from marriage. Did he not remember that?

"Now, would you say I look great or really great...?" "Yeah, we're not doing this—we're not doing this because she's married and you have a fiancée, so stop!" Henry glared at the man and ignored his frankly revolting attempts to casually ask if he looked good enough to make an impression on his mom. Not that he would ever accept an invitation, nor would Mrs Hart offer one, the boy knew that each was perfectly happy in their own relationships and despite his outward stupidity, Ray was as loyal they come. He just...he was bad at showing it.

"Fine, whatever!" Ray grumbled before turning his head to see his best girl shuffling down the driveway, a tight but still beaming smile on her face, one that warmed his heart but would've made him worry had he looked a little closer. Did she think he looked great? He'd picked one of her favourite shirts that morning to win her affection, Kris Hart had nothing to do with it, "hey, sweet girl, would you say I look good?"

"As handsome as always, doofus," (y/n) replied kindly, trying not to let her voice wobble as she knew who he wanted to look good for. Once, it would've been her but that wasn't exactly the case anymore. He was gorgeous, the hottest man she'd ever had the pleasure of seeing, so he looked good in anything with more than one woman inclining to agree. The problem with the good-looking ones is they have the pick of the bunch...always.

"Good...then, follow me," he grinned and lightly held the back of her arm so he could pull her into the house after Henry, who started shouting like a madman the minute he entered the house. Of course, Ray strutted in like a peacock, jumping in like the hero he wanted to be with (y/n) behind him with a nervous stare to match those of the shocked family before her. Clearly, they had no intention of getting out, no matter how much Henry begged.

"Out! Everybody out! Why is no one moving?!" "Hey, (y/n)... Why do we have to leave?" Piper asked as she sat there looking like a glamour model in a beautiful dress with her hair and makeup done. Her gaze met (y/n)'s, who just shrugged and stared at the floor since she wasn't in the mood for lying or fighting or being strong for a change. Her bed, a pint of ice cream and silence were sounding heavenly right now, just the right thing for her to sob and wash away that seed of doubt that clouded all of the times when Ray had proved that despite a few odd instances, he was very much devoted to her and only her.

"Uhhhhhh...because..." "You...." "Are..." "You're all in danger," (y/n) stated dryly as the boys tried to find a better way of saying that thugs were approaching the house with weapons and god knows what else. There was no point dithering and trying to cover it up, their lies were pretty terrible and she wasn't in the mood for lies. She'd had enough of those too and no matter how much she twisted her engagement ring to try and calm her nerves, that dark mood wouldn't lift.

"Of what?" Piper questioned, her frown deepening at the woman's blunt statement. It didn't take a genius to see she wasn't in the best mood but then again, she wasn't exactly amongst geniuses when it came to the boys. Still, she didn't press it, she merely probed deeper into this sudden need for them to leave and her brother and his boss' weird reactions to what the woman said. Something told her that they wouldn't have said that if they had been able to come up with something.

"Of, uh...." "Of...missing out on a free weekend at the Hotel Staines!" "Yes!" Well, it wasn't a bad lie. An expensive one, but not bad. The Staines Hotel was famous for being the best place to stay in all of Swellview with full five-star treatment, pool, fancy rooms, great food, the lot.

It had been the scene for many a romantic getaway for Ray and (y/n) when he wanted to treat her to the pampering she deserved as a goddess amongst mortals and for a brief moment, a glimmer of a smile flickered onto her face when she remembered how he surprised her with a penthouse suite, complete with rose petals on the bed and a champagne bottle waiting on ice. It had been two days of heaven but the seed was starting to push those memories out in favour of horrific imaginings of him slipping into the same suite with a honey-haired woman with a kind smile. Jeez, it sucked that even if the unthinkable happened, she'd never stop loving him, not even when the next mom came along.

"What?!" "My boss is paying for a deluxe suite!" Well, that was news to Ray. The man's faux-happy face fell at the sound of forking out at least a few hundred dollars for a room that he wasn't even gonna have the pleasure of enjoying. It was one thing to go with his sweet girl, that he'd do gladly, but not for anyone else. Did the kid not know he was trying to save every buck he could for his wedding? The day he was looking forward to with everything in his heart despite what his moronic mouth came out with?

"Ooh!" "What?" "Garden view..." Ray quickly calmed their excitement by knocking a substantial amount off the price tag. It would still be a nice stay, just not as nice as they had first imagined but they were prepared to make the best of such a generous offer. Although, for Piper, it wasn't so easy to hide the disappointment on her face.

"Awesome..." "Well, still good." "Sure is!" "Yeah, okay, let's go! Fantastic. Come on!" Henry brushed over whatever they were saying and dragged his dad by the arm towards the door. The sooner he got them out of the house, the better and Piper and Mrs Hart were quick to follow, rising from the couch and practically skipping to the door without a moment's thought. Normally, people take luggage when going to a hotel, clothes, a toothbrush, and toiletries. Weren't they forgetting something?

"To The Staines!" "What are you guys doing? Why aren't you leaving?" Henry asked with a tense face as his family made a complete U-turn, having remembered the essentials that they sorely needed to take. He hadn't thought about the need to pack and knowing his mom and sister, they would take half the house with them, which would waste precious time that they didn't have.

"We have to pack!" "There's no time to pack, you have to leave! Right now!" Henry opened the door, only to shut it immediately when he saw a...friend standing on the porch. And by friend he meant a very vicious-looking thug cracking his knuckles. Well, someone wasn't selling Girl Scout cookies, more like looking for a fight and his heart stopped as he, (y/n) and Ray shared a worried glance. They couldn't get out, so keeping his family upstairs was looking like a better idea since they'd have the high ground and as much as (y/n) would've liked to see Mrs Hart having a bad day, she knew it wouldn't be nice if she got pummelled by a man with violence issues.

"Um, packing is a great idea. Go pack!" "Okay!" Mrs Hart beamed at her son and scampered off to go and fill her suitcase with everything she'd need for a sophisticated weekend at The Staines Hotel. And it was a good thing too; with the family hidden away upstairs, the trio soon found themselves with new company as another henchman came through the back with a particularly mean look on his face. Right, okay, there were only two, nothing they couldn't handle.

"We'll take front thug?" (y/n) suggested, her eyes briefly looking at her doofus as he kept his gaze trained on his opponent coming across the room. He could handle one by himself, which left his less experienced sidekicks to deal with one between them, a fair split that made sense. As much as she hadn't felt like it before, the heroine knew she couldn't run away now and leave Henry by himself, not even when her heart was hurting at the way she was sure that Ray's eyes followed Kris up the stairs like she was a supermodel or film star. At least, it had looked that way to her because, to be fair, Mrs Hart was beautiful.

"I'll take back thug," Ray replied, looking back at his girl just as she turned towards the door. He would've usually given her a good luck kiss before sauntering off to go beat the guy to a pulp but he put it down to her wanting to focus on the fight. He could make up for it later with plenty of kisses when they weren't in danger and he'd tell her how beautiful and hot she looked in a fight. The hottest, sweetest, bravest girl in the world.

It was fight time. With Ray briskly walking away to go duel his man, that left Henry and (y/n) to deal with theirs. The kid opened the door to reveal the thug, who let out a deep breath that honestly sounded like more of a grunt as he pounded his fist into his palm and rubbed at his wrists. The Rick Twitler logo was tattooed onto the back of his hand, a definitive sign that he was one of Twitler's flying monkeys sent to terrorise his family. Well, he picked the wrong heroes to mess with.

"Okay, pal. Listen, I eat thugs like you for break—" "Hey! You—you dick! Kid, are you all right?" (y/n)'s mouth dropped in horror and shock as Henry's sick quip was interrupted by the thug socking him in the face with a strong left hook. He clearly wasn't one for banter and the sidekicks looked at him in disgust for laying a hand on Kid Danger, who wasn't quite up to speed with how slow his body and mind were now that he'd been drained of his superpowers.

"Ow! I think I'm oka—" Henry groaned and briefly turned to his friend, thinking that the man had only been able to land that punch on a fluke because he never normally got hit like that. Rather, it had been so long since he sucked at a fight that he'd forgotten how bad it felt to be beaten up and things were only going to get worse. In a flash that never used to be a problem, the man punched him again and stormed into the house when Henry hit the floor, causing (y/n) to jump back and raise her fists to her face in preparation for retaliating. Yeah, he was gonna have to get used to a normal pace again because she could not fight this guy alone as she was on the puny side in comparison to his beefy body.

"You okay, kid?" Ray shouted from across the room as he repeatedly bashed his thug's face on the kitchen counter. His fight was going swimmingly since he was still the same old invincible Captain Man and had (y/n) broken her focus to look at him, she would've swooned at the way his upper body heaved with rippling muscles with each movement. It was a treat that he was fighting in civilian clothes that revealed more than his super-suit ever did and deep down, she'd be quite smug that no one else got to see him like that when she finally found a moment to stare.

"Yeah! It's just kinda hard to fight without my pow—ers..." Henry groaned when he was hauled up from the floor by the neck of his shirt and punched again. His face was finally starting to feel quite sore, so as Ray threw his goon across the kitchen island, (y/n) stepped in between him and their guy to try and buy him some time to recover.

"Look, pork chop, you wanna get the kid, you gotta go through me," she growled and softly ducked and jabbed at his face when his sausage-like fingers reached out to seize her throat. The thug grunted softly in pain when her hardened fist met his nose, only to spring back just as quickly with a backhand to her cheek. The sting was momentary but enough for (y/n) to gasp and feel tears spring in her eyes, leaving her to dodge the next two attacks. Henry was still panting against the mantlepiece of the fireplace and upon seeing his friend struggle against the meathead, he decided that there was no need to fight with fists when they had technology on their side.

"Hey, watch this..." he said to the bad guy, who look at his watch in confusion when he plucked it from the mantle and held it towards him. For such a tough guy, he squealed like a terrified child when the teen zapped him and fell to the floor as any true drama queen would. Well, that was easy and for Ray, things were going quite well too; he kicked his enemy in the stomach, causing a basket to fly up from the floor, which he then promptly threw back down onto his face. If he was a smart thug, he wouldn't get back up.

"Henry!" Mr Hart called from upstairs, probably having heard the commotion downstairs. The boy panicked for a moment and had to think fast as he worried about what his parents would say if they caught him and his bosses fighting two evil strangers and messing up the house. That just wouldn't do, so he thought quickly and came up with a brilliant solution.

"Stuff him in the fridge!" "Oh, that's fun!" Ray grinned at the idea of stuffing the man in the fridge next to the pickles like he was some kind of salami and as (y/n) spread a blanket of the other goon in a pathetic attempt to hide him, Ray tossed his thug into the fridge headfirst. With one final punch to ensure he stayed put, he closed the doors and casually leaned against the machine, acting as though he hadn't just been in a fight that destroyed half the kitchen.

"Have you seen my toothbrush?" Mr Hart asked his son as he trotted halfway down the stairs. All the three could do was hope that he would remain his oblivious self and not notice the villain-shaped lump in the middle of the sitting room floor.

"Uh, have you checked your bathroom?" the teen suggested and his dad skipped off back upstairs at what should've been an obvious location to look. Thank god Mr Hart was a bit dumb, he never even noticed the mess or the man under the blanket, he was more worried about his silly toothbrush.

Now that they were alone again, Ray swiftly reopened the refrigerator doors and scooped the chilly thug into his arms and over his shoulder in a fireman's lift—the easiest way to carry a bad guy when you need to dump their bruised body somewhere. What he didn't notice through the kitchen window, however, was that Twitler was not so stupid as to send only two men, no, if the guy loitering outside the house was anything to go by, they would be having more company any time soon.

To Henry and (y/n)'s shock, some karate, Mr Miyagi-type jumped through the doorway and landed in a fighting stance. He was shouting, kicking and waving his hands around like he was about to chop them into itty-bitty pieces but once they got over the initial startle, it was easy to deal with him. A quick blast from the Whiz Watch sorted him out and no karate move in the world was gonna stop him from flying out the way he came.

"You grab his right leg, I'll take his left," (y/n) told Henry as they returned to their original thug, intent on dragging him from the building and hiding him someplace where he wouldn't cause any more harm. However, just as they began the almost impossible task of dragging his body across the rug, they failed to notice that the bruiser who'd seen Ray attack his associate had circled the house and had crossed the threshold. Henry looked over his shoulder and gulped slightly at the guy, who cracked his knuckles menacingly, but he didn't let the fear show on his face, not when they were already preoccupied and now outnumbered.

"Be with you in a sec!" He grunted as he and the heroine struggled to pull the thug's body across the floor and (y/n) thought the kid had gone crazy when she heard him speak, only to look around and see that they had more problems than the one they were tugging along. This wasn't her day, not when the man let out an alarming scream as a battle cry and charged them despite Henry's polite smile.

"I don't think he wants to wait!" She yelped as they made a tactical retreat and danced across the room with the psycho on their tails, dodging nearly every kick and punch that he threw their way. Ray was having much more success, beating his man up with ease as Henry struggled to cope with how many hits were landing on his torso and butt. Had the world always been this slow or had he just been that fast?

It was hard to tell when (y/n) was avoiding the jabs and kicks so perfectly, her mind in tune with her body as she leaned backwards and dropped o the floor in time, something he was struggling with. Yet another kick to his chest pushed him over and into the door, making him grunt in pain as his friend bravely stood in front of him and blocked the onslaught of attacks since he was winded.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ray was still going great; he punched another dude in the face, then kneed him in the stomach and threw him across into the living room, watching with a satisfied smirk when he slid across the coffee table and landed in a pile. The problem, though, was that upon sliding across the table, he also took with him some huge, impressive jigsaw puzzle that Piper had enlisted her entire family to help build. It was something she wanted to do to get back at that stupid Jana Tetrazzini since she'd broken the record and helped a load of puppies but now, her attempt at smashing the world record was smashed itself...in ten thousand and one little pieces. Damn, that took Henry and his super-fast reflexes, like, five minutes to piece together, not to mention an excruciating amount of family time.

"Hey! That was my sister's puzzle!" Henry screamed as he watched the destruction from across the room with a horrified face. Piper was gonna die when she saw the mess because if she loved something, it was laughing in Jana's face when she did something better than her.

"More like that was your sister's puzzle, am I right?" Ray grinned as he strode into the other half of the room and over the coffee table, swaggering from the adrenaline high of the fight. It was just a puzzle, no big deal, at least his sister would be okay at the end of this, that was what he should've focused on, not some dumb puzzle that could be put back together with a little—or a lot of—effort.

"That's exactly what he just said, doofus!" "Am I right?" "No!" The trio argued back and forth as they carried on fighting, (y/n) instinctively teaming up with Ray to fight his bad guy as she picked up his limp body and began slamming it loudly against the door. It probably was a better idea to go and help the kid since he was being pinned to the wall with his own hatstand but he'd never ask for help, not even a little bit. He'd fought for ages before he had superpowers and he used to be good at it, it was just a matter of getting back into the swing of things. Besides, it would do them good to work together for a bit, because even he could see that there was something up with the girl underneath the reassuring smiles she kept giving him, even if he couldn't quite work out the reason.

"Henry? Someone's at the door!" Mrs Hart shouted from upstairs after hearing the racket of the thug thumping against the door. It would've been best to say nothing or just shout some half-assed reply but Ray being Ray had to be helpful, chivalrous and polite with the nice lady upstairs who'd encouraged him all along to persuade the girl of his dreams all along, the least he could do was make sure she didn't come down to absolute chaos in her house. If only that was how it came across.

"Uh, I got it, Henry's mom!" He shouted in reply, not seeing how his sweet girl looked so forlorn when he grinned at the spot at the top of the stairs. She didn't put up a fight when he took matters into his own hands and shoved the thug through the door and onto the porch before pretending he was talking to some passing visitor, "Uh, nobody needs your cookies, little girl!" He yelled before leaving the steadily growing pile of bodies and turning around to tease his young sidekick, who was almost laughable in his failed attempts to win against one guy.

"Buddy, you are really struggling today!" He grinned and put a casual arm around (y/n), who wasn't sure if she enjoyed the contact or not given the beaming look on his face when he was talking about Mrs Hart but she figured that it was his way of balancing his affections. She didn't doubt that he loved her, but she wasn't sure if he loved Mrs Hart too, after all, his mind kept straying back to her. What was a doofus to do when his heart was torn between a hot mom and a sweet girl?

"Yeah, I'm not used to fighting without my y'know..." "Dignity?" Ray joked as he hugged his beloved fiancée closer to his side, ignorant of her hurt since he was so distracted by how. His youngest sidekick couldn't overcome one simple henchman and whilst he'd never let it go too far, it was quite amusing to see him wriggle around like a newbie.

(y/n) felt just as conflicted watching the boy struggle whilst they did nothing as how she wanted nothing more than affection from her lover and to smack him for going back on all of those flimsy promises. She knew it was just him; the playboy, flirtatious edge was just his personality but still. Seeing him that excited over such a beautiful woman was upsetting and she wondered why she let it get to her after so many years of putting up with it.

"No!" "Deodorant?" He joked again, watching in amusement as the kid dodged a few jabs of the hatstand and pushed the guy away. He looked down at his fiancée as his chest rumbled and felt his smile soften when she rested her cheek on his chest, content to savour the moment before something, a terrible comment most likely, ruined it. A peck on her head made her feel special for a glorious second and she remembered why she could never stop loving him—because those moments made her feel so special like she was a twenty-something-year-old in a restaurant again with her hot boss who'd made time for her and not the pretty waitress who was obviously into him. Why couldn't it always feel like this?

"No!" "Daring do?" Then, finally, despite all of Ray's teasing, Henry caught a break. Well, sort of a break. Regrettably, the thug thrust the hatstand a little too slow to hit the boy and ended up smashing a cute photo frame that would cost his parents a fortune in sentimental value. That was the bad bit, the good bit came in the form of him being able to rag him around a little s he growled in reply. "No, my superpowers!"

"Henry, catch my suitcase! Thank you!" Piper yelled from upstairs and to everyone's shock, she didn't wait for her brother to respond, she just dropped it from the top of the stairs. It was a mere stroke of pure luck that the heavy object landed right where the henchman had been pushed and for Henry, not having to fight anymore was a saving grace.

"Aw, Hen, you're so lucky that your little baby sister was here to help you," (y/n) teased as she wandered over to the boy now that his opponent was groaning on the floor, no thanks to him or his years of sidekick training. She was so busy looking at him with mirthful eyes that she didn't see the way Ray followed after her like a lovesick puppy, watching and finding her every move endearing like she hung the stars in the sky. Maybe one day someone would film the way he acted around her and the way he acted around moms and then show her the comparison; the moms didn't even come close.

"Yeah, (y/n/n), she's the only one here who could've helped me..." the kid retorted, causing Ray to wrinkle his nose at his sass. It wasn't her fault that he couldn't fight without his powers, she was just trying to make light of the situation and he didn't want anyone upsetting her, even if his own words should've been a little more careful.

"Easy, sassy pants," he told him as he walked past to collect the thug's body but not before placing his large, warm hand on his girl's back. The warmth that settled into her skin nearly distracted her from the beeping shrill of Henry's phone ringing, which was the only thing that stopped her from going into a daydream about how perfect he was or a nightmare about how inadequate she was for a guy like him.

"It's Charlotte," the kid said as she looked over his shoulder and as Ray took hold of the guy's legs. It was easiest to drag him out the back and ignore the call since they were kinda in the middle of something here.

"Eh, just let it go to voicemail." "What? Ray, seriously, what is your deal with ignoring Charlotte?" (y/n) asked after him as he disappeared around the corner with the Boyd, just as Henry answered the phone. That would have to be a conversation for later, if later ever came, and Henry answered the phone hoping it was good news. They could do with some of that right now, what with Twitler, the threats and the clandestine rocking of the relationship between the Man Cave's OTP.

"Hello?" "We found the bee! Come back to the Man Cave," Charlotte instructed him as soon as he answered and for the first time in what felt like forever, things seemed to be going their way. The bee was the hardest part and they were just about done at his house so things were looking up...for now.

"Okay, click!" "Click," the conversation ended and Ray wandered back into the room, his chest pressing into his sweet girl's back as he reverted to type and got all touchy-feely with her, which was nice but so confusing at the same time. She was the one he wanted to love up now? How long would it be until she was in a thrupple with Kris again?

"Charlotte found the bee. Let's get back to the Man Cave," Henry told his boss, who was more than ready to go home since home meant kisses and the freedom to be as heavy-handed with his affection for his lover as he wanted but for (y/n), something didn't feel right—and it wasn't just his incessant flirting with another woman. No, something felt off, like there were eyes on her figure, watching from the shadows.

"Wait...my tummy is telling me something..." "(y/n), we've talked about this. Your tummy can't speak to you," Henry replied gently, thinking that her biggest kooky quirk was getting the best of her. Whilst he had no doubt that she had excellent instincts for danger, the notion that she felt a premonition of peril in her stomach seemed crazy and he just put it down to all of those dormant nerves zooming around in there. Come on, tummies don't talk.

"No, kid, trust her tummy. Not only is it adorable and an excellent pillow...but it knows things," Ray said mysteriously as he dismissed his sidekick's apprehension. He also knew that his sweet girl had good instincts and those instincts stemmed from her tummy, which she said felt funny when something was wrong and was never normally incorrect. He thought of it like an innocent deer sensing danger in the meadow before the hungry wolf came to attack and he thanked his lucky stars that she often avoided being hurt before traps or bad guys pounced.

"What? You're just saying that 'cause you love—" "Shhhh! Do not interrupt the tum!" (y/n) snapped and smushed her finger against the boy's lips since he was being far too loud for her liking. Like the deer she emanated, her eyes closed and her ears took over, listening for the slightest rustle or vibe that might give her a clue, and someone's heavy breathing was a dead giveaway. "Got it, there's one more goon in here."

"Oh, yeah, where?" Henry smiled, thinking they were both crazy as Ray took her word for it and began searching the room for the idiotic sucker who thought it was a good idea to stay behind when all of his evil chums had gotten beaten up. He'd sniff them out. After all, if (y/n) was the innocent deer then he was the vigilant bloodhound, seeking enemies with pinpoint accuracy because, at this point, he knew how the average low-life thought.

And he did, which was quite impressive and also annoyingly obvious as the final goon had chosen the worst hiding spot in the history of hiding spots. Ray lifted a potted plant out of the way, revealing the last man stood there like a statue and not breathing in the hope that no one would notice or hurt him. Too little, too late, and Henry wondered how he hadn't seen him sooner.

"Ah, the weird tummy thing works! Nice, (y/n/n) and good eye, dude!" He grinned at the adults as they stared down the snivelling thug, who had clearly bitten off more than he could chew with the three superheroes that Twitler had told him to distract. Damn right, the tummy never lies.

"Thanks," Ray nodded as his sweet girl gave her friend a smug smile before they properly focused on the thug again in a calm manner because it would be oh-so-easy to scare him shitless into a life on the straight and narrow rather than just plain attacking him, "are you the last goon?"

"Yeah..." the man whimpered pathetically.

"You wanna just run away?" "I just wanna go home..." he replied in a small voice, looking as though he was about to burst into tears and cry for his momma, something (y/n) could sort of relate to given how crappy she'd felt over the last few hours. Actually, it felt kinda mean to punch him now, so much so that in a rare moment of mercy for the criminal scum, Ray gave him the chance to run away.

"Okay, go." "Thank you..." "Get out!" Although, not before kicking him up the ass to get him to move a bit faster. Well, nobody was perfect and it amused Ray enough to cause a smile to break out on his face as he moved the potted plant back to its original position. Oh man, he loved his job sometimes.

"All right, let's get back to the Man Cave," Henry said as he took one last look over his house and the unfortunate damage that had taken place. Oh well, items could be replaced, all that mattered was that his family were okay. So, he waltzed out of the house like nothing had happened, like they were never there and (y/n) waited for her doofus by the door. She had been willing to put the events of the last hour or so behind them because she swore that this house brought out the most heartbreaking things about him, but then, she couldn't forget so easily.

As Ray also looked over the house, she could swear that his gaze lingered on a framed photograph of Mrs Hart smiling beautifully into the camera and it took every ounce of strength and resilience built over many years of seeing him go to someone else to not cry when she thought his fingers twitched to reach out and take it. Was he really thinking about it? Would he hide that photo in his bottom drawer to pull out whenever he grew tired of looking at the pictures of them together? Would it be easier to set him free now before she made the mistake of trapping him forever?

~The Man Cave~

The journey home was fraught with anguish for (y/n) as she mulled over her options and descended into the Man Cave with Ray and Henry. They were none the wiser to her inner torment as the tubes dropped into the main room where a lot of things had been done since they left, including Schwoz building some clever gadget to get the kid's powers back and the all-important bee that had been held in Jasper's mouth because it was a better receptacle than nothing. She didn't know what to do because all of her ideas so far weren't helpful or smart, some ranging from stupid and others stretching as far as downright insane and reckless, which wasn't exactly her style.

"Where's the bee?" Henry asked the minute his feet touched the ground, and he, Ray and (y/n) trotted down the stairs. Her worries could stay silent for now, she knew they had bigger things to worry about than her silly little feelings and besides, Ray had been a total sweetheart ever since they left the Harts' residence in tatters, so it was almost like things were back to normal. Almost.

"Over there." "Thanks for bringing it back," the boy nodded at Charlotte as he studied the bug that had been trapped inside a plastic box for Schwoz's whacko experiment. What was even more whacko was how she was preoccupied with looking at Jasper's mouth, looking for a way to soothe the stinging bumps that covered his tongue and gums since he'd made the sacrifice of his palate so that the bee could be kept safe. It was admirable if a little odd.

"Hey! Thwe bwee was in mwy mwouth!" "Why you talkin' like that?" Ray asked impatiently, not wanting to interact with the weird kid any more than he had to but he couldn't deny his insatiable curiosity to know why he sounded like his tongue had been cut out. Jeez, what had happened whilst he'd been out? And why was his sweet girl avoiding his eyes? Even he, the densest man on earth, was starting to pick up on something being wrong.

"Oh, sweet cheese, Curly!" (y/n) grimaced with the boys when Jasper turned around to reveal that the bee had left an unsightly mess on his tongue in the form of several sore-looking blisters that made the muscle look like the surface of the moon. Rather him than them, to be honest, Ray would never be able to kiss his sweet girl if his mouth was like that...or if he could be stung...and that's only if he worked out why she was acting like the (y/n) from ten years ago when the slightest move made her awkward and jumpy.

"Wait a second, I thought a bee only had one stinger and it falls out when it stings you," Henry pointed out, noticing that his tongue was covered in bumps when technically, the bee should've only managed one before it died. That was how it went when he was taught ecology in school.

"Well, some bees do but other bees don't. It depends on which bee stings you, so some die after one, others can keep on stinging and some bees don't even have stingers at all," (y/n) replied without taking her horrified stare off of Jasper's hideous injuries and she made a mental note to get him some calamine lotion or something later. That bee must've been one tough cookie because jeez, that looked nasty, even if they were adorable and important to the environment.

"Guys, this is no time for real facts about bees!" Ray butted in, his renowned impatience coming back as his sidekicks swapped info on what bees could and couldn't do. As much as he loved hearing his sweet girl be all smart and stuff, for once, his brain ruled over his heart and told him that cooing and gooeyness could come later when the boy had his powers back. That would be the time for banter, not now.

"Yeah, you're right. Here, use these man-tweezers to pull the stingers out," Henry advised Jasper as he handed over a pair of tweezers that weren't manly in any way, shape or form, simply a product that Ray had bought to make his face extra perfect, ergo, they just had to be called man-tweezers, much to (y/n)'s annoyance.

"Tweezers. They are just tweezers. Call them tweezers, for the love of God," she groaned and threw her head back, missing Ray's small smile when he saw how her pet peeve irked her. It was cute when she screwed her nose up, even cuter when she scowled and pretended to be annoyed.

"Thwanks! Wi'll gwive them bwack to you when I'm dwone!" Jasper said to ray, who turned his nose up at the thought of being handed a pair of slimy tweezers that had been in the weird one's mouth. Yeah, no thanks, he could live without them now, call it his only gift to the kid he claimed to dislike intensely.

"Uh, yeah, you can just keep those!" "Oooh, schweet!" Well, at least it made Jasper happy and he seemed to pluck at the embedded stingers with a little more vigour as he wandered off to complete the task. It wasn't the weirdest thing the Man Cave had ever seen.

"Hey, so, can you get my powers back?" Moving on, Henry asked Schwoz the all-important question, the one he'd been gnawing his fingernails away at over the past few hours. It was the thing they were striving for and Schwoz had been working pretty hard, so there was a good chance they'd be successful, knock on wood. It wasn't certain but the man was confident, outwardly anyway.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get in the box, I press the button, and your powers will transfer from the bee back to your body!" "Awesome!" Schwoz's brief, dumbed-down explanation brought a relieved, joyous smile to his face and he had never been so happy to hear science stuff coming from the small man's mouth. His worries were over, everything was okay and he wasn't gonna remain useless at fighting for much longer because Schwoz, the little coconut-headed beauty, was gonna fix everything.

"Quick! Get in the box, get in the box!" Ray encouraged him, wanting to waste no time in testing whether the man's technology worked or not. Henry didn't want to wait either, chasing the high that came with the knowledge that he was about to be super again, so he jumped into the box for Ray to close and bolt the door behind him with a final reassuring smile. All they could do was pray it worked.

"Henry, can you hear us?" Charlotte asked as she pressed the intercom button on the side of the box. Normally, Schwoz wouldn't have built on intercom because it was an effort to have to press the button every time they wanted to talk to the test subject—person—but he also wasn't fond of hearing screams of pain so he added it anyway. He just hoped that Henry took the news that it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience well.

"Loud and clear, let's do this!" He replied in a cheery tone that would be gone by the time the genius was done, he'd stake his multiple degrees on that. Still, positivity would make it seem better, to start with anyway.

"Okay, I'm going to release the bee into your box and you have to make it very angry so it will schting you." "What?" Henry knitted his eyebrows together at the sound of Schwoz's ridiculous instructions. Okay, did he know how much bee stings hurt? His enthusiasm was slipping away more and more with each passing second he was trapped in the claustrophobic box, which was also beginning to look more and more like a trap; now that he thought about it, what were all of those locks for?

"Yeah, and I have to activate a switch to activate the ribonucleic gas at the precise moment it schtings you, which will make the bee schting hurt even more!" Schwoz exclaimed with a cheery grin on his face, the kind a doctor would use when trying to convince a little kid that their shot wasn't so bad and the needle wasn't the size of a machete. But Henry wasn't a kid and he didn't believe in Schwoz's smile or any attempt to make that sentence any better. Bee stings were already quite sore and it wasn't that he was scared but...he was a bit nervous.

"You never said any of this before I got in the box!" "Yeah, well, you would have never got in if he did, would you?" (y/n) grinned at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. It was nice to be back in the Man Cave since its four walls seemed to make the problems of the world disappear and with no one else to distract him, Ray returned to his usual, affectionate self.

His arm was slung around her shoulders, he stole kisses from her cheeks, temple and forehead and warmly chuckled into her ear when she cracked a witty comment to try and stop her sour mood from bringing everyone else down. Mrs Hart was a long-forgotten memory but she didn't want to be his precious fiancée one minute and hear him sing her praises the next. She was fed up with the same old story.

"Release the bee!" Schwoz muttered to Charlotte, who still had the intercom line open so Henry heard every word. And boy, he was not happy to hear that his protests were going unheard and not acted upon.

"No, no, no, no, no, no! Hang on a sec, hang on a sec! Why does the bee have to sting me? Why can't you just flip a switch or do some science? Okay, I really do not like bees, guys?—" Henry screeched and jolted around the box as his traitorous friend released the bee, which had begun glowing green thanks to the superpower it had soaked up. It was also quite speedy as it zoomed around the box, agitated by his brisk movements and swatting, so when his complaining didn't stop, Ray started to get agitated too.

"Oh, this is really hard to hear...can you mute him?" He asked, knowing that his sidekick's endless grumbling was ruining the friendly atmosphere they had going on outside. He was trying to love up his sweet girl after a stressful day that was clearly wearing her down, did he have to ruin that with his big mouth?

"Yep," Charlotte was growing tired of it too, so she took the remote control from her pocket and hit what she thought was the mute button. However, as they soon found out, that did not make Henry quiet, rather, it translated everything he said into Spanish because why wouldn't Schwoz include that?

"Now, he's just being annoying en español. What did you do?" (y/n) asked, feeling Ray's hands land on her hips to keep their bodies pressed together. It was a nice gesture and the warmth spreading through her back was nice but she was more interested in what Charlotte had done to the box because Henry had never paid that much attention in Spanish class before.

"Oh, sorry. That was the Spanish button," the girl replied bashfully before meekly pressing the button adjacent to the one she pressed before. This time, it had the wanted outcome and whatever Henry was whining and shouting, they couldn't hear it; the silence was bliss and now, it was just a waiting game to see when the bee would get fed up with the lumbering human trying to squish it. They watched patiently as the boy kept the insect away from his face with his eyes trained on it at all times despite how quickly it could move and it was strangely exciting to wait for the big moment.

"Is it stinging him?" Charlotte whispered to the couple behind her, her eyes not shifting to meet them since she already knew that they were already locked in a tight embrace, Ray hunched over his sweet girl like he wanted to shield her from anything horrible in the world. She seemed happy and it was enough to settle him since he wasn't a mind reader and couldn't see the flip-flopping of her heart in her chest.

"It's thinking about it," (y/n) told her, watching closely as the bee zipped around Henry's face and then landed on his cheek. The suspense was so bad that even Ray stopped fawning over her and stared at the kid as his eyes screwed shut and the stinger finally penetrated his skin.

"There we go," the hero smiled the wait was over and it was kinda funny to see how the boy tensed his entire body from the pain. At last, the moment Schwoz had been waiting for and as Henry gritted his teeth to bear what was probably like a pinprick, the genius twisted a nob on a canister to release the gas, flooding the chamber. He adjusted some settings and kept everything steady as the gas worked oppositely to how Twitler had stripped his powers, returning the energy that had been stolen through his nose and back into his body. It didn't look very pleasant, but it worked, no one was gonna complain.

The process came to an abrupt end and the bee was released from its service, leaving Henry in a state of panic and everyone else waiting with bated breath. As he thumped on the glass to be let out, they couldn't help but wonder if it had worked or not. Did the kid get stung for nothing or were they back in business? Charlotte quickly stepped forward to let her friend out of the box and the moment the door was open, Henry shot out and scrambled to get as far away from that demon bee as possible. Did they know how badly his face was throbbing?

"Did it work? Do you feel fast?" Charlotte blurted out as Henry got his bearings after such a traumatic experience. He felt the same, a little groggy but nothing told him whether the world was going fast again or not, everything just seemed to go at a normal pace and he didn't feel particularly speedy. Well, there was only one way to sort that out.

"I don't know..." "Testing rock!" Ray had a method of decline whether they were back to their usual fighting power and of course, it came by throwing a rock at Henry's body. Before he'd taken it to the face in a humiliating defeat that proved Rick Twitler had won a bottle but to everyone's delight and Henry's shock, the rock seemed to slow down for him and his body became a blur when he dodged it a familiar lightning speed. Who cares if it hit Schwoz instead? Kid Danger was back and faster than ever.

"Oh!" "Yes, nice one, kid!" "Okay, uh, quickly! Someone throw some more stuff at me!" Henry gasped and blinked a few times to check that the moment was actually happening and not some delusion he'd conjured up in the grief of losing his superpowers. They. Had to ensure that everything was right and if his speed was working properly, so a missile or two would probably do the trick, just a few weapons of mass destruction to make his butt go quicker and see if he could go fast enough to punch Twitler in the face like he wanted to.

"I'll throw something at you!" Schwoz went first after getting up from the floor with a bruised forehead, "Now, you can also fly!" He said dramatically, making Henry's eyes go wide and (y/n) put at the sudden news that he'd inadvertently gained a new power thanks to the bee. No fair, she wanted to fly too, it seemed so cool, even if going high was a bad idea in a skirt.

"Are you serious?" "Yeah! You got all of that bee's power! You too can fly! Just jump and believe!" Schwoz exclaimed, building the boy up to believe that he could really do it if his heart wanted to get out there amongst the clouds and for the two other heroes in the room, it wasn't nice to have that scene painted in their heads but out of their reach. Of course, (y/n) settled for just a pout since she was a grown-up and preferred to stomp down her jealously so it would never see the light of day but Ray liked to throw tantrums. He was a man-child, after all.

"What? No fair, I wanna fly!" "No way, dude! I'm about to fly, go back to your girlfriend!" Henry shoved him back out of the way when the man pushed his way in front of Schwoz to stamp his feet and shout until he got his way, but Henry didn't want to hear it. He could go back to his babysitting fiancée and be a good boy because he was about to take flight for the very first time, and it didn't even matter how far-fetched the promise seemed.

"Uh, Hen? You sure you wanna jump from there?" (y/n) asked in a concerned voice as the boy clambered onto the arm of the couch with the obvious intention of jumping off. She hadn't exactly researched how Schwoz had transferred the powers from the bee to him and she didn't exactly understand it, but now that she thought about it, the smirk on his face did seem a little weird. As much as she'd like to get around without paying for an air ticket, she'd definitely take that news with a pinch of salt, unlike Henry, who was too excited about having an upgrade than thinking things through.

"Who cares?! See you in the clouds, ground-walkers!" He cried and took the leap of faith, diving off of the arm with his sights set on the ceiling and his arms spread wide like they'd help him take off. Of course, they didn't; predictably, he didn't fly, not at all, rather, he sank like a rock and bellyflopped on the ground in a heap of pain and regret in a move that made Schwoz and Charlotte cackle and (y/n) and Ray frown in concern. Well, that was a mean trick.

"I can't believe you thought you could fly!" "You literally fell for it!" The genius and girl laughed at his pissed-off face as Henry stayed on the ground and tried to ignore how his entire body was now aching. Yes, he now understood that he was an idiot, there was no need to rub it in, not when he could already feel how much of a dumb move that had been.

"Not cool, Schwoz!" He snapped as Ray leaned over and offered a hand to help him up, which he gratefully accepted. (y/n) gulped at the sight of the thick muscle tensing and stretching to get him to his feet and she felt the urge to reach out and grab hold of one just to reaffirm that they were as solid as they looked. No, focus on the mission at hand, it was best to get this mess over with, then they could go back to normal and she could live happily with him and the ring on her finger until the next time they were unfortunate enough to cross paths with Kris Hart.

But, just as the jokes and laughter had reentered the Man Cave, the danger and malice crept back in. With Henry on his feet, the computer's monitors flickered and went fuzzy for a brief minute before an all too evil and familiar face was back on their screens. Twitler had hacked into their network again and was sending one of his so-called friendly video messages, intent on seeing the chaos he'd wrought and eager to show what else was to come. Instinctively, Charlotte and Schwoz fell to their knees and ducked behind various pieces of furniture before they were seen by the villain. That left the three heroes, or rather the off-duty heroes to stand awkwardly without their usual masks to hide behind. Talk about being exposed.

"What's up, Man Cave?" He greeted them joyfully with an air of confidence that immediately had their guards up and their hair standing on end. That stupid smirk was back and (y/n) couldn't help but feel her skin crawl as his eyes scanned the room and seemed to linger on her, something that she tried not to think about, no matter how disturbing it seemed. "Twitler!" Ray didn't take the sudden intrusion into his home very well either and in typical Ray fashion, he reacted without thinking, whipping his laser controller from his back pocket and zapping one of the computer's monitors before he could think about what he was doing. Of course, the screen cracked and broke upon impact but Twitler's image remained because he wasn't actually in the room, just a load of pixels being beamed from an undisclosed location. Duh.

"Did you try to shoot me through a computer screen?" Twitler asked with a condescending smile. It was fascinating for him to peer into their lives like this and even more satisfying to see what chaos he'd caused. Kid Danger looked so nervous, Captain Man was a bigger idiot than ever and Miss Danger, well, it seemed like his little plan of sending her and his moronic fiancé to Henry's house had worked a treat, just like he knew it would. That guy couldn't resist the woman that lived there and even after all she'd said to him, he was certain that even (y/n) (y/l/n) wasn't sure anymore.

"No!" "Yeah, you did, doofus, we all saw you—" the gorgeous woman murmured to her lover as he pretended that he hadn't just lost his temper so easily. But, to her shock and in a move that was totally unlike her adorable Ray, the man shouted over her soft mutterings, too wound up by the taunts of his enemy to treat her right. It wasn't the worst thing he could've said and normally she'd gloss right over it with an eye roll at his childish behaviour but it wasn't nice to hear after feeling so crap all day. Oh, what a glorious sight trouble in paradise made.

"What do you want, Twitler, huh? You gonna send more goons for me, (y/n) and Henry to take out?" Ray asked, not seeing the way his sweet girl deflated and looked down the floor, nursing a bruised heart. She was just overreacting, right? He didn't mean it, she was just being dumb, a dismissal was hardly a sign that he was growing tired of her, that was crazy. Ray didn't see but Rick did; his smirk carved into his cheeks even more as he practically witnessed a rift open between them, just a small crack that was widening with every minute and the idiot didn't even know it. It shouldn't have been so easy to prey on her insecurities and fears but it was.

"Oh, those goons were just a diversion! I need time to carry out my real plan." "Oh, yeah? Which is what? Huh? Being a jerk? 'Cause if so, mission accomplished!" "Yeah, good one!" the boys bumped fists as Henry used one of the burns he'd thought up and stored away when he was in the shower. It wasn't his best but it did the trick, anything to insult the man would do but he didn't seem offended. Rather, the comment and fist bump rolled off him and he didn't miss a beat when it came to responding because he was now in a position where revealing his entire plan wasn't disastrous. He was about to be victorious and in his victory, he'd get everything he ever wanted.

"No, the plan I told you guys about at The Honey Factory," Rick Twitler frowned at their apparent forgetfulness because he swore that he'd already revealed what doom he had in store for the world. Internet, destruction, dark ages, blah, blah, blah, how could they forget that?

"Uh, I wasn't really listening..." "Uh, I remember zapping you a lot..." "They aren't exactly known for their listening skills, you know," (y/n) told the CEO dryly as her friend and beloved doofus struggled to recall any specific details. Twitler wasn't sure if they were being deliberately facetious or not, but he wouldn't put being that dumb past them; Miss Danger understood, she was leagues beyond them but they struggled with simple skills learnt as a child. No wonder she was the only superhero he tolerated, well, it would be better if she swapped that uniform for something a little...darker.

"Remember this? The living computer virus I invented?" The villain questioned cockily and raised the canister that contained the glowing liquid of both Henry's power and the virus swirled together. That radioactive soup could take out the world's entire internet in a second and (y/n) gulped at how he was passing it between his hands so calmly, radiating a power that came from holding a weapon of mass destruction in his hands. But still, Ray and Henry weren't gonna give him the satisfaction of basking in his success.

"Uhhh...kinda?" "Uh, what am I looking at here? Sorta..."

"Well, it's nasty stuff. All it wants to do is spread and destroy, and now, it has your super-fast reflexes, Henry Hart," Twitler told them smugly, knowing that his virus had been engineered to stop at nothing and devour everything, any circuit, any data, anything that made up the web. It made him feel powerful and gave him a high that Twitflash had never done and he knew that whilst that had given him his money, freeing society of that scourge was gonna be his most real achievement.

"Oh, yeah? Well, guess what, Twitler? I got my powers back!" "Yeah!" "It's true, you've done nothing to stop us," the trio replied with equal confidence, not letting his little slip of Henry's real name affect them, even though it was still alarming to know that he knew all of that stuff. It was a small surprise for Twitler that they'd managed to get the boy's power back so quickly, but he didn't show it on his face. Wow, the kid could move fast again, as if that was gonna stop him. They were too late, everything was too late—the end had come and he wasn't about to back out now.

"It won't help you stop me. You couldn't stop me even if you could fly!" Twitler mocked the kid, causing Schwoz and Charlotte to silence their laughter by slapping their hands over their mouths. They could let him hear them but it sure was funny to remember how Henry had jumped from the couch because of their hilarious prank and the teen scowled as his fellow heroes also struggled to stop their lips from curling. Come on, if they didn't tease him, who would?

"That's funny you said that actually, 'cause, like, a second ago, Henry jumped right off the couch and— "He genuinely thought he could fly!" "It's not funny—it's not funny that you say that, so stop laughing! Let's listen to the plan that Twitler has that won't work..." Henry slapped at (y/n)'s arm as she put her hand over her mouth and giggled, Ray grinning just as much. Yeah, yeah, he knew he was an idiot, didn't they have more important things to worry about? Like stopping this guy's dumb plan that would fail because evil never triumphs?

"Oh, it'll work. This virus is about to destroy every computer network in Swellview and then, it will spread and destroy every computer network in the entire world and the era of technology will end! Forever..." Twitler's tone turned soft at the end and (y/n) felt as though his gaze had returned to her.

And it's not like she could turn to her doofus for help; whilst his body was still there for her to hide behind, he was too engrossed in his text messages to notice any lingering looks and she didn't feel like being too clingy after feeling like a burden all day. She knew what it was like to be called clingy and the shame and pain were almost unbearable. So, she steeled herself and met his eyes, intent on figuring out why such a frankly brilliant man would have such dastardly plans.

"W-why would you want to destroy all of technology? I still don't understand," she asked, unable to wrap her head around his viewpoint, despite having it explained to her earlier. Twitler decided that if she didn't see the light then he'd take it to her. She was smart, she could work it out and once she saw it on his level, then maybe, just maybe, her feelings for other things would change too. His plans were so very dastardly and perfect.

"I think the internet killed his mom or something," Ray muttered, not once looking up from his phone as he vaguely replied to her query in the least helpful way imaginable. The woman sighed at him, wishing that he was just a little bit more engaged in such a serious conversation because whatever was on his phone couldn't have been more important. She was trying to think and him, his stupid huge muscles, tight t-shirt and floppy hair were distracting her brain from processing Twitler's reasons, which was infuriating under her heart's fluttering.

"Really? That stinks, dude," Henry grimaced for the man and considered offering him a little more sympathy before he decided against it. He was a criminal, after all.

"The internet did not kill my mom! She's fine! She lives in Boca—and are you seriously on your phone right now?!" The man snapped as he lamented the mention of his mother, who would probably disown him if she knew what he was up to. What was more frustrating though, was how for the last few minutes, Ray had been scrolling through the internet that he hated so much, meaning no matter how epic or heinous his speech was, it was just wasted breath. Ray loved how irritated he sounded and unable to resist, he couldn't help but use his few brain cells to come up with one of the sickest burns he'd ever thought of—and one of the most damaging, but not only for Twitler.

"Yep, looking at pictures of your mom!" He quipped, causing Henry to snigger at his laddish humour and they tittered together when Ray scrolled down the Twitflash page of what looked like a lovely lady with dark hair and brown eyes in her mid-forties. She looked nice, pretty despite the signs of her age and (y/n) felt her heart drop into the rift that was now gaping between her and Ray. It was just a burn, he didn't mean anything by it as he just wanted to embarrass that asshole, but she'd had more than enough of him lusting over other women for one day and the fact that he kept scrolling and smiling at each picture was the final straw.

"Well, enjoy your precious internet while you can because soon, if you need information about something, you'll have to read a book! A real one! With pages made of paper!" Rick Twitler snapped, having taken that insult a little more seriously than the first. He wasn't seething like (y/n), but he wasn't just gonna let something like that slide, not when he was a momma's boy at heart, so he made them hurt too.

The world was better before the internet came about; kids weren't rude or glued to phones, people talked face-to-face, libraries were the go-to place with information and everyone was happier. Things were great back then, and even (y/n) had to admit that her childhood was filled with fun and imagination without tech shoved in her face.

"No!" "You monster!" Henry and Ray didn't see it that way, though, they were quite happy with how things were now, so they were disgusted at his vow to take that away. In fact, the hero was so distraught that he forgot himself again and took out his laser control to break yet another monitor, and another, and another because maybe he could hurt Twitler now. Or not. Probably not, he was just breaking stuff and wasting dollars because he was having an emotional outburst.

"Stop it!" (y/n) hissed and lowered his hand quickly before he could ruin anything else. She confiscated the gadget with a stern yank, causing Ray to pout at how his sweet girl had to tell him off, but he made another mental note that he'd make it up to her later with kisses and his usual friendly approach to make her happy with him again. It was fine, everything would be worked out later, he just knew it because that's how they always sorted things.

"Say goodnight, boys...and (y/n), don't look at me like that. You know what's logical and what's not," Twitler gave them all one last look, one more lingering than the others, before taking his computer virus and kneeling on the floor, meaning he was now leaning over several, thick pipes. They could only guess that they were the pipes that housed millions of super-thin, super-delicate fibre optic cables that fed the world's internet, which made them all so much more nervous, especially when the madman paused to look back at the camera.

"Also, Charlotte, I could see your hair the whole time," he revealed to the startled girl, who quickly ducked and slapped her hands over her protruding bun. If she had known that she stuck out, she would've chosen somewhere else because the knowledge that Twitler knew about her and all the other helpers in the Man Cave was disturbing. They didn't deserve to get hurt too just because they worked there.

The heroes couldn't break their gaze from the monitor as they watched Twitler break the jar open, releasing the green sludge onto an exposed portion of the fibre optics. Tenacious was the right word to use; the green goo seemed to come to life as it met the tech and seemed to wriggle to coat every single inch as the data went back and forth, thus releasing the virus into the world too. This was it, the internet was being hijacked and that was the end of the video.

"It's, uh, probably fine, right?" Ray stammered as they all reeled from what they had just watched. The virus was fast but for a few milliseconds, they had no way of knowing if Twitler's ick had actually caused a technological disaster. That was until the alarms started blaring and the lights started flashing, signalling that they had a very big problem on their hands, one that Charlotte rushed to identify.

"Is that the "everything's totally cool" alarm?" Henry asked nervously as she stood at the computer to check it out. And all the while, no one noticed (y/n) slipping away, not just in thought, but also physically; she didn't know why but she had an idea in her head and it wasn't brave, it was stupid; it wasn't clever, it was ridiculous; it wasn't helpful, it was heartbreaking, but in the face of adversity, she decided that sacrifices had to be made for the ones she loved.

"Hey! Got the stingers out!—what is with the alarm?" Jasper exclaimed as he reemerged from the secret door with a handful of tiny pinpricks that had previously hindered his speech. (y/n) was glad that she got to see him one last time as she headed for the elevator and she was more than grateful that Ray was now focusing on several things that weren't her. If she had to meet his eyes, she wouldn't make it and nothing or no one could stop her in her flight. If this was a game then she'd play it, even if the winner loses in the end.

And just as she silently slid into the elevator and used the last of the power to make it to Junk-N-Stuff, the city went black. Generators and grids that supplied Swellview with power went down without the internet to tell them where and how much voltage was needed, so literally, the Dark Ages had arrived, with (y/n) having to push the doors open with her bare strength when the elevator jutted to a stop on the store's level. At least in the darkness, no one would notice she was missing until she was long gone with nothing more than her sincerest love left behind.

"Is this an "everything's totally cool" power outage?" Henry asked again in a much more fearful voice as they adjusted to the new world and instinctively, Ray reached for his sweet girl. His hands swatted at the air, wondering where she was in the pitch black because right now, things didn't feel safe and he needed her safe more than anything, so it truly was heartbreaking that she was walking herself into danger with the sole intention of doing the logical thing.

"It's okay. I think there's a flashlight in this drawer full of blasters..." Jasper said as he reached into a cabinet to try and find a light. However, in a typical Jasper fashion, he was less helpful and more...deadly, as he pulled a weapon that had been put away for safekeeping from noobs like him.

"No, Jasper!" Ray cried and he lunged for the blaster since he didn't want anyone to have any holes in them when they couldn't see to find his fiancée's first aid kit, but it was too late. Jasper was known to be a bit trigger-happy and the minute the gun was in his palm, an orange death laser began to rain down on them, hitting the rock-face ceiling, walls, floor, you name it, it ricocheted off of it until it finally hit the final monitor and dissipated. Oh well, they couldn't connect to anything anymore, so it's not like they needed it.

"Sorry!" He yelled as their hearts thumped in their ears and he sheepishly put the blaster down before he could kill something else. They had bigger things to worry about though, such as the lights going out across the city; Junk-N-Stuff, Henry's house, the huge Swellview sign, everywhere was dark, which aided (y/n)'s sprint through the chaotic streets as she headed where logic told her to go. And that was Ray's biggest problem.

"Just put it down!" He snapped at Jasper because he had enough to worry about right now and a serious injury didn't need to be one of them when he had serious superhero stuff on his plate. More importantly, though, his heart twitched when he realised that something wasn't right and it wasn't because everything was dark. There was no laughter, no small figure pressed against his side or small hand holding his, there was no sweetness worrying about his silly self and suddenly, his heart lurched. Oh god, oh no, wait, where was his sweet girl?

"Uh, guys, where's (y/n)?" He asked in a panic, looking around frantically for her feminine frame in the dark and coming up with nothing. There was no reply either, no soft voice calling out to reassure and call him a doofus for worrying when she was right next to him and there were no lips to kiss away the worry etching lines on his forehead. The teens and Schwoz looked around in confusion because that was a stupid question; (y/n) was wherever he was and vice versa because they came as a package, one was never seen without the other as they were joined at the hip.

"Uhhh, she's right...she's gone?" Henry gasped softly and was wide-eyed as he turned to his side, where he could swear the girl was only a moment ago, staring down Twitler as he had done but now...she'd just disappeared. They all looked around at the shadows and the shrouded furniture, wondering if she'd moved to a particularly dark corner but there was no one there—and Ray was starting to hyperventilate.

His chest was heavy, his forehead was getting clammy and Henry had to put a hand on his shoulder to pull him back to reality when he began to tear random objects out of his path, as if (y/n) would be crouching behind the took cabinet. He had to find her, he just had to because not knowing where she was frightened him more than a global apocalypse ever could and every scenario played in his head from kidnap to teleportation, foul play to...something more deliberate, a notion he couldn't stomach, not when everything was in chaos.

Ray looked so distraught and confused, so heartbroken and terrified like his soul had been pulled from his body to leave him lost and wounded. What would he say when she told him that she was just doing the logical thing?

~Some seedy, abandoned internet factory~

Navigating the streets of Swellview wasn't easy in the dark and the lack of GPS didn't help (y/n) either as she hiked her way up Mount Swellview and then crept along a shadowy, abandoned hallway. Why bad guys had to have such secluded hideouts was beyond her.

Well, it wasn't totally abandoned, she could see a light at the end of the tunnel and against all instincts, she was going towards the light. Why? Logic told her so, or rather, a mysterious text sent to her phone seconds before the lights went out told her where to go. It didn't say much, nothing at all really, just a line of coordinates and a pin on a map in the creepy part of town where all of the crime went down.

She knew where to go but she didn't know what she'd find, so just in case she was walking into more trouble than she could handle, her Miss Danger uniform came out to play, which admittedly, made her stick out like a sore thumb for any criminals who were passing by, but it gave her an air of confidence and security as the colours reminded her of who she was doing this for. No fear, no weakness and certainly no revealing of her true emotions—that would end up in her being hung, drawn and quartered or something, bulletproof costume or not.

Reaching the end of the hall, she pushed open the heavy metal door and thankfully found it to be less squeaky than she had originally thought it to be. Someone kept their doors well-oiled and that someone was stood in the middle of the room, clad in a maroon suit with his broad, lithe back turned to her as he worked away on a rickety old machine that would've been more suited to a museum than service but she figured that it was the next best thing given that there was no internet.

And for the most part, she could swear that her footsteps were silent, a trait perfected during one of Schwoz's lectures on "schneaking like a ninja for schuperheroes", but as she stood behind the steadfast man, his head seemed to look over his shoulder as if he sensed her presence.

"I wondered how long it would take you to get here," Rick Twitler started in a velvety tone that could've melted butter given how soft and crooning it was. The heroine stopped in her tracks, shocked that he knew she was there all along when she was trying to gain the upper hand of surprise but she refused to let it show in a soft gasp.

The whole point of coming here, jeopardising everything she'd ever hoped to have and becoming a traitor was to make things right and she was certain that Twitler thought that she was stronger than she appeared on the outside.

"You knew I would come," (y/n) replied and immediately cursed herself when her voice wobbled between the intonation of a statement and a question. She didn't mean to sound so unsure of herself but if he noticed, Rick didn't say anything, he merely stopped what he was doing and turned so she could see his face. Still handsome, still perfectly groomed and still wearing the same smirk as always, and she knew it was because she'd come to his lair of her own free will.

"I knew that it was only a matter of time until you saw the logic of everything. I've read your file, you and me, we're the same," he told her, taking a few steps forward so he was only a few feet from being close enough to touch. Twitler's eyes seemed to study every flicker, every facial tick that lay beneath her mask and normally, she'd flinch under such close scrutiny given how unnerving it was to be under a perfectionist's eye.

But she relaxed and let her shoulders drop, a sign to show that she wasn't here to fight, nor did she mean to be a threat because if she wanted a war, she'd have brought the cavalry. That bit was obvious.

"How do you mean?" (y/n) frowned and tilted her head, a gesture that was endearing to the man since he appreciated how she strove to enlighten herself but not in a dense, moronic way that often infuriated him with others.

No, her gaze was curious yet had a pearl of certain wisdom behind it that he enjoyed because it was so hard to find someone like him who saw the truth and how simple it would be to solve so many problems if people just stopped and thought. The world lacked thinkers and rationality, so with her, he hoped to end everything that repulsed him.

"Well, I saw it today. You don't shout, you listen. You don't argue, you learn. Do you know hard it is to find someone who understands what it's like to be a tortured genius? You—you are tortured, (y/n). You put on his uniform, you help him fight his battles and what does he give you in return?"

"I suppose...he...he will never see the world the way I do. And it's so tiring sometimes, loving a man who behaves like a five-year-old. That is until he sees a mom..." (y/n) squeezed her eyes shut to stop a brief moment of weakness in front of Rick, who took another calculative step so he could rest his palms on her shoulders.

A warmth settled into her skin that strangely chilled her to the bone and she looked up to see piercing brown eyes boring into hers. For a brief moment, she could swear that she saw a flash of familiar icy blue but it was just her imagination—or possibly her heart trying to find what she was assuredly never gonna find again.

"That's why you sent us to the house, wasn't it?"

"My dear, sweet (y/n), I had to make you see. The minute he was there, Henry's mom took first place and where does that leave you? Hmm? With me, you'd always be first and you'd never be taken for granted. Not your loyalty, not your intelligence, nor your beauty. Join me, and we can make this imperfect world perfect again...let them see your worth."

Twitler's offer made her shiver as his breath hit her neck and blew down her back. His nose was brushing into her hair and she could feel the curve of his smirk brushing the shell of her ear, a gesture that was so intimate it made her gut lurch and quiver as if her soul was rejecting the affection of a man who wasn't her soulmate. But she didn't push him away and spit in his face that he obviously didn't know her that well because that wasn't logical.

"I understand. The internet dies and society gets to live again." She replied with a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth as her arms came around his body to bring him into a gentle embrace, one that pleased the man to no end.

"Exactly. Long live society...sweet girl."

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