#yes i did google a buncha bg characters

[eunchancorner]

Revenged and Rescued (Part 2)

Help I can't stop

-

“Henry, you awake?”

He blinked his eyes open slowly, his brain feeling like soup in his head as he responded to the familiar voice.

“Mhm… ‘s that you, Charles…?”

“Yeah, it’s me. How’re you doing?” the pilot asked, sitting beside Henry’s cot.

Henry took a deep breath, feeling how weirdly… flawless it was. No, something was wrong. He shouldn’t be breathing this smoothly after how badly he’d gotten hurt.

“S-something’s wrong. I’m- I’m breathing wrong, Charles, why am I breathing wrong?” he began to panic, trying to sit up and placing a hand on his chest, but was met with the feeling of cold, smooth metal.

“Oh, yeah, uh… they found a lot more internal damage than we thought. Your lungs weren’t gonna last much longer, so they gave you an artificial respiratory system. It supplies oxygen to your bloodstream as long as you’re breathing, like normal lungs, but it’s not as delicate, so it’ll work as long as your brain keeps you breathing. Plus, it sorta surrounds your heart, like a second ribcage, which is good, because a lot of your ribs were broken, too… It’s a lot to take in, I know but… you’re ok now. And you have this cool new chest cavity so that they have direct maintenance access to it. It’s even got a glass panel so they can make sure your heartbeat’s normal, isn’t that cool? It’s also got sensors and stuff, connected to your nerves so that you can still feel stuff, I think to make sure that you can tell if it’s being damaged? Either that or to keep you from going nuts because you can’t feel your chest. Once you’re less… out of it, they’re gonna make sure they’re working properly. After that, you should be good to go!”

As Henry relaxed at the explanation, he felt his thoughts return to that soup-like state, induced by the medicine used to keep the rest of him numb from the pain he should’ve been in. It was a lot to adjust to, but he’d had to deal with worse, in all honesty. And listening to Charles ramble on about it helped him feel a little less alone.

“Once they’ve got it all tested out and cleared you to get up and out, I wanna show you around the base. I still want you to meet some of my squad, I think they’ll like you! Well… mostly. The Bukowski twins will, at least! But then again, they’re pretty friendly anyway. But, then again, so is Mac… We might have to keep Phlex away from you for a while, he’s kind of a wildcard when it comes to… well, people in general. Oh, and Quentin’s gonna seem mean at first, don’t worry about it, he’s a cranky old man. Heh, then again, I’m saying that on Galeforce’s base. Either way, even if they don’t like you at first, I think they’ll learn to! After all, you’re pretty likable. You’re smart, you’re motivated, and you’re a good listener! After all, you’re listening to me right now! The whole Toppat thing might dampen stuff a little, but hey, you also, y’know, killed most of the Toppats, so there’s that. According to the twins, you’re kind of a legend, too, so, I’ll have to hear that story. Anyway,” the pilot finally finished as he stood, “I’ll stop talking your ear off and let you rest some. You’ll need it, y’know, if you’re gonna meet my squad.”

“Actually, can you… stay a little longer..? It’s nicer not being lonely…” Henry admitted against his better judgment. He chalked it up to the pain medicine making everything so much easier to say, since he couldn’t really think much about holding it back.

Charles smiled a bit as he sat back down, resting an arm on the guard rail of Henry’s cot.

“Sure, I’ll stay, but I’m gonna keep talking, so are you sure you don’t want me to go?” he asked playfully, leaning on the rail.

“You say that like it’s a downside…” Henry responded simply, smiling back at him.