Chapter 14
Henry listened to the beeping by his ear, keeping his eyes closed as he tried to figure out where he was. The last thing he remembered was passing out in pain from the bullet wound combined with the pain in his arm. Now, he couldn’t even feel his arm, though Henry didn’t doubt that painkillers were running through his system right now.
Was Charles and Ellie alright? What about his dad and Pops? Henry couldn’t help but wonder if he was okay. His pops had taken a lot of bullet wounds.
“I can tell your awake Henry.” Dr. Vinschpinsilstien’s voice called out, making Henry open his eyes, before wincing at the harsh light. How long was he out?
“You’ve been out for a week now. You were shot in the spine and your arm was shattered completely. Your throat was also severely damaged as well due to excessive talking and yelling during recovery.” She told Henry, giving him a small glare as he smiled back sheepishly. “I could not save your spine, the bullet would have left you paralyzed and I ended up replacing your spine instead. Your arm also was so damaged that I ended up needing to completely replace it, as it would have been unusable anyways left there. Do not talk either, your throat is still healing and you’ll be lucky if it fully recovers after the damages done to it. I will be checking it in a few minutes to see the progress.” She told him.
Henry blinked, lifting his left arm and seeing the metal hand. His eyes widened slightly. Well, that explained why he couldn’t feel his arm.
“Right-hand man wasn’t as lucky, however.” The doctor told him, making Henry look at her wide eye. “I ended up having to replace more than half of his body with cybernetics to keep him alive. He had sixty-two bullet wounds and had lost a lot of blood. He hasn’t awakened yet, he is behind the curtain beside you.”
Henry was quick to get up, wobbling a little, before moving the curtain. RHM laid in the bed, his eye closed. The other side of his face was now metal, with a large red eye where his eye used to be. Henry could see that his father now had two metal legs and torso, along with a metal arm like him.
Henry frowned. He felt responsible for this.
“Sit down.” Dr. Vinschpinsilstien told him, forcing Henry to sit back on the table he woke upon. She was quick to force him to open his mouth, shining a light down his throat to see the damages done. Henry let her, knowing she would just hit him with something if he didn’t.
“Good. It is much better than last week. You still should not speak for at least a month. I almost made through with my threat to replace your throat. It would have been an interesting experiment. I have never built cybernetic vocal cords.” The doctor told him, making Henry shiver slightly at the thought.
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t. Where is everyone?” Henry signed. He didn’t know how to feel about his new cybernetic parts but didn’t care right now. He wanted to see Charles.
“The boss had to be sent back to the ship to rest last night, he had not left either one of your sides since the two of you arrived. That military pilot friend of yours was here, but the general had dragged him off to rest and get checked up as well. Ellie just left to check on a few things at the airship.” Vinschpinsilstien replied, putting away a few things before sitting beside him, opening up the paneling on his arm, and tinkering with a few things. Henry let her, wincing when she tightened something.
Seeming satisfied, Dr. Vinschpinsilstien closed the panel and looked at him. “You should be good to go. Your military friend is at his base I would assume.” She told him, getting up as Henry blinked before grinning, taking the change of clothes left to the side for him and changing behind the curtains. It was a tank top and baggy shorts, but Henry would take it. He wanted to see Charles as soon as possible to see if he was alright.
Henry walked out on the deck of the ship before realizing he had no way to get there, making him look at the doctor questionably. She rolled her eyes. “Do you think I didn’t add things to your cybernetics?” She told him, making Henry blink, before thinking about how he could maybe fly there.
Suddenly, a pair of wings spurted out of his back, making Henry wince as the shirt was ripped. He didn’t care about that right now, he had a cute pilot to see. Turning on the rockets, Henry shot into the air, flying into the air towards the military base.
God, he hoped that Charles was okay.
An hour later, Henry landed on the helicopter pad. He noticed he managed to scare several people that were on the helicopter pads, making Henry snort when he saw them aim their guns at him in alarm, holding up his hands.
“Henry. Didn’t know if it really was you flying around. You’re lucky no one shot at you.” The general said, walking up to Henry, who shrugged a little with a sheepish grin. “How’s your throat? The doctor said it was damaged pretty badly.” He asked.
Henry made a so so motion, knowing the general didn’t understand sign language. The whole time Henry glanced around, looking for a familiar pair of red headphones.
General Galeforce chuckled. “I’ll lead you to Charles, he’s currently in one of the hangers.” He told Henry, who quickly nodded, retracting the wings on his back. “I feel like we will need him for the upcoming conversation.” Galeforce continued, giving Henry a look.
Maybe he should keep the wings out.
The general led Henry to a vehicle hanger, where Charles sat with someone, talking to him about what sounded like helicopter designs and ideas. The general shook his head at one of the ideas Charles shot off, clearing his throat as the two walked over, making Charles and the military technician lookup. Charles’ eyes brighten instantly. “Henry!!” He called out, jumping up and hugging him.
Henry was quick to hug back, careful with his new arm. He had seen previous patients of the doctor and would rather not accidentally crush Charles until he knew how to control it.
“Are you okay?! How’s your throat?! I was so worried when you collapsed on us…” Charles asked, worry evident in his voice. Henry smiled, nodding.
“I’m fine Charlie. Dr. Vinschpinsilstien is good at what she does. I got cool new features now too. I flew here after all. Though I think my scooter is a bit more cost-efficient.” Henry told him, making Charles look at his metal hand with a frown. Henry was quick to form a small ball of energy, making Charles gasp in surprise.
“Holy shit that is kinda cool. But don’t they hurt?” Charles asked, making Henry shake his head.
“Not really. The doc was able to make sure that there was as little pain as possible. I think she even managed to trick my brain to think that my arm is still there. I’m banned from talking though until it completely heals though.” Henry told him, smiling softly at how worried Charles was. It was cute. “How are you? You weren’t injured, right? We did jump out of a helicopter.” Henry asked.
Charles grinned at him. “I’m fine thanks to you seeing the rocket. We weren’t expecting them to have rockets so that was some quick thinking on your part.” He told Henry.
Henry sighed in relief, hugging him close. He was glad that Charles didn’t get injured. Him losing his spine and arm was worth it.
“I’m glad you two are happy to see each other, but I feel like we should head to my tent for a talk,” Galeforce spoke up, making Henry wince slightly as Charles nodded.
The two followed the general to his tent, Henry staying close to Charles. He wanted to talk to Charles alone but didn’t have a chance.
He felt like he wouldn’t be having a chance anytime soon.
Once they were inside, the General sat at his desk, looking at the two. Henry clasped his hands together, feeling nervous. He knew that the general now knew about his parents and had probably figured out that Henry messed with the documents. He would probably take back the pardon.
“So, Charlie here told me that you were the Toppat leaders’ son. He also told me that you planned to sacrificed yourself for him at the wall.” Galeforce said, making Henry nod. They were both true after all. He would have gladly stayed in that cell for the rest of his life then let Charles be there for one second more. “You realized you ruining that operation for us on the Toppat ship costs us tons of information right? It destroyed the computer they were downloaded on.” He continued.
Henry winced. So those viruses must have gotten worse. Fun. He was so going to lose his pardon. Damn it that meant he couldn’t spend time with Charles in public anymore.
The general sighed, before chuckling softly, causing the two to look at him in surprise. “I will be finding a different mission for you to do to make up for that if you want to keep your pardon. Though I do think you earned it for taking the bullet for Charles like that at the Wall.” The General said, smiling at them.
Henry stared at him in shock, unsure of what he just heard. “Whoa, That’s great Henry!” Charles said, grinning as Henry nodded, looking at the general in shock.
Galeforce chuckled more. “You don’t have to look at me like that. I can’t put it on the papers that you were pardoned for taking a bullet, unfortunately. You’ve proven to me that you have a heart, so I won’t take away your pardon yet. Just don’t do any more crimes. We can’t pin any on the Toppats either right now due to them helping take down the wall, though it was obvious they just did that to save you. You did a mighty brave thing, I would like to hope that you will be helping Charles sometimes on missions from now on.” Galeforce told him.
Henry nodded, grinning widely at the general. “Thank you. It would’ve been annoying have to dodge people just to see Charles.” Henry signed, Charles relaying the message before realizing what he said.
“Henry!” Charles whined, making the General laugh lightly as he dismissed them.
The two walked out of the tent, happy and smiling. “Hey, Charles. Mind if we talk alone?” Henry asked him, making Charles blink before nodding. The two of them headed towards the edge of the base, going into the wooded area slightly. They would have stayed at the base if there were better places to get privacy, not to mention that people liked to eavesdrop at the base.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Charles asked as they walked into the woods, looking at Henry.
Before Henry could sign out a word, however, Ellie appeared, riding a flying motorcycle. Henry recognized it as the one they used when they broke out, making him wonder when she got the time to make it fly. “There you are, Henry! I can’t believe you! You could’ve at least called to let us know you were awake before going to see Charles!” Ellie chastised, making Henry groan in annoyance as Charlie snickered beside him.
“You could also realize I couldn’t call, I literally can’t speak right now. Doc will have my head if I try to.” Henry told her, making her roll her eyes. Ellie then seemed to realize the scene she just walked in and grinned.
“Alright, well hurry up and finish whatever the two of you are talking about, your dad is worried sick and will send the airship after you. It took three people to make him go to bed when you and your pops were both down. At least with you up, he won’t be as worried hopefully.” Ellie said, hopping on the bike.
“I’ll go there in a few. You can go ahead I need to fuel up and then I’ll just fly back.” Henry told her, making the two of them blink.
“You can fly?!” They both said, making Henry sigh before releasing the wings.
“One of the abilities that come with being a cyborg I guess. Now, Ellie, I’ll let you see everything later. I was trying to talk to Charles before you rudely interrupted.” Henry told her with a slight glare, making Ellie snort.
“Alright alright. Have fun you two. Henry, you have an hour before your dad comes to pick you up himself but I’ll try to buy you time.” Ellie said, driving off.
Henry sighed as Charles chuckled, smiling at him. “So, as you were saying?” Charles asked.
Henry blushed slightly, now suddenly nervous. “I wanted to tell you that… I like you, a lot. Romantically a lot. God since we went riding on my scooter I’ve been in love with you a lot. I was actually going to confess when I found out that the bastard took you. The only thing I could think of at the time was getting you the hell out of there. I killed the dude that punched you too. Fuck I feel like an ass but he shouldn’t have touched you.-” Henry was cut off from his rambling by Charles grabbing his hands. His face was red but he was smiling.
“I love you too Henry. Calm down.” Charles said, making Henry blush brightly, before pulling the pilot close. He was unable to hold back as he kissed him, holding Charles tightly.
Henry was happy, he may be the Toppat prince, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have himself a Military pilot as a boyfriend.
ENDING: TOPPAT PRINCE