Chapter 6: Chapter 6
Henry was soaring through the sky in the grip of Man-Bat, and honestly? It was a breathtaking sight… the buildings and streets of Gotham City sprawled out near infinitely… Here, in the sky he felt truly free.
Well, for a few fleeting moments at least. Until an ear-wrenching screech from the bat-like creature had taken him out of the moment, and caused him to remember that he was in the grasp of the motherfucking Man-Bat.
Sure, he wasn't injured due to the wrought iron coating his body making sure that Man-Bat couldn't properly dig his claws into him, but it was still uncomfortable, so he started flailing, attempting to get out of Man-Bat's grip.
"Let me go, you son of a bitch!" Henry shouted as he shifted his arm into a blade as he stabbed at Man-Bat's leg, causing it to screech in pain and let him go… while still mid-air.
"SCREEEEECH!!!!" Man-Bat let out a gut-wrenching screech as it flew off, presumably to lick its wounds.
Meanwhile, Henry was falling to the ground… and at this height? Even if he was made of wrought iron, he'd probably die. So he desperately attempted to grab onto the side of the building next to him.
Annoyingly, he was unable to do so, and instead began to grind against the side of the concrete tower, sending sparks flying around him, and even causing the wrought iron coating his arms to chip away, causing his right arm to become scraped something fierce, before he coated his arms with the concrete and transformed them into hooks that he stabbed into the walls, slowing his descent by quite a lot.
But it wasn't enough, so as he was looking down… he noticed that there was an open dumpster nearby… and while it was risky to aim for it… it'd probably give him better chances than the hard pavement.
So he aimed directly for the dumpster and leaped.
Luckily, he managed to make it into the dumpster with little trouble.
But unluckily… the trash in the dumpster wasn't anywhere near as soft as he was hoping, so he scraped a bit more off of his wrought iron coating, and the wind was taken out of him.
He was alive though, so that was something to be thankful for.
Wait, fuck! The vials!
He quickly checked his pockets, and saw that there were still three vials of the glowing blue BB24 serum. Phew.
He only lost the one from Man-Bat's initial kidnapping… hopefully it didn't get into anyone's hands.
And now that he thought that, it definitely would have.
Fuck.
"Ahem" A man cleared his throat beside him, indicating that he wasn't as alone in this dumpster as he initially thought.
Turning to the man, he saw a homeless-looking man with long shaggy brown hair, covered in dirt and grime.
It was then that he noticed that absolutely foul, putrid stench that came off of the man.
"Hey there buddy, what's up? I'm Tucker… and you're in my dumpster" The homeless man, Tucker said with an irritated scowl.
"Ah, sorry about that, thought it'd be the softest spot to land" Henry said awkwardly, "Man-Bat kind of… grabbed me"
"Heh, that'll do it… you look pretty scratched up, man. Gimme a sec, and I'll scrounge somethin' up for ya" Tucker said, as he dove into the trash beside him… before coming out with a jar full of a white cream-like substance, "Here, lather this on you, and the pain will be gone"
Henry took the jar, and looked at it quizzically, before twisting the lid open, before quickly tightening it shut as he took the slightest whiff of the foul, sour odor that came from it.
"What… what is this?" Henry asked the man.
"Ah, just something I made after I got shot. It's got a bunch of shit in it. Pickled toenail, mayonnaise, pickled mayonnaise, cream of tart, and half of a newt's eye. Trust me, this does wonders. I slashed my leg open on a piece of jagged metal, and it fixed me right up!" Tucker said with a large, if crooked grin as he showed off a gnarly scar that covered his entire leg.
What was it with people showing him their scars tonight?
"Alright… I'll trust you for now" Henry said with a grimace, as he opened the lid, and quickly lathered it on his scraped arm… and watched as the wound quickly stitched itself up.
"See! What'd I tell ya? Now that you're better, get outta my dumpster. Don't want you hasslin' me any more than you already have, man" Tucker said, as he went back to his pile of trash.
"...Thank you" Henry said, as he slowly got out of the dumpster and onto the streets of Gotham, before turning back, "Name's Ironhide by the way. If you ever need any help, just call out for me"
There was no verbal answer, but a thumbs up did come out of the dumpster, so Henry was sure that Tucker had heard him.
With that, he began to walk off, idly noticing… a black man with dreadlocks wearing a tank top and orange pants with strange tattoos all along his body, spray painting a nearby wall.
And honestly? That art was pretty damn good. It wasn't anything conventional… but it definitely made Henry feel the artist's passion and anger at the world.
"Hey man, good job!" Henry said, as he walked past the man, getting a smile in return.
"Thanks, dude!" The man said, as he went back to his art.
With that, he dropped the wrought iron coating on himself, and headed on home… wanting to just go to bed. So, after around half an hour, he made it back to his apartment, and looked at the clock, to see that it was… 2:59 AM.
Ah fuck… and he had work in the morning too. Ugh.
Henry quickly stripped out of his clothes and put them in the washing machine, before swiftly flopping down onto his bed, falling asleep as soon as he hit the mattress.
His dreams were quite… interesting that night, as his power seeped into him yet again.
He saw himself back in Arkham Asylum, apparently he was to be the cellmate of a man named Warren White, also known as The Great White Shark… the worst man in Arkham.
But then, he was suddenly whisked away into another reality, where he was fighting alongside the likes of Dr. Fate and the original Green Lantern, battling Nazi's and aliens alike in World War 2.
Then he was in another reality, fighting a man with a strange green watch that allowed him to transform into any manner of aliens… and he had these two allies, firstly a man with the same powers as him, and a woman who was brimming with magical power.
And he was losing that fight badly, firstly the man with the same powers as him was also a lot more proficient with the powers, then the alien guy transformed into this giant fucking dinosaur, and the magic chick was taking fucking potshots at him.
Then he was in yet another reality, fighting alongside a red van that transformed into a giant robot, fighting a bunch of other fucking robots. It was honestly both strange and fucking awesome.
And then, he was taken to yet another reality, where he was the assistant to a man only known as The Crime Doctor, helping him enact surgeries on the wounded criminals of Gotham City.
He then looked to his latest client… Killer Croc, and managed to muster up some semblance of courage, as he went to go and help the… crocodile man. Hopefully he didn't die.
Then, finally… he was in a reality where he was a Made Man for the Falcone Crime Family, and was in fact soon to be an actual member of The Family, when he married Carmine Falcone's daughter, Sofia Falcone.
The two of them had been friends since childhood, when her bodyguard, and his father Angelo "Killer" Mirti had introduced the two to each other. She was initially a bit of a brat, but when he didn't make fun of her for her 'large frame', she decided that the two of them would be friends.
And friends they were, all throughout elementary, middle, and high school the two of them had each other's backs no matter what.
Henry was nineteen, when he demonstrated his… abilities to her, by transforming his entire body into wood from the desk they were using, and surprisingly? She didn't mind the fact that he had powers, in fact she thought they were utterly fascinating… Now that he thought about it, that's probably what led to him asking her out. And five years later?... The two of them were getting married.
It had been a bad few months, ever since the Holiday Killer had started their murders on members of the Falcone Crime Family… but, Henry wanted to look past that, and instead take peoples' minds off of it, for his wedding to his darling Sofia.
And so, it was time… time for the two of them to get married, as she walked down the altar towards him, he saw her in her wedding dress… and she looked beautiful, and the way that she smiled when she saw him? It simply made his heart swell with joy.
But, as soon as she made it to the altar, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
One of the guests, Alberto… Sofia's own brother, had taken out a pistol and was aiming it at her.
"SOFIA!" Henry screamed, as he dove in the way of his wife to be, before the shot rang out… and the bullet went into his torso.
"Henry!" Sofia cried out, as guests quickly dove onto Alberto, wrestling the gun out of his grasp.
Everything was fading fast… and Sofia was desperately trying to apply pressure to the wound, telling him that he, "Can't die. Not now! Not ever! Don't you dare die on me Henry Mirti, or I swear to God!"
Sadly, he knew that he was going to go to die here… and there wasn't much he could realistically do about it.
And he knew that he was going to go to Hell for his actions, but, at least he'd do so without any regrets, knowing that his fiancée was safe.
So, before he passed… he gave his darling Sofia a final kiss, before falling to the floor, dead.
Henry then opened his eyes and looked around the bedroom to his crummy apartment, noticing the tears that were pouring in his eyes, before quickly wiping them away.
He knew that the tears weren't because of what happened… but what could have been, had his mother not run out on his biological father…
He had all the memories of that version of Henry… and he now knew how to use various firearms, different ways to bludgeon a man to death, how to intimidate someone into silence or doing what he wanted, how to dispose of a body quickly and efficiently… and how to make love to a woman taller than him, along with other smaller, more inconsequential skills that he could already feel slipping away from his grasp.
…This hadn't happened before. But then again, he hadn't… died in one of these realities before.
He then looked at the clock and saw that it was only 4:20 AM… so he went back to sleep.
________
And that's the update!
Took a while to finally get the motivation to do it. But, it's here! Hope you all enjoyed it.
I know that not a lot happened in this chapter… I was planning on there being a short fight, but decided against it, as I felt that it was simply unneeded.
So, instead I added a bunch of realities that he saw in his dreams instead… I have no idea why I got so invested in the Falcone one, but I thought it was fun.
Totally not because Sofia Falcone's a total babe.
Not at all.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone