Quantum Dissolve: Chapter 26. (Jade Shade meets Harry Hembock)

Once upon a time, there were a bunch of guys shooting each other with big guns.

Suddenly, a smoke grenade was tossed into the fray, and in the resultant loss of visibility, a flurry of punches, kicks, and clanks of an aluminum bat were heard.

When the smoke cleared, only The Jade Shade was standing.

"Well, that was easy", he muttered, as he sheathed the bat on his back.

JS was solo, because Chokecherry was still at home healing from her injuries.
Chokecherry still wanted to go out on patrol, but JS insisted.

Dr. H blamed himself for some reason, and despite reassurances.
"Whatever", JS thought to himself.

The media ripple effect from their short appearance on "The Krazyfool Show", had indeed helped with their popularity quite a bit.

Much more so than the whole Phidey debacle.

Criminals were scared, and pickings were slim.
Tonight was a rare night.

JS climbed up a fire escape, and got back to his precious rooftops.

Suddenly, he heard a woman scream.
"Ah, the music of the night", he mused.
He broke into a run in the direction of the sound.

Before he could get there, he heard sounds of struggle, and two male voices grunting, the random exclamation of "stop, you evil fiend!!", and then finally, the audible sounds of punches, and a dull thud, like a sack of potatoes.

When he got there, someone else had taken care of it.

He was a short, gaunt, bug eyed mantis of a man with a crippling overbite, and strange oversized black greasy pompadour.
He wore light grey sweatpants, and a matching sweatshirt, red boots, and scrawled on his chest in black permanent marker was a large thick "H", with a third middle line down the middle.

JS hopped down from a nearby fire escape, startling the man momentarily.

The figure put his fists on his his hips, and said in a reedy voice "s'okay, man, I got this one".
How in the hell this guy just whupped a mugger would be a mystery for the ages.

"So, I take it you're supposed to be Harry Hembock", JS deadpanned.

"The one and only", the man said through a shit eating grin.

"Well, Chokie started out imitating 'Harry's Ex-wife', Krazyfool is imitating 'Krazyfool', so, why the hell not?", JS figured to himself with a mental shrug.
He decided to go along with it.

JS started the conversation off with inanities, the weather, what "Harry", was doing out this night, etc, etc.
They stood in place at first, then started to walk along.
Eventually, JS thought to himself "well, there's no way around it, eventually I'm going to have to pull the rug out from under Mother Goose".

As he thought this, images of Peerless Person and Hadesburster flashed through his head, but more insistently, what Harry Hembock the character had meant to him as a child.

"No, I can't be easier on this guy. A lucky rabbit's foot is a lucky rabbit's foot".

JS started to toss Hembock trivia at this ersatz Harry.
The guy kept up with it like a pro.
He knew it all.
The "Hurt Hero", years, the mad scientist years, Zone Dweebies, NLHH, NLHH:DD, the 25th anniversary special, the whole ball of wax.
Inside out, and from all 3 dimensions.

As it turned out, at the very least, this guy had been the actor that portrayed Harry on episode 2-3 of Krazyfool Show.

JS felt himself WANTING this guy to be Harry in his deepest instincts.
He fought against those impulses.

Then, in mid-sentence, Harry grabbed his thigh, let out a yelp, then collapsed.

JS ran to his aid, and saw blood gushing from his femoral artery.
He'd been stricken by a shuriken.
An ornate shuriken coated with a red metallic finish.

JS hastily calculated the direction of the source of the shuriken, and began firing off crossbow bolts into the shadows.

He heard running footsteps.
The assailant was getting away.
There was nothing for it.
JS had to stay with Harry.

Harry was bleeding out pretty fast.
Even if JS had surgical skill, and sutures, he couldn't have stopped this bleed in time.

Harry was already ghostly white.
He pulled JS to him, and whispered a secret.
It took a couple minutes to tell, and it was just enough time.
Harry breathed his last, and his hand dropped away.

JS recoiled from both the secret, and the passing, as if electrocuted.

JS shook the body, and wailed.
"Oh no!! Oh no, oh no, oh no!!! I can't lose you now!! We were supposed to find each other!! We were supposed to have adventures together! We promised! Aw no!! Aw nooo!".

JS clutched the body even tighter, and wailed guttural sobs that almost sounded like wounded animal howls.

It started to rain.

Harry Hembock was not after all, indestructible.

Neither was, to JS's humiliated frustration, his own heart.