[ WP ] An aging hero visits an old friend for the last time .

`` So, doc, how're you running?'' Captain Sneakerpants raised his proverbial sneaker and pant getup on to the table. The glass shimmered at the whump of feet, looking like it would break. 
 
 Across the sanitised white tiling a much older man sat up in his bed. It was n't his bed, per se, but he'd been there for the past few months and had left a bit of a familiar shape in the mattress. `` I'll do, Cap, I'll do.'' he raised a palm as if to calm any frayed nerves. `` It's always the same. It does n't get better, but it does n't get worse, you know?'' He tried a smile, but his jaws had gotten frail and his muscles worn, it looked like a crack across his face. 
 
 Captain Sneakerpants bit his lip, `` Yeah, yeah, I get it.'' His voice had quietened down, as if to match the muted pitch of the old man. Half a mumble, and a'what?' in reply later, he'd cracked his volume up again. `` What'd you have for breakfast?'' he said, with as much flatness in his voice as the creases along his sneakerpants. `` Oatmeal again?'' 
 
 `` Whatever they give me, this time it had some cherries in it! Said acid was good for me, the nerve. It's like they do n't even tell the orderlies about patients.'' Captain Sneakerpants lowered his head, masking his face with the front flap of his red and white cap, and levelled his gaze with the bars of the hospital bed. The clipboard strapped with a pair of magnets to the bars read'Pollen-Food Allergy', amongst more serious issues. Cap liked to focus on that one, just for a moment, so he could imagine that was the only problem the old doc had. That he'd be up and back and kicking in a moment. `` I asked for something to wash the slop down after,'' the old man wheeled his hand out in front of him, like he was pulling the yarned words out of his mouth, `` And they gave me some water.'' 
 
 His head rose, `` You wanted?'' Cap ventured, throwing his legs down and assuming a much more forward stance; arms resting on kneecaps, hands laced, neck straining forward. He pressed a smile onto his lips. 
 
 `` Scotch, always scotch. The ones you get down at Vitonelli's, I told you I never went there for the two-bit pizza.'' Cap nodded, Vitonelli's had closed down six years ago. He fumbled with his voice to try and respond, but the old doc picked up quick enough. `` I know it's a silly thing, but I have n't had a swig in ages.'' 
 
 Cap laughed. `` Yeah, yeah.'' And there was that awkward pause in the conversation after a topic dies. Cap gulped and pulled at the red and green of his sweater. `` Chilly, is n't it.'' 
 
 It was the old man's turn to chuckle, `` I would n't know, my boy! I've been in here who knows how long,'' while there was the cheery gleam in his eyes, the softer edge to his voice as the chuckles faded only pulled Cap's sentiments down. `` Enough about me, it's always the same with me,'' Cap had to silently agree, and shared a grin with only himself under the comfort of his cap. `` How's the hero business doing?'' 
 
 `` Doing alright, doc, nothing's the same after you retired.'' The doc flinched at the word, he did n't like the cut of it. `` Oh, sorry, yeah. Um. There's a new villain on the streets, Masked Mortimer or something stupid like that.'' 
 
 `` Does n't even have a doctorate, pitiful, really. Back in my time we all had to go through med school, at least. I'd taken the hard way, done one in... erm... engineering or something.'' The doc tapped his withered chin with a bony finger, the only thing separating his skeleton from the air was a loose wrapping of skin the complexion of melting pudding. Cap raised his smile, pretending that he'd just plastered it on his face. `` So what's this Masker Mortimer up to?'' 
 
 `` Nothing much, he's just come in from the north, setting up after Tigre down there drove out most of the scum and villainy. Oh, sorry, I didn't-'' 
 
 `` Calm down, it happens. You're a hero, justice carries in your words, even when you do n't want it to. I remember the times I spit on you when I had you tied to my deathray. Remember that one? Oh I think I said...'' doc paused, attempting to retrieve that last shard of memory. The hairs on his head swayed, at least that's what Cap thought, like they were little grey hands grasping at straws. 
 
 He bit the bullet, `` Caught with your pants down!'' that was n't what he'd said at all, it'd been much more brutal with a few curses in between. Cap had finally broken into the Observatory, doc's old lair, just in time for the big satellite launch. 
 
 And so they both shared a laugh, one last time. Cap said it was getting late, that he had to go pick up the old chain. Doc was amazed, thinking it was the girl he'd took under her wing. Cap groaned no, the feeling was n't mutual there. He showed him a picture on his phone, she was a cashier at the coffee shop he found he'd been saving the most. Doc asked if her worried about her in that mock-villain tone, and they'd laughed again. They hugged, and Cap left. Doc stared vacantly at the door. 
 
 Captain Sneakerpants's breath was hefted by inertial pain. As he shut the door the cold air of the hallway trickled into his bones. His cap became frayed, like it always had, and his hairs grew out and grey. Some littered the floor by his feet, which seemed closer now. His hands shook, trying to warm themselves up, but he had n't the faintest thought of clasping them around his shoulders. His sneakerpants sagged, and the stitching holding them together came off in places. `` Goodbye, old friend, I fear this'll be our last one.'' he said to the door behind him, and even if the murmur could carry through the walls, doc would have never heard him in his little prison. He dragged his legs to move, they'd been stuck to the floor by ice and the fear of falling, and shambled off, leaning against the wall where he needed to. 
 
 The sign on doc's door was always there, and would always be there, waiting.'Professor Temporal' it read. 

