Piper angrily typed on her Pear Phone, hating the situation she as in. For everyone else on Planet Earth (and other places), life was normal, as far as she was concerned. But not for Piper Hart.

Normally, she'd be at full volume and yelling at everyone instead of typing away. Well, actually, she'd be doing both. But she couldn't do both right then.

Are you getting the sense that things weren't entirely normal at that moment?

Yeah.

Piper, as we all know, yells. A lot. The constant volume took its toll and she ended up with (drumroll please) laryngitis. She's had it for almost a week, so it was much better, but she wasn't supposed to talk just yet.

Any doctor can tell you that laryngitis sucks, but doesn't mean you are glued to the couch.

But try telling Piper that. (Please don't, choose life.)

Across the house, Henry's phone dinged. This is what the text read:

HENRY!

Now, if Piper could actually speak, she would've yelled at her brother like nobody's business- and she wanted to. If it were a line for, say, a TV show or something in a script, it would look like this:

HENNNNNNNRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

You get the point.

Anyway, Henry glanced at his phone and gave a Piper a dirty look.

"Relax, I'm going as fast as I can."

Which was kinda sorta true. Well, kinda sorta a lie.

Another text came in:

I think NOT

Which was actually funny and almost made Henry laugh. He could actually move faster. A lot faster. Piper just didn't know that.

Henry picked up the glass he had been handling and took it to Piper, along with a little bottle. The bottle had a few pills that Piper was supposed to take. She practically snatched them from her brother.

Henry rolled his eyes and walked back to the kitchen. Of all days, he thought, for Mom and Dad to have a little date night.

Of course, Henry had nothing against that, but he was not at all happy about them making him take off work to take care of Piper. Neither was Ray, who actually offered to help him sneak out.

A few minutes later, Henry was sitting in the kitchen was scrolling through different news stories about Kid Danger (cause, well, yeah) when the door opened and his best friend (and Jasper) walked in.

"Hey Hen. Hey Piper," Charlotte said, walking down the steps. Piper waved at her (not over enthusiastically, but she liked Charlotte) but glared at Jasper when he said hi to them.

"Hey guys," Henry jammed his phone into his pocket, "anything interesting happen today?"

This was code (more or less, it wasn't official… yet) for Is there anything I should be concerned about? Charlotte (who understood what Henry was really asking) shook her head no, but whispered, "Kinda. I'll explain later."

"Got it." Henry motioned for them to sit down. They did, and he lowered his voice. "Piper is driving me crazy."

His phone dinged as a text came in that read I HEARD THAT!

Henry rolled his eyes and showed Jasper and Charlotte his phone. "My point exactly."

Charlotte and Jasper giggled. Piper glared at them from across the room, and door opened again.

Enter the parents.

"Hey Mom and Dad."

"Hi, Hen- oh, hi Charlotte," his mom replied cheerfully, sitting down on the chair. "Oh, hi Jasper," she added.

Charlotte and Jasper said hi to the Hart parents.

"Okay," Henry said to his mom and dad, "you're home, so I'm off Piper duty, right?"

"Yes, you're free to go," said his father. Jasper snorted and poked his friend in the arm. "You said duty."

Henry rolled his eyes and took his friends upstairs. "Finally," he said as he closed his bedroom door behind him. "What's going on?"

The three of them (yes, Jasper too) sat in a circle (well, a circle-like shape, anyway. It was really more of a triangle) so Henry could be updated.

"Well," said Charlotte in a low voice, "there hasn't been any real crime, but we did find out a few things about a few certain people."

"Alright, hit me. Ow!" The ow was because Jasper hit him. "Not what I meant, dude."

"Sorry," he said with a shrug.

"Anyway," said Charlotte, clearly trying not to laugh, "here's what we found out: one, Jeff was spotted in a train station, getting on a train that was headed for Texas. It left a few minutes ago. We searched and searched- well, I did- but the only evidence we found was a badly misspelled email from his parents demanding that he go visit."

"Alright."

"And two-" Charlotte hesitated for a moment and Jasper gave her a Just Spit It Out look. "And two, and, Henry, don't, I repeat, do NOT freak out, Nurse Cohort was at Junk N' Stuff."

"WHA-" Charlotte slapped a hand over his mouth. "Shhh! I said not to freak out!"

"Yeah!" Jasper yell-whispered, trying to be helpful. Charlotte glared at him.

Henry shoved her hand away. "Nurse Cohort was at Junk N' Stuff and you didn't tell me until JUST NOW?!" Henry was yell-whispering, but he was clearly about to lose it.

"Henry, calm down." Charlotte put her hand over his mouth again. "Look, Jasper recognized her immediately, so he called downstairs. I watched everything happen from the Man Cave monitors while Ray went upstairs, just in case. But nothing happened."

Henry pushed her hand away again. "Define 'nothing'."

"'Nothing' as in nothing. Nothing illegal, anyway. She bought- what did she buy again, Jasper?"

"She bought one of those whatchamacallits. With the balls." He lightly pounded his fists together, each making the other one move.

"A Newton's Cradle," clarified Charlotte. "Then she left. We used the cameras to watch her until she was gone."

"That's it?" Henry looked shocked- and he was. He turned to Jasper. "She didn't threaten you, or anything? She didn't say anything about-" his voice went down "-Kid Danger or Captain Man?"

Jasper shook his head. "Nope. We're pretty sure she and Dr. Maniac aren't not up to anything, but we're keeping a close eye on them anyway."

"Have you seen anything… you know, suspicious?"

"I'll answer that," said Charlotte, "if you calm down with the italics."

"Sorry."

"Good boy." Henry rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"Now," Charlotte began, "Dr. Minyak and Nurse Cohort haven't done anything weird or something made us worry, although seeing Nurse Cohort in the store was pretty nerve wracking."

"No duh, you almost gave me a heart attack. Life, scary-ride-at-Disney-World heart attack."

"Sorry. But here's the strange part-"

"They're already strange on their own."

"Thank you for the input, Jasper. But besides that. Both Minyak and Cohort don't seem to have interacted with each other very much since the last time. In fact, they live on opposite sides of town now."

Jasper decided to jump in. "Minyak lives in that place where I hear the whole incident with those insects took place. Uh… they're called Happy Bugs, right?"

"Jolly Beetles," Henry corrected him.

"Dang it."

"Anyway," Charlotte, as usual, was the one to get her friends back on topic, "Nurse Cohort has an apartment on the edge of Swellview. The same one your old basketball coach lives in. Same building, not apartment," she added quickly.

"Yeah, I kinda figured."

"So… we're pretty sure that they aren't causing trouble."

"Pretty sure?"

"Of cou- Yeah. Pretty sure."

"How reassuring." Henry rubbed his eye with his fist. "I'm gonna have nightmares about this tonight."

As it turns out, Henry was right.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack! Welcome to the new story! This one will have the same update schedule as last time, one new chapter every Sunday.

I'm a heavy editor, but if anyone finds a typo, please let me know, I would really appreciate it! Reviews and constructive criticism welcome. :)

I realized something while I was editing last night: this is the one year anniversary of my joining Fanfiction! Yay! Let's celebrate with cake and presents! (Just kidding.) :P

Ciao, and Happy Reading!