Charlotte's scream made Henry scream louder and Ray even more loudly screamed at them to stop screaming. Henry looked in the mirror that was across the room on a dresser and screamed again, this time even louder than Ray.
The boy that looked back at him looked nothing like Henry. Nothing like him. The boy in the mirror had skin that was darker than Charlotte's if she had dumped a bucket a black paint on her face. Instead of brown, like they should've been, his eyes were a very light green. The short blond hair he had always sported was now white and down to his waist, in dreadlocks that were only halfway braided. The plaid shirt, jeans and sneakers he had been wearing had been replaced with a baggy green t-shirt that matched his eyes and red shorts with white converse.
"WHAT THE HE-" Ray slapped a hand over his sidekick's mouth to shush him.
"SHHHHH! Henry, Charlotte, SHUT UP AND LISTEN." The astonished kids immediately closed their wide-open mouths, desperate for an answer.
"Listen," Ray said again, getting up to pace around the room. "Since we don't know if there are anymore recording rodents- Hey, that was a good one, Henry and Charlotte thought simultaneously "-Schwoz created a gumball that reads a person's DNA and makes them look totally different. There's one for everyone here, but Schwoz hadn't taken his yet; we were hoping to not shock you too much." Mission failed "I'm putting a couple tubes in the elevator; only look like yourselves upstairs. Clothing varies by day, though. Otherwise it works the same way our Captain Man and Kid Danger gumballs do. Oh, and before I forget- no real names in the Man Cave from here on out." Ray looked at his employees, who had both looked back at the mirror and were again staring at Henry's reflection. "Seriously? Still processing?" Charlotte and Henry quickly shook their heads and gave Ray their attention back. "Okay, Charlotte- your turn.
Charlotte got up off the bed and stood in front of the mirror so she would be the first to see her new reflection. Taking a deep breath, she blew the bubble, knowing they would all would be in for a shock when she looked in the mirror.
She was right. This time, though, there was no screaming. Even so, Henry's jaw dropped, and Charlotte's eyebrows rose up practically off her forehead with a gasp.
Charlotte's skin was pale; kind of a pinkish-white. Her hair had grown long, not to mention it appeared straight and had been pulled into a french braid down the side. It changed color, too; it went from brown to black, white, and a little bit of grey. Her eyes- which had gone from brown to light blue- were loaded with mascara, and her lips were covered in red lipstick that matched the shirt she had on under blue jean overalls. Her sneakers had turned into matching red sandals, revealing red toenails to match her perfectly manicured fingers.
Charlotte sweared a little under her breath. She was unrecognizable.
"Impressive, huh?" Charlotte turned to Ray. "My God, Ray…" Ray smiled a little and blew a bubble.
If someone drew a line between the colors of Henry's and Charlotte's new skin, Ray would be smack dab in the center. His short, dark hair was now a pale blue and shoulder length, and his eyes went from blue to light brown. The blue shirt and jeans he had on a minute ago were the same, except now it was tye-dye and a plain tee without the buttons. He also had blue converse on his feet instead of the black sneakers.
Henry and Charlotte were staring at their (meaning all three people's) reflections when Charlotte gasped again. The boys looked at her, alarmed.
"Ray, what if there's a rat in this room?" Henry's eyes widened at the suggestion. Ray shook his head.
"Don't worry; the door to this room hasn't been opened for weeks until now, and the vents and everything-" Ray snapped his fingers "-sealed. No way it could've gotten in here. Plus, the walls in here were soundproofed back when the Man Cave was built." The teens relaxed a little. Ray looked at his sidekick.
"Henry, you come with me. I'll stick these-" he held up a few gumball tubes he had in his pocket "-in the elevator, and you go get Jasper and explain everything to him in there. Don't bother having him try it- just tell him and send him back to the counter. Gooch is up there with him, and he already knows, so someone will be up there when Jasper's with you." Henry nodded and made his way toward the door.
Ray turned to Charlotte. "Charlotte, you go help Schwoz examine the rat. Got it?" Charlotte nodded. Henry opened the door, and they left the room.
...
Ray put a box inside of the elevator- in the corner second-closest to Junk n' Stuff-and stuck five large gumball tubes inside of it. Henry went with him so they could show Jasper what they did.
Gooch had quietly explained to Jasper the situation- from the rat to the gum- so Jasper didn't scream (but he did gasp) upon seeing Henry and Ray. Needless the say, Jasper wanted to try, but Henry and Ray said no. "We need to save them for later," Ray had said.
Meanwhile, Charlotte looked at the robot rodent while Schwoz went off to blow his gumball. When returned, Charlotte gasped a little. His skin had gone from Caucasian to a light brown; instead of having some hair on the sides and back of his head, he had some curly pink hair on the top of his skull, but he was still wearing the lab coat. Truthfully, Charlotte couldn't help staring.
Neither, it appeared, could Henry nor Ray. Their had been a couple minutes of everyone staring at each other so it could really sink in before the gang began to do various things.
With Charlotte's help, Schwoz finally managed to completely take apart the robo-rodent for inspection. He suddenly decided it would be helpful to shoo Charlotte away so he could do it on his own. She tried to object, but Ray told her to come with him to the storage room. "You too, Henry."
So the three of them soon found themselves making lists of what's still in storage, going through things and trying to find uses for them. None of them really wanted to, but they needed something to make them forget about the software mouse for a bit.
Finally, after what seemed like forever and ever (in reality, it only took about thirty minutes), they heard the door to the storage room open and Schwoz's voice, calling them over. Anxious for some sort of answer, the three of them followed him back into the Man Cave, finding that Jasper, Gooch and Bork had also been called down by Schwoz and were sitting down on the couch, each of them looking like completely different people, having blown their bubbles.
Jasper's new skin looked just like Charlotte's real skin; his hair was long- down to his waist-, pink, and straight. The red tee and shorts he had on earlier had been replaced by a green sweater with jeans, and he had on lime green sneakers.
Gooch and Bork appeared to have some sort of twins-thing going on. Both men now had Caucasian skin and shoulder- length blond hair. They both had an a tee shirt and jeans, but Gooch's was blue to match their new eye color while Bork's was what could only be described as blood-red. They also both had on white sneakers.
Everyone (except Schwoz and Ray, who had seen the previous day what everyone would look like) stared a each other for a full two minutes before Henry, Charlotte and Ray sat down on the couch with Jasper, Gooch and Bork.
Schwoz cleared his throat and everyone snapped away from the stares and gave him their attention. He took a deep breath.
"Alright, here's what I found out."
Uh-oh, this doesn't sound good... What do you think Schwoz discovered?
Ciao!