So, I'm working on a Spotify playlist for the songs that I think of when I think of this story and some of the storylines. If this site allows, I'll give y'all the info to find it. If it doesn't, I'll be sure to post in on my Tumblr side blog mysamcedesmadness. I'll let y'all know when I'm done making it. :)
To the Victor, the Spoils
Charlotte was asleep when the alert came through. Henry shuffled out of bed and onto the floor before opening the comm for Ray. "Hey, what's up?" He asked, in a whisper.
"Looks like we got some late night shenani… Are you on the floor? Did you fall out of bed?" Ray was ready to cackle about this.
"No, I'm down here because I was gonna do some post Midnight snack pushups. You know, to keep the snack weight from manifesting while I sleep.."
"That's not real," Ray said. "I'm gonna text Charlotte and ask her if that's real."
"Well, I'm sure that she's asleep."
"Doesn't matter, she's about to come in to work, anyway."
"Well, ask her then, then…" Charlotte's phone began to sound because of Ray's text and Henry, being very close to it, said, "Gotta go, see you soon, byeee!" And shut off the comm. Charlotte stirred and reached for her phone. Henry was already throwing on some clothes. She sat up, stretched, in the pajama top (which only had one button buttoned and Henry was surely staring to see if a bee sting might peek out), climbed out of bed, and picked up his discarded pajama bottoms, to slide into. "Are you going to wear that?"
"I didn't pack for all these late night awakenings. I don't have the clothes to accommodate the shifts. I work inside of a lair. There's nobody there to impress." He put his hands on his hips and she threw him a look, "You put your mouth on me while I had mayonnaise in my hair. Let's not play this 'I should try to impress you' game."
"Fair enough. Your butt still looked cute," he told her with a shrug of his shoulders.
"My everything still looked cute. I just had a bunch of mayo in my hair."
"Which is still weird to me…" She threw him a look, "But, I appreciate the lengths you go through to keep yourself healthy and happy, including your hair."
"You're learning," she said. She looked at her phone and turned her nose up, "I swear, Ray sends me the most bizarre texts… Listen to this - 'Do post Midnight snack pushups prevent weight gain from said snack during the sleeping process? I thought that sleep burned off calories. I always eat before going to sleep. Eating makes the sleeping feel better. Should I be doing pushups instead?'"
"Just tell him yes, Dude." Henry chuckled.
.
It was like all of the criminals suddenly remembered that they only had one night left before the police were back on the job with Captain Man and Kid Danger. Some of the crimes didn't even make sense. Someone went into the mannequin factory and put all of their heads on backwards! Charlotte was so sleepy! And she had an early flight back to school and class in the morning. She dozed off at the control panel more than a few times and after the emergencies were all clear and the guys were on their way back, she laid down to take a nap, and woke up back at Henry's, when her alarm went off. "What the what?"
He smiled gently and said softly, "Didn't want to wake you, so I picked you up and brought you home and let you sleep."
"Have you been sitting there watching me this whole time?" She asked.
"I knew that it'd be way too hard to wake up to take you to the airport if I went back to sleep. You looked super peaceful. Every now and then, though, you have a mild freak out. You like shake your hands and rock side to side like you're about to have a meltdown and trying to find an exit, but then you just return to calm sleep."
She got up and got dressed, "Sometimes, I dream that I've missed a deadline," she confessed. "Such a nightmare. Then, I remember that I never miss deadlines and rationalize that I must be dreaming, inside of the dream. Usually, I go on to meet the deadline. Some of my best dreams, to be honest."
"You are such a nerd," he said, laughing, but staring at her, in awe.
.
At the airport, he wanted to see her off to the plane, because he knew that they probably weren't going to see each other again for a few months. Maybe not even be able to chat quickly, besides online. She told him that she'd be able to use the Whiz Watch, but she wasn't sure how her schedule would be, and that their time zones would be so drastically different that they likely would never be awake at the same time. She was crazy if she thought that he wasn't going to set aside some time to lose sleep just to talk to her, despite her protests. Waiting on her flight, she leaned onto Henry's shoulder and went to sleep on him again. He simply held her, kissed her on the forehead and sighed. God, he was gonna miss her, even more than usual. They were finally in a really good place and now, he wasn't sure what this meant, and it seemed unfair with her having so much going on to ask, "What are we?"
He just decided to assume that they were at the last thing that they discussed - they loved each other, but nobody mentioned wanting to be together and the last thing that was officially said was that she wanted things casual and for him not to let his emotions make him do something stupid, because let's be real; she never intended to ever do something stupid. That particular parameter was specifically spoken about for him. Besides, he hurt her, talking the way that he did about her and not being considerate of her feelings or her motives. He felt like a complete jackass when she broke down in front of him. That kiss stuff made it even harder for them to have a full convo about what happened between them. Most of their alone time since was sleeping, which was actually super nice. He didn't know that he could enjoy just sleeping with and holding somebody that he'd already done so much more with, but it felt right. It felt good. The announcement for her flight sounded and he instantly was miserable as he shook her a little to wake her up. "Time to go, Char."
She sat up and made a pouting face, "I don't wanna," she whined.
"I don't want you to, either… But, you'll hate us both tomorrow if you don't." She stood up. "Semester's almost over, then you have that awesome African adventure."
"Thanks, Henry. I needed a little push. This weekend was emotional." He walked her to the line and stayed near her until she was actually boarding the plane, then he stayed in the airport for a bit longer and watched the plane leave. Henry hated how he was feeling right now. Being without her was becoming a lot for him to handle.
.
Charlotte could hardly wait to get some adequate sleep! She had to nearly go directly to class after the plane, getting home, getting washed up and dressed, checking her messages, and gathering her school things. She had gotten this very strange "You lied," message from someone that she recognized, but couldn't remember from where. He was kinda cute, but she remembered not liking him, for some reason. That was one of the bad things about managing a website. You see so many faces that if you don't personally know somebody, anybody could be, well, anybody. She'd reply later. Instead, she went to class, tired and lifeless, but put her best forward, anyway. She went home, crashed, woke up hours later and plotted out her homework schedule for the week, checked her messages again to see that the same person had messaged her, "About Kid Danger."
"Oh, butt." She sighed and guessed she had to now figure out who this dude was and what he was talking about. She scanned his face into the Man Cave database. "The Spoiler?"
She rolled her eyes and sent him a message, "Okay, Dude. I don't have time for this. Give me your little spoiler and go."
It took him a moment to respond, but he eventually did. "Kid Danger definitely didn't eat one of those muffins that you gave that kid. That lady didn't arrest the muffin woman. You know all of them - the Mischief Minder, the Muffin Woman and Kid Danger. You're an ally to them, which means you probably know Captain Man, too."
Charlotte: Cool story, Bro. Bye-bye now.
Spoiler: You know that I always know what I'm talking about.
Charlotte: I didn't even know that you still existed, much less that you're still running your mouth.
Spoiler: But, you did know that I had level 5 computer knowledge the last time we crossed paths.
Charlotte: How would I know that, Spoiler? I'm just a girl who was at the movies with the girl who beat you with a glowbat.
Spoiler: You'd know because you're pretty handy with technology, yourself. You think that I didn't look into the girl who foiled my spoiler plans for Galaxy Wars 9? I sure did, and I had virtually nothing, until the other night, when you got caught kissing Kid Danger, and I was able to get into your phone.
Charlotte: I'm bored with this. Goodnight.
But, she was actually scared. The Man Cave had been hacked before, her phone wasn't above it, and he was right about one thing - she did know that several years ago he was already at a level 5 and he probably didn't give up on computers since then. His threats rang true and that was terrifying. She immediately contacted the Man Cave and relayed the story to Ray and Henry. She allowed them to see the messages between them.
"Well, what does the Spoiler even want?" Henry wondered, suddenly extremely defensive, that Charlotte was being targeted, once again, because he kissed her in public.
She checked the messages to see if he had said anything else since she dismissed him. He'd sent her a link, which she reluctantly opened and prayed wasn't a virus. She sighed and cursed under her breath. "He wants to challenge me to a hacking contest. If I win, he vows to get lost again and not bother me, ever. But, if he wins, he wants to know the identities of Mischief Minder, Kid Danger and Captain Man." She held her head. "I can't accept this contest. I'm an inventor, not a hacker." They heard the alert for another message and she smacked her lips. "This… troglodyte just asked me out on a date, win or lose... That's it. I'm gonna whoop his butt in this contest!"
"But, you just said that you're not a hacker!"
"I'm not, but I bet that I have one in my Souldates net!"
"You're… gonna cheat?" Henry asked, shocked.
"What's he gonna do about it? Call the cops?" Ray asked, laughing.
"But, Char's not a cheater. That goes against everything she stands for!"
"Henry, this guy wants to know my friends' secret identities. We already know that he has the ability to text secrets to everyone in Swellview, and that was years ago. He's already suggested that he's become more advanced since then. This is a no brainer!" She raised her fists in the air, "I have Max and Schwoz available. Between the three of us, he can't do anything about… What is this incoming?" She gasped, long, and hard as a video of herself, that she knew to belong to Max came through her computer, thus also through the screen at the Man Cave. "Divert your eyes, please!" She said, pressing buttons to try to get rid of it. Ray rushed away from the screen in complete horror. Henry had trouble turning away. On the one hand, seeing Charlotte sucking on someone else's fingers was very unnerving, but it was recorded POV style, so it could easily be… "Divert your eyes, Henry Hart!" She snapped and he turned around quickly.
Spoiler: Nice try, getting your friends involved. I did not expect to find that! Some of these videos are simply scandalous. You and that Max guy were really hot and heavy, huh? Tell you what… You have 24 hours to accept my challenge, or some of these will have to be sent to the phones of everyone at your college.
Charlotte: That is VILE!
Spoiler: You could tell me who Kid Danger and Captain Man are right now and be done with it. You're not even the one that I really want. Well, not in that way, anyway. You're just caught in the crossfire…
Max appeared on the computer screen, but it was a younger version of himself - not by a lot, but the last that Charlotte saw him, he had a little beard and this image was clean shaven.
Max: Whoever you are, you have crossed the wrong guy by peeking into those files. This means war.
Spoiler: Interesting… This Max guy… He's good! I love this interactive firewall he has in his system. I should have challenged him, for the worthy competition! To be frank, Charlotte, the contest with you is simply a formality, to seemingly give you a chance to keep your secret…
Max: (Appears on screen, this time present form, with the beard) Charls… What the heck is happening, right now? Who is this person that hacked into my computer?
Charlotte: An old enemy of Swellview. He's threatening to show these videos that I thought were gone to my entire school if I don't reveal their identities to him.
Max: I'm so sorry. I promise, I had them extremely protected. It was just really hard for me to get rid of them.
Charlotte: The important thing right now is that I need to protect Captain Man and Kid Danger…
Max: Wait… (Reads the information from Char's messages) This jerk challenged you, threatened you AND asked you out on a date, in the same conversation? That's it. It. Is. On.
Max vanished from her screen and she typed her final message to the Spoiler.
Charlotte: I'll take that 24 hours. Thank you.
She turned off her computer, took a deep breath and tried not to cry. This was so bad. Why the heck was she always getting caught up in the middle of this stuff? She looked at Ray and Henry, Henry's back was to her and Ray was pacing the Man Cave with his eyes clothes and ears covered making mouth noises. "Guys…" Henry turned around, but Ray didn't hear her. She smiled and said, "In 24 hours, my life might change, but I promise, I'm not telling him about you. I'd rather take my chances and defend my bodily autonomy when and if he leaks those videos. So, don't worry. Good old Charlotte won't break her oath."
Henry clenched his fists and wondered, "Is there any way for you to track where he is through his computer?"
"I can try, but once again, that's not my expertise. He was able to figure out that I was reaching out to Schwoz and Max for assistance. He'd likely catch me and probably has something in place to confuse my computers, anyway."
"I'm not gonna let anybody ruin you, Char. Believe that, Baby…" Henry blinked startled at the term of endearment that just fell out of his mouth.
She didn't seem shaken by it. She just nodded her head and said, "Thanks, Hen. I'm gonna… I got homework." When she disconnected, Henry immediately contacted Max.
"Henry? I don't think right now is a good time for you to make this call," he said. The Spoiler could be spying into it, but he didn't want to say that right now, because he didn't want to give Henry away.
"Can we link up? We gotta do something about… something," Henry said, trying not to give away any secrets.
"I can't step away from my computer, at the moment, but you're perfectly welcome to come to me, if you feel it necessary," Max said.
"I definitely do." He couldn't believe that he was agreeing to this, but one thing about Max - he cared just as much about Charlotte and what was best for her, so even though Henry didn't like him or the "he and Charlotte" thing, he knew that he could trust him and that he needed his help to help Char.
As they got to the tubes, Ray said, "MiMi is going to meet us and come along."
"Whhhy?" Henry wondered.
"You heard Charlotte. Her identity might be in trouble, too. Just because we don't know who she is, doesn't mean that she should be exposed, anymore than we want to be exposed."
"I don't like the idea of Team Danger growing into a trio," Henry said. "Especially not with her. I'm not trying to go from sidekick to third wheel while the two of you speak in innuendo."
"Up the tubes!" Ray said, ignoring his complaints.
.
Charlotte woke up the next morning having barely gotten any sleep. She was scared to turn on her computer, but knew that she had to face the music. She wasn't expecting this music, though.
It was a link from the Spoiler and when she clicked on it, there was feed of Captain Man, Kid Danger, Mischief Minder and Max Thunderman taking him down. "What the…" the message had been from Henry.
Hey Char, we found him. Thunderman took care of the computer stuff, Captain Man took care of the culprit. You're free to enjoy your nerdness in peace. She laughed. "What?" She contacted him via Whiz Watch.
"Hey, Char. What's up?"
"You guys found the Spoiler?"
"With Thunderman's skill. We're headed back to Swellview, he's gone back home. Everything's good."
"You know I want to hear the story."
"I mean…"
Max stormed right onto Spoiler's property, not even attempting to sneak in. Captain Man was quick behind him, not wanting to look like a beta. The cameras that pointed towards them, Max pulled his hand towards himself and pulled them from their posts.
"I keep forgetting that this kid has telekinesis," Ray said out loud and kicked the door open. They entered and were greeted by various screens, which all had footage of Charlotte, Henry could only guess from Max's collection. Ray frowned and Max waved his hands, shutting each of them down one by one as they passed them.
"Hey… who recorded those?" Henry asked.
"I did."
"But, you were… featured in some…"
"One of the perks of my telekinetic condition is that I can do that and also hold a camera."
Henry gasped, "I never would have considered to use telekinesis that way."
"If you had it, you totally would. You'd consider it pretty much once you hit puberty. At least, I did."
"And Charlotte always knew when you were recording?" Max paused and stared at Henry. "Just saying, seems like a lot of records and she'd thought they were gone. Maybe you don't always tell her everything.."
"I wouldn't do something like that without her consent."
"You kept them in your possession without her consent."
Max turned on Henry suddenly and said, "I know that you and Charls have something special and I can't take away from that. But you need to understand that she and I had something special too and no matter what you tell yourself, you can't take away from it. It was hard for me to let go of her. That's the only thing that I'm guilty of. I also still have and revisit our messages. It's not easy moving on from her. If you have things to say about it, there'll be time after we get this guy."
Max walked off and Ray chuckled.
The Spoiler got up when he saw them enter his workspace and prepared for a fight. Max laughed and telekinetically flung him into the wall and held him there. He jumped on the computer and tried to figure out if any of Charlotte's sensitive material had been sent anywhere or was scheduled or set to be sent anywhere. Looked like they were in time enough to stop him. "Take him and do with him whatever you need to do. I'm deleting everything he has and destroying his system, for good measure."
Spoiler asked, "Oh, what? You're going to let them take me to jail? I'll have access to computers on the inside and I'm not very good at keeping my mouth shut." Max raised an eyebrow and continued working, deciding to ignore the threats. "And if I get lonely, I can just recall one of your Charlotte productions to keep me company…" Max and Henry both charged at the Spoiler.
Henry reached him first and ran off of the side of the wall to kick him in the face. Ray winced. MiMi tried not to laugh. Max dropped Spoiler from being held against the wall and he and Henry took turns punching him. "Should we stop them?"
"After the videos of Charlotte that I had to see more than once today? No chance. He let his mouth write a check his butt can't cash. Them's the breaks."
"They look like they might kill him," she said, concerned.
He rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, kids. Lesson learned." Henry reluctantly backed down and gently pulled Max away, too. Max held his hand out at Spoiler, seemingly causing him physical distress. "Thunderman - whatever you're doing, cut it out."
Max didn't listen to Ray and Spoiler was turning blue, now. Henry shook Max, "Hey, Dude! You're gonna kill him."
"You think that if we let him go that he'll just leave her in peace?" Max asked, not letting up.
"I think that if you kill him, Charlotte will be at least disappointed in you. Best case scenario. Spoiler alert - she is a buzzkill about the smallest of infractions," Ray advised him.
Henry let go of Max for a moment to say, "No, she isn't. She's just sensible."
Max dropped his hand and Spoiler struggled to breathe. He picked him up, with his hand, by the collar and made him face him, "If you ever reach out to her, bother her, no… If I even hear that you murmured her name, I'll come back for you, and these goody two shoes won't be there to talk me down." He shoved him into Henry and stormed off. MiMi went to go check on him.
Henry and Ray exchanged concerned looks and Ray asked, "Is it my imagination or is that kid WAY MORE demented than the last time we saw him?"
"That was most definitely troubling. Captain Man… I think that he was gonna kill the Spoiler, like seriously. Did you see the look in his eyes?"
"He didn't seem to be joking."
"He wasn't," Spoiler choked out. "That guy's crazy. Get me away from him, as soon as possible, before he changes his mind." They escorted him away and Henry wondered, "Should we tell Charlotte about that?"
"No! Not right now, at least. I mean… Maybe he was just really passionate because this creep threatened Charlotte and once he's cooled down, he'll be okay. I don't want to get her riled up and she turns on him and he gets even darker, somehow."
"Ugh. What if he does something later, then she finds out we hid this?"
"She'll forgive us," Ray said, confidently. Henry sighed.
Charlotte stared at his hologram, "Henry! The story?"
"Yeah, everything went fine. It went according to plan and we got our man."
She smiled and nodded. "Well, I wish I was there, so that I could thank you properly…" She glanced at her feet, then back up at his smiling face.
"Me too."
.
Mischief Minder rubbed Max's shoulders, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I just kinda snapped a little. I'll be fine. You really should catch up with them."
"I will. But, I'm also concerned about you. That display in front of Captain Man and Kid Danger…?"
"Like I said, I snapped. I'll. Be. Fine."
"I just want to make sure before I go…"
"Cohort! I'm fine. Okay? For crying out loud. It's like having my mother here."
She threw her head back and even through the mask he could sense the face she was making, "I'm nowhere near old enough to be your mother, young man."
"Keep telling yourself that," he said.
"So, you do seem fine," she said, looked him up and down like she could just slap his sassy little face, and went to catch up with Henry and Ray.