In spite of the fact that they knew what would happen, Henry and Charlotte were both still shocked at what the gumballs did. Today, Charlotte's fake hair had been pulled into a high ponytail that used at least twenty hair ties that were ordered in the colors of the rainbow (the last one was purple, which meant the number of hair ties was divisible by six. Not that it really mattered too much). She found herself wearing a soft yellow knee-length long-sleeved dress with matching boots that reached her knees, along with nude-colored tights. Other than the change of clothes and hairstyle, she didn't look any different that yesterday.

Henry's fake hair was still half-braided dreadlocks, but they had been pulled to the sides and braided to make a pair of pig tails that were so tightly knotted together that the braids only reached the end of his rib cage. He had on navy blue slacks and a matching t-shirt, but the same shoes and socks he wore yesterday.

Even though the boy in front of her looked nothing like him, Charlotte knew deep down in her heart that he was still Henry. She still wanted to pull him into a hug until everything going on with the fake-looks gum and mystery villain has all blown over.

Except that probably wasn't going to happen without some fighting. Or something that no one really wanted to think about.

As the elevator door opened, the two teens could see Ray, who was on the couch playing Octopie, Schwoz, who was finishing up picking apart the C-3 disrupter at a wheeled lab table nearby, and Gooch, who was asleep next to Ray, with a hand supporting his head. (Bork was somewhere training with a punching bag.) It seemed like all Gooch ever did lately was sleep. Maybe he was too stressed out to get good rest during the night. Henry knew how that felt; it really sucked being so tired all the time.

Ray looked over and almost ran to grab a weapon- whatever he could get his hands on- before realizing that the strange kids who just stepped out of the elevator into the Man Cave were Henry (also known as Kid Danger) and Charlotte (also known as- well, she didn't really have a superhero identity- although, she did fill in for Henry that one time). They exchanged hellos as Ray stood up, and the pair of teens could see that he had on a loud orange sweater and jeans that matched. So did his shoes and socks. It really didn't match his fake light blue hair, which had been pulled back into a sloppy ponytail. No one could see what Schwoz had on under the lab coat he was wearing (the same thing Ray had on, except the color was neon pink. Frankly, it's looked like a little kid tried to make his clothes match his hair and failed. Gooch had on a matching set as well, but it was a medium purple and his hair looks the same from yesterday. In all honesty, these gumballs had no fashion sense whatsoever), but no one really cared. The first thing Henry asked about (he barely beat Charlotte to it) was the C-3 disrupter.

Schwoz just shook his head. "I looked at everything, but it's just a normal C-3. No spyvare or anyting. Vich means this wasn't set by our moostory vill-e-on. Or they are just trying to throw us a curveboo."

"Curveball, Schwoz." Ray corrected him.

"Curve-baaaaaaooooooool." Schwoz repeatedly attempted to say it right as he put all the parts of the C-3 into a plastic box for storage.

Meanwhile, Ray made Gooch go to his room so he could sleep in an actual bed; Charlotte found her place behind the monitors and started working; Schwoz took his portable lab and the box into the secret room and tried to find a place to put them (there was way too much stuff down there, most of which they didn't even need and/or know they [still] had).

She scrolled through numerous villains, suspects, even normal people in attempt to figure out who was behind everything. Eventually Ray and Henry joined her and pretty soon they were all trying to make guesses. Soon enough, it was almost time for the kids to go home. They had talked about a few people they didn't think were involved, but Henry finally just blurted, "You guys, I don't think we should rule anyone out until we're one-hundred percent sure we can't implicate them."

"Ooh, big word," said Charlotte playfully.

Henry made a face at her. "Very funny. But I'm serious. Heck, for all we know, every villain in Swellview could be involved in this." He nervously ran a hand through his hair. Charlotte couldn't help but find it cute…

Anyway! "I think Henry's right- we shouldn't rule out someone until we have crystal-clear proof they aren't involved. But here's my theory," she took a breath in, "which is that we don't know this person yet." Henry and Ray exchanged looks. "None of the villains we've ever faced have ever spied on us or anything like this, except for Dr. Minyak that one time, and we erased his memory so he couldn't try again." Henry nodded in agreement and added, "I think we should research, like, bad guys from different cities, like Bordertown and those places. Maybe we could find some way to track 'em down. Like with the Jolly Beetles and Japanese fish flakes." He glanced down at Charlotte, knowing she couldn't help but feel proud of her achievement from way back then. Had she not done her work, who knows what would've happened to Ray and Henry? In fact, Charlotte has been an enormous help to them ever since she got the job; they would be in trouble without her. Everyone knew it.

Ray pushed a couple of buttons, and they were meant with a long list of super villains and bad guys with a criminal record. (In fact, every screen was covered in text and there were still multiple pages to go.) A lot of them were in trouble for petty crimes (like not wearing a hairnet- Henry was so tempted to bring the incident up, but decided not to), and there were a few (like Henry, Charlotte and Jasper) who basically had their names on that long list for no reason.

Unfortunately, the only progress they made before quitting time was ruling out themselves, since they all knew they could trust each other. Ray really, really wanted to not rule out Jasper, just to be mean, but refrained from doing so.

Henry and Charlotte made sure they had all their stuff (which was really just their backpacks) and soon found themselves stepping out of the elevator looking just like they did when they left Charlotte's house this morning. They were glad to look normal again.

Except every bit of good feeling (not that there was much of it) was shattered when Henry and Charlotte saw Jasper in front of the counter.

Yeah. Okay. My doc manager wouldn't work earlier, but it's working now, so... yeah. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Ciao, and Happy Reading!