Dr. Minyak smiled down at everyone. "We," he began, "just beat them. And we got away with it."
"Everyone" meaning everyone who was on his team: Maddy, Invisible Brad, the Wall Dogs, all of them.
"Uh, Dr. Minyak?" Spray Z kind of raised his hand. "I'm glad we didn't get caught, and all, but I'm still not sure how we won. I mean, we left Kid Danger out, alone, but we haven't gained anything."
"False." Dr. Minyak waved his finger as if scolding him. "We spooked them. Captain Man and Kid Danger don't know what happened, or what will come next. Their own paranoia is one of our greatest weapons."
"Yeah, I get that," said Spray Z. "But I don't- why didn't-"
"Spit it out, dude!" Candace snapped. "What he is trying to say is why did we not do anything else? Look," she shoved her way through the relatively small crowd and stood in front of Dr. Minyak. "Look," she said again, "with all due respect, man, we were talking on the way back here, and this doesn't seem like enough. Six, and later seven, of us had Kid Danger surrounded, and he was completely under our control. And yet, for some reason, you repeatedly told us while explaining this plan of yours that we are exclusively forbidden from pulling off his dang mask." Dang wasn't the word she used, but it's close enough. "I don't see why knowing-"
"WE CAN'T." Dr. Minyak said it so quietly but so forcefully- frankly, it was a little scary. He took a deep breath. Control yourself, or we will blow it. "I want to, Candace. I really, really want to. But that kind of information is something that could ruin us. If we know, and they find out we know, they won't hesitate to make us forget." Everyone looked at him, a little puzzled. "The only reason we are able to go through with this mission is because, years ago, I had the foresight to write everything down- including the password for the security cameras in the shop I used as my liar. By some stroke of luck, I found it, and was able to look back at the recordings and figure out what happened. The footage was awful, as low quality as it could get, but using subtitles I managed to figure out what they had said to each other while there. They wiped our brains." Everyone looks genuinely horrified. "Yes! And because of my genius, I figured out everything. Everything."
He didn't mention it- and neither did Nurse Cohort- out of embarrassment that this technically wasn't true. In the footage, the (crappy) automatic subtitles showed Captain Man saying something about Charlotte. Fortunately, Dr. Minyak couldn't find anything about being in Charlotte, North California. It didn't occur to him that Charlotte could be a person, and, hopefully, he would remain ignorant.
"Yes! They wiped our brains. They stole our memories. Everything- we forgot everything we've ever done to them. It's a miracle we still knew how to tie our shoes. I still can't believe how lucky I was to be able to deduce what had happened. We can't risk knowing that information. Not," he added under his breath, "until they're gone."
"Okay, there's nothing to be concerned about in your suit. You can change back know." Schwoz tossed Kid Danger his gum tube.
They were down in the Man Cave. The first thing Schwoz did when they arrived back was scan Kid Danger- and Captain Man, just to be safe- for any kind of tracker or bugs. Luckily, their suits were clean.
Henry, glad to be out of his uniform after everything (he still didn't know what had happened, but it had exhausted him nonetheless), was ready to go home, but Schwoz stopped him. "Now what? You said my suit was clean."
"I know." Schwoz hit a few buttons on the device-detecting wand that he was using. "Now I want to make sure there aren't any under your skin."
"My skin?"
"Yeah," said Charlotte, who had been standing next to Henry pretty much since they got back, after screaming at him not to scare her like that. "We want to make sure they didn't inject you with a tracker, or anything else we need to worry about. That," she pointed to the wand, "is able to detect not only things like trackers, but also breaks on the epidermis. That means your skin," she added, seeing his confusing look.
"Uhhhhh, okay."
"Relax, Henry. If you haven't been feeling any pain, or feeling blood trickle down you, you're probably fine. Unless you scare me like that again-"
"Charlotte, I get it."
"-in which case you will be very, very hurt. Ready, Schwoz?"
"Yep." Schwoz started going through his routine again. He was almost done when the wand buzzed and glowed red.
"What? What is it?" Henry had been trying to keep calm, but, let's face it, he has no clue what happened to him, and Scwhoz's weird tracker tracker thing just buzzed. Who wouldn't be worried?
"Break on the skin." Schwoz looked up at Henry. "There's something wrong with the skin on your back, but we don't see any trackers or anything yet."
"Yet," Charlotte echoed. "That's a nice thought. Lift your shirt so we can check it out." Without waiting for a response, she lifted the back of Henry's shirt, revealing a small cut, and Schwoz hovered a new wand over it.
After a moment, it beeped. "You're good. You can go" Sighing in relief, Henry and Charlotte grabbed their bags and headed for the elevator. They were about to climb in when a sudden meow made them jump.
It was Cleo.
"Oh yeah!" Ray quickly walked over to wear Cleo had crawled out of the sprocket. Charlotte kind of rolled her eyes, and Henry and Schwoz just looked confused.
"Uh… Ray? Where did that come from? And has it meant my pig yet? We don't want any kind of sibling rivalry."
"Um, yeah, we'll get to that. Schwoz, this is Cleo. Found her in the alley. Poor thing needed a home, didn't you, Cleo?" Cleo meowed and licked Ray's face. He walked over to Schwoz. "Cleo, this is Schwoz. He's weird, but we keep him around because he knows how to fix things."
"Hey!"
"And you already meant Charlotte-"
"Yeah, 'cause you shoved her into my arms."
"And Henry was with me when we found you. Do you remember Henry?"
"What?"
One word. It was that one word- and the confusion in his tone- that made everyone worry. "What do you mean?" Ray asked.
"Where did this thing come from?" Henry looked equal parts confused and scared.
"Uh, dude, we found this thing in the alley. You let her sniff you. Or, at least, you tried, before something fell over. Don't you remember?"
"Uh… no."
"Henry?" Charlotte took a step towards him. "Are you okay?"
"Well, yeah, I mean, I thought I was, but…" he gestured to Cleo. "I don't remember anything about a cat. Actually…" he slowly lowered his hand. "Now that I think about it… I don't remember anything after driving in the Man Van with Ray."
Everyone stared at him. "Henry," said Ray slowly, "if you don't remember meeting this cat, or anything else, then something must have happened."
Henry looked just as scared as the others, if not more. "I- I don't know, I feel fine physically, I just- what happened?"
"Schwoz, go get your memory scanner thing. Henry, sit down." Charlotte dragged Henry to the couch when he didn't move, even though Ray had told him to him.
"I don't know what's going on with your brain, Kid." Ray looked really concerned. "Best-case scenario, you bonked your head somewhere. Worst-case scenario, someone did this on purpose somehow. But something definitely happened."
"Okay, got this thing edited! Now I just need to hit Save- oh, hi, cat. Uh, please don't rub your head against the screen-
"Annnnnnnnd it's gone."
So basically that was my way of telling the story that my cat touched my phone and lost all my progress editing. Fortunately, I didn't need to retype everything, just copy and paste from where I originally type it all. Highly advise it.
Ciao, and Happy World IBD Day!