Charlotte had seen a lot of strange things in her life.
With best friends like a self-proclaimed 'bucketeer' who's love interests always seem to try to kill her; and another who quite literally fights crime on a daily basis and still finds time to be a complete and utter fuckboy, it was kind of expected.
Aliens? Amateur. Being mind-controlled by a weirdly catchy song and developing super-strength to defeat Captain Man? Meh. Travelling to another dimension where everyone is evil? Trivial.
Working with technology that should be way beyond their years? Inspiring but alas, normalized with the amount of time she's been working with them.
But to be honest? Walking into the Mancave that day to find Henry hunched over a bowl of chicken noodle soup on the ground surrounded by seven extra-large pizza boxes, three gallons of ice cream cartons, and four gallons of iced tea, all empty, was pretty weird.
Not supremely weird, but definitely weird enough for her to exclaim "Henry, what the genuine fuck are you doing?" upon stepping out of the elevator.
The blonde turned to his best friend, and mumbled something with a mouthful of pasta and chicken, making it impossible for the other teen to understand.
"Try that again, but without soup in your mouth this time." She deadpanned, throwing her bag on the couch. She picked up one of the pizza boxes and wrinkled her nose as she tossed the cardboard on the floor next to where Henry had tossed most of the other boxes.
Henry swallowed the soup, and resisted another spoonful to reply. "I am starving, Charlotte. Absolutely starving!"
The girl looked around at the mess surrounding the blonde in disbelief as he shoveled another spoonful into his mouth. "How long ago did you even order this stuff? I thought you didn't like the pizza from the Autosnacker." She asked.
"forty-five minutes ago." Henry mumbled through more pasta, "I couldn't wait for pizza delivery."
"You ate all of this in forty-five minutes?! Henry, you're going to kill yourself! It's physically impossible for your stomach to support this much food." Charlotte squeaked as Henry then threw the spoon to the side and drank the broth directly out of the bowl.
He waited until the bowl was empty before answering. "I know! But it's like I have a black hole in the bottom of my stomach, I can't get full!" Henry said, standing up and pressing the order button on the Autosnacker. "I already ate everything I liked out of the fridge at home, too."
Charlotte could only stare in slight amazement as Henry promptly ordered a plate of fettuccine alfredo and immediately started inhaling it.
"Okay, if you continue at this rate you're going to completely drain the Autosnacker, and then Schwoz is going to have to go travel to wherever he gets the stuff for it and he will complain the entire way, so you need to stop now." Charlotte said, checking her watch. "Besides, you were supposed to be on morning patrol twenty minutes ago!"
Henry, engrossed by the taste of the new pasta, lazily replied. "No? Ray does morning patrol alone because I have school to do." He immediately shoveled a comedic amount of alfredo into his mouth afterwards.
Charlotte sighed and resisted the urge to slap her friend in the back of the head. "Okay, first off, Ray's out on vacation, remember? Schwoz should be back from dropping him off at the airport in a few hours considering he needs to make sure he actually gets on the plane this time. And second: it's Saturday, ya dimbus."
Henry blinked and checked his watch in bewilderment, obviously having forgotten somehow. "It is…? Huh."
Two plates of alfredo and a half gallon of orange juice later, Jasper came down into the Mancave and looked upon the sea of empty food cartons.
"You know, I was gonna ask why Piper called me screaming about how all of the food in her fridge was gone, but I'm pretty sure I know why now." The sixteen-year-old commented as Charlotte ran around Henry with medical supplies, checking his vitals.
"He's been eating nonstop since 7:30 this morning, apparently." Charlotte mumbled, poking the blonde's stomach, which wasn't even protruding like one's normally would after eating. "I'm running some tests to see what's going on."
Jasper gaped as Charlotte handed him the supplies, taking over the job as she ran to the computer. "Dude, this is like fifty pounds of food! You're going to explode!" He exclaimed. Henry only hummed.
"That's what I told him. Except without the inaccurate descriptions of physics." Charlotte said as Jasper examined the other blonde with a more practiced manner.
Ten minutes later, Henry was eating just plain honey out of the cute little bear container while Charlotte transferred the data Jasper collected to the computer. Jasper had ordered an omelet from the Autosnacker, and sat down next to the sidekick to eat it.
"Have you found out what's wrong with Henry yet?" He asked, taking a bite out of the omelet.
Charlotte shook her head, eyes never leaving the screen. "Well, I've figured out what's wrong, but I don't know why it's doing what it's doing." She said, bewilderment edged on her voice. "Seriously, Henry, these vitals are off the charts!"
Henry, being the only one who wasn't worried that he might actually be dying, just hummed again and stole the rest of Jasper's omelet using his Hyper Motility. Said blonde promptly gasped and then pouted as he watched his best friend scarf the meal down.
"I was eating that, you know…"
"Oh this is so sad Alexa play Decpacito."
"Henry that meme is dead and you know it."
"And Henry will probably join them meme if you don't let me speak." Charlotte chastised.
Henry only rolled his eyes and turned to Charlotte, who was scrolling through the data. "Well sorry, so, what do you think is wrong with me?" He asked, taking a swig of the water Charlotte had made him drink instead of the soda he wanted to order.
Charlotte didn't answer right away, as she was in deep thought. Jasper leaned back on the couch to see if he could get a glimpse of the screen. She scanned the data from today compared to the vitals of Henry's body from a month ago with squinted eyes, highlighting a few details here and there before turning to the two boys.
"I'm not certain as of right now, but I think—"
Suddenly, the emergency alarm was blaring through the Mancave. Out of instinct, Charlotte immediately turned around and slapped the button, moving her research to another screen and pulling up the situation.
"Ugh, looks like there's a robbery in progress at the Pear Store right next to the park. Henry, you need to blow a bubble and get down there." She said, turning back to her friend, who was already pulling out his gumball tube.
"This is why we don't skip morning patrol, boy." She emphasized.
Henry grumbled, and chugged the rest of the liter of water before popping a gumball in his mouth. "What were you about to say before the alarm went off?" He asked in the midst of chewing.
Charlotte waved it off. "It's just a theory, and assuming all goes according to plan, Schwoz should be back before you get back anyways. I'll run it by him and see if it's plausible."
Henry nodded, transforming into Kid Danger and heading towards the tubes.
Charlotte turned back to the screens and pulled the lab results back up. Jasper stood up and stretched.
"I might as well go open up Junk n' Stuff." He announced, turning to Henry. "Stay safe, Bud. You don't need to give Ray more anxiety about leaving Swellview than he already has."
Henry gave a thumbs up and flashed his signature cocky smile, before heading up the tube