Dangerous 🌸Henry Danger🌸

Part 1: It Can't Be

~It Can't Be~

"Yo, Ray, I have a question." Henry said as he entered the man cave.

"No, you can't borrow the mancopter." Ray said, almost immediately.

"What? No, it's not about that. I couldn't care less about the mancopter right now." Henry said and plopped down on the couch. "This is serious."

"Isn't the saying 'I could care less'?" Ray asked, putting emphasis on the word could.

Henry scoffed a little. "It's couldn't. If the saying was 'I could care less', then that would mean I do care at least a little bit. And at the moment, I really don't care."

"I always thought that it was-"

"Ray. Focus. This is extremely important." Henry interrupted.

"Okay, okay. How important? Is it an emergency?" Ray stood up from his chair and took a few steps closer to the couch, where Henry was currently sitting.

"There's this new girl at my school. And-"

"Are you kidding me? You made it seem like this was something major, but really you just want to talk about some hot new girl. We can talk about this later."

Henry let a sigh escape his lips and leaned forward as he ran his hand through his hair. He was clearly frustrated, and he was trying to think of how to say what he wanted to say to his boss. After a second, he decided to just start by asking a quick question, which he was sure he already knew the answer to, but it didn't hurt to ask. "Have you ever been married?"

"Why? Do you want some advice? Do you want to marry this girl? Henry, you just met her and you're just sixteen, you can't be serious." Ray took a seat next to Henry on the couch as he spoke. "Besides, I am definitely the wrong person to ask for relationship advice.. especially if it's marriage advice."

"First of all, seventeen. Second of all, I take that as a 'yes and it didn't end well'. So, have-"

"No, Henry. I've never been married. Why does it matter?"

Henry decided it was best to just move on to the next question. "Do you have any siblings?"

"I'm confused as to how this ties in to the conversation about the new girl." Ray said, raising his eyebrow slightly.

"Do you?" Henry was being quite persistent about wanting to know all of this stuff, and he had a good reason to.

"No, I don't have any siblings." Ray answered.

Henry was hesitant about the next question, but he felt like he needed to know. "Did you maybe have some sort of affair like.. somewhere around seventeen-ish years ago?"

"First off, that's a really personal question and I don't feel comfortable answering it." Ray said, completely shocked that his sixteen year old sidekick would ask a question like that.

Suddenly, before Henry could even say anything else, the elevator door opened and a blonde girl entered the room, followed by a breathless Charlotte.

"I'm sorry, I tried to stop her. Jasper gave in and told her where to find you." Charlotte said, exhaling loudly. "I tried to keep her away, but-" She then inhaled deeply and exhaled again, trying to catch her breath. She couldn't quite finish her sentence.

"Are you Ray Manchester?" The blonde girl asked, approaching the couch. Ray sat in silence for a moment, concerned about how the girl managed to get Jasper to tell her about the mancave, and how Charlotte couldn't stop her. The girl got tired of waiting and spoke up again. "Are you Ray Manchester? I really need to know."

"Who are you?" Was the first thing that came out of Ray's mouth. He didn't know if he could trust a stranger, especially after Rick Twitler managed to figure out about him being Captain Man.

"My name is Elle Manchester." She said. Ray's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. "Look, if Ray isn't here, just come out and say it. I didn't come all the way to Swellview just to stand in a junk shop basement all day."

"Wait.. what?"

"Listen, I just really need to know if you're who I think you are. I'm looking for my dad, and-"

Ray considered lying and saying that no one named Ray was there, because he thought this situation could be dangerous- it could be a trap. Rick Twitler knew that he was Captain Man, and he could be up to something- he could have sent this girl. He managed to mumble; "Will you excuse us for a second?" before standing up and practically dragging Henry to a corner where no one else could hear them whispering.

Henry yanked his arm away from Ray. "Not cool, dude."

"This could be a trap." Ray whispered to Henry. "We've gotta get her out of here. Or laser her or something. Maybe even do both."

"Woah. Okay, that's a bit over the top." Henry mumbled.

"She's dangerous, Henry." Ray whispered. "She's seriously dangerous. We need to get her out of here. She can't-"

"Potentially dangerous," Henry said.

"I think Rick Twitler might have sent her."

"We don't know that for sure, though."

"She's claiming to be my daughter, kid. It's gotta be a trap." Ray was now speaking in a more serious tone, but still managed to be quiet enough so the others couldn't hear them.

"Now would be a good time to answer that super personal question." Henry said, cocking his head just slightly to the right. He was glancing over at Elle for a quick second, trying to see if there was any resemblance to Ray at all. She definitely had the same nose as him, and a similar facial structure. It could have all been a coincidence or even a disguise, though.

"I mean, yeah, but-"

"But there's no way that could've led to... her?" Henry said. "Is that what you were about to say?"

"Not exactly word for word, but, yeah, basically."

"It could have, though. Just look at her." He said and subtly gestured to her. Ray turned and glanced at her for a split second, then turned back around to face Henry. "Maybe you should do some sort of DNA test or something." Henry insisted.

"They typically need blood for those kind of tests." Ray said, in a tone that suggested that what he had just said was obvious.

"And?" Henry said.

"And they can't get blood from me. I'm indestructible. Remember?" Ray said, letting out a slight laugh of disbelief.

"Right. Maybe Schwoz can do some sort of test that doesn't require blood? He's really good with technology. There's gotta be-"

"Maybe we don't need that, actually. Maybe there's a different way we can figure it out." Ray said.

"How?"

"I got this." Ray said and walked back over to the area that Charlotte and Elle were standing.

"I think I'm just gonna go. Obviously my father isn't here, otherwise you would have already told me so." Elle was clearly disappointed.

"What's your mother's name? And could I see a picture?" Ray questioned. Elle seemed a bit confused by those questions, but she dug her phone out of her purse anyway.

"Uh. Her name is Sandy Pearson. Here's a picture of me and her about a year ago." Elle said, handing her phone to Ray so he could see the photo.

Ray stared at the photo for nearly three minutes. He never told anyone about Sandy. No one knew about that night, so there was no possibility of it being a trap. But Sandy never told him that they had a child. She had moved away and dropped all contact with him seventeen years ago. He couldn't quite wrap his head around this. "Oh my god." Was all he could say for a moment, before looking up from the phone to look at Elle. "Um.."

"Can you just give me my phone back?" Elle asked.

"I'm who you're looking for." Ray said. "I'm your father."