AFTER SPENDING 5 MINUTES crying, she had gotten an text message from Henry to come over to his house 'cause he has something to tell her as the girl hoped that he had some side effects as well.
Not wanting her parents and brothers to see her new appearance, Thea had wore an long black trench coat, huge sunglasses, gloves and a headscarf over her head to hide her cat self.
When the girl had headed downstairs, she noticed her whole family by the kitchen, eating some breakfast. "Finally, you came down," Atticus huffed.
"Why are you dress like that?" Ethan asked.
"Yeah, and why are you wearing my new designer jacket?" Lisa asked as she walked up to her daughter but she backed up.
Thea let out an awkward laugh, "It's so pretty. . .and I had to wear it."
"I'd like you to ask me permission when you're borrowing my stuff." Her mom stated with her arms crossed.
Thea shoved her hands inside her pockets, "Sorry." She mumbled.
"I let this side this time 'cause I'm in a okay mood this morning," Lisa gestured towards Thea's outfit. "So, take off the glasses, scarf and coat and come have breakfast with us."
Thea nodded and watched her mother sit back down in her seat. "How about I have breakfast at Henry's—"
Atticus shook his head, "Theodora, come over here and have some pancakes." He sternly said as his gaze was on the newspaper that he was reading.
The girl let out a internal groan and slowly made her way to the dining table to quickly snatch the pancakes from Zach's plate.
"My pancakes!" He shrieked as the girl quickly swallowed it before snatching the jug of orange juice and quickly chugged it down.
"Thea, what in the world?!" Atticus shouted, not liking her table manners and the fact that she just stolen her brother's food.
"Bye Mom, bye Dad, bye Ethan, bye Zach and sorry Zach!" Thea called over her shoulder as she ran out of the door.
Finally, the girl had made it to Henry's house to see Charlotte already here, "Hey Thea. . ." The dark haired girl paused when she had noticed her friend's attire. "Lemme guess, side effect?"
"Sadly yes." Thea mumbled and they both entered the house to see Henry's family in the kitchen alongside Jasper.
"Hey, Happy Saturday!" Charlotte announced.
"Who's that?" Piper asked, not recognizing the person beside Charlotte.
Thea raised her hand, "It's me. . . Thea," She responded.
Mr Hart walked down the stairs to see the two teenage girls, "Henry! Charlotte and. . ." He paused and the girl slightly lifted down her sunglasses to show some of her face. "Oh, and Thea are here!" He shouted.
"Here now?" Henry asked as he rushed down the stairs but ended up knocking the jar of marbles out of his Dad's hands.
The marbles scattered all over the ground, "Aw Henry," His Dad sent him an annoyed look but Henry ignored him and pulled the girls outside.
"So, I was listening to the radio and then NoJo says 'First Joke Of The Morning: What Did Jay Z call his wife before they got married?' And then Dangl's like—"
"Just tell me what side effect you have?!" Charlotte snapped as Thea really wanted to hear the rest of the joke.
"Right, right," Henry then pulled off his shoe and sock and shoved it in Thea's face, "Tickle my foot."
"Uh, why do I have to tickle your foot?" The girl questioned.
"Tickle my foot," He repeated and the girl bent down and tickled the boy's foot making the boy laugh then fire came out of his mouth then the two girls let out a screams and ducked down.
Henry shushed them, "Don't scream or my parents will come out," He pulled Thea up from the ground and Thea helped Charlotte up.
"But fire shot out of your mouth!" Charlotte panicked.
"So, fire comes out of your mouth is your side effect?" Thea asked.
"Yeah, but it happens when I only laugh," Henry informed.
"You're so lucky! Thea whined and her friends shared an confused look.
"Wait, you had a side effect too?" Henry asked and the girl nodded. She looked around to check the coast was clear before she took off her trench coat, her scarf and sunglasses to reveal to her friends her: new cat ears, whisker and tails.
"Oh my God!"
"What the—"
They both shouted but Thea shushed them.
"Shut up!" She harshly whispered.
"How can we shut up, when you're. . .you turned into a freakin cat girl!" Charlotte argued, waving her arms around.
"I know," Thea sighed. "I saw a rat climbing out of my neighbor's bins and an chased it down for 2 blocks!"
"Uh. . .what happened to the rat?" Henry asked and Thea sent him an look.
"I didn't eat the rat," Thea reassured and folded her arms. "It went inside a hole, so I was too late. . ." She then mumbled, ashamed that she was about to eat a rat. "Whatever, look at my face. I'm a freak."
"You're not a freak, Thea." Henry reassured the girl with a small smile. He then let out a sigh, "Just don't say 'I told you so'." He pleaded to Charlotte.
"I told you so, I told you so, I told you so!" Charlotte harshly whispered and Thea rolled her eyes at her. The girl quickly put back her coat back on alongside her sunglasses and scarf.
Then Henry and Thea's whiz watches started to beep, "Ah, it's Ray, it's Ray!"
"Well, answer it!" Charlotte huffed.
"We're so in trouble," Thea panicked, pacing around the front porch.
"Okay, now hide!" Henry told Charlotte.
She sent him an confused look, "Why do I have to hide?"
"I don't know, I'm panicking just hide okay, hurry!" Henry quickly said as Thea took Charlotte to the bushes which she hid behind before Henry answered the call.
An hologram of Ray appears, "Henry— and who's that beside you?"
Henry glanced at Thea, "Uh, that's Thea," The girl threw up an peace sign. "And uh. . .she didn't wake up nice today," the girl smacked him on the shoulder, sending him a look.
"Oh, well. . . you guys gotta hurry up and get to Junk N Stuff, I got something really cool to show ya!"
Henry nodded, "Okay, well get there as soon as we can."
"Right, and oh kids?"
"Yeah,"
"What?"
"Why is Charlotte hiding in that bush?"
"No, she's not," Thea rushed over and stood in front of the bushes so he couldn't see Charlotte.
But the dark haired girl stood up anyways and moved Thea out of the way, "Hey, you tell me!" Charlotte shouted and Henry ended the call.
THE THREE TEENS entered Junk N Stuff to see Ray there with an huge cannon.
"Hi Ray,"
"Hi Ray,"
"Hello."
"Hey Ray. Hi Ray. Hello? That's all you guys are gonna say?" He inquired. "You guys don't see this gigantic canon?" He pointed behind him.
"Uh, hey cannon,"
"Hi canon,"
"Hello,"
"Come on, look at this baby! This is just like the canon that fired the first shot at the Battle Of Swellview," Ray explained. "Just imagine this cannon going BOOM! And then the enemy was probably all 'Ahh' and I bet people were like 'Whaat?'"
Charlotte went to check the canon out. "Where'd you get this thing?"
"Oh, that vintage weapons store that went outta business."
"Always Loaded?" Thea asked as she heard that name before, that's where she bought a sword there for a prank in her old school.
"Ray, Thea and I gotta talk to you." Henry said.
"Yeah, it's really important."
"Alright well, just first flip that closed sign to open and Thea, can you get me my hoodie? It's by the door," Ray pointed. The two teens walked over to the door, Henry went to flip the close sign and Thea was searching for Ray's hoodie but she found it at the sitting area.
Charlotte noticed a chain connected to the canon and looked at Ray. "Hey, what's this chain for?"
"Hmm, I dunno. Lemme see," Ray pulled the lever, blasting out two cannons balls. The two fell from the impact. They both stood up to see both Henry and Thea on the floor, not moving covered in black smoke as the canon balls had had hit them in the stomaches. Ray's eyes widened in terror, "Henry, Thea. . .kids!"
Ray ran over to them to see the two teens wasn't moving so he picked up the canon balls. "Stupid canon balls! You killed my friends!" He threw it at an lamp which caused it to shatter.
The man turned around and started to cry.
Then Thea slowly opened her eyes and looked over at Henry who was awake too. "Woah," The blond boy spoke making their boss glance up.
Thea smiled and sent her boss a small wave. "Hi Ray."
Ray looked at the two, in disbelief that they were still alive after all that. "How could you two be talking. . .and living?!"
"Cause. . . .we're fine,"
"You can't be fine, you just. . .you just took a cannon ball to the gut at point blank rage!"
"Yeah. . ."
"Henry, Thea. Did you. . ." Ray grabbed an drill and stabbed them both in the gut which only hurt for an second. Then Ray punched Henry in the face making him stumble back.
Thea pointed her index finger. "No." She warned with a stern look and Ray backed off.
"You're. . .you're indestructible."
The three teens all shared an look. "Surprise." They said in unison.
"Yeah, we did it yesterday." Thea smiled.
"And it worked? That's amazing," Ray smiled. "No side effects?" Thea avoided his gaze and looked down at her feet.
"Eh. . ."
Henry and Thea explained to Ray about the side effects and with that, they all headed down to the Man Cave to examine the two of them by Schwoz, both of them strapped to a chair.
"Okay, I'm ready to test them!" Schwoz announced to Charlotte and Ray who was sitting on the couch.
"Finally," Ray placed his pizza down as himself and Charlotte made their way over to them. "So is Henry and Thea fully indestructible?"
"Oh, ya. They are," Schwoz stated.
"Or else your cannon woulda killed us," Henry reminded.
"And you would've gone to jail." Thea added.
"I know," Ray responded. "We lucked out on that one, didn't we?" He let out a laugh as the two teens both sent him a look of disbelief.
"So what about Henry laughing fire and Thea's cat transformation?" Charlotte asked.
"That's what we're going to test right now," Schwoz explained. "Henry, Thea, you guys sit still and watch Ray,"
"What are we doing?" Ray asked as he followed after the small man when he pulled an red cart before placing an bowl on top of the cart.
"Now, we begin our test with my homemade Schwoz-amole," Schwoz started and leaned down to take an whiff of his food. "Ah, darn it. My Schwoz-amole smells funky,"
Thea furrowed her eyebrows at him, not understanding what Schwoz was up to. "Really, let me smell," Ray said and when he leaned his head in, Schwoz pushed his head into the guacamole.
Ray lifted his face from the guacamole and glared at the man, "Schwoz!" He shouted as they all laughed at him but when Henry
breathed out fire which made Thea let out a cat distress scream.
Thea looked at both Ray and Schwoz's shocked faces and Schwoz rushed back to his machine and pressed an button. "Okay when the machine make Henry indestructible, it also mutated his throat muscles and that's why fire now shoots from Henry's mouth when he laughs and for Thea, the machine had probably mutated her muscles 'causing her to look like and act like an cat."
"Well. . ." Ray paused and everyone looked at him. "Awesome!"
"What?"
"Dude!"
"How is this awesome?"
"Because when Henry, Thea and I fight bad guys, if one of them pulls out a weapon Thea can use her claws to scarp their faces off and Henry can breathe fire out whenever he laughs and the bad guys will be like 'ahh, my face is melting, why did I commit this crime'," He started to fake cry. "And I'll be like, exactly."
Schwoz walked over to untie both Thea and Henry from their chairs, "Oh yeah, but what if I'm out with a girl and I laugh?" Henry asked. "Then she's all 'oh no, why did i go out with that guy? he's shooting fire at my face!'
"He's right, girls do not like that." Charlotte agreed and Thea nodded.
"Yeah, I can't go home with claws, cat ears and a long furry tail coming out from my butt!" Thea shouted before turning to Schwoz. "What are we gonna do now?" She asked.
"Well, maybe I can make some technical adjustments to the densitzier machine—" Schwoz suggested.
"Whoa, whoa so that Henry and Thea could stay indestructible but not laugh with fire or look like a cat," Charlotte interrupted.
"Okay, uh, who is Schowz? Uh, you?" The man sassed.
"No,"
"Then maybe you let me say the Schwoz things, how about that?" He questioned and Charlotte rolled her eyes.
"Okay, let's all check out the densitzier and see if Schowz cam figure out a way to—"
Ray was interrupted when Henry's phone started to ring, "Oh, wait hand on," He pulled out his phone and put it up to his ear. "Hey Dad, what's up. . .oh dinner?" Both Ray and Schwoz shook their heads.
"You can't have dinner with your family!" Charlotte whispered shouted.
"What if you laugh?" Schwoz asked.
"Just tell him that you can't make it tonight," Thea whispered to Henry before he got back on the phone with his dad.
"Uh, you know Dad, I'm kinda stuck at work so I don't think I don't think I'm able to. . .what, I never said that about Mom. . .okay, we're on our way." He then ended the call.
"Come on." He said as he grabbed Thea's arm, leading her to the elevator.
The girl halted. "To where?"
"To dinner. My Dad said that Piper wanted you to come over and try her food out," Henry responded.
Thea smiled, "Oh, I didn't know that Piper can cook. Is she good?" She asked.
"Eh. . ." Henry trailed off making the girl raise an eyebrow at him, now a little worried about attending this dinner. Henry then turned to the others. "Hey, Thea and I gotta go home but soon as we're done we got—" He paused when they all watched Charlotte scooping some of the guacamole off Ray's face with a nacho chip.
"What are you doing?"
"Well, I like the Schwoz-amole," The girl shrugged and went back to what she was doing as the two teens continue to stare. "Don't judge me. . ."
WITH THAT, both Henry and Thea entered Henry's house to have dinner that Piper was making for them. The girl was still wearing her trench coat, sunglasses, gloves and her scarf to cover herself from Henry's family.
Henry rushed inside the house, "I'm here and Mom, you smell great!" He informed as the girl walked in after.
"Thanks?" His mother responded.
Piper walked into the living room, "Okay, who's hungry for my food?" She asked.
Thea smiled and raised her hand up, "Me!"
"Eh. . ."
"Uh. . ."
The other Hart members said which made the girl look at them confused.
"Oh uh, just one thing before we all have dinner." Henry started.
"What's that?"
"What?"
His parents asked.
"Well, I mean I just feel that Piper worked really hard to make this dinner so we should all take it very seriously." Henry explained.
"Yeah, I think it's good to have serious dinners time to time and why not start tonight?" Thea added.
"Like nobody should make any jokes or do anything funny especially unexpectedly."
"And also don't smile at our direction." Thea finished.
Piper stared at them for a moment, "Okay, everyone sit down,"
"Wait, we have to wait for Jasper and his cousin." Mr Hart reminded.
"Ooh, that's right," Mrs Hart agreed.
"Wait, Jasper's bringing his cousin?" Henry questioned.
"Yeah, the one who's a stand up comedian."
Thea exchanged a worried glance with Henry and she leaned in to whisper, "Why couldn't he bring the cousin with the hunchback?"
"We're here. We're hungry, get used to it!" Jasper announced as himself and his cousin entered the home.
"Oh man,"
"This is not gonna be good."
Henry and Thea mumbled.
"Oh, you're Dex Dunlop!" Piper smiled.
"He's my second cousin,"'Jasper informed.
"Yeah, don't say that out loud,"
Everyone started to laugh apart from Thea and Henry.
"So, Dex. I hear you won best comedian in Swellview." Mr Hart said.
Jasper placed his hand around his second cousin, "He sure did. There's nobody funnier than my cuz."
His cousin looked at him, "Thanks, comin' from you that means so little." Everyone started laughing again while Thea and Henry stayed silent.
"Hey, how about dinner, yeah?" Thea reminded them, wanting to eat this dinner quick so that they can get out of here.
Thea stared at her food that Piper made for them in disgust, now having the urge to throw up but she sent a false smile when she noticed the girl walking up to them. "So, how does everyone like my tuna parmesan?" She asked.
"Oh, it's so good."
"Oh, it's great."
"I'm loving it."
"It's something alright."
"Yay, I'll get more tuna sauce," The girl walked into the kitchen.
"Tuna sauce?" Thea repeated back before letting out an groan. "Does this always happen whether she cooks for you?" She whispered, wondering if Piper's just all around a bad chef.
"Yes," The Hart family whispered in unison and they all grabbed spare cups and shoved Piper's food inside it before she came back.
"Here's my sauce!" She placed onto the table before sitting beside Henry.
"Meow," Thea immediately covered her mouth as everyone looked at her with wide eyes.
"Did you just meowed?" Piper asked the girl.
Henry shook his head, "No, she didn't!" He quickly said, covering for the girl. "Uh. . .Thea was doing a voice exercise." He made up.
Thea leaned in Henry's ear and whispered, "Voice exercise?" She repeated back.
"What else do you want me to say?" Henry harshly whispered before the two of them looked back at the others with fake smiles.
Thea let out a fake chuckle, "Yeah, it said online that meowing is good. . .to warm up your voice box and help you speak louder. . .and stuff."
"Really, I didn't know that." Mrs Hart smiled.
Thea nodded as she played with the disgusting food with her spoon, "Yeah. . ." She mumbled before glancing down at her food.
"So Dex. . ." Mr Hart started.
"Yeah?"
"Tell me one of your insult jokes."
"No!" Henry exclaimed. "Please no jokes."
"Especially the insult ones," Thea pleaded, knowing she will burst of laughing from those kinda ones.
"Yeah, we all here for Piper's wonderful dinner so nobody says nothing funny,"
"Well, in case, Jasper should tell the jokes," Dex joked and everyone started laughing as Thea and Henry held their laughter in. "Just kidding, I'll do one. Uh, knock knock."
"Ooh, who's there?" Mr Hart asked.
"Idiot."
"Idiot who?"
"You. You're an idiot."
Everyone started laughing as Thea started to pinch her hand to contain her laughter.
"It's funny 'cause it's true," Piper commented.
"Do another joke," Jasper insisted.
"All right. Uh, guys like magic?"
"Yeah,"
"Sure,"
"I like serious magic cause magic is like an art and it should be taken seriously and never laughed at so let's keep the magic serious, okay?"
"All right, here's some 'serious' magic," He pulled out an napkin and blew into it very loudly.
"That's a lot of mucus," Mrs Hart whispered to her husband.
"All right. Now Jasper, hold on your hand," The boy followed his order. "Now squeeze it tight."
"Okay, what's next?"
Dex shrugged, "Nothin' I'm done."
Everyone paused for a second and begin to laugh again, "He made me squeeze the snot!" Jasper laughed.
"Am I the only one who finds it gross?" Thea wondered aloud and then looked over at Henry who covered his mouth with an napkin, holding his laughs but he then rushed out of the house. Thea excused herself and quickly followed after him. When she walked out, she saw Henry breathing out fire as he heavily laughed. "You good?" She smiled as she walked over to him.
Henry let out a sigh, "Yeah, I feel good now," then both of their watches started to beep. "I'll answer it," When he answered the call, an hologram of Ray appeared in front of them.
"Hey Kids, listen —"
"Hey, don't stay anything funny or I'll end up roasting my wrist!" Henry warned.
"Relax, you're indestructible now."
"It still hurts," Henry said
"Yeah, and Jasper's cousin is giving me dirty looks from what I'm wearing," Thea huffed.
Ray explained to them that they re-rigged the densitzier and it will fix their side effects which it was the teens wanted to hear all day.
"Just hurry up and come to the Man Cave,"
"Okay, we just need to get out of the dumb family dinner. One sec," Henry ended the call and the teens opened the door.
"—You know what, if you guys don't want my dinner then dinner is over!" Piper exclaimed and pulled the red table cloth and all the dishes shatter onto the floor. The little girl ran upstairs before slamming her room door shut.
Thea blinked and slowly turned to Henry with a smirk, "You heard the girl,"
Henry returned the smirk, "Dinner's over." He said and the two did a fist bump before they walked out of the house again to head back to Junk N Stuff.
THE TWO TEENS were now down in the storage room with the rest of the gang and the machine, "So, are you sure this thing is gonna fix Thea and I problems?" Henry asked.
"Eh, pretty sure," Schwoz waved them off as his attention was on the machine.
"But will we still be indestructible?" Thea asked, fiddling with her rings as she was trying to calm herself down.
"We don't know," Schwoz shrugged which made Thea panic even more.
"Well then before we do this, Ray?" Henry called and turned to the man.
"Yeah, kid?" Ray walked over to them.
Henry pointed to his cheek, "One time, just in case it's my last time," Ray looked at everyone else in confusion but they just shrugged their shoulders. Ray leaned in and kissed Henry's cheeks but the boy quickly backed up, "Ew no— what are you doing, man?" He wiped his cheek.
"What, you tapped your cheek!" He defended.
"I didn't want you to kiss it, I want you to punch it!" Henry shouted. "While I'm indestructible,"
"Oh. . .okay," Ray laughed before he punched Henry in the face making him stumble back.
He then placed his hands on his hips, "I'm okay," He announced, saying his boss' catchphrase.
Ray looked over at Thea and the girl's eyes widened, "Yeah, I'm good," She smiled, not wanting to take a punching to the face — indestructible or not.
"All right, let's do this," Charlotte spoke.
Schowz nodded, "Goggles on," He ordered and everyone apart from Henry and Thea placed their goggles over their eyes as the two sidekicks walked over to the machine.
"Wait, do we get goggles?" Henry asked, motioning himself and Thea.
"Eh, we only have three pairs," Schwoz sheepishly smiled and Thea rolled her eyes. "Voosh, veek, veezle!" He spoke in his native language that Thea doesn't know of and honestly doesn't care. She watched Schwoz pushed the lever forward and Charlotte pushed the other one backwards.
Henry and Thea both shook violently underneath the machine along with Ray who was holding to the pilers. A few seconds later, Schwoz and Charlotte both pulled the levers down to stop everything.
Henry, Thea and Ray all stumbled out of the machines, "Woo, that felt awesome!" Ray cheered as he placed his goggles on top of his head.
"Henry, Thea, are you all right?" Charlotte asked them.
"Yeah, I think so," Henry nodded.
Thea touched her head and looked back to look at her butt, "The cat features are gone!" She smile and everyone let out a cheer for her.
"Okay, Thea's good but how do we make Henry laugh to see if fire comes out?" Ray asked.
"Ooh, Ray! Do your impression of Schwoz taking an shower," Charlotte suggested.
"Good idea, that'll make henry laugh," Ray started doing an impression of Schwoz taking an bath which made the small man sent him an annoyed look while the others laugh. Thea looked over when she heard Henry giggling but no fire came out of his mouth.
"It worked, I laugh out no fire!" Henry smiled and everyone cheered.
"Yeah, high five!" Ray raised his hand up and Henry high five him and the others as well.
"Ooh, wait, wait," Charlotte stopped their little celebration.
"What's up?"
"What?"
"What's wrong, Char?"
"We don't know if Henry and Thea's still indestructible or not," Charlotte reminded.
"Oh maybe we can test —" Not noticing, Schwoz had snuck up behind them and whacked both Henry and Thea with an baseball bat which made them go unconscious and fall onto the floor.
Charlotte and Ray looked at Schwoz in disbelief, "They're back to normal!" The small man cheered. The three of them looked down at their unconscious body and all decided to just leave the room instead of helping them.
authors note: thanks for reading!