THE SPACE ROCK
[UNEDITED]

Ava walked down into the Man Cave. "I need a—" Ava looked at Ray lying on the floor, covered in ashes. "Oh my god!" Ava screamed, running next to Ray.

"What happened?" Ava asked, trying to poke at Ray's body. "Are you dead?" Ava kicked his lifeless body. "No, no, no," Ava tried panicking.

"Ray? You there?" Henry asked through the walkie-talkie. "What happened?" Charlotte asked.

"Someone explain to me why my father is on the floor and why there is a hole in the Man Cave," Ava asked Henry from Ray's phone.

"Ray, a very heavy rock is about to crash through your ceiling," Henry warned. "Yeah, thanks for the heads up," Ray answered deliriously before lying down again.

Henry and Charlotte frantically get out of the elevator. "Ray, what's wrong?" Henry asked worryingly. "Shhhh," Ray and Gooch shushed Henry.

"How come you guys are--" Charlotte asked before getting interrupted by Ava and Henry shushing her.

"Why are you two shushing me?" Charlotte asked. "I don't know, they started it," Henry shrugged.

"Will you two be quiet?" Ray asked. "We have a situation," Gooch warned. "What's going on?" Henry whispered.

Ray placed down the weapon he was holding. Ray started doing weird movements mixed with a panicked look.

"Okay, you're gonna have to use your words," Charlotte said, unable to decode Ray's charade. "Look at the space rock," Ava whispered, pointing at the rock which has cracked open.

"What the jack happened?" Charlotte asked, walking closer to the egg. "It hatched," Gooch answered.

"What do you mean it hatched? It's a rock. Rocks don't hatch, do rocks hatch?" Henry asked Charlotte, confused. "No eggs hatch," Charlotte corrected.

"So... the space rock was really a space egg?" Henry asked. "Yeah, and last night it hatched," Ray explained.

"And some thing crawled out of it," Ava added, holding a laser gun. "Where it'd go?" Henry questioned. "We don't know," Gooch said, his voice cracking.

"But if left that purple slime trail," Ray pointed at the trail. "So you're saying that some creature from outer space crawled out of that egg rock and now somewhere around here, but you don't know where it is?"

"That's right," Gooch nodded, on the verge of tears.

"Okay then," Charlotte sighed.

Charlotte grabbed her bag and ran up under one of the tubes, "Up the tube," Charlotte shot up the tube, leaving Gooch, Ray, Henry, and Ava alone in the Man Cave. "So, she's gone," Henry awkwardly said.

They suddenly heard a squeaky sound, and Ava raised her laser gun. "Oh, I hear it," Ray said. "Gooch, turn off all non-essential equipment," Ray ordered, patting his shoulder to hurry up. "Right," Gooch ran to the cabinet, tapping something on the keyboard.

Suddenly the Man Cave dims into a dark room, "Oh my god, something is squeezing me," Ray panicked. "And Henry's gone!" Ava and Gooch stated.

"I'm right here," Henry popped up from behind Ray. His legs wrapped around Ray's body, holding on for dear life. Ray tried getting Henry off him, struggling to pull him apart from him.

"All right, this is stupid we don't need to be afraid," Ray said, trying to calm everyone down. "Easy for you to say," Gooch snapped. "Yeah, you're indestructible," Henry remarked as he fixed his hair.

"No creature is gonna hurt you," Ava rolled her eyes, agreeing with Henry. "Oh yeah? What if it crawls up my leg? I don't need some alien thing all up in there," Ray panicked. Ava and Henry responded with disgusted looks.

"So, what do we do?" Henry asked. "I think if we calmly searched the Man Cave—" Ray said before the squeaking could be heard again and everyone started frantically running around.

Henry started banging on the elevator while Ray banged on the sprocket before Henry and Ray ran towards the tubes, Ava followed Ray, hugging his waist.

"Up the tube," 

Ava and Charlotte are looking up information about the egg while Henry is on the phone talking with Gooch. "Yeah, yeah, they're right here," Henry nodded.

"Gooch wants to know why you won't go back to work and why you won't go home," Henry asked Ava and Charlotte. "I'm not going back there until someone catches that creature and gets rid of it," Charlotte turned around from the laptop.

"I'm not going back until I see that thing dead," Charlotte answered. "Don't you want to see it?" Henry asked. "We do. We wanna see the thing dead," Ava faked a smile. "They say they're not coming back to work until we catch the..." Henry looked over to check if Piper was listening.

"You know what? Yeah, women do be crazy," Henry chuckled. "I heard that," Charlotte shot Henry a glare. "And men do be stupid," Ava muttered, typing away on her laptop. "Hey, I left my backpack down in the..." Henry informed.

Ava turned around to check up on Henry. "Oh, you did?" Henry smiled. "Hey, Piper," Henry called out for his sister. "What?" Piper yelled, removing her headphones.

"A guy I work with says he dropped my backpack off here," Henry repeated. "Yeah, Mom has it. Stop bothering me!" Piper snapped, reverting her attention to her tablet.

"Yeah, I got it, thanks. Okay, later," Henry ended the call with Gooch. "So did you--" Henry said before realized Piper could be listening in.

"Did you find out anything about the space rock or space egg or whatever?" Henry lowered his voice. "Yeah, and we are worried," Ava stated.

"About?"

"What if that was just the first alien space rock egg?" Charlotte started, her face filled with worry. "What if more come and then the aliens take over the earth and use us humans as food?" Ava asked as she stood up.

"That will never happen," Henry assured them. "Why not?" Charlotte asked, curious about Henry's statement.

"Because... if they're aliens who traveled here, that means they'd have to be highly intelligent. And highly intelligent creatures wouldn't eat other living creatures," Henry explained.

Ava watched in irony as Henry took a bite from a chicken leg. "Wouldn't they?" Ava deadpanned.
"Oh my god," Henry dropped the chicken, letting it fall onto the table as he realized the irony he had created himself.

"Oh yeah, Oh yeah. I'm the golden boy," Jasper rushed into Henry's house. "Showtime," Piper smirked, taking off her headphones.

"What are you all pumped about?" Henry asked. "Yeah, Jasper. What's up?" Piper asked, her tone seeming suspicious as if she was plotting something.

"You guys know my latest bucket podcast?" Jasper reminded. "Yeah?" Henry shrugged. "100,007 downloads," Jasper said, excited about the take-off of his podcast.

"What?" Charlotte exclaimed, shocked by the sudden engagement Jasper had. "You have a podcast?" Ava asked. "No," Piper joined in with a sarcastic tone.

"That many people downloaded your podcast?" Henry asked for confirmation. "Yes, sir," Jasper nodded. "And what's the most you've ever gotten?" Ava asked.

"Seven," Jasper replied. "Oh..." Ava trailed off, she didn't want to sound unsupportive. "That's really great. Wow. I bet this success makes you feel so much better about yourself as a person," Piper stood up from the couch.

"It does," Jasper agreed. Ava, Charlotte, and Henry watched in confusion as Piper complimented Jasper. "Later, I'm going to go to my grandma's house and I'm going to say, "Hey Grandma, who's useless now?"

"Good for you, Jasp," Henry nodded, happy for Jasper's success. "Something seems fishy about it, though..." Ava muttered. "Thanks. Can I go up to your room and record a special thank you message to my fans?" Jasper requested.

"Sure," Henry agreed. "Thanks," Jasper ran up to Henry's room. "Way to go, Jasper. You're a rock star," Piper cheered on. "That's how I feel," Jasper smiled. "I'm still not going on your podcast," Ava added.

"He asked you to be on his podcast," Henry asked. "Three times," Ava nodded. "Ha!" Piper laughed loudly. "She did something," Charlotte said, knowing Piper did something. "Piper?" Henry asked.

"Yeah?" Piper responded, her smile still obvious. "I'm assuming you were the little girl who bought 100,000 downloads for Jasper?" Ava smiled, walking over to Piper. She took a seat on the couch.

"What did you do?" Henry rolled his eyes as he walked over to Piper. "Okay. Okay, I went on a website and for 10 bucks. I bought Jasper 100,000 fake downloads," Piper confessed, proud of the prank she pulled.

"Why would you do that?" Ava asked, impressed by Piper's idea. "To get him all happy and excited so I can crush him" Piper smirked menacingly. "Okay that's a really mean thing to—"

A scream can be heard from the garage before Mrs Hart walks into the living room with a panicked look. "Where's the bug spray? I need a bug spray and a baseball bat," Mrs Hart asked.

"Mom. Mom. Mom, what's wrong?" Henry went over to Mrs Hart. "I... I was down in the basement, washing your backpack because it was sticky inside, Oh Charlotte and Ava," Mrs Hart paused to wave at the girls.

Charlotte and Ava returned the wave. "And there may be a bug or a rat, whatever it is, it jumped on me and landed onto my shoulders," Mrs Hart said frantically.

Ava noticed a purple slimy stain on Mrs Hart's shirt. "Uh oh," Charlotte deadpanned after Henry touched the stain on Mrs Hart's shirt.

"Um..." Ava tried walking over to help Mrs Hart. "I got to go next door and borrow some bug spray and maybe a shotgun," Mrs Hart rushed outside.

"My backpack. The creature must've crawled inside my backpack at work," Henry realized. "And now it's here," Charlotte finished.

"What are you guys talking about?" Piper asked. "Nothing," Henry quickly replied. "You're nothing," Piper snapped. "We've got to find that creature, come down to the basement with me," Henry whispered.

"Hell no!" Ava exclaimed. "I have a better idea," Charlotte offered. "What?" Henry questioned. Charlotte and Ava ran out of Henry's house, leaving Henry alone in the kitchen.