Okay, again thank you for the reviews. They really help, though this is another kinda short chapter. I'm just trying to set things up before things really get started.

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Chapter #4: What the Hell?

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The next day, just like everyone suspected, Token was back at school. But, again like everyone suspected, he was noticeably different. Where once he was always ready with a smile for a friend, today his face was blank and emotionless. If asked a question he would either not answer at all or would answer in a monotonous tone of voice that just seemed plain wrong on the normally active boy. Questions about where he had been, what had happened to him, what the kidnappers looked like were all answered with: "In the dark. In the dark. The Great Ones shall triumph." Whatever that meant.

Bebe looked like at any moment she would burst into tears and had actually had to rush to the ladies' room more than once for some privacy to pull herself together. She could be seen at the side of her boyfriend, trying desperately for any sign that Token was still in there, that he wasn't just a shell of his former self.

The basketball coach was also upset. His star player suddenly wouldn't play anymore. He would only stand there, watching as the other players and the ball went racing past. In the end the coach had had no choice but to bench him. Token was just lucky that it wasn't football season or he would have found himself facing being benched there as well and that would have hurt his football scholarship.

The teachers were upset too, of course, but Token's grades were not going to fail. When called upon to answer a question in class—a rare occurrence as the teachers didn't really want to hear Token speak in that strange monotonous voice. It bothered them—Token was answering all of the questions correctly, even those questions that he would normally have difficulty with.

Stan, himself, was finding it hard to even look at his friend. It just seemed wrong somehow that Token had been taken down like this. Token was the star everything. He was meant to go on to a top college, have a happy marriage, get a great job and make tons of money. Now Stan wouldn't be surprised if he ended up flipping burgers at the local Burger King. Nobody wanted an emotionless robot as an employee.

The only one who wasn't disturbed by Token's change was Cartman, as was also expected. See, Cartman had an idea. An idea so ingenious that it would, of course, make him ten thousand dollars.

"Alright, Now here's the plan," Cartman explained to Kenny early that next Monday. Three more people after Token had been taken, and so far only two had been returned. They expected the other one back that Tuesday. "We build a ramp, a really, really steep ramp," Catrtman pressed this one point as it was crucial to the entire success of the plan, "and put up signs to get people to show up. They pay the five dollar fee and then I rollerblade down the ramp and over the pond. It's genius."

Kenny didn't look nearly as enthused. "And you think people will actually pay for this?"

"Of course!" Cartman looked angry that Kenny even doubted this. Getting over this, he frowned to himself. "But we have to put up tons of signs or else people won't know about it. You think you can do that?"

Kenny shook his head. "You know I don't have the money to make signs."

Cartman nodded with another small frown "Right. Right. You're a poor bastard. Guess I'll have to do it myself."

"And you're actually going to put these signs up all over school?" Kenny asked. He somehow doubted that Cartman would actually put in the work to make this all happen, but then he also knew how dedicated Cartman could be to any of his many schemes.

"Don't be stupid, Kenny," Cartman said, looking at Kenny as though he were the stupidest thing to walk this earth. "I'm gonna put these signs up all over town. That way everybody will know, not just the poor bastards at this fuckin' poor excuse for a school. Everyone will literally have to be there."

"Right," Kenny said uncertainly before deciding not to say anything else to that. He didn't know how putting up signs meant that everybody would have to be there, but then he wasn't going to ask either. He shook his head. "Well tell me how it turns out, okay?" he said, waving a hand and turning to leave.

"Wait!" Cartman said, grabbing him by the arm and turning Kenny around to scowl at him. "Did I say you could leave? You don't actually expect me to build the ramp by myself, do you?"

Kenny rolled his eyes and tugged his arm out of Cartman's grip. "I'm not gonna be free manual labor for you Cartman."

Cartman scowled deeper. This meant he would actually have to give up some of his hard earned cash. "Ten dollars."

Kenny looked offended. "No way."

"Fine. Twenty and that's my final offer."

At this, Kenny looked considering. After all, it was twenty dollars. Finally, after a moment of thought, Kenny smiled and held out a hand to shake Cartman's. "Alright. You got yourself a deal."

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Later, during the second break between classes, Bebe came hurrying down the hallway, looking this way and that frantically. Stopping before Stan and Kyle for just a moment, she asked with a breathless intensity, "Have you seen Token?"

Stan looked surprised. "He's missing again?"

"I haven't seen him all day," Bebe explained hurriedly, looking like she really didn't want to have to slow down to answer this question but was desperate for any help, "I don't think he came to school."

Obviously this was a serious matter. "You think they kidnapped him again?" Stan asked intently.

"No," Kyle said, shaking his head. "They couldn't have. Nobody else has been kidnapped a second time."

"Actually . . ." Stan started, thinking back on his previous classes. "That girl, Anne Polk? She's usually in our first class and she wasn't there this morning."

Kyle actually thought back to that class and blinked when he realized Stan was right. "Hey, yeah. Your right," he said, sounding somewhat surprised.

Stan gave Kyle a mildly dirty look. "You don't have to sound so surprised."

Kyle looked mildly apologetic. "Sorry."

Bebe obviously didn't have time for this byplay. "So you think they've all been kidnapped again?" Bebe asked, her face intense, obviously wanting to get to the bottom of this mystery.

"Well . . . I dunno," Kyle said, turning back to the girl uncertainly. "Maybe they just didn't go to school today. Maybe their parents kept them home. You know, because of how weird they're acting?"

Bebe didn't want to hear this. "No," she said, shaking her head with a serious frown. "Something's happened. Something bad. I can feel it and I'm going to find out what." And with that she hurried off. Stan and Kyle watched her go, blinking at her retreating form then turning to each other with a shrug

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Later, Kyle and Stan were at the basketball courts shooting hoops. Kenny and Cartman weren't there because they said they had some work to do. Kyle had bet it was another one of Cartman's stupid plans and Stan had had to agree.

"Alright and he shoots," Stan said, dodging past Kyle and lining up for a shot. The ball flew from his hands, bounced around the hoop once, twice, and then fell in. "And he scores!" Stan cheered. Grinning, he shot Kyle a smug look as Kyle went to retrieve the ball.

Kyle smirked as he picked the ball up from where it had rolled off into the grass surrounding the concrete and started to slowly dribble the ball down the court. "Don't get too cocky. I'm still ahead by four."

"Not for long," Stan replied and went on the defense, trying to knock the ball from Kyle's hands. With some fancy footwork, Kyle kept the ball in his hands and dribbled quickly down the court to set up a shot. He jumped up and the ball flew from his hands only to be knocked out of its path by Stan.

"Hah!" Stan said and hurried after the ball. But Kyle was faster, reaching the ball before it could roll out of bounds, snatching it up and dribbling it a few times before setting up for a three-pointer. The ball flew from his hands and sunk neatly into the hoop with a swish.

Now it was Kyle's turn to shoot Stan a smug look. "Now I'm ahead by seven. Try and catch up now."

"Oh I will," Stan promised as he went to retrieve the ball. "Don't worry."

Play went on like this for a few more minutes, Stan sinking another shot and then the two getting locked in a long battle of defense against offense, Kyle trying to find a way past Stan's seemingly multiple arms, when the ball finally bounced off the toes of Stan's sneakers and went flying off to the side and out of bounds

Kyle sighed and went to retrieve it only to pick it up and stop where he was. Something had caught his attention. Squinting his eyes—it was starting to get a little dark—Kyle tried to make out the figure walking down the street.

"Hey, man, c'mon. We don't have much more time before we have to get home," Stan said, trying to call Kyle back when it seemed his friend was taking too long.

"Is that . . ." Kyle said, ignoring Stan to ask a more important question, "Is that Token?"

"Huh?" Stan said then came closer to see what Kyle was looking at. "Oh, hey," he said, squinting at the figure walking down the darkening street. "I think it is."

"Do you have Bebe's number?" Kyle asked, turning the Stan.

Stan shook his head, eyes still on Token. "Don't have my phone."

"Great," Kyle said sarcastically as he turned the ball over in his hands, "I don't either."

Stan was more concerned with other things. "Where do you think he's going?" he asked.

Kyle shrugged. "I dunno. But I guess this means he wasn't kidnapped again."

Stan turned to Kyle, his expression intent and serious. "Do you think we should follow him?"

Kyle looked hesitant. "I dunno . . ."

"Oh c'mon man," Stan said, trying to convince Kyle that following and intentionally spying on a friend was a good idea. "What could go wrong?"

Kyle just gave Stan a look at that and Stan had to quickly backtrack before Kyle could start listing past adventures.

"I mean, he can't be going far. We'll just follow him a little ways and if anything seems fishy we'll stop."

Kyle thought about this then eventually sighed and gave in. Stan smiled in triumph and the two quickly ran in the direction Token had gone, slowing down when the other boy came within view. He seemed to be carrying a whole lot of wood for some reason and was headed out of town in the direction of the woods

"What's with the wood?" Stan whispered and Kyle shrugged as they continued to follow behind the other boy, carefully trying to keep their steps as quiet as possible. They didn't want Token turning around to catch them following him, if Token in this state would even care.

They eventually came to a clearing just on the edge of town where nearly a dozen other kids were hauling lumber and banging away at wood, nailing in nails and seeming to be creating some type of structure. The Anne Polk girl was there along with almost every other one of the kidnapped kids.

"What the hell?" Stan whispered as he took in this sight.

"What are they doing?" Kyle hissed as he and Stan hid behind a nearby bush.

Stan shook his head wordlessly, busy staring at the spectacle. "I have no idea, man. No idea. But they're building something for sure."

"What do you think it is?" Kyle asked quietly, hunching in closer to the bush and peering over the foliage.

"No idea," Stan said again. And for a few more moments the two watched as the kidnapping victims worked, seemingly intent on creating whatever they were building.

Eventually Stan spoke again, "Maybe we should ask them." And he seemed about ready to come out from behind the bush to go approach one of the kids.

Kyle shook his head and quickly pulled him back before he could reveal their position. "No way, dude. We should be going home. It's late."

"But—Stan started, for some reason feeling like he needed to know what was going on here. There was something inside him that was more than curiosity that needed to know. This felt all wrong somehow.

"No," Kyle said firmly and tugged on Stan's sleeve. "Now c'mon. We can come back here later."

Reluctant, Stan still gave in to Kyle's insistence and the two turned to leave. "Alright," he said, turning to his friend as they turned away from the building site, ready to head back home. "But we are definitely coming back later."

"Yeah. Later. Whatever," Kyle said. "Just go already." And the two left the site behind.

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TBC