By lunch hour, C.V.'s terrible reputation had spread throughout the school. Arthur and his friends decided it would be wise to hang together in case he threatened them, and they were in such a state of togetherness in the cafeteria line. Arthur himself was in the front, with Muffy, Buster, Sue Ellen, George, Alan, Francine, and Beat taking up his rear.
"I wonder where Binky is," said Buster to Francine. "I haven't seen him all day."
"I heard something about him going to jail," replied Francine.
"Too bad," Buster remarked. "Having a big guy like him around might make C.V. think twice."
"Nah," said Francine. "Binky would wet his pants and run at the first sign of trouble."
And the first sign of trouble wasn't far away. As Arthur walked away from the counter with his meal of lasagna and tapioca pudding, a sudden jolt of terror struck him, causing him to scream and drop his tray.
"Arthur, what is it?" asked the concerned Sue Ellen.
"Uh, I'm okay," said Arthur, breathing heavily. "Something scared me, but I don't know what."
But his friends knew what had scared him, as they saw C.V. leaning against a nearby wall, grinning condescendingly at them.
Infuriated, the kids laid down their trays and assembled into a mob to confront the owl boy, careful to avoid stepping on the lasagna and pudding scattered on the cafeteria floor.
"You can't defeat all of us with your fear powers," Alan challenged him.
"Oh, but I can," replied the unworried boy. "For I am...THE FEARMONGER!"
He didn't need to say another word. All at once the kids' confidence and anger was replaced by stark terror. They fled screaming from C.V., several of them slipping on the mess and falling on their backsides. The owl boy laughed mockingly.
Stinging from their humiliation, the kids gathered outside of the cafeteria entrance and surveyed the damage. Muffy, George, and Buster had food stains all over their clothing as a result of their tumbles; the others were shaken, but still clean.
"I'm gonna kill him," Muffy grumbled. "First he made me cut my hair, and now he's ruined my dress."
"There must be a way to make him stop," said Francine bitterly. "Alan, Beat, you're the smart ones."
"There's a way to make him stop, all right," Alan responded. "The question is, is there a way to make him stop that wouldn't count as a felony?"
"He must have a weakness," Beat mused. "Something stopped him from using his full power on Muffy. But what was it?"
"Maybe he has a crush on her," George suggested.
"Oh, puh-leeze," groaned Muffy.
"Let's go talk to the principal," Sue Ellen recommended. "Maybe he'll have some ideas."
When the kids reached Mr. Haney's office, they saw him standing and talking with two women. One was an owl lady whom they took to be C.V.'s mother. The other...
"Mom?" gasped Alan in surprise. "What are you doing here? Am I in trouble?"
"No, of course not," answered Mrs. Powers with a sweet smile.
"You kids are probably here because of young Mr. Oberlin's misbehavior," said the principal. "You won't have to worry about him for much longer. Everything is under control."
"That's good to know," said Alan, "but I'd still like to know why my mom is here."
"I'll explain everything after school," said his mother.
----
Lunch was equally uncomfortable for Binky and Molly, who were enjoying their first meal in captivity at juvenile hall. Binky had spent a summer here before, so the bare walls, high windows, and rows of kids in drab uniforms were familiar sights to him. He knew it would be unpleasant--it had been unpleasant the first time, and unpleasantness was part of the program. Yet spending three months in the free world without Molly's companionship would be even less bearable.
"This food is awful," groused Molly. "The peas are still half frozen, and the meat tastes like shredded cardboard."
"Just wait until dessert," quipped Binky.
To ease the girl's misery, he rested an arm across her shoulders. They smiled at each other, and for a beautiful moment forgot about their grim surroundings. "I'm glad you're here with me," said Molly sweetly.
"No mushy stuff!" barked the warden as he strolled past their table. Binky quickly retracted his arm and blushed. From the looks of it, their time together would be extremely limited during their stay.
Binky poked glumly at the mashed substance on his plate that passed for potatoes. Out of the corner of his eye he watched two uniformed boys shuffle into the lunch room with trays in their hands. One of them, a rat boy, appeared disturbingly familiar...
Jumping to his feet, Binky hurried toward the boy and greeted him warmly. "Dudley Proctor! How did you end up in here?"
The boy appeared quite embarrassed at being recognized. "I'm Dudley Green now," he told Binky quietly. "I was adopted."
"Come and sit with us," Binky offered. Dudley followed him somewhat hesitantly to the table where Molly was finishing her meal.
"Hey, I remember you," said the rabbit girl upon seeing him approach. "You're the kid who turned down membership in the Tough Customers."
"Yes, I am," said Dudley, setting down his tray and taking a seat. "Sadly, my new school has its own gang of toughs, and they were a bit more persuasive."
"What did you do?" inquired Molly. "Or should I ask?"
"You shouldn't ask," replied Dudley, sticking a forkload of half-frozen peas into his mouth.
"We stole diamonds from a museum," said Molly proudly. "At least that's the story we're going with."
"Really," Dudley marveled. "Quite a feat for children of your age."
The three friends took a few more bites of substandard food in silence.
"My adoptive parents are far from pleased with me," said Dudley, "but they say they won't give up on me. I only hope I can make them proud someday....but I probably won't." He sighed. "I can't seem to find happiness in anything but mischief. Oh, I do so hate being a boy."
"Girls rule," muttered Molly through a mouth full of meat.
"The counselor thinks my problem is lack of a male role model," Dudley went on. "I've only been male for half a year, for goodness' sake."
The rough-looking monkey boy across the table from Dudley leaned over to make a comment. "Hey, dork," he said with a mocking tone. "Why do you talk so funny?"
"I'm speaking proper English," the rat boy replied without a pause. "If you can't understand me, then you must have a problem."
"Understand this," snapped the monkey boy, waving a ham-sized fist.
"Back off, man," said Binky, glowering. "He may be a dork, but he's my dork."
"And mine," Molly added.
Apparently intimidated, the monkey boy lowered his fist and calmed down.
"So," he said in a more placid voice, "you guys have names?"
----
Afternoon recess had begun, and Muffy was ambling cheerfully through the school hallway, talking with Beat over a cell phone link. On her way she encountered D.W.'s classmate Emily, who was leaning with her hands against a wall, and seemed rather frightened.
"Is something wrong?" asked Muffy, lowering the cell phone from her ear.
"Yeah," replied the nervous little rabbit girl. "If I don't hold up the wall, it'll fall down and kill me."
"That's silly," Muffy chided her.
"It's true," Emily insisted. "The big fat boy said so."
Sighing impatiently, Muffy grabbed the girl's arm and yanked her away from the wall. Emily screamed in terror, then noticed that the wall was still intact.
"N-nothing happened," she observed with relief.
"Don't thank me," muttered Muffy, and she strolled away rapidly.
She soon heard Beat's voice on her cell phone once again. "I found him," said the rabbit-aardvark girl. "He's at the east end of the lot, by the trees."
"I'm on my way," said Muffy.
C.V. appeared to be basking in the midday sun, or in the ill-gotten glory of having cowed the entire student body into submission, or both. Beat showed no sign of fear as she approached the owl boy with her cell phone firmly planted against her ear.
"Back for more?" C.V. taunted her.
"Your reign of terror is over, Fearmonger," Beat proclaimed. "Like every super-powered individual, you have a weakness--and I just figured out what it is." From the corner of her eye she could see Muffy walking toward them through the grass, pressing her cell phone to her ear.
"Curses," grumbled C.V. sarcastically. "And all along I thought I was invincible. All right, Miss Know-It-All, what's my weakness?"
"Electromagnetic fields, like those created by cell phones," Beat answered. "You couldn't hurt Muffy as badly as you hurt your father, because there was an active cell phone near her head."
The owl boy only stared blankly at Beat as Muffy walked up alongside her. Both girls kept their cell phones positioned at the sides of their heads.
"If you don't believe me," said Beat confidently, "then try using your powers on us."
"You asked for it," warned C.V., who narrowed his eyes and concentrated intensely.
Nothing happened.
"I'm not scared," said Muffy into her phone. "How about you, Beat?"
"I'm not scared either."
Flustered, C.V. gritted his teeth and pushed mentally with all his might.
"Okay, I'm feeling a few butterflies in my stomach," said Muffy. "But it's no worse than going to the dentist."
"Give it up, Fearmonger," Beat ordered. "Your puny fear powers are no match for our cell phones of justice."
Finally despairing of affecting the girls, C.V. relaxed his face and let his arms slump. "All right," he acknowledged with a despondent sigh. "You win."
"I didn't hear that," spoke Muffy into her phone. "Did you hear that, Beat?"
"No, I didn't," replied Beat. "You'll have to speak louder, C.V."
"You win!" the boy bellowed.
"Good." Beat took a threatening step closer to C.V. "Promise you'll stop using your powers to hurt people, or I'll beat the tar out of you."
"I promise," C.V. groaned.
"Sorry? You're cutting out."
"I PROMISE!"
Beat nodded at Muffy, and both girls flipped their phones closed.
