(Summary/Disclaimers: See Chapter 1)

Chapter 3: Disappearing Sensei

Matt Hardy's house in Cameron, NC:

Lucas watches Matt patiently as he moves about the kitchen doing odd tasks while on the phone.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Matt tells the person on the other end. "So, Kirby, what time should I be there?"

"It's 3:30 now. How about in an hour?" Kirby aka "Krazy K" says.

"Good. That'll give me time to give Lucas a quick walk." Matt looks over to the little dog that's now on all fours and wagging his tail after hearing his name said.

Matt ends his call with Kirby then walks over to Lucas.

"Come on, boy!" he says happily. "Let's go for a walk!"

Lucas barks excitedly as Matt grabs his leash. Once he puts the leash on the dog, he gives Lucas a scratch behind the right ear. They walk out the front and the first thing Matt notices is that one of the rear tires to his corvette is flat.

"What the…" he thinks. Did he run over a nail? He drops Lucas' leash then walks over to inspect the damage. Out of nowhere, he's grabbed from behind and tackled to the ground! Lucas's barking fills the air. Matt struggles against the grip. He gets an arm free and uses it to elbow his attacker. A grunt is heard and the grip is loosened. Matt quickly rolls away then jumps to his feet. His attacker, who's dressed all in black and is wearing a matching black ski mask, also jumps to his feet.

"…the hell?" Matt gasps shortly before taking him down in a sick looking football tackle.

Matt is seriously pissed! Not only did this clown trespass onto to his property, he tried to physically assault him. He grabs the person by the shirt, ready to punch the holy hell out of them when he is again grabbed from behind. This time around, a white cloth is put over his face. Matt struggles wildly. This causes him and the second attacker to crash into the side of the corvette making a large dent in the driver side door. In seconds the sweet smelling vapor coming from the cloth starts to take effect on his senses. His movements slow down and his head become fuzzy. The last thing he remembers before going out is hearing Lucas' barking.

Mick's, Parking lot. Raleigh, NC. 5:20 pm:

Kirby is not happy. He growls after hearing the 4th ring of the phone. Matt was supposed to meet him almost an hour ago! He's been calling him on and off. After leaving the 3rd message he had really no patience. He hangs up and calls Tamran.

After 3 rings he hears Tamran's "Hello?"

"Hey Tam, this is Kirby. Have you heard from Matt today? I've been waiting on him for about an hour. We were supposed to talk about the new chat room for the site. "

"Sorry K." Tamran apologizes. "The last time I talked to Matt was 2 days ago."

Crap, Kirby thinks. "Okay, thanks. If you do hear from him, could you tell him that it was not cool to have me waiting an hour if he wasn't going to show up."

"That just doesn't sound like Matt. But I'll tell him."

Tamran's house. Tennessee:

After Tamran ends the call from Kirby, she calls Jeff and Beth.

"Chuck E Cheese's! How may I help you?"

Tamran laughs. "Hey Jeff. Still silly I see?"

"Well I have to keep the people happy." Jeff replies. "So what's up?"

"Nothing really." Tamran tells him. "At least I hope not."

"What's going on?"

"Kirby just called here saying that Matt was suppose to meet with him an hour ago. Have you heard from him?"

"I talked to him last night. Today? Nope. But it is weird of him to flake out on a meeting like that."

"I know." Tamran agrees. "All I know is that Kirby sounded mad."

"I'll roll by his house to see what's up and I'll call ya back okay?"

"K, Thanks."

Matt's house. Cameron, NC:

First thing that Jeff notices when getting out of his corvette is Matt's corvette in the driveway. Second thing is Lucas running up to him with his leash still attached, Jeff picks up the small dog and gets a lick on his cheek as a reward.

"Hey boy, where your daddy at?" he asks the dog.

Lucas' response is to whimper.

Jeff does a double take when he sees the huge dent in Matt's car door.

"What happen, Luc?" Jeff asks, not really talking to the dog, but thinking out loud.

He goes inside the house. Nothing been taken. In fact, Matt's laptop is still on the coffee table. Looks like he had been checking his messages.

"MATT! Hey Matthew! Where you at?" He calls out.

Nothing. Not one response. He searches the house some more, Jeff sighs in disappointment when his search turns up empty. He's trying not to freak out, but …

Where is Matt?