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Chapter 3: A single Shimering strand.
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Jake heads over to Spike's house for movie night.
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It didn't take long for Jake to get home and help set the table for dinner. There was also no fuss to say that he would be heading out right after to hang out with Spike for the evening. Knowing that the redhead would be spending the week on his own, Jakes mother insisted her son make up a plate for Spike and bring it down with him.

"He's already skinny as it is, we don't want him turning into a skeleton while his parents are away!" his mother chided. Jake had tried to tell her that his friend wasn't stupid enough to starve himself just because nobody was there to feed him, but she simply shoo'd him off with a plastic wrapped plate of porkchops and sides.

Jake found himself chuckling under his breath. In spite of his protests Spike would probably be excited for the home-cooked meal. His parents were often gone for work. During their childhood there was more of an effort to be home, but the effort began to slip as they hit their teens and Spike was seen as self-sufficient enough to take care of himself and the home, and his parents could focus on their work which often had them traveling. He was never alone for long though, as he would find himself staying with his cousin Jimmy for a few days, or spending time down at the lab with Professor Ozel and Natalie. When it came time to eat though the redhead would usually wander to Jake's apartment building to hand out with Jake and his feeder of a mother.

When Jake called him out on the convenient timing of his visits he just laughed and said "I just like to be taken care of now and then!" before complimenting another great meal.

Jake was already turning onto Spike's street when the Blunette noticed something off even from a distance. Even from a ways down the street Jake could see his friend's front door was ajar, as was the gate around the yard. He picked up the pace, passing through the gate and towards the door calling out to the redhead.

"Spike? Hey Spike!? Are you in there?!" no answer. As a latch-key kid it was not likely that he left the door wide open. "Spike?!" still no response. Clearly Spike wasn't home and this worried him. They had just talked about hanging out and watching some movies, had he needed to go grab something like popcorn from the convenience store he would have just waited for Jake and have gone together, or called his apartment and said to let himself in with the hidden key under the yard gnome. Not leave the door wide open.

His mind began swirling with anxiety of what could have happenned! What could have caused his friend to leave in such a hurry? There was no real sign of a struggle inside, it wasn't neat and tidy by any means but it looked about as clean as a lone guy might leave it? The only thing out of place on the whole property was an abandoned pizza box in the yard… Jake was puzzled. He had a nagging, paranoid thought buzzing through his brain, but he tried not to humor his knee-jerk accusation for everything. There was no reason to jump to conclusions… 'But then again,' he thought to himself, 'It has been too quiet lately…'

Jake set the plate down and closed the door behind him, trying to convince himself that there had to be a different explanation, although 'maybe he got a call that his parents got into an accident and he had to rush to the hospital' didn't make him feel any better. He wasn't sure if it made him feel worse though, as he rubbed one hand against the other's knuckles, only barely having scabbed over from earlier.

He leaned against the wall and sighed. "You're just being crazy Jake…" he told himself out loud. "He probably just forgot something and left in a hurry and forgot to close the door. We all do stupid shit sometimes. You're just dying to blame everything on– on–" Jake trailed off as a small shimmering line caught his attention, lying on the dark carpet in the very spot his unfocussed gaze had been trying to burn a hole into. It was almost invisible on the floor, but the setting sun peaking through the disheveled window curtain caught on the item causing it to shimmer like the first snow of winter. A single long white hair rest on the floor and caused Jakes blood to both run cold and boil all at once.

"Specter!" He exclaimed in fury before bolting from the house, leaving behind the plate of food as he rushed in the direction of the professor's lab.

Specter had made his move after a period of being dormant, and Spike was in trouble. He was sure of it.

A single shimmering strand

Spike was pretty sure he was in trouble. He lay on the bed of his holding cell counting the seconds waiting to see if one of the apes tasked with guarding the prisoners passed by his cell again. Despite the multiple cells in this hall, all were empty, sans the one that currently held him.

The guard passes by him again and he scrutinizes every detail about the chimp. He's pretty sure there are two patrolling the halls, but to him they look identical, like most of the Apes under Specter's order. Once the ape left the hall and Spike's vision, the red head turned his gaze back to the room that held him. It was what you would imagine a cell to look like: a toilet in the corner, not far from a sink, a bed attached to the wall opposite to that that the boy lay on. The floor was decorated with a thin off-white carpet that could use a good vacuuming and the walls were bare aside from a weird poster of an ape with a bikini winking towards the camera.

"Yeah, that's not going to stay here." Spike thought to himself. "But then again, neither am I."

The ape guard (or maybe the second one?) passes the glass window again. Spike counted a few more seconds, allowing the ape to pass further away from the door. As soon as he deemed it safe he jumped to his feet, a small metal rod in hand from its hiding place in his waistband.

In two quick bounds he finds himself in front of the door, jamming the metal rod between two panels in the wall and prying it as quietly as it was violently, bending the rod to hell and back but still managing to warp the panel enough to get a finger or two inside. Not a bad tool for something he pulled from the back tank of the toilet! He only had a few moments more to try before having to return to his spot on the bed, signaled by the little feet of the Guard returning on his patrol trip.

This dance continued as it had been for the last few hours. Spike had been working at that panel the moment he realized it looked slightly different than the others, like a service panel for the door's electronic lock. Specter probably felt confident that without his Gadget watch he wouldn't be able to do anything and would just sit around. Specter was wrong though.

As Spike abandoned his makeshift crowbar he began working the panel with his bare hands. He was more than just some kid and powered by the tools of an elderly genius. He was an astute young adult now, who had been learning what goes into those gadgets, of which he was grateful as the panel finally came loose from the wall revealing some welcoming colorful wires hooked to the door. A Familiar yet simple little setup. Had he had the professor's exploding RC car this fragile setup would be like tissue paper in a blender, but without it he would have to settle for a makeshift stun club.