Tucker awoke with a jump, sending the rabbit flying down to the bottom of the bed. It felt as if Tucker had fallen into his own bed. Tucker sat up and looked around the room. Even though he didn't have his glasses on, he could fairly clearly see something sitting on the end of his bed.

Tucker drew a deep breath and let out a loud whimper. He locked his pale green eyes with the narrow blood red eyes of the rabbit that nervously clutched his beret.

The rabbit surveyed the now conscious human boy. There was no way that he was going to get a sample from the boy; his hair was too short, even for the sharpest razor-like claws of a cat. His only chance would be to slip out of the window. Something in the boy's eyes told the rabbit he wasn't going to be able to get out very easily.

Tucker gradually pulled his legs away from the creature that seemed to be stealing his beret. Lifting the top of the pine green blanket up, he pulled his knees to his chest. He defensively curved his arms around his knees, still clutching the blanket with white-knuckled hands.

Whimpering slightly with the residual fear and shock, Tucker carefully lifted the blanket above his head. As he quickly pulled it down, a ripple of air swept under the blanket like a gentle wave out at sea. In one fluid movement, he sprang out of the side of the bed, lifted the blanket up as he ran along the side of the bed and tossed it over the rabbit. Tucker hesitated for a moment to check that the rabbit was covered before sprinting out of the room, hitting his shoulder against the door frame where not having his glasses on resulted in poor judgement.

The lump in the blanket that was the rabbit scurried to the edge of it. As he emerged his head, his two flexible black ears followed, each taking a turn to flick out from underneath the heavy bedding.

The rabbit looked around the room. There was no sign of the human boy. The rabbit smirked; the boy must have fled. It was true when they said humans were more scared of them than they were of humans.

This was the rabbit's chance to escape. Seizing the moment, the rabbit hopped across the carpet and made his great escape through the same window as the one he had come through.

The rabbit wasn't going back there again. He would warn the others against coming, too. In fact, he was done for the night. Whether his master liked it or not.
-----
Five seconds later, Tucker returned to the room brandishing a mop.

"Alright, beret thief, prepare to-" Tucker started to say commandingly.

There was no lump under the blanket. Tucker held up the mop defensively. He narrowed his eyes to focus on the surroundings to find the creature. Vaguely noticing that his glasses were lying on the floor about two feet away from his bedside table, he edged towards them, wary of any movement.

Tucker snatched his semicircular glasses from the ground and, with the skill and ease of an expert, flipped the legs out and slipped the ends of them over his ears. As the room came into focus, Tucker scanned it for any sign of movement.

As soon as Tucker had relaxed, a voice came from the doorway. "Nightmares, sweetie?"

Tucker glanced over his shoulder. His mother was standing in a greyish pink robe that covered her lilac pyjamas. Her purple eyes gazed concernedly at her son.

"You could say that," Tucker answered. He relaxed slightly and gave his mother a small smile. "How did you know?"

She returned the smile. "The whimper was loud enough," she joked. "Have you been sleepwalking, too? Is that how you got the mop?"

"It's not a mop, it's a broo-" Tucker stopped in mid-sentence as he looked down at the 'broom'. "Oh. I must have been sleepwalking."

"Come on, back to bed. I'll take the mop downstairs," Tucker's mother offered.

"Actually, I'll take it back. I need a glass of water after all that screaming." Tucker's smile widened sleepily, reassuring his mother that he was fine.
-----
Meanwhile, in the shadier parts of Amity Park, the animals had arrived back. The figure, still disguised in the clinging shadows, was pleased with the jobs that the animals had done. He didn't even notice that one animal was missing.

The figure picked up a lizard. It released the hair sample out of its mouth. Gently setting the lizard down, he examined the hair. He held the hair up to the light. Orange – natural colour. He straightened it out. Very long – probably female. He pulled slightly harder on each end, allowing it to stretch as far as it could. Strong – Of about age fifteen or sixteen.

He put the hair sample in a tube and set it down on the side. The figure then repeated the process with the other animals, finally coming to a cat.

Petting the cat gently behind its right ear, he removed the hair from its mouth and examined it. Black – definitely natural. Quite short – likely male. Very strong – age fourteen or fifteen.

There was something different abut this sample, though. It just felt strange. Like nothing he'd ever seen before. He slipped the hair in a glass tube and sealed it. After slotting the glass tube into a machine, he began tapping wildly on the keyboard that was integrated into it.

A large screen lit up with a long list of the attributes to the hair. He looked down the list excitedly. One attribute caught his eye. He smiled sinisterly.

He could do many things with this sample.

-----

"You two look tired," Sam observed.

She was right – Danny and Tucker did look tired as they arrived at school. Both of them walked at the speed of turtles, dragging their feet along the floor because their bodies did not have the energy to lift their feet very high. Grey bags drooped from under all four weary eyes and Tucker's glasses settled ever-so-slightly askew over his nose.

"Why didn't you call me to help with the ghost?" Sam whispered loudly. Many of the students of Casper High School were too busy in their own affairs to overhear the conversation but she whispered, all the same.

"There wasn't a ghost." Danny explained. "At about midnight last night my parents burst in with the Fenton Thermograph at hand, saying, no, shouting about the small concentration of ectoplasmic energy in my room. Close behind them was Jazz, who chose that moment to burst in and shout at them for interrupting my sleep. After she had got rid of them, she took me downstairs for hot chocolate. As soon as we had finished, the sun was rising. Are the bags under my eyes really that noticeable?"

"They're not bags, they're suitcases. What about you?" Sam asked with a funny smile on her face, ready for anything Tucker was going to spurt out.

"A beret stealing shadow creature woke me up," Tucker said, not noticing the confused and slightly scared glances. "It looked like a rabbit."

"Tucker, this is the sort of thing we expect to hear from Danny's parents, not you," Sam said, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"It's true, though! It might even have something to do with the new pet shop that opened."

"Let me guess, an evil ghost has a plot to take over Amity Park using fluffy animals," Danny joked.

"It could happen..." Tucker trailed off, slightly ashamed that even his own best friends hardly believed him.

Sam joined in on joking about Tucker's 'experience'. "If you lived in an alternate dimension where little animals could gain ultimate power with the flip of a switch."