Teardrops fell on the paper as her eyes read the words written on it for the millionth time, still having trouble believing what she saw. The note had been on the kitchen table. She didn't know why that made it worse than if it had been in the mail, but it did. The man had been in their house. She could just imagine little Jackie going to get himself a bowl of cereal only to be nabbed by a stranger in his own home. Taken. She could imagine the terror he must have gone through as he was attacked in the very place he should have been safest, and it didn't matter if it happened how she imagined, because her son's safety had been shattered, and no one was there to protect him.

"John…" she finally said to the man sitting across from her, "We have to do something. We can't pay the ransom."

Mr. Spicer looked visibly surprised, "What? We have the money, and we've got a week to get it together. We should just give the guy the money so we can get Jack back."

"No. I'm not going to reward someone for taking my son. Besides, we don't even know…" Mrs. Spicer felt her mouth go dry. "We don't even know if he's still alive. Or if he is, if we'll get him back when…"

"But we can't tell the cops, the note says not to tell the cops."

She shrugged. "Then we won't tell the cops." John looked confused. "There's something we can do. There has to be."

Mr. Spicer shook his head. "No, you're deluding yourself. You're making this more complicated than it is. It's a ransom, you give the guy the money, we get Jack back, and aside from a gauge in our wallet, everything's back to normal."

Mrs. Spicer sighed. He didn't understand. This sort of thing wasn't simple. It couldn't be simple. Jack had been kidnapped, and even if everything went according to plan and they got Jack back unharmed, things wouldn't be the same. Having been kidnapped, he could never feel safe in his own home again. And the one who did it…he'd be a million dollars richer. She couldn't tolerate the idea.

"No. You want to pay the ransom? Fine, wait a week and if Jack isn't in our house by then, then follow the instructions we were given. Until then, I'll be tearing the world apart to find him," she finally responded.

"Penelope, don't! If you do something you might just scare the kidnapper. If they panic they could kill Jack! What are you going to do, anyway?"

"I have something in mind."

_________________________________________________________________________

Jack screamed when he saw the broad, muscular figure at the other end of the room and felt that his wrists and ankles were tied to the bedposts. He lay on an old, dingy mattress in an old, dingy room, watched by a not terribly old, but definitely dingy man that, he noted, was missing a few teeth.

"Where am I? What do you want with me?"

Ugly muscle man grinned as he eyed the boy up and down with his beady, greedy little eyes. "What else are rich kids good for? Money."

"Money?" The answer was completely unexpected to Jack, who was so involved with wu hunting and plotting to take over the world that he thought it would be something less…mundane. "I thought it would be something more evil. Or good, maybe."

You never knew. With Jack being evil, it was always a possibility that he could be kidnapped in the name of good. Although…the good weren't usually that big on kidnapping. Still, you could never know for sure.

"You wouldn't consider kidnapping a child for ransom evil?" the man asked.

"Well, yeah, but it's not…evil laugh, flowing cape evil. It's just normal everyday scummy slime evil." Jack didn't know why, but the fact that this guy was on a lower level of evil than Chase Young only came as a little comfort. "So my parents will pay the ransom and I'll get to go home, right?"

The man laughed. "You, my boy, watch far too many children's cartoons. The sort of evil you're talking about isn't real, but yes, I'll pay the ransom and you'll get to go home. I don't want to put up with some rich brat for longer than I have to."

"Is too! I know Wuya, a witch, who is exactly that kind of evil, and Chase Young." Jack sighed dreamily at the thought of his evil idol. "He sold his soul for soup, you know."

Now the kidnapper wasn't laughing. He was just staring in an expression that was mostly confusion, but mixed with that was just a hint of intrigue. Jack, it seemed, wasn't behaving as he was expecting a kidnap victim might.

"You know," the kidnapper said, "for a rich kid, you really are crazier than you are bratty."

Jack considered this. Maybe it was something he could make work if he went at it with the right angle. "Mad scientist crazy?"

"Maybe." Perfect, Jack thought. That was totally an angle he could work once he got out. The kidnapper continued, "What were you building when I took you? And where did you get that backpack of yours? I tried to open it to see what you had inside and I couldn't. Eventually I managed to take it apart. You rich kids carry--"

"You took apart my helipack?" Jack screeched. Making a man who could probably tear him apart angry probably wasn't a good idea, but it was such a shock to hear that his helipack had been taken apart. "My grandma gave me that!"

"I see," the man said, his interest fading, "I thought for a moment I'd kidnapped a boy genius or something."

"You thought? You did. I'm Jack Spicer, evil boy genius, and I could totally whip up another of those if I wanted. I just…don't. Sentimental value and all that."

"Are you, now?" The kidnapper's face returned to his amused expression that indicated the fact that he thought Jack was completely and utterly insane. Why did he keep thinking that?

"Uh-huh. And that thing I was building? Totally a shrink ray."

"I…see."

______________________________________________________________________________

"Jack always screams." Kimiko insisted.

"Not like that." Omi was worried. There was something different about that scream, and while Jack wasn't one of his favorite people, he didn't want him hurt. He didn't want him in a situation where he felt he had to scream like that. "He sounded…truly frightened."

"Well, yeah, but Jack's 'truly frightened' of everything. He probably just saw a spider," Kimiko said.

"I don't know," Clay commented, "Omi could be right. Why don't we give that parrot another go?"

"Well…"

"Why not?" Rai asked, "Jack's probably fine. Might as well let those two hear so they stop worrying about him.

"Fine. Omniecho Parrot, let us hear Jack again."

Then the wooden bird spoke in Jack's voice. "So could you untie me? The rope's getting a bit uncomfortable."

"You know," Omi said, "It doesn't sound like Jack was screaming over a spider to me."