I'm hungry.

Seven: Thieves

A lot of people claimed he was dead, that he wasn't coming back, that he was gone forever. Most of them had given up hope. And it was saturated into the whole town, stinking like some rotting flesh that no one could find the source to, desperately trying to drag down those that still clung to the desire that young Danny Fenton was alive somewhere. There were only five people in Amity Park that still firmly believed this; Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. Even Valerie Grey had given up on the boy. This was one of the things that wrenched at Tucker the most but, far worse than an almost friend giving up on Danny, was Sam's reaction to the whole affair.

Normal Sam would have shouted and raved that they should go on some extreme wild goose chase. Normal Sam would have plotted against the government for not doing anything. Normal Sam would have him running all over the country in search of clues. Normal Sam would not have shut up about the whole thing. But Normal Sam wasn't there anymore to rave, or search, or encourage. Normal Sam seemed to be locked away and didn't seem to be coming out any time soon. And it shook Tucker to the core to see his friend like that; dull-eyed, depressed, silent, and withdrawn.

Danny…wherever you are, man, you've got to come back…! The techie looked away from the Goth who was picking slowly at her food, the noise of the cafeteria a low hum in the background of his thoughts, We need you way more than you know…!

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"Yeah, well, it's not like you exactly need the Trillium Armor to get through it on Challenge Mode…!"

"Have you fought against Captain Slag on Challenge Mode!? He's a frigging beast!"

"Dude, Captain Slag is eeeaaasssssyyyyy! Now Fastoon the second time around, with all the invading Cragmites and what-not, that was hard! I can't count how many times I got my butt kicked!"

"You got killed on Fastoon!? Are you stupid!? What'd you do, use your wrench!?"

"Shut up!"

"Tch, make me! I bet your Deadlocked Ratchet sucked!"

"Hey! I rock on Deadlocked!"

"I'll bet! Against, what, five year olds!?"

"Cut it out!"

Danny and ZeE got into a tussle in the pool, splashing water everywhere, laughing and pulling at one another. It had been almost two weeks since Danny had come back drugged and he was now enjoying himself immensely, sleeping like he was unconscious, obediently following the orders of those in the blue uniforms. Just like everyone else. And he didn't even pay attention to the bracelets on his wrists. They were there, he accepted them. Whoop-dee-doo.

"Stop it you guys!" Alex shouted from a chair at the pools edge, protectively covering his iPod from the splashing water, "You're acting like a couple of four year olds!"

"Get off it!" ZeE yelled back and then was dunked by Danny only to come back up spluttering, "Oooohhhh, you're in for it now!" And he started splashing after the black haired boy, shouting slightly vulgar names in l33t at the top of his voice as he went.

Danny plunged beneath the water, kicking out a flurry of bubbles behind him, and then shot to the surface, spitting up water and scrambling out of the pool before ZeE could wonder where he went. They weren't the only ones there, plenty of other kids had decided to jump in the pool as well, so it would take a few moments before the hacker would realize that Danny was no longer in the water. He plopped down in chair beside Alex, rubbing his dark hair into a fluff with a towel, out of breath and grinning.

"Enjoying yourself?" Alex smirked and Danny punched his arm, shoving the other boy to the side and knocking his glasses askew, "Jerk!"

"Nah!" Danny blocked a swing from Alex and high fived him instead, "I'm totally bored! Dying with boredom here!"

"That's what I thought." Smirked the brunette, tugging out one of his head phones so that it hung over his bare chest, "So, here's something that might interest you. The other night, at least five to eight kids disappeared from their beds."

"No way…!" Danny hissed, his eyes going huge, "Where'd they go!?"

"Dunno," Alex shrugged, leaning a little closer and lowering his voice, "If you ask any of the staff they'll say that they got sick but that just doesn't make sense. There's something else going on around here."

"Hmmmm…" Danny sat back and squinted his eyes, rubbing his chin and exaggeratedly acting like he was deep in thought, "I have come to the conclusion that…" He couldn't keep the grin off his face, "You're paranoid!"

He howled in laughter as Alex struggled to find a suitable comeback, rolling about in his chair, clutching his side, damp hair flinging droplets of water everywhere. He couldn't ever remember having this much fun before, being so relaxed before! Secrets, secrets, work, work, that was the blur of his past. And pain, a lot of that, and blood, and screaming, and people getting hurt. But he didn't have to worry about all that anymore. He was free of that. Ed's School had made it all better.

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Snarls of rage, snapping jaws, claws scrapping roughly cut stone, and a flash of dark violet glowing in the dim light.

"A trap! I know what they're planning! It's all a trap! We have to stop them!"

"We cannot stop them if we cannot leave!"

A howl of rage-flooded anguish.

"Why!? Why does everything seem to go so wrong!?"

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Danny yawned, rubbing his eyes, and pushed the bathroom door open, ready to fall back into bed and into welcome sleep. But hushed voices pricked his attention and he peered through the darkness of the room, trying to get his eyes to adjust faster. It looked like there were a couple of those blue uniformed men huddled around ZeE's bed…doing something to the young hacker…

Danny opened his mouth to shout at them to get away but someone clamped a cloth over his face and cut off his words, making his struggle and kick out. However, the cloth was not just a cloth; there was chlorophyll on it and in no time, the Fenton boy had slumped forward in the man's arms, unconscious. He and ZeE were both dragged from the room with Alex none the wiser.

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Cliffie! I'm sorry! I'm sorry this chapter took so long and I'm sorry for the lameness of it and I'm sorry for the cliff hanger ending! Oooohhh, but now we're going to get into the goodies! Stay tuned! Trust me, you don't wanna miss this!

And sorry about all the Ratchet and Clank references. I recently beat Tools of Destruction and started it on Challenge Mode. It's not very challenging so far.