A/N: I'd like to start out by apologizing about how terribly I brought about the Vance working for Itex thing… so, sorry. I'll try and make it up to you somehow. Hint hint. Wink wink. I'm pretty excited about this chapter, so go ahead and read it!

When Iggy woke up, he had no idea where he was. His head hurt like hell, and his back was pressed against something that felt like harsh metal wire. He reached out to find that it was surrounding him. He was in a cage. Echoing around him on all sides were animal-like noises-growls, chirps, and a strange guttural sound that was almost indescribable.

He could feel someone's presence beside him, pressing against his side. His/her breathing was steady but fast-pace. Whoever it was he or she was awake.

"Iggy?" The whisper sounded like Nudge. To confirm this, he reached out to touch the back of her hand. Her skin was soft and the color of coffee. The person next to him was definitely Nudge. "Iggy, are you awake?" she asked. Her voice was heavy with fear and concern. He opened his eyes as an answer her question.

"Wha-what happened?" he asked groggily.

"You don't remember?" she responded and began to fidget. He felt her finger reach up to touch his forehead.

"Ouch!" he whispered.

"S-sorry!" she stuttered hastily.

"What happened, Nudge?" he repeated, more forcefully this time. There was a slight pause as he supposed she gathered her thoughts.

"Well, how much do you remember?" she began. He bit his lip, searching through his cloudy brain for the answer. He remembered that they'd gone to NCIS right after school and that Jeb was now dead. He voiced this to Nudge, who took a moment to answer.

"Well, uh, after Max and the others went to go see… go see Jeb, Abby offered to show me this really cool new software that she just downloaded on her computer. I swear, she has like super-fast speed there. All of her technology is just amazing. I mean—" he cut her off there, recognizing that she was abandoning her point as she often does.

"Nudge, you were telling a story, remember?" he said, a bit frustrated that he couldn't remember himself.

"Oh. Right. Sorry. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, so I stayed in Abby's lab because of the software and you stayed because of your abnormal hatred of elevators. Then, you said you heard the elevator moving, that someone was coming down. It didn't make sense because the others had just left to find Max. You said that something didn't feel right about it, so I should take Elizabeth and hide her. So I did. Good thing, too, or they would have captured her with us. There were five Erasers with Director Vance. They came so quickly that we didn't have time to put up a good fight. Abby tried with a pen, but that just made him angrier. They injected some greenish stuff in us, and next thing I knew, we were here. Abby's in the cage next to ours," she finished. To prove that statement, she took his hand and guided it to the left side of him, where his fingers grazed against one jet black pigtail.

"What about Elizabeth?" he asked.

"As much as I know, they never found her," she replied.

"Good," he said, and the relief in his voice seemed to confuse her.

"I didn't know you cared that much about Lizzy, Ig," she commented. He shrugged.

"I don't," he replied bluntly, but to save himself from unnecessary physical and verbal abuse, courtesy of Nudge, he hurriedly explained himself. "Look, for whatever reason, they are desperate to get to her. Do you think it's ever a good idea to give them what they want?" he asked rhetorically. He felt her shrug.

"So, what do we do now?" she asked. The question was not hopeless or childish. It was spoken with a sort of mature curiosity. Not that Iggy thought of Nudge as a little kid anymore, like Max did. She was very much capable of taking care of herself if she wished to.

"I don't know," Iggy answered honestly. "The room we're in—how many doors does it have?"

"I dunno. I only see one entrance, and you need a pass-code to get through. But, Iggy, we're in a dog crate," she replied.

"Wow. Thank you for that. Your ever-useful talent for pointing out the obvious is always quite helpful," he said bitterly.

"Oh, will you just shut up and let me finish speaking for once! I wasn't done. We're in a dog crate with a padlock on it. I can't fit my fingers through the holes in the cage to unlock it. I already tried using my power over medal to break it, but it's too strong. These cages were built to contain genetically altered experiments at least ten times as strong as us. There's no way we can get out now. We'll have to wait for a white-coat to come and open it. That'd be our best chance. But… what about Abby? We can't just leave her here, but she'd be extra weight during an escape. She hasn't even woken up yet." Iggy could almost picture her mind at work, the gears and cogs turning, grinding, and plotting. "We could steal a gurney to get her out of the building. This place has tons of them. Once we're out you'd have to fight off some Erasers and white-coats while I make a bee-line for the door. I could probably crack the code if you give me enough time. Once the door's opened, I'll give you a signal, and you can grab Abby and run. Drag her if you have to. Just make sure we get out the door. Once we have Abby out the door on the gurney, we'll be able to get her into the air, no problem. She's actually pretty light without the boots. We might even be able to find our way back on our own. If not, we'll find the nearest gas station and grab a map. We can't be that far from D.C. I mean, the ride wasn't that long, so—"

"Nudge," he said her name assertively. She broke off.

"What? Oh… sorry," she apologized sheepishly.

"No," he said, "Nudge, that was actually kind of hot." He then found it amazing that he could feel her blush through his own. Thankfully, a noise from the cage next to them saved them from an extremely awkward silence.

"It's Abby," Nudge clarified, probably as thankful as he for the distraction. "She's waking up."

"Where are we?" asked a voice that was distinctly Abby. She sounded hoarse and weary, but either she was actually very brave or a very good actress, because Iggy could not detect an iota of fear in her tone.

"We're at the School. They took us here in the back of a truck," Nudge explained. Then, after some thought, she added, "Nice pen attack on Vance, by the way. We would have gotten out if we hadn't had to hide Lizzy."

"Vance! Vance is a traitor!" Abby exclaimed, as if she had just remembered.

"Yup. Guys, I just thought of something. What about the others? They don't know that Vance is a dirty rotten traitor. He could capture them, too!" Nudge pointed out anxiously. Iggy shook his head.

"If they don't have them by now, they won't take them. Knowing the white-coats, they have something bigger up their sleeves," he said.

"It's a trap," Abby said. "And we're the bait. Wait, no, let me rephrase that! We're the fishing lures. 'Cause they can be all kinds of fun colors. Plus, I love worms, but being one would just be gross."

"Ooh! Can I be a pink lure?" Nudge requested.

"Sure. As long as I can be black and red," Abby replied.

"Igs, you can be green if you want," Nudge suggested. Iggy ran a hand over his face, wincing as it grazed the injury on his forehead.

"I can't believe you two are actually having this conversation! Does it really matter what color fishing lures we are? The point is we're part of a trap. We need to find a way to get out of the hands of the white-coats. So can we please focus on the matter at hand?" Before they had a chance to reply, a faint beep interrupted their conversation. The sound sent a terribly cold shock through his body, causing him to freeze up completely. Nudge's hand shot out to grip his arm. She'd heard it too.

"What was that?" asked Abby fearfully.

"Shhhh! It's them!" whispered Nudge, her grip on his arm tightening.

He heard it and felt the rush of cool air into the muggy room when the door opened and closed. Hurried footsteps neared their modified dog crates. The cage creaked when the person opened it, and suddenly, unexpectedly, he was being pulled out. Nudge's hand slipped from his arm, but he heard her scream in protest. Slap! Silence. Just when he was about to rip off the white-coat's head for slapping her, all of the sound fuzzed out around him as he felt the needle slip under his skin.

A/N: Exciting huh? I know, any bit of excitement is a long time coming, but we haven't quite reached the climax of the story yet. Soon, dear readers, soon. Drop me a review if you liked it and you feel like commenting! :)