Author's note: I thought I had every angle plotted out for how people might respond to "why didn't they do x". For whatever reason, I had actually not considered why they wouldn't file a missing persons report. Touché, The J.A.M.

Jimmy didn't know where he was or how long he'd been there. He was certain Sheen and Carl had been taken at the same time, but they'd been separated sometime after all three of the boys had been knocked out. The last thing Jimmy remembered was Vox letting out a klaxon warning that something was wrong with the core of the lab and that a meltdown was imminent. Jimmy remembered trying to push the guys out of the lab so he could deal with it, but as soon as all of them were outside of the clubhouse, they were all knocked out. At least, he had to assume the other two had been knocked out. Jimmy had fell unconscious without being able to check on his friends.

It was completely dark, wherever he was. Once a day a cube of gelatinous quality and with a hideous odor was slid into the room. There was never any light when the door opened, and it opened too quietly for him to realize someone was coming. The first time the cube had arrived, it bore the note "eat me". When Jimmy ignored it, other notes came. One explaining that the cube was a Nutrient Pack, supposedly able to sustain humans completely on just one a day, even replacing the need for water. After what he assumed was multiple days without food and water (for the passing of time was also impossible to place), Jimmy had chanced the cube. It hadn't seemed to have any ill effects on him.

"Pukin' Pluto, who could have done this?" Jimmy paced back and forth. Whomever his captors were, they knew him well enough to take his watch, his hover shoes and his backpack. Without those tools or the benefit of Goddard, there was little the genius could do to figure out an escape. This had all been carefully calculated.

The cube never arrived at the same time – Jimmy had no way to measure time except a vague ringing that, he guessed, occurred once a day (suspecting he was on an alien planet, it was beyond him to place it at a certain time, even just a day. Time was relative, so who knew if it worked the same here as it did on earth?). The first two days, the cube had seemed to arrived at the same time – at his calculation, about an hour after the ringing. He had waited by the door on the third day at the time he thought the food should have arrived, but apparently his perception was either wrong or someone had figured out his awareness and changed things. That time, the food arrived when he went to sleep.

As was his typical practice, he edged along the walls, groping at them to try to ascertain if there was anything there that could be used for escape. He was definitely in some sort of dungeon with rock like walls – limestone, he guessed. Too sturdy and thick for him to ever hope to punch through. He couldn't find any holes in the walls, either. "I guess this time I just have to hope someone else does the rescuing."

Sheen and Carl were not faring much better, though at least they had each other. "They took my belt!" Sheen said for what had to have been the eightieth time, by Carl's estimate. "That was a special edition Ultra Lord utility belt, and they stole it. This will be avenged! AVENGED, DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Sheen, we'll get it back when Jimmy comes to rescue us. Do you want your food cube?" Carl eyed Sheen's food hungrily. "That note said that one is supposed to be anything we need, but I'm still hungry."

Sheen rolled his eyes, but passed Carl the cube anyway. Carl had to sit very still and not get overly excited – his inhaler had gone missing as well. "Who takes an inhaler, anyway?" Sheen crossed his arms, though Carl could barely see him. They had some light in the cell, given off by some phosphorous lichen on the walls. Mysteriously, these would go out right before the food arrived. Neither of the boys had a watch, so they had no greater luck than Jimmy in figuring out how long they'd been captive.

"Do you think Judy misses me-I mean us?" Carl looked hopefully at Sheen.

"Jimmy's mom? Yeah, probably. She might miss Jimmy more than us, though. I'm more worried about my dad. And Libby. And I've probably missed at least three new episodes of Ultra Lord by now. How am I supposed to know if he ever beat the Harpies of Romlan Five?!"

"I think we may have more to worry about than missing Ultra Lord."

"Bite your tongue!"

"No. I mean. We've been gone a long time, and Jimmy hasn't come for us yet."

Sheen considered it momentarily. "Which means they've got Jimmy locked up somewhere, too. Carl, can you think of any way for us to get out of here? Let's show everyone we're not just the side kicks. That we can do anything when the chips are down!"

"Um...ok. But there's no door or windows."

"Well, I'm out of ideas," Sheen said, plopping down beside Carl. "Guess it's time to just sit still and wait to be rescued."

"And that's how photosynthesis woooo-rrr-ksss! Bawk!" Miss Fowl finished, then paused. As always, she was waiting for Carl or Sheen to misunderstand the lesson or for Jimmy or Cindy to add their own take or mention some detail she'd forgotten. The boys weren't here, though, and Cindy was too distracted these days to put in any extra effort in class.

"Well, that's uh...that's the fastest I've ever gotten through our lessons," Miss Fowl rubbed the back of her neck. She'd been planning her lessons with the assumption that Jimmy would either interrupt the lesson or else cause some destruction that would necessitate school shutting down. Now she found she didn't have enough lessons to fill the day. "All right, children. Uh...start your homework, I guess."

"Even I'm done with my homework already," Nick complained. "Can't we watch a video or something?"

A few kids voiced their assent. Cindy looked suddenly interested, a fact that was not lost on Libby. "What are you thinking, girl?"

Cindy smiled. "That everyone's usually too busy watching movies for them to notice if we sneak out."

"I already have ten demerits for the last time we left class during a video. And I doubt we're going to get to do something cool like go see Egypt this time." Libby and Cindy were both whispering, the fact that their desks were so close to Miss Fowl's making it seem all the riskier.

Cindy gave Libby a pleading look. "Oh, all right, I guess if it could help the guys it's worth a few demerits. But if it turns out Carl's right about permanent records existing, I'm knocking their heads around for a bit."

Miss Fowl had chosen a documentary, which was all the more perfect, in Cindy's mind. After all, it was more likely to put the other kids to sleep and make them less likely to rat Libby and Cindy out. She waited it out. Sure enough, the documentary acted as a soporific, instantly rendering most of the class asleep (and no wonder, as the documentary was on nothing but the origins of toilet paper, and Cindy was almost positive it was Bill Stein narrating). Once Miss Fowl's head hit the desk, she and Libby tip toed out of the room and made a break for the front door.

Luck was on their side this time, as no hall monitors or even Principal Willoughby spotted them. "Where are we even going, Cindy?"

"I still haven't figured that part out yet. But we need to run by Neutron's house."

"Jimmy's place? Why?"

Cindy sighed. "Because if we can get Vox out of the ground, we're still going to need hair for the DNA scanner."

"That's a pretty big if."

"Yeah, but it's still one of the steps we have to take. We're just doing it ...really out of order."