Shortly after Robbie was kidnapped, Beck and Andre, still tending to their injuries, stumbled their way back to the gang's SUV and jumped inside. The girls, fidgeting in the back seat and worrying about getting caught, breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the two boys. However, they became worried once they saw that Beck and Andre were hurt and that Robbie wasn't with them.
"Guys, what happened?" Jade asked as Andre started the car.
"And where's Robbie?" Cat added, leaning forward expectantly.
"We gotta get out of here, quick," Beck said from the passenger's seat.
"We'll explain everything later," Andre said as he backed out of the parking spot and turned out of the parking lot.
"But what about Robbie?" Cat asked again.
"Yeah, stop the car," Jade suggested.
"No, we gotta get out of here before they catch us!" Andre said.
"I don't want to go to prison… again!" Trina panicked.
"What about Robbie? He's our friend, we can't just leave him there!" Tori yelled.
"GUYS! Please calm down!" Beck roared at the girls.
"Some serious chizz went down before we left and it's not safe here," Andre told them.
"Now we're driving back to Tori's and when we get there we'll tell you everything," Beck assured everyone.
"But Robbie-"
"We'll deal with him later. Robbie would want us to get to safety before worrying about finding him, am I correct?" Beck told them, giving them a look.
The girls, realizing that he had a point, nodded their heads reluctantly. Before turning back around, Beck saw Cat look like she was about to cry. "It's ok, Cat. Robbie's a big boy," he reassured her, patting her gently on the knee. Cat smiled at him gratefully.
The atmosphere in the car eventually fell into an uncomfortable silence, then a period of worry. Beck and Andre were still buzzing with adrenaline and terror, but they knew they had to keep the girls safe and away from the town before they could make any other important decisions.
After the longest hour and a half drive of their lives, the gang pulled into the Vega's driveway. With their mouths still clamped shut, each person hurriedly undid their seatbelts and made their way to the door. Tori hastily fiddled with her keys to open the door and let her friends settle on the couch. Beck was the last to step inside. He made sure no one was outside and shut the door, locking it. Turning around, he saw four awaiting pairs of eyes staring at him.
"Ok guys, what's up?"
"You look like you've seen a ghost."
"You're creeping us out."
"And what the heck happened to Robbie and why did we have to leave him behind?"
"Alright, alright," Andre signaled the girls to halt with their questions. "We'll tell you but you gotta let us tell you exactly what happened before you ask any more questions."
"Ok, shoot," Tori replied, giving in.
Remembering what had happened earlier that night, Beck shuddered at the flashback. "Don't say that, Tor."
She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Sorry?"
"Can you guys just tell us already?" Jade was becoming impatient.
"So when we were running out of the warehouse, we passed by Robbie," Andre began, moving around the couches to face them so everyone could hear him better. "Now I don't know if you noticed, but he wasn't alone."
"He wasn't?" Trina questioned, propping her legs up on the coffee table.
"No, he was with two other guys," Beck said, moving to stand beside Andre.
"Sinjin and Burf?" Cat guessed.
"No, two…" Andre and Beck exchanged weary glances. "Two bandits," Andre finished.
Visible shocked expressions and a few gasps were shared between the girls. "B-bandits?" Tori repeated.
"Armed… bandits," Beck corrected her.
Cat gasped and closed her eyes, burying her face in a pillow. "I don't want to hear the rest."
"No, tell us the rest," Jade demanded. She patted Cat's back for comfort.
"Andre and I head-butted them while we had the buckets on our heads and they fell over."
"We thought we could get Robbie, but they managed to take him hostage and even shoved us. When we got up, they pointed guns at us," Andre added.
"Guns?" Trina squeaked.
"We told them that we wouldn't report them if they just gave us Robbie, but…"
"But what, Beck?!" Tori demanded.
"They knocked Robbie out and told us to leave if it was good for us. And we couldn't follow them or they would have harmed Robbie even more," he said.
"They made an escape through the back of the store and Beck and I just needed to get you girls out of there. They're dangerous." Andre shuddered in fear.
"Well we have to report this!" Tori shrieked, the full magnitude of just how intense the situation settling in.
"Yeah, they can't hurt Robbie like that and get away with it!" Cat said, on the verge of tears.
"Vega, your dad's a cop. Don't you know you can't report a 'missing person' until after at least 24 hours?" Jade informed them.
"Yeah, Jade's right. And even with that, we have nothing to tell them about the thieves. No name or anything," Beck said.
"Just two thugs dressed in black, kidnapping our friend," Andre said.
"I'm sure our dad will make this an exception since we're sort of friends with Robbie," Trina suggested. "Well, I'm obviously not but you guys are."
Beck rolled his eyes at the last part of her comment. "No, Trina. We can't go to the cops yet, even with that 24-hour rule," he shot her plan down.
"What do you mean?" Tori wondered.
"Listen, those guys are dangerous. The second they hear a siren, they'll know it's Beck and me that turned them in. Who knows what they'll do with Robbie, and if God forbid they escape, they might try and find us, maybe even all of you too," Andre told them.
"Well what are we going to do then? Just wait?" Jade asked incredulously, her hands balling into fists.
Beck turned to Jade. "No, of course not."
Tori was confused. "But you just said-"
"Look," Andre and Beck butted in. "We're not going to the cops."
"We're going to find Robbie ourselves."
Elsewhere, a semi-conscious nerd was struggling to regain consciousness. Slowly, Robbie peered his eyes open and turned his head to the side.
"Mmm," he moaned in slight agony. Immediately his head started to throb and he felt the stings and sores where the bandits had violated him. He then felt tightness around his body. After taking a few minutes to adjust to his surroundings, Robbie realized that he was tied up in a ball in the corner of what looked like a massive computer lab in an isolated warehouse. He tried moving his hands but found that they were tied together; his feet were tied up in the same way. And on top of that, he found himself so nauseous that he couldn't bear to get out of the fetal position. He figured that he had suffered a mild concussion.
"Oh my god, where am I?" he whisper-yelled to no one in particular. Robbie frantically looked around, desperate to find some clue or hint as to his whereabouts. He peered at the glass window to look around the warehouse. The room was dark, the flickering lights from nearby monitors planted to the wall adjacent from him being his only source of light. All he really saw were old car parts here and there. Scanning around the rest of the room, he spotted something that made him even more sick to his stomach than he was. Weapons. Guns, blades, knives- anything sharp and pointy. They were everywhere. Robbie then remembered his encounter with the Triplet Twins. He realized that he must have been taken into hostage. But wait, he could have sworn Beck and Andre were trying to save him. He feared the worse as to what happened to his friends.
Thankful that he kept his phone in his front shirt pocket and that he had an unusually long neck, Robbie was able to fish his Pearphone from his pocket with his mouth. Even more thankful that the bandits didn't think to tie his arms to his legs (to prevent him from any sort of movement), Robbie managed to grab the phone from his mouth with one hand. He opened the messages app and decided to take a video. It would be faster than texting, he thought.
"This is Robbie Shapiro. I'm 17 years old, Caucasian, and half Jewish," he spoke to the Pearphone as if he had to identify himself. "I'm tied up in an abandoned warehouse and there might be two dangerous men on the loose ready to hunt me down. If this phone is found without me, well… please come find me!" he squeaked.
Suddenly, he heard the main door outside of the computer lab open and a group of men step inside the warehouse. Too scared out of his mind to make another movement and risk getting caught by the bandits, Robbie kept his video going.
"So his two buddies know you guys exist?" a tall and buff figure asked the Twins.
"Yeah. But we made sure they scrammed."
"That doesn't mean they'd call the cops, you idiots!" he spat.
"Don't worry, boss," Barry grimaced, wiping a drop of the figure's spit off of his chin. "We got the money. Ain't that the important part?"
"Yeah, we're going to restock some more of the ammunition tonight."
"And what about the kid?"
The Twins gestured toward the room Robbie was laying in. "The kid's knocked out in the lab."
Two buddies…"Oh my God, that was Beck and Andre." Robbie realized he was saying his thoughts out loud, not in his head. He looked back at his phone. "Scratch that. Beck! Andre! Anybody! I've been taken hostage by two bandits who tried to steal from Wanko's. They've got a lot of weapons. I'm freaking out here! Help me!"
Seconds before the door to the computer lab opened, Robbie immediately sent his video out to anyone. Seeing as in the video he mentioned a name, his Pearphone suggested that the message automatically be sent to Beck. Robbie immediately tucked the phone under his arm between his wrist and the chair.
"Well, well. Lookie what we have here," the tall man said, who Robbie assumed to be the Twins' boss.
"Who are you and why am I here?" Robbie asked.
"You're here because you know too much."
"Know too much? I have no idea who you guys are."
"You know my two idiots." With his heavily tattooed arm, the man pointed at the Twins.
"Look, I promise not to say anything if you just let me go right now, please!" Robbie begged.
"That's too easy, kid. And we don't trust you," the boss barked.
"Look, if all you want is money, I've got $327 in my savings account and it's all yours. Just let me go."
"We're not here for the money, bushy."
"Then what are y- no, I don't want to know. I want to go home!" Robbie whimpered.
"You can't go home. Not yet, son."
Robbie's heart quickened, the magnitude of the situation finally settling in. "Then when can I?"
"When we're done with our plan."
"I don't care about your plan, I just want to go home. All I wanted to do was go to the Wanko's sale with my friends," he said that day for what felt like the millionth time. Why couldn't they just understand that he wanted nothing to do with their sketchy, possibly illegal plans?
"I'm sure you care about this plan if you want your precious friends to be safe," the boss said, smirking at Robbie.
"What?" Robbie gulped.
"We're taking down the country. Every inch of it."
"Why are you taking down the country?"
"Because this government is so weak. It's an easy target. And very amusing for me."
"Wait, are you guys… terrorists?" Robbie said cautiously, not wanting to believe what he was hearing.
"I guess this nerd is smart after all," the 'boss' told his goons.
"But what do you need me for? Why don't you just shoot me now and be done with it?"
"Barry told me that you are smart with the computers and techie stuff. Is that true?"
"Well, yeah…"
"We need your help hacking into the government's system."
"And what makes you think I'll do that for you?"
The boss smiled wryly and kneeled down so that he was eye-level with Robbie. "You want your friends to live?"
"Yeah but… but what makes you think I won't send a message to the government while I hack into the system?" Robbie squinted at him defiantly, his anger slowly growing.
"Because the second we hear any siren, we're going to hunt down every person you love, starting with your friends at Wanko's. Now unless you help us with this attack, you can kiss your friends and family goodbye right in front of you before we take you out."
Robbie's face lost every bit of color for a few seconds. Just the thought of seeing any of his close ones- especially his friends- suffer before his eyes made him more scared than he ever was that night.
"Ok, fine. I'll help. Just don't harm my friends."
The 'boss' smiled in satisfaction, momentarily stepping out of the room with his goons and leaving Robbie to his thoughts. He needed to warn his friends right away. He dragged his phone out from under his arms as fast as he could. Turning the screen on, he realized he had accidentally recorded the entire conversation and that the video caught every bit of the terrorists' plans. Behind him, Robbie heard footsteps echoing throughout the building, coming closer and closer to where he was tied up. Knowing they'd be back any second, he immediately attached the video to a message and sent it to the last person he had talked to in his recent contacts list: Cat.
Meanwhile, back at the Vega home, the gang was shocked to hear about Beck and Andre's plan.
"You want us to save Robbie?" Tori clarified.
"Yeah. I mean, we can't go to the cops," Beck reasoned.
"Didn't you guys just say they were armed and dangerous? Are you crazy?!" Trina shrieked.
"Trina's right."
"Thank you, Tori."
"But the guys are right too."
"I thought you were my sister!"
"I want to find Robbie but we don't even know where he is," Cat mentioned. "And I don't want to face the mean guys." She shuddered at the thought.
"Well if we don't find Robbie, he'll be the one in danger, Lil' Red," Andre told her.
"Look, as much as I hate to agree, but Trina is right," Jade said.
Trina smiled at her. "Thank you, Jade."
"But I have to agree with Tori too that we need to save Shapiro. For the sake of all of our consciences."
"I thought you were my friend!"
"No one likes you!" Jade bit back at her. Trina leaned back on the couch in defeat, pouting.
"Wait, but how are we going to do this? We know nothing," Tori sighed.
"Yeah, that was my other point. You genius' have a plan on how and where exactly we're supposed to go to find Robbie?" Jade asked the guys.
Just then, someone's phone beeped. Realizing that it was his, Beck apologized and fished his phone out of his jean pocket.
"Who's the text from?" Andre asked him.
Beck did a double take and grew wide-eyed, nearly dropping his phone. "Guys, it's from Robbie!"
They crowded around him to watch the video. Jade snickered in the beginning when Robbie originally intended it to be an identification video in case something happened to him. But when they got to the point when Robbie started to panic, they grew concerned.
"So they got him in a warehouse," Andre said.
"But why? They're just stealing money, right?" Tori said.
As if on cue, someone else's phone beeped.
"Whose phone is that now?" Jade asked.
"Mine!" Cat cheered as if she won the lottery. Then she bounced back into reality, remembering they were in a serious predicament. "It's from Robbie too!"
"Play the video, Lil' Red."
She played the video for everyone. The gang grew tense when the bandits admitted they were terrorists. Cat in particular gasped when Robbie suggested to the guy to "shoot me now and be done with it."
"Ok, fine. I'll help. Just don't harm my friends."
"Aw, chizz." Andre shook his head. "Robbie's in more trouble than we thought."
"Robbie's willing to keep us safe. Wouldn't you be willing to do the same?" Beck asked everyone.
The girls exchanged glances: Trina's was a look of worry, Cat's was beginning to tear up, Jade had a look of anger mixed with a little bit of fear (which she would never admit to anyone, not even herself), and Tori's was of desperation. After a moment, they nodded at Beck and Andre and Tori, deciding to speak for the group, stood up and turned to Beck.
"Ok… so where do we go from here?"
Just a short little chapter for background information. I think you guys are really going to like what we're going to start doing in the next chapter and beyond :). Definitely something new and exciting for the both of us so stay tuned for the next update!