Hello!

And…I have nothing to say except thank you to all the people who reviewed my story! I really appreciate it.

And onto chapter four!

Jeanette groggily opened her eyes, trying to figure out where she was. Everything was dark and chilly. Why wasn't she in bed?

Then everything came flooding back to her when she looked up and saw the bars.

She shivered on the floor of her cage. Simon…Britt…Ellie…where are you guys? What happened? Are you in cages, too?

It appeared to be a cat carrier, and Jeanette grimaced at the irony. All she had done since being turned into Callie was get shoved into cat carriers. How stupid.

She remembered getting caught and dragged out of the room. She remembered them pushing her into some sort of nylon sack, and she was thrown into a car. She pushed on the sack as hard as she could, but it didn't open, and she realized that they had tied the top shut. She thought she heard an engine, and after what seemed like hours and hours, she had finally fallen asleep.

She stretched and held back a groan. "Why didn't I stay awake?" she muttered to herself. "Maybe then I'd know where I am."

She sighed. Before she had fallen asleep, her entire world had been the inside of that sack. She doubted she would know where she was even if she had been wide awake the entire time.

She crawled to the front of the cat carrier and looked around. She didn't see any other cages in the room. She didn't see much of anything. She relaxed and felt somewhat relieved. Simon, her sisters, the boys…they were all safe. She winced as she remembered Theodore being pushed into the sink, Brittany being thrown through the window, Alvin crashing through the counter…were they all right? Was Simon all right? She hadn't seen what had happened to him.

Just then the door creaked open, flooding the room with light.

"Is she in here?" The squeaky voice clearly belonged to a chipmunk, but it was accented oddly and Jeanette didn't recognize it. She thought it sounded female.

"Yes, she's right over there. Did you get it for me?"

Jeanette stiffened, and a low hiss slid through her teeth.

Adam.

There was a long silence, and then she heard Adam chuckle.

"Yes," the accented chipmunk said quietly. "I got it."

"Good," Adam said. "I'll come to get you soon."

"Thank you," the other chipmunk said, and there was a rustling noise before she left the room.

Adam approached the cat carrier, and Jeanette backed away, curling into a ball in the corner. He opened the door and light flooded in. She flinched away from it.

"Hello again, Jeanette," he sneered.

She was quaking ferociously, but she tried to sound brave. "Wh—where's Simon?" she asked.

Adam sneered. "I don't know," he said. "My guess? In the hospital. I'm not sure how hard I kicked him." He smirked. "My bad."

Jeanette felt an icy rush sweep her body from her toes to her head. Simon…in the hospital?

"You hurt him," she whispered, and fury gave her strength. With a strangled screech, she flung herself at Adam and knocked him into the ground. Only when a chipmunk dressed in black slammed into her side did she abandon her attempt to scratch every inch of Adam that she could reach. She crashed hard into a rack of test tubes, and one of them spilled on her, glowing slightly before vanishing. She shook it off and sprang at Adam again, but the guards ran to grab her again.

"You just had to come back and ruin everything again, didn't you?" she spat at Adam as the two chipmunks hauled her off of him. "I guess that's what you're best at, isn't it?"

He glared at her as he got to his feet. "That," he said, "was a big mistake." Then he grinned and held up a plastic container. "But it's all right," he continued. "You won't remember it."

She peered closer, and then she let out a gasp, her purple eyes flying wide open.

Inside was a spider.

A spider that had the venom in it.

The venom that turned her into Callie.

Before she knew what was going on, she was being pushed into a chair and strapped down.

"No," she gasped. "No, no, no, no, no, no…"

"I want Callie back," he hissed.

And then the spider bit her.

She waited for herself to become unconscious, and then yanked from her being, pulled away from the controls to her mind, caged and trapped in the darkest corner of Callie, where she would barely exist anymore, and where she wouldn't remember a thing.

Simon…

Simon, I love you, she thought, bracing herself for the end.

But nothing happened.

She frowned as the spider scuttled off of her and across the floor. It was quickly trapped and put back in the container by one of the ninja chipmunks.

"Nothing is happening," she whispered.

"It will," Adam said, but it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. "It'll…it'll probably just take some time."
"No," Jeanette said, a bit louder. "Last time, it happened straightaway. I just blacked out, and then I began to change." She suppressed a shiver and tried not to think about it. "It only took about five minutes for me to change, and it only took about two hours for Callie to wake up."

Adam stared at her. "This can't be happening," he muttered. "There's been some sort of mistake…"

Jeanette was equally confused, but she managed a biting remark anyway. "Sure. The spider just ran out of venom."

"Do NOT mess with me, Jeanette Miller," Adam snarled at her.

She glared at him.

"Put her back," he snapped at two of the chipmunks. "We have to figure this out."

They unstrapped her from the chair, grabbed her arms, and yanked her back across the room, pushing her into the cage again.

She felt an immense surge of relief even as she sat huddled there, but she couldn't help but feel curious.

What happened?

"Simon? Simon, wake up."

Simon moaned and opened his eyes blearily.

Sitting above him with a worried expression was Theodore.

Theodore didn't look too good. He had a lot of bruises and his head and leg were bandaged. But he looked worried about Simon.

"What happened?" Simon muttered.

Theodore's eyes filled with tears. "Adam…"

In a flash, everything came flooding back. Simon squeezed his eyes shut and moaned.

"He took her, didn't he?" He knew the answer. "He took Jeanette."

"Yes," Theodore whispered miserably. "I'm so sorry, Simon."

"Where are the others?" Simon demanded. "Are they okay?"

"I'm not sure," Theodore shrugged. He was still remembering what had happened…

"Jeanette? Jeanette!"

Simon was yelling. That was never a good thing. Simon rarely yelled. Theodore felt groggy, but he forced himself to sit up to try and figure out what was going on.

He heard muffled shouting and thumps from downstairs, and in a flash, he realized. Something was wrong.

Eleanor. She was his first priority. He instantly glanced over and saw, to his relief, that she was still in bed and fine. Then he tried to figure out what was going on.

"JEANETTE!" Simon was running out the door, and in a flash, Theodore remembered. His sister was downstairs, alone.

She wasn't really his sister, of course, but that's how he saw her. He felt panicked, and he jumped out of bed and raced downstairs after Simon and Eleanor.

He landed in the living room and saw all the chipmunks dressed in black. Something's wrong, he thought urgently, and then he saw Jeanette being yanked out the door.

Frightened, he tried to look around and find Eleanor, to see if she was being kidnapped, too, but she was fine. She was trying to go after Jeanette.

Then Theodore saw a black-clad chipmunk spring at him. He let out a yelp and dove to the side, springing up into the air and grabbing ahold of the counter. He pulled himself up with some difficulty and then perched there, trying to figure out what was happening. He winced as he saw Alvin get thrown into the wall, and he suppressed a cry when Brittany was pulled away from him. He thought that her arm might have been broken.

Then he heard a shout from below and looked down. He saw Eleanor being thrown into the table, and he let out a cry of alarm, but she didn't seem severely injured. Then he watched helplessly as she got tied to the table leg.

He tried to leap down and go after her, but a chipmunk all dressed in black sprang up on the counter next to him. Theodore fought him for a bit, holding his own, but the chipmunk shoved him backwards. Theodore toppled into the sink.

The last thing he saw was a very large mound of dishes flying toward his face.

Theodore sighed and brought himself back to the present. He had been visited by Eleanor when he woke up earlier, and she had told him what had happened and had informed him, rather sadly, that Jeanette had been taken. Theodore was very sad to hear the news, but he was glad that no one was severely hurt.

Alvin hadn't woken up yet, and Simon just did. Simon looked very, very sad now.

"We'll find her, Si," Theodore said quietly. "Don't worry about it."

Simon nodded and rolled over in the hospital bed, clearly not wanting to say anything more.

"Jeanette? Jeanette!"

Is he having another nightmare again? Alvin thought irritably as he heard his brother yelling.

"JEANETTE!"

I'd better go and wake him up, Alvin thought with a sigh as he pushed himself groggily into a sitting position. It was then that he saw his brother racing out the door.

He's already awake? Alvin was confused. Maybe he's going to check on Jeanette…

That train of thought was instantly disbanded as he heard the screams and thuds coming from downstairs.

Jeanette! She's in trouble…for real!

BRITTANY!

Alvin instantly looked over, but Brittany was all right. She was getting out of bed and racing after Simon as fast as she could. Alvin did the same thing, just behind Theodore and Eleanor.

They all made it downstairs, and then Alvin saw Jeanette pinned to the floor. Then he saw Adam in the middle of the room, throwing Simon into the wall.

Alvin instantly let out a snarl and sprang at one of the chipmunks dressed in black, using his football training to tackle the chipmunk to the floor. The chipmunk, however, shoved Alvin off of him and into the counter.

Alvin hit the counter with a sickening thud, and everything began to slide in and out of focus. He heard Brittany scream his name, and managed to drive the blurriness away as she ran to his side and crouched down next to him. He tried to shout a warning when he saw another black-clad chipmunk run up behind her, but he couldn't say a word—the wind had been knocked out of him. The chipmunk grabbed her arm and twisted it, hard, so that she let out a shriek, and then the chipmunk yanked her away from Alvin. He tried to get up and go after her, but another chipmunk sprang up and pinned him to the floor.

How many are there?

Just then, he heard Adam shout from the door, and the chipmunk holding him smashed his foot hard into the side of Alvin's head.

Everything went black…

"Alvin. Alvin, you have to get over here."

Alvin tried to focus as hard as he could. He couldn't remember anything. What had happened? Why did everything hurt so much?

He saw Eleanor, tied to the table leg.

How did that happen?

He couldn't focus. He was so tired.

"Want…to…sleep," he told her with some difficulty.

"You can sleep, just as soon as you chew through this rope on my hands." Her voice sounded very far away. "Can you do that, Alvin? Please. Please, just chew through this rope, and then you can do whatever you want. Please, Alvin. Please."

Alvin tried to stand, tried to walk, but he couldn't. He couldn't even crawl. But he began to drag himself across the kitchen floor toward Eleanor. He couldn't remember a thing that had happened in the past ten minutes, but there was a small part of his subconscious that was telling him that it was urgent that Eleanor was freed.

It took him so long, and it hurt so much, but he managed to get over to her. With massive effort, he raised his aching head and started to chew.

He had to stop and rest his head on his paws several times, but he finally got it so that it began to fray. He vaguely saw Eleanor push herself forward, barely saw the rope snap. He didn't care anymore. He just…wanted…to sleep…

Alvin let out a gasp and opened his eyes. The bright lights spun dizzily above him, and he quickly squeezed them shut again.

I'm in the hospital, he quickly realized, nowhere as vague and dizzy as he had been when he had woken up in the house with Eleanor. So none of that was a dream, then…they took Jeanette, and everyone…Brittany! Simon! Theodore! What happened to them?

Fury overtook him as he remembered how the chipmunk in black had grabbed Brittany, how he had yanked her away from Alvin, how he had twisted her arm so hard Alvin thought he had heard a snapping noise. Alvin gritted his teeth. If Brittany was hurt in any way, those chipmunks were going to pay.

Just then, the door creaked open quietly. Alvin looked up and saw Eleanor scamper in the room.

"Hi, Eleanor," he said softly.

"Alvin!" she cried. "Oh, you're awake." She hurried to hop up on the bed. "Brittany will be so happy."

"How long have I been out?" he wondered aloud.

She shrugged. "Not sure, exactly. I think it's been a day or two. You were the last one to wake up." She let out a little giggle. "I was expecting that, though. You woke up earlier, when you helped me, so I thought you'd be sleeping for a bit longer than the others would." She flashed a grin at him. "I'm glad you did wake up, though, or you guys would all still be passed out and I'd still be tied to the table."

Alvin smiled slightly. "What happened to Brittany," he asked quietly, "after I got knocked out?"

Eleanor's smile faded slightly. "Um…nothing, they just knocked her over," she told him. Her eyes were wide and innocent.

Too innocent.

"Eleanor, I know that you're lying. Tell me what happened."

Eleanor winced and took a step back. "Um…she told me not to tell you," she whispered. "She said it would make you mad…"

"Who?" Alvin tried not to yell.

"Britt."

"Eleanor, TELL me what happened, or so HELP me…"

"I'm going to go get Dave," she said quickly, and she turned to go.

Alvin lunged for her so fast she didn't see him coming and managed to grab onto her tail. She let out a yelp and fell onto the bed.

"Let go, Alvin!" she cried, her paws scrabbling helplessly on the sheets.

"Not until you tell me what happened," he snapped. "To EVERYONE."

"Aw, Alvin, it's just going to make you upset!" Eleanor whined, trying unsuccessfully to free herself. "The doctor said not to get you excited—,"

"I'm not going to let you go until you tell me what happened," Alvin said firmly.

She fought against his grip for a moment longer, and then sighed and relaxed in defeat. "Fine," she said miserably. "If you let go of me, I'll tell you."

"Not a chance. Tell me now, or I'm not letting go."

"Okay, fine!" she snapped. "Have it your way. We got downstairs when we heard Jeanette yelling—,"

"I was here for this part," Alvin began, but Eleanor talked over him.

"You weren't aware for most of it, Alvin. You wanted to know what happened, so don't fight with me." She continued before he had a chance to retort. "We got downstairs when we heard Jeanette yelling. Adam was there with six other chipmunks. Two of them had Jeanette pinned to the floor. Adam threw Simon into the wall, and Simon hit him back and tried to go after Jeanette. Then you tackled one of the chipmunks, but he got you off of him and threw you into the counter." Eleanor closed her eyes. This would be the hard part.

She sighed slightly and continued. "Brittany ran over to try to help, but another one of the attackers grabbed her arm and pulled her away from you."

She was about to keep going, but Alvin saw the flicker in her eye. "What happened?" he asked through gritted teeth.

She winced. "He broke her arm," she mumbled.

"WHAT?" Alvin screamed, outraged.

"Alvin, just let me finish before you spaz out," Eleanor begged.

Glaring, he sank back down onto the pillow and gestured for her to continue.

"Then one of them tied me to the table, so I couldn't do anything," Eleanor continued. "Another one was on the counter with Theodore, and he pushed Theo into the sink and knocked all the dishes down on him." She winced along with Alvin. "He was out for a while, because he got hit on the head with a cup pretty hard, one of the glass ones. And his leg is bruised pretty badly. Other than that, he should be all right." She hurried on with her tale. "So then Adam called for them to retreat, and then the one holding you knocked you out and ran. The ones dealing with me and Theo did, too. And the other one holding Brittany, he—knocked her over and ran, too. Simon followed them out, but he wasn't able to get to Jeanette and I found him out cold on the street later."

Alvin wasn't fooled. He had heard just the slightest pause in her voice when she was talking about Brittany being knocked over, and he didn't buy it for a second.

"What did he REALLY do to Brittany?" he asked her.

She bit her lip.

"ELEANOR!"

"Ouch!" she cried as he tugged on her tail accidentally.

"Hey, let go of her!" a voice at the door yelled, and Theodore sprang up on the bed and managed to get Eleanor's tail out of his grasp. She tumbled forward, sprawling on the bed with a gasp. Alvin felt guilty when he saw that she wasn't able to catch herself because her wrists were all bandaged.

Theodore quickly helped her up. "Are you all right?" he asked her.

Brittany and Simon scampered in, too. Alvin growled when he saw that Brittany's arm was in a miniature, chipmunk-sized cast.

"They BROKE your ARM?" he shouted.

She froze, and then turned her icy glare on her sister. "You SAID you weren't going to tell him!" she hissed.

"He made me!" Eleanor wailed. "It's not my fault, Britt!"

"Whatever," Theodore said with a shrug. "He would have noticed the hole in the window when we got home, any—," Eleanor gasped and clamped a paw over her counterpart's mouth, but it was too late.

Eleanor winced as Alvin slowly turned to stare at Brittany. "Britt…I didn't tell him that part," she mumbled.

Brittany's eyes widened and she shot an accusing glare at Theodore.

"What…part?" Alvin asked, enunciating every word.

Brittany thought as fast as she could. "One of the chipmunks was trying to hurt me," she said quickly. "And he threw Dave's baseball at me—,"

Alvin gasped. That baseball was big and heavy for a HUMAN, so it would definitely severely injure or even kill a chipmunk.

"But he missed," Brittany said as fast as she could, "and it went through the window instead. That's all that Theodore was trying to say." She turned to stare at Theodore. "Right, Theo?"

He nodded quickly, going along with it.

Alvin stared at her suspiciously.

"I'm okay, though, really," she said quickly. "He didn't hit me. Dave's going to want to pay for that window, though…"

Alvin knew that she was lying, but he didn't know what she was lying about. He pretended to go along with it as he said, "Well, if that's all…am I seriously hurt?"

"No, you just have a bad bump on your head," Eleanor assured him. "You aren't supposed to make any sudden movements, any of you, which means that Dave and I are going to be caring for you guys for a couple of days."

"A COUPLE OF DAYS?" Simon yelled, and everyone jumped in shock. Simon never yelled.

"Um…yeah?" Eleanor said uncertainly, and it sounded like a question.

"We don't have time for a COUPLE OF DAYS!" he said furiously. "We have to go and rescue Jeanette NOW!"

"Well, if you're all banged up and can barely move, you're not going to be doing a lot of rescuing, anyway," Eleanor snapped.

He sighed and slumped dejectedly down.

"We WILL find her, Simon," Eleanor said firmly. "We just have to do some healing ourselves before we go running off, or else WE might get kidnapped, too. And then who's going to save Jeanette?"

Simon saw the logic in this and reluctantly nodded.

"Okay, Alvin, we're going to head home, but try not to make any sudden movements," Brittany told him.

He nodded and hopped down off the bed, secretly formulating a plan in his mind. He landed on the floor and pretended to stumble slightly. He grabbed his head and let out a moan, but he was really faking it.

Brittany hurried over to help him, and he grabbed her arm with the pretense of pulling himself up. Then, before she knew what he was doing, he had pushed her sleeve up and exposed her arm.

Everyone stood like that for a few seconds in horrified silence, and then Brittany had the sense to yank her arm away. But Alvin had already seen. Her arms, and her legs, were covered in deep scratches.

"How on earth did THAT happen?" he said slowly.

Brittany winced. "Um…I…tripped?" She knew it wasn't going to work before the words were out of her mouth.

Alvin looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "Tripping doesn't cause scratches like THAT," he said slowly. "Only concrete, or thorns or…"

His eyes bugged out. Brittany winced.

"…or glass," he finished.

"We should probably go and get Dave now," Eleanor said quickly, but Alvin exploded before she could make it two steps.

"HE THREW YOU THROUGH A WINDOW?!" he screamed.

"Yeah," Simon said lifelessly.

"Simon!" Brittany hissed.

"Britt, he was going to find out, anyway," Simon retorted. He turned to Alvin, and Alvin relaxed ever so slightly. He knew that he could rely on Simon to give him the straight truth.

"They broke her arm when they were pulling her away from you," he told Alvin in a monotone. "Then they kicked you and knocked you out, and the one holding Brittany threw her through the window. She got a concussion and is really scratched up—and falling into that thorny bush right outside the window did not help matters," he added as an afterthought.

Brittany glared at Simon. "Thanks," she muttered sarcastically. "Thanks a whole lot, Simon."

"I am going to MURDER all of them with my BARE HANDS," Alvin snarled.

"You don't have hands," Theodore pointed out.

"Paws, then! Whatever!" Alvin glared. "Okay, now I agree with Simon. We have to go NOW."

Brittany walked over and put her paw on his shoulder. "Alvin, look at me. Look at me right now."

He stared at her, and softened slightly under her gaze.

"I am fine," she said, enunciating every word. "I'm going to heal. I will be okay. They hurt me, yes, and I have no doubt in my mind that you are going to take care of them for me. But we have to wait until we're all better first." She squeezed his shoulder slightly. "And if you don't care in the least about YOUR welfare, then at least care about mine, because I don't want to go until I'M feeling better."

Alvin stared at her for a long moment, and then he finally nodded.

"And you need to stay calm," Brittany added. "Worse things have happened."

Alvin nodded again. "I'm still going to murder them, though," he muttered after a pause.

Brittany rolled her eyes. "Sure. Whatever. That's fine."