Neighborhood Watch

It was another normal day in the house. Lily and Porter were playing a racing game on the TV, Bro was asleep on the couch, and Amelia was on a chair reading a book when someone knocked on the door.

"I'll get it!" Lily said, pausing the game and walking up to the door.

"Just as I was about to catch up..." Porter muttered.

"Catch up? There's no one else on the track and I've passed you twice now," she pointed out.

She opened the door and saw a girl with an orange sweater and glasses on the other side. This was Lini, one of their neighbors.

"Oh, hey Lini," Lily greeted. "Bro's asleep right now, so you can gawk at him all you want."

"C-could you not tease me about my attraction to your brother? One of these days, I'll have the guts to tell him personally," Lini replied, blushing.

"Anyway.." Porter butted in, walking up to Lini. "Is there something you need?"

"No, not really. But I'd like to ask, have either of you seen my juicer pen? I can't find it anywhere," Lini asked.

"Juicer pen?" Lily chuckled. "Leave it to Lini to try to make life easier by creating the weirdest things out there. No, we haven't seen anything like that."

Lini sighed, "maybe someone else in the neighborhood knows, I'll ask around." She looked around, then leaned towards the two. "You know, there have been some weird things going on in this neighborhood."

"Weird things?" Amelia chimed in, joining the conversation. "What weird things?"

"You haven't noticed anything disappearing in your house?" Lini asked, surprised. "Apparently, things in the neighborhood have been vanishing left and right. If you're not careful, your stuff might vanish into thin air."

"Alright, we'll keep it in mind. Thanks for telling us," Amelia waved, walking back to her chair.

"No problem. Be careful, you guys," Lini replied.

Before Amelia could close the door, Lily moved in front of Lini and asked, "you sure you don't want me to tell Bro that you like him for you?"

Lini blushed harder and slammed the door.

As Porter locked the door, Lily turned around to see that their TV and Gamestation were gone.

"Am I the only one seeing this?" Lily asked.

"I was just about to ask the same thing," Porter replied, rubbing his eyes.

"You're not seeing things," Amelia announced, also rubbing her eyes, "our TV is gone."

The two panicked and ran around the couch, screaming. Just then, both of them stopped and asked where the couch was.

Bro, who woke up from all the screaming, asked why he was asleep on the floor.

"Lini just told us that there's been things vanishing in the neighborhood!" Porter warned.

"And our TV's gone, too!" Lily added, "and I was so close to owning Porter in Wildkarts X-treme!"

Bro was still skeptical, thinking someone just threw him off and hid the couch again.

"Alright, you two. Just put the couch back, and we can go back to our regularly scheduled day," Bro recommended.

He turned around and realized the two were not joking.

"Where's the TV? It was mounted into the wall!" He asked, shocked.

"We don't know!" Porter shrugged. "One minute, we were playing games on it, we turned our backs and POOF! It's gone."

"Guys..?" Amelia called.

Porter, Bro, and Lily turned to Amelia. She was pointing at where the chair she was sitting on last was. It had also vanished, while the book she was reading was on the floor. Bro picked up the book and took a look at the cover.

"'Eclipse: When Wolves Attack'? Where was I to stop you from buying this?"

"This is no time for judging!" Amelia squealed, blushing and taking the book.

"Amelia's right," Porter agreed, "we need to make sure nothing else gets stolen."

He ran into the kitchen and came back with a roll of duct tape. It took him a few minutes to tape down everything, from the piano to the picture frames to the fake potted plant in the corner.

"There, now our things probably won't get stolen as easily as before," he smirked, satisfied with himself.

"That is probably the dumbest way to solve a problem, but if it works, it works, I guess," Bro sighed, shaking his head.

A minute later, one of the siblings asked where Zaire went. Everyone shrugged.

"I'll go look for him," he sighed.

As he walked into the boys' bedroom, he noticed the door was missing, along with his sleeper chair, the ceiling fan, and Zaire and Porter's bed. He didn't say anything about it though.

Bro found Zaire sound asleep on the floor, wearing headphones and snoring loudly. Bro gently tugged on Zaire's sleeve until he was jostled awake.

"Oh, morning, Bro," Zaire greeted. "Why am I on the ground?"

"Morning? It's two in the afternoon," Bro replied, "and you're on the ground because our things are going missing. We're trying to figure out where our stuff could be and who's responsible."

"Maybe it's that weird neighbor from across the street," Zaire reasoned as he got up. "I've spotted her hunting pigeons with a crowbar, swimming in the fountain, and lurking in the forest behind our backyard."

"I doubt it's her, why would she need to steal stuff from other people?" Bro questioned. "She might be strange, but I don't think even she'd do something like this."

"Well, do YOU want to ask her?" Zaire retorted, pointing at the window where sure enough, she was watching the two from behind a tree.

"Well, no…" Bro answered, closing the curtains. "But let's be realistic with who could be responsible. Unlike her, Zetal could be behind everything going missing."

"At the same time, why would he need to steal anything from anyone? He rules an entire island where he can force the citizens to give him whatever he wants, so why go through the trouble of taking anything here?" Zaire wondered.

While lost in thought, the two heard a scream from the other room.

The two ran for the living room and saw Porter pale and petrified. The piano, along with the picture frames and the front door had vanished without a trace.

"The tape didn't work!" Porter announced, shock and disbelief clear on his face.

"I mean, it sort of worked," Lily smiled, putting a hand on Porter's shoulder. "The plant's still there, at least."

After saying that, the plant was engulfed in a mysterious red light for a few seconds before disappearing.

"Oh. Well never mind then, the tape didn't work," she sighed, taking her hand off his shoulder immediately.

Zaire tried to comfort Porter, saying everything will be okay and that they'll think of a way to get their stuff back soon. Meanwhile, Bro and the girls wandered into the kitchen and discussed how they were going to solve this problem.

"We can't just stand here and watch our stuff get taken from us," Bro fussed, pacing around the kitchen.

"You're right, we can stand outside and watch our stuff get taken," Lily joked.

"Oh, har har, flower girl," Bro said, feigning laughter. "We still need to figure out a way to make sure nothing else gets stolen."

"How about mo-"

"No, we are not using more duct tape," Bro denied.

"Why don't we have some way to track our stuff?" Amelia suggested. "Like, we could attach a GPS to something of ours before it gets stolen. And if we manage to find one stolen item, chances are that's where everything else is."

"That's... not a bad idea, but how are we going to track our stuff?" he asked.

While in thought, several items in the kitchen were bathing in that same red glow. This included the counters, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator and even the tiles they were standing on.

The three ran back into the living room where Porter and Zaire were before the tiles vanished. The living room was almost barren, the only thing still there being the paint on the walls.

"This is bad..." Bro uttered, clearly stressed. "At this rate, whoever's responsible is going to take the whole house!"

"Or the whole neighborhood..." Amelia said. "Lini did say things were disappearing around the neighborhood, remember?"

Upon hearing this, Bro rushed out of the door and saw the neighborhood in a condition worse than the house. One house had its chimney missing, another house had its windows stolen, and one home had so much stolen from them, only the wooden framework was visible. The other four siblings looked out the door to the same shock Bro had.

"This is a problem," Zaire addressed.

"This is a huge problem," Porter corrected.

"I say we go after Zetal!" Lily exclaimed.

"Much as I want to do that," Bro stated, shaking his head. "We still don't have any proof that it was him. We'd probably be wasting our time."

"Then why don't we go and prove it?" Amelia suggested with a sly grin.

"What are you implying, Am?" Porter asked, looking over at his sister.

Amelia ran into her room and came back a few seconds later with two walkie-talkies.

"If it really is Zetal, we're gonna catch him in the act!"

"That seems clever and all, but how are walkie-talkies going to prove it was them who stole our stuff?" Bro questioned.

Amelia smiled again and ran back into her room, this time bringing out a large, empty box.

"I'm surprised they didn't steal that," Lily said.

"To be fair, if I was a thief, I wouldn't steal an empty box," Zaire replied.

"I think I know where you're going with this, Am," Porter added with a small smile.

"Here's the plan," Amelia explained, gathering the other siblings. "We hide in this box while one of us stays behind and communicates with the walkie-talkies. When the rest of us figure out where they are, we'll notify them and request help if it's Zetal. It's as simple as that!"

"...that's not where I thought you were going at all!" Porter whined.

"Well then, who's staying back?" Bro asked. "And be fast, we don't need him stealing anything else."

"I-I'll stay back. You know how bad I am at fighting," Porter chuckled nervously.

"Oh, no, little brother, this is a perfect opportunity to practice some more. Make those Clones know who they're messing with!" Zaire disagreed.

"I'll stay behind, someone's needs to see if our things get returned back to where they were," Lily offered, raising her hand.

"Yeah, right," Bro snorted. "You're the most reckless one out of all of us. You'll damage the house more with your antics than whatever's taking our stuff! You're coming with us."

"I'll volunteer to stay behind," Amelia insisted. "If Zetal really is behind it all, I know exactly where to get help. Oh, but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if any of you got hurt.."

"Have we reached an agreement?" Bro asked, pointing at his wrist.

"I'll stay behind," Lini declared, standing in front of the doorway.

The other siblings looked at Lini, not expecting her arrival.

"Hello again, Lini. Have you found your juicer pen yet?" Lily asked.

Lini shook her head. "No, I couldn't find it anywhere. I even asked around the neighborhood, but nobody could find it. I think Zetal might have your stuff, our stuff. I'll stay behind while you guys go investigate."

Amelia nodded and tossed Lini a walkie-talkie. Everyone then hopped in the box as she sealed its top.

"Please be careful," she whispered to the box.

As if on cue, the box was engulfed in the bright red light, emitting brighter than anything that had been in the light prior. Lini closed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak to someone in the box.

"And by the way, Bro, I wanted to say I like.."

Before she could finish her sentence, the box vanished without a trace.

"...you," she sighed.

As for the siblings, they were climbing out of the box and trying to get their bearings. They were on another island, one whose people don't take kindly to outsiders.

The five were behind a large pile of junk as a very tall tower stood behind them. This was the home of the island's ruler. It's said they want to get back at the world, but why is anyone's guess.

"Well, we're back at Kleptopolis again," Bro announced. "Seems like Zetal really is behind it all. What is he scheming this time?"

The five approached the base of the tower, where they immediately spotted two of the island's civilians. They looked similar to Bro, save for the red monocles on their right eyes and the small horn on their heads.

"Clones, twelve-o-clock!" Zaire whispered, drawing out a glowing blue katana. "Not to worry fam, I got this!"

"Zaire, we can't draw attention to ourselves here!" Porter warned. "C'mon, we need to hide!"

The boys hid behind a very large rock, while Amelia and Lily took cover behind another large box on the opposite side of the road. The two Clones passing by were conversing about their leader's plans.

"What do you think Zetal wants with all of these things?" one Clone asked.

"I dunno," the other Clone replied, "he said something about wanting Kleptopolis to appear on the map. He gave me this thing to keep me out of his hair."

The Clone pulled out what looked like a pen with a gauge attached to it. "Gotta say, they don't make fountain pens the way they used to."

"Come on, let's go find someplace to use this!" the first Clone suggested.

"How about we write our names first? That way, the others won't get us confused for anyone else. I'll even write your name first," the other Clone said, about to sign the first Clone's hand.

As soon as the tip of the pen touched the first Clone's hand, he was sucked into the pen, its gauge appearing half full.

"Thomas? Thomas, you in there?" the remaining Clone asked the pen. Confused, he tapped his finger against its tip and also was sucked into the pen soon after. The five ran over to where the Clones last stood to investigate.

"Classic Clones: dumber than bricks and denser than air," Bro sighed.

"So that's the juicer pen Lini lost!" Lily exclaimed, picking up the pen. "I wonder if it juices anything inside it." She added, tapping the gauge.

"Don't think about it too much. I'll return this to Lini when I see her," Bro replied, taking the pen. "Come on, Zetal probably isn't too far from here."

The five walked around the tower and saw a group of Clones, as well as several other people. Along with the Clones carrying boxes of various items, a woman with yellow eyes and a fox tail as well as a seemingly older version of Bro with a metal eyepatch and revolvers at his hip were keeping watch.

The five looked further and noticed a boy in a black suit and a red top hat playing on a television.

"Hey, that's our television!" Lily exclaimed. "Ooh, this kid's gonna get more than a piece of my mind-"

She pulled out a dance ribbon and prepared to walk over to the boy but was pulled back when they spotted a figure in a gray cloak carrying a rapier walking over to him.

"Enough slacking, Casinoir! This is our second day employed, and you are not setting a good impression for yourself!" he barked, waving his rapier around.

"Sort of like how misspelling 'rogue' on your resume doesn't set a good impression for yourself. Ain't that right, Final Rouge?" Casinoir retorted with a smirk.

"I-I can say it's a hard 'o', okay?! Now get off that game and help me keep watch!" he ordered.

"Fine," he groaned, "just let me finish this race first!"

Casinoir had to be pulled away from the television, and even while walking to where he needed to be, he was complaining every step of the way. When the two disappeared from sight, the five ran over to check the TV.

"Hehe, he was playing as my character!" Porter smiled, garnering a pout from Lily.

"We must be getting close," Zaire announced.

The five ventured further until they were behind the tower. That's when they saw the man behind the operation. He looked like a Clone, but he was taller, had larger horns, and the monocle was on his left eye. He was standing in front of a machine, typing numbers on a supercomputer and waiting for items to appear.

"Zetal, I don't understand. How is stealing the Chatoyant Pearl O' Beau going to get Kleptopolis put on the map?" a Clone asked.

"Easy: I retrieve the pearl, Seal Island realizes one of their artifacts is missing, I announce that I have it and make a series of demands, and bam, Kleptopolis is on the map," Zetal replied.

"How exactly will they meet your demands when they don't even know where the island is?" This question made Zetal freeze.

"I'll figure it out when I get there. Now get ready for whatever appears next."

The Clone listened and stuck his arms out only to have a large anchor land on him.

"I'm probably getting closer," Zetal muttered to himself. "A few more tries and that pearl will be mine."

"That pearl will stay on Seal Island!" Bro called. "You're not getting away with this!"

Zetal looked over at the siblings and groaned in frustration. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me! Ixin, Umbrish, you were supposed to stop these guys from ruining my plans, come on!"

The woman looked over at the five, then looked away in shame. "Apologies, sir. The five you've warned us about slipped right past me. I will do better than this."

"Ixin, there's nothing stopping you from redemption," Umbrish disagreed, pointing his revolvers at the five. At this point, Final Rouge and Casinoir were also drawn to the attention, and the siblings were soon surrounded.

"I don't believe any of you met," Zetal chuckled. "Siblings, meet my cohorts, Ixin, Umbrish, Final Rouge-"

"It's pronounced rogue, with a hard 'o'!" Final Rouge shouted in correction.

"-and Casinoir, though you'll know them better as the Villain League. You won't know them for long though, because once we dispose of you and get Kleptopolis on the map, I'll show the world the true strength of Zetallic Zetallion!" he cackled. While he was distracted with his laughter, Bro slowly nodded at Amelia, who was ready to act.

"Catch!" she shouted, pulling out a cardboard heart from her pocket and throwing it at the four henchmen. The heart exploded soon after, launching them. Everyone but Casinoir landed on their feet, jumping towards the action. Final Rouge lunged at Porter but was blocked by Zaire and his glowing blue katana. What followed after was an awkward swordfight between a hooded figure and an anthropomorphic mouse, and Porter running away.

Umbrish was firing his revolvers at Amelia and Bro who took cover behind a rock.

"Sheesh, your aim sucks!" Casinoir goaded.

"You try aiming with one eye!" Umbrish shouted back.

"You stay here, I'll deal with Zetal," Bro said, rolling up his sleeves, revealing two glowing bands on his arms. He then transformed into a ball of light and rushed away from his cover.

Without warning, Casinoir appeared out of his hat, startling Amelia. She threw a heart at him only to catch it in his hat and shoot it back at her. She was launched back by the impact and crashed into a wall made of junk, the walkie-talkie flying out of her pocket.

Meanwhile, Ixin was dodging Lily's ballet ribbon before grabbing it and pulling Lily towards her and smacking her hard with her tail. Knocked down and out of stamina, Lily landed in front of Zetal. Amelia ran over to help her and was struck by Casinoir's hat, which returned to him after dealing the blow. Zaire was also knocked into the two with his katana disappearing into thin air.

As for Bro, he was standing on a ledge, just barely out of Zetal's sight. His plan was to take him by surprise. Transforming into a ball of light again, he made a beeline for Zetal at high speed. But before he could attack, Final Rouge popped out of Casinoir's hat and kicked Bro straight up into the sky.

Porter saw the walkie-talkie that was on the floor and immediately leapt for it. "Lini, we need help! Get whoever you can and get over here!" he begged.

He looked over and squeaked when he saw the Villain League looking directly at him. Panicking, he started to run away.

Umbrish shot his arms like rockets and grabbed Porter before he could get out of range. He body slammed him before tossing him with his other siblings.

"Well, that was easier than I thought," Zetal smiled, dusting his hands. "Guess hiring outside help was worth it after all."

"Now that's how you make an impression!" Casinoir cheered, taking a glass ball out of his hat and tossing it at the four, creating a reverse force field around them.

"And I think I finally figured out the position of the Chatoyant Pearl O' Beau!" he announced, typing another series of numbers on his computer.

Sure enough, a large, violet-colored pearl appeared out of the air and landed in Zetal hands. He looked at it in awe, then at the siblings, a smug grin plastered on his face.

"And now that I've gotten what I needed and you're down for the count, I say it's time we finished this. Don't worry about your brother, we'll deal with him as soon as he lands," he sneered. "As for you, Casinoir, would you do the honors?"

Casinoir nodded and grew his hat to the size of a large couch. A purple light started to emit from the outside, and sparks of electricity formed around it.

"It's all over for you. Maybe you could try again in another timeline," he taunted.

"Hey!" a voice shouted from the hill. The five villains looked over to where it was coming from.

It was Lini, along with an army of seals. She turned around to face the seals, saying, "Look! My friends are in danger, and our stuff is here too! Let's help them out! Are you ready?"

The seals nodded and bounced around, creating various noises.

"Then charge!" Lini shouted, running down the hill. The flood of seals followed her, ready to get their stuff back and help their friends.

Upon seeing the Seal-nami, Umbrish grabbed Ixin and shot his arm up to a support beam on Zetal's tower.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Zetal screamed in a fit of rage.

"Retreating," Umbrish answered. "If we try to fight back, we'll only get run over."

Umbrish then grappled up to the tower, leaving Zetal dumbfounded. Final Rouge ran toward the seals to attack them and got trampled by them as a result.

"Casinoir, fire the laser!" Zetal commanded.

"Boss, it's still not done charging," Casinoir replied with a frown.

"WHAT?!"

"What do you mean 'what'? It's a death laser! You can't just cram a couple of batteries in a giant wonder machine and expect to be up and running in an instant! It's like a frozen dinner - you can't eat it as soon as you take it out of the box. Ever ate frozen TV pasta? It ain't pleasant, let me tell you. You have to peel off the plastic film just a little before putting it in the microwave. Personally, I don't trust putting plastic of any kind in my microwave, so I just kinda scrape the food onto a paper plate. And don't get me started on the mess it makes.. cleaning the microwave after cooking a TV dinner is a nightmare if you don't cover it. I'd cover my food, but again, plastic in a microwave doesn't sit right with me, even if they say it's safe. What if it's some sort of lie to make us spend more on cleaning products? Those things are probably even less safe then putting plastic in a micro-"

Casinoir and his hat got run over as he was monologuing, freeing everyone from the glass ball. They regrouped with Lini and the seals and stood in front of Zetal, ready to fight him.

"Ugh, don't think you've won yet! I still have one last trick up my sleeve!" he shouted.

The siblings, seals, and Lini were bathing in a familiar red glow as Zetal entered a series of numbers into the machine.

"I don't care where any of you end up, I'll still have the last laugh. I'm not failing at this point," Zetal growled.

Suddenly Bro appeared, still yelling as he fell from the sky and crashing straight into the machine, destroying it.

Zetal screamed in fury, threw the pearl down at the ground and ran toward his tower.

"This isn't over! One of these days, the world will know my name!" he yelled before slamming the door.

Everyone went to check on Bro, who was laying on the wreckage of the machine.

"You okay, Bro?" Lini asked, her hand outstretched in front of him.

"I'm fine," Bro groaned, taking Lini's hand. "Just another day stopping Zetal, even if it wasn't technically us who stopped him this time." He stood up and handed Lini her pen back. "I believe this belongs to you. Careful, it's full of Clone."

As for the others, Zaire and Amelia were talking to each other, Lily was checking the condition of the pearl, and Porter was looking over the machine.

"Say, isn't there an easier way we can put everything back, now that we found out what's been causing it?" Porter asked.

"Nope," Bro shut down the idea. "I mean, there would be, if I hadn't crashed into it. None of us know how this thing even works. We could fix it, but then again, do we really want to fix this thing here?"

Everyone shook their heads in agreement.

"At least we found everyone's stuff. All we have to do now is bring it back," Amelia assured.

"But how?" Lily questioned. "We have so much stuff to move! Even if we start now, it'll take us days! And how are we supposed to return the Chatoyant Pearl O' Beau without drawing suspicion?"

Zaire smiled and pointed to the swarm of seals bouncing and looking at them. The siblings and the seals all looked at Lini after, making her blush.

2 Hours Later

Thanks to the seals, everything was returned to its rightful place. The chimney, the windows, even the house with its framework got everything back. The Chatoyant Pearl O' Beau was immediately returned to the museum and the 'thievery' was chalked up to misplacement. Everything was slowly turning back to normal again.

Bro and Lini were standing by the street, watching the seals put back everything that was stolen.

"You know," Bro stated, "if it wasn't for you helping us, no one would've gotten their stuff back, or worse. But thanks to you, Lini, that didn't happen."

"Aw, please. All I did was show up to another island with a seal army. If it wasn't for you guys buying me time to arrive, I think missing things would've been the least of our problems," Lini smiled at Bro.

"Are you two going to kiss or what?" Lily shouted, appearing behind Lini.

Lini covered her mouth and pushed her aside.

Bro looked confused as Lini said to him, "Sorry about that. You know how your sister is. By the way, you didn't hear a confession while you were in that box, did you?"

"Don't worry, I didn't hear a thing," he replied with a wink.

Lini smiled one more time as she and Bro looked back at the house.