Chapter 3

Back in HQ, all was empty and quiet. From the top of the stairs that led to the attic, Adorabat peeked around the corner, looking rather like she had just gotten up from a deep yet restless slumber, evident by the wrinkles under her eyes and stray tufts of fur sticking out from every part of her face.

Still half-asleep, she gently hopped down the stairs and walked over to the main bedroom to access the bathroom for use. When she was done, she then went over to the TV to turn it on, then entering the kitchen. She helped herself to a small snack from the fridge and went back to the living room, sitting on the couch to watch TV. She started at the animated screen for a little while, but as she grew more and more awake, she started to notice the empty silence, looking around as though something was off. She turned off the TV.

"Mao Mao?" she called out. She got off the couch and began checking everywhere.

She first checked Mao Mao's office space, going over to his desk and even checking the holding cell next to it. "Hello? Mao Mao?"

She went downstairs to the garage. "Badgerclops?" She noticed the little plastic tank containing Lucky's pet spider was sitting on the workbench, making her even more confused as to where the bug's owner was. After all, that thing was one of the many others that the group was to bring on the trip, but it was left behind. Adorabat questioned if the vacation even started yet. That confusion was further compounded from seeing the aerocycle still being there, sitting inactive in the garage.

She went back up and went to the dojo and even the maintenance room next to the kitchen. "Dad? Chubbum? Kevin? Ketchup? Plippy? Lucky?" When she didn't find anyone she called out the names of, she even circled around and rechecked all the spots she went through just moments before. "Where is everybody?"

Adorabat went right back to the living room, sitting back onto the couch. She thought about what might possibly be the reason for HQ to be empty except for her. That was when she remembered the events of the night before.

"I made the whole group disappear!" she gasped to herself in disbelief. It would have been cause for alarm had she not remembered something else about last night: The stolen and wasted pizza courtesy of Lucky, Mao Mao not punishing Lucky for it, how neither Mao Mao or Badgerclops and even her dad took her gripes seriously…

A grin slowly crept on Adorabat's face. "I made the whole group disappear."

The day moved forward with a single bat having the holiday party of a lifetime. Once Adorabat realized the freedom she now had to do things that Mao Mao would have normally forbade her, she was practically on an itinerary of her own. First, she was bouncing up and down on Sofia the couch, munching on bag of popcorn plus other snacks belonging to Badgerclops at the same time. Then, she was playing with Mao Mao's hero equipment and some of the tech down in the basement-garage. After that, she took to flying all around in HQ, yelling "I'M FREE" while she went for every corner. She then capped it off with rapid-fire paint projects in the dojo, especially with the traps deployed and running to spread her flying paints with greater effect.

Once she cooled down and had most of her fun, Adorabat relaxed by going back down to the garage to look through more privately stored parts of the space. She was currently looking on one of the computer monitors on Badgerclops's work desk, and her eyes were pretty wide at what she was gazing at before nonchalantly moving off to the next interesting thing.

"Why are those ladies crawling like that?" she commented on the pics she saw on Badgerclops's computer. "It's gotta hurt your back." She sifted through a nearby desk drawer for something else she could find, to which she shortly did. "Whoa, firecrackers!" she gasped, "I'll save those for later." She took a moment to yell upstairs, for a moment pretending she wasn't alone in the house. "Badgerclops! I'm going through all your private stuff! You better come down and stop me!" Without waiting for an answer, she resumed her snooping, sifting through another drawer. What she pulled out had her cringing.

The item happened to be a picture frame holding a photo showing Badgerclops smiling next to a sculpture made of beignets, both subjects posed in a sort of manner Adorabat couldn't quite place. Whatever it was, she certainly couldn't see herself looking at that every day. "So that's why you like beignets so much?" she remarked out loud, her face scrunched up in confused disgust, "Yech!" She roughly put down the picture to refocus her eyes on something else.

She finally noticed a particular invention hanging on a wall in another corner of the garage. It looked vaguely similar to Badgerclops's standard robot arm, but it was thinner and more hollowed out, but even Adorabat could see it looked perfectly functional. She grinned as she knew just what to do with it. She had just grabbed the thing and taken it back upstairs, setting up a bunch of toys at the edge of the hole where the sliding poles stood. She got low to the floor and aimed the arm-like weapon at the toys, pressing a button to fire BB pellets at them. At each toy, she hit them perfectly in one shot, sending them all tumbling down the hole onto the bottom floor of the garage.

Later, Adorabat was back in the lounge area of HQ's main atrium, reclining herself on the couch with a tub of topping-laden ice cream in her lap while her eyes were on the TV. She had just inserted a disk into the DVD player in the shelf of the table that the TV stood on, one that happened to have a name called "Angels with Impure Hearts". From what she knew of that movie, it was one that Badgerclops liked to watch and even got Mao Mao interested in as well, though not as much as the former. But she was sure that both of them would agree to never let her watch it, which made her feel even more smug about her situation. With a spoon in one of her wings, she took a scoop of ice cream to chomp on for herself as she listened to what the two characters on the TV were saying.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

"Who is it?" – "It's me, Scales. I got the stuff." – "Leave it on the doorstep and get out of here." – "Alright Timmy, but what about my money?" – "What money?" – "Rudy said you had some dough for me." – "That a fact? How much do I owe you?" – "Rudy said 10%." – "Too bad Rudy ain't in charge no more."

Adorabat took another moment to tease the absent cat and badger after helping herself to her newest bite of ice cream. "Guys! I'm eating junk food and watching one of your movies on the TV! You better come here and turn it off!" She took another bite without waiting even another second. The two characters talking in the movie continued.

"What do you mean?" – "He's upstairs taking a bath. He'll call you when he gets out…'Ey, I'll tell you what I'm gonna give you, Scales."

Adorabat watched as one of the two guys in the movie pulled out some kind of energy blaster he held in two hands and pointed it at the other.

"I'm gonna give you to the count of 10 to get your ugly, yellow, no-good keister off my property before I pump your fluff full'a laser beams." – "Alright Timmy, I'm sorry. I'm going!" – "One, two, TEN!"

Adorabat was in full blast of what the TV was showing to her, the guy with the blaster firing rapid shots at the other guy, putting holes in his body in graphic damage and only stopping to watch him fall to the floor. The shooter then resumed shooting, laughing maniacally all the while. That was all Adorabat had to see before she outright covered her eyes with her wings. It wasn't any less frightening that she could still hear the violence, and when she slightly lifted a wing to peek at the scene, she hid her eyes again at the look of the shot person's heavily destroyed corpse being shot at some more. She only took her wings off her eyes once she saw the shooter stop shooting and laughing. But it was that last line he said that sealed the deal:

"Keep the change, ya filthy animal."

Adorabat hit the pause on the player and TV with a remote, as she cried out, "MAO MAO!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back on the commercial aero-transport, Mao Mao stirred from his nap, opening his eyes and straightening himself up on his seat which slightly jarred Badgerclops. It was when he began sifting through several things around him that woke Badgerclops up along with getting Eugene's attention, as the older male bat had just previously been reading a book under a miniature lamp. Both the bat and badger turned to look at the black cat uncomfortably sifting through whatever he got his hands on.

"Hey bud, what's going on?" Badgerclops asked his friend.

Mao Mao took a couple seconds to finish his little searching before stopping to address Badgerclops's question. "I don't know. I just got a really bad feeling, like…we didn't do something."

Badgerclops arched an eyebrow at hearing this worry. "Nah, you're probably feeling that way because we left in a really big hurry."

Mao Mao paid no mind to Badgerclops's assuring but somewhat dismissive comment, too preoccupied with what he worriedly had on his mind at the moment. He turned back to the badger. "Did we lock all the doors?"

"Yeah, of course," Badgerclops said.

"Did I take the gem cell out of the aerocycle to bring with us?"

"No. I did."

"Did you bring Lucky's pet spider?"

Badgerclops paused. "That's it. I forgot to bring the spider." But he turned away to relax on his seat, putting his hands behind his head in a reclining position. "No big deal. It can last a few days," he sighed.

Mao Mao still remained in unease. "No, that's not it…" He turned his attention to Eugene. "Eugene, can you check something with me?"

"Sure, if that'll help calm you down," the teal bat said, getting off his seat to accompany the black cat.

Both of them made their way over to the rear cabin where the kids were in their seats, either napping, playing games, or watching shows. Mao Mao scanned left and right of the aisle, going so far as to bend down and sift through the kids' belongings under their seats, even pick some of them up to turn then over despite their visible displeasure at being interrupted from their activities. Mao Mao went on to start aimlessly pacing when he didn't find the source of his discomfort.

"The kids seem to be fine," Eugene noted to the sheriff. "I've accounted for everything on the checklist."

"Still," Mao Mao calmly disagreed, "I still feel like something's missing. Don't you?"

Eugene pondered for a moment from listening to Mao Mao's words, taking a glance at the kids himself. "I guess you might be right." From where he stood, he tallied the kids in their seats. He counted, remembering in his head that the whole group was composed of himself, the sheriffs Mao Mao and Badgerclops, and six kids – his daughter being one of them. Well, no problem with counting the kids again.

As Eugene recounted, Mao Mao was listing every kid's name while watching the teal bat. He didn't care that Badgerclops was walking up to him from behind, himself having gotten out of his seat to investigate after the black cat's visible worrying proved infectious. Mao Mao counted in his head: Chubbum, Lucky, Ketchup, Kevin, Plippy…

"Hey guys, you doing a game with the kids?" Badgerclops joked.

"Not now, Badgerclops," Mao Mao huffed, "I'm checking for something we forgot, and I'm absolutely sure we did!"

Eugene counted: Chubbum, Lucky, Ketchup, Kevin, Plippy…

Badgerclops shrugged his shoulders. "I already know the list and agenda, Mao. What else could we be forgetting?"

Mao Mao thought for a bit to come up with an answer. The whole group left with three adults and six kids. He counted in the cabin Chubbum, Lucky, Ketchup, Kevin, Plippy…

Eugene was sure everyone was accounted for. When everyone was lined up at the aerobus back at the Sheriff's Department, there was a literal headcount. Five of the kids were counted at the side while the sixth was counted at the back. Quinton was the only other adult Sweetypie there at the time and he was at the back loading the luggage. But then again, only one head was counted at the back…

Both Mao Mao's and Eugene's eyes slowly widened more and more, their pupils shrinking as they realized the implications of such a conclusion. It culminated in two voices letting loose a scream so loud that every other person on the vessel was given the shock of their lives:

"ADORABAT!!!!!"