Chapter 5

It took some time, but at last, the aero-transport carrying the sheriff's group had finally landed in Lunarton City.

As though if it were no different from the rush back in Pure Heart Valley, Mao Mao was already dashing past the entry gate and towards the nearest public area in the aeroport, looking for the first available phone. Eugene was flying right behind him, following closely for the same reason as the sheriff was. Badgerclops was struggling to keep up with the former two's mad dash, considering he wasn't a runner and he was carrying the other five Sweetypie kids under one arm. By the time Mao Mao and Eugene did find a phone, he was panting and gasping for air.

The phone Mao Mao and Eugene approached happened to already be occupied by another user who was in the middle of their own conversation with whoever they were talking to. At the very least, Eugene's and Mao Mao's approach got their attention, making them turn to face the two.

"Excuse us, but we really need to use the phone…" Eugene hurriedly but politely told the other person. But before things could go any further, aside from the stranger's brief confused expression, Mao Mao radically had a different approach.

"Just hand over the phone!" the black cat crowed loud enough for other people around him and his group to hear, snatching the phone's receiver from the stranger's hand. Mao Mao's unbridled aggression was enough to make the person back away and run, unwilling to escalate things further. Once Mao Mao had the phone, he wasted no time getting right to talking. "Hello? Hello, hello?" he enunciated more normally into the receiver, "I have an emergency! It's –" He paused when he heard the unfamiliar voice speaking gibberish to him, making him change his course of action. "Sorry, they'll have to call you back," he finished just as rapidly and hung up. "Here, Eugene," he told the older bat, handing him a coin for him to put into the phone. Mao Mao then spun over to Badgerclops, tossing him a little pocketbook filled with written contact info. "Badgerclops, get right to calling everyone in Pure Heart Valley! Call up as many houses as you can!" Badgerclops got right to dialing the numbers on his robot arm.

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Adorabat was still in the kitchen, peeking out the window from just under the countertop.

"This is ridiculous," she complained to herself. "What am I doing hiding like this? I fight monsters and other bad guys every day. Only a wimp would be hiding from burglars, and I'm not a wimp." She puffed up her chest and took on a stern expression. "I'm the sheriff of the house!"

Adorabat immediately went back to the front door and slid it open to march out (after closing it behind her). She would have flown, but she opted to just tread on the layered snow. It may have been deep, but she was light enough to walk on the surface without sinking down to her ears.

"Hey!" she yelled, "I'm not afraid of you!" She looked left and right for whoever tried to invade the house earlier, hoping they would come out in response to her voice. No such response came.

Adorabat tried again. "Hey jerks! I said I'm not afraid of you!" No one showed in her line of sight.

Adorabat tried being even louder. "You hear me? I said I'm not scared of you! Come out and face me, you big dummies!"

*CRUNCH* Right on cue, a massive shadowy figure landed right on the snow from above, like he had just jumped from a tree. The meteoric landing was powerful enough to disperse the snow around him like they were just clouds.

Adorabat widened her eyes, staring right up at the figure's head to face who she thought would not show up any time in the winter. Even in the darkness of the night sky, she could still recognize the guy's face, even if it were just an outline.

"Orangusnake!?" she cried, blatantly ignoring the scarf around the Sky Pirate's neck.

"You! Brat!" Orangusnake similarly yelled with a hiss. Unfortunately for him, Adorabat was right on him, screeching as she started diving for his face and even tried to blind him with his own scarf. "Get off me!" he tried to swat her away with his big orangutan-arms. "I'm not doing anything evil tonight!" He didn't get a lot of time to respond once he pulled his scarf back down from his face as he was then savagely pelted at with snowballs.

"Don't you lie, filthy criminal!" Adorabat yelled as she loaded up another wad of snow. As she prepared to throw it, she told him straight up, "Back to the pit from where you came!" She threw her snowball only for Orangusnake to block it with his arms.

"Oh, now you're gonna get it," the Sky Pirate growled. He reached behind his back to grab his energy-axe, but stopped short of doing that upon realizing how hard he was shivering. As if to complicate things further, his nose twitched and smelled something in the air, making him drool a little. He turned back to Adorabat who looked ready to fly at his head again. He managed to stop her with his words alone, narrowing his eyes at her with a glare. "You're lucky it's the cold season!" he said to her through softly chattering teeth. "Next time, I won't be so cheerful!"

Before Adorabat could go any further, Orangusnake dashed to the edge of the cliff the house stood on, taking the part of the landing furthest away from said house, jumping off and activating his energy-axe to jam into the rocky face to slow his descent. When things got quiet again, Adorabat went over to investigate.

Adorabat momentarily wondered where he could have went. "I wonder if he's okay," she thought before flying back to the house, briefly noticing the lights in the town area down below in the distance. She'd check that out tomorrow.

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Back in the Lunarton City aeroport, Mao Mao had just finished giving the Sweetypie operator a piece of his mind over the phone. Once there was a connection, Eugene had politely tried over and over to ask the operator to send a person over to the Sheriff's Department HQ to check on Adorabat, whom they had left behind. But after several minutes of being redirected to other services, Mao Mao thought it best to try his way after asking Eugene to lend the receiver to him. It culminated in the black cat dishing out his assorted loud and direct demands at the Sweetypie listening over the phone, though he only got a little further than Eugene at that point. As for Badgerclops, all he got from the houses he called were clueless residents oblivious to the situation.

So the group had to stop by at another desk in the aeroport, asking for any assistance on getting a flight back to Pure Heart Valley.

"I'm sorry, sir, but every immediate flight to Pure Heart Valley's been booked," the aeroport assistant notified Mao Mao reluctantly.

Mao Mao was pretty much pinching the bridge of his nose between his eyes at hearing this. "Well, can't you do something, like bump someone off or ask somebody?"

"I'm sorry sir, but I can't do that."

By that time, Eugene had made his way to Mao Mao's side, followed by Badgerclops who caught up behind him. "Any return flights to take?" the bat asked the cat.

Mao Mao shook his head, appearing to look even more irate than he usually was. "No, of course not! Turns out there are no seats left!" He pointed to the desk assistant as he continued. "This person says here that the next available flight's two days away!"

"Two days?" Eugene seemed mutually frantic, his face paling in heart-stopping fright. "I can't wait that long! Who knows what's happening to Adorabat right now!"

"Well, to be fair, she's better at taking care of herself than you think," Badgerclops butted in, but backtracked once he was immediately confronted with the displeasured gazes of Mao Mao and Eugene, feeling more uncomfortable with the former more than the latter. "But…" he backtracked, "if there's no other flights available, why not make the best of what we got here until that flight?"

"Out of the question," Mao Mao refused, waving a hand for emphasis. "Eugene has a point that we don't know what's going on back home right now. I'm not leaving here unless it's on an aero-craft!"

The assistant stepped in. "We're doing all we can right now. If you want to stay in the aeroport, we can keep you on standby and there may be a possibility of a seat opening up. As far as I know, that's your best shot."

Mao Mao thought about that recommendation, and then slowly nodded with a smile as he thought it to be a much better idea than just playing the waiting game. "That's fine with me," he affirmed to the desk assistant. To his surprise, or rather not at all, Eugene also stepped in.

"I'll take that offer too," the bespectacled bat chimed in. When Mao Mao looked at him as though he wanted to know why he was involving himself, Eugene got right to filling him in. "I know you're concerned about Adorabat, but I'm still her dad, so I should be making the effort to come back to her too." He made sure to make his last point clear when he thought Mao Mao was going to object. "I'm going."

Mao Mao paused, wanting to say something but stopped short of just opening his mouth and holding up a finger. As he caught his breath in his throat, he understood Eugene's final decision at once. "Okay then. Let's do it."

Once that plan had been arranged, it was time for Badgerclops to keep the kids company, however much to his dismay it was for him. At the very least, there was consolation with knowing that he still got to enjoy a bit of the sights, even with the kids in tow. Before leaving the aeroport with the kids, he shared one last little talk with Mao Mao and Eugene. "You sure about this, guys? You can still get a bit of a vacation here for now, you know."

"Our decision's final," Mao Mao asserted once again, "we won't rest and consider a vacation until we know Adorabat's safe and sound…or at least until we can get a signal…"

Badgerclops couldn't help letting out a little snicker at that. "Okay then, if you say so." He prepared to turn away to leave the airport with the kids, waving goodbye at the two of them. "Don't you get lost now."

Eugene stifled an amused giggle while Mao Mao shook his head with a faintly bemused smile as they both also gave their farewells.