The look on Amber's face was now quite different. Puroko was a little worried that she wasn't interested in whether or not she had hurt her. "Amber-san?" she whimpered.
"Come on, let's go to the playroom!"
"N- no." Puroko backed up a little. "Ano, I think I'm going to go wait in the car for your brother to take me home."
Amber's eyes narrowed. "You're not going to play with me?" her voice was reaching a dangerous pitch. Puroko shook her head and took a couple more nervous steps back, running into the front door. "Jasper's not taking you home, so you can just forget about it!" Amber reproached her. She took a few menacing steps towards the younger girl. "Now, you can either come hang out with me, or everyone's just gonna tie you up and be mean to you. Not that you deserve to be treated nicely, since you won't even play with me after I invited you over. So what do you say?"
Puroko's hand found the doorknob. She quickly turned and tried to escape, but even before she got the door open, Amber was on top of her, restraining her. Puroko screamed, but Amber paid her no heed. "I warned you," she said as she dragged Puroko kicking and screaming into the next room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Oh, Gabriel, I forgot! I left all my money at home," Carrie pouted at the young Mizuno. "Can we stop there first?"
"Well, I can pay," Chibi offered, proud of himself for remembering to be a gentleman at all times. The better behaved he was, the sooner he was certain Carrie would give him a little reward. He couldn't wait!
Carrie seemed willing to reward him, but not in the way he had wished. "Oh, that's so chivalrous of you!" she exclaimed. "But in that case, I'd like to take you out afterwards, so I still need my wallet, you see. You don't mind do you, sweetheart?"
Sweetheart?! The term of endearment made him melt all over. "Whatever you say, baby," he answered, so enchanted that he literally would do whatever she wanted at the moment.
"I appreciate that," she told him sweetly, turning down the road that would take them to the Eclipse mansion.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mi-chan found her sister sitting against the wall by the front doorway, burying her face in her knees that she hugged close to her body. "Neko-chan! What's wrong?" she asked, instantly running up to her to see what was going on.
Neko looked up at Mi-chan. She wasn't crying now, but the evidence of past tears was still perceptible on her face. She looked a little in shock. "I- I, uh- I-" She looked away for a moment and seemed to gather what she wanted to say before focusing her eyes on Mi-chan and starting over. "I couldn't stop him. Chibi went off with Keri-san, and I couldn't go after them, and I can't tell Mom and Dad because I promised, but she's�. Mi-chan, she's not good. I wanted to stop them, but I can't leave. Please, save Chibi, Mi-chan, please!"
"We'll save him together," Mi-chan promised.
Neko looked away. "No, I can't leave. Dad said-"
"Neko-chan!" Mi-chan made Neko keep her attention on her, rather than on things said a couple days ago that she figured had no real bearing on this serious situation. "You can leave the house for this, okay? We'll go find Chibi together." She waited for Neko's nod before setting forth any kind of game plan. "Okay, let's see if we can find them first."
She tried calling Chibi, but naturally there was no answer on his communicator watch. Next she tried Kimahou. But again no answer. *She's supposed to be at band practice* Mi-chan thought to herself, beginning to wonder about Kimahou's well-being as well. Finally, Mi-chan called Tenshi, who also didn't answer.
"God dammit! Where is everyone?!"
Neko had been decidedly more helpful since Mi-chan snapped her out of her apparent trauma. "Didn't Chibi mention something about Keri-san living in a mansion or something? That she wanted him to come over?" She was on the computer, searching through information on housing in Crystal Tokyo. "There are only about three houses this side of Tokyo that are actually big enough to even be considered mansions. And this one�," she pointed to one on the screen, "actually is listed as vacant. If they're invaders from beyond the solar system, I'd think they'd probably take over that one." She pulled up a map of Crystal Tokyo and found the mansion's location. "Let's try here first," she suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Mi-chan said, as she grabbed her keys to get started.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Not until Tenshi got outside and passed the empty bike rack did she remember Puroko. She ran around looking for her for a few minutes before deciding that the young girl probably just got tired of waiting and either called one of their parents for a ride or took the bus.
But when she got home, Tenshi still couldn't find Puroko. In fact, what she did find was a note from her parents, saying they were shopping for Christmas gifts this evening and that Tenshi and Puroko were on their own for dinner. That meant that Puroko wouldn't have been able to get in touch with them either.
"Puroko?!" Tenshi yelled, hoping that Puroko had just hid somewhere in the house that Tenshi hadn't seen yet. "PUROKO!"
Nothing.
"No, don't do this to me. I can't lose her too!" Tenshi cried desperately.
She quickly went through her options. She knew she couldn't call Neko�, which meant she couldn't call Mi-chan either. That left Chibi and Kimahou.
She opened her watch and called Chibi, but there was no answer. So her final hope was Kimahou.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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