In an aerotruck sitting meters away from Sheriff’s HQ, Rufus and Reggie snoozed away in their seats, having fallen asleep from trying to scope out the place for several hours. It was only when the faint distant sound of a door closing shut reached Rufus’s keen ears that he woke up first. When he spotted what was going on, he reached over to Reggie to shake him awake.

“Reggie!” Rufus hissed. “Look at that!” Once he was sure Reggie was completely awake and aware and looking in his direction, Rufus resumed his own viewing as well.

Out on the front yard, still very close to HQ, Adorabat was trudging through the snow, carrying a handsaw in one of her wings. She went over to the side of the house to look among the trees that stood before her. She only stopped scanning when she did find a tree, and she flapped her wings to fly up to the tree she chose. She perched herself on one of the tree’s branches just above where the middle of its trunk would be and then began sawing away at said trunk. She kept sawing until the top part of the tree was completely separated, then with a little helping push, the sawed half fell right down into the snow. Adorabat flew off the branch she stood on and back onto the snow, grabbing the tree portion she cut and dragged it through the snow with her back to HQ.

“Reggie,” Rufus grinned, “I think we were just scammed by a kindergartner.”
________________________________________

Inside the house in the living room, Adorabat had finished setting up the cut tree near one of the windows, having gotten it mostly decorated with tinsel and a variety of hanging ornaments.

Outside, Rufus and Reggie had snuck to the front porch, carefully crouched down below the windows to spy on the lone bat inside. Rufus slowly and carefully peered above the windowsill, only keeping his eyes and fingertips in clear range of the glass pane, and meticulously observed what Adorabat was doing.

Adorabat had just finished hanging up a round ornament on one of the tree branches when she gasped in quiet shock. She had caught a glimpse of the ornament’s reflection, the sight of the window behind her having a suspicious shape just above the bottom part. It looked like the top half of a face of red fur, with a pair of black-tipped ears and a pair of yellow eyes below, along with black-tipped fingers. She knew: he was back.

Adorabat had to improvise. Looking at the empty staircase that led to the attic, she called out, “Hey Mao Mao, can you come here and help me?” When she saw from the ornament’s reflection that Rufus had not moved position, she moved away from the tree to another part of the house, making herself look like she was going to fetch someone.

Rufus lowered his head and shook it, internally already calling the little bat’s bluff. He turned to Reggie, who was still huddled under the window. “Remember that little bat child we ran into yesterday? She’s with that sheriff.” When Reggie appeared to prod him for further clarification, Rufus leaned in closer to the raccoon. “She lives here.”

Reggie looked rather uneasy. “Well, if she’s here, then the sheriff’s gotta be too.”

Rufus shook his head, smiling. “She’s home alone.” Reggie took a few seconds to process the statement and then slowly nodded as he understood what that meant for himself and Rufus. Like Rufus, he too was smiling opportunistically. He looked back up in time to see Rufus getting back off the porch to leave and return to the aerotruck.

“So what’s the plan now?” Reggie asked as he took after his taller partner through the trees.

“We’re going back there tonight.”

“Tonight?” Reggie gasped. “Even with the bat kid still there?”

“Yes,” Rufus answered bluntly.

“But…going in when it’s still occupied…is that really a good idea?”

Rufus swiveled around, startling Reggie that he nearly fell backwards onto the snow. “Listen Reggie,” Rufus growled to the shorter raccoon, irate over his partner’s questioning, “That house is the only reason you and I are back in this valley. Ever since I found out that it was where that wretched sheriff lived, I had to go after it, make him and his stinker friends pay for what they did to us!”

At the same time, Adorabat had flown out of HQ to spy on Rufus and Reggie from the top of the roof, carefully listening and keeping her eyes on the pair below.

Rufus continued. “So, let’s take it one step at a time. We’ll have the aerotruck ready for the loot, go into town and grab a bite to eat, and be back at nine o’clock. By that time, it will be dark.”

“Nine o’clock,” Adorabat whispered to herself in affirmation of what she overheard.

Reggie grinned as he felt impressed by the plan Rufus laid out before him. “Yeah,” he nodded, “Kids are scared of the dark.”

Rufus, on the other hand, appeared to be somewhat disappointed and beguiled at what Reggie said. “You’re afraid of the dark too, Reggie.”

Reggie looked offended at what Rufus said. “No, I’m not!” he protested as he followed after Rufus when the latter resumed walking. Rufus simply answered him with “Yes, you are”, followed by Reggie insisting he isn’t.

Adorabat could only watch the fox and raccoon leave as she grew a little more nervous. “Mao Mao…Badgerclops…dad…where are you?” she whispered shudderingly.
________________________________________

On a winding mountainside highway next to a wooded loch, a landbound bus rolled along the curves of the road. The inside of it was packed with passengers. Mao Mao and Eugene were nearly crowded by the number of performers, Camille and Honey included, who were sparing no extra second practicing their magical skills required for their upcoming theatrical performance. It was rather noisy inside as every robed performer was fiddling with a potion or some other magically-charged gadget.

Eugene could only look at Camille nervously when she presented to him one of her potion blends. She had just formulated it from where she sat on the bus despite said bus being rather rickety as it rolled across the road.

Mao Mao sat next to Eugene, and he tried his best to limit himself to staring at the front windshield of the bus, focusing on the view of the road ahead of him. His arms were crossed over his chest, had one leg over the other, and his face had a glum terse expression the whole time, not saying a single word. He only showed a reaction when Honey used her performing tool to generate a form of magic clouds to shield him from the others’ actions. Despite Honey's spell also generating a faint display of swirling colors, Mao Mao was in no mood to feel impressed – he had no time for it.

As if to compound his situation further, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Camille was in the middle of mixing a few more pinches of red and blue-colored powder into a mini-cauldron. The alteration of the formula caused the liquid mixture inside to glow brighter and smoke more heavily at an alarmingly fast pace. At that moment, Mao Mao was paying full attention, his eyes snapping wide open while he tried to jump from his seat in an attempt to stop what was about to happen right now.

“EVERYONE, STOP THA–!” the sheriff managed to yell before the whole bus was enveloped in an explosion of multicolored vapor. Outside, the windows gently rattled as the edges of the panes and frames leaked out a flash of dyed clouds.