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It didn't land on Zone alright but splattered in front of him, that little bits of oats, raisins and other unidentified ingredients of this delicious delight, are happily stuck on his face. Zone's eyes widened, staring blankly at Juno whose now laughing so hard, sitting on top of the table.

Zone wiped it off with both of his hands and shook it off. It was sticky though so he's not doing a good job removing them, you could say he's making it worse. Wet, and now covered with food debris, what next? "Yeah pretty funny alright" and he flipped the table where Juno was sitting. "I may be small, but I'm strong okay!"

Now why did Zone connect that, to his height, I wonder. And Juno's still cracking -up on the floor. He went to Juno's side, and he was still laughing hard.

"Please don't step on my face.", said Juno, with a big grin on his face. Zone made a fist though and acted like he's going to punch him, but he offered his hand out to helping Juno to stand back up. "That was...impressive. Show me more."

But the cleaning lady came, frustrated with the mess, and she's still not finished with Juno's chaos, now she's glaring at the table.

Juno ran away and Zone shouted back, "RAH! I said don't call me BB! ...Call me Zone instead, SS!" and ran after him. He wouldn't want to go back to detention and the cleaning lady was getting closer, angrily armed with a mop. Juno's a good dog trainer I guess, for making Zone call him SS. Zone followed Juno to make him stop calling him BB, but through the years he gave up and let it go, but almost everyone ended up calling Zone, BB.

"Hey S, why are we up so early?" Zone's eyes are still puffed, you can probably mistake him for sleep walking, because he's eyes ---THONK!---are practically closed. He bumped and fell down to his a** by walking all the way straight to the oak tree. Seated he said, "I'm not good with mornings."



"Hey stop that! Listen you two!" a senior shouted at their bickering. Zone was as his usual, bitter and bites back, while Juno teased away, and they finally obliged while Juno snickers. He's excited isn't he. "Alright let's start with the briefing." their senior continued.

"St. Mary's Orphanage, a small residential institution suddenly had a weird adversity. All of their children have gone missing." he gave both Juno and Zone a folder containing information about the incident.

"Their teacher doesn't even remember what happened that day exactly, all she remembered was she took the children out to play in the yard, a weird man came in knocking at the door. She went to answer it, opened the door and when she blinked the man was gone and also the children. You two will go there to further investigate and look for the missing kids." he handed over another folder containing photos and other information about the people involved.

"This seems to be an easy average mission. Don't mess up and bring back those kids." but that senior doesn't know the half of it, the catastrophe that was only beginning to boil.

"All of them? This seems a lot" Zone whispered back to Juno.



Then Zone snapped back to reality, remembering their briefing last night. "Oh, yeah...those damn missing kids."

Getting used to Juno, he was expecting him to laugh at his recent blunder, like always. But Zone sensed something from him that he wasn't sure if it was excitement, nervousness or both. It was just Juno's decision though, not to provoke his crabby friend. As they say, it's better to fool a drunk than a person who just woke up.

"I guess the best place to start is at the orphanage, right? Do you need some coffee? Maybe we should get some before we go." Juno patted him on the shoulder.

"No, thanks...you're awfully energetic today. And you were just swinging off that branch earlier. I never saw a large monkey before." he chuckled back. "But you know, it's surprising, how time flies, and how I got used to this place. It became my home..." and there goes an awkward silence. "ugh, why did I suddenly went sentimental..." he thought. For being a kid that's always-on-the-run, the academy would certainly be his home and family.

Zone stood up and said, "The coffee can wait, let's get this over with and be heroes already." he made a fist gesture to Juno and waited for a fist bump, there's a hint of smile in his eyes and lips, not smug, not sarcastic. He too were excited and a bit nervous, in his own way. Finally they've got a shot to be heroes, to take part in more advanced missions than sidekick errands that needs supervision. His tummy was saying the opposite as it grumbles. "We can eat on the way."

Everyone wants someone to accept them. To depend and be depended on. In Zone's case, the only family he opened up to died. His angry father was nowhere to be found. His crazy mom involves him on illegal acts and doesn't treat him a son but an experiment and an achievement. The gang that considered his skills, accepted him and became his brothers, left him when Lily died. Everyone that gets near him was hurt, crumbles and gets destroyed just like when his acid blood touches something so fragile. All the years he lived, he showed the world how much he didn't care, so that it wouldn't happen again, but in the end he still wanted to be accepted.

Maybe, that's why in the past years that Juno continued to bug him, even though Zone fought him back, this lanky beanpole figure that was standing with him under this tree on this day that they will finally be heroes, became an important person for Zone. An important friend that made him see this academy isn't such a bad place, and naturally became his home. A friend...

Juno smirked and shrugged his shoulder. "Okay then, whatever you want BB."

...who returned his first fist bump. Zone looked at his hand. "...gawd, this is embarrassing" he thought. Zone saw others do this before, no one did it with him though. First time he tried it, wondered why he did such a silly thing and Juno returned it like it was normal. "Stop calling me that, it sounds like baby. Steam Ship!" And his tummy grumbles. "We can eat on the way."

Juno laughed heartily. That was more like it.

And maybe because it was a special day, that makes him act strangely. A turning point for his life that can finally close a chapter along with his past that he wanted to forget.



They finally arrived at the orphanage in Ronth. The place where Zone came from. He lived on the northern side of Ronth though, darker, depressed area. Fortunately he didn't meet anyone he knew as they traveled to the orphanage. It was the first time he came back at this place and he doesn't want his past stopping him from becoming a hero.

They looked around the backyard. There was no sign of struggle or commotion. If you look around, all are in order, it even seemed that the kids went out on their own. Zone wasn't used to this he was starting to get irritated.

"So what do you think?"

Zone responded to Juno's question "This is weird, those kids won't definitely entertain strangers. Let's go talk to the teacher again."

The teacher was hysterical, what happened to her was not of the ordinary. No one would vanished in front of her like a popped bubble, it was simply impossible. Zone asked her if there was something she noticed before and after that happened. Then she remembered the radio show that airs for an hour that she listens every time the kids were out to play just started when she was out to get the door. In the split second, the man was gone and the children too and the radio program had almost finished, she didn't noticed it before because she was panicking looking for the kids. "Missing time, it did not happened for a split second..." Zone looked Juno in the eye.

"Do you think it's a villain?"

"If a villain's involve, then we have to go back and report this in. But we'll probably lose the opportunity to actually apprehend a villain and not just an ordinary criminal and probably lose the mission to someone else." Zone smirked at the thought. "We will be proving our worth."

Zone answered back quietly, "If it is, then it's better." He thought for a second that they might be disobeying orders or protocols if they continue a mission that wasn't meant for their current status. If there was a villain involve they had to have at least a hero supervising them or the standard procedure that they have to report and wait for further instructions. But it seemed that neither of them can wait to become a hero. "It's a fitting mission don't you think?"

"O-oh yeah, there's something I forgot to mention. There's a large charity event going on for orphanages of northern Ronth... Our orphanage was supposed to attend but now..." The woman was obviously nervous and became quieter, the overwhelming stress was visible from her actions. "Thank you ma'am for your help, you can go and get some rest." Even if Zone's a bit brash and tenacious at times but he still respects older women, especially since he was raised by his grandma even though they weren't related by blood.

"Hmm, is there some connection to this incident and that event? The kids, those kidnappers could be anywhere but this is our only lead for now." Zone whispered to Juno privately in a corner. "And that slippery eel, he did something to that woman, whoever that is, he will pay." Zone was referring to their unknown villain. Juno probably has some idea who that person is. "Let's go there."

"Hold on."

"What is that beanpole doing now," Zone thought as he saw Juno quickly ran over towards the fence and picked up a single bunny stuffed toy near the edge of the broken fence plank. "What is that, a souvenir?"

"Okay, now let's go."
His partner smiled at him, played with the toy bunny making it dance and peck Zone on the cheek. That instinctively made him move back his head quickly and glowered at the playful Juno.



They arrived at the prospected venue for the event at central Ronth. It was massive with giant chandeliers hanging above the ceiling. Stacks of chairs and tables were being arranged. Cloth, linen and a bunch of high-class tableware was also brought in. They were cleaning, checking the lights and sounds. And a string quartet was practicing at the corner. Means a lot of people will occupy the place, not just ordinary people but VIPs.

Juno still played with the toy. He tossed it a few times int the air and Zone was starting to get distracted by his partner's behavior. Juno tossed it again and caught it, Zone tucked his friend's clothe at the back. "Quit it."

The two sidekicks talked to the person-in-charge. They explained that they were conducting an investigation and asked for their cooperation. The frontman snarly directed them to the office upstairs while he muttered curses along the way. Apparently the place were running on a hectic schedule.

"Le papier and ze documents. Pleaze help yourselves." And the crass employee left them in the room and slammed the door behind him. "I cannot understand a word he's saying...probably that grit's a sewitan."said by the annoyed Zone, remembering the unfamiliar words his mother used to blabber when fighting his father or scolding him. She was a sewitan too.

((omg...I forgot Juno doesn't have sleeves.))