Arabella's POV

My dad and I were scrolling through photos of graffiti that the Wall Dogs did all over the city. My dad and I hate the Wall Dogs, they are just punks who like vandalizing the city for their amusement. Not gonna lie, they are talented, but they need to express their artwork somewhere else and not over other people's property. It's disrespectful.

My dad wants to find those punks and take them down. All I know about the Wall Dogs is they are young teenagers and that there are a lot of them. They're a gang basically.

The door opened to the store and Henry and Charlotte walked in.

"You guys are late for work." My dad tells them as we stand up.

Henry pulled out his phone. "It's only three thirty-one."

"We're one minute late." Charlotte shrugged and I walked around the counter to them.

"Yeah. You know how much crime can happen in one minute?" My dad asked them.

"No."

"How much?"

"Don't get him started please?" I begged Henry and Charlotte.

"I don't know!" My dad snapped. "But none of us are gonna rest until we catch these dang Wall Dogs!"

"Okay! Chill out!" Henry assures my dad.

"It's just a graffiti gang." Charlotte scoffed and we walked passed my dad.

"That's right! And graffiti is a crime!" My dad exclaimed.

"Are you okay?" Charlotte asked my frantic father.

"Because we don't know why you're this upset about graffiti." Henry reasoned.

"Do you want to get it?" I asked them, knowing why my dad's upset.

"Do you?!" My dad cried.

"I don't know." Charlotte shrugged.

"I really don't care either way." Henry added.

"It was thirty years ago..."

"Oh boy." I sighed.

"Long before I was indestructible and adopted Arabella. Oh that day..." I could tell my dad was having a flashback and I partly listened to his story.

——

My dad finished his story and his face was full of sadness. It's a sad story, but I've heard it a million times and I'm tired of it. This is why I want to catch the Wall Dogs, because that story is killing me.

Also because they are punks and need to be stopped.

"I never forgot it."

"Dad, we'll find the Wall Dogs and we'll stop them." I assured my dad who sat on the sofa.

"But they say there's a bunch of them." Charlotte reasoned. "How are we going to stop them all?"

"Easy. You want to kill a snake, what do you do?" My dad asked.

"Get a shotgun." Charlotte answered and we looked a her.

"No. Jeez." My dad said.

"That's a bit hostile." I say and Charlotte shrugged.

"I meant, to stop the whole gang, we just have to capture the leader of the gang." My dad explained and this made sense.

"Ah." We say.

"Right."

We went down to the Man Cave and my dad searched the Swellview Criminal Database for the Wall Dogs leader. He found it and clicked on a video.

"There."

"Woah." I say with horror. He looked like he belonged in the circus for evil people, he had a top hat, a mask, and a fancy costume.

"Who's that?" I asked my dad.

"Van Del." My dad answered and pulled the video up on the middle top screen of the monitor. "Watch."

"I am Van Del, pack leader of the Wall Dogs. We are not criminals. We are not animals. We are artists. And these..." Van Del pulled up two spray paint cans. "These are our weapons of artistic destruction. Prepare to be sprayed!" Van was ready to spray the camera but a voice interrupted him.

"Vanny! You left your wet laundry in the washing machine!"

Sounded like his mother.

"I'll move it in a minute, mom!"

I was right.

Van sighed. "Edit that part out."

"Sure, no problem." A voice said.

The video ended and Henry spoke.

"Alright! We know he has a mother and a lazy editor."

——

That night, my dad and Henry went out to catch the Wall Dogs. They weren't very successful, because the next day when they returned Henry was locked between two ball cleaning machines.

"Will you guys hurry up and get these handcuffs off me?" Henry asked us. "I've had an inch for an hour and I can't scratch it."

My dad had to physically pull the ball cleaners out of the ground and bring them here. It wasn't easy that's for sure.

"Where's your inch? I'll it scratch for ya." My dad offered.

"Eh, I don't think you want to do that." Henry objected and I wrinkled my nose.

Ew.

"Hey, give me one of my gum balls." Henry said and my dad poured him a gum ball, popping it in his mouth

"Bella, start trying to pick the lock." My dad said as Henry chewed the gum.

I pulled a bobby pin out of my hair and got to work on the handcuffs.

"Hang on. I'm going to change back." Henry said and I watched him transform back to his normal self. "Okay, try to unlock me."

I took a hold of the handcuffs and started to pick the lock.

"Char, help." I say and Charlotte joined me.

"You know, I don't understand you." My dad tells Henry.

"What did I do?"

"You let all the Wall Dogs get away!" My dad exclaimed.

"Hey, I caught one!" Henry protested. "Till she tricked me and handcuffed me to this ball washer."

A girl? I bet Henry was blinded by her attractiveness and she used it to her advantage. Henry is so gullible.

"She?" I asked.

"You never said she was a girl." My dad said.

"Well, she was!" Henry exclaimed. "And she was really tough! And pretty..." This caught my attention and I raised an eyebrow. "She has these...these eyes... and this face..."

Henry is falling for the bad girl. Perfect.

"Oh, she has eyes and a face?" My dad sarcastically wondered.

"Well, at least we have a description of her!" Charlotte beamed with sarcasm.

"Let's go out and find her!" I smile and Henry rolled his eyes.

My dad got a closer look at Henry and squinted his eyes.

"Why...why are you looking at me?" Henry asked as my dad got closer to him.

"What's that on your lips?"

"I don't know. Lip skin?"

I stopped picking the lock and saw my dad wipe Henry's lip.

"Sticky." My dad tasted it. "Strawberry.."

"Lip gloss?" Charlotte asked.

"Did you kiss that girl Wall Dog?" I asked him with shock.

"No!" Henry exclaimed. "She kissed me!"

"Oh my god!" Charlotte, my dad, and I yelled with disbelief. 

"What?" Henry asked with irritation.

"You let your guard down and you let a criminal escape." My dad tells Henry. "Because the criminal happened to be a pretty girl?"

"An extremely pretty girl!"

"To be fair dad, you would do the same if a pretty woman was a criminal." I protested and he scoffed.

"I would never!"

"Two years ago, you let the Toddler capture me because you saw his young and pretty minion and got distracted." I explained to him and my dad laughed.

"That never happened!"

We stare at him until he continued. "You have no right to berate me like this!"

"Yes I do. I'm your daughter."

"There, got the handcuffs off." Charlotte told Henry, and Charlotte and I took the handcuffs off his wrists.

My dad was irritated and Henry approached my dad.

"Ray, I'm sorry." Henry apologized. "I really did try to catch the Wall Dogs."

"All right." My dad said. "I just wish we had more information. Like where their hideout is or where they're going to strike next."

"Did the girl that kissed you say anything that could help us find them?" Charlotte asked Henry and he went in thought for a while.

"Or find her?"

Henry shook his head. "No. She didn't anything."

That's a lie.

"Really?" I asked. "Because it looked like you were thinking about something."

"Yeah. What were you thinking about?" Charlotte asked.

"Pizza."

——

Henry admitted to lying to us and explained what happened. We have a plan and the Wall Dogs are going down.