The four kids soon arrived in the more urban section of the city, where two more kids were standing.
"Oh, I really hope Alex found her," said a blonde haired girl "this whole thing has me worried!"
"I know, I'm worried too, but we need to keep calm and just hope everything is okay," the other, a redheaded boy with glasses, replied.
Moments later, Alex reappeared, although he wasn't alone, as he had garnered some guests.
"Hey Alex, who are, um, your friends there?" the girl asked.
"This is Wenda and her friends Wu & Wes," Alex explained, nervously noticing the look the redhead was giving him "I told them about Addison being missing and they wanted to help us find her."
"Oh my gosh, that beaver looks so adorbs in his little hat and tie!" the girl exclaimed, as she ran over to look at Wes "and how did you train him to stand up like that?"
"Beaver?" an angry Wes asked "I'm not a beaver, I'm a woodchuck, and this is a neckerchief, you nut"
"You can talk?! Oh, I so need a picture of this," she said, and took out her phone, then, wrapping one arm around Wes, pulled him closer to snap a selfie.
After doing so, the blonde quickly texted a message "me with talking woodchuck, smiley face" she said "and…send."
"So, who are you?" Wu asked.
"I'm Kevin," replied the redhead.
"Name's Tess, nice to meet you," the blonde said, "you gotta tell me how you got your pet woodchuck to talk like that."
"There is no trick, his talking is totally natural," Wu explained.
"That's so neat," Tess replied "I wish I had one."
"So, my adorable Alex here tells me you're after a lost ally," Wenda said, suddenly grabbing Alex's arm, much to his displeasure.
"Huh?" Tess & Kevin asked.
"You're trying to find a missing friend," Wes simplified.
"Oh right, our friend Addison went missing," Kevin explained.
"It was so horrible!" Tess added "she didn't show up for school this morning, and when they called her mom to see if she was sick, she said she had no idea what happened to her, she'd just vanished!"
"We've been spending most of the day looking for her," Alex chimed in.
"Ironically, we could use some one with detective skills to help us, but that was Addison," Kevin said.
"I've sent her like, a dozen text messages, but she hasn't responded," Tess told the newcomers "which means either she can't answer her phone, or, even worse…she's somewhere with no Wi-Fi!"
"Well don't you worry, my friends and I will help you with your search," Wenda said.
"Yeah, it's not like we're doing much else," Wes added.
"Any clues as to where your chum might currently be?" Wenda queried
"I have one idea," Alex said "the mysterious disappearance, the lack of return of texts, it all adds up to one thing; Addison has been abducted by aliens!"
"Oh no!" Tess exclaimed.
"Wait, 'aliens?'" Wes asked "that's absurd."
"Hey, if this handsome hunk says aliens hijacked his friend, then I say we start hunting for aliens," Wenda said, before turning to gaze lovingly at a nervous Alex. Little cartoon hearts floated off her head, although he couldn't see them.
"Well, as farfetched as it is, aliens might explain why there is no trace of Addison anywhere," Kevin said.
"I hope if there are aliens, they're not all slimy and gross," Tess countered "I just got my hair done."
Just then, a pair of what appeared to be robots came by. One had a colander head with eyes and an electronic "mouth" alongside two lightbulbs on either side and some wire in the middle. Its' chest was a cardboard box, with oven mitt hands and a wheel for locomotion.
The other resembled a flying orb with a helicopter blade of spoons for movement and a long arm extending from the bottom.
"Eureka, Gyro, you guys find anything?" Kevin asked.
"Find nothing, find nothing," Eureka said, her electronic mouth drooping into a frown, while Gyro, who could only make noises, emitted a squeak of displeasure.
"Awesome automatons," Wu commented.
"Addison built them; she's pretty much a genius," Kevin explained.
"Yeah, she's always building all kinds of cool stuff," Tess added, then looked down and sighed "I really miss her."
"I can't let these kids mourn their missing mate another minute," Wenda said "come on team, let's split up and search for clues." She heard Tess & Kevin sniffle after she said that "what's wrong?"
"That's just what Addison would have us do!" they both exclaimed sadly.
After 15 minutes, they all returned to the center of the town, but with nothing to show for it.
"We've searched the entire town and talked to almost everyone, and they haven't seen her," Kevin said "now I'm really worried."
"Me too," Tess added.
"Guys, we're not going to find her if she's been abducted by aliens, because the alien mothership is probably already going through space by now," Alex explained.
"I hope not, or we'll never see her again!" Tess said.
"Okay, you guys seriously can't still suspect aliens snatched her, can you?" Wes asked.
"Still, there's no sign of her," Wu added.
"Oh man, what would Addison do if she were here?" Alex asked.
"She'd say that we made a mistake, and we need to take a break, think it through, and try again," Kevin replied.
"That sounds like solid advice," Wenda said "why don't we split up and stew over this, then regroup later," she added, before grabbing Alex by the arm "come on cutie, you and I are gonna carouse in this city."
"Um guys, a little help?" Alex asked, but Kevin & Tess did nothing but chuckle at their friend's predicament.
"Wow, your friend is really into Alex… for some reason," Tess said to Wu.
"Yeah, she sure is smitten with him," Wes added.
"Smitten? What does that mean?" Wu asked "not to worry, I'll look it up in my 'Big Book of Everything!" he said, pulling out a large tome with a magnifying glass with a question mark in it on the front.
"Smitten- to be attracted or infatuated with someone," Wu read "yup, Wenda sure is that; strange, actually."
"Wait, where did that book come from?" Kevin asked "you couldn't possibly have kept it in your pocket."
"Don't be so sure," Wu told him.
"I'm going to go over to Addison's place, maybe her mom got an update on where she is," Tess told the others.
"Okay, text us if you find anything," Kevin said.
"Of course."
In the next chapter, Tess finds Addison, but soon regrets it when she finds her friend acting different than usual.
