"Oh my gosh, this is not so good, 😧" Bruce said.

"This doesn't make any sense. Where would she go? 😰" Floyd asked.

"She couldn't gone far. I bet she's hiding in here somewhere, 😨" John Dory said.

"So, a game of Hide-and-Seek, huh? 🤔" Clay said.

"If she's playing this game, it's up to us to find her," Bruce said.

"Well, this should be easy since she's been here the whole time," John Dory said.

Bruce nodded. "That's true."

"Plus, she can't even reach the doorknob to leave the room," Clay mentioned.

"Exactly. So there's nothing to worry about because this will be so easy to find her," John Dory said.

"She's not here!?! 😱 This can't be right," John Dory said, looking through the pile of stuffed animals.

"We searched everywhere, 😭" Floyd said, looking inside the closet.

"But wh-where else could she have gone?" Clay looked around the crib.

Bruce gasped. "Maybe she did go out?? 😱 Because I forgot to close the door when I was checking on her twenty minutes ago."

"Aw, man, this is bad," Clay said.

"She could be anywhere in the bunker," John Dory said.

"Oh, I feel so bad," Bruce said.

Floyd put his hand on Bruce's shoulder."Don't worry, we're going to find her before Branch and Poppy-"

Ding!

John Dory looked around to find his phone on the table. His eyes widened as he let frowned.

 "Branch just texted me. They are on their way back here in fifteen minutes," John Dory said.

"Oh, no, we're in serious trouble now," Clay said.

"Wh-What are we going to do?" Bruce said.

Floyd sighed. "We should tell him the truth that we can't find her."

"WHAT!?! 😱😱😱" Bruce, Clay, and John Dory shouted.

"Floyd, if we tell him the truth, he would probably never trusts us to babysit Melody ever again," Bruce said.

"But we can't just not tell him. Look, it might not feel good to do it, but we should let him know about this," Floyd said.

"Enough chitchat bros, we need to find the Melody and fast," John Dory said.

"You're right. We only got fifteen minutes, so let's go search in the living room first," Bruce suggested.

Floyd let out a sigh as he, Bruce, Clay, and John Dory rushed out of the nursery and through the hallways to get to the bunker living room. When they got there, the search for Princess Melody began once again. They looked behind the couch, behind throw pillows, under the chairs and table. 

"Melody!!" Bruce called out to her.

"Oh, Melody!!" Clay shouted.

"Yo-hoo! Melody!!" John Dory said in a singsong voice.

"Melody, please come here! We are worried!" Floyd said.

After five minutes of searching, there was still no sign of Melody.

Bruce panicked. "She's not here!! 😨"

Floyd panicked too. "Wh-Where else could she have gone? 😨"

"She couldn't have gone that far? Could she? 😨" Clay asked.

"Well, she does love exploring," Bruce said.

"And she can crawl really fast," Floyd mentioned.

"I guess that would mean that we'll have to search all over the bunker," John Dory said.

"Let's go upstairs and check our bedrooms," Bruce said.

"Sounds to me that we're going on a search party," Clay said.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Floyd said.

They went up the stairs and went different ways to find Melody in their bedrooms, including Bruce, who went inside his bedroom. He pretty much made a huge mess, while calling her name, but she didn't answer. He continued to look for her.

- - -

~Thirteen Minutes Later~

Bruce met up with his brothers back in the living room. "Have any of you guys found her yet?"

Clay frowned and shook his head. "Nope. 🙁"

John Dory sneezed. "I even looked in the vents and got attacked by the dust bunnies. 🤧"

Floyd sniffled. "I rechecked the playroom and nursery, but she's not there. 🥺"

Bruce panicked. "Oh, this is terrible. 😰 They are going to get back here any minute, and Melody could be anywhere. We-We can't give up..."

There was a sudden noise coming from above them. Bruce turned to find that the elevator shaft was gone.

Bruce's eyes widened in fear. "They're back.... 😱"

"Already?" Floyd asked.

Clay frowned. "So wait? Does that means..."

"It's too late," John Dory said.

Bruce got on his knees and hid his face in his hands. "Oh, this is all my fault! I shouldn't have left the door open. And if Branch and Poppy found out that we lost their only princess daughter, they are not going to be happy...."

💭💭💭

Poppy: You lost....our.....daughter!?! *cries*

Branch: *rages* HOW COULD YOU GUYS LOSE MY ONE AND ONLY DAUGHTER!!! YOU GUYS HAD ONE JOB!!! ONE JOB!!!

💭💭💭

John Dory sighed. "You're not lying about that. But we can't give up now."

"Look, it's already too late, okay? They are about to come in here any moment and we lost our only niece," Bruce snapped.

John Dory said nothing, frowning. Clay and Floyd frowned too, facing Bruce, who apologized for snapping at them as he sat on the couch, hiding his face in his hands. 

"You may feel like it's your fault, but we all are responsible to take care of her. And that also means that we should tell them what happened," Floyd said.

"Floyd's right," John Dory said.

Clay joined in too. "And we will get through this together. Even if this means..."

A loud noise of the elevator shaft grew louder. The four brothers held their breaths, huddled up together and faced towards the elevator shaft that finally came down.

"Helloooo!!"

"Viva? 😲" Bruce said in surprise.

"VIVAAAAA!!! 😁 " Clay shouted.

Floyd sighed in relief, holding his chest. "Oh thank trollness! 😅"

"Man, I thought Branch and Poppy were with you, 😅" John Dory said.

"Girl, you gave us a scare, 😅" Clay said.

Viva chuckled and hugged Clay. "Got to keep you on your toes, man. 🥰"

Clay laughed in a nervous way, rubbing his neck. "Yeah. 😅"

"Man, what happened here? It looked like a tornado came around and-boom, boom, wham, whoosh-it messed it up," Viva said.

"Long story. Where's Branch and Poppy?" Bruce asked sadly.

"Oh, they just left a minute ago to get groceries and I told them that I'll tell you guys about this, and now I'm here. The end," Viva said.

"Oh?" Clay faced his brothers with a hopeful look on his face.

Viva sat next to Clay and hugged him. "AAAAAHHHH I'm sooooo happy to see you guys! Wait, where's Melody?"

The four brothers faced each other with worry looks on their faces. They faced back at Viva who gave them a concerned look.

Bruce sighed. "Okay, I'll tell you—"

Clay cut him off. "But you have to swear you won't tell anyone. You have to hair swear."

Bruce's eyes widened. Hair swear? I haven't heard of that term in a long time. Back in elementary school or something.

Viva blinked at him. "Hair swear?"

Clay gave her a serious look. "It's the only way."

Viva frowned for a moment before she sighed. She and Clay extended their hair towards each other, doing the hair swear together.

"Sparkle, sparkle, rainbow cakes, glitter dewdrop, your secret's safe."

After doing the hair swear, they all faced each other in complete silence.

Viva gave them a confused look. "Well?" 

Bruce sighed. "We lost Melody and I think it's because of me because I left the door to her nursery room slightly open."

Viva gasped. "YOU LOST MELODY!?!?!!?! 🤯🤯🤯 Oh my gosh, that's so bad."

"I know," Bruce said.

"No, I mean that's really bad," Viva said.

"We know," Bruce, Clay, John Dory and Floyd said.

Viva went into panic mode. "But seriously, this is sooo bad that if Branch and Poppy find out that you guys lost their princess daughter, they'll be so heartbroken, especially my sister who would probably cry for days and days nonstop, and your brother would flip out and probably kick you guys out of his life and forbid you all to never step foot into the bunker ever again and the saddest part will be that you'll probably never see—"

At that moment, Bruce broke out into tears, which he hasn't done this in a long time. The more he cried, the more guilt he felt inside, feeling overwhelmed with it. Everyone frowned, including Viva who had a guilty look on her face.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." Viva said.

"No, no. It's fine. I was already feeling like this before you said this," Bruce said.

Viva zoomed off and quickly came back with a tissue box, giving him a piece of tissue. Bruce thanked her as he wiped his face with the tissue. As Bruce continued to cry, he felt someone hugged him. He quickly turned to see his brother Floyd right beside him, giving him a hug. John Dory, Clay, and Viva hugged him too. 

"I just want to be a good uncle to my baby niece," Bruce said. 

"But you already a good uncle. All of you are," Viva said.

"Yes, but I also feel bad for losing her," Bruce said.

"Don't worry, everything's going to be okay. We can find her together as a family," Viva said.

Bruce sniffled loudly. "Even when we do find her, I will still feel terrible for losing her."

"Me too," Floyd said.

"Me three," Clay said.

"I will feel terrible as well," John Dory said.

Clay's voice trembled. "I wish Melody was here..."

"Me too," Floyd said.

John Dory blinked back his tears. "Yeah...."

Bruce sniffled loudly. "You know, if she was here, she would say..."

"Brucey, don't cry."

"That's right, Floyd. She would say something like that," John Dory said.

"Wow, Floyd, you really sound like her," Viva complimented him.

"But that wasn't me," Floyd said.

Bruce stopped crying. "Wh-What? Then who said..."

Melody popped out from his purple hair, smiling. "Eek-a-oo! 😊"

"MELODY!!! OH MY MELODY!!!" Bruce picked her up and hugged her, crying.

"MELODY!!!!" John Dory, Clay, Viva and Floyd joined in the hug.

"Hug!!" Melody said.

"Oh thank trollness, that we found you!" Floyd said.

"We were so worried," Clay and Viva said.

"I thought we lost you forever," John Dory said.

"Oh, Melody, you scared me so much!" Bruce said.

Melody wiped Bruce's face. "Brucey, don't cry."

"Have you been in my hair this whole time?" Bruce asked.

"Hair! Warm!" Melody hugged herself and climbed inside his hair, playing Peek-a-boo.

Bruce laughed. "Peek-a-boo!! I'm so happy that you're okay!"

Melody gasped. "Uh-oh!!"

"Uh-oh what? Oh." Bruce looked ahead to see it was a mess in the living room.

"Wow, just look at this mess," Clay said.

"Wow, you guys are just realizing this?" Viva asked.

"I have seen it, but didn't noticed how bad it was," Bruce admitted.

"Branch's not going to be happy about this," Floyd said.

"Definitely," John Dory asked.

"Clean up! Clean up!" Melody said.

"That's right! We need to clean up," Bruce said.

"Well, good thing that we got ten minutes to clean up before Branch and Poppy come home," Viva said.

"Great! That gives us plenty of time to clean up," Bruce said.

"And we all need to work together to get this bunker spick-and-span," John Dory said.

"So, what are we waiting for? Let's clean up this bunker!" Viva said.

"YEAH!!!" Everyone cheered, including Melody.