The Mandalorian Brothers and the Stolen Painting, Pt. 2
Read about the Mandalorian Brothers' travels to Indonesia, Russia, and Japan...
Chapter 8: The Crutches
The brothers took off and decided not to switch out their silver skis for golden wheels because the place they expected to find the clue was near a lake! Right after waking up and eating breakfast, the Mandalorian Brothers executed another perfect landing on the water. They had their GPSs with them, but they didn't even need to use them! After they landed, they put on their scuba gear (and made sure they brought some dry clothes with them) and then swam towards the hill. When they started climbing the hill, BabaFrank fell back into the water along the rocks. Apollo looked at his leg and thought it might be broken, so he put a first aid bandage on it. Then, Apollo started looking for materials he could use to build BabaFrank some new crutches (I'm sorry about how you got hurt, Gustavo). He started digging into the ground and, before he knew it, he found some silver! He picked up the silver and pulled out the forge that he had carried with him in his scuba diving suit to build the crutches, a couple of shovels, and an extra code hacker/translator.
Chapter 9: The Underground Tunnel
The Mandalorian Brothers thought that the next clue might be hidden underground. So, they picked up their shovels and started digging where Apollo had dug with his hands. While they dug, the brothers found lots of other materials - like bronze, silver, gold, and other cool metals and minerals. Miners had clearly never discovered this spot before, so the Mandalorian Brothers felt super lucky! Apollo and Babafrank dug for hours and hours, trying to get as deep into the soil as they could. In fact, it took them more than a month to reach the underground tunnel, where they would find the next clue. When they finally finished digging, the brothers noticed that the bottom of the tunnel was very sticky and didn't smell good. So, they decided to grab onto some branches and vines that were hanging from the top of the tunnel. But, as soon as Apollo grabbed onto one of the vines, a rock flew out at him. Whoever had planned this trap had probably wanted to make it very difficult for anyone to enter. Luckily, Apollo dodged the rock and moved aside. Babafrank had a backup plan that would be very helpful: jetpacks! He handed one over to Apollo and the two brothers took off towards the tunnel. They made sure not to hit any of the vines and to fly high enough above the slippery ground. BabaFrank didn't even need to use his crutches, because there was no use for them in the air!
Chapter 10: The Boomerang Monkey
All of sudden, a piece of the underground tunnel started to crumble and fall right onto the slippery floor in between the brothers. Apollo and BabaFrank quickly flew to the sides of the tunnel and turned away so that they wouldn't get any dirt in their eyes. When they looked back at the ground, they saw a big monkey throwing boomerangs at them! The Brothers grabbed the boomerangs as they passed by. Then, BabaFrank yelled out to the monkey, "we mean no harm!" The monkey looked confused and stopped throwing the boomerangs.
"Ooh Ohh Ahh Ahh!" the monkey replied.
The brothers pulled out their code hacking translator to understand what the monkey had said. The code hacker said: "How do I know that?"
Apollo pointed at his good-guy badge and said, "We have our good guy badges! Look!"
The brothers used their translator to understand the monkey's response. He said, "Ok, I believe you! Want to know all my secrets?"
BabaFrank looked surprised but said, "Yes, of course!" Could this be the next clue? he wondered.
The monkey said, "You were definitely not the ones who imprisoned me, so I think you should know this: You must go to the tallest mountain in the biggest country in the world. That is all I can tell you."
The brothers looked a bit confused, but they quickly remembered that the biggest country is Russia, and the tallest mountain there is Mt. Elbrus!
"Let's go!" Apollo said.
"Thank you!," Babafrank yelled to the monkey as the brothers flew away.
Chapter 11: The Air Tricks
The Mandalorian Brothers used their jetpacks and flew all the way out to the river in Sumatra and fished there. When they got to the river, they took off their jetpacks, dove in with their scuba diving suits, and caught fish by hand. Then, the brothers swam up to the airplane with the fish and cooked their dinner. The fish was very tasty! Once the brothers finished eating, they went to bed and told each at least 1 or 101 bedtime stories. The trip lasted about 13 days. On the 13th day, after eating breakfast, the brothers started their landing. And it was one of the most difficult landings they had ever done! They had to do some of the hardest maneuvers in the world to be able to land safely on the diagonal mountain. They also had to impress the Russian airport workers to be let into the airport that was closest to Mount Elbrus. They had to do a loopty loop, a diagonal up, and tornado spins. After doing all the difficult maneuvers, the brothers were finally let into the airport and finished their landing -- the tornado spins were enough to impress the Russian workers.
Chapter 12: The Mountain Dogs
Once they landed, they said thank you to one or two of the airport workers and then started packing up their jackets, electrical waffle makers, and a bit of Nutella so they could make chocolate waffles. Then, they started hiking up Mount Elbrus - and it was hard. The mountain was very diagonal and steep and it was cold. Both of the brothers had to put on all their extra jackets and they were still a tiny bit cold. The brothers knew that they could not sled up the mountain, because normal sledding would only send them down, which would not be helpful at all. So, they decided to do something that would've been obvious to you if you were there: they dog-sledded. They herded the dogs from around the mountain and offered them treats. Then, because they were not far from the airport, they headed back down to the airport and asked the workers to give them some dog sledding supplies -- or they would knock the whole place down with their golden airplane. The airport workers were frightened and agreed to give them the dogsleds. The workers also put leather ties on each dog and gave the Mandalorian Brothers extra blankets for their journey.
Chapter 13: The Chocolate Waffles
The Mandalorian Brothers got into their dogsled and said, "hike, hike!" (this is actually how people herd dogs, and hike means "run" or "go faster"). It was fun! When they got a bit hungry, the Mandalorian Brothers let the dogs pull their sled and started making some chocolate waffles. They pulled out their electric waffle maker from under the blankets and grabbed all the supplies they needed. Apollo looked for the Nutella and got a plastic knife to spread it on the waffles, and then the brothers started eating. The waffles were deeelicious. Luckily, the dogs did not slow down while the brothers were eating - they kept going up and up! But suddenly, the brothers saw a wall of trees up ahead and pulled their dogs to a stop. They asked the dogs to start digging under the wall, and the dogs immediately got to work. This was a very smart idea because if the brothers had tried to go over the wall, they probably would have gotten squished by airplanes taking off from the nearby airport. Once the brothers and the dogs passed the wall of trees, the brothers noticed that a giant avalanche had started at the top of the mountain. They were paralyzed in fear until a bear came over and growled at them. The brothers quickly asked, "can you help us?" and the bear growled in response. Apollo pulled out his code hacker translator, which told him what the bear had said: "Yes, come with me, my den might work.”
Chapter 14: Bear Sledding
The bear led the brothers and their dogs to his den. He said, "You'll be safe here, and after the avalanche passes we will make our way up there together." Apollo was warming up by the fire that they had made with a match and extra, left-over waffle crumbs. He turned around and asked the bear his name. The bear responded, "I'm Frederick!" They all started playing games on their smarty tablets together, like Pixel Craft and Flippy Knife. They also played some board games, like UNO, Life, and Monopoly! Meanwhile, the avalanche covered their way out while they were playing. After 99 hours (about 4 days and three hours), the brothers finally said to the bear, "we might need to leave pretty soon. Do you think we can go yet?" The bear said, "I'm not sure. Let me go check." The bear opened the door and said, "Yes, good to go. Me and my cubs can come with you to the top of the mountain." When they all got out of the den, the Mandalorian Brothers grabbed the two cubs and hopped onto the dog sled. The brothers gave the cubs a comfortable spot on the dog sled and pulled some blankets over them. Then, they asked the bear if he could be the sled's pilot and lead all the rest of the dogs, since he knew the way. The bear agreed and tied himself to the leather rope that connected to the sled. The Mandalorian Brothers then grabbed the pilot dog and brought him into the sled with the two cubs. Once the bear took off with the rest of the dogs, the Mandalorian Brothers pulled out their electric waffle maker and started making warm, chocolate waffles for themselves, the pilot dog, and the two cubs. It was deeeeeelicious. Once they had finished eating, they fed all the dogs and the bear some water from their water pouches.
Chapter 15: The Golden Frame
After a while, the Mandalorian Brothers peaked up from the blankets in their sled and saw that the bear sledding was going great! They were almost at the tippy tip top and could see a frame. What was that? Could it be a clue? They yelled out to the bear, asking him to stop in precisely one minute and thirty seconds. When the sled stopped, the brothers jumped out to investigate. They could only see the top part of the picture frame, which was gold and looked pretty old. The rest of the frame was hidden under piles of snow! So, the brothers started digging it out with the help of the dogs, the cubs, and Frederick. Finally, when they had dug enough snow, they grabbed the frame and pulled it out. Apollo and Babafrank looked at the picture closely, and realized that it was the Toranomon Hills Building - the tallest building in Japan! At the same time, the brothers said, "Wow! That would be a pretty good hiding spot. We should go to the building to see if we can find our next clue!" The bear growled. The brothers pulled out their code hacker to translate. The bear had said: "Don't worry, we'll help you get all the way back to the airport and on your way to Japan! My friend Joe lives in Japan, and he sent me a picture of that building once!”
Chapter 16: The Return to the Airport
The brothers, the cubs, and the pilot dog dove back into the dog sled and watched as Frederick started running right towards the hole that they had just dug in the snow! The brothers had started making some more waffles and realized what the bear was doing. The brothers felt a little worried and squeezed, but they trusted the bear to take them back to the airport - after all, the bear knew all the best shortcuts! After a while, the brothers poked up their heads and told Frederick to stop. They told the bear that he should switch back out with the pilot dog and go home because people at the airport might be scared of him and try to tranquilize or shoot him. The bear agreed and grabbed his cubs from inside the sled. He said goodbye to the brothers and then ran off towards his den. In the meantime, the pilot dog hopped back up to the front of the line and pulled the dogs. It was a bit slower than the bear, but the brothers did not mind.
Chapter 17: Tokyo
When the Mandalorian Brothers got to the airport, they returned the dogsled, the dogsled supplies, and the blankets that they had borrowed from the airport workers. Then, they hopped in their gold airplane and flew off to Japan. They knew they were getting close when they looked out the windows and saw an island surrounded by water. It was only 3 trillion feet from them. The brothers knew landing in Tokyo would be difficult because Tokyo is such a big city with so many skyscrapers. But Apollo and BabaFrank were the best pilots in the world, so they went perfectly between all the buildings. It was evening, so the brothers could see all of the city and the pretty lights. Once the brothers finished their landing, they pulled out their infinity rope and some other gadgets. They also grabbed some berries, a water pouch, and an emergency landing pad. Finally, the brothers made sure to take the scroll that they had found at the museum in Paris.
Chapter 18: The Brothers’ Climb
They packed everything into their backpacks and set off out of their airplane to the Toranomon Hills building. It was 1 am, way past the brothers’ bedtime! But the brothers wanted to go when it was dark out, when everyone else was sleeping. When the brothers arrived, they decided not to go into the lobby and got to climbing right away. They hopped onto a car in the nearby parking and tied their rope to the small roof just above the entrance of the building. They gave the rope a good tug, just to make sure it was secure. Then, Apollo and BabaFrank walked across the roof for about 40 seconds until they got closer to the skyscraper. Before they tossed their infinity rope up to the top of the building, they tied the infinity rope to make sure that it could support both of them climbing up. The brothers tossed it all the way to the top, and it landed with a THUD. The brothers also dropped their emergency landing pad on the shorter roof just in case they fell off the rope. Then, the brothers tugged on the rope one last time, jumped on, and started their climb. On their way up, Apollo and Babafrank saw lots of good views. But, after about 13 hours, their hands started to hurt a little -- they were sore from the rope. The brothers decided to splash some water from their water bottles onto the rope to make the rope smoother and stop their hands from hurting. Then, Apollo thought he felt something on his head! SPLAT. He looked up and frowned. It was bird poop, and there was even some on his face!
"Yuck!" Apollo yelled. "What in the world was that?"
"Bird poop,” BabaFrank said. “But I'll clean it off with my water pouch. Don't panic!"
Apollo listened and tried not to panic. Soon enough, he was all cleaned off.
Chapter 19: The Mango Tree
Once Apollo was cleaned off, the brothers started climbing again. By that point, they were a lot closer to the top of the building: they had already climbed 768 feet and now only had 70 feet left to go! Apollo checked his watch because he also wanted to see how many miles he had climbed and how many calories he had burned off. The brothers had climbed about 94 miles and burned 1,064 calories. They were feeling tired, so they stopped at a window cleaner's porch to take a break and eat some of their berries. They also grabbed some water from their water pouches. After a bit, the brothers jumped onto a nearby mango tree that was surprisingly 770 feet tall. The mango tree was the tallest in the world and had the tastiest, plumpest mangos. The brothers had a delicious snack in the mango tree but took off right after — they had looked through one of the windows on the building and seen that a janitor had entered one of the rooms and turned on the lights. They didn’t want to get caught!
Chapter 20: The Breaking Broom
The brothers kept on climbing and realized that they still had an awesome view. Then, they passed the janitor's balcony, where they could see that the janitor was sweeping. Suddenly, a bird flew right above him. Apollo wanted to yell out and warn him, but he stopped himself - he couldn't give away their secret mission. When the bird pooped on the janitor, he threw up his broom in surprise, which hit Apollo's leg. Then, it fell down 800 feet and hit one of the cars in the parking lot, which broke the car and the broom in half. "Oh no!" BabaFrank said. "The janitor is probably going to have to pay for that." The brothers felt bad for the janitor, but they knew that they had to keep climbing to get to the top of the building. They were so close, only 38 feet left to go! When the brothers finally got to the top, they did a front flip off the rope and onto the building. They weren't even scared, and they both landed their flips perfectly. Then, they saw a safe in the middle of the rooftop. They hurried towards it and typed in a code. They thought that the code might be the capital letters that they had found on the picture frame in Russia. The frame had listed all the countries they had been to so far: mexICo, indonEsia, RUssia, and japaN. They typed the capital letters (ICERUN) into the safe and it worked! The safe opened. The brothers saw that the safe was full of ice, but BabaFrank also noticed that there was a scroll inside.