The chase was on. Giulia was holding onto Luca's tail, while Luca himself was holding onto Alberto's tail. Alberto was the one taking the lead to get to safety from the kid who was going to kill them.

Alberto tried to speed up his skating as Giulia turned her head, only to see Paolo was skating fast towards them with the rifle.

She gasped and shouted, "Hurry, Alberto!"

"We can't run away like this forever!" Alberto exclaimed.

But then, when Luca and Alberto felt dry again, raindrops fell on their skin, which kept their scales visible. Small raindrops continued to become rain as there was no use to transform into humans again. They have to find safety from the crazy Filipino.

While they were escaping, Luca felt a loud BANG that almost hit his head. The three turned to see Paolo holding up his rifle, and pulling the trigger. He was firing bullets at them. Alberto sped up just to lose Paolo, and protect himself, Luca, and Giulia.

Behind the chase, Mariposa was also catching up, wanting to make sure her friends were still safe. Paolo kept shooting the rifle at the three as they dodged to avoid getting killed at every bang.

When Alberto saw the fountain ahead, he had an idea. When he went a little faster, and Paolo was getting close while holding his rifle, the taller sea monster turned around the fountain, which startled Luca and Giulia at his sudden turn as they hung on tight. Paolo was shocked as well when his targets were taking a turn, and he skated ahead, almost crashing himself against the wall.

Now Paolo was distracted, Alberto, Luca, and Giulia skated away, and they just passed Mariposa. She halted her skate as she was about to go after them, but Paolo zoomed past her already. Man, that kid was desperate and went fast! Mariposa then charged to follow them.

When the chase went back on the same street where it began, Luca and Giulia had a chance to turn their heads. Paolo was still chasing them, and this time, he had a clear short as he pointed the rifle at them.

Giulia yelped as Paolo was ready to pull the trigger.

"Alberto!" Luca screamed as he pushed him to hurry, but instead, it made Alberto skate out of the street.

When Paolo shot his rifle, the bullet almost hit Giulia as she jumped to avoid getting hit, and because of Luca's push, Alberto accidentally led themselves to a nearby window of a building. The chase continued when the trio brought themselves to the 2nd floor of the building.

"Sorry about that!" Luca shouted from the inside until they flew out of the window.

They even skated roughly down the stairs until they made it back on the street, only to be behind Paolo and in front of Mariposa.

The crowd from the competition then noticed the chase from where it was started.

"There they are!" One of the people pointed, causing everyone to turn and see.

While his skates were still rolling, Paolo turned to face the three while pointing his gun at them, "You three should've left when you get the chance. When I kill you two monsters, I'll be remembered as a hero, and no one, not even weirdos like you could change that."

With nowhere else to go to avoid getting killed, Alberto, Luca, and Giulia were frozen while their skates were still rolling. But Mariposa was beside them, skating faster so she wouldn't be behind them. She couldn't let Paolo kill her new-found friends. She just made amends, and she'll lose them again. She won't let that happen.

"Nobody's hurting my friends! Nobody!" Just to make things right and fair between her and her two sea monster friends, Mariposa knew what she'll have to do, and she wasn't fast enough to stop Paolo from trying to shoot the trio. Mariposa then unzipped her jacket.

Her siblings and cousin could see what Mariposa was doing, and they knew what she was about to do that terrified them.

"What is Mariposa doing?" Tala questioned softly while hugging the twins.

In that moment, Mariposa removed her jacket, and let it slid from her arms, and fell on the wet ground, revealing her giant butterfly wings, which shocked everyone who saw the scenery, even Paolo, who looked distracted, and Alberto, Luca, and Giulia, who were surprised that Mariposa revealed her top-secret identity. She didn't have a choice. Mariposa has to reveal them. If her friends were brought down, and she wanted to go down with them, it's the only way.

When she made a couple of flaps with her wings, Mariposa pushed herself to skate faster than her friends, and quickly crashed herself at Paolo when she reached him. Paolo fell down while dropping his rifle, but Mariposa tried to keep herself up, but the rifle was dropped on the floor, it was triggered, and a bullet plunged through the upper part of Mariposa's left wing, causing her to trip, and fell.

Alberto, Luca, and Giulia passed by Mariposa, but were horrified to see their friend fall and hurt.

"Oh no!" Giulia exclaimed.

While the three were looking back, Mariposa's wings were completely exposed, and she was surrounded by confused humans who took their weapons out.

"Mariposa!" Luca gasped.

While watching Mariposa was about to suffer like how he and Luca almost got killed by the citizens of Portorosso, Alberto won't let his new friend experience the same, and she was already hurt when he berated her because of her wings. He tilted his feet to make his skates stop, which halted himself, Luca, and Giulia from rolling away.

When Mariposa was about to get up from the crash, she looked up to see a small crowd of humans staring horribly at her because of her unusual appearance as part butterfly. Some of them pulled out their bolo from their scabbards, while some were pulling out their handguns and rifles. Mariposa was terrified. She didn't move. She didn't speak. She didn't cry for help. She knew that exposing her wings will be a great threat to her, and now, she's facing the consequence.

Luca, Alberto, and Giulia quickly rushed towards the helpless Mariposa to save her. In the crowd, they were spotted by Andres and Isabel, who just arrived at the scene, and missed the tense scene. They didn't recognize the two sea monsters they just saw before as they thought he was going to attack their daughter.

"Mga halimaw! Come on!" Isabel cried as she took her bolo out of the scabbard, and Andres loaded her rifle, and the couple ran past the crowd.

The crowd backed away when Luca, Alberto, and Giulia ran towards Mariposa, and pushed away the people who were pointing weapons at her to move them out of the way to save her. The three circled around the little butterfly, shielding from angry humans.

"Leave her alone!" Giulia shouted while the humans were backing away while still pointing their weapons.

"You're scaring her!" Luca yelled, extending his arms sideways.

While the crowd were backing away a bit, but still had their weapons pointed, Alberto stooped down to reach Mariposa's level, "Come on, Mariposa," he held one of her arms to wrap it around the back of his neck.

"Are you alright?" Giulia asked while holding Mariposa's hand for support, and Luca held Mariposa's other arm, and let it wrap at the back of his neck.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks to you, guys," Mariposa smiled, until she noticed her parents are coming this way.

When Andres and Isabel came out of the crowd, as so was their children who came out in concern for Mariposa, they gasped to see their daughter unharmed, and helped by two sea monsters and Giulia. Even with her wings exposed, the three didn't harm Mariposa at all, "Mariposa."

"Tatay! Nanay!" Mariposa wanted to explain what was happening.

But Andres and Isabel remained silent, only to see two sea monsters helping their daughter, and Giulia supported the purple. They only recognized Giulia, but they never realized the sea monsters were actually Luca and Alberto until now when the couple took a closer look, and recognized the boys' clothes and eyes.

All four of the Underdogs cringed in fear as they remembered that the Paruparo family like Andres and Isabel themselves hated any kind of monsters, and immediately wanted to kill them, and Luca and Alberto were examples of monsters that they described. Giulia hugged Alberto protectively, and Mariposa wrapped both her wings around the two boys, readying to protect her friends from her own parents.

The crowd then surrounded the four kids while holding up their bolos and guns, and pointing at them. The four backed away, until they heard Paolo stepping in.

"Out of my way! I'll handle them!" He shouted when he squeezed himself through while holding his gun, and Crispin and Yolando were behind him.

"We're not afraid of you," Luca glared at the Filipino boy.

"No, but we're afraid of you! Especially you!" Paolo scowled while pointing the tip of his gun at Mariposa, who formed tears in her eyes, "Everybody is terrified, and no one wants to come near you because you are all monsters!"

"Stop! They're not monsters! We're not monsters!" Giulia yelled, defending her non-human friends.

"Talaga? Then who are you then?" Paolo declared, wanting to get answers from everyone.

"We know exactly who they are!" Andres was the one who answered as he and his wife walked forward in front of the four, and the rest of their children and niece watched helplessly and horrified.

The Underdogs were terrified of what the parents would do next while the two were still holding their weapons. The four wrapped their arms to one another, and brought themselves closer together, protecting each other from any possible danger. Even Mariposa showed her sparkly begging eyes at her parents, gesturing to not hurt her friends.

"Does anyone have a heart?! Does any one of you have mercy with them?! Do you know who they are?!" Isabel shouted angrily at the crowd and the people who pointed their weapons at the four, "That girl with wings is our daughter, Mariposa Paruparo, and they are her friends, Luca, Alberto, and Giulia," the mother threw her bolo, while her husband dropped his own gun on the crowd.

The couple then surrounded the four children as Andres announced, "And they are all winners of the singing contest!"

This made the whole crowd, even the Underdogs, Paolo, and Mariposa's siblings, gasp in shock.

"Wait, what?" Giulia exclaimed.

"We are?" Luca asked confusingly.

"They can't be the winners. They're not even humans! Or these three aren't even Filipinos!" Paolo snapped.

"Ms. Pilita?" Andres asked the famous judge.

The three judges came with the results in their hands as Pilita announced, "The judges and I already saw their performance, and there were no criteria of the contestants being humans or monsters or even a butterfly. The important things were participation and simple performance. And they got the criteria perfect, so... they won."

Everyone gasped again as Luca, Giulia, Giulia, and Mariposa smiled excitingly and victoriously.

But Paolo groaned as the results didn't matter to him anymore, "Who cares if they won?! They're all monsters!"

When an angry mob of humans with weapons were murmuring at each other if they have second thoughts about this. They still saw Luca, Alberto, and Mariposa as monsters in their eyes, but Andres and Isabel gave an icy and deadly stare at the crowd.

"Are you really serious?! This is my daughter!" Andres growled while placing a hand on his daughter's head, "And these are her friends, and we don't care if two of them are monsters. They are just kids, and no one is going to hurt them as long as I'm in charge of them!"

To defend their father's worlds, the siblings and Elizabeth rushed to their parents and their sister as the older siblings and the cousin placed themselves at the Underdogs' sides, while the younger siblings were in front of them, shielding their sister and her friends from the people who were trying to kill them.

Giving up, the Filipino people placed their weapons back into where they withdrew them from; guns back into the men's jackets and pockets, while the rest put their bolos back into their scabbards. The people who still disliked the two sea monsters and the half-butterfly, they just walked away, and went home instead.

"What? But—!" Before Paolo can convince everyone, the Underdogs snatched the rifle from him, and together, without touching the trigger, they snapped the gun into two, letting the pieces and the loaded bullets inside drop into the wet ground, "How dare you?!"

"No! How dare you hurt our sister and almost kill her friends like that?!" Ligaya pointed her finger at Paolo.

"Mga kapatid, let's teach this one a lesson!" Boyet declared.

Nodded in confidence, the Paruparo siblings lifted Paolo, Crispin, and Yolando, and took them away as the crowd moved aside to give the siblings some space to move.

"No! No, no, no!" Paolo cried loudly as the Paruparo kids threw the three boys into a puddle of tap water made by the rain.

They slowly walked off with Jayjay clapping his hands together to remove the dirt from his gloved hands, Elizabeth whipped her hair backwards, and the twins blew raspberries at the three boys who bullied their sister.

The Underdogs just laughed softly at the scene as Mariposa was happy and proud of her siblings for standing up for her.

Just then, two voices that Luca was familiar with were heard as it caught his attention.

"Luca!"

"Luca!"

Daniela and Lorenzo, who were protecting themselves from the rain with umbrellas, just arrived, and willingly dropped their umbrellas, and rushed to their sons, revealing their sea monster forms in the process.

"You had us worried half to death again, and we told you never do that again!" Daniela scolded.

"I'm sorry!" The young sea monster exclaimed.

"But then again, you were doing the right thing to protect your friend. You are so selfless. And I'm so proud of you, and I am so mad at you at the same time!" His mother hugged him so tightly angrily and proudly.

"I love you, Mom," Luca hugged her back.

"Son," Lorenzo then joined in to hug his son.

Then, Massimo came to the scene where he was way behind the Paguros, and gasped to see his daughter and adoptive son safe, "Giulietta! Alberto!"

"Papa!" Giulia screamed happily.

"Dad!" Alberto cried joyfully.

The two rushed and hugged their father tightly. Massimo may have only one arm, but he can still hug his two children lovingly.

The Filipino people around them watched all four children hugging their parents as they realized that Andres and Isabel were right. The four are just children who have families who love them so much, just like any other kids who love their families, and enjoyed their lives while they were still young.

Daniela, Lorenzo, and Massimo took glances at the Paruparo family who bowed at them with respect, happy to finally meet each other, while Andres and Isabel held their daughter.

Seeing the heartwarming family moment, Crispin and Yolando realized they didn't want to kill someone who has a family defending them.

"Sorry, Paolo, I don't wanna get involved in this! Alis lang ako!" Crispin admitted as he and Yolando quickly got up, and ran off.

When Paolo was alone to watch the moment, he did see the four hugging their families. They were just ordinary young people who were loved by their families, and they were exploring the world, having fun, like he did... but that's not gonna stop Paolo from believing that Luca, Alberto, and Mariposa are still "monsters" to him as he pulled out a handgun from his pocket of his pants.

"Nuts to that!" He shouted, until he felt someone pinching his ear. He looked up to his glaring parents.

"You are in big trouble, bata ka!" His father scolded as he dragged Paolo with him, along with his wife.

"Hey! No, no, please! I was gonna hit her with this, and say I'm 'board' with her! Pleeeeaaaassseee!" Paolo pleaded while scratching the ground, and held a wooden plank when he made a joke.

Paolo's father threw his son at the back seat of his car while his mother wrapped him with seat belts. When his parents got into the car, his father started the car, and slowly drove away, avoiding to hit the people who were quickly moving aside.

Paolo had a chance to turn around to look at the back window where he can see his new enemies, and shouted, "You thought you and your friends won, Mariposa, but you ain't seen nothing yet! Not by a long shot!"

Everyone was just staring Paolo in his car until it was out of sight.

"That kid's crazy," Alberto muttered.

"You have no idea," Mariposa said.

Just then, Pilita came by with a trophy in her hand, and announced, "Mga binibini at ginoo, the winners of this year's Pasay City singing contest, the Underdogs."

Pilita then gave the trophy to the four where Mariposa took hold of it, and Luca, Alberto, and Giulia stared in amazed at the trophy.

The people around them, including their families, applauded for the four unusual children as they hugged, and jumped victoriously that they won the singing contest. It was an unexpected event, but they did their part confidently, and here they were.

As the crowd cheered, Mariposa lightly smiled at first, but when she stared back at her reflection in the trophy, her smile turned to a despondent frown.

"What you waitin' for, Ate? Take a picture with that baby!" Rizalino said.

"If you don't, I will!" Ligaya warned.

Ligaya, who was still pointing at her sister, and Rizalino stepped back, and Luca, Alberto, and Giulia moved aside to have Mariposa get her picture taken with the trophy alone.

Before anyone or her father could take the picture, Mariposa looked at the trophy once more, "Ever since I joined the singing contest, I wanted this trophy more than anything. I thought if I had it, I'd finally be special like my siblings," Her siblings and Elizabeth looked at each other surprisingly as Mariposa continued, "When I finally had it, it made me think that all I cared about was what it would do for me, not what it could do for anyone else who joined the contest like me. And it made me feel selfish. The thing is..." Mariposa then looked at her three best friends, "Someone kept trying to tell me what it really means to win a certain competition, but I wouldn't listen, and I admit I always think about myself. I'm sorry for that too," while Mariposa was confessing, her parents silently smiled at one another, feeling proud to have raise an amazing kind daughter, "That's why, there are only three people who deserve to have this trophy," She then looked back at her friends, and extended her trophy to them, which made the whole crowd gasp, "Luca, Alberto, Giulia, you deserved this trophy than I do."

"Mariposa, no," Luca hesitated.

"Please, I insist," Mariposa took a step forward with the trophy.

"No, we can't take the..." Giulia was cut off.

"Guys, the reason you guys came here is to have the best winter vacation ever, but when we met, you decided to help me win, and you risk wasting your first week just to sing with me. I couldn't be more grateful for doing all this for me. So, take this trophy as a token of my appreciation to you, and as a remembrance of me, just in case you might forget me," Mariposa said with a smile. In her heart, she was so grateful for her new friends' thoughtfulness in helping her win, and the trophy is the only way to repay them. She then handed the trophy over to Giulia, who just took it before Mariposa could even drop it while giving it to them.

But Alberto scoffed teasingly, "Why would we forget those big wings?"

As Mariposa snickered with the joke, she decided to move away for her friends to take a picture with the trophy, but Luca quickly grabbed his wrist, and pulled her back, "But we deserve this trophy together!"

He was right though. All four Underdogs deserve the trophy together. They sang together, they performed well together, and they deserved to be awarded... together... as a whole team. As Mariposa accepted it, the four were ready to get their pictures taken while holding the trophy.

With that, people with cameras started to take their pictures. Andres was saving his picture to remember this day.

After taking their pictures, Mariposa wondered something important as she spoke, "You know, it made me wonder how Paolo knew about us as sea monsters? I mean, we were dry when we went home that night."

This made the rest of the Paruparo children cringed in shock as they kept their mouths shut and their foreheads sweated at the moment.

"Yeah, I was with them the whole time," Giulia explained as she was sure no one had seen Luca and Alberto when they went home that night. They were even dry all the way.

The Paruparo kids tried to keep it together with their lips wiggling, and they were sweatier than a second ago.

But Elizabeth couldn't handle keeping it anymore as she loudly confessed, "Oh, I can't take it anymore! It was us, we did it!"

This caught everyone's attention, including Mariposa.

"Wait..., What?" She said in disbelief.

"It's true. We found out the other night. We took a picture of Luca and Alberto and we kinda sent it to Paolo," Rizalino continued to confess, "Only to get rid of them, but not kill them! So sorry."

"How did you...? Why in the world would you do something like that?!" Mariposa shouted in confusion.

Boyet rubbed his hands together, and answered, "The truth is, we were trying to break you and your friends up."

"Don't you like my friends? Don't you guys just be happy for me?"

"I think we just didn't understand them as much as you do," Tala replied, scratching the back of her head in guilt.

Imelda added, "We were just having a bad feeling that they would hurt you. But we didn't realize one of the reasons they liked you was because they never had this kind of family like ours. Like Luca being an only child, and having overprotective parents," she pointed as Luca looked down a bit. He had been lonely for 13 years before meeting Alberto, and was too young to go working. Even Daniela and Lorenzo saw the sad looks on their son's face. Having one child is good enough for them, and they were too focus on their son most of the time, they didn't realize him being so lonely, "Or Alberto abandoned by his own dad," As Imelda continued, bad memories returned to Alberto about his real father abandoning him, and lived in the island alone for a year. Massimo held a hand on his son's shoulder, comforting him, "Or Giulia having separated parents with no friends or siblings to cope with her feelings about it," when Imelda mentioned this, it's Giulia's turn to look down sadly. After her parents got separated, she kept a smile on her face as she wanted to respect her parents, and let them be happy with their decision, but deep down, she was sad when that happened, and this motivated her to make some friends, which she had none before Luca and Alberto came. Massimo knew Giulia was forcing herself to be happy for her parents. He was guilty of her, but he still loved her. He released his hand from Alberto, and hugged Giulia, who still tried to hide away her sad face.

"We may take it for granted that we have a big, complete, and slightly 'perfect' family, but not everybody's so lucky!" Renaldo admitted, still feeling guilty.

"We're really sorry for the way we acted, especially to you, pinsan. We got so protective of you because you have wings that we forgot about your happiness," Elizabeth said.

"Well, you did almost kill my friends! You almost committed a murder! I oughta beat every one of you!" Mariposa yelled in rage. Upon hearing that, Renaldo quickly hid the bread sticks behind him as he remembered her sister used to beat him up with breadsticks when she was angry. But then, Mariposa admitted in a calmly grateful tone, "But, I appreciate all of you looking out for me."

"So, you're not mad?" Ligaya asked as Mariposa shook her head.

Renaldo pulled the bread sticks from behind, and ate one.

Elizabeth then turned to the trio, "And we're really sorry for almost getting you three killed."

"Well, we're hurt at first, and we've been experienced like this back home in Portorosso," Alberto admitted. Deep down, he was shocked and hurt that it was Mariposa's siblings who almost got them killed, but it wasn't very unusual, and he and his two friends did expect that.

"I just don't understand why you don't like us for Mariposa. All she wanted was to have friends. We know how that feels," Giulia said.

"We just don't want her to get hurt. And when we thought you three are just normal humans, you might not like who she is as a half-butterfly... like your wings," Tala pointed.

Alberto was about to confess about his mistakes, but Mariposa quickly covered his mouth before anyone noticed her doing it. She didn't want Alberto to get himself in trouble with her family because of how he misjudged her.

"But when we found out you two are sea monsters, we thought you guys would be way worse than being human kids. But, we were wrong. You three are just the right kind of friends for our sister. No human kid at her age could handle Mariposa and her... interest," Boyet explained, "But clearly you do care for her, and you even changed her into a selfless, brave, and confident person."

"It's just what friends do, I guess. But it was all on Mariposa. We didn't want her to get hurt, but I guess because..." Luca stated, but he was cut off when Mariposa interrupted him.

"I cared for you guys. There's nothing I would trade you for the world!"

Feeling touched with each other's kindness for one another, the Underdogs embraced in a group hug. Despite the trouble and being friends for just even a day or less than a week, they still wanted to look out for each other. They couldn't even find better friends than one another.

After the hug, Mariposa was startled when Renaldo hugged her torso, "Aaww, Mariposa. You saved your friend out there, and giving them the trophy was the coolest!"

Imelda ruffed her sister's hair, "You're a good girl!"

"But all that stuff about you not feeling special," Boyet mentioned.

"What was that?" Jayjay inquired.

Mariposa turned to Luca, Alberto, and Giulia, who nodded, gesturing to tell her family how she felt. She sighed wistfully; an explanation was needed, "You're all so good at everything. You win trophies, get your pictures taken. And, I wanted to be special too."

"Ate Mariposa, you are special," Ligaya said.

"I am?" the middle child asked surprisingly.

"Yeah, being special is not winning trophies or awards or anything," Tala stated.

"The part of you being special is you take care of all of us," Rizalino said.

"Every day, cuz," Elizabeth added.

"For reals," Renaldo nodded.

"That's why you're the most special sister ever," Imelda declared.

"And a special friend," Giulia came over, and wrapped an arm around Mariposa's shoulder.

The rest of the family, and even the Paguros and the Marcovaldos muttered in agreement.

Mariposa looked at her family and friends, and hummed warmly, "I'm good with that."

"I love you, Ate Mariposa!" Divina cooed while hugging her big sister.

"Awwww!" The Paruparo family and the Underdog trio shared a group hug.

"Warm feelings," Ligaya sighed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are many references in the chapter.

The chase scene all the way to the announcement of winners was based on the original move.

Mariposa's speech, and her family's embrace were based on The Loud House movie. Though the Paruparo children's confessions were also based on the Loud House series.

Paolo's defeat was also based on DC Superhero Girls: Frenemies where Harley Quinn was dragged away by Giganta.

Translation(s):

Italian:
Papa – Dad

Filipino:
Mga halimaw - Monsters
Tatay - Dad
Nanay - Mom
Talaga? - Really?
Mga kapatid Siblings
Alis lang ako! - I'm outta here
Bata ka! - You kid!
Mga binibini at ginoo - Ma'am and sirs
Ate - big sis

I can't believe I posted this in Christmas Day! Merry Christmas! Buon Natale! Maligayang Pasko!