Disclaimer: I don't own Kids Next Door. I just own an English vocabulary, this story and a few OCs of mine. I'm Italian, so forgive me if I make grammar mistakes and please tell me because it's important to my study of English. This is also my first story; actually the second, three years ago I wrote a FullMetal Alchemist fic in an Italian fanfiction site, but it was a complete fiasco and nobody liked it.
So read and leave a review if you want. Again, forgive my grammar mistakes.
In all of mankind's history, there has never been more damage done than by people who "thought they were doing the right thing."
-Charles M. Schultz-
"Wake up, Sector Z. Wake up"
A teenager was running into the night. He was tall and skinny, of fifteen, he wore a green sweater and faded jeans. His round face was furrowed by pimples and a pair of glasses was placed in front of his gray eyes, which betrayed the boy's feelings at that moment: of indescribable terror.
Keeping running, he picked up a cellphone from his pocket and dialed a number, trying to call the TND Base. It was useless: the non-availability sound came to his ears like a smack in the face. They had cut off his phone, no doubt about it.
While he turned to the direction that headed to the main road, he stumbled on his gym shoes' unlaced shoelaces and fell to the ground. The following pain informed him he had just grazed his knee. Groaning, he picked himself up and continued his running, without looking over his shoulder. He couldn't stop, if he had done it, they would have reached him and that would have been the end of him. And he had to warn them, warn the TND, warn Numbuh Infinity and the KND... He had to warn everybody, before it was too late.
His thoughts traveled to the book he stole four hours ago. It had been simple, after all. The kids of that Sector were having some mission abroad; it meant they weren't there, and thanks to his knowledge of hacking he evaded the alarm and the security cameras of their treehouse, and managed to take the requested document.
But... some things happened. A lot of bad things happened. So he hid it. In a safe place, he believed, although he wasn't so sure that those other kids would have kept it safe. He knew it was a matter of time before they decided to take advantage of the sudden situation. But it was better than nothing.
With growing panic he got to the flyover that connected the town center with the outskirts; he was out of breath, his heart was pounding against his chest and his spleen and knee were hurting. He was too tired, he needed a rest... no, no, NO! He was near... just another hundred of metres and he would have been safe...
The teen froze. On the other side of the flyover, an hooded figure was proceeding camly towards him, with slow steps, as if he wasn't in a hurry.
The boy recovered from the early shock, made two steps back and turned around to escape, but then with horror saw another hooded figure coming, a little taller than the first one and feminine in her movements. The two were walking up in a promising way, aware that the boy could never be able to shake them off.
He, surrounded by both sides, searched desperately for a way out, but when he looked up at his left, he saw another hooded person, slightly bent, this time smaller than the others; he was clinging to the fenced barriers, making clear he had climbed from down there.
Terrified, and with no chance of running away, the fifteen-year-old found himself drawing back while the three people were leaning closer. When his back hit the iron guard-rails, his chasers were less than half of a metre from him, forming a semicircle around the teenager.
"My goodness, son" said the first figure in a disappointing tone. It seemed he was a man. "You've always been so supportive. Why did you decide to ruin everything?"
The boy gulped. He opened the mouth to speak, but no sound came out: fear was inevitably dimming his mind.
"Honestly, Mr. Cleary," This time was the woman who took the word. "He was so good at executing orders, at getting focused just to the various operations without making questions, without caring for who you were really working or worrying about consequences. And all of a sudden, you choose to take interest in certain business that doesn't concern you at all." She sighed "Such a shame, in my opinion".
Cleary was obviously upset and was breathing heavily. He had a lump in his throat.
"But we decided to forgive you" reassured the man, "We understand you could feel... quite shocked now by what you've just discovered. You can't fully accept the situation yet, of course, but it's not what you believe". He made a few steps ahead, and stood in front of the boy, enough close to letting him see his face.
"I'd lie if I'd tell you that our ambitious project won't have consequences somewhat unwelcome under many points of view, but we assure you that's for the welfare of the whole cosmos" He paused "Think it over: this plan is the answer. The answer to all our problems. Every ill of the universe will disappear, because we will develop more decisive and stronger personalities. We'll find cures, build new machines and discover new important things that will contribute to our evolution. Just think about it for a second: you'll realize that's true"
Strangely, the man's voice became sweeter while he was talking. Sweet and reassuring... calm...
Without knowing why, he felt relaxed now. It was like a wave of bliss had entered into his body.
Well, if he thought carefully about it...
Maybe this project wasn't so bad after all...
No. NO. No, it wasn't. It couldn't be. Their project wasn't for superior welfare. It could have been that way if it didn't involve...
"Everything will get better." The man kept talking "You saw it. You read our plan. You know we're right. This will change radically our modus vivendi in better. You know it's the right thing to do"
His words began running through his head, and he felt sleepy. Sleepy and... happy. Yeah, it was the right to do... the most logical thing to do...
But a little part of his mind was telling him that they were telling the truth indeed, but the cost was high... too high.
The cost was the freedom of kids and teens.
Those people had to be stopped.
"No... no... it doesn't..." The boy muttered, almost dazed by the sound of the man's voice.
"Come on, Mr Albert Cleary. It's true. The youngsters will grow up in a new completely different world, full of wealth and wonders; sure, they will suffer at first, but then they'll just get used to it and in the end they will fully accept our universal society, realizing that their condition will bring prosperity for everybody and for themselves in particular. Oh, come on, you saw the project. If you take a good look at it, they will be happy, in a way. Because we'll protect them. Protect them to make our descendants stronger. What do you think about it now?" His interlocutor said.
His voice was becoming more and bewitching second by second.
In all his life, Cleary had never listened such a beautiful sound.
He believed that if Reason had a voice, it would have been the one he was listening to now.
So calm. So sweet.
So right.
The boy gave in to it.
The man wasn't lying. Everything was having sense now. It was evident: it was for the welfare of everybody...
...in the universe.
The part of his mind that was screaming their project was evil madness was relentlessly fading.
The boy found himself nodding. "I... I understand..." he whispered weakly.
"Brilliant!" the man replied "We're glad you did. However, you just made an huge mistake. You hide the book we asked you to steal. It's the Book of KND and is really, really important to our project. It contains valuable information that may be able to help us. Can you tell us where it is now? If you do, we promise you we'll forgive you and we'll let you go." A bright smile appearead in his facial features.
Cleary smiled blankly, while his conversation partner's musical words were giving him a sensation of utter bliss. The teen was too carried away by their armony to notice there was something wrong and innatural about his voice...
But a tiny side of his mind kept holding on...
The man smiled even more "We swear."
And that line made the boy's mental guard drop. The musical sound descended on his soul with the same gentleness a leaf descended on the ground cradled by a soft breeze during an afternoon of early autumn. The voice wrapped him up like a warm woollen scarf. Cleary felt protected by that promise. The man will have kept it, now he was sure. Why he hadn't figured it out before?
The answer came out from his lips without even noticing "I gave it to the the Delightful Children From Down the Lane. The presumed children of Father".
The man seemed slightly surprised by this. "Father?... Father... where have I heard this name?... Oh, the Fatherhood, yeah... Wait, you mean Benedict Uno, Monty's brother!" he suddenly laughed, finally realizing.
The woman joined him, while their other companion let out puffs, obviously trying to control an hysterical laugh. "There ain't no problem, then! We can take some time! That idiot'll use it just for blackmail those brats!" he said amused. His voice, to the contrary of his teammate, was... shrill. " We can leave, anticipate Operation Xavier, and order Huijy to watch them, in case something happens when we're not here. And once we're done, we come back and take the book!" he suggested.
"Yes, you're right, my friend." The man approved "I've just feared the boy had handed the book over to some important teenager or kid. We'll take it back after we solve that annoying problem. Then we will pay Benedict a visit. I haven't met him in... how long? Ten years? Well, we'll see. At least the documents are in good hands."
"In stupid hands, you mean." Another chuckle left his companion's lips after his statement.
"So... can you let me go now?"
The hooded persons turned turned to see the teen. After a brief silence, the man smiled to him once again. "Sure". Then he addressed to the smallest one of his mates. "Ka'led, let him go". His companion nodded.
The boy's relief was too great to let him realize one strange thing: nobody of them had immobilized him, they didn't do that at all, they had just surrounded him...
Unfortunately, the real mening of the phrase came up to him too late.
The hand of the smallest figure moved so quickly that it didn't even seem it had moved. It was just there, in Cleary's throat.
The teen tried to scream, but his jailor's grasp was so tight that was almost choking him.
At this point, he was lifted from the pavement and his back hitted the guard-rails, and then felt it rushing up painfully against the iron barrier. And that was when he noticed two disturbing characteritics about his attacker.
The first one, was the hand holding his throat.
It was scaled.
And it had claws.
The second one, his skin.
Green skin.
The boy came back to reality when the hand released the hold to caught the nape of his neck, forcing him to look down.
Cleary faced the void. Almost twenty metres separated him from the ground.
If he fell, he would be dead.
"You told me you would have let me go!" he cried desperately.
"But we're letting you go. We're men of word. The problem is, you should have understand the real meaning by your own, given the circumstances" said the first man.
"That's it, Mr. Cleary" intervened the woman "Oh, now we're on this subject, the reason of our project is not a lie. We're actually doing it for the welfare of the whole cosmos. Finished, there will be the dawn of a New Era."
"Exactly. But for this to take place, every young creature having superior intelligence has to sacrifice their childhood and teenage years. That's normal" This time the man who talked "Every time an Empire is born, the weakest people must be used and then thrown away, so it could extend himself into becoming more and more boundless and civilized, and helping human progress... generally speaking" He quickly corrected himself when the other two gave him a withering look. Then he took a crumpled sheet of paper from his pocket and gave it to the creature holding the boy, who caught it and put it inside one of the pockets of his captive's jeans.
"What's that?" The teen asked worried.
"Your farewell letter." Answered the man simply.
The boy paled and with that little bit of courage he still possessed he said: "The TND will never buy something like this!"
"Really? I don't think so." Replied the man "Let's take a look at your life, shall we? Your father left your family two years ago, and he doesn't want to have anything to do with you. For him you don't exists. And your mother is a depressed workaholic who would rather spend her free time with the wrong men than with her son. Friends? No. You're an unsocial who just studies, plays at videogames and collect stamps; you hate parties and you can't talk to people: in fact, you can't keep a conversation up with a person of the same age as you for more than five minutes. At school they make fun of you and they call you 'Mole Cleary', in addition, everyday you are beaten up by a group of bullies without having somebody who comes to help you. And you don't have a girlfriend neither. Obviously. Let's face it, Mr. Cleary. You are completely alone in the world." He chuckled evily "Aren't these good reasons for a teenager to commit suicide? Of course they are, and you know it well."
Cleary was at the edge of tears. He felt himself pushed even more beyond the barriers.
"You won't get away with this so easily!" he cried again "No! The upper grades will find out what you're doing and they'll stop you!"
There were other laughs coming from the three hooded people. Then, the one holding the boy said: "I tell you a secret, kiddo" he brought his mouth near to the boy's ear and whispered:
"We are the real upper grades."
And he let him go.
"Limit... Are you alright? Are you ill? What's... What's wrong?"
" I feel... something... something terrible is happening..." "...oh, having another 'there's-a-disturbance-in-the-force' moment of yours, right?"
OPERATION- W.I.F.E.
Woman
Inflames
Father's
Emotions
Beginning Transmission... Please Standby...
Auhor's note: I used the dictionary for each. freaking. word. So stressful. Can't use online translators, they're horrible.
Ugh. Ew. My God, I suck at descriptions. Even in Italian. However, first of all, thanks to reading this chapter. Second, this story will talk about Delightful Children's future. You see, in my fic they survived in INTERVIEWS, but how? Well, keep read to know. I wrote this because that episode didn't give justice to Rachel. And to Sector Z. I mean, am I the only one who feels sorry for these kids? They didn't ask to be delightfulized! They deserved to come back to their original personalities and lives, not to be killed off! They needed an happy ending! So, I decided to give them a possibility, at least in the world of fandom. And the same thing for Rachel. Especially Rachel.
The pairings are Sonya/Lee (but just slighty) and MAJOR 1/362 and Father/mysterious character (beware, is not an OC. Yes, I chose to pair him up with an actual character of the show ;D). As a fair warning, Nigel won't appear here, it will be about Rachel thinking about him and her feelings towards him, and her situation will reflect somehow Father's one... sorry, can't tell why yet.
Oh, and another important thing. My next chapters will be longer, but this will also mean I'll update slower because of the translation and my life problems. But I hope (and believe me, I really want) to finish this. And please, if I make embarassing grammar mistakes TELL me! So I can correct them. I don't do them on purpose!
Well, have a nice day everybody! Bye!
-Ines