The sun was setting on the horizon, casting golden rays down on the world below. Though they
struggled to break through the dense foliage of the forest that grew thickly in the seeming center
of the neighborhood. Its layout was rather intimidating in appearance, snaggled branches and furls of
leaves grew wildly, and grass and dirt had churned along the ground the ground, making any resemblence
of a road non-existent. Very few ventured into these woods, it was the perfect example of the well overused
term. "Spooky Woods" Noone even used it as a short cut to school anymore. It seemed locked in eternal
night, shadows loomed allover, making it seem twice as scary as it already was. There was a crashing, rustling
sound as a young boy broke through a thorn bush, weilding some sort of makeshift hedgeclippers that looked like
they had been constructed in extreme art class. Sunlight reflected off the childs bald head, the sunglasses he wore
had a crack in one lense. His red turtle neck he wore was dirtied. He appeared to have came out of a fight of some sort.
Numbuh 1 frowned in agrivation, drawing a p.i.p.e.r out of his pants pocket, switching it on in an attempt to contact his team
for what seemed like the eleventy billionth time in the last hour. Static was his only response yet again. He groaned, pocketing
the 2x4 tech and glancing about his surroundings. Noting that night was drawing near, but he had to find his team. Though his
mind kept wandering back to the reason he was in these woods in the first another fight with their worst, and by far
creepiest enemys, the Delightful Children from down the Lane. Overusage of relitively untested superhot peppers in their sectors
s.p.i.c.e.r's had garnered a result on the Delightfuls latest robot of doom, simply put as a rather large explosion. Throwing the
quarraling children deep into these woods. He had been seperated from his sector as a result and had been searching for them for quite awhile now. He had managed to keep his cool for the most part, but he was starting to get unerved by childish
fears by the oncoming darkness. And was now desperately hoping to find someone. Anyone would be better than spending a night alone in these woods. Werepoodles usually prowled at nights.
Numbuh 1 climbed over a felled tree, his black eyes darting about in nervousy behind his sunglasses, his ears straining
to hear the slightest sounds in the thick trees. A sudden rather loud rustling sound from a cluster of branches above made him
nearly leap out of his skin. He smacked against a tree, on high alert, his eyes darting about. "W-Whos there?!S-Show yourself!"He shouted, trying to shield the terror in his voice, as he had no 2x4 weapons for means of protection, they had all been damaged when he crash landed. The rustling quickly ceased. "N-Nigel? Hello? Is that you?" A slightly soft spoken male childs voice, pretty much in monotone actually,came from a branch in the tree the operative was currently leaning against. Numbuh 1 blinked, looking upwards.A pair of frightened glassy light blue eyes belonging to a short blonde haired boy stared back down at him. Numbuh 1 immeadiatly recognized him, he was one of the Delightful Children from down the Lane. He believed his name was Bruce actually.
Numbuh 1 didnt really known many of their induvidual names due to the fact the DC were always together and always spoke at once. He wanted to react
with hostility, but given the situation, he realized that would probably be a bad desicion. "Bruce?Where are the rest of the Delightful Children?"Numbuh 1
questioned. Bruce frowned, seeming more worried than Numbuh 1 was about his own companions. "We got seperated, oh this isnt good, we havnt ever been
ALL apart from eachother this long before"Bruce whimpered. Numbuh 1 frowned at the rather distressed delightful clinging to the treebranch. "Why cant you just
climb down then?"He asked, frowning a bit. Bruce frowned once again, lifting himself up some, showing that his red tie was tangled in a treebranch out of his reach,
one bad move and he would fall and badly injure himself. Numbuh 1 blinked, biting his lip. He sighed, his concsience getting the better of him. "Hold on, Im coming up"
Nigel called up to him. Bruce blinke in suprise, not expecting the sector leader to help him at all. He smiled weakly, immeansly relieved. "Thank You Nigel, please hurry though"Bruce urged, as nightfall was nearing. Numbuh 1 nodded and agiley scaled the tree with caution of stray Bruce and making short work of freeing him, gingerly undoing the knot. He and Bruce climbed back down the tree. Bruce frowned weakly,looking around nervously, biting his lip. "S-Should we keep going?"Bruce asked nervously. A howl of a faraway werepoodle pierced the night air. Causing Bruce to yelp in fear, clinging to Nigels arm. Numbuh 1 retained a relitively calm air, he let out a sigh. "We should probably set up camp for the night"He spoke,frowning softly, casting a small sympathetic glance at Bruce, who was hiding behind his arm, not releasing it. "G-Good Plan"Bruce whimpered, speaking quickly.
They located an ideal spot for a campground and made use of the remaining sunlight, barely speaking to eachother. Bruce had alot of difficulty
with everything, the Delightfuls were not used to situations like this, whereas Numbuh 1 was. "Oww!"Bruce suddenly yelped in pain, he was currently weaving branches and grass
together to make the tent and had pricked his finger on a thorny branch. Numbuh 1, who was also working on the tent looked over at him, frowning in a more worried than annoyed
manner. Bruce whimpered repeatedely, his injured finger in his mouth. Nigel walked over. "Let me see"He gently urged, his kind tone suprising him a little. Bruce looked up at the
operative with sad light blue eyes. Reluctantly holding his finger out, the cut was a little deep, blood trickling from the wound. Numbuh 1 frowned, leaning down and taking his pale hand
in his own. Bruce blinked in confusion. Nigel tore a strip of his red shirt off, wrapping it securely around the cut to stop the bleeding. "Thank You Nigel"Bruce said quietly, a small part of
him making him feel he didnt deserve the operatives kindness, but he pushed the feeling away. "I'll help you finish the tent"The sector leader said softly, sitting down beside the Delightful.
They made short work of finishing the tent and quickly climbed into it. Lying side by side, Bruce was curled up slightly, facing away from Nigel, he frowned and trembled slightly. Flinching
as he felt a soft hand rest on his shoulder. He looked up some, Nigel smiled reasurringly at him. "Dont Worry, We'll find them"He promised, his voice soft but confident. Bruce smiled weakly and nodded.
Crickets soft chirping carried in the pitch black night air outside the tent. Nigel had laid back down, Bruce had aswell. But he was wide awake, fear had crept into his mind and sleep was a blessing he was
now deprived of for now it seemed. The howl of a werepoodle suddenly echoed throught the chilly night air. Bruce cried out in terror, leaping onto Nigel instinctively. Numbuh 1 quickly, but groggily
sat up, the terrified Delightful trembling against him, currently in his lap. "What?"He mumbled sleepily, frowning. "W-Werepoodle"Bruce whimpered softly, sounding quite frightened. Numbuh 1 sighed gently,
wrapping his arms around Bruce, who tensed up even more in fear, as he was quite vulnerable to attack right now. "Shhh"Nigel whispered gently, running his hand lightly through the short blondes hair. Bruce was very
suprised, but quickly found himself relaxing, slowly dropping his gaurd and resting his head against the sector leaders chest. Finding that his eyes were starting to close. "Its okay"Nigel assured him, speaking calmly
and softly. Bruce curled up against the sector leader slightly, sighing shakily. Nigel had earned his trust for the time being. Numbuh 1 smiled kindly down at him, his black eyes shining softly behind his sunglasses in the darkness. He had always sorta liked, liked the Delightfuls. Being enemys though, he had to push away feelings similar to any type of positive attention. He would no doubt get in a lot of trouble if anyone found out about his little fondness towards the 5 goody goody children. They could set aside their relationship as enemys for now. Continuing to stroke through the Delightfuls soft blonde hair. Bruce was unable to stop a small happy smile from spreading across his pale features. Being lulled to sleep by Nigels gentle heartbeat, feeling the safest he had for the majority of the night with the sector leader.
End Transmission