Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening. Welcome dear reader to another thrilling chapter in the Legends Universe series! This time, its about Numbuh C4. Hope you haven't forgotten about her.
Story Theme Song: 'Break The Fall' by Laura Welsh.
I do a lot of referencing to other events, but its not as bad as you'd think. They're all self explanatory.
Enough with my yapping. Onto the story!
Legends Universe: Story 11
Numbuh C4: Leviathan
22 October 2005
Kids Next Door Moon Base
The Tribunal Chambers
The Kids Next Door was a many things. They were a peace keeping taskforce that got their hands dirty. They were a bunch of kids playing adult. They were defying the laws of physics and making them up as they went along with their innocence fueled star ships.
But at the end of the day, they were all about rules. If one wanted to get an ice cream shipment delivered to their treehouse, you'd have to go through the proper channels and fill out the right paper work. If you wanted to form an entirely new Sector devoted to countering a Teen Intelligence Agency, well, that certainly had its hoops to jump through.
The inner workings of the KND were divided as so:
Global Command was the brains of the outfit. They were chiefly headed by the Supreme Leader as he, and someday, she, makes the tough decisions regarding public perception and domestic policy.
The Decommissioning Squad were the police within the police. The made sure everyone was behaving and cracked down on those who turned 13, breaking the kids only policy within the KND rule book.
The Diplomat Corps, currently headed by Numbuh Infinity, would keep tabs on not only relations with our Adult and Teen counterparts, but also those the KND have with foreign powers.
The Spy Sector was an entire branch usually headed by some tough cookie operative. They were the spooks in black and the paper work was always often soaked in black ink. Currently, Numbuh 362 was in the process of rebuilding this particular branch of government.
And then, finally, there was The Tribunal. The Tribunal is a committee of three elected officials who acted as judges on certain matters pertaining to trials of child prisoners and matters in regards to warranting the creation of an entire new sector. They even have a nifty chamber where they have their hearings.
If only they weren't so dramatic with the proceedings…
Standing under a beam of light shining down under the ceiling in the darkened chamber, Carol Pariuhs, code number Numbuh C4, stood with her head tilted upward, staring out back at those looking down upon her.
It was something out of the opening scene of that Richard Donner Superman movie she'd seen late at night. The three kids sitting up there in the darkness could've fooled her with their stupid looking outfits.
"This Tribunal meeting is now in session." One of the committee members spoke. Carol couldn't make out any specific features in the dark lighting, but from the sound of his voice, the kid was coming off of a cold. "We will now hear your proposition."
Carol straightened herself out and opened her binder on her podium. She pulled out a pair of stapled together documents and rea aloud while keeping her posture straight. "It should go without saying that recent events haven't exactly been in favor of the future prosperity of the Kids Next Door." Carol spoke steadily.
She looked down at the stapled papers. On them were a number of typed up dates with notes scribbled down on them and specific dates were highlighted in yellow. "On August 13th, my associates Numbuh 832 and Numbuh 2030 exposed the expansive Teen Ninja spy network running throughout the Kids Next Door."
"On August 17th, Numbuh 9-Lives brought sabotaged the Teens' attempts at developing a bio-weapon capable of turning kids into animals." Carol spoke on and flipped the page. "And on the 29th of September another one of my associates, Numbuh 322 prevented a bombing attempt planned by the teens so that they could eliminate and replace the governing KND branches."
"On the 19th of September I was charged with hunting down a ghost. Found in Numbuh 362's predecessor's correspondences were messages addressed to whom, at the time, we assumed to be a single teen entity." Carol looked away from her papers and stared back up at the darkness. She gave a little pause, one that she knew would draw in the operatives and their love for the dramatic atmosphere. "It was only mere weeks ago when I, and my associates discovered the truth. Leviathan didn't refer to one teen, but to a collective whole."
"These events we've stumbled upon. These disasters we've prevented. They were all perpetrated by Teenagers under the banner of 'Leviathan." Carol reached into her binder and withdrew a twenty page document and raised it into the air under the shining light. "Here, in this document I've listed down and meticulously analyzed every detail of Leviathan's sinister endeavors."
"The copy. They replace. Then they gather." Carol's voice boomed as she slapped the document down onto her podium. "The face of our enemy is changing and so is the nature of our conflict. Leviathan's reach and their resources are unmatched. The only course of action now is to meet them head on with our own counter intelligence unit."
Carol smiled internally. She could feel pride welling up in her chest. "So I ask you, representatives of the Kids Next Door. How much longer can we allow the serious threat of Leviathan continue?"
"My friends and I have successfully fought off Leviathan in their own home." Carol spoke mightily. "Sanction my team and there won't be a place on Earth the enemy can hide."
"So." Another operative spoke up. Carol could hear faint traces of an accent, one she assumed that the operative was self-conscious about. "My only question is this, given recent events regarding the death of Numbuh 3:16, can you guarantee your proposed team will succeed?
Carol took a moment to straighten herself. That question had actually caught her off guard. "If you would turn to Numbuh 2030's incident report, Numbuh 3:16 was confirmed KIA during an unrelated incident."
"He fought for everything this establishment represents." Carol placed both of her hands onto the podium and bawled them into fists. Her face hardened and she stare up at the trio of operatives and spoke in a seriously. "Operatives may fall. But that's why we're all here isn't it? We're here to fight for children everywhere. We can't do that if the teens have a force specifically designed to hinder our progress. This is the only natural course of action. Retaliation."
The trio of operatives murmured amongst themselves up above in their shadows. Carol resisted the urge to glare at them. She considered their bringing up Numbuh 3:16's death as a below the belt blow. They only buried the kid three days ago.
"This committee would ask that Numbuh C4 stand for our decision." The third operative spoke. Carol had to strain to hear the girl's mouse like squeaking.
"Already am." Carol quietly muttered as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Given recent events, it has become apparent that the Kids Next Door does need a solution to this, 'Teen Spy Problem' of ours." The first operative spoke again.
"We've reviewed the documents you provided." The second accented operative spoke. "We hereby grant your request, under the powers invested in us by the Supreme Leader. The Kids Next Door will it's Counter Intelligence Unit."
"We will also grant you're unit recruiting capability, given the recent death of Numbuh 3:16." The girl with the mouse-like voice followed up. "You can recruit out of the normal rank and file within reason. A word of caution, Sector C is already a hassle of its own. Please keep your team small if you can."
"Thank You." Carol said as the light shining down on her shut off. The room went dark and she strained to see. The chamber became illuminated by a multitude of lights from above, causing Carol to flinch from the sudden brightness. She rubbed her eyes and looked back up to where the operatives sat, only to discover that they'd disappeared.
"Nice trick." Carol muttered sarcastically before gathering her things and walking out the chamber doors.
Outside the Tribunal Chambers, Carol found herself in an average mundane Moon Base hallway. There were some operatives sitting around, all of whom were waiting for their cases to be heard. Carol got out of the way, allowing another operative to enter.
"So how'd it go?" Carol looked to her right, finding Numbuh 362 herself leaning against the chamber's outer wall coolly.
Carol smiled, seeing her friend and former partner. "They went for it. The Prospectors are officially sanctioned by The Kids Next Door."
"I give you a mission to find Leviathan one minute, the next you're getting your own team together and emancipating yourself from the Spy Sector." Numbuh 362 chuckled. "If you had a problem with how I ran the Spy Sector, you only had to say."
The two friends hugged. "It's good to see you Rache."
"Likewise." Rachel said happily before breaking apart. "Seeing as I've managed to schedule about an hour of free time, and you're team hasn't heard the news yet. Can another Sector leader borrow your time for lunch?"
Carol laughed. "Sure. You're buying though."
With that, the two friends walked off towards the cafeteria, chatting about the good times they shared and the good times ahead.
Somewhere in New York
In some alleyway, amongst the garbage bins, a dark skinned figure began to stir from his slumber. The figure sat up from the garbage that surrounded him. He regained consciousness enough to realize the grossness of his position and quickly shot up from where he laid, quickly wiping off whatever garbage clung to his body.
"Ew." He muttered as he glanced at where he'd been resting. "How'd I get here?" He asked aloud. The boy looked out of the alley out to all the passer byers not paying the slightest attention to him.
"Better question." He asked himself. "Who am I?"
He stood still for a minute, trying to gather his bearings. He didn't know where he was, nor did he know how he came to lay in trash. The boy hit the sides of his heads. He couldn't remember a single thing about himself.
It was then the boy realized that he was butt naked. Alarmed, the boy hid himself amongst the trash once more, attempting to fish out at the bare minimum a pair of pants.
The boy pulled out a blue shirt with a yellow happy face on it. He stared at it awkwardly and sniffed it. His eyes widened and he suddenly felt the urge to hurl. He pulled himself together long enough to throw the shirt on. To his surprise, the boy found the shirt to be a perfect fit.
He dug through the trash again, this time finding a pair of jeans. He tried them on, finding that they too also fit.
"Alright, nice." The boy smiled to himself. He dug into the pants pockets and found a wallet. The boy sifted through the contents of the wallet, finding a twenty dollar bill and an ID card. The money made the kid calm down slightly. He didn't know anything about himself, but at least he could get a meal.
The ID card puzzled him slightly. It wasn't some state issued paper, it was something else. It shown a picture of some similarly toned kid with the letters 'KND' on it. "Numbuh 26." The boy read. "Griffith Volt." The boy frowned. "Poor kid must've thrown this out with the pants on accident."
The boy placed the ID at the top of the trash pile. On the off chance the kid came looking for it, it would be where he last put it. The money on the other hand, not so much. "Well." The boy muttered to himself. "I guess I'd better get some help." He muttered to himself.
The boy began to walk barefoot out of the alleyway. There was a sudden nagging in the back of his head. It was like some voice demanding that he turn around. He listened, and to his surprise, the boy found a hastily written message written up above the trash pile he'd been laying in.
'Ur Nt Sfe. Rn Awy.' It read.
Feeling a chill run down his spine. The boy quickly turned back around and was off.
So, how about that? For a while one of the things that's bugged me was just how the Kids Next Door actually operated. They have a Supreme Leader and a Diplomat, but they never went into detail about it in the show. I just wanted to expand upon all of that with branches of government and what not.
Anyways, I project this story, like the rest in so far in this 'Phase 2' of my series as being at least 6 chapters.
'Til next time dear reader! Later days!