Nigel saw the cameras. He saw them everywhere. They were watching his every move, every second, every minute, everyday. Why were they there? He had absolutely no idea.
The cameras didn't appear to cause any harm to Nigel or to anyone else. But what bothered him was that nobody else seemed to notice them. And that hardly seemed possible, as they followed him and his team everywhere, never coming into contact with them, just flying around like mosquitos. Except silent too.
Nigel decided to learn what he could about them.
Actually, he also began to notice that they weren't in sight when nothing exciting was happening. He had his suspicions that whoever was taking the footage on these cameras probably was going to use the footage against him and his team. But they were just suspicions, unlikely at that.
Perhaps the sole purpose of the cameras was to record the progress of his Sector, and probably was shown to Numbuh 362 on the KND Moonbase.
So Numbuh 1 started to frequently send his team out on missions; without him. This proved convenient; first because whenever the cameras were casually mentioned, the rest of his team would look at him funny.
"Cameras? Numbuh 5 don't see no camerahs here."
"Numbuh 1, I don't see any cameras either! Are they coming to make a movie?" Numbuh 3 would exclaim.
"Cruddy cameras. If I saw any cruddy cameras, I would beat them all to a pulp!" Numbuh 4 agreed, smashing his fist into his other hand.
Numbuh 2 would just scratch his head, frowning. Often he was seen after a mention of the cameras, muttering to himself and drawing diagrams and blueprints.
So Numbuh ceased to mention the cameras. But he knew they were there.
The second reason he sent his team on missions without him, is, as said before, because the cameras seemed to follow the action. At least, most of the time. When the cameras were non-existent (he wouldn't want anyone watching footage from the camera knowing that he was trying to find out more about it; especially if it was one of KND's enemies), Nigel would pour over texts and research any sort of thing relating to these floating cameras. He came up with nothing.
One especially haunting experience was when the rest of the team had come home, and of course, followed by the cameras. Numbuh 1 had summoned up some impressive but shallow research that he had dug up in one of the filing cabinets to show to his team (and the cameras) that he was actually doing something important, not just slacking off or frolicking off on a date with Lizzie. Lizzie. She was an entirely different matter.
After debriefing the team on his research (making up on the spot a whole cartful of fake scientific terms, much to the confusion of Numbuh 2), he had sent them all to bed, preparing to do so himself. Usually, at this point, the cameras were long gone.
But not today. Unsettled, Nigel practically scampered to his room, and the cameras suddenly gave chase! He arrived in front of his room, punching in the code, and then slamming the door shut as fast as possible. He breathed a sigh of relief as he fell against the barrier protecting him from the cameras.
But instead of hearing the thunk of the cameras smashing into the door, he heard a whoosh above him and looked up. Suddenly, one by one, the cameras passed right through the wood! Shocked, he knew he had to act quickly. Grabbing a random file from one of his many cabinets, he began leafing through it, and then ran to his data mainframe and started punching in numbers… again, totally randomly. He heaved a huge fake sigh of relief, as if he had found the answer to a huge problem (it would've been nice if there was an actual answer), and then he changed and slipped into bed, praying that the cameras would disappear. And disappear they did.
Sooner or later, he became almost used to the cameras' presence. They accompanied on his missions, his meetings at the Moonbase, and in the treehouse. Soon he began to assume (since they caused absolutely no harm to anyone or anything) that the cameras belonged to KND and some agents, probably on the moonbase, were probably just monitoring his and his teammates' well-being.
The cameras also accompanied him on most of his dates with Lizzie. Even the disastrous second one. The one where Lizzie purchased a mind-controlling, manipulating, brain attaching, helmet, that would've controlled him into loving Lizzie and doing whatever she wanted him to do, at the push of a button. If it hadn't been for his friends, his brain would've been mush. Except, maybe not. It wasn't his friends that had gotten the helmet off, it was the absolutely absurd amount of money the date had costed- Lizzie had no doubt ordered anything she felt like ordering to satisfy her hunger needs.
The second the helmet came off, the first thing Nigel saw through the hazy smoke of destruction were the cameras. So instead of ditching Lizzie right then and there, he decided to play along.
"Don't ever use one of those things on me again, Lizzie!" he exclaimed.
"What are you gonna do now?" she asked in a childish, immature voice. Inwardly he drew away from her, disgusted. But he didn't have to play by the rules, did he?
"Um. Wanna get some ice cream?" Numbuh 1 replied, plastering on a fake smile.
From then on, Nigel's perspective of Lizzie rapidly plunged, some incidents including when she betrayed him, siding with the Delightful Children from Down the Lane just for a piece of cake- as if she needed anything more to feed her ego (and her weight)...
Nigel didn't mind girls who weren't average size, but he did not appreciate someone as rude as Lizzie was about everything else- in fact if anyone else acted that way, he'd feel exact same disdain for them. Lizzie was a soppy romantic, using Numbuh 1's pet name indifferently- there was no meaning, no actual love (though siding with her, they both were still kids), and most definitely no depth and understanding. Lizzie Devine was simply a hopeless, flashy, and shallow romantic.
Nigel hated being with her.
The only way to elude her was to keep himself busy with missions. His excuses for not holding her hand in front of others was to make sure his rep didn't become soft. She complained, he began to abhor her as a person. But still, he played along.
The last straw was the day Lizzie's sister got married. As usual, Numbuh 1 had somehow found a super important mission to occupy himself with. He also got to wear a tuxedo. Of course, he could wear a tuxedo anytime he wanted, but what would people think of him? A high-class snob, similar to Numbuh Infinity? I mean, who even had a big enough ego to call himself 'Numbuh Infinity'? Numbuh 1 was bad enough… but at least he lived up to his status. No one actually knew what Numbuh Infinity actually did. Nigel also thought there was something fishy with him…
The mission was a success, and well, Numbuh 1 thought he looked pretty sexy and James Bond. The cameras had recorded all of it. All of his sexy James Bond mission. He was tempted to leave to get to the wedding, but naturally, he decided that he wanted a glass of lemonade. Lemonade it was.
Numbuh 65.3 approached him and began to debrief. He's acting especially weird today, Numbuh 1 thought to himself. He was drinking the dregs out of the glass when he bit his tongue… and spat out a mouthful of lemonade. How un-leader like… better cover it up to be because I forgot about Lizzie's sister's wedding! And so he left.
He ran to the church where the wedding was held. Haha! It was already over, Nigel thought to himself. But then he heard an all-too-familiar voice… sobbing. Underneath his shades, Numbuh 1 rolled his eyes. Then he approached Lizzie. Obviously she raged and yelled and cried. Luckily, instead of having to comfort her, his alert-com summoned him! Nigel dashed away, promising to meet later at Lizzie's sister's reception.
Numbuh 1 was summoned to the Moonbase. Thanks alert-com. You saved my butt there.
It turned out that that day was meatball sandwich day. Numbuh 1 played pretend for the cameras floating around his head. He freaked and ranted. Just as he was growing tired, Numbuh 362 appeared and invited him for a meatball sandwich! Nigel didn't really like Rachel, but he sure enjoyed her company a whole lot more than Lizzie's. Numbuh 362 was a lot more serious about her job.
Eventually, Numbuh 1 realized that, once again, he better get his butt back to earth and to the reception… of course, only after packing a sandwich to go (he never actually got to take a bite of it before returning to his ship). When he was in his ship, the cameras were gone. Hm, thought Numbuh 1.
When he arrived, his 'lovely' Lizzie was seated alone at a table, with lunch already prepared for him! This caught him a little off-guard… it was a kind gesture, certainly. Until, of course, he admitted he wasn't hungry… Until Lizzie saw the sauce on his collar. Until he admitted he'd eaten a meatball sandwich. Then of course Lizzie raged and raged and raged.
"And a meatball sandwich for Pete's sake?! You know those things go straight to that big butt of yours!"
Oh… Nigel thought in his head. Oh, did that girl just? Oh yes she did. That filthy… frigging... goddamnit hypocrite!
And still, Lizzie kept raging on. And with that, Nigel grew so sick of her ranting, he dragged her onto the dance floor, ("Nigie! Wha.. what are you doing?") and looked into her stupid piggy eyes and said very seductively, "Shut up... and let me say I'm sorry."
With that, she absolutely melted. She was stupefied. And she was stupid. Nigel smirked at that thought. Stupid people were easy to impress.
And to make matters worse, the cameras were back. So he kept at his game a little while longer. He murmured soothingly to Lizzie, twirling her around.
"I know you think that all I care about is the Kid's Next Door," Nigel said, while thinking, why yes, you're right! "And while battling adult tyranny is what I was put on this earth to do…" The rest of his little speech was also just pretendy-pretend. But Lizzie, a blushing prat, believed it all. He kept talking.
Suddenly he was supporting her weight. Practically all of it. Again, he didn't mind girls over average, but she was heavy. And holy cow, what perfume had she squirted on? It smelled horrible, and it was making him claustrophobic and dizzy.
And suddenly he found himself saying something along the lines of a love confession! He prayed for somebody or something to save him. Then it came to him. A leader didn't need somebody else to save him from something as insignificant as this. He would save himself. He summoned his earpiece commander to do a pretend warning-com, just as he was saying, "I know I don't say it enough, if at all! But I-"
"Alert: Numbuh 1. Numbuh 65.3 is directly behind you." And with that, Nigel spun into the air and coincidentally, Lizzie's grandma was right behind him! And feeling slightly remorseful, he made a huge show of beating up Lizzie's grandma. In his head, he thanked and apologized to her.
As if on cue, another com sounded in his ear.
"Alert: Numbuh 1. Incoming urgent message from Numbuh 362." Yes, yes, yes! My lucky day.
"Uh… I… gotta go!" And with that, Nigel sprinted off.
As he left, he could feel it in the air. Lizzie's faith in him was deteriorating, finally. It had taken her so long. Of course, Nigel could've broken up with her long ago, if it wasn't for those stupid cameras. He wanted to put on a good show, and as a gentleman, the thought to break the lady's heart would never cross him! Oh no siree.
As soon as he got outside, a flurry of activities absorbed him. The only two things he remembered were that first of all, apparently his treehouse was attacking Lizzie? And the second was that he been directly ordered by Numbuh 362 to follow her and give chase to Numbuh 65.3. The cameras were right in front of their faces- how could Rachel not notice them?! Or... maybe she did.
But the cameras reminded Nigel that the glorious end was near with Lizzie, and it had better be worthwhile. So… he did one of the worst things imaginable. He disobeyed. A direct command. From the Soopreme Leader of the Kid's Next Door.
Turning his back on his leader, Nigel rushed back to Lizzie. Only to find her to be about to be crushed by a tree. Who also happened to want to date Nigel. A tree. That's right. A tree. Well, more like the computer, but who cared? Nigel was being saved! Kind of. At least the computer was better than Lizzie. Nigel acted as best as he could. I'm on Lizzie's side. This is all a practical joke. I'm in love with Lizzie!
After that was there was another fiery rant by Lizzie about... how she was giving up on him! Nigel was so happy he wanted to jump with joy (except he couldn't, since he was being held on to tight by his beloved treehouse… oo-er). Like, a thousand feet above the ground. Nigel didn't remember many details about that either. He was too consumed with joy that Lizzie was done with him. And then the tree house blew up. So close to Lizzie being blown up too. Nigel scolded himself. As much as he didn't like Lizzie, he didn't want her dead.
And then, the amazing moment. He knew she was done with him. But he wanted to be the best until the end of the end. He acted so happy, so thankful. He spun her around in the air, praising her. He was torn apart when she said the words.
"Children everywhere might need you… but… I… don't. Not anymore." She started walking away. "Goodbye Nigie." She wiped a tear away.
The cameras looked like they were laughing, bobbing extra fast. Nigel called for her. But too soon he gave up. He didn't even run after her. He stood rooted to the spot, in his head bursting with joy.
A shuttle touched down nearby. Nigel couldn't do his happy dance just yet. Rachel bounded out. All he could notice was her footwear. Socks with sandals. Eugh. She talked with him. He responded as depressingly as he could. Rachel invited him for dinner. He rejected her. She was seriously disappointed. Nigel smirked inwardly. She left.
And then he heard it. From far away… yet being transmitted through… the cameras?
"The computer did excellent work for us," one voice said
"Yes. Now all of Numbuh 1's ties are severed. He is ready," the other responded.
He knew the cameras couldn't see his face, so he smiled. He had won again.
Maybe I should change my codename to double-oh one, Nigel thought, walking away into the night.
-transmission interrupted-