Disclaimer: I do not own KND, it'll be cool if I did but unfortunately, I do not.

Warning: Contains a little 1/OCness, I'm really sorry for that.

And yes, I do have a phobia of moths and butterflies.

KND:

Operation: MOTH

Part 1

It was a lovely day, not too sunny, not too cold……perfect for a day out at the park.

And there we were, at the park, enjoying the weather and enjoying ourselves. Green grass, freshened by last night's rain, surrounded us like a green ocean. A few trees stood in clumps here and there, and pathways wound like flat orange snakes across the grass while a few people could be seen taking walks or having family picnics on the fresh green grass.

I was seated on a white stone bench, the book I brought was laying on my lap, closed, for I was enjoying the gentle breeze and the lovely scenery more than it. Abigail Lincoln, or "Abby" as we called her, was seated beside me, with earphones plugged in her ears and an Ipod in her palm. She stared up into the distant skies, day-dreaming away. Kuki Sanban was seated at the very edge of the bench, beside Abby, swinging her legs up and down while humming some hauntingly familiar tune which I was sure I had heard once while watching an old Disney movie. She gazed at the three boys, our three boys actually (although I promised Rachel that I would share Nigel between us). Nigel, Hoagie and Wally were playing ball, I'm not sure what ball game because it looked like a fusion of 'Poison-Ball' and soccer. Their yells and laughter echoed across the park as they tried to catch or dodge that bright red ball they were playing with.

Finally, probably because of exhaustion, they stopped playing and came back towards us, panting and laughing and pushing each other around, just like a bunch of playful school boys walking out of the school grounds after the dismissal bell. Hoagie Gilligan and Wally Beatles squashed themselves onto the stone bench, which was actually meant for not more than three people. Nigel Uno, seeing that there was no more space on the bench, simply leaned against the rough, dark brown trunk of a large, shady tree just behind us. There was silence for a while, except for Kuki's humming and distant voices of people and birds or insects. Then Nigel, who had been staring at the ground, at his brown shoes for a few moments, looked up and said to us, "You know what? I've just discovered something, a new theory……"

A chorus of groans arose from the five of us who were seated on the stone bench. Abby, who must have lowered the volume of the music that was booming out of her earphones, murmured in frustration, "Not another one of his theories again…."

Yeah, I admit, Nigel had a lot of crazy theories he loved to invent. They always made no sense and were at times even absurd. They were never true, well, at least most of the time. We have groaned and grumbled and yelled at him countless times, but he never listened, and continued creating nonsensical theories as if they were the pleasure of his life.

Nigel glared at us after our frustrated groans, and he begin, "This theory is about a certain insect, those horrible, gruesome creatures with eight legs….."

"Insects only have six legs." Murmured Hoagie boredly.

"Whatever! And anyway, this insect, or these two types of insects, may look gentle and frail, but actually they are vile, hungry creatures! Moths and butterflies….."

I suddenly let out a scream and almost fell off the bench, everyone stared at me while I stared at Nigel, stunned.

"Moths? Butterflies?" I uttered blankly, my eyes were wide open and I was sure all the color had gone from my face, "They…..they're the creatures I dread the most…..I can't look at one without screaming…..with their horrid wings with scary patterns! You're right about vile….."

"What's so scary about moths and butterflies? I think they're pretty….." said Kuki innocently.

"I…I…..I don't know….maybe I have a phobia of those things…..I have had quite a few bad experiences with them…."

It was true, I did have some awful and disturbing encounters with the moth and the butterfly, especially the moth. When I was just a toddler, my babysitter used to tell me that if I was naughty, the moth would come and catch me. Then, being born and raised in Asia, I was filled with old-wives stories about moths and butterflies being souls of dead people. The worse experience was when one flew into my clothes when I was seven……..you really should have heard me scream hysterically……

"I guess I also have a phobia of moths and butterflies, in fact, I think I have a phobia of every winged insect! But anyway….." Nigel cleared his throat, "Back to the topic, moths and butterflies are vile and hungry because….." a dramatic pause, and, "they absorb people's life-energy! When they land on you….although you don't know it…." He lowered his voice into a sinister hiss, "They are feeding on you….."

Abby slapped her palm against her forehead, Wally made a face of disgust, Kuki shook her head with a sigh and Hoagie rolled his eyes and gestured in frustration. Even I almost yelled, "NIGEL UNO, ARE YOU INSANE!?" at him. Goodness, how on earth did he come up with such ridiculous theories anyway? Even though I was terrified of moths and butterflies, and thought them to be gruesome, evil creatures, I didn't go as far as Nigel!

"NUMBUH 1!" all five of us yelled together in disgust.

"What!? It was just a theory! Probably a real one, anyway….."

"Ugh! How crazy can your cruddy theories get anyway?!" yelled Wally in anger, then he added in a lower voice, "And there's one of those 'vile, hungry creatures' right beside ya……"

Nigel turned to look at the tree bark beside him, suddenly he let out a yelp of terror and ran for his life. I turned in bewilderment……then I saw it……a large insect, about 15cm in length, with blackish brown wings patterned with white. It was the creature I dreaded the most…….the moth…..

I screamed at the top of my lungs and leaped up sky high as if the bench I was sitting on was on fire. Then I rushed towards where Nigel stood, and – I didn't know if I did this out of terror or on purpose – I flung my arms around him and gripped hold of him as tightly as I could. Nigel automatically put one arm around me.

Wally burst out laughing, Kuki and Hoagie begin laughing soon after, while Abby once again had her face in her palm. I could just hear Hoagie saying excitedly, "Ohh…..look over there…..Nigel and Darrel are hugging!"

"So cute!" squealed Kuki in delight. "Lovely couple they'll make, eh?" said Wally slyly.

Oh my goodness, I suddenly realized what I was doing, my face turned bright red, the color of ripe tomatoes, and I let go of Nigel hurriedly. Rachel is so going to kill me, I mummered to myself. Nigel's pale marble-colored cheeks turned pink and he tried to look as innocent as he possibly could, but with no avail…..

"Nigel and Darrel sittin' in a tree….." chanted Hoagie and Wally, I almost picked up a broken branch on the grass beside me to whack them and chase them all around the park, and I would have if Nigel's communicator hadn't suddenly rang. He reached into his pocket and fished it out, the pinkish blush quickly fading from his face. He spoke in low mummers to whoever it was on the communicator screen for a few seconds, then he looked up, his usual, stern, 'leader' look returning to his deep, blue eyes.

"We have a mission…."

It was lovely to be back in the tropical climate, where I was born and raised before my family moved to America. And it was even lovelier to be back in my home country Malaysia, with all its delicious food, varieties of traditions and interesting historical places. But right now, we were not here to go visiting around Malaysia, we were called here by the members of the Malaysian KND sector, Sector MY, or at least, the remaining members of Sector MY. Three of their members had been kidnapped by what Numbuh 256.7, or Ze-Yuen called 'strange brown bird-like creatures, they were quite small but very strong, and very vicious'. Numbuh 255.7, or Abdul, the leader of Sector MY who witnessed the event, said that 'those strange birds' had grabbed the members, Numbuh 254.7 (Yogawati), Numbuh 260.5 (Kanang Latai) and Numbuh 259.9 (Mei Nah) by their clothes and simply flew off with them, despite of their violent struggling and screaming.

We were here to investigate their disappearances, Rachel also tagged along because Nigel had promised her that she could follow us on missions if she was sick of being cooped up on the Moonbase. We were now searching through the alleys and crowded streets and little parks known as the 'city's green lungs' for any clues the strange kidnappers left behind. Our effort was fruitless, we achieved nothing…..

Finally, we were sweating and panting under the hot tropical sun and decided to stop for some icy desserts, known as 'ais kacang' and 'cendol'. But since Wally was allergic to coconut, which was used in both icy desserts for flavoring. Numbuh 258.7, Ming Sern, kindly went off to buy some ice-cream for him, and Rachel followed just to see more of Malaysia's 'mother-town', Kuala Lumpur. But….that was something she shouldn't have done…..

Because, soon after they were gone, we heard a horrible hair-raising scream that made our blood freeze. We dropped our desserts, literally, and ran towards the direction of the horrible sound. Already a crowd of curious passersby were gathered on a broad pavement just outside a huge, grand shopping mall, so we guessed that was where the scream had come from. Ming Sern was pushing his way out of the dense crowd, his face was as pale as the face of the Moon as he made his way towards us.

"Guys!" he cried out hoarsely, as if he did not have enough air to breath in. "Guys!!" he said again. Then he pointed upwards into the hazy sky, where the passersby all around us were gazing up at and yelling or gasping in horror. And we too stared at the sight in disbelief.

We saw, in that gray, hazy sky, a girl with shoulder-length bland hair, wearing a light blue T-shirt and tights, struggling violently and screaming at the top of her lungs. She was desperately trying to jerk herself away from some strange winged creatures, about seven or eight of them, that had grabbed hold of her clothing and were trying to fly off with her. They were carrying her not too far above our heads and I could just see that they looked like some kind of brown birds, with large wings and seemingly did not have any head. Although they were rather small, about 30 to 35 centimeters in width, they were apparently very strong and soon carried the girl, in spite of her thrashing, higher and higher and further and further away from us.

"Rachel!!" Both me and Nigel cried in dismay.

"Numbuh 362!!" shrieked the members of Sector MY in fright.

"What are those things?" yelled Hoagie.

"They're kidnapping her! Oh, crud!" shouted Wally.

"Oh…..someone stop them!" screamed Kuki, almost in tears.

"A tracker! Somebody get out a tracker and get in onto Rachel so we can track her down later!" commanded Abby.

Nigel was on his toes as soon as he heard Abby's bright idea, out from his pocket he snatched out a gadget that looked like a short, thin, metal straw with a handle and a tiny trigger at one end. He pulled the trigger and a minute, light-weight, spherical tracker flew out of the hole at the end of the gadget that was pointed away from him. It flew upwards towards Rachel and latched itself onto her tights as she was carried by those mysterious creatures further and further away into the distance. Finally, she was lost from sight behind the tall buildings and sky-scrappers that surrounded us.

It took a few minutes for us to get over the shock of seeing Rachel being whisked away just like that. And by the time we were able to speak, the crowd around us had become thinner as those passersby strolled away, minding their own business as usual.

Abdul spoke first, "Those were the things that kidnapped three of our team members. It looks like they, whatever they are, are still kidnapping people!"

"I tried to stop them and I tried to pull her down," said Ming Sern, his face was still pale and he spoke in pants. "But those things….they….they were too strong…."

"What did they look like?" asked Nigel.

"I…..I couldn't see, they moved too fast. But, they didn't really look like birds from up close….they looked like some kind of – I don't know – giant butterflies or something…."

"Butterflies?" said everyone, staring at him. Some said the word in astonishment, some said it in disgust, while some it skeptically and looked at him as if he had lost his mind. But, as for me and Nigel, we said it out of pure horror and fear.

"Erm….Ming Sern? Are you sure you're okay?" asked Numbuh 25.79, Muragam, reaching out his dark hnd towards Ming Sern's forehead, as if he wanted to test Ming Sern's temperature to see if he had any high fever that was affecting his brain.

"Yes, I'm fine! Stay away from me! I'm not sick!" yelled Ming Sern as he whacked Muragam's outstretched hand and sent Murugam into howls of pain. "I'm only saying what they looked like! And trust me, they really did look like giant butterflies!"

"Butterflies or not butterflies, we still have to save her!" said Abdul in a stern voice, the voice that all KND Sector leaders had. "So, how can we track her down, Numbuh 1?" he asked, turning to Nigel.

Nigel had just taken a gadget with a screen on it from his pocket and was tapping something on the buttons on the gadget. It was amazing to see how many things he managed to stuff into the two pockets of his pants. I was surprised that the bottom stitches of those pants never ripped and even more surprised that his pants never dropped because of the weight of his gadgets!

"There, I've tracked her down." Said Nigel, showing us the gadget that he held in his palm. On the greenish screen was a map of West Malaysia, a small red dot was flashing somewhere on the sweet potato shaped land of West Malaysia. "That's her position, and it looks like whatever that's kidnapped her is moving rather fast….."

"So come on! Let's go rescue her!" said Hoagie. The next moment everyone was rushing towards and squeezing into the C.O.O.L.B.U.S. that we came in. Since there were so many people, it took us quite a while to settle down and blast off towards wherever our Supreme Commander was……