Okay, guys. After the long and arduous trial that was Operation: MASKED, it's time to conclude this part of the Nextgen Series with the last story of the Viridi Saga. Here we go.

Chapter 1: Planning

Viridi's Lair

Her chamber was dark and quiet. The psychotic girl that started a war against the world sat in a state of calm, peaceful meditation. These past few weeks, she hasn't done any major attack against the KND. She sent a few troops every now and then, but the Kids Next Door had very little troubles dealing with her, and were able to relax for most of their time. That's because Viridi was channeling her energy. In truth, she honestly knew she was obsessed with destroying the humans, and that obsession costed her most of her energy. Sending powerful troops, only to fail, and attempting to shrinkify certain targets. She decided to stop herself from that. Now, she enclouded her mind with calmness and serenity. Building up the energy she so foolishly wasted. …And now… she was ready to strike. Having given them enough time to settle down, it was time to end the human race. She had a devious smirk as her green eyes opened.

KND Moonbase

Cheren Uno was finally back home. After completing what was probably the biggest adventure of his life, Cheren was happy to be home in his very own Moonbase, signing paperwork in the calm serenity of his office. After the great adventure in the Termina Dimension, Cheren's body was completely worn out. It was all the more worth it to finally save his friends, and not to mention two whole worlds at that. After all that, signing a few papers, and maybe trying to control a few rowdy kids, was nothing.

His door creaked open as his second-in-command, Numbuh 860; Panini Drilovsky, walked in with a small stack of papers and set them on Cheren's desk. "There." Panini breathed. "That's the last bit for the day, Cheren."

"Finally." Cheren smiled, continuing his work.

Panini had a seat in the chair in the corner, mindlessly kicking her legs in the air. "Sooo, how's it feel being back?" she asked casually.

"It's a relief." Cheren sighed. "Adventures like that always make me wish for the usual operative missions."

"That was the only big adventure ya ever been on."

"And that's how I know I'll always wish for the usual missions."

"Well, Ay would feel the same way, if Ay was trapped inside a cramped little hood shaped like my hair."

"Ha ha ha!" Cheren laughed.

"We can't really be relaxing yet, can we? Ay mean, ya spent so long tryin' ta beat Majora, and we never did anything about Viridi yet."

"Ehhh, it shouldn't matter. According to Francis's report, Viridi hasn't done much of anything while I was gone. I think she might finally be giving up."

"It still sounds so weird, the way ya put it. Ay haven't really seen anyone as desperate as her, and she was plain crazy."

"Well, I was that desperate, when I got shrunk by Mom." Cheren smirked.

"That was just wimp's luck." Panini remarked. "Ay still don't think we should be looking away that easy."

"We won't, Panini. Our main priority now is finding out where Viridi's basing her operations. Speaking of which, there was that substance that I asked Zach and Maddy to bring to Dr. Facilier; the stuff left by the Spidermankey. He should have a solution by now. I asked Francis to go down and ask."

"We oughta head down there, too."

"Good idea." Cheren said, standing up and stretching his arms. "The walk wouldn't hurt. And while we're down there, we could grab some ice cream."

Cheren stepped out of his office, but the moment he did, Panini shoved him out of the way as she dashed by and yelled, "LIFE'S ONE BIG RACE, UUUNOOOO!" Cheren glared playfully after her and ran as fast as he could to beat her to the hangar.

McKenzie Household; backyard

Meanwhile, Anthony McKenzie was dealing with his own struggles (yes, it's gonna be one of THOSE stories :P). The seven-year-old grunted, using all his earthbending strength to lift a huge boulder up over his head with his arms. His sister, Michelle, and Sector W were watching him, and Sally was a little worried Anthony might be crushed (although Aranea and Michelle were enjoying the show). The sector leader was sweating as his arms quivered tremendously, doing his best to keep his earthbending in focus. Sadly, the boulder proved to be too much, and he ended up crushed.

"OOooohh." Sally and Harvey shut their eyes, and Fybi shook her head in disbelief, smiling as if it wasn't at all dangerous. Michelle smiled cheerfully as she skipped toward the boulder and flawlessly lifted it with her right hand, tossing it aside like a discarded shoe.

Thankfully, Anthony wasn't hurt, although he lay completely flat, and Aranea and Fybi came over (with Fybi floating in midair) to help Anthony on his feet. "Well, you have been getting better." Sally said, trying to make him feel better.

"So you guys just have a random boulder lying around?" Harvey asked coolly.

"Mom got it for practice." Anthony replied. "Ugh, it's just so hard, though. This might sound funny, but I actually felt like my bending was better when I was tiny."

"I wonder if the shorter an earthbender is, the stronger they are." Sally suggested. "That's why Michelle's so good." Michelle grinned at this.

"I wouldn't really mind shrinking him again." Aranea smirked. "His giant feet apparently aren't helping."

"Uhhh no." Anthony stated with a disbelieved look. "And besides…"

Anthony's yard was crawling with tiny ants, happily going about their business. They suddenly stirred away frantically when six-year-old Anthony began stomping them hatefully. He was alone in his backyard and bored out of his mind, so this is how he liked to spend his time. "Come on, Anthony, don't do that." His mother suddenly called from behind. "Before you know it, that'll be you cowering away."

Anthony eye-rolled and turned around, and was shocked at seeing his mom lifting a huge boulder with just her right arm. "Whoa! Mom, when'd you get so strong!" he smiled ecstatically.

"Hmhmhm! It's not real strength, Anthony. It's just earthbending." Angie dropped the boulder to her side, shaking the ground by the impact. "Anyone who's an earthbender could lift it easy."

"Not me." Anthony frowned, sitting on the patio grumpily. "I couldn't lift a boulder to save myself. If I was gonna be this bad at earthbending, why did I get such big feet? Sigh, you think we can get an operation?"

Angie shook her head and knelt down by her son. "Anthony, you shouldn't expect to be a good earthbender just because your feet are big. Even if they were smaller, you would still be the same."

"Pssh. Prove it."

Angie eye-rolled. "Well, for now, let's just assume they do make you better. But they haven't helped yet because you haven't tapped into your true strengths. I told you about my friend Toph, right? She was born without sight, so she had to rely on her feet to see her way around, using earthbending. In time, though, she got enough control over her power, and her disability ended up making her stronger. Your big feet could do the same, but only if you believed in yourself."

Anthony watched with amazement as his mother lifted the boulder with her right arm. "I mean, me and Michelle were pretty small for our ages, before we became good. If I could do this," Angie tossed the boulder behind and caught it with her right leg, "imagine how strong YOU can be when you're my age."

"Hmm… alright then." Anthony got up, feeling confident as he declared, "I'll become the strongest earthbender in the world! I'll get so good… that I'll be able to pick up whole mountains!"

Angie laughed. "Don't over-exaggerate it, Anthony! You still have a long way to go."

"Then I'll keep practicing right away!" he exclaimed. "And before ya know it, I'll be stronger than YOU, Mom!"

Anthony leaned against the boulder as this memory played. "Sigh, another backstory that involves someone wanting to be like their mom." Harvey sighed.

Anthony smiled confidently and attempted to lift the huge rock up again. "I WILL be the strongest… and no one will ever knock me down!"

The kids watched as Anthony trembled and allowed the rock to crush him again.

Planet Secco; Ancient Wastelands

The sun was beating hard onto the ancient desert wasteland, where the rusted remains of robots and dead mechanisms littered the fields. An alien tech S.C.A.M.P.E.R., called the Nova Cruiser, took land on this wasteland, and Arianna Dunfree stepped out with Vweeb on her shoulder. Arianna wore an explorers' hat to protect her and Vweeb from the scorching sun, but the bright light was still able to hit the tiny alien's skin. "Why I keep wearing this jumpsuit, I will never know." Vweeb said, trying to shield his eyes with his hand as his jumpsuit felt like it was fusing to his body.

Arianna grabbed a mini shovel and archaeologists' dirt brush as she approached a patch of wilted plants. She got on her knees while Vweeb hopped to the ground, watching his purple-skinned friend begin to dig. "Tell me what we're doing here again?" Vweeb asked.

"Well, this planet probably grew all sorts of exotic plants before it fell into ruin. If by some chance some seeds are still alive under here, we could probably regrow those plants, and we could bring them back here to repopulate the species!" she explained, sounding very excited. "Of course, we'd have to find some way of bringing water back into this world. If we're lucky, maybe a few planets would be willing to ship containers of their oceans' water, and all the water combined could fill the ocean!"

"Oh… is that why." Vweeb said, sounding very uninterested.

"Ohh, won't it look LOVELY, Vweeb? ?" she squealed very happily. "If we could actually restore this planet to the way it was in the old days! And we could fix the robots and give them brand new power sources… they'd never have to use Timeshift Stones again, and this planet could finally be happy!"

"Well, I guess that would be pretty cool…"

Arianna frowned and looked at her diminutive friend, pausing in her digging. "Is something wrong, Vweeb? Don't you care about this planet?"

"I-I do… Arianna… but don't you think this planet's time has, you know, come?"

"Well… I suppose… but it wouldn't hurt to try and fix it. Right?"

Vweeb sighed. "Look, Arianna, to be honest… I was hoping for something a little more exciting?"

"Exciting?" Arianna sounded disappointed.

"I mean, I'm just not into this stuff like you are. I'm not really into… well, saving animals and not eating meat. I mean, I may be little, but meat is good. I just like to have fun; do kid stuff and have adventures. I really only went with you 'cause… well, you're my friend, and I wanted to be nice."

"Oh." Arianna lost all the excitement she just had. Hearing this from Vweeb really destroyed her mood. "Well, you didn't have to come. I wouldn't mind if you stayed behind."

Vweeb sighed, "Don't worry, Arianna. I'm here now, I should try to help." He still sounded uninterested.

"No. I don't want you to feel like you have to now. Besides, I know how hard the sun is on you. You can stay in the ship if you want. It'd probably be hard to dig, anyway."

"Um… are you sure?"

"Yes. You shouldn't suffer because of me."

"Okay… thanks for understanding." It's true, Vweeb didn't wanna do this, and he wanted out of the sun, but as he made his way to the ship, he felt bad about leaving her. Arianna was his best friend, and he liked hanging out with her, but her idea of activities wasn't the most exciting. She was an environmentalist, so she had that environmentalist aura. She took after her mother in that sense. So her idea of fun was saving animals and all that crud, but Vweeb could never get himself as into it. It probably hurt Arianna's feelings… but it was probably best that he was honest about it, he thought.

Of course, Arianna was hurt by what he said. It wasn't that he didn't care about the planet… but she was sad because Vweeb, her best friend, didn't come because he wanted to. She liked hanging out with Vweeb as much as he did with her, but she wishes she could make things a little more fun for him. She wasn't sure why. They always had fun at other things, so it wouldn't matter.

But maybe it was because it did have to do with this whole thing. If Vweeb, her own best friend, wouldn't be into what she was doing, she was afraid other people might not be either. Vweeb's feelings toward it could reflect those of everyone else; no one else found replanting or repopulating a species to be very fun. And she probably didn't make it fun, either. She was probably just one of those "treehuggers" that people passed by. Still, she just wishes, someone out there; besides her mother, could take interest in this stuff like she does…

Dr. Facilier's Voodoo Emporium

Cheren and Panini met with Francis at Facilier's voodoo workshop. The demonic gateway opened behind his table, and the witch-doctor whistled a tune as he casually stepped out, the gateway's mouth snapping shut.

"So do you have any info, Uncle Facilier?" Cheren asked.

"Well, Ah thought the dust looked familiar." Facilier began as he twirled down onto his chair. "Ah looked at everything I had. Pixiefrog Dust." He scooped a handful of the bright-green dust from his bag and threw it on Francis, zapping him into a little frog. "Scorch Sand Dust." He threw a kind of red sand on Francis, switching him to normal, but setting him on fire.

"AAAAHHH! !"

"Snow Dust." He threw what was clearly snow on Francis, freezing him solid. "Time Dust." He threw the bluish-white dust on Francis, changing him into an adorable baby with a diaper and binky. "Minish Dust." He threw the normal-green dust on Francis, shrinking him down to size. "Antidote." He threw purple dust onto Francis, changing him back to normal size and age. "BUT… nothin' came up."

Francis rubbed his scorched cheek with a hateful look. "Well-p, now I got messy underpants…" he mumbled.

"BUT THEN I figured:" Facilier smirked, getting up and pacing around the table, "why am I only lookin' at my dirty old stuff, when I have friends in higher PLACES?" he shot his hands open in their eyes. "The answer was simple: I just had to go up and ask mah friend, King Darky!"

"The Nightmare King?" Cheren asked.

"Yes!" Facilier grinned. "And Ah discovered that dust was a mix of Forest Dust with STAR Dust!"

"Star Dust?"

"Yes! With traces of Fear Toxin still in them! These nature monsters are made with some of the same substance as Nightmares!"

"So Viridi makes these creatures using Darkrai's Star Dust." Cheren restated. "Does that give us any info where she lives?"

"Darkrai says someone's been ordering several shipments of his Fear Energy for the past few months. He said he ain't know who's been orderin', but dey want 'em dropped at an abandoned mega-asteroid around the Sargasso Region."

"Interesting." Cheren said. "And then Viridi's troops come to take these shipments back to her world?"

"He ain't know what happens to 'em. Viridi just sends the money ahead o' time, and the Nightmares just leave 'em be. Didn't know it was her, didn't know who was takin' 'em."

"But did you tell Darkrai Viridi was ordering them? Wouldn't he know anything about her?"

"I told 'im. He knows that she was the Goddess of Nature, and that she was supposed ta be Celebi's caretaker, until Celebi's Guardian came. 'Course, she had a little grudge against humans, what with ruinin' her plants and all that. She started a war against the humans around the time of the Demon Wars. It's said that she was beat by the Goddess of Light, Palutena, who put Viridi under a sort of 'house-arrest' spell. Viridi and her powers got binded in her own lair, where she normally runs all of her attacks. But Darkrai ain't know where that lair is."

"Couldn't he just ask Palutena, or one of the other gods?" Panini asked.

"Maaan, Palutena got more bettuh things to do! And the other gods got more important things to do. Besides, it's just too easy ta ask them, don'tchu think?"

"Hmmmm." Cheren began to think. "Well, if Viridi wants 'em dropped in the Sargasso Region, then her homeworld must be somewhere in Galaxia. I could ring Nebula up and have her send some operatives to look for 'em when Darkrai sends his next delivery."

"What if Viridi sends some troops to look for any spies?" Francis asked.

"I guess we'll make sure she sends hidden operatives. But if Viridi is trying to keep her homeworld secret, I imagine she wouldn't send so many at once. I mean, big crowds aren't easy to lose track of."

"So the plan is, they send some spies to watch for and follow the troops, and when they see what planet she lives on, they report back so we can begin to plan a full-scale invasion?" Francis summarized.

"That… would be the gist of it." Cheren figured, rubbing his head.

"Plain and simple, just what I like." Francis remarked wittingly.

"Heh heh heh. Anyway, I'll put in the word to Nebula, and then I'll come meet you guys at Goober's. Deal?"

"Awww, it's not fun if yer not gonna race." Panini moaned.

"Heheh! Save me a spot in the ice-cream-eating contest, Panini."

"Don't think Ay'll hold open for long." She smirked.

"Hahahah! And remember, once we defeat Viridi, the Nature Wars will be over and we can finally get back to fighting normal villains in peace! In a while, guys!" The kids eagerly hurried out of the voodoo shop, and Facilier grinned and chuckled at their youthfulness.

Unbeknownst to them, a monocle spied on them from behind the merchandise.

Viridi's Lair

Viridi's loyal butler, Arlon, sat patiently and sipped his tea as he watched this scene play out. "Hmmmmmmmm…" He now had something to report to Mistress Viridi.

And that concludes this first chapter. So yeah, this whole story is just like Final Preparations, whereas it doesn't have any new, random conflicts or situations, and the sole purpose is to advance the main storyline, in this case trying to kill Viridi. XP Also, that scene with Vweeb and Arianna was meant to be a one-shot, but that woulda been stupid, and it's better as a scene, but in the one-shot, Vweeb woulda LIKED doing that stuff with her, for the sake that she's sweet. XP So yeah, this is better. Anyhoo, next time, our mission to defeat Viridi continues. Later.