A/N- this is for yougotburned's contest, and i just wanted to write a small story. it's the first in a series of one-shots i have planned and we get to see Numbuh 725 outside of the dark atmosphere of "A Darker KND". Enjoy! Review!

[Broderick's POV]

I loved coming up to my cousin's house in upstate New York. There are a large amount of reasons for this. However, none were higher than her bull dog pup. The little guy was just slightly taller than my ankles; he had white fur with brown fur on his back, around his left eye, and on his ears, and was about 2 and half years old. His name was Rex, and for all the crud I put up with during my time in the Kids Next Door, seeing him always put a smile on my face. The connection always went out up here, so my communicator was not going to help me get in touch with any KND operatives; my parents knew this, and they never cared much for my 'club' as they called it. The house was on a road that led into the woods to the two story house. When we stopped in front of the house, I immediately jumped out of the car and ran to hug my twelve year old cousin. She was always fun. She didn't know about the Kids Next Door, but she was turning thirteen soon anyway. My 9 year old arms barely even wrapped around her torso. I really loved visiting Victoria. She brought me inside while her parents helped mine unpack.

"So," I began with child sense of whimsical Spielberg movies had showed me "Where's Rex?"

"He's wondering around in the woods like he always does on Saturdays." She replied as we entered the kitchen and she opened the cupboard

I blinked my disappointment away. "Oh…" I said in my melancholy voice.

She handed me a Super Double-Chocolate Chip-Sugar cookie and ruffled my hair. "Oh don't worry squirt, He'll be back soon. Come on; let's go play some Smash Bros. while we wait."

I couldn't help but smile brightly and follow her upstairs, but I couldn't help but wonder what Rex was up to.

[No POV]

A small bulldog pup walked slowly through the forest, navigating himself around the trees. He came across a log cabin and slowly pushed the door open with his nose. Inside was a man sitting on a rocking chair, with a large rug underneath it. The man wore a large cowboy hat that covered his eyes, was dressed in flannel and denim jeans, and was strumming a banjo. Rex let out a loud bark and the man didn't react. Rex faced outside the cabin and Barked as loud as he could. He was too far from Victoria's house to be heard by any of the family. The pup turned to face the man again and looked up towards the window that was open a crack. Bradley, Numbuh 6, slowly crept in through the window and made his way towards the rocking chair and climbed up to the man's face. He poked the man with his little paw, to no reaction. He turned away from the man and lifted his tail, firing his skunk spray into the man's face.

At the sound of crackling, Bradley quickly scampered back to Rex. Sparks flew out of the man's head and exploded to reveal loose wires hanging out of the robot's torso. The two animals looked at each other and shared a nod. They went to the rocking chair and used their combined strength to push it, and the robot body, out of the way. Rex grabbed onto the rug with his teeth and slid it away. It revealed a very large hole in the floor with a wire extending out of it. Bradley followed it and discovered it was connected to a control. He hit the big red button on it and the sound of rumbling began to arrive from underneath them, along with a slightly violent shaking. A large elevator, big enough for 5 people, rose out of the hole. Bradley looked at Rex and began to point around eagerly with his paws, making very fast paced squeaking sound in an attempt to explain the situation.

Rex barked at him, telling him to slow down with it.

The skunk began to squeak louder and had an angry tone now. HOW DARE REX EVEN THINK OF COMPARING HIM TO A SQUIRREL! A skunk was much more sophisticated than those idiots scurrying around in the trees like a child with a sugar rush. Bradley continued directing Rex, until Rex grew bored and started to chase his own tail.

Have you ever tried chasing your own tail? It's really fun and a great workout. Shut up...

The skunk put his paws at his sides and stared dog catcher nets into Rex. Rex stopped and looked at his superior. Bradley put his paw against his nose, mimicking the motion of disappointment he had seen many Kids next door operatives do. He used his other paw to point at the open door. Rex nodded and entered the elevator. The door closed as Bradley quickly gave Rex his instructions.

The elevator moved very quickly as it made its way underground. Rex looked up above the door and saw bright red numbed getting lower and lower. 43..42..41..40..39. the pup looked around the elevator only to find there was no way to pick a floor to go to. The flashing numbers were literally only there for show. The elevator came to an abrupt stop and the door opened with the terrible sound of metal against metal. Rex whimpered at the sound, but when spotting the 2 men in the white ice cream man suits, he regained his composure. The two turned around at the sound and aimed their ice cream shooting weapons at him.

Their weapons were quickly lowered as they saw the pup. "AWW! Look at the little puppy, Stan." One said to the man beside him.

"I see him, Bobby." The other man responded as he reached down and picked Rex up. He began to scratch the pup behind the ears and Rex lay in his arms and enjoyed it. "He is pretty cute."

As the grown men cooed over the pup, Rex looked around to find an opening. He spotted a loose pipe beside the staircase that led to the catwalk; a screw was missing from the bottom piece. "The Delightful Children will get a kick out of this little guy." Bob said. He began to walk towards the stairs and Rex leaned out as far as he could and wrapped his jaw around the pipe.

Bob found himself trying to pry the dog away. "Hey, get off that thing!" Stan ran over and pulled on the dog's legs alongside his partner. The bottom of the pipe came out with a loud popping sound, then a cracking sound. Sugary, cold, vanilla liquid shot out from the pipe and hit the men's feet. They slipped and fell, more of it oozing out and covering them. It hit them then and there.

"Being ice cream men is crud… " They said in unison. They stood up to go alert their bosses, only to find themselves falling and slipping all over their station. Why was no one but them guarding the secret elevator anyway?

Rex used the bolt of inertia he had received from them falling and letting him go to swing around and land paws up on one of the machines. He began to walk along the large machines he had found himself on. The pup took any chance he got to climb up further to make his way to the catwalk.

The Delightful Children From Down The Lane found themselves walking along the catwalk alongside an ice cream man with clipboard.

He spoke to them in a commanding voice to make sure the five of them paid attention. "As you know, we have been trying very hard these last few months to re-create the 4th flavor. We were able to get small bits of information from Numbuh 5, but the Kids Next Door got her away before we could find out exactly what was needed." He pointed down at large amounts of children and small animals strapped to chairs.

Metal spoons were brought down attached to machines, all holding a new bit of ice cream. First the spoons would feed the many squirrels, puppies, kitties, hamsters, and raccoons that were tied down; they squealed in delight. Then the other spoons would and feed the same ice cream to the children and the children's hair would fall out and they would start crying from the taste.

"As you can see, we have had not very good results…"

Their heads moved in unison towards the man and you could swear that you could hear the wood creaking as they did. "What are the animals for?" they questioned in unison.

"Well, when the 4th flavor was created, the Ancient Ice Cream Men had the idea of making it one with both humans and nature; so if we can get the children and animals to enjoy it, we will get close, or we might have it down perfectly." He continued in his same tone. They continued on and walked to the end of the catwalk. At the end was a computer attached to a large metal container that took up most of the west half of this underground factory. The ice cream man walked over to the computer and began to type something into it, checking to make sure the cooling system was working. Last thing he needed was someone turning on the heater. He turned back around to his employer's children and led them down a separate path towards where they store the ice cream.

Rex stumbled around in an air duct he had entered a few minutes ago. How did he get here again? His sense of direction was being thrown off worse than the time he went into that paper bag to take Victoria's peanut butter sandwich… the horror he saw there. He moved carefully, keeping his eye out for cameras and for his partner. Bradley was supposed to be moving through the vents for part 2 of the plan. He came to an opening and got as close as he could without falling. He looked down to see the storage area filled with many vats of ice cream; then he spotted them. It was the head ice cream man walking with the Delightful Children.

Rex jumped down and landed in front of them, growling.

"Isn't that cute." They said in unison. "Get rid of him."

The men picked up Rex by the collar and held him up to the children so they could inspect him. They spotted something on the inside of his collar where the man was lifting him.

"Numbuh 6.5?" they yelled and began to laugh. "The Kids Next Door sent a stupid puppy to stop us? HA! Throw it in the ice cream vats and dump it into the river, or feed it to the children, whichever you like."

The man walked away from them and moved to hold the pup over the railing. Rex used his hind legs to push back against the rails with all his strength. He needed to finish his part of the mission, and he wouldn't let a lonely ice cream man stop him.

In one mighty show of strength, Rex pushed back and made the man stumble backwards. The man let his grip go and stood against the rails to balance himself. Rex landed on his feet and turned to the ice cream man. He ran forward and jumped up, slamming his head against the man's stomach. Rex fell back onto the floor and shook the dizziness away. The ice cream man fell into the newest batch of artificial "4th Flavor" and could be heard screaming "Sweet Merciful Crud! It's horrible!"

Rex turned again to face the Delightful Children. They stared back at him with ten evil little eyes. "Well, Well, it seems we misjudged you." The long haired girl in the front pulled a laser and aimed it at the pup. "But you will fail like any other Human Kids Next Dumb Operative."

Rex ran at them and avoided the blasts from the laser. He jumped up and flew over them, grabbing the laser in his mouth. They were in shock for the moment as they turned around to face him. Rex put his head down and jolted it back up quickly, letting go of his grip, and sent the laser flying high into the air. The pup ran away back to the computer. The Children ran towards him.

Rex jumped up to the computer and began to quickly hit the keys on the keyboard with his paws. The 2 blond haired children grabbed him and made sure he couldn't get away.

"We are going to destroy you. You little-" They cut themselves off as they looked at what had been typed into the computer screen.

"IM THE DISCRACTION… I LIKE THIS GUY."

The Delightfuls blinked in confusion and spoke slowly and disjointedly, but still in unison. "Distraction from what…?"

Their question was answered by the sound of metal retracting and rubbing against metal. They looked down to see the children and animals jumping up out of the chairs and running to the nearest exit. As they all got away, explosions began to ring out from the ceiling and the ice cream men were following right alongside the children. In their confusion, the 2 blond children had begun to lose their grip. Rex reached up and bit the boy's arm. They cried out in unison and the dog dropped and landed on his side. His leg was hurt when he fell and he began to limp away from them.

They walked after him and the laser that was taken from them fell from the sky. It hit the floor and fired, hitting the rails, and destroying a piece of it, because the delightfuls barely avoided it. They continued towards the pup, but stopped as they heard the sound of another animal.

Bradley swung in from a metal cable and swung over them, letting out his terrible spray; he grabbed Rex and they swung away. They began to cough and their voices were inaudible. They backed right into the non-existent railing and fell into the large vat of strawberry ice cream. The alarms sounded and the ice cream began to get dumped into the sea as a back-up protocol.

Bradley got himself and Rex into the air ducts and quickly made their way onto the surface. As they escaped, the underground exploded and large amounts of ice cream sprayed from the log cabin that they had started in. The two found themselves covered in melted, chocolate ice cream.

They said their farewells and Bradley once again claimed that he was NOT as idiotic as a squirrel and proceeded to get all the children and animals back to where they belonged. Rex made his way home.

[Broderick's POV]

I was sitting on the back porch now, looking into the forest. I was waiting for Rex now; I really wanted to see him now. I heard the sound of a faint whimper and turned towards the big oak tree. I saw the little bull dog making his way towards the house. I jumped up and ran over to him, giving him the biggest hug I could.

"Rex! I've missed you an- ew you're all muddy… and sticky… and you were limping…" my small mind slowly put 2+2 together to equal fish. "You were on a mission weren't you?"

He gave a slight nod to go with his scared whimpering.

"Don't play that scared act with me. You were on a mission with Bradley again! Why didn't you take me? I would have loved it!" I said in most annoyed tone.

He just barked and licked me.

I smiled and brought him inside, where Victoria took him away.

"Rex, how does this keep happening? This is the 3rd time in 6 months you've done this… there's not even anything out there." She sighed and went upstairs to get him cleaned up and get his leg looked at. I saw him over her shoulder and he had this giant grin on his face. That dog had a better time today than I will have this weekend.

I should get a skunk, huh?