It was a bright summer afternoon and the sun was shining in the cloudless blue sky above a neighborhood, the air was filled with the sounds of children playing and enjoying themselves in the perfect weather that all children enjoyed. Meanwhile infront of the house that stood out from all the others, well, save for one other. Occupied by an enourmous treehouse that towered out of the red shingled roof, its rich green leaves seeming to touch the sky itself. A rather unique game was unfolding in the yard below.
Numbuh 4, the blonde haired australian operative of Kids Next Door Sector V sprinted across the flat streach of road, his sneakers relentlessly smacking against the scorching black concrete, tipping dangerously to the side occasionally as he carried a rather cartoonishy looking butterfly net in his tightly closed fists, sweat pouring down the nape of his neck and soaking into the collar of his bright orange hoodie, but the child didn't care, hoisting the net higher behind himself, its rope netting toting an unusual object.
A hefty cinder block rested inside, threatening to snap the thick blue metal rod of the butterfly net at any given moment. Numbuh 4 let out a loud laugh as he darted into the front yard, a towering pile of garbage sat before him and Numbuh 1, the teams sector leader, was standing expectantly atop it. The sunglasses resting on the bridge of his nose gleaming in the sunlight at the bald brit grinned down at the approaching operative. "Come on Numbuh 4, hurry up! Or you have to get a cinder-ball penalty for taking more than two minutes for retrival!"Numbuh 1 chided, a cider-ball launcher in his arms, using most of his strength to hold up the largely proportioned 2x4 tech.
"Oim coming Numbuh 1!"Numbuh 4 cried, letting down the heavy metal net and letting out a grunt as he lifted the cinder block out, scampering up the trash pile, nearly slipping a couple times on some of the slimier sections and loaded the gritty block into the front of the launcher and slid down back down the garbage mountain on a empty pizza box, reusing the discarded food carrier as a make-shift surfboard and eagerly scooped up his net once he reached it, dashing back into the street to retrieve the black once fired off again, such was the way of cinder-ball.
Numbuh 1 picked up on the sound of clanky flapping overhead, like shower curtains being swung around, accompained by a rush of cooling air to the top of his bald head, and looked up above him, seeing an eager Numbuh 3 flying above, her bright pink butterfly shower curtain wings strapped to her back, and an extremely large frying pan in her hands, its polished surface sending off nearly blinding sunbeams that even hurt a little to look despite the protection his thick black sunglasses provided.
The bald brit grinned eagerly, squinting his coal black eyes slightly, pulling back on the trigger at the back of the launcher. "All yours Numbuh 3!Hit it as hard as you can!"The sector leader encouraged, and let go of the trigger, their was a large 'whump' sound that was followed by a slight hiss of the launcher recovering from the intense weight as the cinder block sailed into the air, fueled by enourmous pressure provided by the 2x4 tech. Numbuh 3 let out a light gasp, circling in the air once and tensed her already tight grip on the warm slick surface of the pan handle, her toungue sticking out of the edge of her lips as she concentrated on the grey blur flying ever closer to her. Wait for it, wait for it...
The asian operative swung the pan backwards and fiercely whacked the cinder block, feeling the shockwaves course through her green sweater covered arms and into her skull, making her teeth chatter and her ears ring as metal met concrete, barely registering to full extent of the swing. Light gasps of astonishment were what met her ears next as he teamates watched the cinder-ball sail clear down the street at near impossible speeds. Numbuh 2 pulled down his blindfold that was wrapped around his head to see what everyone was so amazed at, his own eyes widened behind his yellow tinted goggles. "Wow! Great hit Numbuh 3!"The pilot cried out to his teamate above, who promptly flashed a wide smile followed by a bubbly giggle. "Thanks Numbuh 2!"Numbuh 3 chirped back, turning her gaze away from the block still making its way across the sky.
Though astonishment soon fell away to mild fear as one of the members of the team snapped out of stupor to notice just where the cinder blocks flight path would end up being. Numbuh 5's eyes widned from under the brim of her red cap. "Uh guys, the umm cinder block isn't headin' where Numbuh 5 thinks it is, is it?"The african american girl spoke aloud, her voice filled with concern, as well as urgency for her teammates to confirm her dread. Numbuh 1 looked over at her, a small frown tugging at his lips, then his head turned back around the take better notice of what his teamate had just pointed out. "What do you mean Numbuh 5? Why it's going to land..."Numbuh 1 began to causually respond before letting out a terrified gasp.
"..In the Delightful Children's front yard!"The bald britt nearly shrieked, causing instant widespread panic among his team as all 5 children immediately dropped their 2x4 tech, creating several deep cracks in the sidewalk and edge of the street due to their weight, and began making a mad dash down the lane, letting out frantic cries and shouts the whole while, as if they expected that to make the problem resolve on its own. But their efforts to catch it in time failed as the block ran out of speed just as it sailed over the terribly familiar orange brick fence surrounding the dreaded dwelling, nearly knocking a brick out of place as it made its ufo like landing in the well manicured lawn, churning up grass and dirt in its crash landing, burying itself halfway in the earth just a few feet away from the front door of the grand mansion.
The 5 children skidded to a stop before the wraught iron gates that closed the brick fence, each one of them feeling their throats dry out even more than they were before, gulping down hard knots that formed in their throats. Glancing over at eachother. "Man, what is it with us and always loosing the cruddy cinder block?"Numbuh 4 whined, gripping onto the smooth bars of the fence, letting out a light hiss of discomfort as the metal nearly burnt his skin with the heat it was carrying in this weather. All eyes wandered over to Numbuh 5, who had retrived the block the last time it ended up in an unsavory location.
The brown skinned operative blinked, then quickly realized what her friends were suggesting and her hands flew up infront of herself in a defensive manner, much to her teammates chagrin. "Oh no, no no no, Numbuh 5 is definitely NOT going after the cinder block again, especially not what happened last time!"Numbuh 5 spoke firmly, stamping one foot against the sidewalk to ensure her mind was made up on this matter. Numbuh 3 pouted, going over to her and clutching onto Numbuh 5's arm, slumping down as she latched on for an even higher effect of desperation. "But Numbuh Fivvveeee, we wanna keep playing cinder-ballll!"Kuki whined, her lip plumping as she put on the best pout she could muster. Numbuh 5 only shook her head, frowning down at the downtrodden girl. "I'm sorry Numbuh 3, but Numbuh 5's mind is made up, somebody else is gonna have to go and get it this time"Numbuh 5 spoke firmly with a slight head shake, her long black braid swishing back and forth as she did so.
A few seconds passed and as if all at once, all heads turned to look at Numbuh 1 with expectant expressions plastered on their young faces. The sector leader blinked a few times from behind his sunglasses, and quickly pieced together what the looks were leading too. "Oh no way! I'm not going in there! What if the Delightful Dorks see me!"The bald britt hastily stammered, raising his hands out infront of himself defensively and taking a few steps back. "Please Numbuh one? Pleaseeee?"Numbuh 3 began to beg, scooting away from Numbuh 5 and over to her reluctant leader, clasping her green sleeve covered hands together as she flashed him the biggest puppy dog eyes she could achieve.
The operative frowned slightly, feeling his determination begin to crack under the black haired girls gaze, he could swear he saw pools of quivering light in her pupils that only further dimished his steadfast attitude. Finally the operative groaned, hanging his head. "Finee.."He groaned, his arms hanging limply at his sides.
"Yay!"His teamates cheered, and began ushering him over to the gate, flashing him encouraging smiles as he began to push at the gate, which relented at his efforts and creaked open slightly and the sector leader was able to slip through the opening. At a blessed gust of window however, they immediately swung shut with a definite bang, causing him to nearly leap out of his skin and choke down a startled cry, definitely not wanting to alert anyone inside that he was out here. Taking a few gulps of warm air, the operative began marching forward with his head held high, trying to focus entirely at the task at hand, get the cinder block and then make a mad dash for the gate, it seemed like a simple enough objective but it did little to quell his rapidly beating heart, feeling as if the organ would smash his ribcage to bits.
He could hear his shoes crunching against the gravel drive that lead up to mansion, each step feeling even louder to the incredibly nervous operative, wiping at the side of his slightly sweaty neck with his red shirt sleeve as he continued his trek, his eyes wandering up to look at the mansion looming before him, gulping down the spit that was left in his dry mouth in anxiety, this was the home of two of ther Kids Next Door's greatest enemys and the main threats to the orgnization as a whole, well six, if you counted the Delightful Children from down the Lane induvidually, regardless, no kid in their right mind wouldn't be a little wary even merely being on the mansion grounds.
After what seemed like a decade the operative finally reached the cinder block, frowning in displeasure as he realized it would involve some digging to free it from the soft soil it was halfway imbedded in, the sector leader circled around the side of the construction related impliment and bent down, scraping at the dirt and frowning slightly as the dark dirt began to get under his nails, not that he really cared much, being a field operative and all you tended to get dirty, though this was nothing compared to what he usually went through, that aside he continued to dig, so egrossed in his task that his ears failed to detect the soft shuffle of feet against the soft grass aproaching his current location, his eyes fixated on the cinder block that he had nearly un-earthed on one side when the block suddenly shifted as if weight had been placed upon the portion that was jutting out of the dirt, glancing to the side he saw a pair of light brown shoes place themselves infront of the cinder block, causing the operatives throat to dry out significantly and chill to race down his spine as he slowly let his gaze travel upwards, already having a pretty good idea of who it was.
A pair of glassy pale blue eyes stared back at him, belonging to a blue suit clad child with a bowl cut of neatly combed blonde hair, 4 other children stood behind him, all sporting similiarly fancy apperances, and sharing the same glassy pale blue eyes, grasping icecream cones filled with simple vanilla icecream, the top of the chilly desserts topped with rainbow colored jimmies, the icecreams creamy white color rivaling their own pale skin colors. Though their focus was solely fixated on the sector leader intruding on their property, yet their current facial expressions aided him very little in figuring out their current mood, the same relitively emotionless expressions plastered on all five of their faces.
"Hello Nigel"The Delightful Children from down the Lane chorused together in eeriely calm monotone, blinking their eyes once in synch then briefly turned their attention back to their already melting icecream cones, sticking their toungues out and lightly drawing them across the rainbow colored surfaces, scooping up the icecream and toppings alike before swallowing with the slightest satisfied smiles, all they would allow to currently alter their features before they turned their combined attention back to the now very nervous operative, who was still on his knees in the dirt. "Uh h-hi, Delightful Children, ahaha, didn't see you c-come out here"Numbuh 1 stuttered nervously, feeling extremely vulernable right now, as he was without any 2x4 weapons of any kind, and that was never a wise thing around these five children. The Delightfuls tended to be very unpredictable,and cunning and trickery was something they also excelled at if they ever managed to catch an operative out of sorts.
"Well, you should learn to pay better attention to your surroundings Nigel, wouldn't want an evil adult villian to sneak up on you, would you?"They chided in unwaveringly eerie monotone, small smirks beginning to transform their previously emotionless features, making the operative increasingly think that an evil adult menace would be the least of his worries right now. The Delightfuls were children like him, but they were evil, and dealing with them often proved to be worse than many of the adult villians he and his team fought on a daily basis.
"Uhh, y-yeah, I'll work on that"The sector leader stammered hastily, flashing a weak grin, starting to scoot back a little but found it was very difficult to move, his legs simply didn't want to cooperate with the warning bells that were ringing non-stop in his subconcious. The Delightful Children were still staring at him with their almost unblinking eyes fixated on his own coal colored ones, he could practically feel their gazes piercing into his mind and probing around inside his subconcious, the unsettling smirks remaning on their faces.
"Oh see too it that you do, though now we must approach a pressing predicament in this situation, which we feel nessecary to put into the form of a question..why exactly are you in our yard Nigel?"The goody goody 5 inquired, blinking together as they looked down, feeling the stickiness of icecream dribbling down their fingers, their delicious treats suffering in the summer heat, with a chorus of mildly annoyed sighs then bent their heads down slightly, tapping their toungues against the droplets to collect them on their toungues, then licked the melting icecream again to stop more of it from running down the sides of the sugar cones. Looking back up at the sector leader expectantly, awaiting his reply, their eyebrows raising slightly above their 10 eyes.
Numbuh 1 squirmed slightly under their gazes and cleared his throat, his eyes darting down to gaze at the cinder block Bruce was currently sitting on. "Well, I kind of came in to get that cinder block..."The operative responded, trailing off slightly as he looked back up at them. The Delightfuls blinked a few times, looking down at the grey concrete block, then back at the operative, allowing their confusion to show through in their current shared facial expressions, their eyebrows raising higher. "Why?"They chimed, Bruce had only sat on it in the first place as they assumed it was something the operative needed and sitting on it was merely meant to frustrate him, which is something they took twisted joy in seeing, twisted in ordinary children's viewpoints of course, perfectly amusing in their own.
Numbuh 1 frowned at the question, though it wasn't an obvious question, cinder-ball was a game Sector V's own creation, so it only made sense that the Delightful Children didn't know about it. "I erm, need it for cinder-ball"The sector leader responded, casting the grey block a longing glace, really wishing that he could've dug it up quicker before the 5 children had came outside.
The Delightfuls squinted slightly, his answer elicting soft hums in their throats as the metaphorical cogs of their hive mind spun in synch as they thought together, absently taking another lick of their dripping icecream before turning their attention back to him. "Are you reffering to that absolutely ridiculous game you and your teamates play with those oddly oversized objects and ludicrous rules?"They chorused. Numbuh 1 raised his eyebrows. Okay scratch that theory, so maybe the Delightful Children HAD been paying some attention to their game. "How do you know about it?"He questioned nonetheless, his senses on high alert throughout this entire conversation, expecting the goody goody 5 to attack at any moment. But the exchange surprisingly enough, had given away to a relaxed lull of conversation that honestly confused him, but he didn't want to jinx himself and decided to silently mull over it in his own thoughts instead of questioning it to them.
The Delightfuls gave a brief eye roll, in unison as always. "We often watch from the mansion balcony, it's honestly hard not to watch, what with you five hooting and laughing like banshees"They sighed, starting to absentmindedly nibble at the rims of their slightly soggy sugar cones as they looked at him.
The operative chanced a brief backwards glance to see if his teamates were still at the gate, and were clutching at the black bars of the fence, watching with widened eyes and flabbergasted stares, seeming as if they were ready to jump into battle within a moments notice, he turned back at the soft sounds of crunching and a few sticky droplets pinging against his bald head, wiping his fingers across his skull and wiped the icecream droplets off on his red turtleneck with a midly annoyed expression at his enemies, who were currently eating their emptied sugar cones and briefly diverted their attention away from him in order to do so.
Numbuh 1 took this as a chance to try to get the cinder block and gingerly extended his fingers to try to scrape away at the dirt again, but just as his fingers grazed the soil the Delightfuls swallowed the last bite of their cones and turned their full attention back to him. Causing the operative to let out a startled yelp and stumble back in the grass, and giving them a nervous look. The 5 children simply smirked, not appearing to be angry with him, but did take pride in having the ability to startle him. "So were assuming you would like this cinder block back Nigel?"They questioned with their unwavering smirks.
"Well yeah, that's sorta why I came in here.."Numbuh 1 trailed off, rubbing at the back of his neck slightly as he looked up at them, really hoping they wouldn't use this fact to a devious advantage. The 5 children hummed, their smirks starting to grow mischevious, something that really made the operatives insides squirm. "Well then, we suppose we should return it to you.."They spoke in eeriely calm monotone, but with an underlying emotion to their voices that was only there when they had something up their sleeves.
Numbuh 1 slowly got to his feet, a hopeful little smile appearing on his face. "R-Really?"He spoke, mentally yelling at himself for stuttering, but he couldn't help but to be nervous. The Delightfuls tended to be unpredictable and calculating, even when they weren't going to attack you. "Why certainly Nigel, who are we to intterupt your delightful little game?"They chuckled softly at the little word that was also a part of their combined name, causing Numbuh 1 to let out a little nervous chuckle of his own and instantly stop once they did. "However, you just have to do us one tiny favor"They added, a small glint flickering in their pale blue irises as they continued to smirk at him as Bruce rose up from the cinder block which he had been using as a chair this entire time.
"And that would be what exactly?"The sector leader replied with a voice filled with dread, almost afraid to ask. The Delightfuls continued to smirk, leaning forward slightly, causing the bald britt to flinch. "Oh its just a simple little thing really, in fact, all you have to do is say please"They chorused calmly, their smirks growing wider, as this was a difficult feat for any kids next door operative, or any child in general, save for themselves.
Numbuh 1 blinked a few times, relieved and annoyed at the same time. There was no way he was going to say please to them! No way! His ears suddenly caught on a light rattling sound on the mansions gates and he looked backwards, seeing his teamates giving his pleading look. He shook his head, determinded to remain steadfast. Numbuh 3's lip quivered, and the asian girl flashed him the biggest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen, causing the britt to bite his lower lip, then let out a heavy sigh, turning to look back at the Delightful Children, who were looking at him expectantly. "Well?"They droned, patiently waiting for him to either comply with their request or merely to walk away in refusual. The operative sucked in a long breath of air, his hands balling into fists as his sides, swallowing his pride for what he would have to say next. "P-Please?"He blurted out in a shaky voice, gasping a few times, feeling slightly sickened with himself.
The Delightfuls grinned victoriously. "See? Now was that so hard Nigel?"They chimed, reaching forward and giving the operatives shoulder an almost playful poke. "Yeah, Yeah..Can I have the cinder block now?"The sector leader grumbled, feeling as if he would have to scrub his toungue with toothpaste later. Rubbing at his shoulder slightly where they had poked him.
"But of course"The DC responded, bending down and easily pulled the block free of its dirt imprisonment and held it out to him, a bit of loose soil falling of of it as they held it out to him and the operative snatched it away, yelping slightly at its sudden weight and nearly falling down. "Careful~"The Delightfuls chuckled, narrowing their eyes slightly as the operative staggered away as they watched. "Whatever!"The sector leader shouted, walking away as he continued to walk away, not noticing a dip in the driveway, his shoe snagging on it and sending him stumbling across the rough gravel, yelping as he scractched up his arms and legs in the fall, gasping as the cinder block was thrown into the air and gravity ran its course, sending it plummeting back to the earth, its collision course heading straight for him. The operative gasped, bracing for impact as he eyes snapped shut. But instead of feeling the painful blow he only felt a light plume of dust hit his face, coughing a few times he dared to open his eyes, and did a double take at what he saw.
The Delightful Children from down the Lane were standing over him, tightly gripping the cinder-block in the hands as they had ran over at the last second and caught it before it could deal the blow that would of undoubtedly crushed his ribcage. The 5 children were panting lightly, mainly from the fright and the adrenaline that was currently running through them. "We t-told y-you to be careful N-Nigel"They panted together, lowering the cinder block to the grass alongside the driveway. The sector leader allowed a weak and confused, but certainly grateful smile to make it's way onto his face as he lay on his back in the gravel. "I-I'll certainly keep that in mind from now"He responded weakly, the grateful smile still on his pale features.
End Transmission