~Heeeeeere's Chapter two, folks! Actually, I had started writing it before I even posted chapter One, so that's how I was able to get it up the day after I put up the first one. But who cares about time, right? It's just getting started and stuff! So, Numbuh three will actually be making an appearance in this one, along with everyone's favorite tree house! Hooray!
Not as much Nigel as I wanted, but he's still the main character here. It'll come to the point where he's pretty much in every scene. Read, review, enjoy…Or if you hate it, tell me to. But be nice about it, ya don't wanna sound like a b-i-t-c-h.~
"It's depressing, Numbuh 362." He said, his back to the reinstated leader of the KND. His dark blue eyes stared down at the earth, towards the center of what he knew to be the United States. "We're relying on a teenager," the word said with a sneer on his lips. "To take down a force we can very well handle together."
Rachel was leaning back in her chair, going through several files placed in her lap. "If you've so soon forgotten, I myself am a teenager, Number 21, and if we're to get technical…so are you." But she didn't wait for him to retort, firing into Nigel's defense. "Number one was the best operative we had. Father hit us hard the first few months after he left. But somehow, we regained some of our strength, enough to keep him at bay. Now we have this new menace… and we just can't take it out without him."
Numbuh 21 growled and turned toward his leader, a mop of jet-black hair decorating his head and covering his right eye. "We can take them out without him. Instead, we're just wasting time!"
"Three weeks. They've promised three weeks of silence. One week has passed, and Nigel's almost Number one again. Why should we risk so many lives when we can send one person out there?" She placed the files back on top of her desk, Nigel's file sliding out from the stack. Numbuh 21's green eyes stared at the folder, plump with mission reviews and enemy documents. There was no doubt that Numbuh One was a legend in the KND, and even rumored to have become a legend beyond the KND, but the idea that the KND were too weak to take out an enemy without the help of teenagers was just plain sad.
He sighed, reaching for the folder, only to have his hand stopped by Numbuh 362's. She shook her head firmly, as in 'Don't bother', and she pulled it back to her, filing it away in a special desk. A moment passed in utter silence, until Numbuh 21 turned away again, looking back at the earth. "I think this should be the last time we allow a teenager to help us…which means we have to decommission everyone over the age of thirteen." He turned sadly to Supreme leader, who actually began nodding in agreement. "KND is meant for kids…As soon as we stop them, Numbuh one, 86, yourself and myself have to leave the job of protecting kids rights to the kids."
"I know. It's not easy leaving what you love to do behind. Numbuh one's going to need to be hit twice…"
"As will you, Sir." Numbuh 21 said softly. Rachel sighed, hanging her head.
"Yeah…I know."
Swinging his leg around, Nigel was able to knock the new comer of her feet, and pull a hand made weapon from his back pocket. He held it to her face, threatening to send a splintered piece of wood directly into said face. "Who are you and why are you here?"
Fanny smiled up at the former KND operative, holding up her hands in a cease-fire. "You mean to say you don't recognize me, Nigel?" She sneered, only to flinch as he forced the wooden weapon closer to her face. Recovering, she laughed nervously. "Still the same old serious Numbuh one."
His head began to ache again as that one painted number flashed in his mind. But he forced it off, glaring down into the light green eyes on the floor before him. "I repeat. Who. Are. You?"
"Get that 2 by 4 out of my face and maybe I'll tell you!" Her heavy Irish accent penetrated his thoughts, and set off a whole new round of images, this time of a young girl with bright red hair and a face covered by freckles. As he looked the intruder over, he immediately concluded this to be the same girl.
Tightening his grip on the 'gun' he grabbed hold of her collar, pulling her face closer to his. "Tell me who you are and I might consider taking it out of your face."
"Numbuh 86 of the Kids Next Door." She growled, bringing her leg up sharply to connect with Nigels gut. As he buckled over, she took charge and pulled out her own weapon of choice, made out of what looked like a mustard dispenser. Nigel glared and moved to bring his gun back at her, but she stepped on his arm, forcing it down. "Now listen good, Numbuh one. We Kids Next Door operatives don't like spendin' time beatin' each other up. We have bigger problems to worry about, and you're going to help us deal with them, got that?"
But he couldn't answer, his head imploding with torturous throbbing as soon as she said Numbuh 86,the torture only increasing when she said Kids Next Door. God, the pain was greater than ever before, forcing a strained scream from the floored teen. The Irish teen stood, her gun still poised as she watched Nigel writhe in pain beneath her. She was shaking slightly, not quiet sure what to do.
"Num-Numbuh one?" When he screamed at the name, she dropped the gun and began to back away. "Oh, crap." Her eyes searched the enclosed area for something that might help the poor boy. "Nigel…?"
Breathing deeply, he slowly got to his hands and knees, the throbbing slowly easing away. His murky blue eyes looked at Numbuh 86. "You gotta answer some questions…" He swallowed hard, his mouth completely dry. "Give me something to drink…Please."
Fanny glanced over at the mini-fridge beside the downed Britain, and quickly retrieved the only drink she could find. But what it was only made her smile as she pulled a bottle of Boylan Root Beer. Even as a teenager, it appeared Numbuh one still had a kid deep down that had nothing to do with the KND. She handed it to him, kind enough to open it first, and he chugged about half of it before gaining the strength to get to his feet. Once stable again, he moved to the wall of pictures and looked back at Fanny, an eyebrow raised.
"Can you explain this?" He took the picture of the Mustard gun and held up her weapon, eyes wide and confused, but still hopeful.
Surprised that he didn't actually attack her again, and seemed perfectly fine to have her in his own little lair, Fanny stepped forward. She looked curiously at the former operative.
"I'll kick your ass after you help me with this. I figured you could tell me what this meant, since you seem to know me from a time I can't remember." He said matter-of-factly, folding his arms across his chest and motioning her to continue forward.
"Uhm…well…" She cleared her throat and looked nervously at Nigel, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm not exactly allowed to tell ya…" When she saw the angered look cross the teenagers face, she spun around and began collecting certain drawings. "But!" with a handful of photos, she turned back to Nigel. "I can show you."
"You ca-ah!" His wrist secured by Fanny's strong grip, she pulled the sixteen year old away from the wall and out of the supply closet. Turning the corner and sprinting down the road that led out of the school grounds, the teenager struggled to keep up with the other teen. "Fanny, can you please tell me where we- what is that?" Nigel skidded to a halt as a massive garbage truck loomed before him, rocket engines attached to either side, the garbage collector opened to reveal a group of well-armed elementary kids.
Nigel suddenly forgot how to talk as he stood there with his mouth agape, trying to form some words. But all that actually came out were numerous noises of surprise and confusion.
"Move your fat tail bone, Numbuh one." Fanny scowled, only to have the group of elementary kids look at each other in awe and begin whispering. "Do you want me to explain all of this," She pointed to the ketchup gun in one kids hand, and pulled out the pair of shimmering sunglasses with the other, "to ya? Or would you rather endure those head pains?"
Immediately, Nigel moved forward without another word or a second thought. At last, he was getting somewhere with his forgotten past, moving toward the goal of uncovering everything he wanted to. Beyond the thresh hold, the garbage collector slammed shut behind him, causing him to cringe at the eerie noise of old metal. Laughter sounded from the young children around him, and he growled before straightening himself, smoothing his ruffled black shirt.
"Numbuh 2435, get us to sector V." Fanny ordered, taking a seat near the back of the ship. A small brown haired girl nodded and jumped into her own seat located directly in the middle, spinning towards her teammates. "You might want to have a seat, Numbuh One."
"Alright Numbuh 12987, make a course for Sector V, and punch it! We gotta get back to school before lunch is finished."
Crossing his arms once more, Nigel smirked to himself. "I thought you kids were a little young to be skipping scho-ho-ah!" The garbage truck lurched forward, the rockets kicking on and sending the entire hunk of metal into the air. Nigel was flung back against the solid metal doors, again, causing more laughter to come from the younger children. Even Fanny was laughing, and Nigel groaned, glaring her way.
"Told you to have a seat…"
With Nigel suddenly gone from school, Hoagie stalked through the halls of school, muttering about the stupid British accent and the constant disappearances and how no one ever seemed to notice. Honestly, how does he do it? Hoagie scoffed as he made his way down the stairs toward his next our. He was beginning to think he was Number one in spy crap or something.
Hoagie suddenly stopped. Number one…Spy crap…why does this all ring a bell? Thinking for a moment, he simply shrugged and continued through the halls. Whatever.
"Excuse me."
He slowly turned around to find a beautiful dark skinned women standing before him, her hair falling neatly over her shoulder while she gently pet it, something bothering her. Gather his little courage, he managed to squeak in response "Yes?"
"I noticed you come out of the same class room as a friend of mine, but I couldn't find him. Do you know where a Nigel Uno might be?"
"Nigel?" Hoagie broke through his short daze and looked at the teenager before him. "You want to know where Nigel is?" When she nodded, he tried not to look into the marvelous brown eyes. "Well…when you find him, tell me, too. I'd love to know where he runs off to."
"Abby knows where he runs off to! But when he ran off to that place, he didn't come back!" She said, walking alongside Hoagie, earning a few curious looks as a nerd was accompanied by such a splendor. The seventeen-year-old boy looked nervously at Abigail.
"What do you mean he didn't come back? He's always back for sixth period…" In fact, he couldn't recall Nigel ever being absent for trigonometry. "I have him in my next class, and then the one after that. If he doesn't show up, I'll tell you, okay, uh…"
"Abby."
"Abby." Man, the name practically sent shivers down his spine. "You said you know where he goes?" She nodded, but didn't actually tell him. "Can you tell me?"
"Why should Abby tell you?"
"Because he's my friend." Hoagie crossed his arms, huffing angrily. Damn girls, always thinking they were so much smarter than boys.
"Listen, man. You tell me if you've seen him, and if you haven't I'll show you where I last saw him."
Hoagie paused, considering the deal. "What's the big deal about Nigel anyway?"
"I'm new here, but I know I've seen that boy some where else… It's killin' Abby!"
He frowned, and finally agreed. "Alright. Meet me…in the schools parking lot right after school, and if Nigel's around, I'll bring him with me. If he's not, you take me to his hideaway. Deal?" He held out a pale hand.
Abigail looked at it, and her eyebrow furrowed as if she was seeing the same thing again, like déjà vu. Slowly, she shook his hand, and nodded. "Deal."
When she turned to leave, Hoagie watched her go, his entire body feeling light and fluffy. It was anomalous, but it felt amazing, and he stood there, in a complete daze while he watched her hips swing so perfectly. Oh, what wonderful torture. Then he looked at his hand, and stifled a giggle as he realized she had touched him.
But he remembered his mission, and sighed as he turned to make his way towards his next class. Tommy says Nigel needs a girlfriend…well it seems he's about to get one. Anger swelled in the pit of Hoagies stomach as he resumed his stalking. Damn Nigel and his good looks. No! Hoagie thought as he entered the classroom. It's not his looks…it's his bloody accent! Hoagie laughed as he made his own joke inside his own head…with no one to appreciate it. Damn.
"Wally!" She sang, with emphasis on the 'a' as she hung upside down on the tree limb. The short Australian sat below her, her long black hair nearly touching his nose as he smiled up at his girlfriend. "You think any one's gonna notice us missing?"
He snorted. "Ha, no one did last week, right?" Reaching up to gently pet the silky hair of his beloved Kuki, girlfriend for almost two years, Wallabee sighed happily, glad to relax a little. Seriously, all this school and bully stuff really put stress on the small boy. But Kuki Sanban knew exactly how to help relieve him of the strain, and just knew how to have mindless fun. So, they skipped out on school that afternoon, and now they were hanging from the tree in front of an old abandoned house.
The true beauty, however, loomed far over the puny tree in which Kuki hung from, and it drew the two like flies to a picnic table. It was an enormous tree house, quiet literally sprouting from the roof of the abandoned house. Wally and Kuki took time at least once a day to come by and just relax around the place, but haven't actually been inside, knowing the place was just about as deserted as the house. And the entire place was locked shut, and the decks on the tree house were too high off the ground to –safely- climb to. They did promise to climb into the tree house one day, though.
"So I tried talkin to that Nigel fella today…" Wally started, moving to sit against the tree trunk, while Kuki dropped to his side, laying her head in his lap.
"Really?" she chirped, Wally absentmindedly petting her hair. "Did you tell him 'bout the note we found for him?"
Wally shook his head, pulling the old and crumpled piece of notebook paper from the pocket of his orange jacket. "Nah. He's all into that Lincoln girl. I don't think he's gonna care about some other girl out to get him because they didn't work out. The thing looks like it's been around for ages anyway!"
"But I wanna know if he used to live here!" She whined, her Asian accent slipping in and out when she talked. After growing up in America, her accent began to drift off with the time. "I wanna go in the tree- what the hell is that?"
Looking up just in time, Wally watched some sort of truck come flying through the air and into the tree house way above them. Kuki had gotten to her feet and raced out ward to see where the flying machine had landed. With a smile, she skipped back to her boyfriend, grabbing hold of his hand and pulling him to his feet.
"It's in the tree! It's in the tree! Come on!" She squealed, hurrying back up the tree, still holding onto Wally's hand. Pulling him along with her, Wally scrambled to get his own footing, nearly falling out of the tree when she let go of his hand to grab the next branch. He clung to the lower branch, forcing himself up with his upper body, his little legs flailing in the air.
"Kuki! Hold up!"
Already half way up the tree, Kuki poked her head through the leaves, the roof of the house just below her. Wally was still making his way up the tree, his shorter and stouter body putting the Australian at a disadvantage. She looked back at him, and frowned, telling him to 'hurry up' before she leapt from her branch and onto the red tiled roof. Twirling around to watch as Wally struggled to the final branch, Kuki giggled as he practically fell from the tree, landing face first on the roof.
"Pipe down." He huffed, getting to his feet and brushing twigs and leaves from his clothes and hair. "Now where?"
"The stairs of course!" Kuki pointed her slim finger towards the old wooden staircases just ahead. But there were already numerous stairs missing from the first few, making the entire thing a safety hazard. Looking up at it now, Wally remembered why they had never used these stairs. As Kuki danced forward, her boyfriend hung back, staring up at the tree, then at the staircase, then back at the tree.
"Uh-huh-huh…Maybe we should wait till we talk to Nigel…"
But Kuki had other plans, grabbing hold of Wally's wrist and pulling him along with her.
As Kuki and Wally made their way up the rundown set of stairs, Fanny ordered the landing of the flying Garbage Truck.
"We've landed in the Sector V hanger, Numbuh 86, just like you said!" Numbuh 2435 said, saluting her superior. "Our readings say all is clear, sir." Nigel looked down at the young girl, his head threatening to start the pain again with the mention of sector V.
Noticing Nigel cringe, Fanny simply nodded to the group of children. "Very well. Return to your school immediately." She gently placed a hand on Nigel's shoulder. "I think Nuh- uhm. Nigel and I can handle it from here."
"Yes, sir ma'am sir!" Chorused the group, all looking up at Nigel with wide eyes and awe. They all looked like they were staring at a child hood hero, and somewhere deep down, Nigel was honored to see that look. But he didn't exactly know why he deserved such a look of reverence. "Good luck, Numbuh One!" They said, waving and smiling and giggling. "Great to see ya, Numbuh one!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Fanny growled, putting her helmet, which was really just an awesomely decorated spaghetti strainer, onto her head. "Numbuh One and I got some catchin' up to do." She grabbed on to Nigels wrist again, pulling him to the back of the ship while Numbuh 2435 ordered for the opening. "You ready?" Asked the red head, holding out the pair of sunglasses.
With a smirk, Nigel took the glasses into his hands, not quiet ready to put them on yet. "I've been ready for two years."
~Not as long as the last chapter, but hopefully just as good if not better. Or maybe it's worse. If you think so, please tell me! I wanna write books for a living sooner or later, and what better way to sharpen your skills then through writing about your favorite people and childhood heros right? Right. Review please, and chapter three coming to ya soon!~
