"Rainbow Monkeys, Rainbow Monkeys, Oh so very round and super chunky, Bringing love wherever they go, Everyone's made of a big rainbow!"

Colorful, cartoony, plush monkeys were holding hands and singing the song together on a TV screen.

In front of the TV were two young, Asian girls nodding their heads to the rhythm of the jingle.

The smaller one had pale skin, short, black pigtails, a long purple sweatshirt and black pants. The bigger one had slightly darker but still fair skin, an oversized green sweater whose sleeves were way too long, black pants, and black and white shoes. The one in green was hugging a purple plush toy that looked exactly like the ones that were on screen.

"Do you know what really bothers me about the rainbow monkeys TV show, Mushi?" The older one in green asked. She spoke in a slight Japanese accent.

"I dunno, what Kuki?" The younger one asked in high-pitched voice

"The fact that it's not on every hour of every day on every channel!" Kuki exclaimed

"You can say that again!" Mushi said

"The fact that it's not on every hour of every day on every channel!" Kuki repeated

"That sounded even more right the second time!" Mushi yelled

They both hugged and then watched the screen again.

"Oh, red and orange, and pink and blue, Rainbow Monkeys, Rainbow Monkeys We love YOU!"

Kuki stood to her feet and held out her hands

"I love you too rainbow monkeys!"

Mushi looked up at Kuki's plush toy and pulled a cunning smile on her face. Mushi jumped up and grabbed Kuki's doll.

"Hey! You can't touch Mr. Huggicans! He's mine!" Kuki yelled

"Not anymore!" Mushi yelled and ran out of the room. Kuki chased her with her arms out and with great speed

"Give him BACK!" Kuki screamed

"Sorry, can't hear you! Hahaha" Mushi zigzagged in and out of the rooms until she finally got to Kuki's room. She turned around and slammed the door.

"HEY! No fair! Open up, Mushi!" Kuki yelled while slamming her fists against the door

"Finders Keepers, Kuki!" Mushi yelled from inside the room, "Now I get all of these toys to myself!"

Kuki pulled on her door handle with all of her might

"MUSHI!"

-x—

"I…think this is the place." Hoagie said. He, Abby and Nigel were standing a few yards in front of Kuki's house.

"Should we double check?" Nigel asked

Suddenly, they heard all of the knocking, crashing, and screaming that was coming from inside the house. Hoagie squinted

"Correction. I know this is the place. Come on."

-x-

All Kuki could hear was Mushi's giggling from inside her room

"I am THIS close to becoming an only child, Mushi! For the last time! Open this door, and give me back my RAINBOW MONKEY!"

She growled the last two words and fastened her feet on the door to pull as hard as she could.

"OPEN THE DOOR, MUSHI!" Kuki screamed

"Meh. Okay!" Mushi said. She quickly unlocked the door and delightfully watched Kuki fly backwards down the stairs. Kuki found herself lying on her back with her feet straight in the air.

"Oops! Sorry, sis!" Mushi closed her eyes, smiled and locked the door again.

"MUSHI! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR…"

The bell rang

"ooo, a visitor!" Kuki exclaimed. She sat up and opened the door. Nigel was in the middle, Hoagie was to his left and Abby was to the right.

"Wrong address!"

Kuki slammed the door in their faces.

"What the?!" Nigel exclaimed

Hoagie immediately knocked again.

"She does that. A lot." He said

Kuki opened the door again

"Still the wrong address!"

Hoagie grabbed the door before she could close it.

"Just wait, will ya? This is the right address!"

"But we're not allowed to open the door for strangers."

"I'm not a stranger! We've met before! And we've been through this exact same thing, before!" Hoagie yelled

"Ohhh, I remember you now! You're that crazy inventor kid who tells all those bad jokes!" Kuki said while twirling her finger around her ear

Abby and Nigel couldn't resist giggling.

"Quite the charmer, aren't you, Kuki…" Hoagie said while crossing his arms

"Hey, its not my fault I couldn't recognize you. When did you start wearing goggles, anyway?" She asked

"Ahem! Onto the point, please!" Hoagie said while motioning for Abby and Nigel to introduce themselves.

"Evening, Miss Sanban. My name is Nigel Uno, and we've heard a lot about you." Nigel said while firmly shaking her hand.

"Abby. Aka Numbuh 5." Abby said and shook her hand as well

"Numbuh 5…you mean?"

"Yes, Kuki." Nigel said, "We are members of the Kids Next Door. Abby is an official operative."

"Ohh, fancyy…"Kuki said "Is that why there's a spaceship that says 'KND' behind you guys?"

"Yes…that's what we came in." Nigel said "And we're here because Hoagie informed us that you were in possession of a mega sized battery that we will promptly need to power our spacecraft." Nigel continued

"It's a long story." Abby said, "But we need it to rescue my sister from the Teen Ninjas. You see, three years ago she went missing right after the Ninjas attacked us. And since then, I've been trying to find out the truth about what really happened to her. It wasn't until a couple of days ago when she sent out an encrypted S.O.S. to me the other day, and your battery is the last thing that I need to…"

Kuki put up one finger, which was being covered by her overgrown sleeve.

"Yeaahh, one second, 'kay guys?"

Kuki rushed back inside her house. Abby was taken aback.

"Huh. I wonder what could have been so important to make her leave in the middle of an emotionally charged speech like that…" Nigel wondered out loud.

After a full minute, Kuki returned with a tub of popcorn

"I'm back!"

"Popcorn? You stopped all that for POPCORN!" Abby yelled while putting her hands on her hips

"What? It's really tasty. You should try some!"

Nigel began sniffing, and then proceeded to a cough

"Agh! What is that awful smell?!" Nigel complained

"That's melted cheese, duh! You sure you don't want some?! It's on the house."

"P.U. Leave it to the Americans to put cheese on their popcorn." Nigel said while holding his nose and waving the smell away.

"I'm Japanese…" Kuki said

"Uh guys. I think we're getting a bit sidetracked here." Hoagie said.

"Oh that's right." Abby said, "So what do you say? Can we use the battery?"

"Okay, would you mind repeating all of that? Because I wasn't really listening the first time."

Nigel smacked his head. Hoagie became fed up, and marched into her house

"We're taking the battery. Where's the garage?"

"This way!" Kuki said with a smile and pointed. Hoagie helped himself down the hall and Kuki followed. Nigel and Abby both shrugged their shoulders and went in as well.

-x—

Kuki, Nigel, Abby and Hoagie walked into Kuki's garage. Hoagie looked up at stepped to the front. Nigel and Abby's eyes glistened at the machine that was in front of them.

"Well here's my garage. I don't know why you wanted to see it so bad…" Kuki said with her eyes closed shut

"There it is…" Hoagie said

They were looking at a robotic, white rabbit that was about 8 times their sizes. It had red eyes that were turned off.

"My word. That thing is huge!" Nigel exclaimed

"And more importantly, it runs on a huge battery. Just the size we need." Hoagie said

"Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P.? What do you guys want with Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P.?" Kuki asked

Hoagie pulled a ladder over and rested it on the robot rabbit's back. He climbed up.

"Hey! What's this all about!" Kuki said indignantly

"If you listened to a word we said earlier, then you'd know that the H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P., or Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P., won't be going anywhere for a while. I'm taking his power pack."

"What? You can't do that!" Kuki said "How will I feed him?!"

"He's a robot! He runs on fuel and…this!"

Hoagie opened up the battery compartment

"Which I'm taking…now."

Hoagie pulled it out with ease and examined it.

"It's perfect. Has plenty of juice left too."

Hoagie jumped down the ladder and tucked the battery under his shoulder.

"Pleasure doin' business with you, Miss Sanban. Now if you'll excuse us…"

Kuki grabbed the battery and began pulling it away from him. She and Hoagie pulled back and forth between it.

"You guys are a bunch of bullies! You think you can just take Mr. H.I.P.P.I.E.-H.O.P.'s battery and walk away!" Kuki pulled it towards her

"That's what we were about to do, yeah…" Hoagie said, and pulled it towards him.

"He was taking a NAP!"

"We'll he can nap for as long as he wants to now!"

"You guys can't just steal this from me!"

Abby put her hand on Kuki's shoulder

"We're not stealin' it. We're just borrowing it."

"Borrowing? For what?" Kuki asked

"We were trying to tell you before. We need it for the time being to power our rocket to go into space."

Kuki let go of the battery, making Hoagie shuffle backwards.

"Woooah? Space?!" Kuki asked in awe

"Yeah. And it's to rescue my sister…"

Kuki waved her hands in the air

"I always wanted to go into space! Can I come? Can I come? Please, please pllleaassee?" Kuki asked with watery eyes

"Uhhhhh" Abby said

"Sorry kid." Nigel said, "But there's no room for tourists on this mission."

Kuki cried with an annoyingly audible wail. Her river of tears sprayed out on each side of her face.

"Guys. Maybe we should just let her…" Abby started

"No. Nigel's right." Hoagie said while stuffing the battery in his brown backpack, "I mean, what can you do that the three of us can't do on our own?"

Kuki immediately stopped crying and reverted to her enthusiastic tone. "Well I was voted class nurse in preschool! I took care of the pet guinea pig. Of course, he died the day after I started taking care of him, but I took care of him nonetheless!"

There was a long, drawn out silence

"Well I believe that answers our question." Hoagie said, "Come on guys, we need to head out." He held his stomach, "And I need to hit the bathroom before we leave. I knew I shouldn't have eaten all those burritos while working…"

Hoagie and Nigel left promptly.

"Maybe next time. Nice meeting you, Kuki! Thanks for your help." Abby said softly before she followed them out.

Kuki crossed her arms and pouted

"Hmph. Guess I'll have to give you a postcard then." She grumbled

Abby looked back one last time before she left the room.

-x-

"Hey guys…" Abby said

They were on the KND carrier going back to the Moonbase

"I'm starting to think that we may have been too hard on that Kuki girl."

"Maybe…" Nigel said, "But it's for her own safety."

"Yeah. It could be dangerous if we let her tag along. She doesn't seem to have much training or expertise. I don't mean to be a jerk about it, but I just don't know how useful she'd be…" Hoagie continued, "And besides, she's already given us her battery pack, so in a way, she's already helped us out."

"I guess."

"I suppose we could have been a little bit nicer about it." Nigel said. "We'll all thank her personally once we're back."

Abby nodded

"Okay."

-x—

Close to an hour later, they were seated in the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. The aircraft was on top of a massive trapdoor, with the words 'EMERGENCY EXIT' written on it.

"All systems are functional." Hoagie said, "The battery's working great."

"I can confirm that the skies are clear. And security is about to change shifts." Nigel added while staring at the monitor, "In a moment, we'll have a 10 second window to leave the base without being detected."

"Then we don't have much time to lose." Abby sighed, "I can't believe we've actually gotten this far. Here we come, Cree."

"Security just changed. It's time to go!" Nigel said

"Is everyone strapped in?" Hoagie asked

"Yes." Nigel said

"Yep." Abby said with a thumbs up

"All buckled up!" another voice said

Nigel, Hoagie and Abby didn't know how else to react. They all turned their heads to the corner of ship and widened their eyes only to see Kuki sitting happily in a chair.

"Ku…Kuki?! How did you…how did you get in here?!" Hoagie exclaimed in shock

"I stowed away in your carrier, silly! You sure spend a long time in the bathroom."

Hoagie was lost for words

"You have to get out of here!" He finally said

"No…WE have to get out of here, now! " Nigel said.

"But she…"

"We have no time, Hoagie! Take off already!"

"But…"

"NOW!"

"Blast off…" Hoagie moaned as he pulled the lever.

The trapdoor opened and dropped the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. out into space. It zoomed away before anyone from the Moonbase could see what happened.

-x-

Nigel looked out the window

"We're clear." He said.

Kuki was holding onto her shoes and humming the Rainbow Monkeys tune when Hoagie yelled at her.

"Kuki! We told you to stay at home!" He complained, "How did you get in here again?!"

"I already told you! While you all were waiting for Hoagie in the bathroom, I went outside to take a look at your ship. And I said 'Wow, that's a cool spaceship!' so I decided to hang out in the trunk for a while and play astronaut! And soon, we were moving." The flashback images matched what Kuki was saying. "When we got here, you all went away, and then I saw this shapceship. And I said, 'Wow, that's an even COOLER spaceship!' And the rest is history! Sheesh, you guys aren't all that sharp, are you?"

"We're not sharp?!" Hoagie whined, "You're the one who disobeyed us!"

"Oh would you relax already?" Kuki said. Her accent seemed to really come out when she was yelling. "I brought you a postcard like I said. And here it is!"

She threw the postcard over to Hoagie's lap

"Some people are just so ungrateful…" She said with her arms crossed.

"Well now I have to drop you off again, making us waste even more time!" Hoagie growled.

"But I don't wanna go back! I wanna go on an adventure with you guys!"

"Tough luck…" Hoagie said, "I'm turning us around."

Kuki began crying loudly again

"It's fine, Hoagie." Abby said

"Yeah. If we go back now we'll risk being seen when we pass the Moonbase again. Since she's already here, we might as well let her stay."

"YAAAYYY!" Kuki said while throwing her hands up with a smile.

"Fine. Just don't touch anything…"

"You mean like this?" She pressed down on a green button before Hoagie could stop her.

"Wait, NO!" Hoagie yelled

A missile flew out from under the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.

Nigel, Hoagie, Abby and Kuki got up and stood side by side by the window to watch where the missile had gone. The missile went straight for a satellite, and blew it to pieces in front of them. The orange flame reflection was seen on the window. Hoagie hung his head

"Well, there goes half of Canada's cable television."

"COOL!" Kuki said with a wide smile

"On second thought…" Hoagie dragged Kuki back to her seat. "Why don't you just sit here, and don't even LOOK at anything."

Kuki sat with her eyes closed and a confused expression on her face. Hoagie turned to Nigel and Abby

"For the record, bringing her along was your idea."

"She'll be fine. I'll get to navigating." Abby said

"And I'll keep lookout." Nigel added

Hoagie looked forward and grumpily manned the controls. "Ooh, You mean like this? Ugh…" He quietly imitated Kuki's voice

"Hey! I don't sound like that!" Kuki yelled. Hoagie dropped his head onto the dashboard.

-x—

Numbuh 274 was writing notes at his desk. There was a knock on his door.

"Come in." He said

Numbuhs 60 and 362 came inside.

"Patton. Rachel. I trust that you two come bearing good news…"

"We do, sir." Numbuh 60 said while saluting

"The tech division's putting the final touches on the N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S. as we speak. They should be ready tomorrow." 362 said

"So we're ahead of schedule. Fantastic work, guys." 274 said, "And Numbuh 60. How are you feeling?"

"Not so hot…I feel like my brain's had one serious downgrade, sir." Numbuh 60 said while holding his head

"Well don't worry. Soon we'll have as many N.A.N.O.M.I.T.E.S as we can get our hands on. " 274 nodded, "Thanks for your time, guys."

They both turned around to leave

"Oh, and Numbuh 362. Could you stay for a minute?"

Numbuh 60 looked between 362 and 274, and then left the room. 362 turned around.

"Yes, Numbuh 274, sir?"

"Please. Take a seat."

362 reluctantly did so. Her heart began to race. She hoped he wasn't going to mention what she thought he was.

"Look. I'm not one to waste people's time, so I'm gonna jump right to the punch." Numbuh 274 said, "I know that you've had an eye on my job for sometime now. You know, as the supreme commander of the KND."

Her heart began to slow down. This seemed to be about something completely different.

"Maybe someday. But not as long as you're here. You're leading the Kids Next Door just fine."

"Well I'm sure that you could too someday. But you know one thing that supreme commanders need moreso than anything else? Integrity."

362 slowly nodded

"So tell me, Rachel. How does aiding and abetting malicious activity fall into that category?"

Her heart raced again. This was the exact thing that she was scared to talk about.

"I know that Abigail broke into my office and used the computer. That's yesterday's news. But what I didn't know before a few hours ago was that Numbuh 86 caught you in there with her.

"Now hold on, I wasn't helping her! I did what I could to get her out of there!"

"Okay. Well let's just assume that's true. Then why is it that her computer records disappeared overnight under your authorization?"

Numbuh 362 looked down at the table

"Did you really think that I wouldn't notice?"

"It's not what it looks like, sir." 362 said while closing her eyes

"I have no way of knowing that for sure. And neither do I have any way of knowing that Abby isn't working for one of our enemies. With you as her accomplice…"

"I'm nobody's accomplice! And I know she's been acting suspicious, but she's not out to betray anybody. And neither am I."

274 nodded

"So you're telling me that you know what this is all about."

362 breathed out

"If you want to know, then why don't you just ask her yourself?" She said

"I can't." 274 said back, "Because she's gone."

362 had shock in her eyes

"She left with Nigel Uno and a couple of unidentified kids. They must have thought that they slipped through security, but I had Numbuh 35 keep a close eye on her for me. He saw them leave in an unregistered spaceship."

362 didn't know what to say. She had a mix of anger and fear show in her face.

"It's clear that she trusts you a lot." 274 said, "So it only makes sense for her to have told you where it is that she went."

"She never directly told me…"

"But you know, right?"

Numbuh 362 swallowed

"No. I don't know where she went."

"You're a poor liar, Rachel."

She looked the other way

"You said it yourself." 274 said, "You guys have nothing to hide. So if that's true, then tell me where Numbuh 5 is going!"

"I told her I wouldn't say anything…"

"This is bigger than a stupid pinky promise, Rachel!" 274 yelled while standing up from his chair, "This is a matter of Kids Next Door security! And if you don't tell me, then I'll be forced to believe that you and her are moles in our organization. And I'll also be forced to take the necessary actions. Especially on you. Not only will you have to kiss the supreme commander position goodbye, but I'll have to have you both…."

274 didn't say the last word. He figured that 362 got the message just fine.

"Are you threatening me, sir?" 362 asked after a pause

"I'm asking you to abide by the rules of the administration." He settled his voice down, "You can call it what you want."

He leaned on the desk and looked down at her aggressively

"If you care anything about your friend, you'll tell me where she went. Last chance."

362 looked into his eyes through the uncomfortable silence.

-x—

Let me know what you guys think of the story so far!