Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. If I did, the GKND would have never existed and Rachel would have never been decommisioned. I just own a portable computer, an iPod Touch, a very old English dictionary and a new haircut. Oh, a new English grammar corrector for my computer, so now I won't make many mistakes as before (but I'll keep doing them, anyway.)
Okay, sorry for the delay, but you can blame work, life, school, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Charles Dickens and Karl Marx for it. And there are another important things you need to know, but I'll tell you later.
As always: I'm Italian and this means English is not my native language, if I make some grammar mistakes please tell me and I'll correct immediatly. Also, please TELL ME if my OCs are Mary Sues/Gary Stus, if they are, I'll kill them. I'm not joking, I'll do it!
Warnings: heavy presence of OCs, counting the other two Teen Ninjas in the last chapter. But don't worry, aside from this chapter they won't steal the spotlight anymore (at least for now) and some of them won't appear for a long time. From now on, they will have just a supportive role and nothing else. Then, this is my first trying in writing a hand-to-hand combat scene(Cree vs,Rachel) and it sucks and if you love me, please skip that part of the story 'cause I'm ashamed of it. And last but not least, remember this is NOT a Rachel/OC fic, it's an examination of Rachel/Nigel relationship that will be explored later on; it will be jut a simple girl/boy friendship, and if you do not believe in this kind of relationships, well, too bad for you. Personally, I've got lots of boys as friends (and I still do) and I've always been fine with it.
Well, that's enough. On with the story. Read and review if you want (although it's a good thing if you leave a review).
"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place."
-Henry Louis Mencken-
Transmission Re-established... Please Standby...
"...but I liked 'Black Canary' more..."
"C-can we settle this peacefully?"
One of the teenagers pushed the dark skinned boy against the wall and immobilized his arms. Sam was baffled: he didn't remember there was a dead end in the corner between the pizzeria and the hardware store. They must have been the ones who put it there, of course! There was no other possible explanation!
The blonde girl was ransacking (or at least, trying to) the sleeveless green jacket that the boy was wearing before, while his guitar was lying a few meters away from her. Cree, on the other hand, was standing in front of him holding the white hen by the neck and smiling with perfidy.
"So," she began, totally ignoring the child's request, "you're the boy wanted by the KND. Me and my friends were just wondering what you have done of so serious to enrage Numbuh Infinity and make him send the Decommissioning Squad after you almost one hour ago." She shook her head, "But I understand him. I've got a nosey parker little sibling as I spy, too."
"He did WHAT?" he exclaimed, incredulous by the news. "I didn't do anything! And I'm not a nosey parker! I'm not a spy at all!" He struggled against the Hispanic girl's grasp.
"Yeah, right." she turned and addressed to the Teen Ninja behind her and her teammate. "Found anything?"
The blonde teen was still arduously trying to zip down one of the pockets without success. "These thingies are so difficult to open!" she shouted back.
Cree rolled her eyes and counted mentally to ten, not wanting to lose patience like the last time. Why did she have to train such a brainless goose?
"Hey, that's privacy in-fringe-ment! Take your hands off my jacket!" Sam protested, but his warder stomped vehemently on his foot, shutting him up and making him moaning of pain. "We make the orders here, brat!" she screamed.
"That's right, Natalia." Cree approved. To the contrary of that birdbrain, this greenhorn learned fast and had a very determined and smart personality. Even too much, according to her. The dark skinned girl had to put her on the path: she would never accept a Teen Ninja better than her.
"I guess you're wondering why we captured you." she continued. "Well, you know, we're curious. Why does Numbuh Infinity want your memory erased so badly?"
"I don't know! I don't know anything!"
"Really? His warrant of arrest says otherwise. We've been able to tap a transmission directed to the Moonbase, and it says you took illegally possession of super-ultra-secret information regarding the Organization and that now you're threatening to reveal them to their most fierce enemies." she smiled sweetly, "You must know we're their most fierce enemies. This is your occasion: why don't you tell us about this 'reserved information' he chatters so much?"
"I don't know anything." Sam replied stubbornly.
She glared at him: "Okay, this will make loosen your tongue." She put the hen in front of the boy's eyes and tightened with vigor her grasp around the animal's neck, which became upset and began to flap her wings uneasy.
Sam gasped and looked frightened at Cree, who smirked back; the boy, feeling caught in a trap, closed his eyes and, plucking up courage, took a deep breath and said: "Last year, during a mission in Father's mansion, he was the one who vomited in his limo, not Numbuh 563. Nobody knows it."
"Not this kind of information! I'm referring about the most shocking, deep and untold secrets of the Kids Next Door. Tell us now. Otherwise, we'll serve your pet at the refectory's school!" the Teen Ninja menaced.
She felt satisfied when the terror appeared in the boy's face. He looked at her, then the hen, and then the girl again. He bit his lip, closed his eyes and shouted: "Once he got soda-drunk, he took off all his clothes remaining in pants, put a cloak on his shoulders and went dancing on our kitchen's table and in the end he fainted falling from it! And he did all this while he was singing a song!"
The two girls' jaws dropped, the image involuntarily forming in their minds. A scream came from behind them: the blonde teen had caught her finger with the zip.
The Hispanic girl shook the ten-year-old: "What song?"
"Uh?"
"What song was he singing?" she repeated, anxious to know more about it.
"Oh, I don't know the title. Something from that Dance stuff, I think… it went like 'I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt' and then it kept going with something else." He shrugged. "I'm not into this kind of music."
"…wow…"
"Stop it, Natalia!" Cree shouted, coming back to reality with a little trouble; it was obvious she was disturbed by the mental picture. "Can't you see he's just trying to distract us from the real information we need?" She clenched the animal's neck with more strength.
"No, no, no, it's true!" exclaimed Sam agitated. "I filmed everything with my phone! It's inside my jacket, you can see it!"
"You filmed Numbuh Infinity in that state and he didn't say anything?" Natalia asked interested.
"Of course he did! After that, he gave me five bucks on condition that I would have deleted it."
"But… you just said you still got it on your phone!"
Sam chuckled nervously and looked away: "Could it be that… it slipped my mind?…"
"Stop pretending to not understand!" Cree barked, her patience coming to a limit. "Tell us what we wanna know NOW!" She wouldn't have let a brat like him to make fun of her.
"But I just told you!" Sam protested, "That's the most shocking, deep and untold secret of the Kids Next Door!"
"Well, if you think about it…"
"You shut up!" she barked at her trainee. With the free hand the teenager grabbed the hen's head. "Last chance."
At her gesture the dark skinned boy screamed terrified: "NO! STOP! Don't do it!" he tempted with all his strength to free himself. "You'll kill us all if you try to hurt her!"
"You think so?" Cree mocked, "What is she gonna do? Flap her wings to death?"
"I'm serious! Don't do it!" he kept screaming, wriggling from the grasp of the other Teen Ninja. The boy was clearly scared and wished to reach his pet at any cost, as if their lives depended on it.
"Really? Why don't we see how she fights back?" With both hands she grasped the head and the neck of the animal.
Now Sam was screaming loud at the top of his lungs: "NO, NO, DON'T… mmmph mmm!" His mouth was covered by the Hispanic girl.
Cree began wringing the hen's neck…
"HIYA!" A figure came from nowhere landed on the Teen Ninja, making her fall to the ground. The animal freed itself from the girl's grasp and ran away fluttering.
"What the…" Cree looked at the kid situated on her chest and she realized, "You!" she hissed.
The Supreme Leader of Kids Next Door tried to punch her on the face, but the Teen Ninja blocked her fist and with a rapid movement she shook the kid off, making her hit the head against the floor. Although the child felt a horrible pain, she wasn't overcome by it and kicked her enemy's right ankle, which caused the teenager to fall on her knees. This gave Rachel time to get up and attack again, but Cree collected herself earlier than expected and saved another kick headed for her chest, after which she caught the little girl's foot with a sudden gesture and pulled it to herself, making Rachel lose her balance; the teenager wringed her limb and the blonde cried of pain while trying to set herself free somehow.
"You're out of practice, brat." teased Cree, "Having a desk job like yours takes this effect." She tried to punch her but Rachel dodged it in time.
The Hispanic teen witnessed the struggle going on in front of her eyes; she was wondering if she should have intervened or not, when realized there was no agitation coming from the boy anymore. She turned and saw that he was gone; she was just holding his Hawaiian shirt. Astonished, she looked around and noticed the ten-year-old taking his pet bare-chested and cradling her in his arms. He caressed her feathers to infuse her peacefulness and whispered gently to her: "Don't worry girl, as long as you are with me, nobody will hurt you, your daddy would never let it happen… hush, calm down, calm down… it's all over… all over… hush."
The Teen Ninja shook her head at the weirdness of the scene and went after him. She tugged sharply at Sam and pushed him against the wall, immobilizing him once again. The hen fell from his owner's hand and fell to the ground.
"Hey! That hurt!" the boy protested, but the teen ignored him.
Back to the main fight, Rachel with an agile movement managed to free herself from Cree's grasp kicking her groin with the other leg, and before the teen could recover from the blow received, she went on her knees and with a kick at 180 degrees made her adversary stumble. Unfortunately, before touching the floor, Cree did a somersault backwards and landed on her feet in a cat-like way. Rachel got up and closed her elbows around her waist in a defensive pose, waiting for the next attack.
"What do you want from him?" she asked.
The Teen Ninja seemed slightly surprised, "Wha… oh, you know damn well what do we want from him!" she adopted a defensive pose too, scanning her enemy from head to toe.
Rachel raised a brow, "Actually, not. I've just met him and I can tell you he's not part of the KND."
Cree gazed at her bewildered, then seemed to understand something and chuckled: "Oh, it's true!" she smiled wickedly, "Numbuh Infinity would never accept the fact you know the Babies Next Door's secrets better than he does!"
Rachel's eyes widened in shock, the little girl temporarily wrong-footed by the declaration.
Did that mean Numbuh Infinity indeed was acquainted with something he wanted to hide from her? Was this so obvious to the others? And what does that boy had to do with that?
Worse luck, Rachel was so distracted by these thoughts that she realized too late about Cree's flying kick to her face and couldn't stop it in time. She fell backwards and hit her nape painfully, almost risking losing her senses.
Meanwhile, Sam was trying out another technique to get ride of his warder that was a little different from Rachel's and didn't exactly regard the hand-to-hand combat.
"Do you know I've never seen such shining eyes like yours in all my life?" he said in a very adulatory tone.
"Yeah, nice try, brat." the teenager replied back distractedly, just focusing on Cree in order that she could learn something about battles against kids and new moves.
That was strange: girls always succeeded in seducing boys, but boys regularly failed at seducing girls. Sam gave it another try: "I bet your boyfriend never tells you that you have the sweetest voice in the world."
"Actually, he says he adores hearing it especially when I scream."
The boy gave her an interrogative look and of sincere incomprehension. Why the crud her boyfriend wanted to hear her scream? That didn't make her sense! He liked his mom's voice, but not when she was screaming at him…
Something soft hit him on the head and fell on the floor at a few steps from him. He lowered his eyes to see the object: it was a blue plastic sachet and carried on it the symbol of the…
Sam gasped and gazed instinctively at his right side; at several meters away from the Teen Ninjas and the two kids, a child-like figure dressed in a battered grey coat with his face covered by a scarf and a hood was peeping from behind a wall. The mysterious figure nodded at him and vanished.
The boy gulped anguished. Him…
Oh, crud.
They had found him.
Oh god, he was in very bad fix, now. People didn't enter in the hyperspace, cover almost sixteen galaxies and go through two wormholes just to say hallo to someone.
If he used the object, he would have saved himself, but then he had to face him and the other agents… and explain them the reason of his umpteenth vacation. Maybe it was better ignoring their help and stay as a prisoner of the Teen Ninjas…
Ooooh, very bad idea. After that, he himself would have came, freed him, and at this point Sam would be forced to swallow his, the Division Leader's and the Great Commander's fury, if not of all the C.O.D., and for punishment the boy's savior would have modified his nerve functions, making him act like a strange animal.
This if he was lucky, otherwise he would have controlled his movements residing in his body for an undetermined time. And as he knew too well, Limit seldom determined times.
Paying attention to his self-preservation instincts, Sam opted for accepting the agents' help. With a good dose of caution, he tempted reach for the sachet using his foot, with no result. After many unsuccessful attempts, he realized the only way to take it was going a few steps ahead and leaning forward definitely, but it was an impossible goal to achieve if that teenager was still holding him captive with her arm on his chest.
He thought of an excuse: "Excuse me; my shoelaces have come undone, can I…"
"You liar, your shoes are laced." interrupted roughly the Teen Ninja, who had glanced to the kid's shoes the very moment he had started of asking the question.
He fell silent and searched for another excuse. How convince a teen girl to get her limb off of him?
Sam's face enlightened: that's it! He put on a casual tone of voice: "Wow, what an interesting ingrowing nail you got on this finger…"
It worked. With a jump, the Teen Ninja instinctually brought her arm in front of her and started to examine her hand, not noticing she had just freed the kid.
Faster than a ferret, Sam took the sachet, opened it, and took an handful of azurine dust from it; when he saw the teenager coming after him again, he blew the dust right on her face. The girl froze and coughed violently: "What the…" she managed to say before frantically beginning of scratching herself. Suddenly, her face began to be very itchy.
"Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!" she cried.
The ten-year-old did nothing but looking at her dazed and then at the sachet. He said with deception: "Common irritant powder? Ooooh, man! I hoped it was something cooler like…"
A scream of pain came from behind him. Sam turned and saw Cree giving Rachel a kick on her stomach. The little girl, who was trying to pick herself up off the ground because of the previous falling, couldn't block the attack in time and she was hit by it.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" he exclaimed, putting more urticant dust on his hand. "Hold on, Rachel!" he cried running towards the two fighters. Sam placed himself in front of the teenager, raised his fist and threw the powdery substance against her. To him, time seemed to freeze: the specks of dust moved in the air as if they were performing a Dance of Death, promising everlasting sufferings and with the intention of dragging their designate victim to the bowels of Hell…
…unfortunately a sudden gust of wind coming from the opposite direction made them return to their consignor and entering in contact not only with the boy's face, but even with his still bare chest.
"Uh-oh…" he grumbled when he figured out what had just happened. Two seconds after, he screamed and started to scratch furiously every all his body making the 'weapon' fall on the floor, while Cree busted out laughing mocking the boy's bad luck.
Rachel opened her eyes confused, still not knowing what was going on now because of the horrible hit of before. When she saw Sam and the Teen Ninja who was holding him captive a moment ago scratching themselves, she got lightly astonished but then made out the plastic object lying on the ground surrounded by some weird specks of dust. She assumed it had to be urticant powder.
After being sure that Cree was distracted, she crawled on all fours to the sachet and took it. She got up with difficulty, her belly hurting and called the teenager out loud. "Hey, dumb teen!"
When the dark skinned girl turned ready to retail, Rachel launched all its content against the teen's face. Cree screamed just when the substance commenced taking effect and she began of scratching herself too, desperately searching for a little relief.
Rachel unconsciously put the plastic sachet in her pocket's sweater, ran to Sam and caught his hand: "We're going!" she told him hasty and pulled him.
"Wait!" and he whistled. At that sound, the hen came quickly trotting by her owner's side. "I have to pick my things, too!" the boy added.
The blonde nodded and released his hand letting him take his Hawaiian shirt; after that, they both made for the other Teen Ninja, who she wasn't noticing what was going on around her and was still trying to open up the pockets' jacket.
"I think I got it now…" she muttered to herself before being kicked to the ankle by Rachel and bending ahead.
Rachel took the jacket off the teen's hands without any effort and gave it to Sam, who was loading the guitar on his shoulders (with a lot of strain, since he was itching all over to death). Then the two kids and the farm animal ran away, leaving behind the girl's oaths.
"Did yah seeh dat? Weh give him a weapon, and he doezn't even know HOW to uze it!"
Several minutes later, the two children halted their running and stopped to take breath and to make sure the Teen Ninja hadn't followed them. They found themselves in the middle of a neighborhood that Rachel recognized as the one in which Sector V was established. They decided to rest near the corner between two houses.
"I think… we're safe… now" the Supreme Leader of KND said breathlessly.
Sam nodded and began scratching every part of his body that had been exposed to the urticant powder; it took a while to that thing to lose its effect.
"Are you fine?" Rachel asked him, slowly recovering herself from their headlong flight.
At those words the dark skinned boy seemed to revive. He gazed intensely at her and, after a moment of pause, his eyes started watering and suddenly he hugged.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! You just saved our lives, dude, thank you SO MUCH!" he said touched, gradually embracing her tighter than before.
"C'mon, don't exaggerate!" Rachel replied tempting to shake the boy off and not to die stifled by his grasp, "The Teen Ninjas can be terrible but don't kill children, they only beat us a little to bully us, but they would never come at this point!"
"You don't understand!" Sam whimpered, not showing signs of letting go the girl. "I-If that N-Ninja would have hurt Dion, now we'd be…" At the mention of his pet, the ten-year-old gasped, finally released Rachel and dashed to the hooded hen, picking her up and hugging her. "Dion! It's over, we're safe -no- YOU'RE safe!" he rubbed himself against the white feathers, "Quiet, quiet… hush… when we come back home, nobody will deny you a double birdseed ration…" he whispered cradling the fowl.
Rachel blinked at the sight of that odd scene; she knew there were people very fond of their pets, especially dogs, cats and hamsters, but she hadn't imagined that someone could place so much love in a hen because, well, it's not like the hen is famous for its talent to be the most inestimable life-companion of man: it was famous for being the most inestimable food of the man for many millenniums by now. In this case, the hen was completely oblivious of her owner's attentions and was just looking around her, not caring of the kids at all.
Rachel glanced at her watch: it was almost half past five; she had to hurry up if she wanted to reach Sector V's tree house before the dark came, but the blonde wished to know a few things.
She coughed in the most polite way to get the boy's attention on her. Sam lifted his head and gave her an encouraging smile, a gesture that meant he was listening.
"Why did the Teen Ninjas want to seize you? Have you done something against them?" she questioned.
The boy's smile vanished and was replaced by a nervous look: "I-I haven't done anything to them! Let's say… they believed I knew something about the KND…"
The girl raised a brow: "Why on the world? You're not an operative."
"Yeah…"
Rachel scrutinized attentively his features: in fact, Sam reminded her of someone… the nose, the cheekbones… The picture of a boy kept appearing in her mind, but a blurred one, and every time she was coming to identify the person, it was swallowed up again by the fumes of oblivion…
Then she remembered Cree's enigmatic statement…
Of course! That's who he was!
"You're Numbuh Infinity's brother, right?"
At this, Sam became agitated and put his hands in front of him: "Look, I don't know anything! Seriously! Just 'cause he's my big bro it doesn't mean I am aware of the classified information of your organization, dude! Rather, he has always kept me out from your business!"
"Calm down, Sam! I'm not here to cross-examine you, I just wanted to know why you had those dorks at your heels, it's my job as a Kids Next Door agent to prevent teenagers from hurting children…" Rachel assured, but she couldn't help but notice that the kid was shifting his weight from one foot to another, meaning he wasn't telling the truth; she automatically knew it because of the training back at the Arctic Base and her past experience as a spy.
"I think they wanted to extort stuff from me 'cause they thought I was involved in the KND but it's not true!" he kept defending himself.
The phrase 'You Sure?' came to her mouth but she managed to stop it before it went out. Although she would have insisted, Rachel understood she wouldn't succeed in convincing the child to spill the beans. Everyone else would have forgotten it, said goodbye to the boy and gone away, but Rachel wasn't the Supreme Leader and the former best spy of the Kids Next Door for nothing. Her spy instincts were telling her to persist in a subtle way, not directly; she had to be friendly, gain his trust and gradually make him confess something, with no hurry. A little part of her scolded the girl saying it was unfair befriending with someone just for obtaining information, but Cree's answer had surprised her and was currently filling her head with questions, suspects and doubts; in fact, what had happened in the dead end seemed to confirm that Numbuh Infinity was hiding business about the organization from her and his little brother could be the only one who might have at least a vague idea of it. After that, she would have repaid him somehow and would have kept his helping a secret.
She wanted to know more. She had to know more.
Rachel smiled to the boy: "If you say so. By the way, if those teen dorks annoy you once again, tell me, okay?"
"To beat them up again, right?" said Sam while putting back on his shirt and jacket.
"Hey, I managed to defeat the Ninjas thanks to your urticant powder, otherwise we'd be still there…" She didn't like to confess eventual weaknesses of hers sometimes she had in battlefields, but she hated to obtain all the credit when actually she had been helped by other people or because of fortunate circumstances.
"But you saved my life! It's only because of you if I- and those teens too, are still alive!" cried Sam cheerfully.
"For the last time Sam, back there nobody's life was in danger!"
"Don't be so sure, dude…" the boy gazed scared at the clueless hen that had resumed in pecking the pavement. "When she feels to be in danger, she…" he whispered, and inadvertently he moved the hands to his ears. "If you want to survive, you must stay a gazillion of meters far from her." He stared in awe at his pet with a mix of admiration and terror, like if the hen wasn't a simple farm animal anymore but a creature coming from Hell.
"Riiiight…" Rachel said breaking the long silence that followed the weird scene, "Look, would you mind if one of these days we… go for a walk?" The question came out before she could stop it. She groaned to herself: what a lame suggestion to hang out she made! It was all her job's fault, she was so used to work in the Organization having almost no contact with other 'normal' people or non-operative kids, that when she had to deal to deal with situation like this, she didn't know how to act.
However, Sam didn't seem to notice, because he responded eagerly at the girl's proposal: "Oh, I'd love to, dude!"
Somewhere, Numbuh Infinity raised his head from some documents he was reading and began looking around worried, as if he was searching for something invisible that was hiding in the room.
"What's up, Infinity?" asked Numbuh 74.329, standing next to him and noticing his behavior.
After a minute of contemplation, the diplomat narrowed his eyes and said in a serious tone of voice: "Something terrible just happened."
"… we can tell each other everything we have been through these years and… oh, there are tons of places we can go together to eat ice cream, hot dogs, drink soda and much more! Or playing in the park. Oh, and we can go to the movies! I love movies, and you? To be true, I like concerts more, but mom doesn't still let me go to one alone… Hey, and you can come to my house one of these days, I've got some interesting parlour games and…"
The dark skinned child kept drawing up a list of the activities they could have done together, and he was talking as if they both were old friends who had lost sight of each other because they had moved in different towns and hadn't meet again until now.
When Sam gave her his phone number with no request from the blonde, Rachel felt a little guilty. Oh great, she thought, she started having regrets and she hadn't even begun!
"You still don't know my full name, right?"
The question brought Rachel back to Earth: "No, I fear not."
Sam held out his hand to her and presented himself again: "Samuel Connors."
Rachel shook it: "Rachel T. McKenzie."
The boy looked at her for a moment and opened his mouth…
Rachel saw it coming: "Don't ask what the T stands for."
Sam closed his mouth.
Suddenly a bip was heard from Rachel's wrist. She took a look at her watch and saw it was exactly half past five. She had to hurry up!
"Listen, I can't stay too long, I'm in the middle of a research for the KND and I have to finish it soon, I can't leave the Moon Base for too long."
"Can I come with you? Please?" Sam begged her.
"I'm sorry Sam, but this is about a very important operation and I need to-"
"Please, please, please, please, dude!" the boy was practically down on his knees. He didn't want being left alone at all; he wasn't still ready to face his… work colleagues.
"Why do you keep calling me 'dude', anyway?" Rachel asked, that one thing bugging her since the start of this conversation, too bad ignoring the boy's answer would have caused her a great shock and haunted her for several years.
"Don't you like it?"
"Not much. But I can accept 'dudette', since I'm a girl."
Sam's eyes widened and said incredulously: "You're a girl?"
"Of course I'm a girl, what else I should…" she stopped at mid sentence when realization hit her like an iron fist. Deranged, she exclaimed: "You believed I was a BOY?"
"Noooo…" Sam answered back trying to fix his mistake, but then his gaze met Rachel's. He didn't like it at all.
Somewhere, Numbuh Infinity raised his head from his work and looked around once again. A few seconds later, a faint smile hovered on his lips.
"Now what's it?" asked Numbuh 74.239 always next to him.
"I feel like… something dangerous had been avoided."
"W-well, y-yeah, I-I thought you were 'cause, uh… I mean, I haven't seen you again for three years, you know, and people told me there was a new Supreme Leader but they didn't mention it was a girl and it was YOU, and, and, now I meet you again, you don't look like a girl- I MEAN" he tempted to correct himself when Rachel's expression worsened, "you don't act exactly act like a girl, 'cause you're strict- no, not in that way!" Sam was sweating now, "Well, you're strong and determined and these are very wonderful qualities for a girl, it's just that you show them like a boy doe- WAIT! Every girl has those qualities, b-but another thing that made me believe you were a boy was you physical appearance, 'cause you don't seem so feminine- NO, I'm not saying you're…" His voice gradually passed from high to low as Rachel continued glaring at him, until it vanished definitely. The boy blushed mortified.
A long silence followed. Rachel remained silent, her face now inexpressive and motionless while her eyes were staring into space, every trace of shock gone; she didn't seem to be upset, but her hands twitched for a moment.
Sam felt the necessity to say something. Something that could help him to apologize, explain himself and assure his new friend whatever gender she was it didn't matter to him…
"Just so you know I'm okay in having a girl as a friend." he informed her keenly.
With great regret, the answer didn't achieve any effect. Rachel didn't stir for a millimeter.
More silence followed.
After a while, Sam decided to break it. "Maybe… er… maybe it's better if I stay here… I just remembered I have to meet someone, by the way." The boy said still visibly mortified for the poor figure.
Rachel finally nodded, her expression still firm, although nobody could imagine at present inside her there was a debating about the subject going on and that was inexorably pushing her on the edge of paranoia. "Fine." she said.
"Didn't you take offence at it, right?" The boy asked worried.
Like every girl in the world who gets really angry at someone for an offensive thing said to her, she responded: "No." A brief pause and the blonde glared at him. "The name 'Rachel' didn't… give you any clue about my gender?"
"What?" Sam adopted a confused look.
"I mean, 'Rachel' is a very common girl name, do you know it?" expounded the Supreme Leader trying to not smack the poor boy on the ground like Fanny would have done in her shoes; she didn't have to lose her patience over a silly thing like this but, strangely, now to her it wasn't a silly thing at all.
"Oh yes, but a very old friend of mine is called Amanda and it's a boy, so…" he chuckled nervously, "I don't care much about these things…" He was going to tell her that from his friend came from, 'Amanda' was a boy's name, but then he sensed it wasn't a good idea.
"Okay." Rachel breathed deeply to calm her nerves, "Now I really have to go. See you around." She made a smile she hoped was assuring and turned to go away.
"Please, can I meet you again? I'm very-"
"Don't worry, I must… go and… think over it, yeah… Goodbye, Sam."
The dark skinned child watched her go until she turned the corned and disappeared from his sight. He face palmed: "Nice one, Sam." He muttered with grudge against himself. The only consolation left was the urticant powder effect was almost gone.
Then he realized he was alone. Completely alone besides from his pet. No living soul. But not for long.
The perfect moment to show up.
Sam sighed resigned: he knew what was going to happen in a few beats. He would have received a working admonition for non-appearance.
Three… two… one…
"Zam!" Shouted an angry voice with a weird pronunciation and marked accent.
The boy closed his eyes and cursed under his breath. He would have recognized that voice even in a stadium with thousands of people during a U2 concert. His way of talking was unmistakable.
Sam turned at its direction with a bright smile on his lips to hide his discomfort. "Hi, Amanda." He greeted.
The same figure that had helped him in defeating the Teen Ninjas stood in front of him with arms crossed, his foot tapping on the ground. It could pass for a boy, but his blue eyes were unnaturally big.
And pupil-less.
"Yah IDIOT!" he cried at Sam, aspirating every vowel in the words.
"It's nice to see you." said Sam attempting to act calm, though his tone betrayed his real mood.
The 'kid' named Amanda ignored his greeting: "Yah're ah mad to brin' dat… demahniac thin' with yah!" he pointed a finger to the hen; against all human laws, his hand was dark green and webbed, like the frog ones. "Doh yah have any ideah of vhat vahld have happened if de Ninjah hurt it? Lahckily dat girl intervened or Fthorr had to expoze himself!"
"Her." Sam corrected, slightly irritated, "Dion is an animal, a living being, not an object. And she isn't a demon at all! Those are just prejudices about her species, plus, I succeeded in taming her properly."
"Properly?" cried out the mysterious child, "It vaz goin' to react!"
"Of course, she was threatened! What else should she have done? She had to defend herself… wait a minute, boogey-boy is with you?" said Sam, stunned by the sudden realization.
"Nope. Vid yah." Amanda answered out of spite.
Sam started and began looking around him, above him, the ground, the walls…
And he saw him.
His own shadow was waving at him.
Sam gulped. He hated when he acted like this.
The boy's shadow lost its shape and divided in two halves. One of them kept the original shape of the child and remained faithful to his movements. The other one…
The other one assumed a circular form that was whirling on itself like a spiral. Then from the wall came out a hand black as the night, with very long and tapering fingers covered with claws; after that, a dark figure once and for all emerged in the same way an index crossed the surface of a bubble.
A childlike figure straightened up in all its height. He had humanoid build, but there were particular characteristics, if not unique, that distinguished him from the humans. He was bald and his skin was completely black and his body was entirely covered by a cape of the same exact color that hided his feet. Extremely long arms came out from the garment, long as the primates' ones. His facial features were similar to men's, but he had pointed ears and yellow eyes with slit shaped pupils. And he didn't have a mouth.
Sam stared at him before letting out a squeaky: "Hi." The boy still hadn't gotten used to his way of coming.
The alien creature didn't answer back; he gave him a nod with the head and remained silent.
"Weeell…" Sam said nonchalantly, "If you guys are here it means you have super important stuff to do, soooo… I'd better leave since I'm no use for you now 'cause I'm on vacat-"
"Oh yeah," Amanda cut the ten-year-old short, "de Divizion Leadehr and de Great Commandehr liked to inform yah dey delivered an ultimatum regarding yahr little vacations."
Sam froze. "What kind of ultimatum?" he whispered frightened, hoping that thing got nothing to do with it.
"Take ah look by yahrzelf." The kid gave him a white envelope. Sam opened it with trembling hands, praying they hadn't altered their deal somehow.
He took the letter and read it. He paled by degrees as his eyes moved through the words written in the document. When he finished, Sam's face was a mask of panic. "Th-they c-can't do this to me!" he stuttered.
"It zeemz dey juzt did," said Amanda shrugging, "and yah bettehr conzider yahrzelf lucky, Limit intervened in yahr favehr befohre dey eztablizhed de new conditionz."
"He intervened? He did NOTHING!"
"Vell, actually he didn't defend yah so much." the alien kid confessed.
"But without it I won't last a day! They will find me! And I've just discovered my brother sent the Decommissioning Squad after me!" Sam cried.
"Diz iz yahr problem." Amanda paused, "Zo yah azzept dis mizion?"
The boy shut up, doubtful. He had to accept it if he wanted to survive; otherwise the protection license they gave him would have been revoked and at this point very bad people he knew would have found him… and finished him.
But he didn't like the task he had been assigned for either; Sam felt it was wrong towards her…
All his brother's fault, dammit!
"Is the GKND involved in this?" Sam questioned.
"Yah don't know half of it." replied Amanda serious.
"And we must stop them, right?"
He sighed: "Az alwayz, Zam."
The boy rubbed his head, upset. Oh, he was so going to hate this. He looked at the alien children. "Do I have a choice?"
Amanda smiled ironically from behind his scarf: "Noh, I dink not."
"God... don't tell me the guy with the toilet costume is the lesser evil..."
Transimission Interrupted... Please Standby...
Author's Note:
However, the next chapter is already finished, I just have to translate it but I won't because, well, it's the longest I've ever written and I so do not want to split it in two parts. It's all about Father and a psychological analysis of him. Not because of love or other mushy stuff, it's between him and the Fatherhood influence. Since I've also finished the first chapter of 'A Chance in A Million', which is WAY shorter, I will translate it first, and then I'll pass to Chapter 5 of this fic.
You must now during May and June I won't write and I won't translate anything because of the last exams. The italian exams are very different from yours and aside of studying all the year's program, we also have to make an essay regarding a precise topic that's related with every subject we have in school (which includes astronomical geography, maths, physics, history). Because I'm stupid, I like to complicate my life and because of the movie 'Black Swan' I watched the night before, I decided on my own initiative to make a topic about 'conflict between good and evil.' Sounds easy, isn'it?
A few things more: when I was little, I actually had problems in discovering a kid's gender. But I was a very demented child at the time, so it's okay. And yeah, when I watched the KND episode GRADUATES I believed Rachel was a boy (in my defense, the only episode I missed at the time was FUGITIVE. And the italian voice of Rachel was really boyish).
Fthorr was the first OC ever created by me, I was 13 when I imagined him/her (it's hermaphroditical, yes), but it was for the Teen Titans fandom. Since I've never had the chance to write an English fic about that show because I didn't know a damn about English, I decided to introduce it for the first time, he deserved it.
Well, that's all for now. Have a great day everyone. Bye :)
-Ines