Before anyone else could answer the man, Maurice stepped forward. "Sorry, old bean, we're just passing through, so if you don't mind, we'll be leaving like, right now if you can help us through your front door."
The old man nodded, his smile getting bigger as he turned back around. "Sure thing! Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Monty Uno, and I daresay, it's terribly exciting to meet you kids! Why, it's just like when my son Nigel was still around!"
Abby couldn't help herself. "Nigel? What happened to him?"
Monty Uno's face fell. Something had changed inside the happy, careless demeanour, and Abby wished she could take back the question.
But it was too late now.
In a much lower voice, Monty answered, "Oh-he had to leave. Some terribly important work for higher-ups. I don't know how, but somehow it seems like I'll never see him again..."
A single tear rolled down his face, but he quickly wiped it away.
Then the intimacy of the nearly-empty house was broken with a tremendous bang. A cloud of dust accumulated at the bottom of the staircase, and green pulses of light flashed through the forcefully-opened front door, cutting through the smoke with ruthless efficiency.
Maurice and Keith exchanged glances. In two seconds, they had conferred with each other wordlessly. It was just as well that they had done it silently: any sound could have given them away.
"New plan." Maurice whispered as he looked around the first floor of the house. From below, they could hear the rough, high sounds of a search party thrashing the floor below. Maurice pointed to an open window, moving towards it. But Abby shook her head violently.
"Are you crazy?" she quietly mouthed back. "What part of yer' body d' ya wanna break first?"
"It'll be fine." Keith reassured Abby as he, too walked over to the window. Turning to Maurice, he asked, "Any chance they'll get us as we land outside?"
"It's safe for now." The window opened into a backyard. Sure enough, there was as yet no-one on the small lawn, or anywhere close to it as far as the two of them could see. While the sounds of the battle raged overhead, right below them the grass remained pristine and untouched.
Maurice measured the drop mentally, calculating the speed of impact. Enough to do him some serious damage if he landed badly, but only if he did land badly. That was good enough. "I'll go first, and catch you guys when you get out."
Slowly, he climbed onto the window ledge. He steadied himself, bracing for impact.
Then suddenly behind him, he could hear voices. "It's not downstairs, we've got to move on up!"
Everyone gathered on the top floor instinctively froze.
The voices were getting closer. "...about time Moon Base issued a decent order, making us chase down these traitors- hey, you! On the top floor! Come out now!"
Abby's mind raced. How did they know? She looked at the staircase top, and could not see any part of the KND army to hit.
"Come on down, and nobody gets hurt!"
When she glanced at the wall, Abby suddenly understood. Their shadows! It had been printed on the wall of the landing. A dead giveaway.
She flashed a look to Maurice; there was no more time left. It was not a bluff. The KND really knew exactly where they all were. "Let's GO!"
Abby drew her rifle. The others followed her example as the first of the KND army climbed onto the second-floor landing, rifles flaring.
From the edge of his vision, Maurice could see the first bursts of green-blue fire, but he ignored it. He had one job only. Maurice jumped, landing hard on the grass outside. A pain shot though his right leg, but as he slowly put more weight on it, he realised it was OK. He was in place. "Right, jump now!"
Keith appeared at the window-ledge next, and slipped off the edge easily enough. Maurice caught him like one would catch a sack of potatoes, setting him down gently. He handed Keith his rifle. "Guard this place, they'll be on to us fast enough now that they know where we are."
Keith accepted the gift awkwardly, the rifle slightly oversized compared to him. In the backyard, he was able to see the aerial battle above for the first time, a veritable Fourth of July show three months early as craft dodged and shot missiles at each other. A humungous mecha off to the right that he knew belonged to the Delightful Children joined in the light show, firing indiscriminately upon the Kids Next Door craft. Correction - Distasteful Children. Ugh.
All the others quickly followed Keith through the window frame, Kuki making a real mess of her hair as she landed in Maurice's arms. All but Abby. Maurice looked at the window, expecting her to come through any second.
But the frame stayed vacant.
Panicking, Maurice turned to Hoagie. "Where's Abby?"
"She said she needed to protect Mr. Uno! They're still up there!"
Maurice stared at the window frame again. She's the crazy one, not me!
Then Abby's back appeared through the window. The blur of motion as she fell backwards caught Keith's attention, and for a split second his rifle was pointed back at the house, taking his mind off sentry duty.
"Abby!" Maurice caught her, and realised that her hand had been frozen, fused to the rifle she was holding. "Abby, you OK?"
Abby smiled weakly at Maurice. "They got me, but it's not bad - I'll live. Mr. Uno's fine." Carefully, she got off Maurice's arms and waved her now-paralysed right arm around for attention. "Someone help me break the ice? It's cold in there."
All her team-mates crowded around her, hacking away at her hand. But Keith just stood where he was, watching the window, aiming his rifle. Any second now...
A face appeared through the window, freckly and small. Keith fired.
The face fell backwards as the windowpane froze solid from the laser blast, a glowing blue-green seal of ice that prevented further attacks.
The rest of the team had reacted a half-second late, but there were no consequences thanks to Keith's shot. Presently, they shattered the ice covering Abby's arm. The rifle had to be jettisoned as it was frozen, but there did not appear to be any lasting effects to the user.
"Thanks!" Abby said as she shook her arm vigourously, trying to shake off the effects of the cold. "Numbuh Five owes y'all one for that!"
Maurice smiled at Keith, nodding approvingly. "Let's go!"
From high up in the air, dodging the laser fire of the Delightfuls, Numbuh Eighty-Six scanned the battlefield frantically, walking from window to window. As she got over to the right side, she was relieved to see the buses filling up her right flank. Troops poured out from their insides, setting up their weapons as if preparing for a prolonged siege.This thing could be like the Alamode all over again. Who the heck got those Delightfuls involved anyway? Numbuh Moron?
Nevertheless, the reinforcements were here; all she needed to do was provide air cover for them as they moved in. Could she do it?
She glanced round what remained of her squadron. Less than half were still airborne, scattered around her windshield like absurdly-shaped Lego blocks, just hanging there in the clear blue sky. But her heart lifted to see that she still had some support. From experience, she knew it would be enough for a few minutes.
Now she was optimistic. A plan was starting to form in her head. How best to use her troops?
What would Rachel do?
The treehouse grew bigger, starting to fill up the right hand side of the windscreen. The smoking wreck of one of her teams still lay in the small, burnt-out impact crater on the side of the treehouse. The closer she got to the treehouse, and by extension the Delightful Children, the more useless their long-range lasers was going to be against both her and ground support.
She keyed her microphone onto the general frequency. "Ground troops, move in! Squadron D, follow my lead!" Her fists clenched. "Let's give 'em hell."
BAM! The ship rattled and jumped straight into the air as it took a direct hit from the Delightful's laser. Numbuh Eighty-Six was forced to the floor, falling down in a faster manner than she'd like. As the ant-like troops on the field below started moving faster, Numbuh Eighty-Six dusted herself off and climbed to her feet. Rubbing her butt, she walked up to her pilot, staring past him, at the Delightful Children's machine.
The laser cannon fired again, the bolt flying over the top of her ship this time. The next shot would surely smash right through the windshield, turning the cockpit to dust.
But despite the urgency, she hesitated. The plan would mean almost certain doom for members of her squadron. Taking a deep breath, she looked around at her squadron again.
It had to be done.
She tapped her pilot's shoulder, pointing at the Delightful Children's monstrous craft. "Full speed ahead, soldier!"
The pilot looked at her with horror. "Numbuh Eighty-Six, you don't-"
"What did I tell you about telling me what I want and don't want? JUST DO IT!"
The pilot bit his lower lip, and his hands pushed the throttle all the way up. "Alright, we're going- hold on!"
Numbuh Eighty-Six wished she'd followed his advice, because for a second time, she was thrown back to the floor by the sudden acceleration. Landing on her butt again, this second time hurt way more than before, and she snarled in angry frustration as she dragged herself back up to her commander's chair, fighting against the massive thrust the engines provided to the craft. Butt, meet floor. Oh, you knew each other already? I'll just leave you two to catch up, then.
But again, she suppressed her anger. Experience had made her better at doing that. From her perspective, she could see that whatever was left of her squadron had followed her charge, a dozen or so flying houses hurtling through the air and firing everything they had at the Delightful Children in one last attack.
Dead ahead, the Delightful Children were halted in their progress, their machine getting hit by fire coming at them from all angles, their collective faces even at this distance visibly surprised by the sudden attack. As the details of the machine and its many arms came into closer view, Numbuh Eighty-Six permitted herself a small, vicious smile. Whatever the result of the battle, at least the Kids Next Door had scratched and dented the machine. Father would be most...unsatisfied.
Keith had taken over point duty from Abby, making it his business to peek round corners and scan the horizon before anyone else so much as moved a muscle. Sticking close to the sidewalk, sprinting from cover to cover, they were a good four houses down the street before he saw any movement.
"Hold on!"
Up ahead, a group of kids were walking past, but strangely, they were not searching the nearby houses for them. The ground troops were moving in a different direction, and as Keith looked up, he understood why.
In the air, the Kids Next Door had rallied for one final charge, aiming to destroy the Delightful Children once and for all. Surprisingly it seemed to be working, as the ground troops were able to get close enough to attack the Delightful Children's massive machine. How they were able to operate it, Keith didn't know, but he assumed that they would know how to anyway, being grown-up in all but name and age. What was important was that they were not the focus of the attack anymore.
The kids passed. Now that the target of the attack had switched, here was their window of opportunity. Yet Keith knew that among other things, Numbuh Eighty-Six might not make it out. It was a charge with all the hallmarks of futility, done only to provide cover for the hordes of kids below.
But as he looked back towards the charge something else caught his eye.
"Look!"
"Father will be most unsatisfied!" In horror, the Delightful Children examined the sky before them, staring out their bubble cockpit at the dozen or so rapidly growing dots, fully-sized houses that hurtled towards them at unimaginable speeds.
From within the mix of bodies, one finger reached out and hit a red button, next to the small green screen that told them their targets were closing in from all directions. Four mechanical arms shot out before them, aimed at their targets.
The rest would have to be dealt with by old-fashioned laser fire.
Leaning over the dashboard, the Delightful Children groaned as they saw a suitcase-sized hole blasted clean through the bottom of their pod. Another few feet higher and they'd be beaten for good, finished off in a way not even Numbuh One could manage to do three years ago. A good thing they had shot down that craft first, but Father could literally burn them for the damage it had done to the Really Incredibly Destructive Machine. For once, the good kids were in no hurry to get home.
And then their green radar screen flashed red. Inexplicably, behind them, was another craft - one that had swung around in a wide arc from the treehouse, and was now headed straight for them. A warning tone sounded, rising in its intensity and frequency. Beep-beep-beep-
"What the-"
The tone extended into one continuous sound, that single, piercing tone that signaled a missile lock.
Beeeeep...
From the ground, hidden by a garden hedge, Abby and her team-mates watched, transfixed as the aerial battle came to a head.
In the far distance, the solitary camper swerved and zig-zagged, avoiding the lasers and flying arms of the Really Incredibly Destructive Machine. Left, right, left, right again, it appeared to know every single move that the machine would throw at it, and Abby was transfixed by the movement. She stared at the speck, almost as if she needed to remember every move the craft made. First left, then a small dive...
Then, Wally startled her back into action. "Well? Let's go, guys! We don't got all day 'round here, y'know?"
A new voice spoke up behind them. "You ain't got much time left here anyways, so come quiet or don't come at all!"
Instantly, all six turned their backs on the aerial action. But Keith was faster. His rifle snapped into position, and two shots caused the KND agents behind them to duck.
That was the cue for all hell to break loose.
Expecting return fire, all six threw themselves to the ground, and the shots flew over their prone bodies. Dragging themselves, they jumped over the hedge just as the shots froze it behind them.
Turning the corner, they zig-zagged through the streets, getting as far away from the battle as possible, cutting first left, then right, diving into front yards as they saw fit.
But curiously, their pursuers seemed to lose steam and lose track of them just as it mattered most. Slowly, but surely, the patter of their footsteps away.
"Whew." Abby wiped her brow as she sat in the front lawn of a foreign house. "That was close."
But it wasn't until she looked at the rest of her team-mates that she realised what was wrong.
"Where's Keith and Maurice?"
Numbuh Eighty-Six watched as her team-mates went down all around her. One by one, their returns on the radar screen disappeared, the small dots flashing out of existence on the screen. But a new craft had appeared on the screen, too - one that had snuck up on their enemy from behind.
She attempted to call that unit. "Unidentified SCAMPER, do you read me?"
No answer.
The Delightful Children loomed larger then ever. Below them, however, the Kids Next Door had established control of their massive legs. The string team were busy tying their legs together, using the best KND grade yarn there was. All they needed was for the aerial assault to continue for another few minutes.
Then suddenly, another blast sheared the right side of her craft clean off.
The sudden, roaring sound of air filled the cabin. If she had not been buckled in, she would have been sucked right out in that instant. As it were, everything that wasn't secured was blown out of the gaping hole in the side. Papers, weapons and a Rainbow Monkey all fell out of the hole, plunging to the ground far, far below.
Through the wind, she yelled at her pilot, who had started to close the throttles. "Keep going!"
Shakily, the pilot obeyed.
This was a date with destiny.
Maurice had gotten himself quite badly lost in the hedgerow. The twisting and turning worked fine for the small, agile kids, but for a sixteen-year old boy it was hard work. And now he had lost the other members of his group, too.
As he disengaged from the bush, he froze.
"Come quiet!"
The three Kids Next Door agent had their rifles leveled against the unarmed teenager.
Desperately, Maurice looked around him: not a soul in sight to help him. It was useless. Maurice raised his hands; his three guards broke into boyish grins.
"Well, that was easy! Let's get this guy, and we might still make it for Meatball Sandwich lunch-"
Off to the left, however, a blur of motion made Maurice instinctively duck.
One shot felled the first kid. The other two instinctively looked at who was doing the shooting.
It was Keith.
The return fire was intense, Keith having to drop to the floor to evade the shots. Maurice gasped at Keith. "I don't - What?"
Keith only smiled. Just then, the two remaining kids looked away from Keith again. Lifting the rifles, they didn't level them at Keith. Instead, they were going to freeze Maurice-
"Look out!"
Keith bowled Maurice out of the way, forcing Maurice to roll over and over, earth and sky interchanging in a whir of blue and green.
"Keith!"
Laser blasts. Laser shots flew all around him, bright blue and green mixing with brown. And then he stopped, his body hitting the wall.
His friends were here. Abby, Kuki, Wally and Hoagie. They had taken down the two remaining agents. Two flashes of blue-green; two hits.
Weakly, Maurice scrambled to his feet, world still spinning. He braced himself against the wall to steady his motion. Slowly, his body righted itself. With balance came co-ordination, and the ability to move, and think, and remember-
Oh, God no-
Maurice ran over to Keith just as the others got to the same spot. The initial signs were not good. Keith was lying perfectly still on his back, frozen from the chest down.
"Oh, Keith-"
By this time Kuki, as the one with real-life medical experience, had joined Maurice. The two of them turned Keith over. His face was still moving, struggling to catch a breath. In between gasps, Keith looked at Maurice with a weak smile. "I-I told the others. To come back and get you. I told them...I told them no-one gets left behind. Not this time."
His mission done, Keith heaved a small sigh of relief, and closed his eyes.
Numbuh Eighty-Six knew, without needing to be told so, that this would be the last time. The ship would definitely not survive another hit in one piece.
And yet the attack needed to be pressed. Leadership meant choices. It meant decisions. It meant, in some cases, sacrifice. Here it would mean all three.
Below her, the string team was almost all the way around. Ahead of her, the Delightful Children's laser started again. In a nervous fit, she gripped her armrest. There was no turning back now: the people below needed her help the most at precisely this moment.
And then, through her headphones-
"Pull up! Pull out now!"
Numbuh Eighty-Six shot bolt upright. "Who are you?" she roared back. But it was merely a formality, a wartime casualness, because the voices on the other end of the line sounded very familiar.
"We're on your side! Pull out! We'll take care of the situation."
Dead ahead was the Delightful Children, filing up her windscreen.
Numbuh Eighty-Six hesitated. The laser fired-
"Pull up!"
She steeled herself. One last order. Which would it be?
"Alright then-PULL UP!"
The laser hit, and sheared the floor beneath Numbuh Eighty-Six's seat right off.
For an instant, she was falling, falling, her hands scrambling madly for something to hold on to as she slipped out of the back of the craft-
Gotcha!
She clung on to the edge, holding on to a piece of plywood as her pilot pulled back with all his might. Dangling over empty space, the only thing between her and a hundred-foot fall her own two hands, she braced herself as the fragment shot into the air like a rocket, the only sensation the feeling of gale-force winds ripping through every fiber of her body.
But then she realised that her craft was leveling out. Leveling out enough, in fact, for her to climb back on board, ever so slightly. Soon it was flat enough for her to pull her body flat to the deck. Weakly, she crawled back on deck, and asked her pilot, "Are we out?"
"We are clear, ma'am, and out of firing range. We'll be setting a course for home base and should be there in another ten minutes."
Numbuh Eighty-Six couldn't relax just yet. "And what-what about the troops?"
The pilot shook his head. "Too much happening to see what happened. When we're back at home base we'll do an after-action report and see who we do and don't have."
Fanny grunted, and heaved her body further away from the exposed back. It could wait.
Maurice carried Keith gently as he spoke to the remaining team-members.
"You guys have to go to Gallagher Elementary School. There you will find what you're missing. Me and Keith, we've got to find out what's going on, and that means a trip to Moon Base to communicate with our backers. There are forces at play here that clearly go beyond what's normal for stuff like this. If you guys work out, we'll meet up again; if not, I wish you every success in your future. Good luck!"
The rest of the team nodded, even though they only understood about half of the instructions.
But Kuki raised her hand. "Is Keith going to be alright?"
Maurice closed his eyes and breathed softly. "He'll need advanced medical treatment at Moon Base. It's not your normal ice, this stuff - it's been developed by Kids Next Door scientists to get at villains. Small chunks break off, like Abby's, but I don't know what happens with bigger ones. But I think he'll be alright - he's just sleeping at the moment. Hopefully he'll be up, though certainly not moving, when we're about halfway to the Moon."
Abby spoke up. "How are you guys going to get there?"
Maurice nodded knowingly. "For that, I have a plan. But it's none of your concern. The only thing you guys need to worry about at the moment is getting through those trials. But hey, you got through this alright - it should be a cinch. Remember, you wouldn't be chosen if we weren't sure you at least had a good chance of passing."
Maurice nodded at them again. Over their heads, the sun was low in the sky again, though it was a fair way from setting. Remarkable, how time had passed so quickly when their attentions were focused on other things.
Without another word, the two parties walked off in their opposite directions, chasing their different destinies.