Chapter 11 Embers of Restraint
"Where am I?"
Shana began to subconsciously think.
"Where am I?"
She remembered a dream where she got knocked out by a piece of wood, then followed by a yellow liquid blast flooding on her.
"Where am I?" Her mind began to ask again
That is when she finally woke up.
There is nothing more interesting that to see that the Flame Haired Fury-Eyed Hunter is finally awake. Sydonay and Yuji are actually waiting for her to wake up, staring at her from the moment they recovered their consciousness.
Shana woke up and stretch her arms out. Before, she is wearing a black coat that covers her entire body, the treasure tool unique to her named Yogosa. However, this time around, she wore a white blouse with a green ribbon and collar, and a green skirt, the uniform of the Misaki City High School. Her hair and red eyes also turned to a distinctive black hair of the same length, and brown eyes, giving her away as an ordinary Japanese high school girl.
"Finally, she's awake..." Sydonay commented. Upon hearing that, Shana was quick to react, immediately going to the location of the hilt of her sword, the Nietono no Shana, is placed, grab it, and defeat the Crimson Lord in a battle. Unfortunately, the weapon is nowhere to be found, so is its case.
She tried to use option two: summon Alastor's flames to burn him down, but she soon noticed that no power from her contractor flowed to her veins, an event she is not even used too in such cases of emergency.
"Shana, we have a serious problem..." Yuji spoke up. Shana turned to him, yelling out "What Yuji? That I can't use my powers to take down that member of the Trinity?"
"Could you rephrase that instead?" Sydonay said, smiling at both of them. He soon continued "That I could've extracted the Reiji Maigo and killed one of the most powerful Flame Hazes to have ever lived?"
At that, Shana lunged at Sydonay and landed a punch at him. Sydonay felt the sting of the pain, and said "Even without the power of your Crimson Lord, you sure are strong."
"SHUT UP!" Shana yelled out loud. "Even by my own strength I will..."
"Shana, stop!" A voice resonated all throughout the place, an echo that resounded all over. It actually came from Shana's necklace, the vessel of the Crimson Lord Shana is contracted to. "You have more problems than Sydonay and the whole Bal Masque combined. Look around you and take notice!"
At that, Shana stood back and looked around her. She noticed that they are inside a prison cell, with the walls and ceilings made up of ice, and a solid glass door as the gate. There are no bars around the place, but the temperature inside the prison cell would not make them cold despite of this design.
"Where are we?" Shana called out.
"A better question is who holds us." Yuji stressed out. "Last time I remembered, I was hit on the head by a piece of wood, so is Sydonay. I don't even have Blutsauger with me to help."
"We talked earlier about the possible culprit, and I heard that they came by the name Kids Next Door..." Sydonay continued "Damn it. I have no cigarettes with me, even Shitetsu Nyoi to twirl."
"As promised, I'll explain things." Shana's necklace spoke up. "Shana, you better listen to this, because this is important."
Meanwhile, the headquarters of the Kids Next Door Arctic Command is on high alert. The KND Soopreme Leader (which is decently spelled out like that by the KND) is paying a visit, all to check the conditions of the newly-held prisoners.
A group of S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s. landed in the receiving bay of the Arctic Base. It is dark outside the base, all because of the onset of the very long Arctic winter night. The S.C.A.M.P.E.R.s landed smoothly and several children came from them, highly armed with several KND hand-held weapons. That is when the front most S.C.A.M.P.E.R. finally opened its side doors, and 7 kids came out from inside it. 5 of them are the all too familiar Sector V, but the two others are different. Both of them wore helmets and both are girls, but they are different in every other way. One has a red hair while the other has blond hair. One wore an orange shirt with some tiger-like strips on the sides, while the other a dark green shirt. Even their helmets are different. One wore a Japanese Samurai Helmet, but with a metal bowl as the main helmet and two silvery blue objects that represents the helmet type's metal 'crescent moon', while the others wears a different Japanese Samurai helmet, a strainer for the main helmet with a cheese grater to act like chain-mail to protect the ears. One of them bore the Number 362, the other the Number 86, on their helmets on green plates with yellow writings on it.
The said group of children walked to a hallway, where one, the one bearing the number 86, yelled "Six months without a decommissioning mission, and I'm stuck here guarding the Soopreme Leader, a dorky GKND agent, many males, and a silly Aussie Wallabee!"
"What the heck?" Numbuh 4 yelled "Can you have a day without yelling at me?"
"Could everyone just calm down..." the one bearing the number 362 on the head remarked "We're here to check the condition of the prisoners. As planned, we will interrogate them today."
"Arrgh... any better day than hiring me as your bodyguard?" Numbuh 86 groaned in disappointment.
"Well, I'm planning to make you the lead interrogator." Numbuh 362 replied with a smile "I bet you're the best lady for the job."
Numbuh 86 grinned and replied "Is that true?"
Numbuh 2 and 4 turned to each other, both with a sign of worrying in their face. All they know is this interrogation will get pretty... ugly.
"Let me get this straight Alastor..." Shana remarked, standing while staring on the outside of their prison cell. "The Kids Next Door is an organization composed of children that caught us to unlock things about the Crimson Realm?"
"Yes." the male voice from the necklace of the girl girl spoke "Based on what I heard when we are captured, they placed us here in order to know more about the Seal, which we know is the Fuzetsu."
"But Alastor..." Yuji remarked, in which Shana turned around to face him, sitting on the opposite side where Sydonay is standing in a slacking position "That doesn't explain why no one is able to use Powers of Unrestraint in this place."
"That is something I also need to know." Sydonay remarked. He gave a smug and continued "First, a country personification that happened to be a Flame Haze, then a group of children outwitting a Crimson Lord, things go into a turnaround quickly than I expected."
"All we could do now is to speculate." Alastor remarked. "I can't connect everything down to the last details. All I could say is that something is not right..."
On the other hand, the control room where the Arctic Base Commander, Numbuh 60, operates, is on heightened focus on the prison cell of the three Flame Manipulators.
A couple of children with him is also operating the control panel in front of him, checking up all the statuses of the other prisoners in the Arctic base, like the infamous Candy Pirate Stickybeard and his crew of three of his most trusted pirates, Gallangher Elementary School President Jimmy Nixon McGarfield and his secretary Anna Worthington, and several other people, children or not children, who have contacts to their Ultimate Enemy, Father, or doing any crimes that is related to tyranny against children.
Despite of all of this effort, their current focus is on eliminating a threat that has long escaped their observation, a threat that already made several children disappear without a trace, until now.
Sector V's mission is the first of its kind, where the Kids Next Door manages to capture the masterminds of the Seal, two teenagers and an adult, which they perceive as cooperating to exact a toll on the younger population that many adults deem as useless.
Suddenly, the door of the room opened up, and that is when seven children came in the scene. Numbuh 362, 86, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, all entering the room calmly. Numbuh 60 turned around to greet them with a salute, and Numbuh 362 returned it by saluting him back. After that, they simultaneously lowered their arms, and Numbuh 60 replied "Mam, the Flame Manipulators we have are already awake."
"Good then..." Numbuh 362 replied "So, is there anything unusual that we found so far?"
"Mam, we did get an unusual reading from their DNA..." Numbuh 60 remarked. He then yelled "Numbuh 988, show to the Soopreme Leader what we got."
At that moment, the surveillance cameras on the large screen behind him grew smaller as a task bar icon, and the a screen showing the IDs of the prisoners and the remarkable observations of their DNA and their abnormalities are shown, with wording on what they have found out.
"According to what we got, based on the research conducted by Sector R..." Numbuh 60 said "The DNA they got from the male adult is unusually... out of this world."
"By that, you mean what?" Numbuh 86 angry yelled back.
"Calm down Fanny..." Numbuh 362 remarked "This is not the time to seriously consider this."
"Hmmph, what the point..." Numbuh 86 turned her back at her "I won't bother letting a male discuss things at me."
Numbuh 4 whispered something about her to Numbuh 2, and this took Numbuh 86 to wrestle them in retaliation, in which all the other members just stared, and Numbuh 1 giving a facepalm to his face.
"Anyways..." Numbuh 362 remarked "How out of this world can you make it?"
"Well.." Numbuh 60 remarked "We can't compare it in DNA form. In fact, his DNA is so volatile that the only way to study it is by converting in to flames, then comparison is now possible."
"Which fits the GKND description of Flame Manipulators." Numbuh 1 remarked, pondering the information also, all while the Numbuhs 2, 4 and 86 are fighting in the background. "They have to sustain their Force by absorbing a person's Force, and the reason why we consider them as a threat." He then lowered his arm and continued "Nothing else than that?"
"His Flame color is Muddy Violet, and aside from that, nothing else is known about him." Numbuh 60 remarked.
"How about the teenage boy?" Numbuh 1 remarked "We saw him capable of using flames of silver in color."
"We took his DNA and we are surprised it is more stable than that of the male." Numbuh 60 remarked "We also looked at his registry in the Japanese civil registry and we got this information..."
At that, the whole personal biography of Yuji showed up on the screen, a biography which took Numbuh 362 off guard.
"He's the son of Kantaro Sakai?" Numbuh 362 remarked.
"What's with him?" Numbuh 1 remarked.
"I'll tell that one later..." Numbuh 362 remarked. "Aside from that, what else are there?"
"His flame color is Silver... and Black." Numbuh 60 said, with a pause in between "The Black color comes from a different DNA that is as volatile as the what the male adult got."
"Interesting..." Numbuh 362 remarked. "How about the high school girl."
"The Numbers of the Dinosaurs are present." Numbuh 60 spoke up. That code is very well known for Numbuh 362, 1, and 86. Numbuh 86 stopped her brawling when she heard the code very well. Numbuh 60 then continued "I can't show the code in front of everyone in here. It's highly classified."
"I understand." Numbuh 362 remarked. "I want the entire room to be empty of agents, NOW!"
"You heard the Soopreme Leader." Numbuh 60 yelled "Empty the room, NOW!"
"You heard her." Numbuh 86 yelled even louder "PUT YOUR LOUSY FEET IN YOUR SHOES AND OUT OF THIS ROOM!"
Every agent, aside from Numbuhs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 60, 86, 362, and 988, left the room. The door and all windows present is sealed shut with a sound-proof metal panel, and after that, Numbuh 86 yelled "The Numbers of the Dinosaurs? You better be serious with that code!"
"What, was is that code about?" Numbuh 3 remarked with uneasiness.
"It's a universal code..." Numbuh 1 remarked "It is the code for any person... who bears the code numbuh of a TND agent!"
A/N: Surprised? How come Shana manages to have a code of a TND agent? What does this imply to the KND? Find Out!
