Hello and welcome to yet another chapter ladies and gentlemen. I've been reading your reviews and seeing who's been following me and it made me so happy and then I compared it to the growth of my old books and instantly got sad again. Like Jesus Christ I got around 300 reviews on a book I barely proofread and now I'm putting effort into this one and I have 14 reviews. Ah life is funny that way. Anyway hope you enjoy this chapter and let's jump right in.
Chapter 14 – The Beginning of the End
Rachel and her entire party of generals and veterans, scientists and doctors and lastly and most importantly, the entire Teen council converged into a large meeting room inside moon base.
In the hangars of the moon base were KND bombers and fighters waiting for the go ahead from Rachel and Kuki. KND Capital ships were also placed on standby waiting for orders from their superiors.
This meeting is the first meeting of top Teen officials and the KND government, the first time Cree and Abby could sit across from each other without pointing a weapon under the table and the first time in years Rachel and her sister Janet sat in front of each other on common ground.
The air of the room was filled with awkward gestures. No one knew what to do or what to say. No one knew how to start the conversation. Cree and Maurice kept shooting glances at Abby as they began to worry that Rachel wouldn't step up and speak.
Rachel continued to shuffle papers in front of her, rereading the pages two, three, ten times over pretending that she needed as much time to read the not so important documents.
She wasn't alone. Janet pretended that if she gave her holopad as much attention as possible it would win the war. She covered her mouth and swiped up and down the pages of reports just telling her the same thing. "We're losing ground and the war."
Wally and Nigel sat there annoyed. They wanted to be on the ground by now but Rachel hadn't given the word. They needed her go ahead and this meeting would give such the order for the joint operation of Teens and Kids to attack the US continent. No use bombing if the invasion was yet to be under way.
Nigel kept saying that he'd simply wait for more KND and Teen operatives to arrive back. That way he'd have more troops to invade with. Wally didn't find any solace in the thought of more troops. They've massed more operatives than they could hold in moon base and they're just sitting there waiting for orders.
Yet the only thing stopping them from achieving their goals is two people wanting to avoid an awkward conversation.
Wally looked at Kuki across the table. He shot a glance at Rachel then back to Kuki vaguely begging her to do something about it. It is Kuki's job after all.
Kuki pretended to clear her throat. Both Rachel and Janet, desperate to pay attention to anything other than the elephant in the room, both looked at her.
"I think…we should get on with the talks, don't you think Rachel?"
Rachel diverted her attention back to her files and nodded seeming to beg Kuki to do it for her but Kuki wasn't quite that brave. She knew Janet to be a classic kid hater finding fault in basically anything put in front of her, so she didn't want to start the talks only to set the invasion back by somehow insulting the Teens, in particular Janet.
"Yes…we need to agree on how our joint invasion will occur. Right Janet?"
Cree broke the ice hard. She knew this was hard for both of them but their emotions matter little to those who were fighting for their freedom and lives on Earth.
"I…agree." Janet finally said.
"Great…can we begin? The longer we wait-" Kuki cut Wally off with a fake cough. She pointed out he was already getting a few glares from the Teen generals.
"No, Number four is right we- we need to begin. Um…Council member Janet, do you agree with the battle plans we have written out?" Rachel finally spoke up; a collective breath across the room was silently felt.
Janet kept quiet, playing with the curls in her hair and staring at nothing important on her holopad. She nodded in agreement.
"Great, now-"
"Whoa, whoa, there kid." One of the Teen generals spoke out. "I need to know where all of us are going. Half of the Teens from around the world aren't even here yet and this tree house is at max capacity. What the fuck-"
"Chill the fuck out Brad." Janet spat out quickly sending shock waves throughout the room. This was the most vocal she has been since they arrived in moon base and her first real words are in defense of her sister? This really set a serious shift in reality for the Teens. No longer were the KND just allies, they should be defended.
"Look," Janet said throwing her holopad onto the desk in front of her. "The plan's good, just start the invasion. Wherever the hell Teens have to be they'll be there." Janet stood up and threw her hands up in defense.
The other Teens in the room stood up in respect behind her standing at attention. "I-I…I need a drink. When I'm done I'll be in the war room. Meeting adjourned or whatever."
She quickly walked out of the room and shut the door behind her. The Teens were sympathetic to her but a few turned to their now allies and gave subtle smiles and nods. They did it.
"Alright…Hoagie…you have permission to start the air attack." Rachel spoke with a smile on her face still blushing from the embarrassment mind you.
Hoagie nodded and walked out of the room followed by Wally. When Wally walked out Kuki quickly sprung from her seat and walked out the door as well.
"Alright," Nigel nodded with a small smile to Rachel and saluted. "Madame…President." He said before he walked out.
As Hoagie walked over to the hangar bay that held his personalized Skyclaw he talked to himself trying to keep calm. This time he would be in the Adult's airspace, this time he'd have to face the Fw-190 with no restrictions, this time he'd actually have to shoot them down, all of them if that's even possible.
Since the announcements were launched, five days have passed. Evacuating and transporting all kids and Teens to moon base has been a challenge but Hoagie has taken the time to really help the KND air force.
He and Ace got to know the Teen pilots and their aircraft as well. In return he and Ace had to do a few tasks especially for the teen boys. Get this girl's number, watch the door, you know, that sort of stuff.
In return the teenagers shared a lot of what makes their aircraft so good. The Teen's fighter aircraft of choice is called the Cycle. The Cycle is basically a normal road bike that, at the press of a few buttons, turns into a very fast and agile fighter aircraft.
The downside of the Cycle is while its engines are very powerful they don't work as well as the KND's engines in outer space. They didn't need too, the Cycle, while possessing a cockpit, can't leave the atmosphere.
So, Hoagie and Ace made a deal with the Teen pilots. They would give them Skyclaws if they would give them the Teenagers Cycles engines to modify the Skyclaws.
Both parties were happy with the deal. Now, the KND's modulated Skyclaw has two more engines on either wing. The four engines on the Skyclaw from the Cycles craft make the craft much faster in the atmosphere and the afterburning KND engines can be used in space or as a booster in the atmosphere (at the expense of higher fuel consumption).
The Skyclaw is 10 times faster now, still nowhere near the speed of the adult's Fw-190 but fast enough to catch one off guard. Hoagie and Ace stripped everything that wasn't necessary out of the plane. Any system or subsystem that took up space and added weight to the aircraft was instantly thrown out. Even if it made the craft a decimal slower it was gone.
Even though they kept the infamous name of Skyclaw the Claw of the craft was the first thing they sawed off.
Hoagie and Ace made lots of adjustments to other aircraft as well. The Coolbus was refitted into a close air support bomber due to the hopeless nature of the craft.
According to the veteran pilots the plane's design was terrible right down to the very shape of the craft. It was slow and it didn't have many guns so they put in a few more turrets and a huge bomb bay and called it a bomber.
The Scamper was redesigned into a strike fighter and transport plane able to drop off an entire squad of troops or a tank.
With enough planning and redesigning all happening in the span of 5 days Hoagie and Ace's hands were full. Some aircraft weren't even retrofitted into their upgraded states but they couldn't wait.
But Hoagie was confident. Seeing they finally knew the weaknesses of the Fw-190 they knew how to beat it and trick any adult pilot flying it.
But the plan was still simple. Hoagie and Ace would destroy the Fw-190s before they could even get off the ground. Destroy their fuel storage preventing them from even getting off the ground was their goal.
But before Hoagie could make it to the hangar Tommy and his sector got in the way.
"Whoa! Where are you going big bro? What are we still doing here? Come on we're ready to go and fight!" Tommy spoke for the whole group. Sonia and Lee were very quiet and looking more worried than inspired to fight.
"You have your assignments." Hoagie said plainly. "Where's your squad leader? Go bug him I gotta get to my squadron."
"We don't know our squad leader yet and we don't know our mission! Oh come on Hoagie! We can help! I got a class in flight training!"
"You told me you cry on planes when there's turbulence."
"Sonia this is not the time." Tommy quieted her.
"Tommy, this is important alright? Believe me, you guy are going to see some action soon."
Tommy burst into a fit of excitement pumping his fist into the air and jumping up and down.
"Very odd…" Lee chipped in.
"What offensive are we doing? Are we going to China? China's so cool! Wait, wait! We should go to London! Yeah! We could take on Father!"
"You're literally insane. He's made of fire!" Sonia shouted and shook Tommy.
"Look, you three will have your jobs. Just get ready, stay close to your squad leader, shoot at the enemy and keep your heads down. I have enough to worry about. Got it?"
Sonia and Lee gladly saluted Hoagie as he walked away but Tommy was still thirsty for action. Sonia rolled her eyes and looked over to Lee.
"Think it's time to tell him?" She asked the quiet boy.
"Possibly." Lee responded.
"Tell me what? Who's our squad leader anyway?"
Sonia sighed. "It's Number one-"
And at the notion of Number one Tommy screamed in excitement.
Inside the hangar bay communication tower Fanny stood behind KND operatives typing away at their computer screens, surveying maps and triple checking radar monitors for the hundredth time. Finally, one of the operatives shouted for the whole room to hear.
"Green light, we have green light from command! The mission is a go!"
Fanny nodded and pointed at the leader of the communication tower shouting instructions as she began to walk out the room. "Launch all squadrons and give them their assignments."
The boy saluted, opened the door for Fanny and closed it behind her as she walked out. Right in front of her was Nigel wearing a few more pieces of armor and gear than his usual.
Nigel wore a light pad of armor that was strapped over his chest. He also had two holsters on either side of him that held two laser pistols along with his Scampper he held in his hand.
"You're with me apparently." Nigel commented.
Fanny shrugged and answered "Apparently so." She averted her eyes away from Nigel taking the lead as they walked towards the hangar bay.
Inside, Hoagie along with his squadron of fighters were rushing into their aircrafts but Nigel stopped Hoagie as he began to climb into his.
"This is it isn't it?" Nigel asked Hoagie with a smile.
"It is…we'll get you on the ground safe. Just make sure you get any AA guns."
"Right, stay safe up there."
"And you keep your head on your shoulders."
Fanny came in and cut their conversation short. "Sorry to interrupt but where is Number four?"
We find Wally inside the only quiet armory inside the KND moon base. It was empty with no one else inside. Wally relished in the silence, listening to himself breath and move about.
Wally slung on his pad of armor over his chest. He grabbed a helmet and plopped it on his head and grabbed a short sledgehammer slinging it over his shoulder onto his back. He to grabbed a Scampper and closed the armory locker.
He breathed hard and heard someone behind him, quickly turning around to see Kuki.
"You're…scared." She whispered.
"I'm fine."
"It's okay to be scared Wally. I'm not a drill instructor, I'm not your VP, I'm Kuki."
"Believe me, I know." Wally chuckled.
They stood there in front of each other, awkwardly avoiding each other's eyes. They had things to address as well. They both interrupted each other as they said each other's names only adding to the awkwardness.
"Look…Wally I want to talk about the kiss but we haven't had time too."
"I um…I wanted to as well."
"Please just…make it back to me- to us."
Wally chuckled. "Kuki I'm going to make it back. Especially to you." Wally quickly ended his statement pulling her into a kiss. Less gracefully than you may hope but…practice does make perfect.
Kuki couldn't care less. It was perfect to her.
With that, leaving Kuki in utter bliss Wally walked towards the door and down the hall. Kuki, still holding her bottom lip quickly turned around to shout at Wally down the hall.
"Does this mean…anything?"
Wally just continued to chuckle. "It means everything." He shouted back.
And that right there made Kuki hop and skip right back to Rachel to probably to tell her everything.
After Wally was finished getting a few smacks over the head from Fanny and being kicked onto the transport Fanny ordered the mission to start.
Inside the apparent space worthy flying school bus Nigel, Fanny, Wally, Sector W, S, Y and Z along with 15 more KND infantry soldiers all stood inside the transport, holding onto bus straps that were suspended from the ceiling.
While Nigel was pretending to listen to Tommy's plan of attack, Fanny was busy staring at her holopad waiting for their objectives.
To ensure they kept the advantage of surprise they hadn't told anyone outside of KND and Teen command of what they were doing and what the plan was. Even Nigel, Fanny and Hoagie didn't know exactly where in America they would be striking until they were already on their transports.
But the message came and Fanny's eyes lit up. She sighed but knew this mission was perfect for them all.
"Alright grunts listen up! We are invading the Delightful Mansion from Down the Lane. Our objectives are to take and hold the mansion and if possible capture the Delightful Children from Down the Lane."
Everyone in the ship reluctantly accepted the mission; accept for Tommy who was excited with everything.
Hoagie got his mission information, to cover the invasion of the Delightful Manor. Hoagie was nervous but he knew he had to shake off the feeling. Fw-190s presence would be in the area.
Reentry came and went. The ships handled well under the heat and pressure but the real battle had yet to start.
With such a large presence of ships coming in from space the radars of the Delightful Children had to be screaming. Heavy AA and Flak guns on the surface fired their guns at the KND's ships.
Most of the shells bounced of the shields but a few got through doing minor hull damage to the capital ships. They began to fire back with their heavy laser cannons and artillery guns to draw the surface fire to the capital ships that could soak up damage.
The transports zoomed pass and made a quick break to get to the ground. The guns quickly turned to the transports. They were inaccurate hitting the faster ships but were deadly if they had.
With a total 100 transports zooming to the ground they were bound to hit something if they just kept their fire up. The Adults began to give up on being accurate and just started firing into the crowd of ships.
The Flak rounds exploded near ships and damaged them. Hitting engines, crew and even hitting them head on. Ships began to burst into flames and fall to the ground.
Hoagie and his pilots swooped in to put a stop to it all. They strafed the AA guns and Flak and terrified the adults as they demanded air support on their radios.
Soon, the slower bombers came in and started quickly picking off the Adults installations.
The Delightful children did…'clean up'.
They ordered pillboxes and trenches to be made on their front lawn. Machine guns were neatly placed in windows for gun nests and more and more adult troopers were called in.
The Delightful Children expected such an attack.
The bombers turned their sights onto the mansion itself bombing it as well. They did minimal damage however as the mansion was refitted with even thicker walls and reinforced steel.
The bombers were left strafing the mansion with its gunners barely dodging the remaining Flak guns.
"This is Foxtrot 2; we're making our last pass on the mansion!" One of the bombers shouted into her radio.
The bomber did a hard turn cutting its speed in half. The Adults on the ground, hungry for another kill, concentrated on the bomber.
It was hit, half of the bomber's wing was broken off and it went barreling into the ground.
The AA persisted firing into the crowd of planes. Another plane was shot down into a ball of fire. Another was sent veering off into a tree. Then, Nigel's transport was hit.
The wing's tip was blown off and the transport went spiral down towards the ground in an uncontrollable dive. The pilot struggled to regain some sort of control but it was too late.
The transport barreled down and crashed onto the front lawn of the manor crashing into a flak gun. Everyone inside was jostled around and dazed.
Fanny and Wally were the first to come too. Fanny looked around as everyone else struggled to get a grip with reality. Her head retained an extreme headache that she ignored.
Gun fire and explosions outside of the vessel were muffled. Adult troopers shouted cries and orders to hold their lines and continue firing outside the craft, too busy dealing with the other crafts to even check on this crashed one.
"Number four…get up we need to get moving." Fanny struggled as she dragged herself to the front of the transport to check on the pilot's condition.
Wally started waking up everyone. He grabbed his weapon and pulled Nigel to his side.
"Number one, you good?" Wally asked.
"Yes…come on," Nigel held his weapon tight and pushed on the transport's hatch to open it. It was tough to open but the weakened Nigel pushed through letting shining light and the sounds of war roar inside the craft.
"We need to keep moving!" Nigel shouted, the shining bright light giving him enough energy to push out and onto the front lawn instantly gunning down five adults before he jumped into cover.
Sonia was busy helping Fanny tend to the pilot's injures as Lee and Tommy jumped out of the transport. The guns blazing Tommy tried to storm forward into a wall of bullets but Nigel quickly yanked him into cover.
"Are you bloody mad?!" Nigel shouted over explosions and gun fire.
"You said we have to push forward!"
"Not without the tanks! Number four!" Nigel shouted for Wally. He barrel rolled from out of his cover and next to Nigel. "Where are the Stanks!?"
"How the heck should I know?! Err, come here kid!" Wally shouted for Lee who was returning fire.
"Yes sir!"
"Radio command, I want to know where the hell our tanks are!" An explosion threw dirt over their heads only prompting Wally to bark more orders. "And ask them where our top cover is too!"
Fanny jumped out the destroyed transport and rushed into cover. "Don't even bother, they bloody shot down the tanks and Number two's dealing with fighters. We're on our own!"
"Alright, we have to push while we have momentum, forward! For the Kids Next Door!" Nigel shouted going over the top with his squad following him.
Up in the air Hoagie was tied up with Adult fighter jets. Maneuvering to avoid their constant laser fire was difficult but not impossible.
Hoagie did as much as he could to shake the adults off his tail. He flew through trees, close to the ground and almost scratched paint off the KND's capital ships but the Fw-190s were too quick to out run.
Lucky enough, Hoagie knew how to outsmart them.
He pushed his nose down and went into a 90 degree dive pushing his engines to the limit even turning on the extras for even more speed. The two Fw-190s took this as a joke. Hoagie was doing fine maneuvering and dodging their fire, all of a sudden he thinks he can out run them?
They gladly followed in the dive maxing their engines out easily catching up to Hoagie.
Taking a page out of Ace's tricks for flying, Hoagie cut all engine power off and pulled up hard. The Fw-190's zoomed right pass Hoagie obviously confused.
But, they didn't realize they were going way too fast. Their planes were locked in the dive and they couldn't pull up in time before they slammed into the ground.
"Aha! Splash two baby!" Hoagie shouted into his headset. He peered down at the ensuing battle. Taking note that there were no tanks he swooped down to provide some support.
He strafed machine gun nests, rocketed adults in trenches scared anyone inside the manor to death due to Hoagie's too close for comfort flying. The Delightful Children inside stood there at a window gawking at the battle outside.
They watched as their adult forces slowly crumbled away. They watched as gun emplacements were over ran, as ammo supplies exploded and as their demise slowly gained ground towards them.
"We've…lost…" Bruce, the shorter blonde headed boy spoke out of sync with the others. He held his head and walked away from the 'delightful' formation.
Bruce had his back against the wall, holding his head and crying. "Father will be so disappointed!"
"You are a fool if you think we will let Father come home to a defeat." They spoke in sync. However, some were late to speak.
Constance with her ponytails separated from the group and ran off into some room. The remaining group of delightful children outstretched their hands to her. Soon, they looked at themselves and then to their palms.
"What…what is happening? Why are we-"
"Why are we breaking apart?!"
"That's not appropriate, use your inside voice!"
They began to break apart. Ashley, the brunette with long hair separated next and she ran off in another direction. Lenny held his football helmet and did the same leaving the remaining, taller boy, David falling to his knees trying to comfort Bruce in whatever way he can.
The adults began to lose too much ground; many of their commanders began to shout orders to fall back to the manor. With most of them making their last stand inside they bolted the doors shut.
Wally ordered one of the capital ships to fire at the door, instantly blowing it down they stormed the building and quickly took control of it.
Tommy, who looked much more war torn now, was followed by Lee who took down at least three adults with his dual yoyos. They ran up the stairs and found Bruce and David there on the floor in tears.
Tommy, who maybe suffering from some forms of PTSD by now, growled and took aim but Lee held him back.
"No! Orders said-"
"Orders? Orders?! Orders don't matter right now! This is war! They ordered those adults to shoot at us. They got 633 and 336. They trained with us!"
"It doesn't matter! We have our orders Tommy…we capture them."
Tommy reluctantly looked away pushing Lee aside and grabbing David by the collar.
"My friends are hurt because of you!"
David's eyes were hidden but Tommy knew if he could see them they'd be cold and dead anyway. David simply smirked. "Long may the reign of Father…span far beyond-"
Tommy didn't even allow the boy to finish before sucker punching him giving him a bloody nose and knocking him out. Tommy picked up Bruce, who was snot nosed and red eyed from crying.
Bruce looked awfully pathetic. He continued to cry as he asked Tommy not to hurt him. Tommy groaned in annoyance and threw Bruce into the adjacent wall reducing him to a puddle of pity.
"Woah…Tommy…y-you okay bro?" Lee questioned holding his friend's shoulder.
Tommy quickly slapped it off and turned to salute to Nigel, Fanny and Wally with his chest puffed out.
"The manor is under our control sirs." Tommy said saluting prompting Lee to do the same.
Nigel rested a hand on Tommy's shoulder. "At ease soldier…it's over."
"With all due respect sir, why do we have to capture them? Whatever happened to us we should do to them."
"That's not how we operate Tommy." Fanny butted in ordering two KND infantry men behind her to arrest the two boys. "Well…only three more to go."
The KND had the manor under their control and most rooms were cleared as a result. All of Father's information was already being downloaded and sent back to moon base to be analyzed again and again.
While the three remaining Delightfuls were missing it wasn't going to be hard finding them. There were only a few rooms inside the house that weren't cleared and they had to be in one of them.
Tommy and Lee went with Wally as Nigel went with Sonia and Fanny went on her own.
Nigel kicked down a door and took aim to see Ashley on her pink frilly bed taking aim with her pistol. She sat on the bed in the fetal position trying to look as if she was in total control of the situation.
"Put down the weapon." Nigel said not bothering to say more.
"You…you destroyed everything Nigel Uno…what more do you want to take from us?"
"I said put the gun down."
"Please, we don't want to make this hard for you." Sonia said trying to add some peace to the situation.
"No, I will not take commands from a child!" Nigel quickly shot the pistol out of her hand letting the pain sink in he just stood there as she sat there shocked and defeated.
She ran forward, throwing her arms around ready to claw his eyes out if needs be but Nigel simply held her arms and easily subdued her. He placed cuffs on her wrists and pushed her out the door.
"You won't-"
"Get away with this? Yeah, yeah…sort of am."
Fanny kicked down her door instantly getting stormed by Constance. The heavier girl easily pushed Fanny back onto the balcony threatening to push her over to a fall but Fanny resisted. If not for a nearby operative who shocked Constance unconscious Fanny would've had difficulties dealing with the girl.
"Separated…why?" Fanny asked herself as the operatives dragged Constance away. "What caused them to break?"
"Alright…ready?" Wally asked them both. They nodded and Wally proceeded to kick down the door.
They ran in but, a hidden Lenny, quickly gun butted both Lee and Tommy. Wally pinned him to the wall trying to remove the gun from his hand.
Lenny responded by head butting Wally getting a major smack to the forehead due to the helmet. Wally stumbled back into a painting of Father.
Lenny took his chance and gun butted Wally as well. He stumbled and fell to the ground holding his head as Lenny stood over him taking aim. "You stupid KND agents will never win this war…we all gotta grow up one day."
But before Lenny could fire, Tommy tackled him just in time to throw the aim off to miss Wally by a few inches.
Wally crawled over to the pistol but due to their fighting the pistol was pushed away from Wally. Lenny pinned Tommy to the ground and began a hail storm of fists onto Tommy.
Tommy reached for the pistol and grabbed it gun butting Lenny before throwing it over to Wally.
"Shoot him!" Was all Wally heard Tommy shout. The world went into slow motion as Lenny looked at Wally, fisted still balled and straddling Tommy. Lenny was wide open.
So he took the shot hitting Lenny in the eye with the bullet finding its way somewhere…somewhere fatal.
Blood splatter coated Tommy and Wally. They both gapped at what they had done as Lenny's…now limp body plummeted onto the ground.
Oh please you guys know Lenny had it coming lol.
It should be no surprise to you all that I am way more graphic now. I've change the rating to this fanfic to M for Mature due to a recommendation from a reviewer so why the hell not am I right? So yes, death does exist in this universe let's all let that sink in.
If I am correct…I should have other new Fanfictions up and ready for you guys to read soon, more than likely next chapter. Tell me what you think of them and tell me which you really wanna see continue guys. Hope you enjoyed, please review, share, favorite and follow and I'll catch you guys later.