Numbuh Three-sixty-two shivered as she stepped onto the platform that would raise them both up to the podium. She heard Numbuh Eighty-six call for attention as the platform started to rise. Lawrence straightened his hat and let out a long sigh, as the sunlight illuminated them both Numbuh Three-sixty-two squinted a little as her eyes started to adjust to see the Super Convention Center packed with a mix of KND operatives and UKA soldiers all awaiting the signing of the treaty that would form a new army in which to combat the Adults and Teenagers. She smiled and then raised her fist.
"Kids Next Door rule!" she shouted
"Kids Next Door rule! Numbuh Three-sixty-two, sir!" the KND operatives barked back. Lawrence smirked a little, looking to his troops he saluted them. There was a loud synchronized stomp as the UKA troops stood and saluted back.
"For peace and equality!" Lawrence bellowed.
"Order through Unity!" the UKA soldiers screamed back. Numbuh Three-sixty-two winced and then watched as the UKA stood at ease as Lawrence did. He nodded over to her and smiled.
"At ease everyone," she said as she stepped forwards, she took a breath and started to speak, "As most of you know, we have been locked in a long and brutal war against the Adults and Teenagers for not only our freedom but our very survival. We have endured constant losses and have nearly been destroyed, but thankfully General Lawrence Rogers and the United Kids Alliance came to our aid when all seemed lost. He and his troops saved the Moonbase, provided us with the necessary equipment to rebuild and freed everyone in Alkidtraz. Despite the UKA having teenagers in their military, I chose to trust Lawrence when he helped me on the Moonbase."
Some muttering broke out through the crowd but it stopped when Numbuh Three-sixty-two continued.
"Recently, Lawrence and I were discussing the possibility of a joined military force so that we can finally put an end to the Adult war machine once and for all, and as of now we have decided that a treaty will be the turning point in this war. Upon the signing of this new treaty the Kids Next Door and United Kids Alliance shall fight side by side on the battlefield and finally show the Adults who they're messing with!"
Cheering broke out from the Operatives, finally eager to bring down the Adults once and for all. Lawrence pulled the cylinder out from his trench coat and pushed a button, making it open up and the treaty unravel on the table in front of them. He smiled and flicked his wrist, a pen dropping into his hand as he smiled at her.
"You first."
Numbuh Three-sixty-two smiled and slowly took the pen from Lawrence as she signed her codename and her real name before handing the pen to Lawrence who wrote down his full name as well before holding up the treaty.
"Today marks a new turn in the war against the Adults and Teenagers," Lawrence shouted, "From this day forth we, the United Kids Alliance and the Kids Next Door, shall fight together in order to bring a new era of peace and equality between kids and adults. We are not going to back down. We are not going to surrender. We will root out and destroy all those who dare stand in our way!"
Lawrence's speech riled the UKA soldiers, who started cheering and shouting support at him as he continued.
"For years we have battled the Kids Next Door in a series of brutal and unforgiving wars, both sides have lost everything that we hold dear, but now, now is the beginning of a new relationship with the KND. Specifically the ones who we are gathered here today with. As soldiers of the greatest and most feared military in the galaxy we will show them how we fight and then teach them our ways so that they too can fight with the same efficiency as us. Together we will bring down the corrupt and twisted regime of the Adult Empire. Together we will eliminate the Teenager menace. Together we shall honor one another and work side by side so that kids of the future can live without the fear of oppression from any evil adult. We will go to where they work and where they scheme and we will destroy them! This will be the turning point in the war. This will be the day where the enemy will cower in fear over the military might of our joint armies. This will be the day where we crush them from the waves with our Navies. This will be the day where the skies will burn from our missiles into their bases. This will be the day where our Starfleets will rain death from the stars. For alone we are strong, but together we will become a global force that will bring forth an new beginning for this planet as we stand on the burnt corpses of the enemy!"
The UKA soldiers let out an uproar of shouts and chants, clearly invigorated from Lawrence's speech. The soldiers in the stands stood up and cheered, WarMechs held up flags with the UKA's insignia and the Military Police started to beat their riot shields in a single rhythmic beat. The Kids Next Door operatives looked to one another and joined in, Lawrence smiled and stood back to admire the intense level of aggressive support he was receiving. Numbuh Three-sixty-two stared in amazement at him as he rolled up the treaty and handed it to a commando behind him before stepping forwards.
"United Kids Alliance; Get out there, and show the Adults who they are dealing with!"
A loud "Sir, yes sir!" exploded out from the soldiers in the stands as they stood up and started making their way to the stairs and out the doors as the Kids Next Door watched in stunned silence. A minute later a Phoenix descended down and hovered just in front of the podium, turning around and opening its rear door.
"Where are you going?" Numbuh Three-sixty-two asked over the roaring engines of the dropship.
"Back to my Flagship!" Lawrence yelled back, one hand holding his hat in place and the other ushering Delta Force Commandoes onto the ship, "Before we did this treaty I had my troops locate one of your sectors. We found a perfect one to re-take."
"Which Sector?"
Lawrence smiled and stepped onto the dropship. "Sector V," he said, "Make sure that you bring a lot of operatives, the whole place is gonna be swarming with Teenagers."
Numbuh Three-sixty-two watched as the dropship's door closed and the craft take off and fly upwards towards a few UKA starships that were lingering above them. She watched the dropship until it became a dot against the skyline. She let out a small sigh then looked up to see the Kids Next Door Operatives were still sitting in the stands, watching her. She gritted her teeth and looked up.
"Kids Next Door, battlestations!"
Two days later, Numbuh Three-sixty-two was waiting in the middle of a large and open field outside of the large neighborhood in which Sector V was located. She sighed a little and looked at her watch, the time was near midday, almost an hour after the time in which Lawrence said he'd meet her. She wondered what was keeping him, was it another mission or had he come under attack? She didn't know what was holding up Lawrence but her concentration was broken by a series of loud explosions. Numbuh Three-sixty-two looked up and over to her left she could see a battery of UKA light artillery guns firing. The soldiers around them scrambled for more shells to load into the weapons before they fired again and a few muffled pops were heard coming from the general direction of the treehouse. Now bored she looked over to her right and saw the KND operatives that would be partaking in the battle to take over the treehouse, just in front of them was a large number of UKA infantry. Dressed in the same camo patterned uniforms and helmets but had a larger array of weapons. The two groups seemed to keep to themselves, which was unusual since just yesterday the UKA soldiers were happily talking with the KND operatives. She bit her lip nervously and then sat down on a rock just as a UKA tank rolled up from her right and skidded to a halt a few feet in front of her. She looked up and saw Lawrence open up the top hatch and slide down the turret and hull before landing on the soft grass.
"Thanks Sarge!" he yelled up to the tank before the hatch shut and the armored behemoth rumbled away. He chuckled and hoisted his rifle onto his back and jogged over to Numbuh Three-sixty-two. "Hey Rachel, really sorry to keep you waiting. Ran into a spot of bother over on the east side of the battlefield."
"That's okay. Glad you're here though," Numbuh Three-sixty-two replied, "So you've got everything in order for our attack?"
Lawrence nodded and smiled. "Yep. Aside from getting some fire support from the Rangers or Expeditionaries but we'll have them backing us up soon enough." He pulled the rifle off his back and took out the magazine to examine it. "Ever done a Territory War style battle before, Rachel?"
"No…what's that exactly?"
Lawrence kneeled down next to the rock and pulled a small map out from his back pocket and unfurled it. Numbuh Three-sixty-two crouched down next to him.
"Okay, you see this field here?" he said, pointing to an open and green area on the map, "This here is UKA and KND controlled territory. Now over here next to Sector V," he pointed to the treehouse mark, "This is under adult and teenager control along with about eighty percent of the whole neighborhood. Basically there are three classifications of area or territory held by the two sides; Controlled, Held and Contested. Now to start we have Controlled territories, which as you can work out are under direct occupation of a single force. There's little to no threat of an enemy takeover so that means that whoever's there can do whatever they need to acquire more territory from us but from what I've seen no one really does much aside from guard a few outposts or unload dropships."
"So whoever has the most territory wins?"
"Not exactly, it all comes down to who surrenders or gets wiped out first. Which is where the other two classifications of territories come into play. Held territory is the next class in which one side holds an area but they're under the threat of an attack. This is where most non-combat activity is found so chances are that if we want to cripple the Adults and Teenagers we'll have to hammer whatever they have here. Last is Contested, which I will warn you as of now will most likely be a bloodbath no matter which Contested listed Territory we go to. This will be where all the fighting will take place so it's crucial that we take out every hostile unit in the territory."
"And then it's Held?"
Lawrence smiled and looked up at Numbuh Three-sixty-two. "You're a fast learner. Anyways, I hope I didn't bore you."
"It's okay. I'm guessing that Territory Wars are very common where you come from?"
"We use Territory Wars against the more hostile Kids Next Door whenever they've taken over a neighborhood. Usually they can get pretty violent while expunging the previous residents so we go in to drive them out and give the homes back to the rightful families. Although they're not too pleased after the battle because my troops sometimes like to make themselves home. You know, pillaging the food storage, using TVs, swimming in pools if it's the summer. That stora stuff."
"Will this happen here?" Numbuh Three-sixty-two asked nervously.
"Oh yes. In fact it's already going on in our Controlled territories," Lawrence said, rolling up the map and sliding it into his armored vest. "Well, we'd best get the troops ready. You go see to your Operatives and tell them to stick alongside me and the Infantry, we're more experienced with this type of warfare and your Operatives know more about who we're fighting."
Numbuh Three-sixty-two nodded and jogged over to her Operatives, who were mostly chatting with one another. Once she approached them they all stopped to look up at her.
"Okay everyone, I've just been talking with General Rogers and he's told me that the battle we're fighting in is known as a Territory War. Essentially we have to fight our way to the treehouse and hold as much ground as possible from the enemy. We're going to be entering battle side by side with the UKA so be careful where you fire. Do you get me?"
"We get you, sir!" the Operatives called back.
"Good. Kids Next Door, battlestations!"
The Operatives sprang up and followed Numbuh Three-sixty-two as she ran over to join Lawrence, who was now moving to the front of his troops and motioning for them to follow. The KND joined the UKA and were now running side by side with them. Numbuh Three-sixty-two knew that what they were running into was going to be brutal and a lot of the Operatives would be both terrified and confused. However she hoped that Lawrence and the UKA would take the brunt of the fighting and clear the path for the KND since they were more combat experienced. She let out a small sigh, deciding to keep the thought to herself thinking that she might offend Lawrence with it. When she looked over to him she noticed that his expression was steely but some excitement was showing, as if he had been looking forward to this battle. Numbuh Three-sixty-two shifted her vison to what was in front of her, currently they were approaching several houses from the back yards, the only obstacle in front of them being fences and a few trees. The KND fell back a few paces and watched as the UKA effortlessly hopped over the fences and dodged the trees before gathering up behind the house and peeking around them and through the windows of the houses. Lawrence crouched down in front of a window and nodded to the soldiers behind him and stood back as they swiftly pulled out crowbars and pried the window open, allowing several soldiers to enter the house. Numbuh Three-sixty-two and a small number of KND operatives quickly ran over to where he was and looked inside the home as UKA soldiers swept the building and opened up more windows and a back door.
"What are you doing?" she asked, both confused and concerned, "Do you guys break into homes when you're in Territory Wars?"
"Yep, all the time as a matter of fact," Lawrence said as he stood up and helped a soldier hoist a large machinegun through the window. "We usually do this in order to set up a fallback position in case we need to retreat."
Numbuh Three-sixty-two watched as UKA soldiers entered a few houses and shook her head, she had to remember that the UKA have very different ways of fighting battles. She had to accept the UKA's actions because she knew that it would lead to many victories in the war. Lawrence pulled his rifle off his back and smiled, flicking the safety off. "Alrighty then, you ready to go show those Teenagers how real warriors fight?"
"Count me in," Numbuh Three-sixty-two smiled back as she held her weapon close and motioned for her Operatives to follow as Lawrence did the same to his troops. The two forces joined up and ran between the houses onto the road and followed it since it seemed to lead to the treehouse. For several minutes, everything was quiet, there were no Teenagers, no Adults. The only noises that were heard were jets screaming overhead and the occasional explosion. Lawrence looked around and held up a fist, his troops slowing down their jog to a slow walk, the KND operatives saw the soldiers slow down and did so as well.
"Is something wrong?" Numbuh Three-sxity-two asked Lawrence as she jogged up next to him.
"Yes," Lawrence said, looking around. "Notice anything missing?"
Numbuh Three-sixty-two looked around, trying to comprehend what Lawrence had told her. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary; the houses were mostly undamaged, there were no signs of battle and the sound of gunfire was very distant. But that's when she realized that if this was such a large battle then the gunfire should be louder. She bit her lip and tightened her grip on her weapon.
"Figured it out yet?" Lawrence asked quietly.
"Is there going to be an ambush?" Numbuh Three-sixty-two asked. Lawrence nodded slowly and raised his weapon, giving a hand signal to his soldiers who raised their weapons too.
"Get everyone to spread out and get into cover. Now!"