A/N: Hey all! Lol long time no see. Promise I haven't given up! Sorry, I've been pretty busy with real life, but hey social isolation has given me some newfound free time!

This next chapter was a part of a larger chapter that isn't totally done yet. I figure I'd split the chapter up, so I'd be able to give you all some more content and make writing more manageable for me. As a warning, there are 2 important characters introduced in this chapter that are OCs. I'm trying to stick with characters that are in the show, but for the sake of the story, I needed to create some children.

At the end of this chapter, I respond to a Guest question!

I don't own the KND! Enjoy!

Kuki's throat felt like it was swelling shut, which sucked because all she really wanted to do was scream, but she was too gosh-darn busy choking on her own darn spit to do so. On top of that, her heartbeat was erratic, and she was ultimately out of breath. She swore her lungs were going to burst, pop, go ka-BOOM if she kept running, but she needed to keep going. She was pretty sure that at this point, her life depended on it.

She gulped for air as her feet slapped down on the concrete, and she frantically looked around. Ducking into a random alleyway, she was horrified to find nothing but a dead end. With heavy breaths, she made panicky, and jerky turns as she investigated the rest of the alleyway. All that was there in the alley with her was a smelly, overturned trash-can with no lid.

Goodness, she wished she hadn't forgotten her phone this morning! She had never been so desperate to call for her dad's help before. This wasn't good! Not at all!

Desperately she looked up at the fire escape attached to the side of one of the buildings. There was a cute little kitty cat watching her with a disinterested stare. The escape led to the building's roof, and she would have taken her chances at the climb if those strangers in the super weird ninja costumes weren't jumping around all over the place!

Gosh! They were everywhere! Above her! Behind her! She'd even bet below her! Everywhere.

But that little cute kitty cat was sitting on an open windowsill, and she wondered if this constituted an acceptable situation to commit a breaking and entering. Like, how much trouble could she get in? Would they send her to jail?! She had good reason to hide in the apartment, right? Like, the police wouldn't think she was crazy, right?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the unmistakable sound of a million quick footsteps heading her way, which definitely meant she no longer had the time to figure out the pros and cons of trespassing! Heck, she wasn't even really sure she knew what trespassing actually was!

Who even cared?! Freaking ninjas were chasing her!

She took a few significant steps back, and then, with a sprint launched herself towards the ladder. She reached it on the first try (thank you, gymnastics), and scrambled up the fire escape. She jumped over the kitty and into the apartment, just as the ninjas (ninjas?!) swarmed the alley.

The kitty paid no mind to her, as she peeked over its rather round, squishy, cuddly, totally adorable furry body. She couldn't resist giving the fat baby a few strokes, as she watched the group of people below her convene together at the end of the alley. She couldn't make out a single thing they were saying because Kitty was purring oh-so cutely, but oh-so loudly, and it wasn't like she could read their freaking lips with their stupid masks on!

All she could do was watch, as one black-cladded person walked over to the trash-can and kicked it hard enough that it ricocheted off the alley wall. With a big gulp, she starred as the can rolled into the street. It was a totally rude and unnecessary thing to do, but the force of it had scared her enough that she sunk lower into the apartment.

The Ninjas quickly dispersed after that, all jumping in a different direction, making her safe at last. The tension from her body dispersed, and she let out the biggest sigh of relief. What the heck did they want from her, anyway?

After making sure the coast was actually clear, she gave the kitty one final pat (and a few dozen kisses) goodbye and started to climb out the window. She wondered whether she'd have to go police for something like this. Would they have to put her in the witness protection program?

She figured that probably wouldn't work out very well with the cheer squad. They'd kick her off the squad for sure, if that ever happened.

Thinking of the squad made Kuki's eyes widen with a sudden panic. She had completely forgotten about the pep assembly! Shoot, she needed to go now!

Halfway out the window, though, the front door to the apartment opened. The presumed owner of the establishment locked eyes with Kuki, and they both froze.

Seriously, Kuki thought with a groan, it just wasn't her day, and being caught like this had only solidified that.

The man opened his mouth, but before he could get anything out, in a panic, she yelled first, "I didn't steal anything! Ninjas were chasing me! I'm sorry! Bye!"

She jumped out the window and down the fire escape, before the man could say anything, but not before popping her head back in to chastise him.

"Also, you should really lock your windows, you know! What if someone bad had gotten in! What if your kitty had gotten out?" She tsked, and then disappeared down the escape.

"W-wait!" The man stuttered, running to the window and yelling after her, "This isn't even my cat!"

She didn't pay too much attention to that, though, and waved goodbye from the end of the alleyway. Kuki had other things to worry about, like how there were ninjas outside of feudal Japan or how she'd basically missed a full day of school! And she didn't think the principle, or even worse, his evil secretary, would believe her ninja excuse. At least, not again.

Numbah 512 took a deep breath and lowered the B.O.N.G.S.K.O.P.E. The coast was clear, and Gallagher High was his assigned target. He didn't know what those dumb teenagers were planning, but Moonbase wanted it stopped! Special intel said they needed a flash drive, and he was going to get them that flash drive.

He bounced on his toes and blew the fringe of his hair off his forehead as he psyched himself up for the sprint. He was the fastest kid in the third grade, and there was no way he was leaving empty-handed. Sector V couldn't handle another hit like that.

He bent down and made sure to not just double knot, but triple knot his sneakers. They were specially infused with cheetah speed; the commercials had said so.

"What are you waiting for, Numbah 512?" His communicator crackled, "An invitation? Not all of us have the time for that!"

Numbah 512 rolled his eyes and shrugged off the comment. He didn't care what Marissa the Traitor thought. After he stretched for the appropriate two seconds, he rolled his shoulders and positioned himself into a crouch.

He continued to ignore his "comrade," "team-mate," "superior," blah. He was pretty darn sure he pretty much hated her since yester-yesterday so she could suck it (whatever that meant).

Another deep breath and he took off across the steaming blacktop.

Kuki stuffed the late pink slip with detention marked for tomorrow after school into her bookbag and sprinted down the hallway towards the gym. She literally could not get away from that scary lady fast enough!

Stupid old people! They're never any help! She frowned for a split second, as she quickly made her way to the gym. Ms. Reed had slapped the detention slip down so hard onto the counter that her loose skin had jiggled from the force, and had caused Kuki to jump back.

"Those crappy excuses may work with Principal Mueller," The old woman had hissed, with spit flinging onto Kuki's face, "but I'm not Principal Mueller you lazy, no good hooligan! And I'm not letting you slip by again just because of your Chinese crap!"

Suffice to say the mean secretary, who had a serious spittle problem, rudely did not believe Kuki's very true, very real, seriously-happened-this-time-she-promised, ninja story! The old bat!

Like, she knew Ms. Reed was just doing her job, but Kuki had a sneaking suspicion that the women totally enjoyed making students cry. Ugh, it was so annoying, like if a kid couldn't turn to their school for help and their parents totally wouldn't believe them, who could they turn to?

Adults, she huffed, what were they even good for?

She skidded to a halt in front of the doors and gulped down some air. There had been way too much required running today. She had no idea how she was going to find the energy to cheer! But she was Kuki Freaking Sanban, and she knew confidently that she could rally like no other—at parties and at school!

She busted into the pep assembly, which was already in full swing, and scurried over to the cheer benches to throw her duffel down. The gym felt like it was missing something, but at the very least, it wasn't her anymore.

"There you are!" Chelsey barked over the crowd, pulling her aside when the girls had finished the first set and bounced off the court, "Where have you been?"

For a second, Kuki felt surprised that they had noticed she was gone, but then her heart swelled with love. Of course, they had noticed! They were a team! A family! Gosh, they must have been so worried!

"Chelsey!" Kuki exclaimed, relieved, "You won't believe what happened!"

Chelsey threw up a hand to stop her from talking, and Kuki tentatively shut her mouth.

"I don't care! Where's the flash drive?"

She blinked for a moment, and thought that it was really odd that Chelsey didn't even want to know the answer to her own question, "Uh, flash drive?"

"Urgh," Chelsey slapped her forehead in exasperation, "the one Tammy gave to you!"

Kuki looked over at Tammy, who was glaring daggers at her from the cheer line-up. It was almost kind of funny how out of place the expression looked while Tammy jiggled her pom-poms, and chanted the rally cry.

"Oh, right! It's in my bag!"

"Why didn't you give it to the nerds last night, like we told you?" The other girl frowned, crossing her arms, "It was one simple job. Like, god, just so typical of you, Kuki."

Kuki slumped, "I'm really sorry, Chel. I acc—"

"It's Chelsey. Not Chel."

Kuki looked up, "The other girls call you—"

"I know what the other girls call me. I'm telling you to call me Chelsey. I'm also telling you to get that flash drive to those nerds in the AV room, like now. No excuses! Can you handle that?"

She nodded and ignored the tears pricking at her eyes. She didn't need the whole school to know she was some dumb crybaby, not that anyone paid her much attention anyway, and she definitely didn't want to make Chelsey any madder.

"Yes." She squeaked, "Sorry." And she turned on her heels to run out the gym.

And as she left, the cheers continued as the other girls began their second set. It was a brand-new dance routine that Kuki absolutely loved. For two weeks, she had been practicing for that moment. And because she was an idiot, she had to miss it! Not that it mattered, the crowded gym was too rowdy to notice her spot was empty.

Numbah 512 had only gotten lost twice in this stupid labyrinth they called high school. None of the hallways made any cruddy sense, and it reeked like his stupid older brother's axe spray. Anticipating the set-back, he pulled on his S.M.E.L.L.M.E.T and took a sharp right down the next hallway. He was so close to the target location that there was no way he was going to let some cologne bomb stop him now.

The target was the AV room. Top intel had informed Moonbase that if the flash drive were in this building, it would be there.

Quickly, at the sound of approaching footsteps, he slid on his knees to hide between a water fountain and a row of lockers. The figure passed by without detecting him, and after a moment, he poked his head further into the hallway to watch.

A tall, gross teenage girl in a cheerleading uniform had run past him and eventually stopped in front of a door. She tried the doorknob and jumped around frantically when it didn't open. Numbah 512 watched curiously from around the corner, as the girl proceeded to beat on the door until, finally, it opened.

She took a few steps back, as an awkward guy poked his head out the door like he had never seen the light of day before.

He had geeky glasses. He had a horrible amount of metal in his mouth. And when he pulled out his inhaler, Numbah 512 just knew that door led to the AV room.

The cheerleader and the nerd apparently had no time for chit-chat, and Numbah 512's eyes widened when he realized the girl was passing over a flash drive. He smiled and positioned himself for a grab and dash.

Bingo.

Precious time had been wasted arguing with the greasy-haired kid from yesterday, about whether or not this was the actual, real, honest-to-god flash drive. Precious time she could have been using to run back to the gym, do the performance, and win back Chelsey's favor.

"Just take it!" She yelled, her temper flaring as she tried to shove it into his hands.

"Fine!" He yelled back and moved to snatch the device.

But he was a millisecond too late because, in a sudden flash, the device had been slapped out her hand from below by some kid wearing a spaghetti drainer! Like, what other curve balls was life going to throw at her today?! Weren't the ninjas enough? Actually, wasn't her alarm clock not going off this morning, enough?!

Everything else since then had basically felt like an overkill.

"Hey!" Her and the nerd cried together, and Kuki whipped around to locate the culprit. The kid had taken off down the hallway, away from the gym, and towards the parking lot.

"Oh no, you're not! I'm not getting into any more trouble!" She growled and took after the cookery wearing thief.

Greasy watched the odd cheerleader turn the corner, and raised a shaky hand to his mouth.

Trembling, he talked into his watch, "Uh s-ir, boss, sir…" He stuttered.

"What. Is it done? It better be done. We don't have much time."

"Well, a-actually…"

He could hear the ninja grumbling over the intercom for a second, before they sighed, "What? Is it math homework this time?"

"No-o, sir. The drive's been captured."

"What!" The ninja snarled.

"KND, sir, they're headed towards the south parking lot."

There was a quick pause, and then the ninja continued, "Fine. Continue as planned. This won't take me long."

"S-sir, Kuk—"

"Forget about her. Copy?"

"Copy."

"Good. Over and out." And with that, the nerd was met only with static.

Kuki bent over and rested her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. That kid was fast! She should have thought about stretching or something; tomorrow was going to be painful!

Jeez, what had she even gotten herself into this time? Also, more importantly, what in the heckity-heck kind of music was on that darn flash drive! Gosh, she should have thought about selling it to the highest bidder. Everyone wanted that playlist!

She stood up and threw open the doors to the parking lot to look around. She probably had lost the little guy by now, but she really didn't want to face Chelsey empty-handed.

She turned a blind corner and scanned the lot. Near a few trees at the opposite end, the little boy was talking into an old chunky phone, and even though she had caught a lucky break, her nose wrinkled in distaste.

Because seriously, what was with that old crusty phone?! Sheesh, this was the first kid she had seen in a real long time without a smartphone! Like, she got they were expensive, but his parents could have at least gotten him a flip phone! That thing he was holding looked like a land-line! An absolute relic!

As she continued to judge the old phone, she crept slowly across the parking lot, ducking behind parked cars so she wouldn't scare him off. She tumbled rolled behind the tire of some jacked-up trunk just as the boy turned towards her direction. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized she hadn't been caught. The poor little guy had been too busy yelling into his antiquity to notice her.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a quick movement to her left. She stood a little bit from her crouch to get a better look around, and almost missed a figure dressed in black silently flip over a few parked cars, which, honestly, was pretty freaking cool.

Obviously, she knew it was one of those ninja people, and they were bad and stuff, but how awesome would it be to have a couple of them on the cheer squad! If they joined, the team would make regionals for sure this year!

But, besides the fact that she needed to figure out how to talk them into joining the team, what the heck were they doing here?

She watched with wide eyes as the ninja continued to flip and sprint towards the distracted, spaghetti-strainer-wearing kid, who, at last second, looked up. With a yelp, he dropped the phone and pulled out a…well…some sort of, uh, gun-thingy? It looked homemade, and she believed that whatever it was, it was certainly not allowed on the high school campus.

They had a strict no-weapons policy.

The boy tried to aim the wooden-gun thing at the ninja but he was too late. The ninja, in a quick motion, kicked the gun from the boy's hand, and it skidded to a halt a few feet away. Then, just as quickly, Ninja kicked Boy! Boy stumbled for a moment, and briefly regained his balance, but it didn't matter, because Boy had no weapons and was nowhere near big enough to fight off the obviously older Ninja.

Kuki didn't register when she had started running towards the commotion, until she got close enough to hear yelling coming from both Boy and Ninja, and also, the phone. She didn't really care what they were saying though, all she cared about was getting to Boy before Ninja could really hurt him.

Kuki gasped in disgust, and came to a staggering halt a few feet away from the two, as she watched the ninja successfully push the frightened boy down, knocking his little helmet off. The poor thing didn't look any older than ten.

She didn't know where these ninja people got off, but she was freaking sick of these bullies. And beating-up a kid? They had just gone too far!

Generally, she really, really tried to keep her temper in check, but today? Today was turning out to be the worst day ever in her life ever. She could feel her blood boil as she watched the ninja stomp down on the back of the little boy who was struggling to get up.

She could no longer honestly find any reason to be polite. The day had finally pushed her too far! She saw red as she stomped over to the brute.

"Hey!" She yelled, poking the ninja on the shoulder, "Mess with someone your own size, bully!"

The black cladded figure snorted in amusement.

"My pleasure." They rasped, the suit obstructing their voice, and yanked, then twisted Kuki's outstretched hand.

In a quick movement, Ninja flipped her over, and she landed with a hard thud onto the blacktop. In retrospect, she thought, as she put a hand on the back of her sore head, it probably hadn't been the smartest idea to challenge a guy in a ninja suit.

While she laid there groaning in pain, Kuki watched through squinted eyes, as Ninja made their way back to Boy.

Ninja grabbed the dazed little boy by the collar and rooted through his pockets.

"Where is it!" They demanded.

Boy glared and then spit at Ninja's masked face. With a disgusted groan, Ninja threw the boy towards Kuki. The little guy let out a small whimper, and she scrambled towards him.

Her head was still killing her, but the little boy mattered more.

"Hey, little boy! Hey, sweetie! You okay?" She asked a little frantically, patting him on his cheek, "Come on. Wake-up!"

Weakly, Boy opened his eyes and groaned, "Flassshh drivvvee."

"Flash drive?" She asked, leaning in closer to hear him better, "What?"

The boy pulled on her collar and pointed toward Ninja rooting through Boy's satchel. She watched as Ninja flung the bag towards them and held up a little piece of plastic.

Her eyes snapped open wide, she jumped up (the world only spinning just an itsy bit), and pointed at the now twice stolen flash-drive, "The flash drive! Give it back! It's mine!"

The ninja snorted, "It's probably best, Sanban, if you just stayed out of this."

"Sanban? How do yo-Hey!" She demanded as the Ninja ran away, "Give it back!"

She glared at the retreating form. No matter what that person had said, there was no way Kuki was just going to go and give it up now!

She looked around, determined, before turning back to the kid, "Don't worry, buddy! I'm going to get us that flash drive!"

Then she faltered for a moment before continuing, "Well, I mean, I'm going to get that flash drive for me! You know, it's wasn't very nice that you stole it from me in the first place, mister, and—"

"They're getting away, lady!" The boy yelled, struggling to get to his knees.

Immediately, Kuki snapped out of her lecture, realizing the time she was wasting.

"Hey! Stop!" She yelled across the parking lot at the runaway Ninja, but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

She let out a low growl, and sprinted back towards the school; but not before scooping up the little boy's gun (which was apparently just two wooden planks, and a loaded spring). She had a gut feeling she'd need it.

Now, for the millionth time that day, Kuki was on the verge of a heart attack, as she forced her legs to run just a little faster through the school. It didn't stop her though from catching up to that no-good ninja! She launched herself at the retreating figure, and if Ninja hadn't been wearing a mask, she would have bet money that their face was absolutely priceless when they realized who had just jumped onto their back.

Kuki had always thought of herself as more of a lover than a fighter, but as she latched onto Ninja's body and savagely bit into their shoulder, she figured maybe she had a little more kick in her then she had always thought!

Ninja let out a strangled noise and tried to throw Kuki off their back, but she made sure to hook on tight around their neck.

"That's! My! Flash! Drive!" She yelled between chomps.

"Knock it off!" Ninja yelled back, and in a moment of clarity, slammed their back, along with Kuki, onto the metal wall of lockers. Kuki hissed in pain and momentarily loosened her grip, enough so, that Ninja broke free.

Kuki slipped to the floor but didn't sit on her butt for long, as she lunged for Ninja's ankles. Thrown off balance and stumbling, Ninja also fell to the ground. Twisting to look back at Kuki, Ninja managed to shake one foot free and kicked at Kuki's face and arms to free the other. Kuki held on tight though, ducking her head away from the onslaught.

Eventually, Kuki, who had the upper hand for once, was able to straddle Ninja's waist and pin their arms down. They struggled together, as Kuki attempted to pry the other's hand open to retrieve the drive.

Her advantage did not last long. Too focused on the flash drive, she hadn't been paying much attention to Ninja's legs, as they managed to kick her off and send her flying. Luckily for Kuki, in the process, the flash drive went flying too.

She skidded to a halt, and with a big breath, she blew her bangs away from her face. With a growl, she took off towards the flash drive that now laid in between them, but Ninja was slightly faster.

As they scooped up the flash drive, Kuki, in a last-ditch effort, fell into a sliding position, like how she had seen the baseball players do, and aimed to kick Ninja's legs out from underneath them. It went semi-successfully. She actually pulled off the sliding part, but Ninja, at last second, launched themselves into the air, and flipped backward over Kuki—seriously, gosh, could they join the team!?

Instinctively, as she watched Ninja's body flip above her, she unclipped the wooden spring-gun from her waistband. It was like her body was acting on its own accord, as she watched her hand expertly aim and shoot at the person in the air.

The wood plank ended up hitting Ninja square on the chest, ruining their flip's landing. Ninja rolled until they hit the bottom part of the locker wall. Their chest heaved as they tried to catch the breath that had just been knocked out of them, and Kuki wasted no time standing up, re-cocking the gun, and running over to the stranger in the stupid Ninja costume.

She pointed her gun at them, and in a clear voice, demanded, "One, I'll be taking that flash-drive! Two, are you, like, at all totally interested in joining our cheer team?"

Ninja, with breathy gasps, looked up at her, "Seriously? You're asking me that, right now?"

Distracted, Kuki placed a hand on her hip and casually held her gun off the side, "Well, of course, dummy! We really need a new flyer, and I seriously think you've got the moves! Like in the parking lot, you cleared three cars on one go! It was amaz—guuh-ack!"

Kuki staggered back from the surprise kick to her gut and clutched her stomach. A second later, a foot flew in from the right and made hard, dizzying contact with her head. The impact pushed her across the hall, and she ended up sliding down the lockers with a low groan.

She looked up through hooded eyes as Ninja slowly approached her. They crouched down to study her, before saying, "Still easily distracted, but Nigel had been right about you, Sanban. Too bad we never listened. You really are something."

Kuki's head was pounding, and that name, crud that name, made it even worse. It was like something was banging around inside her brain, wanting to break free, but she couldn't figure out what.

"Whaaa?" She groaned.

Ninja sighed and stood, pulling down her mask a tiny bit, so they could re-hide the blonde hair that had managed to escape, "Don't think too much about it. It'll only hurt you."

Down the hallway, she could hear running. Slowly, in a daze, Kuki turned to look, but the end of the hallway was empty. When she looked back over at Ninja, they were gone, and so was the flash drive.

She felt sick as she looked back towards the sound of running. She couldn't shake the feeling that that name was important, but the more she thought, the hazier, everything slowly became.

"Where are they!" A voice yelled.

"They had to of gone this way!" Another frantic voice yelled.

"Hey! Guys!" Yet another voice, but this time there was a slight lisp, "Over there!"

She tried to keep her eyes open, as three kids surrounded her. When she realized one of them was the little boy from outside, she smiled, but her tongue felt too heavy to talk.

"Georgie," The little girl with the lisp asked, turning to the boy, "is this her!"

He nodded with a scoff, "Well, obviously, Numbah 513."

Next to the boy, (Georgie, apparently; cute name!), was a blond boy with a shaggy bowl cut. As she stared, her mind reeled back like it had been punched.

He was glaring down at her through his fringe in what he must have thought was an intimidating manner. She could do nothing but stare at the little boy's green eyes. He looked so achingly familiar, right down to the orange patched hoodie, that it honest-to-goodness took her breath away.

"N-numbah four?" She heard herself gasp, and there was that intense pounding again.

The most intense it had been thus far. It was like Kuki desperately needed to remember something important. Little bits of bright light teased her memory, but the fog became too thick that she couldn't see, and then, all of a sudden, it felt like she had run straight into a brick wall.

With that her world went completely black.

A/N: I promise the rest of the original sector is coming! I swear! I just have to set up a few things! Hopefully, I can get the next chapter out a whole lot faster 😊 Reviews and follows always appreciated!

Lucia Ten: I address Maurice and Cree's relationship a little later on in the story. I can tell you that Cree's in college and Maurice is in his last year of high school. They aren't together, but we'll see what happens. Side note though, when I was younger and first watching the show, I always thought it was a bit weird that Cree, a 16-year-old, would be going out with Maurice, who was just 13. He would have still been in his last year of middle school, and Cree would have been a sophomore in high school. It's not a horrible age gap, but I was a teenage girl once, and I just can't wrap my head around it. Anyway, I know that doesn't matter, but for this particular story just assume their relationship is complicated.

Also, yes! Lizzie will be in the story, but much later on with the G:KND! A lot of other characters appear, but the first part of the story is all about getting the gang back together again!