WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS AN INJURY, BUT NO GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION. IT STILL MAY BE UPSETTING TO SOME PEOPLE!*
Walking back to his house, Maurice took out his phone. Once he got into the home, he rushed to his bedroom and group called his three undercover teammates.
"Konnichiwa, Morisu-kun," Takeo greeted.
Annie chimed in. "Ve see you got to making der raketenwerfer. But you see, um.."
"We're afraid we can't help you today, mate. We're pretty much booked. I gotta prep myself for a concert this evening," Marie explained.
"Und I am babysitting," Annie pointed upwards to supposedly where a kid was.
"I am watching my father's mise for today. But we will hopefully assist you in assembling your rocket launcher tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?? Who knows what mayhem could occur by just tomorrow with those Galactic freaks still at large?" Maurice yelped, almost panicking.
"We never know, but there's gotta be another bloke of the Teens Next Door to stick with you until then. Cheerio," Marie signed off.
"Auf Wiedersehen," Annie waved goodbye.
"Sayonara," Takeo left the call, leaving Maurice to contemplate plan B.
"There's gotta be someone else that can help... but who?..." he thought for a few more seconds.. then his face lit up in a moment of epiphany. Maurice dialed a different number and held the phone in front of him.
"Hello?" a male voice came from the phone.
"Leon? It's Maurice. So, I am building this missile launcher for tonight, and I'm counting on your help, since my friends are all busy pretty much all day. So, what do ya say? Will you help me?..." Maurice slightly pleaded to his friend.
"Well... I'll see what I can do for you, even if I have quite a bit to do, as well. I'll be on my way," Leon agreed.
"Oh, goodness, thank you... see you at my house." And with that, Maurice hung up and packed his equipment.
About 20-ish minutes passed as Maurice waited on the curb in front of his home. He was just about to send another text when a deep male voice beside him spoke up:
"You the guy?" Maurice turned to his right - it was Leon, of course.
"Er, yes. It's good to see you again, Lee," Maurice responded, shaking Lee's hand. "Now, let's go before anyone spots us." and so, the two boys headed for the ballpark, having a quiet conversation along the way.
"So, what I want to do is launch this rocket into space. Specifically, point it at a perfect 90 degree angle, and launch this thing as soon as midnight comes around." Leon looked rather confused about what he was told.
"I'm doing one of those personal science experiments," Maurice lied.
"Err, alright then," Leon said, shrugging.
By the time the two got to the ballpark, it was past 9:30pm. Maurice was exhausted but ready to get this task done. Leon, however, felt in a hurry.
"Now, let's try to get this done as soon as possible, I gotta run some errands at home soon," he said. "Just follow the instructions that I give you, very carefully. We don't want anything drastic happening."
The process took over two hours of deeply complicated instructions, carefully loading the huge missile in an orderly fashion, then finally sealing the missile and angling it slowly, but perfectly right up towards the sky at a 90 degree angle. Then they set a timer counting down to midnight.
"OK, I believe we're all set. I'd best be on my way back home, like I said, errands," Leon chuckled. "Good luck, Maurice."
"Thank you!" Maurice waved to his friend, watching him walk off. But one thing wasn't checked: making an extra missile to test...
After about ten minutes passed, the timer beeped, and just as it did, Maurice lit the fuse on the missile and took cover, gleefully watching the weapon take to the sky and fade away.
"Hehehe, so long, Galactic K-N-Dorks..."
Up in space, the missile continued on its journey to blow up the GKND mothership.
"Guys, there's a projectile object headed for us!" a Galactic operative warned, observing the missile through a telescope.
"Activate force field!" another kid said as the telescope kid pulled down a lever. Outside, the mothership turned a glowing bright red. As soon as the missile made contact with the surface, it deflected and plummeted back to Earth. Maurice saw this and immediately, the joy faded from his face.
"Oh, no..." he whimpered, running in the direction the weapon was headed in. To his horror, it was going for Leon...
"LEON!! LOOK OUT--" he called out a moment too late, and it hit Leon directly in the right leg.
"NOOO!!!" Maurice cried as Leon was laid out in the grass, moaning loudly in excruciating pain.
"C-Call the hospital... I think I'm bleeding out...!" Leon said, clutching his leg with both hands. Maurice frantically dialed 9-1-1 on his phone, shaking.
"Hello?? My friend was hit in the leg my a missile! Please send an ambulance!... we're near the ballpark." Maurice sat on the ground next to Leon, trying to calm him down.
"Try to keep it together, Lee... help's on the way."
Soon enough, an ambulance came into view and stopped on the side of the road. Leon was carried off on a stretcher, and driven to the nearest hospital, leaving Maurice feeling completely guilt-ridden. He sighed, then walked back home.
The next morning, Dr. Lincoln opened the door to the Lincoln Residence and walked inside with a deeply saddened sigh.
"Dad? Is everything ok?" Cree worriedly asked. Dr. Lincoln sighed once again.
"Well... things aren't looking too good for your brother Leon. Last night... he was struck by a missile when he was out with a friend, with the explosion and the injury, and all that."
"Wh-what??" Cree gasped, on the verge of tears.
"Yes... his leg looked pretty bad... he might need a prosthetic put on him."
Cree was devastated upon hearing what had happened to her older brother. She broke down sobbing and ran to her room, burying her face into her pillow as she cried profusely. After a bit, her cries slowly turned into a mix of angry huffing, gasping and grumbling. Cree reached for her phone and dialed Carla's phone number.
"Howdy, Lincoln. What's g-goin' on?"
"I have HAD IT with those Kids Next Door, Carla... I don't know how much more of this I can TAKE!!..." Cree clutched her forehead as if it was aching. "First, they had Chad taken away, and THEN they ambushed us, and NOW THEY WENT AFTER MY BROTHER!! I've fucking had it!"
"Your brother, huh?" Carla raised one eyebrow, as she was never told before that Cree had a brother.
"Yes... they shot him down with... a missile..." Cree whimpered as a tear rolled down her face.
"Wow... bless yer heart..."
"Anyway, -sniffle- I want nothing to do with those brats for a while... you don't know how mentally drained I am. I need a nice, long break."
"Wanna come over if it's fine with your p-pa-parents?" Carla offered.
"Sure, talk to you when I get there," Cree responded.
"See ya."