I can't get myself to push through that fight scene. So, Here's what I have through to the ending of the story. I'm worried that if I don't do it now. I'll lose the will to do it at all. Maybe some day I will write out the scene, itself. I hope you enjoy this.
How On Earth Chapter 17
The kids move in on the Mansion. Outside, the citizombies have put out all the ships in town. The KND set their lasers on them and free as many as they can. So that they can reach the mansion, which is guarded by an army of Citizombies.
"And what, exactly, do you want to waste my time with?" Grandfather asked.
"I'm tired of the way you've been treating me! I'm the one who's carried on our family legacy and I went through more doo doo than you can imagine to return you to your evil self and how do you thank me? You toss me aside for Monty and his brat. They don't even want to work with you!"
Grandfather looked down at him, unimpressed. "So you think pitching a fit is going to do anything for you?"
"Pitching a…excuse me?!"
"You heard me." Grandfather sighed and added, "Look, I'm not in the mood to deal with you Ben, so how about you go out and clean up the mess you helped make with those brats and go back to your stupid little mansion."
"At least I don't have use my powers to hold it together…although to be fair, it probably takes less to hold it together than it would take for you to actually control any family members or make people fear you."
"Pardon me?"
"I can scare brats with nothing more than a few flames, you have to use a whole, worldwide citizombification to do it. And even then, you couldn't take the most easily conquerable tree in the whole neighborhood."
"hey!" they heard Nigel call out from through the door.
"It's true and you know it!" Ben called out. "Now stop listening in on our conversation!"
"What's the point of scaring brats if you can't even use that fear to get what you want or enforce family traditions."
Father gets Grandfather Angry
"Stop it, Benedict. Stop it now," the old man hissed.
His youngest son laughed and said, "Why dad, am I not being fair?"
The larger form finally leapt at the younger, intent on ripping the his shadow suit off and teaching him some manners.
The other waited until the last possible moment and dodged to the left, shooting a fireball at the elder being as he flew by, causing him to crash embarrassingly into the ground a few feet ahead.
"A little off your game, Pappy?" Father queried mockingly as the other pushed himself off the ground.
In response, Grandfather turned and shot flames from his eyes but Father had expected it but redirected it with fire from his hands, causing it all to swirl up into an impressive fireball between them, releasing a wave of heat in all directions.
The two villains started circling each other, each watching for the other to drop his guard. Father shot a volley of fire balls.
Grandfather actually caught one and shot off into the air as he threw it back at his youngest son, who barely dodged the shot as he, too took to the air. "You'd better have a few more tricks than that Ben." Grandfather exclaimed as he looked down the other being.
"Oh, don't worry. I have plenty." With that, he shot another fireball, which zoomed past the older being as he flew upward.
"Ha! You missed!"
"Did I?"
Grandfather's confusion only lasted a moment, for as he glanced in the direction he was flying, just in time to see bars of flame above his head before passing through them. He hissed in pain as father followed up with another fireball.
The older villain stopped it in midair and spread it into a wall of flame which he sent back to and shaped into a sphere around his youngest son. "Enough!"
"No," Benedict said, as released a burst of flame from his entire body, forcing the sphere to collapse outward under the force of the younger villains flames. "I've put up with you for years, and I'm SICK OF IT!"
Grandfather realized that, although Benedict hadn't gotten some of his abilities, his son clearly excelled in at least one far beyond his own, fire manipulation. He had to end this now, or the younger villain might come to realize this. He summoned all the duplicates he could and said, "you brought this punishment on yourself Ben!"
But the sudden smug look on his son's face indicated that he'd blundered. "Only ten dad?" he queried. "From the amount of effort you were putting in I was expecting more." Then he chuckled, which unnerved the older villain even more.
"Get him," Grandfather yelled at his duplicates.
But then there was a flash of light and heat and before him had to be at least fifty duplicates of his son. He had to struggle to keep his amazement from showing on his face. He doubted any one of those duplicates was as strong as his but five to one didn't seem like good odds. "I think I'll be the one removing your suit today Pappy." The younger villain stated, clearly relishing in having the upper hand over his parent.
Grandfather growled and charged into the fray shooting beams of fire from his eyes. Judging from the way Ben's duplicates moved , he was a much better flyer than his son. But he wasn't used to actually having to fight for anything. He dodged and took a few down with fire blasts. Individually, they really were quite weak. His own duplicates were much more substantial in comparison. Still, two had already dissipated, although morel likely from his actual son, rather than the duplicates he hid amongst. "Number's aren't everything Ben," as he unleashed a blast that took down four in one shot.
"But they sure do help!" all the remaining Benedicts yelled at once.
He lashed out at one that came to close, slashing it. If it had been his son, he would have fallen, suitless and all the remaining duplicates would fade to nothing, but the one he got just disintegrated into thin air as the zoomed around him.
He had taken out thirty of Bens Duplicates, but he only had three of his own left. If he didn't do something fast, he'd be overpowered and he knew it.
Father laughed loudly as he too sensed his the possibility of victory increasing with every moment.
Grandfather turned and shot a fireball at another of the beings that looked like his son, hitting his mark. But, unlike the previous times, with this hit, the one form crashed into the earth as all his duplicates faded into oblivion.
As the other villain started to get up, Grandfather and his Duplicates looked down at him and the original stated in an angry tone, "Play time's over Ben!"
The younger villain glared up at him and said, in an oddly calm tone, ""You know what dad, I think your right." Then his body started to change. He became bigger, bulkier, his face elongated and wings grew out of his back. Suddenly, where Father had been, there was now a huge black dragon. It roared and blasted an extremely concentrated fire blast at Grandfather's duplicates, reducing them to nothing and continuing off through the sky, possibly even into the void of space itself.
Grandfather was shocked. He had never seen such a shape shift before, but he'd heard about them from his own gran gram. Her pappy had been able to do it. He recalled her saying that when he did summon the form, he was in a blind rage and would destroy everything in his path, no matter whom or what it was.
As if to prove this true, the younger being was distracted by movement on the other side of the room, Nigel and Monty backing away. He let out another angry roar and shot a blast at them, The child pushed his dad out of the way just in time as a hole was blown in the wall past where they had been. Opening a view to the outside, where an intense battle was underway between his citizombies and the rebels.
Father roared and stomped out though the hole before Grandfather's Power's could repair the damage. As the hole closed behind his youngest, Monty yelled, "Dad, we have to stop him."
Father and Grandfather fight and Father eventually transforms into a Dragon in a fit of rage and charges uncontrollably out of the building. Attacking everything in sight, be it KND or Citizombie. Grandfather moves to stop him.
While Grandfather's distracted, the team moves in on him and shoots him with the fountain of youth water, taking him down and nullifying his powers.
Father's temper has cooled down by this point and he moves in to rescue deaged his dad.
How On Earth Ending Chapter
Immediately upon squirting the water at Grandfather, the affects of Grandfather's hold on the citizombies were lost. Now they were all back to their normal age. Judging by the glares they shot at the old man, if Monty and Nigel weren't standing so close to the "oldest" member of their family, they would have probably attacked him.
On top of his descendants, his guard detail consisted of five kids holding water guns, nozzles pointed at him. They had already had to use it a couple times while they waited for a functional decommissioner's transport to arrive.
What just a short time before had been a giant fiery dark form was now a dripping wet little kid. His build was much like Monty's when he was little. He stood there, shocked at having been defeated so utterly.
Father swooped in, grabbed up his pappy and flew just high enough to be out of range of the water guns. He looked down at the crowd and yelled, "don't think this is over. We will destroy the Kids Next Door, make no mistake of that. Then he blasted the boarded up spot in the ceiling of the convention center and left the building behind, the old man temporarily turned child brooding silently in his grip.
Numbuh One turned to see his team rushing toward him. The next thing he knew, he was getting hugs, much as he had when he recovered from his 45 minute stay on Rainbow Monkey Island. His teammates al expressed their joy at having him back at the same time, so he couldn't tell what any one of them were saying.
"Alright guys, it's good to see you too," He said, "but I need a little breathing room." Although his voice was serious, he had a smile on his face. His sunglasses rested crookedly on his nose, knocked out of position when his friends greeted him. As he reached up to readjust them he froze, other operatives were watching him now and while some of them were almost as happy as his sector others weren't. He knew that they must be noticing how the whites of his eyes now glowed yellow. He readjusted the eyewear, the motion causing a few of the kids to even look angry.
His teammates seemed to have caught onto his change in mood.
"Numbuh One, what's wrong?" Numbuh Five asked, taking on the almost big sisterly attitude that she usually did when she felt a teammate needed some support.
Instead of replying, Numbuh One turned inward, desperately fighting his negative emotions, he couldn't afford to be dragged down now. Still, he didn't shrug off Numbuh Five when she put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.
"Do you need me to get you a Rainbow Monkey to hug until you feel better?" Numbuh Three asked, also sensing his negative mood.
Numbuh Two and Numbuh Four glanced at the crowd and saw the emotions on their faces.
"What?" Numbuh Four said defensively, stepping toward the audience, ready to jump to the bald brit's defense.
"He shouldn't be wearing those glasses!" someone in the audience yelled.
Then another voice exclaimed, "yeah, he's one of… them!"
"Fire powered freak!"
The crowd of KND operatives started shifting, some of the kids upset about what they'd heard, some looking like they agreed and a few looking like they were on the fence about the situation.
"That's not fair!" Numbuh Two yelled, standing protectively in front of his friend.
"Why are you being so mean?" Numbuh Three exclaimed as she stepped beside Numbuh One, on the opposite side as Numbuh Five and squeezed his hand.
A few kids in the audience expressed similar opinions. Many, especially those who had worked directly with him knew he was a reliable operative. "Numbuh One is one of the best operatives the KND has." "He's one of the most loyal, too." "Not to mention he's Numbuh Zero's Son." "How can you even say he shouldn't wear those glasses."
Then an unseen child yelled, "because the only thing he's good for now is the decommissioning chamber."
This statement triggered many things at once. Some kids gasped in horror, while a couple of others clapped or cheered.
Numbuhs Two, Three and Five looked appalled.
Numbuh Four said, "Why don't you come say that to our faces you coward."
But Nigel's ability to hide the majority of his new powers had reached its limit as his emotional stress built. His suit formed over him in front of the KND for the first time. Numbuh Three and Numbuh Five stepped away, startled. The whole audience shrank back as Numbuh Two and Numbuh Four glanced back at him. Nigel saw fear even in his team mates' eyes.
He drew back a little further as the crowd murmured. His teammates looked ashamed for their own initial reactions.
Suddenly, from behind the audience, a voice yelled "Out of my way!" Barely half a second later, a couple of operatives were being pushed to the side by a familiar heavy set red head with her hair in a braid. Lizzie was carrying the bags with the stuff she'd bought for her boyfriend. She moved to the front of the group but paused when she saw the child covered in shadow, feeling a little intimidated by the figure.
"Nigey?" She asked, sounding unsure. Then she felt really bad when she saw the dark figure take on an obviously melancholy expression. Nigel was always careful about hiding such emotions until they reached their greatest extremes, so she knew he had to be feeling horrible.
"Lizzie!" Numbuh Five exclaimed, happy to see her for once. "Why don't you take Numbuh One somewhere where you two can talk, alone. I'm sure you don't want a bunch of Kids Next Door operatives around during your big reunion." It hurt to have to cut their own reunion short, but they had to if they were going to protect Nigel from the group of KND Operatives that were on the verge of starting a fight over him.
The girl nodded, for once having a moment of shared understanding with the dark skinned girl. She walked over to the silhouetted figure and took his hand, her voice regaining it's usual confidence, more as a front for comforting her boyfriend than feeling that things were fine as she said, "Wait until you see what type of clothes I bought you. I even bought the cutest shirt. It's got pictures of us surrounded by hearts put on it and everything…"
Numbuh One glanced back at the other kids one last time, taking comfort from the fact that his team looked sad to let him go. Then he turned his attention to Lizzie and started talk with her, only slightly upset that she was startled by the way the suit distorted his voice.
As Numbuh Three Sixty Two regained consciousness, she pushed herself up and looked around. The villains were in the parking lot watching the KND members in the field. Her attention was drawn out there too and she wasn't pleased with what she saw. The kids were all arguing and yelling angrily. Further away, on a sidewalk on the other side of the field was Lizzie talking a silhouetted figure that could only be Numbuh One, who kept glancing over at the crowd.
Although Rachel would much prefer going over and talking to Nigel too, whatever the KND members were upset about, it looked serious. She better break it up, she decided. She sighed and rubbed the sore spot on her head. Another day at work.
From a distance away, the villains were watching the whole exchange. There seemed to be an unspoken truce for the moment and they weren't about to break it. The scene they watched intrigued them.
"Well, what do you make of this new development, Mr. Wink?"
"I don't know, Mr. Fibb. It certainly is interesting, though."
"Indeed."
"For a moment, I thought they'd have a big fight right there." Knightbrace said, picturing the unpleasant images all the lost or chipped and lost teeth that might have resulted from it.
Mr. Boss watched the scene thoughtfully, "you know, I thought Numbuh One with those powers would be bad news for us but now… watching this… it could actually prove to be advantageous." Seeing the crowd, Sector V and it's leader, the gears were already spinning in Mr. Boss's head but he was distracted by other thoughts. Thoughts about his own family. "We can discuss this another time," he said. "There's clearly something here, but I have other things to take care of and am sure you do as well. So, with that, I wish you all a fine afternoon off." As he started walking toward the car, he spotted a familiar figure and said, "Shoot! There's the Toilenator." With that, all the villains started rushing for their cars. Within a minute, the whole lot was more jammed than the freeway during rush hour.
Some of the kids who didn't feel like getting involved in the heated argument amongst their peers and had been observing the villains instead watched from the field found themselves wondering at the weird ways of adults. If they'd just install jets in their vehicles, they could have avoided that whole mess. Oh well, grownups will be grownups.
Jessica sat quietly as she watched the group of KND members disban under Numbuh Three Sixty Two's orders. She walked toward Sector V but stopped a short distance away, as the Supreme leader was still talking to them. After a few minutes, Numbuh Five gestured for her to come over.
"Hello, Jessica. Numbuh Five was just thinking that this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to Numbuh Three Sixty Two."
The younger girl glanced nervously at the supreme leader of the KND as she hugged her stuffed rabbit close to her chest with one arm. The blonde smiled at her and offered a hand which the younger girl shook shyly with her free hand.
"Numbuh Five told me that you've been a big help over the last couple days."
Jessica smiled shyly and said, "only a little."
"More than a little." Numbuh Five responded.
"On behalf of the KND, I'd like to thank you for your help." The Blonde girl said and smiled.
The other girl nodded and then stared down at her shoes, still a little nervous. Then, she said timidly, "It made me feel good to help everyone."
"I know what you mean." The supreme leader replied.
"I don't want this to be the last time," Jessica said, glancing up again before looking back down at her feet. Then she steeled herself and looked Numbuh Three Sixty Two in the eye. "Can I join the Kid's Next Door?"
Rachel smiled and said, "usually, I'd give kid's warning about how dangerous our work can be and to really think about what you want first but from what Numbuh Five has said, you've already gotten a large taste of what we do. I would be glad to let you into the KND."
"Really?" The younger girl said happily.
"Yes. But first things first. You'll need to go to the Arctic Training Facility. Once you graduate from training, you'll become an official operative and be assigned to a base."
The younger girl smiled and nodded, still nervous but also excited.
The next morning, Numbuh One got up to return to the tree house. If anyone had asked him, he would have said that he wanted to check out the damage it had taken and the effects of the new power sources put into place. In reality, he was trying to keep his mind busy so that he wouldn't have to think about how the KND had reacted to him the previous day.
After having to wake up three times to tear off his suit as it reformed, he'd given up on sleep. It was about 4:00 AM at the time. His dad came down an hour later. He had to go to work this morning. The charity organization he works for was one of the buildings other than the tree houses that got turned into Tapioca Factories and, although it had changed back, there was still Tapioca and it's ingredients spread all over the building. Apparently, when the mixing vats vanished, their contents did not. So there was lots of cleanup to be done. Nigel didn't want to contemplate what that meant for other KND bases.
It was about 9:00 in the morning when Nigel heard the elevator open. He looked to see his team was all there. Numbuh Three and Numbuh Four were even holding hands. Well it's about time they talked to each other about their feelings.
Numbuh Two walked out and said, "Hey Numbuh One, how's it going."
"I've been better," the boy replied honestly. Then he said, "I've got a lot to discuss with you this morning and I think we should start with my powers."
"We've been talking about that, too, before we came up here," Numbuh Five said.
"You… you have?" Numbuh One asked, starting to worry that he had misinterpreted their looks yesterday. He tried not to let the worry reach his voice but failed.
"Yeah." Numbuh Two said. "It's not exactly going the easiest thing for us to get used to, you know."
Numbuh One felt depression sink in as the boy said this, "I guess not."
"Which is why we decided to come up with an idea to adjust to it quicker." Numbuh Five exclaimed.
"What?" Numbuh One said, totally caught off guard.
"Numbuh Two made a call to the moon base. Sector V is taking a mandatory few days off."
"We promised the hamsters a vacation because of all they've done for us. We even funded enough that the Guinea Pigs could go with them." Numbuh Two added, "So the base will be powerless anyway."
"We figure we could start with a mean game of cinder ball." Numbuh Four exclaimed.
"And no jet boots either, since you can fly by yourself. That would be cheating." Numbuh Three exclaimed.
"I can't do that yet. Not well, anyway," Numbuh One exclaimed, although he suddenly felt much happier.
"Well Numbuh Five suggests you learn! Otherwise, you won't stand a chance of winning, baby."
Numbuh One summoned his suit. For the first time ever, he was happy to do it. "I'll show you. Let's go play some cinder ball."
Benedict looked at his dad. He wanted his favorite chair back, the one in the living room where he liked to brood and eat his Rocky Road in whenever he was feeling down. The grouchy old creature had been using it for a similar purpose; except he was eating tapioca instead of ice cream.
At first, Father had understood of the old man's behavior. The defeat he'd been handed was all the more humiliating both because of the fact that he had lost not only to children outside of his family but also because he knew how they were planning to do it and they still came out on top.
But it had been almost a week now. This was an absolutely ridiculous amount of time to sit and mope. He had found out yesterday that his delightful children were using the servants' passageways to get upstairs, rather than pass by the older being; apparently it was something they did when he was in a bad mood, too. The butler and maids were usually understanding of this behavior but it was starting to interfere with their work.
Because everyone except for him were afraid to enter the living room while there was a depressed being with powers in there, a thin layer of dust had built up on surfaces of the living room. After having been freed from his power, the maid wouldn't even tend to Grandfather. So here he was, bringing the old man his food.
He placed it down on a tray in front of him.
The old man looked at it and asked, "why is there only cream of broccoli?"
"Because, I've decided that until you're willing to do something other than sit in that chair all day, I'm going to bring you vegetable dishes only," the younger villain replied.
Grandfather glared at him, the first emotional response he'd given all week. "What makes you think you have the right to decide what I eat?"
Ben stood in front of him and calmly stated, "well, lets see. For starters, you're in my house. Secondly, I've been taking care of you for the last five days while the rest of my household avoids you. On top of that, you haven't done one thing for yourself in that time period. Then there's the fact …"
"Okay, I get it." The old man said angrily before staring down at the bowl in front of him in disgust.
"Come on Pappy. I'm doing this for your own good, you know that. There's a whole world full of kids who need to learn how to behave. No one's better qualified for stepping up to the challenge than us. But you can't do that if your just sit in the living room all day. You know that."
Grandfather was trying to act disinterested as he swirled the contents of the bowl with his spoon but Father knew he was listening.
"Pappy, the reason you failed is because technology has reached a point where it can overcome a plan that involves your powers alone. If we don't move forward with the age, we will get left behind. But if we can combine use our powers with that of modern technology, we can do this."
"Oh yes," Grandfather said sarcastically," because it has helped you so much already."
"What do you expect from someone who had to learn how to use his powers without the guidance of a more experienced family member, dad. How far do you think you would have gotten if your grand gram hadn't been there to teach you."
The elder Uno was not even feigning disinterest anymore, although he still looked annoyed. He sighed. "Well, I guess you are doing rather well for someone lacking any of the proper training," he stated begrudgingly.
"Which brings us to another problem, Pappy."
Grandfather sighed. "Nigel."
"Yes. If the boy isn't dealt with, we may lose someone with powers to the side of good forever. You've spent time with him. To say that boy doesn't have potential would be a flat out lie but for once our family's stubborn streak is working against us."
"Inspiring him to join the Kids Next Door by letting your kids make him bald didn't help either."
This little piece of information was news to Benedict. He almost decided to go off topic to find out what Grandfather had found but changed his mind. He could always ask another time. He shook his head. "Look dad, we've both tried doing this thing by ourselves and have failed to keep order but each time we've come close. I've got something in mind for my next plan but I'd really like your help. I think that if we work together, we can tear down the Kids Next Door, return the world's snotty brats to their rightful place and get our family in order again."
Grandfather studied his son quietly for a while. Ben was beginning to wonder if he was being given the silent treatment when the Senior Uno pushed himself out of the chair and asked, "So what is this plan of yours?"
Father smiled, excited that things were finally going to go his way
This was originally going to be a series. Nigel was going to play a larger role in the series overall after this story, facing pressure from both sides of the field due to having his powers activated. I will be posting the bits and pieces I had for the series overall as well, although it will probably be a little while before I post it, as I am going on vacation and then expect to have a lot of work when I get back.