Chapter 8. Confrontations
~1xV~ Darkness
By the time Nigel and the vigilantes reached the secret bookcase, it was already open, with a long black tunnel leading down into the cold and dark. All the teenagers at the party had run into the dining room for cake, and now the ballroom was empty.
"Someone got here first," said Nigel, peering into the open tunnel. "That means someone else knows about the secret passageway. And maybe about the weapon!"
Sammy chimed in. "David stole our map, do you think he's using it? But why would he leave the secret passage open?"
Sammy had a point. Something wasn't adding up.
"Stealth mode, vigilantes," said Nigel. He put a finger to his lips and motioned into the tunnel. They nodded, filing in behind him on tiptoes. The air grew stale and cold, and soon they were submerged in darkness. Nigel trailed his fingertips along the slimy rocks to guide his way through the tunnel, when something sparked behind him.
Jackson held up a lit match in the dark, sending flickering shadows across the tunnel.
A scream pierced the tunnels. "I saw something!" said Jessica, her voice still shaking. "Something white, crawling on the floor, that way!" she pointed down another tunnel leading towards the right. Something bumped into her and she almost screamed again, but it was just Sammy's hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her.
"The good news is that we're not going that way. We're going left." said Nigel. "Are you ok, Jessica?"
Jessica took a deep breath. "Yes."
The vigilantes had been through a lot worse, and they always came out ok. As long as they were together, they could handle anything.
The party advanced in the darkness. Even without the map, Nigel seemed to know where to go, as if he'd navigated these tunnels in a dream before.
Something hit the ground with a plop ahead of him, and he suddenly realized the walls of the tunnels were growing slimier. He instantly retracted his hand.
"Don't touch the walls," he said in a low whisper.
The children huddled closer together, away from the walls, when they heard muffled voices in the distance. Joey glanced at Nigel.
"Stay here, I'll check it out," ordered Nigel. "If I'm not back in 10 minutes, you get out of here, ok? Abort the mission and get to safety." Nigel doubled back, straining his ears, but the tunnels they'd come from were silent. Until the yelling started.
And when he recognized the voices yelling, he broke into a run.
~2x3x4x5~ Nacho Average Bugs
"See? Secret tunnel!" Kuki pointed proudly at the bookcase, slid open to reveal a tunnel behind it.
"Good work, you two," said Abby.
"Wally found it!" Kuki beamed, looking at Wally, but quickly dropped her smile when she remembered that she was still mad at him.
Hoagie was peering through the entrance when his ears pricked. "Did you guys hear that? I think someone screamed in there."
"We'll be careful," Abby assured Hoagie with a hand on his shoulder. "I don't think we have much time. Something real fishy's going on with the cake, and the birthday party, and the ominous doors closing trapping everyone else inside, oh, you know..."
So Abby led them in, turning on her phone's flashlight, and not before long they reached a clearing where the path forked. One tunnel led left, and the other right. Abby unfolded the map and stared at it.
"If only Abby could read these weird symbols…" She held the map up in different orientations, muttering to herself. Wally plopped himself down, bored, and scratched at the ground. Kuki skipped in circles around them, humming. Hoagie approached Abby tentatively, brow furrowed.
"Hey, Abby?"
"Not now, Abby's trying to figure out the map-"
"It's important. It's just that, I've been thinking," said Hoagie. He gulped and wondered whether he was going to regret the words he was about to say. "About, you know, being under the table together-"
"Heheh, we can get back to that later, Hoagie. First, the map. Abby thinks it says to go left, but it's not clear-"
"I can't do it again," he blurted.
Abby dropped the map and stared at him. "Boy, what?"
"I can't be with you like that. I mean, it was nice, don't get me wrong," he said quickly. "But I can't do that again with you, because, um, I think you're cool, but it would, um, I mean, I would- LOOK OUT!"
And the four teens stumbled back as a white creature fell from the ceiling in front of them.
"What is that?" asked Kuki, leaning over it. It was the size of a pencil case, and it had landed on its back. Eight little legs were flailing around in the air. "Oh no, he's stuck! Here you go little guy-"
"No, Kuki! Don't touch-"
But it was too late. She flipped it over, and as soon as it was back on its legs, it scuttled up her arm.
"See, it's friendly- Ouch! It bit me!" She grabbed her arm but it had already crawled up to her head.
"Get off of her!" shouted Wally, lunging at the white monster on Kuki's head. He managed to pull it off and pin it to the ground, but not before it had chewed off a clump of Kuki's hair. She gasped and clutched at her cut hair, while Wally held down the white bug and punched it.
"Ew. Ew! Is that some kind of giant mutant lice?" said Hoagie, horrified.
"Why. Won't. You. Die!" shouted Wally as he pummeled the creature, but it wouldn't stop kicking its legs.
"Wally…" said Kuki slowly, grabbing his shoulder. "Look up…"
And he paused, still holding the bug pinned to the ground, and lifted his head up. The whole ceiling was covered with dozens of giant white lice. The teens were surrounded.
"Circle up!" shouted Abby. "Cover your heads!"
And the four teens stood back-to-back-to-back-to-back, arms raised to cover their hair as the bugs rained down on them, and they screamed.
Wally started grabbing them one at a time and chucking them as far as he could, but they kept scrambling back. Hoagie clutched his hat in fear.
"Hyah!" With her arms over her head, Kuki spun around and gave one of them a solid roundhouse kick. It smacked against the wall and lay dazed for a moment, before springing back up and charging her. "Uh-oh," she said. "Whatever we do, they keep attacking!"
"They're not attacking me," remarked Hoagie.
Abby's arms were starting to get tired of fending off lice as she glanced at him. Hoagie was right, the lice were attacking all of them except for him. They weren't even getting close to him.
"Uh, Hoagie?" she asked, striking down another hungry bug. "Are you carrying around some kind of lice repellent?"
"Um, no?" he answered. "All I got is this nacho cheese and crackers I stole from the snack table." He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a handful of melted nacho cheese. "I was saving it for later, but if you're hungry now, I could share-"
Before Abby could say gross, several of the lice around them recoiled. Hoagie noticed it too, and he lit up. "You bugs don't like this stuff, do ya?" he said, and flicked some cheese at the lice. They screamed and ran away. "Guys!" he shouted. "Nacho cheese! Nacho cheese is their weakness! Here!" And he held out his hand full of cheese for Abby and the others to grab.
As Abby scooped up some cheese out of Hoagie's palm, their hands briefly touched and she felt a flutter in her stomach. It took all her willpower not to look at him and instead focus on the battle. I can't do that again with you, he had said to her. What did he mean by that?
She grabbed a giant louse around its middle, and sure enough, it shriveled up in her cheesy grasp, squealing. Did that mean Hoagie didn't want to be around her?
"Duck," said Hoagie.
"Huh?" said Abby, distracted.
"Duck!" he yelled again, and in the nick of time, Abby dropped to the floor as two giant lice leapt from the ceiling towards her.
"Hup! Hup!" Hoagie threw a glob of cheese at each louse, and they crumpled to the ground in front of Abby.
That was a close one. She should have seen those coming. "Thanks," she said, and he flashed her a grin. So, it had to mean that they were just friends and nothing more. How did this boy keep finding new ways of breaking her heart?
By now, all the mutant lice were either dead or running away. Wally had smeared nacho cheese all over the front of his shirt and was now throwing himself at them, smothering them against the ground. Kuki was still lobbing cheese at the ones running away.
"Honestly," started Abby, picking herself up. "-that could've been worse." The only casualties were a couple of red bites on their arms, some torn shirts, and a chunk of Kuki's hair. "Good work, everyone."
They exchanged fist bumps with sticky hands.
"All right, team. Let's take a few to clean up," she said, wiping her sticky hands on her shorts and pulling out the map again. "And then we'll figure out the right way to-"
"Abby?"
A faint voice in the distance cut her off and she immediately folded the map back into her pocket out of sight, startled.
"Abby!"
The voice called out again, louder. Abby's friends tensed around her.
A bald boy in a red turtleneck stumbled out of the left tunnel, out of breath. Nigel Uno had found his old teammates.
~1x2x3x4x5~ Forked
"Abby, Hoagie, Wally, Kuki!" He was still shouting, even though he was only a couple feet away from them.
The teens stood tightly together, tensely watching the boy in front of them.
"Stay back," warned Wally, taking one step forward, holding out a palm. "Stranger danger!"
"How did you know our names?" asked Hoagie, startled.
Abby's brows furrowed. Bald head, red sweater… a distant memory was stirring within her.
"No, it's ok, it's me, Nigel Uno," he pleaded, a hand on his chest, swelling with emotion. "You remember me, right?"
Abby narrowed her eyes, and something clicked. "Abby remembers you," she said. She had seen his photo in the Code Module. "You're Nigel Uno from the Kids Next Door."
"You remember the Kids Next Door?" said Nigel, excitedly.
They were cut off before they could answer.
"They don't." A voice echoed from across the room, coming from the right tunnel. A boy in a football helmet stepped out with crossed arms.
"Lenny?" said Abby and Nigel at the same time. She looked quizzically between the two boys. Nigel was standing in the left tunnel, Lenny in the right tunnel.
"Don't listen to him-" warned Nigel. "He's one of the delightful children-"
"Not anymore," Lenny interrupted and pointed at Nigel. "And it's him you shouldn't trust. Come with me."
Wally, Kuki, and Hoagie were frozen with confusion and looking at Abby. Her eyes were narrow and emotionless.
She turned to Nigel. "All right Nigel, if you were part of the Kids Next Door, then tell Abby why she doesn't remember her childhood. What happened to the Kids Next Door?"
Nigel grimaced and spoke solemnly. "The Galactic Kids Next Door, the GKND, destroyed the Kids Next Door of Earth. They decommissioned all of us to forget that the Kids Next Door ever existed. And they want to keep it that way, so Lenny's probably working with the GKND-"
"You're wrong, Nigel," said Lenny, calm. A dangerous kind of calm. "You don't remember everything, do you?"
He took a step towards them.
"Abigail Lincoln, you want to know who erased your memory? It was Nigel Uno."
Lenny took another step forward. "As you know, Nigel was a Kids Next Door operative. But then he joined the GKND, and that's when he decided to decommission the planet. It wasn't the GKND. Nigel Uno himself destroyed the Kids Next Door of Earth."
"That's not true!" yelled Nigel.
"Oh yeah?" Lenny snickered. "Do you remember what really happened that day?"
"No! I mean, yes!" A vague memory came to Nigel's mind, still hazy, of him standing above a control panel, looking down on a small blue planet. There was snot on his finger and his hand hovered above a slot. "I remember seeing Earth. It was so tiny and blue. And I remember I had a difficult choice to make, a risky choice, and I-" he choked.
"Yes?" said Lenny.
"-I did it." Nigel slumped to the ground as his memory solidified. "I put in the order for planetary decommissioning."
He couldn't believe it. There he was, above the planet, the fate of the Kids Next Door in his snot-covered hands. And then he gave the order for global decommissioning. How could he have done that?
Looking up, his eyes met Abby's, cold and hard and full of hate. She had been searching for answers her whole life, and here it was, right in front of her.
"So you're the reason Abby can't remember her childhood?" she spat. "You betrayed the Kids Next Door? You're the reason why Kuki is haunted by a past she can't remember, why Hoagie has no friends, why everyone thinks Wally is worthless? You destroyed our lives, Nigel."
"No," Nigel begged. "I would never betray the Kids Next Door. I would never hurt you guys." His eyes widened for a moment. "I can prove it! The vigilantes are just down the tunnel, Joey can tell you-"
"Save it, Nigel." Abby interrupted him, shaking in anger. "We're leaving."
And so, Abby, Hoagie, Wally, and Kuki followed Lenny down the tunnel to the right.
~5x4x3x2~ Tunnel Vision
Abby was shaking with fury as she followed Lenny and the others. Tears clouded her sight and she felt sick to her stomach. Why did Nigel betray the Kids Next Door? Why did he betray his own Sector? She couldn't remember everything, but she remembered that she had trusted him. She stumbled over a rocky outcropping and had to steady herself with a hand on the wall of the tunnel.
Hoagie's hand caught her shoulder. "Hold up a sec!" he shouted to their friends. Wally and Kuki turned around, concerned.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Hoagie asked her gently. He could feel her shoulders trembling under his hand.
"Abby just-" she started with a shaky breath, still facing the wall, keeping her head low and out of sight. "Abby- I-"
"Hey- hey! Stay with me." said Hoagie, grabbing her other shoulder with his other hand. And Abby turned to look at him with tears on her cheeks, and suddenly just melted.
"I'm so angry," she cried, and fell into him. Hoagie nearly stumbled back, but he caught and held her as she cried.
"I don't understand," she said between sobs. "I feel like I really knew him, like I really trusted Nigel Uno. Why would he betray us? Why would he destroy the Kids Next Door?"
Abby's mind was racing. Nothing was making sense. "I feel like it's all happened before. I've been betrayed by Nigel before, but I still want to believe him. Why do I still want to trust him? I'm not sure what I believe anymore, Hoagie."
"I trusted him too, Abby," said Hoagie.
"You remember him?"
"Well- no, not exactly. But I think I remember… the way I felt about him," said Hoagie, furrowing his brow, trying his best to hold on to the shadow of a memory. "I know I trusted him too."
"We all did," said Kuki, as she and Wally joined them in a tight group hug. "We all feel betrayed."
And Abby's breathing evened out as she closed her eyes and let herself be hugged by her friends. Then her eyes snapped back open. If Lenny knew about this the whole time, why did he never tell her?
"Wait, where's Lenny?" she said.
The four of them looked around, but the teenager was nowhere in sight. The back of Abby's neck prickled. Something was wrong. She heard something drip. Come to think of it, the wall she touched had been awfully slimy.
As she looked up, she watched in horror as something thick and green-gray oozed between the cracks of the ceiling. A blob of it dripped down onto her face and sizzled, stinging her cheek. It was too late.
"It's a trap! Run!" she yelled as sticky, snot-like ooze fell down on them from the ceiling of the tunnel.
~V~ Mission Revision
"It's been 20 minutes," whispered Sammy. "I don't think Nigel is coming back."
The vigilante children huddled together in the darkness, worried. "Nigel's instructions were clear," said Joey. "If he doesn't come back, we abort the mission and get out."
An uneasy silence fell upon them.
Raya spoke up. "But... what if Nigel's in trouble?"
"That's why I'm going after him," said Joey. "But none of you have to-"
"No," said Jessica, cutting him off. "We're a team. And if one of us is in trouble, we all help them!"
"Yeah!" chimed in the others.
"All right," said Joey, smiling in the darkness. "Vigilantes, let's move."
The vigilantes snaked back through the tunnels, before reaching a room with something squishy underfoot. Jackson held up a match, casting dim light on yellow globs and bodies of huge white bugs on the ground.
"Looks like there was a fight," said Sammy.
Raya crouched down, swiped her finger through some yellow goo, and licked it. "Mmm, yes," she said, her eyes narrowing. "Nacho cheese…"
"...and someone left a trail. This way!" said Joey, pointing towards a tunnel with a cheesy handprint on its wall. "Wait- before we go, drop a used match, Jackson. Just in case."
Jackson nodded, dropped a burnt match in the room, and the vigilantes ran on, dodging the familiar-looking green goo dripping from the ceiling in the next tunnel. Finally, they came to a heavy, locked door. Joey thought for a moment, scanning the wall, and spotted a few loose stones above the door. He pointed silently, and the vigilantes nodded.
Jackson stood against the wall as Raya hoisted herself up to his shoulders, and then both pulled Joey up onto hers. He pried out a few stones, making a child-sized hole, and he peeped his head through.
"Whaddya see?" whispered Raya.
"Three, no four, teenagers tied up," he whispered back. He gasped as he recognized one of them. "Get ready vigilantes, we're going in!"
~1x?~ Indecisive Time
Nigel's head hung in his hands as he sat in the deserted ballroom. That memory of his past had come back. He remembered now, how he had stood in the ship above Earth, looking down at that tiny blue planet, before giving the order for planetary decommissioning. He had betrayed his sector. He had destroyed the Kids Next Door. But what happened after? Somehow, he must have managed to decommission himself. Maybe to forget the pain of his betrayal.
The thought of going back hurt. What good could he do? He couldn't face the vigilantes again, knowing what he'd done. His former teammates didn't want to see him either. Nigel toyed with the sunglasses in his hands, an aching reminder of his betrayal. He didn't deserve them. He didn't deserve anything at the moment. He grasped the glasses in his two hands to snap them in half.
"This isn't the way to the bathroom, is it?" The voice startled him, and he nearly dropped the glasses. A blonde girl with neatly trimmed bangs was turning around in the ballroom in confusion.
"Sir!" Nigel sprung up out of instinct, his hand raised in salute.
"At ease! You can call me Rachel." She gave a small laugh. "What brings you down, soldier?" She motioned to him and sat down on the floor next to him.
"I-" began Nigel. Rachel was looking at him thoughtfully. "I think I did a bad thing. I hurt a lot of people." You included, he thought.
"Even the best leaders make mistakes," she replied with a half-smile, looking down at the ground for a moment. "I've made my fair share, and put a lot of people in danger because of it. But someone I once admired, long ago, helped me realize that I was only doing what I thought was the right thing for everyone."
Nigel stared at her. Seeing his former Soopreme Leader after so many years seemed unreal. "Sir- I mean, Rachel- but what if you betrayed people you care about? How do I fix that?"
"You can't," she said, bluntly. "You can't force forgiveness, but you can show others who you truly are. And the way I proved myself, well, it was by eating a crudton of broccoli."
"Ugh." Both teens shivered in disgust and then laughed. They sat for a few moments, as if quietly reminiscing.
After the brief silence, Nigel spoke. "I wish I had never left on that ship," he said. "I wish I had stayed here, with you."
"No, you don't," she said. "You were always meant for greater things. Besides… it wouldn't have worked out." She gave him a sad smile.
"Here," she said, picking up his sunglasses and handing them back. "Trust yourself."
Nigel stared at his reflection in the sunglasses. A concerned, bald teenager looked back at him. "... thanks, Rachel."
She stood up, smoothing her green dress, and looked sternly at him. "Also, everyone at this party except for me and Fanny are, like, trapped in the dining room. That's really foreboding, and someone should find out how to free them ASA now!"
"Is that an order?"
"The last one you'll ever get from me, Nigel," she replied with a faint smile and turned away.
It wasn't until she had left the ballroom that Nigel realized he had never introduced himself.
But one thing was clear. There was a fight coming, and they couldn't face it alone. He took a deep breath, and headed back into the tunnels.
~5x4x3x2~ Bonds, Broken and Unbroken
Four teenagers sat in a circle with their backs to each other and their hands tied behind them with twine, groaning.
Abby's head was pounding. Her skin felt weird, and with blurred vision, saw that her arms were covered with what looked like dried snot.
"Psst!" Hoagie was whispering. "Hey! I've got a multi-tool in my back pocket that we can use to cut the twine. Kuki, you're closest, can you reach it?"
"Well, I can try, but you're gonna hafta raise your tushie off the ground first so I can get to your pocket."
"Whoa whoa whoa, I don't think Kuki should be feeling around Hoagie's butt. I'll do it!" offered Wally.
"Guys, hurry!" whispered Abby. "It's just a butt, get over it!"
"Can we please stop talking about my butt?"
"Why? Are you sensitive about it? Is it because it's shaped funny?"
"My butt is not shaped-"
"Hehe it is! It's kinda lumpier on one side, isn't it-"
"Stop looking at Hoagie's butt!"
"Yeah, what Wally said!" Suddenly a smile spread across Hoagie's face. "I guess I don't really appreciate being the butt of your jokes!"
Wally and Kuki rolled their eyes, but Abby was furious. "Boy, you are so lucky Abby's hands are tied right now or she'd smack you into tomorrow!"
They kept squabbling until there was a sudden thud.
"Who's there?" shouted Hoagie. "I've got a multi-tool just out of reach and I'm not afraid to use-" He paused. "Wait, why do you look like a mini version of Wally?"
"Who?" Wally jerked his head around, but couldn't see properly behind him.
"Sh!" The blonde kid raised a finger to his lips, then motioned towards the hole in the wall behind him. Four more children started crawling through and hopping down.
"Who's talking?" Wally was still thrashing around, trying to get a good look behind him.
"We're getting you out," whispered Joey, and the vigilantes got to work untying the teens. "Just stay quiet everyone-"
"JOEY!?" bellowed Wally, whirling around as soon as he was untied, scooping the boy up in his arms, and all but shaking him. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you in boarding school?"
Someone was shushing him, but he didn't care.
"I… escaped?" replied Joey with a sheepish shrug.
Wally held him aloft, still in shock. Then he beamed. "Atta boy," he said, ruffling his brother's hair.
"Sh!" said Abby more fiercely. "They'll hear us-"
But it was already too late, they could hear the patter of footsteps running down the hallway ahead of them, growing louder.
Abby glanced at the hole the children had crawled through. It was too small to fit the teenagers, and the door behind them was locked, which meant there was going to be only one way out of there. "Get ready," she whispered, drawing her S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. Wally put Joey down behind him, stepping in front of the group next to Abby.
"They got free!" screeched a voice, and Kuki gasped as Ashley ran into the room, pointing at them. "Get them!"
Four more teens filed in behind her. Bruce, snarling at Wally, David, cracking his knuckles, Constance, still wiping the tears under her glasses, and Lenny, stepping out calmly with his hands behind his back.
"Five versus four, we can take them," hissed Ashley with a mad glint in her eye. "Whoever these snot-nosed kids are, they don't count."
Joey frowned, but before he could say another word, the blue-eyed teens in their starchy white outfits charged.
Bruce was the first to lunge at the group, and Wally threw himself forward, grappling Bruce away from the others. They went tumbling into the ground, and Bruce pinned Wally to the floor, but Wally shoved him off. The two blondes rose shaking, glaring at each other, when Bruce suddenly fell to his knees as his legs were swept out from under him.
Joey pulled back his staff, smirking. "No one messes with my brother."
"Hey! That's supposed to be my line!" protested Wally, but even he couldn't help breaking into a proud grin. His eyes darted towards the door. It sounded like someone was knocking.
Ashley had also leapt forward to grab Kuki's arm, but she twisted it out of her grasp.
"Come back here, you shrew!" spat Ashley, but once again, Kuki danced away from her claws. Ashley swung out a third time, but this time, she grabbed onto Kuki's hair and yanked her down. "Gotcha now! Betcha you wouldn't be so pretty if I pulled all your hair out, huh?"
Kuki hit the ground, her vision blurring from the pain. Then she started laughing.
"What? What!?" hissed Ashley, breathing heavily, not letting go of Kuki's hair.
"You were so wrong," said Kuki, giggling uncontrollably. "About everything! You're just a mean bully! I can't believe I didn't see it earlier."
And Kuki grabbed her own hair, wrenching it down so that Ashley came crashing down as well, and then rolling over, hoisted herself up on her hands and swiftly kicked Ashley away from her with such force, she careened into the wall and lay there groaning.
The knocking at the door was growing louder.
Meanwhile, David had barely taken two steps forward when his foot got caught on something and he tumbled face first into the ground. Sammy and Jessica were holding a piece of twine taut in front of David, which they quickly wrapped around his legs and arms and tied tight. Jessica blew him a raspberry and gave Sammy a high five.
Constance was already on the ground, clinging onto Hoagie's leg, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Why don't you love me-" she blubbered, as Hoagie tried to shake her off. "We were supposed to get married, and grow old collecting toenail clippings together-"
"I'm sorry, Constance!" shouted Hoagie, trying to peel her off him. "But I think it would be better for both of us if we saw other people-"
Constance let go of his leg and lay face down on the stone floor, still crying, as Hoagie patted her shoulder. "There, there?" he said awkwardly, when a shout from behind the door startled him.
The last to move forward was Lenny, who approached Abby calmly. "Abby," he said. "We don't have to fight. No one else needs to get hurt."
"You lied to me," she growled through gritted teeth, S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. loaded. "I was wrong to trust you."
Lenny chuckled, and as he strode forward, she glimpsed a glint of a key ring on his belt. "Abby, the truth is, you don't understand anything. This whole thing is bigger than you or me."
"Lies," continued Abby, circling around him, gripping her weapon more tightly, watching carefully.
Lenny clucked at her and continued. "What we're trying to do- we, the GKND- is help children across the galaxy. You're the one getting in the way."
"Now!" she shouted, and from either side leapt Raya and Jackson, lunging towards him, but he leapt out of Jackson's way and kicked out to deflect Raya's raised arms, right as Abby saw her chance to step forward and unleash the S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. But as he twirled around, he caught her wrist, and the S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. splanked into empty air.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice your ploy to hit me?" he sneered.
"We weren't trying to hit you," smirked Abby, still in Lenny's grip. In his periphery came a flash of metal. Jackson was waving the key from Lenny's belt.
"No-" began Lenny, feeling around his empty belt loop and lunging forward, but Jackson had already tossed the key to Raya, who was standing at the door. Furious knocking and yelling came from the other side.
"I wonder, who could it be?" smirked Raya. "We should probably let them in!" And she turned the key in the lock and swung open the door.
Nigel Uno came stumbling in. "Raya! I followed your trail of matches and heard you guys fighting, I came to help-"
But as he looked across the room, the fight was already over. Bruce, Ashley, David, and Constance all lay crumpled on the floor, and Lenny was surrounded.
"I guess you guys didn't need me afterall," he said, astounded, the vigilantes beaming. "Good work, everyone."
Abby quickly tightened her S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. to reload it, and held it out to Nigel's face.
"Stop, he's with us!" shouted Joey, stepping in front of Nigel.
"You know he's a traitor to the Kids Next Door, right?" she said, not taking her eyes off him.
"We know what he did," replied Joey. "But that's not who he is now. He's teaching us about the Kids Next Door, and how to fight."
"He taught you how to fight?" she said, surprised, and Joey nodded. "Well, he did a good job of it. That was some great teamwork." She loosened her grip on her weapon a little but didn't lower it. "So, what's next, Nigel?"
"I know you don't have a lot of reasons to trust me, but we gotta go. ASA now!" Nigel grimaced, pointing behind her.
The defeated teens on the floor were crawling towards Lenny, and there was a horrible sucking, glorpy sound, like bubbling slime, as the siblings started pulling closer together.
"What're they doing?" gasped Kuki.
"Let's not stay to find out," answered Nigel. "Everyone, run!"
~1x2x3x4x5~ Following the Leader
Nigel ran ahead through the labyrinthine tunnels, pausing at intersections, but it felt like his legs remembered the way even if his consciousness didn't. All five vigilantes and all of his former Sector V teammates were right behind him. In the tunnels behind them echoed crashes and screams, distant, but growing louder.
"This way, we're almost there!"
"Almost where?" asked Abby.
"At the place where I hid the weapon," said Nigel. "The weapon that will help us fight the GKND and save the Kids Next Door."
"Abby sure hopes you're right," she muttered under her breath. It seemed like a bad idea to let a traitor get near a weapon, but they didn't have any other options.
Meanwhile, Wally was lagging behind while excitedly trying to introduce Kuki to Joey as they ran. "Kuki, this is Joey, my little brother, he's like me but actually smart, see he wears glasses, that's how you know he's smart, but he's also a rebel, he learned that from me-"
Kuki giggled. "It's nice to meet you, Joey! Thanks for saving us. You guys are really good at fighting!" She gave him a sweet smile. Joey lit up and tugged on Wally's sweater, whispering into his ear.
Wally looked surprised. "Um, yeah, but-"
"-My brother thinks you're really pretty," Joey blurted out to Kuki, and she had to hide her giggle behind her hand. Wally's ears turned pink as he quickly scooped up his kid brother and ran ahead of her into the next tunnel.
"That's it Joey, no more talking to Kuki-"
Ahead, Hoagie caught up to Abby and tapped on her shoulder. "You're looking concerned. You ok?" He lowered his voice. "Is it about Nigel?"
"Well, I still don't trust him," she answered curtly, staring blankly into the tunnel ahead, avoiding his gaze.
"There's something else bothering you."
"It's no big deal."
"I know you. It seems like it is."
She sighed. "Look, it's not the right time to talk about it. But I can't stop thinking about what you said to me earlier. About us."
"Right," said Hoagie, brows furrowed in concern.
"I don't get it," she stated. "I thought you cared about me. I thought you liked being with me-"
"I do," Hoagie interjected. "And that's the problem! I care too much. You're the coolest person I've ever met, and knowing you're never going to feel the same way about me is going to destroy me-"
Abby's red cap whipped him across the face so quickly, he barely had time to blink.
"You idiot!" she said. "Do you really think that I don't feel the same? Do you know how agonizing it's been to watch you with Constance? Are you so thickheaded that you haven't realized, from the moment you first stepped into my secret classroom, that I've been falling in lov-"
"We're here." Nigel's voice rang out solemnly as they came to a halt in front of a metal door. "Abby, Hoagie, Wally, Kuki, behind me, vigilantes, on backup. Is everyone ready?"
Wally put Joey down, and nodded, then looked back at Kuki.
"Ready," she confirmed.
Abby straightened her cap with a side glance at Hoagie. "Ready," she said.
"Um," said Hoagie, looking bewildered. He quickly shook his head to clear his mind. "Um. Ready! I'm ready."
"Ok." Nigel nodded. "Let's do this."
Nigel burst open the door. On the other side was a bare room, walls plastered with slapdash metal sheets. A single light illuminated the center of the room, next to an odd tree stump with gray, peeling bark and a smooth, flat top. He couldn't explain it, but Nigel felt drawn to the stump, wanting to touch it.
Suddenly, the metal door slammed shut behind them, and slow, monotonous laughter echoed behind them. A dark figure stepped out of the blackness behind the tree stump, and even in the light, he was a mere silhouette of a man in a black suit, hands clasped behind his back.
"Well, well, well, just in time. How nice to see you again, nephew."
~1x2x3x4x5~ The Flaming Patriarch
Did I really just let myself fall into another trap? Abby couldn't help thinking. There they were, Sector V and the vigilantes, a dark stranger laughing maniacally ahead of them, and a group of teenagers with icy blue eyes chortling behind them. Besides the stump, the room was bare. No sign of a secret weapon. Nothing about the Kids Next Door. It was not only a trap, but a dead end.
"What did you do, Father?" Nigel cried out. "What did you do to the treehouse?"
Father stood akimbo, grinning. "I got a better offer, so I chopped down that silly tree. I even tried to use its wood to make myself a new pipe, but it never turned out quite right. It was always missing that something that my old one had, that black and fiery evilness. No, I never was able to replace that pipe… Anyways, I won't have to worry about that much longer!"
"Whatever you're planning, Father, we're putting a stop to it." Nigel gritted his teeth, and the children behind him tensed up, drawing their weapons.
"My dear boy, you're too late." Father laughed. "Look up."
And as he pointed, the ceiling slid open to reveal a thick sheet of glass, on top of which was the dining room, full of trapped, panicking teenagers.
Nigel could make out muffled shouts from the other side of the glass. "Where's the cake? We were promised cake! Let me out!"
"They're a gift," said Father, smiling. "For the GKND, in exchange for my pipe. And now that you're here, that gift is complete." He unfurled his arm and conjured a ball of flame in his hand. "Now be a good boy, Nigel. Stand down and accept your fate."
"The Kids Next Door never bows down to adult tyranny!" shouted Nigel. "Kids Next Door, battle stations!"
He barely finished yelling when a ball of fire careened towards them, and the group parted. It smacked into the door behind them, which started to glow red hot.
Wally had dived to the left, pushing some of the vigilantes out of the way of the fire.
"You have to leave, now!" he shouted at the children. "It's too dangerous!"
Jessica jumped up to try the door, but her skin sizzled and she recoiled. "The door's too hot!" she cried out, cradling her burnt hand.
"Jessica!" shouted Sammy, pulling out a first aid kit from his pack as he leapt over to her.
"Where do you think you're going?" A chilling cacophony of monotone voices echoed behind them. "Leaving our party so soon?"
Bruce, Ashley, David, Lenny, and Constance had seemingly melded together, and even though they looked like a group of snobby teens standing together, they moved in perfect unison, like a single organism. When one of them spoke, they all did. When one of them lifted their arms to push Sammy and Jessica to the ground, they all did.
"Hey! You leave them alone!" Wally stood up, fists at the ready. Joey and Kuki rose up behind him.
"Hello again, you snot-nosed brats and snivelly teenagers," the delightful teens sneered. "You haven't even seen a fraction of what we can do." They held out their arms, and the walls began shaking. Metal sheets peeled off and hurtled towards them, encasing them in a metal body. More metal plates attached to either side of them and underneath them, raising them up. Soon, Kuki, Wally, and Joey were face-to-face with a giant metal robot with the delightful teenagers inside, swinging its heavy metallic arms at them.
Meanwhile, Father kept hurling fireballs. Jackson, Raya, Hoagie, and Nigel ran along the right, dodging bolts of fire that left black scorch marks on the wall next to them. Hoagie yelped as a streak of flame clipped the edge of his shirt, catching it on fire, and he frantically smothered the flames with his cap.
"Is everyone ok?" Nigel looked back. Hoagie and Raya were nursing small burns, but they both nodded weakly. "Wait, where's-"
"Jackson!" screamed Raya as she saw him trapped in a corner of the room, completely unarmed, save for a single matchstick. Father descended upon him, hands raised with crackling fire. She tried to leap forward, but Nigel pulled her back, and she watched in horror as a cloud of fire enveloped Jackson.
"Jackson!" she sobbed, but as the smoke cleared from the corner, there stood Jackson, completely unscathed, holding a burnt matchstick. He looked down, patting himself, but there was not a burn on him in sight. He looked back up at Father, with the biggest smirk Raya had ever seen. Then he charged forward and launched himself right at Father's head, clinging onto his face.
On the other side of the room, Abby had seen the fire bolts coming, and had quickly hit the floor, rolling away so she could creep up behind the dark figure. She drew and tightened her weapon, raising it stealthily, knowing she would only have one chance. And as soon as Jackson latched onto the figure's face, Abby knew it was time. She unleashed her S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R., smashing it into his side. He winced, stumbling forward, and Abby grinned. Then the S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. started smoldering.
"What the-"
Her weapon's planks smoked as it hit the dark figure, and Abby hastily pulled it back. The wood was charred, as though this person had burned through it with his bare skin.
Father finally yanked Jackson off his face and threw him against the wall, where he lay crumpled and unmoving. He whirled around to face Abby. "Well, now I'm just ANGRY!" He swiped at her, and she was too stunned to dodge as her face was raked by a fiery claw. Abby went tumbling to the ground, clutching her bleeding cheek.
Nigel quickly scanned the room. Jackson and Abby were down, and Hoagie and Raya were wincing from burns. Wally, Kuki, and Joey were fighting what looked like a giant robot, but they had barely made any dents in its armor, and they were already panting, looking exhausted. Sammy and Jessica were running around, trying to bandage everyone up, but they weren't getting around fast enough. They were outmatched.
Father turned, cackling, to face Nigel. "Nigel Uno, looks like you're not doing so hot. How about a deal?"
Nigel stood tensed, but listening.
"It was you who stole my pipe all those years ago, not your friends. If you stop fighting and give yourself up, I'll let your friends live."
Nigel closed his eyes and took a deep breath, considering the weight of his choice. "I accept," he finally said. "As long as you let my friends go."
"No, Nigel!" shouted Joey from across the room. "We're in this together! Ack-"
But Joey stumbled back as the robot slammed into him. Everyone was hurt, but nobody had stopped fighting.
Suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, stepped a boy in a suit, with slicked-back hair and sunglasses.
"What is this?" he hissed at Father, gesturing at the room of children, battered, scruffy, and refusing to stop fighting.
"This? This is everyone that's left of the Kids Next Door, just like I promised." Father replied.
"They're supposed to be subdued." The boy put a palm to his face, shaking his head and muttering. "This is why you can't trust adults with anything-" And to Nigel's disgust, the boy stuck his finger into his nose, and suddenly green sludge was crawling up his arm, and once it covered his entire body, he and the goo disintegrated into thin air.
"No!" shouted Father. "Come back!" But the boy had left as quickly as he'd come. "You ruined it!" Father whirled to face Nigel. "I'm going to make you pay for this, and then you'll watch me destroy your friends next!"
Father lunged at Nigel, who, pulling strength out of seemingly nowhere, pried off a metal panel from the wall and held it in front of himself like a shield. Father's hand slammed into it, and he started pushing his way towards Nigel. Nigel held on with all his might, arms quivering.
There was something about that boy that was stirring up another memory in Nigel. Was it the fact that Nigel hadn't seen Numbuh Infinity in four years, but he still looked like a ten-year-old child? Or was it the disgusting way he had put his finger up his nose?
Father's eyes were ablaze in fiery hatred, his grimace wide, and his hand started to glow with heat on the metal plate. The metal plate glowed red, then white hot. Nigel's palms were sweating.
GKND. Snot. DNA. DNA! Nigel's eyes lit up with another memory. "Sector V," he shouted. "To the tree stump!"
And right as his hands began to burn from the metal plate, he suddenly let go and rolled away. Father stumbled forward momentarily. His former teammates heeded him, disengaged from the robot, and circled around the stump.
"Follow me!" yelled Nigel. He stuck his finger into his nose, then slammed it onto the stump. "The code is in our DNA!"
"If you say so," shrugged Wally, sticking in his own finger and then placing it onto the stump.
"Okie doke!" echoed Kuki, following as well.
"Well, what else can we do?" grimaced Hoagie as he followed suit with a hopeless glance at Father, who was picking himself up and was now fully on fire, marching towards them.
"Abby?"
She had her arms crossed, her face distorted with indecision. It felt like she kept making the same mistakes, over and over and over again. But she also felt something else looking into the four faces around her.
"I'm in," she whispered, and stuck in her finger.
As soon as all five snot-covered fingers hit the stump, it started to grow. The trunk widened with branches bursting out, leaves sprouting out of twigs that poked up from the stump, and there was something in the branches obscured by foliage, but before they could get a good look at it, there was a blinding explosion of red light.
And then they remembered everything.
AN: WELL that only took a couple years to write. If you're still here, stickin' with the story, you are radical. Radical, I say. Your comments give me life and are the real reason I'm still writing. This was by far the hardest chapter for me, especially the fight scenes with like 14 people going at it at once... But hang in there, the next chapter is already blast to write :P Stay tuned and stay cool B-)