HELMET Story Layout

Shortly after Lizzie used the Boyfriend Helmet on Numbuh One, he sent a report to Moon Base about the threatening nature of the device. At the same time requested permission for his team to find out who was making the device, shut down the production line, arrest the people responsible and send them to the Arctic Base Prison.

The paper on which his complaint and request filed on it did eventually make it to the Supreme Leader's desk. Coincidentally, it happened to be on the day that Chad would be identified as a traitor. The paper, unread slid under a filing cabinet when the office was cleaned out after Chad had left.

By this time, Numbuh One had so many things happening that he didn't question why no one ever got back to him about his concerns surrounding the machine. In all honesty, he'd rather forget about the whole incident anyway (AKA; He blocked it from his mind).

The paper is finally recovered when Numbuh Three Sixty Two orders the janitor to do a more thorough job of cleaning her office. When the Supreme Leader reads the report she orders that the piece be investigated. One of the head sets is obtained and handed over to the KND scientists for investigation.

Within half an hour, they are calling her to tell her that: Yes, this is serious. This thing works and it works well. It is a danger to boys everywhere and needs to be pulled off the streets ASA-Now!

Sector V is called up to Moon Base, where they are authorized to do what Numbuh One had requested roughly a year previously.

So, they begin tracking the product to the manufacturers.

What they finally find when they reach the production center is surprising.

The designer never wanted to build the thing anyway but she had to because her dolls were being held hostage. Under pressure from Numbuh Three, the team promises to rescue the dolls.

When they finally find out who is behind this, it turns out to be two of the Annoyingly Cute Triplets Who Live Upon the Hill. They had gotten frozen in the ice cream blast along with the KND members. But unlike the Kids, they were not rescued.

A year and a half previously, they had thawed. Cold and alone. Because the only member of their family with powers, Father was careful to keep himself hidden from the general public, the Triplets had no way of knowing that their other sister had descendents.

They built up power and swore revenge on boys everywhere (KND was a boys club in their day and they didn't know how things had changed), for leaving them stranded hundreds of years in the future without their mom or sister.

Getting the millennium mixed up when they first produced the helmets, they called them the devices Boyfriend Helmet 3000s, rather than 2000s.

It did not exactly make them feel better when they found out that they had living relatives through watching a bunch of people get agified. They hid and waited out Grandfather's wrath. Then they continued with their work because once again, with the exception of the KND and the local Villains, no one knew exactly where the villains were hiding.

Sector V defeats them, then the KND explains who they had found to Numbuh Zero. The word reaches the rest of the family. The two triplets are pulled out of the Artic base and brought to a family meeting to decide what will happen to them. The final descision is that they will be placed in the care of Monty. Numbuh One now shares a room with them.

OPERATION: HELMET

Highly

Evil

Love

Machines

Engages

Troubles

Chapter One:

"Well, that's one stack down," Numbuh Three Sixty Two stated as she finished signing the request in front of her. "Only a hundred more to go." Of course there weren't that many stacks in her office yet. No, she'd only been working for an hour thus far today and after staying late last night, she was currently almost caught up with all her work.

But that always changed on Saturday. During the weekend, everything always got busy. For starters, most sectors send in mission reports that they had put off all week so they could do homework (agents couldn't afford to have their parents ground them for something as avoidable as a bad report card, despite what the first level training simulation seems to imply). Then there's the fact that this is when the majority of villains snap because the children who are in school most of the week are free to do what they want, causing a rise in the number of missions and, as a result, more paperwork. On top of the usual requests and situations that pop up all over the place, weekends became absolutely miserable.

Oh well, No point moping about how she'd spend her weekend, the Supreme Leader thought to herself as she grabbed up another sheet. It looked like sector Q had an encounter with the Terrible Tutor on Tuesday. Other than some two day headaches, no one had gotten seriously injured. Now the villain was now at the arctic prison, probably giving the other villains headaches with his lectures. Numbuh Three Sixty Two signed the paper, verifying that she had read the report.

The door slammed open and the Supreme Leader looked up to see Numbuh 65.3 with, surprise, surprise, more paperwork. "Good Morning, Supreme Leader, Sir. I've got some important papers for you to sign." As he finished his statement, he sniffled.

The higher ranking operative looked at him closer. He looked a little pale. "Herbert, are you sick?"

"No, Ma…ah-choo!"

As he sneezed, papers flew off of the top of his stack and fluttered around the room, one even slipping behind a filing cabinet.

Numbuh Three Sixty Two sighed and got out of her chair as the boy placed the papers on the table, looking a little sheepish as he said, "They were dusting in the hallway, it's just my allergies, I promise."

Another voice called out from the hallway and said, "Numbuh 65.3, sectors are calling to find out what they need to do today."

"Coming," the other agent said, rushing out of the room to leave Numbuh Three Sixty Two to pick up the papers herself. She sighed, telling herself that he didn't help only because he was busy, too but honestly, she suspected he just didn't want to be close to the bossy supreme leader.

Most of the operatives were intimidated by her. It almost seemed like they considered her an authority figure comparable to an adult. They had been since she became the best spy, but it seemed to have gotten a Kajillion times worse since she stepped up to become Head of the KND after Chad was revealed to be a treacherous teenager. She frowned, uncomfortable at the thought. Sometimes it felt like she had sacrificed her childhood through her devotion to this organization.

She managed to get a couple fingers behind the cabinet to get the paper behind it. As she pressed the sheet against the wall and pulled it out, second piece fell out behind it. It was covered in so much dust it was unreadable, indicating it had been there for a while.

After putting the other papers on the stack, she knocked the dust off of the older one, leaving a tan cloud of it in the air as she placed the now readable paper on the table. She was surprised to see that it was a personal request from Numbuh One for permission to launch an investigation. Judging by the date, it was definitely made while Chad was still in power. Curious about what the bald boy had been so interested in, she began to read. As she did, curiosity became shock and then determination. She pushed a series of buttons and waited.

"This is Numbuh Two By Four, who's calling," the operative snapped. It was no secret that he didn't generally like interacting with people outside of the scientific and technological community.

Numbuh Three Sixty two pressed a button and spoke into the speaker, "Take a guess."

"Oh! Supreme Leader, sir! I'm so sorry sir, I…"

"It's fine," Rachel said absently. She had more important matters on her mind at the moment than how Numbuh Two by Four's greeting. "I need the science and technology department to get a hold of a device and examine its properties. It may be critical to the safety of kids everywhere and possibly other age groups, too."

"What is this device, sir?"

"The Boyfriend Helmet 3000."

Chapter 2

Numbuh One sat in his usual chair as his teammates performed their different duties around the SCAMPER (Shabby Camper Actually Makes Perfect Emergency Rescummabob). Their ride had been uneventful.

As they docked at a parking spot, Numbuh One wondered what he had been called up here for. Ever since the whole Grandfather incident, Rachel generally tried to avoid calling him up to the Moon Base. Apparently, while Rachel had no problem with having him here, his presence had caused some problems for other operatives. He hadn't much enjoyed coming up here anyway. There were three major types of reactions that most operatives had to him now: fascination, fear and anger.

The first group annoyed him to no end. They asked him a never ending stream of questions. The scientists were an especially big problem in this category. Hey Numbuh One, can you let us examine how hot you can get? What do you do to summon your suit? How cool is it to be able to use your powers? Can we please run some tests on you? Do you have any ideas for creating weapons to use against father and grandfather, since you have personal experience with their fire magic? Could you levitate my soda over here without spilling it? At that last request, he'd donned his suit, brought the soda over and dumped it on the boy's head.

The kids that were afraid of him just made him feel like garbage. Not on purpose of course. They'd see him coming and have to be somewhere else or be too afraid to move. He'd seen some of them tremble or cry and within hours had heard about a couple whom had wet themselves.

Then there were the kids who were angry at him. Those who felt that he should have been decommissioned immediately after Grandfather had been defeated. How dare he show his face around here and wear the sunglasses that were a symbol of Numbuh Zero. They didn't care that he is Numbuh Zero's son. Just that he's one of them. They'd make sure they were standing where he could see them glaring at him, as if daring him to try something. Some would tell him to his face how they felt about his continued presence in the KND. He'd heard that Numbuh Eighty Six had actually had to talk one girl out of volunteering to be decommissioned early rather than working on the same side as him. The worst part about these kids is that Nigel could relate to them. If it had been anyone outside of his team who'd gotten these powers, he would always be on his guard around them.

Needless to say, after his trip, he'd needed a break. That evening, Abby had calmed him down that evening before he left Sector V's Base and the next day, Nigel took unscheduled time off to go fishing with his dad. On the bright side, he had a feeling that after he turned thirteen, he'd remember that fishing trip and nothing else. As adults say, every cloud has a silver lining.

After that, Rachel had been talking to him at school, sitting at the table with his team during lunch. It had been nice and because they weren't officially on the clock, after the first few times, the team loosened up and started acting like themselves. Within a couple weeks, she started eating with them whether she had something important to discuss or not.

Unfortunately, it had also lead to the incident last week when Grandma Stuffem had attacked the team again. If any villains had been unable to identify Rachel as the old lady who'd announced the taking of the KND Moon Base, they certainly knew who it was after that. Fun fact: It turns out that even Grandma Stuffem doesn't have enough food to deal with a large army of KND operatives at lunch time. Not even close.

So now, they're back to using the Moon Base as the place to talk. He wasn't looking forward to getting out of the scamper. For a moment, he actually considered flying to the Supreme Leaders office, so he wouldn't have to deal with the crowd but decided against it, as it could start a panic.

As Numbuh One walked into the supreme leader's office and closed the door, he breathed a sigh of relief. The shadows in the room twitched for a couple moments before subsiding.

Rachel looked up from her papers and queried, "kids still badgering you?"

"It's hard enough dealing with this without everyone in the KND doing something to remind me about it. I'm worried that someone will push the wrong buttons and I'll end up accidentally hurting them."

"Gosh, I hope not. So many operatives are looking for an excuse to toss you in the decommissioning chamber, it's not even funny. You're our best operative and one of the only people who still treats me like a fellow kid, rather than some all-powerful authority figure. I don't think I could win the argument against them if you did something like that."

The bald operative leaned his back against the door as he said, "I never even asked for this."

"I know, but it doesn't change the fact that you have it. Give it some time; I'm sure most of the operatives will eventually come around. Most of the kids you work closely with have already concluded that you're still the same hot shot you always were."

"Ha, Ha, very funny," Nigel stated but he seemed to have calmed down. He looked at the Supreme Leader and said, "Sorry. That came out really rude. I'm just so tired of this."

Rachel nodded and said, "I can understand not enjoying being the center of attention, believe me. I have to deal with it every day." She gestured for him to sit down.

As he took a seat, he asked "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of being called up here."

"Actually, it involves a request you made a while back. One you made while Chad was still in command. It turned out the request made it to his desk the day you revealed his true age. It must have slipped behind a filing cabinet where I found it when Chad made a mess of the room during his escape."

She pushed a photo of a disassembled Boyfriend Helmet across the table to him. As he looked at it, he grimaced and the shadows around the room began to twitch again and she caught a flash of yellow behind his sunglasses. "Where…"

"I ordered that the technological division get one and examine it. We had to officially verify the threat. Who was the poor kid that you saw being subjected to this torture."

"I didn't see it being used on someone else at the time. Lizzie got it for me as a gift and tried to get me to kill my team mates while wearing it."

"What?!" Rachel Screamed. "And you kept seeing her afterwards?" She added in disbelief.

"I got her to promise never to use one again once mine exploded."

"You got her to… REALLY NIGEL!" she exclaimed, torn between anger and horror as she thought about the results she read from the kids who studied the thing. "Are you kidding me?!"

The boy looked a little sheepish as she said this. "She's gotten better."

Rachel sat there dumbfounded by what her friend was saying. She recalled how something that a few operatives had warned her long ago; although Nigel seems level headed in many ways, there were things he did that made them question how he passed the psychological tests when being admitted into the KND. At the time she had paid them no mind. Now, hearing this, she wasn't so sure she should write them off so quickly.

Suddenly, her door slammed open to reveal Numbuh Eighty Six. "I heard you yell, sir. Is this boy giving you trouble?" Fanny stated.

"No, Fanny. Everything's fine."

Nigel looked over his shoulder at the other girl and said "Hello, Head Tactician. How's work on the moon?" She glared at him before closing the door. It was no secret that when she realized that she would be stuck doing paper work on the moon like her commanding officer, she no longer found her new rank so glamorous. She had preferred being the Head of Decommissioning and actively chasing deserting teenagers.

After the door closed, he said, "I'll assume that she's one of the kids who sees me as being the same as ever."

Rachel nodded and said, "You still shouldn't antagonize her."

"Well, I'm still upset at her for taking credit for work my team did, for not using her head when we were simultaneously scheduled for decommissioning, risking my mind for a key chain, wasting my time delivering an ice cream cone and mocking me when she got her promotion."

"I hate to say it but someone's going to have to show a little maturity here."

"Don't worry, we're not going to let it interfere with doing our duty to the Kids Next Door. Numbuh Eighty Six can be a jerk sometimes but we both know she's as loyal to the cause as we are."

"She's one of my best friends."

Nigel turned his attention back to photo and asked, "Are you authorizing us to track down the people who are making these things."

"If you can, we want you to shut down this whole production line and arrest whoever is responsible. I want everyone willing to make these things available to be inmates in the arctic prison when this is over."

"With pleasure," the boy said in a dark tone. The smile on his face made Rachel's blood run cold. It was the type look of she usually saw on many a villain with a personal vendetta during her spy missions. And neither the spark across his hand nor the twitching shadows around helped reduce her unease with her friends behavior either. For a moment, she considered pulling him off the mission right then and there. Perhaps her brother's team should do it instead. They had yet to fail at a mission, anyway. And, for once, it'd be less personal for them then Sector V.

"What's the matter?" Nigel asked, suddenly looking puzzled and not at all like the scary person who had been before her, tugging at shadows only a moment previously.

"Oh, nothing," she said.

She could tell by Nigel's concerned look that he didn't believe her but he didn't keep pushing for the answer. "Thank you for authorizing this mission." Nigel said energetically. "I can't wait to…" Nigel trailed off because, in his excitement, his suit had formed.

Rachel monetarily froze in her seat, trying to suppress her instinctive reaction to the familiar combination of black and red. The way his sunglasses made his now brightly glowing eyes look red made it all the more unsettling.

"Every time I get too emotional about anything…" he said, in annoyed tone, making her aware of how his voice was much deeper and scarier, when he wore the shadows. "It never fails!" He tore the suit at one arm using his other hand and the whole thing deteriorated from that point.

"Sorry." He said to the Supreme Leader, now looking quite upset. He glanced at the door and sighed. "I guess if I want to get this mission underway I have to go through the Moon Base first, huh." The prospect didn't seem to please him. "I hope you have a good day Rachel."

As she watched him walked out, Rachel suddenly had the feeling that, despite the fact that Nigel was still on their side, his loyalty had not been tested to its fullest extent yet. She suddenly suspected that he had not yet encountered the worst of the forces pushing him toward the other side. If he made it through, he would be an even stronger member of the KND than ever before and if not, he could become their most dangerous enemy ever. If that happened, she wasn't sure what she'd do.

The next person to walk through the door wanted to lodge a complaint about the dangers of said bald brit being allowed on Moon Base. She sighed after she ordered the operative to leave. Whatever happened, she had a feeling that Nigel would need support from friends to get him through this. She promised herself that, when the time came, she'd be one of the kids he could lean on.

Chapter 3

Numbuh Five stood waiting by the SCAMPER, waiting for Numbuh One with the rest of the team. They all knew he'd want to be out of here as soon as possible. Any hopes for an extended stay here were dashed the moment they stepped out. Other operatives had had… strong reactions to their presence, to say the least.

Still, she was surprised to see a small dark figure that she was becoming quite used to seeing fly into view. Generally, Sector V's leader tried to avoid using his powers while in bases. She wondered if he was excited or frustrated as he stopped in front his team, trying to hover close enough to the ground that he looked like he was touching it without really doing so. Said attempt resulted with him scuffing his feet and tripping over himself.

Numbuh Five heard a couple of snickers from the other side of the room as she offered her hand to the boy. He took it and she helped pull him up.

"Are you alright," Numbuh Three asked.

"Yeah, just fine." Numbuh One said, although he looked rather annoyed to Numbuh Five.

"Serves you right for trying to show off."

"I was going to just walk through but I couldn't stand being in that hallway one more second. I've told you flying calms me down…and I wanted to look impressive leaving, too." Flight was one of the few new abilities he had embraced that came with his shadow powers.

"Well you certainly made a big crash." Numbuh Two said, causing the other operatives to roll their eyes.

Suddenly, from across the room, a voice called out "Nice landing candlestick."

Numbuh One glared at Numbuh Three Sixty Three. The boy had been trying to tick him off whenever they met.

The team uses the magazines that the helmets are advertised in to track down the group who makes them. Then they find out where the group has offices and factories. They raid the head office and take down the person producing them, rescuing the kid who was forced to design it in the process.

I was considering it being discovered that an Adult Women's magazine was also starting to build these things so that I could bring in a temporary alliance with the adults.

Also, Something Monty would do to keep the peace for his family members would be schedule family dinners to help keep Grandfather and Father placated. Grandfather through getting to spend time with him and Father through simply not being excluded.

But I also had a scene that would have been the start of the attempt to ask for the adult alliance which has elements that reflect all of the above information, so I just wanted to explain it first before you reached it.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about work when we're having these weekly dinners." Nigel's dad stated in an annoyed tone.

"Actually dad," Nigel said, "I think my current assignment is one worth discussing. It's one that you'd all be interested, especially considering that, if we fail, it will expand and become an adult issue too in a few months.

"And what is this great issue we could all agree on about?" Father asked skeptically, making his first comment all evening.

Nigel grabbed his backpack and pulled out a girly magazine.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" Grandfather asked in an angry tone.

"You look at the advertisement at the bottom of the last page and tell me." Nigel stated in a disgusted tone as he tossed it to Grandfather.

The old man glanced at the boy before pulling a pair of glasses from somewhere in his suit, levitated the Magazine, opened it and took a few moments to find a distance from his face where he could read it. After several seconds, his eyes widened and asked, "Surely this thing doesn't work." He stated as he passed it to Numbuh Zero, who quickly snatched up the piece to read it over.

"Oh, it does. Even the head fusion part."

Monty had turned pale as he passed the magazine off to Father. Upon looking at the page, the villain said "great, something else to haunt my nightmares. The stuff you brats come up with…"

"Your one to talk Father," Nigel stated in disgusted tone.

The villain glanced up stated in an annoyed tone. "How did the KND confirm this thing is even operational?"

"I don't know how the scientists go about testing volatile equipment but trust me, I know it works."

The men at the table all looked at him.

"Your team had to deal with some poor boy that'd had one of these things strapped to their head?" Numbh Zero asked.

"You could say that. And it was a wonder I was able to fight that thing enough to keep from destroying my team once I defeated them. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't seen the price for that piece of steak."

At this statement, his dad's mouth fell open as his Grandfather winced and his uncle chuckled.

That's all I really had done for this particular story idea. I hope you enjoyed it.

So, fun fact. Something I considered doing was that, since Nigel hadn't hit puberty, wearing the suit would make him sound like he was on helium. I don't think I would have done it, simply because I liked Nigel seeming serious but it was still a funny thing to think about.