Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. It belongs to Tom Warburton.

How on Earth Chapter 9

At the Convention Center, the duplicate that Grandfather had assigned with trying to destroy the indestructible book and communicating with the general public was listening to Mr. Boss and Number Three Sixty Two. The villain and former Supreme Leader were arguing over the best way totear down the KND Tree House across town.

Not only had a report of the other duplicates failure been sent there but they also received footage of the absolutely miserable failure. Never, in all of Grandfather's existence, had a duplicate been dispensed of so quickly… or at all, for that matter. Oh well, at least they had Monty now, which was a victory in itself.

Immediately after, the elderly woman who had lead the army of kids earlier that day had ordered that Sector V's Tree House Schematics be brought to the convention center. Mr. Boss had made similar requests for anything that could be found for the area around the building, including the structure of nearby homes, the configuration of the power grid and the pipes nearby. They were now comparing their notes as they tried to come up with a plan to overcome the Sector.

The duplicate felt that this was far more important than the assignments his original had given him, earlier on. When the orders were given out to play catch up on general information, they hadn't expected the other doppelganger to fail. Besides, he'd much rather be planning a fight anyway.

Then, suddenly, another duplicate came crashing through a wall. Everyone glanced and looked at the newcomer. "Do you even understand the concept of a door?" The ex-supreme leader asked when she recovered from her own shock.

The duplicate gave her an annoyed look and said, "If I was the original, you'd be fired by now but he'd be upset if I acted without his permission."

"Oh, you poor thing. How can you stand it, having to defer to someone else?" She said sarcastically.

The Duplicate who had already been in the room wasn't shocked by her ability to shoot defiant comments at the other duplicate. He suspected it was a combination of irritation at working with enemies, tiredness from working all day and, possibly, some small part of her fighting the agification, even though the battle was lost. She was very good at making comments that hurt, too. He would never tell her, but he and all the other dopplegangers hated taking commands… even if it was technically from themselves. Of course, they couldn't do anything about it because any of them can just be replaced with another duplicate. As he exchanged a look with the other duplicate, he could tell that it was thinking along the same lines.

"So," he said, floating up to the newest duplicate, "what brings you here?"

"Orders from home," the other said, probably rolling his eyes.

"What orders?"

"Well, for starters, Grandfather wants a search party put out for Monty's wife. He said that the woman was probably at a salon when she got agified."

"Women and their beauty products."

"I hear you." The other stated and continued, "He also said that he wants you to gather information on his grandson. If he's going to get Nigel to cooperate, he'll need to know how to push his buttons."

"Understandable."

"Finally, I was going to tell you that you've been put in charge of coming up with the next attack plan but you've already gotten that taken care of."

"Well, now that that's settled, I have something for you to do, too."

At this statement the other one crossed his arms and looked annoyed. "What might that be?" He asked through clenched teeth.

"We got a call from the elementary school. They say they might have found something interesting there. They're even routing some supplies that way even though it hasn't been authorized. Would you chew them out for acting against orders, even with good intentions and then verify that what they are doing is actually worth the effort."

"For goodness sake! How hard is it to understand what they need to do? There's taking over the world and making tapioca. It seems pretty cut and dried to me!"

"Tell me about it. It gives me a headache whenever I think about it, too."

"I'll go deal with it." With that, the duplicate shot out of the hole next to the door.

After a few moments, the remaining duplicate looked at the audience and asked, "Alright, who wants to organize the search for my daughter-in-law." Because it was a request from Grandfather, every Citizombie felt the urge to volunteer. Everyone in the audience tried to yell over each other to get the ancient being's attention.

"Be Quiet!" He yelled.

Number Three Sixty Two raised her hand, like a child in a classroom. Grandfather signaled to her and she said, "Sir. I would like permission to organize this search. My Global Tactical Officer is perfectly capable of planning out this attack with Mr. Boss and let's face it, you want an excuse to be rid of me as much as I want a reason to work somewhere else."

"I plan on having you gather information the KND has on Nigel."

"All that takes for me is a call to Moon Base. People up there will find it and bring it to you."

"Fine, then, you may have this assignment but if you fail at any of it, the consequences will be dire."

"Understood sir."

"Good. Now that that's settled, how many villains here have had personal encounters with my grandson?" At this, the majority of the people in the room raised their hands. The boy had clearly been busy. "Alright, then. I want reports only from those of you whom have do deal with him more than once a month." As the audience started talking all at once again, he said, "oh for goodness…Documented Reports!"

Suddenly, a figure appeared in the doorway and yelled "hasn't anyone noticed there have been no reports whatsoever about what's happening with the Teenagers!" Everyone turned to see Cree Lincoln standing in the middle of the doorway, looking mighty ticked.

Numbuh Eighty Six was rushing to her personal DOH-DOH. She wanted to get over to the convention center as soon as possible. Even as a Senior Citizombie, she was excited about getting her first real assignment as the Head Global Tactician.

Just as she climbed into the cockpit, some activity came from Sector V's base. A large ray gun moved and shot a laser into the middle of the road, which was currently a 'no man's land' between the base and the citizombie camp across the street. As the redhead watched, along with the other citizombies, whom had stopped what they were doing to see the show, she realized what she was seeing.

Sector V was drawing a line in the sand and telling them not to cross it.

When the machine shut off, Numbuh Eighty Six yelled, "What are you all standing around for? Get back to work!" Then she closed the cockpit, turned on her machine and made a B-line for the convention center.

So, Sector V of the Kids Next Door was now feeling confident enough to challenge their authority. Well, they'd pay dearly for their little statement.

"Do you think they got past the Citizombies?" Numbuh Two asked.

"If they didn't, we'll be joining them in the morning," Numbuh Five replied.

"Do you have guards posted by the hole in the living room?"

"And shifts ready to switch. We put some batter powered guns pointing out from there. We'll have a good view of the lawn."

Hoagie continued to stare out into the dark silently.

"Worried?"

"Yes," Hoagie looked at her and said, "I just sent my little brother out there, what do you expect?"

"Don't worry, The Tommy may be annoying but he can look out for himself."

"Yeah, I know but he's still my baby brother."

Abby looked at her friend and wondered if Cree had conversations with her own team mates when she was still Numbuh Eleven of the Kids Next Door and Abby got picked for her first solo spy missions. Could it possibly be a reason that she had ended up in Sector V in the first place? Because her big sis couldn't stand the thought of letting her out of sight?

"Come on," Hoagie said, "We have to put the base on Lock Down quickly if we are going to make it to dawn.

Numbuh Five took one last glance out the window before turning back into the base.

"Joey, what are you doing in here…and where's your diaper?" Wally asked he came into the control room to find his baby brother crawling around in the nude. It seemed to happen all the time now. When he complained to his mom a couple weeks ago, she said that he was just going through a phase and he'd grow out of it. When Wally had said that it was embarrassing, his mom countered by showing him a picture of him doing a dance like his little brother had done during the butt busting competition, in front of several smiling adults who were probably thinking he was so cute, with the Sydney Music Hall in the background. She promptly said, "You sure didn't seem to think so when you were his age."

At the sound of his big brother's voice, Joey turned, gurgled cutely and got up to walk a few steps toward his brother only to fall down again, landing on his rear. Rather than get up again he crawled the rest of the way to his big brother.

As Joey motioned to be picked up, Wally whined, "I really don't have time for this!" but obliged to the naked baby's silent request anyway, "Numbuh Two and Numbuh Five will be here any minute to begin the lockdownification and then I've got an important meeting. I don't have time to be taking care of you, too."

Then Wally looked at the control console to see a familiar article of clothing hiding the buttons from view. "There it is." He grabbed the diaper, made sure it was clean and laid Joey on his back on the floor and tried to put it on as the baby wriggled and giggled.

He heard some snickering from the doorway and looked to see the operatives he had been waiting for. "What are you laughing at?" He asked before glancing back in time to see Joey trying to crawl off. "You get back here," he said, grabbing his brother, who wasn't quite out of arms reach yet and started putting the diaper on again, "and stop taking this thing off."

The baby giggled in response as Wally picked him up again, diaper in place, for the moment.

The older boy then looked at his teammates and asked, "Are we ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Numbuh Five said, as Numbuh Two silently stood there, still smiling as if he was still fighting down another laugh.

"If you make one cruddy joke about this, you'll be sorry."

"Numbuh Five's going to punch in the code and start the lockdown now." Numbuh Five stated as she walked over to the machine and turned it on. The screens glowed blue as she typed something on the keyboard.

Numbuh Two came to her side, preparing to play his role in the lockdown activation as the machine stated, "You have requested emergency code L 62, the Lockdownification."

"Kids Next Door Operative Numbuh Five, Second in Command of Sector V."

"Kids Next Door Operative Numbuh Two, Two by For Technology Operative of Sector V."

"Confirmed. Please verify genetic code."

As they did this, Wally watched, still holding Joey, whose attention was also being held by the scene.

"Warning, scanners detect a breach that the Lockdownification protocol will be unable to close. Do you still wish to proceed?

"Proceed!" Numbuh Two and Numbuh Five both ordered.

"Authorization accepted, Commencing Tree house Lockdownification." As it stated this, the screens became so bright that they were almost blinding, then dimmed to their previous level as the sounds of scraping and slamming metal echoed throughout the tree house, as all doors and windows to the outside of the tree house closed.

The lights throughout the building switched to a dim glow and a few moments later all non-security and non-lighting devices within the building shut down.

At the sudden change, Joey started bawling, scared by noises he'd heard and the flash of the computer screen followed by the darkening of the room. Similar sounds drifted to them from other parts of the tree house, where the other babies were being startled as well.

"Oh, come on, Joey." Numbuh Fours said. "It's just a lockdown, nothing to be scared of."

"We did make the lighting for it kind of creepy though," Hoagie commented as the baby continued to cry.

Wally looked around and said, "I guess you're right. It does look kind of creepy." Then he said, "I'm going to find somewhere to put Joey and then I'll head back to the debriefing room for our next big meeting."

The three hamsters glanced back as they heard the sounds that indicated the lockdown had occurred. The hamster wearing an orange shirt chittered nervously to the one with a red hat on its head and an earring in each ear. Joaquin felt his own moment of doubt. He had just gotten himself and two other hamsters locked out of the base in the dead of night to explore the limbs of the tree.

Not only that, they were about to search for giants who might or might not help save the base. Not giant like the humans… every hamster had heard the stories about giants who powered the tree house until the ancestors of the hamsters who currently ran it replaced them. Only occasional glimpses of them had been mentioned. The humans called them Ginny pigs and had apparently encountered them one of the times they were up here recently.

If the rumor about them being kicked out of the base to forever roam the canopy when the hamsters came in was true, Joaquin doubted that they would be friendly with him and his travelling companions.

Hoot hoot. The sudden noise caught all the hamsters' attention. They didn't know what made the sound but they all felt a deep fear of it. They started moving amongst the tree limbs, hoping the leaves concealed them from whatever dangerous monster had made that sound.

"All right, quiet down." Numbuh Four said. "We've got a lot of important stuff to talk about. That is, if we want to be ready for tomorrow when it gets here." In any other circumstances, Numbuh Four thought, and tomorrow would seem like forever and a half away. It didn't feel that way right now. It felt like he might turn around any moment and find that the sky was already starting to change color.

The chatter that had been going on in the room quieted down.

"The first thing I want to know is how many people are still out there. Lizzie, did you happen to reach anyone."

"Well, yes actually." She came up on the stage and pushed Numbuh Four out of the way of the mike so she could have access to it. As he glared at her, he decided not to mention that the thing had no power. Not that it made a difference, her voice travelled well. "As the Senior Citizen Squad mentioned, they knew of another resistance group. It turns out that they are part of a network of elderly men and women who try to improve life for people their age. This is one of the groups out there, probably the most extensive, but they are also trying not to be noticed, so they aren't rescuing a lot of people, beyond their own families."

A few kids glanced at the senior citizen squad members who were in the room with them. They were placed at the front for the sake of their hearing and vision problems, although nobody would say that to their faces. This was only acceptable because they were placed along the side of the room rather than in front of everyone else. Of course, when the kids stared at them, it was made obvious because of their position. The glares they got in response caused them to look away.

"We also found out that the Kids Next Door under Water Tree…"

"The Deep Sea Research Center…" Numbuh Forty Two called out.

"I'm talking here!" Lizzie exclaimed angrily before continuing. "Yeah, they said something about a lack of air to sea vehicles to reach them. They have some in their place though and are trying to come up with some plan themselves to defeat Grandfather, too.

"I also got in touch with a Villain out on the Atlantic, some guy who calls himself Cuppa Joe. I think straight black coffee has less caffeine in it than he does. He said that his coffee rig has enough supplies to last through an eight month siege but the only helicopter they have was destroyed in one of the earliest attacks. They're stranded."

"The last group I came in contact with is the most interesting. Teenagers and child nerds have teamed up in the next town over. It turns out that nerds, because they can turn into Nerd Zombies, immediately revert to this form when they get touched by Citizombies. The Teenagers also set up a sound barrier with their bands and their speaker systems. It turns out the Citizombies don't like loud music. Go figure."

At this, the kids in the room broke into conversation. Numbuh Four decided to let it go on for a few moments, thinking about the implications, himself. The Teenagers were dangerous enemies and he recalled what it was like dealing with the Nerd Zombies. He remembered the conversation he'd silenced earlier about how this incident might delay the next set of Yipper Cards. The nerds were probably wondering about it too. They got pretty edgy when their stuff was at stake. "And what did they say?" Numbuh Four asked.

"Tomorrow, if your base fails, head for the roof and bring as much of the anti-aging stuff as you can."

"That's it!?" A kid yelled out from the audience.

"You were moments away from shutting down most of the power. We didn't have time to talk about anything else."

Numbuh Four stepped forward and said, "I think we need to move on to the next part of the meeting but I want to talk to you later, Lizzie."

"Well it better not be too late, I need my beauty sleep."

Numbuh Four ground his teeth, jealous of the girl who would definitely be able to sleep tonight, despite the fact that, unlike him, she hadn't been running around all day, before saying "I'll get to you whenever I can."

She looked offended as she stepped off and let him back in his spot. "Alright, how are our supplies…"

The meeting must have taken almost an hour. Numbuh Four had never expected it would last so long,. He'd been glad when it ended; the more so since the meeting had had gotten boring really quickly. He had been glad when it was over. The Australian needed a break. He was originally going to help Joey get ready for bed and possibly take a nap until somebody needed him but as he passed the medical area, he heard Kuki's voice through the doorway and decided he could put that off for a few minutes.

As he walked through the door, he saw that there were five operatives on cots, each with a cast on at least one of their limbs. The three boys looked rather annoyed, probably because Kuki was singing the Rainbow Monkey song nonstop and they couldn't get away.

There were also a couple of kids checking the bandaged group. They'd been assigned to help Numbuh Three take care of the injured soldiers. They, too, looked quite annoyed.

"Found it!" Exclaimed a joyful Kuki as she wondered out of the supply, holding what looked like a makeup case. Wally was sure it must be something else though, why would she need a box of makeup amongst her medical supplies.

Upon seeing Wally, she said, "Oh, Numbuh Four, you came by!" As she said this, she tucked the kit behind her back "I didn't expect to see you here, you know, since you don't like seeing blood but it's okay. I already covered everyone's boo boos. Although, when I offered to kiss some of them to make them better, nobody wanted it."

"Oh." Numbuh Four suddenly found himself wishing she had been around after he fought the safety bots. "So, does that mean you're done?"

"No silly, I'll probably have to be with them all night." This news was followed by the sound of moans and groans from her current charges. "but everyone seems to be doing fine at the moment."

Wally suddenly felt like he needed to talk to Kuki really badly. He wanted to speak with her about what had happened earlier when they had become citizombies. For a moment he stood silently, debating with himself: Should he tell her how he had felt about this whole situation or just not say anything and pretend this never happened. What if she didn't feel the same way? Would she just laugh and say he was just being silly? Would she get upset for him bringing it up? She could be scary when he was upset. Maybe he shouldn't say anything. What if she did feel like he did though? What if she did and he didn't asknow only for them to be changed into citizombies again tomorrow so that he would never found out if her feelings she'd showed were real?

Finally, with this last sobering thought still lingering in his mind, he mentally told himself to buck up and asked "Numbuh Three, is it possible that we could… uh… talk alone… for a minute?" Numbuh Three looked at him curiously as he continued, "of course if you're busy, we could always talk later… I guess it's kind of silly to ask, since there's so much to do and…crud... sorry... I…"

"We can talk now." Numbuh Three said, looking pleasantly curious about what her friend might want to talk about so badly.

"Really?" Numbuh Four asked.

"Yeah, I've got a couple minutes."

"Oh, okay, that's good I guess."

She stood silently for a moment, waiting for Numbuh Four to continue.

"I'd kind of like to talk alone."

"Well, why didn't you say that? We can go in here," she said as she gestured to the room she had just walked out of. "That way, if anyone needs me out here, all they have to do is knock." She ushered Wally in and closed the door behind them. She turned on her flashlight, so that they wouldn't be in complete darkness. The light lit up one side of both their faces, leaving the other looking dark. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

Numbuh Four took a deep breath and said, "When we were agified, we did a lot of kissing and said that we loved each other and got all gushy and stuff."

"Mm, hmm." Numbuh Three said, not daring to let any emotion creep into her face.

"Well, I was kind of wondering if it was just being agified changing the way you feel or if you actually feel that way about me, about us?"

Kuki sat quietly for a moment, looking startled by her friend's question.

Wally saw the look and suddenly felt stupid for asking. Of course she couldn't really feel that way about him. "Sorry, I guess I should of known better. That Agification thing can really mess with you." He looked down at the floor, feeling embarrassed and humiliated to have thought otherwise.

"I'll take it that's how it was for you? You just weren't thinking clearly?" Kuki asked, her voice sounding a little sad.

Numbuh Four looked to the side uncomfortably, feeling stupider by the second for even bringing this up. "Well I… look Kuki, the thing is… we've been friends for kind of a long time and all, since before we first went into training, before we met the others and I, well…"

"You what?" She queried, sounding a little more curious and less melancholy than she had before.

"Oh, it's nothing important. I shouldn't have brought this up, I'm sure you don't want to hear me ramble on like this."

"I like listening to you talk."

"You…you do?"

"Yeah and I'd really like to hear what you have to say."

He looked up to find that the girl was leaning really close to him. He didn't remember Kuki being half as close a moment ago as she was now. He suddenly felt all sweaty as he looked into her beautiful eyes. "Kuki, I… well I…"

"Yes?"

"I don't really know how to say this but… I….I" he took a deep breath and took the plunge, "I love you Kuki, I've loved you for a really long time! I've loved you since…"

Abruptly the girl squealed joyfully, startling the small boy, then hugged him so tightly that the air left his lungs as said, "I love you, too!"

"Can't… breathe…"

The Asian girl released the Australian, for a moment he focused on catching his breath. Then, Kuki's words suddenly sunk in. "You… you do."

"Well yeah, of course, silly."

For a moment, they both fell silent. Neither really knew what to say.

Finally, Kuki said, "I never thought past what we'd do after this. In the movies, Adults talk about being alone and go to bed, then my parents turn off the movies and tells me it's bedtime for me , too or talk about a bathroom break and when we come back the movie starts back up on a different scene. Why would anyone want to go to sleep after saying something like this?"

"Beat's me. I don't think I could imagine sleeping right now but you know adults… they're weird."

"So, I guess we're girlfriend and boyfriend now, huh."

"Yeah, I guess we are."
"But not like Numbuh One and Lizzie. She can be scary. I also remember all the lipstick you had on your face coming back from The Point." She didn't sound too pleased with that memory.

Numbuh Four shuddered. "That was way too much kissing for me. Do you think Numbuh One kisses her back like that?"

"Eeeew, I don't want to know." Numbuh Three said, disgusted by the image.

"Me neither," Numbuh Four replied. "I think we better get back out there, before anyone starts getting curious what we're doing in here."

"Yeah," Numbuh Three said, sighing. "I guess you're right."

Unbeknownst to them, both helpers and the patients who were well enough to get out of bed were leaning against the door. A couple had cups and one had Numbuh Three's stethoscope pressed against it. Upon hearing that they were coming out, everyone rushed away and tried to look like they weren't just eavesdropping. Some kids looked away, one even going so far a whistling a tune. By the time the littlest kids were in bed later, the story would spread through the whole base.

Numbuh Five was surprised at how quickly everyone had volunteered to get the spare sleeping mats out and lay them on the hallway floor.

They had all decided that it would be best for the little kids sleep in one area, so that they'd be easier to watch. Since the babies had brought a couple bags that their parents had been carrying, they had diapers for tonight, as well as a little mush to feed them.

Numbuh Five had just helped Hoagie's Grandma feed them a little bit ago and, much more recently, changer their diapers. The whole time, she thought she'd go nuts between the old lady harping about how she had gotten sick of this when she had to do it for her own son long ago and Jackson shrieking and crying every time she tried to hand him over to the old woman. She wondered where the babies' had put the teeth they'd been using earlier.

A spare mattress had been placed on the floor with a force field put around it. This was the closest they could do to a crib. The babies would sleep together in the enclosure, except Joey, whom Wally had taken back to his room, she suspected that they were both sleeping in his bed.

Numbuh Five sang the lullaby she had used the last time the babies were here to lull them to sleep.

She wasn't looking forward to staying here tonight but Numbuh Four seemed to think she would be the best person to comfort the littlest members of their group and make them feel safe.

Behind her, a voice said, "That was really pretty."

She turned around to see Numbuh Eighty Five's little brother.

"Thanks." Then she asked, "What are you doing here."

"I'm going to bed."

"You know we aren't making you go to sleep right now, right? Just the babies."

"Yeah, I'm just tired." The boy said and he did look sleepy.

Numbuh Five gestured to a bed and the boy climbed in. As he got situated, he said, "My parents never sing me to sleep. They know that their voices aren't good for it. Usually, they tell stories. Mommy reads them from books and Daddy makes them up." He frowned and said, "on nights when I'm really scared, they'd let me sleep in their bed with them. I think that this would be one of those nights."

The girl smiled and said quietly, "Well, I'm not about to crawl into bed with you but I plan on staying here tonight and all the little kids and babies will be here, so you won't be…" She suddenly saw a tiny form sit up and look at them. "Go to sleep Jackson."

She heard a gurgling noise from within the "crib," probably annoyed babies expressing their displeasure at being put down and ignored.

"I'm not sure I feel very comforted, knowing I'm sharing the room with them," Shauni said, hoping he was being quiet enough not to be heard. The rattle that flew out of the holding pen and barely missed his head told him otherwise. "Your force field doesn't block that type of stuff?"

"No, just the babies themselves but that's okay, because they won't be getting this back until the morning." Numbuh Five sighed as she finished her statement and the babies started crying. It was going to be a long night.