The Candy Bar was one of Abby's many unhealthy ways of coping, not so much for the gallons of sugar she guzzled down in competition with sugar-crazed candy pirates(there were not too many people if any who could out-sugar Abigail Lincoln) but the Candy Pirates themselves. Abigail Lincoln was still Number 5 of the Kids Next Door, and every night she stepped into that tavern she risked getting stabbed, slashed, kidnapped, poisoned or a number of other horrible things. But she didn't care. In her mind, it was worth it and the danger only intensified the rush. Sugar was in her blood and soul. She craved it almost as much as she craved the adventure and danger it took to get the rarest and most valuable of sweets.
Right now she was competing for some sort of confectionery treasure. In her sugar-buzzed state she didn't even remember what it was. All she cared about was the thrill of the chase.
"C-come on girl-ly! Can't hoooo-ld your sugar?"
Number 5 was holding just fine. Her opponent, on the other hand, had the sugar rush so bad that his eyes were practically popping out of his sockets. The pirate was but a lad, maybe 14 at the most, and just after he said that he collapsed from all the sugar, leaving him jittering in spasms on the floor. The onlookers let out a chorus of cheers as Number 5 polished off her opponent's tankard of sugar.
"Here you go lass!" The Bookie Pirate said handing her back her wager(two beautifully forged peppermint swords)as well as her prize, five high quality bricks of chocolate that were wrapped in gold.
Number 5 went over to her opponent and helped him onto his feet. She sat him back in his chair and waited for his jitters to calm down.
"Man, you really held your own. Most veteran pirates who go against Number 5 go down after two tankards, but you went for six! What's your name?"
The young pirate, who had come down from his sugar high enough to reply, said, "Benjamin Humbugs." His voice cracked a little, but Abby couldn't tell if it was from the intense competition or just his age.
"Well Benny," Number 5 said, smiling, " I think you've earned at least a bit of a consolation prize." She slid over one of the peppermint swords she brought, as well as sending back over three of the five chocolate bricks. The boy's eyes widened.
"See here lass," young Benjamin Humbugs stammered, obviously embarrassed at being given most of his wager plus a brand new peppermint sword, "I lost fair and square and ..."
But Number 5 held up her five fingers. "You did lose. Number 5's just sharing her candy."
The entire Candy Bar erupted in cheers at Number 5's generousity, and her vanquished opponent must have been satisfied easily because his belt quickly became a sheath as he thrust his new weapon into it.
Such is the way of Candy Pirates, Abby mused as she nursed a Coke at the bar;greed before honor. If the TND didn't work out then this would be a good life.
She had been doing some serious thinking on the TND recently. She was 11 now but in two year's time she would be a teenager. If the Kids Next Door didn't want her whole sector, then she wasn't interested.
That thought had been in the back of her mind ever since Number 1 had left. It was a selfish thought. A treasonous thought. But it refused to go away and soon what became a thought that she was always trying to brush away became a secret fantasy.
Candy Pirates stole candy from kids. They were sworn enemies of the Kids Next Door…but they also stole candy from adults.The truth was, Candy Pirates held loyalty to their mates and sugar. She figured that Sector V would make pretty good officers for a pirate crew. It would take some convincing but she figured she could butter them up to the idea. Isn't that what she'd been doing here at the Candy Bar recently, recruiting? Benjamin Humbugs as well as a slew of other Candy Pirates would surely sign ships articles with her and be her crew. After all, Benjamin was not the first she had shown mercy and given a gift to, and after every time she told herself that she was just trying to make some more connections in case the Kids Next Door ever needed to venture into the underworld again, but a part of her knew that she had all of those they would ever need.
Would she turn Candy Pirate? From time to time the answer was dangerously close to being yes. Sometimes she thought that the snot-nosed brats who enforced decommissioning were some of the worst candy pirates on the face of the earth. For how could their be anything sweeter than one's memories? (Snot-nosed brats? Oh Zero, PLEASE don't ever let her turn out like Cree did.)
As Number 5 was thinking about which type of pirate ship would be best suited to her schemes, she heard a voice. It was a voice that was firm and confident on the bridge, a voice of authority, but when it spoke to Number 5 there was an all-too-familiar note of exhaustion and doubt.
"Number 5?" It was Rachel McKenzie, but she was known to kids everywhere as the Supreme Commander of the Kids Next Door.
Number 5 slid off her bar stool, stood at attention and saluted. Number 5 was embarrassed, both for her piratical fantasies and the fact that she was in a known Adult Super Villain hangout.
"Gathering intelligence?" 362 asked her with a soft smile. The dedicated leader was not here on a covert mission and by the looks of things was not expecting anyone else to be here. Number 5 smiled sheepishly. "Yeah... Right, gathering intelligence."
The two girls sat down and got to talking. Rachel ordered a root beer, a strong, sweet pirate brew, and Abby ordered another coke. For a kid in a supervillain's tavern, the blond girl seemed oddly at ease.
"So are you guys doing okay without Nigel—I mean Number 1?"
Rachel went bright red at her slip-up. It wasn't a very well-kept secret that she and Number 1 kinda had a thing—not a relationship, but definitely a mutual crush. Abby's whole sector knew and they definitely would have preferred her than Lizzie.
Abby gave her a sly smile, "Yeah, we're doing okay, and how 'bout you?"
Rachel took a sip of her root beer."Fine, I'm fine." She was never one to talk about herself very much, unlike her little brother.
Abby was about to say something else when Rachel suddenly blurted out,"I feel really bad about Number 1. I felt like his last month on Earth I sort of blew him off…you know... first he was arrested when those teenagers were pretending to make a peace treaty with us and then there was the whole thing about me taking you guys off the Cake hunt and well... It wasn't my fault."
Rachel began to talk rather fast, just like she always did this when she was nervous.
"The day of the cake hunt I got this weird message saying that I needed to take you guys off the chase and assign someone else. I kept trying to tell them that Sector V was the best for the job, but then they started sending me this weird alien message and..."
Abby patted her superior on the back and told her to take a deep breath. Slowly but surely, Rachel started to relax. She drank another mouthful of root beer and stared down at the floor.
Number 5 gently put a hand on Number 362's shoulder.
"They had their eyes on him for a while, didn't they?"
Number 362 responded with a soft nod.
It was then that Abby noticed that Number 362 wasn't wearing her typical baggy orange and teal sweaters. She was wearing white robes, suspiciously identical to the ones the Delightful Children were all wearing earlier today. Somehow it seemed wrong to Abby, like seeing your teacher at the store. The slightly older girl seemed to notice that Abby was staring at her new outfit. All she could do in response was give her an odd(guilty?)smile.
"Religious thing?" Abby asked.
Number 362 sighed with relief. "Yeah, you could say that. How'd ya know?"
Numbuh 5 polished off the rest of her drink. "Saw some other kids wearing the same thing today. The Delightful Children, actually."
Number 362's eyes raised slightly, and Number 5 found herself getting curious. "What does it mean?"
Rachel went quiet and looked down thoughtfully down at her white robes. Her fingers were rubbing gently back and forth across the small white scar on her arm from an old fight a long time ago, back when she was still a cadet. Abby was starting to wonder if she'd said something wrong when Rachel finally responded in a voice that was confident but still soft. That tone of voice brought back so many memories of days spent on the Moonbase.
"Some Kids Next Door operatives choose candy piracy as their next career move and some choose other things. I'm going to keep helping other kids even when I'm… not exactly Number 362 anymore."
Number 5 swore she felt her heart skip a beat.
Did Rachel know what she was thinking? Could she read her mind? Number 5 was about to open her mouth to deny any thoughts of piracy when the click of expensive high heels echoed across the wooden floor behind the girls. Before Abby had time to turn around, she heard the same clipped accent from earlier that day.
"Rachel, what are you doing in a place like this? We're going to be late! Your confirmation is in half an hour and we need to leave immediately."
Rachel took one last sip of her root beer and awkwardly climbed off her bar stool. "I'm sorry Miss Griswold, I just needed a little time to myself. Number 5, this is Miss Griswold. She's actually going to be helping us out with… a couple of things."
"We've met before," Number 5 said carefully, "she was with the Delightful Children." Number 362 looked at Roberta, who just smiled and laid a hand on her white-robed shoulder.
"All will be explained in due time, but right now Rachel has a very special appointment."
Rachel nodded silently and left her half-full drink on the counter.
Abby had a hunch that something strange was going on here, but she didn't say anything. As Number 362 was about to leave she looked back over her shoulder.
"Oh yeah, did you hear about how Harvey took down Spankula?"
Of course she had heard. How could she not? It was plastered across the KNN reports. Harvey McKenzie, otherwise known as Number 363, had taken down Count Spankula.
Like a lot of other junior operatives who just happened to have older siblings in high places, Harvey had been practically set up for success on that mission. Being Number 362's little brother, Harvey had a lot more control than most operatives thought he deserved. He was Sector W's leader and Rachel did quite a lot to further his promotion. Number 5's older sister Cree had done the same thing, so she wasn't about to say anything. It wasn't unheard of to set up a younger sibling for great things, but so far Abby and a lot of other Kids Next Door operatives were not impressed with the payoff. Still, she couldn't really blame Rachel for being so excited for her brother, especially when it would take her mind off her "retirement"for a little bit.
"Yeah, tell him Number 5 sends her congratulations." Number 5 said, smiling as sincerely as possible. The lady who had been ushering Rachel out to the car just moments before suddenly paused and turned to look back.
"I think you mean, "Tell him that I send my congratulations", which I'm sure she certainly will."
That comment rubbed Abby the wrong way. Despite her lectures, this woman was not in such a hurry to get Rachel out that she would not correct someone on the proper way to speak.
"Great," Number 5 muttered, "another pain in the butt to deal with."
Luckily, Ms. Griswold was already gone.