Cree moved slowly;deliberately, like a panther evading a poacher. She was in Father's mansion. She was half expecting there to be a booby trap or an ambush, so all of her senses were sharp and on high alert. The Teen Ninjas had not been in Father's good graces as of late. Ever since The Steve tried to double cross Father and then came crawling back to him, their loyalties had been in dispute. Father's Butler Jenkins had personally contacted Cree while she was in 2nd period AP math and told her to come to the mansion right after school let out. She was already wondering if she had made the right choice.
Father always liked her. She was his "favorite teen ninja", which was not an easily earned title. But he was Father and he could get very, very angry at the drop of a hat.
She activated her battle ready armor in preparation. It was rude not to be properly dressed when seeing Father.
(Besides, she might need the armor in case anything went the wrong direction.)
"He's right in here," Jenkins explained, leading her to Father's throne room.
Father's throne sat on a raised platform in a room with a thin causeway flanked on either side by razor-tipped spikes.
Cree dropped into a kneeling position at the base of the staircase leading up to Father, whose chair was turned away from her. Father was surrounded by fire—not in rage, but a warm, almost welcoming way.
"Rise, Cree."
She rose and the chair turned around.
"The world is changing, Cree."
"Yes, Father." Cree automatically replied. She had a reputation for being fearless, but now she was almost shaking.
She just remembered a certain party that had been thrown at the mansion a couple of months ago. The Delightful Children invited some middle and high school students over and they racked up a cleaning bill for 36,000. Did he remember that? She hoped not. Rumor had it by the end of the night the car was in the basement and the piano was on the roof.
If he did find out, please let him not have seen her there.
Father's flames started to glow more intensely. He spoke in a low, steady voice that barely drowned out the crackling from the flames.
"Those new-fangled Juvie Cops are really starting to bother our operations, don't you agree? So far they have raided three of our bases, arrested twenty of our agents. I've even seen a couple of cars snooping around my house."
"Our operations?" Cree said nervously. The Teen Ninjas were bankrolled and supplied by Evil Adult Industries, but for the most part they were independent contractors with their own agenda. If Father wanted something done, they would do the job. The same goes for Mr. Boss or even the Tolietnator(assuming the pay was enough to make up for the humiliation). If you had a job and good pay, the Teen Ninjas would do it .
"Yes. Our operations. I trust your guild would be interested in work?"
Father had not once raised his voice in this entire meeting. Part of her was glad, but part of her was terrified that he was bottling it all up. He was definitely angling for something, but what? She had to choose her words very carefully.
"Well, Father, you see, I'm not the one you need to be talking to, that would be The Steve and—"
"STEVEN!" Father cut her off without any warning. His powers ceased to be warm and inviting Fire place embers and turned into a blazing hellish inferno. He was thundering with rage and Cree had to take a step back to avoid being burned again. He finally cooled down to an angry growl.
"That boy has outgrown his britches. I think the Teen Ninjas are in need of a new leader, don't you?"
Cree got the picture. "Thank you, Father. I'm honored." she said kneeling on the floor again.
He motioned for her to rise again. "My people will back you when the time comes, but first there's other business we have to …take care of."
"The Juvies?" Cree said. They may be idiots, but she still didn't like dealing with them. The few members of her squad who were arrested still hadn't been heard from , and something wasn't sitting right with her. She tried to ignore that feeling by reminding herself that they knew the risks of the job. Still… those Teen Ninjas should have escaped by now.
"Aren't you the bright one ?" Father said sarcastically. "Their whole organization rolled in about a month ago. Their funding is all coming from these goody-goodies called Proactive Citizenry. Their biggest supporter is some Senator, that goody-two-shoes Senator Safety. He has a townhouse in DC. Get in there and download all the files from his computer onto this."
Father tossed her a flash drive and turned his chair around so he wasn't looking at her anymore. "Do this and then we will begin to discuss the transition of power."
"Thank you, Father." Cree said, holding her new electronic key to power . Father's blaze was now warm and steady again. Cree got up and edged towards the door.
"By the way…" Father said when she had her hand on the doorknob "I still haven't forgotten about how you were smooching on your boyfriend, Maurice . Down in my Inner Sanctum." Cree was about to say something but, Jenkins was already beckoning Cree outside. She finally left with the flash drive in her armored pocket .
Roberta, who had been in the next room listening just out of sight, walked in smiled at Father and began rubbing his shoulders . "You've never taken me down to your inner sanctum before." Roberta said coyly.
"All in good time." Father chuckled, stretching out his lanky arms and feet. "All according to plan?"
"All according to plan." Roberta smiled as she watched the new pawn walk away with the flashdrive in her pocket.
Cree walked home with her battle ready armor deactivated. She looked down at her communicationer watch and pressed a button. Time to make an important call.
"Hey Abby, you wanna go to Washington D.C. tomorrow night? Don't worry, your Babies Next Door Friends aren't involved."
Abby hesitated. "We'll see, sis, we'll see." She kept her voice neutral and betrayed nothing. Maybe it was good her little friend Nigel Uno was gone, Cree thought. Without him around her baby sister was finally starting to see things her way.
Abby tried to keep it together. She did a very good job at the Treehouse, but at home she let her guard down. She had to, if she didn't she would have cried in front of the guys ...
One day Cree caught her crying into her pillow. Number 5 thought she was finished, but instead of the usual ribbing Cree usually gave her or attacking her outright because Number 5 showed weakness (even at home Number 5 and her sister were sworn enemies)Cree crawled onto her bed, held her and let her cry.
Had Cree been manipulating her to get her to desert the Kids Next Door? Probably, but a small part of Abby, the part of herself that she was ashamed of, was fed up with the Kids Next Door and wanted an anchor outside of it. Cree had told her that she understood Abby's pain, that she knew what it was like to be used and left behind by the Kids Next Door.
"One day you're practically family and the next you're the enemy, they use you for the best years of your childhood and those snot-nosed brats just throw you away when you turn 13, like a broken toy! And the worst part, they don't even have the decency to let you keep your memories."
In Cree, Abby found a kindred spirit for some of her more negative feelings towards the Kids Next Door. She found someone who she could always vent to about whatever was happening, and most importantly she rediscovered a beloved sister who she had lost contact with for so long, and despite being the most bitter of rivals, Abby had to admit she always missed Cree.
She'd been on a couple of missions with Cree and the Teen Ninjas for a while now (nothing major, and always against adults or other teenagers). When Abby first started to tag along, she made it very clear;"If your pimply teenage butts are doing anything against the Kids Next Door, I'm out." She was expecting Cree to say something like, "No ones asking you to tag along, Crabigail!" or " Are you STILL loyal to your stupid Babies Next Door after they shipped your bald friend way past Pluto?"
But to her surprise all Cree said was a very gentle "Okay, Abby."
That was something made Abby uneasy. Ever since they reconnected, Cree had gone back to treating her like she was in kindergarten.
"Number 5 must be insane!" Abby said quietly to herself. She was perched on the roof of some bigwig politician's house in DC waiting for him to leave for dinner, her mission companions a team of Teen Ninjas. She had refused a BRA(she had been offered one on every single occasion that she did these things with Cree, and each time the whole group made the same offer and made her say "I refuse to wear a Bra". Man, teenagers were even more immature than Number 2). Instead she wore her typical street clothes.
One of the Teen Ninjas had a bug in the apartment. A literal bug. A mechanical fly on the wall! And this little spy cam was listening for the exact opportunity to go in.
When at last they heard they heard a voice humming a sing-song melody exit the townhouse, the Teen Ninjas and their "guest" made their move.
Cree grinned like the Cheshire Cat.
"Abby, will you do the honors?"
With a dramatic heel kick, Number 5 shattered the skylight of the senator's home and the team leapt down below.
"Tear the place apart!" Cree ordered, and the three other Ninjas got to work knocking over bookcases and ripping apart law books, smashing the television and blasting holes in the furniture. While the rest of the team laid ruin to the inside of the townhouse, Number 5 discovered a picture on the mantle. It was a picture of a small older-looking man with dark brown hair, a mustache and thick glasses. It was probably the poor Senator whose home they were trashing, but it wasn't the older man in the picture that interested her.
It was the giant robot and the two kids and a baby who were in the picture.
Number 5 found Cree in an office doing something to the computer.
"Hey Cree, found your boyfriend!" She teasingly holding up the picture.
"Very funny." Cree said. She didn't even bother to look up.
Number 5 turned the picture over in her hands. "Um…who exactly is this guy, anyway?" She was starting to get the feeling that whatever they came here to do was much, much worse than trashing the house.
Cree clicked the mouse and put something small in her pocket. " Senator Kelly Safety. You know? The guy who got the Fizz Eighteen bill though congress, and he's the same guy who's trying to get the Random Clapper Testing bill passed." Number 5 took another look at the picture. This whole thing was starting to make less and less sense by the minute. She suddenly realized she'd rather be anywhere else in the world except for this house.
She heard a few more clicks. "Okay, we got what we came for."
Cree got up and gave the computer a hard roundhouse kick in the monitor, shattering it an sending a spray of broken glass and plastic across the soft carpet. "Let's go. Put whatever you found back where you got it and make sure you wipe off your fingerprints."
Number 5 trailed after Cree. When they ran down the hall towards the living room, Abby put the picture back. Something still wasn't right here.
"Cree. Look at this picture. Are you sure you got the right house?"
Cree took a look at the picture and saw Wallabee Beatles, his baby brother Joey and Hoagie P. Gilligan posing with the Senator in front of the Capitol building. A giant robot was scattered in pieces on the Capitol steps. Cree hesitated, which was rare.
"Is that Hoagie?" Cree sounded surprised.
"Girl I told you, that was your boyfriend! Were you even looking?" Number 5 said, not even trying to hide the laugh as she remembered the time Number 2 turned himself into a teenager on accident and scored himself a date and kiss with Cree(who did not think it was as funny as Sector V did).
Cree curled her hand into a fist and was about to hit Abby. The younger girl was already in a defensive position, but Cree stopped herself at the last minute, took a deep breath and said "Very funny, Abigail, but if you don't mind we have to get going before the alarms turn back on."
Making a mental note to investigate this later, Numbuh 5 slipped out of the house without leaving any sign that she had been there with the demolition team—except, of course, the fact that a little framed photo was now moved just a few inches over.
The team used their rocket boots to jet out and split up. They were flying back to their base. Not wanting to involve herself any more with whatever they just did, Abby rode shotgun with Cree. "I just don't get it…Number 2 and Number 4 said that Safely likes kids. Why is he going around restricting soda and making life harder for you guys?"
Cree hit the gas a little too aggressively. "He likes kids, Abby. That doesn't mean he likes teenagers. When you're a kid everyone cuts you a lot of slack."
Abby raised an eyebrow. Being a kid meant constantly having to deal with anyone and everyone trying to hurt you just because nobody was going to believe your word over theirs. Seriously, how many kids showed up at the KND desperate for help because nobody would listen? That wasn't exactly her definition of "a lot of slack". And that wasn't even counting the lack of "slack" her sister had shown her until recently. But before she could argue back her sister kept talking.
"But then you turn 13 and suddenly everyone thinks you're feral. You've got to land on your feet and start running."
Abby sighed. "I'm not going rogue, sis."
"What—? That's not what I meant!…that time." Cree glared at her.
"Then what did you mean to tell Number 5?"
Cree went quiet after that and they said nothing as they crossed the Potomac. And nothing still as they crossed their towns limits
Number 5 rolled down her window and got a breath of air. She didn't plan on taking another ride-along for a long time(assuming she ever did).
"Man, sis. Turning 13 sure does stink, doesn't it?"
"It sure does, Abby, but that doesn't mean you have to do it alone. I'm still here, okay?"
"You're getting mushy in your old age, Cree." Number 5 joked. She had a feeling that she was being manipulated again, but it was still good to have somebody to go to.
Her sister rolled her eyes. "Wanna spar tomorrow? I can guarantee you I won't hold back."
Number 5 laughed at this. "Sure Cree, sure."
The car turned around the corner and pulled into the driveway. Cree smirked at the younger girl riding shotgun. "I have to get you trained up in the Battle Ready armor anyway. Girl has to know her way around one of these—"
"Cree. Number 5 keeps telling you, the moment I start wearing a Bra will be a sunny day on the moon... And don't get any ideas."