After Miracolina finished,

Sector V's Infirmary fell silent;no one had anything to say.

Mrs. Uno was too stunned to make a sound, but the tears still fell, large but silent. Mr. Uno squeezed his wife's hand and took a deep breath. "Well… it looks like we have quite the doozy on our hands."

Number 5 had pulled her hat down over her head about midway through when Miracolina was explaining what unwinding was. It was almost like she'd fallen asleep except for the occasional murmur and groans every now and again that told her and everybody else that Abby was awake and in a state of despair. Suddenly Cree's little mission to Senator Safely's house and the mess of other things that were going on with the teenagers was suddenly starting to make a lot of sense.

Numbuh 3 was holding the little red Rainbow Monkey very tightly. She was still crying softly, trying to understand why Number 1 would let this happen. Scenes from the cartoon special flashed in her mind with images of a few kids she'd seen around town in those white robes. This was not good.

Even if she was the most cheerful kid in her sector, Numbuh 3 wasn't a stranger to adult tyranny. She'd spent her last birthday nearly being fed to sharks after Chester's new restaurant turned out to be a front, she had the neural suggestion ray tested on her at the Delightful Children's party… she'd even been hit with tranquilizer darts and woken up in a zoo cage. She was used to seeing people do things to kids to get what they wanted. She always kept smiling since the Kids Next Door could and more importantly was willing to stop whatever bad thing was happening, but she wasn't smiling now. She was too scared.

"So ... What do we do now?" This came from Wally, who was about ready to run to his room and start packing all the weapons he could find. "Cause you know we'll come running, right?" He cracked his knuckles, already ready for a fight.

Number 5 let out an audible groan, took off her hat and began to rub her eyes.

"Whatever we do, we'll do it tomorrow." Number 3 said, taking Wally's hand.

Numbuh 2 nodded. "We gotta be ready for this." The missing flash drive was the last thing on his mind now. He wiped off his pilot's goggles and put them back on. That clapper attack back at The Point... it wasn't just a random act of violence was it?

"But what exactly are you going to do?" Miracolina asked.

No answer.

Monty went over to the girl's bed and lightly patted her hand.

"I don't know yet, but I can tell you we will come up with something and—"

"Are you going to stop the Galactic Kids Next Door?" she interrupted, dread rising in her stomach.

"Our technology is probably useless compared to what those Galactic guys have." Number 2 said quietly, hoping no one would hear him (they all did).

Miracolina painfully sat up in her bed. "So that's it? You're just going to sit around and let whatever's coming for your world and probably mine do what it's going to do? What about your leaders? Can't you tell them what's going on?" She was shouting at the four kids and two adults without even realizing it.

Number 5 looked out the window and gazed up at the stars. She murmured something no one else could hear, barely a whisper, then walked back to the bed and for the third time that day put a hand over Miracolina's mouth.

"Quiet!" Abby whispered in the same soft voice she whispered in at the window. Whether it was because she had already taken two chunks out of Abby's hand, or because it was sounding like she was going to get some information she wanted to know, she didn't bite her hand this time. Abby looked around the infirmary to make sure nobody was listening from the outside and to make sure everyone inside was listening to her.

"Number 5 thinks you don't realize how deep we're all in already. Rachel Mackenzie, the girl I mentioned, is our Supreme Leader and for whatever reason, her parents are tithing her. And… she wants it. And that's not all, some weird things have been going on with the teenagers for the past few months."

Abby pulled her hand away. Once the words sank in, Miracolina went wide-eyed. "But I've only been a prisoner of the Delightful Children for a couple of days and I was abducted two weeks ago."

Abby nodded. "So if that Roberta woman has her claws in Rachel, and if she's been messing around with the teenagers, how good of a chance would we stand going up to headquarters and reporting what you just told us? Don't you think she has a plan for any information getting out?"

Monty walked over to Jenny and gently put his arm around her shoulder. He gave Number 5 a wink. Number 5 almost felt confident now. Number Zero, it seemed, was letting her take this one.

Miracolina and the rest of the kids looked downcast again, sinking deeper into despair. But Number 5 was smiling now. "We've gotta be all sneaky about this. We'll monitor what's going on up on Moonbase and spy on the teenagers, and then when the time is right we'll get them."

Hoagie raised his hand.

"But what about Number 1?"

Abby felt a chill run through her again. "We'll worry about it when the Galactic Kids Next Door show themselves. Number 5 thinks if we buy Ol' Nigie a snow cone he'll cool his butt down a little bit."

The Sector Leader was smiling and she had the entire room laughing at that last remark . She spoke nonchalantly, but (just like in the mansion earlier that same day) she kept her hands clasped tightly behind her back to stop them from shaking. She then turned to Miracolina. "If we could get you back to your world, is there anybody who could help us out?" Miracolina nodded tiredly. Even with the sedative almost out of her system, she was still worn out.

Numbuh 5 turned back to her team. "Number 2, figure it out."

Jennifer Uno stepped up holding her husband's hand. "I think we have the perfect solution. Back in the day we used to prank call teenage aliens in other dimensions—"

Miracolina burst out laughing at that. This world was so strange, but intergalactic prank calls sounded like something out of a BAD science fiction movie. Still, it just might be what both of their worlds needed.

Number 5 couldn't help laughing a little too. It felt like forever since she'd really been able to laugh at something. "Tomorrow if you and Mrs. Un.. I mean Number 999 can take care of that, then maybe the rest of us will pay a visit to Number 362's parents."

Numbuh 5's much-needed burst of laughter was gone now. She was furious at Number 362's parents for giving up their daughter— and overwhelmed with guilt for not pressing Rachel for details back at the Candy Bar. Looking back on their accidental meeting was like a punch in the stomach.

"…even when I'm not exactly Number 362 anymore…"

If she'd known, could she have said something to talk her out of it?

"Number 362?" Miracolina asked, snapping Number 5 out of her racing thoughts.

"Our Supreme Leader. I'm Number 5 and that's Two in the pilot goggles, Three's wearing the green sweater and Number 4's the short one."

"Hey!" Number 4 protested.

Miracolina laughed again. The little blond boy(Number 4, she reminded herself) really did remind her of Lev.

"What's so funny, you cruddy teenager?" Wally said furiously.

"I'm sorry, it's just— you remind me a lot of my boyfriend!"

Wally turned bright red as he saw a flash of Miracolina's pretty green eyes in the darkness. Kuki went bright red too… for a different reason. Well, somebody needs another dose of sedative, she thought.

Number 5 turned to Miracolina again. "You get some sleep, you have a lot of phone calls to make. Come on, guys."

It was decided that once Miracolina was well again she would stay at the Uno's house. Number 1's parents offered to let her stay as long as she needed. She kept thanking them for their offer in between yawns until Number 3, who seemed to be a medic, reminded everyone that the patient needed sleep.(Judging by how the smaller girl kept rubbing her eyes with the ends of her sweater, she must have been really tired too.)

Around midnight, Miracolina's visitors were filing out. First Number 1's parents left to go back to their house, then Number 4, who insisted he wasn't tired, fell asleep on the floor. After barely managing to carry him back to his room without waking him up, Numbers 2 and 3 went to bed.

Number 5 was about to try to get some sleep, but Miracolina called out to her come back. "Before I was handed over to Roberta, someone—an alien—gave me this."

She held out a little scrap of paper with coordinates to call.

"She's a Member of the Galactic Kids Next Door, but she says she wants to help."

The paper had weird numbers written on it, but what really stood out was a single English name written on it in all capital letters.

"DEVINE."

With the promise of a mission to come and a lot of planning in the morning, Sector V drifted back to their rooms and had horrible nightmares of unwinding and Nigel and the Galactic Kids Next Door. All except Abby, who found she couldn't even lie down to try and go to sleep. After a patrol of the treehouse, she found herself in Number 1's old room sitting at the window seat with the boy's sunglasses and a picture of Sector V eating ice cream. She stared up into a beautiful starry night, where somewhere out there her former leader—there had been no better friend or operative— was plotting doomsday. She repeated a question, the same question that she whispered staring out the window earlier...

"Nigel Uno… What have you done?"