I may not own the Kids Next Door, but I can still reference the actual episodes while writing fanfiction, right? See how many of the references where the mission isn't directly named you recognize…
Numbah Four kneeled on the floor, head bowed, blonde bangs covering most of his face. His eyes were squeezed shut, teeth grinding together, sweat glistening on his face and neck. His shoulders heaved with each ragged breath he took.
He hated defeat. He knew he was defeated, but his pride cringed at the prospect of having to admit it.
He knew that he completely looked the part of the defeated right now, too, and hated that too. But his aching, shaking legs refused to support him. He could barely lift his head to look up at his victorious opponent as they stood proud and tall over his kneeling figure.
"Yay! I won again!" she cheered, arms raised high as she pranced about.
"So what else is new?" Numbah Five asked sardonically.
"Yeah, you always win at that game," noted Numbah Two.
Numbah Three continued to cheer and dance in place while a panting Four crouched next to her and slowly recovered. Two and Five had watched the one-sided contest from the comfort of their beanbag chairs. Two had gotten over his loss to Four just by watching him lose badly against the bubbly girl, while Five was secretly contented with the fact that her injured ankle meant she couldn't be her friend's next victim.
Dolores sat quietly in a corner of the room and observed the four friends interacting with no small amount of curiosity. When she'd first arrived, Kuki and Wallabee had already been engrossed in their game, which as far as she could tell involved stomping on a mat in time to the arrows that appeared on the huge screen in front of them. At the same time, a loud song blared over the speakers – apparently what they were supposed to be 'dancing' to.
The Delightful Child was stumped. She'd never witnessed a game quite so odd before. And the music that had gone along with it… she couldn't quite understand it. Some fast-paced beat with some woman singing perkily about butterflies and samurais… two things Dolores hadn't thought were connected in any fashion.
It was a far cry from the music she was used to. Back home, whenever she and her siblings had wanted to listen to music, they would have to crank up an antique record player Father had been kind enough to reward them with. The music was always classical, if slightly warped by the age of the old machine…
Numbah Four finally lurched to his feet, wobbling back and forth. Apparently ignorant of his exhaustion, Three continued to jump up and down in place, clapping her sleeve-covered hands.
"Again! Let's play again!"
Four's eyes bugged out, and the blonde fighter staggered away from his mat as fast as his uncooperative legs would carry him. He got maybe two feet away before Three popped up beside him and grabbed his arm.
"C'mon, Numbah Four! It's more fun with more people!" she pleaded.
"N-no way! Let someone else have a turn!"
Numbah Five snickered at the fighter's lame excuse, then froze as Three turned and looked directly at her. Quickly she motioned at her bandaged ankle and shook her head, then sighed in relief as Three looked away. Even when she wasn't injured she had a difficult time matching the energetic girl's skill at her dancing games.
Two was just as eager to avoid going head-to-head against Three. When she looked at him, he waved his hands and shook his head furiously.
"Nuh-uh, not me. I can't…"
"Why not?" Three asked curiously.
"I… I've got work to do! T-the S.K.Y.C.L.A.W. still needs to be repaired, you know! Yeah, that's it! I'd better go do that right now…"
With that, the mechanic hopped up and hurried out of the room, leaving a perplexed Three staring after him while Four and Five fought back laughter at his expense.
"…Awww…"
Numbah Three was dangerously close to pouting. She liked playing games with her friends; it was much more fun that way! But now it looked like the only way she'd get a partner for this round would be if she went and tried to get Numbah One to come play… and she knew he didn't like being disturbed…
She frowned briefly, then suddenly her eyes opened wide. A brilliant idea had just struck, and her face lit up with joy as she turned around.
"Hey, why don't you play with me?"
"…What?"
Dolores shrank back in her seat when Kuki advanced, staring at the smiling girl incredulously. She was not the only one startled by the raven-haired agent's actions.
"What?! What are you thinking, Three?!" demanded Numbah Four. "She's one of them, you know!"
"But I want to play with somebody," Three replied, looking back at the blonde boy. "You said to let someone else have a turn. Why not her?"
"She's one of those Delightful Dorks!" Four spat.
"I know. I bet they don't get to play a lot, too. Do you, Dolores?" Three looked back at the petite girl and smiled invitingly.
Dolores stared blankly at Kuki, blue eyes huge and confused. The Japanese girl's smile seemed… genuinely friendly. Considering how close she was standing to her, surely Dolores should have been able to see some hint that it was fake… some clue to her ulterior motive, but…
…Unless Kuki truly wasn't hiding anything.
"…Ah… I… W-we certainly never had any games quite like that one," she answered awkwardly.
Numbah Five surreptitiously studied the petite girl, her dark, calculating eyes hidden by the brim of her trademark cap. That reply was obviously evasive, dodging the issue at the heart of Three's question while supplying an answer that would still satisfy the perky girl.
But despite Dolores' dodge, Five had a feeling she could infer an answer to the actual question based on the petite girl's reaction alone.
"Aw, go on," she prompted, waving one hand lazily at Three. "Numbah Five says you should show her how it's done…"
It was clear from the joyous look on Numbah Three's face that she didn't need any more prompting. It was also clear from the anxious look on Dolores' face that she felt she didn't need this.
"C'mon, let's play!"
Three grabbed the petite girl's wrists and yanked her out of her seat. Dolores protested weakly as the bubbly agent dragged her along, shaking her head vigorously.
"I can't…"
"You can!"
"I don't know how…"
"I'll teach you!"
"B-but…"
"Don't worry! It'll be fun!"
"Yeah, fun," Four echoed, snickering at the Delightful Dork's plight.
The blonde fighter took a seat and leaned back, folding his arms behind his head. He'd planned to go back to his room and relax, maybe kick around a few training robots once he'd recovered, but decided to stay and watch. His legs were still worn out, and besides, this was something he didn't want to miss…
#####
Numbah One stared at the computer screen, scanning through the files he'd been working with. Sheets of data stretched before his shade-covered eyes, offering all sorts of intriguing information he might be able to put to use…if only he knew how.
He'd called up several mission logs to review while he entered his thoughts on their latest objective. It was common KND practice for all agents involved on an assignment to enter their own comments into the file. The observations made by all operatives were important: they allowed the reader to see multiple viewpoints of the same case.
Often, one agent saw something none of the others noticed, and this detail could prove to be vital. They might discover an enemy weakness, or the key to another plot. Or it might be unimportant.
Being able to go back and review missions from the eyes of his teammates was always interesting to Numbah One. KND reports were usually brutally honest, meaning that all sorts of comments were present – including any grievances or complaints they had. If somebody was dissatisfied with one of their comrades, their criticism showed up in their account.
Numbah One had read quite a few reports where one of his friends complained about his leadership. He wasn't totally upset by this, however. Usually, he could anticipate when complaints would show up – and often, agreed to a certain degree. After all, typically the complaints came after a mission went awry… to the point where even he was upset with himself.
The disastrous 'Operation: P.O.I.N.T' was a perfect example, in fact. In retrospect, a deadly combination of misinformation and misinterpretation had doomed that mission from the start. He'd made that clear in his account of events afterward. It was one file he tended not to look over often.
Currently he was reviewing several of their missions where they had clashed with the Delightful Children from Down the Lane. The multi-colored observations were organized together, merged into collective narratives of each mission.
Each agent in his sector had one color that represented their comments: Numbah One had red, Numbah Two used blue, Numbah Three used green, Numbah Four had dark yellow, and Numbah Five typed in navy blue. This was an easy way to know who made what comments – and also kept all the information from being just boring black and white and shades of gray.
He reviewed a few passages from one mission: while he'd read over it several times before, it was always good to see what his friends thought of how things had progressed. One found it particularly interesting considering what had occurred during their last mission.
[So, then, Five came up with this great plan to save everyone, but there was one teeny tiny itsy-bitsy little problem with it. See, in order for it to work, we needed to get help from the DCfDtL. And I was like, "No way!" but she said "Yeah." and Numbah One said "We have to for the sake of all the kids here." so I went "Ok…"]
One smiled at the sight of Numbah Two's words: even when writing, the mechanic had a tendency to ramble. His eyes skipped down past the colored commentary to rest on a short stanza by the other male member of his team:
[What was Five thinking?!? We can't trust THEM! I'da rather knawed thru the bars with my teeth first than work with them !@#$%^&*() Delightful DORKS!!!!!!!]
Numbah One frowned. He wished Four would have the decency to spellcheck his entries before submitting them. He also disliked how the fighter liked to insert lines of random punctuation in substitution for swearing – not to mention the fact that he had a sneaking suspicion Four didn't really know a lot of cuss words and just added those random lines in to get his point across.
There wasn't much One could do about it however. He could run spellchecker now, but he preferred to leave the entries untouched, unedited. Even touching them up could land him in trouble later if one of his friends happened to see the changes. They could accuse him of editing out certain details – something he'd never even think of doing!
Closing out the file, he pulled up the current mission log and prepared to enter his thoughts on how the mission had progressed. He'd already gotten a good portion of his report finished, but was a bit stymied on how to continue.
Numbah One frowned thoughtfully, tapping a finger on his desktop. He started typing, slowly, considering his choice of words carefully even while entering them.
[After Numbah Four finished off the slide-monster, he decided to use one of its legs as a makeshift weapon. Acting as if it were a misshapen baseball bat, he first assaulted the swingset, striking one of its legs and driving it to the ground. Numbah Four then flung the weapon at the Delightful Children from Down the Lane. This destroyed the platform they were on, forcing them and their insidious creations into retreat.]
Numbah One's brow furrowed, and he shook his head.
[After achieving victory, we returned to base, where Numbah Three informed us of the fact that she had discovered a potential hostage. It seems that the Delightful Children from Down the Lane left one of their own behind to fend for herself when they fled the battlefield.]
[The girl, who claims to go by the name 'Dolores', is currently incarcerated in the Treehouse. The primary means of restraint is the W.A.T.C.H. that has been strapped to her right arm. I have already conducted a short debriefing with her, but so far have found…no information of particular note.]
That wasn't really a lie, Numbah One assured himself. After all, did all the agents really need to know about his little phobia when it came to bugs…?
(But how did SHE know about that anyway?)
The leader shook his head, then saved the entry before closing everything out. Since the mission was still technically active until they reached some permanent resolution on the Delightful Child issue, he'd have plenty of time to finish his report afterwards.
He shut off the computer and stood up, then cupped his chin in one hand and began to think. There were more pressing issues to consider currently, and the first order of business was just where the bloody heck Dolores was going to sleep tonight.
The Treehouse wasn't exactly equipped to hold prisoners for any long period of time. Since they had no idea how long the petite girl was going to be around, they had a small problem in that regard. It wasn't like they had a cell they could just toss her into and be done with it.
True, they could try contacting another KND base with proper facilities and ship her off there, but One wasn't too keen on that idea. He preferred knowing that their captive was close at hand, especially when there were the remaining Delightful Children from Down the Lane to factor into the equation.
He didn't know what to make of the fact that they'd apparently abandoned one of their own. He couldn't help wondering if this was deliberate, all part of some diabolical scheme. True, Dolores seemed genuinely shocked by her current situation, and he hadn't seen any signs of a transmitter or anything, but when their worst enemies were involved, he had to consider anything possible.
So sending her away was out of the question. Numbah One didn't like the idea of just locking her in some room until the morning, either. He preferred knowing that she was somewhat supervised, so that left one option…keeping her in one of their rooms.
"But who's the best candidate for that?" he muttered under his breath.
He was out of the question, of course. There was no way he could keep an agent of the enemy in his room, W.A.T.C.H. or no W.A.T.C.H.. The device that would keep her from ducking out a window likely wouldn't bar her from searching his room, both for any intelligence she could gather on the KNDs and the control panel for her bracelet.
Numbah Four was an even worse choice. The tough kid had made it clear from the get-go that he didn't want the petite girl around. In his eyes, she was just Dolores the Delightful Dork and that was that. Sticking her in his room was just begging for disaster: Four'd beat the tar out of her the second they were left alone.
While Numbah Two was acting a bit nicer about the whole mess, he also wasn't a good candidate. His room was just as large as the others were, but his plane/bed was raised too far off the ground. True, it would give him a good vantage point to see whatever Dolores might try, but getting down to try and stop her in time? That was something One didn't want to test.
That left just the girls as possible 'roommates' for their prisoner. Numbah One could see potential pros and cons for assigning the responsibility to either one. Five was the more levelheaded, but her recent injury could prove a drawback. At the same time, the fact that Numbah Three didn't seem to appreciate the seriousness of the situation she'd brought upon the team could be a very bad sign.
Finally, he threw up his hands and decided to consult the girls directly about the issue. After all, they'd be the ones that would have to live with the result, so, as a leader, it was only fair that he consult them for their opinions first, correct?
He activated the two-way loudspeaker, but before he could even open his mouth to summon the girls he was nearly deafened by a blast of loud music. Immediately switching it off, he sighed disgustedly. Of course it had to be his luck that Three would be playing that game of hers…
Getting up, Numbah One headed for the common room. He entered, then stopped right in the doorway and just stared, arching an eyebrow.
Numbah Three had obviously just finished another round, for the dark-haired girl was cheering and hopping up and down in place, celebrating her latest victory. This didn't surprise One at all: she was the undisputed master of that game.
What surprised him was that Dolores was collapsed next to the celebrating girl, the absolute picture of exhaustion. The petite girl was even paler than usual, and she was bent over so far her short bangs nearly brushed the floor. Her entire body heaved as she gulped in air unashamedly: maintaining a steady supply in her aching lungs was currently more important than maintaining her typical detached delightful bearing.
Numbah Four was hanging out of his seat and howling with laughter. He didn't care that he was about to fall off, he was enjoying this way too much to care.
"Man! You shoulda seen it, One!" he called, noticing his leader standing nearby and hastily wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "What a riot!"
"Numbah Five thinks it was almost as good as your earlier performance," commented the capped girl wryly.
"Oh! Look, Numbah One's here! You want to show him how well you can play?" Three asked brightly.
"You call that well?!" Four howled, then roared with laughter again, finally toppling from his seat.
Dolores looked at Numbah Three with an expression very close to what One supposed a deer caught in headlights might have. Even the way her disheveled hair hung in her face couldn't hide the terror in those huge blue eyes.
"T-this is some sort of insidious torture, isn't it?" she asked.
Numbah One smirked, then went to join Numbah Five. The leader had the feeling that the choice had just been made a lot easier for him…
With all the chaos in the room, nobody noticed a small fly sitting in one corner, silently taking everything in with its multi-faceted eyes.