Still don't have the rights to Kids Next Door.
Numbah One had actually been up and about for quite some time, though the leader of the Kids Next Door had yet to retrieve some nourishment from the kitchen. He knew his mother would be peeved if she knew he was ignoring breakfast; she loved reminding him that it was "the most important meal of the day, especially for growing young men, blah, blah, blah, yak yak…"
(Of course, the Kids Next Door certainly don't have to follow the orders of any adults, that's the whole point!)
A fine argument, but his stomach would be inclined to disagree. He silenced its grumbling demands by assuring it he'd grab something later. Right now, there were more important matters to attend to.
Calling up a schematic grid showing the Treehouse's defensive systems, he replayed the data from the previous night. The resulting display looked complex at first, but Numbah One was able to interpret the readout easily. This was due in part to his technical expertise, in part to his rigid training as commander for this unit, and in part to the fact that he had mostly designed the system in the first place.
The schematic currently being displayed enabled him to see everything that had happened the previous night when it came to anybody breaching the Treehouse's boundaries. While clearly nothing had occurred that the system considered major enough to sound the alarm – it dispatched all low-level disturbances of its own accord, without anyone having to stay at its helm – it was always important to know if anything had taken place while everyone in the base slumbered.
This was especially true now that they had a hostage stashed inside. Numbah One was actually surprised that the remaining members of the Delightful Children from Down the Lane hadn't launched an assault yet.
After all, the creepy clan was so close that they had to have realized that one of their number was absent. While there was no way he could know for certain whether or not their rivals were aware that their missing member had been taken into custody, the fact remained that she had disappeared immediately after their last skirmish. Certainly they weren't stupid enough to write that off to coincidence…
Even if they thought their sibling lost in the battle, One was certain they would make a retaliatory strike against the Kids Next Door. Dolores had been lost because they were fighting; that was all the excuse they needed to launch a vengeful assault.
Clearly, the fact that nobody had been awakened by alarms blaring or wood splintering meant that they hadn't attacked head on that night. That didn't mean, however, that they hadn't sent some other form of assault. They could easily hire some new minion to try a stealth attack, a spy or scout of some sort…
Numbah One wasn't taking any chances. There wasn't any room for oversights now, and all possibilities had to be explored.
As he ran through the schematic, however, he failed to find any signs that anything of interest had happened on the base's grounds that night. The largest disturbance he discovered was that a squirrel had scurried over the premises from 11:46 P.M. to 12:03 A.M. before scampering off.
Leaning back in his chair, One steepled his fingers together and sighed. Absolutely nothing noteworthy had happened during the previous evening. There had been no villainy afoot, no hired goon storming the grounds.
(So why don't I feel any calmer?)
Considering it for a few minutes, Numbah One finally arrived to the conclusion that Dolores' blunt announcement of his phobia the previous afternoon was still gnawing at him. There was no reason that she, an enemy agent, should have been privy to such private information! Not even his own teammates knew about his problem with bugs… or at least, he'd never outright announced it to them.
But Dolores had. She'd just mentioned it out of the blue, offering no hint of the fact she was going to say it – or even that she knew.
(What else do the Delightful Children from Down the Lane know about us? And how are they finding out in the first place?)
It wasn't the most pleasant issue, particularly in light of other recent developments on that front… the capture of Dolores not exactly being the least of those.
He still wasn't certain what to do with the girl. Keeping her around could prove to be more trouble than it was worth, especially if the rest of her frightful family started sniffing around the Treehouse… But, by the same token, sending her away to another Kids Next Door outpost was even worse.
(Besides, the Delightful Children are our enemy. I'd rather keep this within our perimeters for as long as necessary…)
His stomach grumbled softly, and Numbah One obligingly started wrapping things up, closing out the displays showing how peaceful things had been outside the base. Just as the last grid blinked out of existence, however, a previously dim bulb started flashing red. The leader immediately spun in his seat and slid over to the counter.
"What is it now?" he muttered under his breath, punching in the familiar command to bring up whatever was causing the signal.
His shades reflected the flashing red light, and the rest of his solemn face was bathed with the warning crimson glow as his sharp blue eyes scanned through the information displayed. His mouth set into a firm, hard line. After a brief pause, he switched on the intercom that carried through the entire Treehouse.
"Kids Next Door, report to the briefing room," he commanded.
#####
Five pairs of eyes turned upwards as the announcement echoed through the Treehouse. Numbah Five was the first to stand up, pushing back her seat.
"You heard the boss," she told her teammates, signaling them to get moving.
"Wonder what's going on?" Two commented, standing up and gathering his empty dishes.
"C'mon, let's hurry, hurry, hurry!" singsonged Three while skipping toward the door.
Dolores dropped her gaze back to her own bowl awkwardly. After it had become clear she was incapable of making her own breakfast, Numbah Five had been kind enough to show her the proper way to get a bowl of cereal. Though she'd already managed to finish it, her hunger proving to be more than she'd expected, this wasn't her real problem.
(Just what am I supposed to do now?)
It didn't seem like a good idea to follow them; even without factoring in that they were on separate sides, it was terribly rude to intrude on one of their meetings. But surely they wouldn't want to leave her unattended, even with the W.A.T.C.H. on her wrist…
Her dilemma was solved when Numbah Four reached over and roughly grabbed her arm.
"C'mon," he sneered when she looked up at him in surprise. "Move it. I ain't trusting you in here all by yerself…"
With no other choice, Dolores followed the shorter blonde to the briefing room. Numbahs Two, Three and Five were already present, and had taken their seats on the half-circle couch in the very center of the wide chamber. Four flopped down beside Three, leaving the Delightful Child to find a seat at the very edge of the group.
Numbah One soon arrived as well. The leader of the Kids Next Door quickly crossed the room to take his place behind the raised podium. Upon reaching it, he turned to face those gathered before him. He glanced at Dolores and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about her presence.
"Fellow Kids Next Door, a situation has developed that requires our immediate attention," he announced.
"Shall I excuse myself while you conduct your meeting?" Dolores asked, standing.
"No, you…stay here," One motioned for her to take her seat again. "This concerns you as well."
"…Oh."
Dolores awkwardly sat back down, a sense of dread swelling in the pit of her stomach as she looked around at the five agents. She wasn't comfortable listening to her captors discuss plans, particularly when there was a chance they involved what they were planning about her.
Numbah Four caught her eye; the blond fighter shot her a deadly glare and cracked his knuckles into the palm of his hand. Dolores gulped and quickly looked back at Numbah One. The leader of the Kids Next Door stood behind his podium and folded his arms behind his back.
"As you undoubtedly recall, during our last encounter with the Delightful Children from Down the Lane, they were unleashing their mechanical mockeries of normal playground equipment upon unsuspecting kids."
(You forgot to mention that those unsuspecting kids were yourselves, of course.) Dolores shook her head, but kept quiet, leaving her observations to herself. (You were our only real targets, after all.)
"Yeah, we remember," Four commented, crossing his arms impatiently. "So what? We beat them up and even got a hostage out of the deal!"
"That may be, Numbah Four, but, unfortunately…" Shaking his head, Numbah One said, "Well, see for yourselves."
He flipped a switch, causing a wide screen to pop up behind him. All five agents turned to watch, and Dolores looked as well, the dreadful feelings in her stomach worsening.
The scene displayed was at a park several blocks away. Several children were running about, playing in the sandbox, on the monkey bars, on the slide. A couple of boys were arguing at the swingset; one of the kids was stubbornly clinging to his seat while another yelled at him.
"No fair, Billy, it's my turn!"
"Who says? You?" Billy asked, his sarcastic tone making it clear he didn't care what the other claimed.
"Stop hogging the swings! Let me on!"
"Make me!"
They glared at each other, but before they could start trading blows, the swingset shuddered. Billy gave a high-pitched shriek as his seat suddenly pitched, and his opponent backed away, staring at the swings as it uprooted itself one post at a time.
"O-on second thought, you can stay on," he decided, then turned tail and fled, screaming.
Soon, more screams of terror were added to the cacophony as more pieces of equipment lurched to life. The sandbox erupted in a whirlpool of shifting sand, its occupants clawing at the edges and desperately trying to pull themselves out. The monkey bars reared back while climbers launched off or hung on tightly. The slide tipped back until everyone tumbled off into a heap.
As the chaos continued, kids scrambling to get away from the possessed playground, the view swung around to show four children that weren't fleeing the scene. Instead, they simply watched, glassy blue eyes reflecting an emotional detachment from the disorder. The only reaction they had was a small, cruel smile that touched each of their lips equally, like distorted mirror images of each other.
Dolores stared at the screen, her own blue eyes filled with a violent mixture of horror and astonishment. She had gone rigid in her seat, clenching the edge of her skirt in both tightening fists.
The Delightful Children from Down the Lane were short one member, but it appeared that it didn't matter. They had shifted their stances so that there wasn't even a gap between them to give away that one was absent. If somebody weren't aware that there were supposed to be five in their little group, they never would have noticed that there were only four present.
They certainly didn't appear to be affected by it. As they watched the rest of the playground descend into disorder, all four began to chuckle quietly, a harsh, near monotone chorus that struck a sharp contrast with the disorder raging around them.
Solemnly, Numbah One turned away from the display to gauge the reactions of his teammates. Numbah Three was covering her mouth with her hidden hands, chestnut eyes wide and filled with shock and fear. Beside her, Four clenched his fists and ground his teeth together, trembling with poorly contained fury. Two swallowed hard, staring at the screen nervously. Five adjusted her cap, pulling the rim over her eyes to conceal her frustrated expression.
Dolores looked fit to pass out. The fragile girl swayed back and forth in her seat, wringing handfuls of her skirt so tightly it was surprising the fabric wasn't ripping. Her expression was one of blank shock, and she stared at the screen in complete disbelief.
Numbah One took particular notice of this. When he'd first viewed the transmission, the commander had briefly wondered if perhaps this was part of one of their rivals' Delightful schemes: that Dolores had intentionally fallen into their hands to distract the Kids Next Door from detecting this latest plot.
But the shocked expression on the girl's face seemed too real to be acting. He hadn't considered the possibility for very long, anyway: the Delightful Children were generally too detached, too emotionless to be any good at acting.
(Not that she looks that emotionless right now…)
Shaking his head, Numbah One turned his focus back to the matter at hand.
"As you can clearly see, the Delightful Children from Down the Lane haven't exactly been hindered by the loss of one of their number," he stated, pacing in front of the display. "We can't ignore this blatant assault."
"But why are they attacking like that?" Numbah Two piped up. The pilot scratched his head as he went on, "I mean, it doesn't seem like a very 'Delightful' thing to do, if you ask me…"
"Two's right," Five nodded solemnly. "Numbah Five don't like this one bit. This isn't their normal style…"
"Who cares?!" Four slammed his fists down on the table and stood up violently. "All we need to know 's that they're hurting kids like us! Who cares what the reason is?!"
"Numbah Four has a point," One nodded, "and so do you, Numbahs Two and Five. Personally, the only reason that I can figure for this assault is that they're attempting to give playgrounds a reputation for being unsafe. Enough incidents like this, and safety-minded adults are likely to stop letting their kids play in such places altogether."
Numbah Two nodded slowly, reluctantly accepting his leader's reasoning. The mechanic still had a doubtful look on his face, however, as did the stealth operative sitting next to him. Both looked curiously at the pale girl sitting on the fringe of the group, like they expected some sort of insight from her on what her siblings might be thinking.
But Dolores could offer them no explanation. She didn't even have one for herself yet. Instead, the Delightful Child stared blankly at the screen even as the transmission burst into static.
"So let's go get 'em!" Four pounded a fist into his palm.
"Of course." Numbah One nodded curtly, then looked at the pilot and asked, "Has the S.K.Y.C.L.A.W. been repaired?"
"Yes, sir! She's primed and ready to go!"
"Good. Numbahs Two, Three and Four, you'll accompany me to the site at once." The remaining agent shot him a sharp look, and One continued, "Numbah Five, you'll hold down the fort here. For obvious reasons, we can't take our prisoner along with us, and it's too risky to leave her unattended."
"Right," nodded Five.
Nobody bothered to point out the other obvious reason for leaving her behind: her injury from the previous day's conflict. There was no reason to risk aggravating it, and having her keep an eye on Dolores provided the perfect excuse to not bring her to what was likely to become another battleground.
"Fine then. Kids Next Door, battle stations!"
The four agents scrambled from the briefing room, leaving Numbah Five alone with Dolores. The capped girl stood and looked over at the petite girl, who still had yet to move from her seat. Five shook her head at the sight of the shell-shocked lass, unable to keep from feeling a little pity for her despite the fact that the rest of her team was off to face her psychotic siblings.
Crossing the room, Numbah Five ensured that the defense system was up and running. Numbah One had a bad habit of accidentally turning it off at the worst possible times. Thankfully, this time it was fully functional.
"W…why…?"
The stealth operative turned around and saw that Dolores had finally stirred. The pale lass was staring at the agent, trembling like a leaf, sky blue eyes lost and frightened.
"Why is this happening?" she choked out in a broken whisper. "I don't understand…"
Numbah Five shook her head, unable to offer any answer. The situation had caught the normally cool and prepared girl off guard as well, and all she understood was that she didn't like it. She didn't like this at all…