Continuing Transmission

There was a loud slam from downstairs, jarring Nigel out of his sleep in front of the computer monitor. Lifting his head, he groggily rubbed his eyes, looking at the screen, which was still switched on, he gazed at what was on the desktop. An error page.

'Since I deleted my file off the Kids Next Door data base program,' he thought with a yawn, 'I can no longer log into the IHQ files.'

He yawned again, stretching his limbs. 'It might be for the best anyway.'

There was a kind of disturbance downstairs, and Nigel almost got up to investigate. But he stopped, sitting back down. 'It must be my mother's boyfriend, Tom, again,' he concluded with a sigh. 'I don't see why Mom wants him to come and 'take care' of me. Doesn't she know that I can take care of myself? She even gave him a key to our house. I know he's not entirely bad, but still…he does have his moments…'

When he was around six, Nigel's father died, and a year later, his mother met Tom in a nearby park, where she was dropping him off to play with his friends. She had been dating him ever since.

But she could never marry him.

Not that Tom minded. He said he was okay with him that they were just going out. And Nigel could tell that he meant it, too. Tom was pretty nice a lot of the time. Sometimes, he reminded Nigel of what little he remembered of his father. But there was one big difference.

Nigel could never remember anytime his father had been mean to him, or yelled at him. His father was a nice and caring man. But Tom…he tended to have a mean streak once in a while. He didn't like being ignored, and if he was, he made sure that he would get noticed.

It was actually because of Tom that Nigel joined the Kids Next Door. Surprisingly, he taught him to stand up for what he believed in, but he also showed Nigel how controlling and harsh adults could be.

Being part of the Kids Next Door was also a convenient escape from Tom. He spent all of his time there, and hardly ever returned home. His mother, thank goodness, was very supportive of him doing this, and allowed him to spend his time there, even if she worried a bit sometimes. But he knew that she only worried for his safety, and for that, even he had to be grateful.

'But now that I'm back,' he thought, 'and no longer part of the Kids Next Door, I suppose I'll just have to put up with Tom. Hopefully, he's in a good mood today.'

There was a sudden ding from his computer, and Nigel looked to see a message confirmation. Someone wanted to 'chat' with him.

'Hm…TDC05?' he wondered. 'Who's that?' Curiosity getting the better of him, he clicked 'Ok'.

The chat window popped up. Hi, TDC05 typed up.

Hello, he responded. He noted that his screen-name was still 'Numbuh 1'. For emergency purposes, such as a team member leaving on family affairs, they used chatting screen-names to keep in contact with each other. For simplicity, the Kids Next Door operatives used their own numbers, and all would know who's who.

You're Nigel, aren't you? TDC05 asked.

How do you know me?

I know a lot about you, Nigel. In fact, I've known you for a long time now.

You have? Nigel was slightly confused. Who are you?

Do you really want to find out?

He couldn't understand why this 'TDC05' wouldn't tell him who he/she was. Could…could it be one of the Kids Next Door? 'But why wouldn't they use their other screen-name?' he wondered. 'Could it be a secret one?'

Yes, I would.

Then how about you and I meet?

Meet? As 'in person'?

Unless you have some other ways of meeting, yes. We should meet in person. What do you say?

I don't know…He wanted to find who this person was. But…he knew the dangers of meeting someone you only knew online. He didn't even know this person. He had just met him/her today. Where do you live?

The same town you do.

Really?

Yes.

Why don't you just tell me who you are?

You'll have to meet me and see. Besides, I have something important with you that we have to talk about.

Something important? Like what?

I would prefer to talk to you in person about it.

I'm not sure if that's such a good idea…

Suddenly, Nigel heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Nigel!" a booming voice called out, reaching his opened door.

"Uh oh…Tom is not in a good mood…" All right, sure, he typed quickly. Let's meet up.

Great. When?

"Nigel!"

Now.

Now?

Yeah. In the park. As soon as possible.

He heard the footsteps getting closer. Nigel looked to the door, nervous, waiting for a reply.

Okay, TDC05 finally said. I'll meet you in the park in 15 min., okay?

Yeah, great, fine, gotta go. Quickly, he shut off his computer, just in time. Right then, Tom was standing in his doorway. His lean figure leaned against the frame, his jeans and white shirt hiding the muscle that lay underneath. His black hair was gelled back, and his brown eyes started hard at him.

"There you are, Nigel," Tom said, sounding slightly angry.

The boy stood up quickly, slightly surprised, looking at him. "Um…I…I was…"

"You were ignoring me…"

"No! No, I was…um…"

"So what were you doing, then?" he asked, crossing the distance between them.

Slowly, matching Tom's speed, Nigel backed away. "I was just…"

Reaching out, Tom attempted to grab the boy, but he pulled away from him, which only seemed to anger him further. He lunged for the boy, but Nigel jumped out of the way, and he hit the ground.

Landing on his bed, Nigel watched as Tom picked himself off the floor, glaring at the boy. He swallowed, and jumped again to avoid the hands of this adult.

When Nigel landed near the window, he suddenly got an idea. Opening it, he started to climb up, when he felt Tom grab his foot.

Tom chuckled, trying to drag the boy away from the window, but unknowingly, pressed a button hidden by the material of his boots.

The engines in the boots suddenly kicked in, and their force catapulted Nigel out the window, and at the same time throwing Tom against the wall of the room.

Once outside, Nigel breathed out a small sigh. 'Now I have to deal with that mysterious person at the park,' he thought to himself. 'I still have no idea who it is.'

Looking back through the window of his room, however, he decided, 'I'll give Tom a chance to cool down while I'm gone, and meet whoever that person is. Besides, anyone is better than him when he's in a bad mood.'

If only he knew how wrong he would be…

Transmission Interrupted