Continuing Transmission

"What!" Numbuh 1's team all cried. They couldn't believe their ears. Had Numbuh 1 really said what they thought they heard?

"I said 'fall back'," the Leader repeated.

"Ya can't be serious!" Numbuh 4 said.

But they could feel that he was.

"Why!" Numbuh 5 asked.

"We can't do this," Numbuh 1 replied. "And you all know it. It's not right."

"None of what they did was right!" Numbuh 2 argued.

"Yeah!" the Aussie agreed. "Why shouldn't we let 'em 'ave it!"

"You know exactly why, Numbuh 4."

"But they hurt you," Numbuh 3 said. "And they tried to break up our team."

"Yeah," Numbuh 5 said. "Ya can't tell us that you ain't feein' mad at 'em for doin' dat to ya!"

He looked down at the ground. "I am angry at them…But I'm not going to let my anger make me lose my self control."

Power: 60 percent online…

"What're ya talkin' about!" the Tough Kid demanded.

Numbuh 1 turned to look at them. "Look at you all! At the way you're acting! You're letting your anger get the better of you, and you want to do things that you know are wrong!"

"But…" the round operative said, "the Delightful Children…!"

"Yes, I know what they did. But that doesn't mean you can kill them!"

"Why not?" Numbuh 5 retorted.

"That's not what we do. We are the Kids Next Door. We're not murderers."

The other Kids looked at him, his last word sinking into their minds. They looked at the ground.

"Now, when I tell you, we're going to make a run for it."

Numbuh 4's head shot up to look at him. "But the Delightful Freaks'll think we're retreatin'!"

"Exactly. And they'll follow us. If we get out of here before the bomb goes off, we should all be able to get out of here unscathed."

"But ya wanna bring them along with us!" Numbuh 5 asked.

"We have to."

"But why?" the Asian girl asked. "This is your chance to get even with them for what they did!"

"If getting even with them means taking their lives, then I'd rather not."

"But…!"

"Look, it may seem like the best thing to do right now, but you all know as well as I do that once we've done it, we'll regret it for the rest of our lives."

"So," Numbuh 4 said, "you wanna save 'em!"

"Not even the Delightful Children deserve to be…killed…no matter what they did."

"But this is our chance to defeat them!" Numbuh 5 said. "If we don't do this now, we may nevuh get anothuh chance!"

Power: 65 percent online…

"I don't care! Chances like these may come once in a lifetime, but the consequences of them will remain with us forever.

"Besides, say we do kill them. What after that? Are we going to kill everyone that gets in our way?"

"No," Numbuh 4 said, "just them."

"You say that now, Numbuh 4, but what if the time arises? If you kill once, who's to say you won't do it again?"

The others noticed the look in their leader's eyes, even hiding behind the sunglasses.

Power: 70 percent online…

"So what now?" Numbuh 5 asked solemnly.

"As I've said. When I say, we're going to get out of here. Hopefully, the Delightful Children will follow us out, so we'll all make it out unharmed."

They all looked down at the ground.

"Look, I know how hard this is. I want to defeat the Delightful Children as well. But not this way. We can't let our anger take control of our rational thoughts. That's exactly how adults act and behave.

"One day, we will defeat the Delightful Children. I can assure you that. But not like this…It shouldn't be this way. It should never be this way."

Power: 75 percent online…

"So," Numbuh 1 said, looking at all of them, "are you all with me?"

They all lifted their eyes off the ground. Each had the same question in their minds. To finally defeat their enemies…or to help them get out alive?

Numbuh 5 was the first to speak. "I'm in."

"I guess so," Numbuh 2 said.

"Me too," Numbuh 3 agreed.

"Outta all tha…" Numbuh 4 mumbled, his arms folded across his chest. "Y'know, Numbuh 1, if tha Delightful Children had tha chance, they would do the exact same thing ta us!"

Numbuh 1 turned to look at the five Children in the cockpit of the robot. "I know they would," he said quietly. "So do us a favor, and don't turn into one of them."

Power: 80 percent online…

"How much time do we have until the bomb goes off?" Numbuh 1 asked.

The round boy looked at the watch on his wrist. "7.5 minutes."

"How did you all get here?"

"Our ride is parked on da roof," the dark agent replied.

"There's a buncha stairs that lead down here from the top," the Asian girl added.

"How long do you think it would take to get up to the roof?"

"Depends on how fast yer runnin'," the blond Aussie said.

Power: 85 percent online…

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, the Brit finally said, "Okay, so what we'll do is, when the time is right, we'll make a dash for the stairs, up to the roof, and onto the vehicle you all came in. The Delightful Children will most likely follow us, and we'll have to lead them away from here. It'll be risky, since we are waiting for their robot to power up to maximum, and we don't know what it's capable of. But we'll destroy it. The trick is getting them out of here.

"Are we all ready?"

The others nodded their silent agreement.

Power: 90 percent online…

Numbuh 1 turned back to look at the robot.

Numbuh 5 stepped up so that she was standing next to him. "Numbuh 1," she said quietly, "are ya sure 'bout this?"

He nodded. "We have to do this. They may be our worst adversary, but even that can be overlooked in a life or death situation."

Power: 95 percent online…

"They're gonna think that we're retreatin'…They'll be holdin' it against us for a long time."

"No they won't. They'll forget about a minor detail like this when we beat them in a battle."

"It's not too late. We can still take out their robot."

"Yes, but then they would be stranded here when the bomb goes off. We can't let that happen, can we? Besides, my mind's made up. We have to help them get out of here, even if they don't realize what we're doing."

"Numbuh 1? Are ya sure you're plan is gonna work?"

He looked over at her, then back at the robot, giving a weak chuckle. "I hope so…"

Power: 100 percent online…Complete

"Finally," the Delightful Children said.

The robot raised its large metallic arm, aiming at the Kids on the ground. Energy gathered into the blaster.

The five Children smirked, their hands hovering over the button to fire. "Farewell, Kids Next Door." And they fired.

"Kids Next Door!" Numbuh 1 yelled. "Scatter!"

Transmission Interrupted