TS: Hey...! I can speak properly again!
#1: Yippee for you. Now shut up.
TS: Why?
#1: Because this is the good part and I don't want your incessant tweeting ruining it.
TS:... I do not tweet!
#1: You will when I'm finished with you.
---
Numbuh One studied the building carefully. From the road, it looked like a derelict old factory. He couldn't help thinking that maybe Numbuh Ten had got the wrong place. But, no... there on the door was a peeling sign, which read: "Taus Development Centre."
He was standing outside with his original team of Numbuhs Two to Five. Numbuhs Eight and Ten had disappeared to find a back entrance so that they could form the attack in a pincer movement.
With a deep breath, Numbuh One pushed the door open. It creaked ominously and one of the hinges disintegrated and crumbled away. The door fell, narrowly missing Numbuh Five.
The entrance led to a long winding corridor, at the end of which was a large door that was in considerably better condition than the previous one. Numbuh One paused briefly before opening it and stealing inside, the others following him.
They were in a large old-fashioned room, lit by dim lamps on the ceiling far above. The windows were dusty and of stained glass. They could see Numbuhs Eight and Ten on a balcony far above them, barely more than the size of ants.
There were piles of debris scattered all through the room, along with small fragments of brick wall that remained standing. It seemed as though this room had once been many different rooms, though the separating walls had been demolished.
Numbuh One silently wondered why he had not seen this colossal room from the outside. This was, he reasoned, a Scientific Centre. Perhaps the scientist had come up with something to conceal the large building and stop trespassers.
His train of though was interrupted, however, by the sound of a door opening from the other side of the room. He and his team tensed. Numbuh Eight was too high up to hear anything, though Numbuh Ten seemed to have noticed the intrusion and was looking down on them with an expression on his gaunt face that was both interested and bemused.
A tall handsome man walked in, followed by a girl wearing a hooded tunic. Numbuh One groaned inwardly. It was Triple Six. The corner of the sinister man's mouth twitched upward in a smile and he inclined his head towards the Kids Next Door. To Numbuh One's horror, Triple Six moved silently to the centre of the room and stood stock-still.
Numbuh Two, not noticing the danger signals that Numbuh One had noticed, smiled in relief and started towards the Irish agent.
Triple Six raised one of her hands. An eerie blue glow formed around it and suddenly the same glow formed around Numbuh Two himself. Numbuh One's breath caught in his throat... this couldn't be good...
With a swift, single motion, Triple Six whipped her arm to the side, almost dismissively. Numbuh Two screamed in terror as he was hurled through the air back towards his team-mates, crashing into them and knocking the weapons from their hands.
"Scatter!" Numbuh One yelled as Triple Six directed a large boulder towards them with a hand gesture. The boulder, too, was surrounded by the strange blue light.
It smashed against the wall where they had been moments before. Numbuh One scampered behind one of the old bits of wall and cautiously peeked his head out to observe Triple Six. Numbuh Four weaved his way over to him through the rubble.
"Numbuh One!" He said, his voice almost a whine. "What can she possibly do? Let's just cream her and get it over with!"
He was forced to duck into the debris as Triple Six demonstrated what she could do by sending a load of bricks flying at him. Numbuh One pulled his head back behind the wall just as one of the bricks whistled past his ear. He had to wake up from this nightmare...
Numbuh Four dodged his way back behind the Irish girl, ready to leap on her. He suddenly charged out of his hiding place, yelling his war cries. Triple Six hesitated for a moment, having been taken by surprise, but then suddenly held one hand up, sending Numbuh Four sprawling backwards into Numbuh Five and stunning both of them.
Up on the balcony, Numbuhs Eight and Ten had noticed something was amiss.
"We have to get down there, somehow!" Numbuh Eight said, agitatedly wringing her hands, looking at the destruction being wreaked by her former colleague. "They need our help!"
Numbuh Ten looked at her coldly.
"We aren't helping them." He said, sneering at her. She frowned in puzzlement at his statement and then her eyes widened as she realised.
"You! You betrayed us! You're working for him!" She hissed, pointing down towards Taus, who was watching the whole scene playing out in front of him with an amused expression.
The expression on Numbuh Ten's face had twisted into something awful.
"Well done." He breathed in her face, and she backed off a bit. "You finally worked it out. I wondered how long it would take you. I thought I'd made it obvious. I thought I'd made a mistake... but no... you're all fools! Blind stupid fools! And if you don't want to stay up here with me," He smirked at her. "You can go down to your friends."
It was but the work of a moment for Numbuh Ten. With a swift flick of the wrist he shoved Numbuh Eight backwards. With a shriek of horror she tripped on the low banister and disappeared over the edge of the balcony, landing below with a sickening thud.
Numbuh Ten looked down at her mangled form with a satisfied expression twisting his thin face and then disappeared through the balcony door, the whole episode not noticed by those battling it out below.