Priestess Aishisu: I am never going to get used to writing that. I was Priestess, the fanfiction author. My account was disabled, so fans of my stories will have to get over it. I hope I'm as popular on this new account as I was on my other ones. Since I'm in a bad mood, this isn't the happiest fanfiction. But I'll get over it eventually.

Numbuh One: Nigel Uno, paired with Lizzie and Abigail

Numbuh Two: Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr., paired with Abigail

Numbuh Three: Kuki Sanban, paired with Wallabee

Numbuh Four: Wallabee "Wally" Beadles, paired with Kuki

Numbuh Five: Abigail "Abby" Lincoln, paired with Nigel and Hoagie

The main pairing is Cree/Chad.

Cree Lincoln bit back a moan of pain as she removed her clothing and lay in the tub. The warm water enveloping her slim frame was a mercy. There had never before been anything she couldn't foresee—even if it was unexpected, she always had a back-up plan. But even with her psychic abilities, no one had planned for this.

She traced over one of the burns on her right arm (her entire body was covered with them), her slender finger careful not to touch the blistered skin. The marks criss-crossed over her once-unblemished brown skin and hurt like hell. She put a tracking devise on me while I was sleeping...

Cree clenched her fists and teeth, despite the pain. Her sister would pay for this. She didn't care if they were family—that bitch would pay.

Chad moaned as he lay on the bed. They had lost to the Kids Next Door again and had to do 20,000,000 push-ups each. It had been their coach's fault, anyway. He just wasn't capable of preparing for possible difficulties. He never had a Plan B.

I wonder what that Cree girl's 'Plan B' was...Chad shook his head angrily. Why couldn't he stop thinking about that stupid teenager?

Isn't that just an insult to you? His mind quipped maliciously, and he scowled. Teenager or one-eyed bass, he just couldn't keep himself from thinking about her. Idly he wondered if all teenagers felt like this (he had only been a teenager for a few months.)

Recently he had tried finding a new job (still against the Kids Next Door, of course) and had applied for what was apparently the best you could get. He didn't know the details, only that the guy lived down the lane of the tree house of the five (in his opinion) worst members of the Kids Next Door and that he was supposed to be the mastermind behind all destruction plans of the Kids Next Door. They had been 'very impressed' with his profile, but since a few weeks ago the Kids Next Door had burned down a place where the best adult-fighting teens were holding a meeting they weren't able to take on new workers without assessing the damage to the old ones.

Cree tugged on a red turtleneck and hip-hugging jeans and lay back on her bed. It hurt like hell to move, the farthest she could go was the tub and she couldn't use a shower because then she would have to lie down. It had taken weeks to achieve just that much. And she had to get a new wardrobe because she didn't want anybody to see her burns. She was lucky her pretty face hadn't been scarred—though nothing else had been left unharmed, not even her neck. And she couldn't touch anything, because the skin had been singed off her fingertips. It hurt to put clothes on, but she refused to go naked.

Since she was psychic, she had never before feared death. She knew what the afterlife looked like, after all. But since the fire, her dreams had been tormented with nightmares about that fire. Death would have been a mercy, but she should be grateful—out of the thirty-eight elite warriors lucky enough to be in the meeting she alone had survived. But this just made her angrier. Her two best friends were dead. She had seen Sheila's charred, mutilated corpses. She had heard Natalie's scream as she died, watched the flames consume her. If it hadn't been for Natalie, she would have been the dead one.

"I'll kill you, little Abby," she hissed, glaring at the ceiling. "You'll die for this."

Ring-ring-ring!

Chad blinked in surprise and rubbed his eyes. He must have dozed off, and now his cell phone was ringing. He flicked it open and put it to his ear. "Yeah?"

The voice that spoke then was a strange one—obviously a male voice, the tone was disturbing: severe but dead, polite but cold. "Am I speaking to Chad?"

"Um...yeah. This is him."

"Yes...recently you applied to join my elite team, but we turned you down because we were still assessing the damage. Well, one of my best warriors survived the fire—but she isn't in the best shape. When she is healthy, you will be her partner. But I think you should get to know her first—she's very stubborn, very talented. She's also quite proud and temperamental, and I believe you should try to get on her better side while she is injured—and thus unable to kill you. Will you take the job?"

"Yes!" Chad replied automatically. He didn't care what a dangerous woman this great fighter was, she couldn't be worse than his coach. "Just tell me her name."

"Cree Lincoln."

"I can't believe it!" Abigail Lincoln, a.k.a. Numbuh Five, shouted. "The entire building burned down, and my pain-in-the-ass sister survived out of thirty-eight people!"

"Aw, come on, Numbuh Five," Nigel Uno, a.k.a. Numbuh One, said reasonably. "Thirty-seven of the teenagers' thirty-eight most elite warriors are out of the way. We should be celebrating, not making a huge deal out of one person."

"She saw this coming!" Abigail insisted. "Grandma always said she had second sight! I'll bet she got out before the place even burned. And here my parents are worried sick! I mean, in a few days I'm sure she'll reappear just to laugh in my face!"

"Numbuh One's right, Numbuh Five," said Hoagie P. Gilligan Junior—or Numbuh Two for short. "I mean, you don't really want to kill your sister, do you?"

Abigail scowled. "Heck yeah! If she can't get captured and she can't be beaten, what else is there to do?"

"Just try to get along with the cruddy teenager!" snapped an Australian voice. "That or avoid her," it added as an afterthought. It was Wallabee Beadles, a.k.a Numbuh Four. He and Kuki Sanban, a.k.a. Numbuh Three, had just entered the room. They were both blushing and holding hands, though Wally quickly snapped his hand away when Numbuh Two started making kissing noises.

She was in the middle of a burning building, the acrid smell alone enough to make her retch. She turned and tried to run, but crackling amber flames shot up in front of her.

Panic threatened to drown her. She turned, and more flames sprung up. She was surrounded. There were piercing shrieks, and she could see bodies being consumed in flame.

A door seemed to appear out of nowhere, and she punched it. "Help me!" she screamed, the smoke beginning to choke her. "Help me!"

"Use the window." She turned in surprise, seeing her best friend Natalie. Her beautiful light green eyes were filled with worry, but she said, "can you climb us up to the window?"

Cree looked up. It would be difficult, but...

"Grab my ankle and don't let go."

She focused and ridges appeared in the wall. She started climbing up. Flames licked at them, and her clothes started falling off. Tears filled her eyes, but she kept going. There...there...

"Natalie, stand on this ridge and push me up. I'll swing over and grab you." Her voice was hoarse, her throat filled with smoke. The pain was becoming unbearable...

Natalie obeyed with difficulty, and Cree's fingers touched the edge of the window...

She screamed as the metal burned her fingertips, but she swung open and kicked the window. Setting her right foot and left knee on the ledge and trying not to pass out, she reached for Natalie.

Natalie stretched out, but the flames were too much. She screamed in pain as her foot was burnt off, and she tumbled off of the ridge. Her arm was still stretched towards Cree as her body was engulfed in flame...

Cree screamed, kicking off the sheets.

She screamed again from the pain of moving and lay back on the pillows. Tears filled her onyx eyes and slipped down her dusky cheeks. Why was she alive? Natalie had saved her. True, the real thing hadn't quite been the same as the dream—she wasn't even sure why Natalie had fallen. But it was clear that it was because of the fire. It was a miracle Natalie had survived that long, and a miracle Cree had survived at all.

She had also fallen, the anguish having been too much even for her. She had lain, her skin burnt off, dying, when she had another vision. It was of a beautiful, unearthly goddess. She had touched Cree's cheek and said it wasn't her time to die. When Cree awoke, she had been in a hospital. Yes, that had been it. Despite all her injuries and her inability to do several things (including moving without pain and sleeping without nightmares), she had been much more injured. Her bones weren't broken, and she still had skin despite her scars. And her hair...

Her black dreadlocks had been burnt off her skull, but now it was long and silky and lush like the mysterious goddess's. But it didn't make sense: why had a goddess rescued her? Why not somebody else? Was it because she was psychic? Was that all? No, that couldn't be it. But it had to be something. Wasn't her time...did she have some other purpose? She hoped it was to kill Abigail.

Why the heck was her alarm clock communicator ringing? She moaned and rolled over, smacking it with her open palm and biting her lip until it bled to suppress a yelp of pain. "What?!" she shouted.

"You should really do something about that temper," Father's (that's what I'm calling him!) voice replied unperturbedly.

Cree suppressed a moan and said, "Why are you calling? We already agreed I can't destroy the Moonbase right now, I can barely even walk."

"I'm aware of that fact, Cree. I just wanted to tell you that I have hired you...a partner."

Cree stared at the alarm clock communicator, sure she had heard him wrong. When he didn't say anything else, she yelled, "A partner?! I don't need a partner!"

"Or an apprentice, if you prefer. He ran the Kids Next Door for five years, and has valuable information which he is willing to share. He could be very useful, but he needs training."

"I don't care if he's the king of Siam, I have enough to deal with at the moment!" Cree snapped angrily. A lamp blew up, the shards of glass flying everywhere. "Find him a teacher who can walk!"

"I think you've already met."

Cree scowled. "Then that's a double no! I've hated every guy I've ever met!" She considered, then added, "Well, except that Chad kid, but I only knew him for—"

She was interrupted by a rather familiar voice on the other end shouting, "I'm not a kid! I. Am. A. Teenager! How many times do I have to tell people that?"

Cree gaped wordlessly at the communicator for about a minute, then she muttered, "You've got to be kidding me."

"It's settled then. You two will...reacquaint yourselves with each other...in three hours."