Disclaimer: See the prologue. In addition, I own Jason and another character that will appear in the epilogue. I just won't spoil it for now.
Sorry! I forgot to tell you all what TIME WARP stood for!
Now loading, Kids Next Door Mission, Operation: TIME WARP
Taking In Minor Enemies Who Are Really Personable
Here's a review on all the other TND operatives we've met other than the 1 through 5 team. If you need a review on them, see Operation: SHARE.
Number 6 (Scott Hexagon): A ladies' man jock; captain of the town lacrosse and soccer team; leader of the 6 through 10 team; told Moon Base specifically that he wanted a team made up of just girls.
Number 7 (Alison Continent): A gothic girl; likes to shop at punk stores; likes candy; obsessive over shiny objects and is scared by normal people.
Number 8 (Melissa VanBuren): An optimistic ex-cheerleader that is now a tennis expert; head of all sports events taking place within the TND; loves to put pink and green together.
Number 9 (Collette Nove): One of the smartest operatives within the TND; gives very good advice, has a lot of common sense; gets discounts at the town deli.
Number 10 (Sara Decade): An anime freak; loves the 80s type of style in clothes and music; knows basic phrases in Japanese; an artist; draws manga for fun.
Number 274 (Samantha Greatest): Head of Teens Next Door Moon Base; greatest TND operative ever; Number 1's rival ever since she sold more Girl Scout cookies when they were little.
Number 86 (Alexandra Offteam): Head of TND Decommissioning; exact opposite of her KND counterpart; probably one of the smartest operatives along with Numbers 1, 9, and 274.
Number 30C: Mentioned in Operation: MAXIMUM; created a prototype for TND Moon Base, no one knows his/her real name; mystery operative.
Chapter 2
Numbuh 1 sat in the armchair of the hang out room with a petrified look on his face and an uneven heartbeat. He grasped the arms with his sweaty palms and felt heat rising to his head. Standing in front of him was a child that claimed to be Hoagie P. Gilligan the Third. Too many things raced in his mind at that moment. He started considering what could be happening to him. He could be cursed. That was one. Strange things were always happening to him. He could be going insane, and this boy could just be an illusion. He thought about screaming or even just calling for help. The child could be a trap set by an enemy to lure him to his death. Whatever the reason, he was scared. He felt his heart skip many beats and his brain start to fade from all the sparks going off at once.
Carefully, he reached his arm out and gently touched the hair of the boy. The child was real alright. Numbuh 1 felt the strands pass through his fingers with ease. He slowly brought his arm back to himself and said:
"How do I know I can trust you?" He wasn't expecting his voice to be so squeaky and to crack at the end of the simple sentence. He made a fist and placed it in front of his mouth to keep himself from shrieking at the strange fantasy taking place right in front of his eyes.
"I know I don't look like him," Hammie began, "but I am definitely the son of the one you know as Numbuh 2. I am also the son of Lizzie. I believe she's your girlfriend at the moment, correct?"
Numbuh 1 did not answer. Instead, he tried to observe the boy the best he could. He was right when he said he did not look a thing like Numbuh 2. He could see some sort of resemblance between him and Lizzie, but there was nothing that popped out at him right away. Hammie was wearing nothing but black. He had a think black sweater and black baggy pants covering his whole body. His boots were thick and heavy with soot and rubber. His skin was almost as pale as Number 1's. His was just that single shade darker, which signaled that he had spent a little bit of time out in the world unlike the TND leader. Hammie's hair was an ocean blue type of color. It was the type of color that if you put I up against its partner color, you'd say it was the other color. Silver lined his part and scalp. Several drips of the metallic color came down upon his tips. Most of his hair was pushed off to one side. Half of his right eye was hidden while the left was revealed to watch the world. The eye seemed to follow him all over the place. Numbuh 1 feared that this situation would turn into a repetition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. He backed away further into the chair to keep himself from losing it.
"Do you have anything to say?" Hammie continued. "Is something wrong with you? I can go get Craig or Faith if you are sick."
"Wait...there's more of you?" Numbuh 1 gasped. "Exactly how many are in the tree house?"
"There should be four," Hammie replied. "Let's see, Craig and Faith should be searching out the rest of the two teams right now. Melanie might be tracking down the past form of my mother, and I'm right here in front of you. Yeah, that's four."
"You can't just go and intrude into a base like this!" Numbuh 1 scolded. "How come the Teens Next Door Security System didn't pick up any life forms like you? We should have heard sirens wailing and everything."
"First off, we're kids," Hammie reminded him, waving his hand up and down. "Second of all, we didn't touch the outside property. And you have to remember, as gross and strange it sounds, we came from KND operatives. Okay, that didn't sound right. Anyway, we're a part of you and your team. That's another reason why we weren't caught. We got a good cover, huh?"
"What about those other three?"
"Uh, Melanie's yours...Craig and Faith are Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4's. I'm sure they've found the rest of your team by now."
"Hold on! One of them is mine?"
"Yup."
"Well, who's the mother?"
"I'll let you figure it out."
Hammie slid his hands into his pants pockets and let his eyes wander around the tree house. He hummed a strange tune to himself and sat on the floor in front of Numbuh 1. Numbuh 1 just sat in shock with a small line of drool running down his chin onto his lap. Lizzie came out of the kitchen with a frightened look on her face and saw Hammie sitting on the floor.
"There's another!!" she cried. "Nigel, there's this strange girl here that claims she's your future daughter! Is that insane or what? Please tell me she's just a cadet."
Numbuh 1 woke up from the hypnosis and watched Melanie walk out of the kitchen. His jaw dropped. Melanie had brown hair with a red hat on top of it. Her earrings looked strangely familiar. She wore a red shirt and gray shorts along with white shoes. Her skin was a honey-type color, not black and not white, but a tan mix. He stared at her for the longest time. She looked so much like him! The nose and ears were the same, and he could see some resemblance in the mouth. Not only that, but she was wearing hand-me-downs of his clothes! He thought that outfit looked familiar.
"You're mine," he mumbled. "You are...my...daughter?"
"If you're Nigel Uno, then I am," Melanie replied. "Melanie Uno at your service. As soon as Craig and Faith come back with your friends, we'll start to explain everything. Where are they, Hammie?"
"I hear some footsteps down that hallway," Hammie replied, pointing to a door. "I'm pretty sure that's the rest of the team."
Sure enough, the rest of the team walked into the room. Two kids were herding them. Numbuh 1 and Lizzie assumed they were Craig and Faith. Who else? The boy was in a black sweatshirt and orange pants with white sneakers. His hair was brown, and his skin seemed to be a type of ivory color. The girl was in a green spaghetti-strap top with blue shorts and brown boots. Her black hair was back in a ponytail, and her skin was rough with a beach tan.
"Okay, sit down in a spot," the girl commanded. "We've got a speech to give. Hurry it up already! What? You've never seen a girl from the future before?"
"Uh, no!" Number 3 snapped, sitting on the floor. "This is getting creepy."
"Yeah!" Numbuh 4 agreed. "You can't just go sneaking into someone's tree house. What's with these cruddy announcements, too? There's no way your last name could be Beatles. It's mine!"
"And you can't be from the same Japanese family as me," Numbuh 3 added, sitting on the couch. "Do your parents have any idea where you are right now?"
"Uh, they know," the boy said, "because they're here."
"WHAT??" Number 1 exploded. "There are adults in our base??"
"Well, no," the boy replied. "Let's try this: Hi there! My name's Craig Beatles and I'm from the future. This is my sister Faith." He pointed to the girl. "We traveled here in a time machine with Melanie and Hammie to stop our horrible future from happening. You guys are the only ones that can save us!"
"Hey, Stupid," Faith interrupted, "maybe we should let Hammie explain. After all, he's the one that got us here. He also is the oldest. Don't you think it would only be right?"
"I guess."
"The floor is yours, Hammie."
Hammie walked out in front and made sure everyone was listening. He watched many of the team members shuffle in their seats from the uneasiness of kids from the future. He saw the last of the teenagers settle down. When all were prepped and ready for the speech, he let out a long sigh and began, "Okay, let me start over. Hi, my name is Hoagie P. Gilligan the Third. You can call me Hammie. This here is Melanie Uno. Over there are Craig and Faith Beatles. As you could guess, the four of us are from the future. I built a time machine so we could go to the past and retrieve you. You Kids Next Door and Teens Next Door are the only ones that can help us with where our future is going. I'm just telling you now, the future is miserable." He took a breath and stuttered on the exhale. He turned away and said, "Melanie, could you please continue?"
"No problem," Melanie replied. She rubbed Hammie's back for a minute and turned to the anxious kids and teens. "Something has gone wrong in the timeline. We're not sure what, but something sure is disturbing the present and affecting the future. The four of us have lost out parents because of the rulers. Yes, the KND members are our parents. I am the daughter of Nigel Uno and Abigail Lincoln. They were the first two killed by the leaders. Hammie is the son of Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr. and Elizabeth Devine. Those two were the next victims of our leaders. These leaders now rule the world. Half of the earth's population is gone now because of these killing machines."
"Faith and I are the daughter and son of Wallabee Beatles and Kuki Sanban," Craig continued. "Our parents were killed next. The only reason we're still alive is because we've managed to build an underground safe house. That is the only place where children like us can hide. There, we managed to do research on our family trees and on time travel. Before Hammie's father died, he helped us with designs. There's no way anyone can travel across time in the present, but the technology is very advanced in the future. This time machine was just a prototype, but it was our only option when it came to how desperate we were for help."
"So, to put this in other words for you simpletons out there," Faith finished, "we traveled back in time to get the past forms of our parents to save the future. What do you say?"
"What about the Teens Next Door?" Number 2 asked. "What happened to our future selves? Didn't we try to help?"
"Your status in the future is unknown. We made a pretty good guess though. Based on our research and what our parents told us of the TND, we found that they were sucked into a dark infinite void. Someone or something you know and love is infected at the moment with an evil curse."
"So that means we're gone before we're able to help you?" Number 5 questioned. Faith nodded. Number 5 shuffled in his chair and cast a nervous glance towards the rest of the teams. Numbuh 1 shook his head.
"This is stupid!" he cried. "You seriously expect us to believe that crazy story? It was cute for the first few minutes, but you're just doing it for attention!"
"What if they're telling the truth?" Numbuh 3 challenged. "For all we know, these could really be little kids from the future that need our help. Besides, Craig and Faith look a lot like me!"
"And weren't you thinking that Melanie looks like you?" Lizzie reminded him. "I know that Hammie doesn't look a lot like me or Hoagie, but I trust him."
"And who else would know how to build a time machine?" Number 4 chimed in. "Numbuh 2 is the only one with that type of knowledge of 2X4 Technology to do something like that. Well, I suppose Tommy could..."
"Uncle Tommy helped me as well!" Hammie interrupted, standing up straight from his slouched position. "Unfortunately, he died as well not long after my mom and dad fell victim to our leaders."
"We lost Aunt Mushi, too!" Craig announced. "She would always baby-sit us whenever Mom and Dad went out. She didn't go down without a fight and tried to rebel against the rulers. They ended up hanging her. We had to watch."
"You must be traumatized!" Number 1 shrieked. "That's horrible to have to watch a precious member of your family die!"
"It was bad. Faith and I didn't sleep for days."
A strange silence wrapped around the room. The teams and kids focused on Melanie. She had not said anything in a while. She bit her lip so hard that it bled a little at the side. He eyes had a look of sadness in them.
"What about you?" Numbuh 5 asked. Melanie perked up. "If you're Numbuh 5's future daughter, did you lose your Aunt Cree to your all-powerful leaders? Is she still alive and just being evil?"
"Oh, Aunt Cree is dead alright," Melanie replied. "She was one of the first to go."
"What happened to the rest of the Kids Next Door?"
"The rulers found their way into Moon Base and destroyed the organization from the inside out. We're still trying to figure out how it happened."
Numbuh 1 hesitated for a moment and said, "Who are these leaders you speak of?"
"Father and Mother," Melanie said, "along with their children and teenagers."
"The Delightfuls?"
"Yeah..."
"THEY killed everyone??"
"Yes! Weren't you paying attention?"
Numbuh 1 stopped short and let out a long sigh. He narrowed his eyes underneath his sunglasses and turned to his counterpart. "Are you ready?"
"For this mission?" Number 1 finished. Numbuh 1 nodded.
"Call battle stations for the TND. We're going to the future!"
End of Chapter 2
Sorry! I forgot to tell you all what TIME WARP stood for!
Now loading, Kids Next Door Mission, Operation: TIME WARP
Taking In Minor Enemies Who Are Really Personable
Here's a review on all the other TND operatives we've met other than the 1 through 5 team. If you need a review on them, see Operation: SHARE.
Number 6 (Scott Hexagon): A ladies' man jock; captain of the town lacrosse and soccer team; leader of the 6 through 10 team; told Moon Base specifically that he wanted a team made up of just girls.
Number 7 (Alison Continent): A gothic girl; likes to shop at punk stores; likes candy; obsessive over shiny objects and is scared by normal people.
Number 8 (Melissa VanBuren): An optimistic ex-cheerleader that is now a tennis expert; head of all sports events taking place within the TND; loves to put pink and green together.
Number 9 (Collette Nove): One of the smartest operatives within the TND; gives very good advice, has a lot of common sense; gets discounts at the town deli.
Number 10 (Sara Decade): An anime freak; loves the 80s type of style in clothes and music; knows basic phrases in Japanese; an artist; draws manga for fun.
Number 274 (Samantha Greatest): Head of Teens Next Door Moon Base; greatest TND operative ever; Number 1's rival ever since she sold more Girl Scout cookies when they were little.
Number 86 (Alexandra Offteam): Head of TND Decommissioning; exact opposite of her KND counterpart; probably one of the smartest operatives along with Numbers 1, 9, and 274.
Number 30C: Mentioned in Operation: MAXIMUM; created a prototype for TND Moon Base, no one knows his/her real name; mystery operative.
Chapter 2
Numbuh 1 sat in the armchair of the hang out room with a petrified look on his face and an uneven heartbeat. He grasped the arms with his sweaty palms and felt heat rising to his head. Standing in front of him was a child that claimed to be Hoagie P. Gilligan the Third. Too many things raced in his mind at that moment. He started considering what could be happening to him. He could be cursed. That was one. Strange things were always happening to him. He could be going insane, and this boy could just be an illusion. He thought about screaming or even just calling for help. The child could be a trap set by an enemy to lure him to his death. Whatever the reason, he was scared. He felt his heart skip many beats and his brain start to fade from all the sparks going off at once.
Carefully, he reached his arm out and gently touched the hair of the boy. The child was real alright. Numbuh 1 felt the strands pass through his fingers with ease. He slowly brought his arm back to himself and said:
"How do I know I can trust you?" He wasn't expecting his voice to be so squeaky and to crack at the end of the simple sentence. He made a fist and placed it in front of his mouth to keep himself from shrieking at the strange fantasy taking place right in front of his eyes.
"I know I don't look like him," Hammie began, "but I am definitely the son of the one you know as Numbuh 2. I am also the son of Lizzie. I believe she's your girlfriend at the moment, correct?"
Numbuh 1 did not answer. Instead, he tried to observe the boy the best he could. He was right when he said he did not look a thing like Numbuh 2. He could see some sort of resemblance between him and Lizzie, but there was nothing that popped out at him right away. Hammie was wearing nothing but black. He had a think black sweater and black baggy pants covering his whole body. His boots were thick and heavy with soot and rubber. His skin was almost as pale as Number 1's. His was just that single shade darker, which signaled that he had spent a little bit of time out in the world unlike the TND leader. Hammie's hair was an ocean blue type of color. It was the type of color that if you put I up against its partner color, you'd say it was the other color. Silver lined his part and scalp. Several drips of the metallic color came down upon his tips. Most of his hair was pushed off to one side. Half of his right eye was hidden while the left was revealed to watch the world. The eye seemed to follow him all over the place. Numbuh 1 feared that this situation would turn into a repetition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. He backed away further into the chair to keep himself from losing it.
"Do you have anything to say?" Hammie continued. "Is something wrong with you? I can go get Craig or Faith if you are sick."
"Wait...there's more of you?" Numbuh 1 gasped. "Exactly how many are in the tree house?"
"There should be four," Hammie replied. "Let's see, Craig and Faith should be searching out the rest of the two teams right now. Melanie might be tracking down the past form of my mother, and I'm right here in front of you. Yeah, that's four."
"You can't just go and intrude into a base like this!" Numbuh 1 scolded. "How come the Teens Next Door Security System didn't pick up any life forms like you? We should have heard sirens wailing and everything."
"First off, we're kids," Hammie reminded him, waving his hand up and down. "Second of all, we didn't touch the outside property. And you have to remember, as gross and strange it sounds, we came from KND operatives. Okay, that didn't sound right. Anyway, we're a part of you and your team. That's another reason why we weren't caught. We got a good cover, huh?"
"What about those other three?"
"Uh, Melanie's yours...Craig and Faith are Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4's. I'm sure they've found the rest of your team by now."
"Hold on! One of them is mine?"
"Yup."
"Well, who's the mother?"
"I'll let you figure it out."
Hammie slid his hands into his pants pockets and let his eyes wander around the tree house. He hummed a strange tune to himself and sat on the floor in front of Numbuh 1. Numbuh 1 just sat in shock with a small line of drool running down his chin onto his lap. Lizzie came out of the kitchen with a frightened look on her face and saw Hammie sitting on the floor.
"There's another!!" she cried. "Nigel, there's this strange girl here that claims she's your future daughter! Is that insane or what? Please tell me she's just a cadet."
Numbuh 1 woke up from the hypnosis and watched Melanie walk out of the kitchen. His jaw dropped. Melanie had brown hair with a red hat on top of it. Her earrings looked strangely familiar. She wore a red shirt and gray shorts along with white shoes. Her skin was a honey-type color, not black and not white, but a tan mix. He stared at her for the longest time. She looked so much like him! The nose and ears were the same, and he could see some resemblance in the mouth. Not only that, but she was wearing hand-me-downs of his clothes! He thought that outfit looked familiar.
"You're mine," he mumbled. "You are...my...daughter?"
"If you're Nigel Uno, then I am," Melanie replied. "Melanie Uno at your service. As soon as Craig and Faith come back with your friends, we'll start to explain everything. Where are they, Hammie?"
"I hear some footsteps down that hallway," Hammie replied, pointing to a door. "I'm pretty sure that's the rest of the team."
Sure enough, the rest of the team walked into the room. Two kids were herding them. Numbuh 1 and Lizzie assumed they were Craig and Faith. Who else? The boy was in a black sweatshirt and orange pants with white sneakers. His hair was brown, and his skin seemed to be a type of ivory color. The girl was in a green spaghetti-strap top with blue shorts and brown boots. Her black hair was back in a ponytail, and her skin was rough with a beach tan.
"Okay, sit down in a spot," the girl commanded. "We've got a speech to give. Hurry it up already! What? You've never seen a girl from the future before?"
"Uh, no!" Number 3 snapped, sitting on the floor. "This is getting creepy."
"Yeah!" Numbuh 4 agreed. "You can't just go sneaking into someone's tree house. What's with these cruddy announcements, too? There's no way your last name could be Beatles. It's mine!"
"And you can't be from the same Japanese family as me," Numbuh 3 added, sitting on the couch. "Do your parents have any idea where you are right now?"
"Uh, they know," the boy said, "because they're here."
"WHAT??" Number 1 exploded. "There are adults in our base??"
"Well, no," the boy replied. "Let's try this: Hi there! My name's Craig Beatles and I'm from the future. This is my sister Faith." He pointed to the girl. "We traveled here in a time machine with Melanie and Hammie to stop our horrible future from happening. You guys are the only ones that can save us!"
"Hey, Stupid," Faith interrupted, "maybe we should let Hammie explain. After all, he's the one that got us here. He also is the oldest. Don't you think it would only be right?"
"I guess."
"The floor is yours, Hammie."
Hammie walked out in front and made sure everyone was listening. He watched many of the team members shuffle in their seats from the uneasiness of kids from the future. He saw the last of the teenagers settle down. When all were prepped and ready for the speech, he let out a long sigh and began, "Okay, let me start over. Hi, my name is Hoagie P. Gilligan the Third. You can call me Hammie. This here is Melanie Uno. Over there are Craig and Faith Beatles. As you could guess, the four of us are from the future. I built a time machine so we could go to the past and retrieve you. You Kids Next Door and Teens Next Door are the only ones that can help us with where our future is going. I'm just telling you now, the future is miserable." He took a breath and stuttered on the exhale. He turned away and said, "Melanie, could you please continue?"
"No problem," Melanie replied. She rubbed Hammie's back for a minute and turned to the anxious kids and teens. "Something has gone wrong in the timeline. We're not sure what, but something sure is disturbing the present and affecting the future. The four of us have lost out parents because of the rulers. Yes, the KND members are our parents. I am the daughter of Nigel Uno and Abigail Lincoln. They were the first two killed by the leaders. Hammie is the son of Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr. and Elizabeth Devine. Those two were the next victims of our leaders. These leaders now rule the world. Half of the earth's population is gone now because of these killing machines."
"Faith and I are the daughter and son of Wallabee Beatles and Kuki Sanban," Craig continued. "Our parents were killed next. The only reason we're still alive is because we've managed to build an underground safe house. That is the only place where children like us can hide. There, we managed to do research on our family trees and on time travel. Before Hammie's father died, he helped us with designs. There's no way anyone can travel across time in the present, but the technology is very advanced in the future. This time machine was just a prototype, but it was our only option when it came to how desperate we were for help."
"So, to put this in other words for you simpletons out there," Faith finished, "we traveled back in time to get the past forms of our parents to save the future. What do you say?"
"What about the Teens Next Door?" Number 2 asked. "What happened to our future selves? Didn't we try to help?"
"Your status in the future is unknown. We made a pretty good guess though. Based on our research and what our parents told us of the TND, we found that they were sucked into a dark infinite void. Someone or something you know and love is infected at the moment with an evil curse."
"So that means we're gone before we're able to help you?" Number 5 questioned. Faith nodded. Number 5 shuffled in his chair and cast a nervous glance towards the rest of the teams. Numbuh 1 shook his head.
"This is stupid!" he cried. "You seriously expect us to believe that crazy story? It was cute for the first few minutes, but you're just doing it for attention!"
"What if they're telling the truth?" Numbuh 3 challenged. "For all we know, these could really be little kids from the future that need our help. Besides, Craig and Faith look a lot like me!"
"And weren't you thinking that Melanie looks like you?" Lizzie reminded him. "I know that Hammie doesn't look a lot like me or Hoagie, but I trust him."
"And who else would know how to build a time machine?" Number 4 chimed in. "Numbuh 2 is the only one with that type of knowledge of 2X4 Technology to do something like that. Well, I suppose Tommy could..."
"Uncle Tommy helped me as well!" Hammie interrupted, standing up straight from his slouched position. "Unfortunately, he died as well not long after my mom and dad fell victim to our leaders."
"We lost Aunt Mushi, too!" Craig announced. "She would always baby-sit us whenever Mom and Dad went out. She didn't go down without a fight and tried to rebel against the rulers. They ended up hanging her. We had to watch."
"You must be traumatized!" Number 1 shrieked. "That's horrible to have to watch a precious member of your family die!"
"It was bad. Faith and I didn't sleep for days."
A strange silence wrapped around the room. The teams and kids focused on Melanie. She had not said anything in a while. She bit her lip so hard that it bled a little at the side. He eyes had a look of sadness in them.
"What about you?" Numbuh 5 asked. Melanie perked up. "If you're Numbuh 5's future daughter, did you lose your Aunt Cree to your all-powerful leaders? Is she still alive and just being evil?"
"Oh, Aunt Cree is dead alright," Melanie replied. "She was one of the first to go."
"What happened to the rest of the Kids Next Door?"
"The rulers found their way into Moon Base and destroyed the organization from the inside out. We're still trying to figure out how it happened."
Numbuh 1 hesitated for a moment and said, "Who are these leaders you speak of?"
"Father and Mother," Melanie said, "along with their children and teenagers."
"The Delightfuls?"
"Yeah..."
"THEY killed everyone??"
"Yes! Weren't you paying attention?"
Numbuh 1 stopped short and let out a long sigh. He narrowed his eyes underneath his sunglasses and turned to his counterpart. "Are you ready?"
"For this mission?" Number 1 finished. Numbuh 1 nodded.
"Call battle stations for the TND. We're going to the future!"
End of Chapter 2