Operation: WITNESS

Wandering
Innocent pre-
Teens
Never
Even
Shared
Seeking friendship

By ahhelga

Chapter 1: Who Am I?

Author's Note: Oh wow, thanks for so many reviews! I was so inspired by Operation: RAPED (Actually, it just helped me push a little more to write the fic) and Abandoned. Oh yeah, also, the movie Charlie's Angels Two. Just so you know, I'll be calling Kuki 'Keiko' now. So remember that, Keiko. Keiko! I know it's a little confusing confusing, but live with it. It'd get even more confusing if I called her Kuki, and they all call her Keiko. It's her new identity, so it's better if you known her as Keiko. So, well, that's all I have to say! Oh, this one might really suck. So I warn you...

Rated for: violence, cussing, and kissing scenes.

Disclaimer: KND owns me! But I don't own KND!

The KND had searched everywhere--sectors around the world looked. All for her. They didn't replace her, even after a year of no sign. Only because Wally got mad at Moon Base for suggesting it. She would've been touched if she was there.

But she wasn't.

Wally had awoken. He grumpily got up, thinking of Kuki as he did every morning. He didn't know what happened after she disappeared. But all he knew was that he loved her (in a friend way!) and had to get her back. Carefully, he put on his orange hoodie which he still had, it wasn't as if he grew much to grow out of it. The messy blonde hair on top of his head flew all over the place right now.

He slowly limped all the way down the stairs, to the kitchen for some grub. There, he saw Nigel and Abby, arguing. As usual. They had all changed. He couldn't deny it. All because Kuki left. He couldn't bear to think about her again. Thinking about it was too much already.

Nigel now was extremely bossy and constantly fighting with people but mostly Abby. Abby became even more silent, to him or anyone else. She hardly talked except when she was on a mission and when she was arguing with Nigel. But then again, they fought so much that you could've called her the "Shouting One." At least, by Nigel's standards.

She rolled her eyes to Nigel's recent remark about a new "mail" incident. Recently she had been ordering her "girl" magazines through the mail, but he had said that anyone can find their "secret tree house" and no one would want that to happen. He was arguing that Moon Base should be involved with this.

Wally sighed. Obviously, they didn't know he was in there, getting toast. Suddenly, he heard someone else's voice. Oh, right, Hoagie.

Hoagie was always talking to himself nowadays. He kept blabbing on and on about his "new" invention. Lately, everything he worked on had broken down, but this "new" invention was the talk of the century. That was what he claimed, after all. But, that was all he talked about. He kept saying that he'll show it when the time was right but that made the rest of the team more curious.

Hoagie murmured to himself as he got his cereal ready."Obviously the new storage container of the pellets will dispel accidental discharge. Yeah, exactly."

"Numbuh 2, you should really watch out," Wally pointed out as he observed Hoagie pouring too much milk, which was starting to overflow.

"Oh! Numbuh 4!" Hoagie said, startled, then he looked down. "Thanks for letting me know, Numbuh 4."

Nigel then turned to them, "Numbuh 4, Numbuh 2? When did you two come in?"

"Couple 'o minutes ago," Wally answered. He grabbed his toast. "'Ey, I'll be in me room, 'kay?"

"Okay, Numbuh 4, just be on your toes. You could never know when Bubble Basher will strike next," Nigel said stiffly; it almost felt like Nigel was trying to force himself to become his old self again.

"Oh, like, BB will strike at 7:30 AM!" Abby striked at him. "Come on, Numbuh 1, you know better than t'at!"

Wally rolled his eyes. Another fight. And over something stupid, again. His eyes reached Hoagie, who was staring right at him agape.

"What? Do I have somethin' on me chin?" Wally asked Hoagie. He shook his head in response.

"You gave me an idea, Numbuh 4!" Hoagie said as he ran out of the room. Wally had absolutely no idea what could have triggered that.

Wally headed back upstairs. There was nothing special; it was all the same banal scenery these days. Not like it used to be with Kuki around.

Keiko waited and waited. Her home-schooling teacher had just left. For all he cared as long as he was paid; he didn't care if she was home alone.

In the Witness Protection Program, they had to give her a 'make-over' so that she couldn't be recognized. She had gotten rid of her old green sweater, and replaced it with a yellow one that fit her better than the green one. Really, she looked the same, other than the yellow, in terms of what she normally would wear. Keiko's hair was the one to throw someone off, though. It was cut right under the ears, but she kept her long bangs, that it now almost covered her eyes.

She sighed. Everyday she thought of friends. There was no one to be with anymore, not like before. She just wanted a friend, that's all.

Keiko's mom, now Kaoru, had just left to go shopping with their adult neighbor, Alana, Keiko's only non-family friend. Alana wanted Keiko to come, but Kaoru said that her teacher would just get angry.

She headed downstairs to channel surf. After about ten minutes of channel surfing, she reached the news.

"Breaking news! Two middle-aged women and a small child injured in a car accident," said the news reporter. "It caused a small explosion at the intersection of Clover and Moorpark..."

"Wow, that's close by!" Keiko said to herself. She was going to change the channel when they mentioned the names.

"Investigators found that they are Alana Johnson, Kirikou and Kaoru Lee," she continued. "A separate daughter of Kaoru is getting called into question. Our police know that…" And Keiko didn't want to hear anymore from there. The sound of the television just died away in her ears.

By instinct, Keiko grabbed her backpack and stuffed it with essentials. She then jumped up and rushed over to the closet, revealing a bank. This was the moment of truth; this is where she paused to think.

She had no one and no where to go. But she knew the Witness Protection Program officials were going to come any minute and take her away. What were they, nuts? She didn't want to leave again! That split second decision was now thought out, and she knew what she wanted to do.

She opened the small bank at the corner of the room with the combination and grabbed the money inside, shoving it into her backpack's pockets. Leaving the bank open, she hurried out of the house. On the street, she ran and ran, with her backpack on her back and a frantic look on her face. Running to the bus station, she panted as hard as she can. Luckily, her mother had showed her and her sister where it was, in case of an emergency. This was an extreme one. She had to go away, run; it was her only hope of being free. No, it wasn't. He still had his "co-workers" to come and get her. Anytime they want, they could grab her, so she had to keep low.

She asked to buy a ticket to the farthest the bus went at the desk, not knowing where the farthest destination was actually. The man at the desk looked at her weirdly and quickly assumed she was a runaway, which was the case, really. He didn't say anything to her; he met a lot of runaways and knew where they came from. He directed Keiko to the bus, and she thanked him. Carefully, she boarded the bus, looking side to side, searching for anyone suspicious. It seemed there wasn't much to see. There were only five other people on the bus. A couple making out, two elderly ladies talking to the driver about the safety measures, and a teenage boy in the back, listening to his CD player.

She sat in one of the seats in back of the couple and in front of the teen. She stared out of the window. She was conscious about the fact that this was the third drastic change in her life, after becoming a KND member and going into Witness Protection Program. Everything was going too fast for her. Becoming Keiko, moving into a new town, a year later, her loved ones die, and now, she's in a bus, on her way to nowhere. This was all too much for her. Excessive tears started to come out. There wasn't anything else to do, anyway.

She just wanted to scream.

Life would have been different if he never became one of them.

She looked out of the window. The bus started to move, and Keiko took it as her cue to drift. She drifted off into a deep sleep and found herself dreaming.

"No! Let me go!" Keiko screamed; someone was holding her back. She just wanted to get to her friends.

"You're supposed to stay here!" Nigel yelled.

"Keiko!" Hoagie said. "No!"

"Don't go, Keiko!" said Abby. "We need you!"

"Get away from 'er you freak!" yelled Wally. "No! Keiko! Dun't leave me! No! Not again! I can't experience this uhgain!"

She had to give in, and she stopped struggling.

"Numbuh 4, I am sorry I lied, it is time for me to go," Keiko whispered, letting herself be dragged away. "Good bye guys."

"No!" Wally screamed. The rest of the KND signaled for Hippy-Hop. The large bunny charged. But it missed through the heavy fog.

The man who was holding her back dragged her away, while she cried. But out of nowhere, someone lunged at the man. Before Keiko got to see them, she woke up.

There were different people around her now. The clock at the front of the bus read 11:30 PM. She had been asleep for a very long time! And plus, it was the middle of the night.

"Here are you guys' stop..." the bus driver called out.

Keiko stood up. Just in time. It was her time to leave, everybody else's too. She picked up her backpack and slowly got off the bus, wondering where exactly she did end up. She blinked once she was up on the street.

Strangely enough, this place looked familiar. Though it still wasn't clear as to where she was.. It was possible that she had just come here on vacation. Keiko shrugged it off. So she walked on. After a good amount of time, Keiko had reached a park, a place of refuge she knew. A nice nap will get her energized for tomorrow.

Walking to the nearest bench, she saw a dark figure. Out came a man who looked like he was wrapped in red elastic plastic. His whole head was inside of a balloon and there was a bag of, what looked like, deflated balloons.

"'Ay-lo, there," he said, looking straight at her.

"Oh, go suck a dick," she replied as she headed for the bench. She was in no mood at all.

"Oh, a little potty mouth is we?" said he, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously. "Way'll, I could fix that."

"Take you and your fake accent somewhere else," Keiko started blandly. "Or you'll have to suffer the consequences."

"Fake! I'll have you know that I—" the man yelled. "Well, getting carried away are we? I believe it will be you who suffers the consequences."

Keiko laughed out loud. She then said, "Oh, please, you can't make me!"

"Oh, yes I can!" said the man; obviously he really was faking the accent. She was too busy dissecting his fake accent to notice what he started to do.

He threw one of the deflated balloons at her. Immediately, one started to entrap her. Once she realized what was happening, she attempted to kick at it. And punch it. And scratch it. Nothing worked. It wasn't long before she became unconscious. It seemed there was something in the aroma of the balloon that made her faint like that (maybe it was all that helium?). Her face grew numb, and her feet tingled. But luckily, she wasn't really defenseless, for four kids were there, ready to save her! Oh how she was grateful! Or at least, she would have been if she was awake.

"Bubble Basher, we've had enough of your foolishness!" said the first boy.

"Yeah!" the girl next to him said.

"Stop hurting children, Bubble Basher!" the other, chubbier one said.

"Or we'll kick your butt!" said the fourth boy. "Isn't that right, Numbuh 1?"

The boy, known as Numbuh 1, or Nigel, nodded towards the shorter one. "Ready Kids Next Door? Battle stations!" Nigel said.

They charged at him. All of a sudden, it was here and there, hitting him front and back, with their 2x4 technology. Though they didn't know that he secretly wanted them to. So at once, BB threw his balloons. But it didn't trap them like it did with Keiko. It blocked off contact from him and to him, almost like a barrier.

Keiko's balloon eventually popped by a key chain on her backpack. Instantly, since the aroma wore away, she woke up to BB talking to the four. Ignoring the other kids, she instantly got to her feet and, without anyone knowing until it happened, charged at the man in elastic and pinned him against a tree he stood by. Her nose was to his nose, her index finger at his chest, ready to attack at any time. Even if she was pretty short, he was too, so she still looked intimidating. And he looked definitely frightened.

"Girl's got skill," Wally whispered to Hoagie, who nodded in agreement.

Abby stared at Keiko, knowing that there was something familiar in the Asian girl.

"You never underestimate a girl, bucko!" Keiko spat. "You don't know what they can do at anytime! I am not in the mood today and I don't need anymore crap from you or anyone else!"

"You go girl!" yelled Abby. A tremor shook Keiko slightly, that voice. It brought strange memories.

Keiko kicked him in the private area between his legs and left him there. He was unconcious. He wasn't that strong, she guessed. He was sort of like a new-age Toilenator, or something. Suddenly, the strange aroma returned and she fell on the floor briefly. The barrier had disappeared and Abby ran to Keiko.

"You be alright there?" She asked, as she slightly prodded her.

Keiko awakened and slowly opened her eyes and took a long look at her. It can't be!

Oh! Cliffhanger! You know I love it when people review.

That's me
Ahhelga
AKA Pauline