Kids Next Door

Operation: A.P.P.R.E.N.T.I.C.E.

Chapter 9

"Of all the…" Mr. Boss clenched his fist and his teeth, it was beyond frustrating this time. Glancing at who he believed to be the most incompetent members of either side of the struggle, he decided that the only solution to this situation would be for him to just walk away. Keeping Numbah 13 was pretty useless, sure the KND cared about all their members, but his intelligence reports led him to believe that his own group didn't like him too much. And he walked away, leaving a very confused estranged father and son behind.

"Uh, Tolienato- dad?" Numbah Thirteen said, breaking the silence. He wasn't very sure of what he wanted to, or even should, call the Villain anymore.

"Tolienator…" the man in the yellow body-suit muttered, correcting his son who he recently discovered he had.

"Well, Tolienator, now what?" Numbah Thirteen asked quietly, he had been tied to a chair, was in a subsection of a satellite office of Mr. Boss. He had been kidnapped before, but generally the other side was more organized. It was the first time he saw Mr. Boss lose his cool in front of an operative.

The Tolienator was at a loss for words, normally Mr. Boss was much more reasonable. He didn't particularly want to baby-sit his son all day leaving things a mess with his employer, Mr. Boss. "Isn't your mom expecting you home soon or something?"

"Probably," figured Numbah Thirteen. Probably not for a couple hours. He didn't want to pass up an opportunity to not need to be rescued though.

"Alright then," the Tolienator started to untie his son, he had joined a "deadbeat dads" forum that he looked during work, he heard horror stories about ex-wives getting the non-custodial father thrown in jail for kidnapping, if the guy even so much as took their child across state lines for an ice-cream cone.

"Numbah Thirteen!" A voice cried as Tolienator finished untying the boy.

"Guys! You came to save me!" Numbah Thirteen was always happy when KND actually came to rescue him, it never ceased to amaze him that they were willing to expend the manpower on his behalf.

The KND operatives all just stared at Thirteen, their looks ranged from skepticism to anger.

"I, uh," realizing what an awkward position he was in, being released by the Tolienator, after calling to be rescued, "I struck a bargain with them, and they're just letting me go!"

The Tolienator crept off while the focus was off of him. He didn't even believe the kid's lie though.

"We should go," Numbah One said somberly- he wasn't happy about all this. "We should go to the Moonbase, come on thirteen."

……………………..

"What!" Eighty-six's shrill voice rang through the hallway. "Thirteen! Is. That. True!"

"Yeah, I figured, ya know, maybe I should help myself this time," Numbah Thirteen said- scratching his head, staring at the ceiling. He could tell he was in trouble; that much was obvious, Eighty-six was mad, but she was always mad, normally though his fellow operatives were quite and attentive. "Why?"

"You had nothing to bargain with." Numbah Eighty-six stated. "You do not have any amount of money that could buy off anyone who works for Mr. Boss, you had no useful gadgets or trinkets that your guard, Tolienator, would be interested in. Your services are generally sub par, in short you had nothing to offer… except… information… information that could lead to Kids Next Door being compromised. I move for a vote."

Finally, what was going to happen dawned on Numbah Thirteen. They were going to decommission him. That was not good. Of all the people in his life, the Kids Next Door, they had been there for him; they rescued him when he got captured. That was more than Thirteen could say about most of the people in his life.

"A secret vote, one vote per person, Thirteen, as you are on trial, you cannot vote, please leave the room."

Numbah Thirteen sighed, he left the room, he sat in the hallway outside the closed door, just waiting for the decommissioning to commence. He always figured that this day might happen; he knew that he was a goof-up; he always knew it was just a matter of time. Despite knowing it would happen, it didn't make it any less of a shock. He felt emotionally numb.

…………………….

"I'm sorry," Numbah Three said, in a voice that struck Numbah Thirteen as sickeningly cutesy and shrill. "Maybe we can be friends anyway?"

Numbah Thirteen didn't respond to the girl in green. It wasn't that he didn't like Numbah Three, he didn't really know her that well, she couldn't help him, couldn't or didn't want to, either way, it was pointless.

Numbah Eighty-six started talking, she sounded all official and professional. Numbah Thirteen didn't really listen; he knew what was going to happen. The decommissioning process basically not only took the former operative out of the system, but took everything about Kids Next Door out of their memory. Part of him couldn't wait to forget this mess.

He was escorted to a special chair, he was restrained. They had to do that since he wasn't voluntarily being decommissioned. Numbah Eighty-Six had done this many times; she could do it in her sleep. Most decommissionings were involuntary, Eighty-Six hated that. She almost liked it better when they tried to fight it, Numbah Thirteen, er former-Numbah Thirteen, he looked resigned, but not happy.

The helmet was placed on Numbah Thirteen's head. They had to remove the pot Thirteen wore on his head. The helmet was steel; it felt cold and hard against his head. He thought of the Kids Next Door tree house his team belonged to, he remembered where he liked to sit. It started to get foggy. He wasn't sure where he was thinking of. He couldn't remember it was weird; normally his memory was pretty good. This wasn't right, he felt weird, and cold. He remembered the first time he was rescued by his fellow operatives, how relieved and safe he felt. He remembered their smiling faces, how proud they felt for defeating the bad guys and rescuing a teammate. The faces lost their form as he tried to remember the events. Numbah Fourteen's face morphed into that of a puppy. He remembered the time when he found a stray puppy, it was cold and sick, and he brought it home and nursed it back to health, only to have his mom take it to the shelter. He remembered when he was accepted to the Kids Next Door, it was the day after that, and he remembered how they enter kids into the system, by using one of their boogers. He remembered picking his nose, but then forgot why he had done it, what was so special about that day. He wasn't sure where he currently was anyway. It was all blurry, the room was spinning.

Numbah Thirteen, now just Luke, fell asleep. He was returned home. Sometime in the middle of the night, he woke up. He reached over for his glasses, he always put them on his night stand. They weren't there, that was odd, he opened his eyes, realized that he was wearing his glasses, he saw the ceiling. It looked odd though, even as his eyes focused.

"An unfamiliar ceiling," Luke reflected almost silently.