Kids Next Door

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

Chapter 11

Luke, the boy formerly known as Numbah Thirteen, followed his father, the villain Tolienator, into a tall nondescript corporate- type building. Upon entering, he felt a strange darkest sense of deja vu.

"Now, son, here is where I work," the man in the yellow body suit said. "I work for Mr. Boss and my colleagues."

"That name sounds familiar…" Luke said quietly and then paused. "Where have I heard it before?"

"What're you doing? Playing dumb all of a sudden or something," Tolienator asked, with a raised eyebrow. He was kind of proud of himself for not taking an Operative just at his word this time. This is why he didn't have kids, well why he didn't knowingly choose to have kids, they made no sense.

"I just asked a question, that name, I've heard them before, I can't place them though," the boy replied quietly, unhappy at his father's disapproval.

Tolienator rolled his eyes, figured maybe the kid never heard his co-workers give their names or something, "You've been captured by half of his workers before, I sure hope his name would be familiar to you."

"I don't remember it, my mind's all confused," Luke said stopping just before he reached the elevator, starting to shake. "If I'm awake too long I have these daydreams, with this group of kids, they did something bad to me."

The Tolienator shifted his jaw speechlessly. This wasn't good, the kid wasn't playing dumb. Something must've happened. Mr. Boss would know what, and how to fix it, he always did.

…………………..

Mr. Boss does not like children. He does not tolerate them in his personal life, he does not tolerate his employees children either. For some god-forsaken reason, one of his stupider employees, the Tolienator, decided that there was something wrong with his son and that somehow Mr. Boss would be willing and able to fix it. His brows furrowed.

Mr. Boss was not a very tall man; he was more round than any other sort of shape. He was balding, had a mustache and his eyebrows have decided that it was best to join forces and form a uni-brow.

"Your son, eh? The Kids Next Door Operative Thirteen?" Mr. Boss asked, just to make sure that the Tolienator wasn't bringing in a cat or something else. He'd have fired the simpleton a while ago, if he actually paid him.

The Tolienator nodded. "He's right outside; I can go get him if you want."

Mr. Boss shrugged- he did want to extract information out of the little brat. He figured now was as good of time as any. A smirk appeared when he saw how eager the Tolienator was to turn his son over to him. It left quickly, however.

The Tolienator reappeared, literally almost pushing the boy into Mr. Boss' office. "Here he is chief!"

It took only a few questions for Mr. Boss to figure out what was going on with Luke. He had seen it a couple times before- an associate of his a while back had also experienced the decommissioning process. It was going to be a good day, Mr. Boss decided. The boy, while clumsy and upset, was in a moldable phase, Mr. Boss decided to make himself an apprentice.

First things first, however, it is rarely good to break a child completely down in front of his parent, Mr. Boss told the Tolienator to go and fetch him some coffee, from a coffee shop a few blocks away. He made sure to be extra vague in his directions. When the man in the yellow bodysuit had left, Mr. Boss instructed his secretary to delay the Tolienator upon his return. The secretary made a note of it, and decided for the hundredth time this week that she was very underpaid.

Mr. Boss returned to the room with the boy, and began working his manipulative magic. He took Luke's confusion and fear, and turned it into anger and focused it at the Kids Next Door.

Everything was going exactly according to Mr. Boss' plan. Right up to when Luke suddenly frowned at Mr. Boss, got up and left. Mr. Boss was confused; he merely had suggested to the lad that all children should be shipped to Pluto. Luke had no issue with most of the children on this planet- he merely hated the Kids Next Door operatives, all of them.

Luke grabbed his father on his way out of the building. He had a lot of work to do that day. After a bit of his session with Mr. Boss he determined what he wanted. It was so nice to have a clear goal in mind, he'd never been this focused in his life.

"Uh, so son, how'd it go?" The Tolienator asked while being almost literally dragged to the elevator.

"Fine, we have work to do now though," Luke said in a serious tone. "If we want to get the Kids Next Door taken out before certain operatives graduate, we have to start on some of my plans now."

"What's going on?" asked a very confused Tolienator as he and his son entered the elevator. "We're taking thing Kids Next Door down?"

Luke nodded and elaborated while pushing the button to take them to the ground floor, "I've decided to join you. I will become the Plunger, to help you flush out the Kids Next Door."

"Wow, you and Mr. Boss musta had one heck of a talk!" the Tolienator smiled dopily. "Yeah, Mr. Boss is great, that's why I like working for him."

A ding rang through the air and the elevator door opened. Luke stood trembling but unable to move.

"I, I remembered what they d-did to me," Luke explained after a moment, still trembling. "The K-Kids N-next Door, they s-strapped me in a c-chair and erased my m-memory. T-they were always t-talking a-about me whenever they thought I wasn't there. T-they erased my memory! I trusted them, how could they!"

Tolienator felt confused- his son was clearly upset. "What happened?"

"The K-Kids N-Next Door, they, last week they decided t-to 'decommission' me," Luke started, he was struggling just controlling his breathing, gulping and hoping not to pass out. "T-they erase the m-memory of anyone they d-decommission. I-I was strapped down to a chair, t-then they put this w-weird helmet on my head and I s-started forgetting things. I don't h-how much they took."

The Tolienator was never so aware of the pain another could be in. He decided that he would do whatever it took to help his son get the revenge. The Tolienator put his hands on his son's shoulders, to give him some show of support. "We'll get them back for you, son, I swear."

The Plunger elaborated his plans and goals, when and how; Tolienator soon realized that his son had everything figured out. That his son wasn't his sidekick; instead he was, his son, the former Numbah Thirteen's apprentice.

The End.