Disclaimer:Not mine. The cartoon, I mean.
A/N:Thanks to all reviewers! You guys are the best!
…
The life after
Chapter 4
I knocked on the door softly, patiently waiting for an answer.
"Who is it?" Cree's voice asked from inside the room.
"Err, it's Wally," I replied hesitatingly, knowing that she probably wouldn't want to talk to me or even communicate with me. "Can I talk to you, Cree? Please? We need you to help us a little."
No answer.
I scratched the back of my head as I waited for something to happen. Anything! I leaned the weight of my body onto the left leg.
Suddenly the door opened. Cree looked out at me, her chestnut eyes filled with curiosity. "What do you want, Wally? I don't think there's anything I can do to help you." I motioned for her to let me inside. She opened the door enough for me to walk into her room, then shutting it behind me.
"I need you help us get to the Moon Base," I told her as I turned around to look her in the eyes.
"No!" she shouted quickly. "I'm not taking you up there! I don't work for Father anymore. I quit, and now the Kids Next Door is completely out of my life. I don't need to go back up there, granting it to interfere on my life again!"
"You're the only one I can think of that remembers anything from the Kids Next Door!" I'm completely helpless without you. I can't remember any 2x4 technology what so ever because it wasn't my thing, I don't know any codes or anything to the Moon Base and I really suck at hacking, so that leaves out hacking onto the mainframe. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
"Yes, but I don't think I'm the right person to talk to about this," she said and stared at me.
"Then, who?" I asked, getting rather impatient with her.
"Chad." She said it in such a low voice I wasn't sure I'd heard right. Her eyes were lowered to the carpet-covered floor, narrowed and filled with mixed emotions.
"Chad?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow at her. "But he's a douche!"
"Yeah, and so am I!" she snapped. But she quickly calmed down. "Or at least I used to be." She shook her head as if she was trying to shake off her past as an evil KND villain. "Look, if you want help, you contact Chad. He'll help you."
"Are you sure?" I asked, realizing my voice sounded a bit more doubting than expected.
"He still holds a grudge against the Kids Next Door," she explained. "Which sounds very childish, I know. After all, he's 20 years old now. But it's not like he hacks them and does everything in his power to seal the organization's doom. He leaves them alone most of the time. He doesn't work for Father anymore either. So if anyone can help you, he can."
"Oh, okay," I muttered, thinking hard about what she'd just said. "So, where do I find Chad now? Does he still live with his parents?"
"You'll probably find him in his precious apartment down town," she replied with a bitter sneer, avoiding eye contact.
"Are you upset with him or something?" I asked. "I know it's none of my business, but you kinda got me curious now."
She rolled her eyes and looked at me. "Chad and I lived together in that apartment for about two weeks ago. He was my boyfriend, and he had been for a long time. Everything was going great. Then we got into an argument. I couldn't stand staying there so I moved back home, because I didn't know where else to go."
"Wow, that sucks," I muttered, suddenly feeling stupid for saying that. But I really didn't know what else to say.
An awkward silence followed. I decided to break it. "Can you take me to the apartment so I can talk to Chad?"
Cree lowered her eyes to the floor. "Yeah, but I'm not talking to him." She led the way out of the room. My four friends were standing in the hall, glaring at us as we came out to them.
"Hey, guys," I said. "I'm, uh… going to be gone for a few minutes, but I'll be back as soon as possible, hopefully with the help we need."
Hoagie and Abby nodded. Nigel crossed his arms over his chest.
"Okay, see you later, Wally!" Kuki said and sent me a heartwarming smile. I returned the smile before I made my way down the stairs behind Cree.
"Your car or my car?" I asked as we got out of the house.
"You drive?" she asked surprised.
"It's not really that weird," I muttered and sent her a dry look. "I'm 17."
She nodded. "Well, since I'm the one guiding you, why don't we just take my car?" she replied, starting to walk over to the side of her truck that was parked next to her dad's car in the drive.
I shrugged and followed her, getting in on the other side of it. "Has Chad changed?" I asked as I shut the door.
Cree turned the key and started the truck. "He might have changed in your eyes, but he's still just Chad to me. Except that he's an egotistic bastard for the moment!" She started to drive away from the house. We didn't exchange many words during the trip, something I found rather awkward. I don't like it when silence falls between me and other people like that.
I watched the road, keeping track of where we were going. We finally reached the down town area. Big buildings flew passed my window. And all the sudden Cree pulled up by one of them, parking the car. She got out, and I did the same. She still had the keys to her apartment on her keychain, now turning the key in the door to get into the building. We entered and took the stairs three floors up. With another key, she opened the door to her apartment, sighing as she swung the door open. A messy living room came into view. The curtains were shut, leaving the sun out.
"He's lousy at keeping things clean," she moaned irritated as she tip-toped over a pile of dirty clothes on the floor.
I shrugged. "It doesn't look much different from my room." I went inside and checked the room. It was a combined kitchen and living room. The kitchen counter itself was any housewife's worst nightmare. I let my eyes slide across it, across all the dirty kitchenware.
Cree suddenly disappeared into another room, which I assumed to be the bedroom. Suddenly I could hear her talking to someone. I quickly realized that it was Chad. He sounded tired and irritated. Cree raised her voice. "Oh, don't you tell me to get the hell outta here, this is my place, too!"
"I mean it, Cree!" Chad's voice warned. I could hear how it now sounded older than the last time I'd talked to him, back when he was a KND villain. "We're done talking about this!" He lowered his voice as he said something else that I couldn't quite catch. I heard a few words of their argument, but I thought it was better I didn't pay attention to it. It was, after all, none of my business.
After just standing there, awkwardly, checking every inch of the apartment, Chad finally came out of the bedroom, wearing only a pair of boxers. Cree followed right behind. He stared at me, his mouth dropping open in shock as he recognized my face.
"Morning, Chad," I greeted with a tiny smile and a quick wave of the hand.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Chad yelled and spun around to face Cree. "Are you nuts?" He pointed an accusing finger at her. "I want you to leave right now!"
"Err, I need to talk to you," I said, trying to catch his attention.
"No, you don't, you little brat!" he snarled and walked over to me, clenching his fists as if he got ready to fight. "You're not supposed to remember me! You were decommissioned."
"Yeah, I was," I replied. "But I somehow managed to force my memories back, and now I remember everything as if it never had been missing from my memory at all."
"That's impossible!" he snapped, narrowing his eyes. "You can't force your memory back, you have to be re-commissioned, and just for your information, you never were."
"I've thought about that, too," I replied. "I just haven't figured it out yet. But something must have gone wrong during the decommissioning process. I just don't know what and how. I know that I tried to escape on my 13thed birthday." I lowered my eyes, seeing images from that awful day in my mind. "I guess I was afraid of forgetting about the organization."
Chad exhaled loudly and scratched his long blond hair. His eyes exposed sorrowful thoughts about a forgotten past as a KND operative. "Alright, so what do you want to talk to me about?" he asked.
The three of us sat down on the couch, and I told Chad the whole thing about me getting my memory back and now wanting my friends to get it back as well.
"I-I don't understand," Chad suddenly interrupted. "Why is this all so important to you? Why do you want them to remember? I mean, it's of no use to you."
"Yes, it is," I muttered irritated. "I'm doing this because I feel alone. I feel like I'm the only one who remembers anything at all. But I'm also doing this because I think it's wrong to erase the memories of kids, leaving them no real childhood memories at all. See, I didn't even know if I had a nice childhood before I go my memory back, I just assumed I'd had."
"Right," Chad muttered. "So you want me to go with you up to the Moon Base and re-commission your little buddies, am I right? You need me to hack into the mainframe and change some passwords and stuff."
"Yeah, that's exactly what I need you to do," I said, happy about him understanding my way of thinking.
"And… what do I get out of all of this?" he asked with a strange look on his face. It was as if his eyes said that he wouldn't help me unless I gave him something he wanted in return.
"Well, what do you want?" I asked.
"I figured I'd get paid or something," he answered. "I'm kinda low on cash."
I swallowed hard. "I-I'm not sure if I've got a lot of money to give you. But I'll check with the others. Can I pay you after we've re-commissioned the others?"
He stared at me with two irritated blue eyes. "If you for some screwed-up reason won't pay me, I'll make sure you'll be begging for your life, Wallabee." The words came out really threatening, and he clenched one of his fists to show that he was serious.
"I promise you, you will get your money," I said, "-but I think it'll be easier to get money out of my old team mates after they've been re-commissioned. They don't even know you now, or who you used to be. When they get their memory back they'll be very grateful to you."
Chad nodded thoughtfully. "I guess you're right." Then he looked at me with a wicked smile on his face. "When do we leave?"
…
Chad got dressed before he sat down by his computer to start hacking into the KND mainframe. Meanwhile, Cree and I went back to Abby's so that I could tell everyone about the great news. I was thrilled about having Chad on my side.
"All we need now is a ship to get to the Moon Base," I said thoughtfully. I turned to face Hoagie. "Do you make ships, Hoagie?"
"Well, kinda," he said, raising an eyebrow at me. "I have three ships hidden in an old garage up by the forest. It's very weird, because I can't remember making them. But they are mine, and I've obviously built them once."
"Right, you hid them in the forest before you got decommissioned as you turned 13 years old," I explained, piecing the puzzle together. "You didn't want the decommissioning team take away your ships. It's pretty obvious.
The others just stared at me. Their expressions told me that they didn't understand crud, and they were probably thinking that I was completely nuts. I suddenly remembered how we reacted when we, by accident, got decommissioned when we were 10. It was all because of Chad, he was the one who was supposed to be decommissioned because he'd just turned 13. Numbuh 1 tried to explain everything to us with only a minute on his hands, being the only one who wasn't decommissioned. We thought he was absolutely crazy! Hoagie even asked if he had escaped from the mental house.
"Can we use one of your ships?" I asked Hoagie.
"I guess so," he replied, looking rather confused.
I suddenly came to think about something. I had totally forgotten that we probably would need something to defend us with up at the Moon Base. "Crud! We don't have any weapons! How could I forget about that?"
I suddenly noticed a wicked grin on Hoagie's face. "Weapons, you say?" Now, that's something I do have!"
"You do?" I exclaimed. "Wow, awesome!"
We decided to go take a look at Hoagie's weapons and ships, while Chad was still busy hacking back at his apartment. He said he'd call us when he was done.
"I keep most of my inventions in here," Hoagie said as he led the way towards the garage next to his house.
"Hey, Wally!" A familiar voice called my name from across the street. I turned around, seeing Luke crossing the street quickly. "What are you doing here? Your parents are worried about you, and your dad needs the car."
"He'll have to wait, I'm very busy," I replied.
Luke stared at my four friends over by the garage. "Who are those three others with Kuki over there?" he asked suspiciously.
"Oh, they're my friends, or they used to be, sorta…" I shook my head. "Look, this is way too complicated. I'll tell you about everything later, but I really don't have time right now. It has something to do with my past and those dreams I've been having."
Luke lowered his eyebrows at me. "You… remember your past?"
"Yeah, it all came back to me this morning, it was crazy!" I replied.
Luke sighed irritated and closed his eyes as if he was thinking hard about what to say. "You were not supposed to remember, Wally." He opened his eyes and stared at me with two ice cold gray eyes, watching as my excited expression changed into confusion. "I was here to make sure you never remembered anything!"
"W-what?" I choked out and stepped back. "What are you talking about, Luke?"
"I am hired by the Kids Next Door to keep you from remembering," he explained. "I've been trying my best to keep you from getting you memory back, but those stupid kids messed it up that day they threw that ball at you. I was afraid you'd start remembering as soon as you saw them, but you didn't. They didn't recognize you right away, because if they did they wouldn't have mentioned the Kids Next Door at all. You see, something went wrong that day you got decommissioned. Nobody knows how it happened, but your mind wasn't completely erased. So they made me keep an eye on you by becoming your best friend."
I was just staring at him, not really believing what I was hearing. My chin had practically fallen to the stony ground underneath me. I felt shocked and really hurt. "S-so you were just pretending?" I stuttered. "This whole time, you were just undercover?"
He nodded once. "So it's my job to take you up to the Moon Base to be decommissioned again, and this time nothing can or will go wrong."
"No, you're not!" I shouted. "You're not taking me anywhere, because I'm going up to the Moon Base myself, but not to be decommissioned. I'm going to re-commission my friends." I pointed at them.
"You've already told them?" he asked surprised. "Alright, then we'll have to decommission them again as well."
"Now is a good time to bring out those weapons!" I yelled at Hoagie, who was just standing by the open garage, staring at Luke and me. He quickly reacted and grabbed some weapons from a shelf on the wall inside the garage. He came back and handed the three others each their own weapon.
"Are you really sure you want to do this the hard way, Wally?" Luke asked me. He pulled out a weapon of his own and pointed it at me.
"Hey, don't even think about hurting him!" Kuki shouted at Luke. She quickly walked over to us and handed me a weapon, as she was aiming hers at him.
"Listen, Kuki," Luke started. "Wally here is completely nuts. He probably told you something about a forgotten past and everything. Truth is, Wally is actually mentally ill and needs to be taken back to the mental house."
"Very funny!" she sneered sarcastically. "Like I'd fall for that! I know that Wally is right, he told us everything."
"Damn it!" Luke muttered. "And Numbuh 877 told me you were completely stupid and easy to trick."
"Well, she's not!" I confirmed. "So I suggest you get going. We're very busy."
"Are you trying to be funny, Wally?" Luke asked with a threatening voice, his eyes wide with fury.
"Not at all," I replied, backing away from him. I grabbed Kuki's hand to get her to follow me. I turned my head to Hoagie, Abby and Nigel, motioning for them to get into the car. Kuki and I made are way over to the car, still pointing our guns at him. The others got in.
"Don't even think about running away from me!" Luke shouted. "It'll be a whole lot worse for you.
Kuki quickly got into the car. I kept aiming my gun at Luke and opened my door.
"One step and you'll get it!" I warned him.
"Hah! Like you'd ever shoot you best friend!" he said mockingly.
I ignored him and got into the car. I started it and backed out of the drive.
Nigel and Hoagie had opened the window in the back, and now they were aiming at Luke out of the open window.
We drove off, leaving Luke behind. I sighed in relief. "Alright, where are we going, Hoagie? Where are your ships?"
…
A few minutes later we were standing in front of a big shack of some kind. Hoagie unlocked this big padlock on a chain that kept intruders out of his precious garage. Then he opened up the door and walked inside. He quickly glanced around inside the big room before he turned on the light in the ceiling. "C'mon, guys," he said and led the way inside.
It smelled like a real garage in there. In front of me I could see three big ships covered by tarpaulins. Wow, this brings back memories, I thought to myself and smiled.
"Which one will do, Wally?" Hoagie asked and pulled in a rope that was hanging from the ceiling in a hook in front of one of the covered ships. The tarpaulin was pulled back, revealing one of the ships we once used when we went on missions.
"T-the M.O.S.Q.U.I.T.O.," I whispered shocked and stared at the big ship, my eyes wide with enthusiasm. I grinned at Hoagie. "Wow, cool! You still have it!"
"Yeah," he replied, letting out a short giggle. "I didn't even know that you had seen my inventions before…"
"Of course I have, you weirdo!" I exclaimed with a happy voice. "I've seen pretty much everything you made back when we were in the Kids Next Door!"
Hoagie looked at Nigel. Nigel just shrugged back before turning his face towards me again. The former pilot walked over to one of the two other ships and pulled the rope in front of it. The tarpaulin slid off this ship as well, a ship that I was very happy about seeing.
"The S.K.Y.C.L.A.W.!" I ran over to check it out. It was just as I had remembered. "Wow, this is so cool!"
"Yeah, but this is my favorite," Hoagie said, interrupting my moment with the ship. He went over to the last ship and pulled off the tarpaulin by the rope in front of it. To my wonderful surprise, it revealed the ship the team had pretty much been depending on. The "Cool" Bus.
"No way!" I shouted and ran over to examine the newly revealed ship. "This was our best ship. We always used this one!" I turned to face the others. "We're totally taking this one.
The others had just been standing in the background, watching me as I freaked out over the ships. Nigel had crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at me over his shades. Abby had placed her hands on her hips, frowning at me. Kuki had folded her green sleeve-covered hands, and now she grinned at me. Okay, so they thought my head was screwed up, but I really didn't care. I had made up my mind, we were taking this ship. It used to be Nigel's favorite ship as well once. Now he just looked at it like he wasn't sure if it would stay intact for a trip out in space.
I turned to face Hoagie. "Let's go, dude!"
"Alright," he replied with a grin. He drove the ship out of the garage and parked it on the grass outside. Then he climbed back out and walked over to us, that now were standing by the opening of the garage.
"Alright, so we've got the ship and the weapons," I said. "All we need now is Chad, then we'll be off. We gotta hurry back to your place, Abby, just incase he'll call. So Hoagie, you take the ship. The rest of us are driving back."
"Aw, but I really wanted to ride in that ship," Kuki muttered disappointed.
"You'll ride in it later," I told her and smiled.
"So, what about my sister?" Abby asked. "Is she coming with us?"
"I'm not sure yet, but it didn't sound like it," I replied. "Let's get going, guys! See you later, Hoagie."
He saluted me and went onboard the ship. The rest of us got into the car. I glanced at the fuel gauge, worried the car was about to run out of gas. Not yet, but soon, it could tell me. I tried to drive as carefully as possible, trying not to use more gas than I needed.
Back at Abby's house, Chad was waiting for us. Hoagie was too, since the ship was a lot faster than the car.
"Let's go!" Chad called to us, standing by the ship. "We've gotta go now, before anyone discovers that I've been tamping with the system."
"I'm going with you!" Cree called from the house. "I changed my mind."
"The more, the merrier," I told her and smiled. We all walked up to the ship that was parked on Abby's lawn. "Let's go then!"
"You're not going anywhere for the moment, Wally!" Luke's voice called out from behind me.
I turned around and aimed at him, not really surprised that he had showed up. "Yes, I am! Just try 'n stop me!"
"I'd be delighted," he snarled and aimed at me. He fired a shot, but missed. I was surprised to see that he was serious about shooting me.
"Wally!" Kuki shouted with a scared voice.
Luke walked closer to me. To my surprise I just couldn't shoot him. He walked close enough to hit me. He swung a clenched fist into my cheek. Before I even got the chance to do anything he grabbed me and threw me down on the ground. "I'm just stalling you!" he said, kneeling over me. "The decommissioning team will be here any minute. But while we're waiting, why don't I just pound you a little before you come back so I can continue my job as being you friend."
"Fuck you!" I shouted angrily and dropped my gun so that I could punch him in the face. We started wrestling on the ground, hitting each other 'till we started to bleed. The others were just standing there and staring at us, not really knowing what to do.
Luke and I were so busy beating each other up that we didn't notice the ship that landed on the other side of the street.
"Former Numbuh 4!" a voice called. I reacted quickly as I recognized my codename. I pushed Luke away and stared at five little kids dressed in Moon Base suits. They were aiming at me with their mustard guns. "You're going up to the Moon Base for immediate decommissioning!" I hadn't seen them before. I knew that the old decommissioning team was decommissioned itself a long time ago. How ironic.
"No way!" I shouted at them and got up on my feet. I picked up my weapon and aimed at them. I didn't notice that Luke got up too. He hit me hard on my back, which caused me to fall to my knees with a groan of pain.
Two of the kids from the decommissioning team came over to help Luke carrying me onto their ship, while the three others stood in the background with their weapons aimed at my friends.
"Don't touch him, you brats!" Hoagie shouted and aimed at them.
"Lower your weapons!" Luke ordered my friends. "Or else say good-bye to your precious buddy." He placed his gun to my head. "And this thing is set to more than just ouch!"
"You can't do this!" Nigel protested and took a step closer.
"Don't move!" Luke screamed. "I swear to God, I will shoot him!" Nigel frowned and stepped back.
"Let's get him on the ship," one of the kids said.
"But what if he'll fight back?" the other one asked.
Luke gave me a hard hit on the head, causing me to see stars. "Now he won't." The three of them started to carry me towards the ship.
I tried to gather enough strength to get away from them, but my body refused to move. I understood that there was no hope left. They were going to take me up to the Moon Base and decommission me once and for all. And there was nothing I could do to stop them.
