Disclaimer:Still ain't mine.

A/N:Update! Read it! Read it now!

When love's not enough

Chapter 3

Numbuh 1 was completely silent as he made his way down the stair, with Numbuh 2 right behind. The Delightful Children walked faster than them, and they had now disappeared down a long hallway. Numbuh 1 stared down the hallway, surprised to see what the mansion's sublevel actually looked like. He thought it resembled the hall that led to an old dungeon, but he wasn't sure if it was supposed to be that.

Numbuh 2 made a face as he suddenly noticed the bad smell down there. His left eye twitched and he stuck his tongue out. "Whoa," he whispered. "What the heck is this place anyway?" He let his eyes examine the hallway as the two boys slowly made their way through it.

"If I'm not mistaking, this is some sort of a dungeon," the leader replied, sliding his shades back up on his nose with one finger. "Mind your step, Numbuh 2. It's quite dark down here." He glanced up at another torch on the wall. A few more of them poorly lit up the hall.

"Are you sure this is where the others are?" the pilot asked, persistently trying to disguise his trembling voice. He was afraid of this creepy place. It wasn't shocking to him that the Delightful Children had a dungeon in their basement, he just hadn't thought about it before. The thought of his friends now being held prisoners in a cold cell made a chill go down his spine.

Numbuh 1 glanced at him before he took a step further down the hall. "Yes, didn't you hear what Father said? He told the Delightful Brats to finish off our team mates before we arrived. Would they go down here to finish off the others if they weren't even down here?"

Numbuh 2 giggled nervously. "Good point." He flinched as his leader grabbed a hold of his arm and started to pull him down the hallway.

"I think I heard something," Numbuh 1 told him. "Common, we've got to hurry!"

Numbuh 2 glanced down at his leader's hand, still holding a tight grip around his wrist as they ran. I can run on my own, he thought with a sneer. But this was no time to start aggravating about his leader. He had to be alert incase they were about to face a battle.

Suddenly, slowing down as they reached a doorway, Numbuh 1 let go of Numbuh 2's wrist, before he carefully made his way over to the doorway. The room inside was pretty dark, but he managed to see that it was an old dungeon – just as he'd thought. He pressed his lips together as he thought about the dungeon and its capabilities. He quickly pulled his head back out of the doorway as he noticed the Delightful Children standing, faced partly away from him, in front of a cell of some kind.

"We're doing this, and where doing it now!" the Delightful Children said with stressed voices. "Don't make us do this the hard way, Abigail!"

"Oh, so what happened to your little We're-taking-Numbuh-3-first plan?" Numbuh 5's voice asked suspiciously. She was standing in the corner of the cell, facing the big, masked man. She managed to dodge away from his giant hands every time he reached out to grab her.

"We changed our mind!" The Delightful Children replied shortly. "Grab her, Henry, you idiot!"

Finally, he got a grip around the dark girl's shoulders. She yelled surprised as he lifted her from the floor, and kicked her feet rapidly.

"You ain't taking Numbuh 5 nowhere!" she screamed. She tried to in vain squirm out of the two big hands that were hurting her shoulders. He was way to strong for her. She actually had a feeling why they were taking her first after all. The only explanation to their weird behavior could only mean one thing – Numbuh 1 was here. And as they were not sure if they had enough time to drain both of the female operatives' brains for information before a battle broke loose, they took her first, because she clearly had more information under that crimson red hat than Numbuh 3 did.

Numbuh 4 was still trying to gather his strength, but he managed to get up to his feet again and clenching his fists. "Leave her alone, you fat gorilla!" he shouted at the big, masked man.

"Relax, Wallace," the Delightful Children chimed at him. "You don't want Henry to get angry with you, do you? He's not afraid of killing little kids like you, you know."

"I don't give a crud!" Numbuh 4 yelled angrily. "Let her go now!"

Still trying to escape the big hands, Numbuh 5 searched the dungeon for anything that could get her to think of a plan. She suddenly let her eyes stop over by the doorway as she noticed something lurking in the shadows. She quickly recognized the bald head and the shades, even though it was very well hidden. With a relieved smile, her face lit up. She suddenly thought of something to say: "Everything's just peachy, Numbuh 4." She looked over at the Delightful Children with a tricky smile on her face. "The Delightful Dorks forgot to tell us one very important thing."

The Delightful Children stared at her with annoyed looks on their faces, their blue eyes ordering her to tell them what she was talking about.

Still with the tricky grin on her face, Numbuh 5 glanced over to the doorway again, taking a breath before she said; "We're having visitors."

And just as she'd said that, Numbuh 1 jumped in through the door and fired a shot at the big man holding Numbuh 5, causing him to drop her to the floor. Numbuh 2 fired a shot towards the Delightful Children, but he missed.

"Nigel Uno?" the Delightful Children exclaimed. "What are you doing here? There are no ways down here other than the hidden passage in Father's living room!"

"Exactly!" Numbuh 1 replied. "It's not hidden well enough!"

The five Delightfuls growled at Numbuh 1. "Henry, get them!" they ordered the man with the mask and pointed at the leader of the KND unit.

Numbuh 1 fired another shot at the mysterious man as he left the cell, the Delightful Children slamming the door shut behind him. The man walked closer to Numbuhs 1 and 2. The shots didn't seem to have much effect on him. Numbuh 1 frowned and glanced at the gumball gun in his hand. When he looked back up, the big man loomed over him with narrowed eyes at the British boy through the eyeholes in his mask. Numbuh 1 let out a tiny nervous giggle, hiding the gun behind his back. "So…you go skiing a lot?"

The man didn't answer, not that anyone had expected him to. He just reached out for Numbuh 1 with a big hand. Numbuh 2 tried to cover his leader's back by firing his S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R. at the man, but it wasn't of much help. The man shook it off and grabbed a hold of the two boys.

"No!" Numbuh 4 shouted and grabbed on to the bars inside the cell.

Numbuhs 1 and 2 were lifted up in the air by the collars of their shirts. Numbuh 1 tried to kick his captor, but his legs weren't long enough to hit him from this distance. The masked man carried the two operatives over to the cell that held the three others prisoners. He threw them inside when the Delightful Children opened the door.

They hit the stony floor with a groan of pain, Numbuh 1's knees were scrubbed up pretty bad as his beige khaki shorts didn't reach far enough down his legs to cover them. Numbuh 2 let himself fall to his stomach.

Numbuh 3 was sitting in the corner, watching everything with a pale face, her green sleeved-covered hands pressed against her cheeks. Numbuh 4'd had to sit back down again as he didn't have merely enough strength to try and fight his way out of the cell, which actually had been his intention. Numbuh 5 was standing quietly in the other corner, where she had been dropped on the hard floor.

"Take their weapons!" the Delightful Children ordered. "We don't want to risk them trying to escape, now, do we?"

Numbuh 2's backpack was taken as well along with their weapons. The masked man roughly tugged it off of the pilot's back.

"This is not over!" Numbuh 1 warned the Delightful Children, turning around on his scrubbed knees to face them. "We'll find a way outta here!"

"Face it, Nigel," the Delightfuls replied. "You're out of supplies, your stupid fighter is down and you're going to cause your little organizations doom when we're finished with you. Just think of all the information you're holding back on!"

"I'm not telling you anything!" Numbuh 1 hissed, standing up and clenching his fists.

"You don't have to tell us anything, Nigel," they told him with their wicked smiles. "We're taking it ourselves! But we'll get back to that. Now we have to tell Father about the wonderful news. He'll me most pleased with us." They turned around and left the dungeon quickly. The masked man followed after them, leaving the five Kids Next Door operatives alone behind the bars.

"Now what?" Numbuh 2 asked and stood up, brushing dust off of his pants.

Numbuh 1 searched the dungeon outside the bars with his eyes. "Let's see if we can think of a plan," he replied glancing back at his team. His eyes rested on Numbuh 4. "Wow, Numbuh 4, you look awful!"

"Yeah, no kidding," the blond Aussie muttered and lowered his head.

"They have this machine, Numbuh 1," Numbuh 5 explained. "It's called the MindReader 3000, and it sucks our thoughts, memories and such out of our brains. What those snot-nosed Delightful Brats want is our information on the Kids Next Door. This probably didn't come as a shock to you."

"Not really," Numbuh 1 replied with a frown, crossing his arms over his chest.

"So they took Numbuh 4 first," Numbuh 5 continued. "Not only does their stupid machine steal information, it takes your energy as well. If you'd seen him earlier you would have understood what Numbuh 5's talking about."

"I'll be fine," Numbuh 4 said, waving it off. "We have to find a way out!"

"Yeah, there's gotta be a way to get out of here somehow," Numbuh 2 agreed, glancing around the dark cell. His eyes rested on the bars that separated the cell from the rest of the dungeon. "Hey, Numbuh 1. Take a look at those bars. Do you think one of us could try to squeeze out between them?"

The leader lowered his shades as he followed Numbuh 2's eyes. He lowered his eyebrows in thought. "I'm not sure. It's a tight squeeze, that's for certain. I don't think I could do it."

"No, I was thinking of Numbuh 3," Numbuh 2 said. "She's the skinny one."

Numbuh 3 looked up as she heard her name being mentioned. "What? You want me to get out through those bars?" She pointed at the bars on the door. "I don't think I can do it."

"Well, it's worth a shot," Numbuh 2 said, shrugging at the Japanese girl in the corner.

Numbuh 3 stared at the bars. She didn't think she'd be able to do it, but she thought she'd give it a try – for the sake of the team. She got up, her legs shaking. Making her way over to the other side of the cell, she started to think of all the reasons why she should do this. Everybody wanted to get out, Numbuh 4's condition was bad and he needed to get back to the Treehouse, and she herself really wanted to get back to her room so she could check on her stuffed animals and make sure they all were okay. She looked back at Numbuh 5 before she grabbed the bars in her sleeve-covered hands.

"Don't worry, Numbuh 3," Numbuh 5 said. "You can do this without any problems at all."

Numbuh 3 tried to get one foot out first, the left one. No problem. But she was worried about her torso. What is she got stuck? She tried to slide her skinny body between the tight bars. She seemed to get stuck at some point, uttering a tiny cry. But she kept forcing her body through.

"Common, Numbuh 3!" Numbuh 4 exclaimed. "You're almost out!"

"It's alright, Numbuh 3," Numbuh 1 assured her. "We're right her to help you if you get stuck."

Her body got through, though her lower back hurt pretty bad. Now she only had to get the right foot and her head out. The head was the worst part. She got stuck for a second, but managed to get it out too. She jumped up and down with a grin on her face. "Yay, I did it!"

"Right on, Numbuh 3," Numbuh 1 said, pleased with her effort. "All you have to do now is get the key to the cell. Those snot-nosed Delightful Dorks have it. It's going to be a difficult task, but we have faith in you. You have to get up there unnoticed and steal the key."

"Okay, Numbuh 1!" she said eagerly, her eyes wide with enthusiasm. "I can do it, count on me!" She turned around and skipped out of the dungeon.

"Be careful!" Numbuh 4 called after her.

"Okay, Wally!" came the reply from the hallway outside.

Numbuh 3 knew what to do. And she knew how to do it. She was starting to plan how to get the key for the cell while skipping away on the hard floor, humming to herself, as she liked to do when she was on her own. She made it to the stairs. There she stopped to listen, to make sure no one was around to hear her. When she knew that the coast was clear, she climbed the stairs. She let her eyes search the brick door at the top.

How do I get out of here? she thought. As that thought crossed mind, she saw a button made of metal on the wall to her right. That's gotta be the way out, she thought with a grin. She quickly pressed the button and the door started to move. It opened slowly, revealing Father's lounge. She was happy to see that she was this close to being free.

The room was empty, luckily for her. Not that she thought about it, she just got out of the doorway, skipping into the big lounge. Then she left the room, walking into the hallway outside of it. She listened for footsteps or voices to make sure she wouldn't get caught. When she reached the doorway of the trophy room, she stopped as she heard a voice inside. She peeked into the room from the open door.

"I want this room cleaned up by tonight!" Father's voice ordered. He was standing in a dark corner, holding his pipe in the hand. 5-6 men were working on putting the wall back up again, which Numbuhs 1 and 2 had blasted open earlier.

Numbuh 3 couldn't see the Delightfuls anywhere. Then where were they? She tip-toed passed the room and continued down the hall until she came to the big hall with the stairs that led up to the second story. She quickly looked around, just to be sure nobody was watching, before she headed up the stairs. Everything was quiet up there, except for a low roar of a TV, but that didn't stop her from snooping around. Suddenly, a voice was heard. No, there were five voices! The Delightful Children were close.

As quietly as possible, Numbuh 3 tip-toed down the dark hallway filled with doors. She stopped when the voices were very close. They were talking to each other about something. She couldn't quite work out the words. She peeked into the room the voices came from. There they were! Sitting with their backs turned against her on a couch, watching TV at a low volume.

What was that big shiny metal thingy on the little end table next to the couch? The key!

This ought to be easy, Numbuh 3 thought as her eyes studied the key on the table. They were actually stupid enough to leave it right there. Of course, they had no idea Numbuh 3 was running around in the mansion right now. They thought all of the Kids Next Door operatives were safely locked up in the dungeon, so it was obvious they had nothing to worry about.

It didn't take Numbuh 3 long to carefully sneak up to the back of the couch, crouching down next to the little table and quietly sliding her hand across the polished table top. With no sound at all, she picked the key up by two fingers and slid her hand back. She smiled to herself.

I'm a spy now, just like Numbuh 5, she thought happily. She grasped her hands around the key to make sure she wouldn't lose it. Then she turned around and hunched her back while sneaking back out of the room. When she was by the top of the stairs again, she suddenly heard angry voices from the room she'd just left.

"Where's the key?" they shouted.

"Uh-oh!" Numbuh 3 whispered to herself and started to run down the stairs. She heard footsteps behind her. The Delightfuls were after her! She didn't stop to check, she knew they where chasing her.

"Come back here!" they shouted after her from the top of the stairs.

Numbuh 3 kept running. She ran down the hall and back into Father's living room. She stopped by the bookcase, which now was closed again. How do you work this thing? Her breath was heaving, her hands tightly gripped around the big key, as her eyes searched the books frantically. She didn't know what to do, or what book to pull out. She just started to pull out all of the books with her sleeve-covered hands. "Common! Common!" she whimpered. Finally she got a hold of the right book, the book that made the bookcase open again. "Yes!"

The Delightful Children where on their way now. Numbuh 3 didn't even want to know how close they were to catching up with her. She just ran through the open doorway and nearly flew down the stairs. Her skinny legs where trembling, they could hardly keep the little girl up now. She ran as fast as she possibly could through the long hallway that led to the dungeon. It seemed so horribly long this time!

Finally she reached the dungeon. She was gasping for air as she slowed down in front of the door of bars that held her friends captured.

"You did it?" Numbuh 1 asked, smiling hopefully.

Numbuh 3 quickly slammed the key into the lock, turned it and heard the door unlock with a loud click.

The four others cheered and got out of the cell.

"Nice piece of work, Numbuh 3!" Numbuh 5 announced with a smile.

"Hurry!" Numbuh 3 said stressfully, ignoring the cheering. "They're coming!"

"Don't worry about them, Numbuh 3," Numbuh 2 said. "We're ready to fight now."

"But we don't have no weapons," Numbuh 5 said, frowning at her team mates. "We have to find them first."

"There's no time!" Numbuh 1 said sternly. "We have to fight them back with whatever equipment we can find in here."

"Yeah, let's give 'em a real ass woopin'!" Numbuh 4 exclaimed, slamming his fist into his hand. He was feeling a lot better now, although he should have slept for a few hours to regain full strength. He was a bit lightheaded, but ignored it.

All the operatives searched the dark room for weapons. Numbuh 1 climbed up the brick wall to pick the torch down. "Quickly, team," he ordered. "Grab a weapon, anything at all. We have to get going." He lifted the torch so it would light the room up more.

Numbuh 2 found a wooden broom in a corner. "This'll do," he muttered to himself.

Numbuh 4 picked up some old strips of chain. There were three of them, a perfect amount. He handed each of the girls a jingling strip of chain. "Slam this in the faces of those Delightful Losers!" he exclaimed with an evil grin as he handed Numbuh 3 one of them. "It'll make them shut the crud up at least! I'll show them what happens when they mess with me!"

"Alright, Kids Next Door," Numbuh 1 said, taking a look at all the operatives to make sure they all were ready to go. "Let's go teach those Delightful Brats a lesson!" He led the way out of the cell, the flames on his torch flickering.

Why aren't they following after me all the way down here? Kuki thought to herself. I thought they would, I thought they wanted to hinder me in letting my team out of the cell. So why aren't they here? She felt very uncomfortable about the thought, a chill went down her spine. She actually thought hard about situations like this one, even though nobody thought she did. She was scared of what would happen. She was happy to know that Numbuh 4 was back on his feet, ready to fight when danger was near. For some reason, she always felt better around Numbuh 4, like as if he was there to protect her no matter what. She shook her head as if she was trying to get rid of the thought. She thought it probably didn't mean anything, other than the facts that Numbuh 4 was a really good friend.

Numbuh 1 continued to lead the way to the stairs, followed by the pilot. Numbuh 5 was right behind Numbuh 2, clenching the chain in her hands, straightening it out so it wouldn't make a sound. Numbuhs 3 and 4 were walking side by side behind her. Numbuh 3 was looking concerned, biting her lower lip, her chestnut eyes on the stairway that now was right in front of them. Numbuh 4's eyes were hidden behind his blond bangs, his lips pressed tightly together as if he was concentrating hard on getting his revenge.

The leader did not feel like standing there in front of the stairs, hesitating, although that's exactly what he ended up doing. It was as if a part of him told him not to go up there. Don't be silly, Nigel, he told himself. This is the only way out. We have to climb these stairs whether you like it or not. He shook the bad feeling off, starting to walk up the stairs. The others hadn't really thought about the fact that their leader had hesitated for a second, they just followed him up the stairs. Numbuh 1 stopped in front of the door and searched for a doorknob or something like that to make it open.

"Press the button," Numbuh 3 told him a few steps below.

"What button?" he asked, letting his vacant hand slide across the stony surface of the door. "There's no button on it."

"I'll do it," Numbuh 3 said resigned, forcing her way passed Numbuhs 2 and 5. She looked at Numbuh 1. "Move it, Big Butt." She let out a giggle, finding her joke rather amusing. Numbuh 1 stepped back, rolling his eyes behind his shades as Numbuh 3 pressed the button on the wall. The door began to open. To their horrible surprise, the Delightful Children were waiting for them on the other side of it. They were inside one of their machines, one of the smaller ones, so it could fit inside the room without breaking anything.

"Congratulations, Kids Next Door," they said in unison. "You found the way out. Too bad you're going right back down there!" This machine also had one of those metal claws. It now shot out to grab the Kids Next Door operatives.

"Down!" Numbuh 5 shrieked. They all managed to duck down in time, as the claw passed right over their heads. Then they all spread out.

"Kids Next Door-," Numbuh 1 shouted, raising the torch. "Battlestations!" Too bad for him, the torch would now be useless. Well, not completely useless… He couldn't throw it at those pesky Delightfuls to protect himself now that they were safely concealed behind their glass cage, but he could start a fire in the lounge to get their attention away from his team.

Numbuh 4 slammed his chain against the thick glass cage on the machine. "This is how I feel about you using that cruddy machine on me, you dorks!" he screamed angrily, his eyebrows lowered. The Delightfuls steered the claw directly at him. He moved away just in time not to get caught by it.

"Alright!" Numbuh 5 shouted. "Let's see if you dare to mess with Numbuh 5!" She threw her chain towards the glass cage. To her surprise, she had managed to break the glass a little.

"Hey, you're not supposed to do that!" the Delightful Children yelled at her.

"Oh, yeah?" she said with an evil grin. "Watch Numbuh 5!" She quickly grabbed the first thing she came across – a flowerpot. She threw it at the glass cage, breaking some more of it.

"Stop that!" The Delightful Children now steered the claw for the African-American girl.

Numbuh 4 took the hint. This was a maneuver, a chance for them to break the glass while Numbuh 5 kept the Delightful Children busy. He threw his chain at the glass, thrilled to see how he managed to break even more of it. He looked over at Numbuh 3, who was standing right next to him. "Kuki, throw it!" he called, pointing at her chain.

"Okay," she replied with a grin. She threw the chain as hard as possible at the glass cage. It broke completely this time. The shattering glass showered over the Delightfuls, causing them to shout in shock.

Numbuh 2 threw his broom at them now that the shot was clear. "Thought you guys needed to get cleaned up!" he exclaimed, smiling triumphantly at his joke.

None of this seemed to have enough effect on the Delightful Children to make them leave the Kids Next Door operatives alone. They fired a shot at Numbuh 2, but missed as he had read the next move they were going to make and dodged away. They growled angrily and fired more shots after their enemies.

It was Numbuh 1's turn now. He moved closer to the machine, and threw the torch into the now open cockpit. The fabrics caught fire quickly, and soon the entire cockpit was covered in flames. The Delightful Children shouted frantically, trying to get out of their burning machine.

"This is it!" Numbuh 5 shouted. "Time to leave, people!" She started to run, the others followed right behind her.

"We did it!" Numbuh 3 cheered, shooting her sleeve-covered hands in the air.

"Whatever, just run!" Numbuh 4 replied, increasing speed.

They all got out of the mansion's front door, running to the back of it. They were getting on the M.O.S.Q.U.I.T.O. to fly back to the Treehouse.

"Hurry up!" Numbuh 1 said as he reached the door of the ship, opening it. "We don't want Father to stalk us, now, do we?" He ran inside. All the others got in quickly, shutting the door behind them.

Numbuh 2 sat down by the wheel. "Let's go!" He started the ship, carefully, but quickly flying them outta there.