"Where the hell is he?" Chad kicked impatiently at the pavement at his feet.

"Would you calm down? He'll be here any minute now," Cree snapped, standing against the brick wall of the Rainbow Monkey Corporation Manufacturing Plant. While she tried to sound confident, she glanced at her watch. Maurice was already fifteen minutes late. It wasn't like him.

"Why don't we just go in there and get this over with? Two people can handle this job."

"We're sticking to the plan," she said. She sat down on a small ledge and raised her feet, now slightly sore from standing around and waiting. She ignored Chad as he paced back and forth until he started whistling the Rainbow Monkey theme song.

"Would you quit that?"

"What? No love for the Rainbow Monkeys?" he answered glibly. "But they're 'oh so very round and super-chunky.'"

"Just keep quiet. There are probably security guards around here—"

As if to illustrate her point, they suddenly heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and again the tune of the Rainbow Monkey theme song being whistled. Cree turned to glare at Chad, who shook his head and mouthed, "Not me!"

A flashlight beam appeared from around the corner of the building. Cree violently shoved Chad into a clump of nearby bushes, where he landed on his back with a somewhat painful-sounding thud, then jumped in directly after, flattening him.

"Oof!" he grunted.

"Shush!"

The footsteps continued to approach and the whistling grew louder. Cree squinted behind her at the advancing light. She could just barely make out the shape of the ugly, purple security guard uniform. He was headed their way and must have heard them, because he seemed to be searching around for something. Meanwhile Chad was squirming underneath her.

"Keep still," she hissed.

His only reply was a small, sort of squeak.

"Oh, come on, I'm not that heavy." She glared at him, and he stared back with an expression that she identified as pain or panic.

A circle of light suddenly fell on them. "Well, well, well, what have we here?" asked an odd, low voice.

The two teens focused on its source, now both of them wearing flustered countenances. But the voice's owner then laughed a very familiar laugh. "You two sure look cozy," he said, no longer disguising his voice, and turned the light on himself.

"Maurice!" Cree exclaimed, and rose immediately to give him a hug. "Where have you been? You're late!"

"Sorry, Cree, but I had to get some new threads." He grinned, displaying his security uniform.

"Where did you get that?"

"I have my sources."

"That's great, honey, we should have no problem on this mission now. Okay, are we ready then? Maurice, you and I will go inside and upload the virus, while Chad-- What are you still doing down there?"

Chad gaped at the other two rather vacantly from his position on the ground. "Huh? Uh…nothing."

"Well, get off your butt and get into position."

---

Chad stared into the inky night sky and sighed. He felt like an idiot. I am an idiot, I suppose, he mused to himself. I completely spazzed out when Cree…. He broke his own train of thought with a mirthless laugh. He really shouldn't think about it. It wasn't as if it were a missed opportunity. Even if he had collected his wits enough to put his arms around her, he'd certainly have nothing to show for it other than bruises. Still, he couldn't help wondering how things might have turned out differently. He gazed up again at the sky, playing the scene over in his head. He had had the wind knocked out of him, but once he caught his breath again, he liked the feeling of the weight of her body against his. A wistful smile formed on his lips as he remembered the feeling, and he found himself wishing that he could spend the rest of his life with her….

He was jolted from his waking dreams by the sound of a muffled explosion. What was that? It came from inside the Plant. Chad then realized that he hadn't been doing his job at all, the entire Global Kids Next Door Organization could have marched right past him and he wouldn't have even noticed.

An alarm started to blare. Chad froze. What should I do? After a moment of hesitation, he charged in.

Inside it was dark and smoky. Chad covered his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his shirt and stared around. Damn, if only I had paid more attention to the blueprints, he thought to himself.

He caught a glimpse of some movement to his left and armored up, pointing his wrist laser gun in the direction of the activity. A figure staggered towards him and the exit.

"Maurice!" Chad shouted, identifying him. His armor retracted as he stared down the hallway from which his rival teammate emerged. "Where's Cree?"

"We got separated." He coughed. "It was the Kids Next Door, they ambushed us."

Chad didn't care for explanations. "Where's Cree!" he demanded again.

"I don't—" Chad raced off before he finished, "—know."

Chad plunged into the hall from which Maurice had emerged. As he ran through the hallways it grew even darker and more choked with smoke. But the turns he was making were starting to seem familiar from the cursory glance he had taken of the plans.

Finally he raced into the mainframe's storage facility where they had planned to upload the virus. The room was stifling—hot and even more smoky. He could hear the roar of active fires, he could feel their intense heat, but he couldn't see anything through the clouds of soot. Chad coughed and tried to pull air into his lungs, but only inhaled noxious fumes.

"Cree!" he called with difficulty. "Cree—where are you?"

---

The night air felt sweet and cool. Maurice drank it in, one giant breath after another. He then turned and looked at the building he had just evacuated. There was no indication of the inferno raging inside, but he knew only too well of the dangers within its walls.

"Stupid Numbuh Thirteen," he muttered. Of all the sectors that had to answerhis call, it had to be Sector N. It was supposed to be a simple mission—he and Cree would go in, try to upload the virus, and the Kids Next Door would charge in and stop them just in time, and it would be over. It had worked perfectly every time before, but this time he hadn't taken the Human Disaster into account. How he managed to turn the place into a firestorm in under two minutes, Maurice had no idea.

He had seen Sector N escape, but he lost track of Cree. She probably made it out by herself, she was more than competent enough. He fortunately had the plans of the building with him, and knew exactly how to get out.

Maurice stared at the corporation again. He was starting to see smoke leaking from various vents. Fire alarms were blaring, the fire department would be here soon. He should probably run, or else they might find his presence suspicious. Maybe Cree got out before him and decided to do just that.

But no. Even though he knew she was his enemy, he knew she wouldn't have abandoned him.

He only gave a passing thought to Chad, who dashed in there like an idiot. What did he think, that he was going to save the day? It would serve him right if the fire department found him in there and threw his sorry ass in jail.

But Cree. All this time he had been playing the part of her boyfriend, pretending to like her, but she seemed to truly care about him. And she was still in there now. If anything happened to her, it would be all his fault.

---
---

author's notes: sorry for taking longer than usual to update, i'm going to have less and less time to write now that summer is almost over. but i'll try to update as often as possible.
those of you who have seen the episode MACARRONI (sic) know who Numbuh 13 is, but if you haven't, just keep in mind that he's awalking bad luck charm. if you're in a plane with him, it'll crash, and it'll be his fault. how he managed to become a KND operative, i have no idea.
and needless to say (but i'm saying it anyways!) the next chapter will be a direct continuation.